Tag #144758 - Interview #78102 (Roman Barskiy)

We didn't stay long in Kharkov. My mother went to work as a typist at
Kharkov Military Headquarters. In Kharkov we stayed at my grandmother
Tsypa's house. She looked after Elena. We didn't stay long in Kharkov.
Later my grandmother and my aunt and my cousin evacuated. My aunt's
husband went to the front and was killed there. When Germans were
approaching Kharkov we moved on to Kuibyshev. On the way I saw
bombings and destroyed cars, people who had been killed, and blood.

We reached Kuibyshev, but there was no place to stay there and we
sailed on a steamship from one town to another, I don't remember their
names, looking for a place to stay. It was a boat with paddle wheels,
of pre-revolutionary make. It was September and October, 1941. We
settled down in Stavropol-on-the-Volga (Toliatti at present). I
remember a lot of mud, and black houses. It looked prehistoric.

We received a letter from my father. He wrote that he was going on
business to Kuibyshev and that we could meet there. We caught the last
boat, as the Volga was beginning to freeze. It was cold when we
arrived in Kuibyshev and it was beginning to snow. We went up the
street to catch a tram. My mother was carrying Lena and I was holding
her by the skirt. My mother was crying and I was freezing. We came to
the railway station and found my father's note on a bulletin board. So
we went on to Tashkent, a warm, cozy town very far away.