OF LOVE AND RUSSIA: The Eleven-Year Fight for My Husband and Freedom

by Irina McClellan ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 19, 1989

A heartwarming tale of the survival of love over political oppression and cultural adversity. When American professor Woodford McClellan took advantage of a Canadian tour group offer to lead a trip to Russia in 1972, little did he know that he was starting a 12-year struggle across political boundaries. McClellan met Irina Astakhova that summer; for both--veterans of two previous failed marriages--it was love at first sight. The two snatched intense days of passion during several subsequent professional journeys by Woody to Moscow before Woody proposed and Irina accepted. But this only began their adventure. Brezhnev's Russia was not a land of glasnost, and when Irina applied for a visa to follow her new husband to America, she was abruptly turned down. She became the butt of a bureaucracy that was ruthless (one official, responding to Woody's cry that Soviet law permits cohabitation of husband and wife, said, ""In this office there are no laws, only instructions"") and snide (another official taunted Irina, ""Aren't one hundred million Soviet men enough for you?""). With high intensity, Irina tells her story--of losing her job, of arrest and serving time in Russian prisons, of her spiritual reawakening, of Ronald Reagan's personal interest in her case, and of the Soviet government's eventual relenting in 1985 (only to drop the bombshell that they wouldn't allow her daughter to leave with her); she cuts off her tale shortly after arrival in the US (and after the restriction on her daughter's emigration was dropped). A dramatic love story--whose appeal has been strengthened by extensive coverage in popular magazines such as People.

Pub Date: June 19, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1989

Categories: NONFICTION