Leonid Karlinsky's grandfather's Pinhus Berhov family

My grandfather, Pinhus Berkov Karlinsky, and my grandmother, Riva Leya Karlinskaya, with their children: Hina and Aron sitting, and my father, Meyer, and his sister Margola, standing. The photo was taken in Poltava in 1913. My grandparents had no children for several years after their marriage. Then following an ancient Jewish tradition, they adopted Hina, a girl from the family of their poor relatives from Ekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk). Hina was born around 1899. After they adopted Hina, my grandmother Riva got pregnant, and in 1901 gave birth to Aron, my father's older brother. Their second son, my father, Meyer Karlinsky, was born in 1904, and their daughter Margola followed in 1908. My grandfather used to say that their children were a gift from the Lord, because they had adopted a girl from a poor family. When Hina grew up, she went back to Dnepropetrovsk, her birthplace. She married Anatoliy Krugliak, a Russian who was the director of a plant. In 1937 Anatoliy was arrested, and disappeared. We believe he must have been arrested, because there was no information about his fate. During the war, Hina and her two sons, Victor, born in 1933, and Tolik, born in 1938, joined us in Ashgabad. My father's older brother, Aron, studied at a cheder and then went to grammar school. He was a very talented boy and could play the violin. Aron was 16 when the Revolution took place, and he went to study at the rabfak . Later, he was admitted to the Medical Institute in Leningrad. During the war he served as director of the evacuation hospital. He was in Tomsk during the war with Japan, and after the war ended, he returned to Leningrad. Aron married. His wife Bertha and his son Volodia were with us in Ashgabad during the war. Before the war, Aron was a very sociable and easy-going man. After the war he was a different person. He became withdrawn, led a secluded way of life, and divorced his wife. He lived alone in a small room for many years, and worked as a physician. Aron died in 1959 My father's younger sister, Margola, married a Russian named Golubev. He was a high official at the Ministry of Agriculture. They lived in the building specifically designed for state officials in Kiev. They didn't have any children of their own and after Hina died, they adopted Hina's son, Tolik. Margola died in 2000.