Tag #156037 - Interview #94776 (Grigoriy Stelmakh)

Although my father was a real communist, he continued to believe in God at the bottom of his heart, I think. He didn’t go to the synagogue. To go to the synagogue was like throwing away his Party membership book and an employment records book: the new regime adamantly struggled against religion [14]. However, our family always celebrated Jewish holidays, even in the late 1930s when Stalin’s arrests [15] began and people could suffer a lot for their faith. Of course, those were quiet celebration and there were no guests, but my mother cooked traditional food and there was a spirit of holidays.