I, Rozalia Akselrod, a student of the sixth grade; I am 12 here. The photo was taken in Kharkov in 1931.
I, Rozalia Yakovlevna Akselrod, was born in the town of Khorol, Poltava region, on 8th July 1919. I will soon turn 83. At that time my parents lived in Khorol from where they also both came.
After we moved to Kharkov, my sister went to the third grade of a Russian school, and I went to the first grade of a Ukrainian school in 1927. At our school boys and girls studied together – a rare case at that time. When I was in the second grade, I went to a music school, which was not far from our house. I did not let my parents know I went there. I passed exams and began to study there. However, I did not study there for too long, only for three years, and then I quit music.
My favorite subject at school was mathematics. I was good at it. I did not have any bright talents, neither was I one of the best students. But I was a good one, and I was loved at school. We had a singing club at school, which later turned almost into an opera studio. We staged operas. I remember singing several roles in different operas.
I remember the ceremony of joining the pioneers. It took place at a printing house where we were taken from school. There we repeated the oath of a young pioneer, ‘I, a pioneer of the USSR, in front of my comrades promise that I will firmly fulfill the commandments of Lenin…” I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was an active pioneer, the chairman of our pioneer unit. I was also an active Komsomol member. In those years Komsomol meetings were usually held at somebody’s houses. As a rule, our Komsomol meetings took place at our house.
