Hot snow analysis of heroes. The story "Hot Snow

During the Great Patriotic War, the writer served as an artilleryman, went a long way from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. Among the books by Yuri Bondarev about the war, "Hot Snow" occupies a special place, in it the author resolves in a new way the moral issues posed in his first stories - "The battalions are asking for fire" and "The last volleys". These three books about war are a holistic and evolving world that reached the greatest completeness and imaginative power in Hot Snow.

The events of the novel unfold near Stalingrad, south of the blocked

Soviet troops of the 6th Army of General Paulus, in the cold December 1942, when one of our armies held back in the Volga steppe the strike of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein, who sought to break through the corridor to Paulus's army and withdraw it from the encirclement. The outcome of the battle on the Volga and, possibly, even the timing of the end of the war itself, largely depended on the success or failure of this operation. The action time is limited to only a few days, during which the heroes of the novel selflessly defend a tiny patch of land from German tanks.

In "Hot Snow" time is compressed even more densely than in the story

"The battalions are asking for fire." This is a short march of General Bessonov's army unloaded from the echelons and a battle that decided so much in the fate of the country; these are cold frosty dawns, two days and two endless December nights. Not knowing respite and lyrical digressions, as if the author's breath was caught from constant tension, the novel is distinguished by its directness, direct connection of the plot with the true events of the Great Patriotic War, with one of its decisive moments. The life and death of the heroes of the novel, their very fates are illuminated by the disturbing light of the true story, as a result of which everything takes on special weight and significance.

The events at Drozdovsky's battery absorb almost all of the reader's attention, the action is mainly concentrated around a small number of characters. Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and their comrades are part of the great army, they are the people. Heroes have his best spiritual and moral traits.

This image of a people who has embarked on a war appears before us in the richness and variety of characters, and at the same time in their integrity. It is not limited to the images of young lieutenants - commanders of artillery platoons, nor the colorful figures of soldiers - like the slightly cowardly Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, or the straightforward and rough riding Rubin; nor senior officers, such as the divisional commander, Colonel Deev, or the army commander, General Bessonov. Only all together, with all the difference in ranks and titles, they make up the image of the fighting people. The strength and novelty of the novel lies in the fact that this unity was achieved, as it were, by itself, captured without much effort by the author - living, moving life.

The death of heroes on the eve of victory, the criminal inevitability of death contains a high tragedy and evokes a protest against the cruelty of the war and the forces that unleashed it. The heroes of "Hot Snow" die - the medical instructor of the battery Zoya Elagina, the shy sled Sergunenkov, a member of the Military Council Vesnin, Kasymov and many others are dying ...

In the novel, death is a violation of the highest justice and harmony. Let us remember how Kuznetsov looks at the murdered Kasymov: “Now under Kasymov's head lay a shell box, and his youthful, beardless face, recently alive, dark, turned deathly white, thinned by the terrible beauty of death, looked with amazement with wet cherry half-open eyes at his chest , to the torn to shreds, excised quilted jacket, as if after death did not comprehend how it killed him and why he could not get up to the sight ”.

Kuznetsov feels even more acutely the irreversibility of the loss of the rideable Sergunenkov. After all, the reason for his death is fully disclosed here. Kuznetsov turned out to be a powerless witness of how Drozdovsky sent Sergunenkov to certain death, and he already knows that he will curse himself forever for what he saw, was present, but could not change anything.

In "Hot Snow" everything human in people, their characters are revealed precisely in the war, depending on it, under its fire, when, it seems, you can't even raise your head. The chronicle of the battle will not tell about its participants - the battle in Hot Snow?> Cannot be separated from the fate and characters of people.

The past of the characters in the novel is important. For some, it is almost cloudless, for others it is so difficult and dramatic that it does not remain behind, pushed aside by the war, but accompanies a person in the battle south-west of Stalingrad. The events of the past determined the military fate of Ukhanov: a gifted, full of energy officer who could command a battery, but he is only a sergeant. Ukhanov's cool, rebellious character also determines his life path. Chibisov's past troubles, which almost broke him (he spent several months in German captivity), responded with fear in him and determined much in his behavior. One way or another, the past of Zoya Elagina, and Kasymov, and Sergunenkov, and the unsociable Rubin, whose courage and loyalty to the soldier's duty, we will be able to appreciate only at the very end, slips in the novel.

The past of General Bessonov is especially important in the novel. The thought of his son, who was captured by Germany, complicates his actions both at Headquarters and at the front. And when a fascist leaflet informing that Bessonov's son was taken prisoner falls into the front's counterintelligence service, into the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Osin, it seems that a threat has arisen for the general's official position.

Probably the most important human feeling in the novel is the love that arises between Kuznetsov and Zoya. The war, its cruelty and blood, its timing, overturning the usual notions of time - it was she who contributed to such a rapid development of this love, when there is no time for reflection and analysis of your feelings. And it all begins with a quiet, incomprehensible jealousy of Kuznetsov for Drozdovsky. And soon - so little time passes - he is already bitterly mourning the deceased Zoya, and it is from here that the title of the novel is taken, as if emphasizing the most important thing for the author: when Kuznetsov wiped his face wet with tears, “the snow on the sleeve of the quilted jacket was hot from his tears.”

Deceived at first in Lieutenant Drozdovsky, then the best cadet, Zoya throughout the novel reveals to us as a moral person, wholehearted, ready for self-sacrifice, capable of feeling with all her heart the pain and suffering of many. She goes through many trials. But her kindness, her patience and sympathy are enough for everyone, she is truly a sister to the soldiers. The image of Zoe somehow imperceptibly filled the atmosphere of the book, its main events, its harsh, cruel reality with female affection and tenderness.

One of the most important conflicts in the novel is the conflict between Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky. A lot of space has been given to this, it is exposed very sharply and can be easily traced from beginning to end. At first, the tension, the roots of which are still in the prehistory of the novel; inconsistency of characters, manners, temperaments, even style of speech: it seems that it is difficult for the soft, thoughtful Kuznetsov to endure the abrupt, commanding, indisputable speech of Drozdovsky. The long hours of the battle, the senseless death of Sergunenkov, the fatal wound of Zoya, in which Drozdovsky is partly to blame - all this forms an abyss between the two young officers, their moral incompatibility.

In the finale, this abyss is indicated even more sharply: four surviving artillerymen consecrate the orders they have just received in a soldier's bowler hat, and the sip that each of them takes is, first of all, a sip of commemoration - it contains the bitterness and grief of loss. Drozdovsky also received the order, because for Bessonov, who awarded him, he is the surviving, wounded commander of a surviving battery, the general does not know about his guilt and, most likely, will never find out. This is also the reality of war. But it is not for nothing that the writer leaves Drozdovsky aside from those gathered at the soldier's bowler hat.

The ethical, philosophical thought of the novel, as well as its emotional tension, reaches its greatest height in the finale, when there is an unexpected rapprochement between Bessonov and Kuznetsov. This is a rapprochement without immediate proximity: Bessonov rewarded his officer on an equal basis with others and moved on. For him, Kuznetsov is just one of those who stood to death at the turn of the Myshkov River. Their closeness turns out to be more important: it is the closeness of thought, spirit, outlook on life. For example, shocked by the death of Vesnin, Bessonov blames himself for the fact that, because of his lack of communication and suspicion, he interfered with the friendship between them (“the way Vesnin wanted, and what they should be”). Or Kuznetsov, who could do nothing to help Chubarikov's calculation dying before his eyes, tormented by the piercing thought that all this “seemed to have to happen because he did not have time to get close to them, to understand everyone, to love ...”.

Divided by disproportionate responsibilities, Lieutenant Kuznetsov and the commander of the army, General Bessonov, are moving towards the same goal - not only military, but also spiritual. Unaware of each other's thoughts, they think about the same thing, looking for one truth. Both demandingly ask themselves about the purpose of life and about the correspondence of their actions and aspirations to it. They are separated by age and have in common, like a father with a son, and even like a brother with a brother, love for the Motherland and belonging to the people and to humanity in the highest sense of these words.

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Other works on this topic:

1. Yuri Bondarev's “hot snow”, which appeared in 1969, brought us back to the military events of the winter of 1942. For the first time we hear the name of a city on the Volga ...
2. During the Great Patriotic War, the writer as an artilleryman came a long way from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. Among the books by Yuri Bondarev about the war, "Hot Snow" takes ...

He has been in the army since August 1942, and was twice wounded in battles. Then - the artillery school and again the front. After taking part in the battle of Stalingrad, Yu. Bondarev reached the borders of Czechoslovakia in artillery battle formations. He began to publish after the war; in the forty-ninth year, the first story "On the Road" was published.
Having started to work in the literary field, Yu. Bondarev did not immediately take on the creation of books about the war. He seems to be waiting for what he saw and experienced at the front to “settle down”, “settle down”, to pass the test of time. The heroes of his stories, which compiled the collection "On the Big River" (1953), as well as the heroes of the first story"Youth of Commanders" (1956) - people who returned from the war, people who join peaceful professions or decide to devote themselves to military affairs. Working on these works, Yuri Bondarev masters the beginnings of writing, his pen is gaining more and more confidence. In the fifty-seventh year, the writer publishes the story "The battalions are asking for fire."

Soon the story "The Last Volleys" (1959) also appears.
It is they, these two short stories, that make the name of the writer Yuri Bondarev widely known. The heroes of these books - young gunners, peers of the author, captains Ermakov and Novikov, lieutenant Ovchinnikov, junior lieutenant Alekhin, medical instructors Shura and Lena, other soldiers and officers - were remembered and loved by the reader. The reader appreciated not only the author's ability to reliably depict dramatically acute combat episodes, the front-line life of artillerymen, but also his desire to penetrate into the inner world of his heroes, to show their experiences during a battle, when a person finds himself on the brink of life and death.
The novels "The battalions are asking for fire" and "The last volleys", - said Y. Bondarev later, - were born, I would say, from living people, from those whom I met in the war, with whom I walked along the roads of the Stalingrad steppes, Ukraine and Poland, pushing guns with his shoulder, pulling them out of the autumn mud, firing, standing on direct fire ...
In a state of a certain obsession, I wrote these stories, and all the time I had the feeling that I was bringing back to life those about whom no one knows anything and about which only I know, and only I must, must tell everything about them ”.

After these two stories, the writer departs from the topic of war for some time. He creates the novels "Silence" (1962), "Two" (1964), the story "Relatives" (1969), in the center of which are other problems. But all these years he has been nurturing the idea of ​​a new book, in which he wants to say about the unique tragic and heroic time more, on a larger scale and deeper than in his first military stories. The work on the new book - the novel Hot Snow - took almost five years. In the sixty-ninth year, on the eve of the twenty-fifth anniversary of our victory in the Great Patriotic War, the novel was published.
"Hot Snow" recreates a picture of the most intense battle that erupted in December 1942 south-west of Stalingrad, when the German command made a desperate attempt to save its troops surrounded in the Stalingrad region. The heroes of the novel are soldiers and officers of a new, newly formed army, urgently transferred to the battlefield in order to thwart this attempt of the Nazis at any cost.
At first, it was assumed that the newly formed army would join the forces of the Don Front and take part in the elimination of the encircled enemy divisions. This is precisely the task that Stalin set to the commander of the army, General Bessonov: “Bring your army into action without delay.

I wish you, Comrade Bessonov, as part of Rokossovsky's front, to successfully compress and destroy Paulus's grouping ... ”But at that moment, when Bessonov's army was just unloading north-west of Stalingrad, the Germans began their counteroffensive from the Kotelnikovo area, ensuring a significant advantage in the breakthrough sector in strength. At the suggestion of the representative of the Headquarters, a decision was made to take Bessonov's well-equipped army from the Don Front and immediately regroup to the south-west against Manstein's strike group.
In severe frost, without stopping, without halting, Bessonov's army marched from north to south with a forced march, so that, having overcome a distance of two hundred kilometers, before the Germans reached the line of the Myshkov River. This was the last natural line, beyond which a smooth, flat steppe opened up for German tanks right up to Stalingrad. The soldiers and officers of the Bessonov army are perplexed: why did Stalingrad remain behind them? Why are they not moving towards him, but away from him? The mood of the heroes of the novel is characterized by the following conversation taking place on the march between two commanders of fire platoons, Lieutenants Davlatyan and Kuznetsov:

“- You don't notice anything? - spoke Davlatyan, adjusting to the step of Kuznetsov. - First we walked west, and then turned south. Where are we going?
- To the front line.
- I myself know that on the front line, so, you know, I guessed it! - Davlatyan even snorted, but his long, plum eyes were attentive. - Stalin, the hail is behind now. Tell me, you fought ... Why didn't they announce our destination? Where can we come? It's a secret, no? Do you know anything? Really not to Stalingrad?
All the same to the front line, Goga, - replied Kuznetsov. - Only to the front line, and nowhere else ...
Is that an aphorism, right? Should I laugh? I know myself. But where could the front be here? We are going somewhere to the southwest. Do you want to see the compass?
I know it's southwest.
Listen, if we are not going to Stalingrad, this is awful. The Germans are being thrashed there, but are we somewhere to go to the devil for little kulichi? "

Neither Davlatyan, nor Kuznetsov, nor the sergeants and soldiers subordinate to them knew even at that moment what incredibly difficult combat trials awaited them ahead. Coming out at night to a given area, units of the Bessonov army on the move, without rest - every minute is a road - began to take up defenses on the northern bank of the river, began to bite into frozen ground, hard as iron. Now everyone knew for what purpose this was being done.
Both the forced march and the occupation of the line of defense - all this is written so expressively, so visibly that it seems that you yourself, being burned by the December steppe wind, are walking along the endless Stalingrad steppe together with a platoon of Kuznetsov or Davlatyan, grabbing spiky snow with dry, chapped lips and it seems to you that if in half an hour, in fifteen, ten minutes there is no rest, you will collapse on this snow-covered land and you will no longer have the strength to get up; as if you yourself, all wet with sweat, hammer deeply frozen, ringing ground with a pickaxe, equipping the firing positions of the battery, and, stopping for a second to take a breath, listen to the oppressive, frightening silence there, in the south, from where the enemy should appear ... But the picture of the battle itself is especially strong in the novel.
Only a direct participant, who was at the forefront, could write a battle like this. And so, in all exciting details, only a talented writer could capture it in his memory, with such artistic power to convey the atmosphere of the battle to the readers. In the book "A Look into Biography" Y. Bondarev writes:
“I well remember the frantic bombings, when the sky was black and connected to the ground, and those sand-colored herds of tanks in the snowy steppe, crawling onto our batteries. I remember the red-hot barrels of guns, the continuous thunder of shots, the grinding, clanking of caterpillars, the open jackets of soldiers, the loader's hands flashing with shells, the black and white sweat on the gunners' faces, black and white tornadoes of explosions, swaying barrels of German self-propelled guns, crossed tracks in the steppe, hot the fires of burnt tanks, the smoky oil smoke that covered the dim, like a narrowed patch of frosty sun.

In several places, Manstein's shock army - the tanks of Colonel General Goth - broke through our defenses, approached the encircled group of Paulus sixty kilometers, and the German tank crews already saw a crimson glow over Stalingrad. Manstein radioed Paulus: “We will come! Hold on! Victory is near! "

But they didn't come. We rolled our guns in front of the infantry for direct fire in front of the tanks. The iron roar of motors burst into our ears. We fired almost point-blank, seeing the round jaws of tank barrels so close that they seemed to be aimed at our pupils. Everything was burning, torn, sparkling in the snowy steppe. We were suffocating from the black oil smoke creeping over the guns, from the poisonous smell of burnt armor. In the second intervals between shots, they grabbed handfuls of blackened snow on the parapet, swallowed it to quench their thirst. It burned us just like joy and hatred, like the obsession of battle, for we already felt that the time for retreats was over. "

What is condensed here, compressed into three paragraphs, occupies the central place in the novel, constitutes its counterpoint. The tank-artillery battle lasts a whole day. We see its growing tension, its ups and downs, its moments of crisis. We see through the eyes of the commander of the fire platoon, Lieutenant Kuznetsov, who knows that his task is to destroy the German tanks that climb onto the line occupied by the battery, and through the eyes of the commander of the army, General Bessonov, who controls the actions of tens of thousands of people in battle and is responsible for the outcome of the entire battle to the commander and the Military Council of the front, in front of the Headquarters, in front of the party and the people.
A few minutes before the bombing strike by German aviation on our front line, a general who visited the gunners' firing positions addresses the battery commander Drozdovsky: “Well ... Everyone, take cover, Lieutenant. As they say, survive the bombing! And then - the most important thing: tanks will go ... Not a step back! And knock out the tanks. To stand - and forget about death! Don't think abouther under no circumstances! " Giving such an order, Bessonov understood what a dear price would be paid for its implementation, but he knew that "everything in war must be paid in blood - for failure and for success, because there is no other payment, nothing can replace it."
And the artillerymen in this stubborn, heavy, day-long battle did not take a step back. They continued to fight even when only one gun survived from the entire battery, when only four people remained in the ranks of Lieutenant Kuznetsov's platoon.
Hot Snow is primarily a psychological novel. Even in the stories "The battalions are asking for fire" and "The last volleys" the description of battle scenes was not the main and only goal for Yu. Bondarev. He was interested in the psychology of Soviet people in the war, attracted by what people experience, feel, think at the moment of battle, when at any second your life can end. In the novel, this desire to portray the inner world of the heroes, to study the psychological, moral motives of their behavior in exceptional circumstances that developed at the front, has become even more tangible, even more fruitful.
The characters of the novel are both Lieutenant Kuznetsov, in whose image the features of the author's biography are guessed, and the Komsomol organizer Lieutenant Davlatyan, who was mortally wounded in this battle, and the battery commander Lieutenant Drozdovsky, and the medical instructor Zoya Elagina, and the commanders of the guns, loaders, gunners, riders, and the commander divisions, Colonel Deev, and the commander of the army, General Bessonov, and a member of the Military Council of the army, divisional commissar Vesnin - all these are truly living people, differing from each other not only in military ranks or positions, not only in age and appearance. Each of them has his own spiritual salary, his own character, his own moral principles, his own memories of the seemingly now infinitely distant pre-war life. They react differently to what is happening, behave differently in the same situations. Some of them, captured by the thrill of battle, really stop thinking about death, others, like the castle Chibisov, the fear of her fetters and bends to the ground ...

People's relations with each other develop in different ways at the front. After all, war is not only battles, it is preparation for them, and moments of calm between battles; it is also a special, front-line life. The novel shows the complex relationship between Lieutenant Kuznetsov and the battery commander Drozdovsky, to whom Kuznetsov is obliged to obey, but whose actions do not always seem correct to him. They recognized each other even in the artillery school, and even then Kuznetsov noticed the excessive self-confidence, arrogance, selfishness, some kind of mental callousness of his future battery commander.
It is no coincidence that the author delves into the study of the relationship between Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky. This is essential for the ideological concept of the novel. We are talking about different views on the value of the human person. Self-love, mental callousness, indifference at the front - and this is impressively shown in the novel - with unnecessary losses.
Zoya Elagina, the medical officer of the battery, is the only female character in the novel. Yuri Bondarev subtly shows how, by her very presence, this girl softens the harsh front-line life, ennobles coarse male souls, evoking tender memories of mothers, wives, sisters, loved ones with whom the war separated them. In her white sheepskin coat, in neat white felt boots, in white embroidered mittens, Zoya looks like "not a military man at all, all of this is festively clean, wintery, as if from another, calm, distant world ..."

The war did not spare Zoya Elagina. Her body, covered with a cloak-tent, is brought to the firing positions of the battery, and the surviving artillerymen silently look at her, as if expecting that she will be able to throw back the cloak-tent, answer them with a smile, a movement, a gentle melodious voice familiar to the entire battery: “ Boys, dear ones, why are you looking at me like that? I am alive..."
In Hot Snow, Yuri Bondarev creates a new image of a large-scale military leader for him. Army Commander Pyotr Aleksandrovich Bessonov is a career soldier, a man endowed with a clear, sober mind, far from any kind of hasty decisions and baseless illusions. In commanding troops on the battlefield, he displays enviable restraint, wise discretion and the necessary firmness, decisiveness and courage.

Perhaps only he alone knows how incredibly difficult it is for him. It is difficult not only from the consciousness of the enormous responsibility for the fate of the people entrusted to his command. It is also difficult because, like a bleeding wound, the fate of his son constantly worries him. A graduate of a military school, Lieutenant Viktor Bessonov was sent to the Volkhov front, was surrounded, and his surname does not appear on the lists of those who left the encirclement. It is not excluded, therefore, the worst thing - enemy captivity ...
Possessing a complex character, outwardly sullen, withdrawn, difficult to converge with people, excessively, perhaps, official in communicating with them even in rare moments of rest, General Bessonov is at the same time internally surprisingly human. This is most clearly shown by the author in the episode when the commander, ordering the adjutant to take the awards with him, departs in the morning after the battle to the position of the artillerymen. We well remember this exciting episode both from the novel and from the final shots of the movie of the same name.
“... Bessonov, at every step bumping into what was yesterday a battery of a full complement, walked along the firing ones - past the breastworks cut off and cleanly swept away like steel braids, past the shattered guns, earthen heaps, and black cracked mouths of craters ...

He stopped. It struck him: four gunners, in utterly frosty, smoky, crumpled greatcoats, stretched out in front of him near the last gun of the battery. The fire, dying out, smoldered right on the gun position ...
On the faces of the four there are pockmarks of burning in the weathered skin, dark, frozen sweat, an unhealthy shine in the bones of the pupils; powder coating on the sleeves, on the caps. The one who at the sight of Bessonov quietly gave the command: "Attention!"
Interrupting the report with a gesture of his hand, recognizing him, this gloomy gray-eyed, with parched lips, a lieutenant's nose sharpened on his emaciated face, with torn off buttons on his greatcoat, in brown spots of shell grease on the floors, with flowing enamel of cubes in buttonholes covered with mica frost said:
I don't need a report ... I understand everything ... I remember the name of the battery commander, but I forgot yours ...
The commander of the first platoon, Lieutenant Kuznetsov ...
So your battery knocked out these tanks?
Yes, comrade general. Today we fired at the tanks, but we had only seven shells left ... The tanks were shot down yesterday ...
His voice, in the usual manner, was still trying to gain a dispassionate and even strength; in his tone, in his gaze, a gloomy, not boyish seriousness, without a shadow of shyness in front of the general, as if this boy, the platoon commander, at the cost of his life had gone over something, and now this understood something stood dry in his eyes, frozen, not spilling.

And with a prickly spasm in his throat from this voice, the look of the lieutenant, from this seemingly repeated, similar expression on the three rough, bluish-red faces of the gunners who stood between the beds, behind their platoon commander, Bessonov wanted to ask if the battery commander was alive, where he was. Who of them endured the scout and the German, but did not ask, could not ... The burning wind furiously pounced on the fire, bending the collar, the hem of the sheepskin coat, squeezing tears out of his sore eyelids, and Bessonov, without wiping these grateful and bitter burning tears, no longer embarrassed by the attention of the commanders who had died down around him, he leaned heavily on his wand ...

And then, presenting to all four the Order of the Red Banner on behalf of the supreme power, which gave him the great and dangerous right to command and decide the fate of tens of thousands of people, he forcefully uttered:
- All that I personally can ... All that I can ... Thanks for the destroyed tanks. This was the main thing - to knock out the tanks from them. That was the main thing ...
And, putting on a glove, he quickly walked along the route of the message towards the bridge ... "

So, Hot Snow is another book about the Battle of Stalingrad, added to those that have already been created about it in our literature. But Yuri Bondarev managed to say about the great battle that turned the whole course of the Second World War, in his own way, fresh and impressive. By the way, this is another convincing example of how inexhaustible the theme of the Great Patriotic War is for our artists of the word.

It is interesting to read:
1. Bondarev, Yuri Vasilievich. Silence; Choice: novels / Yu.V. Bondarev. - M.: Izvestia, 1983. - 736 p.
2. Bondarev, Yuri Vasilievich. Collected works in 8 volumes / Yu.V. Bondarev .- M.: Voice: Russian Archive, 1993.
3. Vol. 2: Hot snow: novel, stories, article. - 400 p.

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Belongs to the glorious galaxy of front-line soldiers who, having survived the war, reflected its essence in bright and complete novels. The authors took the images of their heroes from real life. And the events that we in peacetime perceive calmly from the pages of books took place for them with their own eyes. The summary of "Hot Snow", for example, is the horror of the bombing, and the whistle of stray bullets, and frontal tank and infantry attacks. Even now, reading about this, an ordinary peaceful person plunges into the abyss of gloomy and formidable events of that time.

Front-line writer

Bondarev is one of the recognized masters of this genre. When you read the works of such authors, you are inevitably amazed at the realism of the lines reflecting various aspects of the difficult military life. After all, he himself went through a difficult front path, starting at Stalingrad and ending in Czechoslovakia. That's why the novels make such a strong impression. They amaze with the brightness and truthfulness of the plot.

One of the vivid, emotional works that Bondarev created, "Hot Snow", just tells about such simple but immutable truths. The very title of the story speaks volumes. There is no hot snow in nature; it melts under the sun's rays. However, in the work he is hot from spilled blood in heavy battles, from the number of bullets and shrapnel that fly at brave fighters, from the intolerable hatred of Soviet soldiers of any rank (from private to marshal) to the German invaders. This is such a stunning image created by Bondarev.

War is not only a fight

The story "Hot Snow" (the summary, of course, does not convey all the liveliness of the style and tragedy of the plot) provides some answers to the moral and psychological literary lines begun in the author's earlier works, such as "Battalions Ask for Fire" and "Last Volleys".

Like no one else, telling the cruel truth about that war, Bondarev does not forget about the manifestation of ordinary human feelings and emotions. "Hot snow" (the analysis of his images surprises with the lack of categoricality) is just an example of such a combination of black and white. Despite the tragedy of the military events, Bondarev makes it clear to the reader that even in war there are quite peaceful feelings of love, friendship, elementary human hostility, stupidity and betrayal.

Fierce battles at Stalingrad

It is rather difficult to retell the summary of Hot Snow. The story takes place near Stalingrad, the city where the Red Army in fierce battles finally broke the back of the German Wehrmacht. A little to the south of the blocked 6th Army of Paulus, the Soviet command creates a powerful line of defense. The artillery barrier and the infantry attached to it must stop another "strategist", Manstein, who is rushing to the rescue of Paulus.

As is known from history, it was Paulus who was the creator and inspirer of the infamous Barbarossa plan. And for quite understandable reasons, Hitler could not allow the whole army, moreover, led by one of the best theorists of the German General Staff, to be surrounded. Therefore, the enemy spared no effort and resources in order to break through for the 6th Army an operational passage from the encirclement created by the Soviet troops.

Bondarev wrote about these events. "Hot Snow" tells about the battles on a tiny patch of land, which, according to Soviet intelligence, has become "tank dangerous". A battle must take place here, which, possibly, will decide the outcome of the battle on the Volga.

Lieutenants Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov

The task of blocking enemy tank columns is given to the army under the command of Lieutenant General Bessonov. It is in its composition that the artillery unit described in the story, commanded by Lieutenant Drozdovsky, is included. Even a brief summary of Hot Snow cannot be left without describing the image of a young commander who has just received an officer's rank. It should be mentioned that even at the school Drozdovsky was in good standing. Disciplines were given easily, and his position and natural military bearing amused the eyes of any combat commander.

The school was located in Aktyubinsk, from where Drozdovsky went straight to the front. Together with him, another graduate of the Aktobe Artillery School, Lieutenant Kuznetsov, was assigned to one unit. By coincidence, Kuznetsov was given command of a platoon of the very battery commanded by Lieutenant Drozdovsky. Surprised by the vicissitudes of military fate, Lieutenant Kuznetsov reasoned philosophically - his career is just beginning, and this is far from his last appointment. It would seem, what kind of career when there is a war around? But even such thoughts were visited by people who became prototypes of the heroes of the story "Hot Snow".

The summary should be supplemented by the fact that Drozdovsky immediately dotted the "i" s: he was not going to remember the cadet time, where both lieutenants were equal. Here he is the battery commander, and Kuznetsov is his subordinate. At first, reacted calmly to such vital metamorphoses, Kuznetsov begins to murmur quietly. He does not like some of Drozdovsky's orders, but it is known that it is forbidden to discuss orders in the army, and therefore the young officer has to come to terms with the current state of affairs. Part of this irritation was facilitated by the obvious attention to the commander of the medical instructor Zoya, who, deep down, liked Kuznetsov himself.

A motley team

Concentrating on the problems of his platoon, the young officer completely dissolves into them, studying the people he was to command. The people in Kuznetsov's platoon were controversial. What images did Bondarev describe? "Hot Snow", a summary of which will not convey all the subtleties, describes in detail the stories of the fighters.

For example, Sergeant Ukhanov also studied at the Aktobe artillery school, but due to a stupid misunderstanding he did not receive an officer's rank. Upon arrival at the unit, Drozdovsky began to look down on him, considering him unworthy of the title of a Soviet commander. Lieutenant Kuznetsov, on the other hand, perceived Ukhanov as an equal, maybe because of petty revenge on Drozdovsky, or maybe because Ukhanov was really a good artilleryman.

Another subordinate of Kuznetsov, Private Chibisov, already had rather sad combat experience. The unit where he served was surrounded, and the private himself was taken prisoner. And with his irrepressible optimism, gunner Nechaev, a former sailor from Vladivostok, amused everyone.

Tank strike

While the battery was advancing to the designated line, and its fighters got to know each other and rubbed themselves together, strategically, the situation at the front changed dramatically. This is how events unfold in the story Hot Snow. A summary of Manstein's operation to liberate the 6th Army, which was trapped in an encirclement, can be conveyed as follows: a concentrated tank strike back to back between two Soviet armies. The fascist command entrusted this task to the master of tank breakthroughs. The operation had a loud name - "Winter Thunderstorm".

The blow was unexpected and therefore quite successful. The tanks entered end-to-end between the two armies and plunged 15 km into the Soviet defensive lines. General Bessonov receives a direct order to localize the breakthrough in order to prevent tanks from entering the operational space. For this, Bessonov's army is reinforced with a tank corps, making it clear to the army commander that this is the last reserve of the Headquarters.

The Last Frontier

The line to which Drozdovsky's battery advanced was the last one. It is here that the main events about which the work "Hot Snow" is written will take place. Arriving at the scene, the lieutenant is ordered to dig in and prepare to repel a possible tank attack.

The commander understands that Drozdovsky's reinforced battery is doomed. The more optimistic divisional commissar Vesnin disagrees with the general. He believes that thanks to their high fighting spirit, Soviet soldiers will withstand. A dispute arises between the officers, as a result of which Vesnin goes to the front line to cheer up the soldiers preparing for battle. The old general does not really trust Vesnin, considering in the depths of his soul his presence at the command post is superfluous. But he has no time to conduct a psychological analysis.

"Hot snow" continues with the fact that the battle on the battery began with a massive raid of bombers. The first time hit by bombs, most of the soldiers are afraid, including Lieutenant Kuznetsov. However, pulling himself together, he realizes that this is only a prelude. Very soon, he and Lieutenant Drozdovsky will have to apply all the knowledge that they were given at the school in practice.

Heroic Efforts

Self-propelled guns soon appeared. Kuznetsov, together with his platoon, bravely accepts the battle. He is afraid of death, but at the same time he is disgusted with it. Even a brief summary of "Hot Snow" allows you to understand the tragedy of the situation. The tank destroyers sent round after round at their enemies. However, the forces were not equal. After some time, only one serviceable gun and a handful of fighters remained from the entire battery, including both officers and Ukhanov.

The number of shells became less and less, and the fighters began to use bundles of anti-tank grenades. When trying to undermine a German self-propelled gun, young Sergunenkov dies, following Drozdovsky's order. Kuznetsov, in the heat of battle, throwing away the chain of command, accuses him of the senseless death of a soldier. Drozdovsky himself takes a grenade, trying to prove that he is not a coward. However, Kuznetsov is holding him back.

And even in battle conflicts

What does Bondarev write about next? "Hot snow", a summary of which we present in the article, continues with the breakthrough of German tanks through the battery of Drozdovsky. Bessonov, seeing the desperate situation of the entire division of Colonel Deev, is in no hurry to bring his tank reserve into battle. He does not know if the Germans used their reserves.

And the battle was still going on on the battery. Medical instructor Zoya dies senselessly. This makes a very strong impression on Lieutenant Kuznetsov, and he again accuses Drozdovsky of the stupidity of his orders. And the surviving soldiers are trying to get hold of ammunition on the battlefield. The lieutenants, taking advantage of the relative calm, organize assistance to the wounded and prepare for new battles.

Tank reserve

Just at this moment, the long-awaited reconnaissance returns, which confirms that the Germans have introduced all the reserves into the battle. The soldier is sent to the observation post of General Bessonov. The commander, having received this information, orders to bring into battle his last reserve - the tank corps. To speed up his exit, he directs Deev to meet the unit, but he, having run into the German infantry, dies with a weapon in his hands.

It was a complete surprise for Gotha, as a result of which the breakthrough of the German forces was localized. Moreover, Bessonov is ordered to build on his success. The strategic plan was a success. The Germans pulled all the reserves to the site of Operation Winter Thunderstorm and lost them.

Hero rewards

Observing a tank attack from his NP, Bessonov notices with surprise a single gun, which is also firing at German tanks. The general is shocked. Not believing his eyes, he takes out all the awards from the safe and, together with the adjutant, goes to the position of the defeated Drozdovsky battery. Hot Snow is a novel about the unconditional masculinity and heroism of people. That, regardless of their regalia and ranks, a person must fulfill his duty, not caring about awards, especially since they themselves find heroes.

Bessonov is amazed at the resilience of a handful of people. Their faces were smoked and burned. No insignia are visible. The commander silently took the Order of the Red Banner and distributed it to all the survivors. Kuznetsov, Drozdovsky, Chibisov, Ukhanov and an unknown infantryman received high awards.

The image of Kuznetsov

in the novel "Hot Snow" by Yu.Bondarev

Performed
11B grade student
Kozhasova Indira

Almaty, 2003

Yuri Bondarev's novel "Hot Snow" is interesting in the sense that it presents various "environments" of the army: headquarters, headquarters, soldiers and officers in a firing position. The work contains a wide spatial plan and a very short artistic time. One day of the hardest battle waged by Drozdovsky's battery became the epicenter of the novel.

And the commander of the army, General Bessonov, and a member of the military council Vesnin, and the commander of the division, Colonel Deyev, and the platoon commander Kuznetsov, and sergeants, and soldiers Ukhanov, Rybin, Nechaev, and the medical instructor Zoya are united by the implementation of the most important task: not to let the Nazi troops go to Stalingrad to help surrounded by Paulus's army.

Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov graduated from the same military school, at the same time. They fought together, both received orders from Bessonov's hands. However, in his human nature, Kuznetsov is much higher than Drozdovsky. He is somehow more sincere, he trusts people more. Kuznetsov, even when he is forced to order firmly and categorically, remains a Man at critical moments of the battle. In him, at the age of eighteen, that paternal principle is already showing through, which forms a real commander. With all his thoughts, he follows his comrades in arms. Forgetting himself, in battle he loses the feeling of heightened danger and fear of tanks, of injury and death. For Drozdovsky, war is a path to heroism or heroic death. His desire not to forgive anything has nothing to do with the wise exactingness and forced ruthlessness of General Bessonov. Speaking about his readiness to die, but not to retreat in the upcoming battle, Drozdovsky did not lie, did not pretend, but said this with a little excessive pathos! He is not hindered by a formal callous attitude towards home and comrades. Drozdovsky's moral inferiority is especially impressively revealed in the scene of the death of a young soldier Sergunenkov. No matter how Kuznetsov tried to convince Drozdovsky that his order to crawl a hundred meters across an open field and blow up a self-propelled gun with a grenade is cruel and senseless, he failed. Drozdovky to the end uses his right to send people to death. Sergunenkov has no choice but to carry out this impracticable order and die. Having violated the military command, Kuznetsov sharply throws in the face of Drozdovsky: “There, in a niche, another grenade, do you hear? The last one. If I were you, I would take a grenade to the self-propelled gun. Sergunenkov couldn't, can you ?! " Drozdovsky could not stand the test of power, did not realize that the right given to him presupposes a deep understanding of his sacred responsibility for the life of the people entrusted to him.

According to Lieutenant General Bessonov, life in war is "every day, every minute ... overcoming oneself." All the hardships and hardships of that time, the Russian soldier overcame himself, sometimes without thinking about his own life. Here are the thoughts of Lieutenant Kuznetsov in Yuri Bondarev's novel Hot Snow:

“This is a disgusting impotence ... We need to shoot panoramas! Am I afraid to die? Why am I afraid to die? A splinter in the head ... Am I afraid of a splinter in the head? No, I’ll jump out of the trench now. ”

Every Soviet soldier overcame the fear of his own death. Lieutenant Kuznetsov called it impotence. Contempt for this fear during the battle of the Russian soldier suppressed him. Perhaps this is a feature of the Slavic soul. But it is precisely overcoming oneself that is the hardest test in a war. Neither enemy columns of tanks, nor the hum of bombers, nor the voice of the German infantry - nothing is so scary in war as your own fear of death. The Russian soldier overcame this feeling.

“I'm going crazy,” thought Kuznetsov, feeling this hatred of his possible death, this fusion with a weapon, this fever of rage, similar to a challenge, and only from the edge of his consciousness understanding what he was doing. “Bastards! Bastards! I hate! " - he shouted over the roar of the gun

At these moments, he believed only in the accuracy of the crosshair, feeling the sides of the tanks, in his destructive hatred, which he felt again, clinging to the gun.

Hatred of death, rabies fever, fusion with a weapon - this is the state of Lieutenant Kuznetsov after overcoming his fear. He appears to us as a "machine", almost insane, but capable of fighting and solving command tasks. Was this not what Lieutenant General Bessonov demanded? Yes ... This is the state of the Russian soldier in which he can accomplish the impossible, contrary to all military logic and common sense.

War is a very difficult and cruel time for every person. Russian generals had to sacrifice not only themselves, but also other lives. Each military leader was responsible for his actions, since the existence of entire nations depended on this. Very often the commanders of the armies gave harsh orders. Here is the order of Lieutenant General Bessonov:

"For all, without exception, there can be one objective reason for leaving positions - death."

Only at the cost of their own lives could Russian soldiers save Russia. This is a very high price to pay for a victory! After all, the exact death toll is still not known. Soviet people displayed mass heroism in the name of victory, freedom and independence of their Motherland.

In the book Yuri Bondarev"Hot snow" describes two actions. The two characters in the novel find themselves in similar situations and act differently. Every minute a person is tested for strength and humanity. One remains a human being, and the second does not stand up and goes into another state in which he can send a subordinate to a deliberate and unjustified death.

Hot Snow is the fourth novel by Yuri Bondarev. Written in 1970. The events of the Great Patriotic War take place in 1942. The scene of action is the territory near Stalingrad.
The novel takes place literally for two days, although in the book the heroes, as is always the case with Bondarev, often turn to the past, and the narrative is interspersed with scenes from a peaceful life (General Bessonov, Lieutenant Kuznetsov), from the hospital (Bessonov), memories of school and a military school (Kuznetsov) and about a meeting with Stalin (Bessonov).

I will not present the plot of the novel, which anyone can read and get an idea of ​​what Soviet soldiers experienced in resisting fascism.

I will dwell on two points that seemed important to me after the event that happened to me - my acquaintance with the film "Ascent" Larisa Shepitko... In the film, two Soviet soldiers face a terrible choice: betray and live, or remain faithful to their Motherland and die a painful death.

In Bondarev's situation, it seems to me, is even more complicated, because there is no betrayal. But there is a lack of something human in the personality of Lieutenant Drozdovsky, without which even the desire to destroy fascism loses its meaning. That is, in my opinion, it loses for this very person. It is characteristic that the central figure of the novel, General Bessonov, sensing in Drozdovsky this absence of an important human component (perhaps the ability to love), says with surprise: “Why die? Instead of the word "die" it is better to use the word "stand." You shouldn't prepare yourself so strongly for sacrifice, Lieutenant. "

It is difficult to analyze the actions of Bondarev's heroes, but I will cite several convex fragments to indicate the thought that seemed important to me.

Lieutenant Drozdovsky's act

The antagonist of the novel, battalion commander, Lieutenant Vladimir Drozdovsky, during the course of the battle, decided to send a subordinate, the sled Sergunenkov, to death.

They [Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky] ran into the firing room, both fell to their knees at the gun with the knurled knuckle and the shield, with the breech opening ugly backward, with the black mouth open, and Kuznetsov uttered in a fit of uncooling anger:

- Now look! How to shoot? Do you see the knurler? And the self-propelled gun hits because of the tanks! All clear?
…
Kuznetsov answered and saw Drozdovsky as if through cold thick glass, with a feeling of impossibility to overcome it.

- If not for the self-propelled gun ... She hid in the smoke behind the destroyed tanks. He hits Ukhanov from the flank ... We need to go to Ukhanov, he can't see her well! We have nothing to do here!

A German self-propelled gun hidden by a tank fired at the remnants of the battalion. Drozdovsky decided that it needed to be blown up.
Drozdovsky, sitting under the parapet, circled the battlefield with narrowed, hurrying eyes, his whole face instantly narrowed, got close, asked intermittently:

- Where are the grenades? Where are the anti-tank grenades? Three grenades were issued for each gun! Where are they, Kuznetsov?
- Why the hell are grenades now! The self-propelled gun is a hundred and fifty meters away - can you get it? Can't you see the machine gun too?
- What did you think, so we will wait? Quickly grenades over here! Here they are! .. There are machine guns everywhere in war, Kuznetsov! ..

On the bloodless face of Drozdovsky, disfigured by convulsive impatience, an expression of action, readiness for anything appeared, and his voice became piercingly ringing:

- Sergunenkov, grenades here!
- Here they are in the niche. Comrade Lieutenant ...
- Grenades here! ..

At the same time, the determination to act, indicated on the face of Drozdovsky, turned out to be the determination to destroy the self-propelled gun with the hands of a subordinate.

- Well! .. Sergunenkov! You do it! Or chest in crosses, or ... Do you understand me, Sergunenkov? ..
Sergunenkov, raising his head, looked at Drozdovsky with an unblinking, fixed gaze, then asked in disbelief:
- How do I ... Comrade Lieutenant? Standing behind the tanks. Should I ... go there? ..
- Crawling forward - and two grenades under the tracks! Destroy the self-propelled gun! Two grenades - and the end of the reptile! ..

Drozdovsky said this incontestably; with trembling hands, he unexpectedly, with a sharp movement, lifted the grenades from the ground, handed them to Sergunenkov, who mechanically put his palms up and, taking the grenades, almost dropped them like red-hot irons.

- She is behind the tanks, Comrade Lieutenant ... She is far away ...
- Take the grenades! .. Do not hesitate!
- I got it ...

It was obvious that Sergunenov would die.

- Listen, battalion commander! - Kuznetsov could not resist. - Don't you see? It is necessary to crawl one hundred meters along the open! Don't you understand? ..
- And you thought how ?! - said Drozdovsky in the same ringing voice and banged his fist on his knee. - Shall we sit? Hands folded! .. And they crush us? - And turned abruptly and imperiously to Sergunenkov: - Is the task clear? Crawling and dashing to the self-propelled gun! Forward! - Drozdovsky's team hit with a shot. - Forward!..

Kuznetsov understood that Sergunenkov's death was not only inevitable, but also meaningless.

What was happening now seemed to Kuznetsov not only a hopeless despair, but a monstrous, absurd, hopeless step, and Sergunenkov should have made it on this order "forward", which, by virtue of the iron laws that came into effect during the battle, no one - Neither Sergunenkov nor Kuznetsov had the right not to execute or cancel, and for some reason he suddenly thought: "Now, if only a whole weapon and only one shell - and nothing would have happened, yes, nothing would have happened."

Riding Sergunenkov took the grenades, crawled with them to the self-propelled gun and was shot at point-blank range. He could not undermine the fascist equipment.

Kuznetsov did not know what he would do now, not quite believing it, but seeing this monstrously naked death of Sergunenkov near the self-propelled gun. Gasping for breath, he looked at Drozdovsky, at his painfully twisted mouth, barely squeezing out: "I couldn't stand it, I couldn't, why did he get up? .." :

- Couldn't? So you can do it, battalion commander? There's another grenade in the niche, do you hear? The last one. If I were you, I would take a grenade - and a self-propelled gun. Sergunenkov couldn't, you can! Do you hear? ..

"He sent Sergunenkov, having the right to give orders ... And I was a witness - and for the rest of my life I will curse myself for this! .."- flashed vaguely and distantly in the head of Kuznetsov, not fully aware of what he was saying; he no longer understood the measure of the rationality of his actions.

- What? What you said? - Drozdovsky grabbed the gun shield with one hand, with the other on the edge of the trench and began to rise, throwing up his white, bloodless face with swelling thin nostrils. - Did I want him dead? - Drozdovsky's voice broke into a screech, and tears sounded in him. - Why did he get up? .. Did you see how he got up? ..

Shortly before Drozdovsky's act, Kuznetsov turned out to be in a situation where it was possible to send a subordinate under fire.

He knew that he needed to get up immediately, look at the guns, do something now, but the heavy body was squeezed, squeezed into the trench, it hurt in his chest, in his ears, and the diving howl, hot blows of air with a whistle of fragments pressed him more and more against the shaky bottom of the ditch.
…
- Panoramas, Ukhanov! Do you hear, sights! - ignoring Chibisov, Kuznetsov shouted and instantly thought that he wanted and could order Ukhanov - he had the right to do so - to shoot panoramas, that is, by the power of the platoon commander to force him to jump out now under the bombardment to the guns from the saving earth, remaining in the ditch himself, but could not order it.

But he felt that he had no moral right to do so. He took the greatest risk, and sent the subordinate to the gun, located closer to the trench, in which both were hiding. Kuznetsov chose a different solution for himself than Drozdovsky.

"I have and I have no right, - flashed in Kuznetsov's head. - Then I will never forgive myself ...".
…
- Ukhanov! .. Listen ... We need to remove the sights! Will rip the hell out! Unclear when it will end?
- I think it myself, Lieutenant! We'll be left naked without sights! ..
Ukhanov, sitting in the trench, pulling up his legs, hit his cap with a mitten, pushing it more tightly over his forehead, put his hand on the bottom of the ditch to get up, but Kuznetsov stopped him immediately:
- Stop! Wait! As soon as they bombed in a circle, jump out to the guns. You - to the first, I - to the second! Let's take off the sights! .. You - to the first, I - to the second! Is that clear, Ukhanov? At my command, okay? - And, forcibly holding back a cough, he also pulled up his legs to make it easier to get up.

- We must now, Lieutenant. - Ukhanov's bright eyes from under the hat pulled down on his forehead looked, squinting, at the sky. - Now...

Kuznetsov, looking out of the ditch, saw all this, hearing the even sound of the engines of the Junkers who were again entering the smoke for the bombing, commanded:

- Ukhanov! .. We'll have time! Come on! .. You - to the first, I - to the second ...

And with unsteady weightlessness in his whole body he jumped out of the ditch, jumped over the parapet of the firing position of the first gun, ran across the black snow from the burning, on the ground radially sprayed from the craters to the second gun.

Soviet soldiers are described differently in Hot Snow. The book reveals the characters of several people, most of whom died after performing a feat. Kuznetsov remained alive, and could not forgive himself for not stopping Drozdovsky, who sent Sergunenkov to blow up the self-propelled gun with a grenade. When he started talking about the dead driver, he finally realized that this death would forever remain in his memory as something unfair, cruel, and this despite the fact that he blew up two tanks, was wounded, and lost a loved one (medical instructor Zoya) , almost the entire battalion.

- When we walked here, Rubin told me one terrible phrase: "Sergunenkov and in the next world will not forgive anyone for his death." What it is?

- Anyone? - asked Kuznetsov and, turning away, felt the icy iceiness of the collar, as if it had scratched his cheek with wet emery. - But why did he tell you this?

"Yes, and I am guilty, and I will not forgive myself for this," arose Kuznetsov. "If I had the will then to stop him ... But what will I tell her about the death of Sergunenkov? how it was. But why do I remember this when two-thirds of the battery died? No, I can't forget for some reason! .. "

Bondarev himself wrote about his book Hot Snow.