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by Gabriela Gavrilov (Author)
"A New Look at Russia's Sweeping History and Events that Shaped the Modern World." A panoramic epic of the 20th Century begins with FIRE ON THE STEPPE: Book 1. In this first of a series, we are swept into the Russo-Japanese war, American labor unrest, World War I and the prelude to the October Revolution with spellbinding narrative that captures the tide of global events-all the drama, romance, heroism and tragedy-as it immerses us in the lives of four families: American, French Canadian, Polish and Russian, whose lives are unknowingly, but inextricably tied together and drawn into the center of history's maelstrom. Capt. Stepan Pesotski, commander of Russia's troops during the 1905 war with Japan finds himself disguised as a Korean fisherman in a secret mission to thwart Japanese troops from bringing heavy artillery over the Yalu River. American Edward Boyd is living in his wife's manor and managing his father-in-law's shoe factory in Lowell, Massachusetts when he's presented with an opportunity of a life time to invest in Japanese War Bonds. Condemned for sedition against Russia's Tsar, Jozef Jaroszewski is forced to leave his home and family behind in Poland for the coal mines of Pennsylvania. Young Stefania follows her family to become one of Russia's first pioneers to Siberia. Lieutenant Fedot Gavrilov is sent to guard the Imperial State Bank in the Russian Republic of Georgia, as a young rebel known as Koba (a.k.a. Josef Stalin) is planning to rob it to finance Vladimir Lenin's revolutionary network. Sofia follows her heart from her native Poland to St. Petersburg, Russia and finds work in Russia's foremost arms factory, and love with a married man. Ernest Hilton Jones, son of Scottish immigrants, is a lumberjack in Maine as the European war begins, but shortly becomes one of America's first combat pilots of WWI. Mary Ordway Boyd is just fourteen when she finds herself pregnant and unwed in Montreal's Catholic, elite business society. Idealistic Arkadi Evtychenko rides his beloved horse Platov to Russia's European Front to defend his country against Austrio-Hungarian troops, only to suffer unspeakable horrors when his unit meets modern German artillery with just rifles and sabers. He returns to Russia to support Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution. Stella Stetz is just eighteen when combat between Russian and German troops destroys her beloved family and village and she is forced to escape to Constanta, Romania on foot where she boards a ship for the United States.
