When she was fifteen years old, in 1937, her father was arrested by Stalinist authorities and executed without trial. Alexander Solschenizyn recalls in his epic of The Gulag Archipelago that although Olga's father had been warned by a peasant that he was on the list of enemies of the state, he refused to run and hide.
Kapag siya ay labing-limang taong gulang, sa 1937, ang kanyang ama ay madakip ng mga awtoridad at Stalinist naisakatuparan na walang pagsubok.