In 1934 my father got a job assignment in the Far East [35,000 km from Kiev]. We lived in a military town in the taiga, without a name, but a number. There was one apartment building for officers and their families, and barracks for soldiers. Life in the taiga was very hard. It was only possible to take a dirt road across the taiga to move to another location. These roads became impassable in rainy seasons. The forest was too thick to walk in it. There was also elfin wood in the taiga that made it impossible to walk. Summers in the taiga were short and cold: they only lasted one or two months, and the temperature was 20 degrees above zero maximum. There were swarms of mosquitoes and midges in the taiga. In winter the temperatures dropped to minus 40. Deep snow covered the land. Settlements were at great distances from one another and their population was few in number.
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Displaying 11041 - 11070 of 50826 results
evgenia shapiro
My father, Jacob Shapiro, was born in Borisov in 1908. When he turned 6 he went to cheder where he studied Hebrew, Torah and prayers. My father was successful with his studies and the council of Borisov that mainly consisted of Jews collected money for him to pay for his education at the Russian grammar school in Borisov. This wasn't common at all. Some of their non-Jewish neighbors solicited for my father's admission to the Russian grammar school. There were two or three other Jewish students besides my father. There was no negative attitude towards them. The only difference was that they were released from attending classes in Christian religion.
In 1917 the proletariat revolution took place. The post-revolutionary propaganda had great impact on my father. He was very enthusiastic about the ideas of equality and friendship of all nations and equal opportunities for poor people. My father was one of the first to become a Komsomol [4] member in 1919. He was authorized to organize the first pioneer units in Borisov. He completed his assignment successfully.
He began to work at the age of 14 to support his family. He was a court courier. He got 5 rubles and a food package (herring and bread).
In 1920 he finished grammar school, and in 1922 he volunteered to the Red Army. He served in the courier unit until 1923.
, Belarus
From 1923-1928 my father was an electrician, and in 1928 the Komsomol unit of Borisov gave him an assignment to study at Rabfak [5] at the Polytechnic Institute in Leningrad. He worked as an electrician during the day and attended evening classes.
In 1931 he finished Rabfak and was mobilized to the army by the so- called Lenin's call. His authorities in the army sent him to study at the Military Communications College in Leningrad. He completed his studies in two years and got an assignment in the Far East where he was commander of a special radio unit. This unit was responsible for the receipt of information from Soviet intelligence officers, who were working in many countries around the world, and transmitting it to Moscow.
My father and mother had known each other for a long time. They were neighbors and used to play with other children near the Berezina River when they were teenagers. They went to pick mushrooms and berries in the forest and my father noted how pretty my mother was.
The arrests of the 1930s [6] didn't affect our small habitation in the taiga. We heard about arrests of millions of people that were 'enemies of the people', but my parents didn't believe it. There were two or three people arrested in the Far East. One of them returned. His name was Petrovskiy. When he returned he was hiding at his friends' apartments, although he had been released from a camp. He had to follow residential restrictions and was supposed to stay at a specified location. He wasn't supposed to travel around, but he wanted to see his friends and came to see us illegally. My parents met him later in Kharkov, in 1957. He was a lawyer and awarded the title of 'Honored Lawyer'. He was grateful to my parents that they gave him shelter at a time when he needed it.
I went to school in a village a few kilometers from where we lived. In winter we were escorted to school by two soldiers, one of whom was plowing our way through the snow and one was watching us. I had a very good teacher, Raissa Mikhailovna. She was very nice and kind, but I took no interest in studying. I was bored at classes. I didn't like writing and received bad marks. My mother used to cry when she looked at my notebooks with 'bad' marks in them. I said to her, 'Why cry? It's only 'bad' and not 'very bad'.' The other children knew that I was a Jew, but there was no negative attitude. There weren't many Jews in the Far East, and there was no anti-Semitism.
She was Jewish and worked as a military surgeon. They moved to Minsk where she was working. He worked at the machine tool factory in Minsk. He was talented and invented many things.
I remember one incident during our stay in Lvov. Lvov and Western Ukraine joined the USSR in 1939. The Ukrainian nationalists were against this union. The nationalists struggled against it on the side of the Germans during the war. On the day of the first elections of Soviet authorities my mother, who was taking part in all arrangements as a party activist, left home around 6 am and saw six corpses on the pavement near our house with signs on them, reading, 'That's what's going to happen to all that plan to vote'. This was a challenge to the Soviet power triggered by the Ukrainian nationalists. The elections took place nonetheless, and the majority of the population supported the Soviet power.
, Ukraine
On 8th May 1945 we had guests. When, on the morning of 9th May, we heard the announcement on the radio about the capitulation of Germany, my mother and our guests began to hug one another and danced even though we were all wearing our nightgowns.
My mother worked as an economist.
I went to school and got along well with my schoolmates. I had many friends. They were Ukrainian and Jewish children. I don't remember any anti-Semitism at the time.
In 1947 my father returned from Romania and got a job in Kharkov.
My mother and I followed him to Kharkov. We lived in a small room at the military unit and later got a room at the Red Warrior hotel. After a year and a half my father received a three-bedroom apartment.
From the late 1940s to the early 1950s it was the period of the struggle against cosmopolitism [9] and the Doctors' Plot [10]. Many of my parents' acquaintances were doctors of Jewish nationality. They were fired and suffered a lot under this campaign. My parents knew some doctors that were fired and deported from bigger towns to smaller ones. I didn't quite understand the situation. I believed everything the Soviet propaganda was saying. My parents didn't share their views with me. They were afraid that I might blurt something out and the whole family might suffer from consequences. My parents understood a lot more about Stalin and his regime, but this understanding didn't break their faith in communist ideals. My father was highly respected at his work although he was a Jew.
I finished secondary school in 1950 and decided to enter the Polytechnic Institute. At the time it was impossible for a Jew to enter a higher educational institution due to the state policy of anti-Semitism. It was also hard for Jews to find a job. I passed all exams successfully, but wasn't admitted. My father went to see the rector of the institute, but his secretary told him that the rector was busy and couldn't receive him. My father asked the commanding officer of his military unit to help. The commanding officer called the institute asking them why I wasn't admitted. It turned out that we had to give the secretary of the rector an expensive gift. She wanted an expensive woolen shawl. We found it and gave it to her. After this I was admitted to an evening department on the condition that I would be transferred to the daytime department if I studied at this department for a year with the highest grades. I did, but after a year I was admitted to the first year of the daytime department. So I had to do the first year again.
In the early 1950s my parents went to Borisov hoping to find the grave of my mother's parents. They couldn't find anything. There was a monument installed on the site of the mass shootings of Jews in Borisov.
In the middle of the 1950s my grandfather was awarded the title of the 'Best fitter in Leningrad'. He was working at the garment factory and participated in a contest. His portrait was placed on the Board of Honor of the factory.
He hated the Soviet power, and, arguing with my mother, he said, 'All those supporting the Soviet power should be hanged and its leaders killed'. When he visited us my mother closed all windows so that our neighbors couldn't hear us. My mother kept sighing saying that he was a bandit. He replied, 'Bandit or not, I will marry your Evgenia anyway'.
My husband wasn't a Jew, but my parents had no objections to our marriage, because they didn't care about nationality.
My husband's father, George Vassiliev, was a Don Kazak. He was a professional military.
After finishing secondary school he graduated from the Kharkov Construction Institute and became a civil construction engineer.
We got married in 1957. We had a civil ceremony at the registry office and then a big party.
My husband's family didn't really like me. They never told me that they didn't like me because I was a Jew, but I could feel it. They were very correct, but very cold and reserved with me.
In 1958 I graduated from the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute and became a mechanic engineer. I got a job with the Oxygen plant in Kharkov. I was head of shift at the plant that was located far from the city center. I had to cross an abandoned area on my way to work. I often worked nightshifts and once I was robbed: some bandits stole my watch. Another time they beat me. I quit my job at this plant.
It took me nine months to get another job. Again I had problems due to my Jewishness. My husband went to the town party committee to explain the situation and complain about the fact that every time his wife filled in a questionnaire and the management found out that she was Jewish she was refused. They didn't believe him at the party committee and told him that it couldn't be true and there was nothing to worry about. Only when my mother came and asked her comrades to help me was I employed by Giproenergoprom, a design institute, at the technical information department. After seven years I went to work at the wiring factory where I was manager of the department of technical information until 1971.
In 1971 I divorced my husband and left for Kiev with my daughter to live with my parents.