Oral history interview with Igor Fertelmeyster

Oral history interview with Anatoly A

Oral History

Oral history interview with Inda A

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Oral history interview with Lazar A

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Oral history interview with Lia A

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Oral history interview with Yuri B

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Oral history interview with Izrail Bersutsky

Oral History

Izrail Bersutsky, born in 1929 in Kotujany, Romania (near Chisinau, Moldova), discusses the Soviet takeover in 1940; his father David Bersutsky (1903-1985), who had a business selling fur pelts; attending a Jewish school until age five; being the oldest and having one brother and two sisters; his father making a good living until 1940, when the Soviet Union took over Moldavia and all private businesses were taken over and the Jewish schools and synagogues were closed; the German invasion in 1941; leaving with his mother, Leah Bersutsky (1903-1972), and his siblings and going as far as the Dniester River in Moldavia, where a ghetto camp was created; many people in the ghetto being killed by German bombings; escaping with his mother and siblings to Uzbekistan; the deportation of his father to Siberia to work on a construction project; living with his mother and siblings for three years in Shorechan (possibly Zarafshan) and then in Fergana (Farghona) for two years; working for 18 hours a day on a small farm, gathering cotton and grain; being given 400 grams of brown bread per person a day; living in a one-room clay hut with no electricity or water; carrying polluted water from the river; sleeping on hay on a dirt floor; people dying daily from malnutrition and disease; not being able to observe Jewish holidays and traditions; his father joining them in 1946; returning to Kotujany; the damage to their home during the war and rebuilding it; the hundred or so Jews in Kotujany who survived the war; synagogues and Jewish schools remaining closed; working during the day in a produce warehouse and attending school at night; being the primary financial provider for his family; graduating from high school at age 22; moving to Kishinev (Chisinau, Moldova); earning a bachelor’s degree from a technical college at age 30; working as a manager in a government-owned food market; earning a master’s degree in economics; his brother and sisters later moving to Kishinev; the Communist Party not making opportunities available to Jews, as Jews were not permitted to achieve high positions; meeting his wife (Frida Braunshtein), who was an electrical engineer; working in a small college, teaching food processing; his brother (Chaim) moving to Israel in 1973; deciding to wait to apply to emigrate until times were better; immigrating to the United States in the late 1980s; his wife’s death in Russia in 1989; his sisters who are in Kishinev and are unable to obtain visas; and his daughter (Greta Etingen) who was born in 1962.

Oral history interview with Greta Etingen

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Oral history interview with Alex Blinstein

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Oral history interview with Rita Blinstein

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Oral history interview with Lyuba Schvartsman

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Oral history interview with Mikhail Schvartsman

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Oral history interview with Shamail Danilov

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Oral history interview with Yelena Danilov

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Oral history interview with Tatiana Fertelmeyster

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Oral history interview with Alex Friedgan

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Oral history interview with Anna Friedgan

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Oral history interview with Mark Friedgan

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Oral history interview with Anna Gekhter

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Oral history interview with Lydia Gekhter

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Oral history interview with Vladimir Gekhter

Oral History

Vladimir Gekhter, born in 1951 in Minsk, Belarus, describes his family and childhood as a Jew in the former Soviet Union; living in Siberia at age from age two to 16; his father, who was a military doctor; his mother, who was a dentist; being identified as Jewish and experiencing antisemitism despite the fact that he did not grow up with Jewish traditions; his father dying at an early age from cancer soon after they moved back to Minsk in 1967; not being allowed to pursue a medical career since he was Jewish; attending a polytechnical college to become an engineer; getting married to his wife Anna at age 24 in 1975 in Minsk; Anna, who is also Jewish (her grandmother observed the Jewish traditions, but Anne was embarrassed by it and the Yiddish her grandmother spoke); taking a job as a design engineer in an industrial manufacturing plant designing machines; encountering significant antisemitism and not being happy in his career advancement; trying to quit his job and expecting to take another but was not being allowed to; having a side responsibility as the manager of a farm collective and once he gained some power it was taken away from him (probably because he was Jewish and also because he would not join the communist party); applying for a visa to the United States in 1979 and being refused; applying again and being accepted in 1988; being sponsored by friends and moving from Minsk to the Chicago, IL area in 1988 by way of Vienna, Austria; living with his wife and their two sons as well as his mother in Skokie, IL.

Oral history interview with Isaac Ginsburg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lyuba Ginsburg

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Oral history interview with Naum Ginsburg

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Oral history interview with Paulina Ginsburg

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Oral history interview with Tsilya Goldin

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Oral history interview with Betya G.

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Oral history interview with Boris G.

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Oral history interview with Lena Goryunov

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Oral history interview with Eleonora Khazan

Oral History

Eleonora Khazan (née Eleonora Kogan), born on February 28, 1959 in Kiev, Ukraine, discusses her childhood in post-World War II Soviet Union and her experiences being Jewish in Kiev; being an only child; her maternal grandmother who lived with her family; her extended family in Kiev; her daily routine as a child, including school, music lessons, chores, and homework; living in a two-room apartment with four people; celebrating Passover with a few Jewish neighbors in the apartment building; having fish for holidays; her mother, who worked as a construction engineer; her father, who was a chemical engineer; experiencing antisemitism; attending high school until the 10th grade and then attending a technical college; studying computer programing; vacationing to Crimea with friends after the first year of college; getting married in 1970 to a man who was Jewish; their daughter Julia; her father who was a child in WWII; deciding she wanted to leave the Soviet Union and receiving invitation from Israel, but deciding not to go; how life did not change much when Gorbachev came to power in 1985; the one synagogue in Kiev and being afraid to go there because they might be harassed by the KGB; the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986; and trying to leave the Soviet Union again in 1987.

Oral history interview with Stan Khazan

Oral History

Stan Khazan, born in 1953 in Romny, Ukraine, discusses moving to Lvov (Lviv, Ukraine) when he was in elementary school; his parents, David Khazan (born on August 23, 1927) and Sophia Jashinsky Khazan (born on October 29, 1931); being an only child; his grandparents who understood Yiddish; getting married to Eleonora Kogan in 1979 in Kiev, Ukraine; their daughter Julia; attending college in Russia for electrical engineering; being drafted in the Soviet Army during the Afghanistan war; designing nuclear project stations; immigrating to the United States in 1989; not having many Jewish friends in the Soviet Union; and the culture of antisemitism in Lvov.

Oral history interview with Victor M.

Oral History

Oral history interview with Mila M.

Oral History

Oral history interview with Larry M.

Oral History

Larry M., born November 15, 1976 in Moscow, Soviet Union (Russia), discusses his earliest memories; his parents, Mila (born in 1954 in Obuchava) and Paul Troytsky (born in Moscow); his maternal grandmother (Nellie N.K. born 1929) and paternal grandmother; his maternal grandfather (Arseny K, born 1927), who told him stories about life during the war when he was a sailor during the siege of Leningrad; being in a hospital as a child; his memories of attending synagogue; fishing with his maternal uncle Sergei; his desire to become a doctor before he knew his maternal grandparents were doctors; not being cognizant of his Jewish heritage until just before leaving Russia; immigrating to the United States and being upset about it for some time; what he likes and dislikes about the US; being circumcised when he came to the US; and not being a religious person but enjoys the traditions and community of Judaism.

Oral history interview with Yanina Nayman

Oral History

Oral history interview with A. P

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Oral history interview with G. P.

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Oral history interview with Nella Radunsky

Oral History

Nella Radunsky (née Rubinshtein), born in 1933 in Minsk, Belarus, describes growing up alone with her mother after her father’s arrest without explanation when she was three years old; never seeing her father again (being notified in 1957 that her father was guilty of no crime); living with her grandparents until the war began in 1941; moving to Kiev, Ukraine to live with her mother’s sister; barely escaping Kiev as almost her entire family was killed by the Germans or later on by Soviet soldiers; being transported to the Urals where she and her mother spent the rest of the war in Kuibyshev (now Samara), Russia; living in one room with her mother’s sister and her three children; learning for the first time that she was Jewish and experiencing antisemitism; returning after the war in 1946 to Starokostiantyniv, Ukraine and discovering that their house and all possessions had been destroyed; how her family barely survived that winter; moving to Minsk in 1947 to live with her uncle and his second wife, who resented and mistreated them; moving from house to house; her mother facing anti-Jewish discrimination before finally finding a job; moving into a communal apartment; returning to school and being a good student, but being rejected for college because of her Jewish surname; working as a handwriting analyst in the Office of Criminology; meeting her husband Izrael when she was age 23 and he was age 27; their marriage in a civil ceremony and subsequent 35 years together; living with his aunt, then her mother in one room; having two children (Lyuba in 1957, Michael, in 1962) before they were given a small apartment; raising the children with none of the family observing Jewish holidays and traditions out of fear the neighbors would find out; the Russian “trampling” on Jewish culture and traditions; new difficulties created by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986; her son Michael, wife Alla, and granddaughter Rita immigrating to Chicago, IL in 1988; having friends at work but only discussing politics at home with close Jewish friends; leaving Russia in 1989 and arriving in Chicago in April 1990; her thoughts on their lives in Russia and her hope for her children’s future in the US; and being able to embrace Judaism in the US.

Oral history interview with Izrail Radunsky

Oral History

Izrail Radunsky, born in 1929 in Minsk, Belarus, discusses his parents Ilya Radunsky and Elizavet Kaplan Radunsky; his life as an artist and his views on art; speaking Yiddish in the home; as a child, celebrating Jewish holidays until being forbidden to do so by the Soviet government; still feeling Jewish despite the laws; studying for five years in Minsk and then six years in Moscow, Russia at the Art Institute, where, as a Jew, it was difficult to gain admittance; being evacuated during the war from Minsk to Novosibirsk, Russia, where he remained with his mother (his father worked in a military hospital) and attended school until 1945; losing more than seventy of his relatives who were not evacuated from Minsk; returning to Minsk after the war and life under Stalin; meeting his wife, Nella, in Minsk in 1955, and marrying her in a civil ceremony; having a son, Michael, in 1962, who now resides in Chicago; the Chernobyl disaster and subsequent decision to immigrate with Nella to the United States. [Note: A second interview, attended by his daughter Lyuba and wife Nella, is almost entirely devoted to Izrail’s life as an artist, both in the Soviet Union and subsequently.]

Oral history interview with Gennady Reznikov

Oral History

Gennady Reznikov, born on April 16, 1937 in Moscow, Russia, discusses his parents Lev (1904-1975) and Sofia Libenson (1906-?); his three siblings, including a sibling who died early, his older brother Yefim (1929-1979), and his younger brother (1950-?); his father’s move to Moscow after the Revolution and was an active Communist and part of the Komsomol; his parents’ marriage in 1928 and their belief that the Communists would help Jews get rights; his father, who some cheder training and worked at a mill and later as an economist; his mother, who worked as a salesperson in a food store and had approximately eight years of education; not having much Jewish identity except for his maternal grandmother, who went to synagogue every Saturday and made latkes; living in one room of an eight family communal apartment; his older brother, who was a vocal protestor and was detained and questioned circa 1949 at Lubyanka prison; the anti-Jewish wave circa 1948-1954 when the synagogues and Jewish theaters were closed and Jews were fired from jobs; graduating from school at age 17, and being unable to enter Moscow University because he was Jewish; attending the Moscow Automobile and Road Construction Institute, but not being able to get a job after he graduated because he was Jewish; getting a job at an aviation plant at a low salary; being hired at the Engine and Research Institute studying fuel cells, which was very specialized; working later for the National Research and Scientific Institute of Power Resources in 1962 despite the antisemitism; becoming chief of the lab and earning a Ph.D in 1971; getting married to Sulamith Shternberg in 1958; their three sons, Sergey (1965), Vladimir (1970), and Michael (1979); Sulamith’s work at the Institute of Printing Technology; and living with his family in Chicago, IL.

Oral history interview with Sulamith Reznikov

Oral History

Sulamith Reznikov, born August 11, 1937, discusses growing up in Moscow as an only child; her mother Malkah (Malvina) Rubensteinftr (1906-1984) and her father Wolf Baruchovich (1903-1964), both of whom were from Dunaevsta, near Odessa; her parents both working as engineers until 1948 when they lost their jobs during the Jewish purge; her father giving her a Hebrew name but having few other Jewish traditions; being told to be proud to be a Jew; relocating during WWII to Gorki (Nizhny Novgorod) and then Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains; returning to Moscow in 1944; being the only Jew in her first grade class; experiencing antisemitism from her ninth and tenth grade teachers; their Jewish family friends (Borisov) being arrested during this time; studying engineering; meeting Gennady Reznikov on the Russian Revolution holiday, and marrying him in 1958; moving into a communal apartment when her first child was born; deciding to emigrate circa 1979 and finally being allowed to leave in September 1988; arriving in Chicago in May 1989; adjusting to life in the US; and not being particularly religious.

Oral history interview with Vladimir Reznikov

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Oral history interview with Marina Reznikov

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Oral history interview with Sergey Reznikov

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Oral history interview with Alexander Uman

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Oral history interview with Irina Uman

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Oral history interview with Alex Umantsev

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Oral history interview with Julia Umantsev

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Oral history interview with Lilian Shafran

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Oral history interview with Rudolf Umantsev

Oral History