Life and Fate Read Along, Part 1 Chapter 12

This post, covering Part 1, Chapter 12, is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here.

Today in the quiet, contemplative moments of a beard trim and a shave we get further insight into Krymov, a man forgotten by time itself. In these solemn moments between fighting Grossman packs twinges of regret, nostalgic ennui, and glimmers of humor together between the scrapes of a razorblade.

Grossman opines that “Time loves only those it has given birth to itself: its own children, its own heroes, its own labourers. Never can it come to love the children of a past age…” (p. 51). Krymov belongs to the Old Bolsheviks, an informal faction of Bolsheviks that started fighting for the Party before the Revolution. Most of the remaining Old Bolsheviks were removed from power by Stalin in the 30s and purged shortly thereafter.