“This is a well-written book on a fascinating topic. Baran’s impressive ability to conduct and contextualize interviews allows her to demonstrate just how haphazard Sovietization was in the borderlands during the initial postwar period and how communities of dissenters could survive for decades alongside supposedly homogenous Soviet society. Read this book and learn from one of the best.” Serhy Yekelchyk, University of Victoria and author of Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know
“In this well-written book, Emily Baran takes her readers to Soviet Ukraine in the first years after World War II, and the small town of Bila Tserkva on the border with Romania. This stimulating book will be a very valuable teaching aid in upper-level courses on the modern state, Soviet history, and contemporary religious history.” Nova Religio
“Baran’s portrait of Sovietization in one village presents lessons that can be applied throughout the Soviet Union and enrich our understanding of the life and death of the Soviet experiment. This book also offers a fresh perspective on Ukraine’s Soviet past as questions about the enduring legacies of the USSR have taken on new meaning with Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. War and territorial annexation are no longer a thing of the past in Ukraine—the story of Bila Tserkva offers a timely look at the lived reality of resistance.” The Russian Review
“Baran is a brilliant storyteller who manages a cast of historical actors in a way that does not feel overwhelming to the reader. Her ability to connect the “small story” with larger issues of power, human rights, and state-building is a model for students and scholars at any level. This gem of a book is valuable not only for its usefulness in the classroom, its insight into a fascinating case involving a minority faith community in the USSR, and its creative analysis, but also for its impressive contribution to the history of lived experiences in borderland areas.” *Canadian Slavonic Papers *
