Konstantin Simonov days and nights analysis of the work. Living and dead

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy in his epic novel “War and Peace” provided a wide system of images. His world is not limited to a few noble families: real historical characters are mixed with fictional ones, major and minor. This symbiosis is sometimes so confusing and unusual that it is extremely difficult to determine which heroes perform a more or less important function.

The novel features representatives of eight noble families, almost all of them occupy central place in the story.

Rostov family

This family is represented by Count Ilya Andreevich, his wife Natalya, their four children together and their pupil Sonya.

The head of the family, Ilya Andreevich, is a sweet and good-natured person. He has always been wealthy, so he does not know how to save; he is often deceived by friends and relatives for selfish purposes. The Count is not a selfish person, he is ready to help everyone. Over time, his attitude, reinforced by his addiction to card game, became disastrous for his entire family. Because of the father's squandering, the family for a long time is on the verge of poverty. The Count dies at the end of the novel, after the wedding of Natalia and Pierre, natural death.

Countess Natalya is very similar to her husband. She, like him, is alien to the concept of self-interest and the race for money. She is ready to help people who find themselves in difficult situation, she is overwhelmed with feelings of patriotism. The Countess had to endure many sorrows and troubles. This state of affairs is associated not only with unexpected poverty, but also with the death of their children. Of the thirteen born, only four survived, and subsequently the war took another one - the youngest.

Count and Countess Rostov, like most of the characters in the novel, have their own prototypes. They were the writer’s grandfather and grandmother – Ilya Andreevich and Pelageya Nikolaevna.

The Rostovs' eldest child's name is Vera. This unusual girl, unlike all the other family members. She is rude and callous at heart. This attitude applies not only to strangers, but also to close relatives. The rest of the Rostov children subsequently make fun of her and even come up with a nickname for her. The prototype of Vera was Elizaveta Bers, daughter-in-law of L. Tolstoy.

The next oldest child is Nikolai. His image is depicted in the novel with love. Nikolay – noble man. He approaches any activity responsibly. Tries to be guided by the principles of morality and honor. Nikolai is very similar to his parents - kind, sweet, purposeful. After the disaster he experienced, he was constantly concerned about not being in a similar situation again. Nikolai takes part in military events, he is repeatedly awarded, but still he leaves military service after the war with Napoleon - his family needs him.

Nikolai marries Maria Bolkonskaya, they have three children - Andrei, Natasha, Mitya - and a fourth is expected.

Younger sister Nicholas and Vera - Natalya - is the same in character and temperament as her parents. She is sincere and trusting, and this almost destroys her - Fyodor Dolokhov fools the girl and persuades her to escape. These plans were not destined to come true, but Natalya's engagement to Andrei Bolkonsky was terminated, and Natalya fell into deep depression. Subsequently, she became the wife of Pierre Bezukhov. The woman stopped watching her figure; those around her began to speak of her as an unpleasant woman. The prototypes of Natalya were Tolstoy’s wife, Sofya Andreevna, and her sister, Tatyana Andreevna.

Youngest child Rostov was Petya. He was the same as all the Rostovs: noble, honest and kind. All these qualities were enhanced by youthful maximalism. Petya was a sweet eccentric to whom all pranks were forgiven. Fate was extremely unfavorable for Petya - he, like his brother, went to the front and died there very young and young.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the summary of the second part of the first volume of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”.

Another child was raised in the Rostov family - Sonya. The girl was related to the Rostovs; after the death of her parents, they took her in and treated her like their own child. Sonya was in love with Nikolai Rostov for a long time; this fact did not allow her to get married on time.

Presumably she remained alone until the end of her days. Its prototype was L. Tolstoy’s aunt, Tatyana Alexandrovna, in whose house the writer was brought up after the death of his parents.

We meet all the Rostovs at the very beginning of the novel - they all actively act throughout the entire narrative. In the “Epilogue” we learn about the further continuation of their family.

Bezukhov family

The Bezukhov family is not represented in such a large number as the Rostov family. The head of the family is Kirill Vladimirovich. The name of his wife is not known. We know that she belonged to the Kuragin family, but it is unclear who exactly she was to them. Count Bezukhov has no children born in marriage - all his children are illegitimate. The eldest of them, Pierre, was officially named by his father as heir to the estate.

After such a statement by the count, the image of Pierre Bezukhov begins to actively appear in the public sphere. Pierre himself does not impose his company on others, but he is a prominent groom - the heir to unimaginable wealth, so they want to see him always and everywhere. Nothing is known about Pierre's mother, but this does not become a reason for indignation and ridicule. Pierre received a decent education abroad and returned home full of utopian ideas, his vision of the world is too idealistic and divorced from reality, so all the time he faces unimaginable disappointments - in social activities, personal life, family harmony. His first wife was Elena Kuragina, a minx and a fidgety woman. This marriage brought a lot of suffering to Pierre. The death of his wife saved him from the unbearable - he did not have the power to leave Elena or change her, but he also could not come to terms with such an attitude towards his person. The second marriage - with Natasha Rostova - became more successful. They had four children - three girls and a boy.

Princes Kuragin

The Kuragin family is persistently associated with greed, debauchery and deceit. The reason for this was the children of Vasily Sergeevich and Alina - Anatol and Elena.

Prince Vasily was not bad person, he possessed a number positive qualities, but his desire for enrichment and gentleness of character towards his son brought all the positive aspects to naught.

Like any father, Prince Vasily wanted to provide a comfortable future for his children; one of the options was an advantageous marriage. This position is not only in the best possible way affected the reputation of the entire family, but also later played a tragic role in the lives of Elena and Anatole.

Little is known about Princess Alina. At the time of the story, she was a rather ugly woman. Her distinguishing feature was her hostility towards her daughter Elena out of envy.

Vasily Sergeevich and Princess Alina had two sons and a daughter.

Anatole became the cause of all the family’s troubles. He led the life of a spendthrift and a rake - debts and rowdy behavior were a natural pastime for him. This behavior left an extremely negative imprint on the family’s reputation and financial situation.

Anatole was noticed to be amorously attracted to his sister Elena. Possibility of occurrence Serious relationships between brother and sister were suppressed by Prince Vasily, but, apparently, they still took place after Elena’s marriage.

The Kuragins' daughter Elena had incredible beauty, like her brother Anatoly. She skillfully flirted and after marriage had affairs with many men, ignoring her husband Pierre Bezukhov.

Their brother Hippolytus was completely different from them in appearance - he was extremely unpleasant in appearance. In terms of the composition of his mind, he was not much different from his brother and sister. He was too stupid - this was noted not only by those around him, but also by his father. Still, Hippolytus was not hopeless - he knew well foreign languages and worked at the embassy.

Princes Bolkonsky

The Bolkonsky family occupies far last place in society - they are rich and influential.
The family includes Prince Nikolai Andreevich, a man of the old school and unique morals. He is quite rude in communicating with his family, but still not devoid of sensuality and tenderness - he is kind to his grandson and daughter, in a peculiar way, but still, he loves his son, but he is not very good at showing the sincerity of his feelings.

Nothing is known about the prince's wife; even her name is not mentioned in the text. The Bolkonskys’ marriage produced two children – son Andrei and daughter Marya.

Andrei Bolkonsky is somewhat similar in character to his father - he is hot-tempered, proud and a little rude. He is distinguished by his attractive appearance and natural charm. At the beginning of the novel, Andrei is successfully married to Lisa Meinen - the couple gives birth to a son, Nikolenka, but his mother dies the night after giving birth.

After some time, Andrei becomes Natalya Rostova’s fiancé, but there was no need to have a wedding - Anatol Kuragin translated all the plans, which earned him personal hostility and exceptional hatred from Andrei.

Prince Andrei takes part in the military events of 1812, is seriously wounded on the battlefield and dies in the hospital.

Maria Bolkonskaya - Andrei's sister - is deprived of such pride and stubbornness as her brother, which allows her, not without difficulty, but still to get along with her father, who is not distinguished by an easy-going character. Kind and meek, she understands that she is not indifferent to her father, so she does not hold a grudge against him for his nagging and rudeness. The girl is raising her nephew. Outwardly, Marya does not look like her brother - she is very ugly, but this does not prevent her from marrying Nikolai Rostov and living happy life.

Lisa Bolkonskaya (Meinen) was the wife of Prince Andrei. She was attractive woman. Her inner world was not inferior to her appearance - she was sweet and pleasant, she loved to do needlework. Unfortunately, her fate did not work out in the best way - childbirth turned out to be too difficult for her - she dies, giving life to her son Nikolenka.

Nikolenka lost his mother early, but the boy’s troubles did not stop there - at the age of 7 he lost his father. Despite everything, he is characterized by the cheerfulness inherent in all children - he grows up as an intelligent and inquisitive boy. The image of his father becomes key for him - Nikolenka wants to live in such a way that his father can be proud of him.

Mademoiselle Burien also belongs to the Bolkonsky family. Despite the fact that she is just a hangout companion, her importance in the context of the family is quite significant. First of all, it consists of pseudo friendship with Princess Maria. Mademoiselle often acts meanly towards Maria and takes advantage of the girl’s favor towards her person.

Karagin family

Tolstoy does not talk much about the Karagin family - the reader gets acquainted with only two representatives of this family - Marya Lvovna and her daughter Julie.

Marya Lvovna first appears before readers in the first volume of the novel, and her daughter also begins to act in the first volume of the first part of War and Peace. Julie has an extremely unpleasant appearance, she is in love with Nikolai Rostov, but the young man does not pay any attention to her. Her enormous wealth does not help the situation either. Boris Drubetskoy actively draws attention to her material component; the girl understands that the young man is being nice to her only because of money, but does not show it - for her, this is actually the only way not to remain an old maid.

Princes Drubetsky

The Drubetsky family is not particularly active in the social sphere, therefore Tolstoy avoids a detailed description of the family members and focuses readers’ attention only on actively current characters– Anna Mikhailovna and her son Boris.

Princess Drubetskaya belongs to an old family, but now her family is going through difficult times. better times– Poverty became the Drubetskys’ constant companion. This state of affairs gave rise to a sense of prudence and self-interest in the representatives of this family. Anna Mikhailovna tries to benefit as much as possible from her friendship with the Rostovs - she lives with them for a long time.

Her son, Boris, was Nikolai Rostov's friend for some time. As they grow older, their views on life values and the principles began to differ greatly, which led to distance in communication.

Boris begins to show more and more selfishness and the desire to get rich at any cost. He is ready to marry for money and successfully does so, taking advantage of the unenviable position of Julie Karagina

Dolokhov family

Representatives of the Dolokhov family are also not all active in society. Fedor stands out brightly among everyone. He is the son of Marya Ivanovna and best friend Anatoly Kuragin. In his behavior, he also did not go far from his friend: carousing and an idle way of life are a common occurrence for him. Moreover, he is famous for his love affair with Pierre Bezukhov’s wife, Elena. Distinctive feature What separates Dolokhov from Kuragin is his affection for his mother and sister.

Historical figures in the novel "War and Peace"

Since Tolstoy's novel takes place against the background historical events related to the war against Napoleon in 1812, it is impossible to do without at least partial mention of real-life characters.

Alexander I

The activities of Emperor Alexander I are most actively described in the novel. This is not surprising, because the main events take place on the territory of the Russian Empire. First we learn about the positive and liberal aspirations of the emperor, he is an “angel in the flesh.” The peak of its popularity falls during the period of Napoleon's defeat in the war. It was at this time that Alexander’s authority reached incredible heights. The Emperor could easily make changes and improve the lives of his subjects, but he doesn't. As a result, such an attitude and inactivity become the reason for the emergence of the Decembrist movement.

Napoleon I Bonaparte

On the other side of the barricade in the events of 1812 is Napoleon. Since many Russian aristocrats received their education abroad, and French was everyday life for them, the attitude of the nobles towards this character at the beginning of the novel was positive and bordered on admiration. Then disappointment occurs - their idol from the category of ideals becomes the main villain. Connotations such as egocentrism, lies, and pretense are actively used with the image of Napoleon.

Mikhail Speransky

This character is important not only in Tolstoy's novel, but also during the real era of Emperor Alexander.

His family could not boast of antiquity and significance - he is the son of a priest, but still he managed to become the secretary of Alexander I. He is not a particularly pleasant person, but everyone notes his importance in the context of events in the country.

In addition, the novel features historical characters of lesser importance than the emperors. These are the great commanders Barclay de Tolly, Mikhail Kutuzov and Pyotr Bagration. Their activities and the revelation of the image take place on the battlefield - Tolstoy tries to describe the military part of the story as realistically and captivating as possible, therefore these characters are described not only as great and unsurpassed, but also in the role ordinary people who are subject to doubts, mistakes and negative qualities character.

Other characters

Among the other characters, the name of Anna Scherer should be highlighted. She is the “owner” of a secular salon - the elite of society meet here. Guests are rarely left to their own devices. Anna Mikhailovna always strives to provide for her visitors interesting interlocutors, she often pimps - this arouses her special interest.

Characteristics of the heroes of the novel “War and Peace”: images of the characters

It was dry and dusty. A weak breeze rolled yellow clouds of dust under our feet. The woman’s feet were burned and bare, and when she spoke, she scooped warm dust onto her sore feet with her hand, as if trying to soothe the pain.

Captain Saburov looked at his heavy boots and involuntarily moved back half a step.

He stood silently and listened to the woman, looking over her head to where the train was unloading near the outer houses, right in the steppe.

Beyond the steppe glistened in the sun white stripe salt lake, and all this taken together seemed like the end of the world. Now, in September, here was the last and closest railway station to Stalingrad. Further from the bank of the Volga we had to walk. The town was called Elton, named after the salt lake. Saburov involuntarily remembered the words “Elton” and “Baskunchak” he had memorized since school. Once upon a time it was only school geography. And here it is, this Elton: low houses, dust, a remote railway line.

And the woman kept talking and talking about her misfortunes, and, although her words were familiar, Saburov’s heart sank. Previously, they left from city to city, from Kharkov to Valuyki, from Valuyki to Rossosh, from Rossosh to Boguchar, and the women cried in the same way, and in the same way he listened to them with a mixed feeling of shame and fatigue. But here was the bare Trans-Volga steppe, the edge of the world, and in the woman’s words there was no longer reproach, but despair, and there was nowhere to go further along this steppe, where for many miles there were no cities, no rivers - nothing.

- Where did they take you, huh? - he whispered, and all the unaccountable melancholy of the last 24 hours, when he was looking at the steppe from the heated vehicle, was cramped into these two words.

It was very difficult for him at that moment, but, remembering the terrible distance that now separated him from the border, he thought not about how he had come here, but precisely about how he would have to go back. And in his gloomy thoughts there was that special stubbornness characteristic of the Russian man, which did not allow either him or his comrades even once during the entire war to admit the possibility in which this “back” would not happen.

He looked at the soldiers hastily unloading from the carriages, and he wanted to get across this dust to the Volga as soon as possible and, having crossed it, feel that there would be no return crossing and that his personal fate would be decided on the other side, along with the fate of the city. And if the Germans take the city, he will certainly die, and if he does not let them do this, then perhaps he will survive.

And the woman sitting at his feet was still talking about Stalingrad, naming broken and burned streets one after another. Their names, unfamiliar to Saburov, were performed for her special meaning. She knew where and when the houses that were now burned were built, where and when the trees that were now cut down on the barricades were planted, she regretted all this, as if it was not about big city, but about her house, where acquaintances and things that belonged to her personally disappeared and died to the point of tears.

But she didn’t say anything about her house, and Saburov, listening to her, thought how rarely, in fact, during the entire war he came across people who regretted their missing property. And the further the war went, the less often people remembered their abandoned homes and the more often and more stubbornly they remembered only abandoned cities.

Having wiped away her tears with the end of her handkerchief, the woman looked around with a long questioning glance at everyone listening to her and said thoughtfully and with conviction:

- So much money, so much work!

- What work? – someone asked, not understanding the meaning of her words.

“Build everything back,” the woman said simply.

Saburov asked the woman about herself. She said that her two sons had been at the front for a long time and one of them had already been killed, and her husband and daughter probably remained in Stalingrad. When the bombing and fire began, she was alone and has not known anything about them since then.

– Are you going to Stalingrad? – she asked.

“Yes,” answered Saburov, not seeing a military secret in this, because for what else, if not to go to Stalingrad, could the military echelon in this forgotten by god Eltone.

– Our last name is Klimenko. The husband is Ivan Vasilyevich, and the daughter is Anya. Maybe you’ll meet someone alive somewhere,” the woman said with faint hope.

“Maybe I’ll meet you,” Saburov answered as usual.

The battalion was finishing its unloading. Saburov said goodbye to the woman and, after drinking a ladle of water from a bucket exposed on the street, headed towards the railway track.

The soldiers, sitting on the sleepers, having taken off their boots, were tucking up their foot wraps. Some of them, having saved the rations issued in the morning, chewed bread and dry sausage. The soldier's rumor, true as usual, spread throughout the battalion that after unloading there would be a march immediately, and everyone was in a hurry to finish their unfinished business. Some were eating, others were mending torn tunics, and others were having a smoke break.

Saburov walked along the station tracks. The echelon in which the regimental commander Babchenko was traveling was supposed to arrive any minute, and until then the question remained unresolved: whether Saburov’s battalion would begin the march to Stalingrad, without waiting for the rest of the battalions, or, after spending the night, in the morning, the whole army would immediately move regiment.

Saburov walked along the tracks and looked at the people with whom he was to go into battle the day after tomorrow.

He knew many of them well by sight and name. These were “Voronezh” - that’s what he privately called those who fought with him near Voronezh. Each of them was a jewel because they could be ordered without having to explain unnecessary details.

They knew when the black drops of bombs falling from the plane were flying directly at them and they had to lie down, and they knew when the bombs would fall further and they could calmly watch their flight. They knew that crawling forward under mortar fire was no more dangerous than remaining in place. They knew that tanks most often crush those running from them and that a German machine gunner firing from two hundred meters always hopes to scare rather than kill. In a word, they knew all those simple but saving soldier truths, the knowledge of which gave them confidence that they would not be so easy to kill.

He had a third of his battalion of such soldiers. The rest were about to see war for the first time. Near one of the carriages, guarding the property that had not yet been loaded onto the carts, stood a middle-aged Red Army soldier, who from a distance attracted Saburov’s attention with his guard bearing and thick red mustache, like peaks, sticking out to the sides. When Saburov approached him, he dashingly took “guard” and continued to look into the captain’s face with a direct, unblinking gaze. In the way he stood, the way he was belted, the way he held the rifle, one could feel that soldierly experience that is only given by years of service. Meanwhile, Saburov, who remembered by sight almost everyone who was with him near Voronezh before the division was reorganized, did not remember this Red Army soldier.

- What's your last name? – asked Saburov.

“Konyukov,” the Red Army soldier said and again stared fixedly at the captain’s face.

– Did you take part in the battles?

- Yes sir.

- Near Przemysl.

- That's how it is. So they retreated from Przemysl itself?

- No way. They were advancing. In the sixteenth year.

- That's it.

Saburov looked carefully at Konyukov. The soldier's face was serious, almost solemn.

- How long have you been in the army during this war? – asked Saburov.

- No, it’s the first month.

Saburov once again glanced with pleasure at Konyukov’s strong figure and moved on. At the last carriage he met his chief of staff, Lieutenant Maslennikov, who was in charge of the unloading.

The military theme in the works of Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov (1915-1979) appeared before the start of the Great Patriotic War, starting with the events in Spain and Khalkhin Gol. Already in 1941 in the theater. Lenin Komsomol hosted the premiere of the play “A Guy from Our City,” staged by play of the same name Simonova. It was not yet the war itself, although there was a premonition of future battles in it.

During the Great Patriotic War Simonov was a war correspondent and visited almost all fronts. The poet P. Antokolsky recalled: “When you talk about Simonov, the war comes to mind first of all.” Simonov’s poems brought him wide fame and love from readers: “Wait for me, and I’ll come back...”, “Motherland”, “Do you remember, Alyosha, the roads of the Smolensk region...”, “Motherland”, “The major brought the boy on a gun carriage” and etc. The writer was the first to create a story about the Battle of Stalingrad “Days and Nights” (1943-1944). The book was dedicated to the heroic defense of Stalingrad. Many of the characters in this work had real prototypes.

In the 50-60s, Simonov worked on the trilogy “The Living and the Dead,” dedicated to the three stages of the Great Patriotic War. “I’m interested,” the author said, “to write a novel not about an event.

I am attracted to events that are significant for the lives of many people, more broadly speaking, peoples and countries, events that concern all characters and in one way or another determine their destinies.” Simonov, according to researchers, became one of the founders of a new type - the epic chronicle novel.

In 1959, the novel “The Living and the Dead” was published. The center of the story is the fate of the correspondent army newspaper Ivan Sintsov in the first period of the war. The author talks about different episodes in which numerous characters are depicted (more than one hundred and twenty), who merge into one monumental image of the people. The retreat in the first weeks of the war makes Sintsov and other characters in the novel think about the causes of the tragedy of the forty-first year. One of the heroes of the novel, Serpilin, asks the general from the General Staff: “Tell me: how did it happen that we didn’t know either?” And if they knew, then why didn’t they report? And if he didn’t listen, why didn’t they insist?” However, the answer is not in the novel.

The second novel of the trilogy, “Soldiers Are Not Born” (1964), is closely related to the events told in the first part. The action in the novel begins in New Year's Eve, and ends in the February days of 1943. These chronological framework cover the events of the Battle of Stalingrad. The writer showed a chronicle of everyday events at the front, the horrors of fascist camps, heroism in the rear of the Tashkent factory workers, and pages of underground struggle. The heroes of the trilogy: Sintsov, Serpilin, Tanya Ovsyannikova and others - passed difficult tests, a test of humanity. Material from the site

The trilogy ends with the novel “The Last Summer” (1971), dedicated to the battles for the liberation of Belarus. Central figure The second and third books are the image of General Serpilin (prototype - Colonel Kutepov). IN " Last summer“Serpilin leads one hundred thousand people into battle and successfully solves problems of enormous strategic complexity. He cares about ordinary soldiers, seeks to avoid unnecessary losses. Serpilin believes that “the Motherland can demand heroism from its sons, and not senseless death.”

The Living and the Dead trilogy marked a new turn in literature socialist realism, pointing out the deep drama of the relationship between the people, the individual and the historical process. Although, in general, Simonov’s work was in full agreement with the ideology of socialism.

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"DAYS AND NIGHTS" - KONSTANTIN SIMONOV

Review website

KONSTANTIN SIMONOV : "DAYS AND NIGHTS"
© Review by Vladimir Polkovnikov
© We publish only our own, original, author's reviews.
© The site contains only those books whose copyright has expired

We have already talked about the significant work Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov "The Living and the Dead". The book was published from 1959 to 1971. And even if we take only the first, best part, it was published fourteen years after the end of the war. It can be assumed, most likely unfairly, that its contents were influenced by the post-war thoughts and mood of the author.
But Simonov also wrote during the war. Have you heard the poem “Wait for Me”? That's it. But a poem is a poem, and the military correspondent had time for novels. A very, very good novel about Stalingrad, Days and Nights, was written in 1943-44. Then he came out into the world.
Yes, Simonov himself did not command the units, did not lead the companies into the attack. It is not for me to judge how accurately he was able to penetrate into the psychology of a military man, how accurately he depicted it in his books. And the very year the book was published - 1944 - probably imposed some obligations on the author to readers. The war with the Germans required literature with an appropriate spirit. No sniveling or whining, just victory.
But I was in a good mood. Today, approximately since the time of perestroika, we have been inundated with literature or film productions that highlight the theme of animal feelings in war. The main thing seemed to be to reflect a person’s fear of death, the fear of going on the attack, the desire to hide and sit out. A little later, looting and violence began to come to light. Gradually our soldiers began to turn into uniformed criminals. In general, it's a complete mess.
Well, it seems all the more important to take the antidote. It would be nice to return to the heroic canons of the Soviet era. “Days and Nights” by Simonov is just that.

At the center of the plot is the battalion commander, Captain Saburov. His almost full-blooded division in early September 1942 was transported to Stalingrad and thrown into street fighting. For two and a half months, Saburov has been fighting for three Stalingrad houses. This struggle continues throughout the novel.
Yes, this is not “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” by Nekrasov or “His Battalion” by Bykov. Those books are still post-war, and the mood in them is different. Simonov's Saburov battalion looks different. There are no particularly gloomy pages here, no gore, not even any negative manifestations or characters. Saburov's fighters do not desert, do not run away from battle, and do not steal.
However, there is no excessive ostentatious heroism in the novel. They just do hard and dangerous work without thinking too much. Most of them will be killed or wounded. But there is almost no fear of death in the book. Yes, characters often drop words like “scary.” But in reality they do not show this feeling at all. We need to go on the attack - they are coming, we need volunteers - they are there. And after a little shelling, having settled into occupied houses, they begin to show off and neglect the danger. Well, I’m too lazy to crawl thirty meters on my belly, it’s better to jump over full height with one throw, maybe it won’t hit you.
Simonov's soldiers are certainly idealized. They are all completely conscious, understanding, ready for self-sacrifice. Of course, they don't even swear. You can say: wow, how unreliable. But you can look at it differently. Is it necessary to drag everything from life into a book? Up to the recovery of natural needs. Anyone who needs swearing may well come up with it themselves. This book is about something else.

It is about people who defended the last quarters of Stalingrad in impossible conditions. Just think about what they had to experience. Try to imagine what it would be like to fight the Germans in ruins, with a wide river a couple of hundred meters behind you. And fight like this not for a day, not two, but for months.
May be, Battle of Stalingrad, strictly speaking, these are for the most part not the streets of Stalingrad at all. It's much wider. Perhaps the city occupied only a small part of the battle front. But it was here that it was so difficult, so difficult that the people who survived under these conditions became a symbol of victory.
The last couple of chapters of the novel “Days and Nights” are already devoted to the events of November 19-20, 1942, when our tank wedges went on the offensive far from the city. Simonov is trying to describe the feelings of people who suddenly heard the distant roar of cannonade, signifying the beginning of a turning point. Yes, they may be killed a hundred and fifty times more, not even before victory over Germany in general, but at least before victory here, on the streets. But so what? The main thing is that all this was not in vain. The main thing is that victory is quite tangible. The main thing is that the Germans will soon be driven back. First, that house over there will be taken from him, then the block, the street, the whole city. And then Russia.
By the way, yes, Simonov constantly writes “Russia”, and not “ Soviet Union"or some other variation of the USSR. Also, by the way, a sign of the times. Not today’s fiction, but quite an era of war.
I didn't mention about, so to speak, love line novel. However, such a definition does not suit her. I didn’t mention it not because it is completely unimportant or bad. No, she is both important and good. And she’s emotional in a military way. In such books you never know whether the characters will die or survive. This makes the content filled with special drama. This line shows that even in the conditions of Stalingrad, people did not become brutalized, but live like everyone else. They only walk under death every minute.
In general, if you want military history, not adventure, but hard, combat, filled with harsh military labor, then Simonov’s “Days and Nights” is a good choice.

Quote:
Bombs, high-explosive and fragmentation, large and small, bombs that made craters three meters deep, and bombs that exploded as soon as they touched the ground, with fragments flying so low that they would have shaved the grass if it had been there - all it roared overhead for almost three hours. But when the Germans launched a third attack at six o’clock in the evening, they never jumped over the “ravine of death.”
It was the first time Saburov had seen so many dead people in such a small space.
In the morning, when, after the arrival of reinforcements, Saburov counted his men, he had - he firmly remembered this figure - eighty-three people. Now, by seven o'clock in the evening, he had thirty-five left in the ranks, of which two-thirds were lightly wounded. It must have been the same to his left and right.
The trenches were torn apart, communication lines in dozens of places were interrupted by direct hits from bombs and shells, many dugouts were broken down and reared up. It was all over, but there was still a continuous roar in my ears.
If Saburov were ever asked to describe everything that happened to him that day, he could tell it in a few words: the Germans were shooting, we were hiding in the trenches, then they stopped shooting, we got up, shot at them, then they They retreated, started shooting again, we hid in the trenches again, and when they stopped shooting and went on the attack, we shot at them again.
That, in essence, is all that he and those who were with him did. But, perhaps, never before in his life had he felt such a stubborn desire to stay alive. It was not the fear of death and not the fear that life would end as it was, with all its joys and sorrows, and not the envious thought that for others tomorrow would come, but he, Saburov, would no longer be in the world.
No, all that day he was obsessed with one single desire to sit, to wait for the moment when silence would come, when the Germans would rise, when he could rise and shoot at them. He and everyone around him waited for this moment three times a day. They didn’t know what would happen next, but every time they wanted to live until that moment, no matter what. And when at seven o’clock in the evening the last, third attack was repulsed, there was a short silence, and for the first time that day people said any words other than commands and the terrible, inhuman, hoarse curses that they shouted while shooting at the Germans - then These words turned out to be unexpectedly quiet. People felt that something extraordinarily important had happened, that today they had done not only what would later be written about in the Information Bureau report: “So and so unit destroyed up to 700 (or 800) Nazis,” but that they had actually defeated the Germans today, it turned out stronger than them.

(Quoted from:"Days and Nights" - Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov.)

On the twenty-fifth of June 1941, Masha Artemyeva saw off her husband Ivan Sintsov to the war. Sintsov goes to Grodno, where they stayed one year old daughter and where he himself served as secretary of the editorial office of an army newspaper for a year and a half. Situated close to the border, Grodno is included in reports from the very first days, and it is not possible to get to the city. On the way to Mogilev, where the Front Political Directorate is located, Sintsov sees many deaths, comes under bombing several times, and even keeps records of interrogations carried out by the temporarily created “troika”. Having reached Mogilev, he goes to the printing house, and the next day, together with the junior political instructor Lyusin, he goes to distribute a front-line newspaper. At the entrance to Bobruisk Highway, journalists witness air combat three "hawks" with significantly superior forces The Germans continue to try to provide assistance to our pilots from the downed bomber. As a result, Lyusin is forced to remain in the tank brigade, and the wounded Sintsov ends up in the hospital for two weeks. When he checks out, it turns out that the editorial office has already managed to leave Mogilev. Sintsov decides that he can return to his newspaper only with good material. By chance, he learns about thirty-nine German tanks, knocked out during the battle in the regiment of Fedor Fedorovich Serpilin, and goes to the 176th division, where he unexpectedly meets his old friend, photo reporter Mishka Weinstein. Having met brigade commander Serpilin, Sintsov decides to stay in his regiment. Serpilin tries to dissuade Sintsov, because he knows that he is doomed to fight surrounded if the order to retreat does not come in the coming hours. Nevertheless, Sintsov remains, and Mishka leaves for Moscow and dies on the way.

The war brings Sintsov together with a man of tragic fate. Serpilin ended the civil war, commanding a regiment near Perekop, and until his arrest in 1937, he lectured at the Academy. Frunze. He was accused of promoting the superiority of the fascist army and exiled to a camp in Kolyma for four years.

However, this did not shake Serpilin’s faith in Soviet power. The brigade commander considers everything that happened to him an absurd mistake, and the years spent in Kolyma were wasted. Freed thanks to the efforts of his wife and friends, he returns to Moscow on the first day of the war and goes to the front, without waiting for either recertification or reinstatement in the party.

The 176th Division covers Mogilev and the bridge over the Dnieper, so the Germans throw significant forces against it. Before the start of the battle, Divisional Commander Zaichikov came to Serpilin’s regiment and was soon seriously wounded. The battle lasts three days; The Germans manage to cut off three regiments of the division from each other, and they begin to destroy them one by one. Due to losses in the command staff, Serpilin appoints Sintsov as a political instructor in the company of Lieutenant Khoryshev. Having broken through to the Dnieper, the Germans complete the encirclement; Having defeated the other two regiments, they send aviation against Serpilin. Suffering huge losses, the brigade commander decides to start a breakthrough. The dying Zaichikov transfers command of the division to Serpilin, however, the new division commander has no more than six hundred people at his disposal, from which he forms a battalion and, having appointed Sintsov as his adjutant, begins to leave the encirclement. After the night battle, one hundred and fifty people remain alive, but Serpilin receives reinforcements: he is joined by a group of soldiers who carried out the banner of the division, artillerymen with a gun who came out from near Brest and the little doctor Tanya Ovsyannikova, as well as fighter Zolotarev and Colonel Baranov, who is walking without documents, whom Serpilin, despite his past acquaintance, orders to be demoted to soldier. On the very first day of leaving the encirclement, Zaichikov dies.

On the evening of October 1, the group led by Serpilin fights its way into the location of the tank brigade of Lieutenant Colonel Klimovich, in whom Sintsov, having returned from the hospital where he took the wounded Serpilin, recognizes his school friend. Those who escaped the encirclement were ordered to hand over captured weapons, after which they were sent to the rear. At the exit to Yukhnovskoye Highway, part of the column encounters German tanks and armored personnel carriers, which begin to shoot unarmed people. An hour after the disaster, Sintsov meets Zolotarev in the forest, and soon a little doctor joins them. She has a fever and a sprained leg; the men take turns carrying Tanya. Soon they leave her in their care decent people, and they themselves move on and come under fire. Zolotarev does not have enough strength to drag Sintsov, who was wounded in the head and lost consciousness; not knowing whether the political instructor is alive or dead, Zolotarev takes off his tunic and takes his documents, and he goes for help: Serpilin’s surviving fighters, led by Khoryshev, returned to Klimovich and together with him they break through the German rear. Zolotarev is going to go after Sintsov, but the place where he left the wounded man is already occupied by the Germans.

Meanwhile, Sintsov regains consciousness, but cannot remember where his documents are, whether in unconsciousness he took off his tunic with the commissar’s stars, or whether Zolotarev did it, considering him dead. Without walking even two steps, Sintsov encounters the Germans and is captured, but during the bombing he manages to escape. Having crossed the front line, Sintsov goes to the construction battalion, where they refuse to believe his “fables” about the lost party card, and Sintsov decides to go to the Special Department. On the way, he meets Lyusin, and he agrees to take Sintsov to Moscow until he finds out about the missing documents. Dropped off near the checkpoint, Sintsov is forced to get to the city on his own. This is made easier by the fact that on October 16, due to difficult situation Panic and confusion reign at the front in Moscow. Thinking that Masha might still be in the city, Sintsov goes home and, not finding anyone, collapses on the mattress and falls asleep.

Since mid-July, Masha Artemyeva has been studying at a communications school, where she is being trained for sabotage work behind German lines. On October 16, Masha is released to Moscow to get her things, since she will soon have to begin her assignment. Arriving home, she finds Sintsov sleeping. The husband tells her about everything that happened to him over these months, about all the horror that he had to endure in his seventies. extra days leaving the encirclement. The next morning Masha returns to school, and soon she is thrown behind German lines.

Sintsov goes to the district committee to explain his lost documents. There he meets Alexei Denisovich Malinin, a personnel officer with twenty years of experience, who at one time prepared Sintsov’s documents when he was accepted into the party, and who enjoys great authority in the district committee. This meeting turns out to be decisive in the fate of Sintsov, since Malinin, believing his story, takes an active part in Sintsov and begins to work for his reinstatement in the party. He invites Sintsov to enroll in a volunteer communist battalion, where Malinin is the eldest in his platoon. After some delays, Sintsov ends up at the front.

Moscow reinforcements are sent to the 31st Infantry Division; Malinin is appointed political instructor of the company, where, under his patronage, Sintsov is enrolled. There are continuous bloody battles near Moscow. The division retreats from its positions, but gradually the situation begins to stabilize. Sintsov writes a note addressed to Malinin outlining his “past.” Malinin is going to present this document to the political department of the division, but for now, taking advantage of the temporary lull, he goes to his company, resting on the ruins of an unfinished brick factory; Sintsov, on Malinin’s advice, installs a machine gun in a factory chimney located nearby. The shelling begins, and one of the German shells hits the inside of an unfinished building. A few seconds before the explosion, Malinin is covered with fallen bricks, thanks to which he remains alive. Having climbed out of the stone grave and dug up the only living fighter, Malinin goes to the factory chimney, from which the abrupt knock of a machine gun has been heard for an hour, and together with Sintsov repels one after another the attacks of German tanks and infantry on our height.

On November 7, Serpilin meets Klimovich on Red Square; this latter informs the general about the death of Sintsov. However, Sintsov also takes part in the parade to mark the anniversary October revolution- their division was replenished in the rear and after the parade they were transferred beyond Podolsk. For the battle at the brick factory, Malinin is appointed commissar of the battalion, he introduces Sintsov to the Order of the Red Star and offers to write an application for reinstatement in the party; Malinin himself had already made a request through the political department and received a response in which Sintsov’s membership in the party was documented. After replenishment, Sintsov was assigned as the commander of a platoon of machine gunners. Malinin gives him a reference that should be attached to the application for reinstatement in the party. Sintsov is being approved by the regiment's party bureau, but the division commission is postponing the decision on this issue. Sintsov has a heated conversation with Malinin, and he writes a sharp letter about Sintsov’s case directly to the political department of the army. The division commander, General Orlov, comes to present awards to Sintsov and others and is soon killed by an accidental mine. Serpilin is appointed in his place. Before leaving for the front, Baranov’s widow comes to Serpilin and asks for details of her husband’s death. Having learned that Baranova’s son is volunteering to avenge his father, Serpilin says that her husband died a heroic death, although in fact the deceased shot himself while escaping from encirclement near Mogilev. Serpilin goes to Baglyuk’s regiment and on the way passes by Sintsov and Malinin going on the offensive.

At the very beginning of the battle, Malinin is seriously wounded in the stomach. He doesn’t even have time to properly say goodbye to Sintsov and tell him about his letter to the political department: the battle resumes, and at dawn Malinin, along with other wounded, is taken to the rear. However, Malinin and Sintsov are in vain accusing the divisional party commission of delaying: Sintsov’s party file was requested by an instructor who had previously read Zolotarev’s letter about the circumstances of the death of political instructor I.P. Sintsov, and now this letter lies next to junior sergeant Sintsov’s application for reinstatement in the party.

Having taken Voskresenskoye station, Serpilin’s regiments continue to move forward. Due to losses in the command staff, Sintsov becomes platoon commander.

Book two. Soldiers are not born

New, 1943 Serpilin meets at Stalingrad. The 111th Infantry Division, which he commands, has already surrounded Paulus’ group for six weeks and is awaiting an order to attack. Unexpectedly, Serpilin is called to Moscow. This trip is caused by two reasons: firstly, it is planned to appoint Serpilin as chief of staff of the army; secondly, his wife dies after a third heart attack. Arriving home and asking a neighbor, Serpilin learns that before Valentina Egorovna fell ill, her son came to see her. Vadim was step-child for Serpilin: Fedor Fedorovich adopted five year old child, having married his mother, the widow of his friend, hero civil war Tolstikov. In 1937, when Serpilin was arrested, Vadim renounced him and took the name of his real father. He renounced not because he really considered Serpilin an “enemy of the people,” but out of a sense of self-preservation, which his mother could not forgive him for. Returning from a funeral, Serpilin runs into Tanya Ovsyannikova on the street, who is undergoing treatment in Moscow. She says that after leaving the encirclement she became a partisan and was underground in Smolensk. Serpilin informs Tanya about Sintsov's death. On the eve of his departure, his son asks his permission to transport his wife and daughter to Moscow from Chita. Serpilin agrees and, in turn, orders his son to submit a report to be sent to the front.

After seeing Serpilin off, Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Artemyev returns to the General Staff and learns that a woman named Ovsyannikova is looking for him. Hoping to get information about his sister Masha, Artemyev goes to the address indicated in the note, to the house where before the war lived the woman whom he loved, but managed to forget when Nadya married someone else.

The war began for Artemyev near Moscow, where he commanded a regiment, and before that he had served in Transbaikalia since 1939. Artemyev ended up at the General Staff after being seriously wounded in the leg. The consequences of this injury still make themselves felt, but he, burdened by his adjutant service, dreams of returning to the front as soon as possible.

Tanya tells Artemyev the details of the death of his sister, whose death he learned about a year ago, although he never ceased to hope that this information was wrong. Tanya and Masha fought in the same partisan detachment and were friends. They became even closer when it turned out that Mashin’s husband, Ivan Sintsov, had taken Tanya out of the encirclement. Masha went to appear, but never showed up in Smolensk; Later the partisans learned about her execution. Tanya also reports the death of Sintsov, whom Artemyev has been trying to find for a long time. Shocked by Tanya’s story, Artemyev decides to help her: provide her with food, try to get tickets to Tashkent, where Tanya’s parents live in evacuation. Leaving the house, Artemyev meets Nadya, who has already become a widow, and upon returning to the General Staff, Once again asks to be sent to the front. Having received permission and hoping for the position of chief of staff or regiment commander, Artemyev continues to take care of Tanya: he gives her Machinery outfits that can be exchanged for food, organizes negotiations with Tashkent - Tanya learns about the death of her father and the death of her brother and that her husband Nikolai Kolchin is in the rear. Artemyev takes Tanya to the station, and, parting with him, she suddenly begins to feel something more than just gratitude for this lonely man rushing to the front. And he, surprised by this sudden change, thinks about the fact that once again, senselessly and uncontrollably, his own happiness flashed by, which he again did not recognize and mistook for someone else’s. And with these thoughts Artemyev calls Nadya.

Sintsov was wounded a week after Malinin. While still in the hospital, he began making inquiries about Masha, Malinin and Artemyev, but he never learned anything. After being discharged, he entered the school for junior lieutenants, fought in several divisions, including Stalingrad, re-joined the party and, after another injury, received the position of battalion commander in the 111th division, shortly after Serpilin left it.

Sintsov comes to the division just before the start of the offensive. Soon, regimental commissar Levashov summons him and introduces him to journalists from Moscow, one of whom Sintsov recognizes as Lyusin. During the battle, Sintsov is wounded, but division commander Kuzmich stands up for him before the regiment commander, and Sintsov remains on the front line.

Continuing to think about Artemyev, Tanya comes to Tashkent. At the station she is met by her husband, with whom Tanya actually separated before the war. Considering Tanya dead, he married someone else, and this marriage provided Kolchin with armor. Straight from the station, Tanya goes to her mother at the plant and there she meets party organizer Alexei Denisovich Malinin. After his injury, Malinin spent nine months in hospitals and underwent three operations, but his health was completely undermined and there could be no talk of returning to the front, which Malinin so dreams of. Malinin takes a lively part in Tanya, provides assistance to her mother and, calling Kolchin to him, achieves his sending to the front. Soon Tanya receives a call from Serpilin and she leaves. Arriving at Serpilin’s reception, Tanya meets Artemyev there and understands that he feels nothing but friendly feelings for her. Serpilin completes the rout by reporting that a week after Artemyev arrived at the front as assistant chief of the operations department, “one impudent woman from Moscow” flew to him under the guise of his wife, and Artemyev was saved from the wrath of his superiors only by the fact that he, according to Serpilin, an exemplary officer. Realizing that it was Nadya, Tanya puts an end to her hobby and goes to work in the medical unit. On the very first day, she goes to receive the camp of our prisoners of war and unexpectedly runs into Sintsov there, who participated in the liberation of this concentration camp, and is now looking for his lieutenant. The story about the Machine of Death does not become news for Sintsov: he already knows about everything from Artemyev, who read an article in “Red Star” about a battalion commander - a former journalist, and who found his brother-in-law. Returning to the battalion, Sintsov finds Artemyev arriving to spend the night with him. Recognizing that Tanya is an excellent woman, the kind of woman you should marry if you don’t be a fool, Pavel talks about Nadya’s unexpected visit to him at the front and that this woman, whom he once loved, belongs to him again and is literally trying to become his wife. However, Sintsov, who has had antipathy towards Nadya since school, sees a calculation in her actions: thirty-year-old Artemyev has already become a colonel, and if they don’t kill him, he can become a general.

Soon Kuzmich's old wound opens, and Army Commander Batyuk insists on his removal from the 111th Division. In this regard, Berezhnoy asks member of the military council Zakharov not to remove the old man at least until the end of the operation and give him a deputy in combat. So Artemyev comes to 111th. Arriving at Kuzmich with an inspection. trip, Serpilin asks to convey greetings to Sintsov, about whose resurrection from the dead he learned the day before. And a few days later, in connection with the connection with the 62nd Army, Sintsov was given a captain. Returning from the city, Sintsov finds Tanya at his place. She has been assigned to a captured German hospital and is looking for soldiers to guard her.

Artemyev manages to quickly find a common language with Kuzmich; He works intensively for several days, participating in the completion of the defeat of VI German army. Suddenly he is called to the division commander, and there Artemyev witnesses the triumph of his brother-in-law: Sintsov captured a German general, the division commander. Knowing about Sintsov’s acquaintance with Serpilin, Kuzmich orders him to personally deliver the prisoner to army headquarters. However, a joyful day for Sintsov brings Serpilin great grief: a letter arrives informing him of the death of his son, who died in his first battle, and Serpilin realizes that, despite everything, his love for Vadim has not died. Meanwhile, news arrives from front headquarters about Paulus's surrender.

As a reward for working in a German hospital, Tanya asks her boss to give her the opportunity to see Sintsov. Levashov, who met her on the way, accompanies her to the regiment. Taking advantage of Ilyin and Zavalishin’s delicacy, Tanya and Sintsov spend the night together. Soon, the military council decides to build on the success and carry out an offensive, during which Levashov dies, and Sintsov’s fingers are torn off on his once crippled hand. Having handed over the battalion to Ilyin, Sintsov leaves for the medical battalion.

After the victory at Stalingrad, Serpilin is summoned to Moscow, and Stalin invites him to replace Batyuk as army commander. Serpilin meets his son's widow and little granddaughter; his daughter-in-law makes the most favorable impression on him. Returning to the front, Serpilin goes to the hospital to see Sintsov and says that his report with a request to remain in the army will be considered by the new commander of the 111th division - Artemyev was recently approved for this position.

Book three. Last summer

A few months before the start of the Belarusian offensive operation, in the spring of 1944, Army Commander Serpilin was admitted to the hospital with a concussion and a broken collarbone, and from there to a military sanatorium. Olga Ivanovna Baranova becomes his attending physician. During their meeting in December 1941, Serpilin hid from Baranova the circumstances of her husband’s death, but she still learned the truth from Commissar Shmakov. Serpilin's act made Baranova think a lot about him, and when Serpilin ended up in Arkhangelskoye, Baranova volunteered to be his attending physician in order to get to know this man better.

Meanwhile, member of the military council Lvov, having summoned Zakharov, raises the question of removing Serpilin from his post, citing the fact that the army preparing for the offensive has been without a commander for a long time.

Sintsov comes to the regiment to visit Ilyin. After being wounded, having difficulty fighting off a white ticket, he ended up working in the operations department of the army headquarters, and his current visit is connected with checking the state of affairs in the division. Hoping for a quick vacancy, Ilyin offers Sintsov the position of chief of staff, and he promises to talk with Artemyev. Sintsov remains to go to one more regiment, when Artemyev calls and, saying that Sintsov is being summoned to army headquarters, calls him to his place. Sintsov talks about Ilyin’s proposal, but Artemyev does not want to start nepotism and advises Sintsov to talk about returning to duty with Serpilin. Both Artemyev and Sintsov understand that the offensive is just around the corner, and the immediate plans of the war include the liberation of all of Belarus, and therefore Grodno. Artemyev hopes that when the fate of his mother and niece becomes clear, he himself will be able to escape to Moscow, to Nadya, at least for a day. He has not seen his wife for more than six months, however, despite all the requests, he forbids her to come to the front, since on his last visit, before Kursk Bulge, Nadya greatly damaged her husband’s reputation; Serpilin then almost removed him from the division. Artemyev tells Sintsov that he works much better with Chief of Staff Boyko, who acts as army commander in Serpilin’s absence, than with Serpilin, and that as a division commander he has his own difficulties, since both of his predecessors are here in the army and often they stop by their former division, which gives many of the young Artemyev’s ill-wishers a reason to compare him with Serpilin and Kuzmich in favor of the latter. And suddenly, remembering his wife, Artemyev tells Sintsov how bad it is to live in war, having an unreliable rear. Having learned by telephone that Sintsov is about to travel to Moscow, Pavel gives a letter to Nadya. Arriving at Zakharov, Sintsov receives letters from him and Boyko’s chief of staff for Serpilin with a request for a speedy return to the front.

In Moscow, Sintsov immediately goes to the telegraph to give “lightning” to Tashkent: back in March, he sent Tanya home to give birth, but for a long time he has no information about her or his daughter. Having sent a telegram, Sintsov goes to Serpilin, and he promises that by the start of the fighting, Sintsov will be back in service. From the army commander, Sintsov goes to visit Nadya. Nadya begins to ask about the smallest details concerning Pavel, and complains that her husband does not allow her to come to the front, and soon Sintsov becomes an involuntary witness to the showdown between Nadya and her lover and even participates in expelling the latter from the apartment. Justifying herself, Nadya says that she loves Pavel very much, but she is not able to live without a man. Having said goodbye to Nadya and promising not to say anything to Pavel, Sintsov goes to the telegraph office and receives a telegram from Tanya’s mother, which says that his newborn daughter has died, and Tanya has flown into the army. Having learned this bleak news, Sintsov goes to see Serpilin in a sanatorium, and he offers to become his adjutant instead of Evstigneev, who married Vadim’s widow. Soon Serpilin undergoes a medical examination; Before leaving for the front, he proposes to Baranova and receives her consent to marry him at the end of the war. Zakharov, who meets Serpilin, reports that Batyuk has been appointed as the new commander of their front.

On the eve of the offensive, Sintsov receives leave to visit his wife. Tanya talks about them deceased daughter, about his death ex-husband Nikolai and the “old party organizer” from the factory; she does not give the last name, and Sintsov will never know that it was Malinin who died. He sees that something is oppressing Tanya, but he thinks that it has something to do with their daughter. However, Tanya has one more problem, which Sintsov does not yet know about: the former commander of her partisan brigade told Tanya that Masha, Artemyev’s sister and Sintsov’s first wife, may still be alive, since it turned out that instead of being shot, she was taken to Germany. Without saying anything to Sintsov, Tanya decides to break up with him.

According to Batyuk's plans, Serpilin's army should become driving force upcoming offensive. Thirteen divisions are under the command of Serpilin; The 111th is taken to the rear, to the dissatisfaction of division commander Artemyev and his chief of staff Tumanyan. Serpilin plans to use them only during the capture of Mogilev. Reflecting on Artemyev, in whom he sees experience combined with youth, Serpilin gives credit to the division commander for the fact that he does not like to show off in front of his superiors, even in front of Zhukov, who recently arrived in the army, for whom, as the marshal himself recalled, Artemyev served in 1939 city ​​on Khalkhin Gol.

On the twenty-third of June Operation Bagration begins. Serpilin temporarily takes Ilyin’s regiment from Artemyev and transfers it to the advancing “mobile group”, which is tasked with closing the enemy’s exit from Mogilev; in case of failure, the 111th division will enter the battle, blocking the strategically important Minsk and Bobruisk highways. Artemyev is eager to go into battle, believing that together with the “mobile group” he will be able to take Mogilev, but Serpilin finds this impractical, since the ring around the city has already closed and the Germans are still powerless to escape. Having taken Mogilev, he receives an order to attack Minsk.

Tanya writes to Sintsov that they must separate because Masha is alive, but the outbreak of the offensive deprives Tanya of the opportunity to convey this letter: she is transferred closer to the front to monitor the delivery of the wounded to hospitals. On July 3, Tanya meets Serpilin’s jeep, and the army commander says that with the end of the operation he will send Sintsov to the front line; Taking this opportunity, Tanya tells Sintsov about Masha. On the same day, she is wounded and asks her friend to give Sintsov a letter that has become useless. Tanya is sent to a front-line hospital, and on the way she learns about the death of Serpilin - he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment; Sintsov, as in 1941, brought him to the hospital, but they put the army commander already dead on the operating table.

By agreement with Stalin, Serpilin, who never learned that he had been awarded the rank of Colonel General, is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery, next to Valentina Egorovna. Zakharov, who knows about Baranova from Serpilin, decides to return her letters to the army commander. Having escorted the coffin with Serpilin’s body to the airfield, Sintsov stops by at the hospital, where he learns about Tanya’s injury and receives her letter. From the hospital he appears to the new commander Boyko, and he appoints Sintsov as chief of staff to Ilyin. This is not the only change in the division - Tumanyan became its commander, and Artemyev, who received the rank of major general after the capture of Mogilev, was taken by Boyko as chief of army staff. Arriving at the operations department to meet his new subordinates, Artemyev learns from Sintsov that Masha may be alive. Stunned by this news, Pavel says that his neighbor’s troops are already approaching Grodno, where his mother and niece remained at the beginning of the war, and if they are alive, then everyone will be together again.

Zakharov and Boyko, returning from Batyuk, remember Serpilin - his operation is completed and the army is being transferred to a neighboring front, to Lithuania.