Without Vodka: Adventures in Wartime Russia [Paperback]

Aleksander Topolski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2000

ALEKSANDER TOPOLSKI was sixteen years old on the morning of August 24, 1939, when he was called up for military service. In eight days his native Poland would be invaded by the Germans. Shortly after that, the Russians rolled in under the Hitler-Stalin pact, and when Topolski tried to sneak across the border into Romania, he was captured by Soviet border guards. Thus began a more than two-year-long ordeal through the Soviet Union's outrageously absurd penal system. Writing with an unexpected sense of humor and irony and an almost superhuman capacity for recalling fascinating details, Topolski recounts the fight for survival in the gulag. Mendacious NKVD officers, whimsical pickpockets, ruthless youth gang members, wise political prisoners, Polish patriots, unfortunate Uzbechs and countless other unforgettable characters populate this often raucous odyssey. "But it's not for our brains to ponder these things," someone along Topolski's journey utters, mouthing an old Russian saying, "without vodka you can't figure it out." Ultimately Topolski escapes into Iran to join the Polish 2nd Corps which is being formed there to fight the Germans . . . but that's another story.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the beginning of World War II, Soviet troops arrested Topolski, a 16-year-old Pole, as he tried to sneak over the border into Romania to join the free Polish Army. The "adventures" described here are the ones the author endured over the next two years, as he was shuttled through the Soviet Union's labyrinthine prison system. As Topolski explains, the prisons were an experience in multiculturalism, as Jewish, Ukrainian, Central Asian, Polish and Russian prisoners mixed with others from the Caucasus Mountains. In the prison hierarchy, Poles and Jews were generally more educated, while Armenians, Georgians and Central Asians were often considered untrustworthy thieves and sexual offenders. The author himself used cunning, talentAhe was able to elevate his status by passing as a draftsmanA and faith to keep himself alive. "Despite all that was going on around me, I held fast to my conviction that this was but a temporary reversal of fortune in my life." Topolski, who now lives in Canada, strikes the right balance between despair and humor as he describes the life of a teenager battling to survive. He pulls no punches in depicting the violence and hunger that were parts of daily life, but divulges little bitterness about his time in captivity. Indeed, he even offers some philosophical thoughts. While the book displays an understandable anti-Soviet animus, what emerges is the conviction that individualsAwhether guards or prisonersAcan control their actions, even in the worst of situations.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The refugee literature of World War II benefits with Topolski's contribution, a striking recollection of three years in the gulag. His narrative's outstanding quality is the spare, sharply drawn descriptions of the characters surrounding him, whether benevolent, malevolent, or indifferent. A 16-year-old plane spotter when Poland was partitioned in 1939, Topolski was swept into the stream of thousands of Polish ex-military people deported to the USSR. Teenagers like Topolski deemed too young to be murdered, as about 15,000 Polish officers were on Stalin's direct order, were force-worked on starvation rations--and indeed unrelenting hunger and the perpetual obsession with food unifies the narrative. In league with a shifting constellation of fellow unfortunates, he schemed daily for anything edible, episodes that buttressed his optimism that he would make it through that day, and the next, until fortune changed. The wheel turned with the release of the Poles to form a new army, to reach the Central Asia training bases in which Topolski persevered through the adversity of no papers, no money, and no friends. An amazing odyssey vividly remembered. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 386 pages
• Publisher: Steerforth (December 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586420127
• ISBN-13: 978-1586420123
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,489,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a worthwhile read, February 5, 2001

By 

christina (boston, ma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Without Vodka: Adventures in Wartime Russia (Paperback)

As an American interested in Russian affairs, and speaking little Russian- good books are hard to come by. Either translated from Russian, or written by Americans who don't really know what they are talking about- I have yet to read a book that really piqued my interest. Until this one. This book has a many things working well for it- it is written in english by someone who was THERE, it flows smoothly from chapter to chapter,and above all it is interesting. It is sad how little many Americans know about the gigantic country that we have fought for and against throughout history. Russia is amazing, and this book conveys that quite well.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real Life Story Hits Home, October 29, 2002

By 

Henry Sokolowski (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Without Vodka: Adventures in Wartime Russia (Paperback)

This is a chronicle of the early years of WW2 as experienced by a Polish teenager. His arrest, torture and deportation to Siberia is followed by another major adventure in trying to reach the Polish Army in Uzbekistan.
Aleksander Topolski's detailed, thorough descriptions of the people he encountered, the places he passed through and the experiences he endured bring this account alive.
Personally, this book has allowed me to gain a tremendous insight into the experiences of my own father whose story is mirrored by this one.
A highly recommended read for anyone interested in learning about the unbelievable Soviet regime of days gone by.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a tale of adventure, of humour and compassion, mischief and, December 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: without vodka (Paperback)

*Without Vodka is not an ordinary memoir of the horrors and deprivations of Russian concentration camps during the Second World War. What makes this tale different, what compels the reader from start to finish is the voice of the young author... a voice of such fresh-ness, such alert and hopeful spirit, that this "three year odyssey through the land of Red Misery" becomes a tale of adventure, of humour and compassion, mischief and amazement, faith and the mysterious, miraculous workings of luck. Little escapes the ear or the eye of the young Aleks as he relives intense experiences, reconnects with disparate characters who touched him - hounded, betrayed, loved, saved him - during those cataclysmic years. We are there in what feels like the total recall of yesterday, not half a century ago. It is a masterful achievement, a saga of survival that leaves one with a smile in the midst of tears.