During the long evenings, which are specific for the far north, in the
village of Surgutikha, they often recall their former life. They talk in their
mothertongue, the German language, and keep crying.
Sofia Bogdanovna German (Germann/Hermann) is a witness to the history of a whole century. In 1941 her daughter Elsa was eighteen years old. And they lived in the famous town of Engels ...
Exactly fifty years ago, the Soviet government deported all Volga Germans to unsettled regions in Kazakhstan and Siberia. We might even say we can celebrate a jubilee: a jubilee that is composed from all the black pages of history, by which the country has become that rich.
After the first Siberian winter, which they spent felling trees in the woods, just two members of the big Germann family had stayed alive. Mother and daughter.
Aleksander Kuznetsov. Photo taken by the author.
„Krasnoyarsk Labourer“, 03.08.1991