It is a long, deep and well-documented book about a revolutionary writer who wanted to tell the truth about the Soviet state and how far it was from the ideals of freedom and defense of human rights.
The core idea in Grossman's thinking is the connection between the crimes and horror perpetrated by both Nazism and Soviet communism. Hitler's intentions in the occupied territories were similar to those of Stalin: to seize supplies to feed one's own army and leave the local population in conditions of slavery, as well as to introduce brutal repressive measures. In "Life and Fate", his seminal book, he compares the two regimes. The book was banned, first by Stalin and then by Khrushchev. Under Gorbachev, in 1988, his works were disseminated in Russia and were very successful.
This essay analyzes in detail Grossman's career over more than half a century (his active life coincides with Stalin's dictatorship). His testimony is vital to know the truth of Soviet totalitarianism and its anti-Semitism.
Grossman, from a non-religious Jewish family (he was born in 1905 in Berdichev, Ukraine), studied and worked as a chemist although he soon decided to devote himself only to literature; he had a vast culture. He was deluded by the ideals of the 1917 revolution which he believed possible. Although he was aware of Stalin's crimes, it took him two decades to react. During those years he lived on literature. His friendship with Gorky also protected him. But with time and repression, Grossman's life was in danger.
He was a foreign correspondent during the Second World War; his chronicles of the war (full of daily details; he presented the soldiers individually, by their professions) brought him much fame. His report "The Hell of Treblinka" is at once a work of journalism, a historical and philosophical essay, and a requiem for the dead that was used as evidence in the Nuremberg trial.
In the face of the barbarism of Hitler and Stalin, Grossman's humanism appears, for another of his fundamental messages is that the war had not succeeded in destroying people's humanity. He did not lose faith in the human race ("I know that no force in the world can change human nature) and in its values: freedom; life, tenderness, motherhood, friendship, the beauty of art. She believed that the change towards freedom and democracy in Russia would have to come from within.
Alejandra Popoff is a Moscow-based journalist, an expert in Russian literature and cultural history, who taught at the University of Saskatchewan and contributed to several newspapers. She is the author of several literary biographies, including the award-winning Sophia Tolstoy (2011) and others. She currently lives in Canada.