The project also featured a short film by Arltan Bembeyev, “Goodbye, Kalmyk Land.”

ELISTA, December 11th. /tass/. The premiere of the verbatim “I Remember…”, dedicated to the deportation of the Kalmyk people during the years of Stalinist repression, was sold out on Monday at the Republican Russian Drama and Comedy Theater of the Republic of Kalmykia. This was announced to TASS by the general director of the theater, People’s Artist of Kalmykia Viktor Khaptakhanov. Verbatim I Remember … is a documentary play that consists of monologues from those who, as children and teenagers, survived the deportation of the Kalmyk people in December 1943. Thanks to these personal memories, the viewer learns how the expulsion took place, the adaptation of the younger generation of special settlers in places of forced residence without political assessments. I myself was born in Siberia into a family of deportees, and I consider it important to honor the memory of those who died and to remember the strength of the spirit of the people who survived these terrible trials,” he said. The theater is operating in the verbatim genre for the first time, said the general director of the theater. The idea and script of the project belong to the head of the literary and dramatic department of the theater Irina Goryashkieva, the directors were Leonid Sangadzhiev and Sanal Tserenov. The monologues of the special settlers are read by Honored Artists of Kalmykia Vasily Mudzhikov and Julia Kleiner, as well as young actors Karina Vyalshina and Sergey Tsebekov. “There are many good performances on the Kalmyk stage based on literary works or memoirs of special settlers, but they are all theatrical. In our case, the purity of the genre is preserved for the sake of maximum authenticity and documentality,” Viktor Khaptakhanov added. As the author of the project told TASS, verbatim introduces the fates of four people. These are the stories of Sergei Ivanov, who was exiled as a 10-year-old boy with his family from Ulan-Kholsky ulus of the Kalmyk ASSR to the Novosibirsk Region, Sima Polteeva, a native of Bashanta, 17, who ended up with her family in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as well as Volodya Sanchirov, who was born in Khanty-Mansiysk, and Lisa Basanova, 13, from Elista. The fragments of the texts used in the production adapted for the stage are taken from a series of interviews by Elsa Bair Guchinova, Doctor of Historical Sciences, “Everyone has their own Siberia. Stories about the Kalmyks’ deportation.” A short feature film by Arltan Bembeyev “Goodbye, Kalmyk Land” was shown as part of the documentary project. “Viewers will be able to watch verbatim until December 14 inclusive, but tickets were sold out even before the advertisement appeared. On December 12, admission will be free for everyone,” Goryashkieva added. On December 28-29, 1943, a mass deportation of Kalmyks to Siberia took place in the USSR. In 2004, the authorities established a Memorial Day for the victims of the Deportation of the Kalmyk people. Since then, commemorative events in the region have been held annually on December 28. https://tass.ru/kultura/19506945