Bulgun reminisces about her father who fought in World War II:My father sang and danced, he could also sew shoes. When the German army defeated the 110th division of the Red Army, my father, who was serving with them, was captured by the Romanian soldiers. At school we were taught that prisoners of war were tortured. I asked my father if he was tortured, but he said ‘no’, he spent time in the camp repairing boots. He fled the camp and joined the partisans in the Carpathians. Later along with these partisans he joined a regular army, which was part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under Marshal Malinovsky. During a battle my father was seriously wounded. He received the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree for taking command of a platoon after its commander died, thus preventing panic among the soldiers. My father was an atheist. One day in Siberia, when my father was repairing boots, an old Russian man came into our house and asked: ‘Where is your icon?’ My father only pointed to a portrait of Lenin.