Aron Aronson at work

My father, Aron Aronson, during the collectivization in Vologda in 1930.

Daddy never obtained any university education, he only studied at different courses, it is now called extension courses. Once he studied at such courses and obtained a certificate of a certain profession, another time he studied at other courses. He was good at doing a lot of things, a person with ‘magical hands’! Besides, he was a man of bright intellect. We never were hard up until he retired and didn’t experience noticeable want; we had everything necessary due to my father’s talents. Daddy was a very cheery and witty person as well as very kind. Everyone could turn to him with any question, and he didn’t refuse anything to anyone. He made with his own hands everything what he was able to do; if not, then he tried to buy it.

In 1930 the collectivization of agriculture was carried out in Vologda. Villagers were ‘driven’ to kolkhozes and were forced to hand over cattle and household equipment to the general use under the direction of a special brigade of VKPB members. Father was a member of the VKPB and one of those who participated in the collectivization. They were called the ‘twenty-five-thousand persons.’

My father was highly successful, and in 1934 he was sent to conduct industrialization in Chelyabinsk, where he served as an assistant director of the Chelyabinsk abrasive factory, and Mom for the first time in her life didn’t have to work for one and a half years. She was very homesick, so in 1936 she took me and my brother and left for Leningrad. Two months later Dad was paid off in Chelyabinsk and joined us in Leningrad. And in 1937 the whole governing body of the Chelyabinsk abrasive factory was shot. In that way, being unaware of this at the time, Mom saved Daddy’s life.