BIG READ April 2023 Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky: Deaf Ukrainians and Russians

Born in Kursk; became hard of hearing at age 3 due to ototoxic medicine. Completely deafened at age 11 by an accident. Attended the Kursk Residential School and graduated from Moscow #30 School for the Deaf (Mikaeljan). Attended Moscow State University of Technology, earning a master's degree in optical electronics and going to work as a researcher for the Soviet military industry. President of the Moscow Society of the Deaf; after the fall of Russian Communism, visited the U.S. in 1992. Earned a Ph.D. from the Moscow Academic Science Institute in 1993, and also studied at Gallaudet University, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and California State University, Northridge. Became manager of two companies that employed more than 70% disabled employees, qualifying them for special tax breaks from the government. Crime mafias took advantage of this, setting up deals with him for using his companies as covers for crime operations; he became wealthy as a result. When he fell out with one of the crime leaders, he was shot down by a gunman in the doorway of his Moscow apartment. As of 2001, his murder remained unsolved

Deaf in one ear. His illegitimate son, Alexander Machwitz (q.v.), was born deaf in both ears.

Born at Yanoschina, Poltava, Russia; emigrated to Manitoba, Canada in 1906. Bachelor's degree (1929), honorary M.A. (1950), and honorary LL.D. (1957) from Gallaudet College. Medal of Honour (1971) from the British Deaf Association; was associated with and held positions with the Western Canadian Association of the Deaf, the National Fraternal Society of the Deaf, the (U.S.) National Association of the Deaf, and the Gallaudet College/University Alumni Association. Married Pauline Nathanson Peikoff (q.v.) in 1932. The Peikoff Alumni House on the Gallaudet University campus is named in his and her honor.

Ruth Montgomery is a professional musician, teacher, workshop facilitator and visionary artist. As a classical trained musician with a passion for modern works, she also explores art, sign language, and visual media within the Deaf Community and features them in her current project titled Audiovisability. From the Gallaudet Biography Database: A "top flute player" said to have played with the St. Petersburg Phiharmonic and Moscow Symphony orchestras in Russia. Also taught music to children in Britain, and promoted music education for deaf children.

Born at Konigsburg, Prussia, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia); deafened at age 15 by spinal meningitis; after World War II, settled in Hamburg. Author of several books and many poems published in magazines..

At age 5, contracted an illness that blinded her and left her deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other. Orphaned as a girl, she went to an institute for the blind, where she lost her remaining hearing. A deaf-blind institute took her in, and its headmaster succeeded in teaching her to speak intelligibly and to give her a basic education. She attended the University of Moscow, graduating and becoming a researcher in the problems of the deaf-blind at the Moscow Institute of Defectology. Author of a book, How I Perceive and Conceive the World Surrounding Me (translated into several languages), and others on deaf-blindness. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000050228

Became deaf in adolescence. Attended the Arnol'd-Tret'yakov school in Moscow; taught there afterward, being a master of Russian grammar and of mathematics.

From the Gallaudet Biography database. Born in Wolznieu, Russia; deafness discovered at 6 months old. Family emigrated to Canada in 1901. Lutheran School for the Deaf in Detroit, MI 1902-1903, Manitoba Institution for the deaf 1903-1909. Amateur hockey playing began while in school, and recruited for the pros in 1911, first deaf professional ice hockey player. Vancouver Millionaires team 1911-1912, Victoria Aristocrats 1912-1914, MontrTal Wanderers 1915-1917 until injuries forced him out, although he also tried out for professional baseball in 1915. In 1916, married Mabel Agnes McKenzie. Died in Detroit of acute appendicitis.

Born in the Jewish shtetl of Delinkas in Russia; deafened at 10 months from a high fever, which also left his older sister Lillian hard of hearing. Both very briefly attended a nearby crude school for the deaf, but were pulled out. The turmoil of the Russian Revolution prompted the family to emigrate, first stopping over in Warsaw, Poland in 1920 and then to America in 1921. They settled in Fond du Lac, WI. Abe and Lillian both started in regular public schools, but Abe transferred at age 14 to the Wisconsin School for the Deaf, leaving there at age 21 with a vocational training in shoe repair. Married Hilda Nathenson in 1934. Established his own shoe repair shop in Madison,WI, and ran it continuously for 50 years right up to his death.

From the Gallaudet Biography database. Born deaf; attended the Petersburg Institute for the deaf. Taught deaf persons in many parts of Russia, most notably in Tsaritsyn (present-day Volgograd). His brother, also deaf, was Ivan Andreevich Burmensky (q.v.)..

Succeeded Igor Abramov (q.v.) as president of the All-Russian Society for the Deaf. Like Abramov before him, he was unwisely involved in Russian organized crime and was assassinated.

Born deaf; illegitimate son of Alexander I, prince of Russia, and Maria Antonovna Naryshkina, princess of Poland.. Father Alexander I was deaf in one ear.

Born in Oroshka, the Ukraine; deaf at 9 from scarlet fever; family emigrated to Canada when he was 11. Worked as a tailor; married Lena English in 1923. In 1949, opened an interior decorating business in Toronto. Active in the Jewish Canadian deaf community for many years as well as regional and national deaf organizations.

Won a total of 8 gold medals in hurdles for the Soviet Union in the 1965, 1969, and 1973 World Games for the Deaf and a silver in the 1977 WGD; also placed 5th in the 400-meter hurdles in the 1968 Olympics at Mexico City. Shot dead in a Russian bar, apparently from involvement with Russian organized crime.

From the Gallaudet Biograpy database. Born and grew up in Koningsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Forced out of his hometown by 1944 wartime bombing, his family managed to take refugee ships and trains to Rostock, Germany. He went to a boarding school in nearby Ludwigslust and soon learned that his parents had fled Rostock without him. Attempting to join them in the west, he was turned back by the Russians and went to Berlin instead. There, he lied to the American occupying army that his grandfather was American and that therefore he, Eugen, claimed American citizenship. This got him through the lines and he eventually rejoined his family in the little town of Gross Offenseth..

Considered one of the three great early pioneers of rocketry and space travel (with the American Robert Goddard and the German Hermann Oberth). Born at and lived in Kaluga, Russia; deafened by scarlet fever at age 10 or 12. Experimented with and wrote about rockets and space travel, winning renown and respect in the Soviet Union in the years before his death. A prominent crater on the Moon's far side is named in his honor. His surname is sometimes also transliterated from Russian as Tsiolkovski or Ziolkovsky.