Many descriptions of the psychological toll on soldiers and civilians are captured in Vasily Grossman’s epic novels .
As evening deepened into a bruising purple, the German "organ" began to howl—the sound of Soviet Katyusha rockets screaming across the sky. The horizon lit up in rhythmic pulses of orange, illuminating the desolate landscape. In the brief flashes, Nikolai saw the truth of the city: it was no longer a place of living people, but a massive, frozen graveyard of steel and bone. Stalingrado
Nikolai looked at his grease-stained hands. "If we stop being human, Sasha, then there’s nothing left to defend." Many descriptions of the psychological toll on soldiers
Nikolai closed his eyes. He thought of the wheat fields of his village, the warmth of a clay stove, and the smell of baking rye. He knew that by morning, many of the men across the street would be frozen solid in their shallow foxholes. He knew many of his own comrades would not wake up. In the brief flashes, Nikolai saw the truth
A sudden, sharp crack echoed through the square. Sasha flinched as a bullet sparked off the stone an inch from his head.
That night, the temperature plummeted to thirty below. The silence was heavier than the shelling. From the German lines, the faint, haunting melody of a mouth organ drifted across the ruins. It was a Christmas carol— Stille Nacht .
