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Володимир Шабля
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History Is Personal — Not Just Statistics
When we speak about the Holodomor, Stalin’s repression, or the Gulag, we often speak in numbers: millions dead, millions imprisoned, entire communities erased.
But history is never abstract. It is personal.
It is:
• your grandmother dying of a stroke brought on by starvation during the Holodomor in 1933
• schoolchildren mobilized to confiscate grain from so-called “kulaks”
• a church dynamited during S Read more of this blog post »
But history is never abstract. It is personal.
It is:
• your grandmother dying of a stroke brought on by starvation during the Holodomor in 1933
• schoolchildren mobilized to confiscate grain from so-called “kulaks”
• a church dynamited during S Read more of this blog post »
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Володимир Шабля
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History Is Personal — Not Just Statistics
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When I started writing Stone, I didn’t expect how personal historical research would become.
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“Nothing in life happens without purpose — even if that purpose remains hidden from us.
— Volodymyr Shablia” Володимир Шабля |
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Володимир Шабля
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Володимир Шабля
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“Totalitarianism is not only hell, but all the dream of paradise-- the age-old dream of a world where everybody would live in harmony, united by a single common will and faith, without secrets from one another. Andre Breton, too, dreamed of this paradise when he talked about the glass house in which he longed to live. If totalitarianism did not exploit these archetypes, which are deep inside us all and rooted deep in all religions, it could never attract so many people, especially during the early phases of its existence. Once the dream of paradise starts to turn into reality, however, here and there people begin to crop up who stand in its way, and so the rulers of paradise must build a little gulag on the side of Eden. In the course of time this gulag grows ever bigger and more perfect, while the adjoining paradise gets even smaller and poorer.”
Milan Kundera |
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Володимир Шабля
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“Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future.”
Hermann Rauschning |
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Jan 16, 2026 12:06AM
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Володимир Шабля
answered
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The plot of the book could be based on my own experience when my soul left my body. After that, my soul was faced with a choice: either fly to a beautiful silver light radiating unearthly love, or return to my body, which is so dear and close to me.
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Володимир Шабля
rated a book it was amazing
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| The childhood and teenage years of the main character, as well as the vicissitudes of survival of his family members in conditions of violence and state pressure in the early 1930s and during the hostilities of the Second World War are described. The ...more | |
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“The doctor delivered a devastating diagnosis: a severe stroke with paralysis of the right side of her body, brought on by prolonged starvation.
In the days that followed, Irina’s condition steadily deteriorated. The family took turns caring for her, carefully following every medical instruction, yet the decline was obvious. Within days, her left leg failed as well. She could no longer speak—only stare ahead in silent resignation. Whenever one of her loved ones approached her bedside, tears streamed soundlessly down her face.
Now, sitting beside his grandmother’s pillow, Peter watched the boundless sorrow in her eyes as she looked at him.
“Grandma, everything will be all right. You’ll recover,” the boy lied with all the gentleness he was capable of. “I love you.”
He pressed his face to her chest and kissed her. Heavy tears rolled down Irina’s cheeks. A lump rose in Peter’s throat. He could not drive away the terrible thought: How could it be that only yesterday someone so alive, loving, and active—though ill—could so suddenly become a helpless ruin? It felt unnatural. It felt unjust.
With each passing day, life faded from Irina. A week after the stroke, she died quietly in her sleep.
At his grandmother’s funeral, Peter wept as he never had before—and never would again. He did not hide his tears. He kept kissing her cold lips, cheeks, and forehead. But each kiss only made the grief heavier.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Three
Context note:
Set during the Holodomor of 1933 in Ukraine, this scene portrays one of the famine’s most tragic realities: the rapid decline and death of the elderly and the sick often among the first victims of starvation. Malnutrition weakened the body’s ability to survive illness, and strokes, infections, and organ failure became fatal in a society stripped of food and medical resources. Behind the statistics of millions dead were intimate family tragedies like this one.”
― Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга третя. Несправджені сподівання.: Все буде Голодомор.
In the days that followed, Irina’s condition steadily deteriorated. The family took turns caring for her, carefully following every medical instruction, yet the decline was obvious. Within days, her left leg failed as well. She could no longer speak—only stare ahead in silent resignation. Whenever one of her loved ones approached her bedside, tears streamed soundlessly down her face.
Now, sitting beside his grandmother’s pillow, Peter watched the boundless sorrow in her eyes as she looked at him.
“Grandma, everything will be all right. You’ll recover,” the boy lied with all the gentleness he was capable of. “I love you.”
He pressed his face to her chest and kissed her. Heavy tears rolled down Irina’s cheeks. A lump rose in Peter’s throat. He could not drive away the terrible thought: How could it be that only yesterday someone so alive, loving, and active—though ill—could so suddenly become a helpless ruin? It felt unnatural. It felt unjust.
With each passing day, life faded from Irina. A week after the stroke, she died quietly in her sleep.
At his grandmother’s funeral, Peter wept as he never had before—and never would again. He did not hide his tears. He kept kissing her cold lips, cheeks, and forehead. But each kiss only made the grief heavier.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Three
Context note:
Set during the Holodomor of 1933 in Ukraine, this scene portrays one of the famine’s most tragic realities: the rapid decline and death of the elderly and the sick often among the first victims of starvation. Malnutrition weakened the body’s ability to survive illness, and strokes, infections, and organ failure became fatal in a society stripped of food and medical resources. Behind the statistics of millions dead were intimate family tragedies like this one.”
― Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга третя. Несправджені сподівання.: Все буде Голодомор.
“Boom!” The thunder of a massive explosion rolled across the settlement.
Maria’s sobbing came from the bedroom. Irina ran to her daughter.
“They’ve blown up the church! They destroyed it!” Maria cried again and again in hysteria.
“Hush, hush,” Irina whispered, holding her daughter close as she tried to calm her. “Be strong. We will pray before the icons at home. God in heaven sees everything. No one can destroy Him—or our faith.”
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Three
Context note:
Set in the 1930s during Stalin’s anti-religious campaign, this scene reflects the Soviet regime’s systematic destruction of churches and persecution of believers. Across the USSR, thousands of religious buildings were demolished as part of the state’s effort to eradicate faith—yet for many families, belief survived behind closed doors, becoming an act of quiet resistance.”
― Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга третя. Несправджені сподівання.: Все буде Голодомор.
Maria’s sobbing came from the bedroom. Irina ran to her daughter.
“They’ve blown up the church! They destroyed it!” Maria cried again and again in hysteria.
“Hush, hush,” Irina whispered, holding her daughter close as she tried to calm her. “Be strong. We will pray before the icons at home. God in heaven sees everything. No one can destroy Him—or our faith.”
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Three
Context note:
Set in the 1930s during Stalin’s anti-religious campaign, this scene reflects the Soviet regime’s systematic destruction of churches and persecution of believers. Across the USSR, thousands of religious buildings were demolished as part of the state’s effort to eradicate faith—yet for many families, belief survived behind closed doors, becoming an act of quiet resistance.”
― Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга третя. Несправджені сподівання.: Все буде Голодомор.
“My blissful childhood was shattered without warning when I was about ten years old. One day, my father told me that he had spent seventeen years of his life in prisons, Gulag labor camps, and internal exile. At that moment, his confession became the greatest shock I had ever experienced.
“My father — the kindest and wisest man on earth — and suddenly this?” I refused to believe my own ears.
But my dad did not stop at the bare fact. He spoke of hunger, of cruelty, of utter powerlessness — and of his own horrific existence within a totalitarian, inhuman system.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One. Author's Preface
Context note:
This passage comes from the author’s preface and reflects a real childhood revelation that became the moral and emotional foundation of the novel. Learning that his father had survived years of prisons, labor camps, and exile under the Soviet totalitarian system, the author transformed personal memory into a literary quest to understand repression, trauma, and human endurance.”
― Камень. Биографический роман: Часть первая. Первые шаги к свету и обратно
“My father — the kindest and wisest man on earth — and suddenly this?” I refused to believe my own ears.
But my dad did not stop at the bare fact. He spoke of hunger, of cruelty, of utter powerlessness — and of his own horrific existence within a totalitarian, inhuman system.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One. Author's Preface
Context note:
This passage comes from the author’s preface and reflects a real childhood revelation that became the moral and emotional foundation of the novel. Learning that his father had survived years of prisons, labor camps, and exile under the Soviet totalitarian system, the author transformed personal memory into a literary quest to understand repression, trauma, and human endurance.”
― Камень. Биографический роман: Часть первая. Первые шаги к свету и обратно
“Nothing in life happens without purpose — even if that purpose remains hidden from us.
— Volodymyr Shablia”
―
— Volodymyr Shablia”
―
“1920… Chaos.
A chaos brewed from fear, lawlessness, constant changes of power, civil war, and disease.
The Red Commissars with their grain requisitions.
The White Guards with arrogant imperial plunder.
Makhno’s forces with anarchist expropriations and the division of everything and everyone.
The gangs of Hryhoriev, Marusia, and countless others…
Each with its own rules.
Yet all of them take and kill, rape and rob.
In Tomakivka, only one institution functioned reliably – the hospital.
It was needed by every warring authority, every general and ataman:
the wounded had to be treated, the sick healed,
and the able-bodied fed and given shelter.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One
Context note: Set in Ukraine during the Civil War (1917–1921), at the time of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, when multiple armed forces – Red, White, anarchist, and local warlord groups — fought for control, leaving civilians trapped in a landscape of violence, lawlessness, and disease.”
―
A chaos brewed from fear, lawlessness, constant changes of power, civil war, and disease.
The Red Commissars with their grain requisitions.
The White Guards with arrogant imperial plunder.
Makhno’s forces with anarchist expropriations and the division of everything and everyone.
The gangs of Hryhoriev, Marusia, and countless others…
Each with its own rules.
Yet all of them take and kill, rape and rob.
In Tomakivka, only one institution functioned reliably – the hospital.
It was needed by every warring authority, every general and ataman:
the wounded had to be treated, the sick healed,
and the able-bodied fed and given shelter.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One
Context note: Set in Ukraine during the Civil War (1917–1921), at the time of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, when multiple armed forces – Red, White, anarchist, and local warlord groups — fought for control, leaving civilians trapped in a landscape of violence, lawlessness, and disease.”
―
“That’s how we’ve ended up,” Ivan said with a bitter smile. “We work, as in the proverb: Enough trading, father — there’s no change left to give.
‘Why did they suddenly increase the grain procurement plan?’ Vasyl protested.
‘Everything seems the same — but it isn’t,’ Danylo explained. ‘The status of our land has changed, and so has the status of the collective farmers. What grew last year is now taxed differently. Even the poor peasants who joined the collective are no longer considered poor — and the taxes rise accordingly.’
‘Clever,’ Ivan muttered angrily. ‘They’ve laid out their accounting traps well.’
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Two
Context note: In Soviet collective farms, taxes and grain quotas were often increased not because of real agricultural growth, but due to bureaucratic reclassification. Accounting became a tool of pressure that made normal farming impossible.”
― Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга друга. Непрості дороги до пекла: Виживання в умовах насильства.
‘Why did they suddenly increase the grain procurement plan?’ Vasyl protested.
‘Everything seems the same — but it isn’t,’ Danylo explained. ‘The status of our land has changed, and so has the status of the collective farmers. What grew last year is now taxed differently. Even the poor peasants who joined the collective are no longer considered poor — and the taxes rise accordingly.’
‘Clever,’ Ivan muttered angrily. ‘They’ve laid out their accounting traps well.’
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Two
Context note: In Soviet collective farms, taxes and grain quotas were often increased not because of real agricultural growth, but due to bureaucratic reclassification. Accounting became a tool of pressure that made normal farming impossible.”
― Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга друга. Непрості дороги до пекла: Виживання в умовах насильства.
“On that winter afternoon, the two boys hurried outside right after lunch, pulling enormous sleds that seemed almost larger than themselves.
As they climbed the hill, they kept dodging sleds rushing past, packed with people of all ages. Most were children and teenagers, but there were also young adults and even respectable grown villagers.
Sometimes grandparents came too, ‘to remember the old days.’ They rode together with their children or grandchildren, letting the younger ones steer. And after reaching the bottom – or tumbling halfway down – the ‘veterans’ laughed, shouted, and squealed with joy no less than the children.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Two
Context note: A happy moment of childhood joy and community life in a rural Ukrainian village – a reminder that even under repression, warmth and memory endured.”
― Камень. Биографический роман. Книга вторая. Непростые дороги в ад: Выживание в условиях насилия
As they climbed the hill, they kept dodging sleds rushing past, packed with people of all ages. Most were children and teenagers, but there were also young adults and even respectable grown villagers.
Sometimes grandparents came too, ‘to remember the old days.’ They rode together with their children or grandchildren, letting the younger ones steer. And after reaching the bottom – or tumbling halfway down – the ‘veterans’ laughed, shouted, and squealed with joy no less than the children.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Two
Context note: A happy moment of childhood joy and community life in a rural Ukrainian village – a reminder that even under repression, warmth and memory endured.”
― Камень. Биографический роман. Книга вторая. Непростые дороги в ад: Выживание в условиях насилия
“Peter had only just graduated with honors from the Zaporizhzhia Pedagogical Institute and was supposed to leave for his first teaching job the very next day. Instead, he was arrested.
For what sins was a student obsessed with honesty punished — a young man who had risen from the very bottom of society and sincerely believed in the socialist ideal? His parents did not know. Peter himself did not know either. He believed what had happened was a terrible mistake and hoped it would soon be corrected.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Two
Context note: In the Stalinist USSR, arrests often struck young, loyal, and idealistic citizens. Many believed their detention was a bureaucratic error — until the machinery of repression proved otherwise.”
― Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга друга. Непрості дороги до пекла: Виживання в умовах насильства.
For what sins was a student obsessed with honesty punished — a young man who had risen from the very bottom of society and sincerely believed in the socialist ideal? His parents did not know. Peter himself did not know either. He believed what had happened was a terrible mistake and hoped it would soon be corrected.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Two
Context note: In the Stalinist USSR, arrests often struck young, loyal, and idealistic citizens. Many believed their detention was a bureaucratic error — until the machinery of repression proved otherwise.”
― Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга друга. Непрості дороги до пекла: Виживання в умовах насильства.
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