Genrietta Viktorovna Yamalyants (Genrietta Viktorovna Makarikhina)

Born 31 March 1932 in Kolchugino. At the age of 15 she moved with her father to Irkutsk, where she started college. After 4 years her father was posted to Grodekovo.

In Grodekovo she met Grigori Stepanovich Yamalyants at a theatre performance, and married soon after on 29 December 1951. First daughter Irina Grigorievna was born in Barabash (near Grodekovo) on the North Korean border; the following day her husband was posted to Port Arthur, China. With Irina, she joined her husband 6 months later. Their second daughter Tatyana Grigorievna was born in China on 29 January 1954.

In 1955 USSR troops were withdrawn from China, and her husband's unit was sent to Luga, near Leningrad. On the 14 day train journey, Tanya & Irina caught measles. The girls & their mother were put in the last carriage to avoid contagion: they recovered before the end of the journey. The family lived at a secret base (Polygon #1) in comfortable & spacious Finnish houses, each with 4 families sharing.

In 1961 they moved to Vladimir, near Moscow for 2 years, living in a special small city for families of officers, Perecopsy Gorodok. In 1963 they moved to Teikovo, near Ivanovo, and stayed until 1970, when the family moved to Apartment 57, Bubnovsky 76, Kishinev. She became chief Personnel Manager in a government department responsible for reconstruction. Her husband died in 1983 age 57. She continued to care for her grown-up family in Kishinev: Irina with her two children Viktor & Larisa; and Tanya with her daughter Lena.

On 21 December 1996 Genrietta came to England and stayed with Irina & Paul in Plymouth for Christmas, returning via London on 25 January 1997. In September 1998, with her daughter Tanya & husband Micha, she visited Stockholm for her grand-daughter Lena's marriage to Mats. In August 2005 Irina & Paul took Genrietta to visit Kolchugino, where she was happy to see Tatyana Sergeevna Mayorova, Nina Ivanovna Krylova & Sergei Mayorov once again. And on her way home in Moscow she met close friends of her husband, also Irina's son Viktor & his wife-to-be Natasha. Genrietta looked after her daughter Tanya in her later years, phoning & visiting daily.

Biography written by Irina Yamalyants October 2020