Selected text
I remember in 1940 Soviet troops entered Tallinn [see Occupation of the Baltic Republics] [17]. There were tanks, trucks with soldiers and people on the curbs throwing flowers at them. It was peaceful. Maybe my parents discussed it, but not in my presence. They did not express things that children were not supposed to hear. It seems to me at that time adults did not discuss their matters in the presence of children. I had my own room and I spent my time there reading.
Father kept his previous job, and remained untouched. Our lyceum was renamed into school and we kept studying the way we did. Father’s brothers Solomon and Boris suffered. Solomon owned a store, and Boris ran Grandfather’s store after his death. He had worked there as an accountant when Grandfather was alive. Both stores were taken over and nationalized by the Soviet regime. First, commissars [18] were assigned to the stores, who watched the work process and got familiarized with the course of business. Then the owners were ousted.
Uncle Boris had other troubles beside that. On 14th June 1941, when the Soviet regime was involved with mass deportation of Estonian citizens [19], Boris and his family were deported. Boris was charged with being a bourgeois, an ‘enemy of the people’ [20], and sent to the Gulag [21], and his family was exiled to Kermez, Kirov oblast.
Father kept his previous job, and remained untouched. Our lyceum was renamed into school and we kept studying the way we did. Father’s brothers Solomon and Boris suffered. Solomon owned a store, and Boris ran Grandfather’s store after his death. He had worked there as an accountant when Grandfather was alive. Both stores were taken over and nationalized by the Soviet regime. First, commissars [18] were assigned to the stores, who watched the work process and got familiarized with the course of business. Then the owners were ousted.
Uncle Boris had other troubles beside that. On 14th June 1941, when the Soviet regime was involved with mass deportation of Estonian citizens [19], Boris and his family were deported. Boris was charged with being a bourgeois, an ‘enemy of the people’ [20], and sent to the Gulag [21], and his family was exiled to Kermez, Kirov oblast.
Period
Year
1940
Location
Talinn
Estonia
Interview
Perle Liya Epshteyn