CHAPTER 18

Some time before the Ropazhi Pioneer Camp closed down at the end of summer Meyer Shlyapin, the representative of the City Komsomol Committee, came to visit me. He told me that it had been suggested to appoint me to the post of a Pioneer leader in a school. I was so happy! Something I had done for so many years illegally will now be my legitimate occupation, an important and legal (!) task. I had no idea whether this position involved receiving a salary or not and started thinking of what to do to earn some money. I thought that I would get some job in the evening, does not matter what kind, just to earn a salary. I was informed later that I would be getting a salary of 450 Roubles per month, which was considered quite a decent sum. (Those who did not have higher education were paid less.) There was no end to my happiness now although a strange feeling remained: something I did illegally for 9 years will become my salaried job! I was also told that it would better if I were to start teaching as well in order to exert a greater influence on the children. There were still a lot of teachers around with a bourgeois orientation.

This is how I became a Pioneer leader in the Intermediary School No. 4 (it later became School No. 72) and I also started teaching Mathematics and Biology. I was lucky: the school had a very decent headmaster, A.Shershunov (who after the war taught Russian at the university and who died about 10 years ago). He supported me in all my projects, tried to create good conditions for Pioneer group activities and gave us a nice room at school. I now became completely engrossed in my work at school. The school building stood on the corner of Gaizin' Street and Gogol Street. I left home early in the morning and came home late in the evening, as if nothing else existed. I had to do everything myself: show the children all sorts of Pioneer rituals, teach them new songs, teach them to march, organize class newspapers, conduct Pioneer meetings at different levels through the school and prepare candidates for the oath-taking ceremony to join the Pioneers. I also had to organize the New Year festivities, tell teachers about Pioneers, organize an amateur drama group, meet with the Pioneer activists, solve disputes and to teach and train those who would later help me in my work. Everything went well, I enjoyed my work very much and I lived a full and meaningful life.

One day I brought Iren to school. She was about three and a half at that time. The children at school were very surprised. They never thought I had a child as they considered me "very young". (My former activists used to remind me of this later on). I loved all my school kids very much, especially the older ones, the ones in the 5th and the 6th forms. They all worked very enthusiastically, the Pioneer room was always full of people and it was sometimes hard to make them leave and go home. The beginning of the school year was filled with preparations for the oath-taking ceremony of those joining the Pioneer Organization. The ceremony was to take place on the 6th, the 7th and the 8th of November, to coincide with the anniversary of the Revolution.

Later on we started to prepare for the New Year and all our efforts were focused on the production of the play "Pavlik Morozov" based on a "scenario" by Zelma Bregman. We all read the text, the "actors" learned their parts, we all took part in building the sets and even the teachers helped me. One of my best Pioneers, Slava Dorofeev, who was in 5th form, was to play Pavlik. Slava has remained my friend for many years. He found me after the war, appearing suddenly and telling me all that happened to him. He is now the head engineer of the Physics Institute at the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR. He recently came to visit me at the Editor's Office where I work. Slava Dorofeev passed away on 15th of November 1986.

In 1965 the magazine "Pionieris" "organized" my meeting with Slava in order to add it as an illustration to my article about Pioneers during the years 1940-1941, about my work at school and about our play "Pavlik Morozov". The article appeared on the 5th of November 1965 and here is our picture. I always think of Slava when I recall the ceremony that took place in November 1940. Slava was one of the first to take the oath of the new Pioneer and when he walked up to the red flag to recite his oath he was so nervous that he just could not say a word. There were tears in his eyes and he just stood there, either having forgotten the text or just being too excited to say it. I very quietly started saying the text and only then Slava followed. He was such a smart boy, not at all shy…

Another of my former Pioneers became a good friend of mine. Seryozha Muravsky was the youngest and the shortest boy in his 6th form. He later studied in Leningrad and became a naval engineer. He once came to see me together with Lenochka Novelsky. We sat and talked through the evening and just before leaving he suddenly said: "Comrade Lyuba, we got married…" For years they moved from place to place because of his work. He studied a lot and then moved to work in the Soviet Far East. After many years without a proper home they finally ended up moving to Riga, to a nice flat of their own.

There was another important event in which the Pioneer organization of my school had been involved: the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR that took place in the Latvian SSR for the first time on the 12th of January 1941. The Pioneers in the different city areas did their best to assist the election campaign. The older youngsters pasted placards, distributed voting invitations and helped to man the voting stations. One day after our joint activities we had our picture taken in front of the school doors. I am sitting there in the first row, with my eyes closed.

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