“In the trenches of Stalingrad” - a story by V.P. Nekrasov. Front-line officer, holder of the medal "For Courage" and the Order of the "Red Star" Captain V.P. Nekrasov began work on the story in 1944, in the hospital, where he was in connection with the second wound. Nekrasov participated in the defense of Stalingrad from beginning to end.
By the autumn of 1945, the manuscript entitled "In the trenches of Stalingrad" was completed, and in 1946 it was published as a novel "Stalingrad" in the magazine "Znamya". The leadership of the Writers' Union met him with hostility. A.A. Fadeev, the head of the Union, with his own hand crossed out "Stalingrad" from the list of works submitted for the Stalin Prize. Stalin, however, did not approve this decision: in 1947, the novel was awarded the main state award and published in a series of books published by the Soviet Writer publishing house for the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution. After the award of the prize, the story - now this story - "In the trenches of Stalingrad" is printed throughout the country and reprinted by most publishing houses with a total circulation of several million copies, translated into 36 languages.
“In the trenches of Stalingrad” is a landmark work for all Soviet literature about the Great Patriotic War: in 10-15 years, “lieutenant prose” will appear, the beginning of which was laid by V. Nekrasov; 40 years later, among the direct forerunners of the novel "Life and Fate" by V. Grossman, critics will name the story "In the trenches of Stalingrad."
For the hero of the story, the regimental engineer Kerzhentsev, just as for V.P. Nekrasov, Stalingrad began at the Crossroads of the Summer Retreat, under the bombs of the first raid on the city, in desperate autumn contracts. The front-line experience of a novice prose writer was somewhat different from the experience of already established writers, for whom the front is an object of depiction. For a combat officer Nekrasov, this is a difficult everyday life, in which he is inexorably included.
Nekrasov stubbornly proved the reliability of intelligence, contrary to the general attitude of those years: at best, the intellectual was assigned the role of a reflective individualist, if not an outright coward. Nekrasov understood intelligence as a combination of intelligence, nobility, fearlessness, openness, and the ability to sympathize. The simplicity of Kerzhentsev's narrative is the simplicity of true intelligence. His speech perfectly coexists with the business-like vigilant thoroughness of an experienced front-line soldier. Military terms, army observations are woven into a free conversation without pressure. The artistic authenticity of "Trenches" is predetermined by the fact that, synthesizing the characters, Nekrasov writes only about what he himself knows. The story "In the trenches of Stalingrad" is free from bureaucratic optimism, its characters do not feel like pawns in the hands of an omniscient strategist. The writer stubbornly believes in the ability of a person to wage a long unequal battle, and perhaps it was this view of the participants in the battle that gave the story the reserve of vitality that made it a kind of guide for future writers.
Nekrasov has his own idea of combat, life, death, he does not reject the instinct “There are no thoughts. The brain turned off. Instinct remains - the animal desire for life and expectation. Not even an expectation, but something that cannot be explained in words ... ".
Nekrasov was the first in our literature to speak about the moral responsibility of a commander who sends fighters to their deaths - he spoke about the price of blood. This topic will later become especially close to V. Bykov, G.Ya. Baklanov, Yu. V. Bondarev.
In 1946, the first part of the novel "Stalingrad" by Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov was published in the double issue 8-9 of the Znamya magazine. The author, little known so far, “an intelligent city dweller, who labored on the stage without much success and wrote stories that no one needed,” as he described himself. “A simple officer, a front-line soldier, has never heard of what socialist realism is ... Be sure to read it!” - the well-known critic V. B. Alexandrov recommended the manuscript to Tvardovsky. “A book about the war, about Stalingrad, written not by a professional, but by an ordinary officer. Not a word about the party, three lines about Stalin ... "- Nekrasov recalled in the essay "Forty years later ... (Something instead of an afterword)".
The book really stood out against the background of the military prose of his contemporaries. Among the most famous and worthy are "The Immortal People" by V. Grossman (1942), "Days and Nights" by K. Simonov (1943-1944), "Star" by E. Kazakevich (1946), not to mention many other works written by less talented writers. The main plot and the main pathos of the books about the war in the first post-war years was the heroism of the party soldiers, devotion to the communist idea, the wisdom of the Supreme Commander and his strategic decisions, hysterical sentimentality or, on the contrary, romantic heroism (Soviet "lieutenant prose", which made the soldier's truth the ideological center of the works about the war, appeared a decade later - from the second half of the 1950s.)
Nekrasov's novel was truly outstanding for its time: it is a look at the war of a lieutenant who tells day by day about what he saw, heard, experienced before and during the Battle of Stalingrad. The protagonist Igor Kerzhentsev, in many ways the author's alter ego, retreats to the east, to the Don and Stalingrad, together with his colleagues. The soldiers do not know what is happening at the front, there are no newspapers, no maps larger than "two-verst". Communication with fellow soldiers is lost, many are killed, and oncoming recruits and local residents know no more than they do. The heroes (the characters are numerous and often change, which fully reflects the confusion and heavy losses that reigned during the retreat) arrive in Stalingrad on the eve of the German attack and participate in the entire lengthy defense and battle.
This is an extremely laconic, sincere, transparent autobiographical prose, more reminiscent of diary entries than a work of art (the impression is all the stronger because the narration is in the present tense). Due to a certain detachment of the author, the absence of "ideological load", the story is more like documentary literature.
However, Nekrasov claimed that he did not keep daily records during the war - he tried it, but soon got bored. And he wrote the whole story “on fresh footsteps and in one breath” in just six months during treatment in Poland, in 1944. The doctor allegedly advised to accustom a wounded hand with an injured nerve to small movements and write letters to “beloved girl”. There was no girl, and Nekrasov began to write about Stalingrad.
Nekrasov's book was also distinguished by its main characters: these are ordinary people with a different pre-war past, for whom the war, which radically changed their worldview, the hierarchy of values and relationships, bringing their true qualities and abilities to the surface, became a daily life. For them, a feat is not an abstract concept from someone else's dictionary, but daily hard to exhaustion work, and there is only one dream - to relax and sleep, and the details of a heroic deed are sometimes unsightly, but they go for it consciously - and to the end.
There is not a hint of falsehood in the descriptions: the author does not incline towards sentimentality, nor towards the spectacular horrors and bloody details of the war, nor towards heroic pathos with a ritual bow to the authorities. He chooses, if not emotionally reduced, then neutral vocabulary and speech turns.
So, for example, the German attack is described: “The shelling lasts about twenty minutes. It's very tiring. Then we pull the machine gun onto the platform and wait.
Chumak waves his hand. I see only his head and hand.
“Two leftists got hit,” he shouts.
We are left with three machine guns.
Repel another attack. I have a machine gun. It's German and I don't understand it well. I shout to Chumak.
He runs down the trench. Lame. The shard hit him on the soft side of his body. The peakless cap above the right ear was pierced.
“Killed those two,” he says, pulling out the bolt. - Only rags left.
<…>I don't remember how many times the Germans show up. One, two, ten, twelve. Buzzing in my head. Or maybe the planes overhead? Chumak is shouting something. I can't make out anything. Valega delivers ribbons one after another. How quickly they empty. Shell casings all around, nowhere to step.
The removal of external heroic pathos according to Nekrasov is a must: a book about the war (like a film) cannot go “all on a high note. From the beginning to the end. She is like a sculpture of Mukhina, who suddenly came to life and went forward with a victorious pace. And we are following her. Two hours…” he wrote in a later essay.
The simple idea that war turns the world inside out leads to a kind of “professional deformation”. And again, a simple language is emphasized, without analytical or pathetic comments by the author, which in itself becomes a strong literary device: it is unpleasant to look at a wedge of cranes (for which there is “no war”), because they fly like Junkers; the protagonist, sitting with a girl on the banks of the Volga and looking at the opposite bank, habitually thinks out points for placing machine guns.
Nekrasov builds a panorama of events and the psychological state of the characters through local and insignificant details, which in fact go far beyond the review of the "trench" (the most common reproach from critics is the narrowness of the writer's "trench truth"). The multi-day bombing of Stalingrad becomes a routine, and the eyes accustomed to it, having ceased to perceive it as a turning point in the Great Patriotic War, begin to notice the little things.
“The whole day the Messers ring in the air, scouring the shore in pairs. They shoot from cannons. Sometimes they drop four small neat bombs, two from under each wing, or long cigar-like boxes with rattles, anti-personnel grenades. The grenades crumble, and the case somersaults in the air for a long time, and then we wash the linen in it - two halves, just like a trough.
These plastically authentic details make the work cinematic to the limit. It is no coincidence that Sergei Eisenstein, who, according to acquaintances, considered him one of the best books on the war, devoted an entire lecture to him. In it, in particular, the master noted: “There are details that are remembered for a lifetime ... Small, as if insignificant, they eat into, somehow soak into you, begin to germinate, grow into something big, significant, absorb the whole essence of what is happening."
The author’s speech sometimes resembles the literary device of detached surprise, still loved by L. N. Tolstoy: to demonstrate a phenomenon, show it as if it were seen for the first time, as if no one had written about war, death, courage and hard everyday life before Nekrasov.
The novel is so obviously written outside the main literary "paradigm" of that time that it could not go unnoticed or be favorably accepted by "knowledgeable" critics, as well as politically and opportunistically more conscious writers.
There are almost no mentions of Stalin in Nekrasov's book - and this despite the fact that in the 10th issue of Znamya, where the second part of Stalingrad was published, a program article about Soviet poetry was posted: “... Its general theme is the theme of the leader . Anyone who passes by this topic will never realize the true nature of our art ... ”After arguments and persuasion, Nekrasov nevertheless inserted a line about Stalin, and later, after the 20th Congress, he refused to remove it: in the book it was too obvious that it was not the leader.
It is curious that the change in the political "microclimate" occurred at the stage of the journal publication of the novel. If the 8-9th issue of the Banner was all imbued with great hopes of the first post-war year, the expectation of "a new life, the kingdom of justice, freedom, which the people earned by hardships and sacrifices of the war years", then the next, 10th, began with the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) dated August 14, 1946 “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”” and a report consonant with it by Comrade Zhdanov. They defame Mikhail Zoshchenko (“he specialized for a long time in writing empty, meaningless and vulgar things, in preaching rotten lack of ideas, vulgarity and apoliticality”), Anna Akhmatova (representative of the “unprincipled reactionary literary swamp”), and later, in an editorial article, many other writers . In such an environment and context, the punishment for the political unconsciousness and lack of ideas of the work was not long in coming.
First of all, the novel was translated into a story, and the title was replaced with “In the trenches of Stalingrad”: “The great battle seen from some one hole, from one trench” cannot claim either the scale of the novel or the name of the city that has become a household name.
“The literary community was confused,” Nekrasov rightly noted. Critics scolded the novel-story for "remarqueism", narrowness of view, for the fact that "it describes events in a protocol, showing little interest in issues of worldview, politics, morality." However, the manuscript was still published in the authoritative "Znamya": the editor-in-chief V.V. Tvardovsky gave it to Vishnevsky.
However, reproaches against the author appeared in reviews until Nekrasov was awarded the Stalin Prize of the II degree on June 6, 1947. There were oddities in the awarding of the prize, explained, as often happens with a lack of reliable evidence, by a legend. Later, Nekrasov recalled: his name was crossed out by the Secretary General and Chairman of the Board of the Union of Writers A. Fadeev from the list of nominees for the award the night before publication. However, “the next morning, the stupefied author saw his own image in Pravda and Izvestia.” In the strictest confidence, Vishnevsky told the writer that only "himself", "no one else" could put his name on the list again.
One way or another, in addition to a cash bonus of 50 thousand rubles (which he gave to buy wheelchairs for front-line soldiers), Nekrasov received immunity from criticism for some time. "In the trenches of Stalingrad" before the ban on printing and removal from libraries was reprinted several times (with a total circulation of more than 4 million copies) and was translated into 36 languages.
The biography of the author himself is no less interesting: before the publication in the Znamya of Nekrasov, a demobilized captain of the Soviet army, with medals (among them - "For Courage", "For the Defense of Stalingrad") and the Order of the Red Star, who returned from the front to his native Kyiv, almost no one did not know.
He was born in 1911, his parents are “from the former”: his mother with noble roots is a doctor, his father is a bank employee. We got acquainted with Paris, where Zinaida Nikolaevna worked in a military hospital. An older brother was also born there. His father died early, his brother "survived his father for a short time - he died in Mirgorod in 1919 under the ramrods of the Reds," Nekrasov wrote down his family history.
In Paris, the family lived in the same house with the future People's Commissar Lunacharsky, and the first language of Viktor Nekrasov was French. The Nekrasovs returned in 1915, and after the revolution of 1917 they did not emigrate: they tried to get used to the new system. Victor was sent to study at a labor school, and then at a railway vocational school. After that, he graduated from the Kyiv Construction Institute (Faculty of Architecture) and at the same time - the theater studio at the Kiev Theater of Russian Drama: "In turn, I wanted to be Corbusier, then Stanislavsky, at worst, Mikhail Chekhov." By the way, he managed to communicate with a living architectural legend: Nekrasov considered unfair the decision of the jury that rejected the project of the Palace of Soviets by Corbusier, and wrote him a letter full of sympathy and admiration in French - in response he received a postcard.
Numerous memoir sketches of the writer are similar to his prose in their documentary conciseness and clarity of style. Despite the habit of reading newspapers since childhood, in his youth he was “apolitical” and was neither a pioneer nor a Komsomol member. “During the years of the Civil War, I was rooting for Denikin, Kolchak, Wrangel. In 1924, as a thirteen-year-old boy, he froze his ears, trampling on Khreshchatyk under the mourning horns of factories - Lenin died. To the great bewilderment of his parents, he hung a huge portrait of the leader in the dining room ... ˂ ...> The thirty-seventh years miraculously did not hurt. - Viktor Platonovich recalled, - A riddle. ... The fearless aunt Sonya wrote letters to Krupskaya, Nogin, Bonch-Bruevich about unjust arrests. He worked in the theater - “trampling, leftist, semi-legal. Traveled all the holes in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa regions”, “wrote something in the evenings. Sent to magazines. They returned. Fortunately ... ", - Nekrasov noted in a kind of autobiographical commentary on his famous story.
He was taken to the war from the Red Army Theater and where he worked at the time. At the front, he became a regimental engineer and deputy commander of a sapper battalion. He received two serious wounds in the war, after which he was demobilized, wrote his autobiographical novel-story (deceptively simple, "pre-revolutionary", that is, humane, not spoiled by Sovietisms and clichés language) and from 1945 to 1947 worked as a journalist in a Kyiv newspaper " Soviet Art. Then, for eight years, Nekrasov published only a few military stories and newspaper articles, in 1954 his story "In his native city" was published - a chronological and logical continuation of the debut, and in 1961 - the story "Kira Georgievna". Both were coldly received by critics.
During these years, Nekrasov was not so much a writer as a publicist and public figure: he speaks at a rally in Babi Yar and writes articles about the need for a monument on the site of a ravine, where in 1941 tens of thousands of Jews were shot by the Nazis. In 1966, he signed a letter from 25 cultural and scientific figures to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, L. I. Brezhnev, against the rehabilitation of Stalin.
In 1957 and 1962 Nekrasov traveled around Europe, writing down his impressions of what he saw in his travel essays, for which he was immediately accused of "serving the West." The “immunity” acquired thanks to the Stalin Prize began to melt: criticism of N. S. Khrushchev in 1963 (Nekrasov “mired in his ideological errors and was reborn”) gave carte blanche to expel him from the party. During a search of his house in January 1974, all manuscripts and illegal literature were confiscated from him. At the same time, Nekrasov was also expelled from the Writers' Union, and even earlier, since 1972, they stopped publishing new and reprinting old books, while removing them from libraries. In 1974, the writer emigrated to France, worked in the Paris bureau of Radio Liberty. True, he spoke ironically about the service: “Getting up from the table in a cafe, he usually told his friends, looking at his watch: “I have to go to work, I’ll go, I’ll slander.”
Viktor Nekrasov describes in his story the events of the second half of 1942, when our troops retreated from Kharkov, from the Oskol River near Stalingrad, in order to fortify there and defend the city. It was in those days that I.V. Stalin signed the famous order No. 227 with the call "Not a step back."
Lieutenant Yuri Kerzhentsev - an architect in pre-war life, becomes a sapper at the front. On his behalf, V. Nekrasov describes his own memories of the retreat to Stalingrad. The author also tells us about ordinary people met by the hero at the front, and describes the memories of a peaceful life, which now seems so distant and unreal.
Read the summary In the trenches of Stalingrad Nekrasov
The beginning of the events described in the story falls on July 1942. The German army is on the outskirts of Voronezh and our troops have to retreat. The first battalion under the command of battalion commander Shiryaev was ordered to stay behind to cover the departing. Lieutenant Yuri Kerzhentsev is seconded to the rest. Two days later, having completed its task, the first battalion also leaves the fortifications near the Oskol River.
On the way, Kerzhentsev meets with his friend Igor Svidersky, who reports that the Germans are 10 km away from them, it is necessary to change direction. Soon the battalion reaches dilapidated sheds and stops in them. Here they are covered by the Germans. The battalion commander, having taken 14 soldiers, leaves, and Kerzhentsev with four others remains to cover. One of them dies, the rest manage to escape the barn. They are trying to catch up with theirs. There are many units of the retreating army on the road, they fail to find their regiment. So they get to the Don, cross it and reach Stalingrad.
Stalingrad, at that time, is a peaceful city. Yuri and his comrades stay with relatives of their former commander. And for a while they get a respite from the war. Unhurried conversations with the owners over tea with jam, swimming in the Volga and evening walks with a neighbor's girl - all this is suddenly interrupted by a bombing. The offensive of the German army on Stalingrad began.
Igor and his friend, who fell into the reserve as sappers, had to prepare industrial facilities for destruction. With the onset of the offensive, they were sent to the tractor factory. Georgy Akimovich, an electrical engineer at the thermal power station, is with them there. This is a man of a philosophical disposition, who loves to speculate, but is rather pessimistic. He is outraged by the unpreparedness of our army for war, he believes that the Germans have all the conditions, despite the fact that they are operating on foreign territory. In his opinion, only a miracle can bring victory to our army. Yuri argues with him in between shifts, he cannot accept the engineer's point of view. Kerzhentsev remembers the soldiers talking about the land, the fields sown with bread. This is something that is dear to ordinary Russian people. And, probably, this is the love for the Motherland, the one that can create the miracle of victory.
The bombings have been going on for ten days now, the plant is completely ready for an explosion, but there is no order to destroy it. The sappers were sent to the other side, to the engineering department of the front headquarters. There they receive new appointments and Yuri breaks up with a friend. Kerzhentsev was sent to the 184th division. Arriving there, he discovers the first battalion, whom he saw for the last time near the sheds. Together with his comrades, he crosses the river and immediately gets into a fierce battle. The battalion commander dies and Kerzhentsev has to take command.
September and October pass day after day. Every morning begins with a cannonade, then turning into an attack. The heavily depleted battalion changes positions. They must take the hill, which they succeed, but at the same time the fighters are cut off from their own.
November 19, on the day of Kerzhentsev's name day, a general offensive was announced along the entire front. Kerzhentsev and Shiryaev offer an idea on how to complete the task and at the same time save people, but the chief of staff, Captain Abrosimov, does not consider their arguments valid and prefers to attack with a frontal attack. As a result, during a hard long battle, half of the battalion remains. Abrosimov was arrested, command was transferred to Farber.
The next day, the trial of Abrosimov takes place. The former chief of staff does not admit his mistake, he considers it wrong to protect people and accuses the soldiers of dishonesty and cowardice in carrying out the task. But he is told that this is not the case. Both the dead and the survivors were not cowards, they acted according to the order. But if the trick proposed by Shiryaev had been applied, many more soldiers would have remained alive. It is Abrosimov who is to blame for their death. The former chief of staff was demoted and sent to a penal battalion.
Again the offensive, Yuri is wounded. After treatment in the medical battalion, he returns to defend Stalingrad. The war continues.
Through this work, the author reveals to us the essence of the word patriotism. Not the one that is in words or with a flag on the square, but the real one, when people silently go into battle and die for their Motherland, for their people. The author tells us about the responsibility of contemporaries for their comrades, the need to properly think over their actions and words in advance. And also to love and appreciate every moment of your life, because no one knows how long it will last.
Picture or drawing Nekrasov - In the trenches of Stalingrad
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In 1946, the unknown writer Viktor Nekrasov entered the literature. "In the trenches of Stalingrad" - is given in the article - a story that opened a new page in the image of the Second World War. Some will call it "trench", others - "lieutenant". In any case, the important thing is that it was a completely new look at recent tragic events. For the first time in the center of the image were ordinary soldiers and their commanders, who fully knew the hardships of front-line life.
about the author
V. Nekrasov was born in Kyiv (the largely autobiographical protagonist of the story recalls this city with warmth) in 1911. Before the war, he received the specialty of an architect, was fond of theater, painting, and literature. He tried to write, but life, according to his confession, did not give a suitable plot, and the invented was not interesting either to the author or to the editors.
N. Nekrasov was at the front from the first months of the war - this is proved by the story and its analysis. "In the trenches of Stalingrad" - a work written on the basis of personal observations and feelings of the author. Later, the writer recalled that the real fuse (and he, like his hero, served as a military engineer and deputy commander of a sapper battalion) saw the first pistol only a year after the start of the war - a week before the unsuccessful offensive near Kharkov. Nekrasov took part in the defense of Stalingrad and in his own skin knew all the hardships of front-line everyday life. He was demobilized after being wounded at the end of the war - in 1945.
The history of the creation of the story "In the trenches of Stalingrad"
Later, Nekrasov dictated notebook notes to a typist, and the finished text of the work was handed over with a friend (at random!) To Moscow. And now, after some time, the work "Stalingrad" was published in the "Banner", which immediately caused conflicting assessments. For many, the content and analysis of the story "In the trenches of Stalingrad" caused dissatisfaction. First of all, the fact that it did not contain the usual laudatory speeches addressed to the leader and senior officers. Meanwhile, I. Stalin himself approved the work, which resulted in the award of the second degree to its author in 1947.
Narrative Feature
The story is written on behalf of a young lieutenant, twenty-eight-year-old military engineer Yuri Kerzhentsev. This is a detailed, almost daily, story about the mass retreat of Soviet troops from Oskol to the Volga, about weeks of life in Stalingrad, first peaceful, interrupted by fierce enemy bombardments, then military - during the period of fierce fighting for Mamaev Kurgan and approaches to the city. At the same time, as analysis shows, "In the trenches of Stalingrad" (the story) does not contain voluminous descriptions of the battles and heroic deeds of Soviet soldiers. All the pictures are extremely capacious and truthful - silence, according to Nekrasov, in the story is no more than 1%. This is explained simply.
The author wanted to show the real defenders of the country through the eyes of a warrior like them, who experienced natural human feelings during the war: longing for a peaceful life and relatives, pride in his comrades, shame for retreats and failures, fear of explosions and incessant fire in the trenches of Stalingrad . The analysis of the work seems to take the reader to the battlefield, and he, following the main character, tries to rethink what happened, to understand at what cost the victory was given to the people.
The role of lyrical digressions and reflections of the hero
Descriptions of reality are often interrupted by retrospectives into the past. In the first part there are more of them, in the second, where the series of events develops faster, there are not so many. During a painful retreat, these are Kerzhentsev's memories of his beloved Kyiv, where his home and family remained. The hero is in constant pain from the fact that the Nazis are now in charge there.
A few peaceful days in Stalingrad remind me of my beloved girl, pre-war activities and hobbies that will never be the same again. Conversations at the factory, which is being prepared for the explosion, evoke memories of Sevastopol Tales. In them, L. Tolstoy talks about the "hidden patriotism" of the Russian people. This is what the main character sees next to him now, Nekrasov emphasizes.
In the trenches of Stalingrad (an analysis of contrasting pictures enhances the impression of what he read), Yuri draws attention to the nature around him. The description of the calm and majestic, against which terrible events unfold, helps to more acutely feel the tragic scale of what is happening. This perception of the world turns Kerzhentsev into a person trying to solve the eternal problem of life and death, heroism and meanness, sincerity and hypocrisy.
Depiction of war
The analysis of "In the trenches of Stalingrad" (Nekrasov's story) brings the reader to the main idea. In each line, the author painfully talks about how fleeting life is: a minute ago a person spoke, breathed, and now he lies with an extinct look and a mutilated body. At the same time, everything happens everyday, and the description of the various faces of death and human suffering allows us to understand the true scale of the national tragedy. Incredibly realistic Nekrasov describes the death of Lazarenko wounded in the stomach and a very young machine gunner. As the most terrible manifestation of death, he recalls a dead soldier, in whose lips a cigarette butt is smoldering. Episodes telling, for example, about the defense of sheds or the capture of a hill, when a small handful of poorly armed Soviet soldiers heroically resisted an enemy detachment with tanks and machine guns, also have an incredible impact.
The image of the main character
An analysis of the story "In the trenches of Stalingrad" by Nekrasov is impossible without referring to the personality of Yuri Kerzhentsev. This is an educated one who absorbs everything that he sees and hears around. He understands that war is not at all like peaceful life: nothing can be predicted in it. And yet what is happening: the retreat, the plight of the army, the dumb reproaches in the views of the inhabitants of the abandoned villages - makes the hero and his colleagues look for an answer to the eternal question of who is to blame.
The lieutenant himself repeatedly catches himself thinking that in war the heart hardens, and human values become completely different. However, he is very self-critical and demanding of himself. A taciturn, sometimes hot-tempered hero at the right moment is able to support and make the right decision. He sincerely experiences the death of each of his comrades. In crucial moments, it turns out to be next to the fighters, just like them, it does not hide from bullets. The war became for him a responsible matter, which should be carried out conscientiously.
The author does not idealize his hero, which is confirmed by Kerzhentsev's actions and their analysis. "In the trenches of Stalingrad" is an example of how an ordinary person behaves in a war. When bullets fly past during a conversation with Chumak, Yuri involuntarily ducks down. He, the commander, sometimes does not know what to do, and feels guilty before others. He does not refuse milk or lemon obtained by Valega. But its merit lies in the absence of false heroism and arrogance in it.
Thus, the main character is an ordinary person who, at the cost of his life, defended Stalingrad and the whole country.
The image of Valega
In his story, Nekrasov ("In the trenches of Stalingrad"), an analysis of the content of which confirms this, pays special attention to Kerzhentsev's orderly - Valega. This is a simple uneducated eighteen-year-old guy, infinitely devoted to his lieutenant and his homeland. His work, at first glance, is invisible, but Kerzhentsev was more than once surprised at how deftly Valega managed. Under any conditions, a heated lunch, clean linen, and a dry raincoat were waiting for Yuri. In some unknown way, Valega could adapt to any conditions. At the same time, Kerzhentsev was sure that if the cartridges ran out and he needed to fight for his homeland with his teeth, his orderly would cope in this situation. It was these warriors, who lived in the trenches day and night, who bore the brunt of the war.
Place of the story in literature
V. Nekrasov was the first in Russian literature to show, according to V. Bykov, "the rightness and high essence of individuality in war, the significance of the individual ... in an environment with absolute subordination of one to all ...". And a decade later, a whole generation of front-line writers emerged from the Nekrasov trenches, writing about what they themselves had suffered and experienced.
conclusions
A book about people from the trenches - this is how many of the first readers called the story, which was written in 1946 by an unknown V. Nekrasov, "In the trenches of Stalingrad." Analysis of the work confirms this idea. The impartial story of the author about those who, in terrible years for the country, faced and managed to preserve the best in themselves, once again emphasizes the unshakable stamina, boundless courage and true patriotism of the Russian people, who have always been able to defend the freedom and independence of their state.
Viktor Nekrasov is one of the first who spoke about the war in a truthful language. His story is a vivid example of lieutenant's prose, "trench truth."
In his story, V. Nekrasov talks about the realities of war, the fate of people in this terrible time, their thoughts, feelings and experiences. The basis of the story is the diary entries of the writer, who went through the hardships of the war, who knew firsthand what it was like to be at war. A man who saw the underside of this horror, felt the fear, pain, hunger, the nearness of death.
In the center of the story are the soldiers and their commander. The protagonist is Lieutenant Yuri Kerzhentsev, an autobiographical character on whose behalf the story is being told. The author does not give the hero a portrait description, but this does not affect the completeness of the disclosure of the image. . The protagonist is a young man who before the war was interested in painting, literature, music, was fond of architecture, “... he loved to look at the moon, and he loved chocolate and lilacs ...”. « I thought you wrote poetry. You look so poetic"- this is what the scout Chumak says about the main character. Such a person, it seems, does not belong in the war at all. But the war does not choose who to take as soldiers. And she changes the hero: from a dreamy "poet" Kerzhentsev turns into a good soldier, lieutenant, battalion commander. But even here, Kerzhentsev does not change his human qualities: the horrors of war do not kill in him such character traits as sympathy, responsibility for loved ones, calmness of behavior and rational thinking.
However, the perception of the world in war becomes different, the hero acquires new, different value orientations, he looks at the world and people differently: In war you get to know people for real. It's clear to me now. She is like a litmus test, like a special developer.. The hero recalls the friends of "peaceful life": they “we studied together, worked together, drank vodka, argued about art and other lofty matters”, and Kerzhentsev was interested in them, but it was at that time. And now, in the war, the hero asks the question: “Who would pull me, wounded, from the battlefield?”. And this question worries Yuri, changes his consciousness, his idea of reality, of those around him.
Talking with Lyusya about art, about Blok, about Yesenin, Kerzhentsev understands that he somehow feels uneasy about this: everything that once worried and interested him has now moved away, and seems so unimportant. For the hero, war is a test of a person, it shows him what a person really is. So, Kerzhentsev perceives other heroes through the prism of war, evaluating them as warriors, as comrades-in-arms. Kerzhentsev's attitude towards the heroes changes as a result of his actions: so, despite his personal dislike for Chumak, Yuri sees him as an intelligent scout, a good soldier. Constantly seeing death in the war, the hero, however, could not get used to it, to the pain that it brings. Kerzhentsev recalls: “I remember one killed fighter. He lay on his back with his arms outstretched, a cigarette butt stuck to his lip. A small, still smoking cigarette butt. And it was the most terrible thing that I saw before and after the war. Worse than ruined cities, ripped open bellies, torn off arms and legs. Outstretched arms and a cigarette butt on the lip. A minute ago there was still life, thoughts, desires. Now it's death". And this is the worst thing in war - death, which destroys life in one short moment. So the war makes the hero think that life is short, it is given once, and you need to fight for it.
The protagonist experiences an unbearable feeling of guilt in front of all the people when, passing by a village, he sees the abandoned residents watching. This guilt is involuntary, but from this it is more painful. The lieutenant understands that he is responsible for everything that happens, he is to blame for not knowing where he is, not protecting the Motherland, not fulfilling his duty. He reflects on this as he passes by the abandoned village: I can't look at those faces, those questioning, perplexed eyes. What will I answer them? I have two dice on my collar, a pistol on my side. Why am I not there, why am I here, why am I shaking on this creaky cart and only waving my hand to all questions? Where is my platoon, my regiment, division? After all, I am a commander ... What will I answer to this?. This very inactivity, uncertainty, aimlessness in war exposes the hero to fear much more than an enemy attack: “But in the attack - the goal, the task, and in the gap<…>under the bombardment, you only count the bombs" .
The hero, despite the hardships of responsibility and work in the war, is attentive to those around him: to the orderly Valega, friend Svidersky, battalion commander and comrade Shiryaev, alienated commander Farber. Shows sympathy, warmth of communication, draws closer to the characters. This is due not to the hero's sentimentality, but to the terrible reality of war - maybe tomorrow you won't be able to do it.
Another character trait of the hero deserves attention: his hands are not stained with dirty money. Yuri is not engaged in looting, and sharply resists even seeing it: he stops the soldier's attempt to rob a dead German.
The author draws the image of an honest, pure, worthy soldier. But he is not idealized. The hero is first and foremost a man: Kerzhentsev has his weaknesses - he is irritated by guilt, and when the scout Chumak offends the lieutenant's pride, he takes it out on him. However, there is no false heroism in him: if he does not know how to complete the task, then he admits it, but understands that he will have to complete it.
Engineer Kerzhentsev commands the respect of the soldiers and the trust of the commanders. One of the "warmest" is his relationship with the orderly Valega.
Valega is a type of "simple Russian soldier", as the author calls him: " Valega here reads in warehouses, gets confused in the division, does not know how many seven are eight, and ask him what socialism or homeland is, he, by God, will not really explain: it is too difficult for him to define concepts in words. But for this homeland - for me, Igor, for his comrades in the regiment, for his rickety hut somewhere in Altai - he will fight to the last bullet. And the cartridges will run out - with fists, teeth ... this is what a Russian person is. Sitting in the trenches, he will scold the foreman more than the Germans, but when he comes to the point, he will show himself. And he will always learn to divide, multiply and read out of order, if there was time and desire.. The author emphasizes that in a war it is not so important for a soldier to be able to divide, multiply and read, it is much more important to defend his homeland, his comrades to the last drop of blood. Bold in battle and indispensable in the life of the war, Valega " knows how to cut, shave, mend boots, build a fire in the pouring rain; his bowler hat always sparkles; he never parted with two flasks - with milk and vodka; by the river you will always get fish, in the forest - strawberries, blueberries, mushrooms; the tent is always ready, cozy, comfortable”, and all this the hero does silently, quickly, without reminders.
For Kerzhentsev, Valega is not just an orderly, he is first and foremost a comrade. The lieutenant treats Valega with warmth unusual for a soldier, the orderly becomes his younger brother, Yuri feels responsible for him: “I'm used to you, lop-eared, damned used ... No, I'm not used to it. It's not a habit, it's something else, much more. I never thought about it. There just wasn't time.". The “lop-eared” orderly takes care of Kerzhentsev, is attached to him, like a son to his father.
Brotherly feelings arise between the characters. This is “something more than a habit”, this brotherly love between soldiers, which they, without realizing it to the end, need. After all, in a war, where blood and death are everywhere, friendship, companionship, and love are so important. It is these feelings that do not allow you to lose a person in yourself.
An important secondary character, along with Valega, is Kerzhentsev's friend, Igor Svidersky. Just like the main character, Igor was interested in art, he studied at an art institute. However, the personality of the hero was formed precisely in the war. He matured, became tolerant of difficulties and bold. “In battle, they fired at him: where did he get the scratch from, he himself was not occupied, he did not feel anything» . Svidersky fights so desperately that he does not pay attention to the slight injuries inflicted on him. The hero is indignant when Kerzhentsev “removes his soldiers from the gas shelter and makes them dig trenches”- this proves that Igor perceives the war as a constant battle, he does not know how to wait, he is torn into any battle.
Svidersky defends and will continue to defend the Motherland, both in battle with the Germans, and in a dispute with electrical engineer Georgy Akimovich, and in a skirmish with Kaluga. He is quick-tempered and a little harsh, but only because he is afraid of losing his homeland, his home. His faith in victory is inexorable, even in a dispute with Georgy Akimovich, where the latter gives weighty arguments in favor of his position, he proves that it is impossible to fight with heroism alone: “You can't do anything with heroism alone. Heroism is heroism, and tanks are tanks". But Igor cannot accept this, and exclaims "No, it can't be. They won't go any further. I know they won't." And leaves". Cheerful, sociable, emotional, he treats the war as a personal drama, and, unlike Kerzhentsev, carries it in himself, not forgetting for a minute.
And war changes the hero. Svidersky haggard - “the nose is peeling, once coquettish - in a line - the mustache sagged, like a Tatar”, he lost weight, his eyes unnaturally shine. But the changes do not end with appearance, the hero becomes quick-tempered, at times rude, ready for battle at any time - he is no longer recognizable as a student of an art institute. However, the war does not make Igor a negative hero: he is just as brave, eager for disputes, girls and art. The war reveals only his nascent deep patriotism, a sense of loyalty and duty.
Kerzhentsev cherishes his friend, gets upset when they have to part at the crossing. The image of Igor will be presented to Yuri in a dream when the main character needs him. Kerzhentsev learns about the fate of his friend only at the end of the story, returning to Stalingrad. Kerzhentsev is going to meet him, but the offensive begins again.
The images of Valega and Svidersky reveal the character of the protagonist. Igor Svidersky, whose life before the war is similar to the life of Kerzhentsev, in contrast to Yuri, who remained calm and reasonable during the war, becomes quick-tempered. However, Svidersky retained the artist in himself - he draws portraits of soldiers and commanders in a tablet. Kerzhentsev completely forgot about books. In relations with Valega, Kerzhentsev becomes the so-called "big brother" for the orderly, and is responsible for Valega's fate. The images of the protagonist and his orderly are built on contrast, but they are not opposed, but complement each other: impractical, insecure because of guilt, at times confused lieutenant and efficient, loyal, courageous, economic Valega. The characters are inseparable from each other, but they are integral in their structure separately.
Bibliography:
- Golovanova, T. Not empty concepts - honor, duty, conscience, dignity ... [electronic resource] - Access mode. – URL: http://nekrassov-viktor.com/Papers/Golovanova-Tamara.aspx (Accessed 02/16/2016)
- Nekrasov, V. In the trenches of Stalingrad / V. Nekrasov. - M .: Art. lit., 1990. - 319 p.
