My grandfather never talked about his family, they didn't have old pictures, may 2 -3, no memories at all. And his mother to me at that time, was always quiet, no friends, no relatives in the house, except us. She was very organized, liked piano music and Soviet documentaries about 1930 -1940th. One time she was watching Victory Parade with all the Soviet leaders on the stage and said that every time she is watching them, she is thinking about her own family. Almost all her family was prosecuted by government in 1930th. There was nothing to find even years after, no judgment, no documents at all. One "sorry" letter from the government in 1980, that it was a political mistake. She was "wife of enemy of the state", arrested, but some one powerful, I guess, asked to let her and her children go. My grandfather was not allowed to work in Moscow, study in university, in 1940th - 1950th at the beginning all the Soviet people had put this information in any government documents. This how he met my grandmother, in old village were he could find a job.
Still she was kind to us, happy about little things like milk and bread; used to buy me all matching clothes in Moscow, she had great style, asked to read loud newspapers, teaching how to talk, how to sit, but at that time we didn't care much about it.
My great grandmother and my grandmother
the oldest picture we have, from 19 century, a great great...relative from my grand father's side, I don't know who exactly, he was an officer in Russian King's army
