Of course, I identify myself as Jew, but I do not know Jewish traditions. During Soviet regime I was constantly reminded of being a Jew. If there had been a true international politics during the Soviet regime, the way it was written in the constitution, none of the Jews would have felt himself humiliated and inferior. People of all nationalities would have been equal having a chance to realize their potential. I do not feel humiliated for being a Jew nee, just the other way around I am proud of being a part of such an ancient and talented nation.
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Major events (political and historical)
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Displaying 48451 - 48480 of 50826 results
Vladimir Tseitlin
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I thought it was great when the general secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev [48] started perestroika [49] in USSR. I was aware that we were lacking behind in all respects. No matter what we did, we could not revive and catch up with the developed countries. The gap was only getting bigger, including the gap in the national politics. Yes, the very outset was wonderful. But the outcome of perestroika did not seem as good as it was pictured at the very beginning. Nevertheless, I think our country became better as compared to the past. The country became open, covering honest information. There is no censorship. Now we have the opportunity to visit our relatives abroad, correspond with them, invite them to come over without fearing of being repressed by KGB [50]. State anti-Semitism is in the wane, though it is still felt in everyday life, nationality is of no impediment to enter higher education institutions or in promotion. A gifted person can find his way. Party does not play a critical role in our lives. Though we have a strong stratification in terms of income and it is sad.
When in 1948 the state of Israel was founded, I took it with great joy. It was good that Jews now had their own state and rampart. I approved of the mass immigration to Israel started in the 1970s. I could not leave as I worked for the military industry and my job was classified as sensitive, so I was entitled to leave abroad earlier than in 10 years after having retired. I could not even think of it. When my friends or relatives were leaving, I thought they did the right thing. Of course, it was hard for the elderly people as the mode of life is going to be different and nobody would be able to accept it easily. As for the youth - they had a perspective, they did not have before. Usually children were the first who left, and their parents followed them. I found it good. I have never been to Israel, though I was invited and was willing to go. First, I could not go because the term of secrecy was not over, then because of my health. I can hardly walk, besides my physical condition is not as good . I am old... and nothing doing about it.
I retired in 1990, when my sons were independent. Then my wife and I decided to catch up with the missed opportunities during the period of my hard work. We started spending a lot of time together, going on vacations. We usually went to the leg treatment spas as my battle injury was constantly speaking for itself. In 1985 my wife and I went on voyage tour round the world.
Elder son Sergey finished school in 1965. These were hard years, when anti-Semitism was evolved at the state level. I understood it would be difficult for my son to enter the institute in Moscow with his Jewish name Tseitlin, even though it was written ‘Russian’ in his passport.
Elder son Sergey finished school in 1965. These were hard years, when anti-Semitism was evolved at the state level. I understood it would be difficult for my son to enter the institute in Moscow with his Jewish name Tseitlin, even though it was written ‘Russian’ in his passport. The son left for Nizhniy Novgorod [about 400 km to the east from Moscow], successfully passed entrance exams and was admitted to the Novgorod Polytechnic Institute, Instrument Making Department. When Sergey was a student, we helped him out with money. Larissa took frequent trips to him. Sergey got married before graduation. His wife is a Russian girl Svetlana, born in Nizhniy Novgorod. Upon graduation both of them got a mandatory job assignment to Nizhniy Novgorod and settled down there. Sergey works at the military plant as an engineer - instrument-maker. He has a daughter Elena. We get along with my son’s family. Sometimes we visit them. Every year they come over to us, when they are on vacation.
Younger son lives in Moscow. Upon graduation he finished medical school, served in the army. He also finished the course of masseurs. Igor worked as a sports masseur in hockey and basketball teams of the supreme league. Igor is married. His wife is also Russian, born in Moscow. They have 2 children: son Vladimir, named after me and daughter Alisa.
Younger son lives in Moscow. Upon graduation he finished medical school, served in the army. He also finished the course of masseurs. Igor worked as a sports masseur in hockey and basketball teams of the supreme league. Igor is married. His wife is also Russian, born in Moscow. They have 2 children: son Vladimir, named after me and daughter Alisa.
Both sons were good students - prudent and kind. When sons’ passports were processed they were to choose their nationality [Editorial’s note: In the USSR the ethnic identity was indicated in citizens' passports. The situation in the Soviet Union was such that Jews had problems with entering higher educational institutions, finding jobs, traveling to foreign countries, etc.]. My wife and I suggested that the nationality of our children in passports should be Russian. They carry my name, but their nationality was Russian. As a matter of fact I do not identify myself a true Jew either. I do not know the language, nor Jewish traditions. My parents were the ones who kept the traditions, and it was stopped after their passed away.
I did not have that much spare time, but I tried to spend it with my wife and children. Even in summer my family often went on vacation without me. We marked birthdays of all family members at home. We also celebrated New Year’s Day and Soviet holidays – 1stof May, 7thof November, Soviet Army day [46], Victory day [47].
,
After WW2
See text in interview
When I worked for Nudelman’s bureau the issue with apartment came up. Since I was I born in Moscow and drafted in the army from Moscow I was supposed to get the apartment in Moscow in accordance with the law. In 1973 I got a 2-room apartment in a new house built in the south-western part of Moscow. At that time it was a newly built and now it is a lived-in district. My wife and I are currently living in that apartment.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
When I was sent for a mandatory job assignment to training area, our family was given an apartment in the military community. When I was an academy student, we lived with my parents but I did not have the residence permit [45] in their apartment.
When I was sent for a mandatory job assignment to training area, our family was given an apartment in the military community. When I was an academy student, we lived with my parents but I did not have the residence permit [45] in their apartment.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
Upon graduation there was a mandatory job assignment [42]. Nationality was also considered and Jews were not assigned to good position. They wanted me to teach at high artillery school, but I was sent to scientific and research training area. Though, I do not regret that I happened to be there as the work was very challenging for me. I defended a thesis there [Soviet/Russian doctorate degrees] [43] and became a doctor of the technical science, acquired the status of the senior scientific employee - equal to the assistant professor in the educational institutions. I was a lieutenant colonel and later I became a colonel. We tested new arms on the training area. It was produced at Moscow military plants. Nudelman, a Jew, twice the Hero of the Soviet Union [44], a famous weapon designer, the head of design bureau of precision industry, came to test weapons. We met him. I was on frequent business trips in Moscow and took an active part in their elaborations. Nudelman suggested that I should be demobilized from the army and join his team in the design bureau. It was hard for me to get demobilized, as the general, commander of the training area, was against it. The medical board recognized me unfit for the military service in the civil times due to the consequences of my battle injuries. Thus, I had the grounds to get demobilized. In the period of 1972-1990 I had worked in the design bureau of precision industry being involved in elaboration of new weaponry.We had an excellent team. There was an intelligentsia. There were 90% of Jews. It was a strategic military enterprise. Even in the full swing of anti-Semitism Nudelman was entitled to offer job to anybody he wished no matter what nationality they were. He picked gifted designers, Jews, who were fired from other organizations. There was such an excellent team, that Nudelman’s design bureau provided several samples of the arms annually, meanwhile it took 5 years to elaborate one pattern at other enterprises. Nudelman said when he turned 85 he was suggested that he should be conferred the title the Hero of the Soviet Union once again. Everybody agreed to it, he became twice hero of the Soviet Union .
,
After WW2
See text in interview
In years, I was shown my personal record from the academy. The curator of our course wrote that I was a good student, but politically inauspicious as my father was English subject. That was it. Can you imagine anything like that. They found out that father was born in England! I was expelled because of political motifs, not because of my performance. They could not openly say that I was expelled in accordance with item 5 [40]. Though, I cannot say that my academy peers maltreated me. On the contrary, both peers and teaches had a good attitude towards me. I understood that my nationality would be stumbling stone in my further life. I even felt inferior at work. After Stalin’s death I wrote a letter in the rehabilitation committee [Rehabilitation in the Soviet Union][41]. I was called in Moscow and told that my father was totally exonerated and restored in rights with membership in the party since 1916. I informed the head of the academy of that and I was called to the academy to finish my studies.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
Baiting of Jews commenced in 1948 with the outbreak of the miserable cosmopolitans processes [Campaign against ‘cosmopolitans’] [37]. It was not a pre-war repressions period, when Stalin exterminated his adversaries without taking into account nationality. Since 1948 and up to Stalin’s death in March 1953 these were Jews who were hunted, and it was in the open. Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was exterminated [38]. Some of its members were shot and some of them sent to Gulag. Solomon Mikhoels [39], the chairman of the committee and a wonderful actor of the Jewish theatre was assassinated. It was an imitated car accident, but everybody knew that it was a murder. My mother and her friends went to the synagogue at Malaya Bronnaya. There was a commemorating prayer – Kaddish - over Mikhoels. It was the time when father was expelled from the party without any reasons. We understood that it was just the beginning and he was imminent with more dangerous things. In 1950, upon graduation of the 3rdcourse, I and some more of the Jews were expelled from the academy in spite of the fact that all of us had straight excellent marks, and sent to the remote military commands. I was sent to a small squadron in Siberia. I was the commander of the squadron in the corps regiment.
,
1948
See text in interview
When I was in the Northern Caucasus, I decided to obtain higher education. The most logic for me was to enter artillery academy. There were 2 strong academies in Moscow: Aviation Academy and Artillery Academy. Both of them gave an excellent education. Subjects were taught by the teacher from Moscow State University. Mathematics, theory of mechanics were taught at the highest level. I entered the institution from the 2ndattempt. During the 1sttime I failed because my preparation was not as good. The second time I passed all entrance exams with straight excellent marks and was admitted to the academy. It was the year of 1948 - the last year when Jews were admitted there. The next year none of the Jews was admitted. There were a lot of Jews in my course. There were 8 out of the 28 people, viz. 30% out of students. During my studies at the academy our family lived with my parents, in their apartment.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
I came to my parents with my young wife Larissa. It was happiness without alloy. My parents were pleased to meet Larissa and they even did not care that she was not a Jew. They treated her like their own daughter and Larissa also loved them very much.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
My father, having resigned from the leading position, worked as an economist at the banner factory. Shoulder boards with golden embroidery were also manufactured at the factory, where my father was working. Our commandment was eager to get those shoulder boards as soon as possible. Having found where my father worked, they sent me on vacation under condition that I would be back with the new shoulder boards for them.
I got married during my service in the Northern Caucasus. At that time many of my fellows, young lieutenants, married off. My wife Larissa Goncharova, was born in the Northern Caucasus in the town of Georgiyevsk in 1925. Larissa is Russian. Her father is Alexander Goncharov and her mother is Rozalia Goncharovа. Larissa was the only child in the family. When we met, she studied at medical school.
,
1946
See text in interview
Chaya Sakhartova
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Nowadays I sometimes attend the synagogue and receive humanitarian aid from Hesed [27]. I am very grateful for that.
I was never interested in political issues and always preferred to keep silent. I’ve never been a member of the [Communist] Party and my husband never paid any attention to politics. I was afraid even to think of it. Today, now that it’s possible to take an interest in politics and have an opinion of one’s own, I keep up with international affairs, especially everything that concerns Israel. I am very much worried about what is happenning in the Middle East and consider each terrorist attack in Israel a real tragedy for the whole nation.
My son’s son is already grown-up. His name is Ilya, he is 24 years old and he is a programmer. He was eleven the last time I saw him. It was the time of perestroika [26] and I was allowed to travel abroad. I spent three months at my son’s place in Los Angeles. When I came there, it seemed to me that I had arrived in a different world, everything was so unlike Russia. I liked it there but I couldn’t live there: it is a country foreign to me, with a culture of its own, that I cannot understand.
In 1970 my father died in his sleep. He was very old by then. We buried him at the Jewish cemetery.
Personally, I never wanted to emigrate, even now I have no desire to go anywhere, in spite of the fact, that all my best friends have left long ago. I correspond with them now. When my son was leaving, it was impossible: letters reached the addressee only in six months. When my friends emigrated, my heart ached and I understood that the best were leaving. A lot of teachers emigrated from our school alone, with the ‘second wave’. [The so-called ‘first wave’ of emigration was in the 1950s, the ‘second wave’ took place in the 1970s, and the ‘third wave’ happened in the 1980s].
In 1962 our son Boris finished school and tried to enter the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics at Leningrad State University. Here we faced anti-Semitism again. The fact is that he studied very well, he always got excellent marks for his essays, and suddenly he got a bad mark for his entrance exam essay. When he called and told me about it, I asked the Russian teacher at our school to join me, and we went to the university to take a look at the essay together. But they didn’t show it to us. They offered to accept Boris at the part-time faculty without additional exams, but Boris refused and entered the Faculty of Mathematics at the Pedagogical University named after Hertzen.
I began to work only in 1958 in high school #165 [23]. It was located at the place where now some Russian Orthodox Church is being restored. I passed that church every day on my way to work, watched a tree grow on the church roof and thought that soon the building would be destroyed. We had a splendid pedagogical team at school and wonderful pupils. I taught biology, chemistry and astronomy.
Later, in the 1960s, Zalman was appointed manager of a food products’ store, we got an apartment and my parents, who had remained in Roslavl after the war, moved in with us.
Later, in the 1960s, Zalman was appointed manager of a food products’ store, we got an apartment and my parents, who had remained in Roslavl after the war, moved in with us.
, Russia
I began to work only in 1958 in high school #165 [23]. It was located at the place where now some Russian Orthodox Church is being restored. I passed that church every day on my way to work, watched a tree grow on the church roof and thought that soon the building would be destroyed. We had a splendid pedagogical team at school and wonderful pupils. I taught biology, chemistry and astronomy.
Later, in the 1960s, Zalman was appointed manager of a food products’ store, we got an apartment and my parents, who had remained in Roslavl after the war, moved in with us.
Later, in the 1960s, Zalman was appointed manager of a food products’ store, we got an apartment and my parents, who had remained in Roslavl after the war, moved in with us.
Secondly, I faced anti-Semitism for the first time [22]. When I came to see the school headmaster, I was told, ‘We don’t accept people with university education’. Though they certainly did, but not Jews.
I didn’t get back to work quickly. Firstly, I had to work at the military college in Peterhof according to my university assignment [21], but my husband revolted, saying that I shouldn’t work, since it was very difficult to get there, it was a suburb of Leningrad.
We celebrated only the New Year and the 8th of March [20] out of all the Soviet holidays, however, we did it with all the attributes of a true Soviet person: Soviet dry champagne, tangerines, which appeared in stores only before the holiday, the Salad Olivier and sausage, which was considered a rare delicacy.
I’m not religious myself, sometimes I attended the synagogue with Zalman’s sister on some holidays, but I understood nothing there.