In September 1932, after some unpleasantness at his latest factory assignment, Wienerberger was advised by Soviet authorities to transfer to Kharkiv in Ukraine, where he would manage the retrofitting of an abandoned factory for the production of plastic compounds. In his memoir, he describes his trip by train from central Russia to Kharkiv. As the train crosses the border into Ukraine during the night, it speeds past a burning station surrounded by blazing farm houses and haystacks, which Wienerberger described as a desperate act of Ukrainian peasant defiance against collectivization. Later the train passes stations where other trains were packed with families under military guard, headed for prison camps in the far north. The dawn’s light reveals incredible impoverishment in the countryside, which he contrasted with the lushness he had encountered when transported through Ukraine as a prisoner during WW1.³

Sometime before the spring of 1933, Wienerberger acquired a Leica camera, a model that became available in 1932.⁴ During the spring and summer of 1933, Wienerberger used that camera to take numerous photos in and around Kharkiv, of which several dozen are known to have survived to today and most of which are included in this Directory.

No doubt aware of the possible consequences of shooting unauthorized pictures, Wienerberger took very few posed photos.⁵ Instead, he took quick snapshots to document the endless lines for food, empty storefronts, overcrowded trams, the wary looks at the marketplace, monolithic government buildings, and well-built dwellings for the elites in contrast to the “temporary” shacks and lean-to’s for ordinary workers. Most chillingly, he documents utterly destitute, starving people from the villages; the dead and dying just off the busy thoroughfares of Kharkiv; cemeteries overflowing with hastily dug mass graves; and empty and abandoned farm houses.