Letter sent from: Lystvyn, Ovruch raion, Zhytomyr oblast
Letter describes events in 1932-1933 in: Lystvyn, Ovruch raion, Kyiv oblast
Current location name: Lystvyn, Ovruch raion, Zhytomyr oblast
Yeva Demydenko was 20 in 1932. There were 6 children in their family, age 13-25. They lived “badly.” Her
father did not want to join the collective farm, so the search brigade took everything from them, except for a
cow and some chickens.
Famine affected their family the worst in the spring of 1933. They became swollen. Yeva’s brother Ryhor was beaten to death one day for stealing some onion greens from the neighbor. Later, her stepmother died after eating some acorns. Other family members survived on mock foods. Demydenko describes cases of people being beaten for looking for food, and a case of a father taking his daughter to a cave to die. Things were slightly better at the local collective farm. Its workers were receiving a ration of watery soup three times a day. Yeva’s other brother, Adam, worked fetching water for some Jews in Slovechno, for which they gave him food.
Ukrainian transcription available.
