The French writer Georges Simenon, who visited Odessa in the spring of 1933, was told by one man that the malheureux, the “unfortunates” that he saw begging for food in the streets, were not to be pitied: “Those are kulaks, peasants who have not adapted to the regime…there is nothing for them but to die.” There was no need for pity: they would soon be replaced by tractors, which could do the work of ten men. The brave new world would not have space for so many useless people.
