If there is any Russian novel that succeeds in claiming this title, it would be Grossman's "'Life and Fate," and coming in at something like 2/3s the length of Tolstoy's epic (I read it maybe 20 years ago and recall it being close to 1500 pages, but I could be wrong). It has the sweep, and the philosophizing by the author upon the events portrayed, and has the additional pull of containing what amounts to first-hand accounts - his own - as he served as a journalist during WWII on the Soviet front lines, and was a witness to the Battle of Stalingrad, and was also the first journalist to write about the Nazi death camps as he was with troops who liberated Treblinka in 1944, having earlier written about Nazi atrocities in Ukraine and Poland.
A remarkable achievement, and one of those novels you wish that didn't finish. And what is remarkable also is that Grossman hoped that it would be published - while not openly anti-Stalinist, he is critical of the Soviets during Stalin's regime, and not just during the purges, yet toes the line carefully in showing Stalin to be human also, in resurrecting Viktor Shtrum from almost being exiled from the Soviet atomic program, and with one phone call, re-instating him - at a price.
The passages dealing with the rounding up of Jews from Russia and Ukraine, transporting them by cattle cars to Auschwitz, and then sending these poor souls to the gas chambers are some of the most powerful writing out there: difficult to read, powerfully memorable and heart-wrenching. Also powerful is the famous battle during the Battle of Stalingrad for House 6, and the "renegade" defenders led by Grekov.
Now I have to get back to the series, which has compacted many elements of the novel - Tolya is now part of the small band of soldiers in House 6, for example - but aside from Viktor, seems to have excised Jews from the little screen, which in "Life and Fate," is ripping the heart out of the story.
A remarkable achievement, and one of those novels you wish that didn't finish. And what is remarkable also is that Grossman hoped that it would be published - while not openly anti-Stalinist, he is critical of the Soviets during Stalin's regime, and not just during the purges, yet toes the line carefully in showing Stalin to be human also, in resurrecting Viktor Shtrum from almost being exiled from the Soviet atomic program, and with one phone call, re-instating him - at a price.
The passages dealing with the rounding up of Jews from Russia and Ukraine, transporting them by cattle cars to Auschwitz, and then sending these poor souls to the gas chambers are some of the most powerful writing out there: difficult to read, powerfully memorable and heart-wrenching. Also powerful is the famous battle during the Battle of Stalingrad for House 6, and the "renegade" defenders led by Grekov.
Now I have to get back to the series, which has compacted many elements of the novel - Tolya is now part of the small band of soldiers in House 6, for example - but aside from Viktor, seems to have excised Jews from the little screen, which in "Life and Fate," is ripping the heart out of the story.
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