Leonid Pereplyotchik

The book consists of series of novels, essays, and memoirs. Most of the novels are devoted to the life in the USSR. Main characters are Soviet people - scientists, engineers, soldiers. Author describes their life under the Soviet regime, their relation to authority, life philosophy. People with the Soviet mentality immigrating to the USA have problems to accommodate to the American values, lifestyle, and habits. The dramatically difference between American and Russian perception of the life values, psychological problems of understanding create some tension, conflict between generations. Some novels devoted to life of Russian immigrants in the USA. Essays tell the readers about so called "Lost generation " - aged Immigrants who losing their social basis and ties with younger generation. One essay describes an author's idea of symbolism in the Art.

Russia is the other side of the planet. It is not very understandable, sometimes mysterious, sometimes threatening... How did people live under a totalitarian regime? How did they manage to survive under the tough pressure of the authority that controlled all sides of private life? What did the ideological socialism look like - not according to propaganda, but in reality? It is not easy to answer these questions. There are big gaps - social, psychological, and political between the two sides of the planet: USA and Russia. Those who left Russia and entered to the Western World serve as a bridge from totalitarian to capitalist society. In other words, two contradicting worlds are combined in one mind - mind of emigre from USSR/Russia. This book is focused on this social phenomenon.

The life of personages were shown as in two "incarnations": life in the USSR and Russia.Many personages lived in Siberia, that is why their life is some kind of Siberian Saga. The second "incarnation" is American one. The book describes different destinies of the people who tried to adapt to a new world for them. This book also includes story about the tragial love between Jewish scientist and the Chechen journalist. Another story tells about destiny of the Baptist in the USSR.

History of Podolia is plentiful on the various events. Many different nations lived in these lands. The migration of Jews from Central Europe, the Khazars, the formation of Kievan Rus, Cossack uprisings, which were accompanied by the bloody pogroms and the destruction of entire Jewish towns or Shtetl of Podolia. Pogroms in Ukraine in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the immigration of several members of the Pereplyotchik clan to America. Leib Pereplyotchik with his family went through pogroms during the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war. The persecution of Jewish culture under the Bolsheviks. Initiative leadership of Soviet Russia to resettle Jews in Birobidzhan, the establishment of agricultural communes in the southern Ukraine, the resettlement of the Jewish families in the Novozlatopol area. The war against Nazi Germany, family involvement in the war, Shoah, the massacre of Jews from Novozlatopol. The post-war period, the fate of various family members in the Chernigov region, Donetsk, Kiev and Novosibirsk. The Pereplyotchik family has its roots in small towns of Podolia. Life of this family was built into the historical events that took place in Podolia, in the south and north of Ukraine, Poland, in the Urals, Kazakhstan, and Siberia.

Time came for the author to tell, at least to himself, the story of his life in America, the sorrows and joys of recognition of that country, which is so unusual for a man born under Stalin regime and grew up under poisonous rain of the Soviet propaganda.

Book consist of short stories on various topics. The Vietnam War and fate of Vietnamese veterans; Fate of people during military operations in the East of Ukraine; various subjects: lives of people in America, Russia, and Israel. Heroes of stories belong to different social strata: students, engineers, musicians, university professors, and others.