Romanzo a puntate - puntata 1

"Life and fate"

Living as men

Property of Museum Victoria 

“Vita e Destino” è un romanzo che racconta una verità attraverso le vite e i destini di diversi personaggi che in un qualche modo, anche un po’ difficile, si intrecciano tra di loro.

 

“Life and Fate” is a novel which tells a truth through lives and destinies of different characters, which in some way intertwine with each other and in some cases with a bit of difficulties along the way.



Although it holds invented characters, it tells about such a true reality, that it has even managed to create scandal in the government under which this book was written and in which the lives of the people described are narrated: the great and powerful Soviet Union. Its reputation caused for the manuscript to be confined, until, surprisingly, it managed to “escape” from Russia and to be published in the western world in 1980 posthumously to the author, Vasilij Grossman, who died a few years after finishing the novel.

 

The narrative takes place during the Battle of Stalingrad, the most important clash between the two most fearsome ideologies of the last century: German National Socialism and Russian Communism, which then ended with Russian victory,… the triumph of democracy. (See text: chapter 1 and 2)

 

Il romanzo racconta di uomini che vivono e accettano questi poteri forti, perchè credono all’idea di un bene più grande, superiore, che mostrano loro attraverso l’ideologia e la visione di un mondo fittizio, in cui qualsiasi cosa risulta essere giustificata in vista di questo bene, anche a costo che venga tolta loro la libertà e la dignità di essere uomini. Ma qualcosa stride, le vicende portano queste persone ad interrogarsi sulla loro vita, su quello che succede. Forse questo tanto glorioso e decantato bene si sta traducendo in uno dei più grandi mali mai esisti, ed i primi ad accorgersene e a pagarne le conseguenze sono i primi che credevano nel partito, coloro che vivevano sulla propria pelle la speranza che lo stato aveva dato loro.  (Vedi testo: cap 18)

 

The novel tells of men who live and accept these strong powers, because they believe in the idea of a greater, higher good, which is shown to them through ideology and through a vision of an imaginary world, in which anything turns out to be justified with regards to this greater good, even at the cost of taking away their human freedom and dignity. Yet something stands out, events lead these people to question their lives and what is going on. Perhaps this glorious and praised good is turning into one of the greatest evils that ever existed, and the first ones to notice it and to pay the consequences are the first ones who believed in the party, those who felt on their own skin the hope that the state had given them. (See text: chapter 18)

The novel lays bare this. It shows the double face of those who are champions and saviors of humanity, but they walk over men, their being, their freedom, their history and God. (See text: chapter.50)

But then who are men without their freedom, without their history, and without God?

 

Grossman shows how the greatest victory in this battle, in spite of everything, despite the fact that the fates of these lives are dramatic, it is reached by men because they are free by nature and their freedom consists in knowing how to question themselves and in seeking possible answers, in keeping their dignity intact, at the cost of paying the consequences. (See text: chapter 61)

How can a man who is not looking, who does not question himself, who does not know how to stand in front of what is happening, be described as alive?

 

Il mio desiderio di raccontarvi questo capolavoro della letteratura nasce proprio dall’attualità che stiamo vivendo tutti. Questo è uno di quei romanzi sempre attuali nei quali, dialoghi, descrizioni e momenti tra tensione e sofferenza, si sentono vibrare fin dentro al cuore talmente sono reali. Ma in questa situazione più che mai lo sento vivo. Pone delle questioni, mostra dei fatti, fa interrogare, non intende dare delle risposte, il suo scopo è mostrare tutta l’umanità dell’umano e le sue fragilità affinchè il lettore sia libero di dare un suo personale giudizio. Questo è quello di cui io sento più bisogno in questo momento, avere la libertà di giudicare la mia condizione di “reclusa” cui sono chiamata a stare, perchè è l’unico modo che ho ora per sentire che sono viva e, quindi, anche libera.

E voi? Come state vivendo da uomini?

 

My desire to tell you about this masterpiece of literature comes from the very current events that we all are living. This is one of those ever-present novels in which dialogues, descriptions and moments between tension and suffering are so real they can actually vibrate up to the heart. But in this situation more than ever I feel it being alive. It raises questions, it shows facts, it questions, without giving answers. Its purpose is to show all the humanity in human beings and their vulnerabilities so that the reader is free to give his own judgment. This is what I need the most right now, to have the freedom to judge my “confinement” which I am asked to bear, because it is the only way I have now to feel alive and, therefore, also free.

What about you? How are you living as men?

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