Only Ukraine seems to have been sentenced to death by starvation by the central government in Russia. The religious life in Ukraine is at a total standstill, although the people are perhaps more religious now than ever before. The church communities are unable to maintain priests, who either moved to other places or became homeless tramps. The church buildings were turned into workmen's clubs. Of course, no religious wed- ding ceremonies, funerals, or christening of babies, are performed nowadays.
Young people wishing to become man and wife, simply move in one place and live together.
Most of the village schools are empty, as the children are too hungry to attend to learning. The hospitals, although some of them are directed by good old-time physicians, are bare of all medicines. When a sick person comes to the hospital asking for a remedy, a uniform liquid, held ready in bottles, is dispensed to all without any India- ideal examination. Mrs. Auk was expelled two years ago from her family home by the chairman of the local collective farm who took the house for himself. For a while she lived in a small abandoned shack on the border of the village but being later expelled from there she moved around from house to house, wherever she could find shelter.