Friends of Chasya Mussel

This photo was taken on 30th May 1936 in Peterhof, not far from Leningrad. This is the YCL Central Committee Leader, Grigoriy Rokhlin (second from left, standing) with 8th grade pupils, my sister Chasya's class.

My elder sister entered the Foreign Languages University after finishing school; however, she had to quit because of her health condition. During the war, she stayed with our parents and younger sister in Leningrad. She worked at the Hydro-Meteorological Service for the Baltic Navy. At first she worked as a technician-meteorologist, I think she was making drawings. Later on, after special training, she worked there as a technician/meteorologist at the Hydro-Meteorological Observatory.

She married Eliazar Aleksandrovich Smirnov approximately in 1950. His mother, Basya Borisovna, was a Jew and his father was Russian. Both his parents were Communists and took part in the revolutionary movement. His father worked as a Plant Manager and was subjected to repression at the end of the 1930s. Later on he was rehabilitated. During the war, Eliazar was in evacuation together with his mother. My sister’s marriage was a common-law marriage and the wedding was a standard one, not Jewish. I was in the army at that time and could not be present. They had no children, but lived in harmony. My sister adored her husband. He also treated her very well. They lived together with his mother, first in an apartment on Dzershinskogo Street, later on Malaya Okhta. Relations between the three of them were excellent. Eliazar graduated from the Engineering and Economic Institute and worked as an economist at the Design Institute, developing famous Siberian Gas Main Lines designs. He also went to Siberia on business trips.