Tag #146553 - Interview #78019 (Rita Kazhdan)

My maternal grandpa's name was Grigory Vselubsky, or, in Yiddish, Gershen. I don't know, when he was born. I suppose that it was in Minsk [Belarus]. I certainly don't remember grandpa Grigory, as he had died before my birth in the 1920s on some Minsk street of cardiac rupture, or as they used to say at the time - of 'angina pectoris'. Stories and recollections of relatives - that's all I know of him. He owned a plant that produced aerated water and a few shops in Minsk. He was, if we shall speak in present-day language, a big businessman. Grandfather Grigory was a well-known and esteemed person in the city. He, a Jew, was even invited to the government's balls with his beautiful daughter Rozalia, my mum. As they put it, she would be the decoration of these balls. Grandfather Grigory had the financial means to give all his children an education. But none of them, except my mum, wanted to study. All of them longed for work and trade.