Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780385336055)

In 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

Author: Masha Gessen
ISBN-10: 0385336055
ISBN-13: 9780385336055
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 10/25/2005
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 8.34h x 5.30w x 0.75d
Award: National Jewish Book Award - Winner

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 01/22/2006 pg. 20