A Train to Moscow
The Soviet world in the post-WWII era is a bleak existence for Russians. The Iron Curtain has cut them off from the rest of the world, and famine and deprivation define their existence. Sasha, a young girl born three years before the end of the war, lives with her mother and grandparents. She is told her father died a noble death in the war, but the vagueness of it all seems to her a lie, and her uncle Kolya is presumed dead since he was never returned from the war. When Sasha finds Uncle Kolya’s war journal hidden in the attic, she learns of his horrific experiences in his beautiful prose and illustrations of haunting images. This find is yet another family secret dogging Sasha. As she reads, it draws her close to an uncle she never met.
Sasha and her two close friends, Marik and Andrei, are witness to the unfair arrests and brutality of the NVKD and the mysterious disappearances of people in the village. Tragedy strikes the group of friends, and Sasha’s guilt and regret is forever with her. Since a small child, she has aspired to be an actress. Living in a make-believe world gives her escape from the realities of her life. In a bold break from her claustrophobic life in a small country village, she boards a train to Moscow and defies the expectation for a conventional career to seek her dream.
Elena Gorokhova, who grew up in the 1960s Soviet Union, has given us a heartfelt autobiographical novel. Sasha, like Elena, navigates through her family’s lies and secrets, within the lies and secrets of her country, to make her own path in the world. This novel will move you to feel the pain and frustration of one who needs to live in truth and have the freedom of expression.
