It is time to tell about my papa. Aleksandr Mikhailovich married late and swiftly, at the age of 35. I think he fell in love with Mama at once, at first sight. And he was ready, morally and materially. An officer, a captain. At that time officers had a good salary. If only there had been somewhere to spend it!
He had been called into the Army even before the war, served in the Far East, took part in the war with Japan. After the war he bought a house in Blagoveshchensk and brought there his elder sister and niece from a village in Smolensk province (everything there had been destroyed during the war). And so the elder sister ran the household. And suddenly my papa brought a wife…
I will not ask Mama how long they lived as such a company, but I know that from the first days of family life Papa began giving his earnings to Mama. She recalls that when he brought his pay, put it on the nightstand and said that she was the mistress of the house and should dispose of the money as she saw fit, she was stunned. The sum was considerable; I think it was her three months’ wages at the factory. She had never held such money in her hands!
She started counting, and Papa said to her: “Don’t count, or it won’t ‘stick around’!” There used to be such a word, “stick around.” It sounded strange in my head just now, meaning: if you count the money, there won’t be any. Well, that is how he put it…
Soon Papa received a posting to a new military unit, 300 km from Blagoveshchensk. The sister and her daughter remained mistresses of the house forever. She did not share any household goods. And so pregnant Mama arrived at the military unit, bringing with her one small suitcase of personal things.
They were given a corner in a soldiers’ barracks and a government-issue bed and a metal cot. From a soldier’s blanket they made a screen and at first lived in this partitioned-off corner, while in the barracks itself the soldiers slept. The facilities were outside, 150 metres away. All around — hills, mosquitoes and… fresh air, sentries at their posts.
It was hard for a pregnant woman to go to the toilet at night… She suffered, felt embarrassed… Then she got used to it; she would not make it to the toilet, she says “I’ll squat — the sentry will turn away.” There was nothing to cook on. Papa brought food from the soldiers’ canteen. And her appetite was terrible! She ate greedily, and there was no one to stop her. And she put on as much as 30 kg!
She decided to go home to the Moscow region to give birth. At that time the military unit was disbanded and Papa was sent on a course. The news of his daughter’s birth caught him on the road…. I was born in the city of Korolev; then it was the settlement of Kostino, Mytishchi district, Moscow region. And Papa did not see me for a whole 10 months!
After the course he received a new posting, with a choice of Kiev, Odessa, Perm. They chose Perm. There you could get housing; Odessa and Kiev were still being rebuilt after the war, and housing was very bad. But they chose one thing and got another. Kiev… The military repair plant Arsenal-2. Then it was called military unit 61809. I am surprised at myself, how I remember that?!
They arrived… With a suitcase and a green enamelled basin. They were given housing: on the plant grounds, in the Red Corner. What is a red corner? It is a room decorated with communist posters, slogans, newspapers. Its proper purpose — political briefings and political classes. They were settled in…, heat, summer, I was 10 months old.
It was good that Mama could breastfeed me. At that time “bottle babies,” as they were called if Mama had no milk, were a great rarity. There was no pram — nowhere to buy one. On the plant grounds there were also two barracks. Families of workers and military men lived there; there was a club, and also a checkpoint with duty officers, entry to the plant by pass. In a word — a ZONE.