Generations of Winter by Vassily Aksyonov

Generations of Winter is a family history set in the Soviet Union spanning about twenty years, from 1925 till 1945 – the Stalinist era. I know, you’re all thinking: “There she goes again, another book about Stalinist Russia.” I admit, I am a bit on a Stalinist reading spree. That is coincidence, I am not doing it on purpose, though I do generally read a lot about Eastern Europe anyway. Somehow over the past year or so, I gathered a couple of books through which Joseph Stalin runs like a read thread. All these books are so far turning out to be excellent reads, Generations of Winter as well. This was a book that I had been trying to find in Dutch translation for years, but never could. A Dutch translation appeared at some point, but I guess it wasn’t reprinted or something. Then some time last year I found out that an English translation is available in paperback. So that eventually ended up on my bookshelves.

The book tells the history of the Gradov family, Mary and Boris Gradov and their three children. Over time the children’s spouses and children also enter the saga. Boris Gradov is one of the top surgeons in the Soviet Union and regularly counts the Communist Party’s leaders and the country’s leaders among his patients. He has to make some tough moral choices about the extent to which he will participate in the intrigues among the country’s leaders to save his career and life. Mary is his Georgian wife. Their oldest son Nikita moves up the army’s career rank unusually fast, until he is arrested and sent to the Gulag during the purges of the 1930s. Their daughter Nina is a poetry writer and is drawn to both ideological Party workers of the very wrong type and to a circle of poets. Over time her ideology fades as she has to work hard on simply surviving the years of the Great Terror. Finally, Boris and Mary’s youngest son Kyrill is a staunch believer of the Communist ideology and starts to make a career within the Communist Party. Like his older brother, Kyrill ends up arrested during the purges as well. Boris and Mary in the meantime, try to keep their house a haven of peace during the turbulent Stalinist years.

Despite some flaws, I enjoyed this book enormously. While reading the book, I didn’t feel terribly involved with the characters, they stayed at a distance, but I was still way too interested in what would happen to them, how they would fare. Or at least I thought I wasn’t too involved in the characters…

I felt that there were a bit too many coincidental meetings and happenings in the book, especially those that involved American journalist Townsend Reston. He pops up from time to time and just happens to run into the main characters without of course knowing who they are or that and how they are related to each other. The opening scene in which this happens, worked very well for me, but other chance meetings, like with Boris Gradov on the Red Square or with Nina in the metro felt annoying to me.

I could also have done without the “Intermissions” in between the chapters. They didn’t add anything to the story for me. Some intermissions I suppose, were meant to put the story of the Gradovs in a larger perspective, of other intermissions I have no clue what their point was. Even the first category was not really necessary I think, because the main story contained enough information.

Another thing that bugged me were the awkward English translations of slang and some of the conversations involving young adults. They felt strange, out of time and took the rhythm and flow away from my reading. Reading a passage like that would feel like a bump in the road that your car crosses too fast.

I had the strong feeling that the book was written for a non-Russian or a Western audience (though the book was originally written in Russian). At one point there was a passage about the family celebrating Christmas some time in the 1930s. First of all, I am just not sure how much Christmas was actually celebrated in those years, as before the start of the Second World War, religion was severely restricted and believers and priests were persecuted and churches blown up. It would seem a particularly risky thing to celebrate Christmas with a tree and all in those years. I also felt that this passage implied that Christmas was celebrated in December, which is definitely not the case in Russia: Christmas is celebrated on January 6, according to the Orthodox calendar. New Year was and still is celebrated as a much bigger holiday in Russia as a result of the position religion had in the communist era. Unfortunately I forgot to mark the passage and couldn’t find it back later on. If anyone who reads this, can help me out about celebrating Christmas at the height of the Great Terror: please do leave a comment.

Finally, there was another thing that bugged me throughout the novel. None of the main female characters in the book carry the proper last name with the feminine ending. In Russian a woman’s surname almost always (there are exceptions) has another ending. Thus, Nina and Mary’s last name should really be Gradova instead of Gradov. It isn’t, they’re last name is Gradov. When Nina gets married, her married last name and that of her daughter from this marriage also keep the masculine ending Kitaigorodsky instead of Kitaigorodskaya. The names of other, minor female characters do have the proper feminine ending. Either be consistently wrong or be consistently right, preferably the second one!

Call me a nitpicker, but these things bugged me, especially since the writer is Russian and thus should know what he’s writing about.
Still, despite this, Generations of Winter is a great and engrossing saga, a book that I do very much recommend. I actually hope that Aksyonov will write a sequel. There really is room for that. In fact, after finishing the book I felt that the fate of some of the major characters was left hanging in mid-air.

WARNING: SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH!
What happened to Mitya after he escaped the firing squad? What happened with Boris IV after we last meet him? And with Savva after he is captured by the Germans? Did Veronika make it to the US with her new lover? Will Cecilia and Kyrill meet again? And if they do, does their marriage survive the long separation? Did Nina find the love that is hinted at towards the end of the book? And what will happen with Boris and Mary? There are lots of open questions left at the end of the book, as if the writer thought that at 500some pages he had written enough and needed to wrap things up before page 600.

I would love to read a sequel to Generations of Winter that would provide answers. I guess I was more involved with the characters than I thought. It might just be Aksyonov’s writing style that made it feel as if the characters remained at distance.

I realized that this review sounds kind of negative, but despite my nitpicking I did really enjoy the book very much, believe me! Well, this is about the fourth time I mention that in this post, so I guess you must have understood that by now. It just feels kind of strange to write a not so glowing review about a book that I did love and felt sorry about finishing.

Apparently, Russian tv made this book into a tv-series called Moskovskaya Saga (Moscow Saga – the Russian title of the book). I should try if I can find it on DVD here in Armenia).

This book counts towards the Russian Reading Challenge, the Chunkster Challenge and the Orbis Terrarum Challenge.