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THE HISTORY OF THE
MIŁOSZEWSKI AND RAFALĄT FAMILIES
6. Siberia
Living conditions on the train were extremely hard and the severe winter weather also took its toll on the people. The train arrived in Kotlas in the Siberian Archangelsk area, where the families were transferred onto sleighs and transported down the frozen Dvina River. The sleighs arrived at the Harytonovo railway station and the settlers with their families then travelled by rail again to Kordon. They reached their final destination, the 'posiolek' (settlement) of Semeryczna again on sleighs. There they were put to work. Who did not work, did not eat.
The winter in the Siberian Archangelsk area lasts between eight and nine months, with temperatures dropping below -50C. The Miłoszewski family were able to survive by carefully conserving their food reserves, which were supplemented by the occasional food parcel from family left behind in Poland. But the dire situation of the Miłoszewski family and others like them was about to improve with the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Although very little news reached the settlement of world events, they were told of the German attack.
However, normal life came to a halt first with the invasion of Poland by Germany from the west on 1 September 1939, followed very shortly after by the Soviet invasion from the east on the 17 September 1939. Jan with his extensive experience of Bolsheviks and the USSR knew that the treacherous behaviour of the Soviets would end badly for his family and his country Poland. After several months of Soviet occupation and the frequent arrests of settlers word came that deportations to the USSR would start shortly. Sure enough, in the very early hours of 10 February 1940, on a very cold winter's night, Soviet soldiers came knocking on the door to tell the Miłoszewski family that they had to pack their things and leave. The same scene was repeated in all the settlers' homes. Some of the Soviet soldiers, of a more humane disposition, advised people to take as much warm clothing and food as they could carry. Horse-drawn sleighs took the families and their belongings firstly to the school, then to the local railway station. There the settlers and their families were loaded onto trains, to start their long journey eastwards.