Everything Flows

Everything Flows is a work by Vasily Grossman, first written in 1961 and censored by the USSR but eventually published in 1989 as part of glasnost. Its main story is a simple one, about released political prisoner Ivan Grigoryevich, free from the gulag after 30 years of waiting. Accompanying his story are those of his family, acquaintances, and a few others.

But, really, that is all a skeleton. The real meat of this story Grossman's depiction of the oppression of the Soviet Union, of the informers that caved to it, those who meekly helped it along, the horrors of the Holodomor, the birth of the oppressive State from the Bolshevik revolution, and the beauty of freedom.


 * Author Tract: It's basically a tract about Grossman's view of Stalinist oppression and the necessity of freedom, with some other stuff to help it all go down.
 * Samizdat: First published in this form.
 * The Stool Pigeon: Those who sold others out to the secret police are one of the main topics, with the trial of the hypothetical Judases serving to analyze several of them and what could motivate them to destroy their fellows.