We continue to tell the stories about the fates of our compatriots, who had to go through years of political reprisals under Stalin’s rule. Not long ago we visited the district town of Norilsk. The delegation was headed by Svetlana Fedorovna VELIGUROVA. She comes from a family the members of which were deprived of their liberty wrongly. Nowadays she does not only occupy the post of the deputy head of the District Administration of Social Welfare, but also holds the position of the deputy chairman of the Dudinsk “Society for the protection of victims of illegal political reprisals”.
Svetlana Fedorovna has been trying to reconstruct the history of her family from tiniest fragments.Her mother, Frieda Romanovna, departed this life last summer – she had been staying on the Taymyr Peninsula for her whole life. She never decided to go back to her home village of Blumenfeld, from where they had deported away by escorted transports not only her family, but many other Volga-German families, too… . During the first year of the war they were living on the banks of the river Yenisey,in wretched hovels and miserable conditions for about two months, before the authorities began to remove them in small groups further to the north by barges and have them settle in various scattered places.
Svetlana Fedorovna’s grandmother and her six children came to the settlement of Nikolskoye. In 1943 the learned that the head of their family had been killed in the labor army. They had to build themselves a hut on the bare riverbanks. Immediately after their arrival they were assigned to work for the fishing industry and hunt partridges – they were asked to fulfil the norm. Upt to that time, however, the exiles had lived in the steppe, so that it was now utterly difficult for them to stay alive under these new, completely different conditions. The only brother of Svetlana’s mother was seriously injured when felling a tree …
In 1948 Frieda, who was now 24 years old, and a group of other young persons decided to walk over the ice of the frozen Yenisey to Dudinka to look for a job. Thus, she served her sentence – three years in a women’s camp. During this time, Svetlana’s mother became acquainted with her father to-be … Svetlana Fedorovna does not really know much about him: he was sentenced on section 58, after Rokosskskiy’s army had been encircled. They sentenced him to 10 years of deprivation of freedom. he served his sentence in a camp in Dudinka, beyond the polar circle. He stayed in Dudinka for the rest of his life. He died 20 years ago. Until now his family does not know, whether he ever received his rehabilitation, for until 1985 people were not used to talking about repressions. Until then Svetlana did not even have the faintest idea of what her parents had gone through! … Later, a lot was written about the GULAG, journalists would frequent their house, and step by step Frieda began to recall … how, in 1950, before giving birth to a child for the first time, she had been released early. She remembered, how she had been waiting for her husband to come back from prison, how she had been working on a pigs’ farm and later for the railroad line. They were not allowed to leave the place. In those years, Fedor lost all contacts with his relatives, although his parents and his five brothers were still alive. However, he was supposed to go to the continent (the territory which is situated on this side of the polar circle; translator’s note) with his family in 1960 only.
I asked Svetlana Fedorovna, whether she was insulted and vituperated in her childhood, after the people had become aware of the fact that sdhe came from a family of “enemies of the people”.
- Some repressed Germans recall that they were deeply insulted, but I was not affected by such an attitude. erman was not spoken in our family. In case mum wanted to speak “her way” she would usually visit her relatives. My cousins, however, were called fascists at school.
- Svetlana Fedorovna, since long I have noticed that women, who went through camp detention and exile appear to be much stronger and also live longer than men. Sometimes their self-control, endurance and tenacity, their efforts to show their moral fiber are impressing and simply much to be envied …
- Proceeding on the number of people we can see that almost no men of this age group remained among the living. It looks as if women turned out to be much stronger in mind. Apart from this – women drink less alcohol. For lots of men, who went through political repression finally died, because they were addicted to alcohol. Many war participants also died quite early, because they had become heavy drinkers.. On the other side, the kind of hard experience they had to go through, often gives people such a physical and moral strength, hardens them in such a way that many of them live very long yet. One of the rehabilitated men here is Walter Yevgenevich SCHMIDT, born in 1925. He is the only survivor, the only one of those, who happened to get into the labor army, when they were boys. About 250 inhabitants of Dudinka, including children, suffered as victims of political reprisals, but their number is decreasing year by year … In former times theire was a German choir – my mother was one of its members. She was enthusiastic about singing German songs. The relations with
like-minds also contributed its share to the fact that she lived longer than many others did. The representatives of my generation have no command of the German language anymore, and they do not have the wish, either. We are entirely russified. Maybe, this is not the right attitude. But I have never been to Germany, I do not even half feel as a German. I think I am100% Russian.
- And what do you gernerally do with the commemoration of the the dead in Dudinka?
- There is a special area on the old cemetery. Two crosses were put up in this place – a German and a Finnish one. On the Day of Memory we usually go there with a delegation of people advanced in age, loay wreathes, light candles, and the women will read out prayers in German in commemoration of the dead. Moreover, we arrangefor a divine service to be held in the orthodox church. Unfortunately, we do not dispose of a memorial, although this issue is already being discussed. But we lay flowers at a memorial stone, which was put up in 1992 – as a mark of some future memorial to be erected in this place to the honour of the victims ofpolitical reprisals. It is planned to put it up right in the center, opposite the museum building. Some time ago, Khloponin allowed the su of 100.000 rubels for this project. Private people collected about 25.000 rubels. However, we are still in lack of a concept and detailed drafts – this is probably too expensive. Three years ago this issue was of topical interest; unfortunately, nobody took part in the tender. Thus, the whole matter came to nothing. Maybe, the reason lies with the lack of solidarity in our society, as well, which make people take less initiative.
- Do you work with children and young people, too?
- Practically, we don’t. I do not know, whether they offer special lessions at school, for ….
the war participants … . We mainly offer courses for the social support of old people. Theoldest woman among the local victims of political reprisals was born in 1916. She served her sentence in one of the camps of the “continent”. her name is Maria Pavlovna Miroshnichenko. She learned to read and write only one year ago. She has been an illiterate for almost all her life. She is from the Ukraine. Ten years ago she moved to her children, who live on the Taymyr peninsula. In our society we almost have 90% of resettlers, people of German nationality.
- And what is attracting people to the Dudinsk Society in Norilsk?
- The experience you have with your social organisation, with Elisbate Josifovna OBST as its head. We do not have such strong initiatives here. It is great that you are permanently cooperating with the authorities and the combine. The planned erection of a memorial, a memorial place, speaks for itself. Shortly after their arrival, our young “victims” of political reprisals, 20 in number, visited the memorial site “Norilsk Golgatha”, the museum and the artists’ gallery. I am sure that this friendship will survive, owing to the efforts and support of governor Oleg Budargin, the organisations “Women’s initiative” and “United Russia”, your museum and all, who understand us. You see, we all grew up in Soviet times, and I think back to those times with gratitude. I do not intend to benedfit from the fact of coming from a family of repressed. But my parents are entitled to allowances without any doubt. For that reason I want to help the old people, who are yet alive. I believe that my life, my fate in Dudinka developed quite normal. My parents madeit possible for me to get university education. t that time they did not have to pay any school fees. It was enough to utter the wish in order to get the appropiate education. At work everything runs well, too. I consider myself a content and happy woman. My daughter took up her studies at the North-West Academy in St. Petersburg recently. She knows everything about our family’s past. When she was a little girl she used to accompany her grandmother to the choir, listen to their singing and read German prayers. Grandma showed her how to knit and draw. Although she merely attended four classes at the German school, she had a great knowledge of life and was a responsible person. There is a lot we can learn from the people of that generation. Our town, undoubtedly, made various efforts to do something for them, to make amends for the injustice done to many of them. However, as part of the monetization and the repeal of allowances, some of these allowances are not being applied anymore. Not only once we sent an application to the authorities requesting for financial support, but no decision has been made yet. While waiting for a reply, we are trying to console and encourage these old people. But many victims are no longer in our midth, just like my parents.
Interview: Irina DANILENKO
Photo: Sergei MANGALOV
“Zapolnyrnaya Pravda”, 03.11.2005