Currently on my table: Stalingrad by Wassili Grossman

[Keunert]

Stalingrad by Wassili Grossman, writer of the incredible Life and Fate He's jewish and chemist but worked as a writer for the red army's soldier newspaper. in this book are some stories from the army magazine. i bought it for 7 bucks and was amazed to see that it is an original print from 1946, an original stalinist book, wow!

His 'Life and Fate' is an account of a jewish family (scientists ands soldiers) that lifes and fights during the great war. the book comes to the conclusion that life under Stalin isn't a much better fate than living under Hitler. Grossmann tried to publish it during Chrustchov! after sending the book in he was harrassed by the regime. he even wrote Chrustchov, demanding a publication. one wonders why he even bothered to send the book in.

luckily the manuscript got across the border and it was published in german first. A tale of Tolstoian dimensions. now it is availbale in english too. i cannot recommend it enough. if anybody is interested in this time and those circumstances, the book delievers an impressive account of the difficult life as a civilian under Stalin and as a soldier under Stalin. This is really an epic masterpiece.

[Keunert]

Here's the amazon page with all the praise of Life and Fate:

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Fate-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590172019

[Staggerwing]

^LB?

[Keunert]

no Keunert. but if you think Longblade of me, i may be flattered.

[LongBlade]

^LB?

Kenny, he's looking for the GrogHeads link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590172019/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1590172019&linkCode=as2&tag=grogheads-20

Nice find. I've been doing a lot of original source reading as of late. This looks like it might have to be my next buy. Thanks for the recommendation :)

[Keunert]

The book really opened my eyes. life during Stalin must have been an incredible depressing one. it must have been a society without any trust. he describes how it felt when a neighbour disappeared: did you make a Stalin joke? did you say something negative? even at the family table you had to watch what you would talk about, because your kids would not know how important it was to not mention certain things.... really really depressing.

it's alos interesting to read how Stalin interfered in science: Einstein was suddenly considered to be 'jewish sciene' in contrast to patriotic science. but when they realized how some Einstein theorems could be used for bomb making, jews were of course socialists like any other soviet too and all science was patriotic again...

[LongBlade]

I'm currently reading Ivan's War: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312426526/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0312426526&linkCode=as2&tag=grogheads-20

It's quite good.

It doesn't present quite as dark an outlook as your book, but in the first four chapters it's clear that life under Stalin was very bad. Over and over the accounts of people's thoughts on the war are actually found in files of informants for the secret police. There are also a number of accounts where soldiers are faced with fighting the Germans or the NKVD.

The only thing I can say is that I feel d@mn lucky to no have been born a Russian on the Eastern Front. Truly a case of damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't.

[Keunert]

the most impressive account on soldiers thoughts on the war (wwII) i have read is Das Echolot.
It is based on letters and notebooks. it is truly shuttering to read what german soldiers do, have seen, experienced and what not.
from ugly racists to widerstandskämpfer the Echolot lets a variety of different people speak on each day of the war.

most notable are letters from soldiers after the start of Barbarossa. they feel they are doomed already in September 41 because they compare to Napoleon's
campaign and they also interpret the changes in HQ right. some felt doomed four years before the end... and there are lot of accounts on the brave russians
that chose to rather die in hopeless situations insteat of giving up. (they compare them to the French and British)

sadly this book most likely will not get an english translation.

http://www.amazon.de/Das-Echolot-Abgesang-kollektives-Echolot-Projekts/dp/381350249X

[LongBlade]

the most impressive account on soldiers thoughts on the war (wwII) i have read is Das Echolot.
It is based on letters and notebooks. it is truly shuttering to read what german soldiers do, have seen, experienced and what not.
from ugly racists to widerstandskämpfer the Echolot lets a variety of different people speak on each day of the war.

most notable are letters from soldiers after the start of Barbarossa. they feel they are doomed already in September 41 because they compare to Napoleon's
campaign and they also interpret the changes in HQ right. some felt doomed four years before the end... and there are lot of accounts on the brave russians
that chose to rather die in hopeless situations insteat of giving up. (they compare them to the French and British)

sadly this book most likely will not get an english translation.

http://www.amazon.de/Das-Echolot-Abgesang-kollektives-Echolot-Projekts/dp/381350249X

Well, my German could stand to be improved, but I'm not sure I'm up to the task of it.