Full Name in Ukrainian: Тетяна Дудко
Full Name in English: Tetiana Dudko
Data of Birth: Unknown
Place of Birth: Kotiuzhany
Raion: Murovani-Kurylivtsi raion
Oblast: Vinnytsia oblast
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; grain requisitioning; search brigades; family mortality; food substitution
Notes: Abridged letter is published in 33: holod. Narodna Knyha-Memorial book, Kyiv: Radiansky pysmennyk, 1991, p. 95.
Tetiana Dudko is a secondary school student who recorded a story told to her by her grandmother who survived the Holodomor as a child. The events likely took place at or near the village of Kotiuzhany, Murovani-Kurylivtsi raion, Vinnytsia oblast.
Tetiana’s grandmother recalled how the commissars (upovnovazheni) responsible for grain procurement ordered her father to deliver grain to Kotiuzhany railway station. There he was given a certificate (confirming the grain delivery).
When the commissars came back again for more grain, they were shown the certificate, but they still searched for more grain. They found and took away some rye which was drying on top of the oven and a small bag of beans. After that, the family was left with nothing to eat. In the spring [of 1933], Tetiana’s grandmother’s siblings, her three-weeks-old brother and her three-year-old brother died, followed by their grandparents. Starvation led to mass deaths in the village, and some people resorted to cannibalism. Summer brought some relief with mushrooms, berries, and first grain spikelet that were not ripe yet but people ate them anyway.
Tetiana’s grandmother taught her to respect and appreciate bread, and never throw it on the ground.
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