DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Mikhail Pekarovsky. Full, unedited interview, 2008 ID IS066.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4n25g ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 20 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 1/20 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Mikhail Pekarovsky. Full, unedited interview, 2008 ID IS066.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4n25g ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION V. …where we are right now and today’s date, and then it will be your turn to speak. First I will ask you to introduce yourself, tell us where you were born, and to tell us a little bit about your prewar life, your childhood, your parents’ home, what kind of school you attended and whether it was a Jewish or non- Jewish school. Later I will of course ask about how the war changed your life and how you came to serve in the Red Army. O. I have some documents that I brought with me. V. I will give him the documents and he will scan them while we talk. Is that OK? О. No. I want it to be done in my presence. V. You misunderstood, he will do this here. О. So then I will see him do it… V. Do you need them for our interview? You do not want him scanning the documents while you… О. Where will he scan them? V. In the next room. О. Let me bring them over. V. You can give them to me, and I understand that documents are very important. О. These are the sort of documents that are irreplaceable. V. Yes they are. О. This is why I get worried when I even leave them in the next room. V. Of course, but rest assured, we never walk off with anything. О. No, no, this is not about you. It is just that things happen, you know? 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 2/20 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Mikhail Pekarovsky. Full, unedited interview, 2008 ID IS066.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4n25g ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN V. Of course. О. These things get lost, and I must make sure that it does not happen. V. Everything will be done right here. О. I must show him what it is that you wanted to have scanned. Today is March 4th, 2008. We are in Tel Aviv, meeting a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Please introduce yourself and tell us where and when you were born. Please also tell us a little bit about your childhood and about your parents. Go ahead. Of course. My name is Mikhail Petrovich Pekarovsky and I was born on March 31st, 1923 in Kyiv, which makes me a native Kyivan. My childhood was not easy. These were tough times, not just for Kyiv, but the city suffered as well. My mother died in 1929, leaving me orphaned at four years old. My father was a very good and hardworking man. He was a typical Jewish man: extremely talented and a good storyteller. He had a great voice and a God-given talent for drawing. He never took formal lessons, but did it so well that it became his profession. He was born in Bila Tserkva and my mother was from Vasylkiv. These are small town near each other, so my parents met and got married. My mother passed away too soon. A little later my father remarried, but a stepmother is not like a real mother. She was a difficult person to get along with and we had many conflicts and fights. I am being honest with you because I think it is important to always tell the truth. For example, I remember wanting a glass of kissel with lunch, but she would not give it to me. Of course, this was bearable, but there were other incidents like this which were quite unpleasant for a young boy. Nonetheless, I remained a curious and questioning child. I read a lot, wrote poems, and visited the Palace of the Young Pioneers where there were many different activities. I mostly went there to play chess, which I did well and even managed to win a tournament. I was lucky. In the summer of 1936 world chess champion José Raúl Capablanca came to visit Kyiv. I came to the Palace of the Young Pioneers as usual and saw chess tables lined up in a row. I wondered what was happening. It turns out that Capablanca was going to play multiple games at once with different opponents. Our director, a good man and a competitive checkers player named Natov, told me to have a seat and play against Capablanca. I asked him how I was supposed to play against Capablanca, I was only in sixth grade and just 12 years old. He told me to sit down and play anyway. He was the director, so I sat down and even though I was so afraid that I was shaking, I waited in anticipation for what is to come next. Capablanca came in when all the seats were already taken. He was a handsome, dark-skinned Cuban man; he quickly made his first move and then went down the line to make the first move in the other games. I was completely focused and gave the game my all. He won almost every game, losing only one and drawing in six. One of the draws was against 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 3/20 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Mikhail Pekarovsky. Full, unedited interview, 2008 ID IS066.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4n25g ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN me. I will remember for the rest of my life, how I drew with the world champion during a series of simultaneous games. I read many books and would sometimes binge on the classics. I read Flaubert, Balzac, and Tolstoy. I enjoyed serious books and I wrote poetry. One time there was a poetry festival at the Ivan Franko Theater, one of the leading theaters in Kyiv. I took part in it, but I was unlucky. I read Mayakovsky, but did not do a great job. However, I did meet a boy named Ema, who recited a poem that enjoyed so much that I remember it to this day. Her eyes were blue, And her braids hid under a blue kerchief. This is not what I wanted to say, But I guess I just did anyway. It was amazing! A boy dug up lines like that. We walked around together all evening and into the night. The next morning I left my home and when I returned my father said that some boy had been there and left me a piece of paper with an original poem. I took the piece of paper. If this is interesting, I will… I no longer have the paper, but I can read you the poem. I will recite it for you, it is not long. I will first read it for you, and then I will tell you who that boy turned out to be; then you will understand why I am telling you all of this. It went like this: The years fly by, like clouds in the blue sky. Perhaps you and I will never meet again. But the day we met cannot be overwritten. This joyous day I will remember always. Gaze at the flow of these simple, wavy lines, The meter’s steady hum, the precisely falling rhymes. Keep this notebook page for centuries. May it not wilt with the Autumn’s leaves. 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 4/20 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Mikhail Pekarovsky. Full, unedited interview, 2008 ID IS066.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4n25g ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN Those were his lines. The piece of paper was destroyed during the war, I could not save it, but I did save the poem. I am especially happy, because these lines belong to Nahum Korzhavin, who now lives in Boston, USA. Memories stay with a person forever. I remember my high school graduation. I studied in School No.25, which was a Jewish school. In 1939 all Jewish schools in Ukraine were shut down and we were transferred to School No.60. If anyone ever tells you any other date, do not believe them, there were Jewish schools until 1939. Afterwards, I was transferred to Russian School No.98 which I graduated. Our graduation was held on June 21st, 1941. Everyone was dressed up. The boys wore their most dignified outfits and the girls also dolled themselves up as much as they could. We danced waltzes and other dances. We all knew how to dance tango and foxtrot, but we really loved waltzes. After the graduation dance, where teachers were present, we continued to celebrate in the city. We went to Volodymyr Hill, which is called that because there is a statue of Volodymyr the Great there. I always had a guitar because I wrote poetry and set it to music. We walked around the hilly banks of the Dnipro and sang our favorite songs. This was on the 21st of June. At night I was awoken by a large explosion at 4:00 am. It turned out that the fascists were bombing Kyiv, not just Kyiv, but in our city they hit the three bridges over the Dnipro. There were only three bridges in Kyiv at the time, but there are many more now of course.