I made it to Berlin last night, just like I thought I would. And I’ve seen again how Grossman’s journals would have put him in a gulag if anyone had read them at the time.
According to Grossman, as soon as the Red Army crossed into non-Soviet territory, it seems like they started doing the same things to the population there that the Nazis had done when invaded the Soviet Union three years before. The Red Army raped and looted their way from Poland to Berlin. For all their ideas about fighting a moral war against the evil empire as they saw it, the Red Army indulged in a lot of revenge.
In a way, it makes me think about all the things that are going on today–the abridgement of civil liberties, all the secrets about what’s going on with the terror suspects that have been captured. To me, it looks like another country has forgotten its high ideals and sunk to the level that the other guys were playing at, the guys we went to war against. I’m going to stop there, because this is not a political blog and I feel a rant coming on.
So, let’s rewind a bit. I really enjoyed A Writer at War, and I’m glad I had my local public library buy it and add this book to the library collection. It’s exceedingly well written, thought-provoking, inspiring, and enlightening. If you know anyone who likes war memoirs or good history nonfiction, you might want to recommend this book to them.