VIDEO

‘Share the Story’ – Vasyl’s story (VIDEO)

 

Vasyl Tkatschenko, born in 1910, describes life in Kharkiv city during the Holodomor.

VT – What can I tell you about the Famine? About the Famine, I can tell you that at the time I was in Kharkiv. I worked in Kharkiv and I saw how starving (people) lay on the sidewalks, with their arms outstretched, begging for bread. But the police took them away immediately. They put them on trucks and took them outside Kharkiv. What they did with them is[unknown], but these were people who were about to die.

Interviewer – Who were these people? Women,men, children?

VT – There were both men and women.

Interviewer – You didn’t notice any children?

VT – I didn’t notice any children. Why did they try to come to Kharkiv? Because in Kharkiv, which as you know was the capital of Ukraine at the time, they opened two stores, two bread stores, which were called “commercial bread” (komerchyskeyi khlib). So these people from the village tried to get to there, you understand, but it’s necessary to mention one thing ‐ it was impossible for them to get on a train, because it was prohibited to sell them train tickets. The only ones who could get tickets were people on official business. But the local population, the villagers – this was prohibited to them, you understand? So some of them, who still had some physical strength, came (walked) to Kharkiv, and fell on the sidewalk, and died there. And the lines to these commercial stores, at that time, were 500-600 people. People fought each other, you understand? But at the same time, if someone was still physically capable of standing in the line – they saw that they were from the village by their clothes, you understand, and the police would remove them from those lines, load them onto trucks and take them (out of the city).

Interviewer – They weren’t even allowed to buy bread?

VS – No, no.