The utopia

The Change

By the end of 1920s, when Yuri was eighteen, his village was penetrated by people who knew nothing about Ukrainian culture. These people came in bulk and recognised themselves as enlightened and had very different perceptions of how to lead life. In reality, these people were a part of the “Twenty-Five Thousander”, meaning these people were among the 25,000 working class which were recruited by the regime as Urban Activists or ‘aktivs’. They had no idea about farming techniques or other equipments related to it. They were considered outsiders by certain section of the village.

“Do you really think, the detrimental condition of the countryside is due to Soviet policies?”

“Soviet policies are an epitome of Socialism. Socialism ensures equality. The only barrier between your misery and well-being lies within, it’s the bourgeoisie-led kulaks.” Yuri once heard an activist asserting it.

The term kulaks mainly referred to rich peasants in the countryside. They were the ones who possessed acres and acres of land. De-kulakisation was the term given by the Soviet regime to the process by which independent owned farms were collectivised under the collective farms, thus taking away the right of the individual farmers to sell their products independently along with a strong leash on production management.

To Yuri, this process was a reasonably correct one which gave  prominence to equality and equal distribution of land. The activists made sure to take people like Yuri under their ambit and change opinion in favour of collectivisation.

In no time, along with rich peasants, all the independent peasants who opposed the de-kulakisation were blamed to be kulaks and hence was condemned by this activists as the bringer of misery. Some of the peasant groups started supporting these drives. The activists were successful in tearing the society apart from within and these peasant support was the evidence of it.

Svetlana, Yuri’s sister was always skeptic about these activists. She knew that this was an attempt by the Soviet regime to centralise everything. She was sixteen when these activists made their intrusion into the village.

“Isn’t this autocracy, Yuri?” Svetlana said.

“This is needed. For the greater good, we have to sacrifice our land to the collectivisation project. This is how socialism will flourish in our village and everyone will be happy.”  Yuri justified.

“Do you want happiness at the cost of giving away your freedom?” Svetlana said taunting him.

Yuri stayed quiet.

One day, Yuri saw his neighbour, who owned 2 acres of land and were considerably poor being dragged to the streets, stripped of his clothes and in tears. A peasant group carrying red flags kept on humiliating him and called him a kulak.His neighbour begged them and told them that if he joined the collectivisation drive, they’d starve to death, but no one cared. They kept on laughing and humiliating him. He said that his family will leave the village as soon as possible, never to return again but his cries were suppressed by sarcastic and monstrous laugh of the animals humiliating him. One of the activist took his only daughter inside the house while muffled screams of his thirteen year old kept coming from inside. Out of anger and rage, the peasant stood up.

“I’ll rather die than to give my land to communist pigs like you.” He shouted.

One activist came out of the crowd, grabbed him by the neck and declared.
“So be it.” And he shot him in broad daylight, while his wife screamed.

That night Yuri couldn’t sleep. The tears and screams of his neighbours haunted him for the rest of the night. He was infuriated with the inhuman treatment of the so called kulak by the activists and the flag bearers of socialism.

“Do you want happiness at the cost of losing your freedom?”
“You’ll never comprehend the essence of freedom until you’re oppressed.”
These statements of Svetlana and his mother kept on revolving in his mind for weeks.

He used to stand in front of his father’s portrait and stare at him with a feeling of repentance. Now he knew why his father joined and laid his life for the sake of Ukrainian independence. Now he knew, knew that he was in denial all along. The ideology he adored was just a dystopia, wrapped in a glowing promise of utopian future.

He stood there everyday while Svetlana and his mother watched him heartbroken. They felt sorry for him but they were content, content of the fact that Yuri was now aware. They could feel it, a change was going on inside Yuri, a change that was good and dangerous at the same time.