Cursed and killed

Astafyev worked for a long time-from 1990 to 1994-and did not write the planned last, third book on Roman and killed, but this did not prevent the work from becoming one of the most powerful and piercing samples of Russian “military” prose.
The very name of the novel that came from the writings of the Russian Old Believers is unusual: “Everyone who sows the turmoil, wars and fratricide on earth, will be cursed and killed by God.”
All in this epic is the idea of ​​war As the punishment of God, sent to the people for the horrors of the revolution and the rejection of faith, the ultimate realism in the descriptions of the soldier’s life, the surprisingly sincere and folk patriotism, combined with the equally deep and folk rejection of “advisory”. There was nothing like this in the Russian “military” prose either before or after the amazing epic of Astafyev