Mariya Duzha (Makohon) (1925)

“There was a phenomenal library in “Prosvita” when they came in nineteen thirty eight. By the way, there was also Mykola Duzhyi’s big library, who worked as a secretary. It was his personal library, because he did not have a place to live. He was such an admirer. He gave every single book that he bought to “Prosvita”. He had a huge library. So when they came in nineteen thirty eight (imagine what level of barbarity it was, I just can not comprehend it) they brought all the books to the courtyard of “Prosvita”. There they started a fire and threw books in it. A woman who was working there, her husband worked there – he lit the stove, cleaned reading rooms in “Prosvita”. There was a book published – The Ostroh Bible. By the way, the Ostroh Bible is still available nowadays. And the one who was burning books took it. He saw that it was a holy book: “Here, granny, this one is holy. Read, read!” And that’s how a single copy of the Ostroh Bible was saved. It was published in 1572”.

“I had not received a single package while I was kept in the prison “on Lontskoho Street”. Receiving packages was prohibited for me. I ate only what they gave me in the prison. I ate only that horrible soup that smelled so bad that as soon as it was brought to the corridor one could smell its stink. It was made of rotten fish and unpeeled potatoes. It was horrible. I could not eat it. Girls who were kept in common cells could get some food from cell-mates who received packages. But I was by myself. That food and that water were all I had. They didn’t give us any sugar. It was called tea: water of a color I can’t even describe. And then some soup and porridge (millet meal). But millet porridge is usually yellow, and ours was grey and horrible. I could eat only a spoonful or two of that porridge from time to time. But I couldn’t eat the soup.  It smelled horrible. Made from rotten fish. You can imagine.”

“A tent was extremely long, about twenty metres, maybe even more. It was made out of black tent cloth; it was a very long tent. The tent had a door and it was upholstered with wooden boards. We entered: plank beds were on both sides. Of course, they had only one level, because obviously it was impossible to have a two-leveled plank bed in a tent. Instead of wooden boards there were round timbers, about the size of my arm. They were rough-hewed, did not have any knags. There were no mattresses. They gave us sacks, ‘Girls, fill those sacks with leafs’. I told him, ‘What leafs?’ Everything was covered with snow! It was the fifth of October. And it was Magadan. They gave us padded jackets. They gave us pants, but you can imagine how worn-out they were.”