Mother got to know Chagall [2], he also came to visit. She told me that she saw him personally, not once, but from time to time. But she never told me the details, and I didn’t ask her. However, I think there were not very close, otherwise she would tell us the stories about such famous person. I think those meetings could take place in the beginning of 1910s, when my mother was a young and attractive woman.
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Displaying 34411 - 34440 of 50826 results
David Levin
Grandfather and grandmother didn’t have any special education, in the best occasion they studied at the local school or in cheder.
I can recall where they lived. If you arrived to Vitebsk, and walk a bit across the railway street, in four hundred meters to the right you see the Russian Orthodox Church, and if you turned to the left, there was a street, I don’t remember its name, maybe, something like Station road, where house of my grandparents stood.
However, I know the following: he had some money, which he supposed to pay to let my father out of the army. And when he fell down, he pointed to his chest. They were some Jews around, and one of them took this money away. And my father told that Jewish community of this settlement blamed him.
During World War I grandfather went to ask to demobilize my father from the army, and due to the unknown reason, has got heart fit.
That was quite usual large Jewish family with plenty of children.
They spoke Yiddish in family.
Probably, grandfather was religious. I make this conclusion due to that fact that his sons were religious people.
Rebecca Levina
My husband is Jewish, his parents were Jews, but they never observed Jewish traditions, never kept kosher, or observed Sabbath. They spoke Russian in their family, even though his father knew Yiddish very well. David studied at the special military navy school, at the age of 17-18, and was one of the oldest members of the Communist Party in 1944.
We didn’t have any special wedding, neither Jewish, nor Soviet. We didn’t have money to afford it. So we registered our relations and I moved in with him and his parents. They lived in the very center of Leningrad, on Gogol Street. So finally I married a Jew, even though I wanted to marry a Russian guy, because I knew how it felt to be a national minority.
When I studied at university, we all joined the [Communist] Party. And I was such an active Komsomol member; together with my friend Anna Matveevna. We did just the same things that all Komsomol members had done. We offered sports competitions for school children. We admitted others to the Komsomol, asked the questions about Lenin and history of the Communist Party and so on. We took part in Subbotniks [23] and participated in demonstrations too. But at university I paid more attention to my studies and stopped to be interested in politics. I even wanted to join the Party, because I understood, how important that was, but they wouldn’t recommend me.
I remember only one case of anti-Semitism, while being at university. I sat in a small room in the department of Russian language in the old building of the Philology Faculty [the building of the Philology Faculty is one of the oldest in the whole city, it is situated on Vassilievsky Island], and there was some other room nearby, and I heard that one of our students shouted, ‘They don’t admit Jews to postgraduate studies courses’ [24]. Obviously, I don’t think that she shouted this, because she was an anti-Semite. However, it was great for many people: for example, for some Ninel Geltova, today she is a pro-rector of the Regional Agriculture Institute. She studied well, but she didn’t have any special talents. But she entered the postgraduate studies because they didn’t take Mark Teplinsky or other Jews, who were much more talented. She liked it, it was comfortable. I was friends with her – I think, she knew that I was Jewish – lived in one room with her on the campus, and never had any problems or troubles. And later I heard from somebody that she asked her Professor Maximov, who was teaching the history of Russian literature: ‘What are you admitting this one for? He is a Jew, and you take him to the post graduate studies.’ When I heard that story, I broke off all relations with her.
But one of my Jewish friends is blonde and she never had any troubles with her nationality. After all, she joined the Party.
Apparently doctors had fewer problems because of their nationality, especially before the Doctor’s Plot [26] started. Of course, some doctors suffered more than all others, than representatives of other professions, however there were so many Jewish doctors, that it was impossible to get rid of everyone. After all, their profession is necessary; you can’t live without doctors while you think that it is possible to live without science and scientists.
Perhaps, it isn’t true, but I had such a feeling when they didn’t admit me for any job, and so on. And philology is an ‘ideological’ profession and no one pays attention to what you are: an ordinary linguist, who is just a scientist, or a specialist in literature studies, which, more or less, is connected with propaganda.
Of, course, everyday anti-Semitism existed too. I always thought that I didn’t look like a Jewish woman, but I was the only one who thought that. If they needed to, they always guessed. And Russians have such an awful manner of asking, ‘Are you a little Jewess?’ I hated it heartily. For example, when I was waiting for my turn in some food store, some woman looked at me for a while, then she approached me and asked, ‘Are you a little Jewess?’ I was ready to kill such people, and I don’t even want to recall all those numerous situations, it isn’t pleasant, you know.
Of, course, everyday anti-Semitism existed too. I always thought that I didn’t look like a Jewish woman, but I was the only one who thought that. If they needed to, they always guessed. And Russians have such an awful manner of asking, ‘Are you a little Jewess?’ I hated it heartily. For example, when I was waiting for my turn in some food store, some woman looked at me for a while, then she approached me and asked, ‘Are you a little Jewess?’ I was ready to kill such people, and I don’t even want to recall all those numerous situations, it isn’t pleasant, you know.
I graduated from Leningrad State University in 1947. Then they already shouted: ‘Don’t admit Jews to the post graduate studies courses!’ They let me apply accidentally; I was the last Jew, whom they admitted. There was this Maria Alexandrovna Sokolova, a professor, she noticed me in Saratov. She worked with us and gave the dictation, and, in my opinion, I was the only one, who didn’t make any grammar or punctuation mistake. Later, when we went to Leningrad, she treated me right and trained me to specialize in the field of Russian language, not literature. I went to the linguist seminars since the third year, and my diploma was on the base of linguistics. Sokolova recommended me for the post graduated studies, and she did it with great energy. We were six post graduate students, and I was the first one to write the dissertation. That was in 1950, and my topic was ‘Difficult adjectives in the contemporary Russian literature.’ Of course, I had to include the linguistic views of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and of academician Marr [representative of pro-Stalin philological school]. This dissertation is still somewhere here, in our apartment.
When I finished my post graduate studies, it was the very height of the fight with cosmopolitism. Three people from our postgraduate group, who were non-Jewish, later found jobs at the university, but they didn’t take me anywhere, because I was Jewish. In 1951 I gave birth to my daughter Elena, and I didn’t work for a year, but then, when I was trying hard to find a job, and wanted to work, they wouldn’t admit me. Even at school. Of course, I had such problems, because of my nationality.
Then my husband had to go to Moscow – he had some service businesses there – and went to the Defense Ministry, and only due to this visit some Latvian man offered me a job in Daugavpils [today Latvia, called Dvinsk before the Revolution]. This Latvian – unfortunately, I can’t remember his name – was from the old Bolsheviks [26], who were not poisoned by the state anti-Semitism.
So in 1953 I went to Daugavpils together with little Elena. I lived there for two years, and my husband, a military sailor, continued to serve in Leningrad. Those were two difficult and at the same time happy years. I had to raise my little daughter and work at the same time! Still, I was very happy to have a real job, to read lectures and organize seminars.
So in 1953 I went to Daugavpils together with little Elena. I lived there for two years, and my husband, a military sailor, continued to serve in Leningrad. Those were two difficult and at the same time happy years. I had to raise my little daughter and work at the same time! Still, I was very happy to have a real job, to read lectures and organize seminars.
At Daugavpils Pedagogical Institute I started from the position of head teacher and head of the Russian language department. But since my husband was a military man and served in Lomonosov it was necessary to re-unite our family somehow. I was lucky to pass the competition for the teacher position at Leningrad Pedagogical Institute – department of Russian as the second language. I worked there for four years, and then they closed the whole department, and didn’t invite me to the basic Russian language department, again due to Item 5 [27]. It was very hard to find a job. I worked part-time [the salary for such a job was much lower, it was paid based on a separate, cheaper tariff] at the university, at the Hertzen [Pedagogical] Institute, and preparatory university courses.
My father went for summer holidays for the first time in his life, when I was living in Daugavpils. Elena was a little girl, and I rented a dacha in Stropas [place not far from Daugavpils]. The wonderful nature, the forest, the lakes... And Father came to visit us. Mother came there too, when it was her turn.
David was a military sailor; he worked in Lomonosov and specialized in radiolocation, he wrote a dissertation on this topic. Later he taught at the Peterhof Military College of Radio Connection [town on the outskirts of Leningrad, before the Revolution it used to be the Tsar’s summer residence, founded by Peter the Great]. They dismissed him when they got information about his relatives abroad. Of course, he said that he didn’t have any relatives abroad. And then someone came to visit from Israel, and I went to the meeting. This meeting took place in 1961 in Pushkin, because my cousin, who came from Israel, was a brother of another cousin, Lazar, who lived in Pushkin. I think, we met at Lazar’s, not in a public place. He warned me, but I didn’t listen, because I understood nothing of our Soviet reality. All that took place in the 1960s. Finally, the authorities got to know about those relatives.
Later I found myself in the Gorny Institute. Of course, they took me only after my husband took his party billet [document, proving your membership in the Communist Party], went to the gorkom [31] and said, ‘Shame on you!’ They had a competition for those, who wanted to work there, and they had such an anti-Semitic Academic Council, that they admitted me only because of gorkom influence. And when they voted, I got only one voice more ‘for’ than ‘against.’ And later I participated in a special competition to get the position of senior lecturer [of assistant professor]. The pro-rector didn’t oppose my application, but they wouldn’t let me. So I had to be an assistant my whole life [in the Soviet education system one of the lowest positions, lower than a regular teacher].
My husband had the strictest dopusk [32] ever, that’s why we couldn’t emigrate if we wanted to, and they just wouldn’t let us go. And they watched over me, and didn’t let us go abroad. We first had a chance to travel abroad after the Iron Curtain [33] disappeared. To say the truth, we went to Romania once. That was some kind of a professional trip, because I taught Russian as the second language for foreigners at the Gorny Institute. That was in 1966, before that entire story with my husband’s relatives; however, I still don’t know how they permitted me to go. This was a trip organized by the Romanian-Soviet Friendship Society. It was a ten-day journey to Romanian cities and towns, and ten days rest at the Black Sea. We enjoyed it very much, and it was a gorgeous trip. And later I wanted to go to Czechoslovakia, or to Hungary, but they didn’t let me go. Partkom [34] didn’t allow it. They asked stupid questions about decisions and decrees of Central Committee plenums.
My husband worked at the Navy Research Institute, and then he was demobilized, because they wanted him to go to Vladivostok [big city in the Far East] to the Russian Island, and he didn’t want to. But he continued to work in military jobs. When they asked him to leave the college, he got another specialization and started working at the factory. At the Leningrad Mechanic Factory they produced programming lathes, and he was responsible for their endurance. He still works there and does the same, even though he is a pensioner. He isn’t officially employed; he is just a part-time worker and earns money.
Our daughter was born in Leningrad; she lived here all her life. She graduated from the Gorny Institute, the Faculty of Metallurgy, worked in her field for many years, and during the perestroika when they started to close all Research Institutions, she began to be interested in psychology, and graduated from the Psychology Institute in Moscow. She has a son, Sergey, and two grandchildren, Pavel and Daria. Her husband died a couple of years ago, it was a great grief. Now she is married for the second time. Her first husband was a big scientist; he worked in the field of metallurgy. They traveled a lot; they’ve been to most European countries, to America, to China and to Israel too. Her second husband used to be a naval officer, now he works with computers. Elena is Christian, she observes Russian Orthodox traditions. And she loves dogs very much. She has two dogs now, and they are so nice! Now she continues to work as a psychologist, today she is employed in a private kindergarten. She likes her job. She loves her family and her pets too.
In 1940s, after World War II, there was no opportunity to emigrate; there was an Iron curtain, what emigration? Later, when my husband’s ‘dopusk’ was finished, Elena had her own family, and we couldn’t imagine how we could leave without our daughter and her son, our grandchild. Of course, many people left. But we didn’t have such a huge wish to leave, because we were born here and grew up here, and this is our Motherland. Our closest friends didn’t leave, only some pals emigrated.
I don’t remember if Dad went to the synagogue in Moscow or not, but I know for sure that he never stopped praying. They celebrated Jewish holidays. I can’t recall any details, because I lived in Leningrad and didn’t see them very often. When I seldom came to Moscow, I never happened to visit them exactly on Jewish holidays. Of course, in Moscow it wasn’t possible to bake matzah at home; probably they bought it at the synagogue.
When Father died, they buried him at Malakhovka [Jewish cemetery in Moscow] according to the Jewish tradition. Then they made a fence for two graves at once, my mother kept a place for herself. They put Father’s body in tallit, but I don’t remember if there was a coffin, or not, but I recall the rabbi, someone sang and read the prayers.
We took the events of 1989, everything happening, with great enthusiasm; we welcomed perestroika heartily and were its big fans, even though my husband still was a member of the Communist Party – I don’t think, he was ever expelled from the Party. We were then interested more in internal events, of course. We read much about disclosures about [Stalin’s] cult of personality. We read all newspapers, all magazines; including the famous ‘Ogonyok’ [the magazine, where in the late 1980s they published unmasking anti-Soviet and anti-Communist articles]. We had so many hopes and beliefs, which, unfortunately, didn’t come true.
In 1990 we traveled to Israel, to visit my husband’s relatives. Esther sent us an invitation. We talked there with the help of Esther, my husband’s cousin, because most of them don’t speak Russian, they speak Hebrew only, because most of them are from Latvia and they forgot what poor Russian they knew a long time ago. Also some of them moved to Israel, being very young, and they consider themselves Israelis, not Latvians or Russians, not at all. One of my husband’s relatives was a famous person in MOSAD [Israeli secret service]. We went to see him, while being in Israel. I know that he had some high position in MOSAD, participated in hunting down war criminals, and the Israeli press wrote a lot about him.