Maletskaya Maria Erasmovna

Memoirs cover the entire life of the author. Born in 1914 in a working class family. Place of birth - the village of Vasilevo, Nizhny Novgorod region (now the city of Chkalovsk). Family story. School, technical school (did not finish due to lack of money in the family). Acquaintance with the Leningrad geologist Zenchenko N.A. In 1934, a wedding in Leningrad. Description of the wedding (many friends of the husband). Among the invited director of the Mining Institute Frederiks Georgy Nikolaevich, who will soon be arrested. General shock. Rumors that arrests for "noble origin" began.
Zenchenko's work on the work "Tectonics of the Upper Volga Region", assistance in the work of the author. March 1935, his entry into the party. Celebration of this event in the restaurant "Astoria". General feeling of anxiety and elation. In the same year, the birth of a daughter. A trip with her daughter to her homeland, to Vasilevo. Messages on the radio and in newspapers about Chkalov's flight over the Pole and his return. Chkalov's arrival at home, in Vasilevo. Meeting its inhabitants with bread and salt. Acquaintance with the Leningrad geologist Anatoly Walter, who will become a devoted friend.
Return to Leningrad. A very cheerful meeting of the new, 1937, again with a large company. A trip to a restaurant in carriages drawn by horses decorated with flowers. Zinchenko is selected as a representative to participate in the World Congress of Geologists. Request of foreign scientists for the release of GN Frederiks to participate in this congress. The request did not go unnoticed: on May 25, at the Moscow railway station, a meeting of the scientist with students and researchers. Arrest him at the exit from the car. A sense of further trouble in connection with further arrests.
Expedition of geologists to the Perm region. Making the author a collector in the detachment. A story about life on the expedition. Request for accommodation and food in the village where the sectarians lived. Their hostile attitude towards strangers, the request is denied. In the villages where the dispossessed in 1926 lived, the attitude is friendly.
During one of the halts, Zenchenko was suddenly arrested. Return to Leningrad. Description of the Papanin meeting. Portrait of Schmidt. In the car next to him are two people who look like NKVD workers. In the crowd of people meeting there is talk that he is under house arrest.
Search, presentation of an order to confiscate the husband's property. Sealing the room. On March 15, a call to the NVD department. Formal interrogation, during which investigator Fitialov discreetly handed over to the author a note from her husband saying goodbye “forever” and asking him to hand over his suit and field boots with the investigator. Behind the door, Fitialov secretly makes an appointment and advises him to urgently leave the city.
Night search and morning arrest. The order to leave the child. The author sees tears in the eyes of soldiers, witnesses of the tragedy. "Black Raven". For the first time, a clear idea that "something criminal is happening in the country." An order from a soldier to take the arrested woman to the Arsenal prison. Tram ride. The soldier does not know where the prison is. He goes in search, leaving the author on the embankment. Thought of suicide. But the thought of running is not. The long absence of a soldier. Worry about him. She sees him hiding around the corner of the house. Understanding that he is waiting for her escape. Later, his words that he really wanted it. Her promise to never forget it. Parting near the prison with tears.
Jail. Camera. Acquaintance with the headman Valentina Budyonny (her husband is the chairman of the Kyiv executive committee). In the cell, the majority are “wives of enemies of the people.” During the walk, terrible screams from the basement. This is torture. Rumors that not all escorts agree to attend them.
A secret note from Anatoly Walter that the author's daughter is with a relative in Tyumen.
First interrogation. The message that the husband was sentenced to 10 years without the right to correspond. Sentence to the author - 3 years of correctional camps without the right to correspondence.
Budenny's explanation of how the wives are assigned terms (depending on how many years the spouses lived together before the arrest). The road by train to the camp (Temnikovsky camp, Ryazan region). Description of camp life. Acquaintance with cellmates: Elena Osipova, the wife of a major specialist in the construction of granaries, and Maria Erazmundovna Maletskaya, Chkalov's sister-in-law. The author's story about his countryman Chkalov and Maletskaya's confession that she wrote him a letter asking him to take her son away from the orphanage, but there was no answer.
Memories of Berta Uritskaya, daughter of M.I. (S.?) Uritsky, a smart, intelligent, kind woman. But closed. She said almost nothing about herself. About Valentina Buinova, the wife of the former Minister of Culture. History of her marriage. The news of the death of Chkalov. Women doubt that it was an accident.
Description of work in the camp. Performance of a play-pastoral from the opera The Queen of Spades. New year 1941 celebration. Dancing to the accordion. Theatrical performances were once a month. There are no reports of bullying, rudeness on the part of the authorities. Feeling of fear of release, sadness at parting with women who have become friends. Berta Uritskaya's request to visit her father's grave. Liberation. Arrival to Leningrad. Meeting with relatives. The beginning of the war. Participation in construction work. Bombing. Attempts to get to Leningrad. Poems about this path. Poems about the blockade. Description of further military and post-war life.
The last lines of the manuscript are that the author goes to the Field of Mars, to the grave of Uritsky, that, walking around St. Petersburg, she recalls the past.

The annotation was compiled by Zhidkova T.G.

Budennaya Valentina, Vintilova Valentina, Zenchenko Nikolai Alexandrovich, Kirov Sergey Mironovich, Kurantov Alexey Ivanovich, Kurantov Vasily Alekseevich, Maletskaya Maria Erasmovna, Mushketov, Osipova Elena, Prishchepova Vera, Ryudova Irina, Simbirskaya Antonina, Sirotkin P., Slepnev Fedor Vasilievich, Slepneva Evstoliya Alekseevna, Ter-Asaturova Elena Alexandrovna, Uritskaya Berta Solomonovna, Fitialov, Shlemova Frida, Yatsimirsky

Allik Elizaveta Vasilievna, Bekzadyan Maria Stepanovna (Semyonovna), Bekzadyan Alexander Artemyevich, Bekhtereva Zinaida Vasilievna, Blomberg Lydia, Borovaya Elsa, Budennaya Valentina, Weller Faina Abramovna, Victor Vladimirovich, Vyshinsky Andrey Yanuarievich, Gakmanova Tamara, Guseinova Tamara, David Maria Mikhailovna, Dmitry Vladimirovich, Elena Feodorovna, Iraida Petrovna, Kaykalova Claudia Fedorovna, Klimov, Lisin Ivan Vasilievich, Maletskaya Maria Erasmovna, Markelova Valentina, Nemilov Anton Vitalievich, Nikolai Grigorievich, Pakhomov Vasily Ivanovich, Pakhomov Evgeniy Vasilievich, Pakhomova Nina Vladimirovna, Pakhomova Tatyana Vasilievna, Pugachevskaya Anna Vasilievna, Temkin Ivan Semenovich, Tretyakova Tatyana Nikolaevna, Khlatin, Chkalova Olga Erazmovna, Shkolnikova Zlata, Yasenskaya (Smirennomrenskaya) Elena Viktorovna., Yasnevsky Yuri