Maria Zabozlaeva with her son Fyodor Zabozlaev

I, Maria Zabozlaeva and my son Fyodor Zabozlaev. This photo was taken by my husband Georgi when our son turned 6 months in July 1957.

When a senior pupil I attended a history club in the House of Officers. Boys from a school for boys attended it, too. In  1945, when I was in the 8th form I met my future husband Yuri (Georgi) Zabozlaev. He was born in Saratov in 1929. I finished school in 1947 and entered the Pediatric Faculty at the Medical College. I passed my entrance exams and got all excellent marks. My Jewish identity didn't play any role I finished this college in 1953. After finishing the 10th form Yuri was sent to a pilot school in Balashov [over 800 km from Moscow] in Saratov region. We got married after I finished my third year in college. This happened in summer 1950. In 1952 our daughter Sophia was born.

Yuri and I kept moving from one place to another where Yuri's military service required. From Balashov we moved to Cheliabinsk [about 1600 km from Moscow]. My husband finished his service in Feodorovka village Kustanai region [over 1700 km from Moscow] in Kazakhstan where our son was born in 1957. I named him Fyodor after father my husband.

We returned to Saratov in 1961. In 1961 I went to work in the apartment of postnatal pathology in children's infectious hospital #2. In 1962 - 1964 I finished a residency course and became a neonatologist. I worked there from 1961 till 1995. Our chief doctor was a Jew and so were many of my colleagues and I didn't face any negative attitudes at work. I had a happy life with my husband. We liked going to the cinema, theaters and concerts in the Philharmonic. We had a car and went to Mineralnyie Vody in the Caucasus on vacation.  In 1968 we traveled to the Baltic Republics and Leningrad.  In 1977 we made a tour of Western Ukraine and Moldova. We visited Kishinev, Yassy, Morshansk and Lvov. We had few friends and celebrated Soviet and family holidays with them. We had parties and sang Soviet songs and Russian folk songs. We didn't sing any Jewish songs.

My son Fyodor finished a music school and Saratov Medical College in 1980. He finished a post-graduate course in 1983 and was awarded the title of candidate of medical sciences. He works at the department of morbid anatomy at the Medical College and is head of the department of morbid anatomy of town hospital #8. He is also chief morbid anatomy doctor of Saratov region. He was married twice. His first wife's name was Olga Bashkatova and she is Russian. They have a daughter, Elena, born in 1986. She lives in Sevastopol. Saratov Medical School and works as a nurse. Their son Daniel was born in 1990.