I didn’t face any anti-Semitism then. I don’t think there was any and besides, nobody discussed this subject in my presence. It did not occur to me that people were segregated by their origin.
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Displaying 38371 - 38400 of 50826 results
Moisey Marianovskiy
I went to a primary school at the age of 8. This was the nearest Russian school. I studied well. I finished 5 years in this school.
In the early 1930’s Ukraine was struck by terrible famine [5]. Only God knows how we survived this famine. Mama had swollen legs. She always gave me whatever food she could, but I was still always hungry and even fainted from starvation. Shimon was a Komsomol member [6]. He often went to villages on his Komsomol errands. He returned from there swollen from hunger telling us that the situation was even worse than ours. Employees from the town were often sent to villages to help farmers with harvesting. Many people in town were dying, though townsfolk always received minimal bread rations. Fortunately, our family survived.
In 1932 my older brother Yasha was in the army in Moscow. He became an officer. He wrote that there were better food supplies in Moscow and it was easier to find a job here. In 1933 our family moved to Moscow. Shimon went to work at the electrical plant named after Kuibyshev. He was a worker. Later I followed into his steps in Moscow.
We lived in Izmailovo district in Moscow. At that time this was a suburb of Moscow. We moved into a 19-meter room in a shared apartment. We hardly had any furniture. There was very little space. When my brother went to work I took his place on the bed. We were very poor. Those were hard times. We hardly ever ate to our hearts’ content, but at least we did not starve.
I finished secondary school in Moscow. I worked at the plant and studied. This was hard. I worked the 2nd shift at the plant and had no time to do my homework. .
I joined Komsomol at school. I led an active way of life. We enjoyed living in Izmailovo. We used to play football and volleyball in the nearby forest. We had makeshift playgrounds and everything else, but we had lots of fun. My friends were our neighbors’ children. Later we went to the army together. There were many Jewish families living in the vicinity, but we never divided people by nationality. There were never any demonstrations of anti-Semitism, particularly that I had no typical Semitic features. Later I became a member of a workers’ collective. My friends and my sisters’ and brothers’ visited us at home and mama always welcomed them.
We celebrated Soviet and family holidays, but we did not celebrate Jewish holidays. We were not religious. We were far from observing any holidays or traditions. We were young and had other interests. We were fond of sports, went to parades and sang Soviet revolutionary songs about “how good it was to live in the Union of Soviets”.
I did not consider continuing my education since I had to work to earn my living. Before finishing school I quit the electrical plant and went to work to the car manufacture plant named after Stalin. This plant is now named after Likhachev [7]. I worked at the turner’s unit and also, worked at school. I became a candidate to the membership in the party at this plant. I believed in the ideals of communism and honesty of the party ideas and deeds. This was a legendary plant, the pride and hope of the young country. Director of this plant Ivan Likhachev [Ivan Alexeyevich Likhachev (1896-1956). Soviet state and business activist, director of the biggest Russian car manufacture plant, Minister of medium machine building] needed workers badly. He arranged for a whole group of young workers to get a delay from recruitment to the army for a year. I was also included in this group.
On 5 October 1940 I was recruited to the army. Having being recruited to the army a year later I escaped the Finnish campaign [Soviet-Finnish War] [8].
I served in Porkhov town near Pskov [about 400 km northwest of Moscow]. In six months I was sent to a military school. At the weekend my whole platoon accompanied me to the station. This happened on 22 June 1941 [the Great Patriotic War started 22 June 1941]. Nobody in our regiment knew that the war began. I took a train to Kalinin [about 200 km north of Moscow]. The train stopped and I came to the platform. I could not grasp what was going on. Somebody was playing an accordion, somebody was crying. I asked somebody, “What’s going on?” And they replied, “Soldier, don’t you know? It’s the war.” The regiment that I had left was at the northwestern border, but nobody knew what was happening.
About one and half-two weeks before this happened the TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union) announced that there were no grounds whatsoever for unjustified rumors about Germany. After the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Agression Pact [9] was signed I stopped having any doubts in this regard. Vice a versa, there was the feeling that this pact established friendly relationships between the two countries. But what happened in reality was that Hitler just cheated on Stalin.
We happened to be not prepared for the war. I had served on the border with Germany, but we did not notice any movement of German troops. There were no signs of German attack. Later I got to know that 3 hours after the guys saw me off to the railway station the regiment was encircled by Germans. When I heard that the war began I rushed to see the military commandant of the station. I asked him what I was to do next. I thought that it might well be that I had to go back to my military unit. He told me that I ought to move on to where I was assigned. I was heading to Gorky [about 400 km east of Moscow] tank school, but on my way there I was to make my appearance at the district military committee in Moscow.
Later soldiers from the military units destroyed at the frontline started arriving at the school. They told awful stories about the war. It was clear the army was not ready for the war. Later it became everybody’s knowledge that this happened due to the wild policy of Stalin. Before the start of the war Stalin destroyed the officer staff and military commanders [Great Terror] [10]. Over 50 thousand officers were executed for the charges of being enemies of the people [11]. This weakened our army significantly and there was no doubt about it. The reequipment of the army was initiated before the war. It was never completed. There was no sufficient new equipment available and the old equipment was good for nothing.
I was at the frontline in the Briansk and later in the Moscow direction. Our brigade did not retreat. There was Moscow behind us, there was nowhere to retreat. I was inside a tank on battlefields. I gave my commands and executed the orders I received from my commandment on the radio. We had telephones or radios. Some tanks had phones some were equipped with radios. We supported our infantry as best as we could on battlefield.
We already struggled for the Ugra and Dnepr Rivers, etc. Battles for Smolensk [about 350 km west of Moscow] began. My units took part in the operation to liberate Spas-Demensk, Kaluga region [about 180 km west of Smolensk]. These were hard battles and I had to use my wits. I have very bright memories about how we decided to fight for a hill near the town. We decided to attack it at the night time. We lit headlights to make an impression that there was a bigger tank group attacking. The tanks were moving in circles to deceive the enemy. The Germans were scared, so we managed to cheat them. After hard and blood shedding battles we captured the hill and then the town. I was awarded an Order of Alexandr Nevskiy [Editor’s note: Order of Alexandr Nevskiy was established on 29 July 1942. It was awarded for special merits in the defense of the USSR] for this operation. This was a smart and witty operation that did not result in big losses for us, but the gains were significant. We headed to fight for Byelorussia. There were also hard battles during crossing the Dnieper. General Zakharov, Commander of our front, decided to attack the enemy on its flank. This operation was also successful and in 1943 I was awarded an Order of Red Banner [14] In August 1943 I was wounded in my eye and was sent to a hospital in Moscow. After two weeks in hospital I returned to my regiment.
The hardest battles were at the Mogilyov-Minsk roadway. Some of them were outrageously savage. We managed to capture a radiogram of Hitler, who ordered commander of the Mohilyov group to head to Minsk [about 600 km west of Moscow]. Our objective was to prevent this army group from stopping our forces fighting to liberate Minsk.
Then operations were held one after another. After finishing one we started preparation to another. Soon we directed our efforts to liberation of Western Byelorussia. This included liberation of, Navahrudak, Grodno [over 900 km west of Moscow] etc. In Grodno Germans established a big ghetto and eliminated it before our offensive killing all inmates. I did not know about these death camps before the 1980’s, but when in Grodno, I did not see anything. We were hurrying to the Polish border heading to reach Koenigsburg, Berlin and end this war victoriously as soon as possible.
I started a new life in a hospital in Moscow. My ward was the ward of deadly wounded patients. Every day we were in the care of Zinaida Ordzhonokidze, a volunteer nurse and an exclusively nice person. She was very ill herself. She had swollen legs and hyper tone, but she never failed to enter our ward at 6 a.m.. Her husband was Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze. [Editor’s note: Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze (party pseudonym ‘Sergo’) 1886-1937: activist of the Communist party and Soviet Union. Red Army commander during the Civil War. After the revolution, Minister of heavy industry in the last years of life. He is thought to have been poisoned by murderers sent by Stalin.] Once it happened so that there were just the two of us in the ward. The rest of my companions in the ward had died. I said: Zinaida Andreyevna, I remember an obituary about your husband. It said that he died from a heart attack’. She looked down and relied: ‘I wish it had been true.’ I did not grasp the meaning of what she said! I believed what newspapers wrote and knew no details of the story. This was the first time it occurred to me that not everything newspapers wrote was true.
However, I never fully recovered. I was still exhausted and was became an invalid of the second grade. I spent in hospital almost two and a half years with some intervals. I was in hospital on the Victory Day as well.
Every year on 9 May I visit the unit to meet with the soldiers of my former military unit and celebrate the Victory anniversary. These are very warm and kind reunions, but unfortunately, fewer and fewer of us manage to make it there with every coming year. There were 4 heroes of the Soviet Union in our military unit. Our photographs are on the stand there.
After I was released from the hospital I moved into a room in a communal apartment. It was provided to me by the plant where I worked before I went to the army. In 1946 I entered Moscow State University named after Lomonosov [editor’s note: M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, the best University in the Soviet Union, also well known abroad for its high level of education and research], The Faculty of History. I entered it immediately after the h hospital. I was fond of history and did well at the University. Being a party member I took an active part in the public life in University.
Once a terrible thing happened. It happened in 1947 during the period of struggle against cosmopolitism. I shared my thoughts with my friends saying that struggle against cosmopolites actually meant struggle against Jews. Somebody reported on me and this became the subject of discussion at the university party bureau meeting. The atmosphere at this meeting was very aggressive. This was something terrible! I was blamed that I did not understand the policy of the party. It’s hard to find words to describe this event! I did not agree to one single accusation of me or other people blamed of cosmopolitism. I spoke against any accusations. I held them to disgrace! I held the presidium to disgrace. This meeting was hard for me. Professor Cherniayev described this meeting in his book ‘My life and my time’. [the book was published in 1995 in the publishing house ‘International relations’ Moscow.] He also worked at the University and was also a veteran of the war, but I did not know him in person. He was at the meeting. During perestroika [22] he worked at the Central Committee of the Communist party, and now he works in the Gorbachev’s fund [23] [Editor’s note: Gorbachev’s fund is an International public fund established in 1992.] He dedicated a whole page to the problem of struggle against cosmopolitism at the University, and described how I opposed at the meeting. He also wrote: ‘Everyone kept silent’. How did Jews behave? They were mean! They were afraid of supporting me fearing to lose their jobs. A week later they were fired. I became passionate blaming them. They were saying ‘You don’t understand the policy of the party’ and I replied ‘You do not understand the policy of the party! You organize a campaign against Jews. You! If you are against this horrible and abusive movement, you stand up and say it instead of accusing me’. I don’t remember getting home. I thought ‘Where am I?’ Because nothing like this ever happened in my battalion at the front. It didn’t matter whether one was Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh or Jew. What mattered was to be brave and honest! I never dealt with anything of this kind at the front. That was why I was stunned. I shivered with hatred and anger. But what was important I was not defending myself but I attacked them. I said ‘You are lying! It’s a lie from beginning to end!’. I said: ‘You are cowards! You know in your hearts that this is not true.’ Cherniayev was good. Fifty years later he reproduced it exactly as it happened. There was one thing he made a mistake about. He wrote ‘He either left or was fired from University.’ He did not know the truth. I did not quit the University or the party. I had many friends and acquaintances at the University. They were much older than me and treated me somewhat fatherly. I still don’t know who was my protector. I think it was Academician Nesmeyanov [Nesmeyanov Alexandr Nikolayevich (1899 - 1980), Soviet organic chemist, academician of the soviet Academy of Sciences, public activist, Hero of Socialist Labor], an outstanding chemistry scientist, who was rector of the State University at the time. He had a great authority in our country and in the world. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet. He was a decent and honest man. His follower was a lecturer at the Chemistry Faculty and secretary of the party committee of the University. I think the two of them saved me. Nesmeyanov must have taken the initiative. It worked so as if there had been no meeting whatsoever! I graduated from the University. What else is remarkable about this meeting is that all lecturers and students became aware of my Jewish identity. They could never guess it before since I looked very much like a Russian guy. I never experienced any opposition at the exams or when I defended my diploma. My examiners knew I was right, but they could not express it openly fearing for their job.
This was the first time I had doubts about Stalin’s innocence with regards to the events in the country. I knew Stalin was to blame. I came home very upset. I had Stalin’s portrait on my desk. When I was alone I threw it away.. It was a big color portrait. I believed him and so did millions of people, but this struggle against cosmopolitism shattered me! I decided we should not have hoped that he did not know what was happening. This was naïve. He knew and he did it with his own hands. So I bid farewell to the beloved leader.
During the period of the plot of doctors [24] in early 1953, when most Jews were fired from work, it had no impact on me. I was a post-graduate student at the university, but I felt this atmosphere, when patients stopped visiting Jewish doctors. Of course, this was abusive for me, a common and honest man. It only strengthened my opinion about Stalin.
When he died in March 1953 and the country was in the mourning, I felt relieved and even happy that he died. My eyes were open. I had no illusions though I tried to get to the Kolonny Hall to look at this dead man. This was the end of epoch. My friend, a Russian guy, who had the same attitude to the leader, and I went there. Thousands of people came to bid farewell to Stalin. The crowd crushed and many people died. We made our way there regardless. There were thousands of wreaths near the Kolonny Hall. We took our particular revenge on this demonstration of love to him. While we were trying to make our way through the crowd the horses of equestrian militia grabbed the leaves on our wreath, and we installed it among other wreaths at the front. (This was the only way to take our revenge on him. It was disgusting, this wreath, but we put it at the front. Nobody could reproach us for doing so. We just came to pay honors and who could blame us?
I finished my post-graduate studies, defended a doctor’s dissertation [Soviet/Russian doctorate degrees] [25] and went to work at Moscow Energy College. I was a lecturer at the department ‘History of the CPSU’. I worked there for 35 years. I still keep in touch with the college and my former students. They visit me at home. There was only one reason why I enjoyed my work. I invited my comrades, who marched the paths of the war. My students wrote reports about the war. I emphasized the war events in the history of the CPSU. I stepped aside from this policy and though my subject was History of the CPSU, I did not care. I knew but too well what kind of history this was. I resigned in 1991.
Valentina was born in Moscow in 1924. She was a good person. We got married in 1946. We registered our marriage and in the evening we had dinner with the family.
My wife finished a secondary school and worked as an accountant at the plant.
My wife and I raised our beautiful daughters to become honest, hardworking and kind people. I was not religious and did not teach my daughters any Jewish traditions. Lena and Olia know they are Jews.