In the Beginning

by Irina Ratushinskaya, Ирина Ратушинская

Written by the author of "Grey is the Colour of Hope", in which she tells about the four years she spent in labour camp for her dissident activity, this book goes back to life before her arrest, interweaving her experiences growing up in Odessa with those of her childhood friend and future husband a biased education, pressure to work for the KGB, the growth of faith and literary awareness, a moving, impromptu wedding and a sham trial.

Genres: Poetry, Biography Memoir

410 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Irina Ratushinskaya was born in Odessa, Ukraine. Her father was Boris Leonidovich, an engineer, and her mother was Irina Valentinovna Ratushinsky, a teacher of Russian literature. Her mother's family originated from Poland, and her grandfather was deported to Siberia shortly after the January Uprising, a Polish uprising against forced conscription in the Russian Army in 1863.

Irina was educated at Odessa University and was graduated with a master's degree in physics in 1976. Before her graduation she taught at a primary school in Odessa from 1975–78.

On September 17, 1982, Irina was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation. In April 1983, she was convicted of "agitation carried on for the purpose of subverting or weakening the Soviet regime", sentenced to seven years in a labor camp followed by five years of internal exile. She was released on October 9, 1986, on the eve of the summit in Reykjavík, Iceland between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

While imprisoned, Irina continued to write poetry. Her previous works usually centered on love, Christian theology, and artistic creation, not on politics or policies as her accusers stated. Her new works that were written in prison, which were written on soap until memorized and then washed away, number some 250. They expressed an appreciation for human rights; liberty, freedom, and the beauty of life. Her memoir, Grey is the Colour of Hope, chronicles her prison experience. Her later poems recount her struggles to endure the hardships and horrors of prison life. Irina is a member of International PEN, who monitored her situation during her incarceration.

In 1987, Irina moved to the United States, where she received the Religious Freedom Award from the Institute on Religion and Democracy. In the same year she was deprived of Soviet citizenship by Politburo. She also was the Poet in Residence at Northwestern University from 1987–89. She lived in London, UK until December 1998, when she returned to Russia to educate her children in Russian school after a year of procedures to restore Russian citizenship.

She lives in Moscow with her husband, human rights activist Igor Gerashchenko, and two sons.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Chloé Detry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een herinnering dat moede een keuze is.

[Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Russian I can love!

Russia makes the finest people on Earth. Then destroys them. As they have just done with Navalny.... Ratushinskaya was another such. This is a marvellous book. She is one of those who recalls every moment of her life, from infancy...not just what she did and saw but what it felt like, then. Clearly a resistor from birth, someone who'd never accept something as true just because authority said so. Someone of the deepest, profoundest integrity and courage. And with a wicked sense of humour too! Very like Navalny. Heroes, all of them. And to Hell with American Republican fascist collaborators and the smearers and liars of Fox News
A marvellous and so instructive account of how a dissident is created from scratch, as it were, and how they learn and how they survive ( if they do). A lesson for us all.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is ironic, and not a little unsettling, that as I was growing up comfortably in the US in the early sixties, well, comfortably except for the Russian and nucelar threat, a girl about my age was growing up in Russia having to live in perpetual fear of her parents being jailed for any of a number of random reasons, then by the time she was in her early 20's she herself was imprisoned for writing "seditious" poetry. This book really made me even more grateful for freedom in a land where people can complain against the government without fear of reprisal

[Freddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the historical and political context seems bleak, the tone with which the author narrates her story feels positive and compassionate. Often we get reflective moments by the author in which she views people who were complicit with the authoritarian Soviet regime with great maturity. There's also a lot of humor in this book which makes reading it entertaining.

[Helen Downton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read 'Grey is the Colour of Hope' many years ago. So when I found this book, I was interested. It is a good read, showing life and the infringements of freedom in Soviet Russia. Well worth a read, which underlines how lucky I am to live where I do in the world.

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ratushinskaya is an easy person to like. However, her memoir is disappointing for a lot of reasons. First, I'm not sure her experiences, although they were frightening and a little surreal, warrant such a long and detailed memoir. Her work camp experience as a political prisoner for a few years in Russia (for writing poetry) just isn't that remarkable -- far more people have endured worse and wrote about it more movingly. And the detailed history of her childhood and teen years should have been kept at the private-diary-level only. Some of the blame lies with her translator, who did a poor job with the dialogue -- making it all sound stilted and bizarre. With lots! of! exclamation! points! A better translator might have been extremely helpful to the author.

Having said all that, Ratushinskaya is a charming, warm woman who shared the story of her life growing up in the Communist cities of Odessa and Kiev with a sweet openness. And I did finish it, after all, which says something.