The story behind why Halyna Hrushetsky's family fled Soviet Ukraine for the U.S.

The story behind why Halyna Hrushetsky's family fled Soviet¹ Ukraine for the U.S.

Transcript²

Halyna Hrushetsky was born in Ukraine during World War II and her family left in the 1930s. Hrushetsky talks to her daughter about her Ukrainian roots and the famine her parents lived through.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Today from StoryCorps, a piece about Ukrainian history, which may not be widely known. In the early 1930s, several million Ukrainian men, women and children starved in the Holodomor, a genocide inflicted³ through Soviet agricultural policies. Growing up as an immigrant in France, Halyna Hrushetsky had no idea her parents had survived this. At StoryCorps, she told her daughter Oryna about her family's past.

HALYNA HRUSHETSKY: My mother, she was always very, very protective. And she always wanted to tell me a story. But I felt in her voice that it was tragic⁴, and I didn't want to hear. But finally, she started telling me that I had five siblings⁵. And during the genocide in 1932, '33, the little one, Halynka, died because they had nothing to eat. And she named me by her name. I was carrying that child's name. It was very shocking to me. But it was the first time that at least I heard a bit of the story that my parents lived through. And we as a family came to the United States in the fall of 1956. And at age 19, as I was learning English, I started to learn all about Ukraine. And it has changed my life to find out who I was. I am still bound. This is - it's my blood running there, too.

ORYNA HRUSHETSKY-SCHIFFMAN: What part of Ukrainian culture and the Ukrainian experience would you most like your children and grandchildren to preserve?

HRUSHETSKY: Love - in its beauty, its music. This is what I want the most for them to preserve and to pass along. This is how you bound the children to your culture is the traditions.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PLYVE KACHA PO TYSYNI")

PIKKARDIYSKA TERTSIYA: (Singing in non-English language).

MARTINEZ: That was Halyna Hrushetsky with her daughter Oryna Hrushetsky-Schiffman at StoryCorps in Chicago.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PLYVE KACHA PO TYSYNI")

PIKKARDIYSKA TERTSIYA: (Singing in non-English language).

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 inflicted   

把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They inflicted a humiliating defeat on the home team. 他们使主队吃了一场很没面子的败仗。
• Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。

4 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

5 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分