title: Sentence Siberia: A Story of Survival
author:  Ann Lehtmets 
description: Ann Lehtmets was born in southern Estonia in 1904 and educated at a girls' college. She settled with her lawyer husband in Rakvere, a city in northern Estonia. In 1941 she was arrested and transported to Siberia, where for 17 years she was forced to live and work in appalling conditions.
zlib_text: > > **Little Siberia**
  
  > ANTTI TUOMAINEN
  
  > translated by David Hackston
  
  > ![](Images/image00156.jpeg)
  
  > > > > > Dedicated with warmth and gratitude to Aino Järvinen, my high-school
  > Finnish teacher.
  
  > > > Thank you for the fails as well as the passes, and particularly the time
  > thirty years ago when you said writing might be my thing.
  
  > > > I promise I’ll try my best.
  
  > > >  _Midway upon the journey of our life_
  
  > >  _I found myself within a forest dark,_
  
  > >  _For the straightforward pathway had been lost._
  
  > > (Dante, _The Divine Comedy_ , trans. H. W. Longfellow, 1867)
  
  > > **LITTLE SIBERIA**
  
  >  **CONTENTS**
  
    1. TITLE PAGE
    2. DEDICATION
    3. EPIGRAPH
    4. PROLOGUE  
  
    5. PART ONE: THE SKY CAVES IN 
    6. 1 
    7. 2 
    8. 3 
    9. 4 
    10. 5 
    11. 6 
    12. 7 
    13. 8 
    14. 9  
  
    15. PART TWO: THE SKY’S THE LIMIT 
    16. 1 
    17. 2 
    18. 3 
    19. 4 
    20. 5 
    21. 6 
    22. 7 
    23. 8 
    24. 9 
    25. 10 
    26. 11 
    27. 12 
    28. 13 
    29. 14 
    30. 15  
  
    31. PART T