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Московская сага #1
Generations of Winter
Compared by critics across the country to War and Peace for its memorable characters and sweep, and to Dr. Zhivago for its portrayal of Stalin's Russia, Generations of Winter is the romantic saga of the Gradov family from 1925 to 1945.
608 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
Vasily Aksyonov
89 books88 followersVasily Pavlovich Aksyonov (Russian: Василий Аксенов) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He is known in the West as the author of The Burn (Ожог, Ozhog, from 1975) and Generations of Winter (Московская сага, Moskovskaya Saga, from 1992), a family saga depicting three generations of the Gradov family between 1925 and 1953.
He was the son of Evgenia Ginzburg, jewish russian writer, teacher and survivor of a stalinist gulag.
He was the son of Evgenia Ginzburg, jewish russian writer, teacher and survivor of a stalinist gulag.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
January 14, 2013
Here’s a literary recipe. Take a big book, an epic. Cover a slice of national history, several decades for preference. Introduce a family over three generations. Combine real historical figures with fictitious characters. Season the whole mixture with fleeting moments of happiness and liberal amounts of tragedy. What do you have? You know, surely you know? Yes, of course – you have War and Peace!
Actually on this particular occasion you don’t. What you have Vassily Aksynov’s Generations of Winter, a book which the Washington Post described as “the great Russian novel, the 20th century equivalent of War and Peace.” All I can say is that the Washington Post needs to get out more; it needs to wander down the highways and byways of Russian literature. There are novels far greater than Generations of Winter. One immediately comes to mind – Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, the only modern novel, so far as I am concerned, that really does stand up to War and Peace.
Of course I can’t blame Aksynov for the hyperbole of the Washington Post. Ah, but just a minute. That’s not quite true. I can blame him inasmuch as he offers a challenge to Tolstoy on his own ground. The knight enters the lists in a wholly self-conscious way, too big for his horse and too big for his armour. Tolstoy thunders down, upsetting the mount and unseating the rider! Oh, if only he had been more modest; if only he had challenged Pasternak first. For Generations of Winter might weigh in better on a first charge with Doctor Zhivago.
It’s certainly a book conceived on a monumental scale, one which tackles Russian history head on, a slice of the twentieth century, from the tranquil mid-1920s, a period of relative liberalisation, through the dark 1930s, the time of Stalin’s Great Purge, on to the Second World War. It follows the fortunes of the Gradov family, in happiness and in sorrow; and when it comes to sorrow no other nation quite matches Russia. It follows the fate of Boris Gradov, a leading Soviet doctor, and his children – Nikita, a soldier, Nina, a poet, and Kirill, an idealist. It follows, in turn, the fate of their children.
The author should know whereof he speaks. Both his parents were arrested at the height of Stalin’s terror when he was not quite five years old. His mother was Eugenia Ginzburg, herself a writer, who spent years in the concentration camps of Kolyma and in Siberian exile, recording her experiences in Journey into the Whirlwind and Within the Whirlwind. Aksynov, who did not see her again until he was sixteen, was sent to a state orphanage, another kind of gulag, a death sentence for so many children, from which he was rescued by his uncle.
Alas, if only he had been a little less contrived in his approach to the subject matter we might be dealing with a superb novel, perhaps even a great one, rather than one which is simply good. Obviously I can only talk about the English translation but the style, the narrative technique, seems to me to be course and clumsy at points. The various ‘intermissions’, moreover, are horribly contrived, self-conscious and embarrassing literary artefacts.
Generations of Winter is also a game of two halves. Actually – as I subsequently discovered – it really is a game of three parts except the third part is missing! In large measure this explains why the novel is so uneven. The first part leading up to the Second World War is assured and focused. The second part lacks coherence. In the end, without the sequel, we are simply left hanging, unsure of the fate of the various characters.
I do not think that Generations of Winter is a great book, but it is an honest one. It’s an uncompromising picture of what life was like in Stalin’s nightmarish utopia. It’s a picture of betrayal, of lives all but destroyed by arbitrary whims and political paranoia; it’s a picture of unwholesome people like Stalin and the reptilian Beria, chief of the NKVD, the thuggish and criminal state security apparatus. It’s a picture, above all, of corruption. Here the author is direct rather than subtle. At one point Boris Gradov treats Stalin for extreme constipation. The dictator, you see, is nothing but a sack of shit.
I read this book, a surprise gift, over the Christmas holiday and found myself beguiled, my various criticisms notwithstanding. This is living history, history mediated through the eyes of real people, who when they are not real are fictions! I followed the Gradovs and their various fates, never wholly losing interest, though from time to time losing sight of some members of the family.
I was irritated, though, by the artificiality which breaks through from time to time. There are too many contrived encounters, particularly those involving Townsend Reston, an American journalist, and leading members of the Gradov family. His meeting with Nina Gradov in the Moscow metro during a German bombing raid stretches credulity to the point of absurdity. Then there is the relationship between Veronika, Nikita Gradov’s wife, and Colonel Kevin Taliaferro, an American military attaché, which takes credulity beyond absurdity. Here the book descends almost into the comic nonsense of soap opera.
But, as I say, it’s an honest narrative of dishonest times. I remember an observation from Doctor Zhivago, where a character says that the personal life was dead in Russia, that it had been killed by history. There must have been many families like the Gradovs, real people, people who maintained decent standards in the midst of indecency, who did their best to retain something of the personal life; who ensured, even in the most trying of circumstances, that they would not be drowned by the tides of time. For these generations Generations of Winter stands as a worthy testimony.
July 4, 2025
This novel is a wonderful, detailed and moving portrayal of Russian history from 1925 through the end of WWII, all as experienced through the lives of the Gradov family. Of course this period covered Stalin’s purges, the omnipresent fear of arrest, and the bloodbath that was the Eastern Front of WWII. This book has been labeled a modern War and Peace. I won’t go quite that far, but I will say that this is everything a novel, and particularly a novel of Russia, should be. From the characters, to the settings, to the interwoven history, it was incredibly well done.
I will start with the characters. The patriarch (Boris II) is a renowned surgeon, whose medical practice takes him from a surgery pressured by the secret police, to administering to Stalin, to the brutal medical world of WWII. His wife, Mary, is a Georgian. Several members of her family are material characters, and a number of scenes are set in Georgia, with the result that the Georgian culture is found throughout the novel. The eldest Gradov son is Nikita (Boris III), who is a military officer. As is well known, many of the higher military officers in Russia were victims of Stalin’s purges pre WWII (by death or the gulag), and Nikita was not exempt. After four years in the Gulag, when Russia was deeply invaded by Germany, Nikita was released from the gulag and rose to the highest military rank as an officer in the Red Army. Nikita’s wife, Veronica, was extremely beautiful, and her own attitudes and desires developed throughout the novel. The second Gradov child is Krill, an ardent socialist who is caught up in the web of Stalin’s purges and disappears into the gulag or death. The third Gradov child is Nina, who flirts with Trotskyism (punishable by a gulag sentence), has very activist friends, but survives the purges and becomes and renowned poet. She is involved with several men, each of whom is interwoven into the web of the novel. Other important characters include Mitya, orphaned as a result of Stalin’s eradication of the kulaks, who is adopted by Krill and his wife. Boris IV (the son of Nikita and Veronika) joins a secret commando force during WWII. Although the various characters live in many places, the home of the family is a dacha outside Moscow called Silver Forest. The descriptions of this home are lovely, and in its own way, the home becomes its own character.
I have read countless novels dealing with WWII, although only a few of them deal with the Eastern Front. In my opinion, the war descriptions in this novel were outstanding – possibly the best I have read, because the events were experienced by characters in so many roles: physician, officer, enlistee, commando and, of course, the secret police who followed everyone to the front. Each scene was vitally real and detailed in every respect, and I was transported to scenes from military victories to brutal executions and locations from Moscow to Ukraine to Poland. There was a great deal of detail, which, for me, greatly added to the completeness of the scenes and the narrative.
The incredible pervasiveness of Stalin’s secret police is well known, but this novel brought together so many aspects of living under that cloud. The fear of arrest, the brutal torture, the mindset necessary to survive the gulag, the constant understanding that people in your life were agents of the secret police, as well as the mental attitude required to live each day without going crazy (not always possible) were portrayed vividly by the characters.
The writing was extremely good. Amidst all the terror, brutality and sadness, there was actually a great deal of humor in the novel. In addition, in an utterly unique style, at the end of parts of the novel, the author reincarnates famous people as animals and birds living in Moscow during the time of the novel. I was quite impressed!
In addition, I was extremely moved when, at the end of the novel, faith and religion penetrate the horrors of the gulag.
This novel is very long and very detailed (including a lot of Soviet politics and politicians), so it is hard to recommend if you are not deeply interested in the Soviet period in Russia (including the Eastern Front in WWII) . But – if you do have these interests – you absolutely must not miss this one!
I will start with the characters. The patriarch (Boris II) is a renowned surgeon, whose medical practice takes him from a surgery pressured by the secret police, to administering to Stalin, to the brutal medical world of WWII. His wife, Mary, is a Georgian. Several members of her family are material characters, and a number of scenes are set in Georgia, with the result that the Georgian culture is found throughout the novel. The eldest Gradov son is Nikita (Boris III), who is a military officer. As is well known, many of the higher military officers in Russia were victims of Stalin’s purges pre WWII (by death or the gulag), and Nikita was not exempt. After four years in the Gulag, when Russia was deeply invaded by Germany, Nikita was released from the gulag and rose to the highest military rank as an officer in the Red Army. Nikita’s wife, Veronica, was extremely beautiful, and her own attitudes and desires developed throughout the novel. The second Gradov child is Krill, an ardent socialist who is caught up in the web of Stalin’s purges and disappears into the gulag or death. The third Gradov child is Nina, who flirts with Trotskyism (punishable by a gulag sentence), has very activist friends, but survives the purges and becomes and renowned poet. She is involved with several men, each of whom is interwoven into the web of the novel. Other important characters include Mitya, orphaned as a result of Stalin’s eradication of the kulaks, who is adopted by Krill and his wife. Boris IV (the son of Nikita and Veronika) joins a secret commando force during WWII. Although the various characters live in many places, the home of the family is a dacha outside Moscow called Silver Forest. The descriptions of this home are lovely, and in its own way, the home becomes its own character.
I have read countless novels dealing with WWII, although only a few of them deal with the Eastern Front. In my opinion, the war descriptions in this novel were outstanding – possibly the best I have read, because the events were experienced by characters in so many roles: physician, officer, enlistee, commando and, of course, the secret police who followed everyone to the front. Each scene was vitally real and detailed in every respect, and I was transported to scenes from military victories to brutal executions and locations from Moscow to Ukraine to Poland. There was a great deal of detail, which, for me, greatly added to the completeness of the scenes and the narrative.
The incredible pervasiveness of Stalin’s secret police is well known, but this novel brought together so many aspects of living under that cloud. The fear of arrest, the brutal torture, the mindset necessary to survive the gulag, the constant understanding that people in your life were agents of the secret police, as well as the mental attitude required to live each day without going crazy (not always possible) were portrayed vividly by the characters.
The writing was extremely good. Amidst all the terror, brutality and sadness, there was actually a great deal of humor in the novel. In addition, in an utterly unique style, at the end of parts of the novel, the author reincarnates famous people as animals and birds living in Moscow during the time of the novel. I was quite impressed!
In addition, I was extremely moved when, at the end of the novel, faith and religion penetrate the horrors of the gulag.
This novel is very long and very detailed (including a lot of Soviet politics and politicians), so it is hard to recommend if you are not deeply interested in the Soviet period in Russia (including the Eastern Front in WWII) . But – if you do have these interests – you absolutely must not miss this one!
July 26, 2013
This is sort of a companion book to Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago." That's quite a comparison to make, especially for a book that has been called a modern "War and Peace." I don't intend for the comparison to put the book into the same league as "Gulag," as they are entirely different sorts of books.
The comparison is meant to draw attention to Solzhenitsyn's focus on the Gulag itself--that is the Soviet prison camps, their history, and their victims. There were glimpses of life outside of the camps, but only in their relation to the Gulag system.
"Generations of Winter" deals primarily with life on the outside--hence a good compliment to understanding life in Soviet Russia. The two together--Gulag and "Generations of Winter" give a great picture for the average Russian during a time of great fright and upheaval.
The novel begins a little slowly, but gains steam quickly and by midway through the book it is a fast-paced ride. The book begins in the fall of 1925 and chronicles the generations of the Gradov family through the end of World War II.
There are many surprises along the way, and as one would expect, there are many casualties along the way--as the family is forced to weather Stalin's purges and World War II like all of Russia.
The book has some eccentricities such as short sketches of reincarnated Russians living the lives of animals. The best one is Lenin reincarnated as a rapacious, lusty squirrel. Another favorite scene is of a constipated Stalin.
Many have criticized the book for falling short of the "War and Peace" comparison so many have hoisted upon it. But this truly is a work of genius. That is not to say it is on par with Tolstoy or Solzhenitsyn, but boy, this is a good book. There's nothing wrong with falling short of either of those writers, as they are two of the very best. This is an outstanding work.
The comparison is meant to draw attention to Solzhenitsyn's focus on the Gulag itself--that is the Soviet prison camps, their history, and their victims. There were glimpses of life outside of the camps, but only in their relation to the Gulag system.
"Generations of Winter" deals primarily with life on the outside--hence a good compliment to understanding life in Soviet Russia. The two together--Gulag and "Generations of Winter" give a great picture for the average Russian during a time of great fright and upheaval.
The novel begins a little slowly, but gains steam quickly and by midway through the book it is a fast-paced ride. The book begins in the fall of 1925 and chronicles the generations of the Gradov family through the end of World War II.
There are many surprises along the way, and as one would expect, there are many casualties along the way--as the family is forced to weather Stalin's purges and World War II like all of Russia.
The book has some eccentricities such as short sketches of reincarnated Russians living the lives of animals. The best one is Lenin reincarnated as a rapacious, lusty squirrel. Another favorite scene is of a constipated Stalin.
Many have criticized the book for falling short of the "War and Peace" comparison so many have hoisted upon it. But this truly is a work of genius. That is not to say it is on par with Tolstoy or Solzhenitsyn, but boy, this is a good book. There's nothing wrong with falling short of either of those writers, as they are two of the very best. This is an outstanding work.
June 4, 2021
Compelling, page-turner, brutal, definitely recommended
February 8, 2008
Comparisons to War and Peace are apt; this family saga doesn't disappoint. Aksyonov manages to capture historical sweep while still creating truly memorable characters. Deserves a much wider readership, I think.
November 28, 2012
Described (by the critics) as "the 20th Century equivalent of War and Peace" and with "the emotional grandeur of a new Dr. Zhivago", I would say it rests somewhere between Tolstoy and Pasternak. If you enjoyed either of the aforementioned books, you will enjoy this one as well; if you did not, you will not enjoy this book. I gave it 5 stars. I enjoyed all of it; even the reincarnated animals and talking plants. My only two complaints are that it did not possess the power of the end of War and Peace (there's to be a sequel, or is one, but only in Russian?), and while I sympathize with the Gradov family's plight, it always irritates me that in this time of literature, the horror of the totalitarian state is gone into in great detail, but there is never any sort of statement that these bourgeois-types are recieving some sort of political/historic "comeuppance" for their centuries-long role under the Czars.
December 19, 2022
What a fantastic novel! They did call it War and Peace e for 20th century, and i agree ( I love War and Peace, read it twice).
A family saga of a Moscow intellectual family, most of them touched by communism first as enthusiasts, later as Gulag prisoners and " enemies of the people"
Interesting, well written characters, English translation was despite some unsuitable idioms " shooting breeze"...
The description of Stalinism is shocking even for me, and I grew up in communist Czechoslovakis.
Aksjonov is a master, ,and I will read more of his books. I also want to read the memoir of his mother Yevgenia Ginzburg
I made a mess in reviewing a different edition, I own the hardback, a huge book, a dangerous weapon.
A family saga of a Moscow intellectual family, most of them touched by communism first as enthusiasts, later as Gulag prisoners and " enemies of the people"
Interesting, well written characters, English translation was despite some unsuitable idioms " shooting breeze"...
The description of Stalinism is shocking even for me, and I grew up in communist Czechoslovakis.
Aksjonov is a master, ,and I will read more of his books. I also want to read the memoir of his mother Yevgenia Ginzburg
I made a mess in reviewing a different edition, I own the hardback, a huge book, a dangerous weapon.
July 11, 2021
Ovu knjigu upoređuju sa Tolstojevim "Ratom i mirom". Ja ne bih. Ali moram da se ogradim. Najmanje od svih volim period borbe za prevlast između Lenjina, Staljina i Trockog. Ovaj period mi je jako naporan i mnogo dosadan.
I, valjda tipično ruski, uvodi odjednom veliki broj likova pa je prošla trećina knjige dok sam ih sve "pohvatala" .
Nisam sigurna da li ću se moći natjerati da pročitam ostala dva dijela.
I, valjda tipično ruski, uvodi odjednom veliki broj likova pa je prošla trećina knjige dok sam ih sve "pohvatala" .
Nisam sigurna da li ću se moći natjerati da pročitam ostala dva dijela.
February 23, 2009
A sweeping Russian novel that takes a look at the "Gradov" family from the Revolution through WWII. One does not even need an extensive knowledge of Russian history to appreciate the story and learn about the complex characteristics of war and revolution.
January 9, 2023
Trop de politique tue le romanesque
March 24, 2013
When I lived in Moscow the first time, in the mid-1990s, I lived on Syerebyani Bor, Silver Grove in English. It was an area very much like the house where most of this lovely novel take place, endearing the book to me.
March 22, 2020
Technically, "Generations of Winter" is the first two books in a trilogy, "Generations of Winter" and "War and Jail" (which were followed by a third book, "Winter's Hero," published as a separate standalone volume in English). The arc of these first two volumes is the fall of the Gradov family, victims (as most all of Russia was) of Stalinism. The first volume begins shortly after Stalin consolidated his power and covers the initial purges, the second covers the World War II ("The Great Patriotic War"). As works of historical fiction, these books give you a very real sense of what it might have felt like to have the grip of totalitarian repression take hold of your nation and the kind of fear and degradation that comes with it. Of the two volumes, I personally found much less value in the second, as much of it covers the war itself and the combination of the valor of combat with its horrors has already been fairly well documented in my reading life, it all starts to blend together a bit. In general, there is no shortage of horror here, which is entirely the point. The purges, collectivization, the NEP, the NKVD, dekulakization, the gulag, it was all real and eventually it was documented, but to get a chance to see it through the eyes of complex and deeply human characters brings it to life in an additional dimension.
While I did greatly appreciate this volume and am happy to say it's currently available for purchase on Amazon along with "Winter's Hero," it is a shame that these two books remain the only works of Aksyonov's that are easily obtainable in English translation, because they aren't very representative of his works. While it has been almost two decades since I binged all of the Aksyonov that I could get my hands on, the thing I distinctly remember finding so compelling about him was that he was writing works of fantastic magical realism, filled with rebellion and dark humor and formal experimentation but distinctly of his background as a Soviet dissident. "Generations of Winter" is cut from a very different cloth from a book like "The Burn" or "The New Sweet Style," it is very much grounded historical fiction, deliberately written to expose the horrors of Stalinism (which Aksyonov knew quite intimately, as the son of Eugenia Ginzberg), much closer to the tradition of Tolstoy and Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" than with the other more wild and woolly samizdat epics he was also known for.
While I did greatly appreciate this volume and am happy to say it's currently available for purchase on Amazon along with "Winter's Hero," it is a shame that these two books remain the only works of Aksyonov's that are easily obtainable in English translation, because they aren't very representative of his works. While it has been almost two decades since I binged all of the Aksyonov that I could get my hands on, the thing I distinctly remember finding so compelling about him was that he was writing works of fantastic magical realism, filled with rebellion and dark humor and formal experimentation but distinctly of his background as a Soviet dissident. "Generations of Winter" is cut from a very different cloth from a book like "The Burn" or "The New Sweet Style," it is very much grounded historical fiction, deliberately written to expose the horrors of Stalinism (which Aksyonov knew quite intimately, as the son of Eugenia Ginzberg), much closer to the tradition of Tolstoy and Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" than with the other more wild and woolly samizdat epics he was also known for.
October 26, 2025
Не лучшая книга о репрессиях, которую я читала.
Крайне не понравилась излишняя пошлость, «липкость» языка и прочий male gaze.
Вторую половину пролистала, подробно читать уже не хотелось.
Крайне не понравилась излишняя пошлость, «липкость» языка и прочий male gaze.
Вторую половину пролистала, подробно читать уже не хотелось.
July 4, 2015
I had read "Generations of Winter" in the 90's close to when it came out. Many scenes from this book remained with me. Now I've read it the second time and enjoyed it again. I think its weakness is the use of the "saga format", and its strength is the environment of the story. But I also think it is interesting to think about it in terms of Russian literature generally - although I admit I am a little tentative on this front and fear I am being over-creative.
"Generations of Winter" is a saga about a Moscow family in the 20's during the NEP period and in the Stalinist 30's and in World War II. The cast of characters includes people associated with the family by friendship and marriage.
I usually find family sagas difficult. The reason is that so much time must be covered and so much narrative expended and parceled out among individuals. Although the story can be exciting in a cinematic way, the characters lose some depth. I think actually that this is true in a way in GoW. What remains exciting, however, is the ever fascinating ambience of the developing Soviet Union. This provides a new way of regarding character. That is, persons behave in ways that the environment determines in order to survive and no matter what their inner scruples or fears may be. This is where odd, seemingly two-dimensional behavior may arise --- from stoicism and fear, the exaltation of some family members along with the arrests of others, the intense loyalty to Russia, and the ambivalent attitude toward Josef Stalin, known to be a thug, but respected as someone beyond the ordinary human categories. When the USSR still existed, this ambivalent attitude in literature towards leadership and communism could be explained as part of authorial survival technique. This is enough to keep one going in this book. Plus Mr. A. is a great storyteller with great momentum.
As to Russian literature, I wonder why there are the echoes of Tolstoy's War and Peace in this book. For example, one character is compared to Natasha Rostov at her first dance; another to the wounded Count Andrei. Another character remarks on the Hitler Russian campaign as paralleling the Napoleonic campaign that sets the scene for much of Tolstoy's book. There is some tactical discussion and thinking, especially by GoW's Nikita Gradov, and enough war description to echo further Tolstoy's lengthy battlefield narratives. One can even see War and Peace as a family saga about the Rostovs and those who come into contact with them.
These echoes of earlier literature are interesting to me. For me, a major gift of Russia to the West are its books and that, indeed, only its books survive as its heritage or locatable cultural identity from the past. For example, the characters in GoW live in such a fast-changing world and their morals have to accomodate to it. (And, probably, Russians had to do this throughout their history.) Perhaps this is the irony of the Gradov family home in the forest: It bridges major upheavals and remains cultured, even hermetically sealed, in an old-fashioned way. It is a place that we would want to live in a Russia imagined out of its literature. The irony is that it seems that way, but is not: one only needs to take the streetcar into town to realize that.
In this respect, the contrast between society in War and Peace and in GoW is very great. In the first book, seemingly autonomous, certainly lively individuals with lives crowded by circumstance act out history. In the other, autonomy is a sham or enjoyed only in retreat, and life circumstances include the enmity and/or indifference and/or whims of, not a government, but a system of control driven to the edges of ideological sanity and victimizing both its heroes and its enemies. In this connection, the literature of the past is totally divorced from the present day and meaningless.
"Generations of Winter" is a saga about a Moscow family in the 20's during the NEP period and in the Stalinist 30's and in World War II. The cast of characters includes people associated with the family by friendship and marriage.
I usually find family sagas difficult. The reason is that so much time must be covered and so much narrative expended and parceled out among individuals. Although the story can be exciting in a cinematic way, the characters lose some depth. I think actually that this is true in a way in GoW. What remains exciting, however, is the ever fascinating ambience of the developing Soviet Union. This provides a new way of regarding character. That is, persons behave in ways that the environment determines in order to survive and no matter what their inner scruples or fears may be. This is where odd, seemingly two-dimensional behavior may arise --- from stoicism and fear, the exaltation of some family members along with the arrests of others, the intense loyalty to Russia, and the ambivalent attitude toward Josef Stalin, known to be a thug, but respected as someone beyond the ordinary human categories. When the USSR still existed, this ambivalent attitude in literature towards leadership and communism could be explained as part of authorial survival technique. This is enough to keep one going in this book. Plus Mr. A. is a great storyteller with great momentum.
As to Russian literature, I wonder why there are the echoes of Tolstoy's War and Peace in this book. For example, one character is compared to Natasha Rostov at her first dance; another to the wounded Count Andrei. Another character remarks on the Hitler Russian campaign as paralleling the Napoleonic campaign that sets the scene for much of Tolstoy's book. There is some tactical discussion and thinking, especially by GoW's Nikita Gradov, and enough war description to echo further Tolstoy's lengthy battlefield narratives. One can even see War and Peace as a family saga about the Rostovs and those who come into contact with them.
These echoes of earlier literature are interesting to me. For me, a major gift of Russia to the West are its books and that, indeed, only its books survive as its heritage or locatable cultural identity from the past. For example, the characters in GoW live in such a fast-changing world and their morals have to accomodate to it. (And, probably, Russians had to do this throughout their history.) Perhaps this is the irony of the Gradov family home in the forest: It bridges major upheavals and remains cultured, even hermetically sealed, in an old-fashioned way. It is a place that we would want to live in a Russia imagined out of its literature. The irony is that it seems that way, but is not: one only needs to take the streetcar into town to realize that.
In this respect, the contrast between society in War and Peace and in GoW is very great. In the first book, seemingly autonomous, certainly lively individuals with lives crowded by circumstance act out history. In the other, autonomy is a sham or enjoyed only in retreat, and life circumstances include the enmity and/or indifference and/or whims of, not a government, but a system of control driven to the edges of ideological sanity and victimizing both its heroes and its enemies. In this connection, the literature of the past is totally divorced from the present day and meaningless.
February 8, 2019
2.8 stars
I’ve read as much of this as I can. I don’t think my opinion or reading experience will change in the next hundred or so pages and therefore I see no point in continuing. This is very well written historical fiction. The descriptions, characters, and plot are all interesting. I did learn much more about that period of history than I knew previously. Though this has been compared to War and Peace, I did not enjoy it nearly as much and it is not deserving of that comparison. On a technical level the writing is excellent, but personally the difficult content and strong language negatively impacted my reading experience. I understand that this period of history was harsh and any story covering it should be unflinchingly honest about that, but the sexual content is what really turned me off and leaves me unable to continue. I no longer have interest in seeing how the story ends. I can admit the good parts of the novel, but the distasteful aspects leave me with no desire to continue. Grateful for the history I learned, but do not recommend.
I’ve read as much of this as I can. I don’t think my opinion or reading experience will change in the next hundred or so pages and therefore I see no point in continuing. This is very well written historical fiction. The descriptions, characters, and plot are all interesting. I did learn much more about that period of history than I knew previously. Though this has been compared to War and Peace, I did not enjoy it nearly as much and it is not deserving of that comparison. On a technical level the writing is excellent, but personally the difficult content and strong language negatively impacted my reading experience. I understand that this period of history was harsh and any story covering it should be unflinchingly honest about that, but the sexual content is what really turned me off and leaves me unable to continue. I no longer have interest in seeing how the story ends. I can admit the good parts of the novel, but the distasteful aspects leave me with no desire to continue. Grateful for the history I learned, but do not recommend.
August 15, 2016
Une saga familiale qui n'a pas été sans me rappeler d'autres romans russes comme Anna Karénine ou Guerre et Paix par exemple ; oeuvres auxquelles l'auteur fait d'ailleurs référence de nombreuses fois. À la différence qu'ici l'histoire se déroule durant le « règne » de Staline et non à l'époque des tsars et du servage. Les différents personnages de cette famille aristocratique dont nous suivons les membres sont inévitablement — et souvent dramatiquement — en prise avec le régime, bon gré mal gré. J'ai trouvé ce premier tome très bien construit, souvent poétique, captivant en plus d'être un outil intéressant pour mieux cerner cette période de l'histoire russe dont je ne savais presque rien.
September 26, 2015
Сталинская эпоха – с 1925 по 1953 год – время действия трилогии Василия Аксенова «Московская сага». Вместе со всей страной семья Градовых, потомственных врачей, проходит все круги ада.
«Поколение зимы» – первый роман трилогии. Сталин прокладывает дорогу к власти, устраняя командарма Фрунзе, объявляя охоту на троцкистов. В эту трагедию оказываются вовлеченными и старый врач Борис Никитич Градов, и совсем еще юная Нина Градова. А в конце тридцатых молох сталинских репрессий пожрет и многих других…
«Поколение зимы» – первый роман трилогии. Сталин прокладывает дорогу к власти, устраняя командарма Фрунзе, объявляя охоту на троцкистов. В эту трагедию оказываются вовлеченными и старый врач Борис Никитич Градов, и совсем еще юная Нина Градова. А в конце тридцатых молох сталинских репрессий пожрет и многих других…
January 29, 2022
Невозможно не сравнивать эту книгу с "Детьми Арбата", и им она проигрывает.
Это совсем уже не тот Аксёнов, что в "Звёздном билете". Персонажи вроде и обаятельные, но вообще непонятно, чем руководствуются и почему действуют так, как действуют. Эротические моменты какие-то навязчивые, и совершенно в духе 90-х, когда книга была написана, а не 30-х. К этому добавить ещё и анахронизмы (всякие "на фиг"), они тоже рушат атмосферу.
Увлекательно, но первый том кончился, а второго не хочется.
Это совсем уже не тот Аксёнов, что в "Звёздном билете". Персонажи вроде и обаятельные, но вообще непонятно, чем руководствуются и почему действуют так, как действуют. Эротические моменты какие-то навязчивые, и совершенно в духе 90-х, когда книга была написана, а не 30-х. К этому добавить ещё и анахронизмы (всякие "на фиг"), они тоже рушат атмосферу.
Увлекательно, но первый том кончился, а второго не хочется.
November 16, 2017
Одна из лучших эпопей про Советский Союз в довоенный период. История показывается через призму одной семьи. Автор умело переплетает в одном котле реальных и вымышленных персонажей. Читается очень легко и интересно.
January 29, 2025
There is a certain tone to Russian novels, from Dostoevsky to Solzhenitsyn. It’s “can you believe this?”, like an elbow jostling the reader, as if the author isn’t so much telling a story as conveying a stance. Look at the way this society works. Look what it does to its people … can you believe this? I don’t know if that’s a translation artifact of Russian to English, or the authors’ intents. Given that so many Russian authors have spent portions of their lives in various prisons, exiles, and gulags, then the tone is understandable. It’s understandable from Vassily Aksyonov, whose parents were accused of Trotskyism during Stalin’s purges and imprisoned in the Kolyma region. Vassily was sent to an orphanage and later reunited with his mother after her exile. He graduated high school in Kolyma, regarded as an ‘enemy of the people.’ Can you believe this?
This novel is the updated War and Peace in that it covers the Gradov family from 1917 through 1945. It’s about half the size of War and Peace, and has about half the characters, but it’s just as epic. The earlier years are more referenced than narrated, mostly by Nikita Gradov, who was a saboteur sent into the lines of the Whites during the siege of Kronstadt by the Red forces. Nikita carries a lot of guilt for his role in the slaughter of the Kronstadt sailors, but he is a loyal member of the Party and Soviet Russia and did his duty … and is sent to the gulag by Stalin during the purges of Russian officers. Getting sent to the gulag happens to a lot of the Gradov family, including the doctrinaire Marxist Kiril, who constantly battles with his father, Boris, over his dad’s remaining bourgeoise concepts. Then Kiril is gone to the camps, as is his sister Nina, a celebrated poetess and bohemian. And wives and husbands shortly after for no real reason than the whim and sadistic pleasure of various informers and secret police agents.
Veronika, Nikita’s wife, also ends up in a camp and what happens to Nina and her breaks the family. An adopted grandson, Mitya, a survivor of the kulak massacres whom Kirill and his wife Cecelia rescue from a barn, is captured by the Germans and joins an anti-Soviet brigade until he is assigned to the Babi Yar massacres. He then escapes and joins the Russian partisans. But you know what the Russians thought of their captured comrades, and it doesn’t end well. Not at all.
Nothing ends well. The Gradovs are a rather likable family caught in the whirlwind of terror that was, and still is, Russia. You’ll be reminded of Doctor Zhivago, where a somewhat decent person is destroyed by the utopian ideologies of fanatics. This novel is very much the same, concentrating on the effects of the Bolshevik regimes on the average citizen. Unlike Solzhenitsyn, who focused more on camp life, this is mostly the before and after.
And so here we have another in a long list of Russian writers who have starkly and clearly warned us. These utopian dreams and visionaries are great on paper, but it always leads to gulags and Lubyanka prison basements and pistols to the back of the head. And yet, we still have a lot of people who embrace the vision, are willing to sell soul and country for a theoretical future of peace and plenty, as envisioned, and enforced, by a Politburo.
Can you believe this?
This novel is the updated War and Peace in that it covers the Gradov family from 1917 through 1945. It’s about half the size of War and Peace, and has about half the characters, but it’s just as epic. The earlier years are more referenced than narrated, mostly by Nikita Gradov, who was a saboteur sent into the lines of the Whites during the siege of Kronstadt by the Red forces. Nikita carries a lot of guilt for his role in the slaughter of the Kronstadt sailors, but he is a loyal member of the Party and Soviet Russia and did his duty … and is sent to the gulag by Stalin during the purges of Russian officers. Getting sent to the gulag happens to a lot of the Gradov family, including the doctrinaire Marxist Kiril, who constantly battles with his father, Boris, over his dad’s remaining bourgeoise concepts. Then Kiril is gone to the camps, as is his sister Nina, a celebrated poetess and bohemian. And wives and husbands shortly after for no real reason than the whim and sadistic pleasure of various informers and secret police agents.
Veronika, Nikita’s wife, also ends up in a camp and what happens to Nina and her breaks the family. An adopted grandson, Mitya, a survivor of the kulak massacres whom Kirill and his wife Cecelia rescue from a barn, is captured by the Germans and joins an anti-Soviet brigade until he is assigned to the Babi Yar massacres. He then escapes and joins the Russian partisans. But you know what the Russians thought of their captured comrades, and it doesn’t end well. Not at all.
Nothing ends well. The Gradovs are a rather likable family caught in the whirlwind of terror that was, and still is, Russia. You’ll be reminded of Doctor Zhivago, where a somewhat decent person is destroyed by the utopian ideologies of fanatics. This novel is very much the same, concentrating on the effects of the Bolshevik regimes on the average citizen. Unlike Solzhenitsyn, who focused more on camp life, this is mostly the before and after.
And so here we have another in a long list of Russian writers who have starkly and clearly warned us. These utopian dreams and visionaries are great on paper, but it always leads to gulags and Lubyanka prison basements and pistols to the back of the head. And yet, we still have a lot of people who embrace the vision, are willing to sell soul and country for a theoretical future of peace and plenty, as envisioned, and enforced, by a Politburo.
Can you believe this?
October 31, 2017
I was assigned to read this book for my Russian history class, and holy cow, it was good. It was one of those books where I felt like I should have buckled my seatbelt because it was a fast-paced, bumpy ride. What do I mean by fast-paced and bumpy?
Well, a lot of things happen over the course of 600 pages. War happens, the political landscape changes, events happen to each member of the family strikingly and horrifyingly. I must say that I was personally terrified by a lot of scenes in the book, insomuch that I was utterly disturbed by the descriptions of life in Russia during the Purges of the government and such.
Where to begin?
The amount of sex and violence in the book is shocking at first, but somewhat laughable on occasion. The description of Cecilia's breasts made me laugh most of the time because the author liked pointing out how HUGE they were.
Additionally, the war and how it progresses is sad - unsurprisingly - especially because of how it affects the lives of the Gradov family. This aspect of the story was saddening. It's hard to think about war, and when presented with the reality of it through a book as good as this, it really makes you think.
Well, a lot of things happen over the course of 600 pages. War happens, the political landscape changes, events happen to each member of the family strikingly and horrifyingly. I must say that I was personally terrified by a lot of scenes in the book, insomuch that I was utterly disturbed by the descriptions of life in Russia during the Purges of the government and such.
Where to begin?
The amount of sex and violence in the book is shocking at first, but somewhat laughable on occasion. The description of Cecilia's breasts made me laugh most of the time because the author liked pointing out how HUGE they were.
Additionally, the war and how it progresses is sad - unsurprisingly - especially because of how it affects the lives of the Gradov family. This aspect of the story was saddening. It's hard to think about war, and when presented with the reality of it through a book as good as this, it really makes you think.
September 17, 2023
Il ne faut pas confondre la politique avec la culture. Chaque fois que je lis un grand Russe, je suis ébloui par le talent qui sort de cet énorme pays, et Vasily Aksynov n'est pas une exception. Le premier tome d'Une Sage Moscovite suit la famille Gradov entre les années 1920 jusqu’à la fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale. Stalin est au sommet de ses pouvoirs. La politique, évidemment, se mêle de la culture et tous les autres aspects de la vie à cette époque, et personnes dans la famille Gradov est épargné. Je suis très reconnaissant de mon ami Chris Medawar, grand russophile, qui m'a donné les 2 tomes que sa fabuleuse maman a dévoré avec plaisir. Après une pause de quelques autres bouquins, je vais avaler tome II.
February 14, 2019
This is a Russian generational saga that spans Soviet history from the mid 1920’s until the Soviet victory in 1945. The Gradov family patriarch is a successful surgeon with a wife, two sons and a daughter. The children are affected by their conventional bourgeois upbringing and all suffer from the upheavals of this period. It is not War and Peace, but it compares well with Grossman’s Life and Fate. It requires a solid knowledge of the times and it incorporates interactions with contemporary personalities. I enjoyed the narrative, but it very complicated with many tangents and of course difficult names and relationships that span decades.
April 13, 2020
Une grande fresque pour ne pas oublier le socialisme soviétique... Et le danger éternel qui émerge lorsque l'idéalisme se mute en idéologie, lorsque la théorie efface le réel et sacrifie l'individu sur l'autel de sa folie narcissique. Le socialisme de classe se déploie par la révolution et la destruction créatrice : la création en moins ; mais avec la cruauté et la terreur quotidiennes. Le monstre absurde se dévore lui-même.
Un roman utile, profond et facile à lire. L'âme russe y est bien dépeinte. L'écriture est belle quoique quelque peu surannée.
Un roman utile, profond et facile à lire. L'âme russe y est bien dépeinte. L'écriture est belle quoique quelque peu surannée.
July 17, 2022
Un monument !
Le livre porte bien son nom de saga il habille de chair et de sentiments plus de 20 ans d'histoire (pour la première partie) de la Russie soviétique. Les personnages sont attachants contrairement à pas mal de livre russe, on est jamais perdue entre les différents personnage.
C'est très historique (conférence au sommet entre Staline et ses généraux) et en même temps pleins de moment de la vie de l'URSS. Je ressort du bain de ses innombrables pages et j'ai juste envie de me replonger dans la suite !
Le livre porte bien son nom de saga il habille de chair et de sentiments plus de 20 ans d'histoire (pour la première partie) de la Russie soviétique. Les personnages sont attachants contrairement à pas mal de livre russe, on est jamais perdue entre les différents personnage.
C'est très historique (conférence au sommet entre Staline et ses généraux) et en même temps pleins de moment de la vie de l'URSS. Je ressort du bain de ses innombrables pages et j'ai juste envie de me replonger dans la suite !
July 8, 2023
Une vraie superbe saga sur la Russie, ses dirigeants, ses habitants, sa culture, son culte de la poésie, ses horreurs, ses guerres, la dictature du prolétariat, la Kolyma,...tout ça sous l'époque de Staline soit de 1920 à 1954. Bien qu'écrit en 1965 cela informe énormément et permet d'encore mieux comprendre l'époque actuelle. Bien écrit et relativement facile à lire. J'ai hâte au tome 2!
June 7, 2024
Quand on a lu Les vaincus d'Anna Golovkina, Le Docteur Jivago de Pasternak, Anna Karenine de Tolstoï ou encore Guerre et Paix, il est difficile d'autant apprécier Une saga moscovite. J'ai nettement moins aimé cette Saga, je me suis moins attachée aux personnages que dans toutes ces autres fresques...
October 10, 2019
A wonderful book. I grew to love the Gradov family and hoped they would somehow get through...
June 22, 2020
This tragic tale (reminiscent of Dr. Zhivago) reinforced the adage that power corrupts and that war leaves painful, indelible stains on humanity.
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