Ольга Гайдук Olga Gayduk

In Soviet times, like now, you could submit documents to different universities. But if you submitted the documents and the exams were going on everywhere at the same time (I submitted, I failed [the exams]), that's it, you miss that year. And I entered in Ossetia, because [they were still accepting new submissions of] documents due to the war, I enrolled there. I had to be there for six months. When it started to get very violent, they took me away from there by helicopter. — Did you live in a dormitory there? — No, a former military, he used to serve with my father, he found him and took me in. It became difficult to get food there. And my father said, "I will send you groceries for my daughter, you won't go hungry". And I lived in this former soldier's family. On the territory of Ossetia. And then they had to take me away by helicopter. Because the voting had already started there, the takeover, then, as they say, the collapse began, the attack, well, so that the Russian troops would leave. My father sent me to the Donetsk Medical College six months later. And I ended up [attending] the medical college in Donetsk.

I was still in school. I was still attending school because my father would come and bring me cheques [due to the ruble being inconvertible at the time, foreign currency had to be exchanged for ruble-denominated cheques], at that time, it was a deficit, and I would go shopping in such stores like Beryozka used to be [state-run retail stores in the Soviet Union that sold goods in exchange for foreign currency]. I was also different from other children because I was the first to have electronic watches, I had pens with electronic watches, those were scarce, chewing gum, different sheepskin coats. In Georgia people were used to sheepskin coats, my sheepskin coat was different — I bought it in cheque stores. Uh, what was I trying to say? That I was in high school, I don't remember what year. I must have been about 12, 13 years old, at that age. — How long was he there? — For two years. Every knock, every knock... We were always afraid that they would knock and tell us that my father was gone. It was very hard to bear it, and this war was for nothing too. I don't understand what it was all about. — What did your father say about it? — He was, you know, he was like, you're supposed to do what you're ordered to do. — He didn't tell you anything? — Well, he... about how they were shooting dushmans [Afghan mujahideen] there? What could he tell me about? No, my father was like that. He didn't talk about the war much.

When all these upheavals with coupons [single-use coupons issued in 1991 to buy groceries and living essentials] and all that was happening, I found myself in the village. And the only way to survive there was to have a farm. So I traveled. The first thing I started trading was taking dairy products to the market to sell. And I made money with that. Then we sold pigs, farming [produce]. Those who had a farm didn't feel all that much. Why? Because grain was available — it's not [like it is] now — you can buy it for whatever and however, [but back then] you could get it essentially for free, you know? And you could run a household. If you had the intelligence, the strength. To be honest, I didn't [like it] that much... I moved to the city — here in Kramatorsk they tell how they received some rations here, how they were starving here... I didn't observe famine here. Because I... we ran a farm, and that's why we survived, and I did not suffer from this period.

We had the opportunity to hire a bus with this family, another family there, they were going to Lviv. We also had some savings, me, those relatives too. We rented a bus, and thank God that we rented this bus... He also asked me, "Shall I go to the railway station?". “No,” I said, ”let's go near the dentist's office, we don't live far away." Oh, and on the same day we left, there was this terrorist attack on the train station. I took it very hard on the road, too, because my husband got caught right there: he saw me off, went shopping at the market. He says, “I thought an airplane had fallen.” And people rushed to watch the airplane, because it was a new experience for them, because people had not realized it yet. Now they understand everything. And the crowd rushed. As you know: everybody rushes — and I will rush. And my husband rushed. And he saw the bodies. And he calls me, dials me, and tells me who is on the ground, how they are laid out, and what... Imagine that. I was hysterical — when I arrived before my son, we had a very hard time getting there, because it was a long trip: we went to Lviv, then a transfer, then on from [the Polish border]. In the end — I was near Germany, it's a small town, it's between Germany, and it's a long way to get there. I looked in the mirror — my face was...distorted. I was afraid I'd have a stroke. I didn't expect all this, you know, that it would happen like this, and then this terrorist attack on the way, and the road was hard — I was affected.