Family — Sophia Shalmiyev

Sophia Shalmiyev

Mother Winter: A Family History

Nineteenth birthday - Olympia, WA

Trip to former USSR at 19 - favorite statue of Peter the Great

Baku vacation - Age 3

Dad - boarding school graduation photo

2nd year in America - Camp Harlem in the Poconos

Swimming in the Caspian Sea

Dad arrives in Leningrad - 1976

Dad doing his "Kalchoz" - Communist land duties

Elena's passport photo - date unknown

First baby photo - September 20, 1978

First year in America, new friend; a parking lot full of Russian immigrant kids - 1991

At a friend's dacha in the country - 3 yrs

Garden on the dacha

Granny Chaya as a teenager

Great-grandfather & great-uncle - officers in the Imperial Army

Horse obsession

Jake's birth - Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC

Leaving for America - Rome, 1990 (*Ch. XIX)

Horseback riding in Leningrad

Namesake Aunt Sophia/Sonia with my uncles, Chanukah and Yasha, just before my dad was born

Nursery school photo, age 4 - Leningrad

Favorite photo of Aunt Sophia (Sonia). She died at 21 of mysterious ailments

Print from a negative found by dad's friend and given to me on the return Russia trip

Olympia, WA

Olympia, WA

Our Leningrad flat, new puppy Suzie, the couch I slept on - Summer, 1989

Ad from The Seattle Stranger - April, 2000 (*Ch XXII)

Paternal grandfather, Yevdo - 1947

Rome, 1990

Teenage dad

Day-of refugee visa application photo - Leningrad, 1989

The Vatican with my friend and his mom and her friend - Winter, 1990 (*Ch XIX)

Favorite photo! First grade, got my ears pierced, and realized I had no mother - Leningrad, early 1980s

Tights too big, dress too small. May Day parade with dad

Uncle Chanukah's army photo

Venice with dad, sleeping on benches - Summer, 1990

Wedding at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens - Memorial Day, 2006

With dad next to his new painting - Leningrad, 1988

With Luda - Leningrad, 1988

Young dad