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I went to the 6th grade. There were children of many nationalities in my class. I got along well with my classmates. I've never faced any anti- Semitism, perhaps, because I was fair-haired and didn't look like a Jew. I remember walking with my Jewish friend who had black curly hair and people would shout after her: 'zhydovka' [abusive word for a Jew].
I liked our teacher Nadezhda Chernelovskaya a lot. She came to Alma-Ata before the war. From some of the things she said, I knew she was an exile. She was critical of Stalin. I remember when on Victory Day [16] everybody enthusiastically ran to listen to Stalin speaking on the radio, she demonstratively turned it off. My friend Tania and I often visited this woman. Tania was an orphan and the teacher was single. She actually adopted Tania.
I had excellent marks as usual, but I found it more interesting in the hostel than at school. There were professors evacuated from Leningrad and Moscow with their families. Odessa was a provincial town and at the hostel we had the opportunity to communicate with people from the capital. It was a different level of communication.
I went to the music school where I learned to play the piano. Since I composed a little my mother decided to check how good I was at it. Composer Yevgeniy Grigorievich Brusilovskiy [1905-1981] lived in Alma- Ata from before the war. He was a Jew, but he became the founder of Kazakh music and wrote the first Kazakh opera. We visited him and I played my children's songs for him. He asked me to improvise the 'Hen and chicks' and said that I was good, but that I needed to improve my skills in playing the piano. He sent me to study in the music school in the class of Nadezhda Chegodayeva, a professional pianist from Odessa. I was playing a lot, although it was cold in the classroom and my hands were too cold. Then I ran to my friend who lived nearby, washed my hands in hot water and ran back to play.
I liked our teacher Nadezhda Chernelovskaya a lot. She came to Alma-Ata before the war. From some of the things she said, I knew she was an exile. She was critical of Stalin. I remember when on Victory Day [16] everybody enthusiastically ran to listen to Stalin speaking on the radio, she demonstratively turned it off. My friend Tania and I often visited this woman. Tania was an orphan and the teacher was single. She actually adopted Tania.
I had excellent marks as usual, but I found it more interesting in the hostel than at school. There were professors evacuated from Leningrad and Moscow with their families. Odessa was a provincial town and at the hostel we had the opportunity to communicate with people from the capital. It was a different level of communication.
I went to the music school where I learned to play the piano. Since I composed a little my mother decided to check how good I was at it. Composer Yevgeniy Grigorievich Brusilovskiy [1905-1981] lived in Alma- Ata from before the war. He was a Jew, but he became the founder of Kazakh music and wrote the first Kazakh opera. We visited him and I played my children's songs for him. He asked me to improvise the 'Hen and chicks' and said that I was good, but that I needed to improve my skills in playing the piano. He sent me to study in the music school in the class of Nadezhda Chegodayeva, a professional pianist from Odessa. I was playing a lot, although it was cold in the classroom and my hands were too cold. Then I ran to my friend who lived nearby, washed my hands in hot water and ran back to play.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
rimma rozenberg