Sashenka

Beginning in 1993, I have made 16 trips to Russia, living there for almost three years. I have met people who survived life under Brezhnev and subsequent regimes. I listened to their stories, and stories they told about their parents who knew the Stalinist Terrors. Anyone of them could have told parts of Sashenka's story, but there is so much more to be told. Simon Montefiore has created a masterpiece. An incredible love story plays in front of unspeakable terror and inhumanity. I read the first two sections slowly, savoring the craftsmanship of his story, wanting to make it last, but when I reached the final section, I read it in one sitting, needing to learn the resolution. Powerful!

I'm not a big reader, and had this book passed on to me as one worth reading. I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed it - an easy read, and found it hard to put down. The main character certainly keeps you on your toes... what decisions and thoughts will she have next. A sad ending.

Sashenka is a riveting story about a family in Russia during and after the revolution. Sashenka is a true believer. She is a Bolshevik, one of the originals. She is only 16 years old, and with the zeal of a teenager, she embraces a philosophy that will change the world. I have often wondered why thoughtful, educated, well-to-do people would subscribe to communism, and this story sheds light on that question. Sashenka's early influences include a father who is an arms dealer, a rich capitalist who profits from the misery of others. He loves her but has little time to display affection to her. Her mother is a socialite with the morals of cat. Her drunken excesses disgust Sashenka. Sashenka sees the problems in her society and believes the world should be organized other than the way it is. So when the revolution comes, Sashenka is ready. She is a major player in the end of the tsarist Russia and the rise of the communist party. Sashenka, and others like her, truly believe they are right in what they do. They believe the suffering and death of the merchant class is proper and right, because it will lead to a more enlightened world. This belief is so strong, Sashenka barely flinches when she sees a good friend of hers killed by a mob and "reduced to a smear on the sidewalk". She never acknowledges any wrong in the death of enemies of state. As a true believer, she sees such things as necessary, not evil, and she never expresses any remorse or regret. Eventually, as with so many people in Stalin's extended inner circle, it becomes Sashenka's turn to face the reality of what her grand revolution has become. She is arrested, sent to prison, beaten, tortured, tried, convicted, and executed. Sashenka, like so many of her peers, never acknowledges there is anything wrong with a state terrorizing its citizens, only that it made a mistake with her personally, since she is genuinely innocent. And like the others, she goes to her death declaring her loyalty to the state, and to comrade Stalin. The revolutionaries of Sashenka's generation continued to be true believers until the bitter end. Even 80 years later, when it was clear their grand plan had utterly failed, they continued to keep their secrets and defend their ethical choices. So the question is, by embracing these moral values, does that make them good people or bad people? If someone honestly believes she is making the world a better place, even at the cost of torture and death of herself and others, is that a righteous position? I don't really know the answer. I could never understand how such things could happen in the first place. But this book made it seem real to me. It helped me to see communist fanatics as people who thought they were the good guys. Sashenka's story is fictional, but it is based on events that actually happened to hundreds of thousands of people. It is very well done.