Testimony from the Literary Memoirs of Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin (2023)

“Lipkin’s literary memoir is a riveting exploration of an epoch through the eyes of a remarkable witness who met and befriended some of the most notable Soviet writers of the twentieth century including Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Platonov, Akhmatova and, most importantly, Vasily Grossman. The story of Lipkin’s friendship with Grossman, which takes up most of the memoir, not only brings to life Grossman’s personality but also reveals that in the face of immense pressure neither Lipkin nor Grossman “lost the human in themselves”. Lipkin’s pen, to play with an expression found in this book in a letter by Grossman, is not powerless. On the contrary, it moves us and touches us deeply. We are much indebted to Green and Makarov for having made parts of Lipkin’s splendid memoir available to a wide readership. Thank you for having brought [him] to my attention. He is a wonderful writer.”

Professor Paolo Mancosu – author of Inside The Zhivago Storm (Feltrinelli 2013).