VILLAGE LIFE
Life in villages has changed tremendously. Before people were farmers, everyone had land, cattle, machinery. Once the collectivisation started everyone was forced to join kolkhoz.
Andriy was Bogdana's neighbour. He was a blacksmith whose family was deported from Poland back to Ukraine. Mariyka, Bogdana's mother, helped them once they just came to the village and had nothing. Andriy was thankful for her generosity. He would help Mariyka and give Bogdana advice or encourage her when she was sad or lost.
Western Ukraine, 1950s
Bogdana
They took away everything, machines, horses, clothes, everything that had value. My mother had hidden a leather house harness in the garden. Once we didn’t have anything for winter to eat, she digged it out and asked her friend to exchange it for food.
My mother didn’t know how two steal, she never did it. But once we didn’t have anything to feed the cow with. She decided to steal some hay. My mom went to the field during the night and when she came back I helped her to hide it in the barn. She was crying. She did something she wasn’t proud of but it was right, she saved our cow and we could have milk and cheese.