ML: When so-called forced collectivization came, all were, at first, encouraged to join kolkhozy, that’s kolektyvne hospodarstvo [collective farms]. But those who did not want to join, they were told, as long as they fulfilled the quotas imposed by the government, they can stay as individual farmers. And so, at first, many believed, because the authorities told them that as long as you fulfill your obligation to the government, the state, the rest is yours. It simply means that they had to submit so much wheat, so much potatoes so much meat, pigs, poultry, cows, etc, etc, and whatever is left, will be sufficient for them to stay alive. But that was at the beginning. So in 1931, the quotas were increased to the point that if you fulfill the quotas of submitting whatever you had, the produce, wheat, etc, then there wasn’t much left for the families to live on. When the people have fulfilled the first quotas, compulsory quotas, the government imposed the second quotas in a matter of two or three months, which the people and kolhosps were unable to fulfill; they just didn’t have enough. That was considered to be counterrevolution. They assumed that the people still had enough food to fulfill the second quotas. Well, since people were not fulfilling, the government formed so-called brigades – they used to call them 25 000s – that were trained, armed, and sent to the villages, including ours, and I’m talking only about our village, that were going to every house, searching for anything that was edible, and simply taking it. Those who protested, well, they were beaten up, quite often to death, those who were protesting even more, they were simply shot, in front of their children, wives, mothers and so on.

The people were dying on streets, in their homes, in their houses, because of lack of food. It is understandable that at that age, I was only seven, eight, I could not comprehend the true reasons, why would the government take the food from the people, so that they would be dying, but no-one was willing to explain to me, because to talk about holod, or famine, was against the law. My parents weren’t explaining to me then, because they simply were afraid that I would start talking somewhere and they would be in trouble. And so when the terrible conditions came, that’s in December, January, the worst one in February ‘33, there were a lot of people that have died. Every morning the wagon, corpse wagon, was stopping at every house, shouting “Anybody has died overnight?”

Mykola Latyshko

Date of birth: 19 December 1927

Place of birth: Ivanivka village, Kherson oblast

Witnessed Famine in: Ivanivka village, Kherson oblast

Arrived in Canada: 1948

Current residence: Toronto, Ontario

Date and place of interview:  26 November 2008, Toronto

Excerpt From Full Interview