1. Personal data:
Gunner Konstanty Janowski, 22 years old, student.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested while crossing the border to Romania on 1 January 1940 by the Soviet border guards.
3. Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:
After being arrested, I was put in a prison in Kolomyya, and then sent to a prison in Stanisławów. I stayed four months in prison in Poland. From Stanisławów I was deported to Dnipropetrovsk, where an investigation was carried out and I was sentenced to three years of heavy labor in the North. I spent six months in Dnipropetrovsk. From there, I was sent to Kharkiv, and then to forced labor camps in the North, in the Arkhangelsk Oblast.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
The camp was situated in the forest, in swampy and malarial terrain. The barracks were old and dirty. We lived in poor conditions; the hygienic conditions were bad.
5. Prisoner composition:
Ukrainians, Cossacks, Uzbeks, Georgians, and Romanians. They served time with us for crossing the border, for theft, or [they were] political prisoners. Intellectual standing was average. Mutual relations were usually poor.
6. Life in the camp:
Conditions poor, remuneration dependent on the quotas attained. Quota norm was 100 percent. Food was bad, clothes were ragged, and there was no social life; good [spirits] among fellow people.
7. Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles:
Ruthless. Vicious interrogation methods, tortures at night to scare us. Information about Poland: they said we’d never see Poland again.
8. Medical assistance:
[Overall] good. Care in the hospital was good, [but] mortality was high.
9. Contact with family:
I received letters from Russia and from my mother, who was also exiled.
10. Released:
31 August 1941. I got into the army with the help of Soviet authorities.