Rachel Averbukh, Larisa Pimenova, Eugenia Zarkhina, Gennady Zharkina, Maria Berkal, Alexander Amitan

This photo was taken by my mother's brother Evsei. It shows my daughter Larisa holding a bright lamp in the left.

At the far right sits Alexander Àmitan, the husband of mother's sister Ida. Behind him is Evsei's daughter Maria, behind her I am looking out. Next to me is my daughter Eugenia, standing is my son Gennady, and at the end of the table sits Evsei's wife Maria.

The photo was taken when I took my three children to the Pushkin Hills. I wanted to show them the places where the great Russian poet Pushkin lived, and on the way we stopped to visit our relatives in Pskov, the family of mother's brother Evsei. Here you can see a dinner one evening in their house. We have already eaten and now we are having tea.

My mother had three sisters and two brothers. All were born in Dvinsk in what today is Latvia.

The eldest, Evsei, was born in 1884, lived in Pskov, and taught drawing at a school. He was an artist, and his wife was the director of a kindergarten.

Evsei fought in the war [1941-1945] as a soldier at the Leningrad front. He died in Pskov in 1970. His sister Berta was born in 1885, lived in Pskov, was a housewife, later she was exiled to the North with her husband for espousing Zionism , and died in Karaganda in 1950.

The next sister Ida was born in 1888, lived in Pskov and worked as a teacher and interpreter for the deaf and dumb in a Soviet school for disabled persons.

During the war [1941-1945] she was evacuated with her family to Saransk in Mordovia, where she died in 1960. Sister Polina [1890s-1960s, Moscow] was an economist.

Brother Efim [1894-1957, Leningrad], a trade dealer and salesman, went through the blockade in Leningrad. I do not know which Jewish traditions they followed in their families, but I don’t think they were especially religious. You couldn’t be a religious Jew in the Soviet Union and have no problems.