Abram Karmazin’s family

My family in 1929. Standing: Manya, Roza, I. Sitting: Mama, Sarrah, Papa. I lived with my friends in 34, Krasnoarmeyskaya street, at the very center of Kiev. In the middle of 1920s their family moved to Moscow leaving the apartment empty. I brought my mother, father and sisters to Kiev from Korsun. They sold their house - that was all they had by that time. My father took to some commercial activities buying and selling things. He brought home a very small amount of money. We lived a poor life and didn't have enough to eat. We often only head bread to eat. Mama didn't work. My sisters were studying: Rosa - at the theatrical college, Manya - at the Pedagogical Institute and Sarrah - at school. I lived with them until I got married in 1937 and my parents and sisters (including Manya and Rosa and their husbands that moved in the late 1930s) lived in that apartment until 1941. After the revolution my father was religious for some time, but he paid much less attention to religion. He went to the synagogue on Saturday and prayed at home for the rest of time. He put his tfillin around his hand, put on his thales and began to sway murmuring something. I remember my niece following him a teasing "Bu-boo-boo". After moving to Kiev in 1920s he stopped praying. He went to the synagogue only at Yom-Kipur. He observed fasting strictly. Once I came home and saw Papa eating pork sausage. I asked Mama whether he knew that it was pork. Mama said he knew but pretended that he didn't. She liked to joke. I remember we ate matsa at our first ceder at Pesach in Kiev, but then we were eating bread, as there was no other food. In the following years we didn't have matsa, either. My father thought that the revolution put an end to the Jewish religion.