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'Trevoga' published job announcements and I saw one saying that the 2nd army needed an artist. I wrote to them and before my term of service was over I received a letter from them, saying that I should come to the editorial office. The editorial office was in the town of Voroshilov- Ussuriysk [present-day Ussuriysk]. Our commissar received the direction to transfer me for service in the editorial office in Voroshilov-Ussuriysk. I was a librarian, a postman and an artist in my unit. My commissar was insulted by the idea of my transfer. He called me to his office and told me off for writing to this editorial office. I reminded him that I had been recruited to the army from an editorial office. Anyway, he couldn't help following the order he got and let me go to Voroshilov-Ussuriysk. I worked with the newspaper until the end of my service. Once demobilized, I decided to stay there. My parents wrote to me saying that life was difficult and in the Far East salaries were higher than in central parts off the USSR. I decided to stay with the editorial office on a contract basis. In addition to 'Na Zaschitu Rodiny' newspaper I worked for two civilian newspapers. I sent my parents money to support them.
The Far East was a thinly populated area. There were very few women and in the late 1930s a movement called 'hetagurovskoye' after Valentina Hetagurova, a pioneer of the movement, began in the USSR. She appealed to women with the words: 'Girls, to the Far East!' She was a communist and there was an appeal of the Party to go to the Far East regions of the USSR. Many girls went there. However, I didn't marry one of the 'hetagurovka' girls.
Before I joined the army I dated an employee of the letter department in our editorial office. My fiancée was a Jew named Lilia Tombak. Her Jewish name was Leya. She was born in Kiev in 1917. Her father, Adolph Tombak, was a joiner at a plant. Her mother, Hana Tombak, was a housewife. Lilia was the youngest in the family. She had two older sisters. The oldest sister, Evgenia - her Jewish name was Ghenia - was born in 1909 and the second- oldest sister, Raisa - her Jewish name was Rochl - in 1912. Ghenia was single. She worked as an accountant in a diner. Raisa finished the Food Industry Technological College and worked as a production engineer at the confectionary. Shortly before the war Raisa married a Georgian man whose surname I don't remember. In 1940 their son Georgi was born. My wife's family was a typical assimilated Jewish family that gave up Jewish religion and traditions.
The Far East was a thinly populated area. There were very few women and in the late 1930s a movement called 'hetagurovskoye' after Valentina Hetagurova, a pioneer of the movement, began in the USSR. She appealed to women with the words: 'Girls, to the Far East!' She was a communist and there was an appeal of the Party to go to the Far East regions of the USSR. Many girls went there. However, I didn't marry one of the 'hetagurovka' girls.
Before I joined the army I dated an employee of the letter department in our editorial office. My fiancée was a Jew named Lilia Tombak. Her Jewish name was Leya. She was born in Kiev in 1917. Her father, Adolph Tombak, was a joiner at a plant. Her mother, Hana Tombak, was a housewife. Lilia was the youngest in the family. She had two older sisters. The oldest sister, Evgenia - her Jewish name was Ghenia - was born in 1909 and the second- oldest sister, Raisa - her Jewish name was Rochl - in 1912. Ghenia was single. She worked as an accountant in a diner. Raisa finished the Food Industry Technological College and worked as a production engineer at the confectionary. Shortly before the war Raisa married a Georgian man whose surname I don't remember. In 1940 their son Georgi was born. My wife's family was a typical assimilated Jewish family that gave up Jewish religion and traditions.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
yakov voloshyn