Boris Khotianov

My brother Boris at the age of 24 in Leningrad. The photo was taken at the institute where he worked as an engineer. You can see him here in his costume of Charlie Chaplin, acting in a play he staged himself.

My brother Boris didn't go to the frontline. He had flat feet. He went to the same medical-specialized school in Vitebsk as me. After the war he worked and studied in Leningrad. He finished a secondary school and worked at an institute near Finland railroad station.

He worked there for 30 years as a metal worker and a lathe operator. He could do anything; he could even build a house. He got married and Lyudmila had two daughters.

Aunt Fania's daughter, his cousin Klara made him marry her. She got acquainted with him, got pregnant and then came to us and told us that Boris had raped her. She lied to make him marry her in order to hide her shame.

Boris, being a kind and well-bred person, married her and raised somebody else's child; he knew perfectly well that her daughter Lyuba [Liubov] wasn't his child. So he had to marry her, though it wasn't his baby.

Soon after that Boris divorced Klara and lived with a different woman. His family life was unhappy, though he has four grandsons from his daughter Klara and is very happy about it at his old age.

Now Boris is retired. The institute was shut down and he lost his job. He is 75 now.