Raisa Kaydanovskaya is my grandmother. But I can’t call her my grandmother because she speaks little to no English. Instead, I call her Babushka, the Russian word for grandmother.
She was born in 1928 in the city of Orsha, Belarus. The 1930s were a rough time in the Soviet Union. Between 1932 and 1933, it was known as the голод года, Russian for the famine years. Still, her parents did their best to provide food, shelter, and education for her and her sister.
Then, the true horror came. In 1939, she had finished 5th grade in the Soviet Education System. On her last day of school, she was sent to summer camp. Coincidentally, it was the same day World War 2 had started. The parents were notified immediately and her father came to pick her up.
It was only the beginning. When she was home, her entire city was being bombed. The main reason was that Orsha contained an important railroad junction. In the midst of all of this, she and her family drove off to friend’s house in the woods. But they weren’t there for a long time. The Nazi military front was advancing.
So, her dad asked one of his friends if he can drive his family to a different city. The friend agreed and when the car came, her father told them to get into the car and drive to Viasmo. Then he said that he would regroup with them later.
The ride wasn’t smooth at all. Many times they had to stop driving, go outside, and hide. They did this whenever they heard a German plane. According to my grandma, the Soviet planes made little to no sound. While the German planes had a “wooooo” sound. When they heard it, they would need to stop driving and hide. The reason was simple. If the aircraft saw a vehicle driving, they would come down and bomb it.
With all this stress they were dealing, there was a funny moment. One time as they were coming back into the car, her sister, who was six at the time, accidentally sat on a box of eggs. At first, she didn’t realize this. But then she asked, “почему моя попа мокрая?” (Why is my butt wet?). Everyone started to laugh. Babushka says that it was interesting that in the heat of this serious moment, laughter found its way to creep in.
Eventually, they made it safe and sound to Viasmo and her father got there safe as well. Still, the officials in Viasmo told them that they needed to head towards Moscow because the front was closing in.
They got on a train and went to Ciziram, a city near Moscow. They were there for a few days as well. It was because her father’s job was being relocated to Kuybyshev. The family followed suit and that’s where Babushka stayed until the war ended.
Life in Kuybyshev was hard as well. It was the main city where all the refugees went to, including my grandfather. Babushka lived in a small room and shared a bed with a girl who would later be her best friend in life. She attended school, cared for her sister, and worked on farm in order to support herself and her sister.
When the war ended, she went to Medical school in Kuybyshev. Then in 1947, her parents decided to move to Minsk. Not be alone, she transferred her studies to the Medical Institute of Minsk. Then in 1950, she graduated and started to work as a doctor.
It is very interesting to see how little sacrifice Americans went through during the World Wars. I am not saying that the American men who died in Europe did so in vain. I am stating that the common US family wasn’t affected that much by the war. The Germans didn’t cause Americans to evacuate. It’s a side of history we don’t see: the people who were affected most by these terrible wars. That is why I chose to interview my grandma. She witnessed first-hand how everything was and how they needed to escape. It’s nice to read a textbook and imagine how it was like. But to hear one individual aspect is amazing. It can be compared to when you ask an American who was alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated or when the Twin Towers fell. They could tell you everything they did on that day. The Soviet version would have to be when the Nazis invaded. My grandma sometimes doesn’t know what day it is and also forgets to take her medication once in a while. But when I asked her to elaborate on how it was to live when the Germans attacked, she remembered everything to almost the exact detail. I was shocked at how she recalled every city that she went. Sadly, her generation is dwindling and one day, there will be no more of these eyewitnesses to history.
This project was an initiative by me to record this important account in the world before I regret not doing so. I do regret having the sub-titles up on the video. Though it is necessary for the entire class to understand what she is saying, it takes away from her voice. When she speaks, it sounds like a story that is being told. It is very soothing and keeps one interested. As people are reading the subtitles, they would be reading it through their own voice and not hers.
Raisa before the War
Great piece and great video, too!