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Across the twentieth century, the Russian literary hero remained central to Russian fiction and frequently "battled" one enemy or another, whether on the battlefield or on a civilian front. War was the experience of the Russian people, and it became a dominant trope to represent the Soviet experience in literature as well as other areas of cultural life. This book traces those war experiences, memories, tropes, and metaphors in the literature of the Soviet and post-Soviet period, examining the work of Dmitry Furmanov, Fyodor Gladkov, Alexander Tvardovsky, Emmanuil Kazakevich, Vera Panova, Viktor Nekrasov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Voinovich, Sergei Dovlatov, Vladimir Makanin, Viktor Astafiev, Viktor Pelevin, and Vasily Aksyonov. These authors represented official Soviet literature and underground or dissident literature; they fell into and out of favor, were exiled and returned to Russia, died at home and abroad. Most importantly, they were all touched by war, and they reacted to the state of war in their literary works Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I. CREATING HEROES FROM CHAOS -- Chapter One. Born in the Crucible of War Chapaev and His Socialist Realist Comrades -- Part II. WORLD WAR II AND THE HERO -- Chapter Two. The Peasant-Soldier: Alexander Tvardovsky and a New Chapaev -- Chapter Three. Eyewitnesses to Heroism: Emmanuil Kazakevich and Vera Panova -- Chapter Four. Retreat: Viktor Nekrasov and the Truth of the Trenches -- Part III. COLD WAR REPERCUSSIONS -- Chapter Five. From World War to Cold War: Tvardovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Voinovich, and Heroism in the Post-Stalin Period -- Chapter Six. Antiheroes in a Post-heroic Age: Sergei Dovlatov, Vladimir Makanin, and Cold War Malaise -- Part IV. Chapaev and War: Russian Redux -- Chapter Seven. Revisiting War: Viktor Astafiev and the Boys of '24 -- Chapter Eight. Revisiting Chapaev: Viktor Pelevin and Vasily Aksyonov -- Afterword -- References -- Index
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