Ilya Polyak

Ilya Polyak, with doctor degrees in mathematics and geosciences, has authored four scientific monographs and many papers.

He also published the autobiographic novels "I Am Your Prisoner for Life" and "Science and Fear".

He survived the WWII Leningrad Blockade, went through Children's Gulag--Receptor-Distributor for Orphans in the city of Luga (1946-1948), Leningrad Children's Home # 26 (1948-1951), and exile with parents in Ishim, Siberia (1951-1956).

Remarks: Loss of interest in modern Russian literature is caused, in many respects, by its secondariness to the great works by B. Pasternak, A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Grossman, and other Russian classics of the twentieth century. Perhaps people also tired of reading about Soviet atrocities and tyranny. The plot, facts, events, and structure of my novels are an attempt to revive that interest.

"Science and Fear (Slaves do not Repent)" by Ilya Polyak (about 400 pages) is an entertaining, unobtrusive, almost invisible, invitation to the world of intellectuals. The events occur in Russia and the U.S. The writing is a mixture of genres: from scientific discourse to women's prose to psychological explorations with tender, tart, and bitter elements that knock you down, turn your mind around, but also refresh you and give hope. This is not just a novel about people's lives; this is an artistic representation of unvanquished science and culture. The titles of the novels' three parts ("The Fifth Column," "Degeneration," and "Global Warming") characterize the author's views of the historical processes that took place in Russia at the end of twentieth century.

The novel depicts the life of a scientist--not only in the real world, in which he is involved in research, is published, fosters youth, sins and makes mistakes, respects and loves, disputes and hates, raises children and grandchildren; but also in the world of consciousness with its creative thoughts, which have attracted him but not been realized; with its assessments and criticism, which were never voiced; with its ideas, which, after having scarcely gleamed, have been extinguished forever; with its originating unsolvable problems--with everything that is usually hidden from surroundings and that flashes in the mind as purpose, as vision, as illusion, as mirage; flashes, frequently without any discernible consequences. This book is not only a re-creation of the internal life of a scientist but, more accurately, his internal lives. Indeed, creativity is so attractive because it endows an author with additional dimensions, with the possibility of existence in several parallel spaces. Of course, our stay on the earth cannot be extended, but launching life on several imaginary trajectories, simultaneously with the real one, is possible.

"Orphans of Communism" is the best book about Children's Gulag. It contains three narratives.

The first one is a historical overview of the orphan's GULAG. Described are the barbaric laws, the scales of the catastrophe, the Russian criminal environment as a bearer of a special folklore--the song and musical culture of the prisons and concentration camps. English translations some of these songs are provided.

The second one, "I Am Your Prisoner for Life", is an adventure story. It is based on recollections from author's experience surviving at the Center for the Intake and Evaluation of Displaced Juveniles (DPR), situated in city Luga during 1946-1948, after his parents were thrown into prison. The pictures of everyday reality go on: the stealing of food and clothes from starving children, humiliations, scuffles, bullying, assaults and batteries, sex and rape, which could be shocking even for those accustomed to Hollywood productions. The boy overcomes his terror, betrays, and denounces the ringleaders. According to the thief's canons, a traitor must die, and the boy is punished by stabbing. He survives, escapes from the DPR, and finds his way to his mother's prison camp.

This book, with a fascinating plot and amazing, unconventional musical arts, was narrated in a way that nobody before had. The indissoluble alloy of orphan's GULAG structure, its folklore, melodies, and songs appears as a genuine richness and thrilling material for film creators.

This narrative is not only an almost forgotten page of the waifs' and strays' lives in Stalin's time, but also a document of accusation.

The third narrative is memoirs, presented in the form of miniature stories, of a very old woman, a refugee from Russia, who survived the Blockade of Leningrad, Stalin's prisons, exile to Siberia, and the ordeals of her children and close relatives. Some photos and documents are included in this history.