Generations of Winter

My wife, my mother, and I agree on one thing: Generations of Winter is one of the best novels we have read in the past 20 years. This is a novel on a grand scope. Aksyonov follows a Russian professional family (the Gradovs's) from shortly after the Russian revolution to World War II. The novel is self-consciously a 20th century parallel to War and Peace; what is amazing is that Aksyonov succeeds in an effort that might seem absurdly ambitious. The novel draws richness from the counterpoints with earlier great works of Russian literature, without becoming trapped in what might become a confining literary device. What's more, even if you have never read Tolstoy, this is a great read. This is a novel that I found almost impossible to put down, while at the same time I loved the richness of the writing and character development. On top of this, it gives a sweeping view of a key period of Russian history. This is admittedly a view through a very particular lens, but this is important lens. Both of Aksyonov's parents were supporters of the Russian revolution; his mother was a successful journalist, and his father was in the local government. Both parents were swept up in Stalin's purges and sent to the gulag. Aksyonov himself was eventually arrested and removed from his grandmother, who was caring for him after his parent's arrest, and sent to an orphanage as a son of "enemies of the revolution". The scars of this experience are evident in Aksyonov's portrayal of Stalin, which, despite some effort to exact literary revenge, serves as a lesson in history with few ironic twists of humor included. Aksyonov, who is well known in Russia, just died in July 2009. He deserves to better known in the English speaking world. If you want to read a great piece of literature that you can't put down, and enjoy historical fiction, I can't recommend this book enough.

Never anywhere in this book does the author or anyone else state that it is an accurate description of the complete events of the time period it covers. The book is fiction. Although there are obviously some real names used within the book, getting caught up in all the technicalities of how a certain operation was called this instead of that is just stupid. It's fiction. The author, like any good author should, uses descriptive passages of imagery to give us context and create a scene. The book gives us some insight as to what it would have been like to live within the time period. Reading this book as a retelling of the war is not only inaccurate, but just silly. It'd be like reading 'Quiet Flows the Don' as an accurate retelling of WW1 and the Civil War that followed it.

Generations of Winter was originally conceived as a mini-series for PBS, but when the project was shelved, Vassily Aksynov's publisher convinced him to make a novel out of the project. The novel was published in the US in 1994, and 10 years later, in late 2004, a mini-series based on the novel made it to Russian television where it was a resounding success. Considering the subject matter, the success of Generations of Winter in Russia must represent a difficult acknowledgement of the horrors of Soviet history which remain unmarked by monuments and for which the government has never officially apologized. Aksyonov is writing from firsthand knowledge when his characters are hauled off in the middle of the night by NKVD agents. Aksyonov's mother, Evgenia Ginzburg, was sent to the camps when he was five, and he joined her in exile in Siberia when he was 16. He followed in his mother's footsteps as a writer as well. Ginzburg is well-known for her memoirs of the gulag and exile, Journey into the Whirlwind and Within the Whirlwind. Many reviewers have described Generations of Winter as a War and Peace for the 20th century. Aksyonov's book is a sprawling, multi-generational tale set between the years 1925 and 1945. It centers on the Gradov family, lively members of the Moscow elite whose lives are shattered by purges, torture and war. Generations of Winter is a historical novel at heart. It's pages are populated by real historical figures, most notably Stalin, who mingle with the fictional Gradovs. Though the book's subject matter is difficult, the Gradov's shine, and the narrative is breathtaking in its scope.

Closer to Dr. Zhivago than it is War and Peace, Aksyonov tries to piece together the Stalinist era through the eyes of an extended Russian-Georgian family. The first half of the book is the most compelling as Aksyonov sets up his intriguing family and its subsequent demise as its members ran afoul of Stalin. He is able to capture the clamp down of the Soviet state and its effect on the republics, particularly Georgia, which had managed to retain its identity under Lenin.Navigating the ravaged battlefields of war proved more difficult for Aksyonov, as he tries to reassemble the scattered family. There are many engaging scenes but as a whole the second part of the book lacks focus, and reads as a jumble of events, which may very well have been the case in the beleagured Soviet Union as it struggled through its darkest hour.Aksyonov offers a ray of sunshine in the end, but for the most part this is a bleak novel, befitting the era, and the impact Stalinism had on Russian society. The brief glimmer of a modernist utopia was all too quickly disspelled. In its place, Russians, Georgians and other ethnic groups tried to recapture their trampled identities. This being the only thing that could guide them through the aftermath of the revolution.

Seemlessly mixing fictional and historical characters this grand historical novel will not disappoint. Following the Gradov family through the years this novel will satisfy even the most discreet reader. The scene of Stalin with constipation is worth the price alone...