Stalingrad

by Vasily Grossman

  There is no mention in the third version of Viktor and Postoev talking and reading during the night. In the 1952 and 1954 editions we are told that the two men are reading, but not that they are reading Sherlock Holmes. At this time of extreme Russian nationalism, it may have been unacceptable for them to be reading a foreign book.

  38. Here we have followed the 1956 edition. The third version is similar, though the description of Viktor’s apartment is more detailed.

  39. The paragraph about Viktor’s absent-mindedness is from the third version, as are some of the physical details—the rough skin and callused hands—that show Viktor what heavy, exhausting work Anna Stepanovna has been doing. The sentence about Viktor bowing to her and kissing her hand is also from the third version.

  40. Similar in the third version and the 1956 edition. Much of the first four paragraphs was omitted in 1952 and 1954. Grossman’s emphasis on the precarious condition of the Russian state during the summer of 1942 was clearly unacceptable. The paragraph about support services’ HQs being located within the city is from the third version, as are many of the more reflective passages.

  41. For this chapter, we have followed the 1956 edition. In the third version, Nina says more about the vileness of her husband. He forced her to have an abortion, and he and his mother trade tinned food on the black market. In the third version, Nina is artful and seductive, though Viktor believes her to be naive and innocent, seeing himself as a noble warrior ready to defend her. Viktor and Nina spend the night together. They are, it seems, alone in the building, in an exalted world of their own; everything harsh, petty and mundane has disappeared into the bomb shelter.

  42. One of the chapters that Fadeyev required Grossman to add for the novel’s first publication in 1952. Grossman’s typescript of this (in the so-called ninth version) and the 1952 edition are almost identical, but the 1954 edition differs a great deal. The 1954 and 1956 editions differ only slightly.

  On 2 February 1953, eleven days before the publication in Pravda of Bubyonnov’s denunciatory article, there was a meeting in the Novy Mir editorial office, attended not only by the editorial staff but also by writers, critics and military figures. Understanding which way the wind was blowing, Tvardovsky and everyone present criticized several aspects of the novel, including its inadequate portrayal of the role of Stalin. Still more criticism, however, was directed at the novel’s “historico-philosophical concept.” Grossman’s attackers and defenders united in advising him to omit the “far-fetched” philosophical passages. And six weeks later, at a meeting of the Union of Writers’ Presidium, Fadeyev referred to the “reactionary, idealist, anti-Leninist philosophy” put in the mouth of Chepyzhin.

  It may be difficult for a reader today, unversed in the Marxist–Leninist orthodoxy of the time, to grasp what was so heretical about Chepyzhin’s thoughts. The literary critic Venedikt Sarnov has suggested, very plausibly, that the most serious issue of all is simply that Chepyzhin is thinking for himself. Both Chepyzhin and Grossman are guilty of thinking for themselves about political and philosophical matters on which only Stalin and the Party had the right to pronounce.11

  The changes introduced in 1954 were clearly a response to the criticisms made at this editorial meeting and in subsequent published reviews. The chief difference is that in the 1954 and 1956 editions it is Viktor who wins the argument, while in 1952 it is Chepyzhin. The 1952 variant of the chapter ends with Viktor subordinating himself to Chepyzhin: “What I wanted to talk to you about today was not just the methodology of my work. I have to confess that I was very pleased when you brought up more general questions of life. And I suddenly understood more clearly than ever that you are my teacher not only with regard to the problems of physics.”

  Grossman introduced the figure of Chepyzhin to meet Fadeyev’s demands. It was agreed that he could keep Viktor Shtrum in the novel if he made him the student of a world-famous Russian physicist. It is ironic that this made the novel vulnerable to criticism on other scores.

  43. Not in the third version. It is still unclear in which version it first appeared.

  44. A great deal of this chapter—around fifteen paragraphs, including the account of Krymov’s personal battle with “the life instinct,” the paragraph with the mention of Tolstoy, and much of the description of the wounded soldiers and the pontooners—is from the third version. This chapter marks the beginning of a series of chapters that see Krymov thinking constantly, with growing anguish, about the Soviet retreat. This was a sensitive issue; it is not surprising that there is much here that Grossman was unable to publish.

  45. For the description of the evening steppe we have followed the 1956 edition; in the third version, this passage is longer. We have, however, followed the third version for several sentences about the refugees, and also for the chapter’s final paragraph. In the published editions this is more upbeat. The 1956 edition reads, “Thousands of people, thousands of men, women and children, all of them filled with an implacable hatred of fascist evil, were heading east beneath the broad copper and bronze of the setting sun.”

  46. Not in the third version. It is unclear in which version it first appeared.

  47. Like many of the chapters summarizing military developments, this is not in the third version.

  48. This chapter went through a great many changes. Among the passages we have taken from the third version are the quotation from Lermontov, the mention of men from Chernigov deserting to the Germans, and the paragraphs about General Vlasov, along with other references to the catastrophic encirclement at Kiev. The paragraph beginning “And—as if summoned by the approaching dark forces” was omitted in 1952 and 1954. The last five or six pages of this chapter—from “became manifest, in word and deed” to “separate escape”—were evidently added relatively late; they are present in 1954 and 1956, but not in the third version or the 1952 edition.

  49. Much of this chapter is about yet another panicked Soviet retreat. It seems likely that Grossman’s editors insisted that he add some more upbeat passages to balance this. On the first page, for example, the words “Krymov learned what had happened during the days of his wanderings” are followed by this: “The front line had been breached and the Germans had advanced rapidly, but before them had appeared a new Front, the Bryansk Front, with new armies and new divisions; and behind the Bryansk Front had appeared still more armies and divisions. The Soviet defences were growing ever deeper and stronger; they now extended for hundreds of kilometres.” We have omitted this and two similar paragraphs—all present in the published editions but not in the third version.

  The tribunal chairman does not appear in 1952 and 1954. In the third version and the wartime notebooks there are six traitors for him to judge; in the 1956 edition only three.12 The “contemptuous smirk” (brezglivo usmekhnulsya) with which one of Yeromenko’s subordinates looks at Krymov—a man who had been in German-held territory and was therefore automatically suspect—appears in the third version, but not in the 1952 and 1954 editions.

  In 1952 and 1954 Yeromenko himself makes no appearance, though some of his words are attributed to the major general.

  In the published editions, but not in the third version, Krymov’s recollections of Belorussia end with a sentence probably foisted on Grossman by his editors: “But during the last twenty-five years a new force had entered the life of Belorussia. In village, town and forest Krymov had encountered Belorussian Bolsheviks—the soldiers, craftsmen, workers, engineers, teachers, agronomists and kolkhoz brigade leaders now at the head of the partisan bands fighting for the people’s freedom.” The 1952 and 1954 editions include a similarly orthodox paragraph about Bolsheviks in Ukraine, omitted in 1956.

  The old woman’s account of praying to God and then cursing the Devil is from the third version. It closely follows a wartime notebook entry that concludes, “These hearts, like the righteous ones in the Bible, illuminate with their strange light our entire people. There are only a handful of them, but they will be victori
ous.”13

  The poem by Tyutchev, like most other passages of poetry, is from the third version.

  50. In the third version, this chapter takes the form of a letter Krymov writes to Zhenya.

  51. In the third version Krymov spends only ten days in Moscow and doesn’t attend the celebration of the Revolution in Red Square. In 1952 and 1954, on the other hand, Grossman devotes over a page to the speech by Stalin at the end of this chapter. Here we have followed the much-abbreviated 1956 account of the speech.

  52. Like other summaries of military developments, this chapter first appeared in one of the later typescripts. But Grossman’s brief mention of two disastrous defeats—the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula and the Second Battle of Kharkov—was first published only in 1956; the taboo against mention of the defeats of the first year of the war was relaxed only gradually.

  53. The various versions of this chapter differ a great deal. In the third version, Grossman emphasizes the importance of English and American armaments production. In the published editions, however, this passage is replaced by a criticism of the Allies for failing to open a second front. In 1952 and 1954, this criticism takes up almost a page, but in 1956 only a few lines—yet another confirmation that Grossman only introduced it on the insistence of his editors. We have, therefore, omitted most of the criticism and restored the lines about Allied armament production. We have also omitted a few passages such as the following: “It was during these battles that the Party Central Committee, the army political officers and other Party members gradually forged discipline, that they organized the Red Army’s moral and fighting strength.” There is little doubt that Grossman added such passages under duress.

  In the third version there is a long discussion of the differences between the war against Hitler and the war against Napoleon. Grossman considers that Kutuzov truly wanted to avoid fighting; in his day, the vastness of Russia was enough in itself to defeat an invader. Stalin, however, wanted to keep fighting throughout the retreat. He understood that for Hitler, with his mechanized army, Russia’s vastness was not an overwhelming problem. And the Red Army fought doggedly whenever it had its back to the wall—as in the Battle of Moscow, the sieges of Leningrad, Sevastopol and Odessa, and Stalingrad itself. For the main part, however, our translation of this chapter follows the 1956 edition, which includes striking passages not present in the third version.

  54. Similar in all variants, but many of the more dissonant, undignified or simply comic moments are from the third version. These include Sofya’s words about fashions in marriage; Zhenya wanting to laugh while Krymov’s comrades sing the Internationale; Krymov being driven to work in a car that spends ten days of each month in the repair workshop; and Zhenya feeling the same sense of pity for Krymov as for the murdered fox cub.

  55. Similar in all variants. We have followed the third version for the passage about the statue of Kholzunov; in the published editions Zhenya and Novikov do not appear to be hoping that he will hear them. We have also followed the third version for the quarrel between Bykov and Novikov. In the published editions this is less serious, with no mention of tribunals.

  56. For nearly all of this chapter we have followed the third version. In the published editions, Zina is generally less colourful. She does not spend any time under German occupation and the story she tells to exemplify her ideal of true love is tamer; the engineer heroine merely abandons her studies and leaves her husband for an actor. In the third version, however, Vera does not become pregnant. Since she is portrayed in Life and Fate with a small baby, we have followed the 1956 edition for her exchange with Zina about pregnancy.

  57. In the third version, Mostovskoy argues not with Gagarov—who first appears only in the fourth version—but with Vladimir Sharogorodsky, a former aristocrat. Sharogorodsky is essentially the same character as Gagarov, but he is openly and uninhibitedly anti-Soviet. The two men argue fiercely. Mostovskoy lists, one by one, all the criticisms directed against the Soviet regime by Mensheviks, by members of the Social Revolutionary Party, by anarchists and by bourgeois émigrés; he even includes their views on the Nazi–Soviet non-aggression pact and the execution of important Red Army generals during the purges. He then says that it is for the Soviet people to decide. If they think these criticisms just, they will do away with the Soviet regime; if they think them unjust, they will defend the regime. Sharogorodsky says that the Communists will have to answer for their failings—“just as we [i.e. the tsarist regime] had to answer for our failings.” The chapter ends with Sharogorodsky telling Mostovskoy that a former partisan called Ivannikov is eager to see him; he wants to give him both a letter from Shtrum’s mother and something he has written himself.

  58. The engineers’ conference is similar in all variants, except that Krymov’s engineer brother does not appear in the third version. A few of the more shocking details—workers swelling up from hunger or dying of scurvy—were omitted in 1952 and 1954. The 1956 edition, on the other hand, omits several mentions of Stalin. In one of Andrey Trofimovich’s speeches, for example, the earlier editions read, “Stalin resolved to construct” while the 1956 edition reads “the State Defence Committee resolved to construct.” Here we have followed the earlier editions. The omission of Stalin’s name, in direct speech during a formal meeting, is a clear example of the anti-Stalin censorship characteristic of the Khrushchev era.

  Like many of the novel’s more comic moments, Postoev’s question at the end of the chapter was omitted in 1952 and 1954.

  59. For this chapter, we have, for the main part, followed the 1956 edition, since following the third version would lead to plot conflicts. In the third version, Viktor kisses each of Nina’s fingernails in turn, while Nina laughs and counts, “One, two, three,” etc. Then they spend the night together. In 1952 and 1954, however, Viktor does not even kiss her; he just takes her by the hand. The Soviet Union, especially in the last years of the Stalin regime, was a prudish world; the hero of an epic novel could not be allowed to commit adultery.

  60. In the third version, this chapter is longer, mainly because it includes several pages of Viktor arguing with himself about lies, honesty and the ethics of adultery. We have included only one of these somewhat verbose pages—the eleven paragraphs from “A man with one leg.” Some of the thoughts in these pages reappear in Life and Fate, when Viktor is thinking about his love for Maria Sokolova.

  In the third version, Viktor expects Nina to join him at his dacha the next morning. The Nina thread, however, simply breaks off at the end of the chapter, unresolved, Grossman does not even tell us whether or not Nina arrives at the dacha. For this reason we have stayed close to the 1956 edition for this chapter and chapter 59.

  61. Like other chapters about mines and factories in Siberia and the Urals, this is not in the third version.

  62. Krymov’s bitterness and fury—his indignation at other commanders for their resigned acceptance of a seemingly endless retreat—is more extreme in the third version than in the published editions. His reflections on the life instinct and his fantasies about how best to punish “flighters” are all from this version.

  We also follow the third version for the last four paragraphs of the chapter. In the published editions, the general is more measured. He does not threaten to have Malinin shot and there is no mention of fuel reserves being blown up. Instead he says, “If Malinin no longer has any petrol, then he’s to give the commissar the petrol from his own vehicles—and he and his Talmudic accountants can continue their way on foot.” Among other details taken from the third version are the unnamed commander’s complaint about the canteen boss eating fried chicken and the adjutant’s lament over the lost “museum-piece” carpet.

  63. Similar in all variants. Three sentences about the treacherous limitlessness of the Russian steppes are from the third version.

  64. Similar in all variants.

  65. We have followed the third version for the paragraph of gossip about the commanders; the spicier items are omitt
ed from the published editions. The horrors of collectivization and the subsequent famine made many peasants welcome the German invasion, at least initially. The most interesting differences between variants of this chapter are in the old man’s speech beginning “In 1930 we slaughtered.” In the 1952 and 1954 editions, he says, “In 1930 we slaughtered all the pigs and we drank for two weeks on end. Two rich men went mad. And then one old man—he owned more land than anyone in the village, he had eight horses and four women working for him as labourers—drank two litres, went out into the steppe, lay down in the snow and fell asleep.” The implication of all this is that only the wealthiest, most exploitative peasants were opposed to collectivization—and this, of course, made the passage more acceptable to Grossman’s editors. Here we have followed the 1956 edition, which is identical to the third version.

  Most of the last page and a half of this chapter—Krymov’s thoughts about how much energy he has expended over the years arguing with people like this old couple, the old man’s view of himself as a witness and a historian, and the old woman’s assertion that it is only the Jews who have anything to fear from the Germans—is from the third version.

  66. The passage about Lieutenant Orlov’s suicide is from the third version. This chapter touches on sensitive issues; it was, of course, almost impossible to say outright that some sections of the population had welcomed the Germans. Most of the account of the black-bearded man, the shifty youths and the silent Cossack—the two pages beginning “He was drunk” and ending “you’d have thought not one of them had been drinking”—was omitted in 1952 and 1954. The Cossack woman’s promise to marry Krymov in church is from the third version.