Mother's Day

My mom and I back in 1983.

Spring

My mom, middle, with college friends.

Family Outing

My dad, 4 or 5, sulks about spending quality time with adults (his parents, middle, and family friends).

Class photo

My mom's eight grade class, I think. (There were only 10 grades under the Soviet school system.) Taken in the village of Serva in the Permskiy Kray region, 1971.

Granddads

Me, age 4, with my grandfather (left) and his brother.

In The Country

My paternal grandmother hopping a fence while on vacation somewhere in the countryside:

Grandma

My paternal grandmother as a baby, in the early 1920s.

Ski Trip

My dad and a pal of his on a ski trip: Cooking over an open fire:

Young Love

Aw, young love. My father and his very first girlfriend. Leningrad.

Girl and Doll

A relative of my grandfather's--not sure who; the family tree gets complicated here. Taken somewhere in Siberia in 1953.

Dolphin Show

My mom and I at a dolphin show in Anapa, a resort town on the Black Sea.

En Famille

My dad, age 10 or 11, with his parents.

St. Petersburg

One day circa spring 1986 or '87, my parents and some friends of theirs took me sightseeing around St. Petersburg. We posed on bridges:
I met a camel statue:
We went to the Hermitage.

Military-Industrial Complex

My dad, in 1973, at an abandoned (?) military base not from from Arkhangelsk. The caption on the back of the photo reads, "Me with a grenade and a cannon."

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.