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ODYSSEYA -- An Epic Journey: From Russia to Australia

Alexander Vassilieff

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Why we're reading this: If you are after a page-turning, chair gripping, novel by a new or unknown author, you will love -- ODYSS…more
[close] If you are after a page-turning, chair gripping, novel by a new or unknown author, you will love -- ODYSSEYA -- An Epic Journey: From Russia to Australia
A breathtaking biography of a gripping and moving Australian immigrant saga set against the backdrop of ancient and modern Russian history.
The author provides an excellent and broad ranging history of the seemingly small events, complex manoeuvres and political shifts that developed and set Russian history and therefore its people in their place as an invariably over-Romanticised often misunderstood, regularly feared and always suffering and highly developed people. Within this vast backdrop the author follows the twists and turns of his own inheritance, his family's exodus out of Russia, their lives moving through the extraordinary societal hierarchies of pre-war China and finally a lively account of their settling in Australia.

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Feb 05, 2011 Alexander Vassilieff rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Shelves: c, best-reads

ODYSSEYA - An Epic Journey from Russia to Australia
ISBN 978-0-646-48901-8

A biography of mysteries - a page turner. Here is one of the mysteries - Harbin China where my family lived was spared three times from bombings - First by the Japanese then by the Soviets and finally by the Americans. Each time a mysterious fog spread over the city. Mystery or a miracle?

Now available in Kindle e-book Edition as well as soft cover on Amazon. Soon to be available in other e-book editions & may be ordered fr ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 01, 2009 Alexander Vassilieff rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author)

Shelves: best-reads

ODYSSEYA -- An Epic Journey From Russia to Australia

*From the arrival of the Viking warriors and how this can be traced and understood, to the fall of the Romanov Empire are excellently drawn together. Spanning Old Russia to the Russian Diaspora, the content provides much historical information sourced from a diverse collection of Russian chronicles and history. However the human interest of Alexander’s family of Russian colonists is continually brought to the fore through the interweaving of pe ODYSSEYA -- An Epic Journey From Russia to Australia

*From the arrival of the Viking warriors and how this can be traced and understood, to the fall of the Romanov Empire are excellently drawn together. Spanning Old Russia to the Russian Diaspora, the content provides much historical information sourced from a diverse collection of Russian chronicles and history. However the human interest of Alexander’s family of Russian colonists is continually brought to the fore through the interweaving of personal accounts, reflection and, as the author attests, an anthropological and forensic application to what he recalls and has been told. ODYSSEYA Assessor

* Thirst for my family history and compiling genealogical data required much research and was a lengthy exercise, but it helped to streamline the thinking process. The libraries in the local Russian Community in Sydney Australia rather than the internet gave better results.
I found out things about my paternal grandfather that I did not know, about his schooling and university career in Harbin China, about his participation in the Russian mini Olympics in St Petersburg in 1912 for young Sokols – high school sporting hopefuls. He was one of four young, school staffers who accompanied the Harbin delegation to St Petersburg where they scored a second place. Among other things I was able to deduct what led to his early marriage and its failure and finally the month and year of his death and burial place at the age of 39 after torture by the Japanese occupying forces.
The research of the KGB files in Moscow by an intermediary, explained things to me about my father’s first incarceration in a GULAG in Siberia shortly before the death of his father caused by the occupying Japanese army, as well as my father’s second incarceration after WWII when I was a child of three.
But most of my information came by word of mouth from my relatives, many older friends and particularly my mother to whom I dedicated the book, as she dedicated her life to us, so that my sister and I could have a better home here in Australia. Alexander Vassilieff - Author

*“This was truly an Odyssey lived through by many but told by very few, which makes the book not only interesting but also valuable as a documentary.”
— Dr Paul A Urtiew, ORUR Snr Scm (Chief Sct ret’d), San Francisco

Here is another from an unknown reader -

*The author has packed around his family’s history some interesting asides about cuisine, theosophy, art, music and literature, the effects of the war on ordinary lives and the hard work, sense of freedom and ultimately the development of families thrust into a new and totally different country.

* The book resonates with life. The author has packed around his family’s history some interesting asides about cuisine, theosophy, art, music and literature, the effects of war on ordinary lives and the hard work, sense of freedom and ultimately the development of families thrust into a new and totally different country. In this family memoir, anecdotes of hope and courage enliven the bleak backdrop of war and deprivation… the family’s belief in one another and their promising future, despite volatile political events and the necessity of starting over—again and again.— Kirkus Discoveries N Y
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Oct 24, 2010 Velvetink marked it as to-read

Shelves: russia-russian, australia-new-zealand, biography, war, wishlist, genealogy-sources

Mar 21, 2014 Alexander Vassilieff rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

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