Sofia Rubinshtein with her sisters

My mother Sofia Rubinshtein (on the right) and her sisters Sarra Kapnik (on the left) and Zhenia Broide (in the center). The photo was taken on Sarra's birthday in Moscow in 1949. My grandparents had six children. My mother, Sofia Kapnik, was born in 1892 and she was the oldest child. She had three sisters and two brothers. My mother's first sister, Sarra Kapnik, moved to Leningrad from Kiev. She was a biochemist. She had a problem with her legs and couldn't walk properly. When she retired she moved to Moscow. My mother's second sister, Zhenia Broide [nee Kapnik], worked at a shop in Podol until she retired. She embroidered blouses and handkerchiefs. She had two sons and a daughter. Her sons graduated from the Electro-Technical Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute. They were engineers. Her daughter also studied at the Polytechnic Institute but fell ill with meningitis when she was a 3rd-year student. She recovered, but she became handicapped. As for my mother's third sister I don't remember anything about her. My mother took little interest in housekeeping. She was fond of reading. She read in Yiddish and Russian. She prepared for the grammar school by herself. She was the first child in the family and my grandfather was spoiling her more than the other children. My mother convinced him to send her to grammar school. He gave in, and she was the only girl in the family who finished grammar school. The rest of the children studied at a secondary school. My mother's sister Sarra was the only one to get higher education. She finished the Leningrad Institute of Chemical Industry in the 1930s.