Sholokhov the fate of man about the war. Composition on the topic: A man at war based on the story of Sholokhov The fate of a man

>Compositions based on the work of the fate of man

man at war

Many works of art were written about the Great Patriotic War, including large-scale and epic ones. It would seem that against their background, a short story by M. A. Sholokhov “The Fate of a Man” should have been lost. But he not only did not get lost, but became one of the most popular and beloved by readers. This story is still taught in schools today. Such a long age of the work indicates that it is talentedly written and is distinguished by artistic expressiveness.

This story tells about the fate of an ordinary Soviet man named Andrey Sokolov, who went through a civil war, industrialization, the Great Patriotic War, a concentration camp and other trials, but managed to remain a man with a capital letter. He did not become a traitor, did not break down in the face of danger, he showed all his willpower and courage in captivity of the enemy. A vivid episode is the incident in the camp, when he had to stand face to face with the Lagerfuehrer. Then Andrew was just a hair away from death. One wrong move or step, he would have been shot in the yard. However, seeing in him a strong and worthy opponent, the Lagerführer simply let him go, treating him with a loaf of bread and a piece of bacon as a reward.

Another incident, testifying to the heightened sense of justice and the moral strength of the hero, occurred in the church where the prisoners spent the night. Upon learning that there was a traitor among them, who was trying to hand over one platoon commander to the Nazis as a communist, Sokolov strangled him with his own hands. Killing Kryzhnev, he did not feel pity, nothing but disgust. Thus, he saved an unknown platoon leader and punished the traitor. Strength of character helped him escape from Nazi Germany. This happened when he got a job as a driver for a German major. Once on the way, he stunned him, took away the gun and managed to leave the country. Once on his native side, he kissed the earth for a long time, could not breathe it.

The war more than once took everything dear from Andrei. During the Civil War, he lost his parents and sister, who starved to death. He himself was saved only by leaving for the Kuban. Subsequently, he managed to create a new family. Andrei had a wonderful wife and three children, but the war took them away from him. A lot of sorrows and trials befell this man, but he was able to find the strength to live on. The key incentive for him was little Vanyusha, an orphaned person like him. The war took Vanya's father and mother away, and Andrei picked him up and adopted him. It also testifies to the inner strength of the protagonist. Having gone through a series of such difficult trials, he did not lose heart, did not break down and did not harden. This is his personal victory over the war.

The Great Patriotic War passed through the fate of millions of Soviet people, leaving a heavy memory of itself: pain, anger, suffering, fear. Many during the war years lost their dearest and closest people, many experienced severe hardships. Rethinking of military events, human actions occurs later. In the literature, works of art appear, in which, through the prism of the author's perception, an assessment of what is happening in difficult wartime is given.

Mikhail Sholokhov could not pass by the topic that was of concern to everyone and therefore wrote a short story “The Fate of a Man”, touching on the problems of the heroic epic. In the center of the narrative are the wartime events that changed the life of Andrei Sokolov, the protagonist of the work. The writer does not describe military events in detail, this is not the task of the author. The purpose of the writer is to show the key episodes that influenced the formation of the hero's personality. The most important event in the life of Andrei Sokolov is captivity. It is in the hands of the Nazis, in the face of mortal danger, that various aspects of the character's character are manifested, it is here that the war appears to the reader without embellishment, exposing the essence of people: the vile, vile traitor Kryzhnev; a real doctor who “did his great work both in captivity and in the dark”; "such a thin, snub-nosed boy", platoon commander. Andrei Sokolov had to endure inhuman torments in captivity, but the main thing is that he managed to maintain his honor and dignity. The climax of the story is the scene at the commandant Muller, where they brought the exhausted, hungry, tired hero, but even there he showed the enemy the strength of the Russian soldier. The act of Andrei Sokolov (he drank three glasses of vodka without a snack: he did not want to choke on a handout) surprised Muller: “Here's the thing, Sokolov, you are a real Russian soldier. You are a brave soldier." The war appears before the reader without embellishment: after escaping from captivity, already in the hospital, the hero receives terrible news from home about the death of his family: his wife and two daughters. The heavy war machine spares no one: neither women nor children. The last blow of fate is the death of the eldest son Anatoly on the ninth of May on Victory Day at the hands of a German sniper.

War robs people of the most precious thing: family, loved ones. In parallel with the life of Andrei Sokolov, the storyline of the little boy Vanyusha also develops, whom the war also made an orphan, depriving his relatives of his mother and father.

This is what the writer gives to his two heroes: "Two orphaned people, two grains of sand, thrown into foreign lands by a military hurricane of unprecedented strength ...". War dooms people to suffering, but it also brings up will, character, when you want to believe “that this Russian man, a man of unbending will, will survive, and one will grow up near his father’s shoulder, who, having matured, will be able to endure everything, overcome everything in his path if his homeland calls for it.

The Great Patriotic War passed through the fate of millions of Soviet people, leaving a heavy memory of itself: pain, anger, suffering, fear. Many during the war years lost their dearest and closest people, many experienced severe hardships. Rethinking of military events, human actions occurs later. In the literature, works of art appear, in which, through the prism of the author's perception, an assessment of what is happening in difficult wartime is given.

Mikhail Sholokhov could not pass by the topic that was of concern to everyone and therefore wrote a short story “The Fate of a Man”, touching on the problems of the heroic epic. In the center of the narrative are the wartime events that changed the life of Andrei Sokolov, the protagonist of the work. The writer does not describe military events in detail, this is not the task of the author. The purpose of the writer is to show the key episodes that influenced the formation of the hero's personality. The most important event in the life of Andrei Sokolov is captivity. It is in the hands of the Nazis, in the face of mortal danger, that various aspects of the character's character are manifested, it is here that the war appears to the reader without embellishment, exposing the essence of people: the vile, vile traitor Kryzhnev; a real doctor who “did his great work both in captivity and in the dark”; "such a thin, snub-nosed boy", platoon commander. Andrei Sokolov had to endure inhuman torments in captivity, but the main thing is that he managed to maintain his honor and dignity. The climax of the story is the scene at the commandant Muller, where they brought the exhausted, hungry, tired hero, but even there he showed the enemy the strength of the Russian soldier. The act of Andrei Sokolov (he drank three glasses of vodka without a snack: he did not want to choke on a handout) surprised Muller: “Here's the thing, Sokolov, you are a real Russian soldier. You are a brave soldier." The war appears before the reader without embellishment: after escaping from captivity, already in the hospital, the hero receives terrible news from home about the death of his family: his wife and two daughters. The heavy war machine spares no one: neither women nor children. The last blow of fate is the death of the eldest son Anatoly on the ninth of May on Victory Day at the hands of a German sniper.

War robs people of the most precious thing: family, loved ones. In parallel with the life of Andrei Sokolov, the storyline of the little boy Vanyusha also develops, whom the war also made an orphan, depriving his relatives of his mother and father.

This is what the writer gives to his two heroes: "Two orphaned people, two grains of sand, thrown into foreign lands by a military hurricane of unprecedented strength ...". War dooms people to suffering, but it also brings up will, character, when you want to believe “that this Russian man, a man of unbending will, will survive, and one will grow up near his father’s shoulder, who, having matured, will be able to endure everything, overcome everything in his path if his homeland calls for it.

    A special work that raised the problem of personality psychology during the war to a new height is the famous story by M. A. Sholokhov "The Fate of a Man." Before the reader appears not just the story of the life of a soldier, but the fate of a man who embodied ...

    In this story, Sholokhov depicted the fate of an ordinary Soviet man who went through the war, captivity, experienced a lot of pain, hardships, losses, deprivations, but was not broken by them and managed to keep the warmth of his soul. For the first time we meet the main character Andrey Sokolov...

    Dictionaries interpret fate in different meanings. The most common are the following: 1. In philosophy, mythology - an incomprehensible predestination of events and actions. 2. In everyday usage: fate, share, coincidence, life path ....

    The story was written in 1956 during Khrushchev's "thaw". Sholokhov was a participant in the Great Patriotic War. There he heard the life story of a soldier. She touched him very much. Sholokhov nurtured the idea of ​​writing this story for a long time. And here in...

March 02 2011

Writers have thought about humanism at all times. In the 20th century, the humanistic theme was also heard in works dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War.

War is. It brings destruction and sacrifice, separation and death. Millions of people were orphaned at that time. War is inhuman: it kills a man. He is required to be cruel and evil, to forget about moral laws and God's commandments.

The answer to this question can be found in M. Sholokhov's story "The Fate of Man". The protagonist of the work is the driver Andrey Sokolov. It is in his actions that the humanistic theme is reflected.

The ordinary soldier had to go through a lot. He was wounded three times, was taken prisoner (“whoever did not experience this in his own skin, you will not immediately enter into his soul so that it humanly dawns on him what this thing means”), all the horrors of concentration camps (“They beat him easily in order to so that someday yes kill to death, so that he chokes on his last blood and dies of beatings. Andrey's family died: “A heavy bomb hit right in my hut. Irina and her daughters were just at home ... they did not find a trace of them. The son, “the last joy and last hope”, is killed by a German sniper “accurately on the ninth of May, on Victory Day. “From such a blow, Andrei “darkened in his eyes, his heart sank into a ball and did not unclench in any way.”

These severe troubles and hardships became a real test for Sholokhov's hero - a test of humanity. His eyes, which, as you know, are the mirror of the soul, although "as if sprinkled with ashes", but still they have neither vengeful misanthropy, nor a poisonous skeptical attitude to life, nor cynical indifference. Fate "distorted" Andrey, but could not break, kill the living soul in him.

With his story, Sholokhov refutes the opinion of those who believe that fortitude, courage do not get along with tenderness, responsiveness, affection, kindness. On the contrary, he believes that only strong and adamant people are able to show humanity, as if this is a "sign" of this nature.

Sholokhov specifically does not show the details of front-line life, camp ordeals, wanting to focus on depicting the “culminating” moments, when the character of the hero, his humanity, are manifested most strongly and vividly.

So, Andrey Sokolov with honor withstands the "duel" with the lagerführer. The hero manages, even for a moment, to awaken something human in the Nazis: Muller, in recognition of his soldier's prowess (“May I, a Russian soldier, drink for the victory of German weapons ?!”) saves Andrey and even presents “a small loaf bread and a piece of lard. But the hero understood: the enemy is capable of any deceit and cruelty, and at that moment, when a shot in the back could have thundered, it flashed through his head: “He will light up between my shoulder blades now and I won’t inform the guys of these grubs.” In a moment of mortal danger, the hero thinks not about his own life, but about the fate of his comrades. Muller's gift was "divided without offense" ("equally for everyone"), although "everyone got a piece of bread the size of a matchbox ... well, bacon ... - just anoint your lips." And Sholokhov's hero performs such a generous act without hesitation. For him, this is not even the only correct, but the only possible solution.

War is inhuman, so there are situations that require decisions on the verge of cruelty and humanism, on the verge of what is permitted and not permitted ... under normal conditions. Andrey Sokolov was subjected to such a test of moral principles, having been forced to deal with Kryzhnev in order to save the platoon leader - "snub-nosed boy." Is it humane to kill a person? For Sholokhov, under the circumstances, the strangulation of Kryzhnev, a traitor guided by the principle “one’s own shirt is closer to the body,” has “humanistic legitimacy.” The writer is convinced that the spiritual responsiveness and tenderness, the ability for active (precisely active) love, shown by Andrei Sokolov when he encounters kind, just people who need his protection, is the moral basis of irreconcilability, contempt, courageous firmness (ability to to step over the moral law - to kill) in relation to cruelty and betrayal, lies and hypocrisy, and aloofness and cowardice.

That is why, trying to convince the reader of the humanity of Andrei's act, Sholokhov creates "Comrade Kryzhnev" as exclusively negative, trying to arouse contempt, hatred for the traitor "big-faced", "fat gelding". And after the murder, Andrei “became unwell”, “terribly wanted to wash his hands”, but only because it seemed to him that he “strangled some creeping bastard”, and not a person.

But the hero accomplishes both a truly humanistic and civic feat. He adopts a “little ragamuffin”, a little orphan: “It won’t happen that we disappear separately.” “Distorted”, “crippled by life” Andrey Sokolov does not try to motivate his decision to adopt Vanyushka philosophically, for him this step is not connected with the problem of moral duty. For the hero of the story, "protecting the child" is a natural manifestation of the soul, the desire that the boy's eyes remain clear, "like a sky", and the fragile soul is not disturbed.

Andrey gives all his unspent love and care to his son: “Go, my dear, play near the water ... Just look, don’t get your feet wet!” With what tenderness he looks at his blue "little eyes". And “the heart departs”, and “it becomes joyful in the soul, which cannot be said in words!”

Having adopted a boy who no one needs, but in whose soul there was hope for a "good share", Sokolov himself becomes the personification of the indestructible humanity of the world. Thus, in the story "The Fate of a Man" he showed that despite all the hardships of the war, personal losses, people did not harden their hearts, they are able to do good, strive for happiness, love.

At the beginning of the story, the author calmly talks about the signs of the first post-war spring, as if preparing us for a meeting with the main character, Andrei Sokolov, whose eyes “seem to be sprinkled with ashes, filled with inescapable mortal longing.” Sholokhov's hero recalls the past with restraint, wearily; before confession, he "hunched over", put his big, dark hands on his knees. All this makes us feel how tragic the fate of this man.

Before us is the life of an ordinary person, the Russian soldier Andrei Sokolov. From childhood, he learned how much "a pound is dashing", he fought in civilian life. A modest worker, the father of a family, he was happy in his own way. The war broke the life of this man, tore him away from home, from his family. Andrei Sokolov goes to the front. From the beginning of the war, in its very first months, he was twice wounded, shell-shocked. But the worst was waiting for the hero ahead - he falls into Nazi captivity.

The hero had to experience inhuman torment, hardship, torment. For two years Andrei Sokolov endured the horrors of fascist captivity. He tries to escape, but unsuccessfully, cracking down on a coward, a traitor who is ready, to save his own skin, to betray the commander. With great clarity, self-esteem, tremendous fortitude and endurance were revealed in the moral duel between Sokolov and the commandant of the concentration camp. The exhausted, exhausted, exhausted prisoner is ready to meet death with such courage and endurance that it amazes even a fascist who has lost his human appearance.

Andrei still manages to escape, and he again becomes a soldier. More than once death looked into his eyes, but he remained human to the end. And yet the most serious test fell on the lot of the hero when he returned home. Coming out of the war as a winner, Andrei Sokolov lost everything he had in life. In the place where the house built by his hands stood, a crater from a German air bomb was darkening ... All members of his family died. He says to his random interlocutor: “Sometimes you don’t sleep at night, you look into the darkness with empty eyes and think: “Why did you, life, cripple me like that?” There is no answer for me either in the dark or in the clear sun ... "

After everything that this man went through, it would seem that he should have become embittered, hardened. However, life could not break Andrei Sokolov, she hurt, but did not kill the living soul in him. The hero gives all the warmth of his soul to the orphan Vanyusha adopted by him, a boy with "eyes as bright as a sky." And the fact that he adopts Vanya confirms the moral strength of Andrei Sokolov, who, after so many losses, managed to start life anew. This person conquers grief, continues to live. “And I would like to think,” writes Sholokhov, “that this Russian man, a man of unbending will, will survive, and one will grow up near his father’s shoulder, who, having matured, will be able to withstand everything, overcome everything in his path, if his Motherland calls him to this” .

Mikhail Sholokhov's story "The Fate of Man" is imbued with a deep, bright faith in man. Its title is symbolic: it is not just the fate of the soldier Andrei Sokolov, but the fate of a Russian man, a simple soldier who endured all the hardships of the war. The writer shows what a huge price the victory in the Great Patriotic War was won and who was the real hero of this war. The image of Andrei Sokolov instills in us a deep faith in the moral strength of the Russian people.

Need a cheat sheet? Then save it -" The theme of war and humanism in Sholokhov's story "The Fate of a Man". Literary writings!

(materials for discussion with students in grades 5-6).

Librarian's word:

June 22, 1941 is remembered by us as one of the most tragic days in the history of the country. On this day, fascist Germany attacked the USSR without declaring war. Mortal danger hangs over our Motherland.

The Red Army courageously met the enemy. Thousands of fighters and commanders at the cost of their own lives tried to hold back the onslaught of the Nazis. But the forces were unequal.

In the first days of the war, the Nazis managed to destroy many of our aircraft. Many commanders and political workers have recently begun to command regiments, battalions, and divisions. And the experienced, most trained commanders of the Red Army, devoted to their country, Stalin declared enemies of the people. They were slandered and shot. Of the five marshals of the Soviet Union, three - A.I. Egorov, V.K. Blucher, M.N. Tukhachevsky - were destroyed.

In the Red Army, there were not enough new types of equipment in service: tanks, aircraft, artillery pieces, machine guns. The Soviet Union has only just begun to re-equip our army and navy.

For these and some other reasons, the Soviet troops suffered huge, unjustified losses.

In any war there are prisoners and missing. These are her inevitable companions.

By the end of 1941, 3.9 million fighters and commanders of the Red Army were captured by the Germans. By the spring of 1942, only a quarter of them remained alive.

Of course, the conditions that led the soldier to capture were different. As a rule, this was preceded by a wound, physical exhaustion, lack of ammunition. But everyone knew that voluntary surrender due to cowardice or cowardice has always been recognized as a military crime. Almost everyone who fell into fascist captivity experienced a severe psychological blow at the tragic hour, which threw them from the ranks of Soviet soldiers into a defenseless mass of prisoners of war. Many of them preferred death to excruciating shame.

JV Stalin considered the prisoners traitors. Order No. 270 of August 16, 1941, signed by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, called the prisoners deserters and traitors. The families of captured commanders and political workers were subject to arrest and exile, and the families of soldiers were deprived of state benefits and assistance.

The situation of the prisoners was aggravated by the fact that the USSR did not sign the Geneva Convention on the Humane Treatment of Prisoners of War, although it announced that it would comply with its main provisions, with the exception of the right to send parcels and the exchange of nominal lists of prisoners. This gave Germany a reason not to comply with the provisions of the convention in relation to the captured soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, who also could not receive any help from their homeland.

And the worst thing was that the verification and filtration camp and SMERSH (Counterintelligence Department "Death to Spies") were now waiting at home for those who had come from captivity,

Mikhail Alexandrovich refuses to recognize the prisoners as traitors. In 1956, he writes the story "The Fate of a Man", in which he defends those who were in captivity.

In the story - the fate of a simple Russian soldier Andrei Sokolov. His life is correlated with the biography of the country, with the most important events in history. In May 1942 he was taken prisoner. For two years he traveled around "half of Germany", escaped from captivity, during the war he lost his entire family. After the war, having met an orphan boy in a tea shop, Andrei adopted him.

In "The Fate of a Man" the condemnation of war, fascism is not only in the history of Andrei Sokolov. It sounds with no less force in the history of Vanyusha. Humanity permeates the short tale of a ruined childhood, of a childhood that knew sorrow and parting so early. (We watch the film "The Fate of a Man" either in its entirety, or from the episode in the teahouse to the end).

Issues for discussion:

1. One of the Christian commandments says: "Do not kill", and Andrei Sokolov killed, killed his own, Russian. Why did he do it?

  • Read in the test from the words "I touched him with my hand ..." to "... strangled the creeping reptile."

2. What, in your opinion, is the essence of the confrontation between Andrei Sokolov and Commandant Muller?

  • Read from the words: “The commandant pours me ...” to “... they didn’t turn it, no matter how hard they tried.”

3. What do we know about Vanyushka from the story?

  • Read from the words “I ask: “Where is your father, Vanyushka?” to "Where will you have to."

4. Another Christian commandment says: “Do not bear false witness,” that is, do not lie, but Andrei Sokolov told a lie to Vanyushka that he was his father. Why did he do it? Are lies always bad?

  • Separately - they disappear, together they save each other. Vanyushka has a father, support and hope, and Andrei has the meaning of life.

Conclusion:

Almost half a century has passed since the story "The Fate of a Man" was published. Farther and farther from us is the war, mercilessly grinding human lives, bringing so much grief and torment.

But every time we meet with the heroes of Sholokhov, we are surprised at how generous the human heart is, how inexhaustible kindness is in it, the indestructible need to protect and protect, even when, it would seem, there is nothing to think about.

Andrey Sokolov did not seem to have performed feats. During his stay at the front, "he was wounded twice, but both times for ease." But the chain of episodes created by the writer fully show that not ostentatious courage, human pride and dignity, which were so matched by the whole appearance of this simple, ordinary person.

In the fate of Andrei Sokolov, everything good, peaceful, human entered the battle with the terrible evil of fascism. A peaceful person turned out to be stronger than a war.

It was in Andrei Sokolov's attitude to Vanyusha that victory was won over the anti-humanity of fascism, over destruction and loss - the inevitable companions of war.

The end of the story is preceded by the author’s unhurried reflection, who has seen and knows a lot in the life of a person: “And I would like to think that this Russian man, a man of unbending will, will survive and grow up near his father’s shoulder, one who, having matured, will be able to endure everything, sing everything overcome on his way, if his homeland calls for this.

In this meditation, the glorification of courage, steadfastness, the glorification of a man who withstood the blows of a military storm, endured the impossible.

List of used literature:

1. Big school encyclopedia. Literature.- M.: Slovo, 1999.- S. 826.

2. What is. Who is: In 3 volumes - M .: Pedagogy-Press, 1992.- T.1.- S. 204-205.

3. Bangerskaya T. "Near the father's shoulder ..." - Family and school. - 1975. - No. 5. - P. 57-58.

4. Great Patriotic War. Figures and facts: Book. For students, art. class and students.- M.: Education, 1995.- S. 90-96.

5. Encyclopedia for children. Vol. 5, part 3: History of Russia and its closest neighbors. XX century.- M.: Avanta+, 1998.- S. 494.

Illustrations:

1. Father and son. "Destiny of Man". Artistic O. G. Vereisky // M. A. Sholokhov [Album] / Comp. S. N. Gromova, T. R. Kurdyumova.- M.: Enlightenment, 1982.

2. Andrey Sokolov. "Destiny of Man". Artistic P. N. Pinkisevich // M. A. Sholokhov [Album] / Comp. S. N. Gromova, T. R. Kurdyumova.- M.: Enlightenment, 1982.

Movies:

1. "The fate of man." Artistic movie. Dir. S. Bondarchuk. - Mosfilm, 1959.

M. A. Sholokhov. The fate of man: how it was

(Literary investigation)

For work with readers 15-17 years old

The following are involved in the investigation:
Leader - librarian
Independent historian
Witnesses - literary heroes

Leading: 1956 On December 31, Pravda published the story “The Fate of a Man”. With this story, a new stage in the development of our military literature began. And here Sholokhov's fearlessness and Sholokhov's ability to show the era in all complexity and in all drama through the fate of one person played a role.

The main plot motif of the story is the fate of a simple Russian soldier Andrei Sokolov. His life as a contemporary of the century is correlated with the biography of the country, with the most important events in history. In May 1942 he was taken prisoner. For two years, he traveled around "half of Germany", escaped from captivity. During the war he lost his entire family. After the war, having accidentally met an orphan boy, Andrey adopted him.

After The Fate of a Man, omissions about the tragic events of the war, about the bitterness of captivity experienced by many Soviet people, became impossible. Soldiers and officers who were very devoted to the Motherland, who fell into a hopeless situation at the front, were also captured, but they were often treated as traitors. Sholokhov's story, as it were, pulled off the veil from much that was hidden by the fear of offending the heroic portrait of Victory.

Let's go back to the years of the Great Patriotic War, to its most tragic period - 1942-1943. Word to an independent historian.

Historian: On August 16, 1941, Stalin signed Order No. 270, which stated: “Commanders and political workers who surrender to the enemy during the battle are considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest as families who have violated the oath and betrayed their homeland. The order demanded that the prisoners be destroyed by all "means, both ground and air, and the families of the Red Army soldiers who had surrendered should be deprived of state benefits and assistance."

Only in 1941, according to German data, 3 million 800 thousand were captured. Soviet military personnel. By the spring of 1942, 1 million 100 thousand people remained alive.

In total, during the war years, out of approximately 6.3 million prisoners of war, about 4 million died

Leading: The Great Patriotic War ended, victorious volleys died down, the peaceful life of the Soviet people began. How did the fate of people like Andrey Sokolov, who went through captivity or survived the occupation, develop in the future? How did our society treat such people?

Lyudmila Markovna Gurchenko testifies in her book “My adult childhood”.

(A girl testifies on behalf of L.M. Gurchenko).

Witness: Not only Kharkiv residents, but also residents of other cities began to return to Kharkov from the evacuation. Everyone had to be provided with housing. Those who remained in the occupation were looked askance at. They were first of all relocated from apartments and rooms on the floors to the basements. We were waiting for our turn.

In the classroom, the newcomers announced a boycott to those who remained under the Germans. I didn’t understand anything: if I had gone through so much, seen so much terrible things, on the contrary, they should understand me, pity me ... I began to be afraid of people who looked at me with disdain and started following me: “shepherd dog”. Ah, if only they knew what a real German Shepherd is. If they saw how a shepherd dog leads people straight to the gas chamber... these people would not say so... When films and chronicles were shown on the screen, in which the horrors of the execution and massacre of the Germans in the occupied territories were shown, gradually this "disease" began to become a thing of the past .

Leading:... 10 years have passed since the victorious 45th year, Sholokhov's war did not let go. He worked on the novel "They Fought for the Motherland" and the story "The Fate of a Man".

According to the literary critic V. Osipov, this story could not have been created at any other time. It began to be written when its author finally saw the light and understood: Stalin is not an icon for the people, Stalinism is Stalinism. As soon as the story came out - so much praise from almost every newspaper or magazine. Remarque and Hemingway responded - they sent telegrams. And to this day, not a single anthology of Soviet short stories can do without it.

Leading: You have read this story. Please share your impressions, what touched you in it, what left you indifferent?

(Answers guys)

Leading: There are two polar opinions about the story of M.A. Sholokhov "The Fate of a Man": Alexander Solzhenitsyn and a writer from Alma-Ata Veniamin Larin. Let's listen to them.

(A young man testifies on behalf of A.I. Solzhenitsyna)

Solzhenitsyn A.I.:"The Fate of a Man" is a very weak story, where military pages are pale and unconvincing.

Firstly: the most non-criminal case of captivity was chosen - without memory, to make it indisputable, to bypass the entire acuteness of the problem. (And if he gave up in memory, as was the case with the majority - what and how then?)

Secondly: the main problem is presented not in the fact that the motherland left us, renounced, cursed (Sholokhov does not say a word about this), but this creates hopelessness, but in the fact that traitors were declared among us ...

Thirdly: a fantastically detective escape from captivity was composed with a bunch of exaggerations so that the obligatory, steady procedure for those who came from captivity did not arise: “SMERSH-check-filtration camp”.

Leading: SMERSH - what kind of organization is this? Word to an independent historian.

Historian: From the encyclopedia "The Great Patriotic War": By the Decree of the State Defense Committee of April 14, 1943, the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" - "Death to Spies" was formed. The intelligence services of fascist Germany tried to launch extensive subversive activities against the USSR. They created over 130 reconnaissance and sabotage agencies and about 60 special reconnaissance and sabotage schools on the Soviet-German front. Subversive detachments and terrorists were thrown into the active Soviet Army. The SMERSH bodies actively searched for enemy agents in the areas of hostilities, at the locations of military facilities, ensured timely receipt of data on the sending of enemy spies and saboteurs. After the war, in May 1946, the SMERSH bodies were transformed into special departments and subordinated to the USSR Ministry of State Security.

Leading: And now the opinion of Veniamin Larin.

(Young man on behalf of V. Larin)

Larin V.: Sholokhov's story is praised only for one theme of a soldier's feat. But literary critics by such an interpretation kill - safely for themselves - the true meaning of the story. Sholokhov's truth is wider and does not end with a victory in the battle with the Nazi captivity machine. They pretend that the big story has no continuation: like a big state, big power belongs to a small person, albeit a great one in spirit. Sho-lokhov rips out a revelation from his heart: look, readers, how the government treats a person - slogans, slogans, and what, to hell, care for a person! Captivity mangled man. But he was there, in captivity, even shredded, remained faithful to his country, but did he return? Nobody needs! Orphan! And with the boy, two orphans… Grains of sand… And not only under a military hurricane. But Sholokhov is great - he was not tempted by a cheap turn of the topic: he did not begin to invest in his hero either pitiful pleas for sympathy or curses against Stalin. He saw in his Sokolov the eternal essence of the Russian man - patience and fortitude.

Leading: Let's turn to the work of writers who write about captivity, and with their help we will recreate the atmosphere of the difficult war years.

(The hero of the story "The Road to the Father's House" by Konstantin Vorobyov testifies)

Partisan story: I was taken prisoner near Volokolamsk in the forty-first, and although sixteen years have passed since then, and I remained alive, and divorced my family, and all that, I can’t tell about how I spent the winter in captivity: I don’t have Russian words for this. No!

We fled from the camp together, and over time, a whole detachment gathered from us, former prisoners. Klimov ... restored military ranks to all of us. You see, you were, let's say, a sergeant before captivity, and you stayed with him. He was a soldier - be him to the end!

It used to be ... if you destroy an enemy truck with bombs, your soul seems to straighten up right away, and something rejoices there - now I’m not fighting for myself alone, like in a camp! Let's defeat his bastard, we'll definitely finish it, and that's how you get to this place until victory, that is, stop!

And then, after the war, a questionnaire will be immediately required. And there will be one small question - was he in captivity? In place, this question is just for the answer with one word "yes" or "no".

And the one who will hand you this questionnaire does not care at all what you did during the war, but where you were! Ah, in captivity? So ... Well, what does this mean - you yourself know. In life and in truth, such a situation should have been quite the opposite, but come on! ...

I will say briefly: exactly three months later we joined a large partisan detachment.

About how we acted until the very arrival of our army, I will tell another time. Yes, I think it doesn't matter. The important thing is that we not only turned out to be alive, but also entered the human system, that we again turned into fighters, and we remained Russian people in the camps.

Leading: Let's listen to the confessions of the partisan and Andrei Sokolov.

Partizan: You were, say, a sergeant before captivity - and stay with him. Was a soldier - be him to the end.

Andrey Sokolov: That's why you're a man, that's why you're a soldier, to endure everything, to demolish everything, if need calls for it.

And for one, and for the other, war is hard work that needs to be done in good faith, to give everything of oneself.

Leading: Major Pugachev testifies from V. Shalamov's story "The Last Battle of Major Pugachev"

Reader: Major Pugachev remembered the German camp from which he fled in 1944. The front was approaching the city. He worked as a truck driver inside a huge cleaning camp. He remembered how he had broken up the truck and knocked down the barbed, single-row wire, pulling out the hastily placed poles. Shots of sentries, screams, frantic driving around the city in different directions, an abandoned car, a road at night to the front line and a meeting - an interrogation in a special department. Charged with espionage, sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Vlasov emissaries came, but he did not believe them until he himself got to the Red Army units. Everything that the Vlasovites said was true. He was not needed. The government was afraid of him.

Leading: After listening to the testimony of Major Pugachev, you involuntarily note: his story is direct - confirmation of the correctness of Larin: “He was there, in captivity, even shredded, remained faithful to his country, but returned? .. No one needs it! Orphan!"

Sergeant Alexei Romanov testifies, a former school history teacher from Stalingrad, the real hero of Sergei Smirnov's story "The Way to the Motherland" from the book "Heroes of the Great War".

(The reader testifies on behalf of A. Romanov)

Alexey Romanov: In the spring of 1942, I ended up in the international camp Feddel, on the outskirts of Hamburg. There, in the port of Hamburg, we were prisoners, we worked unloading ships. The thought of escaping never left me for a minute. With my friend Melnikov, they decided to run away, thought out an escape plan, frankly, a fantastic plan. Escape from the camp, sneak into the port, hide on a Swedish steamer and sail with it to one of the ports of Sweden. From there you can get to England with a British ship, and then with some caravan of allied ships come to Murmansk or Arkhangelsk. And then again pick up a machine gun or a machine gun and already at the front pay off the Nazis for everything that they had to endure in captivity over the years.

On December 25, 1943, we escaped. We were just lucky. Chu-dom managed to cross over to the other side of the Elbe, to the port where the Swedish ship was moored. We climbed into the hold with coke, and in this iron coffin without water, without food, we sailed to the Motherland, and for this we were ready for anything, even for death. I woke up a few days later in a Swedish prison hospital: it turned out that we were discovered by workers unloading coke. They called a doctor. Melnikov was already dead, but I survived. I began to seek to be sent to Rodina, got to Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai. She helped in 1944 to return home.

Leading: Before we continue our conversation, a word to the historian. What do the figures tell us about the fate of former prisoners of war

Historian: From the book “The Great Patriotic War. Figures and facts. Those who returned from captivity after the war (1 million 836 thousand people) were sent: more than 1 million people - for further service in the Red Army, 600 thousand - to work in industry as part of worker battalions, and 339 thousand ( including some of the civilians), as those who compromised themselves in captivity - to the NKVD camps.

Leading: War is the continent of cruelty. It is sometimes impossible to protect hearts from the madness of hatred, bitterness, fear in captivity, in a blockade. Man is literally brought to the gates of the Last Judgment. Sometimes it is more difficult to endure, to live life in a war, in an environment, than to endure death.

What is common in the destinies of our witnesses, what makes their souls related? Are Sholokhov's reproaches fair?

(Listen to the answers of the guys)

Perseverance, tenacity in the struggle for life, a spirit of courage, camaraderie - these qualities come from the tradition of a Suvorov soldier, they were sung by Lermontov in Borodino, Gogol in the story Taras Bulba, they were admired by Leo Tolstoy. Andrey Sokolov has all this, the partisan from Vorobyov's story, Major Pugachev, Alexei Romanov.

To remain a man in the war is not just to survive and "kill him" (ie, the enemy). It is to keep your heart for goodness. Sokolov went to the front as a man, and he remained the same after the war.

Reader: The story on the theme of the tragic fate of the prisoners is the first in Soviet literature. Written in 1955! So why is Sholokhov deprived of the literary and moral right to start the topic in this way and not otherwise?

Solzhenitsyn reproaches Sholokhov for not writing about those who "surrendered" into captivity, but about those who were "hit" or "captured." But he did not take into account that Sholokhov could not have done otherwise:

Brought up on the Cossack traditions. It was no coincidence that he defended the honor of Kornilov before Stalin by the example of escaping from captivity. And in fact, a person from ancient battle times, first of all, gives sympathy not to those who "surrendered", but to those who "got-taken" prisoner due to irresistible hopelessness: injury, encirclement, disarmament, betrayal of the commander or betrayal rulers;

He took upon himself the political courage to give up his authority in order to protect from political stigmatization those who were honest in the performance of military duty and male honor.

Maybe the Soviet reality is embellished? The last lines about the unfortunate Sokolov and Vanyushka began with Sholokhov like this: “I looked after them with heavy sadness ...”.

Maybe Sokolov's behavior in captivity is embellished? There are no such accusations.

Leading: Now it is easy to analyze the words and deeds of the author. Or maybe you should think: was it easy for him to live his own life? Was it easy for an artist who could not, did not have time to say everything he wanted, and, of course, could say. Subjectively, he could (there was enough talent, and courage, and material!), But objectively he could not (time, era, were such that it was not published, and therefore was not written ...) How often, how much our Russia has lost at all times: uncreated sculptures, unpainted paintings and books, who knows, perhaps the most talented... Great Russian artists were born at the wrong time - either early or late - objectionable rulers.

In “A Conversation with Father”, M.M. Sholokhov conveys the words of Mikhail Alexandrovich in response to criticism of the reader, a former prisoner of war who survived the Stalinist camps: “What do you think, I don’t know what happened in captivity or after it? What am I, unknown to the extreme degrees of human baseness, cruelty, meanness? Or do you think that, knowing this, I’m being mean? ... How much skill is needed to tell people the truth ... "

Could Mikhail Alexandrovich keep silent about many things in his story? - Could! Time has taught him to be silent and keep silent: a smart reader will understand everything, guess everything.

Many years have passed since, at the behest of the writer, more and more readers meet with the heroes of this story. They think. Yearning. They cry. And they are surprised at how generous the human heart is, how inexhaustible kindness is in it, the indestructible need to save and protect, even when, it would seem, there is nothing to think about.

Literature:

1. Biryukov F.S. Sholokhov: To help teachers, high school students and entrants. -M.: Izd Mosk. un-ta, 1998.

2. Zhukov I. Hand of fate: Truth and lies about M. Sholokhov and A. Fadeev. -M.: Sunday, 1994

3. Osipov V.O. The Secret Life of Mikhail Sholokhov: Doc. chronicle without legends - M .: Liberia, Raritet, 1985.

4. Petelin V.V. Sholokhov's life. The tragedy of the Russian genius. "Immortal Names". - M .: CJSC Publishing House Tsentrpoligraf, 2002. - 895s.

5. Russian literature of the XX century: A manual for high school students, applicants and students. - St. Petersburg: Ed. House "Neva", 1998.

6. Chalmaev V.A. In the war to remain a man: Front pages of Russian pro-se of the 60-90s. To help teachers, high school students and applicants. M.: Ed. Moscow university, 1998

7. Sholokhova S.M. Executed intent: On the history of an unwritten story // Kre-styanin. - 1995. - No. 8. - Feb.

The fate of man in war


Top