Respondent: Irma Ivanovna Shevtsova
Date of birth: 9th December 1948
Place of birth: Republic of Tadzhikistan
Place of interview: house of the Shevtsov family in Kuragino
Nationality: German
Parents: Ivan Ivanovich Wagner (1917-1994) and Olga Davidovna Wagner (Kaucher, 1920-1997). Before the deportation they lived in the hamlet of Bauer, Krasnokamensk District, Republic of the Volga-Germans.
The parents were already married before that time; later they met again in the labor army. Apparently, they were in Reshoty at that time. They had a very hard life there. They were starving and full of lice – they had to undergo lot of bad experiences. At home it was not appropriate to talk about deportation and labor army. After release from the labor army they first got to Tadzhikistan, later they removed to Siberia, were the father’s mother lived – this was approximately in 1949. They lived in Sagore (Kuragino District) on a farm named N° 5.
They used to speak German at home and Russian at school. The parents did not undertake any efforts to go back to their home village on the river Volga. The uncle wanted to go back there, but things turned out very differently – he emigrated to Germany instead. They themselves did not want to leave for Germany, although their children wished to leave for some time, but the idea was not realized.
The parents were religious, the father used to read the bible. He had four years of schooling, the mother seven or eight. She was preparing for the entrance examination to the medical technical school, but then the war broke out and shortly after she was deported. Relations with regard to the local residents were rather different. It happened that they were insulted and cursed. But in the end the situation largely normalized.
Research done by: Yevgenia Aleksandrovna Franz
Total duration of interview: 10 minutes
Expedition of the State Pedagogic V.P. Astafev University Krasnoyarsk on the
project "Ethnic groups in Siberia: Conditions for preserving cultural memory",
2017. Districts of Karatus and Kuragino.