My Diary from 1949 , livre ebook

Austin Macauley Publishers - Danguole Rudokaite-Raudonikiene

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

35 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

In March 1949, Danguole Rudokaite-Raudonikiene's family were among the unfortunate ones who were exiled from Lithuania to the remote settlements of the Soviet Union. Her diary depicts the journey from their beloved homeland to an unfamiliar place in Eastern Siberia through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl. She writes about the horrifying journey on trains used for cattle. These trains did not have any windows. The conditions were gruesome and beyond unsanitary. They were often deprived of food and water for days at a time. Danguole portrays their journey with lots of emotions: happiness was replaced by fear, joy was replaced by sadness, and hope was replaced by despair. She continued writing her diary for a year, describing events, her feelings, and the life of people in Eastern Siberia. The epilogue is a short summation of the events from the ten years Danguole spent in Siberia (names, places, and events are authentic).

Sujets

Lettres et linguistique

Russia

Russie

Informations

Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers
Date de parution	31 août 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781645366546
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0175€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

My Diary from 1949
Danguolė Rudokaitė-Raudonikienė
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-08-31
My Diary from 1949 About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgments The Road to Eastern Siberia How We Spent Spring in Siberia How We Spent Summer in Siberia Deportation to the Boreal Forest Epilogue from 2018 Before and After the War Middle School in Chor-Tagna High School in Troitsk Institute of Foreign Languages in Irkutsk The Journey Home
About the Author
Danguolė Rudokaitė-Raudonikienė is a celebrated artist in Lithuania now, but her life’s journey was not easy. With her family, she was exiled to East Siberia by the Soviet regime in 1949. Danguolė spent her childhood and teenage years in the remote settlements of Russia. By 1958, her family had been released from exile in Siberia, but it was not until 1960 that Danguolė returned to Lithuania, having graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages in Irkutsk.
Dedication
To my dearest daughters Dalia and Vida
Copyright Information ©
Danguolė Rudokaitė-Raudonikienė (2020)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Austin Macauley is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone and portrayed to the best of their recollection. In some cases, names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Rudokaitė-Raudonikienė, Danguolė
My Diary from 1949
ISBN 9781641829687 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781641829694 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645366546 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908477
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
mail-usa@austinmacauley.com
+1 (646) 5125767
Acknowledgments
I would like to extend a special thanks to Marius With for his integral role in the editing of my book.
The Road to Eastern Siberia
It was an early spring day in 1949. My brothers and I were in middle school, in our small town of Rokiskis . Each of us was eagerly waiting for the bell to dismiss us. All I could think about was coming home to finally relax. At last, the bell rang, its glorious chime marking the beginning of Spring break. After saying goodbye to my friends and wishing them a good break, I ran home as fast as I could. Although our house was close, I couldn’t get there fast enough, as thoughts of my waiting daddy filled my mind.
When I came home, I was disappointed that my daddy still hadn’t arrived. For my brothers and I lived in a rented room near school, whilst my sister and my parents lived in our house 20 kilometers away, and every break we would go back. My brothers got ready to go to school because they only started at two in the afternoon, and by then I was already done for the day. We had lunch together. Still no sign of Daddy. Vinciukas and Stasiukas left for school, and I stayed in the room waiting for Daddy to come to take my brothers and myself home after they were done at school. I hadn’t done any homework. My mind revolved solely around my daddy. It was already sunset, but Daddy was nowhere to be found. My brothers, Vinciukas and Stasiukas, came back home, still no Daddy. I greeted them and told them that Daddy had not come home yet. They didn’t believe me and ran into the room. But it was dark and silent there, eerie in fact, bereft of the strong presence of my daddy. My brothers quickly began to worry, dreading the horror that anything might have happened to him. It was dinner time and still there was no sign of him. As we ate in silence, any attempt at conversation felt stilted. Silently, I said a prayer for him. After dinner, we sat in our small room. The dimly lit room emulated the grim atmosphere. Then, all of a sudden, the horse neighed in the yard. A loud and distinct noise. We all rushed out of the room to see who had come, hoping it was Daddy. Right away, we recognized our beloved horse ‘ Zaibas ’ (Lightning) anticipating to see the silhouette of Daddy, and sure enough, there he was, sitting in the sleigh. We ran out to greet him, and hurried to ask what had taken him so long. Daddy told us that on the day before, Mommy had been arrested. But, thank God, she was freed the following day. Daddy told us that the Soviet soldiers had searched the house looking for Lithuanian partisans—armed anti-Soviet resistance soldiers—but of course we weren’t hiding any, so instead they had arrested Mommy. I could feel that things were getting tense. Even after Mommy was freed the soldiers would routinely come and search the house.
D:\Editorial Finalisation\Color Set\17.jpg
My two brothers, Vincentas and Stanyslovas and our father standing by the cart with our things before sending us off to live alone and go to school
It was really late, and after the horse was mounted, all of us went inside and told Daddy that our teacher, Ms. Slektaite, had asked him to come to school. He decided to postpone the meeting until the next morning since it was already so late. Daddy had dinner and we got ready for bed. He told us that there were rumors of possible arrests and exiles, either on the night of March 24 th or 25 th . Nonetheless, my brothers and my daddy fell asleep rather quickly, whereas I couldn’t. The moon was shining high in the sky. Its light penetrated through the branches of the trees and illuminated everything on the barren ground. Its light lit up every tiny corner of the room. I kept thinking about the typical horror stories of exile. We all knew them by now. Rumors had been circling through the towns for the last few weeks, and the brutal images were quickly ingrained in my head. Children being snatched from their parents’ arms, houses burned down, animals slaughtered—all so Lithuanians could be exiled to Siberia. I prayed that my worst fear wouldn’t become reality. Then my thoughts wandered to my dear-to-heart home, about my little sister, Liudgardyte, and whether she was sleeping or not. What about my mommy? Though it was midnight, I wasn’t sleepy. In a mere few hours, the roosters would be awakening the world. Eventually, I wondered into a mysterious dreamy land that allowed me to forget my worries, even if it was just for the night.
I woke up with the glimmer of the day’s first sunrays, gleaming through my window. My brothers were getting ready to go home for the break, and Daddy went to talk to Ms. Slektaite. When he returned, I was ready to leave too. We peppered him with questions. He told us that the deportations had been cancelled. It was really good news, and I could feel a heavy weight drop off my shoulders. I could sleep well again now.
We ate breakfast fast. And after saying goodbye to the landlady, we gathered our belongings and left.
We were all in a good mood, still relieved by the morning’s amazing news. The birds were singing all around us and we wanted to sing with them, even if it was just a short song. We rode home with smiles on our faces, enjoying the spring and the birds around us. Soon enough we were back home. Once we entered our beloved and missed village, Grubos , we were overjoyed. There really was something special about our home, for we all held it very dear to our hearts. We had a special connection to the land.
From a distance, we heard Liudgardyte’s voice and she ran as fast as she could to greet us. We entered the yard, then the house and told Mommy the amazing morning’s news. Our hearts were filled with happiness and relief now that we weren’t at risk of exile.
We decided to slaughter our pig the next morning to preserve its meat. That same day, Mommy made homemade beer. We, the children, went to play with a ball in the yard. Not a worry on our minds. Daddy helped Mommy with a few chores. We played until sunset and then came back inside the house, where it was cozy and warm. It felt as though we had reached the pinnacle of happiness. Nothing existed beyond it. Mommy cooked a delicious and warm supper and we all ate. We talked a little bit and we, the children, went to sleep in our soft and warm beds—pure happiness. Daddy and Mommy kept on working in the house. Liudgardyte and I talked for a little bit, but I was quite tired and quickly fell into a deep sleep, my first one in a while. I did not hear my parents going to bed.
Suddenly, a loud pounding on our front door and windows awakened us. I was startled and scared. It was midnight, Daddy did not feel like getting up, obviously not sharing my worry. But the pounding only got louder and louder. It felt as though the house would disintegrate into pieces and crumble; that’s how strong the pounding was. It was impossible to ignore it.
Daddy got up and asked, “Who is it?”
A Russian voice replied, “The soldiers.”
Daddy unlocked the door and the Russian voice bellowed, “Hurry up, hurry up!”
They barged into the house and started searching for Lithuanian partisans. They ordered us to draw all the shades so as to conceal the fact that they were in our home. My parents sensed that something was off. After the search, they sat down at the table and demanded to see our identification papers. We realized rig