Gulags, vodka and wet roads

After the wonderful reception given by my great aunts in Grodno, I wanted to meet my great uncle. I knew that he wrote poems and built artistic bird-houses. Pretty cool for an 87 year old. In the end, I also had to find out why he ended up in a Siberian gulag, as my great aunts wouldn't tell me. My uncle took half the day off and we drove to the township of Mrągowo. It was the first time my uncle saw the great-uncle sober. This was soon to change, as we went through a bottle of vodka.

Here are some classic quotes:

"Nawet przy Murmańsku, dawali spirytus żeby nos się wytarło w razie mrozu. No... język się nacierało."
"Even near Murmansk, they gave us spirits to rub our noses if they became frozen. Well, we sure rubbed... our tongues."

"Jak w każdym małżeństwie, pobili się na wzajem."
"As in every marriage, they beat each other up."

"Ruscy (żołnierze) udawali ludzi, ale czy to bydło, czy diabeł to nie wiadomo było."
"The Russian soldiers pretended to be human. Whether they were cattle or demons nobody knew."

Oh, and I found out about Siberia...

During the war, my great-uncle made his living by trading horses. He'd go to Lithuania, buy a few, then sell them at 3 times the original price. Problem was that some of these were stolen. Also, under Soviet rule, all speculative activity was banned... with a penaty of 5 years hard labour. Around the time that my grand-uncle was getting was getting married, my great-grandmother quarrelled with the next door neighbour and didn't invite her to the wedding. The neighbour dobbed my great uncle in to the police.

On the way back, we stopped by Biskupiec, to visit my third great aunt - a lovely lady like all of her sisters. She looked younger and more lively than when I'd last seen her. Hope some of these genes rub off...