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Reis door Armenie
Er zijn maar weinig schrijvers die zo veel hebben gezien van de grote tragedies van de twintigste eeuw als Vasili Grossman. Met een indrukwekkende helderheid schreef en publiceerde hij over de Holocaust en de slag om Stalingrad. Reis door Armenië, dat hij schreef met een opmerkelijk warmte, humor en spontaniteit, is verreweg zijn persoonlijkste en intiemste boek.
Een aantal maanden na de `arrestatie van zijn meesterwerk Leven en lot door de Sovjetregering nam Grossman de redactie op zich van een dikke Armeense roman. Hij was blij dat hij een excuus had om twee maanden door Armenië te reizen, en noteerde zijn indrukken van het land: het rotsachtige berglandschap, de oude kerken, de inwoners en hun gewoonten.
Reis door Armenië staat vol levendige observaties van een buitenstaander, maar bevat ook Grossmans gedachten over zijn plaats als schrijver in Rusland, over menselijke waardigheid en over zijn eigen sterfelijkheid.
Een aantal maanden na de `arrestatie van zijn meesterwerk Leven en lot door de Sovjetregering nam Grossman de redactie op zich van een dikke Armeense roman. Hij was blij dat hij een excuus had om twee maanden door Armenië te reizen, en noteerde zijn indrukken van het land: het rotsachtige berglandschap, de oude kerken, de inwoners en hun gewoonten.
Reis door Armenië staat vol levendige observaties van een buitenstaander, maar bevat ook Grossmans gedachten over zijn plaats als schrijver in Rusland, over menselijke waardigheid en over zijn eigen sterfelijkheid.
151 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 1, 2014
1 person is currently reading
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About the author
Vasily Grossman
65 books996 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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