Born in 1922
in the Odessa Region, village Manukho. Daughter of a common kolkhos farmer.
Her grandparents operated a manufactory; they were very rich people. M. C’s ancestors had come from Germany to the Ukraine, where they settled in and stayed forever. M. C’s family was afflicted by political repressions not only once. Her grandfather was dispossessed in 1931. They took everything out of the house they were able to carry, even the hairpins and comb which belonged to her sister. As far as M.C. recalls, the came right in the middle of the night and without warning in order to carry out their mission. The four sons of her grandfather were arrested and removed from the house, too, in spite of the fact that one of them suffered from epilepsy. From all brothers M.C’s father was the only one who ever returned home. The others were deported to the roughest town in Siberia – to Norilsk, and nothing is known about their fate. 33 years later the began to literally lead a new life. Fortunately, the wave of repression of the year 1937 did not affect her family.
Although she only went to school for three years, she was able to speak three languages: German, Ukrainian and Russian. They had a sound farm. M.C. remembers that they were in possession of nine cows, vineyards, a threshing machine, a huge amount of maize and sunflower seeds as well as a melon plantation. And before the war her father had even cultivated a vineyard. Without having finished the fifth term, M.C. was now compelled to help her parents with the farming. Full silos, well-filled wine-cellars, a wealthy family – these were the results of the work done by the adults and children of this family.
M.C. recalls the second day of the war: she lived and worked in the district town of Grozlov (Gryzlov). Caused by a sudden draft, some detonation, the glass panes began to clatter, doors opened up; and then, by ten o’clock in the morning, they dragged along four dead airmen. And around 12 or 13 o’clock the people arrived in droves to see them.
The 9th May was a clear and sunny day; the troops were marching, the sirens were hooting, everything was in a state of boiling and bubbling. At this time M.C. was in Germany where she was working for a “Frau”. Late in 1944 / early in 1945 she had been deported to Germany. The woman she was working for owned a stretched barn, with two rows of cows on each side. She and the other girls were to help with the vegetable harvesting; they tore off fodder beats and were subject to strict supervision. And when they stopped for one second only or began to slow down, they were immediately punished by whippings. Although the woman had so many cows she only gave them half a liter a day; they were accomodated on the attic. They were not remunerated for the work they had done. “I am unable to comprehend, why we did not starve”, M.C. said. Since the front ran nearby, projectiles stroke the roof several times. It was an awfully weird situation. They lived in Germany for about two years.
M.C. behaves with utmost scepticism towards her nationality. She thinks herself to be Russian, for she grew up in Russia. And those “true” Germans misbehaved towards them, called them “Russian sods”. When M.C. is being asked, whether she would not like to leave for Germany, where her brothers and sisters live, she decidedly disapproved of this idea. “I have children, grandchildren. I do not want to go there. I was forced to stay there long enough”. All of us were to be deported to Germany together, but then her mother and sisters were left behind in Poland; she and her friend Valya Kurz were they only ones sent on to Germany. After Poland’s liberation by Soviet troops, her mother an sisters once again became victims of repressions and were finally taken to Karaganda in Middle Asia by force.
“When they asked us about who would like to return home, many immediately agreed without hesitation. They allowed us to get on board a truck and then took us to Bulgaria, but I am not really sure if this was definitely so”. They lived there for about a month. In all likelihood various official documents were issued during this time. They were terribly hungry. At nighttime they used to walk through the fields in search of potatoes which had been left there during the harvest. They were repatriated in freight cars, under inhumane conditions. In one of the waggons there were not only men, but also women and children. The train would rarely stop, so that they were compelled to empty their bowels into a bucket - for all the world to see. M.C. recalls that, on their way, one of the women gave birth to a child, right in the middle of the waggon. The slept side by side on the floor. She also brings to mind som eherring – such fish were an inherent part of their provisions at that time. The whole situation was extremely hard to bear for women. M.C. remembers, how the once had to spend the night in the Kazakhian steppe, where another woman delivered a baby in a sheep shelter. M.C. can still hear her piercing shrieks – her imploration for hwelp and sympathy. Early in October she arrived in Krasnoyarsk , and October in Siberia – means snow and frost, a climate which people from the south had never experienced before. The same was true with M.C. She was taken to Krasnoyarsk, up to the train station, and on the very same day they wanted her to unload coal waggons. She recollects a pair of high-healed oovershoes with bootlegs, and when she was trying to jump over a tree trunk, the literally fell to pieces, so that she fell to the ground and her arm got seriously injured. They stayed in Krasnoyarsk for about two months being accomodated in a barrack: men, women, children and old people were to sleep on two-storeyed plank beds. Later they were taken to the common bath and “relieved from lice” by means of hot steam. Due to the severe injury of her hand, she was unable to work. She finally continued her way to Kargino on board a ship called “Maria Ulyanova” (a paddle-steamer). It was a very unpleasant trip; the cargo compartments were cramped with people. There was unbearable heat and closeness. One of the Germans died during the trip (although M.C. has already reached the age of 86 she clearly remembers that his family name was Schechterle). They buried him upon their arrival in Kargino. When they were taken to the fifth track section (probably some territory about 5 kms away from Kargino), two boats ridden by Finns were detached to take at least some of the exiles further downstream, up to the town of Turukhansk. Having just casted off from the embankment the boats capsized and everybody perished by drowning.
On the 15 October they were dropped in Shirokiy Log, where they had to spend the night under the open sky. And when they woke up in the morning, all their clothes were covered by hoarfrost. M.C. was transferred to the island of Chuusov situated in the river Angara. Although it was already late autum, she was forced to help with the harvesting of oats. M.C. is a very diligent and hard-working woman; she was very astonished about the fact that even at 12 o’clock noon nobody had set out to work yet, and that the “chaldony”, the Siberian aborigines set on benches in front of their houses and smoked cigarettes, although they should have gone to work since long. Later she was taken to another island in the Angara – to Sosnovyi. On this island they spend the night in a store room (in which they used to keep harnesses and other equipment). M.s. work up in the morning by some strange scolding and shouting. According to her own words she has never seen anything more shocking in her life: there was a man, big and strong, with an axe and a knife in his hands, who was cursing at the people there.
M.C. furthermore recalls that the people who lived nearby on the bank of the Angara came running to see the newcomers from the Black Sea, to find out whether or not they were, in fact, of black colour. According to M.C’s words they were “savages”, who obviously had neitzher seen an airplane nor a train nor anything else from civilization. On this island, a little further downstream, there were two barracks (one for men, the other for women), instead of electric light there were merely splints; living conditions were very hard: it was terribly cold and the people were starving. The women would seam “shkery” , a kind of trousers, from old jute bags. M.C. was assigned to fell trees and then saw the trunks up into firewood by means of an unbelievably long saw of the “Kraska” brand. The saws often became blunt; and then they used to grease the little sawteeth with diesel oil to make them slip easier through the wood. Once, a tree which M.C. had worked on herself, came falling down dirctly above her head; she stayed alive as if by a mircale. They had to wash themselves in a bathroom without flue. M.C. says that even under such conditions they did not make any changes regarding their habitual accuracy and integrity. They oftrn went hungry. M.S. recalls that right in the middle of the night they went to the field in order to collect moulded spikes. There was a woman with a couple of children, who had swallowed such spikes; they suffered from acute poisening and died soonafter. The distressed mother went mad. As if it happened just a few minutes ago, M.C. recalls that this poor woman was cowering on the floor, swinging her body all the time to and fro, and her long hair covered her face hanging down to her knees. They were buried on the spot without putting up any crosses. In desperate search for foofstuffs they often crossed the Angara (Kulakovo, Podkamennaya) in order to exchange clothes against food; thus, they once exchanged a dress or a skirt with camisole against a pailful of potatoes.
“I have to add”, M.C. says, “that the inhabitants along the Angara did not stand out due to generosity at all. They always had a lot of fish available, but whenever we were asking for food they would just trough a couple of bowels in fron to f our feet. We picked them up, washed, cooked then ate them”. Two years later they sent M.C. and some others to the hamlet of Baikal (not far from Lesosibirsk). There they also lived in barracks and under the same conditions as before. The were taken there on rafts; it was springtime and the river was covered with a crumbling frost crust. It was terrible, but where else could they go? Soonafter M.S. came down with malaria, she had a high temperature. However, she refused for a long time to go to hospital. The landlady was sure that she would die soon. For that reason she often send her daughter to check up whether “auntie was still alive”. M.C’s state of health changed for the worse; and finally, the neighbours’ daughter helped her to get to the hospital.
She had to cover a distance of several kilometers, had to stop and take breaks very often, for the high temperature almost pulled the rug out from under her.
M.C. remembers having had 25 rubels in her pocket, and she asked the nurse to go and buy her a piece of salted herring; the nurse returned with just the head of a herring – what was she supposed to do with it? (And this very moment M.C. recollects something else yet: at that time they already received a salary. Where else could she have taken the money for the herring from?).
Soonafter she returned to the fifth track section, and daily life got under way. They received a piece of land for own use, as well as a cow. M.C. was appointed village elder, but nobody was willing to be lenient towards them. She had to assume the obligation to inform the authorities about the people’s views. and to keep an eye on the special contingent and prick up her ears (in order to learn who had left for which place, who had been born, who died and who got married). Recalling the past, M.C. says that they did not have to get checked and registered with the commander’s office for a really long time; but the inhabitants of Baikal, for example, stayed under the commander’s supervision for 17 years altogether.
That was the place where she met her future husband, who was from a repressed family, too: his parents had been dispossessed in 1931-1933 and were sent Siberia by force (“…. without being much in love with eachother, just like everybody ….”). There was no wedding ceremony, no beautiful dress, nothing; they just had their marriage registered in Kargino. M.C. gave birth to three daughters.
In 1961 she received a passport and left for her mother’s and sisters’ domicile in Middle Asia. They had somehow dared the impossible and managed to trace her in Siberia. M.S. will never forget, when, one fine day, on a clear, sunny day of May, she received a letter from her sister. She left the barrack and started weeping bitterly, while reading the lines over again and again. The conditions under which her relatives lived turned out to be very complicated, as well; while the people in Siberia often came down with malaria, they suffered from typhoid fever in Middle Asia. They lived in dug-outs. M.C’s mother nearly died; four daughters and two sons lived with her. They worked for the coal industry.
She remembers walking through the settlement under construction, watching the children going to school, asking them, whether they possibly knew a certain Katia Olyardyns. The children turned out to be their classmates and they accompanyied her directly to the house where the girl lived. M.C. has a few memory gaps about this time, but she recalls that her father had alredy returned home and that the family got reunited for a short period of time.
Interviewed by Irina Saranov and Maria Pichueva.
(AB – comments by Aleksei Babiy, Krasnoyarsk “Memorial”)
Fifth expedition of history and human rights, Novokargino 2008