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However, some people had more problems with their work. My friend Vladimir Rovski was a newspaper retouching artist. This was his pseudonym. His real surname was Zetnarowski. He was Polish. Vladimir worked for the newspaper named Communist. After World War II it was renamed to 'Sovetskaya Ukraina' [Soviet Ukraine]. I don't think this newspaper exists any more. There was an issue with a photograph of the garden of a railcar repair plant on the last page. There were flowerbeds, trees and benches where workers could rest during their lunch break. Turning this page upside down censors discovered 'Trotsky's nose', 'Zinoviev's glasses' and so on in it. Vladimir was arrested immediately after this issue of the newspaper was published.
I didn't know what happened to Vladimir for a long time. Only recently, when I had an article about this story published in a newspaper, his nephew, Igor Zetnarowski, found me and told me about Vladimir. Vladimir was arrested and taken to an NKVD prison where he was kept for almost a year. Since he was born in Poland they declared that he was a 'Polish spy'. He was kept in a stone box for eight months. It was a cell where he couldn't lie down or even sit. He was tortured terribly during interrogations. They tried to make him confess of his espionage for Poland. It's hard to believe, but when Vladimir was called to another interrogation he was made to sit on a stool with a picket in the center of the seat. His wife, Emilia, went to Moscow and managed to have an appointment with Kalinin 20. Thanks to his wife, Vladimir managed to be released. After she talked with Kalinin there was a court hearing. The prosecutor withdrew the accusations and Vladimir was released. He became an invalid. By the beginning of World War II Vladimir got better and volunteered to the front. He perished near Moscow in 1942.
I didn't know what happened to Vladimir for a long time. Only recently, when I had an article about this story published in a newspaper, his nephew, Igor Zetnarowski, found me and told me about Vladimir. Vladimir was arrested and taken to an NKVD prison where he was kept for almost a year. Since he was born in Poland they declared that he was a 'Polish spy'. He was kept in a stone box for eight months. It was a cell where he couldn't lie down or even sit. He was tortured terribly during interrogations. They tried to make him confess of his espionage for Poland. It's hard to believe, but when Vladimir was called to another interrogation he was made to sit on a stool with a picket in the center of the seat. His wife, Emilia, went to Moscow and managed to have an appointment with Kalinin 20. Thanks to his wife, Vladimir managed to be released. After she talked with Kalinin there was a court hearing. The prosecutor withdrew the accusations and Vladimir was released. He became an invalid. By the beginning of World War II Vladimir got better and volunteered to the front. He perished near Moscow in 1942.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
yakov voloshyn