The Memory Keeper of Kyiv

by Erin Litteken

"A stunning portrait of Ukraine and its people, of strength, of endurance, of the fight for survival during the forced famine, the Holodomor, but also a tender story of Katya, a grandmother whose hidden history holds the power to guide her granddaughter through the darkness of loss and grief, toward life and a limitless future. A remarkable read not to be missed." Lisa Wingate, author of Before We Were Yours

When a woman loses her husband, no matter what the circumstances, she needs to be around family to heal.

Comrade Ivanov introduced the small group of Twenty-Five Thousanders, a contingent of the approximately 25,000 Russian-speaking Soviet volunteer activists deployed across Ukraine, who would be collectivizing their village.

Now, at the collective, she resented the drudgery of working for someone else’s gain. She could no longer call herself a farmer; she was only a cog in the wheel of the state.

Katya Ukraine 1932

dekulakization.

the Soviet campaign of political repressions, including arrests, deportations, or executions of millions of kulaks (prosperous peasants) and their families.

Life would move on with or without her, so she chose to fight. She chose to live.