Yemtsova, Mariia

Description

Creators

Mariia Yemtsova (b. 1921), Author

Volodymyr Maniak

, Recipient

Media Type

Text

Item Types

Correspondence

Envelopes

Transcriptions

Description

Letter sent from: Kyiv
Describes events in (1932-1933): Village of Maly Krypil, Berezan raion, Kyiv oblast
Current location name: Village of Maly Krypil, Zhurivka raion, Kyiv oblast

Recollections about forced collectivization as early as 1929 that caused famine. Entire families were dispossessed. Many children became orphans as a result and could survive only in cities. Compares party and Komsomol activists to a "gang" who were not better than "the Hitlerites."

Famine in 1928-1934 was caused by actions of the authorities. She is a widow of a Soviet army officer who was killed in action in 1944 in Lithuania and asks for help in finding out the circumstances. Describes harsh conditions in which she lived in evacuation in the Urals (Sverdlovsk oblast, Russia). She almost died of hunger and disease; describes cases of cannibalism there by the locals; those evacuated from Leningrad were dying by the bread stores after getting their two-day bread ration. She was not recognized as a veteran of labor for working during the war. She never got justice. The account is transcribed partially (pp.1 -2, 8).

Notes