Stalingrad (Grossman novel)

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For a Just Cause (Russian: За правое дело, romanized: Za pravoye delo) is a socrealist novel by Russian writer Vasily Grossman, first published in 1952. A revised English translation, including additional material from Grossman's unpublished manuscripts, was published under the author's preferred title, Stalingrad, in 2019.^[1] It is the predecessor to Grossman's more widely read Life and Fate.

Historical context[]

Most of the events of Stalingrad take place in the Soviet Union starting in the months before Nazi Germany's invasion Operation Barbarossa, and up through mid-September in the first month of the Battle of Stalingrad.

The book describes the individual shock of the June 20, 1940 invasion, for many of its characters. The German invasion completely altered life for Soviets everywhere.

The book follows the members and friends of the Shaposhnikov family as they work and then fight or flee from Western SSRs to Stalingrad by 1942. The German attack on Stalingrad began August 23, 1942, with 1600 bomber sorties dropping high explosives and incendiaries, completely destroying the city. Some of Grossman's characters are allowed to flee the city; some die fleeing; some fight or work while the immense battle continues around them.

The book asserts that the Germans effectively lost World War II by mid-September 1942, after they failed to take Stalingrad.

Background[]

Grossman wrote "Stalingrad" starting in 1943. The book was extensively edited through a number of editions. It was intended to be the “War and Peace” of World War Two (“the Great Patriotic War” in Soviet parlance.) It was published in pieces at first, but was subject to extensive political censorship and pressures. While Stalin ruled, Grossman could not criticise Stalin or the Soviet central command. As Stalin's government shifted, Grossman had to add or subtract pieces: he added new pieces to more broadly cover the Soviet war experiences, such as mining and food production; he subtracted parts that too strongly lauded Jewish contributions. By 1953, Stalin had become paranoid over a Jewish conspiracy: he feared that Jewish doctors were trying to assassinate him. Grossman, himself Jewish, was lucky to escape arrest at this point - fortunately for him, Stalin did suddenly die. In the next few years, his book was again edited and republished - as "part 1" of Grossman's “War and Peace” for the Great Patriotic War.

The “Stalingrad” book, as translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, tries to include all Grossman's texts. The Chandlers' general rules were based on guessing Grossman's wishes: include any text that Grossman “liked”, even if it was on a topic that was forced on him by outside forces; conversely, don't add anything that would cause a plot conflict or that Grossman himself had deleted. The result is a book that in some ways seems to be “designed by committee”. There are many plot lines, but many are left unresolved or even unmentioned in the later parts of the book. The near-1000 page “Stalingrad” book is only the prelude to his more popular second novel “Life and Fate”, written in 1959, well after Stalin's death, and first published in 1980. The second book does take up most of the incomplete plot lines of “Stalingrad”.

Since this book was written primarily before Stalin's death, it necessarily lauds him. It describes the basic ideas for “inevitable” Soviet victory, mostly through friends and relatives of the Shaposhnikov family.

Main characters[]

Grossman has a plot line to emphasize each key Soviet strength. However, in this "Stalingrad" book, these roles are not fully developed when it ends in mid-September 1942. The characters are loosely connected to the Shaposhnikov family of Stalingrad.

Alexandra Vladimirovna Shaposhnikov: About 65, matriarch “granny”, widowed, bacteriology teacher, chemist, headed a small lab to monitor factory working conditions, loved people and her work.

Ludmilla Nikolaevna Shaposhnikov: About 46, eldest daughter of Alexandra. Nearly a Ph. D. in Chemistry. Briefly married to renegade-type named Abarchuk, had one son ("Tolya") and was divorced. Remarried Victor Shtrum, had a daughter ("Nadya") and tended house until the war started. Withdrew 400 miles east to Kazan, getting a job as a factory chemist.

Victor Pavlovich Shtrum: Ludmila's current husband of 20 years, a brilliant physicist, running a big experiment needing high quality steel in Moscow in 1942. He invented and deployed a new way to control steel-alloy smelting.

“Tolya” Lt. Anatoly Shaposhnikov: About 22, Ludmila's son by Abarchuk; as the war began, he volunteered and was commissioned a Lieutenant in Artillery. In this book he is mentioned mainly as a worry for his mother Ludmila.

“Nadya” Shaposhnikov: About 18, Ludmila's daughter, by Shtrum. She is mentioned only as a high school student.

Marusya Spiridonova: About 43, Alexandra's second (middle) daughter, ran a children's hospital in Stalingrad. She was among those allowed to evacuate across the Volga.

Stepan Fyodorovich Spiridonova: About 50, Marusya's husband, director of the main Stalingrad coal-power generating station. This station remained open through the first month of the battle, despite daily bombing, shelling and direct assaults.

Vera Spiridonova: About 20, daughter of Marusya and Stepan, hospital worker. She worked as a nurse.

Sergeant Viktorov: About 22, a fighter pilot, in love with Vera, in Vera's hospital recovering from crash wounds.

Dmitry Shaposhnikov: About 40, Alexandra's son, arrested by Russian police in 1937, sentenced to help build the White Sea Canal. He is not mentioned much in this volume.

Sheryoza Shaposhnikov: About 17, Dmitry's son, adopted by Alexandra after Dmitry's arrest; joined the Stalingrad militia (lied about age) in July 1942. He was assigned to a mortar squad commanded by a martinette named Kryakin. His squad included the scrounger “deserter” Gradusov, the smart and confident Komsomol engineer Chentsov, and the over-age veteran carpenter Polyakov.

“Zhenya” Yevgenia Nikolaevna Shaposhnikov: About 22, Alexandra's third (and youngest) daughter, an attractive art/dance student in Moscow who had married and the divorced Colonel Krymov. She had returned to the "safety" of Stalingrad during the retreats of 1941.

Krymov (Nikolay Grigorievich): About 45, Zhenya's former husband, had fought in 1918-22 civil war. He was reassigned as a Red Army Political commissar before this war. After being surrounded in the 1941 blitz in western Ukraine, Krymov led 200 soldiers and civilians on a heroic and desperate fighting retreat through 500 km of German-held territory. He became a key leader in the Stalingrad defense.

Novikov (Colonel Pyotr Pavlovich): spends a lot of the 1942 summer waiting to be assigned. He wanted to marry Zhenya. He was eventually given a tank corps command.

Ivan Novikov (Novikov's brother): a coal mine shaft driller, providing heroic quantities of high quality coal to enable Russian steel quality. His story was included by the request of Soviet politicians, to represent the sacrifices of workers.

Mostovskoy (Mikhail Sidorovich): About 65, a longtime Bolshevik, who knew Alexandra even in 1910 when he was a clandestine Communist organizer. He fought in the 1917-1922 Russian Civil War; at least part of that time he was a guerilla behind the White movement lines.

Andreyev (Pavel Andreyevich): About 68, an old friend of Alexandra and the best worker in the Krasny Oktyabr (steel plant).

Senior Lieutenant Filyashkin: About 22, he does not appear related to the other characters. His story is included because it is the true story of a key episode in the battle, though his actual name was Lieutenant Anton Kuzmich Dragan.

References[]