I meant to comment earlier to tell you that I was very touched by your great post.

Have you read Harvests of Sorrow?

I hear first hand, stories all the time. The deprivation and cruelty are unreal, to the point hundreds of thousands have made the perilous crossing of the Strait of Florida, shark-infested waters, to freedom.
The film and book are unknown to me, the neighbors stories are very, very real.

“I live in Miami, where the Cubans and Haitians are ‘first generation raw’ as it were, and the horrors of their respective stories will live on and on…” I can only imagine the soul-chilling stories friends must tell about what has happened in their homelands. Did you ever see that film “Before Night Falls” based on Reinaldo Arenas’ memoirs? It was one of those films that made the events in Cuba seem so visceral compared to reading it in a book or a paper.

Marina, that Green Vetiver was so sweet on me! You say lemon candies, I say Froot Loops: either way that’s some serious sugar crashing going on, heh. And no worries, I just bit my tongue, but wearing perfume is not exactly a hardship. If that’s all I’ve got to worry about than I’m living a very charmed life ;)

Patty, oh that is funny: you didn’t know your relative was an ambassador? The Midwest was such a magnet for the diaspora, wasn’t it… How neat that you know about it all from the descentdants too. Nope, I didn’t hate the Iris. It is not something I’d recommend to others particularly, though for the price I’d say it wouldn’t be wasted money at all.

Victoria, eeep, sorry! I think I may have worded that bit poorly. There were two famines in the twentieth century that really affected the Volga Deutsche. There’s the one that Stalin had a hand in as you say in the 30s. But my great-great-grandmother died during an earlier one that happened in 1920 and 1921. In my mind I keep pinning them together as if they were on a continuum, when they were seperate events that happened to result both times in mass starvation. I will go edit tht real fast and to clarify, thanks!

Elle, I was really digging on Ms. Tribus’ work. Really quite interesting, and she’s so young! And with two thumbs up for The Orientalist, I guess I really do have to read that it don’t I? Thanks!

Twibbet, I didn’t know so much about them myself. It’s something my immediate family never really talked about much. I just started out one day several years ago to find some old land records of my great-grandfathers, in order to find out if some different old family legends were true. Instead I found myself reading up on the history of the Volga Deutsche because this was a whole story I didn’t comprehend at all!

March, gah! How can green Froot Loops make it better?? You’re a madwoman, I tell you.

Sali, no I guess it doesn’t. It’s strange to me though how little it was talked about in my family though. Perhaps it just seemed pointless or safely behind us all, I don’t know.

Robin, thank you.