Commemorative candle. The Taimyr Region during the years of political repressions. Memoirs
Born on the river Volga in 1927. In 1941 her family was deported to the Krasnoyarsk Territory, hamlet of Mikhailovka, Irbei District. In 1942 they were displaced to the Taimyr Region for permanent special settling. Today they live in the settlement of Ust-Port, Ust-Yeniseysk District.
Our father died in 1933, when we still lived on the river Volga. We arrived in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in a threesome: my sister Emma, our Mum and I. Mum was constantly ill. Eight months later they took as further to the north. This happened on the 1st of June 1942, but they only informed us about the planned transfer on May 30., 31. We spent a whole month on board a lighter, which followed the towboat „Molotow“. After everybody had disembarked in the settlement of Karaul, Ust-Yeniseysk District, we were assigned to the different fishing bases. 56 people, I was among them, got to the settlement of Nikandrovsk. Our Mum died in April 1943 – at the age of 45. My sister and I were left behind all alone; Emma was 18 years old at that time, I was 15.
In Nikandrowsk everybody began to suffer from scurvy. 45 individuals out of 56 stayed alive. 11 died during the very first winter, among them my contemporaries. One of the boys decided to run away in order to get back to his mother in Siberia; he perished by cold on his way home. During heavy snowstorms the girls contracted frostbites, one of them disappeared and was never found again. I worked as a fisherwoman, I felt a permanent pain in my legs. I was treated by means of a brew made from fir needles.
In 1947 about 20 people were required to go to the settlement of Ust-Port. They assigned me to work for a brigade of loaders with the fish cannery, where I had to fullfill all kinds of labour: plaster walls, potter about with a pickaxe, carry and cart coal. Here in Ust-Port I got married to Alexander Andreevich Zwetzich, who was also born on the river Volga; he was from a big family with many children. His mother died of childbed fever after having given birth to her tenth child. His father starved in the Taimyr Region in 1943. Being at the end of his tether, he wanted to trade the sewing machine in for some foodstuffs; however, he was so weak that he was unable to lift the machine. The children were brought up by the eldest sister.
Recorded in the settlement of Ust-Port in April 1991