More than 5,000 children from 86 countries have found a second homeland in Russia and a second family at the «International School «Interdom» named after E.D. Stasova». For many decades, children from countries where there have been wars, armed conflicts or natural disasters have found shelter here. Together with the International School, they experienced joyful and tragic events of our country's history. Some fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, while others helped the wounded in hospitals and sent food to besieged Leningrad. Interdom graduates include prominent politicians and scientists, famous journalists and choreographers, talented teachers and businessmen from dozens of countries. And most importantly, they have forever kept a piece of Russia in their hearts, their love for the Russian language, their friends and the international family of Interdom. Our exhibition is dedicated to prominent graduates and pupils of the E.D. Stasova International School Interdom. We will introduce you to the stories of people whose destinies inspire us with their strength and resilience. Welcome!
Anying and Anqing Mao - Mao Tse-tung's sons were among the first pupils of Interdom. Mao's associates in the Communist Party of China sent the children to the USSR in 1936. Here, in the Interdom, Anying and Anqing received school education. Anying Mao in Interdom went by the name Sergei. And in 1942, he wrote three letters to Joseph Stalin asking him to send him to the front. Anying studied at the Lenin Military-Political Academy and the Frunze Military Academy. He was sent to the 2nd Belorussian Front, liberated Poland and Czechoslovakia. He finished his war journey with his tank unit in Berlin. After the war he studied at the Chinese department of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies. In January 1946, Anying returned to China, and in 1950 during the Korean War he served as an interpreter for General Pen Dehuai. On November 25, 1950, PLA Major General Mao Anying was killed in a napalm attack by American bombers. He was 28 years old. Anqing Mao was called Kolya in Interdom. When he returned to China, he worked as a translator for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The tragedies experienced in childhood affected his health. Nevertheless, Mao Anqing lived 83 years and died in 2007 in Beijing.
Zhu Min is the daughter of Zhu De, a participant in the Chinese Civil War, an associate of Mao Zedong, and one of the “Ten Marshals” of the People's Republic of China. She came to Ivanovo Interdom in January 1941 at the age of 15 from China, where the war was raging. In the summer of 1941, she went to a pioneer camp near Minsk, where she was captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. She survived. Red Army troops liberated the prisoners in 1945. Zhu Min graduated from the Lenin Pedagogical Institute in Moscow and returned to China in 1953, where she taught Russian at the Beijing Pedagogical University, raising many talented Russian language specialists.
Xiao Suhua is a choreographer and professor at the Beijing Academy of Dance. He arrived at the International School in the summer of 1941. Vedya, that was his name in Interdom, lived through the Great Patriotic War with children from different countries. Xiao's creative path began with an amateur circle of Interdom - rhythmic classes. He graduated from the choreography school in Beijing and started teaching. Xiao took mastery lessons from Galina Ulanova, Yuri Grigorovich, Olga Lepeshinskaya and Vladimir Vasiliev. In 1989, Xiao Suhua became the first choreographer from China to sit on the jury of the Moscow International Ballet Competition.
Eric White is an educator, businessman, and a 1973 graduate of Interdom. His father, Bert White, was a correspondent for a Canadian communist newspaper and worked in China from 1959 to 1963. Therefore, Eric began his schooling at the Beijing school of the Soviet Embassy. Later, his father was invited to work in Moscow, which is how Eric ended up in Interdom. After graduating from high school, Eric entered Moscow State University to study history. After graduating, he went to Canada, where he taught Russian colloquial language at the university. Then he lived and worked in Moscow. And now he is a successful businessman, living on the island of Cyprus and traveling a lot.
Vangelis Xyrotiris is a 1974 graduate, journalist, and head of the International Graduates Association of Interdom. In Greece, where Vangelis Xyrotiris was born, there was a coup d'état. His father, Ilias Xyrotiris, had to leave his homeland, like many communists in Greece. They came to Interdom in 1967. Ilya Konstantinovich, as Vangelis' father was called in Interdom, taught Greek at the International School. Vangelis is a journalist accredited in Russia by the Greek newspaper Eleftheros Tipos and an author of scientific works. He has always been actively involved in social activities, and it is not surprising that the Interdom alumni chose him as their leader. When he learned of the decision to disband Interdom, Vangelis Xirotiris helped the teachers to defend it and preserve it as an International School. Hundreds of Interdom students from different countries keep in touch through Vangelis.
Rosa Yu Bin is a journalist, author of books, articles and an graduate of Interdom. Like many children of revolutionaries, she came to Ivanovo to escape persecution in China. Together with her second homeland and second home, she survived the Great Patriotic War. When Rosa was 17 years old, she joined the Russian editorial office of «China» magazine as a stylist-editor because she had dreamed of being a journalist since childhood. She later authored books on Chinese culture and history, which found readers not only in China but also abroad. Rosa Yu Bin continued to cooperate with Soviet magazines. In 1989, «Rabotnitsa» magazine published her article on Chinese breathing exercises «jianfei», which became very popular.
Viviana Pak is an artist of the Academic Folk Dance Ensemble, choreographer and a pupil of the Interdom International School. Viviana's parents were revolutionaries in Korea and moved to the USSR because of persecution. Viviana entered the Ivanovo school in 1933, the year of its foundation. She studied well, and in her free time she attended a rhythm class where she learned the basics of dance. In 1947, Viviana Pak graduated from the studio school of Igor Moiseyev's ensemble and was enrolled in it. At the First International Youth Festival, Viva was awarded the title of laureate for her performance of the Tajik dance. Then there were other oriental dances staged especially for her: “Mongolian Statuette”, “Korean Shepherd” and others. Viviana's successes were marked by the medal “For Labor Distinction”, she was awarded the title “Honored Worker of Culture”.
Giuseppe and Luigi Longo are the sons of Italian communist Luigi Longo, a labor activist. Both studied at the Interdom International School, but in different years. Giuseppe became interested in physics here, and in the school library he read a book about K.E. Tsiolkovsky and his theories. In 1963, he graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow University. He reached heights in science already in Europe, becoming a professor at the University of Bologna. One of his main priorities was the study of the Tunguska meteorite. Luigi Longo graduated from Moscow State University and worked as a translator in the Kremlin. And in the last 30 years of his life he wrote 17 volumes of memoirs about the history and culture of Europe: from the Atlantic to the Urals, which he managed to see with his own eyes.
Tomas Pamies is a writer, memoirist, businessman and even a bit of an actor. Of Spanish descent, he was born in Mexico City in 1946. His parents, Republicans, were forced to move to Mexico from Spain after the defeat of the Revolution. Thomas's parents came to the USSR when he was 10 years old. Thomas received his diploma at the Interdom International School. In 1972, he graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute and began working as a senior engineer at the ZIL plant. In 1974, Thomas played a small role in Andrei Tarkovsky's movie “Mirror”. Then he moved to Madrid, where he first worked as an engineer, and later went into business related to technological equipment. Throughout his life, Thomas has been passionate about literary work and has written memoirs and books. One of Thomas Pamies' most famous books, The Saga of Interdom, is dedicated to his memories of his childhood, friends, teachers and caretakers at the school. He calls his friends from Interdom his schoolmates and talks about the traditions and principles of solidarity they follow even many years after graduation.
Aldo and Jorge Vivo are the sons of Cuban revolutionary Jorge Vivo Escoto. They were smuggled to the USSR in 1934, and were brought up in Interdom for 6 years. During the Great Patriotic War, they fought on the Leningrad front. Jorge fought in a partisan detachment that penetrated into the enemy's rear and derailed enemy trains. In December 1941, after a successful mission, the guerrilla group came under enemy fire. Jorge was wounded in the arm and leg, but he managed to get to his own and carried the badly wounded commander out of the battle. The hero was sent for treatment to a Leningrad hospital, where he spent the blockade winter of 1942. In the spring, Jorge was taken to the big land and evacuated to Central Asia. Aldo Vivo was not yet 18 years old when the war started, and he was enlisted in the Leningrad People's Militia. On September 8, 1941, the blockade ring closed, and the younger Vivo, as part of the 265th Rifle Division, was in the center of the fighting on the legendary “Nevsky Patch”. In December 1941 Aldo Vivo together with a group of scouts was crossing the Neva River, and their boat was shelled by the Nazis. All the fighters were killed. Aldo Vivo was among them.
Zaur Dakhte is a talented photographer, cameraman and director. He has participated in the creation of dozens of documentary and feature films, among which there are sketches dedicated to the students and teachers of Interdom. Zaur Dakhte was born in 1936 in Dagestan, and his parents moved to Iran in 1937. Zaur's father was the head of the Tudeh party's voluntary people's group, and after an assassination attempt on the Shah of Iran, Tudeh supporters were persecuted. The family had to emigrate to the USSR. This is how Zaur ended up in Interdom. In 1959, he entered the cameraman faculty of VGIK and began working with the Tajikfilm studio. Dakhte's entire creative life is connected with this film studio. His film “Spelled in the Sky” about the record-breaking parachutist Yuri Baranov won first place at the Sports Film Festival in Kaunas. Zaur Dakhte practiced art photography and authored several exhibitions in Tajikistan, China, Russia, Germany, France, France, India and other countries.
Alexander Karastoyanov is a Doctor of Military Sciences, Major General. The son of Bulgarian revolutionaries Alexander and Georgitsa Karastoyanov was brought up in Interdom, where horseback riding became his passion. After school he was accepted to the Cavalry School, which Alexander graduated on June 19, 1941. All the war officer Karastoyanov served in the I Guards Cavalry Corps of General Belov. Returning to his homeland after the war, Alexander Karastoyanov continued his service. He was a military attaché at the Bulgarian Embassy in Vietnam. He became a doctor of military sciences. He rose to the rank of major general.
Liu Aiqing is the daughter of Liu Shaoqi, Chairman of the People's Republic of China (from 1959 to 1968). She was born in 1928 and was orphaned in 1934 after her mother's death. In the late 1930s, Liu Aiqing was among other children of China's political leaders who ended up in Interdom. During Great Patriotic War, she worked as a nurse in a hospital near the Interdom. The ensuing political differences between Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi in 1965 led to the death of Liu Aiqing's father. She devoted her life to rehabilitating her father's memory and wrote a book about his political path, as well as her childhood in the USSR. The book in Russian was published in 2009.
Li Doli was born in 1936 in the family of Li Fanwu, leader of the Northern Anti-Japanese Army of China. In the 1930s-40s he was brought up in Interdom, where he was called Anatoly. Here he also survived the Great Patriotic War. In 1950, Li Doli returned to China. For many years, Li Doli has been organizing exhibitions on war heroes in cooperation with China's Lugouqiao Memorial Museum and Russia's Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War. In 2015, Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov, on behalf of Vladimir Putin, presented medals to 32 Chinese citizens who contributed to the Great Victory. One of the honorees was Li Doli.
Aldo Canestri is an Italian language teacher, professor, and author of textbooks and dictionaries. His father Bindo Ragazzi was a communist and Italian trade unionist. Aldo Canestri graduated from the International School in 1957 and entered the Russian Language and Literature Department of the Philological Faculty of Moscow University. After graduating from Moscow State University, Aldo worked all his life as an Italian language teacher at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages at the Maurice Thorez. He created a series of study guides, phrasebooks, and dictionaries. The main work of his life was the Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms of the Italian Language, a publication he dedicated to his father Bindo Ragazzi.
Boris Ta(e)n is a scientist, candidate of technical sciences and author of the Interdom anthem “Little Country”. Boris's father, Yakov Ivanovich Tan, liberated Korea from Japanese invaders during World War II; after the war, he became deputy foreign minister of North Korea. But in Boris's homeland, the education system was weak after the war, and his parents decided to send him to the USSR, to Interdom, where his two sisters Era and Lilya were already studying. In 1964, Boris enrolled in the Ivanovo Power Engineering Institute as a part-time student, and two years later he transferred to the Moscow Power Engineering Institute as a full-time student. After graduation, he worked as an engineer in Elektrostal at a metallurgical plant. He decided to continue his studies and returned to the department, completed postgraduate studies, defended his thesis and worked for a long time in Moscow at the Glass Institute.
Gerard Chernyaev is a Doctor of Biological Sciences, Honorary Academician of the New York Academy of Natural Sciences, and author of numerous books and scientific publications. Gerard was born in Turkey and lived in France. In 1951, he was sent to the USSR because his mother, a communist, worked as personal secretary to Maurice Thorez, then head of the French Communist Party. Gerard graduated from high school in Interdom. He enrolled at Moscow State University in the Department of Ichthyology. He took part in amateur activities and social life of the university. After graduating from Moscow State University's Biology Department, he worked at the Limnological Institute on Lake Baikal for 13 years. In 1976 he graduated from the diving school at the Central Marine Club of DOSAAF to conduct research under the ice. Gerard Chernyaev is the author of scientific works and biographical book “As long as I breathe, I hope”.
Quintino Ndafa Sara - artist, blogger - was born in Guinea-Bissau. In 1983, at the age of 6, he came to the USSR with the help of the Red Cross and studied at the Interdom International School. Quintino lived in Ivanovo until the age of 16, and then entered the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow at the Department of Political Science. Quintino starred in video clips of Russian performers, and later - in the movie. “What Men Talk About”, “My Beautiful Nanny”, “Young and Happy”, “Hotel Eleon”, “Mamochki”, “Trap” - not a complete list of works of the talented graduate. Now Quintino lives in Moscow, works in the fitness industry, and runs his own social media channel, «Quintino's Content», where he tells stories about how foreigners live in our country. He recently obtained Russian citizenship.
Rizos Nikos came to Interdom at the age of 3 in 1934. He was born in Athens to a Greek communist family. After moving to the USSR, his connection with his native family was lost. Nikos survived the Great Patriotic War together with the children of Interdom. In the spring of 1951 Rizos finished 7th grade and entered Ivanovo Physical Education Technical School, which was one of the best in the USSR. After the technical school he graduated from the Institute of Physical Education in Moscow. Rizos was first a teacher, and then he started practicing sports professionally. He is a master of sports in track and field athletics, was a member of the Russian National Team and a Russian champion. In winter he practiced alpine skiing and ski jumping. He was also a member of the Russian Central Council for Sports. He supervised the development of handball and volleyball and organized competitions throughout Russia. Nikos is considered a symbol of Interdom. Together with his friends, he participated in amateur activities and often came to the school, which became his real home.
Chavdar Dragoichev is a surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences. He is the son of Bulgarian revolutionary Tsola Dragoicheva. In Interdom he was nicknamed “Philosopher” because he read a lot. During the Great Patriotic War, he worked in one of the Ivanovo hospitals, took care of wounded soldiers. Perhaps it was this that determined the profession he chose in the future. After graduating from the medical institute, Chavdar Dragoichev started practicing and simultaneously engaged in scientific work. Later he became a well-known surgeon in Bulgaria, received the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences and the title of Professor. Chavdar Dragoichev headed the Cardiovascular Diseases Clinic of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
