20 years in Siberia

By Anita Nandris-Cudlea

”20 years in Siberia” is the story of a peasant woman from Bucovina, Cernauti county,
Mahala village. Anita and her family were among the 13000 romanians who lived the terror of
deportation in June 1941. They experienced famine, disease and hard work in one of the harshest
environment on Earth, managing to bring up her sons and returning to her native village in 1961.

Anita was born in 1904, having only 10 years when the World War I has begun. She had six
brothers. In a Sunday morning in 1914 some people came to their house to let them know that
the austrians started a war with the soviets. Their father prepared the waggon and they left to
Cernauti, getting away from the russian army. Things settled down for a while and they decided
to come back. Once they got there the shootings started again, their house got caught in the
crossfire, leaving it demaged. After one year the austrian army had started to retreat. The
sovietics started to take over the village, breaking into peasants houses over night, forcefully
recruting the males. When the sovietic soldiers arrived to Anita’s house, they tried to steal the
horses. When her mother went out of the house, she got beaten until she couldn’t move. Four of
Anita’s brothers were fighting on a far away front, and all of the responsabilities fell on her. It
was realy hard for her to take care of her family and the housework because she was only
fourteen. In 1918 the War World I ended and all of her brothers came home unharmed. In 1921
Anita got married, receaving goods from both of her and her husband’ s families. Once they
moved in together they had a hard start, but in time they managed to make for themselves a good
living. After 1927 they had the second child and decided to take Anita’s mother in their house.
After three years from then they had the third child. Their last familly meal was on Easter of
1940. In June 1940 the romanians retreated from Bucovina and Basarabia. A major restlessness
settled in the village. They started packing, going to Cernauti. Anita got some money from her
brother to go to Bucharest because it was safer, but because of her husband, they returned to
Mahala. On their way back home it started to rain with cats and dogs and Anita remembered the
„Monastirea Argesului” ballad when the rain was desidered to turn back Ana from her way to
protect her from harm. Anita thought that the rain was a sing that something bad is about to
happen. A few people tried to cross the border to Romania and succeded. On another night, other
peasants also tried to cross the border, but they have been betrayed and got caught by the police.
After a while a lot of cars came in Mahala village taking people away. Anita was thinking that
they were taking the families of those who tried to cross the border the second time. On the Great
Sunday, police came again in their village. On that night they came to their house too. They took
them to the town hall, but not her mother because she was disable. From there, they took them to
Sadugura, where she and her husband where separated. They travelled by train for twenty days,
receveing only one meal per day. They arrived in Omsc where she and her three boys were
locked in a camp for another twenty days. After that they were sent to another village were they
were forced to do farm work. There they were fed only with bread( 700 g for those who worked,
and 300 g for kids and elders). The second boy started to work to receive more bread. Seeing that
the peasants were hardworkers the russians felt pity for them and let them have a few things from
the harvesting. But the police came and told them that they have to leave that place. They waited
for 5 days on a shore until a ship arrived. After one week they arrived in Salihard. There the
police began to split the groups. Some of them were kept there and others were sent in other
places. Anita and her children were sent to Suga. After some days, the police started to split
them again. She was send forword and was left in a swamp. After two days of starving, some
boats came with food and took them to another village where they were settled down for good.
She decided with another five families to stay in a house with no roof but with some battens in
the attic. At some time, people started to die because of lice. Anita got really sick. She got helped
by the people from the house and started feeling better, but still weaken. The boys tried to hunt
for food. The elder brother was sent to work in another village, but Anita couldn’t stand the idea
that her family will be split again, and she took her other two boys and got on the ship that left
with the elder brother. Her job was to prepare the fish after it was caught. Here they had to pay
for the bread. The elder brother asked someone to move her mother and brothers into another
house. She made clothes from ropes, because the ones they had from home were ripped. Because
of the lack of food, people became sick. They got aid from local villagers, telling them to eat
„iogade”, some wild fruits. In December 1944 Anita got typhus. For six weeks she stayed in the
hospital, and after that she remained home for two months because she was powerless. In the
winter that came she couldn’t work because she was wicked and got sued. She received
punishment of going to jail for two months. She prayed the whole time. She had to stay for
another one month because of frost. In the year she got out of prison, the War World II ended.
The youngest son started to work too. Anita’s boys decided that their mother didn’t have to work
anymore. From 1950 they started to evacuate people with different nationalities. The first one
were the finnish, then polish and tatars. The bucovinean and basarabean turn has came. One day
they were announced that they can’t leave anymore, because King Michael had left the country.
They were allowed to send letters to their families. She received a letter from her sister-in-law
saying that her mother is fine at her brother in Romania. But a brother sent her a letter letting her
know that her mother died in December 1945. After a while, they had the right to have
vacantion. Anita was able to leave anytime she wanted, because she wasn’t working anymore,
but was afraid to leave alone. At the end of January 1956 she went to her home village with a
son, and the trip was one week long. When they arrived their house was alredy occupied by
someone else. They went back to Siberia after two weeks. The boys tried to search for their
father and they found out from a letter that he died in 1942, in a camp in Comi. Anita’ s sons also
asked why they were deported. The police first answeared that the reason they were deported
was that their father was a mayor and rich. The boys sent back a letter that their father wasn’t a
mayor nor rich. The police made more researches and found out that was all a mistake and told
them that they can leave to their native village. The boys were free to go in February 1959. When
they arrived in Mahala, they stayed at her husband’s brother. The local police didn’ t admit that
they had to give their house back. The youngest son went back to Siberia to earn some money. It
took a long time until they moved in their old home. After exactly twenty years they moved into
their home from Mahala. Vasile, the youngest son, came home for a while. Next year he came
back in Mahala and he never left again.