[I have got 14 boys and girls to help with by-work at the laying out of a dolly track. They are kids but there is something of grown-ups in them, all those kids were born in Ukraine or in Altai Region and survived the horrors of dispossession of the kulaks and exile. It is mainly the "catch" of 1937 however some are since 1933. (The first "catch" of 1930 or 1931 was barely able to make dug-outs, and almost everybody died.) Each of them tells me briefly a story of their lives, families' toils, who died and where. It's Taya's turn. She is about 14 years old.]
"Is your father an exile too?"
"No! He is free!" Taya said proudly.
"But where is he? I have never seen him..."
"He is in prison!"
Shoot! The only free and in prison...