I took this picture of my grandchildren. Mikhail is to the left, and Olga is to the right. The picture was taken in Moscow in 1996 in my daughter's house.
My daughter Stella finished the secondary school where my sister and I had studied and entered the Moscow Culture Institute, the Library Studies Department. My daughter wasn't raised Jewish; most Jewish children back in that time weren't.
After her graduation, she became a librarian at the State Library of Technical Science.
She got married in 1986. I don't want to dwell on her husband. Stella kept her maiden name Kravets.
We exchanged our apartment for another one: three rooms for my daughter and one room for my wife and me.
In 1987 Stella gave birth to her daughter Olga, and in 1991 she gave birth to a son, Mikhail. Stella left work after her daughter was born.
My wife and I helped her raising the children. I take pride in her children. Now, my granddaughter is finishing compulsory school. She is also enrolled on preparatory courses for the Russian Medicine Academy.
She passed the exams of the first term, in March she will be taking exams of the second term and after that she will enter medical academy and have a certificate of the secondary education. Besides, Olga finished a seven-year music school.
Mikhail followed into her footsteps. This year he is finishing the seven-year music school and the 7th grade of secondary school. He hasn't made up his mind yet as to what he is going to become in the future, but there is still time for that… In 2000 my daughter resumed working.
We didn't mark Jewish holidays after the war. Our family marked Soviet holidays such as 1st May, 7th November, New Year's Day, Soviet Army Day, Victory Day. I spent Victory Day with my family only in the morning, when we went to the Grave of the Unknown Soldier to lay down flowers.
