A worthy son of his father

 (Interview with Shirinsho Shotemur) 

Interviewed Z. O. Nazarova

Brief bio: Shirinsho Shotemur – known radiologist, PhD, associate Professor. This year he turned 85 years old. Shirinsho was born in 1932 in Chekhov, near Moscow, to an international family. The father of the Tajik shugnanis from the Western Pamir, and mother, Alexandra Mikhailovna Kiselyova – Russian, a native of the village under Lopasnya (now the town of Chekhov). More than 50 years he worked in one of the famous Botkin hospital, was the head of the Department of radiology and tomography. Father – Shirinsho Shotemur was a prominent political and statesman of Tajikistan, historical person. Since 1933, he served as Chairman of the CEC of the Tajik SSR. By the decree of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Rakhmonov 27.08.1999 he was posthumously awarded the order "Friendship", and on September 2006 by the decree of the President he was awarded the title "Hero of Tajikistan". In Khorog and his native city there is a monument in honor of Shirinsho Shotemur the elder. The new administrative center of the Shugnan district bears his name ‒ Shirinsho Shotemur (former piston) To the end of 1937 he came under a wave of repression, and were arrested and punished, and his wife was exiled to Siberia. The children stayed with their grandmother.

a) from childhood memories:

Z. O.: Shirinsho Shirinskii, please tell us about your childhood.

Sh. Sh.: I had a carefree childhood Before. In winter, from November to early may, we lived in Dushanbe, and in the summer came to Moscow, because in the summer it was very hot in Dushanbe. Here is so lived, that is called on two homes. In Dushanbe lived on the street Ordzhonikidze, and in Moscow in his apartment on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya street, or my grandmother in the village of Lopasnya (now the town of Chekhov). Grandmother, her mother and the whole family from there, from Chekhov. Here's the kind of childhood we had with his younger brother Rustam to the time when I was five years old.

I don't remember much about those times. I have such memories in my memory. My father took me by car to the Varzob gorge, to the Vakhsh HPP. Once, I remember, on the may day demonstration in front of the thirty-seventh year, I, along with my dad stood on the podium. My dad came home late from work, didn't get up very early, and in the morning, when he woke up, I used to tickle his heels. A little more I remember how women went, wearing on the heads of a stack of cakes, not holding their hands and that in our house under the porch lived a turtle.

As in a dream it seems a long one-storey house in Dushanbe, so for the rest of his life he remained in memory. Three families lived there. Closer to the gate we lived, then the family of Ibrahim Ismailov (I do not remember them, because at that time they were in Tashkent, the apartment was kept behind them) and in the third part of the house lived Abdullayev. So we lived there, three families of Pamirs, I had a friend Sharif Abdullayev, then he became the Director of the school in Khorog. That's all I remember about a happy, carefree childhood. These sweet memories I kept in my memory for a lifetime. My mother graduated from the Institute of Oriental studies, then went to graduate school of the Institute of foreign trade. She was very competent and capable.

Z. O.: Why did mother die so early?

Sh. Sh.: My mother, Alexandra Mikhailovna Kiselyova two and a half years sitting in jail. There she developed hypertension, because it is absolutely nothing was not to blame. She died in 1944 after a brain hemorrhage. Before that, she lived in Kashin, in the Tver region, with us she could not settle. The decision of the court, she was exiled to Krasnoyarsk Krai Achinsk district, village Bellusco, where he worked as an accountant of the regional potrebsoyuz. Subsequently transferred to the city of Kansk of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the term of her exile ended in 1942. However, as the war was going on, she was not allowed to settle with her mother and children. In 1943 the mother received permission to return home to her mother and children, but she was not given permission to register. Then she was forced to go to her sister, who lived in the town of Kashin, Kalinin region. Her sister – Antonina Mikhailovna, was evacuated from the city of torzhka, Kalinin region. In early July 1944, Alexandra Kiseleva died under Kashin from a brain hemorrhage.

In 1956 A. M. Kiseleva and her husband Sh. Shotemur was posthumously rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court for lack of evidence.

Z. O.: Where did your parents meet?

Sh. Sh.: There are different versions of how my mother and father met. One of their friends, an Armenian Nerses, told me that he introduced them at some party in Moscow. According to another version, they met in Dushanbe, met in the vineyard. I don't know which version is correct. The mother a long time not married to 30 years. She had many admirers, but she chose her father.

b) Memories of school:

Z. O.: Shirinsho Shirinskii as you were in school?

Sh. Sh.: I was a straight a student at school. I was always the best student in school. I had great teachers. Until the seventh grade, I studied at the red school (this school was built of red brick), then moved to white. In the building of the white school before the wife of Pushkin Natalia Goncharova. The school stood on the edge of Lopasnya, next to it was an old Church of the XVII century. Walk there was, of course, far. It's cold in winter when you get there, you'll freeze. We walked, there were no buses at all. Because in the near Moscow region there were no theaters, exhibitions, we went to Moscow. Chekhov from Moscow 75 km. Then it was necessary to go by train 2.5 hours. My time at school coincided with the war years. I went to school in the fortieth year. So I finished fifth grade in 1945. The first five years I studied during the war.

Z.O. : tell us About your grandmother, who put you on your feet in the most difficult time and saved you from hunger and cold, played such a crucial role in your fate with your brother.

Sh. Sh.: my Grandmother was a peasant girl from the Moscow region, her name was Evdokia Vasilyevna Kiseleva. She was very smart, had a lot of life experience. We ended up at her place when her parents were arrested, and we lived with her grandmother through the war. In the spring of 1945 came, mom's sister, she was living in the Tver region. She found out we didn't have any, food supplies, nothing, not in the basement, nowhere. Then she decided she couldn't leave us anymore. And in the summer of 1945 she moved in with us, and we with brother Rustam lived with his grandmother and aunt. She had a daughter, she now lives in Shatura, and her son, a mining engineer, died during the life of his mother.

Z. O.: did You help your grandmother?

Sh. Sh.: ‒ Of Course. All summer we worked on the farm, it was necessary to earn a family for food. I had to chop wood and saw, go for water, I started doing these things very early. I helped my grandmother a lot, because she was already old. When we began to live with her, she was 63 years old We went together to the farm to work.

с) the Memory of the student years:

Z. O.: Why did you choose the profession of a doctor?

Sh. Sh.: the First time in 1949, I entered the historical faculty of Moscow University. But then I didn't compete. Then my friend and I agreed that we would go to Medical school together. At that time he was a first-year student at the Moscow aviation Institute. When it was time for the entrance exams, he did not want to prepare for the exams again. In 1950 I entered the 1st medical Institute. Sechenov. I do not regret that I chose him and entered there. I graduated from this medical School in 1956. I was assigned to Chukotka, but then it turned out that doctors had already been recruited there. Then I was sent to the village of Yagodny, Magadan region, which was the district center. There I received additional training in the field of x-ray diagnostics and worked in the yagodinsky district hospital as a radiologist. In this specialty I worked until the end of his career. He traveled a lot on business trips, to the mines and areas with a portable x-ray machine [RU 762]. In the yagodinsky district hospital of the Magadan region, I worked for five years. After that, I entered the graduate school of the Central order of Lenin in the Institute of advanced medical training.

d) postgraduate Study.

Z. O.: do You like your profession?

Sh. Sh.: over time, I fell in love with my new profession. In 1961 he entered graduate school. My supervisor, Professor Yuriy Sokolov, was a very respected man, he was the chief radiologist of the Ministry of health of the USSR, he came from an old Moscow family. I was on friendly terms with him. He died in 1979 In 1964 I graduated from graduate school and in 1967 he defended his thesis entitled "the experience of the clinical and x-ray tomography and correlated with acute pneumonia". After graduating from graduate school I was left to work at the same Department as an assistant. In 1974 I was awarded the title of associate Professor. 

Z. O.: How was your post-graduate years?

Sh. Sh.: my post-graduate years were mostly spent in the works. In order to defend the thesis in time, we had to work hard, and the time was limited. After graduate school he worked in the 5th city hospital, then moved to the hospital. Botkin, where he worked until 2012, when I was 80 years old.

Z. O.: How did you get acquainted with your wife and devoted friend Lyudmila Georgievna?

Sh. Sh.: Yes, indeed, she is my friend and a person who has always understood and supported me in my life. Very nice, caring and a good hostess, the Keeper of household sites of. Before retirement, my wife worked as a teacher of history. We went to the same school and even the same class. We had a Golden wedding, we lived together for 60 years.

Z. O.: What do you remember about the birth of your son?

Sh. Sh.: In 1958 when I worked in Kolyma, Lyudmila G. gave birth to a son, all passed without much difficulty, came to the house a little man, he gradually grew. I named my son Shirinsho because grandma wanted him to. She suggested, call it what your father's name was.

Grandma loved her father very much. She never believed he was a pest, said it wasn't true.

Z. O.: what do you like most in life?

Sh. Sh.: I don't know, it's hard to say what I like more. Everything is pleasant, life is pleasant. Literature like history like, all of it.

Z. O.: What is your support in life?

Sh. Sh.: Labor, mostly labor. Work is not in the sense that I am physically doing something. My work is basically to sit at the table, read, study, draw conclusions.  

Z. O.: Shirinsho Shotemur has published more than 120 publications and 2 monographs. He was a member of the editorial Board of the journal "Bulletin of radiology and radiology." He is fluent in German and English. In addition, he is still engaged in the translation of scientific books. To date, he has translated 7 books from European languages.

Z. O.: Your impression about Magadan.

Sh. Sh.: first of all, it's very cold. I lived in Kolyma, one of the Central districts of the Magadan region, where frosts up to 60 degrees, and they begin in December, continue until March. Secondly, it is a very beautiful region, hills, valleys between the hills. I always went on business trips with a portable x-ray machine, examined people. I have very good impressions about Kolyma. I do not regret that I lived five years in that distant land. We got there in 1956, he came and lived there until 1961 I was going to go to graduate school and in June received a telegram that grandma died, I went to the main doctor said I need to leave urgently. I hurried, thought I would have time to bury her, arrived late at night, and she was already buried that day. I mean, I couldn't even bury her. After all, my grandmother played such a big role in my life. Even though we were poor, but survived, and she raised us, it's her merit. She worked in the shop, then she was sorry and transferred to the farm. In 1945, my aunt came, but my grandmother still continued to work on the farm.

Z. O.: Shirinsho Shirinskii whether you were abroad? Tell us about your trips. 

Sh. Sh.: Yes, I was at scientific conferences. Participated in the European Congress of radiologists and radiologists in Vienna. In Germany, I went to Hamburg to choose equipment for the new building.

wife-Lyudmila Georgievna: Computer tomograph was purchased for Botkin hospital. Put it in the x-ray room, where he worked Shirinsho Shirinskii. He explained that it should be installed as soon as possible, because it is a very expensive device, it costs millions, and lies idle and spoils. He from his small wages he gave the money to the workers and at their own expense installed scanner. With the installation of the computer was a long history, there were many different obstacles. Since that time, in 1991, he worked on a computer tomograph. Then the second computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus were installed. Sh Shirinskii 10 years he headed the Department of diagnostics and imaging. Now his work is continued by his students and colleagues. They all respect him very much.

Sh. Sh.: the Whole life of labor was, all his life had a new master, I gave lectures, a lecture course was taught, conducted workshops at the Institute of postgraduate education, where students were called cadets. The set was from all over the Soviet Union, including Tajikistan. Then in Tajikistan was the chief radiologist Shlemovich Semyon Abramovich, he was also my cadet.

We became friends with him when I was in Dushanbe, I visited him very often. Now that he is dead, he was older than me.

Z. O.: Shirinsho Shirinskii, you have visited the historic homeland of the father?

Sh. Sh.: I got to the Pamirs for the first time in 1964. I was invited to Dushanbe to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Tajik SSR. I arrived, was at a solemn meeting, carried me everywhere. I like Ramirez Golyshev, said that the Pamirs are waiting for you your relatives. Let's go, I'll arrange it. On the same day we flew by plane to Khorog. There was a car waiting for us. I was very well received. We went to Porshnev (father's homeland), stayed there for a few days, a few days in Khorog.

I then met people whom saw in the childhood, for example, R. Rajabov, and Also M Nazarshoev who then he was the first Secretary of regional Committee (it I didn't know earlier). At the time, my grandmother also went to Tajikistan at the invitation of her father. She liked Dushanbe very much, my father told my mother then, it's all our work, we did everything with our own hands, there was a large village, now a beautiful city.

I met Sayfullaeva, Lola and Ismail Ismailov and, Saidbaby and Boboso, whom he has known since childhood. Saidbaby, a relative of the father when the mother was ever gone, she stayed with us. In Dushanbe in a large one-storey house on Ordzhonikidze street. As I said, three Pamir families lived there: we, ismailovs and Abdullayev.

Z. O. Shirinsho Shirinskii, thank You very much for interesting and enjoyable conversation. Congratulations on your anniversary. We wish you health, longevity and good luck!