71 year old woman lumberjack in Siberia

Posted on June 17, 2011

My grandmother, Ona Pliopliene, was deported to Siberia, to serve a 12 year term of hard labor. Her husband, Motiejus Plioplys, had recently been murdered by the NKVD (Soviet secret police). In addition my great-grandfather, my other grandfather and an aunt were also killed by the NKVD. Besides my grandmother, 7 other aunts and uncles were likewise deported to Siberia.

What were their crimes? They owned small family farms. They suffered genocide on the basis of political grounds–they might object to Stalin’s Soviet system. Their deportation or extermination was necessary.

By Stalin’s orders, the same happened to many millions of others across Eastern Europe.

At the time of her deportation, she was 71 years old. She was assigned to chop trees–a 71 year old lumberjack, who had never chopped a tree before! In the photograph she is resting amongst the stumps that she had been toiling at.

An accident turned out to be life-saving. Within a few weeks she accidentally chopped herself in the leg. She could barely walk. She was reassigned to work as a nanny for several young children. This job included preparing the children meals, which meant that she had food to eat. She thus survived.

When I had a chance to meet her, and ask her about these experiences, she recalled that each winter, one third of all the resident exiles would die from overwork and starvation. They could not be buried until the spring because of the frozen permafrost. Their bodies were piled up like logs.

This original photograph, and over 230 more from Siberia, are on the display as part of the Hope and Spirit exhibit which I have organized at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Ave., Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit has been extended and will run through January, 2012.