The theme of the poem “Vasily Terkin” was formulated by the author himself in the subtitle: “A book about a fighter,” that is, the work talks about war and a man at war. The hero of the poem is an ordinary infantry soldier, which is extremely important, since, according to Tvardovsky, it is the ordinary soldier who is the main hero and winner in the Patriotic War. This idea will be continued ten years later by M.A. Sholokhov, who in “The Fate of a Man” will portray an ordinary soldier Andrei Sokolov, and then ordinary soldiers and junior officers will become heroes of military stories by Yu.V. Bondarev, V.L. Kondratiev, V.P. .Astafieva. It should be noted by the way that the legendary Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov also dedicated his book “Memories and Reflections” to the Russian soldier.
The idea of the poem is expressed in the image of the title character: the author is interested not so much in the events of the war as in the character of the Russian people (it is not opposed to the Soviet people), which was revealed in difficult military trials. Vasily Terkin represents a generalized image of the people, he is a “Russian miracle man” (“From the author”). Thanks to his courage, perseverance, resourcefulness, and sense of duty, the Soviet Union (with approximate technical parity) defeated Nazi Germany. Tvardovsky expresses this main idea of the Patriotic War and his work at the end of the poem:
Strength has proven to strength:
Strength is no match for strength.
There is metal stronger than metal,
There is fire worse than fire. ("In the bath")
“Vasily Terkin” is a poem, its genre originality is expressed in the combination of epic scenes depicting various military episodes with lyrical digressions and reflections, in which the author, without hiding his feelings, talks about the war, about his hero. In other words, Tvardovsky created a lyric-epic poem.
The author paints various pictures of battles in the chapters: “Crossing”, “Battle in the swamp”, “Who shot?”, “Terkin is wounded” and others. A distinctive feature of these chapters is the depiction of everyday life of war. Tvardovsky is next to his hero and describes the soldier’s exploits without sublime pathos, but also without missing out on numerous details. For example, in the chapter “Who Shot?” the German bombing of the trenches in which Soviet soldiers hid is depicted. The author conveys the feeling of a person who cannot change anything in a deadly situation, but, frozen, must only wait for a bomb to fly past or hit him directly:
And how submissive you are suddenly
You lie on your earthly chest,
Shielding yourself from black death
Only with your own back.
You're lying on your face, boy
Less than twenty years old.
Now you're finished,
Now you are no longer there.
The poem also describes a short rest in the war, the life of a soldier in the intervals between battles. There seem to be no fewer of these chapters than chapters about military episodes. These include: “Accordion”, “Two Soldiers”, “At a Rest”, “In the Bath” and others. The chapter “About an Orphan Soldier” depicts an episode when a soldier found himself very close to his native village, which he had not been to since the beginning of the war. He asks the commander for two hours off to visit his relatives. The soldier runs through places familiar from childhood, recognizes the road, the river, but in place of the village he sees only tall weeds, and not a single living soul:
Here is the hill, here is the river,
Wilderness, weeds as tall as a soldier,
Yes, there is a plaque on the post:
Like, the village of Red Bridge...
At the plank at the fork,
Taking off his cap, our soldier
I stood there as if at a grave,
And it's time for him to go back.
When he returned to his unit, his comrades guessed everything from his appearance, did not ask anything, but left him dinner:
But, homeless and rootless,
Returning to the battalion,
The soldier ate his cold soup
After all, and he cried.
In several chapters “From the Author” the lyrical content of the poem is directly expressed (the poet expresses his views on poetry, explains his attitude towards Vasily Terkin), and in the epic chapters the author accompanies the story about military events with his excited, emotional commentary. For example, in the chapter “Crossing” the poet painfully depicts soldiers who die in the cold waters of the river:
And I saw you for the first time,
It will not be forgotten:
People are warm and alive
We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...
Or in the chapter “Accordion” the author describes how, during a random stop, the soldiers started dancing on the road to warm up. The poet looks with sadness and affection at the soldiers who, having forgotten for a few minutes about death, about the sorrows of war, dance merrily in the bitter cold:
And the accordion is calling somewhere.
It's far away, it leads easily.
No, what are you guys like?
Amazing people.
Who owns this remark - the author or Tyorkin, who plays the harmony and watches the dancing couples? It is impossible to say for sure: the author sometimes intentionally seems to merge with the hero, because he has endowed the hero with his own thoughts and feelings. The poet states this in the chapter “About Myself”:
And I’ll tell you, I won’t hide it, -
In this book, here and there,
What a hero should say
I speak personally myself.
I am responsible for everything around me,
And notice, if you didn’t notice,
Just like Terkin, my hero,
Sometimes it speaks for me. The next plot-compositional feature of the poem is that the book has no beginning or ending: In a word, a book about a fighter. Without beginning, without end. Why is this without a beginning? Because time is not enough. Start it all over again. Why without end? I just feel sorry for the guy. (“From the author”) The poem “Vasily Terkin” was created by Tvardovsky during the Great Patriotic War and consists of separate chapters, separate sketches, which are united by the image of the main character. After the war, the author did not begin to supplement the poem with new episodes, that is, to come up with an exposition (expanding the pre-war history of Tyorkin) and a plot (for example, depicting the hero’s first battle with the Nazis). Tvardovsky simply added in 1945-1946 the introduction “From the author” and the conclusion “From the author”. Thus, the poem turned out to be very original in composition: there is no usual exposition, plot, climax, or denouement in the overall storyline. Because of this, Tvardovsky himself found it difficult to determine the genre of “Vasily Terkin”: after all, the poem involves a plot narrative.
With a free construction of the overall storyline, each chapter has its own complete plot and composition. For example, the chapter “Two Soldiers” describes an episode in which Tyorkin, returning from the hospital to the front, went to rest from the road in a hut where two old men live. The exposition of the chapter is a description of a hut, an old man and an old woman who are listening to mortar fire: after all, the front line is very close. The plot is the author’s mention of Tyorkin. He sits here on the bench, respectfully talks with the old man about various everyday problems and at the same time sets up a saw and repairs a clock. Then the old woman prepares dinner. The climax of the chapter is a conversation at dinner when the old man asks his main question:
Answer: we will beat the German
Or maybe we won’t beat you?
The denouement comes when Terkin, having had dinner and politely thanking the owners, puts on his overcoat and, already standing on the threshold, answers the old man: “We’ll beat you, father...”.
This chapter contains a kind of epilogue that transfers a private everyday episode into a general historical plan. This is the last quatrain:
In the depths of our native Russia,
Against the wind, chest forward,
Vasily walks through the snow
Terkin. He's going to beat the German.
The chapter is structured according to a ring composition, since the first and penultimate quatrains practically coincide:
There is a blizzard in the field,
War is raging three miles away.
There is an old woman on the stove in the hut.
Grandfather-owner at the window.
Thus, the chapter “Two Soldiers” is a complete work with a complete plot and a ring composition that emphasizes the completeness of the entire episode.
So, the poem “Vasily Terkin” has a number of artistic features that are explained, on the one hand, by the history of the creation of the work, and on the other, by the author’s intention. As is known, Tvardovsky wrote chapters of the poem in the period from 1942 to 1945 and designed them as separate completed works, because
There is no plot in war.
- How come it’s not there?
- So, no. (“From the author”)
In other words, a soldier's life lasts from episode to episode as long as he is alive. This feature of front-line life, when every single moment of life is valued, since the next one may not exist, was reflected by Tvardovsky in “The Book about a Soldier.”
The individual small works could be united first by the image of the main character, who is present in one way or another in almost every chapter, and then by the main idea associated with the image of Tyorkin. Having combined individual chapters into a complete poem, Tvardovsky did not change the plot and compositional structure that had developed naturally during the war years:
The same book about a fighter,
Without beginning, without end,
No special plot
However, the truth is not harmful. (“From the author”)
“Vasily Terkin” is distinguished by its striking construction features. Firstly, the poem lacks a general plot and almost all of its elements. Secondly, the poem is characterized by extreme compositional freedom, that is, the sequence of chapters is poorly motivated - the composition only approximately follows the course of the Patriotic War. It was because of this composition that Tvardovsky himself defined the genre of his work with the following phrase: not a poem, but simply a “book,” “a living, moving, free-form book” (“How Vasily Terkin was written”). Thirdly, each chapter is a complete fragment with its own plot and composition. Fourthly, the epic depiction of episodes of the war is intertwined with lyrical digressions, which complicates the composition. However, such an unusual structure allowed the author to achieve the main thing - to create a bright and memorable image of Vasily Terkin, who embodies the best features of a Russian soldier and a Russian person in general.
The poem consists of 30 chapters, each of which is quite autonomous and at the same time they are all closely related to each other. The author himself wrote about the features of such a composition: “The first thing I accepted as the principle of composition and plot was the desire for a certain completeness of each individual part, and within a chapter - of each period, even stanza. I had to keep in mind a reader who, even if he was unfamiliar with the previous chapters, would find in the given chapter published today in the newspaper something whole, rounded...” As a result, the poem turned out to be constructed as a chain of episodes from the military life of the protagonist. So Terkin swims across the icy river twice to restore contact with the advancing unit; single-handedly occupies a German dugout, but comes under fire from his own artillery; enters into hand-to-hand combat with a German and, having difficulty defeating him, takes him prisoner.
Along with the chapters about Terkin and his exploits, the poem has five chapters - a kind of lyrical digressions, which are called: “From the author” (four) and one - “About myself”. The author's lyrical beginning is manifested in them, giving originality to the genre of the work. In terms of the scope of time, events, heroes, and the character of the central character, this is an epic work. The main thing in it is the depiction of a national historical event that decides the fate of the nation, and a truly folk heroic character. In addition to Vasily Terkin, there are many other heroes - participants in the war (“shorn-haired” guys from the chapter “Crossing”, an old man and an old woman in the chapter “Two Soldiers”, a tired driver who started dancing to the sounds of an accordion, from the chapter “Accordion”, etc. ).The special hero of the poem is the author. “Terkin exists independently, independently of its author. But the author became so close to him and his comrades, so entered into their military destiny, into all their relationships - both here at the front and where these people came from at the front - that he can express them with absolute authenticity and perfect inner freedom thoughts and feelings” (V. Alexandrov). In the chapter “About myself” the author writes:
And I’ll tell you, I won’t hide it, -
In this book here and there
What a hero should say
I speak personally myself.
The merging of the author and the hero is one of the most important features of the poem, which is a lyric epic work in genre. Its unity is ensured not only by the cross-cutting hero running through the entire poem, by the common national-patriotic idea, but also by the special closeness of the author and the hero. The poet directly addresses the reader in the introductory and final chapters, expresses his attitude towards the “holy and just battle”, towards the people, admires Terkin’s spiritual generosity and courage, and at times seems to intervene in events, standing next to the fighter.
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✪ Vasily Terkin. Alexander Tvardovsky
✪ A.T. Tvardovsky. Poem "Vasily Terkin"
✪ Vasily Terkin - Crossing (Verse and I)
✪ 79 Alexander Tvardovsky Vasily Terkin
✪ Vasily Terkin summary (A. Tvardovsky). Grade 11
Friends, if you do not have the opportunity to read Alexander Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin,” watch this video. This is a collection of stories about one soldier during the Great Patriotic War. Tvardovsky wrote the poem in 1945. Another name for the poem is “The Book about a Fighter.” The poem consists of 30 chapters. Each chapter is a separate story from Tyorkin’s front-line life. During the war, Tvardovsky (who himself fought at the front) read to them individual chapters from the poem to maintain the morale of the soldiers. So... The author writes that in war it is very important to have water and food. But humor is needed just as much in war. After all, without it you can go completely crazy. That’s why the soldiers valued Vaska Tyorkin, a guy who could cheer everyone up. And Tvardovsky himself thanks his hero for helping him become a popular writer. Vaska, a newcomer to the infantry company, tells the guys that this is already his second war. Explains to them what the word “sabantuy” means. In general, when the battlefield is a complete mess, when there are a lot of German tanks, this is the main sabantuy. And when they shoot a little, it’s like that... a light sabantuy. The soldiers immediately liked Vaska. Vaska Terkin was a very ordinary guy. The first story is about how Vaska and the guys made their way from the rear of the German side to their own at the front. The guys were thin and barefoot. There were about 10 of them, led by a commander. (Let me remind you that during the first two years of the war, Soviet troops were mostly retreating). And of course this bothered the soldiers. But Vaska constantly insisted that they would return to their lands. The commander told him that his native village would be on the way. - What's the question? - Vaska answered. - Let's go in. The detachment arrived in the village late at night. The commander brought the guys to his house. His wife fed everyone and put everyone to bed. But the commander wants this with his wife... And there are so many guys nearby. Everyone seemed to have fallen asleep. Vaska couldn’t sleep, he understood everything and went outside so as not to disturb the commander... In the morning, the commander cut firewood for his wife, waited until his children woke up, and the soldiers moved on, realizing that today the Germans could come to this village. It was in November. The soldiers approached the crossing. At night, having broken off the ice, the first platoon boarded the pontoons. Then the second one. Then the third. The Germans opened fire. Many guys died then. Some managed to get across, some did not. Those who did not make it in time waited for dawn, and with it, help. Two watchmen saw that someone was swimming towards them. - Yah. This cannot be, said one. - In such cold water? - Maybe this is the body of one of ours? – thought the second one. We looked closer and saw someone alive swimming. It was Vaska Terkin. They immediately took him to the hut and rubbed him with alcohol. “Let’s go inside, not on the skin,” Vaska asked. Dali. Vaska drank and began to talk. He said that their platoon on the right bank was ready to help with the crossing. We just need covering fire from this shore. He said, drank more and swam back. Another time, Terkin established telephone communications. He followed his company with a coil of wires. On the phone he asked the guys from Tula to help them fire at the Germans. Suddenly a shell fell next to him. Vaska fell to the ground and waited for the explosion. But for some reason there was no explosion. I looked, realized that it would not explode and pissed on this shell. And then Vaska saw a German officer approaching him. The German did not see him. Then Vaska pierced him with a bayonet. The German managed to wound Vaska. And so the guy lay there, bleeding and saw how Tula began to fire at the position where he himself was lying. It would be a shame to die from your own people. Lucky. Our tanks arrived. The tank guys saw Vaska and helped him. Otherwise Vaska would have died. Vaska thinks that it would be great to get a medal. He would then come home and brag about her in the village council. And then he would go to any party, and all the girls would be his. “That’s why I need a medal, guys,” Vaska told the guys. “I don’t even need an order, I agree to a medal.” Lonely Terkin walked along the front-line winter road. He was catching up with his rifle regiment. A truck overtook him. The driver looked out: “Get in, infantry.” I'll give you a ride. They drive, smoke, chat. They see a convoy of vehicles blocking the road ahead. It's cold for everyone. Vaska asks if anyone has an accordion. “Yes, there is,” the tanker answers. -Whose is she? - The killed commander. The guys gave Vaska an accordion. He started with a sad melody. And suddenly, it was as if everyone felt warmer from the music. Immediately other guys began to follow the sounds of the accordion. Vaska sang about three tanker friends. And then somehow it became more fun. Two tankers looked at Vaska: “Listen, did we then find you covered in blood and take you to the medical battalion?” “Maybe me too,” Vaska answered. And then the guys told him to take the accordion for himself and entertain his friends with it. In winter, an old woman lay on the stove in the hut. Fighting was heard three miles away. The grandfather-owner was sitting by the window. Then he took a saw and began to sharpen it, so as not to be idle. - Grandfather, she’s normal. We need to break it up. “Get the wiring,” Vaska Tyorkin told his grandfather. I did everything as needed. I gave the saw to my grandfather. I saw a non-working clock on the wall. Removed and repaired. - Do you want me to tell you, grandma, where your lard is hidden? – Vaska suddenly asked. The grandmother blew herself up and fried the soldier lard and eggs. Vaska sat down with his grandfather, drank, talked about life, about the war. Grandfather also once fought, was also a soldier. - Tell me, guy: are we going to beat the German? “We’ll beat you, father,” Vaska answered and went to fight. One bearded soldier lost his pouch. (A tobacco pouch is a pouch for tobacco). The man was upset. First I lost my family, and now I lost my pouch. Terkin saw all this and, to cheer up the bearded man, told his story about the fur hat. I took it out of the bag as proof. And there is another one on the head. “Once they brought me, wounded, to the medical battalion. The hat fell off somewhere. What can I do in winter without a hat? No way. I tell the girl who bandaged me that I feel bad without a hat. So she gave me hers. I keep it as a memory. The soldiers thought that in war it was better to be single. He doesn't think about his wife and children that way. Vaska gave the bearded man his pouch. “The fact that you lost your family is not your fault,” said Vaska. – And you can also survive the loss of your pouch. Although, I agree, it’s a shame. But the loss of the Motherland cannot be allowed. One day Vaska went on reconnaissance, and he had the chance to fight hand-to-hand with a German. Strong, dexterous and well-fed. Vaska understood that the advantage was on the German side. They hit each other, be healthy! They approached. And the German's breath stinks of garlic. - Oh, you fascist bitch! And Vaska hit him with an unloaded grenade. The German fell, but was alive. Vaska understood that it was better not to kill the German, but to bring him to his own people to interrogate him. The author writes that in war a soldier must do what he is ordered. He can’t even fall in love without permission, he can’t even change his footcloths. Our guys were sitting in the trenches. And then they hear: a German plane is flying. The guys crouched to the ground. Except one. The soldier took out a rifle, took aim at the plane and hit it! The plane went towards the ground. The general from headquarters immediately called with the question: “Who shot?” This is how Vaska Tyorkin received the order. He was the one who shot. Once Tyorkin had a chance to stay in the hospital for several days. And he saw there the most ordinary boy. And already a hero. Vaska asked where the guy was from. I thought, maybe a fellow countryman. “I’m from near Tambov,” the guy said. And Vaska was from Smolensk. And he felt so offended that there was no hero in his native Smolensk. And then Vaska firmly decided to receive the order. And received! “But all these awards are nonsense,” Vaska thought. “The main thing is to have a homeland.” The war was already in its second year. Terkin was washing his clothes by the river and lay down on the grass. Good for him! They called to the general. The general awarded Tyorkin an order, praised him for the downed plane and allowed him to go home on vacation for a week. - Yes, a week is not enough for me, Comrade General. The Germans are where my village is. But I know the area well. - It's clear. So I need you. And you’ll go on vacation another time. The village of Borki stood behind the swamp. And in this swamp there was a battle in the summer. The guys felt bad, but Terkin joked and encouraged the guys. There, many of our guys died for the unknown Borki. But the main thing is that these Borks were part of the Motherland. Every soldier was accompanied to war by at least one woman - mother, sister, wife, girlfriend or daughter. Letters from them always warmed the soldier’s soul and reminded him for whom they should fight. And the wives became so good during the war. Although before that they could have been damn witches. Soldiers escaped from such people during the war. It’s better to have bullets whistling overhead than to have such a wife at your side. The war will end sooner or later, and then the soldier will return to his women. But Vaska Terkin did not have a woman who would love him. And the author appeals to the girls so that they fall in love with such a good guy as Vaska. In war, every soldier dreams of a good night's sleep. And when he finds himself at home on vacation, it’s like he’s in heaven. There you can sleep on a clean, warm bed, in only underwear, and you can eat there 4 times a day. And from the table, not from your knee. And without a rifle, always lying nearby. And you don’t have to hide the spoon in your boot. And so our Vaska Terkin found himself in such a paradise. But somehow Vaska can’t sleep in such a bed. I put on my combat cap and immediately fell asleep. And the next day Vaska decided to return to his comrades. I boarded a passing truck and arrived at the company. - Well, guys, how are you here without me? Winter. Another battle near the village. The lieutenant led the boys into the attack. But very soon he was shot. And then Vaska Terkin led the guys behind him. They took the village. And Vaska was seriously wounded. He lay in the snow, and death came to him. - Well, my friend, did you fight back? “Come with me,” she told him. - Fuck you! “I’m still alive,” Vaska answered her. Death began to persuade him to give up and submit to it. But Terkin refused to die and continued to hold on. - They won’t find you anymore. Give up. And you will immediately feel warm. Chesslovo. - Nope. I haven't lived long enough. I want more. I still need to defeat the German. But hope was leaving, and then Vaska asked death to allow him to be among the living on Victory Day over the Germans. - On this condition, take me. - Not. “It won’t work,” answered death. - Then get the fuck out! And then Vaska saw the guys from the funeral team walking. Vaska shouted to them, the boys were surprised that he was still alive and carried him to the medical battalion. Death walked side by side for some time, and then realized that she had nothing to catch here and left to look for other victims. From the hospital, Vaska writes a letter to the guys from his company. He writes that he misses him and wants to join them again as soon as possible. When Tyorkin returned to his people, something changed: new people appeared. And among them was Terkin. But not Vaska, but Ivan, the redhead. And also a joker, and also a hero, and also with an order, and also knew how to play the accordion. Then the foreman said that each company would have its own Terkin. Remember the village where Vaska repaired a saw and a clock in the house of his grandfather and old woman? The German took that clock off the wall and took it with him. Our intelligence guys approached this hut. The grandfather with an ax was ready to defend his house, but he heard Russian speech and was happy about the guys. And then I recognized Vaska Tyorkin in one of them. Already an officer! Vaska promised to bring his grandfather and grandmother two new watches from Berlin. The time came when Soviet troops began to recapture previously given lands. Vaska and the guys were approaching their native Smolensk region. And this made his heart ache. The Dnieper was ahead. The guys crossed the river. And Vaska’s native village was left behind. Vaska tells a story about a cheerful soldier with whom he served. He used to be cheerful until he found out that he no longer had a family - neither a wife nor a small son. When our detachments passed near Smolensk, that guy asked the commander to go home on a short vacation. But the soldiers of his village did not recognize him - he was wiped off the face of the earth. He returned to the detachment already homeless. I cried all the time. But he was not the only one in this situation - many soldiers had the same situation. And they got up and moved on to Berlin. On the way we met an old woman who was walking home from abroad. Vaska said that it was not right for a soldier’s mother to go such a distance. And he gave her a horse, a cow, a sheep. - What if on the way they ask where I got my cattle from? - asked the old woman. - Tell me that Vaska Terkin supplied it. They will let you through everywhere. And now Soviet troops are already in Germany. Our guys washed themselves in the bathhouse. One soldier had a good steam bath and went to get dressed. He had orders and medals on his gymnast. - Did you buy it at a military store? - the guys are trolling him. “That’s not all,” he answered them. These, friends, are war stories about an ordinary Soviet soldier Vasily Tyorkin.
The coincidence of the name of the main character with the name of the hero of the novel by the 19th-century writer P. D. Boborykin turned out to be accidental.
The Red Army soldier Tyorkin had already begun to enjoy a certain popularity among readers of the district newspaper, and Tvardovsky decided that the topic was promising and needed to be developed within the framework of a large-scale work.
On June 22, 1941, Tvardovsky curtailed his peaceful literary activities and left for the front the next day. He becomes a war correspondent for the Southwestern and then the 3rd Belorussian Front. In 1941-1942, together with the editorial staff, Tvardovsky found himself in the hottest spots of the war. Retreats, finds himself surrounded and leaves it.
In the spring of 1942, Tvardovsky returned to Moscow. Having collected scattered notes and sketches, he again sits down to work on the poem. “War is serious, and poetry must be serious”- he writes in his diary. On September 4, 1942, the publication of the first chapters of the poem (introductory “From the Author” and “At a Rest”) began in the newspaper of the Western Front “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda”.
The poem gains fame, it is reprinted by the central publications “Pravda”, “Izvestia”, “Znamya”. Excerpts from the poem are read on the radio by Orlov and Levitan. At the same time, famous illustrations created by the artist Orest Vereisky began to appear. Tvardovsky himself reads his work, meets with soldiers, and visits hospitals and work groups with creative evenings.
The work was a great success among readers. When Tvardovsky wanted to finish the poem in 1943, he received many letters in which readers demanded a continuation. In 1942-1943, the poet experienced a severe creative crisis. In the army and in the civilian readership, “The Book about a Fighter” was received with a bang, but the party leadership criticized it for its pessimism and lack of reference to the leading role of the party. Secretary of the Union of Writers of the USSR Alexander Fadeev admitted: "the poem answers his heart", But “...we must follow not the inclinations of the heart, but the party guidelines”. Nevertheless, Tvardovsky continues to work, extremely reluctantly agreeing to censorship edits and cuts of the text. As a result, the poem was completed in 1945 along with the end of the war. The last chapter (“In the Bath”) was completed in March 1945. Even before finishing work on the work, Tvardovsky was awarded the Stalin Prize.
Finishing work on the poem, Tvardovsky, back in 1944, simultaneously began the next poem, “Terkin in the Other World.” Initially, he planned to write it as the last chapter of the poem, but the idea grew into an independent work, which also included some uncensored excerpts from Vasily Terkin. “Terkin in the Next World” was prepared for publication in the mid-1950s and became another programmatic work of Tvardovsky - a vivid anti-Stalin pamphlet. On July 23, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, chaired by N. S. Khrushchev, adopted a resolution condemning Tvardovsky for the poem “Terkin in the Next World” prepared for publication. During the campaign to “expose Stalin,” on August 17, 1963, the poem was first published in the newspaper Izvestia. During wartime, the poem (more precisely, its excerpts) was memorized by heart, newspaper clippings were passed on to each other, considering its main character a role model.
There is no plot as such in the poem ( “There is no plot in war”), but it is built around the connecting idea of a military road along which Tyorkin, together with the entire Soviet army, goes to the goal. It is not for nothing that most critics consider the chapter “The Crossing” to be the central chapter. At the beginning of the poem, the continuity with Tvardovsky’s previous work is clearly visible - the utopian poem “The Country of Ant,” which also begins with a story about the road along which the hero has to go. The role of authorial digressions in the narrative is also very important. The peculiar dialogue between the author and the main character occupies a significant place in the text of the poem.
In the poem, Tyorkin acts as a collective image, embodying the best traits inherent in a Soviet soldier. The heroes surrounding Tyorkin are nameless and abstract: the soldier’s colleagues, the general, the old man and the old woman, Death - as if borrowed from a folk tale ( in fact, this is a complete rethinking of the poem “Anika the Warrior” with the opposite outcome: even the angels serving Death - who took on the everyday appearance of a funeral team - are on the side of the Warrior [ ]). The language of the poem, despite its apparent simplicity, is an example of the poet’s recognizable style. It feeds on folk, oral speech. The intonationally rich text of the work is interspersed with phrases that sound like sayings and lines of ditties (“It’s good when someone lies cheerfully and smoothly”, “Well done, but there will be a lot - two at once. - So there are two ends ...”). The author conveys in an accurate and balanced style Tyorkin’s speech, a lyrically sublime description of nature and the harsh truth of war.
The choice of trochaic tetrameter as the size of the poem is not accidental. This is the meter that is characteristic of the Russian ditty and fits well with the narrative rhythm of the poem. Critics also believe that in the poem “Vasily Terkin” the influence of Russian folk tales is clearly felt, in particular, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Ershov.
A distinctive feature of the work, reminiscent of a legend about a folk hero, was the absence of an ideological principle. The poem does not contain the usual glorifications of Stalin for works of those years. The author himself noted that a ritual mention of the leading and guiding role of the party “would destroy both the concept and the figurative structure of the poem about the people’s war.” This circumstance subsequently created great problems for publication and delayed the publication of the final version of the poem.
The secret of Tvardovsky’s work is not only in the ease of rhythm and masterly use of spoken language, but also in the writer’s unmistakable instinct, which allowed him to stay on the right side in the propaganda war, without succumbing to the temptation of lies. The book tells as much truth as circumstances allowed.
Original text (English)
The secret of Tvardovsky's, besides his easy rhythms is his virtuosic command of colloquial Russian and his unerring tact in staying on the “right” side of the propaganda line of the moment without telling outright lie, while also propounding as much of the truth as was at all possible under the current circumstances.
The poem “Vasily Terkin” is one of the most famous works created during the Great Patriotic War, glorifying the feat of an unnamed Russian soldier. The poem was published in large numbers, translated into many languages, was included in the school curriculum of the USSR and Russia and was well known to any schoolchild.
Tvardovsky, who himself went through the front, absorbed sharp and accurate soldier observations, phrases and sayings into the language of the poem. Phrases from the poem became catchphrases and entered oral speech.
He spoke highly of Tvardovsky’s work
In the center of the poem is the image of Terkin, uniting the composition of the work into a single whole. Vasily Ivanovich Terkin is the main character of the poem, an ordinary infantryman from the Smolensk peasants. Terkin embodies the best features of the Russian soldier and the people as a whole. The poem is structured as a chain of episodes from the military life of the main character, which do not always have a direct event connection with each other. Terkin humorously tells young soldiers about the everyday life of war; He says that he has been fighting since the very beginning of the war, he was surrounded three times, and was wounded. The fate of an ordinary soldier, one of those who bore the entire burden of the war on their shoulders, becomes personification of national fortitude, will to live. Terkin swims twice across the icy river to restore contact with the advancing units; Terkin alone occupies a German dugout, but comes under fire from his own artillery; on the way to the front, Terkin finds himself in the house of old peasants, helping them with the housework; Terkin enters hand-to-hand combat with the German and, with difficulty, overpowering, takes him prisoner. Unexpectedly, Terkin shoots down a German attack aircraft with a rifle; Terkin reassures the envious sergeant: not the last. Terkin takes command of the platoon when the commander is killed, and is the first to break into the village; however, the hero is again seriously wounded. Lying wounded in the field, Terkin talks with Death, who persuades him not to cling to life; in the end, the soldiers discover him, and he tells them: “Take away this woman, I am a soldier still alive.” In the image of Vasily Terkin the best moral qualities of the Russian people are united: patriotism, readiness for heroism, love of work. The character traits of the hero are interpreted by the poet as traits of a collective image: Terkin is inseparable and integral from the militant people. The author also shades the hero’s patriotism and collectivism negatively: he emphasizes absence in Terkin of the traits of individualism, egoism, and preoccupation with one’s own person. It is characteristic of Terkin respect and careful attitude of the master towards the thing as the fruit of labor. It’s not for nothing that he takes away his grandfather’s saw, which he warps, not knowing how to sharpen it. Returning the finished saw to the owner, Vasily says: Here, grandfather, take it, look. It will cut better than a new one, don’t waste the tool in vain. Terkin loves work and is not afraid of it. The simplicity of the hero is usually synonymous with his popularity, the absence of exclusivity in him. But this simplicity also has another meaning in the poem: the transparent symbolism of the hero’s surname, Terkinsky “We’ll endure it, we’ll endure it” highlights his ability to overcome difficulties simply and easily. This is his behavior even when he swims across an icy river or sleeps under a pine tree, quite content with an uncomfortable bed, etc. This simplicity of the hero, his calmness, and sober outlook on life express important features of the people's character. In the field of vision of A. T. Tvardovsky in the poem “Vasily Terkin” is not only the front, but also those who work in the rear for the sake of victory: women and old people. The characters in the poem not only fight - they they laugh, love, talk with each other, and most importantly, dream of a peaceful life. The reality of war unites what is usually incompatible: tragedy and humor, courage and fear, life and death. In the chapter “From the author” depicts the process of “mythologization” of the main character of the poem. Terkin is called by the author “a holy and sinful Russian miracle man.” The name of Vasily Terkin has become legendary and a household name.
The poem “Vasily Terkin” is distinguished by its peculiar historicism. Conventionally, it can be divided into three parts, coinciding with the beginning, middle and end of the war. A poetic understanding of the stages of the war is created from the chronicle lyrical chronicle of events. Feeling bitterness and sorrow fills the first part, faith in victory - second, the joy of the liberation of the Fatherland becomes the leitmotif of the third part poems. This is explained by the fact that A. T. Tvardovsky created the poem gradually, throughout the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
The composition of the poem is also original. Not only individual chapters, but also periods and stanzas within chapters are distinguished by their completeness. This is due to the fact that the poem was published in parts. And it should be accessible to the reader from “any place” .
The poet emphasized the truthfulness and reliability of broad pictures of life by calling “Vasily Terkin” not a poem, but “ a book about a fighter". The word “book” in this popular sense sounds somehow specially significant, like an object “ serious, reliable, unconditional”, says Tvardovsky. Like all the heroes of the world epic, Tyorkin granted immortality(it is no coincidence that in the 1954 poem by Terkin, in the next world he finds himself in the afterlife, reminiscent of Soviet reality in its carrion) and at the same time - lively optimism, making him the personification of the people's spirit. The poem was a huge success among readers. Vasily Terkin became a folklore character, about which Tvardovsky remarked: “Where he came from is where he goes.” The book received both official recognition (State Prize, 1946) and high praise from contemporaries.
TO REMEMBER Contents
There is a new guy in the infantry company, Vasily Terkin. He is fighting for the second time in his life (the first war was Finnish). Vasily does not mince his words, he is a good eater. In general, “the guy is anywhere.”
Terkin recalls how he, in a detachment of ten people, during the retreat, made his way from the western, “German” side to the east, to the front. Along the way there was the commander’s native village, and the detachment went to his home. The wife fed the soldiers and put them to bed. The next morning the soldiers left, leaving the village in German captivity. On the way back, Tyorkin would like to go to this hut to bow to the “good simple woman.”
The river is being crossed. Platoons are loaded onto pontoons. Enemy fire disrupted the crossing, but the first platoon managed to move to the right bank. Those who remained on the left are waiting for dawn and do not know what to do next. Terkin swims from the right bank (winter, icy water). He reports that the first platoon is able to ensure the crossing if it is supported by fire.
Terkin establishes communication. A shell explodes nearby. Seeing a German cellar, Tyorkin takes it. There, in ambush, the enemy is waiting. He kills a German officer, but he manages to wound him. Our people start hitting the cellar. And Tyorkin is discovered by tank crews and taken to the medical battalion...
Terkin jokingly argues that it would be nice to receive a medal and come with it to a party in the village council after the war.
Leaving the hospital, Tyorkin catches up with his company. He is transported by truck. Ahead is a stopped column of transport. Freezing. And there is only one accordion - the tankers. It belonged to their fallen commander. The tankers give the accordion to Tyorkin. He plays first a sad melody, then a cheerful one, and the dancing begins. The tankers remember that it was they who delivered the wounded Tyorkin to the medical battalion, and give him an accordion.
There is a grandfather (an old soldier) and a grandmother in the hut. Terkin comes to see them. He repairs saws and watches for old people. He guesses that the grandmother has hidden lard... The grandmother treats Tyorkin. And the grandfather asks: “Shall we beat the German?” Tyorkin answers, already leaving, from the threshold: “We’ll beat you, father.”
The bearded fighter lost his pouch. Terkin recalls that when he was wounded, he lost his hat, and the girl nurse gave him hers. He still keeps this hat. Terkin gives the bearded man his tobacco pouch and explains: in war you can lose anything (even life and family), but not Russia.
Terkin fights hand-to-hand with a German. Wins. Returns from reconnaissance, bringing “tongue” with him.
It's spring at the front. The buzz of the cockchafer gives way to the roar of a bomber. The soldiers are lying prone. Only Terkin gets up, fires at the plane with a rifle and shoots it down. Tyorkin is given an order.
Terkin recalls meeting a boy in the hospital who had already become a hero. He proudly emphasized that he was from near Tambov. And his native Smolensk region seemed like an “orphan” to Tyorkin. That's why he wanted to become a hero.
The general lets Tyorkin go home for a week. But the Germans still have his village... And the general advises him to wait for his vacation: “You and I are on the same path.”
The battle in the swamp for the small village of Borki, of which nothing remains. Terkin encourages his comrades.
Tyorkin is sent to rest for a week. This is “paradise” - a hut where you can eat four times a day and sleep as much as you like, on the bed, in the bed. At the end of the first day, Terkin begins to think... he catches a passing truck and goes to his home company.
The platoon is under fire, going to take the village. the “dapper” lieutenant leads everyone. They kill him. Then Terkin understands that “it’s his turn to lead.” The village has been taken. And Terkin himself is seriously wounded. Terkin lies in the snow. Death persuades him to submit to her. But Vasily does not agree. People from the funeral team find him and take him to the medical battalion.
After the hospital, Terkin returns to his company, and there everything is different, the people are different. There... a new Terkin appeared. Only not Vasily, but Ivan. They are arguing who is the real Terkin? We are already ready to concede this honor to each other. But the foreman announces that each company “will be assigned its own Terkin.”
The village where Tyorkin repaired his saw and watch is under the Germans. The German took the watch from his grandfather and grandmother. The front line ran through the village. The old people had to move into the cellar. Our scouts come to them, among them is Terkin. He is already an officer. Turkin promises to bring new watches from Berlin.
With the advance, Tyorkin passes by his native Smolensk village. Others take it. There is a crossing across the Dnieper. Terkin says goodbye to his native side, which remains no longer in captivity, but in the rear.
Vasily talks about an orphan soldier who came to his native village on leave, and there was nothing left there, the whole family died. The soldier needs to continue to fight. And we need to remember about him, about his grief. Don't forget about this when victory comes.
Road to Berlin. The grandmother returns home from captivity. The soldiers give her a horse, a cart, things... “Tell me what Vasily Terkin supplied.”
A bathhouse in the depths of Germany, in some German house. The soldiers are steaming. Among them is one - he has a lot of scars from wounds, he knows how to steam very well, he doesn’t mince his words, he dresses like a tunic with orders and medals. The soldiers say about him: “It’s the same as Terkin.”
34. Autobiographical motives in the lyrical and journalistic poem by A. Tvardovsky “By the right of memory».
Poem "By Right of Memory" was created in the 60s, but was published many years later - in 1987, for many years it was banned. The new work was conceived as an “Additional Chapter” to the poem “Beyond the Distance - the Distance.” The work on the new chapter was dictated by a feeling of some understatement about “time and about myself.” In genre and thematic terms, this is a lyrical and philosophical reflection, a “travel diary”, with a weakened plot. The characters in the poem are the vast Soviet country, its people, the rapid turn of their affairs and achievements. The text of the poem contains a humorous confession from the author, a passenger on the Moscow-Vladivostok train. The artist sees three distances: the vastness of the geographical expanses of Russia; the historical distance as the continuity of generations and the awareness of the inextricable connection of times and destinies, and finally, the bottomlessness of the moral reserves of the soul of the lyrical hero.
Later, the “Additional Chapter” resulted in a completely new work. She reflected the sharp the author's reaction to the changing social situation in the second half of the 60s. The poem “By Right of Memory” is a three-part composition. For Tvardovsky's word “memory” and “truth” are synonymous concepts. The thought, in the power of which the poet was, sounded more than once in his poems, such as “About Existing Things”, “The Whole Essence in One and Only Testament”, “A Word about Words”, “I wish I could live forever as a solitary nightingale...” and others.
In the introduction, Tvardovsky states that these are frank lines, a confession of the soul.
The first and second chapters are contrasting in their intonation. In the first the poet with a warm feeling, a little ironically, recalls his youthful dreams and plans. These dreams are pure and lofty: to live and work for the good of the Motherland. And if necessary, then give your life for her. Beautiful youthful dreams.
Chapter two“The son is not responsible for his father” is the most tragic in the poem, and in all of his work. The illegally dispossessed Tvardovsky family was exiled to Siberia. Only Alexander Trifonovich remained in Russia due to the fact that he lived separately from his family in Smolensk. He could not alleviate the fate of those exiled. In fact, he abandoned his family. This tormented the poet all his life. This unhealed wound of Tvardovsky resulted in the poem “By Right of Memory.”
The poet seeks to comprehend the course of history. Understand what was the fault of the repressed peoples. Who allowed this state of affairs, when one person decided the fate of nations. And everyone was guilty before him for the fact that they were alive.
A difficult time that philosophers cannot understand fifty years later. But what can we say about a young man who firmly believes in official propaganda and ideology? The duality of the situation is reflected in the poem.
“The son is not responsible for his father” - when repeated, these words receive more and more new semantic and emotional content. It is repetition that allows us to follow the development of the theme of “five words.” The second chapter occupies a special place in the poem “By Right of Memory.” Being the key, it “holds” the entire poem. Tvardovsky knew that it could not be published. In the poem “By Right of Memory,” Tvardovsky is not a dispassionate chronicler, but prosecution witness. He is concerned about the fate of specific people whom he knew well: his childhood friend, Aunt Daria - in the poem “Beyond the Distance - Distance”, his father - in the last poem. “On Memory” is a special chapter. It synthesizes the thoughts and motives stated in its title. The chapter is polemical. Tvardovsky argues with those whom he calls “silent people.”
In the third chapter of the poem, Tvardovsky asserts the human right to memory. We have no right to forget anything. As long as we remember, our ancestors, their deeds and exploits are “alive.” Memory is a person’s privilege, and he cannot voluntarily give up God’s gift to please anyone. The chapter is comparable to some chapters of the poem “Beyond the Distance”: “With Myself,” “Childhood Friend,” “Literary Conversation,” “So It Was.” Similar motives (truth, memory, responsibility), noticeable textual echoes, the pathos of these works, expressed in the words: “Here neither subtract nor add, - / So it was on earth,” - and other things allow us to consider Tvardovsky’s last two poems as a kind of poetic duology.
This poem is a kind of repentance from Tvardovsky for his youthful actions and mistakes. We all make mistakes in our youth, sometimes fatal ones, but this does not give rise to poems in us. A great poet even pours out his grief and tears into brilliant poetry.
The great events that took place in our country were reflected in the work of Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky both in the form of their direct depiction and in the form of individual experiences and reflections associated with it. In this sense, his work is highly topical.
Although “By Right of Memory” does not have a genre designation in its subtitle, and the poet himself, true to the concepts of literary modesty, sometimes called this work a poetic “cycle,” it is quite obvious that this is a lyric poem.
The theme of the poem “Vasily Terkin” was formulated by the author himself in the subtitle: “A book about a fighter,” that is, the work talks about war and a man at war. The hero of the poem is an ordinary infantry soldier, which is extremely important, since, according to Tvardovsky, it is the ordinary soldier who is the main hero and winner in the Patriotic War. This idea will be continued ten years later by M.A. Sholokhov, who in “The Fate of a Man” will portray an ordinary soldier Andrei Sokolov, and then ordinary soldiers and junior officers will become heroes of military stories by Yu.V. Bondarev, V.L. Kondratiev, V.P. .Astafieva. It should be noted by the way that the legendary Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov also dedicated his book “Memories and Reflections” to the Russian soldier.
The idea of the poem is expressed in the image of the title character: the author is interested not so much in the events of the war as in the character of the Russian people (it is not opposed to the Soviet people), which was revealed in difficult military trials. Vasily Terkin represents a generalized image of the people, he is a “Russian miracle man” (“From the author”). Thanks to his courage, perseverance, resourcefulness, and sense of duty, the Soviet Union (with approximate technical parity) defeated Nazi Germany. Tvardovsky expresses this main idea of the Patriotic War and his work at the end of the poem:
Strength has proven to strength:
Strength is no match for strength.
There is metal stronger than metal,
There is fire worse than fire. ("In the bath")
“Vasily Terkin” is a poem, its genre originality is expressed in the combination of epic scenes depicting various military episodes with lyrical digressions and reflections, in which the author, without hiding his feelings, talks about the war, about his hero. In other words, Tvardovsky created a lyric-epic poem.
The author paints various pictures of battles in the chapters: “Crossing”, “Battle in the swamp”, “Who shot?”, “Terkin is wounded” and others. A distinctive feature of these chapters is the depiction of everyday life of war. Tvardovsky is next to his hero and describes the soldier’s exploits without sublime pathos, but also without missing out on numerous details. For example, in the chapter “Who Shot?” the German bombing of the trenches in which Soviet soldiers hid is depicted. The author conveys the feeling of a person who cannot change anything in a deadly situation, but, frozen, must only wait for a bomb to fly past or hit him directly:
And how submissive you are suddenly
You lie on your earthly chest,
Shielding yourself from black death
Only with your own back.
You're lying on your face, boy
Less than twenty years old.
Now you're finished,
Now you are no longer there.
The poem also describes a short rest in the war, the life of a soldier in the intervals between battles. There seem to be no fewer of these chapters than chapters about military episodes. These include: “Accordion”, “Two Soldiers”, “At a Rest”, “In the Bath” and others. The chapter “About an Orphan Soldier” depicts an episode when a soldier found himself very close to his native village, which he had not been to since the beginning of the war. He asks the commander for two hours off to visit his relatives. The soldier runs through places familiar from childhood, recognizes the road, the river, but in place of the village he sees only tall weeds, and not a single living soul:
Here is the hill, here is the river,
Wilderness, weeds as tall as a soldier,
Yes, there is a plaque on the post:
Like, the village of Red Bridge...
At the plank at the fork,
Taking off his cap, our soldier
I stood there as if at a grave,
And it's time for him to go back.
When he returned to his unit, his comrades guessed everything from his appearance, did not ask anything, but left him dinner:
But, homeless and rootless,
Returning to the battalion,
The soldier ate his cold soup
After all, and he cried.
In several chapters “From the Author” the lyrical content of the poem is directly expressed (the poet expresses his views on poetry, explains his attitude towards Vasily Terkin), and in the epic chapters the author accompanies the story about military events with his excited, emotional commentary. For example, in the chapter “Crossing” the poet painfully depicts soldiers who die in the cold waters of the river:
And I saw you for the first time,
It will not be forgotten:
People are warm and alive
We went to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom...
Or in the chapter “Accordion” the author describes how, during a random stop, the soldiers started dancing on the road to warm up. The poet looks with sadness and affection at the soldiers who, having forgotten for a few minutes about death, about the sorrows of war, dance merrily in the bitter cold:
And the accordion is calling somewhere.
It's far away, it leads easily.
No, what are you guys like?
Amazing people.
Who owns this remark - the author or Tyorkin, who plays the harmony and watches the dancing couples? It is impossible to say for sure: the author sometimes intentionally seems to merge with the hero, because he has endowed the hero with his own thoughts and feelings. The poet states this in the chapter “About Myself”:
And I’ll tell you, I won’t hide it, -
In this book, here and there,
What a hero should say
I speak personally myself.
I am responsible for everything around me,
And notice, if you didn’t notice,
Just like Terkin, my hero,
Sometimes it speaks for me. The next plot-compositional feature of the poem is that the book has no beginning or ending: In a word, a book about a fighter. Without beginning, without end. Why so - without a beginning? Because time is not enough. Start it all over again. Why without end? I just feel sorry for the guy. (“From the author”) The poem “Vasily Terkin” was created by Tvardovsky during the Great Patriotic War and consists of separate chapters, separate sketches, which are united by the image of the main character. After the war, the author did not begin to supplement the poem with new episodes, that is, to come up with an exposition (expanding the pre-war history of Tyorkin) and a plot (for example, depicting the hero’s first battle with the Nazis). Tvardovsky simply added in 1945-1946 the introduction “From the author” and the conclusion “From the author”. Thus, the poem turned out to be very original in composition: there is no usual exposition, plot, climax, or denouement in the overall storyline. Because of this, Tvardovsky himself found it difficult to determine the genre of “Vasily Terkin”: after all, the poem involves a plot narrative.
With a free construction of the overall storyline, each chapter has its own complete plot and composition. For example, the chapter “Two Soldiers” describes an episode in which Tyorkin, returning from the hospital to the front, went to rest from the road in a hut where two old men live. The exposition of the chapter is a description of a hut, an old man and an old woman who are listening to mortar fire: after all, the front line is very close. The plot is the author's mention of Tyorkin. He sits here on the bench, respectfully talks with the old man about various everyday problems and at the same time sets up a saw and repairs a clock. Then the old woman prepares dinner. The climax of the chapter is a conversation at dinner when the old man asks his main question:
Answer: we will beat the German
Or maybe we won’t beat you?
The denouement comes when Terkin, having had dinner and politely thanking the owners, puts on his overcoat and, already standing on the threshold, answers the old man: “We’ll beat you, father...”.
This chapter contains a kind of epilogue that transfers a private everyday episode into a general historical plan. This is the last quatrain:
In the depths of our native Russia,
Against the wind, chest forward,
Vasily walks through the snow
Terkin. He's going to beat the German.
The chapter is structured according to a ring composition, since the first and penultimate quatrains practically coincide:
There is a blizzard in the field,
War is raging three miles away.
There is an old woman on the stove in the hut.
Grandfather-owner at the window.
Thus, the chapter “Two Soldiers” is a complete work with a complete plot and a ring composition that emphasizes the completeness of the entire episode.
So, the poem “Vasily Terkin” has a number of artistic features that are explained, on the one hand, by the history of the creation of the work, and on the other, by the author’s intention. As is known, Tvardovsky wrote chapters of the poem in the period from 1942 to 1945 and designed them as separate completed works, because
There is no plot in war.
- How come it’s not there?
- So, no. (“From the author”)
In other words, a soldier's life lasts from episode to episode as long as he is alive. This feature of front-line life, when every single moment of life is valued, since the next one may not exist, was reflected by Tvardovsky in “The Book about a Soldier.”
The individual small works could be united first by the image of the main character, who is present in one way or another in almost every chapter, and then by the main idea associated with the image of Tyorkin. Having combined individual chapters into a complete poem, Tvardovsky did not change the plot and compositional structure that had developed naturally during the war years:
The same book about a fighter,
Without beginning, without end,
No special plot
However, the truth is not harmful. (“From the author”)
“Vasily Terkin” is distinguished by its striking construction features. Firstly, the poem lacks a general plot and almost all of its elements. Secondly, the poem is characterized by extreme compositional freedom, that is, the sequence of chapters is poorly motivated - the composition only approximately follows the course of the Patriotic War. It was because of this composition that Tvardovsky himself defined the genre of his work with the following phrase: not a poem, but simply a “book,” “a living, moving, free-form book” (“How Vasily Terkin was written”). Thirdly, each chapter is a complete fragment with its own plot and composition. Fourthly, the epic depiction of episodes of the war is intertwined with lyrical digressions, which complicates the composition. However, such an unusual structure allowed the author to achieve the main thing - to create a bright and memorable image of Vasily Terkin, who embodies the best features of a Russian soldier and a Russian person in general.
