Tag #146290 - Interview #78190 (evgenia shapiro)

In 1934 my father got a job assignment in the Far East [35,000 km from Kiev]. We lived in a military town in the taiga, without a name, but a number. There was one apartment building for officers and their families, and barracks for soldiers. Life in the taiga was very hard. It was only possible to take a dirt road across the taiga to move to another location. These roads became impassable in rainy seasons. The forest was too thick to walk in it. There was also elfin wood in the taiga that made it impossible to walk. Summers in the taiga were short and cold: they only lasted one or two months, and the temperature was 20 degrees above zero maximum. There were swarms of mosquitoes and midges in the taiga. In winter the temperatures dropped to minus 40. Deep snow covered the land. Settlements were at great distances from one another and their population was few in number.