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Vasily Grossman
119quotes
Vasily Grossman: A Life of Witnessing and Writing
Full Name and Common Aliases
Vasily Semyonovich Grossman was a Russian writer and journalist. He is also known by his pseudonyms, V. Semenov and A. Fyodorov.
Birth and Death Dates
Grossman was born on December 12, 1905, in Berdychiv, Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. He passed away on September 14, 1964, in Moscow, Soviet Union.
Nationality and Profession(s)
Grossman held dual citizenship as a Soviet citizen and a Ukrainian national. Throughout his life, he worked as a writer, journalist, and historian. His writing spanned multiple genres, including fiction, non-fiction, and journalism.
Early Life and Background
Vasily Grossman was born into a Jewish family in Berdychiv. His father, Semyon Markovich Grossman, was a merchant who traded in grain and leather goods. Grossman's early life was marked by a strong emphasis on education and intellectual pursuits. He studied at the Kharkov Institute of History and Philology before being expelled due to his involvement with the Communist Party.
Major Accomplishments
Grossman played a pivotal role in chronicling World War II from a Soviet perspective. His writings provided an unvarnished account of the war's human toll, revealing the atrocities committed by both the Nazis and the Red Army. He is best known for his novel Life and Fate, which explores the intersection of personal lives with historical events.
Notable Works or Actions
Grossman's writing career was marked by several notable works:
Stalingrad (1944): A non-fiction account of the Battle of Stalingrad, considered one of the most pivotal battles in World War II.
For a Just Cause (1952): A novel that explores themes of Soviet bureaucracy and human rights abuses.
Life and Fate (1960): Grossman's magnum opus, which examines the interplay between historical events and individual lives during World War II.
Grossman's writings often delved into the complexities of Soviet society, exposing its shortcomings and contradictions. His commitment to truth-telling made him a respected voice within the literary community.
Impact and Legacy
Vasily Grossman's work has had a lasting impact on literature and our understanding of World War II. His writing continues to serve as a testament to the human cost of war and the importance of preserving historical accuracy.
Grossman's legacy extends beyond his written works:
His novel Life and Fate was banned in the Soviet Union, but it remains a powerful critique of totalitarianism.
* Grossman's commitment to exposing the truth about World War II paved the way for future generations of writers and journalists who sought to uncover the hidden truths behind historical events.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Grossman's writings are widely quoted and remembered due to their unflinching portrayal of war, its aftermath, and the human experience. His commitment to truth-telling has left a lasting impact on literature and our collective understanding of history.
Quotes by Vasily Grossman
Vasily Grossman's insights on:
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Freedom is the right to sow what you want. It’s the right to make boots or shoes, it’s the right to bake bread from the grain you’ve sown and to sell it or not sell it as you choose. It’s the same whether you’re a locksmith or a steelworker or an artist – freedom is the right to live and work as you wish and not as you’re ordered to. But there’s no freedom for anyone – whether you write books, whether you sow grain, or whether you make boots.” That night Ivan Grigoryevich lay.
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These camps – with their streets and squares, their hospitals and flea markets, their crematoria and their stadiums – were the expanding cities of a new Europe.
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If Fascism should ever be fully assured of it’s final triumph, the world will choke in blood.
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What constitutes the freedom, the soul of an individual life, is its uniqueness. The reflection of the universe in someone’s consciousness is the foundation of his or her power, but life only becomes happiness, is only endowed with freedom and meaning when someone exists as a whole world that has never been repeated in all eternity. Only then can they experience the joy of freedom and kindness, finding in others what they have already found in themselves.
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Stalin’s hatred for the Old Bolsheviks who opposed him was also a hatred for those aspects of Lenin’s character that contradicted what was most essential in Lenin.
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For a particular scene to enter into a person and become a part of their soul, it is evidently not enough that the scene be beautiful. The person also has to have something clear and beautiful present inside them.
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A soft, gentle light fell on the forest-floor, diffused by a screen of foliage. The air itself was thick and congealed; a fighter-pilot, accustomed to a rushing wind, felt this very acutely.
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There is one right even more important than the right to send men to their deaths without thinking: the right to think twice before you send men to their death.
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I had been imagining what war was like – everything on fire, children crying, cats running about, and when we got to Stalingrad it really turned out to be like that, only more terrible.
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What Mostovskoy found most sinister of all was that National Socialism seemed so at home in the camp: rather than peering haughtily at the common people through a monocle, it talked and joked in their own language. It was down-to-earth and plebeian. And it had an excellent knowledge of the mind, language and soul of those it deprived of freedom.
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