Leonid Karlinsky's grandfather Pinhus Berhov and grandmother Riva Leya Nohim Karlinskaya

My paternal grandparents, Pinhus Berkov Karlinsky and Riva Leya Karlinsky. The photo was taken in Poltava in 1910. My paternal grandfather, Pinhus Berkov Karlinsky, was born into the family of a tailor in Poltava, Ukraine around 1872. I have no information about his brothers or sisters. Pinhus followed in his father's footsteps in choosing a profession, and became a tailor. He was the only tailor in Poltava province granted a license to make uniforms for soldiers, military officers and policemen. My grandfather had a lot of work, and hired several assistants. His workshop was on the first floor of his house, and his family lived on the second floor. My grandparents had four children. The family was wealthy. My grandmother, whose full name was Riva Leya Nohim Aronovna Karlinskaya (I don't know her maiden name), was a housewife, a traditional role for a wife in Jewish families. There were housemaids in the house, but my grandmother was responsible for supervising the housework. She didn't do any cooking or cleaning herself, but had the job of raising her children. I don't know what my grandmother and grandfather thought about the Revolution of 1917. My father never mentioned it to me. My father's sister, Margola, once told me that a police officer had saved their family from pogroms and bandits which terrorized the population of Ukraine during the Civil War. During the NEP (New Economic Policy) my grandfather worked in his shop. In 1926 he and my grandmother moved to Kharkov. He worked at a shop there, too, but also took work home with him. My grandparents returned to Kiev with the family of their younger daughter Margola in 1947. My grandmother died shortly thereafter, and my grandfather lived in Margola's family until his death in 1957.