Surkov fights in a close edition. In the dugout

A.A. Surkov "In the dugout"

The poem was written by A. Surkov in November 1941 on the Western Front. It is dedicated to the poet’s beloved woman, Sofya Krevo. In February 1942, Surkov gave these poems to the composer Listov, who set them to music. The result was a song that became very popular during the war.

In terms of its genre, this is a message from a beloved, we can attribute it to intimate lyrics, however, we will take into account the presence in the poem of military and patriotic theme. In its form, the poem is a monologue of the lyrical hero addressed to his beloved woman.

The work is built on the principle of antithesis. A cold dugout, a blizzard, snow-white snow, death - all these images are contrasted with the fire beating in the stove, the living song of an accordion, the smile of a beloved woman. All this saves the lyrical hero in terrible moments, gives him faith and hope.

The poem has ring composition. It opens with the image of fire, symbolizing love and life. Ends with recognition lyrical hero:

I feel warm in the cold dugout from your unquenchable love.

Love is the flame that warms a fighter’s soul, strengthens his will, and gives strength in battle.

The poem is written in three-foot anapest, quatrains, and cross rhymes. The poet uses various means artistic expression: epithet (“in cramped stove”, “in the snow-white fields”, “a living voice”), comparison (“On the logs there is resin like a tear”), personification (“And the accordion sings to me in the dugout”, “The bushes whispered to me about you”), metaphor (“To me It’s warm in the cold dugout from your unquenchable love”),

“In the Dugout” - Soviet song from the Great Times Patriotic War. Music by Konstantin Listov, poetry by Alexey Surkov.

A memorial sign was erected in 1998 on the site of a dugout in which in November 1941, front-line correspondent and poet Alexei Surkov wrote poems that later became the words of the song “In the Dugout” in the village of Kashino, Istrinsky district, Moscow region.

“The poem from which this song was born arose by accident,” Surkov recalled. - It wasn't going to be a song. And it didn’t even pretend to become a published poem. These were sixteen “homely” lines from a letter to his wife, Sofya Antonovna. The letter was written at the end of November, after one very difficult front day near Istra, when we had to fight our way out of encirclement at night after a heavy battle with the headquarters of one of the guards regiments..."

Meticulous researchers of the poet's work accurately name the day when that memorable battle took place on the outskirts of Moscow - November 27, 1941, and the part in which the correspondent of the newspaper "Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda" found himself and took the battle. Western Front, battalion commissar Alexey Surkov, 258th regiment of the 9th Guards Rifle Division.

Boris Nemensky. About distant and close ones. (1950).

After all the troubles, frozen, tired, in an overcoat cut by shrapnel, Surkov sat for the rest of the night over his notebook in the dugout, next to the soldier’s iron stove. Maybe it was then that his famous “Dugout” was born - a song that was included in folk memory as an integral companion of the Great Patriotic War..."

“These verses would have remained part of the letter,” he continues his memoirs, “if somewhere in February 1942, composer Konstantin Listov, appointed senior musical consultant to the Main Political Directorate of the Navy, had not arrived from evacuation. He came to our front-line editorial office and began asking for “something to write a song on.” There was no “anything”.

Vasil Irina. Dugout.

And then, fortunately, I remembered the poems I had written home, found them in a notebook and, having copied them completely, gave them to Lisztov, being absolutely sure that although I had cleared my comradely conscience, the song from this was absolutely lyric poem will not work. Listov ran his eyes along the lines, mumbled something vague and left. He left and everything was forgotten.

But a week later the composer appeared again at our editorial office, asked the photographer Savin for a guitar and sang his new song “In the Dugout” with the guitar. Everyone free from work “in the room” listened to the song with bated breath. Everyone thought that the song “came out.” Listov left. And in the evening, after dinner, Misha Savin asked me for the text and, accompanying himself on the guitar, sang new song. And it immediately became clear that the song would “go” if an ordinary music consumer remembered the melody from the first performance...”

The “premiere” of the song at the editorial office of Frontovaya Pravda was also attended by the writer Evgeny Vorobyov, who then worked at the newspaper. Immediately after “Dugout” was performed, he asked Listov to record its melody. There was no music paper at hand. And then Lisztov, as he had to do more than once in those conditions, lined an ordinary sheet of paper and wrote down the melody on it.

On March 25, 1942, the song “In the Dugout” was first published in Komsomolskaya Pravda - words and melodic line. It just so happened that this publication turned out to be almost the only one in the first years of the war. The fact is that some “guardians of front-line morality” considered the lines “It’s not easy for me to get to you, but there are four steps to death” as decadent and disarming. They demanded to cross them out, replace them with others, and “move” death “further from the trench.” But to change anything, i.e. to spoil the song, it was too late, it, as they say, “went.” But it is known: “you can’t erase words from a song.”

From Surkov’s memoirs it follows that it was not he who made changes to the lyrics of the song (there is a statement that this was done by Konstantin Simonov). Olga Berggolts told Surkov about the indignation that this replacement caused among front-line soldiers. The poet himself received a letter from the front-line soldiers with the following request: “Write for these people that there are four thousand English miles to death, but leave us as it is, because we know how many steps there are to death.”

Nikolai Booth. Letter to mom. 1970

The tireless propagandists of “Dugout” during the war years were the wonderful Soviet song masters Leonid Utesov and Lidiya Ruslanova. Lidia Andreevna recorded it in August 1942 on a gramophone record along with “The Blue Handkerchief”. She was adored by Yuri Nikulin, who once performed the song with his fellow soldiers.

After the war, in 1946, Alexey Surkov received Stalin Prize first degree, including for his poems “Fire beats in a cramped stove...”. And in May 1999, in the village of Kashino, Moscow region, the guys from the ISTOK club in the city of Istra erected a memorial sign, the opening of which was attended by veterans of the 9th Guards Division and the poet’s daughter, Natalya Alekseevna Surkova. Military song festivals are held in the Istra district, and in the city of Dedovsk a song and poetry festival named after Alexei Surkov “And an accordion sings to me in the dugout” was held.

Marat Samsonov. In a moment of calm. 1958

The fire is beating in the small stove,
There is resin on the logs, like a tear,
And the accordion sings to me in the dugout
About your smile and eyes.

The bushes whispered to me about you
In snow-white fields near Moscow.
I want you to hear
How my living voice yearns.

You are far, far away now.
Between us there is snow and snow.
It's not easy for me to reach you,
And there are four steps to death.

Sing, harmonica, in spite of the blizzard,
Call lost happiness.
I feel warm in a cold dugout
From my unquenchable love.

Often the last line of the song is sung as “From your undying love.”

I. Evstigneev. In the dugout. Harmonic. 1945

During the war, in some performances, the lyrics of the song looked completely different: after the first two verses (without changes), not two, but four followed:

You are now far, far away.
There is snow and snow between us.
It’s not easy for me to reach you -
And there are four steps to death.

Sing, harmonica, to spite the wind,
Call lost happiness.
It became warm in our dugout
From my unquenchable love.

I am the love that is in the soul, like a beacon
I will carry you through melancholy and battles,
To see my dear,
Your tears are happy to me.

And the harmonica, as if in response
Sings a song of joyful meeting,
It's like you're sending hello
It's like you're whispering my name.

Composition

The song “Fire is beating in a small stove” can be called, perhaps, one of the most famous songs Great Patriotic War. It has long been popular, and few people know that both the words and the music of this work are purely original: the words belong to the poet and front-line correspondent Alexander Surkov, and the music belongs to the composer Konstantin Listov.

Surkov created his poem, which, by the way, he gave the title “In the Dugout,” in November 1941, while on the Western Front. At the beginning of the work there is a dedication to a specific person - the poet’s beloved Sophia Krevo. A little later, in February 1942, Surkov handed over the poem to the composer Listov, who very quickly set this work to music. The result was a song that gained extraordinary popularity in the Red Army:

About your smile and eyes.

The bushes whispered to me about you

I want you to hear

You're far, far away now

There is snow and snow between us...

It's not easy for me to reach you,

And there are four steps to death.

Sing, harmonica, in spite of the blizzard,

Call lost happiness.

From my unquenchable love.

I feel warm in a cold dugout

From my unquenchable love.

What is the secret of this seemingly simple song? In my opinion, her most important virtue is sincerity. Reading this work even now, 65 years after the Great Patriotic War, you experience involuntary excitement and trepidation. And what can we say about the soldiers of that time, each of whom experienced something similar to what the lyrical hero sings about?

This song touches the most important strings in the soul of any person. It is about the eternal - about life and death, about fear and about strength, about love, which is the only one capable of inspiring, protecting, saving.

The first stanza is introductory. She outlines the “scene of action.” We understand that the hero is sitting in a dugout after the battle, surrounded by his comrades. And here, in a rare moment of rest, he thinks about the most important thing - about his beloved, he misses her unbearably:

The fire is beating in the small stove,

There is resin on the logs, like a tear.

And the accordion sings to me in the dugout

About your smile and eyes.

The fire beats in the oven - a symbol of life, light, warmth, love. But the fire barely warms the hero - his rest is “seasoned” with sadness and bitterness. The comparison “On the logs there is resin like a tear” tells us this. The hero is immersed in memories of his beloved: “And the accordion sings to me in the dugout about your smile and eyes.”

He always thinks about her - the power of the hero’s love is so great:

The bushes whispered to me about you

In snow-white fields near Moscow.

I want you to hear

In the most difficult and terrible moments of the war, the lyrical hero was saved only by the memories of his beloved woman: “The bushes whispered to me about you In the snow-white fields near Moscow.” He misses her unbearably: for warmth, affection, joy - for a peaceful life.

You're far, far away now

There is snow and snow between us...

It's not easy for me to reach you,

And there are four steps to death.

Thus, the hero’s beloved becomes the personification of all that is alive and beautiful - what every person so needs. And in the poem she is contrasted with evil, destruction, death: “It’s not easy for me to get to you, And to death there are four steps.”

This metaphorical image- “four steps to death” - became a textbook, “identifying” passage of this work. This probably happened because the image was close to everyone at that time, especially to those who were at the front. He expressed his deepest fears - being killed, not living to see victory, never again experiencing the happiness of a peaceful life.

But the hero is not going to give up. In spite of everything, he is sure that he will fight to the last - in spite of his enemies, fear, melancholy:

Sing, harmonica, in spite of the blizzard,

Call lost happiness.

I feel warm in a cold dugout

From my unquenchable love.

The image of a blizzard symbolizes all this. It seems to the soldier that his happiness is “lost” somewhere, but this is not for long. After all, he has the most important thing - “unquenchable love”, which warms him, supports him, gives him strength to fight and win.

I feel warm in a cold dugout

From my unquenchable love.

He strives to focus on these words because they are the main ones. And here they acquire universal humanity, philosophical meaning: love is what always saves a person, supports him in the most difficult situation. Love for a woman, for parents, for one’s homeland. This is the strongest creative force in which lies the meaning of life.

I think people who went through the Great Patriotic War can believe in this. No matter what, we need to keep love in our hearts, and for this, as they say in the holy books, we will be rewarded.

In May 2014, the project “Police and Civil Society”, supported by the editorial office of the newspaper “Petrovka, 38”, was launched in the Moscow region, which is focused on the moral and spiritual education of the population and is associated with multifaceted cultural and educational activities.

The project organizers, together with the police community, purposefully implement a variety of socio-cultural and military-patriotic initiatives. Representatives of the movement actively participate in significant partner events, including car marathons, the routes of which run through the places of military glory of our country.

During one of the regular motor marathons, social activists drew attention to a modest memorial plaque installed near Istra - in the village of Kashino. Alas, this memorial sign is almost invisible due to its not very good location, although it is dedicated to famous song composer Konstantin LISTOV to the poems of Alexey SURKOV “In the dugout” - very bright, extremely sincere and incredibly touching work wartime.

Recently, activists of this project, together with the editors of the newspaper “Petrovka, 38”, initiated the creation of a worthy national monument great song - memorial complex, which includes a monument in her honor, a building with museum exhibition and a room for holding heroic-patriotic events and viewing thematic feature films and documentaries.

The mission of a military officer and a poet!

In Kashin folk symbol gratitude to the Soviet song masterpiece, in which front-line poet Alexei Surkov brilliantly expressed the beauty and impressive, all-conquering power of the feelings of two loving people, was
built in the spring of 1999.

The fire is beating in the small stove,

In the clearings there is resin like a tear.

And the accordion sings to me in the dugout

About your smile and eyes.

The bushes whispered to me about you

In the snow-white fields near Moscow,

I want you to hear

The grand opening of the original visible image of this legendary song on the Moscow region took place then on Victory Day - May 9, shortly before the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Alexandrovich Surkov.

In 1941-1945, he valiantly coped with the duties of a military correspondent for the front-line newspaper “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda” and a special correspondent for “Red Star”, and was also the “warring pen” of the newspaper “Battle Onslaught”.

A brave front-line chronicler, who became a battalion commissar in 1941, participated in the defense of Moscow and fought in Belarus. And the fighter of the word met the long-awaited Victory as a lieutenant colonel - this military rank he was assigned in 1944.

What the defender of the Motherland saw and experienced during the war and deeply sank into his heart seemed to crystallize and survive in confidential, accurate and imaginative descriptions of not only battle events. Readers received honest, intonationally and stylistically verified books written by Alexei Surkov, filled with faith in the coming hard-fought Victory and so-needed books of the military cycle.

This is how the mission of the military commander and poet turned out for Alexei Alexandrovich, who was awarded a number of military awards - the Order of the Red Banner (in 1945), the Order of the Red Star (in 1942; another Red Star was awarded to Surkov earlier - in 1940) and medals!

“...And there are four steps to death”

A special episode in the military biography of Alexei Surkov was the fulfillment of a difficult collective journalistic assignment on the outskirts of front-line Moscow, associated with the preparation for publication of materials about infantrymen who bravely fought the enemy, who, thanks to their valor, became guardsmen. At the end of the autumn of 1941, the 78th Rifle Division of the 16th Army defending the city of Istra received the name 9th Guards, and the Political Directorate of the Western Front invited Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda correspondents to cover this event. Among those who went to the front-line guards was military correspondent Surkov.

On November 27, 1941, journalists first visited the division headquarters, after which they went to the command post of the 258th (22nd Guards) Rifle Regiment, located in one of the local villages. However, by that time the command post itself was cut off by the advancing enemy tank formation, and enemy infantry was already approaching the village itself. Having found themselves in such a complex battle situation, the army reporters and the staff officers accompanying them were forced to sit down in a dugout-like dugout because of the mortar shelling that had begun. Meanwhile, the current situation worsened even more, as the occupiers occupied neighboring houses. At a critical moment, the chief of staff of the regiment, Captain I.K., showed courage and determination. Velichkin: he crawled to the huts and began throwing grenades at the Nazis, which caused temporary confusion among the Germans and made it possible for those caught in an enemy trap to break through...

Our soldiers, who safely reached another village completely controlled by the guards unit settlement, placed in a shelter-dugout. Almost all of them settled down near the stove, and someone began to quietly play the accordion to cheer up their comrades. Surkov, remembering his military task, began to write sketches for the report.

But here the lyrical mood of the soul of the journalist of the Krasnoarmeyskaya Gazeta already fully made itself felt, and he essentially had a final plan a sincere front-line message in verse. It should be explained that when the combat reporter, as part of the group that had escaped from the encirclement, reached his own people, Surkov’s overcoat was cut by shrapnel. And one more specific detail: when crossing the minefield, our soldiers tried to maintain a distance of four steps from each other. This was done so that, in the event of one of them being blown up, there would still be a chance for other participants in the forced, deadly forced march to survive. This is the real background of this expressive image in a poetic basis future song: “...And there are four steps to death.”

At night, the military correspondent returned to the capital, where he completed his truly confessional and essentially very intimate, personal poetic appeal-generalization - the poem “In the Dugout”. It is not for nothing that Alexey Alexandrovich sent this perfect rhyming text filled with warmth from the heart in his letter to the city of Chistopol of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, where Surkov’s family lived in evacuation. On the back of a simple soldier’s triangle, addressed by the sender-poet to his wife Sofya Antonovna - nee Krevs, a touching, laconic dedication was inscribed: “You are my sunshine!”

The thorny path of singing classics

Konstantin Listov

Those present at the premiere of the song approved of the new product, as this melodic composition was remembered literally from the very first listen. And the writer Evgeny Vorobyov, who worked in the editorial office of a front-line printed organ, copied the notes and rewrote the lyrics of the song and, in company with the amateur musician Savin, came to Komsomolskaya Pravda. There they, visitors from “trench truth,” presented to their colleagues the joint creation of Listov and Surkov: at an impromptu presentation of their work, Vorobyov sang, and journalist-guitarist Savin accompanied him.

The discerning audience from the editorial office of the order-bearing youth publication also liked the song, and it was published in the issue of the central newspaper on March 25, 1942. As a matter of fact, the confident and powerful march of the song began with her submission. It sounded everywhere: “Dugout” was sung by soldiers in the active army and home front workers, popular solo artists, professional and amateur creative groups...

In fact, the author’s version of the poem stated: “I feel warm in the cold dugout / From my unquenchable love.” But simple people and recognized performers, instead of the word “mine,” preferred to sing “yours,” and once on this occasion, a wise wife-muse, in a conversation with her poet husband, spoke very witty and aphoristic: “Here, Alyoshenka, the people corrected you...”.

Now it’s even hard to believe, but nevertheless, in the summer of 1942, an unspoken ban was suddenly declared on the song. This overly harsh administrative measure was explained by the fact that someone at the top regarded the truthful poetic postulate: “It’s not easy for me to get to you, / And to death there are four steps” was regarded as decadence.

And yet the song, thanks to its truly massive popularity at the front and in the rear, survived and continued its triumphant march. And, as the highest justice, for the triumphant Soviet victorious soldiers the song “In the Dugout” performed by Lydia Ruslanova was heard at the walls of the defeated Reichstag and at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Prototype for a poetic theme

Several decades later, it became clear which “nameless dugout” served the poet-military correspondent real prototype for a poem-song. In the article by correspondent I. Myasnikov, “A Song Was Born Here,” published in the Moscow region regional newspaper “Leninskoye Znamya” in the issue of February 14, 1982, it says:

“In October 1971, the author of “Dugout” again, thirty years later, came to Istra. At a meeting with townspeople and residents of nearby villages, Alexey Aleksandrovich Surkov told how the poem was written, which later, in combination with the music of K. Listov, became one of the most beloved songs of the wartime.

...In November 1941, in the village [village] of Kashino near Istra, in one of the surviving houses, the headquarters of the rifle regiment was located. “On the plot [opposite] this house,” the poet recalls, “a dugout was dug. And in this very dugout, after the Nazis infiltrated the village, everyone gathered. The Nazis have already occupied the nearest huts and are chopping with machine guns. Just along that very spot where a group of commanders and Red Army soldiers were concentrated in a dugout...”

A. Surkov ended his story with these words: “I wrote the warmest poem in my life, “Dugout,” in my editorial office, and it sank into my heart in the village of Kashino, in the dugout I was talking about...”

Now the dugout, which A. Surkov told about ten years ago, can be found in folk museum combat and labor glory in Snegiri. In the village, near which the enemy rushing to Moscow was stopped on the Volokolamsk highway, you can see not only the dugout sung by the poet, but also the plot of land where it was dug, and the house where the regiment’s headquarters was located. Of course, all this is on the layout. The explanatory text to it states that the plot belonged to A. Kuznetsova, and the dugout was dug by her son Mikhail. […]

...After this material was prepared for publication, I introduced it to the Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate State Prize USSR, Secretary of the Board of the Union of Writers of the USSR Alexey Aleksandrovich Surkov. Here's what he said:

You know, again, in 1980, I visited near Istra, where in 1941 I met with soldiers of the 9th Guards Division. Unfortunately, the place in Kashin where the dugout I remember was located was covered with earth and overgrown with bushes. But I’m glad that the model of the dugout, which suggested the theme of the poem to me, is in the folk museum in Snegiri.

Not only the model, but everything collected in this museum must be passed on as a relay from generation to generation, so that the memory of the battle of Moscow, of the feat of our people, is forever preserved...”

Heroes of the Fatherland - memorials of memory!

Correspondent of the newspaper “Petrovka, 38” Alexander Nesterov, author of the project idea and sketches of the monument-memorial, laureate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs photo competition “Open View”.

For quite a long time, the Support Fund social spheres creative association KINO Press Club is implementing a socially significant program “Heroes of the Fatherland - Memorials of Memory!” Within the framework of this program, it is planned to implement the project for the construction of the “Dugout” memorial complex. At the House of Veterans of the Istrinsky District, we have already presented a series of design projects “Dugouts”, and at these first public hearings, everyone present approved in their own way original idea construction of the monument itself. After all, as we expect, a comprehensive memorial infrastructure will appear and thus a promising platform will be formed for holding large cultural events of a civic and patriotic nature.

DIRECT SPEECH

Honorary citizen of the Istrinsky district of the Moscow region, Mikhail KUZNETSOV, was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medals “For the Defense of Moscow”, “For Military Merit” and others:

I have almost a century behind me: November 21 of this year is my 95th birthday. Despite all the difficulties and trials that have befallen me, I consider my life interesting and eventful.

When the Great Patriotic War began, I was not even eighteen years old. First I worked in Tushino, and then as a riveter at a defense plant in Khimki.

The front was moving closer and closer to our area... On the radio then they advised us to dig cracks in courtyards and near houses in which to hide from bombs and shrapnel. Together with his younger brother Volodya, they decided to build a shelter in case of bombing. In the summer of forty-one, they began to dig in their garden. Neighborhood kids joined in the work - brothers Kolya and Vitya Mikhailov, Volodya Senatov. They dragged heavy logs from the forest, built a flooring from them, which they covered on top with straw and a layer of clay - they got a fairly reliable roof. But the walls were left earthen. They built a door at the entrance to the dugout and cut steps into the ground. The result was a trench in the shape of the letter “g” and the height of a person. Later, with the onset of cold weather, I installed a cast-iron stove in our “bomb shelter”.

It’s September, it’s raining, it’s a little cold, but we’re warm in the dugout. About eight village boys and girls gathered to chat... I played the harmonica...

When the Nazis retreated, they burned down all of Kashino in two days. By that time, to be precise - December 5, 1941, I volunteered for the front. And my brother remained in the village, who saw all this terrifying barbarity committed by the occupiers.

...Years passed, and suddenly it became clear that it was our Kashin dugout that was depicted by the poet Alexei Surkov in his famous poem, set to music and which became the popular song “The fire beats in a cramped stove...”.

The fact is that in 1971, a former front-line correspondent, poet Alexei Surkov came to our city for a meeting with the public and said that in November 1941 he was in the village of Kashino...

Unfortunately, I was not in Istra that day, as I was present in Moscow at an important regional event.

...For many years, a model of a dugout created by the hands of director Istrinsky was exhibited in the Snegirevsky Museum of Military Glory drama theater Yuri Shcheglov. Two photographs were placed next to each other: Alexey Surkov’s and mine... I drew a sketch of my former “bomb shelter”.

I remember an old episode. Myasnikov, a correspondent for the regional newspaper Leninsky Znamya, came to me to find out details about my dugout. Then he called Alexey Alexandrovich Surkov to ask about the birth of his “Zemlyanka”. And again - come to me to agree on the resulting article. From my office, the journalist dialed Surkov’s phone number, asked him something, and then turned to me: “Do you want to talk?” I took telephone handset, said hello. Alexey Alexandrovich, in turn, asked: “Mikhail Mikhailovich, is the accordion intact?” I replied that I was intact, but only different. Because during the war our house burned down, and nothing was left of our property. The poet gave the go-ahead for the publication of the article...

In Surkov’s magnificent poem, it seems to me that everything is mine - the dugout, the stove, and the accordion. I willingly joined the wonderful modern project“Dugout” and I really hope for its speedy implementation as a monument to a beautiful and literally unique song.

Unfortunately, a few days ago, on November 6, my brother, retired lieutenant colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Kuznetsov, holder of the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, passed away at the age of 92.

I think that the national monument “Dugout” will not only become a worthy memorial sign in honor of the great song, but will also remind descendants of our valiant generation of winners.

Memorial sign in Kashin

Members of the local local history club "Istok", led by its leader Sergei Borisovich Lavrenko, who became the author of the project for a memorial sign to the song "In the Dugout", carried out on their own necessary work. Along with the creation graphic sketch mini-steles and wood carvings, the required assembly of metal structures and welding of the frame were carried out memorial plaque, turning work and installation of this song symbol in the village of Kashino. Two consulting artists and employees of the research institute took part in its construction.

The poet’s daughter, Natalya Alekseevna Surkova, spoke at the opening ceremony of the memorial sign. Among the participants in the exciting event, along with other villagers, were the very same residents of Kashin who built a solid dugout in 1941. The village “bomb shelter” was the work of Mikhail Mikhailovich Kuznetsov, who was helped younger brother Vladimir Mikhailovich and several of their friends.

Senior Sergeant Mikhail Kuznetsov, as part of the 367th separate machine-gun and artillery battalion (the so-called 152nd fortified area), fought in battles near Moscow, and later in the Smolensk region, in Belarus. Due to the serious wound he received, he, a front-line soldier, was declared unfit for further work in May 1944. military service and, having a second group of disability, returned to his native Kashino. Having graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Agricultural Institute in 1968, Mikhail Mikhailovich worked in his specialty for three decades and was the head of the city’s financial department and the head of the district’s financial department in Istra. The team, led by Mikhail Kuznetsov, twice won top places in the All-Union Socialist Competition. The successful specialist-manager was awarded the honorary titles “Excellence in Financial Work” and “Honored Economist of the RSFSR” for his achievements in his professional field.

Having subsequently restored - already in the twenty-first century - the memorial sign, local historians and craftsmen expressed the hope that, over time, some more fundamental, monumental composition would be installed in honor of the song “In the Dugout”. And now the public of the Moscow region, with the assistance of a number of organizations, institutions and representatives of electronic and print media, have taken the initiative to create a truly iconic monument- monument-memorial “Dugout” in the village of Kashino Istra municipal district Moscow region.

The authors and co-chairs of the project are a correspondent of the newspaper “Petrovka, 38”, director of the Fund for Support of Social Spheres (Moscow), member Creative Union artists of Russia Alexander Nesterov and the head of the Istrinsky district branch of the public organization “Union of Disabled Persons “Chernobyl”” Alexander Shabutkin from the town of Dedovsk near Moscow, a participant in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident, holder of the Order of Courage.

The following are currently actively involved in this project: public organization“Union of Disabled People “Chernobyl” (Istra branch); House of Veterans of Istrinsky District; district branch of the party United Russia"; unification of the search engine movement; the editorial office of the newspaper “Petrovka, 38” of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Moscow and the Charitable Foundation of the same name; cultural foundation and the editorial board of the magazine “My Moscow”.

Active support for the noble undertaking is provided by: the rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the village of Darna, Father Konstantin (in the world - Volkov); folk artist Russian sculptor Sergei Kazantsev; film critic Alexander Shpagin, artistic director festival “The Truth about War and Peace”; Professor, Doctor of Cultural Studies Olga Shlykova; TV journalist from Istra Polina Gromova; the heads of the project's press centers are journalists Mikhail Mosalev (in Istra) and Valery Senkevich (in Moscow).

The Fund for Support of Social Spheres in partnership with Chernobyl victims and the editorial office of the newspaper “Petrovka, 38” will soon be removed documentary on the history of the song “In the Dugout”. The film will include its collective performance, in particular, by Moscow law enforcement officers representing various structural units of the city police. According to the creators of the documentary, everyone creative team, who will take part in a beautiful extraordinary event, will sing line by line legendary work.

Also in the immediate plans of like-minded social activists is to hold a ceremony to lay a memorial stone at the site of the future monumental landmark in Kashin. The initiators of the project are confident that a majestic monument to the favorite song of generations of our compatriots will definitely be erected. And this, which is very important, will be a people's memorial.

Archpriest Konstantin Volkov said that such a thing is right, necessary for everyone, and with God's help it will work out. Father Konstantin supported the choice of location for the monument, which will be placed at the crossroads three roads- close to the temple and local historical and cultural symbol: the precisely established “address” of the dugout immortalized in the song.

Citizens and organizations are invited to participate in this good cause, the motto of which is memory and warmth. In order to implement the project, a collection will be organized folk remedies, or better yet, “Dugout” will allow many, many people to unite and feel their direct involvement in the cultural and spiritual values ​​of society and preserving the memory of the glorious historical past of our Fatherland.

Alexander TARASOV,

photo by Alexander NESTEROV
and from the archive of Mikhail KUZNETSOV

From the editor:

Additional information about the project of the Dugout memorial complex in the village of Kashino can be found on the website:
www.fond-sfer.ru.

On October 13, 1899, front-line poet Alexei Surkov was born. Many of his poems became popular songs.

For example, the song “In the Dugout,” which begins with the words “The fire is beating in the cramped stove,” was born from a letter that the poet wrote from the front to his wife at the end of November 1941. These were sixteen, as they say, “homemade” poetic lines that Surkov did not intend to publish. They would have remained part of the letter if in February 1942 the composer Konstantin Listov had not come to the front-line editorial office and asked to give him “something to write a song on.” And Surkov remembered his letter. This is how the song “In the Dugout” was born, which very quickly spread on all fronts - from Sevastopol to Leningrad.

True, some guardians of front-line morality thought that the lines “...it’s not easy for me to get to you, but there are four steps to death” - decadent, disarming. They asked and even demanded that death be crossed out or moved further from the trench. But Surkov was sorry to change the words - they very accurately conveyed what was experienced and felt in battle, and it was too late to spoil the song, the soldiers were already singing it. And, as you know, “you can’t erase a word from a song.”

The warring people found out that something was being done with the song. Surkov’s army archive contains a letter signed by six tank guardsmen. Having said kind word Addressing the song and its authors, the tankers wrote that they heard that someone didn’t like the line “there are four steps to death.” The guards expressed a caustic wish: “Write for these people that there are four thousand English miles to death, but leave us as it is - we know how many steps there are to death”...