Selected text
My wife’s name is Nadezhda Alexandrova Yakova, nee Gavrilenko. She is half-Bulgarian, half-Ukrainian. We met at a party; she was a gymnast and I was impressed by her beauty. Her parents and my parents were against our marriage, so she eloped from her family and came to be with me in Sofia where I was an officer. We had a civil marriage on 22nd December 1947 in Ruse.
When we returned to Ruse my wife worked as an advertising organizer in the Ruse branch of the ‘Bulgarian Photography’ state company. Then she worked in the ‘Cultural Recreation’ department of the municipality for more than 20 years. My wife was also politically active, that was the main reason she worked on this job.
We have one son – Plamen Yako Yakov, who has two children. At the moment my son is chairman of the Regional Shalom Organization [25] in Ruse. His mother raised him to feel Jewish, and he feels Jewish more than I do. And she raised her grandchildren in this way, too. My granddaughter Nadezhda, who is 26, lives with her husband on a kibbutz in Israel. She graduated in some fashionable economic specialty in the Economic Institute in the town of Svishtov, where my son and his wife studied. Plamen graduated from there majoring in ‘Finance and Credit.’ My two grandchildren studied there, too.
My other grandchild Kaloyan was born in 1980. He is now in the USA. He went as a brigadier [these are young people, typically university students who go in teams abroad during their summer holiday to do seasonal work, mostly in agriculture]. He applied to study in the university in Santa Monica, near Hollywood, where he lives and works to pay for his studies. He is studying some fashionable specialty related to computers; I don't know its name.
When we returned to Ruse my wife worked as an advertising organizer in the Ruse branch of the ‘Bulgarian Photography’ state company. Then she worked in the ‘Cultural Recreation’ department of the municipality for more than 20 years. My wife was also politically active, that was the main reason she worked on this job.
We have one son – Plamen Yako Yakov, who has two children. At the moment my son is chairman of the Regional Shalom Organization [25] in Ruse. His mother raised him to feel Jewish, and he feels Jewish more than I do. And she raised her grandchildren in this way, too. My granddaughter Nadezhda, who is 26, lives with her husband on a kibbutz in Israel. She graduated in some fashionable economic specialty in the Economic Institute in the town of Svishtov, where my son and his wife studied. Plamen graduated from there majoring in ‘Finance and Credit.’ My two grandchildren studied there, too.
My other grandchild Kaloyan was born in 1980. He is now in the USA. He went as a brigadier [these are young people, typically university students who go in teams abroad during their summer holiday to do seasonal work, mostly in agriculture]. He applied to study in the university in Santa Monica, near Hollywood, where he lives and works to pay for his studies. He is studying some fashionable specialty related to computers; I don't know its name.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Yako Yakov