Our team continues working on the second season of the project “GULAG: Witnesses”, dedicated to the stories of Stalin’s labor camp victims.
With the help of the talented actress and singer Anastasia Pogorelova, we have recreated the tragic fate of Ida Ziskina-Varpakhovskaya, who was falsely accused and spent 8 years in Siberian labor camps.
Here is a short excerpt from her memoirs:
“I was arrested right on the street. So many years have passed, yet I remember that day as if it were yesterday. We lived in Ostankino, in a small house with a garden, surrounded by a fence. Back then, it felt like a village. My father, mother, my husband, and I lived there with our little son, Grisha, who was 1 year and 5 months old. My husband had been arrested a month earlier.
I went outside for a walk with my son. It was a frosty day. Grisha ran around and begged to be held. As I was heading home, I saw a tall man leaning against the fence. He smiled kindly and said:
— I am here for you. You need to come with me to clarify some matters regarding your husband.
— Alright, I replied, but I need to feed my child first.
We entered the house. My mother was very ill and bedridden. I fed my son and put him to sleep in his crib. As I was about to leave, he cried bitterly, reaching out his tiny hands for me. My mother, throwing on her robe, walked me to the door and said:
— Take some money for a taxi and come home quickly.
Alas, I never saw her again.
I reunited with my son 16 years later…”
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