Snow Goose Chronicles

Snow Goose Chronicles is also available as an ebook from Apple Books, Amazon, and Google Play – $8.99.

Set in 1929 Ukraine, The Snow Goose Chronicles is based on the true story of the arrest, deportation, and incarceration of the author’s grandmother on the island fortress of Solovki.

Dr. Olya Samilenko describes life during Stalin’s Ukrainian peasant genocide, and weaves her tale from details of that period, giving the reader glimpses into gulags, labor camps, and even life within “Solovki” camp, located in the former “Solovetsky” Monastery on a remote Northern island, where inmates starved and froze to death.

The Snow Goose Chronicles is a must read for anyone interested in the history of Ukraine, and the life and fate of Ukrainian peasants during the Soviet period.

Dr. Samilenko is an Associate Professor at Goucher College. She teaches Russian literature courses and directs the Goucher College-Johns Hopkins University Cooperative Program in Russian Language, Literature, and Culture.

404 pages

A great read!
–Helen Segall
Professor Emerita of Russian Language and Literature

В «Снежном гусе» автор в качестве скальпеля использует острый меч, чтобы без горечи или злобы, но решительно вскрыть гнойные раны, которые ее народу нанесла и надеялась навсегда скрыть под незажившими рубцами советская власть. И это бы ей удалось, если бы не Снежный гусь, который в качестве беспристрастного свидетеля и летописца присутствует в повествовании от начала до последней точки.
–Владимир Войнович

The Snow Goose Chronicles is a moving, well-paced story with living characters doing the best they can to survive Stalinism. Olya Samilenko takes us on a fascinating ride through twentieth-century Ukraine and its tragic history, as experienced by two Ukrainians and two Jews.
–Professor Alexander Motyl,
Rutgers University-Newark

Absurdity and verisimilitude coexist in this fluid tale, whose frequent allusions to Gogol – there is even a Comrade Chichikov – serve both to heighten and to assuage the tragedy of the romance.
–Dr. Isaiah Gruber,
Historian, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

“Snow Goose” reads like a frightening mystery…. have to put it down and then rush back to read more.
–Ulana Mazurkevich
President, Ukrainian Human Rights Committee