Travel Space 4 U

I was born in Leningrad.  At that time almost everybody whom I knew lived in flats, called  “communal”, which meant that each family in the flat had only one, rarely two rooms. Our family of parents and three children occupied a 18 square meter room. Then the owner of all houses was the state, there was no private living area. After the revolution of 1917 in Russia every private ownership was abolished. There were 7 rooms in our flat, and 7 families lived in it. Then, in the thirties, before the war, when I was a child, even the former owners of the flat still lived in it. They occupied two rooms, their family consisted of three generations. We lived in the centre near the famous Technological Institute. When the second world war began, our family escaped from Leningrad, which was already shouted, to a small settlement near Saratov on the Volga. After the war we returned, our life almost did not change: the same small room, the same poverty. My school was good, the teachers educated. Though I had to work for my living at the age of 16, I finished evening school in time and decided to enter the Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, I chose English as a specialty. I liked the language and worked hard, and became one of the best students. We hadn’t to pay for the studies, the education was free, and even students, that were successful, received a small sum as an allowance. Now I had more free time, and often went by tram to see beautiful streets, the Neva embankment, pictures parks of Leningrad and its suburbs. In summer alone or with a friend I liked to go to Kirov Islands, where a big park with many attractions, such as concerts of music, dances etc. impressed with its cleanness and fine arrangement. There were beaches and sometimes, when the water was not very cold, it was possible to bathe. We also liked to go with my neighbor and friend Tanya to the beach under the wall of Petropavlovsk fortress, it was very popular with young people of the city. We often just stood near the warm wall and enjoyed the sun, which was rather rare in Leningrad with its regular rains even in summer. The water in the Neva was always cold. Sometimes we hired an oar boat together with cousin’s or friends and floated on the river or ponds.