Tag #129245 - Interview #100063 (Edith Umova)

After working for six years my condition started getting worse, and my doctor said I had to get another job. I went to the DOSAAF [Voluntary Society of Assistance to the Army, the Air Force and the Navy], a paramilitary society of the Soviet Union. I worked as an inspector at the amateur drivers’ course. I was responsible for the document control and issuance of drivers’ licenses. I liked this job and worked there till 1991, when the USSR broke up. The DOSAAF was eliminated. Almost all DOSAAF employees were Russian, but I never faced any anti-Semitism there. My fellow employees were very friendly, and I even made a few friends there. However, I faced anti-Semitism, when an Estonian man became manager of the DOSAAF. He was an anti-Semite. I was the only Jew there. When all the other employees got a raise in their salary, mine remained the same. Well, he never expressed the reason directly, but I knew his attitude towards me.