Publisher's Synopsis
In 1970, Paulina managed to dodge the KGB when they attempted to conscript her as their informant. Subsequently, when her Soviet supervisor attempted to rape her, she understood that she dared not take it anymore and defected with her two young children to Canada in a bizarre feat of courage and audacity. Finding herself embroiled in a Cold War drama where Soviet and American military forces are recklessly vying for supremacy, Paulina decided on a dangerous escape to freedom with her two small children, rather than become an obedient slave and an informant for a totalitarian state.
This episode is sure to elevate your heart rate. Who said that women are the weaker sex? She enacted the assertion of "I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore" and despite the long odds, succeeded. She became the only defector from a communist country that made such an escape with small children in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, which became "The Hole in the Iron Curtain" after the publication in The International Herald Tribune on June 4, 1971, reporting Paulina's jump and run from KGB on the tarmac in the Gander airport with two small children.
A seemingly discouraging and difficult situation for a young, penniless immigrant with two small children did not prevent Paulina from rapidly adjusting to a new country. She re-established herself professionally and even brought her parents to Canada 4 years later. Paulina's family proudly integrated into Canadian society. Her boys graduated from Canadian universities as scientists. They became confident, responsible, and independent individuals in the entrepreneurial hi-tech sector.
Paulina's memoir provides a highly motivational reading for young girls considering a professional career. It is remarkable how this firsthand story of a young female Soviet defector is relevant to the current global situation regarding the Russian Navy, which replaced the Soviet Navy with the obsessive aim of nuclear dominance in the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic. Once again, Russian deceptive military strategies of maskirovka (camouflage) are enjoying a second wind in the Caribbean, where Cuba and Venezuela are hosting secret Russian Navy submarines, SIGINT (Signal Intelligence Center), and GLONASS (Russian GPS using Russian Global Navigation Satellite Systems), which Russian V-President Dmitry Medvedev personally officially opened and announced as functional in Cuba on October 4, 2019. All these military maneuvers by Russia, 90 miles off the American east coast, are a not-so-subtle message to the U.S.: "We are very dangerous. Stay out of our hair, stay out of Ukraine and other nations of our interest". The same message was delivered during the previous two Cuban crises; the1st in 1962, and the 2nd in 1970.
