TESTIMONY OF MR. OLEKSANDER MERKELO
I don’t know what life was like in the Ukraine before the revolution, because in 1917 was only four years old. I remember the first years after the revolution and the period of the Civil War (1920-22) well, because I was already going to school at the
time.

Countless farms were destroyed. The estates of wealthy landowners and the forms of peasants lay desolate and overgrown with weeds. Schools operated only on the in¬itiative of individual teachers. The schoolrooms were unheated; there were no textbooks, paper or pencils. There was no merchandise in the stores-not even matches. Fire was obtained by striking flints.

At the beginning of the N.E.P. (the New Economic Policy) in 1922, the more prosperous estates were converted into so-called ‘radhospy’ or state farms. Farming ac¬tivity started up again with the help of the government. The rest of the land was divided among the peasants in accordance with the number of persons in the family. At the same time, private commerce was permitted, along with small enterprises. People were permitted to operate their own grist mills and workshops, for example. In two or three years, the economy had improved markedly. Instead of fields over¬grown with weeds, there were fields of wheat, sugar beets, sunflowers, and other crops. The problem of supplying towns and villages with food was solved. Small industry and trade flourished, and the stores were filled with all the necessities.

The schools began to function normally and had mandatory instruction in Uk¬rainian. The youth of the village were very active. There were even Komsomol (Com¬munist Youth League) organizations, but these had no active political or party-related functions. The problem of eliminating illiteracy among the older peasant was taken up. Books were read in reading clubs, amateur groups sprang up spontaneously— sporting clubs, people who planted trees, etc. The majority of these young people were the children of peasants, with some from the local intelligentsia. These enthusias¬tic youth enrolled in high schools and universities, and no one asked about their class background. True, Komsomol members and the children of poor peasants had privileges and scholarships. But overall, the peasantry was satisfied and had no par¬ticular animosity toward the Soviet government. Maybe one or two percent of the peasants had been truly treated unjustly—those who had owned more land before the revolution and had all their holdings reapportioned.

They didn’t last long, but I would say those were happy years in the Ukraine.

Between 1926 and 1927, private trade, industrial enterprises, and grist mills dis¬solved due to financial burdens and taxes that were beyond their means. Trade declined, and small enterprises, taken over by the state and by collectives, suffered a decrease in productivity. In our village there were three working mills during the N.E.P.; afterwards, only one was left functioning, and then only on an intermittent basis.

In 1928 the government divided the village population into kulaks, middle peasants, and poor peasants, engendering enmity that had never before existed. Formerly, the poor peasant could always get help from his better-off neighbor, either in the form of a loan or work. The concept of ‘the liquidation of the kulaks as a class’ emerged, and that was the beginning of the tragedy of the Ukrainian peasantry.