This post, covering Part 2, Chapter 37 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.
On the 25th anniversary of the Revolution, the Stalingrad obkom is gathering underground along the left bank of the Volga.
The gathering doesn’t get off to a particularly festive start. Laktionov, one of the soldiers in charge of the barge, informs them that “The first trip we made this morning, comrade Secretary, there was this soldier lying there on the ice. The boys needed pick-axes to get him out - some of them almost got drowned themselves. Look, there he is — on the bank, under that tarpaulin,” (p. 515).
