Engelina Goldentracht's mother Lubov Pavlova-Stravets

My mother photographed in Dnepropetrovsk in 1918 before she was to become a member of the Communist Party. My mother, Lubov Stravets [1902-1970], finished grammar school for girls in 1917. She was very close with her older brother Abram. She was very influenced by him and performed his assignments. She became a member of the Bolshevik party after the revolution. During the Civil War [1918-1921] she became a member of the revolutionary committee [revolutionary committees were the first revolutionary punitive units]. My mother had an office in which she interrogated ?enemies of the revolution?. She always kept a grenade on her desk in case somebody attacked her. My mother's party name was Pavlova and she had the name of Pavlova-Stravets written in her party membership card. She never changed this name. In the first years of the Soviet power she lived with my grandfather Aron's family. Grandfather Aron was invited to lecture on construction at the Construction Institute in Dnepropetrovsk. He was paid lower rates as he didn't have a higher education, and the Institute Management never paid him full compensation for his work at the end of each fiscal year. My grandfather sued them every year, and the court always decided in his favor. During the NEP, when students had to pay for their education, my grandfather paid for poorer students and they all paid him back upon graduation. My grandfather wanted my mother to get a higher education and felt very critical about her involvement in revolutionary activities. He insisted that my mother entered the Medical Institute. She studied there until her first class of anatomy. She couldn't bear the sight of a human corpse and quit. In 1923 my mother met my father, Zakhar Voosiker, and they started living together.