Analysis of the genre originality of a literary work Vasily Terkin. Vasily Terkin - analysis of the work

“Vasily Terkin” occupies an exceptional place among other historical works dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. Tvardovsky skillfully depicted the details of the war in his poem and talentedly conveyed the image of an ordinary Russian soldier.

History of creation

The student can begin the analysis of “Vasily Terkin” with the history of the creation of the work. In his letters to M.V. Isakovsky, Tvardovsky wrote that the army would remain one of his main topics for the rest of his life. And the poet was not mistaken in this. A group of poets in the editorial office of the Leningrad Military District had the idea to create a series of drawings that would tell about the exploits of an ordinary Soviet soldier. One of the participants put forward a proposal to name the main character Vasya Terkin. In this collective work, Tvardovsky had to write an introduction, describe the most general main character and outline the direction of his conversation with the reader.

So in 1940, the work “Vasya Terkin” appeared in the newspaper. The success of this hero prompted Tvardovsky to complete the story about the military adventures of the never-failing Vasya Terkin. As a result, a small book called “Vasya Terkin at the Front” was first published. Together with Tvardovsky, the hero walked the difficult roads of war. The poem was first published in the newspaper Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda in January 1940.

From then until the very end of the war, new chapters of the poem were published in the same newspaper, as well as in the magazines “Red Army Man” and “Znamya”. On May 4, 1945, Tvardovsky wrote:

“...My work ends coincidentally with the end of the war. One more effort of a refreshed soul and body is needed - and it will be possible to put an end to it.”

This is how the entire publication “Vasily Terkin. A book about a fighter." This work recreates the picture of the front, shows the thoughts and experiences that arise in a person during war. The work "Vasily Terkin", the analysis of which is carried out in this article, stands out among other works of a similar genre with its special completeness, as well as the realistic depiction of the people's struggle, severe suffering and heroic deeds.

Genre

Tvardovsky's poem in its genre belongs to the heroic epic. On the one hand, the work is characterized by objectivity, on the other hand, it is permeated with a living author’s feeling. This poem is unique in all respects. It develops the traditions of realism in poetry, and on the other hand, it is a free narrative.

Subject

The main theme of A. T. Tvardovsky is the Great Patriotic War. An analysis of “Vasily Terkin” shows: this work became one of the brightest pages in his work. It is dedicated to the life of ordinary people at the front. At the center of the poem is an ordinary infantryman Vasily Terkin, a native of Smolensk peasants. In fact, the main character of the poem personifies the entire people. He embodied the national Russian character. Thus, an ordinary person becomes a symbol of a victorious warrior in the work. His life is depicted by Tvardovsky as it is - in everyday life and heroism, interweaving the ordinary with the sublime. The poem is strong because it shows the truth about the war as one of the most severe tests through which the entire people and individual people went through.

Analysis of “Vasily Terkin”: idea

Fiction from the times of the Great Patriotic War has a number of features. This is historical pathos, as well as an emphasis on accessibility to the reader. Vasily Terkin is one of the most successful characters in this regard. The feat of a soldier is shown by the poet as daily and hard work. The hero who accomplishes this feat is an ordinary soldier. It is precisely in protecting the Motherland and life on earth in general that the justice of the war against the fascist invaders consists. Tvardovsky’s work has become truly popular.

Structure of the work

The poem contains 30 chapters. They can be divided into three main parts. In four chapters, the poet speaks not about the hero, but about the war, about the sorrows that befell the common people. The role of these digressions cannot be understated, because they represent the author’s dialogue directly, as if bypassing the main character.

Events described in the poem

There is no clear chronological sequence throughout the story. The author also does not name specific battles or battles, but some military operations indicated in the work can be guessed: for example, the retreat of Soviet troops in 1941-1942, or the battle of the Volga River. Of course, the reader will learn about the capture of Berlin in the final chapters.

Does the work have a plot?

An analysis of the work “Vasily Terkin” shows that the poem, strictly speaking, has no plot. But Tvardovsky had no such goal as conveying the progress of the war. The central chapter of the work is “The Crossing”. In this part, the main idea of ​​the poem is clearly visible - the military road. Along it, Terkin, together with his comrades, moves towards achieving his goal - complete victory over the fascist invaders. And that means to a new, bright life.

A brief analysis of “Vasily Terkin” demonstrates: the originality of the book’s compositional structure is determined by the very reality of wartime. Tvardovsky notes in one of the chapters:

“There is no plot in war”

The poem really does not have a traditional beginning. You cannot find a climax or denouement in the work. However, an analysis of “Vasily Terkin” chapter by chapter shows that within the individual parts of the work there is a plot of its own. Separate plot connections arise within the chapters. The general development of events, despite the disparity of individual chapters, is determined by the course of military operations, the expected change in its stages - from the bitter days of defeat to victory achieved through sweat and blood.

Description of military everyday life

On the pages of the work, Terkin humorously shares with young soldiers the everyday life of war; says that from the very beginning of hostilities he has been taking part in them. Three times Terkin was surrounded by the enemy, once wounded. The difficult fate of a simple soldier personifies the strength of spirit, the irresistible will to life and victory.

An analysis of Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin” shows that the plot outline of the work is difficult to trace, because each of the chapters represents a separate episode. For example, Terkin swims across a cold river twice in order to restore contact with the advancing units. Going to the front, Terkin comes to the home of elderly peasants and helps them with the housework. The main character had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the German. Terkin, having barely defeated the enemy, takes him prisoner.

Lying wounded, Vasily Terkin talks with Death. She persuades him not to cling to life. And when the soldiers finally discover him, Terkin tells them:

"Take this woman away

I am a soldier still alive"

The work opens and ends with the poet’s lyrical reflections. A conversation with the reader allows us to get closer to the general world of the poem “Vasily Terkin”, the analysis of which is carried out in this article. The work ends with a dedication to the fallen.

The poem is distinguished by a very special historicism. The three parts conventionally identified in it coincide with the beginning, middle and end of hostilities. Poetic comprehension makes it possible to turn a dry chronicle into a lyrical chronicle of events. A feeling of grief permeates the first part, a persistent belief in victory permeates the second. And the leitmotif of the final part is the joy of victory.

The image of the main character

When analyzing the poem “Vasily Terkin,” the student needs to describe the main character of the poem. The main character of the work is the fictional character Vasily Terkin. Despite all the hardships of military life, he remains cheerful and sincere. Terkin's image is collective. He has everything that is typical for many ordinary soldiers:

"A guy like that

Every company always has

And in every platoon."

However, in Terkin all this was embodied brighter, more original. The hero is characterized by wisdom, a bright look into the future, endurance, patience, and life ingenuity. The main feature of the hero is love for his country.

He constantly remembers his native places, so dear to every heart. The reader cannot but be attracted to Terkin by the greatness of his spirit. He finds himself on the battlefield not to satisfy his military instinct, but to preserve life on earth. All that a defeated enemy evokes in the hero is a feeling of pity.

Terkin is modest, although sometimes he can boast a little. The reader has the opportunity to observe Vasily in various situations. And everywhere you can note the positive qualities of the hero. In the company of his comrades, he has fun and tries to raise the spirit of his brothers-in-arms. When he goes on the attack, he becomes an example for other fighters, showing courage and resourcefulness.

"Vasily Terkin": analysis of "Crossing"

In one of the chapters, the reader can see how the main character, risking his own life, valiantly leads his comrades through a dangerous crossing. This is one of the most important episodes not only in the entire poem, but also in the war. After all, in it the poet depicts the cruel realities of military life. “Crossing” is a place where hundreds of people lost their lives. Ordinary soldiers must walk along the edge of the ice, crossing a winter river at night. The water in it is “cold even to the fish.” The poet perfectly depicts the details of the combat situation, when soldiers are forced to put in a huge amount of effort and labor. Reading this chapter, you can understand that the great victory over fascism was not given to people just like that, but at the cost of bitter losses.

The poet writes:

"This night's trail is bloody

The wave carried it out to sea"

But those who were destined to survive do not lose their fortitude. Despite everything, walking along the edge of thin ice, Terkin leads his friends.

One of the most famous works of not only domestic but also world literature is Tvardovsky’s work “Vasily Terkin”. The genre of this work is poem. It was extremely popular among readers and is today considered an excellent example of military poetry.

About the writer's work

Alexander Tvardovsky (1910-1971) came from a simple village peasant family. Already at the age of fifteen, he began to write short poems for the local newspaper. The famous poet approved of his writings and became the mentor of the future famous author. In the 1930s, Tvardovsky wrote several poems and published a collection of poems. It is significant that, despite the fact that his family and relatives suffered during collectivization, Alexander Tvardovsky portrayed party politics in the village in a very positive light in several of his writings. Before the start of the war, he worked in a Leningrad newspaper, where he first published his first short poems about Vasily Terkin, who later became famous. When hostilities began, the poet went to the front and throughout the war years gradually created his most famous work, which brought him all-Union fame.

Creation

One of the most famous works on military subjects is “Vasily Terkin”. The genre of this work corresponded to the author’s idea: to create something authentic that would be understandable and accessible to everyone. Therefore, he wrote his essay as a poem about a fighter, a simple soldier who went through the whole war. Despite the fact that it lacks specifics, nevertheless, some battles are guessed in the text: the retreat of Soviet troops at the beginning of the war, the battle on the Volga and Dnieper. The first chapters were published in the newspaper of the Western Front and were extremely popular among readers.

Peculiarities

Tvardovsky’s work “Vasily Terkin,” the genre of which was, in principle, traditional for the poet, despite criticism of party censorship, gained such fame due to the fact that the author chose as his main character not representatives of the command or party leadership, but the most ordinary person, in the form of whom every soldier of the Soviet army could probably recognize himself. Terkin is a collective image of soldiers, and it is not for nothing that the author every time emphasizes the typicality of this hero, his recognizability.

The essay “Vasily Terkin,” the genre of which allowed the poet to express his thoughts on paper relatively easily and simply, is written in accessible language. It was not without reason that Tvardovsky wrote his work as a poem. The fact is that this genre presupposes the presence of lyrical-epic motifs and a serious narrative in poetic form. And the work in question is truly epic in spirit, since it conveys the spirit and mood of not only the soldiers of the Soviet army, but also the entire people during the war.

Folk motives

The genre chosen by the author is not accidental. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin” is close in its language, sound and spirit to folklore, and, as is known, this poetic form originally arose precisely as a folk epic song, as a kind of legend, a legend about some heroic event. And the author fully follows this principle: he deliberately refuses literary and linguistic tricks and expresses his thoughts extremely simply, in a language similar to the way ancient song poems were written in their time. This form allowed him to borrow a lot from popular colloquial speech. Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" follows traditional folklore motifs. It contains many ditties, sayings, proverbs, and some statements and entire expressions from this work, in turn, became phraseological units, which indicates the highest degree of popularity of the hero.

Composition

The poem “Vasily Terkin,” the content of which is essentially a reproduction of military life, has become so dear to the reader precisely because it very warmly and touchingly paints ordinary pictures of difficult wartime. The work consists of thirty chapters, the author's prologue and epilogue; however, the poet immediately stipulates at the very beginning that his book has neither beginning nor end. This idea continues the theme he had previously outlined about the infinity of time, about the long road, about life and death. This gives a special philosophical meaning to the work, forcing the reader to think about fate, about the common misfortune, about the hardships of war. The chapter “Crossing” is rightly recognized by most critics as the main and central part of the entire work.

Each excerpt is dedicated to an episode from the life of a favorite hero. Moreover, the author does not focus on depicting the heroic deeds of his character; on the contrary, he very often shows him in a simple setting, during periods of calm, during transitions, in parking lots, and so on. The theme of the poem “Vasily Terkin” is an image of the life of a simple soldier who, despite the horrors of war, has not lost optimism and believes in victory. Even in the most difficult circumstances, he never loses heart, and this is why the reader fell in love with him.

The most significant parts of the work are the following: a description of Terkin’s feat during the crossing, his battle with Death, a depiction of the character at the pass, an episode with a downed plane, the hero’s lunch with an old soldier. In these scenes, the author strives to show his character from different sides: in each of these chapters, he appears before the readers in recognizable situations, such as those that thousands of Soviet soldiers went through.

Plot

Here Terkin swam across the icy river in order to convey an important message about the location of the enemy and the actions of the Soviet troops. At the same time, the author does not emphasize the heroism of this act; on the contrary, he describes this scene in such a way that the reader understands that any other soldier in Terkin’s place would have done the same. In this description, as indeed in the entire poem, the author’s voice is clearly heard, which, as if invisibly present at the described scene, gives its judgments and comments on what is happening, and this gives the narration authenticity and truthfulness.

In general, the figure of Tvardovsky himself can be discerned in the narrator: he himself periodically enters into dialogue with his character, addresses him with various questions, expresses his sympathy for him or admires him. In the chapter “At a Rest” one can feel the poet’s especially warm attitude towards his hero. The author depicts Terkin in the most ordinary and recognizable setting, on a soldier's rest, with an accordion in his hands. Perhaps, it was this image of the character that readers especially loved, since it goes back to traditional ideas about an ordinary peasant worker who, in a moment of rest, sings and plays the harmonica. It is not for nothing that Vasily is depicted on one of the monuments as an accordion player.

Image

In the chapter dedicated to Terkin’s conversation with the old soldier, Tvardovsky again shows his hero in a simple environment, among the peasants, which once again brings him closer to the common people. Both soldiers are talking about the war and during this conversation they immediately find a common language. This is a distinctive feature of the hero’s character: wherever he goes, he immediately finds a common language with those around him. Of course, the poet could not ignore the military merits of his hero: in addition to the episode with the crossing, he also, for example, shoots down an enemy plane. Noteworthy is the way the author described the last episode: the reader learns that the plane was shot down by Terkin only at the end, when the command began to look for the hero. Thus, the image of the folk hero Vasily Terkin created by Tvardovsky actually personifies the entire people.

Grade

The folk epic justifiably received universal recognition. She was highly appreciated by such prominent writers as Pasternak, Fadeev, Bunin. Readers in their letters to the author asked for a continuation. And only the censorship committee was dissatisfied with the fact that Tvardovsky did not show the role of the Communist Party in his work. However, the author himself admitted that such deviations would have violated the entire concept of the work, and therefore, at his own peril and risk, he continued to write in the direction in which he considered it necessary. According to a recent survey, the poem was among the top most read works on military topics. The work is included in the school curriculum and is deservedly popular today.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Vasily Terkin. Alexander Tvardovsky

✪ A.T. Tvardovsky. Poem "Vasily Terkin"

✪ Vasily Terkin - Crossing (Verse and Me)

✪ 79 Alexander Tvardovsky Vasily Terkin

✪ Vasily Terkin summary (A. Tvardovsky). Grade 11

Subtitles

Friends, if you do not have the opportunity to read Alexander Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin,” watch this video. This is a collection of stories about one soldier during the Great Patriotic War. Tvardovsky wrote the poem in 1945. Another name for the poem is “The Book about a Fighter.” The poem consists of 30 chapters. Each chapter is a separate story from Tyorkin’s front-line life. During the war, Tvardovsky (who himself fought at the front) read to them individual chapters from the poem to maintain the morale of the soldiers. So... The author writes that in war it is very important to have water and food. But humor is needed just as much in war. After all, without it you can go completely crazy. That’s why the soldiers valued Vaska Tyorkin, a guy who could cheer everyone up. And Tvardovsky himself thanks his hero for helping him become a popular writer. Vaska, a newcomer to the infantry company, tells the guys that this is already his second war. Explains to them what the word “sabantuy” means. In general, when the battlefield is a complete mess, when there are a lot of German tanks, this is the main sabantuy. And when they shoot a little, it’s like that... a light sabantuy. The soldiers immediately liked Vaska. Vaska Terkin was a very ordinary guy. The first story is about how Vaska and the guys made their way from the rear of the German side to their own at the front. The guys were thin and barefoot. There were about 10 of them, led by a commander. (Let me remind you that during the first two years of the war, Soviet troops were mostly retreating). And of course this bothered the soldiers. But Vaska constantly insisted that they would return to their lands. The commander told him that his native village would be on the way. - What's the question? - Vaska answered. - Let's go in. The detachment arrived in the village late at night. The commander brought the guys to his house. His wife fed everyone and put everyone to bed. But the commander wants this with his wife... And there are so many guys nearby. Everyone seemed to have fallen asleep. Vaska couldn’t sleep, he understood everything and went out into the street so as not to disturb the commander... In the morning, the commander cut firewood for his wife, waited until his children woke up, and the soldiers moved on, realizing that today the Germans could come to this village. It was in November. The soldiers approached the crossing. At night, having broken off the ice, the first platoon boarded the pontoons. Then the second one. Then the third. The Germans opened fire. Many guys died then. Some managed to cross, others did not. Those who did not make it in time waited for dawn, and with it, help. Two watchmen saw that someone was swimming towards them. - Yah. This cannot be, said one. - In such cold water? - Maybe this is the body of one of ours? – thought the second one. We looked closer and saw someone alive swimming. It was Vaska Terkin. They immediately took him to the hut and rubbed him with alcohol. “Let’s go inside, not on the skin,” Vaska asked. Dali. Vaska drank and began to talk. He said that their platoon on the right bank was ready to help with the crossing. We just need covering fire from this shore. He said, drank more and swam back. Another time, Terkin established telephone communications. He followed his company with a coil of wires. On the phone he asked the guys from Tula to help them fire at the Germans. Suddenly a shell fell next to him. Vaska fell to the ground and waited for the explosion. But for some reason there was no explosion. I looked, realized that it would not explode and pissed on this shell. And then Vaska saw a German officer approaching him. The German did not see him. Then Vaska pierced him with a bayonet. The German managed to wound Vaska. And so the guy lay there, bleeding and saw how Tula began to fire at the position where he himself was lying. It would be a shame to die from your own people. Lucky. Our tanks arrived. The tank guys saw Vaska and helped him. Otherwise Vaska would have died. Vaska thinks that it would be great to get a medal. He would then come home and brag about her in the village council. And then he would go to any party, and all the girls would be his. “That’s why I need a medal, guys,” Vaska told the guys. “I don’t even need an order, I agree to a medal.” Lonely Terkin walked along the front-line winter road. He was catching up with his rifle regiment. A truck overtook him. The driver looked out: “Get in, infantry.” I'll give you a ride. They drive, smoke, chat. They see a convoy of vehicles blocking the road ahead. It's cold for everyone. Vaska asks if anyone has an accordion. “Yes, there is,” the tanker answers. -Whose is she? - The killed commander. The guys gave Vaska an accordion. He started with a sad melody. And suddenly, it was as if everyone felt warmer from the music. Immediately other guys began to follow the sounds of the accordion. Vaska sang about three tanker friends. And then somehow it became more fun. Two tank crews took a closer look at Vaska: “Listen, did we then find you covered in blood and take you to the medical battalion?” “Maybe me too,” Vaska answered. And then the guys told him to take the accordion for himself and entertain his friends with it. In winter, an old woman lay on the stove in the hut. Fighting was heard three miles away. The grandfather-owner was sitting by the window. Then he took a saw and began to sharpen it, so as not to be idle. - Grandfather, she’s normal. We need to break it up. “Get the wiring,” Vaska Tyorkin told his grandfather. I did everything as needed. I gave the saw to my grandfather. I saw a non-working clock on the wall. Removed and repaired. - Do you want me to tell you, grandma, where your lard is hidden? – Vaska suddenly asked. The grandmother blew herself up and fried the soldier lard and eggs. Vaska sat down with his grandfather, drank, talked about life, about the war. Grandfather also once fought, was also a soldier. - You tell me, guy: are we going to beat the German? “We’ll beat you, father,” Vaska answered and went to fight. One bearded soldier lost his pouch. (A tobacco pouch is a pouch for tobacco). The man was upset. First I lost my family, and now I lost my pouch. Terkin saw all this and, to cheer up the bearded man, told his story about the fur hat. I took it out of the bag as proof. And there is another one on the head. “Once they brought me, wounded, to the medical battalion. The hat fell off somewhere. What can I do in winter without a hat? No way. I tell the girl who bandaged me that I feel bad without a hat. So she gave me hers. I keep it as a memory. The soldiers thought that in war it was better to be single. He doesn't think about his wife and children that way. Vaska gave the bearded man his pouch. “The fact that you lost your family is not your fault,” said Vaska. – And you can also survive the loss of your pouch. Although, I agree, it’s a shame. But the loss of the Motherland cannot be allowed. One day Vaska went on reconnaissance, and he had the chance to fight hand-to-hand with a German. Strong, dexterous and well-fed. Vaska understood that the advantage was on the German side. They hit each other, be healthy! They approached. And the German's breath stinks of garlic. - Oh, you fascist bitch! And Vaska hit him with an unloaded grenade. The German fell, but was alive. Vaska understood that it was better not to kill the German, but to bring him to his own people to interrogate him. The author writes that in war a soldier must do what he is ordered. He can’t even fall in love without permission, he can’t even change his footcloths. Our guys were sitting in the trenches. And then they hear: a German plane is flying. The guys crouched to the ground. Except one. The soldier took out a rifle, took aim at the plane and hit it! The plane went towards the ground. The general from headquarters immediately called with the question: “Who shot?” This is how Vaska Tyorkin received the order. He was the one who shot. Once Tyorkin had a chance to stay in the hospital for several days. And he saw there the most ordinary boy. And already a hero. Vaska asked where the guy was from. I thought, maybe a fellow countryman. “I’m from near Tambov,” the guy said. And Vaska was from Smolensk. And he felt so offended that there was no hero in his native Smolensk. And then Vaska firmly decided to receive the order. And received! “But all these awards are nonsense,” Vaska thought. “The main thing is to have a homeland.” The war was already in its second year. Terkin was washing his clothes by the river and lay down on the grass. Good for him! They called to the general. The general awarded Tyorkin an order, praised him for the downed plane and allowed him to go home on vacation for a week. - Yes, a week is not enough for me, Comrade General. The Germans are where my village is. But I know the area well. - It's clear. So I need you. And you’ll go on vacation another time. The village of Borki stood behind the swamp. And in this swamp there was a battle in the summer. The guys felt bad, but Terkin joked and encouraged the guys. There, many of our guys died for the unknown Borki. But the main thing is that these Borks were part of the Motherland. Every soldier was accompanied to war by at least one woman - mother, sister, wife, girlfriend or daughter. Letters from them always warmed the soldier’s soul and reminded him for whom they should fight. And the wives became so good during the war. Although before that they could have been damn witches. Soldiers escaped from such people during the war. It’s better to have bullets whistling overhead than to have such a wife at your side. The war will end sooner or later, and then the soldier will return to his women. But Vaska Terkin did not have a woman who would love him. And the author appeals to the girls so that they fall in love with such a good guy as Vaska. In war, every soldier dreams of a good night's sleep. And when he finds himself at home on vacation, it’s like he’s in heaven. There you can sleep on a clean, warm bed, in only underwear, and you can eat there 4 times a day. And from the table, not from your knee. And without a rifle, always lying nearby. And you don’t have to hide the spoon in your boot. And so our Vaska Terkin found himself in such a paradise. But somehow Vaska can’t sleep in such a bed. I put on my combat cap and immediately fell asleep. And the next day Vaska decided to return to his comrades. I boarded a passing truck and arrived at the company. - Well, guys, how are you here without me? Winter. Another battle near the village. The lieutenant led the boys into the attack. But very soon he was shot. And then Vaska Terkin led the guys behind him. The village was taken. And Vaska was seriously wounded. He lay in the snow, and death came to him. - Well, my friend, did you fight back? “Come with me,” she told him. - Fuck you! “I’m still alive,” Vaska answered her. Death began to persuade him to give up and submit to it. But Terkin refused to die and continued to hold on. - They won’t find you anymore. Give up. And you will immediately feel warm. Chesslovo. - Nope. I haven't lived long enough. I want more. I still need to defeat the German. But hope was leaving, and then Vaska asked death to allow him to be among the living on Victory Day over the Germans. - On this condition, take me. - Not. “It won’t work,” answered death. - Then get the fuck out! And then Vaska saw the guys from the funeral team walking. Vaska shouted to them, the boys were surprised that he was still alive and carried him to the medical battalion. Death walked side by side for some time, and then realized that she had nothing to catch here and left to look for other victims. From the hospital, Vaska writes a letter to the guys from his company. He writes that he misses him and wants to join them again as soon as possible. When Tyorkin returned to his people, something changed: new people appeared. And among them was Terkin. But not Vaska, but Ivan, the red one. And also a joker, and also a hero, and also with an order, and also knew how to play the accordion. Then the foreman said that each company would have its own Terkin. Remember the village where Vaska repaired a saw and a clock in the house of his grandfather and old woman? The German took that clock off the wall and took it with him. Our intelligence guys approached this hut. The grandfather with an ax was ready to defend his house, but he heard Russian speech and was happy about the guys. And then I recognized Vaska Tyorkin in one of them. Already an officer! Vaska promised to bring his grandfather and grandmother two new watches from Berlin. The time came when Soviet troops began to recapture previously given lands. Vaska and the guys were approaching their native Smolensk region. And this made his heart ache. The Dnieper was ahead. The guys crossed the river. And Vaska’s native village was left behind. Vaska tells a story about a cheerful soldier with whom he served. He used to be cheerful until he found out that he no longer had a family - neither a wife nor a small son. When our detachments passed near Smolensk, that guy asked the commander to go home on a short vacation. But the soldiers of his village did not recognize him - he was wiped off the face of the earth. He returned to the detachment already homeless. I cried all the time. But he was not the only one in this situation - many soldiers had the same situation. And they got up and moved on to Berlin. On the way we met an old woman who was walking home from abroad. Vaska said that it was not right for a soldier’s mother to go such a distance. And he gave her a horse, a cow, a sheep. - What if on the way they ask where I got my cattle from? - asked the old woman. - Tell me that Vaska Terkin supplied it. They will let you through everywhere. And now Soviet troops are already in Germany. Our guys washed themselves in the bathhouse. One soldier had a good steam bath and went to get dressed. He had orders and medals on his gymnast. - Did you buy it at a military store? - the guys are trolling him. “That’s not all,” he answered them. These, friends, are war stories about an ordinary Soviet soldier Vasily Tyorkin.

About the product

The coincidence of the name of the main character with the name of the hero of the novel by the 19th-century writer P. D. Boborykin turned out to be accidental.

The Red Army soldier Tyorkin had already begun to enjoy a certain popularity among readers of the district newspaper, and Tvardovsky decided that the topic was promising and needed to be developed within the framework of a large-scale work.

On June 22, 1941, Tvardovsky curtailed his peaceful literary activities and left for the front the next day. He becomes a war correspondent for the Southwestern and then the 3rd Belorussian Front. In 1941-1942, together with the editorial staff, Tvardovsky found himself in the hottest spots of the war. Retreats, finds himself surrounded and leaves it.

In the spring of 1942, Tvardovsky returned to Moscow. Having collected scattered notes and sketches, he again sits down to work on the poem. “War is serious, and poetry must be serious”- he writes in his diary. On September 4, 1942, the publication of the first chapters of the poem (introductory “From the Author” and “At a Rest”) began in the newspaper of the Western Front “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda”.

The poem gains fame, it is reprinted by the central publications “Pravda”, “Izvestia”, “Znamya”. Excerpts from the poem are read on the radio by Orlov and Levitan. At the same time, famous illustrations created by the artist Orest Vereisky began to appear. Tvardovsky himself reads his work, meets with soldiers, and visits hospitals and work groups with creative evenings.

The work was a great success among readers. When Tvardovsky wanted to finish the poem in 1943, he received many letters in which readers demanded a continuation. In 1942-1943, the poet experienced a severe creative crisis. In the army and in the civilian readership, “The Book about a Fighter” was received with a bang, but the party leadership criticized it for its pessimism and lack of reference to the leading role of the party. Secretary of the Union of Writers of the USSR Alexander Fadeev admitted: "the poem answers his heart", But “...we must follow not the inclinations of the heart, but the party guidelines”. Nevertheless, Tvardovsky continues to work, extremely reluctantly agreeing to censorship edits and cuts of the text. As a result, the poem was completed in 1945 along with the end of the war. The last chapter (“In the Bath”) was completed in March 1945. Even before finishing work on the work, Tvardovsky was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Finishing work on the poem, Tvardovsky, back in 1944, simultaneously began the next poem, “Terkin in the Other World.” Initially, he planned to write it as the last chapter of the poem, but the idea grew into an independent work, which also included some uncensored excerpts from Vasily Terkin. “Terkin in the Next World” was prepared for publication in the mid-1950s and became another programmatic work of Tvardovsky - a vivid anti-Stalin pamphlet. On July 23, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, chaired by N. S. Khrushchev, adopted a resolution condemning Tvardovsky for the poem “Terkin in the Next World” prepared for publication. During the campaign to “expose Stalin,” on August 17, 1963, the poem was first published in the newspaper Izvestia. During wartime, the poem (more precisely, its excerpts) was memorized by heart, newspaper clippings were passed on to each other, considering its main character a role model.

Criticism and artistic features

There is no plot as such in the poem ( “There is no plot in war”), but it is built around the connecting idea of ​​a military road along which Tyorkin, together with the entire Soviet army, goes to the goal. It is not for nothing that most critics consider the chapter “The Crossing” to be the central chapter. At the beginning of the poem, the continuity with Tvardovsky’s previous work is clearly visible - the utopian poem “The Country of Ant,” which also begins with a story about the road along which the hero has to go. The role of authorial digressions in the narrative is also very important. The peculiar dialogue between the author and the main character occupies a significant place in the text of the poem.

In the poem, Tyorkin acts as a collective image, embodying the best traits inherent in a Soviet soldier. The heroes surrounding Tyorkin are nameless and abstract: the soldier’s colleagues, the general, the old man and the old woman, Death - as if borrowed from a folk tale ( in fact, this is a complete rethinking of the poem “Anika the Warrior” with the opposite outcome: even the angels serving Death - who took on the everyday appearance of a funeral team - are on the side of the Warrior [ ]). The language of the poem, despite its apparent simplicity, is an example of the poet’s recognizable style. It feeds on folk, oral speech. The intonationally rich text of the work is interspersed with phrases that sound like sayings and lines of ditties (“It’s good when someone lies cheerfully and smoothly”, “Well done, but there will be a lot - two at once. - So there are two ends ...”). The author conveys in an accurate and balanced style Tyorkin’s speech, a lyrically sublime description of nature and the harsh truth of war.

The choice of trochaic tetrameter as the size of the poem is not accidental. It is this size that is characteristic of the Russian ditty and fits well with the narrative rhythm of the poem. Critics also believe that in the poem “Vasily Terkin” the influence of Russian folk tales is clearly felt, in particular, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Ershov.

A distinctive feature of the work, reminiscent of a legend about a folk hero, was the absence of an ideological principle. The poem does not contain the usual glorifications of Stalin for works of those years. The author himself noted that a ritual mention of the leading and guiding role of the party “would destroy both the concept and the figurative structure of the poem about the people’s war.” This circumstance subsequently created great problems for publication and delayed the publication of the final version of the poem.

The secret of Tvardovsky’s work is not only in the ease of rhythm and masterly use of spoken language, but also in the writer’s unmistakable instinct, which allowed him to stay on the right side in the propaganda war, without succumbing to the temptation of lies. The book tells as much truth as circumstances allowed.

Original text (English)

The secret of Tvardovsky's, besides his easy rhythms is his virtuosic command of colloquial Russian and his unerring tact in staying on the “right” side of the propaganda line of the moment without telling outright lie, while also propounding as much of the truth as was at all possible under the current circumstances.

Cultural significance

The poem “Vasily Terkin” is one of the most famous works created during the Great Patriotic War, glorifying the feat of an unnamed Russian soldier. The poem was published in large numbers, translated into many languages, was included in the school curriculum of the USSR and Russia and was well known to any schoolchild.

Tvardovsky, who himself went through the front, absorbed sharp and accurate soldier observations, phrases and sayings into the language of the poem. Phrases from the poem became catchphrases and entered oral speech.

He spoke highly of Tvardovsky’s work

The genre of Tvardovsky’s work violated traditional canons: not a “poem,” which would have been more common, but a “book”: “A book about a fighter.” The subtitle “poem” appeared only in the first publications of individual chapters in the newspaper “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda”. Some critics were embarrassed by the vagueness and vagueness of the genre. However, the poet himself did not consider the genre uncertainty of the book to be a disadvantage; he wrote: “A chronicle is not a chronicle, a chronicle is not a chronicle, but a “book,” a living, moving, free-form book, inseparable from the real matter.” The genre definition of “book” is more complex, broader, and more universal than the traditional definition of “poem.” Still, “poem” is associated primarily (the memory of the genre and the laws of reader perception are triggered) with the classics, with literature - with classical literature, but literature, for example, with “Mtsyri” by M.Yu. Lermontov, with “Poltava” A.S. Pushkin... Tvardovsky intuitively sought to get away from the literary genre tradition - “literariness”, to “universalize” the genre of his work, to be closer to life, and not to literature, in other words, to strengthen the effect of the authenticity of literary fiction. The explanations on this score of Tvardovsky himself, who reduce everything to simple efficiency, seem rather crafty (as is often the case with Tvardovsky), and we have no right to elevate them to the rank of a literary absolute, as often happens in some works about Tvardovsky: “I didn’t last long I was tormented by doubts and fears regarding the uncertainty of the genre, the lack of an initial plan that embraces the entire work in advance, the weak plot connection of the chapters with each other. Not a poem - well, let it not be a poem, I decided; there is no single plot - let it not, don’t; there is no the beginning of a thing - there is no time to invent it; the climax and completion of the entire narrative is not planned - let it be, we must write about what is burning, not waiting, and then we will see, we’ll figure it out.”

It was precisely this genre form - “A Book about a Fighter” - that gave creative freedom to the poet, partially seemed to remove the shade of literary convention in an outwardly artless ("light") work, increased the degree of reader confidence in the work, on the one hand, literary with its conventional reality, and on the other hand, unconditionally life-like, reliable, in which conventional reality and reality were so united and seemed natural that this artistic convention was not noticed, the reader did not think about it.

The genre memory of the “book” is different, and it is determined primarily by the books of the Old and New Testaments. See, for example, the New Testament (Exodus 32:32–33), where the prophet Moses asks God for the people who sinned by making a golden calf: “Forgive them their sin. But if not, then blot me out from Your book, in which You wrote in. The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot out from My book.” The Book of Life is also repeatedly spoken of in the Revelation of John the Theologian.

Tvardovsky’s poem is a book of the life of the people in its diverse, free manifestations in new times and in new circumstances. By analogy with Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin,” Tvardovsky’s poem can be called an encyclopedia—an encyclopedia not only of front-line life, but also of the best traits of a Russian person.

The author also brought his poem closer to chronicle And chronicle– genres that have long traditions in Rus'. Tvardovsky wrote about “Vasily Terkin”: “... a certain chronicle is not a chronicle, a chronicle is not a chronicle,” thereby emphasizing the conscientiousness and accuracy, civic pathos and responsibility characteristic of Russian chroniclers and compilers of chronicles.

Plot and composition. The poem (we will use this traditional genre definition of a work, not forgetting its genre uniqueness) “Vasily Terkin” consists of 29 (including the chapter “About myself” and four chapters “From the author”) independent, internally complete chapters, not connected by a strict sequence of events . That is, there is no strict plot predicament, and this gives the author the opportunity to say a lot, about things that are not directly related to the development of the plot, but contribute to creating a complete picture, the completeness of people’s life in the war. There really is no plot in the work. There are only private plots within each chapter, and between chapters there are only some plot connections. However, the event and plot in this work are not so important: “The Book about a Fighter” is valuable to others. The plot of the book develops as the war progresses, and its core is the fate of the entire people, the fate of the Motherland in a bitter time.

The unusual nature of the plot (in fact, its absence) and the composition of the book, which began “from the middle” and ended without resolution, forced the author to introduce humorous clauses into the text (in the chapter “From the Author”):

...a book about a fighter. Without a beginning, without an end, Without a special plot, However, it does not harm the truth. There is no plot in war. - How come it’s not there? - So, no. There is a law - to serve until term, Service is work, a soldier is not a guest. There is a light out - I fell asleep deeply, There is a rise - I jumped up like a nail.

The chapter is called “From the Author” and asks questions to the reader, the author conducts a confidential conversation with the reader (however, the author’s voice is sometimes difficult to separate from the hero’s voice, they are so close). The dialogue about the plot in this fragment is indicative: who is he – the author’s hypothetical interlocutor, confident that without a plot the work simply cannot exist? Most likely, this is a dogmatic critic who has firmly mastered literary canons and terms, usually expresses himself in the correct literary language, but here he is so taken aback by the heretical statement about the absence of a plot that in confusion he repeats after the author the colloquially ironic “no”: “How come there is no ?" 1

This statement by the author contains both a disregard for literary dogmas and an explanation of another reason for the lack of plot: the book was created during the war, and in the war “it is impossible to guess ahead” (“From the author”). Any scheme or predetermination caused by the structure of the plot would threaten the loss of confidence in the naturalness of the narrative.

When creating the final version of the book, Tvardovsky left out many fragments and plot twists published during the war. The author's plans included plot distractions (Terkin's youth, crossing the front line to communicate with the partisans, Terkin being captured by the Germans, etc.), which did not materialize. “I saw,” Tvardovsky wrote in the article “How “Vasily Terkin” was written,” “that this reduces the book to some kind of private history, trivializes it, deprives it of that front-line “universality” that had already emerged and was already making Terkin’s name a household word in relation to fighters of this type. I decisively turned away from this path, threw out what related to the enemy rear, reworked the chapter “General” and again began to build the fate of the hero in the previously established plan" (V, 129).

In a word, the book is from the middle and let's start. And it will go there.

The book is structured in such a way that each chapter can be read as an independent work. The poet took into account that the completeness of individual chapters, which are outwardly unrelated to each other by plot, is necessary so that they can be read by those who did not know the previous chapters. “I had to keep in mind the reader who, even if he was unfamiliar with the previous chapters, would find in this chapter, published today in the newspaper, something whole, rounded” (V, 124). However, this does not mean that the book itself is not something whole. The compositional unity of the book is given by the image of the main character, who is always at the center of all events and to whom the threads of human destinies stretch; the author-narrator with his lyrical digressions from the author, who sometimes conducts a direct dialogue with his hero and with the reader, talks about himself, etc.; style – living “Russian speech, the great Russian word”, drawn from the people and returned to the people (See A. Akhmatova’s poem “Courage”); a unique fusion of solemn pathos and sly irony, thanks to which the author manages to avoid declarativeness and reproaches of insincerity.

Terkin is an ordinary war worker, his front-line world is a concrete world, visible to the eye, directly perceived by the senses, a world of particulars, quiet events, and this determines the composition, the selection of episodes to reveal the image of the hero. Hence the narrow scope of events, the rapid change of personnel, unknown or insignificant villages and settlements for the course of the war...

All this is the periphery of the war and at the same time its true center of gravity.