[This interview was taken in 2008 by Aigine Research Center during the research conducted on famine. It is being published for the first time]
Choibekova Turdu, 86 years old, Talas region
Famine means lack, when one has nothing. My father and brother were taken to the Army. I was 21-22 years old. We suffered severely during the World War II. Before people used horses or oxen to plow the land. All people went to the Army and fields were left unused. Only old and young people remained in the village. What could we do? We would collect dandelions so that our siblings would not starve. They grew in the field- we cut the top off and ate the lower part. We would bring them in a bundle, chopped them and added them to our yogurt. Our siblings were so happy and satisfied. Barley was also very good. When we ate barley it seemed to us that we were eating rice. First we fried it, then ground it. If we had meat we made soup and added barley into it. We were happy as if we were eating rice. Later we planted wheat and corn. We ate corn bread. In winter we collected wheat that remained from the harvest. We ground it and prepared bread.
During the war Karachai and Chechen people were in Germany and joined the German army. When Stalin heard of it he pitied these nations and instead of killing them he sent them all to Talas in one night. When they came they came rich, with their silver and gold. After 1-2 years they were short of food and they had to sell their gold for one cup of yogurt. They came and pleaded us to sell. When they first came we were very afraid that they could eat our cows. We kept our cows in the room where we slept. That time we did not have such houses; we used to live in sheds. When cows raised their tails to urinate we hurried to put a bowl under it, otherwise we would have slept on their urines. We did not have lamps; we burned cloth in oil. We did not have matches; we used flint stones. We rubbed one stone on another and got fire. Wise people got up in the morning and checked who was having smoke above their houses. So they came to that house and got fire from them. In order to prepare a lamp we used cotton, put some lamb fat in a wooden dish, placed that cotton in the middle and got a faint lamp. That lasted until we prepared and ate our meal. Our mother put the light out and lit a new one the following day. My mother would go to Ketmen-Tobo and get cotton and materials from there. One could get shoes from there too. Our fathers took their goats and sheep and left houses for 10-20 days. Mothers ground wheat and prepared bread for us. They did not eat themselves. We were little and did not understand; we thought that adults did not eat bread at all. Our mothers turned out to think of us and gave bread only to us. That time we did not have soap. We brought a special plant from mountains and prepared soap from it. We even did not have thoughts of wearing different clothes. When the war ended our brothers brought some different clothes from the Army, so since then we also started to wear various kinds of clothes. Before that our mothers brought materials from Ketmen-Tobo and sewed clothes for us, which we wore for a long time. They also processed the skin of sheep and sewed coats, pants, vests, and even hats for children.
Where did famine come from? The new government got rid of all the riches and mullahs. Those times there were no tractors or cars. We used oxen to plow the field and carry grass. There were no even wires or ropes to tie oxen. There is a place called Kaiyngdy where a tree called sambital (pussy willow). It was non-breakable. We used branches of that tree to pull oxen and we used molokish, which we attached to oxen and transported grass. Like that we used the branches of a pussy willow instead of a rope. We also transported corns to Kokoi with the help of oxen. There used to be a mill there. The mill was on the edge of the forest, along the river. We went there on foot. We had our corn ground into flour, spent the night there and came back to the village the following day. We used to boil water for tea in a pot on a hearth. At that time there was no tea. We used the burned parts of bread to prepare tea. We put them in a small pot, poured water and it became red.
I cannot accept what is happening now as famine at all. Wherever you go, be it Jambyl, Talas, or Bishkek, there is food. That time we could not find a handful of wheat, bread, sugar, and we were short of food. As for now, let it be expensive, the only important thing is that people should work. One can cultivate the land and live in sufficiency. Before people were very friendly. If somebody wanted to go to a guest, they borrowed each other’s clothes. After they came back, they returned the clothes to the owner. People also looked after each other’s cattle.