Miron Manilov and Evangelina Manilova

Miron Manilov and Evangelina Manilova

This is me with my wife, Evangelina. This is the way we looked when we met. The picture was taken before my departure from Moscow, where I was on vacation, to the service quarters. She was standing on my cabinet in my barrack. The picture was taken in Moscow in 1948. In 1948, I still had a couple of vacation days left and I decided to look for a bride. I was 27, and it was high time for me to get married; I didn't want to remain a bachelor any more. There were so many ladies around me, but I wanted to marry only a Jew. I thought it was my duty to preserve the Jewry. I was a member of the Party, but in that issue my international upbringing had no influence. I decided that I should attend the performance of the Jewish theater because I thought that I would meet a Jewish girl there. During the interval, I noticed a very beautiful girl in a décolleté velvet dress, surrounded by young people. There was an elderly woman with her. I assumed it was her mother. I didn't manage to go up to the girl, as the interval was over and the second act was to begin. When the performance was over, I went up to the mother of the girl and suggested helping them getting the coats in the cloakroom. The lady thanked me for being so amiable and said that they lived far from Moscow and would get cold without the coats. I told them that a Jewish officer would never do such a mean thing. She liked my response, and allowed me to see them off to the outskirts of Moscow, where she lived with her daughter. The mother introduced her daughter to me. Her name was Evangelina Kilman. Eva was born in 1927 in a Ukrainian town called Uman. Eva's father, Leib Kilman, was a farmer. He grew potatoes for sale. Her mother, Haya-Rivka Kilman, nee Vekselman, was a housewife. Eva was an only child. When she was one year old, the family moved to Odessa. Her father completed some courses and worked as an officer in some sort of institution. Eva went to music school and compulsory school. In late 1940, the family moved to Moscow, before the outbreak of war. Leib Kilman was drafted into the lines, and Eva was evacuated to Bashkiria with her mother. They lived in a hamlet. Eva went to school, and her mother worked in a kolkhoz. After classes, Eva helped her mother with the field work. Of course, they went through hard times, but they managed to survive. They went back to Moscow in 1943. Eva completed school and entered the Institute of Foreign Languages. I was seeing Eva, when I was in Moscow. We were corresponding with each other after my departure. I fell in love and wanted to marry her. Eva didn't mind. The next year I went to Moscow to enter the academy once again, and again I flunked the exams. None of the Jews who submitted the documents with me was admitted. I was dating Eva during my stay in Moscow. I proposed to her and she agreed to marry me. In March 1949 we got married.
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