Marriage and Children

Apartment building similar to what Natasha would have lived in. Source: Wikimedia Commons

In 1930, the Zhenotdel was disbanded. At first, I did not think very much of it, but I did still continue to see an influx of women working for the Soviet Union. Women were contributig as readily as men were. However, this all changed when in 1932, I became pregnant. I did not want the child, nor did the father of the baby, but abortion after having been legalized for a few years with the Zhenotdel in place, was illegal again. Societal pressures also forced the father of the child and I together, so I wed Rudolf Alekseev in 1932, and had my son Georgiy in 1933. I would not have been fully accepted into society as an unwed mother, and I knew that my parents would not approve had they found out that I was not going to marry the father of my first child.

Rudolf and I moved in together after we got married. We lived in a small communal apartment in the city, as we both worked there. Although I kept working, I was forced into working at home as well - taking care of my son, doing all of the shopping, and doing all of the cleaning. I hated doing all of this work, and this time of my life was not a happy one. Rudolf was helpful, however, he was of the belief that it was a woman’s job to do the cooking and cleaning, so the brunt of the work was placed on my shoulders.

Life in the USSR had many other pressures as well. Living in the city, I was forced into a small, shared apartment with my husband and my son. There was often drinking and fighting in the evenings, and I had to constantly be on the watch to protect my son. The fights would go on into the night, and it was rare that I would get a full nights sleep. Although my husband worked as an engineer, together our paychecks barely allowed us to scrape by. I can remember standing in long lines waiting to buy food, and sometimes not able to get enough food to feed both my son and my husband.

In 1935, I had a daughter, Sasha, and it 1938, I had another son named Mikhail, and finally, in 1939, I had my last child, Mark. The government had begun to send out bonuses to larger families, and Rudolf and I wanted to get that money to be able to buy food more readily. Fortunately, we were given a small stipend after the birth of Mark.

In 1939, World War II broke out. Food became much harder to get, and now I had five mouths to feed. Rudolf, working as an engineer, was immediately brought in by the government to help with the war effort. Nearing the end of the winter in 1940, Mikhail contracted pneumonia and died at the beginning of 1941, not even three years old yet. At this point in my life I felt completely lost - I had little money, could barely afford to feed my children, had lost my son, and was without my husband. The children and I were still living in a small communal apartment in Leningrad, and I breifly considered leaving and moving to the more rural parts of the country to escape the constant pressures of urban life. However, after entertaining the idea, I did not think the children and I could handle a harsh winter on a farm.