of the Ukrainian people and the history of humanity. In doing so you will help prevent recurrences of the famine.

I would also like to thank the many people who have volunteered to help make this possible: the Ukrainian Orthodox Parish; the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America; Ukrainian-American Coordinating Committee; Americans for Human Rights in the Ukraine who have all contributed to putting this event together and, finally, to acknowledge the efforts of our staff to put together this hearing in fairly short notice in a land distant from their home office. I realize that San Francisco is hardship duty, but they are holding up.

Thank you all

Senator DeCONCINI: Thank you very much.

We will now proceed with our first witness who will be Mykola Kostyrko of Sacramento, California. Would you like to take a seat over here, please.
Dr. SAMILENKO-TSVETKOV: At Mr. Kostyrko’s request, a translation of his tes¬timony will be read in English.

TESTIMONY OF MR. MYKOLA KOSTYRKO OF SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

I was born and lived in the large port city of Odessa. In those days, I worked as an engineer-economist, overseeing the planning and manufacturing division of the Union of Workmen’s Associations, which was created forcibly to unite craftsmen and artisans of various specialties. This was one form of the collectivization of the ‘remnants of capitalism’ in the cities.

Already in the 1930s, shortages of consumer goods had begun. I then worked in the city of Pervomaisk, which was the administrative center of the region, in the Central Workers’ Cooperative. This organization, with its network of stores, was a substitute for private trade, which had been forced out by legitimate and illegitimate measures. Shortages of consumer goods from Kharkiv, then the capital of the Ukraine, were al¬ready apparent A ration card system was implemented for the sale of sugar, bread, and other products. Why sugar and bread? Because these were the Ukraine’s primary commodities. Later I learned that all of this was exported as ’surplus’.

One time I was called to a secret meeting of the city council, where we were told to immediately designate one of the stores for the exclusive use of the workers of the Central Committee of the Party, the N.K.V.D., and the city and regional councils. They later gave us a list of those with special cards. It was also specified that the store should appear outwardly closed, that an entrance should be constructed in the rear, and that a policeman would be designated to stand guard. In practice, those consumer goods which arrived in the city to supply the population went first to this ‘closed dis¬tributor*, as it came to be known. Toward the end of that year, I was lucky enough to quit that job and to return to Odessa. I say ‘lucky’ because then no one had the right to resign without the permission of the director of the institution, and one could be tried for it

Before the summer was over, I had the opportunity to witness the following: in the village of Novo-Arkhanhelsk, there was opposition to collectivization. The village resisted collectivization and the high grain taxes. A few activists were killed, and the