The theme of the Second World War in post-war literature. The Great Patriotic War in fiction

War There are so many thoughts about it, so much desire to comprehend not only events, but also human psychology in extreme circumstances. In 2010, Russia will celebrate the anniversary date - 65 years since the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. No matter how assessments and even the facts of our history have changed in recent years, May 9 - Victory Day - remains unchanged. On this day, front-line soldiers traditionally meet, wreaths are laid at the monuments of Glory and military valor, thunder festive fireworks. We - the heirs of the Great Victory - bow to the feat of arms of the soldiers of the Fatherland.

The Great Patriotic War had a huge impact both on the further course of history and on the development of world and especially Russian culture. Literature could not help but respond to the great national misfortune. Poets and prose writers felt called upon to support high patriotic enthusiasm at the front and in the rear, confidence in victory, and perseverance in overcoming all the trials that befell the country and people.

Fiction about the war glorifies the soldier’s feat, fully comprehends the lessons of difficult trials, shows the truth of the war. There is no doubt that works created in post-war years and 10-20-30 years after the end of the war, they differ in their artistic features, but this ultimately determined the topic and purpose of our research.

The poem is dedicated to a fictional character - Vasily Terkin, a soldier of the Great Patriotic War. The main character is “firm in pain and proud in grief”; “sometimes serious, sometimes funny”; “holy and sinful Russian miracle - man”; looks like an epic hero or soldier from fairy tales; A jack of all trades: now he is a fighter, now a carpenter, now a stove maker, now an accordionist. He participated in the Great Patriotic War from the first days: “in service from June, into battle from July.” Terkin is the embodiment of the Russian character. He doesn't stand out in any significant way mental abilities, nor external perfection. He is truly an ordinary fighter. Terkin has no doubts about the final victory. He is convinced that true heroism does not lie in the beauty of the pose. Terkin thinks that in his place every Russian soldier would have done the same thing. Describing everyday life and battles, the author shows the hero in different situations, emphasizing his ingenuity, resourcefulness, enthusiasm, courage, ability not to lose heart in difficult times of life, and to ignite others with his optimism.

“The Book about a Soldier” is a book about a people whose best traits are embodied by the hero: love for the Motherland, selflessness, spiritual openness and generosity, sharpness and kind cunning.

During the harsh years of the war, poets not only wrote, but supplied “mental ammunition to the front.” Poetry, as the most operative genre, combined high and patriotic feelings with the deeply personal experiences of the lyrical hero.

Problematic and ideological - artistic originality prose about the Great Patriotic War.

§1. The problem of “feat and betrayal” in the artistic understanding of the authors of prose about the Great Patriotic War.

What can be called true heroism? What are the motives for human behavior in war, the moral origins of heroism and betrayal?

In the sixth grade we read a story by M. Sholokhov. "The Fate of Man." In this epic story, we are confronted with a generalized image of a Citizen of the Country, endowed with the traits of true humanity and true heroism. Actually, thanks to this work, we chose the topic of the work.

Andrei Sokolov cannot accept Kryzhnev’s betrayal. “Your shirt is closer to your body,” he says. And in fact, the ideal Sokolov, willy-nilly, becomes a murderer. He strangled the traitor with his own hands and did not experience either pity or shame, but only disgust: “. as if I was strangling not a person, but some creeping reptile. " But what about ideality, moral ideals? Of course, perfection is always demanding, but Sokolov fulfilled his soldier’s duty.

Sokolov experienced the strongest, most acute test when 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. The dialogue with Muller is not an armed fight between two enemies, but a psychological duel from which Sokolov emerges victorious, which Muller himself is forced to admit. This is a victory over fascism, a moral victory. Thus, in Sholokhov’s work, an ordinary person becomes the embodiment of the people’s character. “That’s why you’re a man, that’s why you’re a soldier, to endure everything, to endure everything, if need calls for it,” says Sokolov.

Based on a story by Sholokhov in 1959, directed by Sergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk. The film "The Fate of Man" was shot. He also played the main role.

“An act is a form of human embodiment. It is unpretentious in appearance and extremely difficult to perform. Basically ungrateful. The feat seeks form and requires a person, implies a reward. The action exists without it. And I can understand a feat only as a particular type of action that can serve as a universal example” (A. Bitov).

§2. A woman at war.

If the death of a soldier is a feat in the name of life, then the death of a woman is the death of life itself. But here’s a paradox: war, battle, and death are words feminine. Although we must admit that glory, honor, and victory are also feminine words.

“War does not have a woman’s face” - this thought sounds piercingly in the story by B. L. Vasilyev “And the dawns here are quiet.” It was written in 1969, awarded the USSR State Prize, and the author received the Lenin Komsomol Prize for the script for the film.

Distant days of 1942. German saboteurs are thrown into the location of the anti-aircraft battery under the command of Sergeant Major Vaskov. And the girls need to take the fight. War comes into conflict with female beauty, tenderness, and kindness. But a sense of duty to her husband forces Rita Osyanina to take up arms; beautiful Zhenya’s entire family was shot; the fragile Sonya Gurvich still has a family in occupied Minsk; Lisa Brichkina’s personal life did not work out because of the war; Galya Chetvertak's hopes did not come true.

Let us remember the words of Vaskov: “After all, a woman is a mother, in whom the very nature of hatred of murder is inherent.” Rita kills the first German. She's shaking. And Zhenya experiences the same state when he kills a German with a rifle butt for the first time.

Having received an order not to let the Germans get to the railway, the girls carried it out at the cost of their own lives. All five girls who went on the mission died, but they died heroically, for their Motherland. “The Motherland doesn’t start with the canals. Not from there at all. And we protect her. First her, and only then the channel,” says the dying Rita, with whose death, like with the death of every girl, “a small thread in the endless yarn of humanity” breaks off, according to the foreman.

§3. Children at war.

V. Bogomolov’s story “Ivan” touched the hearts of readers. Based on this work, A. Tarkovsky made the film “Ivan’s Childhood”. The film adaptation appeared in 1962.

The story is written from the perspective of a young lieutenant - a hero who has occupied such a significant place in the literature about the war - and contains several chance meetings with Ivan, a twelve-year-old intelligence officer, all of whose relatives died. The story is written in relation to the hero “from the outside,” with that good documentation that has become a hallmark of young military prose.

The thirst for revenge driving Ivan Buslov is shown as a deep, childish passion (Kholin “didn’t even think that a child could hate so much”). And to a certain extent, Ivan is really more mature than Senior Lieutenant Galtsev. What for the elders fit into the formulas of reason and became a source of conscious fulfillment of duty, was reflected in Ivan’s soul as an aggravated emotional shift. That is why there is a line that subtly separates Ivan from the adults in this war - not only from the young Lieutenant Galtsev, but also from the dashing intelligence officer Captain Kholin, from his sensible friend Katasonych and Lieutenant Colonel Gryaznov, who is fatherly attached to him. “For adults, war is not only a duty, but also a job. Each of them performs it honestly, without sparing themselves. Everyone, if necessary, will risk their life. But for Ivan in war there is no rest and time, no life and rear, no chain of command and awards - there is nothing except the war itself. The need to be at war is absolute, it is above any ranks,” it is above any attachments - he loves Kholin, and Katasonych, and Gryaznov, but without hesitation, he leaves them along the blurred roads of war as soon as the threat of being sent to the rear becomes real. “I have no one,” he says to Gryaznov, “I am alone.”

Child and war. Images of war and violence are the only absolute reality for Ivan. He is freed from them only in dreams.

In the film “Ivan’s Childhood,” the authors introduce us to where, naturally, the author of the story could not introduce us - on the other side of Ivan’s hatred. At the end of the film, the director inserted footage of German chronicles. The charred, twisted corpse of Goebbels, the five long, pale corpses of his own children killed by him. Documentary footage turned into metaphor. It is more complex and associative than any other metaphor in the film. Here is the motive of retribution, emphasized, like a rhyme, by the empty SS uniform on the wall (someone’s empty uniform at the NP for a minute personified the concept of “enemy” for Ivan). Here is the counter-motive of crippled and destroyed childhood. And just a designation: the end of fascism, its suicide.

The hero's story ends in the Gestapo, but the film ends differently. Again the smiling mother’s face, summer white sand, a girl and a boy running into the light, rippled surface of the water, and an ebony tree entering the frame like a menacing, warning sign. The ending of the picture is easy to interpret as a kind of “afterword” by the authors themselves, since it can no longer be interpreted as Ivan’s dream. But an attentive viewer will guess something more here. This is not just an edifying author’s “afterword” to Ivanov’s crippled and murdered childhood, but also volitional effort to a harmonious and holistic ideal humanity.

Review of the used literature.

During our work, we were faced with a problem common to all authors of the reports: a fairly large number of books about the war provided a minimum of information related to the topic of our research. And yet.

We came across a book by the outstanding writer and public figure M. A. Sholokhov, “The Fate of Man.” In this epic story about the fate of Andrei Sokolov, we are faced with a generalized image of a Citizen of the Land of the Soviets, endowed with the features of true humanity and true heroism. Actually, thanks to this work, we chose the topic of our work, because this story could not leave us indifferent.

The book by the famous English journalist Vert A. “Russia in the War of 1941–1945” is a unique but undoubtedly interesting story about the Great Patriotic War, many of the events of which were witnessed by the author himself. This publication helped us outline the objectives of our research.

A big role in our work was played by the book for teachers “Memory of Burning Years” by S. Zhuravlev, which helped us comprehend the work of V. Bogomolov “Ivan”. Also, thanks to this book, we found some explanations and comments from the authors to the works we read.

The book “Russian Soviet Literature” by Kupriyanovsky P. and Shames P. helped us form an idea of ​​what a person can be like in war and what a Russian soldier was like in the war of 1941-1945. Also, the materials in this book prove that the role of the writer, poet in the time of war is very significant. It was they who were supposed to deliver and delivered “mental ammunition to the front.”

In conclusion, we would like to say that, thanks to the books with which we were lucky enough to work, it was as if we had taken a trip into the past, witnessed fierce battles, witnessed the suffering of women, children, and the heroism of ordinary soldiers who defended our Motherland.

Conclusion.

The purpose of our work was to study the features of artistic understanding of the theme of the Great Patriotic War in modern prose. As a result of long work on the abstract, we succeeded in this, consistently implementing the tasks set in the introduction.

Writers and poets, responding to the great national misfortune, supported with their works a high patriotic upsurge at the front and in the rear, confidence in victory, and perseverance in overcoming all the trials that befell the country and people.

Fiction about the war glorifies the soldier’s feat, fully comprehends the lessons of difficult trials, shows the truth of war. The heroes of the works most often do not stand out for either significant mental abilities or external perfection. They are truly “ordinary heroes”, whose “small deeds” were paid for Great Victory. Describing everyday life and battles, writers showed heroes in different situations, not forgetting to emphasize their ingenuity, resourcefulness, enthusiasm, courage, ability not to lose heart in difficult times of life, and to ignite others with their optimism.

Works of fiction about the Great Patriotic War are books about Man at War, about people at war, about women and even children, some of whom sought to survive at all costs, while others honestly served their Motherland.

We think that our research topic is fraught with inexhaustible possibilities. Any conversation about the Great Patriotic War always leads everyone to philosophical thoughts, and the problem of “man and war” today can help in solving a number of critical issues existence: what is the role of the spiritual qualities of a person participating in the liberation struggle, what is the influence of the dramatic collisions of war on moral world people.

We are confident that the knowledge and skills we have acquired during our work will certainly be useful to us in the future.

The development of literature during the Great Patriotic War and post-war decades is one of the most important topics in domestic art. It has a number of features that distinguish it from military literature of other countries and periods. In particular, poetry and journalism acquire a huge role in the spiritual life of the people, since difficult times full of hardships require small forms from genres.

All literary works of the war years are characterized by pathos. Heroic pathos and national pride have become constant attributes of any book. In the very first days of the Nazi offensive, writers, poets, publicists and all creative people felt mobilized on the information front. This call was accompanied by very real battles, injuries and deaths, from which not a single Geneva Convention saved the Soviet intelligentsia. Of the two thousand authors who went to the front line, 400 did not return. Of course, no one counted injuries, illnesses and grief. That’s why every poem, every story, every article is characterized by overflowing emotionality, drama, intensity of syllables and words, and the warmth of a friend who is experiencing the same thing as you.

Poetry

Poetry becomes the voice of the Motherland, who called out to her sons from the posters. The most musical poems were turned into songs and flew to the front with teams of artists, where they were indispensable, like medicine or weapons. Literature of the period of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) for the majority Soviet people- these are poems, because they flew in the format of songs even to the most remote corners of the front, proclaiming the fortitude and intransigence of the soldiers. In addition, it was easier to declare them on the radio, diluting front-line reports. They were also published in the central and front-line press during the Great Patriotic War.

To this day, people love the song lyrics of M. Isakovsky, V. Lebedev-Kumach, A. Surkov, K. Simonov, O. Berggolts, N. Tikhonov, M. Aliger, P. Kogan, Vs. Bagritsky, N. Tikhonov, A. Tvardovsky. A profound national feeling resounds in their poems. The poets' instincts became sharper, their view of their native latitudes became filial, respectful, and tender. The image of the Motherland is a concrete, understandable symbol that no longer needs colorful descriptions. Heroic pathos also penetrated into intimate lyrics.

Melodic poetry with its inherent emotionality and declarative oratorical speech very soon spreads at the fronts and in the rear. The flourishing of the genre was logically determined: it was necessary to epically reflect pictures of heroic struggle. Military literature outgrew poems and resulted in national epic. As an example, you can read A. Tvardovsky “Vasily Terkin”, M. Aliger “Zoya”, P. Antokolsky “Son”. The poem “Vasily Terkin,” familiar to us from school times, expresses the severity of military life and the indomitably cheerful disposition of the Soviet soldier. Thus, poetry during the Second World War acquired enormous importance in the cultural life of the people.

Main genre groups of war poems:

1. Lyrical (ode, elegy, song)
2. Satirical
3. Lyrical-epic (ballads, poems)

The most famous poets wartime:

1. Nikolay Tikhonov
2. Alexander Tvardovsky
3. Alexey Surkov
4. Olga Berggolts
5. Mikhail Isakovsky
6. Konstantin Simonov

Prose

Small forms of literature (such as short stories and tales) were especially famous. Sincere, unbending and truly national characters inspired Soviet citizens. For example, one of the most famous works of that period, “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” is still known to everyone from school. Its author, Boris Vasiliev, already mentioned above, in his works adhered to one main theme: the incompatibility of the natural human, life-giving and merciful principle, embodied, as a rule, in female images, and war. The tone of the work, characteristic of many writers of that time, namely the tragedy of the inevitable death of noble and unselfish souls in a collision with the cruelty and injustice of “power”, combined with a sentimental-romantic idealization of “positive” images and plot melodrama, captivates the reader from the first pages, but leaves a deep wound to impressionable people. Probably, this textbook example gives the most complete idea of ​​the dramatic intensity of prose during the Second World War (1941-1945).

Large works appeared only at the end of the war, after the turning point. No one doubted victory anymore, and the Soviet government provided writers with conditions for creativity. Military literature, namely prose, has become one of the key areas of the country's information policy. The people needed support; they needed to realize the greatness of that feat, the price of which was human lives. Examples of prose from the Second World War include V. Grossman’s novel “The People Are Immortal,” A. Beck’s novel “Volokolamsk Highway,” and B. Gorbatov’s epic “The Unconquered.”

Famous prose writers of the war:

1. A. Gaidar
2. E. Petrov
3. Yu. Krymov
4. M. Jalil,
5. M. Kulchitsky
6. V. Bagritsky
7. P. Kogan
8. M. Sholokhov
9. K. Simonov

Journalism

Outstanding wartime publicists: A. Tolstoy (“What We Defend”, “Moscow is Threatened by the Enemy”, “Motherland”), M. Sholokhov (“On the Don”, “Cossacks”, short story “The Science of Hate”), I. Ehrenburg (“Stand!”), L. Leonov (“Glory to Russia”, “Reflections near Kyiv”, “Rage”). All these are articles published in those newspapers that soldiers received in the trenches of the front and read before the battle. Exhausted by back-breaking work, people greedily drilled their tired eyes into these same lines. The journalism of those years has enormous literary, artistic and historical value. For example, articles by Boris Vasiliev calling for the establishment of the priority of national culture over politics (an example of which was set by Vasiliev himself, leaving the CPSU in 1989, which he had been a member of since 1952, and since the early 1990s, withdrawing from participation in “perestroika” political actions) . His journalistic materials about the war are distinguished by a sound assessment and the greatest possible objectivity.

The main journalistic genres of wartime:

1. articles
2. essays
3. feuilletons
4. appeals
5. letters
6. leaflets

The most famous publicists:

1. Alexey Tolstoy
2. Mikhail Sholokhov
3. Vsevolod Vishnevsky
4. Nikolay Tikhonov
5. Ilya Erenburg
6. Marietta Shahinyan

The most important weapon of journalism of those years was the facts of violence of the Nazi occupiers against the civilian population. It was the journalists who found and systematized documentary evidence that enemy propaganda was at odds with the truth in everything. It was they who convincingly argued the patriotic position to those who doubted, because only in it lay salvation. No deal with the enemy could guarantee freedom and prosperity for the dissatisfied. The people had to realize this, learning the monstrous details of the massacres of children, women and the wounded that were practiced by the soldiers of the Third Reich.

Dramaturgy

The dramatic works of K. Simonov, L. Leonov, A. Korneichuk demonstrate the spiritual nobility of the Russian people, their moral purity and spiritual strength. The origins of their heroism are reflected in the plays “Russian People” by K. Simonov and “Invasion” by L. Leonov. The history of the confrontation between two types of military leaders is played out polemically in the play “Front” by A. Korneychuk. Drama during the Great Patriotic War is very emotional literature, filled with heroic pathos characteristic of the era. It breaks out of the framework of socialist realism and becomes closer and more understandable to the viewer. The actors are no longer acting, they are depicting their own everyday life on stage, reliving their own tragedies so that people are internally indignant and continue their courageous resistance.

Everyone was united by the literature of the war years: in each play the main idea was a call for the unity of all social forces in the face of external threat. For example, in Simonov’s play “Russian People” the main character is an intellectual, seemingly alien to proletarian ideology. Panin, a poet and essayist, becomes a military correspondent, like the author himself once did. However, his heroism is not inferior to the courage of battalion commander Safonov, who sincerely loves a woman, but still sends her on combat missions, because his feelings towards his homeland are no less significant and strong.

The role of literature during the war years

The literature of the period of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) is distinguished by its purposefulness: all writers, as one, strive to help their people withstand the heavy burden of occupation. These are books about the Motherland, self-sacrifice, tragic love for one’s country and the duty with which it obliges every citizen to defend the fatherland at any cost. Crazy, tragic, merciless love revealed the hidden treasures of the soul in people, and writers, like painters, accurately reflected what they saw with their own eyes. According to Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, “literature in the days of war becomes truly folk art, the voice of the heroic soul of the people."

Writers were not separated from front-line soldiers and home front workers; they became understandable and close to everyone, since the war united the nation. The authors froze and starved at the fronts as war correspondents, cultural workers, and died with soldiers and nurses. An intellectual, a worker or a collective farmer - everyone was at one. In the first years of the struggle, masterpieces were born in one day and remained in Russian literature forever. The main task of these works is the pathos of defense, the pathos of patriotism, raising and maintaining military spirit in the ranks of the Soviet army. What is now called “on the information front” was really needed then. Moreover, literature from the war years is not a state order. Writers like Simonov, Tvardovsky, Ehrenburg came out on their own, absorbing impressions on the front line and transferring them to notebooks to the sound of exploding shells. That's why you really believe these books. Their authors suffered through what they wrote and risked their lives to pass on this pain to their descendants, in whose hands the world of tomorrow was supposed to be.

List of popular books

Books will tell about the collapse of simple human happiness in military realities:

1. “Simply Love” by V. Vasilevskaya,
2. “It was in Leningrad” by A. Chakovsky,
3. "Third Chamber" of Leonidov.
4. “And the dawns here are quiet” by B. Vasiliev
5. “The Fate of Man” by M. Sholokhov

Books about heroic exploits in the bloodiest battles during the Second World War:

1. “In the trenches of Stalingrad” by V. Nekrasov,
2. "Moscow. November 1941" Lidina,
3. “July – December” by Simonov,
4. « Brest Fortress» S. Smirnova,
5. “They fought for their homeland” by M. Sholokhov

Soviet literature about betrayal:

1. “The battalions ask for fire” by Yu. Bondarev
2. “Sotnikov” by V. Bykov
3. “Sign of Trouble” by V. Bykov
4. “Live and Remember” by V. Rasputin

Books dedicated to the siege of Leningrad:

1. “The Siege Book” by A. Adamovich, D. Granin
2. “The Road of Life” by N. Khodza
3. “Baltic Sky” by N. Chukovsky

About children participating in the war:

1. Young Guard - Alexander Fadeev
2. Tomorrow there was a war - Boris Vasiliev
3. Goodbye boys – Boris Balter
4. Boys with bows – Valentin Pikul

About women participating in the war:

1. War does not have a feminine face - Svetlana Alekseevich
2. Madonna with ration bread – Maria Glushko
3. Partisan Lara – Nadezhda Nadezhdina
4. Girls' team - P. Zavodchikov, F. Samoilov

An alternative view of military leadership:

1. Life and Fate – Vasily Grossman
2. Penal battalion – Eduard Volodarsky
3. In war as in war - Viktor Kurochkin

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When I pronounce just the words “Great Patriotic War,” I immediately imagine battles and battles for my homeland, many years have passed, but that pain is still in the souls and hearts of people who lost relatives in those days. But this topic concerns not only those who went through the war, but also those who were born much later. Therefore, we study history, watch films and read books to be aware of this topic. In addition to those terrible moments that our grandparents had to go through, there is another side, this is the long-awaited victory. Victory Day is considered a legendary day, it is pride for all those actions and those people who made every effort to protect their land.

The theme of the Great Patriotic War can undoubtedly be called the main one throughout the 20th century. Many authors addressed this event in their stories and poems. Of course, the main authors were those who themselves experienced that terrible period and witnessed everything that happened. Therefore, in some works you can find completely truthful descriptions and facts, since some of the writers themselves took part in the war. All this was with the goal of describing the reader’s past life, telling why it all started and how to make sure such terrible events do not happen again.

The main Russian writers who lived through the period 1941-1945 can be called Sholokhov, Fadeev, Tolstoy, Simonov, Bykov, Tvardovsky and some other authors. From the above list I would especially like to highlight Vasily Bykov; in his works there were no special descriptions of bloody battles. His task was more research human behavior in an unusual situation. Therefore, the character of the hero, courage, strength, perseverance will especially stand out in his works, but along with positive features, you can see both betrayal and meanness.

But Bykov did not divide the heroes into good and bad; he gave this opportunity to the reader, so that he himself could decide who to condemn and who to consider a hero. The main example of such a story can be called Bykov’s work “Sotnikov”.

In addition to stories about the war, poetry also played a significant role in Russian literature. They talk not only about the period of battles, but also about the moments of victory themselves. As an example, we can highlight the work of the author Konstantin Simonov “Wait for me”; it added strength and morale to the soldiers.

Andrei Platonov wrote the story "Return". As for me, it is imbued with touchingness and eventfulness, despite the fact that the actions described by the author take place after the end of hostilities. It talks about the return of Captain Ivanov home to his family. But over the years, their relationship changes, and some misunderstanding appears on the part of their relatives. The captain does not know how his family lived while he was away, how his wife worked all day, how hard it was for the children. Seeing that Semyon Evseevich comes to his children, Ivanov even begins to suspect his wife of cheating, but in fact Semyon just wanted to bring at least some joy into the lives of the children.

Constant quarrels and a reluctance to hear anyone other than himself lead Ivanov to the point that he leaves home and wants to leave, but in last moment, seeing how the children are running after him, he still decides to stay. The author showed not the events of the ongoing war, but what happened after, how people’s characters and destinies changed.

Despite the passage of many years since these events, the works do not lose their relevance. After all, they are the ones who talk about the life of our people, about events and the victory over fascism. No matter how difficult and scary it was, the Soviet people never gave up hope of victory. The war became a great event that showed the strength of spirit, the heroism of the entire people, and the victory gave a future and faith in peace to many generations.

The Great Patriotic War in the works of 20th century writers

The Great Patriotic War was a tragedy for many families. Fathers, brothers, husbands went to the front, some did not return. This is probably why the theme of war very often appears in the works of writers of the 20th century. Many of them fought themselves, and their works are especially touching and sensitive. Every writer of the 20th century was permeated by this terrible atmosphere, which is why their works are very worthwhile and interesting.

Works began to be written during the war itself. For example, Tvardovsky wrote the poem Vasily Terkin from 1941-1945. This poem has thirty chapters, each of them describes an episode of this tragedy, namely the life of an ordinary front-line soldier. In this poem, Vasily Terkin is the embodiment of a courageous and real man; at that moment, it was precisely such people that should be taken as an example.

Nekrasov's story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” was also written at the beginning of the war. It is very touching, but at the same time tough: the events described in the story simply tear your heart.

“Not on the lists” was Bykov’s legendary work, which is dedicated to the defenders of the Brest Fortress. After all, it was the Brest Fortress that was the first to receive a blow from the fascist invaders. The most important thing is that this work is based on real events and impressions.

This trend has grown and grown every year. The Patriotic War left a huge imprint on the destinies of people. They described many of their experiences in poems, stories, novels, songs and verses. This topic always shivers, because every family has faced this tragedy and experienced Hell on earth.

Sholokhov's story “The Fate of a Man” is a tragic work that certainly makes you think. This story is about a simple man, a driver. He experienced the complete oppression of the Germans, having been in a concentration camp. He saw the most terrible things that happened in those years: pain, torment, lost eyes full of tears, the death of innocent people. I saw how the Nazis abused women and children, killed people without even blinking their eyes. The most important difference between this character is that he wanted to live and survive because his family was waiting for him at home.

Despite the fact that many years have passed since these tragic events, works about the war are still relevant today. After all, they reflect the essence of the people, their will to win and patriotism. War is an event when you need to gather your will and strength into a fist and go to the end, to victory.

Several interesting essays

• Essay by Olga Ivanovna Dymova in the story of Chekhov's Jumper (Characteristics and image)

  Chekhov's "The Jumper" speaks of the frivolity of people who sometimes consider their life to be a game. Whatever happens, everything will go away on its own and there is no need to try to fix the situation.

• Essay based on Repin's painting Pushkin at the Lyceum exam (description)

  In the modern world it is very difficult to find a person who would not be familiar with the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. As you know, he received his first education at the lyceum, which was located in Tsarskoe Selo.

• Bazarov's nihilism in the novel Fathers and Sons of Turgenev, essay with quotes

  In the novel by I.S. Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" one of the problems is the confrontation between lordly and democratic Russia. Evgeny Bazarov, the main character of the work, calls himself a “nihilist.”

• The image and characteristics of the Undertaker by Andrian Prokhorov in Pushkin’s story The Undertaker

  Andrian Prokhorov is the only main character of the work included in the cycle “Belkin’s Tale”.

• The image and characteristics of Marsilius in the Song of Roland essay

  Marsilius - king spanish city Zaragoza. This character is distinguished by the most unpleasant traits of a person - cunning, meanness, cowardice, commercialism and cruelty. This is confirmed in many episodes of the work, for example, for the sake of

Writing the truth about the war is very dangerous and it is very dangerous to seek the truth... When man walking to the front to seek the truth, he may find death instead. But if twelve go, and only two return, the truth that they bring with them will really be the truth, and not distorted rumors that we pass off as history. Is it worth the risk to find this truth? Let the writers themselves judge that.

Ernest Hemingway

According to the encyclopedia "The Great Patriotic War", over a thousand writers served in the active army; of the eight hundred members of the Moscow writers' organization, two hundred and fifty went to the front in the first days of the war. Four hundred and seventy-one writers did not return from the war - this is a big loss. They are explained by the fact that writers, most of whom became front-line journalists, sometimes happened to engage not only in their direct correspondent duties, but also take up arms - this is how the situation developed (however, bullets and shrapnel did not spare those who did not find themselves in such situations) . Many simply found themselves in the ranks - they fought in army units, in the militia, in the partisans!

In military prose, two periods can be distinguished: 1) prose of the war years: stories, essays, novels written directly during military operations, or rather, in short intervals between offensives and retreats; 2) post-war prose, in which many painful questions were understood, such as, for example, why did the Russian people endure such difficult trials? Why did the Russians find themselves in such a helpless and humiliating position in the first days and months of the war? Who is to blame for all the suffering? And other questions that arose during more close attention to documents and memories of eyewitnesses in an already distant time. But still, this is a conditional division, because the literary process is sometimes a contradictory and paradoxical phenomenon, and understanding the theme of war in the post-war period was more difficult than during the period of hostilities.

The war was the greatest test and test of all the strength of the people, and he passed this test with honor. The war was also a serious test for Soviet literature. During the Great Patriotic War, literature, enriched by the traditions of Soviet literature of previous periods, not only immediately responded to the events taking place, but also became an effective weapon in the fight against the enemy. Celebrating the intense, truly heroic creative work writers during the war, M. Sholokhov said: “They had one task: if only their word would defeat the enemy, if only it would hold our fighter under the elbow, ignite and not allow the burning hatred of enemies and love for the Motherland to fade in the hearts of the Soviet people ". The theme of the Great Patriotic War remains extremely modern today.

The Great Patriotic War is reflected in Russian literature deeply and comprehensively, in all its manifestations: the army and the rear, the partisan movement and the underground, the tragic beginning of the war, individual battles, heroism and betrayal, the greatness and drama of the Victory. The authors of military prose are, as a rule, front-line soldiers; in their works they rely on real events, on their own front-line experience. In the books about the war by front-line writers, the main line is soldier's friendship, front-line camaraderie, the hardship of life on the field, desertion and heroism. Dramatic human destinies unfold in war; life or death sometimes depends on a person’s actions. Front-line writers are a whole generation of courageous, conscientious, experienced, gifted individuals who endured war and post-war hardships. Front-line writers are those authors who in their works express the point of view that the outcome of the war is decided by a hero who recognizes himself as a part of the warring people, bearing his cross and a common burden.

Based on the heroic traditions of Russian and Soviet literature, the prose of the Great Patriotic War reached great creative heights. The prose of the war years is characterized by the strengthening of romantic and lyrical elements, the widespread use by artists of declamatory and song intonations, oratorical turns, and appeal to such poetic means, as an allegory, symbol, metaphor.

One of the first books about the war was the story by V.P. Nekrasov "In the Trenches of Stalingrad", published immediately after the war in the magazine "Znamya" in 1946, and in 1947 the story "Star" by E.G. Kazakevich. One of the first A.P. Platonov wrote a dramatic story of a front-line soldier returning home in the story “Return,” which was published in Novy Mir already in 1946. The hero of the story, Alexey Ivanov, is in no hurry to go home, he has found a second family among his fellow soldiers, he has lost the habit of being at home, from his family. The heroes of Platonov's works "...were now going to live as if for the first time, vaguely remembering what they were like three or four years ago, because they had turned into completely different people...". And in the family, next to his wife and children, another man appeared, who was orphaned by the war. It is difficult for a front-line soldier to return to another life, to his children.

The most reliable works about the war were created by front-line writers: V.K. Kondratyev, V.O. Bogomolov, K.D. Vorobyov, V.P. Astafiev, G.Ya. Baklanov, V.V. Bykov, B.L. Vasiliev, Yu.V. Bondarev, V.P. Nekrasov, E.I. Nosov, E.G. Kazakevich, M.A. Sholokhov. On the pages of prose works we find a kind of chronicle of the war, reliably conveying all stages great battle Soviet people with fascism. Front-line writers, contrary to the tendencies that developed in Soviet times to gloss over the truth about the war, depicted the harsh and tragic war and post-war reality. Their works are a true testimony of the time when Russia fought and won.

A great contribution to the development of Soviet military prose was made by the writers of the so-called “second war,” front-line writers who entered the mainstream literature in the late 50s and early 60s. These are such prose writers as Bondarev, Bykov, Ananyev, Baklanov, Goncharov, Bogomolov, Kurochkin, Astafiev, Rasputin. In the works of front-line writers, in their works of the 50s and 60s, in comparison with the books of the previous decade, the tragic emphasis in the depiction of war increased. War, as depicted by front-line prose writers, is not only and not even so much about spectacular heroic deeds, outstanding deeds, but about tedious everyday work, hard, bloody, but vital work. And it was in this everyday work that they saw Soviet man writers of the "second war".

The distance of time, helping front-line writers to see the picture of the war much more clearly and in greater volume when their first works appeared, was one of the reasons that determined the evolution of their creative approach to the military theme. Prose writers, on the one hand, used their military experience, and on the other, artistic experience, which allowed them to successfully realize their creative ideas. It can be noted that the development of prose about the Great Patriotic War clearly shows that among its main problems, the main one, standing for more than sixty years at the center of the creative search of our writers, was and is the problem of heroism. This is especially noticeable in the works of front-line writers, close up who showed in their works the heroism of our people and the fortitude of our soldiers.

Front-line writer Boris Lvovich Vasilyev, author of everyone’s favorite books “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” (1968), “Tomorrow There Was War”, “Not on the Lists” (1975), “Soldiers Came from Aty-Baty”, which were filmed in the Soviet time, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta on May 20, 2004, he noted the demand for military prose. On the military stories of B.L. Vasiliev raised a whole generation of youth. Everyone remembers the bright images of girls who combined love of truth and perseverance (Zhenya from the story “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”, Spark from the story “Tomorrow There Was War,” etc.) and sacrificial devotion to a high cause and loved ones (the heroine of the story “In was not included in the lists”, etc.). In 1997, the writer was awarded the Prize. HELL. Sakharov "For Civil Courage".

The first work about the war by E.I. Nosov had a story “Red Wine of Victory” (1969), in which the hero celebrated Victory Day on a government bed in a hospital and received, along with all the suffering wounded, a glass of red wine in honor of this long-awaited holiday. “A true trenchman, an ordinary soldier, he doesn’t like to talk about the war... A fighter’s wounds will speak more and more powerfully about the war. You can’t rattle off holy words in vain. Just like you can’t lie about the war. But writing badly about the suffering of the people is shameful.” In the story "Khutor Beloglin" Alexey, the hero of the story, lost everything in the war - no family, no home, no health, but, nevertheless, remained kind and generous. Yevgeny Nosov wrote a number of works at the turn of the century, about which Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn said, presenting him with a prize named after him: “And, 40 years later, conveying the same military theme, with bitter bitterness Nosov stirs up what hurts today... This undivided Nosov closes with grief the half-century wound of the Great War and everything that has not been told about it even today.” Works: " Apple saved""Commemorative Medal", "Fanfare and Bells" are from this series.

In 1992, Astafiev V.P. Published the novel Cursed and Killed. In the novel “Cursed and Killed,” Viktor Petrovich conveys the war not in “the correct, beautiful and brilliant system with music and drums, and battle, with fluttering banners and prancing generals,” but in “its real expression - in blood, in suffering, in death."

The Belarusian front-line writer Vasil Vladimirovich Bykov believed that the military theme “is leaving our literature for the same reason... why valor, honor, self-sacrifice are gone... The heroic has been expelled from everyday life, why do we still need war, where this inferiority is most obvious?” "Incomplete truth" and outright lies about the war for many years have diminished the meaning and significance of our war (or anti-war, as they sometimes say) literature." V. Bykov's depiction of war in the story "Swamp" provokes protest among many Russian readers. It shows the ruthlessness of Soviet soldiers towards local residents. The plot is this, judge for yourself: paratroopers landed behind enemy lines in occupied Belarus in search of a partisan base, having lost their bearings, they took a boy as their guide... and kill him for reasons of safety and secrecy of the mission. No less scary story Vasil Bykov - "On the Marsh Stitch" is " new truth"about the war, again about the ruthless and cruel partisans who dealt with a local teacher just because she asked them not to destroy the bridge, otherwise the Germans would destroy the entire village. The teacher in the village is the last savior and protector, but she was killed by the partisans as a traitor. The works of the Belarusian front-line writer Vasil Bykov cause not only controversy, but also reflection.

Leonid Borodin published the story “The Detachment Left.” The military story also depicts another truth about the war, about the partisans, the heroes of which are soldiers who were surrounded by the first days of the war, in the German rear in a partisan detachment. The author takes a fresh look at the relationship between occupied villages and the partisans they must feed. The commander of the partisan detachment shot the village headman, but not the traitorous headman, but his own man for the villagers, just for one word against. This story can be placed on a par with the works of Vasil Bykov in its depiction of military conflict, the psychological struggle between good and bad, meanness and heroism.

It was not for nothing that front-line writers complained that not the whole truth about the war had been written. Time passed, a historical distance appeared, which made it possible to see the past and what was experienced in its true light, the necessary words came, other books were written about the war, which will lead us to spiritual knowledge of the past. Now it is difficult to imagine modern literature about war without large quantity memoir literature, created not just by war participants, but by outstanding commanders.

Alexander Beck (1902-1972)

Born in Saratov in the family of a military doctor. His childhood and youth years passed in Saratov, and there he graduated from a real school. At the age of 16, A. Beck volunteered for the Red Army during the Civil War. After the war, he wrote essays and reviews for central newspapers. Beck's essays and reviews began to appear in Komsomolskaya Pravda and Izvestia. Since 1931, A. Beck collaborated in the editors of Gorky’s “History of Factories and Plants.” During the Great Patriotic War he was a war correspondent. The story "Volokolamsk Highway" about the events of the defense of Moscow, written in 1943-1944, became widely known. In 1960 he published the stories “A Few Days” and “The Reserve of General Panfilov.”

In 1971, the novel "New Assignment" was published abroad. The author finished the novel in mid-1964 and handed over the manuscript to the editors of Novy Mir. After lengthy ordeals through various editors and authorities, the novel was never published in the homeland during the author’s lifetime. According to the author himself, already in October 1964, he gave the novel to friends and some close acquaintances to read. The first publication of the novel in the homeland was in the magazine "Znamya", N 10-11, in 1986. The novel describes life path a major Soviet statesman who sincerely believes in the justice and productivity of the socialist system and is ready to serve it faithfully, despite any personal difficulties and turmoil.


"Volokolamsk Highway"

The plot of "Volokolamsk Highway" by Alexander Bek: after heavy fighting in October 1941 near Volokolamsk, a battalion of the Panfilov division was surrounded, breaks through the enemy ring and unites with the main forces of the division. Beck closes the narrative within the framework of one battalion. Beck is documentarily accurate (this is how he characterized his creative method: “Searching for heroes active in life, long-term communication with them, conversations with many people, patient collection of grains, details, relying not only on one’s own observation, but also on the vigilance of the interlocutor.. "), and in "Volokolamsk Highway" he recreates the true history of one of the battalions of Panfilov's division, everything corresponds to what happened in reality: the geography and chronicle of the battles, the characters.

The narrator is battalion commander Baurdzhan Momysh-Uly. Through his eyes we see what happened to his battalion, he shares his thoughts and doubts, explains his decisions and actions. The author recommends himself to readers only as an attentive listener and “a conscientious and diligent scribe,” which cannot be taken at face value. This is nothing more than an artistic device, because, talking with the hero, the writer inquired about what seemed important to him, Bek, and compiled from these stories both the image of Momysh-Ula himself and the image of General Panfilov, “who knew how to control and influence without shouting.” , but with the mind, in the past of an ordinary soldier who retained a soldier’s modesty until his death,” - this is what Beck wrote in his autobiography about the second hero of the book, very dear to him.

"Volokolamsk Highway" is an original artistic and documentary work associated with the literary tradition that it personifies in the literature of the 19th century. Gleb Uspensky. “Under the guise of a purely documentary story,” Beck admitted, “I wrote a work subject to the laws of the novel, did not constrain the imagination, created characters and scenes to the best of my ability...” Of course, both in the author’s declarations of documentary, and in his statement that that he did not constrain the imagination, there is a certain slyness, they seem to have a double bottom: the reader may think that this is a technique, a game. But Beck's nude, demonstrative documentary is not stylized, okay known in literature(let us remember, for example, “Robinson Crusoe”), not poetic clothes of an essay-documentary cut, but a way of comprehending, researching and recreating life and man. And the story “Volokolamsk Highway” is distinguished by impeccable authenticity (even in small details - if Beck writes that on October thirteenth “everything was in snow”, there is no need to turn to the archives of the weather service, there is no doubt that this was the case in reality), it is a unique, but an accurate chronicle of the bloody defensive battles near Moscow (this is how the author himself defined the genre of his book), revealing why the German army, having reached the walls of our capital, could not take it.

And most importantly, why “Volokolamsk Highway” should be considered fiction and not journalism. Behind professional army, military concerns - discipline, combat training, battle tactics, which Momysh-Uly is absorbed in, for the author there arise moral, universal problems, aggravated to the limit by the circumstances of war, constantly putting a person on the brink between life and death: fear and courage, selflessness and selfishness, loyalty and betrayal. In the artistic structure of Beck's story, a significant place is occupied by polemics with propaganda stereotypes, with battle cliches, open and hidden polemics. Explicit, because such is the character of the main character - he is harsh, not inclined to go around sharp corners, does not even forgive himself for weaknesses and mistakes, does not tolerate idle talk and pomp. Here is a typical episode:

“After thinking, he said: “Knowing no fear, Panfilov’s men rushed into the first battle... What do you think: a suitable start?”
“I don’t know,” I said hesitantly.
“That’s how corporals write literature,” he said harshly. “During these days that you are living here, I deliberately ordered you to be taken to places where sometimes two or three mines burst, where bullets whistle. I wanted you to feel fear. You don’t have to confirm it, I know without even admitting it that you had to suppress your fear.
So why do you and your fellow writers imagine that some supernatural people are fighting, and not people like you? "

The hidden, authorial polemic that permeates the entire story is deeper and more comprehensive. It is directed against those who demanded that literature “serve” today’s “demands” and “instructions”, and not serve the truth. Beck’s archive contains a draft of the author’s preface, in which this is stated unequivocally: “The other day they told me: “We are not interested in whether you wrote the truth or not. We are interested in whether it is useful or harmful... I didn’t argue. It probably happens.” that lies are also useful. Otherwise, why would it exist? I know that’s what many writers, my fellow writers, argue about. Sometimes I want to be the same. But at my desk, talking about our cruel and beautiful century, I forget. about this intention. At my desk I see nature in front of me and lovingly sketch it, as I know it.”

It is clear that Beck did not print this preface; it exposed the position of the author, it contained a challenge that he could not easily get away with. But what he talks about has become the foundation of his work. And in his story he turned out to be true to the truth.


Work...


Alexander Fadeev (1901-1956)

Fadeev (Bulyga) Alexander Alexandrovich - prose writer, critic, literary theorist, public figure. Born on December 24 (10), 1901 in the village of Kimry, Korchevsky district, Tver province. Early childhood spent in Vilna and Ufa. In 1908, the Fadeev family moved to the Far East. From 1912 to 1919, Alexander Fadeev studied at the Vladivostok Commercial School (he left without finishing the 8th grade). During the civil war, Fadeev took an active part in the fighting in Far East. In the battle near Spassk he was wounded. Alexander Fadeev wrote his first completed story, “The Spill,” in 1922-1923, and the story “Against the Current,” in 1923. In 1925-1926, while working on the novel “Rout,” he decided to engage in literary work professionally.

During the Great Patriotic War, Fadeev worked as a publicist. As a correspondent for the newspaper Pravda and the Sovinformburo, he traveled to a number of fronts. On January 14, 1942, Fadeev published a correspondence in Pravda, “Monster Destroyers and People-Creators,” in which he spoke about what he saw in the region and the city of Kalinin after the expulsion of the fascist occupiers. In the fall of 1943, the writer traveled to the city of Krasnodon, liberated from enemies. Subsequently, the material collected there formed the basis of the novel “The Young Guard.”


"Young Guard"

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Fadeev writes a number of essays and articles about the heroic struggle of the people, and creates the book “Leningrad in the Days of the Siege” (1944). Heroic, romantic notes, increasingly strengthened in Fadeev’s work, sound with particular force in the novel “The Young Guard” (1945; 2nd edition 1951; USSR State Prize, 1946; film of the same name, 1948) , which was based on the patriotic deeds of the Krasnodon underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard". The novel glorifies the struggle of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders. The bright socialist ideal was embodied in the images of Oleg Koshevoy, Sergei Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova, Ulyana Gromova, Ivan Zemnukhov and other Young Guards. The writer paints his characters in a romantic light; The book combines pathos and lyricism, psychological sketches and author's digressions. In the 2nd edition, taking into account the criticism, the writer included scenes showing the connections of Komsomol members with senior underground communists, whose images he deepened and made more prominent.

Developing the best traditions of Russian literature, Fadeev created works that became classic designs literature of socialist realism. Fadeev’s latest creative idea, the novel “Ferrous Metallurgy,” is dedicated to modern times, but remained unfinished. Fadeev's literary critical speeches are collected in the book "For Thirty Years" (1957), showing the evolution of the literary views of the writer, who made a great contribution to the development of socialist aesthetics. Fadeev's works have been staged and filmed, translated into the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR, and many foreign languages.

In a state of mental depression, he committed suicide. For many years Fadeev was in the leadership of writers' organizations: in 1926-1932. one of the leaders of RAPP; in 1939-1944 and 1954-1956 - Secretary, 1946-1954 - General Secretary and Chairman of the Board of the USSR Joint Venture. Vice-President of the World Peace Council (since 1950). Member of the CPSU Central Committee (1939-1956); At the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956) he was elected a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd-4th convocations and the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of the 3rd convocation. Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin, as well as medals.


Work...


Vasily Grossman (1905-1964)

Grossman Vasily Semenovich (real name Grossman Joseph Solomonovich), prose writer, playwright, was born on November 29 (December 12) in the city of Berdichev in the family of a chemist, which determined the choice of his profession: he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University and graduated from it in 1929. Until 1932 he worked in the Donbass as a chemical engineer, then he began to actively collaborate in the magazine “Literary Donbass”: in 1934 his first story “Gluckauf” (from the life of Soviet miners) appeared, then the story “In the City of Berdichev”. M. Gorky drew attention to the young author and supported him by publishing “Gluckauf” in a new edition in the almanac “Year XVII” (1934). Grossman moves to Moscow, becomes professional writer.

Before the war, the writer's first novel, "Stepan Kolchugin" (1937-1940), was published. During the Patriotic War, he was a correspondent for the newspaper "Red Star", traveling with the army to Berlin, and published a series of essays about the people's struggle against the fascist invaders. In 1942, the story “The People is Immortal” was published in “Red Star” - one of the most successful works about the events of the war. The play "If You Believe the Pythagoreans", written before the war and published in 1946, aroused sharp criticism. In 1952, he began publishing the novel “For a Just Cause,” which was also criticized because it did not correspond to the official point of view on the war. Grossman had to rework the book. Continuation - the novel "Life and Fate" was confiscated in 1961. Fortunately, the book was preserved and in 1975 it came to the West. In 1980, the novel was published. In parallel, Grossman has been writing another since 1955 - “Everything Flows”, also confiscated in 1961, but the version completed in 1963 was published through samizdat in 1970 in Frankfurt am Main. V. Grossman died on September 14, 1964 in Moscow.


"The people are immortal"

Vasily Grossman began writing the story “The People Are Immortal” in the spring of 1942, when the German army was driven away from Moscow and the situation at the front had stabilized. We could try to put it in some order, to comprehend the bitter experience of the first months of the war that seared our souls, to identify what was the true basis of our resistance and inspired hopes of victory over a strong and skillful enemy, to find an organic figurative structure for this.

The plot of the story reproduces a very common front-line situation of that time - our units, who were surrounded, in a fierce battle, suffering heavy losses, break through the enemy ring. But this local episode is considered by the author with an eye on Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”; it moves apart, expands, and the story acquires the features of a “mini-epic”. The action moves from the front headquarters to the ancient city, which was attacked by enemy aircraft, from the front line, from the battlefield to a village captured by the Nazis, from the front road to the location of German troops. The story is densely populated: our soldiers and commanders - both those who turned out to be strong in spirit, for whom the trials that befell became a school of “great tempering and wise heavy responsibility”, and official optimists who always shouted “hurray”, but were broken by defeats; German officers and soldiers, intoxicated by the strength of their army and the victories won; townspeople and Ukrainian collective farmers - both patriotically minded and ready to become servants of the invaders. All this is dictated by “people's thought,” which was the most important for Tolstoy in “War and Peace,” and in the story “The People are Immortal” it is highlighted.

“Let there be no word more majestic and holy than the word “people!” writes Grossman. It is no coincidence that the main characters of his story were not career military personnel, but civilians - a collective farmer from the Tula region Ignatiev and a Moscow intellectual, historian Bogarev. They are a significant detail - those drafted into the army on the same day symbolize the unity of the people in the face of the fascist invasion. The ending of the story is also symbolic: “From where the flames were burning out, two people walked. Everyone knew them. These were Commissar Bogarev and Red Army soldier Ignatiev. Blood ran down their clothes. They walked, supporting each other, stepping heavily and slowly."

The combat is also symbolic - “as if the ancient times of duels were revived” - Ignatiev with a German tank driver, “huge, broad-shouldered”, “who marched through Belgium, France, trampled the soil of Belgrade and Athens”, “whose chest Hitler himself decorated with the “iron cross”. It reminds Tvardovsky’s later description of Terkin’s fight with a “well-fed, shaved, careful, well-fed” German: Like on an ancient battlefield, Instead of thousands, two fight, chest to chest, like shield to shield, - As if the fight will decide everything, “Semyon Ignatiev,” writes Grossman, “he immediately became famous in the company. Everyone knew this cheerful, tireless man. He was an amazing worker: every instrument in his hands seemed to be playing and having fun. And he had the amazing ability to work so easily and cordially that a person who looked at him for even a minute wanted to take up an ax, a saw, a shovel himself, in order to do the work as easily and well as Semyon Ignatiev did. He had good voice, and he knew a lot of old songs... “Ignatiev has so much in common with Terkin. Even Ignatiev’s guitar has the same function as Terkin’s accordion. And the kinship of these heroes suggests that Grossman discovered the features of the modern Russian folk character.






"Life and Fate"

The writer was able to reflect in this work the heroism of people in the war, the fight against the crimes of the Nazis, as well as the complete truth about the events that took place within the country at that time: exile in Stalin’s camps, arrests and everything related to this. In the destinies of the main characters of the work, Vasily Grossman captures the suffering, loss, and death that are inevitable during war. The tragic events of this era give rise to internal contradictions in a person and disrupt his harmony with the outside world. This can be seen in the fate of the heroes of the novel “Life and Fate” - Krymov, Shtrum, Novikov, Grekov, Evgenia Nikolaevna Shaposhnikova.

The people's suffering in the Patriotic War in Grossman's Life and Fate is more painful and profound than in previous Soviet literature. The author of the novel leads us to the idea that the heroism of the victory won in spite of Stalin's tyranny is more significant. Grossman shows not only the facts and events of Stalin's time: camps, arrests, repressions. The main thing in Grossman’s Stalinist theme is the influence of this era on the souls of people, on their morality. We see how brave people turn into cowards, kind people into cruel ones, and honest and persistent people into cowardly ones. We are no longer even surprised that the closest people are sometimes riddled with distrust (Evgenia Nikolaevna suspected Novikov of denouncing her, Krymov suspected Zhenya of denouncing her).

The conflict between man and the state is conveyed in the thoughts of the heroes about collectivization, about the fate of the “special settlers”; it is felt in the picture of the Kolyma camp, in the thoughts of the author and the heroes about the year thirty-seven. Vasily Grossman's truthful story about the previously hidden tragic pages of our history gives us the opportunity to see the events of the war more fully. We notice that the Kolyma camp and the course of the war, both in reality itself and in the novel, are interconnected. And it was Grossman who was the first to show this. The writer was convinced that “part of the truth is not the truth.”

The heroes of the novel have different attitudes to the problem of life and fate, freedom and necessity. That's why they have different attitude to take responsibility for their actions. For example, Sturmbannführer Kaltluft, the executioner at the furnaces, who killed five hundred and ninety thousand people, tries to justify himself by an order from above, by the power of the Fuhrer, by fate (“fate pushed... on the path of the executioner”). But then the author says: “Fate leads a person, but a person goes because he wants, and he is free not to want.” Drawing a parallel between Stalin and Hitler, the fascist concentration camp and the camp in Kolyma, Vasily Grossman says that the signs of any dictatorship are the same. And its influence on a person’s personality is destructive. Having shown the weakness of man, the inability to resist the power of a totalitarian state, Vasily Grossman at the same time creates images of truly free people. The significance of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, won despite the dictatorship of Stalin, is more significant. This victory became possible precisely thanks to the inner freedom of a person who is capable of resisting whatever fate has in store for him.

The writer himself fully experienced the tragic complexity of the conflict between man and the state in the Stalin era. Therefore, he knows the price of freedom: “Only people who have not experienced the similar power of an authoritarian state, its pressure, are able to be surprised by those who submit to it. People who have experienced such power themselves are surprised by something else - the ability to flare up, even for a moment, with anger. a broken word, a timid, quick gesture of protest."


Work...


Yuri Bondarev (1924)

Bondarev Yuri Vasilievich (born March 15, 1924 in Orsk, Orenburg region), Russian Soviet writer. In 1941, Yu.V. Bondarev, along with thousands of young Muscovites, participated in the construction of defensive fortifications near Smolensk. Then there was an evacuation, where Yuri graduated from the 10th grade. In the summer of 1942, he was sent to study at the 2nd Berdichev Infantry School, which was evacuated to the city of Aktyubinsk. In October of the same year, the cadets were sent to Stalingrad. Bondarev was assigned as the commander of the mortar crew of the 308th regiment of the 98th Infantry Division.

In the battles near Kotelnikovsky, he was shell-shocked, received frostbite and was slightly wounded in the back. After treatment in the hospital, he served as a gun commander in the 23rd Kiev-Zhitomir Division. Participated in the crossing of the Dnieper and the liberation of Kyiv. In the battles for Zhitomir he was wounded and again ended up in a field hospital. Since January 1944, Yu. Bondarev fought in the ranks of the 121st Red Banner Rylsko-Kyiv Rifle Division in Poland and on the border with Czechoslovakia.

Graduated from the Literary Institute named after. M. Gorky (1951). The first collection of stories is “On the Big River” (1953). In the stories "The Battalions Ask for Fire" (1957), "The Last Salvos" (1959; film of the same name, 1961), in the novel " Hot snow"(1969) Bondarev reveals the heroism of Soviet soldiers, officers, generals, the psychology of participants in military events. The novel "Silence" (1962; film of the same name, 1964) and its sequel, the novel "Two" (1964) depict post-war life, in which people who went through the war are looking for their place and calling. The collection of stories “Late in the Evening” (1962), the story “Relatives” (1969) are dedicated to modern youth Bondarev is one of the co-authors of the script for the film “Liberation”. "(1970). In the books of literary articles "The Search for Truth" (1976), "A Look into Biography" (1977), "Keepers of Values" (1978), also in Bondarev's works of recent years "Temptation ", " Bermuda Triangle“The prose writer’s talent has opened up to new facets. In 2004, the writer published a new novel called “Without Mercy.”

Awarded two orders of Lenin, orders October Revolution, Red Banner of Labor, Patriotic War, 1st degree, "Badge of Honor", two medals "For Courage", medals "For the Defense of Stalingrad", "For Victory over Germany", the order "Big Star of Peoples' Friendship" (Germany), "Order of Honor "(Transnistria), gold medal A.A. Fadeev, many awards from foreign countries. Winner of the Lenin Prize (1972), two USSR State Prizes (1974, 1983 - for the novels "The Shore" and "Choice"), the State Prize of the RSFSR (1975 - for the screenplay of the film "Hot Snow").


"Hot Snow"

The events of the novel “Hot Snow” unfold near Stalingrad, south of the 6th Army of General Paulus, blocked by Soviet troops, in the cold December 1942, when one of our armies withstood in the Volga steppe the attack of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein, who sought to break through a corridor to Paulus’s army and get her out of the encirclement. The outcome of the Battle of the Volga and maybe even the timing of the end of the war itself largely depended on the success or failure of this operation. The novel's duration is limited to just a few days, during which Yuri Bondarev's heroes selflessly defend a tiny patch of land from German tanks.

In "Hot Snow" time is compressed even more tightly than in the story "Battalions Ask for Fire." “Hot Snow” is the short march of General Bessonov’s army disembarking from the echelons and the battle that decided so much in the fate of the country; these are cold frosty dawns, two days and two endless December nights. Knowing no respite and lyrical digressions As if the author had lost his breath from constant tension, the novel “Hot Snow” is distinguished by its directness, direct connection of the plot with the true events of the Great Patriotic War, with one of its decisive moments. The life and death of the novel's heroes, their very destinies are illuminated by the disturbing light of true history, as a result of which everything acquires special weight and significance.

In the novel, Drozdovsky's battery absorbs almost all the reader's attention; the action is concentrated primarily around a small number of characters. Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and their comrades are a part of the great army, they are the people, the people to the extent that the typified personality of the hero expresses the spiritual, moral traits of the people.

In “Hot Snow” the image of a people who have risen to war appears before us in a completeness of expression previously unknown in Yuri Bondarev, in the richness and diversity of characters, and at the same time in integrity. This image is not limited to the figures of young lieutenants - commanders of artillery platoons, nor the colorful figures of those who are traditionally considered to be people from the people - such as the slightly cowardly Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, or the straightforward and rough rider Rubin; nor by senior officers, such as the division commander, Colonel Deev, or the army commander, General Bessonov. Only collectively understood and accepted emotionally as something unified, despite all the differences in ranks and titles, do they form the image of a fighting people. The strength and novelty of the novel lies in the fact that this unity was achieved as if by itself, captured without much effort by the author - with living, moving life. The image of the people, as the result of the entire book, perhaps most of all feeds the epic, novelistic beginning of the story.

Yuri Bondarev is characterized by a desire for tragedy, the nature of which is close to the events of the war itself. It would seem that nothing corresponds to this artist’s aspiration more than the most difficult time for the country at the beginning of the war, the summer of 1941. But the writer’s books are about a different time, when the defeat of the Nazis and the victory of the Russian army are almost certain.

The death of heroes on the eve of victory, the criminal inevitability of death contains a high tragedy and provokes a protest against the cruelty of the war and the forces that unleashed it. The heroes of “Hot Snow” die - battery medical instructor Zoya Elagina, shy Edova Sergunenkov, member of the Military Council Vesnin, Kasymov and many others die... And the war is to blame for all these deaths. Let the callousness of Lieutenant Drozdovsky be to blame for the death of Sergunenkov, and let the blame for Zoya’s death fall partly on him, but no matter how great Drozdovsky’s guilt, they are, first of all, victims of war.

The novel expresses the understanding of death as a violation of the highest justice and harmony. Let us remember how Kuznetsov looks at the murdered Kasymov: “now a shell box lay under Kasymov’s head, and his youthful, mustacheless face, recently alive, dark, had become deathly white, thinned by the eerie beauty of death, looked in surprise with damp cherry half-open eyes at his chest , on the torn into shreds, dissected padded jacket, even after death he did not understand how it killed him and why he could not stand up to the gun sight. In this unseeing squint of Kasymov there was a quiet curiosity about his unlived life on this earth and at the same time. the calm mystery of death, into which the red-hot pain of the fragments threw him as he tried to rise to the sight."

Kuznetsov feels even more acutely the irreversibility of the loss of his driver Sergunenkov. After all, the very mechanism of his death is revealed here. Kuznetsov turned out to be a powerless witness to how Drozdovsky sent Sergunenkov to certain death, and he, Kuznetsov, already knows that he will forever curse himself for what he saw, was present, but was unable to change anything.

In "Hot Snow", with all the tension of events, everything human in people, their characters are revealed not separately from the war, but interconnected with it, under its fire, when, it seems, they cannot even raise their heads. Usually the chronicle of battles can be retold separately from the individuality of its participants - the battle in “Hot Snow” cannot be retold otherwise than through the fate and characters of people.

The past of the characters in the novel is significant and significant. For some it is almost cloudless, for others it is so complex and dramatic that the former drama is not left behind, pushed aside by the war, but accompanies the person in the battle southwest of Stalingrad. The events of the past determined Ukhanov’s military fate: a gifted, energetic officer who should have commanded a battery, but he is only a sergeant. Ukhanov’s cool, rebellious character also determines his movement within the novel. Chibisov's past troubles, which almost broke him (he spent several months in German captivity), resonated with fear in him and determine a lot in his behavior. One way or another, the novel glimpses the past of Zoya Elagina, Kasymov, Sergunenkov, and the unsociable Rubin, whose courage and loyalty to soldier’s duty we will be able to appreciate only by the end of the novel.

The past of General Bessonov is especially important in the novel. The thought of his son being captured by the Germans complicates his position both at Headquarters and at the front. And when a fascist leaflet informing that Bessonov’s son was captured falls into the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Osin from the front’s counterintelligence, it seems that Bessonov’s service has also become threatened.

All this retrospective material fits into the novel so naturally that the reader does not feel it separate. The past does not require a separate space for itself, separate chapters - it merged with the present, revealing its depths and the living interconnectedness of one and the other. The past does not burden the story of the present, but gives it greater dramatic poignancy, psychologism and historicism.

Yuri Bondarev does the same with portraits of characters: the appearance and characters of his heroes are shown in development, and only towards the end of the novel or with the death of the hero does the author create a complete portrait of him. How unexpected in this light is the portrait of the always smart and collected Drozdovsky on the very last page - with a relaxed, sluggish gait and unusually bent shoulders.

Such an image requires from the author special vigilance and spontaneity in perceiving the characters, feeling them as real, living people, in whom there is always the possibility of mystery or sudden insight. Before us is the whole person, understandable, close, and yet we are not left with the feeling that we have only touched the edge of his spiritual world - and with his death you feel that you have not yet managed to fully understand him inner world. Commissioner Vesnin, looking at the truck thrown from the bridge onto the river ice, says: “What a monstrous destruction war is. Nothing has a price.” The monstrosity of war is most expressed - and the novel reveals this with brutal directness - in the murder of a person. But the novel also shows the high price of life given for the Motherland.

Probably the most mysterious thing in the world of human relationships in the novel is the love that arises between Kuznetsov and Zoya. The war, its cruelty and blood, its timing, overturning the usual ideas about time - it was precisely this that contributed to such a rapid development of this love. After all, this feeling developed in those short terms march and battle, when there is no time to think and analyze your feelings. And it all begins with Kuznetsov’s quiet, incomprehensible jealousy of the relationship between Zoya and Drozdovsky. And soon - so little time passes - Kuznetsov is already bitterly mourning the deceased Zoya, and it is from these lines that the title of the novel is taken, when Kuznetsov wiped his face wet from tears, “the snow on the sleeve of his quilted jacket was hot from his tears.”

Having initially been deceived by Lieutenant Drozdovsky, the best cadet at that time, Zoya throughout the novel reveals herself to us as a moral personality, integral, ready for self-sacrifice, capable of embracing with her heart the pain and suffering of many... Zoya’s personality is recognized in a tense, as if electrified space, which is almost inevitable arises in a trench with the appearance of a woman. She seems to go through many tests, from annoying interest to rude rejection. But her kindness, her patience and compassion reach everyone; she is truly a sister to the soldiers. The image of Zoya somehow imperceptibly filled the atmosphere of the book, its main events, its harsh, cruel reality with the feminine principle, affection and tenderness.

One of the most important conflicts in the novel is the conflict between Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky. A lot of space is given to this conflict, it is exposed very sharply, and is easily traced from beginning to end. At first there is tension, going back to the background of the novel; inconsistency of characters, manners, temperaments, even style of speech: the soft, thoughtful Kuznetsov seems to find it difficult to endure Drozdovsky’s abrupt, commanding, indisputable speech. Long hours of battle, the senseless death of Sergunenkov, the mortal wound of Zoya, for which Drozdovsky was partly to blame - all this forms a gap between the two young officers, the moral incompatibility of their existences.

In the finale, this abyss is indicated even more sharply: the four surviving artillerymen consecrate the newly received orders in a soldier’s bowler hat, and the sip that each of them takes is, first of all, a funeral sip - it contains bitterness and grief of loss. Drozdovsky also received the order, because for Bessonov, who awarded him, he is a survivor, a wounded commander of a surviving battery, the general does not know about Drozdovsky’s grave guilt and most likely will never know. This is also the reality of war. But it’s not for nothing that the writer leaves Drozdovsky aside from those gathered at the soldier’s honest bowler hat.

It is extremely important that all of Kuznetsov’s connections with people, and above all with the people subordinate to him, are true, meaningful and have a remarkable ability to develop. They are extremely non-official - in contrast to the emphatically official relations that Drozdovsky so strictly and stubbornly establishes between himself and people. During the battle, Kuznetsov fights next to the soldiers, here he shows his composure, courage, and lively mind. But he also matures spiritually in this battle, becomes fairer, closer, kinder to those people with whom the war brought him together.

The relationship between Kuznetsov and Senior Sergeant Ukhanov, the gun commander, deserves a separate story. Like Kuznetsov, he had already been fired upon in difficult battles in 1941, and due to his military ingenuity and decisive character, he could probably be an excellent commander. But life decreed otherwise, and at first we find Ukhanov and Kuznetsov in conflict: this is a clash of a sweeping, harsh and autocratic nature with another – restrained, initially modest. At first glance, it may seem that Kuznetsov will have to fight both Drozdovsky’s callousness and Ukhanov’s anarchic nature. But in reality it turns out that without yielding to each other in any fundamental position, remaining themselves, Kuznetsov and Ukhanov become close people. Not just people fighting together, but people who knew each other and are now forever close. And the absence of author’s comments, the preservation of the rough context of life makes their brotherhood real and significant.

The ethical and philosophical thought of the novel, as well as its emotional intensity, reaches its greatest heights in the finale, when an unexpected rapprochement between Bessonov and Kuznetsov occurs. This is rapprochement without immediate proximity: Bessonov awarded his officer along with others and moved on. For him, Kuznetsov is just one of those who stood to death at the turn of the Myshkova River. Their closeness turns out to be more sublime: it is the closeness of thought, spirit, and outlook on life. For example, shocked by the death of Vesnin, Bessonov blames himself for the fact that, due to his unsociability and suspicion, he prevented friendly relations from developing between them (“the way Vesnin wanted and the way they should be”). Or Kuznetsov, who could do nothing to help Chubarikov’s crew, which was dying before his eyes, tormented by the piercing thought that all this “seemed to have happened because he did not have time to get close to them, to understand each one, to love them...”.

Separated by the disproportion of responsibilities, Lieutenant Kuznetsov and the army commander, General Bessonov, are moving towards one goal - not only military, but also spiritual. Suspecting nothing about each other’s thoughts, they think about the same thing and seek the truth in the same direction. Both of them demandly ask themselves about the purpose of life and whether their actions and aspirations correspond to it. They are separated by age and related, like father and son, or even like brother and brother, love for the Motherland and belonging to the people and to humanity in the highest sense of these words.

The Great Patriotic War is an event that affected the fate of all of Russia. Everyone has touched it to one degree or another. Artists, musicians, writers and poets also did not remain indifferent to the fate of their country.

The role of literature during the Second World War
Literature became what gave people hope, gave them strength to fight on and go to the end. This is precisely the purpose of this type of art.

From the first days of the front, writers talked about responsibility for the fate of Russia, about the suffering and hardships that people endured. Many writers went to the front as correspondents. At the same time, one thing was undeniable - an unhindered faith in victory, which nothing could break.

We hear the call to eradicate the “cursed beast that has risen over Europe and swung at your future” in the poem-appeals “To arms, patriot!” P. Komarova, “Listen, Fatherland”, “Beat the enemy!” V. Inber I. Avramenko, in the essays of L. Leonov “The Glory of Russia.”

Features of literature during the war
military journalism

The war made us think not only about real problems, but also about the history of Russia. It was at this time that A. Tolstoy’s works “Motherland”, “Peter the Great”, the story “Ivan the Terrible”, as well as “The Great Sovereign”, a play by V. Solovyov appeared.

There was such a thing as a work written “Hot on the heels.” That is, just yesterday evening a poem, essay or story written could appear in print today. Journalism played a major role, since thanks to it there was an opportunity to hurt the patriotic feelings of the Russian people. As A. Tolstoy said, literature has become “the voice of the Russian people.”

Poems about the war were given the same attention as ordinary political or secular news. The press regularly published excerpts from the works of Soviet poets.

Creativity of writers during the Second World War
The work of A. Tvardovsky became an indisputable contribution to the general treasury. Of course, the most famous of his works, the poem “Vasily Terkin,” became a kind of illustration of the life of a simple Russian soldier. She deeply revealed the characteristic features of the Soviet warrior, for which she became beloved among the people.

Tvardovsky A.T. In “The Ballad of a Comrade” the poet wrote: “One’s own misfortune does not count.” This line clearly reveals to us those patriotic impulses thanks to which people did not give up. They were ready to endure a lot. The main thing is to know that they are fighting to win. And even if its price is too high. At the rally Soviet writers a promise was made “to give all my experience and talent, all my blood, if necessary, to the cause of the sacred people's war against the enemies of our Motherland." More than half of them openly went to the front to fight the enemy. Many of them, including A. Gaidar, E. Petrov, Yu. Krymov, M. Jalil, never returned.

Many works of Soviet writers were published in the main newspaper of the USSR at that time - “Red Star”. The works of V.V. Vishnevsky, K.M. Simonov, A.P. Platonov, V.S. Grossman were published there.

During the war, the work of K.M. also plays a major role. Simonova. These are the poems “The Forties”, “If your home is dear to you”, “By the fire”, “Death of a friend”, “We will not see you”. Some time after the Second World War, Konstantin Mikhailovich’s first novel, “Comrades in Arms,” was written. He saw the light in 1952.

Post-war literature
And the dawns here are quiet. Many works about the Second World War began to be written later, in the 1960s and 70s. This applies to the stories of V. Bykov (“Obelisk”, “Sotnikov”), B. Vasilyev (“And the dawns here are like this”, “Not on the lists”, “Tomorrow there was a war”).

The second example is M. Sholokhov. He will write such impressive works as “The Fate of Man”, “They Fought for the Motherland”. Is it true, last novel is never considered completed. Mikhail Sholokhov began writing it during the war years, but returned to completing the plan only 20 years later. But in the end last chapters The novels were burned by the writer.

The biography of the legendary pilot Alexei Maresyev became the basis of the famous book “The Tale of a Real Man” by B. Polevoy. Reading it, one cannot help but admire the heroism of ordinary people.

One of the classic examples of works about the Great Patriotic War can be considered the novel by Yu. Bondarev “Hot Snow”. It was written 30 years later, but it well illustrates the terrible events of 1942 that took place near Stalingrad. Despite the fact that there are only three fighters left, and only one gun, the soldiers continue to hold back the German advance and fight to the bitter end.

About the price of victory, which our people paid with their lives best sons and daughters, you think today about the price of peace that the earth breathes when reading the bitter and such profound works of Soviet literature.