Composition on the theme of a man in the war. Argument-essay on the topic "man at war" based on literary works In military prose

man at war

(According to one of the works of modern literature.)

The Great Patriotic War was the most difficult of the wars that our people had to endure in their centuries-old history. The war was the greatest test and test of the strength of the people, and our people passed this test with honor. The war was also a most serious test for all Soviet literature, which during the days of the war showed the whole world that it does not and cannot have interests higher than the interests of the people.

Remarkable works were written by M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, A. Tolstoy, K. Simonov, A. Tvardovsky and many other writers.

A special place among the works of the period of the Great Patriotic War is occupied by M. Sholokhov's story "The Science of Hatred", published in June 1942.

In this story, the author shows how the feeling of love for the Motherland and the people matures and grows stronger in the Soviet people, how contempt and hatred for the enemy ripens. The writer creates a typical image of a participant in the war - Lieutenant Gerasimov, in which he embodies the best features of the warring Soviet people.

Sholokhov in his previous works painted amazing pictures of Russian nature, which he never had as a background for action, but always helped to reveal deeper and more fully the human character, the psychological experiences of the characters.

The story begins with a description of nature. Already with the first phrase, Sholokhov brings man closer to nature and, as it were, emphasizes that she did not remain indifferent to the hard struggle that began: “In war, trees, like people, each have their own destiny.” In this story, the image of an oak crippled by a shell, which, despite the gaping wound, continues to live, has a symbolic meaning: “The torn, gaping hole withered half of the tree, but the other half, bent by a gap to the water, miraculously came to life in the spring and covered with fresh foliage. And to this day, probably, the lower branches of the crippled oak are bathed in flowing water, and the upper ones are still greedily attracting juicy tight leaves to the sun ... "The oak, broken by a shell, but retaining its vital juices, makes it possible to better reveal and understand the character of the main character of the lieutenant's story Gerasimov.

Already the first acquaintance of readers with the hero allows us to conclude that this is a courageous person with great willpower, who has endured a lot and changed his mind.

Viktor Gerasimov is a hereditary worker. Before the war, he worked at one of the factories in Western Siberia. He was drafted into the army in the first months of the war. The whole family tasks him with fighting enemies until victory.

From the very beginning of the war, the working man Gerasimov was seized by a feeling of hatred for the enemy, who destroyed the peaceful life of the people and plunged the country into the abyss of a bloody war.

At first, the Red Army soldiers treated the captured Germans kindly, called them "comrades", treated them to cigarettes, fed them from their bowlers. Then Sholokhov shows how our fighters and commanders went through a kind of school of hatred during the war with the Nazis.

Terrible traces of fascist rule were found by our troops, who drove the Nazis out of the temporarily occupied territory. It is impossible to read descriptions of the monstrous atrocities of the enemies without a shudder: “... Villages burned to the ground, hundreds of women, children, old people shot to the ground, mutilated corpses of captured Red Army soldiers, raped and brutally murdered women, girls and teenage girls ...” These atrocities shocked the fighters who understood that fascists are not people, but fanatics who have become rabid from blood.

Heavy, inhuman trials fell to the lot of Lieutenant Gerasimov, who was taken prisoner. Describing the behavior of the hero in captivity, the writer reveals new character traits inherent in the Russian people. Wounded, having lost a lot of blood, Gerasimov retains his dignity and is full of contempt and hatred for the enemy.

One desire possesses the lieutenant - not to die. In the column of prisoners, barely moving his legs, he thinks about escaping. Great joy covers Gerasimov and makes him forget about thirst and physical suffering when the Nazis do not find his party card, this gives him courage and stamina in the most difficult days of captivity.

The story depicts a camp in which the Germans kept prisoners, where “they were subjected to the most severe torments, where there was no latrine and people defecate here and stood and lay in the mud and in an ominous slush. The weakest did not get up at all. Water and food were provided once a day. Some day they completely forgot to give something ... ”But no atrocities, writes Sholokhov, could break the mighty spirit in the Russian man, extinguish the stubborn thirst for revenge.

The lieutenant endured a lot, many times he looked death in the eyes, and death itself, defeated by the courage of this man, receded. “The Nazis could kill us, unarmed and exhausted from hunger, they could torture us, but they could not break our spirit, and they never will!” This stubbornness of the Russian people and indestructible courage helped Gerasimov to escape from captivity. The lieutenant was picked up by the partisans. For two weeks he recuperated, participated with them in military operations.

Then he was transferred to the rear, to the hospital. After treatment, he soon goes back to the front.

“The Science of Hatred” ends with Gerasimov’s words about hatred and love: “... And they learned to fight for real, and hate, and love. On such a touchstone as war, all feelings are perfectly honed ... I hate the Germans heavily for everything they have done to my Motherland and me personally, and at the same time I love my people with all my heart and do not want them to have to suffer under the German yoke. This is what makes me, and all of us, fight with such ferocity, it is these two feelings, embodied in action, that will lead to victory for us.

The image of Lieutenant Gerasimov is one of the first generalizing images in the literature of the period of the Great Patriotic War.

The peculiarity of his character lies in the fact that he always feels like the son of the people, the son of the Motherland. It is this feeling of belonging to the great army of the Russian people, the feeling of selfless love for their Motherland and responsibility for its fate that gives Gerasimov the strength not only to endure all the horrors of captivity, but also to flee in order to rejoin the ranks of the avengers for all the atrocities that the Nazis brought to our country. .

And quite convincingly given in the story is a comparison of the lieutenant's fate with the fate of a mighty oak, crippled by a shell, but retaining strength and the will to live. And how majestically beautiful is the image of a Russian person who has gone through the hard trials that have fallen to his lot, and who has retained an inexhaustible faith in victory and the desire to continue the war until the victorious defeat of fascism!

Bibliography

For the preparation of this work, materials from the site http://www.coolsoch.ru/ were used.

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Many books have been written about the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. K. Simonov, B. Vasiliev, V. Bykov, V. Astafiev, V. Rasputin, Y. Bondarev and many others addressed the topic of “man at war”. At the same time, it is impossible not to mention that this topic was also touched upon before them, because there were many wars in the history of Russia, and all of them were reflected in literary works. The war of 1812 - in the novel by L. N. Tolstoy "War and Peace", the First World War and the Civil War - in the novel by M. Sholokhov "Quiet Don". These two authors are characterized by a peculiar approach to the theme of "man in war". Tolstoy considers mainly the psychological side of the phenomenon, both from the point of view of the Russian soldier and from the side of the enemy. Sholokhov, on the other hand, gives an image of the civil war through the eyes of the White Guards, that is, in fact, enemies.

But usually the theme “man at war” means precisely the Great Patriotic War. One of the first works about the Second World War that comes to mind is the poem "Vasily Terkin" by A. T. Tvardovsky. The hero of the poem is a simple Russian soldier. His image is the embodiment of all soldiers, all their qualities and character traits. The poem is a series of sketches: Terkin in battle, Terkin in hand-to-hand combat with a German soldier, Terkin in the hospital, Terkin on vacation. All this adds up to a single picture of front-line life. Terkin, being a "simple guy", nevertheless, performs feats, but not for the sake of glory and honors, but for the sake of fulfilling his duty. Endowing Terkin with many endearing features of the Russian national character, Tvardovsky emphasizes that this man is only a reflection of the people. Not Terkin performs feats, but the whole people.

If Tvardovsky unfolds before us a broad picture of the war, then Yuri Bondarev, for example, in his stories (“Battalions ask for fire”, “Last salvos”) is limited to describing one battle and a very short period of time. At the same time, the battle itself does not have much significance - this is just one of the innumerable battles for the next settlement. The same Tvardovsky said about this:

Let that fight not be mentioned

Gold on the glory list.

The day will come - still will rise

People in living memory.

It doesn't matter if the fight is local or general. It is important how a person will show himself in it. Yuri Bondarev writes about this. His heroes are young people, almost boys, who got to the front straight from the school bench or from the student audience. But war makes a person more mature, immediately ages him. Recall Dmitry Novikov - the main character of the story "The Last Volleys". After all, he is very young, so young that he himself is embarrassed by this, and many envy him that at such a young age he achieved such military successes. Indeed, it is unnatural to be so young and have such powers: to control not only actions, but also the fate of people, their life and death.

Bondarev himself said that a person in war finds himself in an unnatural position, since war itself is an unnatural way of resolving conflicts. But, nevertheless, being placed in such conditions, Bondarev's heroes show the best human qualities: nobility, courage, determination, honesty, steadfastness. Therefore, we feel pity when the hero of The Last Volleys, Novikov, dies, having just found love, having felt life. But the writer just tries to affirm the idea that victory is paid for by such sacrifices. A lot of people put their lives on the fact that the Victory Day still came.

And there are writers who have a completely different approach to the topic of war. For example, Valentin Rasputin. In the story "Live and Remember" it is the war that drives the development of the plot. But it seems to pass by, only indirectly influencing the fate of the heroes. In the story "Live and Remember" we will not find descriptions of battles, like those of Tvardovsky or Bondarev. Here another theme is touched upon - the theme of betrayal. Indeed, deserters existed in the Great Patriotic War, as in any other, and we cannot close our eyes to this. Andrei Guskov arbitrarily leaves the front, thereby forever separating himself from the people, because he betrayed his people, his homeland. Yes, he remains to live, but his life has been bought at too high a price: he will never again be able to openly, with his head held high, enter the house of his parents. He cut off this path for himself. Moreover, he cut it off for his wife Nastena. She cannot enjoy Victory Day with other residents of Atamanovka, because her husband is not a hero, not an honest soldier, but a deserter. This is what gnaws at Iasten and tells her the last way out - to rush to the Angara.

A woman in war is even more unnatural than a man. A woman should be a mother, a wife, but not a soldier. But, unfortunately, many women in the Great Patriotic War had to wear military uniforms and go into battle on a par with men. This is stated in Boris Vasiliev's story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” Five girls who would have to study at the institute, flirt, nurse children, find themselves face to face with the enemy. All five die, and all five are heroic, but, nevertheless, what they did all together is a feat. They died, putting their young lives in order to bring victory just a little closer. Should there be a woman in the war? Probably yes, because if a woman feels that she is obliged to protect her home from the enemy on an equal basis with men, then it would be wrong to interfere with her. Such sacrifices are cruel but necessary. In the end, not only a woman in war is an unnatural phenomenon. In general, a person in war is unnatural.

Asanalieva Nurgul Chyntemirovna
(MKOU Paninskaya secondary school)

Man at war and the truth about him
(Based on materials from the prose of K.D. Vorobyov)

In recent years, disputes have not ceased about how and why to teach literature today, what is the social order for a subject that at all times - both in pre-revolutionary and Soviet history - remained the main ideological subject. There is every reason for a comprehensive discussion of the current state of school teaching of literature at the present moment. Subordinate to passing the Unified State Examination, the subject ceased to fulfill its most important role - educational, ceased to form the consciousness of the student, his ideological position.
Reflection on a book as a process of internal development is complex and requires the student to do serious work of the soul, time to overcome age and psychological barriers. Therefore, interest in the book in the school audience is manifested only when we “think, listen, read”
The highest level of artistic perception of a work of literature is achieved if the reader comprehends life phenomena captured in artistic images with his soul and mind, sees the features of the author's style, experiences the fullness of the aesthetic feeling and draws moral conclusions for himself.
“When passing on a literary work to the mind and heart of a student, we must remember that literature is an art”
The unity of the analytical and emotional in reading activity is an extremely complex process, and it is not easy to achieve this in practice. Thus, there is a need for the teacher to organize the educational process in order to establish spiritual contact between the student and the author.
The most “rewarding” literary material, which allows the teacher to organize the field of perception, emotional interaction with the text, but at the same time requires a lot of analytical work, is literature about the Great Patriotic War.
The works of Soviet writers are studied in the 11th grade, when the age and analytical skills of the students "coincide" with the objectives of the study.
Literature about the war seeks to comprehend the moral experience of the past. The feat of our people in the Great Patriotic War is “the moral capital from which new generations draw spiritual strength”, but the war is also closely connected with modernity, since it sees answers to many questions of today.
Since the 1960s, literature has been able to fully embrace the war both as a stage in the life of the people and as a significant phenomenon in the history of all mankind. It was during these years that a number of writers appeared who chose the theme of war as the main theme of their work (Yu. Bondarev, G. Baklanov, V. Bykov, A. Adamovich, V. Astafiev, K. Vorobyov)
The view of the war, declared by military prose (60-90), demanded that writers take a closer look at a person in war, show him in a difficult psychological situation. Recent lieutenants, who became writers, introduced a special psychologism into the development of the theme, depicted human destinies in their contradictory complexity, and used a special system of details to create pictures of the war. The books of these authors have enriched the literature with the experience of the experienced. I take the works of K.D. Vorobyov for analytical reading, since they are small in volume (tales, stories), but capacious in terms of artistic content.
In the 1960s and 1990s, in literature addressing the experience of the Great Patriotic War, attention to universal values ​​increased: conscience, kindness, justice. The special humanism of military prose manifested itself in the recognition of the incompatibility of wars with the ideals of human society, although at the same time military prose revealed the essence of fascism, the inevitability of an armed struggle against it.
The war, as its writers quite correctly understood and showed, was a continuation of the life of the Soviet man in other, emergency conditions. It is not able to change the moral foundations of life. Neither conscience nor faith are opposed to military reality. They coexist in it.
The object of close attention of the authors is an individual person. The hero acts as both an observer and a participant in events, which makes it possible to show the peculiarity of the conflict without going beyond one human destiny.
The storyline of the fate of the hero K. Vorobyov begins with the recognition of the world. Before the outbreak of hostilities, he is in unity with the surrounding reality, in which everything is harmonious. When the “Junkers” (“Killed near Moscow”) appeared, “the company clung to the ground undressed by November in agreement, and everyone fell face down, but still someone certainly saw that death had flown by, and it was announced every time boyish, sonorous and almost joyful” (147) “Ahead - and already not far away - there should be a front. He was depicted by the cadets as a visible and majestic structure made of reinforced concrete, fire and human flesh, and all of them went not to him, but to him in order to populate and revive one of his temporarily silent bastions ”(148).
The object of close attention of the author is an individual person. He himself is a part of a whole and holistic view in his view of the world, and agreement with the world only emphasizes
eternity of life. Death is depicted in his imagination as something indefinite, having nothing to do with him, but necessarily pictorial and heroic: “you need to fall face up, and not down and not on your side, and you need to scatter your arms, not twist, and spread your legs too, so that the toes of the boots stood straight” (“Scream” (138)). A trench dug in full profile evokes the thought of home warmth and comfort, not at all resembling a grave: “all this (trench - A.N.) was done with that concentrated diligence that completely eliminates the feeling of anxiety and danger. Apparently, that is why the trench did not look like it should be in the war: there was something secretly peaceful and almost frivolous in it ”(156).
And yet the hero's consciousness is sensitive to the discrepancy between the a priori idea of ​​the war and the real picture that appeared before his eyes. “The Germans were moving forward uncontrollably, towards Moscow ... This was, of course, true, because Stalin himself spoke about this. That's about it, but only once, last summer. And the fact that we will hit the enemy only on his territory, that the fire salvo of our any unit is several times superior to someone else's - about this and much, much more, unshakable and impregnable, Alexei - a graduate of the Red Army - knew from ten years. And in his soul there was no place where the incredible reality of war would lie down ”(152 - 153). The hero for some time resists the revealed truth, which does not coincide with the official myths, but already the first battle destroys this duality, destroys the illusory nature of romantic ideas about war and introduces into the hero’s consciousness a feeling of bitterness and loss of that naive-childish faith, for which there is no basis.
The first battle becomes the beginning of a soldier's journey in the war. However, personal experience is in connection with the common destiny of the people. And here everyone chooses his own path. A trench with communication passages “to the church, to the cemetery and to the empty cowshed” (152) serves as a kind of metaphor for war, denoting possible options for the fate of a person in war. The long stone structure of the cowshed, from which one smelled of “serum, urine and swamp”, recalls captivity, “an abandoned cemetery behind a thick brick wall” is a sign of the tragic essence of war, which brings destruction to all living things. And above all this, the “church without a cross” rises as a sign of a common misfortune for all. ("Killed near Moscow")
War inevitably leads to death, and yet the church acts as a sign of a common faith, not destroyed by years of hard times, a faith that "went somewhere to the underworld" - symbolically - into the very depths of the people's idea of ​​the meaning of being. The exit to immortality can mean only one thing - the victory of the human principle over the inhumanity of war.
K. Vorobyov immediately highlights the main problem: the conflict from a private and age-related (inexperience of young fighters) develops into a more significant one. The complexity of the struggle and victory over the enemy for a soldier lies in the fact that it was necessary to defeat the enemy within himself. The author shows how the hero forms himself in accordance not with official, but with folk experience. A person who has gained independence, achieved moral freedom, is able to resist lack of spirituality, violence, in whatever form they may take.
In the finale, the shell of ignorance is torn away from the hero and, suffocating from a sudden discovery, a new person bursts into life, with a different knowledge of life than before. The hero did not forget anything from the past, did not forgive himself for ignorance and mistakes, but, having chosen an independent path once and for all, he gained the right to fulfill the duty of a soldier, defender of the Motherland.
An important conceptual role is played by the finale of the story “Killed near Moscow”. Alexei must enter into an unequal battle with a fascist tank. The tank personifies a soulless force, a mechanical expression of the essence of war, a passionless and therefore hostile to human nature generation. “There were a few meters left to the tank,” Alexei now clearly distinguished the steep slope of his forehead, the streams of polished caterpillar tracks flowing in streams and, again painfully acutely feeling the presence of his childhood here, forgetting all the words he had acquired without his grandfather Matvey, piercingly, but no one heard shouted: “I’m to you, damn your mother! I’ll tell you now” (199).
Alexei emerged victorious from the unequal battle, because he had to survive, because now he has something to keep. The experience of grandfather Matvey, Captain Ryumin, became links of the nation's fate, of that unity that contains the concept of the Motherland. Feeling personal responsibility for what is happening, the hero rose to the understanding of the highest value of being, which asserted the right to life of all things. In the unity of the living, natural, human world, those values ​​are developed that from time immemorial have helped a person to survive. The personality, having inherited the experience of generations, having mastered it as the basic rule of life, receives the right to represent the people, Russia
You can fight and win a war if you oppose a war-machine with a different system of values. This can be done by a person who is free from ideological dogmas and has absorbed the experience of folk life, which helps the hero to survive not only physically, but also spiritually.

Bibliography:
1. Rybnikova M.A. Essays on the Methods of Literary Reading: A Teacher's Guide, M., 1985, p. 39
2. K.D. Vorobyov. Collected works in 3 volumes. T1. Tale / Compiled by V.V. Vorobyov; - M .: Sovremennik, 1991. - 479 p. Here and below citations are from this edition.

The school curriculum includes works of military prose. Students discuss and analyze books by Soviet writers. And then they write an essay on the topic “A Man in War”. What sources can be used to complete this creative task?

"Killed near Moscow"

One of the works on the basis of which teachers recommend writing an essay on the topic “A Man at War” is the story of Konstantin Vorobyov. "Killed near Moscow" is one of the famous books telling about the defense of the Soviet capital in 1941.

The main character of the story is Alexei Yastrebov. The lieutenant courageously and selflessly fights against the German invaders. The author realistically and accurately described the situation at the front in the first period of the war. The appearance of the soldiers, their way of life is authentically conveyed. It is not easy to fight for the Motherland when there are not enough machine guns, and there are only grenades, bottles of gasoline and self-loading rifles. The hero of Vorobyov's story is disgusted and afraid, going to the German. He is the same person after all...

Vorobyov's book shows not only a feat, but also simple human emotions: fear, cowardice. Yastrebov encounters both heroes and deserters. An essay on the topic “Human Behavior in War” requires preparation, that is, reading various works of Russian literature.

Of course, eyewitnesses and participants in the Second World War can say the best about the events of 1941-1945. Konstantin Vorobyov went through the war. He was shell-shocked, escaped from captivity twice. Soviet critics called the book "Killed near Moscow" slanderous. There was too much truth and little pathos in it. An essay on the topic “A Man at War” should be written precisely under the impression of such honest, reliable works.

"Sashka"

The story of Kondratiev shows the war through the eyes of a young man from a simple Moscow family. The culminating event in the book is the moment when the hero is faced with a choice: to fulfill the order of the commander or remain a man, but go to the tribunal.

Kondratiev depicted in some detail the details of military life. A pack of concentrate, sour potatoes, stale cakes - all these are components of front-line life. But as already mentioned, it is the culmination of the story that will help in the fulfillment of such a creative task as an essay on the topic “A Man at War”.

At the front, time passed catastrophically rapidly. Military events carried away a person, sometimes leaving him no choice. By order of the battalion commander, Sasha must shoot the prisoner - the same as he is, a young soldier.

An essay-reasoning on the topic “A Man at War” is written based on various works of military prose. However, in Kondratiev's story, as nowhere else, the doubts of the Soviet soldier are shown. If Sashka shoots a German, he will betray his moral convictions. If he refuses, he will become a traitor in the eyes of fellow soldiers.

Sotnikov

The theme of war occupies a central place in the works of the writer touched upon such issues as conscience, loyalty to one's duty. However, above all, he was interested in the theme of heroism. And not its external manifestation, but the way in which the soldier comes to him. An essay on the topic “The feat of a man in a war” should be written after reading the story “Sotnikov”.

A long life in a peaceful, calm time sometimes does not give a person the opportunity to find out who he is - a hero or a coward. War puts everything in its place. It leaves no room for doubt. The disclosure of this complex philosophical topic is a characteristic feature of Bykov's work. That is why an essay on the topic “War in a Man’s Life” should be written based on one of the works of the Soviet classic.

"And the dawns here are quiet"

This story is unique in some way. War is an anti-human phenomenon. But its deadly essence is perceived as especially terrible in contrast to the female fate. It is perhaps impossible to write an essay on the topic “War in the fate of a person” without mentioning Vasilyev’s story. In the book “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” the author conveyed the absurdity of such a phenomenon as a woman in war.

The heroines of the story are just beginning to live. Motherhood - their main purpose in life - only one of them managed to know. Young anti-aircraft gunners from Vasiliev's story die defending their homeland. They are doing a feat. But each of them had their own hopes and dreams.

The key point in the book is the description of the last minutes of Zhenya Kamelkova's life. The girl leads the Germans away, realizes that death is already near, and suddenly realizes how stupid and ridiculous it is to die at eighteen.

The story of the death of anti-aircraft gunners in the Karelian forests helps to comprehend the horror of war for children and adolescents born more than half a century after the Great Victory. Therefore, one should read Vasiliev's book not only before writing an essay on a given topic.

"Not listed"

Millions of stories about military exploits are told by eyewitnesses. So many - consigned to oblivion. During the war, about twenty-five million Soviet people died. And the worst thing is that not everyone knows about the fate of everyone. In the story “He was not on the lists,” the author spoke about a man whose name is unknown. He fought in the early days of the war. He spent almost a year in the Brest Fortress. He received no letters from home, and his name is not engraved on one of the mass graves, of which there are monstrously many in our country. But he was.

"Alive and Dead"

Simonov's trilogy is another item on the list of must-have literature about the war. This writer is the founder of a panoramic novel about the Second World War. "The Living and the Dead" is a book that is distinguished by its breadth of coverage, the depiction of various destinies. A man at war is the central theme of Simonov's novel. But the merit of this writer was not only the depiction of people in the tragic period of national history. The author of The Living and the Dead tried to answer such questions: what was the reason for the failure of the Soviet army in the first years of the war, how did the cult of Stalin affect human destinies?

"Cursed and Killed"

Astafiev spoke about the military events years later. The book "Cursed and Killed" was created in the early nineties. This work is a kind of look into the past. However, the brightness and authenticity of the picture of wartime, despite the prescription of years, are present in the book. The author plunges the reader into an atmosphere of cold, hunger, fear and disease. Modern schoolchildren should have the right idea about the war. After all, its components are not only a feat and courage. Astafiev's book is not easy to read, but necessary.

"Destiny of Man"

Modern critics question the authenticity of Sholokhov's story. As you know, the Soviet soldier after being in captivity did not have the opportunity to hope for indulgence. According to many historical data, the hero of the story "The Fate of a Man" could be shot in the very first days of returning to his own. But Sokolov survived after escaping.

Despite the obvious unreliability and, as the writer and former dissident A. Solzhenitsyn put it, "falsehood", Sholokhov's book has a high literary value. You should definitely read it before writing a written work.

With extraordinary tragedy, the theme of the war is revealed in Sholokhov's The Fate of Man. An essay can be written on the basis of the second part of the work. It shows the aftermath of the war. After all, it does not end after the announcement of victory. Its consequences are felt by the combatants, and even their children.

To prepare for writing an essay, it is also recommended to familiarize yourself with the works of Bondarev, Grossman, Adamovich.

Vasil Bykov is one of the most prominent Russian writers who, over the course of many years of creative work, remained faithful to the theme of war. He writes only about the war, not knowing fatigue and as if afraid not to have time to tell the reader how disastrously the war affected the souls of people.
Vasil Bykov, like Yuri Bondarev, Georgy Baklanov, is one of the front-line writers who knew firsthand what the front and the front line are. Bykov fought until the end of the war on the Southwestern Front. And, in fact, he did not have to invent anything about her in his books. He bore all the hardships of the war on his own shoulders. It was an experience, passionately and deeply experienced.
“I can’t get rid of the thought,” Ch. Aitmatov wrote, “that fate saved Vasil Bykov for us so that, having gone through the crucible of war, having fully suffered the bitter hard times of partisan Belarus, he would say in post-war literature his innermost, unique, full of merciless truth and filial pain, a word on behalf of all those then eighteen-year-olds who, perhaps, had the most difficult - a tragic and heroic fate.
Bykov wrote about the war as it was - in suffering and blood. He wrote about people who, under the conditions of this war, behaved differently, showing both cowardice and heroism. Perhaps it is in this aspect that Bykov is most interesting to us. It is interesting in that it shows the logic of human behavior in an extreme situation, exposes its inner spiritual confrontation. This allows the writer to deeply understand the people's, human truth about the war.
In early military prose ("Front Page", "Trap", "Crane Cry", "Third Rocket") Bykov is far from textbook gloss in showing military events, far from showing false heroism, false feelings. His heroes amaze with the truth of their characters, the reliability of relationships. They believe that they are not dying in vain, that the enemy will still be stopped. Sergeant-major Karpenko, scientist Fisher, Vanka Svist perish with weapons in their hands, holding the defense at the crossing ("Crane cry"). Seriously wounded Ivan Shcherbak commits suicide. to enable his comrade to escape from the Nazis ("Front page"). Without letting the tanks through, the "forty-caps" of Senior Lieutenant Zheltykh ("Third Rocket") are dying. Some, however, do not stand up, under the pressure of circumstances become cowards and traitors. Such are Ivan Pshenichny in the Front Page, Zadorozhny in The Third Rocket. Rybak in Sotnikov. These figures were taken by Bykov not by chance. The author wants to emphasize that cowardice inevitably entails hypocrisy, self-deception, and duality. A man deprived of courage loses not only his own dignity, but also the respect of others.
The problem of human responsibility - that's what excites Bykov already in early prose. Getting into a situation of choice, his hero shows his spiritual. human truth. People of strong character, capable of self-sacrifice - Karpenko and Svist in "The Crane Cry", Kri-Venok and Popov in "The Third Rocket", Klimchenko in "The Trap". You can always rely on these people: they will not let you down. They steadfastly and courageously endure all the hardships of the war, its inhuman trials, and at the same time remain ordinary people with natural, simple dreams of the end of the war, of health, of life. “They,” writes Bykov, the author of the “Front Page”, “they wanted only one thing - to live to the end of the war. If only they could defeat fascism, wait for victory, see at least one peaceful day without fire and blood, and nothing more, it seems, would They would have agreed to any job, to the most modest place in life, they would have the desired peace everywhere after the hell that they experienced at the front. "
With his first military stories, Bykov drew attention to the fact that not every person is capable of heroism, but everyone must and can be responsible for their actions. Perhaps it is the consciousness of responsibility that guides Fischer's actions: not prepared for war, he warns his comrades about the appearance of the Germans at the cost of his own life. The same feeling makes Timoshkin stubbornly go to his own, no matter what: "... despair and anger squeezed his throat when he remembered Skvaryshev, Keklidze, Shcherbak and many other nice guys that, covered with snow, forever remained in the wide expanses through his tears, he saw nothing around, except for a distant fire, which quietly flickered on someone's timeless iron grave. The fire led him in the darkness of the night - from death to life, there, to his own. "
It is the desire to establish justice at all costs that makes the hero believe, fight and not get tired of living. After all, only then can a person show great strength of mind when he sets high goals for himself, even if by doing so he dooms himself to death. Ultimately, success and victory over oneself come to a person only in the struggle. This happens to the hero of the story "The Death of a Man", who, being seriously wounded, painfully overcomes every meter of the way, deciding on a selfless act,
It seems that those examples that Bykov talks about reveal a huge spiritual potential hidden in a person. It is no coincidence that the Nazis wrote about the fanaticism of the Soviet people, whose inner world was simply inaccessible to their understanding.
Once again, I would like to emphasize that in describing a person in war, the writer avoids a one-sided image: after all, a person is constantly changing, showing one or another quality. All the heroes of Bykov's stories, very different in character, age, temperament, are united by one thing: a sense of honor, the consciousness that they are fulfilling their military duty, the ability to take responsibility in the most difficult life situations. The most important feat of these people is a victory over oneself, over one's fatigue and pain, which is the most important guarantee of a person's spiritual strength.