Life and Fate Read Along, Part 3 Chapter 15

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 15 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.

The offensive at Stalingrad has bolstered the Soviet defensive capabilities and the moral of the troops—the more important of the two.

The Soviet forces seem to move according to an unwritten but completely understood plan: “It is precisely this sense of fusion between the individual and the mass which engenders the morale that leads to victory,” (p. 656). Though many issues still exist between the individual and the state in Soviet society, on the battlefield all layers of society merge into one. And while Soviet troops will find many more months of fighting ahead of them, this moment has changed the tide of the war.