171

p Not later than October 1943

p Dear Uncle,

p I’m not afraid of dying. It’s just a pity I’ve lived so little and done so little for my country. Uncle, I’m already accustomed to the gaol, I’m not the only one, there are many of us. ... I’m not afraid of dying. Tell mum not to cry. I wouldn’t have lived much longer with her anyway. I would have gone my own way. Tell mum to hide the grain, otherwise the Germans will take it. Good-bye.

Yours,
Irina

p Up to the war Ukrainian girl Irina Malozhon lived in the village of Zhukli in Chernigov Region.

p Like her friends, Irina dreamed of finishing school and going to college. But the war broke out and the girl went to war in defence of her country.

p One September day in 1941, a cloud of dust announced the unwelcome arrival of Hitler’s tanks and lorryloads of soldiers in the village. A foreign tongue rang out amidst the weeping of women and children thrown out of their cottages by the Germans. The Germans carried off grain, raped, plundered and murdered the peaceful Soviet villagers.

p Irina Malozhon joined up with the underground and started to carry out the organisation’s instructions. Together with other patriots she printed and distributed leaflets appealing for resistance to the occupational authorities, to their demands for food; they called on the villagers to hide their grain, warm clothing and avoid forced labour. The texts to the leaflets were composed by Irina’s uncle Savva Malozhon, to whom Irina’s above letter was addressed.

One day, when Irina was passing out leaflets in a neighbouring village, the nazis swooped and the girl was hurled into a dark cellar where she was cruelly tortured. But she stood up to everything. After more suffering in German hands, she was taken out and shot.