Ilia Chestnetskiy and Sofia Chestnetskaya

Ilia Chestnetskiy and Sofia Chestnetskaya

My wife's parents are in this picture: her father Ilia Chestnetskiy and mother Sofia Chestnetskaya. The picture was taken in Moscow in 1926.

My wife Nora Chestnetskaya was born in Moscow in 1929 into a Jewish family. Her father, Ilia Chestnetskiy, was an engineer, and her mother, Sofia Chestnetskaya, was a housewife. Nora was an only child.
Russian was Nora's mother tongue. Yiddish wasn't spoken in her family. Nora was a schoolgirl when the war began. Her father was drafted in the lines, and Nora was evacuated to Ufa with her mother.

In 1943, Nora's father died in the battle close to Voronezh. When Nora came back from evacuation with her mother she finished school and entered the German philological department of the Moscow Teachers' Training Institute.

Her mother got married a second time. She was married to a wonderful man, Isidor Mazur, who became Nora's stepfather. I knew Isidor. He was a remarkable man, who had a very complicated life.
I dwelled on Isidor's life as he became a dear person not only to my wife but to me as well. My outlook was affected by him, he made me see things I hadn't noticed before.

My wife and I lived with Nora's parents. We celebrated birthdays of family members, New Year's and Victory Day. Soviet holidays such as 1st May, and 7th November and Soviet Army Day, were also celebrated.
It was customary to mark those holidays at work and they were extra days off for us.

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