Olga Budzhalova, About Exile

Description

Olga reminisces that it took two weeks for the Kalmyk deportees to reach Tyumen by train. The train that transported Olga’s family consisted of twelve carts. A lot of people died on the way. People were fed only once a day. At stations, it was old people who were let out of the carts to fetch food: others had to stay inside the carts. Porridge was brought in two baskets and divided among all. Upon their arrival in Siberia, many more died. The local morgues were filled with corpses.Olga and her mother spent the exile years in Tyumen. In Siberia bread was rationed, and people suffered from acute malnutrition. Olga’s mother did sewing which helped them to survive. When the Kalmyks were allowed to return to Kalmykia, Olga’s family settled in Vlasovka. Once they were even visited by a famous monk, Ulanov Sanji. There Olga worked as a milkmaid. Her mother was already blind by then.