Сочинение "День памяти и скорби" 28 декабря
статья (11 класс) на тему

Iki-Burul secondary school of A. Pyurbeev

SIBERIAN MEMORY’S BOOK

                                                  Written by KadghikovaDayana

                                                  10-th “a” grade

Iki-Burul secondary school of A. Pyurbeev

Teacher: Petkieva G. A.

                                             2013

                                       There is no guilty nation

There is the one who is guilty in the tragedy of the nation

D. Kugultinov

December 28, 1943 is the most tragic day in the history of the Kalmyk folk. On that day on direct orders of the Soviet leader Stalin the widespread deportation of the Kalmyks and the elimination of the national autonomy began. All the people were charged with collaboration with the fascists. There is no family in the republic that wouldn’t have incurried loss in those terrible days, full of pain and suffering. This tragedy touched my family too.

My grandmother,Mandghieva Kermen, was only six years old in 1943. She doesn’t like to tell about those days. She was just a little girl but her memories are very vivid as well as her feelings. Every time there are tears in her eyes when she begins her narration: “It was an early frosty morning and we were still sleeping when some people in military clothes broke into the house ordering to gather quickly only the essentials. They gave us only a few minutes for it. Mum managed to gather some food, clothes. The soldiers didn’t explain anything to us, even where and why we were sent. Under escort my mom, sister, little brother and me were pushed into a big car, covered with tarpaulin, and taken to the station Divnoe. I remember that there were so many people whose faces were frightened. Everywhere a baby cry was heard. We were waded into dirty cattle cars and driven to Siberia. The way there was very long.

It was awfully cold in the train. My hands and legs got numb. There was an iron stove in the middle, the only one in the whole carriage. We ate frozen food and hadn’t also enough water, that’s why we were hungry and thirsty. Sometimes the train stopped and the soldiers allowed us to come off to get some food and boild water. People in the carriage died one after another: from hunger, cold and diseases. The soldiers dumped corpses on the snow, without giving relatives to bury them. My little brother couldn’t stand the cold. One day he didn’t wake up, he froze. I remember Mum’s crying. I was terribly scared”

According to my grandmother, they came to Omsk region, to the village Sherbakulsky. As soon as they arrived, they were unloaded in a big building. The soldiers gave them few boiled potatoes. They spent a night there. Next morning they were broughtto huts by sledge. On that day granny’s mother began to work. She had different jobs: herded cows, worked on a milk farm, drove a lorry.

My grandmother didn’t finish the first class because her younger sister also went to school and the clothes weren’t enough for them. When she was 10, she started to work to help her mother in weeding potatoes and wheat. ”We gathered frozen potatoes, from which Mum made tortillas; she worked as a milkmaid then and sometimes stealthily brought milk. Local people at first were afraid of us, they thought that the Kalmyks were “cannibals” and “enemies of the homeland”. Soon they realized that we were the same as they and otherwise helped to survive giving food and clothes. The Russians, the Germans, the Latvians, the Kalmyks didn’t divide each other by nationality. Gradually life in Siberia was adjusted.I began to work as a milkmaid. For my good work I even encouraged wristwatches”

In March 1957 it was announced that the Kalmyks could return to their homeland. Everybody met the news with a great joy, people were crying from happiness, including my family.  Returning to Kalmykia my relatives settled in the village Shatta and my grandparents continue living here.

70 years have passed after that horrible day when people of Kalmyk nationality were packed into cargo wagons and transported to various locations in Siberia. Around 50% of 120000 Kalmyk people deported to far lands died from cold, hunger, diseases. Stalin hoped that all people would die out. But my proud and courageous folk overcame all the difficulties and survived. The young generation must not forget those awful days and keep them in memory. Such things mustn’t

happen in future. History of a country consists of histories of a lot of families. I have written the history of my family into Siberian memory’s book.

In conclusion, I’d like to put an extract from the poem of Mateo Mansilla Moya. It is about, how people subjected to deportation, feel. I think my grandmother and all the Kalmyks felt the same feelings: fear, pain, resentment, frustration and misunderstanding.

Have you ever thought about going to an unknown                                                                      and dangerous place spontaneously?
Have you ever felt what it feels like when you have                                                                           to empty your whole apartment in one night?
Have you ever thought about leaving all                                                                               you have behind, just like that?
Have you ever felt what it feels like that                                                                                  your world stops spinning but everybody else’s keeps on going?
Have you ever felt what it feels like that                                                                                      your whole life has changed in less than a day?
Have you ever felt what it feels like that all                                                                             your plans for the future won’t be the way you planned them?
Have you ever felt what it feels like that                                                                                  you don’t know what you will do with your life?
Have you ever been… deported?