Help From the Beyond

Some authors believe their works are a singular accomplishment; their work the result of sitting alone at the word processor and turning glorious thoughts into prose. They are convinced they and no one else should get credit for the finished novel. I was one of those authors and I was wrong. My story is a collaboration of too many to count or even remember. There are those I know helped me out, but others who are lost in time provided those seeds that grew into sentences, paragraphs and chapters.

In addition to those people who helped, I received aid from other sources. Some may even say, help from beyond. I believe my constant attention to my dead relatives opened a portal between their existence and mine. Bare with me here. There were several incidents that cannot be explained by coincidence. Such as information I obtained concerning Massey's second trip to America.

During my original research for Ikons, I found Massey’s citizenship application where he claimed the ship he came to America on was called the SS Ventura. I found a book in the Dayton library listing steamships and their history. It turned out the Ventura was a lumber boat hauling wood between Yokohama, Japan and Spokane, Washington. This caused me to wonder, what the heck was a Russian immigrant doing a lumber boat?
I also noted that Massey’s date of crossing was very close to the date of the Titanic sinking, 14 April 1912. I figured I could add the Titanic sinking to my story by placing the Ventura in the shipping lane and have it look for survivors. So I dug into the library’s basement and looked for old volumes about the Titanic. I wanted to get a book from that time period so I could write about the sinking using the language of the period.

I found a book on shipwrecks, took it home and started reading about the Titanic.  For some reason, I set the open book down on the kitchen table and went to get a drink of water.  While getting my water, the pages of the book started turning.  I stood there and watched the pages flip until they stopped.  The hair on my arms rose (really) as I walked over to the table and looked at the section where the pages stopped.

The chapter read, “Disaster on Immigrant Ship.”  The story told of a ship called the SS Volturno, which caught fire and sank in the Atlantic in 1913 killing over 136 people.  The story said the Volturno was an immigrant ship running between Rotterdam and Halifax.  Massey’s papers said he came in through Halifax.

I wrote to the Port of Halifax and asked if it was possible Massey came in the Volturno in April of 1912.  A month later I got a package from Canada verifying Massey had indeed landed there.  They sent me a copy of the ships original manifest listing Massey and a few other Russians on board.  It said it was his second trip to America and was headed to Rockdale, Illinois.

SS Volturno

For the longest time I thought it was Massey helping me out from beyond the grave.  But the more I thought about and remembering my father telling me Akulina had the “gift,” I decided it was she assisting the grandson she had never met.  There may be more logical explanations, but I prefer this one.

The Plot

The basic plot of Ikons: Saint Nichols the Wonder Worker is man against a hostile world.  Since the story is based on history, the sequence of events are set.  However, concrete happenings merely provide the framework upon which my story hangs.  I can still shape the characters and events according to my version of what happened. By combining fact, semi-fact, and fiction an historic narrative can be created.

Fact:  Russia in 1905 was in a state of transition.  The traditional feudal society was giving way to an industrial based urban culture.  The absolute rule of the Tsar had been challenged and peasants, once tied to the land, move to the industrial cities.
Semi-fact:  Massey and Sam leave their domineering father and search for work in the iron works of Belarus.  Massey's experiences in the mill are based on my own.  I worked in a manufacturing plant during summers making ceiling tile.  My ability to add, multiply, divide and subtract got me promoted to assistant foreman.  I gave Massey the same ability.
Fiction: Both brothers find employment with the Glebov Iron Works.  Massey learns a trade and rises through the ranks.  Sam embraces the socialist cause leading to conflict between the two.

Fact: Russia and Japan went to war in 1905.  The war created a demand for iron rails.  Russia was humiliated in defeat.
Fiction: Massey enjoys increased wages from war production and rises in the worker hierarchy.  Sergei follows the war through the railway station telegraph.  Massey believes he can now afford a wife.

Fact:  Massey marries Akulina.
Fiction: Massey and Akulina's courtship is based on the village culture of the period.  The wedding and feast afterwards are culled from weddings I experienced growing up in Rockdale, Illinois.  Akulina's problem adjusting to life outside the village is a combination of events I've read about or experienced.

Fact: Peace brings a down turn in production resulting in wide spread layoffs.  Riots and strikes spread across Belarus and the government cracks down hard.
Fiction: Massey inadvertently takes part in a riot and he and Akulina are forced to flee back to Hutava.  Pure fiction since I have no experience with a riot.

Fact: Massey immigrates to America via Canada and finds employment in the steel mill.  I have since learned he did not leave by himself, but traveled with three other men from the village to the promised land. 
Fiction: Massey sails on the SS Arabia and arrives in Ellis Island.  After Ellis Island, Massey and his new-found friends travel by train to Rockdale where they find work in the Wire Mill.  Massey plans for a family life in America when he finds out he is a father.

Fact: Massey's son dies and he returns to Russia, only to return two years later.
Fiction: Devastated by his sons death, Massey returns to Hutava.  His name his passed on to the secret police as an agitator and he is forced to flee to America.

Fact:  World War begins in 1914.
Fiction: In the final chapter Akulina foresees the coming war as she harvests onions.

Ikons ends at this point and the story continues in Banners.

ADDITIONAL NOTE:  If you want to find out about your family's history, write a book based on them.  Relatives and friends will come out of the woodwork to tell you what you got wrong.

The Era

Information concerning my story's era was prolific.  By time I was finished researching I had several three-ring binders, cards, and computer files filled with newspaper clippings, hand-written notes, photos, government records, maps, personal accounts, some of which may even have been accurate and true.

Akulina and Massey's Wedding Certificate - Courtesy of Homeland Security

Joliet newspaper from the 1920's.

1920 Census for Rockdale, Illinois

Each bit of information open a door and led to a bit of information.  But sometimes traditional methods were not enough.  Hard as it is to believe, I actually had my characters come to me in dreams and chastise me for the way I presented them.  My character Boris Koscik was the worse.  He never appreciated my efforts to soften his methods.  He was tough and wanted to be remembered that way.  But of all my characters' manifestations, the one dealing with the SS Voltono had to be the eeriest.

The Women of Hutava

Every story needs romance and fortunately my grandfather and grandmother provided me with one.  I never knew much about Massey's love affair with his wife Akulina, but considering he remained true to her from the time they were married in 1906 until his death in 1949 says something.

Akulina A. Pribish circ 1913

This is the only known picture of my grandmother, Akulina A. Pribish.  She had it taken in Russia sometime around 1913 and sent it to her husband Massey Pribish in America.  This would place her age at approximately 27.  For a younger Akulina, I used a combination of my sisters, all three Slavic beauties.  My final version of my grandmother looked something like this.

Idealized Akulina

Although I knew little about Akulina, I was raised to admire her as a courageous, young mother facing the horrors following the Russian Revolution.  But before she could get to this section, I had to get her married.

I did considerable research into Belarus traditions and customs.  Most of them had to do with young women and their relationship to love and marriage.  This led to the scene dealing with the use of her wreath tossed into the water to find the man of her dreams.  This event also allowed me to introduce her special "gift."  Akulina was described by my father as the village seer, a fortune teller of extraordinary talent.  Whether her talent was a paranormal power or one based on an astute understanding of human nature is left up to the reader.  However, based on events which occurred  during the writing of these novels, I tend to believe the former.

Belarus girls placing wreaths in the water

The other village women were based on memories of my relatives, neighbors in Rockdale, and people I met in Russia.  Akulina's main friend, Nora, was real and was actually my father's godmother.

Akulina's little sister, Kataya was also a combination of my sisters, tilting mostly towards my youngest and feistiest sister, Jayne.

The Men of Hutava

This is my grandfather Massey Pribish.  It was probably taken in 1913 or so.  I believe it was a picture he had taken when he was arrived Joliet, Illinois and sent it to his wife in Russia.  But I'm getting ahead of the story.

Massey Pribish Circ 1913

The story of Ikons begins in 1904.  Massey and his brother Sam are planning to leave their home in Hutava to claim their fortune.   Since I didn't have any pictures of the two brothers when they were young, I chose to use a picture of two Russians I found in a history book as inspiration. 

Massey and Sam's Stand-ins

"Victor looked carefully at each man trying to decide who would give the most work for the least pay.  Over to one side he saw two young men standing apart from the rest.  They were of medium height and strongly resembled one another.  One, the oldest, already had a dense growth of hair on his upper lip; the other lad, only a mere shadow.  Both were lean.  Not the hungry lean Victor usually saw, but a sturdy, muscular lean.  Their hair was black and close cropped, more in the fashion of a soldier than the bowl-shaped chasha of a peasant, and their skin was still dark from days in the sun.  It was obvious both were just off the land and not yet broken by factory labor.  Victor leaned toward the yard-boss and pointed a leathery finger at Samuel and Massey.  "Those two," he said and quickly walked back to the mill."

* * *

Based on this photo, I constructed a story line for the brothers.  At the time I didn't have all the family information about the two, so I made it up resulting in two mistakes.  First, in my novel Sam was the solid older brother and Massey the feisty little brother.  In actuality, Massey was older.  Second, I named Sam, Sam, an honest mistake.  All my life I knew my great-uncle as Sam.  It turned out his name was Sergei and he had changed his name to Sam when he came to the United States in 1910.


For the rest of the men in Hutava I used this photo.  Notice the man on the far right.  He became my great grandfather, Major Sergei Pribish. Many years later I obtained records from the Department of Homeland Security, which listed Massey's father's name as Lucian Lukaszewicz.  I have no idea what that means.

The Men of Hutava

My father called his grandfather on the Pribish side, The Major.  It could be he was a major in the Tsar's army or was mayor of Hutava.  Both words are similar in Russian.  I chose to name him Serei and make him a retired army officer.  Note the medals on his chest.  Russian officers in 1900 were usually of noble birth.  The only way Sergei could attain commissioned rank was by serving in the Asian frontier.  So that's how his story came to be.  Sending him to the Far East also allowed me to explain my father's Tatar features.  Sergei's story is the frame upon which Russia's participation in the Great War was constructed.

According to DHS, my father's maternal grandfather was Andrew Kotchik.  Not knowing this in 1992, I named him Boris Koscik.  My father claimed he was a horse thief.  Boris' story is based on the recollections of my then ten year-old father and is instrumental on projecting the story of politics in the Russian village.

Other villager men were the inn-keeper, mayor, assorted farmers and of course, the village villain, Shako.

Using old photos was not an original idea of mine. It actually came from Sue Grafton (Alphabet Murder series).  She taught my class at the Antioch Writers' Workshop and brought in photos to use as props.  One of her photos became a character in my second book.

Giving the brothers opposite personalities and placing them under the thumb of a domineering father allowed me to create a coming-of-age story for the two boys.  I used my own experience and those of my friends to paint a picture of young men leaving home, looking for work and finding it the lower levels of the factory.  While our lives may have been sixty years removed from that of our grandfathers, our experiences were similar.  It would have been something to actually be able to have a discussion between me and my grandfather at age eighteen.

Russian Factory Workers - Circ 1900

Based on this photo, I do believe our grandfathers had it rougher than we did.

More Ikon Reader

Location

The Village of Hutava

 

I grew up hearing relatives speak of an exotic Russian village called Hutava located in Western Tarist Russia (Now Belarus) near the city of Drognichin.  Although I never visited the place, it was as real to me as New York City or Chicago.  While researching my story I came across a series of color photos from Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky, the photographer for the Tsar.  Prokudin-Gorskii as tasked to make color images of the Tsar's vast empire. Many of his photos, now residing in the United States National Archives, had been digitized and made available on line. From them I constructed an imaginary village consisting of a church, an inn, and several dozen izbah, Russian peasant homes.

A color picture of a Russian village circa 1904

Hutava Surrogate 

Present day church in Hutava

The village I grew up in, Rockdale, Illinois, was populated by many first generation Eastern Europeans and faintly resembled Russian towns I saw when I was stationed in Russia.  Slavic food, gardens, fences, clothing, and chicken coops all took me back to America in the 1940's, making it easy to reconstruct my story's location.  My experience as a weapon's inspector in the Soviet Union and four years of Upper Michigan winters, provided me with a first hand knowledge of bitterly cold winters.

I made my village exotic enough to pique the readers interest in a distant land, but familiar enough to engage memories of their home life.  Who does not recall aromas of food, the smell of fresh cut grass or hay, cold rain, and warm sun?

Tourists in exotic Hutava
Photo by Morton Steinberg
 Copyright © 2010 Debbie Kroopkin

My quest for a location now complete, it was time to populate the village.

Steve's Guide to Writing Historical Fiction

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Steve Pribish and this is my initial blog post.  I am a self-published writer of historical fiction dealing with the Russian-American experience from 1905 to 1931. 

What I hope to accomplish through this blog is to present my Eastern European family's experience after immigrating to the United States and how their lives became the basis for three novels. My fictionalized stories are based on real people, though all the events may not have happened to the particular character.  Through my blog I plan to pass on lessons I learned about writing, publishing and selling your stories: i.e., dumb mistakes, brilliant ideas, and all the stuff in between. (Mostly dumb mistakes.)

Here  is my bio as seen on my book:

Steve Pribish was born in Joliet, Illinois of Russian immigrants and learned stories of "years ago" first hand from his father and grandfather. After college, Steve spent thirty-three years working for the United States government monitoring the Soviet Union. He was deeply involved in Russian culture and made prolonged trips into European Russia. His first two novels, Ikons and Banners are the result of several generations of experience. Steve is the author of over two hundred government reports and has written for Home and Away and Videomaker magazines, and several Midwestern newspapers. His short stories, There Will Be Crosses and The MiG and I both won regional first place awards.

There is more to my life than that, but for the time being, it will do.   

The Genesis of the Novel

One of the first things an immigrant to America did upon achieving a modicum of success was pose for a portrait.  Whether one man or an extended family, the results presided in their home’s place of honor surrounded by pictures of saints and the current president.  Alas, as families became Americanized, they regulated their portraits to a more obscure spot and replaced it with an art work whose colors matched the sofa. 

Pribish Family Portrait

I remember being introduced to my family’s portrait when it hung on the basement storeroom wall of our home in Rockdale, Illinois.  Following my father's death, I was entrusted with the treasure and promptly placed it in an out of the way spot in my basement work area.  Several years later, when the reproaching eyes of my bygone relatives finally bore deep enough into my soul, I started to dig into the history of the artifact.  

Its story was haunting.  Distant relatives recalled something about it saving my father’s life and others related the mystery of how all the people were together when they had never assembled as a group.  Sadly, the principles had passed away taking with them any direct connections to the portrait’s origin.

As I learned more, I attempted to assemble known facts into a short story called The Portrait.  However, the deeper I dug into the family tree the more tangled the roots became.  I was facing a saga of epic proportions.  The Portrait had morphed into a novel.

A very rough story outline resulted in a novel spanning over 700 pages. In 1989 I began my daunting task typing away on a 1980’s state-of-the-art Texas Instrument TI-99A word processor with an ever so slow dot matrix printer.  I christened my novel Ikons and divided it into three books.  Each book was titled after an icon used by the orthodox religion.  

Book One: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker was set in the period from 1905 to 1914.  The title came from icon carried by Russian immigrants on their journeys.

Book Two: Christ With the Fiery Eyes covered World War One to the Bolshevik Revolution.  Its title reflected the icon carried by front-line Tsarist soldiers.

Book Three: She Who Nourishes spanned the revolution to final chapter in 1931.  Its title referred to the icon of the Blessed Mother bestowing God’s blessing on children. 

In the end the one novel became three: Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, Banners: For God, Tsar and Russia, and Slogans: Our Children, Our Future.

An historical-fiction novel needs three elements:  exotic locations, gripping characters, and a significant historical era.  I may be biased in believing my locations and characters qualify, but there is no denying my chosen era has historic events in spades.  From 1900 to 1930, the world experienced world war, revolution, competing economic systems, mass immigration and migration, xenophobia, and financial and social upheavals. The scope of these three decades was so vast, I scaled it down by putting a human face to all these events by placing my characters either history's forefront or the wake.