RUSSIAN PROSE IN THE YEARS OF WORLD WAR II
The years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 are an important
chapter in the history of Russian literature.At the time of severe hardship
when Nazi invaders brought death and destruction to our land the war theme
was central in creative activity of Soviet writers,poets and all cultural
figures.Dramatic events of the war years had a deep impact on Soviet literature.
The war demanded that writers should respond quickly to all developments.This
gave rise to new, war-oriented,creative activity.At that time priority
was not given to book publishing but to newspaper reports and radio broadcasts.
Writers.tried to instil courage,to inspire soldiers for heroic deeds and
to morally support the nation.In the first days of the war the author of
the world-famous novel "And Quiet Flows the Don", Mikhail
Sholokhov, addressed his compatriots. He said the following.
"Nazi rulers...should better recall that in the past the Russians
defeated German invaders more than once arresting their advance to the
east.And Russian military leaders held the keys to Berlin in their hands."
Addressing Soviet soldiers another prominent writer,Vsevolod
Vishnevsky, wrote:
"Battles are fierce...let them see that we are worthy descendants of
those who knew how to defend Homeland,those who fought honestly,selflessly
and--to the victory."
Writers wanted to be at the front,in the midst of those who courageously
fought against Nazi invaders.Shortly best writers and poets were in the
army and the navy.They became war correspondents working for newspapers.It
was a kind of military service.They created a new genre of Russian literature--reports
from the fronts and essays. Their reports and essays were written amidst
battles,in trenches and near the fire in guerrilla camps.They told the
story of Alexander Matrosov who closed the firing hole with his body,and
those of Moscow's couragous defenders from the Panfilov division and a
young guerrilla girl Zoya.
There were whole books of essays devoted to the defense of Leningrad and
Sebastopol, battles for Moscow,Odessa and Stalingrad and the guerrilla
movement.We read these essays today as truthful evidence of the war days.
Here is an excerpt from Vassily Grossman's
essay "Volga-Stalingrad" written on the 5th of September,1942:
" Late in August the Nazis made an air raid of Stalingrad.The enemy
stroke blows on apartment houses,beautiful buildings in the center of the
city,libraries, children's hospital,hospitals, schools and institutes.The
city was in flames.The enemy tried to reach the River Volga to the north
of the city.A tank column followed by trucks carrying infantry threatened
the northern suburb of Stalingrad in the vicinity of the tractor plant.The
blow was retaliated by anti-tank unit of lieutenant colonel Gorelik and
anti-missile unit of lieutenant colonel German. Batallions of workers from
the tractor plant were fighting side by side with them.On that night the
tractor plant continued working amidst the roar of explosions and raging
flames.The army recieved many dozens of heavy guns and tanks manufactured
during the two days of battles to the north-west of Stalingrad.The plant's
workers,engineers and administration displayed much courage and staunchness.
In the annals of the war there is the name of the gay and energetic Captain
Sarkisyan who was the first to meet Nazi tanks with the fire of heavy mortars.People
cherish the memory of lieutenant Skakun's anti-missile unit.When the unit
lost communications with the regiment's command it contunued fighting for
over 24 hours with the enemy in the air and on the ground.It was attacked
by dive-bombers from the air and heavy tanks on the ground. There were
girls in the unit who fought side by side with all others.Only on the following
night the injured commander of the unit and the remaining four soldiers
left their position.They told the command that during the battle the girls
never hid themselves in the shelter. The enemy's breakthrough to the city
was rebuffed.The situation stabilised.
That was the first chapter in the defense of Stalingrad. It tells the
story of fire and blood,workers' staunchness and love".
Inspired by what they learnt from documentary essays many writers created
their short stories and novels.They wanted to take a deeper insight in
the events and to provide their readers with a more profound description
of their heroes.One of them,prominent Soviet writer Alexei Tolstoi,who
wrote a number of bright essays,finally published a series of short stories
entitled "Ivan Sudarev's Stories".Many generations of Soviet readers
highly appreciated a short story "Russian Character" from that series.
The main character of the story is tank crew member Yegor Dremov.In his
native village he left his parents and a beautiful bride,Katya.He fought
courageously at the front,but was badly wounded. During the battle for
Kursk his tank was hit and got inflamed.Yegor survived.He did not loose
sight.But his face was burnt and ugly.He spent eight months in the hospital.He
was operated on many times,but his face remained ugly.Alexei
Tolstoy says that
"Finally commission found him fit for
not combat duties.Then he went to the general and said:'I request for your
permission to return to the regiment'.'But you are a disabled person',
responded the general. 'No,I am ugly,but this is not a hindrance.Shortly
I shall be perfectly fit for combat duties'". He got a 20-day leave to
fully recover and went to see his parents.He entered the village in the
twilight.He turned to his house.Through the window he saw his mother in
the dim light of the lamp.She was laying the table for supper.She was calm,kind
and quiet. She wore a familiar dark shawl.She got older and thinner. Yegor
Dremov suddenly realised that he could not dare to frighten her or to cause
pain to her.He opened the gate,entered the yard and knocked at the door.His
mother answered:"Who is there?" He said:"Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant
Gromov".His mother did not recognise him by his voice.And it were as
if he himself heard his voice for the first time, the voice that was changed
after numerous operations--hoarse and unclear."  His
mother did not recognise him when he entered and told her he had news of
her son Yegor who was safe and sound. His father did not recognise him
either. It became ever more difficult for Yegor Dremov to tell the truth.
On the following day his bride Katya came.
«You have news of Yegor,havn't you? Told him I am waiting for
him day and night.She came up closer to him, looked him straight into the
face and suddered as if something had frightened her.Then he felt determined
to leave on that same day. He returned to his regiment which at the time
was in the deep rear to be reinforced.Comrades-in-arms were glad to have
him back.It was such a relief for him that he forgot about something that
did not allow him to sleep,to eat and to breath freely.He decided that
mother should not know about his misfortune as long as possible.As for
Katya,he will try to forget her.» ..
What happened later was a surprise to him. Shortly
he recieved a letter. His mother wrote that she did not know what to think.
All the time she was obsessed by the thought that it was not a guest but
her son who visited them.Yegor answered the letter. He admitted the truth.
In a while his mother and Katya went to see him in the regiment.This is
what soldier Ivan Sudarev tells:
“… A little old woman pressed herself against his breast. Then,
as I looked round, I saw another woman. Take my word for it, there must
be plenty of beauties elsewhere, but I for one have never met anybody like
her… “Katya! – Yegor says. – Katya, why have you come? You promised to
wait for that one, not this one…”
Though I was in the inner porch I heard the beautiful Katya answer:
Yegor, I’ll stay with you for ever and I’ll always love you with all my
heart… Don’t send me away…»
Here it is, the Russian character at large! A person might seem so ordinary
but as disaster strikes, no matter whether big or small, out comes a great
strength – personal beauty.”
The words wind up “The Russian Character” written by Alexei Tolstoi in
1942. The war was raging on with another three years to go before the V-Day.
But a simple story of this kind inspired confidence that the Day would
come.
A person’s inner world at wartime was also at the focus of attention
of Konstantin Simonov, a prominent writer,
poet and playwright. Nearly all of Simonov’s works – be it poems, plays,
notes, stories or novels – are devoted to the war. The writer saw what
the war was like even before it began, during local conflicts on Khalkhin-Gol.
It was then that Simonov started writing about the war glorifying the heroism
of the soldiers and difficulties of war days. As the war broke out, Simonov
became a correspondent making frequent trips to the frontlines. He happened
to be in Stalingrad, in the besieged Odessa and near Kursk, the site of
a major tank battle, and he witnessed the retreat of the Nazis near Moscow
and the crushing storming of Berlin. And as usual, his attention was focused
on people – from soldiers to commanders. His stories and novels written
hot on the heels of the events were about people he had met. Such is his
novel “Days and Nights” – his most important wartime work. “To
some extent, - the writer pointed out,- this is my Stalingrad diary”.
The plot and the characters of the novel help portray the people who fought
to the last man in Stalingrad. Simonov succeeded in capturing and depicting
a sudden change in the psychology of the city’s defenders. People refused
to be defeated and their inner strength they had never suspected of being
there came out. However outnumbered by the enemy forces, they never felt
fear or confusion.They were calm and that calmness was the highest degree
of courage or tenacity. “He is very tired, - Simonov wrote about
the main character of the novel battalion commander Saburov, - not because
of permanent danger but because of responsibility that fell on him. He
did not know what was happening to the south or to the north, though judging
by the shelling, fighting was everywhere, what he knew and felt for sure
was that those three houses, broken windows, destroyed homes, he, his soldiers,
both killed and alive, the woman with her three children in the basement
– all, taken together, was Russia and he, Saburov, was defending it”.
Along with publications in the press radio programs were of great importance
too, among them documentaries, correspondences, extracts from new stories
and novels. The programs were listened on the battle and home fronts and
abroad. A great number of responses from foreign listeners of Radio Moscow
came after Alexander Fetisov’s radio documentary about the Battle of Moscow.
Witnesses say crowds of people were gathering on the streets and squares
of London and with bated breath the people were listening to gun
volleys, bursts of machine-guns and the story about the battle.
A writer’s work in wartime required self-sacrifice, will power and confidence
of victory. Writer Alexander Kuznetsov, who had become popular before
the war, was killed by a bomb in Ukraine. One of his books – “The
Diary of War” that he wrote in the first months following the Nazi
invasion – came out 20 years after his death. One of the notes says: “What
makes our soldiers heroes is that they are fighting against …..a strong
army that has crushed the whole of Central Europe… To defeat it, we must
display even greater determination, a greater will-power and unshakable
belief in the righteousness of our cause. These are the qualities I must
show in my reports”.
This correspondence that has come to us from the days of the war shows
that the literature of those years was saturated with optimism and unflagging
determination to win. After the end of the war Russian prose and poetry
got new impetus. Writers use their wartime diaries and experience to create
major works of art about the heroism of people who fought the enemy. Memoirs
played an important role. The attention of the writers was also focused
on the post-war life of those who had seen so much grief and suffering.
The topic captured the attention of Mikhail
Sholokhov in his famous story “A Man’s Life Story”. The main
character, Andrei Sokolov, was an ordinary soldier during the war and the
ordeals he had experienced – a wound, captivity, a loss of his beloved
ones and his home – were fairly typical for people of his generation. From
first glance, there is nothing heroic or even unusual about Andrei Sokolov,
who works as a driver after the war. But it in him where genuine humanism
and heroism are permanent qualities. That is the way he was at the front,
in the days of Nazi captivity and that is the way he is now, in the time
of peace. Lonely, with shattered health, he is not indifferent to other
people’s sufferings and is ready to open his heart towards an orphaned
boy he meets by chance…
“Bitter tears were about to choke me, - says Sholokhov's hero, -
and I thought at once: we cannot afford to perish each on his own! I’ll
adopt him”.
 All
of a sudden I felt peace at heart. Bending over him I asked quietly:
“Vanyushka, do you know, who I am?” And he breathed out: “Who?” And I said
as breathlessly: “I’m your father”. My God, he threw himself on my neck,
kissing my cheeks, lips, teeth, forehead, his shrieking voice filling the
cabin: “Dad, Daddy. I knew! I knew you’d find me! I knew you would!” He
pressed himself against me, trembling. Looking at him with my misty eyes,
I was trembling too, my hands shaking…
I left my car near the gates, took my new son in my arms
and carried him home…. The landlord and the landlady happened to be in.
Winking at them with my both eyes I say cheerfully: “Here he is, my son,
I’ve found him! There are now two of us, my dear friends!”…
“Two orphaned souls, two grains of dust that have been tossed far away
by the hurricane of war, - Mikhail Sholokhov writes at the end.
– Something is in store for them. And I hope that this man, a Russian
man of iron will, will survive and raise a son, strong enough to cope with
any difficulties, overcome all kind of hardship…”
Copyright © 2000 The Voice of Russia
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