Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel; New, Complete, Uncensored Version

А Анатолий

Macmillan, 1970 - Fiction - 477 pages

An internationally acclaimed documentary novel that describes the fateful collision of Russia, Ukraine, and Nazi Germany, and one of the largest mass executions of the Holocaust

“I wonder if we will ever understand that the most precious thing in this world is a man’s life and his freedom? Or is there still more barbarism ahead? With these questions I think I shall bring this book to an end. I wish you peace. And freedom.”

At the age of 12, Anatoly Kuznetsov experienced the Nazi invasion of Ukraine, and soon began keeping a diary of the brutal occupation of Kiev that followed. Years later, he combined those notebooks with other survivors’ memories to create a classic work of documentary witness in the form of a novel. When Babi Yar was first published in a Soviet magazine in 1966, it became a literary sensation, not least for its powerful and unprecedented narratives of the Nazi massacre of the city’s Jews, and later Roma, prisoners of war, and other victims, at the Babi Yar ravine—one of the largest mass killings of the Holocaust. After Kuznetsov defected to Great Britain in 1969, he republished the book in a new edition that included extensive passages censored by Soviets, and later reflections.

In its fully realized form, Babi Yar is a classic of Holocaust and World War II testimony. With sustained immediacy, it relates a scrappy but principled boy’s day to day fight to survive, and provide for his family. He dodges bullets and transport to Germany, befriends black market horse dealers and prerevolutionary aristocrats, wonders at the pomp of the Nazi’s opera performances, overhears his mother and grandparents debate the merits of German and Soviet rule, collects grenades, digs hiding places, and confronts the moral dilemmas of assisting neighbors or looting stores—all the while hearing the constant hum of bullets at the Babi Yar ravine nearby. In a bravura feat of reporting, he tells the story of what happened at Babi Yar—from the deceptive roundup of the city’s Jews and execution of the national soccer team to the memoires of the site’s few survivors, and the story of a daring escape. The book’s once-censored passages explore the Soviet effort to hide the realities of the massacre, and other facts about wartime the regime did not want discussed. In the manner of Elie Wiesel’s Night or The Diary of Anne Frank, here is a book that tells some of the most uncomfortable truths of the past century—and the most essential.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - arubabookwoman - LibraryThing

Babi Yar is a ravine near the city of Kiev where the Nazis massacred thousands of Jews during World War II, primarily shooting them as they stood naked on the edge of the ravine. The author was a 12 ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - sross008 - LibraryThing

Babi Yar was included on so many Top 100 lists that I was intrigued, and I can't say I was disappointed in the book, but it wasn't the gripping expose I'd expected. The free-flowing structure makes ...

Contents

• Ashes: 13
• The End of Soviet Rule: 21
• Lootings a Lot of Fun But You Have to Know How: 32
• A Word from the Author: 63
• The Kreshchatik: 76
• The Order: 88
• Babi Yar: 99
• A Chapter of Reminiscences: 120
• A Chapter of Original Documents: 149
• Burning the Books: 157
• Go Into Business: 166
• Kharkov Falls: 172
• A Beautiful Spacious Blessed Land: 186
• The KievPechersk Monastery: 194
• Night: 202
• Man Lives to Eat: 209
• Enemies of the People: 218
• Business Becomes Dangerous: 230
• Death: 237
• Hitlers Birthday: 249
• Off to Germany: 256
• A Word From the Author: 262
• Excessively Clever People are Enemies: 274
• Potatoes in Flower: 280
• A Legend and the Truth: 289
• The System: 296
• AntiNazi: 311
• To Kill a Fish: 321
• A Chapter of Original Documents: 327
• How to Turn a Horse into Sausages: 337
• Cannibals: 347
• Escape from Silence: 357
• The Final Phase 37: 370
• A Word from the Author: 389
• War of the Worlds: 408
• How Many Times Should I Be Shot?: 419
• A Chapter From the Future: 448
• La Commedia e Finita: 462
• Getting Rid of the Ashes: 468

About the author

Anatoly Kuznetsov was born in Kiev in 1929. During World War II, he endured the Nazi occupation of the city, and later described his experiences in the documentary novel Babi Yar, which appeared in a Soviet magazine in 1966 and was later published abroad. He defected to Great Britain in 1969, and an uncensored version of Babi Yar was published in the United States in 1970 under the pseudonym A. Anatoli. He died in London in 1979.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel; New, Complete, Uncensored Version
• Author: А Анатолий
• Translated by: David Floyd
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 1970
• ISBN: 0374528179, 9780374528171
• Length: 477 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Biographical; Fiction / Historical / World War II