‘Are There Any Corpses?’: The Language of Trauma in Narratives about Way to Siberia

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to the Kalmyk narratives of their travel to Siberia, with a focus on the language of trauma characteristic of the narratives. Aim: The article indicates that their difficult road to Siberia was close to liminal crossing practices, resulting in a change in the status of travelers. Methods. In terms of methodological guidance, the article draws on the works of A. van Gennep, V. Turner, and T. Tsivyan. Of relevance was also the concept of the language of trauma discussed in the monograph “To Draw a Camp” (Guchinova, 2016). The research sources are the author’s field materials collected for the project “Everyone Has Their Own Siberia” (some of them published) and the stories about Siberia from a collection of memoirs on Kalmyk deportation. Results. It was on their way to Siberia in the cattle wagons that the people, deprived of even primitive comfort and convenience and stripped of their rights, realized a change of their status: they were no longer citizens but special resettlers. The stories about the road to Siberia remain in the collective memory of the Kalmyks as theirworst experience during the years of repression (1943–1956). Hence, of special significance is the language of trauma with its plotlines, and vocabulary that renders the people’s memory.

Keywords

• deportation
• kalmyks
• repressions
• stalinism
• trauma language
• special resettlers
• siberia