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Lev married a Jewish woman in 1947, They had no wedding party. I can’t remember her name. They also lived with our family until they received apartment. In 1948 he received a room in the center of Kiev where he lived with his wife and daughter Zoya. Later their trust built a house in Pechersk in the center of Kiev. Lev received a two-room apartment. Lev divorced his first wife he never mentioned why. Zoya stay with her mother. After Lev married another woman, her name was Nina and she was Russian. They had a son: Sergey.
In 1947 Boris married Lisa, a Ukrainian woman, they didn’t have a wedding party either, we came to greet them with Champaign and cognac on the next day. Upon graduation from the university he became a postgraduate student. After finishing his postgraduate studies in 1952 he got an assignment to the Pedagogical Institute in Zhytomir. Boris, his wife Lisa and daughter Irina lived in Zhytomir for about 50 years.He defended his thesis, became Head of Mathematics department of Pedagogical Institute and became professor.
We began to listen to foreign radio shortly after we returned to Kiev. Lev installed an antenna on the balcony and we managed to listen to quite a few foreign stations. Actually, we could hear them at night the Soviets jammed foreign broadcasts. We listened to ‘Svoboda’ [Editor’s note: American radio station broadcasting in Russian from Germany] radio broadcasts in Russian. We heard about the events in the world and in our country that were not covered by our mass media. We all lived a dual life; we talked about achievements of our country at work and discussed the Soviet reality at home. In 1948 we were shocked by the death of Mikhoels 24, Head of the Jewish Antifascist Committee 25 during the war. He died in a car accident, but few realized his death was a part of Stalin’s plot we realized it then. After the war we all faced anti-Semitism (Jews had problems with getting employment or entering higher educational institutions, (Boris was lucky). Our family no longer believed that Stalin or other leaders were infallible.
Our family was very happy about creation of the state of Israel in 1948. I remember Golda Meyir 26 visiting Kiev, and how we admired her. There was coverage of her visit in newspapers. We didn’t feel like it was our country, Soviet Union was our Motherland and we were far from Jewish identity, but we did feel proud about our nation getting their own country.
In 1947 Boris married Lisa, a Ukrainian woman, they didn’t have a wedding party either, we came to greet them with Champaign and cognac on the next day. Upon graduation from the university he became a postgraduate student. After finishing his postgraduate studies in 1952 he got an assignment to the Pedagogical Institute in Zhytomir. Boris, his wife Lisa and daughter Irina lived in Zhytomir for about 50 years.He defended his thesis, became Head of Mathematics department of Pedagogical Institute and became professor.
We began to listen to foreign radio shortly after we returned to Kiev. Lev installed an antenna on the balcony and we managed to listen to quite a few foreign stations. Actually, we could hear them at night the Soviets jammed foreign broadcasts. We listened to ‘Svoboda’ [Editor’s note: American radio station broadcasting in Russian from Germany] radio broadcasts in Russian. We heard about the events in the world and in our country that were not covered by our mass media. We all lived a dual life; we talked about achievements of our country at work and discussed the Soviet reality at home. In 1948 we were shocked by the death of Mikhoels 24, Head of the Jewish Antifascist Committee 25 during the war. He died in a car accident, but few realized his death was a part of Stalin’s plot we realized it then. After the war we all faced anti-Semitism (Jews had problems with getting employment or entering higher educational institutions, (Boris was lucky). Our family no longer believed that Stalin or other leaders were infallible.
Our family was very happy about creation of the state of Israel in 1948. I remember Golda Meyir 26 visiting Kiev, and how we admired her. There was coverage of her visit in newspapers. We didn’t feel like it was our country, Soviet Union was our Motherland and we were far from Jewish identity, but we did feel proud about our nation getting their own country.
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Frida Khatset