People
Zmitrok Byadulya’s last journey
According to family recollections, Zmitrok Byadulya died on a train bound for Uralsk on 3 November 1941.
Published
This is a translation. The original is Русский. Language review: not performed by a native speaker.
Samuil Plavnik, a Belarusian writer of Jewish origin, published under the name Zmitrok Byadulya. The magazine “Mishpokha” preserved family recollections of the last months of his life.
According to his brother Matvey, Plavnik returned to Minsk after the war began, then walked to Borisov with his mother. They travelled by train to Pizhma, where he worked at a newspaper. For a long time, Plavnik did not know whether his wife and children were alive.
Matvey Plavnik recalled that Samuil learned that his wife and children were in Buras in the Saratov Region and went there with his mother to join them. Later, after Buras was bombed, the family set off for Uralsk. Matvey recalled that, at the last station before the city, Samuil left the train to get boiling water, then caught up with it as it began to move and died in the carriage. This happened on 3 November 1941.