A test based on Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” will help you better remember the key points of the work.

Test on “The Fate of Man” by Sholokhov with answers

1. M.A. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” is written:

- in 1937, - in 1947, - 1957.

2. What did the hero of the story “The Fate of Man” do when he met the orphan boy Vanyusha:

- gave him to an orphanage

— adopted

- found his mother

3. The hero of M.A. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man”:

- “simple Soviet man”

- prominent military leader

- a peasant who found himself at the front

4. M.A. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” is dedicated to the events:

- First World War

Civil War

-Great Patriotic War

5. The name of the hero of M.A. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man”:

— Andrey Orlov

Alexey Sokolov

-Andrey Sokolov

Tests with answers “The fate of man”

1. Determine the composition of the work: A. True story B. Story within a story C. Tale D. Drama

2. Having chosen this title for his work, Sholokhov narrates:

A. About the fate of Andrei Sokolov B. About the fate of one of the many Russian soldiers

V. About the fate of all humanity as a whole D. About the fate of Vanyusha

3. To whom was M.A. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” dedicated:

A. Maria Petrovna Sholokhova B. Former captured soldiers

V. Evgenia Grigorievna Levitskaya G. Nina Petrovna Ogareva

4. The time of year when the narrator met Sokolov: A. Spring B. Autumn C. Summer D. Winter

5. Year of birth of Andrei Sokolov? A. 1898 B. 1900 C. 1902 D. 1905

6. How many parts can Andrei Sokolov’s life be divided into? A. 2, B. 3, C. 1, D. 4

7. Where and when was Andrei Sokolov captured?

A. Near Stalingrad - July 1942 B. Near Kursk - July 1943

V. Near Leningrad - 1941-1944 G. Near Lozovenki - in May 1942

8. Andrei Sokolov, after being captured: A. Resigned to his fate

B. Hoped for a quick liberation by Soviet troops

B. Tried to do all the work without any complaints D. Always thought about escaping

9. What camp number did Andrei Sokolov have? A. 881, B. 331, C. 734, D. 663.

10. Why didn’t Sokolov touch the bread during interrogation by Muller?

V. Showed the enemies the dignity and pride of a soldier G. Was disingenuous and disingenuous

11. Where did Sokolov have to visit during his 2 years of captivity in Germany?

A. Saxony B. Hesse C. Warsaw D. Berlin

12. When Andrei Sokolov was released from captivity: A. 1944 B. 1945 C. 1942 D. 1943

13. What brand of car did A. Sokolov use to transport shells at the front?

A. ZIS-5 B. semi-truck C. GAZ-67 D. Oppel

14. How many times was A. Sokolov wounded? A. 2 B.3 C. 4 D. 1

15. What was the name of Andrei Sokolov’s wife? A. Olga B. Lydia C. Irina G. Anna

16. What were the names of Andrei Sokolov’s children? A. Anatoly, Olyushka, Nastenka B. Ksyusha, Sergey, Maxim

V. Nina, Tanyushka, Lenochka G. Alexander, Dmitry, Andreika

17. In what year did Andrei Sokolov’s family die?

A. 1941 B. 1942 C. 1943 D. 1944

18. Name the farm opposite which the heroes of the story “The Fate of Man” crossed the river? A. VolokhovskyB. MokhovskoyV. SolontsovskyG. Roadside

A. 3-4 B. 4-5 C. 5-6 D. 7-8

20. When was Andrei Sokolov’s son killed?

War of 1941 - 1945. Victory Day. My generation is almost deprived of the opportunity to hear about those events from the lips of their participants. But there is literature, immortal works, thanks to which the memory will live.

One of such works is M. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man.” It describes the life of a simple Russian soldier Andrei Sokolov. Or rather, what happened after his real life ended, when the ruthless war made its bloody changes.

Together with the narrator, we involuntarily shudder, feeling an internal chill: “I looked at him from the side, and I felt uneasy... Have you ever seen eyes, as if sprinkled with ashes, filled with such an inescapable mortal melancholy that it is difficult to look into them? ? These are the eyes my interlocutor had.” No one is able to read the following monologue by Andrei Sokolov at the beginning of the story without excitement: “Sometimes you don’t sleep at night, you look into the darkness with empty eyes and think: “Why have you, life, maimed me so much? Why did you distort it like that?” I don’t have an answer, either in the dark or in the clear sun... There isn’t and I can’t wait!”

“The fate of man”... How many of these destinies are there? It is not for nothing that Sholokhov chose such a simple and common Russian name for the hero. Time runs inexorably forward, there are no more people of Sokolov’s generation left today, fewer and fewer of them are witnesses of that terrible war. The soldier of the Second Belorussian Front, Donnikov, who told Sholokhov about his fate and became the prototype of Andrei Sokolov, is also no longer alive. The thread is getting thinner. But it will not end as long as we read such stories, until the living fire goes out. ..

Language analysis of the work

The writer’s task is to introduce the reader to his material not only through a story. A writer-artist must not reflect his characters, the landscape, and all the visible details that fall into his pictorial orbit as in a mirror, but recreate them in a unique rhythm, his own, in his own style.

Each writer-artist has his own sense of language. Style is an exponent of the writer’s creative psyche and life philosophy. No wonder the old aphorism lives on: style is a person.

Mikhail Sholokhov has his own vocabulary, amazing in accuracy, his own style and his own rhythm of the wonderful Russian language. In all its richness are all the qualities that create a writer-artist.

“The image of the author is formed and developed throughout the story.” At the beginning of the work, the author and Sokolov “have nothing in common.” The author's language is noticeably different from Sokolov's in its literary and picturesque quality. Sokolov's dramatically accelerated story contrasts sharply with the slow-motion epic beginning of the author.

“...In Sokolov’s story there are very few figurative epithets (and even definitions in general), while the author’s text is full of them.”

Sokolov’s language, in comparison with the author’s, is more expressive, distinguished by its colloquial nature, the use of colloquial words (“bale”, “huge”, “theirs”, “cutie”, “posimali”), including colloquial introductory words (“ therefore", "maybe").

Features of the language of the story by M.A. Sholokhov "The Fate of Man"

Story structure and characters' language

In its structure, the story “The Fate of a Man” represents a tale within a story - there are two subjects: the narrator-character, an experienced person Andrei Sokolov, and the author, who serves as an interlocutor and listener; his narrative, as it were, frames Sokolov’s story (the author owns the introduction and conclusion). This construction of the work emphasizes that the main thing for the author was to depict the structure of thoughts and feelings of his hero, his relationship to the world around him, his idea of ​​what is owed and desired, i.e. about the ideal.

“Only I didn’t even have to fight for a year... Twice during this time I was wounded, but both times lightly: once in the soft arm, the other in the leg; the first time - with a bullet from an airplane, the second - with a shell fragment. The German made holes in my car both from the top and from the sides, but, brother, I was lucky at first. I was lucky, and I got to the very end... I was captured near Lozovenki in May 1942 in such an awkward situation: the Germans were advancing strongly at the time, and it turned out to be our... battery with almost no shells; They loaded my car to the brim with shells, and while loading I myself worked so hard that my tunic stuck to my shoulder blades. We had to hurry because the battle was approaching us: on the left someone’s tanks were thundering, on the right there was shooting, there was shooting ahead, and it was already starting to smell like something fried...”

“The commander of our company asks: “Will you get through, Sokolov?” And there was nothing to ask here. My comrades may be dying there, but I’ll be sick here? “What a conversation! - I answer him. “I have to get through and that’s it!” “Well,” he says, “blow!” Push all the hardware!”

In addition to information about something specific from the life of the narrator-character, this text contains very important figurative content. It is easy to establish that in the use of words: by ease, to the very beginning, chug, that's it, blow, press all the hardware - Sokolov's belonging to a certain cultural, professional and territorial environment is revealed.

More important figurative information - about the structure of the narrator’s thoughts and feelings - is conveyed in this text by the statements: “ But I didn’t even have to fight for a year...”; “The German made holes in my car... but, brother, I was lucky at first.” “I was lucky, I was lucky, and I got to the very end...”; “I was captured... on such an awkward occasion...”; “it turned out to be our... battery...”. All of them have the meaning of objective necessity - impersonal sentences, for example, in comparison with personal ones, express an action imposed on the subject from the outside, against his will. These statements are semantically correlated with the word “ fate", which (among other meanings) has the meaning: “a combination of circumstances independent of a person’s will, the course of life events.”

This understanding of fate by Sokolov is confirmed by the use of statements: “ We had to hurry..."; “I have to rush through and that’s it!” expressing in this text the most important information about the structure of thoughts and feelings of the hero. These statements have the meaning of ought, i.e. obligation based on the firm decision of the speaker himself. Their use expresses the main idea of ​​the story “The Fate of Man”, the author’s ideal, the idea of ​​what is proper and desirable - no matter how difficult the circumstances for a person, a person can relate to the circumstances actively, act as his human dignity and citizenship require. duty.

The fact that this is the main idea that M. Sholokhov wanted to express is confirmed by the entire structure of the story “The Fate of Man.”

Compositionally, Sokolov's story is a series of short stories, each of which deals with some episode from his life. In each of these short stories, an orderliness of linguistic units that expresses the narrator’s structure of thought and feelings is revealed, hidden from superficial reading. And in each short story there are linguistic means with the help of which Sokolov’s attitude to circumstances is expressed.

So, Sokolov tells the following about his first impressions of being in captivity:

“I walked a little, and a column of our prisoners, from the same division in which I was, catches up with me. They are being chased by about ten German machine gunners. The one who was walking in front of the column caught up with me, without saying a bad word, he whipped me on the head with the handle of his machine gun. If I had fallen, he would have pinned me to the ground with a burst of fire, but our guys caught me in flight, pushed me into the middle and held me by the arms for half an hour. And when I came to my senses, one of them whispered: “God forbid you fall! Go with all your strength, otherwise they will kill you.” And I tried my best, but I went.

This text also contains words that characterize the narrator’s belonging to a certain cultural environment: “ whipped, came to his senses.” Here we find a statement semantically correlated with the word fate in the meaning of “coincidence of circumstances”: “ If I had fallen, he would have pinned me to the ground with a burst of fire..." - a statement with a verb in the conditional mood, showing how the narrator’s fate would have turned out if he had obeyed the circumstances. Finally, here in the sentence: “ And I tried my best, but I went"(where the adversative conjunction But brings meaning: “despite the extremely difficult circumstances that have developed for the narrator”) finds expression of the hero’s active attitude to the circumstances.

And in each subsequent episode of Sokolov’s story about being in captivity, linguistic means that have the meaning of obligation certainly appear.

From the point of view of attitude to circumstances, Sokolov evaluates the characters in his story in the episode where we are talking about the prisoners spending the night in the church. The main thing in his assessment of a person in each case is loyalty to his civic and military duty.

The climax of the episode in the church is Sokolov's story about the platoon commander and Kryzhnev.

In Kryzhnev’s speech the proverb “ Your shirt is closer to your body". In the entire story “The Fate of Man,” besides this one, another proverb is used, in Sokolov’s own speech addressed to the author: “Let me, I think, I’ll come in and have a smoke together. One is sick of smoking and dying" The figurative meaning of these two proverbs is due to the fact that they are related to each other semantically - they express the extremely opposite attitude of Sokolov and Kryzhnev to the world around them, to people.

The immortal work of M. A. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man” is a real ode to the common people, whose life was completely broken by the war.

Features of the story composition

The main character here is presented not as a legendary heroic figure, but as a simple person, one of the millions of people who were touched by the tragedy of the war.

The fate of man in wartime

Andrei Sokolov was a simple rural worker who, like everyone else, worked on a collective farm, had a family and lived an ordinary measured life. He boldly goes to defend his fatherland from the fascist invaders, thus leaving his children and wife to the mercy of fate.

At the front, the main character begins those terrible trials that turned his life upside down. Andrei learns that his wife, daughter and youngest son were killed in an air attack. He takes this loss very hard, as he feels his own guilt for what happened to his family.

However, Andrei Sokolov has something to live for; he still has his eldest son, who during the war was able to achieve significant success in military affairs, and was his father’s only support. In the last days of the war, fate prepared the last crushing blow for Sokolov; his son was killed by his opponents.

At the end of the war, the main character is morally broken and does not know how to live further: he lost his loved ones, his home was destroyed. Andrey gets a job as a driver in a neighboring village and gradually begins to drink.

As you know, fate, which pushes a person into the abyss, always leaves him a small straw through which, if desired, he can get out of it. Andrei's salvation was a meeting with a little orphan boy whose parents died at the front.

Vanechka had never seen his father and reached out to Andrei, because he longed for the love and attention that the main character showed to him. The dramatic peak in the story is Andrei’s decision to lie to Vanechka that he is his own father.

An unfortunate child, who has never known love, affection or kindness towards himself in his life, throws himself in tears on Andrei Sokolov’s neck and begins to say that he remembered him. So, in essence, two destitute orphans begin their life journey together. They found salvation in each other. Each of them gained a meaning in life.

The moral “core” of Andrei Sokolov’s character

Andrei Sokolov had a real inner core, high ideals of spirituality, steadfastness and patriotism. In one of the episodes of the story, the author tells us how, exhausted by hunger and labor in a concentration camp, Andrei was still able to maintain his human dignity: for a long time he refused the food that the Nazis offered him before they threatened to kill him.

The strength of his character aroused respect even among the German murderers, who ultimately had mercy on him. The bread and lard that they gave to the main character as a reward for his pride, Andrei Sokolov divided among all his starving cellmates.

(Literary investigation)

Participating in the investigation:
Presenter - librarian
Independent historian
Witnesses - literary heroes

Leading: 1956 31th of December the story was published in Pravda "The Fate of Man" . This story began a new stage in the development of our military literature. And here Sholokhov’s fearlessness and Sholokhov’s ability to show the era in all its complexity and in all its drama through the fate of one person played a role.

The main plot motif of the story is the fate of a simple Russian soldier Andrei Sokolov. His life, the same age as the century, is correlated with the biography of the country, with the most important events in history. In May 1942 he was captured. In two years he traveled “half of Germany” and escaped from captivity. During the war, he lost his entire family. After the war, having accidentally met an orphan boy, Andrei adopted him.

After “The Fate of Man,” omissions about the tragic events of the war, about the bitterness of captivity experienced by many Soviet people, became impossible. Soldiers and officers who were very loyal to their homeland and found themselves in a hopeless situation at the front were also captured, but they were often treated as traitors. Sholokhov's story, as it were, pulled back the veil from much that was hidden by the fear of offending the heroic portrait of Victory.

Let's go back to the years of the Great Patriotic War, to its most tragic period - 1942-1943. A word from an independent historian.

Historian: August 16, 1941 Stalin signed the order № 270 , which said:
“Commanders and political workers who surrender to the enemy during battle are considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest, as families of those who violated the oath and betrayed their Motherland.”

The order required the destruction of prisoners by all “by means both ground and air, and the families of the Red Army soldiers who surrendered were deprived of state benefits and assistance”

In 1941 alone, according to German data, 3 million 800 thousand Soviet military personnel were captured. By the spring of 1942, 1 million 100 thousand people remained alive.

In total, out of approximately 6.3 million prisoners of war, about 4 million died during the war.

Leading: The Great Patriotic War ended, the victorious salvos died down, and the peaceful life of the Soviet people began. What was the future fate of people like Andrei Sokolov, who were captured or survived the occupation? How did our society treat such people?

Testifies in his book "My adult childhood".

(The girl testifies on behalf of L.M. Gurchenko).

Witness: Not only Kharkov residents, but also residents of other cities began to return to Kharkov from evacuation. Everyone had to be provided with living space. Those who remained in the occupation were looked at askance. They were primarily moved from apartments and rooms on the floors to basements. We waited our turn.

In the classroom, the new arrivals declared a boycott of those who remained under the Germans. I didn’t understand anything: if I had been through so much, seen so many terrible things, on the contrary, they should understand me, feel sorry for me... I began to be afraid of people who looked at me with contempt and started following me: “shepherd dog.” Oh, if only they knew what a real German Shepherd is. If they had seen how a shepherd dog leads people straight into the gas chamber... these people would not have said that... When films and newsreels appeared on the screen, which showed the horrors of executions and massacres of Germans in the occupied territories, gradually this “disease” began to become a thing of the past .

Leading: ... 10 years have passed since the victorious 1945, Sholokhov’s war did not let go. He was working on a novel "They fought for their homeland" and a story "The Fate of Man."

According to literary critic V. Osipov, this story could not have been created at any other time. It began to be written when its author finally saw the light and realized: Stalin is not an icon for the people, Stalinism is Stalinism. As soon as the story came out, there was praise from almost every newspaper or magazine. Remarque and Hemingway responded - they sent telegrams. And to this day, not a single anthology of Soviet short stories can do without him.

Leading: You have read this story. Please share your impressions, what touched you about him, what left you indifferent?

(Answers from the guys)

Leading: There are two polar opinions about M.A.’s story. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man”: Alexandra Solzhenitsyn and a writer from Almaty Veniamina Larina. Let's listen to them.

(The young man testifies on behalf of A.I. Solzhenitsyn)

Solzhenitsyn A.I.: “The Fate of Man” is a very weak story, where the war pages are pale and unconvincing.

Firstly: the most non-criminal case of captivity was chosen - without memory, in order to make this undeniable, to circumvent the entire severity of the problem. (And if you gave up in memory, as was the case with the majority - what and how then?)

Secondly: the main problem is presented not in the fact that our homeland abandoned us, renounced us, cursed us (not a word about this from Sholokhov), and this is precisely what creates hopelessness, but in the fact that traitors were declared among us there...

Thirdly: a fantastic detective escape from captivity was created with a bunch of exaggerations so that the obligatory, unwavering procedure for those who came from captivity did not arise: “SMERSH-testing-filtration camp.”

Leading: SMERSH - what kind of organization is this? A word from an independent historian.

Historian: From the encyclopedia “The Great Patriotic War”:
“By the Decree of the State Defense Committee of April 14, 1943, the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence “SMERSH” - “Death to Spies” was formed. The intelligence services of Nazi Germany tried to launch widespread subversive activities against the USSR. They created over 130 reconnaissance and sabotage agencies and about 60 special reconnaissance and sabotage schools on the Soviet-German front. Sabotage detachments and terrorists were thrown into the active Soviet Army. SMERSH agencies conducted an active search for enemy agents in areas of combat operations, in the locations of military installations, and ensured timely receipt of information about the dispatch of enemy spies and saboteurs. After the war, in May 1946, SMERSH bodies were transformed into special departments and subordinated to the USSR Ministry of State Security.”

Leading: And now the opinion of Veniamin Larin.

(Young man on behalf of V. Larin)

Larin V .: Sholokhov’s story is praised only for one theme of a soldier’s feat. But literary critics with such an interpretation kill - safely for themselves - the true meaning of the story. Sholokhov’s truth is broader and does not end with victory in the battle with the fascist captivity machine. They pretend that the big story has no continuation: like a big state, big power belongs to a small person, albeit a great one in spirit. Sholokhov rips a revelation out of his heart: look, readers, how the authorities treat people - slogans, slogans, and what the hell care about people! Captivity cut a man to pieces. But there, in captivity, even mutilated, he remained faithful to his country, and returned? Nobody needs! Orphan! And with the boy there are two orphans... Grains of Sand... And not only under a military hurricane. But Sholokhov is great - he was not tempted by a cheap turn of the topic: he did not invest his hero with either pitiful pleas for sympathy or curses addressed to Stalin. I saw in my Sokolov the eternal essence of the Russian person - patience and perseverance.

Leading: Let's turn to the works of writers who write about captivity, and with their help we will recreate the atmosphere of the difficult war years.

(The hero of the story “The Road to the Father’s House” by Konstantin Vorobyov testifies)

Partisan's story: I was taken prisoner near Volokolamsk in '41, and although sixteen years have passed since then, and I remained alive, and divorced my family, and all that stuff, I don’t know how to tell about how I spent the winter in captivity: I don’t have Russian words for this. No!

The two of us escaped from the camp, and over time a whole detachment of us, former prisoners, was assembled. Klimov... restored our military ranks to all of us. You see, you were, say, a sergeant before captivity, and you still remain one. You were a soldier - be one to the end!

It used to happen...you destroy an enemy truck with bombs, and the soul in you immediately seems to straighten out, and something rejoices there - now I’m not fighting for myself alone, like in the camp! Let’s defeat this bastard, we’ll definitely finish it, and that’s how you get to this place before victory, that is, just stop!

And then, after the war, a questionnaire will be required immediately. And there will be one small question - were you in captivity? In place, this question is just for a one-word answer “yes” or “no.”

And to the one who hands you this questionnaire, it doesn’t matter at all what you did during the war, but what matters is where you were! Oh, in captivity? So... Well, you know what it means. In life and in truth, this situation should have been quite the opposite, but here you go!...

Let me say briefly: exactly three months later we joined a large partisan detachment.

I will tell you another time about how we acted until the arrival of our army. Yes, I don’t think it matters. The important thing is that we not only turned out to be alive, but also entered into the human system, that we again turned into fighters, and we remained Russian people in the camps.

Leading: Let's listen to the confession of the partisan and Andrei Sokolov.

Partisan: You were, say, a sergeant before your capture - and remain one. You were a soldier - be one to the end.

Andrey Sokolov : 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.

For both, war is hard work that must be done conscientiously, giving one’s all.

Leading: Major Pugachev testifies from the story V. Shalamov “The Last Battle of Major Pugachev”

Reader: Major Pugachev remembered the German camp from which he escaped in 1944. The front was approaching the city. He worked as a truck driver inside a huge cleaning camp. He remembered how he sped up the truck and knocked down the single-strand barbed wire, tearing out hastily placed poles. Shots of sentries, screams, frantic driving around the city in different directions, an abandoned car, driving at night to the front line and meeting - interrogation in a special department. Charged with espionage, sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Vlasov's emissaries arrived, but he did not believe them until he himself reached the Red Army units. Everything that the Vlasovites said was true. He wasn't needed. The authorities were afraid of him.

Leading: Having listened to the testimony of Major Pugachev, you involuntarily note: his story is straightforward - confirmation of Larin’s correctness:
“He was there, in captivity, even mangled, he remained faithful to his country, and returned?.. No one needs him! Orphan!"

Sergeant Alexey Romanov, a former school history teacher from Stalingrad, the real hero of the story, testifies Sergei Smirnov “The Path to the Motherland” from book "Heroes of the Great War".

(The reader testifies on behalf of A. Romanov)

Alexey Romanov: In the spring of 1942, I ended up in the international camp Feddel, on the outskirts of Hamburg. There, in the port of Hamburg, we were prisoners and worked unloading ships. The thought of escaping did not leave me for a minute. My friend Melnikov and I decided to run away, thought out an escape plan, frankly speaking, a fantastic plan. Escape from the camp, enter the port, hide on a Swedish ship and sail with it to one of the ports of Sweden. From there you can get to England with a British ship, and then with some caravan of allied ships come to Murmansk or Arkhangelsk. And then again pick up a machine gun or a machine gun and, at the front, pay off the Nazis for everything that they had to endure in captivity over the years.

On December 25, 1943, we escaped. We were just lucky. Miraculously, we managed to move to the other side of the Elbe, to the port where the Swedish ship was docked. We climbed into the hold with coke, and in this iron coffin, without water, without food, we sailed to our homeland, and for this we were ready to do anything, even death. I woke up a few days later in a Swedish prison hospital: it turned out that we had been discovered by workers unloading coke. The doctor was called. Melnikov was already dead, but I survived. I began to try to be sent home and ended up with Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai. She helped me return home in 1944.

Leading: Before we continue our conversation, a word from the historian. What do the numbers tell us about the future fate of former prisoners of war?

Historian: From book "The Great Patriotic War. Figures and facts". Those who returned from captivity after the war (1 million 836 thousand people) were sent: more than 1 million people - for further service in units of the Red Army, 600 thousand - to work in industry as part of work battalions, and 339 thousand ( including some civilians) as having compromised themselves in captivity - to NKVD camps.

Leading: War is a continent of cruelty. It is sometimes impossible to protect hearts from the madness of hatred, bitterness, and fear in captivity and blockade. Man is literally brought to the gates of the Last Judgment. Sometimes it is more difficult to endure, to live life in war, surrounded, than to endure death.

What is common in the destinies of our witnesses, what makes their souls related? Are the reproaches addressed to Sholokhov fair?

(We listen to the guys’ answers)

Perseverance, tenacity in the struggle for life, the spirit of courage, camaraderie - these qualities come from the tradition of Suvorov’s soldier, they were sung by Lermontov in “Borodino”, Gogol in the story “Taras Bulba”, they were admired by Leo Tolstoy. Andrei Sokolov has all this, the partisan from Vorobyov’s story, Major Pugachev, Alexei Romanov.

Remaining human in war is not just about surviving and “killing him” (i.e. the enemy). This is to keep your heart for good. Sokolov went to the front as a man, and remained so after the war.

Reader: The story on the theme of the tragic fate of prisoners is the first in Soviet literature. Written in 1955! So why is Sholokhov deprived of the literary and moral right to begin the topic this way and not otherwise?

Solzhenitsyn reproaches Sholokhov for writing not about those who “surrendered” into captivity, but about those who were “trapped” or “captured.” But he did not take into account that Sholokhov could not do otherwise:

Brought up on Cossack traditions. It was no coincidence that he defended Kornilov’s honor before Stalin by the example of escaping from captivity. And in fact, since ancient times of battle, people first of all give sympathy not to those who “surrendered”, but to those who were “captured” due to irresistible hopelessness: wounded, encircled, unarmed, due to the treason of the commander or the betrayal of the rulers;

He took upon himself the political courage to give up his authority in order to protect from political stigma those who were honest in the performance of military duty and male honor.

Maybe Soviet reality is embellished? Sholokhov’s last lines about the unfortunate Sokolov and Vanyushka began like this: “With heavy sadness I looked after them...”.

Maybe Sokolov’s behavior in captivity has been embellished? There are no such reproaches.

Leading: Now it is easy to analyze the words and actions of the author. Or maybe it’s worth thinking about: was it easy for him to live his own life? How easy was it for an artist who couldn’t, didn’t have time to say everything he wanted, and, of course, could have said? Subjectively he could (he had enough talent, courage, and material!), but objectively he could not (the time, the era, were such that it was not published, and therefore not written...) How often, how much has our Russia lost at all times: uncreated sculptures, unwritten paintings and books, who knows, maybe the most talented...Great Russian artists were born at the wrong time - either early or late - undesirable to the rulers.

IN "Conversation with Father" MM. Sholokhov conveys the words of Mikhail Alexandrovich in response to criticism from a reader, a former prisoner of war who survived Stalin’s camps:
“What do you think, I don’t know what happened during captivity or after it? What, I don’t know the extremes of human baseness, cruelty, and meanness? Or do you think that, knowing this, I am being mean to myself?... How much skill is needed to tell people the truth..."

Could Mikhail Alexandrovich have kept silent about many things in his story? - I could! Time has taught him to remain silent and not say anything: an intelligent reader will understand everything, guess everything.

Many years have passed since, by the will of the writer, more and more new readers meet the heroes of this story. They think. They are sad. They're crying. And they are surprised at how generous the human heart is, how inexhaustible the kindness is in it, the ineradicable need to protect and protect, even when, it would seem, there is nothing to think about.

Literature:

1. Biryukov F. G. Sholokhov: to help teachers and high school students. and applicants / F. G. Biryukov. - 2nd ed. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 2000. - 111 p. - (Rereading the classics).

2. Zhukov, Ivan Ivanovich. The hand of fate: Truth and lies about M. Sholokhov and A. Fadeev. - M.: Gaz.-magazine. about-nie "Resurrection", 1994. - 254, p., l. ill. : ill.

3. Osipov, Valentin Osipovich. The secret life of Mikhail Sholokhov...: a documentary chronicle without legends / V.O. Osipov. - M.: LIBEREYA, 1995. - 415 p., l. port p.

4. Petelin, Viktor Vasilievich. Life of Sholokhov: Russian tragedy. genius / Victor Petelin. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2002. - 893, p., l. ill. : portrait ; 21 cm. - (Immortal names).

5. Russian literature of the 20th century: a manual for high school students, applicants and students / L. A. Iezuitova, S. A. Iezuitov [etc.]; ed. T. N. Nagaitseva. - St. Petersburg. : Neva, 1998. - 416 p.

6. Chalmaev V. A. Remain human in war: Front-line pages of Russian prose of the 60-90s: to help teachers, high school students and applicants / V. A. Chalmaev. - 2nd ed. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 2000. - 123 p. - (Rereading the classics).

7. Sholokhova S. M. Execution plan: On the history of an unwritten story / S. M. Sholokhovva // Peasant. - 1995. - No. 8. - February.

"The Fate of Man": how it happened

Mikhail Sholokhov's story “The Fate of a Man” tells the story of the life of a Great Patriotic War soldier, Andrei Sokolov. The coming war took everything from the man: family, home, faith in a bright future. His strong-willed character and fortitude did not allow Andrey to break. A meeting with the orphaned boy Vanyushka brought new meaning to Sokolov’s life.

This story is included in the 9th grade literature curriculum. Before reading the full version of the work, you can read online a summary of “The Fate of a Man” by Sholokhov, which will introduce the reader to 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 during wartime until the Krauts took him prisoner, where he spent 2 years. In captivity he was listed as number 331.

Anatoly- the son of Andrei and Irina, who went to the front during the war. Becomes battery commander. Anatoly died on Victory Day, he was killed by a German sniper.

Vanyushka- orphan, adopted son of Andrei.

Other characters

Irina- Andrey's wife

Kryzhnev- traitor

Ivan Timofeevich- Andrey's neighbor

Nastenka and Olyushka- Sokolov's daughters

The first spring after the war has arrived on the Upper Don. The hot sun touched the ice on the river and a flood began, turning the roads into a washed-out, impassable slurry.

The author of the story at this time of impassability needed to get to the Bukanovskaya station, which was about 60 km away. He reached the crossing of the Elanka River and, together with the driver accompanying him, swam on a boat full of holes from old age to the other side. The driver sailed 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 the cigarettes that had gotten wet during the crossing and laid them out to dry in the sun. The narrator sat down on the fence and became thoughtful.

Soon he was distracted from his thoughts by a man and a boy who were moving towards the crossing. The man approached the narrator, greeted him and asked how long it would take to wait for the boat. We decided to have a smoke together. The narrator wanted to ask his interlocutor where he was going with his little son in such off-road conditions. But the man got ahead of him and started talking about the past war.
This is how the narrator became acquainted with a brief retelling of the life story of a man whose name was Andrei Sokolov.

Life before the war

Andrei had a hard time even before the war. As a young boy, he went to the Kuban to work for the kulaks (wealthy peasants). It was a harsh period for the country: it was 1922, a time of famine. So Andrei’s mother, father and sister died of hunger. He was left completely alone. He returned to his homeland only a year later, sold his parents' house and married the orphan Irina. Andrey got a good wife, obedient and not grumpy. Irina loved and respected her husband.

Soon the young couple had children: first a son, Anatoly, and then daughters Olyushka and Nastenka. The family settled down well: they lived in abundance, they rebuilt their house. If earlier Sokolov would drink with friends after work, now he was in a hurry home to his beloved wife and children. In 1929, Andrei left the factory and began working as a driver. Another 10 years flew by unnoticed for Andrey.

The war came unexpectedly. Andrei Sokolov received a summons from the military registration and enlistment office, and he is leaving for the front.

War time

The whole family accompanied Sokolov to the front. A bad feeling tormented Irina: as if it was the last time she would see her husband.

During the distribution, Andrei received a military truck and went to the front to get its steering wheel. But he didn’t have to fight for long. During the German offensive, Sokolov was given the task of delivering 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 miraculously survived, woke up, he saw an overturned truck and exploded ammunition. And the battle was already going on somewhere behind. Then Andrei realized that he was directly surrounded by the Germans. The Nazis immediately noticed the Russian soldier, but did not kill him - they needed labor. This is how Sokolov ended up in captivity along with his fellow soldiers.

The prisoners were driven 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 wounds. Sokolov was very worried about his arm, which was dislocated during the explosion when he was thrown out of the truck. The doctor set Andrei's limb, for which the soldier was very grateful to him.

The night turned out to be restless. Soon one of the prisoners began to ask the Germans to let him out to relieve himself. But the senior guard forbade anyone to leave the church. The prisoner could not stand it and cried: “I can’t,” he says, “desecrate the holy temple! I’m a believer, I’m a Christian!” . The Germans shot the annoying pilgrim and several other prisoners.

After this, the arrested became quiet for a while. Then conversations began in whispers: they began to ask each other where they were from and how they were captured.

Sokolov heard a quiet conversation next to him: one of the soldiers threatened the platoon commander that he would tell the Germans that he was not an ordinary private, but a communist. The threat, as it turned out, was called Kryzhnev. The platoon commander begged Kryzhnev not to hand him over to the Germans, but he stood his ground, arguing “that his own shirt is closer to his body.”

After hearing what Andrei heard, he began to shake with rage. He decided to help the platoon commander and kill the vile party member. For the first time in his life, Sokolov killed a person, and he felt so disgusted, as if he was “strangling some creeping reptile.”

Camp work

In the morning, the fascists began to find out which of the prisoners were communists, commissars and Jews in order to shoot them on the spot. But there were no such people, as well as traitors who could betray them.

When the arrested were driven to the camp, Sokolov began to think about how he could break out to his own people. Once such an opportunity presented itself to the prisoner, he managed to escape and break away from the camp by 40 km. Only the dogs followed Andrei's tracks, and he was soon caught. The poisoned dogs tore all his clothes and bit him until he bled. Sokolov was placed in a punishment cell for a month. After the punishment cell followed 2 years of hard work, hunger, and abuse.

Sokolov ended up working in a stone quarry, where the prisoners “manually chiseled, cut, and crushed German stone.” More than half of the workers died from hard work. Andrei somehow could not stand it, and uttered rash words towards the cruel Germans: “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 among his own, and he reported this to the Fritz. The next day, Sokolov was asked by the German authorities. But before leading the soldier to be shot, the block commandant Müller offered him a drink and snack for the German victory.

Almost looking death in the eye, the brave fighter refused such an offer. Muller just smiled and ordered Andrei to drink for his death. The prisoner had nothing left to lose, and he drank to escape his torment. Despite the fact that the fighter was very hungry, he never touched the Nazis’ snack. The Germans poured a second glass for the arrested man and again offered him a snack, to which Andrei replied to the German: “Sorry, Herr Commandant, I’m not used to having a snack 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 he was given a loaf of bread and a piece of lard. Provisions in the block were divided equally.

The escape

Soon Andrei ends up working in the mines in the Ruhr region. It was 1944, Germany began to lose ground.

By chance, the Germans learn that Sokolov is a former driver, and he enters the service of the German Todte office. There he becomes the personal driver of a fat Fritz, an army major. After some time, the German major is sent to the front line, and Andrei with him.

Once again the prisoner began to have thoughts of escaping to his own people. One day Sokolov noticed a drunken non-commissioned officer, took him around the corner and took off all his uniform. Andrey hid the uniform under the seat in the car, and also hid a weight and a telephone wire. Everything was ready to carry out the plan.

One morning the major ordered Andrey to take him out of town, where he was in charge of the construction. On the way, the German dozed off, and as soon as we left the city, Sokolov took out a weight and stunned the German. Afterwards, the hero took out his hidden uniform, quickly changed clothes and rode at full speed towards the front.

This time the brave soldier managed to reach his own people with a German “gift”. They greeted him as a real hero and promised to present him with a state award.
They gave the fighter a month off to get medical treatment, rest, and see his family.

Sokolov was first sent to the hospital, from where he immediately wrote a letter to his wife. 2 weeks have passed. An answer comes from home, but not from Irina. The letter was written by their neighbor, Ivan Timofeevich. This message turned out to be not joyful: Andrei’s wife and daughters died back in 1942. The Germans blew up the house where they lived. All that was left of their hut was a deep hole. Only the eldest son, Anatoly, survived, who after the death of his relatives asked to go to the front.

Andrei came to Voronezh, looked at the place where his house used to stand, and now a pit filled with rusty water, and on the same day he went back to the division.

Waiting to meet my son

For a long time Sokolov did not believe his misfortune and grieved. Andrei lived only with the hope of meeting his son. Correspondence began between them from the front and the father learns that Anatoly became the division commander and received many awards. Andrei was filled with pride for his son, and in his thoughts he already began to imagine 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, Russian troops were rapidly advancing and pushing the Nazis back to the German border. Now it was no longer 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 the battery commander was shot by a German sniper on May 9, 1945, Victory Day. Anatoly's father saw him off on his last journey, burying his son on German soil.

Post-war time

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. The veteran headed there.

A friend lived with his wife on the outskirts of the city; they had no children. A friend of Andrei’s got him a job as a driver. After work, Sokolov often went to the teahouse to have a glass or two. Near the teahouse, Sokolov noticed a homeless boy about 5-6 years old. Andrei learned that the homeless child's name was Vanyushka. The child was left without parents: his mother died during a bombing, and his father was killed at the front. Andrey decided to adopt a child.

Sokolov brought Vanya to the house where he lived with a married couple. The boy was washed, fed and dressed. The child began to accompany his father on every flight and never agreed to stay at home without him.

So the little 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 over a cow. The animal remained unharmed, but Sokolov was deprived of his driver's license. Then the man signed up with another colleague from Kashara. He invited him to work with him and promised that he would help him get new licenses. So they are now on their way with their son to the Kashar region. Andrei admitted to the narrator that he still couldn’t stand it in Uryupinsk for long: the melancholy does not allow him to sit in one place.

Everything would be fine, but Andrei’s heart began to play pranks, he was afraid he couldn’t 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 them: “I talk about everything with Irina and with the kids, but as soon as I want to push the wire with my hands, they leave me as if they are melting before my eyes... And here’s an amazing thing: During the day I always hold myself tightly, you can’t squeeze a single “ooh” or a sigh out of me, but at night I wake up and the whole pillow is wet with tears...”

Then a boat appeared. This is where the story of Andrei Sokolov ended. 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 better future fate of these strangers who had become 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 placed him did not break him as a person. And the meeting with Vanya gave him hope and purpose in life.

Having become acquainted with the short story “The Fate of Man,” we recommend that you read the full version of the work.

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