List of works by Vasil Bykov. stories

Vasil Bykov

Collection of military stories in one volume

crane cry

It was an ordinary railway crossing, of which there are many scattered along the steel highways of the country.

He chose a fairly suitable place for himself, on the edge of a sedge marshy lowland, where an embankment ended and the rails of a rolled single-track did not run flush with the ground for a long time. A muddy, rutted country road that slid down a gently sloping empty hillock crossed the railway here and, rounding the edge of a potato field, turned towards the forest.

The crossing was old, once carefully maintained, with striped posts and the same striped barriers on the sides of an old, plastered gatehouse, in which some grumbling old guard was dozing near a hot coal-fired stove. As has long been customary at all crossings, he boredly glanced out the window at the infrequent travelers here and perked up only before the arrival of the train, when he hurried to lower the black-and-white drawbars of the barriers. Now the road was empty in both directions, there was no one even on the dirty broken country road, a barrier trampled into the mud lay in the distance; and in the lodge-gatehouse the assertive autumn wind was masterfully hosting, tediously creaking with the wide-open door. It seemed that no one cared about this abandoned crossing, this dreary field, and these roads that started somewhere and went nowhere.

But the matter was found, it gradually cleared up in the minds of all six, who stood dejectedly in the wind with their overcoat collars turned up and listened to the battalion commander. He set them a new combat mission.

“Block the road for a day,” the captain said in a cold voice, a tall, bony man with a tired face. The wind angrily whipped the hollow raincoat on his dirty boots, tore the long ribbons on his chest. - Tomorrow evening you will go beyond the forest. And the day - hold on ...

In front of them in the autumn field rose a hillside with a road on which two large stocky birches strewed yellowed foliage, and somewhere on the horizon an invisible sun was setting. A narrow strip of light, breaking through the clouds, like a razor blade, shone dully in the sky.

- And what about the entrenching tool? - Sergeant Karpenko, the commander of this small group, asked in a smoky bass. - We need shovels.

- Shovels? - the battalion commander asked thoughtfully, peering into the brilliant strip of sunset. - Look for yourself. No shovels, And no people, don't ask, Karpenko, you know...

- Yes, and people would not interfere, - picked up the foreman. - What about five? And then there is one newcomer, and the other is very "scientist" - also warriors! - he grumbled angrily, standing half-turned to the battalion commander.

- Anti-tank grenades, cartridges for the peteer, as much as possible, they gave you, but there were no people, - the battalion commander said wearily. He was still peering into the distance, not taking his eyes off the sunset, and then, suddenly starting up, turned to Karpenko - a stocky man with a heavy, inactive look. - Well, I wish you luck.

The captain offered his hand, and the sergeant-major, already in the grip of new worries, shook it indifferently. Also restrainedly shook the cold hand of the battalion commander and the "scientist" - a tall, round-shouldered fighter Fisher; without offense, the newcomer, whom the foreman complained about, openly looked at the commander - young, with naive eyes, ordinary Glechik. "Nothing. God won’t give it away, the pig won’t eat it, ”the PETER member Svist nonchalantly joked - blond, in an unbuttoned overcoat, a nimble-looking fighter. With a sense of restrained dignity, the clumsy, muzzled Pshenichny extended his plump hand. Respectfully, tapping his dirty heels, the black-haired handsome Ovseev said goodbye. Shaking his machine gun with his shoulder, the battalion commander sighed heavily and, sliding through the mud, set off to catch up with the column.

Concerned about the new task that had fallen to their lot, the six for some time silently looked after the captain, the battalion, whose short, not at all battalion column, swaying measuredly in the evening mist, was slowly moving away towards the forest.

In front of everyone silently stood the angry and displeased foreman Karpenko. Some still not quite conscious anxiety took possession of him more and more insistently. By an effort of will, Karpenko, however, suppressed it and turned to a small group of tired, chilled in the wind and silent fighters.

- Well, what are you standing for? Get to work! Who has shovels, dig. As long as it's light...

With a habitual jerk, he threw a heavy light machine gun over his shoulder and, with a crunch, breaking roadside weeds, went along the ditch. The others reluctantly reached for their commander.

“Well, let's start from here,” said Karpenko, kneeling down by the ditch and looking out over the railroad. - Come on, Pshenichny, you will be flank. Is there a spatula? Get started.

A stocky, heavily built Pshenichny stepped forward, took off his rifle from behind his back, put it in the weeds and began to pull out a sapper shovel tucked into his belt. Having measured ten paces from him along the ditch, Karpenko sat down again and looked around, looking with his eyes for someone to appoint to the new position. Concern and malicious dissatisfaction with those random people who were assigned to this far from easy task did not leave his rough face.

- Well, who's here? Fischer, right? Even though he doesn't have a shoulder blade. Also a warrior! - the foreman got angry, rising from his knee. - How many at the front, but the blades have not yet been obtained. Waiting, probably, when the foreman will give? Or will the German send as a gift?

Fischer, visibly offended by the lengthy reproach, made no excuses and made no objection, only hunched awkwardly and unnecessarily adjusted his black metal-rimmed glasses on his nose.

- In the end, whatever you want, but dig! - threw Karpenko, looking, as he always did when he spoke, somewhere down and to the side. - My business is small. But to equip the position.

He moved on, strong and confident in his words and movements, as if he were not a platoon commander, but at least a regimental commander. Behind him obediently trudged along Svist and Ovseev. Looking back at Fischer, Svist pushed his cap to his right eyebrow and, showing his white teeth in a smile, quipped:

- A task for the professor, Yarina is green! Sweat, ha!

"Don't talk," the sergeant-major interrupted briskly. - March out to the white post on the line and dig.

Svist turned into a potato jar, looked back at Fischer with a smile, who stood motionless at his position and anxiously fiddled with his unshaven chin.

Karpenko and Ovseev approached the gatehouse. The foreman, stepping on the threshold, touched the skewed creaking door and looked around the room in a businesslike way. A through wind blew through the broken window, fragments of a red-haired poster that once called for breeding bees dangled on the wall. The floor was covered with pieces of plaster, clods of dirt, straw dust. It stank of soot, dust, and something else uninhabitable and disgusting.

Name: Vasil Bykov

Age: 79 years old

Activity: writer, public figure

Family status: was married

Vasil Bykov: biography

Vasil Vladimirovich Bykov is often called the man who survived. But it is worth saying that he not only survived, participating in the battles on the fields of the Great Patriotic War, but also remained in the memory of many lovers of literature as the immortal author of heroic works. The novels and stories of Vasil Bykov are saturated with the cruel truth of those troubled years, he was not afraid to move away from ideological labels, for which he was persecuted and persecuted. But the works of the writer went through many years and were filmed by eminent directors.

Childhood and youth

Vasil Vladimirovich Bykov was born in the north of Belarus on June 19, 1924 in the small village of Bychki, in the Ushachsky district of the Vitebsk region. The boy grew up in a peasant family with many children: in addition to him, Antonina's sisters (she died at 15), Valentina and brother Nikolai were brought up.

His father Vladimir Fedorovich used to go to work in Latvia, and also served in the tsarist army in Grodno. Then Bykov Sr. was demobilized with the outbreak of the First World War, then he was captured and ended up in Germany, where he worked for the Bauer. Vladimir Fedorovich told his five-year-old child about how he fought in the Civil War and how he got caught by the Germans in East Prussia, and Vasil listened, listening to every word, and asked curious questions.

The writer's mother Anna Grigorievna came from a simple family that lived in the village of Zaulok, located in Poland. Unlike the head of the family, whom the children were afraid of, Anna was a soft and kind woman. Vasil's parents lived in poverty and barely made ends meet, so a hearty lunch or a delicious dinner was a rarity, moreover, the future writer sometimes had nothing to wear, since his wardrobe was not distinguished by an abundance of clothes.

Therefore, the only consolation for the little boy was nature and books. He loved to spend his free time (if he had any, because Vasil knew from early childhood what it was like to earn a living by hard work) on the street, enjoying the singing of birds and fresh air. But especially the little boy adored Lake Belyakovskoye, where he swam, caught fish and crayfish.

“I remember, you set fire to the torch, and the crayfish, attracted by the light, crawl out onto the shallows, and there are so many of them that it even becomes scary,” Vasil Vladimirovich recalled in his autobiographical book.

Or he read some classic literature that plunged him headlong into unprecedented adventures invented by writers. His first read work was the tale of the Frog Princess, which the boy received from his teacher. Vasil also drew well: he skillfully captured with a pencil on paper what was born in his imagination. Perhaps Bykov would have become an outstanding artist, like, or, but fate prepared a completely different path for this talented person.

It is known that Vasil visited far from one school bench: he studied in his native village, then transferred to Dvor-Slobodka, and then went to school in Kulibichi. Then Bykov continued his studies, enrolling in the Vitebsk Art School in the department of sculpture. Unfortunately, the young man had to leave this educational institution due to the cancellation of the scholarship: the young man had to get a job. But still, he was educated at a factory training school and passed the exams for the tenth grade as an external student in 1941.

On June 22, 1941, Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, on instructions, officially informed his compatriots about the attack by Nazi troops. It is worth saying that the leadership of the Soviet Union, despite the Ribbentrop pact, was ready for action, however, for many residents of the USSR, the offensive of the German army was a complete surprise. The war caught Vasil Bykov in Ukraine - where he participated in defensive work.

The future writer was on the verge of death: during the retreat in Belgorod, he fell behind his comrades and was arrested. Vasil was considered a German spy and almost shot. But Bykov managed to convince the invaders that he was a citizen of the USSR. It is also known that in the winter from 1941 to 1942, the young man lived at the Saltykovka railway station and in the city of Atkarsk, in the Saratov region.

After graduating from the Saratov Infantry School, the author of the Alpine Ballad was drafted into the army, where he rose to the rank of junior lieutenant. Bykov showed himself as a brave and courageous person, participated in the battles for Krivoy Rog, Alexandria and Znamenka. At the beginning of 1944, Bykov spent three months in the hospital, and when his physical condition returned to normal, he again began to fight for the Motherland: he was a senior lieutenant, commander of a platoon of regimental and army artillery, participated in numerous operations, acted together with the active armies of Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Austria.

Literature

It is not surprising that the works of Vasil Bykov are saturated with the smell of war. The events from 1941 to 1945 left a mark on the writer's heart and reflected on his life and memory. Fragments of memories popped up in the head of Vasil Vladimirovich all the time, the book “Long Road Home”, written in 2002, can serve as proof of this. He had to watch blood, hunger and death, which was constantly in the air.

Since 1947, after demobilization, the master of the pen lived in Grodno, a city that is called the cultural capital of Belarus. At the same time, Vasil Vladimirovich began to print, while simultaneously working in various workshops and in the editorial office of a local newspaper. Since 1959, his creative biography begins: Vasil Bykov presents the work “Crane Cry” to the readers, and in 1961 the story “The Third Rocket” is published, which brought recognition and fame to the master of the word.

This work plunges lovers of literature in times of war and into human characters that are revealed at the moment of mortal danger. Two years after the release of the story, director Richard Viktorov puts on a film of the same name based on the work, where Nadezhda Sementsova and other famous actors played the main roles.

In the autumn of 1965, readers first got acquainted with the work "The Dead Doesn't Hurt", which was published by the magazine Maladost. The plot of the story takes place in 1944 during the Kirovograd operation, in which Vasil Vladimirovich personally participated: he was wounded in the stomach and leg, but miraculously survived, although it is worth noting that the young soldier was initially mistakenly listed as dead.

In 1974, the talented writer was awarded the USSR State Prize for his works "Obelisk" (1971) and "Survive Until Dawn" (1972). In 1976, the story "Obelisk" was filmed by the same director - Richard Viktorov. This time the main roles went to Evgeny Karelsky, Igor Okhlupin, Eduard Martsevich and.

In general, there are about twenty films based on the works of Vasil Vladimirovich, for example: "Ascent" (1976), "Fruza" (1981), "Kruglyansky Bridge" (1989), "Go and not return" (1992), "In fog" (2012), etc.

In 1982, Vasil Bykov became the author of the story "The Sign of Trouble", which became a significant work in the literature of the Soviet space. For this creation, the writer was awarded the prestigious Lenin Prize. Bykov is also known for his works The Sotnikov (1970), The Quarry (1985), The Raid (1988), The Wolf Pit (1998), The Swamp (2001) and many other notable works.

Personal life

Vasil Vladimirovich was married twice. The first chosen one of the writer was a certain Nadezhda Kulagina, who taught Russian language and literature at school. For a long life together, Nadezhda gave her beloved two sons.

But after thirty years of marriage, the paths of Kulagina and Bykov diverged, and the master of the word married Irina Suvorova a second time. It is known that a talented writer was not afraid to express his opinion, for example, Vasil Vladimirovich repeatedly criticized actions.

Death

Since the end of 1997, Vasil Bykov lived abroad: initially in Finland, then in Germany and the Czech Republic. He arrived in his native land only a month before his own death.

The great writer and author of cult military works died on June 22, 2003 from stomach cancer. Vasil Vladimirovich died in the department of an oncological hospital, located near the capital of Belarus. The grave of the genius of literature is located at the Eastern Cemetery (Minsk).

Bibliography

• 1959 - "Crane Cry"
• 1963 - "Alpine ballad"
• 1965 - "The Dead Don't Hurt"
• 1970 - Sotnikov
• 1971 - "Obelisk"
• 1972 - "Live Until Dawn"
• 1978 - "Go and never return"
• 1982 - "Sign of trouble"
• 1986 - Quarry
• 1992 - On the Roofs
• 1996 - “Love me, soldier ...”
• 1998 - "Kryzhovy Way"
• 1999 - "Wolf Pit"
• 2001 - "Swamp"
• 2002 - "Long way home"

Sheshina G.G.

I. V. Bykov's special approach to the topic of war.

V. Bykov started the war at the age of seventeen. After graduating from the Saratov Infantry School, he fought as a platoon commander. We had to advance, and retreat, and defend ourselves, surround and leave the encirclement. In 1944 The family received a notice that the platoon commander V. Bykov died a heroic death in battle. But the platoon commander survived and fought further in Romania, Hungary, Austria, and was awarded. On June 19, 1945, he turned 21.

Years later, V. Bykov returned to the war again to see it, as before - point-blank: around him and in his hero. To hear the heavy breathing of a man running up the slope of a height nearby in an attack, to bend over a young lieutenant dying alone in the middle of a bare field, to see the stars in the sky from the bottom of the trench ... . He preferred to stay in the war in the name of those who have long been gone, but who continue to live in the memory of a soldier, in the memory of the people.

Among the works about the war, Bykov's books occupy a special place. He expressed his point of view on this issue in the article "The Living Memory of Generations". In it, he wrote: “The forties gave our literature a number of wonderful images of heroes: for many years we have become accustomed to the courageous, resilient ordinary V. Terkin, to Meresyev, unbending in his sacred desire to become fighters, to the courageous scouts of E. Kazakevich.” However, "far from all the truth about the war, about the feat of the people was expressed." This incompleteness could somehow be understood, justified (the writers “went in hot pursuit of events”, had neither the time nor the opportunity to comprehend all manifestations of the war), but to agree, to come to terms with it would mean for Bykov to change his experience, memory , conscience. Everything changed when the rank-and-file participants returned from the war and received education. Among them was Vasily Bykov, the future writer.

In Bykov's works there are few battle scenes, spectacular historical events, but he managed to convey with amazing depth the feelings of an ordinary soldier in a big war. This hero did not contain anything that would separate him from others, would indicate his superiority. He recognized himself as a part of the defending people. The war presented itself as a grave burden, a common misfortune and misfortune, a terrible blow to everything normal and human, and this blow had to be repelled. But it is very difficult to do this, and therefore the severity of the war is so great in Bykov's stories. And the more dear is the hero put forward by this prose - a man who does not remove his shoulder from under the common burden, does not turn his face away from the truth, a man who stands up to the end.

I I. The theme of war in the stories of V. Bykov.

1. The tragic fate of the heroes in the first year of the war. (On the example of the work "Crane cry".)

In the story "The Crane Cry", six soldiers at the railway crossing must keep the defense for a day, ensuring the withdrawal of the battalion. They entered into an unequal battle, not seeking salvation for themselves. Fischer was the first to notice the German motorcyclists, he felt: "the time has come when the whole meaning of his life is determined." He wanted the foreman to change his mind about him. Obviously, on this night, “the no-nonsense measure of the soldier’s virtues belonging to the foreman, to some extent, became the life standard for Fischer.” His shots had alerted Sergeant Major Karpenko and the others, and he had the right to take care of himself. But Fischer did not know that running away or hiding in his position was quite decent and honest. He imagined the stern high-cheeked face of the foreman, he almost in reality heard a contemptuous cry: “Oh, you bluster! And then the whole world for him was limited to the reproachful look of a stern foreman and this chain of motorcycles. And he waited for the front, fired, hit, and immediately a burst from a machine gun crushed his head.

The motive is really artless: an intellectual, a short-sighted scribe, is more afraid of accusations of sluggishness and cowardice than of mortal danger, he wants to meet the standards of a foreman, that is, the general standard of duty, hardship, risk. He wants to be on a par with others, otherwise he is ashamed.

After Fischer, in the midst of the battle, Karpenko and Svist perish at the crossing. Karpenko was not very worried about himself: he would do everything that was required of him. This is a reliable campaigner, not spoiled by life. His actions in battle are predetermined. And Svist's death came as a result of an unequal combat with a German tank: he threw one grenade after another under the tracks, but did not have time to run away.

The story ends when Vasily Glechik, the youngest of the six, is still alive, but apparently doomed. The thought of leaving the position, saving himself, was unacceptable to him. You can not violate the order of the battalion commander, it must be carried out at any cost, and, of course, the oath and duty to the motherland.

The writer made me feel how bitter it is when such a pure and young, believing in good life ends. Strange sad sounds reached Glechik. He saw a crane flying behind the disappearing flock, apparently a downed one; the desperate cry of a bird with unbridled longing overwhelmed the young man's heart. This crane cry is a song of farewell to the fallen, full of sadness and courage, and an invocative cry announcing mortal danger, and this boy was shocked to discover for himself: he will soon die and nothing can be changed. He grabbed a single grenade and took his last position. Without an order. Knowing well that this is the end. Not wanting to die and not knowing how to survive at any cost. It was a heroic stance.

The heroes of the story "The Crane Cry", with all the diversity of their characters, are similar in the main. All of them fight to the end, with their blood, with their lives, ensuring an organized withdrawal of the battalion. Through their tragic fate, the tragedy of the first war years is very convincingly shown and the courage of the soldiers, discreet in its external manifestations, which ultimately ensured our victory, is realistically revealed.

2. The attitude of the heroes to the war, the people, the fatherland. (According to the story "The Third Rocket".)

In the story "The Third Rocket" the actions take place much later, already at the final stage of the war, when its fiery shaft reached Romania and Hungary. But in this story, the heroes are all the same ordinary people of labor, whom time forced to leave their usual and very natural peaceful occupations and take up arms. Such, for example, is the commander of the gun, Senior Sergeant Zheltykh. “An ordinary collective farm uncle”, as they say about him in the story, he fights with a clear understanding that he needs to fulfill his military duty. But most of all, he dreams that this war would be the last, so that the children would not have to learn such a dash that took away from the Yellows both their father (died in the First World War) and grandfather (killed during the Russo-Japanese War), and later, near Khalkhin -Golem, and his brother was crippled.

The features of ordinaryness are clearly visible in Loznyak, who, looking into his soul, having already firmly decided to "fight with all his might," thinks: "I'm not a hero, I'm very ordinary, and it seems to me, even a timid guy," and in a neat drawn gunners Popov, and in Krivenko, and in Lukyanov, characters with a difficult military fate. Thin, “like a pole”, “a quiet, weak intellectual”, he is somehow broken, offended - this is all about Lukyanov, a former lieutenant who was ill with malaria, demoted to the rank and file for cowardice. But he also realized that "without defeating the coward in yourself, you cannot defeat the enemy." Both this understanding and the victory over oneself were not easy for Lukyanov. He dies, with all his weaknesses, like a soldier. He gives his life in the fight against the enemy, paying at a high price for the courage he finally acquired as a soldier.

For Bykov, it is always interesting what kind of personal interest drives a person in a war: sooner or later it will manifest itself. And then, no matter what words a person hides behind about common goals, it becomes clear who he really is and what his attitude to the war, people, and fatherland is.

The commander of the Yellows perceives the war as a necessity to defend his homeland, he knows that many lives, far and near, depend on him, and he is driven by a strong personal interest that coincides with historical interest. And this, perhaps, explains why his heroism is so natural and independent.

Lyoshka Zadorozhny sees only the front side in the war: awards, ranks and does not understand the daily everyday heroism of soldiers. At the decisive moment of the battle, he wins, tricks, at any cost evades the common burden, just to save his precious life.

The efforts of his Yellow soldiers to hold the position are heroic efforts; in the space of the front, one cannon holding its line can be lost like a needle in a haystack. But the frontier is held at the cost of five human lives. It can be said that these people strive to act in a worthy manner, but worthy paths are the most dangerous: death is in a hurry to block them, in meaning it can be heroic, but it does not come to identity and greatness. Now she is seen even closer, through the eyes of the narrator Lozniak. He sees how blood beats from his throat and splashes into his face, splashing over Zadorozhny's back - this is Zheltykh's death. The heroic ends like this; nothing can be changed; this makes the pain for the person even more unbearable. The abundance of the ordinary-heroic and the ordinary-tragic in Bykov once again reminds what the war was, and from what infinitesimal terms of victories and losses the historical victory of the people was formed.

3. Is the risk in war justified? (According to the story "Kruglyansky Bridge".)

According to Bykov, war releases, sharpens in a person his best, good forces. Baseness loses its cover: sooner or later the hour will come when there is no one to hide behind, no one to put under attack in your place, and it becomes clear what a person really is.

Commander Maslakov in the story "Kruglyansky Bridge" goes on a mission together with the young partisan Styopka. Britvin found an excuse not to get involved in the case. Of course, Maslakov could use commanding power and force a subordinate to go to the bridge, but the commander is one of those who put the burden on their shoulders. Well, Britvin is from a different breed. He interprets that the risk of people in the war is justified, but does everything not to fall into the number of risky people, he prefers to risk others. He doesn't understand when people take risks voluntarily. Therefore, he condemns Preobrazhensky, who surrenders to the enemies in order to save his family, and Lyakhovich, who does not want to save his life by humiliation.

Introduction

1. Biography of Vasily Bykov

2. Creativity Bykov

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The world must not forget the horrors of war, separation, suffering and death of millions. It would be a crime against the fallen, a crime against the future, we must remember the war, the heroism and courage that passed its roads, fight for peace - the duty of all living on Earth, therefore one of the most important topics of our literature is the theme of the feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic war.

This topic is complex, diverse, inexhaustible. The tasks of modern writers writing about the war are enormous. They need to be shown the significance of the struggle and victory, the origins of the heroism of the Soviet people, their moral strength, ideological conviction, devotion to the Motherland; show the difficulties of the fight against fascism; to convey to contemporaries the feelings and thoughts of the heroes of the war years, to give a deep analysis in one of the most critical periods in the life of the country and their own lives.

The Belarusian writer V. Bykov develops the theme of war in a peculiar way; his works are distinguished by moral and psychological problems. Uncompromising moral requirements. The basis of his plots is the situation of moral choice. The writer gives an artistic study of the moral foundations of human behavior in their social and ideological conditionality.

1. Biography of Vasily Bykov

Bykov Vasil (Vasily) Vladimirovich, Belarusian writer, was born on June 19, 1924 in the village of Cherenovshchina, Ushachsky district, Vitebsk region, Belarus, into a poor peasant family.

After graduating from the seven-year period, Bykov entered the sculpture department of the Vitebsk Art School, but was soon forced to return to the village - the scholarships were canceled.

From 1939 to 1940 he studied at the sculpture department of the Vitebsk Art College.

In 1942 he was drafted into the army, got into an engineering battalion that built defensive fortifications, participated in battles on the Southwestern Front, then was sent to an infantry school in Saratov.

Graduated from the Saratov Infantry School

After graduating from college, he fought as a commander of a rifle platoon, a platoon of machine gunners and a platoon of anti-tank artillery in Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Austria until victory. Was wounded twice. After the war, he began working in a newspaper in Grodno, but was soon drafted into the army again and until the end of 1955 served in one of the distant garrisons in the Kuriles.

Demobilized only in 1955.

Returning after demobilization to Grodno (then he moved to Minsk), Bykov devoted himself to literary creativity.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was mobilized for defensive work. From the summer of 1942 he served in the Red Army, graduated from the Saratov Infantry School. Since 1943 he was on the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts. Twice wounded, lay in hospitals.

In 1944, the parents received a notice that their son had died in battles with the Nazi invaders near Kirovograd.

With the active army, Vasily Bykov marched through Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Austria. Senior lieutenant, regimental platoon commander, then army artillery. He served in Ukraine, in Belarus, in the Far East.

He was demobilized in 1947, worked in Grodno in art workshops, in the editorial office of the Grodno Pravda newspaper.

From 1972 to 1978, Vasily Bykov served as secretary of the Grodno branch of the Union of Writers of the BSSR.

Vasily Bykov has lived in Minsk since 1978.

In December 2002, Vasily Bykov moved permanently to the Czech Republic. Then the writer said that he "had long dreamed of settling in the Czech Republic, always sympathized with this country and its citizens." The Office of the Czech President and personally Vaclav Havel took an active part in solving the problem of Bykov's move to the Czech Republic. For the past few years, the Hero of Socialist Labor, Lenin Prize laureate, People's Writer of Belarus has lived in Germany, and before that in Finland.

In the Czech Republic, Bykov underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor of the stomach. In Belarus, the writer underwent rehabilitation after an operation, but the development of the disease could not be stopped ...

People's writer of Belarus Vasily Bykov died on June 22, 2003 at 20:30 in the intensive care unit of the oncological hospital in Borovlyany, near Minsk

2. Creativity Bykov

Bykov's first stories are not about the war, but about the post-war life of rural youth: "Happiness", "Night", "Fruza".

For the first time, the works of Vasily Bykov were published in 1947, however, the writer's creative biography begins with stories written in 1951. The theme of the early stories, the characters of which were soldiers and officers, determined the further fate of Bykov. The uncompromising nature of Bykov's prose became the reason for the attacks of Soviet criticism, which accused the writer of denigrating the Soviet mode.

Most of the work of Vasily Bykov was devoted to the events of the Great Patriotic War.

In 1956-1957 he creates the first military stories.

Vasily Bykov became famous for such works as "Alpine Ballad", "Crane Cry", "Third Rocket", "Aklava", "The Dead Doesn't Hurt", "Survive Until Dawn", "Obelisk", "Sotnikov", "Sign of Trouble" . Vasily Bykov's memoirs "The Long Way Home" were published in Minsk.

Many works of Vasily Bykov served as a script for film novels. More than one post-war generation was brought up on the creative heritage of Vasily Bykov.

For the stories "Obelisk" and "Survive Until Dawn" V. Bykov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR. In 1984, the writer was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

Returning after demobilization to Grodno (then he moved to Minsk), Bykov devoted himself to literary creativity. One after another, his stories are published: "Crane Cry" (1959), "Front Page" (1960), "Third Rocket" (1961). The latter, after being translated into Russian, put the author in the first row of writers of the front-line generation (those who were soldiers and officers of the front line in the war) or, as they wrote then, “lieutenant literature”, which became a noticeable phenomenon in the spiritual life of the 1960s, encountered in bayonets with official criticism for "trench truth", "deheroization", "abstract humanism". Bykov had to experience such attacks to the fullest extent - he was also punished for the fact that he published most of his things in A.T. truth in literature. “Working with Tvardovsky was an unforgettable school of literature for me ...,” the writer recalled. “We comprehended the height of his ideals, freed ourselves from the remnants of provincial superficiality, learned not to be afraid of the unfair cruelty of critical sentences.” Bykov’s novels “The Dead Don’t Hurt” (1966), “Attack on the Move” (1968) and “Kruglyansky Bridge” (1969) were subjected to especially cruel attacks - devastating articles with political accusations were published on command from above in the most authoritative press organs, devastating collective letters. As a result, the book edition of the story "Kruglyansky Bridge" appeared after the magazine publication after 11 years, "Attacks on the Move" - ​​after 18, "The Dead Doesn't Hurt" - only after 23 years.

Starting with the story "To Live Until Dawn" (1972), Bykov himself translates his works into Russian, but more importantly, they have become an organic and very essential part of Russian literature, the Russian literary process. Bykov's parable-like, moral-philosophical stories marked a new stage in the artistic comprehension of the tragic events of the war in literature.

After the "Kruglyansky Bridge" almost everything that Bykov wrote: the stories "Sotnikov" (1970), "Obelisk" (1972; for this story and the story "Survive Until Dawn", 1972, Bykov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR, 1973), " Wolf Pack (1974), Go and Not Return (1978), Sign of Trouble (1983; Lenin Prize, 1986), Quarry (1985), In the Fog (1988), Cold (1993) ) - dedicated to the guerrilla war in Belarus. He himself explained this by the fact that the problem of choice, to which his attention was riveted, was sharper and more merciless in the guerrilla war, the motivation of human actions was complicated, the fate of people is more tragic than in the regular army, in general, the tragic manifested itself here in all its terrible force. Tolstoy traditions were dominant in Russian literature about the war with Nazi Germany, and Bykov also relies on them, but it is no less important for his work to turn to the experience of Dostoevsky, first of all, this is manifested in the formulation of the main questions of human existence.

V. Bykov's prose is multifaceted and diverse in genres. Essays and journalism, stories and novels, prose - everything speaks of the key moments of the Great Patriotic War, in which the courage of our people, the vitality of the state were manifested.

The general trend of our military prose towards a broader and more objective depiction of the Great Patriotic War also affected the work of the writers of the "second wave", many of whom came to the conclusion that today it is no longer enough to write about the war from the position of a platoon or company commander, which it is necessary to cover a wider panorama of events.

The distance of time, helping front-line writers to see the picture of the war much more clearly and in a larger volume, when their first works appeared, was one of the reasons that determined the evolution of their creative approach to the military theme.

Prose writers, on the one hand, used their military experience, and on the other hand, their artistic experience, which allowed them to successfully realize their creative ideas.

The theme of the Great Patriotic War occupies an important place in the work of Vasil Bykov. Honor, conscience, human dignity, fidelity to one's duty - these are the problems that the writer touches upon. But still, the main theme of Bykov's work remains, of course, the theme of heroism. Moreover, the writer is interested not so much in his external manifestation, but in what way a person comes to a feat, to self-sacrifice, why, in the name of what he performs a heroic deed.

The main works of V.V. Bykov in the original language:

Bykaў V. Pouny collection of creativity: from 14 tons / Vasil Bykaў; [in Belarusian. lang.]; prdm. A. Pashkevich. - Minsk: Union of Belarusian Writers; Maskva: ТАА "Vremya Vydavetstva", 2005. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-9691-0072-2. - The fund of the International Center of the Pskov Regional Scientific Library contains the first 6 volumes out of 14 - a gift from the Russian National Library (St. Petersburg). This is the first ever Complete Collection of Works of the People's Writer of Belarus. When compiling the volumes, first of all, the opinion of the author himself, who managed to plan the prospectus for the publication of his 8-volume Collected Works, was taken into account.

T.1: Apovesci, apostasy i pripavesci of the 90s and 2000s bastards .- 656 p., 1 sheet. partr. - ISBN 5-9691-0073-0. - The first volume of the Complete Collection of Works includes the stories "Afghan" (1998), "Wolf Pit" (1998), as well as stories and parables written in the 90s and 2000s.

T.2: Apovesti. - 624 p., 1 sheet. partr. - ISBN 5-9691-0074-9. - Volume 2 includes the stories "Sign of Trouble" (1982), "In the Fog", "Round-Up" (1988), "Love Me, Soldier" (1995), "Swamp" (2001), as well as some stories of the 1990s years.

T.3: Apovesti. - 656 p., 1 sheet. partr. - ISBN 5-9691-0075-7. - In the 3rd volume - the story "The Dead Doesn't Hurt" (1965), "Cursed Height" (1966), "Sotnikov" (1970), "Cold" (1991).

T.4: Apovesti. - 2006. - 600 p., 1 sheet. partr. - ISBN 5-9691-0121-4. - In volume 4 - the stories "The Last Fighter" (1957), "Crane Cry" (1959), "Treason" (1960), "Third Rocket" (1961), "Trap" (1962), "Alpine Ballad" (1964 ).

T.5: Apovesti. -544 p., 1 sheet. partr. - ISBN 5-9691-0122-2. - In volume 5 - the stories "Kruglyansky Bridge" (1968), "Survive Until Dawn" (1972), "Wolf Pack" (1974), "His Battalion" (1974).

T.6: Apovesti. -560 p., 1 sheet. partr. - ISBN 5-9691-0123-0. - The 6th volume included the novels "Obelisk" (1971), "To go and not return" (1978) and the novel "Quarry" (1986).

Works by V.V. Bykov translated into Russian:

The heroes of Bykov know something about the war that is higher and more significant than words when they reproach us: “You have enough knowledge about the war-etc. But the atmosphere of time is that subtlety that cannot be comprehended logically. This is achieved through the skin. Cro-twist. Life. You haven't been given that."

Bykov V.V. Alpine ballad [Text]: story / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov; [per. from Belarusian. M. Gorbachev; artistic E. Kolokolov].- Omsk: Omsk. book. publishing house, 1990. - 160 p. - 50000 copies. - ISBN 5-85540-155-3. - Speaking in the dry language of criticism, the center of the story is the international struggle against fascism. In fact, “on the difficult paths of victorious struggle and huge losses” of the Second World War, Belarusian Ivan Tereshka and Italian Giulia Novelli met to share three days - “three huge, like eternity, days of escape (from a concentration camp), love and unimaginable happiness.”

Bykov V.V. In the fog [Text]: stories / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov ; per. from Belarusian. ed. and M. Gorbachev; [art. N. Fadeeva]. - M.: Sov. writer, 1989. - 320 p. - Content: In the fog; The dead don't hurt. - 200,000 copies. - ISBN 5-265-00781-4. - The author does not write the plot, but the "atmosphere", incomprehensible subtlety - from story to story. His persistence and desire to reach out to our consciousness is almost painful. Sometimes it seems that the reader in his books is spinning in one place, on a small patch of land that has never known the sun. He perfectly hears the flesh, the matter of the world, because before the war he studied sculpture. "In the Fog" a short and endless, impetuous and viscously hopeless operation from the threshold, a protracted loop, in which the partisan Burov had to “simply” kill the traitor, takes place. And everything turns out to be everyday and insoluble, as if the fog has become an eternal time of action, thought and life, and it will rise, perhaps, only when, in two days, all the heroes of the story, without untying anything and failing to explain anything to anyone, will be dead. An honest courageous man dies with the stigma of a traitor, and death forever takes away his secret, and his wife, son, fellow villagers will forever put him on silent black lists. So that the war, even at the end, will get its distorted destinies, continuing its terrible harvest.

Bykov V. Wolf Pack [Text]: stories / Vasil Bykov; [per. from Belarusian. ed. and G. Kureneva]. - M.: Friendship of peoples, 1995. - 316, p. - Content: Survive until dawn; Obelisk; Wolf Pack. - 25000 copies. - ISBN 5-285-00237-0. - According to the author, every death in the struggle “should affirm something, deny something, and, if possible, complete what life did not have time to accomplish. Otherwise, why then life? Each of the main characters of these stories - lieutenant Ivanovsky, teacher Moroz, machine gunner Levchuk - solves this problem in his own way ...

Bykov V. Wolf Pit [Text]: novels and stories / Vasil Bykov; per. from Belarusian; foreword L. Lazareva; artistic T. Ivashchenko.- M.: Text, 2001.- 335 p. - Content: On Black Lyady; Yellow sand; Politruk Kolomiets; Commander; "Katyusha"; Anti-aircraft gunner; Love me, soldier...; Confrontation; Dovzhik; Easter egg; poor people; People's avengers; Pipe; Catastrophe. - 4000 copies. - ISBN 5-7516-0264-1. - The book tells about the tragic years of the war and the complexities of our life today, about selfishness, betrayal, about the ongoing efforts of people in search of an answer to the eternal question - how to live in truth.

Bykov V.V. Survive until dawn; Obelisk [Text]: stories / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov ; per. from Belarusian. ed. and G. Kureneva.- M.: Sov. writer, 1976. - 224 p. - (Library of works, awarded the State Prize of the USSR). - 100,000 copies. - The story "To Live Until Dawn" tells about the actions of Soviet intelligence soldiers behind enemy lines. The story "Obelisk", the events of which take place in a Belarusian village occupied by the Nazis, depicts the heroes in moments of the greatest physical and moral stress, when everyone decides for himself whether or not to give his life for the freedom of the Motherland?

Bykov V. Survive until dawn [Text]: stories / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov; per. from Belarusian. - M.: Eksmo, 2003. - 1040 p. - (Red Book of Russian prose). - 4000 copies. - ISBN 5-699-02212-0. - The value of this particular publication for Pskov readers lies in the fact that the preface to the collection of stories was written by the most prominent literary critic of modern Russia, V.Ya. Kurbatov, who lives in Pskov.

"Cold" he drives yesterday’s Komsomol member and young party member, current partisan Azevich, from village to village, where yesterday he was hard at work building a “bright future”, and today he has no shelter, because he built it too scary. And now he is equally alien to both his own and the Germans. The district instructor Azevich, who crippled the life of the village with disastrous collectivization, broke the millstones, left the children without bread, is in fact an ordinary guy, a conscientious, very, very people in his middle. Yes, only in his entire young life "chu-zhayaya will ruled his diabolical ball on human lives ... He lived with someone else's conscience, according to someone else's laws. Life and people disposed of him as they wanted, he was a convenient tool in the hands of others, always limply ready for use. And he saw for a long time that “If what happens is to the detriment of the living, then not onbenefit and subsequent, I myself saw that “their own with their beginningswhether to fight for a long time and did it with considerable success. Just what I realized, if the NKVD is already circling over him, squeezing the twist, and he has nowhere to go. The Germans have a cold, their own have a cold. And he rushes about the story, swept with snow, and a black silent dog trudges behind him, growing up on corpses, not approaching and not lagging behind, like thought and fate. The hero does not know what to do with this understanding. Unless, on the last threshold, he consoles himself with the hope that after the war people will be more reasonable ”(from the introductory article by V.Ya. Kurbatov).

Bykov V. Sign of trouble [Text]: story / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov ; [per. from Belarusian].- M.: Young guard, 1984.- 299 p. - 100,000 copies. - The action of the story takes place at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in one of the villages on the territory of Belarus occupied by the Nazis. Through the actions and actions of the elderly woman Stepanida, the author shows the common man's understanding of good, evil, necessity and ways of resisting the enemy.

Bykov V. Quarry [Text]: story / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov; [per. from Belarusian. ed.; artistic N. Fadeeva].- M.: Soviet writer, 1988.-300, p. - 200,000 copies. - ISBN 5-265-000321-5. - The action of the story "The Quarry" takes place, as it were, in two dimensions - at the end of the 20th century and at the same time at the tragic time of the beginning of the war, where the main character constantly returns with feelings and memory. Senior Lieutenant Ageev, a career commander of the Soviet Army, is forced to remain in the German rear due to a serious wound, where he joins the underground struggle against the Germans. Continuing the cycle of military stories, "The Quarry" is full of complex moral issues; the work makes one think intensely about the high price of human life, about the irreversible losses that suspicion turns into, the loss of natural trust between people.

Bykov V. Bells of Khatyn [Text] / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov; foreword I. Shtokman. - M.: Pravda, 1987. - 176 p. - 250,000 copies. - Includes journalistic works, the meaning of which is revealed by their titles: “On the borders of goodness and love”, “Canvases scorched by war”, “Became life and destiny”, “Know what you write about ....”, etc. In a number of Articles Bykov gives an assessment of the new (at that time) works of his comrades on the military theme in literature - A. Adamovich, V. Astafiev, G. Baklanov, V. Bogomolov, Yu. Bondarev and others.

Bykov V. Obelisk. [His battalion. To go and not return [Text]: stories / Vasil Bykov.- M .: Veche, 2004.- 381, p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-94538-448-8. - The story "Obelisk" is a tribute to the memory of all the unknown heroes of the Great Patriotic War, who gave their lives for the Victory. The film "A Minute of Silence", based on this work, was successfully shown not only in our country, but also in Western Europe. The cruel reality of events and at the same time immense love and sympathy for the characters are two distinctive features of all the works of the Belarusian Master.

Bykov V.V. Tale [Text] / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov; [per. from Belarusian. ed. and G. Kureneva; post-last D. Bugaeva].- L.: Lenizdat, 1987.- 606, p. - Contents: Sotnikov; Obelisk; To go and not return; Bad luck sign. - 300,000 copies. - ... Zoska went to the next task ("Go and don't come back") but she met love, only to lose it immediately, and with the consciousness of the barely opened depth of the world, doomed to roll towards death, because evil turned out to be more prudent and merciless than her purity. The war has its own rules, and for the first time they are understood even yesterday by a good partisan, and today the enemy and adversary of Zoska: "Obviously, you can'tall at once - to live for yourself, for others, to fight, to love a woman and be happy.

Bykov V.V. Sotnikov [Text]: story / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov; [per. from Belarusian. ed.; foreword V. Oscotsky; rice. A. Slepkova].- M.: Det. lit., 1982. - 175 p., ill. - (School library). - 400,000 copies. - The idea of ​​the story was prompted by the real fate of a man whom Lieutenant Vasil Bykov met on the front lines. This meeting for a long time sunk into his memory, excited, until it grew into the ideas and images of the story. In it, the author seeks answers to two main questions: “... What is a person in the face of the crushing force of inhuman circumstances? What is he capable of when the possibilities to defend his life are exhausted to the end and it is impossible to prevent death”?

Bykov V.V. Third rocket; Sotnikov; Obelisk; Survive until dawn; His battalion [Text]: stories / Vasil [Vasily Vladimirovich] Bykov; per. from Belarusian. [ed., M. Gorbachev, G. Kureneva; artistic V. Medvedev]. - M.: Sov. writer, 1986. - 592 p. - 200,000 copies. - Lieutenant Nikolsky ("Survive Until Dawn") led people to blow up a German warehouse, but lost both the warehouse and the fighters. And he even spent his life on a worthless rear German. It seems that the lieutenant, for all his comrades in this story and for all the other Bykov heroes, in the last hour, with particular anguish, seizes on the poor thought of an unknown, not destined for them future. “He wanted to believe that everything he did in such agony should show up somewhere, affect something. Let not today, not here, not on this road... But his painful death, like thousands of other, no less painful deaths, must lead to some result in this war. Otherwise, how can one die in utter hopelessness regarding one's need on this earth and in this war? After all, for some reason he was born, lived, fought so much, suffered, shed hot blood, and now he gave his life in agony. There must be some, albeit not very significant, but still human meaning in this ... "