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Stalingrad Trilogy #1
The People Immortal
"Vasily Grossman's three war novels are recognizably the work of the same writer; all display his sharp psychological insights and his gift for descriptive passages that appeal to all our different senses. Nevertheless, the goals he set himself in these novels are very different. Life and Fate is not only a novel but also a work of moral and political philosophy, focusing on the question of whether or not it is possible for someone to behave ethically even when subjected to overwhelming violence. The earlier Stalingrad is primarily a work of memorialization, a tribute to all who died during the war. The still earlier The People Immortal, set during the catastrophic defeats of the war's first months, is both a work of fiction and an important contribution to the Soviet war effort. The plot of The People Immortal is A Red Army regiment wins a minor victory in eastern Belorussia but fails to exploit this success. One battalion is then entrusted with the task of slowing the German advance, even though it is understood that this battalion will inevitably end up being encircled. The novel ends with this battalion breaking out of encirclement and joining up with the rest of the Soviet forces. The NYRB Classics edition includes not only the novel itself (supplemented with passages from Grossman's typescripts that were censored from the published version of the novel), but also a variety of background material, including appreciative letters Grossman received during the first year of the war from Soviet commissars and commanders. Share"--
353 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1942
109 people are currently reading
3135 people want to read
About the author
Vasily Grossman
68 books994 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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June 5, 2024
It’s quite strange to read The People Immortal during the current (2022) war in Ukraine. Grossman’s novel, which he wrote in 1942 while on a leave from his job as war correspondent for the Soviet Union (Grossman was one of World War II’s most important journalists), is set during the early days of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, and specifically of Ukraine and Belorussia (Grossman was born in Ukraine). The novel follows various Soviet soldiers as their army struggles to stem the Nazi tide, particularly those members of a Soviet battalion encircled by the Nazis, as well as Ukrainian civilians who face devastation and ruin when their villages are overrun. There’s some portrayal of the German soldiers, but that’s not the focus.
Grossman wrote The People Immortal to boost Soviet morale during the dark days of 1942, and so not surprisingly there is a good bit of martial rhetoric proclaiming that the Soviet people united can and will eventually defeat the Nazis, a message underscored in the novel’s title. The novel overall is not full-blown propaganda—Grossman is too good a writer for that—but there are certainly some passages that move close to it. The power of The People Immortal comes not in these passages but in Grossman’s penetrating descriptions of the war-ravaged landscape, the suffering and heroism of those engaged in war, the soldiers and civilians living in fear, excitement, and dread, often simultaneously. Grossman is a master of character development using quick and deft strokes, a skill that no doubt in part derives from his work as a journalist.
It's impossible—at least it was for me—not to read The People Immortal in the context of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Grossman’s praise of Ukrainian resistance to the Nazis calling forth the current stand of Ukrainians against the invading Russians. In several passages Grossman underscores the strength of the Ukrainian people, who unlike the Germans, are fighting to defend their homeland. Therein lies the source of their ultimate victory; and therein lies the beauty of this passage about villagers gathering at night to discuss their future: “And the evening wind in the dark leaves was the calm, twilight voice of a people that knew it must either die in slavery or fight for its freedom.” I found it impossible not to substitute Putin’s name for Hitler’s in a long passage imagining the future verdict facing Hitler in a court of nations.
This is a very fine novel, less ambitious and more focused than Grossman’s two other novels of World War II, Stalingrad and Life and Fate, both of which push toward the epic in their sweeping and panoramic narratives. If you’re new to Grossman, this is a good place to start—but it’s not the place to end if you want to experience his full artistic mastery.
Grossman wrote The People Immortal to boost Soviet morale during the dark days of 1942, and so not surprisingly there is a good bit of martial rhetoric proclaiming that the Soviet people united can and will eventually defeat the Nazis, a message underscored in the novel’s title. The novel overall is not full-blown propaganda—Grossman is too good a writer for that—but there are certainly some passages that move close to it. The power of The People Immortal comes not in these passages but in Grossman’s penetrating descriptions of the war-ravaged landscape, the suffering and heroism of those engaged in war, the soldiers and civilians living in fear, excitement, and dread, often simultaneously. Grossman is a master of character development using quick and deft strokes, a skill that no doubt in part derives from his work as a journalist.
It's impossible—at least it was for me—not to read The People Immortal in the context of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Grossman’s praise of Ukrainian resistance to the Nazis calling forth the current stand of Ukrainians against the invading Russians. In several passages Grossman underscores the strength of the Ukrainian people, who unlike the Germans, are fighting to defend their homeland. Therein lies the source of their ultimate victory; and therein lies the beauty of this passage about villagers gathering at night to discuss their future: “And the evening wind in the dark leaves was the calm, twilight voice of a people that knew it must either die in slavery or fight for its freedom.” I found it impossible not to substitute Putin’s name for Hitler’s in a long passage imagining the future verdict facing Hitler in a court of nations.
This is a very fine novel, less ambitious and more focused than Grossman’s two other novels of World War II, Stalingrad and Life and Fate, both of which push toward the epic in their sweeping and panoramic narratives. If you’re new to Grossman, this is a good place to start—but it’s not the place to end if you want to experience his full artistic mastery.
August 15, 2022
The first of Vasily Grossman’s three novels covering the events of WW2 or, for the U.S.S.R., the Great Patriotic War, and the last to be fully translated into English. It’s also the book that made him famous. I’m not suggesting this has the force or complexity of the excellent Stalingrad or its superb sequel Life and Fate but still found it impossible to put down until I’d finished it. It’s a tightly-structured, episodic piece, barely more than two hundred pages, bearing the marks of its original serialization in the Soviet military paper Krasnaya Zveda (Red Star). The paper Grossman was assigned to as a war reporter after ill health barred him from active service.
The narrative opens in summer 1941 and covers the early part of the German invasion of Belorussia and the Ukraine regions of the Soviet Union. The German forces were remarkably well-equipped, sweeping through the area at speed, and the Red Army suffered a series of monumental, humiliating defeats. Cities were firebombed, towns and villages were occupied or looted and destroyed along with their inhabitants, it was a catastrophic time for the Soviet military and for its civilians. Grossman’s story follows a Red Army regiment and a small group of local people as they struggle to deal with the brutal advance of the German army.
At its best it’s an incredibly vivid piece, almost cinematic in its detail. Beautifully paced, the action moves between bouts of fighting and brief periods of quiet in between, pausing to show the harsh realities of occupation and the intricacies of military command. As usual, Grossman’s own experiences as an eye-witness on the frontlines allows him to inject a striking intensity and immediacy into his account. But, the state of the war, the countless defeats, the largescale deaths, obviously made writing this a difficult balancing act for Grossman. He had to work within the restraints set by a broader need to boost morale, and reassure readers that eventual victory wasn’t impossible. So, he included a number of quite forced, propaganda-like passages containing rousing, nationalistic exhortations and short monologues on the glories of Lenin’s Russia – although interestingly not Stalin’s. And these definitely interrupt the flow at various points.
Yet despite the dual constraints dictated by the progress of the war and Soviet censorship, Grossman manages to produce a fairly realistic portrait of the state of affairs for the Soviet military as well as the inhabitants of the occupied zones. And, sometimes, he bursts free of his restraints altogether. So, there are, for example, brief, subtle allusions to German versus Russian anti-Semitism and the fate of the Jews in occupied Belorussia and the Ukraine – a subject significant to Grossman, himself a Soviet Jew from the Ukraine. And Grossman manages to gradually construct a convincing critique of the strengths and limitations of the Soviet military ‘s initial strategy.
This might all sound dry and dusty but that’s far from the case, I found it gripping and sometimes almost unbearably moving. Partly because Grossman introduces a series of sympathetic figures who go beyond stereotypes or caricature, in particular sensitive philosophy-professor-turned-commander Bogariov and his assistant young soldier Ignatiev who longs for his village home. They’re convincing, well-rounded characters with richly-detailed backstories and meticulously rendered tastes and habits. There are stretches of comic or heartfelt dialogue that it’s easy to imagine Grossman, ever the journalist, plucked from real life. There’s too a palpable sense of what it must have felt like to be trapped in a war zone, the sense of shock and collective grief. The anxiety of the people left behind as the Red Army falls back further and further. And the scenes of German soldiers ravaging a small village make for devastating reading. Another thing that I particularly appreciate about Grossman is his deep compassion for all living creatures, his horror at the destruction of landscapes and wildlife by fire and bombing raids. Here his portrayal of the natural world is evocative, often lyrical and always richly textured.
So, although this can be a bit clunky, and it’s clearly an overly-idealised representation of the Soviet Union and its citizens, in Grossman’s deft hands it’s also strangely authentic in feel. Despite its flaws, I thought it captured much of the absurdity and tragedy of this war and I could trace the outlines of the style and perspective that make the later Life and Fate so exceptional. This was first translated in the 1940s but that was an abridged, compromised edition. This new translation by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler is based on a restored version edited by Julia Volohova. It comes with an impressive array of background material and notes, and an invaluable introduction to Grossman and the novel’s historical context.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher MacLehose Press for an ARC
Rating: 3.5
The narrative opens in summer 1941 and covers the early part of the German invasion of Belorussia and the Ukraine regions of the Soviet Union. The German forces were remarkably well-equipped, sweeping through the area at speed, and the Red Army suffered a series of monumental, humiliating defeats. Cities were firebombed, towns and villages were occupied or looted and destroyed along with their inhabitants, it was a catastrophic time for the Soviet military and for its civilians. Grossman’s story follows a Red Army regiment and a small group of local people as they struggle to deal with the brutal advance of the German army.
At its best it’s an incredibly vivid piece, almost cinematic in its detail. Beautifully paced, the action moves between bouts of fighting and brief periods of quiet in between, pausing to show the harsh realities of occupation and the intricacies of military command. As usual, Grossman’s own experiences as an eye-witness on the frontlines allows him to inject a striking intensity and immediacy into his account. But, the state of the war, the countless defeats, the largescale deaths, obviously made writing this a difficult balancing act for Grossman. He had to work within the restraints set by a broader need to boost morale, and reassure readers that eventual victory wasn’t impossible. So, he included a number of quite forced, propaganda-like passages containing rousing, nationalistic exhortations and short monologues on the glories of Lenin’s Russia – although interestingly not Stalin’s. And these definitely interrupt the flow at various points.
Yet despite the dual constraints dictated by the progress of the war and Soviet censorship, Grossman manages to produce a fairly realistic portrait of the state of affairs for the Soviet military as well as the inhabitants of the occupied zones. And, sometimes, he bursts free of his restraints altogether. So, there are, for example, brief, subtle allusions to German versus Russian anti-Semitism and the fate of the Jews in occupied Belorussia and the Ukraine – a subject significant to Grossman, himself a Soviet Jew from the Ukraine. And Grossman manages to gradually construct a convincing critique of the strengths and limitations of the Soviet military ‘s initial strategy.
This might all sound dry and dusty but that’s far from the case, I found it gripping and sometimes almost unbearably moving. Partly because Grossman introduces a series of sympathetic figures who go beyond stereotypes or caricature, in particular sensitive philosophy-professor-turned-commander Bogariov and his assistant young soldier Ignatiev who longs for his village home. They’re convincing, well-rounded characters with richly-detailed backstories and meticulously rendered tastes and habits. There are stretches of comic or heartfelt dialogue that it’s easy to imagine Grossman, ever the journalist, plucked from real life. There’s too a palpable sense of what it must have felt like to be trapped in a war zone, the sense of shock and collective grief. The anxiety of the people left behind as the Red Army falls back further and further. And the scenes of German soldiers ravaging a small village make for devastating reading. Another thing that I particularly appreciate about Grossman is his deep compassion for all living creatures, his horror at the destruction of landscapes and wildlife by fire and bombing raids. Here his portrayal of the natural world is evocative, often lyrical and always richly textured.
So, although this can be a bit clunky, and it’s clearly an overly-idealised representation of the Soviet Union and its citizens, in Grossman’s deft hands it’s also strangely authentic in feel. Despite its flaws, I thought it captured much of the absurdity and tragedy of this war and I could trace the outlines of the style and perspective that make the later Life and Fate so exceptional. This was first translated in the 1940s but that was an abridged, compromised edition. This new translation by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler is based on a restored version edited by Julia Volohova. It comes with an impressive array of background material and notes, and an invaluable introduction to Grossman and the novel’s historical context.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher MacLehose Press for an ARC
Rating: 3.5
July 25, 2023
91st book of 2023.
I bought Grossman's Life and Fate years ago after hearing it was a sort of 20th century War and Peace (one of my favourite novels of all time). Then I read that Stalingrad, really, should be read before that. So I went out and bought Stalingrad. I was finally going to read it at some point this year when I discovered a reprint of this, and read that, again, it was meant to be read first. Before this goes on forever (me always discovering another random Grossman book that predates the one I want to read), I read The People Immortal.
Grossman wrote this as propaganda. It's comprised of vignettes and feels like a collection of short stories centred around the same recurring characters on the front lines in Ukraine fighting the Germans. My edition had countless footnotes and extra material in the back which describes the journey this book went on, particularly its censorship. For example: there's a bit in the book where a German soldier throws his weapon down and begs for mercy. A footnote tells us this was cut from the original publication because it humanised the enemy. Another example: Grossman describes someone swearing, no particular words, just that he swore. A footnote tells us that swearing, even the mention of swearing, was very taboo in Russian publications. A final example: Grossman describes an officer as being lazy, among other things, and, even though he is fictional, the original omitted such a word being used about a Russian officer.
The end of the book is a Soviet cliche in many ways but I found it fascinating. Grossman is an incredible writer. Some of the sentences in this book alone were incredibly powerful and vivid. Coupled with all the footnotes and bonus material about Grossman and Soviet censorship, this made a well-rounded and worthwhile read. I expect that it feels lacking if you've already read one of Grossman's bigger works, but this was a perfect place for me to finally start him.
I bought Grossman's Life and Fate years ago after hearing it was a sort of 20th century War and Peace (one of my favourite novels of all time). Then I read that Stalingrad, really, should be read before that. So I went out and bought Stalingrad. I was finally going to read it at some point this year when I discovered a reprint of this, and read that, again, it was meant to be read first. Before this goes on forever (me always discovering another random Grossman book that predates the one I want to read), I read The People Immortal.
Grossman wrote this as propaganda. It's comprised of vignettes and feels like a collection of short stories centred around the same recurring characters on the front lines in Ukraine fighting the Germans. My edition had countless footnotes and extra material in the back which describes the journey this book went on, particularly its censorship. For example: there's a bit in the book where a German soldier throws his weapon down and begs for mercy. A footnote tells us this was cut from the original publication because it humanised the enemy. Another example: Grossman describes someone swearing, no particular words, just that he swore. A footnote tells us that swearing, even the mention of swearing, was very taboo in Russian publications. A final example: Grossman describes an officer as being lazy, among other things, and, even though he is fictional, the original omitted such a word being used about a Russian officer.
The end of the book is a Soviet cliche in many ways but I found it fascinating. Grossman is an incredible writer. Some of the sentences in this book alone were incredibly powerful and vivid. Coupled with all the footnotes and bonus material about Grossman and Soviet censorship, this made a well-rounded and worthwhile read. I expect that it feels lacking if you've already read one of Grossman's bigger works, but this was a perfect place for me to finally start him.
April 2, 2023
This was originally published as a propaganda piece, so the actions and individuals in this novel have been overly idealized. It does detract from the work to a degree. Characters such as Babadjanian, Bogariov and Ignatiev are portrayed as faultless. This is a result of both the time of the writing (the early days of the German invasion of Russia in 1941) and the political climate in which Grossman was working. National interest was all that mattered at this time, and Grossman and his editors were given little wiggle room with regards to how the Russia military should be portrayed.
Be that as it may, 'The People Immortal' is a worthwhile read for a couple of reasons. One, Grossman relies heavily on his notes as a war journalist. Small tales and snippets he heard from soldiers are inserted and used as inspiration for this story. It gives the reader a realistic viewpoint of the early days of the invasion. The characters may be idealized, but the conditions and impact of warfare certainly are not.
Secondly, it's just a very moving story. The opening chapter of the bombing of Gomel, the chapter depicting the capture of Marchikhina Buda, and of course the final chapter on the Russian counter-attack; they are all of the tear jerker variety.
I have yet to read Grossman's magnum opus, 'Life and Fate', but this work and 'Stalingrad' showcase his talent as a storyteller. I wish he could've worked in an environment that did not stifle creativity or controversial opinions. I've heard that his final novel, 'Everything Flows', is his most outspoken about Soviet life, so I am looking forward to reading that one. But don't skip 'The People Immortal'. It is a noteworthy work and deserving of your time. Solid four stars.
Be that as it may, 'The People Immortal' is a worthwhile read for a couple of reasons. One, Grossman relies heavily on his notes as a war journalist. Small tales and snippets he heard from soldiers are inserted and used as inspiration for this story. It gives the reader a realistic viewpoint of the early days of the invasion. The characters may be idealized, but the conditions and impact of warfare certainly are not.
Secondly, it's just a very moving story. The opening chapter of the bombing of Gomel, the chapter depicting the capture of Marchikhina Buda, and of course the final chapter on the Russian counter-attack; they are all of the tear jerker variety.
I have yet to read Grossman's magnum opus, 'Life and Fate', but this work and 'Stalingrad' showcase his talent as a storyteller. I wish he could've worked in an environment that did not stifle creativity or controversial opinions. I've heard that his final novel, 'Everything Flows', is his most outspoken about Soviet life, so I am looking forward to reading that one. But don't skip 'The People Immortal'. It is a noteworthy work and deserving of your time. Solid four stars.
July 21, 2023
Grossman is always interesting, but this one feels much lighter and slighter than Life and Fate or Stalingrad. As with Stalingrad the translators Robert and Elizabeth Chandler chose to include a lot of material that was lost between the original manuscript and the version approved for publication in Stalin's Russia, and this adds nuance and humour to what would otherwise be quite a bleak story of life on a retreating front line in the early stages of Russia's involvement in the Second World War. The novel is barely more than a novella, but it is padded out with some interesting historical background, some of it Grossman's own accounts of his war reporting.
Worth reading, but read Life and Fate, Stalingrad and Everything Flows first.
Worth reading, but read Life and Fate, Stalingrad and Everything Flows first.
November 14, 2022
Vasily Grossman's novels have been translated into English in reverse order of their composition, thus I've read his fictionalisation of the Eastern Front of WWII backwards. The People Immortal is set during the initial retreat of the Red Army in 1941 and 1942, before the tide turned at the Battle of Stalingrad. Fittingly, it is a shorter and faster-paced novel than Stalingrad and Life and Fate. The wonderfully-presented edition I read includes an introduction, afterword, and appendices that provide fascinating context for the novel. In April 1942 Grossman was given two months leave from his position as a journalist embedded in the Red Army to write The People Immortal. It was serialised to great acclaim, with some edits that have been restored in this edition. As seems usual for Soviet censorship, these broadly took two forms: political and aesthetic. References to bad behaviour by the Red Army, particularly desertion that wasn't immediately punished by execution, were cut. Some of his beautiful metaphors were apparently contrary to socialist realism. Soviet censors were also averse to moments of levity and any details that might seem squalid, which chimes with what Boris Strutagatsky said of their requirements in the introduction to Roadside Picnic: '...that language must be as colourless, smooth, and glossy as possible and certainly shouldn’t be at all coarse'.
In one of the appendices, the translators discuss a fascinating false dichotomy around Soviet writers:
This places Vasily Grossman and The People Immortal in an interesting light. The first novels of his to be translated into English and that I read were Life and Fate and Everything Flows, both unequivocally critical of the Soviet gulag system, Stalinist purges, and famines caused by forced collectivisation. Neither was published during his lifetime. The People Immortal and Stalingrad were, albeit with cuts from censors, as they are war narratives that do not explicitly criticise the Soviet system. I assume they have taken longer to be translated into English and published in the West because their success under Stalin taints them with the label of propaganda. Grossman's incredible writing (and the restoration of cuts by the censors) result in fiction that reads nothing like crude ideological cheerleading. Nonetheless, I could not help thinking about how the idea of Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War is now exploited by Putin's nationalist regime.
On one level, The People Immortal is a striking historical novel that shows the death and disaster caused by the 1941 Nazi invasion and early attempts by the Red Army to regroup and strike back. It has the same powerful strengths as Grossman's other fiction: excellent eye for details, vivid and beautiful description, boundless sympathy, wide range of characters each with a distinctive voice, and the authority of first-hand observation:
Grossman switches effortlessly between registers from recounting such details to sounding absolutely Homeric:
That latter paragraph was not included in Soviet editions. To me it's an important illustration of the line that Grossman walks. He glorifies the sacrifices made by individuals to resist the Nazis, but never glorifies war. War is a disaster and the Red Army are fighting not so much for the abstraction of freedom as for their lives. Oblique references in the text to conversations that could critique the Stavka's handling of the war, and to actions contrary to Stavka orders, were removed by censors or Grossman himself from the original manuscript. The translator also points out an extraordinary detail: Stalin is not mentioned once in the whole of The People Immortal. Perhaps the title should be taken literally, as a statement of the book's aim: to chronicle the people fighting and dying in Stalin's name, attempting to survive a war that was being badly mishandled at this point.
On another level, in 2022 it's unsettling to contemplate that The People Immortal is set in Ukraine, at that time being invaded by Nazi armies using scorched earth tactics. Grossman goes out of his way to point out that the Red Army defending it includes Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Now, neo-fascist Russia uses the pretext of Nazism and mythologisation of the Great Patriotic War to justify invading Ukraine. The current war could not be more different to the one Grossman portrays. Someone hardly needs to support Stalin in order to argue that the Red Army was justified in resisting the Nazis, who invaded with no justification and conducted genocides in the areas of the USSR they occupied. The fact that Stalin had already applied genocidal policies in many of these places, notably Ukraine, doesn't change their imperative to resist the Nazis.
To my mind, the war that more closely resembles the current Ukraine invasion is the 1979-89 Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. As I learned from Svetlana Alexievich's Boys in Zinc, this pointless, destructive proxy war killed many and achieved nothing. (Not even showing America that overwhelming military superiority is insufficient to suppress resistance in Afghanistan, as the US proceeded to repeat history for two decades.) I don't have a conclusion here, but this is a train of thought that I kept coming back to while reading The People Immortal.
At the time Grossman was writing, early 1942, this could be considered morale-boosting as the war was going very badly. Yet it proved prescient:
When reading The People Immortal and Vasily Grossman's writing in general, I find myself both immersed in a historical narrative and reflecting upon its significance in the present. I appreciate the beauty of his writing while contemplating what parts of it were and weren't acceptable to Soviet censors. The inclusion of contextual information about the real people who inspired the characters in The People Immortal and discussion of the novel's composition and reception is very valuable. This edition both brings a powerful and beautiful piece of war fiction to an Anglophone audience and invites wider consideration of its contemporary and historical resonance. I've never come across a writer whose work has such a profound and lasting effect; Vasily Grossman is peerless.
In one of the appendices, the translators discuss a fascinating false dichotomy around Soviet writers:
Western readers have long tended to divide Soviet writers into two classes: corrupt time-servers and heroic, dissident martyrs. It was hard for a Soviet writer to attract widespread attention in the English-speaking world except through some major international scandal. [...]
Between them, Soviet repression and Cold War propaganda created many myths around Soviet writers and artists. Soviet admirers of a particular writer, wanting to help him or her to be published, exaggerated their Soviet credentials; Western admirers, wanting a writer to achieve recognition in the West, exaggerated their anti-Soviet credentials.
This places Vasily Grossman and The People Immortal in an interesting light. The first novels of his to be translated into English and that I read were Life and Fate and Everything Flows, both unequivocally critical of the Soviet gulag system, Stalinist purges, and famines caused by forced collectivisation. Neither was published during his lifetime. The People Immortal and Stalingrad were, albeit with cuts from censors, as they are war narratives that do not explicitly criticise the Soviet system. I assume they have taken longer to be translated into English and published in the West because their success under Stalin taints them with the label of propaganda. Grossman's incredible writing (and the restoration of cuts by the censors) result in fiction that reads nothing like crude ideological cheerleading. Nonetheless, I could not help thinking about how the idea of Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War is now exploited by Putin's nationalist regime.
On one level, The People Immortal is a striking historical novel that shows the death and disaster caused by the 1941 Nazi invasion and early attempts by the Red Army to regroup and strike back. It has the same powerful strengths as Grossman's other fiction: excellent eye for details, vivid and beautiful description, boundless sympathy, wide range of characters each with a distinctive voice, and the authority of first-hand observation:
In the windows of the boarded-up houses there were still withered houseplants - phloxes, hydrangeas now turning brown, and rubber plants with heavy, drooping leaves. Camouflaged army trucks were parked under the trees lining the streets. Khaki armoured cars drove past heaps of golden sand in deserted children's playgrounds; the cars' raucous hoots made them sound like birds of prey. It was these outskirts that had suffered the worst damage from air raids. And everyone driving into the city noticed the burnt-out warehouse building with the huge smoke-blackened sign: 'Flammable'.
Grossman switches effortlessly between registers from recounting such details to sounding absolutely Homeric:
Men died. Who will tell of their brave deeds? Only the swift clouds saw how Riabokon went on fighting until he had no cartridges left; how, with a hand grenade he was too weak to throw, Politinstructor Yeretik blew up both himself and a group of advancing Germans; how, knowing he was surrounded, Glashkov went on firing until his last breath; how machine-gunners Glagolev and Kordakhin, faint from loss of blood, went on fighting as long as their dimming eyes could distinguish a target in the sultry haze.
In vain do poets make out in song that the names of the dead will live forever. In vain do they write poems assuring dead heroes that they continue to live, that their memory and their names are eternal. In vain do thoughtless writers make such claims in their books, promising what no soldier would ever ask them to promise. Human memory simply cannot hold thousands of names. He who is dead is dead. Those who go to their death understand this. A nation of millions is now going out to die for its freedom, just as it used to go out to work in field and factory.
That latter paragraph was not included in Soviet editions. To me it's an important illustration of the line that Grossman walks. He glorifies the sacrifices made by individuals to resist the Nazis, but never glorifies war. War is a disaster and the Red Army are fighting not so much for the abstraction of freedom as for their lives. Oblique references in the text to conversations that could critique the Stavka's handling of the war, and to actions contrary to Stavka orders, were removed by censors or Grossman himself from the original manuscript. The translator also points out an extraordinary detail: Stalin is not mentioned once in the whole of The People Immortal. Perhaps the title should be taken literally, as a statement of the book's aim: to chronicle the people fighting and dying in Stalin's name, attempting to survive a war that was being badly mishandled at this point.
On another level, in 2022 it's unsettling to contemplate that The People Immortal is set in Ukraine, at that time being invaded by Nazi armies using scorched earth tactics. Grossman goes out of his way to point out that the Red Army defending it includes Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Now, neo-fascist Russia uses the pretext of Nazism and mythologisation of the Great Patriotic War to justify invading Ukraine. The current war could not be more different to the one Grossman portrays. Someone hardly needs to support Stalin in order to argue that the Red Army was justified in resisting the Nazis, who invaded with no justification and conducted genocides in the areas of the USSR they occupied. The fact that Stalin had already applied genocidal policies in many of these places, notably Ukraine, doesn't change their imperative to resist the Nazis.
To my mind, the war that more closely resembles the current Ukraine invasion is the 1979-89 Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. As I learned from Svetlana Alexievich's Boys in Zinc, this pointless, destructive proxy war killed many and achieved nothing. (Not even showing America that overwhelming military superiority is insufficient to suppress resistance in Afghanistan, as the US proceeded to repeat history for two decades.) I don't have a conclusion here, but this is a train of thought that I kept coming back to while reading The People Immortal.
At the time Grossman was writing, early 1942, this could be considered morale-boosting as the war was going very badly. Yet it proved prescient:
"What annoys me most," said Rumiantsev, "is the way the Germans keep using the word 'blitzkrieg' - a flash-of-lightning war. They come up with these ridiculous deadlines: thirty-five days to capture Moscow and seventy days to bring the war to an end. And in the mornings, like it or not, we find ourselves counting how many days the war has lasted so far: fifty-three, sixty-one, sixty-two, now seventy-one. While they're probably thinking, 'Seventy days, a hundred and seventy days - what's the difference? Damn them and their deadlines - war's not just a matter of dates."
"No," said Bogariov. "This war is very much a matter of dates. History shows that Germany hardly ever wins a protracted war. You only need to look at a map to see why Germans like to talk about blitzkriegs. For them, a lightning war means victory, while a long war means defeat." He laughed.
When reading The People Immortal and Vasily Grossman's writing in general, I find myself both immersed in a historical narrative and reflecting upon its significance in the present. I appreciate the beauty of his writing while contemplating what parts of it were and weren't acceptable to Soviet censors. The inclusion of contextual information about the real people who inspired the characters in The People Immortal and discussion of the novel's composition and reception is very valuable. This edition both brings a powerful and beautiful piece of war fiction to an Anglophone audience and invites wider consideration of its contemporary and historical resonance. I've never come across a writer whose work has such a profound and lasting effect; Vasily Grossman is peerless.
December 31, 2023
"Animals and plants fight for existence, but people fight for supremacy." (83)Vasily Grossman joined the Russian front as a reporter for the Soviet daily newspaper Red Star after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June, 1941. While he was there, he didn't shy away from the action of the war—he spoke to soldiers and generals alike, gathering perspectives and learning about what war means for all of those who were involved. He later received some time off from reporting to write a novel about the war—The People Immortal—which was serialized in Red Star in July and August. The novel was well-received. It was, of course, a propaganda piece—meant to motivate and inspire the Russian soldiers. In that sense, it doesn't reach the artistic heights of a work like Life and Fate. It couldn't, given the circumstances in which it was written. But Grossman is too much of a writer and artist for the novel not to become something more than what is what intended to be—or rather, what it was allowed to be. There are glimpses of Grossman's vision and humanity in The People Immortal, as well as some genuinely compelling writing.
The following line from the novel is ironic, given the deep tension at the time between honest reporting and faithfulness to artistic vision on the one hand and meeting the strict requirements of Soviet censors on the other hand, which Grossman must have realized:
"In those difficult days, people wanted only the truth, however difficult and cheerless it might be." (193)Grossman did as much as he could to report and tell not just the Soviet truth, but also his—and dare I say the—truth.
This edition includes very helpful notes to the text, many of which mark sentences that were either removed by editors/censors or by Grossman himself (probably in anticipation of censors), as well as additional resources that explain and expand on the novel and its historical significance.
July 7, 2024
"É que sou um homem simples, um soldado, tenho mais medo das palavras do que das balas" 💭
"O povo é imortal" é o primeiro romance de guerra de Vassili Grossman e é, acima de tudo, uma homenagem ao povo soviético. Escrito no início da Segunda Guerra Mundial, neste livro o autor relata os primeiros meses da invasão alemã na União Soviética.
Grossman viveu os acontecimentos que relata e assim como em "Stalinegrado" e "Vida e Destino" só o facto de ter estado no terreno e de ter vivido todos aqueles horrores dá-lhe uma autoridade e uma sensibilidade únicas. Grossman mistura os horrores da guerra com descrições da natureza de uma forma tão bonita como eu nunca li em mais lado nenhum.
Fico sempre maravilhada com Grossman, a forma como descreve cenários horríveis em contraponto com a beleza da natureza.
É verdade que neste livro o autor enaltece imenso a força soviética e a força do Partido, há uma clara tentativa de propaganda soviética, mas acho que não enaltece tanto "o poder" ou os grandes chefões do Partido, mas sim - lá está, está no título - o povo, os soldados e os seus actos heróicos. É uma homenagem aos combatentes, aos soldados sem poder, ao povo imortal. Este povo imortal, sobretudo quando é escrito pelas palavras de Vassili Grossman.
Talvez não seja o melhor livro para começar a ler Grossman, mas qualquer livro deste autor vale a pena ser lido. Não me canso de recomendar "Stalinegrado" e "Vida e Destino" (leiam por esta ordem), porque são absolutamente extraordinários, dos livros mais magistrais que alguma vez li. Não se assustem com o facto de serem calhamaços, são dois livros muito impactantes, daqueles livros a ler antes de morrer.
"O povo é imortal" é o primeiro romance de guerra de Vassili Grossman e é, acima de tudo, uma homenagem ao povo soviético. Escrito no início da Segunda Guerra Mundial, neste livro o autor relata os primeiros meses da invasão alemã na União Soviética.
Grossman viveu os acontecimentos que relata e assim como em "Stalinegrado" e "Vida e Destino" só o facto de ter estado no terreno e de ter vivido todos aqueles horrores dá-lhe uma autoridade e uma sensibilidade únicas. Grossman mistura os horrores da guerra com descrições da natureza de uma forma tão bonita como eu nunca li em mais lado nenhum.
Fico sempre maravilhada com Grossman, a forma como descreve cenários horríveis em contraponto com a beleza da natureza.
É verdade que neste livro o autor enaltece imenso a força soviética e a força do Partido, há uma clara tentativa de propaganda soviética, mas acho que não enaltece tanto "o poder" ou os grandes chefões do Partido, mas sim - lá está, está no título - o povo, os soldados e os seus actos heróicos. É uma homenagem aos combatentes, aos soldados sem poder, ao povo imortal. Este povo imortal, sobretudo quando é escrito pelas palavras de Vassili Grossman.
Talvez não seja o melhor livro para começar a ler Grossman, mas qualquer livro deste autor vale a pena ser lido. Não me canso de recomendar "Stalinegrado" e "Vida e Destino" (leiam por esta ordem), porque são absolutamente extraordinários, dos livros mais magistrais que alguma vez li. Não se assustem com o facto de serem calhamaços, são dois livros muito impactantes, daqueles livros a ler antes de morrer.
December 11, 2025
Un bel romanzo, scritto molto bene, a tratti commovente : siamo nel 1941, all'inizio della famigerata invasione tedesca dell'Unione Sovietica, l'Operazione Barbarossa.
L'avanzata tedesca sembra (e lo sara' per un bel po') inarrestabile, ma l'Armata Rossa cerca di resistere come puo'.
Un po' storia, un bel po' propaganda, mi aspettavo un pochino di piu', ma questo e' solo il primo della trilogia di Grossman sulla WWII, quindi va bene cosi'.
L'avanzata tedesca sembra (e lo sara' per un bel po') inarrestabile, ma l'Armata Rossa cerca di resistere come puo'.
Un po' storia, un bel po' propaganda, mi aspettavo un pochino di piu', ma questo e' solo il primo della trilogia di Grossman sulla WWII, quindi va bene cosi'.
June 14, 2024
Everyone admires Grossman’s doorstoppers, ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘Life and Fate’, but is there any love for his first novel ever published in English? While it may not carry the weight or scope of his two major works, ‘The People Immortal’ is an arresting take on the nationalist psyche of the era.
Thematically speaking, there’s really only one way to slice it: it’s a wholesale propaganda piece, effusively championing the resilience of Russian character while under conditions of siege. While possibly contentious in 2022 vision (particularly given the Eastern European political climate during which I write this), Socialist propaganda makes for a fascinating time capsule of the political thinking during a particular time and place. The time is 1941 and the place is the Belorussian/Ukraine regions of the USSR. And the calculus of thought? A delicate balancing act between a censure-mandated requirement to boost morale while also depicting the inevitabilities of armed combat.
I can almost *see* the additions and erasures in Grossman’s hand where adjustments were compelled upon him. The rousing, nationalistic speeches given to the Red Army regiment; the omissions of defeatist thinking. Evidently this new NYRB translation includes a number of sequences that were excised from his originally circulated manuscript. It’s always a pleasure to see a piece in its rawest, unredacted form.
In spite of the acquiescent political back-bending that runs consistent through the text, there’s an undeniable humanism in Grossman’s characters; avatars for his faith in something larger than himself. Whether or not his moral compass was oriented true-north really doesn’t matter to me. ‘The People Immortal’ is a desperate experience laid bare on the page. I truly believe there’s a particular kind of honesty that can only be conveyed under conditions of inevitability. If certain death at the hands of an encircling enemy isn’t the catalyst for this kind of veracity, I don’t know what is.
Thematically speaking, there’s really only one way to slice it: it’s a wholesale propaganda piece, effusively championing the resilience of Russian character while under conditions of siege. While possibly contentious in 2022 vision (particularly given the Eastern European political climate during which I write this), Socialist propaganda makes for a fascinating time capsule of the political thinking during a particular time and place. The time is 1941 and the place is the Belorussian/Ukraine regions of the USSR. And the calculus of thought? A delicate balancing act between a censure-mandated requirement to boost morale while also depicting the inevitabilities of armed combat.
I can almost *see* the additions and erasures in Grossman’s hand where adjustments were compelled upon him. The rousing, nationalistic speeches given to the Red Army regiment; the omissions of defeatist thinking. Evidently this new NYRB translation includes a number of sequences that were excised from his originally circulated manuscript. It’s always a pleasure to see a piece in its rawest, unredacted form.
In spite of the acquiescent political back-bending that runs consistent through the text, there’s an undeniable humanism in Grossman’s characters; avatars for his faith in something larger than himself. Whether or not his moral compass was oriented true-north really doesn’t matter to me. ‘The People Immortal’ is a desperate experience laid bare on the page. I truly believe there’s a particular kind of honesty that can only be conveyed under conditions of inevitability. If certain death at the hands of an encircling enemy isn’t the catalyst for this kind of veracity, I don’t know what is.
December 8, 2024
"Nei roghi di libri c'è tutta la mediocrità e la superstizione del selvaggio illetterato. Ma il pensiero non può essere distrutto." (p. 41)
April 27, 2024
Tardei, mas terminei o livro. Não conseguia parar de sublinhar.😜
“Entregaram a esta terra muito suor, muito trabalho duro, às vezes insuportável. Chegou a hora terrível da guerra, e eles entregaram à terra o seu sangue e a sua vida.Então, que esta terra se glorifique com o trabalho, a razão, a honra e a liberdade. Que não haja no mundo uma palavra mais majestosa e mais sagrada do que a palavra «povo»! Este povo, como nenhum outro, sabe morrer de modo severo e simples.” 🌻
A segunda parte custou-me mais ler, mas fez sentido no fim, já que Grossman se baseia em factos reais de soldados e comandantes de companhia para intercalar na história de ficção. Concordo que o herói aqui é o povo, a resiliência que teve que encontrar no início da ofensiva alemã na União Soviética, quando tiveram que reunir esforços e aprender com os seus erros para crescerem e guiarem-se à vitória. ✨
O povo simples, o camponês , a velha mãe do general, o menino, a namorada do Ignatiev, os operários que nas “traseiras “ faziam as armas necessárias ao esforço militar também representam outras personagens que constituem este enorme mundo que era a URSS.
Os soviéticos tinham um enorme amor à pátria, à família e embora este livro seja semi-propagandista, com ligeiros toques de ironia, Grossman nunca esquece da sua gente, que foram um grande exemplo do virar da 2ww.🌱
Claro que amei a fusão da Guerra com a estepe soviética , aquele mesclar dos incêndios vermelhos com a paisagem noturna ou matinal, as aves que grasnavam, o rumerejar das folhas, o som do vento. ❤️
Não foi dos meus favoritos do Grossman, nada se equipara ao Vida e Destino, em que ele foi muito mais sincero e filosófico. Como este livro foi dos primeiros que ele escreveu, acredito que ainda estivesse toldado pela propaganda estalinista.
“Entregaram a esta terra muito suor, muito trabalho duro, às vezes insuportável. Chegou a hora terrível da guerra, e eles entregaram à terra o seu sangue e a sua vida.Então, que esta terra se glorifique com o trabalho, a razão, a honra e a liberdade. Que não haja no mundo uma palavra mais majestosa e mais sagrada do que a palavra «povo»! Este povo, como nenhum outro, sabe morrer de modo severo e simples.” 🌻
A segunda parte custou-me mais ler, mas fez sentido no fim, já que Grossman se baseia em factos reais de soldados e comandantes de companhia para intercalar na história de ficção. Concordo que o herói aqui é o povo, a resiliência que teve que encontrar no início da ofensiva alemã na União Soviética, quando tiveram que reunir esforços e aprender com os seus erros para crescerem e guiarem-se à vitória. ✨
O povo simples, o camponês , a velha mãe do general, o menino, a namorada do Ignatiev, os operários que nas “traseiras “ faziam as armas necessárias ao esforço militar também representam outras personagens que constituem este enorme mundo que era a URSS.
Os soviéticos tinham um enorme amor à pátria, à família e embora este livro seja semi-propagandista, com ligeiros toques de ironia, Grossman nunca esquece da sua gente, que foram um grande exemplo do virar da 2ww.🌱
Claro que amei a fusão da Guerra com a estepe soviética , aquele mesclar dos incêndios vermelhos com a paisagem noturna ou matinal, as aves que grasnavam, o rumerejar das folhas, o som do vento. ❤️
Não foi dos meus favoritos do Grossman, nada se equipara ao Vida e Destino, em que ele foi muito mais sincero e filosófico. Como este livro foi dos primeiros que ele escreveu, acredito que ainda estivesse toldado pela propaganda estalinista.
October 26, 2022
I started reading this book with enormous expectations - Grossman’s “Life and Fate” is one of my favourite books.
Even though “The People Immortal” is still a strong book, detailing the break out of a Russian unit out of German encirclement in the early days of the German invasion of Soviet Russia; it cannot stand up to Grossman’s later work.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s still good, I just expected more.
This edition also provides rich notes and background.
Even though “The People Immortal” is still a strong book, detailing the break out of a Russian unit out of German encirclement in the early days of the German invasion of Soviet Russia; it cannot stand up to Grossman’s later work.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s still good, I just expected more.
This edition also provides rich notes and background.
November 10, 2024
L'interesse in questo romanzo (venuto prima di Stalingrado e Vita e destino) era vedere come Grossmann avesse affrontato un romanzo breve, in questo caso addirittura uscito a puntate. Non sono rimasto deluso. Il materiale è epico nonostante le poche pagine, e anche l'intreccio è complesso al punto giusto. Che sia stato scritto ad inizio guerra, nel momento più difficile per l'Urss e di maggior impegno dell'autore, lo suggerisce la figura del protagonista, l'intellettuale comunista divenuto prontamente abile commissario politico e abile soldato; anche quella del collaborazionista, che dà luogo al alcune scene memorabili e di forte impatto emotivo. Un tema che si ritroverà nei successivi libri è la risposta di tutte le classi del popolo sovietico (intellettuali, contadini, operai ecc.) alla chiamata nel momento del pericolo.
Un gran pregio di quest'edizione è che l'apparato critico si trova al termine dello stesso e non all'inizio e che colloca l'opera nel contesto politico del momento: è fondamentale, perché senza non riusciremmo a capire i problemi molto grossi che Grossmann ebbe con la censura.
Un gran pregio di quest'edizione è che l'apparato critico si trova al termine dello stesso e non all'inizio e che colloca l'opera nel contesto politico del momento: è fondamentale, perché senza non riusciremmo a capire i problemi molto grossi che Grossmann ebbe con la censura.
October 11, 2025
Excellent historical novel in the tradition of Tolstoy. Grossman portrays both sides of the leadership during the German offensive into Russia in 1939. The savage chapters about overrunning a village were particularly compelling.
June 4, 2025
Really interesting both as a novel/companion to Stalingrad and Life and Fate, and also just as a historical source written under active censorship while the war was still happening
June 7, 2025
Working through drafts while simultaneously being backed into Stalingrad is rockstar shit.
September 10, 2022
I read Life and Fate a long time ago, having to wait almost 25 years before Stalingrad was published. The People Immortal is based on reports Grossman made for Red Star during the war telling the story of the devastation being wrought on the Soviet states by the Third Reich and the fight back by Soviet Heroes. In these times you realise that by Russia what is actually meant is Ukraine, although it touches on places as far apart as Minsk and Odessa, some of the protagonists are from the Donbass and others from Siberia or Armenia all coming together to save the Motherland.
It is a polemic of Soviet ideology as it had to be if Grossman did not want to be sent to Siberia or shot and yet still speaks of friendship, love and points a finger at the tyranny in the Motherland as much by what he leaves out as what he puts in.
It is a polemic of Soviet ideology as it had to be if Grossman did not want to be sent to Siberia or shot and yet still speaks of friendship, love and points a finger at the tyranny in the Motherland as much by what he leaves out as what he puts in.
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April 3, 2023“In vain do poets make out in song that the names of the dead will live for ever. In vain do they write poems assuring dead heroes that they continue to live, that their memory and names are eternal. In vain do thoughtless writers make such claims in their books, promising what no soldier would ever ask them to promise. Human memory simply cannot hold thousands of names. He who is dead is dead. Those who go to their deaths understand this. A nation of millions is now going out to die for it’s freedom, just as it used to go out to work in field and factory.”
September 3, 2025
The intro and notes were really interesting too on a metafictional level about what Grossman was forced to cut/alter in order to please the censors. The omissions are like a photographic negative depiction of the world from which he is writing.
November 24, 2024
Edificante, retorico, epico..la quinta stella é perché sicuramente non sará il libro migliore della storia, ma é quello di cui avevo bisogno adesso.
Rinfrancante, in un mondo dove qualsiasi ideale sembra andato a ramengo.
Rinfrancante, in un mondo dove qualsiasi ideale sembra andato a ramengo.
July 14, 2025
lo stile di Grossman dà vita ad un romanzo avvincente che si fa leggere in poco tempo nonostante la pesantezza dei contenuti. unica cosa che ho trovato fuori posto è la retorica stucchevole dell'eroe di guerra
November 17, 2022
An impeccable war novel, of hope in the face of domination, and victorious resistance in the name of reclaiming one's home.
April 1, 2025
Metto subito le mani avanti, riaffermando senza esitazione che, per me, Vasilij Grossman é un grande scrittore. É un grande scrittore per il suo saper ritrarre in modo limpido, nitido, tutta l’intensità dei piccoli gesti, dei piccoli pensieri, dei brevi dialoghi, come, allo stesso modo e altrettanto efficacemente, sa rendere la concitazione e la commozione che accompagnano i momenti decisivi di una battaglia, della vita e della morte.
Tuttavia “Il popolo è immortale” mi ha lasciato perplessa: non si ritrova qui la critica super partes -ai totalitarismi, alla brutalità umana, alla guerra come fonte nient’altro che di morte e distruzione- che é la spina dorsale di “Vita e destino”.
Troppo spesso percepiamo una demarcazione netta tra “buoni” e “cattivi”, laddove, in “Vita e destino”, sotto lo stesso cielo e diversi fili spinati, ci sono solo uomini.
Grossman in molti passaggi diventa retorico: la guerra contro i nazisti é una guerra giusta, perché l’Armata Rossa è l’ultimo baluardo del bene e dell’umanità di fronte all’avanzata del male.
Tuttavia in questo caso la postfazione mi è venuta in aiuto per capire meglio la genesi di questo testo, collocandola in un orizzonte storico che rende comprensibile il tenore morale di Grossman.
Un Grossman trentacinquenne, che si è arruolato volontario nell’esercito, ma che - a causa di problemi di salute - viene relegato alla redazione della Krasnaja zvezda (Stella rossa), quotidiano dell’esercito, presso la quale diventa rapidamente uno dei corrispondenti di guerra più letti e amati proprio per la qualità dei suoi scritti.
“Il popolo è immortale”, romanzo corale incentrato su un’unità militare sfuggita all’accerchiamento tedesco, vede la luce durante un congedo dal fronte, nel 1942, con lo scopo di infondere coraggio alle truppe. Viene pubblicato a episodi, e da ciò la deriva la scansione in brevi capitoli che possono quasi essere letti come racconto a sé.
Anche se le parti retoriche e di ottimismo sono quelle più evidenti al lettore di oggi, Grossman in realtà scrisse sempre ai limiti del lecito, tanto che anche un testo come “Il popolo immortale” venne più volte limato: era assolutamente impensabile pubblicare scritti in cui l’esercito russo era costretto alla ritirata, o che addirittura pianificasse di retrocedere di fronte al nemico.
Il popolo immortale è un romanzo non esente da qualche difetto, ma che ciò nondimeno merita di essere accostato dignitosamente al resto della produzione letteraria di Grossman, che per me merita di essere letta tutta.
Tuttavia “Il popolo è immortale” mi ha lasciato perplessa: non si ritrova qui la critica super partes -ai totalitarismi, alla brutalità umana, alla guerra come fonte nient’altro che di morte e distruzione- che é la spina dorsale di “Vita e destino”.
Troppo spesso percepiamo una demarcazione netta tra “buoni” e “cattivi”, laddove, in “Vita e destino”, sotto lo stesso cielo e diversi fili spinati, ci sono solo uomini.
Grossman in molti passaggi diventa retorico: la guerra contro i nazisti é una guerra giusta, perché l’Armata Rossa è l’ultimo baluardo del bene e dell’umanità di fronte all’avanzata del male.
Tuttavia in questo caso la postfazione mi è venuta in aiuto per capire meglio la genesi di questo testo, collocandola in un orizzonte storico che rende comprensibile il tenore morale di Grossman.
Un Grossman trentacinquenne, che si è arruolato volontario nell’esercito, ma che - a causa di problemi di salute - viene relegato alla redazione della Krasnaja zvezda (Stella rossa), quotidiano dell’esercito, presso la quale diventa rapidamente uno dei corrispondenti di guerra più letti e amati proprio per la qualità dei suoi scritti.
“Il popolo è immortale”, romanzo corale incentrato su un’unità militare sfuggita all’accerchiamento tedesco, vede la luce durante un congedo dal fronte, nel 1942, con lo scopo di infondere coraggio alle truppe. Viene pubblicato a episodi, e da ciò la deriva la scansione in brevi capitoli che possono quasi essere letti come racconto a sé.
Anche se le parti retoriche e di ottimismo sono quelle più evidenti al lettore di oggi, Grossman in realtà scrisse sempre ai limiti del lecito, tanto che anche un testo come “Il popolo immortale” venne più volte limato: era assolutamente impensabile pubblicare scritti in cui l’esercito russo era costretto alla ritirata, o che addirittura pianificasse di retrocedere di fronte al nemico.
Il popolo immortale è un romanzo non esente da qualche difetto, ma che ciò nondimeno merita di essere accostato dignitosamente al resto della produzione letteraria di Grossman, che per me merita di essere letta tutta.
February 21, 2025
Soviet literature, for the most part, is bad. Ignoring the dissidents and the censored, Solzhenitsyn, Bulgakov, and the like, the straitjacket of Socialist Realism and its strictly controlled content created a literary environment with the complexity and depth of a teenage fan-fiction. Given these constraints, The People Immortal is a remarkable book: written and published under Soviet authority, yet it still turned out to be a generally excellent novel.
Grossman, a frontline journalist in the Red Army, said similar of his own wartime writings, believing his work stood out as a small beacon in a sea of literary garbage. Whatever the circumstances, Grossman is undeniably a skilled writer. The English translation captures his writing style well: simple and easy to read, yet evocative all the same; a gift for describing a multitude of characters and personalities that are human at core, and not the cardboard silhouettes of Soviet mythos. These characters are the core of Grossman’s story, of a Red Army battalion breaking out from behind German lines in the early months of war.
The People Immortal covers a multitude of characters, often ones based on Grossman’s interviews of frontline soldiers: commissars, commanders, civilians. Even an Estonian kulak is featured, initially thrilled at the German invasion, only “to see the ghastly abyss into which his soul had fallen (what a line!),” hangs himself after their arrival. Even this fate, customary to any Soviet writing, is so well-written by Grossman to be believable.
Alongside great characterization are wonderful descriptions of life and nature before the war - "There was, after all, no better earth in the world!" - convincingly capturing what Soviet soldiers fought for, outside the oft-portrayed threat of draconian punishment.
More as well, was cut from the novel. One can read that banned topics such as the Holodomor and the Great Purges are subtly alluded to. One character slyly comments that in Ukraine in 1933, there was no food! Or, the failings of the Soviet officers initially in the novel as a reflection of the decimated officer corps. A fully uncensored, unabridged novel by Grossman of the same subject would capture far more depth and complexity than the already impressive amount that was published.
Overall, an excellent novel. Certainly worth reading for anyone, and that's not many people to be sure, who are deeply invested in the niche of Soviet history.
Grossman, a frontline journalist in the Red Army, said similar of his own wartime writings, believing his work stood out as a small beacon in a sea of literary garbage. Whatever the circumstances, Grossman is undeniably a skilled writer. The English translation captures his writing style well: simple and easy to read, yet evocative all the same; a gift for describing a multitude of characters and personalities that are human at core, and not the cardboard silhouettes of Soviet mythos. These characters are the core of Grossman’s story, of a Red Army battalion breaking out from behind German lines in the early months of war.
The People Immortal covers a multitude of characters, often ones based on Grossman’s interviews of frontline soldiers: commissars, commanders, civilians. Even an Estonian kulak is featured, initially thrilled at the German invasion, only “to see the ghastly abyss into which his soul had fallen (what a line!),” hangs himself after their arrival. Even this fate, customary to any Soviet writing, is so well-written by Grossman to be believable.
Alongside great characterization are wonderful descriptions of life and nature before the war - "There was, after all, no better earth in the world!" - convincingly capturing what Soviet soldiers fought for, outside the oft-portrayed threat of draconian punishment.
More as well, was cut from the novel. One can read that banned topics such as the Holodomor and the Great Purges are subtly alluded to. One character slyly comments that in Ukraine in 1933, there was no food! Or, the failings of the Soviet officers initially in the novel as a reflection of the decimated officer corps. A fully uncensored, unabridged novel by Grossman of the same subject would capture far more depth and complexity than the already impressive amount that was published.
Overall, an excellent novel. Certainly worth reading for anyone, and that's not many people to be sure, who are deeply invested in the niche of Soviet history.
June 22, 2025
About a Russian Red Army regiment cut off and encircled by Nazi forces during the early months of Operation Barbarossa in WWII. Large cast of characters, from battalion commanders to ordinary riflemen. It was published in 1943 in Russia, so the storytelling has a thick coat of war propaganda splashed on, which leads to silly lines like, “The gunners worked with dogged fury, with swift passion. Their well-coordinated movements, united by a brotherhood of purpose, exemplified the power of shared labour.” The characters can also be two-dimensional at times, full of vim and vigor for the Russian motherland. But overall the writing and storytelling is good enough that I walked away wanting to read more of Vasily Grossman when he isn’t bogged down by wartime editors.
October 1, 2024
An exhilarating ode to the Red Army and Soviet peoples' fight against the horrors of Nazi invasion and destruction. Grossman was an eye witness, writing from the front lines, and the terror, despair, exhaustion of war are palpable with every word. His narrative never dips into despondency, however, and is filled with little moments of joy, strength, and comradery between the waves of devastation. Not a mere piece of wartime propaganda, Grossman does not shy away from showing the failures and mistakes of the Red Army during the initial German invasion. He uses these failures to highlight the courage of those fighting in the face of such seemingly overwhelming odds, and how they drew on their hopes and faith in the Soviet system to continue to fight on.
March 25, 2025
Beauty of Grossman's writing is present but his genius is still developing/ assuming it was heavily influenced by the government at the time still Grossman's irrepressible love and reverence for humanity and the miraculous nature of the human soul still shines through-the way in which he professes his love and admiration of humanity especially as it bears witness to some of the most horrendous acts of history it must be read to be believed/ One of the greatest writers of all time
December 25, 2024
Che questa terra, dunque, possa godere della gloria che viene dal lavoro, dell'intelligenza, dall'onore e dalla libertà. E che non ci sia parola più sacra e solenne della parola «popolo»! Perché, più di ogni altro popolo al mondo, il nostro sa morire con rigore e semplicità.
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