Selected text
We moved to Kiev in 1934, because my father was promoted to Kiev. He became Chairman of the Book Store Association. Their office was downtown in Cheluskintsev street. We lived nearby, in Malozhytomirskaya street. We lived in a small two-room apartment. In Kiev I also went to school #13. This school was located in Vladimirskaya street, near the Bogdan Khmelnitskiy Square. I remember this school very well. I still keep in touch with my schoolmates, the ones that are still here. I liked one girl when I was in the third form. She was my first attraction. I was about 9 or 10 years old then that’s why my love was all feeling and sighing. We were all friends in our class. I still remember their names: Volodya Shubs, Boris Khan, Vova Sats, all Jews. My best friend Boria Khan lives in America, he is Doctor of Technical Sciences. Vova Shubs married our classmate Zoya Vazovskaya. They live in Frankfurt, Germany. Vova Sats also lives in America. He was an otolaryngologist here and continued working in the US. It didn’t matter a bit whether one was a Jew or whether one wasn’t. For example, I didn’t even know that Zoya Vazovskaya was a Jew.
I didn’t study well at school. I had poor marks, but I managed to pass from one form to the next. I read a lot. My favorite book is “Musketeers”. My favorite writers are J. Verne, Walter Scott and Louis Boussenard. I spent my summers in pioneer camps. Sometimes I visited my grandmother in Kirovograd. Sometimes we went to the dacha (summerhouse). I was in Artek once (biggest and famous Ukrainian summer camp) in Luzanovka, in the vicinity of Odessa. I remember it was in 1936 – Gorkiy died then. I wasn’t quite fond of this organized rest. It was too structured. We lived in some plain dwellings. We even went to the beach in groups and in order. There were some games, but I wasn’t interested in them. I was fond of art then.
We were pioneers, of course. I also was a young Octobrist. There was a ritual in the first years of the revolution – consecration. I can’t remember the ritual itself, but I remember they gave me a blanket and I was adopted into Printers Trade Unions and exempt from payment of membership fee until my I got employed.
I liked to draw at an early age, although there had been no such talents in the family. At first these were child’s drawings. Love took me to the art. When I was in the fifth or sixth form I liked two girls – Tsylia and Polia (twins). These girls went to a dancing class at the Palace of Pioneers. I was shy and afraid to go to the dance class to be near them, so I enrolled to the drawing club in this Palace. It was headed by Kozlovskiy, a graphic artist. There was a jubilee of Shevchenko (Ukrainian poet, writer and artist). I was told to draw a picture of Shevchenko. I had a book. And in it I found a picture of Shevchenko, where he was carrying water. I made a copy giving it very little thought. However, this picture was taken to an exhibition and I received an award for it: a manual on drawing and a box of pencils. Since then drawing became my hobby. But my love to Tsylia and Polia ended, as everything does in this world.
I remember 1933 well. In our family we didn’t quite feel the famine. My father was a Party official at that time and we received rationed food. People around had no food whatsoever. We even had some makukha (bran of sunflower wastes) and cereals – no, we weren’t starving to death.
When famine was almost over, they opened a big bookstore in Karl Marx street. Somebody from our school group found out that they were giving sweets and cakes there to attract children. It was literature club there. Our whole class joined this club. We did eat there. There were cakes and sweets. I remember a long table and us all sitting at the table. There were discussions, but we were more interested in what was on the table than in literature. When there were too many children on the list they closed this activity.
I didn’t study well at school. I had poor marks, but I managed to pass from one form to the next. I read a lot. My favorite book is “Musketeers”. My favorite writers are J. Verne, Walter Scott and Louis Boussenard. I spent my summers in pioneer camps. Sometimes I visited my grandmother in Kirovograd. Sometimes we went to the dacha (summerhouse). I was in Artek once (biggest and famous Ukrainian summer camp) in Luzanovka, in the vicinity of Odessa. I remember it was in 1936 – Gorkiy died then. I wasn’t quite fond of this organized rest. It was too structured. We lived in some plain dwellings. We even went to the beach in groups and in order. There were some games, but I wasn’t interested in them. I was fond of art then.
We were pioneers, of course. I also was a young Octobrist. There was a ritual in the first years of the revolution – consecration. I can’t remember the ritual itself, but I remember they gave me a blanket and I was adopted into Printers Trade Unions and exempt from payment of membership fee until my I got employed.
I liked to draw at an early age, although there had been no such talents in the family. At first these were child’s drawings. Love took me to the art. When I was in the fifth or sixth form I liked two girls – Tsylia and Polia (twins). These girls went to a dancing class at the Palace of Pioneers. I was shy and afraid to go to the dance class to be near them, so I enrolled to the drawing club in this Palace. It was headed by Kozlovskiy, a graphic artist. There was a jubilee of Shevchenko (Ukrainian poet, writer and artist). I was told to draw a picture of Shevchenko. I had a book. And in it I found a picture of Shevchenko, where he was carrying water. I made a copy giving it very little thought. However, this picture was taken to an exhibition and I received an award for it: a manual on drawing and a box of pencils. Since then drawing became my hobby. But my love to Tsylia and Polia ended, as everything does in this world.
I remember 1933 well. In our family we didn’t quite feel the famine. My father was a Party official at that time and we received rationed food. People around had no food whatsoever. We even had some makukha (bran of sunflower wastes) and cereals – no, we weren’t starving to death.
When famine was almost over, they opened a big bookstore in Karl Marx street. Somebody from our school group found out that they were giving sweets and cakes there to attract children. It was literature club there. Our whole class joined this club. We did eat there. There were cakes and sweets. I remember a long table and us all sitting at the table. There were discussions, but we were more interested in what was on the table than in literature. When there were too many children on the list they closed this activity.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Grigoriy Yakovlevich Husid