Arkadiy Redko with his wife Tamara Redko

This is me as I was having a stroll with my wife Tamara Redko, nee Shkuro. A street photographer took this photo in Kiev in 1985. My wife and I didn't celebrate Jewish or Christian holidays. We always celebrated Soviet holidays: 1st May, 7th November [October Revolution Day], Victory Day, Soviet Army Day, 8th March [International Women's Day], New Year's. We also celebrated birthdays. Our friends and relatives visited us. On Victory Day we went to the Grave of the Unknown Soldier. Veterans of the war got together there to share their memories. Children brought us flowers. On this day I always recall those who didn't live to see the victory. I am an atheist; the majority of Jews are atheists. I think that any religion is anti-scientific. An intelligent person who knows about history would never agree to believe all those fables about the existence of God. Every nation has a religion believing that it descends from God. But in reality, people do not believe in gods or idols, they believe in real life. Real life is what is important. In 1960 we received our first apartment. It was a communal apartment and we had few neighbors. In 1968 my wife and I received a separate apartment in Rusanovka that was a new district in Kiev then. Now it is a well established district on the bank of the Dnieper. We have no children.