Russian Epic Novels of the Soviet Period

Vasily Grossman and the myths of the Great Patriotic War

“…The influence of Grossman's Jewish identity has been discussed (Markish, 1986), as has his relationship to other Soviet Jewish authors (Clark, 2009;Murav, 2008). Life and Fate, in particular, has also been read as an exemplar of Russian epic novels of the Soviet period (Clark, 2011), and compared to Leo Tolstoy's…”

“…The influence of Grossman’s Jewish identity has been discussed (Markish, 1986), as has his relationship to other Soviet Jewish authors (Clark, 2009; Murav, 2008). Life and Fate , in particular, has also been read as an exemplar of Russian epic novels of the Soviet period (Clark, 2011), and compared to Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (Hellbeck, 2007). Overall, Grossman’s writing has provided fertile material both for Russianists and for a much wider interdisciplinary community of scholars (Maddalena and Tosco, 2007; Tosco, 2011).…”