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Soviets begin moving troops into Lithuania
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Lithuania officially annexed into Soviet Union
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Lina & family arrested
In the middle of the night, the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police) barge into their house and give them 20 minutes to gather their belongings. They load Lina, her mother, and her brother Jonas into trucks to be taken to the train station. -
Put onto the trains
All the arrested people have been gathered in the train station. The NKVD divide them into groups to be put onto the trains. Jonas almost gets separated, but Lina's mother trades a pocketwatch in exchange for him staying. Their train has a sign on the back reading 'Thieves and Prostitutes'. -
Cross Ural Mountains
They cross the Ural Mountains into Asia. -
Arrive at Altai labor camp
Just north of China, the trains stop. The NKVD are selling the stronger people to be used as slaves. Their group doesn't get sold, so they get sent to the village and share a hut with a woman named Ulyushka. They are only given 300 grams of bread rations daily for their work.The NKVD are cruel to them and constantly insult and beat them. Several pepople are killed. -
NKVD want them to sign a document
In the middle of the night, the NKVD make everyone come to their office to sign a document saying that they are ciminals and that their sentence is 25 years' hard labor. No one signs, and they sit quietly because the guards won't let them leave. This happens every other night. Eventually people start giving in and signing. Those who do get to go to the village and mail letters. -
Christmas Eve celebration
All the people gather together in one hut with all their family photos. Peple bring bisciuits from the village and other food they had stolen. Mrs. Arvydas brings a bottle of vodka and chocolate They sing carols and talk about their family memories. For the first time in a long while, they seem happy. -
Lina draws for the NKVD
The commander wanted her to draw a portrait of him for his wife. In return, she will recieve food. The commander leaves for a minute and Lina notices that there is a file on his desk. She opens it, and sees the name of her father, Kostas Vilkas, in it. She steals the file. It is all in Russian so she asks her firend Andrius to translate. The file reveals that her father is in a prison in Krasnoyarsk. -
Lina's 16th birthday
The people throw a surprise birthday paarty for Lina. They sing a birthday song and all eat their bread rations together. One of the people bought a pad of paper and a pencil for Lina. Andrius gives her Dombey and Son, a book by Charles Dickens. It's printed in Russian, so she can learn the language better. Mother recieves a letter telling through coded words that Father is still slive. -
Leave Altai labor camp
The NKVD are collecting some of the people to be moved. Ulyushka gives them potatoes beets, and other food, an animal hide, and a pencil. Andrius leaves Lina with a beautiful stone he had found and directions to find the meaning of a Russian word from Dombey and Son without help. The word is 'krasivaya'. -
Biysk, Siberia - switch trains
The train stops and the people are herded into a large building, where the NKVD bring them bread and mushroom soup. After a week, they are allowed to shower. They are put on a truck and after a couuple hours they arrrive on the banks of the Angara River. They wait there for more than a week and are fed barley porridge for strength. -
Barges
The barges creep north up the Angara. They stop at Ust Kut, on the Lena River. -
Trofimovsk, Arctic Circle
The barges finally stop at the mouth of the Lena River, at the Laptev Sea. There is a sign that says they are in Trofimovsk. The very top of the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole. The polar night will come soon, when the sun falls below the horizon for 180 days. There are no buildings for them to stay, so they collect logs to make a jurta. It takes another week to build it. -
Snowstorm
The snowstorm lasts for two days. Another group's built their jurta so that the door opened outward. When the storm came, they were trapped inside and died. One of the men tells Lina why their family was deported: her father helped his brother and his family escape from Lithuania to Germany before they were taken. -
News of Father's death
Lina sees her mother talking wiith one of the guards, when the guard says something that makes her begin sobbing. The guard says her Father was shot in Krasnoyarsk prison. -
Andrius's birthday
Lina wishes Andrius a happy birthday when she wakes up. She is reading Dombey and Son when she remembers that he wanted her to find the meaning of 'krasivaya'. She skips ahead to see if it is later in the book. He had left little notes on the margins. -
Mother dies
Mother has caught typhus. She is very weak and freezing. They heat bricks to warm her, but her teeth are chattering, she is trembling, and her lips are blue. Her breathing becomes increasingly labored. Mother looks up at Jonas, opens her mouth, then she falls back and her eyes fade to a hollow stare. They bury her on a hill by the Laptev Sea. -
Dr. Samodurov comes
The whole camp is fighting scurvy, typhus, and dysentery. Jonas is nearly dead. A mn named Dr. Samodurov comes to the camp to help the sick and wounded. They get good food and medicine. -
The sun rises again
"I left the jurta to chop wood. I began my walk through the snow, five kilometers to the tree line. That's when I saw it. A tiny sliver of gold appeared between shades of gray on the horizon. I stared at the amber band of sunlight, smiling. The sun had returned. I closed my eyes. I felt Andrius moving close. 'I'll see you,' he said. 'Yes, I will see you,' I whispered. 'I will.' I reached into my pocket and squeezed the stone." -
Lina buries the letter
Lina has married Andrius and returnes from Siberia. She is back in her hometown of Kaunas, Lithuania. She buried her drawings and a letter revealing all that happened.