Tag #146838 - Interview #92368 (Lyudmila Kreslova)

We found ourselves in evacuation in Bashkiria [autonomous republic in the basin of the river Kama, the left confluent of the river Volga. Bashkirs are Asians, Turkic-speaking Muslims]. We arrived in Ufa [main city in Bashkiria]. Ufa enlisted us to work in a kolkhoz [17]. We were sent to a Ukrainian village. Though we were in Bashkiria, only Ukrainians lived in the village. We found ourselves among the ‘khokhols’ who are our main enemies: Ukrainians hate Jews. When we came to that village, people in the street asked us, ‘Are you Jews? But where are your horns and big ears? We were told that Jews are horned and they have hooves instead of feet.’ They were not children, but grownups. Later these villagers came to like us. Father sewed clothes for them. Besides, as evacuees, we got flour and sugar in the kolkhoz. We worked in the kolkhoz and were paid per workdays [18]. We got two buckets of honey per year and a lot of flour. The food was very good and we were absolutely fine.