Main character story by M.A. Sholokhov "The Fate of Man" Andrei Sokolov experienced a lot in his life. The story itself in the image bloody war intervened and broke the fate of the hero. Andrei went to the front in May 1942. Near Lokhovenki, a shell hit the truck on which he worked. Andrei was picked up by the Germans, he was taken prisoner.
Sholokhov introduced a description of captivity into his story, which was unusual for Soviet literature of that time. The author showed how worthily, heroically the Russian people behaved even in captivity, what they overcame: “When you remember the inhuman torments that you had to endure there, in Germany, no longer in the chest, but in the throat beats, and it becomes difficult to breathe ... "
The most important episode showing the life of Andrei Sokolov in captivity is the scene of his interrogation by Muller. This German was the commandant of the camp, "in their language, Lagerführer." He was a ruthless man: “... he will line us up in front of the block - they called the barracks that way - he walks in front of the line with his pack of SS men, holding his right hand out. He has it in a leather glove, and a lead gasket in the glove so as not to hurt his fingers. He goes and hits every second person in the nose, bleeds. This he called "prophylaxis against the flu." And so every day ... He was neat, the bastard, he worked seven days a week. In addition, Muller spoke excellent Russian, “he also leaned on the“ o ”as if he were a native Volzhan,” and especially loved the Russian obscenity.
The reason for calling Andrey Sokolov for interrogation was his careless statement. The hero resented the hard work in a stone quarry near Dresden. After the next working day, he went into the barracks and dropped the following phrase: “They need four cubic meters of output, and one cubic meter through the eyes is enough for the grave of each of us.”
The next day, Sokolov was summoned to Muller. Realizing that he was going to his death, Andrey said goodbye to his comrades, “... began ... to gather courage to look into the hole of the pistol fearlessly, as befits a soldier, so that the enemies would not see in my last minute that I still part with my life difficult."
When the hungry Sokolov entered the commandant's, the first thing he saw was a table full of food. But Andrei did not behave like a hungry animal. He found the strength to turn away from the table, and also not to evade or try to avoid death by retracting his words. Andrei confirmed that four cubic meters is too much for a hungry and tired person. Müller decided to give Sokolov the "honor" and personally shoot him, but before that he offered him a toast to the German victory. “As soon as I heard these words, it was like a fire burned me! I think to myself: “So that I, a Russian soldier, should start drinking for the victory of German weapons ?! Is there anything you don't want, Herr Kommandant? One hell for me to die, so go to hell with your vodka! And Sokolov refused to drink.
But Muller, already accustomed to mocking people, invites Andrey to drink for something else: “Do you want to drink for our victory? In that case, drink to your death." Andrei drank, but, as a truly courageous and proud man, joked before his death: “I don’t have a snack after the first glass.” So Sokolov drank the second glass, and the third. “I wanted to show them, damned, that although I’m dying of hunger, I’m not going to choke on their handout, that I have my own, Russian dignity and pride, and that they didn’t turn me into a beast, no matter how hard they tried.”
Seeing such remarkable willpower in a physically exhausted person, Muller could not resist sincere delight: “Here's the thing, Sokolov, you are a real Russian soldier. You are a brave soldier. I am also a soldier and respect worthy opponents. I won't shoot you."
Why did Muller spare Andrei? Moreover, he gave bread and bacon with him, which the prisoners of war then divided among themselves in the barracks?
I think that Muller did not kill Andrey for one simple reason: he got scared. During the years of work in the camps, he saw many broken souls, saw how people become animals, ready to kill each other for a piece of bread. But he has never seen this before! Muller was frightened, because the reasons for such behavior of the hero were incomprehensible to him. And he couldn't understand them either. For the first time, among the horrors of the war and the camp, he saw something pure, big and human - the soul of Andrei Sokolov, which nothing could corrupt. And the German bowed before this soul.
The main motive of this episode is the motive of the test. It sounds throughout the story, but only in this episode does it acquire real power. The test of the hero is a technique actively used in folklore and Russian literature. Let's remember the trials of heroes in Russian folk tales. Andrei Sokolov is invited to drink exactly three times. Depending on how the hero would behave, his fate would be decided. But Sokolov passed the test with honor.
For a deeper disclosure of the image in this episode, the author uses the hero's internal monologue. Tracing it, we can say that Andrei behaved like a hero not only externally, but also internally. He did not even have the thought of succumbing to Muller and showing weakness.
The episode is narrated from the main actor. Since several years have passed between the interrogation scene and the time when Sokolov tells this story, the hero allows himself irony (“he was neat, the bastard, he worked without days off”). Surprisingly, after so many years, Andrei does not show hatred for Muller. This characterizes him as a real strong man who knows how to forgive.
In this episode, Sholokhov tells the reader that the most important thing for a person in any, even the most terrible circumstances, is to always remain a person! And the fate of the protagonist of the story, Andrei Sokolov, confirms this idea.
The story of Mikhail Sholokhov "The Fate of a Man" tells about the life of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War, Andrei Sokolov. The ensuing war took everything away from the man: family, home, faith in a brighter future. Strong-willed character and firmness of spirit did not allow Andrei to break. The meeting with the orphaned boy Vanyushka brought new meaning to Sokolov's life.
This story is included in curriculum Literature grade 9. Before you get acquainted with the full version of the work, you can read online summary"The Fate of a Man" by Sholokhov, which will acquaint the reader with the most important episodes of "The Fate of a Man".
Main characters
Andrey Sokolov- the main character of the story. He worked as a driver in wartime until the Fritz took him prisoner, where he spent 2 years. In captivity was listed under the number 331.
Anatoly- the son of Andrei and Irina, who went to the front during the war. Becomes a battery commander. Anatoly died on Victory Day, he was killed by a German sniper.
Vanyushka- an orphan, adopted son of Andrei.
Other characters
Irina- Andrew's wife
Kryzhnev- traitor
Ivan Timofeevich- Andrew's neighbor
Nastenka and Olushka- Sokolov's daughters
On the Upper Don came the first spring after the war. The scorching sun touched the ice on the river and a flood began, turning the roads into a blurry slurry that was not passable.
The author of the story at this time of off-road had to get to the Bukanovskaya station, which was about 60 km away. He reached the crossing over the Elanka River and, together with the driver accompanying him, swam across in a boat full of holes from old age to the other side. The driver swam away again, and the narrator remained waiting for him. Since the driver promised to return only after 2 hours, the narrator decided to take a smoke break. He took out cigarettes that got wet during the crossing and laid them out to dry in the sun. The narrator sat down on the wattle fence and became thoughtful.
Soon, he was distracted from his thoughts by a man with a boy, who were moving towards the crossing. The man approached the narrator, greeted him and asked if it would be long to wait for the boat. We decided to smoke together. The narrator wanted to ask the interlocutor where he was heading with his little son in such impassability. But the man was ahead of him and started talking about the past war.
So the narrator met brief retelling life story of a man whose name was Andrey Sokolov.
Life before the war
Andrey had a hard time even before the war. As a young boy, he went to the Kuban to work for kulaks (wealthy peasants). It was a harsh period for the country: it was 1922, the time of famine. So Andrei's mother, father and sister died of starvation. He was left all alone. He returned to his homeland only a year later, sold his parents' house and married the orphan Irina. Andrei got a good wife, obedient and not grouchy. Irina loved and respected her husband.
Soon the young couple had children: first, the son Anatoly, and then the daughters Olyushka and Nastenka. The family settled down well: they lived in abundance, they rebuilt their house. If earlier Sokolov drank with friends after work, now he hurried home to his beloved wife and children. In the 29th, Andrei left the factory and began working as a driver. Another 10 years flew by for Andrei unnoticed.
The war came unexpectedly. Andrei Sokolov received a summons from the military registration and enlistment office, and he leaves for the front.
War time
Sokolov was escorted to the front with the whole family. A bad premonition tormented Irina: as if for the last time she was seeing her husband.
During the distribution, Andrei received a military truck and went to the front for his steering wheel. But he did not have to fight for a long time. During the German offensive, Sokolov was given the task of supplying ammunition to soldiers in a hot spot. But it was not possible to bring the shells to their own - the Nazis blew up the truck.
When Andrei, who had miraculously survived, woke up, he saw an overturned truck and detonated ammunition. And the battle was already going somewhere behind. Andrey then realized that he was right in the encirclement of the Germans. The Nazis immediately noticed the Russian soldier, but did not kill him - work force needed. So Sokolov ended up in captivity along with fellow soldiers.
The captives were herded into a local church to spend the night. Among those arrested was a military doctor who made his way in the dark and questioned each soldier about the presence of injuries. Sokolov was very worried about his arm, dislocated during the explosion, when he was thrown out of the truck. The doctor adjusted Andrey's limb, for which the soldier was very grateful to him.
The night was restless. Soon one of the prisoners began to ask the Germans to release him to relieve himself. But the senior escort forbade anyone to let out of the church. The prisoner could not stand it and wept: “I can’t,” he says, “desecrate the holy temple! I'm a believer, I'm a Christian!" . The Germans shot the annoying pilgrimage and several other prisoners.
After that, the arrested fell silent for a while. Then conversations began in a whisper: they began to ask each other who came from where and how they were captured.
Sokolov heard a quiet conversation next to him: one of the soldiers threatened the platoon leader that he would tell the Germans that he was not a simple private, but a communist. The man who threatened, as it turned out, was called Kryzhnev. The platoon commander begged Kryzhnev not to extradite him to the Germans, but he stood his ground, arguing that "his own shirt is closer to the body."
After hearing Andrey shook with rage. He decided to help the platoon leader and kill the vile party member. For the first time in his life, Sokolov killed a man, and it became so disgusting to him, as if he "strangled some creeping reptile."
camp work
In the morning, the Nazis began to find out which of the prisoners belonged to the Communists, commissars and Jews, in order to shoot them on the spot. But there were none, as well as traitors who could betray.
When the arrested were driven to the camp, Sokolov began to think how he could escape to his own. Once such a case presented itself to the prisoner, he managed to escape and break away from the camp for 40 km. Only in the footsteps of Andrei were dogs, and soon he was caught. The incited dogs tore all his clothes on him and bit him into blood. Sokolov was placed in a punishment cell for a month. After the punishment cell, 2 years of hard work, hunger, and bullying followed.
Sokolov got to work in a stone quarry, where the prisoners "manually hammered, cut, crushed German stone." More than half of the workers died from hard work. Andrei somehow could not stand it, and uttered reckless words in the direction of the cruel Germans: “They need four cubic meters of production, and one cubic meter through the eyes is enough for the grave of each of us.”
There was a traitor among his own, and reported this to the Fritz. The next day, Sokolov was asked to visit the German authorities. But before leading the soldier to be shot, the commandant of the block Muller offered him a drink and a snack for the victory of the Germans.
Almost looking into the eyes of death, the brave fighter refused such an offer. Muller only smiled and ordered Andrei to drink for his death. The prisoner had nothing to lose, and he drank to get rid of his torment. Despite the fact that the fighter was very hungry, he never touched the appetizer of the Nazis. The Germans poured a second glass to the arrested man and again offered him a bite to eat, to which Andrey replied to the German: “Sorry, Herr Commandant, I’m not used to having a bite even after the second glass.” The Nazis laughed, poured Sokolov a third glass and decided not to kill him, because he showed himself to be a real soldier loyal to his homeland. He was released to the camp, and for his courage they were given a loaf of bread and a piece of lard. The block divided the provisions equally.
The escape
Soon Andrei gets to work at the mines in the Ruhr region. It was 1944, Germany began to surrender its positions.
By chance, the Germans learn that Sokolov is a former driver, and he enters the service of the German office "Todte". There he becomes the personal driver of a fat Fritz, an army major. After some time, the German major was sent to the front line, and Andrei along with him.
Again, the prisoner began to visit thoughts of escaping to his own. Once Sokolov noticed a drunken non-commissioned officer, led him around the corner and took off all his uniforms. Andrei hid the uniform under the seat in the car, and also hid the weight and telephone wire. Everything was ready to carry out the plan.
One morning, Major Andrei orders to take him outside the city, where he supervised the construction. On the way, the German dozed off, and as soon as they left the city, Sokolov took out a weight and stunned the German. After that, the hero took out a hidden uniform, quickly changed clothes and drove at full speed towards the front.
This time, the brave soldier managed to get to his own with the German "present". We met him as a real hero and promised to present him for a state award.
They gave the fighter a month off: to get medical treatment, to rest, to see his relatives.
For starters, Sokolov was sent to the hospital, from where he immediately wrote a letter to his wife. 2 weeks have passed. An answer comes from the motherland, but not from Irina. The letter was written by their neighbor, Ivan Timofeevich. This message was not joyful: Andrei's wife and daughters died back in 1942. The Germans blew up the house where they lived. Only a deep hole remained from their hut. Only the eldest son, Anatoly, survived, who, after the death of his relatives, asked to go to the front.
Andrei arrived in Voronezh, looked at the place where his house used to stand, and now a pit filled with rusty water, and on the same day went back to the division.
Looking forward to meeting my son
For a long time Sokolov did not believe his misfortune, he grieved. Andrei lived only with the hope of seeing his son. Correspondence began between them from the front, and the father learns that Anatoly became the division commander and received many awards. Pride overwhelmed Andrei for his son, and in his thoughts he already began to draw how he and his son would live after the war, how he would become a grandfather and nurse his grandchildren, having met a calm old age.
At this time, the Russian troops were rapidly advancing and pushing the Nazis to the German border. Now it was not possible to correspond, and only towards the end of spring did my father receive news from Anatoly. The soldiers came close to the German border - on May 9, the end of the war came.
Excited, happy Andrei was looking forward to meeting his son. But his joy was short-lived: Sokolov was informed that a German sniper shot down the battery commander on May 9, 1945, on Victory Day. Anatoly's father saw him off on his last journey, burying his son on German soil.
post-war period
Soon Sokolov was demobilized, but he did not want to return to Voronezh because of difficult memories. Then he remembered a military friend from Uryupinsk, who invited him to his place. That's where the veteran went.
A friend lived with his wife on the outskirts of the city, they had no children. Andrey's friend hired him to work as a driver. After work, Sokolov often went into the tearoom to have a glass or two. Near the teahouse, Sokolov noticed a homeless boy of 5-6 years old. Andrei found out that the name of the homeless child was Vanyushka. The child was left without parents: the mother died during the bombing, and the father was killed at the front. Andrew decided to adopt a child.
Sokolov brought Vanya to the house where he lived with a married couple. The boy was washed, fed and clothed. The child of his father began to accompany him on every flight and would never agree to stay at home without him.
So the son and his father would have lived for a long time in Uryupinsk, if not for one incident. Once Andrei was driving a truck in bad weather, the car skidded, and he knocked down a cow. The animal remained unharmed, and Sokolov was deprived of his driver's license. Then the man signed off with another colleague from Kashara. He invited him to work with him and promised that he would help him get new rights. So they are now on their way with their son to the Kashar region. Andrei admitted to the narrator that he would not have survived long in Uryupinsk anyway: longing did not allow him to stay in one place.
Everything would be fine, but Andrei's heart began to play pranks, he was afraid he would not stand it, and his little son would be left alone. Every day, the man began to see his deceased relatives as if they were calling him to him: “I talk about everything with Irina and with the kids, but I just want to push the wire apart with my hands - they leave me, as if melting before my eyes ... And this is an amazing thing: during the day I always hold myself tight, you can’t squeeze a “ooh” or a sigh out of me, but at night I wake up, and the whole pillow is wet with tears ... "
A boat appeared. This was the end of the story of Andrei Sokolov. He said goodbye to the author, and they moved towards the boat. With sadness, the narrator looked after these two close, orphaned people. He wanted to believe in the best, in the best future fate of these strangers to him, who became close to him in a couple of hours.
Vanyushka turned and waved goodbye to the narrator.
Conclusion
In the work, Sholokhov raises the problem of humanity, loyalty and betrayal, courage and cowardice in war. The conditions in which Andrei Sokolov's life put him did not break him as a person. And the meeting with Vanya gave him hope and purpose in life.
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During the years of the Great Patriotic War Sholokhov, in military correspondence, essays, and the story "The Science of Hatred", exposed the anti-human nature of the war unleashed by the Nazis, revealed the heroism of the Soviet people, love for the Motherland. And in the novel "They Fought for the Motherland" the Russian national character, clearly manifested in the days of severe trials. Remembering how during the war the Nazis mockingly called Soviet soldier“Russian Ivan,” Sholokhov wrote in one of his articles: “The symbolic Russian Ivan is
What: a man dressed in a gray overcoat, who, without hesitation, gave the last piece of bread and thirty grams of front-line sugar to a child orphaned in the terrible days of the war, a man who selflessly covered his comrade with his body, saving him from inevitable death, a man who, squeezing teeth, endured and will endure all the hardships and hardships, going to a feat in the name of the Motherland.
Andrey Sokolov appears before us as such a modest, ordinary warrior in the story “The Fate of a Man”. As about the most common business, Sokolov speaks of his courageous deeds. He bravely fulfilled his military duty at the front. Under Lozovenki
He was instructed to bring shells to the battery. “We had to hurry a lot, because the battle was approaching us…,” says Sokolov. - The commander of our unit asks: "Will you get through, Sokolov?" And there was nothing to ask. There, my comrades, maybe they are dying, but I'll sniff around here? What a conversation! I answer him. - I have to slip through, and that's it! In this episode, Sholokhov noticed the main feature of the hero - a sense of camaraderie, the ability to think about others more than about himself. But, stunned by the explosion of a shell, he woke up already in captivity by the Germans. He looks with pain as the attackers go to the east German troops. Having learned what enemy captivity is, Andrei says with a bitter sigh, turning to his interlocutor: “Oh, brother, it’s not easy to understand that you are not in captivity by your own water. Whoever has not experienced this in their own skin, you will not immediately enter into the soul, so that it comes to him as a human being what this thing means. His bitter memories speak of what he had to endure in captivity: “It’s hard for me, brother, to remember, and even harder to talk about what happened in captivity. When you remember the inhuman torments that you had to endure there in Germany, when you remember all the friends and comrades who died, were tortured there in the camps, the heart is no longer in the chest, but in the throat beats, and it becomes difficult to breathe ... "
Being in captivity, Andrei Sokolov made every effort to preserve the person in himself, not to exchange for any relief of the fate of "Russian dignity and pride." One of the most striking scenes in the story is the scene of the interrogation of the captured Soviet soldier Andrei Sokolov by the professional killer and sadist Muller. When Muller was informed that Andrei had allowed his dissatisfaction with hard labor to show, he summoned him to the commandant's office for interrogation. Andrey knew that he was going to die, but decided to "gather up his courage to look into the hole of the pistol fearlessly, as befits a soldier, so that the enemies would not see at the last minute that it was difficult for him to part with life ...".
The interrogation scene turns into a spiritual duel between the captive soldier and the commandant of the camp, Müller. It would seem that the forces of superiority should be on the side of the well-fed, endowed with power and the ability to humiliate and trample on the man of Muller. Playing with a pistol, he asks Sokolov whether four cubic meters of production is really a lot, but is one enough for a grave? When Sokolov confirms his earlier words, Muller offers to drink a glass of schnapps before the execution: “Before you die, drink, Russ Ivan, for the victory of German weapons.” Sokolov initially refused to drink "for the victory of German weapons", and then agreed "for his death." After drinking the first glass, Sokolov refused to eat. Then he was given a second one. Only after the third did he bite off a small piece of bread and put the rest on the table. Talking about this, Sokolov says: “I wanted to show them, damned, that although I’m dying of hunger, I’m not going to choke on their sop, that I have my own, Russian dignity and pride, and that they didn’t turn me into cattle, no matter how hard you try."
The courage and endurance of Sokolov struck the German commandant. He not only let him go, but finally gave him a small loaf of bread and a piece of lard: “Here's the thing, Sokolov, you are a real Russian soldier. You are a brave soldier. I am also a soldier and respect worthy opponents. I won't shoot you. In addition, today our valiant troops reached the Volga and completely captured Stalingrad. This is a great joy for us, and therefore I generously give you life. Go to your block…”
Considering the scene of the interrogation of Andrei Sokolov, we can say that it is one of the compositional peaks of the story. She has her own theme - the spiritual wealth and moral nobility of the Soviet man, her own idea: there is no force in the world capable of spiritually breaking true patriot, to force him to humiliate himself before the enemy.
Andrey Sokolov overcame a lot on his way. The national pride and dignity of the Russian Soviet man, endurance, spiritual humanity, insubordination and indestructible faith in life, in his homeland, in his people - this is what Sholokhov typified in the truly Russian character of Andrei Sokolov. The author showed the indomitable will, courage, heroism of a simple Russian man who, in the time of the most difficult trials that befell his Motherland and irreparable personal losses, was able to rise above his personal fate filled with the deepest drama, managed to overcome death with life and for the sake of life. This is the pathos of the story, its main idea.
Kuchaev Andrey
In German captivity
Andrey Kuchaev
In German captivity
CAPTURE
Instead of a preface
Who gets captured. .
In order to be captured, you need a war.
The war has begun. Imperceptibly. All against all. And my countrymen attacked me. I ended up in a trench. The connection was broken. The fire that I tried to call for fire support turned out to be fire on me: "I call fire on myself" is not my motto, but I called.
Friends were the first to shoot: "What are you really doing here?" "Don't you realize the train has left?" "Together with the platform," added one wit. "Go to Israel!" "But I'm Russian!" - I parried a bayonet blow. "It doesn't matter. You have a wife - with this very item. They will make a call for her - set off together!"
At the bottom of the trench, my wife bandaged my wounds. "I'm not going there," she said. It's hot there - one. My children will be drafted into the army there - two. It was an attack from the rear. We began to make ends meet, trying to use the respite in the hostilities to establish combat supplies - provisions, ammunition: she painted, I wrote, in between (just intervals!) We traded other people's things at the clothing market, as long as it made sense. After the enemy came in from the flank - we were slightly cleaned out in the market - we capitulated. A friend said that Germany accepts the fifth paragraph. The wife submitted the documents. I didn't mind.
Early in the morning a package was slipped under our door. The package included an invitation from the German government to resettle in Deutschland. An invitation to captivity. Voluntarily. The wife gave up. Where am I without her? I followed.
No, we weren't freelance adventurers. We were not playboys, playgirls or dissidents. All of these have long been "set off". These people are back! He was returning from captivity, where the "heroes" got in a fair fight. They were greeted as heroes. We, the faint-hearted, were not even seen off. We were escorted out by extra mouths, extra claims, extra applicants. We sailed quietly.
STRASBURG ALLEY
"By the way, do you know what Jordan is called in Arabic? It's very simple: Shariah, which means only "watering place"". This is from "Spring in Judea" by Bunin. From the collection "Dark Alleys". Even in this phrase torn off from the whole, longing comes through. The longing of an emigrant. My heroes are also emigrants, they left seven decades later than Bunin's heroes. Only the sadness remained the same. Someone lives in Israel, "Judea". Someone here in Germany, in the middle of Europe. In Berlin, on Alexanderplatz, the heroes of Kunin are already singing and juggling. Circus. Laughter through tears. Mine live somewhere, by the author's will, I settled them on the same street. And not only because there is such a street in my city. I just like the name "Strasbourg Alley"... Long, from Augsburg to Hamburg or from Amsterdam to Prague, it will never intersect with Ostozhenka or Arbat. But its inhabitants rejoice and cry, quarrel or have fun, work or study, trying not to think at least during the day about this unfortunate fact. So only sometimes, looking at the stones with inscriptions in an already familiar language that lie on the well-groomed sections of the Friedhof, they will think: “If I lie here, and not on Vagankovsky or Mitinsky, then on the other side I will definitely get“ home. .."
At home, my hero's name was Alyosha.
Alyosha in Russia was doing the same thing as everyone else: nothing worthwhile. Now, as you know, this is called "business". He was shipping some wallpaper from the Baltics. He was engaged in logging for the construction of cottages near Moscow. Then books: deliveries and sales. Once hit the road to China - for jackets made of suspicious leather. If he had saved money, he would have got it, but after thirty people he either gets richer sharply, or he is no longer given wealth. And he gradually gets used to spending. Wine, women, this and that. Over thirty is a critical age for a man. Here and claims, and disappointments. Alyosha buried his mother, changed his parents' two-room apartment for a one-room apartment, and for the difference started a tent in the area where he lived. The tent was in a busy place. Nearby traded in the same Caucasians from one independent republic. And all together they belonged to some "godfather", who collected tribute. The exception was a girl of indeterminate age, Tamara, who sold eggs from a stall. Not a single normal person would have trusted Tamara with a tent, and eggs were an unrespected commodity, only a completely lost person could deal with them. Why? Unknown. Maybe because they always had to sort through, separate the "battle", spoiled ones. And one more thing: there was no need to puzzle over the calculations. For some reason, rounded goods, eggs, cost a round sum for all monetary quotations. Three thousand tens. Five thousand. And for some reason they took them around: a dozen, two. It's rare that a poor guy asks for five. And one thing - even the drunk would not allow himself this. simple goods, simple calculations, simple life, in some way not completed, like the fate of chicken embryos inside. Tamara drank from this life and was supportive of the male sex. An Armenian supplied her with eggs. Where he got them from was a mystery. Just like where he got his beautiful name Narcissus. And no one saw him in the eyes, except, probably, Tamara. The goods were brought by a Russian man on a scooter. Alyosha became friends with Tamara after one incident. Some drunken man once asked Tamara: "Is there any fighting eggs for sale?" "No," said Tamara to the stranger. "Now they will!" he promised and took out a stone from his bosom. Everyone was watching, only Alyosha came out to the noise and took the brick from the drunk. Tamara has since been getting drunk from Alyosha's tent, paying with eggs. Not by night, be it said, eggs play an important role in our history. Alyosha actually hated them. But at that time he saved on everything, did not drink and tolerated the egg diet. Brought home and cooked. While they were preparing, he counted the proceeds and put them in a box from under Chinese jackets.
This went on until Alyosha fell in love with Marina. He had noticed her before, because she lived somewhere nearby. When she began to regularly buy cigarettes from Alyosha and Spumante champagne, which she preferred, our businessman completely lost his head. He liked the way she spoke, and especially the way she called him in her own way: "Alik." It's like they've been family for a long time. Marina settled in Alik's one-room apartment, and they celebrated their union by drinking a case of Spumante from the tent stock. Marina began to trade with Alik. Often Marina traded alone while Alyosha slept, having drunk Spumante since morning.
The French say: "Look for a woman." So Alyosha found it. Marina quickly began to call Spumante champagne "compote", and they switched to the beautiful Pushkin drink, brought from Germany (this fateful word flashed in our story!), But made somewhere in Russia. His tongue and brains quickly turned blue. Then Alyosha offered to drink supposedly American White Eagle vodka - after all, everything was at hand! The "White Eagle" wiped off his tongue, but Alik's brains went sideways. He stopped doing business altogether, just drinking and sleeping on cigarette packs and packs of tea. Waking up, he "recovered" and answered all the remarks of his beloved in monosyllables - with a slap in the face. Marina ran away in tears, and he often fell asleep again. One day he fell asleep without locking the tents. Among the bottles, full and open. Discovered by Tamara. Without waking up the owner, she treated herself and treated her friends. Soon the whole block was on the loose. They drank to Alik's health. Marina came running too late. The damage turned out to be so great that Alik parted ways with the tent, with savings, and with Marina. Nobody needed him like that. Only Tamara once tried to feed him with eggs and brought a whole "cage". He pushed Tamara down the stairs. Fighting eggs were there.
The captivity and betrayal of General Vlasov is one of the most discussed issues regarding the Great Patriotic War. Moreover, the act of one of Stalin's favorites does not always cause negative assessments.
Inevitable outcome
In January 1942, during the Lyuban offensive operation troops of the 2nd shock army of the Volkhov front successfully broke through the German defenses. However, having no strength for a further offensive, they were thoroughly bogged down in the German rear, being threatened by encirclement.
This situation continued until April 20, when Lieutenant General Andrey Vlasov was appointed commander of the 2nd shock army, while retaining the post of deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. “He received troops that were practically no longer able to fight, he received an army that had to be saved,” the publicist Vladimir Beshanov writes in their grip, as well as the 52nd and 59th armies did not succeed in breaking through to meet her. The only thing that our troops managed to do was to break a narrow gap in the German redoubts and save a significant part of the 2nd shock army. On June 25, the enemy liquidated the corridor and the encirclement closed tightly: about 20 thousand Soviet fighters remained in it.
Military writer Oleg Smyslov has no doubt that the main fault in the current situation lies with the headquarters of the 2nd shock army, and specifically with its commander General Vlasov, who was confused and lost the ability to control not only the troops, but also his headquarters.
By order of the Headquarters, a plane was sent to evacuate Vlasov, but he refused. Why didn’t the army commander want to resort to government assistance, as General Alexei Afanasyev, who also broke out of the encirclement, later did? The most obvious answer is that Vlasov refused to leave his own soldiers to the mercy of fate. But there is another version, according to which Vlasov unraveled Stalin's trick: the head of the USSR allegedly intended to bring the objectionable commander to the rear in order to immediately put him on trial.
Where Vlasov was from June 25, 1942 for almost three weeks, no one can say for sure. But on the other hand, it was established that on July 11, in search of food, the general, together with his companion, cook Maria Voronova, went to the village of Tukhovezhi Old Believers. The house where they went turned out to be the home of the local headman - he then handed over the guests to the German auxiliary police.
According to Voronova, Vlasov persistently pretended to be a refugee teacher, and only the next day he was identified from a photograph in a newspaper. According to other information, when the police entered the prisoners locked in the barn, from the darkness it sounded in German: “Do not shoot, I am General Vlasov!”.
For reasons of ambition
Already at the first interrogations, Vlasov showed his willingness to cooperate with the German leadership, reporting information about the deployment of troops and giving a description Soviet military leaders. But, given that the general was not aware of the plans of the General Staff for a long time, the information could be unreliable. A few weeks later, while in the Vinnitsa camp for captured officers, he already offers his services in the fight against the Soviet regime.
What prompted the general, who enjoyed the favor of Stalin himself, to embark on the path of treason? The traditional version says that General Vlasov had a personal dislike for Stalin and for the dictatorship he created, and therefore decided that serving the Nazis was a choice of the lesser two evils. Supporters of Vlasov, mainly from among the post-war emigration, argued that the hero of the defense of Moscow took an anti-Soviet position even before the war. He was allegedly prompted to do this by the sad results of Stalinist collectivization, which affected his native village.
Already after the war, Vlasov himself during interrogations admitted to MGB investigators that he reacted extremely hard to the purges in the ranks of the Red Army that took place in 1937-38. In many ways, this fact pushed him to treason.
Andrey Sidorchik, editor of the "Society" section of the "Arguments and Facts" Internet portal, is not inclined to believe Vlasov's statements. He believes that the true reason for the betrayal of the general should be sought in his insatiable love for fame and career growth. Vlasov, who was captured, could hardly count on a worthy career and lifelong honors in his homeland, and therefore the only way out for him was to side with the enemy.
Similar thoughts were expressed by the writer and journalist Ilya Ehrenburg. Vlasov is not Brutus and not Prince Kurbsky, Ehrenburg writes, everything is much simpler: he expected to complete the task entrusted to him, accept Stalin's congratulations, receive another order and, ultimately, rise. But it turned out differently. Once captured, he was frightened - his career was over. If the Soviet Union wins, it will be demoted at best. So, there is only one thing left: to accept the offer of the Germans and do everything so that Germany wins. Ambition prevailed, - the journalist concludes.
By the will of fate
There is information that despite the encirclement of the 2nd shock army, Stalin still trusted Vlasov, and even before the capture of the general, he intended to give him an important sector of the front in the Stalingrad region. It was for this reason that a plane was sent for Vlasov. Perhaps if Vlasov had returned to the Soviet rear, everything would have turned out that way. And it is possible that a talented military leader could get the laurels of the winner, which were later given to Zhukov and Rokossovsky. But fate was pleased to dispose of otherwise.
One of the few pieces of evidence that tells about Vlasov's stay in captivity is the words of the German captain Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt. He, on behalf of the head of the intelligence service of the German General Staff Colonel Reinhard Gehlen was looking for a man among the Soviet prisoners of war who could lead the anti-Stalinist movement. It is noteworthy that Strikfeldt was a Russian German, born in St. Petersburg, who served in the imperial army.
According to the captain, conversations with Vlasov were of an extremely confidential nature. He asked the general questions like these: “Is the fight against Stalin not only the work of the Germans, but also the work of the Russians themselves and other peoples? Soviet Union? Vlasov seriously thought about this, and after painful reflections, he made a choice in favor of fighting Bolshevism, Strikfeldt said.
If the German officer did not play a key role in Vlasov's decision, then in any case he pushed him to such a choice. Inflated self-esteem, morbid pride, stress, confusion of the Soviet general contributed to this well.
An important fact that suggests that Vlasov was by no means an ideological fighter against Stalinism. During the process in 1946, he did not even try to defend his convictions, although he had nothing to lose: he was well aware that in any case he would be shot. On the contrary, Vlasov repented of the perfect betrayal.
Stalin's agent
Recently, a version has become popular that Vlasov was actually a strategic agent of the Kremlin, sent to the very heart of the Third Reich. The ultimate goal of this action is to intercept the leadership of the Eastern formations of the Wehrmacht and the SS.
For example, the Russian military historian Viktor Filatov in the book “How many faces did General Vlasov have?” writes that sending Vlasov to the Volkhov Front was part of a special operation planned by Stalin and Soviet intelligence. According to the writer, Stalin knew that the Germans were preparing to form units from millions of Soviet prisoners of war to use them on the fronts against the Red Army. In order not to let the process take its course in place of the head of this " foreign legion"And Vlasov was sent.
As confirmation of his theory, Filatov refers to the entire subsequent course of hostilities with the participation of the ROA. Yes, during Berlin operation Zhukov struck precisely on the sector of defense where the 1st division of the ROA, Colonel Bunyachenko, was located. The offensive began on April 16, 1945, and on the eve of April 15, the Vlasovites, allegedly by prior agreement, left their positions.
Former Soviet spy Stanislav Lekarev claims that Soviet command used Vlasov units to confront the allies. According to him, Stalin understood that the Anglo-American troops could go through the entire central and Eastern Europe and block Soviet army within the borders of the USSR in 1939-40. That is why, at the Tehran Conference, the Soviet leader insisted that the allies land not in the south of France, but in Normandy. After all, a significant part of the western Atlantic Wall was defended by the eastern battalions of the Wehrmacht, which were under the control of General Vlasov.
Supporters of the official version - the betrayal of General Vlasov - have many questions about this frankly conspiracy theory. Chief among them, why then did Stalin execute his protege? The most popular answer: "Vlasov was executed so as not to violate the conspiracy."
