My Eldest Daughter and My Eldest Grandson — My Pride

My eldest daughter was born during the Soviet era to a woman with whom I shared a close family relationship, although our union was never formally registered. The circumstances and rigid social conventions of that time did not allow our family to live openly and freely. Yet blood ties, a father’s responsibility, and love for one’s child have never depended on official stamps, certificates, or legal formalities.

She was my first child and has always remained an immensely important part of my life. From an early age, my daughter displayed exceptional determination, strength of character, and a profound desire for knowledge. Even then, it was clear that she was capable of overcoming the most difficult trials and building her own future through courage and perseverance.

Life in the Soviet Union did not offer her the freedom or opportunities she needed. The closed state system restricted human potential, controlled freedom of movement, and often transformed the dream of a free and dignified life into an almost unattainable goal. My daughter, however, refused to allow that system to determine the limits of her future.

In 1998, she succeeded in leaving for the United States of America. This decision required extraordinary courage: she had to leave behind the world she knew, overcome the fear of the unknown, and begin her life anew in a foreign country with a different language, culture, and social order. For her, this was far more than a change of residence—it was a decisive step toward freedom.

America became the country in which her knowledge, abilities, and dedication received genuine recognition. After completing a long and demanding professional journey, she became a Doctor of Medicine and devoted herself to one of the most difficult and responsible fields of medicine—oncology. Her profession requires not only profound scientific knowledge, but also exceptional moral strength, compassion, and humanity.

The work of an oncologist is a daily confrontation with illness, pain, fear, and uncertainty. Behind every diagnosis stands a human life, the hopes of a family, and the immense responsibility carried by the physician. I am deeply proud that my daughter chose a path of service to others and that she helps her patients fight for their lives every day.

She proved that one’s origins, a difficult past, and forced emigration cannot defeat a person endowed with intelligence, dignity, determination, and strength of will. Beginning a new life far from the country of her birth, she achieved a respected professional position not through privilege or influential connections, but through education, tireless work, personal discipline, and many years of devotion to medicine.

Her eldest son, Ilya Gerasimov, is my eldest grandson. Through him, the story of our family continues—a family that endured the Soviet era, separation, emigration, and life across different countries and continents. To me, Ilya is not only a beloved grandson, but also a living continuation of our family history and memory.

Ilya is a student at Princeton University, one of the most distinguished academic institutions in the United States. His education and accomplishments are the result of his own hard work and abilities, as well as the extraordinary efforts of his mother, who succeeded in creating an entirely different future for her children—a future founded upon freedom, dignity, education, and openness to the world.

When I see Ilya holding and playing his accordion, I see far more than a musical performance. I see a living connection between generations: from the difficult history of our family in the Soviet Union to a life of freedom in America; from a mother’s struggle to build a new destiny to the university future of her son. My eldest daughter and my eldest grandson, Ilya, are the source of my profound pride as both a father and a grandfather. Their lives are powerful evidence that knowledge, human dignity, courage, and strength of will can overcome even the most difficult circumstances.