Section Leader Eugenia Plutecka. I was born in 1923, and arrested on 10 February 1940 with my family. I was taken to forced labor in the forest to the Arkhangelsk Oblast, to the Obil posyolek [settlement]. The posyolek was located far from the cities and even from the kolkhoz, out in the marsh, so there was constantly nothing but mud and swarms of mosquitoes. I lived in a cold barrack where, through the walls, you could see what was going on in the yard. Filth, bedbugs, lice, and cockroaches everywhere.
There were around 500 people of Polish nationality at that posyolek, mostly settler families, the others were workers. Lots of young people from secondary schools. Young people conducted meetings with the participation of the older ones. Life in the camp was miserable, we worked in the forest all day, with a brief respite at dinner. In summer, I earned 80 kopecks a day.
It was hard to get clothes, as you could only buy them if you filled the work quota. We were very often short of bread, and products were very few as well. There were weeks when in the stolovoy [canteen], we could only get a very thin soup with no fat for 9 kopecks.
For not going to work, one was punished by being put in a cell. Poles were accused during political talks of acting against the interests of the Soviets. Majka Andrzejewska and Stanisław Sierocki were arrested for singing Polish songs.
The Soviets spread communist propaganda in every possible way, during every moment of rest they would talk to Poles about Communism. They established a school for children at the posyolek and gave lessons in Russian.
Medical aid was poor, the hospital was 40 kilometers from the posyolek, it was difficult to reach it, and even then, sometimes there weren’t enough places. Very many people died: Aleksander Nowakowski, Agnieszka Spychalska, Szustowska, Koziarski, Gryszczukowa, Derkacz, and many, many others, whose names I obviously cannot remember.
From Poland, I received letters from my family until the outbreak of the Soviet-German war.
I was released in September 1941, I joined the army in Teheran. I left Russia as a civilian.