Sofia Iosifovna Marzan (Korakh)

• Individual Picture Notes
  • My great grandmother, baba Sonya - as she is in my memory

• General Notes
  • My great-grandmother - "baba Sonya" was my longest surviving grandparent - the only grandparent of whom I have clear memories. She had lived with us during her last years.
    
    Sofia Korokh took on the pseudonym "Marzan" after her brother Aleksandr, a revolutionary.
    
    My parents tell me that when I was a baby there was a fierce competition between baba Sonya and my nanny baba Olya as to who could elicit better behaviour from me.   Thus I would be fed - grannies on either side and a table full of toys, jars, all sorts of baits and distractions.  For years Dad blamed my bad eating habits on that schooling...
    Baba Sonya had had a stroke by that time and found moving around very difficult:  walking from her room to the kitchen was a long, arduous exercise.  She still insisted on getting around the house, cooking. 
    My memory of baba Sonya -  greyhaired, grand, and gradual.

Family Pictures

• Family Picture Notes
  • L-R: Ira, Liza, Volodya, Sonya

Irina Arkadievna Marzan
Irina was born on February 11th, 1922 in Kharkov, Ukraine.  She died, at the age of 58 years, 9 months and 7 days, on November 18th, 1980.

Vladimir Podzolkov
Vladimir was born in year 1925.  He died, at the age of eighteen years, in year 1943.

• Death Notes
  • Killed in his 1st battle (drowned while crossing the river Dnepr)