Maria Zabozlaeva with her husband Georgi Zabozlaev

I, Maria Zabozlaeva and my husband Georgi Zabozlaev. This photo was taken near the circus in Saratov after the parade on 1 May 1956.

When a senior pupil I attended a history club in the House of Officers. Boys from a school for boys attended it, too. In  1945, when I was in the 8th form I met my future husband Yuri (Georgi) Zabozlaev. He was born in Saratov in 1929. I finished school in 1947 and entered the Pediatric Faculty at the Medical College. I passed my entrance exams and got all excellent marks. My Jewish identity didn't play any role I finished this college in 1953.

After finishing the 10th form Yuri was sent to a pilot school in Balashov [over 800 km from Moscow] in Saratov region. We got married after I finished my third year in college. This happened in summer 1950, though he had proposed to me few years before. My husband and I lived separately for many years. I was finishing my studies in Saratov and he studied in Balashov. He finished his military school with honors and worked there as pilot-instructor for few years. Upon graduation from Medical College I worked as a doctor in a children's hospital, nursery school and was a district doctor. We rented an apartment in the outskirts of Balashov. In 1952 our daughter Sophia was born.

Yuri and I kept moving from one place to another where Yuri's military service required. From Balashov we moved to Cheliabinsk [about 1600 km from Moscow]. My husband finished his service in Feodorovka village Kustanai region [over 1700 km from Moscow] in Kazakhstan where our son was born in 1957. I named him Fyodor after father my husband.