Interview: Irina Melekhina

Interview: Irina Melekhina

Irena Melekhina recounts her experiences growing up in the USSR, earning a degree in dentistry, and then seeking refugee status along with her husband prior to immigrating to the United States in 1991. She recalls a sense of being brainwashed by the Soviet government, yet still feeling a loss at the collapse of the Soviet Union. She and her husband and 2 month old child arrived in New York City in August 1991, just as the August Coup was taking place in the USSR. The interview recounts these early years of adjusting to life in the United States, resettling in Philadelphia for better job opportunities, and raising their family in Northeast Philadelphia. Toward the end of the interview, Irina shares a series of photographs and memorabilia from the Soviet Union.

Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries

2019oh0147_irw0078

Janneken Smucker

Irina Melekhina

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Jewish ethnicity

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

Soviet Union

Russia

Assimilation

Religion

Jews--Identity.

Physicians

Military education

Traditional dance

Republic of Crimea

Kiev (Ukraine : Oblast)

Kayla DiPaolo