21:24, 11 September 2003

Don Cossack is battling for his native house

An event unexampled for Russia took place in the district town of Zernograd in the Rostov region. There the local court demanded that the authorities restored a house with dependencies, cattle and inventory to a Cossack from the repressed. The decision is made in favor of 68-year old Nikolay Zadorozhny, whose parents were repressed and exiled to Kazakhstan in 1935.

Owners of the native house of the Zadorozhny family changed long ago. The village council gave it to the family of teachers Lukashenko. They get the rights to the house having bought it in early 1970s. They rebuilt the house and presented it to their children. Today's owners Lukashenko are going to leave nowhere and ready to assert their rights to the end.

Not that Zadorozhny presents claims against the Lukashenko family.

And though there is no law on restitution in Russia, there is a law on the rehabilitation of victims of Stalinist repressions, which clearly reads that Cossacks are made up their lost property.

Zadorozhny believes the state must give present owners of his house a new habitation.

Source: BBC Radio (Great Britain)