Boyhood

My dad, ages 5, 8 and 20. With a plush-toy bear:
Getting ready for school:
Hiking in the Carpathians:

Concert

My mom sings with her college choir under the gaze of Lenin.

Costumes

In college, my mom sang in a choir. The singers occasionally performed wearing traditional costumes of all the Soviet republics.

Class photo

A class photo of my mom's. Taken in fourth or fifth grade, maybe. Ural Mountains region, 1960s.

Teaching

Me, age 7, teaching my dolls the alphabet. That's letter "a"!

Parade

My mom (second from left), as a college student, marching in a parade. Apparently, participation was mandatory. Note the Lenin posters.

Contrasts

My mom, in 1980, at the height of her Soviet hipster-chic phase. The retro graphic T-shirt! The bell bottoms! The disaffected stare!
And two years later, a Soviet working woman, wheeling a baby carriage in the courtyard of a communal apartment building in St. Petersburg.

Family

My mom's uncle and his wife, with their daughter, Katya (my mother's cousin), in Nizhny Novgorod (?), in the 1950s.

Grandmother in Tatarstan

My mom's maternal grandmother, in Tatarstan, in the 1960s. My mother's side of the family is Tatar.

Mushroom Eaters

My mom (9 months pregnant with me), my paternal grandfather (middle), and his brother pretend to eat just-picked mushrooms while vacationing in the country. Mushroom-picking is big in Russia.

Uzbekistan, Bukhara

More from my parents' early '80s trip to Uzbekistan.

Drinking tea and eating grapes.

Stopping at the bazaar for watermelons.

Atop a camel.

And then a donkey.

Touring a minaret.

And a temple?

Bike Trip

My mom, on a bike trip in Zelenogorsk (a suburb of St. Petersburg, not the Siberian city).

Siblings

My mom (on the stool), with her older sisters and brother. Ural Mountain region, early 1960s.

Bundled Up

My dad, age 5(?), all bundled up.

Three generations

My grandfather, a relative of his (a nephew?) and I.

The relative's name is Emil and he has since immigrated to Israel.

Baby Carriage

My mom with a baby carriage in St. Petersburg. (I am presumably inside the carriage.)

Grandfather

My paternal grandfather and I (10 months).

Uzbekistan

My mom on vacation somewhere in Uzbekistan (Hiva?), in the early 1980s. Note her au courant outfit: capris and a peasant blouse.

Nizhny Novgorod, 1960s

My mom's aunt and uncle (top), with their kids and other relatives. Taken in Nizhny Novgorod, 1963 (?).

School

My first or second grade class, school #322, Kupchino, St. Petersburg. Check out the Soviet uniforms.