I suppose that everyone who studies our city’s past has a few images that are particularly dear to their heart. For me, one of these is a photograph published in the November 1914 issue of *Ogonyok* magazine.
The slightly ironic caption beneath it reads: “Aid for the wounded in Kharkiv. The photo shows that Kharkiv residents donated all sorts of items, including things like armchairs.”
Indeed, during World War I—just as it would be 100 years later—the volunteer movement in our city was quite strong. Our ancestors welcomed refugees at the South Station and used their own money to open private hospitals for the wounded. And, of course, they wholeheartedly supported their country’s fighting army, actively sending soldiers everything they needed to the front. But what exactly did they send? Who sent it, from where, and in what quantities?
These answers can be found in documents held at the State Archives of the Kharkiv Region. At that time, soldiers received help both from individual citizens and from entire villages. For example, in February 1915, Nadya and Klava Shimanskiy used their own funds to purchase and send the following items to soldiers at the front:
— 66 pouches;
— 3 helmets;
— 3 scarves.
Parishioners from churches large and small also did not stand idly by. For example, in the winter of 1915, Father Antony Popov, priest of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the settlement of Raigorodok, Izyum District, wrote to the Kharkiv Provincial Zemstvo:
“I humbly ask that you not refuse to accept this offering from my parishioners.” It is understandable why the priest wrote this—the package for the soldiers was very modest: just a few sacks of hardtack. It is noteworthy that residents of many villages, townships, and counties in our region collected quite a few care packages for the front. In January 1915, a shipment for the army was sent from the Okhtyrka County:
— canvas — 67 arshins;
— men’s shirts — 337 pieces;
— women’s shirts — 7 pieces;
— undershirts — 281;
— footcloths — 3 pairs;
— washcloths (as towels were called at the time) — 12 pieces;
— rye crackers — 52 poods, 10 pounds;
— lard — 3 poods, 17 pounds;
— sugar — 2 pounds;
— tea — 1/16 pound;
— tobacco — ½ pound.
Similar packages were also sent from Bogodukhov.
Equally interesting is the aid sent to soldiers from the Starobelsk District. The list of items sent by the ancestors of today’s residents of the Luhansk region is simply enormous. Pillowcases, sheets, socks, scarves, long johns, woolen stockings, shirts, towels, warm mittens, and handkerchiefs—all donated by local residents—were sent in large quantities to the active army or to military hospitals. And just at the beginning of the year, residents of the village of Svatovo donated 27 barrels and 22 boxes of hardtack, weighing a total of 476 poods!
A considerable number of care packages were also collected in the Kharkiv district. During the cold winter of 1915, ordinary residents of the village of Karasevka sent the following gifts to the soldiers:
— 124 towels;
— 27 pairs of long johns;
— 25 scarves;
— 125 shirts;
— 3 sacks and 1 box of cloth.
Here’s what the residents of the village of Zhykhor collected:
— shirts — 350;
— long johns — 258;
— footcloths — 360 pairs;
— towels — 40;
— handkerchiefs — 3.
In addition to warm clothing, our ancestors used their own money to purchase large quantities of lard, sugar, tobacco, and matches from across the Kharkiv Governorate to support the front. All of these items were sent to our city both by wagon convoy and by rail. In the documentation listing donations, one very often finds notes specifying that items and food were sent specifically to the 276th Kupyansk Regiment, as well as to the 125th and 126th Kharkiv Infantry Companies. The people of Slobozhanshchyna did not merely help the army; they supported their fellow soldiers from their own region. The lists of donations made by our city’s residents during World War I reveal many interesting details. For example:
— pencils — 10;
— envelopes — 18;
— candles — 48;
— army tents — 74;
— jacket — 1;
— silverware: glass, teapot, tablespoon, teaspoon, fork—1 of each.
I don’t understand who in the army could have needed jewelry. However, the photographer from *Ogonyok* magazine was absolutely right in his ironic commentary on how the residents of our city donated all sorts of items. A hundred years ago, thousands of nameless volunteers sincerely helped the army as best they could. Their descendants are doing the same thing today.
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