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There were pupils of various nationalities in my school, but there was no anti-Semitism. I was very fond of history, but we really had more, I'd say, of social science studies than history. Teaching of foreign languages was very poor. I knew German a little. In 1930, after finishing the 7th grade, I went to study at a Rabfak [22]. I shared a room with a man who was married and had children. He was also a party member. Rabfak graduates were well-educated. They formed a new generation of Soviet intellectuals. After finishing the Rabfak school I entered a pedagogical college. There was a good collection of books by Russian and foreign authors in the college library. I became a Komsomol [23] member in college. I was your typical young Soviet man who believed in everything good. I doubted Marx' theory of being absolutely right for the first time when I was a student at the Faculty of History, but there were no disputes allowed on such subjects.
The famine [24] that seized Ukraine in 1933 was horrific. Villagers were escaping to towns. There were swollen people lying in the streets begging for a piece of bread. I had meals in our Rabfak canteen in the dairy building at the New Market. We had soybeans for the most part and were told that soybeans were a worthy replacement of any other food products. This food wasn't enough for us. The Komsomol committee of our Rabfak school organized a students' crew of loaders. We worked in three shifts at Odessa's Voroshylov [25] canned food factory. I even remember that the department of the factory I worked in made eggplant stew cans for export. They explained to us that the state needed hard currency to buy tractors for kolkhoz [26] purposes. We believed that it was justified and reasonable. Students received 400 grams of bread and loaders received 600- 800 grams per day. Besides, there was a canteen at the factory where we could have up to three bowls of borsch. I was young and it was no problem for me to work an eight-hour day loading 50-kilo boxes. In this way I managed through the year of 1933. There were food coupons introduced and each person could receive 500 grams of bread and some cereals. Fish and sunflower oil was sold at the market, but it was way too expensive.
At 5 o'clock in the morning we went fishing at the beach near Lanjeron [a town beach]. Within two to three hours we could catch up to two dozens of bullheads. We went to Grecheskaya Square where we exchange these bullheads for a piece of bread or cigarettes. There was sufficient food before the war and utility supplies were very inexpensive.
The famine [24] that seized Ukraine in 1933 was horrific. Villagers were escaping to towns. There were swollen people lying in the streets begging for a piece of bread. I had meals in our Rabfak canteen in the dairy building at the New Market. We had soybeans for the most part and were told that soybeans were a worthy replacement of any other food products. This food wasn't enough for us. The Komsomol committee of our Rabfak school organized a students' crew of loaders. We worked in three shifts at Odessa's Voroshylov [25] canned food factory. I even remember that the department of the factory I worked in made eggplant stew cans for export. They explained to us that the state needed hard currency to buy tractors for kolkhoz [26] purposes. We believed that it was justified and reasonable. Students received 400 grams of bread and loaders received 600- 800 grams per day. Besides, there was a canteen at the factory where we could have up to three bowls of borsch. I was young and it was no problem for me to work an eight-hour day loading 50-kilo boxes. In this way I managed through the year of 1933. There were food coupons introduced and each person could receive 500 grams of bread and some cereals. Fish and sunflower oil was sold at the market, but it was way too expensive.
At 5 o'clock in the morning we went fishing at the beach near Lanjeron [a town beach]. Within two to three hours we could catch up to two dozens of bullheads. We went to Grecheskaya Square where we exchange these bullheads for a piece of bread or cigarettes. There was sufficient food before the war and utility supplies were very inexpensive.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Victor Feldman