Document 22

Letter from M. Prokunin on starvation in Middle Volga Krai, 1932

RGAE, f. 7486s, op. 1, d. 236, l. 32. Typed copy.

On a casual trip through K[inel']-Cherkassy Raion of Middle Volga Krai I drop in to the office of Comrade Kozurov, the chairman of the raion executive committee. In front of him stands at attention the chairman of a rural soviet [one of the Twenty-Five Thousand Moscow workers sent to the provinces as preceptors] and reports: "In my rural soviet [of Kromov] the following situation has arisen: the collective farm workers have no bread, hungry stablemen are not feeding the cattle, they say >I'm hungry and I'd rather sit at home on the roof of the stove.' The cattle are dying from malnutrition, the collective farm workers snatch parts of the carcasses and eat them." Chairman of the Raion Executive Committee Kozurov [instead of] sharing his opinion, giving advice to the chairman, shouted: "Don't come to me any more with small matters like these. Have you lost your mind? You all got 6 poods and ate it all up, and village leaders are panicking, [and] you've come with this small matter. Today I will raise [the matter] of you at the meeting of the Raion Committee Bureau. We will reach practical conclusions on how you've handled the matter. Can you believe what he's complaining about? He has no bread on his kolkhoz, they eat carrion, I as RIK chairman receive seventeen kilograms of flour. I make do with it. And his rural soviet got six poods for the year and it's already gone. Don't come to me any more with small matters like this, or I'll have you tried." The poor chairman of the rural soviet left the office and began to cry, "How can I go to back to my rural soviet? I don't dare show my face there?" As bad luck would have it, the seasonal laborers returned from logging work in the Ul'ianovsk Raion; there too no bread had been given out.