The little village of Kromka, Irbey District, 15 June 2008
In actual fact, the little village of Kromka ceased to exist a long time ago. In former times there was a khutor, some separated farm, accomodating two families. Early in the 1930s they began to deport special resettlers to this places: expropriated big farmers, displaced Volga-Germans, Lithuanians, Belorussians, Ukrainians – representatives of 13 different nations altogether. In the 1950s they were finally released from the status of being special resettlers, many returned to their ancestral places of living. However, not all of them – some got married and started their own family, for they did not want to leave the place where they had already been living for many years. But they were forced to – for in the 1960s they began to extend and amalgamize the farmyards and the villagers were driven away from Kromka by force. In the 1970s the village was in a kind of agonal state, but the very last imperturbable seniors did not have the intention to give up but only just survived till the late 1980s. Nowadays, you will find open countryside instead of the former village of Kromka – a symbol of Soviet agricultural policy…
Every year, on Pentecost, the former villagers of Kromka come together on the village cemetery. When train tickets were still cheap, they would even travel to this place from the Ukraine. Today, only those who live in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, can afford to attend this annual meeting…
Many people have arrived. It was impossible to make all the cars fit on the
photo…
The tombstones tellabout the history of the village
These graves are looked after
These have remained unattended for a long time…
This is the place of the former village
Nikolai Nikolaevich Permyakov has been the organizer of the annual meeting
of former villagers for many years
