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20 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИСТОПАД 2011 time they were given to pack their belongings, and what v aluables could peasants even take with them? All they took was some food and warm clothes, most of which were taken away right there, at the station, by the locals themselves... The journey was long and slow, with few stops for dropping off those who had died of hunger, diseases, and the cold. They were predominantly the elderly and kids. The train left in the fall and arrived at its final destination in the middle of winter with freezing temperatures and snow up to one’s waist. My relatives were unloaded in the Arkhangelsk oblast, not far from the village of Plesetsk — right into the snow. Most have probably heard of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome — the largest in the Russian Fede - ration — bu t few people know on whose bones it was built. That winter took the lives of very many people. They were dropped in the middle of a dense forest, with snow reaching up to their necks. In these inhuman conditions, the deportees had to hastily build some sor t of a shelter for themselves (these were huts made out of pine - tree branches, resembling Native American wigwams – ed.) so that they could get to work felling trees as a form of “penance” for their supposed crimes against the proletarian state. The “crime ” committed was a desire to work on one’s own land rather than on the collective farm. Every morning all the deportees were herded to work in the forest. Only infants and toddlers were allowed to remain on the bunk - beds. Children who fell out of their b unks would be eaten by foxes and other animals, which could easily get into the huts. More than once upon their return, parents would find only a small pile of bones on the floor... Other adults did not have an easier lot. Few made it till the spring. People would die both from hard labor and from the extreme cold. My aunt Halia (Hanna, according to the Soviet documents) was among those who died in the North. She was only four. My aunt Olia, who passed away in 2008, had told me that every spring, not just o nce or twice, a terrible famine would begin, and entire families died of scurvy and malnutrition. She also told me about some of the shocking “culinary” tastes they had developed, which enabled them to survive: she “liked” to eat tree bark, and my mother “ preferred” grass and moss. They were twelve and ten years old respectively. These remote locations in the north of Russia were filled with Ukrainians. I now remember that the deportees communicated with each other mostly in Ukrainian, and the Ukrainian l ast names of our neighbors are still fresh in my memory. Officially, we were referred to as “relocated kulaks and members of their families”... This was the title written on the cardboard cover of a hefty case file which upon my petition, the Arkhangelsk Of fice of Internal Affairs sent to Kyiv in 1994. “Personal dossier of relocated kulak P.A. Petrenko” was the name of my grandfather’s file. Grandpa told me that this tragedy struck our family because of his love for horses. He had a pair of stallions that w ere perhaps the best in the village. The village council chairman liked them a lot and suggested to my grandfather several times that he should give them up. Grandpa refused, as it was impossible to live in the country without the pulling power of these an imals. Had he only known how this story would end! When Stalin’s order about deporting the “ kulak contingent” arrived, and the local authorities subservient to him began to compile lists, my grandfather’s was one of the first names listed. Others, who for this or that reason fell out of favor with the chairman, were included as well. And so it was that my family with little children was driven out of their house and sent off to die without trial or charges. Such was Stalin’s justice! But it wasn’t only St alin... In my grandfather’s dossier, I found the following phrase: “In accordance with the decision of the Lekhnivka Village Council to deport outside the oblast boundaries...” I was not allowed to make a copy of this document even in 1994 — several My grandparents Pavlo and Oksana Petrenko in exile, 1949 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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