Hegel: The Philosopher of Freedom by Klaus Vieweg,
translated by Sophia Kottman
and Paul A. Kottman

Vasily Grossman’s epic of the siege of Stalingrad, Life and Fate (1980), contains multitudes. In one memorable exchange, Bogoleev—an art historian and poet who reveres Osip Mandelstam and whose mind “was unusual, clearly capable of profound thoughts, but … obsessed with petty everyday matter”—launches into his poems with his fellow inmate at Lubyanka, the old Bolshevik Krymov, before breaking off self-consciously:

“‘I’m sorry. You’re probably not in the least interested.’ Krymov grinned. ‘To be quite honest, I couldn’t understand a word of it. But I read all of Hegel once—and I could understand that.’”