A Conversation With My Dad: From Belarus to Canada On the Trans-Siberian Railway

By Bernard H. Zeavin, M.D.

Bern Zeavin's interview of his 83-year-old father features the remarkable journey of a young teenager, wise beyond his years, and follows him through his educational achievements in Canada which culminate in the Doctor of Medicine Degree. Also, this story will contribute to the knowledge and understanding of a unique historical period: Russia during the First World War, just before the Bolshevik Revolution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Apr 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781483460147

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A

Conversation

with

My Dad

From Belarus to Canada on the Trans-Siberian Railway

Image1.jpg

Bernard H. Zeavin, M.D.

Copyright © 2016 Bernard H. Zeavin, M.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6015-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6014-7 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 11/17/2016

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Chapter 1

The Beginning – Just Before World War I

Chapter 2

Maishke – World War I Begins

Chapter 3

On the Trans Siberian Railway to Manchuria

Chapter 4

Japan

Chapter 5

O, Canada!

Chapter 6

Baba and Zaida

Chapter 7

Charlie and Mayer

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Dedication

To the memory of my parents, Samuel and Toby Ruth Zeavin.

Preface

It was 1983 and Dad was 82. He still had all his marbles and a remarkably sharp memory. For a long time I had wanted to record the fascinating story of his emigration from White Russia to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada when he was just fourteen years of age. Now that my parents were in their 80s, I knew time was short. As I lived in Virginia, I found it no easy journey to visit them. Whereas I used to make an effort to travel there annually, once they got into their 80s I decided I should increase my visits to two or three times a year. Furthermore, getting Dad’s story written developed an urgency in my mind. Once the decision was made I prepared myself with a hand micro recorder and an adequate number of blank tapes. My dad agreed to the interview and I flew to Winnipeg.

My dad was a doctor – a general practitioner; his dad was a general practitioner in Belarus; my brother was a colon and rectal surgeon in Hollywood; I am an ophthalmologist, as is my oldest son; and my youngest son is a general practitioner. So you can see that the Zeavins are a medical family. Dad had given up surgery at age 70 but continued his general practice until the age of 79. He liked to show me how steady his hands were. When he retired, I asked him when he would have retired if he could have afforded it because we thought that he was working because he loved medicine so much. His immediate answer was, at age 65. That was very good advice for me, and I used it later on, retiring at age 69.

Dad, Let’s do some interviewing today. Dad’s eyes brightened up and he jumped at the suggestion. He was very eager to proceed with the interview. I was thrilled. We did more than two hours of interviewing two days in a row. Dad maintained his sense of humor and his upbeat attitude throughout the interview.

At age 85, he came to Washington and I performed a successful cataract extraction so that he was able to read easily once again. How many doctors have the thrill of successfully restoring the vision of their father?! Now I was about to record his story firsthand.

CHAPTER 1

The Beginning – Just Before World War I

Dad: When I was born, everybody was happy and I was happy.

Me: That’s nostalgia.

Dad: "Yavetse loess."

Me: What does that mean in English? ‘Stavestys yee.’

Dad: That means you were looking at it with rose-colored glasses.

Me: Where were you born?

Dad: I was born in a suburb of Gomel.

Me: What was it called?

Dad: Nosovitch.

Me: Just Nosovitch?

Dad: Yes.

Me: Barney was telling me it was some other name.

Dad: Gomel.

Me: No, no, Mogilev.

Dad: The capital was Mogilev, so the whole province was called Mojlerskaj Goberje. Nosovitch, that’s the origin of the name.

Me: I just imagine the people had long noses there, hence Nosovitch. How big is Gomel?

Dad: Gomel, when I left, was about 100,000.

Me: That is the capital of White Russia?

Dad: No, no. When I left, Minsk was the capital of White Russia.

Me: Oh, what is Gomel?

Dad: Gomel was changed. Mogilev was a smaller city, so after the Bolsheviks came, they made Gomel into the capital of the Province.

Me: The Province of White Russia….

Dad: "Gomelokaya Gubernya. ‘Gubernya’ means ‘Province,’ and ‘Minsk’ is ‘Minskaye Gubernya.’ The czar took over the command of the armies in 1915, just before I left. He made his stafka headquarters in Mogilev."

Me: Mogilev, the province?

Dad: That was the city of the capital.

Me: Okay, it was the capital of the province. When you were born, were you born in a hospital?

Dad: No, no, there were hospitals in….

Me: —Gomel must have had some hospitals?

Dad: In those days, people were afraid to go to the hospital.

Me: But there were hospitals…?

Dad: There were hospitals, definitely.

Me: Well, your father was a doctor.

Dad: Yes.

Me: Did he deliver you?

Dad: No, another doctor delivered me at home.

Me: At home? Your mother delivered all your siblings at home?

Dad: Even your grandmother here in Canada had them delivered at home.

Me: Baba?

Dad: Yes, you see, by a midwife.

Me: But you had a doctor?

Dad: I don’t remember; it might have been a midwife.

Me: You don’t know who delivered you. How do you know it wasn’t your father?

Dad: No, I don’t think so.

Me: You’re not sure?

Dad: I’m not sure, no. It’s not my father.

Me: Did he deliver any of your mother’s children?

Dad: No, I don’t think so.

Me: But he used to deliver babies?

Dad: Oh, yes.

Me: He was a general practitioner?

Dad: He was a general practitioner.

Me: Do you remember your grandparents?

Dad: I remember both my grandmothers. When I was three years of age or so, my father’s mother died – in 1905. I was just a baby. I was three years old and in…

Me: —Your father’s mother died, and that was only one of his parents?

Dad: That lived with us.

Me: Oh, lived with you.

Dad: She lived in our home; and my mother was crying and the rest I don’t remember.

Me: What did she die of?

Dad: She was walking towards the synagogue and got a stroke. They brought her home.

Me: How old was she?

Dad: She was in her 90s.

Me: Oh! Very old.

Dad: She was married five times.

Me: Your father’s mother married five times?

Dad: You know the Smiths from…

Me: —California.

Dad: Their father and my father were half brothers.

Me: Half brothers.

Dad: She buried four husbands.

Me: No divorce, was there?

Dad: No divorce. Oh, yes, they used to divorce, but…

Me: —very rare?

Dad: Oh, yes, you used to go to the rabbi. There was no civil divorce like here that you have to…

Me: But they used to divorce and go to the rabbi?

Dad: To the rabbi, and say they can’t get along. He would say ‘Look, I want you to go back home and try for six months, and communicate with one another and see if you can make it.’ They saved a few marriages that way, but finally after six months, or whatever time he gave them and they came back to the rabbi and said, ‘Look, Rabbi, we just can’t take it.’ He used to take out a handkerchief. First of all, they used to sign a divorce paper. Samuel Zeavin and Toby Zeavin divorced, et cetera, in Russian or in Yiddish. Signed their names in Hebrew. It was a form that they filled in.

Me: Was it a ghetto?

Dad: I don’t know. It must have…no.

Me: You were not in a ghetto?

Dad: It was a Jewish city. It was within the Pale, but my father could have lived out of the Pale. Do you understand?

Me: Yeah, but you lived in the Pale, and the Pale was only where the Jews could live. But there were Russians there, too.

Dad: But professionals and big business people – Jews could live in Moscow and St. Petersburg and Kiev. All over.

Me: Yeah, but you lived within the Pale.

Dad: Within the Pale, just on the border of White Russia, and Great Russia...

Me: Right.

Dad: …The Eastern part of White Russia.

Me: So your town of Nosovitch was mostly Jewish?

Dad: "Nosotoky, er, Nosovitch. I have to think