News
About
FAQ
Exile
Documents
Our work
Search
Ðóññêèé  Deutsch

... Living history in the immediate vicinity

Olesia Igorevna Guseva
Krasnoyarsk Territory, Turukhansk District, village of Vereshchagino,
Municipal School of general education, Vereshchagino
7th term
2006

Each generation tries to understand and explain the past by means of values defining their relation to the world which surrounds them nowadays. There is a process of revaluation of the events that took place in Soviet history. Soviet historiography just tacitly evaded to mention occurrences such as the resettlement of entire people. At present, this topic attracts a wide circle of people. Numerous eye witnesses and participants in historic incidents are still alive, and I will therefore try my very best and do everything in my power to record their memories, so that we have the chance to keep them forever.

I am personally interested in this subject matter, because many resettlers live in our little village. The fate of Mirza Yulevna Distergeft (Diesterhöft?) affected me most of all. I intended to receive answers to specific questions, such as: how did Mirza Yulevna succeed to survive and keep her human dignity in spite of the difficult conditions prevailing during the war, in spite of repressions, hunger and the general decay of the country at post-war times? How did people make friends at that time, how did they make love, bring up children and organize their daily life? I wanted to trace and relate the fate of individuals to the history of their native country. Thus, I asked her to assist me. She told me about her life and put several documents at my disposal, which I was able to make use of for my research work.

List of documents:

1. Birth certificate. I was confronted with the difficulty that this document was issued in Lithuanian.
2. Copy of the birth certificate. Russian translation. One of the most important
documents providing information about the family, their social situation, nationality,  religious denomination,etc. Most likely it is the most important document.
3. Employment records (“work-book”). It contains information about the different  work places, steepening incentives and certificates of honour.
4. Receipt about the payment of the agro tax. It shows the amount of tax paid, the year  of payment and the beneficiary.
5. Certificate about the bestowal of a medal (veteran of labour).
6. Certificate about her being nominated veteran of the Krasnoyarsk territory.

The documents mentioned under points 5 and 6 provide information about Mirza Yulevna Distergeft’s merits.

In all, six documents were put at my disposal for the present research.

During the past years a number of research findings have come to the surface, which explain the problems with regard to the annexation of the Baltic republics to the Soviet-Union. Some authors confirm that after the outbreak of World War II these countries were petrified that they might be conquered by Germany; hence, there was no way out but to close an agreement with the USSR about mutual assistance. Others point out that the Soviet power was very interested in these territories for strategic reasons. Apart from this they expressly mention that the German-Soviet agreements predetermined the fate of the Baltic States. In May 1940 Red Army troops were stationed scattered on the territory of the three Baltic States (67000 soldiers), which exceeded the number of soldiers of the Baltic forces. In July 1940 the USSR People’s Commissariat of the Interior accused the Baltic countries of showing a hostile attitude towards the Soviet garrisons. As it was impossible to ask the West for help and support, the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were forced to tolerate the invasion of more troops of the Red Army to their territory.

On the 21 July 1940 the Seim, the Latvian people’s parliamant commenced operations. On its first session they raised the question about the state power in Latvia. It was decided to form a Soviet government in the country and annex the territory to the Soviet-Union.

In August 1940 Lithuania was annexed by the USSR, as well. When she was asked about whether life in Lithuania changed after the annexation, Mirza Yulevna replied:” There were no changes at all”.

In spite of a few partcularities with regard to its development ( maintenance of small private enterprises and a small number of individual farms), Lithuania rather quickly followed and adopted the administrative command system. And this was when the began to implement repressive measures and sanctions against the “enemies of the people”. One of the reasons for these repressions, which touched the Lithuanians to the quick, was that the Stalinist rulers considered this people to be the “breeding ground” of espionage and complicity.

Late in May 1941 Mirza Yulevna’s family was deported from Lithuania:

During the deportation, on their way to Siberia, and in the first years of their resettlement, when adequate dwellings were not available, thousands of people starved or died from serious diseases.

Two out of five members of a family managed to survive – in other words: 40%. Mirza Yulevna lived in the Latvian Republic, Lipaisk County, on the Rava Estate. There they had a farm: 8 cows, 3 horses, 7 sheep, a couple of pigs, chickens, ducks, etc. Wageworkers were not employed . They were forced to leave the house, all their property behind. They were just allowed to take a few personal belongings with them.

This is what Mirza Yulevna recalls about the resettlement: “From our farm (Rava Estate) to the station we went by bus, and then continued our trip by train. We had just passed the Latvian-Russian border, when the war broke out. My father – Yuliy Ludvigovich Distergeft – was mobilized into the labour army. Since then he is missing. We never heard of him again”.

The repressed persons were not informed about which place they were taken to. Once having been separated from one’s family members, it was later difficult to find each other again. The general state of war and the evils attendant on war got worse.

“They took us to Klyukvino Station near Krasnoyarsk by train. They ordered us to get off the train and then assigned us to different villages. Our family got to the village of Mala Kamala, not far from Kansk. We lived there for about one year. During this time we had to bury our grandma. The heavy burden of the resettlement, the sudden separation from the native country had left their marks on her. Those, whose had elder children, were sent to the very north to work for the fishing industry. This, in 1942, we got to the village of Markovo in the Turukhansk District. Our elder sister Natasha also died, due to hard living conditions and malnutrition; she was only 15 years old. In the village of Vereshchagino they were in need of people to work for the fish cannery. They took us there by boat. This was in the summer of 1943. We have been living there down to the present day. Mum died in 1972. She had been working for the Sverdlov kolkhoz farm since 1944. We were not only engaged in fishing, but had to supply firewood, as well. 6 km from here, upstream (river Yenisey), there was a little log cabin, where we used to lumber. 16 men sawed the tribes into pieces, so that they could be removed by steamers. At that time two steamships were going regularly – the “Maria Ulyanova” and the “F. Engels”. Two months in succession we were producing firewood – and we did this by means of a little handsaw. Our daily bread ration was 700 grams. The first time after the war, 1946-1947, it was especially hard to survive. During this time they would give is just one loaf of bread for the whole week, and in case it did not satisfy our hunger, we were free to provide ourselves with fish which we were to catch ourselves.

After the war, labour conditions were very hard, too. Manual work was prevailing. Wages amounted to 40 rubels per month”.

A receipt has been retained about the payment of the agro tax. It was issued on the 4 November 1949. We can learn from this document that the tax amounted to 15 rubels per year. According to my calculations this came up to 3,1% of the annual wage. The receipt was issued in the name of Neiza Distergeft, for she was the head of the family at that time. The receipt is teeming with mistakes, from which we can derive the low level of education and orthography among the clerks and officials of the local authorities and even the general stage of development in the country in general. In 1964 the Sverdlov kolkhoz farm was renamed into North Turukhansk State Industrial Enterprise, as a consequence of Decree N° 2 of the 25 September 1964. The director’s name was Barfolomeev.

As of the 11 November 1964 until the 1 April 1982, Mirza Yulevna was working as a milkmaid for the North Turukhansk Industrial Enterprise: “We had to milk all the cows by hand; apart from this we had to feed them, supply them with water and clear out the dung. In 1952 son Aleksander was born. When he began to work for the farm he was already 12 years old. He became my most reliable assistant at work”.

Mirza Yulevna repeatedly received thank-you letters and certificates for an efficient performance on her job. Instruction N° 22 of the 4 March 1977, Instruction N° 18 of the 17 March 1978.

She is in possession of a certificate which mentions her as a veteran of labour. It was handed over to her on the 15 November 1978 marking her assidious labour of many years. The decision to honour her by this certificate was made by the Executive Committee of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Council of the People’s Deputees.

She is a veteran of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and is entitled to demand privileges and benefits, which are defined in Section 4 of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Law “About Veterans of the Krasnoyarsk Territory”. She is in possession of a certificate of unlimited duration, which is valid everywhere on the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The document bears the signature of N.B. Yaryzhnov (4 January 2002).

After the Baltic States had been annexed to the USSR they began to perform repressions against the population living in the acceding territories. Thus, Mirza Yulevna’s family, was resettled from Latvia to Siberia. Under Stalin’s rule they were resettled forevermore, without having the right to return to their previous place of residence.

Formally, the Letts were considered as special resettlers; they were promised substantial support and financial compensation, as well as assistance with the organization of everyday life in the new locations. The bureaucratic machinery even orginated a whole series of corresponding assessments of costs, calculations and instructions. However, as eye witnesses report, nobody bothered to realize them. Meanwhile the deportees had been taken away more than 90% of their personal and collective property, that is to say they were, as a matter of fact, completely deprived of their possessions and belongings.

Life within a sane, inveterate village community welded the people together. For that reason it was impossible to put up individual resistence to the state power. The stamp of repression was deeply imprinted on the moral atmosphere of the country. Everybody knew, what he was free to say and which expressions were obviously dangerous. People’s own initiative, their sense of responsibility got completely lost. Their daily needs and their living standard converged; they got to one and the same level and generated workers without characteristic personality.

Mirza Yulevna’s family deemed it best to go along with the situation tacitly instead of swimming against the stream. “Be that as it may, come hell or high water”. Having arrived in Markovo Mirza Yulevna turned out to be a “stranger”, a “nonnative”. Which are the criteria to correctly define the terms “belonging to us”, “ours” and “strangers”?

The attitude of the state and local residents towards the newcomers, the “strangers”, differ from eachother. The state was uttery interested in the “strangers’” mindset towards the powers and their political views. For common people, however, their nationality, religion and the place they came from seemed to be of vital importance.

Analysing the copy of the birth certificate:

As for the social position of Mirza Yulena’s family we can say that they were peasants. Her father had the German nationality, her mother was Latvian. Their creed was Lutheran (Protestant-Christian). Why did Mirza Yulevna adopt the Latvian citizenship? Maybe the reason for that lies with the fact that her relations with Letts were better than her contacts to Germans:

“The local residents of the village of Markovo misbehaved towards us, they were unfriendly. In all intents and purposes they were rather beastlike. They did not talk to us, but were whispering behind our backs all the time, insulting us, saying swear words. It became clear very soon that they were not willing to assist us with the organization of our life in the new location.

It was only too well that it was summer then – the time when you usually prepare firewood for the winter, bild up stocks of various kinds of food and get ready to sew winter clothes. No wonder that they did not make friends with any of the locals that very year. In the summer of 1943 they sent us to Vereshchagino. There we were well received by the inhabitants, although they had not even expected us to come. They gave us foodstuffs and money and housed us. They gave us a hand as best as they could. We soon became good friends with the families of Nikita Andreevich Kucherenko and Arnold Arnoldovich Zhersh”.

On the 8 January 1945 the passed the Decision of the Council of the People’s Commissars N° 35 “About the legal position of the special resettlers”; it had been signed by the chairman of the Council of the People’s Commissars of the USSR – Molotov – and the chief of the Business Department of the Council Of USSR People's Commissars – Y. Chadeev (The History of the USSR, Moscow, “Science”, 1992, N° 1). According to the resolution the special resettlers were to receive equality under public law, just as all the other citizens of the USSR; however, they remained restricted in their freedom of movement. In actual fact, their basic civil and political rights were violated.

In case someone removed without official authority, he was prosecuted and called to account. The had of the family was expected to denounce the other family members. Upon violation of the current regime and breach of the public order they were imposed a fine in the amount of 100 rubels – an enormous sum for the circumstances prevailing at that time.

On the 25 February 1956 Khrushchev held a speech on the 20th party congres “About the personality cult and its consequences”. Soonafter they began to rehabilitate the victims of repression, who were now allowed to return to their previous place of residence. When we asked Mirza Yulevna: “Didn’t you want to go back to your native place?” – she replied just in a few words:” We would have liked to! But we had no money”. –

The ability to take life as it was helped Mirza Yulevna to survive, to overcome all the hard conditions. “Generally speaking, I am quite content with my life. Ich could even have married for the second time, but with regard to my son I abstained from doing it. At present, my son, my daughter-in-law and my grand-children are taking care of me. Now we are in a position to leave this place, but not for the life of me I would go back to my homeland”.

Mirza Yulevna has been working all her life, never twiddled her thumbs. She always tried her best not to excel at the local residents. Siberians are a harsh people, and people with a weak disposition will fail to hold out against them. Mirza Yulevna learned to countervail against them and finally become accepted. The whole purpose of her life was – work. By demonstrating an unfailing diligence she was able to defeat her being a “stranger” and become “one of them”. Important qualities, such as diligence and respect, she imparted to her son, as well. He has been occupying the post of a mayor of the settlement for more than 10 years. Mirza Yelevna’s family, former special resettlers, have become true locals.

Nowadays the history of passed centuries has already been researched quite well, but no matter how intensely people study events and contexts, they will not succeeded to learn every single detail. But there still are people who are able to report about the past. They live in our immediate vicinity – just regular, simple people. Mirza Yulevna Distergeft is one of them. She was a witness of those times, when the guns were roaring, when people were torn away from their parents’ house and deported to unknown, inhospitable regions. By means of her Mirza Yulevna’s memories, we relive the history of the past. She told us a lot, and you do not need to make use of any time machine to learn about the past, for we find LIVING HISTORY IN OUR IMMEDIATE VICINITY.

Many victims of repressions demand tax and other benefits theyx are entitled to, receive financial compensation, dispose of privileges in line with the “North-South” Removal Programme; Mirza Yulevna Distergeft does not. WE FEEL A LOT OF SYMPATHY FOR HER. There are people, family members who do not make a living from anything, but she is used to live her life by rolling up her sleeves and getting to work, without troubling anyone for anything.

I tried to understand the tragic pages of the modern history of our native country by studying a concrete human fate. I held conversations with a woman, who witnessed the period of repressions and resettlement. During the interviews with Mirza Yulevna I got many replies to touching questions. I listened to her memories, to what she recalled from the 1940s till the 1970s. I copied some of her personal documents and papers, which I later used to write this article. During the rule of the Soviets millions of peole were affected by deportations. The subject of the resettlements has not been sufficiently researched yet. Due to the fact that a few former resettlers live in our settlement, I decided to make a contribution to the fact finding and systematic study of the historical events in question.

During my research work I came across the following problems:

Which positive effects did this paper leave with me?

  1. I had to learn about how to write a research paper, and the knowledge I acquired,  the experience I gained, will help me with future studies.

  2. By studying the concrete fate of just one person, it was easier for me to learn and  understand the history of the 20th century.

  3. I learned how to prepare a list of questions and how to interview people; and I acquired means and technics of how to record material supplied during an  interview.

In the beginning I was just interested in the subject, but in the course of this work my interest became TREMENDOUS. I am sure this will not be the only paper of this kind.

Bibliographical references

1. V.I. Vinogradov. “The History of the USSR in Documents and Illustrations (1917-1980)”.
Moscow, “Illumination” Publishers, 1981, p. 149. Documentary material about the
epoch researched.
2. V.V. Chagin. “Polar Horizons”. Krasnoyarsk, Book Publishers, 2000. Contains material about repressions.
3. “Questions of History”. Moscow, TOO”Sashko”, N° 10. Confidential Instruction of the  Counsil of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the VKP (B)  dated the 21 August 1937 about the deportation of peoples.
4. “The History of the USSR”. Moscow. “Science” Publishers, 1992, N° 1. Documents about the aftereffects of the people’s deportations.
5. History of our Native Country. Moscow, “Science” Publishers, 1993, N° 6. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet about the resettlement of the Germans.
6. “History and Social Studies at School”. Moscow, “School Press” Publishers, 2005, N° 7, “About the annexation of the Baltic States to the USSR”.

Home