WWII in Russian literature of the 20th century. Writers and poets - participants in the Great Patriotic War. From captivity to captivity - to the thunder of victory

Boris Vasiliev “Not on the lists” — a story by Boris Vasiliev in 1974.
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Alexander Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin" (another name is “The Book about a Fighter”) is a poem by Alexander Tvardovsky, one of the main works in the poet’s work, which has received nationwide recognition. The poem is dedicated to a fictional character - Vasily Terkin, a soldier of the Great Patriotic War
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Yuri Bondarev “Hot Snow” » is a 1970 novel by Yuri Bondarev, set at Stalingrad in December 1942. The work is based on real historical events - the attempt of the German Army Group Don of Field Marshal Manstein to relieve Paulus's 6th Army encircled at Stalingrad. It was that battle described in the novel that decided the outcome of the entire Battle of Stalingrad. Director Gavriil Yegiazarov made a film of the same name based on the novel.
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Konstantin Simonov "The Living and the Dead" - a novel in three books (“The Living and the Dead”, “Soldiers Are Not Born”, “The Last Summer”), written by the Soviet writer Konstantin Simonov. The first two parts of the novel were published in 1959 and 1962, the third part in 1971. The work is written in the genre of an epic novel, the storyline covers the time interval from June 1941 to July 1944. According to literary scholars of the Soviet era, the novel was one of the brightest Russian works about the events of the Great Patriotic War. In 1963, the first part of the novel “The Living and the Dead” was filmed. In 1967, the second part was filmed under the title “Retribution.”
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Konstantin Vorobyov "Scream" - a story by Russian writer Konstantin Vorobyov, written in 1961. One of the writer’s most famous works about the war, which tells about the protagonist’s participation in the defense of Moscow in the fall of 1941 and his capture by Germans.
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Alexander Alexandrovich “Young Guard” - a novel by Soviet writer Alexander Fadeev, dedicated to an underground youth organization operating in Krasnodon during the Great Patriotic War called the “Young Guard” (1942-1943), many of whose members died in fascist dungeons.
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Vasil Bykov “Obelisk” (Belarus. Abelisk) is a heroic story by the Belarusian writer Vasil Bykov, created in 1971. In 1974, for “Obelisk” and the story “To Live Until Dawn,” Bykov was awarded the USSR State Prize. In 1976, the story was filmed.
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Mikhail Sholokhov “They Fought for the Motherland” - a novel by Mikhail Sholokhov, written in three stages in 1942-1944, 1949, 1969. The writer burned the manuscript of the novel shortly before his death. Only individual chapters of the work were published.
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Anthony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin. 1945" (English Berlin. The Downfall 1945) - a book by the English historian Antony Beevor about the storming and capture of Berlin. Released in 2002; published in Russia by the publishing house "AST" in 2004. It was recognized as a No. 1 bestseller in seven countries, excluding the UK, and entered the top five in a further 9 countries.
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Boris Polevoy "The Tale of a Real Man" — a 1946 story by B. N. Polevoy about the Soviet pilot ace Meresyev, who was shot down in a battle during the Great Patriotic War, seriously wounded, lost both legs, but by force of will returned to the ranks of active pilots. The work is imbued with humanism and Soviet patriotism. It was published more than eighty times in Russian, forty-nine in the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR, thirty-nine abroad. The prototype of the hero of the book was a real historical character, pilot Alexei Maresyev.
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Mikhail Sholokhov “The Fate of Man” - a story by Soviet Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov. Written in 1956-1957. The first publication was the newspaper “Pravda”, No. December 31, 1956 and January 2, 1957.
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Vladimir Dmitrievich “Privy Advisor to the Leader” - a confessional novel by Vladimir Uspensky in 15 parts about the personality of I.V. Stalin, about his environment, about the country. Time of writing the novel: March 1953 - January 2000. The first part of the novel was first published in 1988 in the Alma-Ata magazine “Prostor”.
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Anatoly Ananyev “Tanks are moving in a diamond pattern” is a novel by Russian writer Anatoly Ananyev, written in 1963 and telling about the fate of Soviet soldiers and officers in the first days of the Battle of Kursk in 1943.
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Yulian Semyonov “The Third Card” - a novel from a cycle about the work of the Soviet intelligence officer Isaev-Stirlitz. Written in 1977 by Yulian Semyonov. The book is also interesting because it involves a large number of real-life personalities - OUN leaders Melnik and Bandera, Reichsführer SS Himmler, Admiral Canaris.
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Konstantin Dmitrievich Vorobyov “Killed near Moscow” - a story by Russian writer Konstantin Vorobyov, written in 1963. One of the writer’s most famous works about the war, telling about the defense of Moscow in the fall of 1941.
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Alexander Mikhailovich “The Khatyn Tale” (1971) - a story by Ales Adamovich, dedicated to the struggle of partisans against the Nazis in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War. The culmination of the story is the extermination of the inhabitants of one of the Belarusian villages by Nazi punitive forces, which allows the author to draw parallels both with the tragedy of Khatyn and with the war crimes of subsequent decades. The story was written from 1966 to 1971.
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Alexander Tvardovskoy “I was killed near Rzhev” - a poem by Alexander Tvardovsky about the events of the Battle of Rzhev (First Rzhev-Sychev Operation) in August 1942, during one of the most intense moments of the Great Patriotic War. Written in 1946.
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Vasiliev Boris Lvovich “And the dawns here are quiet” - one of the most piercing works about the war in its lyricism and tragedy. Five female anti-aircraft gunners, led by Sergeant Major Vaskov, in May 1942, on a distant patrol, confront a detachment of selected German paratroopers - fragile girls enter into mortal combat with strong men trained to kill. The bright images of the girls, their dreams and memories of their loved ones, create a striking contrast with the inhuman face of the war, which did not spare them - young, loving, gentle. But even through death they continue to affirm life and mercy.
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Vasiliev Boris Lvovich "Tomorrow there was war" - Yesterday these boys and girls were sitting at school desks. Crammed. They quarreled and made up. We experienced first love and misunderstanding of parents. And they dreamed of a future - clean and bright. And tomorrow...Tomorrow there was a war . The boys took their rifles and went to the front. And the girls had to take a sip of military hardship. To see what a girl's eyes should not see - blood and death. To do what is contrary to female nature is to kill. And die ourselves - in battles for the Motherland...

The theme of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) became one of the main ones in Soviet literature. Many Soviet writers took direct part in hostilities on the front line, some served as a war correspondent, some fought in a partisan detachment... Such iconic authors of the 20th century as Sholokhov, Simonov, Grossman, Erenburg, Astafiev and many others left amazing evidence for us. Each of them had their own war and their own vision of what happened. Some wrote about pilots, some about partisans, some about child heroes, some about documentaries, and some about fiction. They left terrible memories of those fatal events for the country.

These testimonies are especially important for modern teenagers and children, who should definitely read these books. Memory cannot be bought; it can either not be lost, lost, or restored. And it’s better not to lose. Never! And don't forget about victory.

We decided to compile a list of the TOP 25 most remarkable novels and stories by Soviet writers.

• Ales Adamovich: “The Punishers”
• Victor Astafiev: “Cursed and killed”
• Boris Vasiliev: ""
• Boris Vasiliev: “I wasn’t on the lists”
• Vladimir Bogomolov: “The moment of truth (In August forty-four)”
• Yuri Bondarev: “Hot snow”
• Yuri Bondarev: “The battalions are asking for fire”
• Konstantin Vorobyov: “Killed near Moscow”
• Vasil Bykov: “Sotnikov”
• Vasil Bykov: “Survive until dawn”
• Oles Gonchar: “Flag Bearers”
• Daniil Granin: “My lieutenant”
• Vasily Grossman: “For a just cause”
• Vasily Grossman: “Life and Fate”
• Emmanuel Kazakevich: “Star”
• Emmanuel Kazakevich: “Spring on the Oder”
• Valentin Kataev: “Son of the regiment”
• Viktor Nekrasov: “In the trenches of Stalingrad”
• Vera Panova: “Satellites”
• Fyodor Panferov: “In the land of the vanquished”
• Valentin Pikul: “Requiem for the PQ-17 caravan”
• Anatoly Rybakov: “Children of Arbat”
• Konstantin Simonov: “The Living and the Dead”
• Mikhail Sholokhov: “They fought for their Motherland”
• Ilya Erenburg: "Storm"

More about the Great Patriotic War The Great Patriotic War was the bloodiest event in world history, which claimed the lives of millions of people. Almost every Russian family has veterans, front-line soldiers, blockade survivors, people who survived the occupation or evacuation to the rear; this leaves an indelible mark on the entire nation.

The Second World War was the final part of World War II, which rolled like a heavy roller throughout the European part of the Soviet Union. June 22, 1941 became its starting point - on this day, German and allied troops began bombing our territories, launching the implementation of the “Barbarossa Plan”. Until November 18, 1942, the entire Baltic region, Ukraine and Belarus were occupied, Leningrad was blocked for 872 days, and troops continued to rush deep into the country to capture its capital. Soviet commanders and military personnel were able to stop the offensive at the cost of heavy casualties both in the army and among the local population. From the occupied territories, the Germans drove the population into slavery en masse, distributed Jews into concentration camps, where, in addition to unbearable living and working conditions, they practiced various types of research on people, which resulted in many deaths.

In 1942-1943, Soviet factories evacuated deep to the rear were able to increase production, which allowed the army to launch a counteroffensive and push the front line to the western border of the country. The key event in this period is the Battle of Stalingrad, in which the victory of the Soviet Union became a turning point that changed the existing balance of military forces.

In 1943–1945, the Soviet army went on the offensive, recapturing the occupied territories of right-bank Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. During the same period, a partisan movement flared up in the not yet liberated territories, in which many local residents, including women and children, took part. The final goal of the offensive was Berlin and the final defeat of the enemy armies; this happened late in the evening of May 8, 1945, when the act of surrender was signed.

Among the front-line soldiers and defenders of the Motherland were many key Soviet writers - Sholokhov, Grossman, Ehrenburg, Simonov and others. Later they would write books and novels, leaving their descendants with their vision of that war in the images of heroes - children and adults, soldiers and partisans. All this today allows our contemporaries to remember the terrible price of a peaceful sky above our heads, which was paid by our people.

Great battles and the fates of ordinary heroes are described in many works of fiction, but there are books that cannot be passed by and which cannot be forgotten. They make the reader think about the present and the past, about life and death, about peace and war. AiF.ru has prepared a list of ten books dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War that are worth re-reading during the holidays.

“And the dawns here are quiet...” Boris Vasiliev

“And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...” is a warning book that forces you to answer the question: “What am I ready for for the sake of my Motherland?” The plot of Boris Vasiliev's story is based on a truly accomplished feat during the Great Patriotic War: seven selfless soldiers did not allow a German sabotage group to blow up the Kirov railway, along which equipment and troops were delivered to Murmansk. After the battle, only one group commander remained alive. Already while working on the work, the author decided to replace the images of fighters with female ones in order to make the story more dramatic. The result is a book about female heroes that amazes readers with the truthfulness of the narrative. The prototypes of the five volunteer girls who enter into an unequal battle with a group of fascist saboteurs are peers from the school of the front-line writer; they also reveal the features of radio operators, nurses, and intelligence officers whom Vasiliev met during the war.

“The Living and the Dead” Konstantin Simonov

Konstantin Simonov is better known to a wide circle of readers as a poet. His poem “Wait for Me” is known and remembered by heart not only by veterans. However, the front-line soldier’s prose is in no way inferior to his poetry. One of the writer’s most powerful novels is considered to be the epic “The Living and the Dead,” consisting of the books “The Living and the Dead,” “Soldiers Are Not Born,” and “The Last Summer.” This is not just a novel about the war: the first part of the trilogy practically reproduces the personal front-line diary of the writer, who, as a correspondent, visited all fronts, walked through the lands of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland and Germany, and witnessed the last battles for Berlin. On the pages of the book, the author recreates the struggle of the Soviet people against the fascist invaders from the very first months of the terrible war to the famous “last summer”. Simonov's unique view, the talent of a poet and publicist - all this made “The Living and the Dead” one of the best works of art in its genre.

“The Fate of Man” Mikhail Sholokhov

The story “The Fate of a Man” is based on a real story that happened to the author. In 1946, Mikhail Sholokhov accidentally met a former soldier who told the writer about his life. The fate of the man struck Sholokhov so much that he decided to capture it on the pages of the book. In the story, the author introduces the reader to Andrei Sokolov, who managed to maintain his fortitude despite difficult trials: injury, captivity, escape, death of his family and, finally, the death of his son on the happiest day, May 9, 1945. After the war, the hero finds the strength to start a new life and give hope to another person - he adopts an orphaned boy Vanya. In “The Fate of a Man,” a personal story against the backdrop of terrible events shows the fate of an entire people and the strength of the Russian character, which can be called a symbol of the victory of Soviet troops over the Nazis.

“Cursed and Killed” Viktor Astafiev

Viktor Astafiev volunteered for the front in 1942 and was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the medal “For Courage”. But in the novel “Cursed and Killed,” the author does not glorify the events of the war; he speaks of it as a “crime against reason.” Based on personal impressions, the front-line writer described the historical events in the USSR that preceded the Great Patriotic War, the process of preparing reinforcements, the life of soldiers and officers, their relationships with each other and their commanders, and military operations. Astafiev reveals all the dirt and horrors of the terrible years, thereby showing that he does not see the point in the enormous human sacrifices that befell people during the terrible war years.

"Vasily Terkin" Alexander Tvardovsky

Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin” received national recognition back in 1942, when its first chapters were published in the Western Front newspaper “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda”. The soldiers immediately recognized the main character of the work as a role model. Vasily Terkin is an ordinary Russian guy who sincerely loves his Motherland and his people, perceives any hardships of life with humor and finds a way out of even the most difficult situations. Some saw him as a comrade in the trenches, some as an old friend, and others saw themselves in his features. Readers loved the image of the folk hero so much that even after the war they did not want to part with him. That is why a huge number of imitations and “sequences” of “Vasily Terkin” were written, created by other authors.

“War does not have a woman’s face” Svetlana Alexievich

“War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” is one of the most famous books about the Great Patriotic War, where the war is shown through the eyes of a woman. The novel was written in 1983, but was not published for a long time, as its author was accused of pacifism, naturalism, and of debunking the heroic image of the Soviet woman. However, Svetlana Alexievich wrote about something completely different: she showed that girls and war are incompatible concepts, if only because a woman gives life, while any war first of all kills. In her novel, Alexievich collected stories from front-line soldiers to show what they were like, girls of forty-one, and how they went to the front. The author took readers along the terrible, cruel, unfeminine path of war.

“The Tale of a Real Man” Boris Polevoy

“The Tale of a Real Man” was created by a writer who went through the entire Great Patriotic War as a correspondent for the newspaper Pravda. During these terrible years, he managed to visit partisan detachments behind enemy lines, participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, and in the battle on the Kursk Bulge. But Polevoy’s world fame was brought not by military reports, but by a work of fiction written on the basis of documentary materials. The prototype of the hero of his “Tale of a Real Man” was the Soviet pilot Alexei Maresyev, who was shot down in 1942 during an offensive operation of the Red Army. The fighter lost both legs, but found the strength to return to the ranks of active pilots and destroyed many more fascist planes. The work was written in the difficult post-war years and immediately fell in love with the reader, because it proved that in life there is always a place for heroism.

The war that began on June 22, 1941 became a terrible milestone in the history of our country. Literally every family has faced this disaster. However, later this tragedy served as an impetus for the creation of many talented books, poems and films. Particularly talented authors created stunning and exciting poems.

While studying at school, many of us study the Great Patriotic War from literary works. Most of all I like poetry. There are many wonderful poets, but I liked Alexander Tvardovsky the most, who created the brilliant poem “Vasily Terkin”. The main character Vasily is a brave soldier who is able to cheer up his fellow soldiers with a joke in difficult times. At first, the poems began to be published in small excerpts in the newspaper starting in 1942 and immediately earned enormous popularity among the soldiers. The newspaper was passed from hand to hand and passed from department to department. The character Vasily Terkin turned out to be so vividly depicted, and his figure was so colorful and original, that many soldiers from different sectors of the front claimed that this particular man served in their company.

Terkin appears as a simple Russian soldier, who is a fellow countryman of the author himself. This is not his first war; before that he went through the entire Finnish campaign. This person does not mince words, when necessary he can boast, he loves to eat well. In general - our guy! Everything comes easy to him, he accomplishes his feats as if by accident. Sometimes he dreams of how, having received a medal for courage, he will go to a dance in the village council. How will everyone respect such a hero?

Many soldiers tried to imitate their book idol and wanted to be like him in everything. Vasily experienced many adventures, was wounded, was hospitalized, and killed German officers. The soldiers loved the poems so much that Tvardovsky received many letters asking him to write a sequel.

I liked the character of Vasily Terkin because of its simplicity. He walked through life easily and did not lose heart in the most difficult moments for him. His manner of speaking, his actions, everything he did was very similar to the image of a Russian soldier. In addition, I liked Vasily for his dangerous adventures. He seemed to be playing toss with death every minute.

Essay

on the topic: “Reflection of the Great Patriotic War in Literature”

Literature about the Great Patriotic War went through several stages in its development. In 1941-1945. it was created by writers who went to war in order to support the patriotic spirit of the people with their works, to unite them in the fight against a common enemy, and to reveal the feat of a soldier. The motto of the time is “Kill him!” (enemy) permeated this literature - a response to the tragic events in the life of a country that had not yet raised questions about the causes of the war and could not connect 1937 and 1941 into one plot, could not know the terrible prices, which the people paid for victory in this war. The most successful, included in the treasury of Russian literature, was “The Book about a Fighter” - A. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin”. “The Young Guard” by A. Fadeev about the feat and death of young Krasnodon residents touches the soul with the moral purity of the heroes, but causes bewilderment with its popular description of the life of young people before the war and the methods of creating images of fascists. The literature of the first stage was in spirit descriptive, non-analytical.

The second stage in the development of the military theme in literature occurred in 1945-1950. These are novels, stories, poems about victory and meetings, about fireworks and kisses - overly jubilant and triumphant (for example, S. Babaevsky’s novel “Cavalier of the Golden Star”). They didn't finish the creepy truth about war. In general, M. Sholokhov’s wonderful story “The Fate of a Man” (1957) hid the truth about where former prisoners of war ended up after returning home. Tvardovsky will say about this later:

And having lived to the end

That way of the cross, half alive -

From captivity to captivity - under the thunder of victory

Follow with a double stamp.

Real Truth was written about the war in the 60-80s, when those who themselves fought, sat in the trenches, commanded a battery, fought for “an inch of land,” and was captured. The literature of this period was called “the literature of lieutenants” (Yu. Bondarev, G. Baklanov, V. Bykov, K. Vorobyov, B. Vasiliev, V. Bogomolov). They were beaten hard. They beat them because they “narrowed” the scale of the war image to the size of an “inch of land,” a battery, a trench, a fishing line... They were not published for a long time for “de-heroizing” events. And they, knowing the value of everyday feat saw him in everyday life work soldier Lieutenant writers wrote not about victories on the fronts, but about defeats, encirclement, the retreat of the army, about stupid command and confusion at the top. The writers of this generation took as a model Tolstoy the principle of depicting war is “not in a correct, beautiful and brilliant system, with music... with fluttering banners and prancing generals, but... in blood, in suffering, in death.” The analytical spirit of “Sevastopol Stories” entered Russian literature about the war of the 20th century.

In 1965, the magazine “New World” published V. Bykov’s story “The Kruglyansky Bridge”, which made a hole in popular literature about the war. ...The operational group of the partisan detachment receives the task of setting fire to the Kruglyansky bridge, which connects two banks: on one - the Germans, on the other - the bloodless partisans. The bridge is guarded day and night by German sentries. Major Britvin noticed that every morning a cart with cans of milk for the Germans, driven by a boy, drove across the bridge. A brilliant idea struck the major: pour out the milk secretly from the boy, fill the can with explosives and, when the cart is in the middle of the bridge, set fire to the fuse... Explosion. No bridge, no horse, no boy... The task was completed, but at what cost? “War is an occasion to talk about a good and a bad person” - these words of Vasil Bykov express the essence of the new tasks being solved by literature about war - to give a ruthless, sober analysis of time and human material. “The war forced many to open their eyes in amazement... involuntarily and unexpectedly, very often we found ourselves witnessing the fact that the war was tearing off the magnificent covers... A lover of loud and correct phrases sometimes turned out to be a coward. An undisciplined fighter accomplished a feat” (V. Bykov). The writer is convinced that historians should deal with war in the narrow sense, and the writer’s interest should be focused exclusively on moral problems: “who is a citizen in military and peaceful life, and who is a selfish person?”, “the dead have no shame, but those who are alive before dead? and others.

“Lieutenant Literature” made the picture of the war all-encompassing: the front line, captivity, the partisan region, the victorious days of 1945, the rear - this is what K. Vorobyov, V. Bykov, E. Nosov, A. Tvardovsky resurrected in high and low manifestations.

The story of K. D. Vorobyov (1919-1975) “Killed near Moscow.” It was published in Russia only in the 80s. - they were afraid of the truth. The title of the story, like a hammer blow, is precise, brief, and immediately raises the question: by whom? Military leader and historian A. Gulyga wrote: “In this war we lacked everything: cars, fuel, shells, rifles... The only thing we did not spare was people.” The German General Gollwitzer was amazed: “You do not spare your soldiers, one would think that you are commanding a foreign legion, and not your compatriots.” Two statements pose an important problem murders their own. But what K. Vorobyov managed to show in the story is much deeper and more tragic, because all horror The betrayals of one's boys can only be depicted in a work of fiction.

The first and second chapters - expositional. The Germans are pushing the army towards Moscow, and Kremlin cadets are being sent to the front line, “boyishly loud and almost joyfully” reacting to flying Junkers, in love with Captain Ryumin - with his “arrogantly ironic” smile, tight and slender figure, with a twig stack in his hand, with his cap slightly shifted to his right temple. Alyosha Yastrebov, like everyone else, “carried within himself an irrepressible, hidden happiness,” “the joy of a flexible young body.” The landscape also corresponds to the description of youth and freshness in the children: “...Snow - light, dry, blue. It gave off the smell of Antonov apples... something cheerful and cheerful was conveyed to the legs, as if listening to music.” They ate biscuits, laughed, dug trenches and were eager to fight. And they had no idea about the approaching trouble. “Some kind of soul-searching smile” on the lips of the NKVD major, the lieutenant colonel’s warning that 240 cadets would not receive a single machine gun, alerted Alexei, who knew by heart Stalin’s speech that “we will beat the enemy on his territory.” He guessed the deception. “There was no place in his soul where the incredible reality of war could settle down,” but the reader guessed that the boy cadets would become hostages of the war. Tie-up The plot becomes the appearance of reconnaissance aircraft. Sashka’s white nose, an inexorable feeling of fear, not because they are cowards, but because the Nazis do not expect mercy.

Ryumin already knew that “the front had been broken in our direction,” a wounded soldier told about the true situation there: “Even though darkness killed us there, there were even more of us alive!” So now we’re wandering.” “Like a blow, Alexei suddenly felt a painful feeling of kinship, pity and closeness to everything that was around and nearby, ashamed of the painful tears that welled up” - this is how Vorobyov describes the psychological state of the protagonist.

The appearance of political instructor Anisimov raised hopes. He “called on the Kremlin people to be steadfast and said that communications are reaching here from the rear and neighbors are approaching.” But this was another deception. The mortar shelling began, shown by Vorobyov in naturalistic detail, in the suffering of Anisimov, wounded in the stomach: “Cut... Well, please, cut...” he begged Alexei. “An unnecessary tearful cry” accumulated in Alexei’s soul. A man of “swift action,” Captain Ryumin understood: no one needs them, they are cannon fodder to distract the enemy’s attention. "Only forward!" - Ryumin decides to himself, leading the cadets into the night battle. They didn’t shout “Hurray! For Stalin!" (as in the films), something “wordless and hard” burst from their chests. Alexei “no longer screamed, but howled.” The patriotism of the cadets was expressed not in a slogan, not in a phrase, but in act. And after the victory, the first in their lives, the young, ringing joy of these Russian boys: “...They blew it to pieces! Understand? Blast!"

But the German plane attack began. The artist K. Vorobyov stunningly depicted the hell of war with some new images: “trembling of the earth”, “dense carousel of airplanes”, “rising and falling fountains of explosions”, “waterfall merging of sounds”. The author’s words seem to reproduce Ryumin’s passionate internal monologue: “But only night could lead the company to this milestone of final victory, and not this bashful little brat of the sky - day! Oh, if Ryumin could drive him into the dark gates of the night!..”

Climax occurs after an attack by tanks, when Yastrebov, who was running away from them, saw a young cadet clinging to a hole in the ground. “A coward, a traitor,” Alexey suddenly and terribly guessed, not yet connecting himself with the cadet in any way.” He suggested that Alexey report upstairs that he, Yastrebov, shot down the cadet. “A selfish man,” Alexey thinks of him, threatening to be sent to the NKVD after their argument about what to do next. In each of them they fought fear before the NKVD and conscience. And Alexei realized that “death has many faces”: you can kill a comrade, thinking that he is a traitor, you can kill yourself in a fit of despair, you can throw yourself under a tank not for the sake of a heroic act, but simply because instinct dictates it. K. Vorobyov the analyst explores this diversity of death in war and shows how it happens without false pathos. The story amazes with its laconicism and chastity of description. tragic.

Denouement comes unexpectedly. Alexey crawled out from under cover and soon found himself on a field with stacks and saw his own people led by Ryumin. Before their eyes, a Soviet hawk was shot in the air. “Scoundrel! After all, all this was shown to us long ago in Spain! - Ryumin whispered. “...We can never be forgiven for this!” Here is a portrait of Ryumin, who realized the great crime of the main command in front of the hawk, the boys, their gullibility and love for him, the captain: “He cried... unseeing eyes, a sideways mouth, raised wings of his nostrils, but he now sat secretly quiet, as if listening to something and trying to comprehend the thought that eludes him...”