JOURNEYS Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalins Russia, John B. Toews, 1998

he windows and simi- UNDERSTANDING THE MEMOIRS 15 lar iron bars separating the accompanying guards from the pris¬ oners. Except for a small slit high up, the windows in the prison¬ ers section were boarded up. A compartment in the so-called “Stolypin car” normally accommodated six people. Some prison transports reported that as many as twenty-five and thirty people were packed in a single compartment. The second model was an ordinary freight car usually painted red. Frequently used to trans¬ port cattle these cars received the nickname “red cows.” They first came into widespread use during the massive 1929-31 peasant deportations. Both accounts introduce the reader to the horrors of prison transport. First the imprisonment, the interrogation, the sentence and finally the journey into exile. Then came the transfer from prison to the “red cows.” The prisoner was stripped, clothing and suitcases were searched for valuables or possible escape convey¬ ances, then he joined the others in the prison courtyard. Under cover of darkness the prisoner and perhaps a thousand compatri¬ ots marched through deserted city streets to the waiting cars. They were now part of a convoy, accompanied by callous guards with rifles, machine guns and dogs. Already the continuous crowding, the prodding, the inhumane shouting began. The red car, which would be the prisoner’s new home for weeks or even months, offered little refuge from the prevailing brutality. Thieves and criminals in the same car meant the best bunks were spoken for and the best food appropriated. It meant sitting far from the warm stove and the inevitable loss of good clothing or other valuables. Even Berg, who inadvertently established a “most favored relationship” with the thieves in his car parted with the money his sister had sewn into his coat. “Anti-Christ” was cordial and even jovial about the fact that they (the thieves) simply needed his money for tobacco. These were the unwritten laws which gov¬ erned life in the “Red Cow.” Prison car existence was further brutalized by the utter disre¬ gard convoy guards demonstrated in matters pertaining to pris¬ oner comfort. The wooden box which housed them offered little protection against the summer heat or the winter cold. An over¬ whelming demand for prison cars meant that some were improp¬ erly sealed or lacked a stove and bunks. At best toilets consisted of a hole cut into the floor or the presence of a foul smelling pot in the corner. Crowded conditions meant any kind of privacy was out of the question. Water or regular meals were often not viewed 16 JOURNEYS as an absolute necessity. As Warkentin points out salted fish with¬ out water constituted a potent formula for suffering. Warkentin cites another kind of isolation beyond convoy or criminal cruelty. Within the red car it was usually impossible to derive any comfort from fellow prisoners even if the thieves were not present. The s