麻豆约拍

As the Russian tanks encircle Stalingrad, the commanders of the German 6th Army realise that the end is in sight but Hitler will not permit a surrender.

Spiridonov abandons the power station to join his daughter, Vera, and her new baby on a barge frozen into the Volga. As the citizens of Stalingrad start to reclaim their wrecked city, the family begin to make plans for the future.

Stepan Spiridonov ..... Kenneth Cranham
Vera Spiridonova ..... Morven Christie
Pavel Andreyev ..... Malcolm Tierney
General Von Paulus ..... Matthew Marsh
General Schmidt ..... Elliot Cowan
Colonel Adam ..... Jonathan Cullen
Lieutenant Peter Bach ..... Geoffrey Streatfeild
Sergeant Eisenaug ..... Michael Shelford
Zina ..... Jessica Raine
Major Byerozkin ..... Sam Dale
Alexandra Vladimirovna ..... Ann Mitchell
Natalya ..... Alison Pettit
Sergeyevna ..... Christine Kavanagh
Hitler's Orderly ..... David Seddon
Stalin's secretary ..... Tony Bell
Petenkoffer ..... Lloyd Thomas
Driver ..... Jude Akuwudike

Dramatised by Jonathan Myerson.

Original music by John Hardy with Rob Whitehead.

Director: Alison Hindell

Set against the ferocious Battle of Stalingrad, Life and Fate charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war and is increasingly hailed as the most important Russian novel of the 20th century. Its comparison of Stalinism with Nazism was considered by Soviet authorities to be so dangerous that the manuscript itself was arrested. Grossman died in 1964, never knowing that his book would be smuggled to the West and eventually published in 1980.

First broadcast on 麻豆约拍 Radio 4 in September 2011.