Stalingrad

by Vasily Grossman

  67. This chapter is present in the third version and the 1952 and 1954 editions but was omitted in 1956. The Order in question is Stalin’s Order 227 of 28 July 1942, with its slogan “Not One Step Back.” See page 977 of this Afterword.

  68. Similar in all variants.

  69. For the sentence about Mulyarchuk and his lice we have followed the third version. The published editions read, “Mulyarchuk would be the only man on whom lice were discovered.” In the third version, the passage about Vavilov’s love of work is still longer; for Grossman, the love of work is an important theme—not something forced on him by his editors. A condensed version of this chapter, mostly focusing on Vavilov, was included in By the Volga (1949).

  PART TWO

  1. Another of the summaries of military developments that first appeared in one of the later versions.

  2. Similar in all variants. In the third version, Grossman cites Tolstoy as an example of the “deep simplicity” of true art.

  3. The 1952 and 1954 editions do not include any of the general reflections about Yeromenko. Even the third version includes only a few of them.

  4. For this chapter we have stayed close to the 1956 edition. We have taken just three passages from the third version: the image of Bolokhin’s foot cloths and books of poetry being transformed into some ancient, homogeneous material; the paragraph about the repentant HQ journalist who nearly gets himself killed; and the paragraph about the cynical and pessimistic journalist who wants to buy a camel harness. The 1952 and 1954 editions differ little from the 1956 edition, except that Yeromenko is not named. Yeromenko was notoriously vain; he may have objected to some aspects of Grossman’s portrayal of him, largely positive though this is.

  5. The list of books read by Andreyev, including the mention of Alexandre Dumas’s two novels, is from the third version. As in other chapters, several of the wittiest and most interesting passages were omitted from the published editions. Among them are the paragraph about Andreyev entering the officially required melt data instead of the real data; the paragraph about Bebel’s Women and Socialism; and the paragraph about the similarities between family relations and relations between states.

  6. The sentence about Andreyev calling his wife and his daughter-in-law “Hitlers” is from the third version. Part of this chapter was included in “The Andreyev Family” in By the Volga (1949).

  7. Similar in all variants.

  8. Similar in all variants, though in the third version Mostovskoy is indignant at being asked to give a formal talk. He would have preferred just to walk about and chat to the workers.

  9. Some vivid details near the end of this chapter—the knife, the tomato and the words about death entering the home—are from the third version.

  10. Similar in the third version and in 1956. There is no mention in 1952 and 1954 of Ida being exiled; we are only told that she lived in Kazakhstan and the Urals.

  11–12. Similar in all variants, though the third version is a little prolix.

  13. For the main part we have followed the 1956 edition. In the third version, Marusya’s rants about discipline are still more obsessive, making her almost a caricature. We have, however, taken several short passages from this version. Most important of these is Marusya’s internal argument with Zhenya about truth. We have also followed this version both with regard to such details as the Russian POWs being fed rotten horsemeat and in its greater emphasis on the children being from so many different nationalities. Internationalism of any kind was suspect during the last years of the Stalin regime.

  The mention of the boy stealing towels is present both in the third version and in the 1956 edition. In 1952 and 1954, however, it is replaced by a sentence about a boy picking a fight during a game of football; Soviet children, evidently, could not be described committing even the pettiest of thefts.

  14. Similar in all variants, except that, in the third version, Marusya is still more deeply upset in the final scene.

  15. As in II, 4, Yeromenko is not named in the 1952 and 1954 editions.

  The name Pryakhin is fictional. In his notebooks Grossman records Yeromenko saying that Chuyanov (the real-life first secretary of the obkom) “doesn’t know a fucking thing” (ni khuya ne znayet), and that the fortifications he constructed were “fucking useless” (khuyovye).

  The mention of Tolstoy and the Fili Council of War is from the third version. Two of the less serious moments—the discussion of the attractive setting to which the obkom is to be relocated, and Yeromenko’s interest in Pryakhin’s inkwell—were omitted in 1952 and 1954.

  16. Similar in all variants.

  17. For most of Pryakhin’s long speeches we have followed the third version. His emphasis on the use of forced labour would have seemed bold in the early 1960s, let alone in the late 1940s; it is no surprise that the published editions are far blander, though the 1956 edition includes one brief mention of “former kulaks” (raskulachennye). The 1952 and 1954 editions include an extra twenty lines, not present in the third version, of laboured Soviet rhetoric.

  18. Broadly similar in all variants. The mention of Marusya’s candidate membership of the Communist Party is from the third version. The omission of this from the published editions makes Alexandra’s remark beginning “Party member or not” seem unmotivated.

  19–20. These chapters are similar in the third version and in 1956. We have taken a few details from the third version: Kryakin’s apparent inability to move his eyes, some of the bribes with which Gradusov curries favour with the commanders, Chentsov’s planned trip to America and some of Polyakov’s recollections from his “lecture.”

  21. Similar in all variants.

  22. There is no mention in the third version of any General Weller; his place is taken by Paulus. As elsewhere, some of the most vivid details, such as the glimpse of the wrecked Soviet planes with their “broken-off, red-starred wings half-buried in the ground,” were omitted from the published editions. There are important differences between the earlier (1952 and 1954) and the later (1956 and after) editions of the paragraph beginning “Had the general been a psychologist and a philosopher.” All these changes have the effect of allowing the general’s thoughts to seem relevant not only to Nazi Germany but also to the Soviet Union. In the two earlier editions, instead of the laconic “Fulfilment, for him, lay not in rewards and honours,” there is a much longer sentence: “Fulfilment, for him, lay not in rewards and honours, but in the severe soldierly simplicity with which he was elevating the glory of Germany.”

  23. This chapter was omitted in 1952, but it is similar in the third version and in the 1954 and 1956 editions.

  24. Here we follow the 1956 edition. As in other chapters, many of Weller’s thoughts and speeches are, in the third version, given to Paulus.

  25. Similar in all variants—but there are important differences in the penultimate paragraph. The following phrases were omitted in 1952 and 1954: “back-breaking labour and the arbitrary power of officials . . . horror at the implacable power of the Reich . . . the howl of English bombs.” The chapter’s last two sentences—about what would happen “after the victory”—were also omitted. This is telling; in view of the consolidation of Stalinism after the Soviet victory in 1945, there is little doubt that Grossman was thinking more of the Soviet Union than of Germany—and it also seems that his editors must have been aware of the possibility of this interpretation.

  26. Similar in all variants. In the account of her collision with him, the librarian praises Goebbels for being “truly a man of the people.” She uses the word narodnost' (literally, “peopleness” or “being of the people”)—a very Soviet word indeed. This, naturally, was omitted from the published editions.

  The mention of Churchill is from the third version.

  27. Similar in all variants, except for the last two pages. In the third version, Forster does not bring up the possibility of a Soviet counter-offensive.

  28. This chapter, not present in the third version, was first pub
lished in 1954.

  29. Few differences between the various versions.

  30. This chapter was omitted in 1952 and 1954; serious discussion of the nature of a dictator and dictatorship was probably thought dangerous. For the main part, our translation follows the 1956 edition, which is similar to the third version. The long opening paragraph first appeared only in 1959 (a rare instance of a change introduced after the 1956 edition).

  31. About half of the monologue by the house manager’s wife is from the third version. Among the sentences omitted from the published editions are those about Zhenya’s bras, Marusya stealing from the children’s homes, and Vera “servicing” the lieutenants in hospital.

  32. Similar in all variants. We have reinstated a few vivid details omitted from the published editions: e.g. the image of the heaps of red brick seeming like heaps of steaming red meat.

  33. Some of the bleaker details are from the third version. The published editions also omit mention of two of Varvara’s many fears: that Natalya may have sent her to the wrong landing stage and that the boat may hit a mine. Much of the paragraph about the jobs the truck driver does “on the side” was omitted in 1952 and 1954. A small part of this chapter was included in “The Andreyev Family” in By the Volga (1949); this version ends with the dinghy sailing off to the east bank—not with it sinking.

  34. Similar in all variants. A few details, such as Sokolova’s cursing and swearing, are from the third version.

  35. As in other chapters, we have taken the references to Alexandra’s past from the third version; they were omitted from the published editions. Several instances of particularly mean and selfish behaviour were also omitted. Among the passages we have reinstated are the sentence about the woman shouting out that her scientist husband’s life is important to the country and several of the fiercest exchanges between Sofya and Alexandra, on the one hand, and Meshcheryakov and the house manager’s wife, on the other hand.

  36–37. Similar in all variants. But several of the grimmer or more bizarre moments in the third version—the incidents of petty theft, Zhenya’s strange imaginings—were omitted from the published editions. Part of chapter 37 was included, under the title “The Fire,” in By the Volga (1949).

  38–39. Similar in all variants. The mention of vodka shops and food depots being looted was omitted from the published editions. Towards the end of chapter 39, we have omitted the following sentence, present in all the published editions but not in the third version: “There are accounts of Communists and Komsomol members, of Red Army commanders and political instructors doing everything in their power to save the burning city and the people who lived there.”

  40–41. Similar in all variants. The joke about “the bloody bombs” is from the third version—black humour like this was not acceptable.

  42. Similar in all the published editions. In the third version, however, the second half of the chapter is entirely different. Instead of taking part in the fighting, Krymov reports to Yeromenko at HQ. Khrushchev, Malenkov and General Alexander Vasilevsky are also present. Grossman portrays Yeromenko as being unjustifiably rude to Krymov.

  43. Similar in all variants. A few details, such as the description of the woman’s fingernails, are from the third version.

  44. This chapter first appeared only in the fifth version.

  45. This chapter was added at a later stage; it is not present in the third version.

  46. Another chapter that was added at a later stage.

  47–51 These chapters were added for the novel’s first publication in 1952. One of Fadeyev’s demands had been that Grossman should add a section about the work being done in support of the war effort by miners and factory workers. There are a number of highly rhetorical passages in the typescript version of this section. These remain in 1952 and 1954 but are absent from the 1956 edition; it seems likely that it was Grossman who chose to delete them, recognizing their verbosity. The only other significant difference between the typescript and published variants of these chapters is the treatment of Masha. Ivan thinks about her a great deal more often in the typescript than in the published editions. In the typescript Ivan is more of a human being—not only a Stakhanovite model worker. In this translation we have reinstated all mentions of Masha.

  PART THREE

  1. Another of the military-historical chapters added at a later stage.

  2–3. The account of Tolya’s day in command of the artillery battery first appears in the fifth version. This episode was included, as a single chapter, in By the Volga (1949), though the last two paragraphs—the account of Tolya being wounded—are omitted. The chapter thus ends on a positive note: “the roar of his guns [. . .] greeted the sunrise.”

  4–5. Details taken from the third version include the image of Tolya’s arms and legs as “subordinate to every bump and pothole”; the Kamyshin doctor’s complaint about the hospital being overcrowded; the more expensive items—the ham, lampreys and caviar—in the lavish spread provided by Aristov’s landlady; the mention of the old man whose beard gets pulled out; and Berozkin’s account of making a dress for his wife—evidently considered a task beneath the dignity of a Red Army commander.

  Aristov’s words about providing the chief of staff with Riesling are also from the third version. The 1956 edition reads, “The chief of staff is on a special diet because of his ulcer. ‘At your orders, comrade Colonel, whatever you need!’ We may be out in the steppe, far from any collective farms, but he still gets the very best milk products. He even gets a little suspicious, summons me specially and tells me I’m a dangerous man if I can find sour cream in the middle of nowhere.”

  The vignette of the general with the goat was omitted in 1952 and 1954.

  In the published editions, Tamara’s father is simply “a man called Sokratov.”

  A condensed version of Part III, chapters 4–7, 9 and 12–13 was included in the form of two chapters titled “On the Road of War” and “By the Volga,” in By the Volga (1949).

  6. Two long passages—Darensky’s fantasy about being cared for by the commander and chief of staff, and the extracts from his notebooks—were first published only in 1956. The first dozen lines of the notebook extracts, from “A battalion commissar” to “what confidence,” are from the third version. With regard to the two paragraphs about Darensky’s time in prison and a labour camp, the 1952 and 1954 editions differ surprisingly little from the 1956 edition. The words “camp” and “prison” do not appear, but there is no doubting where Darensky has been. Grossman’s euphemistic way of putting it is “Darensky lived through a great deal of unpleasantness before the falseness of the accusation against him was finally proven.” In the third version, Darensky is released after sending a letter to Stalin.

  7. Similar in all variants. As elsewhere, we have taken from the third version a few of the more comic details omitted from the published editions—e.g. the lines about the company that seems about to march straight into the Volga.

  8. This chapter, except for the last three paragraphs, was omitted in 1952 and 1954—almost certainly because, after the war, Stalin saw Zhukov as a potential rival. He downplayed his role in the Soviet victory and demoted him. The chapter is almost identical in the third version and in 1956.

  9–11. The quote from Tyutchev and the sentence immediately after it are from the third version. Among other passages taken from this version are the paragraph about the defeated soldiers crossing the Don, the mention of wanderers and deserters picking off lice, the image of the “centrifugal force” that casts a bus seat and a lavatory cistern into the steppe, and much of the old man’s litany of complaint about thieving soldiers and kolkhoz chairmen “bartering calves for bottles of moonshine.” The old man’s admission “Though we do meet the occasional louse” was omitted in 1952 and 1954. In the third version, chapter 11 ends with an emphatic declaration on Grossman’s part that everyone—from Stalin to the rank-and-file soldiers—shared a clear understanding that the Red Army now had to stand it
s ground, that any further retreat was no longer possible.

  12. We have taken several details from the third version. In the published editions Darensky’s fury with Berozkin is less extreme; he does not accuse him of being like a pedlar. Nor do his eyes fill with tears as he says goodbye to Berozkin and Tamara. And the penultimate sentence, about Tamara’s hands being dirty and disfigured, is omitted—another instance of the Soviet insistence on the observation of decorum.

  13. Similar in all variants, except that in the published editions the paragraph beginning “Killed, killed, killed” is less varied in tone; the sentence about salting mushrooms and the description of Aristov looking as if he had just returned from holiday are both from the third version. There was also a change to the penultimate paragraph. In the published editions Tamara just wants to wipe Berozkin’s eyes; in the third version, which we have followed, she also wants to wipe his nose. This too was clearly seen as an unacceptable infringement of decorum.

  14. Two episodes were omitted in 1952 and 1954: the account of the three girls stealing a carrot from the small boy and the conversation with the old man who says he doesn’t need documents out in the steppe. The sentence about the camels twisting their lips “as if they’re laughing at us” is from the third version.

  15. Here we have followed the 1956 edition. In the third version there is nothing about the woman’s hut reminding Vavilov of his own home. And the woman has no children. When Vavilov asks her why she hasn’t driven him and his comrades off with a poker, she says, “I feel pity for you, my sons. You may be poor soldiers and you may not be very brave, but I love you all the same. My old man passed away long ago. I’ve got no children, so there’s only you for me to take care of. And a woman always loves her children, whether they’re good children or bad children.”