ABSTRACT
I was acquainted with Yakov Borisovich for more than 20 years, and was his undergraduate student, postgraduate research student, and then colleague. It seems to me that any attempt to reconstruct in detail his multifaceted and contradictory image is inevitably doomed to failure. First, there is a great danger of subjective evaluations. Second, 20 years is a long time, during which any person can change a lot, all the more so that time affects one’s memories. Third, it is very difficult to separate the influence of circumstances and history on the behaviour of a person from that person’s nature. Therefore, I will not even try to lay out my many memories. My most vivid remembrances of Yakov Borisovich are associated with him as a teacher, whose talent and charm determined my entire life’s course, for which I will always be infinitely grateful to him.
