A Writer at War (59 page)

Grossman, Vasily,
Zhizu I sudba
(
Life and Fate
), Geneva, 1981, 1985

Grossman, Vasily,
Gody voiny
(
The War Years
), Moscow, 1989

Guber, Fyodor (ed.), ‘Pamyat i pisma’, in
Daugava
, no. 11, 1990

Hilberg, Raul,
The Destruction of the European Jews
, New York, 1985

Markish, Simon,
Le cas Grossman
, Paris, 1983

Merridale, Catherine,
Night of Stone
, London, 2000

Ortenberg, D.I.,
Vremya ne vlastno (Time has no Authority)
, Moscow, 1979

Ortenberg, D.I.,
God 1942 (The Year 1942)
, Moscow, 1982

Ortenberg, D.I.,
Iyun–Dekabr Sorok pervogo (June–December 1941)
, Moscow, 1984

Ortenberg, D.I.,
Sorok trety (1943)
, Moscow, 1991

Overy, Richard,
Russia’s War
, London, 1998

Rayfield, Donald,
Stalin and his Hangmen
, London, 2004

Rubenstein, Joshua,
Tangled Loyalties – the Life and Times of Ilya Ehrenburg
, New York, 1996

Rubenstein, Joshua, and Naumov, Vladimir P. (eds),
Stalin’s Secret Pogrom, The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
, New Haven, 2001

Sebag Montefiore, Simon,
Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar
, London, 2004

Simonov, Konstantin,
Days and Nights
, New York, 1945

Todorov, Tsvetan,
Mémoires du Mal, Tentations du Bien
, Paris, 2000

Troyanovsky, P.I.,
Na vosmi frontakh
(
On Eight Fronts
), Moscow, 1982

Volkogonov, Dmitri,
Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy
, London, 1991

Yeremenko, A.I.,
Stalingrad – Zapiski komandujuscego frontom
, Moscow, 1961

Zaitsev, V.I.,
Za Volgoi
emli dlya nas ne bylo
(
For us there was no land beyond the Volga
), Los Angeles, 1973

Zhurnalisty na voine
(
Journalists at War
), Moscow, 1966

Abbreviations

EVK-GP Ekaterina Vasilievna Korotkova-Grossman Papers RGALI Rossiisky Gosudarstvenny Arkhiv Literatury I Iskusstva (Russian State Archive for Literature and the Arts), Moscow

RGASPI Rossiisky Gosudarstvenny Arkhiv Sotsialno-Politeskoi Istorii (Russian State Archive for Social-Political History), Moscow

TsAMO Tsentralny Arkhiv Ministerstva Oborony (Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence), Podolsk

Introduction

p. vii Grossman family names russified, Garrard and Garrard, p. 53

p. viii On the 150,000 Jews murdered in civil war, S. Yelisavetsky,
Berdichevskaya tragedia
, Kiev, 1991, p. 13, quoted in Garrard and Garrard, p. 61

p. viii ‘
At first glance, Father . . .
’, interview with Ekaterina Korotkova-Grossman, 24 December 2004

p. viii ‘
The wolfhound century
’, Mandelstam,
Sobranie Sochinenii
, vol. 1 (Munich, 1967), p. 162

p. viii For estimates of famine victims, see Donald Rayfield, p. 185

p. x ‘
He was an extremely kind
. . .’, Ehrenburg, p. 35

p. x On the arrest of Olga Mikhailovna, for the most detailed account, see Garrard and Garrard, pp. 121–5

p. xii ‘
I’ll tell you about myself
’, Guber, p. 100

p. xiii ‘
During the whole war
. . .’, RGALI 1710/3/50

p. xiii ‘
talks with soldiers withdrawn
. . .’, RGALI 1710/3/50

p. xiii ‘
the penetrating, sharp foreboding
. . .’, Grossman, 1974, p. 37

p. xiv ‘
I know that the fact
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1991, p. 27

p. xv ‘
the usual smell of the front line
. . .’, Grossman, 1985, p. 740

p. xv ‘
Ever since he had arrived in Stalingrad
. . .’, Grossman, 1985 pp. 236–7

p. xv for Ehrenburg’s telephone call from Stalin, see Rubenstein, p. 187

p. xvii ‘
I think that those who
. . .’, ‘Infantryman’, Grossman, 1989

p. xvii ‘
The ruthless truth of war
’, quoted in Ortenberg, 1982, p. 293

Chapter 1: Baptism of Fire

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/43 with the following exceptions:

p. 5 ‘
I remember how Grossman
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1991, pp. 358–9

p. 5 ‘
His tunic was all wrinkled
. . .’, Ortenberg, quoted in Bocharov, p. 127.

p. 6 ‘
We are leaving for the Central Front
. . .’,
Voprosy literatury
, no. 5, 1968, RGALI 1710/1/100

p. 12 ‘
On the outbreak of war
. . .’, RGALI 1710/1/100

p. 12 ‘
My dear [Father], I arrived at my destination
. . .’, 8 August 1941, EVK-GP

p. 13 ‘
Bogaryov saw a family of boletus
. . .’, Grossman, 1962, p. 316

p. 15 ‘
Ours, ours?
’, excerpt from Grossman’s
The People Immortal
published in
Krasnaya Zvezda
, 19 July 1942

Chapter 2: Terrible Retreat

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/43 with the following exceptions:

p. 21 ‘
Who can describe the austerity
. . .’,
Krasnaya Zvezda
, 24 July 1942

p. 21 ‘
The next day we were able
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1984, p. 162

p. 22 ‘
If you remember, in
Travel to Arzrum
. . .’, Grossman, 1962, p. 380.

p. 23 ‘
We were driving and driving
. . .’, Troyanovsky, p. 23

Chapter 3: The Bryansk Front

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49 with the following exceptions:

p. 27 ‘
Drive to the front
. . .’, RGALI 1710/3/43

p. 29 ‘
I am in good health
. . .’, 9 September 1941 (Stamp: Checked by Military Censorship), EVK-GP

p. 29 ‘
Dear Lyusenka
. . .’, 16 September 1941, Guber, 1990

p. 30 ‘
German trenches
. . .’,
Krasnaya Zvezda
, 14 September 1941

Chapter 4: With the 50th Army

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49 with the following exceptions:

p. 34 ‘
Shlyapin is intelligent, strong
. . .’, Grossman, 1989, p. 263

p. 35 ‘
My dear [Father], I’ve received . . .
’, 1 October 1941, EVK-GP

Chapter 5: Back into the Ukraine

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49 with the following exceptions:

p. 38 ‘
Grossman decided to write
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1979 pp. 313–28

p. 39 ‘
The first time that we, military correspondents
. . .’, November 1945, RGALI 1710/3/21 ‘A Soviet Officer’

Chapter 6: The German Capture of Orel

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49.

Chapter 7: The Withdrawal Before Moscow

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49 with the following exceptions:

p. 55 ‘
Tula, seized with that deadly fever
. . .’, Grossman, 1989, p. 288

p. 56 ‘
People say that [Ortenberg] is a good editor
. . .’, Grossman, 1989, p. 289

p. 57 ‘
The morning and evening reports from the Sovinformburo
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1984, p. 191

p. 60 ‘
It’s a fact, Comrade Commissar
,’ Grossman, 1962, p. 96

p. 61 ‘
My dear and good [Father], I was mortally upset
. . .’, 17 November 1941, EVK-GP

p. 61 ‘
We were given an apartment
. . .’, Ehrenburg, 1990, p. 349

p. 62 ‘
Vasily Grossman has returned
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1984, p. 327

p. 62 ‘
It is still too early to be looking
. . .’, Grossman to M.M. Shkapskaya quoted, Guber, 1990

p. 63 ‘
There are very nice people around me
. . .’, Grossman to Olga Mikhailovna, 20 December 1941, quoted, Guber, 1990

p. 63 ‘
When marching into European capitals
. . .’,
Krasnaya Zvezda
, 26 December 1941

Chapter 8: In the South

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49 with the following exceptions:

p. 67 ‘
Vasily Grossman persuaded me
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1982, p. 70

p. 68 ‘
Division Commander Lazko
. . .’, RGALI 1710/3/44

p. 73 422,700 men died in punishment units, John Erickson, ‘Red Army Battlefield Performance’, in Addison and Calder, p. 236

Chapter 9: The Air War in the South

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49 with the following exceptions:

p. 79 ‘
Dearest Lyusenka, well, we’ve celebrated
. . .’, 1 January 1942, quoted in Guber, 1990

p. 79 ‘
My articles are published
. . .’, 11 January 1942, quoted in Guber, 1990

p. 80 ‘
It is still stinging cold here
. . .’, 1 February 1942, EVK-GP

Chapter 10: On the Donets with the Black Division

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49.

Chapter 11: With the Khasin Tank Brigade

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/49.

Chapter 12: ‘The Ruthless Truth of War’

p. 110 ‘
Sometimes it feels that I’ve spent
. . .’, 6 March 1942, EVKGP

p. 110 ‘
Winter has come back to where
. . .’, 7 March 1942, EVK-GP

p. 110 ‘
Vasily Grossman came to see me
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1982, p. 263

p. 110 ‘
I’ve been given leave
. . .’, 8 April 1942, EVK-GP

p. 111 ‘
Action has started at the front
. . .’, 15 May 1942, EVK-GP

p. 112 ‘
I am doing a great deal of work here
. . .’, 31 May 1942, EVKGP

p. 113 ‘
Things seem to be going well
. . .’ 12 June 1942, EVK-GP

p. 113 ‘
I am a key person at the editorial office now
. . .’, quoted in Guber, 1990

p. 114 ‘
[After] precisely two months
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1982, p. 263

p. 114 ‘
Krasnaya Zvezda
started serialising
. . .’, 14 July 1942, EVK-GP

p. 114 ‘
Today we published the final
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1982 p. 293

p. 114 ‘
Yesterday Kostya Budkovsky
. . .’, 22 July 1942, Guber, 1990

p. 115 ‘
I am leaving for the front
. . .’, 19 August 1942, EVK-GP

Chapter 13: The Road to Stalingrad

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/50 with the following exceptions:

p. 117 ‘
When the famous order was issued
. . .’, interview with Ekaterina Korotkova-Grossman, 24 December 2004

p. 118 ‘
We were retreating from the battle
. . .’, RGALI 1710/3/46

p. 121 for the debate over Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, see
Pravda
, 26 November 2002

p. 123 ‘
What’s the matter with them
?’, quoted in Volkogonov, p. 461

p. 123 Stalingrad Defence Committee, numerous examples can be found in RGASPI 17/43/1774

p. 130 ‘
Those were hard and dreadful days
. . .’, RGALI 1710/1/102

Chapter 14: The September Battles

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/50 with the following exceptions:

p. 136 ‘
We arrived in Stalingrad soon after an air raid
,
Krasnaya Zvezda
6 September, 1942, RGALI 1710/1/102

p. 139 ‘
He was not a stranger
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1982, p. 382

p. 140 ‘
When on the march, one
’s shoulder . . .’
Krasnaya Zvezda
, 20 September 1942, RGALI 1710/1/102

p. 141 ‘
three to five well-armed
. . .’, 16 August 1942, TsAMO 48/486/28

p. 141 Execution in 45th Rifle Division, TsAMO 48/486/25

p. 144 ‘
“Comrade Chuikov,” said Khrushchev
’, Chuikov, 1963, p. 84

p. 148 ‘
The road turned south-west
. . .’, ‘The Stalingrad Battle’, RGALI 1710/1/102

p. 151 ‘
My own one, my good one
. . .’, Guber, 1990

p. 152 ‘
You already know about
. . .’, 5 October 1942, Guber, 1990

Chapter 15: The Stalingrad Academy

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/50 with the following exceptions:

p. 154 ‘
Sometimes, the trenches dug
. . .’, ‘Stalingrad Army’, RGALI 618/2/107

p. 158 ‘
Sometimes it is very quiet
. . .’, ‘With Chekhov’s Eyes’, RGALI 1710/1/101

p. 158 ‘
It was probably because Grossman
. . .’, 14 November 1942, Ortenberg, 1982, p. 415

p. 159 Zaitsev as a sniper, Zaitsev, p. 59

p. 160 ‘
for days
’, Grossman, 1985, p. 236

p. 168 ‘
The earth around the landing point
. . .’,
Krasnaya Zvezda
, 4 November 1942

Chapter 16: The October Battles

All entries are from RGALI 1710/3/50 with the following exceptions:

p. 174 ‘
You know, I am a superstitious man
. . .’, Ortenberg, 1979, pp. 313–28

p. 180 ‘
All the correspondents
. . .’, 12 January 1943, Ortenberg, 1991, p. 25

p. 180 ‘
When he wrote
. . .’, ‘I remember how he would . . .’, Ortenberg, 1982 p. 392

p. 180 ‘
I’ve written an angry letter to the editor
. . .’, Guber, 1990

p. 181 ‘
It is only here that people know
. . .’,
Krasnaya Zvezda
, 26 November 1942, RGALI 1710/1/101