GRIGORIEV: When a German soldier came to our threshing floor we asked him, “Why are you killing us?” He replied, “Do you know the village of Maximovo?” This is the village next to our village community. I said, “Yes.” Then he told me, “This village of Maximovo is kaput—the inhabitants are kaput, and you too will be kaput.”
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And why kaput?
GRIGORIEV: “Because,” said he, “partisans were hiding in your village.” But his words were untruthful because we had no partisans in the village; nobody indulged in any partisan activities since there was nobody left. Only old people and small children were left in the village; the village had never seen any partisans and did not know who these partisans were.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Were there many adult men in your village?
GRIGORIEV: There was one man, 27 years old, but he was a sick man, half-witted and paralytic. We had only old men and small children. All the rest of the men were in the Army.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, witness, were the inhabitants of your village alone in suffering this fate?
GRIGORIEV: No, they were not alone. The German soldiers shot 43 persons in Kurysheva, 47 in Vshivova, and in the village of Pavlovo, where I now live, they burned 23 persons. And in a number of villages where, according to our village community, there were some four hundred inhabitants, they shot all the peaceful citizens, both young and old.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please repeat that figure. How many persons were destroyed in your village community?
GRIGORIEV: About four hundred people in our village community alone.
MR COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, who remained alive in your family?