Polina Levina

Me, Polina Levina, at the military training at school shooting at the target. I was good at shooting from a rifle and had a sport grade. The photo was taken in Uzhhorod, 1949.

In late 1946 my brother Lazar was demobilized from the army. He had a right to chose where he was going to reside and Lazar chose Uzhgorod in Subcarpathia. When he arrived in Uzhgorod my brother obtained an invitation for me to join him there. I had received an invitation and assignment to Chust, a town in Subcarpathia, some 100 kilometers from Uzhgorod. At my brother’s request the manager of the Public Education Department in Chust – he was at the front with my brother – employed me in Uzhgorod.

I’ve lived in Uzhgorod since 1947. I liked this small, quiet and cozy town at once. There was a synagogue and a Jewish school in Uzhgorod. The local population was loyal to those that came from the USSR to live in their town. However, later their attitude toward the Soviet power got worse, in particular, when perestroika began.

When I arrived there my daughter and I got accommodation in a small room with plywood walls and a cement floor. There was a water drainage grid in the floor like in the street. I used a smaller room as a kitchen. There was a brick floor there. There was no water, toilet or bathroom. I lived there till 1949 and then I received this apartment where I live at the moment.

I went to work at a Ukrainian secondary school. I was a teacher of physics and mathematics in senior classes. My daughter went to the same school. She had my husband’s last name: Miach. I treated her like any other pupil at school.

At that time military training at school was important. It involved schoolchildren and teachers. I attended classes and was even awarded a grade in rifle shooting. I had a serious attitude to these classes like to all others.