Video, Valeriyan Revutsky

Valeriyan Revutsky

VR - A militiaman came with an order that I had to report at such and such a time to such and such a place. I was a student at the Kyiv Construction Institute and I was mobilized for the harvest campaign, to assist in the collection of the harvest, because so many [villagers] had died. I was ordered to call [villagers] to work. I had to go from house to house. There was a tragic incident. In one house, I saw a swollen girl. When I said that she had to go to work, she said she couldn’t, because she was swollen. I remembered this house, and the next day I brought her my bread ration. I did it again, and what do you think happened? Somebody informed on me to the [Communist] Party man who was in charge that I was feeding [this girl]. He called me in and said, “Listen Revutsky, what are you doing? You’re feeding Enemies of the People!”

Interviewer – Were you punished?

VR – I was punished. I had to work at the mill collecting hay. It was incredibly hard work. I managed for two days, but at the beginning of the third day, I fainted.

I saw how they evaluated and interrogated the head of the village council, Melnyk. They stripped him of his [Communist] Party membership. But there was an interesting incident during the investigation into Melnyk. The head of the troika¹ said to the villagers, “So, talk!” There was complete silence. He repeated, “Talk!” Finally, there was a voice from the back, “What can we say? If we say anything, at night we’ll get a ‘red rooster’ [fire]!” So they didn’t get any testimony [against Melnyk from the villagers.] But Melnyk and his partners were purged. The head of the tractor station, who was an NKVD agent, was shot from behind the bushes. The resistance to the [collectivization] campaign was fierce. I was there for about a month, and there were five or six instances [of resistance]. I saw this myself. In Ruda village, there was an elevator where grain was stored. There was a sign “Do not come within 100 meters of the Elevator.” The guards shot anyone who came up to the elevator. There was enough grain. This was a planned genocide against the Ukrainian people. God forbid. This was genocide. And the consequences of this Famine have affected the mentality of our people. The cruelty and brutality with which the officials treated the population impacted the people. People became harder, more callous. These are the psychological effects of this terrible Famine. God forbid.

¹Troikas were NKVD committees made up of three members. During the Famine these troikas acted much like a court, in that they had the right to investigate, prosecute and judge political cases. After the decree “Law to Protect State Property” came into effect in summer 1932, any theft of food or failure to meet the collectivization plans were considered to be acts of sabotage or counterrevolution - crimes against the state, and therefore political. Most often it was these troikas that investigated such cases. The sentences they passed were final, without the opportunity for appeal.