Henry Lion Oldie. Invasion

In the mid-1990s, my parents emigrated to the United States. I remained in Kharkiv. Before leaving, my father, Semyon Ladyzhensky, wrote the song "The House I Came From..." with the refrain: "The house I never wanted to leave."

In 1998, my Kharkiv colleague Andrey Valentinov and I wrote the novel "We Live Here." At the end of the novel, tanks roll toward Kharkiv from Belgorod, and the terrifying words are heard on the airwaves: "We are the City! We are perishing!" At the time, it seemed like pure fantasy.