From the handwritten notebook. Tatyana Timofeevna’s voice.

She was good-looking. She smoked, which then was considered terrible, and little plaits above the knees. When the lads saw her they courted and decided to save “Gara” (that was Sasha’s nickname). “Tanya has such a girlfriend; she is a morphine addict; Sashka must be saved!” Later they asked me: “How is it you have changed so. Was something done to you, or you yourself.”

Beginning of the family

And our first acquaintance with those lads took place at Sasha’s. Then in distant 1945 our football team went to England to play and won. Then there were no televisions, nor radio sets either. At the beginning of the war the population had been told to hand in all radio sets and there were only loudspeakers. And Sasha had a radio set, or was allowed to keep one, and he invited all his lads to listen to the broadcast from England about the match. He also invited me. And I was in a “dashing” mood. That was my first meeting with his lads. They looked at me with interest, and I got angry and began to play the fool. Makhe Ettin says something to me and I answer: “Shut up, fool.” He to me: “That’s only for calculation.” I calmly say to him: “By the holy gods, don’t take offence.” That is how our acquaintance took place. And the lads were good, simple, from working families.

Bakhchisarai, Chufut-Kale, Sudak

In summer 1946 the Krivosheins invited me to the Crimea. Then Sasha’s father had been appointed Chairman of the Crimean Regional Executive Committee. My mama telephoned us with the Krivosheins and it was decided I would go to them as a guest in the Crimea. Sasha and I were very glad. We sat exams and went. Dmitry Aleksandrovich sent a salon car for us. True, another family was travelling there too, moving to the Crimea for work. We went: Sasha, Baba Aiya and I. We were met at the station and taken to a hotel, because the Krivosheins lived in a hotel, because the Chairman’s house was occupied by the previous family’s. They were waiting for the Kabanovs to leave and then for the hotel. For some time we lived in Alushta, at the Executive Committee rest house, and then moved to Gurzuf, where there was a two-storey mansion surrounded by a good garden and even a vineyard. The house stood high, and below — the Railway Workers’ sanatorium in a fine park, and further the sea. Along the coast, right on the shore, barbed wire still remained. That year Sasha and I saw the whole Crimea: Bakhchisarai with the famous fountain sung by Pushkin in his poem The Fountain of Bakhchisarai; Alupka with the magnificent palace of Count Vorontsov, where he (the count) tried to recreate the Bakhchisarai fountain but could not; Livadia — the summer residence of Nicholas II and where in spring 1945 the famous Yalta Conference took place, to which Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin came; of course we were in Yalta, in the famous Botanical Garden, where we were treated to extraordinary peaches. Then Massandra. We were shown the famous vineyards, cellars with wine kept in huge oak barrels. And then the tasting began. For that we were taken to a special tasting hall where many glasses of different wines stood on the table before each person. That wine had to be drunk not too much, savouring. And of course we did it at a fast pace. From that we became very merry. Then we visited the Swallow’s Nest, where a blanket was stolen from us. The fact is we travelled in a Willis and the seats were small and we put a blanket under us for comfort. And then we were at Chufut-Kale. That is an ancient city in the mountains. No one has lived there for a long time. The city is cut in the rocks. The next visit — Sudak, where nearby was a champagne works founded by Prince Golitsyn, the founder of Russian champagne. Even before the 1917 Revolution our champagne wine took a prize place in Paris. A monument to Golitsyn still stands there. We were shown the whole process of making wine. And it is stored in cellars made in the mountains. During the war, and the Germans were in the Crimea, those cellars were so camouflaged that they could not be found. That works stood in a very beautiful bay. And after a good tasting we went bathing. That was something “else.”

On Navy Day Admiral Oktyabrsky, commander of the fleet, invited Dmitry Aleksandrovich to celebrations in Sevastopol. We went. Sevastopol was completely destroyed. Some buildings survived and, oddly, the city pier near the water itself; the water station survived. And as we drove along the street all the houses looked at us with broken windows. We were also on Malakhov Kurgan. I had the impression we were walking over people’s corpses. Forts from the first defence of Sevastopol still survived. They stand at the entrance to Sevastopol Bay, where we saw the monument to the sunken ships. Dm. Aleks., Nina Vas. and Sasha were invited to breakfast in his wardroom. Baba Nina and I stayed wandering the ruined city, now and then over ruined houses and dead windows.

Simferopol also “well” suffered from the war. Broken houses too, windows without glass, craters not yet filled.

Sasha and I climbed a great deal in the mountains around Alushta and found trenches, and also black death-tokens; small plastic fruitiers that soldiers wore. Name, surname and address were indicated in them.

There were many German prisoners in the Crimea then. They lived in camps, and by day they were taken to work: they restored what they had destroyed, worked the vineyards; in the evening they were taken to bathe in the sea. Those whose camps were not far from the sea.

Toward the end of our stay in the Crimea the Krivosheins moved from the hotel into a separate house on Aksakov Street. Baba Nina and Grandpa Mitya loved the land very much, and wherever they were they always worked the land. They put the yard in order, making a beautiful flower bed there, planted strawberries, and behind the house made a kitchen garden with a small hotbed. The house was repaired. It had 6 rooms (one small for the houseworker). The Krivosheins’ neighbours were the Commander of the Taurida Military District M. M. Popov. He lived with his young wife Serafima and a little son. N.V. and Serafima kept up friendly relations.

At the end of August we left for Moscow.

In Moscow routine life began again: institute, classes, household affairs. And again our meetings with Sasha. Our friendship grew stronger. I was in the 2nd year, Sasha in the 4th. So our life flowed.

We saw in the New Year 1947 at Sasha’s, almost alone together. True, Sasha’s grandmother was still there. Having sat exams, we went for the holidays to Simferopol. There we often went to the theatre, walked much, read. We even went to the sea. To my surprise the sea near the shore was frozen. That was in Alushta.

And a funny thing happened to me. At our institute there was an evening and at that evening I met Ren Merkulov (once we studied at the same school, lived in the same entrance, met at Inna Kobulova’s). Ren took my telephone and promised to call. Ren was lively. He was handsome. He studied at the Zhukovsky Academy. He telephoned and suggested meeting at Library of Lenin metro. I pass Papa and say: “I’m going on a date with the son of the Minister of State Security.” Papa looked at me and said: “We won’t go.” That was the first time Papa imposed his parental ban. I was surprised, because Papa had never forbidden me to choose my acquaintances. I obeyed. But a father’s word was law for me. Ren did not telephone me again. Then I did not understand this, and now everything has fallen into place.

Sasha and I went to the rink, to the cinema (our Udarnik), to the Council of Ministers club (now the Estrada Theatre), met friends, danced. In general we led a life characteristic of young people.

Magnitogorsk

In spring Sasha left for Magnitogorsk for practical work, and I sat exams. I made an exam timetable for Sasha, and he worried with me.

And after that we went to Simferopol, where Sasha announced to his parents that we had decided to marry.

My parents agreed; his parents agreed too. But what wedding? We had no [church wedding?]. We went to Yalta, and [filed?] [application?], that summer in Gurzuf, and registered our marriage. When we rode back to Gurzuf, our Fedor joked: “Wonder — I had a daughter to take, and back — now a daughter and a son.” Then there was a dinner; we were congratulated; Sasha’s grandmother, having drunk, smashed a glass for luck.

That is how our life with him began.

Arriving in Moscow, we began to live at Sasha’s in that very room where I am sitting now. Baba Lena, Sasha’s aunt, lived with us. She ran the household. A splendid woman. She loved Sasha very much. We studied; I was in the 3rd year; Sasha was finishing and doing his diploma. I went on practical work to Zhdanov (now Mariupol) on the Sea of Azov. I was dreary without him. I was already expecting a child. He was to appear at the end of May. I sat some exams in advance; I did not want to take an academic leave. Leave. Birth — the main thing — antibiotics. The Krivosheins suggested I give birth in Simferopol. And so in mid-May I went to the Crimea, and Sasha stayed in Moscow to defend his diploma. Nina Vasilyevna met me at the aerodrome and we went home.

Mitya. In 1948 our son was born and we named him Dmitry (Mitya). Sasha was still in Moscow, and after defending his diploma he came to Simferopol. Sasha was already a qualified engineer, and I still a student.

Then we returned to Moscow. I still had exams to sit. At that time my mama came and sat with Mitya, and Baba Lena ran the household. I still had to study, one more course — the IVth. And Mitya grew; he was an amusing little boy, but the institute took much of my time.

That year passed in cares. Mitya grew. Baba Lena and Baba Lina (Agrippina Dmitrievna), Sasha’s great-grandmother, sat with him. I studied in the last

Continues in Study, work, and class reunions . Full manuscript reading: Russian chapter .

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