Selected text
The second time it happened already in Leningrad [today St. Petersburg]. Shortly after Daddy was arrested, the house manager came to us and said that it was necessary to change our apartment papers, because the number of our family members had decreased. [House managers usually were in close contact with the NKVD 7] My Mom bawled at him in the full sense of the word. You see, he talked to us supposing that my father would never get back. Mom couldn’t reconcile herself to it - and she appeared to be right, though the return home of my father was a real miracle. I’ll tell about it later.
And for the third time she shouted already at me, but again in connection with Daddy. When Daddy was arrested, we went to Kresty prison, trying to find out something about his destiny. [Kresty (‘crosses’ in Russian) was a prison in St. Petersburg. Its buildings form a cross, thus the name. In the 1930s this prison was overcrowded with victims of Stalin’s mass repressions.] Mom went there alone more often.
And for the third time she shouted already at me, but again in connection with Daddy. When Daddy was arrested, we went to Kresty prison, trying to find out something about his destiny. [Kresty (‘crosses’ in Russian) was a prison in St. Petersburg. Its buildings form a cross, thus the name. In the 1930s this prison was overcrowded with victims of Stalin’s mass repressions.] Mom went there alone more often.
Period
Location
St. Petersburg
Russia
Interview
Klara-Zenta Kanevskaya