Benjamin Brand is a doctor and journalist, born in Poland, from which his parents and their children fled from poverty and anti-Semitism to the Soviet Union. Like many representatives of his generation, Brand became a witness and participant in events that had a fatal impact on the fate of Soviet Jews. Studying at the Jewish school of Kharkov, the first capital of Soviet Ukraine, participation in Jewish literary life, meetings with Jewish writers and poets led Brand to a journalistic technical school, after graduating from which he left for Birobidzhan. Having received a second, medical education, he did not stop writing and publishing in Jewish press - in the newspaper “Birobidzhaner Stern”, in the magazine “Sovetish Heimland”. The book of memories “From the Past” was conceived by the author as a document of family history. But thanks to rich language and the gift of a storyteller, vivid meetings with the most famous Jewish writers and poets, it has become a historical testimony, important not only for the family. The publishing layout of the book is preserved in PDF A4 format.