“To tell my story, I have to know how it felt to stand in lines at the district soviet trying to get papers one needed to work, and listening to rumors of what was said in those rooms. Hungry, ill-clothed, hopeful, stressed out. That’s the room I want to be in. Not how people shape history, but how history shapes us, how it distorts our stories, what it calls upon us to do. Who we become under its pressure.”
An essay for the LA Times' Jacket Copy, “Janet Fitch explains what it took to go back to Russia 100 years ago in 'The Revolution of Marina M.',” November 10, 2017.