Abram Mikhailovich Tsesis

Abram Mikhailovich Tsesis, Captain of the Soviet Army, was born in Starokonstantinov, Volhynia, then part of the Russian Empire (today, Starokostyantyniv, Ukraine), on May 9, 1908. His father was an itinerant melamed and his mother, a housewife. Abram Mikhailovich was the youngest child in the family. Of eleven children, Abram Mikhailovich and his two brothers Aron and Semyon were the only three to survive to adulthood; his other siblings succumbed to various illnesses, due in part to poor living conditions. He received his formative education at a traditional heder and public school. In 1926 he graduated from a commercial trade school in Polonnoye (today, Polonne, Ukraine).  In 1930 he married Sarra Tsesis, and the couple's first child,Michael (Moshe), was born in 1932.

As a specialist in retail commerce, he worked as an administrator in various positions in the Ukrainian National Socialist Republic.  In 1939 he became a junior lieutenant, and together with the Soviet Army, entered territory that would later become the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.  On June 22, 1941, the first day of Germany and Russia's engagement in World War II, a younger son Vladimir was born to Tsesis and his wife.  Now a regular military officer, he was sent to fight on the war front, while his wife and children fled to Andizhan, Uzbekistan, where they remained until the end of the war.  During most of the Second World War, Tsesis served as a quartermaster of the Special Pontoon and Bridges Battalion at the Northwestern Front.  On May 9, 1945, in Latvia, he celebrated victory along with his military unit, over Germany.  By the close of World War II, Tsesis was a senior lieutenant, and thereafter, was promoted to the rank of a military captain. Captain A. M. Tsesis received several military honors, including the Order of the Red Star, the Medal for Combat Services Merits, and the Gvardeyskiy Badge.

Following the war, he, his wife, and children settled in the province of Leningrad.  After being demobilized from the Soviet Army in 1947, Tsesis and his family relocated to Beltsy (today, Balti, Moldova), where he held various administrative positions and worked primarily as the head of a textile production company.  He died in Beltsy in 1975.  In the 1970s, his children and their respective families immigrated to the United States, where they continue to reside today. He was survived by his sons Michael and Vladimir, and grandchildren Anna, Alexander and Claudia.