In the first lower row: Isaac Galyorkin's younger daughter Mira.
Second lower row, from left to right: Isaac Galyorkin, his second wife.
Third lower row, from left to right: Isaac's elder daughter, Dina, his second wife's daughter.
My grandmothers Rakhil Strunskaya and Riva [Breido] had five brothers: Leib [1842-1930s], Lipa [1860s-1920s], Isaac [1844-1915], Moisey [1846-1938] and Don [1850-1921]. They were certainly all Orthodox Jews until the Soviet power came.
Isaac Galyorkin lived in Polotsk. From his father Irma Galyorkin he inherited land, vegetable gardens, profit houses in Polotsk and owned a distribution market for his goods.
However, when he shipped cabbage to Petersburg in railroad carriages, they said that his profit was small, but he got the right to be in any city, visit Riga, Petersburg, teach his children, i.e. it was done not for the sake of money but for the sake of these rights.
He brought up my mother from the age of 4 after her parents had died of consumption. He was married twice. He had two daughters of his first marriage, Dina and Mira.
His second wife had a daughter of her own. Anna, Leib Galyorkin's daughter took Dina to St. Petersburg. Dina passed exams and entered Bestuzhev courses .
However, after that she had a fit and she was acknowledged mentally sick and she returned home. That is why Isaac Galyorkin did not provide for my mother's education - he believed that it could make one go mad.
His [other] daughter Mira did not get any education either, her father took her from school after the 4th grade. Mira married her cousin Abram Sverdlov, they lived in Klimovichi in Belorussia.
When the war broke out they got evacuated across the Urals. Isaac was at the Leningrad frontline and survived. After the war Mira and her husband returned to Klimovichi, but later moved to Isaac in Leningrad.
