Mikhail Mindlin "First I worked on the BAM railway, then in Kolyma. The important thing was not to die of hunger. They gave you balanda, a soup with just a few fishbones and some oats floating around. We drank from metal bowls. They gave us a ladle of balanda and a lump of bread. We could hardly work for the cold. If we didn’t move or work, we would have frozen. When someone wanted to relieve themselves, they had to take their mittens off. By the time they undid their trousers, their hands were frozen. As soon as they pulled it out, it froze. Many people had their parts amputated." "There were no injections or anything to reduce pain. They didn’t even have proper scalpels. When I was in the camp, they asked me to hold out my frostbitten foot. And with pliers, they just took chunks out. That was the treatment—the operation. It was considered that if you survived the first winter, you’d get through your sentence. Most people didn’t survive."