Commemorating the 110th Birthday of V. P. Dzhelepov. “Had a Keen Interest in Everything”
The work was of a great importance for V. P. Dzhelepov and required a lot of power and efforts. However, he had a wealth of vital energy and love of life enough to share them with his family and friends and spend for hobbies.
Quoting the memoir by Irina Grigorevna Pokrovskaya, a secretary of Venedikt Petrovich…
“Venedikt Petrovich was happily married. He met Tatyana Nikolaevna (Zinovieva) in Leningrad in 1941, shortly before the outbreak of war. Ever since he had loved her tenderly and devotedly, and over all ten years he lived through after her death, he grieved deeply for her.
Till the 1980s, till his wife, having her position in Moscow, was retired, his mother-in-law, Anna Timofeevna, a straightforward, strict and reserved lady, who constantly lived in Dubna, kept the house. Venedikt Petrovich tenderly called her “aunt Anya”, they were good friends. The house was a paragon of cleanliness, order and hospitality, and the ambience was that of simplicity and sufficiency. The family stuck to moderate eating with the focus on Russian specialties – porridge of grains of every kind, cabbage soup, fish, fruit drinks, vegetables, milk. There is a nice genre picture coming up in my memory. Anna Timofeevna, sitting at the dinner table and strictly knocking with her forefinger-tip on it, said, “Venya, you are taking the third piece of bread.” Veniamin Petrovich did not feel hurt but did not put the piece back. And I am recalling for some reason this – the blinding sunlight flooded the dinner table on that day…
Guests were always welcomed. There were always a lot of them. They were regaled lavishly. A wealth of delicious things was baked and fried. Tea was served in an exquisite green porcelain set given as a wedding present to Nadezhda Ignatievna, Venedikt Petrovich’s mother. Manufactured at the beginning of the century, it safely endured all its turbulences, including the siege of Leningrad.
…The Dzhelepov couple enjoyed travelling during their vacation. I was fortunate to accompany them in such sightseeing trips across our wonderful motherland several times. How infinitely happy, extremely delighted, excited and charming was Venedikt Petrovich at that time! Nothing could upset him. It seemed that he had a powerful effervescent source of joy of being, the happiness to live, to love, to get to know, to communicate. He “tortured” tour guides with meticulous questions (to their great delight), easily made small talks with any local appearing in his vicinity who lit up with a smile immediately after the first address of Venedikt Petrovich, “Let me ask you, my friend…”. He was irresistible.”
