“The Orchard” by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry
I grew up during the Cold War, taught to fear and despise the evil Soviet empire, where no one was free and whose main goal in life was to obliterate the United States of America with a nuclear attack. We had drills in my elementary school for that imminent moment when the bomb dropped, on our knees, heads to the floor and hands over our little heads, as if that would prevent us all from immolation. I knew the shelves in Soviet stores were barren, the women all dressed like peasants, and the protestors were either sent to Siberia or outright killed.
What I did not know about was how the children in the Soviet Union lived, what they were taught about the United States (though I did know we were their enemy, too), and what they did for fun. Was there fun in the Soviet Union? The Orchard introduces us to a few of those children who, it turns out, had adolescent crushes, favorite singers, and parents who just didn’t understand them…just like us.
Narrated by Anya, The Orchard gives us a glimpse into the waning years of the Soviet Union as it begins to crumble around the true believers and the skeptics…Anya’s father the former and her mother the latter, who are in constant battle over the socialist ideals of the Bolsheviks. What the children were taught is best summed up by the principal of their school, lecturing them after the defection of the parents of one of the students. “As future Communist leaders…you must always choose community over self. Responsibility over desire. Sacrifice over gain. What the Ruchnik family did is shameful and irresponsible. You must always remember that your decisions don’t just impact you, but generations…Only together can we overcome personal difficulties and capitalist aggression and not be turned into slaves. That’s what they do to people in America, turn them into slaves.”
Heavy stuff for a 14-year-old who dreams of getting out of Russia and seeing other parts of the world, including the hated America, whose most treasured item is a bootleg tape of Freddie Mercury singing We Are the Champions. She and her best friend Milka are joined at the hip, living their lives together as nearly all early teen girls do. They bring Lopatin and Trifonov into their circle who are “as different as earth and sky”, one interested mostly in vodka and girls, the other in poetry and literature.
The Orchard has been compared to Anton Chekhov’s last work, The Cherry Orchard, and there is indeed a cherry orchard featured in this captivating novel. But one does not need to be familiar with the Chekhov work to be drawn in by this coming of age, sometimes tragic, tale. Gorcheva-Newberry grew up in Moscow and had a brilliant, rowdy, feisty friend who practically lived at her house. One day she and her family disappeared, never to be heard from again. Tormented by the loss, the author made up a story to preserve the memory of her friend. The Orchard is the outgrowth of that story and is a beautifully written, compelling testament to the power of friendship, no matter where it is.
