Виктор Петрович Астафьев - выдающийся русский писатель, лауреат Государственных премий СССР и РСФСР. В 1942 году ушел добровольцем на фронт, в 1943 году, после окончания пехотного училища, был отправлен на передовую и до самого конца войны оставался рядовым солдатом. На фронте был награжден орденом "Красной Звезды" и медалью "За отвагу". Пережитое на войне, война, какой видел ее Виктор Астафьев на передовой, стали центральной темой творчества писателя. Роман "Прокляты и убиты" он наполнил невероятной энергией, энергией сопротивления безвременной смерти. Именно этим романом Астафьев подвел итог своим размышлениям о войне как о "преступлении против разума".
Виктор Астафьев Viktor Petrovich Astafyev also spelled Astafiev or Astaf'ev (Russian: Виктор Петрович Астафьев; 1 May 1924 – 29 November 2001), was a prominent Soviet and Russian writer.
A great novel about the Russian front, written by a veteran of the Red Army. The action is in two parts: the first concentrates on boot camp, while the second is the detailed narrative of the desperate struggle to establish and secure a bridgehead. The author takes the time to develop many of the individual characters, describing not only their experiences during the narrative of the book, but also their various backgrounds and the paths that brought them to that place. This makes the book a very human story (including the enemy), which I find trumps the sometimes contrived plot, which appears to have drawn a lot from other sources, such as Full Metal Jacket. But this also indicates that the author has had a long time to think about the story and the best way to present it, and it is not every day that you read a first-hand account of WWII written in our time. Well worth the read.
One of the most impressive and mind-blowing books about World War Two written by a Soviet writer. I finished it with a strong desire to recommend it wholeheartedly and passionately to everyone who would like to learn more truth about this war, but unfortunately (or fortunately — I don’t know) there was also an afterword to the book that was like a cold shower to me — I will tell about it later.
Anyway, the book is a very powerful narration — both as truthful and deep memory about the war, and just excellent prose. The author has an inclination to slow, very detailed, thorough observations and reflections, and sometimes, when he tells about something unpleasant or boring, you feel irritated about it, but when he does the same thing with much more significant and painful aspects — it’s like a whirlwind dragging you against your desire. It’s you who are drowning in the river; it’s you who are dying bleeding profusely; it’s you who are deafened by bombs all around you. I have never experienced such a grasping involvement into all this very painful and heavy stuff. (On this background, occasional bursts of very funny humor look even cooler than in any other narration. The author is definitely very talented.)
The author claims that the book is unfinished, but it looked quite finished to me — at least, nothing is obvioulsy missing, and the whole story is “well-rounded.”
If you asked me about something really “epic” about the Soviet side of World War Two, this book would be my first choice probably. It is not so “wide” as “За правое дело” and “Жизнь и судьба” by Василий Гроссман but it is very “deep” and really intense.
It should also be said that the book is written by a person who was this soldier himself, and although it’s formally “fiction,” it is read as an absolutely documentary and realistic story. I believe every word of it.
There is only one problem: after the book, I have listened to the afterword. It is also quite interesting, as it contains mostly letters from real soldiers who were very grateful to the author that he told about all this truthfully. However, there are also some shocking pages with really aggressive and disgusting antisemitic lines. I could not believe it, because the book is so intelligent and painfully humanistic in every aspect, and there is not a hint to any chauvinism there. I googled about Виктор Астафьев’s antisemitism, and found only some random discussions about his words that might be regarded as a sign of antisemitism, but nothing especially demonstrative. And yet, this afterword is more than “demonstrative” of the most vulgar and irrational antisemitism. It’s strange, and you actually cannot find this afterword almost anywhere on the Internet now, but I have listened to it in the audiobook, and it spoiled all the impression about the book at the very end (((.
I don’t know how to interpret all this, so I cannot recommend this book so eagerly as I would like to. It’s a great book. But I have questions about the author's personality. Serious questions.
Великая Отечественная война – разная! Для кого-то: окопы, танки, немцы и отвага. А для кого-то: новые горизонты, восточный фронт, японцы и сокрушающий удар советских войск. Для Астафьева иначе: группа новобранцев, лагерь под Бердском, повседневная суета и бесконечный укор деспотизму Сталина. Из свидетельств о войне лишь сводки об оной: под Сталинградом сошлись миллионные армии, на территории Монголии продолжается отпор самураям. Скорее бы туда, увидеть глазами Астафьева войну изнутри. Придётся подождать. “Чёртова яма” – репетиция должной разыграться трагедии для представленных вниманию читателя действующих лиц. Пока они ничего из себя не представляют, желают иметь интимные отношения с беспробудно пьяными и дурно пахнущими женщинами. Они же каждый день по несколько раз посещают столовую, переживая различные эмоции из-за малого размера порций или по другой – не настолько серьёзной – причине. Страна испытывала агрессию с двух сторон, чего вина лежала на плечах руководивших ею партийных лидеров. Но война – это война, требующая дать отпор, чтобы уже потом разобраться, кому воздать за упущения. Астафьев решил это выяснить сразу, погружаясь не в пекло обречённых солдатских судеб, а без устали сетуя на нечеловеческое к людям отношение в тылу.