At political camp “Vietrieny”,Kolyma
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Bohdan KLYMCHAK
Novel
PREFACE
Bohdan Klymchak, a former member of the Amnesty International, known as the last Ukrainian political prisoner of the Ukr.SSR, has been imprisoned twice: from 1957 to 1962 and from 1978 to 1990 for “anty-Soviet propaganda…” and for a “treason – in the form of flight abroad”…
Some information about these works.
The novel “Oasis” is not a memory about real people of the above mentioned political camp. This novel is a classic work of art, with the typical conditions of a strict-regime political camp. There are some true fragments: real schemes of border constructions and the methods of going across (that border).
The second story is about my tragical adventures in Iran…
A supplementary information:As it is known, in July 1989, a French television crew visited the political camp 35 (Perm) and were able to interview several prisoners, including me, B.Klymchak. The following documentary film was shown on television in several European countries…
A significant inaormation are in my letter to “Amnesty International”(20,November,1999)
« ...What disturbs me very much, is the misunderstanding between the contents of my book, with those ones of my stories. There are some talks at the offices of the Amnesty International, that my book has anti-Jevish tendencies and terms... There are not only these terms. There are anti-Russian, anti-German, anti-Polish.., anti-any-nation, who tried to enslave us (politically, economically) in the Past, is doing this in the Present and intends to do it in the Future.
What are the American (Jewish mainly) businessmen doing in Ukraine? Are they helping? Ukraine does not need any help, because Ukraine is the richest country in the World, so the only thing, that Ukraine needs is INDEPENDENCE. But the leaders of the greatest countries (Russia,the USA...) are forcing (imposing upon) Ukraine to disarm itself for the immortalizing of slavery (dependence)... A sting consequence of that disarming - the modern Moscow aggression without a permission to do a due repulse.
Is it fair?
There is a typical example how this disarming occurs: Mr.Iliasov,- a State deputy of Ukraine - had a conversation with one member of the American delegation. He informed in the newspaper "Vysoky Zamok" (L'viv) from 26-I-I995 :
"As it turned out the weapons are taken out to Russia, but no compensation was given to us (a money, the building for the servicemen). The compensation was given to Russia !We do notwant American help like that - said the State deputy.- You are disarming my people and you are arming the Russian imperialists."
Is it just?
As it is known, the criminal Russian regime has been manifest themselvest not only at the smallest country of the Caucasus, but at the East of Ukraine too. I am afraid, these facts don't disturb neither those American people, nor the tolerant masters from the AI office: they are constantly looking for anti-Semitic terms only...
Self-edition by the writer, Ukraine, L`viv, 2006. Corrected – May, 2015.
Ring up in Ukraine(L`viv): ...(032)-237-57-82
This preface in Ukrainian: ПЕРЕДМОВА Богдан Климчак, колишній член орг-ї «Міжнародна амністія», відомий ще як колишній політв`язень УССР, що був звільненим останнім, свого часу був ув`язненим двічі - від 1957 до 1962 та від 1978 до 1990 включно. Обидва рази за антисовєтську пропаганду, а другого разу з додатком статті «ізмена родіни», у формі втечі за кордон. Стисло про зміст цієї збірки вибраного. Новела «Оаза» не є спогадами про реальних людей, в`язнів політичного табору. Це класичний художній твір з описом типових умов концтаборів суворого режиму; в новелі є окремі фрагменти схем огорож кордону та опис способу їх переходу.
Другий твір – опис перебування в Ірані, (що завершився депортацією мене назад в СССР та ув`язненням)... Додаткова інформація: як відомо, у липні 1989 р. група французьких журналістів з дозволу керівництва СССР відвідала останній концтабір №35 (Перм) та брала інтерв`ю у 4-х останніх політв`язнів, зокрема й у мене, Б. Климчака. Документальний фільм про це був показаний в окремих містах Європи...
Вагомою є інформація і з мого листа до керівництва «Міжнародна амністія» (20-11-1999): “Що мене особливо турбує, так це спотворене розуміння реального опису в моїх творах з тим, як їх інтерпретовано. Стало мені відомо, що члени «Міжнародної амністії» дійшли висновку – мої твори сповнені антижидівськими висловами і тенденціями. Однак, у моїх творах говориться і про антимосковсьу, антинімецьку, антипольську та анти-будь-якої-нації тенденцію, якщо такі нації прагнули поневолити нас (політично, економічно) у минулому, у теперішньому та планують це зробити у майбутньому.
Наприклад, що роблять американські (переважно жиди за походженням) бізнесмени в Україні? Допомагають нам? Але ж Україна не потребує жодної допомоги, тому що є найбагатшою країною світу, i єдина річ, якої вона потребує, є НЕЗАЛЕЖНІСТЬ. Але лідери найбільших країн (Московії, США...) змусили її роззброїтися задля увічнення неволі (залежності)... Вражаючий наслідок того роззброєння - сучасна москвинська агресія БЕЗ ПРАВА УКРАЇНИ НА ПОВНОЦІННУ ВІДСІЧ. Це справедливо?”
Ось як пояснив таке роззброєння депутат Ільясов у розмові з членом американської делегації – з публ. у газ. «Вис. замок» ( Львів) 26-1-95: - Як з`ясувалося, зброю передали Московії без жодних компенсацій – грошима чи будовами для військових. Компенсацію передали також Московії !Ми не потребуємо такої американської допомоги, - сказав депутат. – Ви роззброюєте наш народ і озброюєте москвинських імперіалістів».
Чи й це правильно?
Як відомо, злочинний москвинський режим уже показав свою звірячу суть не лише у маленькій Чечні, але й на сході України. Є підстави припускати, що усі такі факти не хвилюють ні американців, ні толерантне панство «Міжнародної амністії». Останні стурбовані лише наявністю антижидівських тенденцій. Львів, 2006. Коректура - травень, 2015.
FROM THE AUTHOR*(preface 2)
What was obtained and what was lost in the second edition? I suppose the second and the third parts of the philosophical essay (“The succession of the “damned” questions”) with the epilogue to be an indubitable acquirement; and those things are "lost" which are not actual nowadays. Now and then some stylistic imperfections and grammar mistakes have been corrected (and perhaps some new ones have appeared). Here and there some new political accents were put in new political documents, which had been renovated substantially. From the first impression there was only "the statement-lawsuit" (with slight corrections) left, which unfortunately had not lost its actuality and who knows whether it will ever do before long: KGBsation of the country obtained a terrific form and just after having been renamed, this "hope and support" of the communist regime (which also was limited with the camouflage) became in fact the only really "leading and aiming" power of the reformed empire. And what did it loose? Having given away for being eaten its camouflage heads-words: "CPU/CPSU", "Stalin's", "Brezhnev-Suslov's", "enkavedysts", "bilshovyk's" and other verbal and used before or refreshed crammer, which is intended to pull attention away from THEM, the true rulers, - KGB-gang remained unhurt and it lost none of its members.**
What can be done here?
"... One should ring the bells, convene common council, - Natalka Poklad says, - but the bells are plastic, they were exchanged at midnight... " ***
Can we under such conditions expect to succeed finally in calling those archcriminals to account? They will sooner call us to the renewed concentration camp... Approximately such conclusion seems to be drew out of the culmination of a new work "Tale About Three Wishes".
I should admit I very much lacked pointed-critical references (there were almost none of them, if to be exact), and among those some remarks, which have succeeded to get to me I'll comment upon one of them.
“Who is he, that author, to be even bidding for a genealogical "tree"? - A friend of mine retold me some reader's reaction.
And just because of the fact, that I myself don't know who I am, I composed that "tree". If you are eager to know, ladies and gentlemen, I could easily bid for a Guinness Book with the history of my "tree". Can a man of a free world imagine someone (not an orphan), who can not know his native granny's surname?
*Preface is reprinted from the second edition with some proof-reading.
**By the way, pay your attention to one of the heads,allowed “for being eaten”:they are not “Brezhnev-Andropov`s ones, because it could put the gang itself into the bad light, since Andropov was the former leader of KGBand.To hateful surname Brezhnev, instead, there was added the surname of Suslov – not the general secretary, but a criminal of the lower rang…
***Article “Borning of Light”by Natalka Poklad, mag.”Kyiv”,June,1995) -1-
I've got exactly such a case: as it has recently turned out, my grandmother's surname, having been marked on the scheme, - is a fault one! And it happened not because of some technical reasons, but because constant shifting of the members of one family all over different regions such a way that now I have no one to ask about exact questionnaire facts of all my people (as I wrote in "autobiography" - my native village was burnt in 1946, and the documents from the registry office, if there remained such, are somewhere in Poland). My only relative, who has remembered the most, used to call my granny with some street nickname, which I took for her true one. And I have only learnt about that mistake after my book had been already published. In a letter to a friend of mine I wrote apropos of this: "how much they must have disemboweled the people to whip the surnames of the closest relatives out of one's memory!"
So, dear readers don't be surprised at my presenting my "tree" in the second issue once again, but having been corrected this time. The memory must be refreshed...
In the introduction to the "Political documents" in the first impression I recalled the visits of the representatives of the Western countries to the concentrating camps in rather a perfunctory manner. Meanwhile the "highly" permitted visits to our last zone in 1989 by French journalists were of a great resonance. They made a documentary film* about us, the last political prisoners, which was shown in many western countries and even in Moscow, half-legally. I'd like to tell here about one scene from that film, which made a deep influence on foreign TV-watchers.
During an interview with me a French journalist asked me: "We would like to hear convincing proofs about applying hunger tortures. As the administration states, no tortures were used. Could you explain it?
At first I informed about a miserable quantity of provisions, which were served out due to the norm, that was functioning till the Autumn of 1988, that is about the fact that at the "shizo"(“penalty isolation ward”)regime there were only 450 grams of bread served out daily, and lenten "balanda" (soup-porridge) - once in two days. But anyhow such my explanation didn't reassure him. I suppose - a statistically average Frenchman, who would like to eat intensively up the meat, juices and vegetables, hardly to occur to eat even a half of our norm of bread, so I tried another argument,
*Mrs.Gravesande has sent me a copy of this film, which I am saving. It`s no more actually now, this small bit of the story of the Soviet regime.
- Do you know that the monthly nourishment in "shizo" costs only seven rubles? Can one bear seven-ruble nourishment?
Judging by the journalist's countenance I realized, that proof also did not make an influence on him. "Who knows how much your money cost?" - He may thought.
Having used up all my arguments and having been brought into deadlock, I suddenly remembered, I had in my pocket, AS ALWAYS, some bread in store.
- So why do I always have bread with me? Why do I never leave the barracks without having filled my pocket with bread? - I uttered in a flash (and passionately),seizing the bread in my pocket. The interpreter had hardly finished translating, when I realized: it was a victory!
- Sure, sure. It is quite convincing...
What resonance did this scene have exactly? One 
lady from the Netherlands, Mrs. Gravesande, the member of the organization "International Amnesty", who obtained the copy of that film and watched it more than once with her friends, every time recalled me this scene in her letters writing: "I can't watch those stills without tears in my eyes." I explained to her in answer that I did not suffer of hunger any more long before, but I could not persuade her as well I did with those French. So, I once again decided to demonstrate it figuratively: I went to the best photo studio in Ternopil, where I lived at that time, and ordered a color photo, having taken a proper pose, that is, I put one hand into my pocket. On the back of the photo I wrote in English: "I do not carry bread with me in my pocket any more". In such way I once again confirmed an old truth: "It's better to see once..."
Since then Mrs.Gravesande has not reminded me of that scene in her letters. By the way, a white-and-black version of that photo is presented in the first publication of the book.
But the most important thing at the present difficult time is that Mrs. Gravesande did not only express sympathy for me in her letters: it was her all the time to help me materially almost constantly - with money and some goods as well. Without that support I'd probably still carry bread by me in my pocket... Lately, due to the recommendations of Mrs.Gravesande, I have been given help by her neighbor, -2- Mrs. Maaskant...
And at the end I'd like to express a common gratefulness to the representatives of various organizations, which fought for my setting free and supported me materially after my discharge (I do not give here their names because I had the opportunity to thank almost each of them in a letter). Among foreign organizations there is "International Amnesty", having been mentioned many times, with its departments in different countries (England, the Netherlands, France, Sweden,the USA), and as well "28.SUBDIVISION OF UPS "VERKHOVYNKY" from the "Plast" organization in the USA.
Among Ukrainian societies I was certainly given the largest help by URP of a former body (and from it - Kyiv, L`viv, Transkarpathian and Vynnytsia regional organizations), "UNVIS", some people from the L`viv "Autonavantazhuvach", a policlinic department of the third city hospital, pharmacy №43 and others, in particular a patriot Hnat Kutsmyda from L`viv endowed with one and a half of his own monthly wages. And my eldest friend, a co-prisoner in Kolyma Pavlo Terpak, procured the furniture and arranged their heavy haulage to my flat, I had got in 1992. On the other hand, I'd like to admit that in my second edition I thoughtlessly did not mark a great help I had received from the oldest and the most generous sworn brother-runvist, a Hero of St. Benefaction, who has turned 107, Mark-Myrolyub Korniyenko from Australia. For some reason then I thought it would be enough for him to receive my own thankfulness for him in a letter. Now I don't think that way, so I correct my mistake. Let the rest of the donors forbid my possible loss of memory, because up to now I just can remember I could not give personal thanks (for her material help) to the journalist Mrs. Nadia Svitlychna, the USA. "Time flies like on wings", and we can not get hold of everything in our memory...
P. S. As one of the greatest criminals of the "USSR" empire (Horbachov) was not convinced and walks freely (making tours all over the Western countries and storing milliards of dollars) and, in addition, even has got the image of a hero, I am to add here the corrected fragment from my first prologue to the first edition, where it is said about him: "... in this form or in another one, I was repressed in the 40-s and 50-s, 60-s and 70-s, 80-s and almost the whole 1990 year. And that means, that I was repressed at the times of all general secretaries, starting with Stalin, and I declare: the psychological pressure onto prisoners was the hardest at the times of so-called "perestroishchyk" (“reconstructer”) - Horbachov! Of that very criminal, who is now so generously enriched by the "humanist" West. They say, he has already got myriads on his account... Is this payment for the falling of the empire? No, gentlemen! The empire did not go to ruin, but just let the Baltic countries separate. Moscow does not hurry to joint Ukraine to the restored "soviet" just because Ukraine is for all that... a colony in the full meaning of that word. Particularly russification got unprecedented scale at the time of all the history of occupation.
What court and when will it give the Moscow gang people with their "democratic" dictators what they deserve? I guess, Neurnberg-2 … if on the place, where Moscow is, another "Dead sea" appears ( after the War III).
2001; 2005.
Here, below, a photograph of two my Friends (the Nеtherlands): M`s Gravesande (dressed in dark) and Mrs. Maaskant.
In memory about the victims
of the Communist Punishing System
Onuphry Kulak and the Legion of other political prisoners
I DEDICATE
“ Are all these years passing vainly for us only,
Like hundreds of the years are already gone?
And even now shall we be sleeping deeply,
When everybody is already greeting dawn?”
V. Samiylenko
- Tell some lie to us, - said Haidamaka, approaching the loud-speaker and turning the handle round.
In that very moment as expected a brisk voice was heard: "By the historical decisions... the meeting of our native Communist Party... the working people... accepted the rise..." Everyone laughed, and the "rattle" shut up again.
- Exactly in that their might is: never deviates the standard, never pays the least attention to the real state of things. And no inner crises -3-
will shake this "fervor" till the "rattle" exists. Perhaps only an atomic bomb might muffle it, what I was saying about more than once, - Stephan Senyk proceeded the interrupted discussion.
But Haidamaka, that is Bohdan Kostetsky, because he is "Haidamaka" for his friends only, was impossible to be reassured. He was a former student of the Pedagogical Institute, and like every prisoner he considered himself to be quite knowledgeable in the world of policy and kept to his own points of view.
- And intelligence?! How many outstanding workers of science, culture, literature have spoken for the last years with the decisive deprecation of the empire, and the whole world learnt about it - isn't it that the very bomb, which is able to muffle that "rattle"? And it is just the beginning...
- And where are those workers to put the empire down? Aren't they accidentally in Volodymyr* and Mordovian camps? Or those ones, who found themselves on the other side of the curtain, in the free world, - insisted Senyk, - what can they do now? To wait until KGBands conscience utters a sound and admits its crimes? It's nonsense, and you, yourself, are quite conscious of that.
Haidamaka, having put his hands back (that duty,having been set up by the supervisors, turned to the habit), strolled along the barracks thoughtfully and soon, after the remarks of other prisoners had calmed down a bit, he again stopped in front of Stephan.
- Not everything is done quickly, but even a drop of water wears away a stone. Who can be sure that even another squabble in CC Communist Party of the SU provoke a downfall and the people are ready for that long before. Let it only be given a pretext, and everything will be going itself, like in chain. "The inspired by decisions" will some when lose their patience, - be sure, there will be such a moment.
- There won't be, I'm afraid. Our nation is in slavery for too many years to be able to start a revolution. The least sign of disrespect for the regime is instantly punished by a prison.
- But yet half a century ago it was possible!
- What was possible? To let you be treated by a sort ofadventurer - it was. But it was not possible to gain freedom and self-determination. Who hadn't let himself to be treated - became a victim of the physical reprisal.
For each case the system of actions had been planed beforehand. —*Central prison, where together with criminal prisoner there were also political one kept. In the 70-s political prisoners were transfered to the town Chystopil.
here and there applied were lies, there — they used force, but anyhow they had to move "forward"... to the improving of the dictate..
- But there must be the end of all that! - cried out Bohdan desperately.
- If to consider this regime are so ensured, so that it could exist endlessly, what is there to live for?! Let it even be so: the revolution is impossible, but also the war, destructive for the empire, is not foreseen at the present conditions. It won't be America to take to that deal, only this country has got rather a powerful weapon. Then who will? Won't it be China, a communist rival with its hundreds of milliards of bayonets?
- Who knows? Possibly, it might be China under special circumstances... if the Fate wishes, - Stephan caught his favorite idea.
- Speak more naturally at last - "God's will", by which we have been blessed for being slaves for lifetime! This is the same, the words are just different.
-There is some similarity, I don't deny, - Senyk agreed, - but a fatalist doesn't need to make bows with hope, that the deity takes compassion on him at last and invites him to the Heaven Kingdom. A fatalist is sure - it's impossible to change anything in future, the fate acts with an implacable power, so, a man doesn't, at least, humiliates himself before that higher enemy power. His being passive - is the manifestation of wisdom: don't beg for mercy - you won't get it, be ready for the worst, accept this barbarian world as it is, and everything will be put on its place. Jack London said: "Who were you destined to come to this world? - A robber or a robbed one". You are not given the third possibility.
- No, I don't agree with this. A man must himself guide his fate, must struggle for his future, - insisted Kostetsky.
- Must, must... What's the use of it, that he must, when he can't? To fight the way we are fighting - is equal to doing nothing. Unless we suppose getting into the concentration camp to be our aim, - and we have just fought to that, - but then why do we need such struggle?
- To prove the humanity, that we haven't fallen asleep yet in the slavery, that we still exist as a nation, though in the conditions of eternal slavery. It is also a purpose!- cried out Bohdan with the pressing.
- Probably it is. But it was better if that struggle was armed and the forces were at least equal.
- This can only be dreamt of. Under present conditions, the might should be aimed onto the nation's unity - then some when we could become free. -4-
- Unity - is a fiction,* - objected Stephan. - Let's take this camp: only the greatest fighters seem to get here, but what do we have in reality? Almost a quarter of our allies are denunciators. Sure they were made to do that inhuman conditions of living, lack of hope, weakness of characters, but the fact still remains the fact. And what unity can be talked about at freedom?
Apply to some sovietic worker-slave with a proposal to join the struggle, what will he say? "If you want to survive - keep silence", - it's in the best case. And he can even denounce where required.
-You know, just yesterday I thought: if they bring someone else – it will be crowded here and unfavourable (uncomfortable).How much the dwelling area is here? Even with the area of the toilette there is only 1,20m x 2,50m here,and in addition two poles for sitting occupy some place. So l was n't delighted, when they brought you here. And it occurred- that there is enough place here. When there is harmony between people,the third one could also stay here. Or on the contrary: it will be crowded, even in the empty room, if there is no agreement.
- Well, there is of great importance here the fact, that I don't run all over the cell as you do. Because where could we manage to walk together?
- What do you mean, where? The thing is not in the length of the passage, but in the quantity of steps, which may be done: three, five or seven ( If the number of steps is odd, half-turns do not “turn” the head…). We mustn't consider it long to define, how the ward should be divided for two of us.
- And what, for exactly, were you brought here? - 1 asked.
- For irreverent manner of speech, that is to say. And they, however, had this programmed. On the "planning meeting" the supervisors are given the instruction in the delusive form: to intensify the educational work with the convicted "Ivanyuk". Supervisors intensively... observe, what they could cavil at, and the whole educational work — is punishment by“SHIZO”(punishment cell). А nasty system, what can I say...
*And here what Lev Sylenko, the author of Sacred Doctrine of Ukraine “Maha Vira”(29:106-107)says in regard to the word of a charch anthem “Lord, send us unity”: - “Unity is not given to anyone. It does not drop from the Heaven. It can be neither bought, nor begged, nor entreated either… Unity – is the morality of the nation. The morality of the nation. which develops his original spirituality for centuries, is being created on it`s own… The nation`s unity can be taken away from the natin only by means of the demoralization of people. People without unity are peple without their national morality.”
Conversations, arguments - are endless as the terms of imprisonment. Only occasionally some convicted philosophers departured from the lists of the camp, and the other ones appear in them. They disappear because of their death or going mad, or even because they carry their souls, their unrest beyond the zones, onto freedom. There they stick to the first woman, they come across, and create a family - if they have enough health. The others don't find contentment in such pitiful happiness of sexual pleasures. They come back, to go on asking their fate questions, which can not be answered: what for? why? will the suffering not so long?
Draft 1 The ward of SHISO (penalty isolation ward) for two. (The length of the first route is a bit shorter – it is less than 1.5m, but satisfactory for making three minimal steps).
... Today after an evening check-up Bohdan was taken to SHISO for the next 10 days. The refusal to labour a job is a usual thing in the camp. The arguments are typical: the lack of health, of food.
Now in SHISO, there will be less of the first thing and of another one... Can there be found any sense in that system?
You are hungry and ill. You cannot work? You will go to SHISO! You are gone? It`s a pity. But, due to the instructions, you will be pricked with a bayonet to make sure - what if you are a yogi and want to evade from working "for the good of motherland'", pretending to be dead?
You won't deceive them. They are experienced in crimes like no other one in the world. And this experience is the summit of the "progress" of the empire, its worthy culmination! Deserving the theory of a human's descending from the beast - a gorilla.
You, idealists, used to say: Hegel, Absolute idea, Spirit... And how are this abstractions accepted in SHISO, do you know? When tortures by hunger and cold bring to nothing the highest spirituality and concentrate the wills on the crudely material things: warmth, bread. -5-
…I had to clear the way to the porch of the canteen, but I was in no time through with it. The driver managed to stop the car closely and unloading was going on quickly. Again the manageress (it must be some beautiful girl - Halynka,Irynka…) invited me to have some hot “borsch”.
- Maybe I ought also to bring you some bread?
- Bread? And you are proposing this to ME?! Now I myself, as a deliver of bread, can treat anyone to some bread. Look: in this pocket I always have some tastiest crusts for myself. These are the out cuts of the defective bread, which is given for working up and which is in plenty in the bakery. And the lower crust of the defective bread is equally tasty.
…They say, I’ll have to get up at about 4 o’clock. It’s too early slightly, even for a lark, but, anyhow, not everywhere they start delivering bread so early. Besides, all the inconveniences will be recompense generously: I will ALWAYS HAVE NEW, AROMATIC BREAD IN UNLIMITED QUANTITY. And in addition – I’ll have the most useful rye-bread, which is probably baked everywhere.
Really, there is no reason to hesitate. I’ll be a forwarder. And it will be on the exile, in“Taiga”(Rus.- a great forest, a traditinal region of the political settlemets), or even later, at freedom. I guess, I could always get this job. Many people don’t like to get up early, but for the sake of the possibility to HAVE ALWAYS UNLIMITTED QUANTITY OF BREAD it was worth bearing some small awkwardness. Besides, forwarders finish their work approximately right after dinner, and I’ll have plenty of time. So, only a forwarder.
- Are you offering bread to ME? – I`ll exclaim impudently. – Oh, no, Miss Halynka, now I can offer as much as you wish by myself. HERE, LOOK, IN THIS POCKET…ALWAYS… BROWN, AROMATIC!
… I could have a snack before“dinner” (in“SHISO”, in days of hunger, they served only boiling water for “dinner“). It was good, that Shelton in his book told me: only bread, consumed separately and chewed properly (worked up by the saliva ferments), is assimilated most completely – for the whole 100 percent. The other prisoners neglect this fact without reason and eat bread, taking boiling water with it. Then bread is hardly half assimilated, and there is so little of it…
Perhaps I might eat this thin lump?...But soon “boiling water” will be brought, and bread won’t be assimilated in hundred percent: water will weaken the action of the split ferments – and my calories will be gone for good. And boiling water must be taken straight away, to get warm.
A scientific approach – is beyond everything.
I must survive.
Ten days in SHISOfor Kostetsky were over almost in two months. At first he had a verbal dispute with the regime-chief, then – with an ideological-chief, consequently he declared a hunger-strike and as a result: his body swelled, especially his legs and face. There was even a danger of
gangrene. It goes without saying, that in such cases the party and the government allot condensed milk (or anything else) for compulsory feeding through the anus. “No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten”.Certainly. But yet until swelling reduces and a prisoner starts walking on his own, - he won’t be, perhaps, driven away to work. So, the ideological-chief turn out to be human too?
- Tell me, how you managed to trespass the frontier.
- A combination of events. But it’s difficult to explain this without a scheme. Perhaps I’ll scribble it with a nail. It’s good I found it yesterday. I’ll scratch it here, on the floor, lest it was noticed.
I started drawing a scheme, and Viktor – my co-prisoner in ward – made himself almost comfortable on the floor closely to the tightly grating, which separated the heating tube. I doubted very much, that in such a way he could get more warmness, but the cold floor didn’t make him any harm. It was still a mild fall, Sept., 23
. And now listen, how I overcame all this obstacles.
A sheep hedge I have,of course, just crossed at the place, where it -6- was half-broken. Then, on seeing a stripe of traces (a ploughed and harrowed stripe of ground), I in no time made a single right decision about how I could cross it, without leaving traces, though I had never been considering over such a problem before. The fact that the harrow marks were of sand, which “swept away” the traces perfectly, made my task easier. I’ll try to reproduce it on the scheme… You see?
…Having found myself in front of the main hedge (as it turned out, it was a signal one), I also did non hesitate long and climbed through the wires; as I had no tongs for cutting the wires, there was no other way to overcome this hedge. This only possible place I mark with number “8” at the draft 2.
Draft 2 A scheme of the frontier constructions: 1) a preventive hedge, against animals, lest they damaged a Control-Trace Stripe (CTS). This hedge is low, 0,7m high; 2) the main signal hedge about 2,5m high, the wire is strained tightly, in the lower part (up to 0,5m high) it double, according to the “Stepanov’s system”. See the layer on A-A); 3) the second signal hedge, 1,3m high; 4) the first CTS – 1,5m wide; 5) the second CTS – 4m wide; 6) a country road for the driving out of the “alarming” group; 7) “a crown” from the barbed wire, to make it impossible to lean over it with hands when climbing it through; 8) the place, where I managed to climb through the wires
Draft 3 A scheme of crossing the trace stripe by the method of “edging”. The method, created extempore at the place of “the crime”. It is figured: 1 – original outlines of the harrow marks. 2 – Contours of the harrow marks after the sand were removed by the edging of my shoes. 3. “The edging” of a shoe.
Draft 4 On the scheme there are marked the prints of the shoe edging, which were immediately covered with sand from the top of the harrow marks. The view from above. 
- But why didn’t you take tongs with you? It must be easier to cut the wires, than climbing through them?
- Certainly. But to cut the wires means to leave traces and later you’ll understand, I was lucky to cross the frontier just because I had not left any traces. And I had no tongs not because I had realized that dependence beforehand, but because of a quite banal reason: I made the rounds of all
economical shops in Ashkhabad, but couldn’t find tongs anywhere. The deficit appeared to be not in behalf of the system: a run-away left no traces.
- At what time did it happen? Your crossing the frontier, I mean?
- According to the acts and reports the signal from the first hedge came at 3 minutes to 10 in the evening. Right after that the alarming signal followed. The system by Stepanov complicated my task, but didn’t stop me. To shove the wire asunder, that is to hold up the second from the bottom “thread”, I had to squeeze two threads together first and only then to let them free. With the help of arrows on the layer A-A I demonstrated, how the wires are to be clenched in a hand.
Layer on A-A (view from above
- And what is the distance between the vertical and horizontal wires?
- Vertically – it is 10 cm, due to the system by Stepanov - it is approximately 12-15 cm.
- And you had enough force to make this double pressing – extension? -Certainly. If your liberty is nearby – a might doubles. Anyhow, I thought that here, right behind the hedge there was a free country already…
- Was not it?
- Of course, it wasn’t. The system of the communist frontier curtain – is the most perfect in the world, it has no analogy, if to say more precise. To the true frontier line there was yet 3.5 km away from those hedges. (On another parts of the border of the USSR this distance can certainly be different, but the system of hedges differs as well), and just thanks to combination of events I was lucky to overcome it.
- Here you marked “a thorny crown”, so how did you really succeed to climb this second hedge over?You were not leaning over the pole?
- Oh, no. It was impossible not to lean over it. Even Archimedes said: “Give me a prop…” I found the way out here extempore too: Why do I have to lean over it comfortably with my whole hand? I had enough place for two fingers…
One evening we gathered in a hut without doors – in so called “summer cook-house” – and took to making strong tea hole-and-corner. It was not a wise habit – to betake oneself to artificial excitement, but so it -7-
was “established”.
… Our company is not large – there are three men in it: Stephan, Bohdan and me. Tea ceremony is led by Senyk, that is Stephan: it is not the first time he is in prison and he was more experienced. He almost 40,but looks as an alive corpse, thanks to what he is not so often put into SHISO for his refusal to labour. He was convicted to twelve years in camp, and he had already spent nine years of that term. He had got to jail for making an attempt to cross the frontier “armed”. This “weapon” – an artificially broken staff sword – was intended for a defense from a possible attack from sheep-dog…
Bohdan Kostetsky, nicknamed Haidamaka for his luxurious moustache and his deep sounding voice, now, after almost a two month hunger-strike looks like a bourgeois, who accidentally found himself among “the dead”. His swollen face leads astray – it is as if glowing with health and beauty, just his legs being like logs don’t leave a trace of doubt: he is in awful condition. He is 26; his seven-year term of imprisonment will be over this autumn. He was condemned for his love to his native language: “… sew the seeds of dissension between brotherly nations, opposing the Ukrainian language to the Great Russian one…”, and such other things were slandered by interrogators. The third man in the company is me – Ivan Husyak. I am in my 21 year, and in four months my superficial acquaintance with the camp will come to the end. With my three year of imprisonment I look like a correspondent, which has just dropped to the camp for an hour to interview prisoners. And they call me so – Correspondent: “… Spreaded anecdotes, which disgraced the state regime, the party leaders and the government…” In reality it was just one anecdote and only one shameful leader of the party and the government – Brezhnev, was satirized in it. But it’s not what we are talking about now.
When finally we started passing a can with tea to each other, in circle, Stephan suddenly exclaimed: “Wait, a pipe!” At first we glanced at him attentively, but when he put his hand into his pocket to get some makhorka (the worst sort of tobacco in the USSR), we all understood a joke “a la Taras Bulba”, and we ourselves took to making rolled cigarettes. - Now, it’s quite a different thing, a complete satisfaction, - he said pleased. – Well, tell us, our friend, how you beared all that, what thoughts came to your mind?
-Yes, I`ve born it down for my own surprise… I even got fatter, - Bohdan made an attempt to joke, - but as for thought, I should admit there were plenty of them. All the time I was like sleeping, I saw beautiful wonders. It’s a pity, now everything has gone.
- Perhaps they were marvelous fairies? – wondered Stephan.
- How can you? Fairies did not interest me. I saw a beautiful future of Ukraine – free, independent; we were marching in columns along the Khreshchatyk, crying with happiness, that we are not slaves any more… I really cried very often – tears welled up into my eyes, probably because of my physical and moral exhaustion.
- Is it worth risking your life? What use these dreams have enriched your? – Stephan stood up and began walking quickly from the wall to the door. – We scarcely exist, what is this game with death for?
- I’ve said already: we must prove the world, that we are existing, fighting for the liberty of our country. Moreover, what is one person’s life or death worth against the destruction of the whole nation? – Haidamaka became silent and leaned against the wall with his back tiredly.
- Maybe, I should bring some water? – I asked.
- No, that’s O.K. You’d better make some more tea.
I went out for water, and when I returned Bohdan was proceeding:
- … Education, newspapers, state establishments, radio will keep to the Ukrainian language only. Some years will scarcely pass, when this language really becomes a native one for millions of the russificated.
- And there are almost fifteen million of Moscovites(Russian), the people of other nations? – reminded Stephan. – What will happen with them in your Kingdom?
- I don’t suppose it to be a problem: who learned Ukrainian and for whom Ukraine became a Motherland, these will stay, the others – will leave Ukraine for their native lands.
- Will they have a wish to leave? First of all Russian and Jewish peoples. Only the patriots of their nation will go away. Only compulsory deportation can be of use here. In such a case, naturally, the world, free since olden times, will be filled with indignation. It is up to fashion now to cry for the brotherhood between nations and the peoples. But, true, these claims are made by nations and peoples, which have been free for centuries, where there is no and there have never been any problem of preserving their native language. We are late for gaining independence. We shall gain it then, when the world will be destroying limits between the nations. This means, our attempts to mop up our nation from the ones, speaking Russian language - for the renaissance of our nation and our native language, will be –8-accepted as the acts of barbarism against humanism, as breaking of principles of the Declaration of human rights.
Stephan, agitated with the raised problem, took out makhorka and again took to lighting it up. Bohdan, probably being under the impression of his recent dreams, objected to him.
- You are complicating too much. The moment we gain independence, all those problems will disappear. I saw the cloudless future of Ukraine, possible and a real one. I saw our land, as one huge garden, as an oasis among a desert. In this oasis our beautiful songs could be heard, people built really free life; our history was clarifying itself from the falsification, the people – a creator – having been slaved for centuries, was flourishing with talents. Can this majestic progress halt because of any problems, connected with the existing of the occupation elements?
- It won’t be able to stop, but it could quite possibly slow down or go the wrong way. You don’t take into consideration the quantity of those “elements of foreign language”. You should enlist to those fifteen million of occupants (I let myself call them so, as just for the occupation the majority of them were settled down in Ukraine) and over a half of the Ukrainian in the cities of the East and the South, which are still supposed to be such only according to their passports, but they do not know the Ukrainian language and do not even wish to. Those last ones, as a result of a three hundred year russification and enslavement, are as foreign to us as the Muscovites or the Polish are. This does not mean, I blame them and demand some repressions or deportation as a punishment. I just, with a filling of a pity, depict the difficulties, Ukraine will come across on the threshold of its establishment. Won’t a general Ukrainisation (the renaissance of the Ukrainian native language) of education, publishing, broadcasting etc. provoke a truculent opposition of those millions of our denationalized fellow countrymen?..
Number 13 has never specially scared me, but it is January, 13, and cold weather is really harassing inhumanly. Before a shift (at 9 a. m.) you won’t be able to obtain anything from this supervisor, and after a shift I should for certain insist on measuring the temperature and giving out a pea-jacket.
Yesterday, due to approximate calculation, I covered 20 kilometers, today I’ll probably cover more. By the signals of the radio reproductor in the cuddy of a supervisor, I’ve succeeded to reckon that the average speed of walking is about 2.5 kilometers per hour. It is very small, though I move quickly. And speed is lost because of the miserable area: 0.5 meters wide and 2.5 meters long. Five little steps, but right on half-turns everything is lost. Finally a sadist Volkov gave a sanction for measuring the temperature: eight degrees on the level of 1.5 meters, and at least 0 °C on the level of the floor, though they do not measure temperature there. I was given a pea-jacket, but I have to go on “running”, for my thin worn out shoes do not warm my feet…
It is only six in the evening and I have already run about 20 kilometers. Taking into account the fact, that I’ll also have to run at night, the record will be absolute.
… “Release” is left behind. The plank-beds have been let down – so I could lie down. But for how long will the warmth accumulated by my running be enough? For less than an hour, then I should start making myself warm again…
Did anyone see such a thing? Wearing a pea-jacket but unable to lie long: legs (the feet particularly) get cold. I’ve got to think something out… Behind the wall I can hear a prisoner Fedotkin running about as well, though his ward is some degrees warmer.
I try various methods: 1) lying in a pea-jacket and with my shoes on. A conclusion: legs are frozen even more, as in tight ragged foot-wear blood circulation reduces; 2) as well as in a pea-jacket, but without shoes – it is cold, though I have thick socks on; 3) a pea-jacket is taken off, my feet are put onto the shoes (to avoid a contact with icy-cold plank-bed), legs are tucked so that the pea-jacket stretched “along the diagonal” was sufficient for the whole body. A conclusion: it is incomparably better for some time, but soon such bent position of body becomes unbearable, and the whole system itself – unfit; 4) finally, I find an optimal variant. It was a true invention. Everybody, to whom it can be of any use, should listen: if you also have a pea-jacket among your clothes and beneath the pea-jacket there is a cotton jacket, you must quickly,without loosing warmth, take off a pea-jacket and a cotton jacket (by the way, it is not easy to overcome psychological resistance and undress at cold, but you are to: your rescue depends over it), to put your pea-jacket on again, to lay down and wrap your legs(feet) with a cotton jacket. The feet certainly are to be put onto the ragged foot-wear; you must not tuck your legs, because it is quite enough to cover them (with a pea-jacket) up to the knees only.
I’ve been sleeping for about two hours. I wake up but felt –9-warmed-over enough to lay a little bit more. Although I feel, that the allowed eight hours for laying, which could be scarcely used half-way, are probably coming to the end.
I hear my neighbor skipping all over his ward, stumbling upon the walls and a plank-bed half-awake. I decide to share a trusty invention with him. I dictate him the conditions and he in no time applies that saving method. Finally he makes himself comfortable and calms down.
But scarcely two minutes pass when the roaring steps of the supervisor and the clattering of the keys against the door are heard:
- Get up! – He shouts due to the “regulations”.
- I have just laid down. It is cold, let me lay a bit, - my neighbour asks.
The Communist Punishing System is inexorable:
- Get up!
My neighbor gets up. I rise as well.
Somewhere the sun rose. A new day began. Hullo, more! New Year has begun – due to the old style. Today it is January, 14, 1990. Concentrating camp “BC 389/35”. Wards of SHIZO №2 and №3 (mine).
The year is new – the style of life is old.
The system is infirm, but it plucks at a life desperately. Agony… The last tempestuous convulsions of the almost dead organism.
I notice with a moral satisfaction: on the lid of the toilette hole – there is a piece of ice. Well, now it will be easier to demand to be given high shoes or be taken to a warmer ward. I call for the supervisor, show him the ice on the lid. A vain deal. As usually, the effect of “the end of the shift” works.
Only about ten a new supervisor on duty comes. In addition, he is the most human one of all of them.
I again show him the ice; knock with a spoon handle at it, lest he should think it is some imitation. I cry out about the tortures by cold.
- Yes, yes, - he does not object. The question must have been positively settled yet at the chief`s Council room and it might have even been agreed with Moscow. They open the door and take me to a warmer ward. They also bring my neighbor.
… It has dawned.
I had never intervened in those disputes. And not because I was too young in comparison with them: in the camp the difference in age is almost of no meaning – misfortune makes everyone equal. I just had such luck – to hear more, to observe and engrave in my memory. I got, for a comparatively, short term into this bizarre kingdom of philosophers, and I am short of time to think everything, I hear over, leave alone my making speeches with my simple-minded conception of the world and life. My outlook is pitifully chrestomatical in comparison with their ideas, engraved by a gained experience.
On that evening our conversation was interrupted by the coming of the supervisor: they had announced “release”, and we were not in the barracks yet. Again we gathered in a week only, but neither Bohdan nor Stephan had any humor for the discussion – both of them knew their differences in their outlooks and there was no tea in addition. They exchanged some words unwillingly, which were of no importance. A bit more interesting sounded our discussion of a close future after Bohdan’s and mine having been set free. I myself wanted to turn their thoughts back to the previous conversation, as I did not suppose that theme to be used up. After two unsuccessful attempts I succeeded to touch Stephan to a quick, though I was addressing to Kostetsky with my question: “Last time you were comparing Ukraine to an oasis, which you`ve imagined in your dreams, could you tell us about it more precisely?”
And while Haidamaka was hesitating to answer, Senyk reinterrogated with an undisguised feeling of sarcasm.
- Are you saying, oasis? Haw-haw! – The laughter was artificial, but full of tragic nuance. – Do you know what oasis is? I used to have lived in a real oasis for some time, among the desert, in the Middle Asia. These are awful recollections… What is written there in geography about oasis, Ivasyk? Oasis – means water, plants, it is a fairy paradise amidst the desert, isn’t it? Each pupil has such ideas about oasis, each one dreams of finding himself in the oasis some when. I was there. I prefer to die slowly of hunger and cold here in Mordovia to pining in such paradise. Not water is a sign of an oasis, but its constant lacking! That water – a warm dirty slum with myriads of microorganisms! You have crawled to the oasis to refresh your vigor? Don’t forget, millions of other creatures crawl here for the same purpose. Each one needs water: flies and mosquitoes, gophers and vipers, scorpions and bacteria, beasts of prey and sheep, the four-legged and the two-legged. The strongest one will obtain better water; this one will survive, who is more adopted, but not the one, who deserves or requires it more. Oasis is famous for its sun? If you have drunk a glass of water, –10-
the sun will drink two of them out of you! Oasis is beautiful with its trees? Places in the shade are for the chosen only, -“It is not us to fight with them!” Bohdan, you compared our beautiful Ukraine to the oasis – I don’t object to this, if one speaks about a real oasis, but not of a chrestomatic one. Really, our Motherland is rich in all the gifts of Nature, but like the real oasis, all the beasts of prey have been rushing into here as well from the remotest times, the best “water” is drunk by the toads of all the colors of hair and nations. “Forever with the great Russian people!” – because they themselves could not survive without Ukraine. “The oasis, - blood-suckers cry out, - can not exist on its own, without the unity with one given for each historical period great people: Mongolian, Tatar, Turkish, Polish, German, Austrian, Moscow, Jewish etc.!” The tragedy is endless. Here and there the voices can be heard, speaking about the expedience of the countries’ integration, of putting an end (in which way) to inter-ethnic hostilities; but what will it look like for Ukraine? This demand will mean occupation of the Oasis-Ukraine by new groups of “mammals” of all nations - after destroying Moscow communist empire too.
Stephan lit up an extinct rolled cigarette nervously and went on:
-Finally these Mordovian concentrating camps can be called an oasis too, though in some another aspect: at the lands of Mordovian nationalities erzia and moksha, who do not see a freedom even in a dream, for they are so much disconcerted by Moscow propaganda, our camps are like oasis among the desert of the national decay of the people. Because exactly in those camps there are gathered the best – let’s not be afraid of that word – representatives of all enslaved nations, here is the struggle for the human’s right for freedom, liberty of creative work and ideology.At the same time, for the reasons of difficult living conditions, here as well like in a true oasis, the spongers of various nations rival for better “water”, for a position at the kitchen and bread-cutting. And here as well an enslaved brother goes and peaches against his brother, when he can not stand prison any longer – and doing so, he satisfies himself with a hope, that executioners, instead, will reduce the punishment. There is one end for the pious and for the sinful: a peccable brother can’t wait till they reduce his penalty for his denunciations, and he will perish as well as a pious one will, which will be increased terms of imprisonment for his propaganda of the ideas for struggle. The difference between them will be also unessential the moment, they finally find themselves free – they are exhausted spiritually and cripples physically! They are not awaited by the shady trees of Oasis-Ukraine, the sun of enslaved nation will not heal them, - it’ll drain them completely, they will not get sacred water on their native land – it is fouled by parasites!
Stephan stopped speaking and to calm down irritation, provoked by the picture he himself has depicted, he started walking quickly from one corner to another one. Bohdan also did not utter a word: he turned pale and was sitting motionlessly. I was also deeply impressed by Senyk’s monologue, but subconsciously, despite of my will, I could hear a nasty egoistic thought sounding: “I’ll soon leave this place, I shall not yet become a cripple, and I still have a chance to find a shady tree for myself, I…”
- You said, the first signal of the alert was fixed at about ten. So why didn’t frontier-guards react then? Were they not on time?
Can the most perfect in the world system “not be on time”? They could have been on time so much more! If they had kept strict to the instruction… Here I also must draw “the situation”. I’ll demonstrate it schematically.
According to the instruction, after the signal about trespassing the hedge on a definite plot comes, commanding officer of an outpost must immediately send two groups on automobiles: “alarming” and “intercepting”. In fact they send only one group – an “alarming” one. Why? Just because “the most perfect in the world” soviet techniques often give the faulty signals or do not give them at all, do not react. Frontier-guards ar tired of driving out, when a false signal comes. So they often send an
Draft 5: 1– CTS on the line of a true frontier; 2 – two lines of a signal one and a “sheep” hedge; 3 – towers with search-lights; 4 – possible directions of the fugitive’s movement after his having trespassing frontier hedges;5 – the place of trespassing the hedge; 6 – automobile with an “alarming” group; 7 – automobile with a group of “interception”; 8 – “valiant interceptive forces of the USSR”. -11-
“alarm” group only, to see with their own eyes, if there are any traces. For 90 percent fugitives leave their foot-marks. Even I left them: in two days,when the agents from Iran informed about the presence of a runaway, the soviets started examining the area of trespassing assiduously. They did found the traces, though they were hardly seen, because I negligently crossed the second CTS, supposing that I was already in Iran.
So the commander sent an “alarming” group. He draw out himself, - as TWO (both!) signal systems reacted – of a high hedge and of a lower one (1.3m). To make a mistake for the both systems – it is a rare case even for “the most advanced in the world” techniques.
The “alarming” group examined the place, where the signal emerged: the wire was intact, the harrow marks of CTS were untouched (they didn’t notice a slight damage on the second stripe), and the dog also didn’t sniff the tracks…
- But why? Is it possible for that supersensitive “apparatus” – the dog’s nose – not react?
- You see, here is one more contingency, some specifics. The thing is, the dog sniffs the trace not only by the foot-marks of the shoes left, but sooner by the smell of a sweat, which was left on the vegetative cover by cloths or simply by body. But there was no verdure there, in the desert: it was a dry, hard and usually sandy ground. Can you leave much of your sweat on a dry hard ground? So what else the commander of the outpost could thing of?
- “Let’s go guys. Our techniques are out of order again”.
- And I’ve heard,- my partner said, again taking a seat on the floor near the grating, - that if to sprinkle your traces with “makhorka”, a dog will also lose the track of somebody…
- I took “makhorka” as well. But “on the battle field”I forgot about everything in the world, and losing time for makhorka was hardly an expedient thing. I couldn’t waste a single second. According to reports, the “alarming” group reached the place of trespassing in five minutes(It`s 2.3 km from the outpost to the place of trespassing). I coped with everything in three minutes, so I was fall short of time. And if the “intercepting” group was sent, then“the guys”would get bored of awaiting me at the frontier, because, as I’ve remembered, it took me 35 minutes to cover those 3.5km from the hedges to the frontier.
- And how much time does the “intercepting” group need to set the “catchers”?
- Due to the instruction, they are given seven minutes for that, so they have considerable reserve of time – almost half an hour, that is why they sent an “alarming” group first, and only then settle, whether they should send the “interceptors”.
- Well, and how were you accepted by Iranian frontier-guards?
- What frontier-guards? Where else in the world – except communist countries – there can be “defenders” of the boundaries standing in chains? There are no outposts in any free country, only custom-house officers – on the ways of communication.
- But there must exist some boundary-line…
- What for do they need a separate border, when the soviets plough and harrow their own one so assiduously?.. As it turned out later, the nearest department of Iranian gendarmerie (10 warriors leaded by an officer) was located approxim