ToPics
Becoming SOVIET?
After the repeated violence they suffered while they were being deported, many special resettlers, once they had arrived in Siberia or Central Asia, discovered a world that was harsh but offered some chances of integrating. The living conditions of the local people were surprisingly similar to their own. They shared the same experience of manual labour on the kolkhoz collective farms and in the forestry industry.
The socialisation and integration of the new arrivals occurred mainly through work, which included supervised and ordered collective work and outside activities (such as a private vegetable garden). Collective work forced them to adopt Soviet forms of organisation and social values: the importance of the work team, the acquisition of technical skills as work was mechanised, seen as upward mobility, rewards based on career progress and the quantity of work supplied. Some of them gradually made their own a discourse that glorified work and emphasised the domination of man over nature by the construction of major industrial and urban complexes.
Integration into this Soviet world also required the adoption of survival strategies typical of the system, such as bartering services. Many witnesses recall the sewing machines that helped many resettled Lithuanian families to survive. Bartering services could open the doors to integration into the local community, whose practices were Soviet in nature, with all the avoidance and evasion that involved.
These forms of integration and upward mobility were all the more important because other more political avenues, such as the komsomol or the Party, were largely or completely closed to the resettlers.
Text: Emilia Koustova
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Vocational training
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Abram Lešč: «Becoming Soviet» (Original in Russian)
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The importance of mechanisation
Brigade with forestry tractor (1956)
© Rimgaudas Ruzgyz
Women during a work break in front of a logging machine
© Rimgaudas Ruzgyz
My motorbike!
© Rimgaudas Ruzgyz
Rimgaudas Ruzgyz and his new motorbike in 1955
© Rimgaudas Ruzgyz
Rimgaudas Ruzgyz on his motorbike in 1956
© Rimgaudas Ruzgyz
Juozas Miliautskas and his family in front of his motorbike (1950s)
© Juozas MiliautskasFermerThe importance of mechanisation
The glorification of mechanised work and the domination of man over nature were part of the Soviet discourse, and some witnesses adopted them. These photographs show the importance of machines and mechanical power, whether at work (particularly farm and forestry tractors) or in private life (the motorbike as a symbol of social success, especially for men).
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Antanas Kybartas: « I was taught to be a good soviet » (Original in Russian)
FermerAntanas Kybartas: « I was taught to be a good soviet » (Original in Russian)
In this excerpt, Antanas Kybartas recounts the education he received in deportation.
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Yaroslav Pogarski describes his exclusion
FermerYaroslav Pogarski describes his exclusion
Audio available /“I couldn’t join the Pioneers, or the Komsomols, none of the youth organisations. You can imagine how that hurt.
When the Komsomols in the class had a meeting, me, Pogarskiy, I had to leave the room.
When the class went picking medicinal herbs, “Pogarskiy, you’re not coming”.
When the class went cleaning the street, “Pogarskiy, you stay here. Only the Komsomols are to come.”
You know, that makes you hurt deep inside.
My father used to say, I remember his words, “My boy, while you can, study. Every door is closed to us. While you can, study.”
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Rafail Rozental describes Sovietisation
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Juozas Milautskas – technical progress
FermerJuozas Milautskas – technical progress
“My brother went to school here. He was a very good pupil. Then he worked on the tractor trailer. It wasn’t until he got back to Lithuania that he learnt to drive the tractor.
Then there was diesel… After the war there were ‘Natik’ tractors with iron cabins! Those diesel tractors were unbelievable.
I drove those tractors, and the combine harvesters! I was a driver. I even went to fetch combine harvesters from Irkutsk. That was 500km away. You had to cross the river on the rocks. The combine harvesters often toppled over. But I had no trouble!”
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Marytė Kontrimaitė: Young Pioneer then Komsomol member (Original in Russian)
FermerMarytė Kontrimaitė: Young Pioneer then Komsomol member (Original in Russian)
Audio available /In Lithuania, Marite Kontrimaite joined the Young Pioneers during the Khrushchev Thaw and then the Komsomol. Her mother was angry and her father wept. She thought they didn’t realise that now they were really going to control their future.
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Marytė Kontrimaitė : Homesickness and patriotism in Siberia (Original in Russian)
FermerMarytė Kontrimaitė : Homesickness and patriotism in Siberia (Original in Russian)
In Siberia, the Lithuanians would get together and sing “Let us go back to our motherland” and read poems. Marytė Kontrimaitė’s mother often spoke to her daughter of their traditions and legends. The little girl built up an idyllic image of her motherland.
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Nadezhda Tutik: Becoming a Pionnier (Original in Russian)
FermerNadezhda Tutik: Becoming a Pionnier (Original in Russian)
Audio available /In this excerpt, Nadezhda Tutik recounts having to write an essay at school about her entry into the Pioneers. Her teacher was so pleased with her essay that she sent it to the local radio station, which broadcast it on the air.
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Nadezhda Tutik: Her cousin's anger against the Soviet regime (Original in Russian)
FermerNadezhda Tutik: Her cousin's anger against the Soviet regime (Original in Russian)
Audio available /In this excerpt, Nadezhda Tutik contrasts her experience of being born in deportation with that of her cousin, who was 10 years old at the time of his deportation and who always refused to integrate into Soviet life.
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Andrei and his attachment to the mine, in freedom (Original in Russian)
FermerAndrei and his attachment to the mine, in freedom (Original in Russian)
Audio available /Andrei Ozerovski: “I arrived in Karaganda in 1960, I got married in 1955 and our daughter was born in 1956. So in 1960 I arrived here and got a job at the mine. I already knew about mining after my years at the Zheskazgan camp. But here I was free and there was no gas, it wasn’t as dangerous. If I had to start again today, I’d go back to work in the mine. Yes, there are explosions, people can lose their lives, yes, it’s hard. But today, I’d really be happy to see the mine again, even for half an hour. I love watching miners work. I’m deeply attached to mining!”
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Stalin kolkhoz
