Authors: Anastasia Prokopeva, Yelena Goloshchapova
Municipal educational institution,
Karatussk Secondary School No. 2
Class 10 b
Project leade: Tatiana Mikhailovna Trubinova – history teacher
December 2006
The Great Patriotoc War (1941-1945) did a lot of damage and caused immense wrong and misfortune not only among soldiers but also among ordinary people.
The first months of the war were very hard. Hitler’s troops were marching towards Moscow, many soldiers became prisoners of war, a great number of people were killed; the Russian-Germans, however, who had already been living in the Republic of the “Volga-Germans” for several centuries, were not called up to fight on the front. The representatives of the state government had decided to let them suffer an entirely different fate.
On the 28 August 1941 the chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet,
M.I. Kalinin, signed the Decree “About the resettlement of all Germans who live
in the Volga regions”. As we learned from Elisabeta Augustovna Schwabenland and
Aleksander Augustovich, “our forced resettlement began on the 2 July 1941”.
Why were they deported prior to the passing of the decree? Maybe, because the Soviets eard that the Russian-Germans might defect to the side of the fascists. “ but how could we ever have done something like that? We were and are Russians, after all, although of German origin. Our ancestors had already lived in Russia in the time of Catherine II”, says Elisabeta Augustovna.
“We live in the village of Straub; there were three kolkhoz farms. We had a big farmstead, nice houses and a lot of cattle and small domestic animals”, Elisabeta Augustovna and Aleksander Augostovich tell us. “Our parents were working all the day and we, the children, went to school, but then the war turned us out from our homes into a place a long way off”.
“They gave us two hours to pack up a few belongings. We did not take along any clothes, but an axe, the prayer-book and food for us and the younger brother and sisters. Shortly before our leave, father yet managed to give away our cow and feed the fowl”. What a mean thing to do – transfer a whole people by force without allowing them more than two hours to pack up their personal belongings. They had to cover a long, long distance, after all.
“On the 15 September we reached Abakan, from where they sent us on to Cherepanovka. With us there were another four families: the Schwabenlands, the Winters, the Wills (Wihls) and the Schefers (Schäfers?)”- reports Elisabeta Augustovna.
“After our arrival in Abakan, our family was assigned to live in the village of Nikolaevka”, says Aleksander Augustovich.
A total of 1070 people was taken to our district (585 women, 485 men). But how was it possible to resettle them to this new place, when they knew that the poor people neither had warm clothes nor a roof above their heads? We do not understand why all this happened. If there had not been any local residents, the resettlers would have perished shortly after. The loclas helped them as much as they could: they contributed clothes, made little huts available and shared their food with them.
But why did it take such along time to get to Siberia? And how did they get there?
“At first we had to board a barge. They took us to some train station, where we had to get on freight cars, waggons determined to transport cattle. We were on the route for a long time, for the train stopped many times. Sometimes our train was standing on a sidetrack for several days, and we were always hungry”, says Aleksander Augustovich.
Yes, it was a hard trip. Elisabeta Augustovna’s little sister was only two
months old. It was most unlikely that she survived this “hellish” ride.
“Life in Siberia turned out to be very hard. Apaprt from this, all men were called up into the labour army during the month of December. Only three of them later returned home to Cherepanovka, two to Nikolaevka. What a hard time it was. We were children yet. I was only 12 years old then, but tried to find some job, to feed myself and support Mama (seriously ill) and my younger brothers and sisters. But the chances were bad, because we did not know Russian. I tried my best to somehow fit out our little hut, where they earlier used to store medicine”, reports Elisabeta Augustovna. It is an astonishing fact that this old woman until today gratefully recalls those local residents, which helped them to survive.
“At the age of 13 I was permitted to work for the kolhkoz farm. The asked me to milk the cows, feed the fowl and take care of the pigs. Brother August was 12 when he began to work for the kolkhoz. Half a year later they gave as 10 kgs of honey. That was great. But in the winter we did not dispose of warm clothes and a sufficient quantity of food. I tried to sew shirts for my brothers from an old carpet. In the winter I went in plaited bast shoes, gathered frozen berries, unearthed edible roots”. Aleksander Augustovich found a job on the kolkhoz farm, as well – as a stablehand.
The Germans were being kept under the surveillance of the “commandant’s office” all the time. They did not have the right to leave the place and had to get registered with the commandant’s office once a day.
There is one fact we are rather surpirised about: why did they not instigate
riot and civil commotion? Why did they not raise their voices against the Soviet
power, but held down their jobs humbly and without grumbling without execrating
the Soviets. It took them a long time to learn Russian, and the learning process
mainly took place at work.
“In 1953-1954 they transferred us from Cherpanovka to Karatus. In 1956 the “commandant’s office” was abolished. We did not have to get registered anymore. But before the following incident happened. I had stayed on the kolkhoz farm longer than usual, for we were very busy with the hay-harvest. I finally managed to leave to have the cpmpulsory registration done. On the way I thought they would most probably arrest me, for I had been asked to be there at 8 pm, but when I arrived it was already 10 o’clock. But fortunately there were no inconveniences at all”.
Although they abolished the institution of the “commandant’s office” – life did not become easier. “I clearly recall that I had to mow hay for the cows from below the snow. Mother died. We were assigned a new dwelling, but there was no possibility to heat it. We built ourselves an oven from mud, which we then tried to use as a heating device”.
After the decree “About the right of getting rehabilitated” had been passed, the Germans noticably felt the reduction of political pressure. However, the most serious unjustice on the part of the Soviet power is that they will only accept to rehabilitate those, who succeeded to take along their personal documents, their identity papers, but most of the Germans did not do that- What for? They had been taken away from them sooner or later, anyway!
New identity cards were issued and reached out after the commandant’s office had been abolished, but they were unsuitable for submitting a request for rehabilitation. “From our family brother August was rehabilitated earlier than the other family members, for he counted among the exemplary tractorists on the Dimitrov kolkhoz farm. Even though he had not had a sufficient school education, he managed to finish tractorists’ courses and become one of the best workers. He received numerous medals for having done efficient and productive work and was even awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. He has already deceased; he died quite early, for he was entirely exhausted and overworked. But he loved his Siberia, although he never forgot about his home regions on the river Volga. In 1967 my brother and I even travelled through the country. While we were passing Saratow region, we looked out of the window to see the places where we had lived in earlier times.
We are very grateful to K.R. Germann (Hermann?) for his assistance in providing us with news identification documents. He helped the Germans to write applications in order to obtain their rehabilitation, i.e. to be returned their rights of a citizen of the USSR.”.
At present there is the possibility to go back to one’s historic fatherland. We asked Elisabetha Augustovna and Aleksander Augustovich about their attitude towards this.
“ We never intended to remove to Germany one day, for our homeland is here, on Russian earth; we often recall our village, the village of Straub, although we are aware of the fact that today it forms the groundwork of the huge Volga reservoir. And you probably do not feel like going back to the place of your historic origin, unless you have not seen them with your own eyes before. You prefer to go back to the town or village, where you were born and grew up, the very place you would call your home. Deep in our minds we were furious about the Soviet power; it was wrong to deport us, deprive us of our rghts and treat us like animals. We are human beings! We are Russians – with German roots. Even our encestors lived in Russia, we were born in Russia, too – why did they lay violent hands on us? But the locals did their very best to help us survive”, Elisabetha Augustovna and Aleksander Augustovich say.
Yes, indeed. It is barbarous, inhuman to deal with people this way. At the time, when tyrants were heading the Soviet state, the ordinary people had to suffer a hard lot. You should have seen how emotionally Elisabetha Augustovna and Aleksander Augustovich recalled the incidents of those days. It was a pitiable sight, a sight hard to bear, baut it was even harder to listen to them. One can imagine how difficult it must have been for them to recollect the past.
After their resettlement the Germans had a hard life.
First of all, none of them was able to understand and speak Russian; they used to communicate by gestures. Only after a certain time they began to speak a few words and get accustomed to use the Russian language. They mainly learned from their colleagues at work.
Secondly, there were a number of discrepancies with regard to religious and
cultural habits. All Germans were Roman-Catholics, while the Russians were
Russian Orthodox. They often had to cope with problems on religious holidays.
“During all this time I had ma prayer book with me, which Mum had given to me; I read the texts to my younger brothers and sisters. Although I am not strictly religious, I always try to follow the rites and customs, and I always celebrate religious events in the catholic way. Thus, for example, we celebrate Christmas on the 25 December and Epiphany on the 6 January.
Customs with regard to funerals are different: “ We do not cover the corpse with a cloth, do not commemorate him on defined days and will only have a warm meal with the mourning guests after the funeral. The hands of the dead person are folded on his belly. Both religions have different kinds of crosses. We place it over the dead person’s head. We do not celebrate the Day of Rejoicing”.
During the years of the war we wanted the Russians to gain the victory”, Elisabetha Augustovna and Aleksander Augustovich say.
Many Germans have already got married to Russian women or men here, in Karatus District.
We cannot understand, how people are able to survive in such conditions, under such circumstances the “Russian Germans” were cinfronted with, and the do not even feel furious and bitter or bear hatred towards the Soviet power. How could a little child, just two months old, survive in such a situation? When we heard Elisabetha Augustovna’s and Aleksander Augustovich’s story about how they were deported and how they survived, we could not avoid a certain feeling of hatred against the Soviet state in ourselves. We felt that it must be hard and painful for them to recall their past and tell us details about what happened to them at that time, although they sometimes even talked in a somewhat jocular way. We do not understand the actions of the Soviet power; who could they treat the people that way? They are human beings, after all, just like the Russians. Maybe, we would be a little more appreciative of all this,in case the resettlers had refused to work or organized a revolt, but they were serious people, who worked as good and as much as the Russians did, if not even better. They had to meet with so many losses, suffer damages! Many other people around misconceived the sitaution of the porr Germans, too – they met them with distrust and arrogance. And these people, who were unable to speak the language, who did not know the region they had been deported to, began to work and supoort the Russian front, not the German, for they wanted the USSR to gain the victory. It is an astonishing fact that the children of the resettlers, such as Elisabetha Augustovna, have been trying to preserve their people’s traditions and belief until today, and that they are trying hard to pass them to their offsprings, too. We think we owe it to the Russian “Germans” to stop any kind of genocide once and for all. Nowadays only a few Russian Germans are still among the living. It is therefore of utmost importance that the young generation deals with this problem in details and that the young people advance their opinion on those facts of history, which are characteristic for our region and our district. This is our history.
1. Article by Marina Konstantinova The German resettlers in the forties and
fifties of the past century”. Newspaper “Banner of Labour”, 2002.
2. Artcle by Tatiana Konstantinova “Pominalnaia zemlianika”. Newspaper “Banner
of Labour”, 2006.
3. Article by Tatiana Konstantinova “The chest from our little home”. Newspaper
“Banner of Labour”, 2006.
The contents of the paper are based on interviews held with Elisabetha Augustovna and Aleksander Augustovich Schwabenland.
Project members:
1. Anatasia Aleksandrovna Prokopeva: editing of the interview, selection and
composition of the available information under biographic aspects. Printing of
the paper and composition of its logical sequences.
2. Yelena Gennadevna Goloshchapova: editing of the articles, selection and
composition of the available information under biographic aspects. Supply of
photos on the subject.
3. Tatiana Mikhailovna Trubinova: consulting, assistance with the realization of
the interviews.