Two books of the trilogy “Speedwell”, whose author is our countryman Vladimir Nesterenko, has been translated into German in Germany and put on the internet on the website of the Krasnoyarsk “Memorial” Organization of historical illumination and human rights. The novel was translated by S. Saya, honoraray member of the organization.
The main goal the above-named organization is the striving for the restoration of people’s rights. This is exactly what V. Nesterenko’s novel clarifies using the example of the Volga Germans – one of the old-established, deep-rooted peoples of Russia, which was deported to Siberia and Kazackhstan at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Although it suffered considerable damage during its expulsion process, it managed to survive, grew strong again in the post-war period and finally contributed to a high degree to the economic development of the country. The events described in the novel lead the reader from the very past up to the presence. The fates of the heroes of the novel are dramatic and tragic, and the author managed to plait them not just into the misery, but also into the most noticeable incidents connected to the life of the Russian people.
The novel was completely published in the library of the “Yenisey” journal in 2006. The presentation of the book took place in the premisses of the regional library in 2007 – participated by representatives of the German Cultural Autonomy as well as students and philologists of the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Pedagogics. The book which was subject to just a very small edition is presently out of stock; it met with big response from its readers. By the end of the current year “Speedwell” is going to be edited in Russian by one of the Moscovitan publishing houses by funds of the International German Culture Association.
The popularity of the trilogy is attested by the following fact. Its readers Alexander Fischer - veteran of labour and knight of the “Golden Patrons of the Century” – and Galina Slobodenyuk – methodic scientist of the Central Sukhobuzimsk Library System, wrote a common recension entitled “Notes on Vladimir Nesterenko’s novel “”Speedwell” and published a separate brochure with a number of reproduced letters to the editor, in which the triology was interpreted and valued. Among them were academics, pedagogoes, directors of companies, pensioners, and all of them expressed their gratefulness to the author for the profound reflection of the lives of this repressed and later rehabilitated, unwearingly working people, for the exemplary and plain language he is using in his novel. By the way, this is being proved by the brochure in a very descriptive way, and the contents of the book are subject to an extensive analysis. The composers of the brochure say that “…the author decided to set up his novel in chronological order. He worked out a number of utterly interesting story lines, which are linked to eachother and gush into a single dramatic stream of shocking fates”. The recension was also published in the second almanac of Sukhobuzimsk authors – “Origins”.
Liudmila Dubakova
“Country Life” (Sukhobuzimskoe), 06.06.2008