The artist Alexandra Samsonovna Bochkareva-Innokentyeva — Suuraldyma devoted many of her works to historical themes, including a series of paintings about the past of her native Churapchinsky ulus.
In 1939 –1942, a drought hit Yakutia, especially its central part and the Vilyuysk district. It was followed by the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War.
In 1942, due to the difficult situation of food supply in the country and at the front, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR adopted a decree “On the development of fisheries in the river basins of Siberia and the Far East”. The document stated that all citizens who work, as well as members of their families, regardless of age, should be resettled to places where fishing was viable. Each resettled person could take with them no more than 16 kilograms of cargo, including food.
The resettlement of the residents of Churapcha took place in late September — early October 1942, at a time when the snow was already deep in the north and cold weather had set in.
The population of the 41st kolkhoz of this district was moved to Kobyaisky, Zhigansky and Bulunsky districts. In this way attempts were made to save people from drought, as well as to attract them to fishing in order to increase fish yields.
The Yakut Regional Committee of the Communist party made the decision too hastily and failed to make the necessary arrangements. It was the main cause of the disaster, which led to numerous victims among the resettled people. The Churapchinsky district suffered serious social and economic losses. Its population decreased from 16,964 in 1939 to 7,939 in 1943.
The painting “Resettlement (Kөhөrulluu)” presented at the exhibition depicts the people resettled from Churapcha fishing against the backdrop of Mount Stolb in Bulunsky ulus. The conditions in which the people lived and worked there were harsh. The background was chosen by the artist for a reason: under the harsh wartime laws, anyone who violated discipline was left under this mountain.
A total of 5459 people were resettled from Churapchinsky ulus to Kobyaisky, Zhigansky and Bulunsky districts. 1500 people from 12 collective farms were sent to Bulunsky district.
The resettlers from Churapcha caught 2 million tons
of fish, thereby increasing fish production 3.5 times.
