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| A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army 1941-1945 | 
 enlarge | Author: Vasilii Grossman
Creators: Luba Vinogradova, Antony Beevor
Publisher: Pimlico
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 5263
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 1845950151
EAN: 9781845950156
ASIN: 1845950151
Publication Date: September 7, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Wonderful portrait October 24, 2008
A remarkable addition to the literature of 1941-45... A wonderful portrait of the wartime experience of Russia, whose people the author loved so much and felt for so deeply...
 Very moving book, but structure is a bit annoying July 6, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I think I would rather have read a long introduction by Beevor or whoever, and then a proper collection of Grossman's articles - rather than a series of fragments inserted into a narrative history of the War on the Eastern Front written not by Grossman but by Beevor. Maybe this is because Beevor assumes that the reader just won't know the history; even so it's annoying way to handle it.
That said, Grossman is a very interesting and sympathetic character, and there's nothing wrong with Beevor's narrative either. I was very moved both by the enormous privation and sacrifices of some Red Army soldiers - and the powerful contrasts between those who were prepared to sacrifice and suffer, and those who seem to have happily deserted and then "un-deserted" back. It made me think of those who sacrificed themselves to cap the reactor at Chernobyl, and to wonder whether there was something special about the Soviet system after all, to command such self-sacrifice.
great insight June 27, 2007
Although, as a reader you never feel truly involved, this is a great insight into the finer detail of the people involved in a terrible conflict. Touching and often poetic - recommended.
A unique and moving eyewitness account of the Eastern front June 24, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
For several years during the Second World War, as Britain and America gathered their forces for the invasion of France, they did no fighting in Europe. Being "at war" with Germany meant battles for the sea, the air and North Africa. All this time, the real war, a huge war, was going on in eastern Europe between the Axis powers and Russia.
Soviet war correspondent Vasily Grossman saw almost all of it: the racing retreat before the Blitzkrieg, months of slaughter and sniping in Stalingrad, massed tanks at the battle of Kursk, the newly liberated Majdanek concentration camp, the hidden horror of the Treblinka killing centre, the raping rampage towards Berlin and the inside of Hitler's bunker. He had a knack of getting generals to talk and to spot the extraordinary in an ordinary soldier's tale.
He was Jewish (although not religious) and his letters to his mother, who was lost in the holocaust, are some of the most moving things I have ever read. His shockingly candid report on Treblinka, which was used at the Nuremburg trials, tells how a few dozen Germans managed to kill almost a million people in around a year. It would be hard to believe if Grossman hadn't interviewed guards, survivors and local people, and put it all down on paper. The battle of Stalingrad too would be impossible to imagine without his eyewitness account.
Since he was Russian, one might expect Grossman's journalism to be so censured and blindly pro-Stalin as to be worthless. But this is not the case. His reports are full of real people, unusual quirks of war, and telling details; and he was just as despairing of the Red Army's failings as he was proud of its successes. And if he couldn't put something in the newspaper, he wrote about it in his notebooks and letters to his family. We are taught in the west that the Soviet system ruthlessly expunged all dissent. But in reality it was also so inefficient that it failed to snuff out all humanity. Although very politically naive at times, Grossman was one of the lucky ones who slipped through Stalin's net. What we are not taught in the west is that the real war was won and lost on the eastern front. This fascinating account is a rare opportunity to correct that balance and to discover what really happened in the Second World War.
Beevor and Vinogradova deserve high praise and deep thanks for giving us this judiciously edited new perspective.
Eye-witeness accounts of momentous events October 27, 2006
32 out of 32 found this review helpful
Having read Anthony Beevor's "Berlin The Downfall", my eye was drawn to this book, being as it is, a significant historial source for the Russian experience of the German invasion and its aftermath.
Grossman was despatched by his editors to the locations of most of the key events in the Russian war with Germany, and the book is particularly interesting because it runs right through from the invasion, to the defeat of Germany.
Grossman describes countless small events which fill in the broad picture with illuminating detail. He records the capture of a Russian deserter who tried to sneak back home in full peasants rags, but had the misfortune to be recognised by troops of his own unit. He met with brave peasant women who gave their all in order to survive the terrible events that came upon them. There are many stories of Russian military officers and men, snatches of conversation, descriptions of their appearance and behaviour, which all fill out the picture of "Ivan" and show their loyalty to their homeland - and their ignorance of how utterly their political masters were failing them thought lack of foresight and planning.
The book benefits from a fine commentary by Beevor - the diaries are not just edited, they are interpreted for us by a great historian who sets them in context and explains the background to the events, so that the book builds up to a complete history of the Russian war.
I highly recommend this book which reveals a compassionate and humanistic man who recorded the lives of "everyman" on the Russian front and enables us to understand more about the events of those terrible years.
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