Missing Galina

Our children of 1917 project was completed in March with the publication of the book Resilience (the film was released last November). We then began considering which of the “heroes” from the book we should share in the pages of Russian Life.

When you have so much material, so many great stories, how do you pick just one?

Should we include the story of Lyubov Pakhomova, who in 1941 fled a collective farm in Siberia to work on a peat farm in western Russia, because there they were paying cash instead of in kind? Or should we feature Marina Goncharova, who spent her working life as a military doctor, with postings from Kamchatka to Chechnya? Or maybe Maria Yevstafeva, the seemingly unassuming village communications worker who was a recruiter for the anti-Nazi resistance? Or why not Sabiryan Asfandiyarov, the tank driver who survived the liberation of Eastern Europe, or Nikolai Treskin, the Irkutsk mechanic who served in the dangerous job of mine layer/defuser outside St. Petersburg?

We were conflicted.

And then the universe stepped in.

While preparing this issue, we heard from Sasha Sokolova (the artist featured on page 46) that Galina Grebneva had passed away. Sasha had painted Galina’s portrait (inset) as part of her project, and so had found out before we did that Galina passed away in January.

That clinched it.

And so we present in this issue the story of a diplomat’s wife, a ping-pong player extraordinaire, a survivor of the Leningrad Blockade, a woman who met Queen Elizabeth at her coronation, and a person with an uncommonly sweet and gently disposition. And, yes, that is all one person, Galina Grebneva, may she rest in peace.

She is but one of the 22 remarkable people we profiled for this project – people whose stories, grit, resilience and kindness forever changed us all. If you pick up a copy of the book, I hope you will be similarly changed.

And whether you do or don’t, we may just bring their stories to you.

Plans are in the works for a July and August trans-American trip to include about a dozen showings of the film Resilience, followed by a book signing and Q&A. Join our email list to keep informed, or check our July/August issue to see if we pull this off.

Thanks again for your continued support for this magazine and all that we publish. It is not an easy time to be a Russophile, but we remain staunchly committed to our primary tasks: keeping you informed on all things Russian, and bringing you stories you cannot read anywhere else.

Enjoy the issue.