Vasily Semenovich Grossman is a writer whose most talented and truthful work was released only during the thaw. He went through the entire Great Patriotic War as a war correspondent and witnessed the Stalingrad battles. It was these events that Grossman reflected in his work. Life and Fate (a brief summary of it will become our topic) is a novel that has become the culmination of an image of Soviet reality.
About the novel
From 1950 to 1959, this epic novel was written by Vasily Semenovich Grossman. “Life and Fate” (a brief summary of the work is presented below) concludes the dilogy, which began with the work “For a Just Cause”, completed in 1952. And if the first part was absolutely in line with the canons of socialist realism, then the second acquired a different tone - criticism of Stalinism sounded clearly and distinctly in it.
Publication
A novel was published in the USSR in 1988. This was due to the fact that the creation that Grossman composed did not correspond to the party line. "Life and Fate" (the novel was initially received not just scary, but terrible) was recognized as "anti-Soviet." After all the copies were confiscated by the KGB.
After the manuscript was withdrawn, Grossman turned in a letter to Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev asking him to explain what was waiting for his book. Instead of an answer, the writer was invited to the Central Committee, where they announced that they would not print the book.
Only Semyon Lipkin (Soviet poet) preserved the only copy of the work that was exported abroad in the 70s and there, in Switzerland, published in 1980.
Grossman, Life and Fate: Summary
Old man Mikhail Mostovsky, a communist, was captured next to Stalingrad. He ends up in a concentration camp in West Germany. Once among the compatriots, the man does not feel support: the Menshevik Chernetsov hates him, a dispute arises with the Ikonnikov-Tolstoyan, and Major Ershov puts too much pressure on those around him.
Krymov arrives in Stalingrad. He is a political worker and should judge the dispute between the commissar and the commander of the rifle regiment. Upon arrival, it turns out that both arguers were killed, and at night Krymov himself was forced to participate in the battle.
The action is transferred to Kazan. Scientist Victor Strum and his family are here in evacuation. His wife Lyudmila worries about her son from his first marriage - about Tol, who is now in the war. She is also upset by the heavy nature of her daughter, Nadia. Shtrum's mother, a Jewess, ended up in a ghetto where it was virtually impossible to survive.
After a while, a letter arrives from the scientist’s mother, Anna Semenovna. In it, she is horrified by the change of people whom she knew so long ago: many stopped talking with her, calmly drove out of the room. And the next day, an action to exterminate the Jews was to take place, and she in a letter says goodbye to her son.
Grossman depicts the not-so-beautiful and heroic reality. “Life and fate” (a brief summary, in parts taken apart, in particular) conveys all the cruelty and horror of the war years, and not only emanating from the Germans.
Lyudmila learns that Tolya was wounded and is in the hospital. She urgently goes there, but is late - the young man dies.
The former secretary of the Getmanov regional committee, who had lived all his life in flattery, denunciations, and falsity, was appointed commissar of the tank corps. He now painstakingly transfers these principles to his front-line activities. With him is the corps commander Novikov, who is doing his best to reduce the number of victims. So, he postpones the attack for eight minutes, which Getmanov immediately reports.
Novikov falls in love with Evgeny Shaposhnikova, ex-wife of Krymov. The girl reciprocates him, but warns that she will leave if her husband is imprisoned.
Sophia Osipovna Levinton, a military surgeon, falls into German captivity. Together with other Jews she was loaded into a freight car and sent to a concentration camp. On the way, she sees how little a person needs to turn into nameless cattle. Here she meets the boy David. A woman consoles a child to the last, but there is no salvation - death awaits them in gas chambers.
Stalingrad - Moscow
Many complex and tragic fates depicted Vasily Grossman. “Life and Fate” (a brief summary of the work makes it possible to once again be convinced of this) is a novel in which there is no cheerfulness of socialist realism and a mandatory happy ending. Therefore, characterizing the genre of this work, it is necessary to remove part of the "social", leaving only the word realism.
Krymov receives an order to leave for Stalingrad. There he must restore order in the camp of the allies, whose head, the Greeks, conducts anti-Stalinist conversations with the fighters. If necessary, Krymov can eliminate him from Grekov’s command.
Krymov is absorbed in one idea - to convict the commander in anti-Soviet. In the end, he goes to write a denunciation. But he doesn’t have time - the Greeks and his fighters die. However, the paper manages to do its dirty deed: the commander is not assigned the posthumous title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The narrative returns to the description of the concentration camp, where Mostovsky is. Here they are trying to create an underground organization, but there is no unity between the prisoners, many do not trust each other. So, Commissioner Osipov suspects dishonest thoughts of Ershov, a native of a dispossessed family, and is afraid that he might gain more power in the group. Kotikov, a supporter of Stalinist methods, also opposes Ershov. As a result, a decision is made to put the Ershov card in the box where the data selected for sending to Buchenwald lay. Mostovsky does not like this idea, but he agrees with the majority. At the same time, an unknown person talks about the organization to the Germans, who immediately destroy all its participants.
Strum returns to Moscow with the institute where he works. Finishes and publishes work on nuclear physics, which immediately arouses interest and high marks. As a result, she is nominated for the Stalin Prize. Meanwhile, the attitude towards Jews at the institute is deteriorating. Sturm's attempts to intervene for them lead to the fact that his position is very precarious.
At times, Strum is seen with Maria Sokolova. Gradually, he realizes that he loves a woman, and she reciprocates. But Maria Ivanovna is married, and her husband soon learns about her feelings. Sokolov takes a promise from his wife not to meet with Strum again. At the same time, persecution begins on physics.
Arrest
Just before the Stalingrad offensive, Krymov was arrested and sent to Moscow. He ends up in Lubyanka, where, using torture, they try to get him to confess that during the battle for Stalingrad he betrayed his homeland. Krymov cannot recover for a long time after such accusations.
Grossman poses the problem of the Jewish question. “Life and Fate” (a brief summary of the chapters) is another confirmation of this. Strum stalking is described in a very realistic and colorful way. A devastating article is published in the institute's newspaper; physicists are persuaded to speak at the scientific council and admit their mistakes. Strum refuses and does not come to the meeting. The family is supporting him and, understanding the political situation in the country, is preparing for his arrest. On the same day, Maria Ivanovna called Strum, she was proud of him and was very homesick.
Physicists are fired, but not arrested. Old friends and acquaintances cease all relations with him. He and his family are in isolation.
But Strum is interested in the work of Strum. The scientist is immediately reinstated and given to the laboratory for personal use.
Krymov lies after torture in his office on Lubyanka, hears talk about the capture of Stalingrad. He sees the Greeks walking towards him. The interrogation continues, but Krymov refuses to sign a confession. He is taken to a cell where he finds a program from his wife Eugenia who returned to him.
Winter is over, in the spring forest we hear crying about the departed and the joy of a new life.
Theme and idea
Grossman covered many philosophical problems in his work. “Life and Fate” is an essay where issues of violence and freedom, military and peaceful life were raised. A war is not just a confrontation between the armies of two states, but a struggle of different worlds, different views of life. She exposed the most acute problems of the writer’s modernity, revealed the main contradictions of the Soviet era.
Red thread permeate the product of the theme of fate and life. Moreover, fate is perceived as a necessity, lack of freedom, pressure from the authorities, and life as freedom, individuality, following one’s emotional impulses.
Main conflict
After examining the summary of Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate”, the reader understands that the main conflict of the work is the conflict of violence and freedom, the state and the individual. These contradictions are especially pronounced in the thoughts of the heroes about the consequences of the Stalinist repressions, collectivization, and the fate of the "special settlers".
The author realistically depicts people's suffering under the oppression of the Nazis and the Soviet regime, finding a lot in common: people are dying, morally degrading, persistent surrender, brave cowards, kind embittered. Fear, no matter from whom it comes, equally affects the people. It is no coincidence that constant comparisons of Stalin and Hitler arise in the text. The two leaders had one method of influence - terror.
The finale of the novel remains open, without an answer there remains the question of what will triumph in a person - freedom or a slavish essence.
Krymov
Grossman placed many characters in his novel (Life and Fate, we recall, today we are discussing). But the main few, among them the commissar and the Bolshevik Krymov. He faithfully served the cause of the revolution all his life. In his understanding, “good” is what benefits the state. Duty to the Soviet Union is above all for him. Even in wartime, when people are dying around and you need to think about saving yourself and your homeland, he comes to Stalingrad to follow Grekov, who is rumored to be abusing the Stalinist regime.
Caught in the dungeons of the Lubyanka, Krymov takes a fresh look at his life, realizes his mistakes. He is tormented by remorse for denouncing Grekov.
Strum
In connection with this hero, Grossman raises the problem of attitudes towards Jews during the war. "Life and Fate", a brief summary, analysis of the work and the life path of the author himself help to understand how close this topic was to the writer. Strum is an outstanding physicist whose discovery can help the state strengthen his power, but he almost falls into the Stalinist camp because of his origin.
The image is interesting in that Grossman gives the hero the right to choose: betray himself without signing a loyal paper, or remain true to his own convictions, but again endanger his life. Strum acts cowardly, and this act costs him considerable torments of conscience.
Getmanov
We continue to analyze the characters of the heroes of the novel written by Grossman (Life and Fate). Getmanov stands out against the background of the two previous heroes. He is not faced with a choice, he has long decided that the main thing is to act appropriately. At first glance, this is a very charming and intelligent character. He is completely sincere in his errors and does not suspect that he has a “second bottom”. The moment is indicative when, worrying about collective farm workers, he underestimated their salaries.
Conclusion
A very rare and interesting description of the Stalin era was presented to the reader by Grossman. “Life and Fate,” which we reviewed briefly, is a novel aimed at combating totalitarianism. And it doesn’t matter if he is embodied in the Nazi or Soviet regime.