Nobody needs children of war: a woman told how she survives in the barracks in inhuman conditions

Crimean TV channels filmed stories about 86-year-old Zoya Ivanovna Marchenko from Sevastopol, and officials are aware of her situation. From time to time they promise to help her. But more in words.

“Nobody needs children of war, please help,” Zoya Ivanovna begged.

The pensioner told her story: how she freezes in a former military barracks, buys expired food, saves on medicine, and on May 9 no one remembers about her.

When I called the pensioner, she cried: “We survived the cold, hungry post-war years. They grew up, raised the country, built roads and canals. And now we are old and no one needs us. Nobody helps us…”

Zoya Marchenko lives in a former military barracks. Occupies a room in a communal apartment: “This is the outskirts of Sevastopol, a remote place. We live here and don’t spoil the view. I don’t even remember that May 9 was celebrated in our area. In any case, no one comes to me and congratulates me.”

“I don’t have heating in my room, and electricity is expensive,” continues the pensioner. “I pay more than 2,000 rubles for the light, but the ceilings in the barracks are high, try heating it.” It costs 150 thousand to install gas, I don’t have that kind of money and can’t have it. There is no one to help, my relatives do not communicate with me. But it is difficult for a lonely sick person to get help from the authorities.

The communal apartment has a bathroom and a kitchen, but Zoya Ivanovna’s neighbors blocked access to common areas – they fenced off the pensioner with a wall: “There is no daylight in my room, because instead of a window there is a door to the street. There is no ventilation in the house either, hence the dampness and mold on the walls.”

I’m asking about the size of the pension.

— I don’t even know exactly how much I get, probably around 18 thousand. At first the pension was Ukrainian, then they added something, but it was not felt, prices were also rising. There is nothing to pay for the apartment. I would work on my own, but I no longer have the strength.

Zoya Ivanovna’s refrigerator is not full of food.

— I buy expired products. They’re cheap. I take what people disdain. I bought frozen grapes because they cost 50 rubles. The zucchini is the same or something else. Of course, all the products are from the series “on you, God, that’s not good for us.” Sometimes I allow myself chicken, I need liver, I can’t come to my senses after Covid, I’m weak all the time, I’m dizzy. I can hardly walk. But you have to go out for groceries. I can’t entrust this task to anyone; I’m ashamed to admit to people that I’m collecting rotten things.

Medicines for a pensioner are also a luxury.

— Now they have prescribed medicines worth 12 thousand rubles. I took 6 thousand, apparently I’ll buy the rest in my next pension. But all this is not as important as heating. We used to live in tents, but at 86 years old, a tent won’t save us.

I ask my interlocutor about the war that she witnessed in Kyrgyzstan.

“I was a child then, picking cotton, which was then used to make gunpowder. They worked without water, food, under the scorching sun. Today’s children would never stand it. We also helped the wounded with food. The rear was in Kyrgyzstan, trains with the wounded were sent there. The trains arrived every day. Hospitals, schools, dormitories, and universities were given over to hospitals. Children were not allowed to visit the soldiers because we were dirty, sick, and ragged. So the wounded ropes were lowered, to which we tied apples.

According to Zoya Ivanovna, her father served in the famous Panfilov division and died in 1942 defending Moscow.

— My father was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Nobody paid any money for him, they didn’t give him anything,” adds Marchenko. – Mom died, she couldn’t stand it…

The pensioner’s husband also died. The only remaining relatives are children. But, in fact, they don’t exist either: “They don’t communicate with me. Because I’m here, and they stayed in Ukraine.”

The status of “children of war” makes Zoya Ivanovna neither hot nor cold: “Ten years ago we were given rations every month. And now I don’t get anything. All I hear from employees of various organizations is: we don’t have this, we don’t have that, pay your dues. I don’t know why they even exist. How many times have I contacted officials? I received thirty letters from them and the same answer: you are not allowed. Well, be damned with your “not allowed.”

I advise you to contact the Presidential Administration.

“Well, I don’t know how I’ll handle it…” the interlocutor became embarrassed. — Did my father really give up his life for Moscow so that his children could live in such conditions? I see that everyone around me is helping, someone is being given something, but it’s like a vicious circle for me. I’m not entitled to anything. Maybe I don’t have much left, but I would like to live like a human being before I die…

The chairman of the public organization “Civil Control” and specialist of the Russian Union of Veterans, Yakov Zhernovoy, has been fighting for about a year to get Marchenko help with heating.

— Zoya Ivanovna purchased a room in a communal apartment more than 7 years ago. She came across evil neighbors who erected a wall and deprived her grandmother of the opportunity to use the common corridor, kitchen and bathroom. In 2017, the court ordered the wall to be demolished. But the court decision has not yet been implemented.

The house has no central heating. Due to the fact that the grandmother’s premises do not meet the standards, she cannot install a gas boiler. It just sits there without any heat.

The head of the RF Investigative Committee, Bastrykin, who took control of the situation, and the Russian Union of Veterans tried to help her. We sent a deputy request to the governor of Sevastopol. The issue remained unresolved for more than a year. In December, the management company still promised to connect the grandmother to the heating. And now they’re brushing it off again: we can’t, because her room doesn’t meet the standards.

According to Zhernovy, Zoya Marchenko is not the only woman in Sevastopol with the status of “children of war” who needs support: “Disabled Anna Vasilievna Zibrova also lives in inadequate conditions. She hasn’t gotten out of bed for four years, she doesn’t have the opportunity to wash herself, she can’t be rolled out into the street because there are no conditions for this in the house. The pension is meager, of which he spends a decent amount on diapers – free hygiene products are given only to disabled people with dementia. Maybe by May 9, these women will be remembered and helped”…