Bosya Barzueva, about myself

Bosya talks about her childhood, her native village, the neighboring settlements and how her brothers were taken away by the Germans for execution: I was born on the collective farm of Lenin in the village of Iki-Chonos. I do not remember my father because he died when I was young. There were 11 children in our family. Out of them only I am still alive. I am 93 now. After I finished 7 grades, the Germans occupied our land. I left school as I had to look after my family, since our mother was too old to look after all of us. I worked on a farm. I brought grain home to bake bread. The farm was wealthy. It had sheep, cows, horses, camels and even kept bees. During the occupation the Germans forced us to work for them. We collected sunflower seeds and filled their sacks with it. We celebrated Zul and Tsagan Sar as a family. During Zul our mother used to give us apples and roasted nuts. Tsagan Sar was celebrated for a month during which people made biscuits, paid each other a visit, drank tea and ate meat. Our village of Iki-Chonos was very long. Between Yashalta and our village, there was a settlement called Buzavin khoton, which has ceased to exist. The Buzavas lived there. Further away there were settlements called Yapona khoton, Khoyt khoton, Mu khoton and Khookhakhin khoton. During the occupation, one day the policemen came after my brothers and took them away to a place where people were executed on both sides of the road. The Red Army liberated our region on 19 January. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi