Would you be surprised if I told you that, in the six years I’ve lived in Eindhoven (Netherlands), I’ve often thought about my city, Milan (Italy)? Maybe you’d think it’s nostalgia… But no, not at all! If anything, I felt at home — or at least, not too far away. That’s because Milan and Eindhoven have a lot in common.
Sure, there are differences, but here, let’s focus on what connects these two cities and what they share.
These are the features that the two cities have in common. Water, climate, the architect Boeri, the golden age, the idea of freedom that gradually evolves from the freedom of trade to freedom without attributes, work, the mainstay, and finally the idea of the future.
The conclusion is entrusted to the Excelsior ballet. The ballet, first performed at La Scala in 1881, celebrates the victory of science over superstition

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast. Episode 6 - Living at House 6/1 -
Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook You can read the book for free on Amazon or buy your copy.


In Grossman’s narrative, House 6/1 symbolizes all the places in Stalingrad—public buildings, homes, streets, and squares—where battles raged for every floor, every room, every inch of ground. While the identities of the countless individuals who fought fiercely against the Germans in these spaces often remain unknown, the novel restores them through its characters: archetypes of humanity painted with touches of humor and wit. Against the backdrop of death, destruction, and tragedy, this segment of the story adopts a different register. Here, the tone is light-hearted, reflecting the voices of ordinary people—terrified yet defiant, mocking their fear.

This episode is the last one.  Thank you for your attention and hope to see you again next time!

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast.
Episode 5 - A Parcel at the Station

A Parcel at the Station is a poignant and tender story about Lena, a very young nurse serving on one of the most brutal fronts of the war.
Amid the relentless battle for the station unfolds the sorrowful tale of Lena's love for Kovalyov, a courageous young officer of the XIII Guards Division.
An elegiac tone weaves through the grotesque realities of war.

Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook
You can read the book for free on amazon or buy your copy.
All info In the description of the episode.

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast.
Episode 4 - Scenes fron A Marriage

In the summer of 1942, the shadow of war looms over Stalingrad, yet life in the city continues much as before. Its inhabitants persist in their routines, among them Pavel Andreevich Andreev, a worker at the Red October foundry, and his wife, Varvara. The scene unfolds in their home, in the kitchen. Pavel is having dinner before heading out for his night shift at the factory, while Varvara stands nearby, ready to serve him as she has done faithfully for forty years of their shared life. To fully grasp the dynamics of this moment, we must first learn more about the protagonists.

Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook
You can read the book for free on amazon or buy your copy.
All info In the description of the episode.

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast.
Episode 3 - Dictators - Part two - Stalin



Stalin is a looming yet indirect presence. In the first novel, his voice is heard, but he appears in person only in two brief chapters of Life and Fate. In these pivotal chapters, there is no space for the perspectives of other characters, as no one, except for his personal secretary, has access to Stalin.
Thus, the narrator resumes control, imagining Stalin’s.

Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook
You can read the book for free on amazon or buy your copy.
All info In the description of the episode.

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast.
 Episode 3 - Dictators - Part One - Hitler

The two dictators share a profound estrangement from the European political and legal tradition, the very foundation of democracy as a system of governance. Both Hitler and Stalin believe that the rights they claim for their own people need not be extended to others. Crude and devoid of moral scruples, indifferent to the human cost of their actions, the two men are strikingly alike. Yet, they are not identical. While the outcomes of their regimes—terror and extermination—are comparable, their personalities and methods differ.

 The pages devoted to these dictators resonate with Imre Kertész’s reflections in his essay The Immortality of the Concentration Camps. Kertész compares Nazism and Bolshevism, identifying them as “the two murderous political movements of the twentieth century.” He highlights their differences—not in the fatal consequences of their actions, which are equally catastrophic, but in their underlying nature.  

Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook.
You can read the book for free on amazon or buy your copy.

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast.
Episode two, Ordinary Epic - part two, Bombs on the Front

Bombing the front line is not a military necessity. Its true purpose is to shatter the morale of those under fire. Lying prone on the ground, cut off from comrades, surrounded by smoke and flames for hours on end, soldiers lose their thoughts, their vision, even their very sense of self. The story of war here is one of deafening roar, choking smoke, searing fire, and an acute awareness of the body’s fragility—blood flowing copiously, pain without end.

Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook.
You can read the book for free on amazon or buy your copy.

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast.
Episode Two - Part one - Bombs on the city

To destroy a city means to disarticulate, dismember, and dismantle an organized human system. It means devastating in just a few hours a civil structure that took years, even decades, to build. The destruction of Stalingrad, the very heart of the narrative, unfolds across thirteen unforgettable chapters. These chapters are memorable for their austere and grand descriptive power, which draws on sight, hearing, and smell: the first sighting of planes, their frenzied roar, the varied crashes of bombs, and the acrid stench of an enormous fire.

Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook.
You can read the book for free on Amazon or buy your copy.

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast. Episode 1 Landscapes. Part Two.
The Kalmyk Steppe.

The Volga is not the only natural landscape in the story. Around Stalingrad, there are the Kalmyk Steppe and the desolate Caspian region. The landscapes in Grossman’s two novels are not mere backdrops; they are also active characters. The Volga, with its eternal rhythm, which repeats every day undisturbed, accompanies the life and death of humans. The Kalmyk Steppe, glabrous, monotonous, and arid—precisely because it is empty—speaks to man of the essence of things


Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook.
You can read the book for free on Amazon or buy your copy.

Voices from Stalingrad. Podcast. Episode 1 Landscapes. Part one. 
Know what kind of rhythm governs men. 

The Volga  river is a majestic landscape. The war shatters the deep silence of the river, revealing its alien nature to the natural rhythm that alternates life and death in an ever-living cycle. War generates violent death. However, it cannot disrupt the rhythm of life. The river is the intangible metronome that sets the rhythm.

Readings from Ferdinanda Cremascoli's illustrated eBook.
You can read the book for free on Amazon or buy your copy.