The document presents a report of the intelligence division of the Second Unit of the Border Guard Service of Poland in Kharkiv about the situation with food supplies in the city and the mass departure of foreign (German) specialists from Ukraine and the Soviet Union. The document is dated of March 5, 1933, the most critical time of the Holodomor famine in 1932-1933. The document’s author does not use the word “famine,” but the report includes multiple direct testimonies of starvation and food crisis. The author describes them and also adds his sarcastic and critical comments about the nature of Soviet rule and the impact of its political and economic course on the situation of the local population. Careful reading of the document reveals information about the everyday life of common citizens residing in Kharkiv and the nearby villages, including foreign nationals, and their survival practices.

In the short memo, the author highlights the rapid growth in prices of grain and food. The prices were so high and unaffordable for common consumers that such food products as potatoes were sold by piece. The situation was so dire and precarious that the consulate staff could not “get” flour or potatoes in the special retail chain for foreigners, TORGSIN. The key objective of the chain was to sell goods to foreign nationals, but in the settings of scarcity, it became a government tool for taking away cash, precious metals, and jewelry from the starving citizens who had to exchange them for bread and other food. With his sarcastic comments, the author focuses on one of the common examples of survival during the Holodomor: eating surrogates that peasants inventively used for making bread, which he labels as culinary delights. When describing the scarcity of choice in the everyday hungry existence, the author highlights the “humbleness” and “humility” related to the eagerness to eat the surrogates. The story about the workers who brought firewood to the consulate and started eating the potato peels from the dumpster shows that consumption of food waste was a common survival practice among urban citizens who did not have access to the public food distribution system. The consulate officer also mentioned the critical condition of domestic animals lacking feed. The author of the report also describes how the artificially imposed social and economic conditions and scarcity made foreign staff apply to foreign representative offices in Ukraine to search for ways to escape “the paradise.” In addition, he generally criticizes the Communist ideology.