The late 1930's were a happy time for young Lia. Her family was together at last, living just outside Leningrad in the small village of Levashovo, and she was a young, bright, pretty student with hopes of studying at Leningrad State University when she finished secondary school.

She achieved her wish when she enrolled at the university in 1940, in the history department. Then, during her first year of studies, the family came in for a rude shock when her father, Naum Ilyich, was arrested at their home in Levashovo. When asked why he was arrested, Lia now responds dryly, "You don't ask that question in Russia. Nobody was arrested for anything sensible; people were just arrested. They didn't have to have a reason." Naum Ilyich was sent to prison in Leningrad, where he would spend most of the coming war years.

Lia plunged ahead with her studies, even as alarming reports of Nazi advances in Europe became more and more frequent. Stalin had signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in August of 1939, and so the USSR went about its business in the vain belief that Hitler would not violate the pact.

On June 22, 1941, the Nazis attacked Russia.