The first posting in this blog series of Letters from Siberia was from Aldute Sukys, sitting to the right. This posting is a letter written by her younger brother, Juozukas, sitting to the left.

In this letter, Juozukas wrote:

Dear Aunt, and everyone!

I am Juozukas, and am sending greetings from the far north. From all of us, I thank you for the delicious chocolate. We have never seen anything like that. Even though our mother tried to save as much of it as possible, she did give us small pieces. We have eaten all of it. Very delicious. It has been very hot for several days. Mom is digging potatoes, and I help her. But I came home sad. My arms are thin and weak and I cannot handle the hoe. Above all, I want berries, apples, and a large field where we could all run and play freely.

With God, and with respect, Juozukas

PS  Someone wrote to you how good we are. Our mother says there are better children.

Comment: “There are better children” seems to be characteristic of the Lithuanian tradition of raising the young.

Presentation of Hope and Spirit to the Board of Directors of the Illinois Humanities Council

On January 7, 2012, a busload of historians, who were attending the annual American Historical Association meeting, arrived from the conference in downtown Chicago. I gave them a tour of the exhibit. It was very gratifying to have a professional historical association pay so much attention to this neglected chapter in the world’s history.

On January 21, with the assistance of Luka Saparnis and Sam De Sando, we performed an illustrated reading of letters from Siberia. This actually was quite an emotional experience–I had to control my own tears at times. We hope to have the readings recorded and released on DVD’s and YouTube.

On January 27, I was honored to give a personal tour of the Hope and Spirit program to the Board of Directors of the Illinois Humanities Council. These dignitaries came in from across Illinois (and one from Princeton University in NJ), for their quarterly board meeting. I was told that the reason they chose the Balzekas Museum was precisely because of my exhibit. They had read Mr. Bill Hageman’s article about this program in the Chicago Tribune, and wanted to see it.

Previously unpublished poem written and sent from Siberia, by a deported Lithuanian school teacher in 1953

On February 10, I organized a reading of poems from Siberia, at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture. In reviewing the letters from Siberia on display, as part of the Hope and Spirit project, I found three poems sent by a deported Lithuanian school teacher, to Ms. Julija Lipciute-Geciene, who was living in Montreal, Canada. These are quite moving poems, previously unpublished and not read in public. Ms. Audre Budrys did the honor of reading these poems. In addition, Ms. Irena Valaitis, who was deported to Siberia at the age of 13, recited her own poems and discussed her experiences growing up in Siberia. This program was in Lithuanian.

We do not know the name of the author of these poems. She was a school teacher who was deported to the Sajana mountains, just west of Lake Baikal. We do not know the city where she was from, nor the reason for her deportation. It appears that these poems, dating from 1953, 1954 and 1955 are the extent of her personal artistic legacy.

When I discovered these poems, a few weeks ago, I felt they were indeed powerful, and arranged to have them performed as part of the reading. I also sent a copy of them to the Chicago-based Lithuanian newspaper Draugas. I was astounded to see the February 11′th issue–a full page about these poems! The analysis by Ms. Renata Serelyte was thorough, well beyond my limited literary abilities. She noticed in these poems strands of literature from the noted Lithuanian poets Strazdas, Vienazindis, and the Russian writer Pushkin. I had felt these were powerful poems–I had no idea they actually were diamonds! This woman’s artistic / poetic accomplishments have been recited, published, and critically acclaimed.

Kazimieras Janusonis with his wife Agota, and 6 children were deported to work in the same collectivized farm in Siberia. The location of the Bilchirsk kolkhoz was in the northerly portion of the Irkutsk region. Agota wrote letters to her brother-in-law, P. Janusonis, who was living in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

She wrote, “We work in the kolkhoz. Our family has 7 members: me, 4 daughters and 2 sons. (She notes 7 family members because when she wrote this letter, her husband had already died–AVP.) The oldest is my daughter Petronelija, then my son Jonas, thirdly my daughter Agota, and fourth, my son Antanas. All 4 work in the kolkhoz. My younger 2 daughters, Janute and Valiute, are students. Janute completed grade 9 and now attends grade 10. Valiute, my youngest, 12 years old, finished grade 4…We did not bring anything with us besides what were able to stuff into one bag. Adequate clothing is very difficult for all of us…Winters are very cold and summers very hot. We are surrounded by mountains and forests. There is little flat ground.”

In another letter she wrote, “We are surrounded by tall mountains which are covered with impenetrable forests. Wild animals live there–polar bears and wolves. We live in a valley near a small stream. We use it’s water because there is no well. Without fur coats, it is not possible to go outside, even for a brief period of time, in the winter. And then, the fur freezes solid as an animal’s horn. Thus, we wear cotton coats. We live with the Buriats (related to the Mongols–AVP).”

Kazimieras Janusonis died in Siberia, shortly after the photograph was taken. After serving 10 years of hard labor on the kolkhoz, Agota and her children were allowed to return to Lithuania. However, they were not allowed to return to their family farm.

On display we have 5 letters and 3 envelopes from the Janusonis family as part of the Hope and Spirit exhibit which I have organized. The exhibit is at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, in Chicago, and has been extended until the end of April, 2012.

In these two photographs, Veronika Norkunas buries her two young children near the city of  Barnaul, in Siberia.

In the top picture, 4 year old, Livija-Liucija Norkunaite is being buried. She was born in Lithuania, and died on September 21, 1941, in Siberia.

In the bottom picture, 16 month old Zenonas Norkunas is being buried. He was born in Lithuania, and died on September 22, 1941, in Siberia.

On one September day, Veronika buried her four year old, and on the next day, her 16 month old.

The pictures were sent to A. Norkunas who was living in Adelaide, Australia.

These young children survived only 3 months after their deportation in June, 1941. They only survived 3 months in Stalin’s new society.

There is no available further information about this Norkunas family.

These two images are from over 230 original deportee photographs from Siberia which are on display in the Hope and Spirit exhibit, which I have organized, at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, in Chicago. Quite literally, due to popular demand, the exhibit has been extended to the end of April, 2012.

Zigmas Zarunskis was 14 months old when he, with his family, were deported to Siberia. At the age of 14 years, instead of attending school, he was assigned to work as a lumberjack. While chopping trees, a limb fell down on him, killing him. The photograph was mailed to a relative in Jackson Heights, New York. In it, standing from left to right, are Zigmas’ parents, Pranas and Ona, his younger brother Jonas (who was born in Siberia), and his older sister, Zita. No further information is available about the Zarunskis family.

This photograph is one over over 230 which are on display in the Hope and Spirit exhibit, which I have organized, at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, in Chicago. Quite literally, due to popular demand, the exhibit has been extended to the end of April, 2012.

Konstancija and Jonas Marmas, with their three children, in the Krasnoyarsk Region of Siberia

The Marmas family was deported, from their family farm in Griskabudis to work as lumberjacks for 10 years.  The uncle of Jonas Marmas was Dr. Vincas Kudirka, the author of the Lithuanian national anthem. Possibly it was because of this familial relationship that they were deported.

In this letter, written to Alfonsas Lietuvninkas, in Chicago, Mr. Marmas comments about the health care system. Apparently Mr. Lietuvninkas was having health issues. Mr. Marmas writes: “You wrote that health care costs are expensive.  For us, from one aspect, it is very good–we do not have to pay for anything. Along with this, there also are no medicines available. It would be better to pay and at least feel that your health is improving, instead of waiting to see if the illness clears or not. What can you do, if that is God’s will?”

He further wrote that during the winters, temperatures were frequently -55 to -60 degrees Centigrade (-75 degrees F) with 5 to 6 feet of snow. During the short summers the temperature would reach 50 degrees Centigrade (120 degrees F), and at night fall to freezing, destroying even the potatoes that were their main food source. There is no further available information about the Marmas family.

The Marmas family letters and photographs are currently on display as part of the Hope and Spirit exhibit which I have organized, at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, in Chicago. This exhibit, and extensive programs, will continue into January 2012.

Dobilas Ralys and his mother in Siberia. The letter was written by his sister, Ramune Ralys, and was sent to their uncle, V. Cizinas, in Paterson, New Jersey. In this letter she details some of her own life events upon being exiled to Siberia with her family. She was attending the 7th grade at the time of deportation. In the Krasnoyarsk District’s farm labor camp (kolkhoz) the middle school was located 2 miles away, which she attended until completing grade 10. At that time, she took over the labor tasks of her mother, who was too ill to work.

The Ralys family had been living in Kaunas, where Mr. Ralys worked as a bank accountant. In 1910 and into the 1920′s he wrote general interest articles under the pseudonym of Vargovaikas (Child of Misery). The family was deported to a forced labor camp to serve a 6 year term. Upon returning to Kaunas, the family was allowed to live in the house that they had previously owned, but only in a portion of the basement. Mr. Ralys died within a year of returning to Lithuania. He was 66 years old at the time of deportation.

In this letter, Ramune details some of the tasks that she had to do. “Shoveled snow…worked as a camp cook…collected and burned straw, planted corn, weeded wheat fields, collected silage, transported logs, transported grains, cleaned grains, and so on. In all, I did 167 different jobs.” During  September of the second year’s hard labor, she became ill with what appears to have been a form of meningitis/encephalitis. She suffered the entire winter, but was able to return to labor in the spring.

This letter, and several hundred like it, are on display as part of the Hope and Spirit exhibit that I have organized at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago. The exhibit will continue through mid-January 2012.

Morta Abromaviciene, at the age of 67, was deported to Siberia with her husband Stasys, who was 74. Mr. Abromavicius died 3 years later, while Mrs. Abromaviciene was able to serve her prison term in Tinsk, in the Krasnoyarsk District. After 7 years of hard labor, her health was broken–she was so frail and weak that she was transferred to the Tupik sanatorium, in the Shirinsky District of Khakassia, for one year to recover.  It was while she was in the sanatorium, that she was able to write letters to one of her daughters, who was living in Chicago.

In the early 1900′s, Mr. and Mrs. Abromavicius had both, independently, traveled to work in the United States. They met in Braddock, Pennsylvania, where they were married in 1906. With their two young daughters they returned to Lithuania in 1913, and bought a small family farm. All totaled, they had 2 daughters and 4 sons. During the war, one son died, and the other children moved to the United States.

When she returned to Lithuania from Siberia, she found all of her farmhouses burned to the ground. She went to the nearby larger city, Marijampole, where she lived and died 10 years later. She was able to survive only because her children continued to send her packages.

In her letters from Siberia she notes that the winters are very cold, with the temperature frequently minus 40 degrees Centigrade (which is exactly minus 40 degrees F).

She is thankful to her children for the packages that she has received, and mentions the items that she needs to obtain. She notes that when packages arrive, the other residents of the sanatorium crowd around as the package is opened. She gives most of the contents to the other residents, keeping only the essential items for herself.

One time, her daughter made an error and sent her $50 in cash (I am changing the actual amounts into what would be current US$ value, given years of inflation). To exchange this currency into rubles, she had to travel to a bank in a distant city. The travel cost was $32, leaving her very little.

In another letter she notes how expensive even the most basic items are. One egg cost $4. One kilogram of butter, $140–which means $70 for one pound of butter!

Why was this family treated like criminals? Landowners, because they might object to Stalin’s new political system, needed to be either exterminated or deported. This was genocide, pure and simple, on the basis of political motives. This happened to the Abromavicius family, and to millions of other families across Eastern Europe.

The letters of Morta Abromaviciene are on display as part of the Hope and Spirit exhibit, which I have organized, at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Rd., Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit has been extended, and will continue until mid-January, 2012.

Barbora Nakutiene with her three children, Pranyte, Alfonsas and Grazinute, in Zalari, Irkutsk Oblast, near Lake Baikal. Her husband, Juozas Nakutis was deported 300 miles further, to Tayshet.

This letter was written by Grazinute to her uncle, Mykolas Nakutis, living in Sydney, Australia. She writes that she will be starting the 6th grade, Pranyte the 4th grade, and Alfonsas, the 3rd grade, and that they are all studying quite well. She is very thankful for having received a pair of warm shoes that she expects to wear for several years. She also expresses thanks for shoes that Alfonsas received. He seems to wear shoes out fairly quickly. He enjoys going to a stream a mile away to swim and try to catch fish. However, the stream is filled with shards of broken glass.

“It would be most difficult for our mother if nobody were to help. We would not be able to go to school. The cost of books and clothing just keeps going up and up. ”

“It is very difficult for our mother. She does not get a single minute of rest.”

The circumstances under which the Nakutis family was separated and deported to Siberia are not known.

This letter, and several hundred like it, are on display as part of the Hope and Spirit exhibit that I have organized at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago. The exhibit will continue through mid-January, 2012.

Rozalija Stulginskiene’s son, Father Vaclovas Stulginskis, was a deacon at the Kaunas Theological Seminary. In 1941 he was murdered by occupying German Nazi forces.

In 1947, because she owned a small family farm, she was deported to Siberia by occupying Stalinist forces.

She was imprisoned near the town of Igarka, in the Krasnoyarsk region, for seven years. Upon completing her term, she was so frail and weak that she was transferred to the Tupik sanatorium, in the Shirinsky District of Khakassia. While there she wrote letters to try to find her one living son, Alfred.

She received a letter from her nephew, Father Jankus, of the Church of the Resurrection in Los Angeles, California, who found out that her son was working as a lumber jack in rural Canada. Father Cekavicius, of St. Raphael’s Church in Long Island City, New York, found out that Alfred was actually living in Toronto, and wrote that he would try to find a mailing address.

In the two letters written by Rozalija Stulginskiene, in 1955 from Tupik, she tremendously regrets not receiving any letters from her son. In May 1956 she returned to Lithuania, where she died within a few weeks. There is no further information available about this Stulginskis family.

The letters of Mrs. Stulginskiene, Father Jankus and Father Cekavicius are on display as part of the Hope and Spirit exhibit which I have organized, at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Rd., Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit has been extended, and will continue until mid-January, 2012.

This is a most unusual two page letter, written in Russian. It appears to be a transcription of letters written by Kazimieras Gaigalas to his wife and son. He is in the Riesoty gulag prison camp, near Krasnoyarsk, writing to his family who is in another Siberian location, near Tomsk. The distance separating them is about 300 miles. There are a total of 8 transcribed letters dating from October 21, 1942 to July 21, 1943.

It appears that his wife saved the letters he had sent, and that they were eventually taken to Poland, where they were transcribed by his son. The letters were written in Russian, as was required at the time, and were heavily censored.

In these letters he mentions the deaths of 8 people who were acquaintances of the family. He was informed that his prison term is for 5 years, ending on July 14, 1946.

He writes that he is tired and weak, and his weight is 60 kg (130 lbs). He receives 480 gm (1 lb) of bread per day along with 1.5 liters of soup. He repeatedly requests that his wife send him dried potatoes, dried fish, flour and salt. However, there is no mention that he ever received any such package.

A portion of one letter was censored (all mail going into and out of the Soviet Union, especially Siberian prison camp locations, was read and censored). He started explaining what he was assigned to do, and the rest of the explanation was censored. In the uncensored subsequent sentence he mentions that on occasion he sweeps the yard.

“When you receive this letter, please write to me. The only joy in my life is receiving your letters. Dear and loving son and wife, do not forget me, write more frequently.”

“I frequently see you in my dreams. I wake up and you are gone. It was only a dream, not reality.”

“Son, it is more joyful being with your mother. But for me, alone, there is only sadness. You have grown up. Your mother has gotten older. Write more frequently. Your letters are the only joy in my life.”

Kazimieras Gaigalas was 60 years old when he was deported. Before World War I, for 12 years he worked on the Siberian railroad. During the war, he worked for a relief agency providing assistance to Russians who were injured or suffering. Shortly after the war, he was the local alderman, and then resumed working as a farmer.

The last letter that he wrote was on July 21, 1943. He died three months later, on October 13, 1943.

This letter is on display in the Hope and Spirit exhibit which I have organized at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Rd., Chicago, Illinois.

The translation of this letter was kindly provided by Ms. Danguole Pociute.

My grandmother, Ona Pliopliene, was deported to Siberia, to serve a 12 year term of hard labor. Her husband, Motiejus Plioplys, had recently been murdered by the NKVD (Soviet secret police). In addition my great-grandfather, my other grandfather and an aunt were also killed by the NKVD. Besides my grandmother, 7 other aunts and uncles were likewise deported to Siberia.

What were their crimes? They owned small family farms. They suffered genocide on the basis of political grounds–they might object to Stalin’s Soviet system. Their deportation or extermination was necessary.

By Stalin’s orders, the same happened to many millions of others across Eastern Europe.

At the time of her deportation, she was 71 years old. She was assigned to chop trees–a 71 year old lumberjack, who had never chopped a tree before! In the photograph she is resting amongst the stumps that she had been toiling at.

An accident turned out to be life-saving. Within a few weeks she accidentally chopped herself in the leg. She could barely walk. She was reassigned to work as a nanny for several young children. This job included preparing the children meals, which meant that she had food to eat. She thus survived.

When I had a chance to meet her, and ask her about these experiences, she recalled that each winter, one third of all the resident exiles would die from overwork and starvation. They could not be buried until the spring because of the frozen permafrost. Their bodies were piled up like logs.

This original photograph, and over 230 more from Siberia, are on the display as part of the Hope and Spirit exhibit which I have organized at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Ave., Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit has been extended and will run through January, 2012.

Mary Vysniauskiene, with her three young sons, was deported to Siberia for eleven years. In this letter she writes of her first days in exile. Upon arrival she had to sell her few clothes, leaving her and her sons only with the clothes on their backs, and two small pillows. She used the little money she received to buy potatoes to feed her children.

This letter was written to her husband Povilas Vysniauskas, who was living and working in North Bay, Ontario. In fear that it would be found out that she was writing to him, and he sending her packages, a Canadian intermediary, Mr. P. Bukis, living in Toronto, Ontario, assisted the family. The only reason that she and her sons were able to survive, is because Mr. Vysniauskas sent her packages totaling $25,000 in value. (Accounting for inflation and adjustments between Canadian and US dollar value, this amount approximates $250,000 in current US dollars.) The circumstances of how Mrs. Vysniauskas and their sons were deported, and Mr. Vysniauskas was working in North Bay, are not known.

Six letters that Mrs. Vysniauskas wrote, and envelopes sent, are on display at the Hope and Spirit exhibit. I have organized this exhibit and program to commemorate the 70 year anniversary of the start of mass Soviet deportations to Siberia.

The letters and photographs from Siberia are on loan from the Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Elena Juciute was a high school mathematics teacher in Pilviskiai, Lithuania. (The Plioplys village is located in this city, and is where my father and his forefathers were born and raised.) In response to the mass deportations and slaughter of innocent people, she started to provide paper-work support to the underground resistance movement. She was caught and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in a Soviet gulag. She was sent to Tayshet, in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. The photographs were taken while she was repairing the Trans-Siberian railroad. The head coverings were to protect herself from flies, as was the need to tie her skirt around her legs. At all times she had to wear her prisoner number on her right knee, and on her upper back. The death rate was so high that survivors from building this railroad stated that there was a body buried under each railroad tie.

After serving her sentence, she eventually emigrated to Boston, where she wrote and published her memoires. Her experiences in the anti-human world of Stalinistic horror have been translated into English, Footprints in the Death Zone (2001, GEM Publishing, Huntington Beach, CA).

These original items, brought from Siberia by Ms. Juciute, fill three large display cases in the Hope and Spirit exhibit opening June 18. This is just a small part of all of the documentary, historical, photographic and artistic materials on display. Original material from Soviet gulags, especially of such historic quality and quantity, is extremely rare.

I have organized this multi-faceted program with historical exhibits, historical documentation, art exhibits, photography exhibits, lectures, films, personal reminiscences, poetry and deportee letter readings. Detailed information can be found at:

http://plioplys.com/current-exhibits.php and

http://www.balzekasmuseum.org/Pages/hope_and_spirit_exhibition.html

The Hope and Spirit program opens on June 18, 2011, at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Rd., Chicago, Illinois. All are invited to attend the quality-laden events.

With sincere thanks to the Lithuanian Research and Studies Center for loaning Ms. Juciute’s materials to this exhibit.

Juozas Sukys with his three children, Juozukas, Aleksyte and Aldute in Siberia. Letter was written by Aldute to her aunt in Chicago.

In 1948 the Sukys family was deported from Lithuania to the Manski district in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia. In this letter Aldute thanks her aunt for a package in which she received shoes, her brother, a wallet, and her sister a fountain pen. She is proud to be the second best student in the second grade.

In the Hope & Spirit exhibit, we have two photographs of the Sukys family, 20 letters written by the parents, and 11 letters written by the children. This is just a small part of the 218 original photographs from Siberia, 157 original letters from Siberia, and 71 envelopes from Siberia, that are on display. All of these items, and many others on display, are extremely rare. Many of these letters had been sent to London, England, Sydney, Australia, Chicago, Illinois, Toronto, Ontario, North Bay, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec, from across wide swaths of Siberia.

The Hope and Spirit series is dedicated to the millions of victims of Soviet deportations–the men, women and children from all Soviet-occupied nations and of all nationalities, religions, and races–who suffered two profound indignities: the brutality of forced exile, imprisonment, starvation, torture, and genocide, and the injustice of the subsequent denial, minimization and suppression of their suffering and victimization.

I have organized this multi-faceted program with historical exhibits, historical documentation, art exhibits, photography exhibits, lectures, films, personal reminiscences, poetry and deportee letter readings. Detailed information can be found at:

http://plioplys.com/current-exhibits.php and

http://www.balzekasmuseum.org/Pages/hope_and_spirit_exhibition.html

The Hope and Spirit program opens on June 18, 2011, at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Rd., Chicago, Illinois. All are invited to attend the quality-laden events.

The letters and photographs are on loan from the Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, Chicago, Illinois.