"Live and Remember" analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, issues and other issues are discussed in this article.

The plot of the story by V.G. Rasputin's "Live and Remember" reminds detective story: old man Guskov’s skis, ax and self-sustaining gabak disappeared from the bathhouse. However, the work itself is written in a completely different genre: it is a deep philosophical reflection on moral principles existence, about the power of love. Since the ax disappeared from under the floorboard, Nasten’s daughter-in-law immediately guesses that one of her own took it. A complex range of feelings takes possession of her. On the one hand, she wants to see her husband, whom she sincerely loves. On the other hand, he understands that if he is hiding from people, it means he has deserted from the front, and such a crime is not forgiven in wartime. A number of bright visual and expressive means of V.G. Rasputin shows the depth of Nastena’s experiences.

At first, “she lay for a long time in the dark with with open eyes, afraid to move, so as not to give away her terrible guess to someone,” then she sniffed the air in the bathhouse like an animal, trying to catch familiar smells. She is tormented by a “stubborn horror in her heart.” The portrait of Nastena (long, skinny, with awkwardly protruding arms, legs and head, with frozen pain on her face) shows what moral and physical torment the war brought to the woman. Only her younger sister Katka forced Nastena to show interest in life and look for work. Nastena endured all the hardships steadfastly, learning to remain silent. She considered childlessness to be her greatest misfortune. Her husband Andrei was also worried about this and often beat her.

Rasputin does not try to justify Andrei’s desertion, but seeks to explain it from the position of a hero: he fought for a long time, deserved leave, wanted to see his wife, but the leave he was entitled to after being wounded was canceled. The betrayal that Andrei Guskov commits creeps into his soul gradually. At first he was haunted by the fear of death, which seemed inevitable to him: “If not today, then tomorrow, not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow, when his turn comes.” Guskov survived both wounds and shell shock, experienced tank attacks and ski raids. V.G. Rasputin emphasizes that among the intelligence officers Andrei was considered a reliable comrade. Why did he take the path of betrayal? At first, Andrey just wants to see his family, Nastena, stay at home for a while and return. However, having traveled by train to Irkutsk, Guskov realized that in winter you couldn’t turn around in three days. Andrei remembered the demonstration execution, when in his presence they shot a boy who wanted to run fifty miles away to his village. Guskov understands that you won’t get a pat on the head for going AWOL.

Gradually Andrei began to hate himself. In Irkutsk, he settled for some time with a mute woman, Tanya, although he had absolutely no intention of doing this. A month later, Guskov finally found himself in his native place. However, the hero did not feel joy from the sight of the village. V.G. Rasputin constantly emphasizes that, having committed betrayal, Guskov embarked on the path of the beast. After some time, life, which he valued so much at the front, became no longer pleasant to him. Having committed treason, Andrei cannot respect himself. Mental anguish, nervous tension, the inability to relax for a minute turn him into a hunted animal.

Andrey's betrayal fatally falls on Nastena's shoulders. For a long time she cannot comprehend what has happened: her husband, who came secretly to his native land, seems to her to be a werewolf: “Understanding little, she suddenly realized: is it her husband? Wasn't it a werewolf with her? Can you see it in the dark? And they, they say, can pretend so much that even in broad daylight you can’t tell the difference from the real thing.” Because of Andrey, the woman has to lie and dodge. With touching naivety, Nastena tries to confront cruel reality. It seems to the heroine that she only dreamed of the night meeting with her deserter husband. V.G. shows with fine detail. Rasputin, like Nastena, strives to remove the obsession from himself, to get rid of it like a nightmare. Official religiosity, lost during the years of Soviet power, is still alive in the depths of the consciousness of Russian people. It is her (as the strongest family amulet) that the unfortunate Nastena calls for help: “Not knowing how to place a cross correctly, she haphazardly crossed herself and whispered the words of a long-forgotten prayer that came to mind, left over from childhood.” However, the entire depth of grief and horror of the unfortunate woman, her awareness of the fatal line that Andrei’s betrayal drew between their family and the rest of the world, is embodied by the last phrase of the third part of the story, when Nastena freezes from the treacherous thought: “Wouldn’t it be better if this Was it really just a werewolf?

Nastena begins to help her husband hide and feeds him. She trades food for things. All the worries fell on this woman’s shoulders (about her younger sister, about her elderly in-laws). At the same time, a terrible secret poses stone wall between Nastena and her fellow villagers: “Alone, completely alone among people: no one to talk to, no one to cry to, everything must be kept to oneself.”

The heroine's tragedy is intensified by the fact that she became pregnant. Having learned about this, Andrei at first rejoices, and then understands what a difficult situation his wife finds herself in: after all, everyone will think that the woman spoiled this child while her husband is fighting at the front. In a difficult conversation on this topic, the symbolically important image of the Angara arises. “You only had one side: people. There, by right hand Hangars. And now there are two: people and me. It’s impossible to bring them together: the Angara needs to dry out,” says Andrey Nastene.

During the conversation, it turns out that the heroes once had the same dream: Nastena, in her girlish form, comes to Andrei, who is lying near the birch trees and calls him, telling him that she was tortured with the children.

The description of this dream once again emphasizes the painful intractability of the situation in which Nastena found herself.

Talking about the fate of the heroine, V.G. Rasputin simultaneously sets out his views on life and happiness. They are sometimes expressed by him in aphoristic phrases: “Life is not clothes, you don’t try them on ten times. What you have is all yours, and it’s not good to renounce anything, even the worst.” It’s paradoxical, but, left alone with their common joy and misfortune, the heroes finally found that spiritual closeness, that mutual understanding that was not there when they lived happily as a family before the war.

Having learned about Nastena's pregnancy, her fellow villagers condemn her. Only Andrey's father Mikheich understands with his heart the bitter truth about which he is so stubbornly silent. Tired of shame and eternal fear, she throws herself from the boat into the waters of the Angara River. Plot-story by V.G. Rasputin's “Live and Remember” shows that in difficult moments for the homeland, every person must courageously share its fate, and those who showed cowardice and cowardice will face retribution. They have no future, no right to happiness and procreation.

In addition to the main storyline The story contains interesting author's thoughts about the fate of the village. During the war, the village becomes shallow. The souls of people are hardened by grief. Pain for the fate of the Russian village is a cross-cutting theme in V.G.’s work. Rasputin.

Modern literature provides the richest material for understanding moral issues. Today our conversation is about V. G. Rasputin’s story “Live and Remember.” The story “Live and Remember,” written in 1974, stands out from a number of other works by the writer. Readers were shocked by the brightness, strength, and acuteness of her characters’ experiences. But they explained the meaning of the story in different ways.

With all the drama of Andrei Guskov’s fate, it is not he who occupies the main attention of the author, but Nasten. Her image is larger, it shakes our imagination. If Nastena is emotionally highlighted in the story, therefore, it is with this image that the author associates some deep-seated problems.

— The question arises: what did Nastya do that was so extremely important that the writer, for the sake of understanding this, puts her in the foreground of the story, relegating to the background a person of such a terrible fate as Andrei Guskov? — Nastya saves her husband who is in trouble. “She stresses him physically and mentally, helps him survive. — Don’t you think that this answer needs clarification? It is very important to fully expose the depicted situation in order to clearly imagine all its drama. The fact is that Andrey is not just a respectable family man, Nastya’s husband, who needs support. He is a man who committed a crime. And here Rasputin puts Nastya, and after her the readers, in front of the most difficult question: Does every person have the right to sympathy? Or, as indicated in the title of the topic of our lesson: is “mercy towards the fallen” always justified? Let's first try to reflect on common-life material, based on our own experience.

At the same time, we must keep in mind that we have the opportunity to be guided in assessing this or that act not only by legal laws (as it should be at a court hearing). We must also take into account moral laws. To do this, it is extremely important to understand the internal motives of Nastena’s actions, to understand the logic of her emotional impulses. What motivates Rasputin's heroine. Perhaps this is a concern for one’s own well-being, that is, motives of an egoistic nature?

- Thoughts main character refute such an assumption: “So how can we abandon it now? It is absolutely necessary not to have a heart, but instead of a heart to hold a steel scale, weighing out what is profitable and what is unprofitable. Here from someone else. even if he is thrice unclean, you simply cannot brush him off, but he is yours, dear. If not God, then life itself united them in order to keep them together, no matter what happened, no matter what misfortune befell them. “How to get him out of this trouble. how to live in order to help without making mistakes, without getting confused? Whatever happens to him now, she is responsible”; “Guilty - who says it’s not guilty! - but where can we now get the strength to return him to the place from which he jumped to the wrong place where he was supposed to jump? Nastya's thoughts indicate that, saving Andrey. she is not concerned with selfish interests. There is a deep meaning in her action.

— Imagine: there is a cruel, terrible war going on, as they say, not for life, but for death. Streams of blood are flowing in the world. Separate human life devalued. And under these conditions, somewhere in Russian outback. in a distant corner of Siberia. a weak, defenseless woman rises for this. in order to protect just one person from death, not physical, but moral, despite the general bitterness. This is a task of incredible complexity. And not only personal. This is a national task. Nastya is well aware of her responsibility to people: “Whether it’s fate or higher than that, but it seemed to Nastya. that she has been noticed. separated from the people." The story repeatedly emphasizes Nastya’s connection with her native, “human” world. What way out of this situation does she see?

— “For so many years Nastya was tied to the village. to home, to work, she knew her place, she took care of herself, because something was attached to her too. pulled together into one whole. And suddenly, all at once, the ropes loosened - they didn’t come off completely, but they weakened.” The most important thing here is the heroine’s awareness that “... she, too, was holding something together, pulling it together into one whole.” This means that Nastena is part of this whole, which can be called people’s life. And she is afraid to break it.

— For Nastya, life without people is impossible. That is why she is so acutely worried about “breaking ties with the world of people,” because she is in a position between her fellow villagers and Andrei. The meaning of all her actions is an attempt to return Andrei to people. This is confirmed in the text of the story: “My mother said a long time ago: there is no guilt that cannot be forgiven. They're not people, are they? When the war ends, we'll see. Or you can go out to repent, or something else.”

— For the sake of saving Andrei, Nastya is ready for any hardship: “Andrei... Maybe we won’t do this, let’s go out? I would go with you anywhere, to whatever penal servitude you want - wherever you go, there I will too...” And how do we find out about the attitude of the second himself towards Nastya? The author does not give direct assessments, but through popular opinion expresses his attitude towards Nastya and her actions. This is manifested in the ending of the story: “And on the fourth day Nastya washed ashore not far from Karda. They reported to Atamanovka, but Mikheich was dying, and Mishka the farmhand was sent to fetch Nastena. He delivered Nastya back in the boat, and having delivered, he, like a master, intended to bury her in the cemetery of drowned people. The women didn't give it. And they buried Nastya among their own people, just on the edge, near a rickety fence.

After the funeral, the women gathered at Nadya’s for a simple wake and cried: I felt sorry for Nastya.” In this “Nasten felt sorry for her understanding of her actions and compassion. Behind this attitude is the opinion of Rasputin. He himself admitted: “I am inclined to accept Nastena’s death not as a victory of evil in this case, but as a severe test of the moral law, when they demand from him: “Give up”; and through tears and agony he said, “I can’t.” Through the fate of his heroine, Rasputin showed that self-sacrifice requires complete dedication and selflessness. The writer is convinced that the ability to self-sacrifice is the most capacious, the highest in its value human quality. The act of a person who consciously sacrifices his life in the name of saving another person is a manifestation of the highest justice and always deserves moral justification. This is the meaning of the central motive of the story “Live and Remember.”

Moral issues of V. Rasputin’s story “Live and Remember”

The story “Money for Maria” brought V. Rasputin wide fame, and subsequent works: “ Deadline", "Live and Remember", "Farewell to Matera" - secured his fame as one of best writers modern Russian literature. In his works, moral and philosophical questions about the meaning of life, conscience and honor, and a person’s responsibility for his actions come to the fore. The writer talks about selfishness and betrayal, about the relationship between the personal and the social in the human soul, about the problem of life and death. We will find all these problems in V. Rasputin’s story “Live and Remember.”

War - this terrible and tragic event - has become a certain test for people. After all, it is in such extreme situations that a person shows the true traits of his character.

The main character of the story “Live and Remember,” Andrei Guskov, went to the front at the very beginning of the war. He fought honestly, first in a reconnaissance company, then in a ski battalion, then in a howitzer battery. And while Moscow and Stalingrad were behind him, while it was possible to survive only by fighting the enemy, nothing disturbed Guskov’s soul. Andrei was not a hero, but he did not hide behind his comrades either. He was taken into reconnaissance, he fought like everyone else, and was a good soldier.

Everything changed in Guskov’s life when the end of the war became visible. Andrey again faces the problem of life and death. And the instinct of self-preservation is triggered in him. He began to dream of being wounded in order to gain time. Andrei asks himself the question: “Why should I fight and not others?” Here Rasputin condemns the selfishness and individualism of Guskov, who at such a difficult moment for his homeland showed weakness, cowardice, betrayed his comrades, and was afraid.

The main character of Rasputin's story “Live and Remember” is similar to another literary character- Rodion Raskolnikov, who asked himself: “Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right?” Rasputin touches on the problem of personal and social in the soul of Andrei Guskov. Does a person have the right to put his interests above the interests of the people and the state? Does a person have the right to step over centuries-old moral values? Of course not.

Another problem that worries Rasputin is the problem of human destiny. What prompted Guskov to flee to the rear - the official’s fatal mistake or the weakness that he gave in his soul? Maybe if Andrei had not been wounded, he would have overcome himself and reached Berlin? But Rasputin makes his hero decide to retreat. Guskov is offended by the war: it tore him away from his loved ones, from his home, from his family; she exposes him every time mortal danger. Deep down, he understands that desertion is a deliberately false step. He hopes that the train he is traveling on will be stopped and his documents checked. Rasputin writes: “In war, a person is not free to dispose of himself, but he did.”

The perfect act does not bring relief to Guskov. He, like Raskolnikov after the murder, must now hide from people, he is tormented by pangs of conscience. “Now all my days are dark,” says Andrei Nastena.

The image of Nastena is central to the story. She is the literary successor to Sholokhov’s Ilyinichna from “ Quiet Don" Nastena combines the features of a rural righteous woman: kindness, a sense of responsibility for the fate of other people, mercy, faith in people. The problem of humanism and forgiveness is inextricably linked with her bright image.

Nastena found the strength to feel sorry for Andrei and help him. She felt in her heart that he was nearby. It was a difficult step for her: she had to lie, cheat, dodge, and live in constant fear. Nastena already felt that she was moving away from her fellow villagers, becoming a stranger. But for the sake of her husband, she chooses this path for herself, because she loves him and wants to be with him.

The war changed a lot in the souls of the main characters. They realized that all their quarrels and distance from each other peaceful life were simply absurd. Hope for new life warmed them in difficult times. The secret separated them from people, but brought them closer to each other. The test revealed their best human qualities.

Spurred by the realization that they would not be together for long, the love of Andrei and Nastena flared up with renewed vigor. Perhaps these were the most happy days in their lives. Home, family, love - this is where Rasputin sees happiness. But a different fate was prepared for his heroes.

Nastena believes that “there is no guilt that cannot be forgiven.” She hopes that Andrei will be able to go out to people and repent. But he does not find the strength to do such an act. Only from a distance does Guskov look at his father and does not dare to show himself to him.

Not only does Guskov’s act put an end to his fate and Nastena’s fate, but Andrei did not spare his parents either. Perhaps their only hope was that their son would return from the war as a hero. What was it like for them to find out that their son was a traitor and deserter! What a shame this is for old people!

For determination and kindness, God sends Nastya a long-awaited child. And here the most main problem story: does a deserter’s child have the right to be born? In the story “Shibalkovo Seed” Sholokhov already raised a similar question, and the machine gunner persuaded the Red Army soldiers to leave his son alive. The news about the child became the only meaning for Andrei. Now he knew that the thread of life would stretch further, that his lineage would not end. He says to Nastena: “When you give birth, I will justify myself, this is the last chance for me.” But Rasputin breaks the hero’s dreams, and Nastena dies along with the child. Perhaps this is the most terrible punishment for Guskov.

The main idea of ​​V. Rasputin’s story “Live and Remember” is a person’s moral responsibility for his actions. Using the example of Andrei Guskov’s life, the author shows how easy it is to stumble, show weakness and make an irreparable mistake. The writer does not accept any of Guskov’s explanations, because other people who also had families and children died in the war. You can forgive Nastena, who took pity on her husband and took his guilt upon herself, but there is no forgiveness for a deserter and traitor. Nastena’s words: “Live and remember” will pound in Guskov’s inflamed brain for the rest of his life. This call is addressed both to the residents of Atamanovka and to all people. Immorality breeds tragedy.

Everyone who reads this book should live and remember what not to do. Everyone must understand how wonderful life is, and never forget at the cost of how many deaths and distorted destinies the victory was won. Each work of V. Rasputin is always a step forward in spiritual development society. A work such as the story “Live and Remember” is a barrier to immoral acts. It’s good that we have writers like V. Rasputin. Their creativity will help people not to lose moral values.

Composition

Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin was born on March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda Irkutsk region. After graduating from the philological department of Irkutsk University in 1957, he worked for several years in youth newspapers in Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, traveled a lot to construction sites, and often visited villages. The result of these trips were books of essays - “Bonfires of New Cities” and “The Land Near the Sky.” The writer's first great success was the story “A Day for Mary” (1967). Other works by V. G. Rasputin also received wide public recognition: the stories “The Last Term” (1970), “Live and Remember” (1974), “Farewell to Matera” (1976). For the story “Live and Remember,” V. Rasputin was awarded the USSR Prize (1977). In his works, the writer touches on such important topics as the theme of ecology and the theme of morality. Problem moral choice depicted with particular poignancy in the story “Live and Remember. Rasputin appears here as a subtle psychologist and expert folk life.

The events of the story take place in last days war. Returning home from the hospital, and not to the front, one of the main characters of the story, Andrei Guskov, becomes a deserter. While in the hospital after being wounded, he dreamed of returning home and was completely sure that he would no longer be sent to the front. It was 1944. However, all his hopes of returning were destroyed, and he decided to desperate step. “He prepared all of himself, to the last drop and to the last thought, for a meeting with his family - with his father, mother, Nastena - and lived by this, recovered and breathed by this, that’s all he knew... How could he go back, again under the bullets , to death, when close, in your own side, in Siberia? Is this right and fair? He just needs to be at home for one single day, to calm his soul - then he’s again ready for anything.” Having become a deserter, he is afraid to admit it even to himself and therefore makes a deal with his conscience. He was ready, upon seeing his relatives, to die at the front, but gradually the great desire to live drowns out the weak voice of conscience. He opens up to his wife Nastena.

The feeling of guilt for what her husband did does not allow her to live in peace. She, sheltering her fleeing husband, took his desertion upon herself. After each meeting with Andrei, Nastena became more and more isolated from the people with whom she had shared both grief and joy all her life. Even waiting for a child becomes painful for her. The story ends with the death of Nastena, she cannot find logical solution and expiates with his death the guilt of involuntary shame for the grave act of his husband.

Why is life so cruel and unfair? Andrey - a man without conscience - remains to live! and the life of such a beautiful, honest, kind, pure woman Nastena is cut short. But not only Nastena became a victim of Andrei’s terrible act, but also his father. Mikheich experiences a hard time, withdraws into himself, sensing evil, and then becomes seriously ill. In this story, V. Rasputin shows the gradual degradation of man. After all, Andrei turns from a kind, loving son and husband into an insignificant animal. The choice made has an irreparable impact on his later life. The line between good and bad, right and wrong is blurred. In fact, Andrei no longer has control over his life and his actions, he goes with the flow.

Andrey, as scary as it may be, distances himself from his loved ones in order to save his life. He is not touched by the death of his wife, who could become the mother of his child, or by his father’s illness. He cares only about his own well-being. Andrei, having moved away from people, gradually loses everything human. He even tries to howl at the moon, like wolves. For a moment he still realized that he was moving away from normal life, but there was nothing I could do. External circumstances were stronger, and his will was not enough to resist them. He obeyed.

Cruelty towards others settled in Andrei’s soul. He shot a roe deer and watched its death throes. To this he said to his wife: “If you tell someone, I’ll kill you.” So step by step Andrei sinks lower and lower. So who is to blame for the fact that a person has fallen so low: circumstances or himself? This question worried many writers of Russian literature. In Rasputin's story main character placed in exceptional circumstances, the circumstances of war, and blames his lack of will for them: “This is all war, all of it,” he again began to justify himself and conjure. With these words, he seemed to absolve himself of all responsibility for his actions, shifting everything to fate. Thus, Andrei’s moral fall is not a tragedy. He doomed himself to a lonely existence, forced to constantly hide. It even became a habit for him. Like a wild animal sensing danger, Andrei “jumped up and got ready in a minute, habitually bringing the winter quarters into an uninhabited, neglected appearance, he had an escape route prepared... There, in the cave, not a single dog would find him.”

The tragedy in the story is the death of Nastena. This woman represents a true Russian character, which is embodied in many heroines of Rasputin's stories. Nastena is a highly moral person who feels guilty for her husband’s actions, but carries this cross. She committed suicide, but at the same time became morally cleansed. In her soul, moral laws won, just as they win in the soul of the entire people. For Andrei, her suicide was another step down, because he saw his salvation in the child Nastena was carrying. And their death is a punishment for the fact that he transgressed all the moral laws in his soul.

With his story, V. Rasputin seems to say “Live and remember, man! In times of trouble, your place is next to the people. Any retreat turns into grief for you and your people.” The name itself, of course, refers to Andrey, because I just want to add: “If you can live.” But I think this applies to each of us. The main thing is for everyone to live honestly, according to their conscience, without lies, then our society will be highly moral. Eternal human values ​​will return to us again: mercy, kindness, justice. Our literature is designed to teach us to live not by lies.

Other works on this work

Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin was born on March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda, Irkutsk region. After graduating from the philological department of Irkutsk University in 1957, he worked for several years in youth newspapers in Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, traveled a lot to construction sites, and often visited villages. The result of these trips were books of essays - “Bonfires of New Cities” and “The Land Near the Sky.” The writer's first great success was the story “A Day for Mary” (1967). Other works by V. G. Rasputin also received wide public recognition: the stories “The Last Term” (1970), “Live and Remember” (1974), “Farewell to Matera” (1976). For the story “Live and Remember,” V. Rasputin was awarded the USSR Prize (1977). In his works, the writer touches on such important topics as the theme of ecology and the theme of morality. The problem of moral choice is highlighted with particular urgency in the story “Live and Remember. Rasputin appears here as a subtle psychologist and expert on folk life.

The events of the story take place in the last days of the war. Returning home from the hospital, and not to the front, one of the main characters of the story, Andrei Guskov, becomes a deserter. While in the hospital after being wounded, he dreamed of returning home and was completely sure that he would no longer be sent to the front. It was 1944. However, all his hopes of returning were destroyed, and he decided to take a desperate step. “He prepared all of himself, to the last drop and to the last thought, for a meeting with his family - with his father, mother, Nastena - and lived by this, recovered and breathed by this, that’s all he knew... How could he go back, again under the bullets , to death, when close, in your own side, in Siberia? Is this right and fair? He just needs to be at home for one single day, to calm his soul - then he’s again ready for anything.” Having become a deserter, he is afraid to admit it even to himself and therefore makes a deal with his conscience. He was ready, upon seeing his relatives, to die at the front, but gradually the great desire to live drowns out the weak voice of conscience. He opens up to his wife Nastena.

The feeling of guilt for what her husband did does not allow her to live in peace. She, sheltering her fleeing husband, took his desertion upon herself. After each meeting with Andrei, Nastena became more and more isolated from the people with whom she had shared both grief and joy all her life. Even waiting for a child becomes painful for her. The story ends with the death of Nastena, she cannot find a logical solution and with her death atones for the guilt of involuntary shame for the grave act of her husband.

Why is life so cruel and unfair? Andrey - a man without conscience - remains to live! and the life of such a beautiful, honest, kind, pure woman Nastena is cut short. But not only Nastena became a victim of Andrei’s terrible act, but also his father. Mikheich experiences a hard time, withdraws into himself, sensing evil, and then becomes seriously ill. In this story, V. Rasputin shows the gradual degradation of man. After all, Andrei turns from a kind, loving son and husband into an insignificant animal. The choice made has an irreparable impact on his future life. The line between good and bad, right and wrong is blurred. In fact, Andrei no longer has control over his life and his actions, he goes with the flow.

Andrey, as scary as it may be, distances himself from his loved ones in order to save his life. He is not touched by the death of his wife, who could become the mother of his child, or by his father’s illness. He cares only about his own well-being. Andrei, having moved away from people, gradually loses everything human. He even tries to howl at the moon, like wolves. For a moment he still understood that he was moving away from normal life, but there was nothing he could do. External circumstances were stronger, and his will was not enough to resist them. He obeyed.

Cruelty towards others settled in Andrei’s soul. He shot a roe deer and watched its death throes. To this he said to his wife: “If you tell someone, I’ll kill you.” So step by step Andrei sinks lower and lower. So who is to blame for the fact that a person has fallen so low: circumstances or himself? This question worried many writers of Russian literature. In Rasputin’s story, the main character is placed in exceptional circumstances, the circumstances of war, and blames his lack of will for them: “This is all war, all of it,” he again began to justify himself and conjure. With these words, he seemed to absolve himself of all responsibility for his actions, shifting everything to fate. Thus, Andrei’s moral fall is not a tragedy. He doomed himself to a lonely existence, forced to constantly hide. It even became a habit for him. Like a wild animal sensing danger, Andrei “jumped up and got ready in a minute, habitually bringing the winter quarters into an uninhabited, neglected appearance, he had an escape route prepared... There, in the cave, not a single dog would find him.”

The tragedy in the story is the death of Nastena. This woman represents a true Russian character, which is embodied in many heroines of Rasputin's stories. Nastena is a highly moral person who feels guilty for her husband’s actions, but carries this cross. She committed suicide, but at the same time became morally cleansed. In her soul, moral laws won, just as they win in the soul of the entire people. For Andrei, her suicide was another step down, because he saw his salvation in the child Nastena was carrying. And their death is a punishment for the fact that he transgressed all the moral laws in his soul.

With his story, V. Rasputin seems to say “Live and remember, man! In times of trouble, your place is next to the people. Any retreat turns into grief for you and your people.” The name itself, of course, refers to Andrey, because I just want to add: “If you can live.” But I think this applies to each of us. The main thing is for everyone to live honestly, according to their conscience, without lies, then our society will be highly moral. Eternal human values ​​will return to us again: mercy, kindness, justice. Our literature is designed to teach us to live not by lies.