Our daughter grew up here, and she moved to her own apartment after she’s got married in the middle of 1970s, being a student of metallurgical faculty.
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Displaying 34321 - 34350 of 50826 results
David Levin
In 1960s (in 1965 to be more exact), to my opinion and according to my wife’s accounts, we finally moved to this apartment on Leninsky Avenue and nowadays live here for over than thirty eight years.
Now she is married for the second time.
Elena’s husband was Russian, Vladimir Proskuryakov from peasant family; he was a scientist, exploring some fields of metallurgy. He died eight years ago in auto crash, and that was great grief for our daughter. They lived together over twenty five years.
When I’ve got to know my wife, her parents lived in Moscow, because after the World War II they decided to go there to stay and care of their elder son Eizer, who was injured on the front and lost his foot.
They both were Jews, her father spoke mainly Yiddish and even observed Sabbaths, and they both celebrated Jewish holidays.
I know a lot about my wife and her parents. I know well the history of her family: her father was Jewish dressmaker from Bologoye [town in 300 kilometers to the South from Petersburg], Isaac Alpert, and her mother was a housewife, born in wealthy family of hat-maker Abram Linov.
There was no Jewish wedding, and there was no wedding at all, because we didn’t have such opportunity. My parents had only a small room.
How did I meet my wife? It’s weird and funny, but in late 1940s, some when like 1949, I went for the dancing evening at the House of Teachers, later they called this place ‘House of brides’. And there I met my future wife. It’s very funny because I visited dancing evenings only two or three times in whole my life, so it was just an occasion, an accident. So we met each other, and that meeting ended with the fact that we live together for more than fifty four years. We registered our relations in September of 1949, that event took place on September, the 29th of 1949.
My wife couldn’t find any other job after she graduated from the philological faculty of Leningrad State University and post graduate course in linguistics too, so she had to go to Latvia, for that was the only place she could find, because the ‘fight against cosmopolitans’ [19] started already.
After the War father tried to go to Latvia for couple of times, but they wouldn’t let him to go. Latvia and Lithuania were considered almost the separate territories, and Soviet troupes stood there. But then I had to go to Riga [capital of Latvia] for some service business, and father asked me to find his relatives. He knew that they were somewhere in Dvinsk, but didn’t here exactly. So when I was over with my business in Riga, I came back through Dvinsk, which is Daugavpils in Latvian. That was a nice town. When I first appeared there, they all were frightened, because I wore the uniform of soviet officers. Anyway, I found them, and Uncle Jacob with his wife aunt Hava happened to be wonderful people, I spent couple of days at them. Later father wrote letters to them and some time after he met them, and his other brother Haim too, that was his first real meeting to his brothers. So finally he met all his ‘Latvian’ relatives, including both brothers, their wives and children, but he never met his brother, killed in 1942, and his father, who died in 1917.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
From Leningrad I went to Baltic, to Tallinn [capital of Estonia, city on the Baltic Sea], there I had to fight with local Estonian fascists for three years and from time to time I had to participate in the tribunals. It happened because we, ten young officers came to Tallinn were kept in reserve, because they didn’t know where to direct us. And we lived together with those people, who participated in tribunals, and they called us up not to find ‘Forest brothers’ (they continued to exist till 1949), but to take part in tribunals and sign the documents. Those forest brothers got medals from Germans, and some of them had five or six orders. So we were military assessors, and somebody, called Krumm, has been the procurer. Later they sent me back to Leningrad, I became a head of military unit inside the squadron of the destroyer of the Holding the Order of the Red Banner Baltic Navy, I had to command over thirty five sailors. Then they sent me to the highest radiolocation courses, and I started to pay attention not only to the connections, but also to radiolocation. After that I had different services: the learning detachment, ship, named after Kirov [18], school of radiometric. I prepared staff for Military Sea Navy. They said I was very good in teaching them. I think, I had no problems with methodic the.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
I was surprised that my parents, who were in Leningrad in 1941-1942, didn’t catch a better living space, a better apartment. They didn’t move, they returned to their room, even our house stood half-empty either. Of course, they were right. Our furniture and other values survived, because one of our neighbors became the ‘head of house economy’ and we were friends with her, so she didn’t let anybody to take our things away.
, Russia
Bertha was in evacuation in Kirov, today it is called Vyatka [town in Middle Povolgi, faraway from the front]. The War just started, when she left for evacuation. Her husband’s sister lived there, and my cousin Efim went to the army from that place. Coming back to Leningrad, Bertha stayed with us for while, because mother came back from evacuation, and father didn’t come back from the Army.
I arrived to Leningrad on the tenth of July of 1945, being a lieutenant of the Military Sea Navy. Naturally, that was a great joy, a great day. I left my luggage in the camera, and through Nevsky prospect walked home by feet. I didn’t see anything around. I’ve not been at home for four years! And that was such happiness to come back! To cross all Nevsky prospect, I couldn’t even imagine that before, being front. Emotions covered me. Our house was the second one on the street, and the first one was a bank, today it is ‘Aeroflot’ building. When I entered into the court, and in the window I suddenly saw my aunt Bertha, and she saw me too. I heard how she gaily shouted: ‘A-a-a’.
On the Far East we felt also that there would be the War with Japan (it was spring and mid-summer of 1945), we constructed mining fields, we all swam on the ship, where they had almost four hundred mines, which could explore every minute to the hell. But we were very brave; we were young and were not frightened. And then they sent me to Baltic, I asked myself to send me somewhere close to home.
When I turned twenty one, in 1945, I’ve been the lieutenant already and finished the War in Vladivostok [big city on the Far East]. We were signalers; I worked on the flagman point of Pacific Ocean Navy. That was a hill, and knolls, and inside there was the Staff, so we kept direct connection with Moscow. And I remember that vice-admiral; the Head of the Staff came and said that the War was over. That was the eighth of May, so I learned about our victory earlier than all others, and naturally I began to tell about the victory to my mates and friends. And nobody believed. So half of the day passed, and there were no official news, and they looked at me not very friendly… However, the War was really over, and they announced that later on. And then we celebrated the victory, we celebrated this day very well, we shouted ‘Hurrah!’ And that admiral, who announced the victory on the eight of May, died from heartache when he was announcing it officially from the tribune on the next day.
Some of the relatives were killed, my cousin, for example, I don’t know his name, and father’s brother Udel. He was murdered; fascists killed him, perhaps, in a concentration camp.
Brothers of my father uncle Haim and uncle Jacob from Latvia found themselves in evacuation in Tashkent, and they stayed alive.
My cousin Zalman, son of Bertha, was killed during the War. He was on the front, and then they sent him to the school of young lieutenants, and he became the head of machine-gunners. According to statistics, head of machine-gunners lived for two weeks only and never survived. It happened because young lieutenants usually were directed to the most dangerous parts of the front, that’s why the death level among them was very high. And also specialization of ‘head of machine-gunners’ was considered very dangerous too, because they always were on the frontline and stayed without any defense or guarding. So it happened: two weeks passed and he was killed. Efim, his brother, was a tank’s guy, he survived and we still communicate a lot. Uncle Isaac was killed in Leningrad Home Guard, and uncle Naum died from anger during Blockade. Sister of my mother Emma lived in Vitebsk and then moved to Latvia in 1930s. She had a house over there. She and her son were killed too.
When the War started, those relatives, who stayed in Vitebsk, were evacuated or just ran away, and as a matter of fact, nobody stayed in Vitebsk during the War. They fond themselves somewhere in Russia, I don’t know where exactly. The family was all sparse. Somebody later happened to be on Donbass [coal region in Ukraine], just like Frada, sister of my mother. Her husband died from typhus. Grandmother Lesya died in evacuation in Saratov [big town in Povolgi was far away from the frontline].
When he served in the army, there were many Uzbeks. And when they had a political information [short lecture, concerning political situation in the USSR and in the World], they gave him some Uzbek text, written with Russian letters. He read this text and understood nothing, but those Uzbeks understood everything he was talking about and they were very happy with him.
In 1942 he’s got a dystrophy, he even could die, mother was a little bit stronger, but she wasn’t very healthy either, and due to that fact that they were very sick, they evacuated them both (father lived at home in those times too) to Ural, so finally they happened to be in Kopeisk [small town on Ural], not very far from Chelyabinsk [big metallurgical center on Ural]. There was a military factory over there, they made there rackets of ‘Katusha’ type. Soon my father had to go to the army again. Just after he felt a little bit better, they put him in the railway troupes, and he served till the very end of the War, and he’s been to the army a year after the War too. He finished the War somewhere on the Romanian front.
When he served in the army, there were many Uzbeks. And when they had a political information [short lecture, concerning political situation in the USSR and in the World], they gave him some Uzbek text, written with Russian letters. He read this text and understood nothing, but those Uzbeks understood everything he was talking about and they were very happy with him. It happened I passed not far from Tashkent [big city in the Middle Asia, capital of Uzbekistan], I crossed whole Russia. There was a town, and there was a military unit nearby. I didn’t know that my father was just right there, and we didn’t meet, if I knew about it, I would try to see him, because it was very important for me: I didn’t meet him for ages and I wanted to see him so much!
Also in that Military college of radio electronics we had a department of fireworks, pyrotechnics and my mates went to Kopeisk. My mates mainly were from Leningrad, including Anatoly Tolstoy. I told him: ‘Please come and visit my mother’. He came to visit and there they had such a dinner, such a holiday. Of course! I didn’t see my parents for four years. Mother sent me socks and tissue, a real masterpiece.
My father served in the army, I served in the army, and my mother worked there, being a cashier, which was her civil profession. Father had a big authority; he had many war medals, for example ‘For guarding Leningrad’ and ‘For Caucasus’. Mother had some medals as well: a medal ‘For guarding Leningrad’ and ‘For forced labor’. She’s got them for working during Leningrad blockade and on the military factory on Ural. And I have sixteen medals too.
When he served in the army, there were many Uzbeks. And when they had a political information [short lecture, concerning political situation in the USSR and in the World], they gave him some Uzbek text, written with Russian letters. He read this text and understood nothing, but those Uzbeks understood everything he was talking about and they were very happy with him. It happened I passed not far from Tashkent [big city in the Middle Asia, capital of Uzbekistan], I crossed whole Russia. There was a town, and there was a military unit nearby. I didn’t know that my father was just right there, and we didn’t meet, if I knew about it, I would try to see him, because it was very important for me: I didn’t meet him for ages and I wanted to see him so much!
Also in that Military college of radio electronics we had a department of fireworks, pyrotechnics and my mates went to Kopeisk. My mates mainly were from Leningrad, including Anatoly Tolstoy. I told him: ‘Please come and visit my mother’. He came to visit and there they had such a dinner, such a holiday. Of course! I didn’t see my parents for four years. Mother sent me socks and tissue, a real masterpiece.
My father served in the army, I served in the army, and my mother worked there, being a cashier, which was her civil profession. Father had a big authority; he had many war medals, for example ‘For guarding Leningrad’ and ‘For Caucasus’. Mother had some medals as well: a medal ‘For guarding Leningrad’ and ‘For forced labor’. She’s got them for working during Leningrad blockade and on the military factory on Ural. And I have sixteen medals too.
When the war started, father was forty five. I thought that he was old. It is so funny to recall that now! Anyway he wasn’t old and had to serve. He served in the troupes of MPVO (which means Local Anti Air-craft Defense). They called him up, when we didn’t even know that the War started. His goal was to look, where the bombs fly to, and to message their directions. He was in barracks; he served on the factory, named after Volodarsky.
I joined the Communist Party in 1944 when I was twenty. I sincerely believed in communist future and so on. I didn’t wish to get anything from this Party and never got. However, after all, militaries had to join the Party, almost all officers were communists. And actually I wanted to join the Party in 1943, when I applied for it, but they admitted me in 1944 only. And I had to pass an exam, answering some questions about history and theory of communism.
I’ve been to Leningrad front till March of 1942, even including March. Later the dislocation started, they sent our company to Astrakhan [big city in the lower reaches of Volga], and they supposed to send the eighth and ninth grades, which made second and third companies, to Siberia. So it happened so that they picked us to Ladoga Lake [famous lake in outskirts of Leningrad] to the Road of life [16] by train, and then we had to cross those forty kilometers. We were walking on the ice; it was forty degrees of cold. You walk on the ice and see all those dead bodies of evacuated Leningrad inhabitants and Soviet soldiers under the ice. Thanks to God, Germans didn’t throw bombs. And we were lucky because cars and tracks went to Leningrad with wheat and stuff, and they came back absolutely empty, that’s why we passed by car some part of the way, to Gikharevka station [railway station not far from Leningrad]. And there we reached the so-called Big Land. In Gikharevka they gave us some food for the first time, and it was important that they gave us only a small piece of sausage, nothing else and didn’t permit to eat anything during two hours. And then we understood why they didn’t let us to eat more: we saw thousands of dead people, stacks of dead people; all those people ate bread and something else at once and died from volvulus [some kind of stomach disease], they died because they were so weak that their organisms were not able to take food. To stay alive they had to eat very little, but nobody told them it about it. We all were dystrophic, and when you are coming out from the dystrophy, the diarrhea begins, because your organism can’t get the food.
Then they drove some echelons, put us into sanitary barriers, where they washed us, and helped to feel normal. Then they took us to those echelons and to wagons and drove somewhere. That happened for almost forty days. We passed Volkhovstroy [small town on the river Volkhov], Kirov [today that is Vyatka, big town in the Middle Povolgi], Molotov (it’s how they called Perm in soviet times); everywhere they had lights on, it looked like people don’t know about the War. So throughout Ural steppes, from the opposite side, we arrived to Astrakhan and we’ve been there for couple of months.
Soon the story started: planes fly, throw the bombs, after all that was year 1942, Stalingrad struggle [17]. We helped, do whatever they ordered: guarded, helped to loading. Then we’ve got an order to go to Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, city on the Caspian Sea]. Germans approached; and we, on the special ships, called ‘seiners’ [fishing ships, which were given to Soviet army], crossed the Sea, because Caspian Sea from Astrakhanian coast isn’t wide, it is narrow, and big ships can’t come to the bank. Anyhow, the military ship stood on the road, we reached it and in two days we finally came to Baku.
In Baku there was a military naval college. There they broke up us. Some were left in Baku, and some (and me among them) were sent to Lenkoran [town in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea], to the military naval college of waterside defense, in the department of connection. We lost about thirty people by the way. So we’ve been to Lenkoran for some time, which was almost on the Persian border. Germans went to Caucasus; they gave us infantry uniform and supposed to send us to the frontline. But then Soviet troupes stopped the Germans, and just in this infantry clothes they put us on the ship and drove to Krasnovodsk [small town on the Caspian Sea], now it is situated on the territory of Turkmenistan. And only from this place through Alma-Ata [capital of Kazakhstan, today is called Almaty] to Baikal [the largest lake on the territory of the USSR, it is situated in Siberia], from plus twenty degrees by Celsius to minus twenty degrees by Celsius, and we didn’t have nothing warm, neither gloves, nor coats, nothing. So they allowed us to warm up the hands in the pockets. We spent there awful half a year. We lived their in barracks, which were left from those, who were banished here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell more about our trip to Baikal, because I don’t remember any more stories.
Then they sent us for practice to the Far East and put us into the Pacific Ocean College. That college was built before the War, according to all necessary rules. So we were there for three months, so it was almost a Heaven. Then they put us to the so-called sixth kilometer and during next two months we were busy with painting the walls, built something and so on. There it was very cold; life was much more hard and unpleasant.
Then they drove some echelons, put us into sanitary barriers, where they washed us, and helped to feel normal. Then they took us to those echelons and to wagons and drove somewhere. That happened for almost forty days. We passed Volkhovstroy [small town on the river Volkhov], Kirov [today that is Vyatka, big town in the Middle Povolgi], Molotov (it’s how they called Perm in soviet times); everywhere they had lights on, it looked like people don’t know about the War. So throughout Ural steppes, from the opposite side, we arrived to Astrakhan and we’ve been there for couple of months.
Soon the story started: planes fly, throw the bombs, after all that was year 1942, Stalingrad struggle [17]. We helped, do whatever they ordered: guarded, helped to loading. Then we’ve got an order to go to Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, city on the Caspian Sea]. Germans approached; and we, on the special ships, called ‘seiners’ [fishing ships, which were given to Soviet army], crossed the Sea, because Caspian Sea from Astrakhanian coast isn’t wide, it is narrow, and big ships can’t come to the bank. Anyhow, the military ship stood on the road, we reached it and in two days we finally came to Baku.
In Baku there was a military naval college. There they broke up us. Some were left in Baku, and some (and me among them) were sent to Lenkoran [town in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea], to the military naval college of waterside defense, in the department of connection. We lost about thirty people by the way. So we’ve been to Lenkoran for some time, which was almost on the Persian border. Germans went to Caucasus; they gave us infantry uniform and supposed to send us to the frontline. But then Soviet troupes stopped the Germans, and just in this infantry clothes they put us on the ship and drove to Krasnovodsk [small town on the Caspian Sea], now it is situated on the territory of Turkmenistan. And only from this place through Alma-Ata [capital of Kazakhstan, today is called Almaty] to Baikal [the largest lake on the territory of the USSR, it is situated in Siberia], from plus twenty degrees by Celsius to minus twenty degrees by Celsius, and we didn’t have nothing warm, neither gloves, nor coats, nothing. So they allowed us to warm up the hands in the pockets. We spent there awful half a year. We lived their in barracks, which were left from those, who were banished here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell more about our trip to Baikal, because I don’t remember any more stories.
Then they sent us for practice to the Far East and put us into the Pacific Ocean College. That college was built before the War, according to all necessary rules. So we were there for three months, so it was almost a Heaven. Then they put us to the so-called sixth kilometer and during next two months we were busy with painting the walls, built something and so on. There it was very cold; life was much more hard and unpleasant.
During the Blockade in Leningrad there were forty four degrees colds [it was one of the coldest winters in the history of the city,]; there was no light, no electricity, no heat, and no water.
In Leningrad they shut everywhere. College, named after Frunze [15] [famous Military College in Leningrad] stood on Neva River; nearby there was our military unit, it still stands over there. Now they have a memorial desk there. So I could go to my unit, using the longer path, and there was another way. That day I walked this certain way, I never walked before. And on that shorter way the projectile exploded. I can recall thousands of such accidents. On Gogol street, where my parents lived, I saw how bomb destroyed the house, I saw that this bomb flew not straight, but a little bit obliquely, it destroyed the beer kiosk and fell to the first floor. So all the stages were completely destroyed. I was a witness of how bomb destroyed the Police school on Gogol street, number 8.
During the Blockade in Leningrad there were forty four degrees colds [it was one of the coldest winters in the history of the city,]; there was no light, no electricity, no heat, and no water. Seldom, when I came home from my military unit (it happened once or twice a week), it wasn’t long way, so I walked by foot. So coming back at home, I went to Neva [main city river] and brought water to my mother.
I’ve been to Leningrad front till March of 1942, even including March. Later the dislocation started, they sent our company to Astrakhan [big city in the lower reaches of Volga], and they supposed to send the eighth and ninth grades, which made second and third companies, to Siberia. So it happened so that they picked us to Ladoga Lake [famous lake in outskirts of Leningrad] to the Road of life [16] by train, and then we had to cross those forty kilometers. We were walking on the ice; it was forty degrees of cold. You walk on the ice and see all those dead bodies of evacuated Leningrad inhabitants and Soviet soldiers under the ice. Thanks to God, Germans didn’t throw bombs. And we were lucky because cars and tracks went to Leningrad with wheat and stuff, and they came back absolutely empty, that’s why we passed by car some part of the way, to Gikharevka station [railway station not far from Leningrad]. And there we reached the so-called Big Land. In Gikharevka they gave us some food for the first time, and it was important that they gave us only a small piece of sausage, nothing else and didn’t permit to eat anything during two hours. And then we understood why they didn’t let us to eat more: we saw thousands of dead people, stacks of dead people; all those people ate bread and something else at once and died from volvulus [some kind of stomach disease], they died because they were so weak that their organisms were not able to take food. To stay alive they had to eat very little, but nobody told them it about it. We all were dystrophic, and when you are coming out from the dystrophy, the diarrhea begins, because your organism can’t get the food.
Then they drove some echelons, put us into sanitary barriers, where they washed us, and helped to feel normal. Then they took us to those echelons and to wagons and drove somewhere. That happened for almost forty days. We passed Volkhovstroy [small town on the river Volkhov], Kirov [today that is Vyatka, big town in the Middle Povolgi], Molotov (it’s how they called Perm in soviet times); everywhere they had lights on, it looked like people don’t know about the War. So throughout Ural steppes, from the opposite side, we arrived to Astrakhan and we’ve been there for couple of months.
Soon the story started: planes fly, throw the bombs, after all that was year 1942, Stalingrad struggle [17]. We helped, do whatever they ordered: guarded, helped to loading. Then we’ve got an order to go to Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, city on the Caspian Sea]. Germans approached; and we, on the special ships, called ‘seiners’ [fishing ships, which were given to Soviet army], crossed the Sea, because Caspian Sea from Astrakhanian coast isn’t wide, it is narrow, and big ships can’t come to the bank. Anyhow, the military ship stood on the road, we reached it and in two days we finally came to Baku.
In Baku there was a military naval college. There they broke up us. Some were left in Baku, and some (and me among them) were sent to Lenkoran [town in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea], to the military naval college of waterside defense, in the department of connection. We lost about thirty people by the way. So we’ve been to Lenkoran for some time, which was almost on the Persian border. Germans went to Caucasus; they gave us infantry uniform and supposed to send us to the frontline. But then Soviet troupes stopped the Germans, and just in this infantry clothes they put us on the ship and drove to Krasnovodsk [small town on the Caspian Sea], now it is situated on the territory of Turkmenistan. And only from this place through Alma-Ata [capital of Kazakhstan, today is called Almaty] to Baikal [the largest lake on the territory of the USSR, it is situated in Siberia], from plus twenty degrees by Celsius to minus twenty degrees by Celsius, and we didn’t have nothing warm, neither gloves, nor coats, nothing. So they allowed us to warm up the hands in the pockets. We spent there awful half a year. We lived their in barracks, which were left from those, who were banished here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell more about our trip to Baikal, because I don’t remember any more stories.
Then they sent us for practice to the Far East and put us into the Pacific Ocean College. That college was built before the War, according to all necessary rules. So we were there for three months, so it was almost a Heaven. Then they put us to the so-called sixth kilometer and during next two months we were busy with painting the walls, built something and so on. There it was very cold; life was much more hard and unpleasant.
During the Blockade in Leningrad there were forty four degrees colds [it was one of the coldest winters in the history of the city,]; there was no light, no electricity, no heat, and no water. Seldom, when I came home from my military unit (it happened once or twice a week), it wasn’t long way, so I walked by foot. So coming back at home, I went to Neva [main city river] and brought water to my mother.
I’ve been to Leningrad front till March of 1942, even including March. Later the dislocation started, they sent our company to Astrakhan [big city in the lower reaches of Volga], and they supposed to send the eighth and ninth grades, which made second and third companies, to Siberia. So it happened so that they picked us to Ladoga Lake [famous lake in outskirts of Leningrad] to the Road of life [16] by train, and then we had to cross those forty kilometers. We were walking on the ice; it was forty degrees of cold. You walk on the ice and see all those dead bodies of evacuated Leningrad inhabitants and Soviet soldiers under the ice. Thanks to God, Germans didn’t throw bombs. And we were lucky because cars and tracks went to Leningrad with wheat and stuff, and they came back absolutely empty, that’s why we passed by car some part of the way, to Gikharevka station [railway station not far from Leningrad]. And there we reached the so-called Big Land. In Gikharevka they gave us some food for the first time, and it was important that they gave us only a small piece of sausage, nothing else and didn’t permit to eat anything during two hours. And then we understood why they didn’t let us to eat more: we saw thousands of dead people, stacks of dead people; all those people ate bread and something else at once and died from volvulus [some kind of stomach disease], they died because they were so weak that their organisms were not able to take food. To stay alive they had to eat very little, but nobody told them it about it. We all were dystrophic, and when you are coming out from the dystrophy, the diarrhea begins, because your organism can’t get the food.
Then they drove some echelons, put us into sanitary barriers, where they washed us, and helped to feel normal. Then they took us to those echelons and to wagons and drove somewhere. That happened for almost forty days. We passed Volkhovstroy [small town on the river Volkhov], Kirov [today that is Vyatka, big town in the Middle Povolgi], Molotov (it’s how they called Perm in soviet times); everywhere they had lights on, it looked like people don’t know about the War. So throughout Ural steppes, from the opposite side, we arrived to Astrakhan and we’ve been there for couple of months.
Soon the story started: planes fly, throw the bombs, after all that was year 1942, Stalingrad struggle [17]. We helped, do whatever they ordered: guarded, helped to loading. Then we’ve got an order to go to Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, city on the Caspian Sea]. Germans approached; and we, on the special ships, called ‘seiners’ [fishing ships, which were given to Soviet army], crossed the Sea, because Caspian Sea from Astrakhanian coast isn’t wide, it is narrow, and big ships can’t come to the bank. Anyhow, the military ship stood on the road, we reached it and in two days we finally came to Baku.
In Baku there was a military naval college. There they broke up us. Some were left in Baku, and some (and me among them) were sent to Lenkoran [town in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea], to the military naval college of waterside defense, in the department of connection. We lost about thirty people by the way. So we’ve been to Lenkoran for some time, which was almost on the Persian border. Germans went to Caucasus; they gave us infantry uniform and supposed to send us to the frontline. But then Soviet troupes stopped the Germans, and just in this infantry clothes they put us on the ship and drove to Krasnovodsk [small town on the Caspian Sea], now it is situated on the territory of Turkmenistan. And only from this place through Alma-Ata [capital of Kazakhstan, today is called Almaty] to Baikal [the largest lake on the territory of the USSR, it is situated in Siberia], from plus twenty degrees by Celsius to minus twenty degrees by Celsius, and we didn’t have nothing warm, neither gloves, nor coats, nothing. So they allowed us to warm up the hands in the pockets. We spent there awful half a year. We lived their in barracks, which were left from those, who were banished here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell more about our trip to Baikal, because I don’t remember any more stories.
Then they sent us for practice to the Far East and put us into the Pacific Ocean College. That college was built before the War, according to all necessary rules. So we were there for three months, so it was almost a Heaven. Then they put us to the so-called sixth kilometer and during next two months we were busy with painting the walls, built something and so on. There it was very cold; life was much more hard and unpleasant.
During the Blockade in Leningrad there were forty four degrees colds [it was one of the coldest winters in the history of the city,]; there was no light, no electricity, no heat, and no water.
I served since 1941. I studied then in the special military naval school, and we’ve been to Lugskiy front, to Bolshoye and Maloe Karlino [small villages in Leningrad region], to Marienburg [village in Leningrad region], we’ve been to the second front line, or participated in building the defense lines. In Leningrad we organized the patrols, caught the rackets and racket people. The bombing had begun on September, the eighth of 1941, and our fortune was that there were plenty of rackets, all city was full of rackets, and Germans just didn’t know where to throw bombs, they couldn’t see anything. Also we helped to evacuate kids and school children.
I could die twice, and that’s not a lie, I know exactly that forty two of my college mates were killed during the War. First, it could happen in summer of 1941, near Leningrad. Then we wore great coats, and naval great coats are black ones, so you can see them from very far away. German planes flew and threw bombs onto the houses and shut from the machine-gun. I had a shovel on my head. To my fortune, when one of those German planes approached to us and was going to threw a bomb (so we all could die), soviet fighter appeared in the sky and made him to go. And the second time was the following one. I’ve been to Voronya Mountain [mountain in outskirts of Leningrad], there was a naval battery, and we were placed not far from them. We dig the fortifications; we had one gun per five people, and nearby Germans organized the carousel: their fighters, called ‘Wolf’ flew on the wide circle and bombed us non-stop. I’ve got used to it already, guessed when it was necessary to lay down. And suddenly some drunken infantry lieutenant came and began to argue with our commander. So we found out that nobody was around, no front nearby, we stand here, and nobody else stands here, neither in front of us, nor behind. Only that battery, which you can pass easily. Lieutenant shouts: ‘What are you doing here? Tanks approach! Leave immediately!’ And they made us to go, almost forcing to do that. So we came to Leningrad by feet, and went to our military unit.
In Leningrad they shut everywhere. College, named after Frunze [15] [famous Military College in Leningrad] stood on Neva River; nearby there was our military unit, it still stands over there. Now they have a memorial desk there. So I could go to my unit, using the longer path, and there was another way. That day I walked this certain way, I never walked before. And on that shorter way the projectile exploded. I can recall thousands of such accidents. On Gogol street, where my parents lived, I saw how bomb destroyed the house, I saw that this bomb flew not straight, but a little bit obliquely, it destroyed the beer kiosk and fell to the first floor. So all the stages were completely destroyed. I was a witness of how bomb destroyed the Police school on Gogol street, number 8.
During the Blockade in Leningrad there were forty four degrees colds [it was one of the coldest winters in the history of the city,]; there was no light, no electricity, no heat, and no water. Seldom, when I came home from my military unit (it happened once or twice a week), it wasn’t long way, so I walked by foot. So coming back at home, I went to Neva [main city river] and brought water to my mother.
I’ve been to Leningrad front till March of 1942, even including March. Later the dislocation started, they sent our company to Astrakhan [big city in the lower reaches of Volga], and they supposed to send the eighth and ninth grades, which made second and third companies, to Siberia. So it happened so that they picked us to Ladoga Lake [famous lake in outskirts of Leningrad] to the Road of life [16] by train, and then we had to cross those forty kilometers. We were walking on the ice; it was forty degrees of cold. You walk on the ice and see all those dead bodies of evacuated Leningrad inhabitants and Soviet soldiers under the ice. Thanks to God, Germans didn’t throw bombs. And we were lucky because cars and tracks went to Leningrad with wheat and stuff, and they came back absolutely empty, that’s why we passed by car some part of the way, to Gikharevka station [railway station not far from Leningrad]. And there we reached the so-called Big Land. In Gikharevka they gave us some food for the first time, and it was important that they gave us only a small piece of sausage, nothing else and didn’t permit to eat anything during two hours. And then we understood why they didn’t let us to eat more: we saw thousands of dead people, stacks of dead people; all those people ate bread and something else at once and died from volvulus [some kind of stomach disease], they died because they were so weak that their organisms were not able to take food. To stay alive they had to eat very little, but nobody told them it about it. We all were dystrophic, and when you are coming out from the dystrophy, the diarrhea begins, because your organism can’t get the food.
Then they drove some echelons, put us into sanitary barriers, where they washed us, and helped to feel normal. Then they took us to those echelons and to wagons and drove somewhere. That happened for almost forty days. We passed Volkhovstroy [small town on the river Volkhov], Kirov [today that is Vyatka, big town in the Middle Povolgi], Molotov (it’s how they called Perm in soviet times); everywhere they had lights on, it looked like people don’t know about the War. So throughout Ural steppes, from the opposite side, we arrived to Astrakhan and we’ve been there for couple of months.
Soon the story started: planes fly, throw the bombs, after all that was year 1942, Stalingrad struggle [17]. We helped, do whatever they ordered: guarded, helped to loading. Then we’ve got an order to go to Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, city on the Caspian Sea]. Germans approached; and we, on the special ships, called ‘seiners’ [fishing ships, which were given to Soviet army], crossed the Sea, because Caspian Sea from Astrakhanian coast isn’t wide, it is narrow, and big ships can’t come to the bank. Anyhow, the military ship stood on the road, we reached it and in two days we finally came to Baku.
In Baku there was a military naval college. There they broke up us. Some were left in Baku, and some (and me among them) were sent to Lenkoran [town in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea], to the military naval college of waterside defense, in the department of connection. We lost about thirty people by the way. So we’ve been to Lenkoran for some time, which was almost on the Persian border. Germans went to Caucasus; they gave us infantry uniform and supposed to send us to the frontline. But then Soviet troupes stopped the Germans, and just in this infantry clothes they put us on the ship and drove to Krasnovodsk [small town on the Caspian Sea], now it is situated on the territory of Turkmenistan. And only from this place through Alma-Ata [capital of Kazakhstan, today is called Almaty] to Baikal [the largest lake on the territory of the USSR, it is situated in Siberia], from plus twenty degrees by Celsius to minus twenty degrees by Celsius, and we didn’t have nothing warm, neither gloves, nor coats, nothing. So they allowed us to warm up the hands in the pockets. We spent there awful half a year. We lived their in barracks, which were left from those, who were banished here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell more about our trip to Baikal, because I don’t remember any more stories.
Then they sent us for practice to the Far East and put us into the Pacific Ocean College. That college was built before the War, according to all necessary rules. So we were there for three months, so it was almost a Heaven. Then they put us to the so-called sixth kilometer and during next two months we were busy with painting the walls, built something and so on. There it was very cold; life was much more hard and unpleasant.
I could die twice, and that’s not a lie, I know exactly that forty two of my college mates were killed during the War. First, it could happen in summer of 1941, near Leningrad. Then we wore great coats, and naval great coats are black ones, so you can see them from very far away. German planes flew and threw bombs onto the houses and shut from the machine-gun. I had a shovel on my head. To my fortune, when one of those German planes approached to us and was going to threw a bomb (so we all could die), soviet fighter appeared in the sky and made him to go. And the second time was the following one. I’ve been to Voronya Mountain [mountain in outskirts of Leningrad], there was a naval battery, and we were placed not far from them. We dig the fortifications; we had one gun per five people, and nearby Germans organized the carousel: their fighters, called ‘Wolf’ flew on the wide circle and bombed us non-stop. I’ve got used to it already, guessed when it was necessary to lay down. And suddenly some drunken infantry lieutenant came and began to argue with our commander. So we found out that nobody was around, no front nearby, we stand here, and nobody else stands here, neither in front of us, nor behind. Only that battery, which you can pass easily. Lieutenant shouts: ‘What are you doing here? Tanks approach! Leave immediately!’ And they made us to go, almost forcing to do that. So we came to Leningrad by feet, and went to our military unit.
In Leningrad they shut everywhere. College, named after Frunze [15] [famous Military College in Leningrad] stood on Neva River; nearby there was our military unit, it still stands over there. Now they have a memorial desk there. So I could go to my unit, using the longer path, and there was another way. That day I walked this certain way, I never walked before. And on that shorter way the projectile exploded. I can recall thousands of such accidents. On Gogol street, where my parents lived, I saw how bomb destroyed the house, I saw that this bomb flew not straight, but a little bit obliquely, it destroyed the beer kiosk and fell to the first floor. So all the stages were completely destroyed. I was a witness of how bomb destroyed the Police school on Gogol street, number 8.
During the Blockade in Leningrad there were forty four degrees colds [it was one of the coldest winters in the history of the city,]; there was no light, no electricity, no heat, and no water. Seldom, when I came home from my military unit (it happened once or twice a week), it wasn’t long way, so I walked by foot. So coming back at home, I went to Neva [main city river] and brought water to my mother.
I’ve been to Leningrad front till March of 1942, even including March. Later the dislocation started, they sent our company to Astrakhan [big city in the lower reaches of Volga], and they supposed to send the eighth and ninth grades, which made second and third companies, to Siberia. So it happened so that they picked us to Ladoga Lake [famous lake in outskirts of Leningrad] to the Road of life [16] by train, and then we had to cross those forty kilometers. We were walking on the ice; it was forty degrees of cold. You walk on the ice and see all those dead bodies of evacuated Leningrad inhabitants and Soviet soldiers under the ice. Thanks to God, Germans didn’t throw bombs. And we were lucky because cars and tracks went to Leningrad with wheat and stuff, and they came back absolutely empty, that’s why we passed by car some part of the way, to Gikharevka station [railway station not far from Leningrad]. And there we reached the so-called Big Land. In Gikharevka they gave us some food for the first time, and it was important that they gave us only a small piece of sausage, nothing else and didn’t permit to eat anything during two hours. And then we understood why they didn’t let us to eat more: we saw thousands of dead people, stacks of dead people; all those people ate bread and something else at once and died from volvulus [some kind of stomach disease], they died because they were so weak that their organisms were not able to take food. To stay alive they had to eat very little, but nobody told them it about it. We all were dystrophic, and when you are coming out from the dystrophy, the diarrhea begins, because your organism can’t get the food.
Then they drove some echelons, put us into sanitary barriers, where they washed us, and helped to feel normal. Then they took us to those echelons and to wagons and drove somewhere. That happened for almost forty days. We passed Volkhovstroy [small town on the river Volkhov], Kirov [today that is Vyatka, big town in the Middle Povolgi], Molotov (it’s how they called Perm in soviet times); everywhere they had lights on, it looked like people don’t know about the War. So throughout Ural steppes, from the opposite side, we arrived to Astrakhan and we’ve been there for couple of months.
Soon the story started: planes fly, throw the bombs, after all that was year 1942, Stalingrad struggle [17]. We helped, do whatever they ordered: guarded, helped to loading. Then we’ve got an order to go to Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, city on the Caspian Sea]. Germans approached; and we, on the special ships, called ‘seiners’ [fishing ships, which were given to Soviet army], crossed the Sea, because Caspian Sea from Astrakhanian coast isn’t wide, it is narrow, and big ships can’t come to the bank. Anyhow, the military ship stood on the road, we reached it and in two days we finally came to Baku.
In Baku there was a military naval college. There they broke up us. Some were left in Baku, and some (and me among them) were sent to Lenkoran [town in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea], to the military naval college of waterside defense, in the department of connection. We lost about thirty people by the way. So we’ve been to Lenkoran for some time, which was almost on the Persian border. Germans went to Caucasus; they gave us infantry uniform and supposed to send us to the frontline. But then Soviet troupes stopped the Germans, and just in this infantry clothes they put us on the ship and drove to Krasnovodsk [small town on the Caspian Sea], now it is situated on the territory of Turkmenistan. And only from this place through Alma-Ata [capital of Kazakhstan, today is called Almaty] to Baikal [the largest lake on the territory of the USSR, it is situated in Siberia], from plus twenty degrees by Celsius to minus twenty degrees by Celsius, and we didn’t have nothing warm, neither gloves, nor coats, nothing. So they allowed us to warm up the hands in the pockets. We spent there awful half a year. We lived their in barracks, which were left from those, who were banished here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell more about our trip to Baikal, because I don’t remember any more stories.
Then they sent us for practice to the Far East and put us into the Pacific Ocean College. That college was built before the War, according to all necessary rules. So we were there for three months, so it was almost a Heaven. Then they put us to the so-called sixth kilometer and during next two months we were busy with painting the walls, built something and so on. There it was very cold; life was much more hard and unpleasant.