When Mikhail Gorbachev 43 started perestroika in the USSR in the late 1980s, I was enthusiastic about it. I liked it that they allowed private businesses and thought that it was to be for the good of the country and the people. It's no good, when everything is common property. When there is no owner, nobody cares about things, but in reality hardly anything changed. Many government people hindered perestroika and didn't give way to Gorbachev. This finally resulted in the breakup of the USSR. Many people say that it was better during the Soviet regime, and that they want the Union back, but I believe that the USSR was about to break up, it had existed too long anyway.
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Major events (political and historical)
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Displaying 4471 - 4500 of 50826 results
lev mistetskiy
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I don't agree that life was better during the Soviet regime. It's just that some people have short memory. I thought that when Ukraine became independent and people would work for themselves, life would become better, but it didn't happen. Either people have forgotten to work decently or they are not given such opportunity. Former kolkhoz farms are deserted, plants closed. Factories don't operate, land isn't farmed. When they tell me that Jews don't work I always reply that Israel stands on mountains and stones, but Israeli people feed their own country and export grain and ask for no alms while Ukraine with its black soil that nobody else in the world probably has, is starving. So, is this the fault of Jews? I think, there is no state anti-Semitism, but there are everyday demonstrations of it.
Hesed 44 helps us a lot. They deliver food packages, free medications, and that's a great support for us, pensioners. We receive little pensions, lower than the living minimum. There are also interesting lectures in Hesed, clubs, concerts, and we celebrate birthdays and Jewish holidays there. I rarely go to Hesed - it's a long way to drive, which is too much for me, but I always attend concerts of Jewish songs and music, however hard it may be for me. I like this so much. I also regularly receive and read Jewish newspapers. When I moved to Kiev, I got to know that there is an association of Jewish war veterans and I registered there right away. I try to attend all meetings there.
I remember arrests that started in 1936 [during the so-called Great Terror] 17. There were numbers of Ukrainians arrested as enemies of people 18. Our landlord in Gulyaypole had been a soldier in the tsarist army, when he was young. When I knew him, he was an old man and always ill. One night in winter the 'black voronok' vehicle drove to the house. [Editor's note: 'voron,' diminutive 'voronok,' means 'raven' in Russian, supposed to bring trouble.] The officers came into the house and took the man away with them. His wife was crying. I said, 'Why arrest him? He is ill. What has he done to you?' - 'Shut up! Or you will go with us, too'. He never returned to the village.
We had a nice Ukrainian teacher of chemistry and physics. We liked her and her classes. We noticed that she always had red eyes from crying. Once she couldn't hold back her tears in class. She probably knew what she was up to. One day the director came into the class and said that she happened to be an enemy of the people, a Ukrainian nationalist, and had been arrested. It's not that we believed our director, but we couldn't help thinking: 'How come she can be an enemy of the people?' My classmate Zhenia Skrypnik was the daughter of the chairman of the Gulyaypole village council. She was a smart and nice girl. When her father was arrested, we had a hostile and suspicious attitude towards her.
Our teachers told us that enemies of the people pretended to be good concealing their real self and in reality were trying to do harm to the Soviet power. Of course, we believed it, in the same way we thought Stalin was infallible. We believed in the Communist Party. We were raised in the communist ideology. I remember reading about the murder of Kirov 19 in a district newspaper in 1934 and felt indignant about how treacherous enemies of the people were. We were raised patriots. We read books in which the Soviet regime was presented as the best ever, the most humane. We also watched patriotic movies.
We had a nice Ukrainian teacher of chemistry and physics. We liked her and her classes. We noticed that she always had red eyes from crying. Once she couldn't hold back her tears in class. She probably knew what she was up to. One day the director came into the class and said that she happened to be an enemy of the people, a Ukrainian nationalist, and had been arrested. It's not that we believed our director, but we couldn't help thinking: 'How come she can be an enemy of the people?' My classmate Zhenia Skrypnik was the daughter of the chairman of the Gulyaypole village council. She was a smart and nice girl. When her father was arrested, we had a hostile and suspicious attitude towards her.
Our teachers told us that enemies of the people pretended to be good concealing their real self and in reality were trying to do harm to the Soviet power. Of course, we believed it, in the same way we thought Stalin was infallible. We believed in the Communist Party. We were raised in the communist ideology. I remember reading about the murder of Kirov 19 in a district newspaper in 1934 and felt indignant about how treacherous enemies of the people were. We were raised patriots. We read books in which the Soviet regime was presented as the best ever, the most humane. We also watched patriotic movies.
Of course, we knew about Hitler and that he invaded Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, but we didn't know that Hitler exterminated Jews. When the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 20 was signed, we were happy that our country was not to be attacked by Hitler.
In the late 1930s Jews began to leave the kolkhoz, mainly because people were tired of listening to others saying that cunning Jews didn't want to work, but only wanted to have a good life. Jews worked very hard in the kolkhoz while Ukrainians kept saying that they were idlers.
I went back home and continued my studies at school. In the 8th grade I joined the Komsomol 22. I walked to the district town 33 kilometers away to obtain my Komsomol membership card at the district Komsomol Committee.
Mama and I heard about the war on the radio. There was one radio in the village, in the kolkhoz office. Mama and I went to the cattle farm and saw a crowd of people near the office. We went there and listened to Molotov's 23 speech, in which he said that Germany had violated the non-aggression treaty and attacked the USSR traitorously. Then Stalin spoke and said that we would win.
I and those who weren't subject to recruitment went to another village to dig trenches. The Germans were approaching Dnepropetrovsk. Our commanders were from the local kolkhoz management or party officials. One day they disappeared. We didn't know what to do and decided to go home. When I came home, Smoliar, the chairman of our kolkhoz came to see me. He said the Germans were already near Krivoy Rog, which was 65 kilometers away. There were Germans planes flying over us. He said I had to take the kolkhoz cattle where there were no Germans. I told mama that we had to move on. She was crying and didn't want to leave home. I convinced her to go. We packed some luggage: we were sure the war would not last long and we would be back home soon. We put the bicycle, the most valuable belonging that we had into the cellar. Mama sat in the wagon, and I and another guy from the kolkhoz rode our horses. Mama kept crying.
Evacuation began in Yenakiyevo. Mama and I took a train to Stalingrad [present-day Volgograd in Russia, 1,000 km from Moscow]. We were accommodated in the stadium in the open air. We received rationed food and blankets. From there we moved to Astrakhan [1,500 km from Kiev] in Central Asia and across the Caspian Sea by boat. There was a storm and some people died. The dead were thrown into the sea. In winter 1941-42 we reached Kazakhstan, the village of Grebenshchikovo [400 km from Astrakhan]. We were accommodated in a local house. Mama and I went to work in the kolkhoz. We received rationed food: I got 150 grams of bread, mama got 300 grams, we also received some cereals and a little fat. We had a little money with us and bought winter clothes.
I left for Kalmykovo and became a geodesist assistant. I delivered water to them at work and cooked for them. In August 1942 I was invited to the district town. The chairman of the district council told me that it was time for my recruitment to the army, but that he was going to make me stay since the district needed educated people and I had secondary education. I remember how in lines for bread local people were muttering about those in evacuation: 'they ran away from the Germans and don't want to fight...' I said that I would join the army so that nobody thought I was a coward. The gathering point was in the town of Uralsk, Orenburg region [2,500 km from Kiev]. The chairman of the district council gave me food to take with me and I left for Uralsk. There I entered the Leningrad military communications school evacuated to Uralsk. We had advanced eight-month training. After finishing the school we went to the front. I was awarded the rank of sergeant and sent to Sokolniki near Moscow. A captain came to our barrack and read the order that I and a few others were appointed communications operators in the 15th fighting engineering brigade.
Three months later we were sent to Lebedin, Sumy region, Ukraine [300 km from Kiev], by train. From there we covered almost 400 kilometers to the town of Kanev on the Dnieper [100 km from Kiev], to the front line in late September 1943 where we joined the 47th army. We had to carry our radios and weapons. Then we reached the front line: there was firing, bombs were falling... There was a lake and a bridge across it. We were to run over the bridge one after another. There was a German sniper on the opposite side shooting at the soldiers. He killed the soldier running before me, but I managed to cross the bridge. On the opposite side we dug trenches and got ready.
Then our unit was the first to arrive in Vinnitsa. During the Great Patriotic War Vinnitsa region was the area of ghettos and concentration camps: it was called Transnistria 24. Inmates of the ghettos were happy to see us. Our engineering brigade was awarded the title of the Vinnitsa Red Banner Engineering Brigade.
There were SMERSH officers in each regiment [Editor's note: special secret military unit of the NKVD for the elimination of spies, lit. 'death to spies']. Their task was to identify spies at the front line, but most of the time they investigated what the military talked about and whether some of them weren't happy about the situation. They treated those like they had treated enemies of the people before the war. At the beginning of the war our army incurred big losses and many military were captured. If some of them managed to escape, they were subject to investigation by SMERSH officers. Very often those people, who had taken every effort to escape and get to their own forces, were arrested and exiled to the north. Actually, the purpose was to develop the northern areas, and prisoners were the best option to resolve this issue. In most cases these were innocent people, but SMERSH officers just needed grounds to arrest people and they usually got them. They had their informers in each unit and you could never be sure that you weren't talking to an informer.
Let me tell you how the SMERSH officers made me their informer. In early April 1945 a captain, commander of the SMERSH, came to talk to me. I don't remember his surname. He said that he knew I was a Komsomol member and that my commanders gave me good recommendations. He concluded that the war was coming to an end while there were many enemies of the people and spies among us and that I had to help him. And that I knew how they treated those who refused to help the Soviet power. This was very clear and I was pretty sure that if I refused I would become a spy or an enemy of the people. It was clear that the war was nearing its end, our forces were in Germany and I had a chance to survive. I didn't feel like going to the Gulag 26. What was I to do? I followed him. We went to a house where the first sergeant of our company, Shevtsov, was waiting for us. He said he would give me tasks and I was to fulfill them and report to Shevtsov in secret. I agreed. The captain told me to sign a paper. So, I thought, he already had a paper that I was to help the SMERSH. I looked at the first sergeant and he nodded. So I signed the paper, but nobody gave me any tasks and a short time later I was wounded.
Let me tell you how the SMERSH officers made me their informer. In early April 1945 a captain, commander of the SMERSH, came to talk to me. I don't remember his surname. He said that he knew I was a Komsomol member and that my commanders gave me good recommendations. He concluded that the war was coming to an end while there were many enemies of the people and spies among us and that I had to help him. And that I knew how they treated those who refused to help the Soviet power. This was very clear and I was pretty sure that if I refused I would become a spy or an enemy of the people. It was clear that the war was nearing its end, our forces were in Germany and I had a chance to survive. I didn't feel like going to the Gulag 26. What was I to do? I followed him. We went to a house where the first sergeant of our company, Shevtsov, was waiting for us. He said he would give me tasks and I was to fulfill them and report to Shevtsov in secret. I agreed. The captain told me to sign a paper. So, I thought, he already had a paper that I was to help the SMERSH. I looked at the first sergeant and he nodded. So I signed the paper, but nobody gave me any tasks and a short time later I was wounded.
In winter my friend, Haim Sokolovskiy, and I rented a room in Gulyaypole. Our parents paid 10 rubles monthly and our landlady provided meals for the money. We spent winter vacations at home. This was wonderful: we skied and skated on a frozen pool all day long. There were one or two Jewish students per class in my school in Gulyaypole; the rest were Ukrainians. I faced anti-Semitism for the first time. The word 'zhydy' [kike] began to be used after the outbreak of World War II; at my time they called us 'natsmen' - which is short for 'natsionalnoye menshinstvo' ['national minorities'] - and I often heard this word addressed too me.
We didn't celebrate Jewish holidays at home. Mama baked matzah on Pesach, but this was the only tribute to traditions. There was a prayer house in the village. On Sabbath and other Jewish holidays mama went to pray there. At school we were raised atheists. I don't remember any Soviet holidays in the kolkhoz. I remember the harvest festival. After the harvest women cooked food and there were long tables in the street and people began to party. I remember lots of compote [fruit drink] - it was a delicacy for us. We sang Jewish songs. Mama loved singing and knew many Jewish songs. I inherited my good voice and ear from her.
Approximately in 1936 the USSR began to refuse assistance from the Joint, and life in the Jewish kolkhoz became more difficult.
Pavel Fried
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My mother's father was a merchant. He had a so-called 'colonial' store. He sold everything that people in the village needed, for example flour, eggs, spices, coffee, peanuts, petroleum, whips etc. My grandmother used to help out. The store consisted of one large room, with an entrance from the street. The entrance door had a small bell. Behind the store was a kitchen with a fireplace where my grandparents usually spent their time. No-one was in the store all day, only when the little bell rang, one of my grandparents would come into the store and serve the customer.
At present I work at my company until lunch and after lunch I go to the community. It's hard to have time for everything, so I've decided to leave the company and devote myself only to leading the religious community.
Last month I became chairman of the Brno Jewish community. I replaced Mr. Weber, who resigned after two terms and wanted someone new to take his place. A young member of the community can't take this position mainly for financial reasons. The problem I see is that the community chairman isn't an employee of the community and so doesn't have a salary, just a regular sum for travel and phone expenses. With this state of affairs there is no way a young person can come and work for just a few crowns.
My life started to change immediately after the revolution. In February of 1991 I and some friends started up a company. We had 'big' capital: 180,000 crowns. We rented out four rooms, bought a computer and started doing business in the sphere of planning and forecasting for companies. We were working under the assumption that people in company management were going to be changing and the new ones won't know a thing about planning and forecasts, so they'll hire us. In time our naivety became apparent. The people that got into management weren't ones that needed our concepts and forecasts but fortune hunters that wanted to get rich quickly. So we returned to design and made use of our contacts in Germany. After a series of similar activities we progressed to our current business in a natural way. We import truck trailers and spare parts from Great Britain. There are five of us in the company and we have a decent turnover.
Before 1989 [the fall of the totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia] I managed to visit my cousins in London a few times, to which they had escaped from Vienna at the beginning of World War II. I always had big problems getting an exit visa. In fact for a few years in the 1970s I had no passport. The confiscation of my passport was caused by the following events: In 1968 I received a letter written in broken Czech. It contained anti-government proclamations. Suspecting that it was a provocation I handed the letter over to our director for him to do with as he thought best. He gave it to the police.
I visited Israel for the first time five years ago [1999]. Last time was this year [2004]. It may seem funny to you, but the thing that surprised me the most in Israel was an ad for Coca-Cola. When I was getting off the plane I saw a Coca-Cola billboard written in Ivrit. It may seem funny, but we were used to Hebrew and Ivrit as the language and writing of prayers, not advertising. There and then I realized that Hebrew isn't only a language of prayer but also of a nation. A child has to use it to say that he's constipated an old man that he's thirsty. People use it to ask what's on in the cinema, in the theatre. I only realized this during my first visit to Israel.
The creation of Israel was a positive event for my circle of friends. We greeted it with great enthusiasm. Israel was born in a time when memories of the Holocaust were still very painful. We saw in it the possibility of sanctuary among one's own if we were again persecuted. It was for this that the state of Israel was born. The creation of a state meant a feeling of pride. Jews were always looked upon as people that either didn't know how or didn't want to fight. You could beat and kill Jews for no reason, without fear of reprisals. They used to say in Bohemia: 'Jud gehört ins Kaffeehaus' [German for 'Jews belong in the coffee shop']. The birth of Israel ended this era. It was a major event for all Jews all over the world.
In our family we celebrated Christmas, mainly because of the children. After my wife's death Christmas also disappeared from our home life. Of the Jewish holidays we still celebrated Chanukkah and Passover. Each year we had seder.
As far as my children go, my family and I discussed how they should be brought up. To put it simply, my children didn't get much religious education. My wife and I were of differing faiths, but mutually respected each other, so neither of us wanted to influence the children in one direction or the other. It ended up that my son has very weak religious feeling, practically none. However my daughter goes to the synagogue and has many Jewish friends. In fact even my wife went to synagogue during the major holidays.
She came from a Protestant family. Her mother was especially devout. Her father was a Catholic who had converted to Protestantism. My in-laws were both very tolerant. We got along well. We respected each other's beliefs and that was the most important thing. My wife wasn't from a wealthy family. Her father worked as a civil servant for the railway postal service. He accompanied the mail wagons. In his later years he became a worker at the post office. Her mother was never officially employed, but did work as a masseuse. We were married in 1956 at the Brno city hall.
In 1968 [see Prague Spring] [10] we didn't perceive any anti-Jewish sentiment. On the contrary, I was happy because I had managed to finish university, the Faculty of Economics of Factory Management of Brno Technical University. And so at the institute where they had originally wanted to throw me out they ended up promoting me to the post of Deputy Director of Economics. I was in this position until 1972, when they realized that a person with my past wasn't right for that job and removed me. In those days one never found out the real reason for being removed. In my case though, it was quite clear. Before 1968 I was the chairman of the company ROH [11] committee, and so they came up with the idea that as ROH chairman I supported antisocialist elements in the country with a resolution against the occupation. Luckily the institute's director was a man of character. He told me that I had tried out the position of deputy director of economics and now I was going to be involved in the planning of technical development, forecasts and conception as Technical Development Manager.
After the end of my basic service I got a job at the Research Institute for Construction Machinery in Brno. Along with my work I of course also had to display a certain amount of politically cultural activity. I was editor of a so-called bulletin board magazine, in which we criticized conditions in our workshop. Our criticism offended the Communists that worked there. They became upset and problems began. Shortly after this incident came political screening. Because I was the son of a Jew and capitalist, they wanted to push me out of the institute. Our party cadre official took my side and said that my dismissal would be looked upon as vengeance for my criticism of workshop conditions and as a display of anti-Semitism. It was the first time under the Communist regime that being a Jew worked to my advantage. Besides my work I also studied at university, from which I graduated at the age of 38.
In the middle of my army service the Slansky trial [8] took place. At the beginning of the trials I was a mechanical engineer at Line airport and worked in the technical department. I supervised the maintenance of construction machinery. During the trials they called me in and reassigned me to manual labor as a worker. Officially I never found out the reason for my degradation. When I went to the politico to find out what had happened he told me to go do my work and that I could be glad that they didn't throw me in jail. Those were the consequences of the Slansky trial. Now with the passage of time, those Communists seem quite comical to me.