#sybiraks

[mostly-history]

A peasant family going into exile to Khanty-Mansiysk (Siberia, 1929 -1931)

[mostly-history]

Peasant couple in a special settlement in Krasnoyarsk Krai (1929 or 1930s [?]).

[mostly-history]

Letter from Stalin to the Communist Party's First Secretary in Siberia (February 23rd, 1928).  From the letter:

“I do not doubt that in general this campaign [of dekulakization] has already improved and will keep improving the Communist Party's work in the village.  There are the same sort of messages coming from other regions.  We are asking you all to keep the current tempo of the corn storage process in Siberia.  The Northern Caucasus and the Southern Ukraine are already getting out of order because of the muddy season.  The same problem will reach central regions soon.  All our hopes are with you now.”

[mostly-history]

The town of Pelym (Russia, 16th century).

Pelym was founded in 1592 on the bank of the Tavda River, close to where it meets the Pelym River.  Russia used the Cherdyn Route to travel to Siberia at this time, and in an attempt to pacify the route, they attacked and defeated the moving camp of Abdul Kerim, last chieftain of the Mansi peoples.  Abdul Kerim and his family were taken to Moscow as hostages, and the fort of Pelym was built in 1592, to guard the eastern end of the Cherdyn Route.  

This fort was one of the first Russian settlements east of the Ural Mountains.  In 1597, a makeshift wooden fort was brought down the river to Pelym, along with the family of Ignaty Khripunov, the first Russians to be exiled to Siberia.

When the shorter Babinov Road was discovered, Pelym was no longer so important.  It was used as a place of exile, and the modern village (which had a population of 78 in 2010) still has a penal colony.

[mostly-history]

Repressed kulaks working on a special settlement in Narym (Siberia, 1929 or 1930s [?]).

[mostly-history]

A group of forcibly-deported settlers in the Narym region (Siberia, 1930s).