From The Fire Of Stalingrad

I read a rather unusual book this week, the recently published "From the Fires of Stalingrad" by Ljubov Sladkova-Avetisian. It's the memoir of a Russian woman who, at the age of 14, lived through the Battle of Stalingrad. The memoir is only about 160 pages long, but the full text is included in

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English, Russian and French so that the book is closer to 500 pages.

Born in 1928, the author grew up in a house near Mamayev Kurgan, a mound that dominates the city and was the site of fierce fighting during the Battle of Stalingrad. Now in her eighties, the author's memoir is short, affecting, but confused. The timeline of events in Stalingrad are jumbled up and tied in knots. It's probably impossible to disentangle them after all these years, but it's almost beside the point. Despite the clumsy translation, the terror of a young girl trapped in the middle of the battle is palpable. In fact, the fractured narrative and awkward writing seem to magnify the horror and make the experience more "real" than if the writing were more accomplished.

After the battle, Ljubov leaves Stalingrad to join her young aunt in the Soviet Army to work in a communications unit. She spends the rest of the war near the front carrying messages and growing up within a close knit group of young women.

I can't say that it was a good book, but will say that it was memorable.

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