During their non-working hours, prisoners typically lived in a camp zone

surrounded by a fence or barbed wire, overlooked by armed guards in watch

towers. The zone contained a number of overcrowded, stinking, poorly-heated
barracks. Life in a camp zone was brutal and violent. Prisoners competed for
access to all of lifes necessities, and violence among the prisoners was
commonplace. If they survived hunger, disease, the harsh elements, heavy labor,
and their fellow prisoners, they might succumb to arbitrary violence at the hands of
camp guards. All the while, prisoners were watched by informersfellow
prisoners always looking for some misstep to report to Gulag authorities.
Jacques Rossi, the artist who made the following drawings in the 1960s based on
his memories, spent 19 years in the Gulag after he was arrested in the Stalin purges
of 1936-37. He later published several writings, including his most important, The
Gulag Handbook, in 1987 (published in English in 1989).
--

The Gulag was conceived in order to transform human matter into a docile,
exhausted, ill-smelling mass of individuals living only for themselves and thinking
of nothing else but how to appease the constant torture of hunger, living in the
instant, concerned with nothing apart from evading kicks, cold and ill treatment.
[in line with perverse understanding and manipulation of the docrine of equality in
communism]J

A lesson to learn: How to distribute your body on the planks trying to avoid
excessive suffering? A position on your back means all your bones are in direct
painful contact with wood... To sleep on your belly is equally uncomfortable. Until
you sleep on your right side with your left knee pushed against your chest, you
counterbalance the weight of your left hip and relieve the right side of your rib
cage. You leave your right arm along the body, and put your right... cheekbone
against the back of your left hand.
There is nothing you can do to protect yourself against cold.=thin sweaters.
Paika. Ration. Prisoners in the Gulag received food according to how much
work they did. A full ration barely provided enough food for survival. If a prisoner
did not fulfill his daily work quota, he received even less food. If a prisoner
consistently failed to fulfill his work quotas, he would slowly starve to death.
Goners were extremely emaciated prisoners on the verge of death from starvation.
Their presence constantly reminded prisoners of their potential fate if they failed to
fulfill work quotas and thus were deprived of their full food rations.
Varlam Shalamov

Russian author who was imprisoned in the Gulag for more than 20 years. He wrote
the celebrated Kolyma Tales, a series of short stories based on his life in the Gulag.

"Each time they brought in the soup... it made us all want to cry. We were
ready to cry for fear that the soup would be thin. And when a miracle
occurred and the soup was thick we couldnt believe it and ate it as slowly as
possible. But even with thick soup in a warm stomach there remained a
sucking pain; wed been hungry for too long. All human emotionslove,
friendship, envy, concern for ones fellow man, compassion, longing for fame,
honestyhad left us with the flesh that had melted from our bodies...
[J:One couldnt write,or think,or create,or be in any way different than the other,or better
of,or any opportunity to rise,they wanted them to be sheeps,they wanted total subjection,to
kill,eliminate any form of individuality,they wanted human beings to be animals,or
machines,and they stalin ,lennin,the so call leaders of totaliarism,wanted to be GOD.]No
one under their rule could afford to contemplate of writin or art,because only if ones basic
needs were assuaged,could one think,or write or create.
Only after time had distanced them from the experience could they look back,and ponder.

Between 1934 and 1941, the number of prisoners with higher education increased
more than eight times, and the number of prisoners with high education increased
five times. It resulted in their increased share in the overall composition of the
camp prisoners. Among the camp prisoners, the number and share of the
intelligentsia was growing at the quickest pace. Distrust, hostility, and even hatred
for the intelligentsia is a common characteristic of the communist leaders. After
having laid hold of unlimited power, they, as practice has shown, were simply
unable to resist the temptation to mock the intelligentsia. The Stalin version of
mocking the intelligentsia was the referral of its part to the Gulag on the basis of
far-fetched or fabricated charges. For unrepressed part of the intelligentsia, the
mockery was prepared in the form of ideological dressing down, leading and
guiding instructions from above on how to think, do, worship the leaders, etc
[Wikipedia].
Siberian Survivor
Jacques Rossi was one of the many communists to find themselves exiled to one of the
infamous Russian Gulags.
He talks to Outlook about his life as a communist and what he witnessed in a Siberian
prison camp.

Born to a wealthy French family in Lyons in 1909, Jacques Rossi joined

the Communist party when he was 16 years old and became an agent for
them when he was 20.
He worked as a courier for the party, carrying small objects and
information for people throughout Europe. He would know where he was
going but he would never know what he was carrying.
To be working for the Communist party as an agent was extremely
dangerous at this time, particularly as in many countries such as Italy and
Spain, communism was forbidden.

He risked his life and his freedom; prepared to do anything for the party
because it was a cause he believed in. He comments:
'I was sure the only way to make social justice in the world was the
Marxist/ Leninist idea and that is why I was a very strong communist. I
was deeply convinced communism was not an aim. It was just a means to
achieve this.'
Shattered ideals
The turning point for Rossi came in 1937. He was working in Spain during
the time of the civil war when he got a message from Moscow asking him
to go back. His wife, another agent he had met just a few days before,
warned him against returning as they knew that many communists were
being arrested in there. However, as they were orders he felt duty bound
to obey. He believed that if his leaders required him to go to Moscow
there must be a reason and that it would be for the good of the cause.
On his arrival in Moscow he was arrested, tortured and condemned as a
Fascist.
'They punched me with their fists and
kicked at me with their boots. Before I
fainted again, I had a quick glimpse of
the badge of Communist Youth League
in one of the mens coat. The badge
shows Lenins face on a red flag. But I
fought in Spain and risked my life for
the same Lenin.'

Siberian snapshots
Rossi was sentenced to a Gulag prison camp in Siberia, where he was to
spend the next 19 years. Life in the prison camps was tough. Day after
day, prisoners received inadequate food rations, they were often abused
by camp guards. Disease was rife and many people died from
exhaustion.
In the camp he met many people and has since tried hard to capture the
memories of some of them his writing. One man he met was close to
Lenin in the early days. The man described how, whilst working as an
executioner he would escort the condemned man and tie his hands behind
his back with wire. Then he would order the man to walk a few paces
ahead, down the stairs, he would bring the revolver up to the back of the
mans neck without touching him and just as the trigger is pulled give him
a kick up the backside. Rossi explains:
'"Why the kick? I asked, surprised, so the blood doesnt splash on your
tunic. Can you imagine the amount of work your wife would have to clean
your uniform everyday"'

Men became animals

Rossi recalls one of the most horrifying images of his time in the Gulags in
great detail. The story begins with the discovery, by his work group, of a
man sitting in the snow. One of the soldiers frustrated at his lack of
movement shoved the man with the butt of his rifle. The man toppled
over, he had been dead a while. The soldier bent over the corpse and
pulled away his scarf. On each side of his neck was an incision at the main
artery. Opening the mans jacket revealed two huge wounds where the
mans kidneys had been. He was a "cow", a disturbing term given to the
human "provisions" taken by convicts when they tried to escape the
camps.
Rossi explains how seasoned underworld criminals would select a young
nave man who would be brought in on their escape plans. However when
the criminals ran out of food they would kill their charge consuming the
mans kidneys and blood. Fires would have given their location away so
they made use of the two parts of the mans body that could be eaten
without cooking.
How did he survive the Gulag?
Rossi believes two things got him through his years in the Gulag. The first
was luck. He was tortured many times as they tried to persuade him to
implicate friends of his. He recalls how the torture always seemed to stop
just at the point when his resistance was beginning to break down.
Secondly, he believes that his physical resistance was good. The discipline
that was instilled in him as a child by an English governess served him
well when he was pushed to his physical limits.
Today
Rossi is back in France, living rather ironically in a communist run suburb
of Paris. He has devoted his life to writing about the memories of those
Gulag camps. He now feels that the communist way to achieve things was
the wrong way.
-------------------------------------

Spring 2006 (14.1)

Pages 58-71

Kolyma
Off to the Unknown
Stalin's Notorious Prison Camps in Siberia
by Ayyub Baghirov (1906-1973)
Arrested in 1937, sentenced under false charges in 1939 to eight years of corrective labor in
Kolyma. In reality, he was in exile for 18 years as he was not released until 1955, two years
after Stalin's death.
Author of "Bitter Days in Kolyma" (Gorkiye Dni Na Kolime) in Russian, which was published
in 1999. A shorter version came out in Azeri in 2001.
Ayyub Baghirov's book, "Bitter Days of Kolyma", was first published in 1999 in Russian as
"Gorkiye Dni Na Kolime". To our knowledge, it was the first personal narrative by an
Azerbaijani author about his years spent in exile in the notorious prison system of Kolyma
located in Siberia's unbearably cold landscape.
The author Ayyub Baghirov (1906-1973) had been the Chief Financial Officer for the
BakSovet (Mayor's office). In 1937, he was arrested on false charges of anti-revolutionary
activities as an "Enemy of the People". Kept in Baku's notorious NKVD prison, he was
interrogated and tortured for nearly a year and a half before being sentenced to eight years in
a hard labor camp. Unfortunately, the eight years stretched into 18 years, as was true for
many prisoners. He was not released until 1955, two years after Stalin's death. He returned
to Baku.
Sadly, Ayyub did not live to fruits of his careful analysis of those difficult years published. His
book came out almost 25 years after his death. We have his son Mirza to thank for the
enormous job of editing and publishing this personal glimpse into the Kolyma camps and for
providing us with his father's insights about life under such unbearable situations.
We publish the first chapter here. Chapter I: Arrest. Journey To the Far North: Butigichag
Camp (pages 5-50). Translation from Russian by Aysel Mustafayeva, editing by Betty Blair.
The thought - provoking sculpture shown here was created by Azerbaijani artist Fazil Najafov
(1935- ). Though Fazil was not repressed himself, he was born during the years when the
purges were so prevalent. To read more about his works in Azerbaijan International, see
"Frozen Images of Transition," (AI 3.1 (Spring 1995). Also "The Expressive Magnificence of
Stone," AI 7.2 (Summer 1999). Search for both articles at AZER.com. For more samples of
Fazil's works and 170 other Azerbaijani artists, visit AZgallery.org. Contact Fazil Najafov:
Studio: (994-12) 466 -7109, Mobile: (994-50) 342-8999.

Nagaev Bay
One dark cloudy day in late autumn 1939, a steamboat named Dalstroi [One of many ships
that were used especially in the 1930s-40s to transport tens of thousands of slave laborers to
Magadan and on to the Kolyma camps in the Far North East of Russia] entered the Nagaev
Bay [In Magadan in the Sea of Okhotsk is where the ships docked so prisoners to disembark
on their journey to Kolyma. The bay and Nagaev Port are named after Russian hydrographer
and cartographer Admiral Aleksei Ivanovich Nagaev (1704-1781)].

A cold wind was blowing. The large boulders along the coast appeared as dark foreboding
shadows. The nearby hills were already covered with the first snow. The place had an eerie
silence about it. Where were the usual sounds characteristic of port life and a residential bay
town?
Left: In memory of the victims of World War II, 25 years later, by Azerbaijani sculptor
Fazil Najafov, 1965. Contact Fazil at his studio: (994-12) 466-7109, Mobile: (994-50) 3428999.
Many passengers were on board - people of various fates, professions and ages from all
corners of our vast country. And then, there were us southerners [Here it means anyone who
came from any of the republics in South Caucasus as well as other republics in the southern
part of the USSR-Turkmen, Kazakhs, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Kirghiz] as well.
The majority of passengers were political prisoners - those who had been arrested for
"counter-revolutionary activities" and charged with Article No. 58 of the Penal Code [Article
58 of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR) Penal Code was put into force
on February 25, 1927, to arrest anyone suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. In
reality, it was a "catch-all phrase" that enabled authorities to arrest anyone and bring criminal
charges against them].
Finally after that difficult trip, we arrived at our destination-Kolyma [Kolyma is a region in far
northeastern Russia. It is bounded by the Arctic Ocean on the north and the Okhotsk Sea on
the south. Other than Antarctica, its climate is believed to be the most severe in the world.
Under Joseph Stalin's rule, Kolyma became the most notorious region of the GULAG
[Wikipedia].
Millions of prisoners are believed to have passed through Kolyma working as slave labor].
Upon arrival, many prisoners breathed more easily, despite the fact that the name "Kolyma"
frightened them. Those who had never been to the North [Siberia] were troubled the most.We
young people didn't have a clue as to what to expect. We tried to hang close together as
much as possible, and to help those who were exhausted from the long trip - the elderly and
our friends. Our generation had grown up during the struggle for Socialist reforms in the
Soviet Union. We had been involved in major projects and had coped with the difficulties of
forced collectivism in the villages.
Whenever the Party had beckoned, we had struggled to help in these situations, sometimes
even risking our lives. And now, after "Ten Victorious Years of Stalin", we ourselves had been
arrested and exiled along with other prisoners to develop the Far North regions of Eastern
Siberia - Kolyma and Chukotka [The farthest northeast region of Russia, on the shores of the
Bering Sea. The region was subject to collectivization and forced settlement during the Soviet
Era. It has large reserves of oil, natural gas, coal, gold, and tungsten [Wikipedia. Wikipedia
entries were quoted from April 15, 2006].
We political prisoners knew that we really were not "Enemies of the People", nor enemies of
the Soviet government. Even in the white wilderness of the Kolyma camps - dying from
hunger, cold, slave labor, tortures and illness - most of us still didn't have any idea why we
had been brought out here to die.

Youth
Actually, our situation was quite ironic. After the continuous years of brainwashing that had
influenced us as children and citizens of Soviet republics, we had tried to forget the bad
things that were happening to us personally and devote our energy to the common interests
of our Homeland. Most of us had been educated in the spirit of true Stalinism: first came the
Party, then Homeland, and only after that came family - mother, father and children.
We had been fed the official line and indoctrination of the Party about Komsomols and the
Soviet Union being "the most just community in the world". We had been educated in this
way from childhood as Pioneers [A mass youth organization for children ages 10-15 that
existed in the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1990 [Wikipedia]. I also considered myself

innocent. All my life I had lived under Soviet authority and served this power and authority
with all my strength and belief.
I was born in the city of Lankaran [A city located near Azerbaijan's southern border with Iran]
in Azerbaijan [around 1906]. I wasn't even a year old when I lost my father Hazrat Gulu. He
had been a rather wealthy merchant. After the Revolution [Refers to April 1920 when the
Bolsheviks took control of the power in Azerbaijan] - from early childhood onward - I grew up
in poverty and deprivation. My mother didn't know how to manage her husband's property.
Being rather trustful and nave by nature, she soon was hounded by enterprising relatives
and soon ended up on the brink of poverty. She never did figure out how her material wealth
had slipped through her fingers.
As a child during the years that followed the Revolution, I used to peddle Ritsa cigarettes on
a little tray that hung from around my neck. I would wander through the narrow lanes of
Lankaran.

Career in Finances
My first real job was that of an accountant in the Lankaran Regional Finance Department. At
the beginning of 1930, I came to Baku and soon was promoted to the position of Manager of
the Baku Finance Department. Later on, I was appointed as a member of Presidium of
BakSovet [BakSovet (via Russian-Bakinskiy Sovet) meaning the Council of Baku, the
Mayor's office], and confirmed as a member of People's Commissariat of Finance USSR on
December 31, 1936, by the decision of SovNarKom [SovNarKom (via Russian-Sovet
Narodnikh Commissar) meaning Council of People's Commissars. After 1946 the title was
changed to Council of Ministers] which bore the signature of V. M. Molotov Vyacheslav
Mikhailovich Molotov (1890-1986). Soviet politician and diplomat, was a leading figure in the
Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protg of Joseph Stalin, to
the 1950s, when he was dismissed from office by Nikita Khrushchev [Wikipedia]. Whatever
assignment I was ever given, I was very conscientious to fulfill my responsibilities.

Above: Shipping routes in the Arctic used to bring prisoners to the Kolyma forced
labor prison camps.
It was especially difficult for anyone working in the field of finances during the period of
collectivization when the villagers had to give up their land, their animals and property. In
addition to such demands, the government imposed artificial loans that totally bankrupted the
peasant economy. The government applied every known method to squeeze and suppress
farmers.

Baku's German Church

I'll never forget an ordinance related to the closure of the German Protestant Church
[German Protestant Church. This church still stands today and is familiarly known as "kirka",
the German word for church. The Nobel Brothers in Baku donated some of the funds to
construct this chapel. Fortunately, during the Soviet period, this church was not destroyed
although many others were. Instead, the building, which houses a pipe organ and has
outstanding acoustics, was converted into a music concert hall] in Baku. It was quite a
remarkable building in the center of town located on Telephone Street [now 28th of May
Street]The 28th of May Street is named to commemorate the date of Independence of
Azerbaijan, when it won its independence over the Russian Czar in 1918. This day is still
commemorated today after Azerbaijan regained its independence from the Soviet Union,
though the declaration of independence from the Soviet Union is officially August 30, 1991]
Both the government and the NKVD [NKVD: Russian for Narodniy Komissariat Vnutrennikh
Del (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) was a government department which handled
a number of the Soviet Union's affairs of state. It is best known for the Main Directorate for
State Security (GUGB), which succeeded the OGPU and the Cheka as the secret police
agency of the Soviet Union and was followed by the KGB. The GUGB was instrumental in
Stalin's ethnic cleansing and genocides, and was responsible for massacres of civilians and
other war crimes. Many consider the NKVD to be a criminal organization, mostly for the
activities of GUGB officers and investigators, as well as supporting NKVD troops and GULAG
guards] tried various tactics to close down the church. At first, they claimed that the churches
were hotbeds of anti-Soviet thought. Then they spread rumors that the priests and some of
the parishioners were German agents.
Finally, early in 1937, the All-Union Prosecutor A. Y Vishinskiy got involved and solved the
problem once and for all by obliging the financial organs to assess the German church with
such a huge tax bill that they were not be able to pay. The church soon had no choice but to
close its doors.

Encounter with Mir Jafar

In regard to my own arrest, I always suspected that there had been a link between my
responsibilities related to financial affairs that caused Mir Jafar Baghirov [Mir Jafar Baghirov:
Secretary of the Communist Party for Azerbaijan, who served as Stalin's "right hand man" in
Baku] - the tyrant of the republic - to order my arrest.
However, the NKVD arrested me and officially accused me of "participating in an anti-Soviet
organization". One day in autumn 1937, Mir Jafar Baghirov called me to his office and asked
me to check into the financial affairs of the former representative of the BakSovet - Arnold
Petrovich Olin. You see, even the city officials were not spared from Stalin's Purges [Stalin's
Purges: Term used for the waves of repressive measures carried out by Stalin, especially in
the 1930s and 1940s. One of the main dates associated with Stalin's Repressions is 1937;
however, there were other dates, both before and after, which probably resulted in even more
deaths. Millions of people died in Stalin's purges. Many people were executed by firing squad
[actual statistics are unknown but are estimated to be in the millions], and millions were
forcibly resettled]. Of the 11 members of the Presidium of the Baksovet, only two of us had
not yet been arrested. I was one of them.
Others had already been repressed [Many were imprisoned and tortured or sent to labor
camps, both functioning as part of the GULAG system. Many died in the labor camps due to
starvation, disease, exposure and overwork. The Great Purge was started under the NKVD
chief Henrikh Yagoda, but another major campaign was carried out by Nikolai Yezhov, from
September 1936 to August 1938, and others followed. However the campaigns were carried
out according to the general line, and often by direct orders, of the Party politburo headed by
Stalin [Wikipedia].
Left: Pedestal of Kirov's statue on the highest hill in Baku overlooking the Caspian.
Note that the bas-relief relates to oil drilling. Kirov's statue was dismantled in 1992.
18 Repressed: Term used to describe the people who were arrested by government organs,

imprisoned, shot or sent into exile. This term is especially to describe the abuse of power
against ordinary citizens during Stalin's purges. The term "repression" was officially used to
denote the prosecution of people recognized as counter-revolutionaries and "Enemies of the
People".
Purges were motivated by the desire on the part of the leadership to remove dissident
elements from the Party and what is often considered to have been a desire to consolidate
the authority of Joseph Stalin. Additional campaigns of repression were carried out against
social groups, which were believed or were accused of to have opposed the Soviet state and
the politics of the Communist Party [Wikipedia].
Olin was also arrested and accused of being an "Enemy of the People".
Mir Jafar Baghirov gave me one month to check his financial records and ordered me to
provide this summary to him personally. During our conversation, he mentioned that Olin was
a morally depraved person and that not only had he carried out activities which were hostile
to the government, but that he had accessed the city's finances for personal use.
After checking the Baksovet financial records, I told Mir Jafar that I had not discovered any
financial violations in that regard. Mir Jafar interrupted our telephone conversation and
started swearing at me. When there was a pause, I clearly heard him on another phone
addressing the People's Commissar Sumbatov Topuridze: "Eyyub Baghirov from the
Baksovet should be investigated himself."
I understood only too well what that meant. It was then that I understood that I was to share
the same fate as my colleagues from the Presidium of Baksovet, along with thousands of
other people who were struggling behind the prison walls of the NKVD.
Mir Jafar Baghirov was a loyal follower of Stalin. In meetings and gatherings, he used to refer
to Stalin as the embodiment of Lenin. I remember one such meeting that took place in the
Baku Opera Theater. The style and methods of Stalin's administration were widely introduced
in Azerbaijan by Baghirov.
Opposition to any of his plans was severely punished. I remember the outrageous and
sacrilegious decision that Baghirov made to demolish Baku's oldest cemetery, which is
located on the hill above the bay[Cemetery: After Black January 1990 when Soviet troops
attacked civilians in Baku in an effort to squelch the independence movement in Azerbaijan,
the area that once had been set aside for Kirov Park was used to bury Black January victims.
Today the cemetery is known as "Shahidlar Khiyabani" (Martyrs' Cemetery). Also some
victims of the Karabakh war are buried there. Foreign dignitaries are usually taken to
Shahidlar Khiyabani as part of their official tour in Baku].
In its place, Baghirov proposed that a cultural and leisure park be constructed and named
after Kirov Sergey M. Kirov (1886-1934) was instrumental in bringing Bolshevik troops to
Baku, which took control of Azerbaijan in 1920. Kirov became the head of the Azerbaijan
Bolshevik Party in 1921. He was a loyal supporter of Stalin. His rise in popularity aroused
Stalin's jealousy. On December 1, 1934, Kirov was murdered, and it is widely believed that
Stalin ordered his death, although this has never been proven [Wikipedia]. And that's exactly
what they did. They even made us - the workers of BakSovet - work as subbotniks [Russian
for unpaid voluntary work done on Saturdays] to construct the park.

Above: The Kirov Amusement park which Eyyub Baghirov complained about as it was
originally a cemetery. Only after Black January 1990 was it converted back to a
cemetery, today known as Cemetery of the Martyrs (Shahidlar Khiyabani). Mir Jafar
Baghirov, Stalin's right hand man in Azerbaijan had created the park in the 1930s.
Once I expressed some doubts about the feasibility of the construction of the park from a
financial point of view. Immediately after that, I was kicked out of the Communist Party of
Azerbaijan.

Arrest
And then the inevitable happened. I didn't have to wait long. In the early morning hours of
December 22 ["Black Ravens": The government's notorious black cars, which were used to
arrest suspects, often on false charges of being "Enemies of the People". These "political
criminals" were usually imprisoned, sent into exile or executed. Surprise arrests were often
made in the wee hours of the morning. See the painting by Boris Vladimirsky (1878-1950) on
the front cover of Azerbaijan International magazine, AI 13.4 (Winter 2005). Also read the
short story, "Morning of that Night", by Anar in Azerbaijan International AI 7.1 (Spring 1999).
Search for both articles at AZER.com.], 1937, three NKVD agents came knocking on my
door. The fourth agent was waiting in the street beside one of those cars - a "Black
Raven".22 I understood that my turn had come. I had just returned from an official trip to
Moscow where I had participated in the Annual People's Commissariat of Finances.
Two NKVD agents went looking through all my stuff in the apartment, while the third one was
writing a protocol about the search. The guard from the courtyard was called as a witness. He
sat in a chair in the hall entrance. The search was just a formality for the agents knew in
advance that they would find nothing of interest.
During the search, I naively asked why I was being arrested. One of the agents answered
that I could speak with the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and maybe I would be sent
back home. I was told to take some warm clothes with me - woolen socks and sweaters.To
me, this was a sign that I would be taken away for a long period of time. Then I remembered
the telephone conversation that I had had with Mir Jafar Baghirov. Such an encounter could
not be easily dismissed.
Although it was winter, the sun was already up. As I was led out the door, I told my family:
"Always remember that I'm not guilty of anything." At that moment, my niece Bilgeyis, who
was living with us at the time, started crying. Deep within me, I genuinely believed that
everything that was happening was some kind of misunderstanding and that I would be
released immediately. Obviously, thousands of innocent people had thought the same thing.

Baku's NKVD Prison

The streets were still empty as we drove through the city. Slowly, our Black Raven passed
through massive steel gates of the NKVD Building down near the seafront[NKVD building in
Baku, located on the corner of Rashid Behbudov Street and Azerbaijan Avenue, was
originally a building constructed during the Oil Baron period and today in use as State

Frontier Services (Dovlat Sharhad Khidmati)].

Above: Sculpture: Blind Men by Fazil Najafov, bronze.

Most Baku residents knew the administrative building of the NKVD Azerbaijan as a
building of three stories.
But the exterior of the building hid the existence of another building inside the
courtyard - which was the actual prison itself and consisted of four floors with quite
thick walls and barred windows. In the courtyard, there was a steam plant, which
provided the building with its own source of electricity.
There was also a garage. On the first floor of the prison there were adjunct buildings,
such as toilets, showers and a guards' room. The rooms in the basement had originally
been used as wine cellars before the Revolution [Pre-revolutionary times: This refers
to the Oil Baron days in Baku prior to the Bolshevik takeover in April 1920] and
stretched far out beneath the sea.
Now those cells were used as torture chambers. On both sides of the long prison
corridors were rows of cells that held 10, 20 or more prisoners.
Because there were many arrests in 1937-1938 in Azerbaijan, the prisons were full...
The cells were typical. They had concrete floors. There was a little window in the
door through which food could be passed. A dim light bulb hung from the ceiling. A
small hole on the door was covered with a leather cloth so that the prisoners could be
watched. The cell windows - approximately 30 x 40 cm - usually opened to the
courtyard.
On the second floor, the barred windows were completely covered with metallic
louvers so that sun could not shine in; it was impossible to see even a small patch of
sky. The rooms, which had windows overlooking the courtyard, were used as offices
for the investigators.
"Always remember that I'm not guilty of anything,' I told my family as I was led out the
door. Deep within me, I genuinely believed that everything that was happening was
some kind of misunderstanding, and that I would be released immediately. Obviously,
thousands of innocent people had thought the same thing."
-Ayyub Baghirov
"Bitter Days of Kolyma"

During those years of mass arrests, armed

soldiers were posted along the streets near
NKVD building. The government did
everything possible to prevent prisoners from escaping from this the cruelest of buildings. There was no possibility to escape. They
were determined to prove your guilt by any means possible. Later I
learned from my cellmates that executions took place in the
basement of the NKVD building, as well as on Nargin Island in the
Caspian not far from Baku. No one lived on that island; therefore,
there were never any witnesses to these crimes. No one but the
executioners ever heard those shots.

Artificial Charges Against Me

As for me, I was accused of participating in an anti-Soviet organization, which was headed by
A. P. Olin, representative of the Baku Council. Latvian by nationality, he had been member of
the Party since 1918. He had worked as a Latvian Arrow guarding the Kremlin. He had also
worked in the political departments of Central Asian and Transcaucasian regions. From 1931
to 1934, he had worked as Secretary of the Transcaucasian region on the Committee VKP,
which was responsible for transportation and supplies.
From 1934 to 1936 he had been the representative of Transcaucasia near SovNarKom
USSR, and lived and worked in Moscow. In 1936 he had been transferred to Baku, and from
July served as Representative of the BakSovet [City Hall]. In the autumn of 1937, he was
arrested and sent back to Moscow. They executed him in Tbilisi.
I had known Olin as a co - worker at BakSovet for only a few months. He was not a very
social person. I found him to be serious and conscientious about his work.
Left: Family by Fazil Najafov, bronze

Later on, after sitting behind the walls of NKVD Azerbaijan, I understood that Mir
Jafar Baghirov and Sumbatov - Topuridze had wanted to get additional damning
material against Olin. So I had been arrested as a member of an imaginary counter revolutionary, anti - Soviet organization of which Olin was
supposedly leading. I had been implicated simply because
I was his co-worker.
Interrogations began three or four days after my arrest. They
were carried out by Kh. Khaldibanov. The first question during
each interrogation was an attempt to reveal how Olin had
involved me in his anti - Soviet organization - the main goal of
which was to destroy the Soviet power, restore capitalism, and
even revive various activities of market economy. The
accusations against me were absurd. A wide range of people
had accused me - some of whom I didn't even know.
In the non-existent, counter-revolutionist organization of which I,
supposedly, was a member, there were 20 other members.
There were people of different ages and professions, working at different institutions and
enterprises, many of whom were employed in the BakSovet, or regional committees of the
party, executive committees, oil sectors, construction and supply organizations.
I felt like a small pawn in a political game being played out by Mir Jafar Baghirov and
Sumbatov - Topuridze, in which they tried to gather the most vicious evidence about
administrative workers of republic and BakSovet. Based on the deposition that they extracted
by torturing Olin and his deputy Kudryavtsev who had been arrested prior to me, the
interrogator threatened me with torture if I would not reveal the specific date (supposedly the
end of March 1937) when I had joined this fictional anti-Soviet organization.
I remember once being brought to meet with Sumbatov - Topuridze, who demanded:
"Confirm that you were a member of the Olin's organization and we will release you". When
he didn't get the answer that he wanted, he punched me in the face. That day I was made to
stand in my cell for more than 24 hours. When I collapsed, they beat me unconscious. Many
times, they took me down to that dark, humid basement, and threatened to shoot me. Then
they would bring me back upstairs to the main cell.
Sitting there in the underground cells of the NKVD, eventually we learned how to tap out on
the thick stone walls what came to be known as the "alphabet of prisoners" [The "alphabet of
prisoners" refers to a system of tapping out code on the prison cell walls, enabling the
isolated prisoners to communicate between each other] to get the latest news and discover
who were the latest victims that had been arrested.

Interrogations

The interrogations took place day after day. To make the accusations seem to be as true as
possible, the interrogator would introduce new "facts" from those who were arrested
regarding my case. So many times I requested to meet those people, but the interrogator
refused, and no witness was ever called who could confirm my involvement in any counterrevolutionary activity. Later on, to make the "case" appear more serious, they accused me of
harboring political motives, "proving" that I had abused and violated the financial and
economic activities of BakSovet.
They even accused me of artificially reducing and illegally eliminating debts incurred by the
"kulaks" [Kulaks, here, refers to the relatively wealthy peasants of the Russian Empire who
owned large farms and hired farmhands. They were the class among the countryside, which
were targeted first when the Bolsheviks took power to be collectivization of the farms] in
Lankaran and the prosperous peasants in Absheron. They said I had covered up financial
crimes of "Enemies of the People" who had been arrested and prevented new pawnshops
from being opened in Baku in order to infuriate the people against the Soviet power.
"Some of our family and friends gathered at the pier when they learned that we would
soon be shipped out. Our eyes sought out each other in the crowd. From afar I saw my
mother Sughra and daughter Latifa. With tears in our eyes, we waved goodbye to each
other. The guards would not allow us to go closer."
-Ayyub Baghirov in "Bitter Days of Kolyma"

In reality, during those years of deprivation, people had no choice but to pawn off their
personal belongings in order to have enough money for basic essentials. Long queues would
form in front of the pawnshops. People would line up the night before in order to leave some
item the next day.
They made such ridiculous claims against me, saying, for example, that people who were
applying for government loans had angrily complained about some of their problems, and
that I, as the financial officer, had sympathized with them. Moreover, they insisted that I had
expressed my indignation and anger about such issues to the workers of the Baku City
Financial Department.
During the interrogations, I began to realize that quite some time prior to my arrest, the NKVD
had pressured individuals working in various Soviet organs in Lankaran to denounce me in
relationship to my past, especially since my father had been a wealthy landowner and owned
considerable property. Again, ordered by the NKVD, BakSovet had written up an accusation
against me, claiming that I had close relationships with individuals who had been identified as
"Enemies of the People".

Appeal to Moscow
Later on, when I arrived at the Kolyma camps and finally got the chance, I wrote many letters
to the head of the country and to the NKVD about the absurdity of the accusations that had
been brought against me. In one of those letters I even stated that on the specific date of
March 25, 1937, when I had supposedly been engaged in counter-revolutionary activities
organized by the administrators of BakSovet, Olin as the BakSovet representative had been
in Moscow. His deputy Kudryavtsev had been in Ukraine. So they had not even been
physically present in Baku on that date.
At times when they threatened me and I would not yield, they would torture me, beating me
with rubber truncheons, and kicking me with the spurs on their boots, which made wounds
that bled. I still have a scar on my left leg from being kicked by one of the sergeants.
Watching this sadist show while I was being tortured, the interrogator dared to tell me: "The
People's Commissar ordered us to make 'scrambled eggs' of you." Then there was the NKVD
technique called the "Conveyor Belt" which was in widespread use. I was brought into a room
that was brightly lit and made to stand although there was a chair available nearby. They
would not permit me to sit.