Yanks for Stalin
Interview Transcript

Feodor Chinchenko  (cont)

Q.  How did the French treat the local population?

A.  The French?  At the factory?  Oh, in Odessa.  In Odessa, I repeat that I was a boy and don't remember much.  I remember how the boats sailed away, how the sailors came to the wharf and got on the boats, I saw that, but that's all I know.

Q.  How did the people react?

A.  The people were pleased that the French had supported Soviet power in Odessa.  They were also glad that the French were leaving and freeing the city for the local authorities.

Q.  Did the people see off the French?

A.  I didn't see anyone on the wharf.

Q.  Could you answer his question, about who the French supported?

A.  I repeat again, that no such-- when they were taken to the port to get on the boats, and were ready to embark, the population treated them approvingly.  They were glad that the French were leaving, that they had helped us to remove the criminal elements, these Lyumpers, and Yashka Yaponchik and his forces.  I remember that soon after the departure of the French, Vrangel's forces departed as well.  I had just arrived, and Vrangel's troops had left already.  I was glad, because Vrangel's forces had treated the local population brutally.  Vrangel's forces were primarily composed of Cossacks, mainly prosperous Cossacks, and they brutalized the population.  They would execute people publicly.  If they didn't like someone, they would shoot him.  So when the French left, Vrangel's troops disappeared.  They crossed the Dunai, they crossed Rumania and the Dneister.

Q.  Did power changes hands many times?

A.  Probably five times in our region, if not more.  The Reds had power, the Grigorians had power, Porhonenko was there, he was a Red, then there were the Pitlyurov forces, a Ukrainian nationalist group, then in 1920, it was the Germans.  Germans occupied all of Ukraine.  I remember them leaving.

Q.  Was anybody shot in front of you?

A.  Vrangel's forces shot my mother's brother on the public square.  More accurately, they hung him, they didn't shoot him.  It was a tragedy for our family…

Q.  Did your mother grieve?

A.  Of course.

Q.  And she took you there to see it?  You were a small boy.

A.  Yes.  She took my older brother and I to say goodbye to our uncle, but we only saw him from a distance.

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