1. "Trench Truth" V. Kondratyev.
2. The captured German and Sashka.
3. A real feat of philanthropy.

Do not execute the order! Who? The unit commander himself ...
V. L. Kondratyev "Sashka"

War! What did she do to people? She destroyed families, left women mournful widows, and children orphans, in whose serious adult eyes the glare of machine gun fires from which their fathers died are reflected ... Here is one of the tragedies of the war: a man killed a man, no matter what his nationality ... Invader and defender, winner and loser - they are all human. It is strange, probably, knowing what the fascists were doing on our land, to talk about the equality of Soviet and German soldiers. The former went to their deaths for their Motherland, while the latter ended up in Russia for various reasons, but the majority was due to the fact that they took the oath or "were fooled and deceived."

Previously, only such works were published where the German aggressors were all the same. But such writers as Vyacheslav Kondratyev appeared with his "trench truth". They themselves went through the war, and it is these former soldiers who understand that you cannot paint people with only black paint. And the German invaders are not the same: some are fascists, Nazis, beasts for whom simple human feelings, such as pity, sympathy, do not exist, while others are the same as our soldiers, yearning for their homeland, family, girlfriend. They did not need this war. Kondratyev developed this idea in his story "Sashka", it was published only in 1979.

The story tells how, in one of the battles, a Russian soldier Sashka took a young German prisoner: "He was like Sashkin, one year old, about twenty, snub-nosed, freckled, looking straight Russian." This German even reminded Sasha of his village friend Dimka. When the Russian soldier took "this Fritz" prisoner, "he seemed to Sasha an ordinary person, the same soldier as he, only dressed in a different uniform, only fooled and deceived." Here Kondratyev is one of the first to show that both the German and the Russian do not hate each other. The "Fritz" himself (his name is not mentioned in the story) hands out a lighter to the captive Russian soldier, and Sashka accepts it. There is an interesting episode in the work. On the way to the headquarters, Sashka, angry with the Fritz, calls him a fascist, to which the German, unexpectedly for the hero, replies: "Their bin nicht is a fascist, their bin deyche zoldat ...". Not a fascist? This is strange for Sasha: a German means a fascist. On the way, the Russian soldier learns that "his German" was a "student" in civilian life. “It turns out that he is a literate German, but he didn’t understand Hitler. Eh you ... a student, but he went with the fascists, ”thought Sashka without malice. Bringing the German to the captain's headquarters, Sashka receives a direct order: "The German is at the expense!" And the day before the soldier showed the German a leaflet, which says that the prisoners are guaranteed life and return to their homeland. Kondratyev masterfully shows the psychological state of the heroes. The captain gave the order to be shot, because yesterday he killed his girlfriend, and, succumbing to grief, he blames the German accidentally for everything only because of his nationality. And Sasha, instead of obeying, begins to barely audibly challenge the decision of his commander: "Comrade Captain ... Well I promised him ... I showed him our leaflet, where everything is said ...". This is a real feat of conscience. But the order still had to be carried out. The road to the old barn, where they decided to shoot the German, is the hardest long in the life of both Sashka and the condemned German. The hero's hand does not rise to an unarmed soldier who is so similar to himself, even if he speaks a different language, smokes a different tobacco, because "he promised life to a German." “I promised. He never deceived anyone, but here he deceived, ”Sashka agonizes. The German looked up - "faded eyes and torment in them: what are you pulling, why are you exhausting? ..." Here are two soldiers who fought on opposite sides of the barricades, two people are standing against each other ... One of them is waiting for death, "constantly swallowing saliva, "and the other hesitates to pull the trigger ...

Suddenly, both Sasha and the German are saved by the battalion commander himself. Approaching Sashka, he said, looking away: “Take the German to the brigade headquarters. I cancel my order. " The captain nevertheless overcame his anger, grief, refused the unfair order. Kondratyev knows how, without pathos, lengthy reasoning, to show a real human feat of mercy and justice. Both Sashka and the battalion commander are not even proud of themselves, but take what they have done for granted, the most common thing. Sashka just thought: "... if he remains alive, then of everything he has experienced at the forefront, this incident will be for him the most memorable, the most unforgettable ...".

Sashka's company ran into German intelligence and began to hastily retreat. The Nazis wanted to cut off their intelligence from ours: mines flew. "But all this was familiar, experienced by them every day and therefore did not cause much fear." Sashka pulled away from his own people, rushed through the fire and then saw a German. Sashka shows desperate courage - he takes the German with his bare hands, he did not have any cartridges, he gave his disk to the company commander. At the same time, he does not at all consider himself a hero - when the company commander asked how it happened, he replies: “But the clown knows him. Durikom ". During interrogation, the German is silent, and the company commander orders Sasha to lead the German to the headquarters. On the way, Sashka thinks that the German is not a coward, since he doesn’t agree with his "Hitler Kaput", he tells the German that prisoners are not being shot here, promises him life. The battalion commander at the headquarters, having not obtained any information from the German, orders him to be shot. Sashka did not obey the order.

Why does Sashka not obey the order?

How to assess this his act?

It would not have been difficult for Sasha to kill a German in battle. This one was a prisoner, Sashka could not shoot him after he promised to save his life. Human relations are established between two soldiers - a Russian and a German: both wash and clean their clothes before arriving at the headquarters; a German treats Sasha with cigarettes; Sashka refers to the prisoner in a different way than at first - "fascist", but "Fritz", more neutral, because Fritz is a German name; Sasha already wants to talk to a German, sorry, he doesn't know German. And the main thing was suddenly realized by Sashka - “what a terrible power he now has over the Germans. He, Sashka, is now free over the life and death of another person. And Sasha felt uneasy from the almost unlimited power over another person that fell on him. " Sasha saw in the prisoner not just an enemy, but another person: “when he took this Fritz, he fought with him, feeling the warmth of his body, the strength of his muscles, he seemed to Sasha an ordinary person, a soldier like him, only dressed in a different uniform , only fooled and deceived ... That is why he could talk to him like a human being, take cigarettes, smoke together. "

Sasha evokes respect for himself with his kindness and humanity. The war did not cripple his soul, did not depersonalize him. An amazingly great sense of responsibility for everything, even for what he could not be responsible for. He was ashamed in front of the German for the useless defense, for the guys who were not buried: he tried to lead the prisoner so that he did not see our killed and not buried soldiers, and when they came across them, Sasha was ashamed, as if he was guilty of something ...

Sashka regrets the German, cannot imagine how he can break the word given to him. "The price of human life has not diminished in his mind." And it is also impossible not to fulfill the order of the battalion commander. Sashka leads a captured German to be shot, drags on time with all his might, and the author stretches their path, forcing the reader to worry: how will it end? The battalion commander approaches, and Sashka does not lower his gaze in front of him, feeling his righteousness. "And the captain turned his eyes away," canceled his order. Sasha, on the other hand, experiences extraordinary relief, as if for the first time he sees both the “destroyed church”, and the “blue forest beyond the field, and the very blue sky” and thinks: “if he remains alive, then out of everything he has experienced in the forefront, this will be the case for him. memorable, the most unforgettable ... "

You can discuss this act of Sasha in the classroom, there are those who consider him wrong - orders in war must be carried out.

What is the role of the episodic hero, the connected battalion commander Tolik?

(Tolik's motto is "our business is veal", he is already trying on the watch of a German who has not yet been shot, he is ready to bargain with Sasha so as not to miss the "trophy". He has no barrier in his soul, an obstacle like Sasha's. And Sasha understands that " Tolik loves to boast, but he is a weakling. ”Sashka and Tolik are contrasted as responsibility and irresponsibility, sympathy and indifference, honesty and selfishness.)

Lydia GOLOVINA

Lidia Anatolyevna GOLOVINA - teacher of Russian language and literature, secondary school of the village Serdezh, Yaransky district, Kirov region.

We read the story "Sashka" by Vyacheslav Kondratyev

During the classes

Introductory speech of the teacher

In the literature about the war, there are many works dedicated to the feat of an ordinary soldier, who bore the brunt of the war on his shoulders. In the preface to the story “Sashka” K. Simonov wrote: “This is the story of a man who found himself in the most difficult time in the most difficult place and in the most difficult position - a soldier's”.

Writers began to appeal to the common man in the war, because they wanted to pay tribute to the thousands of soldiers who were not listed as heroes, who died or miraculously survived. The peculiarity of V. Kondratyev's story is that it shows not a series of battles, victories, defeats, but a military life with his daily concerns. Kondratyev investigates the “soul substance” of a person who is forced to get used to a free life.

• The story of the story: Rzhev space.

In 1981, a one-volume edition of the writer's novellas and short stories was published, which included, in addition to "Sashka", the novellas "Vacation from injury", "Borkin's pathways", "On the hundred and fifth kilometer" and short stories. Almost all stories and stories deal with the same time (the heavy war of 1942) and space (it can be called “Rzhevsky”). Rzhev is one of the cities in the Kalinin region, over which there were months of stubborn battles. A huge number of soldiers died in the Rzhev area. The writer himself recalls: “I began to live some kind of strange, double life: one - in real, the other - in the past, in the war ... Then I began to look for my fellow soldiers from Rzhev - I really needed one of them, but nobody I found it, and the thought fell that maybe I was the only one who survived, and if so, then all the more I must tell you about everything. And the moment came when I just could not help but start writing. " This is the story of the emergence of the story.

• What is the situation on the front line where Sashka is fighting?

The time of the story is the early spring of 1942. Fierce battles are going on. The hero of the story, who is not even called by his last name (everything is Sashka and Sashka, he is so young), has been at the front for two months already. On such a front end, where “just to dry out, to warm up is already a lot of luck,” and since there is muddy roads, “it’s bad with a loaf of bread, there’s no broth. Half a pot ... millet for two - and be healthy, and if the bread is bad, it is no better with shells, and the Germans beat and beat. The neutral strip between our and the German trenches is shot through and is only a thousand steps. " The narration seems to be on behalf of the author, but at the same time it seems that the hero himself is telling. This is facilitated by the style of the story - simple, colloquial, and inversions, characteristic of colloquial speech, and vernacular.

• How is war portrayed?

Reading the excerpt “And the night floated over the front line, as usual ...” Twice repeated “as usual”, although we are talking about terrible things. “Sashka got used to this, he got used to it and realized that the war was not like what it seemed to them in the Far East ...” The war leaves traces of destruction and death. (Read the lines about it.) The author shows the military life (find in the text in what conditions the soldiers live)... The words "hut", "trench", "dugout" emphasize the precariousness, unreliability of the position.

• Find as many episodes as possible in the story, in which with the greatest strength is revealed Sasha's character ... What testifies to his ability to think broadly, compare, understand the complexity of the situation?

There are a lot of such episodes. This is also the scene when Sashka crawls at night on a deadly neutral car to get his company commander boots from a killed German, because the lieutenant has such pimas that they cannot be dried over the summer. This is not about ammunition, not about a combat mission - about felt boots, this is vitally important. Sashka will capture the "tongue", will be wounded, will refuse to shoot the German, will console a seriously wounded soldier and will bring orderlies to him. The wounded Sashka will return to the company, save the hot lieutenant Volodka from the tribunal, understand Zina, pity the romantic young girls who happily go to the front ...

These episodes reveal Sasha's personality from different angles, he seems to be undergoing tests of endurance, humanity, loyalty in friendship, in love, tests of power over another person.

• Expressive reading episode of the capture of a German (or retelling of the episode). What qualities of the hero were manifested here? Why did he refuse to shoot the prisoner?

Sashka shows desperate courage - he takes the German with his bare hands (he had no cartridges, he gave his disk to the company commander). At the same time, he does not at all consider himself a hero. When Sashka leads the German to the headquarters, he suddenly realizes what kind of power he has over the enemy.
"And Sasha felt uneasy from the almost unlimited power over another person that had fallen on him."

And he also realized that the German was just a different person, the same soldier, only fooled and deceived. Sasha speaks to him humanly and tries to understand him. Before us is a kind, humane Russian soldier. The war did not cripple his soul, did not depersonalize him. Sasha is ashamed in front of the German that their defense is useless, that the killed are not buried, as if this is his personal fault.

Sashka regrets the German, but it is impossible not to obey the order of the battalion commander, and Sashka is playing for time, and the author stretches their path, forcing the reader to worry: how will it end? The battalion commander approaches, and Sashka does not lower his gaze in front of him, feeling his righteousness. “And the captain turned his eyes away,” canceled his order.

• Sashka and Tolik are the same age. Compare two heroes ... For what purpose did the author introduce the connected Tolik into the story?

Sashka and Tolik are opposed: responsibility and irresponsibility, sympathy and indifference, honesty and selfishness.

Tolik's motto is “our business is veal,” he is already trying on the watch of a German who has not yet been shot, and is ready to bargain with Sasha so as not to miss the “trophy”. There is no “barrier, barrier” in his soul, like Sashka.

• Analyze the hospital scene. Why does Sashka take the blame for Lieutenant Volodka?

For a very short time, Sasha was tied by friendship with the lieutenant. But here, too, Sashka shows himself on the positive side: he shields a friend who could have been brought before a tribunal, but he, a private, will not be sent further than the front line. Sashka, seemingly not at all heroic, not a dashing soldier, turns out to be stronger and bolder than a desperate lieutenant.

• What aspects of Sasha's character are revealed in relations with Zina?

Zina is Sasha's first love. He saved her life. He often remembers her, looks forward to meeting. But when he finds out that they have a party in the hospital, that people can dance, have fun, he is very surprised and indignant. And when she realizes that she has love with the lieutenant, she leaves without hurting Zina with unnecessary conversations. Sasha cannot do anything else, justice and kindness again prevail.

• Why did the author turn to the topic of war? How true is the image of the hero?

The author of the story was wounded near Rzhev, received a medal "For Courage"; then again the front, injury, hospital, disability. He was already in his fifties when he took up the story of the war. Kondratyev began looking for his former brother-soldiers, but did not find anyone and suddenly thought, maybe he survived alone. This means that he must, must tell about everything that he saw, that he experienced in the war. In the spring of 1962, he drove through the places of his former front line and saw “all the Rzhev land dotted with craters, on which there were also rusty punctured helmets and soldiers' bowlers ... the unburied remains of those who fought here, maybe those he knew, with whom I drank a little liquid from the same pot, and it pierced me: you can only write the strict truth about this, otherwise it will be simply immoral ”.

Lesson conclusions

If we bear in mind everything that Vyacheslav Kondratyev wrote, then we can say that he managed to say a new word about his generation. Sashka belongs to the generation that suffered the most in the war. Among the front-line soldiers born in 1922, 1923, 1924, three percent survived - such is the mournful statistics. Of the hundred who went to the front, only three people survived. Judging by Sasha, what wonderful guys they were!

And here's what's surprising. The situation in the trench, at the front, in constant danger gives Kondratyev's heroes a sense of life, which means front-line friendship, brotherhood, humanity, and kindness.

And one more feature of Vyacheslav Kondratyev's work should be noted - a pronounced interest in the folk origins of character. In Sashka, the best features of the people's perception of the world are embodied - courage, intelligence, good spirits, endurance, humanism and the greatest faith in victory.

You can complete the work by answering the question in writing: "What character traits do Sasha have in common with the best heroes of literary works of the 20th (19th) century?"

III. Retelling and work with the episode of the capture of the German

Sashka's company ran into German intelligence and began to hastily retreat. The Nazis wanted to cut off their intelligence from ours: mines flew. "But all this was familiar, experienced by them every day and therefore did not cause much fear." Sashka pulled away from his own people, rushed through the fire and then saw a German. Sashka shows desperate courage - he takes the German with his bare hands, he did not have any cartridges, he gave his disk to the company commander. At the same time, he does not at all consider himself a hero - when the company commander asked how it happened, he replies: “But the clown knows him. Durikom ". During interrogation, the German is silent, and the company commander orders Sasha to lead the German to the headquarters. On the way, Sashka thinks that the German is not a coward, since he doesn’t agree with his "Hitler Kaput", he tells the Germans that they do not shoot prisoners in our country, promises him life. The battalion commander at the headquarters, having not obtained any information from the German, orders him to be shot. Sashka did not obey the order.

Why does Sashka not obey the order?

How to assess this act of his?

It would not have been difficult for Sasha to kill a German in battle. This one was a prisoner, Sashka could not shoot him after he promised to save his life. Human relations are established between two soldiers - a Russian and a German: both wash and clean their clothes before arriving at the headquarters; a German treats Sasha with cigarettes; Sashka refers to the prisoner in a different way than at first - "fascist", but "Fritz", more neutral, because Fritz is a German name; Sasha already wants to talk to a German, sorry, he doesn't know German. And the main thing Sasha suddenly understood - “what a terrible power he now has over the Germans. He, Sashka, is now free over the life and death of another person. And Sasha felt uneasy from the almost unlimited power over another person that fell on him. " Sasha saw in the prisoner not just an enemy, but another person: “when he took this Fritz, he fought with him, feeling the warmth of his body, the strength of his muscles, he seemed to Sasha an ordinary person, a soldier just like him, only dressed in a different uniform , only fooled and deceived ... That is why I could talk to him like a human being, take cigarettes, smoke together. "

Sasha inspires respect for himself with his kindness and humanity. The war did not cripple his soul, did not depersonalize him. An amazingly great sense of responsibility for everything, even for what he could not be responsible for. He was ashamed in front of the German for the useless defense, for the guys who were not buried: he tried to lead the prisoner so that he did not see our killed and not buried soldiers, and when they came across them, Sasha was ashamed, as if he was guilty of something ...

Sasha regrets the German, does not know how he can break the word given to him. "The price of human life has not diminished in his mind." And it is also impossible not to fulfill the order of the battalion commander. Sashka leads a captured German to be shot, drags out time with all his might, and the author stretches their path, forcing the reader to worry: how will it end? The battalion commander approaches, and Sashka does not lower his gaze in front of him, feeling his righteousness. "And the captain turned his eyes away," canceled his order. Sashka, on the other hand, feels extraordinary relief, as if for the first time he sees both the “destroyed church”, and the “blue forest beyond the field, and the very blue sky” and thinks: “if he remains alive, then of everything he has experienced on the forefront, this will be the case for him. memorable, the most unforgettable ... "

You can discuss this act of Sasha in the classroom, there are those who consider him wrong - orders in war must be carried out.

What is the role of the episodic hero, the connected battalion commander Tolik?

(Tolik's motto is "our business is veal", he is already trying on the watch of a German who has not yet been shot, he is ready to bargain with Sasha so as not to miss the "trophy". He has no barrier in his soul, an obstacle like Sasha's. And Sasha understands that " Tolik loves to boast, but he is a weakling. ”Sashka and Tolik are contrasted as responsibility and irresponsibility, sympathy and indifference, honesty and selfishness.)

What quality of the hero does Kondratyev emphasize in the episode of the return of the wounded Sashka to the company?

(Sasha is a very conscientious person with a sense of responsibility, he, the wounded man, is somehow awkward and ashamed - so he leaves, and the guys and the unshaven haggard company commander must stay here, in this trash and wet, and no one knows if any of them is destined leave here alive, as he is leaving now, Sasha. "All these terrible two months Sashka did nothing but reluctance. Both in the offensive and in reconnaissance - all this is through force, overcoming himself, hammering fear and thirst to live on the very bottom souls, so that they do not interfere with him doing what is supposed to be done. ")

IV... Working with the episode about Sasha's love for Zina

The war does not kill the human in Sasha, but even sharpens the thirst to live, to love. What place does Zina occupy in Sasha's life?

(Sasha saved Zina's life. This is his first love. On the way to the hospital, when the terrible tension of the frontline gradually releases and the joy that he is still alive surged into his soul, Sasha allows himself to think about Zina, his sister from Sanrota, whom he covered with his body The expectation of a meeting with Zina is constantly interrupted by anxiety about her native company: she will again tremble in the huts, and “someone will certainly slap today.” The upcoming party, which he learns from Zina, makes him angry: “What dances! , Zina! This cannot be! ", And even shook him. He says sternly:" You see, this is impossible ... You cannot have fun when all the fields are in ours! Do you understand? "

Sasha thinks that their love with Zina will be as short as a rocket flash. "It will burn a little, it will not have time to warm it properly and ... it will go out - the war will spread them in different directions."

And then Sashka learns that Zina still went to the evening, danced with the lieutenant, and "something cold, heavy was growing in a lump in her chest, coming up to her throat, giving ..." As if something burst in Sasha's head. when he saw Zina in the window, heard her conversation with the lieutenant and realized that "they have love ..."

But, despite the shock, pain and offense, remembering his conversations with Zina and imagining her life here over these months, he came to the conclusion - Zina is unjustified ... It's just a war ... And he has no grudge against her ... " And since love, what right does he have to interfere with her? And Sashka leaves without hurting Zina with unnecessary conversations. He cannot do otherwise, justice and kindness again prevail.)

Discussion in the class - maybe Zina is worthy of condemnation, betrayed her love with Sasha, cheated on him?

How does Sashka manifest himself during a brief front-line friendship with Lieutenant Volodya?

(In an episode in the evacuation hospital, a ruddy, well-fed major calms the indignant wounded - they gave only two tablespoons of porridge. In their hearts, the lieutenant threw a plate at the major, and Sashka shields his friend, who will be brought under a tribunal, but he, a private, will not be sent further than the front line The author sympathizes with Sasha: he, seemingly not at all heroic, not a dashing soldier, turns out to be stronger and bolder than the desperate lieutenant from Maryina Roshcha and helps him out of trouble. ".)

V... Final words of the teacher

Sashka's character is the discovery of Kondratyev. An inquisitive mind and simplicity, vitality and active kindness, modesty and self-esteem - all this combined in the integral character of the thicket, shaped by its time and embodying the best features of that time. “The story of Sashka is the story of a man who found himself in the most difficult time in the most difficult place in the most difficult position - a soldier's”. "... If I had not read Sasha," I would have lacked something not in literature, but simply in life. Together with him, I have another friend, a person I love, ”wrote K. Simonov.

Homework

1. Write an essay based on Kondratyev's story "Sashka" according to the following plan:

1) My impression of the story "Sashka".

2) Is it easy or difficult to have a friend like Sasha?

3) What is the main thing in Sasha's character?

4) Time and space in the story.

Lesson Option 31 (92)

Discussion of the story "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess" by V.P. Astafiev

Lesson objectives: cause children to think about what they have read, experiences, emotional response; improve the ability to analyze text.

Lesson equipment: you can ask to bring to the lesson any family heirlooms from the times of the war: letters, documents, photographs, newspapers, things.

Methodical techniques: teacher message, text analysis, conversation.

During the classes

I... Teacher's word

The story of VP Astafiev "Shepherds shepherdess" refers to those works that recreate the truth about the war. Viktor Petrovich Astafyev himself went through the war - he began and ended it as a private, was seriously wounded. He was a driver, signalman, artillery reconnaissance officer. Astafyev depicts the war without making large-scale generalizations, he does not show the actions of armies, his heroes are ordinary people who, with their daily work, will, allowing to overcome the fear of death, responsibility for someone else's life, the ability to preserve commitment to goodness, spiritual wealth in difficult conditions possible and clear our victory in this terrible war.

The author himself spoke about his story (1989): “I love“ The Shepherd and the Shepherdess ”more than others. This was Astafiev's first major work about the war. It took more than four decades to look back at the experience from a considerable time distance and comprehend its role in one's own destiny and in the destiny of the country. For fourteen years the writer worked on the story, made five editions of it. This speaks of the importance Astafyev attached to this thing, explains his special attitude to the "Shepherd and Shepherdess." This is a very demanding attitude associated with a sense of responsibility and duty to those who did not return from the war.

II. Analytical conversation

What is the genre of "Shepherd and Shepherdesses"? How the genre relates to the title and subject matter story?

(Astafiev defined the genre of his story as “modern pastoral.” For traditional pastoral (from lat.pastoralis- shepherd) is characterized by the image of a peaceful shepherd's life, the glorification of beauty, purity and fidelity of feelings in the bosom of nature.

The author's definition of the genre echoes the name, which promises precisely a pastoral plot, a sensitive story. However, the subject of the story contrasts sharply with both the title and the author's definition of the genre. The writer really praises the purity and fidelity of feelings, but against what background? Instead of peaceful pastoral landscapes, there is a bloody front-line life. The love of the heroes is far from a beautiful fairy tale, and the end of this love is tragic.)

Where and when does the story take place?

(Neither the time nor the place of action is indicated directly in the story. This is just one episode of the war, a similar one could have happened at any time and in any place of hostilities. The absence of an indication of a specific time and place gives the story a generalized character.)

Reference. According to researchers, Astafyev describes the Korsun-Shevchenko operation of 1944, one of the most outstanding in the history of the Great Patriotic War.

What is the background of the story?

(In the center of the story is a small military unit, an infantry platoon commanded by nineteen-year-old Boris Kostyaev. Kostyaev's platoon is participating in the liquidation of a large group of German troops taken in the grip. The fascist command refused to accept the ultimatum of unconditional surrender.)

How does Astafyev portray military operations and, most importantly, a person in a war? (We will read and comment on the episodes.)

(The first part of the story is called "The Battle." Flames and snow poured over him, hit him in the face with lumps of earth, gagged his still screaming mouth with earth, rolled along the trench like a hare. As the grenade pounded, he no longer heard, took the explosion, fearfully clenching his gut and heart, almost unbroken from tension " ...

Note that the description of the platoon commander combines the image of his heroism and the natural reaction of a person to what is happening: "a screaming mouth", "fearfully clenching his gut and heart." The hero is compared to a hare not because he is cowardly like a hare, but because the human body is powerless against tank power. And yet Boris wins, wondering what he has done: “Boris looked incredulously at the pacified bulk of the car: such a power - such a small grenade! Such a small man! Heard the platoon commander still poorly. The earth crunched in his mouth ... "

The writer often depicts pictures of the war in a naturalistic way, which is characteristic of his creative style: “On the field, in spoons, in craters, and especially densely near the mutilated trees lay the killed, chopped up, suppressed Germans. They were still alive, steam was coming out of their mouths, they clutched at their legs, crawled after them through the crushed snow, stained with lumps of earth and blood, crying for help.

Defending himself against pity and horror, Boris closed his eyes: “Why did you come here? .. Why? This is our land! This is our homeland! Where is yours? "

In this description, "mutilated trees" cause no less pity than mutilated people. Pity for people must be suppressed, and Boris is looking for excuses for himself: "Why did you come here?" One has to "defend" not only from enemies, but also from natural human feelings that are alive in Boris - "from pity and horror."

Boris is from an intelligent teaching family, by his mother he is a descendant of the Decembrist Fonvizin, a non-military man in essence. But he does his duty in the war and does not lose his best human qualities.)

Astafyev wrote very strongly the scene when a soldier in a camouflage cloak with a submachine gun bursts into a crowd of prisoners warming by the fire near a broken farm, and shoots the Germans in bursts, shouting: “Marishka was burned! All the villagers ... all were herded into the church. They all burned-and-and! Mom! Godmother! Everyone! The whole village ... I have a thousand of them ... I will finish a thousand! I will cut, gnaw! .. "

This scene is contrasted with another one: “in the nearest half-broken hut, a military doctor with his brown coat sleeves rolled up was bandaging the wounded, without asking or looking whether it was his own or someone else's.

And the wounded lay side by side: ours and strangers, moaning, screaming, some were smoking, waiting to be sent ... "

This raises the eternal question: what should be shown to the defeated enemy - revenge or mercy? Revenge is justified, but mercy is higher.

How does the theme of love relate to the military theme? How is love portrayed?

(Love arises right in the war hell, in spite of it. This is great, the only love that is not given to everyone. The author manages to combine sublime romance and even sentimentality with the rough realism of war.

The reader has no doubts about the possibility of the lightning-fast emergence of love in war. The author uses various means for this. For example, intertextuality (quoting other texts in the text): “At the dawn, you don’t wake her up…”; a fleeting vision, "which appeared and once lifted the poet to such a height that he choked with delight." The pastoral motif of the shepherd and the shepherdess, characteristic of sentimentalism, is transformed into a symbol. Declared in the title, it evokes the expectations of the reader. Soon it turns out that we are talking about two old men: in the liberated farm Boris and his platoon see a terrible picture - a killed shepherd and a shepherdess who came to the village from the Volga region in a hungry year.

The old men were grazing the collective farm herd when a terrible death covered them: “They lay covering each other. The old woman hid her face under the old man's arm. And the dead beat them with splinters, cut off their clothes, tore out the gray cotton wool from the patched quilted jackets in which they were both dressed ... Khvedor Khvomich tried to separate the hands of the shepherd and the shepherdess, but he could not and said that it was so, it’s even better - together forever and ever ... "

This painting connects two symbols - a symbol of the brutality of war and a symbol of eternal love.)

What are the features of the Astafyevsky symbol?

(The symbol develops, becomes enriched. On the only night presented to the lovers, Boris recalls the murdered village shepherds. This memory recalls childhood impressions when he and his mother went to his aunt in Moscow and was in the theater. Boris tells Lyusa, his beloved: “More I remember a theater with columns and music. You know, the music was lilac ... So simple, understandable and lilac ... For some reason I heard that music now and how two people danced - he and she, a shepherd and a shepherdess - I remembered. Green lawn Sheep linen. Shepherd and shepherdess in skins. They loved each other, were not ashamed of love and were not afraid of it. In trustfulness they were defenseless. "

The pastoral scene might seem unnatural, too sweet and sentimental, if it did not relate to Boris's childhood impressions, if not for his slightly condescending attitude towards these memories: "So simple, understandable and lilac ..." and pure colors contrasting with the dark colors of war.

And once again, the symbolic images of a shepherd and shepherdess killed by the war emerge in Boris's fading consciousness when his wounded man is being carried to the rear by an ambulance train.)

Composition

Among the books that can excite young people, cause deep feelings and reflections not only about the hero, about the author, but also about oneself, there is V. Kondratyev's story "Sashka". When Kondratyev was asked how it happened that in his middle-aged years he suddenly took up a story about the war, he replied: “Apparently, summer has come, maturity has come, and with it a clear understanding that war is the most important thing that happened in my life. " He was tormented by memories, even the smells of war. At night, the guys from his own platoon came to his dreams, smoked cigarettes, looked at the sky, waiting for the bomber. Kondratyev read military prose, but “looked in vain and did not find his war in it,” although there was only one war. He understood: “Only I myself can tell about my war. And I have to tell. I won't tell - some page of the war will remain undisclosed. "

The writer revealed to us the truth about the war, which smelled of sweat and blood, although he himself believes that "Sashka" is "only a small fraction of what needs to be told about the Soldier, the Soldier-Victor". Our acquaintance with Sasha begins with an episode when at night he decided to get boots for the company commander. “Rockets splashed into the sky, scattered there in a bluish light, and then with a thorn, already extinguished, went down to the ground torn apart by shells and mines ... Sometimes the sky was cut through by tracer, sometimes the silence was exploded by machine-gun bursts or artillery cannonade ... As usual ...” A terrible picture is drawn, but it turns out that this is usual. War is war, and it only brings death. We see such a war from the first pages: “The villages that they took stood as if they were dead ... Only flocks of disgusting howling mines, rustling shells flew from there, and tracer threads stretched. From the living they saw only tanks, which, counterattacking, lashed at them, rumbling with motors, and poured machine-gun fire on them, and they rushed about on the then snow-covered field ... Well, our magpies started barking, drove the Fritzes away. " You read and see colossal tanks that stick at small people, but they have nowhere to hide on a field white with snow. And I am glad with the "yapping" of the magpies, because they drove away death. The order established on the front line says a lot: "Wounded - give the machine to the rest, and take your own three-ruler, sample one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one fraction of the thirtieth."

Sashka regretted that he did not know German. He wanted to ask the prisoner how they are “with food, and how many cigarettes they get per day, and why there are no interruptions with mines ... Sashka, of course, would not talk about his life. There is nothing to boast about. And with food it is tight, and with ammunition ... I have no strength to bury the guys, I don’t have ... After all, I cannot dig a trench for myself, alive ”.

Kondratyev leads his hero through trials with power, love and friendship. How did Sashka stand these tests? Sashka's company, of which 16 people remain, stumbles upon German intelligence. Sashka shows desperate courage by capturing the "tongue" without weapons. The company commander orders Sasha to lead the German to the headquarters. On the way, he tells the German that their prisoners are not being shot, and promises him life, but the battalion commander, having not obtained any information from the German during interrogation, orders him to be shot. Sasha does not obey the order. He was uncomfortable with the almost unlimited power over another person, he realized how terrible this power over life and death can become.

Sasha developed a great sense of responsibility for everything, even for what he could not be responsible for. He is ashamed in front of the prisoner for the useless defense, for the guys who were not buried: he tried to lead the prisoner so that he did not see our dead and not yet buried soldiers. This enormous responsibility for everything that happens around explains the event that was inconceivable in the army - disobeying the order of a senior in rank. “… It is necessary, Sasha. You see, it is necessary, ”the company commander said to Sasha before ordering anything, patting him on the shoulder, and Sasha understood that it was necessary, and did everything that was ordered, as it should. The categorical "must" in a sense can make life easier for a person. It is necessary - and nothing more: neither do, nor think, nor understand. V. Kondratyev's heroes, especially Sashka, are attractive because, submitting to this “must”, they think and act “beyond” what is needed: something ineradicable in themselves makes them do it. Sasha gets boots for the company commander. The wounded Sashka under fire returns to the company to say goodbye to the guys and hand over the machine gun. Sashka leads the orderlies to the wounded man, not relying on the fact that they themselves will find him.

Sashka takes a German prisoner and refuses to shoot him ... It is as if Sasha hears all this "over the top" in himself: do not shoot, come back, escort the orderlies! Or is it the conscience speaking? “… If I hadn’t read Sasha, I would have lacked something not in literature, but simply in life. Together with him, I got another friend, a man who fell in love with me, "- this is how K. Simonov appreciated the significance of Kondratyev's story in his life. How do you rate it?