The people immortal

Vasiliĭ Grossman

Book - 2022

"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 simple: 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"--

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Subjects
Genres
Historical fiction
Novels
Published
New York : New York Review Books [2022]
Language
English
Russian
Main Author
Vasiliĭ Grossman (author)
Other Authors
Robert Chandler, 1953- (translator), Elizabeth Chandler, 1947- (editor), Julia Volohova
Physical Description
pages ; cm
ISBN
9781681376783
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Serialized in the Soviet army newspaper Red Star in July and August of 1942, Ukrainian-born Grossman's The People Immortal was "the first Soviet novel about the [Second World] war." Accompanied by selections from Grossman's notebooks--see Writer at War (2006), extensive footnotes, and contextualizing essays, the novel is more than a historical document, and not only because it is set in Ukraine. As a reporter, Grossman traveled with the Red Army all the way to Berlin: he had access, saw things. As a novelist, he knew how to create believable characters. Because Grossman could not expect a frontline soldier to follow a story across several issues of the paper, each chapter can be read separately. This form allows Grossman to show the war in cross section, from the front lines back, and up the ranks to commanders gathered around maps far behind the lines. The plot is conventional, a sort of conversion story, about the turning of ill-equipped recruits into brave soldiers, and intellectuals into commanders. Marred by the occasional obligatory instances of propagandistic puffery, the images, swift metaphors, and patient scene-setting are unforgettable. "The sandy track gleamed dimly in the dark, while in their minds' eye the sky became a golden starry porridge[.]" A meal to savor.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Grossman's insightful novel, originally published in 1942 before the linked WWII novels Life and Fate and Stalingrad, follows a Soviet battalion assigned a suicide mission in 1941: cover a Russian regiment's retreat from the unyielding Nazi advance for as long as they can. The doomed group is a rogue's gallery of Soviet archetypes. There's Bogariov, the battalion's levelheaded commissar, a peacetime professor of Marxism who is happy to test his convictions on the battlefield; Ignatiev, a cheery, rakish collective farm worker, whose boldness and knowledge of the land make him an invaluable guerrilla; and Cherednichenko, the steely, veteran divisional commissar looking to spin victory out of certain defeat. The text, which Grossman (1905--1964) wrote shortly after his own visit to the front as a war correspondent, hums with fine details: the leaves of dead birches hang "small and yellow like copper coins"; soldiers identify the fields they march over "by the swish of falling seeds, by the creak of straw underfoot and by the rustle of the stalks that clung to their tunics." Though straightforward and unmistakably propagandistic, it's elevated by Grossman's clarity of thought and vision. The result is a worthy look into Russian wartime psychology. (Sept.)Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated this book was part of a trilogy.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A colorful depiction of Russian soldiers in World War II at a critical moment in the German invasion. Grossman (1905-1964) was a correspondent for the Soviet army's Red Star when he knocked out this novel in two months in 1942 for serialization in the newspaper. It covers a brief period in the late summer of 1941 when Russia was enduring heavy losses after German troops invaded in June of that year. Grossman reported on the action firsthand, and his knowledge is reflected in the novel's details of military life, the cruelty of firebombing, the impact of an order forbidding surrender or retreat. The narrative focuses on a group of encircled Russian troops and their efforts to break through enemy lines. The frontline soldier is represented by the hearty, cheerful farmer Ignatiev. Higher up the ranks is the thoughtful, stern Bogariov, a former academic whose reading of classic military texts leads him to question official strategy. As an introduction notes, this novel was Grossman's contribution to the war effort, and the well-crafted, smoothly translated prose is occasionally marred by the clanking phrases of propaganda: "There were no people closer to him than those who had fought beside him in defence of the people's freedom." But for the most part it's clear that the journalist in Grossman cannot drift far from the plain truth, including criticism of the high command. More important, this hastily drawn picture laid the groundwork for the author's sprawling wartime canvases, Stalingrad (1952) and Life and Fate (1980). The publisher has made a significant commitment to Grossman, and this novel, though a lesser work, reflects those efforts. It includes not only an introduction, but a timeline, an afterword, unusual documents, additional reading, and extensive notes that clarify arcana and help explain editorial and translation decisions. An essential part of Grossman's vital body of work. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.