Polina Levina with her colleague and a pupil

Me, Polina Levina (on the right, holding a bouquet of flowers) and my colleague, an elementary school teacher (on the left) and her pupil. This photo was taken in Uzhhorod on 1st September 1955.

I’ve lived in Uzhgorod since 1947. I liked this small, quiet and cozy town at once. There was a synagogue and a Jewish school in Uzhgorod. The local population was loyal to those that came from the USSR to live in their town. However, later their attitude toward the Soviet power got worse, in particular, when perestroika began.

When I arrived there my daughter and I got accommodation in a small room with plywood walls and a cement floor. There was a water drainage grid in the floor like in the street. I used a smaller room as a kitchen. There was a brick floor there. There was no water, toilet or bathroom. I lived there till 1949 and then I received this apartment where I live at the moment.

I went to work at a Ukrainian secondary school. I was a teacher of physics and mathematics in senior classes. My daughter went to the same school. She had my husband’s last name: Miach. I treated her like any other pupil at school.

I was always involved in public activities. I was chairwoman of our trade union committee and at one time I was secretary of the town trade union committee. I had very little free time. When I came home from work I had to check schoolchildren’s homework and prepare for my classes on the next day. Often in the evening my schoolchildren came to have a class with me at home. I was a class tutor and my pupils often visited me.