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AN ARMENIAN SKETCHBOOK BY VASILY GROSSMAN: FAR FROM HIS BELOVED MOSCOW, REFLECTING ON THE BEST AND WORST OF HUMANITY
New Statesman
Sept 12 2013
As he connects with Armenian peasants, we are reminded that this ill,
suffering man, far from home, is one of the great writers of his time.
By David Herman
In February 1961, KGB officers raided Vasily Grossman's apartment.
They were looking for his unpublished novel Life and Fate. They seized
the manuscript, his notes and even the ribbon from his typewriter. But
friends had already taken a copy away. It was smuggled to the west
and is now widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of 20thcentury
literature.
After the raid, Grossman went to Armenia for two months. It is not
altogether clear why. He was in the early stages of cancer and his
marriage was in trouble. He had a commission to translate an Armenian
novel into Russian and presumably he wanted to get away from Moscow.
His account of his time there was published posthumously in 1965 in
censored form. A complete version is now available for the first time
in translation.
An Armenian Sketchbook shows Grossman at the end of his life, far from
his beloved Moscow, reflecting on the best and worst of humanity. One
of the first things that strikes himin Armenia's capital, Yerevan,
is the huge statue of Stalin. "No matter where you are in the city,"
he writes, "you can clearly see the titanic bronze marshal." It is
a monument to "the merciless builder of a great and terrible state".
Grossman was writing during the Khrushchev thaw and he is able to
discuss crimes such as the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust,
but also the Gulag.
He encounters an old Armenian whose father "was buried in Siberia,
nobody knows where". Later, he meets "a sweet, asthmatic old man" who
was sent to a Siberian camp for 19 years. He then relates his aunt's
life story. "Her husband, an economist, was arrested for no reason
in 1937 and died in Kolyma." Her son, Volodya, "was arrested and then
killed in prison by his interrogator". This is the dark background to
Grossman's extraordinary travelogue. He writes beautifully about the
ancient churches and monasteries, the harsh landscapes, the peasant
food. He is fascinated by "the spirit of paganism" that lives on in the
tiny hillside villages, "in drunken songs and stories from the past".
Grossman starts by reflecting on how different everything is. He
reflects on national types. What are Armenians like? He notes how bleak
the landscape appears. Then he goes into a small village hut and sees
a stove and suddenly he realises that this stove is like every other
stove he has seen all over the Soviet Union. He is 3,000 kilometres
from Moscow and yet he is "back in village Russia": "Here in Armenia,
I witnessed the extraordinary steadfastness of the Russian stove,
the Russian hut, the Russian porch . . ."
Then Grossman listens to the peasants and realises how much he has in
common with them as they talk about "love for other people, right and
wrong, good and evil, faith and lack of faith". It is not just that
Grossman the translator and bespectacled Jewish outsider is at home
with these people. He also connects through the values at the heart of
his writing. Here, close to Mount Ararat, are people who believe in the
very things that animate his novels - decency, compassion, humanity.
An Armenian Sketchbook ends with a village wedding. Amid the remote,
"stony desolation", the author feels at home. When a villager proposes
a toast to the Jews killed by the Nazis Grossman is tremendously
moved. The outsider feels that he belongs. As he connects with these
peasants, his writing comes to life and we are reminded that this ill,
suffering man, far from home, is one of the great writers of his time,
and that these values are at the heart of his greatness.
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/09/home-home
New Statesman
Sept 12 2013
As he connects with Armenian peasants, we are reminded that this ill,
suffering man, far from home, is one of the great writers of his time.
By David Herman
In February 1961, KGB officers raided Vasily Grossman's apartment.
They were looking for his unpublished novel Life and Fate. They seized
the manuscript, his notes and even the ribbon from his typewriter. But
friends had already taken a copy away. It was smuggled to the west
and is now widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of 20thcentury
literature.
After the raid, Grossman went to Armenia for two months. It is not
altogether clear why. He was in the early stages of cancer and his
marriage was in trouble. He had a commission to translate an Armenian
novel into Russian and presumably he wanted to get away from Moscow.
His account of his time there was published posthumously in 1965 in
censored form. A complete version is now available for the first time
in translation.
An Armenian Sketchbook shows Grossman at the end of his life, far from
his beloved Moscow, reflecting on the best and worst of humanity. One
of the first things that strikes himin Armenia's capital, Yerevan,
is the huge statue of Stalin. "No matter where you are in the city,"
he writes, "you can clearly see the titanic bronze marshal." It is
a monument to "the merciless builder of a great and terrible state".
Grossman was writing during the Khrushchev thaw and he is able to
discuss crimes such as the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust,
but also the Gulag.
He encounters an old Armenian whose father "was buried in Siberia,
nobody knows where". Later, he meets "a sweet, asthmatic old man" who
was sent to a Siberian camp for 19 years. He then relates his aunt's
life story. "Her husband, an economist, was arrested for no reason
in 1937 and died in Kolyma." Her son, Volodya, "was arrested and then
killed in prison by his interrogator". This is the dark background to
Grossman's extraordinary travelogue. He writes beautifully about the
ancient churches and monasteries, the harsh landscapes, the peasant
food. He is fascinated by "the spirit of paganism" that lives on in the
tiny hillside villages, "in drunken songs and stories from the past".
Grossman starts by reflecting on how different everything is. He
reflects on national types. What are Armenians like? He notes how bleak
the landscape appears. Then he goes into a small village hut and sees
a stove and suddenly he realises that this stove is like every other
stove he has seen all over the Soviet Union. He is 3,000 kilometres
from Moscow and yet he is "back in village Russia": "Here in Armenia,
I witnessed the extraordinary steadfastness of the Russian stove,
the Russian hut, the Russian porch . . ."
Then Grossman listens to the peasants and realises how much he has in
common with them as they talk about "love for other people, right and
wrong, good and evil, faith and lack of faith". It is not just that
Grossman the translator and bespectacled Jewish outsider is at home
with these people. He also connects through the values at the heart of
his writing. Here, close to Mount Ararat, are people who believe in the
very things that animate his novels - decency, compassion, humanity.
An Armenian Sketchbook ends with a village wedding. Amid the remote,
"stony desolation", the author feels at home. When a villager proposes
a toast to the Jews killed by the Nazis Grossman is tremendously
moved. The outsider feels that he belongs. As he connects with these
peasants, his writing comes to life and we are reminded that this ill,
suffering man, far from home, is one of the great writers of his time,
and that these values are at the heart of his greatness.
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/09/home-home