“The history of creation and analysis of the poem “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky. Essay: The tragic truth of the Great Patriotic War in Tvardovsky’s poem Vasily Terkin Strength of spirit in the work of Vasily Terkin

Composition

In the last chapter of “Vasily Terkin,” the author of “The Book about a Fighter” says goodbye to his hero and reflects on how future readers will accept his creation. Here, at the end of the poem, what Tvardovsky considers the main advantage of his book is named, and along the way a quick general description of its composition is given:

Let the reader be likely
He will say with a book in his hand:
- Here are the poems, and everything is clear,
Everything is in Russian...
...
The story of a memorable time,
This book is about a fighter,
I started from the middle
And ended without end...

The clarity, accessibility of the poem and extraordinary external clarity, the apparent simplicity of its form, are indeed among the advantages of Tvardovsky’s main book. These advantages were noted not only by ordinary readers of the book they loved, but also by Tvardovsky’s writing colleagues. The review of one of the most demanding masters of Russian literature of the 20th century is expressive. - usually stingy with praise I.A. Bunin: “This is a truly rare book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess, what accuracy, accuracy in everything and what an extraordinary folk, soldier’s language - not a hitch, not a single false, ready-made, that is, a literary vulgar word.”

True, Bunin speaks here not only about the organic nature of Tvardovsky’s poetic gift, about the naturalness of his words to the people’s language, but also about freedom from aesthetic normativity, i.e. about Tvardovsky’s innovation in the field of form (“not a single... ready-made... literary vulgar word”).

The main character of the book. The first two chapters of “Vasily Terkin” were published in one of the front-line newspapers on September 4, 1942. During 1942-1945. subsequent chapters of the book appeared in front-line periodicals and magazines; The poem was also published in separate editions. However, the Russian reader might have been familiar with the image of Terkin even before the start of the Great Patriotic War. Back in 1939-1940. On the pages of the newspaper of the Leningrad Military District, a character named “Vasya Terkin” appeared - the hero of a series of amusing pictures, accompanied by poetic captions. This character was created as a result of the collective work of several writers, among whom was Tvardovsky, who wrote a poetic introduction to this “Terkin”. The main thing in Terkin during the war with Finland is the strict literary convention and deliberate one-dimensionality characteristic of comic book heroes or characters in a series of caricatures. This is an invariably successful and always cheerful fighter, easily dealing with enemies. “He is a man himself / Extraordinary...” - this is his most general characteristic.

The real, non-feuillet Terkin, the hero of “The Book about a Fighter,” belongs to a different type of image. Already the first plot chapter of the poem certifies the hero as a person “one of our own”, easily finding a common language with the new team. Terkin’s normality is directly expressed in the author’s detailed description, which begins with an “introductory” quatrain:

Terkin - who is he?
Let's be honest:
Just a guy himself
He's ordinary.

The author's emphasis on the ordinariness of the main character not only does not interfere, but, on the contrary, helps create the most generalized image. Tvardovsky gives his hero a distinctly “all-Russian” appearance, avoiding too prominent external features (“special” portrait features would make his image overly individualized). The image of Terkin is close to the folklore type of characters; with his invulnerability and “all-presence” in a wide variety of situations, he resembles the resourceful hero of an everyday soldier’s fairy tale.

Note that, showing his hero in battle and on vacation, in the hospital and in the house of an old soldier, Tvardovsky selects the most typical episodes of military everyday life, familiar to every soldier. In depicting battles, the author extremely rarely uses specific geographical names and any precise chronological designations. Field, forest, river, swamp, village, road (and, accordingly, winter, spring, summer, autumn) - this is the limit of spatial and temporal specificity in the book (certain exceptions like the toponym “Borki” are specially motivated each time). The same tendency towards generalization is in the story about Terkin’s specific front-line work. In different situations he turns out to be either a signalman, a shooter, or a scout. In addition to the military-professional diversity, it is important that the author constantly emphasizes Terkin’s belonging to the most massive and “democratic” branch of the military - the infantry. Terkin is one of the unskilled workers of the war, on whom the country rests.

It is the scale of the country, the scale of the entire warring people that determines the specifics of the plot and the features of imagery in the book. Terkin begins to fight during the Finnish campaign on the Karelian Isthmus, enters service again in June 1941, retreats along with the entire army, finds himself surrounded several times, then goes on the offensive and ends his journey in the depths of Germany. The author deliberately avoids spatial localization of plot episodes. Of the most high-profile battles of the war period (until the mid-1950s, it was customary to single out “ten Stalinist blows”), only the crossing of the Dnieper in the book is devoted to a separate chapter. The plot of the book took shape as the national war progressed, and its core was the fate of the entire people.

The high degree of generalization in the image of the main character is also “played up” by the system of rhymes used in relation to his first and last names. Tvardovsky inventively uses rhymes that characterize both the circumstances of army life and the emotional state of the hero (Terkin - bitter, shag, sayings, on a hill, in a tunic, crust, in a capter, etc.). However, the most important rhyme in the book is “Vasily - Russia”, repeated several times in the text. This emphasizes that the hero represents the entire people and is a unique embodiment of the heroism of the Russian people. Terkin - “hero-people”.

True, the author either avoids open glorification and too solemn pathos, or neutralizes them with compositional means. In this regard, the chapter “Duel”, built on echoes of the epic epic, is characteristic. In this chapter, Terkin enters into single combat with a strong, physically superior opponent:

Terkin knew that in this fight

He is weaker: not the same grub.

This introductory remark already prepares the reader for the fact that the next picture should be perceived without any pathos. On the one hand, the episode of martial arts is highlighted and enlarged by the author:

Like on an ancient battlefield,

Chest on chest, like shield on shield, -

Instead of thousands, two fight,

As if the fight would solve everything.

The extreme generalization of the episode is served by the eloquent metonymy: “Terkin fights, holds the front.” The final author's generalization is fully consistent with this declared breadth of scale - solemn-sounding lines that will become the refrain of the book:

A terrible battle is going on, bloody,

Mortal combat is not for glory,

For the sake of life on earth.

However, the epic solemnity of the scene is balanced by the generously scattered “technological” details of Terkin’s ingenuity and the most idiomatic vocabulary” used in the eye (“he cracked a German between the eyes,” “threw him into a sled,” “out of fright ... gave bream,” etc.) . Thus, the episode of the fight, without losing its symbolic semantic potential, is “grounded”; the fight takes on the character of a desperate fight. The most important thing is that as soon as the tone of the story reaches the heights of open heroism, Tvardovsky immediately uses a peculiar technique of adjusting the scale, “modest” clarification. Here is how it is used in the analyzed episode:

A brave guy fights to the death,
So the smoke stands like a mountain,
Like the whole country is a power
Terkina sees:
- Hero!
What a country! At least a company
I could see from afar
What is his job
And what's the matter?

A similar technique of crafty adjustment of scale is used in the episode of Terkin’s story about “Sabantuy” and in the chapter “About the Reward”.

This combination of scales became possible due to the fact that Terkin in the book is not only a national type of “Russian miracle man”, but also a personality. The uniqueness of Tvardovsky’s hero lies in his combination of the “universal” and the individually unique. Folklore heroes, manifesting themselves in actions, are the same at the beginning and at the end of the story told about them. Terkin is not like that: the evolution of his image is manifested in a change in the main emotional tone of the story as the plot moves forward: the closer to the end, the more restrained the manifestations of his gaiety are, the more and more sad thoughts he has.

In the first chapters (remember, they appeared during the hardest battles in the fall of 1942), the hero demonstrated inexhaustible optimism - that good spirits that was most needed in this difficult front-line situation. On the contrary, in the chapters, the material of which was the events of turning-point battles and the confident advance of our army, Terkin - this joker and ringleader - increasingly thinks about the cost of these victories, remembers the losses, and mourns his fallen comrades. At the end of the chapter “On the Dnieper,” Terkin remains aloof from his rejoicing comrades, “does not get involved” in jokes, and smokes silently:

And he was silent not in offense,
Not as a reproach to anyone, -
I just knew and saw more
Lost and saved...

The last lines of the chapter show Terkin from an unexpected side:

What are you doing, brother, Vasily Terkin,
Are you crying?..
- Guilty...

Terkin among the characters of the book. Generalization and individualization are two complementary principles of depicting a hero. A precisely calibrated balance in the use of these principles allowed Tvardovsky to create an image that absorbed both “personal”, individually unique features, and what was characteristic of many people. Being a bright personality, Terkin is nevertheless inseparable from the mass of soldiers and from the entire warring people. Generalization and individualization are especially interestingly brought together in the chapter “Terkin - Terkin.”

It turns out that there are two Terkins in the book. This, respectively, is Vasily Ivanovich (the main character) and his namesake Ivan. On the one hand, the duality of the Terkins emphasizes the generalizing nature of the image of the main character (a device similar in function is used in the chapter “Two Soldiers”, where the refrain “This is what we mean, soldiers” is used, equating Terkin with his veteran grandfather). On the other hand, this duality is not absolute: the second Terkin turns out to be red-haired, he, unlike Vasily, does not smoke, and his front-line profession is an armor-piercer. The situation is resolved by a “strict foreman”:

What don't you understand here?
Don't you understand?
According to the regulations of each company
Terkin will be given his own.

The synthetic characteristic of the generalized and at the same time different from others Terkin is his “property”. The possessive pronouns “our” and “our” almost always accompany references to the hero. That is why the recognizable traits of the main character “flow” so naturally to other, minor characters in the book. The “friends” in the poem include the veteran grandfather, his initially tight-fisted wife, the tank crew, the young nurse, even the mustachioed general, who embraces Terkin as if he were his “beloved son.” The vocabulary of kinship in general is used extremely organically in Terkin; it supports the most important idea of national unity in the book.

Author's image. In addition to Terkin and the minor characters of the book, the image of the author plays an extremely important role in “The Book about a Fighter”. In addition to the “epic” chapters, the hero of which is Terkin, “The Book about a Fighter” contains “lyrical” chapters “From the author”. In the first of these chapters, the author introduces his hero to the reader, in the second he shares with the reader “professional” thoughts about the specifics of the content and plot of the book itself; in the third, he gives another characteristic of the hero, this time directly pointing to the national scale of the generalization in his image (“He walks, holy and sinful, / Russian miracle man”). Finally, in the last chapter, “From the Author,” which concludes the book, the distance between the author and the hero almost disappears: “you and I,” the author addresses Terkin.

In addition to the four chapters “From the Author,” several more chapters and fragments (“About Myself,” “About Love”) are lyrical in nature, in which the author points out his own common features with Terkin. In general, the figure of the author in the poem turns out to be extremely close to Terkin in terms of life assessments and front-line experience.

However, the distance between the author and the hero is not the same throughout the book. At first, the hero is revealed mostly in action, little is said about his internal state, and the author makes up for this “lack” of psychologism “on his own” - in fragments that are lyrical in nature, where the feelings of the entire warring people are generalized. The point is not so much in the difference in the worldviews of the author and the hero (they are very close), but in the compositional distribution of functions: the hero acts, the author reflects and emotionally “highlights” the plot.

This is noticeable, for example, in the chapter “Crossing”, where the general tone of the author’s attitude to what is happening is determined by restrained grief:

And I saw you for the first time,
It will not be forgotten:
People are warm and alive
We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...

Terkin’s appearance brings a turning point not only to the dramatic situation itself, but also to its emotional orchestration: the chapter ends with the resourceful hero’s playful request for a “second stack.” After this, the author’s generalization about the “holy and right” battle sounds, again recalling the drama of what is happening.

The initially noticeable boundary between the epic and lyrical spheres gradually disappears as the plot progresses, dialogical contacts arise between the author and the hero, and the distance between them decreases. In the chapter “Terkin is wounded,” the author addresses the hero in such a way that he almost merges with him:

Terkin, stop. Breathe more smoothly.
Terkin, let me come closer.
Terkin, aim. Better hit
Terkin. Heart, not parts.

This creates the basis for the interchangeability of the images of the author and the hero. Their statements are extremely close, demonstrating both the commonality of fate (the hero and the author are fellow countrymen), and the closeness of the speech manners themselves. In the chapter “About Myself,” the author leaves the reader no doubt about this closeness:

And I’ll tell you, I won’t hide it, -
In this book, here and there,
What a hero would say.
I speak personally myself.
I am responsible for everything around me,
And notice, if you didn’t notice,
Like Terkin, my hero,
Sometimes it speaks for me.

However, a complete merger of author and hero never occurs. Tvardovsky is important to the general perspective of the perception of events, the very possibility of final assessments is important. In the second half of the work, the plot is increasingly complicated by lyrical and philosophical fragments, in which the essence of what is happening is considered in terms of the fate of the entire people. It is important for the author not only to sum up the results of the national disaster, but also to look into the future of the country. That is why the chapter “About an Orphan Soldier” appears, the most tragic in the book. Terkin is not in this chapter, but the story is about a man who lost his entire family during the war. The image of a warring people, presented at the beginning of the book by Terkin, expanded noticeably by the end of the poem. Now it organically includes the main character, many episodic characters, the lyrical “I”, and the addressee of the book - its reader (“friend and brother”, according to the author). It is also important that the book does not end with optimistic toasts at all: the ending expresses a feeling of guilt, and the book itself is dedicated to the memory of the fallen:

The story of a memorable time,
This book is about a fighter,
I started from the middle
And ended without end

Dedicate your favorite work
To the fallen in sacred memory,
To all friends during the war,
To all hearts whose judgment is dear. Dina
And ended without end
With a thought, perhaps daring

Dedicate your favorite work
To the fallen in sacred memory,
To all friends during the war,
To all hearts whose judgment is dear.

The originality of the genre and composition. In school practice, “Vasily Terkin” was assigned a terminologically loose genre designation - “poem”. Meanwhile, one should not limit the genre characteristics of a work by indicating its belonging to the genre of a poem. During the war years, several significant poems appeared, usually lyrical or lyric-epic (among them, for example, “Son” by P.G. Antokolsky and “Russia” by A.A. Prokofiev). Unlike most of them, either dedicated to specific episodes of the war, or purely lyrical in nature, Tvardovsky’s book talks about the war as a whole, giving the life of a soldier in all its manifestations. Therefore, by analogy with Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin,” “Vasily Terkin” is often spoken of as an encyclopedia of front-line life.

Indeed, in terms of the breadth of coverage of the events of the war, and the specificity of the depiction of army life, Tvardovsky’s book is a unique phenomenon in the poetry of the war years. Let us remember, for example, that in addition to bright dynamic episodes, it contains many laconic but expressive fragments devoted to the details of front-line life - an overcoat, a hat with earflaps, boots and many other details of clothing, military equipment, even food in field conditions. Several independent chapters are devoted to the circumstances of army life in the “Book about a Soldier” (“At a halt”, “Accordion”, “Terkin’s Rest”, “In the Bath”). The hero's national character is reflected not only in the episodes of battles, but to an even greater extent - in the very attitude towards war, first of all, as hard work.

The weight of prosaic, descriptive elements in the work is not its only difference from ordinary poems. Describing the work in his “Autobiography,” the poet calls it “my lyrics, my journalism, a song and a lesson, an anecdote and a saying, a heart-to-heart conversation and a remark to the occasion.” If we also recall the use of folk songs and proverbs in the book, the overlap of some chapters with the epic epic, and the “epistolary” chapter “Terkin writes,” it becomes clear why the author designated the genre of his work with the most general word “book.” This is how he explained his decision: “The genre designation of “Books about a fighter” ... was not the result of a desire to simply avoid the designation “poem”, “story”, etc. This coincided with the decision to write not a poem, not a story or a novel in verse, that is, not something that has its own legalized... plot, composition and other features.

Tvardovsky here characterizes the genre of the book as extremely free. The spirit of creative freedom affects both the content and form of the work. But the word “book” itself is understood by the author in a special folk sense - as something unique and universal. “Vasily Terkin” is a kind of “soldier’s bible”. As the author said, this is “precisely a “book”, a living, moving, free-form book...”

The uniqueness of the genre also entailed non-standard methods of compositional design of the work. The book is structured in such a way that each chapter can be read as an independent work. The chapters of the book have compositional completeness and independence. However, this does not mean that the book did not come together as a whole. The compositional unity of the entire work is given by the instant recognition of the main character in each chapter, as well as the system of motifs that permeate it. For example, the chapter “In the Bath” varies the motif set in the very first stanza of the book (“... There is no better cold water, / Only water would be water”). The chapter “Grandfather and Woman” returns the reader to the images and situations of the chapter “Two Soldiers”, and the tankers who picked up the wounded Terkin will once again meet the hero in the chapter “Accordion”.

The relative compositional autonomy of the chapters was associated with the conditions of publication of the work in front-line periodicals, as well as with the fact that “Vasily Terkin” was addressed primarily to participants in the war. The author later explained that “he had to keep in mind the reader who, even if he was unfamiliar with the previous chapters, would find in this chapter, published today in the newspaper, something whole, rounded.”

“Vasily Terkin” is an innovative work in form. Different speech flows organically interact in it: literary speech and vernacular, folk poetic and oratorical vocabulary. The smallest compositional unit of a book is a stanza. She is unusually mobile, subject to the living movement of intonation. Quatrains are the most common in the book, but overall the size of the stanza is unstable. Tvardovsky flexibly varies the size of stanzas from 1 to 16-17 verses, often uses hyphenation, subordinating the movement of the verse to conversational intonations. This allowed the author to saturate the text with numerous lively dialogues. Occasionally there are examples of occasional word usage. For example, in the chapter “Duel” the noun is used as a comparative adjective:

Damn you. Yes our devils
All devils
A hundred times the devil.

The main poetic size of the book is trochaic tetrameter, but in some fragments next to the tetrameter lines there are verses shortened to three or even two feet. In general, the form of the work (from the smallest speech units to three-dimensional constructions) is characterized by the qualities of the highest naturalness and semantic transparency.

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“Vasily Terkin” is the best of all,

Written about war in war.

And to write the way this is written,

None of us have it.

K. Simonov

The Great Patriotic War. Terrible, difficult, destructive for everyone. She brings with her only death and nothing but death. How many crippled, broken lives! How many failed happinesses, how many unborn children, how many tears of mothers, fathers, widows, orphans were shed! Thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands of lives are cut short, dreams, hopes and plans are destroyed. All that remains is cruelty, violence and death. The war required millions of casualties and brought agony and suffering to every family and every person. But love for the Fatherland in this difficult time took on a different face, it turned into hatred for the enemy, for the invader, and doubled, uniting everyone who could stand up to defend the country.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War, the choice of topic for this work is relevant. We must not forget all the horrors of war, and most importantly, the great feat that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers accomplished for the sake of saving the country, for the sake of our bright future. Among the many works written about the war, A. T. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin” occupies a special place.

The writer’s reflection of the war in the poem is unique, fascinating, and unusual. This poem is not only about the Great Patriotic War, but also about the Motherland, about love for the Motherland, about soldiers, about all those who knew and know about the war firsthand. The poem “Vasily Terkin” is full of optimism and imbued with faith in victory over fascism.

The purpose of this work: to consider pictures of front-line life in the poem “Vasily Terkin” by A. T. Tvardovsky.

To address the topic, the following tasks were set:

1) Study and briefly highlight the creative path of A.T. Tvardovsky;

2) Consider the ideological and artistic originality of the poem “Vasily Terkin”;

3) Determine the role of pictures of soldiers’ front-line life in the narrative.

PICTURES OF FRONTLINE LIFE IN A. T. TVARDOVSKY’S POEM “VASILY TERKIN”

The main place in the literature of the Great Patriotic War period is occupied by the image of the Soviet soldier. Hundreds of books are dedicated to the man who survived the battles of Moscow and the Volga, who won the Kursk Bulge and the Dnieper. In the heroic deeds and everyday life of the war at the front, the courageous and noble character of a person - a Russian soldier - was revealed.

Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky was always interested in the fate of his country at turning points in history. And, of course, during the Great Patriotic War, when the fate of the people was being decided, the writer could not stand aside.

“The depth of the national historical feat in the Patriotic War,” the poet noted, “from the first day distinguished it from any other wars and ... military campaigns,” and therefore he believed that his place was in the ranks, on the front line, “where they do the most important thing."

A.T. During the Great Patriotic War, Tvardovsky became an exponent of the spirit of soldiers and ordinary people. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, the poet was in the ranks of the Soviet army. He spent the entire war at the front, writing a large number of lyrical, epic, propaganda and satirical poems for Red Army newspapers.

In 1941, with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the poet began work on the poem “Vasily Terkin”. It became a soldier's poem. Many years have passed since that tragic and heroic time, but “Vasily Terkin” is still read with the same interest, because this work reflects the great feat of our people, who defeated German fascism. Such a poem could only be born in the poet’s heart during a war in which the author was a participant.

Knowledge of everyday life at the front (the poet was a war correspondent) resulted in a collective image of the Russian soldier - Vasily Terkin, a cheerful joker who did not lose heart under any circumstances. The author wrote about the poem: “Whatever its actual literary significance, for me it was true happiness. She gave me a sense of the legitimacy of the artist’s place in the great struggle of the people, a sense of the obvious usefulness of my work... “Terkin” was for me in the relationship between the writer and his reader, my lyrics, my journalism, song and teaching. An anecdote and a saying, a heart-to-heart conversation and a remark to the occasion.”

The poem shows the main stages of the Great Patriotic War and describes the combat life of Soviet soldiers. This book conveys feelings and provides a deep philosophical understanding of the main human concepts - life and death, war and peace, homeland, honor, justice, friendship and love.

The poem “Vasily Terkin” helps people survive a terrible time, believe in their strength, because it was created during the war, chapter by chapter.

The poem consists of 25 internally complete chapters: “On vacation,” “Before the battle,” “Terkin is wounded,” “Two soldiers,” etc. “A certain chronicle is not a chronicle, a chronicle is not a chronicle,” he said about his poem Tvardovsky. The author himself outlined the genre uniqueness of the poem - “a book about a fighter,” emphasizing the authenticity of what is depicted.

A broad picture of the war appears in the reader’s mind, created from small scenes, episodes, and details. A soldier's everyday life and a soldier's leisure time - all this has a place in the poem.

Of course, the poem “Vasily Terkin” was written about the war, but the main thing for Alexander Tvardovsky was to show the reader how to live in times of difficult trials. Therefore, the main character of his poem, Vasya Terkin, dances, plays a musical instrument, cooks dinner, and jokes. The hero lives in war, and for the writer this is very important, since in order to survive, any person needs to love life very much.

The poet painted impressive pictures of the war years. In war, “you can live without food for a day, or more,” and all these hardships must be endured patiently and with dignity. And every day you need to be prepared for death.

Truth that hits right into the soul,

If only it were thicker

No matter how bitter it may be.

The main character of this book is a warrior people.

Another idea - national unity - is the most important in the poem:

And trustingly at the sign,

Hurrying after a friend,

They rushed to attack

Forty souls - one soul...

An important point of the poem, in my opinion, is that the poet reflected the opposition to fascism of all the peoples inhabiting Russia, then still part of the Soviet Union. The unity of all nations and nationalities helped defeat a strong enemy. Everyone understood that their continued existence on earth depended on victory. Hitler wanted to destroy entire nations. Tvardovsky’s hero said this in simple, memorable words:

The battle is holy and just.

Mortal combat is not for glory,

For the sake of life on earth...

Tvardovsky’s poem was precisely an expression of the unity of the national spirit. The poet specifically chose the simplest folk language for the poem. He did this so that his words and thoughts would reach every compatriot. When, for example, Vasily Terkin told his fellow soldiers that

Russia, old mother,

There is no way we can lose.

Our grandfathers, our children,

Our grandchildren do not order.

These words could be repeated with him by a Ural steelworker, a peasant from Siberia, a Belarusian partisan, and a scientist from Moscow.

In the first chapters, a picture emerges of the first months of the war: retreat, captivity, injuries and deaths of soldiers remaining in the occupation of the village. The beginning coincides with the most difficult and tragic time - the period of retreat.

Terkin, the main character, talks about the bitter days of retreat in the chapter “Before the Battle”:

Our brother walked, thin, hungry,

Lost connection and part,

He walked by company and platoon,

And free company

And one, like a finger, sometimes.

…They walked thin, they walked barefoot

To unknown lands.

What is it, where is it, Russia?

What is your line?

In this great national sadness of retreat, the firmness of the Russian character, the unshakable confidence that:

The time will come, we'll come back,

We will return everything that we gave.

Another vivid picture was created by the poet in the chapter “Before the Battle.” The commander’s native village appears on the fighters’ route, and his heart sank with melancholy. He has to make his way to his home “along the wall” because there is war and Germans all around.

Ran in, took a quick nap,

Catch up with the war again...

This is how Tvardovsky describes this short stay. The fighter has no time to enjoy the joy of a short meeting, and for his wife this holiday is “bitter, sad,” because miserable hours, even minutes, are allotted to her for a meeting with the closest person and, perhaps, this is their last meeting. It is bitter for the commander to leave his home, because “maybe today the Germans will enter this hut with guns.”

In his poem, the author depicts not at all favorable circumstances. The only way out in war is to accept them without falling into despair. A few expressive lines describe these circumstances. You feel the heaviness of a wet overcoat, the cold coming from the heavenly roof, the scratching of pine needles across your face, the hard bumps of the night. But this ability to adapt to incredibly difficult conditions reveals the special physical and spiritual strength of the Russian man, the ordinary soldier.

A.T. Tvardovsky depicts many tragic episodes of the war, for example, in the chapter “Crossing”, where he wonderfully manages to convey the growing anxiety and tension of events - the unsuccessful attempt to cross. The tragedy of what is happening is emphasized by the landscape - the color black (the color of mourning) is mentioned twice: the forest turns black, the water is black; a comparison is used: “The right bank is like a wall...”, the epithet “a trail of blood” and, finally, repetitions enhance the tragedy of what is happening: “Warm, living people went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...” This is a sad story about how “ the crossing failed." It is worth noting that in this chapter the words “Crossing, crossing” are repeated four times, and they are accompanied by different punctuation marks and different words. This repetition enhances the feeling of the tragedy of the situation, divides the chapter into semantic fragments, leading to a climax.

Crossing, crossing!

Left bank, right bank.

The snow is rough, the edge of ice...

To whom is memory, to whom is glory,

Who wants dark water?

No sign, no trace.

The drama of the action intensifies when the author shows the death of people:

And I saw you for the first time,

It will not be forgotten:

People are warm and alive

We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...

“There is confusion under fire,” artillery shelling, exploding shells - the situation in which the events take place is conveyed by the poet in such a way that this terrible picture of war appears before the eyes, painted truthfully and honestly.

Danger awaits them at any moment, because each of them could die.

Past their swirling temples,

Near their boyish eyes

Death whistled often in battle

And will there be a blowjob this time?

All these guys, not excluding Terkin himself, are simple people, and they are shown in the most everyday circumstances. The author specifically avoids describing heroic moments, because from his own experience he knows: war is hard work. In his case, “the infantry is dozing, huddled, with their hands in their sleeves” or “a rare rain is falling, an angry cough is tormenting the chest. Not a scrap of native newspaper—to wrap a goat’s leg.” The fighters' conversations are not at all about “high” topics - for example, about the advantage of a boot over a felt boot.

The main idea of the chapter “Crossing” is that the path to victory is very far and lies through a bloody crossing, through cruel trials in which many will die.

They go the hard way.

Same as two hundred years ago

Walked with a flintlock gun

Russian toiler-soldier...

Crossing, crossing...

The guns fire in the pitch darkness.

The battle is holy and just.

Mortal combat is not for glory -

For the sake of life on earth...

The above verses indicate that memory and military glory always have their downside - oblivion, when thousands of living people sink into the black water without signs or traces. Thinking about the victorious heroes, hung with awards, we must not forget about those unknown soldiers who disappeared without a trace in a fierce battle. This battle is not fought for the sake of glory, not for the sake of admiration of descendants for the courage of the warriors; the price of battle is much higher - this is generally life on earth, the most sacred goal that can be. And the soldiers themselves are not epic heroes at all, but ordinary people, “toilers” who from time immemorial have defended their homeland when there was a need for it. The very definition of “hard-working soldier” suggests that our soldiers treat war as hard but necessary work, without trying to poeticize or elevate it in any way. On the contrary, the war is prosaic, full of hard life and bloody moments, which have also become familiar.

The fate of an ordinary soldier, one of those who bore the brunt of the war on their shoulders, becomes the personification of national fortitude and the will to live. Terkin swims across the icy river twice to restore contact with the advancing units.

The crossing is a difficult test of strength, endurance, and courage. The symbols of this test are the roar of water, and dry ice, and an alien night, and an inaccessible forest, “the right bank is like a wall.” All these images of the natural world turn out to be hostile towards humans. A.T. Tvardovsky in the poem does not embellish reality, does not hide victims and failures, but depicts military actions and losses in all their terrifying and tragic truth:

People are warm and alive

We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...

The repetition enhances the depth of the tragedy experienced by the author and shows the scale of the “blood trail.” The bitterness of the losses is enhanced by the picture depicting dead faces on which the snow does not melt. Further, the author mentions that rations are still issued to the dead, and old letters written by them are sent home by mail. These details also emphasize the irreplaceability of the loss:

From Ryazan, from Kazan,

From Siberia, from Moscow -

The soldiers are sleeping.

They said theirs.

And they are forever right.

The war is depicted by Tvardovsky in blood, labor and hardship. Endless night, frost. But a bit of a soldier’s sleep, not even a dream, but a heavy oblivion, bizarrely mixed with reality. In the minds of those who remained on this left bank, pictures of the death of their comrades arise. The lines expressing thoughts about the soldiers who died at the crossing, and not only about these soldiers, sound inescapably sad.

The theme of responsibility for the fate of Russia is also developed in the next chapter, “On War.” A.T. Tvardovsky emphasizes that sacrifices during war are inevitable, but they are made for the sake of common victory, so the soldier must forget about himself for a while: the main thing is to solve the combat mission, to fulfill his duty to his homeland, to his children.

The year has struck, the turn has come,

Today we are responsible

For Russia, for the people

And for everything in the world.

They are not afraid of death, because their duty to the Motherland and the people is higher than personal:

Since there's war, forget about everything

And you have no right to blame.

I was getting ready for a long journey,

The order was given: “Resign!”

They don't need rewards; that's not what they fight for.

I don’t need, brothers, orders,

I don't need fame

But I need, my Motherland is sick,

Native side!

The poem contains descriptions of battles more than once, but the chapter “Duel” makes the most lasting impression. Terkin fights one-on-one, without weapons, with a German. In order to strengthen the difference between the two soldiers, Russian and German, the poet presents the German as a rather repulsive creature. By and large, it was not two separate soldiers who came together here, but two warring sides.

The German was strong and dexterous,

Well tailored, tightly sewn,

He stood as if on horseshoes,

Don't scare him - he won't run.

Well-fed, shaved, careful,

Fed with free goods,

At war, in a foreign land

Sleeping in the warmth.

This is a description of Nazi Germany, fully prepared for war, a strong and powerful power that mercilessly exploited the occupied territories. And then - Terkin:

You didn't know my nature

And nature is first grade.

Skin to shreds

Terkin churu

He won't ask. That's where the hell is!

Who alone is afraid of death,

Who doesn't care about a hundred deaths?

Damn you. Yes our devils

All devils

A hundred times the devil.

Terkin fights with the German fiercely and selflessly, and you especially need to pay attention to the fact that the fight takes place one on one, no one sees them. In such a situation, there is no point in showing your prowess or showing ostentatious heroism. Terkin fights because he sees this as his sacred duty:

You don’t go to death then.

For anyone to see.

Okay b. But no - well...

You need to forget your fear and pain, because the future of the Motherland depends on each of those at the front or in the rear:

Forget yourself in war,

Remember the honor, however,

Get to work - chest to chest,

A fight means a fight.

In this child, in the dirt and blood, that friendship was born that saved many lives. Unfamiliar soldiers covered each other, warmed each other with their breath, not hoping to see each other someday:

Walk through the world, you won’t find it anywhere,

I never happened to see

That friendship is holy and purer,

What happens in war.

In the chapter “General” Tvardovsky shows the unity of a simple soldier and a general. The war became a common misfortune for them; grief alone separated them from their home. War also unites families:

Nowadays the wives are all kind,

Selfless enough

Even those that for the time being

There were just witches.

Love strengthens the fighters’ desire for victory, because “the love of a wife... in war is stronger than war and, perhaps, death.”

The poet paints a tragic picture in the chapter “About an Orphan Soldier.” The hero of this episode, passing by his native place, does not recognize his native village of Krasny Most, does not find his home:

There is no window, no hut,

Not a housewife, even a married man,

Not a son, but there was one, guys...

The soldier cried about all this, but there was no one left to cry about him.

In his work, Tvardovsky does not describe major military battles. His attention is focused on the workdays of ordinary soldiers. In the chapter “Who Shot?” "The main character unexpectedly shoots down a German plane with a rifle:

Three-line rifle

On a canvas belt

Yes, cartridges with that head,

What is terrible about steel armor?

The battle is unequal, the battle is short.

Alien plane, with a cross,

Rocked like a boat

Scooped up by the side.

The courage of a fighter is a matter of course in war. But there is also a joke nearby that supports, encourages comrades, and increases contempt for the Germans. Sergeant Terkin reassures Sergeant Jealous of him:

Don't worry, the German has this

Not the last plane.

In a one-minute war

Can't live without a joke

Jokes of the most unwise.

No matter how difficult the war was, it could not keep people in eternal tension. From time to time it was necessary to relax, throw off the burden of worries, just have fun and dance, bask in the cold.

Warm up, hang out

Everyone goes to the accordion player.

They are surrounding. - Stop, brothers,

Let me blow on your hands.

At least something for these guys,

From place to water and fire,

Everything that can be in the world

At least something - the accordion is humming.

The heroes in Tvardovsky’s poem not only fight. They laugh, love, write letters, tell each other stories, sing, dance and, of course, dream of a peaceful life.

CONCLUSION

The poem by A. T. Tvardovsky “Vasily Terkin” is an outstanding work. It became one of the most significant works about the Great Patriotic War. At first glance, it may seem that “Vasily Terkin” is just a series of episodes from the life of one fighter. But, after carefully reading and comprehending the entire poem, the reader receives a fairly complete understanding of the course of the war - from the retreat in 1941 to the Great Victory.

Tvardovsky showed us the war from all its sides. You can immediately feel it when a person writes about what he himself has experienced, about what he has seen and felt. The truth is heard in such works. “Vasily Terkin” also belongs to such books. This poem is not only about war. It is about the native land, where the town of Borki in the swamp is as valuable as the capital itself. It is about millions of Terkins who accomplished feats or simply fulfilled their sacred duty. It’s about how the Russian people know how to unite during testing years. Therefore, one can rightfully call “Vasily Terkin” an encyclopedia of war.

It is known that for works of art time is the most important critic, and many books do not withstand this cruel test. Our time is also not the last milestone on the path of Tvardovsky’s work. Perhaps the next generations of Russians will read it from a different angle. But I am sure that the poem will still be read, because the conversation in it is about the enduring values of our life - the homeland, goodness, truth.

The poem has absorbed both grief and people's joy; it contains harsh, mournful lines, but even more filled with folk humor, full of great love for life. It seemed incredible that it was possible to write about the most cruel and difficult war in the history of nations so life-affirmingly, with such a bright philosophy of life, as Tvardovsky did in “Vasily Terkin.”

The story of a memorable time,

This book is about a fighter

I started from the middle

And ended without end.

With a thought, perhaps daring

Dedicate your favorite work

The fallen in sacred memory,

To all friends during the war,

To all hearts whose judgment is dear.

I believe that Tvardovsky is absolutely right - real poetry has neither an end nor a beginning. And if it was born from thoughts about the fate and military feat of an entire people, then it can even count on eternity.

LIST OF REFERENCES USED

1. A.V. Makedonov. Tvardovsky's creative path. - M.: Artist. lit., 1981. - 367 p.

2. A.T. Tvardovsky. Vasily Terkin: A book about a fighter / Reprint. - M.: Det. Lit., 1980.- 207 p.

3. V.A.Zaitsev. Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky.- M.: DROFA, 2003.- 400 p.

4. Methodological guide to the textbook of the anthology “Native Literature” for grade 7. - 5th ed., revised. - M.: Education, 1986. - 255 p.

5. P. S. Vykhodtsev. A.T. Tvardovsky. - M.: Uchpedgiz, 1960. - 251 p.

6. Russian literature of the twentieth century. Textbook for students. In 2 vols. T. 2 / Ed. L. P. Krementsova.- M.: Publishing Center "Academy", 2002.-

464 pp.

7. Russian literature. Soviet literature: Reference. materials: Book. for students of Art. classes/ L.A. Smirnova, S.A. Dzhanumov, L.M. Krupchanov and others; Comp. L.A. Smirnova.- M.: Education, 1989.-448 p.

8. Russian literature of the 20th century. Essays. Portraits. Essay. Book for 11th grade students. avg. school At 2 p.m. Part 2/ V.A. Chalmaev, V.G. Boborykin, A.I. Pavlovsky and others; Comp. E.P. Pronina; Ed. F.F. Kuznetsova.- M.: Education, 1991.- 351 p.

9. S. I. Khozieva. Russian writers and poets.- M.: “Ripol Classic”, 2002.-

576 pp.

10. Memories of Tvardovsky. - M.: Soviet writer, 1982. - p. 339-346.

Let the reader be likely

He will say with a book in his hand:

- Here are the poems, and everything is clear,

Everything is in Russian...

………………………..

The story of a memorable time,

This book is about a fighter,

I started from the middle

And ended without end...

The clarity, accessibility of the poem and extraordinary external clarity, the apparent simplicity of its form, are indeed among the advantages of Tvardovsky’s main book. These advantages were noted not only by ordinary readers of the book they loved, but also by Tvardovsky’s writing colleagues. The review of one of the most demanding masters of Russian literature of the 20th century is expressive. - I. A. Bunin, who is usually stingy with praise: “This is a truly rare book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess, what accuracy, accuracy in everything and what an extraordinary folk, soldier’s language - not a hitch, not a single false, ready-made, that is, a literary vulgar word.”

True, Bunin speaks here not only about the organic nature of Tvardovsky’s poetic gift, about the naturalness of his words to the people’s language, but also about freedom from aesthetic normativity, that is, about Tvardovsky’s innovation in the field of form (“not a single... ready-made... literary vulgar word ").

The main character of the book. The first two chapters of “Vasily Terkin” were published in one of the front-line newspapers on September 4, 1942. During 1942–1945. subsequent chapters of the book appeared in front-line periodicals and magazines; The poem was also published in separate editions. However, the Russian reader might have been familiar with the image of Terkin even before the start of the Great Patriotic War. Back in 1939–1940. On the pages of the newspaper of the Leningrad Military District, a character named “Vasya Terkin” appeared - the hero of a series of amusing pictures, accompanied by poetic captions. This character was created as a result of the collective work of several writers, among whom was Tvardovsky, who wrote a poetic introduction to this “Terkin”. The main thing in Terkin during the war with Finland is a strict literary convention and deliberate one-dimensionality, characteristic of comic book heroes or characters in a series of caricatures. This is an invariably successful and always cheerful fighter, easily dealing with enemies. “He is a man himself / Extraordinary...” - this is his most general characteristic.

Terkin - who is he?

Let's be honest:

Just a guy himself

He's ordinary.

The image of Terkin is close to the folklore type of characters; with his invulnerability and “all-presence” in a wide variety of situations, he resembles the resourceful hero of an everyday soldier’s fairy tale.

It is the scale of the country, the scale of the entire warring people that determines the specifics of the plot and the features of imagery in the book. Terkin begins to fight during the Finnish campaign on the Karelian Isthmus, enters service again in June 1941, retreats along with the entire army, finds himself surrounded several times, then goes on the offensive and ends his journey in the depths of Germany. The author deliberately avoids spatial localization of plot episodes. Of the most high-profile battles of the war period (until the mid-1950s, it was customary to single out “ten Stalinist strikes”), only the crossing of the Dnieper in the book is devoted to a separate chapter. The plot of the book took shape as the national war progressed, and its core was the fate of the entire people.

The high degree of generalization in the image of the main character is also “played up” by the system of rhymes used in relation to his first and last names. Tvardovsky inventively uses rhymes that characterize both the circumstances of army life and the emotional state of the hero (Terkin - bitter, shag, sayings, on a hill, in a tunic, crust, in a kapterka, etc.). However, the most important rhyme in the book is “Vasily - Russia”, repeated several times in the text. This emphasizes that the hero represents the entire people and is a unique embodiment of the heroism of the Russian people. Terkin is a “hero of the people.”

Terkin knew that in this fight

He is weaker: not the same grub.

Like on an ancient battlefield,

Chest to chest, like shield to shield, -

Instead of thousands, two fight,

As if the fight would solve everything.

The extreme generalization of the episode is served by the eloquent metonymy: “Terkin fights, holds the front.” The final author’s generalization is fully consistent with this declared breadth of scale – the solemn-sounding lines that will become the refrain of the book:

A terrible battle is going on, bloody,

Mortal combat is not for glory,

For the sake of life on earth.

However, the epic solemnity of the scene is balanced by the generously scattered “technological” details of Terkin’s ingenuity and the most idiomatic vocabulary used in the chapter (“he snapped a German between the eyes,” “threw him into a sled,” “out of fright ... gave bream,” etc.). Thus, the episode of the fight, without losing its symbolic semantic potential, is “grounded”; the fight takes on the character of a desperate fight. The most important thing is that as soon as the tone of the story reaches the heights of open heroism, Tvardovsky immediately uses a peculiar technique of adjusting the scale, “modest” clarification. Here is how it is used in the analyzed episode:

A brave guy fights to the death,

So the smoke stands like a mountain,

Like the whole country is a power

Terkina sees:

What a country! At least a company

I could see from afar

What is his job

And what's the matter?

A similar technique of crafty adjustment of scale is used in the episode of Terkin’s story about “Sabantuy” and in the chapter “About the Reward”.

And he was silent not in offense,

Not as a reproach to anyone, -

I just knew and saw more

Lost and saved...

The last lines of the chapter show Terkin from an unexpected side:

- What about you, brother, Vasily Terkin,

Are you crying?..

- Guilty...

Terkin among the characters of the book. Generalization and individualization are two complementary principles of depicting a hero. A precisely calibrated balance in the use of these principles allowed Tvardovsky to create an image that incorporated both “personal”, individually unique features, and what was characteristic of many people. Being a bright personality, Terkin is nevertheless inseparable from the mass of soldiers and from the entire warring people. Generalization and individualization are especially interestingly brought together in the chapter “Terkin - Terkin”.

What don't you understand here?

Don't you understand?

According to the regulations of each company

Terkin will be given his own.

The synthetic characteristic of the generalized and at the same time different from others Terkin is his “property”. The possessive pronouns “our” and “our” almost always accompany references to the hero. That is why the recognizable traits of the main character “flow” so naturally to other, minor characters in the book. The “friends” in the poem are the veteran grandfather, his initially tight-fisted wife, the tank crew, the young nurse, even the mustachioed general, who embraces Terkin as if he were his “beloved son.” The vocabulary of kinship in general is used extremely organically in Terkin; it supports the most important idea of national unity in the book.

This is noticeable, for example, in the chapter “Crossing”, where the general tone of the author’s attitude to what is happening is determined by restrained grief:

And I saw you for the first time,

It will not be forgotten:

People are warm and alive

We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...

Terkin, stop. Breathe more smoothly.

Terkin, let me come closer.

Terkin, aim. Better hit

Terkin. Heart, not parts.

And I’ll tell you, I won’t hide it, -

In this book, here and there,

What a hero should say

I speak personally myself.

I am responsible for everything around me,

And notice, if you didn’t notice,

Like Terkin, my hero,

Sometimes it speaks for me.

However, a complete merger of author and hero never occurs. Tvardovsky is important to the general perspective of the perception of events, the very possibility of final assessments is important. In the second half of the work, the plot is increasingly complicated by lyrical and philosophical fragments, in which the essence of what is happening is considered in terms of the fate of the entire people. It is important for the author not only to sum up the results of the national disaster, but also to look into the future of the country. That is why the chapter “About the Orphan Soldier” appears, the most tragic in the book. There is no Terkin in this chapter, but the story is about a man who lost his entire family during the war. The image of a warring people, presented at the beginning of the book by Terkin, expanded noticeably by the end of the poem. Now it organically includes the main character, and many episodic characters, and the lyrical “I”, and the addressee of the book - its reader (“friend and brother”, according to the author). It is also important that the book does not end with optimistic toasts at all: the ending expresses a feeling of guilt, and the book itself is dedicated to the memory of the fallen:

The story of a memorable time,

This book is about a fighter,

I started from the middle

And ended without end

With a thought, perhaps daring

Dedicate your favorite work

To the fallen in sacred memory,

To all friends during the war,

To all hearts whose judgment is dear.

The originality of the genre and composition. In school practice, “Vasily Terkin” was assigned a terminologically loose genre designation – “poem”. Meanwhile, one should not limit the genre characteristics of a work by indicating its belonging to the genre of a poem. During the war years, several significant poems appeared, usually lyrical or lyric-epic (among them, for example, “Son” by P. G. Antokolsky and “Russia” by A. A. Prokofiev). Unlike most of them, either dedicated to specific episodes of the war, or purely lyrical in nature, Tvardovsky’s book talks about the war as a whole, giving the life of a soldier in all its manifestations. Therefore, by analogy with Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin,” “Vasily Terkin” is often spoken of as an encyclopedia of front-line life.

Indeed, in terms of the breadth of coverage of the events of the war, and the specificity of the depiction of army life, Tvardovsky’s book is a unique phenomenon in the poetry of the war years. Let us remember, for example, that in addition to bright, dynamic episodes, it contains many laconic but expressive fragments devoted to the details of front-line life - an overcoat, a hat with earflaps, boots and many other details of clothing, military equipment, even food in field conditions. Several independent chapters are devoted to the circumstances of army life in the “Book about a Soldier” (“At a halt”, “Accordion”, “Terkin’s Rest”, “In the Bath”). The hero’s national character is reflected not only in the episodes of battles, but to an even greater extent in the very attitude towards war, first of all, as hard work.

The weight of prosaic, descriptive elements in the work is not its only difference from ordinary poems. Describing the work in his “Autobiography,” the poet calls it “my lyrics, my journalism, a song and a lesson, an anecdote and a saying, a heart-to-heart conversation and a remark to the occasion.” If we also recall the use of folk songs and proverbs in the book, the overlap of some chapters with the epic epic, and the “epistolary” chapter “Terkin writes,” it becomes clear why the author designated the genre of his work with the most general word “book.” This is how he explained his decision: “The genre designation of the “Book about a fighter” ... was not the result of a desire to simply avoid the designation “poem”, “story”, etc. This coincided with the decision to write not a poem, not a story or a novel in verse, that is, not something that has its own legalized... plot, compositional and other features.”

The uniqueness of the genre also entailed non-standard methods of compositional design of the work. The book is structured in such a way that each chapter can be read as an independent work. The chapters of the book have compositional completeness and independence. However, this does not mean that the book did not come together as a whole. The compositional unity of the entire work is given by the instant recognition of the main character in each chapter, as well as the system of motifs that permeate it. For example, the chapter “In the Bath” varies the motif set in the very first stanza of the book (“...There is no better cold water, / Only water would be water”). The chapter “Grandfather and Woman” returns the reader to the images and situations of the chapter “Two Soldiers”, and the tankers who picked up the wounded Terkin will once again meet the hero in the chapter “Accordion”.

“Vasily Terkin” is an innovative work in form. Different speech flows organically interact in it: literary speech and vernacular, folk poetic and oratorical vocabulary. The smallest compositional unit of a book is a stanza. She is unusually mobile, subject to the living movement of intonation. Quatrains are the most common in the book, but overall the size of the stanza is unstable. Tvardovsky flexibly varies the size of stanzas from 1 to 16–17 verses, often uses hyphenation, subordinating the movement of the verse to conversational intonations. This allowed the author to saturate the text with numerous lively dialogues. Occasionally there are examples of occasional word usage. For example, in the chapter “Duel” the noun is used as a comparative adjective:

Damn you. Yes our devils

All devils

A hundred times the devil.

19. A. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin” in the context of wartime literature. The theme of man at war. Image of Vasily Terkin. The artistic originality of the poem. Tvardovsky was always interested in the fate of his country at turning points in history. History and people are his main theme. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), A. T. Tvardovsky writes the poem “Vasily Terkin” about the Great Patriotic War. The fate of the people was being decided. The poem is dedicated to the life of the people during the war.
In “The Country of Ant”, “Vasily Terkin”, large-scale, capacious, collective images are created: the events are enclosed in a very broad plot frame, the poet turns to hyperbole and other means of fairy-tale conventions. In the center of the poem is the image of Terkin, uniting the composition of the work into a single whole. Vasily Ivanovich Terkin is the main character of the poem, an ordinary infantryman from the Smolensk peasants. Terkin embodies the best features of the Russian soldier and the people as a whole. The poem is structured as a chain of episodes from the military life of the protagonist, which do not always have a direct event connection with each other. Terkin humorously tells young soldiers about the everyday life of war; He says that he has been fighting since the very beginning of the war, he was surrounded three times, and was wounded. The fate of an ordinary soldier, one of those who bore the brunt of the war on their shoulders, becomes the personification of national fortitude and the will to live. Terkin swims twice across the icy river to restore contact with the advancing units; Terkin alone occupies a German dugout, but comes under fire from his own artillery; on the way to the front, Terkin finds himself in the house of old peasants, helping them with the housework; Terkin enters hand-to-hand combat with the German and, with difficulty, defeating him, takes him prisoner. Unexpectedly, Terkin shoots down a German attack aircraft with a rifle; Terkin calms the envious sergeant: Terkin takes command of the platoon when the commander is killed, and is the first to break into the village; however, the hero is again seriously wounded. Lying wounded in a field, Terkin talks with Death, who persuades him not to cling to life; in the end, the soldiers discover him, and he tells them: “Take away this woman, I am a soldier still alive.” The image of Vasily Terkin combines the best moral qualities of the Russian people: patriotism, readiness for heroism, love of work. The character traits of the hero are interpreted by the poet as traits of a collective image: Terkin is inseparable and integral from the militant people. The author also shades the hero’s patriotism and collectivism negatively: he emphasizes the absence in Terkin of the traits of individualism, selfishness, and concern for his own person. Terkin is characterized by the master’s respect and caring attitude towards things as the fruit of labor. It’s not for nothing that he takes away his grandfather’s saw, which he warps, not knowing how to sharpen it. Returning the finished saw to the owner, Vasily says: Here, grandfather, take it, look. It will cut better than a new one, don't waste the tool in vain. Terkin loves work and is not afraid of it (from the hero’s conversation with death): The simplicity of the hero is usually synonymous with his mass character, the absence of exclusivity traits in him. But this simplicity also has another meaning in the poem: the transparent symbolism of the hero’s surname, the Terkino “we’ll endure it, we’ll endure it” emphasizes his ability to overcome difficulties simply and easily. This is his behavior even when he swims across an icy river or sleeps under a pine tree, quite content with an uncomfortable bed, etc. This simplicity of the hero, his calmness, and sober outlook on life express important features of the people's character. In the poem “Vasily Terkin”, A. T. Tvardovsky’s field of vision includes not only the front, but also those who work in the rear for the sake of victory: women and old people. The characters in the poem not only fight - they laugh, love, talk with each other, and most importantly, they dream of a peaceful life. The reality of war unites what is usually incompatible: tragedy and humor, courage and fear, life and death. The chapter “From the Author” depicts the process of “mythologization” of the main character of the poem. Terkin is called by the author “a holy and sinful Russian miracle man.” The name of Vasily Terkin has become legendary and a household name.
The poem “Vasily Terkin” is distinguished by its peculiar historicism. Conventionally, it can be divided into three parts, coinciding with the beginning, middle and end of the war. Poetic understanding of the stages of the war creates a lyrical chronicle of events from the chronicle. A feeling of bitterness and sorrow fills the first part, faith in victory fills the second, the joy of the liberation of the Fatherland becomes the leitmotif of the third part of the poem. This is explained by the fact that A. T. Tvardovsky created the poem gradually, throughout the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
The composition of the poem is also original. Not only individual chapters, but also periods and stanzas within chapters are distinguished by their completeness. This is due to the fact that the poem was printed in parts. And it should be accessible to the reader from “any place.”
The poet emphasized the truthfulness and reliability of broad pictures of life by calling “Vasily Terkin” not a poem, but “a book about a fighter.” The word “book” in this popular sense sounds somehow specially significant, as an object “serious, reliable, unconditional,” says Tvardovsky. Like all the heroes of the world epic, he was granted immortality (it is no coincidence that in the 1954 poem by Terkin in the next world he finds himself in the afterlife, reminiscent of Soviet reality in its carrion) and at the same time - living optimism, making him the personification of the people's spirit. The poem was a huge success among readers. Vasily Terkin became a folklore character, about which Tvardovsky remarked: “Where he came from is where he goes.” The book received both official recognition (State Prize, 1946) and high praise from contemporaries.

“Kirov is with us” (1941) N. Tikhonov.

The strong-willed aspiration of the poem;

Archaic vocabulary - a single, pompous syllable (Old Slavonicism, high vocabulary), the pathos of a wild work.

Trisyllabic amphibrachium.

Motives from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”;

Song through clenched teeth;

Kirov - politician, 1st secretary of the Leningrad regional committee. The leader, democracy, “their” people, they followed him, the people nominate such people.

“February Diary” (1942) O. Berggolts.

Intimate, personal experiences;

The individual “I” merges with the people’s “we”;

The thought of the fundamental principle, of morality. values, even if there is a war, primary, irreplaceable values (bread (love)/water (happiness));

Man is the fundamental principle of immortality and strength.

Idea of love;

“Zoe” M. Aliger.

Front-line correspondent (documentary + artistic);

A poem about the younger generation in war;

Martyr's pathos of serving the people.

Terkin's image.

It carries the weight of infantry pathos. Hard worker. The people's mentality, character. Simple-minded. Skilled. Everything can be done.

Akimov (Vykhodtsev and Lyuborev were also involved in VT): the most reliable document of the era.

Part 2 – reflection, look into the future, deep beginning. Dialogues (certificate of the appearance of a personality).

Introducing readers to him already in the first chapter, the poet writes: “Terkin - who is he? / Let’s be honest: / He’s just a guy himself / He’s ordinary.” And, emphasizing this, in contrast to the feuilleton character, the ordinariness of his essentially new Terkin, he continues: “Endowed with beauty / He was not excellent. / Not tall, not that small, / But a hero is a hero.”

The image of Vasily Terkin really captures what is typical for many: “A guy like this / There is always a guy in every company, / And in every platoon.” However, in him the traits and properties inherent in many people were embodied brighter, sharper, more original. Folk wisdom and optimism, perseverance, endurance, patience and dedication, worldly ingenuity, the skill and mastery of the Russian person - a worker and a warrior, and finally, inexhaustible humor, behind which something deeper and more serious always appears - all this is fused into a living and integral human character. His depiction naturally combines classical and folklore, folk-poetic traditions.

In “The Book about a Fighter” the war is depicted as it is - in everyday life and heroism, an interweaving of the ordinary, sometimes even comic and tragic: “The battle is holy and just, / Mortal combat is not for the sake of glory, / For the sake of life on earth.”

Being the embodiment of the Russian national character, Vasily Terkin is inseparable from the people - the mass of soldiers and a number of episodic characters (a soldier grandfather and grandmother, tank crews in battle and on the march, a girl nurse in a hospital, a soldier’s mother returning from enemy captivity, etc.) , it is inseparable from the motherland. And the entire “Book about a Fighter” is a poetic statement of national unity.

Along with the images of Terkin and the people, an important place in the overall structure of the work is occupied by the image of the author-narrator, or, more precisely, the lyrical hero, especially noticeable in the chapters “About myself”, “About war”, “About love”, in the four chapters “From the author” " Thus, in the chapter “About Myself,” the poet directly states, addressing the reader:

And I’ll tell you: I won’t hide it, -

In this book, here and there,

What a hero should say

I speak personally myself.

I am responsible for everything around me,

And notice, if you didn’t notice,

Like Terkin, my hero,

Sometimes it speaks for me.

As for the genre and plot-compositional features of the poem, when starting to work on it, the poet was not too worried about this, as evidenced by his own words: “I did not long languish with doubts and fears regarding the uncertainty of the genre, the lack of an initial plan that would embrace the entire work is forward-looking, with little plot connection between the chapters. Not a poem - well, let it not be a poem, I decided; there is no single plot - let it be, don’t; there is no very beginning of a thing - there is no time to invent it; the climax and completion of the entire narrative is not planned - let us write about what is burning, not waiting, and then we’ll see we’ll figure it out” (5, 123).

At the same time, the originality of the plot and composition of the book is determined by military reality itself. “There is no plot in war,” the author noted in one of the chapters. And in the poem as a whole, indeed, there are no such traditional components as plot, climax, denouement. But within chapters with a narrative basis, as a rule, there is a plot of its own; between these chapters, separate plot connections and bonds arise.

“The genre designation of “Books about a fighter”, which I settled on, was not the result of a desire to simply avoid the designation “poem”, “story”, etc. This coincided with the decision to write not a poem, not a story or a novel in verse, that is, not something that has its own legalized and to a certain extent obligatory plot, composition and other features. I didn’t get these signs, but something did come out, and I designated this something “The Book about a Fighter” (5, 125).

Tvardovsky's book, for all its apparent simplicity and traditionality, is distinguished by a rare richness of language and style, poetics and verse. It is marked by an extraordinary breadth and freedom of use of the means of spoken, literary and folk poetic speech. It naturally uses proverbs and sayings (“I’m out of boredom at all trades”; “Time for business is an hour of fun”; “On which river to float, - / To create a glory ...”), folk songs (about an overcoat, about river). Tvardovsky perfectly masters the art of speaking simply but poetically. He himself creates sayings that have come into life as proverbs (“Don’t look what’s on your chest, / But look what’s ahead”; “War has a short path, / Love has a long path”; “Guns go backwards to battle” and etc.).

The plot of the book took shape as the national war progressed, and its core was the fate of the entire people. The hero represents the entire people and is a unique embodiment of the heroism of the Russian people. Terkin - “hero-people”.

Terkin in the book is not only a national type of “Russian miracle man”, but also a personality. The uniqueness of Tvardovsky’s hero lies in his combination of the “universal” and the individually unique. Folklore heroes are the same at the beginning and at the end of the story told about them. The evolution of Terkin’s image is manifested in a change in the main emotional tone of the story as the plot moves forward; the closer to the end, the more restrained the manifestations of his gaiety become, everything

Author's image. In addition to the “epic” chapters, the hero of which is Terkin, “The Book about a Fighter” contains “lyrical” chapters “From author". In the first of these chapters, the author introduces his hero to the reader, in the second he shares with the reader “professional” thoughts about the specifics of the content and plot of the book itself; in the third, he gives another characteristic of the hero, this time directly pointing to the national scale of the generalization in his image (“He walks, holy and sinful / Russian miracle man”). Finally, in the last chapter, “From the Author,” which concludes the book, the distance between the author and the hero almost disappears: “you and I,” the author addresses Terkin.

The originality of the genre and composition.P The analogy with Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” and “Vasily Terkin” is often spoken of as an encyclopedia of front-line life.

“Vasily Terkin” is a kind of “soldier’s bible”. T: this is “precisely a “book”, a living, moving, free-form book...”. The book is structured in such a way that each chapter can be read as an independent work. The chapters of the book have compositional completeness and independence. However, this does not mean that the book did not come together as a whole. The compositional unity of the entire work is given by the instant recognition of the main character in each chapter, as well as the system of motifs that permeate it.

He highly appreciated both the beetles and Bunin. This is a truly valuable book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess, what accuracy, precision in everything. An extraordinary folk soldier's language - not a hitch, not a single false, literary vulgar word.

SUMMARY There is a new guy in the infantry company, Vasily Terkin. He is fighting for the second time in his life (the first war was Finnish). Vasily does not mince his words, he is a good eater. In general, “the guy is anywhere.” Terkin recalls how he, in a detachment of ten people, during the retreat, made his way from the western, “German” side to the east, to the front. Along the way there was the commander’s native village, and the detachment went to his house. The wife fed the soldiers and put them to bed. The next morning the soldiers left, leaving the village in German captivity. On the way back, Tyorkin would like to go to this hut to bow to the “good simple woman.” The river is being crossed. Platoons are loaded onto pontoons. Enemy fire disrupted the crossing, but the first platoon managed to move to the right bank. Those who remained on the left are waiting for dawn and do not know what to do next. Terkin swims from the right bank (winter, icy water). He reports that the first platoon is able to ensure the crossing if it is supported by fire. Terkin establishes communications. A shell explodes nearby. Seeing a German cellar, Tyorkin takes it. There, in ambush, the enemy is waiting. He kills a German officer, but he manages to wound him. Our people start hitting the cellar. And Tyorkin is discovered by tank crews and taken to the medical battalion...Torkin jokingly argues that it would be nice to receive a medal and come with it to a party in the village council after the war. Leaving the hospital, Tyorkin catches up with his company. He is transported by truck. Ahead is a stopped column of transport. Freezing. And there is only one accordion - the tankers. It belonged to their fallen commander. The tankers give the accordion to Tyorkin. He plays first a sad melody, then a cheerful one, and the dancing begins. The tankers remember that it was they who delivered the wounded Tyorkin to the medical battalion, and give him an accordion. In the hut are a grandfather (an old soldier) and a grandmother. Terkin comes to see them. He repairs saws and watches for old people. He guesses that the grandmother has hidden lard... The grandmother treats Tyorkin. And the grandfather asks: “Shall we beat the German?” Tyorkin answers, already leaving, from the threshold: “We’ll beat you, father.” The bearded fighter lost his pouch. Terkin recalls that when he was wounded, he lost his hat, and the girl nurse gave him hers. He still keeps this hat. Terkin gives the bearded man his tobacco pouch and explains: in war you can lose anything (even life and family), but not Russia. Terkin fights hand-to-hand with the German. Wins. Returning from reconnaissance, bringing the “tongue” with him. It’s spring at the front. The buzz of the cockchafer gives way to the roar of a bomber. The soldiers are lying prone. Only Terkin gets up, fires at the plane with a rifle and shoots it down. Terkin is given an order. Terkin recalls how in the hospital he met a boy who had already become a hero. He proudly emphasized that he was from near Tambov. And his native Smolensk region seemed like an “orphan” to Tyorkin. That's why he wanted to become a hero. The general lets Tyorkin go home for a week. But the Germans still have his village... And the general advises him to wait for his vacation: “You and I are on the same path.” The battle in the swamp for the small village of Borki, of which nothing remains. Terkin encourages his comrades. Terkin is sent to rest for a week. This is “paradise” - a hut where you can eat four times a day and sleep as much as you like, on the bed, in the bed. At the end of the first day, Terkin begins to think... he catches a passing truck and goes to his home company. Under fire, the platoon goes to take the village. the “dapper” lieutenant leads everyone. They kill him. Then Terkin understands that “it’s his turn to lead.” The village has been taken. And Terkin himself is seriously wounded. Terkin lies in the snow. Death persuades him to submit to her. But Vasily does not agree. People from the funeral team find him and take him to the medical battalion. After the hospital, Tyorkin returns to his company, and there everything is different, the people are different. There... a new Terkin appeared. Only not Vasily, but Ivan. They are arguing who is the real Terkin? We are already ready to concede this honor to each other. But the foreman announces that each company “will be given its own Terkin.” The village where Terkin repaired the saw and the clock is under the Germans. The German took the watch from his grandfather and grandmother. The front line ran through the village. The old people had to move into the cellar. Our scouts come to them, among them is Terkin. He is already an officer. Terkin promises to bring a new watch from Berlin. With the advance, Terkin passes by his native Smolensk village. Others take it. There is a crossing across the Dnieper. Terkin says goodbye to his native side, which remains no longer in captivity, but in the rear. Vasily talks about an orphan soldier who came to his native village on leave, and there was nothing left there, the whole family died. The soldier needs to continue to fight. And we need to remember about him, about his grief. Don't forget about this when victory comes. The road to Berlin. The grandmother returns home from captivity. The soldiers give her a horse, a cart, things... “Tell her what Vasily Terkin supplied.” A bathhouse in the depths of Germany, in some German house. The soldiers are steaming. Among them is one - he has a lot of scars from wounds, he knows how to steam very well, he doesn’t mince his words, he dresses like a tunic with orders and medals. The soldiers say about him: “It’s the same as Terkin.”

“The history of creation and analysis of the poem “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky. Essay: The tragic truth of the Great Patriotic War in Tvardovsky’s poem Vasily Terkin Strength of spirit in the work of Vasily Terkin

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