My daughter Luda and I, Orlikova Elena. Photo made in Kiev in 1951.
We were so happy wen my husband finally got a job. He accepted it without doubt. In 1950 our daughter Ludochka was born. Boris went to Saratov alone. He rented a small room and began to work. He was successful in his work.
I was fired. Many lawyers were fired. There were many Jews among lawyers. 1952 was on the way, the period of terrible anti-Semitism. They wanted to get rid of us. To be exact, I was offered a driver's position at my work. But I couldn't drive a car, besides, there was no vehicle in this organization and I refused. It was a paradox of the Soviet bureaucratic system: there was a driver's position but no vehicle in this organization. But I had an experience of painting on silk. I went to work at a shop. They painted on little shawls and scarves. Our facility was at the basement. We worked in two shifts, but I earned twice as much as I did when I worked as a lawyer. The situation in Kiev was far from pleasant.
There were rumors in the city that the authorities were going to move Jewish people very far away, probably to Siberia or the Far East . We still remembered what Stalin did to the Chehen , Crimean Tatars and other people ad realized that there had to be truth behind those rumors. So I asked my Russian friend Lida Govseyeva to take care of Ludochka if something happened to us. That was how much we were afraid. We believed that anything might happen to us.
