(The Holodomor in Bessarabia. PHOTO: mahala.com.ua)
Today, Ukraine commemorates the victims of the Holodomor. This day of remembrance is celebrated every year on the fourth Saturday of November. Residents of Bessarabia shared their memories of those terrible years.
The online publication Makhala told how the residents of Odesa region survived.
According to the media outlet, eyewitness accounts of the 1946-1947 Holodomor help contemporaries understand the scale of the tragedy and remember those who died, as well as realize how important it is to support each other even in the most difficult times.
Kateryna Antonivna Kulaksyz, a native of the village of Vynohradivka, was born in 1931 and lived all her life on her native land. She remembers the Holodomor of 1946-1947 well, as she was 11 years old at the time, and it was only thanks to her mother's care that she and her six siblings survived.
In Southern Bessarabia, at least 112,986 people died as a result of the famine, including many children. Official death lists compiled by district registrars in 1946-1947 were significantly underreported, so the actual number of victims was probably much higher. Residents of the Bolhrad district left their memories in the memory of their children and grandchildren, in interview notes and books, which helps preserve historical memory.
Mariia Hadzhioglo from Kotlovyna in the Reniia community recalls that about 60% of the population in her village died of famine. In 1946, she was only 4.5 years old, her father was sent to the labor front in Chelyabinsk, and her mother stayed with the children. Older neighbors helped the family survive, otherwise they would have faced complete starvation.
Petro Svynar from the village of Delen was born in 1933 into a large family with six children. After losing his mother at the age of eight, he survived thanks to his older sister, who took him in to raise him in her home in the neighboring village of Novoselivka. Her family gave the boy a chance to survive the harsh times of famine.
Olena Semenivna Volkanova from the village of Delzhylyer in the Tatarbunary community recalls the postwar years when dekulakization began. Local residents who supported the Soviet government took away grain and food supplies from the villagers.
"If they hadn't taken everything, we wouldn't have felt the hunger so acutely. Many people died, and the dead were collected and buried in common mass graves," she recalls.
"Today, a monument has been erected at that place.
In the Kamianske Artsyz community, the testimonies of local residents show how, after World War II, Bessarabia faced a new tragedy: drought, crop failures, and the Soviet authorities' demands to fulfill grain procurement plans even as people suffered from food shortages.
The documentary Anthropophagus, created by Yona Tukuser, a native of the village of Hlavani in the Artsyzka community, was filmed in Bessarabia in 2018. It records personal stories of survival during the famine and cases of cannibalism. The film's protagonists are residents of the Bolhrad district, many of whom are no longer alive.
In the temporarily occupied territories, the Russian invaders call for the surrender of all those who honor the victims of the Holodomor. The aggressor is trying to destroy any mention of its own crimes that led to the deaths of millions of Ukrainians by destroying monuments, museum exhibits and other symbols of the tragedy.
In addition, the occupiers are calling for denunciation of those who will light candles of remembrance or show other forms of grief on Saturday, seeking to eradicate the national memory of Ukrainians.
Анна Літман