ICP: Tell me about the experience of working on this book about your father
EZ: The idea and plan of the book were suggested by Prof. Richard Compton. Each editor was assigned a special subject and a chapter. I collected some personal material and photos and wrote the 6th chapter - "After retiring".
I was lucky that my father's archive was organised and divided into specific subjects: Autobiography, Scientific Work, Memoirs, Russian-Germans etc.
Alexander Kabakaev, a postgraduate from Tomsk Polytechnic University, was sent to Oxford University specifically to translate the huge quantity of material collected. He also helped me in answering Richard's questions, scan documents, and find about 50 scientific theses in the library. We communicated via the Internet, not only working in different towns but in different countries!
When I was working on the book I was also lucky to find in the Moscow Military Archive two files containing my grandfather's documents; Heinrich Stromberg was an outstanding surgeon, who was killed at the front in 1914.

ICP: What is your favorite memory of your father?
EZ: I lived with my father all my life (and I'm 73 years old). After my mother's death in 1972 my father lived with my family - my husband Boris and my daughter Olga. We were very close - we used to play the piano together, we liked travelling to the nearby Tomsk forest and we liked learning English proverbs by heart.
I remember him working at the table under a green lamp until late at night, or playing the piano, or looking at some art. My father was very hospitable and took an active part in our holidays.
He never raised his voice, being always tactful and attentive. On the other hand, he was mainly concerned with things that were important to him, like science. He criticised other scientists with regards to their attitude to science: was science their aim or just a means to develop their career?

ICP: Is there a letter in the book that you like more than the others?
Most of my father's letters were concerned with fighting hunger! He was a young man, who worked hard and was fed by the GULAG with "balanda" soup and 600g of bread per day.
It's difficult for us to imagine that people could die of hunger, isolated from the rest of the world. My father wrote about what he did to survive; they are very sad letters.
I like some of the optimistic ones, such as No. 44 and 45 (p.179), which are about the celebrations of New Year's Eve in 1943; or letter No. 31, describing his friend Ris's birthday party (p.154). Here he remembers his own birthday party in 1941 with all of his mother's family gathering around the table.
These letters were the only link with home, and helped him forget about hunger and fatigue. Writing to my mother or me, they made him feel like a husband and a father rather than a "Special Force Soldier".

ICP: Who should read this book?
EZ: Many people - old and young - in many countries. The book is full of documents and facts concerning the fate of a scientist in the context of XX c - USSR Russia and the Perestroyka. The book would appeal to those who are generally interested in history, Russian history and those who specifically want to understand Soviet Russia.

ICP: What does this book mean to you?
When I worked on this book I pondered on many issues related to the history of Russian Germans and the Soviet regime. I read many books to understand why my father felt as a "second class citizen". I found many new documents; reread all the letters whilst I was typing them. It was as if was living all of my father's life. This book is very dear to me and to my family; it is the best memorial to my father and his parents.
This is why I would like to thank all the authors lead by Prof. Richard Compton at Oxford University, the Research Centre at St John's College for their support, the staff at Imperial College Press and everybody who helped to produce this project.

More information about the book is available at: http://www.icpress.co.uk/histsci/p766.html