My wife's parents Haika and Simkha Dubinskiye. This photo was taken on their wedding anniversary in Belaya Tserkov town approximately in 1910.
In 1934 I entered Agricultural College, present Agricultural Academy. I finished the Faculty of Mechanization at the Academy in 1939. I got a job assignment to Chernigov [regional center, about 150 km from Kiev], where I was a shop superintendent. We also studied military disciplines in college and after finishing it I became a reserve lieutenant of armored troops. I worked at the vehicle and tractor plant in Chernigov. I went to visit my father in Belaya Tserkov. On my way back on 22 June 1941 I heard about the war and that Kiev was bombed… I decided that I had to go to the military registry office for mobilization. I went to the plant to pick my documents from there, but they said: ‘Oh, no, you already have a release from military service and you are employed!’ The plant evacuated to Kuibyshev on 1 July. We were the first plant to evacuate and I got tickets in a nice train! I was seeing a girl, a nice Jewish girl, I liked her, but I was not thinking of marriage yet. So I offered her to evacuate with me. She agreed instantly. The girl’s name was Anes Dubinskaya. Her mother was a common woman and I was an all right guy, so they agreed. Her older daughter was smart, though. She said: ‘What do you mean go with him? No. Let him marry her first!’ This is how it was then: you want her - you marry her. I said: ‘Let’s get married!’ We went to a registry office where our marriage was registered. So I got married.
My wife's parents came from Volodarka village near Kiev. My wife's father Simkha Dubinskiy owned a leather factory there. Bandits killed my wife's father during a pogrom in the 1920s. Soviet authorities expropriated the factory and their belongings. My mother-in-law's name was Haika Dubinskaya. I don't know her maiden name. Her older daughter was married. Frankly speaking, I don't remember anything about her. After her husband died my mother-in-law and her daughters moved to Kiev. She had a relative in Kiev, an uncle, it seems, who was a supplier for the army at the czarist time. He was very wealthy. He was single. He gave my mother-in-law his apartment in the center of Kiev. This is all I know about him.
