Ukraine in My Blood and on My Mind
A Foreign Correspondent’s Family Served Russian Imperialism, and Then Was Destroyed By It
This is the second of two essays exploring the intertwined histories of Russia and Ukraine, told through one family’s history. Read the first essay here.
A thick, dusty file records the progress from life to death of my grandfather Boris Bibikov, an official of the Communist Party of Ukraine, at the hands of the Soviet secret police. The file documents his arrest at an exclusive Party sanatorium in Gagry in July 1937, and records what happened to him until his execution near Kiev, in October …
