European Memories
of the Gulag
Retour
Fermer
Backs of two envelopes sent from the Front to Cape Bykov, passed by military censorship
© David Jozefovič
Fronts of two envelopes sent from the Front to Cape Bykov, passed by military censorship
© David Jozefovič
Front of a letter sent to Cape Bykov via the central information bureau in Chkalov (Orenburg)
© David Jozefovič
Front of a letter sent from the Front with a quotation from Stalin (‘We can and must cleanse the Soviet land of the Hitlerite scum’)
© David Jozefovič
Back of previous letter sent from the Front, written in Yiddish
© David Jozefovič
Front of a letter sent from the Front, with on the envelope the words ‘Well, why not be proud: two shots, two Fritzes’
© David Jozefovič
Back of letter, dated 6 April 1944
© David Jozefovič

© David Jozefovič

© David Jozefovič

© David Jozefovič

© David Jozefovič

© David Jozefovič

© David Jozefovič

© David Jozefovič
Correspondence between the Front and the end of the world
David Jozefovich, deported to the Altai in 1941, then to the shores of the Arctic Ocean beside the Laptev Sea, did after all receive letters from close relatives serving on the Front. Some were sent to him directly, others went through the NKVD’s central information bureau in Chkalov (now Orenburg). The bureau was set up in March 1942 in the town of Buguruslan and handled letters sent by people looking for relatives. It received up to 20,000 letters a day.