Book

Grossman, Vasiliĭ, author.

A writer at war : Vasily Grossman with the Red Army, 1941-1945 / [Vasily Grossman] ; edited and translated by Antony Beevor & Luba Vinogradova.

First American edition.

New York : Pantheon Books, [2005]

xxi, 378 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

A special correspondent for The Red Star, the Red Army's newspaper, documents the savage battles of World War II, the siege of Stalingrad, the great tank battle of Kursk, the defense of Moscow, and early revelations about the Holocaust.

Based on the notebooks in which Vasily Grossman gathered the raw materials for his newspaper articles, this book depicts as never before the crushing condition on the Eastern Front during World War II and the lives and deaths of infantrymen, tank drivers, pilots, snipers, and civilians. Deemed unfit for service when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Grossman became a special correspondent for 'The Red Star, ' the Red Army newspaper. A portly novelist in his mid-thirties with no military experience, he was given a uniform and hastily taught how to use a pistol. Remarkably, he spent three of the next four years at the front, observing with a writer's eye the most pitiless fighting ever recorded. Grossman witnessed almost all the major events of the Eastern Front: the appalling defeats and desperate retreats of 1941, the defense of Moscow, and the fighting in the Ukraine. In August 1942 he was posted to Stalingrad, where he remained during four brutal months of street fighting. Grossman was present at the battle of Kursk (the largest tank engagement in history), and, as the Red Army advanced, he reached Berdichev, where his worst fears for his mother and other relatives were confirmed. A Jew himself, he undertook the faithful recording of Holocaust atrocities as their extent dawned. His supremely powerful report 'The hell of Treblinka' was used in evidence at the Nuremberg tribunal. Anthony Beever, a historian, along with Luba Vinogradova, have woven Grossman's notebooks into a fluid, compelling narrative that gives us one of the best descriptions- at once unflinching and sensitive- of what Grossman called 'the ruthless truth of war.' -- from Book Jacket.

Grossman, Vasiliĭ.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Soviet Union.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Soviet.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Destruction and pillage -- Soviet Union.

Personal narratives.

Beevor, Antony, 1946- translator, editor.

Vinogradova, Luba, translator, editor.

Vasily Grossman with the Red Army, 1941-1945

Includes bibliographical references (pages 352-364) and index.

Part I. The shock of invasion 1941: -- Baptism of fire, August 1941 -- The terrible retreat, August to September 1941 -- On the Bryansk Front, September 1941 -- With the 50th Army, September 1941 -- Back to the Ukraine, September 1941 -- The German capture of Orel, October 1941 -- The withdrawal before Moscow, October 1941.

Part II. The year of Stalingrad 1942: -- In the South, January 1942 -- The air war in the South, January 1942 -- On the Donets with the Black Division, January and February 1942 -- With the Khasin Tank Brigade, February 1942 -- 'The ruthless truth of war', March to July 1942 -- The road to Stalingrad, August 1942 -- The September battles -- The Stalingrad Academy, Autumn 1942 -- The October battles -- The tide turned, November 1942.

Part III. Recovering the occupied territories 1943: -- After the battle, January 1943 -- Winning back the Motherland, the early spring of 1943 -- The Battle of Kursk, July 1943.

Part IV. From the Dnepr to the Vistula 1944: -- The killing ground of Berdichev, January 1944 -- Across the Ukraine to Odessa, March & April 1944 -- Operation Bagration, June & July 1944 -- Treblinka, July 1944.

Part V. Amid the ruins of the Nazi world 1945: -- Warsaw and Lodz, January 1945 -- Into the lair of the fascist beast, January 1945, Poznan and Schwerin -- The battle for Berlin, April and May 1945.

Table of contents only

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

Sample text

2005051033

0375424075

9780375424076

60715323

1

0

1

167145

1

1

940.54217 Grossman