Life and Fate: Introduction by Polly Jones

I first read ‘Life and Fate’ almost 20 years ago. I have just re-read it in preparation for the newly-published ‘Stalingrad’, Robert Chandler’s English translation of the ‘prequel’ to ‘Life and Fate’.Re-reading ‘Life and Fate’ has endowed me with a fresh perspective on the novel, not so much because it is a second reading, but because in the intervening years I have read so much more of the Russian and Soviet background to the 1942-43 Battle for Stalingrad; the Holocaust; the 1936-38 Great Terror; the artificial famine of the early 1930’s; and a great deal more that is relevant to the diorama that is ‘Life and Fate’.Grossman’s novel focuses primarily on Stalingrad and the weeks between the first German attacks on the city in August 1942, and the surrender, on 31st January 1943, of General Paulus, Generalfeldmarschall of Nazi Germany’s Sixth Army. It takes in, however, several other Soviet cities, including Moscow, and ranges geographically from a prisoner of war camp in Germany to a Soviet prison camp in Siberia. I should also mention Berdychiv, the Ukrainian city where Grossman was born and in which his mother was one of 12,000 Jews shot by the Nazis, and the Treblinka extermination camp, which Grossman visited in 1944 as a journalist accompanying the Red Army as it pressed the Wehrmacht back towards Berlin.Many of the details I have found most telling on this re-reading are derived from Grossman’s experience and skill as a journalist. Surely no-one who had not been there with the troops could have described as he does the experience of snipers and others stationed in forward positions in the ruins of Stalingrad; or have observed that a battle tank: ‘offers a magnificent target. Anyone can put it out of action. It makes an appalling din that gives its position away to the enemy and drives its crew round the bend. And it shakes you about so much you can hardly even observe, let alone take aim.’‘ …these men thought that they themselves would be unlikely to survive until the end of the war; indeed they felt astonished each evening to have survived one more day.’And yet, Grossman tells us, ‘the soldiers were able to eat soup, repair their boots, carve spoons and discuss their wives and commanding officers at a time when it might well seem impossible to feel anything except fury, horror and exhaustion. … the man with no calm at the bottom of his soul was unable to endure for long ….’More than a few queries that a student of Soviet society might have are answered. There is, for instance, the question of why Moscow was so quickly de-evacuated in 1942, following evacuation in late 1941. ‘There was no obvious sign that the war had reached a turning point', Grossman writes, ‘Nevertheless, everyone wanted to return to Moscow. It seemed right and natural – as did the Government’s decision to send back various institutions that had been evacuated.’Then there is Grossman’s observation on the process by which Stalin’s will was executed: ‘There was no need for Stalin to give direct orders – to ask that a prize be awarded to X, a flat be allocated to Y, or an Institute be set up for Z. Stalin was above such matters; they were dealt with by subordinates who divined Stalin’s will through his tone of voice and the look in his eyes.’This meshes with a growing consensus on how Putin’s Russia now operates.So there is a lot more to be gained from this novel than just the story of Grossman’s alter ego Viktor Shtrum, his many relatives and associates, spread across a broad spectrum of WW2 Soviet society. There is even some original philosophical reflection on the characteristics of a totalitarian state; on anti-Semitism; and (the conclusion of Part 2, Chapter 32) the ‘remorseless cunning of History’.'Life and Fate' is Tolstoyan in its ambition and scope. Tolstoy’s position at the pinnacle of Russian literature remains secure, probably for all time, but Grossman’s contribution is nevertheless worth not only reading, but re-reading.

Where to start...I am a big fan of 20th century Russian literature as well as avid reader in general. Whether you are a fan of Russian literature or history can be seen as irrelevant, this is one of the most stunning, beautiful and gripping novels I have ever read.Taking the Russian aspect aside initially, this book is a beautifully written novel striking st the heart of human emotions, behaviour and motivations. The multiple characters have given the author the opportunity to focus on the subtle as well as the larger and more horrific scenarios experienced in such an awful period in Russian history. Subsequently, this novel is as much about humanity and how small decisions have a big emotional and life changing impact as it is about the atttorocities millions experienced. His style of writing is beautiful, out of the harshest scenarios he is able to deeply describe the most humane and sensitive touches, meaning the reader becomes entirely involved in the lives of each character. Some characters you love, sympathise with and spend the entire novel wishing for them to act in certain ways, survive and end well, others you despise, yet are gripped by their actions, motivations and again feel closely involved with the characters. The story lines are superb but the style of writing elevates these stories to a far higher level of significance.As insight into the mindset of such a turbulent and terrifying time in Russian history, I defy the reader to find a better novel. I also defy the reader not to want to learn more about Russian the it's history over the last 100 years.Read this book, I was not able to put this down and took every small opportunity possible to read it.

I'd never heard of Vitaly Grossman, despite having read a lot of Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak between 1970 and 2000. The Times book review section on Saturdays has a small section, "I've been re-reading" and Life & Fate was the subject a few weeks ago. I enjoyed the review and bought the book. Its' history is eccentric as it was "arrested" by the KGB in 1960 - they confiscated the only copy, but left the author, a distinguished journalist on the Front Line during WWII, alone. In 1980 a microfilm copy of the typewritten manuscript was smuggled out of Russia to the West. How the manuscript got microfilmed is not explained in the translator's preface, but the book is technically 'unfinished' in that Grossman never got a chance to edit or polish it. Which probably explains the extreme length at 857 pages. That, actually, is evident in reading it, but I believe that the book is the better for being unpolished. Clearly it is largely a fictionalised version of either what Grossman experienced at first hand during the siege of Stalingrad, or what he heard from eyewitnesses during and after the war. It's remarkable and very touching and shows that the human spirit cannot be quenched by psychopaths such as Hitler and Stalin. They may kill millions of us humans, but the race survives, and that's important to remember when there's another Russian psychopath currently running amok in the Ukraine. At the back of the book is a list of all the characters and their inter-relationships - very helpful.

The book itself is a masterpiece and well worth the read. Yes, it is long at over 900 pages, but the narrative and way it is told is a classic that must be read. Delivered ahead of the alloted time and in pristine condition. Amazon rarely fails on this point, and it is a book that was banned in the West until the 1980s, so deserved of this release. Pick it up, you will not be disappointed.

The book has received endless praise, but I found it to be dull and uninteresting. Maybe I initially had the wrong impression of the book, for I believed that it described the appalling conditions in Russia during the Second World War, but instead it is in novel form, largely being conversations between the Russian combatants. A women in the introduction said that the book had changed her life. It has not done anything to change mine, other that regretting wasting nearly £10 on an 800-page paperback. John Copeland