Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Sashenka:
1. Why is Sashenka arrested at the age of 16...and why is she released?
2. Why does Sashenka disapprove of her mother, Ariadna?
3. What do you think of Sashenka's uncle Mendel? Is it right that he has the amount of influence over his niece that he has? Is she too young to become involved in such a dangerous undertaking?
4. Talk about the ambiguous position of the Jews during the revolution. What is the Pale of Settlement? In what capacity were some Jews tolerated by the Czar...and in what way were some Jews useful to the Bolsheviks?
5. How does Montefiore portray Stalin in this work? How are other Bolsheviks portrayed? Are they as multilayered or complex in their characterizations as Stalin? Or are they more one-dimensional? Overall, how would you describe the author's attitude toward the Bolsheviks?
5. Why does Sashenka risk all to have an affair?
6. Why does Sashenka's world begin to fall apart after the May Day party at her Dacha?
7. What do you think of Sashenka's husband Vanya's response to the knowledge of her affair?
8. A number of reviewers have singled out the sexual episodes in the book as over-the-top. What do you think? Do you agree with the critics...or do you think the scenes are necessary to further the plot?
9. Were you surprised by the twists and turns of plot? What about the identity of Katinka?
10. Did you come away from this novel having learned something about the history of Russia, especially the Soviet Union and the monstrous cruelty of Stalin's regime? Did you gain an understanding of why the Bolshevik revolution occurred? What inspired it...what driving forces were behind it?
11. Do you feel the novel's three different sections are equal in their ability to engage readers? Do they merge well into a unifying story?