Vasily Grossman

Author profile

born

December 12, 1905 in Berdychiv, former Russian Empire, Ukraine

died

September 14, 1964

gender

male

genre

Historical Fiction, History

About this author

edit data

русс: Василий Гроссман

Born Iosif Solomonovich Grossman into an emancipated Jewish family, he did not receive a traditional Jewish education. A Russian nanny turned his name Yossya into Russian Vasya (a diminutive of Vasily), which was accepted by the whole family. His father had social-democratic convictions and joined the Mensheviks. Young Vasily Grossman idealistically supported the Russian Revolution of 1917.

When the Great Patriotic War broke out in 1941, Grossman's mother was trapped in Berdichev by the invading German army, and eventually murdered together with 20,000 to 30,000 other Jews who did not evacuate Berdychiv. Grossman was exempt from military service, but volunteered for the front, where he spent more than 1,000 days. He bec...more

combine editions
Books by Vasily Grossman

Average rating: 4.39 · 1,461 ratings · 280 reviews · 14 distinct works

	Life and Fate 4.50 avg rating — 884 ratings — published 1959 — 39 editions	My rating:
	A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army by Vasily Grossman, Antony Beevor (Editor), Luba Vinogradova (Translator) 4.20 avg rating — 290 ratings — published 2007 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Forever Flowing by Vasily Grossman, Thomas P. Whitney (Translator) 4.22 avg rating — 214 ratings — published 1986 — 19 editions	My rating:
	The Road by Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler (Translator), Elizabeth Chandler (Translator) 4.34 avg rating — 59 ratings — published 1987 — 7 editions	My rating:
	L'inferno di Treblinka by Vasily Grossman, Claudia Zonghetti (Translator) 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1944	My rating:
	Años de guerra 3.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Por una causa justa 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1952	My rating:
	Tiergarten Erzählungen by Vasily Grossman, Katharina Narbutovic (Übersetzer) 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2009	My rating:
	Il bene sia con voi! by Vasily Grossman, Claudia Zonghetti (Translator) 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	My rating:
	Fosforo by Vasily Grossman, M. A. Curletto (Traduttore) 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	My rating:

More books by Vasily Grossman…

Quotes by Vasily Grossman

“I have seen that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil, but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is the secret of its immortality. It can never by conquered. The more stupid, the more senseless, the more helpless it may seem, the vaster it is. Evil is impotent before it. The prophets, religious teachers, reformers, social and political leaders are impotent before it. This dumb, blind love is man’s meaning. Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil, struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer.”
― Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

12 people liked it

“In the cruel and terrible time in which our generation has been condemned to live on this earth, we must never make peace with evil. We must never become indifferent to others or undemanding of ourselves.”
― Vasily Grossman

11 people liked it

“Good men and bad men alike are capable of weakness. The difference is simply that a bad man will be proud all his life of one good deed - while an honest man is hardly aware of his good acts, but remembers a single sin for years on end.”
― Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

11 people liked it

See all Vasily Grossman's quotes »

Polls

What book would you like to read in August?

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

16 votes, 28.6%

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

12 votes, 21.4%

Resurrectionby Leo Tolstoy

9 votes, 16.1%

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

6 votes, 10.7%

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

5 votes, 8.9%

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

3 votes, 5.4%

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

3 votes, 5.4%

In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

2 votes, 3.6%

First Love & Other Stories by Ivan Turgenev

0 votes, 0.0%

56 total votes

7 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
World War Two Rea...: Winter War book on my blog	14	60	Jun 09, 2010 03:26pm
The Sword and Laser: International authors Sci-fi/Fantasy Books	17	39	Sep 01, 2011 06:34am
Around the World ...: Russia	7	37	Oct 05, 2011 02:53pm
The Book Addicts!: Elizabeth's list for 2011	51	162	Jan 07, 2012 11:34pm
World War Two Rea...: Novels of WW2	34	17	May 19, 2012 07:21pm
The History Book ...: * SECOND WORLD WAR -GENERAL DISCUSSION	608	471	May 23, 2012 11:38am
The History Book ...: * WHAT IS EVERYBODY READING NOW?	1575	1087	May 26, 2012 08:10am

More…