RESETTLEMENT OF CZECH PEASANTS IN WESTERN UKRAINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600040325-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 325
• Publication Date: July 23, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/21: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600040325-7
DAT
ACQ
COUN rRY
SUBJECT
DATE DISTR. ~~ Jul 1953 NO. CI 25X1 2
NO. OF' ENCLS.
)LIS)L)) BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TG
REPORT NO.
25X1
TI1IS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
1? The region where my family lived in Czechoslovakia was hilly and poor for agTi-
culture, and when Communist agitators promised us heaven on earth if we. would re
settle in Western, Ukraine, we were naturally susceptible. They told us that we
would be given free hospital care, labor unions, free schools, etc. Local
Commrinists, such as an uncle of mine who had been a Party member since 1935-and
who was almost illiterate, spoke at meetings of the village council, and later
were Joined by Party agitators from Kiev in the USSR. The property that we owned
in our village of Toriski was appraised, including land, buildings, equipment.
livestock and the era,,a that we had planted in the fields and we were given dcrtu.
ments showing that we had left this property. We were promised that we would xe
.rive the equivalent when we go, to the Ukraine. If we received more, we were to
be given .-% 15-year bank loan in order to finance the difference in value. As it
turned out, the house our family received was better-then the-one we had left.
On the other hand, we could receive loans end assistance.in building a house if
this became necessary., We were also told that we would be free farmers for two
years. Another means of persuasion'l..sed by the Soviet agitators was that of
telling some of the families in our village that they were really of Russian ori-
gin and that they should return to their homeland. We were told that it was
pointless to bring along any-thing bul)~y since everything would be
we arrived in the ?*t-rs?r.~ provided when
2, We arrived in the Village of Podtsurkovo near Zdolbunovo in the Rovno oblast in
February 1947. Our disillusionment with the Soviet regime began as soon as we
crossed the border and began to feel the weight of Soviet authoritarianism, but
it was then too late to do anything about it,
3. The village of Podtsurirovo had been populated by about 60 families, all but two
of which were Czechs. These were people who had emigrated to this area years be-
fore, in the days of the Tsar. Some time before we arrived, they assertee that
they were Czech nationals and demanded to be repatriated, since they disliked the
Soviet regime. A few of these fe-41-4= ware Sill in Podtsurkovo when we arrived.
They were afraid to tell us what conditions-wouli~ be like for ?ze. h?+ _~-
h Tie Trial io tv,ix to the Soviet authorities and tell them
we wanted to see the Soviet agitators who had made all this glowing promises to us
in Czeehoslova]Gia, but we never saw them again. It was imaossible to talk with
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
USSR (Western Ukraine)
Resettlement of Czech Peasants in
Western Ukraine
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.hose Soviets. Whatever we said, they would evade the issue and bring up something else,.
so that it was impossible to establish rapport with them. In answer to our request for
the things we had been promised, they told-us that the Soviet tb 1
need and could s erase ves were in dire
spare us nothing. As a consequence we had-no seed and our family could
only plant 11 hectares of spring crops that first year, out of 63- hectares-of land that
had been put at-our disposal.. When we?arrived, the family that had previously occupied
this farm had planted winter crops of wheat, barley, oats etc. on about 23- hectares which
we harvested in July 1947. The yield was fairly. good that first year - about 25 quintals
of wheat to the hectare. We had one hectare of wheat, one-half hectare of rye, less than
one-half bectaxe of potatoes and -he rest miscellaneous.
3. We shared the village of Podtsurkoro with some Ukrainian families who arrived shortly
after we Czechs. These Ukrainians had formerly livid-around Lublin, west of the Bug river
in Poland? As I understood it, they left Poland around 1945-1946 for a variety of reasons.
It was rwm~red that some had been driven out by the local Poles, some had hoped to find a
better lif-' in the USSR, and some had been forced by Soviet authorities to settle in the
Ukraine. ;?.ose families dint eventually came to our village had at first been settled in
the erea_of Shitomir-Kheason-Zaporozhe> Finding conditions intolerable there, and seek-Ing
to E is do't?h by starvation, they arbitrarily pulled up and left, ending up in Podtsurkovo.
I am not sure what their exact legal position was at the t? me. They had been kolknoz mem-
-rs anid were liable to prosecution for leaving without authorization. However I has the
-.enression that the regime was too shaky at the time to impose control in that area, and
if the peccole lad not been so weakened with hunger, they could have sucrpsdfuiiy s+a.,^ea a
local revol... Since we Czechs disliked administrative and political activities. these
Ukrainians .oon assumed all responsibility in this work. They did the same as we did -?
taking over he ho es and fields of the Czechs who had formerly been there. They were
quite crowded however, living two and three families to a house.
As early as the Fall of 1947 we were subject to propaganda on t e ad an`agas
tive furor economy with.a view to persuading us to r V nee
join a kolkhoz. However, we we're unre-
ceptive, During the harvest season, in July 1949'the Ukrainians in our village were given
the n:..eroative of joining the ko] z or going to prison. It was possible to aptly thi4
kind of pressure: because they had iilegally left kolkhozes around the Zhitomir -kherson-
Zaporozhe area, and were subsequently subject to prosecution. In neighboring villages
some of the peasants refused to join the kolkhoz and were sent to prison, and then the rest
gave in and joined . In 1950, in a neighboring village, those who did not join the kclk-
hoe did not have the right to till land, and consequently, half the acreage went ucplanted.
In our village, everyone joined the kolkhoz by the Fall of 1950. The most effective means
of forcing our farmers into the kolkhoz was the imposition of heavy taxes and assessments.
In 1947, we only paid taxes in kind and not at an established rate. However, in the Fail
of 1947 we succeeded in planting most of our acreage in winter crops and by 1948 we ts.'
pay taxes based on sown acreage. By 1949, we had the following Government procurement
quotas for our family p-operty:
gX11D.j, out of appn,ximately 100 harvested quintals - 69 had to be delivered to the Sthte
yQ ?s. out of about 80 harvested quintals -, 40 had to be delivered to the State.
i ,mss: cat of about 15 quintals harvested - 10 were delivered to the State,
In addition we were assessed f--^. 270 liters of milk and 125 kilograms of meat from our
one ccw. This of course had to be purchased on the-open market by us and then delivered
to the State. And finally,' we were assessed 5,900 rubles in money. In order is pay this,
we sold our-horse-for 2,100 rubles, and our cow for 1,600 rubles. We received 400 rubles
for the grain we had delivered to the SEnte at State ...._--_ M act: to force our family to join the kblkbos. WerdidGmanage to pay all ourptaxe3iy
that year, but only at the price of many hungry days fQr our family. In May, 1950 those
who still had not joined the kolkboz were obliged to pay even heavier taxes, while the kolx-
hoz had a comparatively lighter assessment which was easier to pay for the individual
families comprising the kolkhoz. (Althcrigb they were obliged to sell some of their grain.
to buy certain livestock which the kolkboz was obliged to possess.) This was a hint to
those who bad still not joined that-it would be easier for them if they did join. In 1950.
we were told to deliver 90 quintals of grain, and to pay 9,300 rubles in currency. To
give an idea of how exorbitant this tax was, our house in the village waP only assessed at
19,000 rubles, which meant that we paid a tax of 50% of the ialue of our house in one year.
We obviously had no means to pay such a tax, so we were forciid to loin the _knl-rhnz.. IF-
1rt1-
.,er- compla.ned ~_;aout his treatment, and stated tMt he wat+ted to eo back to Czwohnalo-
vakia Vi th hi c 45...41 .. .-d w-.- - - - - -
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