Full Name in Ukrainian: Петро Антонович Чешківський
Full Name in English: Petro Cheshkivsky
Data of Birth: 1925
Place of Birth: Polova Lysiivka
Raion: Kalynivskyi
Oblast: Vinnytska
Country: Ukraine
Copy of original: Yes
Envelope: Yes
Number of pages: 4
Keywords: Ukraine--History--Famine, 1932-1933--Personal narratives; Famines--Ukraine--History--Sources; Famine victims; Holodomor; Голодомор; child; mortality; major family mortality; WWII; orphan; grain requisitioning; memorialization
Notes: Abridged letter is published in 33: holod. Narodna Knyha-Memorial book, Kyiv: Radiansky pysmennyk, 1991, p. 85
Petro Cheshkivsky was eight years old in 1933.
He recalls the events that took place in his native village of Poliova Lysiivka, Kalynivka raion, Vinnytsia oblast.
Petro was the youngest of five brothers. His four older brothers all died during the Holodomor. His father died too. Petro has no knowledge of what happened to his mother. At the end of his letter, he lists the names of his relatives that he wants to be included in the Memorial Book. That includes the names of his father and brothers and the name of a sister he does not mention before in the letter. That suggests that his sister also died of starvation.
Petro’s father had fought in the Civil War in the Red Army cavalry. He was a supporter of the Soviet system and voluntarily joined a collective farm and gave his two horses to the collective farm. Despite his loyalty to the regime, the cow and all the grain were taken from him (during the Famine) and this led to the entire family dying, except for Petro.
Petro fought in WWII. He believed that the Famine of 1932-33 was more devastating for Ukraine and his village than the war. In his village of 300 homesteads, 750 people died during the Famine. By comparison,100 people were killed in action in WWII. Cheshkivsky wishes his brothers lived and fought in WWII. Had they died in the war defending their motherland, that would have been a more meaningful death, compared to death by starvation from the “Stalin’s Feast”.
Left alone after all his family members perished, Petro ran away from home. He did it to hide from the burial brigade people who were paid 1 kg of bread daily for collecting the dead bodies and taking them to an improvised mass grave. They wanted to grab and drag Petro to that site while he was still alive. Petro ran away with a half-bucket of beet seeds. He hid in the bushes and ate seeds and weeds.
Petro Cheshkivsky supports the idea of erecting monuments to those innocents who perished during the 1933 Famine and believes that the people are ready to fundraise for this cause.
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