Russian at Heart:Sonechkas Story

by Olga Hawkes, John Hawkes

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.

Genres: Biography

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Olga Hawkes
Olga was born in Japanese occupied Shanghai in 1942, the daughter of Russian émigrés who had escaped from the Soviet's Bolshevik regime. As stateless refugees the thirty thousand White Russian diaspora lived a precarious existence.
In 1948 Olga, her sister and widowed mother, Sonechka, fled to the America just before Shanghai fell to the Communists.
On finishing high school in San Francisco Olga went to Europe to visit relatives. In Paris she worked as an au pair for a French family and later studied at the Sorbonne.
In 1962 Olga met and married John in Paris. He was a young doctor from New Zealand working at the American Hospital of Paris.
After completing his postgraduate medical studies overseas, John returned to New Zealand with Olga for seven years. In 1974 John became consultant rheumatologist at Bedford General Hospital in the home county of Bedfordshire, England.
In 2002 they came to live in Christchurch,New Zealand.
In Russian At Heart, Olga and her history-buff husband, John, have skillfully woven a remarkable personal story into the momentous historical events of the 20th century.
They now live in Auckland New Zealand

To learn more, visit the author's website:www.olgahawkes.co.nz


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Reviews

[Omega Writers · Rating 4 out of 5]

From our CALEB reviewers:

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.

[Sue Stokes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russian at Heart, written by Olga & John Hawkes very readably documents the travails of Olga’s mother, Sonnechka, during a lifetime which commenced in Tsarist Russia, moved to exile in the White Russian enclave in Shanghai, and finally settled in the USA after WW II. This is the story of one person’s survival through the turmoils of the political change and international conflict which marked and marred the first half of the 20th Century.

The Russian revolution changed countless lives and the story of the White Russian refugees in Shanghai has engendered many myths and legends. Within this book lies the brutal and inspirational truth of desperate times and pragmatic solutions achieved at a human level. Illustrations and documentation make the historical associations clear to the reader while the narrative is clear – sometimes tragically so.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it as a worthy read for anyone interested in the human side of those turbulent times.

Sue Stokes

[Roy Hoke]

A truly inspirational story of a young girl's quest for life. Her determination, perseverance, luck and unfailing faith in God combined to allow her to succeed when so many others perished. In additional to the personal story, the book has a real history lesson of Russian society, evolution and collapse in the Bolshevik Revolution and through World War II. The history of that revolution and what happened to millions of Russians was not something, as an American student, I had ever studied. A chance meeting of the author and her husband on a European river cruise led to a very good read.

Dave Hoke

[Kelly Marrapese · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing story of an era few of us can even imagine. Sonechka's story should inspire us all to never give up. The writing was superb and kept me reading late into the night, I couldn't put the book down. This is a must read for anyone interested in an inspirational story.

Kelly Marrapese
Canandaigua, NY

[John Ginther · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deals with Sonechka living through some of the most turbulent events of the twentieth century and this is her story. The problem is that the events do not seem to be an integral part of the narrative and have been almost super-imposed from outside. There is a lack of pertinent observation from Sonechka herself about the events in Russia and China that she experienced.