Semko, Motria

Description

Creators

Motria Semko (b. circa 1913), Author

Volodymyr Maniak

, Recipient

Media Type

Text

Item Types

Correspondence

Envelopes

Transcriptions

Description

Letter sent from: Stavkove, Zinkiv raion, Poltava oblast
Describes events in (1932-1933): Stavkove, Zinkiv raion, Kharkiv oblast
Current location name: Stavkove, Zinkiv raion, Poltava oblast

140 people in a hamlet (khutir) of 50 houses died during the Famine.

Describes indignities caused to her family members by the activists who took all food and clothing from peasants, dragged them from their homes into the cold, humiliated them, took their homes. The author's family was not rich but made ends meet until all livestock was taken from them during collectivization.

Her father was arrested on "political" counts and sentenced to imprisonment but let go by the prosecutor who learned that he was illiterate.

Major deaths in her family: her mother and father died, brother disappeared.

Activists had no mercy even towards their own family members.

The second part of the letter is not related to the Famine and is an account of her later life. She paid higher taxes than many others and was looked down upon as a daughter of a father who had been arrested on political charges.

“God forbid Komsomol members and activists come to power as they have no conscience and no fear.”

Notes