Freedom's Child: A Courageous Teenager's Story of Fleeing His Parents and the Soviet Union to Live in America - Hardcover

Polovchak, Walter

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9780394559261: Freedom's Child: A Courageous Teenager's Story of Fleeing His Parents and the Soviet Union to Live in America

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394559266 ISBN 13: 9780394559261

Publisher: Random House, 1988

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The true story of Walter Polovchak, the Ukrainian boy who refused to return with her parents from America to the Soviet Union, reveals his battles to remain free and the secret maneuverings of well-known politicians

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From Publishers Weekly:

The refusal of 12-year-old Ukranian immigrant Polovchak in 1980 to return permanently to the U.S.S.R. with his parents, after having lived in Chicago for six months, provoked a storm of controversy from his family and authorities in both countries. The case, which was to involve the courts, State Department and Soviet Embassy, Immigration Service, the FBI, KGB and the American Civil Liberties Union, attracted worldwide media attention, most of it favorable to the youngster. In recounting the story, Washington Post former Moscow bureau chief Klose preserves the defector's colloquial style in which he unfavorably compares his former life in the U.S.S.R. with the material advantages and freedoms of the U.S.A. Having waged court battles that lasted until 1985, Polovchak was sworn in as an American citizen a few days after his 18th birthday. His parents have returned to the Ukraine, he remains in Chicago. Photos not seen by PW. Literary Guild alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

In August 1980, 12-year-old Polovchak requested political asylum in the U.S. (the youngest person ever to do so) rather than return with his disenchanted emigre parents to their native Ukraine. The resulting court battleinvolving the parents, the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services, U.S. State Department, and Immigration and Naturalization Servicedragged on until Polovchak's 18th birthday, rendering the controversy moot. Polovchak wrote only a few chapters of this book; others involved, such as the attorneys and his Chicago relatives, wrote the rest. His parents (who returned to the Ukraine in 1981) are not included. It is unclear for whom this book is intended. Not an essential purchase. Marcia L. Sprules, Univ. of South Dakota Lib., Vermillion
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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