People
Teachers in a family album
Musya Shklar and Vladimir Pruss in memories of Guryev.
Published
This is a translation. The original is Русский. Language review: not performed by a native speaker.
In a 2025 essay, Dor Shabashewitz wrote about his great-grandparents Vladimir Pruss and Musya Shklar, who ended up in Guryev, now Atyrau. Musya was born in Vitebsk and grew up in Lepel in Belarus.
The family moved to Guryev in 1940 after Vladimir’s brother was executed during Stalin’s repression. Shabashewitz writes that the relatives were banned from living in the Soviet Union’s largest cities after being labelled relatives of an “enemy of the people”.
According to the author, his great-grandparents helped establish the city’s first university. By the time their daughter Irina was born, Vladimir headed the history department and Musya taught world history.
Shabashewitz writes that despite the circumstances of their move, his relatives grew to love Guryev. He included the family’s story in an essay about Atyrau’s Jewish past and its present-day community.