The passage about the woman selling mugs of water is present in the third version but was first published only in 1956, with one change. In the third version she charges ten roubles per mug; in the 1956 edition, only one rouble per mug.
The sentence about the soldiers’ exhaustion being “blotted out by the fear of death” is from the third version.
A condensed version of Part III, chapters 15, 23, 24 and 31, titled “The Crossing,” was included in By the Volga (1949).
16. Like many passages about Yeromenko, much of this chapter was omitted in 1952 and 1954. The mention of farting and cursing generals is from the third version.
17. This chapter was omitted in 1952 and 1954. The third version and the 1956 edition are similar, except that in the third version Chuikov is received not only by Yeromenko but also by Khrushchev. The mention of the adjutant’s pleasure in the “fine and accurate” line with which he indicates the German advance is from the third version—as is Chuikov’s rueful thought about being considered expendable.
18. In the 1956 edition Darensky is surprisingly forthright about his time in the camp. In the third version and in 1952 and 1954 he says, “At the time of that unpleasantness”; the context, however, makes his meaning entirely clear.
Several details, such as Darensky’s fear that he too will join in the signallers’ petty obsessions about different kinds of kasha, are from the third version. The passage about Darensky’s womanizing, however, does not appear in the third version; Grossman evidently added it later. Originally, Darensky and Novikov were a single character; Grossman’s making Darensky into a womanizer may have been one of his ways of differentiating the two commanders.
19. The mention of Ageyev discreetly crossing himself as he leaves his bunker is from the third version, as is the adjutant’s feeling “almost disappointed” at the end of the chapter.
20. Some details in Darensky’s account of the journey—e.g. the bedbugs “and other insects” and the fouled station platforms—are from the third version.
21. Like other military-historical summaries, this is not in the third version.
22. For Gurov’s speech beginning “Poverty is no vice,” we have followed the third version. In the published editions Gurov goes on to list improbable numbers of men from various regiments who have applied to join the Party. This list is shorter in 1956 than in the 1952 and 1954 editions—which suggests that Grossman might have preferred to omit it completely. According to a recent article by Oleg Budnitsky, “Mass entrance into the Party and Komsomol was far from being a chaotic movement from below. It was initiated from above.” (“A Harvard Project in Reverse,” in Kritika, vol. 19, no. 1 (Winter 2018), 192). Grossman would certainly have been well aware of this.
For the third paragraph from the end of the chapter we have followed the 1956 edition. In the third version, this paragraph reads as follows: “The first half of September 1942 saw two events of particular importance for the defence of Stalingrad: the concentration of heavy artillery on the east bank, and the transfer of Rodimtsev’s Guards division to the west bank.”
The final paragraph is from the third version.
The third version contains an additional chapter about Chuikov. Until Stalingrad, according to Grossman, Chuikov had enjoyed no great success and the other commanders had at first been rather contemptuous of him. Soon, however, they understood that “Chuikov had not simply been imposed on them from above. On the contrary, it was as if he had been created for the most terrible battle humanity has ever known.”
23–24. Similar in all variants. We have, however, omitted this paragraph from the beginning of chapter 23: “And there on the east bank of the Volga, political instructors and commissars read aloud to their men the Front military soviet’s decree no. 4, ‘Fight to the Death!’ and distributed copies of the 4 September issue of Red Star with its front-page article ‘Repel the German Advance on Stalingrad!’ They also gave quick, five-minute talks about acts of heroism, citing the examples of Boloto, Oleinikov, Samoilov and Belikov, the anti-tank riflemen who between them had destroyed fifteen tanks in a single battle near Kletskaya.” Given the desperate urgency of getting the division across the Volga, it is unlikely that there would have been time for even five minutes of political instruction. Since this paragraph is not in the third version, it seems likely that it was Grossman’s editors who required him to insert it, in order to underscore the importance of the role played by the Party and the political commissars.
25. Here too we have omitted approximately fifteen lines, not present in the third version, about political instruction. Vavilov gives orders to his battalion commissars, and they in turn tell the political instructors how to conduct short meetings with their men: “Everything must be short and simple. We defended Tsaritsyn from the Whites—we will defend Stalingrad from the Germans. Familiarize everyone with the plan of the city.”
The soldier’s remark about chocolate is from the third version. In the published editions it is less pointed; in 1952 and 1954 the soldier just says, “Yes, brother, we’ll get our chocolate all right.”
The chapter’s penultimate paragraph, in which Rodimtsev says that he has never felt so sad before, is present in the third version but was first published only in 1956—with the omission of the words “it’s only too clear.”
A condensed version of this chapter, titled “Before the Battle,” was included in By the Volga (1949).
26–28. Similar in all variants.
29. Here we have taken a few short passages from the third version: the paragraph ending with the mention of Lena Gnatyuk spending the night with Filyashkin; the paragraph about the lieutenant being given a black eye in a village hut; and the last two sentences of Grossman’s reflections on Filyashkin’s moments of “exaggerated severity.” In the published editions Konanykin’s retort to Filyashkin towards the end of the chapter is less bold, with no mention of convicts. He just says, “Do you think it’s easier to lead soldiers into battle than to be a soldier oneself?”
30. Similar in all variants—except that in the published editions the discussion of the bar of chocolate is shorter.
31. For the paragraph about Vavilov’s difficulty in obtaining building materials of any kind we have followed the third version. There are many small changes in the published editions, all of which go to create a softer, more comfortable picture. The last four paragraphs of the chapter—about people worshipping strength—are present in the third version but were first published only in 1956. This suggests that they were important to Grossman but that his editors were uncomfortable with them. Grossman’s style here is also somewhat verbose and opaque. It is possible that he had in mind the Russian people’s attitude to Stalin as much as the German people’s attitude to Hitler—but that he could not afford to make this too clear.
32. Similar in all variants.
33. The words “some people said nothing, some tried to hide away and others smiled falsely as they tried to come out with a few words in German” are from the third version. Bach’s reference to England and America is also from this version; in the published editions he says, “And then there was Siberia and the Urals.”
34. The sentence about Stumpfe setting fire to a command post guarded by a Red Army sentry is from the third version, as is the mention of his competency in Russian. More importantly, the third version contains two references to Nazi antisemitism which Grossman was, no doubt, required to omit. First, the “comic dialogues” between a rabbi and his wife. Second, the German soldiers’ belief that the Communist Labiknecht (sic!) was an “agent of the Jewish Sanhedrin.”
35. Some of Vogel’s words about “soldierly comradeship” are from the third version. Grossman’s editors were evidently uncomfortable about German soldiers attaching such importance to so Soviet a concept as “comradeship.”
36. Another of the chapters added for the novel’s first publication in 1952. Fadeyev had asked Grossman to insert a passage about German resistance to Hitler; the Soviet
authorities needed to emphasize this in order to legitimize the Communist regime they had imposed on East Germany.
Grossman’s response exemplifies his ability to make creative use of editorial interference. In the third version and in 1952, Schmidt thinks, “Or he might mutter something incorrect in a dream. His neighbour would hear him, wake some of the others and say, ‘Here, listen to what this red Schmidt has to say about our Führer.’” Here Grossman simply transliterates the word “Führer.” In 1954 this sentence ends with the words “listen to what this red Schmidt has to say.” And in the 1956 edition it ends with the words “listen to what this red Schmidt has to say about our Leader.” This time, however, the word for “leader” is vozhd'—the usual Soviet way of referring to Stalin. This whole passage, therefore, can be read as a statement not only about life in Nazi Germany but also about life in Soviet Russia. The fact that Grossman revised this sentence not just once but twice is a particularly clear indication of how consciously he was addressing this issue.
37. Similar in all variants. The words “I’ll shoot them!” in Chuikov’s “staccato reply” to Rodimtsev are from the third version, as is Yeromenko’s black joke about not wanting “a second front here in Stalingrad.”
38. Some parts of Filyashkin’s fantasies about spending time with Lena Gnatyuk are from the third version. Like many other bleak details, the lines about women needing to sell items of their husband’s clothing were not included in 1952 and 1954.
39. In the following sentence the word “lovingly” is taken from the third version: “The second [soldier] shook the earth from his shoulders, lovingly wiped his spoon against the palm of one hand and muttered in bewilderment, ‘I thought that was it, I really did.’” A reader may wonder why Grossman—or one of his editors—should have bothered to delete such a seemingly innocuous word, or why a translator should bother to reinsert it. This word, however, is not unimportant. Brandon Schechter’s title for Chapter 3 of his book about the Red Army’s wartime supplies and equipment is “The Government’s Pot and the Soldier’s Spoon: Rations in the Red Army.” He writes, “Virtually nothing that soldiers carried belonged to them. Their clothes were the property of the government. [. . .] However, the spoon was something that the individual soldier owned. [. . .] the spoon and cup were among the few items from the civilian world that soldiers would carry throughout their service. Spoons were frequently individualized with initials and artwork [. . .] all of their food was designed to be eaten either with a spoon or bare hands. The spoon became a mark of a real soldier. Vera Malakhova, a front-line surgeon, recalled an embarrassing moment near Odessa. While joining a group of soldiers sitting down to a meal, she realized that she lacked something the men around her all possessed: ‘What sort of a blankety-blank are you? Just what sort of soldier are you? Why don’t you have a spoon?’ [. . .] A soldier reduced to a minimum carried a spoon and a rifle. [. . .] Spoons were the implement of individual consumption and a deeply prized, rare piece of personal property.”
Later in the chapter, the powerful image of the brief moment of respite being like “a swift ray of light on the blade of a drawn knife” is from the third version.
40. Much of the paragraph about the members of the penal battalion is from the third version. The published editions are blander, with no mention of the soldier who shot himself, the soldier who ran from the battlefield or Yakhontov’s apparent desertion.
41. The two paragraphs from “This man had never known his mother and father” are far shorter in 1952 and 1954. There is only the sentence “Aged two, he had been taken to a children’s home,” and the last four sentences, from “He studied” till the end of the paragraph.
42. For this chapter we have followed the third version. The published editions are similar, except for the addition of ten tedious lines from Shvedkov’s notebook, recording acts of heroism and the soldiers’ expressions of gratitude to their political instructors.
43–44. Similar in all variants.
45. For the beginning of this chapter we have followed the third version. The published editions contain an additional six paragraphs, about an unsuccessful Soviet attempt to relieve Filyashkin’s battalion. It seems likely that Grossman’s editors required him to add this passage, so as not to give the impression that the Red Army abandoned Filyashkin lightly.
The two references to making a bandage from the fine clothes sent by the women of America are from the third version. The last words of Kovalyov’s message—“for the glorious cause of Stalin!”—were omitted from the 1956 edition.
46. Like many of Grossman’s most vivid images, the words “the last bubbles and gurgles of departing life” are from the third version. The exchanges about death, from Usurov’s “We can’t keep death away now” up to Rezchikov’s “Let me be quiet for a minute before death” are also from this version.
47. The exchange between Bach and Lenard about shit and arse-wiping is from the third version.
48. Another of the chapters that Grossman was required to add for the novel’s first publication. The typescript of these chapters and the published editions are almost the same except for the last half page, which is shorter in the published editions. We have taken two passages from the typescript: the sentence beginning “He wrote to me” and the four short paragraphs beginning “Who can I ask?”
Another small change exemplifies both the extraordinarily detailed attention given to Grossman’s text and the authorities’ determination to downplay the suffering undergone by women. In the typescript and in 1956, the women had to pull the plough “some days”; in 1952 and 1954 only “two days.”
49. The second and third sentences of this chapter, from “All were dead” are from the third version. Grossman’s editors may have considered them too paradoxical.
50. Similar in all variants. In the third version—but not in the published editions—this is followed by a chapter of more general reflections about the first eighteen months of the war. Using the language of physics, Grossman states that the kinetic energy of a modern, highly mobilized army is such that no defensive line—no fortress or Maginot Line—can possibly halt it. Nothing can halt it except technology and moral strength, working together. During the first year of the war there were several occasions—e.g. the defence of the Brest fortress and the long siege of Sevastopol—when the Soviet forces showed their moral strength. It was not until the Battle of Stalingrad, however, that they were able to combine both moral and technological strength.
It is hard to judge whether the decision to omit this somewhat verbose chapter was Grossman’s or his editors. It seems likely, though, that Grossman could have reinstated at least part of it in 1956 if it had felt important to him.
51. This chapter first appears in the sixth version, the most orthodox version of all, probably written in 1949.
52. Similar in all variants.
53–56. Another section that Grossman was obliged to add for the novel’s first publication in 1952. There is nothing in the third version, or any of the early typescripts, that corresponds to these powerful chapters.
—ROBERT CHANDLER AND YURY BIT-YUNAN
1. RGALI, 1710, opis' 2, ed. khr. 1.
2. A. G. Bocharov, Vasilii Grossman: zhizn', tvorchestvo, sud'ba (Moscow, Sovetsky pisatel', 1990), p. 196.
3. Guber, Pamyat' i pis'ma (Moscow: Probel, 2007), p. 64. “Render safe” is our translation of obezopasit'.
4. Semyon Lipkin, Kvadriga (Moscow: Knizhny Sad, 1997), p. 533.
5. Guber, op. cit., p. 67; also RGALI, 1710, opis' 2, ed. khr. 8.
6. Guber, op. cit., p. 67.
7. See “Diary of the Journey of the Manuscript of the Novel For a Just Cause Through Publishing Houses.”
8. Natalya Gromova, Raspad (Moscow: Ellis Lak, 2009), p. 337.
9. See the Introduction to this volume.
10. See Abram Tertz [Andrei Sinyansky], The Trial Begins and On Socialist Realism, trans. Max Heyward and George Denis (University of California Press, 1982).
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11. See “Voina i mir dvadtsatogo veka,” http://www.lechaim.ru/ARHIV/177/sarnov.htm.
12. Grossman, A Writer at War, pp. 31–5.
13. Grossman, Gody voiny, p. 285
NOTE ON RUSSIAN NAMES AND LIST OF CHIEF CHARACTERS
A RUSSIAN has three names: a Christian name, a patronymic (derived from the Christian name of the father) and a family name. Thus, Alexandra Vladimirovna is the daughter of a man whose first name is Vladimir, and Viktor Pavlovich is the son of a man called Pavel. The first name and patronymic, used together, are the normal polite way of addressing or referring to a person; the family name is used less often. Close friends or relatives usually address each other by one of the many diminutive, or affectionate, forms of their first names. Luda, for example, is a diminutive of Ludmila; Nadya of Nadezhda; Petya of Pyotr; Varya of Varvara and Vitya of Viktor. Masha and Marusya are both diminutives of Marya. Less obviously, Zhenya is a diminutive of Evgenia; Vanya of Ivan; and Tolya of Anatoly. There is also a great variety of double diminutives: Vitenka is a double diminutive of Viktor, and Vanechka is a double diminutive of Ivan.
LIST OF CHARACTERS
To keep this list to a manageable length, we have not, for the main part, included minor characters who appear only in a single chapter: e.g. most of the Stalgres power-station workers and the staff at the hospital where Vera and Sofya Levinton work. The arrangement of these lists is not intended to be consistent. When there is a clear hierarchy, e.g. within a military unit, the most senior figures come first. Otherwise the names are in alphabetical order, except that members of a particular sub-group—e.g. a small family within an extended family—are grouped together.
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