Evsey Karpis

This is my brother Evsey Karpis in the military Soviet army uniform. The picture was made in 1941 in Moscow shortly after his went to front as a volunteer. He was sent to the tank school. He sent the picture to the parents in evacuation in Kuibyshev.

In 1926 our family moved to Moscow. We lived in one room of 9,5 sq. m. Father worked very hard. In 1928 he lost job again. Only in 1929 father found a job at the construction site. He worked and studied at the evening department of Moscow construction institute. In spite of the fact that our living was very hard father managed to graduate from the institute. We were friendly, but life was hard on us. We did not have furniture. We slept on the baskets. We used sawing-machine as a table.

Parents spoke Yiddish between themselves but out of all children only elder brother Evsey understood it. First he went to cheder and then to the compulsory Jewish school. We, the younger, did not know Yiddish. Parents wanted us to speak pure Russian as they thought it would make our lifes easier. Parents also knew how to write in Yiddish. Raisa even composed verses in Yiddish during war times. Unfortunately nothing was preserved. Parents also loved singing Jewish songs but they were doing it in sotto for our neighbor not to hear them.

My brother Evsey graduated from Moscow construction institute, Heating and Ventilation  Department. During WW2 he was a volunteer in the front lines and had been in the tank troops for the whole war. He defended his thesis before the outbreak of war. In the post-war period he defended doctorate dissertation and published over 700 scientific articles. He was a great scientist, professor, then academician.  Evsey was married to a Jew. I do not remember her name. They had 3 children: twins Leonid and Victor born in 1946 and daughter Elena born in 1955. Victor died in 1965. Evsey died in 2000. He was buried on Jewish Vostryakovskoye cemetery in Moscow.