Miron Manilov and his daughter Diana

Miron Manilov and his daughter Diana

This is me with my daughter Diana, during the visit of my wife and daughter to Kamchatka. The picture was taken next to our barracks in 1952. In 1949 I was transferred to the Far-Eastern peninsular Kamchatka, to artillery regiment #203, which was a part of the division, located not far from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski. My wife was pregnant and decided that it would be better for her and our child, if she returned to Moscow and stayed with her parents, and so I left by myself. I was given a room in the officers' barracks. It was in the log house on the coast of the ocean. The living conditions were primitive. When my daughter, Diana, was born in 1950, I got a vacation and spent it in Moscow with my family. Then, I had to go back to Kamchatka. It was hard for me to stay there by myself. Most of the men there were single and as a result there was a lot of drinking, women, gambling, etc around me. I wrote to Eva about it. In 1952, she came to live with me with our two-year old daughter. She moved to the officers' barracks, i.e. a one-storied log house without conveniences. There was a common kitchen; toilet and water were outside. Eva courageously got over all those inconveniences, but the climate of Kamchatka turned out to be too severe for her and our daughter. Kamchatka is indigenous, and by stepping on the ground you feel the nature of the earth - shakes and tremors of the soil. There wasn't enough oxygen in the air as well. Eva didn't feel very well and had heart trouble. The doctors advised her to go home. She didn't want to leave, but there was an earthquake in Kamchatka and all the family members of the militaries were evacuated. So, Eva and Diana left for Moscow.
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