Zalkiṇd Kusiel (1901 – 1980)
Kusiel Zalkind was born on May 10, 1901, in Dagda, to a merchant family. His father’s name was Zelik, his mother’s name – Paya (née Rozings). After the death of his parents in 1903, he was raised by his uncle, in the family of linen merchant and landlord Karsavsky. In 1914-17 he studied at the Rezekne Commercial School, in 1918-19 – at the Pleskava Commercial School.
After graduating from the Ludza City Russian Secondary School in 1921, he began studying law at the University of Latvia, graduating in 1927. From October 26, 1927, he was an assistant to the lawyer E. Shenfeld in Karsava. In 1928, he was elected to the Karsava City Duma from the Bund list, in 1930 and 1931 he was elected from the Jewish United List, and was chairman of the Karsava City Duma (after the coup d'état of May 15, 1934, he was dismissed from his position). On February 26, 1936, he was removed from the list of assistants to lawyers. He worked as a secretary in the office of the lawyer E. Eveļson in Riga. From June 16, 1937, he was a lawyer in Daugavpils, and from February 1938 also in Karsava. In 1938-40, he maintained contact with the illegal Latvian Communist Youth Organization.
During the Soviet occupation, from August 1940, Kusiel Zalkind was a lawyer in Riga. In February 1941, he was enrolled in the College of Advocates and became a lawyer at the Riga 6th Legal Consultation. In June 1941, he evacuated to Russia. From August 1941, he was a lawyer in Galich, Yaroslavl Oblast, from December 1941, a lawyer and head of the Socialist Law Department in Leninogorsk, in the East Kazakhstan Oblast. In 1942-44, he was a lawyer in the 2nd Ulbastroysky District, East Kazakhstan Oblast. In May 1944, he was included in the lists of lawyers of the People's Commissariat of Justice of the Latvian SSR. After the second Soviet occupation, in December 1944, he returned to Latvia, was a lawyer at the Riga 1st Legal Consultation, from January 1945, a prosecutor in the Civil Law Department of the Latvian SSR Prosecutor's Office. From December 1945, he was a lawyer at the Riga 1st Legal Consultation, and later at the 3rd Legal Consultation. In June 1948, he was appointed a lawyer at the Riga 2nd Legal Consultation. In December 1948, by order of the Minister of Justice, he was expelled from the Bar Association due to disciplinary violations. He worked as a legal consultant at the Material Supply Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Riga, at the All-Union Highway Administration in Riga, at the Consumer Society of Fishers of the Latvian SSR, as a lecturer on the basics of Soviet law at the Riga Industrial Polytechnic Institute, at courses for improving the qualifications of chief accountants at the Riga branch of the USSR Statistics Administration training complex, and as a legal consultant at the stationary courses of the USSR Ministry of Training. In 1949, he graduated from the History Faculty of the Evening University of Marxism and Leninism of the Riga City Committee of the Latvian Communist Party. He was also a member of the Society for the Dissemination of Social Sciences.
In December 1954, he was denied admission to the Bar Association due to a lack of vacancies. In September 1955, he was reinstated into the Bar Association, becoming a lawyer at the Riga Third Legal Consultation. He died on May 29, 1980, and was buried at the Šmerli Cemetery.
In 1932, Kusiel Zalkind married the pianist Lyubov Yudkovskaya, and in 1943, he adopted Khesya Raykha Kosinskaya (born in 1936).