I, Lev Yagupolskiy, in the army.

We, students, all wanted to go to the front. There were seven of us, guys, we were young and stupid. But we were patriots. And we wrote a letter addressing it to Stalin. We wrote to him that they were not taking us to the army. Of course, that letter never reached Stalin, but in a week's time we were summoned to the military recruitment office and they sent us to the Military Academy in Moscow. On 16 November all military academies were moved to Middle Asia from Moscow in one night. We studied in Samarkand until 1942.

My mother's sister Basia, her husband Aron and their daughter Manya. Photo made in Birobijan in the late 1930s.

Aron, Basia's (my mother's sister) husband. Photo made during the civil war. Aron was in the Red Army.

My children: Alik (Arnold) standing, Lyonia, sitting. Alik is 4, Lena is 1.

My sister Lidia Koshkina and I, Inessa Vitkina.

Lida entered Kiev University. She finished school with a silver medal and only had to pass an interview to enter the Physics department. I visited her in Kiev.

My sister Lidia Koshkina and I, Inessa Vitkina, and our friend - my father's driver, a young Chechen.