Document 102

Letter of complaint from independent farmer O. P. Semyonova to Krest'ianskaia Gazeta, 15 July 1938

RGAE, f. 396, op. 10, d. 133, ll. 102-102ob. Original manuscript.

To the printing plant of Krest'ianskaia gazeta comrade Uritsky from citizen Ol'ga Petrovna Semyonova, village of Shishkino, Kostkinsky Village Soviet, Viaz'ma Raion.

Complaint.

No. 2 [The first complaint was not found among the letters.].

I, citizen Ol'ga Petrovna Semyonova, request the publishing house of Krest'ianskaia gazeta to pleeze look into my complaint. I, citizen Semyonova, have three children, i.e. three daughters, the oldest daughter is nineteen years old, she is blind, the middle daughter is sixteen, this daughter was born lame and another daughter is twelve, I am fifty seven, I have no man in the house: it has already been five years since he died, he was also a crippel from the civil war. So we live independently. I, citizen Semyonova, am complaining that all my property was taken away on 1 September 1936, they took from me 336 kg of rye, forty kg of oats, a sewing machine, two sheepskins from sheep, a suit with trousers, a seelskin sport coat, a cloth-lined fur coat, six sackfulls of rye, and they distrained the hay in the shed as well. These individuals were present during the seizure: Comrade Yegorov, chairman of the village soviet, Comrade Navazhilov [evidently Novozhilov], inspector of the Viaz'ma Tax Commission, and three witnesses: Ivan Mikhailov, Mikhei Stepanov and Aleksandr Sokolov. When arrived and started picking out things, I asked why, and they reply for arrears on 1935 tax and for payment of 1936 tax. I, citizen Semyonova, am illiterate and asked them to wait before taking things: the two smaller girls will come home from school and they will show you receipts for the payment of tax in 1935, but they said that we cannot wait a single minute, and in 1936 I did not receive any notices about the payment of tax, they came to take away property without notice, when I started asking Comrade Navazhilov, the Viaz'ma inspector of the tax commission, are they doing the right thing, he replies that they are doing the wrong thing, grandma. They are all my people, and I can't do anything about it. On 1 January 1937 they took away 150 poods of hay [2,457 kilograms], which was distrained on 1 October 1936 together with the seized property. Comrade G. Ya. Il'in, secretary of the village soviet, and Ivan Mikhailov, a witness, were present when the hay was seized, and they didn't even tell me, they arrived without a word, broke the lock on the shed and turned over this hay to the chairman of an outside kolkhoz Golosov, without any bargaining and without weighing it they called it a hundred poods [1,638 kg]. Why my property, hay and grain was taken I don't know and to this day I have no idea, they didn't give me receipts for the rye or the property and didnt even retern the six sacs or the money for the rye to me. I have appealed more than once to the oblast, to Moscow and to the raion executive committee and said, why don't they settle with me at all, they keep promising, we will, but in reality nothing happens. They only reterned eighty six kg of rye and that was growing its own sprouts, but they refuse to make any other settlement with me, they are mocking an illiterate and sick woman. I wonder, when will these outrages end? [Repeated appeals to help, come and investigate have been omitted.]

Written for her by Maiorova

15 July 1938