What is war, the fate of man. Essay “The theme of war in Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of Man”
The immortal work of M. A. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man” is a real ode to the common people, whose life was completely broken by the war.
Features of the story composition
The main character here is presented not as a legendary heroic figure, but as a simple person, one of the millions of people who were touched by the tragedy of the war.
The fate of man in wartime
Andrei Sokolov was a simple rural worker who, like everyone else, worked on a collective farm, had a family and lived an ordinary measured life. He boldly goes to defend his fatherland from the fascist invaders, thus leaving his children and wife to the mercy of fate.
At the front, the main character begins those terrible trials that turned his life upside down. Andrei learns that his wife, daughter and youngest son were killed in an air attack. He takes this loss very hard, as he feels his own guilt for what happened to his family.
However, Andrei Sokolov has something to live for; he still has his eldest son, who during the war was able to achieve significant success in military affairs, and was his father’s only support. In the last days of the war, fate prepared the last crushing blow for Sokolov; his son was killed by his opponents.
At the end of the war, the main character is morally broken and does not know how to live further: he lost his loved ones, his home was destroyed. Andrey gets a job as a driver in a neighboring village and gradually begins to drink.
As you know, fate, which pushes a person into the abyss, always leaves him a small straw through which, if desired, he can get out of it. Andrei's salvation was a meeting with a little orphan boy whose parents died at the front.
Vanechka had never seen his father and reached out to Andrei, because he longed for the love and attention that the main character showed to him. The dramatic peak in the story is Andrei’s decision to lie to Vanechka that he is his own father.
An unfortunate child, who has never known love, affection or kindness towards himself in his life, throws himself in tears on Andrei Sokolov’s neck and begins to say that he remembered him. So, in essence, two destitute orphans begin their life journey together. They found salvation in each other. Each of them gained a meaning in life.
The moral “core” of Andrei Sokolov’s character
Andrei Sokolov had a real inner core, high ideals of spirituality, steadfastness and patriotism. In one of the episodes of the story, the author tells us how, exhausted by hunger and labor in a concentration camp, Andrei was still able to maintain his human dignity: for a long time he refused the food that the Nazis offered him before they threatened to kill him.
The strength of his character aroused respect even among the German murderers, who ultimately had mercy on him. The bread and lard that they gave to the main character as a reward for his pride, Andrei Sokolov divided among all his starving cellmates.
March 02 2011
Writers have always thought about humanism. In the 20th century, a humanistic theme was also heard in works dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War.
War is. It brings destruction and sacrifice, separation and death. Millions of people were orphaned at that time. War is inhumane: it kills people. He is required to be cruel and evil, to forget about moral laws and God's commandments.
The answer to this question can be found in M. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man.” The main character of the work is the driver Andrei Sokolov. It is in his actions that the humanistic theme is reflected.
The ordinary soldier had to endure a lot. He was wounded three times, captured (“whoever hasn’t experienced this on his own skin will not immediately get into his soul for him to understand in a human way what this thing means”), all the horrors of the concentration camps (“They beat him easily for the purpose of so that one day he might kill him to death, so that he would choke on his last blood and die from beatings.”). Andrei’s family died: “A heavy bomb hit my little house. Irina and her daughters were just at home... they didn’t find a trace of them.” The son, “the last joy and the last hope,” is killed by a German sniper “exactly on the ninth of May, on Victory Day. “From such a blow, Andrei’s vision darkened, his heart clenched into a ball and would not unclench.”
These severe troubles and hardships became a real test for Sholokhov’s hero - a test of humanity. His eyes, which, as we know, are the mirror of the soul, although “as if they were sprinkled with ashes,” still there is no vengeful misanthropy, no poisonous skepticism towards life, no cynical indifference in them. Fate “distorted” Andrei, but could not break him, kill the living soul in him.
With his story, Sholokhov refutes the opinion of those who believe that perseverance and courage do not get along with tenderness, responsiveness, affection, and kindness. On the contrary, he believes that only strong and unyielding people are capable of showing humanity, as if this is a “sign” of such a character.
Sholokhov deliberately does not show details of front-line life and camp ordeals, wanting to concentrate on depicting the “culmination” moments, when the character of the hero and his humanity are manifested most strongly and vividly.
Thus, Andrei Sokolov withstands the “duel” with the Lagerfuhrer with honor. The hero manages, even if for a moment, to awaken something human in the Nazis: Müller, in recognition of his soldierly valor (“So that I, a Russian soldier, would drink German weapons for the victory?!”) saves Andrei and even presents “a small loaf bread and a piece of bacon." But the hero understood: the enemy is capable of any treachery and cruelty, and at that moment, when a shot in the back was about to thunder, it flashed in his head: “He’ll shine between my shoulder blades now and I won’t bring this grub to the guys.” In a moment of mortal danger, the hero thinks not about his life, but about the fate of his comrades. Müller’s gift was “divided without offense” (“everyone equally”), although “everyone got a piece of bread the size of a matchbox... well, lard... - just to anoint your lips.” And Sholokhov’s hero commits such a generous act without hesitation. For him, this is not even the only correct, but the only possible solution.
War is inhumane, so situations arise that require solutions on the verge of cruelty and humanism, on the verge of what is permitted and what is not permitted... under normal conditions. Andrei Sokolov was subjected to such a test of moral principles, finding himself forced to deal with Kryzhnev in order to save the platoon commander - “a snub-nosed boy.” Is killing a person humane? For Sholokhov, in the current circumstances, the strangulation of Kryzhnev, a traitor guided by the principle “your shirt is closer to your body,” has “humanistic legitimacy.” The writer is convinced that spiritual responsiveness and tenderness, the ability for active (namely active) love, shown by Andrei Sokolov when he encounters kind, fair people who need his protection, is the moral basis of intransigence, contempt, courageous firmness (ability to step over the moral law - to kill) in relation to cruelty and betrayal, lies and hypocrisy, and apathy and cowardice.
That is why, trying to convince the reader of the humanity of Andrei’s act, Sholokhov creates “Comrade Kryzhnev” as exclusively negative, trying to arouse contempt and hatred for the “big-faced”, “fat gelding” traitor. And after the murder, Andrei “felt unwell”, “terribly wanted to wash his hands,” but only because it seemed to him as if “he was strangling some kind of creeping thing,” and not a person.
But the hero also accomplishes a truly humanistic and civic feat. He adopts a “little ragamuffin,” an orphan baby: “It’s impossible for us to disappear separately.” “Twisted”, “crippled by life” Andrei Sokolov does not try to motivate his decision to adopt Vanyushka philosophically; for him this step is not connected with the problem of moral duty. For the hero of the story, “protecting the child” is a natural manifestation of the soul, the desire for the boy’s eyes to remain clear, “like the sky,” and for his fragile soul to remain undisturbed.
Andrey gives all his unspent love and care to his little son: “Go, dear, play near the water... Just make sure you don’t get your feet wet!” With what tenderness he looks at his blue “little eyes.” And “the heart goes away,” and “the soul becomes joyful, which cannot be said in words!”
Having adopted a boy who no one needs, but in whose soul there was still hope for a “good share,” Sokolov himself becomes the personification of the indestructible humanity of the world. Thus, in the story “The Fate of Man” he showed that despite all the hardships of war and personal losses, people have not become hardened in heart, they are capable of doing good, they strive for happiness and love.
At the beginning of the story, the author calmly talks about the signs of the first post-war spring; he seems to be preparing us for a meeting with the main character, Andrei Sokolov, whose eyes “as if sprinkled with ashes, filled with inescapable mortal melancholy.” Sholokhov’s hero recalls the past with restraint, wearily; before confession, he “hunched over” and placed his large, dark hands on his knees. All this makes us feel how tragic the fate of this man is.
The life of an ordinary person, the Russian soldier Andrei Sokolov, passes before us. Since childhood, he learned how much a pound is worth and fought in civilian life. A modest worker, the father of a family, he was happy in his own way. The war ruined this man’s life, tore him away from home, from his family. Andrei Sokolov goes to the front. From the beginning of the war, in its very first months, he was wounded twice and shell-shocked. But the worst thing awaited the hero ahead - he falls into fascist captivity.
The hero had to experience inhuman torment, hardship, and torment. For two years, Andrei Sokolov steadfastly endured the horrors of fascist captivity. He tries to escape, but is unsuccessful, he deals with a coward, a traitor who is ready, to save his own skin, to betray the commander. Self-esteem, enormous fortitude and self-control were revealed with great clarity in Sokolov’s moral duel with the concentration camp commandant. An exhausted, exhausted, exhausted prisoner is ready to face death with such courage and endurance that it amazes even a fascist who has lost his human appearance.
Andrei still manages to escape and becomes a soldier again. Death looked him in the eye more than once, but he remained human to the end. And yet the most serious trials befell the hero when he returned home. Having emerged from the war as a winner, Andrei Sokolov lost everything he had in life. In the place where the house built by his hands stood, there was a dark crater left by a German air bomb... All members of his family were killed. He says to his random interlocutor: “Sometimes you don’t sleep at night, you look into the darkness with empty eyes and think: “Why have you, life, crippled me like that?” I have no answer either in the dark or in the clear sun..."
After everything that this man had experienced, it would seem that he should have become embittered and bitter. However, life could not break Andrei Sokolov; it wounded, but did not kill the living soul in him. The hero gives all the warmth of his soul to his adopted orphan Vanyusha, a boy with “eyes as bright as the sky.” And the fact that he adopts Vanya confirms the moral strength of Andrei Sokolov, who managed to start life over again after so many losses. This person overcomes grief and continues to live. “And I would like to think,” writes Sholokhov, “that this Russian man, a man of unbending will, will endure, and near his father’s shoulder will grow one who, having matured, will be able to withstand everything, overcome everything on his way, if his Motherland calls him to this.” .
Mikhail Sholokhov's story “The Fate of Man” is imbued with a deep, bright faith in man. Its title is symbolic: this is not just the fate of the soldier Andrei Sokolov, but about the fate of the Russian man, a simple soldier who bore all the hardships of the war. The writer shows at what enormous cost the victory in the Great Patriotic War was won and who was the real hero of this war. The image of Andrei Sokolov instills in us deep faith in the moral strength of the Russian person.
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Man at War
Many works of art, including large-scale and epic ones, were written about the Great Patriotic War. It would seem that against their background, M. A. Sholokhov’s short story “The Fate of a Man” should have gotten lost. But not only did it not get lost, but it became one of the most popular and beloved by readers. This story is still studied in school. Such a long age of the work indicates that it was written with talent and is distinguished by artistic expressiveness.
This story tells the story of the fate of an ordinary Soviet man named Andrei Sokolov, who went through civil war, industrialization, the Great Patriotic War, a concentration camp and other trials, but managed to remain a man with a capital letter. He did not become a traitor, did not break in the face of danger, and showed all his willpower and courage in captivity of the enemy. An illustrative episode is the incident in the camp when he had to stand face to face with the Lagerführer. Then Andrei was just a hair's breadth away from death. One wrong move or step, he would have been shot in the yard. However, seeing him as a strong and worthy opponent, the Lagerführer simply let him go, rewarding him with a loaf of bread and a piece of lard.
Another incident, testifying to the hero’s heightened sense of justice and moral strength, occurred in the church where the prisoners spent the night. Having learned that there was a traitor among them who was trying to betray one platoon commander to the Nazis as a communist, Sokolov strangled him with his own hands. Killing Kryzhnev, he felt no pity, nothing but disgust. Thus, he saved a platoon leader unknown to him and punished the traitor. Strength of character helped him escape from Nazi Germany. This happened when he got a job as a driver for a German major. Somehow along the way he stunned him, took the pistol and managed to leave the country. Once on his native side, he kissed the ground for a long time, could not breathe in it.
The war more than once took away all that was most precious from Andrei. During the Civil War, he lost his parents and sister, who died of hunger. He himself was saved only by leaving for Kuban. Subsequently, he managed to create a new family. Andrei had a beautiful wife and three children, but the war took them away from him too. A lot of sorrows and trials befell this man, but he was able to find the strength to live on. The key incentive for him was little Vanyusha, an orphaned person like him. The war took away Vanya’s father and mother, and Andrei picked him up and adopted him. This also shows the inner strength of the protagonist. Having gone through a series of such difficult trials, he did not lose heart, did not break, and did not become bitter. It was this personal victory over the war.
Mikhail Sholokhov's story “The Fate of a Man” is dedicated to the theme of the Patriotic War, in particular the fate of a person who survived this difficult time. The composition of the work fulfills a certain setting: the author makes a short introduction, talking about how he met his hero, how they got into conversation, and ends with a description of his impressions of what he heard. Thus, each reader seems to personally listen to the narrator - Andrei Sokolov. Already from the first lines it becomes clear what a difficult fate this man has, since the writer makes the remark: “Have you ever seen eyes that seemed sprinkled with ashes, filled with such inexpressible melancholy that it’s hard to look into them?” The main character, at first glance, is an ordinary person with a simple fate, which millions of people had, - he fought in the Red Army during the Civil War, worked for the rich to help his family not die of hunger, but death still took all his relatives . Then he worked in an artel, at a factory, trained as a mechanic, over time came to admire cars, and became a driver. And family life, like many others - he married a beautiful girl Irina (orphan), children were born. Andrei had three children: Nastunya, Olechka and son Anatoly. He was especially proud of his son, as he was persistent in learning and capable of mathematics. And it’s not without reason that they say that happy people are all the same, but everyone has their own grief. It came to Andrei's house with a declaration of war. During the war, Sokolov had to experience grief “up to the nostrils and above”, and endure incredible trials on the verge of life and death. During the battle he was seriously wounded, he was captured, he tried to escape several times, worked hard in a quarry, and escaped, taking a German engineer with him. Hope for better things flashed, and just as suddenly faded away, as two terrible news arrived: a wife and girls died from a bomb explosion, and on the last day of the war, their son died. Sokolov survived these terrible trials that fate sent him. He had wisdom and courage in life, which were based on human dignity, which can neither be destroyed nor tamed. Even when he was a moment away from death, he still remained worthy of the high title of a man, and did not yield to his conscience. Even the German officer Muller recognized this: “That's it, Sokolov, you are a real Russian soldier. You are a brave soldier. I am also a soldier and respect worthy enemies. I won't shoot at you." This was a victory for the principles of life, since the war burned his fate and could not burn his soul. For his enemies, Andrei was terrible and indestructible, and he appears completely different next to the little orphan Vanya, whom he met after the war. Sokolov was struck by the boy’s fate, since he himself had so much pain in his heart. Andrei decided to shelter this child, who did not even remember his own father, except for his leather coat. He becomes Vanya's own father - a caring, loving one, which he could no longer be for his children. An ordinary person - this is probably said too simplistically about the hero of the work; it would be more accurate to indicate - a full-fledged person, for whom life is internal harmony, which is based on truthful, pure and bright principles of life. Sokolov never stooped to opportunism, this was contrary to his nature, however, as a self-sufficient person, he had a sensitive and kind heart, and this did not add to the leniency, since he went through all the horrors of the war. But even after the experience, you won’t hear any complaints from him, only “...the heart is no longer in the chest, but in a gourd, and it becomes difficult to breathe.” Mikhail Sholokhov solved the problem of thousands of people - young and old - who became orphans after the war, having lost their loved ones. The main idea of the work is formed during the acquaintance with the main character - people should help each other in any trouble that happens on the path of life, this is precisely the real meaning of life.
(materials for discussion with students in grades 5-6).
Librarian's word:
June 22, 1941 is remembered by us as one of the most tragic days in the history of the country. On this day, Nazi Germany attacked the USSR without declaring war. A mortal danger looms over our Motherland.
The Red Army bravely met the enemy. Thousands of soldiers and commanders, at the cost of their own lives, tried to hold back the onslaught of the Nazis. But the forces were unequal.
In the first days of the war, the Nazis managed to destroy many of our aircraft. Many commanders and political workers have recently begun to command regiments, battalions, and divisions. And Stalin declared the experienced, most trained commanders of the Red Army, loyal to their country, enemies of the people. They were slandered and shot. Of the five marshals of the Soviet Union, three - A.I. Egorov, V.K. Blyukher, M.N. Tukhachevsky - were destroyed.
The Red Army did not have enough new types of equipment in service: tanks, airplanes, artillery pieces, machine guns. The Soviet Union has just begun to rearm our army and navy.
For these and some other reasons, Soviet troops suffered huge, unjustified losses.
In any war there are prisoners and missing in action. These are her inevitable companions.
By the end of 1941, 3.9 million soldiers and commanders of the Red Army were captured by Germans. By the spring of 1942, only a fourth of them remained alive.
Of course, the conditions that led the soldier to capture were different. As a rule, this was preceded by injury, physical exhaustion, and lack of ammunition. But everyone knew that voluntary surrender out of cowardice or cowardice was always recognized as a military crime. Almost everyone who was captured by fascists experienced a severe psychological blow in the tragic hour, which threw them from the ranks of Soviet soldiers into a defenseless mass of prisoners of war. Many of them preferred death to painful shame.
J.V. Stalin considered the prisoners traitors. Order No. 270, dated August 16, 1941, signed by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, called the prisoners deserters and traitors. The families of captured commanders and political workers were subject to arrest and exile, and the families of soldiers were deprived of government benefits and assistance.
The situation of the prisoners was aggravated by the fact that the USSR did not sign the Geneva Convention on the Humane Treatment of Prisoners of War, although it announced that it would comply with its main provisions, with the exception of the right to parcels and the exchange of named lists of prisoners. This gave Germany a reason not to comply with the provisions of the convention in relation to captured soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, who also could not receive any help from their homeland.
And the worst thing was that the test-filtration camp and SMERSH (Counterintelligence Directorate “Death to Spies”) were now waiting for those who came from captivity in their homeland,
Mikhail Alexandrovich refuses to recognize the prisoners as traitors. In 1956, he wrote the story “The Fate of Man,” in which he defends those who were captured.
The story tells the fate of a simple Russian soldier Andrei Sokolov. His life is correlated with the biography of the country, with the most important events in history. In May 1942 he was captured. In two years he traveled “half of Germany”, escaped from captivity, and lost his entire family during the war. After the war, meeting an orphan boy in a teahouse, Andrei adopted him.
In “The Fate of Man” the condemnation of war and fascism is not only in the story of Andrei Sokolov. It sounds with no less force in the story of Vanyusha. Humanity permeates this short story about a ruined childhood, a childhood that knew grief and separation so early. (We watch the film “The Fate of Man” either in its entirety or from the episode in the teahouse to the end).
Issues for discussion:
1. One of the Christian commandments says: “Thou shalt not kill,” but Andrei Sokolov killed, killed his own, Russian. Why did he do this?
- Read in the test from the words “I touched him with my hand...” to “... strangled the creeping reptile.”
2. What, in your opinion, is the essence of the confrontation between Andrei Sokolov and Commandant Mueller?
- Read from the words: “The commandant is pouring me…” to “... they didn’t turn it, no matter how hard they tried.”
3. What do we know about Vanyushka from the story?
- Read from the words “I ask: “Where is your father, Vanyushka?” to “Where you have to.”
4. Another Christian commandment says: “Do not bear false witness,” that is, do not lie, but Andrei Sokolov told a lie to Vanyushka that he was his father. Why did he do this? Are lies always bad?
- Separately they disappear, together they save each other. Vanyushka now has a father, support and hope, and Andrey now has the meaning of life.
Conclusion:
Almost half a century has passed since the story “The Fate of Man” was published. Farther and farther from us is the war, mercilessly grinding human lives, bringing so much grief and torment.
But every time we meet Sholokhov’s heroes, we are amazed at how generous the human heart is, how inexhaustible kindness is in it, the ineradicable need to protect and protect, even when, it would seem, there is nothing to think about.
Andrei Sokolov seemed to have never accomplished any feats. While at the front, “he was wounded twice, but both times only lightly.” But the chain of episodes created by the writer fully demonstrate the unostentatious courage, human pride and dignity that were so consistent with the whole appearance of this simple, ordinary person.
In the fate of Andrei Sokolov, everything good, peaceful, human came into battle with the terrible evil of fascism. A peaceful man turned out to be stronger than war.
It was in Andrei Sokolov’s attitude towards Vanyusha that victory was won over the anti-humanity of fascism, over destruction and loss - the inevitable companions of war.
The end of the story is preceded by the author’s leisurely reflection of a man who has seen and knows a lot in life: “And I would like to think that this Russian man, a man of unbending will, will endure and will grow up near his father’s shoulder, who, having matured, will be able to endure everything, everything overcome on his way if his homeland calls for it.”
This meditation is a glorification of courage, perseverance, a glorification of a man who withstood the blows of a military storm and endured the impossible.
List of used literature:
1. Big school encyclopedia. Literature.- M.: Slovo, 1999.- P. 826.
2. What is it? Who is this: In 3 volumes. - M.: Pedagogika-Press, 1992.- T.1.- P. 204-205.
3. Bangerskaya T. “Near my father’s shoulder...” - Family and school. - 1975. - No. 5. - P. 57-58.
4. Great Patriotic War. Figures and facts: Book. For students st. class and students.- M.: Education, 1995.- P. 90-96.
5. Encyclopedia for children. Vol. 5, part 3: History of Russia and its closest neighbors. XX century.- M.: Avanta+, 1998.- P. 494.
Illustrations:
1. Father and son. "The Fate of Man." Artist O. G. Vereisky // M. A. Sholokhov [Album] / Comp. S. N. Gromova, T. R. Kurdyumova. - M.: Education, 1982.
2. Andrey Sokolov. “The Fate of Man.” Artist P. N. Pinkisevich // M. A. Sholokhov [Album] / Comp. S. N. Gromova, T. R. Kurdyumova. - M.: Education, 1982.
Movies:
1. “The fate of man.” Artist movie. Dir. S. Bondarchuk. - Mosfilm, 1959.
M. A. Sholokhov. The fate of man: how it happened
(Literary investigation)
For working with readers aged 15-17 years
Participating in the investigation:
Presenter - librarian
Independent historian
Witnesses - literary heroes
Leading: 1956 On December 31, Pravda published the story “The Fate of a Man.” This story began a new stage in the development of our military literature. And here Sholokhov’s fearlessness and Sholokhov’s ability to show the era in all its complexity and in all its drama through the fate of one person played a role.
The main plot motif of the story is the fate of a simple Russian soldier Andrei Sokolov. His life, the same age as the century, is correlated with the biography of the country, with the most important events in history. In May 1942 he was captured. In two years he traveled “half of Germany” and escaped from captivity. During the war, he lost his entire family. After the war, having accidentally met an orphan boy, Andrei adopted him.
After “The Fate of Man,” omissions about the tragic events of the war, about the bitterness of captivity experienced by many Soviet people, became impossible. Soldiers and officers who were very loyal to their homeland and found themselves in a hopeless situation at the front were also captured, but they were often treated as traitors. Sholokhov's story, as it were, pulled back the veil from much that was hidden by the fear of offending the heroic portrait of Victory.
Let's go back to the years of the Great Patriotic War, to its most tragic period - 1942-1943. A word from an independent historian.
Historian: On August 16, 1941, Stalin signed order No. 270, which stated: “Commanders and political workers who surrender to the enemy during battle are considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest as families of those who violated the oath and betrayed their homeland. The order demanded that prisoners be destroyed by all “means, both ground and air, and that the families of Red Army soldiers who surrendered be deprived of state benefits and assistance.”
In 1941 alone, according to German data, 3 million 800 thousand were captured. Soviet military personnel. By the spring of 1942, 1 million 100 thousand people remained alive.
In total, out of approximately 6.3 million prisoners of war, about 4 million died during the war.
Leading: The Great Patriotic War ended, the victorious salvos died down, and the peaceful life of the Soviet people began. What was the future fate of people like Andrei Sokolov, who were captured or survived the occupation? How did our society treat such people?
Lyudmila Markovna Gurchenko testifies in her book “My Adult Childhood”.
(The girl testifies on behalf of L.M. Gurchenko).
Witness: Not only Kharkiv residents, but also residents of other cities began to return to Kharkov from evacuation. Everyone had to be provided with living space. Those who remained in the occupation were looked at askance. They were primarily moved from apartments and rooms on the floors to basements. We waited our turn.
In the classroom, the new arrivals declared a boycott of those who remained under the Germans. I didn’t understand anything: if I had been through so much, seen so many terrible things, on the contrary, they should understand me, feel sorry for me... I began to be afraid of people who looked at me with contempt and let me go: “shepherd dog.” Oh, if only they knew what a real German Shepherd is. If they had seen how a shepherd dog leads people straight into the gas chamber... these people would not have said that... When films and newsreels appeared on the screen, which showed the horrors of executions and massacres of Germans in the occupied territories, gradually this “disease” began to become a thing of the past .
Leading:... 10 years have passed since the victorious 45th year, Sholokhov’s war did not let go. He worked on the novel “They Fought for the Motherland” and the story “The Fate of a Man.”
According to literary critic V. Osipov, this story could not have been created at any other time. It began to be written when its author finally saw the light and realized: Stalin is not an icon for the people, Stalinism is Stalinism. As soon as the story came out, there was praise from almost every newspaper or magazine. Remarque and Hemingway responded - they sent telegrams. And to this day, not a single anthology of Soviet short stories can do without him.
Leading: You have read this story. Please share your impressions, what touched you about him, what left you indifferent?
(Answers from the guys)
Leading: There are two polar opinions about M.A.’s story. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man”: Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the writer from Alma-Ata Veniamin Larin. Let's listen to them.
(The young man testifies on behalf of A.I. Solzhenitsyna)
Solzhenitsyn A.I.:“The Fate of Man” is a very weak story, where the war pages are pale and unconvincing.
Firstly: the most non-criminal case of captivity was chosen - without memory, in order to make this undeniable, to circumvent the entire severity of the problem. (And if you gave up in memory, as was the case with the majority - what and how then?)
Secondly: the main problem is presented not in the fact that our homeland abandoned us, renounced us, cursed us (not a word about this from Sholokhov), and this is precisely what creates hopelessness, but in the fact that traitors were declared among us there...
Thirdly: a fantastic detective escape from captivity was created with a bunch of exaggerations so that the obligatory, unwavering procedure for those who came from captivity did not arise: “SMERSH-testing-filtration camp.”
Leading: SMERSH - what kind of organization is this? A word from an independent historian.
Historian: From the encyclopedia “The Great Patriotic War”: By the Decree of the State Defense Committee of April 14, 1943, the Main Counterintelligence Directorate “SMERSH” - “Death to Spies” was formed. The intelligence services of Nazi Germany tried to launch widespread subversive activities against the USSR. They created over 130 reconnaissance and sabotage agencies and about 60 special reconnaissance and sabotage schools on the Soviet-German front. Sabotage detachments and terrorists were thrown into the active Soviet Army. SMERSH agencies conducted an active search for enemy agents in areas of combat operations, in the locations of military installations, and ensured timely receipt of information about the dispatch of enemy spies and saboteurs. After the war, in May 1946, SMERSH bodies were transformed into special departments and subordinated to the USSR Ministry of State Security.”
Leading: And now the opinion of Veniamin Larin.
(Young man on behalf of V. Larin)
Larin V.: Sholokhov's story is exalted only for one theme of a soldier's feat. But literary critics with such an interpretation kill - safely for themselves - the true meaning of the story. Sholokhov’s truth is broader and does not end with victory in the battle with the fascist captivity machine. They pretend that the big story has no continuation: like a big state, big power belongs to a small person, albeit a great one in spirit. Sholokhov is torn from his heart by a revelation: look, readers, how the authorities treat people - slogans, slogans, and what the hell care about people! Captivity cut a man to pieces. But there, in captivity, even mutilated, he remained faithful to his country, and returned? Nobody needs! Orphan! And with the boy there are two orphans... Grains of Sand... And not only under a military hurricane. But Sholokhov is great - he was not tempted by a cheap turn of the topic: he did not invest his hero with either pitiful pleas for sympathy or curses addressed to Stalin. I saw in my Sokolov the eternal essence of the Russian person - patience and perseverance.
Leading: Let's turn to the works of writers who write about captivity, and with their help we will recreate the atmosphere of the difficult war years.
(The hero of the story “The Road to the Father’s House” by Konstantin Vorobyev testifies)
Partisan's story: I was taken prisoner near Volokolamsk in '41, and although sixteen years have passed since then, and I remained alive, and divorced my family, and all that stuff, I don’t know how to tell about how I spent the winter in captivity: I don’t have Russian words for this. No!
The two of us escaped from the camp, and over time a whole detachment of us, former prisoners, was assembled. Klimov... restored our military ranks to all of us. You see, you were, let’s say, a sergeant before you were captured, and you still remain one. You were a soldier - be one to the end!
It used to happen...you destroy an enemy truck with bombs, and the soul in you immediately seems to straighten out, and something there rejoices - now I’m not fighting for myself alone, as in the camp! Let’s defeat this bastard, we’ll definitely finish it, and that’s how you get to this place before victory, that is, just stop!
And then, after the war, a questionnaire will be required immediately. And there will be one small question - were you in captivity? In place, this question is just for a one-word answer “yes” or “no.”
And to the one who hands you this questionnaire, it doesn’t matter at all what you did during the war, but what matters is where you were! Oh, in captivity? So... Well, you know what it means. In life and in truth, this situation should have been quite the opposite, but here you go!...
Let me say briefly: exactly three months later we joined a large partisan detachment.
I will tell you another time about how we acted until the arrival of our army. Yes, I don’t think it matters. The important thing is that we not only turned out to be alive, but also entered the human system, that we again turned into fighters, and we remained Russian people in the camps.
Leading: Let's listen to the confession of the partisan and Andrei Sokolov.
Partisan: You were, say, a sergeant before your capture - and remain one. You were a soldier - be one to the end.
Andrey Sokolov: That's why you're a man, that's why you're a soldier, to endure everything, to endure everything, if need calls for it.
For both one and the other, war is hard work that must be done conscientiously, giving one’s all.
Leading: Major Pugachev testifies from the story by V. Shalamov “The Last Battle of Major Pugachev”
Reader: Major Pugachev remembered the German camp from which he escaped in 1944. The front was approaching the city. He worked as a truck driver inside a huge cleaning camp. He remembered how he sped up the truck and knocked down the single-strand barbed wire, tearing out hastily placed poles. Shots of sentries, screams, frantic driving around the city in different directions, an abandoned car, driving at night to the front line and meeting - interrogation in a special department. Charged with espionage, sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Vlasov's emissaries arrived, but he did not believe them until he himself reached the Red Army units. Everything that the Vlasovites said was true. He wasn't needed. The authorities were afraid of him.
Leading: Having listened to the testimony of Major Pugachev, you involuntarily note: his story is straightforward - confirmation of Larin’s rightness: “He was there, in captivity, even mangled, he remained faithful to his country, and returned?.. No one needs him! Orphan!"
Sergeant Alexey Romanov, a former school history teacher from Stalingrad, the real hero of Sergei Smirnov’s story “The Path to the Motherland” from the book “Heroes of the Great War,” testifies.
(The reader testifies on behalf of A. Romanov)
Alexey Romanov: In the spring of 1942, I ended up in the international camp Feddel, on the outskirts of Hamburg. There, in the port of Hamburg, we were prisoners and worked unloading ships. The thought of escaping did not leave me for a minute. My friend Melnikov and I decided to run away, thought out an escape plan, frankly speaking, a fantastic plan. Escape from the camp, enter the port, hide on a Swedish ship and sail with it to one of the ports of Sweden. From there you can get to England with a British ship, and then with some caravan of allied ships come to Murmansk or Arkhangelsk. And then again pick up a machine gun or a machine gun and, at the front, pay off the Nazis for everything that they had to endure in captivity over the years.
On December 25, 1943, we escaped. We were just lucky. Miracle managed to move to the other side of the Elbe, to the port where the Swedish ship was docked. We climbed into the hold with coke, and in this iron coffin, without water, without food, we sailed to our homeland, and for this we were ready to do anything, even death. I woke up a few days later in a Swedish prison hospital: it turned out that we had been discovered by workers unloading coke. The doctor was called. Melnikov was already dead, but I survived. I began to strive to be sent to my homeland, and ended up with Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai. She helped me return home in 1944.
Leading: Before we continue our conversation, a word from the historian. What do the numbers tell us about the future fate of former prisoners of war?
Historian: From the book “The Great Patriotic War. Figures and facts." Those who returned from captivity after the war (1 million 836 thousand people) were sent: more than 1 million people - for further service in units of the Red Army, 600 thousand - to work in industry as part of work battalions, and 339 thousand ( including some civilians) as having compromised themselves in captivity - to NKVD camps.
Leading: War is a continent of cruelty. It is sometimes impossible to protect hearts from the madness of hatred, bitterness, and fear in captivity and blockade. Man is literally brought to the gates of the Last Judgment. Sometimes it is more difficult to endure, to live life in war, surrounded, than to endure death.
What is common in the destinies of our witnesses, what makes their souls related? Are the reproaches addressed to Sholokhov fair?
(We listen to the guys’ answers)
Perseverance, tenacity in the struggle for life, the spirit of courage, camaraderie - these qualities come from the tradition of Suvorov’s soldier, they were sung by Lermontov in “Borodino”, Gogol in the story “Taras Bulba”, they were admired by Leo Tolstoy. Andrei Sokolov has all this, the partisan from Vorobyov’s story, Major Pugachev, Alexei Romanov.
Remaining human in war is not just about surviving and “killing him” (i.e. the enemy). This is to keep your heart for good. Sokolov went to the front as a man, and remained so after the war.
Reader: The story on the theme of the tragic destinies of prisoners is the first in Soviet literature. Written in 1955! So why is Sholokhov deprived of the literary and moral right to begin the topic this way and not otherwise?
Solzhenitsyn reproaches Sholokhov for writing not about those who “surrendered” into captivity, but about those who were “trapped” or “captured.” But he did not take into account that Sholokhov could not do otherwise:
Brought up on Cossack traditions. It was no coincidence that he defended Kornilov’s honor before Stalin by the example of escaping from captivity. And in fact, since ancient times of battle, people first of all give sympathy not to those who “surrendered”, but to those who were “captured” due to irresistible hopelessness: injury, encirclement, lack of weapons, betrayal by a commander or betrayal rulers;
He took upon himself the political courage to give up his authority in order to protect from political stigma those who were honest in the performance of military duty and male honor.
Maybe Soviet reality is embellished? Sholokhov’s last lines about the wretches Sokolov and Vanyushka began like this: “With heavy sadness I looked after them...”.
Maybe Sokolov’s behavior in captivity has been embellished? There are no such reproaches.
Leading: Now it is easy to analyze the words and actions of the author. Or maybe it’s worth thinking about: was it easy for him to live his own life? How easy was it for an artist who couldn’t, didn’t have time to say everything he wanted, and, of course, could have said? Subjectively he could (he had enough talent, courage, and material!), but objectively he could not (the time, the era, were such that it was not published, and therefore not written...) How often, how much has our Russia lost at all times: uncreated sculptures, unwritten paintings and books, who knows, maybe the most talented...Great Russian artists were born at the wrong time - either early or late - undesirable to the rulers.
In “Conversation with Father,” M.M. Sholokhov conveys the words of Mikhail Alexandrovich in response to criticism from a reader, a former prisoner of war who survived Stalin’s camps: “What do you think, I don’t know what happened in captivity or after it? What, I don’t know the extreme degrees of human baseness, cruelty, meanness? Or do you think that, knowing this, I am being mean to myself?... How much skill is needed to tell people the truth..."
Could Mikhail Alexandrovich have kept silent about many things in his story? - I could! Time has taught him to remain silent and not say anything: an intelligent reader will understand everything, guess everything.
Many years have passed since, by the will of the writer, more and more new readers meet the heroes of this story. They think. They are sad. They're crying. And they are surprised at how generous the human heart is, how inexhaustible the kindness is in it, the ineradicable need to protect and protect, even when, it would seem, there is nothing to think about.
Literature:
1. Biryukov F.S. Sholokhov: To help teachers, high school students and applicants. -M.: Publishing house Mosk. University, 1998.
2. Zhukov I. The hand of fate: Truth and lies about M. Sholokhov and A. Fadeev. -M.: Sunday, 1994
3. Osipov V.O. The secret life of Mikhail Sholokhov: Doc. chronicle without legends - M.: Liberia, Raritet, 1985.
4. Petelin V.V. Life of Sholokhov. The tragedy of the Russian genius. “Immortal names.” - M.: ZAO Publishing House Tsentrpoligraf, 2002. - 895 p.
5. Russian literature of the 20th century: A manual for high school students, applicants and students. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house. House "Neva", 1998.
6. Chalmaev V.A. Remain human in war: Front-line pages of Russian prose of the 60-90s. To help teachers, high school students and applicants. M.: Publishing house. Moscow University, 1998
7. Sholokhova S.M. The execution plan: On the history of an unwritten story // Peasant. - 1995. - No. 8. - February.
The fate of man in war