Rosa is my grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in 1919 in modern-day central Ukraine in Ryzhanovka, a shtetl about 120 miles south of Kiev. She had three older brothers and a twin sister — although the sister died of pneumonia or some other such sickness before she turned two.
I have been following your blog for a while now. I am so grateful for your researching and your writing. My family has also never spoken about our history so I have only tiny amounts of history. Thank you so much for writing what you are learning about our shared history. My grandmother was born in 1918 in Uman, Ukraine. They left in 1920 after surviving a pogrom by hiding in a basement. They then walked across the mountains into Romania. I feel a sense of belonging as you spell out the history of our ancestors. Something deep is filling into my being. A deep thank you for your work. 🙏
Amazing.. I always wondered about the specific history of jewish migration into ukraine, the polish connection is enlightening.
The picture of your grandparents is spooky- the artifact that looks like smoke between them..
My family lived in pervomaysk not too far away during this period. They also mostly dont know or dont like to talk about that history. The two stories my grandma tells, in one, her father or grandfather supposedly fought off marauding "white" bandits who were breaking into their house to rape his daughters, then fell over dead from a heart attack. In the other story, during the holodomor their grandma went to market or somewhere and never returned- they assume she got et..
eesh. brutal. nationalist ukrainians want to make the holodomor specifically about "ethnic" ukrainians -- but everyone there got swept up in it, including jews. jews have been totally erased from the holodomor narrative here in the west.
Why take US propaganda and run it through the wash and pass it off as credible? Why not address Patrick Lancaster and the reporting of many others showing the non US State Department side? I noticed the other Gessen, the one who isn't with all the Putin books, he did a piece on Lancaster. You see that one? You a fan of his work? All you have is "Putin bad" with some variation of a trying to shame people while you run interference for the DOD. That's really progressive and you are a learned scholar! I think I got it though, instead of reading "Surveillance Valley" and wasting their time, one only has to listen to Putin dismiss the internet as a CIA project years before your book.
Why launder NATO talking points? You are now Masha Levine! Hilarious. Anyway, you still didn't address the question and your whole response to this has been clear in your anti Russian, pro imperialist crap line. You have assimilated well here and will be appropriately rewarded Masha! Since you are the son of the poor and downtrodden, you should be able to whip out a bunch of soldiers to talk to but instead you interview people "fleeing Putin's Russia" to crash in downtown airbnbs and hang in cafes. Hahahahaha. You should take another ayahuasca trip at some retreat and go find yourself because you aren't a journalist. You are a NSS propagandist.
Thank you for the history of your family and Ukraine. Americans basically are clueless when it comes to history even in the next town.
Watching our political situation I am afraid we may be heading to a future that will duplicate this horrible history.
I have been following your blog for a while now. I am so grateful for your researching and your writing. My family has also never spoken about our history so I have only tiny amounts of history. Thank you so much for writing what you are learning about our shared history. My grandmother was born in 1918 in Uman, Ukraine. They left in 1920 after surviving a pogrom by hiding in a basement. They then walked across the mountains into Romania. I feel a sense of belonging as you spell out the history of our ancestors. Something deep is filling into my being. A deep thank you for your work. 🙏
Thank you Jennifer.
Amazing.. I always wondered about the specific history of jewish migration into ukraine, the polish connection is enlightening.
The picture of your grandparents is spooky- the artifact that looks like smoke between them..
My family lived in pervomaysk not too far away during this period. They also mostly dont know or dont like to talk about that history. The two stories my grandma tells, in one, her father or grandfather supposedly fought off marauding "white" bandits who were breaking into their house to rape his daughters, then fell over dead from a heart attack. In the other story, during the holodomor their grandma went to market or somewhere and never returned- they assume she got et..
eesh. brutal. nationalist ukrainians want to make the holodomor specifically about "ethnic" ukrainians -- but everyone there got swept up in it, including jews. jews have been totally erased from the holodomor narrative here in the west.
Why take US propaganda and run it through the wash and pass it off as credible? Why not address Patrick Lancaster and the reporting of many others showing the non US State Department side? I noticed the other Gessen, the one who isn't with all the Putin books, he did a piece on Lancaster. You see that one? You a fan of his work? All you have is "Putin bad" with some variation of a trying to shame people while you run interference for the DOD. That's really progressive and you are a learned scholar! I think I got it though, instead of reading "Surveillance Valley" and wasting their time, one only has to listen to Putin dismiss the internet as a CIA project years before your book.
Yasha why don’t you talk with some Russian soldiers? Or Patrick Lancaster. What do you think of his past 8 years in the Donbas?
You really want me to support Putin's leveling entire cities in Ukraine? You can't handle that I don't. That's just weird and sad.
Why launder NATO talking points? You are now Masha Levine! Hilarious. Anyway, you still didn't address the question and your whole response to this has been clear in your anti Russian, pro imperialist crap line. You have assimilated well here and will be appropriately rewarded Masha! Since you are the son of the poor and downtrodden, you should be able to whip out a bunch of soldiers to talk to but instead you interview people "fleeing Putin's Russia" to crash in downtown airbnbs and hang in cafes. Hahahahaha. You should take another ayahuasca trip at some retreat and go find yourself because you aren't a journalist. You are a NSS propagandist.