Life and Fate Read Along, Part 2 Chapter 24

This post, covering Part 2, Chapter 24 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.

Finally, the Shaposhnikovs return to Moscow. It isn’t as grand as they recall after the city has spent months largely vacant. The wonderful kernel of freedom that emerged in evacuation seems to have retreated behind the walls of the unkempt city.

Despite the general air of optimism present in the beginning of the chapter, the narrator quickly notes that “There was no obvious sign that the war had reached a turning-point. Nevertheless, everyone wanted to return to Moscow. It seemed right and natural - as did the Government’s decision to send back various institutions that had been evacuated,” (p. 441). A general feeling has emerged that people should move back to the capital, and so they do.