Yanks for Stalin
Interview Transcript

Feodor Chinchenko  (cont)

Q.  Do you know any interesting stories about Americans?

A.  I really don't know any stories about the Americans that worked in the factory during my four years there.  They were friendly, they wanted to teach us, and they were happy that they had taught us many things.  They taught us to troubleshoot machinery and fix it, and they were very satisfied by this.  As they were leaving, they said that we worked as well as they did, and sometimes better.  They gave us an assessment of those who had worked well.

Q.  Did they think that we were not thankful, or that perhaps we had not thanked them well enough?

A.  That's difficult to say, because I don't know what they were paid for their efforts.  But I think that the plant management and the workers and engineers were very thankful for the experience.

Q.  Is it true that the Russians didn't like them?

A.  I don't know of any such thing.  We treated them very respectfully, and I must say they treated us the same, and they were especially happy when a person learned something and then could do it without assistance.  Fix machinery, tools, etc.

Q.  I don't see how this would have satisfied them.  They were our ideological opponents.

A.  I don't think there were many among them who were opposed ideologically to communism.  Perhaps there were, I don't know.  I do know that they were very friendly and very attentive to the workers and specialists that they were teaching.  They were pleased with their students.

Q.  What do you remember from the Civil War?  Do you remember the French invasion of Odessa?

A.  Well, I don't remember much, I was just a boy during the Civil War.  I remember that I lived in Odessa.  My relatives lived in Odessa.  French troops landed, and the Lyumpers seized power in Odessa, led by Yashka Yaponchik, who commanded a combat unit.  Everyone feared him in Odessa.  The French didn't get to the town where I was born, then called Lillisevergrad, now Pervograd.  The French had been supporting Vrangel, supplying him with weapons so that he could continue combat operations.  When Marti, a French sailor, raised the insurrection in 1920, the French got on a steamer and sailed away, after which Vrangel was driven out.

Q.  Did Yaponchik remain?

A.  Yaponchik was later arrested by Kotovskiy.  He was a commander of a cavalry brigade, Kotovskiy.

Q.  And what happened?

A.  You don't remember?  He was tried, convicted and shot.  His was a criminal organization, it wasn't a political movement.

Q.  There is a song sung in Odessa about a Yaponchik.  Is it about that Yaponchik?

A.  No, no.  That was sung by-- that artist-- well, that wasn't it.

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