Zlata Bogorad with her family

This photo was taken in 1920s in Vishniy Volochek.

Here you see me and part of my family: my grandmother Zlata, my uncle Semen, my mother Zinaida, Semen's wife and their daughter.

I can say only that, possibly, my maternal grandfather and grandmother lived on the territory of Jewish Pale of Settlement and my mother (Ghinda Zusevna Alperovitch, nee Bogorad, Zinaida Zakharovna, as it was written in her passport) was born in Gorodok [small town in Belarus, in 50 kilometers to the North from Vitebsk].

That was quite a remote, out-off-the-way place; however, many Jews lived there. Then her family moved to Staraya Russa [town in Novgorod province, 300 kilometers to the South from Petersburg].

My mother's father Zusya Bogorad (Zakhar, as it was written in his passport) was a craftsman, and owned small lemonade and gas waters' factory. Staraya Russa was a spa place, so they sold their gas waters and lemonade in the recreation parts of the town.

Mother's parents had fourteen children: Anna (Jewish name Khaya), Bronya, Lev, Solomon, Tatiana, Elisabeth, Zinaida, Maria, Bertha, Ida, Semen (three more died in the childhood). All of them, when grew up a little, worked on the factory: girls washed dishes and guys helped granddad.

They had their own wooden house with mezzanine. The house didn't preserve, I guess. And there was a shed near the house, where the factory was placed: two big cans with kvass [soft drink, made out of bread] and gas water, storages of cranberries in tubs and two baths to wash the bottles.

I don't know where my grandfather met my grandmother, Zlata Iztkovna Bedereva. I know very badly history of my maternal grandfather. He died, when I was only two years old, in year 1925.

My mother told that his wife Zlata ruled whole process, and he, probably, closed his eyes for quite many things, and obeyed her. They spoke mainly Yiddish in the family, but they knew Russian too.

I spent much time, communicating to my maternal grandmother, and she loved me very much. She was very strict woman, although. Mother told that she managed their factory on her own, and guys, when they went to sell the lemonade, tried to overcharge her. And she watched very carefully, how many bottles does she send, and if she noticed that something is wrong, the guys were punished.

Granny tried to give education and profession to all of her children: Aunt Maria was a dressmaker, aunt Bertha made hats, she was a milliner, and my mother learned how to knit on a special stocking machine.

Grandmother often came to us in Bologoye [town in 300 kilometers to the South from Petersburg]; she also liked to take me to her in Volochek [Vyshniy Volochek, small town in 350 kilometers to the North from Moscow].

Grandmother died on Praygka [small river in Leningrad, also there is a madhouse in this place], in Leningrad, in 1948, when she was eighty six. She had a strong sclerosis. They buried her in Jewish cemetery [the only Jewish cemetery in Leningrad is Preobragenskoe cemetery].

Semen, the youngest brother, was born in 1904 and died in 1965; he managed a store, worked as a seller, and lived in Vyshniy Volochek and Leningrad. He had a nice wife, Esphir and two daughters. As I guess, he was grandmother's favorite and she lived at his often.