Fleeing the Soviet Union

Kharkiv: Just a Memory?

Before I was born they took my father. Just because he was an artist he had to die. Josef Stalin was the worst man to ever walk this planet in my opinion; all he did was kill innocent people, promising that their deaths would make life better for everyone else.

"The intelligentsia is spreading anti-soviet propaganda through their work. The only solution is complete liquidation," my mother told me his reason. In my opinion it made no sense and I doubt it ever will for anyone else too.
My father, Mykhailo Boychuk was taken away before my mother even knew she was expecting me. She knew she had to go into hiding and there was no way he would ever find out about me. The Soviets had an arrest warrant for my mother, Ala Johansen.
Before I was even 2 years old we had to go. I didn't know where we were going, but we ended up in St. Petersburg, Russia.
My mother found employment there as an art teacher, and everyday would leave me in a hammock outside the school while she worked. During ever spare second of her time she would come outside to me and bring me a jar of milk to drink. One unfortunate time there was a wind that rocked the hammock and it spilled. I knew we had no money to get milk, so I had no clue where she was getting it from. I felt so guilty. I cried, but she told me not to worry. She never scolded me or my brother, who was seven years older than me. She gave us everything she had.