DOI: 10.4324/9781003246893-8
6 The Satanic Cosmic Force
Nuclear Arms Technology
in Soviet Fiction
Bettina Kaibach
On July 23, 1962, Vasilii Grossman was summoned to meet party ideologue
and hardliner Mikhail Suslov, who was to decide on the publication of
Grossman’s epic novel Life and Fate (Zhiznʹ i sudʹba). 1 Suslov’s verdict was
unequivocal: “Why should we add your book to the nuclear bombs that our
enemies are getting ready for us? Its publication will only help our enemies
[…].” 2
Suslov’s comparison of Life and Fate with an intellectual bomb of sorts
that would bolster the US nuclear arsenal not only bespeaks his Cold War
mentality, but it is also highly ironic, when held against Grossman’s own
thoughts on the topic as professed in his novel and elsewhere. Among its
many other provocative ideas, Life and Fate contains a fundamental critique
of nuclearism 3 that precisely transcends the attitude of “if you’re not for us,
you’re against us,” professed by Suslov. 4 In his novel, as well as in some of his
stories, Grossman questions the “nuclear culture” that in the Soviet Union
began to emerge in the immediate postwar years and crystallized into a cult
of the atom that would only subside with the Chernobyl disaster and the
demise of the Soviet Union. 5 His voice was probably the most articulate
and outspokenly critical among the Soviet writers who addressed the nuclear
issue in their writings, and much of Grossman’s thinking coincides with that
of Günther Anders and other prominent critics of nuclearism in the West. Yet
it was a voice that was not heard outside a limited circle of friends and those
who acted as censors of his works.
Vasilii Grossman was a scientist by training and possessed a profound
knowledge and understanding of the developments in nuclear physics. He
was acutely aware of the dangers of nuclear warfare and radiation and, in
1961, planned to meet with Manhattan Project participant turned antinuclear bomb activist Eugene Rabinovitch during the latter’s visit to Moscow. 6
Nuclear physics and the specter of nuclear war figure prominently in several
of Grossman’s works. Viktor Shtrum, the protagonist of the novel dilogy For
the Right Cause and Life and Fate, is a nuclear physicist, who plays an important role in the development of the first Soviet atomic bomb. In the story
Abel (August 6th), (Avelʹ [shestoe avgusta]), Grossman depicts the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima. In the essay The Sistine Madonna (Sikstinskaia Madonna),
6 The Satanic Cosmic Force
Nuclear Arms Technology
in Soviet Fiction
Bettina Kaibach
On July 23, 1962, Vasilii Grossman was summoned to meet party ideologue
and hardliner Mikhail Suslov, who was to decide on the publication of
Grossman’s epic novel Life and Fate (Zhiznʹ i sudʹba). 1 Suslov’s verdict was
unequivocal: “Why should we add your book to the nuclear bombs that our
enemies are getting ready for us? Its publication will only help our enemies
[…].” 2
Suslov’s comparison of Life and Fate with an intellectual bomb of sorts
that would bolster the US nuclear arsenal not only bespeaks his Cold War
mentality, but it is also highly ironic, when held against Grossman’s own
thoughts on the topic as professed in his novel and elsewhere. Among its
many other provocative ideas, Life and Fate contains a fundamental critique
of nuclearism 3 that precisely transcends the attitude of “if you’re not for us,
you’re against us,” professed by Suslov. 4 In his novel, as well as in some of his
stories, Grossman questions the “nuclear culture” that in the Soviet Union
began to emerge in the immediate postwar years and crystallized into a cult
of the atom that would only subside with the Chernobyl disaster and the
demise of the Soviet Union. 5 His voice was probably the most articulate
and outspokenly critical among the Soviet writers who addressed the nuclear
issue in their writings, and much of Grossman’s thinking coincides with that
of Günther Anders and other prominent critics of nuclearism in the West. Yet
it was a voice that was not heard outside a limited circle of friends and those
who acted as censors of his works.
Vasilii Grossman was a scientist by training and possessed a profound
knowledge and understanding of the developments in nuclear physics. He
was acutely aware of the dangers of nuclear warfare and radiation and, in
1961, planned to meet with Manhattan Project participant turned antinuclear bomb activist Eugene Rabinovitch during the latter’s visit to Moscow. 6
Nuclear physics and the specter of nuclear war figure prominently in several
of Grossman’s works. Viktor Shtrum, the protagonist of the novel dilogy For
the Right Cause and Life and Fate, is a nuclear physicist, who plays an important role in the development of the first Soviet atomic bomb. In the story
Abel (August 6th), (Avelʹ [shestoe avgusta]), Grossman depicts the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima. In the essay The Sistine Madonna (Sikstinskaia Madonna),