What the children of Ukraine had to endure during the 1930s is almost unspeakable. Under the newly anointed dictator Joseph Stalin, small family farms had been forcibly eliminated, replaced with state-controlled farming collectives. This created a widespread famine across the country, and those who rebelled against it were met with harsh punishments (via History). This period in Ukrainian history is referred to as the Holodomor, a term that combines the words “starvation” and “inflicting death” from the Ukrainian tongue. The estimated death toll of this dictator-made famine is 3.9 million, which was 13% of the population of Ukraine at the time. 

Suffering through the Holodomor was Chikalilo and his family. With stories of starving neighbors haunting his imagination at a young age, he grew up in a country that had the real nightmare of Nazi bombing raids during WWII. And if the poverty and trauma weren’t enough, Chikatilo was believed to have suffered from hydrocephalus from birth (via Biography). This condition, known as “water on the brain” most likely led to adolescent bed-wetting, as it impacts the urinary tract. His condition may have also led him to be mostly impotent, a source of terrible embarrassment for him throughout his teenage years and his adult life. 

Despite the adversity he was facing, he was of above-average intelligence and grew into a young man who made every attempt to have an adult life. He married, and though impotent did manage to have two children. He also became employed as a teacher.