Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag (37 page)

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Authors: Orlando Figes

BOOK: Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag
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Chapter 1
p. 7 First meeting: Interview with Lev and Svetlana, 2008.
p. 7 Sveta’s clothes: SI 46-20.
p. 7 Sveta’s and Lev’s heights: SI 51-37, LM 54-11.
p. 8 ‘student club’: Sakharov,
Memoirs
, pp. 88–9.
p. 9 ‘Sveta’s such a lovely girl’: Interview with Lev and Svetlana, 2008.
p. 10 ‘Let’s go that way’: Interview with Lev and Svetlana, 2008.
p. 11 ‘A plump, slow-moving woman’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 21.
p. 11 ‘thought his notes were very good’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 11 ‘I took it as a lawful pass’:
Poka ia pomniu
, pp. 21–2.
p. 11 ‘daughter of a minor provincial official’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 12 ‘a small Siberian town’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 12 ‘Is that uncle a hunter?’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 8.
p. 12 ‘Lev was taken to the hospital’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 9.
p. 13 ‘The funeral’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 13 ‘He’s come to say goodbye’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 9.
p. 13 ‘Lev later visited his mother’s grave’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 9.
p. 13 ‘a second funeral’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 9.
p. 13 ‘his grandmother’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 14 ‘Granovsky Street’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 14 ‘Almost every day’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 10.
p. 14 ‘three of his parents’ closest friends’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 14 ‘Lev went to a mixed-sex school’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 15 ‘It seems to me that I was more grown up’: SI 49-83.
p. 15 Sveta’s strict upbringing: Interview with Irina Alexandrova, 2008.
p. 15 ‘He had to work his way through school’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 14.
p. 16 ‘The man wrote sad poems’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 15.
p. 16 ‘Lev was living with his grandmother’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 16 ‘mainly maths and physics books’: Listed in SI49-86.
p. 17 ‘A strict church-goer’: SI50-11.
p. 17 ‘She’s just my friend’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 17 ‘The one place’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 19 ‘Military training’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 19 ‘We have idiots’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 18.
p. 20 ‘Their relationship had cooled’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 20 ‘black moods’: SI47-3.
p. 20 ‘How many times’: SI46-18.
p. 21 ‘The glow of your cigarette’: LM46-1 (poem translated by Nicky Brown). The original (‘Ogonek tvoei papirosy’) can be found in
Khochu byt’ liubimoi
, p. 207.
p. 21 ‘Svetka!’: LM39-28.10.
p. 21 ‘Lev’s grandmother died’: LM46-1.
p. 21 ‘Vagankovskoe cemetery’: Communication by Nikita Mishchenko.
p. 22 ‘Sveta would stay late’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 22 ‘We climbed up’: LM40-15.8.
p. 23 ‘Do you know, there’s a lovely square’: SI40-31.7.
p. 23 ‘Levenka, My first impulse’: SI40-3.8.
p. 24 ‘We’re not going anywhere’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 27.
p. 24 ‘Today, at 4 o’clock’: Cited in Braithwaite,
Moscow 1941
, p. 74.
p. 25 ‘more than a thousand students’:
Fizicheskii fakul’tet MGU v gody
, p. 12.
p. 25 ‘Lev was shaken’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 27.
p. 26 ‘Svetik, we’re living in the woods’: LM41-13.7.
p. 26 ‘fed and watered’: LM41-14.7.
p. 26 ‘second visit in early September’: LM41-7.9; SI 46-1.
p. 26 ‘a piece of paper’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 27 ‘There was one last visit to Moscow’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
Chapter 2
p. 28 ‘Lev set off from Moscow’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 28 ‘eau de Cologne’: Communication by Nikita Mishchenko.
p. 29 ‘At the end of the third night’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 29 ‘Lev was brought to a transit camp’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 36.
p. 29 ‘In early December’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 30 ‘German captain’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 30 ‘Ich kann diese Aufgabe’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 38.
p. 30 ‘The truck was going very fast’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 40.
p. 31 ‘interrogated by the commandant’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 42.
p. 31 ‘lectured on Nazi ideology’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 43.
p. 32 Hladik episode:
Poka ia pomniu
, pp. 42–9.
p. 33 Vlasov recruitment episode:
Poka ia pomniu
, pp. 52–4.
p. 34 ‘The prisoners made their escape’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 35 ‘Lev once wrote to Prague’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 36 ‘Taxi drivers were charging’:
Moskva voennaia, 1941
–
1945
, p. 478.
p. 36 ‘Their first stop was Murom’: Sakharov,
Memoirs
, p. 43.
p. 36 ‘The railway cars’: Sakharov,
Memoirs
, p. 44.
p. 36 ‘chemistry and oscillation physics’: SI46-1.
p. 37 ‘It wore me out so much’: SI46-4.
p. 37 ‘I was in a strange, unfamiliar laboratory’: SI 46-4.
p. 38 ‘It was very hard for everyone’: SI46-20.
p. 38 ‘ill with brucellosis’: SI46-1.
p. 38 ‘laboratory on the third floor’: SI49-45a.
p. 38 ‘Many times she thought that she should run away’: SI 46-3.
p. 39 ‘summoned her for questioning’: SI46-3.
p. 39 ‘Getting a bit angry’: SI46-13.
p. 39 ‘All my relatives had come for my birthday’: SI46-4.
p. 40 ‘It was what I needed to say to someone’: SI46-21.
p. 40 ‘For a long time I stood on the threshold’: SI46-8.
p. 41 ‘It’s not for me to judge you’: SI46-21.
p. 41 ‘Pittler ammunition factory’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 42 ‘transferred to Buchenwald’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 66.
p. 42 ‘For each of these rooms’: Geoffroy de Clercq, ‘Buchenwald-Wansleben’,
www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Witnesses/WanslebenEng.html
.
p. 42 ‘For any misdemeanour’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 73.
p. 43 ‘I remember that at 8 p.m.’: Geoffroy de Clercq, ‘Buchenwald-Wansleben’.
p. 43 Escape from convoy episode: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 44 ‘Ahead of us on the road’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 76.
p. 44 ‘the only time during the entire war’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 44 ‘Throw away your weapons!’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 44 ‘tasted as good as restaurant food’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 44 ‘In Russia you have Communism’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 77.
p. 44 ‘Sveta and her family’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 45 ‘Even if I had only one small chance’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 45 ‘We ate twelve times a day!’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 78.
p. 45 ‘Happy Return!’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 79.
p. 46 SMERSH interrogation:
Poka ia pomniu
, pp. 80–83.
p. 46 ‘I was not afraid of dying’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 84.
p. 46 ‘say goodbye’: LM46-1.
p. 46 ‘I was dozing after an interrogation’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
Chapter 3
p. 48 ‘The convoy travelled’: Details from APIKM, f. 31, op. 14 (Mishchenko); MSP, f. 3, op. 15, d. 3, APIKM , f. 31, op. 50 (Lileev).
p. 48 ‘The prisoners were fed’: Mishchenko, ‘Poka ia pomniu’, p. 31.
p. 48 ‘The most likely explanation’: See Applebaum,
Gulag
, pp. 170–72.
pp. 48–9 ‘The guards employed’, ‘no longer human beings’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 49 ‘Lev was badly hurt’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 92.
p. 49 ‘jogging pace’: APIKM, f. 31, op. 50 (Lileev).
p. 49 ‘All along the line’: APIKM, f. 23, op. 7 (Serditov).
p. 49 ‘sanitary point’: MSP, f. 3, op. 15, d. 3; interview with Iurii Serditov, 2010.
p. 49 ‘Many of the prisoners were so frail’: APIKM, f. 31, op. 50 (Lileev).
p. 49 ‘transit camp’: B. Serov, ‘V Pechoru pod konvoem’, p. 13.
p. 50 ‘131,930 prisoners’:
Vsesoiuznaia perepis’
, p. 229.
p. 50 ‘All the work was done by hand’: Azarov, ‘Po tundre, po zheleznoi doroge’,
Martirolog
, vol. 2, p. 159.
p. 51 ‘55 per cent’: GU RK NARK, f. 1, op. 2, d. 844. l. 43.
p. 51 ‘157,000 prisoners’: Azarov, ‘Zheleznodorozhnye lageria’, p. 111.
p. 51 ‘put the rails directly on the ground’: Details from Mochusky,
Gulag Boss
, pp. 77–83, 91–3.
p. 51 ‘The crucial bridge’: Details from Morozov,
Gulag na Komi krae,
pp. 87ff.
p. 51 ‘5 kilometres an hour’: Statistics in Azarov, ‘Zheleznodorozhnye lageria’, p. 191.
p. 51 ‘200,000 tons of it a month’: GU RK NARK, f. 1, op. 3, d. 67, l. 37.
p. 51 ‘ramshackle town’: Details from GU RK NARK, f. 623, op. 1, d. 76; V. Chivanov, ‘Pechora glazami priezzhego’, pp. 52–66; APIKM, f. 23, op. 7 (Serditov); interviews with Boris Ivanov, 2010.
p. 52 ‘52 hectares’: GU RK NARK, f. 173, op. 1, d. 1, l. 9.
p. 52 ‘fifty buildings’, ‘temporary wooden structures’: GU RK NARK, f. 173, op. 1, d. 1, ll. 29, 155.
p. 53 ‘There were ten barracks’: Mishchenko, ‘Poka ia pomniu’, p. 32.
p. 53 ‘Terletsky’: Mishchenko, ‘Poka in pomniu’, pp. 39–40.
p. 54 ‘Anisimov’: LM46-26; LM47-28.
p. 54 ‘eighty-three to be precise’: GU RK NARK, f. 1, op. 3, d. 1081, l. 161.
p. 54 ‘The other colonies’: Details from GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 356.
p. 54 ‘500 [special exiles]’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 356, l. 61.
p. 54 ‘It is next to us’, LM47-39.
p. 54 ‘Conditions in the 3rd’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 358, ll. 22–4.
p. 54 ‘The work meant dragging’: Details from GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 358, l. 10.
p. 55 ‘standard uniform’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 55 ‘rations’: Details from Mishchenko, ‘Poka ia pomniu’, p. 32. Similar figures are given by Lev in LM 47-39a.
p. 55 ‘60 cubic metres’: Calculated from GU RK NARK, f. 623, op. 1, d. 80, l. 45.
p. 55 ‘Sickness and death-rates’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 355, ll. 11–12, 37.
p. 55 ‘According to a prisoner’: APIKM, f. 31, op. 14 (Mishchenko).
p. 55 ‘We don’t seem to care’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 355, l. 61.
p. 56 ‘looked like a peasant’: LM52-22.
p. 56 ‘Strelkov’: Details from Serov, ‘V Pechoru pod Konvoem’, pp. 19–20; Mishchenko, ‘Poka ia pomniu’, pp. 35–7; APIKM, f. 31, op. 14 (Mishchenko).
p. 58 ‘the drying unit was in desperate need’: GURK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 355, ll. 76–9.
p. 58 ‘The room was kept at a minimum temperature’: Interview with Lev, 2006.
p. 58 ‘spacious living area’: Details from LM46-18, LM46-23; APIKM, f. 31, op. 50 (Lileev); MSP, f. 3, op. 15, d. 3, l. 24.
p. 58 ‘he would be hungry’: Interview with Lev, 2008.
p. 59 ‘surrendered in a moment of weakness’: LM48-52.
p. 60 ‘2 June 1946’:
Poka ia pomniu
, p. 124.
p. 61 ‘No. 2 Pechora, 1.VIII.46’,
Poka ia pomniu
, pp. 124–6.
p. 61 ‘could not sleep’, ‘would not eat’, ‘drove her parents’, ‘longed for’ ‘would have changed everything’: SI47-3.
p. 61 ‘12 July 1946’: SI46-1.
p. 64 ‘Pechora, 9.VIII.46’: LM46-1.

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