Marina Losov

Igor was born in 1964 on the banks of the Dnieper River, in the city of Zaporozhye, Soviet Union (now Ukraine). A son to his parents Victor and Antonina and a younger brother to Tatiana. From a young age he cut off contact with his father and his mother raised the two children with a strong and responsible hand, working as a department manager in a large factory in the city.

Igor described a stable and safe childhood in a city where you can walk around until the evening hours, and where there is no need to lock the houses. Igor, with a fondness for exact sciences, graduated from high school with good grades, but missed out on enrolling in university, so he was drafted for three years into the navy of the Soviet Union army and served in the fleet in the Baltic Sea far from home. During the three years he saw his mother only twice and all communication between them was through letters and telegrams. Then he continued to study for a bachelor's and master's degree in metallurgical engineering.

One day, after his release from the Soviet Navy, while still maintaining his love for the sea and vessels, he was sailing in a rowing boat on a river and from afar in the resort he saw a girl in a red swimsuit, a prominent spot of color on the horizon, and was drawn to row in her direction. He asked the young girl "Can you show me the way to the dining room?" And so the first click was formed with the one who would later become his wife, Marina.

Marina was also born in Zaporozhye, two years before Igor. She was also raised by a single mother, Ludmila, who worked for a living as a production engineer in a factory making aircraft engines. Later, Lyudmila met Nikolai Nikitenko. Together they started a happy family, and Marina had a brother Michael. Nikolai adopted Marina as a daughter and supported her in every way.

Marina attended a normal school and was a good girl and an excellent student. She loved to study history, and literature. In addition, she also studied at a music school and played the piano for seven years. Ludmila and Nikolai's home was a secular home where Ludmila's Jewish holidays were celebrated, along with Nikolai's Christian holidays, as well as the Russian holidays. Marina described a simple and happy childhood in a family of industrial workers with an orderly job, a luxurious education system, and a sense of calm and security. At the university, Marina studied history and participated in archeological excavations at ancient sites. She worked in research at the university where she attended and also taught history at the local high school.

Marina and Igor were married in April 1988 in a small civil wedding in the municipality. Their only daughter Katya was born in January 1989. In the early 1990s, they experienced firsthand the stormy days and instability of the breakup of the Soviet Union. When they heard about the "Beit Rishon Be Moladat" program, the desire to come and live in a kibbutz, in a secular, egalitarian, cooperative and socialist society - an ideology that they strongly believed in even after the collapse of the Soviet power - sparked in them. In October 1994, Marina and Igor immigrated to Israel with their five-year-old daughter Katya. They landed at night and came straight from Tel Aviv to a trailer, which was waiting for them in Kibbutz Be'eri. They went to Israel alone, leaving their families behind.

Marina and Igor went through the separation from the homeland and the challenges of assimilation in Israel and the kibbutz together. At the same time as studying Hebrew in Ulpan, they integrated themselves into working on the farm. Marina worked for many years in printing, mainly in the card department and later moved to accounting. She replaced Tzipi Zorea in managing the members' personal budgets. Marina loved the job and the team she worked with. She knew everyone: the old friends and the newest "Bamba'h" - new kibbutz worker. She also worked for ten years as a volunteer in a thrift store together with Racheli Suis. Her free time was devoted to reading. She liked to read British thrillers by Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's books - everything in Russian. Marina's heart was also for life and plants. She carefully nurtured the pots in her new home and devoted herself to caring for her house cats as well as the many street cats. She set up feeding stations and became a kind of branch of a veterinary clinic to treat injured or sick cats as well.

When he was just accepted into the kibbutz, Igor worked in the dishwasher in the dining room, and from there he moved to printing alongside Tsachi Gad in the dock department. He later joined the digital department and other departments. In 2021 he was appointed in charge of printing safety and was in daily contact with all the printing departments about their personnel. In recent years, he had developed a great curiosity, not to mention an obsession, for remotely poking through Russian digital archives that have been opened to the public. He researched the family's origins and put together a large family tree whose roots go back to the beginning of the 19th century. Katia, their daughter says: "Father's computer was saved in a fire and it contains a complete archive of the life that was."

In 2018, Marina and Igor moved into their new home in the Hakerem neighborhood. They had a cozy and tidy house full of books in Russian and the collections of Katya's childhood and youth. Igor planted fruit trees in the yard - mango and citrus. He measured the amount of the fruit crop every year and followed the data carefully. Katia testifies about her parents: "My mother was a very involved mother in my life. Very caring, sometimes even exaggerating her concern. I could also share personal things with her. She helped me at every stage of my life and I could trust her. My mother was a friend, a sociable and cheerful woman There is no one who did not receive her discreet and dedicated care. Everyone knew that she could be trusted." Everyone who knew Marina and met her will agree with Katya's words. Marina was a woman with bright eyes, who only wanted to give of herself and help. For every role she did, she poured her own pleasure, her desire to respect every person, and her endless love and devotion to the community.

"Dad was an introverted and quiet man. He didn't like to be in the center of things, but in the press he made good friends throughout his years of work. He loved life in the kibbutz, yet he missed Russian culture. As a father, he was very sensitive and emotional, and it was easy to catch him with a tear in his eye." He and Katya liked to watch Russian-dubbed cartoons together and assemble furniture. He was the handyman who knew how to fix and install anything and immediately responded to any call for Katia's help. Katya says that her parents made sure to teach her to read and write in Russian. They knew how to do this pleasantly and without pressure, and aroused her interest in the language, and gently exposed her, with the help of music and stories, to the classics of Russian literature. Her parents instilled in her the value of education, so that when the day comes she will have the independent choice to do what she loves and fulfill herself.

Ten days before the terrible Sabbath, they returned from a lovely vacation in St. Petersburg and brought to Kira many children's books in Russian, which survived the fire. "It's a shame they didn't postpone this vacation to Sukkot," Katia said to herself many times since then.

On Shabbat, the seventh of October, Katia was in contact with her parents until 10:00 in the morning. Marina managed to whisper on the phone that the terrorists were at home. Katya waited and hoped that they were injured... After two days, she came to the realization, which was confirmed after a week - that her parents were not alive. "We were a small family and we became even smaller. Now the kibbutz is my family and Dima's and Kira's. I will not be understood anywhere else."

Marina and Igor lived together for 35 years and of that almost 30 years in Be'eri.
Source: https://www.remember-beeri.com/