Chronology

The dated spine of the family record, 1907 to 2025.

• 7 Feb 1907Mark Lvovich Babad born, Soroca, Bessarabia.
• 30 May 1907Zinaida Lazarevna Finkelshtein born.
• 1925Mark crosses to Soviet territory.
• 1926Mark briefly under GPU investigation. Released under "fourteen points and amnesty."
• 1928 — Jun 1934Mark in BELKOM (Bessarabian communist youth organization, identification still uncertain).
• 1933–34Mark, briefly: Krasnoyarsk Aviation Repair Plant.
• 1934Zinaida graduates Moscow Conservatory. Mark and Zinaida marry.
• c. 1936–37Mark at Kyiv Aviation Factory No. 43; concurrent academic role at the All-Ukrainian Institute of Structures; preparing doctoral dissertation. Zinaida teaches at Kyiv Conservatory.
• 1937The catastrophe.
• 20 Oct 1937Resolution opening investigation, signed in Kyiv. Espionage-on-behalf-of-Romania charge already named.
• 23 Oct 1937Search and arrest at the Kyiv apartment, under NKVD Order 00485 (Polish Operation, extended to Bessarabian Jews and "foreign-element" categories).
• 24 Oct 1937First interrogation. Lieutenant Kaminsky, NKVD UkrSSR.
• 4 Nov 1937Handwritten confession signed.
• 23 Dec 1937Sentenced to death by the "Two" under Protocol No. 72.
• 19–20 Jan 1938Mark Lvovich Babad shot at midnight in the basement of the NKVD UkrSSR internal prison on Institutska Street, Kyiv. Age 30.
• 28 Jun 1938Lidia Finkelshtein born, Moscow. Five months after her father's death.
• 3 Nov 1940Zinaida writes Lavrenty Beria — four-page letter — asking for the return of her seized grand piano.
• 1940Stamps in the case file: "joined to file in 1940" — possibly a reference to Zinaida's letter materials being merged in.
• 25 Apr 1958Posthumous rehabilitation issued. 1937 sentence annulled.
• 14 Jul 1958Military Tribunal of Kyiv Military District enters its findings into the case folder.
• 1962Re-registration in some later inventory.
• late 1972Alex Mark Abramovich born, Moscow. Carries Mark's name.
• Jun 1976The family emigrates — Lidia, Igor, Alex (age 3½) — leaving via Vienna. Annika Bäckström meets them in Vienna with an avocado.
• 1976Lidia publishes in Sion №16 (Tel Aviv).
• 1977Lidia publishes in Kontinent №14 (Paris). Lidia begins teaching at the University of Pittsburgh.
• 1978Lidia full-time instructor at Pittsburgh; PhD dissertation in progress.
• Nov 1978Lidia travels to the Philippines for spiritual healers (ovarian cancer). Reports herself cured. Alex in the Bonner-Yankelevich household, Newton, MA.
• Spring 1979Relapse.
• 22 Jan 1980Andrei Sakharov exiled to Gorky.
• c. 22 Feb 1980Lidia writes the "month has passed" essay on the Sakharov exile — her last surviving piece of writing. Seven months before her death.
• 26 Sep 1980Lidia dies, Glen Cove, NY. Age 42.
• 26 Sep 1981Zinaida dies, Moscow. Exactly one year, to the day, after Lidia.
• 28 Aug 2019The case file certified for permanent custody by ЦДАГО, Kyiv. Chief Specialist I. V. Yankova.
• post-2019Family obtains the case file.
• 28 Dec 2025Igor Abramovich dies, New York.
• 11 May 2026Family Letters working translation, v3.
• May 2026Combined Volumes (case-file working translation, paleographic + procedural recheck).
• 15 May 2026markbabad.com registered. This site begun.

All dates sourced to the case file or the family correspondence; uncertain dates are marked "c." or written as a range.