The plan of the poem Vasily Terkin chapter by chapter. An essay with a plan based on Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin

Plan:
1. Features of military literature.
2. The image of the war in the poem "Vasily Terkin".
a) "Vasily Terkin" as the Bible of a front-line man.
b) Terkin's character traits in Russian fighters.
c) The role of the hero in raising the patriotic spirit of soldiers.
3. Evaluation of the poem by critics and the people.

Over the long four years during which the war between the USSR and Nazi Germany continued, many literary works were written that rightfully entered the treasury of Russian literature. Among them, a special place is occupied by Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin". Ivan Bunin wrote about her that "this is truly a rare book." The question may arise: what is the difference between this book and others?

The main difference lies in the dissimilarity to the literature of the war years. Where else can you find a poem riddled with humor, in which there is not a single note of pessimism? War is a tear, grief, heartache. It was already hard for ordinary workers, fighters. If the poem revealed only the fear and horror of what is happening, it would not have made such a bright impression. Tvardovsky set out to make his poem revive the Soviet people in difficult times.

"Vasily Terkin" is a very original work. The Soviet soldiers liked the image of a merry fighter so much that even the newspapers, in which the poem was printed chapter by chapter, they kept, cherished like the apple of their eye, and did not use for cigarette rolls. It was a kind of front-line Bible. What happiness for the soldiers were parcels from the rear and letters from relatives, the same joy was for them the new chapter of the poem. The poem was dear to them, because the story of the protagonist is a biography of themselves, the entire army, millions of Soviet soldiers. Everyone could see some character trait in Terkin and exclaim: “So this poem was written about me!” Many aspired to be like him.

"Vasily Terkin" is an interesting, fascinating work. Truthfulness, simplicity, folk speech conquer the reader. The humorous stories of the soldier Terkin serve as a means of maintaining morale. The main character never leaves optimism. He cheers up the foot soldiers and relieves fatigue by playing the accordion. Probably, it is no coincidence that the author uses this particular instrument, because the accordion is a symbol of happiness, prosperity, harmony. This Russian miracle man will play a simple melody - he will immediately breathe something familiar, his soul will become warmer, and faith in victory will light up with bright fire. Just as Vasily Terkin raised the mood of desperate comrades with his stories, playing the accordion, so the poem itself raised the morale of the soldiers, gave strength to fight on. Perhaps this is the main meaning of the poem.

"Vasily Terkin" is a really rare book. It does not glorify Stalin, which was a common feature of the works of the war years. Tvardovsky himself noted that the mention of the leading role of the party would not allow the poem to become popular. "The book about a fighter" was quite highly appreciated, and Tvardovsky was awarded the Stalin Prize for his work, although he never mentioned the leader of the people in the poem. Not every work receives such an award and high praise from critics. Even this fact confirms the significance of this work in Russian literature. "Vasily Terkin" is a folk work loved by millions.

Characteristics of the characters: the relationship of Vasily Terkin with front-line comrades

"Terkin, Terkin, kind fellow ..." - this is how the author addresses his hero in the poem of the same name. Tvardovsky fell in love with the image of this daring fighter, a magnificent comrade, a miracle man. But not only Tvardovsky was imbued with sympathy for the hero he had invented: all Soviet soldiers loved him very much, tried to be like him.

Even in the first chapter, all the soldiers notice in their company a new comrade who is "a guy anywhere." This characteristic is already enough to make it clear in the future how well the relations between the soldiers will develop.

Everyone trusted this kind and cheerful person. So, the tankers gladly lent Terkin the harmonica of their dead commander. Vasily immediately begins to sing a fervent song, for which his comrades begin to like him even more. The tankers decided to give the accordion to their new friend - he is its most worthy owner.

Terkin finds a common language not only with his peers, but also with people of the older generation. He cannot pass by the hut in which an old man and an old woman who do not know each other live. He repairs the old people everything that they have is defective: a saw, a watch. He enjoys being in the company of these nice people, but military duty obliges him to go further. On the threshold, the grandfather asks Terkin if the Russians will be able to defeat the Nazis, to which Terkin confidently replies that they can. Terkin meets these same old men a little later, being an officer. When he learns that a German has stolen the watch he repaired himself, he promises to bring new ones.

In the hospital, Terkin meets a boy from Tambov, who, despite his young age, has already managed to become a hero and showed Vasily his order. But Terkin has more modest desires: “Why do I need an order? I agree to a medal." However, he is offended by the proud tone of the boy, and he tries to prove in practice that there can be heroes in Smolensk.

The most mysterious interlocutor in Terkin's poem is Oblique, or death. The wounded fighter lies on the snow and loses strength, but as soon as the Oblique announces his arrival, Terkin drives her away, saying that he will not give up under any circumstances, even on a frosty night, crying from pain and impotence.

This is how the glorious fighter Vasily Terkin was. He always helped his comrades, helped the old and the poor, fought an honest fight in the war, and in the “civilian” was an ordinary perky person. During the war, there were few such “Terkins” in the country, but each soldier possessed at least one of the traits of this wonderful hero, so it can be argued that this character, although invented by Tvardovsky, but the prototype of him, the “Russian miracle man”, can certainly be found and now.

mini essay

Victory in the Great Patriotic War is the main achievement of the Soviet people in the 20th century. It would seem how many hardships the inhabitants of this large state endured, but they don’t care! A key role in bringing victory closer was played not only by skilled fighters who bravely stood with their breasts for their homeland, but also by people who worked in their own way in the rear. Writers and poets contributed a lot to the victory, as they raised the military spirit of the soldiers, creating the ideal images that everyone aspired to. War is a tragic event, but the life-affirming pathos of military songs and poems set the soldiers in an optimistic mood.

The main work of the wartime writer Alexander Tvardovsky is Vasily Terkin. With impatience, the soldiers waited for the publication of a new chapter in the newspaper, read with pleasure and thereby raised their military spirit. Everyone wanted to be like the main character Vasily Terkin, who adopted the features of heroes from Russian epics. No one is safe from a stray bullet during the war years, but not everyone finds the strength in himself to fight for life. The seriously wounded Terkin is not afraid of death and drives her away when she comes for him: “I did not call you, Kosaya, I am a soldier still alive,” says Vasily and wins the fight against death.

Each chapter in the poem is permeated with such optimistic, life-affirming pathos. The soldiers, reading such works, could not fail to win after that, because even after the end of the war they had an incentive to strive to become like their favorite hero, Vasily Terkin.

"Vasily Terkin" is not just a highly artistic and immensely significant work of Alexander Tvardovsky, which has become the voice of its era. No. This is one of those dramas of human life torn from the heart, which fought alongside our soldiers in the bloodiest war of the 20th century. The poem, written in a truly folk language, was heard by those who sat in the trenches, went to the front line and defended their homeland every time, as if it were the last. Particularly expressive against the background of the entire narrative seems to contemporaries the chapter "Crossing".

At night, the soldiers of the Soviet army are preparing to cross the river: the enemy is on the other side. The bridge is blown up, it remains to swim across. It's November, the river is already cold, so it's hard for the soldiers to make their way across the frozen water surface. The first platoon reached its destination safely, but suddenly shots rang out, and the rest of the boats could not break through. The soldiers were forced to wait for news from the other side in vague anxiety for their fellow soldiers.

The main military units settled down for the night. Everyone felt guilty that the people on the other side were left without help. However, two lookouts saw a man swimming to their side in the icy water. It turned out to be Vasily Terkin, one of the soldiers who were able to cross. After it was warmed up and rubbed, he returned to normal and said that with heroic efforts the detachment was holding its positions in the enemy sector. But the people will need the help of artillery for a complete victory. The courageous fighter, who risked his life in order to tell this news, quickly masters himself, jokes and even asks not to waste alcohol on rubbing, but to give it to him as a drink.

Topics and issues

1. The theme of the feat. In the center of Tvardovsky's narrative is one of the many heroic deeds of the "ordinary" and "simple" guy Vasily. The author typifies the features of the hero not in order to somehow humiliate him, emphasizing the ordinariness of his fate, the prevalence of his surname and name. No, Terkin's character personifies the entire fighting people: kind, generous, optimistic, cheerful joker, but at the same time persistent, unbending, strong, ready to give everything for the Motherland. These are the qualities of a fighter that appeared in the chapter "Crossing". That is why it is so strongly remembered by the reader: it is nice to see how a soldier not only goes to the feat, but also does it without pathos, as if nothing special is happening.
2. The theme of patriotism. Every soldier wants to live, but even more they want to liberate their homeland from the occupiers. Vasily, not thinking about orders and awards, risks himself, like hundreds of his comrades who are fighting on the other side, waiting for reinforcements. None of them is waiting for encouragement, everyone goes to fight for their fatherland. And even having committed a courageous deed worthy of a medal, the hero only jokingly asks to pour alcohol for him, as if belittling the significance of his own feat, realizing that thousands of people go to their deaths with him, and many are less lucky.
3. The theme of devotion. Landing on the enemy shore, none of the fighters think about betrayal, everyone fights and defends the freedom of their country. Despite the fact that the numerical superiority is on the side of the invaders, our guys go into battle and do not surrender to the mercy of the enemy.
4. occupation problem. Russian land is divided into enemy and Soviet territories. The author symbolically separates them with a river - a river of blood of our ancestors. Shedding blood, they stormed their own cities and villages, treacherously and brazenly captured by the invaders, whose forces many times exceeded the power of domestic troops.
5. The problem of the brutality of war. Struggle puts people in difficult conditions in which something more important than life appears. Therefore, the fighters sacrifice themselves, and their exploits are innumerable. If Vasily had not sailed, his loss would have been invisible against the background of dozens of other deaths on the other side, and no one would have known what torment Terkin endured in order to fulfill his duty.

Main thought and idea

Tvardovsky writes very clearly, each line has a clear and very specific message. The meaning of the chapter "Crossing" is revealed in the refrain: "The battle is holy and right. Mortal combat is not for the sake of glory, for the sake of life on earth. The hero swims across an icy river, risks dying a terrible death - freezing and drowning. His silent feat in this case would have gone unnoticed, no one would have known what happened to him, even his descendants would not have found his body. But he still does it, because his goal is not honor and fame, but the salvation of the motherland. And not only: we are talking about the fate of world peace, because fascism and Nazism are threats on a global scale.

Therefore, the feat of a Russian soldier is not the defense of his personal interests and lands, it is a gift to all countries and all people, a sacrifice for the sake of their "life on earth." Terkin, like his comrades, are ready to disappear without a trace, go to the bottom, if only to save the future - the present for all of us. This is the main idea of ​​the chapter.

What mood is she filled with?

The author himself did not consider himself a front-line soldier, he wrote ironically about the work of war correspondents: “We drive up to those dimples and trenches where the soldiers lie, hastily ask about something, twitching from even a distant mine explosion, and then we leave, seeing off an unforgettable look.” Nevertheless, the soldiers immediately recognized "Vasily Terkin" as a truthful and close poem to them, because of its honesty and openness, it is still interesting to readers. In particular, the chapter "Crossing" is imbued with a sense of the sanctity of the duty of the Russian soldier not only in relation to his homeland, but also to the world. The author calls this battle “holy” and shows how disinterested the sacrifice of those who participate in it is. The hero does not risk himself in front of everyone, not for show, not in order to remain in history or at least on the front pages of newspapers. His goal: to help his squad at any cost.

But the poet understands that Vasily is making a more serious contribution to world harmony: he helps to return it. The mood of sincere self-sacrifice permeates the poetic lines.

Means of artistic expression

The language of the work is simple and clear, close to the folk, but this does not mean that it is poor in visual means. The author uses epithets (“rough snow”, “harsh path”, “rotten ice”, “bloody trail” and others), comparisons (“like a roof under the foot”, “pontoons went like rafts”, “the right bank, like a wall " and others). Alliteration, beloved by A. T. Tvardovsky, is also found here, creating a dynamic narrative. All these techniques allow him to create a heated and dynamic atmosphere of the battle.

The poem is devoid of all frames. Her pictorial power is not constrained by either the plot or ideology; in the work, genuine patriotism does not turn into pathos, everything is in moderation, everything is real. For this inner warmth and truth, “Vasily Terkin” was loved by Soviet soldiers, and we, descendants, love her for the same.

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Plan
Introduction
The hero of the poem, Vasily Terkin, is a favorite folk hero.
Main part
Hero image:
a) Terkin is a man of duty;
b) he is a reliable friend;
c) Terkin dreams of a reward, but not now, but when the war is over;
d) he is a jack of all trades;
e) Terkin is a cheerful, kind person.
Conclusion
Terkin is the embodiment of the national character.
The hero of the poem A.T. Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin" became a favorite folk hero during the war years and continued to be so many years later. This is a simple soldier, a village boy who stood up to defend his homeland. He is a man of the people, close to those soldiers who read the poem somewhere at the front in rare free moments.
Why is he so close to them?
Of course, first of all, a sense of duty, ardent patriotism, awareness of one's responsibility.
The year has come, the turn has come,
Today we are responsible
For Russia, for the people
And for everything in the world.
He is a reliable comrade, ready, if necessary, to die himself, but to help out his associates. He accomplishes the feat by crossing
an icy river to report on the successful crossing of their platoon and ask for fire support, but for him this is not a feat, but something completely natural. So it was necessary.
He dreams of an award, but not now, but when the war ends... "I'm not proud," he says about himself, and he doesn't need an order, he "agrees on a medal." Why is she to him? Dreams of a peaceful life, of love, of returning home, of course, are characteristic of a hero. But he does not flaunt this sadness, he does not lose heart himself and does not let his comrades lose heart. A jack of all trades, an accordionist, a joker - and for this he is loved and appreciated by fellow soldiers. He jokes even at the most unexpected moments: he, half-frozen, is rubbed with alcohol, and he suddenly asks "to warm up from the inside." You can live without food for a while, says the author, but
In a one minute war
Can't live without a joke
Jokes of the most unwise.
Vasily Terkin understands this well. He is a cheerful, kind person, he takes life easily and always believes in the best:
I am a big hunter to live
Years to ninety.
A courageous soldier, devoted to the Motherland and people, a reliable comrade in battle, an optimist, never discouraged and always ready to help - such a hero was loved and appreciated by readers. This is the embodiment of the national character, and folk humor, and folk patriotism. Therefore, such a hero is a great success for the author, and he will remain a favorite folk hero for a long time to come.

Analysis of the work

"Vasily Terkin" is rightfully considered one of the most significant works of literature of the second half of the 20th century.

The poem consists of twenty-nine chapters. Each chapter is an independent work. There are many lyrical digressions in the book. Its content and form are close to folk. It is a fusion of lyric and epic genres. It has everything: humor and pathos, sketches of front-line life and heroic battles, casual jokes and tragedy, high oratory and folk language. This

not a poem, but a folk book. Tvardovsky came up with a general genre and called it "a book about a fighter." The theme of this work is war. The author shows it from beginning to end.

Behind the mean lines, the image of the author is visible. We learn about him from lyrical digressions and understand that he loves his hero very much. The work has a high ideological meaning. Proximity to the folk poetic language, simplicity - all this makes the poem a truly folk work. Not only the fighters in the war became warm from these poems, but even now, years later, they radiate the inexhaustible warmth of humanity.

Vasily's character is revealed

Describing what is happening in the war, the author emphasizes that the soldiers are not heroes from birth, they are young guys. Some participate in military events for the first time, but on their faces there is heroism. The author emphasizes that the feat of these young soldiers is a continuation of the feats of their fathers and grandfathers - warriors of past centuries. The author talks about Terkin's participation in the war in a half-joking manner. He talks about Terkin's dreams of returning home. Terkin dreams of awards, but shows modesty “no, I don’t need an order, I agree to a medal.” He wants to impress the girls:

... And the girls at the party would forget all the guys,

Only girls would listen

How the belts creak on me.

In this scene, Terkin looks cheerful and simple. But the author replaces lines full of humor with lines describing a terrible battle:

The terrible battle is bloody,

Mortal combat is not for glory -

For life on earth.

By this, the author shows that the path to happiness passes through the struggle, the unity of the fate of the people with the fate of the country, and that the happiness of an individual is impossible without the happiness of his people. Terkin knows how to cheer up the soldiers, he makes sure that they look at the world with different eyes.

Two tankmen present an accordion to Terkin in memory of the killed commander. Terkin plays a cheerful tune and the soldiers begin to dance.

Lose a pouch with shag,

If there is no one to sew -

I do not argue - it's also bitter,

It's hard, but you can live

Survive the misfortune

Hold tobacco in your fist.

But Russia, old mother,

We cannot lose.

Tvardovsky also talks about love. Fighters fondly remember their mothers, wives, girls who are waiting for their return.

I dreamed of a real miracle:

So that from my invention

In the war it was for living people,

maybe warmer.

Plan 1. Monologue of the hero of the poem. 2. Crossing. 3. The wounded Terkin ends up in the medical battalion. 4. The hero's reasoning about returning home. 5. Comparison of the hero of the poem with a veteran of the last war. 6. Terkin's fight with a German. 7. Terkin shoots down a plane with a rifle and receives an order for it. 8. Fight. 9. Dreams of the hero about the rest. 10. The platoon goes on the offensive. 11. Conversation with death. 12. Meeting with an old man and an old woman. 13. Road to Berlin. 14. Farewell to the hero of the work.

Glossary:

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• Tvardovsky Vasily Terkin analysis
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History of creation

Since the autumn of 1939, Tvardovsky, as a war correspondent, participated in the Finnish campaign. “It seems to me,” he wrote to M.V. Isakovsky - that the army will be my second theme for life. And the poet was not mistaken. In the edition of the Leningrad Military District "On Guard for the Motherland", a group of poets had an idea to create a series of entertaining drawings about the exploits of a cheerful heroic soldier. “Someone,” recalls Tvardovsky, “suggested to call our hero Vasya Terkin, namely Vasya, and not Vasily.”

In creating a collective work about a resilient successful fighter, Tvardovsky was instructed to write an introduction: "... I had to give at least the most general "portrait" of Terkin and determine, so to speak, the tone, the manner of our further conversation with the reader."

So the poem "Vasya Terkin" appeared in the newspaper (1940. - January 5). The success of the feuilleton hero prompted the idea to continue the story about the adventures of the resilient Vasya Terkin. As a result, the little book "Vasya Terkin at the Front" (1940) was published. During the Great Patriotic War, this image becomes the main one in the work of Tvardovsky. "Vasily Terkin" walked along the roads of war with Tvardovsky. The first publication of "Vasily Terkin" took place in the newspaper of the Western Front "Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda", where on September 4, 1942, the introductory chapter "From the Author" and "On a Rest" were printed. From then until the end of the war, chapters of the poem were published in this newspaper, in the magazines Krasnoarmeyets and Znamya, as well as in other print media.

“... My work ends by coincidence with the end of the war. One more effort of a refreshed soul and body is needed - and it will be possible to put an end to it, ”the poet wrote on May 4, 1945. So the finished poem “Vasily Terkin. about a fighter" (1941-1945). Tvardovsky wrote that working on it gave him a "feeling" of the legality of the artist's place in the great struggle of the people ... a feeling of complete freedom in dealing with verse and word.

In 1946, almost one after the other, three complete editions of the Book of a Fighter were published.

Genus, genre, creative method

In the spring of 1941, the poet worked hard on the chapters of the future poem, but the outbreak of war changed these plans. The revival of the idea and the resumption of work on "Terkin" refers to the middle of 1942. Since that time, a new stage of work on the work begins: "The whole character of the poem has changed, all its content, its philosophy, its hero, its form - composition, genre, plot. The nature of the poetic narrative about the war has changed - and the people, the people in the war have become the main themes. Although, starting to work on it, the poet was not too worried about this, as evidenced by his own words: “I did not long languish with doubts and fears about the uncertainty of the genre, the lack of an initial plan embracing the whole work in advance, the weak plot connection of the chapters with each other. Not a poem - well, let yourself not a poem, I decided; there is no single plot - let yourself not, do not; there is no very beginning of a thing - there is no time to invent it; the culmination and completion of the whole story is not planned - let it be written about what is burning, not waiting, and then we will see, we will figure it out.

In connection with the question of the genre of Tvardovsky's work, the following judgments of the author seem important: “The genre designation of The Book about a Fighter, on which I settled, was not the result of a desire to simply avoid the designation “poem”, “story”, etc. This coincided with the decision to write not a poem, not a story or a novel in verse, that is, not something that has its legalized and, to a certain extent, obligatory plot, compositional and other features. These signs did not come out of me, but something did come out, and I designated this something as the “Book about the fighter”.

This, as the poet himself called it, "The book about a fighter" recreates a reliable picture of front-line reality, reveals the thoughts, feelings, experiences of a person in a war. It stands out among other poems of that time by the special fullness and depth of the realistic depiction of the people's liberation struggle, disasters and suffering, exploits and military life.

Tvardovsky's poem is a heroic epic, with objectivity corresponding to the epic genre, but imbued with a living author's feeling, unique in all respects, a unique book, at the same time developing the traditions of realistic literature and folk poetic creativity. And at the same time, this free narrative is a chronicle (“A book about a fighter, without beginning, without end ...”), which covers the entire history of the war.

Subject

The theme of the Great Patriotic War has forever entered the work of A.T. Tvardovsky. And the poem "Vasily Terkin" became one of his brightest pages. The poem is dedicated to the life of the people in the war, it is rightfully an encyclopedia of front-line life. In the center of the poem is the image of Terkin, an ordinary infantryman from Smolensk peasants, uniting the composition of the work into a single whole. Vasily Terkin actually personifies the whole people. The Russian national character found an artistic embodiment in it. The symbol of the victorious people in Tvardovsky's poem was an ordinary man, an ordinary soldier.

In the "Book about a fighter" the war is depicted as it is - in everyday life and heroism, weaving the ordinary, sometimes even the comic (chapters "At a halt", "In the bath") with the sublime and tragic. The poem is strong, first of all, with the truth about the war as a harsh and tragic - at the limit of possibilities - a test of the vitality of a people, country, every person.

Idea

The literature of the period of the Great Patriotic War has a number of characteristic features. Its main features are patriotic pathos and a focus on universal accessibility. The most successful example of such a work of art is considered to be the poem by Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin". The feat of a soldier in the war is shown by Tvardovsky as everyday and hard military labor and battle, and moving to new positions, and spending the night in a trench or right on the ground, “shielding black only with his own back from death ...”. And the hero who accomplishes this feat is an ordinary, simple soldier.

It is precisely in the defense of the Motherland, life on earth that the justice of the people's Patriotic War lies: "The battle is holy and right, a mortal battle is not for the sake of glory - for the sake of life on earth." Poem by A.T. Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin" has become truly popular.

Main heroes

The poem is based on the image of the protagonist - private Vasily Terkin. He has no real prototype. This is a collective image that combines the typical features of the spiritual appearance and character of an ordinary Russian soldier. Dozens of people wrote about Terkin’s typicality, making from the lines “there is always a guy of this kind in every company, and in every platoon” the conclusion that this is a collective, generalized image, that one should not look for any individual qualities in him, so everything typical of a Soviet soldier. And since “it was partially dispersed and partially exterminated,” it means that this is not a person at all, but a kind of symbol of the entire Soviet Army.

Terkin - who is he? Let's be honest: It's just a guy by himself. He's ordinary.

However, a guy anywhere, A guy like that In every company there is always, Yes, and in every platoon.

The image of Terkin has folklore roots, it is “a hero, a fathom in his shoulders”, “a merry fellow”, “an experienced person”. Behind the illusion of rusticity, jokes, mischief, there is a moral sensitivity and a sense of filial duty to the Motherland, the ability to accomplish a feat at any moment without a phrase and posture.

The image of Vasily Terkin really absorbs what is typical for many: “A guy like that / There is always in every company, / And in every platoon.” However, in it the features and properties inherent in many people were embodied brighter, sharper, more original. Folk wisdom and optimism, steadfastness, endurance, patience and selflessness, the worldly ingenuity and skill of a Russian person - a worker and a warrior, and finally, inexhaustible humor, behind which something deeper and more serious always comes through - all this is fused into a living and integral human character. The main feature of his character is his native country. The hero constantly remembers his native places, which are so sweet and dear to his heart. Mercy, the greatness of the soul cannot but attract in Terkin, he finds himself in war not because of the military instinct, but for the sake of life on earth, the defeated enemy evokes in him only a feeling of pity. He is modest, although he can sometimes brag, telling his friends that he does not need an order, he agrees to a medal. But most of all, this person is attracted by his love of life, worldly ingenuity, mockery of the enemy and of any difficulties.

Being the embodiment of the Russian national character, Vasily Terkin is inseparable from the people - the mass of soldiers and a number of episodic characters (grandfather-soldier and grandmother, tankers in battle and on the march, a nurse girl in a hospital, a soldier's mother returning from enemy captivity, etc.) , it is inseparable from the motherland. And the entire "Book about a fighter" is a poetic statement of national unity.

Along with the images of Terkin and the people, an important place in the overall structure of the work is occupied by the image of the author-narrator, or, more precisely, the lyrical hero, especially noticeable in the chapters “About Me”, “About War”, “About Love”, in four chapters “From the Author ". So, in the chapter “About Myself”, the poet directly declares, addressing the reader: “And I will tell you: I won’t hide, / - In this book, here, there, / What the hero would say, / I personally say myself.”

The author in the poem is an intermediary between the hero and the reader. A confidential conversation is constantly conducted with the reader, the author respects his friend-reader, and therefore seeks to convey to him the truth about the war. The author feels his responsibility to the readers, he understands how important it was not only to tell about the war, but also to instill in readers faith in the invincibility of the spirit of the Russian soldier, optimism. Sometimes the author, as it were, invites the reader to check the truth of his judgments and observations. Such direct contact with the reader greatly contributes to the fact that the poem becomes understandable to a large circle of people.

The poem constantly shows subtle author's humor. The text of the poem is filled with jokes, sayings, sayings, and it is generally impossible to determine who their author is - the author of the poem, the hero of the poem Terkin or the people. At the very beginning of the poem, the author calls the joke the most necessary “thing” in a soldier’s life:

You can live without food for a day, You can do more, but sometimes In a war of one minute You can't live without a joke, The most unwise jokes.

Plot and composition

The originality of the plot-compositional construction of the book is determined by the military reality itself. “There is no plot in war,” the author noted in one of the chapters. And in the poem as a whole there really are no such traditional components as the plot, the climax, the denouement. But inside the chapters with a narrative basis, as a rule, there is a plot, between these chapters there are separate plot links. Finally, the general development of events, the disclosure of the character of the hero, with all the independence of individual chapters, is clearly determined by the very course of the war, the natural change of its stages: from the bitter days of retreat and the most difficult defensive battles to the hard-won and won victory. Here is how Tvardovsky himself wrote about the compositional structure of his poem:

“And the first thing I took as the principle of composition and style is the desire for a certain completeness of each individual part, chapter, and within the chapter - of each period and even stanza. I should have had in mind the reader who, even though he was unfamiliar with the previous chapters, would find in this chapter published today in the newspaper something whole, rounded. In addition, this reader may not have waited for my next chapter: he was where the hero is - in the war. This exemplary completion of each chapter was what I was most concerned about. I did not keep anything to myself until another time, trying to speak out on every occasion - the next chapter - to the end, to fully express my mood, to convey a fresh impression, a thought, a motive, an image. True, this principle was not immediately determined - after the first chapters of "Terkin" were printed in a row one after another, and then new ones appeared as they were written.

The poem consists of thirty independent and at the same time closely related chapters. The poem is built as a chain of episodes from the military life of the protagonist, which do not always have a direct event connection with each other. Terkin tells young soldiers about the everyday life of the war with humor; says that he has been fighting since the very beginning of the war, he was surrounded three times, was wounded. The fate of an ordinary soldier, one of those who bore the brunt of the war on his shoulders, becomes the personification of the national fortitude, the will to live.

The plot outline of the poem is difficult to follow, each chapter tells about a separate event in the life of a fighter, for example: Terkin crosses an icy river twice to restore contact with the advancing units; Terkin occupies a German dugout alone, but comes under fire from his own artillery; on the way to the front, Terkin finds himself in the house of old peasants, helping them with the housework; Terkin enters into hand-to-hand combat with the German and, with difficulty overcoming, takes him prisoner. Or, unexpectedly for himself, Terkin shoots down a German attack aircraft from a rifle. Terkin takes over command of the platoon when the commander is killed and breaks into the village first; however, the hero is again seriously wounded. Lying wounded in the field, Terkin converses with Death, who persuades him not to cling to life; in the end, the fighters discover him, and he tells them: "Take away this woman, / I am a soldier still alive."

It is no coincidence that Tvardovsky's work begins and ends with lyrical digressions. An open conversation with the reader brings the work closer to the inner world, creates an atmosphere of common involvement in the events. The poem ends with a dedication to the fallen.

The poem "Vasily Terkin" is distinguished by a kind of historicism. Conventionally, it can be divided into three parts, coinciding with the beginning, middle and end of the war. The poetic comprehension of the stages of the war creates a lyrical chronicle of events from the chronicle. A feeling of bitterness and sorrow fills the first part, faith in victory - the second, the joy of the liberation of the Fatherland becomes the leitmotif of the third part of the poem. This is due to the fact that A.T. Tvardovsky created the poem gradually, throughout the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Artistic originality

The poem "Vasily Terkin" is distinguished by its extraordinary breadth and freedom of use of the means of colloquial, literary and folk poetic speech. It is truly a vernacular. Proverbs and sayings are naturally used in it (“I'm out of boredom of all trades”; “time is the time for fun”; “on which river to swim - that one and create glory ...”), folk songs (about an overcoat, about a river ). Tvardovsky is fluent in the art of speaking simply, but poetically. He himself creates sayings that have come into life as sayings (“do not look at what is on the chest, but look at what is ahead”; “war has a short way, love has a long way”; “guns go to battle backwards”, etc.) .

Freedom - the main moral and artistic principle of the work - is also realized in the very construction of the verse. And this is a find - a laid-back ten-line, eight-, and five-, and six-, and quatrains - in a word, there will be as many rhyming lines as Tvardovsky needs at this moment in order to speak in full. The main size of "Vasily Terkin" is a four-foot trochee.

S.Ya. wrote about the originality of Tvardovsky's verse. Marshak: “Look how one of the best chapters of Vasily Terkin, The Crossing, is built. In this truthful and seemingly unsophisticated account of real events observed by the author, you will nevertheless find a strict form, a clear construction. You will find here a recurring leitmotif that sounds in the most crucial parts of the narrative, and each time in a new way, sometimes sad and anxious, sometimes solemn and even menacing:

Crossing, crossing!

Left bank, right bank.

The snow is rough. Ice edge...

To whom is memory, to whom is glory,

Who is dark water.

You will also find here a lively, concise, impeccably well-aimed dialogue built according to all the laws of a ballad. This is what the real poetic effect is, which gives us the means to depict events from the most modern ebullient life.

The meaning of the work

The poem "Vasily Terkin" is the central work in the work of A.T. Tvardovsky, "the best of everything written about the war in the war" (K. Simonov), one of the pinnacles of Russian epic poetry in general. It can be considered one of the truly folk works. Many lines from this work migrated into oral folk speech or became popular poetic aphorisms: “A mortal battle is not for the sake of glory - for the sake of life on earth”, “ Forty souls alone", " Crossing, crossing, left bank, right bank" and many others .

The recognition of the "Book about a fighter" was not only nationwide, but also nationwide: "... This is a truly rare book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess, what accuracy, accuracy in everything and what an unusual folk soldier's language - not a hitch, not a hitch, not a single false, ready-made, that is, literary-vulgar word! - wrote I.A. Bunin.

The poem "Vasily Terkin" was repeatedly illustrated. The very first were illustrations by O.G. Vereisky, which were created immediately after the text of the poem. Also known are the works of artists B. Dekhterev, I. Bruni, Y. Neprintsev. In 1961 at the Moscow Theater. Moscow City Council K. Voronkov staged "Vasily Terkin". Known literary compositions of the chapters of the poem performed by D.N. Zhuravlev and D.N. Orlov. Excerpts from the poem are set to music by V.G. Zakharov. Composer N.V. Bogoslovsky wrote the symphonic story "Vasily Terkin".

In 1995, a monument to Terkin was opened in Smolensk (author - People's Artist of the Russian Federation, sculptor A.G. Sergeev). The monument is a two-figure composition depicting a conversation between Vasily Terkin and A.T. Tvardovsky. The monument was erected with publicly collected money.