Elena Drapkina at her dentist’s office

This photograph was taken in 1973 when I worked as a dentist.

In 1948 I finished my studies.

For 11 months I stayed at home with my child, and then went to work in a children’s polyclinic. During my life they moved me from one polyclinic to another, but I never left my service and worked 35 years until I was 60 years old (in 1985), when I retired.

I remember central newspaper articles concerning Doctors’ Plot. It happened in 1952. Those articles created a great impression on me: I was brought up by the Soviet propagation and considered everything published in the central press to be true.

In my polyclinic I shared my ideas with its manager (she was Jewish too) Anshelis. That wise woman looked at me attentively and said ‘Elena Askaryevna, do not trust these newspapers, you will see them rehabilitated one day.’

When I retired, we moved to another district (to this apartment where I live now). But being a pensioner, I continued working in children’s stomatological polyclinic and implementing stomatological checkups at schools and kindergartens.