Customer Reviews

Generations of Winter

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yes, it helps if you've read "War & Peace", but even if you don't know your Rostovs from your Raskolnikovs, "Gens. of Winter" is a must. Funny, wrenching, profound, and above all totally original, "Gens." is a masterpiece I have been reading and rereading for five years. Aksyonov alternates a straightforward, gripping, family-history narrative, full of densely layered, palpably real characters, with quotations-- many of them hysterical -- from magazines like 'Time' and 'Pravda', as well as occasional short chapters from the point of view of a squirrel, a dove, a houseplant, and of course a dog. Far from being bewildering or pretentious, however, this point-of-view smorgasbord coalesces into one vision of startling clarity. This book won't please the fundamentalist or the PC (lots of drinking, smoking, sexual activity), not to mention apologists for Stalin if there are any still alive. If, however, you crave exciting, challenging, world-expanding fiction, with a compelling story line and dialogue so real, you're practically wiping the characters' spit off your face -- if you like the idea of historical fiction but can't bear ponderous, talentless bores like James Michener -- if you've ever wondered what was going on in Russia during all those curtained years, put "Generations of Winter" in your shopping cart and click CHECK OUT. The book is long, the print is small, and the experience can't be surpassed. One of the formative books of my life -- and, could be, yours!

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.

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.

Vassily Aksyonov's novel Generations of Winter certainly takes one generations to read, but once the reader is able to grasp all of the characters' names (some of them are referred to in multiple ways) as well as the fact that a great deal of the novel is just that, fact, the only word I can come up with to describe the work is "phenomenal." Once you are able to get past the historical facts you may not be familiar with and focus on the strength of a family during a time of great depression and hardship I can only hope you will agree.
The story is set in Moscow during Stalin's post-Revolutionary reign and portrays a family's struggle and perseverance throughout this horrific era.
Although the suffering described appears difficult to fathom, it was most likely more difficult for Aksyonov to relay in such a remarkable and genuine fashion. One could conclude that the individual characters presented to us-members of the Gradov family-represent different political viewpoints during this time. In fact, it seems that different members of the family were involved in most of the events that occurred at this historical time in one way or another.
The existence and struggles of the family are a result of a hardship all the people of this time and place are forced to deal with. The story will become even more moving once you remind yourself of the important factor that many more people faced the same struggle and although they suffered and in some cases lost the battle there were many more that overcame it.
Aksyonov mixes fact and fiction in order to create a soap-opera like collage of storylines including a few brief chapters from the point of view of various animals. As you witness the struggle of the Gradovs you are forced to continue reading to discover whether or not they will succeed in overcoming adversity.
The strength of the Gradov family will capture you and leave you thinking about the injustices the people of Russia dealt with long after you have closed the book. Considering my own ignorance concerning this issue in the history of our humanity this novel was educational to say the least. It opens up a chapter in history that is often ignored and if nothing else is bound to open any reader's eyes.

And nevermind that it isn't as great a masterpiece as Tolstoy's--literature itself isn't as great as in the 19th century, anymore. This book stands with anything in fiction written about the first third of the Soviet era.

As with all Russian literature, the English translation gives the impression that one is viewing an intricately woven tapestry from the back. This is a pity, but not an obstacle to following the story of the Gradov family. The curtain rises in the mid-Twenties. NEP has brought some semblance of normalcy to the economy. The Chekha, though an object of trepidation to ordinary people, is not yet the terror-engine it would become as the NKVD. It's still possible to disagree about politics, and Bolshevik art in the time of Mayakovsky and the Soviet cubist poster artists is still vital, not yet deadened into socialist realist straitjackets.

The Gradovs are a cozy, educated Muscovite family who have so far escaped disruption from the Revolution. They and their Georgian relatives get sucked into the new order, either by slowly accreting compromises with the regime, misplaced faith in its Marxist slogans, or outright "socialist justice". The disconnect between the high honors heaped upon many of them, and the razor's edge they walk to stay together and out of trouble causes all kinds of turbulent anguish.

Nikita Gradov is an especially affecting character. He is tormented by his role in betraying the sailors to the Reds in the Krondstadt mutiny. He is a composite of several real-life Soviet military men. Like Rokossovsky, he is released from the gulag to lead a Soviet army. Like Zhukov, he disputes a point of strategy with Stalin and escapes with his life. And like Chernyakhovsky, he is KIA.

Throughout the book, Aksyonov inserts several surreal "intermissions". These little episodes serve as fantasy counterpoints (or choruses) to the main action. For example, in one, the family dog is revealed to be the reincarnation of a murdered boyar from the time of Ivan the Terrible. In another, a swarm of fireflies descends over all the scenes of the novel. And in one, a garden squirrel is the reincarnation of Lenin himself, to give him time to unwind before he's hurled into eternity. These fantastic japeries seem like holdovers from earlier in Akysonov's career, when he would tweak the Soviet censors.

This novel is rich in tragedy, hitting all the awful low points of the communist regime in Russia, and demonstrating the moral and physical ruin it brought to the people.

I got an MA in Russian Studies, so I may be slightly prejudiced. But this book is one of the reasons I don't consider those years a waste of time, in spite of the fact that I've never applied anything I learned to anything practical.

The regrettably recently-deceased Mr. Aksyonov didn't always knock it out of the park. The Burn was pretty incomprehensible, and The New Sweet Style did zilch for me. But Generations of Winter, and its sequel, The Winter's Hero, are, in a word, magnificent. Magnificent, I say.

It's one of those massive sprawling epics spanning generations and decades, told from God knows how many different points of view, and it rather eerily accurately describes the effects of the Russian Revolution, the Stalinshchina, World War II (or as the Russians call it, The Great Patriotic War)and Stalin's last days on both a national and individual scale--what these events did to the lives of families and individuals. It's also terrifically translated--at no point does either the narrative or the dialogue sound stilted or artificial. It's quirky without being precious. The story is peppered here and there with impressions of current Russia from the viewpoint of reincarnated personages from Russia's past, and each of these little gems says something acidic and and dead on accurate about the state of the country.

This saga of three generations of the Gradov family, a dynasty of Russian doctors struggling to maintain the best of their pre-revolutionary Russian values, is heartbreaking in parts. Lots of characters who I wish didn't end up dying. Aksyonov, as a writer, is as brutal and unsparing as the times that this story chronicle. It's a story he knows well--his mother, Evgenia Ginsburg, was a victim of the paranoia of the 30's, and wrote two of the best books about that experience ever written: Into the Whirlwind and Within the Whirlwind. Apparently, Vassily was listening when Mom talked about the old days.

Even though the subject matter is grim, the story is told with a fierce verve that I can only describe as swashbuckling. Generations of Winter and The Winter's Hero comprise a swaggering romp through one of the most joyless times and places of the miserable 20th century. A phenomenal effort from a writer who I wish was still alive.

I have yet to see the series 'Moskovskaya Saga' (which is based on this book) but I heard both good and bad about the book itself. A few of my family members read the 3 volumes in Russian and as of today I am almost done with the second volume, which more or less is what this book in English is (the first two volumes up until 1945). I agree with other reviews that having trees, horses, dogs, etc do some of the thinking and talking gets distracting and takes away from the story. I am also giving the book 4 stars because of the immense amount of inaccuracies that abound this book when it comes to WWII. Now, before you call or label me a perfectionist I'd like to first ask you to consider the following: is it important for you to know every label and piece of clothing in a character's closet? Or every piece of food on the table that Stalin and Beria are sitting at? Then it should be just as important to name the correct tank and its atributes, the correct number of men in an army (or at least a good estimate from the time you are discussing) and a correct description of the people you are talking about (this goes in hand with the idea that if Stalin is a tyrant he is at least a smart one, give credit where it is due if you are going to follow history). Now, some might already be lost but let me explain the failings of the description of WWII in the book. First we are presented with the 'fact' or 'idea' that no Red Army tank can stand up to German Mrk III and Mrk IV (Pz III & IV) tanks. That is absurd, the T-34 and KV tanks were better than anything the Germans had during the beginning year of WWII. Later on you will notice that the author gives credit to the T-34 being in fact better than German Mrk IV (Pz IV) tanks. I was absolutely amazed to see a reference to an "IS Stalin" tank in 1941, especially one that said it was the worst thing ever created and could only travel 8mph. In fact the IS tank (Stalin is already implied in the name since IS stands for Ioseph Stalin, sometimes also refered to as the JS) was one of the best tanks to come out of the Red Army and WWII and didn't make an appearance until around 1944, they weren't even present during the famous Kursk battle in the summer of 1943. The wonderful Nikita Gradov is given credit for standing up to Stalin during one of the planning sessions for operation 'Kutuzov'. In fact the real man who stood up to Stalin was K.K. Rokossovsky (in fact much of what is written about Nikita reminds me of Rokossovsky). The problem here isn't only that Rokossovsky's actions are attributed to Gradov but the fact that the author names this operation "Kutuzov" when in reality it was operation "Bagration" that this episode happened over, yet at the same time the time reference, 1943, is correct for Kutuzov since Bagration took place in the summer of 1944 (perhaps the author simply needed the time and actions to match up with the story timeline, I hope this doesn't confuse you too much). One of the newspaper reports he presents in the book announces that Vlasov's Army (which was under German Command) went over to the Red Army and helped take Narva. This is of course fiction, I would think he made it up as the history of Vlasov's movement goes until the end of the war when a division of the Russian Liberation Army did in fact turn on the Germans and helped liberate Prague. This did not save them, in the end Vlasov was caught, tried as a traitor, and executed (all of which is described in the book later on). The author presented the reader with Zhukov's 'thoughts' about Voroshilov and Zhukov calling him a coward, well at least in his head he calls him one. This takes away from the fact that while Voroshilov was an 'old horse' in the Red Army and perhaps one of Stalin's 'favorites' he was not a coward at all. During the defense of Leningrad he was out on the front lines encouraging men to attack and counter-attack, in the midst of bullets, artillery, and mortars. While he might have blood on his hands from the purges, there is no reason to make a man out to be worse than he is or a coward when he isn't one. The truth is better than fiction. In general I think the author has something against Zhukov, as if the man doesn't deserve the credit that is given to him even today by some who consider him the best commander to come out of the Red Army and WWII in general. Lastly (at least from what I can recall off the top of my head) no army in 1941 had 300,000 men in it, and there was no 'SSF' "Special Strike Force". I can overlook "SSF" but I can't overlook that such a huge number would be assigned to it or that it miraculously encircled an entire German Army during the winter of 1941/42. At least stick to history if you're going to be writing about it. While the first half of the book was interesting, and yet again I am tired of reading about those bad bad NKVD men who do nothing but torture and execute (when in fact during the war they were in divisions that fought right alongside the Red Army) the stories were touching and interesting and definitely kept me in suspense as I tried to read just a few more pages before turning in for the night. Worth the read to get aquainted with the time period, but take it with a pound of salt. Ideologies are a touchy thing, the authors mother was Evegnia Ginzburg who suffered in the Gulag camp system so there is evidence enough to understand that the author isn't writing an unbiased work I just can't understand why he needs to rewrite WWII to present his viewpoint.

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, by Vassily Aksyonov, is a multi-volume piece about the incidents and struggles that confront Russia during the reign of Stalin. The novel mixes facts with fiction, providing the tale of one family's hardships during the very real history of Soviet Russia. It is a story of friendship and loyalty, but it also reeks of betrayal and distrust. Throughout the work, heroes as well as villains emerge, and the family must deal with each character type in turn. The story, related intriguingly, allows the reader unrestrained access into the cruel world of Stalinist Russia.
The novel is divided into three volumes, two of which are joined into one book. The length of the book is a bit frightening, and may put off those readers looking for a short, simple story. Generations of Winter is not for the faint of heart. It is lengthy and involved, and at times can be frustrating to read. There are ten intermissions throughout the work, some told from the point of view of an animal. Perhaps Aksyonov thought they would break up the story, and provide rest for the reader's taxed brain, but they are un-necessary and even annoying. If one chooses, they can be omitted while reading without any real effect on the story itself. The intermissions, however, are not the only challenge presented to the reader.
The book provides more detail about the Soviet Union under the realm of Stalin than any non-history buff can process, but one should look past the confusion to see the novel at its best. Some basic history is required to grasp the plot, but the book goes a bit overboard. Rather than aiding the reader, the amount of history often leads to confusion. The huge number of factual characters is overwhelming, and has the potential to turn the reader off. However, if one can bypass the confusion, a beautiful yet haunting piece ap-pears.
To read Generations of Winter is to have a life-changing experience. The fic-tional characters are unlike any ever before seen, and will leave a lasting impression on the mind of the reader. The suffering of the extended family, and their close friends, is unimaginable, but yet also made real. No textbook account, and most other fictional ac-counts, could create such a vivid picture of the anguish the Russian people faced, both mentally and physically. Their loved ones were sent off to fight for their country, and then later imprisoned and tortured for being "traitors." Families were torn apart, and then later were mended back together, often with little success. The characters face the most fierce form of destruction to the human psyche, war, yet manage to go on, though not un-scarred. The resolve and spirit of the characters is moving, and one feels for them be-cause their sufferings were real for millions of Russians.
The book allows one to see the ugly face of Stalin, and his whole regime, up close. The injustices inflicted upon the Russian populace are horrific, and comparable to the manner in which Hitler treated the Jews. The cruelty of Stalin seems to be overshad-owed by Hitler's malice, but once one reads the tale of Nikita, Boris, Nina, and the oth-ers, ignorance of Stalin's ways will be vanquished. The heroes of the novel do not achieve that status through combat, but rather because of their unbreakable spirit. Nikita is tortured at Stalin's command, but then turns around and willingly fights for his captor against the Germans. The love for their country seems to be the motivation behind many of the characters actions and thoughts, even when that country does not love them back.
Generations of Winter may seem off-putting at first glance due to various factors, such as length and abundance of history. However, if one can look beyond the surface, an unforgettable tale of humanity and suffering will be revealed. One can only benefit from reading this eye-opening book, and the results just may be life-altering.

It seems to have become popular to compare this book to War and Peace, but the difference between the two is night and day. War and Peace reads effortlessly, while Generations of Winter is clunky at best. Tolstoy can breathe more life into a character in a single line than Aksyonov managed in his entire book. Yes, both are epics, but War and Peace this is clearly not.