Sidetracked: Exile in Hollywood

A bittersweet tale of war, survival, and the movies

With great wit and warmth, Alexander Voloshin's Sidetracked provides unique insight into one of the major human dramas of the twentieth century: the escape of some two million refugees from the collapsing Russian Empire in the wake of the revolutions of 1917. A former officer in the White Army, Voloshin spent the late 1920s and 1930s struggling to make a living in Hollywood as an extra. His lively yet poignant poem follows his countrymen as...