Valentina Vitkovska
On the territory of the North Kazakhstan Region, in Taiynsha District, in the vast steppes of Kazakhstan hides a small village – Ozernoye. As for today, the village counts about 300 inhabitants. There are no large industrial plants, stadiums or parks here, but among the thousands of places on the planet, it has become a center of pilgrimage for a reason. The history of this unique village began in 1936 in connection with the deportation of Poles from the Western regions of Ukraine to Kazakhstan.
On April 28, 1936, the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR adopted Decree No. 776-120 “On the eviction from the Ukrainian SSR and settlement of 15,000 Polish and German households in the Karaganda region of the Kazakh ASSR”, according to which Poles living in Western Ukraine were resettled in Kazakhstan. According to this decree, 35,820 Poles were resettled, 99.8% of whom ended up in the northern regions of Kazakhstan. They were mostly residents of Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa, Kyiv and Kirovograd regions of Ukraine.
Local NKVD bodies drew up lists of families to be evicted, based solely on their nationality (mixed families remained in place), as well as on any information about their “anti-Soviet” and “counter-revolutionary” activities and “enemy” sentiments. Among the deportees were Party members, chairmen of village councils, collective farms… But mostly they were simple laboring peasants. People were notified 8-10 days in advance about the resettlement. After that, people with their belongings were taken by wagons and trucks to railroad stations and sent eastward under guard.
The history of the village Ozernoye is genuine stories of people’s life, stories and memories of those who almost 90 years ago, first stepped on these uninhabited spacious steppes of Northern Kazakhstan.
From the memoirs of Efrosinya Grigorievna Slavinskaya:
” At 12 o’clock at night, the echelons with the resettled departed from the town of Novograd-Volynsk and arrived in Kiev at about 9 o’clock in the morning. The train has stopped. People got off the train and said goodbye to their Motherland: they cried, screamed, squealed, and not only women and children, but also old men with experience and grown men who already not once had faced difficulties. There was weeping over Kiev. Many people were on their knees and with trembling hands raked their native soil into handkerchiefs in order to take away with them into the unknown, at least this small piece of the Motherland. The authorities, frightened that a riot might break out, gave the command: “Load up!”. This is how our long journey to Kazakhstan began…”
The first resettled appeared on the land of the present Ozernoye village in 1936. In front of the first settlers’ eyes a bare steppe unfolded, where there were no trees, bushes or buildings, only tall grass. The only building was a dilapidated structure made of stones, resembling a barn, for keeping livestock. Later people from neighboring auls told that Popov once roamed in these steppes, he was herding flocks of cattle. Therefore, the village was originally named “Popov’s Gurt”. The word “gurt” means “herd” in Ukrainian. According to archival data as of January 1, 1938, the number of residents of the village was 1559 people.
From the memoirs of Ivan Frantsevich Pavensky:
“…Loading into the wagons was finally over, the military checked us against the list and the echelon moved off. I remember in the wagons people were praying a lot, singing songs. The unknown was frightening, but faith saved, we all trusted in God! At Taincha station, trucks and an armed convoy were waiting for us to be transported to our new place of residence. When we arrived at the place, we saw a bare steppe…. From that day on, life began in a new place where everything had to be created from scratch. Tents were brought in on cars along with people and their belongings. They were very large (100-150 meters long). We were allowed to take a bed and a chair in the tent, everything else: boxes, tables, things were unloaded near the tents. All day long people cried, screamed – but we had to start living…”
The settlers were immediately warned about harsh winters, so from the very first days people began to build earth lodges. They were mud-brick buildings (sun-dried bricks made from clay and dry grass). The earth lodges were about 4 by 8 meters in size. There were 2-3 families living in one earth lodge. About 12 to 20 people. The roofs and floors of the earth lodge were earthen. It was especially difficult to obtain wood for roofing, doors and windows. In this, the settlers were mainly assisted by the local population. Kazakhs brought wood and exchanged it for tea, for clothes, for utensils and other things.
From the memoirs of Petrunya Antonovna Kechman:
“At first we lived in tents, but almost immediately we began to build earth lodges. We dug clay, spreading it out in a previously prepared pit. Then dry grass, sand, straw were added to the clay and the whole mass was trampled to make a consistency of dough. This mass was put into wooden molds and bricks were made, which were dried directly in the steppe in the sun. After drying, the bricks were suitable for making walls, which were tied together with poles. The walls were then clayed on both sides. The floor was a covering of clay mixed with cow manure. The roof was constructed of beams or poles, which were covered with straw and coated with earth – hence the name “earth lodge”.
The living conditions of the resettlers were extreme, they did not meet absolutely no requirements of normal life. The equipment of the earth lodges was very shabby. The most important element was the stove, which guaranteed the ability to survive the winter. The stoves were built of adobe, the same material as the earth lodges. In winter the earth lodges were very cold, the walls were covered with a layer of snow and ice, and in spring, when everything was frozen, there was terrible dampness. There was a foul odor and stench from the manure that covered the floor. The earth lodges were full of mice, bedbugs, flies. Hence, there may have been infectious diseases, the mortality rate of children was very high.
From the memoirs of Maria Fabianovna Gribovskaya:
“…In the winter of 1936-37 we first encountered cold, for the winters in Ukraine were warm and mild. It has been a very harsh winter indeed. Frosts of 40-50 degrees, terrible storms, the likes of which we have never seen in Ukraine. We stretched ropes between earth lodges and walked in a storm on the ropes, as there were cases of people getting lost and freezing in the steppe. The stoves were heated with hay, straw, reeds, but still the main fuel was “kizyak”, sun-dried cattle dung, which children, and we adults, collected in the steppe in summer and fall. There were few cattle, so to “get” kizyak one had to wander the steppe all day long. The water in the house was freezing and the snow on the walls in the earth lodge was shoveled off. People unaccustomed to this climate were getting sick. The mortality rate was very high. Children in particular were dying. Of the five children who came to Kazakhstan with me, I buried two daughters. How could we survive these losses, endure the difficult years of resettlement? Only through a deep faith in God. God alone protected us from the oppressive present, from a future we do not know. He protected our souls, gave us confidence and life inspiration…”
Every year the daily life of the special settlers gradually improved, but it was extremely slow. This depended not only on the orders of the central and local authorities, but also on a number of other circumstances, which include adaptation to the harsh climate, the general low standard of living of the population. Several years in a row there was a severe drought, the crop yield in 1947 was only 3.7 c/ha, in 1948 – 3.8 c/ha, in 1949 – 2.8 c/ha. Through persistence, perseverance, courage, people were able to survive this difficult time.
From the memoirs of Martyn Markovich Slobod:
” On small homestead plots they began to plant garlic, potatoes, beets, carrots at once. Cabbage grew the best. It was especially hard in the spring of 1937, because of the severe frosts the villagers froze all the tubers they had brought, there was nothing to sow with. They went to the neighboring village of Malinovka and exchanged there their belongings for food, for seeds, household items. Malinovka was six kilometers from us. It was a hard life, but we children had a noisy, carefree and fun life. But as much as we could, we helped the adults in the household, in the vegetable garden. The young people were very fond of dancing. But never have we forgotten prayer. With prayer our day began and ended. Our faith in God gave us strength and faith in life”
The second wave of settlers began in the fall of 1936. By this time the earth lodges were almost built. From the first year of the village foundation the collective farm “Red Dawn” was established (later the collective farm was renamed into “Avangard”). The first chairman of the collective farm was Cesar Antonovich Luchinsky (he was repressed in 1937). Construction, field and tractor brigades were created at comrades’ meetings. Along with the construction of earth lodges, there was plowing of land. There was practically no technology, all works were done manually, people worked from dawn to dawn, everyone worked, including women and children.
From the memoirs of Veshko (Zemba) Adela Stanislavovna:
“The land was plowed on oxen with wooden plowshares that they brought with them. They started sowing grain. In the fall children would go to the field and pick spikelets, and all the spikelets would be given away to the collective farm. In this uninhabited and uncultivated land, our labor was very hard. The first three years were bad harvests. Almost nothing was harvested of what we planted. I was a teenager and I remember always being hungry. My dream was to have enough to eat, and that’s probably what gave me the idea to go to school to learn to be a combine harvester. In 1940 I graduated from a mechanization course and during the war years I started working on a combine harvester”
In the winter of 1941 our village was replenished with resettled Germans from the Volga region. From the far east came resettled Koreans. In 1942, fellow villagers welcomed Ingush immigrants from the Caucasus. Old-timers recall that there was great friendship in the village.
From the memoirs of Anna Ivanovna Byalas:
“The winter of 1940-41 was very snowy, we had a lot of precipitation. In the spring of 1941, melt water flooded the lowlands near the village. A large lake was formed. There is even an exact date – March 25, 1941. The water flowed with such power and force that it seemed to wash away all the earth lodges in its path. People began digging canals to help the water take a proper course. The huge lake filled with water in practically a matter of days. There was so much water that it reached the coastal earth lodges. But the miracle was not so much the lake that was formed, as the fish that appeared in the lake. Thanks to this fish, people were able to survive the hungry years of war and the difficult years of resettlement”
The place has been considered holy ever since. The villagers trust in a miracle, believe that the Mother of God, as a gift for their faith and prayer saved them from starvation. To commemorate this event, a monument to the Virgin Mary of the Rich Catch, holding a fish, stands on the stones of the lake.
30s. These are the years of repression. Old-timers say that a “ GAZ-M1 black raven” also came to our village, a man was taken away and no one saw him again. More than 10 of our fellow villagers became victims of repression.
Andrushishen Ludwig Ignatievich.
Ivan Lukyanovich Doberchak.
Konopinski Franz Rodovich.
Vicentiy Iosifovich Luchinsky.
Cesar Antonovich Luchinsky.
Musyca Andrei Ivanovich
Slavinsky Ostap Martynovich
Sek Ivan Avgustovich
Yablonsky Rafail Pavlovich.
In the spring of 1998, a memorial cross was erected on Volynska Sopka, near Ozernoye, on the initiative of the parish of the “Queen of Peace”. This cross, 12 meters high, is a tribute to those who were deported, repressed, died of hunger and cold. This is a thank you to the Kazakh people for their support and understanding.
At the foot of the cross there are words carved in 4 languages: Praise God! Peace to the people! To the martyrs, kingdom of heaven! To the people of Kazakhstan thanks! Prosperity to Kazakhstan!
Looking at the cross one can imagine the merciless and cruel events of political repressions, mangled fates, hungry and dying people. But we must know it and remember it, for “without the past there is no future.”
All restrictions on special settlement were removed by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on December 12, 1955, but not many returned to Ukraine. The older generation, who remembered their native land well, gradually grew old or died, while their descendants have already managed to settle down in Kazakhstan. Many people who left returned after a while, the traces of war were still visible in the historical homeland, and collective farm life looked no better than in Kazakhstan.
All the years our resettlers asked God for protection, strength and deeply believed that someday a marvelous temple would rise to the heavens… The dream of our fellow villagers was allowed to come true. on March 19, 1990 our fellow villagers in Moscow received official permission to build a church in the village of Ozernoye.
The construction of the temple began in May 1990. The first Parson of the Catholic parish was Father Tomasz Peta, who came to Ozernoye from Poland on August 21, 1990. The architect is Ivanitsky Viktor Michislavovich. The name of the parish was chosen by Fr. Nico Hoogland from Holland, he also took care of the statue of the Queen of Peace, which arrived in Ozernoye on December 14, 1991.
In October 10, 2012. The Holy Father Benedict XVI consecrated at the Vatican the Altar of Adoration for the national shrine of the Queen of Peace in Ozernoye. The altar was donated to the Catholics of Kazakhstan by representatives of the European community “Communita Regina della Pace” (“Queen of Peace”). It is the second of 12 altars that the congregation plans to install in various places around the globe, on all its continents, to ask for peace for the world in prayer of worship. The first such altar, called the Jerusalem Triptych, was installed in Jerusalem. Polish master Mariusz Drapikowski worked on the “Star of Kazakhstan”.
Also when creating the Altar, the symbols of Kazakhstan, ornaments were used to make the pattern richer. It is a sign of respect for the Republic and the people who live here. Ozernoye, as a place of installation of the altar of worship, was not chosen by chance – the village became a home for people of different nationalities and religions who kept their faith and united into a community. The image of the Virgin Mary can be seen in the central part of the Altar. Her silhouette is surrounded by a fishing net filled with fish, reminding us of a World War II incident when the residents of Ozernoye were saved from starvation.
For the people exiled by force during Stalinism, for the descendants and still living migrants in Kazakhstan, this is a special sign. Cardinal Robert Sarah said after the consecration of the chapel: “God Himself chose this place. It’s considered holy.”
As a testimony of God’s love for the inhabitants of Ozernoye, and for the whole of Kazakhstan, is the appearance in the village of sister-monks from the city of Czestochowa. on June 25, 2007, the Sisters founded the Convent of the Divine Mercy and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Thanks to the nuns of the Order of the Barefoot Carmelites, prayers for Peace are unceasingly heard in Ozernoye.
Today, the fifth generation of those people who were deported to Kazakhstan in the distant 30s lives on the land of Ozernoye village. In the village of Ozernoye past is treated with great reverence and love. The proof of this is the local history museum of our school, where written and material sources, photographs, documents, old newspapers, magazines, prayer books and much more are collected.
The museum is like a letter that our ancestors left us, it reveals to us a huge world of events, instructive stories, destinies of our fellow countrymen, teaches us to love and appreciate the past. After all, a man who does not know his past has no right to a future.
Valentina Vitkovska is a head of local museum in Oziornoye
Translated from Russian by Wieńczysław Czułowski
All the photographs come from the Author’s collection
