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الطريق
The Road brings together short stories, journalism, essays, and letters by Vasily Grossman, the author of Life and Fate, providing new insight into the life and work of this extraordinary writer. The stories range from Grossman’s first success, “In the Town of Berdichev,” a piercing reckoning with the cost of war, to such haunting later works as “Mama,” based on the life of a girl who was adopted at the height of the Great Terror by the head of the NKVD and packed off to an orphanage after her father’s downfall. The girl grows up struggling with the discovery that the parents she cherishes in memory are part of a collective nightmare that everyone else wishes to forget. The Road also includes the complete text of Grossman’s harrowing report from Treblinka, one of the first anatomies of the workings of a death camp; “The Sistine Madonna,” a reflection on art and atrocity; as well as two heartbreaking letters that Grossman wrote to his mother after her death at the hands of the Nazis and carried with him for the rest of his life.
Meticulously edited and presented by Robert Chandler, The Road allows us to see one of the great figures of twentieth-century literature discovering his calling both as a writer and as a man.
Meticulously edited and presented by Robert Chandler, The Road allows us to see one of the great figures of twentieth-century literature discovering his calling both as a writer and as a man.
341 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
129 people are currently reading
2369 people want to read
About the author
Vasily Grossman
74 books984 followersBorn Iosif Solomonovich Grossman into an emancipated Jewish family, he did not receive a traditional Jewish education. A Russian nanny turned his name Yossya into Russian Vasya (a diminutive of Vasily), which was accepted by the whole family. His father had social-democratic convictions and joined the Mensheviks. Young Vasily Grossman idealistically supported the Russian Revolution of 1917.
When the Great Patriotic War broke out in 1941, Grossman's mother was trapped in Berdychiv by the invading German army, and eventually murdered together with 20,000 to 30,000 other Jews who did not evacuate Berdychiv. Grossman was exempt from military service, but volunteered for the front, where he spent more than 1,000 days. He became a war reporter for the popular Red Army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star). As the war raged on, he covered its major events, including the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, and the Battle of Berlin. In addition to war journalism, his novels (such as The People are Immortal (Народ бессмертен) were being published in newspapers and he came to be regarded as a legendary war hero. The novel Stalingrad (1950), later renamed For a Just Cause (За правое дело), is based on his own experiences during the siege.
Grossman's descriptions of ethnic cleansing in Ukraine and Poland, and the liberation of the Treblinka and Majdanek extermination camps, were some of the first eyewitness accounts —as early as 1943—of what later became known as 'The Holocaust'. His article The Hell of Treblinka (1944) was disseminated at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal as evidence for the prosecution.
Grossman died of stomach cancer in 1964, not knowing whether his novels would ever be read by the public.
When the Great Patriotic War broke out in 1941, Grossman's mother was trapped in Berdychiv by the invading German army, and eventually murdered together with 20,000 to 30,000 other Jews who did not evacuate Berdychiv. Grossman was exempt from military service, but volunteered for the front, where he spent more than 1,000 days. He became a war reporter for the popular Red Army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star). As the war raged on, he covered its major events, including the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, and the Battle of Berlin. In addition to war journalism, his novels (such as The People are Immortal (Народ бессмертен) were being published in newspapers and he came to be regarded as a legendary war hero. The novel Stalingrad (1950), later renamed For a Just Cause (За правое дело), is based on his own experiences during the siege.
Grossman's descriptions of ethnic cleansing in Ukraine and Poland, and the liberation of the Treblinka and Majdanek extermination camps, were some of the first eyewitness accounts —as early as 1943—of what later became known as 'The Holocaust'. His article The Hell of Treblinka (1944) was disseminated at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal as evidence for the prosecution.
Grossman died of stomach cancer in 1964, not knowing whether his novels would ever be read by the public.
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March 17, 2017
--Part One: The 1930s
--In the Town of Berdichev
--A Small Life
--A Young Woman and an Old Woman
--Part Two: The War, The Shoah
--The Old Man
--The Old Teacher
--The Hell of Treblinka
--The Sistine Madonna
--Part Three: Late Stories
--The Elk
--Mama
--Living Space
--The Road
--The Dog
--In Kislovodsk
--Part Four: Three Letters
--Part Five: Eternal Rest
Appendixes
Afterword, by Fyodor Guber
Chronology
Notes
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Contributors
--In the Town of Berdichev
--A Small Life
--A Young Woman and an Old Woman
--Part Two: The War, The Shoah
--The Old Man
--The Old Teacher
--The Hell of Treblinka
--The Sistine Madonna
--Part Three: Late Stories
--The Elk
--Mama
--Living Space
--The Road
--The Dog
--In Kislovodsk
--Part Four: Three Letters
--Part Five: Eternal Rest
Appendixes
Afterword, by Fyodor Guber
Chronology
Notes
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Contributors
March 18, 2014
خمس نجمات بما أنني أنا من ترجمته وعشت كل سطر فيه
فاسيلي غروسمان أحد كبار المولفين الروسيين الذين لم نسمع عنهم الكثير لعدم توفر ترجمة عربية لمؤلفاته
هناك فظائع عن جرائم النازية اتعبتني كثيرا
October 17, 2015
As the winter of 1942-43 was drawing to an end, Himmler came to Treblinka....
Here, the color fades to black and white; the novelist takes out his notepad, becomes a journalist. This happened.
..one of the people who saw him has told us that the minister of death walked up to a huge grave pit and, for a long time, stared silently into it....
It would take two more winters, but Himmler already knew.
Later that same day the SS Reichsführer flew back. Before leaving Treblinka, he issued an order that dumbfounded the three members of the camp command. ... They were to start work immediately on digging up the corpses and burning every last one of them; the ashes and cinders were to be removed from the camps and scattered over the fields and roads. ... the newly gassed were to be burned at once.
There are short pieces of fiction also here, and letters to his mother - Dearest Mama, I learned about your death in the winter of 1944....
But it's the grainy, jumping film, smuggled at what cost, of Himmler looking at what he'd done. An architect, a cleaner, without remorse.
The ashes and crushed cinders swish softly. We enter the camp. We tread the earth of Treblinka. The lupine pods split open at the least touch; they split with a faint ping and millions of tiny peas scatter over the earth. The sounds of the falling peas and bursting pods come together to form a single soft, sad melody....
Here, the color fades to black and white; the novelist takes out his notepad, becomes a journalist. This happened.
..one of the people who saw him has told us that the minister of death walked up to a huge grave pit and, for a long time, stared silently into it....
It would take two more winters, but Himmler already knew.
Later that same day the SS Reichsführer flew back. Before leaving Treblinka, he issued an order that dumbfounded the three members of the camp command. ... They were to start work immediately on digging up the corpses and burning every last one of them; the ashes and cinders were to be removed from the camps and scattered over the fields and roads. ... the newly gassed were to be burned at once.
There are short pieces of fiction also here, and letters to his mother - Dearest Mama, I learned about your death in the winter of 1944....
But it's the grainy, jumping film, smuggled at what cost, of Himmler looking at what he'd done. An architect, a cleaner, without remorse.
The ashes and crushed cinders swish softly. We enter the camp. We tread the earth of Treblinka. The lupine pods split open at the least touch; they split with a faint ping and millions of tiny peas scatter over the earth. The sounds of the falling peas and bursting pods come together to form a single soft, sad melody....
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September 22, 2010Oh god, I can't even possibly rate this book. It is absolutely the single most devastatingly horrifying thing I've ever read for work -- or really ever read at all. "The Hell of Treblinka," Grossman's most famous essay, is exactly that: Grossman, a journalist, takes a trip to Treblinka a few years after WWII is over. Amid extremely detailed descriptions of what it was like for the prisoners in the camps, he even goes so far as to dig in the dirt around the area, uncovering wallets and hair ribbons and shattered dolls and shoes that had been hastily buried before the guards departed. Oh god oh god oh god, it is so so devastating.
The whole time I was reading this, I kept wondering not necessarily why someone would write this -- of course I know the arguments, I was raised by Jews after all, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, etc. -- but who on earth would choose to read it? I mean, this is coming out in a snazzy new lovely NYRB edition, and it is obviously intended to be sold to and read by lots and lots of people. But why? I was literally ill during and after proofing this book. Why would anyone do that to themselves on purpose?
The whole time I was reading this, I kept wondering not necessarily why someone would write this -- of course I know the arguments, I was raised by Jews after all, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, etc. -- but who on earth would choose to read it? I mean, this is coming out in a snazzy new lovely NYRB edition, and it is obviously intended to be sold to and read by lots and lots of people. But why? I was literally ill during and after proofing this book. Why would anyone do that to themselves on purpose?
March 16, 2017
This began as the second of my train books, but I chose to take a hiatus and read Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune when I got to ‘The Hell of Treblinka’. I've read it before and, as befits the subject, it remains one of the most upsetting and disturbing things I have ever read. I found it unbearable to read about the transports to Treblinka while I was on a train:
Inevitably, ‘The Hell of Treblinka’ overshadows the rest of the writing collected here, as it did in A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army. Including it was perhaps an odd choice, as the majority of the rest of the material consists of fiction. This is the only piece of reportage. It’s always worth reading, however, and the version here includes references to the battle of Stalingrad that were omitted in A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army. The whole thing deserves to be quoted; I will confine myself to a couple of key passages. Grossman expands on the title of his piece as follows:
The reader then journeys through Treblinka as its victims did. As they descended through this hell:
Grossman’s account is almost unimaginably horrific. But we must imagine it, because it happened.
'The Road' is divided by periods of Grossman’s life and each section is accompanied by an introduction with biographical details. I found this structure informative, however it did give away the content of the stories in a fashion that undermined my enjoyment of them somewhat. The detailed explanations could have been included after each story, rather than before. I was also a little surprised that the same sub-division wasn’t used for the notes, of which there are many. These would have been more accessible if included at the end of each section, rather than all being at the end of the book. These are mere quibbles, though. The selection of stories demonstrates the evolution of Grossman’s writing and shows his fondness for realism. Most of the stories are accompanied by details of the real incidents that they fictionalise. They have strong historical as well as literary appeal. Within the contexts of Nazi occupation and Stalinist terror, Grossman demonstrates a particular interest in mother-child bonds and the welfare of animals. Perhaps he feels that children and animals are the most vulnerable, voiceless, and blameless in such terrible situations and therefore events should be seen from their perspective?
Vasily Grossman is, in my opinion, one of the very best writers of the 20th century. His treatment of the worst crimes against humanity is unparalleled. He describes vividly without aestheticising; he personalises without narrowing perspective; he conveys evil astutely without simplifying it. It is impossible not to admire him for looking directly at these horrors without losing all hope for humanity. In all the pieces collected here, love and the human soul are transcendent and indestructible. I am giving this collection four stars because the way it is structured doesn’t present Grossman's work quite as well as it could; his actual writing is magnificent. I would like to read a book of his short stories and a biography separately, to get the full effect of each. Here the reader is presented with a combination.
In order to maintain to the end the deception of the Western European passengers, the railhead at the death camp was got up to look like an ordinary railway station. On the platform where a batch of twenty carriages was being unloaded stood what seemed like a station building with a ticket office, a left luggage restaurant and a restaurant. There were arrows everywhere, with signs reading ‘To Bialystok’, ‘To Baranowicze’, ‘To Wojkowice’, etc. An orchestra played in the station building to greet the new arrivals, and the musicians were well dressed. A station guard in railway uniform collected tickets and let the passengers through on to a large square.
Inevitably, ‘The Hell of Treblinka’ overshadows the rest of the writing collected here, as it did in A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army. Including it was perhaps an odd choice, as the majority of the rest of the material consists of fiction. This is the only piece of reportage. It’s always worth reading, however, and the version here includes references to the battle of Stalingrad that were omitted in A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army. The whole thing deserves to be quoted; I will confine myself to a couple of key passages. Grossman expands on the title of his piece as follows:
Today the witnesses have spoken; the stones and the earth have cried out loud. And today, before the eyes of humanity, before the conscience of the whole world, we can walk step by step around each circle of the Hell of Treblinka, in comparison with which Dante’s Hell seems no more than an innocent game on the part of Satan.
The reader then journeys through Treblinka as its victims did. As they descended through this hell:
First people were robbed of their freedom, their home and their motherland; they were transported to a nameless wilderness in the forest. Then, on the square by the station, they were robbed of their belongings, of their personal letters, and of their photographs of their loved ones. After going through the fence, a man was robbed of his mother, his wife and his child. After he had been stripped naked, his papers were thrown on to a fire; his had been robbed of his name. He was then driven into a corridor with a low stone ceiling; now he had been robbed of the sky, the stars, the wind and the sun.
The came the last act of the human tragedy - a human being was now in the last circle of the Hell that was Treblinka.
The door of the concrete chamber slammed shut.
Grossman’s account is almost unimaginably horrific. But we must imagine it, because it happened.
'The Road' is divided by periods of Grossman’s life and each section is accompanied by an introduction with biographical details. I found this structure informative, however it did give away the content of the stories in a fashion that undermined my enjoyment of them somewhat. The detailed explanations could have been included after each story, rather than before. I was also a little surprised that the same sub-division wasn’t used for the notes, of which there are many. These would have been more accessible if included at the end of each section, rather than all being at the end of the book. These are mere quibbles, though. The selection of stories demonstrates the evolution of Grossman’s writing and shows his fondness for realism. Most of the stories are accompanied by details of the real incidents that they fictionalise. They have strong historical as well as literary appeal. Within the contexts of Nazi occupation and Stalinist terror, Grossman demonstrates a particular interest in mother-child bonds and the welfare of animals. Perhaps he feels that children and animals are the most vulnerable, voiceless, and blameless in such terrible situations and therefore events should be seen from their perspective?
Vasily Grossman is, in my opinion, one of the very best writers of the 20th century. His treatment of the worst crimes against humanity is unparalleled. He describes vividly without aestheticising; he personalises without narrowing perspective; he conveys evil astutely without simplifying it. It is impossible not to admire him for looking directly at these horrors without losing all hope for humanity. In all the pieces collected here, love and the human soul are transcendent and indestructible. I am giving this collection four stars because the way it is structured doesn’t present Grossman's work quite as well as it could; his actual writing is magnificent. I would like to read a book of his short stories and a biography separately, to get the full effect of each. Here the reader is presented with a combination.
December 14, 2025
Terrifying stories & essays or letter 🫠 . All of them are not fiction. The horror he found in "The Hell of Treblinka" that led to the Nuremberg Trials ( Nov 20, 1945 – Oct 1, 1946) i mean i have no words!
The letter for his dead mom got me in my feelings, the loss is heartbreaking.
The letter for his dead mom got me in my feelings, the loss is heartbreaking.
August 21, 2025
Unele dintre povestirile cuprinse în volum nu sunt suficient de memorabile, însă mare parte dintre ele creionează niște trăiri ale personajelor de-a dreptul remarcabile, fără ca autorul să exagereze cu descrierea. Cât despre Iadul din Treblinka...este fără doar și poate cel mai îngrozitor text (cu spirit documentar) pe care l-am citit despre oroarea lagărului nazist. Trebuie să ai stomac pentru așa ceva, dacă el a avut stomacul să aștearnă-n scris adevărul acesta.
Și după un timp, fiica, colegii și prietenii au încetat să mai creadă în însănătoșirea lui Dmitri Petrovici și drept urmare, și-au pierdut interesul pentru el. Odată ce omul nu se poate vindeca, trebuie să moară. Cîtă cruzime! Pentru cei din jurul său sensul existenței unui om bolnav fără speranță era doar moartea; viața unui om bolnav sortit pieirii nu preocupa pe nimeni. Interesele unui om bolnav fără speranță nu puteau coincide cu interesele unor oameni sănătoși. Viața lui nu putea produce nici un fel de evenimente, de acțiuni, de fapte - nici la serviciu, nici printre vânători, nici printre prieteni, care se obișnuișeră să converseze cu el, să bea votcă, nici în viața fiicei. Însă moartea lui putea deveni cauza anumitor evenimente, schimbări și chiar conflicte.
Existența lui fără speranță interesa un singur om, numai pe Alexandra Andreevna. El simțea asta negreșit, fără nici o umbră de îndoială, surprindea pe fața ei undele de bucurie sau de îngrijorare dacă el îi spunea că gâfâie mai puțin și ziua nu are dureri în piept sau dacă a avut un spasm și a luat nitroglicerină. Ea avea nevoie de el chiar fiind bolnav fără speranță, dar nu numai nevoie, îi era indispensabil! [Vasili Grossman]
March 30, 2017
În limba română - http://bombitaluivladmusatescu.blogsp...
In English - http://bombitaluivladmusatescuenglish...
In English - http://bombitaluivladmusatescuenglish...
October 28, 2014
الطريق كتاب يروي عن سيرة الكاتب الروسي فاسيلي غروسمان ( 12-كانون الأول 1905-14-أيلول 1964) وأهم أعماله . كما احتوى على بعض من انتاجاته الأدبية والفكرية (قصص قصيرة، مقالات، رسائل وتأملات).
يعد فاسيلي غروسمان واحد من أهم كتاب القرن العشرين .عانى من الإهمال لعقود طويلة ولكن عاود نجمه في الظهور مع مطلع الألفية الجديدة وذلك للأهمية الفكرية والأدبية الكبيرة التي تحتلها أعماله على خارطة الأدب العالمي .
ولد "فاسيلي غروسمان" في بلدة "برديتشيف" إحدى مدن أوكرانيا ذات الغالبية اليهودية عام 1905. ينحدر والداه من أصول يهودية، واسمه في الأصل إيوسيف( يوسف)، ولكن كونهما روسيان للغاية ناداه باسم فاسيلي وهو ما عرف به.
كان والده سيميون أو سيبوفيتش ناشطاً سياسياً.
درس فاسيلي الكيمياء في جامعة موسكو من عام (1923-1929)، وكان والده مهندسا كيميائيا كذلك . بعد تخرجه من الجامعة عمل فاسيلي لمدة عامين في مجال تعدين الفحم في أوكرانيا ، ثم مدرس كيمياء في معهد طبي . وبعد تشخيصه بالسل عام 1931 عاد الى موسكو . لكن التشخيص كان خاطئاً. ومن هنا بدأت رحلة فاسيلي في عالم الكتابة، حيث يعود الفضل لابنة خالته ناديا ألمظ وذلك لسعة علاقاتها والتي كانت أيضاً مصدر الهام له، و شجعته على الكتابة ونشر أولى مقالاته، احداها في صحيفة البرافدا، وهي صحيفة الحزب الشيوعية الرئيسية . وفي عام1934 نشرت اول قصة لفاسيلي في صحيفة جازيتا الأدبية بعنوان " في بلدة بيرديتشيف" وحازت على إعجاب كتاب مختلفين كأمثال مكسيم غوركي ، إسحاق بابل و بوريس بيلينياك.
في الساعات الاولى من الثاني والعشرين من حزيران عام 1941 غزى هتلر الاتحاد السوفياتي . فتطوع فاسيلي للخدمة في صفوف الجيش وتم تعيينه بدلا من ذلك في صحيفة النجمة الحمراء التابعة للجيش السوفييتي( الذي عرف باسم الجيش الأحمر) عرف عنه التزامه الصادق تجاه القضية السوفياتية. فكان من أشهر مراسلي الحرب السوفياتية .
من الشخصيات التي تأثر بها فاسيلي غروسمان إسحاق بابل، دانتي أليغيري ، بيتهوفن، رافائيل ، غوته والكاتب الفرنسي موبسان ، ليو تولستوي، وكان أكثر كاتب أحبه تشيخوف .
كانت أغلب كتاباته عن الصراع الإنساني والألم والعنف ومأساة الحياة. جحيم تريبلنيكا هو من أشهر المقالات التي كتبها ونشرت حول قضية المجاعة (هولودومور) والتعذيب والإبادة الجماعية التي تعرض لها اليهود والمساجين في معسكر تريبلنيكا في أوكرانيا.
( تريبلنيكا يضم معسكران أحدهما يضم مساجين من جنسيات مختلفة وخاصة البولنديون والآخر هو معسكر لليهود) .
وكذلك مقال عذراء سيستين المستوحاة من رائعة رافائيل" عذراء كنيسة سيستين" الملهمة.
هنا يزاوج روح الفن بهجير الروح الغائرة في دمامل الذاكرة. باحثاً عن قوة الإيمان في الاستشفاء من شقاء الذاكرة.
وصف في هذا المقال عذابات الروح المسكونة بجروح الأرض، وكيف لها أن تتصالح مع النفس وتصفو بعد ماعانته من عذاب وألم في معسكرات الموت في أوكرانيا. وهل الى سبيل من انفصال بعد أن صهرها العذاب؟!
وكيف للإنسان المصلوب أن يستعيد إنسانيته في هذا الوجود الموبوء؟ وهل من حياة؟
تميّز فاسيلي غروسمان بواقعية أعماله. وعرف عنه حرصه الشديد بالاختلاط بالناس لتدوين المعلومات والحقائق. ربما لذلك غلب على معظم أعماله التي يتضمنها هذا الكتاب تحديداً، أسلوب التقرير السردي. حقيقةً هو أقرب إلى أن يكون روائي ومؤرخ لوقائع وجرائم الحرب النازية على السوفييت، وما تعرض له الانسان من امتهان وسحق خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية.
-لغته بسيطة في جذرها عميقة في انسانيتها.
من أشهر أعماله:
-الكتاب الأسود وهو وثائقي عن شهادات مجازر اليهود على كلا الأراضي السوفييتية والبولندية.
-"الحياة والقدر " وهي رواية ملحمية تدور أحداثها خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية، حول الحب والحرية .
-ورواية ستالينغراد التي تدور أحداثها حول قصص الحرب في ستالينغراد إبان الحرب العالمية الثانية . وهي من أشهر الحروب التاريخية، ومن أكبر المعارك دموية في تاريخ الحروب . حيث نشبت خلال الحملة العسكرية الألمانية على الاتحاد السوفياتي، واستمرت حوالي 6 أشهر بين 21 آب 1942 و 2 شباط 1943. وقدرت الخسائر البشرية ب-2 مليون ضحية.
-" في بلدة بيرديتشيف" وهي قصة تدور أحداثها أثناء الحرب السوفييتية البولندية، والتي خاضتها روسيا مع أوكرانيا ضد بولندا مابين (شباط1919-آذار1921).
- "الحياة والمصير" وهي تتمة لرواية" من أجل قضية عادلة" وتعد تحفة فاسيلي الخالدة والتي نشرت بعد وفاته بأكثر من عشر سنوات لحساسية الرواية التي كان أحد مواضيعها الرئيسية عن الهوية النازية و الستالينية والتي كانت سبباً في عدم نشرها في حياته لتسلط أجهزة الأمن الاستخبارية على كل ما ينشر، حيث تم مصادرة عدة مخطوطات للرواية، ولكن من حسن حظه أنه ترك نسخة مطبوعة بالكامل لصديقه ليبكين، والمخطوطة الأصلية لدى صديق الدراسة ليوليا كليستوفا. لقد عانى فاسيلي غروسمان جراء ذلك كثيرا وتدهورت أوضاعه الصحية والنفسية، وصرّح قائلاً :" لقد حبسوني في زاوية مظلمة".
تولى ليبكين أمر نشرها بعد وفاته في الغرب. حيث عارضت في البداية عدة دور نشر قبول الرواية، حتى قبل بها أخيراً فلاديمير ديميتريفيتش وهو صربي يعمل لصالح دار نشر سويسرية، فنشرت لأول مرة في عام 1977.ثم نشرت لاحقاًً نشر روسي شبه كامل في عام 1980.
- " كل شيئ يتداعى"تعد آخر الروايات التي كتبها غروسمان وهو على فراش المرض ، وهي رواية غير مكتملة .
- " كل شيء يمضي" وهي رواية ترجمة مؤخراً للعربية بواسطة هيفاء القحطاني.
ومن أعماله الأخرى كذلك :
- " ستيبان كولتشوغين"
" السعادة"1935 ، " أربعة أيام" 1936و
" قصص" 1937.
ضم هذا الكتاب مجموعة قصص قصيرة تراوحت في المستوى بين الجيدة والرائعة. وكانت كالتالي : "الإلكة، ماما، مساحة العيش، الطريق، الكلبة المرقطة و في مدينة كيسلوفودسك." اتسمت جميعها برهافة الحس الإنساني لديه.
كما عرف عنه تأثره الشديد بعالم الحيوان ، ويظهر ذلك جلياً في القص.
إن رسائل فاسيلي لوالدته المتوفاة كانت أكثر ما أثار الشجن في نفسي . رأيت الغيم في عينيه.
هذا الكتاب يعد مدخل رائع، في التعرف على حياة وسيرة فاسيلي غروسمان وإسهاماته في الأدب.
شكرًا سمية العفاس على الترجمة الرائعة.
يعد فاسيلي غروسمان واحد من أهم كتاب القرن العشرين .عانى من الإهمال لعقود طويلة ولكن عاود نجمه في الظهور مع مطلع الألفية الجديدة وذلك للأهمية الفكرية والأدبية الكبيرة التي تحتلها أعماله على خارطة الأدب العالمي .
ولد "فاسيلي غروسمان" في بلدة "برديتشيف" إحدى مدن أوكرانيا ذات الغالبية اليهودية عام 1905. ينحدر والداه من أصول يهودية، واسمه في الأصل إيوسيف( يوسف)، ولكن كونهما روسيان للغاية ناداه باسم فاسيلي وهو ما عرف به.
كان والده سيميون أو سيبوفيتش ناشطاً سياسياً.
درس فاسيلي الكيمياء في جامعة موسكو من عام (1923-1929)، وكان والده مهندسا كيميائيا كذلك . بعد تخرجه من الجامعة عمل فاسيلي لمدة عامين في مجال تعدين الفحم في أوكرانيا ، ثم مدرس كيمياء في معهد طبي . وبعد تشخيصه بالسل عام 1931 عاد الى موسكو . لكن التشخيص كان خاطئاً. ومن هنا بدأت رحلة فاسيلي في عالم الكتابة، حيث يعود الفضل لابنة خالته ناديا ألمظ وذلك لسعة علاقاتها والتي كانت أيضاً مصدر الهام له، و شجعته على الكتابة ونشر أولى مقالاته، احداها في صحيفة البرافدا، وهي صحيفة الحزب الشيوعية الرئيسية . وفي عام1934 نشرت اول قصة لفاسيلي في صحيفة جازيتا الأدبية بعنوان " في بلدة بيرديتشيف" وحازت على إعجاب كتاب مختلفين كأمثال مكسيم غوركي ، إسحاق بابل و بوريس بيلينياك.
في الساعات الاولى من الثاني والعشرين من حزيران عام 1941 غزى هتلر الاتحاد السوفياتي . فتطوع فاسيلي للخدمة في صفوف الجيش وتم تعيينه بدلا من ذلك في صحيفة النجمة الحمراء التابعة للجيش السوفييتي( الذي عرف باسم الجيش الأحمر) عرف عنه التزامه الصادق تجاه القضية السوفياتية. فكان من أشهر مراسلي الحرب السوفياتية .
من الشخصيات التي تأثر بها فاسيلي غروسمان إسحاق بابل، دانتي أليغيري ، بيتهوفن، رافائيل ، غوته والكاتب الفرنسي موبسان ، ليو تولستوي، وكان أكثر كاتب أحبه تشيخوف .
كانت أغلب كتاباته عن الصراع الإنساني والألم والعنف ومأساة الحياة. جحيم تريبلنيكا هو من أشهر المقالات التي كتبها ونشرت حول قضية المجاعة (هولودومور) والتعذيب والإبادة الجماعية التي تعرض لها اليهود والمساجين في معسكر تريبلنيكا في أوكرانيا.
( تريبلنيكا يضم معسكران أحدهما يضم مساجين من جنسيات مختلفة وخاصة البولنديون والآخر هو معسكر لليهود) .
وكذلك مقال عذراء سيستين المستوحاة من رائعة رافائيل" عذراء كنيسة سيستين" الملهمة.
هنا يزاوج روح الفن بهجير الروح الغائرة في دمامل الذاكرة. باحثاً عن قوة الإيمان في الاستشفاء من شقاء الذاكرة.
وصف في هذا المقال عذابات الروح المسكونة بجروح الأرض، وكيف لها أن تتصالح مع النفس وتصفو بعد ماعانته من عذاب وألم في معسكرات الموت في أوكرانيا. وهل الى سبيل من انفصال بعد أن صهرها العذاب؟!
وكيف للإنسان المصلوب أن يستعيد إنسانيته في هذا الوجود الموبوء؟ وهل من حياة؟
تميّز فاسيلي غروسمان بواقعية أعماله. وعرف عنه حرصه الشديد بالاختلاط بالناس لتدوين المعلومات والحقائق. ربما لذلك غلب على معظم أعماله التي يتضمنها هذا الكتاب تحديداً، أسلوب التقرير السردي. حقيقةً هو أقرب إلى أن يكون روائي ومؤرخ لوقائع وجرائم الحرب النازية على السوفييت، وما تعرض له الانسان من امتهان وسحق خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية.
-لغته بسيطة في جذرها عميقة في انسانيتها.
من أشهر أعماله:
-الكتاب الأسود وهو وثائقي عن شهادات مجازر اليهود على كلا الأراضي السوفييتية والبولندية.
-"الحياة والقدر " وهي رواية ملحمية تدور أحداثها خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية، حول الحب والحرية .
-ورواية ستالينغراد التي تدور أحداثها حول قصص الحرب في ستالينغراد إبان الحرب العالمية الثانية . وهي من أشهر الحروب التاريخية، ومن أكبر المعارك دموية في تاريخ الحروب . حيث نشبت خلال الحملة العسكرية الألمانية على الاتحاد السوفياتي، واستمرت حوالي 6 أشهر بين 21 آب 1942 و 2 شباط 1943. وقدرت الخسائر البشرية ب-2 مليون ضحية.
-" في بلدة بيرديتشيف" وهي قصة تدور أحداثها أثناء الحرب السوفييتية البولندية، والتي خاضتها روسيا مع أوكرانيا ضد بولندا مابين (شباط1919-آذار1921).
- "الحياة والمصير" وهي تتمة لرواية" من أجل قضية عادلة" وتعد تحفة فاسيلي الخالدة والتي نشرت بعد وفاته بأكثر من عشر سنوات لحساسية الرواية التي كان أحد مواضيعها الرئيسية عن الهوية النازية و الستالينية والتي كانت سبباً في عدم نشرها في حياته لتسلط أجهزة الأمن الاستخبارية على كل ما ينشر، حيث تم مصادرة عدة مخطوطات للرواية، ولكن من حسن حظه أنه ترك نسخة مطبوعة بالكامل لصديقه ليبكين، والمخطوطة الأصلية لدى صديق الدراسة ليوليا كليستوفا. لقد عانى فاسيلي غروسمان جراء ذلك كثيرا وتدهورت أوضاعه الصحية والنفسية، وصرّح قائلاً :" لقد حبسوني في زاوية مظلمة".
تولى ليبكين أمر نشرها بعد وفاته في الغرب. حيث عارضت في البداية عدة دور نشر قبول الرواية، حتى قبل بها أخيراً فلاديمير ديميتريفيتش وهو صربي يعمل لصالح دار نشر سويسرية، فنشرت لأول مرة في عام 1977.ثم نشرت لاحقاًً نشر روسي شبه كامل في عام 1980.
- " كل شيئ يتداعى"تعد آخر الروايات التي كتبها غروسمان وهو على فراش المرض ، وهي رواية غير مكتملة .
- " كل شيء يمضي" وهي رواية ترجمة مؤخراً للعربية بواسطة هيفاء القحطاني.
ومن أعماله الأخرى كذلك :
- " ستيبان كولتشوغين"
" السعادة"1935 ، " أربعة أيام" 1936و
" قصص" 1937.
ضم هذا الكتاب مجموعة قصص قصيرة تراوحت في المستوى بين الجيدة والرائعة. وكانت كالتالي : "الإلكة، ماما، مساحة العيش، الطريق، الكلبة المرقطة و في مدينة كيسلوفودسك." اتسمت جميعها برهافة الحس الإنساني لديه.
كما عرف عنه تأثره الشديد بعالم الحيوان ، ويظهر ذلك جلياً في القص.
إن رسائل فاسيلي لوالدته المتوفاة كانت أكثر ما أثار الشجن في نفسي . رأيت الغيم في عينيه.
هذا الكتاب يعد مدخل رائع، في التعرف على حياة وسيرة فاسيلي غروسمان وإسهاماته في الأدب.
شكرًا سمية العفاس على الترجمة الرائعة.
September 28, 2016
No, this is not Cormac McCarthy's fictional Apocalypse. It is the real Apocalypse. Vasily Grossman was a writer of the Soviet period. Like Isaac Babel, that other balding, Jewish short story writer of the period, Grossman attached himself to the Red Army in war. Grossman was a bit younger, so his journalism covers the World War II that the executed Babel did not live to see. Grossman's masterwork is "Life and Fate", one of those rejected novels that survived all the efforts of Soviet intelligence agencies to suppress it. The sequence on Jews being sent to a camp is the single most heartrending piece of fiction I have ever read. In "The Road", Robert Chandler has collected the fiction and some journalism, arranged by period with short, helpful introductory essays. The early short stories show him developing the unsentimental examination of Soviet society that he would later refine in his later work. It is in the second section that this collection gathers blistering force, especially with "The Old Teacher", a short story that imagines the death of his mother in a German massacre in the Ukraine. His reporting from Treblinka is almost unreadable in its precise and vivid description of how the Nazis organized the labor and extermination camp. Grossman knew whereof he wrote; he was at the camp shortly after liberation, and interviewed neighbors, escapees, and even German staff. He rarely editorialized, but in one passage he made his contribution to the debate over how Nazism and its criminal enterprise could possibly have developed: "A particular kind of State does not appear out of nowhere. What engenders a particular regime is the material and ideological relations existing among a country's citizens. It is to these material and ideological relations that we need to devote serious thought; the nature of these relations is what should appall us." When he wrote those words, he might have had the Soviet regime in mind as well. Like anyone in Moscow in the bloody thirties, he knew people who had been arrested and executed; he adopted his lover's two sons after their father's execution and her arrest, and he wrote on her behalf to Nikolay Yezhov, Stalin's chief of intelligence (Anna Akhmatova, at the beginning of her great poem "Requiem" refers to the state's brutal campaign as the "Yezhovschina"). The late stories touch on that brutality, sometime obliquely, from the perspective of animals. In "Mama" he wrote from the perspective of Yezhov's adopted daughter (both her parents were executed). "Living Space" is about a dedicated servant of the state and her difficulty returning to normal life after long years in the Gulag. The story "In Kislodovsk" returns to the German occupation, with doctor and his wife, who live a comfortable life even under the occupation and anticipate that they will continue to do so, only to find out that their comfort has a very high price. The volume ends with two letters that Grossman spent years writing to his late mother, and a thoughtful piece on a cemetery. The overall impression is of a highly passionate writer developing the skills to control his emotions without sacrificing his moral vision. No writer I have read had a better sense, in both "Life and Fate" and these stories, of the high price of sacrificing principle to save oneself--but also of refusing to compromise in those circumstances. The kind of double life that Grossman had to lead in order to survive is revealed in an incident as he lay dying. Anna Berzer went to visit him in the hospital and when he woke from a dream, Grossman uttered the following: "They took me off for interrogation during the night. I didn't betray anyone, did I?"
March 19, 2013
yet another masterful book of Grossman's work.
This contains his shorter stories from the duration of his writing life and includes his first published work 'In the Town of Berdichev' as well as his rapidly written 'The Hell of Treblinka'. also included are 'The Cistine Madonna', 'The Elk', 'Mama', the titled 'The Road', 'The Dog', 'In Kislovodsk', 'In Eternal Rest' as well as the letters Grossman wrote to his deceased mother on the 10th and 20th anniversary of her death at the hands of Nazi death squads.
There are those that might try to dismiss Grossman as a mere journalist without reading the two great books of his. Grossman was a journalist for Red Star for some time. The clarity and pathos of his writing however is something beyond mere journalism. This is a writer deeply committed to life and able to show and tell, and to be able to elucidate all human values to the reader. His eye for detail is remarkable whilst his ability to convey nuance with a well tuned phrase or by an omission when one might expect to see something, speak volumes and volumes for the man.
That there is not more of hias writing is a tragedy and we have to thank perestroika for the release of Life and Fate let alone some of the short stories here.
Every one of these pieces of writing is gem-like. Whether it is thew fact based 'Treblinka' or the pure almost surreal fantasy of the Road and The Dog, there is much here to be lapped up and to savour. This is food for thinking readers.
This copy is greatly enhanced by the notes and researches of the main translators Robert and Elizabeth Chandler. Whenever they are associated with a Russian work you can guarantee that they have gone the extra verst to convey the best possible sense that the author was trying to get across.
This contains his shorter stories from the duration of his writing life and includes his first published work 'In the Town of Berdichev' as well as his rapidly written 'The Hell of Treblinka'. also included are 'The Cistine Madonna', 'The Elk', 'Mama', the titled 'The Road', 'The Dog', 'In Kislovodsk', 'In Eternal Rest' as well as the letters Grossman wrote to his deceased mother on the 10th and 20th anniversary of her death at the hands of Nazi death squads.
There are those that might try to dismiss Grossman as a mere journalist without reading the two great books of his. Grossman was a journalist for Red Star for some time. The clarity and pathos of his writing however is something beyond mere journalism. This is a writer deeply committed to life and able to show and tell, and to be able to elucidate all human values to the reader. His eye for detail is remarkable whilst his ability to convey nuance with a well tuned phrase or by an omission when one might expect to see something, speak volumes and volumes for the man.
That there is not more of hias writing is a tragedy and we have to thank perestroika for the release of Life and Fate let alone some of the short stories here.
Every one of these pieces of writing is gem-like. Whether it is thew fact based 'Treblinka' or the pure almost surreal fantasy of the Road and The Dog, there is much here to be lapped up and to savour. This is food for thinking readers.
This copy is greatly enhanced by the notes and researches of the main translators Robert and Elizabeth Chandler. Whenever they are associated with a Russian work you can guarantee that they have gone the extra verst to convey the best possible sense that the author was trying to get across.
September 1, 2014
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ما من كتاب أقرأه فتمتدّ من بين صفحاته أنامل وهمية تعزف على وتر إحساسي فيطربني الشجن ويترنّح الحزن ثملاً بين ضلوعي، حتى يسقط ��لى أرصفة إنسانيتي فتثور المدامع ويضجّ الألم، إلا ويحفنّي اليقين من كل جانب بأن الكتابات العظيمة ما هي إلا تلك التي جاءت من رحم المعاناة وانبثقت من جبين المآسي شمساً تضيء لنا الدرب التي غشاها ظلام الإنسان وظلمه، وأن لا شيء أبلغ من قول تخطّه الأقلام عن فعلٍ ألجم الألسنة وعجز عنه الإفصاح والبيان.
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لم أكن أعرف من هو #فاسيلي_غروسمان قبل اقتناء هذا الكتاب والذي رشحّه لي أحد القرّاء الأفاضل . بعد القراءة لمست كم من الإنسانية تقطن روح هذا الكاتب الصحفي الروسي من أصول يهودية. تتجلّى عاطفته في القصص القصيرة التي كان يبثّ من خلالها قيم إنسانية عظيمة. تناول الوفاء الذي لا تتوانى الزوجة عن تقديمه لزوجها المريض المُقعد. والطفلة التي وُلدت بأمومة لا طائل لها تنفثها في صدور المذعورين وتؤمّن روعهم في حين يظنها البالغون أشدّهم رعباً. تحدّث برقّة عن أولئك الذين تربطهم بكل م�� حولهم حميمية تجعل الحياة هانئة في عقر الجحيم.
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يضمّ الكتاب مقالات ورسائل وقصص قصيرة للكاتب. واحد من تلك المقالات جعل للوجع في أعماقي أزيزاً وهزيم. كان ذلك مقال "جحيم تريبلينكا" والذي كتب فيه #فاسيلي_غروسمان تقريراً مفصّلاً عن تريبلينكا وهو أحد معسكرات الجيوش النازية التي أُنشئت خصيصاً لإبادة اليهود آنذاك. كان من أبشع ما قرأت على الإطلاق.
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هذا الكتاب سيجعلك تدرك كم من الأعمال العظيمة على الضفة الأخرى من أنهار الأدب العالمي لا زلنا عاجزين عن الوصول إليها والإلمام بها لجهلنا وكسلنا والاكتفاء بالانتظار لحين أن تُترجم وتلك عقبة أخرى ليس من السهل اجتيازها غالباً.
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تجدر الإشارة إلى أن ترجمة هذا العمل ممتازة ورائعة جداً. لغته الأم "الروسية"، ونقلته عن الإنجليزية سمية عبدالعزيز العفاس. شكراً سمية، فخورة بكِ ❤
أخيراً هو بلا شك #كتاب_أنصح_به
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ما من كتاب أقرأه فتمتدّ من بين صفحاته أنامل وهمية تعزف على وتر إحساسي فيطربني الشجن ويترنّح الحزن ثملاً بين ضلوعي، حتى يسقط ��لى أرصفة إنسانيتي فتثور المدامع ويضجّ الألم، إلا ويحفنّي اليقين من كل جانب بأن الكتابات العظيمة ما هي إلا تلك التي جاءت من رحم المعاناة وانبثقت من جبين المآسي شمساً تضيء لنا الدرب التي غشاها ظلام الإنسان وظلمه، وأن لا شيء أبلغ من قول تخطّه الأقلام عن فعلٍ ألجم الألسنة وعجز عنه الإفصاح والبيان.
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لم أكن أعرف من هو #فاسيلي_غروسمان قبل اقتناء هذا الكتاب والذي رشحّه لي أحد القرّاء الأفاضل . بعد القراءة لمست كم من الإنسانية تقطن روح هذا الكاتب الصحفي الروسي من أصول يهودية. تتجلّى عاطفته في القصص القصيرة التي كان يبثّ من خلالها قيم إنسانية عظيمة. تناول الوفاء الذي لا تتوانى الزوجة عن تقديمه لزوجها المريض المُقعد. والطفلة التي وُلدت بأمومة لا طائل لها تنفثها في صدور المذعورين وتؤمّن روعهم في حين يظنها البالغون أشدّهم رعباً. تحدّث برقّة عن أولئك الذين تربطهم بكل م�� حولهم حميمية تجعل الحياة هانئة في عقر الجحيم.
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يضمّ الكتاب مقالات ورسائل وقصص قصيرة للكاتب. واحد من تلك المقالات جعل للوجع في أعماقي أزيزاً وهزيم. كان ذلك مقال "جحيم تريبلينكا" والذي كتب فيه #فاسيلي_غروسمان تقريراً مفصّلاً عن تريبلينكا وهو أحد معسكرات الجيوش النازية التي أُنشئت خصيصاً لإبادة اليهود آنذاك. كان من أبشع ما قرأت على الإطلاق.
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هذا الكتاب سيجعلك تدرك كم من الأعمال العظيمة على الضفة الأخرى من أنهار الأدب العالمي لا زلنا عاجزين عن الوصول إليها والإلمام بها لجهلنا وكسلنا والاكتفاء بالانتظار لحين أن تُترجم وتلك عقبة أخرى ليس من السهل اجتيازها غالباً.
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تجدر الإشارة إلى أن ترجمة هذا العمل ممتازة ورائعة جداً. لغته الأم "الروسية"، ونقلته عن الإنجليزية سمية عبدالعزيز العفاس. شكراً سمية، فخورة بكِ ❤
أخيراً هو بلا شك #كتاب_أنصح_به
January 7, 2013
Soul crushingly heavy and brutal, The Hell of Treblinka will send most fleeing in fear and nausea at the depths of human depravity. It’s hard to believe that such animals share the same general DNA as the man who writes of such horrors. When Grossman stops being a mere reporter and lets his inner-Platonov soar – Grossman takes flight. This book juxtaposes human beauty with cruelty so effectively that the reader is left an exhausted shambling mess. I would imagine most people would not even bother with another slog through the piles of refuse that remain from the WWII Nazi camps, what else is there to know? How many times can it be brought to mind? But reading Grossman gave me the idea that any contemporary man should feel obligated to know about such atrocities if it can insure that it’s never repeated. Grossman’s work should tune the potential for compassion in any thinking and caring human and that value alone should qualify this as mandatory reading. The pro-Soviet themes seem dangerously flawed in retrospect. Read Shalomov for example if you are interested in comparing the capacity of cruelty in German versus Russians, and ask some Poles what they have to say about both. But, had Grossman not framed his books in such a context his work and probably he himself would not have been able to exist at all.
The Road covers more than just camps – it also contains an art historical essay and two letters to his deceased mother that should leave just about any reader a blubbering mess. Don’t be shy – you’ll be rewarded for your ability to face the horrors of life in such stark terms. I really enjoyed his later writing that clearly shows the influence of friend Andrei Platonov. The Elk, for example is a beautiful piece of radiant natural writing that is almost lysergic in its pulsing clarity. Like Platonov, it is when Grossman connects most effectively with nature that he creates a rutilant radiance that is delightful to behold.
The Road covers more than just camps – it also contains an art historical essay and two letters to his deceased mother that should leave just about any reader a blubbering mess. Don’t be shy – you’ll be rewarded for your ability to face the horrors of life in such stark terms. I really enjoyed his later writing that clearly shows the influence of friend Andrei Platonov. The Elk, for example is a beautiful piece of radiant natural writing that is almost lysergic in its pulsing clarity. Like Platonov, it is when Grossman connects most effectively with nature that he creates a rutilant radiance that is delightful to behold.
Read
December 3, 2019Yeah it took me over a year to finish this because...Grossman makes the intolerable even more painful, more raw, more real. "The Hell of Treblinka" is just gutting, published a couple of months after the Soviet Army made it to what was a camp but was by then just a crime scene. Not a burial ground because the Nazis had exhumed the hundreds of thousands of bodies to burn them so that they could deny everything later.
January 28, 2020
Extraordinarily powerful. “The Hell of Treblinka” and “The Road” are two pieces here which can pierce the heart. The first is quite possibly the most direct, most terrifying account of the Shoah I have ever read. The second, a short story, is equally remarkable but in very different ways. It reminded me of Robert Bresson’s film, “Au Hasard Balthazar,” also with a donkey as a “character” in it. These two men could not have known each other, but there are echoes of certain sentiments in each.
The war in the Soviet Union is reflected in Grossman’s writings, and his work did not find favor with the authorities in many cases.
The NYRB is to be commended for bringing this book and others to a larger public.
The war in the Soviet Union is reflected in Grossman’s writings, and his work did not find favor with the authorities in many cases.
The NYRB is to be commended for bringing this book and others to a larger public.
August 24, 2017
تنبيه : هذا الكتاب مؤلم جدا جدا جدا، يحدث في زمن هتلر ، لا تقرأه في حالاتك السيئة ... لكنه رااااائع ومذهل ومختلف ، لابد وأن يحرك فيك شيئا ، عالم غروسمان فاااتن جدا ، سأتمنى كثيرا من الآن أن أحصل على كل كتبه... أوصي به
April 12, 2012
The Road is a brilliant collection of short stories and journalistic articles. Grossman's skill as a journalist is demonstrated in "The Hell of Treblinka" a detailed account of the death camp that Grossman wrote using his first hand experiences and as one of the first writers to talk to survivors and put their stories into print. It is an outstanding account, detailing the horrors committed in the Nazi death camps.
The works of fiction are just as compelling, tales of patriotism and of the stuggles against oppression, always the human nature of the characters comes through. Vasily Grossman is a writer of outstanding class.
The works of fiction are just as compelling, tales of patriotism and of the stuggles against oppression, always the human nature of the characters comes through. Vasily Grossman is a writer of outstanding class.
April 19, 2015
كتاب رائع وتعرفة ممتازة لفاسيلي غروسمان، الكتاب يحتوي على مقالات وقصص ورسائل ونبذة عن حياته، وأغلبها يتركز على غزو الألمان لروسيا وتجلّت في المقال المؤلم مقال جحيم تريبيلنكا وياله من مقال! تكلم فيه عن فظائع محرقة نازية أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية، وعن مشاعر الناس وإن كانت في مقال عذراء سيستين أفضل، والكتاب بمجمله رائع وتحمست لقراءة رواية كل شيء يمضي ولعل دورها يكون قريبا بإذن الله.
October 14, 2018
ظننتها رواية ولكن الكتاب يحوي قصص قصيرة متنوعة مقسمة في اجزاء حسب مواضيعها والفترة التي كتبت فيها.
مفضلاتي من بينها هي المعلم العجوز، الطريق، والكلبة المرقطة.
مفضلاتي من بينها هي المعلم العجوز، الطريق، والكلبة المرقطة.
November 20, 2021
I’ve read several books by Vasily Grossman, going back to Life and Fate about ten years ago, quickly followed by Everything Flows, A Writer at War and The Road. I then had an inexplicable Grossman gap of about a decade till I read Stalingrad last Christmas. Maybe that gap was because it took years for Grossman’s translators to get together a publishable edition of the prequel to Life and Fate.
Anyway, this year I somehow acquired a new edition of The Road, a collection of Grossman’s short stories, journalism and letters from the 1930s to the 1960s. The centrepiece is the author’s description of the extermination camp at Treblinka (a different translation appears in A Writer at War). This horrendous account was written very soon after Grossman visited Treblinka and is based on the testimony of some of the very few survivors as well as local people that Grossman was able to interview as a war correspondent for the Red Star. The editors note that the account is not entirely accurate, as much of the detail about how the camp was run only became apparent through later research, and, of course, the Nuremburg Trials. However, Grossman’s is one of the earliest, if not the earliest published account of the mechanics of the Shoah. The fact that the tone is so dispassionate makes it all the rawer and more terrifying.
The first short story is set in Berdichev, but twenty years earlier, during the civil war. Grossman is often seen has being excessively sentimental about maternal love, but in this story a young mother chooses revolution over motherhood and leaves her new-born baby with an old couple while she rushes off to fight for communism. That story was written in the 1930s when Grossman was still making a name for himself as a patriotic pro-Soviet writer.
The tone changes in the 1940s with stories such as the The Old Man and The Teacher, both about the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine. In The Teacher, the Jews of the town are rounded up and marched to a ravine for extermination by bullet in the back of the head. The remaining townsfolk look on with a mixture of fear and indifference. Some have collaborated, and they are the ones who fear for the future as at the end of the story we hear of the partisans from the forest who are about to liberate the town.
In this edition you also get two short, heart-breaking letters that Grossman wrote to his mother nine years and twenty years after her death. She was murdered in their hometown of Berdichev in September 1941. Grossman only confirmed her death in 1944, though he must have guessed long before that she was dead, and he death haunted him for the rest of his life as he blamed himself for not doing enough to get her evacuated before the town fell to the Nazis.
It is important to note that this is not simply a book about sorrow and suffering. It is a book about the indomitability of the human spirit, and that innate resilience, the will to go on living, is perhaps best exemplified in The Road, a story about a mule, and The Dog, which as the title suggests, is about a dog. The mule survives the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The dog survives being shot into space on a rocket.
This edition has a helpful introduction to each section, detailed notes and suggestions for further reading. The introductions show what a tough life Grossman had. Of course that would have been the case for most of his compatriots living between the 1900s and the 1960s. But Grossman’s life was made additionally tough because he was a Jew and because he was a writer of integrity. The reader is reminded that there may well have been a second Holocaust, in the Soviet Union of the 1950s. All the signs are that Stalin was gearing up for what would at the very least have been a major anti-Jewish pogrom in the early 50s. Grossman himself was probably heading for the Gulag or the firing squad when Stalin had the good sense to die in 1953. Fortunately, the death of the dictator meant that Grossman survived for another decade and produced Life and Fate.
Anyway, this year I somehow acquired a new edition of The Road, a collection of Grossman’s short stories, journalism and letters from the 1930s to the 1960s. The centrepiece is the author’s description of the extermination camp at Treblinka (a different translation appears in A Writer at War). This horrendous account was written very soon after Grossman visited Treblinka and is based on the testimony of some of the very few survivors as well as local people that Grossman was able to interview as a war correspondent for the Red Star. The editors note that the account is not entirely accurate, as much of the detail about how the camp was run only became apparent through later research, and, of course, the Nuremburg Trials. However, Grossman’s is one of the earliest, if not the earliest published account of the mechanics of the Shoah. The fact that the tone is so dispassionate makes it all the rawer and more terrifying.
The first short story is set in Berdichev, but twenty years earlier, during the civil war. Grossman is often seen has being excessively sentimental about maternal love, but in this story a young mother chooses revolution over motherhood and leaves her new-born baby with an old couple while she rushes off to fight for communism. That story was written in the 1930s when Grossman was still making a name for himself as a patriotic pro-Soviet writer.
The tone changes in the 1940s with stories such as the The Old Man and The Teacher, both about the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine. In The Teacher, the Jews of the town are rounded up and marched to a ravine for extermination by bullet in the back of the head. The remaining townsfolk look on with a mixture of fear and indifference. Some have collaborated, and they are the ones who fear for the future as at the end of the story we hear of the partisans from the forest who are about to liberate the town.
In this edition you also get two short, heart-breaking letters that Grossman wrote to his mother nine years and twenty years after her death. She was murdered in their hometown of Berdichev in September 1941. Grossman only confirmed her death in 1944, though he must have guessed long before that she was dead, and he death haunted him for the rest of his life as he blamed himself for not doing enough to get her evacuated before the town fell to the Nazis.
It is important to note that this is not simply a book about sorrow and suffering. It is a book about the indomitability of the human spirit, and that innate resilience, the will to go on living, is perhaps best exemplified in The Road, a story about a mule, and The Dog, which as the title suggests, is about a dog. The mule survives the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The dog survives being shot into space on a rocket.
This edition has a helpful introduction to each section, detailed notes and suggestions for further reading. The introductions show what a tough life Grossman had. Of course that would have been the case for most of his compatriots living between the 1900s and the 1960s. But Grossman’s life was made additionally tough because he was a Jew and because he was a writer of integrity. The reader is reminded that there may well have been a second Holocaust, in the Soviet Union of the 1950s. All the signs are that Stalin was gearing up for what would at the very least have been a major anti-Jewish pogrom in the early 50s. Grossman himself was probably heading for the Gulag or the firing squad when Stalin had the good sense to die in 1953. Fortunately, the death of the dictator meant that Grossman survived for another decade and produced Life and Fate.
October 25, 2021
I’ll start by saying this is a beautiful collection from New York Review Books, including short stories in sections over Grossman’s life (the 1930’s, the war/shoah, and late stories), helpful notes and introductory sections, and some nice photographs as well. It’s fascinating to see Grossman’s evolution from writing stories which supported the Soviet government but included small subversive truths, to all-out condemnation with his blistering honesty, damning the consequences.
While there are some very nice stories/articles throughout, I’ll just briefly mention my favorites from each section, starting with “A Young Woman and an Old Woman”, which is touched with a philosophical theme of transience and the inevitable shifting of things in life. “The Hell of Treblinka”, written in 1944 when Grossman arrived there as a war correspondent and one of the very first publications in any language about a German concentration camp, is stunning. “The Elk” is a nuanced and layered story of terminal illness, with an old man pondering a cow elk he shot years ago, and his wife who researches the Russian revolutionaries of the 1870’s.
Grossman’s courage is inspiring. It seems he became more honest as time went on, in contrast to Isaac Babel, whom he admired, but who said in 1930 “Believe me … I’ve now learned to watch calmly as people are shot”, dumbfounding Grossman. He recognized and spoke out about the danger of the government labeling people and institutions “enemies of the people”, as well as the Holocaust denial implicit in the government’s position that “all nationalities had suffered equally under Hitler”, in part because Stalin “needed a new enemy in order to justify his continued dictatorship” (as Robert Chandler and Yury Bit-Yunan explain). These things cast an eerie shadow over what today’s populist leaders spew at their rallies and on Twitter. There is a darkness to Grossman’s writing, and the outrageous evil of Hitler and Stalin is a constant presence, but there is also great humanity and truth.
Quotes:
On books, and God, from “The Old Teacher”:
“He loved books – and books were not a barrier between him and life. His God was Life. And he learned about this God – a living, earthly, sinful God – by reading the works of both greater and lesser writers. All of them, as best they could, celebrated, justified, blamed, and cursed Man on this splendid earth.”
On memories, from “The Old Teacher”:
“During the night he went through his vast store of memories. He remembered the hundreds of people who had passed through his life. He remembered pupils and teachers, friends and enemies. He remembered books and student discussions; he remembered the cruel, unhappy love he had lived through sixty years before and which had cast a shadow over his whole life. He remembered years of wandering and years of labor. He remembered his spiritual vacillations – from a passionate, frenzied religiosity to a cold, clear atheism. He remembered heated, fanatical arguments in which no one would yield.”
On the Nazis, from “The Hell of Treblinka”, in wondering how it had happened; it makes one consider who today’s comical charlatans are:
“Somehow the embryonic traits of a racial theory that sounded simply comic when expounded by the second-rate charlatan professors or pathetic provincial theoreticians of nineteenth-century Germany … all the nonsense about the superiority of Germans to every other race on earth, all the cheap nonsense that seemed so comical, such an easy target for journalists and humorists – all this, in the course of only a few years, ceased to seem merely infantile and was transformed into a threat to mankind.”
On transience, from “A Young Woman and an Old Woman”:
“And only when she was being driven to the dacha and buildings were appearing from nowhere, then vanishing in front of her eyes, did she feel that there wasn’t really anything so extraordinary about her existence; it was just that her life too had subordinated itself to this precipitate movement, to this swiftness that took one’s breath away.”
While there are some very nice stories/articles throughout, I’ll just briefly mention my favorites from each section, starting with “A Young Woman and an Old Woman”, which is touched with a philosophical theme of transience and the inevitable shifting of things in life. “The Hell of Treblinka”, written in 1944 when Grossman arrived there as a war correspondent and one of the very first publications in any language about a German concentration camp, is stunning. “The Elk” is a nuanced and layered story of terminal illness, with an old man pondering a cow elk he shot years ago, and his wife who researches the Russian revolutionaries of the 1870’s.
Grossman’s courage is inspiring. It seems he became more honest as time went on, in contrast to Isaac Babel, whom he admired, but who said in 1930 “Believe me … I’ve now learned to watch calmly as people are shot”, dumbfounding Grossman. He recognized and spoke out about the danger of the government labeling people and institutions “enemies of the people”, as well as the Holocaust denial implicit in the government’s position that “all nationalities had suffered equally under Hitler”, in part because Stalin “needed a new enemy in order to justify his continued dictatorship” (as Robert Chandler and Yury Bit-Yunan explain). These things cast an eerie shadow over what today’s populist leaders spew at their rallies and on Twitter. There is a darkness to Grossman’s writing, and the outrageous evil of Hitler and Stalin is a constant presence, but there is also great humanity and truth.
Quotes:
On books, and God, from “The Old Teacher”:
“He loved books – and books were not a barrier between him and life. His God was Life. And he learned about this God – a living, earthly, sinful God – by reading the works of both greater and lesser writers. All of them, as best they could, celebrated, justified, blamed, and cursed Man on this splendid earth.”
On memories, from “The Old Teacher”:
“During the night he went through his vast store of memories. He remembered the hundreds of people who had passed through his life. He remembered pupils and teachers, friends and enemies. He remembered books and student discussions; he remembered the cruel, unhappy love he had lived through sixty years before and which had cast a shadow over his whole life. He remembered years of wandering and years of labor. He remembered his spiritual vacillations – from a passionate, frenzied religiosity to a cold, clear atheism. He remembered heated, fanatical arguments in which no one would yield.”
On the Nazis, from “The Hell of Treblinka”, in wondering how it had happened; it makes one consider who today’s comical charlatans are:
“Somehow the embryonic traits of a racial theory that sounded simply comic when expounded by the second-rate charlatan professors or pathetic provincial theoreticians of nineteenth-century Germany … all the nonsense about the superiority of Germans to every other race on earth, all the cheap nonsense that seemed so comical, such an easy target for journalists and humorists – all this, in the course of only a few years, ceased to seem merely infantile and was transformed into a threat to mankind.”
On transience, from “A Young Woman and an Old Woman”:
“And only when she was being driven to the dacha and buildings were appearing from nowhere, then vanishing in front of her eyes, did she feel that there wasn’t really anything so extraordinary about her existence; it was just that her life too had subordinated itself to this precipitate movement, to this swiftness that took one’s breath away.”
August 3, 2020
É difícil um autor de gênio, mais difícil que esse autor de gênio seja alguém de grande estatura moral. Este é o caso. Para além de sua vida admirável, imensa, esses textos revelam um amor palpável pelo ser humano. Num século de vítimas, Grossman devolve-lhe sua humanidade. Temas como amor maternal, a fascinação pelo poder, o sofrimento e o afeto dos animais, a compaixão, perpassam os textos dessa coletânea. Em breve pretendo ler "Vida e Destino", a obra maior do autor. Uma descoberta muito feliz, raramente encontrei um autor com quem me identificasse tanto na forma de ver a vida.
March 23, 2025
I very moving collection of essays and short stories. The stories benefit from the writer's experience as a journalist and war correspondent. They are plainly told, but with a very human and candid style, that gives them warmth and depth. In particular, I liked "The Old Teacher" and "The Sistine Madonna".... both are poignant and unforgettable. The collection, for me, is a prelude to undertaking "Life and Fate". I now have high hopes and some perspective. Highly recommend.
July 4, 2025
A collection that is touching, devastating, and horrifying in various measures.
September 4, 2024
É complicado pegar para ler um livro desses depois de ler "A guerra não tem rosto de mulher", da Svetlana Alexijevich, cujo tema é relativamente parecido. Primeiro, porque no início de sua carreira como escritor percebe-se em Vassili uma veia propagandista que é tremendamente irritante, coisa que Svetlana não ousa inserir nos relatos da 2º Guerra Mundial que apurou. E mesmo que se diga que são gêneros textuais diferentes, uma vez que "A Estrada" é um livro de contos e "A guerra não tem rosto de mulher" de relatos documentais, preciso confessar que Grossman me parece mais um documentarista histórico do que necessariamente um contista. Mesmo os contos mais maduros e menos influenciados pelo governo soviético não contém nada que os sobressaia além do ordinário, pelo menos do ponto de vista literário. Seu conteúdo histórico certamente é pungente e devastador. Para mim, a vida de Vassili Grossman é mais interessante do que os contos em si, e devo o conhecimento de sua biografia à excelente edição da Alfaguara. Depois da leitura, não apenas fiquei curiosa pelo seu trabalho em "Vida e Destino", como também percebi que com certeza preciso ler mais soviéticos.
January 17, 2011
This is the other half of my January affair with Conroy and now Grossman. Most of you know (I've probably talked your ear off) my favorite book of all time is Life and Fate, by Vasily Grossman, which I have now consumed twice. More recently I read Everything Flows and now The Road which is a compendium of short stories, journalism, essays and letters. Again these are writings from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Grossman's magic to me is his ability to tell a story at the common man level. For example a couple of his short stories focus on small Soviet cities which are being taken by the advancing Germans. In these hamlets, all the able bodied men, from age 17 to 50, are gone off on the war effort leaving these little hamlets with children, women (mainly moms and older women because the young women are drafted), and old men who by and large are like sheep as the all powerful (at least on the way east) Germans take over. A view new to me. Grossman who was on the front about 900 of the 1200 day war as a correspondent for the Soviet Army publication Red Star. His write-up of his visit and follow-up with survivors of Treblinka resulted in the first write up of a German killing camp. That write up alone is worth the book. It is so gripping and so beyond reality. The entire piece was read and written into the Nurenberg Trial. It left for me the question of how it was possible to recruit and train SS officers (who were very young 16-20) to be so mean--snatching a baby out of the arms of a mother and fling its head against the concrete or literally tearing the infant apart. How can you train people to do that kind of work. There are happier parts too. He wraps up with a piece about cemeteries which I found again, to be an unorthodox treatment in a way I have never thought about cemeteries. My next Grossman book will be Good Wishes "a vivid account of this two months in Armenia"
July 15, 2024
The Road is a collection of Vasily Grossman’s short stories, essays and journalism. It is a good place to start if you haven’t read anything by him before, or as an accompaniment if you are familiar with the longer works. It features writing from the 1930s, the War years and post-war, with much of his fiction based on events that he had witnessed. As well as mentioning the late 1930s terror, the stories also refer to the Ukrainian famine, the Holodomor, using an experience that is also recorded in Grossman’s journalism from the time, and it is the way his fiction is always rooted in things he had heard about or experienced himself that makes his books such vivid reads, as well as causing so many headaches for his publishers.
Read my full review - and many more - at my site ten million hardbacks
Read my full review - and many more - at my site ten million hardbacks
October 19, 2015
لم احب القصص القصيرة كما احببتها هنا ، غروسمان يذهلني للمرة التالية بعد كل شيء يمضي وان كان على مستوى اوسع هنا . هو من الكتاب الواقعيين ذو الاقلام التي تقول الحقيقة مهما كانت درجة مرارتها القراءة على كل عن العدوان النازي وتفاصيل التعصب مثير للقرف لكن فاسيلي في جحيم تريبليكنا كانت من الالم والرعب حدا كبيرا حيث اوصل الصورة كاملة بذهابه بنفسه الى تربيلكينا ليؤدي دور الكاتب تجاه ذكرى الضحايا بحفظ كل ذكراهم وايصالها كما هي للقاريء .
بعد مقال الجحيم يتحدث في مقال عذراءسيستين عن الام عن حنان اللوحة التي اخدت جولة في موسكو قبل عودتها الى ديرسيدن في المانيا .
مما اثار انتباهي جملة قالها مافائدة الفن امام الانسان الذي يقتل ويفنى وهي جملة قد قراتها لدى كزانزاكيس عن جدوى الفن امام الفقر ..؟
كتاب جميل رائع وعظيم اضعه في قائمة ما يجب ان يقرأ ..
بعد مقال الجحيم يتحدث في مقال عذراءسيستين عن الام عن حنان اللوحة التي اخدت جولة في موسكو قبل عودتها الى ديرسيدن في المانيا .
مما اثار انتباهي جملة قالها مافائدة الفن امام الانسان الذي يقتل ويفنى وهي جملة قد قراتها لدى كزانزاكيس عن جدوى الفن امام الفقر ..؟
كتاب جميل رائع وعظيم اضعه في قائمة ما يجب ان يقرأ ..
January 29, 2017
This is a miscellaneous collection of Grossman's writings: some journalism, some fiction. What shines through in both is not only the author's skill but more importantly his humanity. Grossman was certainly a good and kind man. I especially loved the earliest story here, 'In the town of Berdichev'. His work warms the heart, even in the blackest of settings, such as 'The Hell of Treblinka', a journalistic piece that was actually used in the Nuremberg Trials.
On my to-read list for 2017 is Grossman's epic Life and Fate (900+ pages). I almost never read books of this length but I feel that in Grossman's case it will be worth the effort. He's an essential author and witness to world events of the twentieth century.
On my to-read list for 2017 is Grossman's epic Life and Fate (900+ pages). I almost never read books of this length but I feel that in Grossman's case it will be worth the effort. He's an essential author and witness to world events of the twentieth century.
July 4, 2013
I believe I've now read almost everything Grossman published that has been translated into english. He's without question my favorite author of all time- I don't know if I've ever read anyone who elevates prose the heights he does- but what he writes about, whether it be the devastation of the holocaust, the horrors of living under Stalin, or life during the Battle of Stalingrad is so soul crushing that every time you put the book down you feel like Grossman has managed to strike you right at the very core of your being, and The Road is no different. Highly recommended.
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