The liberal tradition is weak in Russia. But I recently came across one of the most inspiring statements of the liberal ideal that I have ever read, in the work of a great Russian novelist, Vasily Grossman. At a time when both the right and left are increasingly obsessed by group rights, Grossman’s argument for the primacy of the individual still feels vital and urgent, 60 years after it was written.
If you have never read Grossman’s Life and Fate, you should. The book, set in Russia and eastern Europe at the time of the battle of Stalingrad during the second world war, was completed in 1960. But it was suppressed by Soviet functionaries, alarmed by its unsparing depiction of Stalinism. Grossman’s magnum opus only appeared in 1980, 16 years after his death, and its reputation has been growing ever since.
The frequent comparisons between Life and Fate and Tolstoy’s War and Peace are apt. The novels are similar in scale and subject matter; and in the way in which fictional characters mingle on the page with historical figures such as Stalin and Napoleon. Both Grossman and Tolstoy also combine their storytelling with broader philosophical thoughts.