Selected text
I don't know exactly when my parents met. They married in 1928. At
that time it was customary to live together in civil marriage without
getting registered at the registry office. Weddings, or Jewish weddings
were considered to be a vestige of the past. My parents just began to live
together.
Soon afterward, my father was assigned to the NKVD units. He was sent
to Volhovstroy, one of the construction sites of the Belomoro-Baltic
Channel. At that time the Soviet authorities imprisoned hundreds of
thousands of people, and these prisoners were engaged in the construction
of the channel and of Volhovstroy. My father worked as a guard of the camp.
Later, he was sent to be trained as a gunman. There were automatic guns
around the camp zone, and trained gunmen were needed. After this training
course my father was sent to the NKVD Officer Training Course in Leningrad.
There he received a room in the hostel for officers, and Mama was able to
join him there in the summer of 1930. My mother lived in Kharkov when my
father was at Volhovstroy, and they met during my father's vacation. In
Leningrad we lived in a room at the officers' barracks. My father's salary
was not enough to support the family, so my mother also had to work. We
also had a housemaid, and Mama made her go to a school for young working
people.
that time it was customary to live together in civil marriage without
getting registered at the registry office. Weddings, or Jewish weddings
were considered to be a vestige of the past. My parents just began to live
together.
Soon afterward, my father was assigned to the NKVD units. He was sent
to Volhovstroy, one of the construction sites of the Belomoro-Baltic
Channel. At that time the Soviet authorities imprisoned hundreds of
thousands of people, and these prisoners were engaged in the construction
of the channel and of Volhovstroy. My father worked as a guard of the camp.
Later, he was sent to be trained as a gunman. There were automatic guns
around the camp zone, and trained gunmen were needed. After this training
course my father was sent to the NKVD Officer Training Course in Leningrad.
There he received a room in the hostel for officers, and Mama was able to
join him there in the summer of 1930. My mother lived in Kharkov when my
father was at Volhovstroy, and they met during my father's vacation. In
Leningrad we lived in a room at the officers' barracks. My father's salary
was not enough to support the family, so my mother also had to work. We
also had a housemaid, and Mama made her go to a school for young working
people.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Leonid Karlinsky