Raisa Maystrenko

Raisa Maistrenko (née Lymarieva) was born in Kyiv on September 12, 1938. 

Raisa’s father, Vadym Petrovych Lymariev, a Ukrainian, was a career officer who studied at the Poltava Military School. Then he went to war. From his first marriage he had a son, Valentyn. Raisa’s grandfather on father’s side, Petro Lymariev, was from Kovel and worked as a stove-maker in Kyiv. Neither he nor his second wife, Tetiana Ivanivna Lymarieva, had any education. 

Raisa’s mother, Tsylia Myronivna (Meierivna) Lymarieva, only kept in touch with her family, but the family never came to Tsylia’s house. Raisa’s grandfather on mother’s side, Meier Kovkin, came to Kyiv with his family from a Jewish town, lived in Batyeva Hora, worked as a carriage driver, had horses and wagons. His family was large and religious. 

At the beginning of the war little Raisa lived with her mother, older brother, grandfather Petro and grandmother Tetiana in a communal apartment on the corner of Saksahanskoho and Kominterna (presently Symon Petliura) streets.

When German flyers appeared in Kyiv with an order for Jews to assemble in the area of the Lukianivske Cemetery, people believed it was to evacuate Jews from the city. It was logical, since there was a railway line there. Grandfather Petro persuaded his daughter-in-law Tsylia not to go to the gathering place, promising to hide them. 

On September 29, 1941, when Raisa was barely 3 years old, a wagon with numerous relatives of her mother’s, driven by her grandfather Meier, arrived at their house on Saksahanskoho Street. They planned to take their daughter and granddaughter away.

Grandfather Meier believed that the flyers were about the relocation of Jews and convinced Tsylia to come along. Agreeing with his arguments, Raisa’s mother quickly gathered her belongings, documents, photos, valuables, threw everything on the wagon, and sat Raisa and her brother on it. But at the last moment Grandpa Petro took the brother away, saying that he would bring him when Tsylia got settled and sent him the address. Grandma Tetiana went to see them off. There were 18-20 people on Grandpa Meier’s wagon and no one suspected how it would end.

The road of death ran along Saksahanskogo Street to the Jewish market (presently Halytska Square), then along the Brest-Lytovsk Highway (presently Beresteyskiy Avenue), along Kerosynna Street to the Lukianivske Cemetery. On Melnykova Street, coming closer to the cordoned off zone, Tetiana Ivanivna finally realised that they must escape. Grandma Tetiana, Raisa, and another 12-year-old girl managed to escape and hide at the cemetery; later they returned home.

After these events Raisa continued to live at her old address with her grandparents and many other family members. Her mother died in Babyn Yar, and her father was reported missing until the end of the war, when it turned out that he was wounded, treated in hospitals, and married the nurse who treated him in one of them.

After the war Raisa’s family was afraid that the girl would accidentally give away her Jewish background, so they forbade her to talk about it. It was only in 1991 that she dared to add the name of her mother, Tsylia Meierivna, to the Book of Memory of Victims of Babyn Yar, after which her grandmother, Tetiana Ivanovna, was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

After graduating from school Raisa decided to become a milling machine operator – her mother Tsylia also used to do the same, milling dumbbells in a craftsman’s workshop. Plus, she needed to make money. But Raisa’s favourite hobby was dancing, so she joined the amateur ensemble under the direction of choreographer Leonid Kalinin at Bolshevik House of Culture  . The very same choreographer who led the dance group of the legendary Veriovka Choir. Raisa Vadymivna was taught classical dance by prima ballerina Zinaida Lurie. 

It was there that Raisa met her future husband Valentyn Maistrenko. Together they spent 22 years on the professional dance stage. The couple raised two children, Oleksii and Olena. For 33 years Raisa Vadymivna had been directing the Obolon children’s folk  dance ensemble.

In 2021 Raisa Maistrenko attended the opening ceremony of the Stumbling Stone dedicated to her.