Document 23

Letter to Izvestia from I. Litvinov on refugees from Ukraine in Central Black Earth Oblast, 1932

RGAE, f. 7486s, op. 1, d. 236, l. 13. Typed copy.

Day after day all over our raion move starving Ukrainian peasants, collective farm members and independent peasants alike, in strings of carts. For any crust of bread whatsoever they part with all their belongings, footwear, clothing, or anything else they have. When you question them, they reply: "We had a good harvest, but Soviet authorities >procured' our grain, put into effect their plans and tasks for us to the point that we were left without a pound of bread." When you ask them, "Who is to blame?" They answer "Soviet power which has taken our grain away from us down to the last kernel, dooming us to hunger and poverty. It's worse than it was under serfdom."

I myself am a worker, a Komsomol member since 1928, and I wonder how the Ukraine can be hungry after a good harvest. We also have collective farms, and there's enough bread, but why is there such a situation of all places in the Central Black Earth Oblast? I direct the attention of Izvestia to this phenomenon because wherever "hungry carts" arrive they create a panic and provoke hostile speeches against Soviet power.