Anya Shevchenko was the wife of Ihor Shevchenko. They lived and worked on a Kolkhoz (collective farm) 127 outside of Kiev when World War III broke out in 1951. She was a petite woman. In January 1951, as tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union mounted over the Korean War, Shevchenko learned that the Kiev Military District was mobilized. Like many in the Soviet Union (and the world), the Shevchenkos watched anxiously as the Soviet Union and the United States traded atomic bomb attacks against in their respective spheres of influence. Two days later, the Soviets and their allies invaded West Germany.