Lidia Lieberman’s father's sister Sonia Koldertsova

This is my father's younger sister Sonia Koldertsova. This photo was taken in Kiev in 1928.

My father's sister Sonia, born in Zvenigorodka in 1906, lived in Kiev. She was very cheerful and charming. She was married to Emmanuel Koldertsov. He was a Jew. They didn't have any children, but they had a good and interesting life. Before the Great Patriotic War Emmanuel Koldertsov worked as a correspondent of Izvestiya newspaper in Ukraine. [Izvestiya - News, daily communist newspaper published in Moscow.] He told me that during the Great Patriotic War he worked as a front line correspondent. He got in air raids, but he managed through the war without being wounded. Aunt Sonia was in evacuation in Tashkent. After the war Emmanuel often came to Odessa as a correspondent for his paper and Sonia always accompanied him. Emmanuel was a very sociable and easy-going man. He always had stories or funny jokes to tell and we always enjoyed his company. In summer they spent vacations in recreation centers in Odessa.

I liked to visit Sonia in Kiev when I grew up. I liked the town. Sonia always had guests in her house. I met my cousins Volodia and Boris Warenbud, the sons of my father’s sister Lisa from Dnepropetrovsk in that house. They visited Sonia from time to time. Uncle Emmanuel died in the 1970s. Sonia died in Kiev in at the age of 79.