INTRODUCTION
Morality of feat (Vasil Bykov)
The cruelty of war (V. Astafiev)
The image of a hero. "Vasily Terkin"
The feat of man in war (M.A. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man”)
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
Human history is replete with wars. But the world has never known a war like World War II. Unleashed by German fascism, it pulled dozens of countries, hundreds of millions of people into its fiery orbit, marking the 30-40s of our century with a terrible, bloody metastasis. This war claimed more than 56 million human lives, and hundreds of thousands of cities and villages were razed to the ground.
In 1941, the Second World War entered its main and decisive phase. Having treacherously violated the Non-Aggression Pact, Hitler's troops launched an attack on the Soviet Union on June 22. The Great Patriotic War began Soviet people, which largely determined the further course of world history. Just as there was nothing equal to this war in the history of mankind, so in the history of world art there was not such a number of different kinds of works as about this tragic time.
Great Theme Patriotic War became for many years one of the main themes of 20th century literature. There are many reasons for this. This is the enduring awareness of the irreparable losses that the war brought, and the severity of moral conflicts that are possible only in an extreme situation, and the fact that for a long time every truthful word about modernity was expelled from Soviet literature - the theme of war sometimes remained the only island of authenticity in the stream contrived, false prose, where all conflicts, according to instructions from “above,” were supposed to reflect the struggle of the good with the best.
The theme of war was especially strong in Soviet literature. From the very first days of the grandiose battle, our writers stood in line with all the fighting people. Over a thousand writers were on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, defending their native land with pen and machine gun.
The high patriotic mission of serving one’s people has always distinguished Russian art, and that is why, along with the passionate words of contemporary artists, the immortal art of the past also called the Soviet people to fight the enemy.
The Great Patriotic War was a test of all the vital forces of our people, our socialist system. In this war, not just two armies, two states fought in mortal combat. The battle was fought by two ideological systems, two moralities. The Soviet people contrasted the bestial, misanthropic morality of fascism with the highest, fairest, most humane communist morality, which largely determined and historically determined the pattern of our Victory.
“In any war,” taught V.I. Lenin, - victory is ultimately determined by the state of mind of those masses who shed their blood on the battlefield. The conviction of the justice of the war, the consciousness of the need to sacrifice one’s life for the good of one’s brothers, lifts the spirit of the soldiers and makes them endure unheard-of hardships.”
The decisive role in history was assigned to the conscious masses of the people. The people are the creator of history and its main engine. And during the war years, the Soviet people made history, defending everything that was highest, most advanced and just from death and destruction, showing the whole world the greatest resilience and mass heroism, which even their enemies were forced to recognize.
The mass heroism of the Soviet people did not arise out of nowhere. Behind it is the cementing force of the Bolshevik Party, a new, most advanced and fair social system, the experience of revolution and civil war.
It is no coincidence that the outstanding Soviet commander Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov noted the aggravated feeling of love for the Fatherland during the war.
The last war was a just war of liberation for our country. But, having defended their independence and fulfilled their patriotic duty, the Soviet people also fulfilled their international duty: the peoples of Europe were freed from fascist slavery. And this is a huge merit to humanity of our people, our army.
It is the greatness of the immortal heroic feat of our people in the Great Patriotic War, the imperishable Memory of the sacrifices made, that is the main reason that forces us to return to the military theme again and again Soviet writers, striving to truthfully and artistically convincingly show how Soviet people survived in years of fire how and why he won.
Another important reason for the constant attention of word artists to the theme of the Great Patriotic War is its extreme relevance. In the best works about war, which reveal the conflicts and problems of that time, we find the key to solving the problems of today, and above all moral problems.
The theme of morality and moral quest is being actively developed throughout our literature. But, perhaps, the achievements in prose about war are especially significant here. It is war, with its tragedy and heroism, with its inhumanly difficult everyday life, with the extreme polarization of good and evil, with its crisis situations, into which a person every now and then finds himself and in which his basic human qualities are most clearly highlighted, that gives artists the richest material for words. coverage of moral and ethical problems.
The relevance and topicality of the military topic is also manifested in the fact that it is the subject of an intense ideological struggle. The significance of this topic goes far beyond the war itself and is organically connected with the main political problems of our time.
Prose about the Great Patriotic War has always been and is today at the very forefront of the ideological front, waging, on the one hand, an irreconcilable struggle against the forces of militarism and reaction, against those Western ideologists and writers who have forgotten the lessons of history and who are calling for a new war, and on the other hand. the other - sharply polemicizing with those progressive and honest foreign artists who, preaching pacifist ideas, deny not only wars of aggression, but also just, liberating ones.
Prose about the Patriotic War, having emerged in the very first days of the great battle, already has more than forty years of history and glorious traditions, firmly connected with the traditions of all Russian and Soviet literature.
Our literature, in particular prose, is without a doubt one of the most interesting and significant on the planet today. Even a few names from a fairly large number of our talented writers actively working today would constitute the pride and glory of any national literature in the world.
And life itself continues the series, placing after the classics the names of modern Soviet writers.
This does not mean, of course, that they “matched” the classics and reached the “heavenly heights” of literature. But, undoubtedly, the most talented of them are worthy followers and continuers of the traditions of Russian literature, outside of which any attempts at creativity turn out to be fruitless.
Memory of the war. It does not wear off or fade over the years. Because, probably, this is not only the memory of individual people or one generation. This is the Memory of the People, forever embedded in its history, in its present and future, in its national identity. And every new book about the war - another confirmation of this. And more and more such books are appearing, as are artists writing on this topic.
For those who have become acquainted with the work of front-line writers, who have come to know and love their heroes, there will certainly exist, along with the world of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Sholokhov and Leonov, the world of Yuri Bondarev, Vasil Bykov, Evgeny Nosov, Viktor Astafiev, a unique, wide and wide open, absorbing the most important “impulses of the era,” reflecting its dramatic contradictions. The strength of the unique impact of their books lies in the powerful, truly folk talent of the artists, in the fact that their heroes are “the main characters of human existence - Personality, History, Struggle, Time, Morality as a social conscience, illuminated by hope” (Yu. Bondarev).
The talent of these writers is in many ways a tragic talent. But if we keep in mind the joy of discovering something new, intense reflection on the meaning of human existence, moral purification - all that true art has always been strong in, then this is precisely the holiday that word artists give to their readers.
The books of these artists also carry a huge educational and patriotic charge. Behind each of their lines is the selfless heroism of the Soviet people, courage and perseverance - everything that the generation of front-line writers fully possessed and that is so necessary for today's youth.
war heroism moral feat
MORALITY OF FEAT
(Vasil Bykov)
“I am interested, first of all, not in the war itself, not even in its way of life and the technology of combat, although all this is also important for art, but, mainly, in the moral world of man, the possibilities of his spirit” (Vasil Bykov).
V. Bykov remained faithful to the main - and only - theme of his work - the theme of the Great Patriotic War; he sought to use “local” material to “globally” explore the characters of his heroes, moral and civic essence; was not tempted by such a tempting prospect of displaying a bright, outwardly spectacular heroic deed. In all his works, the idea that is so dear to the writer is always heard that not everything is subject to brute and ruthless force, that there is something much more powerful than the power of weapons. This “something,” as always with Bykov, is morality, morality, which underlies the foundations of human existence and radically determines his behavior, his choice in critical life situations, especially cruel and tragic ones during the hard times of war. It was then, the writer is deeply convinced, that “the importance of human morality, the inviolability of basic moral criteria” was most clearly revealed.
A keen interest in the moral world of man and the capabilities of his spirit was noticeable in Bykov from the very beginning of his creative career, from the first stories and tales of the late 50s and early 60s. Already in these works the main, purely military conflict is intertwined with a moral conflict. The heroes of “Crane Cry”, “The Third Rocket”, “Front Page” fight not only against fascists, but also against scoundrels, cowards, opportunists in their own ranks, bearing, as it were, a double burden. In subsequent works, this creative direction of the writer manifested itself even more clearly.
Developing moral issues based on the material of the past war, V. Bykov raises those deep layers moral life societies that are now, today, this very minute, in confrontation, formation, seething passions and opinions.
And it is no coincidence that in some of his works, such as “Obelisk”, “Wolf Pack”, the action is transferred to the present day.
Vasily Vladimirovich Bykov never tires of reminding us with his works of the greatness of the immortal feat of the Soviet people during the war, of that invisible but strong connection that connects today's generation with the generation of the war years.
“The problem of heroism during the war,” said V. Bykov in one of the conversations, “is decisive, the main one. Courage, courage, contempt for death - these are the main qualities that determine the dignity of a warrior. But in peacetime we do not go on reconnaissance, contempt for death is not required of us, and we only need courage in emergency situations. However, what stood behind heroism during the war, fed it, was its soil - has it really lost its power? Yes, we don’t go on reconnaissance missions today, but this circumstance does not prevent us from now valuing honesty, loyalty in friendship, courage, and a sense of responsibility in a comrade. And now we need integrity, loyalty to ideals, selflessness - this still determines our morality, just as it fueled heroism during the war years. And the education of communist morality is the primary task of literature. Literature must, without ceasing, ring its bells, persistently awakening in people the need for high spirituality, without which any highest progress in material culture will not be a joy.”
It is this extremely relevant and modern sound of V. Bykov’s works that explains the deep interest of a wide range of readers.
The plot of Bykov's works was organized around one, sometimes insignificant, from the point of view of the overall strategy of the war, episode, and the entire canvas was characterized by the realistic authenticity of what was depicted, the brightness and richness of colors.
In Vasil Bykov's stories we will not see any grandiose tank battles or decisive operations. V. Bykov pays all his attention to the inner world of a person in war, striving to truthfully and artistically show the greatness of the spirit of people, the origins of their unparalleled heroism. He always gives close-ups to the soldiers. Private war.
Bykov's creative search also has another, clearly visible pattern: almost every new story of his - for all its independence, completeness and completeness - is at the same time, to some extent, a continuation of his previous books. From story to story, Bykov returns to the thoughts that concern him, developing them and deepening them, and thus moving further and further in solving the problem central to his entire work - the problem of heroism.
Bykov's heroics are different from those established ideas that, unfortunately, are characteristic of a superficial understanding of the feat. The heroism in his works is completely devoid of external shine, spectacular beauty, or a “heroic” aura. The writer is interested in the “soul” of the feat - morality.
“During the war,” wrote V. Bykov, “like never before or after it, the importance of human morality and the inviolability of basic moral criteria were revealed. There is no need to say much about the role that heroism and patriotism played then. But were they the only ones who determined the social significance of the individual, often placed in circumstances of choice between life and death? As you know, this is a very difficult choice; it reveals the entire socio-psychological, moral and ethical essence of the individual. I think that it would be unreasonable and imprudent to neglect this experience, which was gained by millions from the war, and which, moreover, was paid at such a high price. And I am interested, first of all, not in the war itself, not even in its way of life and the technology of combat, although all this is also important for art, but, mainly, in the moral world of man, the possibilities of his spirit.”
Not just to withstand and win, but to withstand, win and remain in this cruel, inhumanly difficult struggle as a human being, opposing fascism and its executors, whom Hitler freed from conscience, humanity and even elementary everyday morality, not only the power of weapons, but also the power of conviction in the rightness of their cause, the strength of communist morality - this is the main thing for the heroes of V. Bykov’s works.
Bykov's search was not one-line. Disputes and polemics - they came from the complexity and some inconsistency of the artist’s understanding of the events of the war. From his vision of certain problems and moral values. From his comprehension of them and artistic comprehension.
Moreover, if his early works were almost unanimously assessed by readers and critics as creative successes of the writer, then in the assessment of later works - especially; stories of the mid-late 60s - such unanimity was an extremely rare phenomenon.
They unanimously noted his psychologism, his desire to deeply and comprehensively show the character of a person in war, his ability to truthfully and accurately convey the atmosphere of everyday life at the front, its tragedy. But they also wrote about something else - about a certain “thickening of colors”, “artificiality of situations”, “repetition” and “similarity” of plot moves.
Already in Bykov’s early stories, as was said, the main purely military conflict is intertwined with a moral conflict. Step by step, Bykov leads his heroes through a chain of cruel circumstances, gradually revealing the main thing that is inherent in them. - strength of spirit, unshakability of convictions, moral uncompromisingness in some, cowardice, unprincipledness, spiritual callousness, cruelty in others.
When faced with the problem of a decisive choice, Bykov's heroes, as a rule, can save their lives. But at what cost? To do this, sometimes they don’t even need to take the path of betrayal. You just need to deviate a little from your own principles, go against your own conscience. But this is the strength of Bykov’s heroes: they do not recognize moral compromises, no matter how small and insignificant they may seem at first glance. Moral situations lie at the heart of the works and are reflected in the work “Sotnikov”.
“No one wanted to lose their only and so necessary life,” Bykov wrote in the article “How the story “Sotnikov” was created,” “and only the need to remain a man, a Soviet man, to the end, forced him to die... At the same time, people who tried to combine the incompatible - to preserve life and not sin against humanity, which in certain tragic circumstances turned out to be incredibly difficult, if not completely hopeless.”
Rybak turned out to be just such a person, who tried to “combine the incompatible,” who decided to “bargain” with the Nazis in order to save his own life and realized too late the disastrous nature of his first wrong step, which ultimately led him to the camp of his former enemies - the policemen.
“The nature of betrayal,” wrote V. Bykov, “in all forms is repulsive and reprehensible, no matter what motives this betrayal is guided by and no matter what good goals it pursues. In this regard, it would be useful, I think, to recall some of the controversy surrounding one of the characters in my story “Sotnikov”. I mean Fisherman. I think that the reason for the fall of Rybak is his mental omnivorousness, the immaturity of his morality. He is a primitive pragmatist. War for him is a simple and primitive matter. He is not an enemy by conviction and not a scoundrel by nature, but he wants to live against the odds, in difficult times, ignoring the interests of his neighbor, caring only about himself. Moral deafness does not allow him to understand the depth of his fall. Only at the end, with irreparable delay, does he discover that in other cases surviving is no better than dying, but in order to comprehend this, he had to go through a whole series of small and large betrayals, compromises, concessions to an insidious and cunning enemy, which was German fascism. The result is spiritual death, which turns out to be worse and more shameful than physical death.”
Recognizing in general the fairness of V. Bykov’s assessment of Rybak, I would like to note at the same time that in this statement the writer, whether he wanted it or not, somewhat simplified and “straightened out” the character of his hero. In the story the Fisherman is more complex and interesting.
Is it possible, as Bykov does, to assert so categorically that war for Rybak is “a simple matter to the point of being primitive?” And is it possible to say so confidently that in difficult times Rybak “ignores” the interests of his neighbor, caring only about himself? Hardly.
In Rybak, of course, there is much of what Bykov said. But there is also something else - courage, bravery, hatred of the enemy (“Oh, bastards, bastards,” he says, standing near a farm destroyed by the Germans), a sense of soldierly camaraderie. Here they go, hungry and frozen, falling into the snow, on their partisan business - in front is Rybak, behind him is the sick Sotnikov, choking with a cough. “From somewhere in his bosom, the fisherman pulled out a greasy waffle towel, like a footcloth, and, shaking it off, turned to Sotnikov.
Here, wrap it around your neck. Everything will be warmer.
Come on...
On, on! You know how warm it is!”
And throughout the rest of the journey, Rybak takes care of Sotnikov and helps him. And when the policemen who accidentally met wounded Sotnikov and he lay in a snowy field, weakly shooting back and preparing for death, the Fisherman, who managed to run quite far and was no longer in danger, risking his life (the field where Sotnikov was lying was clearly visible to the policemen), returns to his comrade and carries him out of the fire. And he does this not because he is afraid of a comradely trial. It’s just that in his character (and this cannot be denied) there are such traits and qualities as soldier’s duty (remember that Rybak is a senior sergeant major), a sense of collectivism and comradely mutual assistance, responsibility for the assigned work. It is not for nothing that the hungry and tired Fisherman, standing in front of the burnt farm where he dreamed of “cutting down”, thinks not so much about himself as about his comrades who remained in the forest: “And it was not so important that they themselves remained hungry - the thought of those who remained hungry was more disturbing. who were now freezing in the swamp.”
Rybak has all these positive qualities, and they help him to be far from the last among the partisans.
But then the extreme, decisive moment came, and it turned out that the main thing in Rybak was missing - a solid moral foundation. Rybak fought to the end against the terrible force of circumstances, fought even harder and more decisively than Sotnikov, striving to emerge victorious in this cruel struggle. But the moment of choice has come - a choice between life and death. And Rybak chose life. He chose, sincerely believing in his moral deafness and myopia that he was not committing any betrayal, that by doing this he was deceiving the Germans and “maybe he’ll turn around and then he’ll probably settle accounts with these bastards for his life and for his fears too.”
A little later he will understand the hopelessness of his situation and will clearly see the dead end in which he finds himself. And he runs to the restroom to hang himself. But there is no belt. It was taken away. And along with it, death was taken away: “... the last opportunity to settle scores with fate was gone.”
The writer masterfully conveyed the inner state of the Fisherman, when he, still filled with joy (death was postponed!), suddenly realizes with horror that he will no longer be able to go into the forest with the partisans, as he hoped to do, that now he is a traitor to them. That the liquidation of his cell mates and him, Rybak, is liquidation. Not physical - moral.
The wounded, sick, disfigured Sotnikov, at the last minute of a decisive choice, turned out to be stronger than Rybak. He opposed the tragic force of circumstances with his will and moral uncompromisingness, remaining human in the most inhuman conditions. Sotnikov dies. And his death does not bring direct practical benefit. Nevertheless, he is not a useless victim of cruel circumstances. He is a hero. For his death is an example for those people who gathered at the place of execution. An example of courage, perseverance, dedication in the fight against the enemy. An example of human dignity.
But in Bykov’s works of recent years, the works of the brightest and most talented, not everything can be accepted unconditionally and not everything can be completely agreed upon.
While focusing on the psychology of heroism and exploring its moral side, the writer sometimes pays insufficient attention to revealing another important “face” of heroism - its effectiveness. We often do not feel in his stories the intensity of active armed struggle, which ultimately determined our victory. And how I would like to see a hero revealing himself in the most intense moments of a real fight. In the sphere of action, and not just in the sphere of spirit.
Bykov's heroes - Lyakhovich, Preobrazhensky, Sotnikov, and Moroz - are fully revealed only at the moment when they are left alone with the enemy and their own conscience. When they, unarmed, can oppose an armed enemy only with courageous firmness and moral uncompromisingness, which in those cruel conditions becomes true heroism.
The lack of determination and combat activity - these most important qualities, so necessary for a warrior, a soldier waging a brutal and uncompromising battle with the enemy, is clearly felt in the character of the main character. In all his behavior one senses some kind of indifference to his own life, which he “did not value too much” and “which had not been a pleasure for him for a long time, and for some time now ceased to be a duty.”
No matter how dramatic the circumstances, no matter how life turns, Bykov’s heroes always follow folk moral norms, overstepping which for them is the same as overstepping themselves, over their own hard-won human dignity.
The central, most dear thought for the writer, constituting the spirit and meaning of his work, is that a feat, no matter how outwardly “insignificant” it may look, is conditioned by the moral world of a person, his inner human essence, his understanding of his personal responsibility - responsibility to people, before the Motherland, before one’s own conscience.
CRUELTY OF WAR
(V. Astafiev)
The war does not cease in the works of Viktor Astafiev, for whom the theme of national feat, by his own admission, is a sacred theme.
About those young guys with whom the writer had to fight, but who did not live to see the Victory, he wrote one of his best, one of his most more difficult and painful things he inherited - story The Shepherd and the Shepherdess . This story recreates the image of pure love, the life of human souls, not crushed or suppressed by war. Modern pastoral - such a subtitle, which defines and clarifies a lot in the ideological sound of the work, was given by the writer to his story, in which there is love and happiness - these are the main signs of traditional pastoral. To show the inhumane essence of war, which breaks and distorts destinies, does not spare the brightest and purest human feelings, destroys life itself - this is, perhaps, the main task that V. Astafiev set for himself when creating “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”. And it is no coincidence that after a peculiar introduction, which immediately, from the first line, introduces a nagging note of sadness into the narrative, an already middle-aged woman walking through a deserted field (“And she wandered through a wild field, unplowed, untrodden, and not knowing a scythe”), sinks to kneels in front of a lonely grave and asks someone, apparently very near and dear to her: “Why are you lying alone in the middle of Russia?” - follows the first part, called briefly and definitely - “Fight”. V. Astafiev seems to immerse us in an atmosphere of war, densely saturated with pain, fury, bitterness, suffering, blood, death. It’s as if we are present there, as if we see and feel what the heroes of the story see and feel - the artist’s pen is so picturesque here. “The roar of guns overturned and crushed the silence of the night” - with this phrase V. Astafiev begins the first part, and then in great detail he paints a picture of the night battle, in which the scene of hand-to-hand combat turned out to be the most impressive and memorable. “The hand-to-hand fight began. Hungry, demoralized by the environment and the cold, the Germans climbed forward madly and blindly. They were quickly finished off with bayonets. But behind this wave came another, a third. Everything was mixed up, the earth trembling, the frozen, screeching recoils of the guns, which were now hitting both their own and the Germans, without knowing who was where. And it was impossible to make out anything. Boris and the foreman stayed together. The foreman is left-handed, and in his strong left hand he held a shovel, and in his right hand a captured pistol. He didn't shoot anywhere, didn't fuss. Even in the darkness he could see where he needed to be. He fell into a snowdrift, buried himself, then jumped up and made a short throw, chopped with a shovel, shot and threw something out of the way. Marveling at his composure, at this cruel and correct calculation, Boris himself began to see the battle more clearly and understand that his platoon was alive and fighting, but each fighter was fighting alone, and the soldiers needed to know that he was with them. But Mokhnakov always found himself on the way to the platoon commander and defended him, defended himself and the platoon. The sergeant-major's pistol was knocked out, or the clip ran out. He snatched a machine gun from a wounded German, fired off the cartridges and was left with only one shoulder blade. Having trampled a place near the trench, Mokhnakov threw one, then another skinny German over him, but then another one broke out of the darkness, with a squeal, sank his teeth into the foreman’s leg like a dog, and they rolled in a ball into the trench, where the wounded were swarming in the snow and lumps of earth , howling in pain and blind rage and throwing themselves at each other..." This scene was again not written for the sake of a simple photographic representation of the “truth of the trenches.” And not just to “throw out” on paper everything that was forever etched in the soul, in the memory of the former front-line soldier. This part, as already mentioned, actually the beginning of the story, is intended to lead the reader to the main idea of the work - about the unnatural nature of war, forcing people to kill each other. And more than that - about passionate hope, the belief that the war will become a historical, moral lesson for humanity, that such bloodshed will never happen again. Central to Astafiev’s works is the idea of the inhumanity of war, of the truly national grief that it brought with it. The writer immerses us in an atmosphere of war, densely saturated with pain, fury, bitterness, suffering, and blood. Here is a picture of the night battle: Hand-to-hand combat began. Hungry, demoralized by the environment and the cold, the Germans climbed forward madly and blindly. They were quickly finished off with bayonets. But behind this wave came another, a third. Everything changed, the trembling of the earth, the screeching recoils of the guns, which were now hitting both their own people and the Germans, without knowing who was where. Yes, and it was impossible to make out anything anymore . This scene, with eerie realism, is designed to lead the reader to the main idea of the story: about the unnaturalness that forces people to kill each other. Without this main thought, it is impossible to understand the tragedy of Lieutenant Boris Kostaev, who died in a hospital, to whom the war gave love and immediately took it away. Nothing could be corrected or returned. Everything was and everything is past . In the story The Shepherd and the Shepherdess , a work of great philosophical meaning, along with people of high spirit and strong feelings, the writer created the image of Sergeant Major Mokhnakov, capable of violence, ready to cross the line of humanity and neglect the pain of others. Against his background, the tragedy of Boris Kostaev becomes even clearer. One day, in a conversation with Lyusya, Boris will utter very important words that it is scary to get used to death, to come to terms with it. Both Boris and Mokhnakov, who were on the front line, constantly seeing death in all its manifestations, happen what Kostaev was afraid of. They are used to death. V. Astafiev’s story warns: People! This must not happen again! .
The image of a hero. "Vasily Terkin" A. Tvardovsky’s front-line poems formed his most talented poem “Vasily Terkin. A book about a fighter" (1941 -1945), which became a significant social phenomenon during the Great Patriotic War. In “The Book about a Fighter” the author created an image of enormous impressive power - the image of a hero of the Holy War and at the same time captured the heroic struggle of the entire Soviet people against the Nazi invaders. The eternal themes of life and death, war and peace, good and evil, love and hatred appeared in the poem in a new light - in merging with the great truth of a struggling people. The spiritual appearance of the hero of the poem is revealed in movement. In the chapter “At a Halt,” introducing Vasily Terkin to the reader, the author emphasizes his “ordinariness” and the absence of any exclusivity in him: Terkin - who is he? Let's be honest: Just a guy himself He's ordinary. However, the guy is good. A guy like that Every company always has And in every platoon. The character of the Soviet soldier is gradually revealed to us. In all situations, he displays extraordinary fortitude, love of life, inexhaustible optimism, courage free from external effects, readiness for mutual assistance, hard work, and patience. These are the qualities folk character, which make Terkin a collective image of a Soviet fighter. Sometimes serious, sometimes funny, No matter what the rain, what the snow, - Into battle, forward, into the utter fire He goes, holy and sinful, Russian miracle man. The courage and dedication of Soviet soldiers are glorified in the famous chapter “Crossing”. At night, the first of the column, Having broken off the ice at the edge, Loaded onto the pontoons First platoon. Plunged in, pushed off And he went. The second one is behind him. Get ready, duck down The third one follows the second... Naturally, the narration is conducted at ease and calmly - and how much drama and tragic tension is felt in this battle picture! Only the first platoon manages to cross and gain a foothold on the other bank - the rest come under fire: And I saw you for the first time, It will not be forgotten: People are warm and alive We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom... In this deadly situation, Vasily Terkin accomplishes an unprecedented feat. Under heavy fire, he again swims across the icy river to report to the colonel: Platoon on the right bank Alive and well in spite of the enemy! The lieutenant is just asking Throw some light there. And after the fire Let's get up and stretch our legs. What is there, we will transform it, We will provide the crossing... The chapter “Crossing” ends with words of deep meaning: The battle is holy and just. Mortal combat is not for glory, For the sake of life on earth. The high moral and fighting qualities of Vasily Terkin are revealed in the chapters “Terkin is wounded”, “Accordion”, “Duel”, “Who shot?”, “Battle in the swamp”, “On the offensive”, “Death and the warrior”, “On the Dnieper” and others. Each chapter is a link in revealing the character of the main character of the poem. A feat for Vasily Terkin is an honest, selfless performance of a soldier’s duty. The main quality of his soul is to think not about himself, but about others, in a moment of terrible danger. In Terkin the features of an epic hero and a simple soldier merged. This is a heroic character, a folk character. The biography of the hero of the poem is the biography of the army, of millions of Soviet people: the hero retreated, was wounded, returned to duty, won, entered Berlin... At the same time, in Terkin the poet also captured individual, unique traits of a living, truthful character. This is a cheerful man, “a great lover of life,” nothing human is alien to him, courage and heroism, sadness and tears are natural to him, he is “a man of simple sourdough, who is not a stranger to danger in battle,” he is talented in everything - in military feats and in everyday life. All actions and actions of Vasily Terkin are beautiful in their naturalness, uniqueness - he does everything “so well, so smoothly.” Tvardovsky admires the makeup and harmony of his hero’s mind and heart. Vasily Terkin is always cheerful and cheerful, and sometimes it may seem that he is just a joker, a buffoon; however, Terkin’s humor serves as a means of maintaining the spirit of the fighters, and in a cheerful joke, an intimate story, in the understanding of people, the hero of the poem matches the author himself. Terkin most often makes jokes in moments of serious danger; with a joke he fights cowardice and cowardice, and by his example he educates young, “unfired” soldiers. Next to Terkin in the poem there are many episodic characters: nameless heroes - fighters, a soldier’s mother, a soldier’s wife, an old collective farmer - a former soldier of the old Russian army, a cook who “puts an extra spoon” on Vasily Terkin, a general who awards Terkin an order, Vasily’s namesake - Ivan Terkin... The hero of the poem is the entire Soviet people who rose up to defend their Fatherland. Defenders of the Motherland - artillerymen, tankers, infantrymen - hard-working soldiers, masters of their craft. Tvardovsky created a truly epic picture of the Holy War of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany. The poem reveals the moral origins of the world-historical folk feat. Strength has proven to strength: There is metal stronger than metal, There is fire worse than fire! The story about the fate of Terkin, about the events of the war is accompanied by the author's digressions about the Motherland, about the Holy War, about the fate of the people, about the fortitude of our soldiers. The author's narration is permeated with deep lyricism and folk humor inherent in Tvardovsky. The depth of feelings and experiences of a soldier fighting for his homeland is in tune with the spiritual world of a front-line poet; the voices of the hero and the author often complement each other. The fate of Vasily Terkin is “dear, dear to tears” to Alexander Tvardovsky: From Moscow, from Stalingrad You are always with me - My pain, my joy, My rest and my feat! Tvardovsky found simple words to sing with all the “real truth” the courage, dedication, and unparalleled heroism of the Soviet people. “The Book about a Fighter” is written in the form of a live conversation. The nature of the story is fantastically relaxed. Creatively using the wealth of folklore, the traditions of realistic Russian poetry, and the innovative experience of the founders of Soviet literature, the author of “Vasily Terkin” achieved high poetic mastery. The precision of the words, the naturalness of the intonations, the clarity of thought are amazing. “The Book about a Fighter” is distinguished by its genre novelty, completeness of chapters and overall compositional harmony, stylistic richness and variety of narrative techniques. The author chose a free style of narration about battles and injuries, about the hospital and front-line roads, about soldiers' food and possible death at the front, about the feelings and experiences of a person in war. Epic chapters alternate with lyrical ones, and the excited “song-speech” and “song-fairy tale” give way to the author’s monologue. The poem "Vasily Terkin", reflecting many events of the war, does not have a plot in the generally accepted sense of the word. However, the apparent absence of a single plot does not prevent the author, as already mentioned, from consistently revealing and developing the character of Vasily Terkin. The story about the soldier and his comrades presents a compositionally holistic picture of the great feat of the people. The spiritual appearance of the protagonist is revealed “from the first days of the bitter year” until the campaign “right up to the enemy capital.” Many chapters are plot-related. Thus, the chapter “Before the Battle”, as it were, prepares the next one - “Crossing”, and the small chapter “About the War” can be considered as an introduction to the chapter “Terkin is wounded”. A deep internal connection exists between the chapters “Crossing” and “On the Dnieper,” which depict crossing the river under different conditions of war. In “The Book about a Soldier”, with extraordinary depth, historical truthfulness and captivating power, the image of a Soviet soldier was created, who showed an unbending will to Victory and achieved it with the entire glorious Soviet Army. The events depicted reflected the confrontation between the forces of socialism and fascism from the tragic days of the beginning of the war to its victorious conclusion in Berlin. Researchers and critics of Tvardovsky’s work have said a lot about the deep dialecticism of his poetry. The cruel memory of war is such an image permeated through and through with dialectics, the dialectics of experiences, pictures and situations, which included, among other things, the author’s insightful foresight, as if looking ahead, that this “memory-pain” will not disappear without a trace, but will be passed on to subsequent generations: “And the memory-pain,” it stands, “it did not diminish, it was passed on from the dead to us, the living, along the way.” And so it happened. In life and in literature. Today we can say with all certainty that it is here, in the core of the poetic image of “memory-pain”, “cruel memory”, that lies the source of the direction that prose about the war of the 40-60s took in our literature. It would be more accurate to say it in another way: it was precisely the strong, powerful, viable development of prose about the war, the way it took shape and proceeded before our eyes, that confirmed all the primacy, all the significance of Tvardovsky’s artistic discovery. FEAT OF MAN IN WAR (M.A. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man”) Nobody likes war. But for thousands of years people suffered and died, destroyed others, burned and broke. To conquer, take possession, destroy, take over - all this was born in greedy minds, both in the depths of centuries and in our days. One force collided with another. Some attacked and robbed, others defended and tried to preserve. And during this confrontation, everyone had to show everything they were capable of. There are enough examples of heroism, courage, perseverance and bravery in Russian history. This is the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols, when the Russians had to, without sparing themselves, fight for every piece of their native land, when their multimillion-strong army was forced to take cities for weeks, defended by one or two hundred heroes. Or during the invasion of Napoleon, beautifully described by Tolstoy in War and Peace , we meet the boundless strength, courage and unity of the Russian people. Each individual person and the entire nation were a hero. The larger the world's population became, the more hatred accumulated in the hearts, the more fierce the wars became. With the development of science, military technology and military art also improved. Everything depended less on each individual person; everything was decided in battles of huge armies and equipment. Still, people remained the determining factor. The combat effectiveness of companies, regiments, and armies depended on the behavior of each. There are no superheroes in war. All heroes. Everyone accomplishes their own feat: some are eager to fight, facing bullets, others, outwardly invisible, establish communications and supplies, work in factories until exhaustion, and save the wounded. Therefore, it is the fate of an individual person that is especially important for writers and poets. Mikhail Sholokhov told us about a wonderful man. The hero experienced a lot and proved what strength a Russian person can have. Before the war, he lived an ordinary, inconspicuous life. Worked in a carpentry artel, then went to a factory, trained as a mechanic . I found myself a good, kind, loving wife. Their children were born and went to school. Everything was calm, quiet, smooth. And the man began to think about a happy old age. And here it is, war . It crosses out all hopes and forces you to leave your home. But duty to the Motherland and to himself forces Sokolov to boldly go to meet the enemy. Any person experiences terrible torment when separated from his beloved family, and only truly courageous people can go to death not only for the sake of their home and relatives, but also for the sake of the life and peace of other people. But fighting is not as easy as it seems. It is difficult to maintain order and clarity during combat. Where is the enemy, where are our friends, where to go, who to shoot at - everything is mixed up. So Sokolov, in the chaos of the war, was shell-shocked and captured. I woke up, but I couldn’t get to my feet: my head was twitching, I was shaking all over, as if I had a fever, there was darkness in my eyes... That's where the Nazis took him. And here, in captivity, the most terrible trials begin. People are cut off from their homeland, there is no chance of survival, and they are also subjected to bullying and torture. They beat you because you were Russian, because you still looked at the world... The food was poor: water, gruel, sometimes bread. And they forced me to work from morning to evening. But being in captivity does not mean being useless to the country. This is not betrayal, not weakness. Even in captivity there is a place for heroic deeds. You must not lose heart, you must believe in victory, believe in your strength and not lose hope of deliverance. Despite the fact that a person has been deprived of shoulder straps and weapons, he must still remain a soldier and be faithful to his homeland to the end. That is why Sokolov cannot accept Kryzhnev’s betrayal. This vile and vile man is ready to betray his friends for the sake of his life. Your shirt is closer to your body , says this nonentity. And therefore, fulfilling his soldier’s duty, Sokolov strangled the traitor with his own hands and did not experience either pity or shame, but only disgust: ...as if I were strangling not a person, but some creeping reptile... Sokolov had to see and experience a lot more in captivity. They drove them all over Germany, humiliated them, forced them to bend their backs. And more than once death passed nearby. But the strongest, most acute test happened to Sokolov during a meeting with the commandant of the B-14 camp, when a real threat of death hung over him. It was here that Sokolov’s fate as a soldier, as a true son of the Motherland, was decided. After all, you also need to be able to die with dignity! Sokolov was able to not follow the commandant’s lead and preserve human dignity to the end. He did not give in to the authorities, but, on the contrary, showed himself with dignity. And with an unbending will, Sokolov won the right to life from fate. And even the German officer recognized Sokolov as a person, and not as a slave meekly going to his death. From that moment on, Sokolov felt better. He even got a job as a driver. The Russians were advancing and were already close. The craving for the Motherland increased with extraordinary force in Sokolov. Both fear and the sense of danger receded into the background, risking his life - all that he had left - Sokolov breaks through the front line. My darling lip-slapper. Dear son! What kind of Fritz do you think I am when I am a natural Voronezh resident? - he exclaims when meeting his people. His joy is immeasurable. Sokolov’s fate was difficult and terrible. He lost loved ones and relatives. But it was important not to break, but to survive and remain a soldier and a man to the end: That's why you're a man, that's why you're a soldier, to endure everything, to endure everything... And Sokolov’s main feat is that he did not become hardened in soul, did not become angry with the whole world, but remained capable of love. And Sokolov found himself son , the very person to whom he will give all his destiny, life, love, strength. It will be with him in joy and sorrow. But nothing will erase this horror of war from Sokolov’s memory; they will carry it with them eyes as if sprinkled with ashes, filled with such an inescapable mortal melancholy that it is difficult to look into them . Sokolov lived not for himself, not for fame and honor, but for the sake of the lives of other people. Great is his feat! A feat in the name of life! CONCLUSION To summarize what has been said, it can be noted that an analysis of the development of Russian literature about the Great Patriotic War clearly shows that among its main problems, the main one, which has been at the center of the creative search of our writers for more than forty years, was and is the problem of heroism. Each stage of the development of military prose has its own characteristics in solving this problem. If in most of the works of the war years and the first post-war decade, writers, as a rule, showed the feat itself, the act, then at the present stage, creatively developing the experience of their predecessors, literary artists focus on studying the incentive motives of heroic action. The moral, moral and ethical aspect is today the main one in understanding the problem of heroism. One of the main features of all Soviet military prose remains its constant attention to man. And the further the events of the war move away from us, the more intense this attention becomes. This is especially noticeable in the works of front-line writers, who showed in close-up in their works an ordinary participant in the war, a simple soldier. At the present stage, the central conflict in works about war is still the confrontation between two hostile worlds - the world of fascism and the world of socialism. It is in this uncompromising struggle that the fortitude of the heroes of our literature and their high moral qualities are mainly revealed. At the same time, along with the main (external) conflict, internal, moral conflicts begin to play an increasingly larger role in military prose. The attention of our literary artists to humanistic issues has noticeably increased in recent years. Humanity, kindness, conscience, justice - how are they manifested and what place do these concepts occupy in the harsh and cruel reality at the front? These are the questions that constantly appear in works of modern military prose. Our war prose has undergone interesting changes in terms of genre. The small, “operational” genres of the war years were replaced in the first post-war decade by the “panoramic” novel, which tried to show events in a broad, three-dimensional manner, but paid insufficient attention to the in-depth depiction of the character of the hero. As if in reaction to the “panoramic” novel, short stories and novellas appeared, which occupied a predominant place in our literature in the late 50s and early 60s and were most consistent with the “peripheral” depiction of the war. It was in the stories and tales of these years that Soviet writers, especially front-line writers, paid the main attention to the ordinary participant in the great battle, his inner, spiritual world. But over time, the public need for a multilateral, “global” understanding of the people’s feat began to be felt more and more. And today we can definitely say that at the present stage the main trend in depicting the events of the war is the desire of literary artists to show them as multifaceted as possible, paying equally close attention to both the “trench” and the “high headquarters”. “Document” and “fact” began to play a noticeable role in modern “battle” prose, organically combined with artistic fiction and giving the narrative greater historical authenticity and persuasiveness. Naturally, more voluminous content, a broader depiction of events, and a “global” understanding of them required larger genre forms. But does this mean that only such an approach to the military topic is fruitful today, that only a “global” depiction of military events has the right to life, and a writer who shows the “periphery of war,” as some critics claim, deliberately impoverishes his work? One can hardly agree with this. It is undeniable that the image of war that we find in the novel is much broader and more multifaceted than in the story or short story. But, as V. Bykov noted, “art and literature about war, having a certain inclination towards the epic and sublime, often pass by the private and ordinary, no matter how characteristic they may be.” In this sense, the story and story, which cover a much smaller range of events, have their advantages. Writers working in these genres pay special attention to the inner world of a person in war, a comprehensive understanding of the psychology of an ordinary participant in battles, thereby deepening the development of the character of a heroic individual. And let the artist not strive for a “global” coverage of the events of the war. But if the “truth of fact” does not obscure the great truth of life from him, if the details of the war do not push its heroic pathos into the background, then even with a small population of the work, with a narrow coverage of events, a talented pen will reveal both the truth of the era and the meaning of the processes that determined the movement time. And the fact that the artists of words, actively working on the military theme, being close to each other in the main thing - fidelity to the truth of life, the affirmation of the heroic pathos of the Great Patriotic War, its liberation, patriotic and international ideals, each go their own individual path, following the nature and call of their talent, once again speaks of the richness of our prose, of its inexhaustible possibilities. And the best confirmation of this can be the work of the writers we discussed in our work. REFERENCES 1.Abramov A. Lyrics and epic of the Great Patriotic War. - M.: Soviet writer, 1972 2.Bykov V. Stories. - M.: Azbuka, 2005 .Zhuravlev S.I. Memory of the Burning Years: Soviet prose about the Great Patriotic War. - M.: Education, 1985 .Russian literature of the 20th century / Ed. V.V. Kozhinova. - M.: Russian Word, 1999 5.Tvardovsky A.T. Poems and poems. - M.: Education, 1983 6.Sholokhov M.A. Stories. - M.: Artist. Lit., 1989
REVIEW TOPIC “LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD
THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
AND THE FIRST POST-WAR YEARS"
The literature of the Great Patriotic War - a “brilliant and tragic era,” as N. Tikhonov called it - is an important stage in the development of the art of socialist realism. The works written during these years depict the feat of the people, the high ethical code that developed during the just war of liberation, which was waged by Soviet people, brought up under the socialist system.
When planning work, each teacher selects (based on the program) a certain range of works, sometimes depending on what the library and the schoolchildren themselves have. It seems that the most fruitful principle that will allow us to systematize the material is the genre principle. It will provide an opportunity to solve a complex of important problems more economically, to more clearly show the connection between literature and life, and to demonstrate to students the patterns of development and the features of individual literary forms.
It is advisable to devote the first two lessons out of five allotted to the entire topic in the school curriculum to poetry, the next two to prose, and the fifth lesson to dramaturgy of the war years.
First of all, we should, in our opinion, turn to lyrical works. Lyrics of the Great Patriotic War - an outstanding phenomenon in the history of our literature. Perhaps more fully than all other genres, it allows us to judge what the war was like for its contemporaries, and what a person was like who endured the innumerable hardships of military labor. That is why it is the lyrics that will help create the right mood in the lessons, outline the main themes of all the literature of the Great Patriotic War, and pose problems that will be solved in subsequent lessons.
When selecting lyrical poems that will be discussed in the lesson, the thematic principle can play a large role, which does not exclude attention to the variety of artistic solutions, to the stylistic and genre features of some works.
Starting a conversation about the literature of the war years, it should be said about the feat of Soviet writers, which consisted not only in the fact that many of them joined the army, became front-line correspondents, and participants in combat operations. The feat was also intense literary work, the creation of works of art, in their influence on readers truly “equated to a bayonet,” which became a real military weapon.
Anxiety for the fate of the Motherland, the writers’ own “trench” experience resonates in the lyrics with deep thought and heartfelt feeling. “There is no need to try to shout down the war... the voice will be heard if the speaker and writer stands close to the heart of a fighting person,” said A. Surkov. True thoughts, true feelings became the most important aesthetic requirements of the era, when every movement of the human soul was tested by the fire of struggle.
A remarkable quality is born, which determined the high nationality of war poetry, the unprecedented attention of the reader to it - the spiritual unity of the lyrical hero with the fighting people. “Never in the entire history of poetry,” said A. Surkov in 1944, has such direct, close, heartfelt contact been established between the writer and the reader as in the days of the Patriotic War.”
Song lyrics were especially popular in those years. Already on the third day of the war, the famous song by V. Lebedev - Kumach appeared, which became the “poetic emblem of the era - “Holy War.” It expressed with such simplicity and so correctly the feelings that gripped the entire people, so accurately The meaning and essence of the events were formulated, so that she immediately found herself in the soldiers' ranks. During these years, the songs of M. Isakovsky, A. Surkov, A. Fatyanov and other Soviet poets, hymns, marching songs, military songs, etc. comic, intimate and lyrical songs accompanied the soldier in all the vicissitudes of his difficult life.
Analyzing poems of the war and early post-war years, one can trace some genre trends that sometimes interact even within the same work. The heightened civic, patriotic feeling found outlet in appealing and oratorical poems, which sometimes acquired an odic sound, reminiscent of heroic songs. Combining lyrics and journalism, they were often constructed in the form of an appeal, a message, a mandate. But next to the lofty poetic speech there also sounded a quiet, intimate word (reflection, conversation), designed to express the spiritual movements of a person - a soldier and a worker, imperceptible at first glance.
The leading theme of wartime literature is the theme of the Motherland. It is often combined with the theme of heroism, sounds in poems about friendship, love, and is interpreted by each poet in his own way, giving rise to poems of different tones, different associations, and different scales.
One of the best poems dedicated to this topic is “Do you remember, Alyosha, the roads of the Smolensk region...” by K. Simonov. It attracts with its utmost sincerity and trusting tone, largely determined by the form of the poem, structured as a conversation with a loved one. The poet’s renewed sense of the Motherland is dictated by the way he saw it on one of the most difficult roads of the war. The image of the Motherland appears in unique signs that say a lot only to a person born on this land.
Another poem by K. Simonov, “Motherland,” is close in meaning. The themes of the “big” and “small” homeland are intertwined in this poem, as if developing the idea contained in the famous Russian proverb: “The native land is only a handful away.”
The heightened poetic feeling caused by the war is reflected in close attention to the history, folklore, and nature of the native country.
In historical terms, the image of the Motherland in A. Surkov’s poem “Russia” is comprehended, where an appeal to the glorious past seems to strengthen the lyrical hero’s confidence in victory: “From the ancient Kulikovo field the wind of unprecedented cuts blows.”
In the dear colors and pictures of Russian nature, in folklore and song traditions, the Motherland is depicted in the verses of A. Prokofiev. Free from enemies native land, “land of the fathers” - this means, according to the poet, to return
The beauty of the valleys,
Birches are higher than the roofs,
And a screaming wedge of cranes,
And in the backwater there are reeds;
The oak forest is agitated by the surf,
The gray breakers of the seas...
(“Motherland”)
Love for the Motherland and hatred for the enemy gives rise to the theme of the heroic feat of the people. An active mood and inviting intonation are extremely characteristic of such poems. They sound like an immutable requirement, a command that everyone must follow: “Forward! On the offensive! Not a step back! (A. Surkov); "Kill him!" (K. Simonov); “Crush, punish the furious force!” (M. Isakovsky).
Among the works devoted to the theme of national feat are the poetic stories of M. Isakovsky. In one of them (“Partisan”), a capacious image from the poet’s song “Oh, my mists...” seems to unfold:
Day and night partisan blizzards
They are buzzing their heads over the robbers.
The old woman, the heroine of “Partisan,” greets with dignity
and “treats” - destroys uninvited guests. ,.
The breadth of the popular front of resistance, the courage that arises at the limit of human strength, the limitless possibilities of a person animated by a great goal are spoken of in M. Isakovsky’s poem “To a Russian Woman,” and in “Conversation with a Neighbor” by O. Berggolts, and in “ Cologne pit" by B. Slutsky.
Reflections on the essence of heroism find in-depth psychological development in poetry. Thus, in K. Simonov’s poem “Attack”, the heightened love for life, for every little thing that the soldier’s eye involuntarily notes at the last minute before the battle, speaks of the kind of mental strength the feat requires.
The same thoughts about the nature of heroism are reflected in numerous poems in which the heroic theme appears as a theme of everyday work. “War is not fireworks at all, but just hard work,” - this is how M. Kulchitsky expresses this thought in the poem “Dreamer, visionary, lazy, envious!..”.
The best works of that time captured the rich spiritual world of the defender of the Motherland. Poems from different years and different moods, bright and indignant, stern and thoughtful, reflected the moral ideals of Soviet man, his spiritual generosity, faith in the triumph of justice, his spiritual experience and spiritual growth.
In "lyrics of the heart" great place are occupied by poems about friendship, which has become the great law of front-line life (“Death of a Friend” by K. Simonov, “Ballad of Friendship” by S. Gudzenko), poems about love and fidelity (“Dugout” by A. Surkov, “Ogonyok” by M. Isakovsky, “ Wait for me” K-Simonova, etc.).
War is a cruel thing. Millions of people die and suffer in war; in war, man kills man. The most important problem in the literature of the Great Patriotic War is the problem of humanism. This problem finds both acute journalistic and in-depth psychological development in poetry. The war that is waged “for the sake of blossoming and joy” is a just war, a war of liberation. That is why V. Lebedev-Kumach calls the rage that raised the people to fight noble. This is why M. Svetlov states in his poem “The Italian”:
I shoot - and there is no justice
Fairer than my bullet!
Associated with the idea of the essence of the struggle waged by the people
and confidence in victory, optimistic motives of the lyrics, beginning
sound in it since June 1941. As an example, we can refer to the poems by M. Isakovsky “Swallow” or “The Lay of Russia”. The last of them is especially interesting because it brings together the most important themes born of the war.
The lyrics of the war years enrich us with the experience of previous generations. Remember the trials and feats of the people, compare your actions with high moral ideals, verified in the struggle, which in many ways became the key to victory, are the name of many poems. Among them are such as “I was killed near Rzhev” by A. Tvardovsky, “House in Vyazma” by K. Simonov.
When turning to the lyrics of the war and the first post-war years, it is important to take into account the specific working conditions of the teacher. In this regard, there may be a need to present, for example, topics such as “Moscow in the poetry of the war years”, “Poetry of besieged Leningrad”, etc. Students can prepare independent reports on poems dedicated to the feat of Soviet women during the war. A special theme is poems by poets who died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War.
The most important themes that emerged in the lyrics of the war years are also developed in large poetic genres. During the war years the poem developed intensively.
The poems created in those years told readers about the “iron nights” of besieged Leningrad (“Kirov is with us” by N. Tikhonov), about the heroic struggle of the Belarusian partisans (“Retribution” by Y. Kolas), about the soldiers who died for Ukraine (“Funeral friend" by P. Tychyna)...
Of course, the teacher cannot characterize each of them with sufficient completeness. It would be more appropriate to cover this topic in an overview, focusing in more detail on 1-2 works from those named in the program (“Vasily Terkin” by A. Tvardovsky, “Zoya” by M. Aliger, “Retribution” by Ya-Kolas, “Funeral of a Friend” by P. Tychyna, “ Son" of Antokolsky).
The uniqueness of the wartime poem lies in the special meaning it acquires in its lyrical beginning. The lyrical element literally permeates the story about a particular event, so that one often gets the feeling that the author is a direct participant in what is happening.
Such, for example, is the poem by M. Aliger, which tells about the feat of the Moscow Komsomol member Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who stepped from the threshold of school into the harsh partisan life. The fate of the heroine organically merges in the poem with the fate of the fighting Motherland. That is why in Zoya’s character, first of all, what is special, exceptional is emphasized: intense spiritual search, the ability to live with all the joys and anxieties of one’s vast country, uncompromising honesty, a heightened sense of duty.
The poetess's excited word accompanies every step of the heroine. It expresses suffering, pride, it accuses, it calls witnesses, it demands retribution. Conversational intonations are combined with high pathos, lyrics with journalism, especially in the last chapter, where the heroine’s right to immortality is asserted,
Because all her courage, her gaze directed to the future, is towards victory.
“Having died a hundred times and been born again,” the hero of P. Antokolsky’s poem “Son” also paves the way to victory. Individual destinies here are almost identified with the destinies of generations and are absorbed by events of universal human significance. Even a father who has lost his son does not recognize his right to “special, separate melancholy.”
The principles of evil and lack of spirituality are personified by P. Antokolsky" "in
a sensibly generalized image of a fascist soldier. A bearer of goodness,
youth and beauty is the son of the poet, representing not only
The Soviet country, but also every “young shoot of the earth.” Emphasized
the romantic style finds expression in the peculiarities of poetic
speech, in numerous contrasts, symbols. The poem often sounds
intimate, sincere notes, but pathos and oratorical intonation, associated with journalistic and philosophical generalizations, predominate in it.
In our opinion, special attention should be paid to the vertex product lyrical epic war years - A. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin”. Students read individual chapters of this poem back in the 7th grade. Returning to it at a new stage, in the Xth grade, it is necessary, apparently, to provide for a more detailed acquaintance with the work, a different level of its comprehension.
The work is deeply original; “Vasily Terkin” is distinguished by a number of characteristic and striking features. His composition is interesting, in which the author valued the completeness of each part, each stanza. The authenticity of the depiction of characters and military life deserves special attention. A. Tvardovsky polemically affirms the truth as a deeply conscious aesthetic principle already in the first chapter of the poem (“From the Author”), thereby speaking out against one-sided, simplified interpretations of the theme of the great war.
The poem is distinguished by sincere intonation, simplicity of words, based on the possibilities of colloquial folk speech, a special rhythmic coloring, that truly folk humor that excludes the possibility of exaggeration. Finally, speaking about the originality of A. Tvardovsky’s poem, it is necessary to specifically dwell on the very character of the main character, who is not just a representative, but a true personification of the people, a collective image.
A conversation about the poem, “Vasily Terkin,” allows you to deepen many of the theoretical and literary ideas of students: about the nationality of literature, about the genre of the epic, about the principles of artistic typification, etc.
The next topic is prose of the war years, which is represented by all the main genres: articles, reports, essays, short stories, novels. A detailed conversation about each of them is, of course, impossible. Therefore, in some places we will have to limit ourselves to only a very brief overview, and dwell on some things in more detail, offering students tasks that involve independent work with the text.
The problems of journalism during the war years are largely reflected in the titles of the works: “Freedom or Death!”, “Forward”, “The Hour Is Coming”, “We Will Not Forget!”, “Barefoot Horde” (I. Ehrenburg); “What are we defending”, “The Nazis will answer for their atrocities”, “Moscow is being threatened by the enemy”, “Motherland”, “We must stand! We will stand!” (A. Tolstoy), - which will sound quite eloquently to students. All journalistic genres: leaflets, appeals, pamphlets, feuilletons, essays, etc. - were put at the service of victory. The inspiration and emotional tension expressed in them sometimes brought journalism closer to each other. lyrics.
The aggravation of national feeling caused by the war was reflected in numerous appeals to the heroic past, to the images of famous Russian commanders, ancient Russian cities, and Russian nature. Articles and essays by A. Tolstoy, I. Ehrenburg, M. Sholokhov, N. Tikhonov, L. Sobolev, Vs. Vishnevsky, K. Simonov and many other writers talk about the treachery and cruelty of the enemy, about the heroes of the war and the home front, the successes of our weapons, the difficult roads at the front, they teach hatred, and inspire faith in victory. As examples, one or two excerpts from essays by A. Tolstoy, I. Ehrenburg, M. Sholokhov, L. Leonov (at the teacher’s choice) can be cited.
The problem that united many stories of the war years was the problem of the character of the Soviet man, those of his qualities that were revealed in the feat of arms of the people. It is no coincidence that, for example, K. Simonov calls one of his stories “Russian Heart”, A. Tolstoy - “Russian Character”, the subtitle to the cycle “Leningrad Stories” by N. Tikhonov is indicative - “Features of a Soviet Man”, etc.
The originality of the small narrative genres of the war years was the coexistence in them of documentary and fiction on equal terms. Thus, their genre specificity cannot always be determined with categorical accuracy. The features of the story and essay are simultaneously carried by “The Science of Hate” by M. Sholokhov, and “The Honor of the Commander” and “Soldier’s Glory” by K. Simonov and others.
War stories are distinguished by extreme plot tension and dramatic collisions dictated by life itself. Such, for example, is “March - April” by V. Kozhevnikov, attractive for schoolchildren and psychological portraits characters and the plot. As an example, you can read in class a short two-three-page short story by L. Sobolev from the “Sea Soul” series dedicated to the legendary exploits of the Sevastopol sailors (for example, “Fedya with Nagan,” “Business as usual,” “Last Report”) . The romantic sound of these works is determined by the exclusivity of the characters and situations. At the same time, they were all born from the actual life of besieged Sevastopol and are associated with real, concrete facts. L. Sobolev's short stories talk about cheerful, fearless fearlessness, readiness to fight to the last drop of blood, to the last cartridge as characteristic features of a soldier-sailor.
Moving on to the characteristics of the stories and novels of the war years, we can say that all the small genres: journalistic article, essay, short story - fulfilled not only their immediate tasks. At the same time, they carried out a kind of reconnaissance, outlining springboards for large narrative works that began to appear already in 1942.
The program includes the following stories and novels of the wartime and the first post-war years: “The Unconquered” by B. Gorbatov, “The Young Guard” by A. Fadeev, “Flag Bearers” by O. Gonchar, “Volokolamsk Highway” by A. Beck, “Star” by E. Kazakevich , “The Storm” by V. Latsis. When reviewing the prose of the war years, the teacher can use students’ impressions associated with their independent reading, draw on works studied in middle school (“Russian Character” by A. Tolstoy, “The Tale of a Real Man” by B. Polevoy, “Young Guard” by A. Fadeev, “Son of the Regiment” by V. Kataev). Work devoted to the analysis of one or two prose works will be the main part of classes on this topic. The nature of the analysis will largely be determined by the ideological, thematic and genre-compositional features of a particular work.
In the books written during that period, the conflicts generated by the struggle of the people, the problems put forward by it, were dealt with differently by different writers. Much depended on how the author saw the events that took place, what problems he considered necessary to solve, what experience he had the opportunity to rely on, what his concept of man was.
Thematically, works of large narrative form fall into three main groups: they talk about the heroic feat of a soldier, about the struggle waged by the people behind enemy lines, about home front workers.
Thus, B. Gorbatov’s story “The Unconquered” (1943), which represents a romantic line of military prose, tells about the life and struggle of the people in the territory temporarily occupied by fascist troops. The reader sees pictures of a devastated land with gallows, concentration camps, abandoned villages, frozen cities, many characters: on the one hand, the invaders and the “conquered” - simply indifferent, traitors, policemen, on the other - the growing resistance forces led by the Communist Party . It is interesting to draw students’ attention to the theme of youth in the story, which later received in-depth development on similar material and in a similar creative manner in “The Young Guard” by A. Fadeev.
The intense drama of the narrative is born in acute plot situations, in an expressive, emphatically romantic style, which finds support in the traditions of folk poetry, the ancient Russian heroic epic, sometimes perceived by the author through the prism of Gogol’s poetics. Even the names of B. Gorbatov’s heroes make us remember the story “Taras Bulba”: Taras, Andrey. The romantic style in B. Gorbatov’s work finds expression in numerous repetitions, in particular symbolism, metaphors and personifications, in inversions, pathetic exclamations and appeals (“crucified, bloody city”; “black poplars, tear-stained like widows”; “Where are you?” , my sons, where are you?”; “Touch my wounds, Taras, share my torment...”, etc.).
The stories of A. Beck “Volokolamsk Highway” and E. Kazakevich “Star” are dedicated to the events of front-line life.
And, Beck talks about the war as it was seen by its participant every day, in its everyday life and severe trials. In this sense, “Volokolamsk Highway” (1942-1944) stands on a par with such works of military narrative literature as the books of K. Simonov. A. Beck's style is alien to meaningful symbolism. In its very tone, in its spare, laconic phrase, restrained intonation, the story bears the stamp of the harsh days of the defense of Moscow, when it was necessary to soberly assess the situation, direct all forces, all thoughts only to block the path of the enemy.
One of the characteristic features of A. Beck's book is its emphasized inclination towards documentary material. In an effort to create the impression of authenticity of the story, the writer precisely follows the chronology of the war, conveys the story to an actual participant in the events, the battalion commander of the legendary Panfilov division, Kazakh Baurdzhan Momysh-Uly.
However, the basis of the plot of the story is not the chronicle movement of events, but the restructuring of the consciousness of a peaceful person who was supposed to become a soldier.
“Perhaps, in your opinion, heroism is a gift of nature?” - asks the writer Momysh-Uly, who came to the division. The problem of heroism, the problem of feat is the central problem of the book. In connection with it, the narrator talks about the hardships of military life, about how difficult attacks and victories are for a soldier. The science of winning, in his opinion, consists of a number of components, which are outlined in the numerous “lessons” of General Panfilov: “Victory is forged before the battle,” “The soldier must be taken care of,” “The soldier must fight with his mind,” “And you also need one very cruel thing... discipline." High moral qualities, training, discipline, careful preparation for battle, preceded by the intense thought of the commander - these are the commandments that stand behind Panfilov’s main motto, which has a deeply humane meaning: “A soldier goes into battle not to die, but to live!” These words are the leitmotif of the entire book.
After the war, although hot on the heels of events, E. Kazakevich’s story “The Star” (1947) was written. Many features of this story are determined by the temporal distance, which allowed the writer to see the events of the recent past somewhat differently and to comprehend some trends in military prose. This is how artistic authenticity is born, combining the truth of everyday life, subtle psychological analysis and high lyrical animation.
In its depiction of military life, in the rigid line of the external plot, “Star” resembles the story of A. Beck. Undivided fidelity to duty and absolute absorption in the war bring together Panfilov’s battalion commander and the main character of “Zvezda,” Lieutenant Travkin. But there is something else here. Different relationships connect people who became close to each other on the long roads of war. A different experience lies behind them. The writer sees the complex problem of “man and war” from a different perspective. That is why the characters depicted in the story are more multidimensional, their psychological characteristics are more complex, and other shades are revealed in the moral issues of the book.
In the story “Volokolamsk Highway,” the narrator is interested in a person primarily as a soldier. Ethical problems - and here a lot is said about duty, honor, honesty, conscience - are comprehended only in relation to war, like the duty, honor and conscience of a soldier.
For E. Kazakevich, the high moral code that guides his best heroes has universal, pan-human value.
In the guise of the young commander, pure, whole and wise beyond his years, Travkin, today occupied only with war, belonging only to it, one senses rich and versatile possibilities that were not destined to come true. The tragic notes that appear in the complex key of “Star” remind the reader that victory requires enormous dedication from a person and is associated with sacrifices and losses. At the same time, another thought is especially persistent in the story - about the inextricable connection of every human destiny, every feat with the cause of the entire people, the fate of the entire Motherland. This finds symbolic expression in the call signs “Star” and “Earth”, connecting Travkin’s group with his regiment, with the “mainland”.
The idea of the immortality of a feat, a deed to which a person selflessly and completely devotes himself, constitutes the content of the romantic principle in the story. It does not define the book’s poetics, but it plays a significant role in it. Travkin remains the light of a beautiful star not only for the heroes of the story, for Katya, who continues to send her call signs on the air, but also for readers.
The review of wartime prose ends with a description of the problems and features of the poetics of narrative genres. The last lesson is devoted to the dramaturgy of the Great Patriotic War.
It must be said that the theater worked at this time with enormous stress. Already in 1941, front-line brigades began to be created, which, in combat conditions, gave 473 thousand performances and concerts. The repertoire of these brigades consisted mainly of propaganda plays, which enjoyed great success in those years.
In the very first months of the war, attempts were made to express the historical essence of events through the means of drama, to speak about the people's liberation nature of the war, about the origins of the mass heroism of the people. The best of these plays, according to A. Surkov, combined “passionate journalism and inspired lyricism, the broad epic march of time and a reverent confession of the heart.” These are “Russian People” by K. Simonov, “Invasion” by L. Leonov, “Front” by A. Korneychuk,
The acute conflict of these plays was expressed in the deep drama that was determined by the very nature of the heroic time, the confrontation of various feelings and motives caused by complex turning points in human destinies.
In the heroic drama "Russian People" the main characters are a handful of Soviet people who are fighting against superior enemy forces. But the tension of the plot is also determined by the acute moral conflicts that confront the heroes: military paramedic Globa must play the role of a traitor before the Nazis; Captain Safonov's military duty obliges him to send the girl he loves to almost certain death; Maria Nikolaevna Kharitonova, the wife of a traitor and coward and the mother of a soldier who died at the front, finds herself in a tragic situation. These most acute situations allow the playwright to realize his main task - to show the rich spiritual world defenders of the Motherland.
The “Wind of War,” bursting into a small provincial town, gives rise to extremely dramatic situations in L. Leonov’s play “Invasion.” In its main conflict, which draws all the characters into its orbit, the drama of Fyodor Talanov, a man of difficult fate and complex character, is also resolved. Tracing the path of Fedor's moral rebirth is one of the important tasks that certainly arises in the process of analyzing the work. If you pay close attention to the text, you can find many details that allow you to understand that Fedor’s defiant behavior is only evidence of his confusion, that he did not return to the city with an empty heart, that his future feat is based on the moral possibilities that constitute the essence of his nature.
The fact that the war unites very different people in a single patriotic impulse is evidence in “Invasion” of the justice of the struggle waged by the people, its deeply humanistic essence.
A different range of questions interests A. “Korneychuk in his play “Front,” written in a highly journalistic manner. When creating characters, the playwright uses a wide arsenal of expressive means, resorting to psychological characteristics, pathos and satire, poster images that sharpen one particular feature, even indicated by the character’s surname. The author of "Front" boldly raises the question of the shortcomings and obstacles that arise during the war within the army, and advocates a creative leadership style and advanced military strategy as necessary conditions for victory.
Thus, the organic connection between the literature of the Great Patriotic War period and the struggle of the people was reflected in the works of this period in the formulation of the most serious problems, richness of content, and diversity of stylistic and genre trends. That is why the art of the heroic era had and continues to have a huge influence on our entire spiritual culture, on the development of all Soviet literature. Many problems and psychological conflicts that emerged already during the War Years are being successfully developed today. At the new stage, the origins of the Victory, the humanistic essence of the people’s feat, and a wide range of issues related to the extremely complex conflict of “man and war” are explored in more depth and detail.
Great battles and the fates of ordinary heroes are described in many works of art, but there are books that cannot be passed by and which cannot be forgotten. They make the reader think about the present and the past, about life and death, about peace and war. AiF.ru has prepared a list of ten books dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War that are worth re-reading during the holidays.
“And the dawns here are quiet...” Boris Vasiliev
“And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...” is a warning book that forces you to answer the question: “What am I ready for for the sake of my Motherland?” The plot of Boris Vasiliev's story is based on a truly accomplished feat during the Great Patriotic War: seven selfless soldiers did not allow a German sabotage group to blow up the Kirov railway, along which equipment and troops were delivered to Murmansk. After the battle, only one group commander remained alive. Already while working on the work, the author decided to replace the images of fighters with female ones in order to make the story more dramatic. The result is a book about female heroes that amazes readers with the truthfulness of the narrative. The prototypes of the five volunteer girls who enter into an unequal battle with a group of fascist saboteurs are peers from the school of the front-line writer; they also reveal the features of radio operators, nurses, and intelligence officers whom Vasiliev met during the war.
“The Living and the Dead” Konstantin Simonov
Konstantin Simonov is better known to a wide circle of readers as a poet. His poem “Wait for Me” is known and remembered by heart not only by veterans. However, the front-line soldier’s prose is in no way inferior to his poetry. One of the writer’s most powerful novels is considered to be the epic “The Living and the Dead,” consisting of the books “The Living and the Dead,” “Soldiers Are Not Born,” and “The Last Summer.” This is not just a novel about the war: the first part of the trilogy practically reproduces the personal front-line diary of the writer, who, as a correspondent, visited all fronts, walked through the lands of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland and Germany, and witnessed the last battles for Berlin. On the pages of the book, the author recreates the struggle of the Soviet people against the fascist invaders from the very first months of the terrible war to the famous “last summer”. Simonov's unique view, the talent of a poet and publicist - all this made “The Living and the Dead” one of the best works of art in its genre.
“The Fate of Man” Mikhail Sholokhov
The story “The Fate of a Man” is based on a real story that happened to the author. In 1946, Mikhail Sholokhov accidentally met a former soldier who told the writer about his life. The fate of the man struck Sholokhov so much that he decided to capture it on the pages of the book. In the story, the author introduces the reader to Andrei Sokolov, who managed to maintain his fortitude despite difficult trials: injury, captivity, escape, death of his family and, finally, the death of his son on the happiest day, May 9, 1945. After the war, the hero finds the strength to start a new life and give hope to another person - he adopts an orphaned boy Vanya. In “The Fate of a Man,” a personal story against the backdrop of terrible events shows the fate of an entire people and the strength of the Russian character, which can be called a symbol of the victory of Soviet troops over the Nazis.
“Cursed and Killed” Viktor Astafiev
Viktor Astafiev volunteered for the front in 1942 and was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the medal “For Courage”. But in the novel “Cursed and Killed,” the author does not glorify the events of the war; he speaks of it as a “crime against reason.” Based on personal impressions, the front-line writer described the historical events in the USSR that preceded the Great Patriotic War, the process of preparing reinforcements, the life of soldiers and officers, their relationships with each other and their commanders, and military operations. Astafiev reveals all the dirt and horrors of the terrible years, thereby showing that he does not see the point in the enormous human sacrifices that befell people during the terrible war years.
"Vasily Terkin" Alexander Tvardovsky
Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin” received national recognition back in 1942, when its first chapters were published in the newspaper Western Front"Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda". The soldiers immediately recognized the main character of the work as a role model. Vasily Terkin is an ordinary Russian guy who sincerely loves his Motherland and his people, perceives any hardships of life with humor and finds a way out of even the most difficult situations. Some saw him as a comrade in the trenches, some as an old friend, and others saw themselves in his features. Image folk hero Readers loved him so much that even after the war they did not want to part with him. That is why a huge number of imitations and “sequences” of “Vasily Terkin” were written, created by other authors.
“War does not have a woman’s face” Svetlana Alexievich
“War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” is one of the most famous books about the Great Patriotic War, where the war is shown through the eyes of a woman. The novel was written in 1983, but was not published for a long time, as its author was accused of pacifism, naturalism, and of debunking the heroic image of the Soviet woman. However, Svetlana Alexievich wrote about something completely different: she showed that girls and war are incompatible concepts, if only because a woman gives life, while any war first of all kills. In her novel, Alexievich collected stories from front-line soldiers to show what they were like, girls of forty-one, and how they went to the front. The author took readers along the terrible, cruel, unfeminine path of war.
“The Tale of a Real Man” Boris Polevoy
“The Tale of a Real Man” was created by a writer who went through the entire Great Patriotic War as a correspondent for the newspaper Pravda. During these terrible years, he managed to visit partisan detachments behind enemy lines, participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, and in the battle on the Kursk Bulge. But Polevoy’s world fame was brought not by military reports, but by a work of fiction written on the basis of documentary materials. The prototype of the hero of his “Tale of a Real Man” was the Soviet pilot Alexei Maresyev, who was shot down in 1942 during an offensive operation of the Red Army. The fighter lost both legs, but found the strength to return to the ranks of active pilots and destroyed many more fascist planes. The work was written in the difficult post-war years and immediately fell in love with the reader, because it proved that in life there is always a place for heroism.
It was widely covered in literature, especially in Soviet times, as many authors shared personal experiences and themselves experienced all the horrors described along with ordinary soldiers. Therefore, it is not surprising that first the war and then the post-war years were marked by the writing of a number of works dedicated to the feat of the Soviet people in the brutal struggle against Nazi Germany. It is impossible to pass by such books and forget about them, because they make us think about life and death, war and peace, past and present. We bring to your attention a list of the best books dedicated to the Great Patriotic War that are worth reading and re-reading.
Vasil Bykov
Vasil Bykov (books are presented below) is an outstanding Soviet writer, public figure and WWII participant. Probably one of the most famous authors of war novels. Bykov wrote mainly about a person during the most severe trials that befell him, and about the heroism of ordinary soldiers. Vasil Vladimirovich sang in his works the feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Below we will look at the most famous novels of this author: “Sotnikov”, “Obelisk” and “Until Dawn”.
"Sotnikov"
The story was written in 1968. This is another example of how it was described in fiction. Initially, the arbitrariness was called “Liquidation”, and the basis of the plot was the author’s meeting with a former fellow soldier, whom he considered dead. In 1976, the film “The Ascension” was made based on this book.
The story tells about a partisan detachment that is in dire need of provisions and medicine. Rybak and the intellectual Sotnikov, who is sick, but volunteers to go because no more volunteers were found, are sent for supplies. Long wanderings and searches lead the partisans to the village of Lyasina, here they rest a little and receive a sheep carcass. Now you can go back. But on the way back they come across a detachment of policemen. Sotnikov is seriously wounded. Now the Fisherman must save the life of his comrade and bring the promised provisions to the camp. However, he fails, and together they fall into the hands of the Germans.
"Obelisk"
Vasil Bykov wrote a lot. The writer's books have often been filmed. One of these books was the story “Obelisk”. The work is constructed according to the “story within a story” type and has a pronounced heroic character.
The hero of the story, whose name remains unknown, comes to the funeral of Pavel Miklashevich, a village teacher. At the wake, everyone remembers the deceased with a kind word, but then the conversation comes up about Frost, and everyone falls silent. On the way home, the hero asks his fellow traveler what kind of relationship a certain Moroz has with Miklashevich. Then they tell him that Moroz was the teacher of the deceased. He treated the children as family, took care of them, and took Miklashevich, who was oppressed by his father, to live with him. When the war began, Moroz helped the partisans. The village was occupied by police. One day, his students, including Miklashevich, sawed off the bridge supports, and the police chief and his assistants ended up in the water. The boys were caught. Moroz, who by that time had fled to the partisans, surrendered to free the students. But the Nazis decided to hang both the children and their teacher. Before his execution, Moroz helped Miklashevich escape. The rest were hanged.
"Until Dawn"
A story from 1972. As you can see, the Great Patriotic War in literature continues to be relevant even after decades. This is also confirmed by the fact that Bykov was awarded the USSR State Prize for this story. The work tells about the daily life of military intelligence officers and saboteurs. Initially, the story was written in Belarusian, and only then translated into Russian.
November 1941, the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Soviet army lieutenant Igor Ivanovsky, the main character of the story, commands a sabotage group. He will have to lead his comrades beyond the front line - to the lands of Belarus occupied by the German invaders. Their task is to blow up a German ammunition depot. Bykov talks about the feat of ordinary soldiers. It was they, and not the staff officers, who became the force that helped win the war.
In 1975, the book was filmed. The script for the film was written by Bykov himself.
“And the dawns here are quiet...”
A work by the Soviet and Russian writer Boris Lvovich Vasiliev. One of the most famous front-line stories, largely thanks to the 1972 film adaptation of the same name. “And the dawns here are quiet...” Boris Vasiliev wrote in 1969. The work is based on real events: during the war, soldiers serving on the Kirov Railway prevented German saboteurs from blowing up the railway track. After the fierce battle, only the commander of the Soviet group survived, who was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.”
“And the dawns here are quiet...” (Boris Vasiliev) - a book describing the 171st patrol in the Karelian wilderness. Here is the calculation of anti-aircraft installations. The soldiers, not knowing what to do, begin to drink and idle. Then Fyodor Vaskov, the commandant of the patrol, asks to “send non-drinkers.” The command sends two squads of female anti-aircraft gunners to him. And somehow one of the new arrivals notices German saboteurs in the forest.
Vaskov realizes that the Germans want to get to strategic targets and understands that they need to be intercepted here. To do this, he assembles a detachment of 5 anti-aircraft gunners and leads them to the Sinyukhin ridge through the swamps along a path known to him alone. During the campaign, it turns out that there are 16 Germans, so he sends one of the girls for reinforcements, while he himself pursues the enemy. However, the girl does not reach her own people and dies in the swamps. Vaskov has to engage in an unequal battle with the Germans, and as a result, the four girls remaining with him die. But still, the commandant manages to capture the enemies, and he takes them to the location of the Soviet troops.
The story describes the feat of a man who himself decides to confront the enemy and not allow him to walk around his native land with impunity. Without an order from his superiors, the main character goes into battle himself and takes 5 volunteers with him - the girls volunteered themselves.
"Tomorrow there was a war"
The book is a kind of biography of the author of this work, Boris Lvovich Vasiliev. The story begins with the writer telling about his childhood, that he was born in Smolensk, his father was the commander of the Red Army. And before becoming anyone in this life, choosing his profession and deciding on his place in society, Vasiliev became a soldier, like many of his peers.
“Tomorrow there was war” is a work about the pre-war period. Its main characters are still very young students of the 9th grade, the book tells about their growing up, love and friendship, idealistic youth, which turned out to be too short due to the outbreak of the war. The work tells about the first serious confrontation and choice, about the collapse of hopes, about the inevitable growing up. And all this against the backdrop of an looming, grave threat that cannot be stopped or avoided. And within a year, these boys and girls will find themselves in the heat of a fierce battle, in which many of them are destined to burn. However, in their short lives they learn what honor, duty, friendship and truth are.
"Hot Snow"
A novel by front-line writer Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev. The Great Patriotic War is particularly widely represented in the literature of this writer and became the main motive of all his work. But Bondarev’s most famous work is the novel “Hot Snow,” written in 1970. The action of the work takes place in December 1942 near Stalingrad. The novel is based on real events - the attempt of the German army to relieve Paulus's sixth army, surrounded at Stalingrad. This battle was decisive in the battle for Stalingrad. The book was filmed by G. Yegiazarov.
The novel begins with the fact that two artillery platoons under the command of Davlatyan and Kuznetsov have to gain a foothold on the Myshkova River, and then hold back the advance of German tanks rushing to the rescue of Paulus’s army.
After the first wave of the offensive, Lieutenant Kuznetsov’s platoon is left with one gun and three soldiers. Nevertheless, the soldiers continue to repel the onslaught of enemies for another day.
"The Fate of Man"
“The Fate of Man” is a school work that is studied within the framework of the topic “The Great Patriotic War in Literature.” The story was written by the famous Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov in 1957.
The work describes the life of a simple driver Andrei Sokolov, who had to leave his family and home with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. However, before the hero gets to the front, he is immediately wounded and ends up in Nazi captivity, and then in a concentration camp. Thanks to his courage, Sokolov manages to survive captivity, and at the end of the war he manages to escape. Having reached his family, he receives leave and goes to his small homeland, where he learns that his family died, only his son survived, who went to war. Andrei returns to the front and learns that his son was shot by a sniper on the last day of the war. However, this is not the end of the hero’s story; Sholokhov shows that even after losing everything, you can find new hope and gain strength in order to live on.
"Brest Fortress"
The book by the famous journalist was written in 1954. For this work the author was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1964. And this is not surprising, because the book is the result of Smirnov’s ten-year work on the history of the defense of the Brest Fortress.
The work “Brest Fortress” (Sergei Smirnov) is itself a part of history. Writing literally bit by bit he collected information about the defenders, wanting their good names and honor not to be forgotten. Many of the heroes were captured, for which they were convicted after the end of the war. And Smirnov wanted to protect them. The book contains many memories and testimonies of participants in the battles, which fills the book with true tragedy, full of courageous and decisive actions.
"The Living and the Dead"
The Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century describes the life of ordinary people who, by the will of fate, turned out to be heroes and traitors. This cruel time ground many, and only a few managed to slip between the millstones of history.
“The Living and the Dead” is the first book in the famous trilogy of the same name by Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov. The second two parts of the epic are called “Soldiers Are Not Born” and “The Last Summer.” The first part of the trilogy was published in 1959.
Many critics consider the work one of the brightest and most talented examples of describing the Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century. At the same time, the epic novel is not a historiographical work or a chronicle of the war. The characters in the book are fictional people, although they have certain prototypes.
“War does not have a woman’s face”
Literature dedicated to the Great Patriotic War usually describes the exploits of men, sometimes forgetting that women also contributed to the overall victory. But the book of the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, one might say, restores historical justice. The writer collected in her work the stories of those women who took part in the Great Patriotic War. The title of the book was the first lines of the novel “War Under the Roofs” by A. Adamovich.
“Not on the lists”
Another story whose theme was the Great Patriotic War. In Soviet literature, Boris Vasiliev, whom we already mentioned above, was quite famous. But he gained this fame precisely thanks to his military work, one of which is the story “Not on the Lists.”
The book was written in 1974. The action takes place in the Brest Fortress itself, besieged by fascist invaders. Lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov, the main character of the work, ends up in this fortress before the start of the war - he arrived on the night of June 21-22. And at dawn the battle begins. Nikolai has the opportunity to leave here, since his name is not on any military list, but he decides to stay and defend his homeland to the end.
"Babi Yar"
Anatoly Kuznetsov published the documentary novel “Babi Yar” in 1965. The work is based on the childhood memories of the author, who during the war found himself in German-occupied territory.
The novel begins with a short introduction by the author, a short introductory chapter and several chapters, which are combined into three parts. The first part tells about the withdrawal of retreating Soviet troops from Kyiv, the collapse of the Southwestern Front and the beginning of the occupation. Also included were scenes of the execution of Jews, the explosions of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and Khreshchatyk.
The second part is completely devoted to the occupation life of 1941-1943, the deportation of Russians and Ukrainians as workers to Germany, the famine, clandestine production, and Ukrainian nationalists. The final part of the novel tells about the liberation of the Ukrainian land from the German occupiers, the flight of the police, the battle for the city, and the uprising in the Babi Yar concentration camp.
"The Tale of a Real Man"
Literature about the Great Patriotic War also includes the work of another Russian writer who went through the war as a military journalist, Boris Polevoy. The story was written in 1946, that is, almost immediately after the end of hostilities.
The plot is based on an event from the life of USSR military pilot Alexei Meresyev. Its prototype was a real character, the hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Maresyev, who, like his hero, was a pilot. The story tells how he was shot down in battle with the Germans and seriously wounded. As a result of the accident, he lost both legs. However, his willpower was so great that he managed to return to the ranks of Soviet pilots.
The work was awarded the Stalin Prize. The story is imbued with humanistic and patriotic ideas.
"Madonna of Ration Bread"
Maria Glushko is a Crimean Soviet writer who went to the front at the beginning of the Second World War. Her book “Madonna with Ration Bread” is about the feat of all mothers who had to survive the Great Patriotic War. The heroine of the work is a very young girl, Nina, whose husband is going to war, and she, at the insistence of her father, goes to be evacuated to Tashkent, where her stepmother and brother are waiting for her. The heroine is in the last stages of pregnancy, but this will not protect her from the flow of human troubles. And in a short time, Nina will have to learn what was previously hidden from her behind the prosperity and tranquility of her pre-war existence: people live in the country so differently, what kind of people they have life principles, values, attitudes, how they differ from her, who grew up in ignorance and prosperity. But the main thing that the heroine has to do is to give birth to a child and save him from all the scourges of war.
"Vasily Terkin"
Literature portrayed such characters as the heroes of the Great Patriotic War to the reader in different ways, but the most memorable, cheerful and charismatic, undoubtedly, was Vasily Terkin.
This poem by Alexander Tvardovsky, which began publication in 1942, immediately received popular love and recognition. The work was written and published throughout the Second World War, the last part was published in 1945. The main task of the poem was to maintain the morale of the soldiers, and Tvardovsky successfully accomplished this task, largely thanks to the image of the main character. The daring and cheerful Terkin, who is always ready for battle, won the hearts of many ordinary soldiers. He is the soul of the unit, a cheerful fellow and a jokester, and in battle he is a role model, a resourceful warrior who always achieves his goal. Even being on the verge of death, he continues to fight and is already entering into battle with Death itself.
The work includes a prologue, 30 chapters of main content, divided into three parts, and an epilogue. Each chapter is a short front-line story from the life of the main character.
Thus, we see that the literature of the Soviet period widely covered the exploits of the Great Patriotic War. We can say that this is one of the main themes of the mid and second half of the 20th century for Russian and Soviet writers. This is due to the fact that the entire country was involved in the battle with the German invaders. Even those who were not at the front worked tirelessly in the rear, providing the soldiers with ammunition and provisions.
Terminological minimum: periodization, essay, “general’s” prose, “lieutenant’s” prose, memoirs, epic novel, “trench” literature, writers’ diaries, memoirs, documentary prose genre, historicism, documentary.
Plan
1. General characteristics of the literary process during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945).
2. The theme of war as the main one in the development of the literary process of the late 1940s - early 1960s. (opposition between “general’s” and “lieutenant’s” prose).
3. “Trench Truth” about the war in Russian literature.
4. Memoirs and fiction in literature about the Great Patriotic War.
Literature
Texts to study
1. Astafiev, V.P. Cursed and killed.
2. Bondarev, Yu. V. Hot snow. Shore. The battalions are asking for fire.
3. Bykov, V.V. Sotnikov. Obelisk.
4. Vasiliev, B. L. Tomorrow there was a war. Didn't appear on the lists.
5. Vorobyov, K. D. This is us, Lord!
6. Grossman, V. S. Life and Fate.
7. Kataev, V. P. Son of the regiment.
8. Leonov, L. M. Invasion.
9. Nekrasov, V. P. In the trenches of Stalingrad.
10. Simonov, K. M. Living and dead. Russian character.
11. Tvardovsky, A. T. Vasily Terkin.
12. Fadeev, A. A. Young Guard.
13. Sholokhov, M. A. They fought for their Motherland. The fate of man.
Main
1. Gorbachev, A. Yu. Military theme in prose of the 1940–90s. [Electronic resource] / A. Yu. Gorbachev. – Access mode: http://www. bsu.by>Cache /219533/.pdf (access date: 06/04/2014)
2. Lagunovsky, A. General characteristics of literature during the Great Patriotic War [Electronic resource] / A. Lagunovsky. – Access mode: http://www. Stihi.ru /2009/08/17/2891 (access date: 06/02/2014)
3. Russian literature of the 20th century / ed. S.I. Timina. – M.: Academy, 2011. – 368 p.
Additional
1. Bykov, V. “These young writers saw the sweat and blood of war on their tunic”: correspondence between Vasily Bykov and Alexander Tvardovsky / V. Bykov; entry Art. S. Shaprana // Questions of literature. – 2008. – No. 2. – P. 296–323.
2. Kozhin, A. N. About the language of military documentary prose / A. N. Kozhin // Philological Sciences. – 1995. – No. 3. – P. 95–101.
3. Chalmaev, V. A. Russian prose 1980–2000: At the crossroads of opinions and disputes / V. A. Chalmaev // Literature at school. – 2002. – No. 4. – P. 18–23.
4. Man and War: Russian fiction about the Great Patriotic War: bibliographic list / ed. S. P. Bavina. – M.: Ipno, 1999. – 298 p.
5. Yalyshkov, V. G. Military stories of V. Nekrasov and V. Kondratiev: experience of comparative analysis / V. G. Yalyshkov // Bulletin of Moscow University. - Ser. 9. Philology. – 1993. – No. 1. – P. 27–34.
1. The Great Patriotic War is an inexhaustible topic in Russian literature. The material, the author's tone, plots, and characters change, but the memory of the tragic days lives on in the books about her.
More than 1,000 writers went to the front during the war. Many of them directly participated in battles with the enemy, in the partisan movement. For military services, 18 writers received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. About 400 members of the Writers' Union did not return from the battlefields. Among them were young people who published one book each, and experienced writers known to a wide circle of readers: E. Petrov, A. Gaidar
etc.
A significant part of professional writers worked in newspapers, magazines, and the mass press. War correspondent is the most common position among representatives of fiction.
Lyrics turned out to be the most “mobile” type of literature. Here is a list of publications that were published already in the first days of the war: on June 23, A. Surkov’s poem “We swear by victory” appeared on the first page of Pravda, and on the second page, N. Aseev’s “Victory will be ours”; On June 24, Izvestia publishes “The Holy War” by V. Lebedev-Kumach; On June 25, Pravda publishes “Song of the Brave” by A. Surkov; On June 26, the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper begins publishing a series of essays by I. Ehrenburg; On June 27, Pravda opens its journalistic cycle with the article “What We Defend.”
A. Tolstoy. This dynamics is indicative and reflects the demand for artistic material.
It is noteworthy that the theme of the lyrics changed dramatically from the very first days of the war. Responsibility for the fate of the Motherland, the bitterness of defeat, hatred of the enemy, perseverance, patriotism, loyalty to ideals, faith in victory - this was the leitmotif of all poems, ballads, poems, songs.
The lines from A. Tvardovsky’s poem “To the Partisans of the Smolensk Region” were indicative: “Rise up, my whole desecrated region, against the enemy!” “The Holy War” by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach conveyed a generalized image of time:
May the rage be noble
Boils like a wave
- There is a people's war going on,
Holy war![p.87]7
Odic poems, expressing the anger and hatred of the Soviet people, were an oath of allegiance to the Fatherland, a guarantee of victory, and reflected the internal state of millions of Soviet people.
The poets turned to the heroic past of their homeland, drew historical parallels that were so necessary to raise morale: “The Tale of Russia” by M. Isakovsky, “Rus” by D. Bedny, “The Thought of Russia”
D. Kedrina, “Field of Russian Glory” by S. Vasiliev.
Organic connection with Russian classical lyrics and folk art helped poets reveal the traits of national character. Concepts such as “Motherland”, “Rus”, “Russia”, “Russian heart”, “Russian soul”, often included in the titles of works of art, acquired unprecedented historical depth and strength, poetic volume and imagery. Thus, revealing the character of the heroic defender of the city on the Neva, a Leningrad woman during the siege, O. Berggolts states:
You are Russian – with your breath, your blood, your thoughts.
They united in you not yesterday
Avvakum's manly patience
And Peter’s royal fury[p.104].
A number of poems convey the feeling of a soldier’s love for his “ small homeland”, to the house in which he was born, to the family that remained far away, to those “three birches” where he left part of his soul, his pain, hope, joy (“Motherland” by K. Simonov).
The most touching lines of many writers of this time are dedicated to the woman-mother, a simple Russian woman who saw off her brothers, husband and sons to the front, who experienced the bitterness of an irreparable loss, who bore on her shoulders inhuman hardships, deprivations and hardships, but did not lose faith.
I remembered every porch,
Where did you have to go?
I remembered all the women's faces,
Like your own mother.
They shared bread with us -
Is it wheat, rye, -
They took us out to the steppe
A secret path.
Our pain hurt them, -
Your own misfortune does not count [p.72].
M. Isakovsky’s poems “To a Russian Woman” and lines from K. Simonov’s poem “Do you remember, Alyosha, the roads of the Smolensk region...” sound in the same key.
The truth of the times, faith in victory permeate the poems of A. Prokofiev (“Comrade, have you seen...”), A. Tvardovsky (“The Ballad of a Comrade”) and many other poets.
The work of a number of major poets is undergoing a serious evolution. Thus, A. Akhmatova’s lyrics reflect the high citizenship of the poetess; purely personal experiences received a patriotic sound. In the poem “Courage,” the poetess finds words and images that embody the invincible resilience of the fighting people:
And we will save you, Russian speech,
Great Russian word.
We will carry you free and clean.
We will give it to our grandchildren and save us from captivity
Forever! [p.91].
The fighting people needed both angry lines of hatred and heartfelt poems about love and fidelity in equal measure. Examples of this are K. Simonov’s poems “Kill him!”, “Wait for me, and I will return...”, A. Prokofiev’s “Comrade, have you seen...”, his poem “Russia”, filled with love for the Motherland.
Front-line songs occupy a special place in the history of the development of Russian poetry. Thoughts and feelings set to music create a special emotional background and reveal the mentality of our people in the best possible way (“Dugout” by A. Surkov, “Dark Night” by V. Agatov, “Ogonyok”
M. Isakovsky, “Evening on the roads” by A. Churkin, “Roads” by L. Oshanin, “Here the soldiers are coming” by M. Lvovsky, “Nightingales” by A. Fatyanov, etc.).
We find the embodiment of the social, moral, humanistic ideals of the fighting people in such a large epic genre like a poem. The years of the Great Patriotic War became no less fruitful for the poem than the era of the 1920s. “Kirov with us” (1941) by N. Tikhonova, “Zoya” (1942) by M. Aliger, “Son” (1943) by P. Antakolsky, “February Diary” (1942) by O. Berggolts, “Pulkovo Meridian” (1943)
V. Inber, “Vasily Terkin” (1941–1945) by A. Tvardovsky - these are the best examples of poetic creativity of that period. A distinctive feature of the poem as a genre at this time is pathos: attention to specific, easily recognizable details, a synthesis of personal thoughts about family, love and big history, about the fate of the country and the planet, etc.
The evolution of the poets P. Antakolsky and V. Inber is indicative. From oversaturation with associations and reminiscences of pre-war poetry
P. Antakolsky moves from thinking about the fate of a particular person to all of humanity as a whole. The poem “Son” captivates with its combination of lyricism with high pathos, soulful sincerity with a civic principle. Here the painfully personal turns into the general. High civic pathos and social and philosophical reflections determine the sound of V. Inber’s military poetry. “Pulkovo Meridian” is not only a poem about the humanistic position of the Russian people, it is a hymn to the feelings and feats of every person fighting for the Motherland and freedom.
The poem of the war years was distinguished by a variety of stylistic, plot and compositional solutions. It synthesizes the principles and techniques of narrative and sublimely romantic style. Thus, M. Aliger’s poem “Zoe” is marked by the amazing unity of the author with the spiritual world of the heroine. It inspiredly and accurately embodies moral maximalism and integrity, truth and simplicity. Moscow schoolgirl Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, without hesitation, voluntarily chooses a harsh fate. The poem “Zoya” is not so much a biography of the heroine as a lyrical confession on behalf of a generation whose youth coincided with a formidable and tragic time in the history of the people. At the same time, the three-part structure of the poem conveys the main stages in the formation of the heroine’s spiritual appearance. At the beginning of the poem, with light but precise strokes, the girl’s appearance is only outlined. Gradually in beautiful world of her youth (“Our life in the world was light and spacious...”) enters a large social theme, a sensitive heart absorbs the worries and pain of the “shocked planet.” The final part of the poem becomes the apotheosis of a short life. The inhuman torture that Zoya is subjected to in a fascist dungeon is spoken sparingly, but powerfully, with journalistic poignancy. The name and image of the Moscow schoolgirl, whose life was cut short so tragically early, have become a legend.
The poem “Vasily Terkin” by A. T. Tvardovsky, the largest, most significant poetic work of the era of the Great Patriotic War, became world famous. Tvardovsky achieved a synthesis of the particular and the general: the individual image of Vasily Terkin and the image of the Motherland are of different sizes in the artistic concept of the poem. This is a multifaceted poetic work, covering not only all aspects of front-line life, but also the main stages of the Great Patriotic War. The immortal image of Vasily Terkin embodied with particular force the features of the Russian national character of that era. Democracy and moral purity, greatness and simplicity of the hero are revealed through the means of folk poetry, the structure of his thoughts and feelings is akin to the world of images of Russian folklore.
The era of the Great Patriotic War gave birth to poetry of remarkable strength and sincerity, angry journalism, harsh prose, and passionate drama.
Over 300 plays were created during the war years, but few were lucky enough to survive their time. Among them: “Invasion” by L. Leonov, “Front” by A. Korneichuk, “Russian People” by K. Simonov, “Fleet Officer” by A. Kron, “Song of the Black Sea Men” by B. Lavrenev, “Stalingraders” by Yu. Chepurin, etc. .
Plays were not the most mobile genre of that time. The year 1942 became a turning point in drama.
L. Leonov's drama “Invasion” was created at the most difficult time. The small town where the events of the play unfold is a symbol of the national struggle against the invaders. The significance of the author's plan lies in the fact that he interprets local conflicts in a broad socio-philosophical manner, revealing the sources that feed the force of resistance. The play takes place in Dr. Talanov's apartment. Unexpectedly for everyone, Talanov’s son Fedor returns from prison. Almost simultaneously the Germans entered the city. And along with them appears the former owner of the house in which the Talanovs live, the merchant Fayunin, who soon became the mayor of the city. The tension of the action increases from scene to scene. The honest Russian intellectual, doctor Talanov, does not imagine his life apart from the struggle. Next to him are his wife Anna Pavlovna and daughter Olga. There is no question of the need to fight behind enemy lines for the chairman of the city council, Kolesnikov: he heads a partisan detachment. This is one – the central – layer of the play. However, Leonov, a master of deep and complex dramatic collisions, is not content with only this approach. Deepening the psychological line of the play, he introduces another person - the Talanovs' son. Fedor's fate turned out to be confusing and difficult. Spoiled in childhood, selfish, selfish, he returns to his father's house after three years in prison as punishment for an attempt on the life of his beloved woman. Fyodor is gloomy, cold, wary. The words of his father spoken at the beginning of the play about the nation's grief do not touch Fyodor: personal adversity obscures everything else. He is tormented by the lost trust of people, which is why Fyodor feels uncomfortable in the world. With their minds and hearts, the mother and nanny understood that under the buffoon mask Fyodor hid his pain, the melancholy of a lonely, unhappy person, but they could not accept him as before. Kolesnikov’s refusal to take Fedor into his squad hardens the heart of young Talanov even more. It took time for this man, who once lived only for himself, to become the people's avenger. Captured by the Nazis, Fyodor pretends to be the commander of a partisan detachment in order to die for him. Leonov paints a psychologically convincing picture of Fedor’s return to people. The play consistently reveals how war, national grief, and suffering ignite in people hatred and a thirst for revenge, a willingness to give their lives for the sake of victory. This is exactly how we see Fedor at the end of the drama.
For Leonov, there is a natural interest in human character in all the complexity and contradictions of his nature, consisting of social and national, moral and psychological. Stage history Leonov’s works of the period of the Great Patriotic War (except for “Invasion”, the drama “Lenushka”, 1943, was also widely known), which went around all the main theaters of the country, once again confirming the skill of the playwright.
If L. Leonov reveals the theme of heroic deeds and the invincibility of the patriotic spirit by means of in-depth psychological analysis, then K. Simonov in the play “Russian People” (1942), posing the same problems, uses the techniques of lyricism and journalism of open folk drama. The action in the play takes place in the autumn of 1941 on the Southern Front. The author's attention is focused on both the events in Safonov's detachment, located not far from the city, and the situation in the city itself, where the occupiers are in charge. “Russian People” is a play about the courage and resilience of ordinary people who had very peaceful professions before the war: about the driver Safonov, his mother Marfa Petrovna, nineteen-year-old Valya Anoshchenko, who drove the chairman of the city council, and paramedic Globa. They would build houses, teach children, create beautiful things, love, but the cruel word “war” dispelled all hopes. People take rifles, put on greatcoats, and go into battle.
The play “Russian People” already in the summer of 1942, during the most difficult time of the war, was staged on the stage of a number of theaters. The success of the play was also explained by the fact that the playwright showed the enemy not as a primitive fanatic and sadist, but as a sophisticated conqueror of Europe and the world, confident in his impunity.
The theme of a number of interesting dramatic works was the life and heroic deeds of our fleet. Among them: psychological drama
A. Krona “Fleet Officer” (1944), lyrical comedy by Vs. Azarova,
Sun. Vishnevsky, A. Kron “The Wide Sea Spreads Out” (1942), B. Lavrenev’s oratorio “Song of the Black Sea People” (1943).
Historical drama achieved certain achievements during this period. Such historical plays were written as the tragedy of V. Solovyov “The Great Sovereign”, the dilogy of A. Tolstoy “Ivan the Terrible”, etc. Turning points, difficult times of the Russian people - this is the main component of such dramas.
However, journalism reached its greatest flourishing during the Great Patriotic War. The greatest masters artistic word– L. Leonov, A. Tolstoy, M. Sholokhov – also became outstanding publicists. The bright, temperamental words of I. Ehrenburg were popular at the front and in the rear. An important contribution to the journalism of those years was made by A. Fadeev, V. Vishnevsky, N. Tikhonov.
A. N. Tolstoy (1883–1945) owns more than 60 articles and essays created during the period 1941–1944. (“What We Defend”, “Motherland”, “Russian Warriors”, “Blitzkrieg”, “Why Hitler Must Be Defeated”, etc.). Turning to the history of his homeland, he convinced his contemporaries that Russia would cope with a new disaster, as it had happened more than once in the past. “Nothing, we can handle it!” - this is the leitmotif journalism by A. Tolstoy.
L. M. Leonov also constantly turned to national history, but with particular poignancy he spoke about the responsibility of every citizen, because only in this he saw the guarantee of the coming victory (“Glory to Russia”, “Your brother Volodya Kurylenko”, “Rage”, “Massacre” ", “To an unknown American friend”, etc.).
The central theme of I. G. Ehrenburg’s military journalism is the defense universal human culture. He saw fascism as a threat to world civilization and emphasized that representatives of all nationalities of the USSR were fighting for its preservation (articles “Kazakhs”, “Jews”, “Uzbeks”, “Caucasus”, etc.). Ehrenburg's style of journalism was distinguished by sharp colors, sudden transitions, and metaphor. At the same time, the writer skillfully combined documentary materials, verbal posters, pamphlets, and caricatures in his works. Ehrenburg's essays and journalistic articles were compiled in the collection “War”.
The second most mobile after a journalistic article was a military man
essay .
Documentary art has become the key to the popularity of publications
V. Grossman, A. Fadeev, K. Simonov are writers whose words, created in hot pursuit, were awaited by readers at the front and in the rear. He owns descriptions of military operations and portrait travel sketches.
Leningrad became the main theme of V. Grossman's essays. In 1941, he joined the staff of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. Grossman kept notes throughout the war. His Stalingrad essays, harsh, devoid of pathos (“Through the Eyes of Chekhov”, etc.), formed the basis of the plan for a large work, which later became the dilogy “Life and Fate.”
Since most of the stories, the few in those years, were built on a documentary basis, the authors most often resorted to the psychological characteristics of the heroes, described specific episodes, and often retained the names of real people. Thus, during the days of the war, a certain hybrid form appeared in Russian literature
essay-story. This type of work includes “The Commander’s Honor” by K. Simonov, “The Science of Hate” by M. Sholokhov, and the cycles “Stories of Ivan Sudarev”
A. Tolstoy and “Sea Soul” by L. Sobolev.
The art of journalism has gone through several main stages in four years. If in the first months of the war it was characterized by a nakedly rationalistic manner, often abstract and schematic ways of depicting the enemy, then at the beginning of 1942 journalism was enriched with elements of psychological analysis. The fiery word of the publicist contains both a rallying note and an appeal to the spiritual world of a person. The next stage coincided with a turning point in the course of the war, with the need for an in-depth socio-political examination of the fascist front and rear, clarification of the root causes of the approaching defeat of Hitlerism and the inevitability of fair retribution. These circumstances prompted the use of such genres as pamphlets and reviews.
At the final stage of the war, a tendency towards documentary appeared. For example, in TASS Windows, along with the graphic design of posters, the method of photomontage was widely used. Writers and poets included diary entries, letters, photographs and other documentary evidence into their works.
Journalism during the war years is a qualitatively different stage in the development of this martial and effective art compared to previous periods. The deepest optimism, unshakable faith in victory - that’s what supported the publicists even in the most difficult times. Their appeal to history and the national origins of patriotism gave their speeches special power. An important feature of journalism of that time was the widespread use of leaflets, posters, and caricatures.
Already in the first two years of the war, over 200 stories were published. Of all the prose genres, only the essay and story could compete in popularity with the story. The story is a genre that is very characteristic of the Russian national tradition. It is well known that in the 1920–1930s. psychological-everyday, adventure and satirical-humorous varieties of the genre dominated. During the Great Patriotic War (as well as during the Civil War), the heroic, romantic story came first.
The desire to reveal the harsh and bitter truth of the first months of the war and achievements in the field of creating heroic characters are marked by “The Russian Tale” (1942) by Pyotr Pavlenko and V. Grossman’s story “The People are Immortal.” However, there are differences between these works in the way the theme is embodied.
A characteristic feature of military prose of 1942–1943. - the appearance of short stories, cycles of stories connected by the unity of characters, the image of the narrator or a lyrical cross-cutting theme. This is exactly how “Stories of Ivan Sudarev” by A. Tolstoy, “Sea Soul” by L. Sobolev, “March - April” by V. Kozhevnikov are constructed. The drama in these works is shaded by a lyrical and at the same time sublimely poetic, romantic feature, which helps to reveal the spiritual beauty of the hero. Penetration into the inner world of a person deepens. The socio-ethical origins of patriotism are revealed more convincingly and artistically.
By the end of the war, the prose’s gravitation towards a broad epic understanding of reality is noticeable, which is convincingly proven by two famous writers– M. Sholokhov (a novel that the author never managed to finish - “They Fought for the Motherland”) and A. Fadeev (“Young Guard”). The novels are distinguished by their social scope and the opening of new paths in the interpretation of the theme of war. Thus, M.A. Sholokhov makes a bold attempt to depict the Great Patriotic War as a truly national epic. The very choice of the main characters, private infantry - grain grower Zvyagintsev, miner Lopakhin, agronomist Streltsov - indicates that the writer seeks to show different layers of society, to trace how the war was perceived different people and what paths led them to a huge, truly national Victory.
The spiritual and moral world of Sholokhov’s heroes is rich and diverse. The artist paints broad pictures of the era: sad episodes of retreats, scenes of violent attacks, relationships between soldiers and civilians, short hours between battles. At the same time, the whole gamut of human experiences can be traced - love and hatred, severity and tenderness, smiles and tears, tragic and comic.
If the novel by M. A. Sholokhov was not completed, then the fate of other works was remarkable; they reflected the era, like in a mirror. For example, the autobiographical story by K. Vorobyov “This is us, Lord!” was written in 1943, when a group of partisans formed from former prisoners of war was forced to go underground. Exactly thirty days in the Lithuanian city of Siauliai, K. Vorobyov wrote about what he experienced in fascist captivity. In 1946, the manuscript was received by the editors of the New World magazine. At that moment, the author presented only the first part of the story, so the question of its publication was postponed until the ending appeared. However, the second part was never written. Even in the writer’s personal archive, the entire story was not preserved, but some of its fragments were included in some of Vorobyov’s other works. Only in 1985 the manuscript “This is us, Lord!” was discovered in the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of the USSR, where it was deposited along with the archive of the “New World”. In 1986, K. Vorobyov’s story finally saw the light of day. The main character of the work, Sergei Kostrov, is a young lieutenant who was captured by the Germans in the first year of the war. The whole story is dedicated to describing the life of Soviet prisoners of war in German camps. At the center of the work is the fate of the protagonist, which can be described as “the path to freedom.”
If K. Vorobyov’s work is a tracing of his life, then A. Fadeev relies on specific facts and documents. At the same time, Fadeev’s “Young Guard” is romantic and revealing, just like the fate of the author of the work himself.
In the first chapter there is a distant echo of anxiety, in the second the drama is shown - people leave their homes, mines are blown up, a feeling of national tragedy permeates the narrative. The underground is crystallizing, connections between the young fighters of Krasnodon and the underground are becoming stronger. The idea of continuity of generations determines the basis of the plot structure of the book and is expressed in the depiction of underground workers (I. Protsenko, F. Lyutikov). Representatives of the older generation and Young Guard Komsomol members act as a single popular force opposing Hitler’s “new order.”
First completed The novel about the Patriotic War was “The Young Guard” by A. Fadeev, published in 1945 (the second book - in 1951). After the liberation of Donbass, Fadeev wrote an essay about the death of the Krasnodon youth “Immortality” (1943), and then conducted a study of the activities of an underground youth organization that independently operated in the town occupied by the Nazis. Severe and strict realism coexists with romance, the objectified narrative is interspersed with the excited lyricism of the author's digressions. When recreating individual images, the role of the poetics of contrast is also very significant (Lyutikov’s stern eyes and the sincerity of his nature; the emphatically boyish appearance of Oleg Koshevoy and the not at all childish wisdom of his decisions; the dashing carelessness of Lyubov Shevtsova and the daring courage of her actions, indestructible will). Even in the appearance of the heroes, Fadeev does not deviate from his favorite technique: Protsenko’s “clear blue eyes” and “demonic sparks” in them; “severe-tender expression” of Oleg Koshevoy’s eyes; white lily in the black hair of Ulyana Gromova; “blue children’s eyes with a hard steel tint” from Lyubov Shevtsova.
The history of the novel's existence in world literature is remarkable. The fate of the work is indicative of literary examples of the Soviet era.
Application of brainstorming technology
Conditions: completing a pre-lecture task, dividing into groups (4–5 people).
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Changing your point of view |
Different people's points of view |
Identification of the differences and commonality of views of literary scholars and public figures. Conclusion about the pressure on the author of the novel |
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Grouping of changes made |
Knowledge of the texts of A. A. Fadeev’s novel “Destruction” and O. G. Manukyan’s abstract |
To consolidate an idea of the inner world of writers, to compare the difference in perception of the writer and critics |
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Autoletter |
A letter to yourself regarding the perception of the information contained in the abstract |
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Curtsy |
Involves reproducing the exact opposite of the stated position in the conclusions of the abstract |
Promotes mental flexibility, original ideas, understanding author's position and empathy |
If in the 1945 edition A. A. Fadeev did not dare to write about the existence in Krasnodon of another - non-Komsomol - anti-fascist underground, then in the new version of the novel (1951) ideologically determined cunning is added to this default: the author claims that the creators and The leaders of the Young Guard organization were communists. Thus, Fadeev denies his favorite heroes an important initiative. In addition, this book served as the basis for criminal prosecution, often unfounded, of real people who became prototypes of negative heroes.
And yet, in our opinion, it should be noted that to this day this novel has not lost its relevance, including pedagogical.
2. The theme of the Great Patriotic War occupies a special place in Russian multinational literature. In the 1940s–1950s, it developed a tradition of depicting the war as a heroic period in the life of the country. With this angle, there was no room to show its tragic aspects. Throughout the 1950s. In the literature about the war, a tendency towards a panoramic depiction of past events in large artistic canvases is clearly revealed. The appearance of epic novels is one of the characteristic features of Russian literature of the 1950s–1960s.
The turning point occurred only with the beginning of the “thaw”, when the stories of front-line writers were published: “Battalions Ask for Fire” (1957) by Yu. Bondarev, “South of the Main Strike” (1957) by G. Baklanov, “Crane Cry” (1961), “ The Third Rocket" (1962) by V. Bykova, "Starfall" (1961) by V. Astafiev, "One of Us" (1962) by V. Roslyakov, "Scream" (1962), "Killed near Moscow" (1963) by K. Vorobyov etc. Such a surge of interest in the military topic predetermined the emergence of a whole movement called “lieutenant prose.”
“Lieutenant's Prose” is the work of writers who went through the war, survived and brought their combat experience to the reader's attention in one form or another. As a rule, this is fiction, most of which is autobiographical in nature. The aesthetic principles of “lieutenant prose” had a noticeable influence on the entire literary process of the second half of the 20th century. However, today there is no generally accepted definition of this literary movement. It is interpreted in different ways: as prose created by front-line soldiers who went through the war with the rank of lieutenants, or as prose in which the main characters are young lieutenants. “General’s prose” is characterized in a similar way, which means works created in the “general’s” (epic novel) format by the “generals” of literature (for example, K. Simonov).
Speaking about works created by front-line writers exploring the development of a young war participant, we will resort to the concept of “lieutenant prose” as the most widely used one. Its origins lay in V. Nekrasov’s novel “In the Trenches of Stalingrad.” The author, having himself gone through the war as an officer in a sapper battalion, was able to show in artistic form the “truth of the trenches,” in which the heroes were a simple soldier, a simple officer. And we won ordinary people- people. This theme became central to the best war fiction of the 1950s and 1960s.
In this regard, the following authors and their works may be mentioned. The story by K. Vorobyov (1919–1975) “Killed near Moscow” (1963) is written very emotionally, but realistically. Plot: a company of Kremlin cadets under the command of the slender, fit captain Ryumin was sent to defend Moscow. A company of soldiers and the defense of Moscow! The company died, and Captain Ryumin shot himself - he shot himself in the heart, as if atonement for his sin for the death of inexperienced boys. They, the Kremlin cadets, are slender, one meter one hundred and eighty-three centimeters tall, they look perfect, and they are sure that the command values them, because they are a special unit. But the cadets are abandoned by their command, and Captain Ryumin leads them into an obviously unequal battle. There was practically no fighting, there was an unexpected and stunning attack by the Germans, from which there was no escape anywhere - the NKVD troops controlled them from behind.
Yu. Bondarev, in the novel “Hot Snow” (1965–1969), tried to develop the traditions of “lieutenant prose” at a new level, entering into a hidden polemic with its characteristic “remarqueism”. Moreover, by that time, “lieutenant prose” was experiencing a certain crisis, which was expressed in a certain monotony of artistic techniques, plot moves and situations, and even in the repetition of the very system of images of the works. The action of Y. Bondarev's novel takes place within 24 hours, during which Lieutenant Drozdovsky's battery, which remained on the southern bank, repelled the attacks of one of the tank divisions of Manstein's group, eager to help Marshal Paulus's army, which was encircled at Stalingrad. However, this particular episode of the war turns out to be the turning point from which the victorious offensive of the Soviet troops began, and for this reason the events of the novel unfold as if on three levels: in the trenches of an artillery battery, at the army headquarters of General Bessonov and, finally, at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, where Before being assigned to the active army, the general has to endure a very difficult psychological duel with Stalin himself. Battalion commander Drozdovsky and the commander of one of the artillery platoons, Lieutenant Kuznetsov, personally meet with General Bessonov three times.
By characterizing the war as a “test of humanity,” Yu. Bondarev only expressed what determined the face of the military story of the 1960–1970s: many prose-battle writers placed emphasis in their works on depicting the inner world of the heroes and refracting the experience of war in it , on the transfer of the very process of human moral choice. However, the writer’s partiality for his favorite characters was sometimes expressed in the romanticization of their images - a tradition set by A. Fadeev’s novel “The Young Guard” (1945). In this case, the character of the characters did not change, but was only revealed extremely clearly in the exceptional circumstances in which the war placed them.
This tendency was most clearly expressed in the stories of B. Vasiliev “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” (1969) and “Not on the Lists” (1975). The peculiarity of the writer’s military prose is that he always chooses episodes that are insignificant from the point of view of global historical events, however, they speak a lot about the highest spirit of those who were not afraid to oppose the superior forces of the enemy and achieved victory. Critics saw many inaccuracies and even “impossibilities” in B. Vasiliev’s story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” which takes place in the forests and swamps of Karelia (for example, the White Sea-Baltic Canal, which the sabotage group was targeting, has not been operational since the fall of 1941 ). But the writer was not interested in historical accuracy here, but in the situation itself, when five fragile girls, led by foreman Fedot Baskov, entered into an unequal battle with sixteen thugs.
The image of Baskov, in essence, goes back to Lermontov’s Maxim Maksimych - a man, perhaps poorly educated, but whole, wise in life and endowed with a noble and kind heart. Vaskov does not understand the intricacies of world politics or fascist ideology, but in his heart he feels the bestial essence of this war and its causes and cannot justify the death of five girls by any higher interests.
The image of female anti-aircraft gunners embodied the typical destinies of women of the pre-war and war years: of different social status and educational level, different characters, interests. However, for all their life-like accuracy, these images are noticeably romanticized: in the writer’s depiction, each of the girls is beautiful in her own way, each worthy of her own life story. And the fact that all the heroines die emphasizes the inhumanity of this war, which affects the lives of even the people furthest from it. The fascists are contrasted with romanticized images of girls using the technique of contrast. Their images are grotesque, deliberately reduced, and this expresses the writer’s main idea about the nature of a person who has taken the path of murder. This thought illuminates with particular clarity that episode of the story in which Sonya Gurvich’s dying cry is heard, bursting out because the blow of the knife was intended for a man, but fell on female breast. With the image of Liza Brichkina, a line of possible love is introduced into the story. From the very beginning, Vaskov and Lisa liked each other: she liked her figure and sharpness, he liked her masculine thoroughness. Lisa and Vaskov have a lot in common, but the heroes never managed to sing together, as the foreman promised: the war destroys nascent feelings at the root. The ending of the story reveals the meaning of its title. The work closes with a letter, judging by the language, written by a young man who became an accidental witness of Vaskov’s return to the place of the girls’ deaths along with Rita’s adopted son Albert. Thus, the hero’s return to the place of his feat is shown through the eyes of a generation whose right to life was defended by people like Vaskov. Such symbolization of images and philosophical understanding of situations of moral choice are very characteristic of a military story. Prose writers thereby continue the reflections of their predecessors on the “eternal” questions about the nature of good and evil, the degree of human responsibility for actions seemingly dictated by necessity. Hence the desire of some writers to create situations that, in their universality, semantic capacity and categorical moral and ethical conclusions, would approach a parable, only colored by the author’s emotion and enriched with completely realistic details.
It is not for nothing that the concept of a “philosophical tale of war” was even born, associated primarily with the work of the Belarusian prose writer-front-line soldier Vasil Bykov, with such stories as “Sotnikov” (1970), “Obelisk” (1972), “Sign of Trouble” (1984) . V. Bykov’s prose is often characterized by a too straightforward opposition between a person’s physical and moral health. However, the inferiority of the soul of some heroes is not revealed immediately, not in everyday life: a “moment of truth” is needed, a situation of categorical choice that immediately reveals the true essence of a person. The fisherman, the hero of V. Bykov’s story “Sotnikov,” is full of vitality, knows no fear, and Rybak’s comrade, sick, not very strong, with “thin hands,” Sotnikov gradually begins to seem to him only a burden. Indeed, largely due to the fault of the latter, the foray of the two partisans ended in failure. Sotnikov is a purely civilian man. Until 1939, he worked at a school; his physical strength was replaced by stubbornness. It was stubbornness that prompted Sotnikov three times to try to get out of the encirclement in which his destroyed battery found himself, before the hero fell into the hands of the partisans. Whereas Rybak, from the age of 12, was engaged in hard peasant labor and therefore endured it more easily physical activity and deprivation. It is also noteworthy that Rybak is more inclined to moral compromises. Thus, he is more tolerant of the elder Peter than Sotnikov, and does not dare to punish him for his service to the Germans. Sotnikov, on the other hand, is not inclined to compromise at all, which, however, according to V. Bykov, testifies not to the hero’s limitations, but to his excellent understanding of the laws of war. Indeed, unlike Rybak, Sotnikov already knew what captivity was and was able to pass this test with honor because he did not compromise with his conscience. The “moment of truth” for Sotnikov and Rybak was their arrest by the police, the scene of interrogation and execution. The fisherman, who has always found a way out of any situation, tries to outwit the enemy, not realizing that, having taken such a path, he will inevitably come to betrayal, because he has already put his own salvation above the laws of honor and camaraderie. He yields to the enemy step by step, refusing first to think about saving the woman who hid him and Sotnikov in the attic, then about saving Sotnikov himself, and then about his own soul. Finding himself in a hopeless situation, Rybak, in the face of imminent death, became cowardly, preferring animal life to human death.
The change in approach to conflicts in military prose can also be traced when analyzing the works of the same writer over different years. Already in his first stories, V. Bykov sought to free himself from stereotypes when depicting war. The writer always has extremely tense situations in his field of vision. The heroes are faced with the need to make their own decisions. So, for example, it happened with Lieutenant Ivanovsky in the story “To Live Until Dawn” (1972) - he risked himself and those who went on a mission with him and died. There was no warehouse with weapons for which this sortie was organized. In order to somehow justify the sacrifices already made, Ivanovsky hopes to blow up the headquarters, but it was not possible to find it either. In front of him, mortally wounded, a transport worker appears, at whom the lieutenant, having gathered his remaining strength, throws a grenade. V. Bykov made the reader think about the meaning of the concept of “feat”.
At one time, there were debates about whether teacher Moroz could be considered a hero in “Obelisk” (1972), if he did not do anything heroic, did not kill a single fascist, but only shared the fate of the dead students. The characters in other stories by V. Bykov did not correspond to standard ideas about heroism. Critics were embarrassed by the appearance of a traitor in almost every one of them (Rybak in Sotnikov, 1970; Anton Golubin in Go and Not Return, 1978, etc.), who until the fateful moment was an honest partisan, but gave in when he had to take risks for the sake of saving your own life. For V. Bykov, it did not matter from which observation point the observation was carried out, it was important how the war was seen and depicted. He showed the multi-motivation of actions performed in extreme situations. The reader was given the opportunity, without rushing to judgment, to understand those who were clearly wrong.
In the works of V. Bykov, the connection between the military past and the present is usually emphasized. In “The Wolf Pack” (1975), a former soldier remembers the war, having come to the city to look for the baby he once saved and make sure that such a high price was not paid for his life in vain (his father and mother died, and he, Levchuk, became disabled) . The story ends with a premonition of their meeting.
Another veteran, Associate Professor Ageev, is excavating a quarry (“Quarry”, 1986), where he was once shot, but miraculously survived. The memory of the past haunts him, forces him to rethink the past again and again, to be ashamed of thoughtless fears regarding those who, like priest Baranovskaya, were labeled an enemy.
In the 1950s–1970s. Several major works appear, the purpose of which is to epically cover the events of the war years, to comprehend the fate of individuals and their families in the context of the national fate. In 1959, the first novel “The Living and the Dead” of K. Simonov’s trilogy of the same name was published, the second novel “Soldiers Are Not Born” and the third “The Last Summer” were published, respectively, in 1964 and 1970–1971. In 1960, a draft of V. Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate”, the second part of the dilogy “For a Just Cause” (1952), was completed, but a year later the manuscript was arrested by the KGB, so the general reader at home was able to get acquainted with the novel only in 1988 G.
In the first book of K. Simonov’s trilogy “The Living and the Dead,” the action takes place at the beginning of the war in Belarus and near Moscow at the height of military events. War correspondent Sintsov, leaving encirclement with a group of comrades, decides to leave journalism and join General Serpilin’s regiment. Human history These two heroes are the focus of the author's attention, without disappearing behind the large-scale events of the war. The writer touched on many topics and problems that were previously impossible in Soviet literature: he spoke about the country’s unpreparedness for war, about the repressions that weakened the army, about the mania of suspicion, and the inhumane attitude towards people. The writer’s success was the figure of General Lvov, who embodied the image of a Bolshevik fanatic. Personal courage and faith in a happy future are combined in him with the desire to mercilessly eradicate everything that, in his opinion, interferes with this future. Lvov loves abstract people, but is ready to sacrifice people, throwing them into meaningless attacks, seeing in a person only a means to achieve high goals. His suspicion extends so far that he is ready to argue with Stalin himself, who freed several talented military men from the camps. If General Lvov is an ideologist of totalitarianism, then its practitioner, Colonel Baranov, is a careerist and a coward. Having uttered loud words about duty, honor, courage, and written denunciations against his colleagues, he, finding himself surrounded, puts on a soldier’s tunic and “forgets” all the documents. Telling the harsh truth about the beginning of the war, K. Simonov simultaneously shows the people's resistance to the enemy, depicting the feat of the Soviet people who stood up to defend their homeland. These are episodic characters (artillerymen who did not abandon their cannon, dragging it in their hands from Brest to Moscow; an old collective farmer who scolded the retreating army, but at the risk of his life saved a wounded woman in his house; Captain Ivanov, who gathered frightened soldiers from broken units and leading them into battle), and the main characters are Serpilin and Sintsov.
It is no coincidence that General Serpilin, conceived by the author as an episodic character, gradually became one of the main characters of the trilogy: his fate embodied the most complex and at the same time the most typical features of a Russian person of the 20th century. A participant in the First World War, he became a talented commander in the Civil War, taught at the academy and was arrested by Baranov’s denunciation for telling his listeners about the strength of the German army, while all the propaganda insisted that in the event of war we would win with a small one blood, but we will fight on foreign territory. Liberated from a concentration camp at the beginning of the war, Serpilin, by his own admission, “forgot nothing and forgave nothing,” but realized that this was not the time to indulge in grievances - he had to save his homeland. Outwardly stern and taciturn, demanding of himself and his subordinates, he tries to take care of the soldiers and suppresses any attempts to achieve victory at any cost. In the third book of the novel, K. Simonov showed this man’s capacity for great love. Another central character of the novel, Sintsov, was originally conceived by the author solely as a war correspondent for one of the central newspapers. This made it possible to throw the hero at the most important areas front, creating a large-scale chronicle novel. At the same time, there was a danger of depriving him of his individuality and making him only a mouthpiece for the author’s ideas. The writer quickly realized this danger and already in the second book of the trilogy he changed the genre of his work: the chronicle novel became a novel of destinies, which together recreate the scale of the people’s battle with the enemy. And Sintsov became one of the active characters, who suffered injuries, encirclement, and participation in the November 1941 parade (from where the troops went straight to the front). The fate of the war correspondent was replaced by a soldier's lot: the hero went from a private to a senior officer.
Having completed the trilogy, K. Simonov sought to complement it, to emphasize the ambiguity of his position. This is how “Different Days of War” (1970–1980) appeared, and after the writer’s death “Letters about War” (1990) was published.
Quite often, K. Simonov’s epic novel is compared with V. Grossman’s work “Life and Fate.” The war and the Battle of Stalingrad are just some of the components of V. Grossman’s grandiose epic “Life and Fate,” although the main action of the work takes place in 1943 and the fates of most of the heroes are in one way or another connected with the events taking place around the city on the Volga. The image of a German concentration camp in the novel is replaced by scenes in the dungeons of Lubyanka, and the ruins of Stalingrad by the laboratories of the institute evacuated to Kazan, where the physicist Strum struggles with the mysteries of the atomic nucleus. However, it is not “folk thought” or “family thought” that determines the face of the work - in this, V. Grossman’s epic is inferior to the masterpieces of L. Tolstoy and M. Sholokhov. The writer is focused on something else: the subject of his thoughts is the concept of freedom, as evidenced by the title of the novel. V. Grossman contrasts fate as the power of fate or objective circumstances weighing on a person with life as the free realization of personality even in conditions of its absolute lack of freedom. The writer is convinced that one can arbitrarily dispose of the lives of thousands of people, essentially remaining a slave like General Neudobnov or Commissar Getmanov. Or you can die unconquered in the gas chamber of a concentration camp: this is how military doctor Sofya Osipovna Levinton dies, until the last minute caring only about easing the torment of the boy David.
V. Grossman’s underlying thought that the source of freedom or lack of freedom of an individual is in the individual himself explains why the defenders of Grekov’s house, doomed to death, turn out to be much freer than Krymov, who came to judge them. Krymov’s consciousness is enslaved by ideology; he is, in a sense, a “man in a case,” albeit not as blinkered as some of the other heroes of the novel. Even I. S. Turgenev in the image of Bazarov, and then F. M. Dostoevsky convincingly showed how the struggle between “dead theory” and “living life” in the minds of such people often ends in the victory of theory: it is easier for them to admit the “wrongness” of life than infidelity the “only true” idea designed to explain this life. And therefore, when in a German concentration camp, Obersturmbannführer Liss convinces the old Bolshevik Mostovsky that they have much in common (“We are a form of a single entity - the party state”), Mostovsky can only respond to his enemy with silent contempt. He almost feels with horror how “dirty doubts” suddenly appear in his mind, not without reason called by V. Grossman “the dynamite of freedom.” The writer still sympathizes with such “hostages of the idea” as Mostovsky or Krymov, but his sharp rejection is caused by those whose ruthlessness towards people stems not from loyalty to established beliefs, but from the absence of them. Commissar Getmanov, once the secretary of the regional committee in Ukraine, is a mediocre warrior, but a talented exposer of “deviators” and “enemies of the people”, sensitive to any fluctuation in the party line. In order to receive a reward, he is able to send tankmen who have not slept for three days on the offensive, and when the commander of the tank corps Novikov, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties, delayed the start of the offensive for eight minutes, Getmanov, kissing Novikov for his victorious decision, immediately wrote a denunciation against him to Headquarters.
3. Among the works about the war that have appeared in recent years, two novels attract attention: “Cursed and Killed” by V. Astafiev (1992–1994) and “The General and His Army” by G. Vladimov (1995).
Works that restore the truth about the war cannot be light - the topic itself does not allow it, their goal is different - to awaken the memory of descendants. V. Astafiev’s monumental novel “Cursed and Killed” tackles the military theme in an incomparably harsher vein. In its first part, “The Devil’s Pit,” the writer tells the story of the formation of the 21st Infantry Regiment, in which, even before being sent to the front, those who were beaten to death by a company commander or shot for unauthorized absence die, those who are called upon to soon stand up for the defense of the Motherland are maimed physically and spiritually. The second part, “Bridgehead,” dedicated to the crossing of the Dnieper by our troops, is also full of blood, pain, descriptions of arbitrariness, bullying, and theft, which flourish in the army in the field. Neither the occupiers nor the home-grown monsters can forgive the writer for his cynical, soulless attitude towards human life. This explains the angry pathos of the author’s digressions and descriptions that are beyond the pale in their merciless frankness in this work, whose artistic method No wonder it is defined by critics as “cruel realism.”
The fact that G. Vladimov himself was still a boy during the war determined both the strengths and weaknesses of his acclaimed novel “The General and His Army” (1995). The experienced eye of a front-line soldier will see many inaccuracies and overexposures in the novel, including those unforgivable even for a work of fiction. However, this novel is interesting because it is an attempt to look at events from a Tolstoyan distance that once became turning points for the entire world history. It is not for nothing that the author does not hide the direct similarities between his novel and the epic “War and Peace” (for more information about the novel, see the chapter of the textbook “Modern Literary Situation”). The very fact of the appearance of such a work suggests that the military theme in literature has not exhausted itself and will never exhaust itself. The key to this is the living memory of the war among those who know about it only from the lips of its participants and from history textbooks. And considerable credit for this belongs to the writers who, having gone through the war, considered it their duty to tell the whole truth about it, no matter how bitter it was.
Warning to warrior-writers: “whoever lies about the past war brings the future war closer” (V.P. Astafiev). Understanding the truth of the trenches is a matter of honor for any person. War is terrible, and a stable gene must be developed in the body of the new generation to prevent this from happening again. It’s not for nothing that V. Astafiev chose the saying of the Siberian Old Believers as the epigraph of his main novel: “It was written that everyone who sows unrest, war and fratricide on earth will be cursed and killed by God.”
4.During the Great Patriotic War, keeping diaries at the front was prohibited. Having analyzed the creative activity of front-line writers, it can be noted that such writers as A. T. Tvardovsky, V. V. Vishnevsky, V. V. Ivanov gravitated towards diary prose; G. L. Zanadvorov kept a diary during the occupation. The specific features of the poetics of diary prose of writers - the synthesis of lyrical and epic principles, aesthetic organization - are confirmed in many memoir-diary samples. Despite the fact that writers keep diaries for themselves, the works require artistic mastery from the creators: diaries are characterized by a special style of presentation, characterized by the capacity of thought, aphoristic expression, and precision of words. Such features allow the researcher to call the writer’s diaries independent micro-works. The emotional impact in the diaries is achieved by the author through the selection of specific facts, the author's commentary, and subjective interpretation of events. The diary is based on the transmission and reconstruction of the real through the personal representations of the author, and the emotional background depends on his state of mind.
Along with the mandatory structural components diary prose, specific artistic examples may contain specific mechanisms for expressing attitudes towards reality. The diary prose of writers during the Great Patriotic War is characterized by the presence of such inserted plots as prose poems, short stories, landscape sketches. Memoirs and diaries of the Great Patriotic War are confessional and sincere. Using the potential of wartime memoir and diary prose, the authors of memoirs and diaries were able to express the mood of the era and create a vivid idea of life during the war.
Memoirs of military leaders, generals, officers, and soldiers play a major role in the study of the Great Patriotic War. They were written by direct participants in the war, and, therefore, are quite objective and contain important information about the course of the war, its operations, military losses, etc.
Memoirs were left by I. Kh. Bagramyan, S. S. Biryuzov, P. A. Belov,
A. M. Vasilevsky, K. N. Galitsky, A. I. Eremenko, G. K. Zhukov,
I. S. Konev, N. G. Kuznetsov, A. I. Pokryshkin, K. K. Rokossovsky and others. Collections of memoirs devoted to a specific topic (battle or branch of the military) were also published, such as, for example, “In battles for Transcarpathia", "Stalingrad Epic", "Liberation of Belarus" and so on. The leaders of the partisan movement also left memoirs: G. Ya. Bazima,
P. P. Vershigor, P. K. Ignatov and others.
Many books of memoirs of military leaders have special appendices, diagrams, maps, which not only explain what is written, but are also an important source in themselves, as they contain features of military operations, lists of commanding personnel and fighting techniques, as well as the number of troops and some other information .
Most often, events in such memoirs are arranged in chronological order.
Many military leaders based their diaries not only on personal memories, but also actively used elements of a research nature (referring to archives, facts, and other sources). For example, A. M. Vasilevsky in his memoir “The Work of a Whole Life” indicates that the book is based on factual material that is well known to him and confirmed by archival documents, much of which has not yet been published.
Such memoirs become more reliable and objective, which, of course, increases their value for the researcher, since in this case there is no need to check every fact presented.
Another feature of memoir literature written by military men (as, indeed, other memoirs of the Soviet period) is the strict censorship control over the facts described. The presentation of military events required a special approach, since the official and presented versions should not have any discrepancies. The memoirs of the war were supposed to indicate the leading role of the party in defeating the enemy, facts that were “shameful” for the front, miscalculations and mistakes of the command and, of course, top secret information. This must be taken into account when analyzing a particular work.
Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov left a rather significant memoir work, “Memories and Reflections,” which tells not only about the Great Patriotic War, but also about the years of his youth, the Civil War, and military clashes with Japan. This information is extremely important as a historical source, although it is often used by researchers only as illustrative material. The memoirs of four-time Hero of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov, “Memories and Reflections,” were first released in 1969, 24 years after the victory in the Great Patriotic War. Since then, the book has been very popular not only among ordinary readers, but also among historians, as a source of quite important information.
In Russia, the memoirs were republished 13 times. The 2002 edition (used when writing the work) was timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow and the 105th anniversary of the birth of G. K. Zhukov. The book was also published in thirty foreign countries, in 18 languages, with a circulation of more than seven million copies. Moreover, on the cover of the edition of the memoirs in Germany it is stated: “One of the greatest documents of our era.”
Marshall worked on “Memories and Reflections” for about ten years. During this period, he was in disgrace and was ill, which affected the speed of writing his memoirs. In addition, the book was subject to strict censorship.
For the second edition, G. K. Zhukov revised some chapters, corrected errors and wrote three new chapters, and also introduced new documents, descriptions and data, which increased the volume of the book. The two-volume book was published after his death.
When comparing the text of the first edition (published in 1979) and subsequent ones (published after his death), the distortion and absence of some places are striking. In 1990, a revised edition was published for the first time, based on the Marshal’s own manuscript. It differed significantly from others in the presence of sharp criticism of government bodies, the army and state policy in general. The 2002 edition consists of two volumes. The first volume includes 13 chapters, the second - 10.
Questions and tasks for self-control
1. Determine the periodization of the theme of the Great Patriotic War in the history of the development of Russian literature, supporting your opinion with an analysis of works of art by 3-4 authors.
2. Why do you think in the period 1941–1945. writers did not cover the horrors of war? What pathos prevails in the works of art of this period?
3. In a school course on literature about the Great Patriotic War, it is proposed to study “Son of the Regiment” (1944) by V. Kataev about the serene adventures of Vanya Solntsev. Do you agree with this choice? Identify the author of the school literature curriculum.
4. Determine the dynamics of the depiction of Russian character in different periods of the development of the topic in literature. Have the dominant behavior and the main character traits of the hero changed?
5. Propose a list of literary texts about the Great Patriotic War, which can become the basis of an elective course for 11th grade students of a secondary school.
7 Military lyrics of the Great War. – M.: Khud. lit., 1989. – 314 p.
Grossman, V. S. Life and Fate / V. S. Grossman. – M.: Khud. lit., 1999. – P. 408.