A gripping compilation of oral histories of over 100 Jews who lived under Soviet oppression and made the difficult choice to leave the “workers paradise” to pursue freedom. They were ordinary people who made an extraordinary decision to defy government control, ubiquitous propaganda, and pervasive antisemitism, to seek a better future and freedom from oppression. Their stories, combined with a historical narrative, form an amazing, and now often-overlooked, tapestry of Jewish experience in the Soviet Union in the two decades before the country fell apart.
Personal Reviews
What readers say about our books
They Were Fighters is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand the history of Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union to the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. It also provides a broader perspective on Jewish history, making it a must-read for those interested in the resilience and struggles of this community.
Through a powerful combination of the author’s narration and firsthand accounts from immigrants, the book paints a deeply moving portrait of the nearly one million Soviet Jews who left everything behind in pursuit of freedom. These stories vividly capture the life-altering challenges and triumphs of their journey, resonating with themes of sacrifice, courage, and hope.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in history, sociology, or the timeless struggle for freedom and dignity.
Galina Cherny
The author did an excellent job compiling historical information for this book and organizing it in a very effective way for reading and understanding the key points. It’s a must read for understanding what drove thousands of Jews out of the former Soviet Union. Younger generations need to read this book to understand why their parents and grandparents took such enormous risks to free themselves and their families from the evils of USSR.
Dmitry Litvak
Yanina Kisler’s book is a must read for students or anyone interested in Russian/Soviet life, history and politics. Detailed historical research along with personal accounts paint vivid images of life as it was experienced on a daily basis under socialist and communist rule and the antisemitism that it engendered. True life stories of courage, strength and survival by Jews who found a way to emigrate out of dire circumstances and at their own peril, provide a sobering picture and a wake up call to all generations, so that the horrors of past history will not be repeated ever again. An eye-opening book!
Lisa T.
Newspaper Reviews
Reviews from professionals
Yanina Kisler, in an impressive debut work … has cast a spotlight on an era in history that deserves to have a grand light shine on it.
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Drawing on extensive research and personal interviews, Kisler weaves together the voices of Jewish immigrants who, like her, left behind a life under Soviet rule.
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Authors
Our authors are at the heart of Elevator Pitch Publishing.
Author
They Were Fighters
Yanina Kisler emigrated with her parents from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1978. She completed high school in Brookline, Massachusetts, and she double majored in physics and engineering at Boston University going on to earn a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT. She worked as an engineer doing research for 35 years. She has also had a successful career with her husband as a competitive ballroom dancer, twice winning the National Championship and twice placing in the semi-final in the World Championship in the International Standard dance style. She also ran a small business for 20 years coaching math teams at a local elementary school. Her math teams won National Championships almost every year. Yanina has two daughters and three grandchildren.
Upon retirement, Yanina volunteered at charitable organizations that focused on projects supporting Jewish life in areas of the former Soviet Union. Many of these activities became impossible with the Russia invasion on Ukraine, so she started looking for other project, After the passing of both of her parents, she realized that she had never had a detailed discussion with them about their own early lives and experiences as Jews in the Soviet Union, and that the generation of people who had made the decision to emigrate from the USSR in the 1970s and 1980s are now in their 70s and older, and their stories will be lost if nothing is done to preserve them. So she decided to start a new project of her own to interview as many of those people as she could find to collect and record those stories.
In addition to the preservation of these histories, she wanted to understand what led these people to take the risk of applying to leave the Soviet Union. Most Jews in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s were well educated, had at least reasonable living conditions (by Soviet standards), and were established in their jobs. The only thing they knew about life elsewhere was Soviet propaganda that depicted people starving and dying on the American streets. In addition, the Soviet government viewed people who wanted to emigrate from the USSR as enemies and traitors, and they faced the danger of being arrested, exiled, or, at the very least, losing their jobs and being socially ostracized. And yet a third-of-a-million Jews walked away from everything they worked for their whole lives, left friends and family behind, and went into the unknown seeking something they could not have in the Soviet Union—a life in freedom.
Presentations
Yanina has presented material from her book at venues in the Boston area. At well-attended talks sponsored by Shaloh House in Brighton and Cary Library in Lexington, she explained the historical trends and movements that led to the concentration of Jews in Eastern Europe that came under Soviet oppression, and she presented the personal stories of the people who risked all that they had to leave the Soviet Union and find freedom in the West.
PAST TALKS
Shaloh House – March 17
Cary Library – April 10
FUTURE TALKS
Planning for future talks is underway for the Boston area and for Philadelphia.
Yanina will be giving the following talks in 2025:
Lexington Rotary Club – Sept 8
Jookender Weekend, Camp Avoda, Middleboro MA – Sept 13
The Towers, Chestnut Hill, MA – Oct 16
PODCASTS
Yanina was interviewed by Antoinette Datoc on her podcast –
The Dancing Housewife. Check it out!
Contact us
We would love to here your comments on our published work or
your ideas on how we could help with your own work.
Please email us at yanina.kisler@elevatorpitchpublishing.com
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