the NKVD bullets, but this was a very dangerous thing to do before
all the bolsheviks cleared out.
But the NKVD could not evacuate all the prisoners, there were
so many arrests, and jails were replenished constantly. In such a
case the NKVD, before making a hasty retreat, would murder the
prisoners in their cells.
I recall that when the Germans came, in the fall of 1941, to a
little town, Chornobil, on the Prypyat River, 62 miles west of
Kiev, 52 corpses of recently murdered people, slightly covered with
earth, were found in the prison yard.
These corpses had their hands tied at the back with wire; some
had their backs flayed, others had gouged eyes or nails driven into
their heels; still others had their noses, ears, tongues and even
genitals cut away. Instruments of torture which the communists
used were found in the dungeon of the prison.
Many of the tortured people were identified because they were
mostly farmers from the local collectives who had been arrested by
the NKVD for some unknown reason.
For instance, one girl (whose name I cannot recall now) from
the village of Zallissya, a mile and a quarter from Chornobil, was
arrested because one day she failed to go to dig trenches. All
were compelled at that time, to dig anti-tank trenches. The girl
was sick but there was no doctor to examine her and the NKVD
arrested her, never to return.
Two days later, when the Germans arrived, she was found among
the fifty-two corpses. (F. Fedorenko, My Testimony, in The Black
Deeds of the Kremlin: A White Book, Ukrainian Association of
Victims of Russian Communist Terror, Toronto, 1953, pp. 97-98)
(15) Executed 180 persons.
Andriy Vodopyan
CRIME IN STALINE
In this city in the NKVD prison factory the communists executed
180 persons and buried them in two holes dug in the prison yard.
The corpses were liberally treated with unslaked lime, especially
the faces.
My brother was sentenced to three months in jail for coming
late to work. After serving 18 days in the factory prison he was
set free, and a month later was drafted to the Red Army because
this was in July 1941.
Later, his wife and my mother found him among the corpses,
identifying him by the left hand finger, underwear and papers he
had on him.
This atrocity came to light when prisoners who remained alive
were liberated. They had also a very close call. Six days before
the arrival of the German troops they heard muffled shots.
The prison was secretly mined by NKVD agents in preparation for
the German invaders. (Andriy Vodopyan, Crime in Staline, in The
Black Deeds of the Kremlin: A White Book, Ukrainian Association of
Victims of Russian Communist Terror, Toronto, 1953, p. 121)