Elena’s mother in gymnasium

My mum was born in 1905 in a village in Bessarabia.

She had finished a secondary school (common, not Jewish one) with honours and entered the medical department of the Kiev State University.

As granny was left alone with four children, she was not able to help her daughter. Mum worked in a zemstvo [a local administration body in the 19th - beginning of the 20th centures], in what position - I don't know.

Mum became a first year student at the time when my father was a third-year student - of the same department, - and in 1917 they got married.

At the beginning of 1918 my parents left for the Red Army. The father was already a doctor, and the mother had time to complete only three years and became a military medical attendant. During the whole Civil War my parents fought on the South Front.

In the south they served until 1922. In 1922 my father was transferred to serve in Leningrad. At that time many people left Leningrad as there was not enough food, and there were a lot of empty flats.

No one wanted to buy them, because no one wanted to live in a poorly supplied, non-heated city. So flats were easy to get, and my parents were able to get a large flat cheaply.

It was more then 200 sq. m. flat on Ryleeva Street (at the corner with Mayakovskaya Street) on the second floor, not far from the caserns, in which my father was serving.

My mum began to work in some organization, I don't know exactly where. At the same time she had finally completed the medical institute, obtained a doctor's diploma.

Then for 13 years mum worked for free (simultaneously with her regular job, for which she was paid) only in order to obtain good knowledge in biochemistry.

In 1935 mum defended her Ph.D. thesis in biochemistry and became a candidate of medical science. She was one of the first candidates of medical science in the Soviet Union.