In this edition of Knyzhka Corner, we look at two books for middle grade readers by Manitoba author Gabriele Goldstone. Red Stone tells the story of Stalin’s cruel destruction of the kulak way of life during the 1930’s, through the eyes of eleven-year old Katya Halter. In the companion volume, Broken Stone, Goldstone picks up Katya’s story as she returns from Siberia to find strangers living in her home. As Red Stone begins, Katya and her brother Albert are playing near the windmill on the family farm. She picks up a chunk of red granite which she carries with her for many years. It will become a symbol of her family’s prosperous past life when they lived in the village of Federofka about 35 kilometers northwest of Zhytomyr and an hour west of Kyiv in what is today Ukraine. Katya’s father is a successful farmer. These farmers were known as kulaks. However, Stalin has a plan to start collectivization, and his plans do not include the kulaks. In this chilling story of how quickly life can change, Katya and her family are forced to leave their home and travel to a labour camp in the Siberian Gulag. How will they […]

 The Sea is Only Knee Deep is the true story of Paulina Zelitsky’s defection to Canada from the Soviet Union with her two young children in 1971. These two volumes explore many topics including: Stalin’s final years, Fidel Castro’s Cuba, and the dangers defecting. Paulina’s story begins in Cuba in 1968. She is part of the engineering team designing a top secret submarine base for Soviet nuclear submarines. “My predicament was dangerous and the possibility of defection much more so.” (Vol.1, p. 1) Zelitsky’s story does not shy away from the complex political realities of life in the Soviet Union. Beginning with her birth in 1945 in postwar Odessa, Zelitsky’s Jewish family is subjected to constant scrutiny by the KGB. Despite the death of her mother from Stalin’s imposed famine of 1946-1947, Paulina is an optimistic child who loves difficult tasks. Jokingly, adults tell her, “To you any sea is only knee deep.”  This Odessan motto, which is the title of the book, becomes a powerful tool in her life. The multicultural city of Odessa is full of beautiful buildings and talented people. However, the constant fear of Soviet repression rules their lives.  Children are forced to denounce their […]

Andrea Chalupa’s Orwell and the Refugees traces the amazing connection between George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm and Ukrainian refugees in the displaced persons camps of postwar Germany and Austria. Animal Farm carries the message of hope that someone in the West knew the truth about the Soviet Union, that someone understood the unimaginable horrors Ukrainians and others endured behind the Iron Curtain. When Andrea Chalupa’s grandfather Olexji Keis, her grandmother Alexandra and uncle Vitalij immigrated to the United States in 1951, one of their few possessions was a Ukrainian translation of Orwell’s masterpiece Animal Farm. It had been published in Munich in 1947 by a group of Ukrainian refugees at a small press called Prometej. The remarkable story of the collaboration between the world-renowned novelist George Orwell and these Ukrainian refugees is the focus of Chalupa’s book Orwell and the Refugees. After spending years writing Animal Farm, George Orwell could not find a publisher brave enough to publish it during World War II since it was viewed as anti-Soviet satire. The book was not welcome in the literary world because the West needed Stalin to fight Hitler. As well, many leading intellectuals still believed in the Russian Revolution. Orwell […]

In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we look at Orphanage 41 by Victor Malarek. Although Victor Malarek has written six non-fiction books, Orphanage 41 is his first novel. Mykola Yashan, the 19-year old protagonist of this novel, is forced into a voyage of nightmarish self-discovery. After the sudden death of his parents in an automobile crash, his entire world falls apart, “Because everything I’ve been told, all I’ve ever known, has turned out to be a big lie.” (p. 48) Mykola leads a very sheltered life. He is a third year student in civil engineering at the University of Alberta. As an only child, he is the “centre of his mother’s universe,” (p. 12), but he has a very complicated relationship with his father, Dr. Stepan Yashan, “a respected scholar in the expat Ukrainian community.” Mykola cannot understand why his father resents him so much. After his parents’ death, Mykola discovers a shocking secret. He was adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine. This discovery forces him to start a search for answers about his past. Mykola begins his search with his 1993 adoption papers signed by Natalka Matlinsky, director of Orphanage 41 in Lviv. As Mykola begins to follow the […]

SLIDING ON THE SNOW STONE. Szpuk, Andy. That Right Publishing, 2011. 238 p. ISBN 1466305681   When Andy Szpuk asked his father about his earliest memory, he replied, “Russian soldiers carrying corpses away.” After hearing about his father’s life, Szpuk decided that this story must be told. Sliding on the Snow Stone gives readers a glimpse into the incredible determination that kept the Ukrainian nation alive throughout centuries of foreign oppression. As Sliding on the Snow Stone begins, it is 1932 and five-year old Stepan realizes that his tiny village near the town of Vinnitsya has changed forever. Soviet soldiers are picking up the bodies of his starving neighbours on the road.  Stepan’s description is heart wrenching, “They began by taking away all our grain, and once they’d done that, they stripped rural Ukraine of all its food produce.  There was nothing left to eat.  Of course, back then I didn’t know all that.  I was just a boy.” Stepan’s family manages to survive during the Holodomor because of their cow’s milk. However, all around them people are dying and eating anything they can find – even human flesh. Meanwhile, Soviet soldiers are freely eating and drinking.  The Ukrainian will […]

Death of a Nightingale is a Danish mystery about corruption in modern-day Ukraine. The third Nina Borg mystery by the Danish writing team of Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis, Death of a Nightingale explores the life of Natasha Doroshenko and her daughter Rina.  Their story provides a springboard to explore not only corruption in modern-day Ukraine, but also the history of Stalinist terror during the Holodomor.  The opening chapter of the novel tells readers, “In Stalin Land, Stalin decides what is true and what is a lie.” (p. 3) As the novel begins, twenty-six year old Natasha Doroshenko has been accused of the attempted murder of her abusive Danish fiancée.  Without warning, she is taken to the Copenhagen police station from her prison cell for interrogation. She originally fled Ukraine after the mysterious death of her journalist husband once she realized that her life was in danger because of what she knew about powerful corrupt Ukrainians. When she sees police officials from Ukraine outside the Danish police station, she knows that she must flee or face certain death.  While she is on the loose, her Danish fiancée is murdered in a horrific fashion. Terrified, Natasha tries to get her daughter […]

Erin Moure’s new book of poetry is a mixed media collection of verbal and image art. The title, The Unmemntioable, is not a spelling mistake.  It is a conscious decision by the award-winning writer to intrigue and mystify her audience. This collection of poems deals with Moure’s exploration of her Ukrainian heritage after the tragic death of her mother from cancer. Her poignant words will resonate with readers whose parents emigrated from Ukraine, ”Everyone comes from somewhere, Mom.” (p. 76) Moure decides to bury her mother’s ashes in the tiny village of Hlibobychi in Ukraine. While dealing with her grief, Moure (known as E. M. in the book) meets her alter-ego Elisa Sampedrín (E. S.) who has followed her to Ukraine and later to Romania. E. S. is a writer and translator using E. M. to research the nature of experience.  She has appeared previously in Moure’s book Little Theatres (2005).  Although the relationship between the two writers is strained, they both need each other for inspiration.  On her journey, Moure also describes her mother’s journey from Ukraine to her home in the South Peace region of Alberta.  In doing so, Moure touches on many poignant aspects of Ukrainian history, […]

Karen Autio’s new book Sabotage describes the experiences of Ukrainian and German prisoners in the internment camps during World War I. It is the third book in Autio’s trilogy about Finnish immigrants to Canada. In 1915 war is raging in Europe, and in Canada, there are rumours of espionage and sabotage. Paranoia against foreigners is increasing. John and Saara Maki are the children of Finnish immigrants in Port Arthur, Ontario. John wants to become a reporter.  He delivers newspapers to make extra money for the family, and occasionally works with a local reporter to gather information.  When he uncovers a plot to blow up the local bridge, paranoia against foreigners grows. John is very upset when his friend’s father is sent to an internment camp in Kapuskasing. His friend Fred is the son of Ukrainian immigrants, and the boys’ relationship reveals the suffering that the WWI internment operations inflicted on Ukrainian families. Meanwhile, John’s older sister Saara has just returned from caring for her ailing aunt’s family. Saara missed a lot of time at school and must make up her school work if she to become a teacher.  During the summer, she befriends her new neighbor, Birgitta Schmidt. When Birgitta […]