Скачать или смотреть An Oral History With Leonid Mednikov, October 25, 2025. Audio only.

Interview by Dan Topaj, who is the grandson of Leonid Mednikov. Recorded in Winnipeg, Canada.

Leonid Imanuilovich Mednikov was born in Kyiv in 1950 and raised primarily in Baku, Azerbaijan. He reflects on a modest childhood in a small wooden “Finnish house,” marked by shared housing, limited utilities, kerosene stoves, and a neighborhood of families.

He recalls early Soviet life—electricity outages, candles, music at public memorial events following Stalin’s death, and childhood games, and major historical moments such as Khrushchev’s speech on the cult of personality, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and Yuri Gagarin’s space flight.

He became a mathematician and university lecturer, publishing modestly and teaching for many years.

He reflects on the late Soviet period, perestroika, shortages, rationing, glasnost, and the unexpected collapse of the USSR, noting that few people—including intellectuals—anticipated its end.

Summary assisted by Chat GPT

Produced by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program University of Florida
352 392-7168 http://oral.history.ufl.edu
241 Pugh Hall University of Florida • PO Box 115215 • Gainesville, FL
Cat. No. CWH 027 Leonid Mednikov 10-25-2025