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Люди. Годы. Жизнь. Под колесами времени
El nombre Iliá Erenburg se relaciona, en primer lugar, con el intelectual que colaboró sin reservas con el régimen soviético, y, en segundo lugar, con su amigo Vasili Grossman, con el que escribió, en colaboración con terceros, el terrible El libro negro. Novelista criticado en su país, en 1932 aceptó ser corresponsal del Izvestia en París, convirtiéndose en un relevante periodista oficial que describía a Stalin como «un capitán que permanece junto al timón … con el viento de costado, mirando la oscuridad profunda de la noche … con un enorme peso sobre sus hombros». Sus memorias, escritas al final de su vida y que hoy presentamos por primera vez íntegras al lector español, son un documento de primer orden para conocer aspectos fundamentales de la convulsa historia del siglo XX. Aunque incómodas para el régimen soviético (hasta 1990 no fueron editadas enteras y sin censura), no dejan de ser los recuerdos de alguien que, en su relación con los más relevantes intelectuales europeos, intentó atraerlos a la propaganda del comunismo. Y, a su vez, fueron también, como recuerda Nadiezhda Mandelstam, «el único de sus libros que desempeñó un papel positivo en su país», porque—afirma—abrió los ojos a una minoritaria intelligentsia.
656 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
18 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
Ilya Ehrenburg
278 books86 followersIlya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (Russian: Илья Григорьевич Эренбург) was a Soviet writer, journalist, translator, and cultural figure.
Ehrenburg is among the most prolific and notable authors of the Soviet Union; he published around one hundred titles. He became known first and foremost as a novelist and a journalist - in particular, as a reporter in three wars (First World War, Spanish Civil War and the Second World War). His articles on the Second World War have provoked intense controversies in West Germany, especially during the sixties.
The novel The Thaw (Оттепель) gave its name to an entire era of Soviet cultural politics, namely, the liberalization after the death of Joseph Stalin. Ehrenburg's travel writing also had great resonance, as did to an arguably greater extent his autobiography People, Years, Life, which may be his best known and most discussed work. The Black Book, edited by him and Vassily Grossman, has special historical significance; detailing the genocide on Soviet citizens of Jewish ancestry, it is the first great documentary work on the Holocaust.
In addition, Ehrenburg wrote a succession of works of poetry.
Ehrenburg is among the most prolific and notable authors of the Soviet Union; he published around one hundred titles. He became known first and foremost as a novelist and a journalist - in particular, as a reporter in three wars (First World War, Spanish Civil War and the Second World War). His articles on the Second World War have provoked intense controversies in West Germany, especially during the sixties.
The novel The Thaw (Оттепель) gave its name to an entire era of Soviet cultural politics, namely, the liberalization after the death of Joseph Stalin. Ehrenburg's travel writing also had great resonance, as did to an arguably greater extent his autobiography People, Years, Life, which may be his best known and most discussed work. The Black Book, edited by him and Vassily Grossman, has special historical significance; detailing the genocide on Soviet citizens of Jewish ancestry, it is the first great documentary work on the Holocaust.
In addition, Ehrenburg wrote a succession of works of poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 8, 2016
Read the 1891-1921 & 1945-1954 parts now. Amazing remembrances. I don't think I'll have time to read the 1921-41 part this year.
Anyway, he met so many amazing people & seems to have been a really intelligent and remarkable person (which is a sense I didn't get from reading The Thaw - clearly fiction wasn't his forte)...
"Today I have too many desires and not enough strength. I shall end with a confession: I hate indifference, curtained windows, harshness and the cruelty of isolation. While I was writing about friends who are no more, I sometimes stopped working, went up to the window and stood there as one stands at meeting in respectful silence for the dead; I did not look at the green laves or at the snowdrifts, I saw only the face dear to me. Many passages in these memoirs have been dictated by love. I love life; I do not repent, I do not regret what I have lived through and what I have experienced; what I regret is that there is so much that I have not done, not written; that I have not grieved and loved enough. But that is how life goes; the audience is already hurrying to the exits while on the stage the hero is still singing: 'Tomorrow it will be I...' And what will be tomorrow? Another play, a different set of characters."
"Hasek and Kafka were both born in Prague in 1883, but they spoke in voices that were utterly unlike each other; you cannot insert one of the good soldier Schweik’s soliloquies into a Kafka novel: the dissonance would be appalling. But life is not a writer; it cares nothing for unity of style; it writes one chapter with a smile, and in the next, it lacerates the soul."
Anyway, he met so many amazing people & seems to have been a really intelligent and remarkable person (which is a sense I didn't get from reading The Thaw - clearly fiction wasn't his forte)...
"Today I have too many desires and not enough strength. I shall end with a confession: I hate indifference, curtained windows, harshness and the cruelty of isolation. While I was writing about friends who are no more, I sometimes stopped working, went up to the window and stood there as one stands at meeting in respectful silence for the dead; I did not look at the green laves or at the snowdrifts, I saw only the face dear to me. Many passages in these memoirs have been dictated by love. I love life; I do not repent, I do not regret what I have lived through and what I have experienced; what I regret is that there is so much that I have not done, not written; that I have not grieved and loved enough. But that is how life goes; the audience is already hurrying to the exits while on the stage the hero is still singing: 'Tomorrow it will be I...' And what will be tomorrow? Another play, a different set of characters."
"Hasek and Kafka were both born in Prague in 1883, but they spoke in voices that were utterly unlike each other; you cannot insert one of the good soldier Schweik’s soliloquies into a Kafka novel: the dissonance would be appalling. But life is not a writer; it cares nothing for unity of style; it writes one chapter with a smile, and in the next, it lacerates the soul."
August 24, 2024
Читаю уже второй раз. Очень яркая и интересная книга, хотя конечно хорошо приправленная социализмом. Эренбург прожил яркую жизнь, много видел. Среди героев Эйнштейн и Бабель, Брюсов и Маяковский, Сезанн и Пикассо, Назым Хикмет и Михаил Кольцов. Революция, война в испании, две мировые войны. И конечно очень смело по тем временам рассказывать о расстреле Мейерхольда или Бабеля. Очень нежно и хорошо написано о любимых художниках. Очень много и четко про еврейство, евреев и антисемитизм. С учетом, что в те времена вообще про это не писали- это невероятно смело. Но очень много не договорено, а где-то и просто неправда. Но это тоже очень отражает то время
June 25, 2013
Brilliant book. There is an interesting bit where Ehrenburg is remembering his encounter with Ernest Hemingway at the Gaylord's Hotel in Madrid during Spanish Civil War. The Russian from "For Whom the Bell Tolls" called Karkov is based on Ehrenburg, whom Hemingway called "the most intelligent man he knew".
October 29, 2017
I started to read “Люди, годы, жизнь” by mistake )). I initially wanted to read “Жизнь и судьба” by Василий Гроссман (and still want to) — and mixed them up in my head )). I understood my mistake very soon but decided that I might read this stuff as well, especially considering a very unusual biography of Илья Эренбург and an interesting story of publication of these memoirs.
Well, they gave me a hard time. I mostly did not like Илья Эренбург’s personality and his pro-Soviet opinions, and his book is a collection of quite random events and people’s portraits. The majority of these people and events are absolutely not interesting for me, as well as private opinions of Илья Эренбург about them. So I mostly leafed through the book rather than read it.
Really, this book looks for me soooo unreadable and so out-of-balance (both in the sense of the art of story-telling and historical objectivity). Besides, I was disgusted by some of his opinions about historical events — for example, about the role of the Soviet army in Hungary in 1956 or about the “peace-promoting efforts” of the USSR. I also saw clearly that some of his evidence is false (and it’s difficult to say whether he censored himself or lied consciously) — such as his comparison of life in the Western and Eastern Berlin.
Nevertheless, Илья Эренбург’s memoirs contain some isolated interesting pages (although I doubt that they are a justification for reading the whole 7 volumes of this). Sometimes, he provides very cool observations about life and everyday reality (unfortunately, there are not many of such pages, but I appreciated those that I found). In particular, his stories about fantastic life in the 1920s remind me a lot of the books by Ильф & Петров — and reading this, you actually understand that Ильф & Петров did not invent these anecdotes and surreal existence, they just described what they saw around them. He was "in the front row" during such events as Berlin in 1921, when Germany was in pain and humiliation after the lost First World War and when Nazi movement was just incubating (we can see the background for all future catastrophes from Эренбург’s pictures of everyday life), or the beginning of World War Two and occupation of France (Эренбург was in France at that time). During World War Two, Эренбург was the inventor and first propagandist of the phrase “Убей немца” and the satirical term “фриц.” In the memoirs, he provided some realistic images of how the war looked like (not the stuff we saw in heroic movies). After the war, he was, again, "in the front row" of the Nurnberg process.
Among post-war parts of the memoirs, I read with especially great interest Эренбург’s notes about his travel to the USA in 1946. He is surprisingly comprehensive and objective: he describes many aspects of the USA with unprecedented (for Soviet people) open-mindedness. He acknowledges himself that these and these characteristics of their society would never be understandable and pleasant for Soviet people but they are not comical, stupid, and empty as we often see them, having no historical and cultural background of the country. And he also sincerely appreciated many and many American superior qualities (which is, again, a rarety for Soviet people). He understood the most important thing: the diversity, dynamics, and freedom of America in the best sense of the words.
Well, they gave me a hard time. I mostly did not like Илья Эренбург’s personality and his pro-Soviet opinions, and his book is a collection of quite random events and people’s portraits. The majority of these people and events are absolutely not interesting for me, as well as private opinions of Илья Эренбург about them. So I mostly leafed through the book rather than read it.
Really, this book looks for me soooo unreadable and so out-of-balance (both in the sense of the art of story-telling and historical objectivity). Besides, I was disgusted by some of his opinions about historical events — for example, about the role of the Soviet army in Hungary in 1956 or about the “peace-promoting efforts” of the USSR. I also saw clearly that some of his evidence is false (and it’s difficult to say whether he censored himself or lied consciously) — such as his comparison of life in the Western and Eastern Berlin.
Nevertheless, Илья Эренбург’s memoirs contain some isolated interesting pages (although I doubt that they are a justification for reading the whole 7 volumes of this). Sometimes, he provides very cool observations about life and everyday reality (unfortunately, there are not many of such pages, but I appreciated those that I found). In particular, his stories about fantastic life in the 1920s remind me a lot of the books by Ильф & Петров — and reading this, you actually understand that Ильф & Петров did not invent these anecdotes and surreal existence, they just described what they saw around them. He was "in the front row" during such events as Berlin in 1921, when Germany was in pain and humiliation after the lost First World War and when Nazi movement was just incubating (we can see the background for all future catastrophes from Эренбург’s pictures of everyday life), or the beginning of World War Two and occupation of France (Эренбург was in France at that time). During World War Two, Эренбург was the inventor and first propagandist of the phrase “Убей немца” and the satirical term “фриц.” In the memoirs, he provided some realistic images of how the war looked like (not the stuff we saw in heroic movies). After the war, he was, again, "in the front row" of the Nurnberg process.
Among post-war parts of the memoirs, I read with especially great interest Эренбург’s notes about his travel to the USA in 1946. He is surprisingly comprehensive and objective: he describes many aspects of the USA with unprecedented (for Soviet people) open-mindedness. He acknowledges himself that these and these characteristics of their society would never be understandable and pleasant for Soviet people but they are not comical, stupid, and empty as we often see them, having no historical and cultural background of the country. And he also sincerely appreciated many and many American superior qualities (which is, again, a rarety for Soviet people). He understood the most important thing: the diversity, dynamics, and freedom of America in the best sense of the words.
September 27, 2018
Muy recomendable el análisis que hace Iliá Ehrenburg de la España del siglo XX.
August 26, 2022
Básico y enriquecedor.
June 28, 2016
Long-winded and boring. Generally, I love memoirs, but this one is not so much a collection of reminiscences, but a political statement.
April 13, 2017
Espectacular, é difícil non perderse entre a maré de páxinas pero a de cousas que se aprenden e descubres.
Recomendable se te decidiches pola vida ascética
Recomendable se te decidiches pola vida ascética
December 26, 2020
Dobrý dobový dokument.
December 23, 2017
Este libro es una maravilla. Las memorias de un izquierdista ruso crítico, activo y atento a su época. Un relato en primera persona de todos los años entre 1890 y 1950. Una obra monumental en todas las acepciones de la palabra.
February 22, 2019
Эренбург прожил долгую жизнь, в которой было много событий. С половиной людей, которые делали историю XX века он дружил, с другой половиной приятельствовал. Только Блока он не видел. Монпарнас 1910-х в Париже, первые годы Революции, авангард, война в Испании, Вторая Мировая война, послевоенная политика. И люди, которые делали историю. В трёх томах воспоминаний есть это всё. И Эренбург - добродушный и понимающий. Он редко пишет о людях плохо.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews