Samuel Biegun - February 15, 1983
Life on Kolkhoz
Wife: No don't put on.
No, no, it's all right.
It was a, a kolkhoz. You know what a kolkhoz--collective farm in Russia.
Yeah.
And uh, we didn't have no transportation you know to go. It was mid-February like now, you know, the snow was up to here, couple feet of snow, frost, fifty below. So I had to go chop the wood, you know, to make warm the house, all by myself. Took an axe and, and I went about--you couldn't too close, you had to go far away. So riding the oxes, you know, my feet was frozen. I had to walk, you know, the oxen going so slow. And I came to the village on the way back and they were from the other part of town and they were pulling me back. Until, I don't know, at home they were worrying it was already dark, you know, and I had a big stick and I hit him--slowly, slowly, I tell you. We had--another story. We had some packa...uh, care packages from United States came, had blankets. Just, you know, and I don't remember what else, you know, a few clothes. So we had to trade in for a couple blankets you had a cow, down payment. And uh, what they did with the blankets they made coats. So I used to cut--I had to cut, cut the hay--the grass, you know, and dry it. I had to prepare all the winter. I had to prepare the winter everything, so in the summer prepare for the winter.
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