Week 35, Off to Work: Naum's First Job

Week 35 of 2025's 52 Ancestor's Challenge is "Off to Work." My husband's grandfather began working when he was still a child.

Naum Kholmyansky always took pride in any job he was given, and he wasn’t afraid to work hard. He grew up in the city of Vitebsk, Belarus with his parents Genya and Girsha, sister Cilya, and his brothers Elizar, Zinoviy, Roman, and Zahar.  Naum, born in 1908, was one of the youngest children in the family.  The Kholmyanskys struggled financially.  His father Girsha worked as a messenger until the Russian Revolution, and then found work in a grain mill, while Genya stayed home to care for their six children.

Girsha was in failing health.  It normally fell on the shoulders of the eldest sons to help provide for the family, but by the early 1920s, at least one of his eldest sons was enlisted in the Red Army.  Young Naum stepped in and took up the slack.  He began working as a courier for the Orlovsk-Vitebsk Railroad in 1920 when he was just 12 years old.  This picture, which has been repaired, is from the original courier identification the railroad issued him when he was hired. 

As was the case with every job he ever took on, Naum excelled at the railroad.  The boy knew how to hustle, and before long he was promoted to the position of a clerk in one of the railroad’s district offices.  When the railroad laid some of their employees off at the end of 1922, young, unmarried people such as Naum were probably the first to be let go to spare the jobs of those with wives and children to support.  In many ways, the layoff was a good thing as he was able to go back to school, which paved the way for a much more exciting future career.