110 Bettina Kaibach
and completely untrammeled by ideological considerations. (The same is true
with respect to his treatment of the Shoah. Here, too, Grossman anticipated
thoughts that in a much tamer form and far more cautiously were later to be
articulated in Evgenii Evtushenko’s controversial poem on the Babii Iar massacre, and here, too, Grossman took a stance that transcended not just Soviet,
but any ideology.) 12
Vasilii Grossman’s writings on nuclear technology and nuclear war
raise the interesting question of the relationship between the authorities and the critical intelligentsia in the Soviet Union. The late 1950s
marked the beginning of an unofficial sphere, with writers and artists who
consciously stayed at the periphery and preferred to work outside of the
state-sanctioned cultural institutions. 13 Yet Grossman was by no means
an “unofficial” writer. Until the banning of Life and Fate, he had been
a literary celebrity, despite repeated attacks from the authorities. He did
not write for the drawer but intended to publish his works in the Soviet
Union, and even after the confiscation of Life and Fate never seriously
considered publication abroad. Grossman’s reflections on the nuclear
theme did thus not take place in a hermetically sealed sphere. His writings were read and dismissed by censors not always unsympathetic to his
thoughts, who had to weigh their options against the party line, and they
were taken notice of, if not read, by the highest authorities: when Life and
Fate was banned, Grossman appealed directly to Nikita Khrushchev for a
revision of the ruling. The domain, where in the privacy of his desk and
in private conversations Vasilii Grossman developed his uncompromising thought on nuclear issues, and that of the highest echelons of power
were thus to some degree interpermeable. Given this fact, one may ask
to what extent a writer like Grossman could have had an impact on the
emergence of certain themes in the literature of the Thaw. Did he pick
up on ideas that were already in the air and think them through with a
subversive consistency unforeseen and unwelcomed by the authorities?
Or did Grossman’s writings on nuclear technology function as some kind
of catalyst that prompted those in charge to extend a certain leeway to
writers to incorporate his ideas into their own work in a manner deemed
politically innocuous?
The first part of this chapter discusses the treatment of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the nuclear threat in official Soviet literature from the
1940s to the 1960s. The second part shows how in his story Abel (August 6th),
Grossman presents the bombing of Hiroshima from a perspective that
runs counter to the official stance and to some degree anticipates Günther
Anders’ Theses of the Nuclear Age. The third part discusses the topic of nuclear
technology in Grossman’s essay The Sistine Madonna and his novel Life and
Fate. It will be shown how in both texts the danger of nuclear warfare is
debated within the context of Grossman’s experience of both the Stalinist
crimes and the Shoah as well as his confrontation with anti-Semitism in the
Soviet Union.
and completely untrammeled by ideological considerations. (The same is true
with respect to his treatment of the Shoah. Here, too, Grossman anticipated
thoughts that in a much tamer form and far more cautiously were later to be
articulated in Evgenii Evtushenko’s controversial poem on the Babii Iar massacre, and here, too, Grossman took a stance that transcended not just Soviet,
but any ideology.) 12
Vasilii Grossman’s writings on nuclear technology and nuclear war
raise the interesting question of the relationship between the authorities and the critical intelligentsia in the Soviet Union. The late 1950s
marked the beginning of an unofficial sphere, with writers and artists who
consciously stayed at the periphery and preferred to work outside of the
state-sanctioned cultural institutions. 13 Yet Grossman was by no means
an “unofficial” writer. Until the banning of Life and Fate, he had been
a literary celebrity, despite repeated attacks from the authorities. He did
not write for the drawer but intended to publish his works in the Soviet
Union, and even after the confiscation of Life and Fate never seriously
considered publication abroad. Grossman’s reflections on the nuclear
theme did thus not take place in a hermetically sealed sphere. His writings were read and dismissed by censors not always unsympathetic to his
thoughts, who had to weigh their options against the party line, and they
were taken notice of, if not read, by the highest authorities: when Life and
Fate was banned, Grossman appealed directly to Nikita Khrushchev for a
revision of the ruling. The domain, where in the privacy of his desk and
in private conversations Vasilii Grossman developed his uncompromising thought on nuclear issues, and that of the highest echelons of power
were thus to some degree interpermeable. Given this fact, one may ask
to what extent a writer like Grossman could have had an impact on the
emergence of certain themes in the literature of the Thaw. Did he pick
up on ideas that were already in the air and think them through with a
subversive consistency unforeseen and unwelcomed by the authorities?
Or did Grossman’s writings on nuclear technology function as some kind
of catalyst that prompted those in charge to extend a certain leeway to
writers to incorporate his ideas into their own work in a manner deemed
politically innocuous?
The first part of this chapter discusses the treatment of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the nuclear threat in official Soviet literature from the
1940s to the 1960s. The second part shows how in his story Abel (August 6th),
Grossman presents the bombing of Hiroshima from a perspective that
runs counter to the official stance and to some degree anticipates Günther
Anders’ Theses of the Nuclear Age. The third part discusses the topic of nuclear
technology in Grossman’s essay The Sistine Madonna and his novel Life and
Fate. It will be shown how in both texts the danger of nuclear warfare is
debated within the context of Grossman’s experience of both the Stalinist
crimes and the Shoah as well as his confrontation with anti-Semitism in the
Soviet Union.