В конце концов

by Boris Polevoi, Борис Полевой

Книга написана на основе тех дневников, которые автор вел во время Нюрнбергского процесса. Вместе с известным художником Н.Н.Жуковым, рисунками которого иллюстрирована книга, Б.Н.Полевой присутствовал на процессе в качестве специального корреспондента "Правды" и пробыл в Нюрнберге все девять месяцев, пока длились заседания суда.
Писатель освещает ход процесса, разоблачает самую сущность фашизма, показывает, от какой опасности спасла человечество героическая Советская Армия, делится размышлениями о мире и войне, о страшных преступлениях нацизма, о справедливом возмездии злодеям.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Boris Nikolaevich Polevoi (Russian: Борис Николаевич Полевой) was a notable Soviet writer. He is the author of the book Story of a Real Man about a Soviet World War II fighter pilot Alexei Petrovich Maresiev (or Alexej Petrovich Maresjev).

Борис Николаевич Полевой русский советский журналист и писатель-прозаик. Лауреат двух Сталинских премий второй степени (1947, 1949). Лауреат Международной премии Мира (1959). Член ВКП(б) с 1940 года.

Reviews

[Bill38silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

After this sat on my bookshelf for many years I finally read it shortly after I had immersed myself in the 332 pages of the official Judgement of Nuremberg produced by the Stationery Office in London in 1946 ( this is not currently on Goodreads for review). Unlike the Judgment document, which records the words of the judges without comment or assessment, Polevoi's account is based on his diary entries made whilst attending much of the international trial in Nuremburg in 1945/6 but published in book form in Russia seemingly in 1967/8.

The book is an interesting read combining journalist reporting of the unprecedented trial of war criminals and the day to day goings-on in and around the Palace of Justice. It has many passages of lyrical, poetic, prose which convey, often superbly, the sights, sounds and smells of partially-bombed Nuremburg (the aristocratic "quarter" was largely unaffected). He gives particularly fine descriptions of many characters, including other war time correspondents, the judges, the Defendants, David who ran the extremely busy bar with its ever-updating cocktail list, the sparrows feeding on his window-sill, the landscape and changing park scene, and the weather to name but some. The book also has in its first 50-odd pages the extremely fine pencil drawings of the artist, Nikolai Zhukov.

Polevoi is solid in his view , expressed in several places, that the Soviet people and/or Red Army defeated the nazi armies in a "single-handed struggle". Indeed, he views the conflict in terms of a victory of ideology ie communism defeating Nazism which (in his view) was an extension of Western imperialism. What is clear is that the outcome of the Trial of Nuremburg, with the victors exacting its revenge on the Most Evil men of the twentieth century, did not result in a discouragement of dictators or tyrants and some governments in carrying out their pograms, genocides or mass killings in many parts of the world. There are many who have escaped their final reckoning.

[Xumepa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Борис Полевой удивительный. Подобно матери Зои Космодемьянской его книга содержит столько же мыслей, произведений, идеологических цепочек. Тут и Фучек, и Галан, и Мересьев и Фадеев, и Корольков. Это именно та литература, которую надо прочесть. Важно передать это детям, чтобы они не допускали коричневой гадины. При всем при этом горько читать, что уже к концу процесса многие нацисты воспряли духом, одели ордена за зимнюю компанию(?), а американцы уже начали суетиться и вербовать бандеровцев, разжигать новый костер национализма.