Literature during the Patriotic War. Review topic: “Literature of the period of the Great Patriotic War and the first post-war years

2. The Great Patriotic War in Russian literature of the 40-90s.

Literature of the war years 1941-1945. Journalism.

The main weakness of wartime journalism: it was too “one-dimensional” and too “strained,” even in the most lively articles. This journalism drowned out the strongest creative impulses of the 40s. High rhetorical style. Headlines: “Only victory and life!” A. Tolstoy; “We will stand!” I. Ehrenburg.

The best: M. Sholokhov “On the way to the front”": "The nature of the Smolensk region is alien to me, a resident of the almost treeless Don steppes. I watch the unfolding landscapes with interest. On the sides of the road there are pine forests like a green wall. They exude coolness and a strong resinous smell. There, in the thick of the forest, it’s semi-dark even during the day, and there’s something ominous in the twilight silence, and this land seems unkind to me.” "People of the Red Army": The scout carefully examines me with his brown, sharp eyes, smiling, and says: “For the first time I see a living writer. I read your books, saw your portraits different writers, but this is the first time I’ve seen a living writer.” I look with no less interest at a man who went behind German lines sixteen times, who risks his life every day, who is impeccably brave and resourceful. I’m also meeting a representative of this military profession for the first time.” "Letter to American Friends." A little naive, but very, very good. A. Platonov. The publication of Platonov's works was permitted in the years Patriotic War, when the prose writer worked as a front-line correspondent for the newspaper “Red Star” and wrote stories on military topics. American friends." A little naive, but very, very good. Essays: "Nikodim Maximov": “Nikodim Maksimov smiled: the light stood and stood, people frighten children with states. A soldier begins with thoughts about the fatherland. Where did you realize such a truth or did you hear, or what, from whom?.. In war, Ivan Efimovich, learning happens quickly... I’m not a special person, but this is how I live and think.” "Girl Rose":“Whoever saw Rose said that she was beautiful and so good, as if she was deliberately invented by melancholy, sad people for their own joy and consolation. she had already been executed once, and after the execution she fell to the ground, but remained alive; the corpses of others were placed on top of her body fallen people, then they covered the dead with straw, doused them with gasoline and burned the dead; Rose was not dead then, two bullets only harmlessly damaged the skin on her body, and she, covered from above by the dead, did not burn in the fire, she was saved and came to her senses, and in the dark time of the night she got out from under the dead and went free through the ruins of the prison fence destroyed by an aerial bomb. But in the afternoon, Rosa was again captured by the Nazis in the city and taken to prison. And she again began to live in prison, expecting her death a second time.”

Prose during the Second World War

1942 – Vasily Grossman’s story “The People Are Immortal”. In August 1941, the death of Gomel. The story of V. Vasilevskaya “Rainbow” - female images. V. Gorbatov's story “The Unconquered” is an occupied territory. Romantic-pathetic style. L. Leonov's story “The Capture of Velikoshumsk” (1944). The first completed novel about the Second World War was Fadeev’s novel “The Young Guard” (1945). Historical novels developed patriotic ideas. A. Beck “Volokolamsk Highway” (1943-1944). The psychological state of the characters, their relationships. Formation of a person’s personality in conditions of war. M. Sholokhov, excerpts from the novel “They Fought for the Motherland.” War through the eyes of a simple Russian soldier.

K. Vorobyov “This is us, Lord!” He worked on the story during the war. In 1943, his partisan group was forced to take refuge underground, he sat in the attic of a house in Siauliai and was in a hurry to leave people his memory of his experience in the fascist camps. Lieutenant Sergei Kostrov. Three years - from camp to camp, from captivity to captivity - these are the young years of Sergei. The main character of the story and his entourage had to endure a lot. He was captured by the Germans, escaped, was caught again, and taken to a concentration camp. “The barracks are filled with an eerie silence. Rarely does anyone whisper to a friend with a request or a question. The vocabulary of the doomed consisted of ten to twenty words. Only later did Sergei find out that this was a painful attempt by people to save energy. Movements were also strictly used. Thirty slow steps a day was considered the norm for a healthy walk.” In the “Valley of Death” the Germans created an unrivaled system for keeping people in a half-dead state. This is not how Sergei dreamed of dying. It is no coincidence that the epigraph to the story is taken from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: “It is better to be killed by swords than to be killed at the hands of the filthy!” The hero thinks about death: “... he then realized that, in essence, he was not afraid of it, only... he just wanted to die beautifully!” If death, then death worthy of a person. Having written in 1943 “This is us, Lord!” Evgeny Nosov: "It is impossible to read the story in one gulp: written immediately after fascist captivity, it bleeds with every line. Write the naked truth. The voice of a boy in captivity: “Six miles to home... If only my mother had known... she would have brought boiled potatoes." White downy sock, full of lice. Seventeen slices of bread, which were given to the child of a Lithuanian prisoner. The story remained in the editorial archive, of course, not because it was not finished, but, most likely, because the fate of those who were in captivity, even through no fault of my own, I stayed for a long time taboo topic in literature.

Nekrasov “In the trenches of Stalingrad” (1946) . With the beginning of the Patriotic War, Nekrasov went to the front, walking the path from Rostov to Stalingrad. He was an engineer in the sapper troops and commanded a battalion. Came to literature after the war. Appearance in the magazine “Znamya” of V. Nekrasov’s story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad.” The literary community was at a loss: the author is a simple officer, unknown to anyone, in the story itself there is not a word about partita and only a few mentions about Stalin. Someone told Stalingrad resident Nekrasov that he “didn’t have the guts” to write about Stalingrad). But Nekrasov’s story attracted attention and was remembered by the theme itself, the restraint of tone, which hid deep pain, and the truthful story about one of the most important battles of the war. Nekrasov: “But in war you never see anything except what’s going on right under your nose.” The story is largely autobiographical. The main character, on whose behalf the story is told, is Lieutenant Yuri Kerzhentsev, like Nekrasov, a native of Kyiv, graduated from an architectural institute, and was fond of philately. Once in the war, he became a sapper. The book is, first of all, about those who managed to survive and win - about people. In war conditions, people's characters manifest themselves in different ways. At first glance, it seems that the writer does not evaluate what is happening, but the intonation itself puts everything in its place. Nekrasov talks about death every time with pain from its everyday routine. Nekrasov refutes the opinion that in war one gets used to the fear of death: there is a famous moment when a deceased person’s cigarette butt was still smoking on his lip. Nekrasov said that it was the most terrible thing he saw before and after during the war. Kerzhentsev finds salvation from the horrors of war in memories of pre-war life. The war became the border between what was and what is. Today - the bitterness of retreats, losses, trenches, death. And in the past “neatly trimmed linden trees surrounded by trellises”, “large milky white lanterns”, “centenary elms of the palace garden”, “Dnieper, blue distances, huge sky”. In war, the color of gray dust is everywhere. Nekrasov describes the events of the Battle of Stalingrad as he himself saw them, without embellishment: “We’re shooting again. The machine gun is shaking as if in a fever. Ahead is a nasty gray land. Only one, gnarled bush, like a hand with gouty fingers. Then he disappears - the machine gun cuts him off.” Compressed time. Kerzhentsev is often surprised that he lives years in minutes. Heroes. All people are different and came to the front in different ways, but everyone is concerned with the question: how did it happen that since the beginning of the war the army has only been retreating. Nekrasov himself only once tries to answer this question: “You and I relied on others.” Kerzhentsev: “Swearing won’t help matters.” The story ends with the proposed offensive in the Stalingrad area. The story was awarded the Stalin Prize. The story "In the Hometown". Published in Znamya. A year after the publication of the story, the magazine “Znamya” was destroyed: the editor-in-chief V. Vishnevsky was removed, and Kazakevich’s story was added. Nekrasov later began to be published abroad, and he was expelled from the party for this. They took away, you bastards, the medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad.” Since 1974, Nekrasov settled in Paris. Died in 1987. The theme of Stalingrad was also explored in the works of V. Grossman (For a Just Cause), K. Simonov (Soldiers Are Not Born), Yu. Bondarev (Hot Snow), etc. After Nekrasov, there was a whole stream of “lieutenant prose”: G. came to literature. Baklanov, Y. Bondarev, V. Bykov. They, like Nekrasov, knew the war from personal experience. Their generation discovered a new type of hero. They were interested in the process of character formation in the tragic circumstances of war. Confessional intonation of the authors. The moral aspect is the main one. Bondarev: “Battalions Ask for Fire” and “Last Salvos”, “Crane Cry” by V. Bykov, “Killed near Moscow” by Vorobyov, “Ivan”, “Zosya”, “In August forty-four” by Bogomolov. Andrey Platonov. Prose. Stories. "Spiritual people." Platonov did not shy away from journalism in his military prose. But she was very far from the poster. His contemporaries so often tried to write about “lofty ideas,” but all they got was “about the mundane.” He wrote, in essence, about the earthly - and went into completely different spaces. Platonov wrote his first story about the war even before the front, during the evacuation. Then he became a correspondent at the front. His tasks: “To depict what is essentially killed is not just bodies. A great picture of life and lost souls, possibilities. Peace is given as it would have been during the activities of the dead - a better peace than the real one: this is what perishes in war.” "Return".

Poetry. War lyrics 1941-1945.

It is important that wartime poets did not observe the war from the sidelines, but lived it. Of course, the extent of their personal participation in the war varied. For example, Yulia Drunina volunteered to go to the front in 1941 and fought until victory. Some poets and writers were privates and officers in the army during the war. Others are war correspondents, others are participants in some individual events. During the war, poetry united people and did a great job. Surkov wrote that “never in the entire history of poetry has such direct, close, cordial contact been established between writers and readers as in the days of the Patriotic War.” Nikolai Chukovsky recalled that during the siege Leningrad lived an intensely spiritual life. There was a surprising amount of reading there. We read it everywhere. And they wrote a lot of poetry. Poems suddenly acquired extraordinary importance, and even those who would not have thought of doing so in normal times wrote them. There is a special need for poetry during times of disaster. As a form of literature, poetry occupied a dominant position in wartime. Tikhonov: “The verse received a particular advantage: it was written quickly, did not take up much space in the newspaper, and immediately went into service.” Poetry of the war years is poetry of extraordinary intensity. During the war years, many of its genres became more active. Now we are interested in the lyrics. Wartime lyric poetry reflected a thirst for humanity. Separation from loved ones, from loved ones, trials in war - all this made people bitter and they wanted humanity, love, fidelity. Here is the famous poem by K. Simonov “Wait for me” (1941). It was published in various front-line newspapers and sent to each other in letters. Thanks to this poem, the genre of the poetic message came to life.

Tvardovsky's poetry is lyrical, lyricism is even recognized as the basis of his talent. Of course, this quality manifests itself more freely in poems than in individual poems. Tvardovsky’s general attraction to the genre of the poem may be connected with this. During the war years - theme of small (Smolensk region) and big homeland. During the war, the memory of one’s home became persistent and close to everyone, no matter where they were. The theme of a small homeland is always connected with the theme of a large homeland - all of Russia. The Motherland is always a length, always a path, a road (About the Motherland, The Path Not Traveled). Poems dedicated to cruel memory of the war. The most impressive, of course, is “I was killed near Rzhev” (1945-46). This poem was supposed to be included in the “book about a fighter” (V.T.) - in the author’s plan in part 2 it was written: “a song through the mouth of a soldier killed in the first days of the war.” But this poem was not included in the poem, and became a separate poem, speaking on behalf of the fallen warrior. Everything a soldier killed in war could say if he could speak. "The day the war ended." The poem was written on behalf of those who survived. Sadness about how dead friends leave. This motif is constant in Tvardovsky’s lyrics. In another 20 years he will be in the poem “I know, it’s not my fault.” Part of the collection “Last Poems” (1952) is devoted to the military theme. Victory in the war, faith in the strength and capabilities of the people. Theme of literary creativity. “I know this better than anyone in the world - living and dead, only I know.” No one will say it the way he says it himself. "A word about words." Late 50s Thaw. Philosophical topics. “I don’t know how I would love.” "You and me". "About Existence."

Theme of mother's love and son's love for mother passed through all his work, and in the last poems - the cycle “In Memory of the Mother”. Consciousness of a life lived with dignity - “On the day of my life.”

M.V. Isakovsky (1900-1973). Born into a peasant family in the Smolensk region. Lit. His activities began in a newspaper in the city of Yelnya (not far from Smolensk). He himself considers the beginning of his poetic creativity 1924, although he began writing poetry very early. Isakovsky’s first collection, “Wires in Straw,” was published in 1927. The collection was noticed by Gorky: “His poems are simple, good, very moving with their sincerity.” Isakovsky in Russian poetry is one of the direct followers of Nikolai Nekrasov. Isakovsky is also not a peasant poet, but a folk one. Isakovsky worked in many genres, but achieved particular success in the lyrics and song genre. His poems: Katyusha, Farewell, Ogonyok, Migratory birds are flying, etc. Tvardovsky's remark about his songs: “The words of Isakovsky’s songs are poems that have independent meaning and sound, a living poetic organism, which itself presupposes the melody with which it is destined to merge and exist together. Isakovsky is not a lyricist or a songwriter; he is a poet whose poems are initially characterized by the beginning of songfulness, and this has always been one of the important features of Russian lyrics.” Isakovsky himself believed that you need to be able to speak even about the most complex things in the most ordinary words and phrases - ordinary, but at the same time succinct, precise, colorful, poetically convincing. It seems that the main reason for the success and universal love for his work is the complete fusion of thoughts and feelings of the poet and the people. In the forest near the front, Oh, my fogs. In the post-war years, Isakovsky began to work a lot as a translator. Most often he translated Ukrainian and Belarusian poets Kupala, Shevchenko, and Ukrainka.

Prose about the Great Patriotic War. Its beginning lies in 1941. The last works, it seems, have not yet been completed. And yet the century is ending. And “revaluation of values” is an eternal inevitability. What ancestors cried over often seems false and insincere to descendants. But things that were noticed only “in passing” suddenly become necessary after half a century or a century. Contemporaries habitually divided prose about the war according to established headings (here is what prose writers of the older generation who were at the front as military correspondents wrote, here is the prose of those who went through the war almost as a boy - or, if you “switch the register”: here is a “panoramic” novel, here story, story, essay...). Time “enlarges” the vision and makes us look with different eyes: what the 40s, the 50s, the 60s told us - and further, further, walking for decades. And in every ten years, find the most important thing, without which Russian literature of the 20th century simply cannot be imagined.

Prose of the 40s. Wartime prose could not do without journalistic pressure. And that is why not only “Rainbow” by Vasilevskaya or “The Unconquered” by Gorbatov, but also “The Capture of Velikoshumsk”, and “Stories of Ivan Sudarev”, and “Days and Nights”, and immediately, “in hot following”, included in the “modern classics” and immediately sent “for revision” to “Young Guard”. Expressive pieces and monstrous failures, carefully included by literary historians of that time in the “artistic originality of Alexander Fadeev’s novel” - tens, hundreds of pages, written in a newspaper style (“The peculiarity of Lyutikov, as well as this type of leaders in general ...”) and at times reminiscent of the style of denunciation (“Of all the people who inhabited the city of Krasnodon, Ignat Fomin was the most terrible person, especially terrible because he had not been a person for a long time”). And even though the best pages of A. Bek’s “Volokolamsk Highway” still exist, even though Vorobyov’s story “This is us, Lord!” appeared in 1943, which anticipated all the “lieutenant’s prose,” even though Mikhail Sholokhov began publishing excerpts from his war novel, nevertheless, the main prose about the war in the 40s was written by Andrei Platonov.

Song lyrics.

Alexey Fatyanov. “The artisans also sang Russian songs,” this is how Yaroslav Smelyakov described him. Alexey Ivanovich comes from the village of Maloye Petrino, in the Vladimir region. He took a lot from the natural beauty of these places. Here the origins of his song and poetic gift are easily and unmistakably guessed. In the late twenties, the Fatyanov family moved to the Moscow region. Fatyanov becomes a studio member of the theater school named after. HELL. Popov at the Central Theater of the Red Army. Soon introduced into performances. And in 1938-1939 he already toured with the theater around the country (all the way to the Far East). Since 1940, he served in the ensemble of the Oryol Military District. He was a certified actor. During these same years, he began to write a lot, published his first essays and poems in the Oryol regional Molodezhka, and became its permanent correspondent. In June 1941 The ensemble finds itself in an air garrison near Bryansk. This is where the war found him. Already the first days determined the military place of Private Fatyanov. In addition to two or three daily performances in front of the fighters, he has to write topical, satirical ditties and sketches, poems and songs. Fatyanov repeatedly appeals to the command with a request to let him go to the front. But all his requests were denied. However, by and large there was no place to let go: the ensemble was already a front-line ensemble. Why were his songs heard on all fronts? Everything in them is clear and understandable: what needs to be defended, who to fight for, and with what attitude to go into battle. And in general, after his songs, it seems that Russians win wars only when they defend their own and their own. And here they defeat everyone and always. Alexey Fatyanov had the opportunity to work with many composers. His most famous songs were written with Vasily Solovyov-Sedy: “We haven’t been home for a long time”, “Where are you, my garden?”, “Because we are pilots”, “Golden lights”, “Where are you now, fellow soldiers ?", "The accordion sings over Vologda", "Road-road". At the very height of the war, in 1942, in the same community, one of the most “important” and popular songs of the Great Patriotic War, “Nightingales,” was born, both at the front and in the rear.

3. The compositional role of details (details) in works of literary literature Attention to detail from the tendency to match the word with the phenomenon of reality as accurately as possible. The use of details is one of the techniques for constructing a literary text. Like any technique, it can be successful and unsuccessful. Unsuccessful are those details that clutter the text and do not carry a semantic, aesthetic load.

A truly artistic detail depicts the general in the particular, the concrete, and in this sense it is always figurative. Pushkin has many precise details, unmistakably found, selected from reality. Sticky leaves. Chekhov - original details. Thick and thin. What did someone smell like?

By compositional role parts can be divided into two main types:

1) Descriptive Details, - depicting, painting a picture, setting, character

At the moment. Above: Chekhov and Pushkin. 2) Narrative details - indicating movement, a change in the picture, setting, character. A gun that will shoot. Narrative details are necessarily repeated in the text at least twice, and often appear in modified form in different episodes of the story. highlighting the development of the plot.

Ticket 24

It was widely covered in literature, especially in Soviet times, as many authors shared personal experiences and themselves experienced all the horrors described along with ordinary soldiers. Therefore, it is not surprising that first the war and then the post-war years were marked by the writing of a number of works dedicated to the feat of the Soviet people in the brutal struggle against Nazi Germany. It is impossible to pass by such books and forget about them, because they make us think about life and death, war and peace, past and present. We bring to your attention a list of the best books dedicated to the Great Patriotic War that are worth reading and re-reading.

Vasil Bykov

Vasil Bykov (books are presented below) is an outstanding Soviet writer, public figure and WWII participant. Probably one of the most famous authors of war novels. Bykov wrote mainly about a person during the most severe trials that befell him, and about the heroism of ordinary soldiers. Vasil Vladimirovich sang in his works the feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Below we will look at the most famous novels of this author: “Sotnikov”, “Obelisk” and “Until Dawn”.

"Sotnikov"

The story was written in 1968. This is another example of how it was described in fiction. Initially, the arbitrariness was called “Liquidation”, and the basis of the plot was the author’s meeting with a former fellow soldier, whom he considered dead. In 1976, the film “The Ascension” was made based on this book.

The story tells about a partisan detachment that is in dire need of provisions and medicine. Rybak and the intellectual Sotnikov, who is sick, but volunteers to go because no more volunteers were found, are sent for supplies. Long wanderings and searches lead the partisans to the village of Lyasina, here they rest a little and receive a sheep carcass. Now you can go back. But on the way back they come across a detachment of policemen. Sotnikov is seriously wounded. Now the Fisherman must save the life of his comrade and bring the promised provisions to the camp. However, he fails, and together they fall into the hands of the Germans.

"Obelisk"

Vasil Bykov wrote a lot. The writer's books have often been filmed. One of these books was the story “Obelisk”. The work is constructed according to the “story within a story” type and has a pronounced heroic character.

The hero of the story, whose name remains unknown, comes to the funeral of Pavel Miklashevich, a village teacher. At the wake everyone remembers the deceased kind words, but then the conversation comes up about Frost, and everyone falls silent. On the way home, the hero asks his fellow traveler what kind of relationship a certain Moroz has with Miklashevich. Then they tell him that Moroz was the teacher of the deceased. He treated the children as family, took care of them, and took Miklashevich, who was oppressed by his father, to live with him. When the war began, Moroz helped the partisans. The village was occupied by police. One day, his students, including Miklashevich, sawed off the bridge supports, and the police chief and his assistants ended up in the water. The boys were caught. Moroz, who by that time had fled to the partisans, surrendered to free the students. But the Nazis decided to hang both the children and their teacher. Before his execution, Moroz helped Miklashevich escape. The rest were hanged.

"Until Dawn"

A story from 1972. As you can see, the Great Patriotic War in literature continues to be relevant even after decades. This is also confirmed by the fact that Bykov was awarded the USSR State Prize for this story. The work talks about Everyday life military intelligence officers and saboteurs. The story was originally written in Belarusian language, and only then translated into Russian.

November 1941, the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Lieutenant of the Soviet army Igor Ivanovsky, main character story, commands a sabotage group. He will have to lead his comrades beyond the front line - to the lands of Belarus occupied by the German invaders. Their task is to blow up a German ammunition depot. Bykov talks about the feat of ordinary soldiers. It was they, and not the staff officers, who became the force that helped win the war.

In 1975, the book was filmed. The script for the film was written by Bykov himself.

“And the dawns here are quiet...”

A work by the Soviet and Russian writer Boris Lvovich Vasiliev. One of the most famous front-line stories, largely thanks to the 1972 film adaptation of the same name. “And the dawns here are quiet...” Boris Vasiliev wrote in 1969. The work is based on real events: during the war, soldiers serving on Kirovskaya railway, prevented German saboteurs from blowing up the railway track. After the fierce battle, only the commander of the Soviet group survived, who was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.”

“And the dawns here are quiet...” (Boris Vasiliev) - a book describing the 171st patrol in the Karelian wilderness. Here is the calculation of anti-aircraft installations. The soldiers, not knowing what to do, begin to drink and idle. Then Fyodor Vaskov, the commandant of the patrol, asks to “send non-drinkers.” The command sends two squads of female anti-aircraft gunners to him. And somehow one of the new arrivals notices German saboteurs in the forest.

Vaskov realizes that the Germans want to get to strategic targets and understands that they need to be intercepted here. To do this, he assembles a detachment of 5 anti-aircraft gunners and leads them to the Sinyukhin ridge through the swamps along a path known to him alone. During the campaign, it turns out that there are 16 Germans, so he sends one of the girls for reinforcements, while he himself pursues the enemy. However, the girl does not reach her own people and dies in the swamps. Vaskov has to engage in an unequal battle with the Germans, and as a result, the four girls remaining with him die. But still, the commandant manages to capture the enemies, and he takes them to the location of the Soviet troops.

The story describes the feat of a man who himself decides to confront the enemy and not allow him to walk around his native land with impunity. Without an order from his superiors, the main character goes into battle himself and takes 5 volunteers with him - the girls volunteered themselves.

"Tomorrow there was a war"

The book is a kind of biography of the author of this work, Boris Lvovich Vasiliev. The story begins with the writer telling about his childhood, that he was born in Smolensk, his father was the commander of the Red Army. And before becoming anyone in this life, choosing his profession and deciding on his place in society, Vasiliev became a soldier, like many of his peers.

“Tomorrow there was war” is a work about the pre-war period. Its main characters are still very young students of the 9th grade, the book tells about their growing up, love and friendship, idealistic youth, which turned out to be too short due to the outbreak of the war. The work tells about the first serious confrontation and choice, about the collapse of hopes, about the inevitable growing up. And all this against the backdrop of an looming, grave threat that cannot be stopped or avoided. And within a year, these boys and girls will find themselves in the heat of a fierce battle, in which many of them are destined to burn. However, in their short lives they learn what honor, duty, friendship and truth are.

"Hot Snow"

A novel by front-line writer Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev. The Great Patriotic War is particularly widely represented in the literature of this writer and became the main motive of all his work. But Bondarev’s most famous work is the novel “Hot Snow,” written in 1970. The action of the work takes place in December 1942 near Stalingrad. The novel is based on real events - the attempt of the German army to relieve Paulus's sixth army, surrounded at Stalingrad. This battle was decisive in the battle for Stalingrad. The book was filmed by G. Yegiazarov.

The novel begins with the fact that two artillery platoons under the command of Davlatyan and Kuznetsov have to gain a foothold on the Myshkova River, and then hold back the advance of German tanks rushing to the rescue of Paulus’s army.

After the first wave of the offensive, Lieutenant Kuznetsov’s platoon has one gun and three soldiers left. Nevertheless, the soldiers continue to repel the onslaught of enemies for another day.

"The Fate of Man"

"The Fate of Man" - school work, which is studied within the framework of the topic “The Great Patriotic War in Literature.” The story was written by the famous Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov in 1957.

The work describes the life of a simple driver Andrei Sokolov, who had to leave his family and native home with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. However, before the hero gets to the front, he is immediately wounded and ends up in Nazi captivity, and then in a concentration camp. Thanks to his courage, Sokolov manages to survive captivity, and at the end of the war he manages to escape. Having reached his family, he receives leave and goes to his small homeland, where he learns that his family died, only his son survived, who went to war. Andrei returns to the front and learns that his son was shot by a sniper on the last day of the war. However, this is not the end of the hero’s story; Sholokhov shows that even after losing everything, you can find new hope and gain strength in order to live on.

"Brest Fortress"

The book by the famous journalist was written in 1954. For this work the author was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1964. And this is not surprising, because the book is the result of Smirnov’s ten-year work on the history of the defense of the Brest Fortress.

The work “Brest Fortress” (Sergei Smirnov) is itself a part of history. Writing literally bit by bit he collected information about the defenders, wanting them good names and honor were not forgotten. Many of the heroes were captured, for which they were convicted after the end of the war. And Smirnov wanted to protect them. The book contains many memories and testimonies of participants in the battles, which fills the book with true tragedy, full of courageous and decisive actions.

"The Living and the Dead"

The Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century describes the life of ordinary people who, by the will of fate, turned out to be heroes and traitors. This cruel time ground many, and only a few managed to slip between the millstones of history.

“The Living and the Dead” is the first book in the famous trilogy of the same name by Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov. The second two parts of the epic are called “Soldiers Are Not Born” and “The Last Summer.” The first part of the trilogy was published in 1959.

Many critics consider the work one of the brightest and most talented examples of describing the Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century. At the same time, the epic novel is not a historiographical work or a chronicle of the war. The characters in the book are fictional people, although they have certain prototypes.

“War does not have a woman’s face”

Literature dedicated to the Great Patriotic War usually describes the exploits of men, sometimes forgetting that women also contributed to the overall victory. But the book Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, one might say, restores historical justice. The writer collected in her work the stories of those women who took part in the Great Patriotic War. The title of the book was the first lines of the novel “War Under the Roofs” by A. Adamovich.

“Not on the lists”

Another story whose theme was the Great Patriotic War. IN Soviet literature Boris Vasiliev, whom we already mentioned above, was quite famous. But he gained this fame precisely thanks to his military work, one of which is the story “Not on the Lists.”

The book was written in 1974. The action takes place in the Brest Fortress itself, besieged by fascist invaders. Lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov, the main character of the work, ends up in this fortress before the start of the war - he arrived on the night of June 21-22. And at dawn the battle begins. Nikolai has the opportunity to leave here, since his name is not on any military list, but he decides to stay and defend his homeland to the end.

"Babi Yar"

Anatoly Kuznetsov published the documentary novel “Babi Yar” in 1965. The work is based on the childhood memories of the author, who during the war found himself in German-occupied territory.

The novel begins with a short introduction by the author, a short introductory chapter and several chapters, which are combined into three parts. The first part tells about the withdrawal of retreating Soviet troops from Kyiv, the collapse of the Southwestern Front and the beginning of the occupation. Also included were scenes of the execution of Jews, the explosions of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and Khreshchatyk.

The second part is completely devoted to the occupation life of 1941-1943, the deportation of Russians and Ukrainians as workers to Germany, the famine, clandestine production, and Ukrainian nationalists. The final part of the novel tells about the liberation of the Ukrainian land from the German occupiers, the flight of the police, the battle for the city, and the uprising in the Babi Yar concentration camp.

"The Tale of a Real Man"

Literature about the Great Patriotic War also includes the work of another Russian writer who went through the war as a military journalist, Boris Polevoy. The story was written in 1946, that is, almost immediately after the end of hostilities.

The plot is based on an event from the life of USSR military pilot Alexei Meresyev. Its prototype was a real character, a hero Soviet Union Alexey Maresyev, who, like his hero, was a pilot. The story tells how he was shot down in battle with the Germans and seriously wounded. As a result of the accident, he lost both legs. However, his willpower was so great that he managed to return to the ranks of Soviet pilots.

The work was awarded Stalin Prize. The story is imbued with humanistic and patriotic ideas.

"Madonna of Ration Bread"

Maria Glushko is a Crimean Soviet writer who went to the front at the beginning of the Second World War. Her book "Madonna with ration bread" - about the feat of all mothers whose lot it was to survive the Great Patriotic War. The heroine of the work is a very young girl, Nina, whose husband is going to war, and she, at the insistence of her father, goes to be evacuated to Tashkent, where her stepmother and brother are waiting for her. The heroine is in the last stages of pregnancy, but this will not protect her from the flow of human troubles. And in a short time, Nina will have to learn what was previously hidden from her behind the prosperity and tranquility of her pre-war existence: people live in the country so differently, what kind of people they have life principles, values, attitudes, how they differ from her, who grew up in ignorance and prosperity. But the main thing that the heroine has to do is to give birth to a child and save him from all the scourges of war.

"Vasily Terkin"

Literature portrayed such characters as the heroes of the Great Patriotic War to the reader in different ways, but the most memorable, cheerful and charismatic, undoubtedly, was Vasily Terkin.

This poem by Alexander Tvardovsky, which began publication in 1942, immediately received popular love and recognition. The work was written and published throughout the Second World War, the last part was published in 1945. The main task of the poem was to maintain the morale of the soldiers, and Tvardovsky successfully accomplished this task, largely thanks to the image of the main character. The daring and cheerful Terkin, who is always ready for battle, won the hearts of many ordinary soldiers. He is the soul of the unit, a cheerful fellow and a jokester, and in battle he is a role model, a resourceful warrior who always achieves his goal. Even being on the verge of death, he continues to fight and is already entering into battle with Death itself.

The work includes a prologue, 30 chapters of main content, divided into three parts, and an epilogue. Each chapter is a short front-line story from the life of the main character.

Thus, we see that the literature of the Soviet period widely covered the exploits of the Great Patriotic War. We can say that this is one of the main themes of the mid and second half of the 20th century for Russian and Soviet writers. This is due to the fact that the entire country was involved in the battle with the German invaders. Even those who were not at the front worked tirelessly in the rear, providing the soldiers with ammunition and provisions.

The years of the Great Patriotic War... the country experienced days and months of mortal danger, and only the colossal tension of patriotic forces, the mobilization of all reserves of spirit helped to avert a terrible disaster. “The Great Patriotic War,” wrote G.K. Zhukov, “was the largest military conflict. It was a nationwide battle against an evil enemy who encroached on the most precious thing that the Soviet people have.”

Art and literature have reached the firing line. “Moral categories,” wrote Alexei Tolstoy, “are acquiring a decisive role in this war. The verb is no longer just a coal burning in a person’s heart, the verb goes on the attack with millions of bayonets, the verb acquires the power of an artillery salvo.”

Konstantin Simonov noted in the pre-war years that “feathers are stamped from the same steel that tomorrow will be used for bayonets.” And when the “brown plague” broke into their home early on a June morning, the writers changed their civilian clothes to a tunic and became army correspondents.

Alexei Surkov has a poem that embodies the moods and feelings of Soviet writers who went to the front. There were over a thousand of them... More than four hundred did not return home.

I walked along the battle-charred boundary,
To reach the hearts of soldiers.
He was his own man in any dugout,
At any fire along the way.

Writers of the war years mastered all types of literary weapons: lyricism and satire, epic and drama.
As during the Civil War, the word of lyric poets and publicist writers became the most effective.

The theme of the lyrics changed dramatically from the very first days of the war. Responsibility for the fate of the Motherland, the bitterness of defeat, hatred of the enemy, perseverance, loyalty to the Fatherland, faith in victory - that’s what’s under the pen different artists molded into unique poems, ballads, poems, songs.

The leitmotif of the poetry of those years were lines from Alexander Tvardovsky’s poem “To the Partisans of the Smolensk Region”: “Rise up, my entire land is desecrated, against the enemy!” “The Holy War,” usually attributed to Vasily Lebedev-Kumach, conveyed a generalized image of the time, its harsh and courageous breath:

May the rage be noble
Boils like a wave -
There is a people's war going on,
Holy war!

Odic poems, expressing the anger and hatred of the Soviet people, were an oath of allegiance to the Fatherland, a guarantee of victory, and hit the enemy with direct fire. On June 23, 1941, A. Surkov’s poem “We Swear Victory” appeared:

An uninvited guest knocked on our door with a rifle butt.
The breath of a thunderstorm swept over the Fatherland.
Listen, Motherland! In a terrible time of war
Your fighting sons swear victory.

The poets turned to the heroic past of their homeland and drew historical parallels: “The Tale of Russia” by Mikhail Isakovsky, “Rus” by Demyan Bedny, “The Thought of Russia” by Dmitry Kedrin, “Field of Russian Glory” by Sergei Vasiliev.

Organic connection with Russian classical lyrics and folk art helped poets reveal their traits national character. Vsevolod Vishnevsky noted in his diary of the war years: “The role of national Russian self-awareness and pride is increasing.” Concepts such as Motherland, Rus', Russia, Russian heart, Russian soul, often included in the title works of art, acquired unprecedented historical depth and poetic volume. Thus, revealing the character of the heroic defender of the city on the Neva, a Leningrad woman during the siege, Olga Berggolts writes:

You are Russian – with your breath, your blood, your thoughts.
They united in you not yesterday
Avvakum's manly patience
And the royal fury of Peter.

A number of poems convey the soldier’s feeling of love for his “small homeland”, for the house in which he was born. To those “three birches” where he left part of his soul, his pain and joy (“Motherland” by K. Simonov).

A woman-mother, a simple Russian woman, who saw off her husband and sons to the front, who experienced the bitterness of an irreparable loss, who bore on her shoulders inhuman hardships and hardships, but who did not lose faith - for many years she will wait for those from the war who will never return - The poets dedicated heartfelt lines:

I remembered every porch,
Where did you have to go?
I remembered all the women's faces,
Like your own mother.
They shared bread with us -
Is it wheat, rye, -
They took us out to the steppe
A secret path.
Our pain hurt them, -
Your own trouble doesn't count.
(A. Tvardovsky “The Ballad of a Comrade”)

M. Isakovsky’s poems “To a Russian Woman” and lines from K. Simonov’s poem “Do you remember, Alyosha, the roads of the Smolensk region...” sound in the same key:

The bullets still have mercy on you and me.
But, having believed three times that life is all over,
I was still proud of the sweetest one,
For the Russian land where I was born.
Because I was destined to die on it,
That a Russian mother gave birth to us,
What, accompanying us into battle, is a Russian woman
She hugged me three times in Russian.

The harsh truth of the times, faith in the victory of the Soviet people permeate the poems of A. Prokofiev (“Comrade, have you seen…”), A. Tvardovsky (“The Ballad of a Comrade”) and many other poets.
The work of a number of major poets is undergoing a serious evolution. Thus, Anna Akhmatova’s muse acquires a tone of high citizenship and patriotic sound. In the poem “Courage,” the poetess finds words and images that embody the invincible resilience of the fighting people, sounding with the power of a majestic chorale:

We know what's on the scales now
And what is happening now.
The hour of courage has struck on our watch.
And courage will not leave us.
It's not scary to lie dead under bullets,
It’s not bitter to be homeless, -

And we will save you, Russian speech,
Great Russian word.
We will carry you free and clean.
We will give it to our grandchildren and save us from captivity
Forever!

The fighting people needed both angry lines of hatred and heartfelt poems about love and fidelity in equal measure. That is why K. Simonov’s poems “Kill him!”, “Wait for me, and I will return...”, A. Prokofiev’s angry poem “Comrade, have you seen...”, and his poem “Russia”, filled with love for the Motherland, were widely popular. Often both of these motives merge together, gaining greater emotional power.

The poets' lines addressed to one person - to a soldier, to a loved one - simultaneously embodied the thoughts and feelings of many. It is about this, piercingly personal and at the same time close to the entire military generation, that the words of the famous “Dugout” by A. Surkov are about:

You're far, far away now
Between us there is snow and snow,
It's not easy for me to reach you,
And there are four steps to death.

Strong feelings are evoked by the poems of young poets for whom the war was the first and last test in their lives. Georgy Suvorov, Mikhail Kulchitsky and many other talented young men did not return from the battlefield. In the winter of 1942, Nikolai Mayorov, a political instructor of a machine gun company and a student at Moscow University, died in the Smolensk forests. Lines from the poem “We,” which he wrote back in 1940 and prophetically bequeathed to those following:

We were tall, brown-haired.
You will read in books like a myth,
About people who left without loving,
Without finishing the last cigarette... -

They will forever remain a poetic monument to his generation.

Wartime songs are extremely diverse in terms of genre. Thoughts and feelings conveyed in poems set to music sound especially clearly and acquire additional emotional power. The theme of the sacred struggle against the fascist invaders becomes the main one for the anthem songs. Written in a solemnly upbeat tone, designed to create a generalized symbolic image of the fighting people, devoid of everyday details and details, these hymns sounded stern and solemn.

During times of difficult hard times, a Soviet person’s sense of homeland becomes more intense. The image of Russia with its open spaces, fields and forests of fabulous beauty acquires either a romantic-sublime or a lyrical-intimate sound in songs based on poems by A. Prokofiev, E. Dolmatovsky, A. Zharov, A. Churkin and many other poets. Particularly popular were lyrical songs based on the words of M. Isakovsky, A. Fatyanov, A. Surkov, K. Simonov and other poets, dedicated to friendship, love, fidelity, separation and the happiness of meeting - everything that excited and warmed a soldier far from home (“Dugout” by A. Surkov, “Spark” by M. Isakovsky, “Dark Night” by V. Agatov, “Evening on the Roadstead” by A. Churkin); poems about military everyday life, humorous, set to the melodies of soulful Russian songs, ditties, and waltzes. Such works as “Roads” by L. Oshanin, “Here the Soldiers Are Coming” by M. Lvovsky, “Nightingales” by A. Fatyanov and others were constantly broadcast on the radio and performed during concerts at the front and in the rear.

The growing solidarity of peoples bound by the unity of a socio-historical goal determines the strengthening of mutual influence and mutual enrichment national literatures. In front-line conditions, interethnic communication became especially close, and the friendship of peoples became even stronger. The writers revealed the spiritual values ​​that were born in the joint struggle against fascism.

The theme of national feat inspired poets of the older generation (Maxim Rylsky, Pavlo Tychyna, Yanka Kupala, Dzhambul Dzhabayev, Georgy Leonidze and others) and very young ones, whose poetic voices grew stronger during the testing years (Maxim Tank, Kaisyn Kuliev, Arkady Kuleshov and others). The title of the book by the Latvian poet J. Sudrabkaln “In a Brotherly Family” is more than a designation for a collection of poems; it reflects the core themes of the poetry of the war years - friendship of peoples, internationalist, humanistic ideas. In this vein, works of various genres were created: lyrics and heroic-romantic ballads, song-legends and lyrical-journalistic poems.

The consciousness of the justice of the fight against fascism cements the strength of people of all nationalities. The Estonian poet Ralf Parve, in his poem “At the Crossroads” (1945), expressed the idea of ​​military cooperation at the fiery crossroads of the Great Patriotic War:

We came from different divisions.
Here is a Latvian - he defended Moscow,
Dark-skinned native of Kutaisi,
The Russian who treated me to makhorka,
A Belarusian and a Ukrainian are nearby,
The Siberian who walked from Stalingrad,
And the Estonian... We came for that
May happiness smile on everyone!

The Uzbek poet Hamid Alimdzhan wrote in his poem “Russia” (1943):

O Russia! Russia! Your son, not my guest.
You are my native land, my father’s shelter.
I am your son, flesh of your flesh, bone of bone, -
And I am ready to shed my blood for you.

The ideas of friendship between peoples also inspired the Tatar poet Adel Kutuy:

I am on the shore of the Russian capital.
For the Tatar capital to live.

The unity of feelings and thoughts of the peoples of the country was evidenced by their caring attitude towards cultural traditions, to a treasury of spiritual values, the ability to poetically perceive the nature of not only one’s native, but also a foreign land. That is why, in a high and pure moral atmosphere, even a fragile branch of lilac, as A. Kutuy told about it in the poem “Morning Thoughts” (1942), grows into a symbol of indestructibility:

How I love spring Leningrad,
Your avenues have a proud glow,
The immortal beauty of your communities,
Your dawn fragrance!

Here I stand, clutching a machine gun,
And I say to my enemies on spring day:
- Do you hear the lilac scent?
Victory in this lilac scent!

A heightened sense of homeland fueled the flames of righteous anger and inspired the Soviet people to heroic deeds in battle and labor. Hence the constant motif of Georgian poets’ dear Kartli (the ancient name of Georgia), Vladimir Sosyura’s glorification of his beloved Ukraine, and the inspired paintings of Polesie and Belovezhskaya Pushcha by Belarusian poets. All this gave birth, using the dictionary of Yakub Kolas, “consonance and harmony” of the small and large Fatherland in the consciousness lyrical hero:

There is only one homeland in the world. Know that there are no two, -
There is only the one where your cradle hung.
There is only one who gave you faith and purpose,
The one who overshadows your difficult path with stellar glory...
(Valdis Luks, “Leaving for Battle Today”)

In 1944, when the Soviet Army, having liberated Poland and Bulgaria, was already reaching the borders of the Elbe, the poet Sergei Narovchatov wrote:

It’s not a word that bursts into a word:
From the Urals to the Balkans
The brotherhood is growing stronger, formidable again,
The glorious brotherhood of the Slavs.
(from the series “Polish Poems”)

He spoke about the humane mission of the Soviet victorious soldiers Kazakh poet A. Sarsenbaev:

This is the glory of Russian soldiers,
These are our great-grandfathers’ countries...
Like they were many years ago,
We are passing the ridge of the Balkans...
And the road winds like a snake,
Crawling through dangerous places,
Old battle monument
Foretells victory for us.

Commonwealth in the common struggle against fascism, internationalism - these themes are embodied in the works of many poets.

The era of the Great Patriotic War gave birth to poetry of remarkable strength and sincerity, angry journalism, harsh prose, and passionate drama.

The accusatory satirical art of that time was born as an expression of the humanism and generosity of Soviet people who defended humanity from the fascist hordes. Ditties, proverbs, sayings, fables, satirical rehashes, epigrams - the entire arsenal of witticisms was adopted. The sarcastic inscription or signature under the TASS Window poster or caricature was exceptionally effective.

D. Bedny, V. Lebedev-Kumach, A. Tvardovsky, A. Prokofiev, A. Zharov and a whole galaxy of front-line satirists and humorists successfully performed in the genre of satirical miniatures. Not a single significant event at the front passed without leaving a trace for satirists. The defeat of the Nazis on the Volga and near Leningrad, in Crimea and Ukraine, daring partisan raids on enemy rear lines, confusion and confusion in the camp of the Hitlerite coalition, the decisive weeks of the battle in Berlin - all this was wittily and accurately recorded in satirical verse. Here is the quatrain “In the Crimea”, characteristic of the style of D. Bedny the satirist:

- What is this? – Hitler howled, his eyes squinting in fear. –
Lost - Sivash, and Perekop, and Kerch!
A storm is coming towards us from Crimea!
Not a storm, you vile bastard, but a tornado!

All means of comic exaggeration were used in order to finally deal with the enemy. This goal was served by ironic stylizations in the spirit of ancient romances, madrigals, folk tunes, skillfully caricatured scenes, and dialogues. The poet Argo came up with a series of “Epitaphs for Future Use” on the pages of “Crocodile”. “The pot-bellied Goering in a blue uniform,” which net weighs “one hundred twenty-four, with orders one hundred and twenty-five kilos,” Rommel, raging under the African sky, who, “so as not to be dragged out of the grave,” had to be “crushed down with a grave slab,” finally, the champion According to lies, Goebbels is the object of the poet’s satirical pen.

We find the embodiment of the fundamental social, moral, humanistic ideals of the fighting people from the standpoint of in-depth historicism and nationalism in such a large epic genre as the poem. The years of the Great Patriotic War became no less fruitful for the poem than the era of the 20s. “Kirov with us” (1941) by N. Tikhonova, “Zoya” (1942) by M. Aliger, “Son” (1943) by P. Antakolsky, “February Diary” (1942) by O. Berggolts, “Pulkovo Meridian” (1943) V. Inber, “Vasily Terkin” (1941–1945) by A. Tvardovsky - here best samples poetic epic of the war years.
In the poem as a synthetic genre there is both everyday life and a panoramic picture of the era, written out with all the specific details - from wrinkles and rowan spots on a person’s face to the famous quilted jackets and train cars, individual human fate and thoughts about great history, about the fate of the country and the planet in the mid-twentieth century.

The evolution of the poets P. Antakolsky and V. Inber is indicative. From the oversaturation of associations and reminiscences of pre-war poetry, P. Antakolsky boldly moves on to stern and simple verse. The poem “Son” captivates with its combination of lyricism with high pathos, soulful sincerity with a civic principle:

...Snow. Snow. Debris of snow. Hills.
Thickets covered with snow caps up to the eyebrows.
Cold smoke of the nomad. The smell of grief.
The grief becomes more and more inexorable, the more dead.
Front edge. Eastern Front of Europe –
This is the meeting place for our sons.

High civic pathos and social and philosophical reflections determine the sound of V. Inber’s military poetry. Already in the first chapter of “Pulkovo Meridian” the credo of the entire work is contained:

Rid the world, the planet from the plague -
This is humanism! And we are humanists.

In the poetic arsenal of N. Tikhonov, the gunpowder of the civil war era has not become damp. In the embossed lines of the poem “Kirov is with us,” the image of the leader of the city on the Neva rises as a symbol of the unbending courage of the heroic Leningraders:

Houses and fences are broken,
The ruined vault gapes,
In the iron nights of Leningrad
Kirov is walking through the city.
“Let our soups be watery,
Let bread become worth its weight in gold, -
We will stand like steel.
Then we will have time to get tired.

The enemy could not overpower us by force,
He wants to starve us,
Take Leningrad from Russia,
It's full of Leningraders to pick up.
This won't happen forever
On the Neva holy bank,
Working Russian people
If they die, they will not surrender to the enemy.

The poem of the war years was distinguished by a variety of stylistic, plot and compositional solutions. N. Tikhonov’s poem “Kirov is with us” is marked by a strictly consistent ballad-narrative structure. “Russia” by A. Prokofiev was created using folk poetics, melodious and free-flowing Russian verse:

How many stars are blue, how many are blue.
How many showers have passed, how many thunderstorms.
Nightingale Throat – Russia,
White-legged birch forests.

Yes, a broad Russian song,
Suddenly from some paths and paths
Immediately splashed into the sky,
In the native way, in the Russian way - excitedly...

The lyrical and journalistic poem synthesizes the principles and techniques of narrative and sublimely romantic style. M. Aliger's poem “Zoe” is marked by the amazing unity of the author with the spiritual world of the heroine. It inspiredly and accurately embodies moral maximalism and integrity, truth and simplicity.

Moscow schoolgirl Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, without hesitation, voluntarily chooses a harsh fate. What are the origins of Zoya’s feat, her spiritual victory? A. Tvardovsky, reflecting on what shaped the worldview of people in the 1930s, noted: “This is not the war. Whatever it was... gave birth to these people, and then... what happened before the war. And the war revealed and brought to light these qualities of people” (from the poet’s diary of 1940, which contained the original plan of “Vasily Terkin”).

The poem “Zoya” is not so much a biography of the heroine as a lyrical confession on behalf of a generation whose youth coincided with a formidable and tragic time in the history of the people. This is why the poem so often has intimate conversations with the young heroine:

Girl, what is happiness?
Have we figured it out...

At the same time, the three-part structure of the poem conveys the main stages in the formation of the heroine’s spiritual appearance. At the beginning of the poem, with light but precise strokes, the appearance of the “long-legged” girl is outlined. Gradually, a large social theme, sensitive heart absorbs the anxieties and pain of a “shaken planet.” Here openly journalistic lines invade the lyrical structure of the poem:

An alarming sky swirls above us.
The war is coming to your bedside,
And we no longer have to pay our dues in rubles,
Maybe, own life and blood.

The apotheosis is short, but have a wonderful life becomes the final part of the poem. The inhuman torture that Zoya is subjected to in a fascist dungeon is spoken sparingly, but powerfully, with journalistic poignancy. The name and image of the Moscow schoolgirl, whose life was cut short so tragically early, have become a legend:

And already almost above the snow,
Rushing forward with a light body,
The girl takes her last steps
Walks barefoot into immortality.

That is why in the finale of the poem it is so natural to identify Zoe’s appearance with the ancient goddess of victory - the winged Nike.

“Vasily Terkin” by A. Tvardovsky is the largest, most significant poetic work of the Great Patriotic War era. If A. Prokofiev in the lyric-epic poem “Russia” has in the foreground the image of the Motherland, its most poetic landscapes, and the characters (mortar brothers Shumov) are depicted in a symbolically generalized manner, then Tvardovsky achieved a synthesis of the particular and the general: individual image Vasily Terkin and the image of the homeland are of different sizes in the artistic concept of the poem. This is a multifaceted poetic work, covering not only all aspects of front-line life, but also the main stages of the Great Patriotic War.

The immortal image of Vasily Terkin embodied with particular force the features of the Russian national character of that era. Democracy and moral purity, the greatness and simplicity of the hero are revealed by means of folk poetry, the structure of thoughts and feelings of the hero is akin to the world of images of Russian folklore.

In the era of the Patriotic War of 1812, much, according to L. Tolstoy, was determined by the “hidden warmth of patriotism.” Mass heroism, such as the history of mankind has never known, mental strength, fortitude, courage, and the immense love of the people for the Fatherland were revealed with particular fullness during the Great Patriotic War. A heightened patriotic, social and moral principle determined the structure of thoughts and actions of soldiers Soviet army. Writers and publicists of those years told about this.

The greatest masters of words - A. Tolstoy, L. Leonov, M. Sholokhov - also became outstanding publicists. The bright, temperamental words of I. Ehrenburg were popular at the front and in the rear. An important contribution to the journalism of those years was made by A. Fadeev, V. Vishnevsky, N. Tikhonov.

The art of journalism has gone through several main stages in four years. If in the first months of the war it was characterized by a nakedly rationalistic manner, often abstract and schematic ways of depicting the enemy, then at the beginning of 1942 journalism was enriched with elements of psychological analysis. The fiery word of the publicist also contains a rallying note. And an appeal to the spiritual world of a person.

The next stage coincided with a turning point in the course of the war, with the need for an in-depth socio-political examination of the fascist front and rear, clarification of the root causes of the approaching defeat of Hitlerism and the inevitability of fair retribution. These circumstances prompted the use of such genres as pamphlets and reviews.
At the final stage of the war, a tendency towards documentary appeared. For example, in TASS Windows, along with the graphic design of posters, the method of photomontage was widely used. Writers and poets introduced into their works diary entries, letters, photographs and other documentary evidence.

Journalism during the war years is a qualitatively different stage in the development of this martial and effective art, compared to previous periods. The deepest optimism, unshakable faith in victory - that’s what supported the publicists even in the most difficult times. Their appeal to history and to the national sources of patriotism gave their speeches special power. Important Feature journalism of that time - widespread use of leaflets, posters, caricatures.

During the four years of war, prose underwent significant evolution. Initially, the war was covered in a sketchy, schematic, fictionalized version. These are the numerous stories and tales of the summer, autumn, and early winter of 1942. Later, front-line reality was comprehended by writers in the complex dialectic of the heroic and the everyday.

Already in the first two years of the war, over two hundred stories were published. Of all the prose genres, only the essay and story could compete in popularity with the story. The story is an unusual genre for Western European literature (many of them do not know the term “story” itself. And if it occurs, as, for example, in Polish literature, it means “novel”), and is very characteristic of the Russian national tradition.

In the 20-30s, psychological-everyday, adventure and satirical-humorous varieties of the genre dominated. During the Great Patriotic War (as well as during the Civil War), the heroic, romantic story came first.

The desire to reveal the harsh and bitter truth of the first months of the war, achievements in the field of creating heroic characters“Russian Tale” (1942) by Pyotr Pavlenko and Vasily Grossman’s story “The People are Immortal” are noted. However, there are differences between these works in the way the theme is embodied. In P. Pavlenko, the event-plot element dominates the disclosure of the psychology of war. In the story “The People Are Immortal,” the images of ordinary soldiers and officers are recreated incomparably more fully and deeply.

Wanda Vasilevskaya wrote the stories “Rainbow” and “Simply Love”. “Rainbow” captures the tragedy of Ukraine, devastated and bleeding, popular hatred of the invaders, the fate of the courageous partisan Olena Kostyuk, who did not bow her head to the executioners.

Characteristic sign military prose 1942 - 1943 - the appearance of short stories, cycles of stories connected by unity characters, the image of the narrator or the lyrical cross-cutting theme. This is exactly how “Stories of Ivan Sudarev” by Alexei Tolstoy, “Sea Soul” by L. Sobolev, “March–April” by V. Kozhevnikov are constructed. The drama in these works is shaded by a lyrical and at the same time sublimely poetic, romantic feature, which helps to reveal the spiritual beauty of the hero. Penetration into the inner world of a person deepens. The socio-ethical origins of patriotism are revealed more convincingly and artistically.

In the soldier's trench, in the naval cockpit, a special feeling of solidarity was born - front-line brotherhood. L. Sobolev in the cycle of stories “Sea Soul” creates a series of portrait sketches of sailor heroes; each of them is the personification of courage and perseverance. It is no coincidence that one of the heroes of the short story “Battalion of Four” addresses the fighters: “One sailor is a sailor, two sailors are a platoon, three sailors are a company... Battalion, listen to my command...”

The achievements of these writers were continued and developed by K. Simonov in the story “Days and Nights” - the first major work dedicated to the Battle of the Volga. In “The Unconquered” by B. Gorbatov, using the example of the family of Taras Yatsenko, it is shown how the flame of resistance to the enemy, even in his deep rear, gradually develops into the fire of a nationwide struggle. The image of the officer of the legendary Panfilov division Baurdzhan Momysh-Ula - a skillful and strong-willed commander, a strict professional military leader, a somewhat rationalistic person, but selflessly courageous in battle - is created by A. Bek in the story “Volokolamsk Highway” (1944).

The deepening of historicism, the expansion of temporal and spatial horizons is the undoubted merit of the story of 1943–1944. At the same time, there was an enlargement of the characters. At the center of A. Platonov’s story “Defense of the Seven Dvories” (1943) is peace and war, life and death, duty and feeling. The company of Senior Lieutenant Ageev is waging a fierce battle, attacking a village of seven courtyards captured by the enemy. It would seem like a small bridgehead, but behind it is Russia. The battle is shown as hard, persistent, bloody work. Ageev inspires his subordinates that “in war, the battle is short, but long and constant. And most of all, war consists of labor... The soldier is now not only a warrior, he is the builder of his fortresses...". Reflecting on his place in battle, Ageev assigns a special role to himself, as an officer: “... it’s difficult for our people now - they carry the whole world on their shoulders, so let it be harder for me than everyone else.”

The harsh everyday life and drama of a warrior, comprehended on the scale of large social, moral and philosophical categories, appear from the pages of L. Leonov’s story “The Capture of Velikoshumsk”. The thoughts of the commander of the tank corps, General Litovchenko, as if continuing the thread of thoughts of the hero of the story by A. Platonov, interrupted by a bullet, are a kind of ethical dominant of the book: “Peoples should be studied not at dance festivals, but in hours of military trials, when history peers into the face of a nation, measuring it out suitability for one's lofty goals..."

L. Leonov’s story “The Capture of Velikoshumsk” was written in January–June 1944, when the still strongly snarling, but already noticeably “plucked German eagle” was rolling back to the original lines of 1941. This determined the special meaning and tone of the book, giving its drama a solemn and majestic flavor. And although the role of battle scenes, as befits a work about war, is quite large, it is not they, but the artist’s thoughts and observations that organize the internal structure of the book. For even in the war of “motors,” as the author is convinced, “mortal human flesh is stronger than bar steel.”

At the center of the story is the fate of the tank crew - the legendary T-34. Very different people under its armor is akin to an “iron apartment” numbered 203. Here is the highly experienced tank commander, Lieutenant Sobolkov, and the driver-mechanic, young Litovchenko, who has not yet been fired upon, and the silent radio operator Dybok, and the talkative towerman Obryadin - a songwriter, a lover of sharp words and simple earthly pleasures.

The composition of the story is constructed as a combination of two plans of vision of life: from the viewing slit of tank number 203 and from the command post of General Litovchenko (the mechanic's namesake), commander of the tank corps. But there is a third point of understanding reality - from the moral and aesthetic heights of the artist, where both plans are combined.

The author recreates the atmosphere of a tank battle at all its stages: at the moment of the start of the attack, the formidable battle and, finally, the victorious finale, showing what kind of moral and physical stress, tactical art and mastery of vehicles and weapons a modern battle requires. It is as if the reader himself is immersed in the “hot stench of machine combat,” experiencing everything that befalls the soldier who chose as his motto: “Fate does not love those who want to live. And those who want to win!” Feat 203, which ripped open the German rear with a “dagger raid,” paved the way for the victory of the tank corps and helped capture Velikoshumsk.

The picture of the battle for Velikoshumsk takes on the features of a battle between two worlds and is conceptualized as a battle of two polar civilizations. On the one hand, the invasion of a monstrous fascist horde, equipped beyond measure with the most modern technology of destruction, vehicles on which “nails are used to nail babies for targets, quicklime and metal gloves for torturing prisoners...”. On the other hand, the personification of true humanism is the soldiers carrying out the historical mission of liberation. Here, not just two social systems collide, but the past and future of the planet.

Leonov came close to that exciting topic, which simultaneously with him was embodied in their work by the greatest artists of the word A. Tolstoy, M. Sholokhov, A. Tvardovsky - to the origins of our victory, to the problem of a national character. The national way of thinking and feeling of the hero, the connection between generations - this is what becomes the subject of the writer’s close study. “...A hero who fulfills his duty is not afraid of anything in the world except oblivion,” writes Leonov. - But he is not afraid when his feat outgrows the size of his debt. Then he himself enters the heart and mind of the people, gives birth to the imitation of thousands, and together with them, like a rock, changes the course of the historical river, becoming a particle of the national character.”

It was in “The Capture of Velikoshumsk”, more than in any other previous work of the artist, that Leonov’s connection with the Russian folklore tradition was revealed with particular completeness and strength. Here is not only the frequent appeal of the heroes of the story to various genres of oral creativity, not only the techniques of sculpting images of tank crews borrowed from the folk poetic tradition - for all their earthly essence, truly epic miracle heroes. Perhaps more important is that the very principles of folk thinking, its moral and aesthetic foundations turned out to be decisive in recreating the inner world of the characters.

“The Capture of Velikoshumsk” by L. Leonov immediately after its publication was perceived as an artistic canvas that is akin to a minor epic. It is no coincidence that one of the French critics noted that in Leonov’s story “there is some kind of solemnity, similar to the fullness of a river; it is monumental...” And this is true, for the past and future of the world, the present day and historical distances were clearly visible from the pages of the story.

In addition, Leonov’s story is a book with a broad philosophical sound. On the scale of such concepts, the soldier’s thoughts (“We, like a chick, hold the fate of progress in our rough palms”) or the final phrase of General Litovchenko, who ordered the heroic machine number 203 to be placed on a high pedestal, did not seem at all overly pathetic: “Let the centuries see who they are.” defended from the whip and slavery..."

By the end of the war, the prose's gravitation towards a broad epic understanding of reality is noticeable. Two artists - M. Sholokhov and A. Fadeev - are especially sensitive to the trend of literature. “They Fought for the Motherland” by Sholokhov and “The Young Guard” by Fadeev are distinguished by their social scale, opening new paths in the interpretation of the theme of war.

M. Sholokhov, true to the nature of his talent, makes a bold attempt to depict the Great Patriotic War as truly folk epic. The very choice of the main characters, private infantry - the grain grower Zvyagintsev, the miner Lopakhin, the agronomist Streltsov - indicates that the writer seeks to show different layers of society, to trace how the people's sea stirred and made a menacing noise in times of severe trials.

The spiritual and moral world of Sholokhov’s heroes is rich and diverse. The artist paints broad pictures of the era: sad episodes of retreats, scenes of violent attacks, relationships between soldiers and civilians, short hours between fights. At the same time, the whole gamut of human experiences can be traced - love and hatred, severity and tenderness, smiles and tears, tragic and comic.

In A. Fadeev’s novel “The Young Guard”, little remains of the former analytical, “Tolstoyian manner” inherent in the author of “Destruction” and “The Last of the Udege”. Fadeev moves away from a fictional narrative and relies on specific facts and documents. At the same time, he writes his novel in colors characteristic of high romantic tragedy, selecting contrasting tones. Good and evil, light and darkness, beautiful and ugly stand at different poles. The boundaries between antagonistic concepts are not just drawn, but, as it were, cut through. The intense, emotionally expressive style fully corresponds to this manner.

Fadeev's book is romantic and at the same time full of the sharp journalistic thoughts of a sociologist and historian. It is based on documentary material and at the same time surprisingly poetic.

The writer gradually unfolds the action. In the first chapter there is a distant echo of anxiety, in the second the drama is shown - people leave their homes, mines are blown up, a feeling of national tragedy permeates the narrative. The underground is crystallizing, connections between the young fighters of Krasnodon and the underground are becoming stronger. The idea of ​​continuity of generations determines the basis of the plot structure of the book. That is why Fadeev devotes such a significant place to the depiction of underground workers - I. Protsenko, F. Lyutikov. Representatives of the older generation and Komsomol Young Guard members act as a single popular force opposing Hitler’s “new order.”

In The Young Guard the role of poetics of contrast is unusually large. The writer alternates a leisurely and detailed narrative, where the main place is given to the analysis of human characters, with a depiction of the dynamism and swiftness of the deployment of military operations on the Don and in the Krasnodon underground itself.

Severe and strict realism coexists with romance, the objectified narrative is interspersed with the excited lyricism of the author's digressions. When recreating individual images, the role of the poetics of contrast is also very significant (Lyutikov’s stern eyes and the sincerity of his nature; the emphatically boyish appearance of Oleg Koshevoy and the not at all childish wisdom of his decisions; the dashing carelessness of Lyubov Shevtsova and the daring courage of her actions, indestructible will). Even in the appearance of the heroes, Fadeev does not deviate from his favorite technique: Protsenko’s “clear blue eyes” and “demonic sparks” in them; “severe-tender expression” of Oleg Koshevoy’s eyes; white lily in Ulyana Gromova’s black hair; “blue children’s eyes with a hard steel tint” from Lyubov Shevtsova.

This principle finds its most complete embodiment in a generalized description of young people whose formation occurred in the pre-war years: “The most seemingly incompatible traits are dreaminess and efficiency, flights of fancy and practicality, love of goodness and mercilessness, breadth of soul and sober calculation, passionate love for earthly joys and self-restraint - these seemingly incompatible traits together created the unique appearance of this generation.”

If poetry, journalism and prose of the first years of the war were characterized by a keen interest in a distant historical era, then the attention of the author of “The Young Guard” is attracted by the difficult, heroic era of the 30s as the spiritual and moral soil on which such amazing fruits ripened. The formation of the Young Guards occurred precisely in the 30s, and their rapid maturity in the early 40s. The most significant merit of the writer should be considered his artistically soulful portrayal of the younger generation. First of all, this is Oleg Koshevoy, a civically mature and intelligent person with a natural talent for organizing. These are ordinary members of the underground organization, whose characters are masterfully individualized: the poetic nature of the dreamy, spiritually deep and subtle Ulyana Gromova, the temperamental and recklessly brave Lyubov Shevtsova, Sergei Tyulenin, a boy “with an eagle’s heart,” filled with a thirst for achievement.

The Nazis doomed the Young Guard to inhuman torment and executed them. However, the ominous colors of war cannot overcome the bright, jubilant tones of life. The tragedy remains, but the tragedy of hopelessness has been removed, overcome by sacrifice in the name of the people, in the name of the future of humanity.

DRAMATURGY

Over three hundred plays were created during the war years. Not all of them saw the stage light. Only a few were lucky enough to survive their time. Among them are “Front” by A. Korneychuk, “Invasion” by L. Leonov, “Russian People” by K. Simonov, “Fleet Officer” by A. Kron, “Song of the Black Sea People” by B. Lavrenev, “Stalingraders” by Yu. Chepurin and some others .

The plays that appeared at the very beginning of the war and were created in the wake of pre-war sentiments turned out to be far from the tragic situation of the first months of heavy fighting. It took time for the artists to be able to realize what had happened, evaluate it correctly and illuminate it in a new way. The year 1942 became a turning point in drama.

L. Leonov’s drama “Invasion” was created at the most difficult time. The small town where the events of the play unfold is a symbol of the national struggle against the invaders. The significance of the author’s plan lies in the fact that he interprets local conflicts in a broad socio-philosophical manner, revealing the sources that feed the force of resistance.

The play takes place in Dr. Talanov's apartment. Unexpectedly for everyone, Talanov’s son Fedor returns from prison. Almost simultaneously the Germans entered the city. And along with them appears the former owner of the house in which the Talanovs live, the merchant Fayunin, who soon became the mayor of the city.

The tension of the action increases from scene to scene. The honest Russian intellectual, doctor Talanov, does not imagine his life apart from the struggle. Next to him are his wife, Anna Pavlovna, and daughter Olga. There is no question of the need to fight behind enemy lines for the chairman of the city council, Kolesnikov: he heads a partisan detachment. This is one - the central - layer of the play. However, Leonov, a master of deep and complex dramatic collisions, is not content with only this approach. Deepening the psychological line of the play, he introduces another person - the Talanovs' son.

Fedor's fate turned out to be confusing and difficult. Spoiled in childhood, selfish, selfish. He returns to his father's house after a three-year sentence, where he served a sentence for an attempt on the life of his beloved woman. Fyodor is gloomy, cold, wary. It is no coincidence that his former nanny Demidyevna speaks of him this way: “People do not spare their lives, they fight the enemy. And you still look callous in your heart.” Indeed, the words of his father spoken at the beginning of the play about the national grief do not touch Fyodor: personal adversity obscures everything else. He is tormented by the lost trust of people, which is why Fyodor feels uncomfortable in the world. With their minds and hearts, the mother and nanny understood that under the buffoon mask Fyodor hid his pain, the melancholy of a lonely, unhappy person, but they could not accept him as before. Kolesnikov’s refusal to take Fedor into his squad hardens the heart of young Talanov even more.

It took time for this man, who once lived only for himself, to become the people's avenger. Captured by the Nazis, Fedor poses as a commander partisan detachment to die for him. Leonov paints a psychologically convincing picture of Fedor’s return to people. The play consistently reveals how war, national grief, and suffering ignite in people hatred and a thirst for revenge, a willingness to give their lives for the sake of victory. This is exactly how we see Fedor at the end of the drama.

For Leonov, there is a natural interest not just in the hero, but in human character in all the complexity and contradictions of his nature, consisting of social and national, moral and psychological. At the same time as identifying the laws of struggle on the gigantic battle front, the artist-philosopher and artist-psychologist did not shy away from the task of showing the struggles of individual human passions, feelings and aspirations.

The same technique of nonlinear depiction was used by the playwright when creating images negative characters: at first the inconspicuous, vindictive Fayunin, the shy and servile Kokoryshkin, who instantly changes his guise when power changes, a whole gallery of fascist thugs. Fidelity to the truth makes the images lifelike even if they are presented in a satirical, grotesque light.

The stage history of Leonov’s works during the Great Patriotic War (in addition to “Invasion”, the drama “Lenushka”, 1943, was also widely known), which went around all the main theaters of the country, once again confirms the injustice of the reproaches of some critics who wrote about the incomprehensibility, intimacy of Leonov’s plays, and the overcomplication of the characters. and language. During the theatrical embodiment of Leonov's plays, their special dramatic nature was taken into account. Thus, when staging “Invasion” at the Moscow Maly Theater (1942), I. Sudakov first saw Fyodor Talanov as the main figure, but during rehearsals the emphasis gradually shifted and Fyodor’s mother and his nanny Demidyevna became the center as the personification of the Russian mother. At the Mossovet Theater, director Yu. Zavadsky interpreted the performance as a psychological drama, the drama of an extraordinary person, Fyodor Talanov.

If L. Leonov reveals the theme of heroic deeds and the invincibility of the patriotic spirit by means of in-depth psychological analysis, then K. Simonov in the play “Russian People” (1942), posing the same problems, uses the techniques of lyricism and journalism of open folk drama. The action in the play takes place in the autumn of 1941 on the Southern Front. The author's attention is focused on both the events in Safonov's detachment, located not far from the city, and the situation in the city itself, where the occupiers are in charge.

Unlike the pre-war play “A Guy from Our Town,” the composition of which was determined by the fate of one character - Sergei Lukonin, Simonov now creates a work with a large number of characters. The massive nature of heroism suggested the artist a different path - there is no need to look for exceptional heroes, there are many of them, they are among us. “Russian People” is a play about the courage and resilience of ordinary people who had very peaceful professions before the war: driver Safonov, his mother Marfa Petrovna, nineteen-year-old Valya Anoshchenko, who drove the chairman of the city council, paramedic Globa. They would build houses, teach children, create beautiful things, love, but the cruel word “war” dispelled all hopes. People take rifles, put on greatcoats, and go into battle.

Defense of the Fatherland. What's behind this? First of all, a country that has instilled in human hearts the most humane feelings - love and respect for people of different nationalities, pride in human dignity. This is also the native corner with which the first childhood impressions are associated, which remain in the soul for life. Here the journalistic note, organically fused with the form of lyrical confession, reaches a special height. The most cherished thing is said by the intelligence officer Valya, leaving for a dangerous mission: “Motherland, Motherland... they probably mean something big when they say. But not me. In Novo-Nikolaevsk we have a hut on the edge of the village and near a river and two birch trees. I hung the swing on them. They tell me about the Motherland, but I remember all these two birch trees.”

The playwright depicts the war in all its harsh and formidable guise; he is not afraid to show the most severe trials, the death of the defenders of the Fatherland. The artist’s great success is the image of the military paramedic Globa. Behind the outward rudeness and mockery of this man, hidden spiritual generosity, Russian prowess, and impudent contempt for death.

The play “Russian People” already in the summer of 1942, during the most difficult time of the war, was staged on the stage of a number of theaters. The English journalist A. Werth, who was present at one of the performances, especially noted the impression that the episode of Globa leaving on a mission from which he would not return made on the audience: “I remember how dead silence, unbroken for at least ten seconds, reigned in the hall of the branch of the Moscow Art Theater, when the curtain fell at the end of the 6th scene. For the last words in this scene were: “Have you heard or not how Russian people go to their deaths?” Many of the women in auditorium cried..."

The success of the play was also explained by the fact that the playwright showed the enemy not as a primitive fanatic and sadist, but as a sophisticated “conqueror” of Europe and the world, confident in his impunity.

The theme of a number of interesting dramatic works was the life and heroic deeds of our fleet. Among them are the psychological drama by A. Kron “Fleet Officer” (1944), the lyrical comedy by Vs. Azarov, Vs. Vishnevsky, A. Kron “The Wide Sea Spreads Out” (1942), B. Lavrenev’s lyrical and pathetic oratorio “Song of the Black Sea People” (1943).

Everything in B. Lavrenev’s play is subordinated to the heroic-romantic pathos: the choice of location (Sevastopol. Covered with the glory of legendary courage), and the special principles of the enlarged depiction of human characters, when the analysis of individual actions is combined with the embodiment of the high symbolism of the national spirit, and, finally, constant appeals to the heroic past of the fortress city. The immortal names of Nakhimov and Kornilov call today's sailors and officers to exploits.

The plot of the drama was one of the episodes of the defense of Sevastopol. The whole play is permeated with the thought - to stand to death, even more: “Even after death we must stand rooted to the spot.” The drama ends with the death of the guards battery, which, having fired all the shells, calls fire on itself.

A special place in the drama of the war years belongs to such a unique genre as a satirical play. The meaning of “Front! (1942) by A. Korneichuk, primarily in typical negative images, in the force with which the playwright ridiculed routine, inert methods of warfare, backward, but arrogant military leaders.

The satirical intent of the play is dictated by the very choice of the characters' surnames. Here is the editor of the front-line newspaper Quiet - cowardly, lacking initiative, timid person. Instead of supporting the necessary good initiatives, he, frightened by the rude shout of the front commander Gorlov, babbles: “It’s my fault, comrade commander. We’ll take it into account, we’ll fix it, we’ll try.” The intelligence chief is a match for Quiet, the Amazing, cheeky correspondent Screamer, the ignorant and martinet Khripun, as well as the one who fawns over the front commander, but is certainly rude to his subordinates. The Local is the “mayor of the city,” rushing to finish the wine at a banquet in honor of the commander. And then “give all your strength to the front.” The weapon used by the playwright to expose all these opportunists, self-interested people looking for an easy life is merciless, evil laughter.

The image of Gorlov was created using comic means - from irony to sarcasm. Taking advantage of his position, he mainly laughs at others, although at the same time, painted in the colors of a satirical pamphlet, he himself appears in a tragic form. Gorlov became aware of General Ognev’s appearance in the press with a critical article. An ironic tirade follows at his address: “He signed up to be a clicker with us... He became a writer!” It is enough for a member of the Military Council, Gaidar, to express doubt about the accuracy of Gorlovka’s information about enemy tanks, when the commander self-confidently interrupts:
“- Nonsense! We know for sure. That they have fifty tanks at the station...
(- What if they throw you because of the river?...)
“What if there’s an earthquake?... (laughs).”

Gorlov most often uses irony in the fight against those whom he considers weak military leaders. We hear the intonations of Gogol’s mayor mocking the merchants at the zenith of his imaginary triumph in Gorlov’s voice when he meets Kolos and Ognev after his successful operation. Not noticing that he is on the eve of his fall, Gorlov continues to attack: “Why are you dressed up like that today? Do you think we’ll congratulate you and throw a banquet for you? No, my dears, we made a mistake!”

Until the end of the play, nothing can shake Gorlov's complacency. His confidence in his infallibility and indispensability lies neither in military failures, nor in the death of his son, nor in his brother’s persistent advice to voluntarily give up his post.

Korneychuk from the inside, through imaginary aphorisms and Gorlov’s irony of everyone who opposes the front commander, reveals Gorlov’s conservatism, his reluctance to navigate the situation, and his inability to lead. Gorlov’s ridicule of others is a means of self-exposure of the character. In Korneychuk's play, laughter at Gorlov's laughter is a special satirical way of revealing typical character traits.

In the play “Front,” I. Gorlov and his immediate circle are opposed by Ognev, Miron Gorlov, Kolos, Gaidar, and others. It is they who expose Gorlov. And not only and not so much in words, but in all his activities.

The play “Front” evoked a lively response in the army and in the rear. Military leaders also mention it in their memoirs. So, former boss Operations Department of the General Staff S.M. Shtemenko wrote: “And although in our General Staff every minute counted then, even the most distinguished read the plays. With all our hearts we were on Ognev’s side and spoke out against Gorlov.”

At the end of 1942, the premiere of the play “Front” took place in many theaters across the country. Despite all the differences in interpretation of the play, directors and actors were irreconcilable with Gorlov as a specific person responsible for many military failures. The best was the performance staged by director R. Simonov, in which actor A. Dikiy severely and uncompromisingly condemned Gorlov and Gorlovshchina as a synonym for ignorance, backwardness, arrogance, as the source of many disasters and defeats in the initial stage of the war.

During the war years, plays were created about our heroic home front, about the unparalleled labor enthusiasm of millions, without which victories at the front would have been unthinkable. Unfortunately, for the most part, these works did not reach the aesthetic level and the power of emotional impact that marked the plays of military history.

Historical drama achieved certain achievements during this period. Such historical plays were written as A. Tolstoy’s dilogy “Ivan the Terrible”, V. Solovyov’s tragedy “The Great Sovereign”, etc.

In the field of music, the most significant aesthetic heights were achieved by mass song and symphony. Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, written in Leningrad during the terrible blockade of 1942, is rightly considered the pinnacle of symphonic art. A. Tolstoy expressed his impression of this work. As if crowning the efforts of Soviet artists that tragic. But the time still vividly worries us: “Hitler failed to take Leningrad and Moscow... He failed to turn the Russian people to the gnawed bones of cave life. The Red Army created a formidable symphony of world victory. Shostakovich put his ear to the heart of his homeland and played a song of triumph...
He responded to the threat of fascism - to dehumanize man - with a symphony about the victorious triumph of everything lofty and beautiful created by humanitarian culture..."

And that memory, probably,

My soul will be sick

For now there is an irrevocable misfortune

There will be no war for the world...

A. Tvardovsky “Cruel Memory”

The events of the Great Patriotic War are moving further and further into the past. But the years do not erase them in our memory. The historical situation itself inspired great feats of the human spirit. It seems that, when applied to literature about the Great Patriotic War, we can speak of a significant enrichment of the concept of everyday heroism.

In this great battle, which determined the destinies of mankind for many years to come, literature was not an outside observer, but an equal participant. Many writers acted in the vanguard. It is known how soldiers not only read, but also kept close to their hearts essays and articles by Sholokhov, Tolstoy, Leonov, poems by Tvardovsky, Simonov, Surkov. Poems and prose, performances and films, songs, works of art found a warm response in the hearts of readers, inspired heroic deeds, instilled confidence in victory.

In the plotting of stories and tales, a tendency towards simple eventfulness was initially evident. The work was mostly limited to the range of events related to the activities of one regiment, battalion, division, their defense of positions, and escape from encirclement. Events that were exceptional and ordinary in their exceptionality became the basis of the plot. In them, first of all, the movement of history itself was revealed. It is no coincidence that the prose of the 40s included new plot structures. It differs in that it does not have the traditional contrast of characters in Russian literature as the basis of the plot. When the criterion of humanity became the degree of involvement in history that was happening before our eyes, character conflicts faded before the war.

V. Bykov “Sotnikov”

“First of all, I was interested in two moral points,” wrote Bykov, “which can be simply defined as follows: what is a person before the crushing force of inhumane circumstances? What is he capable of when his ability to defend his life has been completely exhausted and it is impossible to prevent death? (V. Bykov. How the story “Sotnikov” was created. - “Literary Review, 1973, No. 7, p. 101). Sotnikov, who dies on the gallows, will forever remain in the memory of people, while Rybak will die for his comrades. A clear, characteristic conclusion without omissions - characteristic Bykov's prose.

War is portrayed as daily hard work with full dedication of all forces. In the story K. Simonov “Days and Nights” (1943 – 1944) it is said about the hero that he felt the war “as a general bloody suffering.” A person works - this is his main occupation in war, to the point of exhaustion, not just to the limit, but beyond any limit of his strength. This was his main military feat. The story mentions more than once that Saburov “got used to war,” to the most terrible thing in it, “to the fact that healthy people who were talking and joking with him just now ceased to exist in ten minutes.” Based on the fact that in war the unusual becomes ordinary, heroism becomes the norm, the exceptional is translated by life itself into the category of ordinary. Simonov creates the character of a reserved, somewhat stern, silent man, who became popular in post-war literature. The war gave a new appreciation to the essential and non-essential, the main and the unimportant, the true and the ostentatious in people: “... people in the war became simpler, cleaner and smarter... The good things in them came to the surface because they were no longer judged by numerous and unclear criteria... People in the face of death, they stopped thinking about what they look like and what they seem like - they had neither time nor desire left for this.”

V. Nekrasovlaid the tradition of a reliable depiction of the everyday course of war in the story "In the trenches of Stalingrad" (1946) - (“trench truth”). In general, the narrative form gravitates towards the diary novel genre. The genre variety also influenced the formation of a deeply suffered, philosophical and lyrical, and not just externally pictorial reflection of the events of the war. The story about everyday life and bloody battles in besieged Stalingrad is told on behalf of Lieutenant Kerzhentsev.

In the foreground are the immediate concerns of an ordinary participant in the war. The author outlines a “local history” with a predominance of individual episodes presented in close-up. V. Nekrasov interprets heroism quite unexpectedly for the war years. On the one hand, his characters do not strive to accomplish feats at any cost, but on the other hand, performing combat missions requires them to overcome the boundaries of personal capabilities, as a result they gain true spiritual heights. For example, having received an order to take a hill, Kerzhentsev clearly understands the utopian nature of this order: he has no weapons, no people, but he cannot disobey. Before the attack, the hero's gaze is turned to the starry sky. Tall symbol Star of Bethlehem, becomes a reminder to him of eternity. Knowledge of celestial geography elevates him above time. The star indicated the severe necessity of facing death: “Right in front of me the star is large, bright, unblinking, like a cat’s eye. She brought it and began. Here and nowhere.”

Story M.A. Sholokhov "The Fate of Man" (1956) continues the theme of the Great Patriotic War. Before us is a clash between man and history. Talking about his life, Sokolov involves the narrator in a single circle of experiences. After Civil War Andrei Sokolov has “relatives as big as a ball, nowhere, no one, not a single soul.” Life was kind to him: he got married, had children, built a house. Then it came new war, which took everything from him. He has no one again. All the pain of the people seems to be concentrated in the narrator: “... eyes, as if sprinkled with ashes, filled with such an inescapable mortal melancholy that it hurts to look into them.” The hero is saved from the pain of loneliness by caring for an even more defenseless creature. This turned out to be the orphan Vanyushka - “a sort of little ragamuffin: his face is covered in watermelon juice, covered with dust, dirty as dust, unkempt, and his eyes are like stars at night after the rain!” A joy appeared: “at night you stroke him sleepily, then you smell the hair in his curls, and his heart moves away, becomes softer, otherwise it has turned to stone from grief...”.

It is difficult to imagine how powerfully the novel about the feat of underground Komsomol members had a strong influence on the education of more than one generation. IN "Young Guard" (1943, 1945, 1951) A.A. Fadeeva there is everything that excites a teenager at all times: an atmosphere of mystery, conspiracy, sublime love, courage, nobility, mortal danger and heroic death. Restrained Seryozha and proud Valya Borts, capricious Lyubka and silent Sergei Levashov, shy Oleg and thoughtful, strict Nina Ivantsova... “The Young Guard” is a novel about the feat of the young, about their courageous death and immortality.

V. Panova “Satellites” (1946).

The heroes of this story come face to face with war during the first voyage of an ambulance train to the front line. It is here that the test of a person’s mental strength, his dedication and devotion to work is carried out. The dramatic trials that befell the heroes of the story simultaneously contributed to the identification and affirmation of the main, authentic thing in a person. Each of them must overcome something in themselves, give up something: Dr. Belov must suppress enormous grief (he lost his wife and daughter during the bombing of Leningrad), Lena Ogorodnikova must survive the collapse of love, Yulia Dmitrievna must overcome the loss of hope of starting a family. But these losses and self-denial did not break them. Spuzhov’s desire to preserve his little world turns into a sad result: loss of personality, illusory existence.

K. Simonov “The Living and the Dead”

From chapter to chapter, “The Living and the Dead” unfolds a broad panorama of the first period of the Patriotic War. All the characters in the novel (and there are about one hundred and twenty of them) merge into a monumental collective image- image of the people. Reality itself: the loss of vast territories, colossal losses of life, the terrible torment of encirclement and captivity, humiliation with suspicion and much that the heroes of the novel saw and went through makes them ask questions: why did this tragedy happen? Who is guilty? Simonov's chronicle became the history of the people's consciousness. This novel convinces that, having united together in a sense of their own historical responsibility, the people are able to defeat the enemy and save their fatherland from destruction.

E. Kazakevich “Star”

“The Star” is dedicated to the scouts who are closest to death, “always in her sight.” The scout has freedom that is unthinkable in the infantry ranks; his life or death depends directly on his initiative, independence, and responsibility. At the same time, he must, as it were, renounce himself, be ready “to disappear at any moment, to dissolve in the silence of the forests, in the unevenness of the soil, in the flickering shadows of twilight”... The author notes that “in the lifeless light of German rockets” the reconnaissance as if “the whole world sees.” The call signs of the reconnaissance group and divisions Zvezda and Earth receive a conventionally poetic, symbolic meaning. The conversation between the Star and the Earth begins to be perceived as a “mysterious interplanetary conversation”, in which people feel “as if lost in cosmic space.” On the same poetic wave, the image of a game arises (“an ancient game in which there are only two existing persons: man and death”), although behind it there is certain meaning at the extreme stage of mortal risk, too much is left to chance and nothing can be predicted.

The review included literary works about the Great War are more than well known, we will be glad if someone wants to pick them up and flip through the familiar pages...

Librarian of KNH M.V. Krivoshchekova

IN AND. Vasiliev, Doctor of Philology, Professor The Great Patriotic War left an indelible mark on the history of our country and the entire world community. It is quite justified that the war years are distinguished as an independent historical period.

This fully applies to the history of book publishing, which experienced great changes during the hard times of war. It is noteworthy that in extreme conditions the spiritual life of the country continued, culture developed, books were published, but the war imperatively demanded books of new content and direction. Scientists and cultural figures created them, and publishers published them with the label “Lightning”. They met the interests of defending the Motherland, the powerful call “Everything for the front.” The book fostered feelings of patriotism and love for the country, and was a powerful weapon in the fight against the invasion of foreigners.

In general, during the war years the number of published books fell noticeably. Compared with pre-war year in 1943 their number decreased by almost three times. If we compare the average annual indicators, the damage caused to book publishing is especially significant, in particular, in the natural sciences and mathematics the publication of books decreased by 3.2 times, in political and socio-economic literature - by 2.8 times, in linguistics and literary criticism - 2.5 times.

Unfortunately, there are not many works in our literature yet, dedicated to history books and the culture of its publication during the Great Patriotic War. In this regard, I would like to note the useful and great work of historians on books published in Leningrad during the siege. G. Ozerova's review, covering the period from July 1941 to July 1944, examines 1,500 titles, including political, military, artistic and medical literature. Thematically, it is grouped into the following sections: the heroic past of the Russian people, the exposure of German fascism, patriotic calls for the defense of the Motherland, the defense of the city. 1943 - “the year of the great turning point” - is marked by a special series “Hero of the Leningrad Front”, numerous documents and essays, and a special collection of articles “ Heroic Leningrad" The review ends with materials on the revival of the city's cultural life.

The interesting catalog “Leningrad in the Great Patriotic War” reflects the activities of the political departments of the Leningrad Front and the Red Banner Baltic Front, which published 93 books and brochures under incredibly difficult conditions. In addition, 214 books were published by other publishers. They told about the heroic struggle of the army and navy, the selfless defense of the city, nationwide assistance to it, and connections with the “Mainland”.

Despite all the hardships of the military situation, the library of the USSR Academy of Sciences continued to serve readers, supply literature to formations and units of the active army, books about A.V. Suvorov, M.I. Kutuzov, about the military past of the Russian people. Mobile libraries were organized.

State Public library them. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was always open during the blockade, despite the lack of light and heat. During the war, 138 employees died at the library, most in the winter of 1941/42.

One cannot fail to mention the print media during the blockade, which were a weapon in the fight against the enemy.

During the blockade, Leningrad received Pravda, Izvestia, and Komsomolskaya Pravda. In Leningrad, “Leningradskaya Pravda” and “Smena” were published throughout the blockade. From July 28 to September 14, 1941, 46 issues of a special newspaper were published - “Leningradskaya Pravda” on a defense construction site.” This was the most intense period of the battle for Leningrad. From July 6 to October 6, 1941, 79 issues of the newspaper “For the Defense of Leningrad”, the organ of the Leningrad People's Militia Army, were published. The newspaper "MPVO Fighter" was published, as well as front-line newspapers - "On Guard of the Motherland" and "Red Baltic Fleet" Factory editions also contributed to the fight against the enemy: “For Labor Valor” (Kirov Plant), “Baltiets” (Baltic Plant), “Izhorets” (Izhora Plant), “Molot” (V.I. Lenin Plant) and etc.

During the war years, Moscow continued to be a leading publishing center. During 1941-1945 1,300 issues of Pravda were published. M. Kalinin, G. Krzhizhanovsky, D. Manuilsky, V. Karpinsky spoke on its pages. E. Stasova, E. Yaroslavsky, A. Tolstoy, M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, military leaders, battle heroes, soldiers, officers, generals. Serving the front were Izvestia, Krasnaya Zvezda (in which I. Ehrenburg alone published about 400 publications), Komsomolskaya Pravda, Moskovsky Bolshevik (now Moskovskaya Pravda), Moskovsky Komsomolets, and Evening Moscow. At the same time, the newspapers also served as a platform for covering the advanced response of military shock workers. During the war years, more than 100 factory-run newspapers were published in Moscow. The role of the print media in defeating the enemy cannot be overestimated.

In general, it is not possible to accurately determine the number of newspapers published during the war. For example: in 1943 alone, 74 divisional newspapers and about 100 new army newspapers were re-created. Data is provided indicating that, for example, in 1944, almost 800 newspapers were published on the fronts with a total one-time circulation exceeding 3 million copies.

The candidate dissertation of L.V. is devoted to the study of the problems of publishing fiction during the Great Patriotic War. Ivanova, which indicates publications on the topic under study, there is insufficient coverage of it in the bibliological literature. These conclusions apply to all domestic book publishing about the war.

The military situation required a revision of publishing policies and publishing portfolios. Thus, the country's largest fiction publishing house, Goslitizdat, mothballed 1,132 manuscripts and excluded 67 from its editorial portfolio. As a result, the number of publications of fiction in 1942 fell by 47% compared to 1940.

1944 was characterized by an increase in the number of publications of foreign fiction, as well as an increase in the share of large books. It was also natural that during the war years the role of regional, regional and republican publishing houses increased: central publishing houses published only 38.6% of fiction titles. Moreover, its publication was carried out by only 14 central publishing houses out of 64 registered. In different periods of the war, works of various genres “came to the fore”: from poetic and prose works of small forms (poems, songs, stories) in the first year of the war to the printing, in response to the needs of wartime, of poems on bags of food concentrates and release of artistic, journalistic and large-scale works (poems, stories, novels).

Continuing the topic of wartime fiction, one cannot fail to note changes in the publishing policy of the so-called thick literary magazines, which, of course, were many times inferior in efficiency and mass production to newspaper publications. Quite a few of these magazines stopped publishing, and the remaining ones “lost weight” and changed the frequency of publication to reduce the number of issues and the year.

Literature seems to be moving from magazines to the pages of newspapers, occupying a significant place in Pravda, Izvestia, and Komsomolskaya Pravda. Not only essays, journalistic articles, stories, poems, but also plays and stories are published here. chapters of novels.

Thus, only in “Red Star” were placed chapters of V. Grossman’s story “The People are Immortal” (1942), “Stories of Ivan Sudarev” (1942), “Russian Character” (1943) and many journalistic articles by A. Tolstoy, “Green Ray” "L. Sobolev (1943), articles and essays by I. Ehrenburg, V. Grossman, K. Simonov, P. Pavlenko, poems by N. Tikhonov, V. Lebedev-Kumach, M. Isakovsky and others.

A large group of writers became permanent correspondents for central newspapers, where their stories, novels, poems and plays were published. As an example, we can cite publications in the newspaper “Pravda”: in July, K. Simonov’s play “Russian People” was published, in August - “Front” by A. Korneychuk, in September - chapters of the poem “Vasily Terkin” by A. Tvardovsky, in October - “Alexey Kulikov, fighter” by B. Gorbatov, in November - stories from the book “Sea Soul” by L. Sobolev. In subsequent years, Pravda published chapters of M. Sholokhov’s new novel “They Fought for the Motherland” (May 1943 - July 1944), “The Unconquered” by B. Gorbatov (May, September, October 1943), “On the Roads of Victory” by L. Sobolev ( May-June 1944), chapters of L. Leonov’s story “The Capture of Velikoshumsk” (July-August 1944), etc.

Magazines "Znamya", " New world", "October", "Zvezda", "Leningrad" and others were largely reoriented towards military and historical themes. They published: “Batu” by V. Yan (1942), “Peter the Great” by A. Tolstoy (1944), “Brusilovsky breakthrough” p. Sergeev-Tsensky (1942), script p. Eisenstein “Ivan the Terrible” (1944), (fairy tale by M. Marshak, “Twelve Months” 1944), “Two Captains” by V. Kaverin (1994), “It Was in Leningrad” by A. Chakovsky (1944), “Son of the Regiment” V. Kataev (1945), “The Sky of Leningrad” by V. Sayanov (1944), “For Those at Sea” by B. Lavrenev (1945) and many other works of fiction.

Poetry from the war years also played a huge role in the fight against the enemy. “It would seem that the roar of war should drown out the voice of the poet,” put literature “in the narrow crack of a trench,” but “literature in the days of war becomes truly folk art, the voice of the heroic soul of the people,” this is how he assessed the role of wartime lyrics in a report at the anniversary session Academy of Sciences November 18, 1942 A. Tolstoy.

During the war years, poetry, without a doubt, was equated with the bayonet. The following considered themselves “mobilized and called up”: A. Tvardovsky, A. Surkov, K. Simonov, S. Kirsanov, I. Selvinsky, S. Shchipachev, A. Prokofiev, O. Bergolts, V. Inber, A. Zharov, I. Utkin, S. Mikhalkov and others. Newspapers published poetic letters from the rear. Dozens of versions of songs by famous authors, “continuations”, “answers” ​​were created. Such poetic works included, for example, M. Isakovsky’s song “Ogonyok”.

If we talk about domestic book publishing as a whole, then, despite all the difficulties of wartime, it provided the country’s primary needs not only for literature on military topics, but also on political, industrial, technical, general cultural and scientific problems. So, for 1941-1945. Almost 170 million copies of fiction, 111 million copies of textbooks of all types, 60 million copies of children's literature and more than 50 million copies of scientific literature were published.

Academic publishing made a significant contribution to the creation and publication of publications of many types of literature, making every effort to meet the priority needs for up-to-date books not only of science, but also of education and culture. We have already explored the problems of the history of the book and its culture during the war years in a number of works. Therefore, in this article we will limit ourselves to covering only the main points in order to recreate a holistic picture of military book publishing.

The Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, by its resolution of June 23, 1941, obliged all departments and scientific institutions to reorganize their work primarily to meet the needs of defense and strengthen the military power of our Motherland.

An important step public policy To preserve, in particular, the country's scientific potential, there was a decision to relocate scientific institutions to the east. The evacuation of Moscow institutes and laboratories of the USSR Academy of Sciences began already in the last ten days of July. Among those evacuated at the first stage was an academic publishing house, which was relocated to Kazan, where the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences began to work. Already on September 30, 1941, its extended meeting was held there.

In Kazan in 1941, 1942 and partly in 1943. The publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences published 46 publications mainly on the basis of Tatpolygraph. As a contribution to the fight against the ideology of fascism, a special collection composed of anti-fascist statements by M. Gorky was prepared and published under the editorship of L. Plotkin.

In general, the dynamics of the publication of books and journals by the Academy of Sciences during the war years is shown in the table. For comparison, data for the pre-war and first post-war years is also given. In the pre-war year of 1940, the academic publishing house reached a relatively high level of publication: in terms of the number of books and journals it was close to 1000 titles, and in terms of volume in author sheets it was close to 13 thousand. Already in 1946 the level of the first year of the war was exceeded.