SOME STEPS IN THE PAST: AN ATTEMPT AT AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Mikhail Yeselson
4. MY FAMILY
My wife's name is Tatyana, or, for short, Tanya.
I found her as a result of Soviet anti-Semitism. Both of us were studying physics at the Kiev University at the same time, but Tatyana was studying metallic physics, while I was involved with electronics. One day, our dean came into my classroom and declared that everyone, with a few exceptions, would begin studying military electronics under the Minister of the Military. He read aloud the list of exceptions, which contained only those with Jewish family names. No explanation, but nobody needed one. It was the beginning of the year 1952, the strange word "cosmopolitans" was on every lip, and we were filling like outcasts, as though we were infected with a plague. (Notice, that this problem later was solved by Minister of Education very drastically: we had enrolled at Kiev University in 1948, but, like many other top-rate schools in the USSR, admission for Jews was closed from 1950 until about 1970.)
The dean said: "All people indicated in this list will be transferred to other specialties, but you are free in your choice." I choose metallic physics, which had many excellent teachers among its staff, and found my Tatyana.
Every Soviet student had not only educational but also "public" duties. Tanya's was to monitor attendance at lectures. I was a big sports enthusiast and participated in four or five varsity sports. One might think our schedules would lead to conflict, but no! -- we sympathized with each other very much.
After a while, we graduated and went to different towns without solid confidence in our future. I worked in a lab of a big mechanical engineering plant near Moscow, and Tanya worked in a similar lab on the Volga's shore. A year later, we got married and returned to Kiev.
Our children began to walk, read, and understand the outside world. When did they reach the edge of adulthood?
...While they were growing up, we liked spending our vacations on the steep tracks of Crimea, carrying backpacks and tents on our shoulders, going downhill onto seashore to set up the night, lodging near the breaking waves, swimming for a long distance, and, of course, underwater fishing. One day, we camped at a very small bay surrounded by sheer rocks when a strong storm fell upon the shore. The waves approached our tent, behind which were only cliffs, and we could not run away. The cliffs defended our bay from the wind; there was crazy heat above the waves, and the heavy, motionless air burned our lungs. Tatyana and I were overcome by the heat. In this situation, our son took charge and lugged the big stones all day and all night to protect the tent. When the storm passed, we realized that our son was becoming an adult.
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Mikhail Yeselson, 1996