Arkhangelsky Yuri Dmitrievich

The memoirs cover the author's life until 1951, when he, who spent more than 5 years in a camp in Kolyma and worked there on a freelance basis after his release, was allowed to go on vacation to Leningrad.
The beginning of the memoirs is a story about a search and arrest in 1938 in the dormitory of the Textile Institute, where the author studied. The offer of the escort to betray the message to the author's sister about his arrest, which he subsequently did. After the words of the enkavedeshnik that you don’t need to take anything with you, the intervention of the janitor-witness, who named the things that you can take, including a blanket, for which the author was later very grateful to him.
The cell in the Big House with an area of ​​​​one square. meter, where it was possible to squat alternately with another prisoner. A humiliating examination of the prisoners stripped naked. Again the same cell, where already three people are standing, huddled together.
Transfer to a common cell, where instead of the prescribed 13 people, 107 were arrested. Because of the stuffiness and crowding, people in the same underwear. Movement in a circle two people in a row. A brief description of the inhabitants of the chamber, many of whom have held prominent social positions in the recent past. Filling the daytime with conversations, memories distracting from waiting for night calls for interrogation. Provision of beds (there are seven in total) to prisoners who were beaten during interrogations or suffered “big racks” (standing for 20 days [is it? - ed.]). The screams of the tortured during night interrogations.
Advice to the author of cellmates "weaker in spirit" to confess everything, as they will torment and make a cripple for life. Beating during the first night of interrogation. Demand to confess to counter-revolutionary activities. Further torture during the week. The accusation of espionage in favor of Poland, of transferring information to the Polish consul about the construction of submarines and the repair of ships at the Baltic Shipyard. Refusal to sign the charge. The threat of the investigator to send to "Shanghai". Horror of torture in "Shanghai", which the author heard about. Advice from comrades to sign the charge. The hope of the author that later he will be able to prove the absurdity of the accusation in court. Sending the author to Shanghai. His description. On the table is a bundle of wires for electric torture. The confession of the investigator that he knows about the innocence of the prisoner, but "so it is necessary for the Soviet government." Signature of the author under the indictment. Feeling broken.
Transfer to "Crosses", before that, a farewell speech to cellmates, with whom the author was connected by fraternal feelings. Description of the cell, where there are three beds for 16 people. Night torment from a huge number of bedbugs. Friendly relations with the architect N.E. Lansere, who was tortured during interrogations so that he would “give incriminating materials on the writer Alexei Tolstoy”, but did not achieve anything. Retellings by the author Lansere of Polish novels, lectures by Lansere on painting and architecture to the author. Conversations, peaceful disputes of prisoners, tapping with neighbors. Accusations against Yezhov, confidence that Stalin does not know about the enormity of what is happening. Wardens selling week-old newspapers at a very high price. Exposure of the informer, who reported that a hacksaw appeared in the cell and the headman (the author was) uses it if necessary. Unsuccessful search in the cell. Demands to transfer the informer (under the pretext that he allegedly committed theft) to another cell. On the refusal of the authorities, an ultimatum - they will go on a hunger strike. Fulfilling the prisoners' demand, but nagging the author for standing up on his bunk to look "at a small piece of the sky." Transferring him to a punishment cell for 10 days. Description of the punishment cell (stone bag). Once a day, a cup of water and a ration of bread.
The appearance of vain hopes for release in 1938 in connection with the removal of Yezhov.
In December (5 months after the arrest) a call to the investigator, who demanded to sign the author's previous testimony - his refusal. Threats from the side of the investigator, but still (after the removal of Yezhov) not physical coercion. Departure of the investigator who locked the author in a cold cell for the night. The cries of the author, demanding the head of the corps. Transfer by the chief to the cell. The last interrogation in the "Crosses" (already without bullying). The author's demands to show him his work. In the case, six students gave positive feedback, and not a single compromising one. Investigator's statement that the author will be given five years. Perplexity that punishment will follow without any trial. The thought that "someone at the top just went crazy."
The retelling of events is interrupted by information about the life preceding the arrest. The author was born in 1906 in Belarus in the family of a printing worker. The mention that the older brother died during the civil war, the middle one worked in the Cheka, was the commissar of the food detachment, died of typhus, three of the mother's brothers were also Chekists, and one of them died in 1937.
In connection with the establishment of the Polish-Soviet border in 1921, the village where the author lived ended up on Polish territory. The loss of the Soviet pension by the father, because of which the family lived from hand to mouth. The author's service in the Polish army, the return field work in France in coal mines, as the family was in poverty. Petition within two years for the possibility of returning to the USSR, obtaining citizenship. Before leaving France, a visit to the cinema where the communists gathered, which caused an enthusiastic feeling of confidence that "communism is what humanity needs."
After arriving in St. Petersburg, he worked as an apprentice turner at the Baltic Plant, a workers' faculty, studied at the Textile Institute, which was interrupted due to arrest.
In July 1939, the sentence was 5 years in labor camps in Kolyma. Transit prison. Date with wife and mother.
Train. Description of the wagon. Poor food. Letters-triangles, thrown into the hatch in the middle of the car (the letters have reached!). Author's dysentery. Sanitary checkpoint in Omsk, where the author was carried on a stretcher.
Transit camp "Second River" near Vladivostok. Appointment of the author as headman. The main contingent is "educated and intelligent people." A month later, the ship "Dalstroy", heading to the bay of Nagaevo. There are about 5,000 people on board, unloaded from barges. Appointment of the author as headman.
Magadan. Brief description of the city. Sending arrived prisoners to gold and tin mines. The work of the author in the brigade involved in maintaining the Tenkinskaya highway in a passable state. His appointment as foreman. Exhausting work. After three days of work without a break, the brigade refused to continue working. The author was punished as a foreman by a punishment cell, in which, like on the street, it was 40 degrees, where he spent three days and from where he was taken out on a stretcher.
Digression in the narrative with a description of the Kolyma region and the life of prisoners there. A few words about the chiefs of Dalstroy: about Berzin, under whom the life of prisoners improved somewhat until 1937, when he was summoned to Moscow (E.P. Berzin was shot in 1938 - ed.); about Nikishov, who had the nickname Ivan the Terrible because of the ferocity of his character; about the head of USVITL Garanin, on whose conscience there were many hundreds of thousands of victims. A story about what "garaninism" is - those who did not fulfill the norm were taken to Serpantinka and shot. Closing of the Tenkinskaya highway due to snow drifts. The work of prisoners to clear the road. Refusal of the criminal to collect firewood to kindle the stove, for which the author, who had suffered from criminals during his imprisonment, struck him a strong blow in the face. After the widespread rumor that the foreman was a “beast”, he was appointed head of the road clearing section, where there were mostly criminals.
Sending the author to build a bridge across the Arman River. Appointment of his link in the caisson work. Recognition by the authorities of rationalization in the work of caisson workers, which in fact was the result of their oversight. Rewarding a kilogram of flour for each of the members of the link. Appointment of the author as a senior for caisson work.
A week after the start of the war, the author and several other people were sent without explanation to another camp, where there was a cruel regime, many watchtowers with guards, where people were shot at without warning. In August, the arrival of a commission that gathered Poles, of whom there were many in this camp, into Anders' army.
The transfer on foot of the remaining prisoners, among whom was the author, to the most terrible of those where he visited, the camp. Two months later, out of two hundred people, one hundred remained - the rest died of starvation.
Escape from the camp of the author, who accidentally found out from the conversation of the Vokhrovites that a major of the NKVD had come on a business trip with the task of recruiting machine operators among the prisoners. Persecution of the author, running through the taiga, by a Vokhrovets.
By order of the major, sending the author to the central car repair shops. Turner work. The transfer of the author to a barracks where privileged prisoners lived and where conditions were better than in other barracks. Thanks to fate for having the opportunity to communicate with educated people.
Multiple cases of poisoning of prisoners with American transformer oil, on which they toasted bread. The decision of the authorities to organize health centers, because, firstly, a huge number of people were dying, but it was necessary to save labor for gold mining, and secondly, American food began to flow into the camp, partially unloaded in the port of Nagaevo.
Meeting with Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Zavenyagin, who shook the author's hand and to whom he turned to ask why he ended up in the camp. According to the author, Zavenyagin's fate was not much better than his own.
In 1943, the end of the term of imprisonment, but only criminals were released.
The arrival of the women's stages, consisting of girls who fled from the factories to their village because of the terrible living conditions in the barracks and hunger, and women who gathered spikelets in the fields after harvesting.
At the end of the term, freelance work at the Sopronensky plant, first as a technologist, then as a shop manager. The arrival of his wife and daughter. The work of his wife as an engineer at the same plant.
The author's sympathy for former prisoners of war who replenished the camps after the war. A story about the fate of such a prisoner of war who worked at the same factory as the author. A camp in Germany for refusing to work for the Germans, an escape, after his capture, a penal camp, again an escape, captured by the Gestapo, after the end of the war in the American zone, an offer from the Americans to stay with them, which he refuses, as he is in a hurry home, after returning camp in Kolyma.
Moving to Magadan, work as head of production. Acquaintance with Ginzburg E.S., the author of The Steep Route, her husband Walter A.Ya., their son Vasily Aksenov, who studied in the last grade at the same school with the author’s daughter.
In 1951, filing an application for leave "on the mainland". Refusal, as the author is a former prisoner. Sending the family on vacation, filing an application with the head of the KGB Dalstroy with a request to sort it out. Call to the Magadan Big House. Three hours of interrogation, after which the author was released. Two months later, another call to the Big House and permission to leave.

The annotation was compiled by Zhidkova T.G.

Arkhangelsky Yuri Dmitrievich, Berzin Eduard Petrovich, Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich, Bernardelli, Vyatkin Viktor Semenovich, Garanin Stepan Nikolaevich, Ginzburg Evgenia Semenovna (Solomonovna), Grinko Grigory Fedorovich, Dubovik Alexander Emelyanovich, Dubovik Vasily Emelyanovich, Dubovik Vladimir Emelyanovich, Yezhov Nikolay Ivanovich, Zavenyagin Avraamy Pavlovich, Ionov, Kalinin Mikhail Ivanovich, Lansere Nikolay Evgenievich, Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, Nikishov Ivan Fyodorovich, Oding August Janovich, Rau, Salman Robert Ilyich, Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich, Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich, Ushakov, Fradkin Isaac Naumovich, Furin, Chudnov Nikolai Nikolaevich