“Like a welt on the body…” The Battle of Stalingrad in Boris Yekimov’s short story Underneath a Tall Cross [Pod vysokim krestom]

Abstract

The article discusses B. Yekimov’s short story Underneath a Tall Cross [Pod vysokim krestom], an attempt to interpret the ordeal of the Great Patriotic War through the experiences of the Atarshchikov farmworker family. Of the story’s two plotlines, one is concerned with the events of the year 2004, marked by preparations for the sixtieth anniversary of the 1945 Victory Day. The other evokes memories of 1942, known to the protagonist, the young cowherd Ivan, mainly from his relatives’ recollections. Following an encounter with grave robbers, Ivan relives his family’s history, including the construction of temporary wooden crosses over the mass graves of soldiers killed in the Volgograd region. The scholar also traces the connection between Yekimov’s story and documented reminiscences of the Battle of Stalingrad (such as Marshal Yeryomenko’s memoir and testimonies of occupation survivors) as well as P. Seleznyov’s novel Southern Cross [Yuzhniy krest]. Perevalova argues that, in Underneath a Tall Cross, Yekimov engages in an artistic conversation with the author of Southern Cross, with both writers viewing the cross as a symbol of a spiritual weapon against evil forces of any stripe.