Evgeniy Kotin

This is a photo of me with my aunts, father's sisters before defending the diploma. From left to right: I, father's sisters Faina, Raisa and Liya. The photograph was  taken in Moscow in 1951. 

On the 1st of September 1946 I started my studies in Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute. I became an engineer- metallurgist. I had worked in that field until retirement. I did not rank among the top students, but I was not a poor student either. I defended my diploma successfully. Nobody was given a mandatory job assignment in Moscow. I was lucky to be the third and I chose Saratov [800 km from Moscow]. I came to Saratov. It was an appliance building plant, evacuated to Saratov from Leningrad during the war. It remained there after war. Navigation gauges were produced there for the navy. I was assigned a foreman in the thermal department of the instrumental workshop.  They treated me pretty well at the plant. In a year I was assigned the chief foreman. I lived in the plant hostel for engineers. In 1953 I came back to Moscow. 

Once I passed by one-storied building and saw the announcement on job opening of the engineer- heat-treated. Not the institute is called Central Institute of Machine Building, at that time it was Scientific Research Institute of Defense Industry. I came to the HR department and said that I would like to work there. I had the documents on me. The head of HR department looked at my diploma and told me that I could start the next day. I had worked in the institute for 13 years. 

My father's family lived in a small town Kromy, Orel province in Russia [360 km to the South-East of Moscow]. There were 5 people in the family. First daughters were born. The first one was Ekaterina, Jewish name Keizlya. Then Faina, Jewish name was Fanya, Raisa, Jewish Rohl and Liya were born. Grandmother craved for a son, and in 1895 a long-awaited son was born. It was my father. Father did not live to rejoice in his son. He died in 3 days after son was born. In accordance with the Jewish tradition the son was named after his deceased father, Moisey.

Upon annulment of the pale of settlement after the Revolution in 1917, the whole family moved to Moscow. The Soviet regime also cancelled admission quota of the Jews and everybody had the chance to get higher education. The eldest sister Ekaterina and the third Raisa graduated from medical school. Ekaterina was an obstetrician in the hospital, located out of Moscow, in the town of Balashikha. Raisa worked in the hospital in Moscow. Faina graduated from agronomy faculty of Agricultural Academy and became an agronomist. The youngest sister, Liya, and my father studied at Medicine faculty of Moscow University, and became doctors. Liya was specialized in psychiatry. She was the principal physician of the children's department of mental asylum named after Kaschenko. Father became phthisiatrician and a rontgenologist.

Ekaterina and Faina did not get married. Raisa and Liya were married to Russians. Raisa's husband was Vasiliy, I do not remember his last name. He worked in the controls department of the State bank as an auditor. They had an only son Boris, born in 1918. Boris worked as an architect before WW2. He went through the entire war and served in the engineering troops. Then he came back to Moscow and worked as an architect. He died in early 1990s. Liya was married to Andrey Fomin. He was a very gifted man. He was the deputy director of the mental asylum, head of logistics. Liya did not change her maiden name after getting married and remained Kotinà. They did not have children. Grandmother stayed with her. She was the only one in our family who had her separate apartment; the rest lived in the communal apartments. Of course, Faina took grandmother in her apartment.