4.
Life in Northern Kazakhstan
Nothing breaks down our
perceptions more quickly
Than having to survive a new or foreign culture.
John Wareham
Kaztsic Is situated on the vast steppes of
Northern Kazakhstan 18 kilometres from the nearest
railhead. Access to this collective farm was possible
only by along, dusty, clay road in the summer. During the
long, severe Siberian winters this route was frequently
snowed over, and in spring, when the accumulated
snow-mass melted, the road completely disappeared under a
raging torrent of icy-cold water. These circumstances
required the tiny settlement to be largely self-reliant.
The newly-arrived Polish deportees were free to mingle
with the local population of mixed ethnic origins —
the native Kazakhs of Mongolian race and the European
Russians, like ourselves, deported there. There was no
escape from this Isolated, inaccessible settlement. The
land around this Kaztsic Kolhos was flat, except for a
small tree-covered hill where the Communist Party Chief
(Commlssar) resided in comparative luxury. On the
northern side of this kolkhos was a small forest
plantation and a small lake, the source of fresh water
and fish. It was surrounded by tall reeds with furry
brown heads. There was a general purpose store for local
inhabitants, a post office, a police station with the
NKVD headquarters (KGB), the Communist Party office and
meeting centre. These buildings together with a
diesel-fired power station comprised the centre of
Kaztsic. Near the pine and maple, mixed-forest plantation
was the hospital, a primary school, and a day-care centre
nursery which catered for the infants and pre-school
children whose mothers were required to work long hours
in the fields surrounding Kaztsic.
Several farm homesteads with stables attached, lined the
local streets. Only a few animals were allowed per
household. In summer most families had their own
vegetable garden. The vast majority of the dwellings were
clay huts called lepyankee. fashioned from home-made clay
and bricks, mixed with straw. The roofs were either
thatched or tiled. Small barns were usually attached to
the stables. The home entrance, Seonki, was a type of
lean-to, commonly used for wood storage and a cool store
for winter provisions, such as potatoes, wooden barrels
of sauerkraut and dill pickled cucumbers. Most families
also kept fowls, ducks, geese and turkeys for their own
eggs and meat.
Anyone wishing to travel beyond Kaztsic needed to obtain
special permission from the NKVD, but Polish deportees
were deprived of this privilege. The 12 Polish families
from our train were allotted a large communal barn,
situated near a group of eight houses. This barn was used
for winter animal fodder supplies, but was generally
empty during the hot, dry summers while haymaking and
drying was in progress. Stubble from wheat, oats and
barley crops, after an early autumn harvest, were also
stored in this barn. At the end of May 1940, the barn had
been designated as a dwelling for the Polish deportees.
Straw had been spread on the earth floor. There were no
kitchen or toilet facilities. Our first task was to find
a space to sleep on the straw and where we could put
personal belongings. Larger baggage was placed in the
centre of the barn. On arrival we received food ration
cards for our basic requirements such as bread, flour,
tea, potatoes and salt. These items were available at the
Kaztsic store. Our family's bread ration was a loaf with
a small extra segment, three times per week.
Everyone's first priority was a long soak in the nearby
lake, where we also washed our hair and clothes. After
weeks in the goods train, this experience was truly
rejuvenating. Edek, now the only man in our group,
constructed a makeshift communal toilet near the barn,
while the women hastily fashioned two outside fireplaces
for boiling water and other basic cooking. We shared the
first cups of tea. The water took a long time to boil, as
the available fuel was straw and sunflower stalks we
found on the spot. Later each family took turns at using
these primitive cooking facilities and gathered their own
fuel, mainly small pieces of wood scattered about,
sunflower stalks and straw.
We were a close-knit group. During the long train journey
we had become one large family. The practice of reciting
together morning and evening prayers and the singing of
hymns was continued. This strong faith in the Almighty
God sustained us in our new life at Kaztsic and gave us
the much-needed inner strength to cope with deprivations
and adversities.
At dawn each day a Kazakh supervisor called with a
horse-driven wooden cart to transport the women and Edek
to work in the fields. Their task was the weeding of
already planted wheat and barley crops, which stretched
for many kilometres across the steppes. They laboured
there seven days a week from dawn till dusk with the
meagre nourishment of water, cold tea and bread. They
always returned completely exhausted after bending all
day in the hot sun in the constant wind so characteristic
of the vast steppes. In the summer these strong winds
were frequently accompanied by sandstorms and in the
winter, snowstorms. The wind dehydrated our bodies and
tormented us with its endless irritating whistling. The
Polish children of the working mothers were left
unsupervised to take care of each other as best they
could. The daily parting from their mothers was
especially traumatic for the younger children in the
group. My five-year-old brother Alek was always upset
when the cart departed. He wanted to travel with Mother
into the fields. I was usually able to restrain him, but
one day he got away. Crying, he ran the long distance
over a dusty road, following the wooden cart's
diminishing image on the horizon. The women were amazed
at his determination to reach his goal, Mother most of
all. He was allowed to remain with them for the rest of
that day, resting under a sun umbrella on a small rug.
One of the children's more enjoyable activities was a
refreshing swim in the lake and the gathering of
mushrooms and wild berries (kostyankee) in the forest
plantation. We queued up daily for our food provisions in
front of the Kaztsic store and gathered firewood for
cooking an evening meal. I tried to have something ready
when our exhausted mother arrived, but there was little
variety. My standard menu was a soup called zutyerka,
which consisted of salted boiling water into which I
placed small pieces of dough and potato squares.
Sometimes an onion and a little cabbage was added.
Occasionally we caught some fish from the lake, which was
a special treat.
After a couple of months of life in the barn we were
asked to look for alternative accommodation among the
local population. They were expected to rent us a room or
merely a corner in their dwellings. We were required to
vacate the barn before the end of August, so it could be
restocked with winter fodder for the communal livestock.
In exchange for my father's woolen suit, a shirt and a
pair of shoes, Mother secured us a small space in a
corner of a single-roomed dwelling of a local Kazakh
family. These people had only basic clothing and were
eager to acquire our smart Polish outfit.
The solidarity of our Polish group remained in spite of
our now scattered habitations. Women continued their
contact daily at work in the fields. After the harvest in
September they loaded trucks with grain and stoked up
large furnaces with coal to dry the grain for winter
storage. We children still saw our Polish friends and
made new friends among the locals.
The Kazakhs among whom we lived were quite friendly. They
spoke In their own language among themselves, but
addressed us in Russian. Mother spoke Russian and we soon
picked It up from local children. Mother and I slept on
straw and Alek's bed was our cane trunk. He was just
small enough to stretch out on It comfortably. The
Kazakhs slept on their straw mats on the floor. Every
evening they lit a large open fire to cook their evening
meal of home-made spaghetti, dried in the sun, and pieces
of goat meat, blended together into a thick soup.
Sometimes they shared It with us, but usually kept to
themselves as they gathered around a low table, squatting
on the floor. A very large bowl was placed In the centre
of the table. Small portions of this soup were
distributed into individual bowls for each family member.
The men were served first, then male children with women
and girls last. Theirs was a male-dominated society.
As autumn approached, Mother obtained employment as the
nursery's supervisor. Her nursing qualifications and an
excellent knowledge of the Russian language were a great
help in securing this position. Her persistence was also
rewarded when she managed to get some monetary
compensation for the household items confiscated in our
home in Grodno. She was the only Polish deportee in our
settlement to receive the Rs 2,000 payment, after
extensive inquiries through the local Communist Party
Commissar, whose wife had taken a special interest in
Alek and me. With this money Mother purchased a small,
semi-detached clay hut In the settlement. Our home was a
long narrow room with one window. It was equipped with a
coal range for cooking and heating. The room was
accessible through a covered-in lean-to, where we kept
fowls, stored firewood, coal and winter food supplies.
One corner served as our toilet facility. The roof was
thatched with straw and reeds. All the Poles at Kaztsic
envied our improved circumstances and some referred to
Mother as, The Duchess of Kazakhstan'. We were glad to
have our own privacy. Later our home became a meeting
venue for Polish compatriots of the settlement. Secretly
we celebrated Polish National Days, on 3rd May
commemorating the granting of the Polish Democratic
Constitution, and on the 11th November the commemoration
of Bolsheviks' defeat near Warsaw in 1920 by Jozef
Pilsudski, when advancing communism was halted in Europe.
In the autumn of 1940 Alek developed a severe form of
English measles with complications. He was admitted to
the local hospital. As I had had measles In Poland. I
continued to visit my brother. However, due to a
diphtheria case being inadvertently placed In the same
ward, several patients, and myself, contracted this
illness. I was severely affected by this Infection. There
was a great shortage of drugs for treatment and the
amount of serum administered to me was given too late and
in an insufficient quantity. My heart's inner lining
became inflamed, my heartbeat was Irregular, and I became
paralysed from the waist down. I was close to death and
Alek was still in a critical condition. Mother gave up
her job in the nursery and remained by our bedsides
constantly. She bribed the doctor to administer
injections to stimulate our failing hearts. Such was
Mother's determination to keep us alive that hospital
staff told of her having 'plucked us out of a lion's
mouth'. She won the battle; we passed our crises and made
a slow, but steady recovery. By this time snow had fallen
and the Siberian winter was upon us.
I was discharged from the hospital first and went to stay
with a Polish family while Mother remained at the
hospital with Alek. He suffered further complications,
first pneumonia, then pleurisy. Both took a long time to
subside. There were no antibiotics in the USSR at that
time. Russians relied on traditional herbal remedies and
other proven treatments such as banki in which hot, tiny
glasses were placed on one's back and chest to draw out
the lung inflammation. When banki were removed after
about 30 minutes, huge circular bruises remained for
weeks. This method of treatment was very painful, but it
worked. Some weeks later Alek's recovery was complete and
we were finally reunited in our clay hut. Mother
exchanged more clothes for food and for fuel to keep our
dwelling warm.
The winter was severe with frequent snowstorms, during
which Mother braved the elements to dig out our window
and a tunnel to our hut's only door. A kerosene-fueled
lantern provided light during the long hours of darkness.
I commenced school in Kaztsic in September, but that
brief period of formal education in Russian was
interrupted by my prolonged illness. During the long
winter I made up my own school daily timetable and taught
myself Polish and basic arithmetic using my textbooks and
exercise books from standard two in Grodno. I also kept a
diary, which to my everlasting regret Mother later
destroyed before we left Siberia. Mother taught me to
recite poetry. She remembered several long narrative
poems learned in her youth and enjoyed reciting them
herself.
In winter Mother was unemployed and deprived of her food
ration cards. We thus had little food to sustain us, and
finally only flour remained. Mother baked bread and made
zutyerka with lumps of dough in it. Earlier she had
exchanged clothes for a barrel of sauerkraut and a sack
of potatoes, but these supplies were soon exhausted. She
was however, very resourceful. When the weather improved
she began to tell fortunes to local women In exchange for
food, and as some of her predictions were fulfilled, her
fame as a local card fortuneteller was soon assured. In
this way she ensured our survival in Siberia.
During one most severe, prolonged snowstorm we were
entombed in our clay hut for three days before our
neighbours noticed our predicament. They dug a tunnel to
free our door entrance, just as we had begun to fear for
our lives, sitting in pitch darkness In one bed, huddled
together for warmth. We ran out of kerosene. Again, our
faith and constant prayers sustained us through this most
difficult period.
The neighbours of our semidetached dwelling were two men,
both of whom were very kind to us. The elder man was a
Russian. a former sailor in the Tsarist navy. For this he
had been deported to Siberia. His wife and daughter
remained free in Russia. Once a year they traveled a very
long distance by train to visit him at Kaztsic. The
younger man was an Iranian engineer, deported from
Armenia for his strong religious convictions. We
encountered many older Russians, who were devout
Christians of the Russian Orthodox persuasion. However,
after the Communist Revolution in Russia these churches
had been either demolished or converted into museums.
Believers needed to be very secretive about their faith
to avoid persecution. The NKVD was very vigilant in all
USSR communities and children were taught to spy on their
parents. Religion was never openly discussed by local
folk. Some houses still had icons hanging in their
wardrobes or behind movable shelves. In a couple of homes
we were allowed to see them, once we had their trust.
Having survived our illnesses and the severe Siberian
winter, we looked forward to the spring, not realising
that this season was also treacherous In this formidable
climate. Once the temperature increased, the great
accumulation of snow and ice began to melt, causing
floods. Roads disappeared beneath a fast-flowing torrent
of water, the lake overflowed and the soft ceiling of our
thatched roof leaked profusely causing pieces of mud to
fall all around us. We slept under umbrellas, trying to
remain at least partly dry, but we invariably caught
colds. Food in Kaztsic was in a very short supply and no
food deliveries were possible from elsewhere. Even the
mail could not get through. Virtually cut off from the
outside world, the settlement relied totally on its own
resources. Food and fuel were severely rationed.
I can vividly recall leaving home one morning at 6.00
a.m. to queue at the store for bread. At that time the
ground was frozen. I slid along, falling several times as
I walked briskly towards the store. The queue was already
very long, which meant a long wait in the cold. My turn
came after midday, but by then the store had run out of
bread. I was only able to purchase a 1 kg of plain
biscuits. Cold, tired and hungry I waded through the deep
stream of icy-cold water, now soaked to the skin. By that
time the snow and ice had melted and there was no dry
path to follow. Thinking about my sick brother at home, I
exercised great self-control, allowing myself only half a
biscuit. Such experiences only served to increase my
determination to survive.
During our first year at Kaztsic we had no news of our
father. Mother's letters to Starobielsk were returned
without an explanation. Mother wrote to the Supreme
Soviet Council. This correspondence was ignored. She
visited the local Communist Commissar without any
satisfaction. Although all Mother's efforts to establish
father's whereabouts proved fruitless, we still hoped to
be reunited with him one day and prayed for his safety.
We corresponded with Aunt Aniela Sulik, father's sister,
who had also been deported to Siberia from Bialystok in
Poland with her eldest daughter Zosia. With them was
Helenka Pietrzak, our cousin, my father's sister
Rozalia's daughter, deported with her two young children,
the four-year-old son Janek and a two-year-old daughter,
Magda. Unfortunately Magda had died during their
captivity in the USSR. They also worked hard physically
on their Kolhos, trying to survive in spite of their
deprivations. We were glad of this contact with relatives
who shared our exile, and we also received letters from
our maternal grandmother and Mother's two sisters who
were still in Poland. Father's sister Rozalia and her
family on their farms in eastern Poland sometimes sent us
food parcels containing smoked speck and bacon, porridge
mixtures, dry beans and dried bread. A real feast ensued
when these parcels arrived. Their generosity boosted our
spirits greatly.
When the spring floods receded I resumed school at the
Kaztsic Primary School. after missing virtually the whole
school year. I was now 10 years old. Before Mother was
forced to resume her work in the fields, she made contact
with Mrs Maria Bielinska, one of the local Polish women.
She invited her with her son Gienius to live with us.
Mrs. Bielinska, Pani Maria as we called her, was a
cripple. She walked with a limp and her right arm, broken
in Kaztsic, had been set incorrectly. She was incapable
of heavy, physical field work. Gienius was 12 years old.
We got on well together. Pani Maria cared for us, while
Mother worked in the fields. In return for this service,
they received board and lodging in our modest home. This
arrangement was mutually beneficial to both families.
During the summer we were able to obtain fresh vegetables
from our Russian friends, who tried to help us whenever
possible. We valued their friendship. They were also
deportees, deprived of human rights such as freedom of
religious worship, freedom of speech and freedom of
movement. Their families had also been split up through
the enforced resettlement programmes. Our friends Mr. and
Mrs. Kisidobrov gave us extra food items during the long
Siberian winters in exchange for smart Polish clothes.
The Communist Party official and his wife were a
childless couple who took an interest in us. Another
Russian woman, whose husband had been sent to a forced
labour camp (lagree), because he challenged the Communist
Party's ideology, was Mother's close friend.
During the summer months we also prepared our winter
stores. We gathered mushrooms, wild red berries
(kostyankee) and wild spinach called 'shchuf' in the
local forest plantation. Shchuf was shredded and bottled
for future use in soups. It was an excellent source of
vitamin C during the winters. Kostyankee were used for
jam when sugar could be purchased with our ration cards.
Mushrooms were dried and strung up in our lean-to and
sunflowers were cultivated locally for oil and for
roasted seeds. We also enjoyed eating these products
fresh during the summer and we felt generally healthier
when autumn came.
Food at the Kaztsic store was very expensive so only some
people were able to afford luxuries like butter, eggs and
meat. A kilogram of butter cost 600 roubles, one egg 15
roubles, and a kilogram of meat 300 roubles. Bread
rations were worked out according to the amount of work
an individual performed. A first-class
worker(Stahanovich) was allowed 600 grams of bread daily,
while a second-class worker's ration was only 300 grams
per day, with their allocated coupons. Children received
the second-class worker's equivalent rations. Polish
workers were paid for their labour in ration cards only.
We always had to queue for long periods for food supplies
at the store.
On 21st June 1941 Germany launched a surprise attack on
the Soviet Union. Adolf Hitler's projected territorial
extension of power included a planned conquest of the
USSR, before resuming a full-scale attack on Britain.
Germany's armed forces soon conquered the Soviet-occupied
eastern Poland, bombing communication links and the
Soviet army's headquarters' installations. When this
unexpected war erupted Polish people were still being
deported to Siberia. The fast-advancing Germans locked up
these trains, about to carry Polish people to exile in
the USSR. The armed conflict between Nazi Germany and the
USSR finally stopped further Soviet deportations of Poles
to remote areas of the Soviet Union. Adolf Hitler's
'Operation Barbarossa' was launched against the Soviet
Union along a 3.000 kilometre front, from the Black Sea
to the Adriatic, and involved 3,000,000 German troops.
Our remote Kaztsic settlement in Northern Kazakhstan was
shocked by the radio news of these events. The news
presentations always followed a similar pattern. Radio
announcements began with a build up about Soviet bravery
and large German casualties first, before an admission of
Russian retreat. Soviet casualties were concealed, while
their forces were in full flight on all fronts. As war
spread to the Soviet republics of Ukraine, Byelorussia
and Russia, the situation became very serious from the
Soviet point of view. Local men and our Commissar were
soon mobilised into the Soviet army, which trained in
Siberia. Food prices doubled. Coal, kerosene and food
shortages increased with the diversion of fuel and food
to meet the Soviet army's needs. Propaganda films
glorifying USSR war heroes were screened. Our attendance
was compulsory.
In July 1941 the USSR allied with Britain and the exiled
governments of France and Poland, which still continued
their activities in Britain. After the Pearl Harbour
massacre of USA personnel and the large scale destruction
of ships, planes and equipment, by Japanese bombers on
7th December 1941, America also entered the war, ending
Its previous isolation policy. The USA and the USSR then
became allies in their joint attempt to defeat Nazi
Germany and Japan.
The Japanese quickly moved into South-East Asia; the
Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), the US-dominated
Philippines. French Indo-China and the British colonies
of Singapore, Malaya and Burma fell under their
domination. These events let to British moves to protect
their colonies of India and Ceylon. now known as Sri
Lanka. Great Britain also endeavoured to reconquer the
lost British colonies.
Meanwhile, Hitler's and Mussolini's forces moved into
North Africa, and the Middle East was threatened. With a
large part of the planet now affected directly or
indirectly through contributions of armed personnel, the
conflict escalated into World War II. New Zealand.
Australia. Canada and South Africa sent their armies to
fight alongside the British and their allies.
The Soviet Union, with the German invasion now deep into
its territories. re-established diplomatic relations with
the Polish Government-in-Exile in London. The first
diplomatic agreement was signed on 30th July 1941 in
London by General Wladyslaw (William) Sikorski, on behalf
of the Polish Government. The Soviet Ambassador to
Britain. Maisky, then announced that the Soviet-Nazi
Germany treaty of August 1939 relating to the territorial
division of Poland along the Ribbentrop-Molotov line, had
lost Its validity. This agreement also included a special
statement concerning Polish prisoners-of-war and Polish
civilian deportees in the USSR. The Soviet Union agreed
to grant an amnesty to all Polish citizens, who had been
forcibly deprived of their freedom In the USSR. This news
filtered through to Kaztsic. We felt elated.
Meanwhile, as the autumn of 1941 approached, we prepared
for another Siberian winter. I began school again. Alek,
at six years of age. was still a pre-schooler, as in the
USSR children started school at the age of seven. Alek
thus remained at home in the care of Pani Maria who,
together with her son, continued to live with us. In that
autumn and early winter Mother was compulsorily employed
as a 'kochugar', a stoker of huge grain-drying furnaces
In Kaztsic. During the Siberian winter of 1941-1942
(November-March) we faced great fuel and food shortages.
Many people all over the USSR died of starvation. Mother
with friends stole wood from the local forest plantation
at night for fuel.
The German forces, unprepared and ill-equipped for the
severe Russian winter, reached Moscow and Leningrad. Here
their advance was halted by the Siberian-trained Russian
reinforcements, who were well prepared for the severe
climatic conditions. The Germans were surrounded and
slaughtered mercilessly. Captured Germans were either
shot on the spot or deported to Siberia where most
perished. Likewise, thousands of Russians of German
descent in Byelorussia and the Ukraine were later
liquidated.
During these winter months we survived on our last
rations of flour. Towards the end we had no bread, only
the thin Zutyerka soup. Even this tasted good when we
were really hungry. Mother ran out of surplus clothes to
exchange for food. During that time Pani Maria's son
Gienius died of a brain tumor. He was very sick during
those months and suffered much pain. He endured severe
headaches for some time before he succumbed to the
inevitable death. We all felt this deeply. His mother was
devastated at losing her only son. She also knew nothing
of her husband, who was one of the Polish officers
captured by the Soviets in 1939. After Gienius' death she
became friendly with an Iranian man and left our home to
live with him.
Meanwhile, we continued our correspondence with Aunt
Aniela and our cousins in the USSR. We learned from her
directly about the formation of the Polish army in
Uzbekistan. She was delighted to establish contact with
her husband Colonel Nikodem Sulik, who was one of the
commanding Polish officers in the newly-formed army in
the USSR. She wrote about their departure to join the
army. Next we heard from Uncle Sulik, who advised us to
travel to Akmolinsk in Northern Kazakhstan, from where we
would be able to proceed south towards the Polish Army.
Before this was possible Mother needed to obtain a
special permit to travel from the regional NKVD
headquarters, some four days' journey from Kaztsic. By
this time the spring thaw had begun with the consequent
floods. Even mail was not able to get through. Mother
decided to risk the trip against everyone's advice,
desperately wanting to ensure our departure from Kaztsic.
She left us with the Kisidobrovs. She returned after a
week soaked to the skin, with the special NKVD permit in
her hand. When she had arrived at the NKVD headquarters
with her winter clothes soaked, the Communist Chief was
apparently amazed that she had managed to walk such a
long distance through the flooded area. Mother told us
that she had prayed fervently most of the way, unable to
follow the road which had vanished beneath a steady
torrent of swift-flowing water. A man on horseback
finally came by. heading in the same direction. She was
then able to follow him and his horse as they both tried
to avoid deep, dangerous hollows filled with raging
water.
On the return Journey, as the floods decreased in volume,
Mother was able to get a ride on a tractor which was
carrying an accumulated pile of mail to Kaztsic. Alek and
I with our Russian friends the Kisidobrovs, were really
delighted to see Mother safely back. We had feared for
her life during her week-long absence. Now we would be
able to purchase our train tickets. We waited for the
floods to subside and the bus service to be resumed. Pani
Maria gave me her engagement ring as a parting gift. I
was very attached to her as she had been a second mother
to us for over a year in Kazakhstan.
We departed for Akmolinsk on 13th May 1942. Though sad to
leave our friends behind in the remote Kaztsic, we were
excited about our liberation and looked forward with
anticipation to our reunion with Uncle Sulik In the
safety of the Polish Army In Kermene in the state of
Uzbekistan, in Southern USSR
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