Vasilii Grossman, Zhizn' i sud'ba [Life and Fate]

Robert Chandler (Queen Mary, University of London)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1980

Places

Russia (Country of Origin)
Switzerland (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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After Stalin’s death in 1953, Grossman enjoyed a period of public success. He was awarded a prestigious decoration, “The Red Banner of Labour”, and

Za pravoe delo

(

For a Just Cause

), the first of his two Stalingrad novels, was republished. Meanwhile he was writing two masterpieces, neither of which was to be published in Russia until the late 1980s:

Zhizn’ i sud’ba

(

Life and Fate

) and

Vse techet

(

Everything Flows

). Though sometimes described as a sequel to the politically less heretical

For a Just Cause, Life and Fate

is better seen as a separate novel that includes many of the same characters.

Life and Fate is important both as literature and as history. Grossman achieves in it what many other Soviet writers struggled but failed to achieve: a portrait of an entire age. Every

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3117 words

Citation: Chandler, Robert. "Zhizn' i sud'ba". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21502, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Vasilii Grossman, Zhizn' i sud'ba [Life and Fate]

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