Stalingrad: War and Peace for the Twentieth Century

Vasily Grossman’s Stalingrad is an ambitious novel, and remarkably, it succeeds in its vast ambition. When Grossman set out to tell the story of the Soviet Union’s struggle against Nazi Germany, he was consciously writing in the shadow of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. His goal was to create a twentieth-century epic that captured an entire society confronting war, suffering, sacrifice, and history. I first read this novel a decade ago and now rereading it, I am convinced that Grossman came as close as anyone ever has to achieving that goal.

Like Tolstoy, Grossman moves effortlessly between generals and laborers, scientists and soldiers, mothers and bureaucrats. The coming battle for Stalingrad forms the center of gravity for the novel, but the book is about far more than military operations. Grossman is interested in how ordinary people endure extraordinary circumstances. His characters argue, fall in love, worry about their children, struggle with political loyalty, and attempt to preserve their humanity as the machinery of war closes around them.

One of the great strengths of Stalingrad is that Grossman never loses sight of the immense scale of the conflict while maintaining his focus on individual lives. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of history’s decisive military engagements, but Grossman understands that history is ultimately experienced one person at a time. His achievement lies in making readers care about those individuals while never forgetting the larger forces that shape their lives.

Reading the novel today, however, is a different experience than it was ten years ago. The Russian invasion of Ukraine casts a long shadow over every page. Grossman himself was born in what is now Ukraine, and the Soviet Army he describes was an army composed of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians, and dozens of other nationalities united against a common enemy. Throughout the novel, Russians and Ukrainians fight side by side against the Nazi invasion, sharing hardships, losses, and victories. Knowing that their descendants now face one another across battlefields is profoundly sad.

The novel also offers insight into the current war. Grossman’s depiction of Soviet resistance reminds readers of the extraordinary capacity for suffering displayed by both Russians and Ukrainians during the Second World War. The people he portrays endure losses that are almost unimaginable, yet continue fighting. Reading Stalingrad today makes it difficult to believe that either side in the current conflict will simply collapse from exhaustion or casualties. The historical memory of sacrifice runs too deep.

Yet Grossman is no simple patriot. Even within the constraints of Soviet censorship, he reveals the tensions and contradictions within Stalin’s state. The seeds of the more daring and devastating second novel Life and Fate are already present. The themes that would later define that masterpiece—freedom, tyranny, courage, and moral responsibility—can be seen emerging beneath the surface of Stalingrad.

As a historical novel, Stalingrad is magnificent. As a portrait of a society at war, it is unmatched. And as a reminder of both the resilience and tragedy of the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, it feels more relevant today than when Grossman first wrote it. Few novels better capture the human cost of war, and fewer still achieve it on such an epic scale.

Now I will reread Life and Fate.

-----

In 2019 I read Stalingrad and wrote about it here.

Massive Fire Bombing of Stalingrad

On 23 August 1942, Nazis dropped thousands of bombs and thousands more incendiary bombs on Stalingrad at the opening of their attack.

The horror of fire bombing cities, slaughtering civilians in terrible infernos, was how the Nazi army began its attack on the city of Stalingrad.  The Luftwaffe flew 1,600 sorties on Sunday, 23 August 1942, dropping 1,000 tons of bombs and incendiary devices on the ill-fated city.

The dense black cloud from the fires rose more than two miles into the air above the ill-fated city. The fire could be seen to the horizon in every direction.

I just read a long account of the raid and its aftermath in the novel Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman.  A reporter and correspondent throughout the war, Grossman arrived in Stalingrad the day after the massive raid. He spoke to witnesses and saw the aftermath of the bombing.

I love the book and have written about it other parts of it here.  Stalingrad is Volume I of a two-part, 1,800 page novel about the central battle of the war in Russia. It is the War and Peace of the 20th Century.

I read Volume II Life and Fate three years ago. Volume I was not available in English until this year. For those interested in the war from the Soviet perspective, it's a great book.

Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman: War and Peace set in the 20th Century

-->

“Stalingrad” by Vasily Grossman opens with the sentence:

“On 29 April 1942 Benito Mussolini’s train pulled into Salzburg station, now hung with both Italian and German flags.”

In the first two chapters of this thousand-page novel are a description of a meeting between Adolph Hitler and the Italian fascist dictator. Mussolini is the older of the two, but the junior partner. Mussolini notes the signs of age and exhaustion in the 53-year-old Hitler. Hitler notes the decline in square-jawed Italian who is approaching his 60^th year.

Hitler describes his plans for a post-war Nazi-dominated Europe.  As he does, Mussolini sees Hitler as vain and stupid. Mussolini knows he is the smarter of the two, but Hitler has such overwhelming numbers in men and machines, that he can only accept his role as the junior partner. 

Hitler believes one great thrust into Russia will put him in control of all of Europe. Britain will capitulate, America will stay away, and he will be able to concentrate on the new world he created. 

Nothing turned out as Hitler planned.

Grossman is a wonderful storyteller.  This novel in two volumes is nearly 2,000 pages, “War and Peace” set in the 20^th Century centered on Stalingrad.  I read second volume “Life and Fate” in 2015.  The first volume was just published in English translation. 

Grossman was a Russian war correspondent throughout the Second World War. Russians everywhere read his dispatches from the front. 

That storytelling ability pulls the reader in, keeping the vast tale personal and close.  After showing the plans of Hitler through the jealous eyes of Mussolini, the next few chapters follow Vavilov, a father in his forties who gets a notice to report for military service the next morning. His son is already in the Army. Vavilov looks with love around his hut and does what he can to make sure his wife and family can survive the next winter without him.

Next we are at a dinner party in Stalingrad. The Nazi armies are still far off, but relentlessly advancing.  The group of professional workers, engineers, doctors, academics, speculate about what will happen to Stalingrad, to Russia, to themselves. 

Then we switch again to following a woman who is an industrial chemist checking for pollution in Soviet factories.  Just Tolstoy moved from ordinary life to war and back, Grossman draws a panorama of the battle for Stalingrad.

At the center of the story is the first mass attack on the city by the Nazis which begins with hundreds of bombers dropping more than a thousand tons of bombs, including fire bombs on the city.  Before I read the book, I thought mass fire-bombing raids began with the British attack on Hamburg.  The Germans turned Stalingrad into an inferno, incinerating thousands who were not killed by high explosives.

As the German ground attack nears the Volga River on the east side of the city and looks as if it will crush all resistance.  The Russians stop the Germans and counterattack. One of the long sad stories within the novel follows one battalion holding back a German attack to the last defender. 

I loved “Life and Fate” and hope to re-read it next year, now that I have finished the fist volume of this 1,800-page tale of the battle that was the beginning of the end of the Nazi attack on Russia.

Year End Wrap Up: Exercise Turns Civilian, Reading Tops Riding

For the first time since I started riding a bicycle again in 1987, the total number of book pages I read exceeded the number of miles I rode.

This year I rode more than 8,000 miles, probably 8,300 by December 31, but I have read more than 10,000 pages in more than 50 books.  

Also, because I had trouble with my shoulder, I stopped doing pushups.  Every year since I re-enlisted I did more than 6,000 pushups, nearly 15,000 in 2011, but this year, less than 300.  

And I pretty much gave up running after the Ironman triathlon.  I also stopped swimming in September when I took four college classes.  But in the weirdest stat for the year, I swam more miles than I ran:  87 miles swimming, 74 running.  

The most troubling, beautiful, sad book I read this year was "Life and Fate" by Vasily Grossman.  It is the 20th Century version of "War and Peace" centering on Stalingrad.  

Eleven of the 52 books I read this year were written by Russian authors, but all were in English.  I am continuing to study Russian language, but not at the point where I can read Russian.  I can still read French well enough that one of the books I re-read this year was an abridged "Three Musketeers."  

Next semester I will be taking Russian language and 19th Century Russian Literature, so I will continue to have Russian in my mind.  If I leave the Army in May, I will definitely be riding more.  My plan will be to ride 10,000 miles in 2016 to get ready for racing in the 65+ category in 2018.  It's great to be the youngest in an age group!