Tag #153938 - Interview #78048 (lev mistetskiy)

In 1932-33 there was a terrible famine in Ukraine 13. NKVD 14 officers came to villages and took away all grain stocks that peasants had made for the winter. They took it all and people were doomed to die. It was easier in towns where there were some food supplies, but in villages it was horrible. In our kolkhoz they also made the rounds of the houses taking away grain, potatoes, cereals. People starved. We survived thanks to some soy beans that we had: once mama turned a bottle of kerosene for the Primus stove over a bag of soy beans in the kitchen. The soy beans were no good for eating any longer, but mama decided to keep them and took the bag into the attic. This saved us. It was still impossible to eat them, but we used them as bait for sparrows scattering them in the attic and opening the window. The sparrows flew in, we closed the window and hunted sparrows. Mama plucked them and boiled them with soup and some herbs.