Hunger in Latgale after World War II
Categories: Holidays and traditions, Andrey Rancan
Story-teller: “Yes, I remember, the year forty-seven, that was the year when we ran short of bread already in spring. We both with my father went to Zemgale, The sister’s brother lived in Tukums district. He was married, had a family, we went to him. There we worked for a week, and carted the clover. I could only admire how strong he was. With those three.. three-pronged fork he took half a rack at once, I could take just a little. We worked for a week, and came back home with the bagful of corn. And thus we managed to survive, so to say, till the next harvest.
Interviewer: “By what did you go?”
Story-teller: “By train, a pasen…a freight train, and hitchhiking. We could buy bread… formed bread, that’s about baked bread. We had taken that bread with us; it was neces... necessary on the way. We got to Krustpils, there we spent some time waiting, that train did not go further, people got off and had to wait for the next train. Already then, there was a direct train from Krustpils to Jelgava. The father got on the train, I was with my father, and we had that bag with the bread, one loaf. Then I threw that loaf of bread, that, that bag, but the train was crowded, and such as, as, you see, as a pipe, two-metres, maybe more in diameter, that was crowded with the so-called bagmen. They were coming from Russia to earn their living here. That my bag was torn, and everything disappeared in a second, those couple or some pieces of bread. What’s the use to look for a wrongdoer? I was alone, but there was, as they say, the whole crowd of hungry people. But we managed; we came with that bag in the end”
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Researcher: Dr. philol. Gatis Ozoliņš, Daugavpils Universitāte
