Ida Nudel, the “guardian angel” of the Prisoners of Conscience, now exiled to the village of Krivosheino in remote Siberia, is living in “primitive and hostile surroundings,” according to information received by the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. Nudel was sentenced to four years’ internal exile in June after participating in a demonstration in Moscow to protest the arrest of Vladimir and Maria Slepak.
On the grounds there are no apartments or rooms available, Nudel has been placed as the only female in a men’s hostel, whose inhabitants are mostly drunkards. There have been several assault attempts on her and she has told the director of the hostel that she will defend herself by any means necessary, the two Soviet Jewry groups reported.
There is no running water, only moisture trickling down the hostel’s concrete walls. There are no bathroom facilities, only a privy without running water in the street. Nudel’s diet is mostly bread, salt, sugar, canned fish, and canned tomatoes. Krivosheino is surrounded by swamps, with rats the size of cats. In spite of all this, the two Soviet Jewry groups reported, Nudel has promised to keep her morale and spirits high.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
