The following text reached the editorial staff by mail in view of the approaching VictoryDay. We put the letter aside for some time. As soon as you finished reading it, you will understand why we did so. During the Great Patriotic War not all were fighting against the fascists. There were people who had no reason at all to hate Hitler. Why should they? They were neither Jews nor Russians, and they did not suspect that someone intended to wipe them out or make them become slaves. And all of a sudden these people assert claims against Stalin and the Communists – very basic claims, indeed – that even the first director of the Norilsk Combine, Abramiy Zavenyagin, stuck in the memory of the heroine of this report as a tyrant, who personally shot dead 5 – 6 individuals day by day.
We got acqauinted with Yadviga Vikentievna Malevich at the movie-house, where the Day of political prisoners was celebrated. One month later I visited her at home. We had a cup of tea, while she was telling me the story of her life.
… On the 6 August daughter Yadviga was born to the family of a rich landowner in Warsaw. They were well off. Vinsente, the father, was working as an engineer, while the mother took care of the house and children. Apart from the house in Warsaw the Malevichs owned the Bogucharovo country house in the surroundings of Baranovichi. Today this territory is situated in the western part of Belorussia; in those days, however, it still belonged to Poland. According to the words of Yadviga Vinkentievna, the family members lived in great harmony. The children early learned how to do business, run the house and manage money. Father and mother would not tolerate any lies and injustice. The punished their children severely for the slightest offence. The parents addressed eachother in the most formal terms and were always respecting eachother. Childhood passed as in a fairy-tale.
According to what Yadviga Vinkentievna said, they had a good life in Poland. At that time many people had no work, but those who wanted to live a normal life somehow managed to find themselves a job after all. Yadviga ikentievna says that capitalism is the best economic system she can think of. Nobody has to feel under an obligation to someone else, nobody is compelled to do what someone else wants him to do – there is the freedom of choice: if you work well, you will own a lot. If you do not, you will probably starve sooner or later. The state gave the people the possibility to stand on their own feet. The taxes imposed were not excessively high. The people paid them uncomplainingly and continued to pursue their work.
Electric teakettles, expensive dining-room accessories, tableware, magnificent oak furniture, pompous textiles and beautiful clothes were rather things of utmost necessity than luxory. Many people lived under similar conditions of life at that time. Yadviga attended the gymnasium, where she was taught foreign languages, history, philosophy, exact sciences, religion and economy. Since she was dreaming of becoming a surgeon one day, she dedicated herself very diligently to chemistry and biology, although she also studied languages very carefully. Todeay Yadviga Vikentievna is still able to speak Russian, Polish, Latvian and German.
Her fortunate childhood ended all of a sudden. In the autumnof 1939 the Second World War broke out; the family set off to Baranovichi, as they did not want to come under the influence of the fascists. A fatal coincidence. If they had stayed in Warsaw, all further incidents would have developed in an entirely different way. Yadviga Vikentievna believes in a stroke of fate. “One day, it was a Sunday, Mum and I returned home from church. An old man, a deaf-mute, dogged our footsteps. He came closer to my mother and then wrote down the following words on the ground: “Pani, permit me to foretell your daughter’s future and fate”. Mum offered him money, but he refused to take it. Instead, he drew a train on the ground first, then waves, symbolizing water, and finally – bars. He wrote with his walking stick that I would have a hard but long life, that I would bring up a son and that, towards the end of my life, everything would have come right again. Until today I very well recall his drawings to my mind. Mum did not believe his prophecies then. She was furious with the old man, for she could not know that everything he had tried to explain was to come entirely true.
***
The Germans occupied parts of the province of Warsaw, the Red Army crossed the border and took the territory of today’s West- Belorussia (which then belonged to Poland), among them Baranovichi. The people in proletarian Russia assumed an utterly hostile attitude towards the capitalists. “Chekists came rushing in our house, announced that our family would be transferred to Siberia – and then we had to pack our bare necessities within 24 hours. We were neither allowed to take along valuables nor money, just a couple of things mostly needed. Father did not survive this reverse of fortune. He died from a cardial infarct while sitting in his working room at the writing-table.
This circumstance, however, saved the whole family from exile; they did not have to leave Baranovichi, but were expelled from their house and lodged in a barn, which was actually intended as a cattle shed. “Having sent all those who owned houses or farms, who were more or less rich or well-off, to Siberia, the Russians began to populate the empty houses themselves. They just came up and lived there for about two years, as if they had boarded with us. This circumstance weighed heavilyon our minds, it reallybroke our hearts. They went around in our clothes, lived in our houses. The officers’ wives drove up. And we wore felt boots reaching up to our knees, quilted jackets and shabby caps. We all looked somewhat grey and dirty. And the children all in tattered and torn clothes, with careworn faces – a horrible sight”.
For a period of two years the town was in an entire chaos. It was quite common that officers left their wives in order to get married to Polish women. It wouild also happen very often that Russian men simply kidnapped Polish women to have them go with them. According to the words of Yadviga Vikentievna young girls and women were terribly frightened to walk in the streets. On the 22nd of June the Great Patriotic War broke out. Yadviga Vikentievna witnessed the falling back of the Russian troops.
“It is summertime. A warm day late in June. Mum saya: “Yadviga, get your bicycle and then go to town and see what happened to our property there”. I get on my bike and leave! As I come closer to the town I notice a true wall of dust; peaked caps bearing the Soviet star are thrown into the air; screams are heard, the screams of women and children – an the cursing and swearing of soldiers. I immediately understood that the Germans had arrived to chase the Russians away; I hid myself in the basement of our house. As soon as the situation in the streets had quited down, I went out again. I looked around. Gendarmes have meanwhile arrived; German soldiers are running about. They asked us, the ones who were left behind, to line up and then began to ask us, who we were and which nationality we had. And then they wanted to know, if any of us was able to speak German. I replied that I could. They proposed me to work for them as a translator. But I immediately refused on the grounds that ma mother and sister were in town, that I had to return home without delay and that my parents would never allow me to do such a job. Although these arguments probably sounded quite strange, they reacted somewhat normal, without insisting to have their suggestion realized”.
***
The fascists settled up with Russians and Jews in a most cruel way, whereby they seemed to have a high opinion of the Poles, particularly acting kindly towards those, who were working for them. After the arrival of the fascists the chaotic situation in town calmed down. We were forced to survive under these entirely new circumstances. Yadviga Vikentievna had to earn money. Mum was to take care of the house and children. Maria, the elder sister, always was in dreadful fear when leaving the house – she feared that they would mistake her for a Jewess. She ha d a few characteristics in her appearance, which made her resemble to Jewish people. She only went outside during the winter, dressed in a rain cape with a hood, which covered her dark, curly hair.
Yadviga Vikentievna was working for the military hospital as a medical assistant. She did her job well, the Germans were content with her. The woundedmen knew her well, they adored her and every now and then would slip a piece of chocolate into her hands. Chocolate was something strange, something from a different world. According to Yadviga Vikentievna’s words, her mother even used to cook soup from wood cuttings. When her daughter brought home chocolate, this meant a real festive occasion to them. Once, when they had nothing to eat at all, they went to bed deeply convinced that they would starve very soon. The next morning Yadviga went to work as usual, and when her shift was over, she went to the canteen to ask the cook: “May I help you with the peeling of potatoes?” – The cook agreed: “Go ahead, Hede (Hedwig; German for Yadviga; translator’s note), if you have time to do it”.
Well, I begin peeling potatoes as thin as I can, in order not to give cause to anybody to speak badly of me. And then I put the potatoe peels into my bag. The cook noticed it and said: “Hede, what are you doing there? If you don’t have enough to eat, then you have to let me know. I will always be prepared to give you foodstuffs to take along”. – This very day I got home very happily, with my bag full of potatoes, a loaf of bread and salt, which we had missed so much. Mum cooked a tasty soup. We were so happy. We took our meal, being hardly able to bwelieve that we were eating like human beings again – human food.
Later, we exchanged a coat against foodstuffs, although we almost had nothing to wear. We had sewn the coat ourselves – from a woolen blanket. Yadviga was working for the hospital. In the wintertime her sister would often come to meat with her. She was always dressed in a wide cape with a hood. One day Maria quickly takes off her cape, while I am making the bed. However, instead of three blankets I just put two of them below the sheet. I wrap the third blanket around my sister. She puts on her cape again, and nobody will notice the hidden blanket anymore. The officers on duty will merely check her bag and then let her pass”.
Thus, they lived on for another four years. According to Yadviga Vikentievna’s words, they lead a more or less normal and quiet life and never complained about their hard fate.
***
In 1944 Poland and Belorussia were liberated; Russian trrops marched into Baranovichi. On the 9th May they proclaimed the victory of the USSR over fascist Germany. On 25th May Yadviga was arrested and accused of having violated the political section 58 of the criminal code. They put her into prison in the city of Brest. A certain Natasha Kondrashova had denounced her in writing, fearing that Yadviga would inform the Russians of her unrestrained behaviour towards the fascists. Yadviga Vinkentievna was accused of having acted as the fascists’ accomplice.
In Brest she was at first sentenced to maximum penality – death by shooting. Later this penalty was amended into ten years of internal exile. Already in September she found herself in Norilsk.
***
In 1938, in April, the first director of the Norilsk Combine, Abraamiy Pavlovich Zavenyagin, arrived. The book “The Zavenyagin Formula”, which was written in 1985 by a certain M. Kolpakov and V. Lebedinskiy, describes this great man on more than two-hundred pages. I quote a statement made by the veteran N.F. Kartashov, as it is mentioned in the book: “He himself is the incarnation of highest culture, education, intelligence and wide technical reading. Though he was an authoritarian personality, he would never suppress someone’s independent acting or impose his will upon a person … He was a beautiful man – both from his outer appearance and at heart”.
The typically Soviet pattern used to describe this man, suited the State fine. However, Yadviga Vikentievna is not the only woman, who confirms in her statements that Abraamiy Pavlovich Zavenyagin was a true tyrant. This fact was also witnessed by a number of political inmates, who had the “opportunity” to cross his path. Under his rule people were shot at once for the slightest disobedience or just a single, entirely insignificant word of defiance. He always had a nagan pistol in the pocket of his jacket, and it would happen that he killed 5-6 men a day; he was feared and hated in the camp zone.
Today, Yadviga Vikentievna recalls those ten years of her camp life as the years of hell. In 1952 she was taken ill with scurvy. For reasons of vitamin deficiency. She refused to eat the soup they gave her , for it reminded her of dishwater; she did not eat fish, either. She ate nothing but oatmeal, porridge or millet gruel, as well as semolina (on public holidays only). The bread was always wet. “When you chew it, the water is leaking out and the bread itself turns into a tiny lump”. The prisoners used to dry the bread and then nibbled it like rusk. A parcel from her mother finally rescued her, for she had sent her onions and garlic. Yadviga Vikentievna rubbed her teeth, gums and feet with them and recovered after a short time. Many prisoners were saved from dying by Kremlin doctors, as well – such as Petukhov, Kuznetsov and medical officer Znamenskiy. And many people helped eachother, after all.
After Stalin’s death, life became a little easier. The bars in front of the windows were removed, the prisoners were permitted to take away the numbers from their clothes and move freely within the zone. They even bean to pay low wages for work. In March 1955 Yadviga was released. Immediately afterwards she got married and gave birth to a son, who was called Gennadiy. In 1958 she was among the very first, who received her rehabilitation. She went on a visit to Poland. Now she lives with her son and is dreaming of leaving Russia for her home country forever.
Recorded by Yelena SHARPAYEVA,
student of the 11th grade,
Secondary School No. 7
P.S. Yelena Sharpayeva’s paper is entitled “Are the Russians to reject communism?” – Unfortunately, we were unable to publish the text in full length, but we would like to point out that we are very fond of the author’s utterly reasonable train of thoughts: people should be able to rely, to always count on the State, which should give its citizens the possibility to earn money, thus enabling them to spend the last years of their life quietly (see above: in the capitalist pre-war Poland taxes were low).
The author is of the opinion that capitalism is the best structure a state can have; she is surprised at the blindness of her compatriots (although she does not condemn them), who until nowadays insistently vote for the communists. Yelena thinks that the Russians should reject communism, in order to avoid a repetition of a tragic fate such as Yadviga Malevich had to go through.
But there are millions of Russians, who did not happen to get into Stalin’s mincing machine. They will hardly accept the author’s viewpoint, for they wistfully recall the nostalgy of Stalin’s communist times. We, however, cannot accept the description of Ambraamiy Zavenyagin’s characteristics. Most of the written testimonies published in our newspaper at different times, describe the first director as an entirely different person, a man, who saved dozens and hundreds of people from being executed. Yes, he was, in fact, a man of the system, who did not always succeed in preventing harm. He could sign the order to shoot an individual for having committed an act of sabotage, a criminal offence. He was a severe man, but no tyrand at all. About hundreds of positive opinions about the first director of the Norilsk Combine (as well as one, two negative descriptions of his character) were put together and published in A. Lvov’s book “I am a fan of Norilsk”. More than half of the narrators are former prisoners of the Norillag.
T. RYCHKOVA
“Zapolniarnaya pravda”, 24 May 2000, N°. 75 (12313),
(Newspaper published in Norilsk).