“High and holy is their unforgettable feat”

1st presenter:

We are pleased to welcome everyone gathered in the hall today! The reason for our meeting is solemn and sad at the same time. 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of Victory Day.

Many years have passed since the victorious salvoes of the Great Patriotic War. But even today time reveals to us new details, unforgettable facts and events of those heroic days. And the further we move away from that war, from those harsh battles, the fewer heroes of that time remain alive, the more expensive and valuable the military chronicle that writers created and continue to create becomes. In their works they glorify the courage and heroism of the people, the valiant army, millions and millions of people who bore on their shoulders all the hardships of war and accomplished feats in the name of peace on Earth.

Especially for the 70th anniversary of the Victory, the MBU "Central Library of the City of Penza" developed an educational project "The Tale of the War Years: Book + Cinema", dedicated to the prose of the war years.

This project is intended to form among the readership a true image of a true patriot and defender of the Motherland, to promote the culture of reading in all age reading categories, and to awaken interest in the literature of the war years and the history of Russia.

The literary evening “High and Holy is Their Unforgettable Feat” is dedicated to Yuri Bondarev’s work “Hot Snow,” which tells about the events of the Battle of Stalingrad.

2nd presenter:

I enter under the arches of the Stalingrad panorama,

And a terrible hell comes to life before our eyes.

I see, as if in reality, moments of drama,

Happened many years ago

When the fascist beast fought back for the first time

Unexpectedly met in a frantic struggle.

The whole world caught front-line reports from here.

The enemy miscalculated and broke his back.

I look with excitement, and in my soul there are words of prayer.

The blood of my relatives was shed for this land,

Their heroism decided the outcome of the great battle.

Every warrior was a hero, there were no others!

Over the Volga there is smoke from fires, ash, soot flakes,

Battle-weary Stalingrad is burning.

Hitler sobers up from his ridiculous whim

It didn't work out! We got a glorious victory.

The city did not give up and started the war towards the end.

And now there are only a few people left living in it:

To honor the memory of the fallen who gave their lives for the country.

This poem by Tatyana Bogachenko perfectly reflects the events described in Yuri Bondarev’s novel “Hot Snow.”

Indeed, the significance of the Battle of Stalingrad is difficult to overestimate. The victory of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad had a great influence on the further course of the Second World War. Beginning on July 17, 1942, battles took place for 200 long days.

The Battle of Stalingrad intensified the fight against the Nazis in all European countries. As a result of this victory, the German side ceased to dominate. The outcome of this battle caused confusion in the countries of Hitler's coalition. A crisis of pro-fascist regimes in European countries has arrived.

The events of the novel “Hot Snow” unfold just near Stalingrad, to the south of the 6th Army of General Paulus, blocked by Soviet troops, in the cold December 1942, when one of our armies held back in the Volga steppe the attack of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein, who sought to break through a corridor to the army Paulus and take her out of the encirclement. The outcome of the Battle of the Volga and, perhaps, even the timing of the end of the war itself largely depended on the success or failure of this operation. The duration of the novel is limited to just a few days, during which Yuri Bondarev’s heroes selflessly defend a tiny patch of land from German tanks.

1st presenter:

The Great Patriotic War demanded from every person the strain of all his mental and physical strength. Not only did it not cancel, but it made moral problems even more acute.

Life at war is life with all its problems and difficulties. The hardest thing at that time was for writers for whom the war was a real shock. They were filled with what they had seen and experienced, so they sought to truthfully show at what high price our victory over the enemy had come. Those writers who came to literature after the war, and during the testing years themselves fought on the front line, defended their right to the so-called “trench truth.” Their work was called “the prose of lieutenants.”

It is in this genre that Yuri Bondarev’s novel “Hot Snow” was written.

When the war began - this “sharp jolt of history, giving birth to a deadly wind,” Bondarev was only seventeen years old. And at eighteen - in August 1942 - he was already at the front. Was wounded twice. In 1945, together with the whole country, he celebrated the Victory.

That's the entire pre-war and war biography of the writer. A biography that, in the words of one Bondarev hero, can be “packed into one line,” and at the same time, if we take into account everything that he had to experience and endure on the roads of war, take into account the spiritual experience that overwhelmed him, it cannot be contained and in several voluminous volumes...

For the future writer, as for his entire generation, the war was the first and, perhaps, the main life experience. It was not only a school of courage, not only a difficult test, but also the main school of life.

“The war,” Yu. Bondarev admitted, “was a cruel and rude school, we sat not at desks, not in classrooms, but in frozen trenches, and in front of us were not notes, but battery shells and machine gun triggers. We did not yet have life experience and, as a result, did not know the simple, elementary things that come to a person in everyday, peaceful life... But our spiritual experience was filled to the limit...”

Bondarev would write these words a quarter of a century after the end of the war. He will write about his generation and himself. But they can rightfully be attributed to the heroes of his works, for their biography is, to a large extent, the biography of Yuri Bondarev himself.

1st presenter:

In 1941, Komsomol member Bondarev, together with thousands of young Muscovites, participated in the construction of defensive fortifications near Smolensk. In the summer of 1942, after graduating from the 10th grade of high school, he was sent to study at the 2nd Berdichev Infantry School, which was evacuated to the city of Aktyubinsk.

In the battles near Kotelnikovsky he was shell-shocked, received frostbite and was slightly wounded in the back. After treatment in the hospital, he served as a gun commander in the 23rd Kiev-Zhitomir Division. Participated in the crossing of the Dnieper and the liberation of Kyiv. In the battles for Zhitomir he was wounded and again ended up in a field hospital.

For the destruction of three firing points and an enemy vehicle in the area of ​​the village of Boromlya, Sumy region, he was awarded the medal "For Courage".

2nd presenter:

In 1951, Yuri Bondarev graduated from the Literary Institute. A. M. Gorky. He made his debut in print in 1949. The novel “Hot Snow” was written by the author in 1969, and the film of the same name was filmed in 1972. The uniqueness of the film lies in the fact that the script for it was written by Yuri Bondarev himself.

The life and death of the heroes of the novel “Hot Snow”, their very destinies are illuminated by the disturbing light of true history, as a result of which everything acquires special weight and significance.

In the novel, Drozdovsky's battery absorbs almost all the reader's attention; the action is concentrated primarily around a small number of characters. Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and their comrades are a part of the great army, they are the people, the people to the extent that the typified personality of the hero expresses the spiritual, moral traits of the people.

In “Hot Snow,” the image of the people who have risen to war appears before us in a completeness of expression previously unprecedented in Yuri Bondarev, in the richness and diversity of characters, and at the same time in integrity.

This image is not limited to the figures of young lieutenants - commanders of artillery platoons, nor the colorful figures of those who are traditionally considered to be people from the people, such as the slightly cowardly Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, or the straightforward and rude, riding Rubin; nor by senior officers, such as the division commander, Colonel Deev, or the army commander, General Bessonov. Only together, with all the difference in ranks and titles, they form the image of a fighting people. The strength and novelty of the novel lies in the fact that this unity is achieved as if by itself, captured without much effort by the author - with living, moving life.

1st presenter:

"How hard it was to die

to soldiers who remember their duty,

in that very city on the Volga -

close your eyes forever.

How scary it was to die:

the border has long been abandoned,

and the fiery chariot of war

not a step back yet...

How bitter it was to die:

“What are you up to, Russia?

By someone else’s strength or by your own powerlessness?”

- they really wanted to know.

And most of all they wanted to know

to soldiers who remember their duty,

how the battle will end on the Volga,

to make it easier to die..."

The poem by Sergei Vikulov is a reflection of the last minutes of life of the characters of Yuri Bondarev.

The death of heroes on the eve of victory, the criminal inevitability of death contains a high tragedy and provokes a protest against the cruelty of the war and the forces that unleashed it. The heroes of “Hot Snow” die - battery medical instructor Zoya Elagina, shy rider Sergunenkov, member of the Military Council Vesnin, Kasymov and many others die... And the war is to blame for all these deaths.

Even if the callousness of Lieutenant Drozdovsky is to blame for the death of Sergunenkov, even if the blame for Zoya’s death falls partly on him, but no matter how great Drozdovsky’s guilt, they are, first of all, victims of war.

The novel expresses an understanding of death as a violation of the highest justice and harmony. Let us remember how Kuznetsov looks at the murdered Kasymov: “Now a shell box lay under Kasymov’s head, and his youthful, mustacheless face, recently alive, dark, had become deathly white, thinned by the eerie beauty of death, looked in surprise with damp cherry half-open eyes at his chest , at the torn into shreds, dissected padded jacket, even after death he did not understand how it killed him and why he was never able to stand at the gunpoint.”

2 -th presenter:

The history of the name “Hot Snow” is tragic.

Probably the most mysterious thing in the world of human relationships in the novel is the love that arises between Kuznetsov and Zoya. The war, its cruelty and blood, its timing, overturning the usual ideas about time - it was precisely this that contributed to such a rapid development of this love.

This feeling itself took shape in those short hours of march and battle, when there is no time to think and analyze one’s feelings. And it all begins with Kuznetsov’s quiet, incomprehensible jealousy of the relationship between Zoya and Drozdovsky. And soon - so little time passes - Kuznetsov is already bitterly mourning the deceased Zoya, and it is from these lines that the title of the novel is taken, when Kuznetsov wiped his face wet from tears, “the snow on the sleeve of his quilted jacket was hot from his tears.”

2nd presenter:

The history of the creation of the novel "Hot Snow" is interesting.

This is what the author of the book, Yuri Bondarev, who at that time fought at Stalingrad as part of the 2nd Guards Army and stood with his battery in direct fire against Manstein’s armada of tanks, will write in his memoirs: “Field Marshal von Manstein received an order to begin the release operation, a breakthrough from south to the surrounded troops. This operation could solve a lot, but not everything. Only now I understand that the entire outcome of the battle on the Volga, the entire Cannes operation of our three fronts, perhaps even the timing of the end of the entire war seemed to depend on the success or failure of the relief effort begun by Manstein in December: the tank divisions were a battering ram aimed from the south at Stalingrad. This is what my novel “Hot Snow” is about.

Many years later, while in Munich, Yuri Bondarev, who was collecting material for the novel, tried to meet with Manstein, but the 80-year-old fascist field marshal, fearing questions about the Battle of Stalingrad, did not dare to meet with the Russian writer, citing poor health.

“In essence,” recalled Yuri Bondarev, “I would not really like to meet with the eighty-year-old Nazi field marshal, because I felt for him the same way I did twenty-five years ago, when I shot at his tanks in the unforgotten days of 1942. I understood why this “undefeated on the battlefield” did not want to meet with the Russian soldier”...

1st presenter:

The power of wartime literature, the secret of its remarkable creative successes, lies in unbreakable connection with the people heroically fighting the German invaders.

Each of Bondarev’s characters had their own “shore”, reliable and firm, never changing - this is their homeland. For Bondarev’s heroes, Russia is the holy of holies, an inexhaustible source from which they draw strength for struggle and life. And wherever they were, no matter how far fate would throw them, the image of their homeland constantly lived in their souls.

You were also born in Russia -

In the land of field and forest.

In every song we have a birch tree,

Birch under every window.

In every spring clearing -

Their white live round dance...

But there is a birch tree in Volgograd, -

You will see and your heart will freeze.

She was brought from afar

To the edges where feather grass rustles.

How hard it was for her to get used to it

To the fire of Volgograd land!

How long has she been sad

About light forests in Rus'...

The guys are lying under the birch tree,

The longest day of the year

This cloudless weather

He gave us a common misfortune

For all, for all 4 years:

K. Simonov

Therefore, the theme of the Great Patriotic War on long years has become one of the main topics of literature. The story of the war sounded especially deep and truthful in the works of front-line writers: K. Simonov, V. Bykov, B. Vasilyev and others. Yuri Bondarev, in whose work war occupies a central place, was also a participant in the war, an artilleryman who traveled a long way along the roads of war from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. The novel “Hot Snow” is especially dear to him, because this is Stalingrad, and the heroes of the novel are artillerymen.

The action of the novel begins precisely at Stalingrad, when one of our armies withstood the attack of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein on the Volga steppe, who sought to break through a corridor to Paulus’s army and lead it out of encirclement. The outcome of the battle on the Volga largely depended on the success or failure of this operation. The duration of the novel is limited to just a few days, during which Yuri Bondarev’s heroes selflessly defend a tiny patch of land from German tanks.

“Hot Snow” is a story about the short march of General Bessonov’s army disembarking from the echelons and the battle. 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 novel's heroes, their very destinies are illuminated by the alarming light of true history, as a result of which everything acquires special weight and significance.

In the novel, Drozdovsky's battery absorbs almost all the reader's attention; the action is concentrated primarily around a small number of characters. Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and their comrades are part of the great army.

In “Hot Snow”, with all the tension of events, everything human in people, their characters are revealed not separately from the war, but interconnected with it, under its fire, when, it seems, they cannot even raise their heads. Usually the chronicle of battles can be retold separately from the individuality of its participants, and the battle in “Hot Snow” cannot be retold otherwise than through the fate and characters of the people.

The image of a simple Russian soldier who has gone to war appears before us in a completeness of expression never before seen in Yuri Bondarev, in the richness and diversity of characters, and at the same time in integrity. This image

Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, the straightforward and rough-riding Rubin, Kasymov.

The novel expresses an understanding of death - as a violation of the highest justice. Let us remember how Kuznetsov looks at the murdered Kasymov: “now a shell box lay under Kasymov’s head, and his youthful, mustacheless face, recently alive, dark, had become deathly white, thinned by the eerie beauty of death, in surprise He looked with wet cherry half-open eyes at his chest, torn to shreds, at his cut-up padded jacket, as if even after death he did not understand how it killed him and why he was never able to stand up to the gun.”

In this unseeing squint of Kasymov there was a quiet curiosity about his unlived life on this earth.

Kuznetsov feels even more acutely the irreversibility of the loss of his driver Sergunenkov. After all, the very mechanism of his death is revealed here. Kuznetsov turned out to be a powerless witness to how Drozdovsky sent Sergunenkov to certain death, and he, Kuznetsov, already knows that he will forever curse himself for what he saw, was present, but was unable to change anything.

The past of the characters in the novel is significant and significant. For some it is almost cloudless, for others it is so complex and dramatic that the former drama is not left behind, pushed aside by the war, but accompanies a person in the battle southwest of Stalingrad.

The past requires a separate space for itself, separate chapters - it merged with the present, revealed its depths and the living interconnectedness of one and the other.

Yuri Bondarev does exactly the same with portraits of characters: the appearance and characters of his heroes are shown in development, and only towards the end of the novel or after the death of the hero does the author create a complete portrait of him.

The whole person is in front of us, understandable, close, and yet we are not left with the feeling that we have only touched the edge of his spiritual world - and with his death you feel that you have not yet managed to fully understand his inner world. The monstrosity of war is most expressed - and the novel reveals this with cruel directness - in the death of a person. But the novel also shows the high price of life given for the Motherland.

Probably the most mysterious thing in the world of human relationships in the novel is the love that arises between Kuznetsov and Zoya. War, its cruelty and blood, its timing, overturning the usual ideas about time - it was precisely this that contributed to such a rapid development of this love. After all, this feeling developed in the short period of march and battle, when there was no time for reflection and analysis of one’s feelings. And soon - so little time passes - Kuznetsov is already bitterly mourning the deceased Zoya, and it is from these lines that the title of the novel is taken, when Kuznetsov wiped his face wet from tears, “the snow on the sleeve of his quilted jacket was hot from his tears.”

It is extremely important that all of Kuznetsov’s connections with people, and, above all, with the people subordinate to him, are true, meaningful and have a remarkable ability to develop. They are extremely non-official - in contrast to the emphatically official relationships that Drozdovsky so strictly and stubbornly puts between himself and people . During the battle, Kuznetsov fights next to the soldiers, here he shows his composure, courage, and lively mind. But he also matures spiritually in this battle, becomes fairer, closer, kinder to those people with whom the war brought him together.

The relationship between Kuznetsov and Senior Sergeant Ukhanov, the gun commander, deserves a separate narrative. Like Kuznetsov, he had already been fired upon in the difficult battles of 1941, and due to his military ingenuity and decisive character he could probably have been an excellent commander. But life decreed otherwise, and at first we find Ukhanov and Kuznetsov in conflict: this is a clash of a sweeping, harsh and autocratic nature with another - restrained, initially modest. At first glance, it may seem that Kuznetsov will have to fight the anarchic nature of Ukhanov. But in reality it turns out that, without yielding to each other in any fundamental position, remaining themselves, Kuznetsov and Ukhanov become close people. Not just people fighting together, but people who knew each other and are now forever close.

Separated by the disproportion of responsibilities, Lieutenant Kuznetsov and army commander General Bessonov are moving towards one goal - not only military, but also spiritual. Suspecting nothing about each other’s thoughts, they think about the same thing and seek the truth in the same direction. They are separated by age and related, like father and son, or even like brother to brother, love for the Motherland and belonging to the people and to humanity in the highest sense of these words.

The death of heroes on the eve of victory contains a high level of tragedy and provokes protest against the cruelty of the war and the forces that unleashed it. The heroes of “Hot Snow” die - battery medical instructor Zoya Elagina, shy rider Sergunenkov, member of the Military Council Vesnin, Kasymov and many others die... And the war is to blame for all these deaths.

In the novel, the feat of the people who rose to war appears before us in a completeness of expression, previously unprecedented in Yuri Bondarev, in the richness and diversity of characters. This is a feat of young lieutenants - commanders of artillery platoons, and those who are traditionally considered to be people from the people, such as the slightly cowardly Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, or the straightforward and rough riding Rubin - a feat of senior officers, such as the division commander Colonel Deev or the army commander General Bessonov.

But in this war, all of them were, first of all, Soldiers, and each in his own way fulfilled his duty to the Motherland, to his people.

The Great Victory, which came in May 1945, became their common cause.

Bibliography

To prepare this work, materials were used from the site www.coolsoch.ru/

During the Great Patriotic War, the writer, as an artilleryman, traveled a long way from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. Among Yuri Bondarev’s books about the war, “Hot Snow” occupies a special place, opening up new approaches to solving moral and psychological problems posed in his first stories - “Battalions Ask for Fire” and “The Last Salvos”. These three books about the war are a holistic and developing world, which in “Hot Snow” reached its greatest completeness and imaginative power. The events of the novel “Hot Snow” unfold near Stalingrad, south of the 6th Army of General Paulus, blocked by Soviet troops, in the cold December 1942, when one of our armies held back in the Volga steppe the attack of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein, who sought to break through a corridor to Paulus’s army and get her out of the encirclement. The outcome of the Battle of the Volga and, perhaps, even the timing of the end of the war itself largely depended on the success or failure of this operation.

The duration of the novel is limited to just a few days, during which Yuri Bondarev's heroes selflessly defend a tiny patch of land from German tanks. In “Hot Snow,” time is compressed even more tightly than in the story “Battalions Ask for Fire.” “Hot Snow” is a short march of General Bessonov’s army disembarking 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. Without lyrical digressions As if the author’s breath had been taken away from constant tension, the novel “Hot Snow” 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 novel's heroes, their very destinies are illuminated by the disturbing light of true history, as a result of which everything acquires special weight and significance. In the novel, Drozdovsky's battery absorbs almost all the reader's attention; the action is concentrated primarily around a small number of characters.

Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and their comrades are a part of the great army, they are the people, the people to the extent that the typified personality of the hero expresses the spiritual, moral traits of the people. In “Hot Snow,” the image of the people who have risen to war appears before us in a completeness of expression previously unprecedented in Yuri Bondarev, in the richness and diversity of characters, and at the same time in integrity. This image is not limited to the figures of young lieutenants - commanders of artillery platoons, nor the colorful figures of those who are traditionally considered to be people from the people, such as the slightly cowardly Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, or the straightforward and rude, riding Rubin; nor by senior officers, such as the division commander, Colonel Deev, or the army commander, General Bessonov. Only together, with all the difference in ranks and titles, they form the image of a fighting people. The strength and novelty of the novel lies in the fact that this unity is achieved as if by itself, captured without much effort by the author - with living, moving life.

The death of heroes on the eve of victory, the criminal inevitability of death contains a high tragedy and causes a protest against the cruelty of the war and the forces that unleashed it. The heroes of “Hot Snow” die - battery medical instructor Zoya Elagina, shy rider Sergunenkov, member of the Military Council Vesnin, Kasymov and many others die... And the war is to blame for all these deaths. Even if the callousness of Lieutenant Drozdovsky is to blame for the death of Sergunenkov, even if the blame for Zoya’s death falls partly on him, but no matter how great Drozdovsky’s guilt, they are, first of all, victims of war. The novel expresses an understanding of death as a violation of the highest justice and harmony. Let us remember how Kuznetsov looks at the murdered Kasymov: “Now a shell box lay under Kasymov’s head, and his youthful, mustacheless face, recently alive, dark, had become deathly white, thinned by the eerie beauty of death, looked in surprise with damp cherry half-open eyes at his chest , at the torn into shreds, dissected padded jacket, even after death he did not understand how it killed him and why he was never able to stand at the gunpoint.” Kuznetsov feels even more acutely the irreversibility of the loss of his driver Sergunenkov.

After all, the very mechanism of his death is revealed here. Kuznetsov turned out to be a powerless witness to how Drozdovsky sent Sergunenkov to certain death, and he, Kuznetsov, already knows that he will forever curse himself for what he saw, was present, but was unable to change anything. In “Hot Snow”, with all the tension of events, everything human in people, their characters do not live separately from the war, but are interconnected with it, constantly under its fire, when, it seems, they cannot even raise their heads.

Usually the chronicle of battles can be retold separately from the individuality of its participants - the battle in “Hot Snow” cannot be retold otherwise than through the fate and characters of people. The past of the characters in the novel is significant and significant. For some it is almost cloudless, for others it is so complex and dramatic that the former drama does not remain behind, pushed aside by the war, but accompanies a person in the battle southwest of Stalingrad. The events of the past determined Ukhanov’s military fate: a gifted officer, full of energy, who should have commanded a battery, but he is only a sergeant. Ukhanov’s cool, rebellious character also determines his movement within the novel.

Chibisov's past troubles, which almost broke him (he spent several months in German captivity), resonated with fear and determined a lot in his behavior. One way or another, the novel glimpses the past of Zoya Elagina, Kasymov, Sergunenkov and the unsociable Rubin, whose courage and loyalty to soldier’s duty we will be able to appreciate only by the end of the novel. The past of General Bessonov is especially important in the novel.

The thought of his son being captured by the Germans complicates his position both at headquarters and at the front. And when a fascist leaflet informing that Bessonov’s son was captured falls into the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Osin from the counterintelligence department of the front, it seems that a threat has arisen to Bessonov’s service. Probably the most mysterious thing in the world of human relationships in the novel is the love that arises between Kuznetsov and Zoya. The war, its cruelty and blood, its timing, overturning the usual ideas about time - it was precisely this that contributed to such a rapid development of this love.

After all, this feeling developed in those short hours of march and battle, when there is no time to think and analyze one’s feelings. And it all begins with Kuznetsov’s quiet, incomprehensible jealousy of the relationship between Zoya and Drozdovsky. And soon - so little time passes - Kuznetsov is already bitterly mourning the deceased Zoya, and it is from these lines that the title of the novel is taken, when Kuznetsov wiped his face wet from tears, “the snow on the sleeve of his quilted jacket was hot from his tears.”

Having initially been deceived by Lieutenant Drozdovsky, the best cadet at that time, Zoya throughout the novel reveals herself to us as a moral, integral person, ready for self-sacrifice, capable of embracing with her heart the pain and suffering of many. She seems to go through many tests, from annoying interest to rude rejection. But her kindness, her patience and compassion are enough for everyone, she is truly a sister to the soldiers. The image of Zoya somehow imperceptibly filled the atmosphere of the book, its main events, its harsh, cruel reality with the feminine principle, affection and tenderness. One of the most important conflicts in the novel is the conflict between Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky.

A lot of space is given to this conflict; it is exposed very sharply and can be easily traced from beginning to end. At first there is tension, going back into the background of the novel; inconsistency of characters, manners, temperaments, even style of speech: the soft, thoughtful Kuznetsov seems to find it difficult to endure Drozdovsky’s abrupt, commanding, indisputable speech. Long hours of battle, the senseless death of Sergunenkov, the mortal wound of Zoya, for which Drozdovsky was partly to blame - all this forms a gap between the two young officers, the moral incompatibility of their existences.

In the finale, this abyss is indicated even more sharply: the four surviving artillerymen consecrate the newly received orders in a soldier’s bowler hat, and the sip that each of them takes is, first of all, a funeral sip - it contains bitterness and grief of loss. Drozdovsky also received the order, because for Bessonov, who awarded him, he is a survivor, a wounded commander of a surviving battery, the general does not know about Drozdovsky’s grave guilt and most likely will never know. This is also the reality of war. But it’s not for nothing that the writer leaves Drozdovsky aside from those gathered at the soldier’s bowler hat. Greatest height ethical, philosophical thought the novel, as well as its emotional intensity reaches in the finale, when an unexpected rapprochement between Bessonov and Kuznetsov occurs. This is rapprochement without immediate proximity: Bessonov awarded his officer along with others and moved on. For him, Kuznetsov is just one of those who stood to death at the turn of the Myshkova River.

Composition

The last explosions died down, the last bullets dug into the ground, the last tears of mothers and wives flowed. But is the war gone? Is it possible to say with confidence that there will never be such a thing that a person will no longer raise his hand against a person? Unfortunately, this cannot be said. The problem of war is still relevant today. This can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone.

That is why military literature about the heroic struggle of the Russian people against the Nazis is still interesting today. That is why it is necessary to study the works of V. Bykov, Yu. Bondarev and others. And I hope that these great works written about the war will warn people against mistakes, and there will be no more explosions from a shell on our land. But even if adults are so stupid as to decide on such actions, then you need to know how to behave in such terrible situations, how not to lose your soul.

Yu. Bondarev in his works posed many problems to the reader. The most important of them, and not only during war, is the problem of choice. Often the whole essence of a person depends on choice, although this choice is made differently each time. This topic attracts me because it provides an opportunity to explore not the war itself, but the possibilities of the human spirit that manifest themselves in war.

The choice that Bykov is talking about is a concept associated with the process of self-determination of a person in this world, with his willingness to take his destiny into his own hands. The problem of choice has always interested and continues to attract the attention of writers because it allows you to put a person in unusual, extreme conditions and see what he will do. This gives the broadest flight of imagination to the author of the work. And readers are interested in such turns of events, because everyone puts themselves in the place of the character and tries on the described situation. His assessment of the hero of a work of fiction depends on how the reader would act.

In this context, I am especially interested in Yu. Bondarev’s novel “Hot Snow.” Bondarev reveals the problem of choice in an interesting and multifaceted way. His heroes are truly and sincerely demanding of themselves and a little lenient towards the weaknesses of others. They are persistent in defending their spiritual world and the high moral values ​​of their people. In the novel “Hot Snow”, the circumstances of the battle demanded the highest tension of physical and spiritual strength from all its participants, and the critical situation exposed the essence of everyone to the limit and determined who is who. Not everyone passed this test. But all the survivors changed beyond recognition and, through suffering, discovered new moral truths.

Particularly interesting in this work is the clash between Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov, most likely, is liked by all readers and is accepted immediately. But Drozdovsky and the attitude towards him are not so clear.

We seem to be torn between two poles. On the one hand, the complete rejection of this hero as positive (such is general outline and the author’s position), because Drozdovsky saw in Stalingrad, first of all, an opportunity for an immediate career takeoff. He hurries the soldiers without giving them a break. Commanding to shoot at the plane, he wants to stand out and not miss the chance.

On the other hand, we support this character as an example of the type of commander that is needed in a military situation. After all, in war, not only the lives of the soldiers, but also the victory or defeat of the entire country depends on the commander’s orders. Due to his duty of service, he has no right to feel sorry for himself or others.

But how is the problem of choice revealed through the example of the clash of characters of Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov? The fact is that Kuznetsov always does right choice, so to speak, long-term, that is, designed, perhaps, not for victory in the present, but for the victory of the entire people. There lives in him an awareness of high responsibility, a feeling common destiny, thirst for unity. And that’s why moments are so joyful for Kuznetsov when he feels the power of cohesion and unity of people, that’s why he remains calm and balanced in any situation - he understands the idea of ​​​​what is happening. War will not break him, we understand this completely.

Drozdovsky’s spiritual world could not withstand the pressure of the war. Its tension is not for everyone. But at the end of the battle, depressed by Zoya’s death, he begins to vaguely understand the higher meaning of what has happened. The war appears before him as a huge menial labor of the people.

Many people condemn Drozdovsky or feel sorry for him. But the author gives the hero a second chance, because it is clear that over time he will be able to overcome himself, he will understand that even in the harsh conditions of war, such values ​​as humanity and brotherhood do not lose their meaning and are not forgotten. On the contrary, they are organically combined with the concepts of duty, love for the fatherland and become decisive in the fate of a person and a people.

That’s why the title of the novel becomes so symbolic: “Hot Snow.” And it means that indestructible spiritual strength that was embodied in the commanders and soldiers, the origins of which were in the ardent love for the country, which they intended to defend to the end.

He 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 calmly perceive from the pages of books in peacetime happened for them with their own eyes. The summary of “Hot Snow,” for example, is the horror of bombing, the whistling of stray bullets, and frontal tank and infantry attacks. Even now, reading about this, an ordinary peaceful person is plunged into the abyss of the dark and menacing 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 that reflect various aspects of the difficult military life. After all, he himself went through a difficult front-line path, starting at Stalingrad and ending in Czechoslovakia. That's why novels make such a strong impression. They amaze with the brightness and truthfulness of the plot.

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

War is not only a battle

The story "Hot Snow" ( summary, of course, does not convey all the liveliness of the style and the tragedy of the plot) gives some answers to the begun moral and psychological literary lines in more early works author, such as “The Battalions Ask for Fire” and “The Last Salvos.”

Like no one else, telling the cruel truth about that war, he does not forget about the manifestations of ordinary human feelings and emotions Bondarev. “Hot Snow” (analysis of his images surprises with the lack of categoricalness) 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 completely peaceful feelings of love, friendship, elementary human hostility, stupidity and betrayal.

Fierce battles near Stalingrad

Retelling the summary of “Hot Snow” is quite difficult. The action of 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 south of the blocked 6th Army of Paulus, the Soviet command creates a powerful defensive line. The artillery barrier and the infantry attached to it must stop another “strategist”, Manstein, who is rushing to the rescue of Paulus.

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

Bondarev wrote about these events. “Hot Snow” tells about battles on a tiny patch of land, which, according to Soviet intelligence, has become “tank dangerous.” A battle is about to take place here, which may decide the outcome of the Battle of the Volga.

Lieutenants Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov

The army under the command of Lieutenant General Bessonov receives the task of blocking enemy tank columns. It includes the artillery unit described in the story, commanded by Lieutenant Drozdovsky. Even a brief summary of “Hot Snow” cannot be left without describing the image of a young commander who has just received the rank of officer. It should be mentioned that even at school Drozdovsky was in good standing. Disciplines were easy, and his stature and natural military bearing pleased 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 the same unit. By coincidence, Kuznetsov received command of a platoon of the very same battery commanded by Lieutenant Drozdovsky. Surprised by the vicissitudes of military fate, Lieutenant Kuznetsov reasoned philosophically - his career was just beginning, and this was not his last assignment. It would seem, what kind of career is there when there is war all around? But even such thoughts visited the people who became the 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 era, where both lieutenants were equal. Here he is the battery commander, and Kuznetsov is his subordinate. At first, calmly reacting to such life metamorphoses, Kuznetsov begins to quietly grumble. He doesn’t like some of Drozdovsky’s orders, but discussing orders in the army, as you know, is prohibited, 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 in his soul Kuznetsov himself liked.

Motley crew

Focusing on the problems of his platoon, the young officer completely dissolves in them, studying the people he was to command. The people in Kuznetsov’s platoon were mixed. What images did Bondarev describe? “Hot Snow,” a brief 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 rank. Upon arrival at the unit, Drozdovsky began to look down on him, considering him unworthy of the title of Soviet commander. Lieutenant Kuznetsov, on the contrary, perceived Ukhanov as an equal, maybe because of petty revenge against Drozdovsky, or maybe because Ukhanov was really a good artilleryman.

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

Tank strike

While the battery was moving towards the designated line, and its fighters were getting acquainted and getting used to each other, in strategic terms the situation at the front changed dramatically. This is how events develop in the story “Hot Snow”. A brief summary of Manstein’s operation to liberate the encircled 6th Army can be conveyed as follows: a concentrated tank attack end-to-end 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 the two armies end-to-end and penetrated 15 km into the Soviet defensive formations. 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 being reinforced with a tank corps, making it clear to the army commander that this is the last reserve of Headquarters.

The Last Frontier

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

The army 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 morale, Soviet soldiers will survive. A dispute arises between the officers, as a result of which Vesnin goes to the front line to encourage the soldiers preparing for battle. The old general does not really trust Vesnin, deep down considering his presence at the command post to be unnecessary. But he has no time to conduct psychological analysis.

“Hot Snow” continues with the fact that the battle at the battery began with a massive bomber raid. The first time they come under bombs, most of the soldiers are afraid, including Lieutenant Kuznetsov. However, having pulled himself together, he realizes that this is only a prelude. Very soon he and Lieutenant Drozdovsky will have to put all the knowledge they were given at school into practice.

Heroic Efforts

Self-propelled guns soon appeared. Kuznetsov, together with his platoon, bravely takes the battle. He is afraid of death, but at the same time he feels disgust for it. Even a brief summary of “Hot Snow” allows you to understand the tragedy of the situation. The tank destroyers sent shell after shell at their enemies. However, the forces were not equal. After some time, all that was left of the entire battery was one serviceable gun and a handful of soldiers, including both officers and Ukhanov.

There were fewer and fewer shells, and the soldiers began to use bunches of anti-tank grenades. When attempting to blow up a German self-propelled gun, young Sergunenkov dies, following Drozdovsky’s order. Kuznetsov, throwing away his chain of command in the heat of battle, accuses him of the senseless death of a fighter. Drozdovsky takes the grenade himself, trying to prove that he is not a coward. However, Kuznetsov holds him back.

And even in battle there are conflicts

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

And the battle was still going on at 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 fighters 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 brought all their reserves into battle. The soldier is sent to the observation post of General Bessonov. The army commander, having received this information, orders his last reserve, the tank corps, to be brought into battle. To speed up his exit, he sends Deev towards the unit, but he, running into German infantry, dies with weapons in his hands.

It was a complete surprise for Hoth, as a result of which the breakthrough of German forces was localized. Moreover, Bessonov receives orders to develop his success. The strategic plan was a success. The Germans pulled all their reserves to the site of Operation Winter Storm and lost them.

Hero Rewards

Watching a tank attack from his OP, Bessonov is surprised to notice 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 his adjutant, goes to the position of Drozdovsky’s destroyed battery. “Hot Snow” is a novel about the unconditional masculinity and heroism of people. The fact that, regardless of their regalia and ranks, a person must fulfill his duty without worrying about rewards, especially since they themselves find heroes.

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