I am as a soldier of mandatory service. I sent my mother and wife this photo on my birthday. This photo was taken in Melitopol in 1953.
In 1946 I quit school before finishing the 6th form. My mother managed to find me an employment as a clock repair man apprentice. I received a worker’s food card at work. The shop I worked in worked for NKVD employees. I bought 6 loaves of bread receiving my first salary and there was no money left. Besides working in the shop, my friends and I worked on the Dnestr. The bridge across the river was ruined. There was a ferry, but it commuted rarely. My friends and I took people across the river in boats. Many people from Mogilyov-Podolskiy had jobs in Ataki or vice versa. We came to the Dnestr after worked and took 8-10 people in one trip across the river. Life was hard. We didn’t have any clothes or shoes, but many people lived like this at that time and we didn’t feel disturbed about it. In 1949 I was appointed a crew leader. I passed the qualification commission and received a crew of four people. I was awarded the highest category of qualification and got a raise. I found it interested to restore old clocks, even those that older masters refused to restore.
I had many friends: my former classmates and my colleagues. We went to a gym together and in summer spent time on the Dnestr. I also met my future wife Riva Gershberg in this company of young people. Riva was the same age with me and came from Mogilyov-Podolskiy. In 1949 we got married.
In 1951 I was recruited to the army. I passed the military commission in the military registry office and was sent to an Air Force unit as a gunman. I went to a military school in Poltava [250 km from Kiev]. However, they had already completed the department of gunmen and I was not admitted. I was sent to the school for motor mechanics in Poltava, but later the school moved to Mirgorod [about 300 km from Kiev]. I joined Komsomol at school. I finished the school with honors in 1952. I learned the mechanic part of planes promptly and was authorized to prepare a group of 10 backward cadets to the exams in aerodynamics and operation of planes. I spent a lot of time with these cadets and they passed their exams well. I was promoted to a sergeant and had the right to choose the location of my further military service. I requested Poltava. For excellent finishing school and support of my fellow students I was allowed a leave. I spent it with my wife at home, of course. She was pregnant and the baby was due soon. On 11 January 1952 I got news from home that I had a son and on 13 January I took my military oath. We named our son Igor.
There were not sufficient air planes in Poltava, and I worked as a part-time motor mechanic for some time. Later they received new planes and I was made responsible for technical maintenance of one plane. I have the very best memories of my 4-year service in the army.
I got another leave in 1954. My son was 2 years old. I spent a month with my wife and son and was happy. The last year of my service was in Germany, at an Air Force aerodrome in a little town near the Eastern Berlin. I was an electric mechanic there. A year later I demobilized and returned home on 12 November 1955. On 7 December I went to work at the food industry equipment plant in Mogilyov-Podolskiy and worked there 46 years. I started as a laborer, then I worked as a tinsmith and a mechanic. I joined the party in 1958. I also passed exams for the 6th form of school and went to the 7th form. I always liked to study and had all excellent marks at school, though I was always pressed for time. After finishing school I wanted to go on studying. In 1960 the plant sent me to study in Moscow extramural all-Union machine tool College. My wife was pregnant. My younger son Mikhail was born in 1961. My wife and I were atheists and did not observe any Jewish traditions, including circumcision.
