Yankl Dudakas, Archi Zavadskiy and Iosif

Here I, Yankl Dudakas, am on the right, Archi Zavadskiy, my cousin Hanna's husband, with a hammer, is in the center. My fellow worker Iosif is on the left. Archi became a tinsmith and worked with me. This photo was taken at the factory where I worked in Kaunas in the 1950s. I got tinsmith's training. At first I started working for a distant relative before I got a job in a shop. There was a good team in this shop. I was given an opportunity to go to an evening school where I managed to finish the seventh grade. I joined the Komsomol and was quite an active Komsomol member. I was sincerely committed to Communist ideals. I remember what a hard blow Stalin's death in 1953 was for me. I was secretary of a Komsomol unit then, and after the death of the leader I admitted almost all the young people in the shop to the Komsomol. I myself joined the Communist Party. My father was amazed at my political activities. I remember literally his words in this regard: ?Why are you laying your sound head into a sick bed?? However, I was attracted by the Communist ideas. They are truly attractive and very humane. By the early 1960s our shop developed into a small factory named the ?Metallist.? I had a very good reputation and worked as a shift foreman. Once I was requested to act as a shop superintendent through the period of his absence, and I managed very well. Since then I often filled in for the shop superintendent, when he was on vacation or business trips. Many times through my career I was offered key positions, but during the Soviet period workers and foremen were paid way better than the engineering staff. My position was more profitable and I worked until 1997 without changing my job.