Writers and journalists are unique people. They know how to express their thoughts in a way that no one else can. People in this profession have generally never been held in high esteem by the authorities, because they could honestly write in their work. Many "real" writers did not hide the truth from the people, their fates in Soviet times were broken because of this very truth. Vasily Grossman is such a writer. After he was banned from writing, he simply burned out in front of his eyes.
Childhood and youth
Vasily Semenovich Grossman (real name Iosif Solomonovich) was born on December 12, 1905 in the city of Berdichev, in Ukraine. His family was educated: his father Solomon (Semyon) Iosifovich was a chemist and engineer, his mother Ekaterina Savelyevna was educated in France as a child. She taught French in her city.
Vasily's parents got married in 1900, but their marriage did not last long. They divorced when their son was very young.
After the divorce, Ekaterina Savelyevna and her son Joseph (Vasily) moved to live with her sister.
At the age of six, Vasily Grossman left for Switzerland with his mother. There he is sent to study at a street school. They returned to Kyiv only in 1914, at that time his father lived there. Here, Joseph again went to school, but he did not finish this one either, since in 1919 his mother took him to Berdichev. In this city, they again began to live in the house of their mother's sister, the boy continued to study, but he also had to work at a sawmill.
In 1921, Joseph came to his father and stayed with him for two years, where he was finally able to finish school.
Vasily received his higher education at Moscow University, graduating in 1929. A year before graduation, he married Anna Matsuk, with whom they lived separately for some time after the wedding, since he was still studying in Moscow, and she was in Kiev.
For some time he worked as a chemical engineer in Ukraine, but then he and his wife decided to leave for Moscow. There they settled with Aunt Vasily, the elder sister of his mother. Grossman got a job by profession at a pencil factory.
Writer's career
Vasily began to get involved in literature in the twenties. He sent his first work for publication to the Pravda newspaper in 1928. Between a laboratory in a pencil factory and literature, Grossman chooses literature.
In 1929, Ogonyok published his first serious work, Berdichev, not in jest, but in earnest. In 1934, again a masterpiece - "In the city of Berdichev" - about the times of the Civil War. In the same year, Maxim Gorky himself helped him to publish Glukauf. This story tells about miners from Donbass and their work.
The success of the novice writer's works strengthened his desire to write further. So, for three years, collections of his stories were regularly published, and in the late thirties to the fortieth year, Vasily Grossman worked even more diligently. The books he wrote became the "Stepan Kolchugin" trilogy. These stories dealt with the revolutionary movement from 1905 until the outbreak of the First World War.
From 1941, from the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War to its end, Vasily Grossman was a war correspondent. Looking at the horrors of war, he wrote his first masterpiece, The People is Immortal.
When the Germans occupied the city of Berdichev, Vasily's mother was first arrested and then shot during the extermination of the Jews. Vasily Grossman wrote letters until her last days, which would later be published by him in the sensational book Life and Fate.
The very same fate of Vasily Grossman was difficult. This writer still had a lot to go through in his life, not only such a terrible death of his beloved mother.
Vasily Grossman: "Life and Fate" in Life and Fate
During the war, Grossman wrote several more books, including The Black Book, in which the writer describes all the horrors of the war and German concentration camps.
The most sensational work written by Vasily Grossman is Life and Fate. This book appeared already in the post-war years, has gone through many corrections due to criticism.
In 1961, KGB officers came to search Grossman's house. They confiscated all manuscripts and copies, including printed ones, of Life and Fate.
It is considered impossible to release the book
Vasily Grossman wrote to Khrushchev himself with a request to release his creation from arrest. He sought an audience with members of the government for a long time, and in the end he was accepted by Suslov. He told the author that returning the book was out of the question. He also "reassured" Grossman, saying that his masterpiece could be published, but only after 300 years!
Vasily was forbidden to write, and he began to fade away. He developed kidney cancer and died after surgery on September 14, 1964.
Only in 2013, on July 25, FSB officers released the manuscript "Life and Fate" from custody. This manuscript is kept in the Ministry of Culture.
Vasily Grossman - Soviet writer and military journalist, created a surprisingly touching and truthful epic "Life and Fate". The first book in the dilogy is For a Just Cause. Both books tell about the events of the Great Patriotic War. The second novel was written after Stalin's death, and therefore contains a frank criticism of Stalinism.
The main characters of the epic novel are ordinary people who have experienced all the hardships of war. They have one desire - to defeat the enemy. To do this, we need to unite, because only together can we overcome the onslaught of the Nazi invader. Description of the terrible military events, broken destinies, mental suffering of people who survived those days fill the expanses of the book. And the consciousness of readers after reading is filled with new thoughts, feelings, emotions. Reading a book is difficult, sometimes impossible, because sometimes tears come to your eyes, covering your eyes. But everyone should read this book, because it is stories like these that teach you to appreciate life.
The book "Life and Fate" is not just about war, numerous battles, attacks, attacks. It is, first of all, about human destinies, about the moral qualities inherent in many Soviet people. After all, at the limit of the possible, in the most difficult situations, a person reveals the truly priceless riches of his soul. This is precisely what the Russian woman demonstrates when she gave a piece of bread to a German prisoner of war. This is evidenced by the scene in which the Russian intelligence officer and the German soldier, who found themselves in the same trench during the shelling, refused to shoot at each other. The whole story "Life and Fate" is saturated with such human deeds. The writer on the pages of the novel tried to show the face of the Russian people, which in the most hopeless situations remains a Man. After all, that's what made it possible to win.
Vasily Grossman wrote his book for nine long years, trying to create a true story of those terrible events. However, after the literary work was completed, it was banned from publication. KGB officers came to the author's apartment and confiscated the manuscript. Vasily Grossman was very upset by the loss of the main work of his life, trying for a long time to return the manuscript. But the authorities remained adamant - it is forbidden to print the novel.
The work "Life and Fate" was published in 1988, 29 years after its creation. This became possible thanks to a friend of Grossman who took a copy of the manuscript to Switzerland. Although the famous writer did not live to see this moment, his work became available to mankind after his death. Today, Vasily Grossman's book is read by readers all over the world, grateful for a talented story that allows them to learn about the terrible events of the last century.
On our literary site, you can download the book by Vasily Grossman "Life and Fate" for free in formats suitable for different devices - epub, fb2, txt, rtf. Do you like to read books and always follow the release of new products? We have a large selection of books of various genres: classics, modern science fiction, literature on psychology and children's editions. In addition, we offer interesting and informative articles for beginner writers and all those who want to learn how to write beautifully. Each of our visitors will be able to find something useful and exciting.
- Category: Summary
Romance (1960)
Old communist Mikhail Mostovskoy, taken prisoner on the outskirts of Stalingrad, brought to a concentration camp in West Germany. He falls asleep to the prayer of the Italian priest Hardy, argues with the Tolstoyan Ikonnikov, sees the hatred of the Menshevik Chernetsov and the strong will of the "ruler of thoughts" Major Yershov.
The political worker Krymov was sent to Stalingrad, to Chuikov's army. He must sort out a contentious case between the commander and the commissar of the rifle regiment. Arriving at the regiment, Krymov learns that both the commander and the commissar died under the bombing. Soon Krymov himself takes part in the night battle.
Moscow physicist Viktor Pavlovich Shtrum and his family are evacuated to Kazan. Tesha Shtruma Alexandra Vladimirovna kept her mental youth even in the grief of the war: she is interested in the history of Kazan, streets and museums, everyday life of people. Shtrum's wife Lyudmila considers this interest of her mother to be senile selfishness. Lyudmila has no news from the front from Tolya, her son from her first marriage. She is saddened by the categorical, lonely and difficult character of her high school daughter Nadia. Lyudmila's sister Zhenya Shaposhnikova ended up in Kuibyshev. Nephew Seryozha Shaposhnikov - at the front.
Shtrum's mother, Anna Semyonovna, remained in the Ukrainian town occupied by the Germans, and Shtrum understands that she, a Jewess, has little chance of surviving. His mood is heavy, he accuses his wife of the fact that, because of her harsh nature, Anna Semyonovna could not live with them in Moscow. The only person who softens the difficult atmosphere in the family is Lyudmila's friend, the shy, kind and sensitive Marya Ivanovna Sokolova, the wife of Shtrum's colleague and friend.
Strum receives a farewell letter from his mother. Anna Semyonovna tells what humiliations she had to endure in the city where she lived for twenty years, working as an ophthalmologist. The people she had known for a long time amazed her. The neighbor calmly demanded to vacate the room and threw her things away. The old teacher stopped greeting her. But on the other hand, the former patient, whom she considered a gloomy and gloomy person, helps her by bringing food to the ghetto fence. Through him, she gave a farewell letter to her son on the eve of the extermination action.
Lyudmila receives a letter from the Saratov hospital, where her seriously wounded son is lying. She urgently leaves there, but when she arrives, she learns about the death of Tolya. “All people are guilty before the mother who lost her son in the war, and in vain they try to justify themselves before her throughout the history of mankind.”
The secretary of the regional committee of one of the regions of Ukraine occupied by the Germans, Getmanov, was appointed commissar of the tank corps. Hetmanov worked all his life in an atmosphere of denunciation, flattery and falsehood, and now he transfers these life principles to the front-line situation. The corps commander, General Novikov, is a direct and honest man who tries to prevent senseless human casualties. Getmanov expresses his admiration to Novikov and at the same time writes a denunciation that the commander delayed the attack for eight minutes in order to save people.
Novikov loves Zhenya Shaposhnikova and visits her in Kuibyshev. Before the war, Zhenya left her husband, political worker Krymov. She is alien to the views of Krymov, who approved of dispossession, knowing about the terrible famine in the villages, justified the arrests of 1937. She reciprocates Novikov, but warns him that if Krymov is arrested, he will return to his ex-husband.
Military surgeon Sofya Osipovna Levinton, arrested on the outskirts of Stalingrad, ends up in a German concentration camp. The Jews are being transported somewhere in freight cars, and Sofya Osipovna is surprised to see how in just a few days many people go from a person to "dirty and unhappy, cattle deprived of name and freedom." Rebekah Buchman, trying to escape from the raid, strangled her crying daughter.
On the way, Sofya Osipovna meets six-year-old David, who, just before the war, came from Moscow for a vacation with his grandmother. Sofya Osipovna becomes the only support for a vulnerable, impressionable child. She has maternal feelings for him. Until the last minute, Sofya Osipovna calms the boy, reassures him. They die together in the gas chamber.
Krymov receives an order to go to Stalingrad, to the surrounded house "six fractions one", where the people of Grekov's "manager" hold the defense. Reports reached the political department of the front that Grekov was refusing to write reports, was having anti-Stalinist conversations with the fighters and, under German bullets, was showing independence from his superiors. Krymov must restore Bolshevik order in the surrounded house and, if necessary, remove Grekov from command.
Shortly before the appearance of Krymov, the “house manager” Grekov sent the fighter Serezha Shaposhnikov and the young radio operator Katya Vengrova from the surrounded house, knowing about their love and wanting to save them from death. Saying goodbye to Grekov, Seryozha "saw that beautiful, humane, intelligent and sad eyes were looking at him, which he had never seen in his life."
But the Bolshevik commissar Krymov is only interested in collecting dirt on the "uncontrollable" Grekov. Krymov revels in the consciousness of his significance, tries to convict Grekov of anti-Soviet sentiments. Even the mortal danger to which the defenders of the house are exposed every minute does not cool his ardor. Krymov decides to remove Grekov and take command himself. But at night he is wounded by a stray bullet. Krymov guesses that Grekov shot. Returning to the political department, he writes a denunciation of Grekov, but soon finds out that he was late: all the defenders of the house "six fraction one" died. Because of the Krymov denunciation, Grekov is not awarded the posthumous title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the German concentration camp where Mostovskoy is sitting, an underground organization is being created. But there is no unity among the prisoners: Brigadier Commissar Osipov does not trust the non-party major Yershov, who comes from a family of dispossessed kulaks. He is afraid that the brave, direct and decent Ershov will gain too much influence. Abandoned from Moscow to the camp, Comrade Kotikov gives instructions - to act by Stalin's methods. The Communists decide to get rid of Yershov and put his card in the group selected for Buchenwald. Despite his spiritual closeness to Yershov, the old communist Mostovskoy submits to this decision. An unknown provocateur betrays an underground organization, and the Gestapo destroys its members.
The institute where Shtrum works is returning from evacuation to Moscow. Strum is writing a paper on nuclear physics that is of general interest. A well-known academician says at the scientific council that a work of such significance has not yet been born within the walls of the Physics Institute. The work was nominated for the Stalin Prize, Shtrum is on the wave of success, this pleases and excites him. But at the same time, Strum notices that Jews are gradually surviving from his laboratory. When he tries to stand up for his employees, he is given to understand that his own position is not too reliable due to the “fifth point” and numerous relatives abroad.
Sometimes Shtrum meets with Maria Ivanovna Sokolova and soon realizes that he loves her and is loved by her. But Marya Ivanovna cannot hide her love from her husband, and he takes her word not to see Shtrum. Just at this time, the persecution of Shtrum began.
A few days before the Stalingrad offensive, Krymov was arrested and sent to Moscow. Once in a prison cell on Lubyanka, he cannot recover from surprise: interrogations and torture are intended to prove his betrayal of his homeland during the Battle of Stalingrad.
In the Battle of Stalingrad, the tank corps of General Novikov is distinguished.
In the days of the Stalingrad offensive, the persecution of Shtrum intensifies. A devastating article appears in the institute's newspaper, he is persuaded to write a letter of repentance, to confess his mistakes at the academic council. Strum gathers all his will and refuses to repent, he does not even come to the meeting of the academic council. His family supports him and, in anticipation of his arrest, is ready to share his fate. On this day, as always in difficult moments of his life, Maria Ivanovna calls Shtrum and says that she is proud of him and yearns for him. Shtrum is not arrested, but only fired from his job. He is isolated, friends stop seeing him.
But in an instant the situation changes. Theoretical work on nuclear physics attracted the attention of Stalin. He calls Strum and asks if the outstanding scientist is lacking in anything. Shtrum is immediately reinstated at the institute, and all conditions for work are created for him. Now he himself determines the composition of his laboratory, without regard to the nationality of the employees. But when it begins to seem to Shtrum that he has come out of the black streak of his life, he again faces a choice. He is required to sign an appeal to British scientists who defended their repressed Soviet colleagues. Leading Soviet scientists, to whom Shtrum is now included, must confirm by the strength of their scientific authority that there are no repressions in the USSR. Strum does not find the strength to refuse and signs the appeal. The most terrible punishment for him is the call of Marya Ivanovna: she is sure that Shtrum did not sign the letter, and admires his courage ...
Zhenya Shaposhnikova arrives in Moscow after learning about Krymov's arrest. She stands in all the lines in which the wives of the repressed stand, and a sense of duty towards her ex-husband fights in her soul with love for Novikov. Novikov learns of her decision to return to Krymov during the Battle of Stalingrad. He thinks he will fall dead. But we must live and continue the offensive.
After being tortured, Krymov lies on the floor in the Lubyanka office and hears the conversation of his executioners about the victory at Stalingrad. It seems to him that he sees Grekov walking towards him on the broken bricks of Stalingrad. The interrogation continues, Krymov refuses to sign the charge. Returning to the cell, he finds a transmission from Zhenya and cries.
The Stalingrad winter is coming to an end. In the spring silence of the forest one hears the cry for the dead and the furious joy of life.
Communist Mikhail Mostovsky was taken prisoner near Stalingrad. He ends up in a concentration camp for prisoners of war in West Germany. There he develops different relationships with other prisoners - friendship is struck up with someone, in someone he finds an opponent for disputes and reflections, in someone he is a like-minded person, and in someone he is an implacable enemy.
In the army of Chuikov, who was fighting near Stalingrad, a conflict arose between the commissar of the rifle regiment and the commander. The political worker Krymov was sent to investigate this case. However, upon arrival, Krymov learns that both the commissar and the commander were killed in the bombing. A fight breaks out at night, and Krymov is forced to take part in it.
The Moscow Institute, where Viktor Pavlovich Shtrum, a physicist, works, was evacuated to Kazan. Together with the scientist, his family is in the evacuation. The wife of Viktor Pavlovich - Lyudmila - is a woman with a difficult character. Mother-in-law - Alexandra Vladimirovna - despite her age and the hardships of the war, she retained her ardor of soul, love of life and energy. Even in the evacuation, she continues to be interested and delighted by everything around - the city in which she has to live, its history, life and relationships of people. But her daughter Lyudmila does not share her mother's mood. She believes that in such a difficult time, you need to give all your strength to help the family survive, and not waste time. Lyudmila thinks that "mother in her old age has gone out of her mind." The daughter of Viktor Pavlovich Nadya, who inherited the character and disposition of her mother, is irreconcilable and categorical. Lyudmila is worried not only for her high school daughter, but also for her son from her first marriage, Tolya, who is at the front, and from whom she has no news.
Viktor Pavlovich himself is worried about his mother Anna Semyonovna, who, due to the tough temper of her wife Lyudmila, did not get along with them in Moscow and lives in a small Ukrainian town. Now the town is occupied by the Germans, and Shtrum understands what a tragic fate awaits his Jewish mother.
Lyudmila Shtrum's sister, Zhenya Shaposhnikova, was evacuated to Kuibyshev. Her son Seryozha is somewhere at the front. With her ex-husband, Krymov, Lyudmila broke up due to a difference in beliefs. Krymov, an ardent supporter of Stalin's methods, considers famine and pestilence in the villages in connection with dispossession and mass arrests of objectionable people to be expedient, and Zhenya categorically did not accept his views.
One day, Shtrum receives a letter from her mother, who writes about how she lived in the occupied city, where she lived and worked as a doctor for many years. Anna Semyonovna told what changes and hardships had brought to the souls of people she had known for so many years. Some people were very disappointed - a neighbor put her out on the street without explanation, old acquaintances stopped talking and saying hello. Someone pleasantly surprised - she received unexpected help from a person whom she considered unpleasant and gloomy. He brought her food to the ghetto where she was. Knowing that she would soon die, she gave him this last letter for her son.
Lyudmila is forced to urgently go to Saratov. From there, she received the news that her seriously wounded son Tolya was in the hospital. But when she arrived, she learned that Tolya had died. The grief of a mother who has lost her son is immeasurable.
General Novikov, commander of a tank corps, is a fair, honest and humane man. He does everything in his power to shorten the senseless deaths of his soldiers. However, even such a person has ill-wishers. This is the commissar of the Hetman tank corps. Previously, Getmanov was the secretary of the regional committee in one of the regions of Ukraine. Such work is associated with denunciation, hypocrisy, fear. Therefore, it is not considered shameful for Getmanov to openly admire Novikov and write denunciations against him at the same time.
Novikov comes to Kuibyshev to visit Zhenya Shaposhnikova, whom he loves. Zhenya is also not indifferent to him, but explains to him that if her ex-husband Krymov is arrested, her conscience will not allow her to leave him in trouble.
A difficult fate has developed for the military surgeon Sofya Osipovna Levinton. She was arrested near Stalingrad and sent to a concentration camp. She, and other prisoners, are being transported in boxcars to an unknown destination. On the way, she watches the people around her and sees how quickly fear, hunger and despair break people, sometimes turning them into animals. At the same time, one does not lose courage, humanity and self-control. Sofya Osipovna herself became the only close person for the lost boy David, surrounds him with maternal care and love. Even in the gas chamber, they were each other's only consolation.
In the besieged Stalingrad, in the house “six fractions one”, a detachment of fighters under the command of Grekov is holding the defense. The political administration of the front receives a signal that this Grekov is not following the orders of the command, refuses to write reports and "carries on anti-Soviet conversations" with the fighters. To restore order in the unit, political worker Krymov was sent there. His task is to collect dirt on Grekov, convict him of anti-Soviet propaganda and remove him from command of the detachment. Krymov enthusiastically takes up this matter. Neither the dedication of the defenders of the house and its commander, nor the fact that Serezha Shaposhnikov was saved by Grekov on the eve of Krymov's arrival, does not stop the political worker. But one night an incident occurs. Krymov is wounded and concludes that it was Grekov's revenge. Returning to the political department, Krymov writes a denunciation of Grekov. But it so happened that by this time the entire detachment defending the house had died in battle. For the courage shown during the defense of the city, Grekov was supposed to become a Hero of the Soviet Union, but due to Krymov's denunciation, the title was not awarded.
Meanwhile, an underground organization has been set up in a German concentration camp for prisoners of war. It also includes Mostovskoy. However, a split occurred in it: some of its members, such as brigade commissar Osipov, do not trust the non-party major Yershov, a direct, courageous, strong-willed, decent man, but with a stain on his biography - he is from a family of dispossessed kulaks. Osipov does not like that Ershov has too much authority among the prisoners. With the support of Kotikov, abandoned from the Soviet rear, it was decided to get rid of Ershov. Ershov is sympathetic to Mostovsky, he shares his views and beliefs. But all the same, he could not resist the majority when a provocation was carried out against Ershov - his card was planted in a bundle of documents of those prisoners who were scheduled to be sent to Buchenwald. But a provocateur wound up in the group, who betrayed the organization of the underground, and they were all destroyed by the German punitive detachment.
Meanwhile, Shtrum, together with the institute, returns to Moscow, where his scientific work on nuclear physics was presented at the scientific council. The work aroused general interest. For his contribution to Soviet science, Viktor Pavlovich was nominated for the Stalin Prize. At the same time, the times came when the persecution of Jews began in the country. The institute where Shtrum works did not escape the purge either. He is trying to protect the persecuted, but it turns out that, despite his current glory, he, too, can suffer the same fate.
For many years, Lyudmila's friend, Marya Ivanovna Sokolova, entered the house of the Shtrums. Her husband is a friend and collaborator of Shtrum. Over time, a tender friendship develops between Viktor Pavlovich and Marya Ivanovna, which grew into love. But she could not hide her feelings from her husband, who forbids her from seeing Shtrum.
At the same time, Viktor Pavlovich was also persecuted. An article was published in the institute's newspaper, in which a stream of accusations and reproaches pours on Shtrum. He is required to publicly repent at the academic council and admit his mistakes, but Viktor Pavlovich himself categorically refuses, not admitting any guilt. He is well aware of what it could cost him - he is awaiting arrest. The family supports him during this difficult period in his life and is ready to accept the same fate. He also receives words of encouragement and support from Marya Ivanovna. However, there was no arrest, but Shtrum was fired from his job. All friends and acquaintances renounce him.
But one day Shtrum's scientific work falls on the table to Stalin, and he becomes interested in it. On his instructions, Shtrum was reinstated at the institute, he is provided with all the conditions for fruitful work, he is allowed to form the staff of his laboratory himself. He became one of the country's leading scientists.
However, soon life again confronts him with a choice. British scientists spoke out against the repression of their Soviet colleagues. And Viktor Pavlovich is forced to sign a letter in which he, along with other Soviet scientists, must confirm that there are no persecutions and repressions in the Soviet Union. Despite the fact that he himself was once subjected to harassment, Shtrum could not refuse and signed. Marya Ivanovna, who did not doubt that Shtrum had not signed the letter, called him and expressed admiration for his steadfastness and courage. Unjustified idealization in the eyes of the beloved woman became the pain and punishment of Viktor Pavlovich.
Krymov is arrested and charged with treason. He ends up in the Lubyanka dungeons. There, under torture, confessions are required from him. However, Krymov himself was simply morally destroyed by this unexpectedness: he did not imagine that this could happen to him, an honest, principled communist.
Zhenya Shaposhnikova learns about Krymov's arrest and arrives in Moscow. True to her sense of duty, responsible and sympathetic, along with other wives and relatives of those arrested, she stands in line at the Lyubyanka prison so that Krymov receives parcels. Her feelings are in turmoil: she sincerely loves Novikov, but on the other hand, she must support her ex-husband in his trouble.
The news that Zhenya returned to her husband finds Novikov during the Battle of Stalingrad, in which his corps heroically showed itself. This news knocked Novikov down, but he pulled himself together to continue the battle.
Krymov receives the news of the victory at Stalingrad, lying almost unconscious on the floor of the Lyubyanka office during interrogation - his tormentors discussed it among themselves. Krymov does not give up and refuses to sign the accusatory protocols. He is returned to the cell, where he is waiting for a transfer from Zhenya. Krymov is surprised that, despite their personal rejections, Zhenya did not leave him and supports him. He reflects on his life and rethinks a lot in it, realizing how many mistakes he made in life.
Thus ended the winter of 1943 - a turning point, tragic and decisive milestone in the Great Patriotic War.
The summary of the novel "Life and Fate" was retold by Osipova A.S.
Please note that this is only a summary of the literary work "Life and Fate". This summary omits many important points and quotations.
There was fog above the ground. Headlights gleamed from the high-voltage wires that ran along the highway.
There was no rain, but the ground became damp at dawn, and when the prohibition traffic light flashed, a reddish blur appeared on the wet pavement. The breath of the camp was felt for many kilometers - wires, highways and railways stretched towards it, all thickening. It was a space filled with straight lines, a space of rectangles and parallelograms that cut through the earth, the autumn sky, the fog.
The distant sirens wailed long and softly.
The highway pressed against the railroad, and the column of motor vehicles loaded with paper bags with cement walked for some time almost at the same speed as the infinitely long train of goods. The drivers in military overcoats did not look back at the wagons passing by, at the pale spots of human faces.
The camp fence came out of the fog - rows of wire stretched between reinforced concrete pillars. The barracks stretched out, forming wide, straight streets. Their monotony expressed the inhumanity of the huge camp.
In a large million Russian village huts, there are not and cannot be two indistinguishably similar. All living things are unique. The identity of two people, two bushes of wild roses is inconceivable... Life stalls where violence seeks to erase its originality and peculiarities.
The attentive and careless eye of the gray-haired machinist followed the flickering of concrete columns, high masts with rotating searchlights, concrete towers, where a guard could be seen in a glass lantern at a machine gun turret. The engineer blinked at his assistant, and the locomotive gave a warning signal. A booth lit by electricity flashed by, a queue of cars at the lowered striped barrier, the bullish red eye of a traffic light.
From a distance, the horns of a train coming towards us could be heard. The driver said to the assistant:
The empty train, rumbling, met the echelon going to the camp, the torn air crackled, the gray gaps between the cars blinked, suddenly again the space and the autumn morning light united from torn rags into a measuredly running canvas.
The driver's assistant took out a pocket mirror and looked at his stained cheek. The machinist, with a wave of his hand, asked him for a mirror.
“Ah, Genosse Apfel, believe me, we could return for dinner, and not at four in the morning, exhausting our strength, if not for this disinfection of the cars. And as if disinfection cannot be carried out at our site.
The old man was tired of the eternal conversation about disinfection.
“Let’s take a long one,” he said, “we are not being served to the reserve, but straight to the main unloading platform.
In the German camp, Mikhail Sidorovich Mostovsky, for the first time after the Second Congress of the Comintern, had to seriously apply his knowledge of foreign languages. Before the war, living in Leningrad, he rarely had to talk to foreigners. He now remembered the years of the London and Swiss emigration, there, in the partnership of revolutionaries, they spoke, argued, sang in many languages of Europe.
A bunk neighbor, the Italian priest Gardi, told Mostovsky that people of fifty-six nationalities lived in the camp.
Fate, complexion, clothing, the shuffling of steps, the general soup of swede and artificial sago, which the Russian prisoners called "fisheye" - all this was the same among tens of thousands of inhabitants of the camp barracks.
For the authorities, people in the camp were distinguished by the numbers and color of the fabric strip sewn to the jacket: red for political, black for saboteurs, green for thieves and murderers.
People did not understand each other in their diversity of languages, but they were connected by one fate. Connoisseurs of molecular physics and ancient manuscripts lay on their bunk beds next to Italian peasants and Croatian shepherds who could not sign their names. The one who once ordered breakfast to the cook and disturbed the housekeeper with his poor appetite, and the one who ate salted cod, walked side by side to work, clattering with wooden soles, and looked with anguish to see if the Kostträger - the porters of the cistern, the "bone-burners" were coming, as they were called the Russian inhabitants of the blocks.
In the fate of the camp people, similarity was born out of difference. Whether the vision of the past was connected with a garden by a dusty Italian road, with the gloomy rumble of the North Sea, or with an orange paper lampshade in the house of the commanding staff on the outskirts of Bobruisk, every prisoner had a beautiful past.
The harder a person's pre-camp life was, the more zealously he lied. This lie did not serve practical purposes, it served the glorification of freedom: a person outside the camp cannot be unhappy ...
This camp before the war was called a camp for political criminals.
A new type of political prisoner arose, created by National Socialism - criminals who did not commit crimes.
Many prisoners ended up in the camp for making critical remarks about the Hitler regime in conversations with friends, for a political anecdote. They did not distribute leaflets, did not participate in underground parties. They were accused of being able to do all this.
The imprisonment of prisoners of war in a political concentration camp during the war was also an innovation of fascism. There were British and American pilots shot down over German territory and commanders and commissars of the Red Army who were of interest to the Gestapo. They were required to provide information, cooperation, consultations, signatures under all kinds of declarations.
There were saboteurs in the camp - truants who tried to arbitrarily leave work at military factories and construction sites. The imprisonment of workers in concentration camps for poor performance was also an acquisition of National Socialism.
In the camp there were people with lilac flaps on their jackets - German emigrants who had left Nazi Germany. And this was the innovation of fascism - whoever left Germany, no matter how loyal he behaved abroad, became a political enemy.
People with green stripes on their jackets - thieves and burglars - were a privileged part of the political camp; The commandant's office relied on them to supervise the political ones.
The power of the criminal over the political prisoner also showed the innovation of National Socialism.
In the camp there were people of such a peculiar fate that no patchwork color was invented that would correspond to such a fate. But the Indian, the snake charmer, the Persian, who came from Tehran to study German painting, the Chinese, the student of physics, National Socialism prepared a place on the bunk, a pot of gruel and twelve hours of work on the plantage.
Day and night there was a movement of echelons to the death camps, to the concentration camps. The sound of wheels, the roar of locomotives, the rumble of the boots of hundreds of thousands of campers going to work with five-digit blue numbers sewn to their clothes were in the air. The camps became the cities of New Europe. They grew and expanded with their layout, with their lanes and squares, hospitals, with their flea markets, crematoria and stadiums.
How naive and even good-naturedly patriarchal the ancient prisons that huddled on the outskirts of the city seemed in comparison with these camp cities, compared with the crimson-black, maddening glow over the cremation ovens.
It seemed that in order to control the mass of the repressed, huge, also almost million-strong armies of overseers and overseers were needed. But it wasn't. For weeks, there were no people in the SS uniform inside the barracks! The prisoners themselves took over police protection in the camp towns. The prisoners themselves monitored the internal routine in the barracks, made sure that only rotten and frozen potatoes went into their boilers, and large, good potatoes were sorted for shipment to army food bases.
