This is my Grandma, around the time she moved from the village to Moscow. The move was a forced one. After World War II, it became very difficult to live in the village. During the war, all the forest around the village was cut down, and there was no firewood available.

It was not easy to move to a big city with no education and no place to live. Grandma enrolled to study to be a painter and upon graduation got a job in a construction crew. She not only started a new life on her own — but, as soon as she could, she moved her mother to Moscow. I think I can see in her look in this portrait that she was very determined and responsible.

My Grandma never liked herself. She didn’t like to be photographed and rarely let anyone take her picture. This portrait is made in the form of a plate, which at that time it was customary to hang on the wall. Grandma never decorated the walls with her portraits. For her it was just a plate — Grandma let her daughter, my mom, eat from it. There are scratches on the plate — apparently from a spoon. In my opinion, this portrait was preserved by a miracle. For me, it is a treasure. I believe that my Grandma was a real beauty in her youth and I am sorry that she valued her beauty so little.