Elderly Couple Heals Wounds Through Voluntarism in Kazakhstan

Katya and Peter are the most active volunteers at the Hesed in Kazakhstan. They are always eager to help prepare food packages or sew costumes for young local actors. The couple are acknowledged ringleaders at celebrations and club meetings at the JDC-sponsored Hesed, and are distinguished for their cheerfulness and unique sense of humor that belie the many misfortunes they have experienced, including the untimely death of their children.

When Katya was a young girl her mother passed away, and she and her sister were raised in an orphanage. To earn money, Katya worked as a spinner at the textile mill. In May of 1954, not long before her eighteenth birthday, Katya decided to go to work in the new farmlands. Though she was young at the time, Katya was not intimidated by hard work – on the threshing floor, in the factory – or by having to live in tents among her co-workers. It was there that she first spotted Peter and fell immediately in love with him. She was so sure, in fact, that she told her friend, "This man will be mine."

Peter was older and more experienced than Katya. He was born in Leningrad and had started working at a factory when he was fourteen. When WWII began, the factory was evacuated to Omsk and Peter became an apprentice. He was so short that he could only work at the lathe (a machine in which work is rotated about a horizontal axis and shaped by a fixed tool) by standing on two boxes.

When in 1955 new farms in Kostanay needed professionals – particularly electricians – to help cultivate the land, Peter opted to go. At the time, Kostanay had no town, and consisted solely of two houses and several tents. In one of those tents, he found his destiny.

Peter and Katya had no home, only a tent and their love. There the young couple started a family, giving birth to a son, Vladimir, in 1956 and a daughter, Elena, in 1959.

After having children of their own, both Vladimir and Elena died, leaving Peter and Katya to look after five grandchildren. They now have five great-grandchildren as well, and revel in their company. Instead of becoming unsociable after their tragic loss, Peter and Katya became even more spirited and committed to their family, friends, and the Jewish community. The Jews of Kostanay are grateful for the couple's voluntarism and contribution to the community. "We wish the remarkable couple health and happiness," said one Hesed worker. "We need them, and hope they live long!"