Throughout the 19th century, both Lithuanians and Poles suffered under Russian domination. Both nations were systematically decimated and Russified, leading to repeated, brutally suppressed uprisings. For organizing an anti-Russian uprising in 1863, the Polish nobleman Joseph Kalinowski, later the Carmelite Father Rafael, was sentenced to ten years of forced labor in a penal colony in Siberia.
The journey to the place of punishment—from his native Vilnius to the salt mines in Usolye—lasted the condemned ten months. Mostly on foot, in snow and frost, they had to cover thousands of kilometers. The local penal camp had already been in existence for a hundred years by then—the first convicts arrived in Usolye in 1765, and both inconvenient Russians and members of subjugated nations were sentenced to forced labor in the salt mines; after World War II, one of the gulags was located here. Winter temperatures easily reach -40 °C (the average January temperature is -23 °C). Now, the greatest threat comes from abandoned and decaying chemical plants, while the greatest hope is the newly established convent of barefoot Carmelites—the sisters celebrated 20 years of their presence in the place of suffering of St. Rafael this October.
Please, next time include a small reminder in your letter—anything at all—an image, a medal, a flower, a pinch of soil… a breath of the native air, if that would be possible. Just something insignificant from you… In a surge of spirituality, I did not want to cling to anything transient and got rid of many things that I kept as souvenirs; the motivation was good, and I do not regret it, but now I see that even the senses need to be nourished in order to refresh the mind and warm the heart. And when they are helped in such an innocent way, it harms nothing and reinforces the spiritual side.
Now I take life as it is, and I am sure that Providence offers me the means to salvation in all circumstances. I manage courageously, for I always have the image of the Savior before my eyes. Perhaps my rough Polish will shock you, but I have no way to refine it here.
(Joseph Kalinowski /1835–1907/, letter from the forced labor camp in Usolye, Siberia, January 1867)
