Personal data: Rifleman Andrzej Kotulski, 39 years old, farmer, married, one child aged 4; Staff Company of the Reserve Unit Command A.
On 10 February 1940 I was deported by the Bolsheviks, together with my family consisting of my wife, child, and father, and with a transport of settlers and foresters from the village of Wiszniowa, district of Rohatyn, Stanisławowskie Voivodeship. I don’t know why I was deported, because they didn’t tell me. In 1931 I had bought 16.8 acres of land in the Wądolina estate from Tadeusz Kowalski. Before the war in 1939 I had a complete and functioning farmstead. I had a dwelling house with one room, a kitchen, and utility rooms; three cows, two calves, a horse, forty chickens, and five geese. I also had the following farming tools: a threshing machine, treadmill, chaff-cutter, winnower for grain, cart, plow, and so on. Seventeen other farmers had bought land from the same landowner – Kowalski – and we were all deported together.
Briefly regarding the method of deportation: On 10 February 1940, at 4.00 a.m. (it was still completely dark), two NKVD men and two local Ukrainian militia officers came by car. They woke us up and thoroughly searched us and our house, claiming that they were looking for weapons. Even though they were looking for weapons, they took 300 zlotys in silver from my closet. I did not get a receipt for this money, and I only realized it was missing after the search. I think that it was stolen by one of the men who conducted the search. Overwhelmed by the news that they were going to deport me and my family, I didn’t report this theft. We had 25 minutes to pack. My whole family was allowed to bring luggage weighing up to five poods (80 kilograms) in total. I took several poods of flour and some clothes – this is what we had in our possession while being taken away. At the Bukaczowce railway station we were loaded into freight wagons – 34 people with their luggage in each wagon (they were Polish goods cars, 10– 15 tons), including infants. In my wagon there were four infants, four elderly people including my 85-year-old father, women, and men. The winter was very harsh. Although we had a small heating stove made out of steel, there was not enough space by the stove for most people, so they were freezing. People’s hair and clothing would regularly freeze to the walls of the wagons while they slept. I can’t describe in detail what happened in other wagons, for there were many of them. What is more, once we were put inside, the wagons were locked and guarded by soldiers who stood outside. No one was allowed to leave. We were deported to the Sverdlovsk Oblast. The journey lasted about a month. Due to frosts and illnesses, a dozen or so people died during the transport. I remember only the death of a two-year-old child of Jan Lachowicz from the district of Rohatyn. I would like to add that at the Polish-Soviet border we were loaded onto a Russian train. The floor of the wagon in which I was travelling with my family was covered with a layer of horse manure that was 10 centimeters thick. When the temperature inside the wagon increased, the manure started to melt and steam, producing an unbearable stench. We were unloaded at the Kaganowicz railway station, district of Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Oblast. We were placed in wooden barracks in the forest. On average 10 to 15 people lived in rooms five square meters in size. The stoves were faulty, so water in the apartment regularly froze up. In general – the barracks were filthy and infested with a multitude of bedbugs. Every man and woman aged 15 to 60 was obliged to carry out forestry work and load wood, for there were no other tasks. We received no material help – neither in cash nor in kind. A person’s earnings consisted of 2–30 rubles a fortnight, depending on their strength and suitability for physical labor.
Those who worked were allowed to use the canteen for a fee. A breakfast consisting of fish soup or oat kasha cost 2 rubles. Dinner and supper cost the same. The food was insufficient, because we were still hungry despite having eaten. On top of that, for most of us who did not have money from the home country the canteen was off limits. Apart from the canteen, there was also a shop where one could buy 500 grams of bread a day for the price of 95 kopecks per kilogram. The conditions were so hard that within less than two years over 50 people died in this settlement. There were families which lost several members. Those in which no one died were very few.
I can’t provide the full list of names of the deceased. I remember the following deaths in the district of Rohatyn:
1. two children of Michał Występek – a five- and an eight-year-old – and Występek’s mother-in-law, aged 60;
2. Puchara’s wife, aged about 30, and two of their children: a one-year-old and a four-year-old;
3. Szczur’s son, aged about 21;
4. Kiepura’s child, aged about 2;
5. Zagórski, aged about 60;
6. Szkretka, aged about 60– 65;
7. Wawrzyniec Stec’s child, aged about 2;
8. two children of Jan Tencza, aged 5 and 3, and Tencza himself, aged about 50;
9. Malec’s one-year-old child;
10. Polański’s wife – about 23 years old ¬– and one of their children. Two other young
children remained alive;
11. Zieliński’s two children, aged about 5 and 8;
12. a two-year-old child of Józef Krzyżak;
13. four children of Reguła – two adult and two under-aged;
14. Kobalarz’s wife, aged about 30, and a child aged 12;
15. Kazimierz Lachowicz, aged about 65;
16. Marcin Szwed, aged about 55;
17. Lenier’s one-year-old child;
18. Drozd’s mother, aged about 58;
19. Pług, aged about 30, and one of his children – a one-year-old.
I couldn’t list even half of the dead, because I didn’t know them well. I list the surnames, because I don’t remember their names. The mortality rate was the highest among children and the elderly – due to constant malnourishment. Because of that, most people fell ill with scurvy, commonly called tsinga. I had scurvy for six months and nearly died. I left the home country in perfect health and now I have category D.
Medical assistance was very poor and there was a shortage of medicine. Hospitals were overcrowded and only people in a hopeless condition were admitted. This is why barely anyone came out of the hospitals.
After the signing of the treaty between the Polish and Soviet governments the amnesty was announced. However, it was difficult to leave and join the army, for they didn’t want to pay us our earnings.
I managed to get out of there in January. I joined a Division of the Polish army on 23 February 1942. I would like to point out that over a thousand people stayed back there, for they didn’t manage to leave.