Anatoly Kuznetsov — author with roots in the USSR
Anatoly Kuznetsov was a Soviet-British author born in Kyiv who survived the German occupation of Kyiv as a teenager — including the mass executions at Babi Yar. His documentary novel Babi Yar (1966), published in censored form in the USSR and then in full after his defection to Britain in 1969, provided the world with its first definitive eyewitness account of the massacre of 33,771 Jews in two days.
Tracing the roots — Kyiv (Ukraine)
Born in Kyiv in 1929, Kuznetsov witnessed the German occupation as a child and saw the Babi Yar ravine turned into a mass grave. His novel — written with documentary photographs, testimonies, and his own witness — broke the Soviet silence on Babi Yar and became one of the most important Holocaust documents ever written. He defected to Britain in 1969 during a trip to London.
Kyiv (Ukraine). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.