Ivan Patanen About political crimes in
the rural district of Kuzemkino: The great political repressions against the Inkeris in our district were preceded by the collectivisation of the beginning of the 30-ties. Although people were forced to unite in kolkhoz-farms, they tried to create a better life under new conditions there because they were accustomed to hard agricultural work. The arrests started, their hope and plans ended with fear to get into the ranks of "kulaks" [the word kulak "fist" means "a rich farmer exploiter" in the Soviet jargon], "spies"or similar "enemies of the people", constantly invented by N.K.V.D. I was a schoolboy at that time and remember that there was a considerably peaceful period till 1934, if not to mention several men arrested as spies. Thus Mathew Venno from the village Great Kuzemkino was arrested in 1933 due to the faked denunciation of Ferdinand Simson. Simson was a collaborator of the frontier-guards and their agent, who subsequently became a punitive executor at Nazis' commandos after 1941. Because of his denunciation, M.Venno spent 12 years in prison but returned home only in 1957 after Stalin's death. M.Venno appeared to be the single in the whole district who survived Stalin's concentration camps. He should have been shot to death in 1941 in case the Germans had not been driven away from Moscow. He awaited the shooting together with a group of his ward-mates but the order from Moscow did not come. Nevertheless the situation at the front was not the single purpose of mass shootings. Other purposes might be also celebration of anniversaries of the revolution or the birthdays of Stalin and Lenin. The said arrests before 1934 was only a "dress rehearsal"of mass repressions which started with the murder of Kirov on 1 December 1934. All people who had gone that day to Leningrad were arrested as accomplices of the murder. The best kolkhoz-farmers, the most able-bodied men were arrested in villages under the accusation of the espionage, sabotage, counter-revolutionary activities. They could not know that their fate had been predestined by the order from Moscow, naming concrete numbers of the victims. These numbers were: 4000 to be shot to death, 8000 to be placed into concentration camps (cf. E.Lunin, The butchers are clean of blood (in Russian). Sankt-Peterburg 1996, 12). The kolkhoz-farms remained without workers. In April 1935 an order came that all relatives of the arrested persons should be prepared for the transportation to a new place of dwelling. Women, old people and children had to get rid of their cattle and pack their things during 2 days. Big carts were given for the transport from each kolkhoz-farm. Every cart was guarded. There were 8 families to be deported from our New Kuzemkino village. They were poor and had not any valuable property. A man of eighty understood that he would never come back. He went to a nearby wood to say good-buy to his motherland. N.K.V.D.-men treated this as an attempt of escape and hurried to seize him. They found him lying on a hummock and weeping. The carts loaded, their string moved toward Preobrazhenka railway station.
They were seen off by the whole village. The people cried and prayed. Nobody
knew, where these "kulaks" were transported. The guards drove the
attendant villagers away. There had been a freight train at the station already.
Head of families, who had been arrested earlier but not sentenced to death, had
been also brought there from "Kresty" prison. After the departure of
the train nobody was informed about its destination. The relatives came to know
this only after a month, the first letters received. It appeared that the
deportees were in Tadjikistan. Many Ingrians died on the way, no less perished
of unusual Asiatic heat. They all were doomed. But this was just the aim of
Moscow. The extermination of our nation began under the pretence of the liquidation
of "kulaks" and other "enemies of the people". Arrests
usually took place in sowing-time, when the whole people gathered for the
agricultural work and therefore it was easy to seize them. The number of pupils
in my school apparently grew fewer, vacant desks appeared. Director ordered to
unite classes. When going to school, we were struck by sombre view of empty
houses, their doors banging in the wind. This did not last long. Soon new people
were settled there. They were the former inhabitants of the village of Mertvitsa on
the frontier with Estonia. The village was liquidated in one night. Several
houses were moved away to other sites, but the majority were demolished for the
fire-wood. This was the genocide of the Inkeris who were sentenced to annihilation as a nation by Kremlin "strategists". Their rests had to become dispersed in order even their name would not be mentioned and, later, after many years, "academic"theories could be created about their "assimilation"with the ethnic Russian nation [cf. more than 150 years of the genocide of the Chechens on their own territory, coming to its horrible end in our "democratic"days - editor]. People of our region were seized in the following year 1939 too. I know only 2 persons who came back. The first one was Vasily Eustafyev from the village of Ostrov, born in 1886. He was arrested in 1938 and spent 2 years and 2 months in the prison of "Kresty". He came home unmercifully beaten, after horrible tortures. He endured not signing the absurd accusations. He has a paper of the exoneration. The other was Vasily Vasilyev from the village of Kurovitsy (real name Kukkusi), who also spent 2 years and 2 months in "Kresty". Losses of the Inkeris due to these crimes may be counted by comparing results of the census of 1926 and the census of 1939. There were 17000 Inkeris in 1926, but 7700 only in 1939 (cf. Finno-Ugrian regions of Russia in ciphers (in Russian). State statistic committee of the Republic of Komi. Syktyvkar 1996, 25). The comparison shows that the number of the Inkeris diminished in 9300 persons, i.e. more than two times, during 13 years. This was a fine work of Leningrad N.K.V.D. This was the end of the 30-ties, when the mass extermination of the Jews began. The horrible crimes of the Nazis are known to the whole world, their main criminals were hanged in Nurnberg. A lot of books are written about the sufferings of the Jews, a lot of films are created. Concentration camps, in which the Jews were murdered, have been converted into museums. Nevertheless the Nazis were only pupils of the Bolsheviks, who had created the system of mass annihilation earlier. When Hitler declared he had found "the final solution of the Jewish question", he only repeated the Bolsheviks, who had "solved the Ingrian question"at the beginning of 30-ties under the "smoke-screen"of the collectivisation. 13 % of all Ingrians [Inkeris, Votes, Finns of Ingermanland, or Ingria], i.e. 18000, were transported to concentration camps or hard labour in the Kola Peninsula, Middle Asia, Siberia where most of them perished. [Of course, these ciphers do not equal to those of the Jews, because the Jews were much more numberful than the Inkeris. Nevertheless, the total extermination of the Jews started after the Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942 only. Before this date the losses of the Jews and the Inkeris were at least comparable - editor]. In this way 2 totalitarian states solved their "national questions" [Russia, the official successor of the U.S.S.R., continues this "solution"in Ichkeria up to now - editor].
The extermination of the Ingrians ceased together with the aggression of the
U.S.S.R. against Finland in 1939-1940. [First Finland was proposed to sign the "Pact of the Mutual
Support", similar to those, proposed to the Baltic
states as a prelude to their annexation; simultaneously the Finns were proposed
an impudent exchange of the territories - editor]. The Finns, knowing what the Soviets
had done with their brothers in Ingria, resisted fiercely. The whole world
condemned this aggression, the U.S.S.R. was thrown out from the League of
Nations. These were the Englishmen alone, who dared to threaten Stalin that if
he did not stop the offensive, they would bomb Baku oil works from their bases
in Irak. The Englishmen heroically fought at that time against Germany and
Italy. Stalin preferred peace with Finland while his "liberating war"in
Europe was prepared. [In fact, the reason was also unexpectedly hard losses of
the Bolsheviks in Finland - editor]. Thus a short peace came, but whole Finnish Karelia
was occupied by the U.S.S.R. On the other hand, Hitler was informed of the plans
of his partner in the division of Poland to attack Germany in the rear as soon
as the latter would force La Manche. Therefore he stroke the first. In this way
the war on the territory of the U.S.S.R. began in June 1941.
What was the fate of the Inkeris in their homeland after the war? The
families came back from places of evacuation, but they were awaited by the
militia on the railway station of Ust-Luga. This was the point of filtration.
After checking up personal documents, the families, in which "enemies of the
people"were found, were separated and sent to inner regions of Russia. Then
a reference to those who had fought at the front was necessary. Not all military
servicemen had been demobilised then at that time, therefore a reference had to
be received from the place of their military service in order a family could be
allowed to get home. If a family had a relative
who had been in German captivity during the war, all other members of the family
had no hope to see their home. It was very difficult to return home for those
who had been deported to Finland or Germany during the war. Such situation was
at the end of 1945 but it lasted in following years too.
A sovkhoz "The Advanced Worker of Ropsha"was established after the war.
It provided inhabitants with means of existence. The ruined agriculture was
restored. Such normal life was not desirable by Stalin. On 9 May 1947 the chief of
the passport division of the Ruchyi Militia Department arrived in Kuzemkino.
Activists with red bands on their sleeves were sent to gather people to the
Village Soviet. Lists of new deportees had been already prepared there. People
showed their passports but a militia man crossed the stamp of the registration
in the passport and explained to its owner that the latter must leave the
administrative territory of the Soviet during 24 hours. When one asked "Where
may I live then?", the answer was "Where you want, but not in the frontier zone". It was permitted to live on the territory of the Kurovitsy Soviet,
because no more frontier zone had been there already. A participant of the war
had right to remain at his home, but his family had to go out. Enlisted were
even families of the fallen military servicemen. To stay living in their house
such families had to present an order (not any medal!) award certificate. The families
of Maria Ivanova from Great Kuzemkino, Elsa Mikhailova from Struppovo,
Elsa
Lobzanova from Ropsha and of many others, who had lost husbands breadwinners in
the war, were banished. The same happened to E.Romanova, E.Fyodorova,
E.Minaeva,
who had lost their sons at the front. A lot of similar samples may be given.
Time passed. Somewhere far, in Moscow, the end of Stalin was nearing. We
knew nothing about this. In 1952 I made a request to the Government for the
permission to return home. Unexpectedly the positive answer came. Then other
deportees followed our example. Stalin having been dead, the authorities
complied with all requests. Our countrymen from other regions began to come back
after 1956. The families of the "kulaks", which had been deported to
Tadjikistan and Kazakhstan , were released.
The conclusion may be drawn that the sequence of mass repressions in the
rural district of Kuzemkino was the following: The main place of mass burials of the shot people was the heath of Levashovo near Leningrad. Since 1990 the newspaper "Vecherniy Leningrad" began to publish Martyrologue of all buried there. Here are some our countrymen from this list: Vasily SIDOROV, born in 1890, from Great Kuzemkino, non-Party man, an Inkeri. Arrested on 6 August 1937, sentenced to death for the counter-revolutionary activities with the aim of subversion of the Soviet system (article 58-10 of the Penal Code of the RFSR) by Special Triplet of Leningrad region U.N.K.V.D. on 28 August 1937, shot to death on 31 August 1937; M. JAKONEN, born in 1903, from Great Kuzemkino, an Inkeri; Ivan ANDREEV, born in 1900, from Great Kuzemkino, a Russian, member of the Bolshevik party since 1925, was engaged as a shop manager in Logi. Arrested on 17 October 1937, shot to death on 18 November 1937; Alexis PUKKARI, born in 1893, from Struppovo. Arrested on 23 February 1938, shot to death on 5 May 1938; Alexandre AHONEN, born in 1883, from Struppovo. Arrested on 10 June 1938, shot to death on 10 October 1938.
These were not all victims whose way ended in Levashovo Heath, of course. A great Memorial of the Victims of the Repressions was unveiled on 19 June
1995 in Great Kuzemkino. There were 34 names on it but 10 names were added
later. Relatives and countrymen gathered during the inauguration, many of them
wept in spite of decades which had passed after the tragedies.
I.T. AHONEN Let remain in our memory those who had been snatched from this life untimely. |