Brackman, Roman

Roman Brackman was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1931. In 1935 his father, an engineer, was imprisoned in Gulag camp near Dmitrov. As a boy Roman stayed for weeks with his father in the camp's barracks and saw the barb wire, watch towers and columns of prisoners going to and from work. He grew up during the Great Purges when many of his relatives were arrested and perished. He graduated from high school in 1948 and enrolled in the Moscow Oriental Institute, Arabic division, where for two school years he set next to Evgeny Primakov, one of the future Russian Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers.