Interview with Berta Yesayan

She sat there, thinking hard about what she’d been through when living in that village known as sveklosvokhos (beet farm) in Siberia.  Berta Yesayan thought of her life back then as “a life of a lamb”.  She was forced to live there with her husband Sarkis and lived the life of a laborer.  She was sent there because she was suspected into treason against the Soviet Union.

My name is Berta Yesayan.  I got married at fifteen.  I was born in 1930 so I am seventy-eight.  1946, I left my parents and moved with my husband to Armenia.  I was eighteen when they sent me to Siberia by myself and there was no one with me they came to my house, gathered all my clothes, whatever I had.  In the car there were four Russian soldiers and one Armenian soldier, someone high up, they sat me down in a car and took me to the train station.  The Armenian guy didn’t want to send me.  When they took us they first took us to the forest where all the trees were cut and they put up tents.  After staying in those tents for a few days we (my husband and I) moved to my husband’s brother’s place, over there was a community farm.  Hundred families not even hundred, one could say that there was one row of Armenians and one row of other foreigners who were exiled and a few on the other side of the lake, there were Russians, but they were also exiled.   My neighbors were Armenians just like me, my age, and I had a really good relationship with them.  There really wasn’t anything to do or cook, it was just potatoes and we’d joke about it.  We would ask one another “Are you going to cook potatoes?”  It was in the morning, noon, and evening we would joke about it, but overall they took us there to work so we would just work.  It was in the Altai Area, Somali Region, and it was svetloslosovkhos (beets) farm, and the biggest city in that area was Barnaml.

It was me and my husband.  Then Rosie was born and she was very beautiful.  Her dad really loved her.  Sometimes in the evening when people would come home from work, the majority who didn’t have kids would go to this office.  There was an office, one room, whoever was free near by, and didn’t have kids would go to get news or the postman would bring letters there. They would mostly go there for letters.  Once I got a letter.  There were so many stamps on the envelope you couldn’t see its color.  My mom convinced my Aunt to give out the address so she could write a letter to me.  My mom has sent it from abroad.  It took six months to reach it from abroad.  For example if not every week then twice a month my aunt would send me a letter.  It wouldn’t take that long, three days, five days, with in the Soviet Union; my mom’s took six months. 

Almost everyday, I got up, I would milk the cows, the Shepard would come, take them to the meadows the cows over there had to be milked three times a day at noon neighbors I was telling you about the young ones we would go to the meadow milk the cows then we would keep busy with housework.  At night the cows would come from the field and again we would milk the cows, you would give water, eggs would get laid you would pick up the eggs.  That was our pastime; there was nothing else to keep us busy.

Everyone was attached to each other.  We would get up in the morning and the young people would go to work, everyone had to work, especially when it was time to plant. Even when I wasn’t working they forced me to go during the time to plant.  They would make my child go to preschool so I could work.  The wheat, corn, the grain, carrots, but overall it was potatoes, all these had to be planted by May so in August everything could be harvested.  In the winter not everyone would work.  The men would go if there was work to do they would do it.  Many would go to the forest to get fire wood and of course women couldn’t go to the forest.  So we would go to the snow covered fields.  We would announce if there would be a blizzard.  The fields were covered with snow and the blizzard would last from twenty-four hours or three days, so we had to make ourselves safe.  We would make big hills with snow to protect the village from the blizzard and then it was extra water for the summer to keep the soil moist from one side to the other side because there is no irrigation there.  The fields are so huge you can’t see from one end to the other.  Most of them would plant corn, to feed the animals.  You have calves, you have cows, you have pigs, you have chickens, and you have ducks.  That’s what you were keeping yourself busy with.

 We had no right to leave that area.  Every month they would come and collect our signatures to make sure we didn’t leave.  Imagine in this room, if you don’t come out, would you have any information, or would you have any parties, or joyful events?  No, you wouldn’t.  Once a month an officer would come to collect signatures to insure that we’re there then we would ask for a written referral to leave to go to the city with a train to buy stuff to wear, clothes, and shoes.  That village had one store.  The store sometimes would get sugar, bread, but the bread was this color (puts hand to table) so no one would eat it.  For example, it was with a ration and our portion before getting home Sarkis (her husband) would feed it to the cow.  There was really nothing, just that store would get sugar, salt, and fabric. You’d have to give milk or eggs to exchange it so they would give you enough fabric for a dress.

The life over there was a pig’s life.  Eat, sit, eat, sit.  Can you compare life over there with life over here? 

 Interviewed by Olivia Isahakian