Born in the Saratov Region, ASSR of the Volga-Germans in 1930. Together with his parents he was deported to the Novoselovsk District, Krasnoyarsk Territory, in 1941. As from 1942 he lived under conditions of special resettlement in the Dudinka District, National Province of Taimyr. Fisherman and hunter. Lived for some time in the settlement of Levinskiye Peski
Our family was made up of seven persons; there were five children – three brothers and two sisters. My father was a fisherman. That is why they used to call him „Fisherman Schweizer“. After our arrival in Siberia they came for my father and my elder brother and mobilized both into the labour army. After the war my father succeeded to search us out; my brother, however, did not return from the trudarmy. He is missing.
I was just twelve years old at that time. At the age of thirteen I also began to go fishing and hunting. Hence I have been working for the „Yenisey“ sovkhoz as a commercial fisherman until I finally went on pension. I lived in the tundra together with the natives and learned to appreciate one of their typical dishes: „stroganina“ (uncooked, frozen fish).
From all our big family the only ones who are still alive nowadays are me and my sister; after she had finished her medical education, she was working on the public health sector for more than thirty years.
Recorded in the settlement of Levinskiye Peski in 1991