Tag #154028 - Interview #103503 (SIMA-LIBA NERUBENKO )

Gus-Khrustalny was a typical Russian town with wooden houses with carved plat bands and beautiful churches. Jews didn’t come to live there during the tsarist regime – there were probably Jewish doctors and convicts. Only after the revolution Jewish families came to the town. They led a common way of life and were no different from other inhabitants of the town. The only difference was in their names, but nobody paid any attention to it. All life in town was focused around a small glass factory that gave a name to the town – Khrustalny [crystal in Russian]. This factory manufactured cups, vases and wine glasses for the tsar’s collection. Even during the wartime there was a shop at the factory that manufactured strikingly beautiful crystal vases. Stalin gave them as gifts to high dignitaries that visited Moscow.