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From Russia with love, laughs, and life lessons
West Windsor fabler is also celebrated engineer, WWII survivor

Richard Quinn
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH STATE
February 13, 2009

Anatoly Tsaliovich is a Renaissance engineer.

Yes, he earned a doctoral degree and made his life as a precise technician in the realm of electromagnetic capability. Yes, he wrote textbooks on the inner workings of coaxial cables in two languages. And, yes, to some in his native homeland, he was known as the father of Russian petroleum jelly-filled cables.

And yet, Tsaliovich is more than just a skilled statistician. He plays the guitar, the piano, and the accordion. He has traveled the world, gathering memories in Morocco and a painting drawn by an elephant in Thailand. Now, he can add "full-fledged fabler" to his list of accomplishments.

Tsaliovich, a 72-year-old retiree living in West Windsor, recently published the second book -- "FablePolitik," which is available at Amazon.com -- in what he hopes will be a trilogy of Aesopish tales. His first book, "Of Wolves and Lambs and Others," focused more on morality tales, told through animalist fables.

His second book is political satire, where allegorical wolves watch over flocks of sheep. The tome teems with Tsaliovich's anger at those who do not take the time to open their eyes to what he sees as political wrongs, be they in American, Jewish, or Israeli circles. Several of his fables have been published by The Jewish State.

"I don't want other people to repeat the mistakes of the past," Tsaliovich said, then, quoting from his own "The Scorpion and the Frog," "each generation only heeds its own pain. The bitter lessons are not tell-tale learned, but suffered through experience, and earned."

Tsaliovich sees his writing as a way to showcase the intrinsic corruption of politics. His views can seem angry at times, but there is no doubting their passion. He speaks his mind plainly: with phrases like "Ariel Sharon was a great general, but an abominable politico," and "President Obama may be a great man, but how can it take anyone 20 years to realize their long-time spiritual leader is a hate-monger?"

His views are rooted in a lifetime of confronting political power in its most abusive forms. He was born in Odessa, near the Black Sea. By the time he was 5, he was fleeing bombs lobbed in the opening salvos of World War II. He eventually returned to post-war Russia, but thoughts of Stalin's Russia bring little comfort. He remembers the feeling every day as he left school every day in 4th-grade.

"The mob is already there to beat up the Jew," Tsaliovich said. "It was me."

Still, Russia was home. He earned a doctoral degree and worked his way to success. When he said he wanted to leave the country in 1979, he was fired, blacklisted from finding work. In 1980, with the help of the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, he emigrated and moved his wife, Nelly, and two young daughters to Brooklyn. He eventually found work in his profession outside of Chicago, and joined AT&T in 1985. His daughters were educated here. Fradiana, 39, now lives in Israel and plays with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. His eldest, Olga, 43, works in insurance and lives in Queens, N.Y.

"I have a lot to be grateful for," Tsaliovich said. "But if you forget what you were grateful for, you lose it all."

In New Jersey, he learned to love democracy -- and despise apathy. Or as he calls it, laziness of the mind. Take the fable "Elections" from his latest book.

"But wouldn't Sheep promote their choice, expressed concerns used the voters' voice? To tell the truth, some did not dare, the others would not care. While many loved Wolf's rhetoric and chose to wait -- And yet, the meeting was about their fate!"

Tsaliovich makes little money, he said, from his writing. He does far better cashing royalty checks, penning updates to technical books and traveling abroad to be a consultant.

Still, he writes to show people what he sees as the political injustices of the world. He has no illusions that all will agree -- "you cannot make peace with people you darn-well know are out to destroy you" -- but he is content to start the conversation and let people try to prove to him he is wrong.

"The Earth is round," Tsaliovich said with the metaphors that are ever-present in his speech. "You go left, you go right; you're going to meet somewhere. But you know where? You're going to meet on the opposite side."