August 1914

Fülszöveg

This is the work which Solzhenitsyn has described as having long been 'the chief artistic design of my life\ August 1914 is the first of a series of interlinked novels whose grand theme is the growing pains of modern Russia. In August 1914 the Russian army, illequipped though greatly superior in numbers, in response to the call of the Allies in the West advanced too rapidly into East Prussia and was destroyed by the Germans at Tannenberg. In sixty-odd chapters., most of them covering the eleven fatal days of the campaign, Solzhenitsyn introduces us to a large cast of characters from all walks of life. We become enthrallingly involved in every aspect of the tragic muddle of the Russian military effort. We see the heroic common soldiers under fearful bombardment, hear the gossip and argument at headquarters, learn the strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of the commanders, right up to the Grand-Duke Nicholas himself. When the débdcle is complete, we know that the guilty will... Tovább

Fülszöveg

This is the work which Solzhenitsyn has described as having long been 'the chief artistic design of my life\ August 1914 is the first of a series of interlinked novels whose grand theme is the growing pains of modern Russia. In August 1914 the Russian army, illequipped though greatly superior in numbers, in response to the call of the Allies in the West advanced too rapidly into East Prussia and was destroyed by the Germans at Tannenberg. In sixty-odd chapters., most of them covering the eleven fatal days of the campaign, Solzhenitsyn introduces us to a large cast of characters from all walks of life. We become enthrallingly involved in every aspect of the tragic muddle of the Russian military effort. We see the heroic common soldiers under fearful bombardment, hear the gossip and argument at headquarters, learn the strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of the commanders, right up to the Grand-Duke Nicholas himself. When the débdcle is complete, we know that the guilty will escape through their influence at court, that Russia's military humiliation is only a symptom of the deeper shame of the Tsarist system, and that a new Russia will somehow have to be born. Using the techniques of non-fiction inside a fictional framework, Solzhenitsyn has produced a masterpiece that grips both ways. Every page glows with the author's love of his country and with deep concern for ordinary men and women. ' It coníirms what should not be in question, that Alexander Solzhenitsyn is the greatest Russian novelist of this century ... a marvellous achievement . . . enormously powerful.' Sunday Times 1 The best translated book I have ever read in my life.5 lord norwich, B.B.C. This translation is by michael glenny Vissza