Vasily Grossman

Author profile

born

in Berdychiv, former Russian Empire, Ukraine

December 12, 1905

died

September 14, 1964

gender

male

genre

Historical Fiction, Fiction, History

About this author

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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

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Vasily Grossman's Books

Average rating: 4.35 · 3,150 ratings · 434 reviews · 23 distinct works · Similar authors

	Life And Fate 4.46 of 5 stars 4.46 avg rating — 1,849 ratings — published 1959 — 52 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army by Vasily Grossman, Antony Beevor (Editor), Luba Vinogradova (Translator) 4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 avg rating — 619 ratings — published 2006 — 16 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Forever Flowing by Vasily Grossman, Thomas P. Whitney (Translator) 4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 434 ratings — published 1986 — 22 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Road: Stories, Journalism, and Essays by Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler (Translator), Elizabeth Chandler (Translator) 4.23 of 5 stars 4.23 avg rating — 123 ratings — published 1987 — 7 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler (Introduction) 4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 avg rating — 35 ratings — published 1965 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	L'inferno di Treblinka by Vasily Grossman, Claudia Zonghetti (Translator) 4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1944	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Por una causa justa 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 1952 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	El libro negro by Vasily Grossman, Ilya Eherenburg 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1946 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Il bene sia con voi! by Vasily Grossman, Claudia Zonghetti (Translator) 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1989 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Años de guerra 3.33 of 5 stars 3.33 avg rating — 6 ratings — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Vasily Grossman…

Quotes by Vasily Grossman

“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

27 people liked it

“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

24 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

19 people liked it

See all Vasily Grossman's quotes »

Polls

What book would you like to read in August?

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

15 votes, 27.8%

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

12 votes, 22.2%

Resurrectionby Leo Tolstoy

9 votes, 16.7%

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

5 votes, 9.3%

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

5 votes, 9.3%

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

3 votes, 5.6%

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

3 votes, 5.6%

In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

2 votes, 3.7%

First Love & Other Stories by Ivan Turgenev

0 votes, 0.0%

54 total votes

7 comments

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