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My mother's younger brother, Nochim, was under the influence of Ania's communist views. He became a pioneer, a Komsomol 12 member and then joined the Communist party. He finished some short-term training and studied at Promaspirantura, an educational institution for party activists. In the 1930s Nochim was head of the party office of a knitwear factory in Kiev. In 1936, during the time of arrests [Great Terror], he was accused in cooperation with the Zinoviev-Kamenev block [Zinoviev-Kamenev triumvirate] 13. When the so-called platform of Trotsky 14 appeared in 1928-29 the Party split into two groups. One group didn't support Trotsky and the other group, including Nochim, offered to give Trotsky supporters an opportunity to express their views. This served as the basis of Nochim's charges in 1936.
Nochim also suffered for the reason that the director of the factory where he worked gave him a recommendation to join the Party and this director was executed as an 'enemy of the people'. My uncle was also accused of being 'enemy of the people' and expelled from the Party. He was fired from work. He went to work as a worker at a plant. However, such injustice made him feel restless and he went to an NKVD 15 office to prove he wasn't guilty. He didn't return from there. He was sent into exile to Komi ASSR where he worked at a woodcutting facility. Since his charges weren't that severe he was subject to amnesty at the beginning of 1940 after the heads of the security agencies had been replaced. Beriya 16 replaced Yezhov 17, who was arrested and executed. Many prisoners were released under the pretext that Yezhov was an 'enemy of the people' and imprisoned innocent people. Nochim returned in 1940. He wasn't allowed residence in Kiev or other capitals of the Union Republics. Nochim, his wife and their daughter Nelia - born in 1936, after Nochim was imprisoned, so she didn't even know her father - moved to Malin, Zythomyr region.
Uncle Moshe, the youngest in my mother's family, named after my great- grandfather, finished a mining technical school during the Soviet regime and worked in quarries and coalmines in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Nochim also suffered for the reason that the director of the factory where he worked gave him a recommendation to join the Party and this director was executed as an 'enemy of the people'. My uncle was also accused of being 'enemy of the people' and expelled from the Party. He was fired from work. He went to work as a worker at a plant. However, such injustice made him feel restless and he went to an NKVD 15 office to prove he wasn't guilty. He didn't return from there. He was sent into exile to Komi ASSR where he worked at a woodcutting facility. Since his charges weren't that severe he was subject to amnesty at the beginning of 1940 after the heads of the security agencies had been replaced. Beriya 16 replaced Yezhov 17, who was arrested and executed. Many prisoners were released under the pretext that Yezhov was an 'enemy of the people' and imprisoned innocent people. Nochim returned in 1940. He wasn't allowed residence in Kiev or other capitals of the Union Republics. Nochim, his wife and their daughter Nelia - born in 1936, after Nochim was imprisoned, so she didn't even know her father - moved to Malin, Zythomyr region.
Uncle Moshe, the youngest in my mother's family, named after my great- grandfather, finished a mining technical school during the Soviet regime and worked in quarries and coalmines in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
maya kaganskaya