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In the fall of 1951, a group of American - POWs (?) from Korea (7) arrived at the
Kirovskij mining camp, Uderejskij administrative district, Krasnoyarsk region
However, in the beginning of 1952, they disappeared without trace In any case, during
the liquidation of the prison camp during the winter of 1951 and into 1952, none of them
were among the frost bitten prisoners, who were marched in column to Motygmo (in the
south part of the region) and offered medical assistance

A worker from Kirovskij, a deportee, witnessed how "late at night, on Russian
Christmas, a group of approximately 20 persons, maybe slightly more, were led from
the camp along the Venisminovkij road [note the road connecting the town of Kirovsk and
Venisminevskij] "

The deportee's daughter and her friend, a Cossack, witnessed that during the last
days of December 1951 "more than 20 prisoners, wearing bare threads and half frozen,
were moved along the road to Veniaminovkij "

The daughter of the manager of Veniaminovkij, stated that "on Christmas we
were given a present; frost bitten prisoners being led and driven like cattle by the NKVD
They did not speak Russian They only said "American, American" and "eat, eat" They
wanted food Then, in the morning, around 6o'clock, they were marched away to
somewhere further However, further lies only a wasteland, mountainous, desolate and
uninhabited, the taiga a dead-end

A driver and hunter from village of Chinuel, observed from his car, prisoners of
some sort that were speaking, but not in Russian, coming at him and being marched
passed his car along the road The guards were trying to prevent the prisoners from
talking This was early in the morning, on Christmas He could not understand why
prisoners were being marched on a holiday(?) Why to the north? There is nothing
there, there is no work for them to do

That evening, when he returned to his home in Chinuel, the column was passing
the mouth of the Ishimbi River it seemed, towards him, to Chinuel itself
The next day, around 7am he was going back to Kirovsk when he again encountered the
same column of prisoners, having t h i n n e d o u t It was approaching the
town of Kameaka, nearing the river.

Yet another witness He worked as a dredge operator at the Kirovskij mine
In February 1952, while hunting in the lower reaches of the Parenda, where it empties into
the Kwnenka river, he happened upon small clearing already slightly covered with snow
For some reason it had been covered over with beams of logs The dogs immediately
were aroused. They dragged out some type of boot - worn out at the heel , slippers and
even a shoe, resembling American shoes by the - copper nails Forcing him to put on his
glasses, in disbelief as to what they had in their teeth

He had heard rumors and became quite nervous. Especially disturbing to him was
the behavior of his dogs They were nervous, whimpering, scratching at the snow and
barking in a manner unlike any that they had before on the hunt. He tried to dig up the
ground - covered in a half meter of snow Suddenly, the snow was up to his waist But
beneath, the ground was already frozen although, clearly the ground had been turned-up
and filled back in It was obvious that someone had been buried here and the dogs began
to back up and howl like near a corpse...
He stopped tempting fate, - left The hunt was over

A week later, he met with his friend, who worked for the militia. His friend
recommended he keep quiet for God's sake...

In July 1952, my friend and I, based on this information, tried to locate that
clearing However, the swamp had flooded over.

In the fall, we again began to search But, we had been "sold-out" We were
questioned by the police and held for ten days in detention

In the 1960s, I again tried to locate this burial site However, the taiga had
completely grown over it I was assisted by very kind people. Again, someone did not
like my search Just like the incident of the shooting of the Americans in Bodajbo, in
Moscow, again to the, prosecutor's office, USSR (local Government District Attorney's
office) the official car arrived . .

Then, in August 1964, I officially requested from Krasnoyarsk . . "as to the fate of
American prisoners of war at the Krovskij mining camp " But of course I did not receive
a reply So, I then submitted a letter to the USSR prosecutor's office itself However, the
reply was not from Pushkinskij, but from Kuovskij - from the military prosecutor's
office In the reply, on a carbon copy, it stated "...regarding the fates of citizens of the
USA, held at the Kirovskij Springtime camp, the Prosecutor of the Krasnoyarsk region
has no information "

The Prosecutor, USSR, through the military forced the regional Krasnoyarsk, to
reply That reply stated there were such persons, however, we do not know where they
were taken.

A list was compiled by a woman containing 22 names of citizens of the USA
imprisoned in the Kirovskij camp during the winter of 1951 to 1952. When this person
arrived at Kirovskij, she worked as a sanitation worker Part of her duties included
cleaning toilets at the camp She put the list together over a months time It is not
complete, since she was not able to ask anyone for help

During ten years of repression even she herself had forgotten about this Because
she is alone, in an exile brought about from working in the zone of the camp

By 1951, this once slim figured, fan-haired, gray-eyed beauty had turned into an
old woman But, to this "old woman" I devoted to my investigative work She was able
to recall and "Shed light on everything" She was able to record only 22 names
of Americans, as she was being carefully watched She was not even able to get their first
names One day, she managed to sneak a pencil in, broke it into pieces and handed them
out to the Americans so they could record their names and addresses on pieces of
newspaper Several days later, she smuggled them out, covered in filth, in a canvas bag
She cleaned them, dried them, placed them in a empty fruit jar, and buried them

During Christmas of that year, when the Americans were being marched to north
toward Veniaminovkij, she disappeared without a trace, just like the Americans And I
remain, still hopeful of finding this glass jar

[script]
2 Sep 1979
Moscow