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Before I went to the army Lilia and I decided that we would get married when I returned home. I corresponded with her. After my demobilization, before I was to start work under a contract, I requested a leave to visit home. There was a standard two-month vacation for people in the Far East. A train trip to Kiev lasted 14 days. In 1939 I arrived home and Lilia and I registered our marriage in a registry office. It was an ordinary day. I came by to pick Lilia from work and we dropped by the registry office in the building next to our editorial office, located on 19, Lenin Street. We didn't have a party. My wife followed me to the Far East. We rented a room in a house. Some time later I had to take my wife back to Kiev. She was pregnant and the climate in the Far East wasn't good for her. Lilia stayed with her parents and I returned to continue working under my contract which was to expire in December 1940.
Two years before I got married my sister Rosalia married Yevsey Khananov, a Jew. He worked as an architect in a design institute. He had finished the Faculty of Architecture of Kiev Construction College. They had a civil ceremony in a registry office and a small dinner party with only the closest relatives in the evening. After they got married my sister and her husband lived in Kiev, separately from their parents. Their son Fred was born in 1938.
In November 1940 my wife wrote to me from Kiev to announce the birth of our son Rafail. He was named after my paternal grandfather. In December 1940 I finally returned to Kiev. We lived with my wife's parents. I could have gone back to work with 'Proletarskaya Pravda', but my close friend, Yuri Mescherski, worked there already and I understood that if I went back to work there they would fire him. So I went to work in the editorial office of the Kiev military newspaper, 'Krasnaya Armia' [Red Army], where I was chief of the illustration department. We had more information about the situation in the world than our readers. In winter 1941 we started to notice alarming signs. There was an announcement about a major military training in April 1941. This meant that the leadership of the country had a notion that there was to be a war. Although a non-aggression treaty with Hitler was signed [the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact] 25, and we were supplying grain and meat to Germany, there was a feeling of concern.
Two years before I got married my sister Rosalia married Yevsey Khananov, a Jew. He worked as an architect in a design institute. He had finished the Faculty of Architecture of Kiev Construction College. They had a civil ceremony in a registry office and a small dinner party with only the closest relatives in the evening. After they got married my sister and her husband lived in Kiev, separately from their parents. Their son Fred was born in 1938.
In November 1940 my wife wrote to me from Kiev to announce the birth of our son Rafail. He was named after my paternal grandfather. In December 1940 I finally returned to Kiev. We lived with my wife's parents. I could have gone back to work with 'Proletarskaya Pravda', but my close friend, Yuri Mescherski, worked there already and I understood that if I went back to work there they would fire him. So I went to work in the editorial office of the Kiev military newspaper, 'Krasnaya Armia' [Red Army], where I was chief of the illustration department. We had more information about the situation in the world than our readers. In winter 1941 we started to notice alarming signs. There was an announcement about a major military training in April 1941. This meant that the leadership of the country had a notion that there was to be a war. Although a non-aggression treaty with Hitler was signed [the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact] 25, and we were supplying grain and meat to Germany, there was a feeling of concern.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
yakov voloshyn