MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I haven’t the slightest doubt that I was born, though during my appearance into the world, and then perhaps for another ten years after that mother maintained that I was pulled out of the well when they were watering our cow Oryshka.
This event occurred on November 14th, 1889 in the town of Hrun, Zinkiv District, Poltava Province. Actually, the event did not take place in the town itself, but in Chechva Settlement near Hrun, on the estate of Landlord von Rot, for whom my father worked as a steward.
Conditions for my development were ideal: on one side, there was a cradle hung from the ceiling, on the other were mother’s breasts. I sucked a little, slept a little, and grew up slowly. I was the second child. Before me came my elder brother, who preceded me by one and a ha
