In Avhustivka villagers were summoned to a meeting, where they were told to create a ‘Committee of the Poor’ – the usual prelude to collectivisation – and regaled with the charms of life under communism. ‘The representative,’ Oliynyk wrote, ‘vividly described how well people lived in the Soviet Union, how the disabled and elderly were provided with all necessities – housing, heating, shoes, food, clothes . . .’ But having seen their stores stripped bare and the contents of their village library burned in the market-place, the villagers were not fooled, quickly declaring themselves ‘fed up with
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