“At first we could not understand why so many reindeer were being driven across the tundra to Arkhangelsk

“At first we could not understand why so many reindeer were being driven across the tundra to Arkhangelsk. The soldiers escorting us said that military units would be organised. We still did not understand what sort of military units could be made of reindeer. Among us there were Nenets, Komi, and Russians too. Some of the Russians had lived in the tundra since childhood; they knew how to drive reindeer teams. There were about a hundred of us… We were attached to a battalion, and for a month we underwent tactical training. A reindeer team comes racing along, and suddenly the machine guns open up. At once the reindeer bolt to the side, or else stop dead, as if rooted to the ground. Mines flew over our heads, and we listened to the salvoes of the guns. We dug trenches in the snow and drove into the trench with the whole team. You look around: no reindeer, no people, only ourselves in camouflage smocks in the trenches. Suddenly they loaded us onto a train. For the first time in their lives the reindeer went into railway wagons. We asked the officers: ‘Where are they taking us?’ ‘To fight!’ they said. ‘To beat the Fascists.’ From Arkhangelsk to Murmansk we took about a thousand bull reindeer. All the reindeer were by then trained. They were not afraid of gunfire.”

Voskoboynikov M. The Northerners Go into the Attack [V ataku idut severyane]