Holodomor Digital Collections

Lykhachova, M.S.

:
Description
Creators
M.S. Lykhachova (b.1912), Author
Volodymyr Maniak
, Recipient
Media Type
Text
Item Types
Correspondence
Envelopes
Description
Letter sent from: Zherebianky, Vasylivka raion, Zaporizhzhia oblast
Letter describes events in 1932-1933 in: Zherebianky, Vasylivka raion, Dnipropetrovsk oblast and Zaporizhzhia area
Current location name: Zherebianky, Vasylivka raion, Zaporizhzhia oblast

M. Lykhachova grew up in a family of 13 that was not rich but hardworking. She notes that many hard-working people were sent to Solovki, where they died. The brigades took everything, to the last piece of cloth. Her family was thrown out of their house somewhere outside the village and left for dead in the cold. Five family members did die in the Famine.

One of her brothers survived in Zaporizhzhia and another one because she adopted him. Two other brothers she gave to an orphanage. All four of her brothers were killed in WWII.

Lykhachova lived the life of hardship, surviving three famines: in 1921, 1933 and 1947. The one in 1933 was by far the harshest. She describes abuse of power by the village head, who demanded sexual favors for a certificate. She went to Zaporizhzhia to find another job and ended up working in a state farm [radhosp], where they were overworked, treated harshly and fed poorly compared to the qualified staff. During the war, she fled Crimea with her husband and children to [her?] village. Her husband was killed on May 1, 1945. She blames Stalin for the war, saying had he not terrorized the people, the Germans would not have crossed the border.
She almost died of hunger again in 1947. Even after the war the taxes were high and she was extremely poor, with only one skirt for every occasion.

Note: Lykhachova was likely born in 1912, as she was 21 at the time of the Famine. Her letter not is not grammatically correct and often unclear.

Notes
Author's gender: Female
Author's name in Ukrainian: М.С.Лихачова
Category: Life-ling deprivation
Date of Original
1988-1989
Date Of Event
1932-1933
Subject(s)
Local identifier
WF 67
Collection
Maniak Collection
Language of Item
Ukrainian
Geographic Coverage
  • Zaporizhia, Ukraine
    Latitude: 47.82289 Longitude: 35.19031
  • Zherebianky, Vasylivka raion, Zaporizhzhia oblast:
    Zaporizhia, Ukraine
    Latitude: 47.50175 Longitude: 35.4308
Copyright Statement
Copyright status unknown. Responsibility for determining the copyright status and any use rests exclusively with the user.
Recommended Citation
Holodomor Research & Education Consortium
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