Yuri Bogdanov with his grandson Ilia

That’s me with my grandson Ilia at our dacha outside Moscow. The picture was taken in Ulianovo in 1972.

My son Konstantin had a propensity to exact sciences, taking after his uncle Solomon, whom he had never met. Konstantin graduated from the physics and mathematics department of the Moscow Physical and Technical Institute.

Then he became a post-graduate student. Like my brother he became a candidate of science rather rapidly, then he wrote his dissertation and became a professor.

My son has two children. The elder one, Ilia, born in 1972, graduated from university. He is married now. Ilia's son Kirill was born in 1999. My son's daughter Evgenia, born in 1980, is an engineer. She is single.

I didn't plan to leave when the mass immigration took place in the 1970s. I didn't judge people who were immigrating; I assisted them in anything I possibly could.

I sympathized with them, rejoiced in their making a new life for themselves. But I didn't see such an opportunity for myself. I was born and raised here. I fought for this country.

My relatives are buried here. My children are here, too. I understood that my wife and I weren't young any more and it would be hard for us to get adjusted to a new mode of life.

If our children wanted to leave, we would do that in a second for the sake of their future. But our children weren't enthusiastic about that idea, so we stayed. I don't regret this decision of mine. What is done cannot be undone.

I became a pensioner in 1987 and have been a story-writer since then. These are mostly tales about war, some of them are memoirs. Some of those stories were published; other ones are waiting to be.

I wanted to leave a true story about my life and the life of my family to my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I understand that my children don't display a keen interest in that and neither do my grandchildren - they are trying to earn their daily bread. But things change in time, and they will happen to be interested in their lineage.