Fifty Russian Winters: An American Woman's Life in the Soviet Union

by Margaret Wettlin

A gripping account of Soviet life as experienced by an American who lived for 50 years on an absolutely equal basis with Russians. Packed with details of everyday life from giving birth in a Soviet hospital to living in a Moscow communal apartment. Forced to give up her American citizenship during Stalin's reign, Wettlin was coerced into becoming an informant for the KGB. She describes what Russia was like during and after World War II, her travels from the Baltic states to Siberia, Outer Mongolia, Leningrad, Uzbekistan and Georgia. Her mesmerizing book offers a background for understanding Soviet events that molded the Russian mind--from revolutionary enthusiasm to a complete repudiation of communism.

Genres: Russia, Memoir, History, Nonfiction, Travel, Biography, American

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Margaret Butterworth Wettlin (aka Peg), [born 1907,] was an American writer and translator, best known for her translations of Russian literature. A UPenn graduate, she lived in the Soviet Union for nearly 50 years and wrote a memoir Fifty Russian Winters: An American Woman’s Life in the Soviet Union.

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually I finished this book a couple of days ago and it is very, very good. I highly recommend it. Why - b/c it gave a completely different perspective to the idealism behind communism. Here is someone who truly belived that communism could solve problems. I think the ideals were real and valid, but in practice it went wrong. She realizes this too, but it sure took her a long time to see that what Stalin did did not not promote equality or help the masses. The great ideals became corrupted. Perhaps her idealism prevented her from seeing the truth. I think the book's weakness is that her final realization that communism did not live up to the wondeful ideals comes so suddenly. There is little discussion concerning the passage from belief in the ideals to the realization that the ideals were not being fulfilled. I think she was questioning much more than is revealed in the book. In the book, first she totally believes and then zip she doesn't! There is no analysis of how her change in point of view occured. But read the book. It is defintely worth reading. Her travels and experiences during the second world war are very interesting.

[Laura Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really went back and forth about giving this 3 or 4 stars. Basing it on other books with similar themes, I rounded down. But it is interesting and well written. That said, the author and her husband rubbed me the wrong way, for whatever reason. In one breath she's saying everyone should be treated equally, but then when evacuating Nalchik they take more than the allotted baggage and evade railroad officials, as if the rules don't apply to them.

I also disagree with her statement that the people of Leningrad during the siege were not heroes, merely survivors. To each his own opinion, I guess. But later on she remarks on the old people of Leningrad giving up their bread rations to grandchildren. If this isn't heroic love, I don't know what is. All this as she hangs on to the coattails of Leningrad refugees and is evacuated east more quickly (which may have saved her own children).

She also displayed a naïvete regarding the government for far too long. Even if you truly believe all these folks being arrested are "enemies of the people", how can you condone the mistreatment of family members who are innocent? Stop making excuses and admit you were, at least, partially misled.

The good. She was so in love and devoted to her husband. Their relationship was a rare and beautiful thing. I absolutely love the picture of Peg and her two children. They are adorable and you can easily detect her love for them in her face. I wish there had been a little more detail about their lives in America at the end. I also thought the last paragraph in the book was wonderful. A nice way to end.

Two other books written in a similar vein which I found more enjoyable are "Olga's Story" by Stephanie Williams and "The Reindeer People" by Piers Vitebsky.

[Jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating memoir of a woman from Philadelphia who traveled to the Soviet Union in 1932, fell in love with Socialism and with Andrei Efremov. Her marriage to him led to a 50 year life there over many troubled years of history. Andrei’s connection with the theater and his loyalty to the government (though he never joined the Party) provided them with a bit of a cushion from the harsh realities of the years that was not available to everyone. That being said, they did experience the overly cramped impersonal quarters provided by communal living, and were evacuated repeatedly during WWII as the German Army came further and further into Russia.
Apparently she had kept careful notes in these years, and the details provided are especially captivating. A map also shows their route from Moscow to the Caucasus, a trip across the Caspian Sea into Central Asia had into Siberia before returning to Moscow. All of this was with two young ones in tow. Wettlin worked as a teacher and translator. It’s no surprise that she was sucked into informing on others during the Purges, though naively so at the time, and rationalized thereafter that she didn’t say anything condemning on purpose and that people did not suffer greatly because of her words. It‘s a good lesson in how people get roped in and easily over their heads. The Soviet paradise that had lured her does tarnish before her eyes, and she returns to the USA after Andrei’s death.

[p3abus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars !! Easily!!!!!

This is very easily one of my favorite books of all time. This book is so freaking awesome ,, very well written, very interesting story , AND it’s all real like that’s crazy

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly imperfect book, but that's what makes it so fascinating.

More detailed thoughts here: https://cookiesandthecaucasus.wordpre...

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is terribly written. Sometimes I would stop reading, mid-sentence, and go to the cover of the book and study the publisher. I often wondered if it was self-published.
That said, if you're addicted to Russian and Soviet Union culture and history, the book gives great insight. Whelan was an American school teacher who travlled to Russia for a summer, met a guy and decided to stay for a while. They got married, and then Stalin closed the borders. She was trapped. If she left, she'd have to leave hubby and kids behind. So she stayed with them for almost 50 years, until after her husband died and her adult children were ready to leave the USSR.
Russian names are terribly complicated if you don't read the language. Every person's name to me looked like aksdjf;adkj. So she'd write, "Then we had tea is asjdkfl;ja's house," and I'd be flipping through the book trying to find details about the person. Was it an in-law? A friend?
A good portion of the book is devoted to World War II. Basically, her family traveled around Russia for two years before returning to their apartment in Moscow. They would hunker down in a town, but then the Germans would bomb the place. They'd get on a train and go somewhere else. And on and on.
I wondered why she spent so much time on WWII. Did it inextricably change her? Or did she take copious notes of that period and successfully ship them back to the United States? (She admits in the book that she journaled about the various portions of her life and got people to sneak some journals back to the United States.)
All in all, her life was fascinating. She worked and lived as a liberated woman, which would have been impossible to do in the United States during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. She had a nanny care for the children while she and her husband (a theater director) worked. She taught school and translated books. So her life was almost bourgeois. But her living conditions sound awful. She lived with her family in an apartment she shared with other families. They'd often get only one or two rooms for the entire family. They'd have to share the bathroom and kitchen with others.

[Sandra D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it. Fascinating memoir of a remarkable life, with such beautifully descriptive -- sometimes breathtaking -- writing:

We arrived at Stalingrad in that early morning hour when the world is bathed in the diffused light preceding sunrise. Andrei and Samson and I stood on the station platform waiting for someone to meet us. Nobody did. Gradually the other passengers went off and left us there alone. It was very quiet. The station was not a station at all, but only broken walls, brick dust, and twisted beams. The windows were ripped, as though a finger had torn them from corner to corner. A sign read, "Baggage Room," and pointed to a heap of ground bricks. We waited some more, then picked up our bags and went out through the gate. We went down ten steps, feeling with our feet because our eyes were looking up. Around the large square stood the mutilated city, holding its stumps and blind eyes to the sky. We crossed the square where a ring of stone children were dancing; one of the children was decapitated, others were maimed, but they smiled as they went round and round in their dance without a sound.

[Nanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

An autobiography of a woman who moved to Russia from United States after the Bolshevik Revolution. She was enchanted by idealistic dreams of communist revolution. For her who lived in the US at the time of Great Depression, the communist idea was a great solution for all problems in that era. She moved to Moscow in 1932, stayed, and then lived with her husband who was Russian.

After fifty years live under the communist regime, and her husband had passed away, she realized something missing. Finally She decided to move back to US and left all the blurred enchanting dream that had made her move to Moscow.

The author tells us in her personal view how she was fascinated with the communist ideas but in the end found those as something different after she lived through all the tragic events of the country she used to dream of.

May we call it as a revolution that has made its supporter in the depth of misery. Nevertheless, She find the best way to console all it though, return to her homeland. Built the dream into new kind of it may be?

[Laura Hancock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, I did.
It was poorly written and edited. The woman had an incredible story as an American school teacher who went to the USSR in the 1930s on a teacher exchange, fell in love, married, had children, had her passport confiscated, endured World War II in Russia and stayed for 50 years until her husband's death.
I can't believe she didn't get help in terms of ghost-writing. She tried her best to tell the story. While she had worked as a translator in the USSR and was around books all the time, anyone would have struggled telling their life's story in one novel.
While many Russians escaped to the United States during communism, the author is one of only a couple dozen of Americans who was sympathetic to socialism and immigrated there.

[Marina Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nonfiction doesn't always interest me, as I'm most interested in the very personal. Wettlin's account of her life as the wife of a prominent Soviet theatre director wasn't always as personal as I would have liked, but this was still an interesting book, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in reading about life in the former Soviet Union in the 1930s-1960s. She writes like a journalist (i.e., prosaically) but there are some lovely passages, and she has a gift for using beautiful language to recreate some of the most significant moments of her past.

[Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put down her account of her life in the Soviet Union. Margaret Wettlin was young and idealist when she went to Russia to see how it was working for herself. She married and stayed during Stalin's purges and WWII, finally returning to American a few years after her husband died.
Her experiences were very difficult and fascinating. I think she did a good job of showing her life and conditions as she saw them at the time, not letting later knowledge change her current views. Fifty Russian Winters really makes you think about youth, idealism, and our place in the world.

[Virginia Pulver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having lived in post-soviet era Ukraine (2005-2007), I have a real interest in what life was like during thos years. Lenin and Stalin and their influence on Russian life is significant. The American woman gives the reader an insider's view with the nuances of American culture influencing her observations. A good read, particularily if one plans to travel or live in a former soviet-block country.

[Karen James · Rating 5 out of 5]

My #1 favorite book to date.

This is my most-favorite, often-revisited book. My copy has been lent to many, and it always finds its way home. It shows its travels.

For me, this book and story are part of my being... First read more than 15 years ago.

Can i give MORE than 5 stars?!?

Read this book!

[Laurie Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over 20 years ago and I still think about it sometimes. You have to read it as one woman’s story, not a representation of Americans or Russians. I remember I wasn’t so happy with the ending of the book, but life is messy. It was eye-opening to me when I read it, because I’d never read a story about an emigrant.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

taken from the perspective of maggie wettlin, she describes her 50 some years living in russia, her family, her relation to the government, and experiences during WWII. although sometimes subtle, the narrative makes excellent points and observations about government propaganda and control.

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An idealistic American woman comes to Russia in the 1930s, intending to stay for one year, and ends up living there for almost half a century. One of the best looks into average life during the heart of the Soviet days as well as a story of faith and disillusionment. Recommended.

[Aviva · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting personal tale of an interesting time to be in Russia/the Soviet Union. But, out of 50 years, at least half the book describes the period between 1941 and 1944. That seems odd.

[Barbara Adde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written, Insightful and unique view of Russia just after the Revolution.
Fascinating.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at life in the Soviet Union.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating personal tale of life in Russia after the Revolution and during WWII.

[Rhode PVD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes a small but wonderful collection of the author's personal photos of herself and her husband. She has a sense of humor, which also helps, as you read about her adventures and life.

[Nancy Thomas]

Interesting view of living in Russia beginning in the 1930's.