I was often sent to political studies. I finished a course of political education and an evening university course of Marxism-Leninism. This was mandatory for all managerial staff. After work I attended political classes and then at home I had to make notes and study the original sources. Unfortunately, there was little time left for the family and it made me feel sorry. I wanted to be the same father for my daughters as mine was to me.
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Major events (political and historical)
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Displaying 36241 - 36270 of 50826 results
Stepan Neuman
Stalin’s death in March 1953 was a terrible disaster for those who had come from the USSR. I was surprised that they were grieving after a person they didn’t know. I thought Stalin’s death was natural – nobody lives an eternal life, and old people are dying whether they are leaders of the country or common pensioners.
I was a devoted communist and thought: Stalin died, but the Party was still there and nothing would change and the Party would go on the right course. Khrushchev’s [34] speech at the Twentieth Party Congress [35] confirmed this conviction of mine. Although Stalin was an idol of a few generations of Soviet people, the party managed to find out that he was a criminal and told the truth in public.
I was a devoted communist and thought: Stalin died, but the Party was still there and nothing would change and the Party would go on the right course. Khrushchev’s [34] speech at the Twentieth Party Congress [35] confirmed this conviction of mine. Although Stalin was an idol of a few generations of Soviet people, the party managed to find out that he was a criminal and told the truth in public.
When in 1956 [36] the USSR troops invaded Hungary, and in 1968 Czechoslovakia [cf. Prague Spring] [37], I understood that this was a necessary step. We were taught that the USSR was exporting the revolution to all countries of the world and we believed that this was right and fair. In those countries the revolutionary gains were losing their strength and only the army could keep them in place. There were probably discussions before they led the troops there, but where the policy was losing the army was coming.
If the USSR had not brought the armies then, I believe the socialist countries would have split much earlier. At that time I had no doubts that this was a necessary measure to preserve the integrity of the socialist countries.
If the USSR had not brought the armies then, I believe the socialist countries would have split much earlier. At that time I had no doubts that this was a necessary measure to preserve the integrity of the socialist countries.
In 1978 I was invited to Moscow, to the Soviet Union Ministry of Chemical Industry. I had a pass enabling me to go to the office of the minister of the USSR and to the central party committee without any prearrangement. The ministry called a collegium and said they had no claims against me as director of the plant, but since I was corresponding with my brother in Australia, a capitalist country, I could not hold this position.
Since our plant was an important enterprise for the whole Soviet Union we had a production plant for a ‘special period,’ i.e., in case of World War III we were to produce the substances mitigating the impact of radiation and anti-noise mastic to apply on the tank bottoms. They explained that since the plant had a plan of military significance its director had to be a reliable and tested person to be told secret information. But I didn’t know any particular secrets. Probably all countries in the world with armies also have production of similar substances, and regarding the production of detergents theirs are probably even better.
They told me to terminate correspondence with my brother and my cousin, but I said I was not going to stop being in touch with my brother. He survived in Buchenwald and there were just the two of us left. They told me to return my pass and that they were going to recommend me for another position of senior dispatcher at the plant.
Since our plant was an important enterprise for the whole Soviet Union we had a production plant for a ‘special period,’ i.e., in case of World War III we were to produce the substances mitigating the impact of radiation and anti-noise mastic to apply on the tank bottoms. They explained that since the plant had a plan of military significance its director had to be a reliable and tested person to be told secret information. But I didn’t know any particular secrets. Probably all countries in the world with armies also have production of similar substances, and regarding the production of detergents theirs are probably even better.
They told me to terminate correspondence with my brother and my cousin, but I said I was not going to stop being in touch with my brother. He survived in Buchenwald and there were just the two of us left. They told me to return my pass and that they were going to recommend me for another position of senior dispatcher at the plant.
My wife and I discussed this issue and decided to move to my brother in Australia. I wrote Frantisek and he replied that my decision made him happy and that he was waiting for us to come. We submitted or documents for departure, but they returned them to us. They explained to me that my request for departure was rejected and that I could resubmit my documents ten years later, after the term of the ‘plan of special secrecy’ expired.
My daughters were growing up like all other Soviet children. They were pioneers [38] and Komsomol [39] members. They had excellent marks at school. Judit and Adel understood that they needed an education to make their way in life. Both daughters were registered as Slovaks. I had constantly faced anti-Semitism and didn’t want it to sadden their life.
After finishing school Judit entered the Faculty of Economics of Uzhgorod University. Adel went in for sports at school. She decided to go to study at the Kiev University of Physical Education and after school she moved to Kiev. Upon graduation Adel returned to Uzhgorod. In Uzhgorod she finished the English department of the Philological Faculty of Uzhgorod University.
They both work. Judit is chief economist of the power network department of the town, and Adel is a scientific employee dealing with the issues of rehabilitation of sportsmen.
They both work. Judit is chief economist of the power network department of the town, and Adel is a scientific employee dealing with the issues of rehabilitation of sportsmen.
Judit has two children. Her son Stepan, born in 1976, moved to Israel after finishing school in Uzhgorod. Now his name is Itzhok. It’s the 7th year of my grandson’s service in the Israeli army. He defends the country that has become his homeland. I am proud of him and I am proud that a member of our family defends the holy land for all of us.
When perestroika [40] began in the USSR, I was happy about it. There are no everlasting regimes, there are to be changes. When freedom of speech and religion was allowed, when the ‘iron curtain’ [41], separating the USSR from the rest of the world for 70 years fell, when it became possible to communicate with people living beyond the USSR – this gave hopes for the best.
Maya Pivovar
My mother and I evacuated with my mother’s factory where she was working on a barge in July. The factory products were dumped into the hold of the barge and we were sitting on those bales. We were heading to Dnepropetrovsk [500 km from Kiev]. It was believed that Germans didn’t bomb Dnepropetrovsk as much as our town and that factories could operate there. To describe our trip on those bales in the hold, I would give an example. One night I woke up having the feeling of suffocation. Somebody’s leg in a boot was on my chest. I tried to throw down this leg, when a man’s voice said: ‘Why are you pulling my leg?’ This happened to be a man stretching his legs to feel more comfortable.
When we arrived in Dnepropetrovsk, we were not allowed to get off: there were two lines of military men, and they made us board some freight railcars for transportation of coal – there were no roofs in them. We moved on we didn’t know where. It was pouring with rain, we got black from coal dust all over. I don’t remember how long the trip was: two or three days… At night we were told to get off. In the morning we were taken to a kolkhoz [13]. It turned out we were in Krasnodarskiy Kray. Starominskaya village [over 1000 km from Kiev]. We worked in the kolkhoz there till another party of workers of the factory evacuated to Zlatoust town [about 900 km from Kiev], and we were taken there. We changed few freight trains for transportation of cattle to get to Zlatoust. The conditions were terrible. Our trip probably lasted five days. This was a beginning of the winter 1941.
When we arrived in Dnepropetrovsk, we were not allowed to get off: there were two lines of military men, and they made us board some freight railcars for transportation of coal – there were no roofs in them. We moved on we didn’t know where. It was pouring with rain, we got black from coal dust all over. I don’t remember how long the trip was: two or three days… At night we were told to get off. In the morning we were taken to a kolkhoz [13]. It turned out we were in Krasnodarskiy Kray. Starominskaya village [over 1000 km from Kiev]. We worked in the kolkhoz there till another party of workers of the factory evacuated to Zlatoust town [about 900 km from Kiev], and we were taken there. We changed few freight trains for transportation of cattle to get to Zlatoust. The conditions were terrible. Our trip probably lasted five days. This was a beginning of the winter 1941.
In Zlatoust we were accommodated in local apartments. The owners of the apartment where we accommodated, an elderly couple, were nice people, and they treated us kindly. My mother continued to work at the factory that worked for the needs of the front: they made military overcoats, uniforms and tents for the front. I went to the local school but gave up my studies very soon to go to work at my mother’s factory. We didn’t hear from my father and were very concerned about him at the time.
My father was in the 5th Army. At the very start of the war he was wounded and sent to a mobile field hospital. In the fall this Army got in encirclement somewhere near Kiev. When it became clear that they were in encirclement chief of the hospital said to the patients and personnel of the hospital: ‘Drift apart! By whatever means drift apart!’ My father told us later that he was in a field with a group of military. They were lying in hiding. Germans encircled the field and shouted: ‘Russ, surrender!’ Someone lying beside my father said: ‘Why lying here, I will surrender!’ My father didn’t know what happened to him. Then Germans sent tanks onto the field. My father said one tank drove beside him on one side and another tank – on his other side, in few centimeters that saved his life! He stayed in the field till dark and then he came to a village where people gave him some civilian clothes. He was 37 years old, but the children in the village said: ‘God, what a scary looking old man!’ He wasn’t shaved and he was thin after he had been wounded. My father was going from one village to another till he reached the front line that was along a river. One villager was bringing soldiers from encirclement across the river on his boat. The boat was small and they were taking turns to go across the river, when somebody ran from the village shouting that German troops were already coming to the village! ‘You may be punished for this!’ but the villager said he would remain till he transported all those waiting for his help. And indeed, he transported all troopers.
My father was in encirclement 18 days. Later he had problems in this regard. Near Kharkov. He was looking for a toilet at the railways station. He went to and fro once, then another time, when somebody paid attention to him. They took him to the commandant’s office. My father didn’t have any documents with him and had civilian clothes on. They decided he was a spy, but he managed somehow to get out of it. The group of military who had been in encirclement with my father gathered in Kharkov. They were sent for retraining in the Ural. Then my father was sent to the Moscow Front and was wounded in January 1942. His right arm didn’t function and he had lost thee fingers on his left hand. My father was sent to a hospital in Novosibirsk [about 3000 km from Kiev]. When he was released, he decided to look for my mother and me. From my grandmother and grandfather’s letters my father knew that we were in Krasnodarskiy Kray, but we had moved to Zlatoust before then.
My father was in encirclement 18 days. Later he had problems in this regard. Near Kharkov. He was looking for a toilet at the railways station. He went to and fro once, then another time, when somebody paid attention to him. They took him to the commandant’s office. My father didn’t have any documents with him and had civilian clothes on. They decided he was a spy, but he managed somehow to get out of it. The group of military who had been in encirclement with my father gathered in Kharkov. They were sent for retraining in the Ural. Then my father was sent to the Moscow Front and was wounded in January 1942. His right arm didn’t function and he had lost thee fingers on his left hand. My father was sent to a hospital in Novosibirsk [about 3000 km from Kiev]. When he was released, he decided to look for my mother and me. From my grandmother and grandfather’s letters my father knew that we were in Krasnodarskiy Kray, but we had moved to Zlatoust before then.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
When my father was being released from the hospital in Novosibirsk, the chief doctor of the hospital, hearing that he had worked in the Institute of Endocrinology before the Great Patriotic War, advised my father to go to Biysk town where the Kiev and Kharkov institutes of Endocrinology had evacuated. But my father decided to first go looking for my mother and me and asked that they gave him a ticket to Krasnodarskiy Kray. Biysk town was near Novosibirsk and my father visited it on his way. There he was told that his Institute had moved to Frunze [about 3000 km from Kiev]. My father went to Buguruslan where there was an evacuation information agency where he submitted the information about his and my mother’s relatives. Of all our family he got the address of my mother and me in Zlatoust from this agency. He came to Zlatoust and we all moved to Frunze.
In Frunze we first accommodated in a club building till my father rented an apartment for us. Our main food was bread and vegetables, but we didn’t starve, actually. I hardly saw any local residents there. It happened so that in the center of Frunze where we lived, there were mainly those who came in evacuation. Several times we, schoolchildren, were sent to pick potatoes where I aw the locals. They could hardly speak Russian, those, whom I saw, but they were quite friendly.
In Frunze my father was chairman of the local committee [14] of the institute trying to make the life of employees of the institute easier. For example, he found a jobless shoemaker and the management of the institute managed to get pieces of leather, and this shoemaker fixed employees’ shoes. It was important during the war! My father also made arrangements for opening a canteen for employees at the institute, and my mother went to work there as a cook.
I finished the 8th and 9th forms at school in Frunze. I hope you don’t think that we, school children, didn’t do anything during the war! One day a week at school was a work day. We worked at the construction of a railroad spur. Military plants were evacuated to Frunze. Of course, we were silly. I remember competing who carried more soil on a barrow. Two girls, besides, we were 15-16 years old, carrying this heavy barrow curving under the heavy load. A man passing by said: ‘Girls, what are you doing? You better take two trips than carrying such heavy barrow!’ And then construction of the Chuyskiy channel! The builders were preparing the pit for concreting – this was going to be the Chuyskaya hydro power station. There was not enough workforce, and the construction management organized a Komsomol group of young people. We, school children, were sent to the construction of this channel for 10 days during vacations. We were to carry soil up the slope. I remember working with a teacher. She was probably about 5 years older than me. She, poor thing, was not used to this kind of work. And I got angry with her, it was hard for me to work with her! So, when we had the barrow loaded I was dragging it along with her. I thought, the quicker I got to the top, the easier it would be for me. Later I carried the barrow with a boy from the tenth form. He was pushing the barrow and me up the slope – this was better.
In 1944 my parents and I returned to Kiev, but we had no place to live. Kiev was liberated on 6 November 1943 and our house got burned on 5 November. It was hard. Though my father was an invalid of the war and had the right to receive a dwelling, he was not that kind of a person who knew how to get what was his due. The institute of Endocrinology helped us. When the institute received a building from the town authorities, we also got a little place there. There were two rooms where two families lived.
In the late 1940s the institute restored a small house near the Victory Square. Director of the institute received two rooms in a communal apartment in this house, but he got another apartment in a short time, and let my father have these rooms.
My grandfather’s, my mother’s father, name was Boruch-Benicion Freidman. He was born in 1878. I don’t know where he was born. My grandfather was a teacher of the cheder in Narodichi.
My mother’s sister Fania Freidman, born in 1910, also left Narodichi some time in the 1920s. Se went to work at the knitwear factory in Kiev. She was a common worker there. Later she entered and finished the extramural Faculty of Economics of the Textile college. She was chief of the planning department of the knitwear factory.
, Ukraine
She was an accountant. Genia didn’t have a higher education. She finished a secondary school and a course of accountants and worked as an accountant, but I don’t know where she worked.
Genia got married before the Great Patriotic War. Her husband’s name was Yakov Gol’man. He had some medical education, since when the Great Patriotic War began, he was mobilized to a hospital. Shortly afterward Genia and her husband followed the hospital to Kharkov. Then my mother’s younger sister Lisa joined them there and they all evacuated to Krasnoyarsk in late 1941.
After the Great Patriotic War Genia returned to Kiev and worked in the regional committee of trade union of builders in Kiev.
In Kiev Lisa finished a secondary school and entered the Faculty of Economics of the Light Industry College. She defended her diploma on the second day of the Great Patriotic War, on 24 June 1941, and got a job assignment to [3] Poltava.
My grandmother and grandfather spoke Yiddish. They probably celebrated Jewish holidays, but we didn’t know about it.
After the Great Patriotic War Lisa, her husband and their child returned to Kiev and lived with us for some time.
Lisa had a hard life. Her husband finished an extramural department of a Law College and worked as a lawyer at the Darnitsa railcar repair depot, but he must have had a mental disease since he committed suicide in the 1960s.
Their son Arkadiy had poor sight since childhood. His parents decided that it was best for him to become a teacher of history. Arkadiy graduated from the History Faculty of the University, when he was totally blind. Lisa and other women, whom they paid, read to him, and they mainly read the first sources to him. Arkadiy was well developed. He taught in schools at first, but then he fell mentally ill.
In Kiev my mother entered the rabfak [5]. She worked as a tutor in Kiev Jewish children’s home and later she went to work at the garment factory in Podol [6]. My mother met my father at the rabfak.
My father’s parents died from some disease and hunger in 1919.