About book A Writer At War: Vasily Grossman With The Red Army (2007)
Vasily Grossman was the Ernie Pyle of the Russian army in WWII. He worked for newspaper The Red Star, and traveled with the Red Army from the start of the war to Berlin. This book is his field notes interspersed with broad descriptions of what was going on during the war. It is a fascinating glimpse into the day to day happenings on the Eastern Front. Miscellaneous notes:- There was lots of singing and music at the front with concerts, gramophones, radios etc.- Due to Stalin's purges in the Ukraine which he blamed on the Jews many Ukrainians welcomed the Germans as liberators and willingly participated in the killing of Jews. (Grossman was a Ukrainian Jew who's mother was killed at an extermination camp)Grossmans article about German and Ukrainian atrocities against the Jews were not published as the Soviets did not want any emphasis to be made about the suffering of the Jews (all soviets were suffering together) nor the complicity of the Ukrainians.- Soviet skulls could be distinguished from German skulls. The German teeth were worse due to their love of sweets.- In the battle of Stalingrad Gen Gurtyev had troops dig trenches and then drive tanks over them to stimulate battle conditions. - Many Russian rivers have higher west banks than east, no one knows why, thus aiding the Germans.- The Russian army had 14 acknowledge nationalities.- The prospect of being a cripple was feared far more than death by the Soviet soldier due to the belief that no woman would have you. In fact crippled soldiers were treated with unbelievable callousness after the war being shipped off to towns in the Arctic circle so as not to be in Moscow. Legless and armless vets were called "samovars." Grossman describes the ability of the Soviet soldiers to endure. "the simple blood washed loyalty." "They are majestic and matter of fact in their heroism." It is also true the the Soviets killed over 400,000 of their own troops for self inflicted wounds, retreating disloyalty etc. Many of the Soviet troops interviewed described their life as soldiers easier than their lives on their farms at home. - The tied was turned by the Soviets in 1943 not only by the Russian mud and extended German lines but by the Dodges and Studebakers (trucks I suppose) supplied by lend lease. - The Rumanians were granted semi-autonomous command and did not share the German antisemitism. While almost all Ukrainian Jews perished the Rumanian Jews fared much better. - In 1942 Grossman wrote of the death camp at Treblinka. It was not a secret.- Russian soldiers across the front would pose frozen German soldiers in groups or singly for their amusement, sometimes surprising later Red troops.- It was common practice for officers to openly have army wives, young soviet female troops, as mistresses.- In Stalingrad on artillery battery was "manned" by high school girls who refused orders to take cover until every cannon was knocked out. The simple valor of the Red troops comes through again and again.- Any collaboration with the Germans was treated harshly. Even women forced to cooperate were executed.- The Red army behaved fairly well in Russia but when it crossed the border to Poland and especially German it went on a binge of looting and raping. - When Red army soldiers saw the beautiful fields, houses and farms of Germany they could not understand why such a country would invade impoverished Russia.- Russian soldiers did not wear socks they wrapped their feet and rags. They felt this was better protection against frostbite.- Nikita Khrushchev was responsible for the building of the Moscow Subway. He was the political commissar for the defense of Stalingrad.- Stalin did not let the civilian population of Stalingrad leave the city feeling that the soldiers would fight harder if there was some civilians amongst them. If Stalingrad was taken the supply of oil from the Caucasus to Moscow would have been halted.- The defense of Stalingrad was stiffened by terrifying discipline 13,500 soldiers were executed during the five months battle. Blocking battalions backed up the front lines to shoot anyone who was running away. Soldiers were told to undress before being shot so their uniforms could be reissued without too many holes.- Liberated prisoners and slave laborers looted whatever they could get from the former masters pushing prams and caring baskets of looted goods only the Americans did not do this according to Grossman.- Grossman observe 800 Soviet children walking eastward on the road. These were children captured by the Germans and brought to Germany. They had notebooks in which was written in the shaky penmanship of kids lines extolling Hitler and Naziism.- The German populace is trying to deny any guilt for nimbleness destruction of suffering the Jamaica brought the Soviet Union.- Stalin formed "removal commissions" that were in charge of looting valuables from German safes and stores as part of reparations for the damage that the Germans did to Russia during the war
Vasily Grossman wrote one of my favourite novels, Life and Fate. It is astounding that the novel was only published because a friend had a copy of the manuscript, which was smuggled into Switzerland years later. Grossman died thinking that his magnificent book would be suppressed forever. In 'A Writer At War' the reader finds the seeds of Life and Fate, as Grossman reported from the Eastern Front throughout the war. He observed the disastrous Soviet losses of 1941, the Battle of Stalingrad, the turning of the tide against the Axis, and the rush to Berlin. The book is for the most part a digest of his notebooks, with excepts from his colleagues' writing, contextual notes, and some of the pieces he filed for Red Star (the Red Army newspaper). Much of the book thus consists of fragments, although it holds together very well. Grossman was embedded within the Red Army and interviewed all the soldiers he could, of every rank, as well as civilians. He had an eye for interesting details and anecdote. There is an interesting tension between his idealistic desire to report individual experiences and his patriotic duty to produce good propaganda. Grossman complained in letters to his relatives that his pieces were edited and changed in ways he disliked. Moreover, the contents of his notebooks would have brought him trouble had they been read by the authorities. Although he was wholly loyal to the Soviet regime, there was zero tolerance of criticism in Stalinist Russia. The fact that he recorded mistakes, desertions, and bad behaviour within the Red Army would have been suspect in itself. It is also notable that Grossman’s idealistic view of the army, which was perhaps at its height during the terrible days of Stalingrad’s defence, declined once the army advanced beyond Russia’s borders. The looting, rape, and vengeful violence enacted by the army was chronicled by Grossman, along with the victorious advance.There are two elements of this book that will really stick in my memory. The first is Kuznechik the camel, who accompanied the 308th Rifle Division on their advance from Stalingrad to Berlin. Upon arrival in Berlin, he was allegedly led to the Reichstag in order to spit upon its ruins. He also received a medal 'For the Defence of Stalingrad'. Given the appalling level of casualties during the Battle of Stalingrad in particular and on the Eastern Front in general, there is something magical and charming about the idea that a camel could survive it all. The most memorable part of the book, however, is the section on Treblinka. Unlike the rest of the chapters, it is a long contiguous piece of Grossman’s writing, presented with only brief initial context. This essay, titled ‘The Hell of Treblinka’ was quoted at the Nuremberg trials. It is utterly incredible, the part of the book that most clearly shows Grossman’s immense writing talent. When I reached the end of it, I looked up from the book and listened to my breathing for a moment to remind myself that I was still alive. Grossman saw Treblinka and interviewed the handful of survivors found by the Red Army. The piece is as devastating and horrific as any first hand account of the Holocaust I’ve read. What gives it exceptional impact is the insight into the psychology of the concentration camp. Grossman attempts to explain how twenty-five or so SS men and around a hundred Ukrainian auxiliaries were able to destroy an estimate eight hundred thousand people, through deception, manipulation, and dehumanisation. He ends by describing the grotesque attempts to dismantle and cover up the camp, finally presenting the image of the earth being unable to hide evidence of the massacres. Amongst the lupins that grew on the site of Treblinka, he found items belonging to those murdered, even locks of their hair. The full text of ‘The Hell of Treblinka’ can be found here: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47... I think it is a very important thing to read.Given the power of this piece, I was shocked that Grossman was not actually asked to report on the concentration camps the Red Army discovered in Poland. The colleague who did, Simonov, was careful to avoid mentioning that the vast majority of victims were Jewish. As the editors comment, 'the Stalinist line refused to accept any special categories of suffering'. Grossman’s articles on Nazi atrocities were censored to reduce 'emphasis on the Jews as victims,' and to suppress evidence that former Soviet states had collaborated in the Holocaust. 'A Writer At War' is fascinating, powerful, and moving as history, as war reporting, as biography, as autobiography, and as context for some of the best novels of the twentieth century. I highly recommend it.
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i don't read a lot of history. but after reading a couple of novels that took place in Russia during The Great Patriotic War - world war 2 in other words - i wanted to learn a little more about it. this book is not overly long -compared to many historical tomes- but i still wondered if i would get through it. turned out to be far easier then i imagined. as a journalist during the war, Grossman had to follow party lines, but he kept copious notes that were smuggled out of the country and -after some editing- are published here. vignettes really; Grossman relates snippets of overheard conversations, and snapshots of the places he was reporting from -including Stalingrad. poor war-torn Mother Russia. his immediate accounts certainly makes for more compelling reading ... at least for someone who isn't drawn to read the densely-researched traditional history book.
—Sooz
I don't usually read densely-researched traditional history books so this book is supposed to appeal to me as it's just snippets and vignettes but I hardly found them interesting. A few overheard conversations may sound interesting but when a whole hundred pages is filled with numerous little notes and footnotes it precludes you from wanting to go further. If the translators had not done such a great job of setting Grossman's journals in context for somebody who does know the broad expand and chronology of the war this would surely be an impossible read for a layman.
—Shutterbug_iconium
Grossman was a journalist on the Russian military's Red Star journal as the titanic battle between Hitler and Stalin on the eastern front consumed more than ten million lives during the Second World War. He was allowed the freedom to report on the experiences of soldiers at the front - a freedom that would be removed when the war ended and Grossman found himself an enemy of Stalin's security state.This journal contains his writings full of horror and hope. His document of the greatest military encounter in history stands as a monument to journalism under the most difficult conditions - censorious editors, grave military danger and the emotional complications which arose from his sense that his mother was imperiled in a captured village. He would discover her horrific fate and that of other Jews as the Russian troops recaptured the Ukraine and prepared to drive Hitler out of eastern Europe. Grossman's account of the mass murder at the Treblinka camp, which he entered with Russian troops, is monumental - in my view the most powerful piece of journalism ever written. Based on interviews with captured camp guards and inmates it revealed for the first time the true horror of the Nazi death camps. It is simply not possible to apprectiate the scale and intensity of the war on the eastern front without reading this work.
—Ray Hartley
