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The rear admiral made a telephone call ‘Comrade Khryaschev, come to me.’ Major Khryaschev was the chief of the navy housing department. ‘What about our new house? Is it already occupied?’ – ‘Not yet, we will do it tomorrow.’ – ‘Give this officer a room.’ – ‘Yes, sir!’ That was the way I got a room in a two-room apartment. The guys, my friends, nearly killed me: ‘We stay here for 4 or 5 years! We pay 700 roubles per month to rent a room! And you got it during your first month here!’ A blessing in disguise.
It was a block of 8 flats: 4 apartments on each floor. We lived on the second floor: the larger room was occupied by the chief of communication service Vassiliy Pudrikov. We lived in the smaller room. We used firewood to heat premises and had to bring water in buckets. That chief’s wife Polina called him Vassilyek, and my son used to say ‘Look, Polina, your Kossilyek has come!’ [Kosselyek is a purse in Russian, it is concordant with endearing word his wife chose to call her husband.
It was a block of 8 flats: 4 apartments on each floor. We lived on the second floor: the larger room was occupied by the chief of communication service Vassiliy Pudrikov. We lived in the smaller room. We used firewood to heat premises and had to bring water in buckets. That chief’s wife Polina called him Vassilyek, and my son used to say ‘Look, Polina, your Kossilyek has come!’ [Kosselyek is a purse in Russian, it is concordant with endearing word his wife chose to call her husband.
Period
Location
Russia
Interview
Boris Lesman