I worked on the railway all my life. She retired in 2022 already. They planned to celebrate festively. She planned to make repairs in the house completely and live. Advise life. Well, it didn't work out for us.

I had it on the 24th (February). At 05:10, the daughter called.

― Mom, what are you doing?

― I sleep. I will get up soon.

― Mom, get up. Ready documents, come on. Collect everything. War.

― Well, what are you panicking? What war?

― My girlfriend called me. She does in the village council. He says that they have already been summoned to the village council, because the war has begun.

She lay for another five minutes. A girlfriend is calling here. Crying, screaming. Her daughter works in the regional hospital. "Zhenka has already called, ‒ says. ‒ Carry the wounded". I say: "What are you panicking, girls? What war? Well, what could be the war in our time?" And here, as it sounds like ‒, the shelling began in Chernihiv. We could hear well.

I approve, I run, I shout to my son to get up. I run quickly all over the house, I won't figure out where those documents are. Although she knew that they were lying in the wall. Well, they collected a little, they said that they were dug into the cellar. That's how it started.

We were home. We did not have such a basement. We hid in the cellar of our neighbor. I still had strangers ‒ family. Employees. Eight people lived in our house. Two children and six adults.

Son arrived. He says: "Mom, the boys at the checkpoint freeze their feet to the bertsev. Let's cook something." We collected all ‒ and socks, and sweaters, and pants, and jackets ‒. They took away. Son-in-law, neighbor, son were busy with boys. Firewood was taken there. They helped to make a roadblock: tires were transported, a tent, and a bourgeoisie were cooked. In general, everything that was possible.

Then he comes and says: "Mom, the boys want to eat. Give something." I say: "Well, come on, take what you have in the refrigerator. We just slaughtered the pig". They provided everything: twists, lard, and meat, ready-made stews.

Then he comes and says: "Mom, the boys are asking for something hot. If possible, to cook. Well, I said that my mother likes to cook something with me. Only such porridge and potatoes are not needed. Jewish something". So we cooked them ‒ today they take the bucket, tomorrow they take the pot.

As one (neighbor) found out, she brought some carrots and potatoes. I say that there are potatoes, then there is no need. The second brought bones that were. So they kept the piglet, killed it. Brought lard, bone. Most of the fact that everyone went with their products.

On March 6, we ran so far into the cellar to hide that we arrived. It was just a drone that flew and we had an arrival. They saw.

The guys made a column because there was a station, it was intermittently the light. And we stood under the yard. Silence. We stood under the yard and so, well, we watched a little. We just arrived and got well. The injuries were good. They took us to the hospital.

My Katya was laid immediately, because here (shows on her leg) her leg is broken by shrapnel, in the Chernihiv hospital. The first civilians to be injured were said to have been brought to the hospital. Katya was in the hospital for two weeks. Then she was taken to another hospital, and then taken abroad.

I was at home, then. We were already sitting in the cellar on the 6th, 7th, 8th. We sat in my sister's cellar. I couldn't walk anymore. The leg was swollen a lot. It was a little comforting, so they warned that it was better to leave. We left for Kulikovka to join the staff. Their desiccated house stood empty. They tell us to come. Because it was no longer possible for us here.

On March 6, there was no light at all, the wires were broken and that's it. There was a battery, candles. We used most of the candles. Who thought?

We had no stocks as such. 17 people, children and anyone who was not there were sitting in the sister's cellar. Whoever had anything, it was demolished. Where are the fur coats, where did she put on them. Everything was dragged into the cellar.

Very cold ‒ covered themselves, dressed. Plymianitsa will jump out, something will heat up there while the gas was. And then we didn't have gas. The stove is not like that anymore, it was so scary to heat it. Flood something, the smoke will go and that's it. Water... I have a manual pebble, there was a station. Then they pulled it out themselves and we had water.

We can say that we did not even prepare such a thing. That's what the twist in the cellar was, that's what they ate. Bread that was, that where was. I had a bag of crackers.

No one thought anything about that then (hygiene). As it happened. We forgot that we had to eat.

We had such shelling from all sides: from Ivanovka, from Lukashovka, from Shestovytsia. As Chernihiv (flying), so we got to. We had such crossed lights here that the cellar was shaking…

She read prayers in the cellar. I remembered that I know what I came up with. She read prayers all over.

My leg didn't even fit into the galosha, I couldn't walk. Lying at the very end. There were potatoes in the nets, they put everything on them there.

Feeded me. As the neighbor had it in the cellar, I say: "Nina, can you open the tomatoes? You have such beautiful ones standing". Potatoes were boiled in uniforms, eggs were boiled, sometimes lard, sometimes porridge was eaten.

I have diabetes. So there was a supply of medicine. I had with me a bag with documents that I needed for retirement and colors with tablets. The stock was constant, because without tablets you no longer live ‒ from pressure, from blood sugar.

We left on March 8. There was already a little calm.

The boys were warned that it was better to leave. Our soldiers said: "Leave, because it will be hot, very hot here". And on March 8, somewhere probably on the 11th or 12th day, the son ran into the cellar with the nephew. They say that we will leave.

I say: "Son, at least take something to eat, take some clothes, because I won't get there anymore. And you go let go of all the household. Let them walk around the garden in the yard, let everything go".

And he says: "If I go, I will stay there. Now it's quiet for two minutes, and then who knows what can happen". They took me out of the cellar with the nieces, put me in the car.

We left without anything. Sorry, we didn't even have underwear to change. We left completely, completely without anything. Only medicines and documents. All.

9 March. My eldest niece stayed here at home. She lived alone through the garden. What other connection there was, she called. He says: "You have nowhere to go back. There is no house of yours. All." I was still hoping. "How not?", ‒ ask. There is none and that's it. I hoped that even if she was beaten, something remained here. And when we arrived (we arrived home on April 6), when we stopped by the village, you can't call it a shock.

And so, a little more fingers broke theirs like that, but endured. And when they got to their house, they drove through the house where I lived. The in-laws there are also destroyed. And when I got to my native home, I screamed, I think, even those bitches I heard in Russia. I screamed like that, I was so hysterical. Seeing all that's left there, ‒ is beyond human power. Nothing, survived. It's hard, of course, but we survived.

When they left, they flew like on wings. We flew to such a degree that, as you can explain, I can't even say. I remember how we drove. There, the cars were parked on the highway. And after us who were driving, they shot ‒, orcs already entered Lukashovka. That's all. That road to Kulikovka was already blocked.

We were in Kulikivka. There is a hospital there. I needed to go to the hospital. They drove as possible. As it was hot, and then everything, they stopped carrying.

We lived with my employee, worked together. Girls, thank them very much, all my girls. Who helped what they could. And clothes were worn out, and products were given. They gave everything. Brings, says: "I'm sorry, the underpants are not new, they are clean, worn. Stroke as you wish." I say: "You know, Shura Mykhaylovna, I'm happy about everything. If I don't have anything and I know you, who you are, what you are". What was given, I took. She said that it is shameful to take, but you will not do anything. It was necessary, because there was nowhere to buy.

Then the daughter and son-in-law arrived. On March 27, he went to the military commissariat. He calls and says: "Stand in line for gingerbread". I had such a joking guy. Didn't hold out. "Who but me, ‒ says, ‒ must go. And your son will look closely at the girls, and I will go. I'm a tanker, I'll be taken away anyway". He's gone On October 9, they brought him on a shield. My son-in-law is gone.

My mother-in-law liked to tell me all this about the war. How they hid in the swamps, how the Hungarians treated them with chocolate. She has been since 1933. Mother didn't tell much. My father was not barking. I don't know my grandfather at all, he died early. And the grandmother did not tell anything so specific. The mother-in-law told how Kalychivka was liberated. She told everything, a lot.

It was interesting to listen. It's all useful. I never thought that we would find war, that we would find war, that we would live in war.

And now I can't... It does not enter my consciousness that we are currently at war. Well, how so? For what? What can we have this war for? What have we done wrong to someone? That we live better than in Russia?

link to history