"Hot snow": two different actions. Analysis of "Hot Snow" by Bondarev Analysis of Chapter 11 hot snow

Composition

The last explosions died down, the last bullets dug into the ground, the last tears of mothers and wives flowed. But is the war over? Is it possible to say with certainty that there will never be such a thing that a person will no longer raise a hand against a person. Unfortunately, you can't say that. The issue of war is still relevant today. This can happen anywhere, anytime and with anyone.

That is why military literature about the heroic struggle of the Russian people against the Nazis is interesting today. That is why it is necessary to study the works of V. Bykov, Yu. Bondarev and others. And I hope that these great works written about the war will warn people against mistakes, and there will be no more explosion from a shell on our land. But even if adults are so stupid as to decide on such actions, then you need to know how to behave in such terrible situations, how not to lose your soul.

Y. Bondarev posed many problems for the reader in his works. The most important of these, and not only in times of war, is the problem of choice. Often the whole essence of a person depends on the choice, although this choice is made each time in a different way. This topic attracts me because it provides an opportunity to explore not the war itself, but the possibilities of the human spirit that are manifested in the war.

The choice that Bykov speaks of is a concept associated with the process of a person's self-determination in this world, with his readiness to take his fate into his own hands. The problem of choice has always interested and continues to attract the attention of writers because it allows you to put a person in unusual, extreme conditions and see what he will do. This gives the widest flight of fantasy to the author of the work. Yes, and readers are interested in such turns of events, because everyone puts himself in the place of the character and tries on the situation described. On how the reader would act, and depends on his assessment of the hero of a work of art.

In this context, I am especially interested in the novel by Y. Bondarev “ Hot Snow". Bondarev reveals the problem of choice in an interesting and multifaceted way. His characters are truly and sincerely demanding of themselves and a little indulgent towards the weaknesses of others. They are stubborn in defending their spiritual world and high moral values of his people. In the novel "Hot Snow" the circumstances of the battle demanded that all its participants higher voltage physical and spiritual strength, and critical situation to the limit exposed the essence of each and determined who is who. Not everyone passed this test. But all the survivors have changed beyond recognition and through suffering have discovered new moral truths.

Particularly interesting in this work is the clash between Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov, most likely, is liked by all readers and is accepted immediately. But Drozdovsky and the attitude towards him are not so unambiguous.

We seem to be torn between two poles. On the one hand, the complete rejection of this hero as positive (such in in general terms and the position of the author), because Drozdovsky saw in Stalingrad, first of all, an opportunity for an immediate career take-off. He hurries the soldiers, not giving them a break. Commanding to shoot at the plane, he wants to stand out, not to miss the chance.

On the other hand, we support this character as an example of the type of commander needed in a military environment. Indeed, in a war, not only the lives of the soldiers, but also the victory or defeat of the entire country depend on the orders of the commander. On duty, he has no right to feel sorry for himself or others.

But how is the problem of choice revealed by the example of the clash of characters between Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov? The fact is that Kuznetsov always does right choice, so to speak, long-term, that is, calculated, perhaps, not for victory in the present, but for the victory of the whole people. He has an awareness of high responsibility, a feeling common destiny, thirst for unity. And that is why the moments are so joyful for Kuznetsov, when he feels the power of cohesion and unity of people, because he remains calm and balanced in any situation - he understands the idea of ​​​​what is happening. The war will not break it, we understand this completely.

The spiritual world of Drozdovsky could not withstand the pressure of the war. Her stress is not for everyone. But at the end of the battle, he, depressed by the death of Zoya, begins to vaguely understand the higher meaning of what happened. The war appears before him as a huge rough work of the people.

Many condemn Drozdovsky or feel sorry for him. But the author gives the hero a second chance, because it is clear that with time he will be able to overcome himself, he will understand that even in the harsh conditions of war, such values ​​as humanity, brotherhood, do not lose their meaning, are not forgotten. On the contrary, they are organically combined with the concepts of duty, love for the fatherland and become decisive in the fate of a person and people.

That is why the name of the novel, “Hot Snow”, becomes so symbolic. And it means that indestructible spiritual strength that was embodied in commanders and soldiers, the origins of which are in ardent love for the country that they intended to defend to the end.

Composition

The Russian land has suffered many troubles. Ancient Rus' they trampled on the "filthy Polovtsian regiments" - and Igor's army stood up for the Russian land, for the Christian faith. The Tatar-Mongol yoke lasted for more than one century, and Russian overexposures and donkeys rose, led by the legendary Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy. The "thunderstorm of the twelfth year" has come - and young hearts are inflamed with the desire to fight for the fatherland:

Fear, oh, army of foreigners!

Russia's sons moved;

Risen and old and young; fly on the bold,

Their hearts are set on fire with vengeance.

The history of mankind is, unfortunately, the history of wars, big and small. This is later, for the sake of history, - the Kulikovo Field, Borodino, Prokhorovka ... For the Russian soldier - just land. And you need to stand up to your full height and go on the attack. And to die... In an open field... Under the sky of Russia... This is how a Russian person fulfilled his duty from time immemorial, this is how his feat began. And in the twentieth century, this share did not pass the Russian man. On June 22, 1941, the most cruel and bloody war in the history of mankind. In human memory, this day remained not just as a fatal date, but also as a milestone, the beginning of the long thousand four hundred and eighteen days and nights of the Great Patriotic War.

We know what's on the scales now

And what is happening now.

The hour of courage has struck on our clocks,

And courage will not leave us.

A. Akhmatova

Literature again and again brings us back to the events of this war, to the feat of the people, which knows no equal in history.

During the Great Patriotic War, the writer as an artilleryman went a long way from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev was born on March 15, 1924 in the city of Orsk.

After the war, from 1946 to 1951, he studied at the M. Gorky Literary Institute. He began to publish in 1949. And the first collection of short stories "On the Big River" was published in 1953. The writer of the story "Youth of commanders", published in 1956, "Battalions ask for fire" (1957), "Last volleys" (1959) brought wide fame to the writer. These books are characterized by drama, accuracy and clarity in the description of the events of military life, the subtlety of the psychological analysis of the characters. Subsequently, his works "Silence" (1962), "Two" (1964), "Relatives" (1969), "Hot Snow" (1969), "Shore" (1975), "Choice "(1980), "Moments" (1978) and others. Since the mid-60s, the writer has been working on creating films based on his works; in particular, he was one of the creators of the script for the film epic "Liberation". Yuri Bondarev is also a laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes USSR and RSFSR. His works have been translated into many foreign languages.

Among Yuri Bondarev's books about the war, "Hot Snow" occupies a special place, opening up new approaches to solving the moral and psychological problems posed in his first stories - "Battalions Ask for Fire" and "Last Salvos". These three books about the war are an integral and developing world, which in "Hot Snow" has reached its greatest completeness and figurative power.

The events of the novel "Hot Snow" unfold near Stalingrad, south of the blockaded Soviet troops 6th Army of General Paulus, in the cold December 1942, when one of our armies in the Volga steppe withstood the attack of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein, who sought to break through the corridor to the army of Paulus and withdraw it from the encirclement. The outcome of the battle on the Volga, and maybe even the timing of the end of the war itself, largely depended on the success or failure of this operation. The duration of the novel is limited to just a few days, during which the heroes of Yuri Bondarev selflessly defend a tiny patch of land from German tanks. In "Hot Snow" time is squeezed even tighter than in the story "Battalions ask for fire." "Hot Snow" is a short march of General Bessonov's army unloaded from the echelons and a battle that decided so much in the fate of the country; these are cold frosty dawns, two days and two endless December nights. Knowing no respite and digressions, as if the author's breath was caught from constant tension, the novel "Hot Snow" is distinguished by its directness, direct connection of the plot with the true events of the Great Patriotic War, with one of its decisive moments. The life and death of the heroes of the novel, their very destinies are illuminated by an alarming light. true history, as a result of which everything acquires a special weight, significance.

In "Hot Snow", for all the intensity of events, everything human in people, their characters do not live separately from the war, but are interconnected with it, constantly under its fire, when, it seems, one cannot even raise one's head. Usually the chronicle of battles can be retold separately from the individuality of its participants - the battle in "Hot Snow" cannot be retold except through the fate and characters of people.

The past of the characters in the novel is essential and weighty. For some it is almost cloudless, for others it is so complex and dramatic that the former drama is not left behind, pushed aside by the war, but accompanies a person in the battle southwest of Stalingrad. The events of the past determined Ukhanov's military fate: a gifted, full of energy officer who would have commanded a battery, but he is only a sergeant. The cool, rebellious character of Ukhanov also determines his movement within the novel. Chibisov's past troubles, which almost broke him (he spent several months in German captivity), echoed in him with fear and determine a lot in his behavior. One way or another, the past of Zoya Elagina, and Kasymov, and Sergunenkov slips in the novel? and the unsociable Rubin, whose courage and loyalty to the soldier's duty we will be able to appreciate only towards the end of the novel.

In the novel, Drozdovsky's battery absorbs almost all of the reader's attention, the action is concentrated mainly around a small number of characters. Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and their comrades are part of a great army, are they a people, a people to that extent? in which the typified personality of the hero expresses the spiritual, moral traits of the people. In "Hot Snow" the image of the people who went to war appears before us in a fullness of expression, unprecedented before in Yuri Bondarev, in the richness and diversity of characters, and at the same time in integrity. This image is not exhausted either by the figures of young lieutenants - commanders of artillery platoons, or by the colorful figures of those who are traditionally considered to be people from the people - like the slightly cowardly Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, or the straightforward and rude riding Rubin; nor by senior officers, such as the division commander, Colonel Deev, or the army commander, General Bessonov.

The past of General Bessonov is especially important in the novel. The thought of a son caught in German captivity, complicates his position both at headquarters and at the front. And when a fascist leaflet announcing that Bessonov's son was taken prisoner falls into the counterintelligence of the front in the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Osin, it seems that there is a threat to Bessonov's service.

Probably the most mysterious of the world of human relations in the novel is the love that arises between Kuznetsov and Zoya. The war, its cruelty and blood, its terms, overturning the usual ideas about time - it was she who contributed to such a rapid development of this love. After all, this feeling developed in those short hours of the march and battle, when there is no time for reflection and analysis of one's feelings.

And it all starts with a quiet, incomprehensible jealousy of Kuznetsov for the relationship between Zoya and Drozdovsky. And soon - so little time passes - Kuznetsov is already bitterly mourning the dead Zoya, and it is from these lines that the title of the novel is taken, when Kuznetsov wiped his face wet from tears, "the snow on the sleeve of the quilted jacket was hot from his tears."

Deceived at first in Lieutenant Drozdovsky, then the best cadet, Zoya throughout the novel opens up to us as a moral person, whole, ready for self-sacrifice, capable of embracing the pain and suffering of many with her heart. She seems to go through many trials, from intrusive interest to rude rejection. But her kindness, her patience and sympathy reaches out to everyone, she is truly a sister to the soldiers. The image of Zoya somehow imperceptibly filled the atmosphere of the book, its main events, its harsh, harsh reality feminine, affection and tenderness.

highest ethical height, philosophical thought novel, as well as its emotional tension reaches in the finale, when there is an unexpected rapprochement between Bessonov and Kuznetsov. This is a rapprochement without close proximity: Bessonov rewarded his officer on an equal basis with others and moved on. For him, Kuznetsov is just one of those who stood to death at the turn of the Myshkov River. Their closeness turns out to be more sublime: it is the closeness of thought, spirit, outlook on life. For example, shocked by the death of Vesnin, Bessonov blames himself for the fact that, due to his lack of sociability and suspicion, he prevented the formation between them. friendly relations("the way Vesnin wanted and what they should be"). Or Kuznetsov, who could do nothing to help Chubarikov’s calculation, which was dying before his eyes, tormented by the piercing thought that all this, “it seemed, should have happened because he did not have time to get close to them, understand everyone, fall in love ...”.

Divided by the disproportion of duties, Lieutenant Kuznetsov and the army commander, General Bessonov, are moving towards the same goal - not only military, but also spiritual. Suspecting nothing of each other's thoughts, they think about the same thing and seek the truth in the same direction. Both of them demandingly ask themselves about the purpose of life and about the correspondence of their actions and aspirations to it. They are separated by age and have in common, like father and son, and even like brother and brother, love for the Motherland and belonging to the people and to humanity in the highest sense of these words.

Only collectively understood and accepted emotionally as something unified, with all the difference in ranks and ranks, they constitute the image of a fighting people. The strength and novelty of the novel lies in the fact that this unity is achieved as if by itself, imprinted without any special efforts of the author - a living, moving life. The image of the people, as the result of the whole book, perhaps most of all nourishes the epic, novelistic beginning of the story. Yuri Bondarev is characterized by aspiration for tragedy, the nature of which is close to the events of the war itself. It would seem that nothing answers this aspiration of the artist so much as the most difficult time for the country to start the war, the summer of 1941. But the writer's books are about a different time, when the defeat of the Nazis and the victory of the Russian army are almost certain. The death of heroes on the eve of victory, the criminal inevitability of death, contains a high tragedy and provokes a protest against the cruelty of the war and the forces that unleashed it. The heroes of "Hot Snow" are dying - the orderly officer of the battery Zoya Elagina, the shy eedov Sergunenkov, a member of the Military Council Vesnin, Kasymov and many others are dying ... And the war is to blame for all these deaths. Let Lieutenant Drozdovsky’s heartlessness be blamed for Sergunenkov’s death, even if the blame for Zoya’s death falls partly on him, but no matter how great Drozdovsky’s fault, they are, first of all, victims of the war. The novel expresses the understanding of death as a violation of higher justice and harmony. Let's remember how Kuznetsov looks at the murdered Kasymov: "now there was a shell box under Kasymov's head, and his youthful, beardless face, recently alive, swarthy, turned deathly white, thinned by the terrible beauty of death, looked in surprise with moist cherry half-open eyes at his chest, at torn to shreds, excised quilted jacket, as if even after death he did not comprehend how it killed him and why he could not get up to the sight.In this unseeing squint of Kasymov there was a quiet curiosity about his unlived life on this earth and at the same time a calm mystery death, into which the burning pain of the fragments overturned him when he tried to rise to the sight. Even more acutely Kuznetsov feels the irreversibility of the loss of the driver Sergunenkov. After all, the mechanism of his death is revealed here. Kuznetsov turned out to be a powerless witness to how Drozdovsky sent Sergunenkov to certain death, and he, Kuznetsov, already knows that he will curse himself forever for what he saw, was present, but failed to change anything.

different fates, different tempers the author was able to link in a single chain of events. If at the beginning of the novel one can observe a confrontation between commanders and subordinates, then by the end there is such a strong rapprochement that all the boundaries separating the heroes of the novel are erased. The action of the novel is so captivating that you involuntarily become a participant in those events and understand the war in a different way. You understand all the human pain of loss, and not just as a huge, seemingly overwhelming feat Soviet people in the war. Modernity is quite cruel, but we must not forget those who went to the tanks, under the bullets and did not spare themselves. For many centuries they tried to bring the Russian people to their knees, the wounded Russian land groaned many times, but each time the Russians straightened their backs and no one could break the Russian spirit.

The feat of man in war is immortal. The memory of the fallen must live forever in our hearts, just as it lives in the soul of the heroine V. Astafiev from the story "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess": "... And, having listened to the earth, all covered with feather grass fluff, seeds of steppe grasses and wormwood, she said guiltily : - And here I live. I eat bread, have fun on holidays. And he, or what he once was, remained in the silent land, entangled in the roots of herbs and flowers that subsided until spring. Left alone - in the middle of Russia. "

In the book Yuri Bondarev"Hot snow" describes two acts. The two heroes of the novel find themselves in similar situations, and act differently. Every minute a person is tested for strength and humanity. One remains a man, while the second cannot stand it and goes into another state in which he can send a subordinate to a deliberate and unjustified death.

"Hot Snow" is the fourth novel by Yuri Bondarev. Written in 1970. The events of the Great Patriotic War take place in 1942. The scene of action is the territory near Stalingrad.
The action of the novel takes place literally within two days, although in the book the characters, as Bondarev always does, often turn to the past, and the narrative is interspersed with scenes from civilian life (General Bessonov, Lieutenant Kuznetsov), from the hospital (Bessonov), memories of school and a military school (Kuznetsov) and a meeting with Stalin (Bessonov).

I will not recount the plot of the novel, which everyone can read and get an idea of ​​​​what they experienced soviet soldiers opposing fascism.

I will dwell on two points that seemed important to me after the event that happened to me - acquaintance with the film "Ascent" Larisa Shepitko. In the film, two Soviet soldiers face a terrible choice: to betray and live, or to remain loyal to their Motherland and die a painful death.

With Bondarev, the situation, it seems to me, is even more complicated, because there is no betrayal. But there is a lack of something human in the personality of Lieutenant Drozdovsky, without which even the desire to destroy fascism loses its meaning. That is, in my opinion, it loses for this personality itself. It is characteristic that the central figure of the novel, General Bessonov, feeling in Drozdovsky this absence of an important human component (perhaps the ability to love), says in surprise: “Why die? Instead of the word "die" it is better to use the word "survive". Don't be so determined to make a sacrifice, Lieutenant."

It is difficult to analyze the actions of Bondarev's heroes, but I will give a few convex fragments to highlight the thought that seemed important to me.

Act of Lieutenant Drozdovsky

The antagonist of the novel, battalion commander Lieutenant Vladimir Drozdovsky, during the battle, decided to send his subordinate Sergunenkov to his death.

They [Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky] ran into the firing room, both fell on their knees by the gun with a pierced knurler and shield, with an ugly breech crawling back, a black mouth gaping, and Kuznetsov uttered in a fit of never-ceasing anger:

- Now look! How to shoot? Do you see the kicker? And the self-propelled gun hits because of the tanks! All clear?
…
Kuznetsov answered and saw Drozdovsky as if through a cold thick glass, with a feeling of the impossibility of overcoming it.

- If not for the self-propelled gun ... Hidden in the smoke behind the wrecked tanks. He is hitting Ukhanov from the flank... He must go to Ukhanov, he can hardly see her! There is nothing for us to do here!

A German self-propelled gun, hidden by a tank, fired at the remnants of the battalion. Drozdovsky decided that it needed to be blown up.
Drozdovsky, sitting down under the parapet, looked around the battlefield with narrowed, hasty eyes, his whole face instantly narrowed, drew up, asked intermittently:

- Where are the grenades? Where are the anti-tank grenades? Three grenades were issued for each gun! Where are they, Kuznetsov?
“What the hell are grenades for now!” A self-propelled gun is a hundred and fifty meters from here - can you get it? Can't you see the gun too?
“What did you think, we’ll wait like that?” Quick grenades over here! Here they are!.. Machine guns are everywhere in war, Kuznetsov!..

On Drozdovsky's bloodless face, disfigured by a spasm of impatience, an expression of action appeared, readiness for anything, and his voice became piercingly ringing:

- Sergunenkov, grenades here!
- Here they are in the niche. Comrade Lieutenant...
- Grenades here!

At the same time, the determination to act, indicated on the face of Drozdovsky, turned out to be the determination to destroy the self-propelled gun with the hands of a subordinate.

- Well! .. Sergunenkov! You do it! Or the chest in crosses, or ... Did you understand me, Sergunenkov? ..
Sergunenkov, raising his head, looked at Drozdovsky with an unblinking, fixed gaze, then asked in disbelief:
- How do I ... comrade lieutenant? Behind the tanks. Me... there?...
- Crawling forward - and two grenades under the tracks! Destroy the self-propelled gun! Two grenades - and the end of the reptile! ..

Drozdovsky said this indisputably; with trembling hands, with an unexpectedly sharp movement, he picked up grenades from the ground, handed them to Sergunenkov, who mechanically held out his palms and, taking the grenades, almost dropped them like red-hot irons.

“She’s behind the tanks, Comrade Lieutenant… She’s standing far away…”
- Take grenades! .. Do not hesitate!
- I got it...

It was obvious that Sergunenov would die.

- Listen, combat! Kuznetsov couldn't resist. - Can't you see? You have to crawl one hundred meters in the open! Don't you understand this?
- How did you think? - Drozdovsky said in the same ringing voice and hit his knee with his fist. - Shall we sit? Hands folded!.. And they put pressure on us? - And he turned abruptly and authoritatively to Sergunenkov: - Is the task clear? Crawling and dashes to the self-propelled gun! Forward! - Drozdovsky's team fired a shot. - Forward!..

Kuznetsov understood that Sergunenkov's death was not only inevitable, but also meaningless.

What was happening now seemed to Kuznetsov not only hopeless despair, but a monstrous, absurd, hopeless step, and Sergunenkov had to make it according to this order "forward", which, due to the iron laws that came into effect during the battle, no one - neither Sergunenkov nor Kuznetsov had the right not to execute or cancel, and for some reason he suddenly thought: “Now, if there were a whole gun and only one shell, there would be nothing, yes, nothing would happen.”

The rider Sergunenkov took grenades, crawled with them to the self-propelled gun and was shot point-blank. He could not undermine the fascist equipment.

Kuznetsov did not know what he would do now, not yet quite believing, but seeing this monstrously naked death of Sergunenkov near the self-propelled gun. Gasping for breath, he glanced at Drozdovsky, at his painfully twisted mouth, barely squeezing out: “I couldn’t stand it, I couldn’t, why did he get up? :

- Couldn't? So, you can, battalion commander? There, in the niche, is another grenade, do you hear? Last. If I were you, I would take a grenade - and to the self-propelled gun. Sergunenkov couldn't, you can! Do you hear?..

"He sent Sergunenkov, having the right to order ... And I was a witness - and for the rest of my life I curse myself for this! .."- flashed foggy and distant in the head of Kuznetsov, not fully aware of what he was saying; he no longer understood the extent of the reasonableness of his actions.

- What? What you said? - Drozdovsky grabbed with one hand the shield of the gun, with the other the edge of the trench and began to rise, throwing up his white, bloodless face with flaring thin nostrils. What, I wanted him dead? - Drozdovsky's voice broke into a squeal, and tears sounded in it. - Why did he get up? .. Did you see how he got up? ..

Shortly before Drozdovsky's act, Kuznetsov found himself in a situation where it was possible to send a subordinate under fire.

He knew that he needed to get up immediately, look at the guns, do something now, but his heavy body was pressed down, squeezed into the trench, it hurt in his chest, in his ears, and the diving howl, hot blows of air with the whistle of fragments pressed him more and more strongly to the shaky bottom of the ditch.
…
— Panoramas, Ukhanov! Hear, sights! - not paying attention to Chibisov, Kuznetsov shouted and instantly thought that he wanted and could order Ukhanov - he had the right to do this - to take panoramas, that is, by the power of the platoon commander to force him to jump out now under bombardment to the guns from the saving land, himself remaining in the ditch, but could not order it.

But he felt that he had no moral right to do so. He took the biggest risk, and sent a subordinate to the gun, located closer to the trench in which both were hiding. Kuznetsov chose a different solution for himself than Drozdovsky.

"I have and do not have the right," flashed through Kuznetsov's head. "Then I will never forgive myself ...".
…
- Ukhanov! .. Listen ... We need to remove the sights! Raskokosit to all hell! Not sure when this will end?
“I think so, lieutenant! Without sights, we will remain as naked! ..
Ukhanov, sitting in the trench, pulled up his legs, hit his cap with his mitten, pulling it closer to his forehead, put his hand on the bottom of the ditch to get up, but immediately Kuznetsov stopped him:
- Stop! Wait! As soon as they bombard in a circle, we will jump out to the guns. You - to the first, I - to the second! Let's take off the sights! .. You - to the first, I - to the second! Is that clear, Ukhanov? On my command, okay? - And, forcibly holding back a cough, he also pulled up his legs so that it was easier to get up.

“Now, Lieutenant. Ukhanov's bright eyes, from under a cap pulled over his forehead, looked narrowly at the sky. - Now...

Kuznetsov, looking out of the ditch, saw all this, hearing the leveled sound of the engines of the Junkers again coming in behind the smoke to bombard, he commanded:

- Ukhanov! .. We'll make it in time! Let's go!.. You go to the first one, I go to the second one...

And with unsteady weightlessness in his whole body, he jumped out of the ditch, jumped over the parapet of the firing position of the first gun, ran through the snow black from burning, along the earth radially sprayed from the craters to the second gun.

Soviet soldiers are described in Hot Snow in different ways. The book reveals the characters of several people, most of whom died, having accomplished a feat. Kuznetsov remained alive, and could not forgive himself for not stopping Drozdovsky, who sent Sergunenkov to undermine the self-propelled gun with a grenade. When he started talking about the dead rider, he finally understood that this death would forever remain in his memory as something unfair, cruel, and this despite the fact that he blew up two tanks, was shell-shocked, lost a loved one (medical instructor Zoya) almost the entire battalion.

- When we were coming here, Rubin said one terrible phrase to me: "Sergunenkov will never forgive his death to anyone in the next world." What it is?

- No one? asked Kuznetsov, and, turning away, he felt the icy iciness of his collar, as if it were scorching his cheek with wet emery. "But why did he tell you that?"

“Yes, and I’m to blame, and I won’t forgive myself for this,” Kuznetsov thought. “If I had the will to stop him then ... But what will I tell her about Sergunenkov’s death? how it was. But why do I remember it, when two-thirds of the battery died? No, for some reason I can't forget!.."

Bondarev himself wrote about his book "Hot Snow".

Belongs to the glorious galaxy of front-line soldiers who, having survived the war, displayed its essence in vivid and solid novels. The authors took the images of their heroes from real life. And the events that we calmly perceive from the pages of books in peacetime happened for them with their own eyes. The summary of "Hot Snow", for example, is the horror of the bombing, and the whistle of stray bullets, and frontal tank and infantry attacks. Even now, reading about this, an ordinary peaceful person plunges into the abyss of the gloomy and formidable events of that time.

Front-line writer

Bondarev is one of the recognized masters of this genre. When you read the works of such authors, you are involuntarily amazed at the realism of the lines that reflect various aspects of the difficult military life. After all, he himself went through a difficult front line, starting it near Stalingrad and ending in Czechoslovakia. That is why novels make such a strong impression. They amaze with the brightness and truthfulness of the plot.

One of the bright, emotional works that Bondarev created, "Hot Snow", just tells about such simple but immutable truths. The very title of the story speaks volumes. In nature, there is no hot snow, it melts under the sun's rays. However, in the work he is hot from spilled blood in difficult battles, from the number of bullets and fragments that fly into brave fighters, from the unbearable hatred of Soviet soldiers of any rank (from private to marshal) for the German invaders. Here is such a stunning image created by Bondarev.

War is more than just fighting

The story "Hot snow" ( summary, of course, does not convey all the liveliness of the style and the tragedy of the plot) gives some answers to the begun moral and psychological literary lines in more early works author, such as "Battalions ask for fire" and "Last salvos".

Like no one else, telling the cruel truth about that war, Bondarev does not forget about the manifestation of ordinary human feelings and emotions. “Hot Snow” (the analysis of his images surprises with the lack of categoricalness) is just an example of such a combination of black and white. Despite the tragedy of military events, Bondarev makes it clear to the reader that even in war there are quite peaceful feelings of love, friendship, elementary human hostility, stupidity and betrayal.

Fierce fighting near Stalingrad

Retelling the summary of "Hot Snow" is quite difficult. The action of the story takes place near Stalingrad, the city where the Red Army finally broke the back of the German Wehrmacht in fierce battles. A little south of the blockaded 6th Army of Paulus, the Soviet command creates a powerful line of defense. The artillery barrier and the infantry attached to it should stop another "strategist" - Manstein, rushing to the rescue of Paulus.

As is known from history, it was Paulus who was the creator and inspirer of the sad known plan Barbarossa. And for obvious reasons, Hitler could not allow an entire army, and even led by one of the best theoreticians of the German General Staff, to be surrounded. Therefore, the enemy spared no effort and means in order to break through an operational passage for the 6th Army from the encirclement created by the Soviet troops.

Bondarev wrote about these events. "Hot Snow" tells about the battles on a tiny patch of land, which, according to Soviet intelligence, has become "tank dangerous". A battle must take place here, which, perhaps, will decide the outcome of the battle on the Volga.

Lieutenants Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov

The task of blocking the enemy's tank columns is given to the army under the command of Lieutenant General Bessonov. It is in its composition that the artillery unit described in the story, commanded by Lieutenant Drozdovsky, is included. Even a brief summary of "Hot Snow" cannot be left without describing the image of a young commander who has just received an officer's rank. It should be mentioned that even at the school Drozdovsky was in good standing. Disciplines were given easily, and his position and natural military bearing amused the eyes of any combat commander.

The school was located in Aktyubinsk, from where Drozdovsky went straight to the front. Together with him, another graduate of the Aktobe Artillery School, Lieutenant Kuznetsov, was assigned to one unit. By coincidence, Kuznetsov was given command of a platoon of exactly the same battery commanded by Lieutenant Drozdovsky. Surprised at the vicissitudes military destiny, Lieutenant Kuznetsov reasoned philosophically - his career is just beginning, and this is far from his last appointment. It would seem, what a career, when there is a war around? But even such thoughts visited the people who became the prototypes of the heroes of the story "Hot Snow".

The summary should be supplemented by the fact that Drozdovsky immediately dotted the “and”: he was not going to remember the cadet time, where both lieutenants were equal. Here he is the battery commander, and Kuznetsov is his subordinate. At first, reacting calmly to such vital metamorphoses, Kuznetsov begins to quietly grumble. He does not like some of Drozdovsky's orders, but, as you know, it is forbidden to discuss orders in the army, and therefore the young officer has to come to terms with the current state of affairs. In part, this irritation was facilitated by the obvious attention to the commander of the medical instructor Zoya, who, deep down, liked Kuznetsov himself.

Diverse team

Focusing on the problems of his platoon, the young officer completely dissolves into them, studying the people he was to command. The people in the platoon at Kuznetsov were ambiguous. What images did Bondarev describe? "Hot Snow", the summary of which does not convey all the subtleties, describes in detail the stories of the fighters.

For example, Sergeant Ukhanov also studied at the Aktobe Artillery School, but due to a stupid misunderstanding, he did not receive an officer's rank. Upon arrival at the unit, Drozdovsky began to look down on him, considering him unworthy of the title of Soviet commander. And Lieutenant Kuznetsov, on the contrary, perceived Ukhanov as an equal, maybe because of petty revenge on Drozdovsky, or maybe because Ukhanov really was a good artilleryman.

Another subordinate of Kuznetsov, Private Chibisov, already had a rather sad combat experience. The part where he served was surrounded, and the private himself was taken prisoner. And with his irrepressible optimism, the gunner Nechaev, a former sailor from Vladivostok, amused everyone.

tank strike

While the battery was advancing to the appointed line, and its fighters were getting to know each other and getting used to each other, in strategic terms the situation at the front changed dramatically. This is how events unfold in the story "Hot Snow". A summary of Manstein's operation to liberate the encircled 6th Army can be conveyed as follows: a concentrated tank strike end-to-end between two Soviet armies. The fascist command entrusted this task to the master of tank breakthroughs. The operation had a loud name - "Winter Thunderstorm".

The blow was unexpected and therefore quite successful. The tanks entered the butt of the two armies and went deep into the Soviet defensive formations for 15 km. General Bessonov receives a direct order to localize the breakthrough in order to prevent tanks from entering the operational space. To do this, Bessonov's army is reinforced with a tank corps, making it clear to the commander that this is the last reserve of the Headquarters.

The Last Frontier

The frontier, to which Drozdovsky's battery advanced, was the last. It is here that the main events about which the work "Hot Snow" is written will take place. Arriving at the place, the lieutenant receives an order to dig in and prepare to repel a possible tank attack.

The commander understands that Drozdovsky's reinforced battery is doomed. The more optimistic divisional commissar Vesnin does not agree with the general. He believes that due to the high fighting spirit Soviet soldiers will stand. A dispute arises between the officers, as a result of which Vesnin goes to the front line to cheer up the soldiers preparing for battle. The old general does not really trust Vesnin, considering deep down his presence at the command post as superfluous. But he has no time to conduct a psychological analysis.

The "hot snow" continues with the fact that the battle on the battery began with a massive bomber raid. The first time falling under the bombs, most of the fighters are afraid, including Lieutenant Kuznetsov. However, pulling himself together, he realizes that this is only a prelude. Very soon, he and Lieutenant Drozdovsky will have to apply all the knowledge that they were given at the school in practice.

heroic efforts

Self-propelled guns soon appeared. Kuznetsov, together with his platoon, courageously accepts the battle. He is afraid of death, but at the same time he is disgusted by it. Even the brief content of "Hot Snow" allows you to understand the tragedy of the situation. The tank destroyers sent shell after shell at their enemies. However, the forces were not equal. After some time, only one serviceable gun and a handful of fighters remained from the entire battery, including both officers and Ukhanov.

There were fewer and fewer shells, and the fighters began to use bundles of anti-tank grenades. When trying to undermine a German self-propelled gun, young Sergunenkov dies, following the order of Drozdovsky. Kuznetsov, in the heat of battle, throwing back his chain of command, accuses him of the senseless death of a fighter. Drozdovsky himself takes the grenade, trying to prove that he is not a coward. However, Kuznetsov restrains him.

And even in battle conflicts

What does Bondarev write about next? "Hot snow", a summary of which we present in the article, continues with a breakthrough of German tanks through the Drozdovsky battery. Bessonov, seeing the desperate situation of the entire division of Colonel Deev, is in no hurry to bring his tank reserve into battle. He does not know if the Germans used their reserves.

And the battery was still fighting. Zoya, the medical instructor, dies senselessly. This makes a very strong impression on Lieutenant Kuznetsov, and he again accuses Drozdovsky of the stupidity of his orders. And the surviving fighters are trying to get hold of ammunition on the battlefield. The lieutenants, taking advantage of the relative calm, organize assistance to the wounded and prepare for new battles.

tank reserve

Just at this moment, the long-awaited intelligence returns, which confirms that the Germans have committed all reserves to the battle. The fighter is sent to the observation post of General Bessonov. The commander, having received this information, orders to bring into battle his last reserve - a tank corps. To speed up his exit, he sends Deev towards the unit, but he, having run into the German infantry, dies with a weapon in his hands.

It was a complete surprise for Goth, as a result of which the breakthrough of the German forces was localized. Moreover, Bessonov receives an order to develop success. The strategic plan succeeded. The Germans pulled all the reserves to the site of the operation "Winter Thunderstorm" and lost them.

Hero Rewards

Watching from his NP for a tank attack, Bessonov is surprised to notice a single gun, which also fires on German tanks. The general is shocked. Not believing his eyes, he takes out all the awards from the safe and, together with the adjutant, goes to the position of the defeated Drozdovsky battery. "Hot Snow" is a novel about the unconditional masculinity and heroism of people. The fact that regardless of their regalia and ranks, a person must fulfill his duty, not worrying about rewards, especially since they themselves find heroes.

Bessonov is struck by the steadfastness of a handful of people. Their faces were smoked and burned. No insignia is visible. The commander silently took the orders of the Red Banner and distributed them to all the survivors. Kuznetsov, Drozdovsky, Chibisov, Ukhanov and an unknown infantryman received high awards.

Features of the problematics of the work “Hot Snow” by Y. Bondarev”

Many years have passed since the victorious volleys of the Great Patriotic War died down. But even today, time reveals to us new details, unforgettable facts and events of those heroic days. And the farther we go from that war, from those severe battles, the fewer heroes of that time remain alive, the more expensive, more valuable becomes the military chronicle that writers created and continue to create. In their works, they glorify the courage and heroism of the Soviet people, our valiant army, millions and millions of people who bore all the hardships of war on their shoulders and accomplished a feat in the name of peace on Earth.

Great Patriotic War demanded from each person the tension of all his mental and physical strength. It not only did not cancel, but made moral problems even more acute. After all, the clarity of goals and objectives in the war should not serve as an excuse for any moral promiscuity. It did not free a person from the need to be fully responsible for their actions. Life in war is life with all its spiritual and moral problems and difficulties. The most difficult thing at that time was for writers, for whom the war was a real shock. They were filled with what they saw and experienced, so they tried to truthfully show how high the price of victory over the enemy was for us. Those writers who came to literature after the war, and during the years of trials themselves fought on the front line, defended their right to the so-called "trench truth". Their work was called "the prose of lieutenants." These writers, about whom Tvardovsky well said that they “did not rise above lieutenants and did not go further than the regiment commander” and “saw the sweat and blood of war on their tunic”, made up a whole galaxy of names well-known to the current reader: Baklanov, Bogomolov, Bondarev, Vorobyov, Bykov, Astafiev. I would like to mention one common feature their works about the war are memoirs. The favorite genre of these writers is a lyrical story written in the first person, although not always strictly autobiographical, but thoroughly saturated with the author's experiences and memories of front-line youth. In their books to replace general plans, generalized pictures, panoramic reasoning, heroic pathos, new experience came. It consisted in the fact that the war was won not only by headquarters and armies, in their collective meaning, but also by a simple soldier in a gray overcoat, father, brother, husband, son. These works highlighted close-ups a man in the war, his soul, which lived in pain in the hearts left in the rear, his faith in himself and his comrades. Of course, each writer had his own war, but the ordinary front-line experience had almost no differences. They were able to convey it to the reader in such a way that the artillery cannonade and automatic bursts do not drown out the groans and whispers, and in the powder smoke and dust from exploding shells and mines one can discern in the eyes of people determination and fear, torment and rage. And one more thing these writers have in common is the “memory of the heart”, a passionate desire to tell the truth about that war.

Y. Bondarev tells about the heroic qualities of the people in a different artistic manner in the novel "Hot Snow". This is a work about the endless possibilities of people for whom the defense of the Motherland, a sense of duty are an organic need. The novel tells about how, despite the growing difficulties and tension, the will to win intensifies in people. And every time it seems: this is the limit of human capabilities. But soldiers, officers, generals, exhausted by battles, insomnia, constant nervous tension, find the strength to again engage in a duel with tanks, go on the attack, save comrades Serafimov V.D. Russian literature of the second half of the twentieth century. Educational minimum for applicants. - M.: Higher school, 2008. - p. 169..

In the novel, essentially, only one military episode is revealed, which serves as a turning point in the entire subsequent course of battles. There are fierce battles near Stalingrad. The author focuses on the battery, which is part of the artillery barrier, before which the task is set: at any cost not to miss the huge tank forces of the enemy, rushing to the city to help the encircled fascist troops. This battle may decide the fate of the front. And therefore the order of General Bessonov is indisputable: “Not a step back! And knock out tanks. Stand - and forget about death! Don't think about her under any circumstances." But the soldiers themselves understand this. The writer depicts his heroes with great artistic truth: the young lieutenant Kuznetsov, the gun commander Ukhanov, the medical instructor Zoya. In their everyday actions and actions, he sees a manifestation of the heroic. Boundless courage and steadfastness are combined in these people with spiritual softness, nobility and humanity. The pure and bright feeling of love born in cruel conditions in Kuznetsov and Zoya testifies to the strength of the human spirit. The Great Patriotic War in Russian literature. - M.: AST, Astrel, Harvest, 2009. - p. 129..

Depicting the battle scenes of one battery, Bondarev conveys the atmosphere of the entire war with its drama. In one day, Lieutenant Kuznetsov, who held back the German tanks, is mortally tired, turning gray in a day, becomes twenty years older. The writer reveals to us the "trench truth" and the true extent of this battle. Drawing the meeting of General Bessonov with the Supreme Commander, the author emphasizes its strategic importance. The outstanding skill of Bondarev manifested itself in the ability to create deeply psychological images not only of ordinary participants in the war, but also of major military leaders. The great achievement of the writer is the image of the courageous, direct and insightful General Bessonov. But the threat of death and a common cause often blur the boundaries between ranks. We see how, after the battle, Kuznetsov tiredly and calmly reports to the general. “His voice, according to the regulations, still struggled to gain a passionless and even fortress; but in the tone, in the look, there is a gloomy, non-boyish seriousness, without a shadow of timidity in front of the general.

War is terrible, it dictates its cruel laws, breaks the fate of people, but not all. A person, getting into extreme situations, manifests himself unexpectedly, fully reveals himself as a person. War is a test of character. Moreover, both good and bad features that are invisible in ordinary life can appear. The two main characters of the novel, Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov, passed such a test. Kuznetsov could not send a comrade under the bullets, while remaining in hiding at that time, he shared the fate of the fighter Ukhanov, going with him on a mission. Drozdovsky, on the other hand, could not step over his "I". He dreamed of distinguishing himself in battle, of committing a heroic deed, but at the decisive moment he chickened out. We are sincerely sorry young soldier, who must carry out the meaningless order of his commander Drozdovsky, sending him to certain death. “Comrade Lieutenant, I beg you,” he whispers with his lips alone, “if something is wrong with me ... tell your mother: I was bringing news, they say, I ... She has no one else ...”

Truly depicting the complex relationships of people in war, where cowardice is sometimes manifested alongside genuine heroism, cruelty alongside high humanity, Bondarev focused his main attention on identifying in the heroes those qualities that ensured victory over the enemy.