Talk:Lev Boguslavsky Family

Unona and her family

Unona with her sons Boris and Yuri, 1983. She wrote that they didn't own a camera and took photos only on special occasions

Sometime in 1989, Maria's daughter Unona wrote to me. She introduced herself as Lev's granddaughter and said that Rose's son (Mark) had given her my address. In that first letter, she wrote that "we always knew about you but we are afraid to write to you. But now the situation has changed (perestroika) and if you answer me I will write to you." She explains a little about her family in that first letter:

My grandfather Lev had a very hard life. He was [the] father of two daughters: the elder one is Maria (my mother) born in 1920; the younger one (my aunt), born in 1924, now lives with her family in Leningrad.

My mother [died] of serious illness in 1976. My grandfather was dead of an [accident]. He was very nice and very like your [grandfather] and your uncles.

I am 45, my husband is 52, we have two sons; the elder one is 25 and the younger one is 17. I, my husband and our elder son are engineers. Our younger son is a first year student.

We sent several letters back and forth, including photos and information about our families. She wrote in English, writing with a dictionary at her side. In late 1990, she wrote about the wedding of her son Boris to Isabel and of their wedding tour to Leningrad. And she wrote that her Aunt Craina had lived there since 1946 with her husband David. Unona invited me to visit her in the Soviet Union -- if not Tashkent, then Leningrad or Moscow. In my response, I invited her to visit us in the U.S., possibly for Noah's bar mitzvah in June, 1992, when she could meet many family members. She wrote that the situation in Uzbekistan was disturbing, that Perestroika had led to a shortage of products in the shops, and that people were angry, nervous, and looking for "enemies," namely Jews. She wrote that people were concerned that the pogroms ("the Jew-smashes") would begin again. Many of their friends had emigrated to Israel, but Unona and her family were struggling with that decision. The economic situation continued to deteriorate with rising inflation and a diminishing exchange rate. (At one point, the U.S. dollar was equal to 110 roubles, and the family's monthly income was about 500 roubles. Airfare to New York was the equivalent of 3,000 roubles and had to be purchased in dollars.) She wrote also about visiting her aunt Craina (her mother's sister) in Leningrad and sharing my letters with her. Her correspondence with me includes a personal view into her family's current situation in Tashkent and, I think, is worth quoting at some length. Here is her letter to me, dated March 10, 1991:

Dear Estelle,

I received your two letters dates February 9 and November 11... I shall try to answer all questions.

In the first place, I received permission to visit you and foreign passport. I [am waiting our] turn for airplane tickets. It is the most

problem. I would like to go in June for Noah's bar mitzvah...There is no such [thing as a]bar mitzvah ceremony in our country. We usually :mark all birthdays home with my friends together.

We are lucky. [Daughter-in-law]Isabelle [had a baby] boy February 24 and I became a grandmother. He is named Dan...

Now I'll try to talk about our life. I live in Uzbekistan, one of the Soviet republics. 90% of the population are Uzbeks, and 10% are people :of other nationalities. All leading posts all over the plants and enterprises and especially party posts are occupied by Uzbeks. They all :know two languages -- Russian and Uzbek -- so we haven't [had] any problems [communicating]. We haven't seen any discords before, but now, :when the situation in the country has become worse, the relations between people of different nationalities became very complicated. You :probably read in your papers that our republics want to leave the Union, but what will happen to us. Well we live in the alien republic. All :fear our relations will turn into the civil war, as it is happening in other republics. People get angry with all that life. All foods have :disappeared from the shops.

We are very lucky [that] war in the Persian Gulf [is] finished. We would like peace in all the world, especially Israel.

Estellesass (talk) 10:53, 21 August 2020 (MDT) Estellesass Estellesass (talk) 10:53, 21 August 2020 (MDT)

That was in March. At about that time, Unona's brother-in-law Boris (her husband's brother) immigrated to Boulder, Colorado with his family. That event changed their focus and Unona and her family began the complicated process of emigration which included contact with family in the U.S. as well as our financial assistance with the prohibitive airfare. It involved letters to me (sometimes in Russian, which required translations) from the USSR embassy in Washington, the IOM (International Organization for Migration) in New York, Unona's brother-in-law in Boulder, as well as from Unona herself. At one point, an appeal to Senator George Mitchell was made on behalf of the family. It took several weeks for letters to cross back and forth, which added to the anxiety evident in her letters. Unona hoped that the Boguslavsky family in the U.S. would be able to help them. The family succeeded in obtaining an interview at the US Embassy in Moscow and were approved for admission to the U.S. as refugees on August 11. Here in the States, many family members contributed to our effort to finance their journey, and Unona and her family emigrated from Uzbekistan in December 1992. She wrote in April, 1993, that they were settled in Boulder, were learning English, had been to a synagogue for Purim and Passover and had learned about the holidays. The family was doing well. Eventually, we did meet Unona and her family and continue to be in touch.

Estellesass (talk) 13:00, 21 August 2020 (MDT) Estellesass Estellesass (talk) 13:00, 21 August 2020 (MDT)

Croyna/Kraina

undated photo of Kraina and her grandchildren

We met Kraina when we were in Israel in June, 2006, for Ilan and Shira's wedding. Carol and Micha drove my mother and me to Migdal HaEmek and we spent the afternoon with Kraina and Etel and their families.

Estellesass (talk) 13:37, 21 August 2020 (MDT) Estellesass Estellesass (talk) 13:37, 21 August 2020 (MDT)