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Eugenia Ginzburg

Born

in Moscow, Russian Federation

December 20, 1906

Died

May 25, 1977

Genre

History, Biographies & Memoirs

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Eugenia Ginzburg (Russian: Евгения Гинзбург) was a Russian historian and writer. Soon after Eugenia Ginzburg was born into the family of a Jewish pharmacist in Moscow, her family moved to Kazan. In 1920 she entered the social sciences department of Kazan State University, later switching to pedagogy.

She worked as a rabfak (worker's faculty) teacher, then as an assistant at the University. Shortly thereafter, she married Pavel Aksyonov, the mayor of Kazan and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. After becoming a Communist Party member, Ginzburg continued her successful career as educator, journalist and administrator. Her oldest son, Alexei Fedorov, from her first marriage to Doctor Fedorov, was born in 1926 and died in t Eugenia Ginzburg (Russian: Евгения Гинзбург) was a Russian historian and writer. Soon after Eugenia Ginzburg was born into the family of a Jewish pharmacist in Moscow, her family moved to Kazan. In 1920 she entered the social sciences department of Kazan State University, later switching to pedagogy.

She worked as a rabfak (worker's faculty) teacher, then as an assistant at the University. Shortly thereafter, she married Pavel Aksyonov, the mayor of Kazan and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. After becoming a Communist Party member, Ginzburg continued her successful career as educator, journalist and administrator. Her oldest son, Alexei Fedorov, from her first marriage to Doctor Fedorov, was born in 1926 and died in the Great Patriotic War. Her younger son Vasily Aksyonov, born in 1932, went on to become a famous writer.

In February 1937, she was expelled from the party ranks and soon arrested for her alleged connections to the Trotskyists. (See also Great Purge). Her parents were also arrested but released two months later. Her husband was arrested in July and sentenced to 15 years of "corrective labor" with the confiscation of his property. (Articles 58-7 and 11). In August, Eugenia was also sentenced to ten years.

Eugenia Ginzburg experienced first-hand the infamous Moscow Lefortovo and Butyrka prisons, the Yaroslavl "Korovniki", as well as the journey on a prison train across the country to Vladivostok, and finally to Kolyma in the cargo hold of the steamer Jurma (Джурма). At Magadan, she worked at a camp hospital, but was soon sent into the cold depths of the Gulag and assigned to so-called common jobs, where she quickly became an emaciated dokhodyaga ("goner"). A Crimean German doctor, Anton Walter, probably saved her life by recommending her for a nursing position. Anton had been deported due to his German heritage, Eugenia due to her allegedly critical attitude to the Soviet system. They married later.

In February 1949, Ginzburg was formally released but had to stay in Magadan for five more years. She found a position at a kindergarten and secretly started to work on her memoirs. In October 1950 she was arrested again and exiled to Krasnoyarsk region, but before she left, her destination was changed to Kolyma. After Stalin's death in 1953, Ginzburg was able to visit Moscow and was fully rehabilitated in 1955, as were millions of wrongly convicted, many posthumously.

She returned to Moscow, worked as a reporter and continued her work on her magnum opus memoir, Journey into the Whirlwind (English title). After the book was completed (1967), all attempts to publish it in the USSR failed for political reasons and the manuscript was smuggled abroad, where it was widely published. Eventually, her book included 2 parts, in original Russian named "Krutoi marshrut I" and "Krutoi marshrut II" -- "Harsh Route" or "Steep Route." ...more

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Eugenia Ginzburg’s books

Average rating: 4.43 · 5,466 ratings · 441 reviews · 5 distinct works • Similar authors

	Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg, Paul Stevenson (Translator), Max Hayward (Translator) 4.33 avg rating — 4,071 ratings — published 1967 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Крутой маршрут by Eugenia Ginzburg, Евгения Гинзбург 4.76 avg rating — 949 ratings — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Within the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg, Ian Boland (Translator) 4.60 avg rating — 441 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Min tunge vandring by Jevgenija Ginzburg, Eugenia Ginzburg, Anna Libak (Foreword) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Крутой маршрут. Хроника времен культа личности. Роман: Часть 1. Книга 2 by Eugenia Ginzburg, Евгения Гинзбург it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Eugenia Ginzburg

Крутой маршрут (2 books)
by

Eugenia Ginzburg,

Ian Boland (Translator)

4.36 avg rating — 4,512 ratings

Quotes by Eugenia Ginzburg (?)

“Perhaps because waiting for an inevitable disaster is worse than
the disaster itself.”
― Eugenia Ginzburg, Journey into the Whirlwind - Evgenia Ginzburg

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“By way of farewell, I recited Mandelshtam’s † melancholy poem: The horses tread slowly,
The lamps burn low,
And where they are taking me
Only strangers know.”
― Evgenia Ginzburg, Journey into the Whirlwind: The Critically Acclaimed Memoir of Stalin's Reign of Terror

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“My attempts to appeal to common sense were summarily dismissed.
“But I wasn’t the only one—no one in the regional committee attacked him!”
“Never you mind, each will answer for himself. At the moment it’s you we are talking about.”
“But he was trusted by the regional committee. Communists elected him to the municipal board.”
“You should have pointed out that this was wrong. What were you given a university training for, and an academic job?”
― Eugenia Ginzburg, Jounry Into the Whirlwind

tags: russia

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Polls

July and August Readings

1st Place: July
2nd Place: August

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

6 votes, 33.3%

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

5 votes, 27.8%

Journey into the Whirlwind - Evgenia Ginzburg

3 votes, 16.7%

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

3 votes, 16.7%

The Stranger - Albert Camus

1 vote, 5.6%

18 total votes

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