«I have just moved in with him; I did not work and was busy with my daughter’s affairs trying to enroll her into a kindergarten on Vasilyevsky Island. Once he came home from work drunk as a skunk; he was drunk and aggressive. He turned on the music so loud that all our neighbors began to knock on the walls. My daughter woke up and started crying. I asked him to turn the volume down but he yelled –
«I don’t need your headphones!», «Who are you?», and «This is my house and I will do whatever I want!»
He came in to the kid’s bedroom and got a child out of her bed. I begged him to leave the child alone and talk to me in the other room. Then he grabbed my neck, pushed me against the wall, lifted me up, and started suffocating me. The daughter jumped out of bed; it was difficult for me to breathe but I tried to smile and repeated – «don’t be afraid, it is just a game».
Next I remember me sitting on the floor and the daughter crying next to me. He yelled that he would throw us from the balcony.
In the morning, when he fell asleep, we escaped from his house – I took only passport, birth certificate and two children panties with me. I stayed alone in a strange city with no belongings, no money, no shelter and with a little baby. I couldn’t do anything. 1.5 Months we lived in various places and only 4 months later I could express some emotions.
He sold my jewelry, destroyed my documents and belongings. I had to begin my life from scratch».
