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After reception I walked along street, entered court
yard, went into house. Dirty, dangerous, wooden walls etc.
Woman came out ‘What do you want?’ ‘See how people live?’ She took me into
tiny room, one small bed. Three of us live here, Then into another room
smaller. Ikon in corner. Old woman, pale, ill. Three here. But when
my boys come home we are five. In some rooms there are six or seven.
Then a Ronerka??? Came with swollen eyes and her mother, swollen eyes with
tears. Old woman said. “I have to leave Moscow the ?5th because
they have given me no passport. I know no on in the world. I have to
go beyond 100 miles from Moscow. How can I live then? We have
been refused passports and we all have to go. My daughter cannot stay in
school. Cannot do her exam. We have no money or give us breadcard.
Where can we go? My husband gets 70 roubles a month but they haven’t
paid him for a month. Another woman came. “They are cruelly
strict in the factories if you are absent one day you are sacked and get
your bread card taken away and cannot get a breadcard. Life is a
nightmare. I cannot go in the tram, it kills me – nerves. “It is
more terrible than ever. If you say a word now in the factory you
are dismissed. There is no freedom. They are dismissing people
everywhere and taking away their breadcard. – Pale – hungry - nervous.
Mother said hysterically. “I cannot get milk for my child.”
Another family:
“Black death is coming from Central Asia and North Caucasia. It will
come here. Then there will be thousands of people dying of typhus.
Two doctors came here and stripped us naked. Shame! To examine us
for typhus. In a few weeks time we will only get bread at commercial
prices. We are terrified that we will get no passports. Where
can we go?” Everywhere persecution! Everywhere terror! The man we
knew said, ‘my brother died, but he still lies there and we don’t know
when we shall bury him for there are queues for burial. And there is no
hope for the future.
Closed Church. |
