Personal Stories
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO LIVE IN THE SOVIET UNION IN A FAMILY WITH DISABLED MEMBERS?
Yura Astakhov (Boston, USA), the son of one of the founders of the Soviet Union of Disabled People, Yuri Georgievich Astakhov, a first-group disabled person (in 1941, at the age of three, during the bombing of Moscow, he sustained a spinal injury, complicated by bone tuberculosis, which led to paralysis of his legs)..
«THERE WERE RUMORS IN THE VILLAGE THAT A SECRET TUNNEL LED FROM OUR HOUSE TO AMERICA…»
I don’t know if it was the KGB spreading such nonsense or if the people themselves imagined it. In the village, incredible rumors were spreading: that we were spies, that there was an underground tunnel from our house leading to America… They also said there was a radio transmitter buried under our grapevine and that the children were learning German and preparing to become spies.
«HOW DID MY FATHER COME TO SUCH A DESPERATE DECISION AS SELF-IMMOLATION?»
We had an old radio through which he constantly listened to Radio Liberty and Voice of America, even though they were frequently jammed. He had maybe two or three like-minded friends in the village. Most people were focused on their daily lives and didn’t care about his ideas. In fact, what irritated and unsettled them was that he wasn’t like everyone else: he didn’t play «kozel» (a popular card game), didn’t drink beer or vodka, loved books, and wasn’t interested in meaningless talk.
«TEACHERS ASKED STUDENTS FOR FOOD»
In our family, we were very aware of the Holodomor. In my father’s family, they experienced hunger, but it wasn’t a fatal famine. My grandmother, for as long as she lived, would cry and say, ‘They say there wasn’t a famine, but there certainly was…’. At that time, people stayed silent about it. My father (born in 1924, so he was nine years old at the time) remembered how the teachers were starving, sitting with swollen legs, and asking students if their parents could send them something to eat. His mother would send cooked beets to the teachers. This memory stayed with him vividly.
«MY FATHER HAD NO ILLUSIONS ABOUT SOVIET VALUES»
On May 18, 2024, my father would have turned 100 years old. He was born in the village of Novospasivka, which was later renamed Osypenko, in honor of the aviator Polina Osypenko, who was born in our village. However, my father preferred the old name because Polina Osypenko’s real surname was Dudnik, and her husband Osypenko had only spent two days in the village, with practically no connection to it. Therefore, he wished to retain the historical name of Novospasivka.
Dmytro Synytsia:
«YOUR REAL BIRTHDAY,» — MY FATHER SAID TO ME, — «IS THE DAY STALIN DIED»
I, Dmytro Dmytrovych Synytsia, was born in Vorkuta, in the village of Oktyabrsky, Komi ASSR, on March 13, 1956. The hospital where I was born served a dual function: it cared for both prisoners and the free employees, although the latter were 4-5 times fewer.
Vasil DUDKO:
“68 families were forcibly relocated from our village…”
I was born on June 17, 1958, in Camp No. 3, Zeya District, Amur Oblast, Russian Federation. My parents were repressed during the mass deportations of Ukrainian families from western Ukraine to the Far East.
Valentyna VLASENKO:
«THEIR WHOLE FAMILY IS CALLED KOLYMYCHI, EVEN THEIR CATS»
Today, the name Kuzma Glushchan is not found in any known list of those imprisoned in the Gulag. The archives of Dalstroy are partially destroyed, and the KGB archives are closed. A person disappeared as if he had never existed. But the memory has been preserved in the village – about the jesting fellow Kuzma, who once sang a humorous song about Stalin and ended up in Kolyma.
Valentyna VLASENKO:
“HE WAS SWOLLEN FROM HUNGER, AND HE DIDN’T GET UP UNTIL HE DIED”
As a result of forced grain procurements and the policy of collectivization carried out by the Soviet authorities in Ukraine, during the winters of 1931-1933, even food grain was confiscated in many collective farms. This led to mass famine, which claimed the lives of millions of people. According to estimates by Ukrainian historians, nearly four million people died in Ukraine from famine in the 1930s.
IDA SHCHUPAK: «WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO ME IF THE CHILDREN HAD FOUND OUT THAT I WAS THE DAUGHTER OF AN ‘ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE’?»
My name is Ida Shchupak. I was born in the city of Bobruisk, which is in Belarus. I lived there for a certain period before the war, and then, at the age of 15, we moved to Ukraine, where I spent my entire conscious life in the city of Zaporizhzhia. In 2002, we immigrated to Canada, to the city of Toronto, where I have been living ever since.
Jack NEUHAUSEN: «…I realized that her entire family was destroyed, and she spent 20 years in prison…»
This is a very interesting and important topic these days. Because people of my generation are probably the last witnesses of the GULAG. People who were either there themselves or communicated with those who were in the camps, who suffered there, who were deported, who ended up there, in that GULAG.
Nestor MYKHAYLECHKO: “This regime, the Soviet regime, was surprisingly cruel towards its people”
This is a tragedy. This is a tragedy of the people. This is the tragedy of this piece of land that was occupied by the USSR. Everyone suffered.
Luba and Aelita FITINGOF:
“When someone knocked on the door, Rosa was hiding in the closet”
My name is Luba Fitingof. This is my sister Alla, Aelita Fitingof.
Our relatives went through the Holocaust and the Gulag. It was a big family — our dad was one of four brothers and they had three sisters. And it’s very interesting that in the same family we had both a communist, a Zionist, and a future capitalist — our dad Benno Fitingof.
Jack Neuhausen: “At school, when running along the corridors with children, he pushed and broke a large bust of Stalin.”
My family was, in fact, unusual. Mom was a Muscovite, a Komsomol member. Dad was a true Riga native. He was taken into the army – into the Soviet army, when the Soviet troops arrived for the first time, in 1939. Even though he was not a citizen of the Soviet Union, he was taken into the army. And this saved him from death. All his relatives died in the Riga ghetto.
Люба и Аэлита ФИТИНГОФ: «Они шли в ботинках, сделанных в Германии. На подошвах — немецкие буквы…»
Меня зовут Люба Фитингоф. Это моя сестра Алла, Аэлита Фитингоф. Мы родились в Риге, в семье, которая прошла Холокост и ГУЛАГ.
Джек НЕЙХАУЗЕН: «Он перебежал границу и сразу сгрохотал на 10 лет»
На этот раз мне очень интересно вспомнить человека, который дважды был в Сибири, дважды был в ГУЛАГе, и оба раза по 10 лет. И даже после этого, он верил в идею коммунизма. Насколько же изувеченным мог быть человек, загипнотизированым, что все эти обманы, испытания, трагедии не смогли сломать мораль человека.
Анатолий и Татьяна ЦАРЁВЫ: «Половина в Ухте сидят, а половина — охраняют»
Я Царев Анатолий, а это моя супруга. Я оказался в Ухте, где-то в седьмом классе, лет мне 15 было. А она родилась в Ухте.
У меня отец и мать работали главными бухгалтерами в “почтовом ящике”. Это тоже система МВД. И когда на Дальнем Востоке закрыли этот “ящик”, их отправили в Ухту.
Дина и Полина Богомазовы: «Когда пришел тридцать седьмой год, против них возбудили дело по подозрению в троцкизме…»
Я всю жизнь прожила в Казани. Я уезжала первый раз в Биробиджан, когда я была замужем за офицером, за военным. Муж служил в ракетной части, я работала в газете “Биробиджанская звезда”.
Елена Берман: “У нас дома никогда не говорили об этом…”
Меня зовут Елена Берман – по мужу, а в девичестве Журавлева Елена Родионовна – по отцу. Жила в городе Хабаровске: выросла, родилась, уехала оттуда, хотя в России, точнее в Советском Союзе, прожили много лет и уехали уже с тремя детьми. Уехали сначала в Израиль, потом в Канаду, и здесь уже живем больше двадцати лет, с 1998 года.
Марат РЕССИН: «…Они были перемолоты физически, но не морально…»”
Вы знаете, мне несколько лет назад пришло письмо по почте, там было написано, что меня избрали, случайным образом, в присяжные заседатели. И там было написано было, что я должен дать им знать, если у меня есть конфликт интересов.
Елена РЕССИНА: «Мама не простила. А я вместе с ней…»
Я родилась в апреле 1937 года. Моя мама, знавшая несколько языков, в то время преподавала русский язык иностранцам. Мой папа был заместителем управляющего Главного управления автотракторной промышленности.
Виталий Колодный: «Как только его арестовали, семью переселили в коммуналку»»
«Архипелаг ГУЛАГ». Я не думал, что это коснется моей семьи тоже. Когда я был маленький, я ничего об этом не знал, ну а позже моя бабушка мне рассказала, что произошло с моим дедом.