Klara Mikhailovna Eliseeva was a teacher for almost half a century.  No one will ever really know how many students she had, but without a doubt there were more than a thousand; however you measure it, a battalion or the army of a small European nation.  She infected many of her wards with her love and devotion to her profession, passing onto them the teacher's pointer, so many now continue her work.

In class, Klara Mikhailovna knew how to strike a balance between the demands of imparting knowledge to the students and warmth and respect towards them as persons.  This created a special climate in the relationship of student and teacher.  She was «tough, but fair», and so her students considered cutting her classes to be unworthy.

Klara Mikhailovna did not limit herself to the framework of the school program — her main subject was life.  Discussing eternal values, she strived to awaken within her students the «feeling of goodness», to know how to defend their arguments, to never be indifferent to injustice and the sufferings of others, since this makes a person spiritually richer, morally more pure and more humane. 

Her professional memory allowed her to remember all her students, and for each there was reserved a small corner in her large and kind heart.  Klara Mikhailovna was a «family» teacher; it was not uncommon for her students to include two or three generations of the same family.  Her wards, after fluttering away from school, would once again return in a new status: mothers and fathers of Klara's students, and then later, as grandmothers and grandfathers of students.  Klara was a member of these families, and together they would discuss the children's futures.

It was always comfortable and warm in Klara Mikhailovna's small apartment.  Her pupils knew that her door was always open, that someone was waiting and always happy to see them.  There would be «mini» meetings of classmates and evenings of family remembrances if both children and parents had both been Klara's students.

«The Meeting Place», as her house was known, was a magnet that attracted the students of Klara Mikhailovna from around the world.  Some hurried to gladden her with news of their families, others to talk about their achievements and successes at work, or to seek advice about problems with children, or simply just to share their impressions of premiers and exhibitions.

It seemed that there would always be that way, since, like it says in the movie series: «the Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed».  But, on October 26^th, 2002, «The Meeting Place» was changed — Klara Mikhailovna died during the gas attack on Dubrovka.

Her former student, Emilia Predova-Uzunova, a citizen of Austria, had flown to Moscow and had been to see her former teacher.  She invited her to see the musical ‘Nord-Ost', which was based on the novel ‘Two Captains' by Benjamin Kaverin.  The romantic narrative at Dubrovka ended in a monstrous tragedy: 57 hours of Hell and the ensuing storming of the building with a gas attack.  Klara Mikhailovna and Emilia never returned from the theater.

We, the students of Klara Mikhailovna, have different destinies.  Some have become physicians and engineers, others — teachers and musicians, or specialists in other professions.  We have different ages and abilities, but all of us are united by a feeling of gratitude towards Klara Mikhailovna.  She was able to implant within us the stable foundation of goodness and justice, devotion and decency, persistence, and the ability, as Kaverin's book states, «to fight and never give up!»

A low bow to our dear Klara Mikhailovna.  We will remember…

Written by her students.

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