Anna Mikhailovna Korneva, maiden name Gorelova, is now almost 80 years old. She has been living in Shilinka since March 1942. She spent nearly all her life in this place.
Anna Mikhailovna painfully recalls the hardship and suffering, which befell the family in the thirties of the past century, when millions of peasants became victims of collectivization.
At that time the Gorelovs lived in Karatus District, Krasnoyarsk Territory. The spacious house accomodated three generations of farmers: the old Gorelovs, their five children; three sons already had their own families with children.
On 20th February 1930 armed men entered the farm area asking for who was the landlord. The grandfather pointed at the eldest son Mikhail, Anna's father and said: „He is my right hand“. Mikhail was ordered to harness a horse and go to Karatus.
Three days later inhabitants of the same village brought back the horse; since that very day Anna‘s father was never been seen again. The grandparents gave back their daughter-in-law and her three children back to her former family, which lived in Yermakovo District. Soon after Anastasia (this is how Anna‘s mother was called) was appointed to appear before the village soviet, from where she and two of her children were sent to prison. The eldest daughter escaped her arrest due to the circumstance that she lived with relatives in another village at that time.
In the prison there for lots of mothers with their children. Living conditions were unbearable, a great number of children died. At the recommendation of other imprisoned women Anastasia sent her parents a telegram asking them to take her children in. In a little while the grandfather arrived to take the children with him, while their mother was exiled to Narym, where she was forced to fell trees and procure wood..
After the grandparents had die, the aunt took the children in. She was a religious woman and taught her nephews ho to pray. The children asked the Sacred Mother of God to give them back their mum. Sometime later Anastasia escaped from exile and set off for her children. A few days later employees of the village soviet arrived, ordering her to get a few belongings ready and go with them.
The family was taken to Bolshaya Murta District and quartered with other resettlers in a barracks on the banks of the river Yenissei. Right in the middle of the building there was a cast-iron stove heating the rooms; on this oven they would also prepare their meals. The resettlers were to work for the local kolkhoz farm. Once, the children discovered a bag of oats, which someone had hidden under a bridge. From the cereals the mother prepared soup and groats, which helped the family to survive the winter. In the spring they grew potatoes.
Anna Mikhailovna gratefully recalls the kolkhoz foreman, who used to hand out each of them one potato, when they finished their work to leave for lunch. From the tubers Mum brought home, Anna prepared soup for the whole family. She obviously remembers the specific taste of both soup and oats grits till today.
Within the kolkhoz they had a school, which the girl attended for a period of five years. She learned well, but her dream of getting a good education and finishing her training did not come true. In 1942 Anastasia and her daughter removed to an NKVD state farm in Sukhobuzimsk District, later renamed settlement of Shilinka. She was unable to attend school any longer, for she had to do unskilled labor. Together with the adults, the young girl had to thresh grain, sow and supply forage. Soon after they noticed her cleverness and ambitiousness and moved her to the office as secretary and typist.
After the war stresses and strains of the family came to an end. Anna got married to the local tractor driver Grigori Kornev, gave birth to three daughters and two sons; and they could hardly await to see their first grandchildren appear in this world. Her mother lived with daughter and son-in-law till her death, thus being lucky enough to yet enjoy a peaceful and quiet life.
It is a real pity that nowhere in the district we can find a memorial for the women who had to experience all the mischief during collectivization, did hard labor in the back country while the war was on and afterwards helped to remove the traces of ruin and reconstruct the economy of the country. They had deserved a memorial..
Galina Shuvaeva
„Country Life“ (Hamlet of Sukhobuzimskoe), 14.04.2006