Evgeni Chazov with his mother Friena Chazova, father Pyotr Chazov and sister Ludmila Borisenko

Evgeni Chazov with his mother Friena Chazova, father Pyotr Chazov and sister Ludmila Borisenko

Our family; from right to left: my mother Friena Chazova, my father Pyotr Chazov, my sister Ludmila Chazova and I. This photo was taken during our family vacation in Sochi, at the Black Sea in 1956.

Our family was an exemplary Soviet family. My father and mother supported any actions initiated by higher authorities. My father devotedly believed in Stalin. My parents had many friends. They were usually my father's co-officers and their families.  They got together in our home to celebrate Soviet holidays: 1 May, October revolution Day and the Soviet army Day. On weekends my father and mother went for a stroll. They went to the park where a symphonic orchestra was playing. It was a tradition.

After finishing school in 1953 I entered the Faculty of Russian Philology in Rivne Pedagogical College. There was no such college in Ternopol and I left for Rivne in  200 km from Ternopol. I lived in a hostel and shared a room with three other students.  We supported each other, had meals together and missed lectures together.  In summer we had practical training in a school in Rivne and then I went to Ternopol on vacations. We often spent vacations together. My father obtained free trips to the Crimea and Caucasus.

My sister Ludmila finished Pedagogical College in Lvov and married Alexandr Borisenko, her former schoolmate. He was Ukrainian. He was at the military and had an assignment in the Caucasus.  They often moved from one location to another: Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Poti [in Georgia] and other towns where her husband was on service. Ludmila had a small child and she couldn't leave her family to come to look after our mother.  

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