Samuel Biegun - February 15, 1983
Life in Siberia III
When you lived in this town, were the people friendly to you?
Very friendly. Those people uh, they were deported way after the revolution from Ukrainian, from the east. So they knew, you know, how it feels to be--but uh, I was very young and I had to go--the roots, you know, chop the home--wood, and uh, my brother--older brother was away about twenty-five, thirty miles because they had so many classes in school. So he had to go to high school about--away about thirty miles. So uh, we couldn't get no food. You had to, you had plant your own food, like potatoes and uh, sometimes--we were lucky we had potatoes. So summertime we planted potatoes and uh, we used to have a big cellar underneath the floor, fill it up and eat three times a day potatoes. But at least we didn't, you know, suffer the war, you know. We didn't have nothing to eat, but fortunate than other people.
Were you able to go to school at all?
Yes, but uh, I only finished uh, what they had there, you know. I couldn't, I couldn't go higher because--then when we had to go back--well I was young, I was fourteen, so I couldn't finish the uh, seventh grade, that's all I had. That's all they had there. Then '46--'til '46 we had to move, I mean, we had to go back.
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