He was born on September 15, 1907 in the village Borschagovka of Skvirsky district in Kiev province (now the village Borschagovka of Pogrebishensky district of Vinnitsa oblast, Ukraine). He was the third child in a large Jewish family of a small trader.

His father, Nusin Rapoport, followed the traditional Jewish way of life and he was the only breadwinner of a large family. Nusin tragically died in 1918, during the Jewish pogrom in the place Pogrebishe. His mother, Sarah Rapoport, was a clever and strong-willed woman with practical way of life and she raised three daughters and two sons. In the autumn 1941 she was killed along with two younger daughters as a victim of the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people.

Shulim Rapoport spent his childhood and early teenage years in Borschagovka and the place Pogrebishe, where his parents moved to. Here he graduated from the 4th class of so-called "parochial" school. He began his independent life in the town Vinnitsa, where his older brother and sister had already worked as the activists of the Union of Communist Youth (Komsomol) and later the Communist Party. They made a great ideological influence on the young man.

In 1925 with the help of Komsomol Shulim Rapoport entered the Kharkov school of printers, where he trained a profession of typesetter-printer and then he work in the 1st Kharkov printing house. He spoke fluently Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian languages, so he did typesetting himself in these languages, as well as the Latin alphabet for the multiethnic population of Ukraine. Shulim became a qualified specialist printer and in 1928 he joined the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Also in Kharkiv Shulim Nusinovich Rapoport met a beautiful and intelligent Jewish girl — Elizabeth (Leah) Abramovna Ruskol. They lived in love and harmony for almost 50 years until her untimely death. They raised and brought up five children: a daughter Jeanne and sons Julius, Valentine, Nathan, Valery.

In 1929 the 22-year-old Shulim Rapoport was sent by the party organization among 25 000 communists to the village for the collectivization of the agricultural sector and he worthily fulfilled hard tasks assigned by the party.

Elizabeth and Shulim with their children. 1934

In 1931–1933, at the end of the collectivization, Shulim Rapoport worked as an authorized person of American distribution fund for the Jews "Agro-Joint" in Stalindorf Jewish national district of Dnepropetrovsk region. His duties included the distribution of fund’s humanitarian aid, accommodation and provision of the necessary facilities for the Jewish immigrants from Belarus and Ukraine, as well as participation in solving of many organizational and other problems.

Since 1933, Shulim Rapoport worked at the post of the executive secretary of the Tokmak Executive committee in Zaporozhye region. During this period there was the formation of the economic management system of the country, in particular, the urban utilities. And he plunged into this work.

In 1936–1937 during the extermination of managerial personnel in the country under the slogan of "fight against Trotskyism" and "enemies of the people" Shulim Rapoport was one of the first victims of this campaign. He was expelled from the party and removed from work without any weighty arguments. Perhaps the traits of his character, such as remarkable abilities, integrity, independence and other, played their role. But there is another version.

In 1920s his elder brother Yakov Rapoport was a prominent functionary in Komsomol and party in Vinnytsa. After graduating from the Industrial academy in Moscow, he worked as the director of a large factory in Stalingrad. Shortly before the incident with Shulim, Yakov was removed from work and arrested as "an enemy of the people". The same fate befell their sister, also a party worker. According to the party directions relatives and even friends of the victims suffered persecution. That’s why there is a reason to link these events in a single chain. Shulim could not find out anything about the future of his brother and sister.

Shulim Rapoport believed that he owes co-workers his life, who managed to limit the "preventive measure" only with exception from the party and the removal from work. Head of the Department of the NKVD, a Civil War hero, Samuel Dine advised him "to vanish from sight and don’t appear". Following the wise advice Shulim moved with his family to Novomoskovsk, Dnepropetrovsk region, and worked there as a compositor in local printing office.

In early 1937 there was a new turn in his life. As a result of mass extermination of managerial personnel there were almost no experienced managers and specialists in the country. That’s why the party appointed Shulim Rapoport (a former member of the party) as a manager of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Branch of the USSR State Bank, in spite of his sincere assurances of incompetence in the banking industry. A few months later they finally found a specialist financier and Shulim was sent to manage the Dnepropetrovsk regional base of cultural goods. But here he simply had no luck. Two cars with cultural goods were sent from Moscow without warrant and documents (apparently, someone "threw off surplus" in a hurry). It is quite natural that Rapoport warned about it, and as a result... the government remembered his "past" and he was removed from work!

Shulim Rapoport, Elizabeth Ruskol and their children:
Julius, Tamara, Valentine. 1935

Shulim got his things, wife and three small children together and went away in Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region, where he managed the shop of cultural goods (the only shop in the whole region). Later he worked at Trojan station of Stalin’s railroad and at Androvskaya machine-tractor station of Berdyansk district also on ordinary positions.

In 1939–1941 Shulim worked as the chairman of Rural Cooperative Consumer Society in a large village Dmitrovka, Berdyansk district. With his organizational experience, he quickly became one of the rural activist and started versatile social activities and earned credibility among the inhabitants.

ВIn September 1941, six days before the arrival of German troops, Shulim managed to organize the evacuation of more than 70 families of managerial personnel from three collective farms of the village Dmitrovka. His previous work at railroad helped him. In the atmosphere of retreat and loss of control of local authority he managed to get some passenger cars, loaded people and sent them on the last train. His family — the only Jewish one in the village — also was evacuated!

After the dispatch of their families to the rear, all men were organized in the "fighter squad", in which they had to destroy the German saboteurs almost without weapons and uniform. After the German encirclement they tried to reach their families for more than three months without regular food and clothing. In January 1942 they arrived in full strength in Saratov region, in the village Kepental of Gnadenflursky district (the former ASSR of the Volga Germans), where Shulim’s family had been evacuated.

In February 1942, in one day all the men of the village were mobilized in the army. Shulim began his fighting way at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War as an ordinary machine-gunner in infantry regiment, at the forefront of Moscow. He was an assistant commander of a platoon of machine guns, a clerk at regimental headquarters, and participated in the interrogation of prisoners (before the war he graduated from Moscow correspondence courses of the German language). In 1943 on the front lines he re-joined the Communist party. Three times Shulim was surrounded: in Kharkov, in Budapest and already in Austria while holding the bridgehead on the bank of the Danube river. He leaved the Kharkov boiler alone for 6 days, carrying two suitcases with regimental documents.

In 1944–1945 Shulim Rapoport with the rank of "sergeant major" passed Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria and Yugoslavia already in the post of the commander of a separate divisional horse-drawn transport company. It is notable that as commander of the separate company, he refused to become an officer. Also he was appointed military commander in the Austrian cities. Shulim Rapoport was awarded the order of Red Star, the order of Patriotic War, the medal "For courage" and other medals, personal weapon and also was given 13 diplomas of the Supreme Commander.

Shulim Nusinovich after demobilization
from the army. 1945

He said remembering the war: "Only my family was in front of my eyes during the most dangerous episodes and it gave me the strength to survive." In September 1945 Shulim Rapoport returned to his family in the village Novotroitskoye, of Berdyansk district in Zaporozhye region.

Shulim was an honored veteran and a member of the party, a skillful organizer with an appropriate experience, so he was sent to work in the system of consumer cooperation. At first he was the chairman of the management board of the general store in Novotroitskoye village, but in 1947 he had responsible positions of regional scale: the director of Rayzagotcontora and deputy chairman of the management board of Raypotrebsoyuz in Berdyansk. He was completely surrendered himself to this work. But incompetence, sluggishness, acquisitiveness of managerial personnel, as well as the anti-semitic policy of the party bodies in 1947-1953 did not give him the opportunity to work normally. Many Jews, managers and specialists, were persecuted and were forced out from work and it began first of all in the sphere of trade. The upshot was that Shulim Rapoport started a conflict with the leadership and in 1951 left his work. Since then he deliberately avoided to have high and responsible positions.

In 1951–1952 Shulim Rapoport became chairman of the management board of the general store in the district centre Veseloe of Zaporozhye region. But this work didn’t satisfy him. He needed to solve the family problem.

In 1952 Shulim Rapoport moved with his family to the station Kahovka, on the construction of the railroad. Here he worked as head of the dining room, then the chief of the group of trade establishments in the Department of work supply, then an employee on Kahovka distance of the Odessa railway route. His name is associated with construction and organization of work of a large dining room and three shops, the successful provision with products and goods of builders and workers of the railway on a large area — from the station Novo-Veseloe to station Snigirevka. Due to his activity for many years he gained authority and respect of the leaders and the residents of railway village.

In 1967 Shulim was 60 years old. At that time according to the law on pensions, persons who have reached the retirement age should be fired from their jobs. But Shulim Rapoport found what to do — he completely devoted himself to social activities.

By 1972, the railway settlement greatly expanded; two residential neighborhoods grew up next to it; 16 large enterprises were working and the public created on their own initiative a "village council". One of the organizers and the first chairman of this council was Shulim Rapoport.

The Rapoport Family. Standing: Julius, Nathan, Valentine, Jeanne.
Sitting: Julius’s wife Anna, Elizabeth Abramovna,
Shulim Nusinovich, Valery. 1955

The Rapoport Family. Sitting (right to left): Shulim Nusinovich with
grandson Eugene, Elizabeth Abramovna with grandson Sergei,
Vladimir Yagodin with son Shurik. Standing: Julius, his wife Galya,
their children Olga and Igor, Jeanne Yagodina, Helen and Valery.
1971

On initiative of Shulim Rapoport there was organized the main base of public order, which he led for several years. He found the finance and materials, invited builders, constructed the building of main base and united the group of activists.

In the railway village there is a large park zone. It was decided to create in it a summer cultural and sports complex and Shulim Rapoport took this job with pleasure. In the short term there was created new tracks, football field, stage and dance floor, lighting and even an old steam locomotive was put on the rails. Rapoport also was one of the organizers of the first mass events in this complex.

People always went to him with their problems, and he never refused. Shulim tried to support, to give advice and participated in proceedings of conflict situations.

Shulim Rapoport was seriously ill in recent years, but he stoically had it without any complaint.

Shulim Rapoport had a balanced, optimistic character and a good sense of humor. He was notable for his self-control, curiosity and communication skills. The main indispensable thing for him was concern about his family, his children and he carried about them during the whole life.

He settled in New Kahovka after the years of forced wandering and created a "warm" house — good apartment for those times—laid an orchard and a vineyard, gathered together all the children and made them starting conditions for life and development.

The family had calm, friendly and creative atmosphere in it. There was an atmosphere of conjugal and parental love and mutual respect, based on the universally recognized moral values, in which the children never saw nor heard marital quarrels, drunken father, manhandling, indecent acts of parents and other abominations.

Shulim Nusinovich in the public chamber.
New Kahovka. 1990

Shulim didn’t received formal education in his time, that’s why he constantly sought to knowledge. There was a library of political and fiction literature in the house, the national newspapers and magazines had been subscribed and he had a subscription to a public library. It gave its results — he became fully developed, with the ability to express properly his thoughts and well-delivered speech.

His house was always open for the family’s friends, and for the friends of his children, and for those who come for advice and help. The events in the country, everyday issues and stories had been discussed in the family circle with friends and other visitors.

The second generation of the Rapoport family: Julius,
Jeanne, Valery, Valentine, Nathan

Hot debates often started, especially on political and economic issues — because there were enough reasons for them in the Soviet Union! It was a good school for children and for their parents.

The family always lived friendly and funny with common ideas and common table, helping each other in everyday life and studies. Julius and Valentine studied by correspondence at the institutes, Jeanne graduated from high school and pedagogical institute, Nathan — from incomplete secondary and evening secondary school, Valery — incomplete secondary and technical school. All of them took an active part in public life: during studies, at the work place, in the railway village and in town New Kahovka. The time has come, and the life separated children to different villages of the vast Soviet Union. Each of them has taken a worthy place in society, grandchildren and great-grandchildren grew up. Shulim Rapoport was very proud of them, enjoyed their success and took an active part in their life until the last day.

If you look through the life of progeny of Shulim Nusinovich Rapoport in different generations, you may find positive influence of his personality on the characters and fate of children, both in genetic terms and in terms of its way of life.

Shulim Nusinovich and Antonina Vasilyevna Oreshkina with her family.
New Kahovka. 1986

In May 1977 his wife, a friend and an ally Elizabeth Abramovna Ruskol died. Shulim Nusinovich took hard, bitterly her loss and didn’t imagine himself alone. In that moment Antonina Vasilyevna Oreshkina gave him a helping hand. She was a doctor, a longtime family friend. They lived together for 20 years, mutually supporting each other.

Shulim Nusinovich died on March 19, 1997 at the age of 90. He was buried at Malokahovskoe cemetery in the vicinityof New Kahovka.