A NEIGHBOR IN A TRAIN TO SIBERIA

Destiny: Krasnoyarsk

It was on the way to Krasnoyarsk (one of a bigger cities in the middle of Siberia) when we met Baba (grandma) Zoya. She was an elderly woman with lots of energy, who hardly looked or acted like she was 75 years old.  From the moment we boarded the train she decided to take charge of us and make sure that we did not go hungry, were comfortable, and had all of the necessary information about Krasnoyarsk and “The Stolby” National Park where we were headed. Unlike most people of her age in Russia, Zoya was very supportive of our expedition around the world and wanted to know every detail of its implementation.  Since we had over 50 hours to share on the train before we reached our destination, there was enough time for us to tell her about our adventures, and also learn about Zoya’s life story.

Transiberian Locomotive

Zoya was already on the train when we boarded in Nizhniy Novgorod. She was coming on trains all the way from Poland, where she was helping two of her grandsons with their young children. This was the way Zoya spent her summers for the last several years, returning to Siberia for the cold months where she was of help to her other family members. Baba Zoya, as many in Siberia, was Russian by birth but not by blood. Her parents were Finish forcefully send to Siberia during the period of Russian occupation of Finland at the end of the 19^th century. Zoya’s husband (whom she lost 12 years earlier) was also a foreigner who had suffered from the Soviet repressions. In 1948, at the age of 17 he (together with his whole family) was send to Vorkuta labor camps where he spent 10 years per his sentence of “an English Spy”.  Somehow this English spy did not know a word of English, let alone Russian, which he ended up learning during his sentence. His story was no different from the other Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Finish, Ukrainians and other foreigners in those camps. Most of them were forcefully captured and sent to Siberia after the Soviet Union gained control of their countries.  The majority was considered political prisoners and was forced to settle in Siberia after their camp sentences, as they were not allowed to return to their countries. Not everyone survived the camps but Zoya’s husband was one of the lucky ones to make it. He owed his survival to an Estonian fellow prisoner who rescued him during a work accident. Helping each other was prohibited at the camps, and for the rest of his life Zoya’s husband wandered whether his Estonian friend sacrificed himself and in the end was executed for saving his friend’s life. After 10 years of forced labor Zoya’s husband made Krasnoyarsk his home where, alongside with Zoya, he spent all of his life. He was rehabilitated and allowed to visit his motherland Poland only after the fall down of the Soviet Empire, 44 years after his involuntary resettlement.

Three generations later life took a full circle, and it is ironic that Poland is the country where Zoya’s grandsons chose to build their lives now… They have a choice now, they are lucky.

Another Transiberian Locomotive

Another story that Zoya told me was about her neighbor Baba Lena. This Ukrainian woman ended up in Siberia the same way as Zoya’s husband, through the labor camps. When the Soviets came with their nationalization reforms, Lena’s husband along with his brothers and their families were executed. Lena managed to escape with her baby son Kolya. For a few days she found refuge at a house of a distant relative in town, but the fear of hiding someone wanted by the system was so strong that the relatives denounced Lena. She was separated with her son and send to the camps in Siberia. The only thing that kept Lena pushing through the 10 year sentence was the hope of reuniting with her son. However, this was not going to happen that quickly. Shortly before the date of Lena’s release, without any explanation her sentence was extended by another 15 years. There was nothing else that Lena could do but continue pushing and waiting for the nightmare to end. 25 years later when she was finally out Lena’s luck changed and she was able to find her baby-boy who by now was a grown married man.  Nevertheless, the happy reunion was brief, as it turned out that Kolya was married to a local political activist of the communist party. With such a high profile communist wife it was unthinkable for Kolya to openly receive his ex-political prisoner mother at his house. From then and until the day Lena died Kolya visited his mother secretly at Zoya’s residence.

Krasnoyarsk

Baba Zoya told us many other Siberian stories, but she was hesitant about me writing them down. “You’d better not.” – she said to me, “You never know…”. This “you never know” fear followed Zoya and her generation their whole lives. Repressions and labor camps teach you how to keep quiet and not have opinions… Zoya is still careful of what she says and whom she says it to. I wander if after generations of such pathological fear it is something that is in the Russian blood that makes people chose to keep to their private lives refraining from public expressions of their opinion. In Russia we have always considered the government to be a separate entity, which is more of a regulatory institution to keep people in check. Somehow, the government monster is never there for you, but rather, after you. I guess, we are not the country where the “government is by the people, and for the people”, and it is sad.