Letter sent from: Zhmerynka raion, Vinnytsia oblast
Letter describes events in (1932-1933): Zhmerynka raion, Vinnytsia oblast
Current location name: Zhmerynka raion, Vinnytsia oblast
The author was orphaned. His mother died in 1919. He remembers the revolution, civil war, NEP and the Famine, and is happy that someone undertook the collection of memoirs about the famine and hopes that many more people will contribute their accounts.
A fairly general account: after introduction of NEP in 1922, life of peasants was good, agriculture was developing well. Hunger/famine peaked in spring 1933. He recalls the collection of all foodstuffs and the dead brought in carts to common graves. Describes major family mortality: his father, brother, sisters, and their children died.
Written in poor Ukrainian and Hryhoruk is very apologetic about it. He calls Stalin "enemy of the people" and thanks Gorbachev for his correcting of history and fairness, and then takes issue with a woman named Stakhiv who had written to the newspaper Silski visti on 3 January 1989. She was a Komsomol member who claims to have saved 1-2 children during the Famine and instead was surely engaging in looting the peasants, and compares this to looting during WWII which was punishable by death.
