num_pages: 424
description:  Sex, Murder and Gambling in Soviet Prison? - A true story of World War II Meet Misior the thief who lights his cigarette with a pearly button; the Beautiful Zhenya who gets fired for refusing her boss Boris you-know-what; Tadzio the brilliant historian who gives up his freedom to become a prisoner alongside his fiance; Sergei the Chief Engineer who can't read a technical drawing; Weisglass the witty gynecologist; brave little Klein who risks being murdered by prison thugs to see that food is divided fairly for all and; Maria Ivanova who has a figure "like a sack full of pumpkins." It has often been said that It's not where you are or what you do but who you're with that makes life interesting. Soviet prison is by no means Club Med but Aleks Topolski was imprisoned with Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, Students and Musicians. Added to the mix were gypsies, pickpockets and the intimidating "Zhuliks" or hardened Russian criminals. Without Vodka: Wartime adventures in Russia, tells how a Polish lad of sixteen and many of his compatriots survived in Soviet prisons, labor camps and in war-torn Russia. This is not a horror story but a humor-filled adventure. Without Vodka starts with the outbreak of World War II when young Aleks is called up for active duty in the Polish Army and he is delighted because his school classes are cancelled. The tale moves quickly to the arrest of Aleks by the NKVD (precursor to the KGB) and his adventures stretch across Russia from freezing Siberia to the sun-scorched Samarkand desert. Topolski's maxim is To laugh is to live. He goes from being a starving prisoner, to Deputy Chief Engineer at a sub-Arctic power plant, to a tattoo artist for a gang of train robbers, to a bookkeeper on a kolkhoz (a collective farm), to a Polish Army recruit in sunny Uzbekhistan. A Great Adventure autobiography that reads like a novel and is illustrated by the author. Similar to Papillon by XXXX or The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. "..splendid...told with flair and humor... Topolski's narration flows fast and the characters, happenings and situations are presented so vividly that the reader sees them as if they were alive" - Andrzej Guryn, Gazeta Magazyn, Detroit "This has what it takes to be a best seller...Open it at any page and you want to keep reading." - Michael Becker, Editor, Leitrum. "...an outstanding achievement... funny, human and warm." - Peter Roberts, former Canadian Ambassador to USSR "...a powerful account...a testament to great human courage and resilience." - Prof. Michael Gnarowski, Dept. of English, Carleton University "I'm giving it to my kids because I want them to know what it was like." - Kaja Wilczynski, Survivor of forced resettlement in USSR "Again, I encourage you to get your autobiography into print - it's such an interesting and hitherto neglected slice of the area's history and so fascinatingly written" - Jennifer Balfour, Central Asia correspondent for The Guardian "...a superb book. I confess that I had a certain trepidation in starting a book about life as an adolescent Polish prisoner of war in the Soviet Union [but] I could not put it down. It will remain with me long after I have forgotten dozens of other books which I have read in recent years." - Dwight Fulford, former Ambassador, Foreign Affairs Canada But it's not for our brains to ponder these things. Without vodka you can't figure it out. - A Soviet soldier on a train from Krasnovodsk quoting an old Russian saying.
language: English
title: without vodka
titlecomplete: without vodka
genres: Russia, Memoir, Autobiography, Nonfiction, History, Poland, War, Polish Literature, World War II, Biography
ratings_count: 71
publisher: UP Press