On the eve of the deportation Dzhevair’s mother was collecting groceries in a bag for her husband who was in prison in Simferopol. In the end, this bag saved Dzhevair’s family from starvation on the way to exile. But there was no salvation from further difficulties. All Crimean Tatars were through many hardships in the early years of exile.



– Hello!

– Hello.

– What’s your name?

– Dzhelil-kyzy Dzhevair.

– When and where were you born?

– Me? I was born on August 14, 1938, our village is Degirmenkoy.Now it is called Zaprudnoye.

– Where were you evicted from?

– From there, from that house… Yalta district, the village of Degirmenkoy. Now they say “selo”, in Russian they say “selo”.

– Where were you sent to?

– Where? To… Uzbekistan. First, we got to Namangan region, the Olmaz collective farm. Then Mom looked at the steppe, and there was nothing. She wanted to get out of there… there was a cotton factory nearby. Then my mother came with us to this cotton factory. We were deported in 1944, it turns out, Grandma… When we were evicted from Crimea, Mom’s mother, Grandma Saile… Dad was in the army, he was sent to the front line, he was in Simferopol in the camp. Mom was going to bring him food that night, a bag of groceries was ready. She washed her hair. She was braiding her hair. At night there was a knock at the door. A whole bowl of boiled milk… “You’ve got 15 minutes, the whole village is moving.”

We lived a big village. There was a central block, a passing block and a block where the mosque was located. In several documentaries (materials)… not now… you can find out about it at the villagers’ meeting. Then they woke us up, gave us 15 minutes. My late grandmother gave us two bottles of milk. My brother and I were two children in the family. She gave us my mother’s Qur’an and grandmother’s Qur’an. Both of us got a Qur’an and a bottle of milk. They took our hands… And my mother took the bag, which she was going to give to my father. She put food in there, bread,she was going to take this bag to the prison… We took this bag and went out.

I couldn’t learn much, I graduated from the first, second, third, fourth grade. When I was in the second grade, I was already in class because my mother died on November 24, 1949. My father was in Uzbekistan, Namangan… My mother moved there and got a job at a cotton factory, and my father went to a mine in Tula after the war. My father escaped from a mine in Tula region, he couldn’t even take his documents. He arrived to Namangan, the commandant gave my Dad 24 hours to leave. He couldn’t stay. Dad didn’t stay there… Emirsali was a gardener in Uzbekistan at that time: in apple, grape fields. My father said to him: “I found my family, but the commandant gave me 24 hours to leave. And I don’t know where to go, I don’t have any papers.» “I escaped,” he said.

Then Emirsali said: “You don’t have documents, so what.” And he offered him a job in a collective farm. After he stayed, he went to the garden as a worker, he worked in the collective farm… I also worked in the collective farm.

I have seven years of work experience. I was a hard-worked in the collective farm, Stakhanovka. We were given a sewing machine, then it was stolen in Oktyabrskoye. What I made is still preserved. Then they left dad. They dried apples in that garden, put the dryer in, then the dried fruit was sent. They dried apples, pears… He stayed there… Then these dried fruits… There was such a long barrack. There was one family in one corner, in the second corner the other one, etc… How many families were housed in this barrack… a husband and wife, and someone had two children, someone had one child – they all lived there until they moved houses. In these barracks… That garden belonged to the state farm, and next to us was the fifth department, then we lived there. My dad was given a corner in this barrack… Then Dad invited us there… At the time, he could only send an invitation. From the cotton factory, he took us to Namangan.

– Were you with your mother?

– Yes with mother, grandmother… When we were evicted in 1944, Grandma got sick, she was old, she was hospitalized. Then we were told that she was dead. Because Grandma died, Mom stayed, brother stayed, I stayed. Dad found us, but since he was given 24 hours, he went and found Emirsali. After he found him, he told him: “My family is in a place like this, I’ve seen my family, but I had been given 24 hours, if I don’t leave, they will find me and put me in jail.

He asked him: “Give me a job, I’ll save my family.” Our father took us to Yangiyul from the cotton factory that was at Hakunabad station in Namangan. We lived in a barrack there for a while. It was March, 1947. That’s all I remember.

This state farm had 36 hectares of apple orchards, and the order to return these gardens (they belonged to Turkmenia) was issued.Now we couldn’t stay in the state farm, we went to the collective farm, to work there. This garden was given to the collective farm. Dad was a collective farm worker, and Mom worked at the collective farm until her death. After the state farm gardens were returned, the Crimean Tatars worked in this collective farm, there were 11 Crimean Tatars. They had a plan to divide garden into parts, you had to plant apple orchards, seedlings, grapes. Then dad did the breakdown of the hectare for grapes. In front of the dugout was a small hollow before going down to the road. Then dad stayed on the farm, and mom stayed. In 1949… We lived in a dugout for two years. If it was raining, 5-6 steps… we went down to a hole 6-7 steps deep and then we went home.

The door opens, there’s a big hole in front of the door, if it rains, the hole is filled with water. After the rain stops, the pit is overflows and the water runs over the edge. After the dugouts in 1947, our chairman, Esan… 11 Crimean Tatars worked in the gardens, the plan of vineyards was on display, new gardens were planted, apples were planted, when the season came, old people cut trees, the Crimean Tatars worked.

Behind the dugouts, a 10-year school was built 100 meters down from the canal. In that place, a road was built right in the direction of the school to the central office, and a plan for the construction of houses for Crimean Tatars was first identified on the sides of these roads. Then, in accordance with this plan, my parents built the walls on their own, and the rest of the work was done quickly, depending on the weather. Just for a while, to move in quicker… That’s where our house was. We lived there until we returned.