The year is 1955 and Anna has been released from the hellish Gulag system in the Soviet Union. As she stares out at the Ob River she is approached by a stranger, later revealed to us as a fellow former inmate named Zakhary. As the two former inmates wait for transportation they fall into conversation about how they ended up in such a hellish place.

For Anna, it began when she decided to spend the summer of 1941 with her aunt Nina, desperate to get away from her Party conscious father and brother, who dismiss her dreams of becoming an operetta actress and believe she should chose something more practical and more in line with serving the Soviet Union. Yet, the pleasant and carefree summer Anna dreamed is obliterated when the Germans invade and Anna’s aunt goes missing.

As she recalls her story, Zakhary also remembers his past. At the end of the war Zakhary and his unit, made entirely of exiled Cossacks, hand themselves over to the British. They are promised fair treatment and that they won’t be returned to the Soviet Union, who many Cossacks openly despise and fear as they had fought against them during the Russian Civil War. For Zakhary, he not only worries about himself but for his wife and unborn son. The war is now over, he reasons, and he can begin to build the life he always wanted.

So, how was it that Anna and Zakhary became prisoners of the Soviet Union? As it turns out, the reason might be more shocking than anyone realized.

First, I wish to thank Marina Osipova for so kindly giving me an early copy of her book. I’ve followed Ms. Osipova’s works for a while now and she is not only a gifted storyteller but an author who isn’t afraid to write about the tragedies that seemed to follow all Soviet citizens, both within and outside their country. The Drau River Flows to Siberia: The Victims of Victory might be her most eye opening story yet as it retells an event that very few people today know about.

The basis for this book is the Yalta Conference in which the British and Americans willfully (and this cannot be emphasized enough) agreed to hand over all Soviet POWs, forced laborers, and Cossacks to the Soviet Union. Now, one might argue that the British and Americans knew nothing about the horrific Gulag system that awaited these men and women but we know that is far from the truth and stories about Stalin’s brutality had appeared in Western media not long after he had taken control. So, they knew what they were agreeing to but, in order to keep the peace with Stalin, the British and Americans willingly allowed thousands of people to be worked to death.

Naturally, as a reader and knowing Anna and Zakhary’s stories, this infuriated me to no end.

Now, one could get into a huge debate about whether all inmates did or did not deserve what happened to them but that is beside the point for this review. The characters of Anna and Zakhary are used to show the horrible predicament many innocent people found themselves in after the war. Many had suffered greatly, losing family and friends and being abused by the Axis forces. Yet many still held onto their dream of going home one day and reuniting with the few loved ones they still had left. When the war ended and they were promised a safe return to their country, many felt as if their nightmare had finally ended, not realizing that a new one was just beginning.

Anna and Zakhary are faced with unimaginable hardships, making seemingly impossible decisions and somehow finding the courage and drive to survive their imprisonment. Both characters are excellently written and developed in this character driven story, and as the reader we cry for their pain, cheer them on when they have little successes, and feel relief for them when they finally succeed. The story is well paced and the epilogue provides the closure the reader craves by the end.