- 2009 edition. Signed. 256 pages.
- Publisher. Wily
- Softcoveer. Flaps. Format C. Photos.
- Condition. Very good.
In freezing mid-winter Moscow, 1924, Sonechka Balk queues to view Lenin's body. She is not there to pay homage, but to see the man whose revolution has stolen her youth. The Russian revolution left the orphaned Sonechka destitute and destroyed her idyllic life in the Crimea. Forced to work for Lenin's secret police, the Cheka, she experienced the full horror of the revolution.
In June 1924, 19-year old Sonechka fled Moscow, all alone, on the Trans Siberian Express bound for China. She hoped to reach Shanghai and then join her brother in America. Because of new American emigration laws this was not possible. In Shanghai Sonechka became one of the thirty thousand White Russian exiles, shunned and abhorred by the rest of the world.
In 1929, Sonechka met and married the love of her life, Vladimir Rossi, a multi-lingual St Petersburg ex-Imperial Guards officer. Wounded in the Civil war, Vladimir was evacuated to Constantinople (Istanbul). After numerous adventures he arrived in Shanghai where he worked for the French authorities as an interpreter. During the Japanese occupation Sonechka's remarkable resourcefulness enabled the family to survive.
In 1948 the widowed Sonechka fled Shanghai with her two daughters to America. Her dream of reaching America was finally fulfilled.
This book is co-authored by Olga and John Hawkes from the incredible legacy of memoirs and stories left to Olga by her mother Sonechka.
Olga and John have brought the neglected Russian diaspora in Shanghai alive.
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