The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – From Ashes to Ascent “A Story of Strength, Survival, and Unshakeable Hope”: Volume I Born to Fight and Win! by Amy Granit

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

From Ashes to Ascent “A Story of Strength, Survival, and Unshakeable Hope”: Volume I Born to Fight and Win! by Amy Granit https://www.amazon.com/Ashes-Ascent-Strength-Survival-Unshakeable/dp/1326371096 Marabay.net VOLUME I “Born to Fight and Win!”A child of war. A mother’s pain. A daughter’s courage. Volume I of From Ashes to Ascent reveals Mara’s earliest years—years shaped by the shadows of World War II and the unforgiving realities of a devastated Soviet Union. Born as bombs fell and fathers disappeared, Mara grows up in poverty-stricken barracks, surrounded by hunger, cold, and cruelty. Her mother, broken by grief and loss, becomes both caregiver and tormentor—leaving Mara to navigate a childhood marked by fear, confusion, and emotional isolation. Yet beneath her frail exterior lives a fighter. Whether standing up to her mother’s violence, facing the brutal cold of Kazakhstan winters, or carving out moments of joy amid deprivation, Mara discovers her inner strength long before she understands its meaning. In this gripping and emotional first volume, Amy Granit paints a vivid portrait of a girl growing up in a world where survival is an act of defiance—and hope is a victory in itself. Themes: • Post-war trauma • Childhood resilience • Soviet history & village life • Abuse, healing, and identity • The will to rise above one’s circumstances

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Because you're about to go on a moment. monster education rollercoaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks, is Voss here from thecrisVos Show.com. Please, you know, and the earliest things that makes official. Welcome to Big Show for 16 years, 2,500, 2,600, oh, website, 2,600 episodes. We've been bringing you the Chris Voss show.

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Chris Foss, 1 on the TikTok, and you know all those amazing places on the internet. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Foss show. Some guests of the show may be advertised. on the podcast, but it's not endorsement or review of any kind. Today, we're joined by an amazing young lady. We've got Tamara by Yazitav on the show with us today. We're going to be talking about her amazing new book that's come out called

From Ashes to Ascent, A Story of Survival and Unshakable Hope, a memoir in two volumes. Welcome to show, Tamara. How are you? Thank you. And thanks for coming. Give us your dot-coms. Or dot-nets. So where do you want people to find you on the interwebs?

I want just to the people to know a lot about the Kazakhstan history. This kind of very, because I belong to every group in Kazakhstan, affected by the Enkwaday, so that was KGB later, the governmental policies, instructions, and post-war generation. I was everywhere. So that is, if you read my story, you will be able just to track all the history of Kazakhstan.

Ah, now you're originally from Kazakhstan. You believe that confidence, trust, and resilience are essential in life, though trust must be extended to caution. You immigrated to America. I immigrated to America at my 50. At the age of 50. Wow. And so now you've come over here, but did you grow up in the USSR, as it were?

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. So you grew up under the Iron Curtain, the KGB and all that sort of stuff. Right. Wow. Wow. That must be quite the story. And then, so this is a two-part memoir to my understanding.

Tell it, give us more of an overview of what's inside the book and what you cover. About this side, I didn't hear. Give us a much more overview of what's in the book and what you're covering it. Okay. So the book, actually, this is my personal memoir, immigrant memoir, women's memoir, and my legacy to my family members. because it tells us a lot about hardships, about survival, and about how I became a fighter, finding my place, actually fighting for my place in life. My mom was very frustrated when she couldn't remarry

because my father was missing at the front. Oh, really? So she left with me. she was illiterate so she never read me any stories she never had me any pencils and pencil to draw something she never talked to me she was fighting just for to find the piece of bread for me but then so i became a burden for her the reason was that she could not remarry at that time and there was like a policy for, you know, in our nation. So you should not have children from another person.

And so I became a burden for her. And from that time, so she was beating me. She affected, you know, just cruelly, very cruelly. She broke my head because I lost the key from the house. So she beat me because I got. called and gave her problems how just were to to help me everything that you know every story i had lots of stories there that can show you actually how i was fighting and at when i was 15 so i decided to struggle for myself to fight for myself and so when she was going just to hit me there

Another time, I actually stopped her. And I said, no more fighting, no more beating. I didn't have any siblings. I didn't have anyone to defend me, to protect me. And I decided just to struggle with that and to fight for myself. I became a fighter. And from that time, she scolded me, but she never put her head. on me when she like pulled my hair or bit me with a fist so that was not actually

you know good for anyone in the outdoor because there was no we were living in a very small room like 7.5 square feet room that was our kitchen living room everything there was like a stove, one bed, one table, kitchen table, and three chairs. That's all in our room for 29 years. And at that time, so already, well, I was left every other night. She locked me in the room because she was working every other night as a guard on the KGB stadium. And I was by myself and my first nanny was my cat. So nobody else. And I got used to just for to live by myself because she would never know what will happen. She went to work at six o'clock in the evening and I was by myself there until the morning. So you imagine so how I felt. Yeah.

I mean, she was a child just trying to survive. Yes, I tried to survive. And when I became a burden for her so then another story happened because well i could not just was you know protect myself and that's why i was going actually to read an exit from that story about how i became a fighter oh would you like to listen yes please that year 1998 was a turning point not just of because of my injury, but because it awakens something inside me, a learning for independence, her strength, for a voice of my own. At home, my mother and I often sat together at miltimes, and one meaning I confronted her. Did you get a new driver at work? I asked casually, she looked up, surprised. Why? How do you know?

Because you're using new words, you didn't say before. She didn't apologize. But I knew she understood. I had drawn a line. Yotka temper didn't change. But one day, something inside me snapped. I don't remember what I had said, but she didn't like it. Her face twisted with anger.

Her face clenched. and a fire burned in her eyes I knew she was about to strike but this time I wasn't a voiceless girl this time as stood up for myself and her arm shot toward me as her arm shot

told me I reacted I shaft her back and shouted you will not touch me anymore she froze my words my defiance it shocked her her raised

unforted then dropped to her side from that time on she never hit me again she still raised her voice still called me but she never laid a hand on me

I had found my voice the voice of a fighter what a moving thing was that comment for a lot of people in that era where there was just a lot of beating going on for paranormal correctioning I guess you know so every family at that time lived like closed in their family room they never shared anything I have never heard of anyone else I didn't know what was happening but I thought this could happen in every family when we didn't have a lot

electricity. We didn't have anything until I was like in the seventh grade. And I thought this was the same in every family. But, you know, it wasn't probably because there were the other higher rank employees of KGB because we actually lived in a KGB barracks. But next to us, where houses where KGB high-ranked people lived and they had electricity they had you know like heating

we didn't have anything so we lived in that 7.5 square feet all 29 years until I became already I got married and we still live there but we lived in the shed in the shed

because Really? And finally, so I was fighting for my place again, and I didn't go to the elections as everyone else was to go, because I said, I need a room for myself. And so finally they gave us, this was when I was 29 years old, when I had already two sons born, and we lived in that shed. because my mom lived in the room

and we lived in the shed you know gluing the walls with newspapers that's how we lived so then so I went to college I was actually in the college of the

foreign languages at the English faculty and so I was there for five years, and then I completed post-graded courses, and I was sent to, that was only in the north of Kazakhstan, to work at the English faculty. Everything was fine with me, and I mean, so I could work there, but my husband preferred just to stay in Alma, Atta. That was the capital of Kazakhstan. And so, meanwhile, I had been, I belong to every group.

I was a little girl who went to the Enkvedere KGB kindergarten. I went to the summer camps that actually were built and were especially for the employees or the KGB people. But at the same time, KGB came back to me when we went to Baikal Amur Mainline project. That was the greatest project of that country. starting from 1975, and we went there in 1978, where I worked as an educator in the dormitories for the BAM people,

and then I worked as an interpreter for the Seattle Tunnel, Boring, Machine Companies, tunnel. And so I still will know them where they are. close to Seattle. So I worked there for two years with them. And so that changed actually my views on being a patriot of my country because we never even thought that would we ever just go somewhere. We couldn't go there. I said, no, I will not go to France, they suggested, because I'm a patriot of my country. But then actually, KGB was there and again at that time

so KGB made me so frustrated and actually damaged and it moved my views. It changed my views to be the patriot and to stay there being tracked by KGB

every step of my life or I go somewhere else. But then the American missionaries came to our country in 1990 And so they were like businessmen. And so my son set up the Kazakh American business company to help

American missionaries. And one of them, there was a college student. He gave us an invitation for me to go to his wedding party in Dallas, Texas. And that's where we decided just that we stopped there. But it was the time when the collapse of the Soviet Union in 91. And so that is, everything changed. And so we decided just, well, to get to find the way to go to America. And so there, the relations between the countries,

between the former Soviet Union republics changed. And Russia did not accept our dollars that we, We were bringing to come back to Kazakhstan. And they took our money at the Customs in Moscow. And so we were left with $100 for me and my husband and me to go to America. Oh, wow. From New York to New York. And there, so while we were on the plane, they suddenly called my name.

And I said, gosh, okay, so in Moscow. they took all my money. What are they going to do with me right now? We were close to England already. And they said, your son has bought you tickets to go from Dallas, to go from New York to Dallas. And I was so happy.

And then with $100, of course, we couldn't do anything. But the missionaries that I worked for in Almata, as an interpreter, They actually called me and said, tomorrow, come down, okay, to Jackson, Mississippi, and their church collected the money for me to take the Greyhound bus to go to Hayward, California, where my family's, my husband's distant relative lived at that time. They just went there. And so then my America started.

So I had to adjust to new culture. I had to actually to have my diploma as a bachelor in English, really like confirmed, and I had to go to university. So I started to work first as a class assistant, class teacher assistant. And then, yes, they proposed that I should complete the master degree. And I did, and I earned the master degree in teaching when I was 60. And from then, I had just to work for some time to be able to somehow to compensate the money I paid because I worked and paid for this. Well, here I was, okay, so but I worked once when, by the way, in America.

so when we came here in three years. So we didn't have the money to pay for the two-bedroom apartment because my son arrived, who was the director of that business in Amata. And so we decided just to buy, he said, well, I will get married. And we decided just to buy a house. And we bought the house which was not livable at all. Oh, wow. And so that is my husband.

is a craftsman, his jack-wold trades, we fixed the house. Then I hide the company just to do the addition to our house. And then in 10 years, so I worked for two districts, school districts. And so I had the money to buy a lot in Shelter Cove, California. And there, okay, I met the American Warren Helfly. who was at that time, was 83 years old, like I am right now. And so I talked to him and to his family. He asked me, so how come?

So you came to America, and in three years you bought a house, and in 10 years you are building a Victorian-style vacation home on elite, you know, in elite settlement, Shelterkov, California. And I said, well, because of this, that, and he loved my stories about BAM, about Siberia, that we went to, to be the partners of, well, the builders, actually, of that Baikal Amur E.M. Mainline. And he said, Tamara, why don't you sit down and put your stories on paper? And that's, that was 2005, actually. We were still building that.

house in Shelter Cove and so I started but I still worked because I after I completed my master degree I worked for seven years just well to be able to do something so from that time on I started just to write stories and showed that to Warren and he listened to me and he tried just to give me the tools you know helping me with writing tools because he was a graduate of a business school, Harvard Business School, but he was an engineer,

but he was actually good in writing. And he was at that time, he was writing his memoir. And that his memoir actually opened America to me. And I thought, gosh, okay, if that writing can help people to understand what the country is, what was going on in that country.

He was born in 1920, and he passed away at 101, two years ago. Oh, wow. And all that time, before that, before his death, he was actually listening to my stories, and he was helping me. I sent him the pages because we live in Sacramento, and he lives in Shelter Cove. He lived in Shelter Cove. And so he was trying to help me with that.

And I said, well, if his memoir opened America to me, why don't I write something for my family who already speak English? And from that time on, I started to think about my childhood, about the policies, about how people lived when they were actually people city people and country people, they were different. Country people did not have passports. They were living like slaves, and they didn't get any salary in money,

something they got grain for their work. So they couldn't go from one, from city, from country to the city. That was something that I will never forget. And I will never forget Siberia, where I worked. with such frosts that, like, well, that was unbearable just for people. But so we still worked there, and I was very successful there.

What a journey. What a journey. Yeah. So that's why, so I had just to divide my book. Because before that, in the first version, I was talking about dreams. I invited my family members. I wanted them to see what they should do to get the dreams done. And I said, dreams is not a lottery to win. You should work hard.

You should do some. You should make some actions and work hard just to have them completed. Then I was not satisfied, and I decided to republish my book, changing the connotation to like, because not. all the dreams that I was actually having were completed then they changed

the title it says chasing dreams because while chasing dreams you need just want to be on a lot what you do and what exactly what you actually plan to have your dreams why is it worth for your wife

for your life at all then I said well gosh okay if I show that if it is good for immigrants, it is the stories for women, how I survived with my husband who was showing like infidelity all his life. He was never a dad for my son. He was just a biological father. And I thought, gosh, okay, I need just to show it to the public. But to show it to the public, I had just to remove all the geographical, for example, locations, names that were all

were good for my family but to general public and I decided just to show that I was fighting. That's why my first volume is want to fight and win and the other one is transformation of my

actual vision because I already grew up as a writer and I thought no i should show it so how i reached all my dreams in america and that was the time that's why ashley was like poverty hardships in the post with the post-war generation there in kazakhstan and coming back to life where we had traveled to many countries because my husband was a world and european champions and building historic ships And so that's why I took him to France, to Italy, to Greece, to gosh, to Bulgaria, to Romania, where the world and European championships held.

So that is, I actually brought him back, okay, like a father, but my sons have already grown up people. They don't need that like dad, provider, which I had in Kazakhstan. So that's how I came up to these two volumes. What a story and a journey as we go through life. Anything more you want to plug as we go out? I don't know. So any questions to me? No, I think you covered it all.

You pretty much covered the whole book, front to back. And what a journey. What a journey you took and went on there. So as we go out, give people your dotnet. where can they find you on the internet and find out more? So on the internet, so you have my website, tamarabayazatev.net, and my publisher already showed me how it works. I opened that, but he showed me only like the book,

and my book will be on Nobles and Barnes & Noble. So he submitted to the file there. Well, and so I expect to see the Amazon on Kindle also and also the one of the dreams was just to have it like an audio from for my book for people actually to listen to that story while they're for example on the plane or just you know at home so and actually one there was one offer to make it in audio because it this book as the as the as the people said was good for the blind people because I have a story about how I worked as you know we had summer camps that KGB just built summer camps for the employees of KGB at that time and so one of this and I was there a pioneer leader I had 30 kids there and once we were awarded for my work there in the summer camp and we went to the blind people camp where people

blind people were sitting on the on the branches of the cherry tree and they were there but so under the tree there was a table where a lady sat and she was making like we call them like dumplings with cherries. And then those blind people showed us how they lived. Their dormitories were in such a perfect order that it was just a wonder how blind people lived there. And so that story actually, well, I told people Americans about it later, how blind people were considered like invalid people.

that's what we had this word. Invalid means, but in English it is like invalid. So they were living in a separate, like, behind the fences. They were having their own life there because they were not accepted by people outside of that gap. So that is why, okay, so that idea was like, okay, so I would love just want to help blind people

but that person who actually offered that to me he disappeared I cannot find him but I still have this idea to have somehow Amazon or somebody just wanted to help me make it out there

well Tamara thank you very much for coming on over we really appreciate it and all that good stuff the thank you very much for coming by wonderful story of adversity and triumph you're very welcome so if you have any more questions you can reach me on my phone on my site actually i don't know if i can share the website not not not only the website but i my email well go ahead if you want share it yeah okay my last name my first name at yahoo.com

that's my email that everyone can see that probably they have it in the on my web site I don't know yet I didn't go to context to see what they did there

but people are calling me right now many people from New York really? Yes okay they want they say tomorrow so we're read your story. I don't know if they couldn't have read my story yet, but they saw probably the previous versions, okay, chasing dreams or chase your dreams, okay, and probably they found the, they said, yeah, we know your contact number. They called me and say, Tamara, can we help you just with publishing, with marketing? I said, well, I have a publisher, so we are doing

that. And so one of them called me lately and she said recently and she said tomorrow I want to pull your name on the billboards in New York I say on Times Square I say gosh okay what is the idea

I cannot go there she says no you don't go there so we'll put you on the billboard and everybody will be happy just to know who you are and I said wow that will be amazing Amazing. So as we go out, excuse me, thank you, Tamara, for coming the show. We really appreciate it. So order up the book, folks, wherever fine books are sold. Tamara, give me the title of that book, if you would, please.

The one that, the previous versions? The ones that we've been talking about, the title that we've been talking about. So, well, from Ashley to Ascent is going to be on Amazon. I said that I haven't gotten any credentials, yes, for my public. I don't know so how to go there yet but it will be there all right we'll look forward to seeing that thank you very much Tamara for coming the show

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