All Russian words bear a strong stress on one syllable. Where this is not obvious, we have used italics to indicate where the stress falls.
Real historical figures are indicated by an asterisk.
1. CIVILIANS
THE SHAPOSHNIKOV FAMILY
Alexandra Vladimirovna
Shaposhnikova the family matriarch
Ludmila Nikolaevna
Shaposhnikova Alexandra’s eldest daughter
Abarchuk Ludmila’s first husband, arrested in 1937
Lt. Anatoly (“Tolya”)
Shaposhnikov Ludmila’s son by Abarchuk
Viktor Pavlovich Shtrum Ludmila’s husband, a physicist
Nadya Viktor and Ludmila’s daughter
Anna Semyonovna Viktor’s mother
Marusya Spiridonova Alexandra’s middle daughter
Stepan Fyodorovich Spiridonov Marusya’s husband, director of the Stalgres power station
Vera Spiridonova Stepan and Marusya’s daughter
(Zina Melnikova a close friend of Vera)
(Sergeant Viktorov a fighter pilot, becomes Vera’s lover)
Dmitry Shaposhnikov Alexandra’s son, arrested 1937, sent to work on the White Sea Canal
Ida Semyonovna Dmitry’s wife
Seryozha Shaposhnikov Dmitry’s son, adopted by Alexandra
Yevgenia Nikolaevna
Shaposhnikova (“Zhenya”) Alexandra’s youngest daughter
Nikolay Grigorievich Krymov Zhenya’s former husband, a Red Army commissar
(Col. Pyotr Pavlovich Novikov wants to marry Zhenya. Is given command of a tank corps)
FRIENDS OF THE SHAPOSHNIKOVS
Pavel Andreyevich Andreyev worker in a steel factory
Sofya Osipovna Levinton a surgeon in a military hospital
Mikhail Sidorovich
Mostovskoy an Old Bolshevik (Agrippina Petrovna is his landlady and Gagarov is an old friend)
Tamara Berozkina a refugee, often visits the Shaposhnikovs
PAVEL ANDREYEV’S FAMILY AND CIRCLE
Varvara Alexandrovna his wife
Anatoly adult son of Pavel and Varvara
Natalya Anatoly’s wife
Volodya little son of Anatoly and Natalya
Misha Polyakov an old comrade of Andreyev
TAMARA BEROZKINA’S FAMILY
Ivan Leontievich Berozkin Tamara’s husband, an infantry major
Slava Tamara and Ivan’s son
Luba Tamara and Ivan’s daughter, aged five
VIKTOR SHTRUM’S COLLEAGUES
Dmitry Petrovich Chepyzhin Viktor’s former teacher, an academician
Anna Stepanovna Loshakova laboratory assistant
Ivan Ivanovich Maximov a biochemist, recently returned from Czechoslovakia
Pimenov acting director of the Physics
Institute from spring 1942
Leonid Postoev eminent physicist, an academician
(Alla Postoev Postoev’s daughter)
Pyotr Lavrentievich Sokolov a mathematician
Ivan Dmitrievich Sukhov director of the institute until spring 1942
STALINGRAD OBKOM (PROVINCE PARTY COMMITTEE)
Ivan Pavlovich Pryakhin First Secretary
Barulin Pryakhin’s assistant
Major Mikhailov head of the military section
Filippov deputy chairman of the executive committee
Zhilkin director of the obkom canteen
STALINGRAD CHILDREN’S HOME
Yelizaveta Savelievna Tokareva director
Klava Sokolova an assistant, friend of Natalya Andreyeva
Slava Berozkin son of Ivan and Tamara Berozkin
Grisha Serpokryl a traumatized, supposedly mute orphaned boy
PYOTR VAVILOV, HIS FAMILY AND CIRCLE
Pyotr Semyonovich Vavilov kolkhoz worker, posted to Filyashkin’s battalion
Marya Nikolaevna his wife
Alyosha, Nastya and Vanya Pyotr and Maria’s children
Masha Balashova a young neighbour, friend of Nastya
Natalya Degtyarova a neighbour
SENIOR ENGINEERS AND FACTORY DIRECTORS IN MOSCOW
Andrey Trofimovich member of the board of the People’s Commissariat, perhaps a deputy people’s commissar
Chepchenko director of a metals factory, recently evacuated to the Urals
Semyon Krymov brother of Nikolay Krymov, chief engineer in a Siberian factory
Smezhnik a nickname, meaning “Partner Factory”
Sverchkov factory director, from the Urals
IVAN NOVIKOV AND THE COAL MINE
Ivan Pavlovich Novikov brother of Col. Novikov, experienced miner, senior shaft sinker
Inna Vasilievna Ivan Novikov’s wife, a teacher
Masha Ivan Novikov and Inna’s sickly little daughter
Braginskaya a Russified Pole, a trammer
Gavrila Devyatkin a shaft sinker
Kotov a shaft sinker, from Oryol
Ivan Kuzmich obkom secretary responsible for industry
Ilya Maximovich Lapshin director of the coal trust
Latkov a timberman
Niura Lopatina a former kolkhoz worker, now a trammer
General Meshkov director of a factory producing armour plating for tanks
Motorin secretary of the pit Party committee
Rogov a section head
Vikentiev an experienced Siberian miner, now a timberman
Yazev director of the mine
Georgy Andreyevich representative of the State Defence Committee
2. MILITARY
WITH NIKOLAY KRYMOV ESCAPING FROM ENCIRCLEMENT
Petrov an army doctor
Sizov Krymov’s chief scout
Skoropad Krymov’s provisions manager
Air Force Major Svetilnikov Krymov’s chief of staff
WITH NIKOLAY KRYMOV AT 50TH ARMY HQ
Major General Petrov commander of 50th Army
Brigade Commissar Shlyapin Petrov’s commissar
WITH NIKOLAY KRYMOV IN THE SOUTHWESTERN FRONT
Semyonov Krymov’s driver
Senior Sergeant Generalov
Lt. Col. Gorelik brigade commander
Kostyukov brigade chief of staff
Lt. Morozov
* Senior Lt. Sarkisyan commander of a heavy mortar division
Selidov a gun-layer
WITH PYOTR NOVIKOV ON THE STAFF OF THE SOUTHWESTERN FRONT
* Marshal Semyon Timoshenko C-in-C of Southwestern Front
Major General Afanasy
Georgievich Bykov Novikov’s immediate superior
Battalion Commissar Cheprak secretary of the military soviet
Lt. Col. Vitaly Alexeyevich a talented officer, of aristocratic background
Darensky
Ivanchin member of the military soviet (i.e., most senior commissar)
Angelina Tarasovna the best typist
AT THE GENERAL STAFF IN MOSCOW
* General Yakov Fedorenko head of the Red Army’s Main Armoured Directorate
Colonel Ivanov a friend of Novikov, serving on the General Staff
* General Andrey Khrulyov Deputy People’s Commissar for Defence (from August 1941)
Lt. Col. Zvezdiukhin an officer in the cadres section
ARMY JOURNALISTS
Bolokhin Red Star correspondent, loves Symbolist poetry
Zbavsky correspondent for The Latest Radio News
OFFICERS IN STALINGRAD
* Lt. General Andrey Yeromenko C-in-C of Stalingrad Front
Ageyev Yeromenko’s artillery commander
* Major General Vasily Chuikov commander of the 62nd Army
* Divisional Commissar Kuzma member of the military soviet
Gurov
* Major General Nikolay Krylov Chuikov’s chief of staff
* Pozharsky Chuikov’s artillery commander
* Major General Guriev divisional commander
* Colonel Gurtiev a
divisional commander
* General Zheludyov a divisional commander
* General Ludnikov a divisional commander
* Lt. Col. Batyuk a divisional commander
* Colonel Gorishny a divisional commander
* Major General Rodimtsev commander of 13th Guards Division
Major Belsky Rodimtsev’s chief of staff
Vavilov Rodimtsev’s divisional commissar
Lt. Col. Matyushin a regimental commander
* Lt. Col. Yelin a regimental commander
Senior Lt. Filyashkin battalion commander
Battalion Commissar Shvedkov Filyashkin’s commissar
Lt. Igumnov Filyashkin’s chief of staff
Senior Lt. Konanykin commander of Filyashkin’s 1st Company
Lt. (Misha) Kovalyov commander of Filyashkin’s 3rd Company
Kotlov Kovalyov’s political instructor
Sergeant Major Marchenko Kovalyov’s right-hand man after Kotlov is wounded
Senior Sergeant Dodonov a telltale, eventually a deserter
Senior Sergeant Lena Gnatyuk medical instructor
Mulyarchuk a former stove maker
Rezchikov the company joker
Rysev a former paratrooper
Usmanov an Uzbek
Usurov formerly a driver in Central Asia
Pyotr Semyonovich Vavilov a former kolkhoz worker
Zaichenkov a former accountant
SERYOZHA SHAPOSHNIKOV’S MILITIA COMRADES
Chentsov a former postgraduate student of engineering
Galiguzov commander of a gun crew
Gradusov formerly a minor official in a housing construction bureau
Ilushkin a muddle-headed soldier
Kryakin the company commander
Polyakov a former carpenter, a friend of Pavel Andreyev
Shumilo the company’s political instructor
3. THE GERMANS
* General Friedrich Paulus commander of the 6th Army
* Colonel Adam Paulus’s adjutant
* General Franz Weller commander of a grenadier division
* General Richthofen commander of the 4th Air Fleet
Colonel Forster a staff officer
Lt. Pieter Bach engaged to Forster’s daughter, Maria
Captain Preifi a battalion commander
Lt. Fritz Lenard an SS officer
Ledeke, Stumpfe and Vogel three friends
Karl Schmidt a private soldier and former Communist
FURTHER READING
DURING the last twenty years a great deal has been published about the war on the Eastern front and the Battle of Stalingrad. Richard Overy’s Russia’s War (Penguin, 1998) and Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad (Viking, 1998) were among the first such books to reach a large readership. Listed below are a few of the other books I have found particularly helpful:
Antony Beevor, The Second World War (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014).
Chris Bellamy, Absolute War (Pan, 2009).
Rodric Braithwaite, Moscow 1941 (Profile, 2006).
Frank Ellis, And Their Mothers Wept (Heritage House Press, 2007)—a comprehensive account of Soviet and post-Soviet fiction about the Second World War.
K. I. Finogenov, December 1942–February 1943, Frontline Diary of the Artist K. I. Finogenov (Moscow/Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1948)—eighty superb drawings, done under the pressure of immediate experience. It is astonishing that this volume has never been re-published.
John and Carol Garrard, The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman (Pen & Sword, 2012).
David Glantz and Jonathan House, Stalingrad (University of Kansas Press, 2017)—detailed and scrupulously researched military history.
Vasily Grossman, A Writer at War, ed. Antony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova (Harvill Press, 2005)—extracts from Grossman’s wartime notebooks, with a useful commentary.
Vasily Grossman, Gody voiny (Pravda, 1989)—an almost-complete text of the wartime notebooks; it is censored only very slightly.
Jochen Hellbeck, ed., Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich, trans. Christopher Tauchen (Public Affairs, 2016)—a selection of interviews carried out by Soviet historians in 1943 with survivors of the battle, Russian and German, military and civilian.
Michael K. Jones, The Retreat (John Murray, 2009).
Michael K. Jones, Stalingrad: How the Red Army Triumphed (Pen and Sword, 2010)—clear and vivid.
Catherine Merridale, Ivan’s War (Faber & Faber, 2006)—a sensitively written, psychologically informed evocation of the experience of the rank-and-file Red Army soldier.
Alexandra Popoff, Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century (Yale University Press, 2019).
Brandon Schechter, The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects (Cornell University Press, 2019)—a remarkable, almost encyclopedic account of the practical, material side of the lives of Red Army soldiers: their rations, their uniforms, their weapons, etc.
The most important recent Russian publications, by far, are the articles and books published by Yury Bit-Yunan and David Fel'dman. Semyon Lipkin’s engaging and well-written memoir has influenced most subsequent writing on Grossman, but it is sadly unreliable.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I AM ESPECIALLY grateful to Jochen Hellbeck for first encouraging me, many years ago, to translate this great novel; to Ian Garner, Alexandra Popoff, Brandon Schechter and Tatiana Dettmer for allowing me to draw on unpublished work of their own; to Yury Bit-Yunan, Darya Paschenko and Pietro Tosco for their help in obtaining archival material; and to Antony Beevor, Maria Bloshteyn, Rodric Braithwaite, John Burt, Tom Cowdrey, Steve Crawshaw, Boris Dralyuk, Philip Horowitz, Michael Jones and Garrett Riggs, all of whom have read through complete drafts of this translation and made helpful suggestions; and to David Black, Elizabeth Cook and Martha Kapos, who have listened to me read many chapters aloud and have helped me to clarify a number of awkward passages.
Many, many others have also answered my countless questions about language, military terminology, Soviet clothing and diet, etc. Among them are Denis Akhapkin, Tarik Amar, Michele Berdy, Loren Billings, Edyta Bojanowska, Stuart Britton, Oxana Budjko, Dmitry Buzadzhi, Inna Caron, Ilona Chavasse, Vitaly Chernetsky, Ralph Cleminson, Andy Croft, Stephen Dalziel, Lydia Dhoul, Stephen M. Dickey, Jim Dingeman, John Dunn, Anna Finkelstern, Anne Fisher, Paul Gallagher, Maria Gapotchenko, Ian Garner, Irina Gnedko, Stuart Goldberg, Svetlana Grenier, Gasan Gusejnov, Ellen Hinsey, Geoffrey Hosking, Alina Israeli, Tatiana Kaplun, Bryan Karetnyk, Pavel Khazanov, Brendan Kiernan, Ani Kokobobo, Anna-Maria Leonard, Mikhail Lipyanskiy, Elena Malysheva, Steve Marder, Melanie Mauthner, Jenya Mironava, Alice and Alexander Nakhimovsky, Colonel Ian Vere Nicol, Andrew Nurnberg, Natasha Perova, Anna Pilkington, Karen Porter, David Powelstock, Olia Prokopenko, Daniel Rancour-Laferriere, Anna Razumnaya, Oliver Ready, Paul Richardson, Irina Rodimtseva, Alex Schekochihin, Peter Scotto, Richard Shaw, Miriam Shrager, Irina Six, Clifford Slaughter, Ludmila Snigireva, Sasha Spektor, Oleksandr Spirin, Lisa R. Taylor, Peter and Susan Tegel, Anne Thompson, Ken Timbers, Christine Worobec, Jurgen Zarusky. My gratitude, as always to all members of SEELANGS, a remarkably helpful and generous email group without which this work would have been a great deal more difficult. And my deepest apologies to anyone whose name I have forgotten to mention.
While translating this book, I have thought a great deal about my father, Colonel Roger Elphinstone Chandler, who died aged forty-seven, when I was fifteen. He had a particular interest in history and he was an officer in the Royal Artillery. Stalingrad would have meant a lot to him, all the more so in view of the particular sympathy and admiration Grossman appears to have felt for gunners.
NOTES
PART ONE
1. The Battle of Berezina (26–29 November 1812) took place during Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. Though they suffered heavy losses, the French succeeded in crossing the River Berezina and so escaped being trapped. Nevertheless, some nations continue to u
se the word “Berezina” as a synonym for “disaster.”
2. Reinhard Heydrich (1904–42) was a high-ranking Nazi official and one of the main architects of the Shoah. On 27 May 1942, he was critically wounded in Prague by a British-trained team of Czech and Slovak soldiers. He died a week later. The Nazis carried out massive reprisals against the civilian population.
3. In late 1940 and early 1941 the British had routed the Italian Army Group in North Africa. In February 1941 Hitler had sent Rommel’s Afrika Korps to support the Italians. Since then he had reinforced the Afrika Korps several times.
4. War, peace, world history, religion, politics, philosophy, the German soul (Grossman’s own note).
5. Between the outer door or porch and the habitable room or rooms of a peasant hut was an unheated entrance room. This provided insulation from the cold and could be used for storing tools and firewood, or for housing animals.
6. A Russian stove was a large brick or clay structure taking up between one-fifth and one-quarter of the room it stood in. Its functions included baking and cooking, boiling water, heating the building, and drying linen and foodstuffs. A sleeping bench might be attached to one side of the stove; a wide shelf above it could also be slept on; and people often slept directly on the stove’s warm surface.
7. Foot cloths were lengths of material wound around the foot and ankle. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries these were far more common in Russia than socks or stockings. By the 1950s, however, they were used only in the army and in labour camps.
8. A portmanteau word, meaning “collective farm.” In 1929–30 Stalin forcibly collectivized nearly all Soviet agriculture, against massive peasant resistance.
9. A common refreshing drink, lightly alcoholic, usually made from stale bread.
10. The word “soviet” means both “council” and “counsel.” The workers’ soviets in Petrograd and other cities became the Bolsheviks’ main power base during 1917, and so the word became associated with the Communist Party. In the Soviet Union, governmental bodies at all levels—from that of a small village to that of the entire country—were known as soviets: village soviet, town soviet, province soviet, etc.