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In this memoir, replete with Jewish humor and sardonic Russian irony, exiled Russian journalist and human rights advocate Arkady Polishchuk (b. 1930) colorfully narrates his evolution as a dissenter and his work on behalf of persecuted Christians in 1970s Soviet Russia. Told primarily through dialog, this thrilling account puts the reader in the middle of a critical time in history, when thousands of people who had been denied emigration drew international attention while suffering human rights abuses, staged show trials, forced labor, and constant surveillance. From 1950-1973, Polishchuk worked as a journalist for Russian state-run media and at Asia and Africa Today, where all of the foreign correspondents were KGB operatives using their cover jobs to meddle in international affairs. His close understanding of Russian propaganda, the use of “kompromat” against enemies and his knowledge of “pripiski” (defined as “exaggerations of achieved results and fake reports”) makes this memoir especially eye-opening for American readers in today’s political climate. Through the course of the narrative, we are along with Polishchuk as he covers an anti-Semitic show trial, writes samizdat (political self-publications), is arrested, followed and surveilled, collaborates with refuseniks and smuggles eyewitness testimony to the west. The absurdity of his experiences is reflected in his humor, which belies the anxieties of the life he lived. (Amazon Book Review)
DOOR OF HOPE INTERNATIONAL:
How did a Soviet Jewish dissident, raised an atheist communist, come to be a powerful voice on behalf of Russian evangelical Christians?
Arkady Polishchuk was very instrumental to Door of Hope International (DOHI) during the Cold War era. He helped provide DOHI with Samizdat documentations about imprisoned Christians in the Soviet Union, without which DOHI could not have been able to smuggle documented proof out to the West of the atrocities and torture of thousands of imprisoned Christians behind the Iron Curtain.
We are immensely grateful for Arkady’s help and compassion for the imprisoned Christians. His bravery, as he risked his own life helping Christians and Jews was a key factor in helping to bring down the Iron Curtain. Some of Arkady’s active role with Door of Hope International is written inside Arkady’s memoirs Dancing on Thin Ice.
Dancing on Thin Ice is not a Christian book. It is, however, a great resource of intricate understanding of life under communism in the Soviet Union. Arkady Polishchuk is a brilliant writer whose knowledge of the Soviet system is written with Russian humor and great wit.
Disclaimer: ***some language at the beginning few pages of the book may be offensive to Christian readers
