Kolyma

Off to the Unknown

Stalin's Notorious Prison Camps in Siberia
by Ayyub Baghirov (1906-1973)
Arrested in 1937, sentenced under false charges in 1939 to eight years of corrective labor in Kolyma. In
reality, he was in exile for 18 years as he was not released until 1955, two years after Stalin's death.
Author of "Bitter Days in Kolyma" (Gorkiye Dni Na Kolime) in Russian, which was published in 1999. A
shorter version came out in Azeri in 2001.
Ayyub Baghirov's book, "Bitter Days of Kolyma", was first published in 1999 in Russian as "Gorkiye Dni Na
Kolime". To our knowledge, it was the first personal narrative by an Azerbaijani author about his years spent
in exile in the notorious prison system of Kolyma located in Siberia's unbearably cold landscape.
The author Ayyub Baghirov (1906-1973) had been the Chief Financial Officer for the BakSovet (Mayor's
office). In 1937, he was arrested on false charges of anti-revolutionary activities as an "Enemy of the
People". Kept in Baku's notorious NKVD prison, he was interrogated and tortured for nearly a year and a half
before being sentenced to eight years in a hard labor camp. Unfortunately, the eight years stretched into 18
years, as was true for many prisoners. He was not released until 1955, two years after Stalin's death. He
returned to Baku.
Sadly, Ayyub did not live to fruits of his careful analysis of those difficult years published. His book came out
almost 25 years after his death. We have his son Mirza to thank for the enormous job of editing and
publishing this personal glimpse into the Kolyma camps and for providing us with his father's insights about
life under such unbearable situations.
We publish the first chapter here. Chapter I: Arrest. Journey To the Far North: Butigichag Camp (pages 550). Translation from Russian by Aysel Mustafayeva, editing by Betty Blair.
The thought - provoking sculpture shown here was created by Azerbaijani artist Fazil Najafov (1935- ).
Though Fazil was not repressed himself, he was born during the years when the purges were so prevalent.
To read more about his works in Azerbaijan International, see "Frozen Images of Transition," (AI 3.1 (Spring
1995). Also "The Expressive Magnificence of Stone," AI 7.2 (Summer 1999). Search for both articles at
AZER.com. For more samples of Fazil's works and 170 other Azerbaijani artists, visit AZgallery.org. Contact
Fazil Najafov: Studio: (994-12) 466 -7109, Mobile: (994-50) 342-8999.

Nagaev Bay
One dark cloudy day in late autumn 1939, a steamboat named Dalstroi [One of many ships that were used
especially in the 1930s-40s to transport tens of thousands of slave laborers to Magadan and on to the
Kolyma camps in the Far North East of Russia] entered the Nagaev Bay [In Magadan in the Sea of Okhotsk
is where the ships docked so prisoners to disembark on their journey to Kolyma. The bay and Nagaev Port
are named after Russian hydrographer and cartographer Admiral Aleksei Ivanovich Nagaev (1704-1781)].
A cold wind was blowing. The large boulders along the coast appeared as dark foreboding shadows. The
nearby hills were already covered with the first snow. The place had an eerie silence about it. Where were
the usual sounds characteristic of port life and a residential bay town?
Left: In memory of the victims of World War II, 25 years later, by Azerbaijani sculptor Fazil Najafov,
1965. Contact Fazil at his studio: (994-12) 466-7109, Mobile: (994-50) 342-8999.
Many passengers were on board - people of various fates, professions and ages from all corners of our vast
country. And then, there were us southerners [Here it means anyone who came from any of the republics in
South Caucasus as well as other republics in the southern part of the USSR-Turkmen, Kazakhs, Tajiks,
Uzbeks, and Kirghiz] as well.
The majority of passengers were political prisoners - those who had been arrested for "counter-revolutionary
activities" and charged with Article No. 58 of the Penal Code [Article 58 of the Russian Soviet Federative
Socialist Republic (SFSR) Penal Code was put into force on February 25, 1927, to arrest anyone suspected
of counter-revolutionary activities. In reality, it was a "catch-all phrase" that enabled authorities to arrest
anyone and bring criminal charges against them].

Finally after that difficult trip, we arrived at our destination-Kolyma [Kolyma is a region in far northeastern
Russia. It is bounded by the Arctic Ocean on the north and the Okhotsk Sea on the south. Other than
Antarctica, its climate is believed to be the most severe in the world. Under Joseph Stalin's rule, Kolyma
became the most notorious region of the GULAG [Wikipedia].
Millions of prisoners are believed to have passed through Kolyma working as slave labor]. Upon arrival,
many prisoners breathed more easily, despite the fact that the name "Kolyma" frightened them. Those who
had never been to the North [Siberia] were troubled the most.We young people didn't have a clue as to what
to expect. We tried to hang close together as much as possible, and to help those who were exhausted from
the long trip - the elderly and our friends. Our generation had grown up during the struggle for Socialist
reforms in the Soviet Union. We had been involved in major projects and had coped with the difficulties of
forced collectivism in the villages.
Whenever the Party had beckoned, we had struggled to help in these situations, sometimes even risking our
lives. And now, after "Ten Victorious Years of Stalin", we ourselves had been arrested and exiled along with
other prisoners to develop the Far North regions of Eastern Siberia - Kolyma and Chukotka [The farthest
northeast region of Russia, on the shores of the Bering Sea. The region was subject to collectivization and
forced settlement during the Soviet Era. It has large reserves of oil, natural gas, coal, gold, and tungsten
[Wikipedia. Wikipedia entries were quoted from April 15, 2006].
We political prisoners knew that we really were not "Enemies of the People", nor enemies of the Soviet
government. Even in the white wilderness of the Kolyma camps - dying from hunger, cold, slave labor,
tortures and illness - most of us still didn't have any idea why we had been brought out here to die.

Youth
Actually, our situation was quite ironic. After the continuous years of brainwashing that had influenced us as
children and citizens of Soviet republics, we had tried to forget the bad things that were happening to us
personally and devote our energy to the common interests of our Homeland. Most of us had been educated
in the spirit of true Stalinism: first came the Party, then Homeland, and only after that came family - mother,
father and children.
We had been fed the official line and indoctrination of the Party about Komsomols and the Soviet Union
being "the most just community in the world". We had been educated in this way from childhood as Pioneers
[A mass youth organization for children ages 10-15 that existed in the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1990
[Wikipedia]. I also considered myself innocent. All my life I had lived under Soviet authority and served this
power and authority with all my strength and belief.
I was born in the city of Lankaran [A city located near Azerbaijan's southern border with Iran] in Azerbaijan
[around 1906]. I wasn't even a year old when I lost my father Hazrat Gulu. He had been a rather wealthy
merchant. After the Revolution [Refers to April 1920 when the Bolsheviks took control of the power in
Azerbaijan] - from early childhood onward - I grew up in poverty and deprivation. My mother didn't know how
to manage her husband's property.
Being rather trustful and nave by nature, she soon was hounded by enterprising relatives and soon ended
up on the brink of poverty. She never did figure out how her material wealth had slipped through her fingers.
As a child during the years that followed the Revolution, I used to peddle Ritsa cigarettes on a little tray that
hung from around my neck. I would wander through the narrow lanes of Lankaran.