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My mother Clara Ioselevich. Photo made in Kiev in 1928. Stamp "Pacheskiy Photograph, 4, Lenin street. This company was founded in 1908".
My mother went to work after the revolution of 1917. She gave private mathematics classes for some time. Later she became an apprentice at the sewing shop. She did portion of work at home to be able to go to school. In 1924 my mother left Berdichev for Kiev looking for a better job and the possibility to get education.
From 1924 to 1929 my mother took all kinds of minor jobs and rented rooms from different landlords in Kiev. She was an agent in the proletariat newspaper "Communist". Her responsibility was distribution of badges with Lenin and Stalin. Later she was a cashier at a canteen and worked at the streetcar garage. In 1929 she got a job of a puncher at the factory of the 10th anniversary of October in Pechersk. My mother was a very good employee and a shock worker (udarnik in Russian) of labor. She had some privileges. The shops were empty and it was next to impossible to buy anything in stores. Udarniks of labor received special cards enabling them to buy goods without having to stand in endless lines and buy a certain food package in special stores once a week. My mother told me that she could buy 1 kg cereal, 2 kg bread, 2 tins of fish a week and 3 meters of cotton once in 3 months. It may sound funny for today, but at that time it was a lot. My mother worked at this factory 3 months and then the factory issued her a recommendation to the trade faculty for working young people (rabfak).
