РShe wasborn on September 11, 1907 in the Jewish agricultural colony Bolshoy Nagaravt of Kherson uezd of Kherson province in a large family of hereditary ploughman Abram Isaakovich Ruskol and his wife Rachel Naumovna.
Since childhood this beautiful and intelligent girl took part in the work of the house and peasant farming, combining these activities with education in the school. When she grew up, her older sister Tanya took her with herself to Kharkov, where two sisters Fenya and Etya had already been. Leah also worked and studied here. It is notable that Tanya did much to regulate Leah’s life especially her establishment as a person. There, in Kharkov, Elizabeth met a beautiful, intelligent and energetic young man — Shulim Rapoport, with whom she lived for 50 years in love and harmony until her death.
Here is the interesting episode of their family life that characterizes Elizabeth. They lived in a civil marriage for 34 years, and she proudly maintained her generic name Ruskol. Only in 1962, due to the fact that she had been refused a free ticket for travel on the railways, they finally registered their marriage. But she didn’t change her name Ruskol.
Elizabeth Abramovna bore six children: sons — Julius, Valentine, Nathan, Valery and daughters —Tamara (unfortunately, died early) and Jeanne. She devoted all her life to the care and upbringing of the children. Her work and efforts were not wasted, and she saw that and was very proud — all the children received good education and training, and each of them took a worthy place in the society and they are eternally grateful for this to their Mother. Later, when the children were dispersed throughout the country, Elizabeth Abramovna took an active part in education of grandsons, cared about them and their children, and their arrivals were always a great joy for her.
Elizabeth Abramovna was awarded with the medal "Mother’s glory", and she was very proud of it.
Her life has not always been easy, safe and fun. Many difficulties and hardships fell to her. Some of them were common for many people during that troubled period of the Soviet Union, when she spent her young and adult years. Other difficulties were connected with the personality of her husband. It so happened that Shulim Rapoport became a party activist of the ruled Communist Party, and this party sent him in various party, state and economic positions, in different areas of southern Ukraine. For Elizabeth Abramovna all these changes were connected with constantly moving, living in apartments, inability to work by the favorite profession and other loss and inconvenience. In particular, she was never able to get a professional education and she always regretted about that. But it didn’t influence much on her attitude to her husband — she was his soul mate and helper in the business.
Lisa, Fenya and Etya Ruskol, Shulim Rapoport. Kharkov, 1929
In September 1941 the German troops invaded the Zaporozhye region, in which the family lived. Elizabeth Abramovna and four children among the families of three collective farms were hastily evacuated with a minimum of clothing and household items. The evacuees were settled in the village Kepental of the former ASSR of the Volga Germans (now Saratov region, Bogdashino village), from which the inhabitants, ethnic Germans, were expelled. The deportees’ personal property and the local collective farm were looted. The family found itself in a difficult financial situation. There was no place to buy anything and no means for that. So they tried to endure and adapt. Her husband spent the whole war on the front, she was in evacuation in Saratov region with small children, hard working on the farm (in the summer — accountant in the field team, in the winter — working on a pig farm), lack of food and clothing and much more.
Elizabeth Abramovna with her daughter Jeanne.
Berdyansk, 1938
Elizabeth Abramovna sought a way out of this difficult situation. And her sister Bronislawa Abramovna, who lived in Saransk (Mordovia) at that time, gave a helping hand and agreed to take the family to them. The authority of her husband helped Elizabeth Abramovna to take her family out of the collective farm, and in September 1943, they moved in Saransk. This moving eased the situation within the family: Elizabeth Abramovna got a lighter work and began to receive ration cards for herself and dependents; her son Julius entered the vocational school, son Valery was taken as a apprentice in a shoe shop.
In June 1944 the family returned to Ukraine, Berdyansk of Zaporozhye region. But the town was burned by German incendiaries, the factories were destroyed, there was no place to work and live. They had to go to the village, but what? The choice fell on the Bulgarian village Trojany, where the family of S. N. Rapoport lived for some time before the war and the standard of living in which was much higher, than in Ukrainian villages. The villagers welcomed Elizabeth Abramovna and her children. People were terrified by their poverty and gave them free apartment with furniture, dishes and other household equipment, provided children with food, and gave the mother and the eldest son work on the farm.
In the neighboring with Trojany, also Bulgarian village, Androvka there was a machine-tractor station (MTS), where her husband worked in 1939. In October 1944, a vacancy of turner opened there and Julius was taken to this place, remembering S. N. Rapoport. So the family moved to Androvka and Elizabeth Abramovna started to work in the MTS as a librarian.
Elizabeth Abramovna had to work as a teacher in the kindergarten, serving in various organizations and at the enterprises. During the war she was collective farmer. But her main profession was the profession of a "housewife" — ignoble profession in the former Soviet Union. But we, her children, always perceived this decent work in its best sense of the word.
Elizabeth Abramovna had a calm, cheerful and communicative character, always was optimistic about what is happening, and never lost the presence of mind in difficult situations. She had self-respect and desire to expand horizons. Elizabeth didn’t received formal education in her time, that’s why she spent every free minute on reading fiction and historical literature, getting knowledge from there.
She was kind and sympathetic, a good social activist with a strong rejection of injustice. She always tried to help people and therefore deservedly had authority among others. She regularly looked through the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" and according to its content conducted an extensive correspondence with young people, who needed help. She sent them precepts, advice, parcels with fruits. The results were amazing — her good support helped them to believe in themselves, to find a right solution and to overcome difficulties. She was warmly thanked and several times she was even invited to the wedding — in Russia, Siberia, and even in Kyrgyzstan.
Elizabeth Abramovna and Shulim Nusinovich. 1976
And one more feature of character — she was a big fan of noisy and cheerful friendly parties, with songs and dances, but she had never used alcohol and nobody was able to convince her.
Elizabeth Abramovna had a good health and never seriously suffered. She died of bowel cancer on the