RUSSIAN AT HEART: SONECHKA’S STORY
Olga & John Hawkes
Wily Publications NZ
Sonechka’s story was written by her daughter, Olga, and her husband. It was based on her mother’s memoirs written in Russia and Shanghai. Sonechka’s happy childhood ended with the death of both parents. Forced to work for Lenin’s secret police she experience the terror, the killings and the hunger brought about by the Russian Revolution. In June 1924, the nineteen year old Sonechka fled Moscow alone on the trans-Siberian Express. Due to new American immigration laws she was unable to join her brother in America and became one of thirty thousand White Russian exiles in Shanghai. Sonechka’s faith in God gave her courage to make hard decisions and face the daily grind of surviving and feeding her family when the Japanese conquered Shanghai. This biography gives insight into what it is like to be a member of a despised minority living in fear and poverty. Soon after the death of her beloved husband, Sonechka had to face many challenges against a hostile bureaucracy so that she and her daughters could fulfil her dream of reaching America. Although the prose lacks a certain fluency, Sonechka’s courage, resourcefulness and faith in God make this an inspirational book. JB
RUSSIAN AT HEART
Olga & John Hawkes
Wily Publications
This is an interesting biography of Olga Hawkes’ mother, Sonechka. The tale takes us from Imperial Russia, through the Bolshevik revolution, to Shanghai China and eventually to the United States of America. Throughout her life, despite seeing the worst of humanity and surviving some horrendous situations, Sonechka maintains a strong faith in God. WN
RUSSIAN AT HEART: Sonechka’s story
Olga & John Hawkes
Wily Publications
Russian at Heart, written by her daughter and son-in-law, Olga and John Hawkes, really is Sonechka Balk’s story. The story spans her life (1904–1974) from a privileged early childhood in the Crimea, through the horrors of the Bolshevik regime then to life in Japanese occupied Shanghai during WWII and eventually to a new life in the USA in 1948. The book details the pain, misery, suffering and resourcefulness of a proud people needing to forge a new identity but at the same time determined to retain and preserve all that it means to be Russian at heart.
The sacrifices and indignities that were forced on these people are hard to imagine. Perhaps the pain was harder to bear because this was not an enemy’s doing but often their own countrymen and sometimes their former friends.
Russian at Heart is educational and should appeal to any who have a Russian heritage or who want to understand what happened in Russia during the Revolution. The book is a little detailed and documented but then it really is Sonechka’s life story. What it means to be Russian means much more to me now that I have some understanding of the suffering of the White Russian community.
DS