THE WILD CHILDREN: A Saga Of The Soviet Cruelty

                

                         Perhaps the best literary work on the ‘BEZPRIZORNI’ era of the Soviet Union, ‘THE WILD CHILDREN’ by FELICE HOLMAN is a world wonder.

                        Compared to the novels of Hugo, Dickens or Tolstoy which has a threatening roller coaster of emotions, long stretches of ages and scores of characters, this book is a child’s play. Yet this novel has every right to be a true classic.

FELICE HOLMAN

                        The novel is set in the post Leninist, civil war destroyed, worldwar1 ruined Russia sometime in 1920s and 30s.Russia was a closed society at that time and on contrary to the beliefs of the world that Russia was racing to a position of becoming a world super power, Felice Holman shows how she was in the worst time in all of her history.

                       The Bolsheviks’ are arresting or exiling thousands of families, doubting them to be rebels and anti-Bolsheviks. This usually happened when children were away at school and when they return, they find their families missing, without trace. Every major city in Russia was thus filled with numberless orphaned children, Turing into criminals just for existence.

Alex, the main character is one such Bezprizorni (wild children in Russian).

LIST OF 'NOTORIAL' BEZPRIZORNI,MOSCOW

The story revolves around how Alex finds himself becoming a Bezprizorni, eventually wearing rags, sleeping in gutters and eating rotten wastes, and then finally escapes to Finland with the help of his beloved teacher.

 This I promise will touch the hearts of teenagers around the world who complains even if their meal is a bit overcooked or those who dive into the abyss of mafia and doping world knowingly. Parents round the globe would shudder when they read this, thinking what it might have been for those Russian parents. 

Friends, comparing to the times of Bezprizorni, we are all living in a paradise; do not forcefully make it a hell.

BEZPRIZONI IN GOVERNMENT HOMES