Tuesday 31 October, 2000
Siberian Survivor
Jacques Rossi was one of the many communists to find themselves exiled to one of the infamous Russian Gulags.
He talks to Outlook about his life as a communist and what he witnessed in a Siberian prison camp.
Born to a wealthy French family in Lyons in 1909, Jacques Rossi joined the Communist party when he was 16 years old and became an agent for them when he was 20.
He worked as a courier for the party, carrying small objects and information for people throughout Europe. He would know where he was going but he would never know what he was carrying.
To be working for the Communist party as an agent was extremely dangerous at this time, particularly as in many countries such as Italy and Spain, communism was forbidden.
He risked his life and his freedom; prepared to do anything for the party because it was a cause he believed in. He comments:
'I was sure the only way to make social justice in the world was the Marxist/ Leninist idea and that is why I was a very strong communist. I was deeply convinced communism was not an aim. It was just a means to achieve this.'
Shattered ideals
The turning point for Rossi came in 1937. He was working in Spain during the time of the civil war when he got a message from Moscow asking him to go back. His ‘wife’, another agent he had met just a few days before, warned him against returning as they knew that many communists were being arrested in there. However, as they were orders he felt duty bound to obey. He believed that if his leaders required him to go to Moscow there must be a reason and that it would be for the good of the cause.
On his arrival in Moscow he was arrested, tortured and condemned as a Fascist.
| 'They punched me with their fists and kicked at me with their boots. Before I fainted again, I had a quick glimpse of the badge of Communist Youth League in one of the men’s coat. The badge shows Lenin’s face on a red flag. But I fought in Spain and risked my life for the same Lenin.' | |
Siberian snapshots
Rossi was sentenced to a Gulag prison camp in Siberia, where he was to spend the next 19 years. Life in the prison camps was tough. Day after day, prisoners received inadequate food rations, they were often abused by camp guards. Disease was rife and many people died from exhaustion.
In the camp he met many people and has since tried hard to capture the memories of some of them his writing. One man he met was close to Lenin in the early days. The man described how, whilst working as an executioner he would escort the condemned man and tie his hands behind his back with wire. Then he would order the man to walk a few paces ahead, down the stairs, he would bring the revolver up to the back of the man’s neck without touching him and just as the trigger is pulled give him a kick up the backside. Rossi explains:
'"Why the kick?” I asked, surprised, “so the blood doesn’t splash on your tunic. Can you imagine the amount of work your wife would have to clean your uniform everyday"'
Men became animals
Rossi recalls one of the most horrifying images of his time in the Gulags in great detail. The story begins with the discovery, by his work group, of a man sitting in the snow. One of the soldiers frustrated at his lack of movement shoved the man with the butt of his rifle. The man toppled over, he had been dead a while. The soldier bent over the corpse and pulled away his scarf. On each side of his neck was an incision at the main artery. Opening the man’s jacket revealed two huge wounds where the man’s kidneys had been. He was a "cow", a disturbing term given to the human "provisions" taken by convicts when they tried to escape the camps.
Rossi explains how seasoned underworld criminals would select a young naïve man who would be brought in on their escape plans. However when the criminals ran out of food they would kill their charge consuming the man’s kidneys and blood. Fires would have given their location away so they made use of the two parts of the man’s body that could be eaten without cooking.
How did he survive the Gulag?
Rossi believes two things got him through his years in the Gulag. The first was luck. He was tortured many times as they tried to persuade him to implicate friends of his. He recalls how the torture always seemed to stop just at the point when his resistance was beginning to break down.
Secondly, he believes that his physical resistance was good. The discipline that was instilled in him as a child by an English governess served him well when he was pushed to his physical limits.
Today
Rossi is back in France, living rather ironically in a communist run suburb of Paris. He has devoted his life to writing about the memories of those Gulag camps. He now feels that the communist way to achieve things was the wrong way.
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| Further reading |
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The Gulag Handbook: An Encyclopedia Dictionary of Soviet Penitentiary Institutions and Terms Related to the Forced Labor Camps, Jacques Rossi, Paragon House, 1989.
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