Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag

by Figes, Orlando

  p. 160 ‘Apparently, it’s not going to add any particular restrictions’: LM48-46b.

  p. 160 ‘Party meeting on 12 May’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 357, l. 39ff.

  p. 160 ‘The matter is resolved’: SI48-51.

  p. 161 ‘the chief accountant of the institute informed her’: SI48-52.

  p. 161 ‘until she had further news’: SI48-55.

  p. 161 ‘Slowly they are introducing’: LM48-48.

  p. 161 ‘Maybe 1949 will be a better year’: LM48-46c.

  p. 162 ‘My darling Lev … week has already passed’: SI48-60.

  p. 162 ‘I am interested, Levi’: SI48-63.

  p. 163 ‘I haven’t written for a week’, ‘In my last letter’: SI48-64.

  p. 163 ‘the right to give life’: SI48-64.

  p. 164 ‘On the one hand, chances diminish’: SI48-64a.

  p. 165 ‘Goodness knows when I’m going to depart’: SI48-65.

  p. 166 ‘It’s a pity to stop’: SI48-65.

  p. 166 ‘So, my darling Sveta’: LM48-61a.

  p. 167 ‘On the stretch between Kirov and Kotlas’: Poka ia pomniu, pp. 118–19.

  p. 167 ‘they were eagerly awaiting’: Poka ia pomniu, p. 119.

  p. 168 ‘I waited the whole day’: Poka ia pomniu, p. 119.

  p. 168 ‘I thanked him enthusiastically’: Poka ia pomniu, p. 119.

  p. 168 ‘The meeting took place’: Interview with Lev, 2008, Poka ia pomniu, p. 119.

  p. 169 ‘My darling Lev … a second day’: SI48-66.

  p. 170 ‘My dear, dear Levi, I’m home at last’: SI48-68.

  p. 171 ‘I looked at myself in the mirror today’: SI48-69.

  p. 171 ‘blissfully happy and kind towards everyone’: SI48-71.

  p. 171 ‘I am full of happiness’: SI48-75.

  p. 171 ‘My darling, lovely Sveta’: LM48-62.

  p. 171 ‘My darling Sveta, tomorrow is your birthday’: LM48-63a.

  p. 172 ‘My darling Svetinka, no letter has come from you’: LM48-67.

  p. 172 ‘I was imagining the wildest things’: LM48-68.

  p. 172 ‘The days are passing by very quickly’: LM48-73.

  p. 173 ‘This evening they sent Liubka away’: LM48-78.

  p. 173 ‘Liubka had become quite ill’: LM48-79.

  p. 173 ‘I was never able to cry’: LM48-83.

  p. 174 ‘Well, my friend’: LM to Terletsky, 3 December 1948.

  Chapter 8

  p. 175 ‘My darling Sveta’: LM48-94.

  p. 175 ‘Sveta had a great deal of work’: SI49-2, SI49-5.

  p. 175 ‘There is no joy in it’: SI49-5.

  p. 176 ‘allowing something to be done’: SI49-2.

  p. 176 ‘to calm my nerves’: SI49-39.

  p. 176 ‘These pills are helping me’: SI49-37.

  p. 176 ‘Pavel, an acquaintance’: SI49-4.

  p. 177 ‘was planning to get married’: SI48-42.

  p. 178 ‘As for the “best” ’: LM48-40.

  p. 179 ‘She loves me? She loves me not?’: Mayakovsky, ‘Unfinished Poems’, p. 273.

  p. 179 ‘For some reason’: SI49-15.

  p. 179 ‘but also in reality’: LM49-62a.

  p. 179 ‘Nikolai has had to switch’: LM49-15.

  p. 179 ‘There will be more free days’: LM49-6.

  p. 180 ‘I like being on my own at work’: LM49-7.

  p. 180 ‘Today was an idiotic day’: LM49-8.

  p. 180 ‘Anna Karenina’: LM49-8.

  p. 180 ‘The people in our barracks’: LM49-9.

  p. 180 ‘It was a sad day’: LM49-13.

  p. 181 ‘Nobody has done as much as him’: LM49-9.

  p. 181 ‘Only 25!’: LM49-28.

  p. 181 ‘There was snow in May’: LM49-39.

  p. 181 ‘first warm days’: LM49-47.

  p. 181 ‘frequent power cuts’, ‘shortages of warm clothes’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 359, ll. 61–4, 87–92.

  p. 182 Rates of illness in the 2nd Colony: Vygliadyvaias’, pp. 119–20; GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 359, l. 34.

  p. 182 ‘an educated man’: LM48-60.

  p. 182 ‘I found him dressed’: LM49-18.

  p. 182 ‘Two or three days ago’: LM49-35.

  p. 183 ‘it seems, not a native’: LM49-18.

  p. 183 ‘a woman in her forties’: LM49-29.

  p. 183 Nina Grin: Details from Vygliadyvaias’, pp. 184–9.

  p. 183 Svetlana Tukhachevskaya: Details from APIKM, f. 31, op. 50 (Lileev).

  p. 184 ‘On 2 July 1949’: Record of meeting in GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 360, ll. 62ff.

  p. 184 ‘government secrets’: Thefts discussed in GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 359, ll. 54–5.

  p. 185 ‘How it’s going to work out this year’: LM49-30.

  p. 185 ‘The decision made little sense’: SI49-31.

  p. 185 Complications with work trips: SI49-40.

  p. 185 ‘which up to now has been a lucky time’: SI49-40.

  p. 185 ‘between 30 minutes and two hours’: LM49-13.

  p. 186 ‘Wives are more interesting to me’: SI49-44.

  p. 186 ‘You probably already received’: LM49-51.

  p. 186 ‘It might be possible to think’: SI49-49.

  p. 187 ‘It doesn’t matter how long’: LM49-56.

  p. 187 ‘I asked Mikhail Aleksandrovich’: Poka ia pomniu, p. 120.

  p. 187 ‘Sveta left by train for Ukhta on 30 August’: SI49-55.

  p. 188 ‘They took me by car to the station’: Poka ia pomniu, p. 120.

  p. 188 ‘My darling Lev, the journey is fine’: SI49-56.

  p. 189 ‘We made it to Kotlas’: SI49-57.

  p. 189 ‘My darling Sveta … you are still everywhere with me’: LM49-66.

  p. 189 ‘only now I see you without any features’: LM49-69.

  p. 190 Dreams: LM49-71, 72, 74, 76.

  p. 190 ‘I understood that the most terrible thing in life’: LM49-82.

  Chapter 9

  p. 191 ‘1950. Half a century’, ‘Biting frosts’: LM50-2.

  p. 191 ‘2,561,351 prisoners’: Applebaum, Gulag, p. 416.

  p. 192 ‘It’s like an entire town’: SI50-53.

  p. 192 ‘Great Construction Projects’: SI51-27.

  p. 192 ‘for the whole hour’: LM53-30.

  p. 193 ‘Every year about half a million’: Gregory, ‘An Introduction’, p. 16.

  p. 193 Pechorlag and building of the second track: Pechorstroi, p. 36.

  p. 193 ‘At a series of meetings’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 361, ll. 1–10.

  p. 194 ‘idea of paying prisoners’: Sokolov, ‘Forced Labour’, p. 40.

  p. 194 ‘90 roubles … double that amount’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 361, l. 117.

  p. 194 ‘billboards’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 361, l. 103.

  p. 194 ‘In the 11th Colony’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 361, ll. 115–16.

  p. 194 ‘kiosk in the remote colony’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 361, l. 117.

  p. 195 ‘They are threatening’: LM50-46.

  p. 195 200 roubles for Katya: LM50-81.

  p. 195 ‘collective farm’: LM51-35.

  p. 195 ‘fatherly pleasure’: LM52-39a.

  p. 195 ‘1 per cent at best’: LM51-45b.

  p. 195 ‘bred rabbits’: LM51-48, LM52-18.

  p. 195 ‘We’ve belatedly’: LM51-55.

  p. 196 ‘small improvements’: APIKM, f. 31, op. 15 (A. K. Nedel’ko).

  p. 197 ‘600 metres of towelling’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 363, l. 131.

  p. 197 ‘Why send me sugar’: LM50-9.

  p. 197 Shops in the main town: Interview with Boris Ivanov, 2010.

  p. 197 ‘Palace of Culture’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 360, l. 37.

  p. 198 football teams: Interview with Boris Ivanov, 2010.

  p. 198 ‘training complex’: APIKM, f. 31, op. 15 (A. K. Nedel’ko).

  p. 198 Lev teaching: LM50-47, LM50-49.

  p. 200 ‘finan
cial aid is not needed’, ‘So he’s undoubtedly’: LM51-35.

  p. 200 ‘His hands are covered’, ‘After Oleg came to see me’: LM48-15.

  p. 200 ‘Conditions in the camp’: SI49-48.

  p. 200 ‘letters with requests’: SI49-65, SI50-20.

  p. 201 Lev sending money: LM49-52, LM49-58.

  p. 201 ‘spent on bread’, ‘he was allowed’: SI50-22.

  p. 201 ‘I received three letters’: SI50-43.

  p. 201 ‘It’s not good’: LM50-6.

  p. 202 ‘I thought it was the end’: K. N. Rykalov to LM, 25 December 1960.

  p. 202 ‘I’ve stubbornly been making him’: LM50-12.

  p. 202 ‘Sharp pains in his bladder’: LM50-3.

  p. 204 ‘[Valya’s mother] arrived’: SI50-53.

  p. 204 ‘Minin reflector’: LM50-83.

  p. 204 ‘I’m not crying any more’: SI50-18.

  p. 204 ‘walking round her room’: SI50-62.

  p. 205 ‘I expected to see 4 walls’: SI50-27.

  p. 206 ‘Thanks to them’: LM51-38.

  p. 206 ‘Yesterday I got a few letters’: LM51-35.

  p. 207 ‘House of Meetings’: GU RK NARK, f. 173, op. 1, d. 3, l. 6.

  p. 207 ‘My holiday leave finishes’: SI50-46.

  p. 208 ‘warmer clothes, a woollen blanket and a bedsheet’: SI50-51c.

  p. 208 Three days with Lev: Poka ia pomniu, p. 121.

  p. 208 ‘met S.’: LM to N. Mel’nikov, 26 September 1950.

  p. 208 ‘Farewell, Levi’: SI 50-51b.

  p. 209 ‘My darling Sveta’: LM50-59.

  p. 209 ‘I can’t decide’: SI50-54.

  p. 210 ‘I agree with you’: LM50-67.

  p. 211 ‘My darling Lev’: SI50-64.

  Chapter 10

  p. 213 ‘My darling Sveta’: LM51-1.

  p. 213 ‘My darling … I still haven’t sent you the letter’: LM51-4.

  p. 213 ‘reparation generators’: LM51-4.

  p. 214 ‘of the need to feed the town’: LM51-22.

  p. 214 ‘power station was closed down for three weeks’: GURK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 363, l. 45.

  p. 214 ‘twenty-nine “serious accidents” ’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 364, ll. 32–3.

  p. 214 ‘lorry carrying seventy men’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 365, 1.60.

  p. 214 ‘We’re living and functioning’: LM51-36.

  p. 215 8,000 metres of rigging gear, etc.: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 363, ll. 58–65.

  p. 215 ‘severe reprimand’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 362, l. 42.

  p. 215 ‘accommodating unauthorized persons’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 363, l. 152.

  p. 215 Serditov’s denunciation: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 363, l. 153.

  p. 215 Arvanitopulo sacked: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 365, l. 1.

  p. 216 ‘It is a catastrophe’: LM51-60.

  p. 216 Novikov plays dominoes: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 366, l. 80.

  p. 217 ‘twenty-seven individual and group escapes’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 363, ll. 100–101.

  p. 217 Guards bribed, GU RK NARK: f. 1876, op. 7, d. 366, ll. 121–2.

  p. 217 Railway wagons, knives, saws, blades: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 366, l. 80.

  p. 217 Koval’chuk uncovers conspiracy: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 366, l. 122.

  p. 217 ‘many of them hostile’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 363, l. 78.

  p. 217 Escape plans of 1 May: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 363, ll. 72–85.

  p. 218 ‘We had a lot of fun’: SI51-29.

  p. 219 ‘Levi … conscience and grief’: SI51-26.

  p. 220 ‘I’d like to follow in the footsteps’: LM51-20.

  p. 220 ‘The final word is yours’: LM51-21.

  p. 220 ‘very pleased’, ‘go-ahead’: LM51-28.

  p. 220 ‘special expeditions’, ‘Decisions like this’: LM51-28.

  p. 221 ‘My conscience has been troubling me’: SI51-37.

  p. 221 ‘no need for labour’: LM51-35.

  p. 221 ‘Levi, I really want to go to sleep’: SI51-40.

  p. 221 ‘Don’t think I’m glad’: LM51-41.

  p. 222 ‘My darling Levi … I received permission’: SI51-43.

  pp. 222–3 ‘Welcome, Sveta’, ‘Incidentally, about the three trinkets’: LM51-45a.

  p. 223 ‘Good morning, Svetlye’: LM51-45b.

  p. 224 ‘Well, all right, Sveta —after seven’: LM51-45c.

  p. 224 ‘So I’m home, Levi’: SI51-44.

  p. 224 ‘My dear Svetin’: LM51-45e.

  p. 225 ‘I’ve felt fine’: LM51-47.

  p. 225 ‘It’s been exactly a week’: SI51-45.

  p. 225 ‘What a wretched person’: LM51-51.

  p. 226 ‘Hives are not a skin disease at all’: SI52-30.

  p. 226 ‘It seems to work’: SI52-15.

  p. 226 ‘I don’t know how to reply’: LM52-12.

  p. 226 ‘I wish someone would give you a good whipping’: SI52-16.

  p. 227 ‘Between 120 and 130 prisoners’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 365, l. 14.

  p. 227 ‘There isn’t enough food’: LM52-22a.

  p. 227 ‘He is barely recognizable’: LM51-56.

  p. 227 ‘diet of green cabbage’: Interview with Igor Aleksandrovsky, 2010.

  p. 228 ‘Svetlaya, my darling, I haven’t yet sent you’: LM52-9c.

  p. 230 ‘He has only one lung’: LM52-12.

  p. 230 ‘Maybe it’s too early’: SI52-16.

  p. 230 ‘Lyoshka has received his clearance’: LM52-4.

  p. 231 ‘as he had the flu’, ‘If I’d known’: SI52-15.

  p. 231 ‘I got to the station’: LM52-35.

  p. 231 ‘More and more people are leaving’: LM53-17.

  p. 231 ‘5,000 man-days had been lost’, etc.: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 366, ll. 76–82.

  p. 231 ‘Three group escapes’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 365, l. 129.

  p. 232 ‘scraps of wood, bark, sawdust’: GU RK NARK, f. 1876, op. 7, d. 366, l. 64.

  p. 232 ‘Objectively … little beauty remains’: LM50-17.

  p. 232 ‘Nature has blessed’: LM52-34.

  p. 233 ‘I wanted to find out’: Interview with Lev, 2008.

  p. 233 ‘Mama still isn’t any better’: SI52-34.

  p. 234 ‘I really think you should cancel’: LM52-32b.

  p. 234 ‘Papa has lost a lot of weight’: SI52-46.

  p. 234 ‘I think it will be hard’: LM52-42a.

  p. 234 ‘Sveta wrote that you’: LM to E. A. Poltoratskaia, 24 October 1952.

  p. 235 ‘My holiday is going very quickly’: SI52-53.

  p. 235 ‘I miscalculated, Sveta’: LM52-67.

  p. 235 ‘When I put aside my books’: LM52-69.

  p. 235 ‘The frosts have been unmerciful here’: LM53-1.

  p. 236 ‘Svetloe, it’s so dreary without your letters’: LM53-3.

  p. 236 ‘Svetka, why aren’t you writing to me?’: LM53-6.

  p. 236 ‘The post comes tomorrow’: LM53-7.

  p. 237 ‘I don’t know why’: SI53-2.

  p. 237 ‘My dear darling Svetloe’: LM53-11.

  Chapter 11

  p. 239 ‘How unexpected’: LM53-23.

  p. 239 ‘There is always Stalin’: Interview with Lev, 2008.

  p. 239 ‘The death of Stalin’: LM53-24.

  p. 240 ‘There has never been anything’: SI53-16.

  p. 240 ‘No one cried for Stalin’: Interview with Lev, 2008.

  p. 240 incident from October 1952: Interview with Lev, 2008.

  p. 240 ‘halved the prison population’: GU RK NARK, f. 173, op. 1, d. 1, ll. 1–2.

  p. 241 ‘Some of our people’: LM53-32.

  p. 241 ‘It turned out’: LM52-34.

  p. 241 ‘chronic shortage of labour’: GU RK NARK, f. 173, op. 1, d. 10, ll. 55–7.

  p. 242 ‘224 former prisoners’: GU RK NARK, f. 173, op. 1, d. 13, l. 4.

  p. 242 ‘Here in Pechora’:
LM54-10.

  p. 242 ‘that number had risen to 459’: GU RK NARK, f. 173, op. 1, d. 12. l. 97.

  p. 242 ‘paid about 200 roubles a month’: APIKM, f. 31, op. 15 (A. K. Nedel’ko).

  p. 243 ‘[Bannikov] has been back with us’: LM52-38.

  p. 243 ‘Darling Svetloe’: LM53-48a.

  p. 243 ‘He’d like to take advantage’: LM53-84.

  p. 244 ‘Nina and Iv[an] have been staying’: SI53-38.

  p. 244 ‘barracks became less cramped’: Vygliadyvaias’, p. 44.

  p. 244 Cultural activities: Interview with Igor Aleksandrovsky, 2010.

  p. 244 Pechora as a town: Interviews with Boris Ivanov, 2010.

  p. 244 ‘radio station’: APIKM, f. 31, op. 19 (I. Z. Serditov).

  p. 245 ‘new law by the Supreme Soviet’: APIKM, f. 31, op. 13 (L. G. Mishchenko).

  p. 245 Sherman biographical details: GU RK NARK, f. 173, op. 1, d. 13, ll. 12, 130.

  p. 245 ‘small-minded person’: LM52-2.

  p. 245 Tkachenko’s job: Vygliadyvaias’, p. 43.

  p. 246 ‘Before he leaves’: LM53-33.

  p. 246 ‘I am feeling very calm’: LM53-48.

  p. 247 ‘childishness’, ‘flippant views’, ‘lack of tact’: LM53-58.

  p. 247 ‘N. annoys me more’: LM52-69.

  p. 248 ‘talking in their sleep’: LM52-33.

  p. 248 ‘Regarding the family ideal’: LM49-21.

  p. 249 ‘There is an unavoidable psychological evolution’: LM to N. Mel’nikov, 8 April 1948.

  p. 249 ‘The infinite mutual hostility’: LM48-86.

  p. 249 ‘Watching the people around me’: LM50-77.

  p. 249 ‘that in 999 instances’: LM48-57.

  p. 249 ‘Once again I am overwhelmed’: LM49-76.

  p. 250 Weights made out of axles: Communication by Nikita Mishchenko.

  p. 250 ‘Physical strength’: LM48-33.

  p. 251 ‘I am very grateful to you’: O. Popov to SI, 17 December 1951.

  p. 251 ‘I received a note today’: LM52-67.

  p. 252 ‘Yesterday Oleg came to visit us’: LM54-1.

  p. 252 ‘The more I really get to know him’: LM54-4.

  p. 252 ‘We have all fallen out’: LM54-5.

  p. 253 ‘Everything’s weighing on me’: SI53-19.

  p. 253 ‘Sveta … you mustn’t turn down the opportunity’: LM53-20.

  p. 253 ‘Sveta found herself in hospital’: SI53-45, SI53-46.

  p. 253 ‘Svetloe, thanks to our postal system’: LM53-58.

  p. 254 ‘Sveta, increasingly I want to say all kinds of needless’: LM53-58.