This is me, Iyah Dziekovskaya (the first on the right), with my co-student Zoya Yablochkina. This photo was taken in Odessa in 1954. Zoya and I were photographed on the occasion of finishing college. I was going to work in Baku and Zoya was staying in Odessa.
My family had no doubts about me: I was to be a doctor. I even went to the autopsy office of my father. My father wanted to know whether I could stand it. I managed. Well, during exams in the 10th form I bumped into a popular scientific book 'Human Being and Elements' by Iliin about meteorologists and I decided to enter Odessa Meteorological College. At first my mother and father were unhappy about it, but they never forced me to do things and I went to study in this college. There were three boys in my group and the rest of us were girls. I was elected the Komsomol leader again, but this time my Komsomol career flopped. We had a choir rehearsal, but my friend Dina Mikheyeva had a date, besides, she had a poor voice. I allowed her to miss the rehearsal: 'This is more important than singing in the choir with your voice'. He others blamed me that I was shielding my friends. They even drew a caricature of me in our wallpaper where I was depicted as a sitting hen and my friend was looking out of a wing. Without giving it much of a thought, I pulled down this newspaper. I thought this was unfair. They said I didn't acknowledge criticism and didn't elect me Komsomol leader for the fifth year.
