Document 20

Letter of complaint to Izvestia from A. P. Kokurin, Mordovia, 1932

RGAE, f. 7486s, op. 1, d. 236, l. 6. Typed copy.

I have a family of nine, and what did I have before the kolkhoz? I had all the produce I needed to feed my family, and fuel, and I clothed and shod them. Had a horse and three head of sheep. Delivered to the government twenty poods of rye, forty poods of millet, oats, potatoes, and hemp. I have worked on the kolkhoz, I have honestly earned 355 workdays, but I no longer eat bread but chaff and taters, we don't have enough to resole our shoes. My children have turned black from malnutrition. Respected editors, is there no way to leave the kolkhoz rather than perish there?