Escape from Siberia


Book Description

”Escape from Siberia” is a story set in contemporary Russia at the time of the unsuccessful attempt to remove Gorbachev from power by the reactionary forces against glasnost and perestroika. The novel’s main characters are an American geologist, a beautiful Russian woman and a Russian Colonel. The main plot consists of a relentless pursuit of the American and Russian woman through the Far Eastern tundra and taiga, as well as the western part of the Soviet Union by the jealous and possessive colonel. Their mode of transportation involves boat, truck, a reindeer team, skis, and finally a train. On their way the American and the woman encounter adventures with wolves, bears, and ferocious Siberian blizzards. The couple also meets many helpful and generous people while the American is being introduced to Russian customs, folk music and native foods. As far as their own relationship is concerned, they were attracted to each other from the day they met. Bound by fate and peril, a deep love develops between them that endures and conquers all hardships, until...?




As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me


Book Description

Originally published in 1955, this must be one of the most dramatic adventures of our time. Clemens Forell, a German soldier, was sentenced to 25 years of forced labour in a Siberian lead mine after the Second World War. Rebelling against the brutality of the camp, Forell staged a daring escape, enduring an 8000-mile journey across the trackless wastes of Siberia, in some of the most treacherous and inhospitable conditions on earth. Bauer's writing brilliantly evokes Forell's desperation in the prison camp, and his struggle for survival and terror of recapture as he makes his way towards the Persian frontier and freedom.




The Long Walk


Book Description

The harrowing true tale of seven escaped Soviet prisoners who desperately marched out of Siberia through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India.




Escape Via Siberia


Book Description

"A short-lived treaty between the Polish Government-in-Exile and the Soviet Government allows for the miraculous release of approximately one hundred thousand Polish citizens, including Lonek's family. They make their way from Siberia to Tashkent, only to find that life there is harsh - hunger and sickness abound. When his father falls ill, Lonek's mother is driven to despair and leaves her ten-year-old son on the doorstep of an orphanage.".




Looking for Mr. Smith


Book Description

Since 1956, The Long Walk has been, for many, the symbol of an immense love of freedom and has become one of the greatest true-life adventure stories of all time. The harrowing story about a group of POWs who escaped a labor camp in Siberia and walked to freedom in India during WWII deeply affected thousands of its readers, and Linda Willis was one of those moved by the story. But she had questions about its authenticity: Was it all true? What happened after their arrival in India? Were there others involved in the story? Who was Mr. Smith? Though she was not a trained researcher, Willis felt compelled to look at some of the most powerful aspects of the story and to try to dig to the core of the truth behind The Long Walk. Willis’s investigation took her down unforeseen byways with many hours spent unraveling facts, truths, half-truths, rumors, and the like. She waded through archives, wrote and spoke to hundreds of people, and continued to seek out and verify the details of the greatest adventure narrative ever written. The path of Willis’s research will be a model for anyone attempting a similar search and who has ever thought about the story behind a book. No one who reads Looking for Mr. Smith will ever think of The Long Walk in the same way.




Last of the Breed


Book Description

“For sheer adventure L’Amour is in top form.”—Kirkus Reviews Here is the kind of authentically detailed epic novel that has become Louis L’Amour’s hallmark. It is the compelling story of U.S. Air Force Major Joe Mack, a man born out of time. When his experimental aircraft is forced down in Russia and he escapes a Soviet prison camp, he must call upon the ancient skills of his Indian forebears to survive the vast Siberian wilderness. Only one route lies open to Mack: the path of his ancestors, overland to the Bering Strait and across the sea to America. But in pursuit is a legendary tracker, the Yakut native Alekhin, who knows every square foot of the icy frontier—and who knows that to trap his quarry he must think like a Sioux.




Escape from Russia


Book Description

During World War II, a boy and his family are arrested in Poland and deported to a Siberian labor camp, where they remain until their escape to a collective farm in Uzbekistan. A story of courage, unendurable hardship, and perseverence ends with the author settling in New York state.




Eleven Months to Freedom


Book Description

Eleven Months to Freedom recounts the daring World War I escape of German midshipman Erich Killinger. Falsely accused of bombing a railway station after crashing his plane at sea, he was sentenced to life in the Sakhalin coal mines. Shipped by rail with several other POWs across Russia, Killinger was determined to return home. In order to do this, though, he needed to jump from the train, cross Siberia, and make it to a German-run escape pipeline in China—all while braving bandits, subzero temperatures, threats of starvation, the risk of capture by Japanese and Russian troops, and possible internment by the Chinese. Once he made it to China, Killinger used money and fake identity papers to survive along the 800 miles to Shanghai. Improbably playing the role of a dashing French blade, Killinger lived the high life on one ship, then later served as a humble deckhand on another. Risking discovery by the British, he made a bold and risky move as his final destination neared.




Escape from Russia


Book Description

In 1937, Frania is a typical Polish teenager, sneaking out her bedroom window at night to go to dances and falling in love with boys her father does not approve of. Then her world turns upside down when her country is invaded first by the Germans, and then by the Russians. She and her family are deported to a labor camp in Siberia, where they endure many hardships. Even after being granted amnesty, they spend years trying to escape Russia. Some family members do not survive, and others become separated during their travels. Before reaching her beloved Poland once again, Frania learns many important lessons about love, friendship, and survival. Escape from Russia is a wonderful coming-of-age story of historical significance, highly suitable for adult and young adult audiences alike.




Shallow Graves in Siberia


Book Description

Michael Krupa was born into a poor family in south-west Poland, and in his teens was accepted into a Jesuit seminary. He ran away before taking his final vows and joined the army. Soon afterwards, the German tanks rolled into Poland and easily defeated her antiquated forces - the Polish cavalry were armed with sabres. Krupa survived Hitler's invasion, but was arrested in Soviet-occupied eastern Poland and accused of spying. After enduring torture in Moscow's notorious Lubianka prison, he was sentenced to ten years' corrective labour and deported to the Pechora Gulag. Most prisoners there were worked and starved to death within a year. But Krupa managed again to escape, and in the chaos following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union made one of the most extraordinary journeys of the war - from Siberia to safety in Afghanistan. Krupa's Jesuit training had given him an inner strength and resilience which enabled him to survive in the face of appalling brutality and cruelty. Luck and the kindness of strangers helped him complete his epic journey to freedom.