Vasily Grossman: A Writer at War. A Soviet Journalist with the Red Army. Ed. and trans. Antony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova. NY: Vintage, 2005. 380 pp. Ill.
Grossman was a patriot without being a propagandist. As a reporter, he had an eye for detail – and an ear to remember dialogue. Later, as a novelist, he utilized these talents in the creation of characters and events. Overall, he was subject to the normal amount of fear – of battle, of Stalin – but had an extraordinary ability to overcome it.
Example of the absurdity of war: Provisions for an encircled Soviet division were to be dropped by parachute, but the quartermaster refused to issue the rations because no one could sign the invoice! A perfect example of Catch-22.
After the war, the Bürgermeister of a Berlin district asked the Soviet commandant, Gen. Berzarin, how much they were going to pay the civilians to work on military objects. This led Grossman to observe that Germans have a precise notion of their rights.
Favorite quotations: “The much-battered enemy continued his cowardly advance.” (An example of the kind of propaganda writing he abhorred.)
“When two generals oppose each other in battle, one of them will definitely turn out a clever man, and the other a fool. Although they are both fools.” (Gen. Andrei Yeremenko)
In 1966, copies of Life and Fate were confiscated by the KGB. In 1975, his books were banned in the USSR.
© Hamilton Beck
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