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The field post service operated well, even in those circumstances. Letters were delivered regularly. I didn't know anything about my family before 1943 and they didn't know anything about me. Our financial chief brought me my certificate for monthly allowances for my family, but I signed for not taking it since I didn't know the whereabouts of my family. I heard about my family by chance. I corresponded with correspondent Mikhail Nidze, my colleague from Krasnaya Armia newspaper where I had worked before the war. He was the only person from my peaceful prewar life with whom I kept in touch. In winter 1943 Mikhail wrote me my wife's address: town of Miass, Cheliabinsk region. It turned out that my wife also wrote to him hoping that he would know where I was. He wrote to her, 'Lilia, dance, we know where Yakov is!' and gave her my field mail number.
My wife told me about my parents. They evacuated separately and at different times. My wife and son and my wife's parents and sisters were in evacuation together, and my parents and sister and her son were in evacuation in Bashkiria. Lilia was happy to learn that I was alive. Of course, when I heard from my wife I sent her my certificate for allowances. It was a support for them, however small. Money was so devalued that there was little they could buy for what they got.
My wife wrote often. From her letters I knew about their life beginning from their departure from Kiev. Their train was often bombed. They didn't have any food or even water. My son was just a baby. My wife drank water from puddles and then breastfed our son. I won't even mention such things as diapers or clothes. They had a hard life especially in winter. They lived in a house and needed wood for heating it. A military registry committee provided sledges, a horse, a saw and an ax to people in evacuation, but they had to go cut trees and saw them in the woods by themselves. Of course, it was too much for women to handle, but they survived somehow ...
My wife told me about my parents. They evacuated separately and at different times. My wife and son and my wife's parents and sisters were in evacuation together, and my parents and sister and her son were in evacuation in Bashkiria. Lilia was happy to learn that I was alive. Of course, when I heard from my wife I sent her my certificate for allowances. It was a support for them, however small. Money was so devalued that there was little they could buy for what they got.
My wife wrote often. From her letters I knew about their life beginning from their departure from Kiev. Their train was often bombed. They didn't have any food or even water. My son was just a baby. My wife drank water from puddles and then breastfed our son. I won't even mention such things as diapers or clothes. They had a hard life especially in winter. They lived in a house and needed wood for heating it. A military registry committee provided sledges, a horse, a saw and an ax to people in evacuation, but they had to go cut trees and saw them in the woods by themselves. Of course, it was too much for women to handle, but they survived somehow ...
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
yakov voloshyn