It happened in Moscow
This multi-layered memoir winds its way through the delights and tragedies of three remarkable women - Mary, Erika, and Maureen - along with their husbands, families, and friends. The author, Maureen, weaves together love and suffering, faith and despair, discovery and questions. She not only tells previously unknown stories about significant individuals, but also builds bridges of compassion and understanding towards lesser known people - those who could not escape the Soviet Union, those of Russian Orthodox faith, and others maligned during Stalin's reign of terror. Golden threats of faith, hope, and love glisten throughout this touching and poignant book. --Andrew Dyck, professor, Canadian Mennonite UniversityAnton Chekhov once wrote that every human being actually lives two lives: the open, public one that everyone can see, and another, hidden, the life that goes on in secret. InIt Happened in Moscow, Maureen Klassen leads us, step by careful step, into that second, secret story of the Klassen/Reimer families. The family of Mary and C.F. Klassen escapes from Moscow to Canada and the family of Jakob J. Reimer remains in Moscow. How are these families connected? What happened to them? Where are they now?It Happened in Moscow; answers these questions, and many more. With great grace and clarity, this book narrates how goodness and faith and love can flourish not only in Canada, but also live on and defy one of the darkest political regimes of the 20th century. Read it and be blessed. --Rudy Wiebe, author,Of this Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal ForestWhat splendid love of life and what energetic writing! They held me captive in this mystery linking an eminent Canadian family to women in war-time Moscow. Mary leaps off the page, perky and full of humor. But more than that, this is intelligent well-documented writing by and about cultured and unsinkable women - Erika moves embassies and the KGB to get at the truth, and Mary and Maureen dare to become "Gentile brides" among ethnic Mennonites. --Dorothy Siebert, author,Whatever it TakesAnton Chekhov once wrote that every human being actually lives two lives: the open, public one that everyone can see, and another, hidden, the life that goes on in secret. InIt Happened in Moscow, Maureen Klassen leads us, step by careful step, into that second, secret story of the Klassen/Reimer families. The family of Mary and C.F. Klassen escapes from Moscow to Canada and the family of Jakob J. Reimer remains in Moscow. How are these families connected? What happened to them? Where are they now?It Happened in Moscow; answers these questions, and many more. With great grace and clarity, this book narrates how goodness and faith and love can flourish not only in Canada, but also live on and defy one of the darkest political regimes of the 20th century. Read it and be blessed. --Rudy Wiebe, author,Of this Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal ForestWhat splendid love of life and what energetic writing! They held me captive in this mystery linking an eminent Canadian family to women in war-time Moscow. Mary leaps off the page, perky and full of humor. But more than that, this is intelligent well-documented writing by and about cultured and unsinkable women - Erika moves embassies and the KGB to get at the truth, and Mary and Maureen dare to become "Gentile brides" among ethnic Mennonites. --Dorothy Siebert, author,Whatever it Takes