Uncle Vanya: Recollections Continued...

My recollections about the suffering of Soviet Germans during de-kulakization, collectivization, deportation to the Trudarmiya, and the komendantura, beginning in 1929

At the end of 1929 and beginning of the 30s, de-kulakization and collectivization began. Who were the “kulaks?” The workers in the villages, the farmers who worked day and night in the fields and who took care of their livestock so they could improve their village lives. Thanks to their tireless work they began to live well. But the other peasants who were not kulaks also had two horses and one cow on their farms were soon arrested and sent to jail. Their property was all confiscated, even the clothes they wore. All members of the family were sent to the northern Urals and the Komi ASSR in the north. Then in the forests the men were united with their families. They were given [sleeping] pallets, axes, saws, shovels. It was in the winter and the guards said that they could use these tools to make their own living quarters. The guards took over what had been built. They threw the pallets into the fire. Some began to live with their families, including children and the elderly.

Then they began to build barracks. Most of them died from starvation and the cold, especially children and the elderly. Then the criminal collectivization began. They forced all the farmers into collectives, seized all the livestock and the farm inventory. They gathered the livestock in groups during the winter, and because of the bad cold and the bad food, most of the livestock died during the winter. That next spring the collective farms didn’t have enough livestock to plant the crops. Then the collective farmers took their own cows away and added them to the village collective in order to have enough for spring planting.

All the churches were closed and the clergy was sent to prison. Churches were used for warehouses, clubs, and dance halls.

Then in 1931-32, they began to replace some of the horses with tractors and the planting went better. Harvests weren’t too bad in 1932 and they gave the collective farmers a little grain for their labours. Then in the winter it was taken away from them because they said they didn’t have enough for planting in the spring. There was famine among the collective farmers and whole families died. They rationed food to 500 grams of bread per woman. In the spring they gave the men ten years prison for keeping grain during the spring planting. Most of them never returned. Then in 1937-38, repressions began again. People were arrested and sent to prison even though they were not guilty. Again, none of them returned.

Next up: Deportation & the GULAG (Thanks to Rick Rye for his translation work)