Boris Gindin - 2007

 

  I was born on October 30th of 1950 to a middle class family who lived in Leningrad. My mother stayed home and raised two kids, my sister Ella and myself. Our life in Leningrad was very simple and rather primitive. We lived in an apartment we shared with other two families, we had out-dated furniture, we ate simple food (potatoes, herring, pickled cabbage, eggs, milk, bread, butter etc), and my mother did a lot of baking to save on food expenses. I never had new clothing. It was always hand-me-downs from my cousins.

  I grew up happy and contented with my life because I had tons of friends. I played soccer in the summer, skied and had snow ball fights with my friends in the winter. I was in good physical shape, and if needed, I could defend myself. Not that I ever picked the fight.

  In 1957, I went to school and graduated in 1967. I was a good student and throughout my school years I remember constantly learning about Lenin, his ideas, Communism, and patriotism.

  There was never a day in my life when I would go without being reminded, one way or another, that we were the luckiest people in the world in that we were born in a country that would give us everything we want. And we would never need anything once we entered into Communism. These ideas were methodically seeded in our heads, even later in our lives when we started seeing and understanding more. We were patriotic. That is the only way we knew how to live.

  We lived in the Cold War era, and for a lot of kids this was the ideal environment that helped them determine their next step in life—defend your country against enemies. To me this was obvious. It came all together from a lot of things and people that were around me: my hardworking father who was totally dedicated to his work and family and yet was hardly providing them with decent living, my mother who struggled to feed the family, my brother-in-law who entered the Academy and was fascinated by it, telling me endless stories about how good my life would be if I did the same.

  So, for me it was clear – I would try to work very hard in school to have good grades to be able to pass hard tests and be accepted to the Academy. It was my goal.

 

  In 1967, I was accepted to St. Petersburg Military Engineering Academy. The Academy was one of the most prestigious schools in all of Russia, and I wanted to use it to build a career in the Navy. I was following my father’s footsteps of being a Mechanical Engineer.