Cycles of Destiny

In 1904, author Sergie Waisman's grandparents, Bella Feinberg-an exotic seventeen-year-old Jewish maiden-and Russian officer Sergei Naryshkin met, fell in love, and married, over both their families' objections. When Sergei was assigned to the Russian military post at the tip of Manchuria, China, they established the roots of both Waisman's Russian heritage and his birth country, China. Following the Russian Revolution, Sergei and Bella raised their children in Harbin, China, where their grandson was born in 1944. Sergie grew up during the Chinese Civil War and under communism. His father was arrested by Russian occupation forces and banished to Siberia, never to be seen or heard from again. But even without his father around, Sergie discovered his roots. He immigrated with his mother and sister to the newly established state of Israel in 1953, where he would eventually serve in the Elite Paratrooper unit in the Israel Defense Forces. Sergie's adventures would eventually take him to the United States, where he met a woman-born in the same Manchurian hospital he was-in who would change his life. This autobiography offers not only the tale of one man's life and rich, varied cultural heritage, but also a unique perspective on historical events of his many lands that he witnessed firsthand.