At the end of the 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev [50], General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee announced perestroika. I didn't take him seriously, thought him to be a prattler, who couldn't even answer questions properly. Of course, we felt certain fruits of perestroika. Liberty was obtained. We were able to get previously banned literature. Libel in the press was over. Any person could go abroad without an approval from the regional party committee, and we could also invite foreigners. We were bereft of those rights during Soviet times. Now we had the opportunity to profess any religion we wanted. Synagogues and churches opened up. During Soviet times there was only the constitution and that was it. After the first year perestroika began to decline to a certain extent. I understand that the former party nomenclature tried to clutch at the past and put a spoke in the wheel. Preposterous things were going on - elite vineyards were exterminated in the Crimea under the pretext of struggle for teetotalism. Certain campaigns commenced and then were done away with very rapidly. Then it happened so that in Moscow products started vanishing from the stores like during the war times. Food cards were introduced. Then there was an outbreak of unemployment. People of retirement age were fired. All those things brought the breakup of the great and powerful state of the USSR [1991].
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Displaying 6721 - 6750 of 50826 results
Jacob Mikhailov
After the breakup of the USSR my life has been getting better gradually. Of course, we have a hard living nowadays, and I'm worried about the future of my grandson. What a nuisance, our country having defeated Germany in World War II, is considerably lacking behind in many spheres. Those people who fought against Germany receive compensation from Germany, but not from their country.
There is a railway college in Moscow where one of the regiments of our division was formed during the war. Now it is a museum of our division. I have been attending it for many years and held speeches on 'Classes of Valor.' For the first time I went there with the chairman of the war veteran council, a former party activist. When he took the floor, I noticed that people weren't listening to him and paid no attention. He was talking of the things that could be read in any textbook, so the story was thin for them. Then I took the floor with the stories about my front-line experience, the same I told my grandson, and they displayed an interest. I understand that they were aged 15-16, and I was a little bit older when I went to the front. I understand them, their problems, even though I'm an elderly man. I went there for many years, but now there are no classes of valor in their curriculum.
During perestroika the [Moscow] Council of the Jewish War Veterans [51] was founded in Moscow. I became its member. It was about 15 years ago. I have been the presidium member of this council for many years, and worked in the group of assistance to the needy. I paid a lot of attention to seeking those who needed help. Then, when I came back home, I rejected that position. I cannot just be there and do nothing. I had no time for that.
The first time I came to the synagogue was also during perestroika. There was only one synagogue for the entire city of Moscow after the war. The most ancient synagogue, and the only acting synagogue during the Soviet regime, was located in the heart of Moscow, on Spasoglinichevskiy Lane. The synagogue was ceremoniously opened in 1989. Now it is called 'Sinagoga na gorke' ['Synagogue on the hill' in Russian]. Then another one was restored at Malaya Bronzy. I've been very aloof from religion all my life. It was the way I was brought up by my parents and it was too late for me to be re-nurtured. I got to know our rabbi. He is a very interesting man and we both enjoy each other's company. We don't broach religious subjects, there are other common topics we find. We used to attend concerts of Jewish songs, but then it got more difficult for me to go because of my health problems.
Recently a new Jewish public center has been built. Many interesting people come there, including journalists and writers. I was there once, and I like it very much.
We also have a Jewish charitable organization, Hama [Hesed] [52], which is very helpful to people.
As father told me grandfather was a merchant of Guild I [1], a very wealthy man. They lived in the center of Warsaw.
Father went to trade school in Warsaw, but didn't finish it. My father was fond of communist ideas, and he left home when he was 16. He stopped being in touch with his family then. He went to Russia, and never came back to Warsaw. I practically don't know anything about my father's prenuptial life. Father adhered to revolutionary ideas, and then became a member of the Communist Party. The party was banned, so its members took alias known to other party comrades. My father's party alias was Mikhailov. Then his surname was changed to Mikhailov as well. This name was written in the documents. In February 1917, when the Provisional Government [2] was in power, my father was imprisoned for revolutionary activity [during the Russian Revolution of 1917] [3].
Grandfather was a stubby man of medium height. He had a long beard. He wore a black silken kippah on his head. Grandmother was short and buxom. She wore traditional Jewish clothes: long black skirts and dark long-sleeved blouses. She wore a black kerchief on her head, and during solemn occasions she wore a black lace shawl.
Grandfather worked in a sort of work association. He sold fish. I don't know what his job was like; all I know is that he didn't own the business. Grandmother was a housewife. My grandparents had a cow. They also had a kitchen garden and planted vegetables there to feed the family. They lived well and didn't starve.
My mother finished a full course at Chernigov lyceum, and I think she wasn't the only one who got educated in the lyceum. All children knew Yiddish, which was their mother tongue, but they also were proficient in Russian and spoke foreign languages. The children didn't get primary Jewish education.
Noy, my mother's eldest brother, was a pharmacist. He had his own pharmacy in Chernigov before the revolution of 1917. Then it was nationalized and he worked as a pharmacist in the state apothecary.
Amalia Laufer
We have our Jewish holidays to celebrate.
,
After WW2
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I never celebrated Soviet holidays.
,
After WW2
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However hungry we were, we never ate bread on Pesach. My mother received a little bit of matzah at the synagogue. Even when we only had a piece of matzah on Pesach, it was enough for us to feel the spirit of Pesach.
,
After WW2
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We didn't follow the kashrut because there were no kosher stores where we lived.
,
After WW2
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On Rosh Hashanah we always put an apple with sugar on the table.
,
After WW2
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On Yom Kippur we went to the synagogue to pray.
,
After WW2
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My mother and I celebrated Jewish holidays.
,
After WW2
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In 1947 there was a famine. I could only afford to buy some food for my mother whereas I was starving.
,
After WW2
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I had a bite for lunch and got back to work when all other employees were taking their lunch break. I was awarded a medal 'For remarkable performance' and my portrait was on the Board of Honor. I also received other awards and the management was satisfied with my work. I never went on sick leave.
,
After WW2
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I tried to earn as much as I could. I had to provide for my mother, who needed care and medication.
,
After WW2
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I was a laborer and stuffed pillows with down and feathers. I was the only Jewish woman at the factory. It was very hard work. Male employees teased me and laughed at me calling me 'this greedy zhydovka [kike] who doesn't drink or smoke and wants to earn all the money'. I got so tired of this word 'zhydovka' that now I try to stay away from the goyim [non-Jews]. I stuffed 1,000 pillows per day when the standard number was only 300. I started work at 6 a.m. and stayed at work after-hours.
,
After WW2
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I worked at the down and feather factory in Chernovtsy for 35 years.
,
After WW2
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She got married and had a son. She corresponded with us for a couple of years, but then she stopped writing. She had her own life and wasn't really interested in ours. Besides, I worked and didn't have much time left for writing letters. Reisia died in Israel in 1982.
,
After WW2
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Reisia became an accountant there.
,
After WW2
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My sister Reisia moved to Palestine in 1946. My mother was very sickly and I couldn't leave her. Besides, I would have been afraid to go to a place I knew nothing about. We had no information about Palestine or what it was like there.
,
After WW2
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The doctors didn't believe I would survive, but I said that I would if such was God's will. One Jew from the synagogue brought me oranges and said to me that I was a righteous woman and God would help me. I survived. I went to the synagogue to thank that man.
,
After WW2
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My sister came to my work place once and said that she wouldn't agree to work there. She probably thought it was humiliating to be a cleaning woman. Besides, it was very hard work for a miserable salary. I replied that one has to take a job when it's available to be able to buy at least a piece of bread.
,
After WW2
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