Stairs to the same communal apartment with a kitchen. We walked up and down these steps. And for a long time. Большой Головин пер. г. Москва
It’s a form of early morning mediation. I don’t know if the photographer is related to Dashevsky now from Jerusalem. Or if he himself, Dashevsky. It captures that time. That’s a strange and beautiful gray life. Paradise lost. There is an aching tang of the lost love.
Our kitchen is in a communal apartment, which was a lawyer’s apartment before the revolution. 6 families, each with their own table. Москва. ул. Солянка.
All caption comments are from the photographer, Mikhail Dashevsky.
She watches and knows everything about everyone. The room was built from the gateway of the house.
Bachelor's room.
Those ubiquitous single bookshelves. It was a nightmare to hang them on the stone (masonry) walls. Thick old bearing walls. Look at the thick window jamb. And of course, the wallpaper. It was common to have a dining table in the bedroom. Original art on the walls, always. And despite that all, the magical, perfectly proportioned, opening to the inside “casement” window, behind the theatrical veil. Ceiling mounted light (AKA chandelier) in every room. Books in the bookcases, on the bed, on the table, on the chairs, on the floor.
Moscow. 1962. Stadium in Luzhniki. Monument to the “founder of Everything” (Lenin). Our team beat Italy!
Moscow, Archipova Shule. Большой Спасоглинищевский пер. 1963. Yom Kippur. Emigration has not yet begun, everyone is at home: young, old, poor, in short - us.
This has not been reproduced anywhere in the world! It was a moment that will not be repeated.
It’s the best picture of that magical shule I have seen.
1964. Courtyard on Trubnaya Square. Двор на Трубной площади. Old bricks Yards. Poverty. But – youth, good time!
First morning without Khrushchev. October 14, 1964
The life goes on, the tomb needs to cleaned.
1968. Lvov
Lemberg is a beautiful baroque town.
Tbilisi, 1968. The street boss. Хозяйка улицы
Reading people.
Jumping-rope.1969, Yaroslavl. When you first find yourself in the Russian province, the images just hit your eyes! Why does she have such a face?
Serious matter.
After working day
Hell on earth!
1970s. The Venus of Leningrad. Yasha Zuckerman, then the legendary publisher of the first Jewish newspaper “My People,” took the author into a courtyard and said: “Look!”, and he sat down on a box to rest. What more could you want!
The ruin of civilization.
Date taken: 1970s, Tanya in the kitchen.
Highly functional kitchen.
Mechanic Yuliy Ivanov. This man could do everything - from fixing an electron microscope to making a ski lift. In the 80s, he died of vascular gangrene waiting in line for surgery.
A moment in time again.
Aunt Raya. Date taken: 1970s, A room in a communal apartment. A brother (Dashevsky’s father) died in the camp, her sister died, and so did the children. That is life.
The nightmare of a typical tragedy.
The bridge.
This looks like a frame from Tarkovsky. Specifically from “Nostalgia”. This frame:
Shadows of life
One of those photos, the silhouette seems unreal, not human.
From the window of newspaper Izvestia.
Feels like Moscow.
Kolya with his horse, 1978, Kalinin region
A simpler way to live.
Master
Do not get me started.
Lithuania, Zarasai. 1979. An abandoned Jewish cemetery at the end of Melnikaite Street. Marita Melnik is a Lithuanian partisan, and unfortunately for the Lithuanians, she is Jewish. Lithuanians made sidewalks for the main square from stones. Lithuanians they shot Jews in the forest, then they dug in the ditch to look for gold. And unfortunately, they found it.
Lithuania, Zarasai,1979. Now the Jews there are only summer residents дачники. They drove the Jews out and reported them to Fuhrer. Now they live right on top of the graves!
1986 На прогулке в Марьиной Роще. On a walk in Maryina Roshcha. The houses there are now tall. But it’s almost in the center of Moscow, not far from the Olympic gym (it didn’t exist then).
Note layered snow on the roofs. It never melts. Just adds a layer.
The empty chair with a backrest was mine, I jumped up from it and ran to take the shot. These two are wise and unfussy people. The artist Yura, of course, speaks, Alik (the physicist and a scribe) listens patiently, Galya is used to everything. Idyll in Moscow.
Is there any other place in the world where they hang carpets from the walls as a decoration?
Situations of extremis bring out true character of people.
More than one Russian Lubavitcher yearned for the days of yore.
A Satmarer fellow told me yiddishkayt was better in the pre 1990 days when Jews worked hard and long.
As far as Moscow Choir Syn,SOVIET LIFE printed better photos of it during the period of 2959-1990 when they published propoganda pieces on the shul,Rabbis Levin,Olevsky and other little known Jewish clergy in Soviet Union.I was a purchaser of these glossy editions.
Great photos.
Situations of extremis bring out true character of people.
More than one Russian Lubavitcher yearned for the days of yore.
A Satmarer fellow told me yiddishkayt was better in the pre 1990 days when Jews worked hard and long.
As far as Moscow Choir Syn,SOVIET LIFE printed better photos of it during the period of 2959-1990 when they published propoganda pieces on the shul,Rabbis Levin,Olevsky and other little known Jewish clergy in Soviet Union.I was a purchaser of these glossy editions.
Carpets on the wall? Well, yes.
Osijek, Slavonija, cca 1963.
Few fair things available.
Gotta have lovely things.