My name is Vladimir Andreevich Mazniak; I was born in 1914. I am a Ukrainian from the Kharkov region, Pechenizhsk district, village of Bazalievka. Today the district is called Chuguevsk district. In 1931 my father and we, his children, six people altogether, were deported away to the Sverdlovsk region, Kyzel district, to the settlement of Vyerkhnyaya Gubakha (which is today the region of Perm, and the town is called Novaya Gubakha). On the 6th of January 1938 I became a victim of reprisals. I was kept in prison in the district center of Kyzel for 10 months. The preliminary proceedings were also carried through in this place.
Now I know what they wrote down at that time and what they charged me with – sentenced on section 58, para 7, 9, 10 and 4. Later, while I was still in prison, some good people told me, what kind of penal code sections these were.
I was detained in Kyzel, Irbit and Sverdlovsk for 10 months. On the 6th of November, at nighttime, they came for us and took us away to the station by a “Black Maria“ (paddy waggon; van equipped to transport prisoners; translator’s note). On the 12th of November we had already reached our final destination, the ViatLag or the ViatLags resp., which were situated in the Kirovsk region. The first forced labour camp sub-sector was the distribution point, where we had to stay for 15 days; then we were loaded on open waggon platforms and taken about 75 km away. Afterwards, in the middle of the night, they chased us another 12 km off on foot, until we reached the 8th forced labour camp sub-sector – the punishment subunits.
I served my sentence at different camp sub-sectors. At the 8th I immediately started to work as a driver. Until December 1941 I used to work by the aid of horses. The brigade leader was a good man – Sashs Timofeev. He was from Krasnoyarsk. A good man, tall and strong. He told me that he had sailed on the river Yenisey as a seaman. He liked me a lot and felt sorry for me. I was the youngest in our brigade – 23 years old. During the war the circumstances were, of course, particularly difficult. They selected six people from among the drivers and six men from among the lumberjacks and then transported us deeper into the taiga, about 28 km away, where we were to work for the wood supply section. In October I had already spent there two months. I grew ill, and was transferred to the camp headquarters. I laid up there for about a month, but I continuously felt ill. Suddenly they started to remove all inmates of the 8th camp sub-sector – there were about 3500 prisoners. Many of them were sick. There were three infirmaries: one for those who were suffering from tuberculosis, one for the treatment of diarrhoea and one for all the remaining kinds of diseases. Above all, the people suffered frostbite. The dangerously ill prisoners werre transported to the sovkhoz No. 2 situated in the opposite direction, not far from the 1st forced labour camp sub-sector. Our sovkhoz was 9 km away, already beyond the territory of the Viatlag. This is how we called the place. I spent there three years, mainly working with horses. In 1945 they transferred me to the „Socialist station“. I worked as a driver carrying people from the campf authorities. There I received a „pass“ giving me the right of unescorted movement within limited areas. I stayed there until I had almost completely served my sentence. I was released on the 29th of November 1947, one month and nine days before the factual end of the term. I did not leave for the Ural to see my parents, but went back to the Kharkov region Chuguevsk district, to the village of Bazalievka. I lived there until 1949 working for a kilkhoz. And once again the thunder started roaring. I was arrested on the 9th of April 1949 and taken to the inner prison of the city of Kharkov. Five months passed by, until a Moskovitan Special Board decided to displace me to the Krasnoyarsk region forever. They put me to the Krasnoyarsk prison, where they kept me for 5 days. Then 110 people were loaded on board the side-wheeler „Akademik Pavlov“ and left for the district of Yeniseysk, to the settlement of Maklakovo, a limbering area. This is today the city of Lesosibirsk. We arrived there on the 21st of September 1949. Until 1954 I had to ge registered at te commandant’s office in regular intervals. Then I was released from this registration procedure. They gave me a „passport“ – and in 1956 I received my rehabilitation. But I did not leave for any other place. I got married, built myself a little house. I have three sons and 12 grand-children. From 1949 till 1989 I was working for a wood-processing factory. I am 77 years old now. As far as Sasha Timofeev is concerned, I got separated from him in December 1941, hence I do not know, whether he is still alive or hasalready died. Well, such was my life. That’s the way it was.
Vladimir Andreevich Mazniak