Anna Berkova: The Scientist Behind the Time Machine

Overview

Anna Berkova is the central figure in Rachel Barenbaum’s 2022 novel Atomic Anna. A brilliant nuclear physicist, Anna inadvertently creates a working time machine and spends decades trying to undo the Chernobyl disaster—while wrestling with the legacy of her earlier work on the Soviet atomic bomb. Her character embodies the intersection of scientific ambition, maternal sacrifice, and the weight of unintended consequences. The novel traces Anna’s life from the 1930s through the 1990s, revealing a woman whose intellect is both her greatest gift and her deepest burden.

Plot Role

Anna’s actions drive the entire narrative. The story begins with the Chernobyl meltdown in April 1986, which Anna partially blames on herself because she was the reactor’s chief engineer. After accidentally time‑jumping to a mountain station in 1992 and meeting her adult daughter Manya (later called Molly), Anna learns that the disaster is real and that her granddaughter Raisa will die. From that moment, Anna’s primary goal is to change the past—to prevent the meltdown and save Raisa. Her time‑travel experiments, her search for allies (especially her old friend Yulia), and her complicated relationships with her children and grandchildren form the spine of the plot.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Scientific Brilliance and Hubris

Anna’s first major scientific insight comes in Berlin in 1938, when she conceives the idea of using nuclear‑fission‑generated gamma rays to create “ripples in space‑time” for time travel [outline ch.4]. She later builds an amplifier to harness those waves. Yet her brilliance is paired with a stubborn belief that she can control the consequences of her inventions—a trait that Yulia and Lazar warn against in their 1945 discussion about time machines being “the deadliest weapon” [ch.6 evidence]. Anna’s willingness to build the Soviet bomb, even while doubting its morality, shows a woman who prioritises intellectual challenge over ethical caution.

Guilt and Self‑Flagellation

After Chernobyl, Anna is overwhelmed by guilt. In the prologue she cries, “What did I do?” as she watches children play in radioactive ash [ch.1 evidence]. This guilt propels her to isolate herself and risk arrest by traveling to Mount Aragats. She consistently blames herself for the bomb and for her perceived failures as a mother.

Maternal Conflict

Anna loves her daughter Manya but also resents her. Post‑partum depression after Manya’s birth leads Anna to feel trapped; she confesses in 1992 that she “was terrified and resentful” and that she “could not bond” [ch.21 evidence]. Her solution—to plead with Yulia to take Manya to America—is an act of love and self‑loathing combined. Throughout the novel, Anna struggles to balance her desire to protect her family with her compulsion to fix the future through science.

Resilience and Resourcefulness

Despite KGB surveillance, forced interrogation, and constant sexism, Anna rises to second‑in‑command at Laboratory No. 2. She survives brutal interrogation by Yasha [ch.19], continues her research in secret, and later undertakes a dangerous cross‑country journey to Mount Aragats using unofficial transport to avoid detection. Her ingenuity is also evident in her time‑travel methodology—she designs the cosmic‑ray station, builds the amplifier, and later deduces the “proximity rule” (two versions of the same person cannot be near each other) [ch.3 evidence].

Chronological Arc

Anna’s story is told non‑linearly, but her arc can be pieced together:

• 1938 – Berlin: A young Anna arrives as a physicist working under Otto Hahn. She befriends Yulia, who becomes her closest confidante. Anna develops her time‑travel theory.
• 1945 – Moscow: After the war, Anna is recruited by Igor Kurchatov to build the Soviet atomic bomb. She begins a relationship with Yasha Berlitsky, but tensions grow because of his Stalinist fervor. She discovers Yulia and Lazar together—a betrayal that stings.
• 1949 – Lake Baikal: While on vacation with Yasha, Anna refines her time‑travel idea. Yasha promises to build the cosmic‑ray station for her.
• 1969 – Birth of Manya: Anna gives birth at age forty. Suffering from severe post‑partum depression and feeling watched by Yasha, she convinces Yulia and Lazar to flee with the baby to America.
• 1970s–1980s: Anna remains in the USSR, working on the amplifier. She is the chief engineer at Chernobyl’s Reactor No. 4.
• April 1986: The reactor melts down. Anna time‑jumps to Mount Aragats (1992) and meets the dying Manya. She resolves to travel back and prevent the catastrophe.
• July 1986: Anna reaches the station on Mount Aragats and begins constructing a time machine.
• 1991: She jumps to Philadelphia in 1975 to find Yulia, hoping to enlist her help. The reunion is tense.
• 1992 (on the mountain): Anna works with Molly (Manya) to refine the machine. She suffers memory loss from repeated jumps. She reveals the full story of Manya’s adoption and her love for Yasha.
• Final attempts: Anna aims to go back to 1985 to fix the reactor, but her memory is fading, and the stakes remain high.

Relationships

Yulia

Yulia is Anna’s anchor. They meet in Berlin, and Yulia becomes her “sister.” Anna’s romantic feelings for Yulia are unreciprocated (Yulia explicitly says “you’re my sister”). Yet Yulia is the only person Anna trusts with her secrets—including the plan to take Manya to America. Their bond is tested when Yulia chooses Lazar, but it endures through decades of separation and letters.

Yasha Berlitsky

Yasha is both Anna’s lover and her captor. He arrests her, interrogates her, and later marries her. His Stalinism and his eventual role as a KGB informant create a suffocating dynamic. Anna loves him platonically after their passion fades, but she fears his power. He builds the cosmic‑ray station as a gift, yet keeps it secret from her for years.

Manya / Molly

Anna’s relationship with her daughter is defined by absence and guilt. She sends Manya away at age two, but later sees her as a wounded adult on the mountain. Molly initially resents Anna but eventually, during their swim in 1992, tells Anna she no longer blames her parents; she realises her own fear held her back. This reconciliation is bittersweet because Anna’s memory is deteriorating.

Raisa

Anna almost never meets Raisa in person. Instead, she communicates through the Atomic Anna comics she mails to Raisa. These comics contain scientific clues that Raisa eventually deciphers. Anna’s goal is to save Raisa from a future death, but her method—sending secret messages—is indirect and risks being misunderstood.

Vera and Daniel

Vera was Anna’s nurse after Chernobyl and the mother of Daniel. Vera’s unexplained death (or disappearance) adds to Anna’s guilt. Daniel and Raisa become partners, connecting Anna’s world to the next generation.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Building the Atomic Bomb

Anna’s choice to work on the Soviet bomb in 1945 is framed as a deterrent against Hitler, but its long‑term effect is to make her complicit in the arms race. The novel directly links her bomb work to her later guilt over Chernobyl—she explicitly calls the reactor meltdown “her fault” because the same physics enabled both.

Sending Manya Away

This decision saves Manya from life under the KGB but destroys Anna’s chance to be a mother. It also alienates Yasha, who rages at the loss. The consequence is decades of separation and a granddaughter (Raisa) raised without knowing Anna.

Building the Time Machine

Anna’s choice to pursue time travel despite Yulia’s warning that it would be a worse weapon than the bomb is driven by her need to “fix” the past. The consequence is her progressive memory loss (from proximity to past selves) and the risk of altering lives without full knowledge of the cost.

Choosing Family at the End

After the failed 1975 visit to Philadelphia, Anna decides to prioritise her family over the project [outline ch.4]. Yet she never fully abandons time travel; she keeps sending comics to Raisa. This oscillation between science and family is never resolved, reflecting the novel’s theme of impossible choices.

Connections to Themes and Symbols

• Time Travel and Consequences: Anna’s time machine is a symbol of the impossibility of escaping the past. Every jump creates new pain—for herself and for the people she loves. The novel asks whether intention justifies means when the outcome is destruction.

• Motherhood and Sacrifice: Anna’s sacrifice of her daughter is mirrored by her later attempt to save her granddaughter. The narrative shows that sacrifice does not erase guilt.

• Intergenerational Trauma: Anna’s unresolved pain passes to Molly (who adopts a new identity) and Raisa (who becomes obsessed with the comics). The secrets Anna keeps shape the lives of two generations.

• Science and Responsibility: The book questions whether a scientist can control the use of her discoveries. Anna’s bomb and time machine both escape her control.

• Identity and Assimilation: Anna’s Jewish identity is suppressed in the USSR, then hidden by Yulia in America. Molly’s comic‑book heroine “Atomic Anna” becomes a way to reclaim that history.

• The bear necklace that Anna gives to Manya and that later appears on Raisa symbolises the bond Anna tries to maintain across time and distance.

Book-Specific Questions and Answers

Further Reading

• Atomic Anna – main book page
• Time Travel and Consequences
• Motherhood and Sacrifice
• Intergenerational Trauma
• Science and Responsibility
• Identity and Assimilation
• Ending Explained
• Questions and Answers