Headline

Lyudmila Titova, a Russian, was born in 1931, in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous SSR, in the North Caucasus. Her family moved to the Buryat-Mongol ASSR when she was a child. After her father returned from fighting in World War II, he moved his family to Bishkek, where Titova grew up. “In those years, religion was prohibited by the government … My mom secretly baptized me,” she recalls. Bahtiyar Kurambaev interviewed her in Bishkek on Feb. 26, 2009.

My father worked for the Kabardino-Balkar Bahti Stroy electric station. He was promoted to head electrician. At that time, Chechnya and Kabardinskaya were fighting. And once someone came, I don't remember who it was, and they planned to check how the new station’s construction was going next to the Baksan River. There were spies and enemies all around. And once they cut the main electric lines that brought power to all of Nalchik. The cable was fixed, but it happened again. After that my dad was instructed to leave the city and we moved to Mongolia [the Buryat-Mongol ASSR].

I studied at the school in Ulan-Ude [the capital of the Buryat-Mongol ASSR]. At that time, there were only seven grades in school – as opposed to ten now. I studied there and I tried hard. It was difficult and cold. We tolerated everything. We did not have books to read or anything to write on. We wrote on newspapers because we did not have notebooks. We had old books and we used to write in them, between the lines. We did not have enough pens – no ink. We listened carefully to our teachers. Then the teachers asked us to explain what we had studied, to see if we had learned it or not. Then the teachers explained again. Memory was important. I still remember my teachers. They were good.

When the war started, I was nine and half years old. I was studying in the second year of secondary school. After serving on the western front, his military unit was sent to the Mongolian border to fight Japan. There, my dad’s unit won the war against the Japan. When the war ended, my dad was released from the military service and was sent to the Kyrgyz Republic.

On December 31, 1945, we came to Kyrgyzstan. At around midnight, we were unloading our stuff from the train. I continued my studies at Secondary School Number 7 for five more years. That’s how I completed a 10-year education. Now, kids have everything and do not want to study. Parents are paying for their kids to study but young people do not want to study. We studied despite being hungry and cold and we tried our best.

We were taught – and we believed – that if we studied very hard, the war would end sooner. It depended on our hard work and on our knowledge. That is why we tried very hard so that our parents would come back. We picked fruit for the war and the fruit would go to hospitals for wounded soldiers. Even if the fruit did not reach the front, we were sure that our work would help the soldiers. We thought that our collective work would win the war.

Life was difficult then and we [her family] did not even have electricity. Nothing. I remember that we had only a small room. We did not have anything to heat ourselves with because it was prohibited. We were prohibited from heating ourselves. This was my childhood. Not much happiness or fun. My dad lost four of his brothers during the war. Our parents cried and it affected us even though we did not understand why our parents were crying.

We did not see the war. We didn't have TV in those years. We couldn't even imagine that scientists could be trained who could invent such a thing as a television where images could be seen. Radio, we had. Radios transmitted important new information. Radios reported how many more were killed, which city had been saved, how many losses there had been, etc. We listened carefully.

At that time, we did not have textbooks and notebooks. I just listened to my teachers really carefully. That’s how I earned good grades, because the teacher explained something and I repeated it. We had exams. We had to pick a ticket, which had two or three questions we had to answer. The teachers were strict with us. It is different now because the teachers are not as strict as when we studied. In my time, when students failed an exam, then the student had to retake the exam or study the same subject during the next semester. The student also had to study during the summer when others did not study.

We were serious about our classes. We were afraid that – there were Oktryabryat or Pioneer or Komsomolskaya groups – and we were afraid that if we did not study hard, then these groups would not grant us membership. They would not give us the Badge of Lenin. That is why we tried our best and worked very hard. That’s the spirit in which we studied. We trusted our government. If you were a bad student, then you could not be in the Pioneer group. This forced us to study hard.

We also wanted to sit in the front row in class. Only the best students were allowed to sit in the front row. But there are no Komsomolskaya, Oktyabryat or Pioneer groups now. Students are not interested in these groups now. Now, students come to class with their mobile phones to show their photos to each other. When we studied, a fly could be heard in class if it flew around. But classes are now full of noise. They [students] shout at older people. How can they do that? It's not good.

Schools back then were the same as now – they started in September and continued until May. We had to walk a long way to school because there was only one school in the area. There were very few schools in those years. There were many students, though. There were over 30 or more in one class.

We had a Constitution teacher from Leningrad [Russia]. We studied the Soviet Constitution, all the laws, and we had to pass an exam on the Constitution. We had two French teachers and they were husband and wife. They did not speak good Russian. But they left after the war. For some years then, we didn't have a French teacher after they left.

We didn't have any extracurricular activities in those years. They became available only after the war years: clubs, gatherings, and outings to theaters. We didn't have anything during the war years. What I remember from the war years are hunger and cold. The only entertainment we had was when the neighbor told us stories. Stories were interesting to us back then like television series are to you now. We were always looking forward to the next night when he would tell another story.

When I was a child, religion was a prohibited topic. The older generation was allowed to attend churches and mosques. But young people were not allowed to pray at religious places and we couldn’t even think of God or Allah. Now anyone can attend religious institutions and there are a lot of them. When we arrived in Kyrgyzstan, I did not even know that we had churches and mosques here. In those years, religion was prohibited by the government. People kept their religious faith secret.

My mom secretly baptized me. I was scared because I was young. It was on one religious holiday but I don't remember which one. It was a hot summer day though. My mom said let’s go to church and I said okay. She asked me to stay outside the church and then she brought an old grandma and asked me if I wanted to see how children were baptized. We went into the room. Everyone was standing there with babies. One woman at that time asked me if I was there to be baptized and my mom answered yes. I wanted to go, to run away because I was scared other people might find out. But my mom said to me that I shouldn't offend her. And I was baptized. It was in 1949.

After school, I worked at the Sokolnoy plant. That’s where I met my husband. He was seven years older than me. He was in the Second World War but he was released because of health problems. He was wounded. He liked me and I liked him. We got married in 1953 and the next year I had a baby, our only son. Now I have two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Life went by so so fast, with so many problems. There were good days and bad days. I've led a pretty normal life.

People concentrated on work at that time. Conveniences weren't available during those years. In 1953, everyone was thinking of work, of earning more. People had consciences. People tried to help each other. People were awarded with certificates and holidays for their hard work. People were awarded with monetary support as well. We tried to work hard to earn those things and we were given thank you notes from our workplaces. Our work was appreciated. We considered ourselves to be the happiest people on earth and we were convinced of that.

I went to a finance and economics institute and graduated from it in 1968. Then I worked at a plant as an accountant. For many years, I worked. I didn't pay attention to myself and it was interesting to test and try my strength.

We thought that our country was the best and that we had no enemies. We thought that we all lived at the same level, that there were no rich or poor, that everyone was equal. But as soon as the [former Soviet] countries became independent, some people became millionaires. People steal from other people now. No one is paying any attention to ordinary people like us. You just wait and hope for things to get better. We expected that communism would happen. But now we have capitalism and even slavery because one person can hire hundreds of people to work in restaurants, plants, or cafés. People now work not for their country but for those people. We, during those years, could get some support from the professional unions if managers mistreated us. Unions protected our rights. But there are no unions like that now.

I buried my husband in 2001 because of a tragic accident. Then I retired and I wanted to pass my knowledge on to others. The first thing I did was to go to an orphanage for the disabled. I taught art there. I worked with mentally and physically disabled children. I knew an artist, Saltanat, and I asked her if she knew any place where I would be able to improve my skills. She suggested that I go to Arabaeva University because it had opened a new art department. Then I rushed there and it was the admissions period. It was July. I asked them if the university would accept me. The admissions committee said that they could not accept me because of my age. I asked them how that could be a problem. They went and checked again and then they accepted my documents. That is how I became a student.