Lev Drobyazko's uncle, mother's brother Vladimir Vaisblat.

My uncle, Vladimir Vaisblat, my mother's brother. He was born in 1882 in Malin. The photo was taken in 1944 in Kiev. Vladimir, the second son of Rabbi Rabbi Nukhim and Basya Vaisblat, was born two years after Yakov. He received not simply a secular, but a philosophical education in Germany. At the beginning of the 20th century Vladimir was very famous in Russia as an expert in the arts, as a literary critic and publisher. He was one of the sponsors of the World Exhibition of Kiev in 1913. Even though Vladimir was Jewish, the tsar gave him permission to at as an official representative of Russia at the World Book Exhibition in Leipzig in 1914. Vladimir was also known for his knowledge of theater. He collected porcelain, carpets and paintings. In 1944, he died from typhus following his return to Kiev from evacuation. He left his wife, Lubov, a son, Alexander and a daughter, Iya, who preserved his literary and artistic heritage for the rest of their lives. There is an interesting episode concerning Vladimir in that family's legend. When in 1906 he returned home from Germany, being a highly educated man and an atheist, Vladimir sat down for dinner without a yarmulke and prayer. Rabbi Nukhim threw him out . No man was ever allowed to sit down to dinner in that house without a yarmulke and a prayer.