I, Jadwiga Ordzińska, married to State Police Sergeant Michał, was arrested on 1 February 1940, and deported with my son and daughter on 13 April 1940 from my house in Złoczowo to Kazakhstan, Kostanay Region, the village of Polownikowa.
They gave us passports there, valid for five years. I could only travel within the area we were in. To travel to the city of Kustanaj one had to have permission from the local NKVD. I didn’t have any information about my husband after he was taken away from Poland to Russia (on 10 June 1940). I stayed in contact with my tenants in Poland, but not with my family.
In the first year, they didn’t want us to work in the kolkhoz. They said that we owned enough things could be sold, so we could live with it. Not until the spring of 1941 did they let us work. My son worked in a so-called kiziak. Later, he worked at the most strenuous fieldwork. Apart from 300 grams of bread and some soup per day, he didn’t get any remuneration. The rest of us lived by selling our things.
I got pneumonia, and my daughter came down with a liver ailment. There was no medical assistance. Living conditions were terrible. Three families, ten people, lived in one small room.
The NKVD authorities’ attitude towards us was very hostile.
After the amnesty, after 7 September 1941, I went to Tashkent, where my children joined the army. I, travelling along with other civilians from Wrewskaj [Wriewskij], left for Persia. I joined the army in Tehran, on 9 June 1942.