I took a picture of my wife Tatiana Kotina and son Pavel. The picture was taken in Moscow in 1972 in our home.
I met my future wife when I worked at the institute of defense industry. Tatiana Shamrai got a mandatory job assignment after graduation from Higher Technical School named after Bauman, the so-called Bauman institute to work as appliances designer. Tatiana is Russian. She was born in the village of Starinki, Kaluga oblast in 1931. Her father Mikhail Shamrai was a farmer and mother Praskovia Shamrai was a housewife, and also helped her husband with the field work. There were five children in the family.Tatiana was the youngest one. With the outset of collectivization the family moved to Moscow. Father worked as a janitor and mother worked at Caoutchouc plant in the most hazardous plant- where degreasing of metallic constructions in cyanic solutions took place. It was a hard living, but two daughters Anna and Tatiana got higher education. Tatiana was really gifted. She, a village girl, finished school with gold medal, entered the institute named after Bauman and brilliantly graduated from it. She was loved by everybody at work. When we met, soon I understood that she was the one for me: a clever and healthy village girl. We got married in 1961. My parents were not against that my wife was Russian. Nationality was not important for them. We had a common wedding: got registered in the state registration office and in the evening our friends came over to mark the event. I moved in Tatiana's place. She had a small room in the communal apartment. Her siblings were married off and lived separately. Tatiana's father died, and her mother lived with her elder sister Anna. By the way, Anna was also married to a Jew, my friend Vladimir Tarskiy. In 1962 our son Pavel was born. Tatiana's sister Maria was not married, but she gave birth to a son in 1960. Maria died from cancer and her son was raised in our family. When Pavel turned 3, we got a separate 2-room apartment.
In 1968 Tatiana changed her job and went to work for the Institute of Current Sources as engineer- designer of solar batteries. Tatiana managed to become a good expert and she was appreciated at work. The leading expert of the institute was a well-know scientist Korolev, who liked Tatiana and took her opinion into account.
Having finished school my son entered Bauman institute, the Technological -Physical Metallurgy department. After graduation he worked in one of the machine building design institutes in Moscow. After perestroika, which brought unemployment, Pavel got a new specialty -a programmer. Since that time he had worked for a firm as a programmer. Son married a Russian girl, Alexander Gonchrova. They are a good family. They have two children. The elder Elizaveta was born in 1995, and son Nikolvay - in 1997. We keep in touch. My son and his family come over to us. Unfortunately it takes them more than 2 hours to get to us, that is why we do not see each as often as we wished.
