Analysis of the last chapter by Vasily Terkin. Vasily Terkin - analysis of the work

The idea of ​​creating a work about the resilient fighter Vasya Tyorkin arose from Tvardovsky during the Finnish campaign, when he was a war correspondent. The editors of the newspaper “On Guard of the Motherland” decided to create a comic book about a fighter, and Tvardovsky was tasked with introduction, which will determine the character of the hero and the manner of communication with the reader. The poem “Vasya Terkin” was published in 1940, and then the book “Vasya Terkin at the Front” appeared.

In the spring of 1941, the first chapters of the poem “Vasily Terkin” were written and published in the newspaper “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda” in four September issues of 1942. In the same year, these chapters were published a separate book. Over the next three years, the poem was revised many times, and new chapters were added to it. Tvardovsky wrote the last chapter in the summer of 1945.

Literary direction and genre

The poem refers to literary direction realism, describes typical hero under typical circumstances. It’s not for nothing that a second Terkin appears in one of the chapters, who is sure that the book is about him, and every platoon has its own Terkin.

Tvardovsky himself defined the genre of the work as “a book about a fighter without beginning or end.” This is a very accurate description of the features of the lyric-epic genre of the poem, based on the goals of the poet.

He decided to “write not a poem, a story or a novel in verse” because he refused to have a sequentially developing plot. The multi-genre nature of the work, which is quite formally classified as a poem, Tvardovsky recognized and defined in it the presence of the following genres: lyrics, journalism, song, teaching, anecdote, saying, heart-to-heart conversation, remark to the occasion. Tvardovsky has not yet mentioned the epic and fairy tale, the influence of which is especially felt in the chapters “Soldier and Death”, “From the Author”, “Two Soldiers”.

Among the literary predecessors of the poem, one can point out the folk poems of Nekrasov and Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin,” in which the author is a friend of the protagonist, who undertook to describe his life. If “Eugene Onegin” is an encyclopedia of Russian life, then “Vasily Terkin” is an encyclopedia of military life, the life of the people in and during the war. Even Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is consonant with “Vasily Terkin”. The signs of a heroic epic in the story are a comprehensive depiction of war (battle, everyday life, front and rear, exploits and awards, life and death). In addition, “Vasily Terkin” is a chronicle that can be written “without beginning or end, without a special plot.”

Theme, main idea and composition

A poem about an ordinary soldier Vasily Tyorkin, an infantryman who went through the entire war and reached Berlin. Terkin survived all the hardships of war, was wounded three times and almost died once, was cold and hungry, retreated and went on the attack, but did not show cowardice and was the soul of his platoon, company, battalion. It was not without reason that soldiers wrote letters to Tvardovsky, telling him that Tyorkin was in their platoon. The theme of the Great Patriotic War is life during the war of a simple soldier, the people and the entire Motherland.

The main idea of ​​the poem is the holiness and righteousness of the battle for life and freedom native land. This idea is repeated as a repeated refrain in several chapters. In this righteous struggle at the front and in the rear, in difficult times, such a resilient Tyorkin is very much needed, and every fighter must look within himself for this source of optimism and hope, as well as heroism.

In the poem, individual chapters are loosely connected with each other in terms of plot; not all of them even have main character, and in some Vasily Terkin plays a cameo role. As Tvardovsky himself said, these are “poems, but everything is clear.” Thus, epicness is achieved through a broad depiction of human life in war, a simple and accessible language. The lyrical elements of the poem are traditional. These are chapters “From the Author”, in which the author describes his attitude to the war, to the hero and to the work. The poem contains both landscapes and lyrical digressions, and internal monologues that reveal the soul of the characters, and the reasoning of the characters and the author.

The subject of the image in each chapter is different. Since Tvardovsky wrote his chapters directly in a military situation, they chronologically correspond to the course of the war (retreat - offensive - victorious movement to the West). At the same time, the chapters chronicle the life of the protagonist during the war. “At a Rest” is about how Tyorkin ended up in his unit. “Before the Battle” is about Tyorkin’s escape from encirclement. “Crossing” is about the unrecorded feat of the hero who swam across the river. “Torkin is wounded” - about Tyorkin being wounded in the arm and being saved by tank crews. “Duel” is about hand-to-hand combat with a German. "Who shot?" - about the feat of Tyorkin, who shot down a plane with a rifle. “General” is about presenting an award to Tyorkin. “Battle in the swamp” - about a multi-day capture settlement"Borki." “On the offensive” - about how Tyorkin led a platoon on the offensive after the death of the commander. “Death and the Warrior” is about Tyorkin’s severe wound in the leg. “On the Road to Berlin” is about Tyorkin’s movement from the western border to Germany.

Although the poem as a whole does not have a completed plot, each of the 30 chapters is completed plot-wise and compositionally. Tvardovsky strove to speak out to the end in each and took care of those readers who would not live to see the next chapter. Some chapters are close either to a heroic ballad, or to lyrical poems, or to plot poems.

Heroes and images

At the center of the story is Vasily Terkin, a peasant from near Smolensk, who began to fight as a private in the infantry, but during the war he committed heroic deeds, awarded the order. Terkin is the embodiment of the entire Russian people, the Russian character, a cheerful optimist, accustomed to the hardships of military life, a joker and joker, but a sentimental guy. Terkin does not forget to support and help, but also performs great feats. He is afraid of death and has flaws. The hero symbolizes every person, the entire victorious people.

Like a folklore, fairy-tale hero or hero, Tyorkin is protected from death; a bullet or bomb has not yet been found against him. The hero remains unharmed “under oblique, three-layer, mounted and direct fire.” Wounds, even severe ones, heal easily on the hero. And in those cases when a fighter lies bleeding, comrades come to the rescue, because the holiest and purest friendship is military. This happens when Tyorkin is wounded in the arm and is picked up by tank crews (“Torkin is wounded”), when Tyorkin is wounded in the leg after an offensive and is saved by a funeral team (“Death and the Warrior”).

In the second chapter, “From the Author,” Tvardovsky refutes rumors about the death of his hero as unfounded and absurd: “Terkin is not subject to death, since the war has not expired.” Here Tvardovsky describes Terkin, on the one hand, as literary hero, which will outlive the author himself, on the other hand, as a typical and ordinary Russian person who experienced everything bad, lost his native land, and at the same time not only did not lose heart, but also encouraged others. Only those who “don’t care about labor and torment, the bitterness of disasters and losses” can survive hardships.

In this chapter, written at a turning point in the war, Tvardovsky makes Tyorkin’s surname speakable. This is not just a grater, a sharp word and a joke. Terkin repeats two mottos: “Don’t be discouraged” and “We’ll endure it, we’ll grind it out.” The victory of the Russian people rests on these two pillars of national character.

Another reason for Terkin’s invincibility is his heroic nature. Terkin is not a fairy-tale hero, but an epic one. This is not a fantastic hero, but a man whose calling is to protect his native Russian land, which he traveled on foot. Tvardovsky lists all the traits of such a warrior-hero, which are often opposite: simple, afraid in battle, but cheerful, firm and proud, serious and funny, accustomed to everything, holy and sinful.

The definition of “Russian miracle man” does not make the hero fabulous or magical. On the contrary, Tvardovsky turns every reader into his own hero and hero.
Several chapters “From the author” and the chapter “About myself” are dedicated to the author, who does not stick out himself, recognizing primacy in Tyorkin’s poem. The author is only a fellow countryman of the hero, however, their fates are similar.

The poem, as an encyclopedia of the life of the liberating people, depicts different folk types. This is the commander who, having gone home on retreat, did not sleep with his wife, not alone, but chopped wood, trying to help her. The tankmen who saved Tyorkin are shown as heroes, who then, in another chapter, give Tyorkin the accordion of the killed commander, the folklore grandfather and woman who first saw off the retreating troops and then met them during the offensive.

Tvardovsky emphasizes and highlights the feat of a Russian woman located in the rear. She greets not only her husband, but also his fellow fighters, she accompanies her son or husband to war, writes letters to him and even humbles her bad character to please her husband at the front. The author bows and “ kind woman simple,” and to the soldier’s mother, who, embodying all mothers, receives a reward for suffering in the form of material goods (a horse with a cart, a feather bed, household utensils, a cow, a lamb). For the heroes, girls are a memory of a peaceful life that everyone was forced to leave. Being with a girl, whether she's pretty or not, is a warrior's reward. It is to the girls that Turkin strives to show his imaginary medal, it is to the unknown nurse who gave him a hat during the dressing that he owes his salvation.

Not a single surname, except Tyorkin, is mentioned in the poem. And this is not without reason, if the heroes are anyone and everyone. A little is also said about enemies. They are shown as if general plan. Only the German with whom Tyorkin fought hand-to-hand is described in detail. It, like other German enemies, emphasizes satiety, sleekness, measuredness and precision, and concern for health. But these, in general, positive traits cause disgust and disgust, like garlic breath. Other Germans mentioned in passing are worthy only of ridicule and pity, but not fear or awe.

Even the objects that become the heroes of the poem are the constant companions of a soldier in war: the overcoat, to which Tvardovsky sings an ode, an accordion and a tobacco pouch, a bathhouse, water and food.

Artistic originality

Portraying the folklore good fellow, Tvardovsky uses folklore subjects. The chapter “Two Soldiers” captures the plot of the fairy tale “Axe Soup.” In the chapter “Soldier and Death” - the plot of a fairy tale about a soldier and the devil. Tvardovsky uses proverbs and sayings: if only the children are healthy, the guns go backwards for battle, it’s time for business to have fun. In addition, the lines of many folk and original songs were included in the text: “Three Tankmen”, “May Moscow”, “Across the Valleys and Hills”, “Marching Song” by Pushkin.

Many expressions of the poem have become aphorisms: “The battle is holy and just, the battle to the death is not for the sake of glory, for the sake of life on earth,” “I don’t need, brothers, orders,” “War has a short path, love has a long one.”

Almost every chapter alternates between the tragic and the funny, as well as lyrical and epic passages. But several chapters are funnier than sad: “In the bathhouse,” “About the reward.” The story is told first on behalf of the author, sometimes on behalf of Tyorkin, only the point of view on the war, on one’s own and enemies, does not change.

Stanzas, meter and rhyme

Almost the entire poem is written in colloquial tetrameter trochee, conveying the step of an infantryman. Tvardovsky's discovery was stanzas with different numbers of lines (from two to ten). Tvardovsky completed the stanza along with each individual thought. The rhyme within the stanza is varied: adjacent and cross rhymes randomly alternate. Some lines may not rhyme or may rhyme in three lines.

The rhymes themselves are often imprecise, assonant or dissonant. All this variety of rhymes and stanzas serves one purpose - to bring speech closer to colloquial speech, to make poetry understandable and lively. For the same purpose, Tvardovsky gives preference to simple everyday vocabulary, colloquial expressions and grammatical constructions (using the preposition about instead of o). He speaks simply even about the pathetic; the speech of his hero and the author are similar and simple.

« Vasily Terkin»

Poem by A.T. Tvardovsky's "Vasily Terkin" opens with the image of water. This is peculiar artistic technique, helping the author to immediately introduce the reader to the values ​​and realities of the harsh era of the early forties. The author begins his narrative not with heroism, not with pathetic lines, but with a description of the meager details of military life. And the reader understands that heroism is already the ability to adapt to a difficult life on the road. And here, according to Tvardovsky, in addition to water and food (colorful hot cabbage soup, which seems to the lyrical hero at the front to be the best and healthiest food), something else is needed, without which one cannot survive the harsh trials of war. And this cure for fear and despondency, for the bitterness of loss and defeat, is a joke, a joke, a saying - humor, which Russian folklore is so rich in.

This is how the image appears in the poem simple soldier Vasily Terkin, a sincere, easy-going, funny man and a good storyteller, who knows how to brighten up the hardships of military trials with his optimistic attitude towards life.

After a short introduction “From the author”, the poem is followed by the chapter “At a halt”. She is also deprived battle scenes, and this feature once again emphasizes that A.T. Tvardovsky is primarily interested not in the course of military operations, but in the description of a person’s life in war, his problems and experiences, his ability to remain human in borderline, seemingly hopeless situations.

War in the poem becomes a measure of decency, nobility, responsibility for the future of other people (relatives, friends, compatriots). In the era of consolidation of popular forces, these qualities become necessary for every fighter.

The chapter “At a Rest” opens and is interspersed with conversations of soldiers. Such dialogue gives the plot a relaxed character and shows trust in the relationship between the fighters. However, from individual details in the conversation a generalized image of the military generation emerges. “I’m fighting a second war, brother, forever,” says one of the soldiers, asking for more porridge. And thanks to this phrase, the reader literally imagines this fighter, a man no longer young, who has gone through a harsh life school. One war knocked on his door in his youth, and now he had to take up arms a second time.

Artistic style of A.T. Tvardovsky is distinguished by its aphorism, capacity, and laconicism. The image of the “second war of the century” has philosophical depth: already short life of man, which in comparison with eternity, with our history, is insignificantly small, tragically irreversible, turns out to be overshadowed by a series of tragic events and, in fact, consists of practically nothing but difficulties and deprivations. And in such a difficult atmosphere of general fatigue and anxiety, the merry fellow and joker Vasily Terkin begins a story about “Sabantuy”. This is a kind of holiday of the soul, when a soldier rejoices that he did not die under bombing, and a spiritual uplift that helps the hero not to flee from the battlefield after seeing fascist tanks. A.T. Tvardovsky emphasizes that the hero of his poem

The most ordinary person with an unremarkable appearance. He does not seek fame, but is distinguished by an enviable love of life: “He smokes, eats and drinks with gusto in any position.”

In the chapter “Before the battle” A.T. Tvardovsky paints a picture of the retreat to the east, when our troops were leaving the encirclement, “leaving the captive region.” On the way, the commander of a detachment that was surrounded decides to look into his native village. Thereby plot development the theme of the retreat is specified and perceived not in general, but through the prism of the experiences of an individual person. The commander, together with the detachment, is forced to secretly make his way to his home hut in enemy-occupied territory. With a bitter feeling, he sits down at the table, chops firewood for his family at night, and at dawn leaves the house, realizing that the Nazis may soon enter it.

One of the most striking and memorable in the poem is the chapter “Crossing”. A.T. Tvardovsky depicts one of the episodes of the war in it, emphasizing the rich traditions of the glorious exploits of Russian soldiers - defenders of their native land: “They walk the same harsh path that two hundred years ago the Russian toiling soldier walked with a flintlock gun.”

The crossing is a difficult test of strength and endurance. Courage. The symbols of this test are the roar of water and the rotting ice. And an alien night, and an inaccessible forest, “the right bank is like a wall.” All these images of the natural world turn out to be hostile towards humans. A.T. Tvardovsky in the poem does not embellish reality, does not hide victims and failures, but depicts military actions and losses in all their terrifying and tragic truth: “People are warm, alive, They went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...” The repetition enhances the depth of the tragedy experienced by the author and shows the scale of “ bloody trail" The bitterness of the losses is enhanced by the picture depicting dead faces on which the snow does not melt. This fragment of the poem is not devoid of naturalism. Further, the author mentions that rations are still issued to the dead, and old letters written by them are sent home by mail. These details also emphasize the irreplaceability of the loss. The scale of the tragedy is enlarged with the help of toponymy: “From Ryazan, from Kazan, From Siberia, from Moscow - The soldiers are sleeping. They said theirs and are forever right.”

In the chapter “Crossing” Vasily Terkin miraculously remains alive and also brings the good news that the first platoon that managed to cross to the right bank is alive.

The chapter ends with a succinct and laconic summary: “The battle is holy and just. Mortal combat is not for the sake of glory, for the sake of life on earth.”

The theme of responsibility for the fate of Russia is also developed in the next chapter, “On War.” A.T. Tvardovsky emphasizes that sacrifices during war are inevitable, but they are made for the sake of common victory, so the soldier must forget about himself for a while: the main thing is to solve the combat mission, to fulfill his duty to his homeland, to his children.

The anti-humanistic nature of the war is emphasized by the writer in the chapter “Terkin is wounded,” which opens with a picture of a “mutilated land” that smells not of human smoke from housing, but of gun smoke. But the merciless cold of military winters is perceived by the author as help: the Russian peasant is accustomed to snow and cold, because he is fighting on his native land, but for the invaders the frost becomes ordeal. If the plot of this chapter, in which the hero is injured, is dynamic, intense artistic details and constantly keeps the reader in suspense, the chapter “On the Reward” opens with an optimistic monologue contrasting in mood: Vasily Terkin dreams of a vacation, wants to find himself in his native village, but the Smolensk region is occupied by the enemy. At the end of the chapter, the repetition of “Mortal combat not for the sake of glory, but for the sake of life on earth” returns the hero from a dream to harsh reality.

The chapter “Two Soldiers” reinterprets the famous fairy-tale story about how a soldier made soup from an ax. Vasily Terkin spends the night in a peasant's hut, sharpens the old owner's saw, repairs his watch, and then persuades the hostess to make scrambled eggs with lard.

Calm, humorous chapters alternate in the poem with recreations of the most difficult, tragic pages of the military chronicle.

The chapter "Duel" describes hand-to-hand combat. First, the reader sees that the German is physically stronger than Terkin. However, resourceful Vasily does not lose heart. And now “the German is decorated with a red yushka, like an egg.” This comparison in the poem conveys the spirit of Russian folk Easter traditions. The author thereby shows that Terkin has holy truth on his side and therefore he will win. A.T. Tvardovsky again turns to the distant but unforgettable pages of history (“Like on an ancient battlefield, Chest against chest, like a shield against a shield, - Instead of thousands, two fight, As if the fight will decide everything”). The contrast between the plural and the singular in this chapter shows that the fate of victory in times of military trials depends on the actions of each soldier.

In war, the most ordinary scenes of peaceful life seem fabulous and overgrown with dreams. Nostalgia for small homeland the lines of the chapter “About Myself” are permeated. The hero sacredly keeps in his soul the world of his lost childhood: the forest where he went with friends to buy nuts, the globe at school, conversations with fellow countrymen and, of course, the image of his mother.

The poem ends with the chapter “From the Author,” in which the poet says that he dedicates the book to the memory of fallen soldiers and all his friends during the war. A.T. Tvardovsky admits that “Vasily Terkin” in times of difficult trials helped not only readers, but also the author himself, giving his life meaning and joy.

"Vasily Terkin" - a miracle of complete dissolution
poet in the element of the folk language.
B. Pasternak 1

It was no coincidence that A. Akhmatova at one time called Tvardovsky’s poem “light soldier’s rhymes.” They are truly amazingly easy, easy to remember, easy to read, seemingly easy, understood right down to the very bottom (“is there even one,” one can often hear) understood... Well... Tvardovsky is not Mandelstam, but he is no better and no worse - he is a different poet, no less significant and talented in his sense of language, albeit of its other layers. Tvardovsky’s verse only creates the impression of extraordinary and seemingly not at all poetic naturalness and expressiveness colloquial speech. Tvardovsky himself says about his poem:

Here are the poems, but everything is clear, Everything is in Russian...

The highest themes are revealed in the poem in ordinary, not “sublime” words, not “poeticism”. Moreover, simple, everyday words not only do not reduce the pathos, but give the verse a special warmth and naturalness. In this, Tvardovsky is akin to A.P. Chekhov. The simplicity of Tvardovsky’s verse is apparent, it is not primitive, it is smart and crafty, it allows one to naturally speak about very complex phenomena, the most subtle emotional experiences, to convey various psychological states: from humor to tragic pathos. Tvardovsky does not resort to word creation; he turns the word around for the reader with new facets, revealing new meanings and connections. Tvardovsky has no florid style, there are even few comparisons.

Tvardovsky’s poem is written in trochaic tetrameter, traditional in Russian literature, known since the time of A.S. Pushkin. In "Vasily Terkin" this meter varies, otherwise the poem would sound monotonous. The rhyme varies - sometimes female, sometimes masculine; stanzas often consist of four lines, but the number of verse-lines in them also varies throughout the poem. For example, in the chapter “Crossing” there are stanzas of two, and three, and four, and five, and more:

“Well done,” said the colonel. - Well done! Thank you brother. And with a timid smile, the fighter then says: - Couldn’t I also have a shot glass, Because he’s a great guy?

The colonel looked sternly and glanced sideways at the soldier. - Well done, but there will be a lot - Two at once.):

- So there are two ends...

Tvardovsky's rhyme is simple and ingenuous. Such rhymes are usually considered inexpressive, but in Tvardovsky’s poems they look unexpected and impressive. A rhyme within one chapter can also be adjacent (when adjacent lines rhyme: aabb):

And after the fire, we’ll stand up and stretch our legs.

We will injure whatever is there, we will ensure the crossing...

and cross (when the first and third, second and fourth lines rhyme:

abab

This technique, common in folk versification, achieves even greater variety in the “simple” verse about the “simple,” ordinary, ordinary soldier Vasily Terkin.

Sometimes the meaning of the quatrain is reinforced and strengthened by the fifth verse (line):

Everywhere there are inscriptions, marks, Arrows, signs, badges, Wire mesh rings, Fences, doors, cages - All on purpose for melancholy...

The difficult roads of war are depicted by an even more complex stanza construction:

These lines and pages are a special account of days and miles, Like from the western border To our native capital, And from that native capital Back to the western border, And from the western border Up to the enemy capital We made our march.

A “moving”, “fluid” stanza appears (A.V. Makedonov) and the syntax corresponding to it. Tvardovsky himself considered achievements in the field of poetic syntax to be among his most interesting innovations 2 .

Rhythmically, Tvardovsky’s “simple” verse is also varied. For example, in the transfer of a soldier’s dance to the accordion (chapter “Accordion”):

He gives joke after joke: - Eh, it’s a pity that there is no knock, Eh, friend, If only there was a knock, If only suddenly - Paved circle!

If only you could throw away your felt boots, put on your heels, and seal them in such a way that your heel will immediately turn into a skiff!

The book merges various speech streams: literary speech and vernacular, folk poetic and oratorical vocabulary. Tvardovsky varies the size of stanzas from one to sixteen verses, often uses hyphenation, subordinating the movement of the verse to conversational intonations. The text includes numerous lively dialogues. The main poetic meter of the poem is trochaic tetrameter. Choice artistic means in the poem is determined by what it depicts folk hero

• at war. Hence its popular, mostly colloquial language: the language of the poem indicates its closeness to works of oral folk art

• in the poem there are many diminutive words characteristic of oral folk poetry ("darling", "son", "buddy", "falcon", etc.), constant epithets ("damp earth", "bitter time", "unfortunate road" ", "foreign land", etc.), words and expressions from oral folk art ("alive and well", "the clear falcon started"; "grab-grab"; "in the same way, in the same way, only with a different stitch" and etc.);

• the poet masterfully imitates folk song: The dashing gray beard will lead and blow: Where are you going, my beautiful, Where are you going, where.
• the poem is characterized by idiomatic expressions and untranslatable figures of speech (“to tell the truth”, “will make you sweat and tremble”, “the guy is anywhere”, “it’s clear to the point”, “I’m joking with you”);

• the poem is dominated by short ones, simple sentences, with the absence of ligaments. The author preserves this structure of colloquial speech in dialogues, of which there are many in the poem. The dialogues give the poem a lively dramatic character, they depict military life and give portrait characteristics;

• Tvardovsky’s poetic language is characterized by laconicism, which is achieved by paraphrasing or truncation of phrases that exist as sayings or established cliches: Like nothing - Vasily Terkin, Like nothing - an old soldier.

In order to achieve high degree generalization in the image of the main character, the author creates a whole system of rhymes used in relation to his name and surname. Tvardovsky inventively uses rhymes that characterize both the circumstances of army life and emotional condition hero (Terkin - bitter, shag, sayings, on a hill, in a tunic, crusty, in a capter, etc.). However, the most important rhyme in the book is “Vasily - Russia”, repeated several times in the text. This emphasizes that the hero represents the entire people and is a unique embodiment of the heroism of the Russian people. Terkin, no more or less, is a “hero of the people.” And here it is important to emphasize not so much the collective image of the hero, but his involvement in the common national cause: the fight against the common enemy. A terrible and dangerous enemy.

The chapter begins with a contrast: Tyorkin is contrasted with the German

The German was strong and dexterous,

Well tailored, tightly sewn...

Well-fed, shaved, careful,

Fed with free goods...

Terkin enters into single combat with a strong, physically superior opponent:

Terkin knew that in this fight

He is weaker: not the same grub.

The author deliberately emphasizes that his hero is weaker, thereby showing not so much the superiority in physical strength of one individual German over one individual Russian soldier, but rather the superiority of the united forces of Europe, which fell under the heel of Hitler's Germany, over the newly created industry of the young Soviet Republic. Huge industrial complexes, fed by the most powerful oil and coal basins throughout Europe, challenged the Soviet metallurgy, which was just getting on its feet and barely strengthened.

However, Tyorkin does not shy away from a duel; he enters into an unequal battle, like his entire country, and wages the most difficult battles with the previously “invincible” Wehrmacht army. And to fight, and especially to win, you need to awaken dormant forces within yourself, some hidden reserves. And it is not at all accidental that the author here turns to the epic epic:

Like on an ancient battlefield,

Chest to chest, like shield to shield, -

Instead of thousands, two fight,

As if the fight would solve everything.

On the one hand, Tvardovsky singles out and enlarges the episode of the battle, turning the reader’s gaze to the depths of centuries, to the distant roots of ancient victories, and, it seems, finds a source of strength: you need to fight as if “the battle will decide everything.”

On the other hand, the epic solemnity of the scene is balanced by the generously scattered “technological” details of Terkin’s ingenuity and the most colloquial vocabulary used in the chapter (“he snapped a German between the eyes,” “threw him into a sled,” “out of fright ... gave bream,” etc. .). Thus, the episode of the fight, without losing its symbolic semantic potential, is “grounded”; the fight takes on the character of a desperate fight.

And “a fight is not a toy!”, here Tyorkin has to give his all, to the end, using not only his strength and dexterity. Realizing that the forces are not equal, Terkin spurs himself on with hatred of the enemy. He not only hates the uninvited stranger to his land, he hates him fiercely with a kind of bestial hatred:

And they look into each other's eyes:
To the beast - the beast and the enemy - to the enemy.

Tvardovsky gives the most clear and succinct image of the enemy, increasing the bubbling of hatred in his hero:

Here he is - half an inch away - the enemy.

Nose to nose. Closeness.

How disgusting is he?

There's spirit coming out of the German's mouth.

Angrily Terkin spat blood.

What a smell! Knocks off your feet.

Oh, you bastard, for your health,

No other way, you eat garlic!

Where were you in a hurry - to the hostess?

Uterus, milk? Uterus, eggs?

Did you decide to honor us?

Bring it on! And who are you?

Who are you, what to our grandmother

Showed up at the doorstep

Without asking, without taking off your hat

And didn’t wipe your boots?

Can you deal with an old woman?

Bring it on! No, who you are

What do they owe you in Russia?

Should we serve food and drink?

Isn't the poor cripple,

Or a good person -

Lost

On the way to,

Asked

For the night?

People are happy to see kind people.

No, you are your own strength.

You point

Your own order.

You are coming -

Your law.

Whose son are you and whose father are you?

A man by all accounts -

Are you human? No. Scoundrel!

And constantly inflaming himself with this hatred, Terkin suddenly becomes stronger: now he really “holds the front” for all of Russia, as the author wisely noted. Who, if not he, will now take revenge for the suffering of this old woman, someone’s mother, by the way, offended by this filthy conqueror? For the suffering of hundreds of thousands of old men and women, children and mothers? Who else, if not him, the “Russian toiling soldier,” should repel the entire inhuman machine of evil created to destroy humanism, any memory of philanthropy, mercy, etc.

Isn't the poor cripple,

Or a good person -

Lost

On the way to,

Asked

For the night?

People are happy to see kind people.

The other is endlessly misanthropic and treacherous:

You point

Your own order.

You are coming -

Your law.

Tvardovsky, like no one else, understands and feels as if two universal principles - Good and Evil - were grappling to the death in this battle, so he keeps the reader in suspense throughout the entire chapter. Evil is total, boundless, absolute, bringing to humanity a new “world order”, incompatible with the lives of millions of people, destroying the ideas of development, progress and humanism at the root.

What is the opposite of this evil, what lies on the other side of the scale? Is it true! Holy Russian truth, rooted in centuries-old depths epic heroes, and drawing life-giving strength there from an inexhaustible deep source to fight for its shrines. It is not for nothing that in Rus' they say: “God does not lie in power, but in truth.”

But the truth is that a Man will never trample on the rights of another person, and it is this truth that turns the tide of the fight. "Who are you?" - the author asks through the lips of his hero, who gave you the right to dispose of someone else's land? And he answers:

Who are you? It makes no sense to me

Whose son are you and whose father are you?

A man by all accounts -

Are you human? No. Scoundrel! -

Analysis of the poem by A.T. Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin"

The poem “Vasily Terkin” by A. Tvardovsky took an outstanding place in the history of Soviet poetry. The poet first felt the necessity and effectiveness poetic word in carrying out national tasks. “A book about a fighter,” writes Tvardovsky, “whatever its actual nature.” literary significance, during the war years was true happiness for me: it gave me a feeling of the obvious usefulness of my work...”

The originality of the life material and creative concept, the conditions of writing and existence of the poem “Vasily Terkin” determined its genre features, composition and plot. The leading principle in the “Book about a Fighter” is the fate of the homeland and its people. The poet not only reproduces the picture of the historical struggle of our people for the freedom of their homeland, but reveals in specific events and characters - this is the main advantage of the poem.

Terkin is only one of the specific bearers of the poetic idea of ​​the work. The idea of ​​the poem, the idea embodied in it, is much broader than the content of the image of Terkin. In Tyorkin, Tvardovsky reveals those basic positive qualities of the Russian people that ensured victory over the enemy. To reveal the main idea, a broad reflection of major historical events was necessary. In accordance with this task, the image of Tyorkin itself changed in the process of work, acquiring an increasingly broader meaning.

In the process of working on the poem, Tvardovsky was afraid to crush the big idea, so as not to reduce “the book to some kind of private story”, not to deprive it of the “universality” of the content. The author says that it is impossible to live in war “without the real truth, the truth that hits straight into the soul.” Showing “the real truth” meant revealing the truth, “no matter how bitter” it was, about one of the most difficult and crucial stages of our people’s struggle for the freedom and independence of their homeland; it meant conveying, on the one hand, the great historical truth about victory socialism over fascism, and on the other hand, to show the main engine of this historical victory - Soviet man. In order to complete this large, complex task, Tvardovsky found an original solution to the question of the plot and composition of the poem, prompted by life itself.

Tvardovsky set himself the task of truthfully revealing the meaning and features of the war and at the same time embodying in images a specific property of our people, clearly manifested in this battle. The integrity of the work is achieved through the organic unity and interdependence of the depiction of the course of the war and the development of the main character. Poetic image homeland, running through the entire poem, is revealed in different ways, in accordance with the characteristics of a particular period of the war, which makes it possible to experience the living history of the development of events.

The poem "Vasily Terkin" shows the development Patriotic War- from the period of our troops’ retreat to the east until the victorious march Soviet army in Europe.

The action of the poem begins approximately in the second year of the war, when the enemy was defeated near Moscow and was basically stopped along the entire front. The main task that Tvardovsky set for himself while working on the poem was not only to capture historical events in a large epic work, but also to help the Soviet people in the war, to somehow make it easier to overcome difficulties. Therefore he great importance gave it a joke, a front-line fable, a saying. The appearance of the hero was supposed to be “joyful” and set the reader up to perceive the poem as a deeply optimistic work. The severity and difficulty of front-line life, according to the author’s plan, should immediately be softened in the poem by “the most unwise joke.”

In the chapter “Before the Battle,” the poet shows how the Soviet people understood the depth of the danger that threatens our country, what character traits the Soviet people showed, and what was the main incentive in the people’s brutal struggle against the enemy. The soldiers overcame difficulties and hardships, made their way to the front, believing in the strength and power of the Soviet homeland. Hence the deepest confidence that:

The time will come, we'll come back,

What we gave, we will return everything.

With realistic force, Tvardovsky paints a picture of the devastation of his native land, the disorderly retreat of our troops, the difficult thoughts and experiences of those remaining in captivity Soviet people. The poet talks with pain about the thin, hungry, lost communications and some of the soldiers making their way to the east. Summarizing this period of the war, the poet, with all directness and courage, makes a deeply truthful conclusion:

It was a great sadness

How we wandered east.

This truthfulness, as a defining feature of the poetic narrative throughout the entire poem, makes Tvardovsky’s works exceptionally valuable from a historical and educational point of view.

The second chapter has the task of revealing the spiritual and moral character of the main character of the poem, Vasily Terkin, which will clearly manifest itself in the next chapter - “The Crossing”. The main motive of the first and partially the second part of the poem is the bitter feeling of danger looming over the homeland and the awareness of the need to mobilize all spiritual and physical strength Soviet people to fight.

And to the fighter beyond that threshold

There was a road ahead

To the native side

Straight through the war.

The first part of the poem, written before December 1942, that is, before our troops stopped the enemy troops along the entire front, truthfully reflects the intensity of the battle of the first stage of the war, the process of strengthening the unity of the people, awareness of the responsibility that fell on their shoulders. The chapters “About Myself” and “Battle in the Swamp” convey the highest intensity of the struggle. The time period is 1942-1943, that is, the period of the world-historical battles near Stalingrad. In the chapter “About Myself,” a kind of lyrical monologue addressed to the homeland, on behalf of the Soviet people, the belief is expressed that the hour of final victory is “just around the corner,” and the determination is expressed to “return” the homeland. If in the previous chapters victory over the enemy was, as it were, potential -

We will live - we will not die.

The time will come, we'll come back,

What we gave, we will return everything.

Here victory already appears as a real and close matter.

Making the symbol of a great feat not the battle of Stalingrad, but the deadly difficult battles for some unknown village, Tvardovsky again and again conveys the idea that heroic deeds, and heaviness and adversity manifest themselves everywhere in the same way - both in the “small” and in the “big” . The principle of typification in the depiction of a person corresponds to the principle of typification in the depiction of circumstances. Just as the image of a simple, unassuming soldier becomes in the poem the embodiment of national qualities, so this “insignificant” episode gradually develops into a symbolic picture of the great historical battle, which marked the beginning of a new stage of the war.

The third part of the poem is already entirely dedicated to the victorious offensive of the Soviet Army. The time has passed when the Red Army fought off enemy troops near Moscow and Leningrad, near Grozny and Stalingrad. Now our troops were crushing the enemy in the center of Germany.

In the poetic introduction in the last part of the poem, Tvardovsky characterizes this new stage war and thereby determines the pathos of all the final chapters of the work:

All of it is from the Moscow region

And from the Volga upper reaches

To the Dnieper and Trans-Dnieper -

In the distance to the west side, -

Before, given with blood,

Returned again with blood.

The holiday is near mother Russia,

Turn your gaze to the West:

Vasily has gone far,

Vasya Terkin, your soldier.

The leitmotif of the poem becomes the idea of ​​the great historical mission of the Soviet people in liberating not only their homeland, but also the peoples of other countries from fascism. In the third part of the poem, the most significant historical events of the last stage of the war, starting with the Battle of the Dnieper and ending with the victorious movement of the Soviet Army to the enemy capital (chapters “On the Dnieper” and “On the Road to Berlin”) found a deep poetic reflection. In the structure of the poem, these chapters play the role of a kind of culminating denouement of all events.

the main idea The poem is strengthened by a refrain running through the entire work and defining its pathos:

The battle is holy and just,

Mortal combat is not for glory,

For the sake of life on earth.

The image of Tyorkin is a truly realistic image that embodies best quality Soviet people. But many features bring him, of course, closer to the heroes of folklore. The image of a soldier in Russian folk art has a number of certain stable features: endurance, patience, all-conquering humor, resourcefulness; a soldier must be a jack of all trades - a craftsman. Deep knowledge of folk art helped the poet to better understand the qualities Soviet warrior, which he embodied in the image of Tyorkin.

Tvardovsky portrays Tyorkin not just as a warrior. This is a master “cun”, a craftsman. This is how he appears, for example, in the chapter “Two Soldiers,” when Tyorkin repairs old people’s watches and sharpens a saw.

Having examined the watch in detail, -

It’s still hours, but I haven’t been drinking, -

Master quietly and sadly

Whistled:

Things are bad... -

But he stuck it somewhere with an awl,

I spotted something in the dust,

He blew somewhere inside, spat, -

What do you think - let's go!

And such traits bring the hero closer to numerous images Russian craftsmen - wizards of labor, created in legends and fairy tales. At the same time, it is always not difficult to notice the features of a Soviet contemporary in him. There is clearly a fairy-tale tone in the description of the entire episode - and suddenly: the word “tool”, and even in everyday use; “miraculous” in many fairy tales “thought, spat.” With these seemingly completely insignificant touches, the poet seems to “take” the image out of that semi-fairy-tale atmosphere.

Creating the image of Vasily Terkin, generously endowing him with features close to folklore, Tvardovsky at the same time made him so vital that many readers of the poem had no doubt about his existence real prototype, so the poet even had to dissuade his readers of this: “Vasily Terkin,” wrote Tvardovsky, “as he appears in the book, is a fictitious person from beginning to end, a figment of the imagination, a creation of fantasy. And although the traits expressed in him were observed in many living people, not one of these people can be called a prototype of Tyorkin.”

In the scientific and critical literature about “Vasily Tyorkin” there remains open question about its genre definition. Many researchers of Tvardovsky’s work do not consider this significant. So, according to A.M. Abramov, this is not so important for the idea of ​​the work, it is important that it comprehends “... the world, man, nature in their connections and relationships in the most multilateral way...”, he is also supported by the authors of the second chapter of the monograph “Vasily Terkin as folk character" “It doesn’t matter,” they note, “that it is in form, but what is important is that the warring people need it...”. P. Vykhodtsev enters into controversy with these statements, considering them unfounded. In his opinion, the question of the principles of typification in “Vasily Tyorkin” is directly and directly related to the question of the genre of the work.” Therefore, he asserts with full confidence that “The Book about a Fighter” by A.T. Tvardovsky is a folk heroic epic, with which we completely agree. And although this work is most often called a poem, this designation, in our opinion, is purely conventional, as a work of large poetic form. At the same time, it does not contain much of what usually characterizes epic genre- a poem. There is no plot, climax, or denouement in the action; there is no developed plot (according to the author, “there are no plots in war”). The number of chapters is not determined by any framework; there could be more. As for the point of view of the author himself, he did not have a clearly defined plan for the entire work in advance. Here's how he wrote about it: “The genre designation, “Book about a fighter,” which I settled on, was not the result of a desire to simply avoid the designation “poem” or “story.” This coincided with the decision to write not a poem...” Tvardovsky wanted to create a kind of poetic encyclopedia about a warring people, a liberating warrior or folk book what would the word "book" be in this in the popular sense sounded in a special way - significantly, so that, in the words of the poet, “... it could be read from any open page.” According to his recollections, literary laws and genre definitions only hindered him in his search for the desired form of presentation. Only when the poet gave up on them did everything begin to go easily and freely. Overcoming and escaping from literary conventions, he happily used folklore conventions. Reading these confessions of the poet, we more clearly feel the undoubted connection of “Vasily Terkin” with the traditions of folk artistic culture.

In her article, Ermolaeva notes: “the truth of the poem is the truth about the soul of a soldier, about what and how he experiences in war. For Tvardovsky, the most important document of the era is the soul of the Russian soldier. The mood, thought, feeling, word contained in each individual chapter “confirmed and consolidated” the state of the people’s spirit at one or another stage of the war. Over the years, these chapters formed a kind of chronicle of the spiritual life of the people, reflecting the movement of national self-awareness throughout the war period. “The book about a fighter” appeared in this sense historical work about modernity."

A. Tvardovsky asserted in his work the greatest value of the life of the nation and people, as well as the inviolability of eternal national, folk, universal - ideological and ethical values. The originality of Tvardovsky’s work is that the historical existence of the nation and people is inseparable from the historical existence of the individual.

Literature

List of sources

1. Tvardovsky, A.T. Collected works in 6 volumes. / A. T. Tvardovsky. – M.: Fiction, 1978.

T.1: Poems (1926-1940). Ant country. Poem. Translations.

T. 2: Poems (1940-1945). Poems. Vasily Terkin. House by the road.

T. 3: Poems (1946-1970). Poems. Beyond the distance is the distance. Terkin in the next world.

T. 4: Stories and essays (1932-1959).

T. 5: Articles and notes on literature. Speeches and performances (1933-1970)

2. Tvardovsky, A.T. Selected works. In 3 volumes. / Comp. M. Tvardovsky. - M.: Fiction, 1990.

T. 2: Poems.

List of scientific, critical, memoir literature and dictionaries

Abramov, A. M. “Vasily Terkin” by A. Tvardovsky - folk epic/ A. M. Abramov. – Voronezh, 1981.

Bessonova, L.P. Folklore traditions in the poems of A. Tvardovsky / L.P. Bessonova, T.M. Stepanova // Tutorial for gumma students. fak. – Maykop, 2008.

“Vasily Terkin” by A. Tvardovsky - a folk epic / ed. A.M. Abramova, V.M. Akatkina. – Voronezh, 1981.

Vykhodtsev, P.S. Alexander Tvardovsky / P.S. Vykhodtsev. – M., 1958.

Grishunin, A.L. “Vasily Terkin” by Alexander Tvardovsky / A.L. Grishunin // ed. G.V. Stepanova. – M.: Nauka, 1987.

Grishunin, A. L. Tvardovsky’s creativity / A. L. Grushinin, S. I. Kormilov, I. Yu. Iskrzhitskaya: Moscow State University, 1998.

Dal, V.I. Dictionary living Great Russian language: In four volumes. Volume 3. - RIPOL CLASSIC, 2002.

Ermolova, N. L. About the truth of war in the “Book about a fighter” by A. T. Tvardovsky / N. L. Ermolova // Literature at school, 2005. - No. 5, pp. 2-6.