Document 117

From NKVD summary report on kolkhozes in Migulin Raion, 1936

GARF, f. 1235, op. 141, d. 1789, ll. 66-73. Typewritten original.

From the section "Profiteering with Kolkhoz Produce and Crooked Machinations by the Leadership of the Kolkhoz Farmer's Banner Kolkhoz under the Nazarovsky Village Soviet"

. . . The leadership of the Kolkhoz Farmer's Banner as represented by Klimoshenko, the kolkhoz chairman, and Nazarov, a candidate member of the VKP(b), the business manager and a kulak and White Guard, who accidentally wormed his way through as a party candidate. As soon as the kolkhoz received a truck, the latter organized systematic profiteering with produce that was intended for the kolkhoz. In the process they obtained the produce on the kolkhoz at reduced prices and took them to the bazaars in the cities of Millerovo, Rostov and Lugansk, where they sold [it] at profiteering prices. Kolkhoz chairman Klimoshenko did not stop there, and in October he set up the sale of kolkhoz products--butter, ham, apples and fleece--in the city of Rostov, to which he personally transported the above products in a kolkhoz vehicle. In addition, he sold the products at the market price that prevailed during that time at the market in Rostov, whereas he accounted for these products at slightly above their cost on the kolkhoz. For instance, he sold butter at fifteen rubles a kilogram, but the report he submitted for the seventy kg of butter he sold was based on three rubles a kilogram. This enabled Klimoshenko to appropriate 3,200 rubles of kolkhoz money from the trip to Rostov. Klimoshenko's machinations were exposed by us with the aid of a thorough inspection of the kolkhoz and an interrogation of witnesses who traveled with Klimoshenko and who confirmed that Klimoshenko sold products at several times higher [prices] than he indicated in his report [Omitted is an account of similar profiteering with kolkhoz grain and apples.]. (Klimoshenko and Nazarov were sentenced to eight years each.)

On Stavropol' Regiment Kolkhoz under the Meshkovsky Village Soviet

. . . Testimony by [female] witness Konovalova: "At the end of August or the beginning of September, I don't remember exactly, I along with kolkhoz farmers Gorina and Batal'shchikova were separating seed rye. The granary where were working is in the courtyard of the kolkhoz board. That evening just before the end of the workday kolkhoz chairman Zemliakov came into the granary and started joking with me. Seeing this, kolkhoz farmers Gorina and Batal'shchikova decided not to wait for me and headed home. A while later, Zemliakov's carriage driver Pavel Kuznetsov came over and closed the door to the granary where I and Zemliakov were. Seeing this, the latter started to strenuously badger me and [tried to persuade] me to have sexual intercourse with him. Since I knew from the kolkhoz farmers that Zemliakov had venereal disease, I told him that, to which the latter replied that that was incorrect and that just yesterday he had sexual intercourse with Yefrosin'ia Pozdniakova. I did not agree for a long time, but then I did the sex act with him after all. A few days later, doubting the plausibility of Zemliakov[>s assertion] that he was not sick, I went to a doctor in the hospital, who examined me and told me that I had venereal disease gonorrhea and that I had to be treated."

In addition to Zemliakov's infection of kolkhoz farmer Konovalova, there is evidence that he infected Ul'iana Chibizova, Yefrosin'ia Pozdniakova and other female kolkhoz farmers of the Stavropol' Regiment Kolkhoz. (Zemliakov was sentenced to five years in prison.)

Georgy Andreianovich Veshchunov, chairman of the Kaganovich Kolkhoz under the Verkhniakovsky Village Soviet in Migulin Raion, has engaged, throughout the months of April and May [1935], i.e. from the time he took the position of kolkhoz chairman, in criminal, hooliganlike activity, which was manifested in coercing women into sexual relations.

Veshchunov, by his filthy, brazen, criminal, hooliganlike actions, terrorized female kolkhoz farmers, suggesting [to them] during their first encounter that they must be sure to spend the night with him. Veshchunov's most brazen abuses include the following:

As soon as Veshchunov took over as kolkhoz chairman, he marked his very first days by going on a drinking binge with former kolkhoz chairman Klimantov, now the business manager.

In April citizen Mrykhin married the daughter of a kolkhoz farmer at the Kaganovich Kolkhoz. Aware that Veshchunov might not admit him to the kolkhoz since Mrykhin had been convicted, the latter decided to buy some vodka and invite Veshchunov to his house. Despite the fact that the kolkhoz was behind in its planting, Veshchunov engaged in a drinking spree at Mrykhin's house. During the drinking, Veshchunov suggested to Mrykhin's wife that she go sleep with him in the shed, otherwise he would not only refuse to admit her husband to the kolkhoz but would make him return to the Urals. The flustered woman was left in a quandary and made this statement to her husband Mrykhin: "What on earth should I do, go to bed with Veshchunov and buy you off or you will be sent back to the Urals?" Mrykhin replied: "If you have something going with him, then go screw, I won't have anything against it."

That same day, with evening setting in, the nearly drunk Veshchunov entered the apartment of shoemaker Yegor Nazarov and, as he walked through the entranceway, he struck a tub of water with a lash, splashing himself all over and he started swearing at God, Christ and so forth, saying: "There are so many tubs scattered around here that you can't get by." As he entered the hut, Veshchunov sat down next to kolkhoz farmer Babkina, a young girl who was Nazarov's sister-in-law, and started right in, harassing Babkina in front of Nazarov. He put one arm around Babkina's shoulders, and with the other he began to lift her skirt, saying: "Let me try you out, you're still pure, untouched, tight, let me f--- you for a while and you'll get well." (Babkina was ill.) To avoid that defilement, Babkina went out into the courtyard, and Veshchunov followed right on her heels. In the courtyard Veshchunov again started to harass Babkina and invite her to the shed, but Babkina refused. Then Veshchunov declared: "Now you can stop considering yourself a kolkhoz farmer for the Kaganovich Kolkhoz."

The female kolkhoz farmers on the field-crop brigades were frightened when Veshchunov came to see them. As soon as Veshchunov would ride up, the women would declare [say]: "Get going, girls, every which way, Veshchunov is coming, he's going to take somebody down right away."

Female kolkhoz farmer Uvarova says: "The kolkhoz women of our settlement say Veshchunov is >all hard,' he has inseminated part of the settlement, and soon he will get to the top part of it as well." (In court, Veshchunov was acquitted.)

From the section "On Violations and Distortions of Revolutionary Law"

. . . In September 1935 milkmaid Beschotnova of the Stalin's Path Kolkhoz, daughter of the commander of a punitive sotnia [Cossack squadron] under the Whites, fed a dead ram to kolkhoz farmers on the above kolkhoz, as a result of which some of the kolkhoz farmers became ill after consuming it as food.

Characteristically, Beschotnova's father Andrei Beschotnov not long before this incident was manager of the MTF [commercial dairy section], who was ousted from his job for fraud. When the best kolkhoz farmer and shockworker Brovkin was nominated to take his place, the daughter of the member of the White Guard punitive squadron, Beschotnova, began to take revenge on Brovkin for her father. And when a ram died at the MTF, she brought it to the kolkhoz storehouse and turned it in as a healthy ram. Our case against Beschotnova and Brovkin has been completed. The chief [defendant] in the case was Beschotnova. Brovkin was charged with negligence.

When it took up the case at trial, the court acquitted Beschotnova, and it gave the minor participant Brovkin, who was victimized by Beschotnova, a three-year prison term.

During the grain harvest in 1935 a kulak woman, the wife of a White bandit named Merkulov, who was executed by our organs, threw a cushion at a combine. The combine was out of commission for two or three days. When charges were brought against Merkulova, the court acquitted her, but the best combine operator, Tret'iakov, was sentenced to six months at forced labor--for what, no one knows.