This photo of me and my husband Fyodor Shevyolkin was taken in 1935, the year we got married, in Leningrad.

My husband came from a village, a common fellow from the Vologda region. He was born in 1907 and was a naval officer, a commander. I was a technologist-engineer by profession.

We got married in 1935, when I was a fifth-year student. We had our wedding in Krasny Ugolok, danced a little bit, and that was all. There were no guests, only our closest friends. We weren’t registered, every open marriage was considered legal.

After we got married, we got a room in the Textile Institute dormitory. After a year we left for Vladivostok where my husband was assigned to. I found a job as head of laboratory at a plywood plant.