Ольга Попадин

-“ In September 1949-th I was arrested…” - Where has it happened? - In our house. They came at night… - At night? - Yes, at night – they did everything at night. Even the car stopped not near our house but on the corner of Staroznesenjsjka street, near the spring. They leaved the car there. The four of them has come. - How did they look like? - They were dressed as if they were civilian. One of them was elder. One was the chief of local investigative authorities – Pemonov. - Pemonov? - Yes, Pemonov. Except of him there were three others. One of them was elder as I remember. They tried not to speak Ukrainian – but all of them new Ukrainian. They awakened us, my father stood up. Then they asked me: “Are you Olja?” I said: “Yes, I am”. They said: “Get up. We want to speak with you”. They didn’t make any search. My sister cleaned up before and put some things on the table. So they looked on this more or less and took something from the table. What they thought to be suspect they took with them. But they didn’t make a full search in house, they even didn’t have search warrant. They told me: “Dress on! You will go with us”. I asked: “Could I take something with me?” “Yes”. So I took some underwear…Only one of them, who was elder, looked at me that I was so young… - And how old have you been? - 17. But I was skinny, so looked few years younger”.

- “ I was interrogated. They screamed all the time. I wore glasses. An interrogator said all the time: “Take your glasses off”. Only he had so sharp lookout. He thought that I could bear his lookout with the help of my glasses. I took off glasses. Then he dragged out rubber stick and said: “Do you know polish rubber?” I say: “No, I don’t know about polish rubber”. And then he showed it. But I didn’t saw without glasses what he showed. I took my glasses on and said: “Oh, it’s rubber stick. I saw it in Poles”. I thought: will I be beaten or not? They threatened all the time that they would beat me. And he showed me a photo of one woman, Ljuba Shevchyk – she was well-known. He asked: “Do you know her?” I answered: “No!” And he: “How didn’t you know Ljubu Shevchyka?” But he declined the surname as if Ljuba Shevchyk was a man. I asked: “Who is this: man or woman?” When he heard this…He stood as at the end of the porch – at such destination his table stood from me. When I asked this he found himself near me and beat me in face so I stopped short. He said: “You didn’t know…Will you speak?” I said: “You declined incorrectly.” I understood then, that I would be beaten…”

“…the trade itself existed. People lined up since evening to buy something in shop in the morning. They even didn’t know what would happen to buy – at first they were buying everything which has been selling. Then all private shops were closed – and we saw for the first time those “groceries” and “”gastronomies. Then they started providing sugar to Western Ukraine. In that time people didn’t believe that they would get sugar while lined up for it. There were queues for that sugar. In some time, right before my arrest, wheaten buns appeared – before there was only dark bread. Several shops were selling textiles. People lined up for textiles and also didn’t know what they would get. People bought 10 meters of textile. They bought everything that was in shop whether or not they needed it…”

“… and that moment the bomb fell down in the opposite side of Brygidky prison. When the bomb fell down, we were already sure that the war had started. In Monday we woke up in the morning and there were nobody around. The workers which had been working there (in prison), those criminals, broke the doors and said: “Go out!”. We where only in the slips. Moreover, in such slips that were hard to go outside. We rushed to cloak-room to take our things. While we were looking for our things, while we took everything , the fire started on. Bolsheviks came back and started fire. There were some men who had run out at once to go home. And they were shot right near the gate. They started fire on us. Several bullets got into our cell. We all went to the corridor. But from the corridor we heard soldiers that were going upstairs and we went back to our cell, exactly in ward. The soldiers came in, they were not from NKVD: “Who had planned to escape?”. Nobody. After them in one hour enkavedists came. In that time they already were near Krasne. From that place they were turned back to Lviv. Maybe, if they were not turned back, people would stay alive. But they started then execution …”