Georgiy Sergeevich Efron

Inevitably, on a regular basis, long hours of nostalgia for happiness and France come to me by the early sunset, merged in me into one general adoration. The era in which I live is very difficult and complex, but I firmly hope for a better future.

Still, my autobiography is interesting: if you look from the beginning.

I was born in Prague (Czecho-Slovakia) on February 1, 1925. My father moved there from Russia, where he spent the entire Civil War as a volunteer officer in the White Army. Mother - the famous Moscow poetess, left the Soviet Russia to reconnect with her husband. Then France. Life in the Vendée, by the sea; I am a plump kid; Pontaillac in Normandy, memories of the sea and Chaliapin's wife, the beginning of my father's leftism. Life in Meudon in a building with a red-haired mistress and walks in the famous forest. Then - Clamart and a Catholic school on the street of Paris.

The father is a Eurasian, memories of the printing house, on Union Street, the flickering of the employees of the Eurasian newspaper, the sound of a typewriter... Then - Vanves, Jean-Baptiste Poten Street, closer to Paris, the same school. Roasting at the end of the school year and distribution of annual awards to students - on the jury, next to the director Mayar, sits a mustachioed man, General Durmayer, an Alsatian ... School mates and friends: Etienne, Lefort, Joly, Tanron, everyone is lazy, lovers of money, good cigarettes, and sex appeal.

In 1928 my father decisively broke with his old friends and joined the ranks of those “sympathetic” to the Bolshevik regime. He gradually moves to the Soviet platform, begins to meet different people; political-conspiratorial life begins; “random” people flash by; father is rarely seen at home, he comes late, tired ... 1936. The heyday of the “National Front”, the beginning of the war in Spain ...

The father is absorbed in "Spanish affairs"; this is the pinnacle of his work. For the next two and a half years, he has been doing these things, showing miracles of ingenuity in business. Mother knows almost nothing about this, lives her own life, adores him.

As for me, I experience a huge number of different influences: the Catholic school, French communism, etc. etc. right down to American cinema, which makes me love money and luxury; rare walks with my father, Soviet Union flashes in the distance, Maurice Thorez, Bread, Peace, Freedom. The Lebedevs and their pretty apartment. Schoolmates and their fascism ... God, what a mess. 1937. The year of my passion for radio and cinema, for the “Seduction” magazine, for illustrated magazines (adventure and detective stories), for Charles Trenet.

Suddenly, the case of Reis as the explosion. My father is hiding in Levallois-Perret with an émigré driver, a communist... World’s Fair, a stampede in my father's car with the Balters who accompany him. Rouen, separation ...

Return to Vanves; rummage; all day in state security: “Your husband had a stunning activity”. Moving to Paris; Dick Pokrovsky - the transfer point between us and the embassy, Vera Traill, Louis Corday ... My carefree life in Paris for two years: cafes, cinema, newspapers, radio, money from the embassy and the prospect of Soviet Union. Finally, 1939. Memorable year! Departure to the USSR, the ship "Maria Ulyanova", customs in Leningrad, arrival in Moscow, where I meeti Alya and my acquaintance with Mulya takes place. I drink water and eat ice cream on the Gorky Street.

I watch the Kremlin. Then - Bolshevo: “Norwegian house”, dad is sick, the unreality of the situation, Mitka, squabbles with Nina Nikolaevna, mysterious conversations with the NKVD, then a trip to Khimki via Central Culture and Leisure Park, and a steamboat with Mulya and Alya, a restaurant, return to Bolshevo; the notorious “talk” ...

Then Alya’s arrest, a month later the arrest of father. Then Golitsino and Merzlyakovsky flash by, a rural school, a health resort, and fat Serafima Ivanovna. Then - Mokhovaya, 11 and life at the University with the Severtsevs and Gabrichevskys ... Parcels to the father. September 1940, after staying with Lily, moving to Pokrovsky, school 335. Then - the war, evacuation to Tataria, Yelabuga, mother's suicide, moving to Chistopol, then a nightmarish return to Moscow; Lily's life, registration, Lebedev-Kumach, bombings, Valya and Serbinov, dinners in restaurants, October 16th, delish, it’s life after all, Foreign Language Library. Then a telegram from Mitka and a departure for Central Asia with Kochetkov. Evacuation to Tashkent with the hope of getting to the Middle East, to Ashgabat, where I will find Mitya by all means ....