Emotional Truths, Historical Facts: My Mother’s Secret is not a WWII novel, it’s more
My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region by Alina Adams is not a WWII novel. It’s not a Holocaust novel either. In fact, as the subtitle suggests, it’s not even a novel about Birobidzhan, the 20th century’s first autonomous Jewish State established by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. My Mother’s Secret, like all novels, is about emotional truths—it’s about family and the sacrifices we make, for better or worse, for our families.
But the beauty of historical fiction is that the history and the people living that history, cannot be separated. No matter the message of any great story, no matter the emotional truths its participants experience, there is a historical backdrop and context that feeds the story. And when historical fiction is done well, the two are mingled so completely that the reader learns about the past while fully immersed in the human experiences of those who lived it.
And so, though My Mother’s Secret is not about WWII, it certainly showed up in the lives of the novel’s primary characters, Regina and Aaron. Like millions of Soviet men in the early 1940s, Aaron is sent to the Soviet front lines—what we in America call the Eastern Front—to fight against the relentless German onslaught that was expanding across all of Europe. Regina, strong-willed and stubborn as she is, follows him.
What they find is a destructive, inhospitable, and bloody warzone brought about by Operation Typhoon, a German strategic offensive launched on October 2, 1941 with the goal of reaching and conquering Moscow. It was part of a larger offensive called Operation Barbarossa which was the initial German invasion of the Soviet Union launched in June 1941.
Operation Typhoon was discouraged by Hitler’s military advisors because it was launched at the onset of winter—specifically, a time called the rasputitsa when autumn rains were known to make roads and fields muddy and impassable. But Hitler, being Hitler, was obstinate, and the Soviet defense, whom Aaron joined, were galvanized against the German attack on their homeland. In response to Operation Typhoon, Soviet citizens and soldiers alike joined together to construct a set of four lines of fortifications outside of Moscow. Accounts suggest that “250,000 women and teenagers worked building trenches and anti-tank moats around Moscow, moving almost three million cubic meters of earth with no mechanical help.” And it worked.
A German army vehicle bogged down in the mud outside of Moscow. Image from the Defense Media Network.
After initial success, the German invasion became bogged down by the muddy conditions and their supplies were stretched thin because of the scorched-earth policy that left no resources for the occupying German forces. Even with Moscow in sight, the Germans could not overcome the defensive lines and by the end of October the German invasion was called to a halt. Then, just over a month later, the Soviets launched a counteroffensive to drive the Germans back. On January 7, 1942, the counteroffensive was halted after successfully pushing the Germans back 62–155 miles from Moscow.
Joseph Stalin’s Order No. 227 sought to prevent desertion in WWII by threatening to shoot soldiers who attempted to escape the front lines.
But the horrors of war, and the German threat against Moscow, did not stop there. In fact, by the summer of 1942, Aaron and his Soviet compatriots faced another threat—one from their own government. On July 28, 1942, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin signed Order No. 227. According to the order, which was also known as “Not one step back!”, each army was directed to create "blocking detachments" at the rear that would shoot "panic-mongers and cowards". An attempt to deter desertion among Soviet soldiers, the order actually required the blocking detachments to shoot and kill their fellow soldiers if they attempted to desert.
The order, which also included the creation of penal battalions, failed because it “was not consistently implemented by commanders who viewed diverting troops to create blocking detachments as a waste of manpower.” By October of 1942 the idea of blocking detachments was quietly dropped but not before 244 soldiers were imprisoned, 278 were shot, 218 were sent to penal companies, 42 to penal battalions, and 14,833 were returned to their units.
This is just some of the history that readers will discover through Aaron and Regina’s story in My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region. Adams does a masterful job of weaving history into the lives of two fully developed, sympathetic fictional characters. And while their experience is fictionalized, the events and their feelings during those events are not. Indeed, historical fiction brings history to life. It reminds us of who we are by showing us what we’ve been through.
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“My Mother's Secret by Alina Adams is a page-turner that has it all: a compelling mystery, sharp insights into Soviet history, a sense of humor, and a complicated and fascinating cast of characters to boot.”
– Maria Kuznetsova, author of Oksana, Behave! and Something Unbelievable
Sources:
“Operation Typhoon is Launched,” History, A&E Television Networks, Last Updated September 30, 2020, Accessed October 21, 2022, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-typhoon-is-launched
Pete Ward, “Operation Typhoon - Hitler’s First Defeat,” Osprey Publishing, Published October 2, 2015, Accessed October 21, 2022, https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/operation_typhoon_hitlers_first_defeat/?___store=osprey_usa
Wikipedia contributors, "Battle of Moscow," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Last Updated October 21, 2022, Accessed October 21, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Moscow&oldid=1117416675
Wikipedia contributors, "Order No. 227," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Last Updated September 20, 2022, Accessed October 21, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Order_No._227&oldid=1111362713
