Selected text
In 1933 there was a famine 8. I remember my classmates fainting from hunger. My Ukrainian classmate and friend Vera Kalinichenko, whose father worked at a bakery, always brought me something to eat, always, while her hands were cold from hunger and I warmed her hands. People were like this: they were eager to help others as much as they could even when they were on the edge of death. They shared the little they had. She died in this same year of 1933.
My father worked at the grain supply company. He loaded grain with a spade and brought home whatever got into his boots. We boiled this grain. When mulberries and elderberries grew my brother and I used to climb trees eating these berries and then we had a stomach ache. My mother’s aunt Esther lived very well, there were a few families that managed better than others. I don’t know how they did it. It wasn’t proper to ask questions about such things. Perhaps, they had valuables that they could exchange for food. My brother was four years old and I took him by his hand and we went to visit them when we knew it was the time when they were to have a meal. When we heard their spoons clicking we went in and they gave us something to eat.
During the period of famine villagers from surrounding villages were coming to Priluki. They told their stories: ‘Communists came and took away everything. There was no food left, people were dying and buried in the yard where they lived.’ A woman and her daughter came to us from a village near Priluki. The girl’s name was Nastia. The mother returned to her village later and I don’t know what happened to her, but the girl stayed and lived with us before the war. She and I went to school together. When we evacuated in 1941 she stayed in our house to try to keep whatever belongings we had. There was a Torgsin store 9, but we had no valuables to exchange for food. I don’t know how we survived. We starved terribly, but somehow we managed.
However, we all strongly believed that those were temporary hardships and that life would improve. We believed we were the happiest children in the world living in the USSR, the country of equality and justice. We went to villages performing our concerts. There was collectivization 10, kolkhozes 11, everybody would work together and life would be wonderful!
My father worked at the grain supply company. He loaded grain with a spade and brought home whatever got into his boots. We boiled this grain. When mulberries and elderberries grew my brother and I used to climb trees eating these berries and then we had a stomach ache. My mother’s aunt Esther lived very well, there were a few families that managed better than others. I don’t know how they did it. It wasn’t proper to ask questions about such things. Perhaps, they had valuables that they could exchange for food. My brother was four years old and I took him by his hand and we went to visit them when we knew it was the time when they were to have a meal. When we heard their spoons clicking we went in and they gave us something to eat.
During the period of famine villagers from surrounding villages were coming to Priluki. They told their stories: ‘Communists came and took away everything. There was no food left, people were dying and buried in the yard where they lived.’ A woman and her daughter came to us from a village near Priluki. The girl’s name was Nastia. The mother returned to her village later and I don’t know what happened to her, but the girl stayed and lived with us before the war. She and I went to school together. When we evacuated in 1941 she stayed in our house to try to keep whatever belongings we had. There was a Torgsin store 9, but we had no valuables to exchange for food. I don’t know how we survived. We starved terribly, but somehow we managed.
However, we all strongly believed that those were temporary hardships and that life would improve. We believed we were the happiest children in the world living in the USSR, the country of equality and justice. We went to villages performing our concerts. There was collectivization 10, kolkhozes 11, everybody would work together and life would be wonderful!
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Susanna Sirota