Valentina Badma-Ubushaeva, autobiography

Valentina talks about her family, parents and life before and during exile. Before exile life was hard in Kalmykia. Valentina’s parents met each other and got married during the exile years in Siberia. Valentina’s mother was an orphan whereas her father was separated from his parents who had been exiled to Kazakhstan. Valentina herself was born in Siberia. When the ban on movement was lifted, Valentina’s family moved to Kazakhstan to look for their relatives and her father’s parents. In Kazakhstan they went to many villages where people had died of hunger. Finally, they found their parents, who were bed-ridden, malnourished and suffering from lice bites. A 5-year-old Kalmyk girl was looking after them, cooking meals from leftovers that the local Kazakhs brought them. In Kazakhstan, Valentina recalls, they did not have beds and slept on cane mats. Not only did cane have sharp edges but it contained a lot of dust. In the morning the whole family used to wake up with their feet bleeding from cane cuts and their noses blocked. Valentina’s mother collected cane in the collective farm, and used it to stoke the stove at home. She also found a job at a cannery, and to feed her elderly in-laws she stole fish from work. Once she was caught stealing and sent to prison. But because she had a young child, Valentina’s mother was spared and soon released. Valentina’s paternal grandfather died in Aralsk, but her grandmother returned with her to Kalmykia where she lived 102 years. When Kalmyks were allowed to return home, it was not possible for all to go at once, so people travelled in small groups. Valentina returned to Kalmykia with her grandmother. In Kalmykia they also worked together. They harvested cane, grazed sheep and grew watermelon. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi