Mois Iakov Moyseev

This is a picture of my father, Mois Iakov Moyseev, taken in Sofia in the 1930s. My father was born in Pleven in 1877. He graduated from high school there and around 1900 he came to Sofia, where he had been a soldier before and he met my mother - I don’t know where and how they met. They had a religious wedding around 1900. My father worked as a clerk in the municipality in the beginning. When my uncle Marco Avramov built a factory in Troyan and then a textile factory in Sliven, he hired my father as an accountant. My father fought in World War I and they told us that the soldiers wanted to go home to their families so much that they drank from the same water that the buffaloes drank from in order to catch dysentery and be sent home on leave. My father was Bohemian in nature - he loved life, and he loved gambling, so my mother was very happy when gambling was banned after 9th September 1944. He never lost much money, he did it because of the thrill the game gave him. We were not part of the Jewish community, although we kept in touch with some of our relatives. My mother had some socialist leanings, but my father didn't. They mixed with intelligent people - Jews and Bulgarians. They visited each other, but not very often. Usually my father went around the cafés to gamble while my mother stayed at home.