Vasily Grossman

World War II-time photo
Born:	December 12, 1905 Berdichev, Ukraine
Died:	September 14, 1964 Moscow, USSR
Occupation:	writer, journalist

Vasily Semyonovich Grossman (first name alternatively spelled as Vassily or Vasiliy, Russian: Василий Семёнович Гроссман), December 12, 1905 – September 14, 1964, was a prominent Soviet-era writer and journalist. Vassily Grossman, WWII-time photo File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... December 12 is the 346th day (347th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 19 days remaining. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... Berdichev (Polish language: Berdyczów, Ukrainian language: Бердичів, Russian language: Бердичев) is a town in Zhytomyrska oblast, Ukraine, 44 km South of Zhytomyr. ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2007)    - Density 10,469,000   9684. ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... December 12 is the 346th day (347th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 19 days remaining. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Soviet redirects here. ...

Early life and career

Born Iosif Solomonovich Grossman in Berdichev, Ukraine into an emancipated Jewish family, he did not receive a traditional Jewish education, and knew only a few Yiddish words. 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. Berdichev (Polish language: Berdyczów, Ukrainian language: Бердичів, Russian language: Бердичев) is a town in Zhytomyrska oblast, Ukraine, 44 km South of Zhytomyr. ... This article incorporates text from the public domain 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia Haskalah (from the Hebrew word sekhel, meaning intellect) was the movement among European Jews in the late 18th century that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing secular knowledge, Hebrew language, and... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... A diminutive is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Leaders of the Menshevik Party at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, Sweden, May 1917. ... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political and social upheavals in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal and moderate-socialist Provisional Government, resulting in the establishment of Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ...

Grossman began writing short stories while studying at Moscow State University and later continued his literary activity working as an engineer in the Donbass. One of his first short stories, In the town of Berdichev (В городе Бердичеве), drew favorable attention and encouragement from Maxim Gorky and Mikhail Bulgakov. The famous Commissar (movie) (director Aleksandr Askoldov), made in 1967, suppressed by the KGB and released only in October 1990, is based on this four-page story. Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russian: Московский государственный университет имени Ðœ.Ð’.Ломоносова, often abbreviated МГУ, MSU, MGU) is the largest and the oldest university in Russia, founded in 1755. ... Categories: Stub | Regions of Ukraine | Ukrainian historical regions ... Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov (In Russian Алексей Максимович Пешков) (March 28 [O.S. March 16] 1868–June 18, 1936), better known as Maxim Gorky (Максим Горький), was a Soviet/Russian author, a founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. ... Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov (Russian: Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков; May 15 [O.S. May 3] 1891, Kiev – March 10, 1940, Moscow) was a Russian novelist and playwright of the first half of the 20th century. ... Commissar (Комиссар) is a movie is based on one of Vasily Grossmans first short stories, In the town of Berdichev (Ð’ городе Бердичеве). The main characters were astonishingly played by two Peoples Artists of the USSR, Rolan Bykov and Nonna Mordyukova. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Note: This article is about the KGB of the USSR. KGB is also the official title of the Belarusian intelligence services. ... MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ...

In the mid-1930s Grossman left his job as an engineer and committed himself fully to writing. By 1936 he had published two collections of stories, and in 1937 was accepted into the privileged Writers Union of the USSR. During the Great Purge some of his friends and close relatives were arrested, including his common-law wife. For months he petitioned the authorities to release her, which happened in 1938. The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. ... Common-law marriage (or common law marriage), sometimes called informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute is, historically, a form of interpersonal status in which a man and a woman are legally married. ...

War reporter

Vasily Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany (1945)

When the Great Patriotic War broke out in 1941, his mother was trapped and eventually murdered in Berdichev, together with 20,000 to 30,000 other Jews who did not evacuate. Grossman was exempt from the army 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 (The 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 is 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 into In Just Cause (За правое дело) is based on his own experiences during the siege. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 586 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1340 × 1370 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 586 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1340 × 1370 pixel, file size: 1. ... Schwerin is a town in northern Germany. ... The Eastern Front1 was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... Red Army flag The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ... The Soviet military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Кра́сная звезда́, Red Star) was founded on January 1, 1924. ... Combatants Nazi Germany Soviet Union Commanders Fedor von Bock, Heinz Guderian Georgy Zhukov, Aleksandr Vasilevsky Strength As of October 1: 1,000,000+ men, 1,700 tanks, 14,000 guns, 950 planes[1] As of October 1: 1,250,000 men, 1,000 tanks, 7,600 guns, 677 planes[2... Combatants Germany Italy Hungary Romania Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Maximilian von Weichs Friedrich Paulus # Erich von Manstein Hermann Hoth Italo Garibaldi Gusztav Jany Petre Dumitrescu Constantin Constantinescu Vasiliy Chuikov Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy Georgiy Zhukov Semyon Timoshenko Konstantin Rokossovsky Rodion Malinovsky Strength German Sixth Army German Fourth Panzer Army Romanian Third Army... Combatants Nazi Germany Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein Hans von Kluge Hermann Hoth Walther Model Georgiy Zhukov Konstantin Rokossovskiy Nikolay Vatutin Ivan Konyev Strength 2,700 tanks 800,000 infantry, 2,000 aircraft 3,600 tanks 1,300,000 infantry, 2,400 aircraft Casualties German Kursk : 50,000 dead... Combatants Soviet Union Poland Germany Commanders Georgiy Zhukov Ivan Konev Konstantin Rokossovskiy Vasiliy Chuykov Adolf Hitler â€  Gotthard Heinrici Helmuth Reymann Ernst Kaether (one day) Helmuth Weidling # Karl Dönitz # Wilhelm Mohnke # Strength 2,500,000 soldiers, 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces [1] 1,000,000... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

Grossman's documentary descriptions of ethnically cleansed Ukraine and Poland, the opening of 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 Treblinka Hell,^[1] 1944) was disseminated at the Nuremberg Trials as a document for the prosecution. Armenian civilians, being cleansed from their homeland during the Armenian Genocide. ... Treblinka II was a Nazi extermination camp in German-occupied Poland during World War II. Extermination camps like the one at Treblinka were used in the Holocaust for the systematic genocide of people categorized as sub-humans by the Nazis. ... Majdanek in the winter, 2005 Majdanek is the site of a German Nazi concentration and extermination camp, roughly 2. ... Extermination camps were one type of facility that the Nazis built before and during World War II for the systematic murder of millions of people in what has become known as The Holocaust. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... “Shoah” redirects here. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The Süddeutsche Zeitung announces The Verdict in Nuremberg. ...

Conflict with the Soviet regime

The post-war state suppression of the Black Book shook him to the core and he began to question his own loyal support of the regime. First the censors ordered changes in the text to conceal the specifically anti-Jewish character of the atrocities and to downplay the role of Ukrainians who worked as Nazi police. Then in 1948 the Soviet edition of the book was scrapped completely. The poet Semyon Lipkin, his friend, believes it was Stalin's antisemitic campaign that cracked Grossman's belief in the Soviet system: The term black book has multiple meanings: Black Book (Chornaya Kniga or Черная Книга), a compilation of reports about the actions of Nazis against Jews in World War II Black Book, a list of individuals blacklisted from casinos Traditionally, various revisions of technical papers are called by the color of their cover... National Socialism redirects here. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights LGBT rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Feminism Mens/Fathers rights · Masculinism Children...

"In 1946... I met some close friends, an Ingush and a Balkar, whose families had been deported to Kazakhstan during the war. I told Grossman and he said: "Maybe it was necessary for military reasons". I said: "...Would you say that if they did it to the Jews?" He said that could never happen. Some years later, a virulent article against cosmopolitanism appeared in Pravda. Grossman sent me a note saying I had been right after all. For years Grossman didn't feel very Jewish. The campaign against cosmopolitanism reawoke his Jewishness." This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Balkar (малкъар /malqar/) people are a Turkic people of the Caucasus region, thet titular population of Kabardino-Balkaria. ... Not by Their Own Will. ... Rootless cosmopolitan (Russian language: безродный космополит, bezrodny kosmopolit) was a Soviet euphemism during Joseph Stalins anti-Semitic campaign of 1948–1953, which culminated in the exposure of the alleged Doctors plot. The term and the persecutions by the authorities unmistakably targeted the Jews. ... Pravda (Russian: , The Truth) was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991. ...

Because of the state persecution, only a few of the author's post-war works were published during his lifetime. After he submitted for publication his magnum opus, the novel Life and Fate (Жизнь и судьба, 1959), the KGB raided his apartment. The manuscripts, carbon copies, notebooks, as well as the typists' copies and even the typewriter ribbons were seized. Magnum opus (sometimes Opus magnum, plural magna opera), from the Latin meaning great work,[1] refers to the best, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer, and most commonly one who has contributed a very large amount of material. ... Life and Fate (Russian: ), is a 1959 novel by Vasily Grossman, and the authors magnum opus. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Note: This article is about the KGB of the USSR. KGB is also the official title of the Belarusian intelligence services. ...

With the post-Stalinist "Thaw period" underway, Grossman wrote to Nikita Khrushchev: "What is the point of me being physically free when the book I dedicated my life to is arrested... I am not renouncing it... I am requesting freedom for my book." The Politburo ideology chief Mikhail Suslov told the author that his book would not be published for at least two hundred years. Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... In Soviet history, Kruschevs Thaw or Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period between the end of 1950s and the beginning of 1960s, when repressions and censorship reached a low point. ... Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Russian: , Nikita Sergeevič Chruščiov; IPA: , in English, , or , occasionally ); surname more accurately romanized as Khrushchyov; April 17 [O.S. April 5] 1894[1]–September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. ... Politburo is short for Political Bureau. ... Mikhail Suslov. ...

Life and Fate, as well as his last major novel Forever Flowing (Все течет, 1961) were considered a threat to the totalitarian regime, and the dissident writer was effectively transformed into a nonperson. Forever Flowing, in particular, is unique in its quiet, non-forced, and yet horrifying, condemnation of the Soviet totalitarian state, a work in which Grossman, liberated from worries about censors, spoke completely honestly about Soviet history. Grossman died in 1964, not knowing whether his novels would ever be read by the public. 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... The concept of Totalitarianism is a typology or ideal-type used by some political scientists to encapsulate the characteristics of a number of twentieth century regimes that mobilized entire populations in support of the state or an ideology. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ...

Fate of Grossman's writings after his death

Life and Fate was published in 1980 in Switzerland, thanks to fellow dissidents: physicist Andrei Sakharov secretly photographed draft pages preserved by Semyon Lipkin, and the writer Vladimir Voinovich managed to smuggle the films abroad. As the policy of glasnost was initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, the book was finally published on Russian soil in 1988. Forever Flowing was published in the Soviet Union in 1989. 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Andrei Sakharov, 1943 For the historian, see Andrey Nikolayevich Sakharov. ... Vladimir Voinovich Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich (alternatively spelled Voynovich, ru: Владимир Войнович, born September 26, 1932 in Dushanbe) is a prominent Russian writer and a dissident. ...   (Russian: IPA: ) is a Russian word for transparency or openness. ... Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: ), surname more accurately romanized as Gorbachyov; born March 2, 1931) is a Russian politician. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Life and Fate is considered to be an autobiographical work. Robert Chandler, the novel's English translator, has written in his introduction to the Harvill edition that its leading character, Viktor Shtrum, "is a portrait of the author himself," reflecting in particular his anguish at the murder of his mother at the Berdichev Ghetto. Chapter 18, a letter from Shtrum's mother, Anna, has been dramatized for the stage, and film, as The Last Letter (2002), directed by Frederick Wiseman, starring Catherine Samie. Chandler additionally suggests that Shtrum is based on the physicist Lev Landau. Frederick Wiseman (born 1 January 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA) is an American documentary filmmaker. ... Catherine Samie (born 1933) is French actress and member (Sociétaire, doyen) of Comédie-Française from 1962. ... Lev Davidovich Landau Lev Davidovich Landau (Russian language: Ле́в Дави́дович Ланда́у) (January 22, 1908 – April 1, 1968) was a prominent Soviet physicist, who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. ...

Some critics have compared Grossmans's novels to Leo Tolstoy's monumental prose.^[2][3] However, a more appropriate comparison might be made with Dostoyevsky.^{[original research?]} Grossman is merciless in describing the dark corners of a human soul. Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: , IPA:  ), commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy (September 9 [O.S. August 28] 1828 – November 20 [O.S. November 7] 1910) was a Russian novelist, writer, essayist, philosopher, Christian anarchist, pacifist, educational reformer, moral thinker, and an influential member of the Tolstoy family. ... Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...

Notes

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a private university located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles northwest of San José in Stanford, California. ...

Quotes

• ...there is no higher happiness than to be able to crawl on one's stomach, out of the camp, blind, one's legs amputated, and to die in freedom, even if only ten yards from the cursed barbed wire.

• ...only one form of retribution is visited upon an executioner — the fact that he looks upon his victim as something other than a human being and thereby ceases to be a human being himself, and thereby executes himself as a human being. He is his own executioner... (Forever Flowing)

• "Man never understands that the cities he has built are not an integral part of Nature. If he wants to defend his culture from wolves and snowstorms, if he wants to save it from being strangled by weeds, he must keep his broom, spade, and rifle always at hand. If he goes to sleep, if he thinks about something else for a year or two, then everything's lost. The wolves come out of the forest, the thistles spread and everything is buried under dust and snow." (Life and Fate)

See also

• History of the Soviet Union
• History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
• Ilya Ehrenburg
• Varlam Shalamov
• Solomon Mikhoels
• Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
• Doctors' plot
• Gulag
• Samizdat

The History of the Soviet Union begins with the Russian Revolution of 1917. ... Historical background As waves of anti-Jewish pogroms and expulsions from the countries of Western Europe marked the last centuries of the Middle Ages, a sizable portion of the Jewish populations there moved to the more tolerant countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East. ... Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (Russian: IPA: ), January 27 [O.S. January 15] 1891 (Kiev, Ukraine) – August 31, 1967 (Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Soviet-Jewish Russian writer and journalist whose 1954 novel gave name to the Khrushchev Thaw. ... Varlam Shalamov Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (Варлам Тихонович Шаламов, July 1, 1907–January 17, 1982) was a Russian writer, journalist, poet, political prisoner and Gulag survivor. ... Young Mikhoels Solomon Mikhoels (real surname - Vovsi), Yiddish: ; Russian: (16 March [O.S. 4 March] 1890 - January 12/13, 1948) was a Soviet Jewish actor and director in Yiddish theater and the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. ... The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC, Russian language: Еврейский антифашистский комитет, ЕАК) was formed in Kuibyshev in April 1942 with the official support of the Soviet authorities. ... The Doctors plot (Russian language: дело врачей (doctors affair), врачи-вредители (doctors-saboteurs) or врачи-убийцы (doctors-killers)) was an alleged conspiracy to eliminate the leadership of the Soviet Union by means of Jewish doctors poisoning top leadership. ... Gulag ( , Russian: ) is an acronym for Главное Управление Исправительно—Трудовых Лагерей и колоний, Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii, The Chief Directorate [or Administration] of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies of the NKVD. Anne Applebaum, in her book Gulag: A History, explains: The word Gulag has also come to signify not only the administration of the... Samizdat, book published by Pathfinder Press containing a collection of forbidden Trotskyist Samizdat texts. ...

Publications

• Life and Fate (ISBN 0-00-261454-5 - first English translation edition)
• Forever Flowing (European Classics - ISBN 0-8101-1503-4)
• Black Book: The Ruthless Murder of Jews by German-Fascist Invaders Throughout the Temporarily-Occupied Regions of the Soviet Union and in the Death Camps of Poland by Vasily Grossman and Ilya Ehrenburg (ISBN 0-89604-031-3)
• Commissar (ISBN 6301884345)
• (Russian) Grossman's publications at lib.ru

Life and Fate (Russian: ), is a 1959 novel by Vasily Grossman, and the authors magnum opus. ... Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (Russian: IPA: ), January 27 [O.S. January 15] 1891 (Kiev, Ukraine) – August 31, 1967 (Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Soviet-Jewish Russian writer and journalist whose 1954 novel gave name to the Khrushchev Thaw. ...

References

• The Bones of Berdichev: The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman by John Gordon Garrard, Carol Garrard (ISBN 0-684-82295-4)
• Vasiliy Grossman: The Genesis and Evolution of a Russian Heretic by Frank Ellis (ISBN 0-85496-830-X)
• A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army, 1941-1945 by Anthony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova (Pantheon, 2006 - ISBN 0-375-42407-5 ) - Based on Grossman's notebooks, war diaries, personal correspondence and articles.

Antony Beevor (born in 1946) is an historian, educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst. ...

External links

• (Russian)100th anniversary of Vasily Grossman's birthday Interview with Yekaterina Korotkova (Grossman)
• "Under Siege", from The New Yorker, March 6, 2006.
• (Russian)"The one who said the forbidden words. To centennial anniversary of Vasily Grossman", an article in Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly), Kiev, available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
• Chandler, Robert. "Vasily Grossman" (HTML) (PDF), Prospect, Issue 126, September 2006
• Eli Shaltiel: Eyewitness to hell (Ha'aretz, 30 October 2006)