Cronicas de a segunda guerra mundial ( )

Stupendo, bellissimo, vivissimo. Essere dentro la guerra, nei generali e nei soldati semplici, nel nemico e fra i tuoi commilitoni, fra la gente comune, nel freddo e nel caldo, al fronte e nelle retrovie: libro fantastico, da leggere e rileggere.
841 pagine di splendore. ( )

With the military and strategic insights of a war correspondent and a clear understanding of how to create a feeling of belonging and contribution, Grossman writes a book about war that couldn't be more authentic - and patriotic, for that matter.
He touches all the right spots as he describes an incredible communal effort of the whole country through all levels of society and no matter what distance to the front. The choice and description of characters are so magnificently diverse that the war eats up the entire existence of al those concerned, even a mine worker in the urals.
I myself can't understand what might have been so threatening to the authorities that the book was censored and stowed away by the Stalinist regime after the war, but maybe that is a problem of the second part of the book that was made into "Life and Fate".
As it is, the book paints an incredibly realistic picture of the battle of Stalingrad as deisive for the fate of the nation, with some insights left over for a differentiated - if obviously and rightly negative - view of the Germans who are however not en bloc mindless followers of the Nazi regime.
Reading this book was especially challenging given the fact that Ukraine, that seems to have suffered from Stalinist Russia back then, is suffering from Russia again and has to fend off an unjustifiable onslaught just as Russia had to fend off Germany's 80 years ago.

Chi ha letto "Vita e destino" non può non leggere "Stalingrado", che è la prima parte del dittico qui ricostruita sulle fonti reintegrando le parti eliminate o modificate dalla censura sovietica.
Poi, inevitabilmente, tocca rileggere la seconda parte. Bellissimo, grandissimo, davvero il "Guerra e pace" del Novecento. ( )

> Pour une juste cause, par Vassili Grossman. — Pour une juste cause est la première partie du récit sur la bataille de Stalingrad et la socièté soviètique réalisé par Vassili Grossman.
En 1980, l'Occident découvrait, grâce à des microfilms passés sous le manteau, Vie et destin, récit sur la bataille de Stalingrad et la société soviétique, chef-d'oeuvre de Vassili Grossman (1905-1964). Le correspondant de L'Etoile rouge avait entrepris cette grande fresque dès 1943, après avoir assisté aux combats, et y a mis un point final en 1962. Mais Vie et destin est la seconde partie de ce récit, et Pour une juste cause, pourtant traduit dans la foulée, est la première. Publié en 1952 dans la très officielle revue Novy Mir, ce texte fut démoli dans la Pravda et sa parution précipita la disgrâce de l'auteur. Il s'agit pourtant d'un des plus beaux témoignages sur l'héroïsme du peuple russe, incarné par de formidables personnages à la Tolstoï.
—L'Express