Life and Fate Read Along, Part 2 Chapter 7

This post, covering Part 2, Chapter 7 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.

With the German advance temporarily stalled in Stalingrad and Viktor’s Institute group on the verge of a theoretical breakthrough, the group starts packing up their things to return to Moscow.

As he scans the room and sees everyone at the Institute, he thinks: “Remembering Savostyanov’s argument with Sokolov and his own recent conversation with him, Viktor said to himself: ‘Well, I may understand something about the forces within the atom, but I really don't have a clue about human beings,’” (p. 359). The growing chasm between Viktor’s work and personal life doesn’t seem to concern him at the moment, but should it?