Tag #144349 - Interview #78096 (samuel sukhenko)

I began to speak Russian at the age of 6, because my sister Tanya went to gymnasium and brought home her alphabet book, which I learned very quickly. When I was 8, my father decided that I needed to know Russian, and he sent me to the parish school. I was the only Jew in that school. I was placed in the second grade because I could read. I had a very clear articulation, and I read from the Gospel. And it was the Gospel that led me to atheism. When I was 10, I began to write poems and short stories. I tried to imitate Yesenin, Bagritsky, and others. My teacher, Nastasia Nikolayevna, insisted that I continue with a literary education, but I realized it was only imitation, which nobody needed.