Born 1940.
Until their deportation the family lived in the Krasnokut District, Saratov Region. They lived in a small village; there was a kolkhoz farm.
Mother – Maria Yegorovna Stark (Gelhorn), born 1901; she worked for the
hospital.
Father – Adam Adamovich Stark, carpenter.
There were 8 children, 3 of which are still alive - Maria, Viktor und Aleksei.
They owned a little house and a cow. They did not have enough money to live on, but they were a very harmonious family.
In 1941 they were deported to Boguchany, where they had to live in a barracks – one family in a room.
The authorities mobilized her father to the trudarmy, where he died. Without having their father at home live was very hard. Her mother asked the local residents, if there was any work for her to do, and she would accept any labour the suggested.
The local residents did not behave badly towards them.
In the spring, she and her sister used to went from one house to the next to
begg for edibles.
They roasted frozen potatoes on top of the stove.
In 1950 they removed to Podtyossovo um, where they sister lived with her husband and child.
In Podtyosovo she managed to finish 7 school years. After school she began to work for some construction enterprise, later she changed to a job in the power house of a factory.
They wore clothes according to their means; they bought some kind of cloth, and then her sister would sew a dress. In Podtyossovo her mother worked as a plasterer for some construction enterprise.
The salary was paid in the form of coupons (such coupons were handed out for any goods, even for water). They were breeding chicken and kept a sheep. Later, they were provided a vegetable garden, where they planted carrots, turnips etc.
Later, she also enjoyed attending parties in the evening, where the young people used to waltze, dance polka and boston; the music was played by an accordion.
In Podtyossovo they lived in a barracks; her sistser’s family (3 individuals) and M.A’s family (3 individuals, too) all lived together in just one room. They slept on iron beds; the mattrasses were stuffed by straw.
They never felt insulted or angry because of their past. Maria herself never undertook a trip to the Volga Region; but her sister still recalls very well, how they lived there before their deportation.
The interview was taken by Alsa Akhmadeeva and Tatyana Dzhioyeva.
(AB . Remarks by Aleksei Babiy, Krasnoyarsk “Memorial“ organization)