Tag #151936 - Interview #78238 (maya kaganskaya)

My mother and I returned to Kiev in 1932 and she went to work at a Jewish school near our house in Podol. I was six years old, but I had finished four years at school already and could read and write in Ukrainian and Yiddish. It didn't make sense to send me to kindergarten and my mother obtained a special permission for me to go to the 1st grade since I was still under age to go to school. There were several categories of the first grade: 1st grade literate, 1st grade illiterate and 1st grade average. Pupils of the 1st literate had already finished a 'zero' class or came from kindergartens where they were taught the basics. 1st average was a mixture and 1st illiterate was a class for illiterate children. It goes without saying that I went to the 1st grade literate. My mother was a teacher in the 1st grade illiterate. I stayed in my class until I got bored. Then I asked my teacher permission to go out and went to my mother's class. I stayed there a little and then went back to my class. I was very successful at school and when I was out of class and our teacher asked a difficult question my classmates replied, 'When Musia -that's how they called me affectionately - comes back she will answer this'.

Grandfather Isroel and grandmother Riva lived with us in Kiev. My grandfather worked in the Metalloprom factory which manufactured metal ware. My grandfather made some units and later he went to work as a janitor at school. I spent much time with my grandparents. They talked Yiddish to one another and to my mother, but they tried to communicate in Russian with me. My mother believed that since Yiddish was my mother tongue I was good at it anyway while I needed to study Russian to do well in the future since it was the language of teaching in higher educational institutions.