From Siberia to the BBC: A remarkable journey of resilience

Reed Smith partner Simone Goligorsky (https://www.reedsmith.com/en/professi...) and her father, Yuri Goligorsky, (  / yuri-goligorsky-1742586  ) join Reed Smith’s Jewish Inclusion Committee co-chairs Carolyn Rosenberg (https://www.reedsmith.com/en/professi...) and Jason Gordon (https://www.reedsmith.com/en/professi...) to discuss Yuri’s inspiring story of resilience. Yuri recounts his incredible journey from being born in the harsh conditions of Siberia, escaping to Israel and eventually establishing a remarkable career at the BBC in London.



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Transcript: 



Intro: Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast, Inclusivity Included, Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with a goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, Inclusivity Included.



Carolyn: Welcome back to Inclusivity Included. I'm Carolyn Rosenberg, along with my co-chair and partner, Jason Gordon. We are co-chairs of Reed Smith's Jewish Inclusion Committee, and we're excited today to discuss from Siberia to the BBC, a remarkable journey of both combating anti-Semitism and resilience. Our guests today are our partner and friend, Simone Goligorsky from London, and her father, Yuri Goligorsky. He's going to take us through an amazing journey as an escape as a child from Siberia, then to Israel, then to London with a remarkable career at the BBC. Without further ado, thank you very, very much to our guests. Jason, over to you.



Jason: Thank you, Carolyn. And we thank you both for attending this podcast today. Let's start with Yuri. So, can you take us back to life as a child and your escape from Siberia? Can you talk a little bit about what the conditions were like?



Yuri: First of all, thank you very much for inviting my daughter and myself. Delighted to be here. Now, let's go a little bit back in history. After Hitler and Stalin signed a pact effectively carving up Europe, they carved it up between themselves. My parents found themselves in the position where they were exiled from their native Bessarabia to Siberia. And that's where I was born. So to answer your question, I think it would be best to start from something which I couldn't possibly remember, but I was told about by my parents. On the The day I was born, the outside temperature was minus 30 degrees Celsius, which is minus 22 in Fahrenheit, I think. Believe me, that's cold. That's very, very cold. At home, we didn't have running water, so water had to be brought back home from a well operated by a wind pump. But there wasn't wind on that day, and the pipe got frozen. So my father collected some snow from the outside, melted it on the stove, and gave me my first bath. So, that's my love of snow and my father probably comes from that. I grew up in a rather harsh environment. I grew up mainly on a diet of potatoes, herring, cucumbers, and milk. Milk we had from a cow which we shared with our neighbors. So, to these very day, when my wife wants to make me happy, she prepares for me jacket potatoes with herring and some green salad, and that immediately melts my heart. If you ask me whether people could be happy in such circumstances, my answer is yes. Yes, in every situation, we must find a reason for joy and happiness. In other words, that's what's called resilience. That would help Jews to survive through so many centuries. And that's basically my life story there in Siberia.



Jason: Can you tell me what the anti-Semitism was like at the time? And for those who are not really the students of history can you talk a little bit about what it was like then?



Yuri: Jason remember I was born a year after stalin died he died in 1953 I was born in 1954 just before his timely I would say timely death soviet jews were on the verge of of being banished to Siberia, like my parents, which effectively meant a mass extermination. Jews were saved, yet again, by Stalin's demise. Purim's miracle, I would say it, because he died on Purim. The anti-Semitism then subsided after his death, but didn't disappear altogether. together. Antisemitism is often described as an irrational hatred, and I find this a bit disingenuous. Of course, it is rational. For me, antisemitism in the Soviet Union was based on envy, because Jews managed to survive despite every single, as they called, percentage norm or, The percentage norm is when people applied for a certain position, they wanted to go to university. People couldn't be accepted. I think the percentage norm at that time was no more than 4%. No more than 4% could be in any institution. But there were some very, very interesting circumstances. For instance, the head of Soviet TV in Brezhnev's times, a notorious anti-Semite, once told of the Russian conductor of the m...