Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya
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Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya (Евфросиния Керсновская) (1907— 1994) was a Russian woman who spent 12 years in Gulag camps and wrote her memoirs in 12 notebooks, 2,200,000 characters, accompanied with 680 pictures.
She wrote 3 copies of the work. In 1968 her friends typed samizdat copies, repeating the pictures on the back sides of the sheets. Excerpts from the work were first published in Ogonyok and Znamya magazines in 1990, as well as in The Observer (June 1990). After that, German and French publications followed. Finally, in 2001 the complete text, in 6 volumes, was published in Russia.
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[edit] Biography
Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya was born in Odessa to a dvoryan family. During the Russian Civil War the family moved to their estate to Bessarabia to become farmers. Bessarabia was soon united with Romania. In 1940 it was annexed by the Soviet Union, and the Kersnovskaya family (Eufrosinia and her mother) were repressed as former landowners. She was exiled to Siberia as an exile settler (ссыльнопоселенец) to work at logging. She attempted to escape, but she was caught and sentenced to death. The sentence was replaced by 10 years of labor camps, which she spent in the Norillag (Норильлаг, Norilsk labor camp) at mining works.
After discharge she lived in Yessentuki and wrote her memoirs during 1964–1968.
Her memoirs illustrated by hundreds of drawings presents unique insight into the life of the Soviet Union and especially the life of Gulag. They are also remarkable for the quality of the drawings.
[edit] Some drawings
See commons:Category:Eufrosinia_Kersnovskaya for more.
 The squire is me |
 My father is a freeman, he is in prison |
 Night Search |
 Still life Price of Blood (in the prison, blood donors were given extra food rations" |
All drawings on this page are available courtesy to Kersnovkaya foundation. See image description pages for the details
[edit] Bibliography
- Керсновская Е.А. "Наскальная живопись". - М.: КВАДРАТ, 1991;
- Kersnovskaja Е. "Ach Herr wenn unre Sunden uns verklagen". - Kiel: NEUER MALIK VERLAG, 1991.
- Кersnovskaja Е. "Coupable de rien". - Paris: PLON, 1994.
- Керсновская Е.А. "Сколько стоит человек". - 6 volumes, Moscow, ООО "МОЖАЙСК-ТЕРРА", 2000-2001.
[edit] External link
- (Russian) How Much a Person Costs
