The next destination for our ECG Productions team on their journey through Ukraine was the city of Dnipro. There, they had the privilege of interviewing Valentina Vlasenko, a local resident who has meticulously preserved her family’s memories of the Holodomor and the repressions of 1933. We are honored to share with our followers a few poignant excerpts from her family’s stories as recounted by Valentina.
A large portion of the village perished and were buried in a ditch dug in the field, which has since become overgrown with weeds. In the 1970s, the village council allocated funds to enclose this area with a fire ditch, a decision that caused considerable discontent among the locals. Valentina, who worked as a paramedic, discovered that there were virtually no birth records in the metrics for 1932-33.
The winter of 1932-33 was marked by a severe drought, resulting in a meager harvest. Despite the hardships, survival would have been possible if not for the aggressive surplus appropriation policies. The village council’s commission seized everything, leaving families destitute. The memories of these confiscations, which left entire families with nothing, were particularly harrowing. Relatives even betrayed each other: Valentina’s mother’s cousin, Aunt Maria, was part of a detachment that confiscated property from her own family.
Many who attempted to leave the village in search of work were killed by the police. With no strength left to dig graves, the bodies were placed in a ditch. People resorted to eating grass, leaves, and acacia flowers to survive. Valentina’s father managed to survive by eating potato berries, but this experience left him unable to tolerate potatoes for the rest of his life.
Valentina also shared the story of her grandfather, Sidor Grigorievich Letuchy, who refused to join the collective farm, a decision that brought hunger upon his family. Her grandmother Melashka worked on the collective farm for minimal rations, which she carefully divided among the children. Through sheer willpower and ingenuity, Valentina’s father managed to endure those harrowing years.