In The Beginning - Hardcover

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

This compelling memoir of the early years of the Russian poet and human rights activist Ratushinskaya is a fine complement to her earlier chronicle, Grey Is the Colour of Hope ( LJ 10/15/88), a memoir of her experiences in a Soviet labor camp and solitary confinement. Her new work details some of her first memories, including her discovery of the poets of Russia's Silver Epoch: "In one week I was buried under an avalanche of all that, which had been carefully concealed from our generation: Akhmatova's 'Requiem,' Tsvetayeva's poems, and a blue-bound volume of Mandelstam . . . and they were now mine, painfully close, Russian! How could it be that I had not known about them?" Most of the memoir concerns Ratushinskaya's hectic life as a dissident in Kiev and Odessa with her husband, Igor Geraschenko, before her arrest. One unusual aspect of the book is her method of detailing Igor's youthful memories as well as her own. Despite the turmoil of her young life, Ratushinskaya tells her story with humor and compassion. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.
- Amy Lewontin, Bentley Coll. Lib., Waltham, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.