Osip Hotinskiy and his wife Zoria Hotinskaya

Osip Hotinskiy and his wife Zoria Hotinskaya

This is me and my wife Zoria Hotinskaya, nee Petrunicheva, on Kamenny Bridge across the Moskwa River. Zaria is pregnant here; two months later our daughter Nina was born.

This photo was taken in Moscow in 1956.

I got married in 1952. I knew Zoria almost since her birth. She was born in Moscow in 1926. We often saw each other on holidays, at family gatherings and birthdays.

There was an age difference of seven years between us and it was significant before the war.

When I returned home after the war Zoria was a student at the Department of History of Moscow University. When I studied at the academy, Zoria's mother bought a tour to the Riga seashore for Zoria, her younger brother, my cousin Fira, my aunt Maria's daughter, who also lived in Moscow and studied at university, and me.

That summer Zoria and I realized that we loved each other. After finishing her studies Zoria went to work at the Institute of Oriental Studies.

We got married in 1952. We didn't have a Jewish wedding. Our parents and I were members of the Party. Neither my wife nor I were religious. We registered our marriage in a registry office and in the evening our parents arranged a wedding dinner for us.

Our relatives and friends attended it. Zoria moved in with us.
My wife was a scientific employee of the Institute of Oriental Studies.

Zoria and I have two children: Nina, born in 1956, and Nikolay, born in 1963. They grew up like all other Soviet children. They were pioneers and Komsomol members.

I spent as much time as I could with them. In summer we went to the seashore or to the mountains, at weekends we went for walks, to the cinema or theater.

We had family dinners in the evening where we discussed what had happened during the day, shared our thoughts and supported each other. We were very close.

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