This is me on the 70-year anniversary and my retirement. Moscow, the year of 1990.
I retired in 1990. It was physically hard for me to combine medicine and literature. I have been the member of the Council of Writers since 1975. I wrote two books about war. I wrote a novel "Reminiscences of partisan doctor " and a play 'Eve and Irene' about young workers. It was staged in Leningrad Theater -Lenin Komsomol. I wrote 18 books for youth, children, adolescence. It was something that I was most worried about.
At that time one of front-line fellow Lev Ermolin talked me into building a dacha [summer house] next to his place in Borodino[about 120 km to the west from Moscow]. It was pretty far away from Moscow, but it was a spectacular place. I was hesitant, but when my second book was released and I got an emolument, my wife and I decided to build wooden house. Both of us did it with our hands. We are really pleased with that dacha. Almost every summer we spent there and children grew up there as well. Now my elder grandson is having a plush house built next to my dacha and I hope that my great grandchildren will be raised at my dacha.
I am not religious, I do not observe Jewish traditions and rites. I hardly know the language. I am not assisted by Jewish charitable organizations and I consider it to be humiliating for me. My children were raised international. They identify themselves as Russians. Though, Jewishness is one of the elements of my personality. My parents were Jews. I know the culture, music, mentality as I lived among Jews. I am worried for the fate of the Jews and I am happy for their success.
My life worked out to be good. I always did what I like. I have a great family: loving and caring wife, wonderful and close to my heart children and grandchildren, a lot of magnificent friends, who do not forget about me. We live in different towns, but we meet on every Victory Day, have drinks and remember the years of your youth.