Editing Andrei Chikatilo (section)

==Early Life==
Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was born on October 16<sup>th</sup>, 1936; in Yablochnoye, a village in the heart of rural Ukraine in the USSR. During the 1930s, Ukraine was known as the "Breadbasket" of the Soviet Union. [[Stalin]]'s policies of agricultural collectivization caused widespread hardship and famine ([[the Holodomor]]) that decimated the population. At the time of Chikatilo's birth, the effects of the famine were still widely felt, and his early childhood was influenced by deprivation. The situation was made worse still when the USSR entered [[World War II]] against Germany, bringing sustained bombing raids on Ukraine.

In addition to the external hardships, Chikatilo is believed to have suffered from hydrocephalus (water on the brain) at birth, which caused him genital-urinary tract problems later in life, including bed-wetting into his late adolescence and, later, the inability to sustain an erection, although he was able to ejaculate. His home life was disrupted by his father's conscription into the war against Germany, where he was captured, held prisoner, and then vilified by his countrymen for allowing himself to be captured when he finally returned home. Chikatilo suffered the consequences of his father's "cowardice", making him the focus of school [[bullying]].