Demidovich T.I.

The author is a pensioner, a former railway engineer, head of a department at the Omsk Institute of Railway Engineers. The memoirs were written after reading an article in the Izvestia newspaper dated October 7, 1988 entitled "Bitter Memory". A native of Western Belarus, he was repressed in connection with the suspicion that he had been thrown into the Soviet Union in order to overthrow the Soviet regime. The author is a man exhausted not only by being in prison, but also by life's trials that fell to his lot after his release, who received the first group of disability while still in the camp. Hence the excited and very chaotic story of the years spent in the camp and after leaving it.
The beginning of the memoirs is a listing of groups of citizens who were subjected to repression from 1937 to 1945. Arrest on October 5, 1937 during a business trip from Omsk for the reconstruction of the Moscow-Kharkov road. An interrogation during which the screams of a tortured man could be heard from the corridor to the office, where the doors were apparently opened specifically for intimidation. The second interrogation, which was conducted by an investigator known for his sadism. Telling the accused what methods the interrogation will be carried out by: “standing up”, beating, keeping under a cold shower and staying in a pit with fetid water, where he will “die”. After a three-four-day punishment with a “stance”, which was carried out alternately for 24 hours a day by three investigators, almost in an unconscious state, the arrestee confessed to his counter-revolutionary activities. Description of being in a prison cell. Description of the stage preceding the placement in the camp, as a result of which the author's hands and feet were frostbitten, since he was wearing summer clothes, the same as during the arrest, and four kilometers to the station went in forty degrees of frost. Arrival at the Sevzheldorlag camp in January 1938. Description of the monstrous living conditions in it. Ways to which household workers resorted in order not to go to work. Sentencing - 10 years "to be served exclusively in the northern heavy camps." A written message to his wife about the deadline, a request to forget it in the name of his son, to arrange his life in a new way. A story about the ordeals of his wife after his arrest, about her serious illness that led to death, about her son, who ended up in an orphanage. Transfer from Sevzheldorlag to Ukhtizhimlag for designing work on the construction of a railway in the area where Ukhta oil and radium were mined. Appointment to a very responsible position of the head of the production and technical part of the construction site. Recognition of his project as extremely successful, for which a small (compared to the bonus to the chief boss) amount of 75 rubles was paid. Sending the bulk of the earnings to the family while they were still living at home. The struggle between Ukhtizhimlag and Sevzheldorlag for a valuable engineer. Transfer of the author again to Sevzheldorlag. Arriving at the camp for a date with his wife at a time when the author fell ill with dysentery. Provision for a visit by the camp doctor of his office. The expulsion of his wife from the camp by the atrocious chief, who learned about it. Famine in the camp. Death of people from scurvy and pellagra. Two terrible cases: a starving camper eats a live kitten in front of people, and the lads eat the corpse of a man who has just fallen from the bridge down where work was going on. Eating morels in the spring, from which some died due to the inability and inability to cook them. The certainty that, if not for the engineering work, death would be inevitable in a few months. Obtaining the first group of disability. Chamber for the dying. Unauthorized departure from the hospital for several hours (there was a pass) to eat taiga berries, which were abundant in the forest, thanks to which he did not die.
1942 - the end of camp life. Inability to get a job after imprisonment. Teaching ban. Living in a cousin's house with his son taken from an orphanage. The request of the poet Yakub Kolos, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR, a relative of the author, to the Supreme Soviet of Belarus for the restoration of the author in the school, which was granted. A court case regarding the inheritance, as a result of which an unfair decision was made, according to which Birulya had to pay for the lawsuit brought against him for many years. Again the decision of the district committee of the party to ban him from teaching. The intercession of the secretary of the regional committee, since positive feedback was given from the school about the work of the author. The requirement of the NKVD on the periodic submission of characteristics from work. The admission of the son, who graduated from school with a medal, to the institute. Rehabilitation after the death of Stalin. Retirement. Despite the fact that the author approached in his memoirs to sum up his life, a sudden transition again to the description of the camp days. About the attempts of the prisoners to start a rebellion, which ended badly for them. About the secret, closed camp, the requirements for the brigades working on the railway to lie down and not look when the prisoners being transported were unloaded from the trains. Rumors that they did not work there, and the camp itself was destroyed. An insignificant part of the people was sent to Kolyma and Vorkuta, the rest died on the spot. Information about the fate of repressed relatives and friends. Again, the return of memories to the sad fate of his wife, about his camp correspondence with the teacher of the orphanage, where his son was, about her dismissal from work for this. The author's lament that no one was punished for unfair arrests and horrendous treatment of innocent people in the camps. The story is about one case that happened in the camp with the author during his work on construction and which almost led to another court case.
The end of memories - a message about fellow villagers of the village of Nikolaevshchina, who fled from the Polish lords in the 20s to the Soviet Union and who suffered in 1937: who was shot, who died in prisons and camps.

The annotation was compiled by Zhidkova T.G.

Andreev Andrey Andreevich, Anna Abramovna, Attrevich (Atperevich), Birulya Leonid Mikhailovich, Biryukova, Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich, Mountain, Gusarevich, Demidovich Lyubov Petrovna, Demidovich T.I., Drobyshev, Drozdovsky, Ermakovich Lydia, Zhelezko, Kartashov, Kwiatkovsky, Klyuchkin Iosif Ilyich, Kolas Yakub, Krasnoshtan, Krivel Ivan Pavlovich, Loiko Adam, Lukovskaya, Mazur, Maiko, Markelov, Mironenko, Mitskevich Valentina Mikhailovna, Mitskevich Vladimir, Mitskevich Ignatius Yurievich, Moroz Yakov Moiseevich, Ovchinnikov, Osipova, Parkhomenko E.M., Pisarchuk, Puchkov Ivan, Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich, Tadarsky, Khrushchev Nikita Sergeevich, Shamshin, Shchemin, Jacobi Jacob, Yatskovsky Alexander