This is a family photograph made in Moscow in the late 1930s. The lower row from left to right: my cousin Yakov Rukinglaz, my uncle Abram's son, his wife Polia, in the center is my father's brother Abram Rukinglaz, the young shaved man from the right is Polia's brother, but I don't remember his name. The upper row from left to right: Katia Cherniak, my parents' pupil, and her friends: a young man and a girl. This photo was taken on Yakov's birthday.
My father's brother Abram, born in 1885. Abram got a traditional Jewish education and finished cheder and then became an apprentice of a shoemaker, but then he switched to revolutionary activities. During the revolution of 1917 he was a member of the Bolshevik Party and joined the Red army. In the early 1920s Abram went to work in the VChK (the All-Union Emergency Commission for fighting the counterrevolution), and then had leading positions in the Kherson NKVD. In the early 1930s he got a transfer to Moscow. Arrests in the 1930s had no impact on him, probably he was one of those who decided about the life of others. During the Great Patriotic War my uncle worked in Moscow, and his family - aunt Polia, a Jew, and their children Yakov and Nastia were in the evacuation in Kuibyshev (present Samara, Russia). In the early 1950s Abram was paralyzed and died shortly afterward. Aunt Polia died in the early 1960s. Their children Yakov and Nastia also passed away a long time ago.
