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Later I met a girl that was to become my wife. Her name is Inna Atonovna Kolomiets. She studied at the same Institute where I did. She was one year older than I. She started her studies before the war. During the war she was in the army and she continued her studies after the war. Before the war her father was Director of a plant. He evacuated his plant, but he couldn’t get out of Kiev himself and he died. His driver gave him out to the Germans and they shot him. Her mother evacuated with Inna. Inna finished her studies at gelman class.
Inna is not a Jew and my parents were not very happy about our marriage. Not only because she wasn’t a Jew. She had a child and her husband perished during the war. Regardless of my parents’ concerns we have lived happily with her for 50 years. As for her mother, she had no objections to our marriage. We’ve lived together and have had no national conflicts. In 1952 I graduated from the Institute and we got married. The situation was bad at that time. The “case of doctors” was in the process. It gave an unpleasant feeling. We basically didn’t believe it all. We realized that all of that was a political action against the nation. We understood it long before it was all put into the open. We respected Stalin as a personality. We thought he did much for the country. He knew how to be the leader. I remember how much energy in the people he generated even to evacuate the plants to the East. But when national oppression began, it was not so good. But I continued to be an active Party member. I was a secretary to party organizations in sections of sculptors of alliance of artists. I believed that all in our country occurs correctly and tried, do so that that who work with me beside too in this have believed. I conducted caucuses and explained to people to politician of Communist party.
In 1952 I finished the institute. I received a free diploma to do my creative work. I found a job and obtained an assignment paper from the Institute to the Palace of Culture at the plant “Bolshevik”. I worked there until 1999. They paid very little – that amount could hardly be called salary. What I’m doing is my hobby and it has always been so. My wife worked at the handicraft art school. We were members of the Union of Artists and worked in the Art Fund.
Inna is not a Jew and my parents were not very happy about our marriage. Not only because she wasn’t a Jew. She had a child and her husband perished during the war. Regardless of my parents’ concerns we have lived happily with her for 50 years. As for her mother, she had no objections to our marriage. We’ve lived together and have had no national conflicts. In 1952 I graduated from the Institute and we got married. The situation was bad at that time. The “case of doctors” was in the process. It gave an unpleasant feeling. We basically didn’t believe it all. We realized that all of that was a political action against the nation. We understood it long before it was all put into the open. We respected Stalin as a personality. We thought he did much for the country. He knew how to be the leader. I remember how much energy in the people he generated even to evacuate the plants to the East. But when national oppression began, it was not so good. But I continued to be an active Party member. I was a secretary to party organizations in sections of sculptors of alliance of artists. I believed that all in our country occurs correctly and tried, do so that that who work with me beside too in this have believed. I conducted caucuses and explained to people to politician of Communist party.
In 1952 I finished the institute. I received a free diploma to do my creative work. I found a job and obtained an assignment paper from the Institute to the Palace of Culture at the plant “Bolshevik”. I worked there until 1999. They paid very little – that amount could hardly be called salary. What I’m doing is my hobby and it has always been so. My wife worked at the handicraft art school. We were members of the Union of Artists and worked in the Art Fund.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Grigoriy Yakovlevich Husid