Disclaimer:
This memoire of a life during the Great Patriotic War in Russia was dictated by my grandmother, Lydia Sokolik, in 2006. I submitted this story to the BBC’s WW2 People’s War archive in January 2006. The copyright rests with me, and the BBC has a non-exclusive right to sublicense and use the story. If you wish to use this story, please read the Terms of Use and contact me for a permission.
- Location of story:
- Russia: Borovsk (near Smolensk), Murashi village (near Kirov), Yaroslavl, Klyazma village (near Moscow)
Article ID: A8998933
Notes on the text: the story is told by the narrator (Lydia Sokolik)
Life in Borovsk.
I was born in a small village near Dorogobuzh, in Smolensk region, on 1 October 1924. I was the sixth child in a family of seven. My father and uncle were both devoted horticulturists; the entire family were avid readers, and the house’s terrace was used in summer as a stage for home theatre. In 1936, we moved to a small town of Borovsk, ever closer to Smolensk, where we lived until October 1941.
How the War Was Declared.
The spring of 1941 was very warm, in early June the Russian town of Borovsk was blossoming beautifully. Its streets knew the moans of Napoleon’s army when it was leaving Russia. In 1941 people were preparing for their summer holidays and school children were finishing with their studies. I was in the final class at school, and like many other boys and girls across the country I had my farewell party at school in late June. We were all going to go to work or to enter higher education institutions.
We had a factory near our house, and every year it would close for the summer holidays. Our house stood on a small hill, behind us there was a magnificent pine forest. The factory workers would normally set up a holiday camp, and nearby there was a parachute tower, with a radio attached to it. In the morning of Sunday, June 22, 1941, we heard a special radio signal, and tuned in to our radio. The broadcaster said that the Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov, had an announcement to make. Next we heard Molotov telling us that Hitler’s troops invaded our country at 4am by taking certain cities along the Western border. It was devastating and scary news. Everyone was shocked, as we fully relied on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Wow, this is fascinating. I grew up listening to my parents’ war experiences and how they came to have to leave their respective homelands – the Sudetenland (father) and Silesia (mother). You’ve reminded me that I considered writing up their story for the BBC’s People’s War project, but in the end didn’t since my parents would probably have been uncomfortable with it.
Carola, Thanks a lot for your comment. I must admit, transcribing my grandma’s memoire wasn’t easy. While working on the campaign, I heard different stories of evacuation and air raids, and I by no means want to estimate the stress and sufferings of people, but I couldn’t help comparing her story to those of others, and hers is a quite disturbing experience. I also know that my grandma in the end admitted she thought I’d edit her memoire, largely b/c of some content which will be in parts 2 and 3. However, I think that it is these exactly parts that trigger our thought. obviously b/c this is the story of the Great Patriotic War, there’s a lot of mentions of the Nazi invaders, and some people to this day continue to link Nazism and Germany. This is very unfortunate, and is perhaps the only thing I feel kind of uncomfortable about, when publishing my grandma’s story. I know German visitors sometimes land on my blog, so I just want to state that when my grandma says “Nazis”, she means Hitler’s troops. I also decided to take this risk for two reasons. First, we need to see a broader picture – what happened in 1940s is not the first incident of this kind, and it’s not about to be last one, alas. I’m not a member of any pacifist organisation, but this is certainly my bit for the peace process. There’s a lot of details, but what strikes me is how deeply they entered a person’s memory. And, secondly, the story is all about people. There’ll be a part of my grandma staying in the Old Orthodox community, which is quite devastating. It just shows that faith, forgiveness and empathy don’t always exist together. In total, this is a very human story, and I hope this is how it will be read. In modern German cinema they’ve been showing different people taking up the Nazi service and yet retaining their humanity. Similarly, in Russia these days there’s a kind of religious revival, with faith and religion unambiguously linked to something “good”. In truth, this is not always the case, and one of the examples dates back to quite awhile ago.