Let her son, George, tell you about the larger than life woman who inspired the wacky cozy detective in Galya Popoff and the Dead Souls?
The inspiration for Professor Galya Popoff was the amazing, bold-spirited woman to whom the book is dedicated. My mother. Helen Kovach/Tarakanov.
Here she is with her beloved poodle, Kroshka.
Like Galya Popoff in the novel, my mother (Galya to her friends) was brave, loyal, stubborn, funny, feisty, bossy, outspoken, and compassionate.
Those who knew her will never forget her.
She was loved, and she is missed.
Here are some of my mother’s adventures that inspired her character.
Real Life Adventures
Once, she took a trip to Mexico with a group of professors. In this photo, Galya, my mother, is in the center, wearing a coy smile. The disgruntled man on the donkey was the only male professor on the trip. It was Galya’s suggestion he be photographed on the donkey. As you can see, he wasn’t happy about that. However, when Galya insists you play the gentleman and “escort” the ladies, you do it. Or suffer a long lecture on chivalry.
My mother loved to shop for souvenirs wherever she went. I know Galya Popoff would have been as formidable as my mother at bargaining with shop owners. Most tourists are too timid. Not Galya! Because she loved to bargain, the shop owners loved her.
Galya Popoff always demands good behavior from everyone. We won’t talk about some of her antics while trying to solve the case. My mother, the real Galya, even demanded good behavior from animals. Kroshka didn’t always obey her, of course. As you can see, neither did these goats.
“I can do it!” was my mother’s mantra. Here she is, amazing her grandson with her balancing skills. He was so sure she would fall into the pond. Of course, she didn’t.
In the novel, Galya Popoff does a perfect racing dive into the swimming pool to save her beloved poodle, Kroshka. Go Galya!
A Dramatic Past
My mother’s life was a long adventure that intersected with most of the twentieth century’s more sensational moments. Much of the time, she was running from the forces of evil, doing her best to save as many of her family and friends as she could. Even so, she still managed to find a bit of happiness in the midst of chaos.
Her story inspired many aspects of Galya Popoff’s character and attitudes in the novel.
Helen (Galya) was born in Russia at midnight on December 28, 1917, at the beginning of the Revolution. Her family was landed gentry with an estate near Kiev in the Ukraine. At the time of Galya’s birth, they were already on the run from the Bolsheviks. So, little Galya was a refugee even before she was born. When we were writing the novel, my wife and I imagined Galya Popoff would have had the same dramatic start in life.
Escape from Tyrrany.
In 1920, my grandmother and her family made their way to Odessa on the Black Sea in the desperate hope of escaping the Bolsheviks. The captain of the last British ship in port told them, sadly but firmly, that there was no room left onboard. Fortunately, my grandmother spoke perfect English, with a British accent (she’d had a British governess).
She approached the captain, carrying little Galya, (my mother was two years old) in her arms. With tears in her eyes, she held her up in front of the British captain. “If we do not get on your ship,” Grandmother said, “this child will die. It is certain.”
Little Galya (my mother), curious and bold even then, reached out and began to play with the brass buttons of the captain’s uniform. When he looked down at her little face and sparkling eyes, she looked up at him and smiled. That smile saved their lives, because the captain melted and let them onboard. Galya Popoff would say she saved her family. Her is a photo of her parents leaving Russia into exile.
My mother and her brother, George, lived as Russian exiles in Yugoslavia. The Russian emigre community held a “Cutest Refugee” contest and Mama and Uncle George won. Look at little Galya’s expression. She already has definite ideas about the photographer!
A Willful Child with a Fearless Stubborn Streak
Like Galya Popoff, the fictional character, my mother had a strong will and a fearless stubborn streak. When she was twelve, family finances were at a low ebb and her father told her she must change from her Russian language school to a local Yugoslav school to save money. She was furious at being forced to be separated from her friends. Knowing her father loved her long chestnut hair, she took her revenge on him by cutting it all off. Here she is with her newly chopped off bob. Look at that stubborn expression!
However, just like Galya Popoff, she quickly made a host of new friends. In her new school, her love of gossip and stories gained her the reputation of being “The Newspaper” and “The Telephone.” If you wanted to know the latest, you went to Galya!
Young People Should Have Fun! Galya’s Mantra.
In 1937, the storm clouds were gathering in Germany and the Great Depression was raging around the world. But, when you are nineteen and out of school for the summer it all seems very far away. Another catastrophic war in Europe seemed impossible. My mother and her friends were poor but resourceful. They pooled what meager funds they had and took off on a trip to Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia on the Adriatic Sea. They slept on the roofs of family and friend’s homes, ate tomatoes and bread, and had loads of fun. Galya Popoff remembers that romantic summer in the novel.
The spirit of this young girl never left my mother, no matter what hardships and heartbreaks she suffer in life. Inside she was always nineteen at heart. Ready for fun and laughter. Like Galya Popoff when she chatters and gossips with Tanya, who is at least 40 years younger. Here she is on that long-ago summer holiday. And with her best friend, Vera. (Galya is on the right).
An Unrequited Love for a Dashing Cavalier.
My mother fell in love that summer. With a dashing, slightly older young man called Jura Tarakanov. The character of Mr. Montecoucouli in Galya Popoff and the Dead Souls is based on her first love. The fact that he was a well-toned gymnast certainly added to his allure.
But alas! Like Mr. Montecoucouli, he was just out of reach. he married her best friend, Vera. Vera was a couple years older than Galya. Here they are, best friends in love with the same handsome, sophisticated man. My mother is on Jura’s right.
However, there is a happy ending to the story for Galya. Many, many years later her best friend Vera died. My mother rushed to Brazil, where Jura and Vera had been living, to attend the funeral and comfort her old friend, Jura. They both missed Vera. They reminisced about the past. Jura played the guitar and sang the songs they’d loved so long ago. At 60, he was still so romantic.
Galya told Jura that she had been in love with him way back in Yugoslavia during that summer of 1937. “Why did you never say anything?” Jura asked. “I knew Vera was in love with you too,” my mother said. “And a woman does not steal the cavalier of her best friend.” However, she was not about to lose him a second time. “Marry me, Jura,” she said. And he did. Like Galya Popoff, my mother was very persuasive.
A Charming and Vivacious Young Russian Girl.
Galya the Boyarina. Russian emigre girls loved to have their photos taken in traditional Russian costume. The poses were always vivacious or coy. In Galya Popoff and the Dead Souls, Galya often embodies both.
As her son, Lance, says in the novel, “She should have been an actress.”
1940. The war raged in Europe, but Galya’s spirits never flagged. Like all young women, she loved to laugh, dress up, and dance. The tango was her favorite.
The Hungarians were offering university scholarships to Eastern European students and my mother signed on to go to law school in Budapest, even though she didn’t speak a word of Hungarian, one of the most difficult languages to learn.
But she quickly charmed a fellow law student – Ivan Kovach (my father). Ivan helped her learn Hungarian and get her degree in law. They married in Czechoslovakia in 1943.
My father secured a job as head of the Red Cross in Prague. And in 1945, I came along to liven things up.
A Communist Totalitarian Nightmare Brings Tragedy.
1945. The war ended but peace was denied us. My father, a young, idealistic lawyer, began working for the Czech parliament. As in Galya Popoff and the Dead Souls, my mother told him that Czechoslovakia would fall to the communists. She argued that all the countries around Czechoslovakia were falling like nine pins. If Czechoslovakia went communist, she said, he would surely be arrested.
As in our novel, he refused to believe it. My mother begged him to leave.
The communists took over Czechoslovakia, making it clear that anyone who was not loyal to the party was suspect. My father, a member of the Czech parliament, and an advocate of democracy, was arrested. I was three-and-a-half years old. They threw him into prison. His crime? Believing Czechoslovakia should be a democratic country with laws and a constitution. he was sent to a Siberian concentration camp for being – you guessed it – an Enemy of the People.
My mother had this photo taken to give to my father in prison before he was sent to the Gulag, so he could remember us. You can see she’s been crying. My mother bought the little truck for me to keep me from crying. One of my earliest memories is sitting on a bench in the hallway of the prison, waiting for my mother.
During her visit, my father told my mother that if she didn’t take me and get out of Czechoslovakia she would surely be arrested as well, and I would be sent to a Soviet orphanage. Lance points this out in the novel. My father also ordered her to divorce him immediately,which would delay her arrest by the Soviets. She argued against it, but she knew he was right, and she did it.
A Desparate Mother’s Flight to Freedom.
Escaping from Czechoslovakia with a four-year-old child took courage, determination, and resourcefulness. As Galya Popoff would have done under those circumstances, my mother contacted a truck driver whose route went along the border of Czechoslovakia and Germany. She offered to pay him to take us along on one of these trips, but he refused to take a child. How my mother convinced him, I can only guess, but he finally agreed.
Mama and I his under the seat in the driver’s cab. However, the border guards had gotten wind of our escape and were in pursuit. If they caught us, we would all be dead. The driver stopped the truck next to a field. Mama and I scrambled out, and the truck took off. My mother tied my arm to hers, and the two of us started running across the field toward a forest, and freedom.
I remember that field vividly. We ran with the guards shooting at us. But I guess they figured a woman and child were less important than the truck driver, and they took off after him instead. My mother never knew what happened to our savior.
Galya Popoff is courageous and fearless in the novel. Lance, her son, realizes he owed her his life many times over. As I owe my mother. Both Lance and I understand how amazing and brave our mothers were.
The Long Road to A Peaceful Life.
1950. We found ourselves adrift in a Germany ravaged by the war. This is a picture of us in bombed out Bremen. We knew no one. We had nothing except my mother’s iron will and stubborn determination that we should survive. Eventually, the authorities put us in a DP Displaced Persons) camp.
At age four, I found the camp fun. While my mother worked, I spent time with some local cows. My poor mother was terrified they would trample me. But I loved them. They were my special friends.
Eventually, we secured a passage to Canada, sponsored by Grand Duchess Olga Romanoff, the sister of Czar Nicholas II. Her husband had been in the same regiment as my grandfather.
Here we are on a Liberty Ship crossing the Atlantic to the New World.
My mother never gave up. She had a degree in law, but was forced by circumstances to work at menial labor for years until we gained permission to come to the United States. As a result, it took many years for her to learn English. Even thought she spoke seven languages when she came. Unfortunately, English wasn’t one of them.
However, she succeeded so well that eventually she became a professor of Russian Language and Literature at a new college in Michigan.
And The Real Life Inspiration for Galya Popoff!
Galya/Helen Kovach/Tarakanov would have loved Galya Popoff and the Dead Souls.Her affectionate review would have been – “Such a nonsense!”
