Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's PeaceIn this “extraordinary family memoir,”* the National Book Award–winning author of The Future Is History reveals the story of her two grandmothers, who defied Fascism and Communism during a time when tyranny reigned. *The New York Times Book Review In the 1930s, as waves of war and persecution were crashing over Europe, two young Jewish women began separate journeys of survival. Ester Goldberg was a rebel from Bialystok, Poland, where virtually the entire Jewish community would be sent to Hitler’s concentration camps. Ruzya Solodovnik was a Russian-born intellectual who would become a high-level censor under Stalin’s regime. At war’s end, both women found themselves in Moscow. Over the years each woman had to find her way in a country that aimed to make every citizen a cog in the wheel of murder and repression. One became a hero in her children’s and grandchildren’s eyes; the other became a collaborator. With grace, candor, and meticulous research, Masha Gessen, one of the most trenchant observers of Russia and its history today, peels back the layers of time to reveal her grandmothers’ lives—and to show that neither story is quite what it seems. Praise for Masha Gessen “One of the most important activists and journalists Russia has known in a generation.”—David Remnick, The New Yorker “Masha Gessen is humbly erudite, deftly unconventional, and courageously honest.”—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny |
Other editions - View all
Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace Masha Gessen No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
anti-Semitism apartment arrested Ashkhabad asked Batsheva Bella Bialystok Bialystok ghetto Biysk Boris Boris's building censors Chaika couple course dacha daughter death door dream Ester and Ruzya exam eyes face father fear feels felt foreign friends Garden Ring German Gessen ghetto girl Glavlit Gorky Street grandmother Ruzya hand Hebrew IFLI Isaj Israel Jakub Goldberg Jewish Jews Judenrat knew Komsomol later leave letters living look Majdanek Major Gurov Mikhoels months morning Moscow mother moved Nazis never night NKVD Omelchenko parents Party Poland Polish politruk Red Army rootless cosmopolitan Russian Samuil Sasha says seemed Semyon shouts sitting smile someone sort Soviet Union Stalin's stay stop story talk tell things tion told train translation trying turned walk weeks wife woman women write Yiddish Yolochka young Zionist