大象传媒

Hello, my name is Julia (Yulia) Shuvalova, and I am contributing to this website on behalf of my grandmother, Lydia Sokolik (nee Alekseeva).

My grandmother was born on October 1, 1924, and was a penultimate child in the family of seven. The family was of a dual origin, in part peasant, in part merchant. My great grandmother fell ill and was paraplegic from 1934 until her death in 1962, and my grandmother lived with her parents most of her life. My great grandfather died of cancer in 1964.

My grandmother has never made her war memories a secret, and listening to her recollections once again while transcribing them to this website made me realise that she could never have concealed them. The experience she had had was much too powerful to bury inside oneself.

The story of evacuation of the Alekseev family spans from 1941, when they left their village with the last bus, until 1943, when they were given a derelict house to live in just outside Moscow. In these years there were many moments of joy, as well as of desperation. The evacuation camp set up in the Old Orthodox community was anything but friendly. Upon leaving it, the family was then caught up in Yaroslavl in the winter 1942/43, during the Stalingrad battle, when the prospect of Hitler's victory created panic in the city. Throughout these years there was a constant fear for two brothers and a sister who joined the forces, which culminated in grief when the eldest brother was killed in 1943.

I have grown up on these stories, and long before I became an historian they sharpened my ability to empathise with the past. But while transcribing my grandmother's recollections I have been remembering my lecturer in Russian History in my first year at the Moscow Lomonosov State University. Professor Boris Rybakov never failed to remind us in every single lecture: 'You want to be historians - you should write the history of your family'. I am glad the 大象传媒's project has given me an opportunity to commemorate my great grandparents, my granduncles and grandaunts, and, most importantly, my grandmother, for their enviable belief in justice, for their patriotism, and for their undying and passionate love for life and peace.

After the war had ended, my grandmother went to the All-Union Institute of Law. She holds a BA (Law) and worked at the Central Forensic Laboratory for several years. Then she met her husband, Alexei Sokolik, who was a Ukranian sportsman of Czech origin, and went to live to Lviv with him. She had to return to look after her parents, and my mother was already born in a Moscow hospital, on May 14, 1954. My grandfather died of cancer in 1970.

For the last 30 years of her career my grandmother was working for the Soviet Railways as a cinema instructor. She supervised cinema clubs, cinema releases and box offices across all 15 regional railway committees. She left in 1982 as an instructor of the Cultural Office at the Committee of the Railways Trade Union (Dorprofsozh).

My parents met while studying at the Moscow Institute of Railways. My mother holds a BSc (Econ.) and my father a BSc (Engineering). They separated when I was two, and my grandmother left her job to stay at home with me.

For my part, I was born in Moscow in 1980. I have been learning English since I was three. In 1987-1997 I studied at the comprehensive school no. 1242 (559), where I also studied English. From 1997 to 2002 I was a BA/MA student of the Faculty of History at the Moscow Lomonosov State University. I graduated with distinction and went on to write my PhD in Tudor history. In 2003, I came to England to research for my dissertation in the British archives. I have been married to my Mancunian husband since 2001, and I still live and work in Manchester.

I am a writer and a poet, with a good singing voice, and I have had publications in the Russian press since 1993. My academic publications date back to 2000. Since 2005 I have been working in the media again. I was on several placements with the 大象传媒, and I am writing for the webzine at http://exzibit.net. I am also a broadcaster, and I produce and present The Look programme on QT Radio in Manchester (http://hometown.aol.com/lookqtradio). I am currently a researcher for a private company and a volunteer at the 大象传媒 GMR's Action Desk.

Since July 2005 I was involved in the People's War campaign as a volunteer story gatherer for the 大象传媒 GMR. I took part in many events and transcribed many stories to this website. I am delighted and honoured to have been working on this project, and I would hope that for all of us this archive of living memories would be the most effective remedy against the war, as well as the long-lasting reminder of the preciosness of life.

If you have any comments on my grandmother's story, you can contact me via The Look programme's email at lookqtradio@gmail.com