Tag #152976 - Interview #78408 (Lidia Korotina)

We had studied at the University for some time when they announced that it was moving to Tashkent, because some military college had moved to Samarkand and they needed facilities to house them. Then I entered the Uzbek Medical Institute and studied there for half a year. But when it came to doing laboratory work, and they brought human fingers on a tray (for us to work on) I knew I couldn’t see things like that. There was nowhere else to study except a Teachers’ Evening Institute. Given my  University studies, I was accepted as a second year student. I also had to get a job, and I went to work at the industrial complex. I maintained their card index log. I received a bread card for this work and in addition could have some kind of soup in the canteen. This lasted until 1943.  Then we moved to another apartment.  In 1943, my Dad was summoned to  Kiev after the city was liberated. He left, and my mother and I stayed in Tashkent. We were starving. It was cold in our small apartment – there was a small room and some kind of a tambour.  Somebody brought us a huge pumpkin to eat. I remember sitting and crying because I was so hungry. My mother didn’t work. She was seriously ill. She had severe diabetes and a heart condition.  But still she got up at four in the morning and went to unload bread to get me a loaf.