Sinkevych Olena Volodymyrivna, b. 1925

—How did the authorities oppose and dispossess the church?

Olena Volodymyrivna: This was after 1933, and after 1952 they started dismantling the bells. We had lovely bells. My grandfather gave his life protecting the bells; we wanted to keep them so much. So, the bells were gone, but the church remained. Then before the war, it was turned into a club. They burned all that was in the church, including the iconostasis. The head of the village council was in charge of the burning.

—Do you remember him?

Olena Volodymyrivna: Yes, Demian Mykhailovych.

—Was he forced to do this or was it of his own accord?

Olena Volodymyrivna: Of course, it was forced. Then during the war, the Germans kept their horses in the church. They set up a stable in the church and tied the horses there. Say, our atheists dismantled the church, but the Germans were believers—and they, too, did the same. They removed the icons.

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—Did you go singing koliadky as a child?

Olena Volodymyrivna: I know some koliadky. Children would go caroling, even though they were forbidden. Still, they went. In the evening, they would go to all houses singing shchedrivky and koliadky and doing posivannia.

—In your village, did only the children sing koliadky or the adults as well?

Olena Volodymyrivna: In our village, it was just the children.

—Did the people from the church go singing koliadky?

Olena Volodymyrivna: They did this on their own. They’d come into houses to paint crosses.

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—How many icons did you have in the house? Were teachers forbidden to have them?

Olena Volodymyrivna: Yes, the teachers were forbidden to have icons, but until recently I had the icon that my parents used during their wedding. Not long ago, my son gave it to someone in the village; I was angry he did this. I only had two icons, but they were not on the walls of course. Other people had several icons hanging throughout the room, and they still have them.

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—Did you see any startsi?

Olena Volodymirivna: No, not in our village.

—Maybe you have seen some on the market?

Olena Volodymirivna: No. We had only one poor woman. She and her girl asked for alms. The kolhosp gave them a house, and so they lived. Some people used to go around the cemetery, collecting donations for the church.