Arrests of parents, hunger, and working on a collective farm. A 92-year-old resident of a Ryazan village went to court to receive the title of home front worker.
Evdokia Protasova with daughter Elena in the village of Dubrovichi For a long time, they wrote to all the authorities, trying to prove that Evdokia Pavlovna had worked as a child to support the front and the victory. The authorities didn't support her, and the pensioner went to court—this is what she's about. рассказал village council deputy from Yabloko Konstantin Smirnov.
Evdokia Pavlovna was born in the Irkutsk region, there were five children in the family. In 1938, her father was arrested and exiled to the gold mines. He died a few months later. Later, she will notice, that the healthiest, strongest men were exiled. They were tried as "enemies of the people" and sent to settle Siberia and the Kolyma region. "Drunkards and lazybones weren't arrested," she recalls. Her father was exonerated due to lack of evidence of a crime.
In 1943, my mother was arrested for taking a bucket of frozen potatoes from a collective farm field; neighbors reported her. My mother was never rehabilitated because the prison colony where she was held had closed, and no documents remained. For a long time, her children were considered "children of enemies of the people."
They remained under the care of their 17-year-old sister. Evdokia worked on the collective farm as a laborer, a janitor, and planting, weeding, harvesting, and tending to the livestock. The produce was sent to the front. No work records were issued.
To obtain home front worker status, the Pension Fund advised the woman to find two witnesses and prove that 12-year-old Evdokia had worked on a collective farm during the war. The Protasovs managed to locate childhood friends who lived thousands of kilometers away from Dubrovichi. However, they were unable to provide any evidence—they could barely remember their names.
Protasova's home front worker status is necessary to qualify for discounted rail travel. She still dreams of visiting her native places in the Irkutsk region and Magadan Oblast, the site of her father's death.
The court hearing will take place 5 DecemberBy that time Evdokia Pavlovna will be 93 years.
Photo: Novaya Gazeta, Ryazan