Galina Ulanova, Evdokia Kikeeva, and Raisa Erenzhenova, Autobiographies

• Main Author: Churyumova, Elvira
• Format: Moving Image (Video)
• Language: Russian
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2015
• Subjects: autobiography; exile; Sakhalin; parents; childhood; national holidays; education; wedding; Baldwin; Chonos; Orlovo; Siberia
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.17848; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/270903

Galina was born in 1943 in Yasta village in Dolbansky rayon of Astrakhan' oblast. Before the deportation of the Kalmyks in 1943, her father was chairman of the village council and her mother, who was a housewife, looked after the five children. Galina relays her mother's story of how her family was deported. At that time Galina's father was away from home fighting with the German army. Galina's mother and her siblings were deported to Balchary village in Kandinsky rayon of Tyumenskaya oblast. A sewing machine that Galina's mother managed to take with her was the main source of income for the whole family. Her mother made and repaired clothing in Siberia. In 1948 the family was resettled to Orlovo village on the Sakhalin Islands. Galina recalls her childhood, how Kalmyks celebrated Zul and Tsagan Sar. She also talks about her school years. Evdokiya was born in 1942 in Orgakin village in Troitskii rayon, Kalmykia. There were six children in her family. Despite being disabled, her father worked in the fields. Evdokiya remembers the 1943 deportation and how her family was sent to Sitomino village in Surgutsky rayon of Tyumenskaya oblast. In Siberia, her parents worked at a fishery on the river Ob’. In 1948 her family was resettled to the town of Uglegorsk on the Sakhalin Islands. All the Kalmyks who were resettled on these Islands were housed in huts previously occupied by the Japanese. In 1957 Evdokiya’s family returned to Kalmykia. In 1966 she got married and worked as a teacher for 40 years. She has three children and eight grandchildren. Raisa is also a retired woman. She has four children, 13 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. In terms of affiliation, she belongs to the Baga-Chonos clan. Raisa was born in 1942 in Elista. Her elder brother died during the 1943 deportation and her father died a year later in Ukraine while fighting for the Red Army. In 1943 shortly after they arrived in the Sakhalin Islands, Raisa's mother also died. Raisa spent her childhood living with various relatives and later she was resettled along with her uncle's family to Omskaya oblast. In 1956 she returned to Elista, Kalmykia, with her uncle and aunt. After finishing the Pedagogical College in Elista, she worked as a teacher. In 1962 she got married. She talks about her wedding. : Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.