Faina Melamed’s cousin, Leonid Krylovfather, son of her father’s sister Yeva Krylova

This is my cousin Leonid Krylov, son of my father’s sister Yeva Krylovamy. This photo was taken in Moscow in 1958.

My father's younger sister Yeva was born in 1897. She finished a conservatory. She played the piano and taught in a music school. Yeva married musician Alexandr Krylov, a Jew. In 1930 Yeva gave birth to her son Semyon and in 1936 her son Leonid was born. During the Great Patriotic War Yeva's husband Alexandr perished at the front. Yeva and her children failed to evacuate and they perished in Odessa during [Romanian] occupation. Semyon was killed when he came outside to consider the weather when all of a sudden Romanians appeared 'Ah, zhydovskaya morda!' [Jewish mug] and killed him. Yeva, her younger son Leonid and my grandmother Sara were in the ghetto in Odessa. My grandmother perished and Yeva and her son miraculously survived.

After the war Leonid finished a conservatory and moved to live in Moscow. He played the violin in a symphonic orchestra conducted by Svetlanov. [Evgeniy Fyodorovich Svetlanov, 1928-2003, was a Soviet conductor and composer. In 1965 he became art director and chief conductor of the State Symphonic Orchestra of the USSR.] He toured to many countries across the world with this orchestra. He also gave solo concerts. He still works in this orchestra. Aunt Yeva died in Moscow in the 1950s.