Vasily Grossman is a Russian writer, journalist, and war correspondent, author of the large-scale epic novel “Life and Fate,” confiscated in 1961, miraculously preserved, and with a complicated story of how it came to print, along with a detective account of restoring the manuscript. It is a great work of Russian prose of the 20th century, the second part of a diptych dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad. It is compared to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” in the breadth of its coverage of events. The novel is saturated with true patriotism, freedom of spirit, and genuine courage in expressing thought. The author argues that it is social obedience that leads to the creation of a world of evil. The very fact that this work was written proves that resisting a totalitarian system is possible.