What is the genre of Vasily Terkin's work? “Plot and compositional features of the poem

In the center of the poem is the image of Terkin, uniting the composition of the work into a single whole. Vasily Ivanovich Terkin is the main character of the poem, an ordinary infantryman from the Smolensk peasants. Terkin embodies the best features of the Russian soldier and the people as a whole. The poem is structured as a chain of episodes from the military life of the protagonist, which do not always have a direct event connection with each other. Terkin humorously tells young soldiers about the everyday life of war; He says that he has been fighting since the very beginning of the war, he was surrounded three times, and was wounded. The fate of an ordinary soldier, one of those who bore the entire burden of the war on their shoulders, becomes personification of national fortitude, will to live. Terkin swims twice across the icy river to restore contact with the advancing units; Terkin alone occupies a German dugout, but comes under fire from his own artillery; on the way to the front, Terkin finds himself in the house of old peasants, helping them with the housework; Terkin enters hand-to-hand combat with the German and, with difficulty, defeating him, takes him prisoner. Unexpectedly, Terkin shoots down a German attack aircraft with a rifle; Terkin reassures the envious sergeant: not the last. Terkin takes command of the platoon when the commander is killed, and is the first to break into the village; however, the hero is again seriously wounded. Lying wounded in the field, Terkin talks with Death, who persuades him not to cling to life; in the end, the soldiers discover him, and he tells them: “Take away this woman, I am a soldier still alive.” In the image of Vasily Terkin the best moral qualities of the Russian people are united: patriotism, readiness for heroism, love of work. The character traits of the hero are interpreted by the poet as traits of a collective image: Terkin is inseparable and integral from the militant people. The author also shades the hero’s patriotism and collectivism negatively: he emphasizes absence in Terkin of the traits of individualism, egoism, and preoccupation with one’s own person. It is characteristic of Terkin respect and careful attitude of the master towards the thing as the fruit of labor. It’s not for nothing that he takes away his grandfather’s saw, which he warps, not knowing how to sharpen it. Returning the finished saw to the owner, Vasily says: Here, grandfather, take it, look. It will cut better than a new one, don't waste the tool in vain. Terkin loves work and is not afraid of it. The simplicity of the hero is usually synonymous with his popularity, the absence of exclusivity in him. But this simplicity also has another meaning in the poem: the transparent symbolism of the hero’s surname, Terkinsky “We’ll endure it, we’ll endure it” highlights his ability to overcome difficulties simply and easily. This is his behavior even when he swims across an icy river or sleeps under a pine tree, quite content with an uncomfortable bed, etc. This simplicity of the hero, his calmness, and sober outlook on life express important features of the people's character. In the field of vision of A. T. Tvardovsky in the poem “Vasily Terkin” is not only the front, but also those who work in the rear for the sake of victory: women and old people. The characters in the poem not only fight - they they laugh, love, talk with each other, and most importantly, dream of a peaceful life. The reality of war unites what is usually incompatible: tragedy and humor, courage and fear, life and death. In the chapter “From the author” depicts the process of “mythologization” of the main character of the poem. Terkin is called by the author “a holy and sinful Russian miracle man.” The name of Vasily Terkin has become legendary and a household name.

The poem “Vasily Terkin” is distinguished by its peculiar historicism. Conventionally, it can be divided into three parts, coinciding with the beginning, middle and end of the war. A poetic understanding of the stages of the war is created from the chronicle lyrical chronicle of events. Feeling bitterness and sorrow fills the first part, faith in victory - second, the joy of the liberation of the Fatherland becomes the leitmotif of the third part poems. This is explained by the fact that A. T. Tvardovsky created the poem gradually, throughout the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

The composition of the poem is also original. Not only individual chapters, but also periods and stanzas within chapters are distinguished by their completeness. This is due to the fact that the poem was published in parts. And it should be accessible to the reader from “any place” .

The poet emphasized the truthfulness and reliability of broad pictures of life by calling “Vasily Terkin” not a poem, but “ a book about a fighter". The word “book” in this popular sense sounds somehow specially significant, like an object “ serious, reliable, unconditional”, says Tvardovsky. Like all the heroes of the world epic, Tyorkin granted immortality(it is no coincidence that in the 1954 poem by Terkin, in the next world he finds himself in the afterlife, reminiscent of Soviet reality in its carrion) and at the same time - lively optimism, making him the personification of the people's spirit. The poem was a huge success among readers. Vasily Terkin became a folklore character, about which Tvardovsky remarked: “Where he came from is where he goes.” The book received both official recognition (State Prize, 1946) and high praise from contemporaries.

TO REMEMBER Contents

There is a new guy in the infantry company, Vasily Terkin. He is fighting for the second time in his life (the first war was Finnish). Vasily does not mince his words, he is a good eater. In general, “the guy is anywhere.”

Terkin recalls how he, in a detachment of ten people, during the retreat, made his way from the western, “German” side to the east, to the front. Along the way there was the commander’s native village, and the detachment went to his house. The wife fed the soldiers and put them to bed. The next morning the soldiers left, leaving the village in German captivity. On the way back, Tyorkin would like to go to this hut to bow to the “good simple woman.”

The river is being crossed. Platoons are loaded onto pontoons. Enemy fire disrupted the crossing, but the first platoon managed to move to the right bank. Those who remained on the left are waiting for dawn, do not know what to do next. Terkin swims from the right bank (winter, icy water). He reports that the first platoon is able to ensure the crossing if it is supported by fire.

Terkin establishes communication. A shell explodes nearby. Seeing a German cellar, Tyorkin takes it. There, in ambush, the enemy is waiting. He kills a German officer, but he manages to wound him. Our people start hitting the cellar. And Tyorkin is discovered by tank crews and taken to the medical battalion...

Terkin jokingly argues that it would be nice to receive a medal and come with it to a party in the village council after the war.

Leaving the hospital, Tyorkin catches up with his company. He is transported by truck. Ahead is a stopped column of transport. Freezing. And there is only one accordion - the tankers. It belonged to their fallen commander. The tankers give the accordion to Tyorkin. He plays first a sad melody, then a cheerful one, and the dancing begins. The tankers remember that it was they who delivered the wounded Tyorkin to the medical battalion, and give him an accordion.

There is a grandfather (an old soldier) and a grandmother in the hut. Terkin comes to see them. He repairs saws and watches for old people. He guesses that the grandmother has hidden lard... The grandmother treats Tyorkin. And the grandfather asks: “Shall we beat the German?” Tyorkin answers, already leaving, from the threshold: “We’ll beat you, father.”

The bearded fighter lost his pouch. Terkin recalls that when he was wounded, he lost his hat, and the girl nurse gave him hers. He still keeps this hat. Terkin gives the bearded man his tobacco pouch and explains: in war you can lose anything (even life and family), but not Russia.

Terkin fights hand-to-hand with a German. Wins. Returns from reconnaissance, bringing “tongue” with him.

It's spring at the front. The buzz of the cockchafer gives way to the roar of a bomber. The soldiers are lying prone. Only Terkin gets up, fires at the plane with a rifle and shoots it down. Tyorkin is given an order.

Terkin recalls how in the hospital he met a boy who had already become a hero. He proudly emphasized that he was from near Tambov. And his native Smolensk region seemed like an “orphan” to Tyorkin. That's why he wanted to become a hero.

The general lets Tyorkin go home for a week. But the Germans still have his village... And the general advises him to wait for his vacation: “You and I are on the same path.”

The battle in the swamp for the small village of Borki, of which nothing remains. Terkin encourages his comrades.

Tyorkin is sent to rest for a week. This is “paradise” - a hut where you can eat four times a day and sleep as much as you like, on the bed, in the bed. At the end of the first day, Terkin begins to think... he catches a passing truck and goes to his home company.

The platoon is under fire, going to take the village. the “dapper” lieutenant leads everyone. They kill him. Then Terkin understands that “it’s his turn to lead.” The village has been taken. And Terkin himself is seriously wounded. Terkin lies in the snow. Death persuades him to submit to her. But Vasily does not agree. People from the funeral team find him and carry him to the medical battalion.

After the hospital, Terkin returns to his company, and there everything is different, the people are different. There... a new Terkin appeared. Only not Vasily, but Ivan. They are arguing who is the real Terkin? We are already ready to concede this honor to each other. But the foreman announces that each company “will be assigned its own Terkin.”

The village where Tyorkin repaired his saw and watch is under the Germans. The German took the watch from his grandfather and grandmother. The front line ran through the village. The old people had to move into the cellar. Our scouts come to them, among them is Terkin. He is already an officer. Turkin promises to bring new watches from Berlin.

With the advance, Tyorkin passes by his native Smolensk village. Others take it. There is a crossing across the Dnieper. Terkin says goodbye to his native side, which remains no longer in captivity, but in the rear.

Vasily talks about an orphan soldier who came to his native village on leave, and there was nothing left there, the whole family died. The soldier needs to continue to fight. And we need to remember about him, about his grief. Don't forget about this when victory comes.

Road to Berlin. The grandmother returns home from captivity. The soldiers give her a horse, a cart, things... “Tell her what Vasily Terkin supplied.”

A bathhouse in the depths of Germany, in some German house. The soldiers are steaming. Among them is one - he has a lot of scars from wounds, he knows how to steam very well, he doesn’t mince his words, he dresses like a tunic with orders and medals. The soldiers say about him: “It’s the same as Terkin.”

34. Autobiographical motives in the lyrical and journalistic poem by A. Tvardovsky “By the right of memory».

Poem "By Right of Memory" was created in the 60s, but was published many years later - in 1987, for many years it was banned. The new work was conceived as an “Additional Chapter” to the poem “Beyond the Distance - Distance.” The work on the new chapter was dictated by a feeling of some understatement about “time and about myself.” In genre and thematic terms, this is a lyrical and philosophical reflection, a “travel diary”, with a weakened plot. The characters in the poem are the vast Soviet country, its people, the rapid turn of their affairs and achievements. The text of the poem contains a humorous confession from the author, a passenger on the Moscow-Vladivostok train. The artist sees three distances: the vastness of the geographical expanses of Russia; the historical distance as the continuity of generations and the awareness of the inextricable connection of times and destinies, and finally, the bottomlessness of the moral reserves of the soul of the lyrical hero.

Later, “Additional Chapter” resulted in a completely new work. She reflected the sharp the author's reaction to the changing social situation in the second half of the 60s. The poem “By Right of Memory” is a three-part composition. For Tvardovsky's word “memory” and “truth” are synonymous concepts. The thought, in the power of which the poet was, was heard more than once in his poems, such as “About Existing Things,” “The Whole Essence is in One Single Testament,” “A Word about Words,” “I wish I could live forever as a solitary nightingale...” and others.

In the introduction, Tvardovsky states that these are frank lines, a confession of the soul.

The first and second chapters are contrasting in their intonation. In the first the poet with a warm feeling, a little ironically, recalls his youthful dreams and plans. These dreams are pure and lofty: to live and work for the good of the Motherland. And if necessary, then give your life for her. Beautiful youthful dreams.

Chapter two“The son is not responsible for his father” is the most tragic in the poem, and in all of his work. The illegally dispossessed Tvardovsky family was exiled to Siberia. Only Alexander Trifonovich remained in Russia due to the fact that he lived separately from his family in Smolensk. He could not alleviate the fate of those exiled. In fact, he abandoned his family. This tormented the poet all his life. This unhealed wound of Tvardovsky resulted in the poem “By Right of Memory.”

The poet seeks to comprehend the course of history. Understand what was the fault of the repressed peoples. Who allowed this state of affairs when one person decided the fate of nations. And everyone was guilty before him for the fact that they were alive.

A difficult time that philosophers cannot understand fifty years later. But what can we say about a young man who firmly believes in official propaganda and ideology? The duality of the situation is reflected in the poem.

“The son is not responsible for his father” - when repeated, these words receive more and more new semantic and emotional content. It is repetition that allows us to follow the development of the theme of “five words.” The second chapter occupies a special place in the poem “By Right of Memory.” Being the key, it “holds” the entire poem. Tvardovsky knew that it could not be published. In the poem “By Right of Memory,” Tvardovsky is not a dispassionate chronicler, but prosecution witness. He is concerned about the fate of specific people whom he knew well: his childhood friend, Aunt Daria - in the poem “Beyond the Distance - Distance”, his father - in the last poem. “On Memory” is a special chapter. It synthesizes the thoughts and motives stated in its title. The chapter is polemical. Tvardovsky argues with those whom he calls “silent people.”

In the third chapter of the poem, Tvardovsky asserts the human right to memory. We have no right to forget anything. As long as we remember, our ancestors, their deeds and exploits are “alive.” Memory is a person’s privilege, and he cannot voluntarily give up God’s gift to please anyone. The chapter is comparable to some chapters of the poem “Beyond the Distance”: “With Myself,” “Childhood Friend,” “Literary Conversation,” “So It Was.” Similar motives (truth, memory, responsibility), noticeable textual echoes, the pathos of these works, expressed in the words: “Here neither subtract nor add, - / So it was on earth,” - and other things allow us to consider Tvardovsky’s last two poems as a kind of poetic duology.

This poem is a kind of repentance from Tvardovsky for his youthful actions and mistakes. We all make mistakes in our youth, sometimes fatal ones, but this does not give rise to poems in us. A great poet even pours out his grief and tears into brilliant poetry.

The great events that took place in our country were reflected in the work of Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky both in the form of their direct depiction and in the form of individual experiences and reflections associated with it. In this sense, his work is highly topical.

Although “By Right of Memory” does not have a genre designation in its subtitle, and the poet himself, true to the concepts of literary modesty, sometimes called this work a poetic “cycle,” it is quite obvious that this is a lyric poem.

The poem “Vasily Terkin” is dated 1941-1945 - the difficult, terrible and heroic years of the struggle of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders. In this work, Alexander Tvardovsky created the immortal image of a simple Soviet soldier, defender of the Fatherland, who became a kind of personification of deep patriotism and love for his Motherland.

History of creation

The poem began to be written in 1941. Selected excerpts were published in newspaper versions between 1942 and 1945. Also in 1942, the still unfinished work was published separately.

Oddly enough, work on the poem was started by Tvardovsky back in 1939. It was then that he already worked as a war correspondent and covered the progress of the Finnish military campaign in the newspaper “On Guard of the Motherland”. The name was coined in collaboration with members of the newspaper's editorial board. In 1940, a small brochure “Vasya Terkin at the Front” was published, which was considered a great reward among the soldiers.

The newspaper's readers liked the image of the Red Army soldier from the very beginning. Realizing this, Tvardovsky decided that this topic was promising and began to develop it.

From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, being at the front as a war correspondent, he found himself in the hottest battles. He gets surrounded with soldiers, gets out of it, retreats and goes on the attack, experiencing first-hand everything that he would like to write about.

In the spring of 1942, Tvardovsky arrived in Moscow, where he wrote the first chapters “From the Author” and “At a Rest”, and they were immediately published in the newspaper “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda”.

Tvardovsky could not have imagined such an explosion of popularity even in his wildest dreams. The central publications “Pravda”, “Izvestia”, “Znamya” reprint excerpts from the poem. On the radio, texts are read by Orlov and Levitan. The artist Orest Vereisky creates illustrations that finally formulate the image of a fighter. Tvardovsky holds creative evenings in hospitals, and also meets with work teams in the rear, raising morale.

As always, what the common people liked did not receive the support of the party. Tvardovsky was criticized for pessimism, for not mentioning that the party is in charge of all accomplishments and achievements. In this regard, the author wanted to finish the poem in 1943, but grateful readers did not allow him to do this. Tvardovsky had to agree to censorship edits, in return he was awarded the Stalin Prize for his now immortal work. The poem was completed in March 1945 - it was then that the author wrote the chapter “In the Bath”.

Description of the work

The poem has 30 chapters, which can be roughly divided into 3 parts. In four chapters, Tvardovsky does not talk about the hero, but simply talks about the war, about how much ordinary Soviet men who stood up to defend their Motherland had to endure, and hints at the progress of work on the book. The role of these digressions cannot be downplayed - this is a dialogue between the author and the readers, which he conducts directly, even bypassing his hero.

There is no clear chronological sequence in the course of the story. Moreover, the author does not name specific battles and battles, however, individual battles and operations highlighted in the history of the Great Patriotic War are discernible in the poem: the retreat of Soviet troops, so common in 1941 and 1942, the battle of the Volga, and, of course, the capture Berlin.

There is no strict plot in the poem - and the author did not have the task of conveying the course of the war. The central chapter is “Crossing”. The main idea of the work is clearly visible there - a military road. It is along this path that Terkin and his comrades move towards achieving their goal - complete victory over the Nazi invaders, and therefore, towards a new, better and free life.

Hero of the work

The main character is Vasily Terkin. A fictional character, cheerful, cheerful, straightforward, despite the difficult circumstances in which he lives during the war.

We observe Vasily in different situations - and everywhere we can note his positive qualities. Among his brothers-in-arms, he is the life of the party, a jokester who always finds an opportunity to joke and make others laugh. When he goes on the attack, he is an example for other fighters, showing his qualities such as resourcefulness, courage, and endurance. When he rests after a fight, he can sing, he plays the accordion, but at the same time he can answer quite harshly and with humor. When soldiers meet civilians, Vasily is all charm and modesty.

Courage and dignity, shown in all, even the most hopeless situations, are the main features that distinguish the main character of the work and form his image.

All the other characters in the poem are abstract - they don’t even have names. The brothers-in-arms, the general, the old man and the old woman - they all just play along, helping to reveal the image of the main character - Vasily Terkin.

Analysis of the work

Since Vasily Terkin does not have a real prototype, we can safely say that this is a kind of collective image that was created by the author, based on his real observations of soldiers.

The work has one distinctive feature that sets it apart from similar works of that time - the absence of an ideological principle. The poem contains no praise for the party or Comrade Stalin personally. This, according to the author, “would destroy the idea and figurative structure of the poem.”

The work uses two poetic meters: tetrameter and trimeter trochee. The first dimension occurs much more often, the second - only in certain chapters. The language of the poem became a kind of Tvardovsky card. Some moments that look like sayings and lines from funny songs, as they say, “went among the people” and began to be used in everyday speech. For example, the phrase “No, guys, I’m not proud, I agree to a medal” or “Soldiers surrender cities, generals take them from them” are used by many today.

It was on people like the main character of this poem in verse that all the hardships of the war fell. And only their human qualities - fortitude, optimism, humor, the ability to laugh at others and at themselves, in time to defuse a tense situation to the limit - helped them not only win, but also survive in this terrible and merciless war.

The poem is still alive and loved by the people. In 2015, the Russian Reporter magazine conducted sociological research into hundreds of the most popular poems in Russia. Lines from “Vasily Terkin” took 28th place, which suggests that the memory of the events of 70 years ago and the feat of those heroes is still alive in our memory.

The theme of the poem “Vasily Terkin” was formulated by the author himself in the subtitle: “A book about a fighter,” that is, the work talks about war and a man at war. The hero of the poem is an ordinary infantry soldier, which is extremely important, since, according to Tvardovsky, it is the ordinary soldier who is the main hero and winner in the Patriotic War. This idea will be continued ten years later by M.A. Sholokhov, who in “The Fate of a Man” will portray an ordinary soldier Andrei Sokolov, and then ordinary soldiers and junior officers will become heroes of military stories by Yu.V. Bondarev, V.L. Kondratiev, V.P. .Astafieva. It should be noted by the way that the legendary Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov also dedicated his book “Memories and Reflections” to the Russian soldier.

The idea of the poem is expressed in the image of the title character: the author is interested not so much in the events of the war as in the character of the Russian people (it is not opposed to the Soviet people), which was revealed in difficult military trials. Vasily Terkin represents a generalized image of the people, he is a “Russian miracle man” (“From the author”). Thanks to his courage, perseverance, resourcefulness, and sense of duty, the Soviet Union (with approximate technical parity) defeated Nazi Germany. Tvardovsky expresses this main idea of the Patriotic War and his work at the end of the poem:

Strength has proven to strength:
Strength is no match for strength.
There is metal stronger than metal,
There is fire worse than fire. ("In the bath")

“Vasily Terkin” is a poem, its genre originality is expressed in the combination of epic scenes depicting various military episodes with lyrical digressions and reflections, in which the author, without hiding his feelings, talks about the war, about his hero. In other words, Tvardovsky created a lyric-epic poem.

The author paints various pictures of battles in the chapters: “Crossing”, “Battle in the swamp”, “Who shot?”, “Terkin is wounded” and others. A distinctive feature of these chapters is the depiction of everyday life of war. Tvardovsky is next to his hero and describes the soldier’s exploits without sublime pathos, but also without missing out on numerous details. For example, in the chapter “Who Shot?” the German bombing of the trenches in which Soviet soldiers hid is depicted. The author conveys the feeling of a person who cannot change anything in a deadly situation, but, frozen, must only wait for a bomb to fly past or hit him directly:

And how submissive you are suddenly
You lie on your earthly chest,
Shielding yourself from black death
Only with your own back.
You're lying on your face, boy
Less than twenty years old.
Now you're finished,
Now you are no longer there.

The poem also describes a short rest in the war, the life of a soldier in the intervals between battles. There seem to be no fewer of these chapters than chapters about military episodes. These include: “Accordion”, “Two Soldiers”, “At a Rest”, “In the Bath” and others. The chapter “About an Orphan Soldier” depicts an episode when a soldier found himself very close to his native village, which he had not been to since the beginning of the war. He asks the commander for two hours off to visit his relatives. The soldier runs through places familiar from childhood, recognizes the road, the river, but in place of the village he sees only tall weeds, and not a single living soul:

Here is the hill, here is the river,
Wilderness, weeds as tall as a soldier,
Yes, there is a plaque on the post:
Like, the village of Red Bridge...
At the plank at the fork,
Taking off his cap, our soldier
I stood there as if at a grave,
And it's time for him to go back.

When he returned to his unit, his comrades guessed everything from his appearance, did not ask anything, but left him dinner:

But, homeless and rootless,
Returning to the battalion,
The soldier ate his cold soup
After all, and he cried.

In several chapters “From the Author” the lyrical content of the poem is directly expressed (the poet expresses his views on poetry, explains his attitude towards Vasily Terkin), and in the epic chapters the author accompanies the story about military events with his excited, emotional commentary. For example, in the chapter “Crossing” the poet painfully depicts soldiers who die in the cold waters of the river:

And I saw you for the first time,
It will not be forgotten:
People are warm and alive
We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...

Or in the chapter “Accordion” the author describes how, during a random stop, the soldiers started dancing on the road to warm up. The poet looks with sadness and affection at the soldiers who, having forgotten for a few minutes about death, about the sorrows of war, dance merrily in the bitter cold:

And the accordion is calling somewhere.
It's far, it leads easily.
No, what are you guys like?
Amazing people.

Who owns this remark - the author or Tyorkin, who plays the harmony and watches the dancing couples? It is impossible to say for sure: the author sometimes intentionally seems to merge with the hero, because he has endowed the hero with his own thoughts and feelings. The poet states this in the chapter “About Myself”:

And I’ll tell you, I won’t hide it, -
In this book, here and there,
What a hero should say
I speak personally myself.
I am responsible for everything around me,
And notice, if you didn’t notice,
Just like Terkin, my hero,

Sometimes it speaks for me. The next plot-compositional feature of the poem is that the book has no beginning or ending: In a word, a book about a fighter. Without beginning, without end. Why is this without a beginning? Because time is not enough. Start it all over again. Why without end? I just feel sorry for the guy. (“From the author”) The poem “Vasily Terkin” was created by Tvardovsky during the Great Patriotic War and consists of separate chapters, separate sketches, which are united by the image of the main character. After the war, the author did not begin to supplement the poem with new episodes, that is, to come up with an exposition (expanding the pre-war history of Tyorkin) and a plot (for example, depicting the hero’s first battle with the Nazis). Tvardovsky simply added in 1945-1946 the introduction “From the author” and the conclusion “From the author”. Thus, the poem turned out to be very original in composition: there is no usual exposition, plot, climax, or denouement in the overall storyline. Because of this, Tvardovsky himself found it difficult to determine the genre of “Vasily Terkin”: after all, the poem involves a plot narrative.

With a free construction of the overall storyline, each chapter has its own complete plot and composition. For example, the chapter “Two Soldiers” describes an episode in which Tyorkin, returning from the hospital to the front, went to rest from the road in a hut where two old men live. The exposition of the chapter is a description of a hut, an old man and an old woman who are listening to mortar fire: after all, the front line is very close. The plot is the author’s mention of Tyorkin. He sits here on the bench, respectfully talks with the old man about various everyday problems and at the same time sets up a saw and repairs a clock. Then the old woman prepares dinner. The climax of the chapter is a conversation at dinner when the old man asks his main question:

Answer: we will beat the German
Or maybe we won’t beat you?

The denouement comes when Terkin, having had dinner and politely thanking the owners, puts on his overcoat and, already standing on the threshold, answers the old man: “We’ll beat you, father...”.

This chapter contains a kind of epilogue that transfers a private everyday episode into a general historical plan. This is the last quatrain:

In the depths of our native Russia,
Against the wind, chest forward,
Vasily walks through the snow
Terkin. He's going to beat the German.

The chapter is structured according to a ring composition, since the first and penultimate quatrains practically coincide:

There is a blizzard in the field,
War is raging three miles away.
There is an old woman on the stove in the hut.
Grandfather-owner at the window.

Thus, the chapter “Two Soldiers” is a complete work with a complete plot and a ring composition that emphasizes the completeness of the entire episode.

So, the poem “Vasily Terkin” has a number of artistic features that are explained, on the one hand, by the history of the creation of the work, and on the other, by the author’s intention. As is known, Tvardovsky wrote chapters of the poem in the period from 1942 to 1945 and designed them as separate completed works, because

There is no plot in war.
- How come it’s not there?
- So, no. (“From the author”)

In other words, a soldier's life lasts from episode to episode as long as he is alive. This feature of front-line life, when every single moment of life is valued, since the next one may not exist, was reflected by Tvardovsky in “The Book about a Soldier.”

The individual small works could be united first by the image of the main character, who is present in one way or another in almost every chapter, and then by the main idea associated with the image of Tyorkin. Having combined individual chapters into a complete poem, Tvardovsky did not change the plot and compositional structure that had developed naturally during the war years:

The same book about a fighter,
Without beginning, without end,
No special plot
However, the truth is not harmful. (“From the author”)

“Vasily Terkin” is distinguished by its striking construction features. Firstly, the poem lacks a general plot and almost all of its elements. Secondly, the poem is characterized by extreme compositional freedom, that is, the sequence of chapters is poorly motivated - the composition only approximately follows the course of the Patriotic War. It was because of this composition that Tvardovsky himself defined the genre of his work with the following phrase: not a poem, but simply a “book,” “a living, moving, free-form book” (“How Vasily Terkin was written”). Thirdly, each chapter is a complete fragment with its own plot and composition. Fourthly, the epic depiction of episodes of the war is intertwined with lyrical digressions, which complicates the composition. However, such an unusual construction allowed the author to achieve the main thing - to create a bright and memorable image of Vasily Terkin, who embodies the best features of a Russian soldier and a Russian person in general.

Vasily Terkin is a character in the verse poem of the same name about the war, created by the writer. The image of the main character embodied the features of the common people. The author endowed the soldier with a cheerful disposition, ingenuity, the ability not to lose heart in difficult situations, courage and bravery. For these qualities, the character was loved by readers. Tvardovsky’s book raised the morale of Soviet soldiers, instilled in them optimism and faith in victory.

History of character creation

The image of the Soviet soldier was created several years before the Great Patriotic War. Thinking through the character's character, Tvardovsky endowed Terkin with resourcefulness, inexhaustible positivity and a sense of humor. The authorship of the image belongs to a team of journalists, which included Alexander Trifonovich.

In 1939, two feuilletons about Vasily Terkin were published. In the opinion of publicists, he was a successful and strong representative of the common people. Tvardovsky began to work out the character of the main character of the future book during the years of the Soviet-Finnish War. The good-natured and brave hero of the feuilletons gained popularity among the readership. This convinced the writer that the theme needed to be developed in a larger literary form.

The author set out to create a poetic poem, but the beginning of the Great Patriotic War changed his creative plans. Only in 1942 were the first lines of the work written, which Alexander Trifonovich initially called “The Book about a Fighter.” The image of Vasily Terkin has no prototype. However, the writer, being on the battlefield as a war correspondent, managed to give the image “liveness” and realism, which allowed readers to perceive the hero of the poem as a real person.

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The first chapters of the book were published in a front-line newspaper. Then it began to be published by such printed publications as Pravda, Izvestia and others. Readers were inspired by the image of a worker saving his native lands. The chapters reached both front-line soldiers and citizens remaining in the rear. “The Book about a Fighter” was loved by the public.
In 1943, having ended up in a military hospital after being wounded, the writer decided that he was approaching the end of the poem. Subsequently, he had to continue working until 1945. The book was continued thanks to requests from readers. Completing work on the work, Alexander Trifonovich begins to write the next poem with the unusual title “Terkin in the Other World.” It was originally planned that this would be the last chapter of the essay about the Russian soldier. However, the idea grew into a separate book. The new work became an anti-Stalin pamphlet.
In terms of genre, Tvardovsky’s poem resembled folklore tales about folk heroes. Therefore, in the text the writer consciously abandoned the ideological principle. Alexander Trifonovich noted that turning to party themes and the image of Joseph Stalin would violate the plan and “figurative structure of the poem about the people’s war.” This fact later created difficulties for the writer when publishing the poem - the work underwent numerous edits and proofreading.
Tvardovsky's book became very popular during the war years. The work was not only published in newspapers, but also read out on the radio by such announcers as. The artist Orest Vereisky created wonderful illustrations for the poem about Terkin. The author of the essay himself visited hospitals and work groups, where he introduced the public to the history of the Soviet soldier.

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Rest after the battle (based on the poem by A. Tvardovsky “Vasily Terkin”)
Phrases from the poem have become famous quotes. The lines about the battle, which is fought not for glory, but for the sake of life on Earth, express the main idea and theme of the work. The image of the main character was later captured in sculpture - monuments to the bright character of Russian literature were erected in Smolensk, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, and Gvardeysk.
Biography of Vasily Terkin
Tvardovsky's poem does not have a consistent plot. Each chapter is a separate episode from the life of a soldier. Little is known about the biography of Vasily Terkin. The text states that the hero was born in a village near Smolensk. The character is young and not yet married. The guy wants to go to the front to save the Fatherland from the encroachments of the enemy.
A cheerful and straightforward character demonstrates remarkable courage and courage, despite the difficulties of front-line life. The soul of the company, from whom you can always get support, Terkin was a role model. In battle, the soldier was the first to attack the enemy, and in his spare time he entertained his comrades by playing the accordion. A charming and charismatic guy endears himself to readers.
Readers' first acquaintance with the hero occurs when he and his colleagues cross the river. The operation takes place in winter, but the river is not completely frozen, and the crossing is disrupted due to an enemy attack. The image of the road becomes central in the poem - this is the path of the Soviet army to victory over the invaders. In the episode with the crossing, Terkin demonstrates courage and ingenuity - thanks to the efforts of the hero, the soldiers are able to continue the campaign. However, the character himself is wounded and ends up in a military hospital.

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Monument to Vasily Terkin in the city of Gvardeysk
Having recovered from his wound, Terkin decides to catch up with the platoon. The chapter “Harmon” is dedicated to his ability to find an approach to the team and win their respect and trust.
The soldier becomes a participant in battles and provides all possible assistance to those with whom he serves in the same unit, and to civilians. Having received leave, Terkin refuses to travel to his native village, captured by the Germans, in order to be useful at the front. For his feat in battle - the hero shoots down an enemy plane - Vasily Terkin is awarded a medal, which during the war becomes not the only award for the character.
One day, entering a village, the hero finds himself in a house where an old man and his wife live. Vasily repairs watches and saws for the old people and encourages them in every possible way. In another episode, a warrior gives a personal pouch to a soldier who has lost his. At the same time, Terkin recalls that when he was in the hospital and lost his hat, the young nurse gave the character her headdress. Since then, Vasily carefully kept this gift.
During the battle for the village, the soldier has to take on the functions of the young killed lieutenant. The hero leads the platoon and leads the attack. The village was taken by Russian soldiers, but Vasily was seriously wounded. When a fighter lies in the snow, Death appears to him and asks him to submit to it. But the character finds the strength to resist the uninvited guest. Soon the wounded man is found by other employees and sent to the medical battalion. After spending some time in the hospital, the soldier returns to his native company, where he finds many new faces.

Strength has proven to strength:
Strength is no match for strength.
There is metal stronger than metal,
There is fire worse than fire. ("In the bath")

When he returned to his unit, his comrades guessed everything from his appearance, did not ask anything, but left him dinner:

But, homeless and rootless,
Returning to the battalion,
The soldier ate his cold soup
After all, and he cried.

And I saw you for the first time,
It will not be forgotten:
People are warm and alive
We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...

And the accordion is calling somewhere.
It's far, it leads easily.
No, what are you guys like?
Amazing people.

Sometimes it speaks for me. The next plot-compositional feature of the poem is that the book has no beginning or ending: In a word, a book about a fighter. Without beginning, without end. Why so - without a beginning? Because time is not enough. Start it all over again. Why without end? I just feel sorry for the guy. (“From the author”) The poem “Vasily Terkin” was created by Tvardovsky during the Great Patriotic War and consists of separate chapters, separate sketches, which are united by the image of the main character. After the war, the author did not begin to supplement the poem with new episodes, that is, to come up with an exposition (expanding the pre-war history of Tyorkin) and a plot (for example, depicting the hero’s first battle with the Nazis). Tvardovsky simply added in 1945-1946 the introduction “From the author” and the conclusion “From the author”. Thus, the poem turned out to be very original in composition: there is no usual exposition, plot, climax, or denouement in the overall storyline. Because of this, Tvardovsky himself found it difficult to determine the genre of “Vasily Terkin”: after all, the poem involves a plot narrative.

With a free construction of the overall storyline, each chapter has its own complete plot and composition. For example, the chapter “Two Soldiers” describes an episode in which Tyorkin, returning from the hospital to the front, went to rest from the road in a hut where two old men live. The exposition of the chapter is a description of a hut, an old man and an old woman who are listening to mortar fire: after all, the front line is very close. The plot is the author's mention of Tyorkin. He sits here on the bench, respectfully talks with the old man about various everyday problems and at the same time sets up a saw and repairs a clock. Then the old woman prepares dinner. The climax of the chapter is a conversation at dinner when the old man asks his main question:

Answer: we will beat the German
Or maybe we won’t beat you?

This chapter contains a kind of epilogue that transfers a private everyday episode into a general historical plan. This is the last quatrain:

In the depths of our native Russia,
Against the wind, chest forward,
Vasily walks through the snow
Terkin. He's going to beat the German.

The chapter is structured according to a ring composition, since the first and penultimate quatrains practically coincide:

There is a blizzard in the field,
War is raging three miles away.
There is an old woman on the stove in the hut.
Grandfather-owner at the window.

Thus, the chapter “Two Soldiers” is a complete work with a complete plot and a ring composition that emphasizes the completeness of the entire episode.

There is no plot in war.
- How come it’s not there?
- So, no. (“From the author”)

The same book about a fighter,
Without beginning, without end,
No special plot
However, the truth is not harmful. (“From the author”)

“Vasily Terkin” is distinguished by its striking construction features. Firstly, the poem lacks a general plot and almost all of its elements. Secondly, the poem is characterized by extreme compositional freedom, that is, the sequence of chapters is poorly motivated - the composition only approximately follows the course of the Patriotic War. It was because of this composition that Tvardovsky himself defined the genre of his work with the following phrase: not a poem, but simply a “book,” “a living, moving, free-form book” (“How Vasily Terkin was written”). Thirdly, each chapter is a complete fragment with its own plot and composition. Fourthly, the epic depiction of episodes of the war is intertwined with lyrical digressions, which complicates the composition. However, such an unusual structure allowed the author to achieve the main thing - to create a bright and memorable image of Vasily Terkin, who embodies the best features of a Russian soldier and a Russian person in general.