The Soviet Ernie Pyle

     Who is Ernie Pyle you ask?  For an entire generation, the generation that came of age during World War II, parents of the baby boomers, Ernie Pyle was "The" war correspondent that all Americans on the home front followed in newspapers across the country.  The beloved little friend of the G.I. was fearless, and escaped death on many occasions as he interviewed soldiers and sailors and airmen on the front lines.  He died in combat during the last days of the war in the last battle on the island of Okinawa.
        The Soviet army had their version of this remarkable writer: Vassily Grossman, a Russian from the Ukraine who could not meet the standards for a soldier, but used his talent as a writer to chronicle the life of the Russian soldier from the September, 1941 Nazi invasion to the fall of Berlin in April/May, 1945.   His columns appeared in the official Russian newspapers throughout the conflict, constantly on the move, following the orders of his editor as the fortunes of war shifted east to west, and north to south.   His family was Jewish, and this carried its own issues, especially if he were to be captured by Nazis.  His mother, who stayed behind in the city that was captured by Nazis, died in one of the death camps in the Ukraine.
      He often moved with the headquarters group, but always took time to speak with the trigger pullers, the 'boots' on the ground.   He was able to convey "the ruthless truth of war', the unspeakable horrors; the nerve shattering experience of urban warfare, and the unconsolable grief of the countless civilians caught up in the grand framework of a world war.
       As a Russian, he not only had to be wary of Germans, but also he had to be wary of his own comrades-those political commissars who traveled with each unit seeking out traitors, deserters, nay sayers, and anti -Stalinists, of which there were many.  On many occasions he was witness to the executions of many found to be one of those types.
      He kept many notebooks which his family was able to conceal until after the fall of the Soviet regime in 1989.   Although Grossman died in 1964, his family was able to keep most of his books together for eventual examination and publication.
      This book manages to fill a void in the Westerners consciousness: that void of knowledge of the actions on the eastern front that began a few months before the attack Pearl Harbor in 1941.  Perhaps other books will follow as Russia emerges from her self imposed isolation efforts.
     Author/historian Anthony Beevor did a fine job of translating the notebooks and editing the material for publication in the USA.   I recommend this history to all readers with an interest in 20 century.  It is a significant chapter, long hidden from view, now seeing the light.  

Title: A Writer at War; author Vassily Grossman(avail. in paperback on Amazon).