Who wrote Vasily Terkin story. Vasily Terkin

Composition

A. T. Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" is a folk, or rather a soldier's poem. Its main idea is to show the struggle of people for the sake of peace, for the sake of life. It is a whole encyclopedia of the life of a fighter. And according to the writer himself, "this book is about a fighter, without beginning or end." The protagonist is the people in the war, embodied in the image of Vasily Terkin, in a wide variety of situations and episodes. Tvardovsky was able to create a typical image of a Russian soldier, with its pluses and minuses. Before us appears a man who loves his homeland and does not spare his blood for its sake, who can find a way out of a difficult situation and brighten up front-line difficulties with a joke, who loved to play the accordion and listen to music at a halt. Terkin is a merry fellow, he will not go into his pocket for a word.

In my opinion, the main feature of his character is love for his native country. The hero constantly remembers his native places, which are so sweet and dear to his heart. Mercy, the greatness of the soul, cannot but attract in Terkin: he finds himself in the war not because of the military instinct, but “for the sake of life on earth”; the defeated enemy evokes in him only a feeling of pity (Terkin's appeal to the German). He is modest, although he can sometimes brag, telling his friends that he does not need an order, he "agrees on a medal."
But most of all I am attracted in this man by his love of life, worldly ingenuity, mockery of the enemy and of any difficulties.

Just look how Terkin lives and enjoys life at the front, where every day threatens to be the last, where no one is "bewitched by a foolish fragment, from any stupid bullet":

After all, he is in the kitchen - from the place,
From a place - into battle,
Smokes, eats and drinks with gusto
In any position...

And here we already see the hero, when he swims across the icy river, dragging, straining, "tongue". But we must stop, "and the frost - neither stand nor sit down." And then Terkin does not lose heart, he begins to play the accordion:

And from that old harmonica,
Who was left an orphan
It suddenly got warmer
On the front road.

I think it can be said that Terkin is the soul of a soldier's company. After all, it is no coincidence that comrades listen to his joking and even serious stories with great interest. And remember how a wet company was lying in the swamps and the soldiers were already dreaming of "at least death, but dry." They could not even smoke: the matches were soaked. And now it seems to all the soldiers that "there is no worse trouble." But Terkin, as always, does not despair, grins and begins a long discussion that as long as the soldier feels the elbow of his comrade, he is strong. And, lying in a wet swamp, he was able to cheer up his friends, they laughed. In my opinion, this is an extraordinary talent to cheer up people in difficult life situations. And Terkin possessed this talent.

And how interesting is the hero’s appeal to Death in the chapter “Death and the Warrior”, when that wounded man lies and freezes, and it seems to him that Kosaya came to him:

I will cry, howl in pain,
Dying in the field without a trace
But you are willing
I will never give up.

And Terkin does not submit to fate, he conquers death. A. T. Tvardovsky in his work showed the vitality of a person, the strength of the national character, and also led the reader to realize the moral greatness of the Russian warrior.

The protagonist of the poem, embodied in the image of Vasily Terkin. - people at war in a wide variety of situations and episodes. Tvardovsky managed to create a typical image of a Russian soldier, with its pluses and minuses. He created a living person. Before us appears a warrior who loves his people, his homeland. He does not spare his blood for her. Terkin can find a way out of the most difficult situation and brighten up front-line difficulties with a joke. He likes to play the harmonica and listen to music himself at a halt. There have always been Terkins, in any war. It was on such soldiers that the spirit of the Russian army was kept.

Terkin is a Russian, recognizable character, workmate, flatmate. Now he is a comrade in war and a trench. He shaves with an awl and warms himself with smoke. In any situation, he tries to remain a man, he wants to preserve the human, good in himself, and not become embittered, not hardened. In his character, a fusion of life and folklore is formed. Working on the image of Terkin, the poet tried to maintain objectivity, not to impose his views and sympathies. The poem is surprisingly not ideological.

Speaking about the destruction of the tank, Terkin fears:
Suddenly he crushes blindly.
After all, he doesn't see a thing.

By the standards of that time, according to the ideas of some writers of that time, the Soviet people were only waiting to give their lives for Stalin, for the Motherland. Terkin looks at all this in a simpler way, in a popular way. And you begin to trust him. The hero just comes to life before our eyes:

We will not explode, so we will break through.
We will live, we will not die...

Terkin uses the normal vernacular that all the soldiers spoke.
There is no single compositional basis in the poem. It is assembled from individual chapters. Each chapter is a complete work. And the chapters were printed separately in each issue of the front-line newspaper. The unity of the poem is given by a common theme - the life of a fighting man, an ordinary, earthly, but also a "miracle man" who does not lose faith in himself, in his comrades, in the coming victory:

That way they go harsh.
As two hundred years ago
Prokhodich with a flintlock gun
Russian worker-soldier.

Repeatedly in the poem, the idea that war is labor is heard. Hard work, deadly, but necessary and honorable:

The fight is holy and right
Mortal combat is not for glory,
For life on earth.

Terkin in the poem is given in various situations. He is at rest, in battle, in a Russian bath, for food. But it is always a recognizable person, of which there are many around. Thanks to them, ordinary infantry soldiers who did not spare themselves, who gave their lives for their homeland, Russia defended peace on earth:

There was a soldier, like others died,
To unknown lands:
What is where it is, Russia,
At what line: one's own?

There are no loud phrases in the poem, some out of the ordinary actions. War is blood, pain, loss. To win, you need to treat everything philosophically, patiently. Speaking about the hero of the poem, it is necessary to say about his last name. Terkin - grated, patient. But that is the strength of the Russian man, that he is patient, hard-working, capable of many things. And therefore - the winner. Tvardovsky deliberately reduces the heroism and selflessness of Terkin:

In general, broken
grated, burnt,
Wound marked double,
Surrounded in forty-one
On earth he walked native.

The poem was a kind of chronicle of the war. It was written for fighters and about fighters. It also included a chapter where the author tells the reader about death (“Death and the Warrior”). Terkin in it heroically endures the arrival of death. Saved by his extraordinary strength of mind and ingenuity. He conquers death. Tvardovsky showed in his work the moral strength of the Russian soldier, the strength of the people's character, led the reader to realize the greatness of the Russian warrior. The poem will forever remain one of the best works about the Great Patriotic War.

Other writings on this work

Alexander Tvardovsky

"Vasily Terkin"(other name - "The Book of a Fighter") - a poem by Alexander Tvardovsky, one of the main works in the poet's work, which received national recognition. The poem is dedicated to a fictional character - Vasily Terkin, a soldier of the Great Patriotic War.

Illustration by Orest Vereisky for the poem

Tvardovsky began work on the poem and the image of the protagonist in 1939-1940, when he was a war correspondent for the newspaper of the Leningrad Military District "On Guard for the Motherland" during the Finnish military campaign. The name of the hero and his image were born as a fruit of joint creativity of members of the editorial board of the newspaper: artists Briskin and Fomichev, and poets, including N. Shcherbakov, N. Tikhonov, Ts. Solodar and S. Marshak. The resulting image of a simple Russian guy - strong and good-natured, Tvardovsky considered successful. Terkin became a satirical hero of small feuilleton poems written for the newspaper. In 1940, the team released the brochure "Vasya Terkin at the Front", which was often given to soldiers as a kind of reward.

The Red Army soldier Terkin already then began to enjoy a certain popularity among the readers of the district newspaper, and Tvardovsky decided that the topic was promising, and it needed to be developed within the framework of a large-scale work.

On June 22, 1941, Tvardovsky curtailed his peaceful literary activity and left for the front the next day. He becomes a war correspondent for the South-Western, and then the 3rd Belorussian Front. In 1941-1942, together with the editors, Tvardovsky found himself in the hottest spots of the war. Retreats, is surrounded and out of it.

In the spring of 1942, Tvardovsky returned to Moscow. Having collected scattered notes and sketches, he again sits down to work on the poem. "War is serious, and poetry must be serious" he writes in his diary. On September 4, 1942, the publication of the first chapters of the poem (the introductory "From the Author" and "On a Halt") began in the newspaper of the Western Front, Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda.

The poem gains fame, it is reprinted by the central publications Pravda, Izvestia, Znamya. Excerpts from the poem are read on the radio by Orlov and Levitan. At the same time, famous illustrations created by the artist Orest Vereisky began to appear. Tvardovsky himself reads his work, meets with soldiers, visits hospitals and labor collectives with creative evenings.

The work was a great success with readers. When Tvardovsky wanted to finish the poem in 1943, he received many letters in which readers demanded a continuation. In 1942-1943, the poet experienced a severe creative crisis. In the army and in the civilian readership, The Book of a Fighter was received with a bang, but the party leadership criticized it for its pessimism and lack of mention of the leading role of the party. The secretary of the Union of Writers of the USSR Alexander Fadeev admitted: "the poem answers his heart", But “... one must follow not the inclinations of the heart, but party guidelines”. Nevertheless, Tvardovsky continues to work, extremely reluctantly agreeing to censorship editing and text cuts. As a result, the poem was completed in 1945, along with the end of the war. The last chapter ("In the Bath") was completed in March 1945. Even before the end of work on the work, Tvardovsky was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Finishing work on the poem, Tvardovsky, back in 1944, simultaneously began the next poem, "Terkin in the Other World." Initially, he planned to write it as the last chapter of the poem, but the idea grew into an independent work, which also included some uncensored passages from Vasily Terkin. "Torkin in the Other World" was prepared for publication in the mid-1950s and became another program work of Tvardovsky - a vivid anti-Stalinist pamphlet. On July 23, 1954, the secretariat of the Central Committee, chaired by N. S. Khrushchev, adopted a resolution condemning Tvardovsky for the poem “Tyorkin in the Other World” prepared for publication. During the campaign to "expose Stalin", on August 17, 1963, the poem was first published in the Izvestia newspaper. In wartime, the poem (more precisely, its fragments) was memorized, they passed newspaper clippings to each other, considering its main character a role model.

Monument to Tvardovsky and Vasily Terkin in Smolensk

Tvardovsky, who himself went through the front, absorbed sharp and accurate soldier's observations, phrases and sayings into the language of the poem. Phrases from the poem became winged and entered into oral speech.

- No, guys, I'm not proud, I agree to a medal.

- The battle is not for the sake of glory, for the sake of life on earth.

- Soldiers surrender cities, generals take them.

- Do not look what is on the chest, but look what is ahead.

Solzhenitsyn spoke highly of Tvardovsky's work. Boris Pasternak considered "Torkin" the highest achievement of literature about the war, which had a great influence on his work. Ivan Bunin spoke of the poem in the following way:

This is truly a rare book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess, what accuracy, accuracy in everything, and what an extraordinary folk soldier's language - not a hitch, not a single false, ready-made, that is, literary-vulgar word!

Summary of the poem "Vasily Terkin" by Tvardovsky A. T. in parts

In a one minute war
He can't live without jokes
The jokes of the most unwise ...
... He does not live Without the truth,
Truth, straight into the soul of the beating.

On a halt

At a halt, Terkin explains to his new comrades what "sabantuy" is: a test of will, courage. It’s good if a person manages to behave with dignity in any situation, even if “thousands of German tanks are on him”. Terkin's stories are a success. The author wonders about the origin of his hero. Such as Terkin, "there is always in every company, and in every platoon." Terkin was wounded. Speaking about himself, he speaks on behalf of his regiment: "I was partly scattered, and partly exterminated." Terkin walked “hundreds of miles of his native land”, retreating along with units of the Soviet army, fought like a hero, but for some reason did not receive a medal. However, Terkin does not lose heart:

Look what's on your chest
And look what's ahead!

Before the fight

The army retreats. The soldiers feel guilty before the Soviet people, who, with their departure, will fall into the occupation. Terkin, "as a more ideological one", acts as a political instructor:

We will live - we will not die.
The time will come, we will return back,
What we have given, we will return.

The commander is sad: his native village is on the way. Turkin decides that he needs to go there. The commander's wife places the fighters in the hut, treats everyone, and takes care of the house. The children rejoice at their father, for the first moment it seems to them that he has come home after working in the field. Ho and the children already understand that the father will leave, and tomorrow, perhaps, the Germans will enter their hut. The commander himself does not sleep at night, chopping wood, trying to somehow help his mistress. The crying of children at dawn, when the commander and his fighters leave the house, still sounds in the ears of Terkin. Terkin dreams of entering this hospitable house when the army is liberating their land, "to bow to a simple good woman."

Crossing

During the crossing of the river, the Germans begin shelling. Many fighters are drowning. Only the first platoon (and Terkin with it) is transported to the other side. By nightfall, the surviving fighters no longer hope to see their comrades from the first platoon alive, believing that the Germans shot them all when they landed on the shore. There is no connection with them. However, in the middle of the night, Terkin swims across the river in the opposite direction (in icy water) and reports to the colonel that the platoon is intact, waiting for further orders, asking to support the attack with artillery fire. Terkin promises to provide a crossing for the rest of his comrades. Turkin warms himself with alcohol, taking it inside. The crossing resumes at night.

The fight is holy and right.
Mortal combat is not for glory,
For life on earth.

About war

The year has come, the turn has come,
Today we are responsible
For Russia, for the people
And for everything in the world.
From Ivan to Thomas,
Dead or alive
All of us together - this is us,
That people, Russia.

Turkin is wounded

Terkin in a rifle company. He pulls the wire. Enemy artillery fires at the chain. One projectile falls next to Terkin, but does not explode. Everyone is scared, but Terkin, who despises the danger, "turning to that projectile, relieved himself of a small need." Terkin notices the dugout and, thinking that there are Germans inside, decides to take their firing point. Ho, the dugout is empty. Turkin sets up an ambush there himself. The Germans are getting closer. Terkin waits, a German officer rushes at him, wounds him in the shoulder. Terkin stabs the German with a bayonet. A day later, the tankers pick up the wounded, saving his life. According to the author, there is nowhere "the friendship of that saint and purer that happens in war."

About the award

Terkin was awarded an order for the wound, but he "agreed to receive a medal." The reward will come in handy for him when he returns as a liberator to “his native Smolensk region”, goes to the dance in the evening, and his beloved girl will “wait for the word, look” of the hero.

Harmonic

Terkin, having been discharged from the hospital, walks along the frontline road, catching up with his unit. A companion picks him up. Column ahead. The driver stops the car (he is obliged to let the convoy pass), falls asleep. Turkin regrets that there is no accordion to pass the time. Unexpectedly, one tanker invites him to play the accordion of their dead commander. Terkin plays "the side of his native Smolensk sad memorable motive", and then the song "Three Tankmen". Everyone seems to be getting warmer, the driver comes running and starts dancing. The tankers look closely at the accordionist, they recognize him as the wounded man who was saved from death in the dugout. They give the accordion of their deceased comrade to Terkin, realizing that now is not the time to mourn for the dead and wonder who among them will live to win and return home. It is necessary to hold on and "from the place - into the water and into the fire."

two soldiers

Terkin enters a hut where an old man and an old woman live. The old man is himself a former soldier. Terkin repairs grandfather's saw and wall clock. The old woman reluctantly takes out the last fat from the bins, fries the men scrambled eggs. The old man is talking with Terkin, asking if ours will be able to beat the Germans. At the end of the meal, Terkin, bowing, as usual to the owners of the house, calmly promises: “We will beat you, father!”.

About loss

Comrade Terkin lost his pouch and was very upset. After all, he already had to lose his family, yard and hut, "native lands, everything in the world and a pouch." Terkin says that these are all frivolous losses. The comrade reproaches Terkin that it is easy for him to say: he is single, he has no one and nothing. Terkin gives him his pouch and explains:

Losing a family is not a shame -
It was not your fault.
Losing your head is a shame
Well, that's what war is for...
Ho Russia, old mother,
We cannot lose.

Duel

Terkin fights the German in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The German is stronger because he is better fed. Ho Terkin does not lose heart and does not give up. He does not consider the German a man, but calls him a scoundrel. The German begins to fight with a helmet, and then Terkin hits him with an unloaded grenade, stuns him, ties him up and escorts him to the headquarters for interrogation. Terkin is very proud of himself, he is pleased to walk on Soviet soil, “by the way” to carry a German machine gun behind his shoulders, to adjust his “language” and to know that everyone he meets is “cordially glad” that Terkin returned alive from intelligence.

The most important thing for a soldier is to return home from the war alive. The author knows that "in war, a fairy tale is a peaceful mile to the soul of a soldier." Ho himself writes only about the war:

I will say one thing that we would
Deal with the war
Push back that dam
Beyond the native land.
As long as the edge is vast
That native land - in captivity,
I am a lover of peaceful life -
In war I sing war.

"Who shot?"

An enemy plane is circling over Terkin and his comrades. Death is very near. The author reflects on what time of the year it is easier to die in the war, but comes to the conclusion that no season is suitable for this.

No, comrade, evil and proud,
As the law tells a fighter
Meet death face to face
And at least spit in her face,
If it's all over...

Terkin "knees from a rifle into a plane" and knocks him out. The general awards Terkin with an order. Terkin encourages his comrades, recalls that “this is not the last plane for the German”, that is, anyone has the right to follow his example.

About the hero

Terkin tells how he was in the hospital and a soldier from Tambov, who was awarded an order, hinted to him that in the Smolensk side there could not be such brave men as he was. Now Terkin can rightfully claim that heroes will be born in his beloved Smolensk region. He does not boast of his native land, he simply loves his homeland more than anything else and wants to defend its prestige.

General

There are battles on the Volga. Terkin is on the defensive, he sleeps off on the bank of the river. Half asleep, he hears a song about a rivulet, which alone can, crawling under the German barbed wire, run to his native village, convey to his mother the words of love from his son-soldier. The general, who for a soldier in the war is “court, father, head, law,” allows Terkin to go home for a week as a reward. Ho in the native side are enemies, and Terkin is not a river to sneak past the German sentries unnoticed. The general promises to move Terkin's vacation to the time when the army will liberate Smolensk: "We are on the way with you." The general, in parting, firmly shakes Terkin's hand, looks into his eyes, hugs him - behaves as he would with his son.

About Me

The author dreams of those days when the Russian people will once again become masters of their own land, so that they “circle around their native forests not furtively, not looking back.” He vows, turning to his homeland, to return and liberate it, to erase the ridiculous border between the occupied territory and Soviet land.

I tremble with sharp pain,
Malice bitter and holy.
Mother, father, siblings
I have beyond that line ...
That I praised with all my heart
And loved - beyond that line.
I am responsible for everything...

Fight in the swamp

The soldiers of the regiment of Terkin have been fighting for the third day in a swamp near the unknown village of Borki. It is drizzling, there is no food or smoke, many people are coughing. Ho Terkin does not lose heart. In his opinion, it can be a hundred times worse. Turkin even jokes that they are now at the resort:

You have - in the rear, on the flank -
You don't know how strong you are
Armored piercers, guns, tanks.
You, brother, are a battalion.
Regiment. Division. Do you want -
Front. Russia! Finally,
I will tell you in short
And more clearly: you are a fighter.
You are in the ranks, please understand ...

Terkin recalls how hard it was for them a year ago, when units of the Soviet army were constantly retreating. Now the Germans are retreating, they began to sing Russian songs, although "the German is not a singer of this last year's song today." The author reflects on the fact that after the war all the fallen will be equal - both those who fell for the "proud stronghold near the Volga" (Stalingrad), and those who gave their lives "for the now forgotten settlement of Borki". Russia "will honor everyone in full."

About love

Each soldier is escorted to war by a woman. The author regrets that "of all those women, as always, less is remembered about their own mother." The soldier knows that "the love of a wife is stronger in war than war and, perhaps, death." A letter from home, full of female love and support, without complaints, can do wonders for a soldier. Love is stronger than war, it can survive any period, withstand any test.

The author addresses the wives of soldiers and encourages them to write to their husbands at the front more often (“whether to a general, a soldier, this is like a reward”). To his great regret, there is no one to write to Vasily Terkin, and all because the girls “love pilots with us, horsemen are held in high esteem.” The infantry does not enjoy attention, which is wrong.

Terkin's rest

For a soldier, paradise is where you can sleep off. This is a normal, peaceful house, where the bedroom is to sleep "in the warmth of the bed ... in one underwear, as it should be in paradise," and the dining room is to eat four times a day - but only from the table, and not from the knee, with plates, not from a pot, cut bread with a knife, not a bayonet. In paradise, the spoon should not be hidden behind the top of the boot, and the rifle should not be placed at the feet. Once in such a paradise (having left the front line), Terkin cannot fall asleep in any way until he realizes that he needs to put on a hat for this (out of front-line habit). But the war is not over yet, which means that there is no time for Terkin to rest, and he returns to the front line. Terkin, like his comrades, sleeps again, where he can, "without a feather bed, without a pillow, nestling closer to each other," and in the morning goes on the attack.

On the offensive

The soldiers got so used to the fact that they defended themselves all the time that they adapted to organize both a bathhouse and reading “Tyorkin” at their leisure. But now the regiment goes on the offensive, takes the village. For young fighters going into battle for the first time, “at this hour, the most precious thing is to know that Terkin is here.” The lieutenant dies heroically, and Terkin realizes that it is his turn to lead the soldiers forward. Terkin is badly wounded.

death and warrior

Terkin lies on the snow, bleeding. Death approaches him, persuades him to surrender, to agree to die.

Terkin is very ill, but he decides to fight death. Death predicts that it makes no sense for Terkin to survive: the war will go on for a long time. Terkin does not argue, but he is ready to fight. Death explains that he has nowhere to return after the war: his house is destroyed. Ho Terkin does not lose heart: he is a worker, he will rebuild everything anew. Death says that now he will become a useless cripple. “And with Death, Man began to argue beyond his strength.” Terkin almost agrees to die, asking only death to let him go for a day to the living on Victory Day. Death refuses, and then Terkin drives her away. Soldiers from the funeral team are walking across the field, they pick up Terkin and take him to the infirmary. The fighters put on mittens on Terkin to warm his stiff hands. Death lags behind Terkin. She is shocked by the mutual assistance of the living, she did not have time to "cope" with the soldier while he was alone.

Turkin writes

Terkin writes to fellow soldiers that he dreams of only one thing: after the hospital, return to his native part. He wants rather "to stomp through his Smolensk region to the border." Terkin “feels” that great battles, victorious battles are just around the corner. By these days, he hopes to walk “without sticks” and return to the ranks, and if he has to meet his death hour, then among his comrades.

Turkin — Turkin

At a halt, Terkin meets his namesake Ivan Terkin, who is also an unusually popular joker, hero and accordion player. While the Terkins are figuring out which of them is real and who is fake, the foreman announces that now "according to the charter, each company will be given its own Terkin."

Terkin is known in any regiment. He had not been heard from for a long time and there was a rumor that Terkin was dead. Many do not believe: "Terkin is not subject to death, since the war has not expired." But the author knows for sure: Terkin is alive, he still does not lose heart and encourages others not to lose heart. He's just fighting in the west now.

Vasily has gone far,
Vasya Terkin, your soldier.
Into battle, forward, into pitch fire
He goes, saint and sinner,
Russian miracle man.

grandfather and grandmother

Three years of war have passed. The regiment of Vasily Terkin liberates the village where, at the beginning of the war, Terkin repaired clocks for old people. Grandfather and woman are hiding from the shells in the pit. The grandfather-soldier decides to protect his wife and himself, so that “death in captivity does not suffer”, from the hand of a German, picks up an ax. Ho, Russian soldiers are approaching the pit. The inhabitants are happy, the grandfather recognizes in one of the scouts Terkin. The old woman begins to feed Terkin with bacon, which "is not there, but still is." The watch was stolen by a German (“non-ferrous metal after all”). Terkin promises to bring the old men new watches from Berlin.

On the Dnieper

Units of the Soviet army are getting closer and closer to the native land of Terkin, more and more often the soldiers are turning to their native land:

I bent such a hook
I've come so far
And saw such flour
And I knew such sadness! ..
I'm coming to you from the east
I am the one, not the other.
Take a look, take a deep breath
Meet me again.
Mother Earth is my own,
For a happy day
Forgive me for what - I do not know
Just forgive me!

The Russians are crossing the Dnieper (“I swam, because the heat came”). The Germans are more willing to surrender. Terkin is already a different person, an experienced, calm person who has lost a lot and many people.

About the orphan soldier

More and more often, soldiers, as if they were talking about something real, are talking about the close capture of Berlin. Terkin's popularity seems to be on the wane: he was honored when the army was retreating, because he could cheer people up, and now this role has gone to the generals: "the cities surrender the soldiers, the generals take them."

European capitals joyfully greet the liberators, but for a simple soldier his native village is dearest of all. One countryman of the author was unlucky: his house was burned down, his family was killed, and "good people" announced to him that he was now an orphan. The soldier silently returns to the unit, eats cold soup and cries - because now there is no one to cry about him. The author urges not to forgive these soldiers' tears to the Nazis, to remember the orphan soldier on the bright day of victory, to avenge his grief.

On the way to Berlin

Parts of the Soviet army liberate Europe. The soldiers do not like the "boring foreign climate, the alien red-brick land." They and Russia are now separated by "three languages ​​that are not ours." Again, the soldiers dream of returning to their homeland, and they come across former prisoners of German camps who were taken out of their countries.

And on a Russian soldier
French brother, British brother,
Pole brother and everything
With friendship as if to blame,
They look with their hearts.

Unexpectedly, the soldiers meet a simple Russian woman "the mother of holy eternal strength, from unknown mothers, who are inexhaustible in work and in any trouble." The soldiers surround the woman with care, give her a horse, a cow, a feather bed, dishes, even a wall clock and a bicycle. Afterwards, Terkin advises the woman, if they detain her and try to take away the good, to say that Vasily Terkin supplied her with all this.

In the bath

On the outskirts of the war
Deep in Germany
Bath! What's Sanduny
With the rest of the baths!
In a foreign land, the father's house ...

A real Russian bath gives the soldiers a lot of pleasure, the only pity is that the water for washing has to be taken from other people's rivers. However, the author believes that it is much worse to wash in a bathhouse somewhere in the Moscow region during the war. In the bath, people are naked, and you can immediately see who has what kind of mark remains on the body from the war - “a star is stamped on a living, on white ... on a shoulder blade at the back.” And today's bath for soldiers is famous for the fact that “for the first time in the whole war - there is no German in front of you. In honor of the victory, firing will burst out after Moscow.

The soldiers dress after the bath. First one, then the other on the tunic - a whole iconostasis of orders. The soldiers joke that this is not all, the rest are where "the Germans are holding their last line today."

Turkin, Turkin, in fact,
The hour has come, the end of the war.
And it looks like it's out of date
Immediately both of us are with you -

the author addresses his hero. Summing up his work, the author claims that "it happened, he lied for a laugh, he never lied for a lie." The author has no right to forget the one to whom he owes his fame, i.e., Terkin, a Russian soldier.

These lines and pages
Days and versts are a special account.

How many of them are not in the world,
That they read you, poet,
Like this poor book
Many, many, many years.

Throughout the war, the author dreamed that his work would make the soldiers feel lighter and warmer. He wants that even after the war, over a mug of beer, an important general or private in the reserve would continue to remember Terkin. The highest praise of the reader for the author would be the words: "Here are the verses, but everything is clear, everything is in Russian." The author considers "a book about a fighter" a matter of life. He dedicated "his beloved work to the fallen sacred memory, to all friends of the wartime, to all hearts whose judgment is dear."

Year of publication of the book: 1942

Alexander Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" needs no introduction. The name of the protagonist of the poem has long become a household name, and the work itself has gained popular love. The poem "Vasily Terkin" was staged many times on the stage of a wide variety of theaters and was even filmed twice. It is rightfully considered one of the best works about the war, as well as the most famous work of Alexander Tvardovsky. According to polls in 2015, the poem "Vasily Terkin" took 23rd place among the most popular poetic works.

The plot of the poem "Vasily Terkin" briefly

From the author

Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" begins with the author's reasoning about what is most important in war. Of course it's water and it doesn't matter where it comes from, even from a horse track. Good food and a cook are important. But the most important thing is a good joke. That is why our conversation will focus on Vasya Terkin. And since there is no time to start, our conversation will go right from the middle.

On a halt

In the next chapter of Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" you can read about our main character. The story begins with the fact that Vasily Ivanovich is an excellent eater. And during the conversation, you will listen to him in general. So he told how he got to the small Sabantuy. Sabantuy he calls the bombing. But he calls the mortar Sabantuy medium. Well, he calls the real Sabantuy when a thousand German tanks rush at you, well, not a thousand, so five hundred, or maybe a hundred. He tells so smoothly that he is asked to tell something before going to bed. By the way, our main character is just as good to sleep. During two wars, I learned to sleep not only for the last lack of sleep, but even for the future. Terkin fought in the first war on the Karelian Peninsula. Three times he was surrounded and three times here he is.

Before the fight

Terkin recalls how, during the retreat, their detachment of ten people made their way from the encirclement to the front. Everyone was discouraged, as they left the cities in captivity of the enemy, and only Terkin was sure that we would return everything. On their way came across the native village of the commander. The soldiers decided to go. They were met by the commander's wife and children. He did not sleep all night - he chopped wood and tried to help his wife with the housework. And in the morning, their detachment, to the roar of children, left, leaving the village in captivity of the enemy. Since then, Terkin dreamed of going to this village when their army was moving back and bowing to this woman.

Crossing

In the chapter "Crossing" from the poem "Vasily Terkin" you can read about how the crossing over the Dnieper begins at night. The first platoon leaves first on the pontoons, followed by the second and third. All the fighters on the pontoons seemed to have changed and become more friendly. But then a searchlight glided across the surface of the water, and behind it a column of water rose from the water. The pontoons went in a row, and the author of the lines says that he will never forget this sight, how young still warm soldiers went to the bottom. The crossing was broken. No, there is still hope that the first platoon managed to cross, but it is hard to believe in this. And at night, two sentinels see a dot in the river. They are so cold that they think they dreamed it. But no, Vasily Terkin swam across the icy river and now he is standing on the shore, unable to move his teeth or his hands - everything has come together. The main character was immediately wrapped up and taken to the staff hut. Here they rubbed with alcohol, but Vasily asked not to spoil it and give it inside. And after that he reported that the first platoon was entrenched on the left bank and was ready to help the crossing if they were covered by artillery fire. And now the battle for the sake of life on earth begins again.

About war

In the next chapter of "Vasily Terkin" you can read the author's reasoning about the war. She came unexpectedly and now it is the duty of everyone to protect their homeland. After all, the bomb is a fool and you can’t say that my hut is on the edge. And the Germans will keep it like in the book. Therefore, even if an order comes and death meets you, then the deadline has passed, but they will write about us.

Terkin wounded

The next episode of the poem "Vasily Terkin" tells us how the main character in the rifle company pulls the communication wire. A projectile falls next to him, but does not explode. Everyone is hiding, and only Terkin relieves him of a small need. Soon Vasily notices the German "cellar". He decides to take her, but the dugout is empty. Then he arranges an ambush there himself. He waits for a German officer and kills him with a bayonet, but he himself is wounded in the shoulder. Our artillery begins to hit the cellar, and only a day later the wounded protagonist is picked up by tankers and taken to the medical battalion.

About the award

Further, the protagonist of the poem "Vasily Terkin" talks in the medical unit about the need for the order. No, he is not proud and agrees to a medal. The main thing is that when he returns to his native places and gets to a party, he meets the same girl in front of whom it would be great to flash an order, or just a medal. But for this it is necessary that this terrible battle for life itself on earth ends.

Harmonic

In the next chapter of the poem "Vasily Terkin" - "Accordion" our main character catches up with his first company of a rifle regiment. It's freezing outside and a three-ton truck picks him up. They meander along the snowy corridors for a long time until a column blocks their way. This means that they now have to skip it. But it's just cold to wait, and Vasily Terkin asks the tankmen for an accordion. Those say that they have an accordion, but it was left from their commander, who died yesterday in battle. The tankers give Terkin an accordion, and he first sang his native Smolensk sad motive. But then, at the request of the assembled soldiers, he struck cheerful music. And now steam is streaming from the mouths of several soldiers who have begun to dance. And the tankers recognize Terkin. It was they who brought him to the medical unit after being wounded and offer him to keep the accordion for himself.

two soldiers

Further, the author of the poem "Vasily Terkin" transfers the main character three kilometers from the front. He warms himself in the house of an old man and an old woman. The old man sits in front of the window, listening to the sounds of the front, and among other things trying to sharpen his saw. Vasily volunteers to help him and make the wiring. As it turns out, the old man is also a soldier in the past, but now his health is not the same. Vasily repairs his watch, which he brought from his campaigns, and the old man demands from his grandmother to fry the fat. Grandmother did not resist for a long time, but then she fried bacon and even broke two eggs. It was an excellent appetizer and anything better than porridge with broken pieces. And after dinner, Terkin answered the old man's question, if we defeat the Germans - beat the father!

About loss

The image of the Russian soldier in the poem "Vasily Terkin" is well revealed in the chapter "On the Loss". While sleeping, the forty-year-old soldier begins to regret that he has lost his pouch. Before that, he lost his home, family, children, wife, and now he also lost his pouch. Vasily Terkin says that this is nonsense. Here he once lost his hat and was given to him by her young nurse, who bandaged his head with an inexperienced hand. Now he would like to return that hat to that nurse. Terkin gives the war his shabby pouch and says that next year he will be presented with five more of these. And they need to grieve not about the loss of pouches, wives and children, but about the loss of their homeland. Future generations will not forgive them for this. After all, Russia has been standing for a thousand years and there is no way to lose it.

Duel

Well, best of all, the war in the poem "Vasily Terkin" is revealed in the chapter "Duel". Our protagonist went on reconnaissance and ran head-on with a German. An unequal battle ensued with a well-groomed German soldier. Terkin fought not just for himself, but for his homeland. Therefore, even with a broken mouth, and covered in blood, he will be right. When the German decided to hit him with a helmet, Terkin took a grenade without a check and gave it to the German. He fell unconscious. And then the contented Terkin proudly walked across the Soviet land, leading his tongue with him. And everyone they met, even those who did not know Terkin, rejoiced at his victory.

From the author

The image of a soldier in the poem "Vasily Terkin" is best revealed in the next chapter - "From the Author". In it, Tvardovsky offers to forget about the war for at least a minute. Imagine that the soldier returned home, because that is exactly what the goal is. And all the current hardships and strict obedience to the commanders only bring this moment closer.

Who was shooting?

Well, the character of Vasily Terkin in Tvardovsky's poem is best revealed in the chapter "Who shot?". Yesterday there was a battle, but now the guns have already cooled down, and the thoughts of all the soldiers are about the smell of summer, arable land and the buzzing of the cockchafer. But here comes a new sound. This is the sound of a bomber, from which everyone instantly executes the command: “Lie down!”. And then many people think about death. No, it's not scary to die, but not in the summer. Although if you figure it out, dying is never on time. And when everyone is lying and praying, one soldier jumps up and shoots at the plane from his knee. A three-ruler is, of course, not an anti-aircraft gun, but now the plane spun and crashed into the ground. He collapsed as if he wanted to break through it and fly to America. Everyone rushed to congratulate Terkin, they called from the headquarters and demanded the name of the hero who shot down the plane, and the sergeant enviously said that the order to the guy was like from a bush. But Terkin did not lose his head and said that this was not the last plane for the Germans and the sergeant could still receive the order.

About the hero

In the next chapter, the main character will tell us what prompted him to fight for the order. This was when he was in the medical unit. Next to him lay still quite a boy with an order. Terkin asked him if he was from Smolensk, but the boy proudly replied that he was from Tambov. And in that answer Ivan seemed to be proud of his land and the impossibility of the heroes leaving the Smolensk land. No, Ivan does not boast of his land and the whole of Russia is dear to him, but in their land there are heroes who are capable of a feat. And now he has proven it.

General

But the real war in Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" is revealed to us in the chapter "General". The war has been going on for the second summer and Vasily had a moment to wash himself and just lie down on the grass near a small stream. But his sleep is interrupted by a messenger who brings the news that a general is waiting for Terkin. The protagonist puts on wet clothes and goes to the only general for many miles around. Of course, he is a little shy, although he knows that he will not be scolded. The general gives the main character an order and gives him a week off to go home. But Vasily says that a week is not enough for him. After all, he is not a river to get past enemy posts. And his village is now on the other side of the front. The general hugs Terkin and says that he means to them on the way, and that he will have a week of vacation when they liberate his native village.

About Me

In the next chapter, "About Me," the author of the poem "Vasily Terkin" takes the floor. He tells how he is sad about his home, fields and forests, how he is sad about his childhood and wants to hug his mother again. The author tells how he is filled with anger towards the enemy, and that in his poems, on behalf of Terkin, who is his countryman, he often expresses his own thoughts.

Fight in the swamp

To the question of which Vasily Terkin in Tvardovsky's poem, the chapter "Fight in the Swamp" gives a good answer. It is about an unknown battle near the village of Borki. Only three pipes and a black spot remained from this settlement. Our soldiers are knee-deep in water and chest-deep in mud. The infantry scolds the tankers, the tankers the infantry and all together the aviation that these Borks still cannot take. A working enemy mortar does not allow you to raise your head out of the mud. And only Terkin says that now they are almost at the resort. After all, they are in the ranks, and behind them are guns and, in general, all of Russia. But two years ago, when they retreated, it was not clear where they were and where they were strangers, and then it was hard. Yes, some of them will die in this unknown battle, but the memory of them will always live in the hearts of people.

About love

Well, the folk character in the poem "Vasily Terkin" is well manifested in the chapter "On Love". In it, the writer says that each of the fighters was accompanied on the way by at least one woman. It could be a mother, whose name is the most precious thing a fighter has, or it could be a wife, whose love and letters warm both ordinary soldiers and generals. The author of the poem asks women to write more often, although he understands perfectly well that it is hard for them at this time. And he also asks to pay attention to Vasily Terkin, who, although not a pilot, and not a tanker or horseman, but just infantry. But it is the infantry that is the main driving force of any war.

Terkin's rest

Well, the life of soldiers in the poem "Vasily Terkin" is best revealed in the chapter "Terkin's Rest". In it, the main character goes straight to heaven. Here you can sleep up to 600 minutes, eat four times a day and not from your knee, but from the table. Here you don’t have to hide the spoon in the bootleg, but you can’t wipe yourself with your sleeve either. Here, before going to bed, you should undress, and as many as two sheets are injected into a stupor. But Vasily Terkin cannot fall asleep in this paradise for a long time. Until he is told to wear a hat. And then the main character really quickly falls asleep. But the war is not over yet. Therefore, in the morning Vasily catches a ride and goes to the front. That's when we get to that border along the Varshavskoe highway, that's when we'll have a rest.

On the offensive

Well, the tragedy of the poem "Vasily Terkin" can be felt in the chapter "On the offensive". It starts with the fact that we were on the defensive for too long. Some even stocked up with brooms for the bath next year. But here comes the order. The soldiers have to take the village. Everything happens clearly on the orders of the general, who sits in a dry dugout and only looks at the hour. "Platoon! For the Motherland! Forward! ”, The young lieutenant gives the command clearly by the clock and he himself is the first to rush around the village. But already near the first houses, he fell, as if diving into the snow. The soldiers rushed to him, but he gave the command "Forward!". After all, he was not wounded, he was killed. And now it fell to Terkin to lead forty people into battle. He gave the command and himself was the first to burst into the village.

death and warrior

Well, the heroism and humor in the poem "Vasily Terkin" can be seen in the chapter "Death and the Warrior". For the distant hillocks, the battle was leaving, and the main character was bleeding in the snow. Death leaned over him and offered to go with her. But Vasily confidently said that he was still alive. Then death offered him not to suffer, he would still freeze and die, and she would not freeze here. But Terkin says he hasn't lived yet. Death is not far behind. Terkin offers to surrender, but only if Death lets him go for a walk on Victory Day. But Death disagrees. And then two members of the funeral team appear. They wanted to sit on Terkin and smoke, but the fighter gives a weak voice. The funeral team immediately decides to carry him to the medical unit, and Death decides to walk nearby. But when the fighters take off their gloves and give them to the barely alive Terkin, Death retreats and marvels at this friendship of the living.

Terkin writes

Well, the characterization of Terkin from the poem "Vasily Terkin" is well revealed in the next chapter "Terkin writes." In it, the main character writes that his leg wound has already been completely cured. And as the doctors say, the leg will be better than before. Therefore, Vasily really hopes that he will soon catch up with his brothers. After all, he wants to liberate his native Smolensk region with his part, and if necessary, he will go further. To do this, he is ready to write a letter even to the general, because he will certainly respect the fighter to whom he personally presented the order.

Terkin-Terkin

And in the next chapter "Terkin - Terkin" the main character has already returned to his native part. But there is almost no one left from the former colleagues. Terkin and other soldiers are resting in someone's house, the barn of which has been cut down for firewood. And then another soldier comes in and declares that he is Terkin. Our protagonist is puzzled. He begins to test the impostor. But he already has two orders, and he plays the accordion no worse than Terkin himself. That's just a red-haired impostor and his name is Ivan. The general laughter and uproar about this is interrupted by the cry of the foreman, who decides to give one Terkin to each company.

From the author

The next chapter is again "From the Author". In it, Tvardovsky reflects on the rumors that are circulating along the front. They say that Vasily Terkin allegedly died, allegedly a shell covered him, while others say that he is still alive as before. But such a hero, who has already walked half the country, cannot die, and he will surely outlive the author of these lines. After all, in two years the country managed to lose with blood and return the lands from the Moscow region to the Zadneprovye with blood. And now victory is close and Vasily Terkin will surely see it.

grandfather and grandmother

Well, the steps of the Great Patriotic War in the poem "Vasily Terkin" can be traced in the chapter "Grandfather and Woman". It was the third year of the war. The grandfather and the old woman, whom Terkin in the chapter “Two Soldiers” repaired watches for many years now, have been living in occupation. The Germans took the watch, and people are already accustomed to making their way along the fences on their own land. Grandfather, for the umpteenth time, draws encirclements, offensives and breakthroughs with a stick on the wall, but everyone cannot guess when their native army will free them. And at night the front comes to them. With a chicken and a sack of potatoes, the grandfather and the old woman are sitting in a pit. And only in the morning they hear steps in their direction. Grandfather grabs an ax and decides to give his last fight. But it turns out they are our scouts. And the first in these ranks is the same Terkin. Both are happy to meet, and the grandmother even burns with the desire to fry the fat again. But now officer Terkin must hurry to release him. Nevertheless, he manages to have a bite to eat and pour tobacco to his grandfather and with the words that the connection is behind him. Soon he stink went into the house of his grandfather and grandmother. I immediately asked for the watch, and when I found out their fate, I promised to bring two from Berlin.

On the Dnieper

At the beginning of the chapter "On the Dnieper", the author of the poem "Vasily Terkin" recalls the words of the general from the chapter of the same chapter. In it, the general said that they were on the way. But this turned out not to be the case, and another general liberated Terkin's native village. Vasily himself is very sad for his land and asks her forgiveness, but despite the destruction that the invader left behind, he wants to move further along this vast Russian land. And now Terkin, as the main character, crosses the Dnieper with his platoon. They hide from the shots under the cliff of the right bank. Crossings and bridges will be tomorrow, and today they have already occupied the coast, to which the belated German units are still retreating. And the soldiers cheerfully declare that they should surrender on the left bank.

About the orphan soldier

The truth about the war in the poem "Vasily Terkin" is revealed in the chapter "About the Orphan Soldier". Vasily Terkin met him near Bortki, who was taken for six months. He was cheerful and was in no way inferior to Terkin. And even when he had to retreat, he cheerfully declared that he was going to the West, although he was going to the East. But the retreat is over, and now our army sometimes takes a city in a day, and a regional center in a week. And when they advanced near Smolensk, this fighter asked for a visit home. After all, he is local here and he is not far away. He quickly found his village Red Bridge, but did not recognize it. There was neither his house, nor his wife, nor his son, the fighter lost everything in this war. He stood and cried and returned to the unit. Now he must collect a debt from the enemy. And the author asks all Soviet soldiers to help him and remember this duty of everyone.

On the way to Berlin

In the next chapter, our protagonist is already moving on the road to Berlin. Everything here is not native - red houses, tiled roofs, signs, badges, arrows. They were already three foreign languages ​​away from home, and everywhere they were met in a brotherly manner by Poles, French and other peoples. The whole road to the West is covered with down. Down from feather beds and pillows. After all, all of Europe is moving home to the East. And here among this crowd a familiar voice is heard. This is an ordinary Russian woman going home. It is these Russian mothers who are waiting for their sons from the war, and maybe already grandchildren. She should go far, as far as the Dnieper. Therefore, Terkin quickly organizes for the old woman a horse with a harness, a rug to cover her legs, a cow and a sheep, and here is another mug and a bucket with supplies, and of course a duvet cover and a pillow. The mother objects that she will not be allowed through the checkpoints. But Terkin does not yield and says that at these points she should say that Vasily Terkin gave her everything. And he promises if he is alive to look at the pies.

In the bath

But even in war there is a place to rest. And somewhere in the depths of Germany, as in, our soldiers organized a bathhouse for themselves. In a row are the count's chairs, on which the soldier throws his underpants. The soldier is not tall, but his chest is forward, his body is covered with scars and marks of memorable places. And now he undressed, saying: “Wow!” sneaks into the steam room. Here he demands more and more to add a couple. And although the water is not from the Moscow River, it is still good. Having steamed the bones well, he gives thanks to the pompohose who, even if from Lithuania, carried a real Russian broom to such a distance. Well, after resting after the steam room, washed and dressed. There is no place for medals on his chest, and someone notices if he bought them in the military department. To which the soldier, like a real Vasily Terkin, replies: “That's not all! The rest are yet to come!”

From the author

Well, that's the end of the war. The author of the poem about Terkin says that if he lied in his work, it was only for the sake of laughter, and if he made a mistake somewhere, it was only because the lines of these poems were written in cars, in the rain, in a tent and wherever there was at least one Free minute. From the first days, the author hoped that Vasily Terkin would become that accordion that would bring joy to a soldier for at least a few minutes. And the best reward for him will be if the reader of these lines says that everything is clear in Russian, and the memory of the fighter will live on in the future.

The poem "Vasily Terkin" on the Top Books website

The poem by Alexander Tvradovsky "Vasily Terkin" is so popular to read on the eve of Victory Day that the work fell into ours. Well, among it is one of the highest places. And given the dynamics and the presence of the poem in the school curriculum, we will see it more than once in the ratings of our site.

You can read the poem "Vasily Terkin" online on the Top Books website.

Vasily Terkin:

Alexander Tvardovsky, who wrote the poem "Vasily Terkin", gave it a second name - "The Book of a Fighter." In the image of the main character, to whom the story is dedicated, the writer portrayed the characteristic features of a domestic soldier who was faced with the need to defend his homeland. Vasily Terkin became a favorite character of the war years and the post-war period. This is a collective patriotic image that managed to support the national spirit.

History of creation

Tvardovsky is a popular Soviet writer, poet, and journalist. The image of a Soviet soldier was created during the Great Patriotic War. Thinking through the character's character, Tvardovsky endowed him with ingenuity and resourcefulness, inexhaustible positive and a sense of humor. This was not enough in the everyday life of ordinary citizens in a terrible time for the country. The idea of ​​a brave soldier came to the writer long before writing the poem. The authorship of the image belongs to a team of journalists, which included Tvardovsky.

In 1939, two feuilletons about this hero were published. In the imagination of publicists, he was a successful and strong representative of the common people. Tvardovsky began to work out the character of the main character of the future book while still at the front, during the years of the Soviet-Finnish War. The author set out to create a poetic work. He did not have time to publish the work because of the new war. The German attack in 1941 changed the writer's plans, but the publicist firmly decided to call the work "A Book about a Fighter". 1942 is the year of writing the first lines of the book, which will later be accepted by the publisher.

Although Vasily Terkin is not a real historical figure, Tvardovsky, who endured the hardships of battles and attacks on the enemy, describes the smallest details in the book. Working as a correspondent in the field, he witnessed real stories from the life of the army and tried to reflect them in the plot. The author claims to be authentic, and to depict historical events in the chapters of the work.

The soldier, who was described by the publicist, acquired new features characteristic of the time of war and deprivation. He was not just a kind man and a joker, but a warrior on whom victory depends. The character is ready to take the fight at any moment and give a worthy rebuff to the enemy in the name of the Motherland.

The first chapters of the book were published in a front-line newspaper. Then many publications began to publish it, allowing readers to be inspired by the image of a worker saving their native lands. The chapters reached both the front-line soldiers and the citizens who remained in the rear. The “book about a fighter” was loved by the public, and the author constantly received letters with questions about how the characters of the story live, whether they really exist.

Tvardovsky worked on the work during the war years. In 1943, having ended up in a military hospital after being wounded, the writer decided that he had approached the end of the poem. Subsequently, he had to continue working until 1945, until the victory over the Nazi invaders.

The book was continued thanks to the requests of readers. After the victorious spring, Tvardovsky published the final chapter of the poem, calling it "From the Author." In it, he said goodbye to the hero.

Biography

The central figure of the story is a village boy from near Smolensk. He is forced to go to the front to defend the Fatherland. The cheerful and straightforward character demonstrates remarkable courage and courage, despite the realities surrounding him. The soul of the company, from whom you can always get support, Terkin was a role model. In battle, he was the first to attack the enemy, at his leisure he entertained his comrades by playing the accordion. A charming and charismatic guy is the location of readers.

We get to know the hero at the moment when he and his colleagues cross the river. The operation takes place in winter, but the river is not completely frozen over, and the crossing is disrupted due to an enemy attack. The valiant soldier is wounded and ends up in the medical unit. After recovering from his injury, Terkin decides to catch up with the platoon. The chapter "Accordion" is dedicated to his ability to find an approach to the team and win respect and trust in it.

The soldier becomes a participant in the battles and provides all possible assistance to those with whom he serves in the same detachment, and to civilians. Having received leave, he refuses to travel to his native village, captured by the Germans, in order to be useful at the front. For courage and courage shown in the fight, in which the plane was shot down, Vasily Terkin is awarded a medal. Later, the soldier will receive a new rank. He becomes a lieutenant.

Due to the enemy offensive, the front line is shifting, ending up in his small homeland. Vasily's parents live in the cellar. Having made sure that the old people are alive, the soldier no longer worries about their fate. Mother is captured, but Vasily helps her out of trouble. Grandma and Grandpa are alive.

Tvardovsky does not share the details of the hero's biography. The author does not even give names to other characters in the story. The image of Terkin is made up of a description of his character. In the finale, it remains unclear whether the hero survived or died. But this is not important for Tvardovsky. The main idea that he wants to convey to the reader is admiration for the amazing courage and heroism of the people.

The poem sings of the Russian soldier, who is able to defend the honor of the country, protect his family and oppressed fellow citizens. The work motivated readers to new feats. The patriotic ode in verse helped to raise the morale of the front-line soldiers, exhausted from daily battles, and brought a touch of optimism into their lives. The main idea of ​​the book is a confirmation of the purity of intentions and sincerity of a Russian person who is able to find a way out of a difficult situation, not afraid of work, distinguished by courage and ingenuity, honor and dedication.

• It is curious that the readers influenced the writing of the work. Reading alternately published chapters of the poem, people wrote letters to Tvardovsky from all over the Soviet Union. Because of this, the author decided to extend the publication of the book.
• After a resounding victory, Tvardovsky refused to describe Terkin's life in peacetime. According to him, it required new heroes. The image of a soldier was to be preserved in the memory of readers. Later, imitators published stories about Terkin, but the writer himself, as promised, did not touch the writing of new chapters.

• The poem is divided into parts capable of independent existence. Tvardovsky deliberately used such a literary device. Thanks to him, the reader, who was not included in the story from the beginning, could easily perceive the plot. This was important at the front, where thousands of soldiers said goodbye to their lives every day. They had time to read one chapter and might not know how it will continue.
• The name and surname of Vasily Terkin often met in wartime. Readers asked the author questions related to the prototype of the hero, and invariably received an answer about a fictional and collective image. The surname Terkin is speaking, it means that a person has seen a lot in his lifetime, was “worn out” by life.

Quotes

The poem vividly describes the mighty Russian character. The descriptive and reliable lines are:

“Every Russian person loves the holiday of strength, that’s why he is the worst of all in work and fight.”

Indeed, Soviet soldiers did not spare themselves in battle, selflessly giving themselves up to battles so that peace reigned in the Soviet Union.

The cheerful disposition of Vasily Terkin, a soldier distinguished by quick wit and courage, helped his colleagues endure wartime.

“You can live without food for a day, you can do more, but sometimes you can’t live one minute in a war without a joke, the most unwise joke.”

Every platoon and squad had the soul of a company like Terkin. A merry fellow and a joker, he charged with positive and gave people hope.

Human life remains the main value in war. Terkin tries at all costs to help those who get in his way. Whether it is a small matter or a matter of life and death, he risks himself to save his neighbor. At the same time, the soldier jokingly remarks:

“Let me report briefly and simply: I am a big hunter to live up to ninety years.”

"Vasily Terkin"(other name - "The Book of a Fighter") - a poem by Alexander Tvardovsky, one of the main works in the poet's work, which received national recognition. The poem is dedicated to a fictional character - Vasily Terkin, a soldier of the Great Patriotic War.

The poem began to be printed with a continuation in a newspaper version from 1942 and was completed in 1945. The first separate edition of the still unfinished work was published in 1942. For the most part, the poem was written in four-foot trochaic (some chapters in three-foot trochaic).

According to the results of a sociological study conducted in 2015 by the Russian Reporter magazine, the text of the poem took 28th place in the top 100 most popular poetic lines in Russia, including, among other things, Russian and world classics.

About the work

The coincidence of the name of the protagonist with the name of the hero of the novel by the 19th-century writer P. D. Boborykin turned out to be accidental.

The Red Army soldier Terkin already then began to enjoy a certain popularity among the readers of the district newspaper, and Tvardovsky decided that the topic was promising, and it needed to be developed as part of a large-scale work.

On June 22, 1941, Tvardovsky curtailed his peaceful literary activity and left for the front the next day. He becomes a war correspondent for the South-Western, and then the 3rd Belorussian Front. In 1941-1942, together with the editors, Tvardovsky found himself in the hottest spots of the war. Retreats, is surrounded and out of it.

In the spring of 1942, Tvardovsky returned to Moscow. Having collected scattered notes and sketches, he again sits down to work on the poem. "War is serious, and poetry must be serious" he writes in his diary. On September 4, 1942, the publication of the first chapters of the poem (the introductory "From the Author" and "On a Rest") began in the newspaper of the Western Front "Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda".

The poem gains fame, it is reprinted by the central publications Pravda, Izvestia, Znamya. Excerpts from the poem are read on the radio by Orlov and Levitan. At the same time, well-known illustrations created by the artist Orest Vereisky began to appear. Tvardovsky himself reads his work, meets with soldiers, visits hospitals and labor collectives with creative evenings.

The work was a great success with readers. When Tvardovsky wanted to finish the poem in 1943, he received many letters in which readers demanded a continuation. In 1942-1943, the poet experienced a severe creative crisis. In the army and in the civilian readership, The Book of a Fighter was received with a bang, but the party leadership criticized it for its pessimism and lack of mention of the leading role of the party. The secretary of the Union of Writers of the USSR Alexander Fadeev admitted: "the poem answers his heart", But “... one must follow not the inclinations of the heart, but party guidelines”. Nevertheless, Tvardovsky continues to work, extremely reluctantly agreeing to censorship editing and text cuts. As a result, the poem was completed in 1945, along with the end of the war. The last chapter ("In the Bath") was completed in March 1945. Even before the end of work on the work, Tvardovsky was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Finishing work on the poem, Tvardovsky, back in 1944, simultaneously begins the next poem, "Terkin in the next world". Initially, he planned to write it as the last chapter of the poem, but the idea grew into an independent work, which also included some uncensored passages from Vasily Terkin. "Torkin in the Other World" was prepared for publication in the mid-1950s and became another program work of Tvardovsky - a vivid anti-Stalinist pamphlet. On July 23, the secretariat of the Central Committee, chaired by N. S. Khrushchev, adopted a resolution condemning Tvardovsky for the poem “Tyorkin in the Other World” prepared for publication. During the campaign to "expose Stalin", on August 17, 1963, the poem was first published in the Izvestia newspaper. In wartime, the poem (more precisely, its fragments) was memorized, they passed newspaper clippings to each other, considering its main character a role model.

Criticism and artistic features

As such, there is no plot in the poem ( "There is no plot in war"), but it is built around the connecting idea of ​​the military road, along which Terkin, together with the entire Soviet army, goes to the goal. It is not for nothing that most critics consider the chapter "Crossing" to be the central chapter. At the beginning of the poem, continuity with the previous work of Tvardovsky is clearly visible - the utopian poem "Country Ant", which also begins with a story about the road along which the hero has to go. The role of the author's digressions in the narrative is also very important. A peculiar dialogue between the author and the main character occupies a significant place in the text of the poem.

Terkin in the poem acts as a collective image embodying the best features inherent in the Soviet soldier. The heroes surrounding Terkin are nameless and abstract: the soldier’s colleagues, the general, the old man and the old woman, Death - as if borrowed from a folk tale ( in fact, this is a complete rethinking of the poem " Anika the Warrior" with the opposite outcome: even the angels serving Death - who have taken on the everyday look of a funeral team - are on the side of the Warrior [ ]). The language of the poem, despite its outward simplicity, is an example of the poet's recognizable style. It feeds on folk, oral speech. The intonation-rich text of the work is interspersed with phrases that sound like sayings and lines of ditties (“It’s good when someone lies cheerfully and smoothly”, “Well done, but there will be a lot - two at once. - So two ends ...”). The author conveys in an accurate and balanced style Terkin's speech, a lyrically sublime description of nature and the harsh truth of war.

The choice of the four-foot trochaic poem as the size of the poem is not accidental. It is this size that is typical for the Russian ditty and corresponds well to the narrative rhythm of the poem. Critics also believe that in the poem "Vasily Terkin" the influence of Russian folk tales is clearly felt, in particular, Yershov's The Little Humpbacked Horse.

A distinctive feature of the work, reminiscent of a legend about a folk hero, was the absence of an ideological principle. In the poem there are no praises to Stalin, usual for the works of those years. The author himself noted that the ritual mention of the leading and guiding role of the party "would destroy both the idea and the figurative structure of the poem about the people's war." This circumstance subsequently created great problems for publication and delayed the publication of the final version of the poem.

The secret of Tvardovsky's work is not only in the ease of rhythm and virtuoso use of the spoken language, but also in the writer's unmistakable instinct, which allowed him to stay on the right side in the propaganda war, not succumbing to the temptation of lies. The book tells as much truth as circumstances permit.

Original text (English)

The secret of Tvardovsky's, beside his easy rhythms is his virtuosic command of colloquial Russian and his unerring tact in staying on the “right” side of the propaganda line of the moment without telling outright lie, while also propounding as much of the truth as was at all possible under the current circumstances.

cultural significance

The poem "Vasily Terkin" is one of the most famous works created during the Great Patriotic War, glorifying the feat of a nameless Russian soldier. The poem was published in large editions, translated into many languages, entered the school curriculum of the USSR and Russia and was well known to any schoolchild.

Tvardovsky, who himself went through the front, absorbed sharp and accurate soldier's observations, phrases and sayings into the language of the poem. Phrases from the poem became winged and entered into oral speech.

Solzhenitsyn spoke highly of Tvardovsky's work [ ] . Boris Pasternak considered "Torkin" the highest achievement of literature about the war, which had a great influence on his work. Ivan Bunin spoke of the poem like this:

This is truly a rare book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess, what accuracy, accuracy in everything, and what an extraordinary folk soldier's language - not a hitch, not a single false, ready-made, that is, literary-vulgar word!

monuments

In addition to the monument in Smolensk, there is also a monument to Vasily Terkin in Orekhovo-Zuevo: a golden-colored figure in the form of a man with an accordion. On the opening day of the monument, the famous harmonist Sergei Boriskin wrote a poem. Another monument to Terkin was erected in the city of Satka. It is located in the old part of the city of Satka, in the square near the recreation center "Metallurg", on the square bounded by Bocharova and Komsomolskaya streets. Distance from Chelyabinsk - 180 km, from Ufa - 240 km, from Bakal - 22 km. [ ] In 2017, a monument to Vasily Terkin was also erected in the city of Gvardeisk (until 1946 Tapiau) in the Kaliningrad region, where he met A.T. Twardow Victory Day May 9, 1945