Kotlas and Siberia

Our family were deported in 1940 to the Gulags around Kotlas in the far north Oblast Archangel’sk a journey of over 1000miles (as the crow flies)

It was a much longer journey by primative cattle trains that took nearly 2 weeks.

Here they were made to work in the forests clearing trees for the timber mills.

During winter temperatures dropped to -40C

Arkhangelsk Oblast consists of the following districts ( Russian ) areas:

• Kargopolsky (Каргопольский) Kargopolsky (Kargopol)
• Kholmogorsky (Холмогорский) Kholmogorsky (Kholmogorskaya)
• Konoshsky (Коношский) Konoshsky (Konosha)
• Kotlassky (Котласский) Kotlassky (Kotlas) (Area 7 on map above )
• Krasnoborsky (Красноборский) Krasnoborsky (Krasnoborsky)
• Lensky (Ленский) Lensky (Lensky) Marczak's deported here ( Area 9 on map above : Specposiolek 130 below )
• Leshukonsky (Лешуконский) Leshukonsky (Leshukonsky)
• Mezensky (Мезенский) Mezensky (Mezensky)
• Nyandomsky (Няндомский) Nyandomsky (Nyandomsky)
• Onezhsky (Онежский) Onezhsky (Onega)
• Pinezhsky (Пинежский) Pinezhsky (Pinezhsky)
• Plesetsky (Плесецкий) Plesetsky (Plesetsk) Lipowicz's deported here ( Area 15 on map above : Specposiolek 38 below )
• Primorsky (Приморский) Primorsky (Seaside)
• Shenkursky (Шенкурский) Shenkursky (Shenkursky)
• Solovetsky (Соловецкий) Solovetsky (Solovetsky)
• Ustyyanovsky (Устьяновский) Ustyyanovsky (Ustyanovsky)
• Velsky (Вельский) Velsky (Velsky)
• Verkhnetoyemsky (Верхнетоемский) Verkhnetoyemsky (Verhnetoemsky)
• Vilegodsky (Вилегодский) Vilegodsky (Vilegodsky)
• Vinogradovsky (Виноградовский) Vinogradovsky (Vynohradiv)

A graphic account of this journey by DANUTA GRADOSIELSKA (nee MACZKA) is on the Kresy web site.

http://www.kresy.co.uk/memories.html

GULAG : Glavnoye Upravlyeniye Ispravityel'no-Trudovih Lagyeryey i koloniy)

Russian acronym for The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies

Gulags were enclosed camps - barbed wire fences and guard towers - prisoners with a sentance were sent to these.

SpecPosioleks

These were open work camps - for the resettlement and russification of the vast proportion of polish deportees.

Siberia?

Strictly speaking this was not Siberia as this is west of the Ural mountains and Siberia is east of the Urals.

However the term being deported to Siberia was a collective term applied to people being sent to Russian penal colonies (Gulags) in the northern wastes of Russia.

The geography of the land is that of the Siberian “Taiga” the Russian word for forest and is the largest biome in the world. It stretches over Eurasia and Canada.

The taiga is located near the top of the world, just below the tundra biome

wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiga

Account of journey to Siberia

http://poetrania.blogspot.com/search/label/Siberia

Even Stalin himself was banished to Siberia as a young trouble maker.(for bank robber and over zealous Tsarist spy hunter) 1910-1912

Stalin's home in exile in Solvychegodsk near Kotlas, where he was banished in 1911