Remember This Time
by By Broder, Bill and Broder, Gloria Kurian
Category: Fiction , Literary

Based on research, oral history tapes and interviews, Remember This Time recreates Western Russia during the First World War and Bolshevik Revolution through the powerful, yet intimate story of the Chodorov family from 1914 through 1919. At the center is Kala, the second oldest of four daughters, a patriotic and spirited sixteen year old when the novel begins, a young woman characteristic of the hardworking, energetic life of the times, devoted and proud of her family, her traditions, and her home town of Lyesk. As war escalates and the Russians enforce a scorched earth policy, Kala's beloved Lyesk--in the midst of what was known as the Pale of Jewish Settlement--is destroyed. Against her mother's wishes, she becomes a refugee, joins her Russian countrymen on their retreat into Great Russia while her sisters and parents hide in the woods to await the advancing German armies and plan to rebuild their burnt-out home under the new government. With drama, humor; care for historical detail, and a story-telling magic, the authors make one feel so close to the people of the time that it is like hearing the story of one's own family. They follow Kala on her grueling march, during her love affair and marriage to a young revolutionary and during their life together in Moscow as civil war erupts. They show her disillusionment with the new socialist people's government and describe her eventual return to Lyesk, where she is witness to the town being ruled and victimized successively by the Germans, the Poles, the Bolsheviks, and, once again, the Poles. They share the intimacies of the Chodorov family life, including small and great moments of happiness and tragedy. Throughout, we see how the family's loyalties are challenged, their endurance tested, and finally understand why they choose to flee the home they love. Ultimately, the Chodorovs epitomize the dilemma of the world split apart by rival ethnic and national clalins, representing that generation of immigrants who came to America in the twenties full of dreams and anger.