8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Stunning Novel., September 12, 2009
This review is from: Wave of Terror (Paperback)
A few months ago I wrote a review on a biography about Joseph Stalin in which I expressed a bit of sympathy towards the man. I knew he was a murderous tyrant and the despotism of the Soviet Union destroyed lives, but I still felt Stalin deserved some sympathy because of his crippling insecurities. After reading this novel I take it all back as it brings down the effects of the Communist regime to a personal level and it really wasn't pretty. I loved the book and it's shocking that only in the last few years we are given the opportunity to read this book thanks to the fantastic efforts of Theodore Odrach's daughter, Erma with the translations of his work. Theodore Odrach's novel is one that clearly draws a lot of inspiration from his own personal experiences growing up near Pinsk, Belarus then being sent to a reform school in Lithuania at the age of 9 and becoming a headmaster of a grammar school. Denounced by the Soviets, Odrach was forced to go on the run for years until finally settling in Toronto, Canada.
Set in 1939 during the Red Army invasion of Belarus, it tells the story of Ivan Kulik the headmaster of School Number Seven in Hlaby, a small rural village in the Pinsk marshes. Through Kulik's eyes we see exactly how the soviet regime could cast its gloomy shadow over such a small village as the villagers are terrorised and crippled with fear at the very presence of the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) who may show up at any time and take away those they label as subversives to the Zovty Prison to be interrogated which in that time meant a severe beating and even execution. The presence of the new regime in Hlaby has an unwelcome effect on the school as Kulik is ordered to have his teachers teach the children in Russian even though none of the children speak the language. Kulik's relationships are also affected as he's not sure who he can trust anymore to speak his mind as everyone is a possible informer crippling Kulik with un-imaginable paranoia.
It is really a stunning book. Odrach spends a fair amount of time developing and describing each character which I have no doubt are resemblances of real life people Odrach encountered during his time as a grammar school headmaster. He exposes the true hypocrisies of the new regime, devours and destroys each and every lesson the new regime sought to teach the world. His characters each have their flaws but I did certainly recognise a separation between the characters on the side of the regime and the characters against the regime. Kulik & Sergei for example were both honest and respectable characters who opposed the regime and didn't seem to have any pronounced flaws that would make this pair seem more real. Granted, they are the two main heroes of the book but a character without flaw is a character you can't relate to as easily. The Bohdanovich family are especially loveable as they are a typical man and wife who have been together for decades. They really love each other but find themselves fighting every two minutes. The parents are indifferent towards the new Soviet regime but their daughter, Marusia, is a snob looking to cast away her Ukranian identity and embrace the language of mother Russia.
Odrach has a real eye for the cultural differences of the time and how they changed when the new regime came into power. The communist party sought to create a fairer and more egalitarian society but actually created a system that was less fair and crueller than the previous regime. This could only have been written by someone who has experienced these events first hand as Odrach expresses an erudite knowledge of the torment the small villages suffered in the name of equality and fairness. Theodore Odrach's daughter, Erma has done a superb service in bringing this writers work to the English speaking world and I will certainly be looking at more of his writings in the coming months. For those who have an interest in the history of the Soviet Union or those who just enjoy a good book then I would highly recommend it as it is truly superb.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Historical novel about Belarus under Stalinist Russia, December 17, 2008
This review is from: Wave of Terror (Paperback)
Wave of Terror is a novel about the effects of the Soviet invasion of Belarus in 1939 on a small Ukrainian village in the Pinsk marshes as seen through the eyes of a young school teacher named Ivan Kulik. Liberated from their uncaring Polish landlords, the village is first happy, but later finds they are faced with an even worse threat from Stalinist oppression.
Originally written in Ukrainian and published as Voshchad' (Incipient dawn) in Toronto in 1972, this edition was translated into English by Erma Odrach, the author's daughter. The story is based on Odrach's personal experiences and was written to expose the horrors of Stalinist Russia, but now reads as historical fiction.
The novel is best at portraying the people and their behavior as they struggle to adapt and survive under changing and unjust conditions. Particularly well done is Ivan's infatuation with the lovely Marusia, and her uncaring response as she tries hard to adjust to the new Russian social environment that Ivan disdains.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"First the Red Army is sent to intimidate the villagers... ", December 20, 2009
This review is from: Wave of Terror (Paperback)
"...then bands of agitators follow... calling themselves long-awaited liberators. Like swarms of locusts, they seep through the smallest cracks and infest villages and settlements."
With this description young Ivan Kulik, newly appointed village school headmaster, introduces the events of 1939 in Hlaby, his village in the Pinsk Marshes - a region straddling the border between Ukraine in the south and Belorussia in the north. What follows is an extraordinary story, a social portrait of a community struggling to survive in the face of constantly mounting and increasingly violent Soviet interference in the lives of the villagers. By focusing on one village and a limited group of primary characters, Theodore Odrach takes the historical facts onto a very personal and intricate level, building empathy and understanding in the reader who is captivated early on and will remain engaged until the end of the novel and beyond.
Odrach's characters are lively and personable, realistically captured in their daily lives and their new, at times conflicting, emotions. Many are torn between willingness to collaborate with the occupiers, anticipating personal advantage within a Soviet system, or maintaining a more or less neutral attitude, risking being labelled nationalist or even traitor, thereby endangering their livelihood and even survival. As the harassment and brutal attacks multiply, and random arrests, disappearances and arbitrary killings are witnessed more frequently, ignoring reality is almost impossible. Propaganda and reality could not be further apart. Even those, like Ivan Kulik, who are trying to maintain some level of normalcy in the school and the village, have to fear being called for "an interview" at the notorious Zovty prison of the NKVD [the Soviet Secret Police], in Pinsk. Ivan, who is as much chronicler of the events as active participant, has to confront his own suspicions: can he trust even his few friends like Sergei? Is the chatty neighbour or colleague an agent provocateur waiting to report him? Will his faultless "proletarian credentials" protect him from disappearing in Zovty prison or being sent to a concentration camp in Siberia?
For the young women in particular, embracing the "modern" Russian way can lead to unforeseen consequences. Clearly exploiting the benefits of the new system is Dounia Avdeevna. While her machinations read like light relief, the author's message is serious. The primary female character, however, is Marusia, the girl that raises romantic feelings in Ivan. She is rejecting any advances by him, this 'moujik' (peasant) who prefers to speak Ukrainian rather than Russian (which he speaks more fluently than she does). He is also better educated than she is... Odrach conveys the conflicts in the girl's mind admirably, and, mostly, with a lovely ironic touch. Nonetheless, for me one of the most chilling scenes is Marusia's reaction to receiving a beautiful winter coat as a gift - and discovering the label in its collar...
The brutal occupation of the Pinsk Marshes, so empathically evoked by Odrach, has to be understood against the historical context and its unique geographic characteristics. A strategically important region for the Soviet Union, it had been under Polish control until its annexation by the Red Army in September 1939. Its deep forests, broken up by farmland and pastures with isolated villages scattered in the landscape and, most importantly, the river with its large flood plains had provided natural barriers from unwanted intruders. Culturally, the population's identity was rooted in their Ukrainian language. As Odrach expertly illustrates, the region's "integration" into Byelorussia meant much more for the villagers than the compulsory introduction of the Byelorussian and Russian languages: it represented the denigration of their own language and culture and a rejection of their important role in the wider Russian and Slavic historical context. I found it fascinating how Odrach uses the language conflict also as an illustration of social tensions within the community. Some characters, such as the Russian-speaking apparatchiks, when irritated or angry, slip back into their native Ukrainian without noticing ' or they do, losing more than their argument.
I found it especially fascinating how Odrach illustrates the social tensions in the community through the language issue. Some characters, such as the Russian-speaking apparatchiks, when irritated or angry, slip back into their native Ukrainian without noticing - or they do, losing more than their argument.
WAVE OF TERROR is without doubt closely based on the author's personal experiences. Odrach has beautifully fictionalized what he knew and lived through and presented it in a way that readers from everywhere can relate to the individuals, their lives, hopes and struggles. He has done even more than that. With his nuanced approach he has brought to light a mostly unknown tragedy of a community of a specific region that stand representative for the many, many victims of Stalin's Sovietization campaign with the reign of terror suffered by communities with different cultural and linguistic identities.
Theodore Odrach escaped from the Soviet Union and eventually immigrated to Canada in 1953. Since then, until his untimely death in 1964, he used every spare moment to write - not only this novel but a substantial body of works. For me, Odrach's writing stands on its own and does not need any suggestion for literary influences. However, I did find important parallels in terms of theme and approach between Odrach's novel and 2009 Nobel laureate Herta Müller. Both authors have fictionalized the personally experienced terror regimes seen from the perspective of a specific linguistic background. WAVE OF TERROR was published in Ukrainian in 1973 and has only recently become available in English thanks to the great efforts of his daughter Erma, who had to enter the depth of the Ukrainian language and culture to convey her father's words and meaning. She has done so beautifully and convincingly. [Friederike Knabe]
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