Chapter 8
In the meantime, just three hours after Braina’s arrest, on November 6 in the afternoon, a messenger came for Lena and Kim, took the suitcase with their belongings that Braina had prepared in advance, and together with Ida took the children to the orphanage center on Nemiga Street. It was a closed institution with bars on the windows and strict staff, as well as a gatehouse where the watchman was constantly on duty. The building was equipped with everything necessary for keeping children: bedrooms for boys and girls, study halls and playrooms, a canteen, a bathroom with a system for heating water; in the yard there was a fenced area for outside walks.
After the free environment at home, Lena and Kim’s perception of the orphanage was depressing. There were not many children in the orphanage. Most of them were children from the streets and juvenile thieves, some of whom dropped out every day and were replaced by others.
But over time, there were also more and more children like Lena and Kim. They met their peers, siblings Inna and Volodya Sapritsky. It was from Volodya that Kim first heard that his parents were not on a business trip at all, but in prison. Puzzled, he went to his sister, who had to carefully explain to his brother what had happened, how to deal with this, and how to behave in the future to avoid unpleasant conversations on the subject.
It was most convenient, Lena thought, to refer to ignorance upon questions about their parents, and Kim remembered this advice forever. Though it was not easy for him to accept it, because he had to pass off the untruth as the truth. “It couldn’t really happen,” Kim pondered, “that the good, kind, best-in-the-world father and mother, with whom it was so good to live at home, would suddenly become enemies and end up in prison. We know they’re not the enemy, they’re just like us, and we’re not the enemy. My parents didn’t do anything wrong, and a lot of other people know that. So mom and dad should be released soon, and they’ll come for us right away. After all, the untruth cannot be stronger than the truth! That’s what dad always said. But if I claim that I don’t know who my parents are just because bad people put them in prison for nothing, it means that the untruth can sometimes be more necessary and stronger than the truth. Lena is sure that the truth about our parents will only harm her and me!”
This is how Kim’s childhood consciousness learned the first lessons of real Soviet political literacy, the falsity of which over time was repeatedly confirmed by his life experience.
Day after day went by, but Ida was the only one who visited the children with invariable presents. She was lucky to get a job as a cleaner at the bakery, which not only provided her with a small steady income, but most importantly, she kept the Gershons’ room; the threat of eviction averted, and that was much more than luck.
At the beginning of December, there was an order to send a group of seven children to a special orphanage in Ukraine. The Gershons and the Sapritskys were on the list. All four of them gathered their simple belongings, went with their attendants to the train station, and boarded the Moscow-Kyiv train. The locomotive began to whistle, the wheels rattled, taking the children away from their ancestral home to an unknown new life, without parents or relatives. The carefree childhood came to an end, a time of forced early independent struggle for existence began.
The next day the train arrived at Shpola Station. That was their destination. Two horse-drawn carriages were waiting for them.
After an hour or so they drove up to a small village called Darievka, and from there they followed a narrow dirt track to a small wooded area not far away. When the wagons crossed the bridge over a ditch and they ended up in a thicket of trees, it became clear that it was not a forest at all, but an old abandoned park, which still had remnants of sculptures, arbors, bridges, paths. In a wide clearing in the middle of the park stood a somewhat dilapidated but still beautiful two-story house with columns, large windows, and a long balcony. Around it, there were several one-story buildings. Even the gloomy rainy weather and bare autumnal trees could not spoil the impression of beauty and solemnity of this wonderful corner of nature, which suddenly appeared before the eyes of the newcomers. Once, before the revolution, it was the estate of a noble and wealthy Ukrainian magnate, which was robbed but miraculously survived the civil war.
After introductions and the registration, the director of the orphanage familiarized the newcomers with the main buildings and outbuildings. In the main building, the first floor was occupied by classrooms, a library, a club, and a sanitary facility. The second floor, divided into two parts, was devoted to bedrooms with separate bathrooms and large washrooms for boys and girls. The canteen and kitchen were in a separate building. The office, principal’s office, and storerooms were also located there. Opposite the main building, at the edge of the clearing, were the outbuildings: stables, a pigsty, a hen house, and barns.
The director also mentioned a bathhouse, as well as a vegetable garden and orchards, the harvest of which goes to the canteen and is used to provide food for the pupils. At first, it was unclear what kind of pupils were being referred to, but further conversation made it clear that not long ago there was a labor colony for homeless children and troubled teens at this place. All the household equipment was run by the inmates themselves. Almost all of them were transferred to other places, and the colony was renamed a special orphanage while retaining the same staff of educators and attendants.
After a bath, a medical examination, and lunch, the newcomers were assigned to their rooms. Lena stayed in a cozy, bright, well-furnished room with four other high school girls. Kim got a place in a large room with an exit to the balcony, where there were more than thirty beds in pairs with one bedside table and one passageway for each pair. Within a few days, about thirty boys between the ages of seven and ten were housed in this bedroom. Along with them, ostensibly to keep order, were lodged six former colonists, teenagers about thirteen to fifteen years old. It was a close-knit group led by a leader with the surname Grinko, whom they called Grinya.
Orphanage life began, subject to a strict schedule. In addition to schoolwork, the children were supposed to devote two hours a day to useful physical labor. This rule was strictly adhered to, only the types of labor varied depending on the time of year and the needs of the orphanage.
Once, while weeding vegetables, Kim picked a few stalks of carrots instead of weeds and immediately received a stern reprimand. He said that he had always lived in the city and therefore was not familiar with village work. The tutor looked at her friend and Kim heard her say: “Yeesh, enemy kids, don’t even know how to do anything! But we’ll wean you from your bourgeois habits!” At that moment, without understanding how this was relevant to him, Kim felt the hostility of these words, and they were imprinted on his memory forever.
The food in the orphanage was not bad, four meals a day. But the afternoon meal, when the children received something particularly tasty like fruit, buns with jam, compote, and sometimes even a few sweets was often used for educational purposes. It was at noontime that those who had done something wrong were not allowed into the cafeteria, but instead were sent to the principal’s office for a “workout”. And there, sometimes, they did not limit themselves to strict words, but for greater clarity, they used rods on soft body parts.
A few days after there were no more empty beds in Kim’s bedroom; a momentous event occurred that complicated his existence.
That evening the teacher on duty, who usually sat in the corridor after lights were out, had gone out. Grinya posted a teenage underling in the corridor to alert them if necessary, and then turned on the lights and loudly commanded, “Everybody, get up and stand by your beds! We’re going to play an interesting game, and for that, we need to get to know each other. Now each of you must tell us your name, nationality, and where you came from. We’ll write everyone down, and then I’ll tell you how we’re going to play.”
The children began to mutter as they complied with the order, and Grinya’s assistants went around the rows with pencils and pieces of paper in hand. Kim shouted, bouncing as everyone around him did, “I’m Kim, Jewish, from Minsk!”
When the census was over, Grinya ordered everyone to shut up and continued his speech. He told the boys that from now on there would be two powers in the orphanage: the power of the director and the teachers, which he called the power of “cops”, and the underground power of “cool lads”. Each of the boys may refuse, evade, or partially comply with the orders of the “cops”, but whatever the “lads” require must be obeyed. And each of its violators will be severely punished.
“Lads” was the name Grinya proclaimed for himself and his group of six former colonists. All of them, according to him, earned this title by the fact that they were familiar with the criminal order, having served their time in the colony. The rest of the residents of this “hut” are “toadies” and are obliged to obey the “lads”. Over time, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and NatMins (i.e. representatives of national minorities), who prove that they are worthy of it, can rise from “toadies” to “lads”. All the rules of this “game”, Grinya concluded, are strictly a secret, and whoever betrays the secret to the “cops” or any outsider will be considered a traitor, a “secret agent” who will have no rest day or night.
At first, Kim even enjoyed participating in such an unusual, mysterious game, but since he did not quite understand the rules of the transition from “toadies” to “lads”, he dared to ask Grinya a clarifying question, why didn’t he mention Jews among the other “toadies”.
“Yids will never be “lads”!” Grinya proclaimed sharply, and, as if on cue, the rest of the “lads” suddenly perked up and started talking. They shouted insults against Jew-Yids, calling them corrupt Judes, greedy, cunning, evil, insatiable bloodsuckers, cowards, traitors, i.e., not human beings, but insatiable parasites who should be crushed without pity or regret.
Kim was taken aback by the sudden torrent of vicious, insulting, and frightening expressions that came down on him for the first time, just because he had been born into a Jewish family. He felt deeply hurt and humiliated by these vile insults, not only for himself, but also for his parents, relatives, and acquaintances, completely unable to understand why their nationality aroused such hatred, slander, and anger.
Kim’s bunkmate turned out to be a more knowledgeable boy. He whispered to Kim that, in his mother’s opinion, bad, illiterate, and unworthy people were just jealous of Jews, so they made up all kinds of nonsense about them out of spite. The boy’s mother advised him to know and remember that they were not telling the truth and to stay away from them. In truth, when Kim asked what it was that made such people jealous of Jews, the neighbor could not answer.
Now that it became clear who Grinya and his friends were, their proposed game of “lads and toadies” lost all appeal. However, the fear of a group of rude and strong older boys forced the kids to submit to their power. And it manifested itself the very next morning after Grinya proclaimed the new order in the underground boys’ community.
All of the “lads” chose helpers from among the “toadies” who were now obliged to make beds every morning after they woke up and to clean the room when it was their turn, according to the official schedule drawn up by the educator.
Every day, three more of the young “toadies” had to bring Grinya a “tribute”, the most delicious part of their afternoon meal for the evening feast that Grinya regularly arranged for his entourage. After the feast, the “lads” usually had one of the smart “toadies” entertain them with tales and other amusing stories. Or they would exchange with each other some scurrilous anecdotes on intimate or anti-Jewish topics, abounding in obscene language.
In cases of the slightest disobedience of the “toadies,” they were punished promptly and cruelly, without leniency. One of the lightest punishments was “darkness,” when at night the sleeping victim was covered with a blanket and beaten with several hands, silencing the cries with a pillow.
A much more serious and “spectacular” punishment was the “bicycle”. When the “condemned” fell asleep, crumpled papers or absorbent cotton were placed between his toes and set on fire. The unfortunate person would start twitching his legs in his sleep to the amused laughter of the torturers watching. Usually, the victim ended up with first- or second-degree burns.
Sometimes the sadistic fantasy of the “lads” was played out to the point of applying subtle torture, such as sleep deprivation, where the torturers, one after another, would not allow the guilty “toadies” to sleep, driving them almost to the point of fainting. Or they made the next victim hold their hands up for hours. In all cases, the punishment always ended with a vow to never violate the “law of the lads” again and not to tell anyone about what happened.
Fear of becoming another victim forced the intimidated children to flatter their oppressors with compliments and various offerings, and accustomed them to complacency and duplicity, paralyzing their desire to protest. For this reason, too, Kim was afraid to tell Lena about what was going on in their bedroom at night, but the tension and nervousness in his behavior did not escape his sister’s attention.
The worried Lena invited her brother into her room more often, trying to cheer him up. Kim found it especially heartwarming to spend time in the company of Lena and her friends. Sitting on the sofa, he listened keenly to their conversations about school, the books they had read, writers, poets, movies, actors. The bright, interesting statements of Lena’s friends evoked a desire to learn and read as much as possible, to think about everything in the world as these clever girls do.
Lena’s company of five female classmates was friendly and close-knit to a rarity. Brought up intelligent and well-read, they got on well with each other, showing tact and tolerance in everyday life, helping in studies, comforting and supporting each other. All of them succeeded in their final year in the 7th grade, actively participated in amateur activities, and were in good standing with the directorate. Four of them had younger brothers here in the orphanage, three first-graders and one fifth-grader.
Kim was friends with one of them, Volodya Sapritsky. They sat at the same desk in class, both loved reading books, walking in the park; they liked to observe changes in nature, and listen to birds singing. They often discussed the fate of their parents and their forced relationship with the “lads” when no one else was around.
Lena and Kim at the Darievsky orphanage. 1938.
In early March, unexpectedly, without warning, Aunt Genya visited her nephews. Fearing undesirable consequences due to communication with dangerous relatives, because of which uncle Gennady had already lost his job, she did not notify the management of the orphanage about her visit, but stealthily walked from Darievka to the park and asked the children walking there to call Lena.
How surprised and happy she was at this unexpected and welcome encounter! Alas, Genya knew nothing new about the fate of her sister and her husband, Joshka Gershon. She was just very happy to see Lena and Kim alive and well, gave them her greetings and best wishes from all her relatives, left a large bag with presents, and hurried back to Shpola to catch her train.
It was getting close to bedtime, and there was no time to open the well-packaged present. Lena wanted to sneak it into the room unnoticed, covering it with her cloak, but still someone noticed her. After lights were out, Grinya called Kim into his corner and unceremoniously announced that the “lads” knew about the parcel and had decided to steal it. Kim was instructed to find out tomorrow what was in the package and where Lena was hiding it. “If you help us, you’ll get your share, but if you turn us in,” Grinya threatened, “you’ll get everything a secret agent is entitled to”. The insolence and meanness of such an offer angered Kim, but the threat was serious, so he had to give Grinya his consent, while at the same time taking the firm decision to save the parcel from him at all costs.
The next day at school he asked Volodya to call Lena to the park during the big break and briefly told her about the impending theft and his forced role in it, which surprised and alarmed Lena the most. She asked for an explanation. Kim had to tell her all about the “lads” secrets, taking a vow of silence from her. It turned out that Lena and her friends already knew something about it, but she didn’t expect it to be that serious.
When Kim entered Lena’s room in the evening, supposedly for reconnaissance, the girls briefed him on a plan to deceive the brazen thieves. Almost all the sweets had been taken out of the parcel beforehand and well hidden. Only two small boxes of lollipops and cookies were left. The vacant box was filled with used shoes, skirts, and jackets. Kim was instructed to report to Grinya that the parcel was mostly clothing and very few treats. They reasoned that this report would safeguard Kim from suspicion and undesirable consequences and that if the theft was to happen, the loss would be minimal, for second-hand items were unlikely to interest thieves.
Concerned and outraged that the little ones, including their brothers, were suffering under the dictates of the insolent colonists, the girls decided at the first opportunity to draw the attention of the staff to what was going on in the younger group of boys, and Kim was instructed to report regularly on the actions of the colonists.
In the evening Grinya received information from Kim about the parcel and where it was stored. The next day during lunch the theft occurred, but only the sweets disappeared from the box. Lena reported it to the tutor, who tried to find the missing things, but all in vain.
Late at night, Kim was woken up. It turned out that Grinya had given him a share: some lollipops and cookies. “Your share is small because in reality there were only clothes, and there were only two useful packets, and even those were almost empty. And you, though you’re a Jew, you’re a good toady; everything was just as you said!”
Grinya’s gang was fooled, and Lena’s team triumphed. Kim’s authority with the “lads” had grown, and he could stop fearing becoming the object of their nightly entertainment. And two months later, the dictatorship of the “lads” came to an end. But it did not happen by itself but as a result of a dramatic event in which Lena’s team took part.
One of the “toadies”, a boy about 9 years old, failed to take out the afternoon snack that he was supposedly obligated to give to Grinya that day. The teacher on duty noticed this and made the boy eat it in front of him. At night, the punishment was “cycling.” This time the perpetrators overdid it, as they forcibly held the boy to the bed, not allowing him to drop the burning wicks between his toes. As a result of severe burns, blisters formed on his feet, his fever rose, and the victim was taken to the emergency room. In response to the doctor’s questions, the boy babbled incomprehensibly that he had caught his feet on fire when he wanted to jump over it.
Two of Lena’s friends were cleaning the emergency room. Through Kim and Lena, they learned the real cause of the burn, and they secretly told the doctor about it. The doctor reported it to the director, who had no trouble getting the poor boy to confess in full detail.
The entire group of former colonists was moved to the first floor, and it was decided to set up a permanent night watchman post near their room to guard the little ones. While they were looking for someone to fill the post, the main protagonist of the incident returned from the medical unit.
The very next night after his return, all the “lads,” led by Grinya, showed up in the bedroom. They got in through the balcony by climbing up the drainpipe.
Locking the door with a stool, the teenagers woke up the sleeping children and told them all to get up and keep their mouths shut.
Grinya announced that the “toady” who disclosed the secret of the society of the “lads” was declared a “secret agent” and would now get what he was entitled to in front of everyone. The “lads” laid the “secret agent” together with the mattress on the floor and pissed on him.
Then the two “lads” used a towel to slowly squeeze his neck. When the boy lost consciousness for a moment, the noose was loosened and he regained consciousness. At Grinya’s command, this trick was repeated three times. The children watched in horror. The “secret agent” did not scream, he only cried softly, sobbed, and wheezed. But when they started making him eat dirt from some dirty bowl, the boy could not stand it and sobbed at the top of his lungs. And then at once all the forced spectators of this torture roared, screamed, and howled in wild voices.
The “lads” were frightened out of their wits; they hadn’t expected such a reaction. Like rats, they rushed out onto the balcony and were gone in an instant. All the employees of the orphanage who were nearby ran towards the room where there were screams, which were possibly heard even in Darievka. What they saw and heard from the children was a complete surprise to them.
The “lads” hid in the park all night. In the morning, they were brought in and locked up like prisoners in one of the storage rooms. A few days later, the four younger ones were sent somewhere, but Grinya and two other former colonists remained as helpers in the household yard.
They no longer appeared in the main building, but from time to time they continued, in the old memory, to force the obedient “toadies” to steal apples and nuts from the gardens, peas or small potatoes from the surrounding collective farm fields. The “lads” also didn’t forget to collect tribute from the little ones in festive dainties. This went on for over two years until one day, Grinya stabbed the pioneer counselor in a fight. Immediately after that incident he went into hiding and never showed up at the orphanage again.
After the elimination of the “lads” regime, the atmosphere in the junior high school room became the usual one for a motley crew of boys: there were heated arguments, short skirmishes, whimpering, tears of hurt feelings, and spontaneous general pillow fights, accompanied by explosions of inexplicable merriment. But no one feared waking up to bumps or burns anymore. The children became more cheerful-looking and studied better.
And Lena, despite her school success and the support of her faithful friends, was constantly burdened by the uncertainty of her parents’ fate and her own forced inaction. But then, all the girls in her room were in the exact same position. No one even knew where to turn with such questions.
Aunt Genya’s rare short letters still contained only greetings from her relatives, unobtrusive kind advice, and sometimes Lena found there a ruble or two, but no welcome news of her parents. Longing for them, in solitude, the children remembered their deeds and words from their former lives, their caprices, even their rudeness, and Lena, embracing Kim, invariably repeated, like a spell, “You and I must wish very, very hard that our daddy and mommy would come home this year and take us away from here! You and I will never, ever upset them again with our behavior, be obedient, help them in everything, so long as they come for us!”
The children continued to sincerely believe that their parents had been arrested by mistake; they had not had any reason to believe that their father was no longer in this world and that their mother was now far away, behind barbed wire.
Lena and Kim (on the right) in a group of pupils of the Darievsky Orphanage. 1940.
Starting in the fall of 1937, more than 150 children of “enemies of the people” between the ages of 7 and 14, arriving from various parts of the country, were in the newly organized Darievsky Special Children’s Orphanage in the Shpola district of the Kyiv region. Properly trained teachers, educators, and attendants persistently instilled in the children a sense of faith in Soviet power, love and devotion to the leader of the nations, Comrade Stalin, and at the same time did not forget to repeat the official formula “children are not responsible for their parents,” believing that the students needed such consolation. The children had no doubt that their parents were innocent and arrested by mistake. But they also understood that this should be kept quiet.