Flour soup

Ingredients

Water (approx. 1-2 liters)
Flour (approx. 1-2 cups)
Salt (to taste, optional)

Preparation

1. In a large pot, bring the water to a boil.
2. Gradually add the flour to the boiling water, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
3. Cook the soup for about 10-15 minutes until the flour is cooked and the soup thickens.
4. Season with salt if needed.

“There was no food. – What could you cook at home? There was nothing! In 1933, we only made soup. My aunt would bring some flour, mix it with water, and that’s what we drank. We had to work, we had to eat something.” – Hanna Domańska.

HOLODOMOR

The Ukrainian word Holodomor signifies death by starvation and refers to the tragic events that unfolded in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic between 1932 and 1933, following the Soviet authorities’ imposition of forced collectivization. This process was accompanied by a ruthless obligation to deliver unpaid quotas of agricultural products, set at levels far beyond what the rural population could produce.

As grain stocks in the granaries dwindled, peasants tried to hide what little they had left to survive the winter and save seeds for planting. However, the combined forces of Communist Party activists and the NKVD were so efficient that very little grain could be preserved. Tax collectors, armed with sharpened rods, would go from house to house searching for hidden supplies. If they found anything, they took it along with the household head.

The famine that struck fertile Ukraine was politically engineered. Several million people died of hunger, and there were even reports of cannibalism.

In their desperation, people searched for food in the collective farms’ fields. In response, the authorities issued a decree, commonly known as the “Law of Five Ears of Grain.” Stealing or squandering “socialist property”—even as little as five ears of grain—was punishable by death or ten years in a labor camp. Within a year and a half, over 125,000 people were sentenced under this law.