Boris Vasiliev was not listed as a hero. Lesson-conference on the story by B. Vasilyev “Not on the lists”
Boris Vasiliev, before picking up a pen, himself went through the “fires and waters” of the front. And, of course, war turned out to be one of the main themes of his work. The heroes of Vasiliev's works, as a rule, find themselves faced with a choice - life or death. They take on a fight that turns out to be the last for some.
The heroes of Vasiliev's stories make their own choices. They cannot help but surrender, they can only die in battle! In his work, “Not on the Lists,” Boris Vasiliev reflected this topic very well.
Without disturbing the realistic fabric of the story, the author leads us into the world of legend, where his heroes acquire the romantic pathos of struggle, discovering in themselves innumerable reserves of revolutionary, patriotic spirit. This is the way it goes main character novel “Not on the Lists,” a young lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov, who had just graduated from military school. He belongs to a wonderful generation, about which his peer, who died at the front, poet Nikolai Mayorov said:
We were high
fair-haired
You will read in books,
like a myth
About the people who left
disliked
Without finishing the last one
cigarettes.
The poet's namesake, our hero Nikolai Pluzhnikov, seems to me to be a tall young man, although judging by how cleverly he managed to hide in the ruins of the fortress from the Germans pursuing him, he was of average height or even shorter. But what makes him high is his great moral qualities.
Having read Boris Vasiliev’s work “Not on the Lists,” we can say that the main character Nikolai Pluzhnikov was brave, and not only that. He was a true patriot of his country, he loved it. That is why he began to fight from the very first invasion of enemies, although he was not yet included in any list. He might not have taken part in hostilities at all, but his conscience would not have allowed him to do so; he was grateful to his Motherland for everything, so he fought to the last and was still able to win. Coming out of the battle undefeated, having survived the fight, he collapsed next to an ambulance and died.…
Nikolai Pluzhnikov took the war with all its seriousness; he believed that his participation in the victory over the Nazis was simply necessary.
In the character of the main character there is great truth of the time, which the writer depicts without modernization and self-will, which, unfortunately, is not uncommon in other works. The author feels well the historical connection between the past and today, but is not inclined to replace one with the other.
Behind the simplicity and childishness of judgments, behind the pompousness and rhetoric of language, there was hidden the beauty of moral feelings, a deep and holistic understanding of one’s civil home, a conscious love for native land, determination to protect her until the last breath. It is the Man with a capital “H” of this word that Nikolai Pluzhnikov emerges from the struggle, undefeated, unsurrendered, free, “trampling down death by death.”
The Red Army was leaving to the east...And here, in the ruins of the Brest Fortress, the battle raged without ceasing. Taken by surprise, half-dressed, deafened by bombs and shells, pressed into the wall, littered with rubble, pushed to the death in the basements, the defenders of Brest stood. The last sip of water - to the machine guns! And now only one is alive - Pluzhnikov, the hero of B. Vasiliev’s book “Not on the Lists.” Like a monument to a soldier, he rises from a pile of stones to tell the fascists the last, secret thing: “What, general, now do you know how many steps there are in a Russian mile?”
Frightened by fear for themselves, the traitors shortened their enemies' miles.
“It’s my fault... I’m the only one!” - Pluzhnikov exclaims when everyone’s beloved Aunt Christia dies. No, he is not the only one, but all of us Soviets are “to blame” for the fact that, while respecting a person, then, in 1941, we did not learn to hate him to the same extent if he is an enemy. In terrible trials this harsh “science of hatred” will come to us.
B. Vasiliev portrays war not only in external events - the roar of explosions, the rattle of machine guns... In the internal experiences of the heroes - even more. Scraps of memories now and then flash in Pluzhnikov’s mind, creating a contrast between yesterday and today, peace and war.
Not a victim - Pluzhnikov emerges from the ruins as a hero. And the German lieutenant, “clicking his heels, raised his hand to his visor,” and the soldiers “stretched out and froze.” This is not Pluzhnikov either. Is this how he came to the fortress a year ago? Clean, young, like Pushkin’s Grinev from “ The captain's daughter" And now my mother doesn’t even recognize me. Gray hair, thin, blind, “no longer having age.” But not this - not appearance important. “He was above glory, above life and above death.” What do these lines mean? How do we understand this “higher”? And the fact that Pluzhnikov is crying: “Tears flowed uncontrollably from his gaze and unblinking eyes?”
He would not have survived if he had not risen above his earthly, ordinary self. Why is he crying? B. Vasiliev answered not with internal monologues (there is simply no time to pronounce them), but with psychological subtext. In Pluzhnikov, “the young lieutenant Kolya is crying,” who wants to live, see the sun, love, who feels sorry for his dead comrades. Right. You can be above life, above glory and death, but you cannot be above yourself.
Before leaving the fortress, Pluzhnikov learns that the Germans have been defeated near Moscow. These are tears of victory! Certainly. And the memory of those with whom Pluzhnikov defended the fortress and who are no longer there. These are the tears of a soldier who surrendered to the enemy because he bled to death.
He didn’t give up, but came out. By the way, why exactly at the moment when I learned that the Germans were defeated near Moscow? “Now I can go out. Now I have to go out,” he says. Pluzhnikov had no right to lay down his arms while the Nazis were marching east. Near Brest he fought for Moscow.
“Heroism is not always born of courage, some kind of exceptional bravery. More often - by severe necessity, consciousness of duty, the voice of conscience. It is necessary - that means it is necessary! - the logic of those for whom a feat is a duty fulfilled to the end.”
Pluzhnikov is ordered to state his name and rank. “I am a Russian soldier,” he replied. Everything is here: the surname and the title. Let him not be on the lists. Is it really so important where and with whom he defended his homeland? The main thing is that he lived and died as her soldier, stopping the enemy at the Russian milepost...
Intercessor, Warrior, Soldier...Valid words in our literature, synonymous with the collective patriot.
Pluzhnikov experienced a feeling of detachment from himself, his proudly fearless “higher,” when he did not want to hide from the smoking grenade near his feet. Thinking about the fate of the Motherland, a person rose above his own, often tragic fate. Simultaneously short and long. To choose your milepost and not take a step back - this means living the miles of your Motherland! Its history, anxieties, worries... Let everyone become a soldier of their own mile! Well, without metaphors - your own business, sometimes unnoticed, but necessary, since it joins the general work of the Motherland.
The story of the unknown defender of the Brest Fortress, who held out in its ruins, basements and casemates for ten months, constantly inflicting damage on the enemy, acquired a convincing realistic fabric under the pen of Boris Vasiliev. Next to Pluzhnikov at various stages of this drama we see other commanders and political workers who go with him from attack to attack...
The number of survivors is gradually thinning out, but they remain in Pluzhnikov’s memory, as well as in ours... A desperate brave man who more than once saves Pluzhnikov’s life; a senior lieutenant who condemns him for his cowardice; assigned to the Prizhnyuk unit...
All of them were connected by jointly shed blood, a common patriotic feeling and soldierly courage. And they all taught Pluzhnikov. Not by verbal instructions, but by example own life and death.
The inner core of the novel is manifested in a feeling of inflexibility, the inability to obey a dull and dark force. People who found themselves alone with their conscience passed a difficult test. They were faithful to the orders they had given to themselves.
The exploits of many heroes look truly mythical Patriotic War and you can write about them in the style of a legend. Nikolai Pluzhnikov is not one of the heroes who do something supernatural, inaccessible to the understanding of an ordinary participant in the war. No, he is just a simple ordinary soldier, and his actions fit perfectly into our usual ideas about the courage and patriotic behavior of a Soviet person.
And, nevertheless, behind this everyday life and ordinariness lies enormous strength of spirit, an unprecedented concentration of moral forces. The simplicity and modesty of the story about a person like Pluzhnikov gives the story about him great artistic power. This is the uniqueness of the direction of modern prose about war, to which Boris Vasiliev belongs. He is not alone in his desire to see the romance of a legend in the everyday, ordinary act of a fighter of the Patriotic War, revealing hidden, invisible from the outside, forces of moral resistance to evil as the key to moral victory over the enemy.
The salvos of the Great Patriotic War died down long ago. But they continue to remember, talk about, and write about her. The collision of peaceful life with the cruel reality of war is one of the main motives of the novel “Not on the Lists.” The entire work is a story about the school of maturity and courage that 19-year-old lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov undergoes.
The novel describes several peaceful days of the lieutenant, but for him they are full of important events. Nikolai graduated from military school, was appointed platoon commander and went to one of the units of the Special Western District.
The lieutenant has the clearest ideas about the war. I am sure that Hitler’s Germany will not dare to attack our homeland, and he considers conversations about this provocative, and does not doubt the strength and power of the Soviet army.
Late at night on June 21, 1941, he arrived at the Brett Fortress. My plans were to report to my superiors in the morning, enroll in the unit’s list and begin service.
But on June 22, at four hours and fifteen minutes in the morning, a heavy roar hit the Brett Fortress: Hitler’s traitorous Germany attacked Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War began, the defense of the Brett Fortress began.
After 3 days of fierce fighting, the days and nights of defending the fortress merged into a single chain of forays and bombings, attacks, shelling, wandering through dungeons, short battles with the enemy and a constant, debilitating desire to drink...
In the first battles with the Nazis, Pluzhnikov was lost, he lost command... Moreover, in these fights he chickened out twice. The defense of the Brett Fortress became for Pluzhnikov a cruel school of maturity and spiritual growth.
The lieutenant will continue to make mistakes. He received a cruel lesson, which taught him to distinguish true humanity from the lodge, when he took pity and released the Nazi. Pluzhnikov became observant, cool-headed, calculating, learned to think and comprehensively assess the situation.
In the process of defending the Brett Fortress, he became one of its heroes, accomplished many feats, was the defender and “master” of the fortress until the spring of 1942, and in the last minutes of his life received military honors even from the enemy... “She didn’t give up, the Brest Fortress didn’t fall. They didn’t take her with bombs or flamethrowers. She just bled to death...”
Pluzhnikov’s words: “A person cannot be defeated if he does not want to. You can kill, but you cannot win.”
I was impressed by the love story of Pluzhnikov and Mirra. It seems that this romantic love in the dungeon is somehow unexpected in this novel. But this love is a manifestation of true humanity, opposed to the cruelty of war. The great power of life, goodness, love is indestructible in spite of everything that seeks to destroy it.
The legendary heroes, the legendary exploits depicted in the novel “Not on the Lists” reflect true reality. And Boris Vasiliev, drawing them, relied on real story defense of the Brett fortress.
A. S. Pushkin showed in the novel the spiritual quest of the best representatives of the Russian nobility, reflected the life of this social group in all its diversity and complexity. V. G. Belinsky deservedly called this work an encyclopedia of Russian life and to the highest degree folk work. The novel's nationality is not only in the expression of the people's spirit, traditions, attitude, national identity, embodied mainly in the image of Tatyana Larina, the author's digressions, but also directly in the images of representatives of the people, in sketches from life. The author created a wide and voluminous panorama of the life of the
A. S. Griboyedov’s play “Woe from Wit” is the first Russian realistic comedy. An important place in it is occupied by the exposure of vices contemporary writer society, the main value for which is “two thousand tribal souls” and rank. It’s not for nothing that Famusov is trying to marry Sophia to Skalozub, who “has a dirty bag and aspires to be a general.” He cares little about his daughter’s happiness, or rather, he is sure that happiness lies in money and a high position in society. In the words of Liza, Griboyedov convinces us that Famusov is not the only one who holds this opinion: “Like all Moscow people, your father is like this: he would wish for a son-in-law with the stars
We go to school, learn to read and write, and begin to “make friends” with books. What could be more entertaining than reading a good book? While reading, you find yourself in a mysterious and magical world, you are transported to the distant past or future. WITH early childhood We learn about the world around us from books read by adults. After reading books, we begin to learn more and more new and interesting things. But some cases in the works that are described in books happen in life. From books we learn a lot of interesting and instructive things. The book gives us experience past generations, their ideals, beliefs, ways of searching for truth. There are many books
The idea of Russia's supreme destiny in the history of human civilization was popular back in the 19th century. Many major thinkers have put forward theories according to which Russia is a country marked by the stamp of chosenness. The views of such outstanding figures of Russian social thought as F. Tyutchev and A. Blok are closest to me. F. I. Tyutchev declared in his work the idea of the chosen one of the Russian state and contrasted Rus' with the countries Western Europe. The author’s political worldview is most fully expressed in the articles “Russia and the Revolution” and “The Roman Question and the Papacy.” According to the poet, Ro
A hero is a person who, at a decisive moment, does what necessary to do in the interests of human society.
Julius Fucik
Hero, heroism, heroic... These words enter our lives from childhood, forming in a person the traits of a citizen and patriot. An important role in this process belongs to Russian literature, in which the depiction of a person’s feat has been and remains traditional since the times of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and “Zadonshchina”. In Russian literature of the 20th century, the feat of man turns out to be closely connected with the theme of the Great Patriotic War, which became truly “ people's war” for our compatriots.
Among those who went through this war there were many future writers: Yu. Bondarev, V. Bykov, V. Zakrutkin, K. Vorobyov, V. Astafiev and others.
Boris Lvovich Vasiliev, the author of many books dedicated to this sacred topic for everyone, also became a volunteer of the Great Patriotic War, who went through it from beginning to end.
The most famous story is B. Vasilyev’s story “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”, in which the idea of the incompatibility of war with the nature of man, especially of a woman, called upon to give life, is expressed with particular insight.
But in my essay I would like to refer to B. Vasiliev’s novel “Not on the Lists,” which was published in the magazine “Yunost” in 1974.
At the center of the novel is the fate of the young lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov, who arrived at his place of duty - the Brest Fortress - late in the evening of June 21, 1941, and therefore did not have time to get on the list of the garrison, but later became the last defender of the heroic fortress.
“Not on the Lists” is the story of the formation of a heroic character who matures in the fire of war.
The novel is compositionally divided into three parts, chronologically continuing each other.
So, Kolya Pluzhnikov arrives at the Brest Fortress on the night of June 22, 1941. He is almost still a boy, very naive and spontaneous. But in this naivety lies, it seems to me, the great truth of the time, which B. Vasiliev paints, avoiding even a hint of modernization, modernizing the past for the sake of fashion, power, etc.
Among books about the war, the works of Boris Vasiliev occupy a special place. There are several reasons for this: firstly, he knows how to simply, clearly and concisely, in just a couple of sentences, paint a three-dimensional picture of war and people at war. Probably no one has ever written about the war as harshly, accurately and piercingly clearly as Vasiliev.
Secondly, Vasiliev knew what he was writing about firsthand: his early years fell during the Great Patriotic War, which he went through to the end, miraculously surviving.
The novel “Not on the Lists” summary which can be conveyed in several sentences, read in one breath. What is it about? About the beginning of the war, about the heroic and tragic defense of the Brest Fortress, which, even dying, did not surrender to the enemy - it simply bled to death, according to one of the heroes of the novel.
And this novel is also about freedom, about duty, about love and hatred, about devotion and betrayal, in a word, about what our ordinary life consists of. Only in war do all these concepts become larger and more voluminous, and a person, his whole soul can be seen as if through a magnifying glass...
The main characters are Lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov, his colleagues Salnikov and Denishchik, as well as a young girl, almost a girl, Mirra, who by the will of fate became Kolya Pluzhnikov’s only lover.
The author gives the central place to Nikolai Pluzhnikov. A college graduate who has just received the shoulder straps of a lieutenant arrives at the Brest Fortress before the first dawn of the war, a few hours before the volleys of guns that forever crossed out his former peaceful life.
The image of the main character
At the beginning of the novel, the author calls the young man simply by name - Kolya - emphasizing his youth and inexperience. Kolya himself asked the school management to send him to a combat unit, to a special section - he wanted to become a real fighter, to “smell gunpowder.” Only in this way, he believed, can one gain the right to command others, instruct and train young people.
Kolya was heading to the fortress authorities to submit a report about himself when shots rang out. So he took the first battle without being included in the list of defenders. Well, then there was no time for lists - there was no one and there was no time to compile and verify them.
Nikolai’s baptism of fire was difficult: at some point he could not stand it, abandoned the church that he was supposed to hold without surrendering to the Nazis, and tried to instinctively save himself and his life. But he overcomes the horror, so natural in this situation, and again goes to the rescue of his comrades. The continuous battle, the need to fight to the death, to think and make decisions not only for oneself, but also for those who are weaker - all this gradually changes the lieutenant. After a couple of months of mortal battles, it is no longer Kolya before us, but battle-hardened Lieutenant Pluzhnikov - a tough, determined man. For every month in the Brest Fortress, he lived like ten years.
And yet youth still lived in him, still bursting through with a stubborn faith in the future, in the fact that our people would come, that help was close. This hope did not fade even with the loss of two friends found in the fortress - the cheerful, cheerful Salnikov and the stern border guard Volodya Denishchik.
They were with Pluzhnikov from the first fight. Salnikov turned from a funny boy into a man, into a friend who would save at any cost, even at the cost of his life. Denishchik looked after Pluzhnikov until he himself was mortally wounded.
Both died saving Pluzhnikov’s life.
Among the main characters, we must definitely name one more person - the quiet, modest, inconspicuous girl Mirra. The war found her at 16 years old.
Mirra was crippled since childhood: she wore a prosthesis. The lameness forced her to come to terms with the sentence of never having a family of her own, but always being a helper to others, living for others. In the fortress she worked part-time in peacetime, helping to cook.
The war cut her off from all her loved ones and walled her up in a dungeon. The whole being of this young girl was permeated by a strong need for love. She still knew nothing about life, and life played such a cruel joke on her. This is how Mirra perceived the war until the destinies of her and Lieutenant Pluzhnikov crossed. What inevitably had to happen when two young creatures met happened - love broke out. And for the short happiness of love, Mirra paid with her life: she died under the blows of the butts of the camp guards. Her last thoughts were only about her beloved, about how to protect him from the terrible spectacle of a monstrous murder - her and the child she was already carrying in her womb. Mirra succeeded. And this was her personal human feat.
The main idea of the book
At first glance, it seems that the author’s main desire was to show the reader the feat of the defenders of the Brest Fortress, to reveal the details of the battles, to talk about the courage of the people who fought for several months without help, practically without water and food, and without medical care. They fought, at first stubbornly hoping that our people would come and take the fight, and then without this hope, they simply fought because they could not, did not consider themselves entitled to give up the fortress to the enemy.
But if you read “Not on the Lists” more thoughtfully, you understand: this book is about a person. It is about the fact that human possibilities are limitless. A person cannot be defeated until he himself wants it. He can be tortured, starved, deprived of physical strength, even killed - but he cannot be defeated.
Lieutenant Pluzhnikov was not included in the lists of those who served in the fortress. But he gave himself the order to fight, without anyone’s commands from above. He did not leave - he remained where his own inner voice ordered him to stay.
No force can destroy the spiritual power of someone who has faith in victory and faith in himself.
The summary of the novel “Not on the Lists” is easy to remember, but without carefully reading the book, it is impossible to grasp the idea that the author wanted to convey to us.
The action covers 10 months - the first 10 months of the war. That is how long the endless battle lasted for Lieutenant Pluzhnikov. He found and lost friends and his beloved in this battle. He lost and found himself - in the very first battle, the young man, out of fatigue, horror and confusion, abandoned the building of the church, which he should have held until the last. But the words of the senior soldier inspired him with courage, and he returned to his combat post. In a matter of hours, a core matured in the soul of the 19-year-old boy, which remained his support until the very end.
Officers and soldiers continued to fight. Half-dead, with their backs and heads shot through, their legs torn off, half-blind, they fought, slowly going one by one into oblivion.
Of course, there were also those in whom the natural instinct of survival turned out to be stronger than the voice of conscience, the sense of responsibility for others. They just wanted to live - and nothing more. The war quickly turned such people into weak-willed slaves, ready to do anything just for the opportunity to survive at least one more day. This was the former musician Reuben Svitsky. " Former man“, as Vasiliev writes about him, having found himself in a ghetto for Jews, he resigned himself to his fate immediately and irrevocably: he walked with his head bowed low, obeyed any orders, did not dare to raise his eyes to his tormentors - to those who turned him into a subhuman, nothing not wanting and not hoping for anything.
The war molded traitors out of other weak-spirited people. Sergeant Major Fedorchuk voluntarily surrendered. A healthy, strong man who could fight, made the decision to survive at any cost. This opportunity was taken away from him by Pluzhnikov, who destroyed the traitor with a shot in the back. War has its own laws: there is a value here greater than the value of human life. This value: victory. They died and killed for her without hesitation.
Pluzhnikov continued to make forays, undermining the enemy’s forces, until he was left completely alone in the dilapidated fortress. But even then, until the last bullet, he fought an unequal battle against the fascists. Finally they discovered the shelter where he had been hiding for many months.
The end of the novel is tragic - it simply could not have been otherwise. An almost blind, skeletal-thin man with black frostbitten feet and shoulder-length gray hair is taken out of the shelter. This man has no age, and no one would believe that according to his passport he is only 20 years old. He left the shelter voluntarily and only after the news that Moscow had not been taken.
A man stands among enemies, looking at the sun with blind eyes from which tears flow. And - an unthinkable thing - the Nazis give him the highest military honors: everyone, including the general. But he doesn't care anymore. He became higher than people, higher than life, higher than death itself. He seemed to have reached the limit of human capabilities - and realized that they were limitless.
“Not on the lists” - to the modern generation
The novel “Not on the Lists” should be read by all of us living today. We did not know the horrors of war, our childhood was cloudless, our youth was calm and happy. This book causes a real explosion in the soul of a modern person, accustomed to comfort, confidence in the future, and security.
But the core of the work is still not a narrative about the war. Vasiliev invites the reader to look at himself from the outside, to probe all the secret places of his soul: could I do the same? Do I have inner strength - the same as those defenders of the fortress, just emerging from childhood? Am I worthy to be called a Human?
Let these questions forever remain rhetorical. May fate never confront us with such a terrible choice as that great, courageous generation faced. But let's always remember them. They died so that we could live. But they died undefeated.
