Maria Johannesovna Jakobi (Braun) was born to a family with many children in the
hamlet of Knadelfeld (Gnadenfeld), Engels District; Saratov Region, Volga-German
Republic, on the 26th March 1929. Everybody in this village exclusively spoke
German: at home, in the street and even at school. They lived in a spacious
house; they did not set out a kitchen garden, fort hey had already organized a
kolkhoz farm, and both parents were working there for the consideration of
work-days (unit of work on collective farms; translator’s note). They owned a
couple off arm animals: a cow, a pig and chicken.
Maria Johannesovna recollects her girlhood before the war. She was the third child of the family, rather cheerful, agile and diligent. At the age of 12 she already worked for the kolhoz farm, grubbing up weeds from the fields. Maria Johannesovna completed for terms with the local school, there the Russian language was taught just one time a week.
On the 28th August 1941 the ukase about the mass deportation of the German population of the Volga Region was passed. This year was a turning point in the life of the Braun family, as well as for other families. None of the locals protested against this decree – they were all of the opinion that needs must. They were given three days to pack their belongings. They just took along the things mostly needed (documents, clothes, foodstuffs). The entire village population was forced to board a freight train at Lipinicha station and then transported to Krasnoyarsk. The trip took about one month. During this time many families were distributed to different hamlets. On their way the train stopped at several stations, and then locals would bring along foodstuffs and hand them over to those, who had to stay on the train and were to move on to a farther destination. Washing facilities were not available. Having arrived in Krasnoyarsk, the Braun family (as well as all remaining families) were told to go on board a barge, which took them up to Galanino.
By twist of fate all inhabitants of the Volga-German village of Knadelfeld (Gnadenfeld) happened to get to the Kazachinsk District – thousands of kilometers away from home. In Galanino the heads of the kolkhoz selected just as many people as they were able to place in the attached villages. The Brauns got to Rozhdestvenskoe. Two to three families each were quartered in one house. Gradually, each family either received a ready house to live in or a piece of land, on which they were then allowed to build up a house themselves.
The eldest sister worked in Galanino, she floated wood. In February 1942 she was mobilized to the labor army, to Buryatia, and a year later they came for the father, as well. In 1953 they returned home. During the whole time the family was in correspondence with them, and every now and then sent them parcels.
Yet in Rozhdestvenskoe, the eights sister was born in 1944. The parents worked for the Kirov kolkhoz, and Maria was with them, too. The locals of Rozhdestvenskoe were very kind-hearted, supporting the resettlers as much as they could. At this time Abram Danilovich Denygin lived in Rozhdestvenskoe, as well; he was ungrudging to the children of the Braun family, for they were diligent and used to work very hard. Till the age of twenty Maria did various kinds of jobs (unskilled work) for the kolkhoz. Afterwards they transferred the assiduous and responsible girl to a farmstead, where she first got a job in the hog house, later as a dairymaid. From 1962 until she went on pension, she worked for a pig breeding farm. In 1984 Maria went on well-deserved pension, yet there was no-one who would take care of the kolkhoz calves. Hence, the head of the kolkhoz farm, Anatoli Aleksandrovitsch Varygin asked the retiree to continue working for some more time as a calves’ drover. Of course, she was unable to deny his wish, and therefore she worked in the cow barn for some time yet.
Maria was honored by a great number of certificates and diplomas. She was awarded the title of a „Master of stock-breeding“. In the 1980s Maria Johannesovna Jakobi received a steepening incentive – a voucher for a trip to Leningrad. The pages of the district newspaper often mentioned her as an outstanding worker. She received the first certificate of honor at Stalin’s times yet. She gave it to her children to play with. Well, they tore it into pieces. But all the others she kept with her.
In 1950 Maria got married to Fedor Jakobi. He was born in the same German village as Maria. In 1951 Alexander was born as the first child of the young family, and two years later daughter Masha saw the light of day. In 1957 daughter Irma was born, when they already lived in their new house.
On the 26th March Maria Johannesovna celebrated her 85th anniversary. Maria Johannesovna Jakobi never experienced city life; she spent all these 85 years in the countryside, 73 of them in Roszhdestvenskoe. When the Germans were finally permitted to leave the place of forced settlement, the Jabobi family did not make up their mind to depart from Rozhdestvenskoe. It became their home away from home. She replies to the question of whether she considers herself a German with a decisive „No“!!!
Interviewed by: Darya Basangova
(AB – remarks by Aleksei Babiy, Krasnoyarsk „Memorial“Organization ) Ninth expedition of the Krasnoyarsk "Memorial“ Organization and the Pedagogic College in Yeniseysk, Vorokovka-Kasachinskoe-Rozhdestvenskoe 2014 .