Table of Contents

grandma notes

born july 22 1940, in moscow dad was a meteorogolist and worked with explorer papanin randomly met papanin in a train cabin papanin suggested he work under him, and noone would touch him dad was nearly arrested because his family had ties to kuptsi of the 2nd guild but in reality his father was rather poor, one son and 6 daughters (cannot find them)

weird story: right before the blockade, either papanin or one of his underlings moved to moscow, and great grandpa moved to leningrad instead. a beautiful, furnished 3 bedroom apartment awaited them so they moved to leningrad with toddler grandma, she was just starting to learn to walk almost immediately, the hunger started they jus tmoved when the blocade was announced (beginning of september) they only had 300 grams of sugar because they just moved, so they had nothing, no food stored at all grandma was just a year old, and she had just stopped breastfeeding her mother tried to renew breastfeeding her but it didn’t work

Ggrandpa immediately was mobilized to help the road of life he accompanied the half ton small trucks across the lake, checked the ice safety, etc.

their truck was bombed, and he was injured. He wasn’t injured heavily, but because of starvation he wasn’t able to heal, he passed away in january

grandmother stopped being able to walk, she went back to crawling

one time she found a rotten onion under a cabinet, and was crying lyuk, lyuk

GGrandma was reluctant to leave because she wanted to bury her husband’s body they left only in march, on the way the car was bombed and they lost their documents

when there was bombing alarms, GGmth couldn’t make it to the bomb shelter in time, so she would hide in the stairwell

baby grandma held onto her shoulders so hard that she left little bruises all over her shoulders

they eventually crossed the ladizhskoe ozero and took a train to vologda there were horrible things happening there, people dying of refeeding

along the train ride, they would throw bodies off the train, of people dead or nearly dead. initially they were stacked in the spaces between traincars (inside, but behind the door), they would quietly toss them while the train was moving

one woman was tossed near a cemetary, but the child stayed left on the train, nobody took care of him. One other random woman shooed him from his cot, to place her kids. GGrandma asked her “what are you dong?? it’s a child” The woman replied “Yeah so what, he’s not gonna survive anyway. But Mine might”

Eventually GGandma lost consciousness, and she was tossed off the train. Grandma was clinging to her and was tossed out with her.

There were teams of people that would go through the bodies, looking for living people, and getting rid of the dead

grandma remembers/was sure that she saw somebody walk past and say “hey, but that’s zhenia” and then keep going.

One of the women saw grandma and was going to just take her and leave her mother, but she cried so much, the woman felt bad and took her mother also. She was warned by the other women that she would lose her rations becaus she kept taking in people that died (there was deficit in everything)

but she took her anyway, she hid GGma away so she wouldn’t be discovered, somewhere in a corner so she wouldn’t be noticed. They had trouble feeding her, she couldn’t swallow. When GGma came to, she saw above her head a label that said “женя назава”, which was how baby grandma pronounced it

and baby grandma herself was named “мила буселя” (Людмила бушева)

Eventually GGma was rehabilitated, and she returned to moscow. She was still was incredinly weak. SHe couldn’t lift her leg to walk over a railroad railing, she could barely walk.

All the rest of GGma’s family moved to uzbekistan, tashkent as part of the evacuation program, out of the regions that were being bombed (during the war, 1942-44)

GGma was an economist, she found a job in the savhoz she leader of the savhoz was courting her, wanting her to be his youngest wife (they are polygamous), but she wasn’t interested

they returned to moscow around 1944-45 (grandma insists she remembers the victory salute), grandma lived there until she was 7

grandma had a friend there she called her god sister, she was beutiful and had green eyes and was very crafty and sly. Her jewish husband joked that she embodied the stereotypes more than he, a jew, did.

GGma’s mother Мария алексеевна Литвинова was supposedly extremely beautiful, and was super brave, she would jump on a horse and ride at night in a scary place with поющие барханы and come back with a bit of grass to prove it. They lived somewhere near Anapa

MAL died in moscow from cancer of ? Mikhail Griegorievich Nazarov (Grandma’s Grandpa) also died of cancer (kidney?)

when MAL was dying, GGma spent all of her money on painkillers for her mother When she died herself at 47, Gma was only 16, nobody gave her painkillers and she died screaming in pain.

in about 1947 moved to krasnodar (that’s where their family was initially, both paternal and maternal) They received a package from their relatives with dried fruits. GGma ate only bread and water, and gave GMa the fruits. Gma wanted to have authority among the kids in her neighborhood, so she started giving the fruits away to other kids so they would respect her. When GGMa saw that, she was like “what are you doing? Do you know how i’ve been eating?” Grandma was ashamed and forever remembered this moment

GGma always worked as an economist, so she was always able to find a job, she was valued. One time she got a job at a honey factory. Everyone was hungry, and honey was very valuable.

The workers were allowed to eat as much honey as they wanted, but they could not bring bread into the factory, or take honey out of the factory. They would be searched. On the first day, they sat little grandma in front of a plate of just honey and said “eat!” but it was hard to eat a plate of honey without bread

then grandma started school.

Grandpa

grandpa was born in 1941, February 25th in Gomel, Belarus

His mother was a musical instructor - perhaps in those years, or in later post-war years, we’re not sure. she was born in 1917 - Natalia Danilovna Novikova (nee Осадчикова)

grandpa’s grandfather was Daniel Osadchikov, he looked like grandpa, had the same nose. There is a funny story that g-g-grandpa Daniel really wanted to be called a краснодеревщиком а сам он был столяр - he wanted to be known as a specialized wood craftsman but he was just a carpenter. He really wanted to know how to make a violin. He tried 3 times to build a violin, and each time he would smash it against the wall because it sounded like crap. After 3 times he gave up, and sent his daughter Natalia (grandpa’s mother) to musical school. she played the guitar and mandolin

Grandpa’s father Федор Карпович was born in a old-believer village where most people had the same last name – Novikov. The village was called Мильча, near Gomel, Belarus. His father Karp wasn’t a farmer, but he was involved in Railroad Work somehow, such as steam engine maintenance/etc. karp was from a family of old-believers, that’s why he has this old-fashioned name Karp because it’s named after the saint day of his birthday. His son Theodore was a chemist and a communist. There was a time in his life that he was offered to move to the Moscow Region but his wife didn’t want him to go. As soon as the second world war started, he was immediately drafted into the chemical warfare division—that’s why he was able to survive the war, because the chemical weapons were never used. his battalion was always behind the attacking line, and the first to retreat. However he did experience some combat because he said that he killed 3 germans. His mother was Ksenia, brother Paul who had a wife Tatiana and 3 children. Unfortunately Tatiana and her youngest son died from being alcoholics. Paul also died early. Theodore also liked to drink and died at 56.

the germans marched to Minsk in 11 days from the start of their attack on the USSR. Theodore was a communist party member, so his whole family, except for himself, (father daniel, mother Agafia, wife Natasha, baby Grandpa) all went to hide in the forests. They lived in a dug-out underground home, a zemlyanka. They went with their cow, who learned to lay low and hide with them when she heard the sound of german motorcycles/vehicles. His father Daniel passed away that winter. they buried him as best they could, but it wasn’t very deep. Later, Natasha visited the grave and discovered that it had been ransacked and bones scattered by foxes—she told this to my mom herself. G-G-Gpa Daniel was a bit of a dick. He married Agafia, but didn’t have children. he decided that he hadn’t played around enough, so he left for 10 years to wander or do whatever. Then, 10 years later, he came back and begged her to take him back, and she accepted. I think that’s why they only had a daugher

When theodore came back from the war he became a school principal, and didn’t really do chemistry anymore. Later he transferred to be a teacher at a special needs school. – Double check this, was this Sasha instead? Natasha wasn’t able to be a music instructor so she went to the same school as Theodore to be a primary school teacher. Natasha was a funny character and loved to joke. Theodore was a respected school principal so he would walk down the street and tip his hat when people greeted him, he would say “Мое почтение” (my respects), and Natasha would jokingly whisper in his ear “Мои подштанники” (my bloomers). Natasha loved to write letters but grandpa didn’t like to read them/respond to them. She would write them in verse as poems, not as normal letters. So grandma had to read the letters and respond to the letters and she thought it was kinda weird. Natasha liked to complain and whine about things in her letters. She could get easily upset–had that kind of character. One time, she went to visit grandpa and stayed at his house. It was his birthday. She grabbed a guitar and played something, and somebody danced with her, and she was suddenly a super charming and fun-loving granny, and everyone would compliment her, telling grandpa what a charmer she was. But grandma remembered that all the other times that she visited she would always be crying and complaining the whole time—I guess she needed entertainment.

When Natasha was on her deathbed from some kind of kidney issues, grandpa’s sisters kept calling grandpa telling him to come visit. But he couldn’t get off work, so he kept putting it off. Finally, when he went, he wasn’t able to get tickets to the direct train so he had to take a train with layovers in a different city. As he was riding in that train, late at night, around 3am, he suddenly had a dream/vision that his mother Natasha was saying to him “and now here you are, left all alone”. When he arrived, his sisters said that she had indeed passed away around that time.

When Theodore passed away at 56, grandpa was in his 30s and mom was 12. grandpa went to pay his respects at his funeral. He was buried in an old-believer cemetary (possibly in Milcha village). And a bunch of old men from the village came and gave grandpa a book telling him - “you are now one of the elders (eldest son of eldest son). We are old and will soon pass away, so we are giving you these books to keep”. One of the books was a very old old-believer bible. the second book was even older on blue-ish paper with red ink, not clear if it’s printed or hand-copied. It contained the lives of the saints жития светых - Pentecostarion. (books from old religion before the update/split in mid 1600s. we don’t know when they were printed/reprinted though). The books contain hymns. So grandpa, at that point an irreligious soviet man, became the keeper of these ancient religious texts.

Grandpa used to lead brigades to do construction projects in different places, this would earn him a yearly salary of a scientist in only a month. somehow he would network or read newspapers or write letters or otherwise find these gigs, usually on the far eastern side of siberia. Initially he started by doing it in northern siberian towns - started with a trip to Narilsk, a former gulag colony town. After that experience he started leading construction brigades. He would have both scientific colleagues come with him, as well as just random laypeople. He was very proud of his ability to take initiative and lead people — but perhaps he wasn’t a good follower and that’s why, too. Grandma used to complain about his inability to co-operate. His students were also sometimes complaining about how he had enemies, however he also worked hard to defend them.

When grandpa would go on those money-making trips (шабашки) he took grandma along, and probably sent mom to stay in Gomel. grandma would say that he would put his cot against the door at night, blocking it, so that nobody would come in at night. Grandma was a little naive and she was thinking that “wow, he is a very jealous person” - but maybe she was naive and he knew what he was doing — there were a bunch of men doing construction, who knows what they would do to a woman.

In one incident, his student, Kolya, was defending his PhD thesis. Kolya was being verbally attacked by people who didn’t like grandpa, but grandpa got his other PhD students to line up and retort to the attackers

grandpa didn’t want any cats, he didn’t want any pets, but two days later the cats loved him and he would pet them roughly with his calloused hand whenever they came to him for pets

Mom was very proud of her parents. she trusted and loved grandpa, felt like he would always come to her aid, would come at any time of night to save her, would pull through any kind of situation and figure out a way out.

dad’s stories

Maternal grandfather was executed by shooting paternal grandfather sold his home for a bottle of vodka, and then the person who bought it was raskulached instead