Juliana Samoilo-vich, wife of the commander of the ice breaker Krassin which rescued General Nobile’s crew, stated in an interview with the representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that her husband’s name is Reuben, not Rudolph.
Born in Azov in 1880, the son of Lazar Samoilovich, Orthodox Jewish merchant of Rostov, Reuben was compelled to study in Germany because of Jewish educational restrictions in Russia.
He became an engineer, returning to Russia in 1908. After investigating coal deposits in the far north for a private concern, he decided to devote his life to scientific study of the far north. For some time before the war Samoilovich represented the German General Electric Company of Petrograd. He is now a professor at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute and is also a director of the Institute of Northern Studies.
Madame Samoilovich, the daughter of an army colonel, met Samoilovich in 1912. At first her father objected to her marrying a Jew, but later consented, stipulating that the ceremony take place in the Russian Church. The Samoilovich family objected to this but were later reconciled and the marriage, took place.
In recognition of his rescue work, Samoilovich has been nominated a candidate of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has two children, a boy and a girl, whom he is educating at home.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
