Burstyn (Burstin) (née Bulavko) Ida Ovseevna (16 August 1919, Daugavpils)
Profession: Teacher of German and Russian languages
Until 1933, Ida Burstyn retained Latvian citizenship. After marriage, she acquired Polish citizenship, which she changed to Soviet citizenship in 1943.
Her father, Isaac Bulavko (b. 1877), a native of Vilnius, was a merchant in Daugavpils. In the 1930s, facing financial ruin, he took out a substantial loan, the repayments of which had to be continued by his wife, Beile Bulavko (b. 1887), after his death in 1930. Isaac aspired to provide higher education for his children—Ida, Nathan (b. 1912), and Isaac (b. 1902). Consequently, after graduating from Daugavpils Secondary School in 1929, Ida moved to Prague to enrol in the Trade Institute.
In 1930, she transferred to a similar faculty in Vienna to enhance her proficiency in the German language. In 1933, she married Gersh Burstyn (b. 1903), a resident of Vienna. In 1935, their son, Alexander Burstyn, was born. In the 1950s, Alexander adopted the patronymic and surname of Ida's second husband, Viktor Levin (b. 1902). Until 1934, Ida resided in Vienna. From 1934 to 1938, due to the family's deteriorating financial situation, she lived in both Vienna and Warsaw, staying with her husband's sister, and made several visits to her parents in Latvia.
In 1938, Vienna was occupied by the Germans. Ida received information about her husband's death and, left without means of support, moved to Daugavpils. In 1940, she began working as a language teacher. At the onset of the war, she evacuated to the Uzbek SSR and continued teaching German. Believing her husband to be deceased, she remarried Viktor Levin (b. 1902), who gave his patronymic and surname to her son. In 1945, she returned to Latvia and worked in Riga as a freelance Russian language teacher.
Due to worsening eye sclerosis and thyroid disease in the 1960s, Ida was compelled to leave her job in the early 1960s.
Her first husband survived the Dachau concentration camp. Ida learned of his fate in the 1950s and sought permission to travel to Poland so that her son and first husband could reunite after a quarter-century separation. In 1962, she reapplied for permission to leave Latvia with her son and second husband.
Family:
Viktor Levin (b. 1902) – Second husband
Alexander Levin (formerly Alexander Gershevich Burstin, b. 1935) – Son
Gersh Burstin (b. 1903) – First husband
Nathan Bulavko (b. 1912) – Brother
Isaac Bulavko (b. 1902) – Brother