I, Galina Barskaya, in the middle, with my aunt Olga Barskaya and her second husband, Nikolay Rukoyatkin. The photo was taken in 1929 in Novogeorgiyevsk.
I grew up in my aunt’s family. Later, when I was studying at school, Aunt Olya got married again. Her husband was Russian – Nikolay Ivanovich Rukoyatkin. During the Civil War he fought and was awarded with medals. He was a member of the Communist Party and a very honored man. My aunt went to live with him in Novogeorgiyevsk. Her husband was working there as chairman of a furniture artel, and their life was good. I was left in Kremenchug; they did not take me with them. My father also lost any interest in me – he married another woman and left Kremenchug. My sister Yekaterina moved to Lugansk, while my brother entered the naval college. So, I was left alone, with no rights.
At school I had a friend, Dora Marakon. I began to live with them. They had two rooms – a smaller and a bigger one. They heated the smaller one, but I slept in the bigger room, which was not heated. My bed was standing by the window. I got sick there and had very high fever. After that I lost my voice. I don’t even know whether Dora’s family was paid for taking me, but I assume that they simply had pity on me. It was a Jewish family of very kind people. They were poor, but they had pity on me, and I stayed with them for several years.
As I already mentioned, people of many nationalities lived in our town. There was a Catholic Church not far from our house, and when I was young, I played with the Catholic priest’s daughters. The priest was a very gloomy and strict man. We were scared of him. But his wife and daughters treated me very well. I never had dolls to play with, so these girls and I sewed dolls from the leftovers of some clothes and played with them. Their mother always fed me.
I liked studying at school. We had Jewish, Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish students, and everyone treated each other well. Our teachers also made no difference between children of different nationalities. I was an excellent student and was about to enter the eighth grade. At that time, only good students could study at the eighth grade. So, after the seventh grade, a group of us, good students, was transferred to another school, which was located even further. I went there several times and realized that I could not study there. So, I quit school and entered a technical college. I liked technical education classes even at our secondary school. I was always good at them. So, in the college I learned to work at a lathe and I enjoyed working at it.
At school I joined the ranks of young pioneers. I liked all gatherings of pioneers, but I was never sent to a pioneer summer camp. At the college I became an active Komsomol member and I also worked as a pioneer leader at our school.
