Orphaned at 9: How Lutfie Gafarova Survived the Frozen Hell of the Urals

In 1944, four-year-old Lutfie Gafarova found herself in the Urals, where cruel deportation had thrown her and her mother, separating them from their entire family. While her mother labored tirelessly felling trees in the endless taiga, young Lutfie picked cranberries on frozen swamps for scraps of bread. At nine, her world collapsed when her mother died from exhaustion, leaving the girl an orphan. Yet Lutfie Gafarova endured these hardships and eventually returned to her homeland with her husband and six children. Today, she enjoys a happy life in her native Crimea, surrounded by loving children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.