Village council), Amvrosiivka district, Donets'k region, into a relatively wealthy family ( My father had only 50

Case History LH05
Mykhailo Lysenko, b. 1902 in Semenivka khutir (Russian khutor, farmstead outside a village), Hryhorivka sil'rada (village council), Amvrosiivka district, Donets'k region, into a relatively wealthy family ("My father had only 50 desiatynas [135 acres] of land.") of colonists from Zaporizhzhia. In 1930, narrator moved to the city of Torez in the same region. Narrator's recall of specific names and details is remarkable. In Russia before the revolution, "Russian people were very poor. They had nothing there. It was very cold and, you know, they had only a desiatyna or two [2.7 to 5.4 acres] of land. They planted rye." Four of narrator's brothers served in the tsarist army in World War I, the eldest being a lieutenant "or some kind of officer." Narrator tells of the revolution, including his own involuntary participation in the Red Army artillery ca. 1921. Various warlords, like Marusia, "killed the Communists," and "the people supported them" because "they didn't steal anything." Narrator relates anecdotes about civil war otaman Nestor Makhno. In the 1920s, narrator would yearly go to work in the mines to earn money in order to pay his taxes of 480 rubles. An acquaintance was a shoemaker who supplemented his income by making traditional felt boots (burky), which sold for 15—20 rubles a pair. Local party members are described as holota (loosely, white trash). There were some in the village but none in the khutir. This khutir was destroyed in the 1930s. Narrator describes dekulakization, collectivization, and the flight of persons expecting to be dekulakized. The latter, including narrator, went to work in Donbas mines. Narrator recalls that "in the villages, many people died," sometimes as many as 50—70% of the inhabitants of a given village, including narrator's first cousin, a female collective farmer. The rest of narrator's family by then had left the village, and after his cousin's death her children fled the collective farm. Narrator himself, however, did not personally see peasants dying in the villages of the Donbas. Many peasants came to the city to seek food. A loaf of bread in the bazaar cost 60 rubles, narrator's monthly wage. One 18 year-old coworker, who missed a day of work, was fired by his supervisor for absenteeism and starved to death. During the famine one Party member, who seized livestock from poor peasants, was decapitated with a stone, such that he had to be buried without his head. Narrator relates several such accounts, some of which he probably heard from others, including some cases of cannibalism, and some of which he witnessed himself. Narrator beleives the famine was artificially created by seizures of foodstuffs and used by the authorities as a means of coercion and control.

Питання: Будь ласка, подайте Ваше прізвище.

Відповідь: Михайло Лисенко.

Пит.: Де Ви народилися?

Від.: На Донбасі, Донецька область, місто Юзівка. Тепер воно називається Донецьке. Я родився в Донецькому. Не Донецька була область тоді, як я родився. Тоді вона називалася область Війська Донського-Таганрізького округу, як я родився. Була Маріївська волость. Село Семенівка, а хутор, то Семенівська сільрада. Григорівська сільрада. Хутір Семенівка. А це вже при радянській владі то different вже стало. Вони мінялися (наш хутір переходив); було з одного района в другий район переходили. Він був і також Кривдишевського район і Чистяківський був район і Голодаївського був район, а потім вже по кінці вже став там російського район — то Сталінська була область. А тоді Сталін здох чорти, то він другим вже став — Донецьким, то Донецька область.

Пит.: Звідки Ваша родина?

Від.: Батьки? Батьки самі з Запорізької області.