Stone — A Historical Novel about Soviet Ukraine and the USSR (1920s–1940s)

  The NKVD Problem Stone — Book One: First Steps Toward the Light and Back  — Chapter 5   by Volodymyr Shablia August 1941. The village of Tomakivka. The black NKVD van known as a “Black Raven,” belonging to the Zaporizhzhia Regional Directorate, had been searching for Soviet Street in the village of Tomakivka for nearly an hour, and still could not find it.   The village was not under the Directorate’s jurisdiction, and it was already close to eleven o’clock at night. After a sweltering day of hard work, most of the villagers were sleeping peacefully. Hardly anyone in the vast settlement even knew of the inconspicuous street, recently renamed “Soviet,” which looked more like a shabby lane than a proper street. NKVD officers beside the dreaded “Black Raven,” the vehicle that came to symbolize arrest, disappearance, and fear in Stalin’s Soviet Union. At least, of the dozen or so local residents the state security officers had managed to encounter in Tomakivka, not one...

  The Name — Peter Stone — Book One: First Steps Toward the Light and Back  — Chapter 2   by Volodymyr Shablia January 1920.  The village of Tomakivka , Ukraine . Danylo returned from work toward evening. His mother-in-law came out to meet him, a newborn in her arms. “Congratulations, Danylo! You’re a father. Mariia has given you a son. The boy was born prematurely, but he’s healthy. And Mariia seems to be feeling a little better, too.” Iryna handed the bundle to her son-in-law. The unexpected news left the new father stunned. A whirlwind of conflicting feelings, thoughts, and emotions swept through his mind: ‘A son, an heir! But premature?! And what about typhus? What if he gets sick? I’ve dreamed of having a son all my life! He’ll be Alexander—that’s my favorite name. Hurray!’ Danylo took his son into his arms. The moment he saw him, he fell in love with the beautiful little creature. Afraid of hurting him, yet unable to resist the temptation, the father ...

  Volodymyr Shablia. Stone. Biographical novel.   Dedicated to the memory of my father ,  Petro Danylovych Shablia.   Photo from the archive investigation file of Peter Shablia Epigraph: “I am a people, forged in Truth’s own might, Still unconquered by the hand of war. Though plague and grief have struck me time and again, My strength renews and blooms as oft before.” — Pavlo Tychyna, “I Affirm Myself” Continue Exploring  Stone: Read  Stone  in English Explore the novel, quotations, and the author's biography on Goodreads Stone  by Volodymyr Shablia  on Facebook Read or download the complete books in Ukrainian: Stone  —  Book One: First Steps Toward the Light and Back Stone  —  Book Two:  Difficult Roads to Hell Stone  —  Book  Three :  Unrealized  E xpectations Stone  —  Book  Four :  The T urning Point

  The Chairman of the Poor Peasants’ Committee Visits the School Stone — Book  Three :  Unrealized expectations   — Chapter 10 by Volodymyr Shablia February 1933. The village of Tomakivka. The final lesson of the day — the fifth — was drawing to a close. It was called “Political Education.” The subject was compulsory for all students and was meant to instill political awareness and ideological consciousness in the younger generation. To be honest, it was one of the few classes Peter found unbearably dull. Still, expressing one’s opinion about a subject was not encouraged, so the boy endured it in silence. Rules existed to be followed, after all. “The Communist Party, the government, and our beloved leader Comrade Stalin personally care for your well-being and ours!” proclaimed their homeroom teacher, Svetlana Afanasyevna, with solemn emphasis. “Following the precepts of the great Lenin, they are leading us toward a radiant future, waging an uncompromising struggle a...

The Offensive Is Called Off Stone — Book  two. Difficult roads to hell   — Chapter 2 by Volodymyr Shablia September 22, 1941, morning. The battlefield near Melitopol. As they waited for the briefing to begin, the regiment's officers took their seats around the large table in the middle of the room. The soldiers spoke quietly to those sitting beside them, occasionally tossing a word or two to someone farther down the table. "Well, are we ready to give the Germans and Romanians a taste of their own medicine?" asked the dark-eyed major sitting to the right of the head of the table, barely smiling as he glanced around at those present. His faint accent and characteristic swarthy features marked him as a native of the Caucasus. "Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff," replied the captain sitting opposite him with a sly grin. "We've got plenty of fire to spare!" A ripple of laughter ran along the table and ended in a hearty roar from the far end. At exactly 6:15, ...

The Poem Stone — Book One: First Steps Toward the Light and Back — Chapter 12   by Volodymyr Shablia October 1925. The village of Tomakivka.   In 1925, Danylo Shablia and his family were getting by reasonably well. Danylo had secured a government position that provided him with a regular salary and food rations. His mother-in-law still worked as a cook in the hospital canteen, while his wife, Mariia, looked after the household and earned a little extra by sewing. Their only son, Peter, had recently turned five. A sturdy, healthy boy, he spent most of his days outdoors, left to his own devices, running wild with a gang of equally mischievous children. Danylo's younger brother had not been so fortunate. His family had three children, yet neither parent had steady work, and they lived on the edge of hunger. To make matters worse, their eldest son, eight-year-old Kolya, was constantly ill. Hoping to ease his brother's burden, Danylo had taken the boy into his own home. Pete...

The Birth of Peter Stone — Book One: First Steps Toward the Light and Back  — Chapter 1 by Volodymyr Shablia January 1920. Ukrainian People’s Republic. The village of Tomakivka, Katerynoslav Governorate. 1920… Chaos steeped in fear, lawlessness, civil war, disease, and endless changes of regime. The Reds with their grain requisitions, the Whites with their haughty imperial plunder, the Makhnovists with their anarchist expropriations and redistribution of everything around them, the bands of Hryhoriev, Marusya, and countless others… Each with its own law. Yet all of them took and killed, raped and looted. Only one institution in Tomakivka continued to function — the hospital. Every warring authority, every general and ataman, needed it: the wounded and the sick had to be treated, and the able-bodied troops fed and given shelter for the night. Iryna Dyrikova, the hospital’s longtime cook, peeled potatoes out of habit: breakfast had to be prepared for the patients. Work was work...