Passports to Nowhere [ Stories from Siberia continued] Passports to Nowhere [ Stories from Siberia continued] Translated from Lithuanian, from the memoirs of Irena K One day we read in the paper, that diamonds had been found in Yakutsk. We also knew there were still quite a few gulags [forced labour camps] in the area. Victoria turned to me and said sarcastically, Well! There certainly won’t be a labour shortage in those mines!” In 1953 when Krushchev came to power after Stalin had died, we heard many rumours that all the Lithuanian exiles were going to be freed, since we were going to be issued with passports. Unfortunately the catch was, that we could only go somewhere with the Russian officials’ permission. There were a few Lithuanian exiles living in Yakutsk as well as us. Some exiles had been moved to other places like Irkutsk in Siberia, others were allowed to return to Lithuania. Under Khrushchev, the youth of the USSR was strongly advised to migrate and work in places like Yakutsk. At that time, I think that the average pay in Russia was a bit less than be 155 roubles per month, while in Yakustk and other places like it, the monthly earnings were from 300 to 650 roubles. In addition to these benefits, each migrant could travel free once in three years to his or her place of origin. At the same time, food and other items were almost twice as expensive here as in the central parts of the USSR, and the remoteness made the quality of life dismal for young people. Yakutsk was isolated from the rest of Russia from winter until spring and boats couldn’t sail into or out of the port. We were denied permission by the officials to return to Lithuania, but we were able to write to our relatives and were overjoyed when we received replies. However our letters were heavily censored and often half of the letter would be blacked out. Our relatives who had fled overseas, wrote to their loved ones back in Lithuania and at least they then knew who had survived the war and who had perished. They weren’t that well off themselves, but they still sent parcels to help us and we traded them for other items. Often we had to wait for three months if it was winter and the Lena river was frozen.