DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Aleksandr Kayzerman. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL008.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b42v2cc6c ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 12 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 1/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Aleksandr Kayzerman. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL008.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b42v2cc6c ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION —Today is November 28, 2012. We are in Miami meeting a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Please introduce yourself and tell us when and where you were born. What was life like before the war? What was your family like? What kind of school did you attend? My name is Aleksandr Yakovlevich Kayzerman. I was born on December 12, 1923, in the town of Kamennyi Brod [Kamianyi Brid], Zhitomir [Zhytomyr] Oblast, Ukraine. But we did not stay there long. My mother was a Russian language teacher and my father was an accountant, so in the late 1920s they were able to move the family to the Donbas. Back then it was a burgeoning industrial center. At first we lived in the mining city of Gorlovka [Horlivka], where my father was the chief accountant at a coke and chemical plant, while my mother taught at a school. From Gorlovka we moved to Dneprodzerzhynsk [now Kamianske], about 40 kilometers from Dneprovetrovsk [now Dnipro]. This was also a major industrial city with a huge metallurgical plant, machine-building factories, and chemical plants. My father was the chief accountant of what was meant to become the largest coke chemical plant in the country. It was still under construction and scheduled to start production in 1941. I studied at School No. 6 in Dneprodzerzhynsk. When we finished seventh grade, the vast majority of graduates went off to work, while some went on to technical schools, and a few others to trade schools. Back then they were still called trade schools, not PTUs [professional technical schools]. The remaining pupils from three seventh grade classes were all placed in one eighth grade class. Three years later we graduated from high school. Our class was motivated, friendly, and considered one of the best in the entire Dnepropetrovsk Oblast. One time during the November 7 celebrations our whole class got to stand right next to the government officials’ section. Back then we all believed in a bright future. Everyone also understood that sooner or later we would have to serve in the army and defend our country. The main adversary of the Soviet Union at the time was fascist Germany. This was in the 1930s. In high schools at that time everyone wanted to receive the four pre- military badges: Ready for defense and labor, for physical ability, first aid readiness, chemical defense, and finally the Voroshilov Rifleman badge for marksmanship. Komsomol organizations were ordered to enable all willing young people to train. We graduated from tenth grade in 1941. By that time we all had the four defense badges. In 1939 the government issued a decree that all high school graduates had to be conscripted into the army. You could not go to college first like before, everyone had to serve first. Military service was three years back then. 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 2/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Aleksandr Kayzerman. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL008.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b42v2cc6c ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN After that you were free to go to college. They did not give out gold medals for perfect grades back then, but rather diplomas with gold a embellishment on the sides. Our class was so advanced that 16 out of 36 of us received diplomas with gold or silver embellishments. I received one with gold. I was the Komsomol organizer at my school. The Komsomol was very persistent about hosting its events. In accordance with the new universal draft, we were conscripted in March 1941. We were all summoned to the draft office in order to pass a medical exam. We were then encouraged to do go to a military school: “Guys, you already have a high school diploma, you must enroll in military schools. You will make excellent commanders.” At that time there was a popular slogan: “Komsomol members, climb aboard [the aircraft]! Let’s give the Motherland 150,000 pilots!” The draft offices acted accordingly and funneled everyone into air force schools. Flying clubs were created in almost every city. Two of my friends and I all decided that we did not want to serve in the air force, but rather in the navy. We really liked the uniforms. I remember there was a committee at the draft office. At the time, I was the secretary of my school’s Komsomol committee. Since our branch was very effective, I was even elected to the city Komsomol council. When my turn came and I said that I wanted to go to the navy, the chairman said, “What?! Your friends are going to be flying the planes while you’ll be bringing in new plane tails at the airfield.” I said that the Komsomol was overseeing not only the air force, but also the navy. Then the secretary of the city's Komsomol organization backed me up: “He’s right. He is not refusing to serve, he would simply rather serve in the navy, there is nothing dishonorable about that.” We then enrolled at a naval school, but we only later found out that it was the Kirov Medical Naval Academy. My best friend dreamed of becoming a doctor and wanted us all to go there. The other friend’s father was a doctor. I was just there for the ride. I dreamed of attending the Institute of History, Literature, and Philosophy in Moscow. But whatever, I decided to go with my friends. On June 21, 1941, we had our graduation ceremony. We were congratulated at a very fancy event, it was wonderful. We danced, sang, and kissed. In those days there was a tradition that all high school graduates would go watch the dawn over the Dnieper. So we went off to do just that, not knowing that the war had already begun. In the morning we all went our separate ways and I climbed into bed. I was awakened by a knock on the door. I heard my friends voices: “Sashka, get up! We’re at war, turn on the radio!” We did not just have a normal radio, but a special S235 receiver. We tuned in just as Molotov was announcing that the fascists had broken the nonaggression treaty. The war began. All the guys, led by me since I was their leader, ran to the recruitment office to volunteer for the front. There were already thousands people there who had been called up. The head of the office told us to go home and wait for our summons to the military schools. He then said, “Now takes these bundles of draft notices and distribute them around town. This was our first military assignment. The government issued a directive to mobilize all upperclassmen to collect the harvest at the collective 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 3/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Aleksandr Kayzerman. Full, unedited interview, 2012 ID FL008.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b42v2cc6c ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN farms. As a former secretary of my school’s Komsomol branch, I sent ninth and tenth graders off to collective farms. On July 3, the three of us went off to the Leningrad Military Naval Academy. On that day Stalin spoke on the radio for the first time and declared that this would be a difficult war . But Victory will be ours. So we traveled, first to Dnepropetrovsk. From Dnepropetrovsk we took a train to Moscow and from Moscow we reached Leningrad [now St. Petersburg]. We already saw the crowds of refugees from Western Ukraine; it was already the second week of the war. They were miserable and their children were unwashed, hungry, and crying. There were women, elderly people . that was our first glimpse of the face of war. We were lucky, our train was not bombed. We reached Moscow and then went to the Leningrad Station and reached Leningrad. When we got to the academy, we were immediately dispatched to Lisy Nos, where the academy’s summer training camp was located. We began going through drills. There was nothing for us to do, so they made us march. The commander of my platoon was a Ukrainian michman who spoke broken Russian with many Ukrainian words. He taught us life lessons, and my first lesson was on the day of my arrival. After our morning muster we would march around until lunch without a clue as to why we were doing this. The leadership of the academy simply needed to kill time while they figured out what to do with us. Were they really supposed to train us for five years when there was a war going on? They awaited a directive from the People’s Commissariat of Defense. One day we were taken to the cafeteria . July 1941 was very hot in Leningrad. We sat down and were served hot borscht. I sat there and waited. Then they brought out ground-meat pasta before I had even started the borscht. Then we were all ordered to rise and line up. Everyone got up, but I kept sitting because I had not finished my lunch. The michman walked up to me and ordered me to rise .