Russia Books

I am thoroughly enjoying this whole series by the Thoene's. It keeps me interested and I can't put the book down until I have finished it - usually over a period of days. I enjoy historical novels especially with a Christian background. The suspense of what the Nazi's will do next, the close escape of the heroes and heroines keep me glued to the pages. The authors catchy theme of their books is "Truth Through Fiction" - it's very true.

I just finished reading "Warsaw Requiem", the last book in the "Zion Covenant" series. It was wonderful, as are all the books in that series. The characters in the book will always be a part of my life.

I totally got absorbed in this book....trying to imagine what it would have been like living in the Jewish sector of Warsaw, waking up to bombs dropping and fighter planes zeroing in on children going to school!

This is one book in a series of 9, called the Zion Covenant. I am on Book #8 and my husband is a book behind me. We cannot quit reading them! A wonderful series on Jews, many Christians, trying to get away from Hitler in WW2. Your faith in the power of prayer is totally reinforced in these books. You see God's hand throughout....

Well, I'm a 16 years old girl from Norway. The reson why I read this book is because in my class we had to read a book and afterwords we had to write a review of it. So, I went down to the school library, there I took the first book I could find... But I have to say that this book was great! It shows how the jews lived and felt it during the second world war, and I have learnd so much from it! I highly recomand this book for all ages, but it requires that you know something about 2. wordwar...

This book - the whole series, in fact, are so filled with power it is amazing. It convicted me, inspired me, and moved me. I read a lot of books, and I mean a lot, but very few are in the calibre this book is in. The characters are very real and the way in which they relate to one another makes you feel as though you are a part of the action. I became so involved that at the end of the book I felt as though I had lost many friends. The writing style itself flows smoothly, never feeling stilted or cheap. The story-line was exciting, and the historical detail is so wound up in the story it becomes difficult to separate the two. All in all, I'd recommend this book to anyone, and I am sure that I will read it again and again and again.

Do you find history incredibly interesting? Whether you do or you don't, this book is for you. Bonnie Leon has a way of making everying come alive, as well as making the characters extremely real. The time setting is back during Stalin's reign in Russia. Tatiana, a young woman is forced to go to America, while her brother Yuri stays behind. 1/2 the book covers Tatiana and 1/2 the book covers Yuri's difficult struggles through a Siberian concentraion camp. This book is great. It has everything you could as for in a book: adventure, suspense, action, and some romance. It's a triology, so if you read this one, you must read the next two. Read it. It's worth it, trust me.

Bonnie Leon does it again! She captivates the stuggles and happiness of living in Russia under Stalin's reign, and living in American during the Great Depression. She cleverly adds romance and adventure, and makes you never want to put it down. I loved the ending, and I read this book in 2 days. I couldn't put it down. I recommend this to any Christian reader.

I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to see more of Reynolds, Elena and Yuri. The book had a lot of realism for the hardships people in the concentration camps have. I can't wait to see if Yuri and Elena find each other again, and if Reynolds finds himself, and someone to love. I was very happy with te way the book ended and Tatyana and Dimitri's love. But the book didn't talk much about not marrying unbelievers.

In the most unlikely of places love grows. In New York at the beginning of Stalin's reign, Tatanya's love cannot be bought in this historical novel about Russian immigrants who have to make it by their wits in their new homeland. Meanwhile, Tatanya's brother is trying to survive in Stalin's Russia when love slips upon him and flourishes in spite of poverty, oppression, and his sometimes waning faith. From the beginning of this story when the Russian soldiers crash into the peaceful everyday lives of Tatayana, her parents, and her brother, Yuri, I could not put this love story down.

If you've hesitated to even nibble at the edges of historical fiction, the Sowers Trilogy should be your first taste! You are guaranteed a gourmet feast with Bonnie Leon's sharp imaging and heart stopping gift of holding tension. Journey with Yuri and his sister Tatyana on their separate quests as they are assaulted by emotional and physical tests and temptations. You will go along not as a spectator, but as a participant.

You will cringe as Yuri confronts the danger of survival in a Russia gone mad with the lust for supremacy. You will weep as he is immersed in the devastating results of a country's passion turned sorid. And you are sure to stand and cheer as obstacles are overcome and enemies of body and mind are defeated.

You will ache with Tatyana as she struggles to survive against odds of her own making. Rejoice at her amazing good fortune in a new, untamed country. Live with her in the pristine frontier of a burgeoning Pacific Northwest. Laugh, love and weep with her as she grasps at memories of Yuri and her beloved Russia while she balances on the edge of letting go.

Bonnie Leon is a master storyteller. Go ahead. Treat yourself.

This book ranks amongst the very best military history I have ever read. It incorporates a detailed account of Charles XII's campaign that led his army deep into Ukraine, the action at Poltava, clear portraits of the main actors and moving accounts of what happened to so many of the ordinary Swedish soldiers (the wealth of information that the writer has for such an old battle is really astonishing). As it says on the cover, it pulls no punches about fighting. It makes an excellent starting point for delving into warfare of the era. I was especially impressed by the descriptions of the artillery fire and its consequences, the terrible fate of the wounded, the sacrifices made by the Swedish soldiers in order to save their king and the paradox ethics of warfare at that time. The book is mainly focused on the Swedish side with the Russians mentioned in a general and not so analytical way. Thus the subtitle on the cover should rather be "Potlava and the Demise of the Swedish Empire".

Firstly it must be said that this narrative is told from a distinctly Swedish perspective. The Russian forces are largely faceless and there nowhere near the same degree of detail about the Russian forces of Peter the Great as there is those of Charles the XII.

Englund starts with detailed analysis of force organisation. How did such a small country with a combined population of a little over a Million become the major power in Northern Europe? Some clues are found in the revolutionary way of raising the Swedish Army and the skilful leadership of Charles XII. The Swedes were also not the lovable pastey-faced ideoluges of peace and understanding as we know them today; they were ruthless in their suppression of enemy popultions and their rapacious behaviour in cowing almost all of central Europe. Moreover they highly motivated by territorial incentives. Peter the Great's Russia was unfortunate enough to be the nearest and most logical enemy to attack with Sweden traditionally controlling almost all of the modern-day Baltic states as an advanced glacis to both protect and launch offensives against Russia.

Englund dwells very little on the political motives for war and plunges right in with the march of the Armies from Livonia and modern-day Poland into the heart of Russia. We follow this army as Russia eventually draws is deeper and deeper into Sweden trading land for time and letting the elements of Russia eat away at the invader. In the hot summer sun the Battle of Poltava is really the only military option that Charles had and although it may have been successful one is always amazed at the plan to battle through a line of heavily armed forts, reform on the other side and then wheel to attack the main Russian force, also heavily entrenched. But Englund gives us a breath of adventure and dash in the movements of the Swedes and we hope that they will somehow pull if off...

The fighting is as desperate and intense as in any war, but as with the Germans over 300 yrs later, there is a particularly frightening shadow of being isolated and cut off by the Russians with no hope of reuniting with your main force.... all the time being deep in the Russian hinterland.

We follow the army as it turns and tries its getaway. Compressed within the ends of the Dnieper it eventually gives way, but our redoubtable Charles XII escapes. Englund leaves us there, there is nothing more about the remarkable adventure of Charles from that point, or his further attempts to dominate Europe, all crushed eventually. Poltava ended a 100 year dominance of the Swedes as the greatest land army in Europe, unbeatable until Poltava, but never really challenging the heartland of Russia.

One word: excellent. Wish more books of that level of quality were written and published.

Englund has written a detailed history of a key battle fought between Sweden and Russia in 1709. Although an interesting book it often becomes bogged down in its detail, both in terms of statistics and in terms of its description of the battle. The book is also limited in that it's told exclusively from the Swedish standpoint. There is little, if any, information from the Russian perspective that may have given more insight into how and why the battle evolved as it did.

However, the book is not without merit. The description of the Swedish army preparing for battle and its later disintegration as attrition and the fog of war took over, is key in understanding why the Swedes lost and allows insight into the impact of the fog of war. It also allows insight into how quickly that factor becomes real once a battle has been joined. Englund does an excellent job of describing the events leading up to the battle especially as they apply to the condition of the Swedish army on the eve of Poltava and its impact on why the Swedish king chose to fight when and how he did.

Despite the book's subtitle, Englund does little to link Poltava to the rise of Russia. Although it appears this is a generally accepted truth, he does not put the battle in the context of the Great Northern War, which didn't end until 1721.

This book was originally published in 1988. Its success took everyone by surprise, including the author, then a freshly baked historian at Uppsala University, Sweden. It has retained its bestseller status in Sweden ever since. Now, this excellent book about an important, but comparatively unknown event in world history, has been reissued in the U.S.
Peter Englund follows in the footsteps of Edward Gibbon, who taught that good history should also be good literature. The direct inspiration for this book was John Prebble's 1963 classic book Culloden

If you've just about had your fill of reality TV you could purge your system by picking up a copy of this book. The author has packed a lot into his life and he tells some fine stories with no shortage of style. They're also told in bite sized chunks so it's handy for the train or bus as you can cram a chapter or two into your travels to and from work.

My personal favourites as a dog lover would be the stories about the familys tiny, crazy dog Tvel and the authors travels through the remotest regions of the old Soviet Union. But there are a lot of other stories here that would make you count your blessings such as the cramped living conditions, the shortage of hotels, poor roads etc - imagine telling someone they would have to camp out all night to get a replacement tyre for their car these days...? Regardless, the authors optimism and love of life shines through.

This is a great little book, well written and full of interesting stories about a long life, well lived and full of incident.

I believe the book written by Sol Tetelbaum will be interesting to not only those who roughly at the same time lived in the former USSR but also for every reader who wants to know better what does it mean to lead a modest life in a communist state. No, you need not expect horror stories: Sol avoids political issues but writes instead funny and not-so-funny stories about his parents, lovely wife and kids, in-laws, his eductation and work, his young years in Siberia during the WWII, and so on. His memory preserves many explicit details - and most of them show hypocrisy and falsity of the political system he had to cope with. His stories are written in a very clear manner which immediately invokes my own recollections about the same time and environment. This is why I am eagerly waiting for his next book which, as I expect, will give a wider picture of his life.

In his book, Family Matters And More, Sol Tetelbaum provides a glimpse of life in the Ukraine. I enjoyed reading about his life as a young person and some of the humorous and not so humorous events that took place as he matured. He paints a vivid picture of how limited life can be under a dictatorship. Even more heartrending is the description of the difficulties he faced living in a society that did not embrace Jews. His struggle to achieve an advanced degree and a profession brought home the harsh reality of antisemitism. Tetalbaum's descriptions of the political upheavals, historical events, ancient cities and living conditions of his native Russia are written from a very personal perspective. I felt I was there with him and his family, experiencing their experiences, sharing their hopes, enduring their troubles and rejoicing in their successes.

Family Matters, the memoirs of a Soviet Jewish immigrant from the Ukraine, makes history come alive. Before reading the book, what I knew about the Soviet Union and communism, I had learned in tenth grade world history and from the media. The author's story affirms what I learned and read about as true and not "capitalist propaganda."

Mr. Tetelbaum's writing voice is unique. His intelligence and humor shine forth in his style. The photographs help the reader visualize the author and his family.

Sol Tetelbaum has led a very intriguing life. Soviet Jewish immigrants will feel a direct connection to the story, but anyone interested in the Soviet people, Jews, anti-Semitism or the immigrant experience will be captivated by the story. Younger generations of Soviet Jewish descendants can learn much about their own parents or grandparents from his life. I highly recommend this book.

Dr. Solomon Tetelbaum is an intelligent man. And I state this not for the obvious reasons: he was a nuclear research engineer in his home country, Ukraine, so he is undoubtedly a very educated man. Furthermore, he decided to write his first book in English, his adopted language, and he has created a damn fine, easily readable book for his readers, oftentimes using English colloquialisms known only to a few native speakers. No, Dr. Tetelbaum has been smart in what he has given his readers of his book, Family Matters & More: Stories of My Life in Soviet Russia. This is not a book about the privations the people of the USSR suffered under communist rule. This is not a book about the hardships that we in the West came to know as commonplace throughout those countries, although Dr. Tetelbuam does tease his readers that this might be the case with his opening narrative, A Loaf of Bread. This is a simple book: this is the human side of politics, the human side of discrimination. This is a book about one man and his family, and how they lived lives as normally as they possibly could under a strict political regime.

There are 43 narratives in Family Matters & More, and they are, for the most part, in date order, so the good doctor takes the reader on a journey through his life, from school to the leaving of Odessa. As a child, the Tetelbaum family lived in barracks, though this should not be confused with the common meaning of military housing. They were simple, often crowded multi-family apartments, and they seemed to attract all sorts of unwelcome visitors. Indeed, it is only toward the end of his book that Dr. Tetelbaum and his wife, Shushana, move into their own apartment, a place where they did not have to share their amenities with others. In-between times, the Tetelbaum family lived with strangers and their extended families, often whole families to one room, victims of the chronic housing shortages rampant in Ukraine and beyond.

The novel aspect of this intriguing memoir is how the author focuses on the pleasantries of life. It would have been easier - and probably more appealing to a readership seeking to confirm their opinions of life "behind the Iron Curtain" - for the author to concentrate on the hardships of life, for there were undoubtedly many (we get fleeting glimpses of conmen, and the power of a government that can, overnight, ruin a young boy's dream of having his own bicycle by raiding his bank account). But we are treated instead to a world of escape. A lot of the book Dr. Tetelbaum devotes to his travels in the mountains - the Caucuses primarily - and to the hilarious journeys he and his family took by car to surrounding areas. Again, these narratives are tainted both by humour and tragedy: there are numerous tales of happy trips on long, open roads, only to find that the road terminates in the middle of nowhere, with no way forward and no easy way back. This is accepted as "Soviet reality". And the roads were not the only part of the country's infrastructure that were crumbling. Dr. Tetelbaum's travels for work necessitated rail travel and hotel stays, but the trains - if they ever arrived in the stations - were often cramped by the amount of people on board, and hotel rooms were as rare as the noble dodo. The good doctor spent plenty of nights on station platforms, or he managed to cadge a couple of hours' sleep at the homes of kindly strangers.

The humanity in this book is evident from the incidents and accidents that the author extracts from his own family. We, as readers, are treated to his son's first school performances, his daughter's tinkling at the piano, his dog's life and death, and we are there when the Tetelbaum's are invited to gaze lovingly and magically upon bathroom facilities hidden beneath a carpet under a table in an apartment they are thinking of renting. "How are you supposed to use it?", asked the good doctor, incredulously. It is moments like these that make this book so memorable.

Family Matters & More is a wonderful book that gives us readers a glimpse of a Soviet reality that we know little about. The people of the USSR, people that we in the West were expected not to trust or believe, are, believe it or not, people. They have families, they take car trips, they share, they grieve at loss and death and the leaving of friends and loved ones, they relish the possibilities open to their children. They did not always spend their days queuing for bread and potatoes, an image common in the western media. They were people with access to education, travel, food, and medicine, albeit these facilities were oftentimes limited. In one narrative, Dr. Tetelbaum describes an operation his mother underwent to relieve a neurological disease: for the times this procedure - deep-brain surgery - must surely have been cutting edge and experimental. The humanity in these stories is what I will take away with me in my memory of this book.

One last thought... If I can presume to ask anything of the author it would be for him to illuminate some of the darker aspects of his life. How did the ideals prevalent within the Soviet USSR impact on work, on education, on family? How did the machinations of government impact on the everyday person? How was I - a person from the west - demonised by his government? If there was discrimination within that society how did it manifest itself? And how easy was it for an educated man - a nuclear engineer to boot - to leave his country? What was that journey like? Dr. Tetelbaum's command of English, and his extensive experiences, should take us all a great deal closer to the truth. We should applaud him for writing with no agenda but to share.

This is a wonderful book, a silver cloud with a dark lining. I look forward eagerly to part two.

Now I've read it, I recommend - nay, DEMAND - that every man woman and children in the English speaking world reads this brilliant novel. Waugh said "I have talent, while he has genius" - having read Doom and The Polyglots since, this shows that genius at its best. Highly recommended (obviously) - readers who enjoy Anthony Powell and Waugh will particularly love Gerhardie.

No, this is not The Wreck of the Titan, this is the brilliant tragicomedy of Russian life that has inspired so much laughter, tears, and admiration since it was first published in the 1920's. As the subject is the comic hopelessness of love and success, I'm sure the author is very amused (posthumously)to find it mistaken for a book about a shipwreck in all of these reviews. But if you end up here, by mistake or not, do read this book, because it is horribly funny and poignant and true.

I was told of this book by a friend who claimed that it told the story of the ill fated ship - Titanic but it was wrtten 14 years before Titanic sailed. Strangely enough he was correct. Though the plot is ordinary by today's standards, the eerie feelinge once gets in noticing the similarities between Titanic and th story in this book ensures a top rating.

I was told of this book by a friend who claimed that it told the story of the ill fated ship - Titanic but it was wrtten 14 years before Titanic sailed. Strangely enough he was correct. Though the plot is ordinary by today's standards, the eerie feelinge once gets in noticing the similarities between Titanic and th story in this book ensures a top rating.

I actually haven't read the book, but came here on foot of a recommendation from William Boyd in the Times Literary Supplement. This is not Morgan Robertson's "Futility - the Wreck of the Titan" - as other reviewers seem to think!

I picked this book up from a friend's bookshelf intending to flip through the pages. I ended up taking it home with me and reading it from cover to cover. It's well written and filled with a great deal of fascinating history. Not having ever been to the cities mentioned in the book, I can't comment on the accuracy of the tourist information. But this book would be of interest to anyone who has a curiosity about the history of Jewish life in eastern Europe. If it's ever reprinted, photographs would make it even better.

I was lucky to find this book in the library and used it extensively while in Warsaw, Cracow and Prauge. The detail is incredible, the writing style excellent with a lilt of humor. This book -made- my trip so I'm buying my own copy. If you take this book to Europe with you don't bother hiring a guide or taking a tour. It has more than any individual could offer.

For anyone interested in the Jewish history of Eastern Europe, this book is compulsory. It also presents conceptual and detailed history of over a thousand years and up-to-date descriptions of what the traveller will find now. Don't leave it behind despite its heft.

Having known Eli many years ago at University, I couldn't wait to read this book to re-establish spiritual contact. What I wasn't prepared for was the depthand passion that Eli had written on the subject. This is a masterpiece that once you have picked up you will not put down until you have seen the cities and experienced the tours first hand. My only regret is that the vast majority of those reading this book may never actually visit Prague.

This book is a gem! I pick it up and settle down in my chair and am transported in time and place to Eastern Europe. I was in Prague before I read the book (it had not been published yet) and now when I read the Prague sections everything comes to life. Mr. Valley has a way with words. He supples the reader with his dense knowledge of his subject in an easy to read, matter of fact style. I would recommend this book to anyone whether or not they are planning to travel to the cities described. I am eagerly awaiting his next book.

As you have probably guessed by now, this audio is one family's account of their emotional journey through the process of adopting a Russian child. This story serves as an example for others who are interested in pursuing the adoption process, and is filled with hope and disappointment, love and loss, happiness and despair. A good job from a new audio publishing venture.

If anyone has journeyed down the road of international adoption, they empathize with the author's every pen stroke. The book starts off with John describing a little girl who longs to be adopted after her best friend is adopted. He captures what this little girl was surely going through in heart-touching detail, having obviously been told first-hand what it was like to be so lonely, teetering on the verge of losing hope. The delicate feelings of many sweet children, as well as the see-saw emotions of the would-be mom and dad, who never gave up, are captured so vividly in this book. This book is based on actual experiences. Knowing that simply makes the tears of sadness and joy flow more freely as you live this experience. If you haven't experienced internation adoption, you just might find yourself Google'ing 'Russian Adoption' before you finish.

I received an advance copy of this book some months ago. The commercially edited version is just as good, and perhaps flows a bit better. While written as "fiction" to protect privacy, almost all of the events depicted are taken directly from John and Amy's experience in adopting three children from Russia.

The book offers a tremendous amount of insight into the bureaucratic world of international adoption. But this isn't a "how-to" book on adoption. It is a story of love, hope, fear and triumph. There are no villains. Most of us will live a whole lifetime without ever encountering a real villain. There are problems to overcome. Differences of opinion. Of course there is bureucracy..........can't be helped. In short, it is a story of life - several lives really. And that makes it a story we can all relate to.

Three Russian orphans had their lives changed forever because someone was willing to love them and pay the price to salvage them. The story teaches that we can all save someone. You need to read the book, and if you ever get the chance to hear John or Amy tell you their story personally, do whatever it takes to do so. It will change your perspective on life.

i really enjoyed reading this book and could barely put it down until i finished it. i would recommend this novel whether you are considering adoption or not. it is a wonderful story about the love of a family.

This book is a must-read for anyone considering adopting a
child from overseas. It also is an eye-opener if you know
someone who has. You will discover they've gone on a journey
that may be marvelous but also was filled with emotionally
draining setbacks and disappointments. But a warning to
everyone else: After you finish this you might very well
want to adopt a child yourself. The dedication, under a
picture of four older girls and one younger one, foreshadows
the joy and sorrow ahead: "For Marina, Svietta and the girl
in the blue bandana. Three beautiful young woman who saw
past the shards of their own shattered dreams, to find joy
in the fulfillment of hope for a beloved younger sister in
tribulation, who they would never see again in their lives.
You will trouble my thoughts and dreams as long as I live."

We follow the fictionalized account of Mike and Laura Knight
(who have two sons of their own) as they adopt two girls
from Russia (Katya and her younger sister, Luba, who lives
in a different facility). John Simmons wisely begins the
story with Katya at an orphanage in Partizansk. We feel her
disappointment as a friend leaves and through one of the
workers, Sofia, experience the mixture of hope and cynicism
characterizing post-Soviet Union Russia. There are then some
contrasting chapters between the orphanage and the Knights'
life in America that create early drama. Once the adoption
process is in full motion there is drama enough to carry us
forward. There are also a few surprises for readers. Mike,
we discover half way through the book, was a Mormon
missionary to Brazil for a year when he was a young man. And
Laura has a revelation about her own past that adds
poignancy to the story.

I love the cover but the title is too Walt Disney-ish
(though it takes on added significance in the final
chapters). Some description of the early adoption process
seems as if it were out of a brochure, and the interaction
between the couple at times feels sugar coated. But the
children are real, real, real. And there is no doubt the
author and his wife have experienced each stage of this
process themselves. He speaks with absolute veracity. Why do
we write? Sometimes it is for escapist pleasure or to
discover some profound truth. But there is also the sharing
of experiences that help us understand life a little better
and appreciate the goodness of the human heart. That may not
make for great literature, but it just might provide
something more important.

When we meet the children, through Mike and Laura, it is as
if we are trying to assess what we see, do the right thing
for the officials and pick up the Russian word or two that
will allow us to connect with each girl. Even more
interesting are the girls' first experiences being
overwhelmed by too many choices and the couple's early
attempts to exercise some parental control. Then there is
Mike's mother dying of cancer back in the United States.
Like the two girls she is, "...torn between two worlds, not
bearing to leave, not bearing to stay." When I finished the
book I went out and bought a small present for my
one-year-old grandson. What miracles children are. What joy
they return to our lives.

This book shows the inhumanity of the Soviet system under Stalin, and also the complicity of the Truman administration and the Brittish in turning over to Stalin those long-suffering refugees from Communism to be murdered or imprisoned in the gulags. It is to our everlasting shame that our troops rounded up those who had escaped to freedom from the U.S.S.R. and sent them back to their doom. The story rings true, and Nina Markovna was a woman who suffered greatly during the war, but who, by the grace of God, was lucky enough to run into some decent people who helped her escape the clutches of Stalin.

I have never felt such emotion and drama while reading an autobiography . Nina's Journey should be read by every Amercan high school student as part of History class. I know that I am not the same person I was before I read this book. Never before has a story touched me so deeply and stayed with me like this one has.

Markovna's "Nina's Journey" is refreshingly rare in not having allowed the slightest pressure of prevailing political correctness to influence the author's transparent honesty while describing her life in the Soviet Union leading up to WWII, or her life in Germany as an "Ost arbeiter" (worker from the East), or becoming at the war's end a fugitive from the Western Allies forced repatriation of the newly freed "Ost" to Stalin's deadly gulags.
Nina Markovna knew from years spent inside her native land that to Stalin and members of the Communist Party WWII was not as much a National War to save Russia from the Nazi invaders as most of us in the West understood it, but a Revolutionary War to try to preserve the Party's iron-fisted rule over their people. Ironically, during that crucial time when Hitler's Germany, by breaking the existing Soviet-German Friendship Pact, overnight became Stalin's external enemy, the Soviet population, with the exception of Party members, openly became Stalin's internal enemy, an even greater threat. Markovna makes us understand why.
It is a narrative that could be told only by one who lived it. Those who write history as a profession make an interesting distinction on this point: Markovna is seen as a "primary" historian - she lived it. Those who write of events at a later time, on a broader canvas, are considered "secondary" historians, often subconsciously perhaps influenced to a degree by the prevailing political correctness of their time. Not so the author of "Nina's Journey".
I have read this fiercely courageous account of Markovna"s journey through her youth - a Slavic Christian girl, on the run from both her native despotic rulers and later from Stalin's Western Allies - and I was prompted to read it again after seeing Mr. Visser's review on this web site in which he states that "...Markovna's account is honest from her personal point of view... but she totally neglects the terrible, murderous and downright criminal behavior of the German occupiers elswhere in the Soviet Union during 1941-45". I strongly object to Mr. Visser's use of the word "totally", reminding him of Nina Markovna's heartrending pages which recount the tragic fate of her young Jewish friend, Maya.
As for the rest of his critique, it actually works in Markovna's favor, making her account historically valid precisely because she does not presume to describe the fortunes and misfortunes of those in other parts of the Soviet Union, letting the recording historians who came later to do it, instead. She also, Visser admits, subconsciously perhaps recognizing the innate bravery of the author, chose to take "the loser's side". Nina Markovna openly acknowledges that while in theory the Germans were her bitter enemies, be it the high-ranking officer who helped her family to escape the concentration in Ohrdruf, or the ballet master who provided her with the necessary papers that helped her to avoid forced repatriation, or the farmer's wife, stuffing a bag with food for her starving family, their humane spirit lifted them above the constraints such theories put upon them.
To read such a remarkably balanced account of the recent past, that is often presented slanted and one-sided, is as if a puzzle in disarray was reassembled into one coherent whole. The reader understands clearly why Nina doesn't run away from the German invaders; why the Cold War followed WWII, when our children were instructed to hide under their school desks during "drills". It was all because the leaders of the Free World had accepted Josef Stalin as their ally - this tyrant without conscience, whose diabolical nature Nina Markovna had experienced from her early youth. A reader of "Nina's Journey" cannot help but experience it as well.

This book is without a doubt the most breathtaking, exciting, epic, harrowing, (fill in the blank!) autobiography (or biography) I have ever read. I have loaned this out to at least five other people who have had the same reaction. Nina and her family had perhaps 30 adventures (within one great adventure) any of which would top the most memorable event in the average life today. Nina evades starvation, instant death, rape, murder, treachery, and more in the course of her late teenage years just before and during World War II. Her style of writing and convictions make you know that whatever she is writing about, no matter how unbelievable today, is completely true. Gone With The Wind is a trifle compared to her adventures.

Epic Scenes: Wandering through the river of Russian prisoners captured by the Germans and actually finding her father. Her successful plan to avoid rape by the Russian Army. Her mother's desperate trek to get to work on time in the ice storm or risk imprisonment. Her family's voulunteering for slave labor in Germany to raise their standard of living. The happy ending at the American air base. Scores more.

If this story were made into a movie, it would be the epic to end all epics. Since it tells what actually happened to her, it relates the good relations between the Russian people and the German Army relatively free of the SS influence in southern Russia. Compared to their life under Stalin, the German occupation of Odessa was a golden moment for the average Russian living there at that time--something that the populace paid for with their lives when the Red Army swept in again. By the time Nina loses her Jewish friends to the second, SS-led German invasion, genocide merges with the on-going sorrow of daily life of the Russian people as just something else to endure and survive.

Nina's Journey is filled with details little understood by Americans today, but what remains is an epic struggle by on Russian girl to survive the upheaval and strife of the late 30's and early 40's. I couldn't put it down.

Having never truly suffered, most Americans born in the post war years as I was can not really grasp the supreme tenacity of the human spirit. Nina's Journey opened my eyes to just how much suffering brings out the absolute best in some people, the demonic worst in others. Nina Markovna lived in the Soviet Union under Stalin, when "comrade-citizens" living in constant fear of nighttime purges commonly kept bundles of winter clothes ready year round in the event of imprisonment at short notice. Rampaging gangs of gulag orphans terrorize the towns, their status as children of enemies of the state condemning them to short brutal lives of homelessness and starvation. Nina records the arrival of the German Wehrmacht to Crimea in the early 1940's--instead of fighting them, the beleaguered citizens welcome them as liberators from their own cruel regime. When the Red Army gains the upper hand, Nina's family escapes to Germany as "guest workers" where at war's end, they must avoid repatriation to the Soviet Union at all costs. This book is filled with heart rending scenes of life lived at the ugly edges of endurance, where often the only thing between life and death is the intervention of a single good soul, whose refusal to give in to the hate of war is testimony to the power of love. This book gives witness to the fact that though one person might not be able to do everything, he can do something. And those small somethings saved not only lives, but souls.

Having just returned from a three month trip to Russia and Ukraine this past spring, I was shocked and incredibly pleased to see how clearly the stories in Shonk's book mirrored my own experiences and impressions of the people I met. I immediately looked online to see if she'd written any others! The short stories cut right to the heart of a lot of the experiences that Russians are going through today, 17 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the interactions between Westerners and Russians are also still apt. Her writing is excellent and will pull you in, leaving you itching to hop on a train yourself and trek through the new, developing Russia...

These are beautifully written stories that stay with you. I was drawn to the characters in this book, both the Americans and Russians, and was really moved by the stories. The author captures characters dealing with life in a rapidly-changing Russian society and she does it with a sense of humor and understanding. This is a really, really excellent collection of short stories. I'd check it out.

As I've lived in Russia, the Red Passport rang a lot of bells. Apart from reflecting with considerable verisimilitude certain attitudes in Russia albeit from an American point of view, the difficulty of writing simple, successful prose while embodying complex truths is the main reason I wholeheartedly recommend this collection.

I usually read non-fiction and this was the first collection of contemporary short stories I've read for a long time but also one of the finest and I was transfixed throughout.

The Red Passport is gem of a book. On one level, Shonk is exploring Russian and American perceptions (and misperceptions) of each other. In that respect, it makes a fascinating cultural study. The stories are precise and melancholy comedies (or tragedies) of cross-cultural manners. But the book really sticks with you for another reason: Shonk gets under her characters' skin and reveals them in all their yearning and weakness. The sentences are lucid and beautiful, yet the writing is never showy. You get to the last page and long for more. Shonk, with her generosity and restraint, is a gift to contemporary American literature. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't love this book.

Bravo to Katherine Shonk--The Red Passport is a welcome and rare showcase for the classic craft of the American short story. Katherine's characters (sometimes bursting with youth and other times exhausted from life's trials) are both unique and universal. She shares an understanding of human experience and modern-day Russian that, along with her wonderful ear for language and eye for surroundings, draws her characters to life on the page. Her style is clear and captivating, each metaphor a little miracle. I look forward to more from this outstanding American author.

the forward starts off "(she) could have left russia--remember that as you read these journals." what comes across initially as anna's relentless account of putin's rise to autocratic dominance is more of an alarming and disheartening account of russia's systematic devolution where democracy, freedom of press and the semblance of a worthy society were fleetingly promised as they were taken away. incredible heart-wrenching accounts of the moscow theater and beslan school massacres as well as the two chechen wars.

A must read for anyone who wants to understand the "new" Russia. One hopes others will have the courage to take up Ms. Politkovskaya's crusade in exposing the corruption so rampant in Putin's (and now Medvedev's)Russia.

This is a riveting account of a life constantly in peril. The translation is equally outstanding, conveying both the "conversationalism" of a "diary" and the formality of the more essential elements.

Anna Politkovskaya's "Russian Diary" is a gold mine of information and provides unparalleled insights into Putin's Neo-Soviet Russia.

Many believe that Politkovskaya was murdered for her indepth investigative reporting into all aspects of Putin's regime. In this book she makes it clear that Russia is rapidly sliding into a dark and deep abyss.

Politkovskaya reveals the rampant corruption prevalent in the Russian government and its total disregard for the Russian population, human rights, and basic democratic principles.

"Russian Diary" is a first-hand account of the growing power of Russia's criminal community and its alliance with Vladimir Putin, the rampant greed and lawlessness of the new Russian business elite, the unbridled brutality of the Russian security services, and the gross incompetence of the Russian military.

Politkovskaya believed that Russia was headed for another major war in the Caucasus against the mountain peoples it has been terrorizing and murdering for the last decade.

This is a sad and depressing story that is all too familiar to those with firsthand knowledge of the Soviet Union and Russia.

For those who care about Russia, it is hard to put this book down. It is a compelling read. However, one cannot help read "A Russian Diary" without an overwhelming sense of sadness. We know how the story ends. The last entry in the diary was made in August 2006, and soon thereafter Anna Politkovskaya life ends, murdered by unknown assailants in Moscow.

The profound nature of this loss comes across on every page of this book, as Ms. Politkovskaya carefully and without flinching describes contemporary Russian society, warts and all, as perhaps no other journalist left living can. This book brings the reader a first-hand look into the tragedies of Dubrovka Theater and the school siege at Beslan. And also chronicles the seemingly endless war in Chechnya. She asks hard questions of the Russian government and its apparent failure to manage these matters.

As great of a loss as the death of Anna Politkovskaya is, her dairy is a reminder of perhaps the greatest tragedy and missed opportunity in the last quarter of a century. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia had the opportunity once and forever to move into the family of democratic states. This book documents that although there are elections, this has not really happened, not even close. What we have now is a tightly controlled state governed by an intelligence oligarchy with a fondness for the Soviet past, which has restricted rather than expanded civil liberties and workers' rights. These restrictions have been justified in the name of protecting national security and the promotion of state controlled capitalism. "A Russian Diary" documents how the Russian people are languishing with a government seemingly disinclined to tackle the serious social welfare problems that are besetting the country.

This book is commentary on the Russian government, but it also asks tough questions of Americans and Western Europeans. What could they have done differently to nudge Russia toward a democratic direction? Is it too late? Are we destined to regress into a more perverse version of the Cold War, with a Russian government mistrusting the West once again, but now empowered by oil and gas revenues?

I hope that is not the case both for Russia and the West. However, without Anna Politkoyskaya alive to point out the deficiencies in the Russian government and the shortcomings of the West, the unthinkable becomes possible.