Petro Hryhorenko, though born in Ukraine in 1907 in a small village in Zaporizhzhia region, had spent more than 30 years of his adult life living and working in Russia based out of Moscow. His life in Russia had a profound impact on him and ultimately made him not only a Ukrainian dissident, but also a Russian one.
As a young Ukrainian he witnessed the atrocities of both the Red and the White Russians as Russia attempted to re-occupy Ukraine in late 1910s once again - events recorded here with stunning authenticity.
Drawn to the ideals of communism, Hryhorenko became a Ukrainian Communist Party member in 1927, a loyal officer in the Red Army during the 1930s, and, as a general in World War II, a much decorated war hero.
It was after the death of Stalin that Hryhorenko found himself menacingly at odds with the Communist regime. Unable to remain silent about the injustices he saw around him, he moved into open opposition to many of Khrushchev's policies. That was more than a totalitarian state would permit. In 1964 he was stripped of his rank and imprisoned in a special psychiatric hospital. When Hryhorenko was released, he was kept under contact surveillance. In 1969 he was incarcerated again for five years until 1977.
That same year in 1977 while visiting the United States with his wife, Zinaida, his citizenship was revoked. Living in the US as an exile, Hryhorenko became an active member of Ukrainian diaspora in Canada & USA and in 1980 ultimately wrote this unique inside view of his life through the prism of Ukraine's history during long decades of Moscow's colonial rule over Ukraine.
