Life and Fate Read Along, Part 2 Chapter 21

This post, covering Part 2, Chapter 21 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 greet Byerozkin as he works, barricaded in his quarters, on one of the few operational telephones. The Regimental HQ buzzes around him as he continues to work despite his apparent illness.

A sense of dread and anxiety envelops the scene. All around, everyone is waiting for the full strength of the German attack to be unveiled. It disturbs everyone down “to the commander of the infantry platoon who, to celebrate his birthday, had been drinking vodka all day beside the chimney of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory,” (p. 430).