1. Personal details (name, surname, rank, field mail number, age, occupation, marital status):
Senior Rifleman Wacław Mongiałło, born in 1910, farmer, unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 27 June 1940, I was arrested by the NKVD authorities as a dangerous element.
Arrested at home in the evening; we were taken away, three brothers and father. We weren’t allowed to take anything from the house, not even a piece of bread or any clothes. They took us to the town of Raduń [Radun’], where we stayed for seven days. They brought us clothes, food – nothing was accepted and they did not let us see anyone. They were interrogated at night every hour; it was peaceful during the day, there were no interrogations.
Then we were driven 22 kilometers on foot to Bastuny station. There were 11 of us and nine Soviet escorts. I was brought and imprisoned in the Lida prison, where I stayed from July 1940 to 19 February 1941, then [I was] deported to Moscow and imprisoned. They transported us in shut prison wagons and gave nothing to eat. We traveled for nine days. They gave only 300 grams of bread and cold water. After 11 days, we were taken from a prison in Moscow to a labor camp. They took us in prison cars to the station, where they loaded us onto freight wagons made for prisoners. They were transported to Komi ASRR, Ukhta. On the way, they gave us 400 grams of bread and a small fish to eat, and cold water. The journey lasted 10 days and that’s all we had; the wagons were not heated, the frost was terrible, because there were cracks in the walls.
I was judged in absentia to eight years of hard labor in the camp.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
I spent nine months in prison in Lida, then I was deported to the labor camp in Komi ASRR, the Ukhta camp.
4. Description of the camp, prison, etc. (grounds, buildings, living conditions, hygiene): The conditions were extremely hard in the prison, the room was cramped and there was no air, it was dirty, plus there was no food. There was neither water to wash [ourselves with] nor a bathroom, and we weren’t taken out for fresh air. The ground was muddy in the camp, the buildings were made of planks, and they were put together loosely; the snow and rain fell through the chinks. Inside, there was dirt and bare planks to sleep on, plus there was an abundance of vermin.
5. Identity of the prisoners, prisoners of war, exiles (nationality, crime types, intellectual and moral level, mutual relations, etc.):
There were about 3,000 Poles and about 2,000 [people of] other nationalities among the prisoners deported for labor. The Poles were usually convicted for political reasons, while other nationalities [were convicted for] various crimes. Among the Poles, the mental and moral level was high and exemplary, while the Russians can be compared to a culture of cattle. Relations with the Poles were friendly and we would try to show the Russians [illegible] backwardness.
6. Life in the camp, prison, etc. (average day, working conditions, quotas, pay, food, clothing, social and cultural life):
In prison, apart from hunger and idleness, there were no [illegible]. We worked in the camp for 12 hours, sometimes 18 hours. Clothes were shabby, and shoes – we practically walked barefoot in a frost of 60 degrees. There was no remuneration at all. Food: 500 grams of bread and two liters of kipiatok [boiling water]. The culture could be described as antediluvian. Social relations – when you saw someone close by, you had to avoid them in case they were spies; there were many of them.
7. Attitude of the NKVD authorities towards Poles (investigation methods, torture, punishments, communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
The NKVD authorities had a very hostile stance towards the Poles. The interrogation methods included starvation, beating, holding in a hole with water up to the knees and not showing light for a week. It was compulsory to listen to Communist propaganda and falsifications without the slightest [illegible]. Forget about Poland – it was crushed.
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality (list the names of those who died): There was practically no medical care. If there was any, it was only to pull wool over our eyes; there was a shortage of medicine in the hospitals, and whenever the attendings were Soviets, they would purposefully mock and [illegible] the sick. Mortality was very high. The names of the dead: Kamiński, Nartoszyniec, and the priest (Szulmiński); I don’t remember any more
9. Describe the kind of communication you had with your family and country, if there was any?
We were strictly isolated from the country and our families. We only found anything out when a transport arrived with arrested Poles from the country.
10. When were you released and how did you get into the army?
I was released from the camp on 27 October as a Polish citizen on the basis of a Polish- Soviet agreement, and I had to get to the Polish Army on my own as I did not receive any funds; this means that whoever went [illegible] and fought against the slaying hunger.
Temporary station, 6 March 1943