Maria Komarovskaya’s mother, Chaya-Beyla Komarovskaya

Maria Komarovskaya’s mother, Chaya-Beyla Komarovskaya

My mother, Chaya-Beyla Komarovskaya (nee - Bezprozvannaya). The photo was made in around 1916 in Kiev. My mother, Chaya-Beila Volfovna Komarovskaya (nee - Bezprozvannaya) was also born in Kiev in 1897. I'm not sure who exactly - my mother's grandfather or great-grandfather - was an orphan. This orphan boy ran around begging for money. He was found and sent to the soldiers at the age of 13 or 14. When he was asked about his last name, he always said he was Gendelevich. But the soldiers wanted to baptize him. And every time they would force him to be baptized he would pretend to get crazy. He would bite, kick and yell at the top of his lungs, "I am Gendelevich, I am Gendelevich!" But in his documents it was written that he was "bez prozvanya" - "without last name", that's where his last name "Bezprozvanny" came from. So, his children became Bezprozvannies as well - grandfather, mother and father, their sisters and brothers. This grandfather became a "cantonist", which means a service man who lived in a village but when it was necessary he could be called up to serve in the army. My grandfather, my mother's father, worked as a metalworker at a sausage factory in Kiev. I don't know his name because when I was born he was dead. Neither did I know my grandmother - my mother's mother. My mother was the eldest child in the family. She was born in 1897, studied at a commercial school in Kiev, finished it in 1915 and taught, mostly gave private lessons. After she married my father, she did not work any more but looked after the house and children. My father, Yakov Komarovsky, returned from the war as an invalid. After the war he worked for some time as an accountant, but then he retired. He died in Kiev in 1975. My mother died soon after him - in 1980.
Open this page