This is a picture of me and a friend in Northern Kazakhstan, where I worked for a year before I entered university. The photo was taken in 1957.

In 1955 I entered the Department of Physics at Vologda University. I studied well, but money was always a problem. I usually passed my exams in winter in advance so that I’d be able to work at a wood cutting site. It was hard but well-paid work. My earnings for a month or a month and a half lasted until summer. I went to Chernovtsy in the summer. I worked at the children’s summer camp where I had meals and earned some money. And I could see my mother, my father and my friends.

After the university I got a job assignment in a Moldavian village and worked there for two years as a teacher of physics. Afterwards I returned to Chernovtsy. It was hard to get a job there – my Jewish nationality was a problem. I got a part-time job first and then became a full-time teacher of physics.