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✪ I don’t have a snack after the first glass.
✪ “The Fate of Man” Andrey Sokolov and Vanyusha
✪ “The Fate of Man” by M. Sholokhov. Analysis of the 1st part of the story.
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Biography
Born in the Voronezh province in 1900. During the Civil War he served in the army, in the Kikvidze division. In 1922, he went to Kuban “to fight against the kulaks, thanks to which he remained alive.” Andrei's father, mother and sister died of hunger. In 1923, he sold the house and left for Voronezh. He worked as a carpenter, then got a job as a mechanic at a factory. He met Irina, who was brought up in an orphanage, and married her. Until the end of his life he loved his wife very much. Soon the Sokolovs had a son, Anatoly, and a year later, two daughters: Anastasia and Olga. Sokolov stopped drinking. In 1929, Sokolov became interested in cars. He studied driving, got a job as a truck driver, and decided not to return to the factory. It worked like this until 1939. All the children studied excellently. On June 23, 1941, Sokolov was called up to the front. Already on June 24 he was taken to the train.
Sokolov was formed under the White Church, he received a ZIS-5. Was wounded twice. He was captured near Lozovenki in May 1942 while trying to smuggle shells for an artillery unit. His car was blown up. He lost consciousness and ended up in the rear of the German army, where he was captured. In the face of death, he did not lose heart and did not show fear to the enemy. Soon Andrei was brought to Poznan and settled in a camp. There, while digging graves for his dead compatriots, Andrei tried to escape. The escape was unsuccessful: detective dogs found Sokolov in the field. He was very badly beaten and bitten. For escaping, Andrei ended up in a camp punishment cell for a month.
Sokolov was transferred around Germany for a long time. He worked in Saxony at a silicate plant, in the Ruhr region in a coal mine, in Bavaria in earthworks, in Thuringia and in many other places. All prisoners of war were constantly and mercilessly beaten with anything. The food was very bad. Sokolov, from 86 kg, had already lost weight to less than 50 kg by the autumn of 1942.
In September, Andrei, among 142 Soviet prisoners of war, was transferred from the camp near Küstrin to the B-14 camp near Dresden. In total there were about 2,000 Soviet prisoners there. In two months, out of 142 people in Andreev’s echelon, 57 remained. One evening in his barracks, cold and wet, Andrei said: “They need four cubic meters of production, but for the grave of each of us, one cubic meter through the eyes is enough.”.
A traitor was found who reported this statement to management. Andrei was summoned to the camp commandant Müller. He promised to shoot Sokolov personally for these bitter words. Sokolov was pardoned for his courage. 300 of the strongest prisoners were sent to drain the swamps, then to the Ruhr region to work in the mines.
Then Andrei was appointed driver of a major in the German army. He soon escaped in a car and took a German officer with him.
I wrote a letter to Irina immediately after the meeting with the command. He described everything, even boasted that the colonel had promised to put him up for a reward. But in response, a letter came from a neighbor, Ivan Timofeevich.
Having received a month's leave, Andrei immediately headed to Voronezh. I saw a crater overgrown with weeds at the site of my house. He immediately returned to the front. But soon he received a letter from his son, which restored his stamina and desire to live.
But on the last day of the war, Anatoly Sokolov was shot by a German sniper.
Heartbroken, Andrei returned to Russia, but went not to Voronezh, but to Uryupinsk to visit a demobilized friend. Started working as a driver. He met the homeless orphan Vanya, whose mother was killed by a bomb and whose father died at the front, and adopted him, telling the boy that he was his father.
Shortly after that I had an accident. He himself was not injured, but was deprived of his driver's license. On the advice of a friend, he decided to move to another area, where they promised to restore his rights. While walking, the author meets him, to whom Sokolov tells the story of his life (in the spring of 1946).
The story “The Fate of a Man” has no continuation, so the further fate of the hero is unknown.
Analysis
Naum Leiderman believes that the main features of Andrei Sokolov are his fatherhood and soldiering. Andrei Sokolov is a tragic character who managed to maintain his fortitude despite being seriously wounded, captivity, escape, the death of his family, and, finally, the death of his son on May 9, 1945. A. B. Galkin compares his fate with the story of the book of Job. Sholokhov scholar Viktor Vasilievich Petelin in the book “Mikhail Sholokhov: Pages of Life and Creativity”, M., 1986, P. 13) wrote: “In the tragic image of Andrei Sokolov, Sholokhov saw a man-fighter with titanic spiritual powers, who had experienced and survived a lot, broken excruciating suffering that left an indelible mark on his soul.”
There are many works in Russian literature that tell about the Great Patriotic War. A striking example is Mikhail Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man,” where the author gives us not so much a description of the war, but a description of the life of an ordinary person during the difficult war years. In the story "The Fate of Man" the main characters are not historical figures, not titled officials, nor famous officers. They are ordinary people, but with a very difficult fate.
Main characters
Sholokhov's story is small in volume, it takes up only ten pages of text. And there are not so many heroes in it. The main character of the story is a Soviet soldier - Andrei Sokolov. Everything that happens to him in life, we hear from his lips. Sokolov is the narrator of the entire story. His named son, the boy Vanyusha, plays an important role in the story. It ends the sad story of Sokolov and opens a new page in his life. They become inseparable from each other, so let’s classify Vanyusha as one of the main characters.
Andrey Sokolov
Andrei Sokolov is the main character of the story “The Fate of Man” by Sholokhov. His character is truly Russian. How many troubles he experienced, what torments he endured, only he himself knows. The hero speaks about this on the pages of the story: “Why did you, life, cripple me like that?
Why did you distort it like that?” He slowly tells his life from beginning to end to a fellow traveler with whom he sat down to have a cigarette by the road.
Sokolov had to endure a lot: hunger, captivity, the loss of his family, and the death of his son on the day the war ended. But he endured everything, survived everything, because he had a strong character and iron fortitude. “That’s why you’re a man, that’s why you’re a soldier, to endure everything, to endure everything, if need calls for it,” Andrei Sokolov himself said. His Russian character did not allow him to break down, retreat in the face of difficulties, or surrender to the enemy. He snatched life from death itself.
All the hardships and cruelties of the war that Andrei Sokolov endured did not kill his human feelings or harden his heart. When he met little Vanyusha, just as lonely as he was, just as unhappy and unwanted, he realized that he could become his family. “There is no way for us to disappear separately! I’ll take him as my child,” Sokolov decided. And he became a father to a homeless boy.
Sholokhov very accurately revealed the character of the Russian man, a simple soldier who fought not for ranks and orders, but for the Motherland. Sokolov is one of those many who fought for the country, not sparing their lives. He embodied the entire spirit of the Russian people - persistent, strong, invincible. The characterization of the hero of the story “The Fate of a Man” is given by Sholokhov through the speech of the character himself, through his thoughts, feelings, and actions. We walk with him through the pages of his life. Sokolov goes through a difficult path, but remains human. A kind, sympathetic person who lends a helping hand to little Vanyusha.
Vanyusha
A boy of five or six years old. He was left without parents, without a home. His father died at the front, and his mother was killed by a bomb while traveling on a train. Vanyusha walked around in tattered, dirty clothes, and ate what people served. When he met Andrei Sokolov, he reached out to him with all his soul. “Dear folder! I knew! I knew you would find me! You'll find it anyway! I’ve been waiting so long for you to find me!” – the delighted Vanyusha shouted with tears in his eyes. For a long time he could not tear himself away from his father, apparently afraid that he would lose him again. But in Vanyusha’s memory the image of his real father was preserved; he remembered the leather cloak that he wore. And Sokolov told Vanyusha that he probably lost him in the war.
Two loneliness, two destinies are now intertwined so tightly that they can never be separated. The heroes of “The Fate of Man” Andrei Sokolov and Vanyusha are now together, they are one family. And we understand that they will live according to their conscience, in truth. They will survive everything, they will survive everything, they will be able to do everything.
Minor characters
There are also a number of minor characters in the work. This is Sokolov’s wife Irina, his children – daughters Nastenka and Olyushka, son Anatoly. They don’t speak in the story, they are invisible to us, Andrei remembers them. The company commander, the dark-haired German, the military doctor, the traitor Kryzhnev, Lagerführer Müller, the Russian colonel, Andrei’s Uryupinsk friend - all these are the heroes of Sokolov’s own story. Some have neither a first nor a last name, because they are episodic characters in Sokolov’s life.
The real, audible hero here is the author. He meets Andrei Sokolov at the crossing and listens to his life story. It is with him that our hero talks, to whom he tells his fate.
Work test
The Great Patriotic War, even after many decades, remains the greatest blow for the whole world. What a tragedy this is for the fighting Soviet people, who lost the most people in this bloody battle! The lives of many (both military and civilian) were ruined. Sholokhov's story “The Fate of Man” truthfully depicts these sufferings, not of an individual person, but of the entire people who stood up to defend their Motherland.
The story “The Fate of a Man” is based on real events: M.A. Sholokhov met a man who told him his tragic biography. This story was almost a ready-made plot, but did not immediately turn into a literary work. The writer nurtured his idea for 10 years, but put it on paper in just a few days. And he dedicated it to E. Levitskaya, who helped him publish the main novel of his life, “Quiet Don.”
The story was published in the Pravda newspaper on the eve of the new year, 1957. And soon it was read on All-Union Radio and heard throughout the country. Listeners and readers were shocked by the power and truthfulness of this work, and it gained well-deserved popularity. In literary terms, this book opened up a new way for writers to explore the theme of war - through the fate of a little man.
The essence of the story
The author accidentally meets the main character Andrei Sokolov and his son Vanyushka. During the forced delay at the crossing, the men started talking, and a casual acquaintance told the writer his story. This is what he told him.
Before the war, Andrei lived like everyone else: wife, children, household, work. But then thunder struck, and the hero went to the front, where he served as a driver. One fateful day, Sokolov’s car came under fire and he was shell-shocked. So he was captured.
A group of prisoners was brought to the church for the night, many incidents happened that night: the shooting of a believer who could not desecrate the church (they didn’t even let him out “until the wind”), and with him several people who accidentally fell under machine gun fire, help from a doctor to Sokolov and others wounded. Also, the main character had to strangle another prisoner, since he turned out to be a traitor and was going to hand over the commissioner. Even during the next transfer to the concentration camp, Andrei tried to escape, but was caught by dogs, who stripped him of his last clothes and bit him so much that “the skin and meat flew into shreds.”
Then the concentration camp: inhuman work, almost starvation, beatings, humiliation - that’s what Sokolov had to endure. “They need four cubic meters of production, but for the grave of each of us, one cubic meter through the eyes is enough!” - Andrei said imprudently. And for this he appeared before Lagerführer Müller. They wanted to shoot the main character, but he overcame his fear, bravely drank three glasses of schnapps to his death, for which he earned respect, a loaf of bread and a piece of lard.
Towards the end of hostilities, Sokolov was appointed driver. And finally, an opportunity arose to escape, and even together with the engineer whom the hero was driving. Before the joy of salvation had time to subside, grief arrived: he learned about the death of his family (a shell hit the house), and all this time he lived only in the hope of a meeting. One son survived. Anatoly also defended his homeland, and Sokolov and he simultaneously approached Berlin from different directions. But right on the day of victory, the last hope was killed. Andrey was left all alone.
Subjects
The main theme of the story is a man at war. These tragic events are an indicator of personal qualities: in extreme situations, those character traits that are usually hidden are revealed, it is clear who is who in reality. Before the war, Andrei Sokolov was not particularly different; he was like everyone else. But in battle, having survived captivity and constant danger to life, he proved himself. His truly heroic qualities were revealed: patriotism, courage, perseverance, will. On the other hand, a prisoner like Sokolov, probably also no different in ordinary peaceful life, was going to betray his commissar in order to curry favor with the enemy. Thus, the theme of moral choice is also reflected in the work.
Also M.A. Sholokhov touches on the topic of willpower. The war took away from the main character not only his health and strength, but also his entire family. He has no home, how can he continue to live, what to do next, how to find meaning? This question has interested hundreds of thousands of people who have experienced similar losses. And for Sokolov, caring for the boy Vanyushka, who was also left without a home and family, became a new meaning. And for his sake, for the sake of the future of his country, you need to live on. Here is the disclosure of the theme of the search for the meaning of life - a real person finds it in love and hope for the future.
Issues
- The problem of choice occupies an important place in the story. Every person faces a choice every day. But not everyone has to choose on pain of death, knowing that your fate depends on this decision. So, Andrei had to decide: to betray or remain faithful to the oath, to bend under the blows of the enemy or to fight. Sokolov was able to remain a worthy person and citizen because he determined his priorities, guided by honor and morality, and not by the instinct of self-preservation, fear or meanness.
- The whole fate of the hero, in his life trials, reflects the problem of the defenselessness of the common man in the face of war. Little depends on him; circumstances are falling on him, from which he is trying to get out at least alive. And if Andrei was able to save himself, then his family was not. And he feels guilty about it, even though he isn't.
- The problem of cowardice is realized in the work through secondary characters. The image of a traitor who, for the sake of immediate gain, is ready to sacrifice the life of a fellow soldier, becomes a counterweight to the image of the brave and strong-willed Sokolov. And there were such people in the war, says the author, but there were fewer of them, that’s the only reason we won.
- The tragedy of war. Numerous losses were suffered not only by the military units, but also by civilians who could not defend themselves in any way.
- Andrei Sokolov is an ordinary person, one of many who had to leave their peaceful existence in order to defend their homeland. He exchanges a simple and happy life for the dangers of war, without even imagining how he can remain on the sidelines. In extreme circumstances, he maintains spiritual nobility, shows willpower and perseverance. Under the blows of fate, he managed not to break. And find a new meaning in life, which reveals his kindness and responsiveness, because he sheltered an orphan.
- Vanyushka is a lonely boy who has to spend the night wherever he can. His mother was killed during the evacuation, his father at the front. Tattered, dusty, covered in watermelon juice - this is how he appeared before Sokolov. And Andrei could not leave the child, he introduced himself as his father, giving both himself and him a chance for a further normal life.
Characteristics of the main characters
What is the meaning of the work?
One of the main ideas of the story is the need to take into account the lessons of the war. The example of Andrei Sokolov shows not what war can do to a person, but what it can do to all of humanity. Prisoners tortured in concentration camps, orphaned children, destroyed families, scorched fields - this should never be repeated, and therefore should not be forgotten.
No less important is the idea that in any, even the most terrible situation, one must remain human and not become like an animal that, out of fear, acts only on the basis of instincts. Survival is the main thing for anyone, but if this comes at the cost of betraying oneself, one’s comrades, one’s Motherland, then the surviving soldier is no longer a person, he is not worthy of this title. Sokolov did not betray his ideals, did not break, although he went through something that is difficult for a modern reader to even imagine.
Genre
A short story is a short literary genre that reveals one storyline and several characters. “The Fate of Man” refers specifically to him.
However, if you take a closer look at the composition of the work, you can clarify the general definition, because this is a story within a story. First, the story is narrated by the author, who, by the will of fate, met and talked with his character. Andrei Sokolov himself describes his difficult life; the first-person narration allows readers to better understand the hero’s feelings and understand him. The author's remarks are introduced to characterize the hero from the outside (“eyes, as if sprinkled with ashes,” “I didn’t see a single tear in his seemingly dead, extinct eyes... only his large, limply lowered hands trembled slightly, his chin trembled, his hard lips trembled”) and show how deeply this strong man suffers.
What values does Sholokhov promote?
The main value for the author (and for readers) is peace. Peace between states, peace in society, peace in the human soul. The war destroyed the happy life of Andrei Sokolov, as well as many people. The echo of the war still does not subside, so its lessons should not be forgotten (although this event has often recently been overestimated for political purposes that are far from the ideals of humanism).
Also, the writer does not forget about the eternal values of the individual: nobility, courage, will, desire to help. The time of knights and noble dignity has long passed, but true nobility does not depend on origin, it is in the soul, expressed in its ability to show mercy and empathy, even if the world around it is collapsing. This story is a great lesson in courage and morality for modern readers.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!The great work of Mikhail Sholokhov “The Fate of Man” is familiar to every person. His story tells about the fate of an ordinary Soviet man who suffered the hardships of war, the hardships associated with captivity, and the loss of his family. The confession of an ordinary person in those difficult years presents the reader with his life path, showing at the same time the history of the USSR: the civil war, famine, the first five-year plans, the Great Patriotic War.
At the beginning of his story, the main character tells his random travel companion that in the pre-war years his family lived in abundance. This fact indicates that Sokolov is a caring man who is not alien to family values.
His heart is not occupied by the situation in the country, nor by religious problems, nor by the ideological desire to be useful to society; human concepts are important to him: home, family, work. It is his wife and children who become the life guide for Andrei, for the sake of which he does not give up and survives in captivity. The further tragic fate of the protagonist is presented as a test of strength of the main values.
The fact that Sokolov was captured is not an example of the main character’s cowardice, it is just an example of an unfortunate combination of circumstances. In the old church, where prisoners await their fate, Sokolov, killing the traitor, positions himself as a strong man with enormous endurance and spirit.
Only a strong, purposeful person can attempt an escape from captivity, even if it turns out to be unsuccessful.
A conversation with the fascists who are going to shoot him is a new test for Sokolov. With his bravery and bravery, he awakens humanity in German officers, who are surprised at this very courage and good spirits of a captured soldier. They admit defeat to his willpower and patriotism, granting him life.
A way to escape from captivity appears, Sokolov implements it, taking the “tongue” with him. Andrei is so devoted to his ideals, to his dreams of a long-awaited meeting with his family, that no one can stop this man.
Sokolov returns to duty and fights for his homeland and for his relatives. And now a new blow awaits him. In captivity, Andrei lives without losing his self-esteem and hope for the future, but the news of the death of his family refracts his proud character. Sokolov experiences his tragedy, but feels killed. His dream speaks about this: Andrei sees himself behind barbed wire, and his relatives alive and free. He wants to go to them, but cannot.
A meeting with the orphan Vanyushka forces him to become at least partly a self-confident person again, overcome his negative habits and live.
Mikhail Sholokhov's story tells that human values will never fade under the onslaught of troubles and troubles.
Andrei Sokolov is the main character of M. A. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man,” a front-line driver, a man who went through the whole war. During the Civil War he lost his father, mother and younger sister, and during the Great Patriotic War - his wife, two daughters and a son. Andrey was a native of the Voronezh province. With the beginning of the Civil War, he joined the Red Army, in the Kikvidze division, and in 1922 he went to Kuban to work as a laborer for the kulaks. Thanks to this, he remained alive, and his family died of hunger. In 1926, he sold the hut and moved to Voronezh, where he worked as a mechanic.
Soon he married a good girl, Irina, an orphan from an orphanage who knew all the sorrows of life from childhood. Andrei doted on his wife, and if he inadvertently offended him, he immediately hugged her and apologized. They had three children: one son, Anatoly, and two daughters. At the beginning of the war he was called to the front. After that, he never saw his family again. Once in the captive camp, he was wounded more than once and more than once on the brink of death. He was driven all over Germany for a long time, worked first in a factory, sometimes in a mine, but over time he became the driver of a German major engineer, from whom he later ran away. Once in his native land, he wrote a letter to his wife, but received an answer from a neighbor. The letter said that his house was hit by a bomb in 1942, his wife and daughters were killed. The son was not at home, which means he survived. However, he soon learned that Anatoly was killed by a sniper.
So Andrei was left alone in the whole world. He did not want to return to Voronezh, but went to visit a friend in Uryupinsk. He and his wife took him in. Soon Sokolov met an orphan boy named Vanya. The boy's parents died and he was left completely alone. Sokolov told him that he was his father and took him in for upbringing. A friend's wife helped raise the boy. So they lived first in Uryupinsk, and then Andrei and Vanyusha were sent to Kashary. It was the first spring after the war. The further fate of the hero is unknown.