This post, covering Part 1, Chapter 56, 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 we follow a conversation between Krymov and General Guryev—ironically one of the most tense conversations we’ve witnessed so far.

Guryev begins by criticizing newspaper writers who write from the other side of the bank, saying that “Those sons of bitches never see any action themselves. They just sit on the other side of the Volga and write their articles. If someone gives them a good dinner, then they write about him,” (p. 239). He seems to point to their willingness to pick and choose facts because they haven’t actually experienced any combat action themselves.