Letter sent from: Village of Saranchivka, Zinkiv raion, Poltava oblast
Letter describes events in (1932-1933): Village of Saranchivka, Zinkiv raion, Kharkiv oblast
Current location name: Village of Saranchivka, Zinkiv raion, Poltava oblast
Oleksii Derevianko was 21 at the time of famine. He believes that the famine affected mostly one-person
households, called odnoosibnyky, who did not want to join the kolhosps. The grain requisition plans were
excessive and the search brigades were ruthless. All foodstuff and all possessions were taken from people, who were left for dead, eating mock foods, using rotten potatoes from the year before for starch and leaves to make some kind of crackers. The cow was their lifesaver. Derevianko also recalls the survival strategies during the 1947 famine: travelling to Western Ukraine to sell clothing for food; mentions that the village of Khukhria in Okhtyrka Raion, Sumy Oblast, died out in 1947 because the soil was sandy. He was a veteran of and of labor, and had been wounded.
Ukrainian transcription available.
