My husband Misha Shyhman (Jewish name Abram-Moishe). This photo was made in Kiev in 1935.
My husband's name was Abram Shyhman. His Jewish name was Abram-Moishe. Everybody called him Misha: he chose this name for himself, but his family called him Abram. He was born in Kiev on 21 July 1926. He was one year and a half younger than me. His family was more religious than mine: they celebrated holidays and spoke Jewish at home… His father Samuel was a shoemaker and then he worked at a fish factory and storage facility. His mother Faina sewed at home. His parents lived with his sister Maria (5 years older than him), and they also celebrated holidays there. I remember we visited them at Pesach. However, I don't know whether it was just a tribute to traditions for her. It seems to me, it was his mother who observed it all. Misha left home at 16. He wasn't religious. He had other things to do.
Misha finished 2 grades in a Jewish school and then he went to an ordinary Ukrainian school. He finished the 10th grade during the war. His family was in evacuation in Fergana (today Uzbekistan) and he actually finished secondary school by correspondence. In Fergana he was recruited to the army. He was 16 years old. They gave him a rifle that was almost bigger than him. They say he was so thin that he could hardly hold this rifle… He was very smart and they decided he could serve where he was. He became a radio operator. He did so well at school that they made him a teacher in a school for radio operators in Fergana. Although he was still a boy, he was smart. After the war he got a transfer to the vicinity of Mukachevo in Ukraine where he stayed two years. So he served in the army 7 years since wartime was not included in the term of service. Then Misha moved to Kiev and became chief of the locator department in Zhuliany airport. He also studied at the evening department in college. He finished Radio Faculty of Kiev Polytechnic College. He was very smart, indeed: mathematician, physicist and in general… He made 19 inventions, all of them practical.
