The book is a Russian immigrant’s life story, written for himself, though with the hope that others may also find it interesting (after Dr. N. I. Pirogov). Chapter 1 begins with the family’s chronicle in the Russian Empire, and how the author’s parents ended up in
Latvia
following the Bolshevik revolution. It continues through the World War II years in
Latvia,
Germany and its post-war
D. P. camps.
In Chapter 2, the author recollects his educational experiences in
America
, the usual struggles of his immigrant parents to make a new life in their adopted country, and their passage into the next world in 1975 and 1988. The next two chapters are concerned with the author’s work history as a scientist and professor of biochemistry at
Rush
Medical
College
in
Chicago
and elsewhere.
Chapters 5 and 6 are concerned with the spiritual persona of the author: his Russian ethnicity and his Orthodox faith, including history of Russian immigration and the Orthodox Church in the U. S. The author’s interactions with these communities are reviewed, as are his attempts to defend Orthodoxy and
Russia
’s historical past in
America
’s news media via letters to the editor and publication of the Chicago Russian-American. Chapter 7 is devoted to the author’s family, i.e., life with his wife Marilyn and his sons Gregory and Alexander, plus his commentary on contemporary American society. His conservative world view, generated by his spiritual persona and behaviors of the ‘progressive’ Soviet Union and its American followers, are illustrated by his letters to the news media during the 1950-2000 decades.
The book carries a foreword by Dr. Gerasim Tikoff, a friend and retired cardiologist, and is illustrated by photographs from 19th century
Russia
and the author’s life in Latvia, Germany and the U. S.
लेखक के बारे में
Anatoly Bezkorovainy was born in Riga, Latvia in 1935, of Russian parents, who had left Russia in the early 1920’s following the Bolshevik revolution. They were married in Riga in 1930. In 1944, the Bezkorovainys left Latvia for Germany, where, after the war, they stayed in a refugee camp, where Anatoly graduated from its Latvian elementary school, and attended a German high school. In 1951, the family emigrated to the U.S., settling in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1953, Anatoly graduated from a Chicago public high school, then from University of Chicago in 1956. He then entered the University of Illinois Graduate College, graduating in 1960 with a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry. He then worked at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, then at the National Animal Disease Laboratory in Ames, Iowa. In 1962, he became an Assistant Professor at Chicago’s Rush University, where he stayed until his retirement in 2004. There, Anatoly achieved the rank of full Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, served as an Associate Chairman of the Department and director of its educational programs. He now carries the rank of Professor Emeritus. He is listed Marquis Who’s Who in America as a medical educator. He has (co)authored 6 books and numerous research papers in the areas of iron metabolism, bacterial physiology and science history in Imperial Russia. In 1992, he co-authored a book on the history of Chicago’s Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox parish. Throughout his life, Anatoly has been a member of various Orthodox parishes and has participated in the activities of the Russian immigrant community in Chicago.
In 1964, Anatoly married Marilyn Grib. They have two sons, Gregory and Alexander. Anatoly and his wife live in retirement near Galena, Illinois. Occasionally, he gives lectures on biochemical topics at Rosalind Franklin University in North Chicago.