ToPics
The steppe
Many of the deportees saw the steppes, vast semi-arid grassland plains, for the first time when they arrived at their resettlement places in southern Siberia or northern Kazakhstan. It is estimated that at the time of Stalin’s death in 1953, more than 600,000 exiles were living in the steppes of Kazakhstan, where massive prison complexes were located, such as Karlag (at Karaganda) and Steplag (“steppe camp”).
The steppe is an environment that shocks the newcomer by its extreme weather. Many deportees remember temperatures in the Kazakh steppes that could range from minus 40° C in winter to plus 40° C in summer. Deportees who had earlier been exiled to the Siberian taiga also note a major difference between the two: whereas in the forest of the taiga extra food resources could be found like berries, in the arid steppes only grasses grew that could not stave off hunger.
Steppe life also determined the deportees’ working lives. They mainly worked in mines, particularly copper mines, and on sovkhoz collective farms. Working in the steppe gave some a chance to see wild animals, but the ever-present wind, dust and storms marked the deportees’ bodies and minds.
French original: Jeanne Gissinger, Translation : Roger Depledge
Sonia Bory describes her arrival in the steppes of northern Kazakhstan
Sonia Bory, a deportee with her mother in northern Kazakhstan (1940-1946), describes arriving in the Pavlodar region, discovering the steppes and building their house on these virgin lands (tselina).
Zofia Helwing describes the hardships of steppe life
Zofia Helwing, deported first to the Siberian taiga and then in 1942-1944 to northern Kazakhstan, remembers the steppe as an environment of hunger and cold.
The steppe as a nuclear testing ground
Marju Toom, a deportee in Kazakhstan in 1949-1954, describes seeing distant “lightning without thunder” during her walks in the steppe. Later she realised that the lightning came from Soviet nuclear tests in the plains of Kazakhstan.
A shepherd in the steppe
Józef Albin Jabłonowski, a deportee in Kazakhstan from the age of 8 to 17, helped his father herd sheep in the steppe and had to face wolves.
A shepherd in the steppe
Józef Albin Jabłonowski, a deportee in Kazakhstan from the age of 8 to 17, helped his father herd sheep in the steppe and had to face wolves.
Grass sandwiches
Józef Albin Jabłonowski, dJózef Albin Jabłonowski, a deportee in Kazakhstan from the age of 8 to 17, describes how to stave off hunger he would make sandwiches with grass picked up in the steppe.
Grass sandwiches
Józef Albin Jabłonowski, a deportee in Kazakhstan from the age of 8 to 17, describes how to stave off hunger he would make sandwiches with grass picked up in the steppe.
Working at Steplag
Antanas Seikalis, imprisoned in Steplag in the early 1950s, recalls the advice his fellow prisoners gave him about getting easier work. Later, Seikalis decided to change jobs and drove a lorry carrying copper ore across the steppe. This exposed him to a lot of dust and Seikalis contracted silicosis.