Stalin’s death in March 1953 became a nation-wide sorrow. People were mourning as if their closest person died. People were crying in the streets, without hiding tears. I did not mourn over Stalin’s’ death. At that time I understood that he was not as good as he was deemed to be. I had fear though. Beriya came to power after Stalin’s death. I was confident that Jews would be even more fiercely persecuted and there would be dreadful times. But I was pleasantly disillusioned. Beriya gave an order to release arrested doctors-poisoners. Beriya was not at power for a long time. He was arrested as a state criminal and sentenced to capital punishment.
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Major events (political and historical)
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Displaying 38341 - 38370 of 50826 results
Ferdinand Chernovich
When Nikita Khrushchev [41] took the floor on the Twentieth Party Congress [42] divulging crimes committed by Stalin, I believed him. Khrushchev’s speech confirmed my own views and observations. Stalin conducted terrible politics. By dreadful repressions he decapitated the army before the war. Maybe if he had not exterminated the best military leaders, Hitler would not have decided to attack us. Things would have been different. At least there would be less bloodshed for sure.
National politics conducted by Stalin was also ruthless. What was the need to exile [Forced deportation to Siberia] [43] such peoples as Chechens, Crimean Tartars and Kalmyks [44]. I saw the representatives of many nationalities in the lines. They did not fight worse than any others. Even in the post-war period, especially in frontier troops there was an order not to send on duty two people of non-Russian nationality simultaneously. People felt that they were not trusted and I doubt whether they would feel love for the USSR. When I was employed at the plant, construction works were being held on the territory of the plant carried out by the prisoners.
Stalin devastated agriculture starting from the years of collectivization [45], when skilled and hardworking peasants were exterminated and exiled like kulaks [46].
I do not make an idol out of Khrushchev, he made a lot of mistakes during his reign, but I think that he can be forgiven just because of Twentieth Party Congress coming Rehabilitation [47] of the innocent convicts. In spite of the hopes and expectations during his reign, Anti-Semitism was not in the wane.
I longed for coming back in Moscow. In 1956 I left the plant and came home. It was hard to get a job. I had been to over 40 places before I found a job as an engineer at a design institute. My salary was much lower, but I was in Moscow, at least I had home and in the evenings a loving person was waiting for me, cooking dinner and doing laundry for me. In 1957 the ministry of health care gave my mother a room in the communal apartment. We moved there.
Aunt came to Moscow and started passionately looking for a bride for me. She had couple of girls in view, and one of them became my wife. Mariam was born in Moscow in 1923. Her father Ilia Berman worked for the ministry of iron and steel industry and her mother was a housewife. Mariam had a younger brother Alexander born in 1927. Mariam graduated from chemistry department of Moscow State University. She was not admitted in the post-graduate department, but her mandatory job assignment was in Moscow. She was employed at the chemistry laboratory. It was the time of campaign against cosmopolitans. They started firing Jews. Luckily the head of laboratory was a decent and brave man and did not allow firing any Jew from his laboratory.
We got married in 1958. We had an ordinary wedding. We got registered in the state marriage registration office, and in the evening we had a modest wedding party in Mariam parents’ house. We invited only the closest people. Mariam and I lived with her parents.
At home we marked birthdays of our family members and such soviet holidays as May 1, November 7 [48], Soviet Army Day [49], Victory Day [50], New Years Day. New Year’s day and Victory Day were our favourite holidays. On the 9th of May my wife and I went to the tomb of Unknown Soldier, to the monument of eternal flame. We brought flowers to the tomb, met front-line soldiers.
In the evenings we went to see some of my front-line friends or invited them to our house. We had drinks to commemorate those who perished, sang war songs.
In the evenings we went to see some of my front-line friends or invited them to our house. We had drinks to commemorate those who perished, sang war songs.
Mariam’s parents were atheists like my mother. They did not mark Jewish holidays at home. My wife and I often went to the cinema, and to the theater. We liked to go to the seaside on vacation. I was often given vouchers to the sea resorts for being disabled.
I had worked for 10 years in design institute. I was very slowly promoted in position because of my nationality. At the end of the 1960s I began to work for the design bureau by the ministry of chemical industry. They treated me very well and I got a promotion. Shortly before retirement I was the chief project engineer. I had worked there until retirement. I retired in 1983.
In 1968 my mother died. I wanted her to be buried on Jewish Vostryakovskiy cemetery, but I did not manage to make arrangements. At that time residents of certain district were supposed to have their relatives buried in certain cemeteries. The residents of our district were buried on Karpyakovskiy cemetery. For my mother to be buried in Vostryakovskiy cemetery I was supposed to get the certificate at work signed by director, the chairman of the mestcom [51] and party organization stating that I was religious. I could not do that. If I had done it, I should have forgotten about further promotion. My mother was buried in Karpyakovskiy cemetery. It was a secular funeral.
In the 1970s mass immigration to Israel started. I sympathized with those who were leaving. I was trying to assist them in anything I could. Many friends of mine left for Israel at that time. I wanted to immigrate as well, but I understood that it was not possible for me. Israeli climate was contraindicative for my wife. She would have died there. People left for a better living. There was no sense in leaving to die. Besides, I understood that an elderly incapacitated person would not be able to find a job. It was hard for me to picture that I would not be working and be a burden.
In 1999 Mariam had nonreversible intestinal atrophy and at the beginning of 2001 she passed away. Her younger brother Alexander died earlier, in 1992. My wife was buried in Novodevichie cemetery next to her parents and brother. I reserved the lot for myself there as well. The funeral was secular.
At the end of the 1980s the General Secretary of the Central committee of the Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev [52] declared a new political course, perestroika [53]. First I was delighted by that. There were certain articles in the constitution on liberties of word, publishing, religion, travel, but those promised liberties were not executed in actuality. Then perestroika appeared to be in decline. Gorbachev has always been the slave of Communist Party and could not do anything to harm it. Dull politics of our semi-literate leaders brought to willingness of the USSR republics to gain independence. By the way, in accordance with the constitution they were entitled to do that. If certain ideas came in the head, there was not stopping them.
Finally perestroika caused breakup of the USSR [1991]. I took it as a catastrophe. A huge and powerful country collapsed, and «independent» states were being founded, without being able to defend themselves. There was one good thing done by the first president of Russian Boris Eltsin – he did away with Communist party. But he was not able to push the matter through. Communist party should have been treated the same way as Nazi party was treated at Nuremberg process so that it would not exist.
After Stalin’s death a lot of go-getters and stooges were streaming in the party. There was no communist party any more. Communist Party of Russia appeared in Russia and it was real fascist party. Though, it is not the only party, which governs the country.
From financial standpoint I live better than any Russian pensioners. I have pension in the amount of 6000 rubles the equivalent of 200 USD. It is enough to get by and for medicine. I have a good command of three foreign languages- German, English and French. I am able to work at home. I am given work by the institute of scientific and technical information. I am handed materials in German, English and French and I am supposed to make a short annotation in Russian within certain time frame. So, I am not poor. Social worker from the municipal organization, which supports veterans of war, helps me about the house. Twice a week a lady from the social service comes to cook and clean the house.
After breakup of the USSR there appeared a lot of Jewish societies in Russia. Jewish life revived. I cannot say that I am taking an active part in the Jewish life. I am not interested in religion. I must have taken way too strong «inoculations» of atheism when I was a child. I am a member of Moscow Council of the Jewish War Veterans [55], headed by the Hero of the Soviet Union [56] Moses Мaryanovskiy. We get together and meet interesting people, attend lectures, watch movies. I have new friends and they help me to get over my loneliness.
Moisey Marianovskiy
From what I know, Moisey Marianovskiy was a forester. I know no details, though. My paternal grandmother Bluma Marianovskaya was a housewife. My mother told me that she was a great cook and this was what my father had said. The family was doing well. My grandfather’s children were used to working hard.
My father Efroim Marianovskiy was born in Novvy Bug town approximately in 1878. I don’t know what kind of education he got. All I know is that he died on 16 April 1922. He worked as a clock repair man and that was how he supported the family. I cannot say for sure whether my father was religious. At least I tend to think he was moderately religious. He celebrated holidays and gave his children Jewish names.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
My mother, older brothers or sisters hardly ever spoke about my father. They had to struggle for survival. Our situation was very hard. Mama had to take care of six underage children. We moved to Kirovograd where my mother’s sisters and parents lived. My mother’s relatives helped us to survive and we had closer relationships with them than we did with my paternal relatives.
Mama’s parents were not religious. However, they celebrated Jewish holidays as a tribute to traditions. I remember Chanukkah, a merry and delicious holiday. We were given candy, nuts and other sweets. On Pesach we ate matzah. We were poor and it wasn’t often that we could eat to our hearts’ content.
My mother Clara Marianovskaya, nee Budnichenko, was born in Kirovograd in 1880. She only had primary education. She and her sisters studied with a melamed in their childhood. However, my mother was well-read as she was very fond of reading. And was an interesting conversationalist. She was a well-cultured person, though she was just a cleaning lady in her life. Mama and her sisters spoke Yiddish in the family, though we spoke Russian in our family. I do not know any Yiddish. Mama had no professional education. Like other Jewish women she was supposed to be a housewife, but life happened to be different for her and she had to get a job to support her children.
My older sister Emilia Marianovskaya was born in 1903. We called her Milia at home. Emilia finished a gymnasium. She married Abram Leichtmann, a Jewish man from Moscow, and adopted his last name. Her husband was fond of revolutionary ideas. My sister had a son named Efroim. My sister was a well-read and intelligent woman. Milia also got fond of revolutionary ideas. Her party leadership sent her to Uzbekistan in the late 1930’s. Emilia and her family lived in Tashkent [about 2900 km southeast of Moscow]. She worked in trade unions. She started her career at a plant and was gradually promoted to the republican level. She worked hard to take care of common people’s problems, trying to improve their living conditions. She also initiated construction of health care centers and rest homes.
My brother Yakov Marianovskiy was born in 1906. After finishing a gymnasium Yakov was recruited to the Soviet army. He became a professional military and was transformed to Moscow. He married a Russian woman from Moscow. Unfortunately I don’t remember her name. They had a son named Samuel. Yakov was a pilot during the Great Patriotic War. He was at the front and had many military awards. After the war Yakov finished the Moscow Air Force Academy. He was promoted to the rank of colonel.
My sister Riva, Revekka Marianovskaya, was born in 1910. She and mama lived in Moscow. She never got married. She went to work at the HR department at a plant. Her management forced her to quit her job, when struggle against cosmopolitism started in the late 1940s [3]. She went to work in trade.
The next was Shimon Marianovskiy, born in 1914. Shimon finished Moscow machine building technical school. He was foreman at the machine building plant in Moscow. He also trained schoolchildren in turner’s profession.
He was mobilized to the army on the first days of the Great Patriotic War. He perished at the front line near Viazma [about 225 km west of Moscow] at the very start of the war in 1941. I said ‘good bye’ to him, when he was going to the front. I was in the army and was on my way to a military school. I happened to be in Moscow at this moment and went with him to the recruitment gathering point. Since then we’ve sent many requests about him, but the answer has been the same: “Missing”. However, we heard the true story of what happened. Shimon (or Senia, as we called him) was wounded. They were sent to Moscow by a military train. German airplanes bombed the plane. All those in the train were killed. Nobody even buried them.
It was a nice little town buried in verdure and acacia blossom. Our whole big family lived in one room in a shared apartment [Communal apartment] [4]. Most of our co-tenants were Jewish. There was a big Jewish population in Kirovograd. There was a mill factory and a buttery in the town. My older brothers went to work at this factory when they grew old enough. There were no other jobs and my brothers and sisters wanted to help mama in her effort to support the family.