Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag

Description

The extraordinary true story of the triumph of love over repression in Stalin's Russia Almost everything we know about the terrible experience of the Gulag has been based on survivor memoirs, in many cases written decades later. For obvious reasons there is very little authentic, contemporary material. Just Send Me Word is a uniquely powerful and moving experience. It is the story of the relationship between Lev and Sveta, two young Muscovites who were separated first by the Second World War (in which Lev went missing) and then by the Gulag, where the Soviet state sent Lev for ten years on absurd and arbitrary charges. Extraordinarily, during Lev's long exile in an Arctic camp they were able to smuggle letters to each other and even meet. Both sides of the entire correspondence have survived and these letters (of which there are some 1,500) form a detailed, highly articulate and agonizing account of life in Stalin's Soviet Union. They are also a testament to human constancy under impossible circumstances - a love story like no other.

'The great storyteller of modern Russian historians' Financial Times Orlando Figes was granted exclusive access to the thousands of letters between Lev and Sveta that form the foundation of Just Send Me Word, and he was able to interview the couple in person, then in their nineties. These real-time and largely uncensored letters form the largest cache of Gulag letters ever found. Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Peasant Russia, Civil War, A People's Tragedy, Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers and Crimea. He lives in Cambridge and London. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

A poignant record ... as fascinating and inspiring as it is heartbreaking ... It is impossible to read without shedding tears -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Financial Times * This powerful narrative by a distinguished historian will take its place not just in history but in literature -- Robert Massie Electrifying, passionate, devoted, despairing, exhilarating ... a tale of hope, resilience, grit and love * The Times * Remarkable ... moving... possesses extraordinary value ... a notable contribution to Gulag literature -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times * Immensely touching ... [a] heartening gem of a book -- Anna Reid * Literary Review * The remarkable true story of a love affair between two Soviet citizens ... as much a literary challenge as a historical one: the book can be read as a non-fiction novel * Telegraph * Figes has achieved something extraordinary ... the gulag story lacks individuals for us to sympathise with: a Primo Levi, an Anne Frank or even an Oskar Schindler. Just Send Me Word may well be the book to change that ... the kind of love that most of us can only dream of -- Oliver Bullough * Independent * Remarkable ... Figes, selecting and then interpreting this mass of letters, makes them tell two kinds of story. The first is a uniquely detailed narrative of the gulag, of the callous, slatternly universe which consumed millions of lives ... The second is about two people determined not to lose each other -- Neal Ascherson * Guardian * A quiet, moving and memorable account of life in a totalitarian state ... The book often reads like a novel ... captivating * Evening Standard * Orlando Figes has wrought something beautiful from dark times -- Ian Thomson * Observer * A heart-rending record of extraordinary human endurance * Kirkus Reviews * [A] remarkable tale of love and devotion during the worst years of the USSR ... [Figes's] fine narrative pacing enhances this moving, memorable story * Publishers Weekly *