Book Review: Your Presence Is Mandatory

Your Presence Is Mandatory by Sasha Vasilyuk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022 I was frustrated that my novel, which is set during the Russian Civil War of 1917, wasn’t ready for the publisher. I expected there would be a surge of interest in Russia and what makes Russians (and their government) tick. I did not expect authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert to withdraw their books from publication because of possible reader hypersensitivity to anything set in that part of the world. Looking at the barrage of 1-star Goodreads reviews for Sasha Vasilyuk’s recent novel, Your Presence is Mandatory, I see that Gilbert may have been right to worry. Those reviewers have clearly not read the book, as it is critical of the Russian military and of the kind of imperialism shown by the current Russian government. In fact, it criticizes the 2014 Russian invasion of parts of Ukraine, and, by extension, its more recent invasion. Now it is more important than ever that we understand the politics of countries such as Russia.

Set in the Soviet Union from the time of what came to be known as The Great Patriotic War (WWII, to the rest of us) to the present day, the novel explores the role of soldiers and how their sacrifices are perceived by the state and by their families.

Yefim Shulman is a young secular Jew living in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, when he is sent to fight the Nazis. His unit is captured. The story takes us through the harrowing conditions faced by the Soviet POWs, which include being sold as slave labour to German families, as well as Yefim’s constant fears of being unmasked as a Jew in Nazi Germany.

Rather than having empathy for captured soldiers, the Soviets saw them as shirkers, living in “comfort” rather than risking their lives to fight – as though they were somehow responsible for their plight. Many were sent to the gulag to die after they returned to the Soviet Union. So Yefim’s years of hiding his truth have only just begun when he survives the war and returns home. Is there ever a right time to reveal the secret? How will it poison his relationships?

I highly recommend this insightful novel. I hope readers are not put off by the knee-jerk ratings by people who haven’t read the book. If more people read about the long-term damage done by wars, maybe we’d have fewer of them.


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