Valentyna VLASENKO

Today, the name Kuzma Glushchan is not found in any known list of those imprisoned in the Gulag. The archives of Dalstroy are partially destroyed, and the KGB archives are closed. A person disappeared as if he had never existed. But the memory has been preserved in the village – about the jesting fellow Kuzma, who once sang a humorous song about Stalin and ended up in Kolyma. They say that either the family received a court ruling or a letter came from Kolyma. And in 1943, a death notice came for his son. They waited for Kuzma after Stalin’s death, but he never returned. How he died, where he is buried, under what number? Now, the Memorial list includes about three million restored names. But how many like Kuzma have vanished without a trace?

The name of my mother’s father was Sylvester. He had many brothers. They all had a cheerful nature and loved to joke. One of them, Kuzma, paid for his jokes with his life. Once he sang a humorous song about Stalin, someone informed on him, and he was sentenced to 20 years in Kolyma. They expected that he would be released in 1953, but he never returned… It is unknown when he died. But he was in Kolyma. He left behind two sons – Vasily and Alyoshka. One died in the war in 1943, and the other had tuberculosis from a young age, so he was given light work – managing the club. At that time, the village council subscribed to magazines for the village library, located in the club. They put on so many plays! Uncle Alyoshka played all the roles of the grooms, and my mother played all the roles of the brides.

Our village is very small – Vilkhove in the Krasnogradsky district; now there are only five houses where people live. But when I went to school, there were 102 pupils in the school and 102 cows in the village, because I herded them in the third and fourth grades and later. But my mother, having three children, with my father being like a fourth «child,» she worked on the farm in the winter. Back then, there were no conveyors; they appeared in the 1960s. Electricity was brought to the village in 1961, and before that, manure was cleaned and carried out manually – with pitchforks, shovels, buckets, and frozen beet pulp was carried on their shoulders. By the end of the day, she would be so exhausted. And where did she get the energy in the evening to run to Uncle Alyoshka and prepare all those performances?!

My mother had a long braid; she would comb it while learning her roles. And performances often changed. The funniest time was when they performed «Pharaohs.» It was about men and women swapping roles. Men did the women’s work, and the women took on the men’s jobs and family duties. Uncle Alyoshka played the man who kneaded the dough. He set up a table in the middle of the stage and kneaded the dough, clearly having practiced at home many times, and he didn’t skimp on the flour. He kneaded so vigorously that the dough flew off his hands and landed on the other side of the hall. Everyone laughed…
— There was a club in the village, but what about that club now?
— Today, there’s not even a mound left of that club building.
— Is it because of its cheerful nature, your village gives out such nicknames?

Here, we are all like these. But tell me, did any Cossack have a surname? Everyone had nicknames. My grandfathers on my father’s side were called «Letyuchi». So where does that come from? It’s a Cossack surname!
— So, his surname in the passport is Glushchan, but you call him Kolymychi in the village.
— In the village, everyone is called by street names. Since he was in Kolyma, he is Kolymych. And «baba Khodachka» went to see Lenin, she was our neighbor, her name was Ulita. But everyone called her «Khodachka» because she walked to see Lenin. And Alyoshka is Kolymych. And Volodya and Vit’ka, their sons, are Kolymychi. And now even their daughters-in-law are Lyubka Kolymychka, Yul’ka Kolymychka, the granddaughter. All Kolymychi. Even the cats are Kolymychi.