Selected text
All Jewish students were expelled from the Faculty of Journalism. So I wasn't surprised or upset about not having a chance to study at the post-graduate course. I was glad I finished my studies. I received a degree with a notice that I had to find a job by myself. I didn't get a mandatory assignment since my husband was a candidate of science and I had to be where he had his job. Besides, my first baby was to be due soon. When a commission was signing my degree the dean said with a jeer, 'You'll stay at home and make borsch', hinting that I wouldn't get a job. My teachers calmed me down telling me that I was smart and wouldn't stay without a job. My older son, Michael, was born in 1951. In 1953 I registered my name in the town department of public education for getting a job. At that time a new wave of anti-Semitism and the Doctors' Plot 37 began. As soon as they heard a Jewish name the officials' attitude changed drastically. A job for me was out of the question. They said that if I were a Russian teacher they would give me a job, but a Jew couldn't be a Ukrainian teacher.
Stalin's death in 1953 was hard for me to bear. I cried after him like all other people. It didn't even occur to me that he was to blame for all our problems. My second son, Vitali, was born in 1954. Only in 1956, after the denunciation of Stalin's cult at the Twentieth Party Congress 38 open anti-Semitism diminished and I got a job. I was the teacher of a group of children that stayed at school after classes to do their homework, school #157. In some time I got a job at an evening school for young working people. I taught Russian and Ukrainian literature at this school until I retired.
My husband defended his dissertation in 1963. He was head of laboratory and a well-known scientist in the field of soil science. His works were known abroad, but he wasn't allowed to travel abroad. He got invitations to conferences in the USA and Australia, but he always turned them down. He wasn't ambitious and knew that even if he was allowed to go there, which was hardly likely because Jews weren't allowed to go abroad, he would be called to the authorities that would ask him questions and bother him with humiliating and groundless suspicions.
My husband worked a lot and didn't even want to go on vacation. However, we went to resorts in the Crimea several times. Usually I traveled with our children. We had many friends and went to the theater, symphonic concerts, took our children to museums and tried to help develop their personality. We raised our children in an international air of respect of all people regardless of their nationality or faith, but they always identified themselves as Jews.
Stalin's death in 1953 was hard for me to bear. I cried after him like all other people. It didn't even occur to me that he was to blame for all our problems. My second son, Vitali, was born in 1954. Only in 1956, after the denunciation of Stalin's cult at the Twentieth Party Congress 38 open anti-Semitism diminished and I got a job. I was the teacher of a group of children that stayed at school after classes to do their homework, school #157. In some time I got a job at an evening school for young working people. I taught Russian and Ukrainian literature at this school until I retired.
My husband defended his dissertation in 1963. He was head of laboratory and a well-known scientist in the field of soil science. His works were known abroad, but he wasn't allowed to travel abroad. He got invitations to conferences in the USA and Australia, but he always turned them down. He wasn't ambitious and knew that even if he was allowed to go there, which was hardly likely because Jews weren't allowed to go abroad, he would be called to the authorities that would ask him questions and bother him with humiliating and groundless suspicions.
My husband worked a lot and didn't even want to go on vacation. However, we went to resorts in the Crimea several times. Usually I traveled with our children. We had many friends and went to the theater, symphonic concerts, took our children to museums and tried to help develop their personality. We raised our children in an international air of respect of all people regardless of their nationality or faith, but they always identified themselves as Jews.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
maya kaganskaya