Andrey Leshchenko, great-nephew of Semyon Zolotaryov

Alicante, April 7, 2013 Annunciation

Russian

My grandmother Maria Zolotaryova, in her second marriage to Pyotr Emelyanovich Leshchenko, had twins Peter and Pavel, born in 1948 (one of them is my father), and daughter Tatyana, born in 1955.

Vera Ivanovna, the mother of Semyon Zolotaryov, especially loved Pasha, he reminded her of her dead son, there was a resemblance to Semyon.

When they announced the death of Semyon, Vera Ivanovna and Maria (Semyon's older sister, - ed. note) went to Sverdlovsk. They were taken to Ivdel and offered to show the place of death of the group from a helicopter. Maria was afraid to fly, and Vera Ivanovna got into a helicopter and flew over the slope. They showed her from above the place where the group died, took a photograph, where this place was indicated with a cross. Maria told everyone until the end of her life: 'What a brave grandmother we have, she was not afraid to fly!'

Vera Ivanovna was not shown the body, they said that Semyon's body was never found. She was not at the funeral, as Maria said.

The photograph was kept by Vera Ivanovna, then by Maria. We do not know the whereabouts of this photograph now. When Maria died, the house in Prohladniy was sold. A lot of papers were left in the attic. There were also photos of Semyon, I remember photos of the garden he grew. Semyon was fond of gardening, grafted pears to apple trees. It seems that the photo was burned when the house was sold, but there were still a lot of papers in the attic.

Semyon lived in a communal apartment, he had a large room. After his death, Vera Ivanovna moved to Prohladniy to Maria, and the room was rented out.

Pyotr Leshchenko keeps orders and medals. I don't know for sure which of them belong to Semyon, there are medals of another of my grandfathers.

Semyon had a woman and a son, Sasha. When she found out about Semyon's death, she left in an unknown direction, and, as they learned from one of the neighbors, she left the child in an orphanage. Grandmother Maria was very worried that she could not find him and take him into the family.

When my father and brother still lived in Udobnoy, the boys got tattoos on their legs, then in Udobnoy, many people got tattoos. Their tattoo was readable when they were around, one had 'They are tired' written on their legs and the other had 'They need to rest'.

Father and uncle knew that one of their grandfathers worked in the authorities, they believed that this was Semyon, and were proud of this fact.

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© Maria Piskareva

September 8, 2014

Russian