After the arrival of the civilian administration, all the remaining larger shops were requisitioned and their owners arrested. That was also when fierce speculation began: prices of all products increased exponentially (particularly the prices of watches: a chrome-plated Omega cost 2,200 roubles [!]) and illegal trade blossomed. Meanwhile, the authorities continued persecutions against the former tenement owners, and factory and shop owners, who were arrested and deported into the interior of the USSR, as well as against members of the former Polish Army (and persons wearing any items of the Polish uniform). Literal battues were organised on the latter, who were captured and deported in an unknown direction. As it later [7] turned out, they were employed to construct the Lvov–Kiev motorway, where they fared very well. Because of all that I decided to leave Łuck and go to Lvov, as life in that city was following a more normal course and was much more peaceful.
Lvov suffered little during the military operations. When I arrived, the trams were already running and the theatres and cinemas were open. Most of the films, all of which were Soviet productions, had a markedly propagandist character. Arrayed in festive garb and decorated with portraits of Bolshevik leaders, the entire city was getting ready to welcome some higher-rank party dignitaries.
After some time, there began the period of recruitment of volunteers to work in the interior of the USSR, for instance in Donbas, the Caucasus, etc. Having signed a one-year employment contract, each volunteer [8] received a hundred roubles’ advance and was told to await an order to depart. Initially the number of applicants was large, but later their influx decreased significantly, as letters from those who had left indicated that even though the local housing conditions were satisfactory, the earnings left much to be desired. The manual labourers’ wages were so low that purchase of clothes was in a sphere of their fantasies and dreams.
The situation in Lvov did not look much better, particularly when it came to food provision. Even though so-called bakalie (a close equivalent of our groceries) were opened, the only thing you could buy there was coffee substitute, and sometimes also bread, shag, or cigarettes. Making matters worse, one had to queue for five or six hours to buy those. The peasants would bring the rest of the products, but having [9] no confidence in money they refused to engage in anything except barter. They accepted only objects of personal use, such as footwear, clothes, canvas, or soap, accepting potatoes, butter, etc.
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