Prose about the Great Patriotic War. The evolution of military prose genres in Russian literature of the 20th century Chronotope of pastoral

Prose about the war occupied a special place in post-war literature. It became not just a topic, but an entire continent, a continent in literature, where almost all the ideological and aesthetic problems of our time were found using specific life material.

Now it is possible to fully trace the evolution of military prose genres: from the smallest forms to multi-volume epics. This development is due to the problems that peoples faced during a sudden attack by fascist troops, as well as a five-year period of severe trials for millions of people.

War prose began with short slogans and appeals aimed at mobilizing people. Many writers note with bitterness the confusion of people in the first days of the war. The official propaganda of those years claimed that a peace treaty had been signed with Germany, that the Germans were our friends, and Stalin, blinded by his own greatness, did not believe in the possibility of Hitler’s attack on the USSR. K. Simonov’s trilogy “The Living and the Dead”, M. Sholokhov’s novel “They Fought for the Motherland” and many other works describe the first days of the war, when Soviet soldiers psychologically could not shoot at German soldiers, there was no hatred in their souls. And only when burning fields of grain and villages burned by the Nazis appeared before their eyes, hatred for the enemy began to rise in their hearts.

As a rule, most writers and journalists became war correspondents during the war. It fell to them to report events from the front and form the correct attitude towards the enemy. The beginning of their activities were short notes, small essays describing the atrocities of the Nazis and the courage of Russian soldiers and the population who found themselves in the occupied territories. The situation required adequate visual and genre means. The essay genre was ideal for multi-faceted coverage of events. The war years are usually called the first wave of prose about war. Its main task was to maintain the courage and resilience of people, their will to win, which the authors successfully accomplished.

Later, when it became obvious that the Nazis failed to conquer the country with lightning speed, writers had the opportunity to understand the situation more broadly and deeply using the short story genre. At the same time, the essay continued to perform the function of closely monitoring the pulse of the country.

The second wave of development of military prose began in the post-war years. The first surge occurred immediately after Stalin's death in 1954-1955. The Soviet Union, which bore all the burdens of the war on its shoulders, defeated Nazi Germany and liberated half the world, could not continue to exist in the regime of camps. It was time to collect stones and take stock. Reliable information about military events, expressed in artistic form, has become most in demand in literature. Already in the first stories and tales of this period, there is an increase in new qualities, including interest in documentary prose, in authentic testimonies of participants in military operations. This includes S. Smirnov’s essay “Heroes of the Brest Fortress” (1954), which laid the foundation for the documentary story “Brest Fortress”, completed ten years later.

In 1957-1959, the stories “The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov, “Ivan” by V. Bogomolov, the stories by Yu. Bondarev “The Battalions Ask for Fire”, “An Inch of Earth” by G. Baklanov, the novel by K. Simonov “The Living and the Dead” and a lot others. Cinema experienced a similar rise. The films “The Cranes Are Flying”, “The Ballad of a Soldier”, “At Your Doorstep” appeared. This is the time of the culmination of military prose: subtle lyrical psychologism, based on real facts, destinies, and stories, has reached its limit. The distinctive features of the second wave of military prose are considered to be images and details that are as close as possible to real life at the front, bold and sharp details, close psychologism, depiction of events and human destinies in their contradictory complexity, interest in restoring names and events that have undeservedly remained in the shadows, awareness of the whole measures of losses caused by the war. The overall level of authenticity of the events depicted has increased noticeably.

New works complemented the truth that was told during the war years, but the innovation consisted in the fact that the usual genre forms were filled with new content. In military prose, two leading concepts have been developed: the concept of historical truth and the concept of man.

A fundamentally important role in the formation of the new wave was played by M. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” (1956). The significance of a story is determined through the genre definition itself: “tragedy story”, “epic story”, “epic compressed to the size of a story”. Thanks to this story, military prose moved from emphasizing the epithet real man to the story of fate person. Subsequently, writers consistently mastered the entire range of wartime problems. The theme of learning bitter lessons from difficult situations of war, especially at the first stage, is devoted to the stories and novels “Failure” by Yu. Goncharov (1964), “July 41” by G. Baklanov (1965), “Our Battalion Commander” by D. Granin (1967) .

“The Deserter” by Yu. Goncharov and “The Abyss” by L. Ginzburg are dedicated to depicting the psychology of traitors. The theme of the village during the war years is covered in the folk-epic narratives “Brothers and Sisters” and “Two Winters and Three Summers” by F. Abramov, “The Uncrying Willow” by M. Alekseev and others. Books about wartime childhood were “Ivan” by V. Bogomolov, stories by Vera Panova “Valya” and “Volodya”. Lyric-dramatic autobiographical works “War is thundering somewhere” by V. Astafiev, “When Father Went to the Front” by Y. Shcheglov, “Early Cranes” by Ch. Aitmatov and others appeared. This prose was dominated by three main motives: the tragedy of war, the rapid civil maturation of children and the humanistic rejection of war.

The depiction of love in war reflected the ability to preserve and appreciate pure feeling; love was a kind of challenge to war, a symbol of life. These include the following works: “Starfall” and “Shepherd and Shepherdess” by V. Astafiev, “Zosya” by V. Bogomolov, “Red Wine of Victory” by E. Nosov and others.

“Educational” military prose has been widely developed: “Goodbye, boys” by B. Balter, “Repetition of what has been passed” by S. Baruzdin, “From Home to the Front” by E. Rzhevskaya, “One of Us” by V. Roslyakov. Material from the site

The new beginnings of military prose manifested themselves most dramatically in works of psychological drama. The masterpieces of this direction include the works “The Dead Have No Shame” by G. Baklanov, “Killed near Moscow” by K. Vorobyov, the first stories by V. Bykov “Crane Cry”, “The Third Rocket”, “Front Page” and others. Their heroes, as a rule, young soldiers or lieutenants, were only superficially similar to the characters in foreign novels about the “lost generation.” However, internally they argued with the heroes of the First World War. Our soldiers emerged from the new war seasoned, morally mature, and confident that they were right.

Along with the prose of psychological drama, epic prose developed, but in a new quality. Works aimed at a wide panoramic coverage of reality were divided into three groups according to the type of narrative.

The first type can be called informative and journalistic: the novel has many characters acting at the front and in the rear. This is combined with showing the activities of Headquarters and higher headquarters. The best example is the five-volume “Blockade” by A. Chakovsky, the action of which moves from Berlin to the small town of Belokamensk, from Hitler’s bunker to Zhdanov’s office, to Stalin’s dacha and to the party committee. Later, the political novel emerged from this type of storytelling.

The second branch consisted of panoramic family novels: “Origins” by G. Konovalov, “Eternal Call” by A. Ivanov, “Fate” by P. Proskurin.

The third type of epic canvas was a new type of battle monumental novel. This is K. Simonov’s trilogy “The Living and the Dead,” which, like nowhere else, clearly shows the dynamics of victory.

For us, military prose is valuable because it shows the confrontation between two systems, two ideologies, which is still relevant in our time. The development of military prose has entered a new phase. It turned out that not all the tragic pages of this terrible book-war had been read, not all the secrets had been revealed.

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The theme of the Great Patriotic War in prose of the 20th century (using the example of one work)

Theme of the Great Patriotic War in literature. The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, which claimed the lives of many millions, became one of the most tragic facts in the history of the 20th century. An event such as war was defined by L.N. Tolstoy as “contrary to human reason and all human nature.” Hard times of war, people at war, the memory of descendants about the heroic deeds of soldiers - the themes of many works of art created both during the war years and after the Victory are varied: K. Simonov “The Living and the Dead”, V. Nekrasov “In the Trenches of Stalingrad”, V. Bykov “Alpine Ballad”, “Sotnikov”, B. Vasiliev “Not on the lists”, “And the dawns here are quiet...”, K. Vorobyov “Killed near Moscow”, V. Kondratyev “Sashka” and others. The story of B. Vasiliev “And the dawns here are quiet...”. The suffering and misfortunes of war fall not only on the shoulders of fighting men - they do not bypass fragile women either. So, for example, S. Alexievich called her book “War Has an Unfeminine Face,” reflecting the main idea in the title: murder is disgusting to the feminine essence, the main purpose of a woman on earth is to give life. B. Vasiliev’s story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” (1969) is dedicated to the feat of female anti-aircraft gunners. At the center of the work are five women with different characters and different destinies. Even in war, they do not stop being girls, do not lose their unique charm: Sonya Gurvich loves Blok’s poetry, Rita Osyanina constantly thinks about her little son, the beauty of Zhenya Komelkova, who received outfits for her desire to defend her right to remain a woman in war, is admired by the other girls. Under the command of Sergeant Major Vaskov, five girls are sent to intercept two saboteurs, and there were two dozen of them. The soldiers Gurvich, Komelkova, Osyanina, Brichkina and Chetvertak were not destined to return from this campaign. The desire not to let the fascists pass, to stop the invaders at any cost, to avenge ruined love, destroyed families, gives the fragile girls remarkable fortitude. Violation of the rules of human coexistence puts the fascists themselves outside all laws, and therefore the feat of the anti-aircraft gunners acquires universal significance. The image of a sergeant major who tried to save his “soldiers” but failed to protect them is tragic. The thought that they, the men, will be held accountable after the war torments Vaskov’s conscience: “Why couldn’t you, men, protect our mothers from bullets? Did they get married when they died? The symbolism of the ending of the story (Vaskov fulfills his promise to Rita to take care of her little son) introduces the theme of memory into the work. The story formed the basis of the famous feature film by S. Rostotsky, and in recent years a Chinese version was filmed. The theme of the Great Patriotic War will be reflected in literature, cinema, and painting for many years to come. Memory is what distinguishes a person from other living beings. As long as the memory is alive, the feat of those who fell during the war will warn descendants from terrible and cruel wars, from senseless bloodshed.

* This work is not a scientific work, is not a final qualification work and is the result of processing, structuring and formatting the collected information intended for use as a source of material for independent preparation of educational works.

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“The Great Patriotic War in the prose of the 20th century”

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Introduction………………………………………………………. 3.

    A man at war in K. Simonov’s trilogy “The Living and the Dead”…………………………………………………… 6.

    A man at war (based on the story “Sotnikov” by Vasily Bykov)……………………………………………………………9.

    The fate of a man in the era of wars and revolutions in Vasily Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate”………………........... 11.

Conclusion………………………………………………………. 14.

List of references…………………………….....16.

Introduction

During the war, Soviet literature becomes truly folk art, the voice of the heroic soul, the soul of the people.

A. TOLSTOY

The outstanding victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany was a world-historical event of enormous international significance. Fascism was defeated. The Soviet Army defeated and destroyed over 500 German divisions and about 100 German satellite divisions. To understand the meaning of these figures, it is enough to remember that only 100 fascist divisions took part in the massacre of Western Europe.

History has never known such a cruel, bloody and destructive war as the Second World War. This war was especially difficult and destructive for the Soviet people. The Nazi invasion brought enormous disasters to our country, the death of millions of people. The four years of battles of the Soviet Army with the fascist invaders were the most intense during the Second World War.

“We didn’t need the war. But when it began, the great Soviet people courageously entered into a mortal battle with the aggressors” 1.

The war was the greatest test and test of all the strength of the people, and the socialist social system and the Soviet people passed this test with honor.

Despite the fact that the events of the war are now a thing of the past and have become history, the theme of the Great Patriotic War remains extremely modern. It is the subject of an acute ideological struggle between two worlds, causing a clash of different points of view, fierce polemics in the field of history, ethics, philosophy, and art.

The war was also a serious test for Soviet literature. During the Great Patriotic War, literature, enriched with the traditions of Soviet literature of previous periods, not only immediately responded to the events taking place, but also became an effective weapon in the fight against the enemy. Noting the intense, truly heroic creative work of writers during the war, M. Sholokhov said: “They had one task: if only their word would strike the enemy, if only it would hold our fighter under the elbow, ignite and not let the burning fire in the hearts of the Soviet people fade away.” hatred of enemies and love in the Motherland" 2.

Post-war literature, reflecting the heroic feat of the people in the fight against fascism, is provided with new and new works every year.

Writers and poets of the Soviet country joined the ranks of the defenders of the Fatherland. Over a thousand writers were on the war fronts, more than two hundred of them died for the freedom and independence of their homeland. M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, K. Fedin, A. Tolstoy, L. Leonov, I. Erenburg, A. Surkov, L. Sobolev, K. Simonov, A. Tvardovsky, took a direct part in the Great Patriotic War with their artistic creativity. B. Polevoy, B. Gorbatov and others.

Many writers received government awards. Eighteen word artists were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

An important stage in the development of literature about war is the 60-70s. During these years, new names emerged among writers of heroic themes: K. Simonov, V. Bykov, V. Grossman and many others.

Now it is difficult to imagine modern literature about the war without a large number of memoirs created not just by participants in the war, but by outstanding commanders.

The words are addressed to our contemporaries about the participants in the Great Patriotic War, about a feat that we have no right to forget: “And today, many years after the battles, among many things we must constantly remember those who went through the war. Surrounding them with care and attention, helping them in everyday affairs is the moral duty of the authorities, of all citizens, this is the law of our life.”

Man at War in the trilogy

K. Simonov “The Living and the Dead”

Konstantin Simonov is considered the founder of the “panoramic” novel about the Great Patriotic War. Such famous authors as Yu. Bondarev, V. Bykov, A. Ananyev, G. Baklanov, V. Bogomolov and others who spoke in traditional genres dedicated their works to the theme of the Patriotic War. However, Simonov’s trilogy “The Living and the Dead”, due to the breadth of coverage of events and reflection of the fate of people in the war, received a special name - a “panoramic” novel or an event novel. “War” and “Moscow, 41st” by I. Stadnyuk, “Blockade” by A. Chakovsky are placed on a par with the Simonov trilogy.

Simonov himself admitted that the central thing in his novel is a man at war. “It seems to me that in The Living and the Dead I in vain paid tribute to the imaginary obligation for a novel to have family lines in it. And this turned out to be the weakest in my book,” admits K. Simonov. The author's main task was to depict the truth of the war. This required the introduction of a large number of characters - over 200. Moreover, the fate of many of them remains unfinished. Thus, Simonov shows one of the main dramas of the war - when people went missing. “I cut short these destinies deliberately,” says the author of the trilogy. At the same time, even Simonov’s episodic characters are distinguished by their individuality.

This is how the most fearless of the division commanders, who dies a little earlier than Serpilin, is presented in the novel: “Talyzin, turquoise by nature and who seemed at first impression to be poorly educated, was in fact well read, knew the service and commanded his division, although not infallibly, but honestly: did not inflate successes and did not hide failures. And in general, according to Serpilin’s opinion, he was a man of high integrity...” Further, in a few sentences, Simonov reveals literally everything about this person. In 1941, together with several other generals, he was court-martialed on the Western Front. Talyzin was charged with cowardice and loss of control of the division.

For this he was sentenced to death, commuted to ten years in prison. From the camp he asked to go to the front and in the summer of '42 he was sent again as deputy regiment commander.

Simonov’s man at war is practically a real person, taken from life. The fate of Talyzin is an artistic embodiment of real events in the novel. The same can be said about most of the fates of the novel's heroes.

When writing a trilogy. K. Simonov adhered to the principle of historicism. In his work, he relied on documents, eyewitness accounts, and his own experience.

I think that the theme of the essay can be most broadly revealed using the example of the image of Serpilin, which is one of the central ones in the narrative. The image of Serpilin, who during the war went from regimental commander to army commander, is considered Simonov's discovery. With this image, people of tragic fate enter into military prose - those who were subjected to repression in the 30s. Fyodor Serpilin was sentenced without trial to ten years, despite the fact that he did not admit the charges against him.

“The figure of brigade commander Serpilin was formed in my mind from two kinds of memories,” Simonov wrote, - firstly, I remember several meetings in different years of the war with people who fought excellently and had... the same difficult biography... secondly, I Some episodes of the defense of Mogilev in July 1941 and the appearance of the commander of one of the regiments were etched in my memory... a man who did not want to retreat. Both the external and internal appearance of this man formed the basis of the image of Serpilin.”

Man at War

(based on the story “Sotnikov” by Vasily Bykov)

The theme of the Great Patriotic War occupies an important place in the work of Vasily Bykov. Honor, conscience, human dignity, fidelity to one's duty - these are the problems addressed by the writer. But still, the main theme of Bykov’s work remains, of course, the theme of heroism. Moreover, the writer is interested not so much in its external manifestation, but in how a person comes to feat, to self-sacrifice, why, in the name of what he performs a heroic act.

A characteristic feature of Bykov's war stories is that in the center of the image there is a person in an experimental situation, and the situation is such that the hero must immediately make a choice: heroic death or the shameful life of a traitor. And it is not by chance that the author resorts to this technique, because in an ordinary setting a person’s character cannot be fully revealed. In this regard, the story “Sotnikov” is no exception.

On the first pages of the story, we are presented with two fighters from one of the partisan detachments - Sotnikov and Rybak, who set out on a mission on a frosty, windy night. They are tasked with obtaining food for their tired, exhausted comrades at all costs. But we see that the fighters are in an unequal position: Sotnikov goes on a mission with a severe cold. And to Rybak’s question why he didn’t refuse to go if he was sick, he answers: “That’s why he didn’t refuse, because others refused.” These words of Sotnikov tell us about his highly developed sense of duty, consciousness, courage, and endurance.

The fate of a man in the era of wars and revolutions in Vasily Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate”

Vasily Semenovich Grossman depicted the Great Patriotic War in his novel “Life and Fate” as a historical event that decided the fate of not only Russia, but the whole world. The writer was able to reflect in this work the heroism of people in the war, the fight against the crimes of the Nazis, as well as the complete truth about the events that took place within the country at that time: exile in Stalin’s camps, arrests and everything related to this.

In the destinies of the main characters of the work, Vasily Grossman captures the suffering, loss, and death that are inevitable during war. The tragic events of this era give rise to internal contradictions in a person and disrupt his harmony with the outside world. This can be seen in the example of the fate of the heroes of the novel “Life and Fate” - Krymov, Shtrum, Novikov, Grekov, Evgenia Nikolaevna Shaposhnikova.

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

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

The heroes of the novel have different attitudes to the problem of life and fate, freedom and necessity. Therefore, they have different attitudes towards responsibility for their actions. For example, Sturmbannführer Kaltluft, the executioner at the furnaces, who killed five hundred and ninety thousand people, tries to justify himself by an order from above, by the power of the Fuhrer, by fate (“fate pushed... on the path of the executioner”). But then the author says: “Fate leads a person, but a person goes because he wants, and he is free not to want.” Drawing a parallel between Stalin and Hitler, the fascist concentration camp and the camp in Kolyma, Vasily Grossman says that the signs of any dictatorship are the same. And its influence on a person’s personality is destructive.

Having shown the weakness of man, the inability to resist the force of a totalitarian state, Vasily Grossman at the same time creates images of truly free people. The significance of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, won in spite of the dictatorship of Stalin, is more significant. This victory became possible precisely thanks to the internal freedom of a person capable of resisting whatever fate has in store for him

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

Conclusion

Four decades have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War. But no matter how many years pass, the feat accomplished by our people will not fade, will not be erased in the memory of grateful humanity.

The fight against fascism was not easy. But even in the most difficult days of the war, in its most critical moments, the confidence in victory did not leave the Soviet people, for its origins, as was said at the solemn meeting dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Victory, “are in the nature of socialism, the Soviet way of life, in the national character Great Patriotic War. The war, as the greatest test, confirmed with extraordinary clarity and reality that it is the masses of the people that are the decisive force of history. Showing massive heroism in battles and labor, Soviet people of different nationalities defended and defended their socialist homeland. They were united and inspired by the great Russian people, whose courage, endurance and unbending character were an inspired example of the indestructible will to Victory” 3.

Both today and our future are largely determined by May 1945. The Great Victory salute instilled in millions of people faith in the possibility of peace on earth. “The most important thing, the most valuable thing that Victory gave us was the opportunity to live and work in peace” 4.

Literature about the Great Patriotic War is usually called military literature. The term is conditional and, of course, not entirely accurate, not reflecting all the diversity, all the richness, life content, ideas, problems, conflicts, characters of works about the national feat. And if we start from the word “war” as a derivative, then this is rather literature: anti-war, for she was always alien to the spirit of war frenzy, the militaristic psychosis that overwhelms the art of the West.

Bibliography

    K. Simonov “The Living and the Dead”;

    V. Bykov “Sotnikov”;

    Vasily Grossman "Life and Fate"

    Brezhnev L.I. Small land. – “New World”, 1978, No. 2, p. 6

5. Sholokhov M. Speech at the II Congress of Soviet Writers of the USSR in 1954 - In the book: II Congress. Verbatim report. M., 1956, p. 374.

1 Brezhnev L.I. Small land. – “New World”, 1978, No. 2, p. 6.

2 Sholokhov M. Speech at the II Congress of Soviet Writers of the USSR in 1954 - In the book: II Congress. Verbatim report. M., 1956, p. 374.

The theme of the Great Patriotic War is not just the works of writers reflected in literature, it is a storehouse of knowledge that educates, illuminates the truth of past years and opens eyes to the most difficult years of the Great Patriotic War. Each writer tried to reveal all the ins and outs of his time; they could not stay away from the problems of wartime. Often in their works, pen artists relied on events, using historical information and references, so that the future generation would have the opportunity to find out at what cost a peaceful sky was won. Wartime writers played a big role in this. The Great Patriotic War was a real tragedy for the entire people, who did not surrender, but stood up to defend their Motherland. This tragic period was reflected in the literature of the twentieth century. The theme of the war was reflected in poems, was described in prose and was revealed by eyewitnesses of those years, about which we will write our work on the topic of the Great Patriotic War.

The Great Patriotic War in literature

Wartime writers, as a rule, were front-line soldiers themselves, so they saw the war and all the events of those years from the inside. The authors saw and knew what the rear, the army, the partisan movement, and the underground were. Front-line writers had heard a lot about heroism and betrayal, about feat, greatness and drama of victory. Based on real events, they show their readers the severity of military life, the drama of human destinies, when the outcome for everyone depends on the decision of an individual. When death or life depends on an action at a certain moment. Writers, among whom I would single out Sholokhov, Vasiliev, Bondarev, Bykov, Nekrasov, left behind a bright memory of the past. This allows you to learn in detail about the war, about soldiers' friendship, heroism, and teaches patriotism and courage.

A lot of works are devoted to the theme of war. I immediately remember the works “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” by Nekrasov, “Battalions Ask for Fire”, “Silence” by Bondarev. By the way, I especially remember Bondarev’s work called “Hot Snow,” which reliably depicts the Battle of Stalingrad and the defenders of Stalingrad. Vorobyov’s work, “Killed near Moscow,” which the author wrote in 1961, touches the soul. The story tells about the beginning of hostilities near Moscow in 1941. It is impossible to remain indifferent when reading about young cadets who were sent into battle without weapons, almost to certain death.

What other war stories do I remember? And here, covering the topic of the Great Patriotic War in literature and in my essay, I would like to recall the work “Red Wine of Victory”, written by Nosov, where the hero of the work meets the Great Victory in the hospital. There he, along with the rest of the wounded, receives a glass of wine in honor of the victory over fascism.

Theme of the Great Patriotic War in literature. The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, which claimed the lives of many millions, became one of the most tragic facts in the history of the 20th century. An event such as war was defined by L.N. Tolstoy as “contrary to human reason and all human nature.” The hard times of war, a man at war, the memory of descendants about the heroic deeds of soldiers - the themes of many works of art created both during the war years and after the Victory are varied: K. Simonov “The Living and the Dead”, V. Nekrasov “In the Trenches of Stalingrad”,

V. Bykov “Alpine Ballad”, “Sotnikov”, B. Vasiliev “Not on the lists”, “And the dawns here are quiet...”, K. Vorobyov “Killed near Moscow”, V. Kondratyev “Sashka” and others.

The story of B. Vasiliev “And the dawns here are quiet...”. The suffering and misfortunes of war fall not only on the shoulders of fighting men - they do not bypass fragile women either. So, for example, S. Alexievich called her book “War Has an Unfeminine Face,” reflecting the main idea in the title: murder is disgusting to the feminine essence, the main purpose of a woman on earth is to give life.

The story is dedicated to the feat of female anti-aircraft gunners

B. Vasilyeva “And the dawns here are quiet...” (1969). At the center of the work are five women with different characters and different destinies. Even in war, they do not stop being girls, do not lose their unique charm: Sonya Gurvich loves Blok’s poetry, Rita Osyanina constantly thinks about her little son, the beauty of Zhenya Komelkova, who received outfits for her desire to defend her right to remain a woman in war, is admired by the other girls. Under the command of Sergeant Major Vaskov, five girls are sent to intercept two saboteurs, and there were two dozen of them. The soldiers Gurvich, Komelkova, Osyanina, Brichkina and Chetvertak were not destined to return from this campaign. The desire not to let the fascists pass, to stop the invaders at any cost, to avenge ruined love, destroyed families, gives the fragile girls remarkable fortitude. Violation of the rules of human coexistence puts the fascists themselves outside all laws, and therefore the feat of the anti-aircraft gunners acquires universal significance.

The image of a sergeant major who tried to save his “soldiers” but failed to protect them is tragic. The thought of what will be asked of them, the men, after the war, torments Vaskov’s conscience: “Why couldn’t you, men, protect our mothers from bullets? When they died, did they get married?”

The symbolism of the ending of the story (Vaskov fulfills his promise to Rita to take care of her little son) introduces the theme of memory into the work.

The story formed the basis of the famous feature film by S. Rostotsky, and in recent years a Chinese version was filmed. The theme of the Great Patriotic War will be reflected in literature, cinema, and painting for many years to come. Memory is what distinguishes a person from other living beings. As long as the memory is alive, the feat of those who fell during the war will warn descendants from terrible and cruel wars, from senseless bloodshed.

Glossary:

      • WWII in literature of the 20th century
      • The Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century
      • essay on the topic of the Great Patriotic War in the works of writers of the 20th century
      • essay The Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century

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