Everyone in our family knew how to shoot, including my mother and sister. My father, who was an active officer in the KGB of the USSR, believed that everyone in our family should know how to handle firearms, just in case.
Due to certain internal requirements of his organization, my father and his colleagues were required to undergo regular training and periodically pass shooting exams. As a result, my father would accumulate a considerable supply of ammunition every three months, and we would organize trips to secluded yet picturesque locations, where we would practice shooting with his standard-issue “Makarov” pistol.
Sometimes we would venture into mountain gorges, while other times we would choose the banks of a river or a clearing in the woods. We often combined shooting practice with hunting. Despite that, my father never took the life of any animal or bird, but he enjoyed the process itself.
