"The Fate of Man": analysis of the story. Sholokhov, work "The Fate of Man"

Fate of a person (meanings)

"The Fate of Man"- a story by Soviet Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov. Written in 1956-1957. The first publication was the newspaper Pravda, issues for December 31, 1956 and January 1, 1957.

Plot

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, driver Andrei Sokolov has to leave his family and go to the front. Already in the first months of the war, he was wounded and captured by fascists. In captivity, he experiences all the hardships of the concentration camp, thanks to his courage he avoids execution and, finally, escapes from it behind the front line, to his own. On a short leave from the front to his small homeland, he learns that his beloved wife Irina and both daughters died during the bombing. Of his relatives, he only had a young son, an officer. Returning to the front, Andrei receives news that his son died on the last day of the war.

After the war, lonely Sokolov works in strange places. There he meets a little boy Vanya, who was left an orphan. His mother died and his father went missing. Sokolov tells the boy that he is his father, and this gives the boy (and himself) hope for a new life.

Two orphaned people, two grains of sand, thrown into foreign lands by a military hurricane of unprecedented force... What awaits them ahead? And I would like to think that this Russian man, a man of unbending will, will endure and grow up next to his father’s shoulder, one who, having matured, will be able to endure everything, overcome everything on his way, if his Motherland calls him to it.

History of creation

The plot of the story is based on real events. In the spring of 1946, while hunting, Sholokhov met a man who told him his sad story. Sholokhov was captivated by this story, and he decided: “I’ll write a story about this, I’ll definitely write it.” Ten years later, rereading the stories of Hemingway, Remarque and other foreign writers, Sholokhov wrote the story “The Fate of a Man” in seven days.

Screen adaptation

In 1959, the story was filmed by Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk, who played the main role. The film “The Fate of a Man” was awarded the main prize at the Moscow Film Festival in 1959 and opened the way for the director to big cinema.

Time quickly pushes into the depths of history important milestones in the lives of countries and peoples. The last volleys died down long ago. Time mercilessly takes living witnesses of heroic time into immortality. Books, films, and memories bring descendants back to the past. The exciting work The Fate of a Man, authored by Mikhail Sholokhov, takes us back to those difficult years.

In contact with

The title tells you what it will be about. The focus is on the fate of a person, the author spoke about it in such a way that it absorbed the fate of the whole country and its people.

The fate of man main characters:

• Andrey Sokolov;
• boy Vanyusha;
• son of the main character - Anatoly;
• wife Irina;
• the daughters of the main character are Nastya and Olyushka.

Andrey Sokolov

Meeting with Andrey Sokolov

The first post-war war turned out to be “pushy”, the Upper Don melted quickly, and the roads were a mess. It was at this time that the narrator had to get to the village of Bukanovskaya. On the way, we crossed the overflowing Elanka River and sailed for an hour on a dilapidated boat. While waiting for the second flight, he met a father and son, a boy of 5-6 years old. The author noted the deep melancholy in the man’s eyes, as if they were sprinkled with ashes. The father's careless clothes suggested that he lived without female care, but the boy was dressed warmly and neatly. Everything became clear when the narrator learned a sad story new friend.

The life of the main character before the war

The hero himself is from Voronezh. At first, everything in life turned out as usual. Born in 1900, served and fought in the Kikvidze division. He survived the famine of 1922 working for the Kuban kulaks, but his parents and sister died that year from hunger in the Voronezh province.

Left all alone. Having sold the house, he left for Voronezh, where started a family. He married an orphan; there was no one more beautiful and desirable for him than his Irina. Children were born, a son Anatoly and two daughters, Nastenka and Olyushka.

He worked as a carpenter, a factory worker, and a mechanic, but he was truly “attracted” by machines. Ten years flew by unnoticed in work and worries. The wife bought two goats, the wife and owner Irina was excellent. The children were well-fed, well-fed, and enjoyed excellent studies. Andrey earned good money, he saved some money. They built a house not far from the aircraft factory, which the main character later regretted. In another place, the house could have survived the bombing, and life could have turned out completely differently. Everything that was created over the years collapsed in an instant - the war began.

War

Andrey was summoned with a summons on the second day, we saw off the whole family to war. It was hard to say goodbye. His wife Irina seemed to feel that they would not see each other again; day and night her eyes did not dry out from tears.

Formation took place in Ukraine, near Bila Tserkva. They gave me a ZIS-5, and I went to the front with it. Andrei fought for less than a year. He was wounded twice, but he quickly returned to duty. He wrote home infrequently: there was no time, and there was nothing special to write about - they were retreating on all fronts. Andrei condemned those “bitches in pants who complain, seek sympathy, slobber, but don’t want to understand that these unfortunate women and children had it no worse in the rear.”

In May 1942, near Lozovenki, the main character fell into fascist captivity. The day before, he volunteered to deliver shells to the artillerymen. There was less than a kilometer left to the battery when a long-range shell exploded near the car. He woke up, and the battle was going on behind him. It was not of his own free will that he was captured. The German machine gunners took off his boots, but did not shoot him, but drove him in a column of Russian prisoners to work for their Reich.

Once we spent the night in a church with a destroyed dome. A doctor was found, and he did his great work in captivity - helping the wounded soldiers. One of the prisoners asked to go outside to relieve himself. Holy faith in God does not allow a Christian to desecrate the temple; the Germans slashed at the door with machine-gun fire, wounding three at once and killing a pilgrim. Fate also prepared a terrible test for Andrey - to kill a traitor from “his own.” By chance at night he overheard a conversation from which he realized that the big-faced guy was planning to hand over his platoon commander to the Germans. Andrei Sokolov cannot allow Judas Kryzhnev to save himself at the cost of betrayal and the death of his comrades. An incident full of drama in the church shows the behavior of different people in inhumane circumstances.

Important! It is not easy for the main character to commit murder, but he sees salvation in the unity of people. In the story “The Fate of Man” this episode is full of drama.

An unsuccessful escape from the Poznan camp, when they were digging graves for prisoners, almost cost Andrei Sokolov his life. When they caught him, beat him, hounded him with dogs, his skin, meat and clothes fell into shreds. They brought me to the camp naked, covered in blood. He served a month in a punishment cell and miraculously survived. For two years of captivity traveled half of Germany: worked at a silicate plant in Saxony, in a mine in the Ruhr region, in Bavaria, Thuringia. The prisoners were brutally beaten and shot. Here they forgot their name, remembered their number, Sokolov was known as 331. They fed him half-and-half bread with sawdust, thin rutabaga gruel. The list of inhumane trials in captivity does not end there.

Survive and withstand Nazi captivity helped. Lagerführer Müller appreciated the strength of spirit of the Russian soldier. In the evening in the barracks, Sokolov was indignant at the four cubic meters of output, bitterly joking that a cubic meter would be enough for the grave of every prisoner.

The next day, the camp commandant summoned Sokolov following a denunciation from some scoundrel. The description of the duel between the Russian soldier and Muller is fascinating. Refusal to drink German weapons for victory could cost Sokolov his life. Muller did not shoot and said that he respected a worthy opponent. As a reward he gave a loaf of bread and a piece of lard; the food was divided among everyone, captured by a harsh thread.

Sokolov did not give up the thought of escape. He carried an engineer for the construction of defensive structures with the rank of major. In the front line The captive driver managed to escape, taking the stunned engineer with important documents. They promised to present me with a reward for this.

They sent me to the hospital for treatment, Andrei Sokolov immediately wrote a letter to Irina. Are your relatives alive or not? I waited a long time for an answer from my wife, but received a letter from a neighbor, Ivan Timofeevich. When the aircraft factory was bombed, nothing was left of the house. Son Tolik was in the city at that time, and Irina and her daughters died. A neighbor reported that Anatoly volunteered for the front.

On vacation I went to Voronezh, but I could not stay even an hour in the place where there was his family happiness and family hearth. He went to the station and returned to the division. Soon his son found him, received a letter from Anatoly and dreamed of meeting him. The country was already preparing to celebrate the Victory when Andrei's son was killed Anatoly. A sniper shot him on the morning of May 9th. It is very tragic that Andrei Sokolov’s son lived to see victory, but was unable to enjoy life in peacetime. The main character buried his son in a foreign land, and he himself was soon demobilized.

After the war

It was painful for him to return to his native Voronezh. Andrey remembered that a friend invited me to Uryupinsk. He arrived and began working as a driver. Here fate brought two lonely people together. Boy Vanya is a gift of fate. A war-wounded man now has hope for happiness.

Sholokhov’s story ends with the father and son going “in marching order” to Kashary, where a colleague will get the father a job in a carpenter’s artel, and then they will give him a driver’s license. He lost his previous document by an unfortunate accident. On a muddy road, the car skidded and he knocked down a cow. Everything worked out, the cow got up and walked, but I had to put the book down.

Important! Any true story or story about the fate of a person who miraculously survived in fascist captivity is interesting. This is a special story, it is about the Russian character unbroken by the war. The author expressed with utmost clarity his admiration for the feat, heroism and courage of ordinary people during the Second World War.

Features of Sholokhov's story “The Fate of a Man”

In the history of literature, it is rare that a small story becomes a grand event. After the publication of the story “The Fate of a Man” in the first issue of the Pravda newspaper in 1957, the novelty attracted everyone’s attention.

• In the story “The Fate of a Man”, a convincing and reliable description of real events is captivating. Mikhail Sholokhov heard the tragic story of a Russian soldier in 1946. Then ten long years of silence. The year the short story “The Fate of Man” was written is considered to be late 1956. Later the work was filmed.
• Ring composition: the story “The Fate of a Man” begins with a chance meeting between the author and the main character. At the end of the conversation, the men say goodbye and go about their business. In the central part, Andrei Sokolov opened his soul to a new acquaintance. He heard the hero's story about pre-war life, years at the front, and return to peaceful life.

The story “The Fate of a Man,” which immediately evoked numerous responses from readers, was written by M. Sholokhov in a few days. It was based on impressions from the writer’s meeting with a stranger who told the sad story of his life. The work was first published in the New Year's issues of Pravda in 1956-1957.

An unexpected acquaintance

The summary continues with a description of an acquaintance with an older man and a boy of five or six years old: they left the farm and settled down next to the author. A conversation ensued. The stranger said that he was a driver and noted how difficult it was to walk with a small child. The author drew attention to the boy’s good-quality clothes, which were carefully adjusted to his height by women’s hands. However, the patches on the man’s quilted jacket and pants were rough, from which he concluded that he was a widower or did not get along with his wife.

The stranger sent his son to play, and he suddenly said: “I don’t understand why life punished me like this?” And he began his long story. Let's give a brief summary of it.

“The Fate of Man”: Sokolov’s pre-war life

Born in the Voronezh province, he fought in the Red Army during the civil war. In the twenty-second, his parents and sister died of hunger, but he survived - in the Kuban he fought with his fists. Then he settled in Voronezh and got married. The girl was good. They lived peacefully, and he had no one better and dearer than Irinka in the world. He worked at a factory, and from the twenty-ninth he sat behind the wheel and never parted with the car again. Sometimes he drank with his friends, but after the birth of his son and two daughters he gave up alcoholic drinks. He brought all his wages home, and during the pre-war ten years they acquired their own house and farm. There was plenty of everything, and the children were happy with their school successes. This is what Sholokhov talks about in the story “The Fate of Man.”

And then there was war: on the second day - a summons, on the third - they took me away. When parting, Irina, pale and crying, kept clinging to her husband and repeating that they would not see each other again. Then the hero was dismantled, as he admitted, by evil: he buried him ahead of time! He pushed his wife away from him - albeit lightly, but he still cannot forgive himself for this. I said goodbye to my family and jumped on the train. This is how I remember it: the huddled children waving their hands and trying to smile, and the pale wife standing and whispering something...

Start of the war

Formed in Ukraine. Sokolov received a truck and drove it to the front. They wrote from home often, but he himself rarely answered: everyone retreated, but I didn’t want to complain. The car came under fire more than once and received two minor wounds. And in May '42 he was captured. Sokolov described the circumstances of this absurd, as he put it, incident to the author. This was his story.

A person's fate in war often depends on circumstances. When the Nazis advanced, one of the Russian batteries found itself without shells. They should have been delivered to Sokolov in his truck. It was going to be a difficult task - to break through to our own people through the shelling. And when there was about a kilometer left to reach the battery, the hero felt as if something had burst in his head. When he woke up, he experienced severe pain throughout his body, stood up with difficulty and looked around. A car lies overturned nearby, and shells intended for the battery are scattered around. And the sounds of battle are heard somewhere behind. So Sokolov ended up behind the German lines. Sholokhov described all these events very vividly.

“The Fate of Man”: summary. First day in captivity

The hero lay down on the ground and began to observe. First the German tanks drove by, and then the machine gunners started moving. It was sickening to look at them, but I didn’t want to die lying down. That’s why Sokolov stood up, and the Nazis headed towards him. One even took the machine gun off his shoulder. However, the corporal tested the soldier's muscles and ordered him to be sent west.

Soon Sokolov joined the column of prisoners from his own division. The horrors of captivity are the next part of the story “The Fate of Man.” Sholokhov notes that the seriously wounded were shot immediately. Two soldiers who decided to escape when it got dark also died. At night they entered the village, and the prisoners were driven into the old church. The floor is stone, there is no dome, and it also rained so much that everyone got wet. Soon, Sokolov, who was dozing, was woken up by a man: “Aren’t you wounded?” The hero complained of unbearable pain in his arm, and the military doctor, identifying the dislocation, set it in place.

Soon Sokolov heard a quiet conversation next to him. Let's give a brief summary of it. The fate of the person who spoke (it was a platoon commander) completely depended on his interlocutor - Kryzhnev. The latter admitted that in the morning he would hand over the commander to the Nazis. The hero felt bad from such a betrayal, and he immediately made a decision. When it was just dawn, Sokolov signaled to the platoon commander, a thin and pale boy, to hold the traitor by the legs. And he leaned on the strong Kryzhnev and squeezed his hands on his throat. This is how the hero killed a person for the first time.

In the morning they began to ask communists and commanders, but there were no more traitors. Having shot four at random, the Nazis drove the column further.

Escape attempt

To get out to his own people - this was the hero’s dream from the first day of captivity. Once he managed to escape and even walk about forty kilometers. But at dawn on the fourth day, dogs found Sokolov sleeping in a haystack. The Nazis first brutally beat the captured man and then unleashed the dogs on him. Naked and tortured, they brought him to the camp and threw him into a punishment cell for a month.

Let's continue with the summary. “The Fate of Man” continues with the story of how the hero was driven around Germany for two years, severely beaten, fed so that only skin and bones remained, and he could hardly bear them. And at the same time they were forced to work, just as a draft horse could not do.

In the camp

Sokolov fell near Dresden in September. They worked in a stone quarry: they manually chiseled and crushed the rock. One evening the hero said in his hearts: “They need four cubic meters, but for us one is enough for the grave.” This was reported to Commandant Müller, who was particularly cruel. He liked to hit prisoners in the face with his hand, which was wearing a lead-lined glove.

Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” continues with the fact that the commandant summoned Sokolov to his place. The hero said goodbye to everyone, remembered his family and prepared to die. The authorities feasted, and Muller, seeing the prisoner, asked if he had said that one cubic meter of land was enough for him for a grave. And, having received an affirmative answer, he promised to personally shoot him. And then he poured a glass of vodka and handed it to the prisoner with a piece of bread and lard: “For our victory.” Sokolov supplied schnapps, declaring that he did not drink. “Well then, for your death,” answered the commandant. The hero poured vodka into himself in two sips, but did not touch the bread: “I don’t eat after the first.” And only after the third glass (“before I die, I’ll at least get drunk”) he took a bite of a small piece of bread. The smiling Müller became serious: “You are a brave soldier, and I respect such people. And our troops at the Volga. That’s why I give you life.” And he held out the bread and lard. The intoxicated hero stumbled into the barracks and fell asleep. And the grub was divided equally among everyone.

The escape

Soon Sokolov was sent to a new place, where he began to drive a small and fat major engineer. Near Polotsk - it was 1944 - the Russians were already standing. The hero decided that there would be no better opportunity to escape. He prepared a weight, a piece of wire, and even took off the drunken German’s uniform. In the morning, driving out of town, he stopped and hit the sleeping major on the head. Then he tied him up and headed towards the Russian troops. Survived under double shelling and brought the tongue to headquarters. For this, the colonel, promising to present him for an award, sent him to the hospital, and then on leave.

This is the summary. “The Fate of Man,” however, does not end there.

Scary news

In the hospital, the hero received a letter from a neighbor. He said that back in '42, during a raid, a bomb hit his house - only one crater remained. His wife and daughters died, and his son, who was in the city that day, volunteered for the front. After receiving treatment, Sokolov went to Voronezh, stood at the crater and again went to the division. And soon I received a letter from my son, but I couldn’t see him alive either - on May 9, Anatoly was killed. Again Sokolov was left alone in the whole world.

Vanyushka

After the war, he settled with friends in Uryupinsk and got a job as a driver. Once I saw a boy near the tea shop - dirty, ragged and with shiny eyes. On the fourth day, he called me into his booth, randomly calling her Vanyushka. And, it turned out, he guessed right. The boy told how his mother was killed and his father died at the front. “We can’t disappear alone,” Sokolov decided. And he called himself the surviving father. He brought the boy to his friends, washed him, combed his hair, bought clothes, which the owner adjusted to his height. And now they are going to look for a new place to live. My only concern is that my heart is playing tricks, it’s scary to die in my sleep and frighten my little son. He also constantly dreams about his family - he wants to get to his wife and children from behind the wire, but they disappear.

Then the voice of a comrade was heard, and the author said goodbye to his new acquaintances. And when Sokolov and his son walked away, Vanyushka suddenly turned around and waved his hand. At that moment, the narrator felt as if someone had squeezed his heart. “No, it’s not only men who cry in their sleep,” M. Sholokhov ends his work “The Fate of Man” with this phrase.

M. Sholokhov - story “The Fate of a Man.” M. Sholokhov more than once addressed in his speeches the problem of the Russian character. The writer spoke “about the stubborn character of the Russian people,” about their responsiveness and generosity and exclaimed: “Here he is, a Russian man! Russian soldier. The devil knows, will we be able to reveal his soul?

Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man,” which tells about the events of the Great Patriotic War, is also dedicated to the theme of Russian character. The great wartime national tragedy is depicted by Sholokhov in this story. In a small work, the reader experiences the life of the hero, incorporating the life of the Motherland. Andrei Sokolov is a peaceful worker who hates war. As the greatest treasure, he keeps in his heart the memory of the pre-war life of his family: “My wife was brought up in an orphanage. An orphan... Since childhood, she learned how much a pound is worth, maybe this affected her character. Looking from the outside, she wasn’t that distinguished, but I wasn’t looking at her from the side, but point-blank. And for me there was no one more beautiful and desirable than her...”

This man steadfastly endured all the trials that befell him: a difficult separation from his family when going to the front, injury, fascist captivity, the death of the family remaining behind the lines, the tragic death of his beloved son Anatoly on the last day of the war.

In the most difficult conditions, the hero showed courage, endurance, self-control, and self-esteem. Andrei Sokolov reflected one of the best features of the Russian people - the constant and immediate readiness to defend the Motherland. War is unnatural for him, but if it has begun, then at such a time he cannot imagine any other fate for himself other than military service. True to his concepts of honor and duty, he kills the traitor who wanted to hand over his commander to the Germans. The feeling of camaraderie makes Andrei forget about himself at a critical moment and do everything possible to help people. Sokolov was well aware of the dangerous situation when it became necessary to deliver shells to the howitzer battery. And in this situation, he had no hesitation: “My comrades may be dying there, but am I going to suffer here?”

Tremendous fortitude, courage, and self-esteem helped the hero survive his meeting with Muller in the German camp, when he refused to drink German weapons for victory. Both in war and in peaceful life, Sokolov is guided by an immutable principle for himself: “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.” This phrase is the leitmotif of the work. Having withstood all the blows of fate, withstood unimaginable trials, the hero again found joy in life - the love of little Vanyushka.

Critics have repeatedly noted the generality and collectiveness of Andrei Sokolov’s image. The reader is presented not just with the life story of a soldier, but with the fate of a man who embodied the typical features of the national Russian character, the fate of an entire generation. This collective image of the hero allows us not only to compare Andrei Sokolov with the heroes of other authors (with Vasily Terkin from the poem of the same name by A.T Tvardovsky), but also to talk about the folklore symbolism of the work.

Let's try to compare Sokolov with the heroes of numerous Russian fairy tales about a soldier who is characterized by some constant character traits: endurance and patience, resourcefulness in difficult situations, even at the time of death. Testing a hero by death is a common folklore motif. Sokolov goes through this test many times. After a long-range shell exploded, he lost consciousness. “I don’t understand how I stayed alive then.” Then the hero was on the verge of death when German machine gunners approached. The young German even wanted to shoot him, but an elderly corporal held him back. Then Sokolov miraculously survived when, after escaping, he was overtaken by the Germans with dogs. And during a call to the German commandant, death again passed him by.

The fairytale soldier is often a jack of all trades. Sokolov is like that: he does a wide variety of peasant work - carpentry, plumbing, driving cars. In fascist captivity, he has to drain swamps, roll away coal in a mine, and work at a silicate plant. His very appearance (“healthy and strong, like the devil”) reminds us of the appearance of a fairy-tale hero.

The story often uses triplicity - a favorite folklore device. Andrei Sokolov had three children, three times he loses his relatives, three times he was wounded, three times Muller offers him a drink before his death.

Sholokhov's story contains symbolic images and paintings. The writer moves from the external to the internal, from the concrete subject matter to the philosophical. He humanizes natural phenomena and compares them with the life of the hero. Thus, the image of the wind runs through the entire story. Already at the beginning of the story it is said: “At the end of March, warm winds blew from the Azov region...”. Then this warm wind from Sholokhov turns into a military hurricane, which became an important link in the depiction of Sokolov’s life path. The image of the road is also symbolic in the story. “During this bad time of no roads, I had to go…”, “… the whole road was shot through and through with artillery fire,” “I went out onto the road.” The concrete plan of the road also gradually develops into a symbol of the hero’s life path.

Thus, the story “The Fate of Man” grew on the basis of folklore traditions, on the basis of the people's worldview. These motives and traditions seem extremely important in revealing the humanistic content of the story, in identifying the characteristic features of the Russian national character.

(Literary investigation)

Participating in the investigation:
Presenter - librarian
Independent historian
Witnesses - literary heroes

Leading: 1956 31th of December the story was published in Pravda "The Fate of 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: August 16, 1941 Stalin signed the order № 270 , which said:
“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 Motherland.”

The order required the destruction of prisoners by all “by means both ground and air, and the families of the Red Army soldiers who surrendered are deprived of state benefits and assistance”

In 1941 alone, according to German data, 3 million 800 thousand Soviet military personnel were captured. 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?

Testifies in his book "My adult childhood".

(The girl testifies on behalf of L.M. Gurchenko).

Witness: Not only Kharkov 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 relocated 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 started following me: “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 1945, Sholokhov’s war did not let go. He was working on a novel "They fought for their homeland" and a story "The Fate of 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”: Alexandra Solzhenitsyn and a writer from Almaty Veniamina Larina. Let's listen to them.

(The young man testifies on behalf of A.I. Solzhenitsyn)

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 Directorate of Counterintelligence “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 praised 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 rips a revelation out of his heart: 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 Vorobyov 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, say, a sergeant before captivity, 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 rejoices there - now I’m not fighting for myself alone, like 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 into 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, war is hard work that must be done conscientiously, giving one’s all.

Leading: Major Pugachev testifies from the story 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 correctness:
“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 the story, testifies Sergei Smirnov “The Path to the Motherland” from book "Heroes of the Great War".

(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. Miraculously, we managed to get 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 try to be sent home 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 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 fate 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: wounded, encircled, unarmed, due to the treason of the commander or the betrayal of the 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 unfortunate 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" MM. 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 during captivity or after it? What, I don’t know the extremes of human baseness, cruelty, and 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. G. Sholokhov: to help teachers and high school students. and applicants / F. G. Biryukov. - 2nd ed. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 2000. - 111 p. - (Rereading the classics).

2. Zhukov, Ivan Ivanovich. The hand of fate: Truth and lies about M. Sholokhov and A. Fadeev. - M.: Gaz.-magazine. about-nie "Resurrection", 1994. - 254, p., l. ill. : ill.

3. Osipov, Valentin Osipovich. The secret life of Mikhail Sholokhov...: a documentary chronicle without legends / V.O. Osipov. - M.: LIBEREYA, 1995. - 415 p., l. port p.

4. Petelin, Viktor Vasilievich. Life of Sholokhov: Russian tragedy. genius / Victor Petelin. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2002. - 893, p., l. ill. : portrait ; 21 cm. - (Immortal names).

5. Russian literature of the 20th century: a manual for high school students, applicants and students / L. A. Iezuitova, S. A. Iezuitov [etc.]; ed. T. N. Nagaitseva. - St. Petersburg. : Neva, 1998. - 416 p.

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 / V. A. Chalmaev. - 2nd ed. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 2000. - 123 p. - (Rereading the classics).

7. Sholokhova S. M. Execution plan: On the history of an unwritten story / S. M. Sholokhovva // Peasant. - 1995. - No. 8. - February.

"The Fate of Man": how it happened