MK: At the time, there were three of us – my two sisters and I. One of my sisters died because the doctor didn’t want to come treat her. After she died, another sister was born in the fall. She was very, very sick, and the doctor said, “I’ll come later; she’s going to die anyway.”

I saw them taking children away to the orphanage. Behind a fence, I saw children, aged three to six. I also saw children aged six to nine.

Interviewer – You saw how their parents left the children on the street?

MK: Yes. I have a friend here in Winnipeg whose mother left four children on our street. I didn’t know her then, but here we started talking.

Interviewer – Did she tell you anything?

MK: Yes. They took everything from them. They had a butter churner, a mill, and machinery. And they took everything. The father ran away, and the mother brought the children to the city and left them on the street.

Interviewer – How old were they?

MK: The oldest daughter was eight, the brother was younger, and the other two daughters were even younger.

I know that there was never anything cooking in the house. We were always hungry. When [our parents] brought bread and gave it to us, we always wanted more. We collected pigweed, and mother cooked borsht with some potatoes. That’s all I know, and we always waited for mother to bring some bread. You had to pay for that bread in the stores.

Interviewer – Your mother took her gold earrings

MK: Yes. And she got some flour for them. That’s it. So she said that she would bake something.

Interviewer – How long did that flour last?

MK: A couple of days. It was a small bag.

Interviewer – And did you have anything else to trade?

MK: Mother took everything to the bazaar, even our flowers, which were like trees. She traded everything we had.

Interviewer – What kinds of things? Clothes?

MK: Clothes. She had a fur collar on her coat, and I stood beside her as she tried to sell the coat. Then she could buy something.

Interviewer – And your father? Did he work?

MK: My father worked but he was fired because he didn’t want to join the [Communist] Party. He couldn’t get work because he was against communism. My mother told us we shouldn’t talk about what our father was saying about politics with his friends. My father was arrested in 1937, after the Famine.

Mayina Kyrychenko (nee Solomenko)

Date of birth: 1926

Place of birth: Slovyansk city, Donetsk oblast

Witnessed Famine in: Slovyansk city, Donetsk oblast

Arrived in Canada:

Current residence: Winnipeg

Date and place of interview:  16 March 2009, Winnipeg

Excerpt From Full Interview