Demchenko, Halyna

Description

Creators

Halyna Demchenko (b. cir. 1921-1922), Author

Volodymyr Maniak

, Recipient

Media Type

Text

Item Types

Correspondence

Envelopes

Description

Letter sent from: Obukhiv, Kyiv oblast
Letter describes events in 1932-1933 in: unclear, likely the same location as mailing address: Obukhiv, Kyiv oblast
Current location name: Obukhiv, Kyiv oblast

Halyna Demchenko was 11-12 during the Famine. Her parents died in 1926 and 1927, her brother was mobilized in 1930, and she lived with her sister. Her sister worked in the collective farm and Halyna grazed their cow. They harvested some potatoes in 1932 and hid them in the cellar for the winter. Thieves locked them in their house and stole larger potatoes, while the smaller ones froze. In the spring of 1933 they had no seed potatoes. Their cow calved, so they had milk to sell. One of their buyers was the local principal’s family. They had a good harvest of potatoes, so they gave their potato peelings to the sisters who grew a few potatoes cooking the rest of the peels. Halyna survived on milk, the occasional slice of bread from her sister’s work ration and lentil soup that was provided to children at school.

In the spring of 1932, they used frozen potatoes, together with acacia and linden blossoms to make pancakes.

Since there were cases of child cannibalism in their village, the girls slept with an ax and a pestle for mashing potatoes next to the entrance. Thieves also tried to steal their cow. They failed and stole somebody else’s cow instead. The thieves were caught, sentenced and died in prison.

The sisters lived close to the cemetery and saw people being buried in shallow graves. Stray dogs would dig up some corpses at night, so the cemetery was named “tattered hill” or drana hora. The thought of their neighbor whose sons all died of hunger and of other people who suffered during the Famine made Halyna cry as she was writing the letter.

Notes