Dissecting "Cold Peace" Part IX - Characters from the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union triggered the Berlin Crisis of 1948-1949 by introducing a blockade. Throughout the crisis they remained in occupation of their sector of the city and continued to interfere with the Airlift and the Berliners in a variety of ways. Yet, while I have studied Russian history, my knowledge of Russian/Soviet society is inadequate to build a complete plot line around Russian characters. I thought I would leave the Soviets in the background as merely objects with whom my Western characters interacted as necessary.
And then Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Russian invasion shamed me into giving the Ukrainians a voice in my "Bridge to Tomorrow" series. As historian Timothy Snyder documents all-too-well, no people -- not even Europe's Jews -- were subject to as much oppression and tyranny as the Ukrainians. Stalin engineered and completely unnecessary famine that resulted in the starvation of 6.6 million Ukrainians between 1930 and 1933. (Yes, you read that correctly: 6.6. million. See: Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands, Hatchette Books, 2022, 53.) And that was only the beginning. Ukrainians were again targeted in Stalin's successive "great purges" and "Great Terror" -- and that was all before the Nazis invaded in 1941.
My conscious decision was aided by one of my moments of inspiration, and so a mini-plot line was born. It features two Ukrainian women. One whose father disappeared into a Gulag but who herself escaped to emigre relatives in the West and so returns to the Continent as a British citizen serving as a translator for the RAF. The other, a girl who lost most of her family to the famine, who joins the partisans after the German invasion and becomes one of the famous women "sharpshooters," responsible for the assassination of hundreds if not thousands of Germans.
The two women meet by chance at a luncheon hosted by the British Military Governor, Sir Brian Robertson, when both are in the entourage of their respective commanders. They are the only two women in the room and so gravitate towards one another. They discover they grew up not to far apart. They recognize an affinity that crosses the political borders... They will play an increasingly important role in the "Bridge to Tomorrow" series.
Cold Peace is Book I of the Bridge to Tomorrow Series.
Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone of occupation, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.
A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.
Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/bridg...
View a video teaser at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuE7...
Previous releases include:
" MORAL FIBRE," which WON THE HEMINGWAY AWARD 2022 FOR 20TH CENTURY WARTIME FICTION and a MAINCREST MEDIA AWARD FOR MILITARY FICTION as well as being A FINALIST FOR THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD 2023 IN THE CATEGORY HISTORICAL FICTION.
they took the war to Hitler.
Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.
Their average age was 21.
This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.
It is intended as a tribute to them all.
or Barnes and Noble.
"This is the best book on the life of us fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain that I have ever seen.... I couldn't put it down."-- RAF Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Bob Doe.
Winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction and Silver in the Global Book Awards.
Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew
For more information about all my books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com
Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles
