Category Archives: Living in the USSR

Experiences of American family from New Jersey living in the Soviet Union from 1931-1947.

He Should Have Passed on the Intourist Job

Posted on May 8, 2017 by kjw616

I was skimming through my father’s photo album and came across several photos of his older brother, Tony, dressed in a jacket and tie, posing with another young man who worked with him for Intourist. Intourist was the Soviet state … Continue reading →

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Untrustworthy Now and Then

Posted on April 27, 2017 by kjw616

When my grandparents decided to leave their New Jersey home and move their family to the Soviet Union, it was a risky decision. Would there really be plenty of job opportunities awaiting them, and how would they be received after … Continue reading →

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Don’t Wait to Have that Chat

Posted on April 3, 2017 by kjw616

How I wish I had been more interested in my father’s past when he was younger. There are so many unanswered questions that are forever lost, and so many pieces to the puzzle which contradict one another. What I know … Continue reading →

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After All These Years

Posted on January 19, 2017 by kjw616

I was watching a news show on television Tuesday night—The Rachel Maddow Show—and the introductory story mentioned that the Soviet Union used to have an official travel agency. That comment immediately got my attention, particularly when she stated that it was created … Continue reading →

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Knock Knock. It’s Just the FBI

Posted on June 6, 2016 by kjw616

My father refused to speak about life in the USSR so the FBI paid him a visit. Could something similar happen under a Trump administration? At the time—sometime in the mid 1950’s—Dad had served four years in the Army during … Continue reading →

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What If?

Posted on April 16, 2014 by kjw616

I just returned from a trip to New Jersey where I visited my mother and daughter, flying up on April  10.  That date would have been Dad’s 95th birthday. Considering all that happened during his lifetime, it is a miracle to … Continue reading →

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Trying Every Angle

Posted on April 4, 2014 by kjw616

It was now March 1942. Dad had learned that his sisters and parents were now in the new Soviet capital city of Kuibyshev, but the whereabouts of his brother Pete and sister Nancy’s husband Waldemar Bulvahn were unknown. They had been … Continue reading →

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Looking to the Embassy for Help

Posted on November 25, 2013 by kjw616

In addition to the diary, Dad’s dresser contained some letters similar to those which I found at the National Archives. After collating the letters from both locations I was able to get a better picture of what happened to them … Continue reading →

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More Memories of Jerry Aagaard

Posted on November 15, 2013 by kjw616

Jerry sent me another memory of his time in the USSR as a fourteen year old American boy.  His father and uncle had gone to the Soviet Union as engineers working for American Lead, which later became Dutch Boy Paint. … Continue reading →

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Down Memory Lane with Jerry Aagaard

Posted on November 8, 2013 by kjw616

I thought I would share some of the emails from Jerry Aagaard, the man who was issued his passport in Moscow the same day as Dad- April 29, 1941. (Another Living Survivor of the 1941 Trans-Siberian Railway Found) Jerry has continued … Continue reading →

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