Gita Dvorkina

This is my maternal grandmother, Gita Dvorkina. The photo was taken around 1910 in Chashniki. Gita Dvorkina was the second wife of my maternal grandfather, Bera Dvorkin. Grandfather Bera loved his first wife very much, but she appeared to be infertile. According to the Jewish law he gave her a divorce letter after three years of marriage and got married for the second time. His second wife gave birth to two sons, Mulia and Folia, and eight daughters including Dynia, Sarah, Dvoira and Musia; all the rest died in childhood. All children were born and grew up in Chashniki. They were members of the local Jewish community and their families were engaged in crafts and trade. In the 1920s one by one they moved to Leningrad. The big city with its opportunities attracted them and they wanted to provide their children with a good education. At the end of the 1920s after the NEP was abolished, the local authorities imposed exorbitant taxes on traders and craftsmen and threatened them with repressions in case of non-payment. After that no relatives of ours remained in Chashniki. They all escaped persecutions. Grandmother died early. I don?t remember her at all. Grandfather died in 1918.