[烛光生存狂]-【卫国战争老兵回忆】伊万·加西佳

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I was born in 1926 in a Moldavian village of Bul’boka, Orgeiev District, Kingdom of Romania. We were a family of eight: the parents, four daughters and two sons. Like the majority of Moldavian peasants we had a hard life. Since our family had a small piece of land, we didn’t belong to the poor peasant category. The family didn’t starve but at the same time we experienced serious difficulties in regard to clothes and footwear. Therefore we had to earn additional money as hired men.

I completed four grades at the local elementary school and the next three grades at the secondary school in a neighboring village. Although the elementary and secondary education was free, our parents couldn’t afford to educate all of their children – my sisters didn’t attend school at all. I was eager to continue my education and in 1938 my father even rode me in the city of Kishinev. I passed the entrance examinations in a high school successfully but the tuition exceeded our means.

N. Ch. – How did your family and neighbors feel when Moldavia since 28 June 1940 became a part of the USSR? What had been changed after that? Did people feel that the war was around the corner?

I. G. – Not only our family but almost all of our landsmen were waiting for such an event. Therefore we welcomed the Red Army cheerfully. As I remember it, since 1938 it was rumored that Moldavia would enter in the USSR but these talks were punishable. There were also rumors of a “Soviet landing commando” which supposedly was acting in Moldavia…

Our village was rather poor. There were only four prosperous families that owned more land than the others. There was also in the district one major landlord. He and the mentioned families left for Romania.

There weren’t memorable changes after Moldavia became a Soviet republic. First of all you should consider that in the next June the war started. There wasn’t enough time to organize the collective farms, however such plans already existed. All peasants were told to finish sowing. Several men were drafted for military service in the Red Army. Our village didn’t experience the dispossession of the kulaks (comparatively wealthy peasants who employed hired men labor). Nevertheless, four of our men were arrested and we never heard a word regarding them. Their families, however, weren’t affected by any further oppression. Among the four arrested was the father of my future wife. Like most of our inhabitants, that family was of scanty means. For example, the floor in their house was earthen. We suppose that the cause of his arrest was the conflict between him and the head of the village administration. After the war we tried to ascertain his fate but nothing, absolutely nothing became clear…

You asked me if the villagers felt that the war was imminent. Don’t forget that we were common peasants who didn’t read the newspapers, and there was no radio in the village. For example, I remember what an emotional shock our villagers experienced when they saw for the first time in their life a movie, namely the Soviet movie “Peter I.” There was neither a spacious room nor a screen, so the movie had been projected on a whitewashed outdoor wall of a house. After the end of the movie many of our peasants approached the house and touched the wall… So you can make sure that we knew few things and understood little. Nevertheless, I remember that my parents stocked up salt, matches and kerosene. Moreover, before the war started almost all of our Jewish villagers left the village. Only four of the poorest families remained. Their fate was tragic: all of them were shot on the outskirts of our village. My father along with our local priest and a few villagers went to the Romanians and begged them to release at least the children, promised that these children will be baptized. Alas, everything was in vain. The soldiers snatched the unhappy children from the hands of their parents…

N. Ch. – Please describe the life in your village under Romanian occupation. How the occupation came to the end?

I. G. – Our village was occupied at the very beginning of the war. Therefore none of villagers were mobilized for the Red Army. There weren’t combats or skirmishes in the vicinity of our village. We also managed without a permanent Romanian garrison. In 1943 and 1944 so-called Armata Neagre (black army) existed. It was a kind of a labor army: mobilized people were setting up a defensive line for the Romanian army.

In all other aspects the life of the landsmen had changed just a little – people worked hard as before. Most likely the taxes had increased. I vividly remember piles of belongings near the village administration house. These things had belonged to people who didn’t deposit the tax total by the due date. If the owner wouldn’t pay the tax by the final due date, his/her things was to be sold. Where could a poor peasant find money?

Not many our landsmen were drafted for the king’s army. My father was born in 1887, so he wasn’t drafted either for the Romanian army or the Red Army. And in general, Romanian rulers didn’t give credit to Moldavanians. Even the primar (headman) of our village was directed from Romania. To tell you the truth, I don’t remember any special facts of oppression in our village during occupation period. Nevertheless, people still looked forward to being liberated.

When the Red Army began nearing the Moldavian border the intensiveness of building the defensive line not far from our village increased. Our landsmen including me had to dig trenches and set the wire entanglement every night. As the front line neared to our village tightly the Romanians forced all inhabitants to evacuate to the rear village of Tabere, about ten kilometers from Bul’boka. I still remember that sunny day when a long column of our villagers left their homes for Tabere. By that we were spread before the eyes of the Red Army troops but they didn’t fire at us. Only a few old men bluntly refused to leave their houses. It didn’t help, however. Romanian soldiers took every valuable thing that they managed to find in the abandoned houses. Moreover, they broke and destroyed many household goods.

We returned to our village the same day and began putting our homes in order.

N. Ch. – Ivan Antonovich, how can you explain the fact that you and all of your neighbors greeted the return of the Soviet rule? Why were you happy to participate in the war even not knowing the Russian language and after a very short experience of life under the Soviet rule?

I. G. – While living in Romania, we, the common peasants, had no prospects; we were doomed to work for the well-to-do all our life long. We couldn’t attain either an adequate education or a good profession. The tuition was beyond even our, not a poor family’s strength. What can we talk about if we had insoluble problems regarding clothes and, especially, footwear? When Soviet rule first came to us in 1940, different wares such as fabric, clothes and footwear were delivered in the village right away at prices that were acceptable even for poor peasants. And people saw that it is possible to live in a different way. They saw the most important difference – totally another treatment of citizens. People supported Soviet rule and were ready to fight for it because of its humane treatment of common people as well as of the opportunity to attain a good education and prospects in their life.

N. Ch. – How did you start your military service?

I. G. – Literally on the third day after the liberation of Bul’boka, a Red Army captain already appeared in the village. He spoke Romanian a little and loudly summoned all men to gather by the village administration office. All men ages 18 to 50 underwent to the draft, only blindness could be the reason for not to being drafted. Altogether about 500 men were enlisted. We, the yo

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