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We lived in Kerch, in a communal flat [12]. We had two rooms, and there were two families of our neighbors (i.e. two rooms more in the flat). Anteroom was very large – about 40 square meters. It also served as a common kitchen: a kerosene stove was situated there. Of course, there was no bathroom, no water supply. There was a water-pump in our court yard – some sort of an old-fashioned waterpipe: we had to carry pailfuls of water to the second floor. We had to go to a bath-house to wash ourselves. Toilet was situated in the corner of our court yard, of course, it was common. There was electricity supply, strange as it may seem.
In the first room to the right from the entrance there lived a lonely girl, who was sometimes visited by men at night. Some guy lived at her for a short period of time, later he disappeared somewhere, and after that another young guy came to her place. I remember it well, because I was a child and I saw them coming and leaving. The second room was occupied by a couple with a daughter. Their daughter was my coeval, but she studied not at my school, therefore I was not in touch with her.
And the rest two rooms were occupied by our family. The second wife of my father had a child, whose surname was Ghin (the surname of her first husband Ghin). He was nine years younger than me (born in 1932, probably in Kerch); and we lived together with him in the same room: his bed, my bed. My father together with Dorah Isaacovna lived in the other room. We had neither servants, nor baby-sitters.
In the first room to the right from the entrance there lived a lonely girl, who was sometimes visited by men at night. Some guy lived at her for a short period of time, later he disappeared somewhere, and after that another young guy came to her place. I remember it well, because I was a child and I saw them coming and leaving. The second room was occupied by a couple with a daughter. Their daughter was my coeval, but she studied not at my school, therefore I was not in touch with her.
And the rest two rooms were occupied by our family. The second wife of my father had a child, whose surname was Ghin (the surname of her first husband Ghin). He was nine years younger than me (born in 1932, probably in Kerch); and we lived together with him in the same room: his bed, my bed. My father together with Dorah Isaacovna lived in the other room. We had neither servants, nor baby-sitters.
Location
Kerch
Russia
Interview
Boris Lesman