Book Review: Escape from Crimea
As the subtitle of this book, A Collection of Short Stories, suggests, it is a collection of the author's short stories. Escape from Crimea is the first, and probably the most important, story. That is also the primary reason for me to acquire this book. The story is about Tanya, a Ukrainian chemical engineer from Sevastopol, Crimea. She lived a peaceful, typical life as an employee at a large plant. The annexation of Crimea by Russia turned her life upside down. The story tells what a sham the so-called referendum on joining Russia is. "On the day of the referendum, they gathered us all in the courtyard of the plant. Heavily armed men appeared, bearing no military insignia, led by a tall, strong, middle-aged man who called himself Chesnyakov. We later learned that he was a colonel in the Russian special forces and a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s." "Remember that Crimea is and always will be Russian! Anyone who votes no may have to worry about where ...