For all its seeming simplicity and traditional character, Tvardovsky's book is distinguished by a rare wealth of language and style, poetics and verse. It is marked by an extraordinary breadth and freedom of use of the means of colloquial, literary and folk poetic speech.
Proverbs and sayings are naturally used in it (“I’m out of boredom of all trades”, “Cause time is an hour of fun”, “On which river to swim - / That and create glory ...”), folk songs: about the overcoat (“ Eh, cloth, state-owned, / Military overcoat ...”), about the river (“I’ll wash my feet on the river. / Where, river, are you flowing? / Towards my dear, / Maybe you’ll turn somewhere”).
Tvardovsky is fluent in the art of speaking simply, but deeply poetic. He himself creates sayings that came into life as sayings (“Look what’s on your chest, / But look what’s ahead!”; “War has a short way / Love has a long way”; “Guns go to battle backwards” and etc.). The poet was undoubtedly right when, at the end of his book, he remarked, as if on behalf of the future reader:
Let the reader be probable
He will say with a book in his hand:
- Here are the verses, but everything is clear.
All in Russian...
The verse of the poem is basically a 4-foot trochee, which in narrative works since the time of Pushkin and Ershov has been associated with poetic adaptations of fairy tales, a favorite folk genre that implies ease of speech, the ultimate accessibility of what is being told. There is no deliberate ingenuity in rhymes, they are often intentionally inaccurate - this is also characteristic of folklore and enhances the natural sound of the verse.
In some chapters, the main size alternates with a shortened, 3-foot one, which speeds up, “facilitates” speech even more, the predominant stanza is the most common, not conspicuous: a cross quatrain. Ho it can be suddenly lengthened anywhere or replaced by couplets. Tvardovsky easily and freely passes from one verse form to another, however, within clearly defined limits, looseness here is by no means akin to randomness.
In some cases, the variative possibilities of a rhythm of one size are skillfully used. “Crossing, crossing!” - two stresses in four stops, the verse is lightened, but right there in contrast - two full-strike lines: “The left bank, the right bank, / The snow is rough, the edge of the ice ...” Then a space (pause, although the rhyme chain is not completed, waiting on purpose drawn out), and then another terse, in two lines of which the stresses are shifted from their “legitimate” places, the rhythm is confused, difficult, in the last line again, as in the first line of the chapter, there are only two stresses, the rhythmic cycle is closed by the same external relief , which only emphasizes the severity and tragedy of what is happening: “To whom is memory, to whom is glory, / To whom is dark water, / No signs, no trace” (“the crossing, the crossing” did not take place for these people).
Organic artistic integrity in "Vasily Terkin" is achieved in everything - from the deeply folk foundations of content to the smallest details of the external form. And it is significant that not only the masses of ordinary readers, but also such demanding masters of verbal art as I.A. Bunin and B.L. Parsnip.
In order to understand and appreciate the true extent of the artist’s talent, his contribution to literature, one must proceed from what he said about life and man, how his vision of the world correlates with the moral and aesthetic ideals, ideas and tastes of the people. Tvardovsky never aspired to be original. Every pose, every artificiality is alien to him:
Here are the verses, and everything is clear.
Everything is in Russian.
Brilliant craftsmanship, folk art of Alexander Trifonovich are visible both in the principles of artistic understanding of our life, and in the creation of national characters of the era, the renewal of poetic genres. V. Soloukhin said very rightly: “Tvardovsky is the most important Russian Soviet poet of the thirties, forties and fifties because the most important, most decisive events in the life of the country and people were best reflected in his poetry.”
Throughout the war, while at the front, Tvardovsky worked on the poem "Vasily Terkin" - a work that was both a true chronicle of the war, an inspiring propaganda word, and a deep understanding of the heroic deed of the people. The poem reflects the main stages of the Great Patriotic War, from its first days to the complete victory over the enemy. This is how the poem develops, this is how it is built:
These lines and pages
Days and miles a special account,
Like from the western border
To my native capital,
And from that native capital
Back to the western border
And from the western border
Down to the enemy capital
We made our trip.
The depiction of the war presented considerable difficulties for writers. Here one could stray into embellished reports in the spirit of superficial cheer-optimism, or fall into despair and present the war as a continuous hopeless horror. In the introduction to Vasily Terkin, Tvardovsky defined his approach to the topic of war as a desire to show "the real truth," "no matter how bitter." War is drawn by the poet without any embellishment. The anguish of retreat, painful anxiety for the fate of the Motherland, the pain of separation from loved ones, hard military labors and sacrifices, the ruin of the country, severe cold - all this is shown in "Terkin" as the truth requires, no matter how hard it hits the soul. But the poem does not leave a depressing impression at all, does not plunge into despondency. The poem is dominated by faith in the victory of good over evil, light over darkness. And in the war, as Tvardovsky shows it, in the respite between battles, people rejoice and laugh, sing and dream, take a steam bath with pleasure and dance in the cold. To overcome the difficult trials of the war, the author of the poem and its hero are helped by their boundless love for the Motherland and understanding of the just nature of the struggle against fascism. The refrain runs throughout the poem:
The fight is holy and right
Mortal combat is not for glory,
For life on earth.
"Vasily Terkin" is a "book about a fighter." Terkin appears on the first pages of the work as an unpretentious joker soldier who knows how to amuse and amuse the fighters on a campaign and at a halt, ingenuously laughing at the missteps of his comrades. But his joke always contains a deep and serious thought: the hero reflects on cowardice and courage, loyalty and generosity, great love and hatred. However, the poet saw his task not only in truthfully drawing the image of one of the millions of people who took on their shoulders the brunt of the fight against the enemy. Gradually, the image of Terkin more and more acquires generalized, almost symbolic features. The hero personifies the people:
Into battle, forward, into pitch fire
He goes, saint and sinner,
Russian miracle man.
The high skill of the poet was manifested in the fact that he managed, without embellishing, but not “grounding” the hero, to embody in him the fundamental moral qualities of the Russian people: patriotism, consciousness of responsibility for the fate of the Motherland, readiness for selfless deed, love for work. The image of the folk hero Vasily Terkin, created by Tvardovsky, personifies the unbending character of a soldier, his courage and steadfastness, humor and resourcefulness.
Tvardovsky's poem is an outstanding, truly innovative work. Both the content and its form are truly folk. Therefore, it became the most significant poetic work about the Great Patriotic War, fell in love with millions of readers and, in turn, gave rise to hundreds of imitations and "continuations" among the people.
"Vasily Terkin" by Tvardovsky is a truly rare book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess ... and what an extraordinary folk soldier's language "(I. A. Bunin) 1. Features of the creation of" Vasily Terkin ". 2. The nationality of the language of the poem. 3. Features of the composition of the poem. 4. The ideological orientation of the poem, its main character.
The poem "Vasily Terkin" is a special work, since it was created in the course of the development of the events of the war, and the author of the poem, Alexander Tvardovsky, was himself a direct participant in hostilities. In addition, the work is also interesting because the readers themselves took part in its creation (the poem was published in the newspaper in separate chapters). Tvardovsky wrote that the image of Terkin was “conceived and invented ... not by me alone, but by many people, including writers, but most of all by non-literators and, to a large extent, by my correspondents themselves. They actively participated in the creation of "Terkin", from its first chapter to the completion of the book, and to this day continue to develop this image in various forms and directions.
Creating a poem, Tvardovsky relies on the taste of the masses, on the artistic creativity of the people. The form of narration is typical for folk poetic works - ditties, jokes, proverbs, front-line ditties are widely used by the author in the poem.
And the language of the poem itself is replete with colloquial turns of speech. It is no coincidence that "Vasily Terkin" ends with these words:
Let the probable reader Say with a book in his hand: - Notes are verses, but everything is clear. All in Russian...
The language of the poem, accessible to the general public, is not used by the author by chance: in this way, Tvardovsky clearly depicts the panorama of ongoing events. At the same time, “Vasily Terkin” is a work “without a special plot”, “without beginning and end”, and this is not accidental - in a war, life can be interrupted at any moment, “who will tell, who will hear it - you can’t guess ahead ...”
It was very difficult for Tvardovsky to give the poem as an integral work of art - the author continued to search for the form of presentation and structure until 1942, and this, of course, left an imprint on the form and content of the poem.
The poem is divided into chapters, each of which has its own internal completeness and is devoted to a topic that is close and understandable to every person. So, in the chapter "On the award" it is told that Terkin was awarded an order for the wound, and the hero reflects on this matter. He "agrees for a medal" because the award will be very useful to him when he returns home as a liberator and will impress the girls at the dance in the evening.
Features of "Vasily Terkin" are associated primarily with the goals set by the author. The main task of the poem by the author was already stated in the first chapter "From the Author" - the image of the truth, whatever it may be:
... And more than anything else
Not to live for sure -
Carry what? Carrying the real truth.
Truth, straight into the soul beating,
Yes, she would be thicker,
No matter how bitter.
The picture drawn by Tvardovsky in the poem is multicolored: its heroes fight and laugh, write letters, love, joke, in a word, live. But no matter what happens, neither the heroes nor the author doubt the imminent victory:
The deadline will come, we will return back, What we gave away - we will return everything.
The author organically combines both the soldier's life and the high flight of dreams, tragic and funny, courage and fear of death.
In the center of the poem is a folk character, generalized in the image of Vasily Terkin. At first glance, one gets the impression that Terkin is a merry fellow and a joker. But already in the chapter "On a halt" we learn that the young fighter has already gotten quite a bit from the war. Three times he was surrounded:
I was partially scattered, And partially exterminated ... But, however, the warrior is alive.
Terkin's life credo is no despondency, no matter how difficult the circumstances are. And in this we feel the infinite folk wisdom, patience and confidence that evil cannot be infinite.
Vasily Terkin became one of the most beloved heroes during the war years. The poem gained all-Russian fame due to its hero, the nature of the presentation, the reality of the events described.
During the Great Patriotic War, literature did not remain indifferent to the national disaster. The themes of feat, heroism and self-sacrifice were developed in the works of the war years. During this period, poems, ballads, and prose were written. The first war years were marked by poems, the theme of which was love and hate. A little later, works began to appear in literature that spoke about a man in a war. Many writers wanted to convey the truth about the war, to tell how everything was in their works. One of such honest works is the poem "Vasily Terkin" by Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky. This is a major figure in Soviet literature. The editor of the Novy Mir magazine, a participant in the Finnish War, was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1938. His first poem, The Land of the Ant, became a pass for him into literature, as it announced the emergence of a talented poet. The genre of the poem became the main one in the work of Tvardovsky. The poem "Vasily Terkin" was created by the poet starting in 1942. At first, the poet's plans did not include writing a whole poem. He simply wanted to show in his poem the heavy burden of war, as a simple village boy sees war. “A certain chronicle is not a chronicle, a chronicle is not a chronicle,” the poet said about his work. But the poem, indeed, reflected the whole truth about the war, what it is, "no matter how bitter." The idea of the poem was such that, in the words of Tvardovsky himself, "it could be read from any open page." And the poet also dreamed that his work “would be kept by a soldier behind the bootleg, in the bosom, in a hat.” Published in a front leaflet, it immediately aroused keen interest among the soldiers at the front. Solzhenitsyn noted that at the front the Soldiers preferred this poem to other books. And there was nothing surprising in this, because most of them also came from the village. But the main thing was that the poem raised morale, instilled hope. And the soldiers asked Tvardovsky to continue the life of his hero. Throughout the war, Vasily Terkin lived and fought along with everyone on all fronts. The whole poem is permeated with the author's faith in victory. The poet showed us the whole truth about the war, how hard it was for the soldiers, but at the same time, there is no hopelessness in the poem, on the contrary, in between battles, the soldiers have fun, joke, sing. The strength of the spirit of the Russian people was melted down by A.T. Tvardovsky in the image of Vasily Terkin.
The success of the poem "Vasily Terkin" was predetermined by the fact that it was written in a simple, understandable language, very intelligible. The work is completely devoid of literature. According to I. Bunin, in it "there is not a single literary vulgar word." But the nationality of a work is determined not only by the word. The image of Vasily Terkin is the main defining link in the poem, he connects all the chapters of the poem. Who is he? Let's be honest: It's just a guy by himself. He's ordinary. . However, the guy though where. A guy like that In every company there is always, Yes, and in every platoon. And so that they know what is strong, Let's say frankly: Endowed with beauty He was not excellent, Not tall, not that small, But a hero - a hero. If we talk about him briefly, then this is a shirt-guy, he always amuses and never loses heart. They look into the mouth of the joker, They catch the word greedily. It's good when someone lies Fun and well. But if you look at it only from this side, you can easily make a mistake. Terkin is a collective image, this is the entire Russian people, who stood up to defend their fatherland from the enemy. Here is how Tvardovsky himself spoke about his hero: “Vasily Terkin, as he is in the book, is a fictional person from beginning to end, a figment of the imagination, a creation of fantasy. And although the features expressed in it were observed by me in many living people, none of these people can be called the prototype of Terkin. The character of the protagonist is national, he embodies the best features of the Russian people. Wisdom, love for Russia, unshakable faith in victory - all this determines his actions. Passing through his native country, Terkin sees the warped land, burned cities and villages, crippled destinies. And from everything he sees, rage boils in his soul, an irresistible desire to avenge the desecrated homeland. Reading this work, you can easily notice that the perky cheerful tone is gradually changing. It turns into a folk cry. Such a sharp transition is inherent in the character of the entire Russian people. Terkin's wisdom, wit - all this gives a special flavor to the work. The ruthlessness of war, its merciless ferocity and senselessness give rise to a response from the people. Terkin becomes the spokesman for popular feelings. And this makes him a spokesman for the will of the people. The situations that Terkin finds himself in are convincing evidence that he combines all the features that make a hero out of a person, and a victorious people out of a people. Now serious, now funny, No matter what rain, what snow, - Into battle, forward, into pitch fire He goes, holy and sinful, Russian miracle man. The spirit of Terkin is the spirit of a strong man. And this state of mind makes everyone around him strong. In the poem, the image of the people is the image of the epic hero. His motto is: "Don't touch me, and I won't touch you." An important feature is that the people appear before us in the person of one person. Everything fits in it: kindness, natural ingenuity, grasping, courage. And it was not in vain that the people believed in Vasily Terkin. He exists, he lives with us. It will live as long as the spirit of the people, its originality, is preserved. Everyone who has read the poem sees in Terkin's character something of his own, inherent only to him. In every part, in every line of the poem, the voice of the people is heard, their suffering and deep sadness for the dead loved ones, the lost time, the wounded homeland. The depth of the poem makes it a legend. And Vasily Terkin himself reflects the moral purity of the people. His kindness, intelligence, unwillingness to part with freedom. The poem "Vasily Terkin" is only a piece of history. But in our time, it touches the living. New generations on the example of this work should learn to be united, to be with their people.
The Great Patriotic War showed the fallacy of the well-known phrase: "When the guns rumble, the muses are silent." In dugouts, in trenches, in brief hours of calm, writers and poets who went to the front as war correspondents created those works that helped the people survive and win.
A. T. Tvardovsky also went to the front, having received an appointment as a writer in an army newspaper. Since 1942, Vasily Terkin has been published in this newspaper - a poem full of sparkling humor and optimism.
Although, to be extremely precise, Vasily Terkin was born much earlier, back in 1939, during the Finnish War. Then in the newspaper "On Guard of the Motherland" pictures were printed about the fantastic adventures and exploits of the fighter Vasily Terkin. Poetic captions for these pictures were composed by several authors, among whom was A. Tvardovsky. The poem about the Finnish War he had conceived at that time, in which Terkin was to become the main character, was not written - the year 1941 came and Tvardovsky went to the front. However, having appeared once, Terkin did not let himself be forgotten and forced out other heroes created by Tvardovsky already during the Great Patriotic War.
Undoubtedly, Terkin is Tvardovsky's most popular hero, but he is also closely connected with other characters in the author's works - with the heroes of the "Country of Ant", "House by the Road", the poems "For the Far Distance" and "By the Right of Memory". In his works, Tvardovsky reflects a lot on the fate of the people, showing pictures of rural life in peacetime, telling about the tragic era of collectivization, about the hardships of war. The theme of the people has always been close to the author, because he himself comes from a village in the Smolensk region; it is quite probable that Terkin got his national character from the same village.
In Vasily Terkin, as in no other hero, his folklore basis is obvious. Just as Kosterov's Til Ulenspiegel was once called the "spirit of the people", so Terkin can be called the "spirit of the people" - the Russian people. It seems that its origins originate from epic Russian heroes fighting with enemies for the freedom of their native side, although Terkin differs from those heroes in appearance:
Low, but chest forward
And reliable in the bone ...
And he also reminds Terkin of a cunning and intelligent man, a constant hero of many Russian folk tales, who will endure everything, defeat all enemies, circle all enemies around his finger, and come out dry himself. No wonder Tvardovsky says:
The German master is not used to
The Russian will endure - he is a man.
Like that Russian peasant from a fairy tale, to whom the devil himself is not afraid, Terkin goes through the whole war and meets victory with a full iconostasis:
Orders, medals in a row
They burn with hot flames.
From the point of view of the people, in the poem "Vasily Terkin" the chapter "Duel" is very symbolic, reminiscent, on the one hand, of the fights of epic heroes, and on the other, clearly echoing Leo Tolstoy's Sevastopol Tales. Remember, Tolstoy says that if one soldier came out from each belligerent and fought among themselves, then whoever wins will win the war. So it is with Tvardovsky:
Like an ancient battlefield
Chest to chest, that shield to shield -
Instead of thousands, two fight
As if a fight would solve everything.
It is as if time has turned back, as if the connection of centuries has been realized - two in Tvardovsky's "Duel" fight as if the fate of the Motherland depends on the outcome of the duel. The picture of the battle is so symbolic that an association immediately suggests itself: not two fighters, but two armies, two peoples are fighting for victory. It is no coincidence that the German, “who slept warmly in a war in a foreign land,” significantly outnumbers Terkin in strength (as the fascist army initially outnumbered ours, forcing the latter to retreat). It seems even at first that Vasily cannot win - the enemy is too strong. However, he wins (as our people also win) - as if his native land gave him strength and anger.
The picture of this duel is very significant: how Tvardovsky believed in the Russian people, in their courage and courage; how he managed to fill the hearts of many and many readers with this faith - in the trenches and dugouts, on the front lines and in the deep rear! We will win - there is no doubt about it, we will win if our people are like Vasily Terkin - resilient and unbending, in spite of any circumstances.
Of course, not everything is so optimistic in Tvardovsky's poem. The harsh truth of military life, familiar to him firsthand, rises before the reader from its pages with all its tragic truthfulness, with pain not invented, but personally experienced by the author:
warm living people
Going down, down, down...
There is no agitation in the poem, no calls for splendor; there is hunger, when “for the third day the fig appears in the stomach, gut to gut”, there is dirt and blood, and the death of comrades, and nostalgia for families and peaceful life.
And it is no coincidence that Tvardovsky does not name a single name in the poem, except for Vasily Terkin. After all, one should not forget that the poem was written during the war years and it was very important that each reader could try on the situation for himself, put himself in the place of the hero and remember for himself the name of the nurse who did the dressing, or who the general was, who gave him a week's leave. That is why everything in the poem is extremely generalized.
Tvardovsky's poem is not only about the war and the fighter Vasily Terkin. It is also about the entire Soviet people, although it must be said that Terkin has much more traits of a folklore hero than a traditional Soviet character, and in the poem itself there is almost no what is now commonly called Soviet morality - for which she scolded Tvardovsky after the war criticism. But it was the nationality, and not the “Sovietness” of the poem and the hero, that made the poem so popular and necessary during the war years, on the fronts and in the rear.
Yes, Terkin is the embodiment of a single folk spirit, cheerful and cheerful, but when necessary - evil and stubborn. Without this spirit, it would be difficult for the people to win the war. And so Tvardovsky, like a weapon, passes his hero to the fighters:
According to the charter of each company
Terkin will be given his own.
Well, the poem, written about the people and for the people, fulfilled its function in the war - it thoroughly served the cause of victory. Withstood "Vasily Terkin" and the test of time, because the spirit of the people does not depend on time and social formations. He is immortal.
