Part Three: The Volftsun Siblings 127
Inna began her career as a pharmacist. It was
a good job in Russia and it gave Inna a lot of
power. Everybody needed medicine, and Inna
could trade her access for food, consumer
goods, favors, and other items of value; that
was how business was done in Russia. Gregory
was the manager of a plant that manufactured
household chemicals. With two solid incomes,
the family lived well. Gregory's job afforded
him a personal car with a chauffeur. The family
also owned a car, which was at that time still
relatively rare. The family had a big house in
Uhtomka, 20 kilometers om Moscow, where
most of the Volsun family congregated on
weekends and holidays.
Like all her siblings, Inna was very dissatisfied
with the Soviet system and the limitations it
imposed on her children. For example, Elena
wanted to go to medical school to become a
doctor. But Jewish children had very little
chance of being admitted to medical school in
Russia, and Elena's application was denied.
Inna and Gregory decided to leave Russia for
Above le: Sasha (Aleksander)
Moldavsky in Moscow, 1950.
Above right: Inna, Gregory, and Sasha
Moldavsky in Moscow, 1950.
Facing page: Shlomo Volsun and the
Moldavskys: Gregory (Hershel) and Inna
(Iosif 's sister), Gregory's father, and their
son Alexander Moldavsky in Moscow,
1950.
the sake of their children. "We ourselves had a
good life," Inna recalls, "but we wanted a better
future for our children."
The children of Inna and Gregory grew up.
Aleksander graduated om the Institute of
Food Technology, while Elena was trained as
a teacher of Russian language and literature.
On July 24, 1976, she married Mikhail
Starozhitsky, an engineer om Moscow. Elena
