Frierson Cathy A. - Silence was salvation : child survivors of Stalins terror and World War II in the Soviet Union

ANNALS OF COMMUNISM

Each volume in the series Annals of Communism will publish selected and previously inaccessible documents from former Soviet state and party archives in a narrative that develops a particular topic in the history of Soviet and international communism. Separate English and Russian editions will be prepared. Russian and Western scholars work together to prepare the documents for each volume. Documents are chosen not for their support of any single interpretation but for their particular historical importance or their general value in deepening understanding and facilitating discussion. The volumes are designed to be useful to students, scholars, and interested general readers.

PROJECT EDITOR OF THE ANNALS OF COMMUNISM SERIES

William Frucht, Yale University Press

AMERICAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Ivo Banac, Yale University

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic and International Studies

William Chase, University of Pittsburgh

Friedrich I. Firsov, former head of the Comintern research group at RGASPI

Sheila Fitzpatrick, University of Chicago

Gregory Freeze, Brandeis University

John L. Gaddis, Yale University

J. Arch Getty, University of California, Los Angeles

Jonathan Haslam, Cambridge University

Robert L. Jackson, Yale University

Norman Naimark, Stanford University

Gen. William Odom (deceased), Hudson Institute and Yale University

Daniel Orlovsky, Southern Methodist University

Timothy Snyder, Yale University

Mark Steinberg, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Strobe Talbott, Brookings Institution

Mark Von Hagen, Arizona State University

Piotr Wandycz, Yale University

RUSSIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE

K. M. Anderson, Moscow State University

N. N. Bolkhovitinov, Russian Academy of Sciences

A. O. Chubaryan, Russian Academy of Sciences

V. P. Danilov, Russian Academy of Sciences

A. A. Fursenko, secretary, Department of History, Russian Academy of Sciences (head of the Russian Editorial Committee)

V. P. Kozlov

N. S. Lebedeva, Russian Academy of Sciences

S. V. Mironenko, director, State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF)

O. V. Naumov, director, Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI)

E. O. Pivovar, Moscow State University

V. V. Shelokhaev, president, Association ROSSPEN

Ye. A. Tyurina, director, Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE)

Silence Was Salvation

Child Survivors of Stalins Terror and World War II in the Soviet Union

Cathy A. Frierson

Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Haven and London

Copyright 2015 by Yale University.

All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Frierson, Cathy A.

Silence was salvation : child survivors of Stalins terror and World War II in the Soviet Union / Cathy A. Frierson.

pages cm. (Annals of communism)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-300-17945-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Political prisonersSoviet UnionInterviews. 2. Political prisonersSoviet UnionBiography. 3. Soviet UnionPolitics and government19361953. 4. Stalin, Joseph, 18791953. 5. Political purgesSoviet UnionHistory. 6. World War, 19391945Soviet Union. 7. Soviet UnionSocial conditions19171945. 8. Soviet UnionSocial conditions19451991. 9. CommunismSocial aspectsSoviet Union.

I. Title.

DK268.A1F75 2014

365'.45092530947dc23

2014026669

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.481992 (Permanence of Paper).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Yale University Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support given for this publication by the John M. Olin Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Historical Research Foundation, Roger Milliken, the Rosentiel Foundation, Lloyd H. Smith, Keith Young, the William H. Donner Foundation, Joseph W. Donner, Jeremiah Milbank, the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation.

To the Good Samaritans, especially the teachers

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

And he said unto him, Thou has answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed on the other side.

And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.

And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Luke 10:2537 (The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments Translated Out of the Original Tongues and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised By His Majestys Special Command. Appointed to Be Read in Churches. Authorized King James Version. [London and New York: Collins Clear-Type Press], n.p.d. [before 1939, when this copy was given to my father, John Witherspoon Frierson, V])

Acknowledgments

My deepest debt is to the child survivors of Soviet political repression who shared their life histories with me. They entrusted me to convey them to you, and I have tried to be worthy of that trust. They agreed to revisit traumatic episodes in their past and to respond to questions whose content they did not know beforehand. Their goal was to enlighten future generations. Their memories now reside in my memory, too. Their childhood hunger inhabits my kitchen; their childhood lack of warm clothes haunts my routine of dressing for winter walks. Their expressions of gratitude to those individuals who extended a hand to them in their pariah status as children of enemies of the people remind me daily to be generous.

Institutions and funding organizations supported the research for this project. The National Endowment for the Humanities supported the translations and research. The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies of Harvard University twice provided an institutional home for me as a senior fellow. The National Council for Eurasian and East European Research and the International Research Exchanges Board supported my travel. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) provided generous funding through endowments for faculty research in the College of Liberal Arts, History Department, Graduate School, and Center for Humanities. In Russia, Vozvrashchenie (The Return) and the Memorial centers in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other cities provided contacts, research materials, and wise counsel.