Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya
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Eufrosinia Antonovna Kersnovskaya (Russian: Евфросиния Антоновна Керсновская; January 8, 1908—March 8, 1994) was a Russian woman who spent 12 years in Gulag camps and wrote her memoirs in 12 notebooks, 2,200,000 characters, accompanied with 680 pictures.
She wrote 3 copies of the work. In 1968 her friends typed samizdat copies, repeating the pictures on the back sides of the sheets. Excerpts from the work were first published in Ogonyok and Znamya magazines in 1990, as well as in The Observer (June 1990). After that, German and French publications followed. Finally, in 2001 the complete text, in 6 volumes, was published in Russia.
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[edit] Biography
Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya was born in Odessa to an aristocratic family. During the Russian Civil War the family moved to their estate to Bessarabia to become farmers. Bessarabia was soon united with Romania. In 1940 it was annexed by the Soviet Union, and the Kersnovskaya family (Eufrosinia and her mother) were repressed as former landowners. She was exiled to Siberia as an exile settler (ссыльнопоселенец) to work at logging. She attempted to escape, but she was caught and sentenced to death. The sentence was replaced by 10 years of labor camps, which she spent in the Norillag (Норильлаг, Norilsk labor camp) at mining works.
After discharge she lived in Yessentuki and wrote her memoirs during 1964–1968.
Her memoirs illustrated by hundreds of drawings presents unique insight into the life of the Soviet Union and especially the life of Gulag. They are also remarkable for the quality of the drawings.
[edit] Some drawings
See commons:Category:Eufrosinia_Kersnovskaya for more.
All drawings on this page are available courtesy to Kersnovkaya foundation. See image description pages for the details
[edit] Children in Gulag
 Birth in a prison car for Bessarabian deportees - the baby looked to be premature |
 Killing Her Baby (a prisoner trying to kill her baby by choking him with her own milk; later Kersnovskaya managed to stop the killing) |
 The hungry child cried but did not ask for food, he understood... |
 Let me feed my child for the last time |
 Children of Yasha Nalivkin |
 Underaged criminals listening to the stories of a more experienced one |
 Fight with underaged criminals |
[edit] Women in Gulag
 Night Search - an awkward and humiliating procedure |
 Squire it's me! |
 So you don't want to work? |
 Out with this grotesque creature! |
[edit] Hospital
 Prison hospital - "will mom get scared when she sees me this way?" |
 Removing a cast - a hasty procedure with no anesthesia |
 German Doctor Miller - "dysentery" diagnosis for everyone (all he knew to say in Russian) |
 Doctor Saltykov in the laboratory |
[edit] Other
 My father is a free man... he is in prison |
 Still life Price of Blood (in the prison, blood donors were given extra food rations) |
 Chaos when the eatery doors opened |
 Question: "What do you think Japan's reaction will be regarding the war?" |
 On this day we were well-fed - "With fascination, we carefully cleaned and washed the frozen horse intestines" |
 Meeting |
 "Somebody is praying for you hard, Frosya" |
 Stakhanovite or Triumph of a Boor while a small crowd was fruitlessly hoping for leftovers |
 Taiga - "somewhere, just nearby, Death was standing guard" |
 Village - "I was stunned with how amazing life could be" |
 Retirement village - "are these men or women? They resembled large apes..." |
 Village that became a cemetery |
 Beautiful Village - no writer or poet would pass by this beautiful corner without attention |
 Interrogation - "I was like a hypnotized rabbit coming closer to the python" |
 A Court of Law - "Truth is like light... your black lies are afraid of it!" |
 Meeting in a prison cell - "Why didn't you kill that bastard?... You'd end up dead, but we'd all pray for you!" |
 Banya on cold stone floor: even the guard in the fur coat didn't look too warm |
 Baptism - a triumphant moment |
 Lustrator - nauseating aversion grew as each letter was checked |
 Professor Fedorovsky called for help as he was being hoisted across the room by his feet |
 Dr. Mardna leaned over a pile of bones - "he needs medication and... food" |
 Welcome (to the morgue) |
 "Forgive me, my brothers. It's a mere chance that I am not with you yet" |
 Mines after rescue - "I have nine children, and my wife is sick" |
 Fight - "Only seven on one? You should call for reinforcements" |
 Toilet - things like that happened (love in stalls) |
 Rail road maintenance - the most grueling type of work |
 A quiet whisper: Don't trust me, I am a snitch |
 Taking Timber out of a Mineshaft - the dilemma was death for some now, or hunger, followed by death (that time for all) |
[edit] Bibliography
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya |
- Керсновская Е.А. "Наскальная живопись". - М.: КВАДРАТ, 1991;
- Kersnovskaja Е. "Ach Herr wenn unsre Sünden uns verklagen". - Kiel: NEUER MALIK VERLAG, 1991.
- Кersnovskaja Е. "Coupable de rien". - Paris: PLON, 1994.
- Керсновская Е.А. "Сколько стоит человек". - 6 volumes, Moscow, ООО "МОЖАЙСК-ТЕРРА", 2000-2001.
[edit] External links
- (Russian) How Much Is a Person Worth?
- "Children Are Our Wealth", "The Tale of the Lithuanian Niobe," "Azerbaijani Criminals and European Denseness." Excerpts from How Much Is a Person Worth?
