«TORGSYN» STORES IN PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF WITNESSES TO THE HOLODOMOR OF 1932–1933
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26661/Keywords:
collective memory, Soviet trade, survival, valuables, everyday life, eyewitness testimonies, oral history, sources of personal origin, Torgsyn, Holodomor of 1932–1933Abstract
The article examines the functioning of the Torgsyn store network in Ukraine in 1932–1933 through the lens of sources of personal origin, including oral testimonies of Holodomor survivors, memoirs, and interviews. It analyzes public awareness of Torgsyn stores, the specifics of their territorial distribution, the range of goods available, pricing policies, and the practices of exchanging valuables for food. Particular attention is paid to the individual experiences of store visitors, the loss of family heirlooms, the moral and psychological suffering of starving people, and their fear of persecution by state security agencies. The study establishes that, for the majority of peasants, Torgsyn stores remained largely inaccessible because they possessed few valuables and the stores were located primarily in cities and district centers. At the same time, eyewitness testimonies portray these stores as spaces of stark contrast between the abundance of goods displayed behind shop windows and the mass starvation outside them. Torgsyn is interpreted simultaneously as a means of saving individual families and as a mechanism for extracting the population’s last material and spiritual possessions. The article concludes that sources of personal origin substantially complement official and statistical materials by revealing the human dimension of Torgsyn’s operation and its place in the collective memory of the Holodomor.
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