Yakov Voloshyn

This is me as an employee of the Kiev newspaper Sovietskiy Selianin (Soviet villager). This photo was taken in Kiev in 1948. My last day at the front was a battle for a hill in late fall of 1943. At that time the Germans got a new powerful cannon called ?Big Bertha?. It fired not far from me and from then on I didn't remember anything. I regained consciousness in the medical unit. I couldn't hear or talk. I stayed six months in this hospital. In March 1944 they released me and told me to go home. Kiev was already liberated. I got a food package and tickets to go home. I went to work in 1945. I worked with the Soviet Villager newspaper. This was a newspaper of the Central Committee of the Party published in Ukrainian for the Western regions of Ukraine, annexed to the USSR after the war: Moldova, Bukovina, Subcarpathia. In the late 1940s this newspaper ceased publication and gave way for a new newspaper: 'Kolkhoznoye Selo' [Kolkhoz village]. This was also a Central Committee newspaper and published in a bigger format. It was published in Russian and Ukrainian. I worked a lot to support the family. Besides working for the newspaper I also worked freelance in other editorial offices. I took retouch orders and gave photographs back at the scheduled time, receiving my payment. I also painted covers for books and magazines. Some time after the war we received monthly allowances for military awards. Then this privilege was cancelled 'at the request of the working people' as it was usually explained at the pretence that veterans didn't want any privileges.