Tag #147401 - Interview #92536 (Lyudmila Matsina)

I went to work in the Institute of Refractories, worked there for about one year, but fell seriously ill and had to go to Essentuki for medical treatment. They wouldn’t give me a leave from work – I hadn’t worked enough by then yet, so they offered to discharge me, and promised to take me back later. But they didn’t hire me again - the boss who promised it was gone by then. And that’s where my hardships began. I could not find a job for more than one year. It was in 1956, when some British-Egyptian conflict took place. I would come to this or that institute, and they would tell me that they need project engineers … And when I brought the filled questionnaire, they were telling me that the situation had changed, staff reduced, etc. In this way I had been to 5-6 organizations and everywhere I heard the same answer. I tried TEP, too ("Heat and Power Supply Projecting Company"), and also was given a questionnaire to fill in - and again the same standard answer. The director of that institute was father’s friend; Daddy called him, but he said: "There’s nothing I can do.  Employment issues are the responsibility of the 1-st [security] department and personnel manager, and I can not speak up against them". The reason was completely clear to me.