Ronny Sheyn-Kuznetsova and her family

This picture was taken when my husband and I came to Novosibirsk to visit our daughter. From left to right: my husband Alexander Kuznetsov, my daughter's husband Alexander Kasper with their daughter Rosa in his arms, I, and my daughter Margarita Kasper. The photo was taken in Novosibirsk in 1994.

When my daughter Margarita finished school she entered Novosibirsk Agricultural Institute, the Zoology Department. She loved animals since childhood, horses in particular. That is why she chose that specialty. Upon graduation Margarita worked as a chief zoo technician in Tomsk oblast. Then she left for Novosibirsk.

My daughter got married right after she finished her studies at the institute. There was a time when she dated my friend’s son, a Jew named Arkadiy. He loved my daughter and I really wanted my daughter to marry him. He was so good! Of course, it mattered for me that he was a Jew, but it was not the most important thing.

During the Soviet regime Jews degenerated. I should say that there were quite a few Jews in the KGB. There were Jewish prisoners in the camp, who used to work for the KGB. The deputy KGB chief in Tallinn was a Jew named Yakobson. He was a scary man. You see, there are different kind of Jews as well. That is why I didn’t want my daughter to marry any Jew, but Arkadiy.

When Margarita called us from Novosibirsk and said that she was going to get married and invited us to come over and meet her future husband, I blew my top and said that I didn’t care whom she was to marry, even an ape, if she liked it. Of course, we met.

Margarita’s husband, Alexander Kasper, is also from a family of exiled. He was born in the village of Proletarka, Novosibirsk oblast, in 1968. His grandparents were exiled and Alexander’s father was a baby when he was brought into exile, or perhaps he was born there. I cannot tell for sure. At any rate, my daughter’s husband lived in exile. They love each other and that’s enough for me.