1. Personal data:
Private Łucja Jachowska, 20 years old, student, unmarried; Staff Platoon of the Women’s Auxiliary Service.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was deported from Nowogródek on 13 April 1940.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
Aktyubinsk Oblast, Radnikovka [?] region, Chkalov kolkhoz.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc.:
Steppes, infertile soil – sand, rocks; water for drinking and washing was from the river flowing through the kolkhoz. This was the Karghala [?] River. The houses were made of clay and fertilizer, and infested with bugs. One so-called room was shared by two or three families, who didn’t have any beds, tables or benches at their disposal. The hygiene was below par, there wasn’t any soap or toilets. The Poles didn’t have any access to the shops, because they weren’t members, that is payshchiks [shareholders].
5. The composition of prisoners-of-war, inmates, exiles:
There were only exiles with me, 21 families, including 19 Polish families and two Belarusian. Mutual relations between the exiles were very good, even cordial, and the moral standing was high.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
We woke-up at 5.00 a.m. At first I performed earthwork, and later I drove a tractor. We had a dinner break of up to half an hour between 12.30 p.m. and 1.00 p.m. After the break we worked until dusk, and sometimes even longer, until dawn. We didn’t receive any money for our work, only one fourth of the food ration, that is, 300 grams of unprocessed foodstuffs per day. There weren’t any cultural institutions like cinemas or clubs.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
I was interrogated only on the account of letters which I was receiving from Poland, as the NKVD wanted to establish where the families of the exiles were staying. Communist propaganda was disseminated by agitators during our work.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
There wasn’t any medical assistance at the site. Six exiles died, but I don’t remember their surnames (they were children).
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
During the whole period of my stay I received eight letters from my family (my grandmother).
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released after the amnesty, in August 1941. Until December I worked at the station at the Polish post in Aktyubinsk, and then I left for Buzuluk, where I joined the Polish Army. On 29 March 1942 I left Russia with the first wave of evacuees to Persia.
Official stamp, 3 March 1943