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Ilya Magid

Editors: Steven Siegel and Dan Smollens

 

Kiva's Story
(A History of one Dynasty)

Outline

1. Shtetl
2. Minsk
3. Wartime
4. After wartime
5. Emigration
6. Other relatives
7. Meeting with youth
Conclusion

 

I would like to try to write about the history of one Jewish dynasty from the story of its oldest member, Kiva (he was 88). We can observe the fate of four Jewish Generations.

 

1. SHTETL
Kiva's father and Kiva were born in 1870 and 1910 respectively in the shtetl Kaydanovo. Kaydanovo* was located 40 kilometers from the city of Minsk.

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*The name of the shtetl of Kaydanovo has some Tatar roots from 300 Tatar-Mongol invasions (11th-13th centuries). Kaydan was one of Han Baty's administrators.
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In the shtetl lived about 10,000 residents. They consisted of 50% Jewish people and 50% others: Belorussians, Polish, and Tatars. In the center of the shtetl lived the Jews. Other people lived in the outskirts. In one hour you could walk across the shtetl from one end to the other. Everywhere you could see only one-story wooden houses.

The two important parallel roads of the shtetl were to New-Minsk and Old-Minsk. They crossed other roads two of which were Poland Road and Tatar's Road. (Kiva remembered when Tatar boys became 13 years old; they had to have a "briz", Tatars were Muslim. The boys usually ran to the forest, but ultimately they returned home.)

The main roads were covered with pebbles. The other roads were without pebbles.

On the edge of the shtetl there were located border guards. (Kydanovo was located 12 kilometers from the Polish border. It was enclosed with a high fence. The frontier guard rode on horses.

In the Soviet time 3-4 militia kept thes order in the shtetl. (They weren't from the shtetl.) Kiva remembers the gendarme with a sword whom all Jews feared.

In the Soviet time Kaydanovo was the district center. That region consisted of many villages and some Jewish shtetels

In their shtetl there were a Synagogue, a Polish Roman-Catholic church and an Orthodox church. Because of insufficient room in the synagogue on the Shabbat and big religious holidays, religious services were also held in two houses on those days. There were different services for Chasidim and Misnagdim. There were a few heders (elementary religious schools). On nearly every road there was a heder.

The people brought water from the well. (Kiva went to the well more than 300 meters away. The restrooms were located outdoors.

Peasants from neighboring villages carried wood to the shtetl for cooking and heating the houses in winter.

Two doctors were located in the shtetl. (It is interesting that they were not Jews). A person in the shtetl would ask the doctor to make a house call.

Each family had its own kitchen garden, where they grew potatoes and vegetables. Some families had cows. They could buy food in the grocery shops, but they bought meat in a special kosher meat shop (in the house of the butcher).

Sunday was the big market day. A few times during the year there were fairs. The peasants from the villages came there. They sold horses and other things, bought carts, and other supplies for the horses.

Kiva's family lived in their own house, which consisted of two apartments. One apartment was rented. Kiva's family later consisted of eight children, six girls and two boys. Kiva was the youngest son.

They had two bedrooms, a dining room and a kitchen with a big Russian stove. They had a second, traditional stove in one of the other rooms.

Kiva's father was a religious man, who always went to the Synagogue, but on holidays and Shabbat he went to the private home used by the misnagdim where there was no professional cantor. He liked to sing religious hymns. The father was able to stand and sing all day in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur.

The father had a horse and cart, and transported corn to the mill and flour from the mill. (The shtetl people baked bread themselves, or bought it from the bakery.) With help of a hired peasant with his plow and the father's horse the father plowed his kitchen garden. The size of his garden was 120 by 70 meters.

They had a cow. In 1920 they put a knife in its throat to kill it. Then they had only goats, but milk received from the goats was not enough for the family

Kiva said that his father took him to his Job. The father wanted to make him a 'balabola', a shipper, as he was. The older brother completed the Russian school (gymnasium) and he was an educated person. In the shtetel there were more shippers than needed. There was big competition. There were five brothers, all shippers; they lived in one house near us. All shipping business was theirs.

In 1921 the family wanted to organize home production of felt boots. They bought a boiler, forms, etc. They produced maybe 15 pairs, but the first cost was very high and the customers were very few. They closed that production.

Kiva remembers his family of ten people seated around the dining room table. The serving dish was placed in the middle of the table. Each took his spoon and ate from the serving dish.

The Saturday meal was prepared in a Russian stove on Friday and was kept warm until Saturday. (The stove was kept warm with the damper)

On Pesach Kiva, the youngest son, asked the father the four traditional questions.

The men ate their meal in the Sukkot, but the women gave them the food in containers through the window. He remembers the custom of Kaporot on Yom Kippur, etc.

Marriage engagements were organized by a shatchen. The meeting of a couple was organized, for example, when somebody bought them the tickets for two adjoining seats in the cinema. The wedding was under a chupa.

At the time of the revolution (1917) all the people of the shtetl waited in fear for the arrival of bands of bandits and they afraid of pogroms. The father loaded all the family onto a cart, and all the family went toward the city of Minsk. They rented there a very cheap hotel, and they lived there for a few days. Fortunately, there weren't any pogroms, and the family returned home. Thanks to G'd, Kiva never saw pogroms.

In the first years of the Soviet regime, Belorussia was occupied by the Germans (following the Brest-Litovsk* peace). There wasn't any anti-Semitic action.

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*The communists destabilized the Tzar's army on the front. The Germans began the attack. They occupied big territories. There was threat of a Communist revolution. The Soviet Government inquired about peace. The peace agreement occurred in March 1918. (The Soviet Government had to pay the Germans large sums of money and gave them large territories.) When the Allies (a truce was written in November 1918) crushed Germany the Soviet Government disregarded the Brest-Litovsk peace (Nov 1918).
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In 1920, war began between the Soviet Union and Poland*.

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*The war with Poland began in April 1920. At first, Poland occupied a large territory including Kiev. Then the Red Army came close to Warsaw. Then again, Poland attacked. In March 1921 the peace agreement established the new border near Minsk. As we were taught, the cavalry of Budeni become famous in that was. ( Budeni was one of the heroes of the civil war). Kaydanovo was located near the border.
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The shtetl Kaydanovo passed from one hand to another: it was occupied by the Red Amy, and later by Polish troops. Once, when the Red Army occupied Kaydanovo, the Red commander ordered Kiva's father to haul military equipment on his cart. The father refused because it was Shabbat. The red commander forced all the people from the room to leave except the father. The commander put his pistol to the father's breast. The mother pushed Kiva into the room with the hope that the commander would hesitate to kill the father in front of the eyes of his child. The commander understood that it was impossible to force the father to go with the cart on Shabbat.

Another time, when the Poles occupied the shtetl they forced him to transport military equipment (there was no Shabbat observance.) After some time Kiva's father said, "I have to go home." They said, "Go, but you must leave your horse and cart here." The father began to argue. They beat him, and cut his beard and discharged him from the military.

Kiva remembered one case. One shtetl Jew persuaded a Jewish Polish soldier to remain in the shtetl when Poland retreated. When the Budeni cavalry came to the shtetl that soldier defected. They put him against the wall and killed him. The shtetl Jew escaped from the shtetl in 1923.

At that time, the Soviet government began a policy of prohibiting religion. The local government instituted an active anti-religious policy. They closed heders. In place of one of them there was built a public club (in 1923) where young people met.

There were created some komsomol groups, which consisted of Jews and then later non-Jews who joined the Jews. In the komsomol there joined a son of a kohen, who later became chairman of the District Soviet (of People's Deputies) and served from 1929-1941. Also, a son of a shochet, and a brother of Kiva, and others, joined the komsomol. The Jews were ready to participate in the revolution, but others were not ready and the Jews thought that they must encourage the others to enter the komsomol.

At that time, the komsomol members were drafted in to the Navy fleet. After the bloody repression of the Kronshtadsky mutiny* against the Soviet regime, new sailors in the Navy fleet were needed.

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*The Kronshtadsky mutiny was in Feb-Mar. 1921. Kronshtad was an important naval base. It is located on an island near Leningrad. The rebellion of sailors was inspired by slogans such as "Soviet without communists." The stronghold was seized and the mutiny was defeated.
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Kiva's oldest brother, who was 18 in 1922, decided to escape from the mobilization. He illegally crossed the border of Poland and went to America. (In those years, illegal crossing of the border was possible.)

In 1925 the shtetl was renamed town Derzinski, in honor of the People's Commissar of the Soviet extraordinary commission, VChK. (The VChK preceded KGB). New-Minsk and Old-Minsk Roads were renamed First Lenin and Second Lenin Road respectively.

Kiva studied in the heder until he was 12 years old. When the cheder was closed (in 1923), he enrolled immediately in the Russian school as a third year student. (In the shtetl there was also the evening Jewish school.) Kiva became a "komsomoletz". He was in the same cell as the future chairman of the District Soviet. He was in the choir of the school. There he studied 4 years. Then he was assigned to the harness-maker as an apprentice. In the shtetl, there were two harness-makers; they produced horse's leather collars, breast-bands, etc. Kiva received five rubles a month to help his family. In 1925 the horse died; that was a big problem because they could not buy a new horse. In 1927 the father died from pneumonia at the age of 52.

In 1927, the Main synagogue was closed. That building was then used as a new club. (Very significantly, the Orthodox Church and Roman-Catholic church were not closed.)

That was the time of the end of NEP*.

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*After the Civil War (1917-1921), the country was in a ruined economic condition. Lenin announced in 1921 the New Economic Policy (NEP), which would allow capitalism, but leadership would be in the "Proletariat State". The Government allowed small entrepreneurs. The farmers, after giving some production to the state as a tax, could sell their surplus in the market. After several years the country acquired a surplus of goods. In 1928, the Communist Government decided to end the NEP. Then the Government sharply increased the tax on all business owners, and also exiled other owners to Siberia.
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The industry of the shtetl consisted of one plant, where 20-30 workers worked. (It was built in 1923). They produced locks and other metal products. The owner of the plant had to pay such a big tax that he abandoned the plant and ran away.

(There was a match factory, which burned in 1920). There was a lumber-mill and nearby a grinder. Lumber was hauled to the mill by horses harnessed to a leaf cart. The base of the trees lay on the front wheel and the top on the rear wheels. The government seized the lumber and grinder mills.

Private cobblers, barbers, etc. also were burdened by a big tax, in order to induce them to be organized as a cooperative. (That was an acceptable form of working under the Soviet Government.)

As a result of these policies, private shops closed and the Government organized Government or cooperative shops, "selpo", (village general stores). However there was nothing to buy. The Government imposed on the shippers a big tax. It did not organize them in to a cooperative. The shippers sold their horses.

The practice of Jewish religion was ended in 1927. There was only one holiday, Sunday. All services became the Government. The Shabbat became a working day. Later the seven-day week was changed to a five-day 'week'. Then Saturday and Sunday could have been often one of the five workdays, therefore workers had to work on Shabbat and Sunday. Young people (komsomol, pioneers) abandoned their religion.

Kiva's sister had a table in the market and sold small things (matches, needles, cigarettes, etc.) When the market was closed, she took all unsold things home. They bought things in Minsk, and then sold them at retail in the shtetl. Sometimes the sister and Kiva took a basket with things to the villages and bartered for food (butter, milk, etc.)

In 1928 a member of Kiva's family (who became 18 years of age) was declared as "lishenetz". The Government decided that they lived on nontraditional income. Maybe they deemed it to be speculation. A list of the "lishenetz" was hung out on a stand in the shtetl. The government persecuted them. Kiva quickly went away to Minsk, and therefore he was not expelled from the komsomol.

At that time the Soviet Government proclaimed the policy of "industrialization and collectivization" in the country.*
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*The policy of collectivization meant: the government compelled the peasant to go to the "kolchoz", a collective farm. Wealthy peasants were exiled to Siberia. (The abolition of landlord property rights occurred during the Civil war (1917-1920)).

Collectivization affected the Jews from the shtetl less than the peasants because the Jews did not own land.

The policy of industrialization meant to create first heavy industry. Then light industry, and agriculture were supposed to develop with the advance of heavy industry. The same policy also created a military industry also.

In the country secular education improved, the technical institute opened and big plants were built. The Government then had a new task: "to overtake and surpass the West and the USA economically." After that they wanted to spread communism throughout world.
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That was the time of famine for people. Kiva remembered that one of five of his brothers, a shipper, went to the village and bought a half 'pood' of grain (about 18 pounds). Somebody informed an official about that. In the shtetl there was an open trial for the peasant who sold the grain and the brother who bought it. People said, "They both should be sentenced to death."

 

2. MINSK

In Minsk, the Main synagogue was closed in 1929. The Jewish Theater was organized in this building. Very soon the Jewish Theater was transformed into the Russian Theater.

Kiva got a job in the harness plant. He studied in evening school, and then he enrolled in "Rabfak", the workers division of the educational institution set up to prepare workers and peasants for higher education. Then he studied in Minsk's Institute of National Economics. Of course he concealed that he was "lishenetz". In the institute Kiva was the leader of an orchestra.

When Kiva visited relatives in Derzinsk the cabman would drive him from the station to his home free, in honor of his father, if there was an empty seat in the cab.

Several months before he completed his studies at the institute it became known that Kiva was "lishenetz'. He was expelled from komsomol and the institute.

The head of military training in the institute was Kiva's friend. He was interested in music and visited Kiva's music studio. That person was sent to Derzinski to investigate this case. After investigation he made the conclusion that Kiva's family lived poorly. (The people who usually were repressed were those who lived above the Soviet standard.) As a result Kiva was reinstated in the institute. After finishing the institute he was assigned to work as manager of the planning division of haberdashery.

Gradually all the family (sisters with their families) moved to Minsk. Two younger sisters also completed Minsk's Institute of National Economics.

Kiva got married and had two children, a girl and a boy. (His wife was a girlfriend of his sister. This is haw they became acquainted.)

In the Bellorussian radio organization a people's orchestra was organized. Kiva played there. That was a second job for him*.

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*In 1939 the Germans invaded Poland. WWII began for the west. Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland. West Ukraine and West Belorussia were "reunited" with the Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Belorussia. The border of the Soviet Union was moved to the west about 200-300 kilometers.
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Less then three months before the Germans attacked the Soviet Union (June 1941), Kiva was mobilized into NKVD and appointed to the job of leader of a planning division of aerodrome construction near the town of Baranovichy (100 kilometers from the new border with Germany).

 

3. WARTIME

When war began (1941) all construction leaders, including Kiva, drove to management jobs at NKVD in the town of Baranovichy. However, there were no management jobs there to fill because all the workers had already escaped themselves.

The construction leaders continued to move to the next management of the NKVD in the town of Mogilev, where they received orders for their future posts. Kiva headed for Minsk, but his relatives there (Kiva's and sisters' families) already lost their apartments. After some difficult experiences they were assigned to Nizni Tagil (near the Urals). The NKVD built a tank plant there. Kiva, as a manager of a planning division, worked in an ancillary plant, which hauled gravel and sand for cement plants, to build the main building (20 kilometers from Nizni Tagil). At the ancillary plant worked deported Germans from the autonomous republic "German Volga". The guard over the deported Germans was only symbolic. Prisoners worked in the main building under intense guard.

Kiva lived in one room of a hostess's apartment. The provision in the system of NKVD for managers was good. There were ancillary agricultural plants to which were deported German workers. Those agricultural plants gave additional food to managers.

After the liberation of Minsk in 1944 Kiva transferred to Minsk to other plants of the NKVD. Kiva found out there that his family and his sisters with their families had left the city. They were surrounded by Germans and returned to Minsk. His mother, his wife and two of his children, and six sisters (all sisters were married) and their families (each family had 2-3 children) were killed in Minsk's ghetto. Only one nephew survived. He was a doctor in the war. Right now he is in America.

At that time Kiva visited the shtetl Derzinski. Many houses were burned. The main population was Belorussian, Russians, and Tatars. There were fewer than tens Jews, who returned from partisan units and from the evacuation. (Kiva said that under the German occupation police officers were Russian and Belorussian).

 

4. AFTER WARTIME

In 1945 Kiva sent an appeal to the headquarters of Minsk's NKVD about the dismissal from his job, but his appeal was rejected. The rejection meant that he could not obtain a new job. Then he invited his direct manager for a drink. After that the manager dismissed him. Kiva got a job with the Ministry of the peat industry of Byelorussia as manager of planning division.

Kiva worked there before he retired. Kiva did not join the communist party where he could have received many advantages.

Kiva married for the second time.

Kiva's second wife was a prewar friend of his sister. Her first husband was killed in a winter company in 1940 (war with Finland). She had a son from that husband.

At the time of occupation she was housed in Minsk in a ghetto with her son (3 years old) and mother. All Jews from Minsk were removed to the ghetto. Prisoners of the ghetto had to wear a yellow star of David. A barbed wire fence surrounded the ghetto. There was only one main gate, where there was a guard. The prisoners were sent to a job and returned back through that gate.

Inside the ghetto were Jewish police. In the ghetto sometimes various street were surrounded by the police (Byelorussian), and all the residents from that street were sent to their death. The guards formed columns of prisoners and moved them to the place of killing. The children were sent in a car to special gas chambers.

In the newly vacated houses new Jews were being placed. The German leaders ordered also the transportation of German Jews to the ghetto of Minsk. German Jews did not adapt well to the new conditions in their new country.

Kiva's wife was in a group 20 other prisoners who were sent to a job in a brickyard. One German soldier kept watch over them. He demonstrated sympathy towards these Jews. He procured food for the prisoners' dinner.

Then the residents of Kiva's wife's street were scheduled for extermination. A German soldier kept prisoners later than usual on the job. When they returned to the ghetto, the other residents of the street had been exterminated. (Maybe the German soldier knew about that execution.) Kiva's wife's son and her mother were killed. She then had no connection to the ghetto.

Therefore, she and her friend decided to escape from the ghetto. During the night, with kerchiefs on their head, they went across the barbed wire fence. They met a policeman, but her friend knew the Byelorussian language without an accent and he did not stop them. That was lucky and they went to the outer woods and met there a partisan's scout. They were driven off, but later joined the partisan's group.

That was the year 1942. Minsk's ghetto was liquidated in 1944, before the Soviet Army realized Minsk..

He had a daughter and son. The daughter and son finished school with gold medals. The daughter finished Minsk Radiotechnic Institute. The son finished Minsk University in the Chemical division. The daughter and son each got married. Each couple has two children (a daughter and a son). The daughter had a son from her first marriage and a daughter from her second marriage. The daughter's son was especially talented. That son finished mathematics school and participated in mathematics competition. He finished school with gold medals and tried to enter Moscow University, but because he is a Jew was denied admission. He returned to Minsk and entered Minsk University in the mathematics division.

From the University he drafted into the army. After the two years he returned to the University. In the army he felt strong anti-Semitism.

 

5. EMIGRATION

The son's family emigrated together with the family of a friend to America in 1977. The son's family now lives close to him. Right now in America son is working in the field of chemistry semiconductors. When they emigrated to America their daughter was 6 months old. The son would be born 8 years later. Right now their daughter is enrolled in college and their son is in the fifth grade.

In the year 1987 Kiva's wife died from cancer in the Soviet Union. After that Kiva emigrated with his daughter's family in 1987. The daughter entered Brandeis University and is working as a programmer.

The daughter's son continued his studies at MIT. He was hired by Harvard University and received the rank of professor. Later he was invited to work at a prestigious New York investment company where he obtained a high position. He was vice-president of that company, with an annual income $150,000. (Here in America that son had a "bris" at age 23. He had a conflict with his father who did not have a 'bris'.)

After several years of working, he decided to stop his work and for one year he enrolled in the Yeshiva in New York. (His leaders agreed with his decision). Right now he has a problem with his job and he is going to be married to a religious woman

Kiva attends synagogue each Shabbat and holiday. Kiva's children and grandchildren attend synagogue on high holidays. Kiva's grandson goes to a Sunday religious school.

America's traditions of freedom and educational resources offer many possibilities for connecting people to their roots. Maybe Kiva's family is availing themselves of those possibilities.

Now Kiva is the leader of a music ensemble. The average age of the group is 80 years. The ensemble was invited to play in Boston City Hall. He gave many concerts. I attended maybe the last concert (in the year 2003) in our building residence, auditorium. There was an advertisement. (I translated it from Russian).

Concert of Jewish music and song
Ensemble 'Mazl'.
Music leader Kiva Epshtain
Soloist Chana Sneer
Sunday, April 27, 4:00 P.M.
Auditorium
Ticket $3
(Fund Raising to benefit Israel)

Their band consists of a violinist, accordionist, guitarist, hammer, drummer and soloist. Their repertoire consists of 70% Jewish songs and music. They collected almost $1,000 for the concert. Once a week they have rehearsal. I am not a big specialist, but I had a good feeling about the concert.

Kiva hears Jewish cassettes and creates the orchestration for each member of the band (for each instrument). He created 200 pages of notes. After him the orchestra would be able to continue the concerts.

6. OTHER RELATIVES

Kiva's aunt lived in Derzinski with her family. She had one daughter and two sons. She died before the war. Their families also suffered under the Holocaust.

Kiva's uncles lived in Poland. The border separated them. There could not be any connection between them.

The husband of one of Kiva's sisters was a man with a leftist view and a member of the BUND*.

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*Some citations from the encyclopedic dictionary about the BUND from Moscow, printed in the year 1953, are as follows, "The BUND was a Jewish social-democratic organization....It arose in the western provinces of Russia in 1897.... In 1921 the BUND was terminated and part of it was absorbed by the Communist party....Later some Bundists who had been accepted in the Communist party, became disruptive of the party from within, and were declared to be the worst enemy of the Soviet People."
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At the time of the democratic revolution in the year 1905 he and a group of Bundists tried to confiscate the personal effects of the local lord. After the Tsar's defeat of the revolution of 1905 Kiva's future brother-in-law ran away to America. Then under the influence of the Soviet propaganda he returned to the Soviet Union and got married to Kiva's sister. He showed the older of Kiva's brothers a manuscript of his book "History of the BUND". Kiva's brother told him, "Hide it and show it to nobody, if you don't want trouble." He perished in the Holocaust.

Kiva's older brother lived in America from 1922. He worked, as a porter in his aunt's shop in New York. (His aunt arrived in America before the revolution.) He had two sons. They were good students and the Government gave them money for their education. They studied at Princeton University. One son served in Vietnam with the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he perished in an accident. The other son worked in the Government service. He died from cancer. Kiva's brother died in 1994. He did not leave any heirs.

Before the year 1930 the brother sent Kiva's family dollars. They could buy all food in the specialty shops (torgsin) during that time of starvation. After 1930 connection with people abroad became dangerous. At the time of Brezhnev (1960's) his brother visited him as a guest. He bought sheepskin-lined coats and some other things for the children with dollars in the specialty shop "Berezka". The Soviet people could not buy in those shops with rubles.

 

7. MEETING WITH YOUTH

In America, Kiva was playing the piano. A man came to him. They had a conversation in Yiddish.

Man: "You play well. Where are you from?'
Kiva: "I am from Minsk.'
Man: "I am also from Minsk. I was born in Kaydanovo."
Kiva: "I also was born in Kaydanovo. What is your name?"
Man: "Zaichik"
Kiva: "You have two sisters and two brothers."
Man: "How do you know?"

Kiva remembers that his family had a lodger with the name Zaichik. That was in 1922. That person was in a baby carriage. Very soon they moved to Minsk.

Zaichik continued his story, "My father, a rabbi, was exiled from Minsk to Siberia in 1927. Influential people in Moscow arranged for his deportation to the west. After two years the father obtained permission from America for his family to emigrate to America, but his adult son did not receive permission. Much later in the 90s the adult son also emigrated to America. I was a rabbi in a synagogue for 53 years. Right now I am a distinguished pensioner and live in the same building as you."

 

CONCLUSION

The Soviet rule persecuted observance of the Jewish religion. That was the most serious crime against the Jews. In Russian history the February democratic revolution in 1917 was before the October socialist revolution. (The communists crushed the February revolution). The February revolution declared freedom for all and the release of the Jews from the ghettos. I think, if there had been only the February revolution, some Jews would have moved to other cities from the shtetls. Synagogues would have been built in those cities and there would have arisen Jewish neighborhoods around those synagogues. Jewish life would have been developed in the American way.

But G-d make history.