Name: Man's destiny
Genre: Story
Duration: 10min 45sec
Annotation:
Post-war spring. The author gets to one of the villages on the upper Don. At the crossing, waiting for the boatman, he meets Andrei Sokolov. The wait will be long, so the 2 front-line soldiers started talking. A boy, Vanya, 5-6 years old, is traveling with Sokolov.
Sokolov tells his story. He was born in Voronezh region. There was his beloved wife Irina, son Anatoly and 2 daughters.
The war has begun. He fought for a short time. 2 wounds, then captured. I tried to escape from the camp, but they caught me. One day Andrei was called to the camp commandant Muller. He said goodbye to his comrades, because he understood that he would not return back. The Germans invited him to drink vodka for the victory of German weapons. He refused. But Muller offered to drink to his death. Sokolov had nothing to lose. He drank a glass of vodka in one gulp without taking a bite. The Germans were surprised and offered more. And so 3 glasses. He never asked for a snack, although he was very hungry and did not want to humiliate himself. The Germans were delighted with his composure and strength. They let him go to the barracks, and even gave him food with him.
Since Andrei was a driver, he began to drive a German major. And the front line was already close. He heard volleys of Russian weapons. One day he decided to run away. He captured “my” major and crossed the front line. He brought the “language”, so he was received with joy. He received treatment in the hospital. I learned that the family died in a bombing. Only the eldest son Anatoly remained. He dreamed that after the war everything would be fine with his son. Only my son was shot by a sniper on Victory Day. Andrey has lost the meaning of life.
It was painful to return home to Voronezh. Therefore, I went to a friend in Uryupinsk. I got a job as a driver. And one day I noticed a boy near the tea shop. He came there every day. He felt very sorry for this hungry, lonely boy whose parents were killed. He told Vanyushka that he was his father and that now they would be together. This flurry of joyful emotions from the baby gave him the strength to want to live again and find the meaning of life. At first they lived in Uryupinsk with a friend. Then something bad happened: I accidentally hit a cow with my car. My license was taken away and I was left without a job. He was invited by a friend, a colleague, who promised to help him get hired as a driver again. And so he and Vanyushka are going to a new place of residence.
Retelling plan
1. The life of Andrei Sokolov before the war.
2. The tragic trials that befell him during the war.
3. Sokolov’s devastation after the death of his entire family.
4. Andrey takes in an orphan boy and is reborn to a new life.
Retelling
Sokolov says: “At first my life was ordinary. I myself am a native of the Voronezh province, born in 1900. IN civil war was in the Red Army. In the hungry year of twenty-two, he went to Kuban to fight against the kulaks, and that’s why he survived. And the father, mother and sister died of hunger at home. There's only one left. Rodney couldn't care less - nowhere, no one, not a single soul. A year later I went to Voronezh. At first I worked in a carpentry artel, then I went to a factory, learned to be a mechanic, got married, had children... We lived no worse than people.”
When the war began, on its third day Andrei Sokolov went to the front. The narrator describes his difficult and tragic path on the roads of the Great Patriotic War. Maintaining moral superiority over the enemy, without reconciling and not recognizing the enemy’s power over himself, Andrei Sokolov truly commits heroic deeds. He was wounded twice and then captured.
One of the central episodes of the story is the episode in the church. What is important is the image of a doctor who “both in captivity and in the darkness did his great work” - he treated the wounded. Life confronts Andrei Sokolov with a cruel choice: in order to save others, he must kill the traitor, and Sokolov did it. The hero tried to escape from captivity, but he was caught and dogs were set on him: “only the skin and meat flew into shreds... I spent a month in a punishment cell for escaping, but still alive... I remained alive!..”
In a moral duel with the camp commandant Müller, the dignity of the Russian soldier, to whom the fascist capitulated, wins. Sokolov, with his proud behavior in the camp, forced the Germans to respect himself: “I wanted to show them, damned, that although I am perishing from hunger, I am not going to choke on their handouts, that I have my own, Russian dignity and pride, and that I am a beast They didn’t convert me, no matter how hard they tried.” He divided the bread that Sokolov obtained among all his fellow sufferers.
The hero still managed to escape from captivity, and even get a “tongue” - a fascist major. In the hospital he received a letter about the death of his wife and daughters. He passed this test too, returned to the front, and soon joy “shone like the sun from behind a cloud”: his son was found and he sent a letter to his father from another front. But on the last day of the war, his son was killed by a German sniper... Having gone through the crucible of war, Andrei Sokolov lost everything: his family died, his house was destroyed. Returning from the front, Sokolov looks at the world around him with eyes “as if sprinkled with ashes”, “filled with inescapable melancholy.” The words escape his lips: “Why have you, life, maimed me so much? Why did you distort it like that? I don’t have an answer, either in the dark or in the clear sun... There isn’t and I can’t wait!!!”
And yet Andrei Sokolov did not waste his sensitivity, the need to give his warmth and care to others. Andrei Sokolov generously opens his broken, orphaned soul to a fellow orphan - a boy. He adopted the boy and began to take care of him as the person closest to him. The boy, this “splinter of the war,” who unexpectedly found his “folder,” looks at the world with “eyes as bright as the sky.” Modesty and courage, selflessness and responsibility are the traits characteristic of Sokolov. Describing the life of an “ordinary person,” Sholokhov shows him as a guardian and defender of life and universal spiritual shrines.
Article menu:
Mikhail Sholokhov’s sad story “The Fate of a Man” touches the heartstrings. Written by the author in 1956, it reveals the naked truth about the atrocities of the Great Patriotic War and what Andrei Sokolov, a Soviet soldier, experienced in German captivity. But first things first.
The main characters of the story:
Andrei Sokolov is a Soviet soldier who had to experience a lot of grief during the Great Patriotic War. But, despite adversity, even captivity, where the hero suffered brutal abuse from the Nazis, he survived. The smile of an adopted orphan boy shone like a ray of light in the darkness of hopelessness, when the hero of the story lost his entire family in the war.
Andrei's wife Irina: a meek, calm woman, a real wife, loving her husband, who knew how to console and support in difficult times. When Andrei left for the front, I was in great despair. She died along with her two children when a shell hit the house. 
Meeting at the crossing
Mikhail Sholokhov writes his work in the first person. It was the first post-war spring, and the narrator had to get to the Bukanovskaya station, which was sixty kilometers away, at any cost. Swimming along with the driver of the car to the other side of the river called Epanka, he began to wait for the driver, who had left for two hours.
Suddenly, attention was attracted by a man with a little boy moving towards the crossing. They stopped, said hello, and a casual conversation ensued, in which Andrei Sokolov - that was the name of the new acquaintance - told about his bitter life during the war years.
Andrey's difficult fate
Whatever kind of torment a person endures terrible years confrontation between peoples.
The Great Patriotic War maimed and wounded human bodies and souls, especially those who had to be in German captivity and drink the bitter cup of inhuman suffering. One of these was Andrei Sokolov.
Life of Andrei Sokolov before the Great Patriotic War
Fierce troubles befell the guy since his youth: his parents and sister died of hunger, loneliness, the war in the Red Army. But at that difficult time, Andrei’s clever wife, meek, quiet and affectionate, became a joy for Andrei.
And life seemed to be getting better: work as a driver, good earnings, three smart children who were excellent students (they even wrote about the eldest, Anatoly, in the newspaper). And finally, a cozy two-room house, which they built with the money they had saved just before the war... It suddenly fell on Soviet soil and turned out to be much worse than the previous, civil one. And Andrei Sokolov’s happiness, achieved with such difficulty, was shattered small fragments.
We invite you to familiarize yourself with, whose works are a reflection of the historical upheavals that the whole country was then experiencing.
Farewell to family
Andrei went to the front. His wife Irina and three children saw him off in tears. The wife was especially heartbroken: “My dear... Andryusha... we won’t see each other... you and I... anymore... in this... world.”
“Until my death,” Andrei recalls, “I will not forgive myself for pushing her away then.” He remembers everything, although he wants to forget: the white lips of the desperate Irina, who whispered something when they boarded the train; and the children, who, no matter how hard they tried, could not smile through their tears... And the train carried Andrei further and further, towards military everyday life and bad weather.
The first years at the front
At the front, Andrei worked as a driver. Two minor wounds could not be compared with what he had to endure later, when, seriously wounded, he was captured by the Nazis.
In captivity
What kind of abuse did you have to endure from the Germans along the way: they hit you on the head with a butt, and in front of Andrei they shot the wounded, and then they drove everyone into the church to spend the night. I would suffer even more main character, if there had not been a military doctor among the prisoners, who offered his help and put his dislocated arm in place. There was immediate relief.
Preventing Betrayal
Among the prisoners was a man who, the next morning, when the question was asked whether there were commissars, Jews and communists among the prisoners, planned to hand over his platoon commander to the Germans. I was very afraid for my life. Andrei, having heard the conversation about this, was not taken aback and strangled the traitor. And subsequently I didn’t regret it one bit.
Escape
From the time of his captivity, Andrei became more and more obsessed with the idea of escaping. And so I introduced myself real case accomplish your plan. The prisoners were digging graves for their own dead and, seeing that the guards were distracted, Andrei quietly escaped. Unfortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful: after four days of searching, he was returned, the dogs were released, he was tortured for a long time, he was put in a punishment cell for a month and, finally, he was sent to Germany.
In a foreign land
To say that life in Germany was terrible is an understatement. Andrei, listed as prisoner number 331, was constantly beaten, fed very poorly, and forced to work hard at the Stone Quarry. And once, for reckless words about the Germans, uttered inadvertently in the barracks, he was summoned to Herr Lagerführer. However, Andrei was not afraid: he confirmed what was said earlier: “four cubic meters of production is a lot...” They wanted to shoot him first, and would have carried out the sentence, but, seeing the courage of the Russian soldier who was not afraid of death, the commandant respected him, changed his mind and released him. barracks, even while supplying food.
Release from captivity
While working as a driver for the Nazis (he drove a German major), Andrei Sokolov began to think about a second escape, which could be more successful than the previous one. And so it happened.
On the road in the direction of Trosnitsa, having changed into a German uniform, Andrei stopped a car with a major sleeping in the back seat and stunned the German. And then he turned to where the Russians were fighting.
Among their
Finally, finding himself on the territory among Soviet soldiers, Andrei was able to breathe easy. He missed him so much native land that he fell to her and kissed her. At first, his own people did not recognize him, but then they realized that it was not a Fritz who had gotten lost at all, but his own, dear, Voronezh resident had escaped from captivity, and even brought important documents with him. They fed him, bathed him in the bathhouse, gave him uniform, but the colonel refused his request to take him into the rifle unit: it was necessary to receive medical treatment.
Terrible news
So Andrei ended up in the hospital. He was well fed, provided with care, and after German captivity life might have seemed almost good, if not for one “but”. The soldier's soul yearned for his wife and children, he wrote a letter home, waited for news from them, but still no answer. And suddenly - terrible news from a neighbor, a carpenter, Ivan Timofeevich. He writes that neither Irina nor younger daughters and son. Their hut was hit by a heavy shell... And after that the elder Anatoly volunteered for the front. My heart sank from burning pain. After being discharged from the hospital, Andrei decided to go himself to the place where his home. The spectacle turned out to be so depressing - a deep crater and waist-deep weeds - that I could not ex-husband and the father of the family does not stay there for a minute. I asked to go back to the division.
First joy, then sorrow
Among the impenetrable darkness of despair, a ray of hope flashed - the eldest son of Andrei Sokolov, Anatoly, sent a letter from the front. It turns out that he graduated from an artillery school - and has already received the rank of captain, “commands a battery of forty-fives, has six orders and medals...”
How happy this unexpected news made my father! How many dreams awoke in him: his son would return from the front, get married, and his grandfather would nurse his long-awaited grandchildren. Alas, this short-term happiness was shattered: on May 9, just on Victory Day, a German sniper killed Anatoly. And it was terrible, unbearably painful for my father to see him dead, in a coffin!
Sokolov's new son is a boy named Vanya
It was as if something had snapped inside Andrey. And he would not have lived at all, but simply existed, if he had not then adopted a little six-year-old boy, whose mother and father had both died in the war.
In Uryupinsk (due to the misfortunes that befell him, the main character of the story did not want to return to Voronezh), a childless couple took in Andrei. He worked as a truck driver, sometimes transporting bread. Several times, stopping at a teahouse for a snack, Sokolov saw a hungry orphan boy - and his heart grew attached to the child. I decided to take it for myself. “Hey, Vanyushka! Get in the car quickly, I’ll take you to the elevator, and from there we’ll come back here and have lunch,” Andrei called the baby.
- Do you know who I am? - asked, having learned from the boy that he was an orphan.
- Who? – Vanya asked.
- I am your father!
At that moment, such joy gripped both the newly acquired son and Sokolov himself, such bright feelings that he realized former soldier: did the right thing. And he will no longer be able to live without Vanya. Since then they have never been apart - neither day nor night. Andrei's petrified heart became softer with the arrival of this mischievous baby into his life.
Only he didn’t have to stay long in Uryupinsk - another friend invited the hero to the Kashira district. So now they walk with their son on Russian soil, because Andrei is not used to staying in one place.
Title of the work: Man's destiny
Author: Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov
Year of writing: 1956
Genre: story
Main characters: Andrey Sokolov
Plot
The author and the narrator meet at the crossing, the author draws attention to Andrei’s eyes, as if covered with ash. They got to talking, and Sokolov told the whole story of his life: how before the war he had a good family and three children. At the front, Andrei was captured, escaped several times, and with his own hands killed a traitor who threatened the lives of his friends.He was humiliated, beaten, poisoned with dogs, but he did not break, he believed in victory and truth. But having returned to duty, he learned about the death of his wife and daughters, there was only one joy left in life - his son, who also fought and received high awards for his valor. But at the very end of the war, the son also died. This knocked Andrey down.
And at this terrible moment for him, he met a little street child who was begging near the dining room. A lonely man took this boy and called him his son, he now has one joy - this is a boy and one hope - to raise him as a real person.
Conclusion (my opinion)
The story is told in the first person, the author talks about his tragic fate, about his experiences at the front and in captivity, about the trials from which he emerged, remaining a real person, and, finally, about his last act, when he adopted little Vanya. Everything he experienced left a terrible mark on the hero’s soul, but he did not break, did not betray himself and his beliefs. This is the image of a real Russian soldier and worker, through whose efforts the war was won and the destroyed economy was restored.The story “The Fate of Man” was written in 1956. The author created a masterpiece in just a week Soviet literature. And already on December 31, 1956, he received his first publication in the Pravda newspaper. The plot of the story was taken by Sholokhov from real life.
- The main character of the story is not legendary personality, but a simple man, soldier Andrei Sokolov.
- The title “The Fate of Man” is symbolic. This is a story about the people's fate.
- The narration is told in the first person. The hero slowly tells his story of fate. The author is like a casual interlocutor, listener, mediator between readers and the hero.
The story combines tragedy and heroism, heroism and human suffering into a single thought - man is stronger than war. The acquaintance with Sokolov occurs through the author-narrator, who accidentally meets the hero at the crossing. Andrey was with a boy of about six years old and sat down to smoke. Here he tells his life, all from beginning to end.
A native of the Voronezh province, he went to the civil war while still young. During this time, his family - mother, father and sister died of hunger. He trained as a mechanic and got married. He respected his wife Irina very much. It was so easy for him to live with her. Sokolov was glad to have such a wife-friend! When children appeared - a son and two daughters - he stopped drinking and brought all his pay home. Over the years family life saved up money and built a house not far from the aircraft factory, and started farming. Yes, the war has come...
Saying goodbye to my wife and children was difficult. Son Anatoly - he was already seventeen - held on, the girls too, and his wife said goodbye to Sokolov as if they were seeing each other in last time. Andrei’s heart sank with pity, but he could not do anything, he went to the front. There they gave him a ZIS-5 to carry ammunition. But Sokolov didn’t have to fight for long. He was wounded twice, but he was lucky. And then - urgently deliver the shells to the front line. Shooting all around. The car was blown up, but Sokolov survived.
I found myself behind enemy lines. The Fritz did not kill him, but drove him into captivity. Andrei remembered how the prisoners were driven into the church to spend the night. There a military doctor helped him - he set his hand, which had been knocked out by the explosion. And then they shot several people - one believer could not desecrate the church and began knocking on the door to go out to relieve himself. At night, Sokolov overheard a conversation between a certain Kryzhnev and his platoon commander, whom he wanted to hand over to the Germans as a communist. He killed this traitor, strangled him with his hands.
Sokolov ended up in Poznan. He managed to escape, went far, but the Germans found him. The dogs were set, returned and put in a punishment cell. During two years of captivity, Sokolov walked around half of Germany. They beat him to death, fed him like cattle, sometimes they didn’t even give him water, and forced him to work like a draft horse. The prisoners were transferred to camp B-14 near Dresden, to a quarry. Sokolov worked there too, tirelessly. One day he had the imprudence to say something, people were found and they reported it.
Muller called him and sentenced him to kill. Yes, he offered to drink before his death to the victory of German weapons. Andrey refused. Then he offered - for own death. Sokolov drank. Then Müller gave him bread and lard and said that he was a real Russian soldier and let him go. They shared bread with the whole barracks. After some time, Sokolov ended up in the mines, as a driver. He began to drive the boss around and planned an escape. He ran away and took the German engineer and his papers with him.
He broke through the front line to his own, fell to the ground and began to kiss her. The Russians took him to the commander. For such a German they even promised to present him with an award. Sokolov gained strength, came to his senses and immediately wrote home. But the answer came that his wife Irina and daughters had died, and only a crater remained from their house. And son Anatoly went to the front. Sokolov found his son and became proud of him - Anatoly has the rank of captain and an order. They just didn’t get to meet each other. On May 9, 1945, Anatoly died from a sniper bullet.
After demobilization, Sokolov went to Uryupinsk to visit his friends. There he saw little Vanyusha. His father and mother died. Andrei decided that he would be his father. Two loneliness opened to each other new life. Andrei Sokolov, already desperate and having lost faith in life, took the boy to return his childhood. And little Vanyusha, who believed that Sokolov was his father, now smiles. Here is the ending of the story. The war brought Sokolov so much grief, destroyed his life, took away everything dear to him, but he remained human.