A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir by Lev Golonkin

Lev was nearly 10 when, near the end of 1989, his family finally got exit visas to leave the Soviet Union. Jews by ethnicity, their lot was even harder than that of the average Soviet citizen. Living in a dictatorship and in constant fear of the secret police was hard enough, but when you add in being beaten up and spat at regularly, having your apartment block regularly graffitied with racist slurs and being loathed by the general population just because you are zhid (Jewish), the longing to leave rises to desperation point. The chance to leave comes when the stranglehold of the Communist Party on the nation begins to loosen under Mikhail Gorbachev.

What follows is Lev’s gripping tale of their journey, the six months they spent in Austria and their arrival in the United States. Lev tells his story with warmth and candour and vulnerability – the last because of his long struggle with severe lack of self esteem and a huge dollop of self hate. It is only when one of his professors at his university confronts him near the end of his final year that he dares to go back and explore his past. The professor told him that he would not be able to move forward until he came to terms with his past. That was in the early 2000s. And so it is that he is gradually able to face his demons and, instead of pretending that his life didn’t begin until he arrived in America, he is able to tell his whole story.

Lev returns to Austria to revisit the places they had stayed and to thank as many of the people as he could find who had helped him, his family and the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews who had streamed out of the USSR from the end of 1989. Having faced his past, Lev can now contemplate and plan his future.

Lev’s story is gripping. He ably conveys the fear they lived with in the USSR, the terror of facing the border guards and all his confused and mixed up feelings as he passes from childhood to adulthood. I loved the incidental learning about Russian antisemitism, the refuseniks, the decades of lobbying by US Jews and Evangelicals for the release of the Soviet Jews, the difficulties faced by the refugees, the aid agencies overwhelmed by the huge numbers that poured out of the dying Soviet Union, and so on.

I recommend Lev’s memoir. He is funny – he can, nowadays, laugh at himself. He is compassionate and caring, able to draw on his own experience to reach out to others. His story is interesting, part of modern history – and simply a downright good read.

Posted by Jessie

Catalogue link A Backpack a Bear and Eight Crates of Vodka