Kishinev was established by Tsar Catherine II in 1791 in a region of Russia called the Jewish Pale of Settlement. The purpose of the town was to move all Jews in Russia to this area, "...to rid the rest of Russia from Jewish competition and influence."
The novel opens with Rachel, her sister Nucia and their mother Ita on their way to Shanghai, China via the Trans-Siberia Railway. Rachel's father was killed during the pogrom. They are fleeing Kishinev, Russia hoping to eventually travel to America. At the urging of Sergei, Rachel and her family have taken seven-year-old Menahem with them from the Kishinev Orphanage. Rachel has made a promise to her Christian friend, Sergei to look after the homeless boy. They must travel by train to the very eastern border of Russia, to Vladivostok where they will catch a steamer to Shanghai.
Their journey by train takes two weeks and is mostly uneventful except for the frequent searches by the Cossacks who are soldiers who work for the Russian emperor, the Tsar. Rachel is filled with fear for the journey but she also misses Sergei whom she cares very much for. However, because he is Russian and not Jewish, any relationship between them is strictly forbidden. Rachel meets a young couple, Isaac and Shprintze, who are also traveling to Shanghai. When it comes time to buy tickets for passage to Shanghai, Rachel elicts the help of Shprintze and another young man to buy an extra ticket for her mother Ita who has been refused due to her health.
The novel opens with Rachel, her sister Nucia and their mother Ita on their way to Shanghai, China via the Trans-Siberia Railway. Rachel's father was killed during the pogrom. They are fleeing Kishinev, Russia hoping to eventually travel to America. At the urging of Sergei, Rachel and her family have taken seven-year-old Menahem with them from the Kishinev Orphanage. Rachel has made a promise to her Christian friend, Sergei to look after the homeless boy. They must travel by train to the very eastern border of Russia, to Vladivostok where they will catch a steamer to Shanghai.
Their journey by train takes two weeks and is mostly uneventful except for the frequent searches by the Cossacks who are soldiers who work for the Russian emperor, the Tsar. Rachel is filled with fear for the journey but she also misses Sergei whom she cares very much for. However, because he is Russian and not Jewish, any relationship between them is strictly forbidden. Rachel meets a young couple, Isaac and Shprintze, who are also traveling to Shanghai. When it comes time to buy tickets for passage to Shanghai, Rachel elicts the help of Shprintze and another young man to buy an extra ticket for her mother Ita who has been refused due to her health.
On the journey to Shanghai, Ita is diagnosed with consumption and placed into quarantine on the ship. When they arrive in Shanghai Rachel is told that her mother will remain in quarantine and if she does not improve, will be sent back to Russia. After being examined and fed, Rachel, Menachem, Isaac and Shprintze are told to go to the British Concession on the west side of the Huangpu River. There Rachel and Shprintze find work in a laundry on Bubbling Well Road, while Nucia works as a seamstress.
One day Rachel walks down to the hospital by the harbour and is able to talk to a doctor who tells her that her mother is very ill, will not recover, but will not be sent back to Russia as she is too sick to travel. Rachel is determined to get herself to America, to get an education and to become a journalist so she can write honest pieces telling the truth about what has happened to her people. To that end she begins to write for Mr. Neb Ezra, who publishes a newspaper called Israel's Messenger. Rachel knows that she and her sister have a ways to go before they can escape the humid dampness of Shanghai and travel to San Francisco in America.
Meanwhile, Sergei is still in Russia but preparing to leave Kishinev and his family consisting of his mother and father and his eight-year-old sister, Natalya. His father, Aleksandr, had been Chief of Police until he lost his job after the pogrom. He is a drunkard who did nothing to help the Jews during the pogrom. He accuses Sergei of being a coward for leaving. As he leaves home, Sergei thinks back on the pogrom. It began because of stories printed in the anti-Jewish newspaper, Bessarabetz, which blamed Jews for the deaths of Christians. For three days the rioting continued, as the police were ordered by Viacheslav von Plehve, the Interior Minister in charge of the police in Russia, not to intervene. Sergei wants to get rid of Plehve, who he believes hates the Jewish people.
On the train to Saint Petersburg, Sergei reminisces about how he first met Rachel, saving her from being beaten by Russian girls. He is impressed by the beauty of the city with its Summer Garden, the beautiful Neva River, the elegant hotels and "stunning cathedrals topped with golden onion-shaped domes...". But when Sergei tries to find a place to stay, the reality of his situation becomes apparent to him. He ends up in a dirty hostel and is soon robbed of all his money. Unable to support himself and find work, he lands a job in one of Saint Petersburg's many dirty factories where the work is dangerous. Sergei is forced, due to circumstances, to live in the factory barracks and losing most of his wages to pay for this.
Working in the Putilov factory testing the couplings for trains, Sergei witnesses the workers suffering terrible workplace accidents with no compensation from factory management. Sergei meets Lev, a twenty-one year old man who works next to him at the factory. Incensed at the terrible working conditions and the poor treatment of injured workers, Sergei learns from Lev about the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, an organization working towards rights for Russian workers. The party organizes strikes and demonstrations outside factories to try to force the government to enact laws protecting workers and providing better wages.
At first Sergei decides against joining the party because it is anti-government and does not support the Tsar, whom Russians have been taught to love. The strikes are mostly ineffective; organizers are exiled to Siberia and strikers fired. However, in January 1904, Sergei's hand is mangled in an accident at the factory. Despite being injured at work, he receives no pay. The injustice of his situation and that of the many workers being injured there makes him decide to participate in his first strike at the Ekaterinoslav factory. The strike is an eye-opener for Sergei, who witnesses the Cossacks intervening, whipping strikers and trampling them to death.
All of this leads to Sergei becoming more radicalized. When his injured right hand heals, he struggles to draw but one of the workers tells him, he can draw posters for the Revolutionary Party. He has a chance encounter with Boris Savinkov, head of the Combat Organization known for assassinating government officials. Sergei is eventually invited to a secret meeting in which the organization is planning another assassination of a person whom Sergei has grown to hate. It is at this point that Sergei begins to question the path he has set out upon.
During all this time he has been writing to Rachel in China and he still desires to travel there and meet up with her and Menahem. But when his involvement with the Combat Organization causes him to lose his job and become a fugitive his plans change. He still wants to be with Rachel, but he has work left to do in Russia before he makes plans to travel to America.
Meanwhile, Sergei is still in Russia but preparing to leave Kishinev and his family consisting of his mother and father and his eight-year-old sister, Natalya. His father, Aleksandr, had been Chief of Police until he lost his job after the pogrom. He is a drunkard who did nothing to help the Jews during the pogrom. He accuses Sergei of being a coward for leaving. As he leaves home, Sergei thinks back on the pogrom. It began because of stories printed in the anti-Jewish newspaper, Bessarabetz, which blamed Jews for the deaths of Christians. For three days the rioting continued, as the police were ordered by Viacheslav von Plehve, the Interior Minister in charge of the police in Russia, not to intervene. Sergei wants to get rid of Plehve, who he believes hates the Jewish people.
On the train to Saint Petersburg, Sergei reminisces about how he first met Rachel, saving her from being beaten by Russian girls. He is impressed by the beauty of the city with its Summer Garden, the beautiful Neva River, the elegant hotels and "stunning cathedrals topped with golden onion-shaped domes...". But when Sergei tries to find a place to stay, the reality of his situation becomes apparent to him. He ends up in a dirty hostel and is soon robbed of all his money. Unable to support himself and find work, he lands a job in one of Saint Petersburg's many dirty factories where the work is dangerous. Sergei is forced, due to circumstances, to live in the factory barracks and losing most of his wages to pay for this.
Working in the Putilov factory testing the couplings for trains, Sergei witnesses the workers suffering terrible workplace accidents with no compensation from factory management. Sergei meets Lev, a twenty-one year old man who works next to him at the factory. Incensed at the terrible working conditions and the poor treatment of injured workers, Sergei learns from Lev about the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, an organization working towards rights for Russian workers. The party organizes strikes and demonstrations outside factories to try to force the government to enact laws protecting workers and providing better wages.
At first Sergei decides against joining the party because it is anti-government and does not support the Tsar, whom Russians have been taught to love. The strikes are mostly ineffective; organizers are exiled to Siberia and strikers fired. However, in January 1904, Sergei's hand is mangled in an accident at the factory. Despite being injured at work, he receives no pay. The injustice of his situation and that of the many workers being injured there makes him decide to participate in his first strike at the Ekaterinoslav factory. The strike is an eye-opener for Sergei, who witnesses the Cossacks intervening, whipping strikers and trampling them to death.
All of this leads to Sergei becoming more radicalized. When his injured right hand heals, he struggles to draw but one of the workers tells him, he can draw posters for the Revolutionary Party. He has a chance encounter with Boris Savinkov, head of the Combat Organization known for assassinating government officials. Sergei is eventually invited to a secret meeting in which the organization is planning another assassination of a person whom Sergei has grown to hate. It is at this point that Sergei begins to question the path he has set out upon.
During all this time he has been writing to Rachel in China and he still desires to travel there and meet up with her and Menahem. But when his involvement with the Combat Organization causes him to lose his job and become a fugitive his plans change. He still wants to be with Rachel, but he has work left to do in Russia before he makes plans to travel to America.
Discussion
Rachel's Promise was inspired by the author's maternal grandmother, Rachel Talan Geary and her sister Anna "Nucia" Rodkin who fled to Shanghai, China from Russia. In the early 1900's, Shanghai was a safe haven for many people but especially Jews who fled from pogroms in Russia. The story alternates between Rachel and Sergei's narratives, with the book broken into four parts Summer 1903, Fall 1903, Winter/Spring 1904 and Summer/Fall 1904.
This novel is well written and filled with interesting details about the hardships in Russia over a decade before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Sanders attention to historical detail is evident throughout the novel, especially in Sergei's narrative. For example, the plight of workers in Tsarist Russia is portrayed through the character of Sergei, as he becomes one of Russia's millions of working poor. He finds accommodation in a dirty hostel and is quickly robbed. Sergei's experiences spotlight the plight of workers in Tsarist Russia. He is hired on by a metal works factory in Saint Petersburg where he is paid three hundred kopeks for working seventy-one hours a week but ends up with only sixty kopeks after paying the factory for a room and meals. The factory barracks are dirty and crowded. Sergei notes that he is only ",,, a few miles from the center of Petersburg, where lavish buildings and statues adorned streets and gardens." Even more disturbing is how this harsh life affects the men. Sergei meets a worker, Lev, whose hunched posture and lined face makes him look like he is thirty years old. He is shocked to learn Lev has been there for only five years and is only twenty-one-years old. Even worse is the plight of workers who if they survive, receive nothing for life altering injuries. Workers who organize strikes are exiled to Siberia and workers who strike are fired.
Rachel's Promise was inspired by the author's maternal grandmother, Rachel Talan Geary and her sister Anna "Nucia" Rodkin who fled to Shanghai, China from Russia. In the early 1900's, Shanghai was a safe haven for many people but especially Jews who fled from pogroms in Russia. The story alternates between Rachel and Sergei's narratives, with the book broken into four parts Summer 1903, Fall 1903, Winter/Spring 1904 and Summer/Fall 1904.
This novel is well written and filled with interesting details about the hardships in Russia over a decade before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Sanders attention to historical detail is evident throughout the novel, especially in Sergei's narrative. For example, the plight of workers in Tsarist Russia is portrayed through the character of Sergei, as he becomes one of Russia's millions of working poor. He finds accommodation in a dirty hostel and is quickly robbed. Sergei's experiences spotlight the plight of workers in Tsarist Russia. He is hired on by a metal works factory in Saint Petersburg where he is paid three hundred kopeks for working seventy-one hours a week but ends up with only sixty kopeks after paying the factory for a room and meals. The factory barracks are dirty and crowded. Sergei notes that he is only ",,, a few miles from the center of Petersburg, where lavish buildings and statues adorned streets and gardens." Even more disturbing is how this harsh life affects the men. Sergei meets a worker, Lev, whose hunched posture and lined face makes him look like he is thirty years old. He is shocked to learn Lev has been there for only five years and is only twenty-one-years old. Even worse is the plight of workers who if they survive, receive nothing for life altering injuries. Workers who organize strikes are exiled to Siberia and workers who strike are fired.
Life in Shanghai in the early 1900's is portrayed in Rachel's narrative. Shanghai is filled with Jews from Russia. She finds the smells and the heat and humidity overwhelming, the food strange. Life in Shanghai is difficult, and the work backbreakingly hard. However, Sanders does convey the sense of community that the Jews have in their little area. From the Jews who have escaped from Russia, the reader learns of the plight of those Jews forced into the Russian army: they are put in dangerous combat positions, are forbidden to live in cities like Moscow and severely disciplined.
The author's ability to weave these details into the story is one of the strengths of this novel. There's plenty of information about historical events from the turn of the century that young readers may not know much about such as the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05. For example, Sanders explains how Russia and Japan are fighting over Port Arthur, on the southern tip of Manchuria, which does not freeze over in the winter and is a vital harbor and therefore desired by both countries. The author also provides information on the massacre of workers and Russian citizens on "Bloody Sunday" in Saint Petersburg on January 22, 1905.
Sanders has created well-rounded characters that keep her readers fully engaged. Rachel is intelligent, determined and hard-working, a devoted daughter to their mother dying of consumption in a hospital in Shanghai. She stands up to Mr. Ezra who publishes her article in his newspaper without crediting her. Despite the exhausting work at a laundry, Rachel continues to work towards her goal of immigrating to America. She is resourceful and is able to land a job as a writer and perseveres when Ezra doesn't accept her first article.
Sanders has created well-rounded characters that keep her readers fully engaged. Rachel is intelligent, determined and hard-working, a devoted daughter to their mother dying of consumption in a hospital in Shanghai. She stands up to Mr. Ezra who publishes her article in his newspaper without crediting her. Despite the exhausting work at a laundry, Rachel continues to work towards her goal of immigrating to America. She is resourceful and is able to land a job as a writer and perseveres when Ezra doesn't accept her first article.
Sergei is open minded and kind, and doesn't hate the Russian Jews. Like Rachel he is hardworking and has a keen sense of justice to the point where he becomes motivated to work for change. His experiences demonstrate how Russia ends up on the path to revolution and mass murder.
Rounding out this wonderful novel, is a map at the front showing Rachel's journey to Shanghai, a Glossary as well as a detailed Historical Note. Highly recommended for those who enjoy historical fiction. The final book in the trilogy, Rachel's Hope will be published in 2014.
Book Details:
Rachel's Promise by Shelly Sanders
Toronto: Second Story Press 2013
273 pp.
Rounding out this wonderful novel, is a map at the front showing Rachel's journey to Shanghai, a Glossary as well as a detailed Historical Note. Highly recommended for those who enjoy historical fiction. The final book in the trilogy, Rachel's Hope will be published in 2014.
Book Details:
Rachel's Promise by Shelly Sanders
Toronto: Second Story Press 2013
273 pp.
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