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The museum exposition makes it
possible not only to tell the story of one particular person, but also to
describe hard lives of the entire families. There are quite a lot of such
family materials in our museum vaults and we would like to tell you about one
of them.
Getting
to know that the first National Museum of Holocaust History “Tkuma” is founded
in
Ukraine,
Denis L’vovich Starosvetskiy presented us the document materials about his
family. The materials about his life during the Great Patriotic War, materials
about his father – Lev Borisovich Starosvetskiy, outstanding revolutionary, brother-in-arms
of L.B. Trotskiy, a political prisoner, executed by shooting in 1938 as a
traitor to his country, materials about his mother Sofya Zakharovna Lange - one
of the most active revolutionaries who tried to improve peoples’ lives and who
became a political prisoner later on, being the wife of traitor to the country
and was sent to a camp of penal jurisdiction. Both of them were rehabilitated:
his father posthumously, and his mother came back from exile with ruined
health.
Here we will tell you the story about Denis L’vovich Starosvetskiy, a
son to well-know parents who lived long live and who has a lot to tell us
about.
Denis
L’vovich starts his story from July 1941 when he was evacuated from
Dneprodzerzhinsk to
Krasnodar
Territory
together with the family of his uncle Yakov Zakharoich Lange - his mom’s
brother who took care about him when she was arrested. Starting from that moment began ordeals of
Denis L’vovich, he voluntarily omits some of them and emphasizes the main
milestones of the awful wartime without overburdening it with material and
moral sufferings. At the end of 1941 his uncle was called to arms and soon he
was missed in action, and in July 1942 the Nazi’s troops entered Gul’kevich region.
His aunt and her children moved to their relatives and Denis L’vovich was left
all alone. He made the decision to go to
Dnepropetrovsk
where his mother’s sister, Polina Zakharovna, was dwelling. It was dangerous to
stay in the occupied territory as he witnessed the shooting of the whole Jewish
family by Nazi: the aged, their grown-up sons with their wives and children.
Denis L’vovich moved through the occupied territory without documents
which he destroyed. He reached
Dnepropetrovsk
in August 1942 and understood the situation there, and in order not to expose
the relatives to danger he walked the villages looking for some work to earn
his living. Finally he reached the
village
of
Dolgorukovo (nowadays called
Alexandrovka) of
Vladimir
district in Nikolaev region. Together with other children he was working in
stables and in the field. In early spring 1943, according to the order of Nazi
authorities, all of them were moved to
Gorky
state farm,
12 km
away from Novyy Boog, to do agricultural operations. In September 1943 the
retreat of Nazi’s troops started. In this situation the Nazi’s commandants made
the children to steal the sheep out of the state farm to the West. The flock of
sheep was brought to
Odessa
region, Volkov farm of Novo-Chernovitsky district. After the new retreat of the
Nazi’s troops, Denis L’vovich and another fellow-sufferer breached the arrest
of the special SS regiment and joined the Soviet Army troops turned out to be
nearby. This way Denis L’vovich found himself at the front, was wounded in
action, was duty to hospital, served in the army and retired. After graduating
from Dnepropetrovsk Mining Institute with honor degree he worked in various
companies. But while we were talking most of the time he recollected the
wartime and his parents told about below.
 Lev Borisovich Starosvetskiy (1893-1937) was
born in Vladikavkaz in 1911. His parent sent him to study at
Leipzig
University.
There he met the professional revolutionaries, in particular V. M. Zagorsky. In
1914 he officially joined Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party. After the
First World War he came back to
Russia
and the Party’s Central Committee ordered him to work for party in various
cities. The party’s underground work he did under the name of Denis. Starting
from 1914 he was a party delegate at all the party conventions. In 1920 he
started working in
Dnepropetrovsk
party’s city committee. There he met his future wife - Sofya Zakharovna Lange.
In 1929 he entered Moscow Bauman Institute. Upon graduation he was sent to
abuilding Novo-Kramatorsky Plant as an engineer. Upon the recommendation of
S.K. Ordzhonikidze he started working on “Shiss-Defreez” planer. In 1937 he was
appointed shop superintendent. The same year he was repressed and shot for
active participation in “anti-Soviet Trotskist sabotage, wrecker and terrorist
organization acting at Novo-Kramatorsky Machine-Building Plant” since 1934. He
was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.
Sofya Zakharovna Lange (1899-1992) was living with her family
in city of
Kamensk (
Dneprodzerzhinsk).
Her father owned the shoe workshop manufacturing the shoe rough pieces together
with his sons. Sofya Zakharovna Lange graduated from gymnasia in this city.
In
this city she met M. Arsenichev who had joined the revolutionary movement being
quite young and by that time he was a professional revolutionary. When he met
Lange he also involved her into revolutionary activity. But in
1919 M.I. Arsenichev was
shot by White Guard. In 1920 she met L. B. Starosvetskiy and married him the
same year. In 1921 she joined Bol’shevik party. She did not admit guilt of derogating the Soviet power, but was anyway
sentenced to 5 years of camps of penal jurisdiction in
Karaganda region and 5 years without right of
relocation. In 1947 Sofya Zakharovna came back to
Dneprodzerzhinsk and could not find any job
for quite a long time. Then, finally, she managed to find it at wagon works. In
1956 she was rehabilitated and retrieved as a party member.
At
the end of his story about his parents, Denis L’vovich told us that when he saw
the documents connected to the case of his father he was shocked by the absurd
accusations made against him. And his mother in spite of what happened to her
kept believing in people and believing in justice that exists anyway. The
people we told you about are the true people who lived and act in the past, but
their deeds and the memory about them is still living. They preserved the best
humanities and their children and grandchildren inherited them. And everyone
who comes to the museum will get to know about them.
Alla
Farimets,
“Tkuma” Center researcher,
Head of Museum Programs |
