In this photo there is my uncle Michael Baicher, my father's brother. This photo was taken in Moscow in late 1938.
He received a Lenin Award for the completion of the construction of a big metallurgical plant.
My grandmother Ida and grandfather Yuli had three children. Their older son Michael was born in 1902. Their second child was Frieda, she was born in 1903 and she is still alive. My father was the youngest. He was born in 1906.
Michael Baicher was a very smart and determined man. He completed grammar school. Being a Jew, he had to win a competition to be admitted.
He had to write a three-page dictation without a single mistake and he did it. He fit in the five percent quota for Jewish students in Russian grammar schools.
Later Uncle Michael entered a Mining College. Since he didn't come from a proletarian family, he was periodically expelled from the Academy, but then he was readmitted again.
My aunt told me that Grandmother asked him, 'Michael, how come they expel and then readmit you again?' and he replied, 'Mama, don't you understand? Those Komsomol members stand up for me. Who would they seek help from in class?'
My uncle was chief engineer of Electropech' trust. He worked a lot. He constructed metallurgical plants in Russia and abroad. He was a laureate of the Lenin Award and was a talented and bright person. Uncle Michael had no children.
He died in 1974. He was buried in the Jewish section of Vostriakovskoye cemetery.
