1. Personal details (name, surname, rank, field post office number, age, occupation, marital status):
Lieutenant Rudolf Osuch, 29 years old, a professional in the Border Guard, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
22 January 1940, during the uprising against the Soviets in Czortkowo.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
Prisons in Czortkowo, Tarnopol, Kharkiv, and labor camp in Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic – 9 Strafnoj Lagpunkt in Czibiu.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc. (area, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
Woods, marsh, living in old, ruined, wooden barracks, not whitewashed, without even the most primitive sanitary facilities.
5. The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, category of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations etc.):
A small percentage were Poles. Most people had long sentences from five to ten years, mainly Soviet citizens – political prisoners and serious criminals, from 10 years upwards. The intellectual and moral standing of the prisoners varied.
6. Life in the camp, prison etc. (daily routine, working conditions, work quotas, remuneration, food, clothes, social and cultural life etc.):
We were working in the woods, cutting trees, 12 hours: the quota was three to six cubic meters of two-meter-long wood stacked up. For reaching the quota 30 times per month, after various deductions, we got 72 kopecks per quota filled. Before the Soviet-German war, we used to get very chunky roasted groats and some fish. After the outbreak of the war, the quality of food improved, especially for us Poles. They gave us worn-out, stockpiled clothes [illegible] from other camps. For others and for udarniks – underwear.
There were corduroy boots, but they often didn’t give them to us. We had wadded shoes, burki, in winter.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
Interrogations in Chortkiv took place only at night, and often lasted all night. Terrible beatings, especially after the uprising. They used logs, guns, iron rods, bottles, rubber truncheons; they were beating us in the head and face, tying us up with a rope, kicking, beating with clenched fists; we were frequently locked up in solitary confinement. Sentences ranged from eight years to capital punishment; later on there were pardons. They called us “General Sikorski’s bandits”. They tried to convince us to carry out intelligence work for the NKVD, promising riches and a pardon. They constantly stressed, especially among the lower classes, that there would be no Poland, and that Stalin would be the ruler of all Europe.
The prison in Chortkiv was overcrowded. They kept seven or nine people in individual cells. There were no beds or bed linens. No water. The prisoners were sleeping on bare floor or on concrete (in the temporary prison in the basement of the NKVD building in Chortkiv). In the summer we could have a five- to ten-minute walk around the small prison yard every three or four days. The prisoners were fainting due to the lack of air and exhaustion. We were always starving. No cigarettes or tobacco. In the labor camp, they didn’t give us any fat. Eye diseases (“night blindness”) were common among the prisoners.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (provide the names of the deceased):
Medical assistance was sufficient, in very serious cases it was even good. I owe a great deal to the Polish nurses who were working tirelessly and at their own risk. In the labor camp, the medical assistance was sufficient, although it depended on the NKVD authorities. The mortality rate was high. Deceased: Piotr Sitko from Godula in Świętochłowice district, Mikołaj Moroz from Żółkiew.
9. Was there any chance to get in contact with one’s country and family?
There was no contact with family from prison. In the labor camp, writing letters and using the telegraph were allowed, and they let us receive money and food packages.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
The general amnesty for Poles took place on 22 August 1941. I was released on 4 September, they didn’t let us go earlier on purpose. [After that] we were all transported to Buzuluk. First, they tried to recruit us into the Red Army, later to various kinds of work, but when they didn’t succeed, they gave us money for the road and transported us to Buzuluk with a special transport.