1930s: Ingria (Niitskovitsa)

This image (c.1932) is set in Niitskovitsa, Ingria, the home village of Vassili (Albert's father). The general area was settled by Finnish and Estonian peoples. Alide looks tense in the picture and with good reason: an entire social class including land-owning farmers has been directly targeted by Stalin.

Up to this point the family lived off their land occasionally selling any surplus locally whilst Alide added to the family's income by working fabric.

On week days Albert remembered boarding at the Finnish school with his sister Salme.

Then on Sundays he was encouraged to go to church with his mother Alide and sisters. Alide invited attendees to her home.

Life had never been easy but the family was self-sufficient and enjoyed a degree of stability as a prosperous peasant. Stalin's reforms were designed to 'remove' this entire class and ensure no opposition to the revolutionary government.