A Refusenik's Odyssey

This is the historical biography of a fiercely communist, atheist young Soviet girl who had to revise her whole way of thinking when she was denied admission to medical school in 1973 because she was Jewish. Soviet Russia had decided to eliminate all future Jewish doctors by finding excuses to refuse them medical school admission. It traces her life against the history of Soviet Russia and the complex political machinations of the turbulent times. It also paints a vivid picture of everyday life in Cold War era Moscow. Her parents, themselves physicians, wanted their daughter to follow in their footsteps and applied to emigrate. But Russia did not want the world to think that anyone would buck the "perfect soviet system" and refused their emigration request. This made them "Refuseniks", and they joined an ever-growing movement of dissatisfied soviet citizens wanting to leave. The book describes the tortuous and cruel process that refuseniks had to endure before they were finally allowed to leave. It then details the end of the soviet system under Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and how the emigration floodgates finally opened. It then goes on to describe the culture shock of coming to opulent America and the turbulence of going to college and medical school. Along the way, she slowly tried to find out what being Jewish actually meant. It details the twists and turns of her true odyssey, from her first husband dying young, her discovering that her boyfriend was really an Israeli spy, and finally her marrying a fellow physician who happened to be Hasidic and her needing to learn a whole new lifestyle. By an incredible twist of fate, this atheist communist wound up being an observant Jew. This is the true life of author Lina Haber, placed in historical context and elaborated by her historian husband, fellow author Glenn Schwarcz.