Abramov brothers and sisters analysis. Brothers and sisters

The first part of the Pryaslins tetralogy, for which the writer was awarded the USSR State Prize.

Plot

The pathos of the novel is determined by the idea of ​​the unity of the people in the face of a common misfortune, of their ability for mutual assistance, self-denial and self-sacrifice.

The action of the novel takes place in the spring and autumn of 1942, when, as a result of heavy defeats, the Red Army continued to retreat, leaving the grain-growing regions of the country. The hard work of supplying the army and the rear with bread falls on the shoulders of women, the elderly and adolescents in the villages of areas remote from the front. The novel takes place in the Russian North, in the upper reaches of the Pinega River, in the old, half-Old Believer village of Pekashino. Among the endless forests on poor soils, the remaining inhabitants of the village, who sent six dozen men to the front, work in half-starvation to grow a larger crop for the front and rear, to survive themselves.

At a meeting in a former church, now used as a club, collective farmers spontaneously, under the inadvertent influence of the district crop commissioner, the wounded front-line soldier Lukashin, remove the chairman of the collective farm and appoint a new, former foreman, Anfisa Petrovna Minina. The new chairman is faced with a shortage of labor, food for the peasants, feed. One of the foremen, Fyodor Kapitonovich, who managed to ingratiate himself with the district authorities, is set against her. However, inspired by the confidence of the peasants, Anfisa is included in the work.

The novel consistently describes the stages and hardships of peasant labor and life in wartime. The funeral comes to the family of old people Stepan Andeyanovich and Makarovna, and the old mother dies, unable to bear the death of her son. Stepan Andreyanovich, who for many years collected good in the hope of returning to the personal household of his son, the commissar, now gives things he made with his own hands for the front. Anna Pryaslina, mother of six children, receives a funeral. She cannot fulfill the daily norms of collective farm work multiplied by the war and decides to collect a bag of harvested ears for hungry children. The chairman of the collective farm finds her hot, but decides to hide Anna's act, for which she faces 10 years in prison. Anna is helped in her family hardships by her eldest, 14-year-old son Mishka, who, with his work and skill at collective farm work, deserves the respect of his elders. During a forest fire that threatens the crop, Mishka rushes to help the bird, which cannot save the chicks in the nest; however, Mishka himself needs help, and 19-year-old Komsomol organizer Nastya, who rushed to his aid, almost completely burns.

The chairman of the collective farm, Anfisa Minina, despite the opposition of a corrupt party functionary, is accepted as a candidate for the party. Anfisa and Lukashin are seized by a mutual feeling, but restrain themselves, remembering wartime and duty. Lukashin, tormented by guilt for having almost succumbed to the caresses of the village beauty Varvara, and by the consciousness of his actual idleness among hard-working people, strives to return to the front as soon as possible.

History of writing

Surviving after being seriously wounded near Leningrad, after the hospital, in the summer of 1942, while on leave for injury, 22-year-old Fyodor Abramov ended up in his native land and remembered the struggle of the peasants for the harvest for the rest of his life. Fyodor Abramov began writing the first chapters of the novel while a lecturer in the philological faculty of Leningrad University, during the summer holidays of 1950 at the Dorishche farm in Novgorod Oblast, and wrote for six years. For two years, the novel was not accepted for publication; the magazines Oktyabr and Novy Mir refused the writer. In 1958, the novel "Brothers and Sisters" was published in the journal "Neva" and was immediately greeted with goodwill by critics: in the 1960s, more than thirty reviews appeared in newspapers and magazines. In 1959, the novel was published as a separate book in Lenizdat, in 1960 - in "Roman-gazeta", was first translated and published in Czechoslovakia.

In 1985, "Brothers and Sisters" was adapted for a theatrical production.

F. Abramov "Brothers and Sisters"

Thirty years separate the events of the novel "The House" from 1942 - the time of action in the first part of the tetralogy. In the village of Pekashine in the 70s, an internal war reigns. Industrial conflicts are similar to "combat" fights. Three years ago, the Pekasha collective farm was transformed into a branch of a large state farm. People began to receive good wages, a village with fifty houses, a machine park, workshops, motorcycles and boats got stronger and settled down. But, bled dry by huge human losses (128 Pekashenians did not return from the front) and hunger, morally weakened by a decade of lack of rights and fear, she was not ready for material well-being and the test of it. Such a traditional virtue as selfless work from dawn to dusk has faded. The unnatural desire for an “easy life” for a farmer (when was it like that?) Turns into a moral impoverishment of conscience, spiritual needs of a person with the growth of selfish self-interest, consumer and sensual instincts. The erosion of the age-old foundations and values ​​of the peasant way of life finally resonates with the villagers by trying to get away from the extremely complicated issues with the help of vodka. men never drank like that. implanting opportunism in Pekashin as a norm of behavior and existence with all the style of his leadership, Taborsky actively corrupts the reeling village "fathers" and youth, unseasoned by labor. But not for long. Pryaslin, who had been planting corn under the Arctic Circle for two years, figured it out. Mikhail was not afraid of Taborsky’s threats, answering the question of his antipode at the end of the novel why they “didn’t get along”, Pryaslin will explain: “Because you and I are not like on the same state farm - we won’t get along on the same land.” Ultimately, Taborsky will lose his position as manager and leave the village. Mikhail is at war not only with Taborsky, the Pharisee Susanna Obrosova and tractor drivers who are indifferent to the land-breadwinner, but also with his sister Lisa, brothers Peter and Grigory. Michael for unity. But on what basis? What is generally strong and durable is that human union - whether it is the volume of a family, a village or an entire people, a country, the specific embodiment of which since ancient times has been the polysemantic concept (image) of HOUSE. It is this word, put in the title of the final part of the tetralogy, that holds together the main conflict-plot lines of both this novel and the entire epic. So, what is the strength of the human house? The house is a reflection of the owner and therefore the most important means of his characterization. The village “peace” (office) of Onegin and the dwelling of the Larins are different. The strong monastery of Sobakevich and the booth house of Nozdrev. Uncomfortable Maryino Kirsanovs and Odintsova's castle. Abramov also offers readers to compare the houses of their main characters, as well as the attitude of each of them to their native village (father's house). There is an artistic test of a person by the value of the house and houses - his longed-for authorial norm. Here is the new house of Mikhail Pryaslin - it has something to receive guests and feed relatives. Why is everyone sitting at the table gloomy? Material abundance is in Mikhail's house, but in his soul and heart he is in an old house - a wreck. Why? Because purity and diligence, conscientiousness and brotherly soldering always reigned in him. Peter Pryaslin is trying to restore the old house. The house should be like a symbol of a deep, capacious memory of the past, a person's responsibility for preserving this memory. The best house in the village is the house of the patriarch. This is a man-made peasant micro universe in its idea and flesh. Wooden (that is, from natural, not artificial material), rooted in the ground with a foundation and underground, and with a high roof directed to the sky, natural and cosmic in all their spatial and temporal extent. But not only. This is a house-temple, as it is animated - spiritualized from the inside by the traditional and natural for the Russian farmer Christian morality, ethics and morality. It is necessary to believe in the saving power of love and generosity.

1. The history of the creation of the work.

The novel "Brothers and Sisters" was published by F.A. Abramov in 1958, but he had a rich background. The writer spoke about the idea of ​​his work in many interviews and prefaces. Finding himself in his native places after the battle of Leningrad, Fedor Alexandrovich saw a hard life in the village, which required a detailed description. The author in his novel wanted to reflect the people's truth of wartime, he wanted to show how hard it was for women and the elderly in those days. As an adherent of village prose, F.A. Abramov decided to pose the problem of village life. The writer, as he himself noted, wanted to argue with other authors who had “pink water” in their works and show their attitude towards life in the village.

The idea of ​​the novel "Brothers and Sisters", which was born in 1942, matured for 8 years. Only in 1950 F.A. Abramov began work on the work and worked on it for another 6 years.

2. The genre of the work. Signs of the genre (genres).

The novel "Brothers and Sisters" is included in the tetralogy, which is dedicated to village life and combines the features of both epic and chronicle, both social and psychological. Being the first in a tetralogy, this novel has autobiographical features to a greater extent. There are many lyrical digressions in it, in which the author's "I" sounds brightly.

3. The title of the work and its meaning.

The name "Brothers and Sisters" has several semantic functions. First of all, this is the plot basis: the Pryaslins were brothers and sisters. Also, brothers and sisters were called all the inhabitants of the village, who were really close to each other. This marked the inseparability and closeness of the village people. The title of the novel is also due to the fact that I. V. Stalin addressed the entire Russian people with the phrase “Brothers and sisters” in wartime.

4. From whose face is the story being told? Why?

The story is told in the third person, but through the eyes of those who lived in the village. The novel contains lyrical digressions that speak of the autobiographical nature of the work.

5. Theme and idea of ​​the work. Issues.

The main theme of the first novel of the trilogy by F.A. Abramov - the work of the peasants. The author tells about the hard work of the villagers, which was carried out in wartime. The writer equates the activities of women and the elderly with a real feat, because all the men were taken away by the war and it was these residents who left the well-being of the whole village.

The author notes that in this difficult time for the whole people, the villagers managed to survive, because they all treated each other like brothers and sisters. The writer shows how people managed to resist difficult times, managed not to break down and continue to live.

In his novel, F.A. Abramov raises the problem of giving up personal life in favor of public life.

6. The plot (story lines) of the work. Conflict. key episodes.

The plot of the novel "Brothers and Sisters" is based on the history of the village of Pekashino, which became the personification of the entire ordinary Russian people in wartime, when people became brothers and sisters to each other.

The conflict of the work is connected with various contradictions of life in the village: this is the clash of the views of the people with the views of the leaders, this is the hostility of the life principles of the various heroes of the novel.

7. The system of images of the work.

F. Abramov in his work tells about the life of several families: Pryaslins, Stavrovs, Netesovs and Zhitovs. And the main characters are women, children and the elderly, on whose shoulders the whole village way of life remains. It was important for the writer to show the inner qualities of these characters, to demonstrate their spiritual beauty. The author loves his characters.

8. Composition of the work.

The novel "Brothers and Sisters" tells about village life during the Great Patriotic War. The history of the novel ends in 1943 and is the beginning of the events of the subsequent novels of the trilogy by F. A. Abramov.

9. Artistic means, techniques that reveal the idea of ​​the work.

The peculiarity of the whole cycle is that the writer wanted to show the life of the village through the main historical events. This manifested the publicism of the novel by F.A. Abramov, who tried to show the meaning of all the facts. For the writer, the psychological component of the characters' characters and their personalities is not so important. The psychology of the whole people is important.

10. Review of the product.

Roman F.A. Abramov's "Brothers and Sisters" vividly and truthfully revealed the life of the village in wartime, showing that the actions of ordinary people who were not involved in hostilities are also real feats. The writer was able to convey the mood of that time and express his attitude towards it.

Features of the image of the military rear in the novel "Brothers and Sisters" by F. A. Abramov as a "second front".

The novel by Fyodor Aleksandrovich Abramov "Brothers and Sisters" is the best work about the life of a wartime village. Returning from the war to his native places after being seriously wounded, the writer became an eyewitness to the labor feat of a distant northern village, prompting him to talk about “the main sufferers who washed the local hayfields with sweat and tears”, about peasant women who replaced the men called up for war. It was in those difficult years that he became stronger in the idea that without a valiant heroic rear, the Great Victory would not have been accomplished.

The leading theme of the first book is peasant labor. The author focuses on the chronicle of the life of one northern collective farm, the Arkhangelsk village of Pekashino, but in a broad sense, this is a book about the life of the people, about the labor feat of the Russian peasantry, accomplished by them in the war and post-war years ...

Struggling with wartime poverty, everyone lives with the dream that after the war a new, extraordinary, wonderful life will begin. Without this hope, the people could not endure everything and win. Common grief, common struggle and common hatred have united and made people brothers and sisters.

At first glance, the uncomplicated title of the novel carries several semantic shades. First, I.V. Stalin called the citizens of the Soviet Union "Brothers and Sisters" in his address on the German attack. People of that time perceived Stalin as a demigod, so his words sounded especially confidential, sunk into people's hearts. Secondly, the literal meaning in this name: brothers and sisters are the Pryaslin family, four brothers (Mikhail, Peter, Grigory and Fedor) and two sisters (Liza and Tanya). Thirdly, all the inhabitants of the village are close and distant relatives to each other, which means that the title of the novel has another meaning: “Brothers and Sisters” is the story of the village of Pekashino. The course of everyday life, the chronicle of village life are described in detail. Days roll by as usual. The life of a peasant is built in accordance with the agricultural calendar.
The news from the front is disappointing - in the summer of 1942, the Nazis prepared a large-scale offensive and by the beginning of September they approached the Volga. In the board of the collective farm in Pekashino there is a geographical map showing how "black wedges in the south cut deeper and deeper into the body of the country".The writer conveys the intense daily work of people in the village as a heroic deed, and first of all, the feat of women, on whose shoulders all the male work on the “labor front” was. The war deprived the collective farm of the main male labor force (sixty people, and this is almost a third of the adult male population of the village, by this time had gone to the front). “How many people in Pekashin were taken to the war? - asks the secretary of the district committee Novozhilov. - Sixty people. Are the fields sown? Haymaking at the end? Yes, you know what? Well, as if women gave birth to sixty men again ... ".

Men were called to the front, but life did not stop. To live, it is necessary to feed and raise children, it was necessary to put an unbearable burden on your shoulders and endure. And people survived because they lived like brothers and sisters, helping each other. They were replaced by women, old men, teenagers. An unbearable burden was justified by only one thing - the maximum support for sons, husbands and brothers fighting at the front. There was no one and nothing to work in the field: “Horses exhausted during the day had to be dragged, and even those were not enough. Some got out as best they could, some adapted their cow, and some were stronger - strayed into artels; three or four women will pick up, harness themselves to the plow and pull. But they leaned more on the shovel".

In the spring, during the sowing season, the collective farm ran out of grain, there were no horses. Anfisa Petrovna Minina, chairman of the collective farm, according to the most ancient Russian custom, refers to the "peace". And the people responded. People give away their grain, leaving only a little for themselves. There is no one who would refuse, worrying only about their prosperity. Even large families responded to the call for help. They worked for days on end, plowed and sowed on cows, bulls, and even harnessed themselves. To the best of their ability, the children helped, and, exhausted, fell asleep in the classroom at school.

A special shortage of workers was felt during the hay harvest - “ no matter how cunning, no matter how they dodged, they could not plug all the holes ... ".On remote hayfields, old people had to be called for help, who were "so dilapidated that they would only be at home" , adolescents - "yellow-mouthed boys and girls", women who leave young children at home in the village. On the nearest mowings they took “all without exception – old and small. The ancient old woman Yeremeevna, who had already lost count of the years, was brought in on a cart: she could not walk far, and the rake was still in her hands..

Harvesting continued the unceasing cycle of peasant work. Knowing about the worsening situation on the fronts, the workers “were saved from heavy thoughts only in work”. Everyone who was able to work worked - "at noon the village seemed uninhabited." “We worked silently with bitterness…”. And in such harsh conditions, without male power, in an empty collective farm, work is in full swing.

Throughout the novel, pictures of the life of several village families are viewed: the Pryaslins, the Stavrovs, the Netesovs, the Zhitovs and some others. The entire content of the novel is filled with the contradictions of village life - from the first pages to the very denouement. Here is the discord between the leaders and the people, between the chairman and the collective farmers. Here is the opposition of the life principles of the heroes: Minina and Klevakin, Lukashin and Khudyakov, Mikhail Pryaslin and Yegorsha Stavrov. In constant work, in the cycle of rural suffering, the grandeur of the daily feat of the people is revealed.

Nature, people, war, life... The writer introduced similar arguments into the novel. About this - Anfisa's inner thoughts: “Grass grows, flowers are no worse than in peaceful years, the foal gallops and rejoices around its mother. And why do people– the most intelligent of all beings– they do not rejoice in earthly joy, they kill each other? .. But why is this happening, then? What are we humans? After the death of his son and the death of his wife, Stepan Andreyanovich thinks about the essence and purpose of life: “So life has been lived. For what? Why work? Well, the Germans will win. They will return home. What does he have? What is it to him? And maybe you should have lived for Makarovna. The only person was near him, and he missed him. So why do we live? Is it just to work? But “life took its toll. Makarovna left, and people worked.

The main question that Abramov wanted to emphasize was the question of conscience, of asceticism, of the rejection of personal life in the name of a common cause. “Does a person have the right to privacy if everyone around is suffering?” Civil war, shock construction, collectivization, war ... Lukashin is at a loss and doubts, but in the end, to the question "Is love possible now?" he replies, “Possible! It is now possible. You can't cancel life. And at the front? Do you think everyone has a great post? Is this possible?” Anfisa thinks differently: “Everyone decides the way he can. I don't judge. I myself can't. How can I look women in the eyes? This position of Anfisa is explained by strong moral traditions in her Old Believer family. "Once grief in the house–dead every day– can she give herself up to joy? Isn't this criminal? All great-grandmothers and grandmothers, who remained faithful to the grave to their husbands in their family, rebelled against her love, against passion.. Anfisa was overcome by doubts, she is looking for an answer, she is tormented: Nastya should have loved, life should have bestowed her with all the gifts, but in fact it fell to her, Anfisa, to love. Yes, is this fair? Who, who determines all this, calculates in advance? Why is one person destined to die young and another to live long?

In "Brothers and Sisters" the war left its mark on the whole way of life, breaking the usual work regime, exposing the elderly, women and teenagers as "headline figures". The story is told from the perspective of those who go to the frontiers of life. These are Anfisa Petrovna Minina, Stepan Andreyanovich Stavrov, Lukashin, who arrived from besieged Leningrad wounded, Nastya Gavrilina, Varvara Inyakhina, the Pryaslin family left without a father. Fourteen-year-old teenager Mikhail Pryaslin, after the death of his father, became both the brother and father of Petka, Grishka, Fedka, Tanya, Liza, his mother’s assistant, the owner of the house and the breadwinner of the family from the very day when, with the permission of his mother “He began to cut and distribute bread like a father” hushed brothers and sisters. He realizes that now everything depends on him, even a little conceited. Or, as they say, "exhibited." At first glance, he makes an impression of so-so: a little arrogant, harsh and rude ... However, the ambition quickly disappeared, and soon he was working both in the field and in the forge. The bear becomes the first man in the whole village.

The war invaded life, not allowing to forget about itself.

But the pathos of the novel is in displaying the activity of the people, their ability to withstand the blows of fate, the troubles brought by the war, in the poeticization of their native nature. One can feel the admiration of the author for the heroes of the novel. The war tested people for moral strength. Saving a collective farm field, Nastya Gavrilina dies. In the lean war years, during the famine, it was necessary, by all means, to find ways to somehow feed the family. The northern village food, usual for the hungry years, was very poor. They ate everything that could be eaten: moss - "bread plantations in the swamp", crushed pine wood, from which the children suffered from terrible pains in the stomach. The need to feed children, hunger pushed them to steal, most often collective farm grain. Anna Pryaslina, the mother of the protagonist of the novel, Mishka, left with six children after the death of her husband at the front, in a desperate situation, decided to carry a few handfuls of grain in an apron from the collective farm threshing floor. And only the silence of the chairman of the collective farm, Anfisa Minina, saved the collective farmer from the severe punishment of those years - ten years in prison. Anfisa will also stop Mishka, who has condemned his mother with childish intemperance, from rash acts. But Michael's heart will not thaw, will not depart, shaken for the time being by misfortune and embittered in trials.

F. Abramov, reflecting the life of the village of Pekashino, comes to serious conclusions, expressed in the words of the first secretary of the district committee of the Communist Party Novozhilov. The first is about the importance of women in collective farm work during the war years: “Yes, I’m ready to kneel in front of this woman, if you want to know. I would have erected a monument to her during her lifetime ... Sometimes I wonder how our woman became from a tie-down rooter?

Another conclusion became the leading idea of ​​the novel and is presented in the words of the same Novozhilov: “They say that war awakens different instincts in a person ... But I see that we have quite the opposite. People from the latter help each other. And such a conscience has risen among the people - everyone's soul shines through. Note, quarrels, squabbles there - after all, there is almost nothing ... You see, brothers and sisters ... ".

Recognizing the merits of the Russian village in the Great Victory, F. Abramov emphasizes that it was the labor feat of the collective farmers that was the real “second front”.

The events described in the first book were a prologue to subsequent events.

References:

Abramov F.A. Brothers and sisters. Book One [Text] / F. A. Abramov. - Leningrad: IPP "Soviet Writer", 1982. - P. 283.

Abramov, F.A. "House" Story. Stories [Text] /F. A. Abramov. - M.: Bustard, 2003. -463 p.

Abramov, F. A. Work is the greatest happiness. Word on the day of the sixtieth anniversary [Text]. / F. A. Abramov. - M., 1988. S. 35.36;

Once, in his notebook, Fyodor Abramov wrote: “A poet, a writer, differs from all others in one thing - the power of love. Love is the source of poetry, the source of goodness and hatred. Love gives strength to fight for the truth, endure all the hardships associated with the title of a writer. It is love for the fatherland, its nature, its history, people that literally permeated and filled all the work of F. Abramov, all his ascetic activity as a writer and citizen.

“I just couldn’t not write Brothers and Sisters,” the author admitted, explaining the secret of the birth of his first

Roman. - I knew the village of the war years and literature about it, in which there was a lot of pink water ... I wanted to argue with the authors of those works, to express my point of view. But the main thing, of course, was something else. Before my eyes were pictures of living, real reality, they pressed on the memory, demanded a word about themselves. The great feat of the Russian woman, who opened the second front in 1941, perhaps no less difficult than the front of the Russian peasant - how could I forget about it!

Fyodor Abramov's novel "Brothers and Sisters" is the best book about the village of the war years. Returning from the war to his native land after being seriously wounded, the writer

I saw with my own eyes how the village lived and worked. It was in that hard times that he established himself in the idea that without a selfless rear, the Great Victory would not have taken place. The novel "Brothers and Sisters" is a hymn to the indestructible spirit of the Russian peasantry, which, for the sake of the State, goes to any hardships - and emerges from all the trials that have fallen to its lot as a moral winner.

The author focuses on the chronicle of the life of one northern collective farm, the Arkhangelsk village of Pekashino. But if you look more broadly, this is a book about folk life, about the labor feat of the Russian peasantry, accomplished by them in the war and post-war years ... The novel "Brothers and Sisters" is a harsh and truthful story about the feat of women who lost their husbands, sons during the war years and kept on their women's shoulders the rear of the front.

Undernourished, losing their beauty at the age of thirty from exhausting work, they not only did all the male work - they plowed, mowed, felled the forest - they saved Russia, covered their family, clan, nation. In "Brothers and Sisters" the war has left its marks on all everyday life, breaking the usual way of work, putting forward old people, women and teenagers as "headline figures". And the story is told on behalf of those who go to the frontiers of life. These are Anfisa Petrovna Minina, Stepan Andreyanovich Stavrov, Lukashin, who arrived from besieged Leningrad wounded, Nastya Gavrilina, Varvara Inyakhina, the orphaned Pryaslin family.

Fourteen-year-old Mikhail Pryaslin became the father-brother of Petka, Grishka, Fedka, Tanya, Lisa, the support of his mother, the owner of the house and the breadwinner of the family from the very day when, with the consent of his mother, he “began to cut and distribute bread like a father” to the silent children. The war penetrated into life, constantly reminding of itself in the summer of 1942 with reports from the Information Bureau, which come to life in the book in their harsh reality. But the pathos of the novel is in the depiction of the activity of the people, their resistance to the disasters of war, in the poeticization of native nature, the feeling of admiration for the heroes, which the author does not hide. People faced severe trials of wartime.

Saving the collective farm field, Nastya Gavrilina will die. Anna Pryaslina, beside herself in despair, will try to carry away grain from the collective farm current in an apron, and Anfisa Petrovna will save her from the harsh punishment of those years; will also keep Mishka, who condemned his mother with childish impatience, from rash actions. But Michael's heart will not soften, will not depart, until the time is stricken with grief and hardened in trials. Ordinary people of the northern village of Pekashino pass before us as participants in the people's patriotic movement, resisting cruel conditions. The first book acquires in the content of the novel the meaning of a prologue to subsequent events. The historical collision, as shown in the second book - "Two Winters and Three Summers", - was resolved tragically for each family and the whole village. Anfisa Petrovna remarks: “Earlier, six months ago, everything was simple. War. The whole village is united in one fist. And now the fist is spreading. Every finger screams: I want to live! In its own way, on the individual.

The novel shows the life of the village at the height of the Great Patriotic War. The story ends in 1943, when it was too early to talk about victory. Abramov's book tells the modern reader the truth about that difficult time. Struggling with the hardships of wartime, everyone dreams that after the war a new, special, wonderful life will begin. Without this dream, the people would not be able to survive and win. A common misfortune, a common struggle and a common revenge made people brothers and sisters. At first glance, the simple title of the novel carries several semantic layers. “Brothers and sisters” called the citizens of the country I. V. Stalin in an address to them about the German attack.

Stalin was perceived at that time as a demigod, his words sounded especially confidential, sunk into people's souls. There is another meaning in this name - literal: brothers and sisters are the Pryaslin family, four brothers (Mikhail, Peter, Grigory and Fedor) and two sisters (Liza and Tanya). And besides, all people in Pekashin are close and distant relatives to each other, which means that the title of the novel has one more meaning: “Brothers and Sisters” is the story of the village of Pekashin. The course of everyday life, the chronicle of the life of the village is shown in detail. Days roll by as usual. The life of a peasant is built in accordance with the calendar of agricultural work. But during the war years, when men are at the front, these works become truly heroic, it was not for nothing that they were called the “second front” in those years.

The news from the front is disturbing - in the summer of 1942, the Nazis launched a most dangerous offensive and by the beginning of September came close to the Volga. In the board of the collective farm in Pekashino there is a geographical map showing how "black wedges cut deeper and deeper into the body of the country." And Abramov shows the hard daily work of people in the village as a feat, and first of all - the feat of women, on whose shoulders all the men's work on the "labor front" fell. “How many people in Pekashin were taken to the war? - Says the secretary of the district committee Novozhilov at the end of the novel. - Man sixty. Are the fields sown? Haymaking at the end? Yes, you know what? Well, as if the women gave birth to sixty men again ... ". And in such conditions, without men, in a half-empty collective farm, work is in full swing.

The hero of F. Abramov cannot, without inner compassion and pain, see how the state farm is falling apart due to the negligence of the leadership and, above all, director Taborsky, the antipode of Mikhail. Arable lands are dying, overgrown with shrubs, once with such difficulty reclaimed from the forest by the Pekshinites. Such is Michael's character. He cannot calmly look at the formal attitude of people to work. Here he sees how tractor driver Viktor Netesov destroys the scarce northern soil and the entire future harvest by deep plowing. He boils, interferes ... and turns out to be fools.

He is accused of disorganizing state farm production. The hero of Abramov does not just suffer, he, as best he can, fights with Taborsky. And when Mikhail found out that he was removed from the post of director of the state farm, he feels real joy, he even puts on a festive shirt. Indeed, Mikhail will suffer all his life for a public cause, worry, because he has an overdeveloped sense of responsibility for everything around him, because his conscience does not allow him to be different.

Behind every line of the novel one can feel the author's love for his native land, for the people of the Pinega village. The writer wants to show the inner beauty of people, their spirituality, hidden behind the external severity and discreetness. Pekashino appears to the reader for the first time, as if in slow motion, Abramov draws our attention to the fact that houses, like people, are not monotonous, but conceal a clear imprint of the personality of their inhabitants. The houses reflect the soft beauty of northern nature, its grandeur and breadth. By showing the majestic northern landscape, the author opens up other expanses - the expanses of the people's soul. Freedom and necessity, duty and conscience, patriotic feeling - all these concepts find their real expression in the very being of F. Abramov's heroes.

Publicism is inherent in the very nature of F. Abramov's talent, his temperament as a researcher who is certainly looking for the meaning of the phenomena and facts of reality, defending his social and aesthetic ideals. “An important task of art is education. Its highest goal is truth and humanity... an increase in goodness on earth. And beauty."