By: Liudmila Koroleva, 11th term, Municipal Secondary School No. 3 (providing general education), settlement of Shushenskoe
Project leader: Larisa Vitalevna Svintsova, teacher of history and social policy
Contents
1. Introduction
2. How everything began
3. War times
4. Thaw. Life has just begun.
5. Gilgenberg and his time
6. Conclusion
Nowadays our earth is subkect to a global migration process. People remove from villages to towns, from one country to another. And this seems to be quite a normal thing, although a lot of problems may arise in connection with this migration. Will they accept you in the within the new society? What kind of an attitude are they going to assume? Will they give you the opportunity of living and working under normal conditions? Will they restrict your rights?
We set ourselves the task to study and research the “German question”. The results of this present work are mainly based on an interview made in I.D. Gilgenberg’s house in the settlement of Shushenskoe on 20 September 2004, from which we received lots of information on the life and activities of the Russian Germans. The project leader, L.V. Svintsova, contributed considerably to the collecting and evaluation of the material. The staff members of the Shushenskoe Museum of History and Ethnography and the “Leninskaia Iskra” district newspaper have shown a great obligingness, as well.
We are aware of the fact that many people from other countries come into our country – and they make this decision for various reasons: work, education, the founding of a family. Many thousands of foreigners live in Russia and pay taxes, just as the Russian citizens do. However, it often happens that they are restricted in both moral ways and financially. This has always been a problem. The mass colonization of Germany from territories bordering Russian began durign the reign of Catherine II. Special decrees passed by the empress of Russia offered and opened up undreamed of possibilities. In 1763 Dobrinka was founded – the very first German colony on the river Volga. Later they founded and developed unsettled areas in the North-Caucasian districts and the Ukraine. Some might say that they were runaways. But this is not true. The Russian Germans took an active part in the social life of the country. We just have to recall names such as W.I. Dal (Dahl) – the author of the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great-Russian Language”, E.I. Guber – who was the first to translate Goethe’s “Faust” into Russian, lieutenant P.P. Schmidt … More than 700 Volga Germans were participants of the Pugachev revolt. They took part in the Great Patriotic War. They defended their fatherland against the enemy, yes, quite right – their fatherland. They loved Russia, inspite of the fact that they were of Germannationality. But for some reason or other there was a distinct tendency to consider Russian Germans as nothing better but German intruders, who endangered the independence of the country. The Soviet Germans had to endure hard times. Now they have been living in this country for 230 years – much longer than any of the other peoples making up the melting pot of our nation. In the opinion of the Soviets, however, they still do not belong to the “deeply rooted”, the indigenes. They are not willing to give them an autonomous territory within the country to live on. And in case they go back to Germany, the Russian Germans will become second-class citizens there, too. They will be strangers among people like them. The Soviet Germans were oppressed, their human rights violated and they were subject to exploitation by the state.
I would like to tell about a man, who did not fear all the difficulties and the people’s behaviour towards him, a man who managed to get through this period of his life without getting crushed, a man who worked for the benefit of his country, in spite of the immense “pressure” put on him by the state. I am talking about Ivan Davidovich Gilgenberg. Whenever a conversation turns on the Russian Germans, his wife says: “Well, Wan, what kind of a German are you? You are much more Russian than any true-born Russian, aren’t you?” For many Russians do not show such a deep feeling of patriotism and have not done anything in peticular for their country, either.
He was born in the village of Rosenthal in 1926. From early childhood he lived under difficult conditions. The family was big: four brothers, three sisters, grandmother, mother, father – a family of ten.
The year 1931 was characterized by the beginning of a great famine in the Volga region, which carried off tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands human lives. Special brigades were hardly able to transport all the corpses, which lay putrifying in the houses and streets, away and bury them. During this time two sisters died from pocks. Soonafter, father brought them back to the village of Rosenthal. The people had still nothing to eat, so that they cut off all the orach, which was growing in the vegetable garden. Everything made of wood was chopped up and used to heat the house. Shortly afterwards, theier father died, too. Ivan’s and his mother’s bodies were showing terrible hunger oedema; they were already waiting for their own last hour to come. The surviving dependants were beyond hope. They were doomed to starvation without any doubt. However, fate was well disposed to them and spared their lives. The uncle saved them. As soon as he had learned about the family’s horrible situation, he immediately arrived and took them to his elder brother, who was working for the kolkhoz farmNo. 596 in the district town of Krasniy Kut. He helped mother to find a job and accomodation. She started to work for the kitchen cooking the meals. Every day she brought home – secretely, so that the chiefs would not notice it – some kind of porridge. And then they would crawl under their blankets gulping it down within an instant. Those were hard times: for just 1 kg of stolen food they would sentence you to 10 years.
In 1935 they began to distribute 8 kgs of flour to the working people. At that time four of them were already working rgeularly: mother, the sister and two brothers. They had escaped death from starvation. However, not all of them survived. Father and two sisters perished. In 1936 Ivan, now nine years old, went to school for the first time. He had been unable to attend school earlier, for he had not got a thing to wear. The elder brother went to school, as well. All the others had to go to work, in order to feed the family. In 1937 the sister, who had meanwhile got married, returned to the kolkhoz farm, since they expected her husband to be arrested soon . he was considered an “enemy of the people”. Twelve persons were now eking out a scanty living in a hut of just 17 square meters in size.
1941 – the war against Germany. Everybody was outraged about the traitorous invasion of our country. Just like all the Soviet male population, the German men, who were not serving in the army yet, were burning with impatience to be sent to the front, too, in order to defend their home country. But for some reason or other they were not called up. They asked for an explanation, but nbody was willing to give it to them. In August 1941 the sources of information in the encircled and occupied villages situated in the Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Volga Germans dwindled. Communication among the villages was interrupted. There seemed to be an entire news blackout. The people could not understand such an attitude towards them. hey were prepared, after all, to give their lives for the native country, to defend it down to the last drop of blood. But they were considered spies and deserters. And just in this difficult situation the governmenet decided to begin with the mass deportations. As already practised in the past, citizens were once again resettled by force to remote regions of the country, just because of their nationality. The first to be deported were the Volga-Germans from the Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans.
On 28 August 1941, on the grounds of the Decree of the USSR Supreme Soviet “About the resettlement of the entire German population from the ASSR of the Volga Germans”, the authorities started an extensive resettlement scheme, which was justified by the wholy invented “reliable information” that “thousands and tens of thousands of diversionist and spies among the German population of the Volga are prepared to cause explosions in these regions at a signal from Germany”. The expulsion of the Germans was not only carried through in the Volga region, which was liquidated soonafter, but also rom the regions of Stalingrad and Saratov, as well as a number of territories situated in the European parts of the USSR. Early in 1942 about 1,1 million of Germans had already been affected by the deportations. Besides, the soldiers on active duty, who were of German origin, had to suffer a hard lot: they were removed from their divisions and conscripted directly into the labour army, where they were practically kept like prisoners.
Mass terror on national territory was not only provoked by a couple of collaborationists’ bold statements. Even when assuming them as facts, this would have been out of all proportion to the alarming extent and impact of the reprisals, which perfectly “harmonized” with eachother. The official public accusation of collaborating with the enemy gave rise to the execution of the judgement by the authorities. The true reason for these measures, however, was rooted in the inhuman social nature of Stalin’s regime, guided by half-hearted, medieval categories of guilt.
As we know from secret documents of the USSR Minister of the Interior – Kruglov, 2.562.830 deported individuals in all were registered with the NKVD organs on 1 July 1941, including their family members. The people were chased away had Kazakhstan, Middle Asia, the Ural Mountains, West and East Siberia, the Far East and the Far North. To put it brightly: the people were to make the unsettled territories of this huge country accessible.
This is what happened to Ivan Davidovich, too. The people were loaded on freight cars and sent to Siberia on the southern route. It was a long trip, until they reached their finally destination. By far not all of those tormented with great strain and weakened by the lack of food arrived in the town of Kamsk. Many had to be buried during one of the train stops. The local residents refused to receive them. These poor people were not asked, whether they would like to get resettled or not, and they were left there in complete uncertainty. The responsible politicians who passed the decree, did not think about the poor people and about how they were to organize their lives in the future. In the following many families died out. Those who survived did not understand, what they had been found guilty for. They considered themselves Russians, patriots of their country. Finally, I.D.’s family happened to get to a place called Dzerzhinskoe, where they executing village authorities showed an utterly unfriendly attitude towards them. The resettlers asked for a refuge, but the responsible persons refused to take care of them. So they tried their best to prove that they were upright citizens, explaining that even two of their brothers were fighting at the front in order to defend their beloved fatherland. They got nothing but the harsh reply: “Look at that! Fine defenders they are!” – Nevertheless, they finally succeeded in receiving the permission to take a bath.
In 1941 the sister’s husband and one of the brothers were mobilized into the labour army, leaving the family behind without any means of existence. The father scoured the farms for work, chopped and sewed up firewood, scrubbed floors and later found himself a job in the producers’ cooperative, where they were sewing various things for the front. Her husband’s brother and his full brother were transported away to the camps of Nizhnaia Tugusha. They wrote that they would not return from there. Soonafter, mother and sister decided to visit them. They were deeply shocked about what they saw. Brother Karl and the sister’s husband Ivan were entirely exhausted, starving, emaciated. Ivan said: “I do not feel guilty to any crime committed against our fatherland; we do not deserve such a hard lot”. Early in August 1941 they learned that the brother, as well as the sister’s husband, had perished. After mother and sister had returned home, I.D. was told to come to the commandant’s office. There he was knocked out two teeth. They hit him on the head and dislocated his left arm. Having tortured him this way, they said: “See that you get home to call your brats together. Tomorrow you will all leave for Kansk!”
After their arrival in Kansk they were immediately taken to Uyar and from there to Krasnoyarsk (Yenisey Station). Early in September 1941 they were ordered to board a steamer called “Spartak”, which took them further to the north. When they asked where they were taken to, they received the reply: “ To Agapitovo”. There was not enough food. Many starved. Whenever the train stopped the people would get off to collect at least some wild-growing leek. On 17 September 1942 they were to leave the ship in Agapitovo. They decided to first find the chief in order to learn about the organization of foodstuffs and settle the question of their lodgings. While scouring the environs, they discovered a fisherman’s hut, where anold man and an old woman lived. They asked them: “Where is the village of Agapitovo?” – The old man began to laugh and replied: “ All you see here when looking around is Agapitovo”. – The majority of the village population were women, the male residents were made up by juvenils of about 15-16 years in age. About three days later three men arrived in the settlement. They explained that the kolkhoz farm “Red October” was to be built up in this place. The women did not want to listen to what they said, they were crying all the time. But the colonel said that they would die, if they refused to lend a helping and pitch in. And so they began to construct their future dug-outs. When the first severe frost days set in, many people died.
Towards the spring of 1943 the huge mass of repressed people, which had arrived in the autumn of 1942, had shrunk to about one-hundred individuals – they had miraculously survived. They did not have enough strength to bury the dead. Therefore the departed were piled up not far from the “tent city”. Afterwards a special brigade carried them away on homemade sleighs to bury them in the snow in some defined place. Thus, I.D. found a job as a mortician, as well. And the executive staff, the heads of the authorities, organized excessive drinking bouts and lead a dissolute life with the young girls, just before the eyes of the unfortunate people. The girls were forced to give themselves to the men; they were made pregnant, but they passed their situation over in silence – there was nobody to talk to, nobody they could pour their heart out.
The commandants would exchange foodstuffs against gold. The prisoners had to live under horrible conditions and strict rules. They did not even dispose of any washing facilities. They were tormented by lice, until their skin was entirely scraped. They lice were everywhere. I.D. himself did not wash for more than a year. However, he tried to escape the pestering lice by pouring boiling water over his clothes. After this, the damned insects disappeared. Late in December they asked I.D. to go and get hay. It was terribly cold, minus 50 degrees. He was dressed in a tattered and torn wadded sweater and coarse galoshes wrapped up with sackcloth. At that time the river was covered by a thick layer of ice. I.D. got off the sleigh to dig out the ice from below the sleigh, for it was time to leave. But he broke through the ice. He somehow managed to climb out of the water and then walked on for many kilometers yet, until he finally reached the fishermen’s camp. The following day he was taken to the hospital in Igarka, where he spent 76 days. He was only discharged in March 1944. It still took a long time, however, until his wounds had finally healed up. He was unable to get on his feet without crutches. Since Ivan Davidovich did not belong to the regular staff of the repair and machine shop, he was not entitled to receive bread ration cards; he had to live on all kinds of garbage from the canteens.
In the winter of 1942-1943 they buried three of their little children; in the autumn of 1943 the sister perished, and in June 1944 their mother. The only surviving family members were two nephews, which I.D. only managed to give away to an orphanage with greatest difficulties – they were considered “enemies of the people” at that time. Thus, in the summer of the year 1944, I.D. stayed behind all alone. He became a fisherman and soonafter a hunter. The very same year he got married. In 1945 daughter Elvira was born, in 1947 his son Robert, in 1950 another son – Viktor, in 1952 daughter Erika and in 1958 daughter Maria.
After the war began a slightly more fortunate period in I.D.’s life. In 1947 he was appointed manager and deputy chairman of the kolkhoz farm. He continued in office till 1952. He was then transferred to Agapitovo, the place of his permanent residence, situated in Karasino District, where he was offered the post of the deputy chairman of the Budenovets (rider of Budionny’s army; translator’s note) kolkhoz farm. In 1953, after Stalin’s dead and Beriya’s execution, the North awoke to new life. Not all restrictions were repealed at once, but the mere feeling of being free made the people happy and filled them with courage and hope in the beginning of a new era.
When the people were listening to the radio reports on Stalin’s death, one of the party members said: “Get up at once and take off your caps, you enemy breed! Get a move on! Weep for him, will you! It is useless to entertain any hopes that now, since the father of our country passed away, we might release you. No, you will shed bitter tears without him. We are going to force you to dig up the whole North!”
In 1956, after the 20th Party Congress of the CPSU, the people heaved a sigh of relief: it was released from Stalin’s despotic rule. Within two, three years the banks of the Yenisey depopulated, deserted, everybody left to live in another place, a place of his own choice. I.D. was yet eager to learn. In 1957 he finished the evening school, joined the party, and in 1958 the CPSU State Committee assigned him to study at the regional Soviet Party School in Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory. In July 1958 I.D. passed the entrance examinations. In August hemoved from Karasino, Igarka District, to the town of Minusinsk. Ivan Davidovich was working and busily learning in order to support his family. He tried hard to get an apartment with the Minusinsk authorities, but they would only treat him condescendingly by asking: “Did you really know which place you removed to?”
Learning did not come easily to him. Having not been to any school or educational institution fore more than 18 years, he somehow got bogged down, somehow missed the right track. In 1961, however, I.D. managed to finish the Krasnoyarsk regional party school, passing the examination in the field of agronomy and organization with distinction. In 1962 he began to study by a correspondance course at the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Agriculture, which he finished in 1966. Later, the CPSU Regional Committee assigned him to work as deputy director for the “Shchetinkono” sovkhoz in Yermakovo District. There he worked until April 1962. The same month the Minusinsk Sovkhoz Trust transferred him to the “Siberia” sovkhoz in Shushenskoe District as chied agronomist. At that time the cultivation of plants in the countryside was on a very low level. They merely harvested 10-12 metric hundredweights of cereals. With I.D.’s arrival, however, the crop yield of the year 1967 reached an order of 30,8 metric hundredweights. For the first time in his life I.D. was able to show all his productive power. He was now a free man, who could work without being permanently surveilled by MVD commandants. And it was just in this place that he found the official recognition of being an expert, a citizen of his state and a communist. He decoted himself to his work. He was working day and night without taking a single day off. For only this way one could achieve good results in agricultural production. Many times he was proposed a different job – to work for the regional authorities, as director of the sovkhoz or as head of the administration. But he remained an agronomist for the rest of his life. In 1968 I.D. received his first medal of honour from the government – the “Medal of work merits”. In 1970 he was awarded an order, the so-called “Medal of Honour”. In 1976 he was awarded the title of a “Meritorious agronomist of the USSR. In 1986 he was conferred on the “Order of the Red Banner of the working people of the USSR”. Moreover he was four times handed over the banner of an “RSFSR and USSR Shockworker in Agriculture”. During this period of time he was additionally rewarded for his participation in the Exhibition of National Economic Achievement of the USSR (one gold, two silver and four bronze medals).
In spite of his ripe old age (he is going to finish the 76th year of his life on
September
14), he will receive the congratulations and expressions of thanks from
representatives of various societies and organizations.
Gilgenberg is an utterly benevolent person, he is always interested and concerned, takes an active interest in thepolitical and social events of his district. In 2001 he was even awarded the banner “Meritorious inhabitant of Shushenskoe”. Paradoxically, he is terribly afraid of fixing the little board to the wall of his house, for some madmen will certainly sporadically appear in front of his window shouting: “Russia to the Russians!”.
I.D. had to go through hard times, had to cope with lots of difficulties, inconveniences and humiliations. But he wore them with dignity. He loves his Russia, and when he was asked: “Would you not like to live in Germany?” – he replied without hesitation: “Never!” - He is a true patriot to his country. And as distinguished from the so-called “Skinhead” Movement, which is of the opinion that “Russia should remain to the Russians”, whose members have done nothing at all for Russia, who beat and kill foreigners, I.D. has done a lot for his country. In spite of his partly cruel life he was able to achieve considerable success, did not feel any hatred for Russia and loves the Russian earth.
Nowadays, the Russian-German question represents a great problem, as well. The Russian Germans live in different regions of the Russian state. And they would like to achieve autonomy. Bonn pleads for the idea of an autonomous district in the Volga Region, for they consider this something that has a chance of being realized. Trusting to be able to slow done the immigration of Soviet Germans, Bonn is even willing to provide money and technical means. But this well-meant subsidy can only serve its true intended purpose, if it can be addressed to someone “on theupper floor”, who is seriously willing to follow this perspective and proceed with its definite realization. The only thing the Russian Germans need is a piece of acceptable land, a defined territory where they could settle down in the long run, which would become their Russian home. The task is easy to decide, at least, because the territory sought after must not necessarily be bound to a particular area. And there is enough land in Russia – as much as you like. In the bon-black earth zone, for example, which is adjacent to the regions of Moscow, Smolensk and Tversk. This area is deserted, has fallen into decay. From Novgorod to Pskov, up to Briansk, there merely live one-and-a-half individuals within a radius of 100 hectares of cultivable farmland – just seen from the statistical point of view. A resettlement of 1 to 1,5 million Germans from the Asian republics to the wetsern environs of Moscow would release the capital from the annual nightmare of the so-called “food programme”. The space would suffice for all. In today’s ethno-psychological situation, however, our intimated Russian-German doesnot want to take the risk to throw himself into a place of bellicose glory, without having received a guarantee from the “upper floor” and an an express invitation “from below”. Just for this very reason the Russian Germans emigrate, they leave their country, for they abandoned all hopes to be accepted in this country as belonging to people like themselves. But this lies within our power, within the power of each individual.
1. Book for teachers “History of political reprisals and resistance against
unfreedom in the
USSR”. Moscow. Publishers: Association of “Moscovitan municipal archives”, 2002.
2. Fates and people. – Interlocutor No. 5, December 1988.
3. Represials against the Russian Germans. The punished people. – Moscow, “Zvenia”, 1999.
4. Recognition of one’s countrymen. – “Krasnoyarsk Worker”, August 2001.
5. “The Third”, - “Krasnoyarsk Worker”, September 1986.