By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

Being Jewish in the Soviet Union was never an easy thing, even for atheists with no interest in their religion. Telling the complete truth about your experiences in World War II could also create difficulties as Yefim Shulman realized when he returned from serving in the army. Imagine his wife Nina’s surprise when, after his death, she discovers a letter Yefim wrote to the KGB that completely overturns her understanding of her husband’s experiences during the war. In Sasha Vasilyunk’s wonderful “Your Presence is Mandatory” (Bloomsbury Publishing), the author alternates time periods as readers learn the true story of Yefim’s life. 

Yefim, who was born to a Jewish family living in Ukraine, had originally hoped to become a hero, much like his older brother, who had recently returned from his stint in the Soviet army. Serving on the border between the Soviet Union and Germany in 1941, Yefim and his fellow soldiers are subject to a surprise attack by the Germans, which signaled the formal beginning of the war. Soviet soldiers were expected to fight and die for the cause, meaning that being captured by the Nazis was considered completely unacceptable. The result of surrendering was worse for Jewish soldiers: you had to hide all marks of being Jewish or face immediate death. It doesn’t spoil the plot to note that Yefim survives the war since he is alive in the opening chapter, which takes place in 2007. What the novel explores are the difficult choices he made not only during the war, but after peace was declared.

The chapters focusing on the decades after the war (beginning in the 1950s) offer insights into Yefim’s life and those of his non-Jewish wife, Nina, who faced prejudice from the Soviet system because she lived in territory that was once conquered by the Nazis. Anything that contradicts the strict Soviet line about the war is punished and that includes soldiers who survived the war in German POW camps. Nina and Yefim’s marriage is not the result of a grand love affair, but rather that of two people who know they won’t be able to achieve their hearts’ desire. But their life together – which includes two children – might have been better with open communication. However, Yefim fears revealing what had really occurred during the war, something that colors almost every aspect of his life.

The best parts of “Your Presence is Mandatory” are the insights the author offers about life in the Soviet Union. For example, even though all Soviet soldiers are supposed to be equal, Yefim discovers that there are various levels of equality. When thinking of his close friend Ivan, he notes that “unlike some other guys at boot camp, Ivan didn’t care that he was a Jew, nor that his skin tone was deeper and his last name decidedly not Slavic. He even got offended on Yefim’s behalf whenever he heard a joke about a Yid.” Even decades later, being called a Yid was not a compliment as Yefim’s daughter, Vita, discovers when a drunk insults her. She doesn’t understand why someone would call her a Yid: “She had never thought of herself as Jewish. She didn’t even know what it meant. To her, the real Jews were foreigners who lived in the distant, exotic land of Israel. Instead, Soviet Jews were just people with particular last names who could be just as studious as her or immature as [her brother], but at the end of the day were simply Soviet citizens.” She had not yet experienced the prejudice that caused people to change their names in order to get into decent Soviet universities or advance their careers. 

Yefim’s ideas about the army, his country and patriotism changed over time. Before the war, he was pleased to fight for his country. Then he met those who proclaimed that soldiers are simply fodder for war, bodies no one cares about – something Yefim begins to wonder is true for both sides of the conflict. Maybe their governments don’t care about the welfare of their citizens. Maybe all they cared about is land and borders. Yefim ponders that idea toward the end of the war, thinking that “in all the twenty-two years of his life, borders never felt permanent or secure: the Soviet Union ballooned, Ukraine changed shape, the neighboring Poland was tossed about like a ball, and the gluttonous Germany had tried to swallow half the world. What a mess it was, and for what? If he ever got out alive, he’d want to understand what made land so desirable that people were willing to kill and be killed for it.” What he learned during the war made him doubt that sacrifice was ever worth its cost. 

“Your Presence is Mandatory” offers a great deal to ponder, including the meaning of patriotism, the problems caused by keeping secrets from your loved ones and what people must do to survive tyranny and war. The prose is excellent, the plot absorbing with just enough suspense to keep pages turning, and its surprises are heart-rending and moving. This is Vasilyunk’s first novel, but she is definitely a writer to watch.