Ozimye + ssudy

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

I am translating the chapter in Grossman’s VSE TECHET about the Ukrainian
famine of 1932-33.  There seems to be an inconsistency, but it may be that
there is something about the Russian crop system that I do not understand.

We have been told earlier in the chapter that in the summer of 1932
‘Указание было забрать и семенной фонд весь.  (Ukazanie bylo zabrat’ I
semennoi fond ves’) Искали зерно, как будто не  хлеб  это,  а бомбы,
пулеметы.’

And then a few months later, we get this:
   С  осени стали  нажимать  на  картошку,  без хлеба быстро она пошла. А к
рождеству  начали  скотину резать.  Да  и мясо это на костях, тощее. Курей
порезали, конечно. Мясцо быстро подъели, а молока глоточка не стало, во всей
деревне яичка не достанешь. А главное - без хлеба. Забрали хлеб у деревни до
последнего  зерна.  Ярового  нечем сеять, семенной фонд до зернышка забрали.
Вся надежда  на озимый. Озимые под снегом еще, (Vsya nadezhda na ozimyi.
Ozimye pod snegom eshche), весны не видно, а уж деревня в  голод входит.
Мясо съели, пшено, что было, подъедают вчистую, картошку, у кого семьи
большие, съели всю.

It appears that, even though ALL their stock of grain was confiscated in the
summer, they were able to sow their ozimye.  Is it conceivable that the
ozimye were sown early in the summer, before their grain was confiscated?
That is the only way I can make sense of all this.

                        **************

I’m also puzzled by ‘ssudy’ in the next paragraph.  Bread could not be
bought anywhere, and the peasants were not allowed to leave their villages.
What use would money have been?  Is it possible that ‘ssudy’ could mean a
loan of seed rather than of money?
   Стали кидаться ссуды просить - в сельсовете, в район. (Stali kidat’sya
ssudy prosit’) Не отвечают даже. А доберись   до   района,  лошадей   нет,
пешком  по большаку  девятнадцать
километров.

Best wishes to all ( a draft translation follows),

R.
 

And worst of all, there was no grain, no bread.  Every last kernel had been
requisitioned.  Come spring, there would be no spring wheat to sow.
People’s only hope was the winter wheat, but that was still under the snow.
There was no sign of spring, and the village was already starving.  They’d
eaten all the meat.  They’d eaten what millet they had.  They were getting
to the end of their stock of potatoes – the larger families already had none
left at all.

People began begging for loans. From the village soviet, from the district
committee.  They didn’t get a word in answer.  And it was twenty kilometres
to the district centre, and there were no horses.


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