Eva Ryzhevskaya with her colleagues

This is me (second from right), a doctor of town hospital # 29 with my colleagues during the celebration my birthday in hospital. My friend Sophia Kovalchik is the first from left. The photo was taken in Moscow in 1960. In 1948 the municipal health care department sent me to town hospital #29 to work as a physiotherapist. I worked there for over 40 years. Physiotherapy was my main job. I liked neuropathology and took up a few neuropathology cases. I was on good terms with a very qualified neurologist, a Jew named Solomon Kantorovich. We worked in the same hospital. He taught me, and treated the patients independently. I was lucky I worked with great experts and learnt from them. They treated me very well at work. They loved me and appreciated my work. I really worked very hard and did not refuse anybody. I met my future husband at work. Leonid Krichevskiy was an engineer. He worked with medical X-ray and physiotherapy apparatus. We got married in 1952. In 1954 my daughter was born. She was named Olga after my perished sister. The birth of my daughter changed my life. My maternity leave was very short - only two months. I had to put Olga in a nursery so I could go back to work. The salary of engineers was very skimpy, it was hardly enough to get by. I couldn't afford to stay with the baby. Leonid wasn't able to provide for us. In 1960 I was assigned chief of the physiotherapy department of the hospital. Of course, it was a promotion, but I didn't get a pay rise. We didn't have enough money for a comfortable living. So I had to look for additional work. When my daughter turned one, I went to work half time for the military academy of chemical defense. I held lectures there three times a week for four hours. I worked there for thirteen years.