first Russian-language publication of Grossman's 'Life and Fate'

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

7 August 06

Dear Robert, and other colleagues,

It is indeed curious that it took such a long time for Vasilii 
Grossman's _Zhizn' i sud'ba_ to find a publisher.  Neither I nor my 
students found the novel "dull," and indeed some of the most interesting 
class discussions I can remember from my teaching days centered around 
that novel.  Students were at least as excited about it as they were 
about Solzhenitsyn's works.

I doubt, however, that Carl Proffer himself held any negative feelings 
toward Jews in general or Grossman in particular, and we do know that 
Ardis published the works of Jewish writers, or writers with some Jewish 
background (Mandelshtam, Babel, Pasternak, Aksenov, Voinovich, and so 
on).  I suspect that Carl was just relying on his readers in this case.  
>From my own experience I know that he relied on his readers' expertise 
(others may have had different experiences).  I can also say that Carl 
was a very decent man.

It is true that hostility toward Grossman was expressed both by emigres 
and by Soviets, and that Russian chauvinist sentiments played a role.  
One of his attackers, Igor' Shafarevich, is a known anti-Semite.  When 
"Vse techet" was published  by Anatolii Anan'ev in _Oktiabr'_ in the 
late 1980s, Grossman was accused of "Russophobia," and Anan'ev was fired 
as editor of _Oktiabr'_ (then later reinstated).  In a response printed 
in _Moskovskie novosti_ in 1990, Anan'ev stated: "the phrase about 
Russian soul being a thousand-year-old slave provoked fury.  But if we 
are not slaves, then why have we been submissively standing in lines for 
seventy years, why have we been applauding any dogma that happens to be 
spoken from the rostrum?" (my translation).

Good questions.  Of course the idea of Russian slavishness did not 
originate with Grossman.  He was influenced by Chaadaev, Custine, 
Lermontov, Berdiaev, and others.  And I was influenced by all of them.  
See my book _The Slave Soul of Russia: Moral Masochism and the Cult of 
Suffering_ (New York University Press, 1995).  There is a so-so 
translation into Russian: _Rabskaia dusha Rossii_ (Moskva: 
Art-Biznes-Tsentr, 1996).

I disagree with Maximov's characterization of that passage in Grossman's 
novella as "an openly racist declaration."  It is, instead, a summing up 
of a reality that many Russians and non-Russians alike have recognized.

Regards to the list,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere





Robert Chandler wrote:

>Dear all,
>
>After the microfilms of “Zhizh’ i sud’ba”, reached the West, it took a
>surprisingly long time to find a publisher.  Ardis definitely refused.
>There was an occasion when Voinovich met Carl Proffer and the latter said
>that his reader(s) had read the novel and considered it dull.
>
>I have heard that Russian emigres were hostile to Grossman because he was a
>Jew, and because of the emphasis in the novel on Jewish experience.  In his
>April 1986 article in “ Commentary” Markish writes that  Grossman was
>“ecstatic  about Solzhenitsyn but I more than doubt that S. reciprocates his
>feelings.  And quite recently, Vladimir Maximov, the novelist and editor of
>the Paris-based Russian journal Kontinent, has branded Grossman’s bitter
>thoughts on Russian history (i.e. the passage is VSE TECHET about the “slave
>soul of Russia” -R.C.) “an openly racist declaration”.
>
>Can anyone say more about these issues?
>
>I’ll also be grateful to anyone who names short stories by G. that they
>especially love.  I have made a provisional choice for a possible collection
>in English, but am very much open to suggestions from the SEELANGS
>community!!
>
>Best Wishes,
>
>Robert
>
>
>
>
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