The Kulaks Daughter

Blooming Tree Press/Tire Swing Books Austin, Texas by

Gabriele Goldstone

Middle Grade Historical Fiction Set in the Soviet Union during the 1930s Based on a true story

isbn-10: 1933831146 isbn-13: 978-1933831145

www.gabrielegoldstone.com

Readers Guide Reader's Guide for The Kulak's Daughter by Gabriele Goldstone Middle Grade Historical Fiction

About the Book Its 1930 in the Soviet Union and Stalins first Five Year Plan is in full swing. Why should 11-year-old Olga care? Shes interested in small things like the tiny apples in the orchard or her baby brothers little toes. But when her father is labeled a kulak, the politics of communism changes everything. Her father is arrested and the rest of the family is exiled to Siberia. Will Olga ever see her home or dog again? Will anything ever be the same? About the Author This is the book the author wished shed read as a child. Once she learned how to read with Dick and Jane, the author liked to read mysteries. It wasnt until many years later, though, that she got to be a detective herself and solve the mystery of her mothers childhood. Exploring this mystery began with old photographs. Other clues (research) included: dinner conversation, the Internet, and a most serendipitous journey to the former Soviet Union. In what is now Ukraine, she leafed through files in old KGB archives, listened to gold-toothed, arthritic women remember the past, gazed at forgotten perennials in undefined graveyards, and found a pile of red granite rocks in an empty field. Was this where her kulak grandfathers windmill once stood? Gabriele Goldstone (B Ed, MA in German) lives on the Canadian prairies where the winters are almost as cold as in Siberia, but she can face it with enough food, a warm house, and proper clothes. Author Visits Gabriele Goldstone is available to share her photos and research with readers through a power point presentation.

Readers Guide for The Kulaks Daughter

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Discussion Questions 1. Define a kulak. What were the differences between a class one, two, and three kulak? 2. What is communism and how does it affect Olgas life? Who invented communism? When did it begin in Russia? What countries, today, are still actively pursuing communist goals? 3. What is collectivization? Compare it to whats happening to small family farms in our own country. 4. What is a kolkhoz? 5 How does politics affect your life? What kind of government do we have here? How does it differ from communism? 6. Olga was a German-Russian. Did her ethnicity have anything to do with her familys exile. Why or why not? 7. Whats happened to the Soviet Union? When did it collapse? Why do you think it collapsed? 8. Try to find Olgas home on a map. Why is it so difficult to find? Search for the other places mentioned, including, Zhitomir, Kiev, Moscow, Tomsk, Omsk, and the White Sea Canal. Why is this difficult? Why are places spelled differently or renamed? Trace Olgas journey to and from Siberia. Compare the latitude to where you live. 9. Yaya near Tomsk wasnt the only place of exile for kulaks. Can you find Arkhangelsk or other remote areas of exile? 10. List the animals (including birds and insects) in this novel and describe Olgas relationship with them. 11. Olga decides that doing nothing is the worst thing in the world. Why? Do you agree with her? Why or why not? 12. Olga feels great pride when she gets her ears pierced and great shame when her hair is shaved. What would make you very proud and what would make you feel very ashamed? 13. What other emotions does Olga show in the book? Find three of them and discuss the situations where they happen. What sort of emotions have you had recently and why? 14 In what ways is Olga like you? In what ways is she different? 15. What is metaphor? Show examples of it in the book. What does the stork represent? Is the cuckoo bird be an appropriate metaphor for Olga? Why or why not? 16. In the book, its OGPU guards who supervise the exile. What other names do these home guards morph into? 17. According to some sources, more than twenty million people died under his command. Many more suffered lifelong traumas. So why are Stalins atrocities not as well known as those that Hitler committed? Activity Have the students connect with an older person. This can be a stranger at a local seniors center or a family member/friend. Before the visit discuss with the students possible conversation topics. These could include: favorite meals, clothes, teachers, pets,

brothers/sisters or events like birthdays, holidays, etc. Have the students come up with five questions for their interview that include sensory details. The idea is to make the childhood of this older person become real to the student. Then the student is to write a short story. The story can focus on one of the questions or it can integrate the whole interview. It doesnt have to be exactly like the older persons memories, but it should use each of our five senses to make the story come alive. The story should be written in the first person and in the present tense. An illustration could be added. Follow-up activity Have students type up the story (using a reader-friendly large font) and either mail it or re-visit the senior and read it with them. Other possible activities: 1. Write a story based on a family photograph or heirloom. Be sure to include several emotions and sensory detail. 2. Draw illustrations for the book. 3. Prepare a skit from a scene of one of the chapters. 4. Prepare a family tree. 5. Visit the website http://www.memo.ru/eng/index.htm to learn the Stalin oppression is being remembered.

Related Reading for Children Netties Journey by Adele Dueck (Coteau Books, 2005) isbn 1-55050-322-7 Tells of the dangerous 1920s in the Soviet Union Enough (picture book) by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, with illustrations by Michael Martchenko (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000) isbn 1-55041-509-3 Story about the 1930s famine in Ukraine Kobzars Children A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories edited by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2006) isbn 1-55041-954-4 An anthology of Ukrainian stories from the last century Days of Terror by Barbara Smucker (Puffin, Canada, 1981) isbn 0-14-031306-0 About the early years after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in the USSR Nonfiction: Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union by Kevin Cummingham (Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2006) isbn 978-1931798945

Resources for Adults Martin Amis Koba the Dread, Laughter and the Twenty Million Knopf Canada, 2002 Anne Applebaum Gulag, A History Random House, 2003 Jonathan Brent Inside the Stalin Archives Atlas & Co., 2008

Neily Das (translated into English by Nancy Bernhardt Holland) Gone Without a Trace American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001 Orlando Figes The Whisperers, Everyday Life in Stalinist Russia Henry Holt, 2007 Sheila Fitzpatrick Everyday Stalinism Oxford University Press, 1999 Stalins Peasants Oxford University Press, 1994 Tomasz Kizny Gulag, Life and Death Inside the Soviet Concentration Camps Firefly Books, 2003 Don Miller www.inthemidstofwolves.com In the Midst of Wolves, 2000 Under Arrest, 2004 The Old Country, 2006 Karl Stumpp The German-Russians (translated from the German by Joseph S. Height) The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1978 Lynne Viola The Unknown Gulag Oxford University Press, 2007 Ronald Vossler Well Meet Again in Heaven Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, 2001

More recommendations for these lists would be appreciated.

Test Your Understanding of Olgas World in The Kulaks Daughter by Gabriele Goldstone Circle the letter of the correct answer(s). 1. Which TWO of the following insects are parasites? a) bees b) lice c) bedbugs d) cockroaches 2. Which birds are NOT mentioned in The Kulaks Daughter? a) storks b) cuckoos c) ravens d) robins 3. Olgas baby brother is called: a) Albert b) Sutti c) Emil d) Sasha 4. What new material threatens Olgas life? a) rubber b) plastic c) glass d) paper 5. Which tree is NOT mentioned in the book? a) evergreen tree b) chestnut tree c) linden tree d) poplar tree 6. Olga throws her doll into the well because: a) shes ugly b) so nobody else can play with her c) shes a gift from Uncle Leo d) shes made of rubber

-27. Olga compares her baby brothers toes to: a) tiny apples in the orchard b) pebbles on the river bed c) candy d) stars in the sky 8. Gerda picks linden tree blossoms for: a) making sachets b) making soup c) making tea d) making shampoo 9. Olgas papas likes to spend time: a) in his easy chair by the kitchen stove b) at the windmill c) at the train station in Zhitomir d) riding his horse 10. What does Olga give her mama for her birthday? a) her doll b) a basket of apples c) pussy willows d) a card 11. Olgas trip to Yaya, Siberia is bad because a) its cold b) it smells bad c) they dont know where theyre going d) all of the above 12. Which disease spreads throughout their Siberian camp? a) typhus b) tuberculosis c) rabies d) pneumonia 13. What does Olga decide is the worst? a) the cold b) the hunger c) the bugs d) doing nothing

-314. What does Olga use to buy postage stamps? a) the last of their food b) a feather duvet c) her gold hoops d) a gold chain 15. Why do Sasha, Albert and Olga leave the camp? a) to run away b) to find some berries c) to catch a rabbit d) to go sledding 16. Who rescues Olga? a) her papa b) Aunt Helena c) Uncle Leo d) no one 17. Which answer is WRONG? Olga carries a rock in her pocket because it reminds her of a) the windmill b) Papa c) of Father Lenin d) of home 18. Olgas father butchers most of their livestock because a) theyve become diseased b) they have too many c) so that the government cant take them d) to stock up on meat for the winter 19. How old does Olga turn in Siberia? a) twelve b) thirteen c) eleven 20. Olga must move from Federofka to a) Pulin b) Zhitomir c) Kiev d) Yaya

Multiple Choice Quiz for understanding the history behind THE KULAKS DAUGHTER
created by Gabriele Goldstone

Circle the letter of the best answer(s): 1. Olgas home village of Federofka is in: a) Soviet Union b) USSR c) Ukraine d) all of the above 2. Communism was introduced in the Communist Manifesto written by: a) Adolf Hitler b) Carl Jung c) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels d) Albert Einstein 3. The leader just before Stalin was called: a) Lenin b) Czar Nicholas c) Leonid Brezhnev d) Adolf Hitler 4. Collectivization was introduced to: a) collect land for the government b) take land from the kulaks c) fulfill the first Five Year Plan d) all of the above 5. Kulaks included the following ethnic people: a) Germans b) Ukrainians c) Russians d) all of the above 6. Proletariats were: a) factory workers b) kulaks c) farmers d) aristocrats

The Kulaks Daughter/History Quiz 7. The October Revolution happened in the year: a) 1917 b) 1927 c) 1900 d) 1945 8. The Soviet Union collapsed in: a) 1941 b) 1953 c) 1989 d) 2000 9. Which settlement is NOT in Siberia? a) Yaya b) Kiev c) Omsk d) Tomsk 10. What religious holiday did the communists ban? a) Christmas b) Easter c) Ascension Day d) all religious holidays 11. What are the police called in The Kulaks Daughter? a) OGPU b) GPU c) NKVD d) KGB 12. Collectives were also known as: a) barracks b) gulags c) kolchoz d) prisons 13. People in the Siberian exile camps died of: a) typhus b) starvation c) work d) cold e) all of the above

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The Kulaks Daughter/History Quiz 14. How many kulaks were exiled during Collectivization in 1930/31? a) ten thousand b) one hundred thousand c) one million d) almost two million 15. What describes a Kulak? a) rural capitalist b) prosperous peasant c) landowner d) employer of outside help e) all of the above 16. Work in the Gulags did NOT include: a) gold mining b) tree harvesting c) canal building d) trapping 17. Kulaks were divided into three classes. Olga was considered a) first class kulak b) second class kulak c) third class kulak 18. During the long journey into exile, kulaks ate: a) whatever they brought from home b) food they bought at stores along the way c) meals prepared by the train attendants

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