Harvard Library of Ukrainian Literature- The Face Fire

The young Jewish boxer Ilya Goldinov and his wife Feliksa are looking ahead to a bright future in Kyiv. Then the Nazi invasion in the summer of 1941 changes everything. The Face of Fire offers a tapestry of Ukrainian life under two brutal regimes—based on declassified People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) files and family archives. In the wake of the horrors of civil war, the Holodomor, and Stalin’s purges, the young Jewish boxer Ilya Goldinov and his wife, Feliksa, are looking ahead to a brighter future in Kyiv. Ilya, the top heavyweight boxer of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, is primed for victory as champion of the entire Soviet Union. Feliksa, a country girl and a star athlete in track, is deep in training for a major race. Then the Nazi invasion in the summer of 1941 changes everything.The Face of Fire offers a tapestry of Ukrainian life under the brutal Soviet and Nazi regimes—all based on declassified People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) files and Oleksii Nikitin’s family archive.