In the early 1920s, Valya Arenberg left Tiraspol to study music at the Odessa Conservatory. At some point, she met Naum Tovbin, whom she married in 1927. At first, Valya and Naum lived in Kharkov and Kyiv.
Naum worked in Odessa from 1929 to 1934. Valya worked a little as an operator in a savings bank, as well as at a cooperage factory as a "worker", packing sweets. She was funny and witty, and she always had fans. The family had many friends, they often met, danced, listened to the CDs of Vertinsky and Leshchenko (these CDs were not officially sold in the USSR, since the chansonniers were emigrants, but people had their CDs and loved them for their romantic style), and also danced to the chanson Leshchenko.
In those years there was only a gramophone, so a person who could play the piano was valued and admired. Valya knew how to play classical music, but perhaps not very accurately, playing "con brio" (Chopin, Scriabin).
She also played and sang songs and dances that were popular at the time,
especially gypsy (or rather, pseudo-gypsy, which were very popular in the pre- and post-revolutionary period), such as "Ziganochka", "Troika", "Dear Bottom". Summing up, we can say that Valya was an "incendiary woman", kind-hearted, good wife and friend.
