After finishing a secondary school she entered the Faculty of Foreign languages in Kiev University. When we met, she was a third-year student.
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Displaying 37561 - 37590 of 50826 results
Yefim Volodarskiy
We got a room at the hostel of the plant.
In Kuibyshev I helped my wife to get an employment at the human resources department at a military plant.
She heard that Kiev University evacuated to Kzyl-Orda in Kazakhstan. After a year of our life together it suddenly occurred to her that she wanted to finish her studies. Let her! I worked at the military plant day and night and hardly ever was at home. I had an office at the plant and there I slept. My wife went to Kzyl-Orda where she graduated from the university and then returned to Kuibyshev some time in 1943.
My wife’s mother joined us this same year, it was a miracle that she escaped from occupied Kiev. She found us through a search agency and joined us there. My wife’s older sister and her family perished in the occupation.
Regarding our parents, I recall an episode. There was a kolkhoz [17] near Kuibyshev organized from the kulaks [18] deported to this area from all over the Soviet Union. All other kolkhozes around were miserably poor, but this one was outstandingly rich. There were tractors in the kolkhoz. This kolkhoz even had an aircraft manufactured for the army. Tractors needed repairs. Chairman of this kolkhoz and his board came to see director of the plant and made him an offer: you do the repairs and I shall pay in food products – beetroots, potatoes… Director said he didn’t have the authority to make such decisions since it was the aviation plant. ‘You just go to your maintenance shop where Volodarskiy is superintendent. If he agrees to do the repairs without causing delay to your plan, then let’s do it!’ Director called me to tell me this was all right with him. Chairman of the kolkhoz came to see me and we came to an agreement. I talked to my guys: ‘Guys, we shall receive food products, but we need to do it to cause no harm to the aviation!’ I entered into ‘brotherhood’ with this kolkhoz. Well, we repaired whatever they needed and chairman of the kolkhoz brought me a bag of beetroots. I took it home. My mother-in-law was a practical woman. She went to sell these beetroots at the market. She had plumbed the depths of misfortunes before. So, she was selling those 5 rubles each, I guess. My father was standing beside her. She once said: ‘You stay here and I will buy something’. When she returned there was a crowd near that bag! My father began to sell beetroots 20 kopeck each. : People began to scream that he should sell maximum 3 beetroots to one person. She saw this ‘dealing’ and shouted everybody away. Some people wanted to beat her… She said: ‘But you’ve seen me doing it!’ and he replied: ‘How can one charge so much money per each beetroot!’ That was my father.
After the war my wife and I, our son, my wife’s mother and my father returned to Kiev with my plant. We managed to move into my wife mother’s apartment, though we were only allowed to live in one room. Here were other tenants in another room.
I went to work as an engineer at the Artyom plant. This was also a military plant and it belonged to our ministry.
Shortly afterward I received an apartment and my wife and I and our son moved there.
After we returned to Kiev my father decided to visit Belaya Tserkov to take a look at the house. The house was sinking to one side and there were other tenants there. Of course, the authorities acknowledged my father’s ownership of this house. However, they only gave him one room in the house since he was alone. My father was so kind. He never managed to force these tenants to move out of his house. It was his house and he could take an effort to make them move out, but he wasn’t this kind of a person. He lived there for a short time, but what kind of life it was when he was alone? He sold his room for peanuts and moved to me in Kiev.
In 1950 I went to work as shop superintendent at the motorcycle plant. I was promoted to chief mechanic and then became assistant chief engineer of the plant. My father also worked there till his last day. He died at the age of 87. He worked as a timekeeper clerk, that describes the products and their quantities and also indicates the time of shipments.
After we returned to Kiev my wife went to work as a French translator at the State Security Ministry. Since there were not many French translations she also translated from Yiddish that she knew since childhood. The Ministry did the dirty work of copying correspondence of citizens with their relatives abroad. My wife translated them, thought there was nothing illegal in them. People wrote about their life and children. Sometimes she translated forbidden, but secretly published books also. Then Anes went to work as a French and German teacher at school.
In the 1950s the Party central Committee issued an order to send engineers to kolkhozes to enhance their operations. I was sent to work as chief engineer at the Uman equipment yard in 250 km south of Kiev. I went there alone. I need to say that I had a nice welcome reception in Uman. They gave me a big apartment in Uman.
He also attended cheder and finished a Jewish school in Belaya Tserkov.
Semyon went to work in Kiev and then moved to Dnepropetrovsk [about 500 km from Kiev, Ukraine] where he finished Metallurgical College.
Semyon worked at a big metallurgical plant where he was a big shot.
During the Great Patriotic War Semyon and his wife, my father and stepmother evacuated with the plant to Nizhniaya Salda.
My stepmother died shortly afterward and my father decided to join me in Kuibyshev [present Samara, Russia, about 1700 km from Kiev].
Shimshin studied in cheder, finished a 7-year Jewish school and then studied in the Jewish technical school in Belaya Tserkov.
He went to serve in the Red army and stayed for an additional service. Then he entered a military school, I don’t remember which one, and became an army officer.
He was at the front during the Great Patriotic War and was shell-shocked. He demobilized in the rank of colonel.
I was born in 1917. I went to the Jewish school in Belaya Tserkov at the age of 7.
I became a young Octobrist [12], a pioneer and Komsomol member [13] at school like all other schoolchildren. This was a standard process and everybody had to follow it, but I took no interest in public life.
I finished seven forms in the Jewish school.
At that time the period of forced famine began [14]. It became hard to survive in Belaya Tserkov. Not many people could get food for their families.
In 1932 I left my home. At that same time I put an end to the observance of Jewish traditions.
There was a Jewish technical school in Kharkov. I guess, it was the Transport School. I entered it. My brother supported me and I lived with him. Besides, Matvey helped me to become a light operator at the theater. So, it depended on me whether a performance was to take place or not! I studied for over a year, when the theater moved to Kiev. Matvey also moved to Kiev and I followed him.
My brother entered the Academy and lived in a hostel. He had to live his own life and I had to take care of mine.
I made friends in Kiev with teenagers of my age. During the period of famine everybody tried to survive as best as he could. There were 6 of us. We moved into an abandoned house on the outskirt of Kiev. One of us worked at the confectionery. He had a coat that he stuffed with sweets going back home after work. We used to sell these sweets. Another friend went to study at the vocational school at the ‘Lenkuznia’ shipyard. He had a worker’s card and also received a stipend. We had meals in the canteen of this vocational school. We bought 15-20 dinner rations. Why? Because we poured the soup into one plate to make a more or less sufficient meal for one person. Those rations were too small. There were soy beans given for the second course. We also took 15 rations to make one meal. There was a slice of bread going with each dinner ration. Anyway, we had to pay for these meals and to make some additional money we were selling the bread we got with our meals at the canteen. One slice of bread cost as much as we had to pay for a whole meal and we used to sell few slices at the market. There was a stove in the house where we dwelled. We used to break fences at night to stoke it. Neighbors were scared to go outside at night. We cooked mamaliga, a bucket full, for example. That’s how we lived. Of course, anything might have come out of this way of life, but that I had to continue studies was something that I was sure of. Where was I to go? There was no Jewish school or higher secondary school in Kiev. I went to a rabfak [15] school and to work. My uncle Horatsiy, who was an engineer at the plant, used his connections to have me employed by the plant. There was no other way to get a job there: there were numbers of people coming to Kiev from surrounding villages searching for a job and food. I was 15 years old and I worked at the storage office. I received a worker’s food card. [The card system was introduced in the Soviet Union to directly regulate food supplies to the population. There were different cards for physical workers, non-manual employees and dependents. There was nothing in stores to buy for money. Food cards were issued at work or in colleges.
I made friends in Kiev with teenagers of my age. During the period of famine everybody tried to survive as best as he could. There were 6 of us. We moved into an abandoned house on the outskirt of Kiev. One of us worked at the confectionery. He had a coat that he stuffed with sweets going back home after work. We used to sell these sweets. Another friend went to study at the vocational school at the ‘Lenkuznia’ shipyard. He had a worker’s card and also received a stipend. We had meals in the canteen of this vocational school. We bought 15-20 dinner rations. Why? Because we poured the soup into one plate to make a more or less sufficient meal for one person. Those rations were too small. There were soy beans given for the second course. We also took 15 rations to make one meal. There was a slice of bread going with each dinner ration. Anyway, we had to pay for these meals and to make some additional money we were selling the bread we got with our meals at the canteen. One slice of bread cost as much as we had to pay for a whole meal and we used to sell few slices at the market. There was a stove in the house where we dwelled. We used to break fences at night to stoke it. Neighbors were scared to go outside at night. We cooked mamaliga, a bucket full, for example. That’s how we lived. Of course, anything might have come out of this way of life, but that I had to continue studies was something that I was sure of. Where was I to go? There was no Jewish school or higher secondary school in Kiev. I went to a rabfak [15] school and to work. My uncle Horatsiy, who was an engineer at the plant, used his connections to have me employed by the plant. There was no other way to get a job there: there were numbers of people coming to Kiev from surrounding villages searching for a job and food. I was 15 years old and I worked at the storage office. I received a worker’s food card. [The card system was introduced in the Soviet Union to directly regulate food supplies to the population. There were different cards for physical workers, non-manual employees and dependents. There was nothing in stores to buy for money. Food cards were issued at work or in colleges.
After finishing the rabfak I entered Agricultural College, present Agricultural Academy. I finished the Faculty of Mechanization at the Academy in 1939.
I got a job assignment [16] to Chernigov [regional center, about 150 km from Kiev], where I was a shop superintendent. We also studied military disciplines in college and after finishing it I became a reserve lieutenant of armored troops. I worked at the vehicle and tractor plant in Chernigov. There I was mobilized for two months. I was directed to inspect the army equipment with a traffic police representative. Two months later I returned to the plant. Then there was another mobilization for two months. I wanted to move to Kiev. I asked the registry office to issue a certificate saying that I ‘was recruited to the army’ and I quit the plant on the basis of this certificate. When those two months of mobilization were over, I was free to go to Kiev.