Theme of WWII prose of the 20th century. The theme of the Great Patriotic War in prose of the 20th century using the example of V. Bykov’s story “To Live Until Dawn”

Military prose of the second half of the 20th century. What are the most important features of this literary movement? (Using 1-2 works as an example.)

The most important theme of the 1960-1980s was military. Understanding the events of the Great Patriotic War and artistic ways of solving the topic changed significantly during this period. The “trench truth” of war, events that are not particularly large-scale, and moral conflicts on our side of the front are of increasing interest to writers.

Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev (b. 1924) is one of the recognized representatives of the so-called “lieutenant’s prose.” Bondarev knows how to transport the reader into the very center of the battle. The sounds, fire of explosions and gunshots, cries of anger, despair, pain in the writer’s verbal pictures are combined with the ability to tell about what real participants in the battle are experiencing. All this leaves the reader with a burning sensation from touching the reality of war. This impression is especially strong because in terrible battles and inhuman trials it is often not supermen and heroes who act, but very young, ordinary, even weak “boys”, soldiers and officers. The front became a harsh school of courage and moral tests for yesterday's students and schoolchildren. Moral purity, humanity, the ability to understand people, make friends and love - unexpectedly turn out to be the main qualities that the fight against death, the enemy, requires.

Officers Ermakov (“Battalions Ask for Fire”) and Novikov (“Last Salvos”) are also very young people. Their human development is not yet complete, and they are already forced to think more about others than about themselves. A close-up depicts a person's experiences of war in an extreme situation.

The novel “Hot Snow” (1969) testified to the creative maturity of the writer.

The historical basis of the plot of the novel is the attempt of Manstein’s tank army in the winter of 1942 to break through to the encircled group of Field Marshal Paulus. The artillerymen had to stop the tanks in the wide steppe. General Bessonov gives a stern order: “Stand on the occupied lines until the last. For everyone, without exception, there can be one objective reason for leaving a position - death...” And the soldiers fight to the death, destroying German tanks.

Yu. Bondarev creates a whole gallery of portraits of soldiers and officers: from the artillery battery commander Drozdovsky and platoon commander Kuznetsov to the army commander Bessonov, from the very young riding Sergunenkov, sent by Drozdovsky to a senseless death in an unequal battle one-on-one with a tank, to a humane member of the Military Council Vesnin, who always cared about preserving the lives of soldiers and died in a short-lived battle simply, not at all heroically, by accident - like a soldier.

This is not a faceless mass, but bright personalities, characters unlike each other. Drozdovsky outwardly wins, he is distinguished by his commanding position, his readiness to make decisions and accept responsibility. But it gradually becomes clear that he is selfish, strives to show everyone his courage and make a career in the war. And at the decisive moments of the battle he gives up. The writer does not talk about outright cowardice, but he also does not show any real contribution of Drozdovsky to the victory, the only thing that measures the measure of what a soldier or officer accomplished in battle. Kuznetsov, on the contrary, is modest and at first not very confident in himself. But in the end his moral superiority is revealed. This is precisely what prevents Kuznetsov from looking at his subordinates as material for achieving military goals. He himself continues to fight with tanks until the last shell, and at the most dangerous moments of the battle he finds himself in the right place.

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

The Great Patriotic War in literature

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

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

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

The Great Patriotic War is reflected in Russian literature of the 20th century deeply and comprehensively, in all its manifestations: the army and the rear, the partisan movement and the underground, the tragic beginning of the war, individual battles, heroism and betrayal, the greatness and drama of the Victory. The authors of military prose are, as a rule, front-line soldiers; in their works they rely on real events, on their own front-line experience. In the books about the war by front-line writers, the main line is soldier's friendship, front-line camaraderie, the hardship of life on the field, desertion and heroism. Dramatic human destinies unfold in war; life or death sometimes depends on a person’s actions. Front-line writers are a whole generation of courageous, conscientious, experienced, gifted individuals who endured war and post-war hardships. Front-line writers are those authors who in their works express the point of view that the outcome of the war is decided by a hero who recognizes himself as a part of the warring people, bearing his cross and a common burden. The most reliable works about the war were created by front-line writers: V. P. Astafiev, G. Ya. Baklanov, V. V. Bykov, B. L. Vasilyev, Yu. V. Bondarev, V. P. Nekrasov, E. I. Nosov, M.A. Sholokhov, etc. One of the first books about the war was the story by Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov (1911 - 1987) “In the Trenches of Stalingrad,” which was spoken of with great respect by another front-line writer, Vyacheslav Kondratyev. He called it his handbook, which contained the entire war with its inhumanity and cruelty, it was “our war that we went through.” This book was published immediately after the war in the magazine “Znamya” (1946, No. 8-9) under the title “Stalingrad” and only later was it given the title “In the Trenches of Stalingrad.” Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev (1924), former artillery officer, who fought in 1942 - 1944 at Stalingrad, on the Dnieper, in the Carpathians, author of the good books “Battalions Ask for Fire” (1957), “Silence” (1962), “Hot Snow” (1969). One of the reliable works written by Bondarev about the war is the novel “Hot Snow” about the Battle of Stalingrad, about the defenders of Stalingrad, for whom he personified the defense of the Motherland. Stalingrad as a symbol of soldier's courage and perseverance runs through all the works of the front-line writer. His war works are permeated with romantic scenes. The heroes of his stories and novels - boys, along with the heroism they perform, still have time to think about the beauty of nature. For example, Lieutenant Davlatyan cries bitterly like a boy, considering himself a failure not because he was wounded and in pain, but because he dreamed of getting to the front line, wanted to knock out a tank. His new novel “Non-Resistance” is about the difficult life after the war of former war participants, what the former boys became. They do not give in under the weight of post-war and especially modern life. “We have learned to hate falsehood, cowardice, lies, the escaping glance of a scoundrel talking to you with a pleasant smile, indifference, from which one step away from betrayal,” writes Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev many years later about his generation in the book “Moments.”

Among the writers faithful to the theme of war, one can note Konstantin Dmitrievich Vorobyov (1919 – 1975), author of harsh and tragic works , who was the first to tell about the bitter truth of being captured and going through earthly hell. The stories of Konstantin Dmitrievich Vorobyov “This is us, Lord”, “Killed near Moscow” were written from his own experience. While fighting in a company of Kremlin cadets near Moscow, he was captured and passed through camps in Lithuania. He escaped from captivity, organized a partisan group that joined the Lithuanian partisan detachment, and after the war he lived in Vilnius. Tale "This is us, Lord" written in 1943, it was published only ten years after his death, in 1986. This story about the torment of a young lieutenant in captivity is autobiographical and is now highly rated for its resilience as a phenomenon akin only to the Kolyma stories of Varlam Shalamov. Torture, executions, hard labor in captivity, escapes... The author documents a nightmarish reality, exposes evil. The story “Killed near Moscow,” written by him in 1961, remains one of the most reliable works about the initial period of the war in 1941 near Moscow, where a company of young cadets ends up, almost without weapons.

Among the most notable front-line writers of the second half of the 20th century we can name the writer Vyacheslav Leonidovich Kondratiev (1920 - 1993). His simple and beautiful story “Sashka,” published back in 1979 in the magazine “Friendship of Peoples” and dedicated to “All those who fought near Rzhev - living and dead,” shocked readers. The story “Sashka” promoted Vyacheslav Kondratiev to the ranks of the leading writers of the front-line generation; for each of them the war was different. Evgeniy Ivanovich Nosov(1925 - 2002), awarded the Sakharov Literary Prize together with Konstantin Vorobyov (posthumously) for creativity in general (devotion to the theme), is distinguished by its belonging to the village theme. But he also created unforgettable images of peasants who are preparing to be sent to war (story « Usvyatsky helmet-bearers" (1977)) as if towards the end of the world, say goodbye to the measured peasant life and prepare for an irreconcilable battle with the enemy. The first work about the war by E. I. Nosov was the story “Red Wine of Victory,” written by him in 1969, in which the hero celebrated Victory Day on a government bed in a hospital and received, along with all the suffering wounded, a glass of red wine in honor of this long-awaited holiday. Front-line writers, contrary to the tendencies that developed in Soviet times to gloss over the truth about the war, depicted the harsh and tragic war and post-war reality. Their works are a true testimony of the time when Russia fought and won. The Belarusian front-line writer Vasil Vladimirovich Bykov (1924 – 2003) believed that the military theme “is leaving our literature for the same reason... why valor, honor, self-sacrifice are gone... The heroic has been expelled from everyday life, why do we still need war, where is this the disadvantage is most obvious? “Incomplete truth” and outright lies about the war have been diminishing the meaning and significance of our war (or anti-war, as they sometimes say) literature for many years.” A new, but not indisputable, view of the work of the Belarusian writer Vasil Bykov is expressed by Rein Karasti (Zvezda. - 2004. - No. 7. - P. 216 - 224). He believes that Vasil Bykov is the author of a disastrous, defeatist world. In his works, disaster always occurs. "The dead don't hurt"“In the Dead Hour”, “Swamp” - these are the last works of the writer, the titles of which speak for themselves. Vasil Bykov’s depiction of the war in the story “Swamp” (Friendship of Peoples. - 2001. - N7) causes protest among many Russian readers. It shows the ruthlessness of Soviet soldiers towards local residents. The plot is this, judge for yourself: paratroopers landed behind enemy lines in occupied Belarus in search of a partisan base, having lost their bearings, they took a boy as their guide... and kill him for reasons of safety and secrecy of the mission. Vasil Bykov’s no less terrible story “On the Swamp Stitch” (Zvezda. - 2001. - N8) is a “new truth” about the war, again about the ruthless and cruel partisans who dealt with a local teacher just because she asked them not to destroy the bridge, otherwise the Germans will destroy the entire village. The teacher in the village is the last savior and protector, but she was killed by the partisans as a traitor. The works of the Belarusian front-line writer Vasil Bykov cause not only controversy, but also reflection. This is the reading of the story “Sotnikov” by I.V. Khudyakov, a secondary school teacher in Yaroslavl. (Literature at school. – 2004.- No. 4). He examines works about war in the context of Russian classical literature and considers the main thing in the story “not a military feat, not defeating the enemy, but a spiritual, moral feat.” He perceives the story “Sotnikov” as “a continuation of the great and eternal tragedies of Russian classical literature, carrying the light of gospel truth.”

Georgy Vladimov- one of the writers who portrayed the Great Patriotic War in a new way in the novel “The General and His Army,” which received the Booker Russian Prize for this novel in 1995. He himself believes that he is writing the truth about the war, which until now has been distorted by everyone and everything. He uses not only fictional techniques, that is, narrative ones, but also uses references; in addition to fictional characters, there are real personalities in the novel: Marshal Zhukov, Army General Vatutin, member of the military council of the First Ukrainian Front Khrushchev, commander of the 2nd Shock Army, General -Colonel Vlasov, famous German military leader Guderian. In fact, according to not only front-line soldiers, but also authors of literary criticism, it is believed that Vladimov created his own artistic myth about the war of 1941–1945 in the novel “The General and His Army.” Vladimov depicts an atmosphere of fear that is deliberately whipped up by state authorities. For example, in liberated places, public executions of policemen and traitors were held, as a reminder of the punitive hand of power. The highest elite of the Red Army is portrayed by Vladimov in an ambiguous manner; on the one hand, they control a huge military force, on the other, they slavishly bow to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The moral and psychological conflict is one of the main ones in the novel.

Among the writers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries who write about the Great Patriotic War, the writers are not front-line soldiers, whose childhood and youth occurred during these harsh years. Among them is Anatoly Azolsky, winner of the Russian Booker Prize for his non-military novel “The Cage.” Azolsky dedicated several works to the Great Patriotic War: “Saboteur”, “Blood”, “War at Sea”. The story “War at Sea” (Znamya. -1996. - N9. - P. 12 - 46) about submarine sailors serving in the North in 1942. In 2002, Anatoly Azolsky wrote a new novel about the Great Patriotic War, “Saboteur.” The hero of the novel, a young man from Georgia in love, volunteers for the front in 1941 and goes through the school of military life as a reconnaissance saboteur under the guidance of an experienced reconnaissance sergeant major. There are chapters that are called edifyingly - “Take care of honor from a young age.” The hero is tested not only by war, but also by his moral qualities. The author asserts in the novel the high purpose of man - a man in war should not be like an animal. Azolsky sharpens the depiction of the moral qualities of a person in war. The second line of the novel is the post-war story of a former saboteur who had to change his name and place of residence, travel around the USSR and try to become a writer.

It was not without reason that front-line writers complained that not the whole truth about the war had been written. Time passed, a historical distance appeared, which made it possible to see the past and what was experienced in its true light, the necessary words came, other books were written about the war, which will lead us to spiritual knowledge of the past.

Test questions and assignments:

1. Watch a film about the Great Patriotic War. Collect information about the author of the film's literary basis. Read the screenwriter's inspiration. Compare (in writing) the original and the film adaptation.

2. Why does the theme of the Great Patriotic War remain popular today? How did the war period affect the development of culture and literature of the USSR?

3. What classic works of an earlier period in the development of Russian literature on the theme of war do you know?

4. Prepare a presentation on the work of one of the writers of the twentieth century, who devoted most of his works to the theme of war.

K. Vorobyov’s story “Killed near Moscow” tells about the tragedy of young Kremlin cadets sent to their deaths during the German offensive near Moscow in the winter of 1941. The writer raises the important problem of killing one's own. He managed to show the horror of the betrayal of his boys, who at first “almost joyfully” reacted to the flying Junkers. The main character of the story, Alyosha Yastrebov, like everyone else, “carried within himself an irrepressible, hidden happiness,” “the joy of a flexible young body.” The landscape also corresponds to the description of youth and freshness in the children: “...Snow - light, dry, blue.

It gave off the smell of Antonov apples... something cheerful and cheerful was conveyed to the legs, as if listening to music.” The young lieutenants ate biscuits, laughed, dug trenches and were eager to fight. They had no idea about the approaching trouble. “Some kind of soul-searching smile” on the lips of the NKVD major, the lieutenant colonel’s warning that 240 cadets would not receive a single machine gun, alerted Alexei, who knew by heart Stalin’s speech that “we will beat the enemy on his territory,” and he guessed the deception. “There was no place in his soul where the incredible reality of war could settle down,” but the reader guessed that the boy cadets would become its hostages.

The plot begins with the appearance of reconnaissance aircraft. The commander, Captain Ryumin, already knew: “the front has been broken in our direction,” when General Pereverzev appeared at the company’s location - strange, confused, and having lost his will. Ryumin advised Alexey Yastrebov to tell the guys that Pereverzev was a shell-shocked fighter posing as a general. A wounded soldier spoke about the true situation at the front: “Even though darkness killed us there, there were still more alive! So now we’re wandering.” The appearance of political instructor Anisimov aroused hope when he “called on the Kremlinites to be steadfast and said that communications were reaching here from the rear and neighbors were approaching.” But this was another lie. The mortar shelling began, shown by Vorobyov in naturalistic details of the suffering of Anisimov, who was wounded in the stomach: “Cut... Well, please, cut...” - he begged Alexei. “An unnecessary tearful cry” accumulated in Alexei’s soul. A man of “swift action,” Captain Ryumin understood: no one needs them, they are cannon fodder to distract the enemy’s attention. "Only forward!" - he decides to himself, leading the cadets into the night battle. They didn’t shout “Hurray! For Stalin!".

Non-literary factors

influencing changes in the perception and evaluation of literature about the war.
For a long time, the war years were perceived as the only tragic years of modern history. Today, the revision of the history of the modern period has actually been completed, as a result of which it is all presented as a people's tragedy (p. 36).

Events related to the war itself are assessed differently. The conclusion of a non-aggression pact with Hitler, previously seen as a necessary measure for a temporary reprieve, is now defined as an absolute mistake. The actions of the Soviet Army in the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Belarus are perceived as occupation (the fate of the partisans in the Baltic states, the ashes of N. Kuznetsov from Lvov).

Recently, there has been an active effort to clarify the question: at what cost did we get our victory? The lists of career officers who were repressed just before the war, as a result of which the army was beheaded, are more than impressive, as is the fact that the life of a junior lieutenant in the first months of the war “on the front line” was... 9 minutes. The activities of SMERSH and the incompetence of the headquarters, the ever-increasing number of our losses - all this forced V. Astafiev to say in a bitter moment: “Victory at such a price is defeat.”
In addition to non-literary ones, there are also

intraliterary factors,

which also influenced the change in attitude towards the Great Patriotic War.
Recently, numerous sensational revelations of “imaginary heroes of the Great Patriotic War” have appeared on the pages of newspapers: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Young Guards, Alexander Matrosov, who became heroes of literature, but, it turns out, were not impeccable heroes in life. A very wise piece of advice turned out to be forgotten: it’s either good or nothing about the dead. As a result, a whole layer of literature appears to the general reader as fake.

During the Great Patriotic War, works were created that were characterized by a heroic beginning and an almost obligatory final chord, characterized by high pathos and oath intonation ("Holy War" by V. Lebedev-Kumach, etc.). For this time, the emphasis on the beauty of feat and even the beauty of death in the name of the freedom of the Motherland was important.

In the 60-70s, the style discovered by the book “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” by V. Nekrasov prevailed. War is not only a feat, but also the hardest, everyday work, mortal work. The prose of Yu. Bondarev, V. Bykov, V. Kondratiev is even characterized by some deheroization of the feat. In the 80-90s, works were published that introduced the reader to an unconventional view of the events of the Great Patriotic War. This is V. Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate”: fascism, according to Grossman’s artistic concept, is absolutely adequate to socialism. This is K. Vorobyov’s story “It’s us, Lord!”, written in 1943, published in 1986, a story about the fate of those captured by Germans. This is Lev Razgon's "Uninvented" - a look at the war of a prisoner of Soviet camps. This is also V. Astafiev’s novel “Cursed and Killed” (New World magazine, 1992, No. 10-12), where the author talks about the murder of his own.

Conclusion: in order to give your own assessment of the events of 1941-1945, you need to read these works yourself and enter into a dialogue with the author.

V.P. Astafiev realized his story “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess” was “...more difficult and painful than all.”
In “The Staff of Memory” he notes: “It seems to me that in “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess” I overcame myself, a tradition created for myself... While overcoming my tradition in “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess,” I at the same time returned to some very dear traditions of Russian literature, in particular, to the Tolstoyan tradition.”

V.P. Astafiev wrote: “What would I like to see in prose about war? - The truth. All the cruel but necessary truth, without which it is impossible to understand the meaning of the feat of the Soviet soldier.”
In the military story, the author claims that “war is both the defense of the Fatherland, therefore, a sacred duty and necessity, and a phenomenon contrary to human nature” (Tolstoy traditions).

"...But how to write about all this? The events of that time cannot be desecrated by an inexperienced, timid touch. And if we start talking, then we must say everything to the end!" – Olga Kozhukhova states in her story “Don’t Throw Words to the Wind.”

Our task:

The history of the story

V. Astafiev worked from 1967 to 1971. “I carried this little story inside me for 14 years, wrote and rewrote for several years...”; published in 1971, has the subtitle "Modern Pastoral" . The story "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess" was unexpected for literary criticism. Why? V. Astafiev first addressed the topic of war; The already established image of V. Astafiev as a storyteller, working in the genre of social and everyday narration, changed before our eyes, acquiring the features of a writer striving for a generalized perception of the world, for symbolic images. What was your first perception of the story?

Pastoral as a genre

The 1983 SES gives the following definition of pastoral: from the French pastorale... from the Latin pastoralis - pastoral: a genre variety of modern European literature of the 14th-17th centuries, associated with idyllic perception; opera, pantomime or ballet, the plot of which is associated with an idealized depiction of shepherd life; vocal or instrumental work drawing paintings of nature or scenes of rural life.

Ozhegov's dictionary (1990) gives a more laconic definition: pastoral - in European art of the 14th-18th centuries, a dramatic or musical work, idyllically depicting the life of shepherds and shepherdesses in the lap of nature.

Pastoral in art

In the early Renaissance, humanistic ideas were expressed in pastorals and glorified earthly love, the feeling of nature was conveyed- F. Sacchetti “Mountain Shepherdesses”, G. Boccaccio “Fiesolan Nymphs.”

During the crisis of Renaissance humanism (15-16 centuries), pastoralism was penetrated ideas about preserving the inner peace of the individual, aristocratic tendencies are intensifying. Singing serene life, sublime feelings, refined pleasures in the lap of nature(M. Cervantes “Galatea”, F. Cindy “Arcadia”).

At the end of the 16th century, the musical pastoral “Daphne” by the poet Rinuccini and composer J. Peri appeared in Italy, which laid the foundation for opera. In the 17th century, pastoral became one of the characteristic genres of aristocratic literature, exquisite feelings accessible only to a select few are glorified. Nature turns into an elegant setting for gallant disputes between “shepherds” - aristocrats.

Pastoral images are also found in the literature of the 18th century, interpreted mainly in the manner of sentimentalism.

In Russia, pastoral appears in the 18th century and is predominantly of a song nature).

Our task:

find out in what ways the writer remains faithful to the traditions of the pastoral genre, in what ways he deviates from them, and for what purpose he does this.

The work will proceed according to the following plan:

1. Chronotope (time and space) of pastoral.
2. Features of the plot and composition.
3. System of images.
4. The ideological originality of the story by V.P. Astafiev "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess".

1. Pastoral chronotope. Pastoral in art.

Time and space in the artistic world of Astafiev

It has signs of the real world: the author talks about the events of 1944, about the defeat of the German group near the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky point “Our troops were finishing off an almost strangled group of German troops, whose command, as at Stalingrad, refused to accept the ultimatum of unconditional surrender.” It was during this period of the war that the enemy became different: “The Germans are different: hungry, demoralized by the environment and the cold.”
Unlike the traditional pastoral, in V. Astafiev’s pastoral duration of action - night, winter night.“The roar of guns overturned and crushed the silence of the night. Cutting through clouds of snow and darkness, flashes of guns flashed, and under our feet the disturbed earth swayed, trembled, and moved, along with the snow, with people pressing their chests to it.”

By using alliteration and assonance, the author gives us the opportunity hear the sounds of battle: [o], [a], [e] characterize sounds of flying shells; help to hear the whistle of shells cutting through the air; [zh],[w],[h"] transmit trembling of the earth, awakened by the night battle.

Seems, the whole world is in motion. The abundance of nouns denoting specific items(animate: signalmen, SR men, infantry, rear - and inanimate: "Katyusha" - “the cars themselves seemed to crouch on their paws before jumping...”; the trunks of our little fur babies ), And an abundance of verbs conveying the dynamics of the battle: cars... rushed about, signalmen cursed, missiles flared up.

This description is surprisingly reminiscent of the description of the Battle of Poltava in the poem “Poltava” by A.S. Pushkin:

Throwing piles of bodies upon piles,
Cast iron balls everywhere
They jump between them, strike,
They dig up ashes and hiss in blood
Swede, Russian - stabs, chops, cuts,
Drumming, clicks, grinding,
The thunder of guns, stomping, neighing, groaning,
And death and hell on all sides.

The image of a night torn to shreds; road image, along which soldiers walk and crawl, defending their home, their native nature; image of the steppe, snow-covered or dusted with grass seeds; the image of someone else’s house, where you can “take a nap” for a couple of hours, if possible; finally, image of a whirlpool of battle - a funnel, which draws in everything living and inanimate, breaks the usual connections, pulls into the abyss - all this works to create a different model of the universe - CHAOS, a picture of universal destruction.
The color scheme enhances the feeling of contrast with the traditional pastoral: “Black anger, black hatred, black blood suffocated and flooded everything around: night, snow, earth, time and space.”

2. Features of the plot and composition.

Plot is the basic outline of events in the sequence of their development. The plot is based on an artistic conflict. Conflict is a clash of characters and circumstances, views and principles of life. The conflict can occur between the individual and society, between characters, in the mind of the hero; can be obvious or hidden. We characterized the chronotope of the pastoral as idyllic, that is, depicting an idealized, serene life in which there are no and cannot be conflicts. The feelings that the characters experience are joyful and bright. Absence of conflict is ideal.

In the process of development of the pastoral genre, the love conflict appears more and more clearly, the love plot is further developed in Antoine Watteau’s painting “A Difficult Proposal” from 1716.
In music pastoral plot used in the 19th century by composer P.I. Tchaikovsky in the opera “The Queen of Spades” builds the composition of the pastoral scene like this:

Overture
1 hour - "Expectation"
2h. - "Date"
The final

V. Astafiev's pastoral also has a clear composition.

The love plot, it would seem, is concluded in two parts: “Date” and “Farewell”, but, besides them, the author gives two more parts: “Fight” and “Assumption”. For what? To show that the love plot was surrounded by a fiery ring of war, highlighting the catastrophic nature of the meeting of lovers(“I’ll come to meet you in a white dress” - and then “None of this will happen”). Each part has an epigraph. Let's consider what its role is.

The role of epigraphs

Rapture is a state of delight, admiration. The content of Part I serves as a refutation of this phrase. Fight is anger, black hatred, moral and physical death - cannot be beautiful. We see people who have lost their human appearance: “Mokhnakov threw one, then another skinny German over himself, but then another one came out of the darkness, and with a squeal, like a dog, he bit into the foreman’s leg, and they rolled in a ball into the trench, where the wounded were swarming in the snow and clods of earth, in pain and howling and rushing at each other in blind rage." The episode on the battlefield, when Boris tries to blow up a German tank, makes his way over the still warm bodies of his comrades crushed by this tank, or the scene in the medical battalion, where the doctor “stands knee-deep in blood” removing body parts that have become unnecessary, amazes with its naturalism, and the question arises : “Why do people suffer so much? Why war? Death?” And you involuntarily remember the words of L.N. Tolstoy that “war is an unnatural state for humanity.” It is no coincidence that in Astafiev’s story there appears the image of a huge man who "moving with a huge shadow and a torch fluttering behind him, he moved, flew on fiery wings to the trench, crushing everything in his path with an iron crowbar. ... It seemed that this prophet of heaven with a growing spear had fallen to the ground to punish people for their barbarity, to bring them to reason ".

IIch. "Date" - “And you came, having heard the expectation...” (Ya. Smelyakov). The epigraph gives a romantic mood: young creatures living in anticipation of the miracle of love, the miracle of meeting. But the first sentence of part II does not live up to hope, it is deliberately mundane: "The soldiers drank moonshine". The entire chapter is devoted to a description of the rest of B. Kostyaev’s platoon in Lucy’s house. Everything in life turns out to be not as beautiful as in books, paintings or movies: soldiers steam their clothes to kill lice; relieve tension after a fight by drinking moonshine; They sleep side by side on straw thrown on the dirt floor. The interior of the hut before and after the soldiers spend the night, the dialogue of the soldiers at the table, the portrait of Lucy and Boris, the skirmish with Mokhnakov - this is the structure of Part II.

III part. "Farewell" -

Bitter tears clouded my vision,
A gloomy morning sneaks like a thief, following the night.
Cursed be the day
Time takes you and me into the gray dawn.

(From the lyrics of the Vagants).

They cannot leave us indifferent and

lines of lyrical digression dedicated to mothers:

"... Mothers, mothers: why did you submit to the wild human memory, reconcile yourself with violence and death? After all, you suffer more than anyone, most courageously, in your primitive loneliness, in your sacred and bestial longing for your children. You cannot be purified by suffering for thousands of years, buy them off and hope for a miracle. There is no God. There is no faith. Death rules over the world. Who will pay for your torment? How will you pay for it? When? And what should we hope for, mothers?" It's sad that these questions remain unanswered today...

IVh. "Assumption" –

And there is no end to life
And the end of torment.

Petrarch.

Conclusion:

Thus we see that the composition of the modern pastoral by V. Astafiev made it possible to combine different stylistic streams: generalized philosophical, realistic - everyday and lyrical. The war was presented either as a hyperbolic picture of universal barbarity and destruction, or as an incredibly hard soldier’s work, or as an image of hopeless human suffering in the author’s lyrical digressions. Unlike the traditional pastoral, the plot and composition of Astafiev’s story allow us to characterize the conflict.

The moral aspect of the conflict concerned the relations between soldiers, between people. The philosophical conflict was realized in the confrontation pastoral love motif and monstrous the scorching elements of war.

3. The system of pastoral images in art.

The characters are quite happy, they live in harmony with themselves, with each other, with the world. There are no unresolved issues, no sharp corners - even the frame of the picture is given in the form of a medallion. The composition of the painting is such that the disorder located in the lower right corner does not introduce disharmony into the overall mood of the painting. Pastoral images of a shepherd and a shepherdess are also used by P.I. Tchaikovsky in the opera "The Queen of Spades". In the third scene of the opera, he gives an extended scene “The Sincerity of the Shepherdess”, in which the main characters: Prilepa and Milovzor - perform a duet. This scene also includes a chorus of shepherdesses and shepherdesses and the Sarabande dance of the shepherdesses and shepherdesses. The chorus sums up the whole scene: “the end of the torment has come,” which marks the victory of love. Announcing the victory of love, Cupid and Hymen (characters from ancient Greek mythology) appear on the stage to crown Prilepa and Milovzor. Love gives joy.

Astafiev’s system of images of modern pastoral.

The Russian army, represented by Kostyaev’s platoon, Astafiev “laid out” on

certain types traditional for the rural world:

• sage-scribe (Lantsov);
• hard worker-patient (Karyshev, Malyshev);
• Shkalik, who looks like a holy fool;
• a “dark” man, almost a robber (Pafnutyev, Mokhnakov);
• righteous man, keeper of the moral law (Kostyaev).

The role of shepherd and shepherdess is played by the platoon commander Boris Kostyaev and the mistress of the house Lyusya.

They are young (she is 21, he is 20), the need to love and be loved awakens in them. Love illuminates everyday life at the front with a bright flash. He and she. What are they, these heroes?

As in the traditional pastoral, Astafiev gives

portrait of Boris:

“The lieutenant’s blond hair, naturally wavy, became curly. His eyes would have washed out too. The rubbed abrasion on his thin neck turned brighter red.” This boy with a sinless look looks more like yesterday's schoolboy, boyishly embarrassed, but for all that he is a trench commander who has gone through many battles, seriously wounded, finally realizing that “it’s not the soldiers who are behind him - he’s behind the soldiers!”

Portrait of Lucy

created with skillful strokes: a swollen lower lip, a straight nose with narrow flaps, oatmeal eyes covered with curled eyelashes. “When the hostess opened her eyes, dark, seemingly elongated pupils were revealed from under these doll-like eyelashes. The eyes became mysteriously changeable,”- this is how Boris perceives Lucy. A woman with iconic eyes - this is how she will remain in his memory. A certain picture image - and the destruction of this image that arose in Boris’s soul by its everyday life: nose stained with soot, apron. At the moment of farewell, Lyusya will remind Boris of a schoolgirl, touching and funny, with a ribbon in her magnificent braid.

Little time is allotted to the beloved: the first signs of attention, the first declaration of love, and memories of their past. Getting to know each other. Well-mannered, affectionate, attentive - like a mother; persistent, honest, straightforward - like his father Boris. Lucy hardly talks about her past (she studied at a music school), but she involuntarily shares with Boris the bitterness of what she experienced during the days of occupation: “The dog was set on a person... it bit the girl’s throat like it was a bird...” Boris did not recognize that Lucy, enthusiastic, changeable in mood...

Conclusion:

War and love, death and thirst for life. What will win? Unlike the traditional pastoral, Astafiev’s heroes live in a different world and they themselves are different: “There was something like this and that in this lieutenant... You could sense the dreaminess and romance in him. Romantics are impetuous people! They are the ones who die first. This young knight of a sad image, absolutely sure - they love only once in a life, and there is no better woman in the world with whom he was with and there will never be..." Without love, the soul burns out: "...To live on? Why? For what? Kill or be killed? No-no! Enough!"

4. The ideological originality of the story by V.P. Astafieva
"The Shepherd and the Shepherdess."