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Biography & Autobiography. History. Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:"REMARKABLE . . . A WONDERFUL STORY." �The Boston Globe The father is a high-ranking Communist officer, a Jew who survived Stalin's purges. The son is a "refusenik," who risked his life and happiness to protest everything his father held dear. Now, Chaim Potok, beloved author of the award-winning novels The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev, unfolds the gripping true story of a father, a son, and a conflict that spans Soviet history. Drawing on taped interviews and his harrowing visits to Russia, Potok traces the public and privates lives of the Slepak family: Their passions and ideologies, their struggles to reconcile their identities as Russians and as Jews, their willingness to fight�and die�for diametrically opposed political beliefs. "[A] vivid account . . . [Potok] brings a novelist's passion and eye for detail to a gripping story that possesses many of the elements of fiction�except that it's all too true." �San Francisco...… (more)
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Potok starts the book’s history with what is known, from family chronicles, about Solomon’s life. Born at the turn of the 20th century to a poor teacher of Jewish children in Dubrovno, on the Dnieper, Solomon experienced from early on the violent Russian anti-Semitism. At age 13, he ran away from home; in the next two decades, he managed to work his way across Europe to live in America; when the Russian Revolution unfolded, Solomon made his way back to Russian where he commanded troops in the Civil War.
Potok follows Solomon’s career as an unofficial Soviet diplomat who spent a great deal of time abroad, mainly in China. Volodya spent a good part of his childhood in China, recalling that as a happy time. Up through his young adulthood, Volodya’s life was a fairly contented one as the child of a member of the Russian elite, attending the best schools and living a life of privilege.
So why did this son of a dedicated Bolshevik turn against his own country losing nearly everything--losing comfortable and important jobs, freedom (he and Masha spent 5 years in exile in Siberia), and risking their lives in a terrible effort to emigrate to Israel?
The answer to that in Potok’s books is a brief history of the Russian Revolution as well as the Russian attitude towards the Jews. There is a great deal about Stalin and his policies, of the attitudes of the dictators who came afterwards, and of the craziness of Soviet policies and procedures. The book contains a wealth of information about Russian dissidents, the Jewish dissident movement, and the reaction of foreign powers to the condition of Russian Jewry at that time.
The book is extremely well written, flowing easily as a narrative, thanks to Potok’s skill in writing fiction. It is quietly factual, never shrill, always focusing on the lives of the people who worked so hard for their own independence. It is never ideological; it keeps true to Volodya and Masha themselves, and that is its greatest strength.
Potok ends the book with the questions: from where does one get the courage to risk annihilation, as he puts it, in order to resist a despotic regime? Would I have the ability to do the same? These, of course, are unanswerable, but perfectly valid anyway, given the story Potok has just narrated.
Highly recommended.
From Potok's epilogue: "Can we learn something from these chronicles about iron righteousness and rigid doctrine, about the stony heart, the sealed mind, the capricious use of law, and the tragedies that often result when theories are not adjusted to realities?"
In some places the years jumped around a bit- presumably due to putting
The book painted a clear picture of Russia in times past, and of the struggle of the Slepak family, who are clearly intelligent, strong-willed people. I would highly recommended this to anyone.