15.sējums - Valsts prezidenta kanceleja

48 Padomju okupācija 1940–1941
The second problem was social and economic adaptation. The local population
perceived deportees as “enemies of people,” i. e. socially dangerous elements.
According to the memoirs of Aldona Kajaka, in the mid-50s the stigma “exiled”
remained in use.
Formally they had the right to get medical and social aid, to get temporary
disability allowance, to get education for their children in local schools and even to
take part in socialist emulation. But only the last took place in reality. There were
no qualified doctors, no medical supplies, no schools in some rural areas of Siberia
where they lived.
The first year of the exile was the most difficult for deported because they did
not have winter clothes so necessary in Siberia where the winter temperature in
some areas drops to –50° C. There was not enough food because according to the
instructions they were allowed to take products for one month only, but even that
was not real under the conditions of deportation.
Right after the deportation documents for “realisation” of private property of deported
people were prepared. Private property was either sold or assigned to the
Soviet institutions, and this made repatriation impossible for many of the exiled even
after they were discharged.
The conditions of their life, and provision of food were abominable. The conditions
of work can be called unbearable. There was lack of food, footwear. Primitive
living conditions, epidemics and diseases constantly haunted the settlers. 1400
people deported from Latvia in June 1941 died in different special settlements of
Siberia.
We can say that deported people were left without any support. On 27 November
1941 the Chief of the Central Administrative Board of Camps (CABC) of the
NKVD of the USSR V. Nasedkin wrote: “None of the departments of the NKVD
was occupied with the deported or bore the responsibility for their situation. The
Department of Labour and Special Settlement in the structure of CABC bore no
relation to this category of settlers although it had taken part in the operation of
their deportation.”
The whole life of deportees proceeded under the control of special commandantures.
Most of the exiled settlers recollected: “We had to register ourselves in order
to show we hadn’t run away. We were presented to the local inhabitants as fascist
spawn and they were strictly prohibited to help us.” For their failure to appear at the
commandanture they were threatened to be punished.
The special settlers and the members of their families had no passports. NKVD
employees took away the passports of those who had had them. Instead of passports
they got special identity cards for this category of settlers. Neither had they the right