Alexander Fadeev's novel "Destruction": analysis of the work, characteristics of the characters, history of creation. "Characteristics of the main characters in the novel" Defeat Antithesis as the main device of the novel

A. Fadeev defined the main idea of ​​the novel “Destruction” as follows: “In civil war human material is selected. Everything that is unable to fight is eliminated. People are being remade.” No matter how contradictory the assessment of the events of the civil war from the standpoint of

Today, Fadeev’s undoubted merit is that he showed the civil war from the inside. The author highlights not military actions, but people.
It is no coincidence that Fadeev chooses to describe in the novel the time when the detachment has already been defeated. He wants to show not only the successes of the Red Army, but also its failures. In the dramatic events of this time, the characters of people are deeply revealed. The central place in the novel is occupied by the images of the detachment commander Levinson, Morozka and Mechik. They are all connected by the same living conditions, and this helps the reader judge the characters of these heroes.
Ivan Morozov, or Morozka, as he is called, did not look for new roads in life. This is a natural in his actions, a talkative and broken-hearted guy of twenty-seven years old, a second-generation miner. Through life he followed old, long-established paths. The rescue of Mechik became, as it were, the impetus for remaking Morozka. We see that the hero feels compassion for Mechik, he shows courage, but he also has contempt for this man, whom he considers “clean.”
Morozka is greatly offended that Varya falls in love with Mechik. “This is it, mom’s, or what?” - he asks her and contemptuously calls Mechik “yellow-mouthed.” There is pain and anger in it. And so he steals melons. And he is very afraid that he will be kicked out of the army for this offense. This is impossible for him, he has already gotten along with these people. Yes, he has nowhere to go. At the “trial” he sincerely says: “If only I would. did this. if I had thought. Yes, really, brothers! Yes, I’ll give blood a vein for each, and it’s not like it’s a shame or what!”
Morozka failed in his personal relationships. After all, he has no one closer to Varya, and he has to cope with personal problems himself. He is lonely and seeks salvation in the squad. He is truly loyal to his squadmates. Morozka respects Levinson, Baklanov, Dubov, and even tries to imitate them. They saw in Morozk not only a good fighter, but also a sympathetic person, and always supported him. Morozka can be trusted - after all, he is the one sent on the last reconnaissance mission. And this hero, at the cost of his life, warns people about danger. Even in the last minutes of his life, he thinks not about himself, but about others. For his dedication and courage, for his kindness - after all, Morozka did not take revenge on Mechik for his lost wife - the author loves his hero and conveys this love to the reader.
Like Morozka, Fadeev shows detachment commander Levinson as a living person with his inherent hesitations and feelings. The author does not idealize this hero. Outwardly, he is inconspicuous, looks like a gnome with his small stature and red beard. He was always on guard: he was afraid that his squad would be taken by surprise, and began to prepare for resistance, but without anyone knowing about it. He is alert and insightful. All the partisans considered him “correct.”
But Levinson himself saw his own weaknesses, as well as the weaknesses of other people. When the squad finds itself in a difficult situation, Levinson tries to be an example for the rest. When this does not work, he begins to use the power of power and coercion (remember how he drives a fighter into the river at gunpoint). He is sometimes forced to be cruel by a sense of duty, which for Levinson is above all. He gathers all his strength, and the detachment under his leadership breaks forward... But after the breakthrough, Levinson no longer has any strength. When physical fatigue almost overcomes him, Baklanov comes to his aid. This young, naive “boy” was able to lead the squad forward. Levinson is weak, but this suggests that what comes to the fore in his behavior is not the commander, but the person. Fadeev sees the shortcomings of his hero and believes that he lacks vitality, courage, will. What attracts us to Levinson is that all his thoughts and actions express the interests of the detachment, the people. His personal experiences fade into the background.
The images of Morozka, Metelitsa and other members of the detachment are contrasted with the image of Mechik. This is a young man of nineteen years old who voluntarily came to the detachment to amuse his pride and vanity. Therefore, he rushes to the hottest place in order to prove himself as quickly as possible. This person fails to get close to the rest of the squad because he loves himself most of all. He always thought only about himself, so he was an outsider in the squad. Mechik begins to think about desertion, although he himself came to the detachment. This is precisely what speaks of Mechik’s true intentions. He did not serve the cause, but simply wanted to show off his valor.
Therefore, we can say that the detachment is a single whole, and Mechik stands separately from the rest. And when he finally deserts, the reader is not surprised. What does Mechik think about when he deserts? “. How could I do this - I, so good and honest and not wishing harm to anyone. “And it is Mechik who is the cause of Morozka’s death. It seems to me that this hero of the work is best characterized by the words of Levinson, who called Mechik a “worthless empty flower,” weak, lazy and weak-willed. And although the collective hero of A. Fadeev’s novel “Destruction” is a military detachment operating in the Far East, he does not appear before us as something unified. Too different people enter it. Each person is an individual with his own social roots, dreams and moods. This is confirmed by the very different images of Morozka, Levinson and Mechik.

Composition

TO the best works A. Fadeev’s novel “Destruction” dates back to the twenties. “I can define them like this,” said Fadeev. - The first and main idea: in a civil war, a selection of human material occurs, everything hostile is swept away by the revolution, everything incapable of a real revolutionary struggle, accidentally falling into the camp of the revolution, is eliminated, and everything that has risen from the true roots of the revolution, from the millions of masses of the people, is tempered, grows and develops in this struggle. A huge transformation of people is taking place.”

This transformation of people is happening successfully because the revolution is led by advanced representatives of the working class - communists who clearly see the goal of the movement and who lead the more backward ones and help them re-educate.

The significance of this topic is enormous. During the years of the revolution and civil war, a radical change took place in people's consciousness; reason ultimately triumphed over prejudice; the elements of “savagery,” inevitable in any war, receded into the background before the majestic picture of the growth of the “mind of the masses,” millions of workers were involved in active political life.

“Destruction” by A. Fadeev is one of the first works of art that reflected the ideological content of the October Revolution. The action in Mayhem lasts approximately three months. There are only about thirty characters. This is unusually low for works about the Civil War. The author's focus is on depicting human characters. The main event - the military defeat of the partisan detachment - begins to play a noticeable role in the fate of the heroes only from the middle of the work. The entire first half of the novel is a history of human experiences, conditioned not by a private military episode, but by the totality of the conditions of the revolutionary era, when the character characters outlined, the author shows the battle as a test of the qualities of people. And at the moment of hostilities, all attention is absorbed not in describing them, but in characterizing the behavior and experiences of the participants in the struggle. Where he was, what this or that hero was thinking about - the writer is occupied with such questions from the first to the last chapter. Not a single event is described as such, but is necessarily taken as a cause or consequence of the hero’s internal movements. Real historical basis The “debacle” was the events of the three most difficult months. The novel gives a general broad picture of the great remaking of the world and man that began on October 25, 1917. “Destruction” is a book about the “birth of man”, about the formation of a new, Soviet self-awareness among a variety of participants historical events.

There are no random “happy” endings in Fadeev’s novel. Acute military and psychological conflicts are resolved in it only by the heroic exertion of the physical and spiritual forces of the participants in the war. By the end of the novel it develops tragic situation: A partisan detachment finds itself surrounded by the enemy. A way out of this situation required great sacrifices, and was purchased at the price of the heroic death of the best people in the detachment. The novel ends with the death of most of the heroes: only nineteen remain alive. The plot of the novel, therefore, contains an element of tragedy, which is emphasized in the title itself. Fadeev used the tragic material of the civil war to show that the working masses did not stop at any sacrifice in the struggle for the victory of the proletarian revolution and that this revolution raised ordinary people, people from the people, to the level of heroes of historical tragedy.

The characters of "Devastation" are organically welded together real event, which lies at the heart of the novel. The system of images as a whole gives rise to such a strong feeling of naturalness that it seems to have emerged as if spontaneously.

The cramped world of a partisan detachment is an artistic miniature from a real painting of a large historical scale. The system of images of “Destruction”, taken as a whole, reflected the real-typical correlation of the main social forces of the revolution. It was attended by the proletariat, peasantry and intelligentsia, led by the Communist Party. Fadeev managed to find high poetry in the deeds and thoughts of the Bolshevik, in the activities of the party worker, and not in psychological additions to it and not in its external naturalistic decorations.

“Destruction” not only continues to live in our days, but is also enriched by time, precisely because, along with the present, the book also contains the future. In the novel by A. Fadeev, the future, the dream became part reality. “Destruction” is one of the first works of our literature in which socialist realism is not present in the form of separate elements, but becomes the very basis of the work. A. Fadeev’s work on “Destruction” can serve as an example of the artist’s great exactingness, the writer’s correct understanding of his high responsibility to the reader.

The novel is the result of long thought and great creative work. “I worked a lot on the novel,” says the author, “I rewrote individual chapters many times. There are chapters that I have rewritten over twenty times.” But the author carried out complex work related to clarifying the meaning of individual expressions and improving the style.

Its focus is on the complex moral problems of duty, fidelity, humanism, and love that faced Fadeev’s heroes and continue to concern us today.

The detachment commander Levinson is the hero of the novel. He is distinguished by revolutionary consciousness, the ability to organize and lead the masses. Outwardly, Levinson was unremarkable: small, unprepossessing in appearance, the only attractive thing about his face was his eyes, blue, deep, like lakes. However, the partisans see him as a man of the “right breed.” The commander knew how to do everything: to develop a plan for saving the detachment, and to talk with people about economic issues, and to play gorodki, and to give orders on time, and, most importantly, to convince people; he is characterized by political insight. For educational purposes, he organizes a demonstrative condemnation of Morozka’s actions and proposes to make a decision obliging the partisans to help the population in their free time.

In difficult moments of hesitation for Levinson, no one noticed the confusion in his soul, he did not share his feelings with anyone, he himself tried to find the right solution. He also acts rationally with the mortally wounded Frolov: by killing him, Levinson believes, they will save the partisan from unnecessary torment. Under the influence of the detachment commander, partisan fighters, for example, Morozka, are tempered in the revolutionary struggle and rise to heroic deeds. The fearless scout Metelitsa, having found himself in trouble, defends himself to the last, and before his death he thinks that all the biggest and most important things “he did for the sake of the people and for the people.”

Pavel Mechik turned out to be a stranger to the partisans. Brought up by a bourgeois environment, he was unable to penetrate the power of revolutionary ideas, could not understand revolutionary humanism, and at the end of the novel he slides into outright betrayal. “Suddenly Nyvka snorted in fear and darted into the bushes, pressing Mechik to some flexible rods... He raised his head, and the sleepy state instantly left him, replaced by a feeling of incomparable animal horror: on the road, a few steps away from him, there were Cossacks...” Mechik was a sentinel, but escaped without warning the detachment about the ambush.

The writer worked a lot and fruitfully in the thirties. He was elected chairman of the Writers' Union after the death of M. Gorky.

During the Great Patriotic War Alexander Fadeev does not stay away from the country’s problems; he goes to the front, writes essays and articles. And it is completely natural that after the liberation of Krasnodon from the fascist invaders, when the whole country learned about the Young Guard organization, it was Fadeev who was asked to write about the feat of these young heroes.

The writer set to work with enthusiasm. Less than a year later, the book was published, but it was criticized by Stalin for the fact that Fadeev, writing about the struggle of Komsomol members against the fascists, did not note the leading and guiding role of the Communist Party. Fadeev revised and expanded the novel. For many years, the Young Guard served as a textbook example of the life and struggle of Komsomol members against the fascist invaders. Thanks to the writer’s talent, the whole world learned the names of the heroes Soviet Union: Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Zemnukhov, Ulyana Gromova, Sergei Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova, Anatoly Popov...

Hundreds of boys and girls were brought up by their example. The streets and squares of cities, ships and pioneer camps were named after them. After the war, Fadeev worked on the novels “The Last 13 Udege” and “Ferrous Metallurgy”. There is little time for creativity, as there is a lot of work in the Writers' Union, in an administrative position. Time is changing, repressed writers are returning, they are demanding an answer for their innocent stay in prisons and camps. And from the first they question Fadeev, who failed to defend them. The writer cannot stand it; he voluntarily dies. We can condemn Fadeev for many things, but do we have the right to do so? What would we do if we were in his place? Mayakovsky said: “I am a poet. That’s why it’s interesting.” We must learn not to judge and label, but to look at writers and poets in terms of their creativity.

Fadeev, born of the harsh times of revolution and civil war, managed to reflect and truthfully show it in his works. Whether we like it or not, he cannot be “erased” from the history of Russian literature. This is our heritage that we must know. And time will determine the assessments, this is his prerogative.

Other works on this work

I should make nails out of these people

There couldn't be any stronger nails in the world…

(N. Tikhonov. “The Ballad of Nails”)

Introduction

The revolution is too huge an event in its scale not to be reflected in literature. And only a few writers and poets who came under her influence did not touch on this topic in their work.

It must also be kept in mind that October Revolution The most important stage in the history of mankind gave rise to the most complex phenomena in literature and art.

With all his passion as a communist writer and revolutionary A.A. Fadeev sought to bring the bright time of communism closer. This humanistic belief in a beautiful person permeated the most difficult pictures and situations into which his heroes found themselves.

For A.A. Fadeev, a revolutionary is not possible without this aspiration to a bright future, without faith in a new, beautiful, kind and pure person.

Fadeev wrote the novel "Destruction" over three years from 1924 to 1927, when many writers wrote laudatory works about the victory of socialism. Against this background, Fadeev wrote, at first glance, an unprofitable novel: during the civil war, the partisan detachment was physically defeated, but morally he defeated the enemies with his faith in the correctness of the chosen path. It seems to me that Fadeev wrote this novel in such a way as to show that the revolution is defended not by a frenzied crowd of ragamuffins, smashing and sweeping away everything in its path, but by courageous, honest people who have raised in themselves and others a moral, humane person.

If we take the purely external shell, the development of events, then this is really the story of the defeat of Levinson’s partisan detachment. But A.A. Fadeev uses one of the most dramatic moments in history to narrate partisan movement in the Far East, when the combined efforts of the White Guard and Japanese troops dealt heavy blows to the partisans of Primorye.

You can pay attention to one feature in the construction of “Destruction”: each of the chapters not only develops some kind of action, but also contains a complete psychological development, an in-depth characterization of one of the characters. Some chapters are named after the names of the heroes: “Morozka”, “Mechik”, “Levinson”, “Reconnaissance of Metelitsa”. But this does not mean that these individuals act only in these chapters. They take an active part in all events in the life of the entire detachment. Fadeev, as a follower of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, explores their characters in all difficult and sometimes compromising circumstances. At the same time, creating new ones psychological portraits, the writer strives to penetrate the innermost corners of the soul, trying to foresee the motives and actions of his heroes. With every turn of events, new aspects of character are revealed.

Morozka

Frost! Peering into the appearance of a dashing partisan, we experience that happy feeling of discovering a bright human type that brings truly work of art. It gives us aesthetic pleasure to follow the vicissitudes of this person’s mental life. His moral evolution gives us a lot to think about.

Before joining the partisan detachment, Morozka “did not look for new roads, but followed old, already proven paths” and life seemed simple and unsophisticated to him. He fought bravely, but at times was burdened by Levinson’s demands. He was generous and selfless, but did not see anything wrong in filling a bag with melons from a peasant's chestnut. He could get completely drunk, curse a friend, and rudely offend a woman.

Combat life brings Morozka not only military skills, but also the awareness of his responsibility to the team, a sense of citizenship. Observing the beginning of panic at the crossing (someone spread a rumor that they were passing farts), out of mischief, he wanted to “prank” the men even more “for fun,” but thought better of it and began to restore order. Unexpectedly Frost

"I felt like a big, responsible person...". This consciousness was joyful and promising. Morozka learned to control himself, “he involuntarily joined that meaningful healthy life that Goncharenko always seemed to live...”.

Morozka still had a lot to overcome within himself, but the most decisive thing was that he was a true hero, a loyal comrade, a selfless fighter. Without flinching, he sacrificed own life, raised the alarm and warned the squad about an enemy ambush.

Blizzard

Blizzard. A shepherd in the past, an unsurpassed scout in a partisan detachment, he also forever chose his place in the fire of class battles.

In the course of working on “Destruction,” the image of Metelitsa was rethought by the author. Judging by the draft manuscript, at first Fadeev intended to show, first of all, the physical strength and energy of his hero. Metelitsa was embittered by the old life, did not trust people and even despised them, considered himself - proud and lonely - immeasurably higher than those around him. While working on the novel, the writer frees the image of Metelitsa from such “demonic” traits, develops those episodes in which the bright mind and breadth of thinking of his hero are revealed. His impetuous and nervous strength, which could have been destructive, under the influence of Levinson received the right direction and was put at the service of a noble and humane cause.

But Metelitsa is capable of much. One of the key scenes in the novel is the scene where a military council is shown, at which the next military operation was discussed. Metelitsa proposed a daring and original plan, testifying to his remarkable mind.

Baklanov

Baklanov. He not only learns from Levinson, but imitates him in everything, even in his behavior. His enthusiastic attitude towards the commander can make you smile. However, it is impossible not to notice what this training gives: the assistant detachment commander has earned universal respect for his calm energy, clarity, organization, coupled with courage and

dedication, he is one of the people in charge of all squad affairs. In the finale of "Destruction" it is said that Levinson sees his successor in Baklanov. In the manuscript of the novel, this idea was developed in even more detail. The force that moved Levinson and inspired him with confidence that the surviving nineteen fighters would continue the common cause was “not the strength of an individual person” dying with him, “but was the strength of thousands and thousands of people (which burned, for example, Baklanov), then is an undying and eternal power."

Levinson

Levinson's figure opens a gallery of "party people" - drawn Soviet writers. The artistic appeal of this image is that it is revealed “from the inside”, illuminated by the light of great ideas that inspire such people.

A short, red-bearded man emerges from the pages of the book as if alive, conquering not with physical strength, not with a loud voice, but with a strong spirit and unbending will. Portraying an energetic, strong-willed commander, Fadeev emphasized the need for him to choose the right tactics, which ensure a purposeful impact on people. When Levinson is overbearing

with a shout he stops the panic when he organizes a crossing through the quagmire, the communists - the heroes of Fadeev's first stories - come to mind. But this image made a huge impression on readers due to its dissimilarity with its predecessors. In "Destruction" the artistic emphasis was transferred to the world of feelings, thoughts, experiences of a revolutionary fighter, a Bolshevik

figure. Levinson's outward unsightliness and morbidity are intended to highlight his main strength - the power of political and moral influence on those around him. He finds the “key” to Metelitsa, whose energy must be directed in the right direction, and to Baklanov, who is only waiting for a signal to act independently, and to Morozka, who needs strict care, and to all the other partisans.

Levinson seemed to be a person of “a special, correct breed”, not at all subject to mental anxieties. In turn, he got used to thinking that, burdened with everyday petty vanity, people seemed to entrust their most important concerns to him and his comrades. Therefore, it seems necessary to him, fulfilling the role of a strong man, “always at the head,” to carefully hide his

doubts, hide personal weaknesses, strictly maintain distance between yourself and

subordinates. However, the author is aware of these weaknesses and doubts. Moreover, he considers it obligatory to tell the reader about them, to show the hidden corners of Levinson’s soul. Let us remember, for example, Levinson at the moment of breaking through the White Cossack ambush: exhausted in continuous trials, this iron man “helplessly looked around, for the first time looking for outside support...”. In the 20s, writers often, while depicting a brave and fearless commissar or commander, did not consider it possible to depict his hesitation and confusion. Fadeev went further than his colleagues, conveying the complexity moral state the detachment commander, and the integrity of his character - ultimately, Levinson necessarily comes to new decisions, his will does not weaken, but is tempered in difficulties,

he, learning to manage others, learns to manage himself.

Levinson loves people, and this love is demanding and active. Coming from a petty-bourgeois family, Levinson suppressed within himself a sweet longing for the beautiful birds that, as the photographer assures the children, would suddenly fly out of the camera. He is looking for points of convergence of the sword

A. Fadeev defined the main idea of ​​the novel “Destruction” as follows: “In a civil war, a selection of human material occurs... Everything incapable of fighting is eliminated... A remaking of people occurs.” No matter how controversial the assessment of the events of the civil war from the perspective of today, Fadeev’s undoubted merit is that he showed the civil war from the inside. The author highlights not military actions, but people.

It is no coincidence that Fadeev chooses to describe in the novel the time when the detachment has already been defeated. He wants to show not only the successes of the Red Army, but also its failures. In the dramatic events of this time, the characters of people are deeply revealed. The central place in the novel is occupied by the images of the detachment commander Levinson, Morozka and Mechik. They are all connected by the same living conditions, and this helps the reader judge the characters of these heroes.

Ivan Morozov, or Morozka, as he is called, did not look for new roads in life. This is a natural in his actions, a talkative and broken-hearted guy of twenty-seven years old, a second-generation miner. Through life he followed old, long-established paths. The rescue of Mechik became, as it were, the impetus for remaking Morozka. We see that the hero feels compassion for Mechik, he shows courage, but he also has contempt for this man, whom he considers “clean.”

Morozka is greatly offended that Varya falls in love with Mechik. “This is it, mom’s, or what?” - he asks her and contemptuously calls Mechik “yellow-mouthed.” There is pain and anger in it. And so he steals melons. And he is very afraid that he will be kicked out of the army for this offense. This is impossible for him, he has already gotten along with these people. Yes, he has nowhere to go. At the “trial” he sincerely says: “But would I... have done such a thing... if I had thought... but would I, brothers! Yes, I’ll give a vein of blood for each one, and it’s not like it’s a shame or anything!”

Morozka failed in his personal relationships. After all, he has no one closer to Varya, and he has to cope with personal problems himself. He is lonely and seeks salvation in the detachment. He is truly loyal to his squadmates. Morozka respects Levinson, Baklanov, Dubov, and even tries to imitate them. They saw in Morozk not only a good fighter, but also a sympathetic person, and always supported him. Morozka can be trusted - after all, he is the one sent on the last reconnaissance mission. And this hero, at the cost of his life, warns people about danger. Even in the last minutes of his life, he thinks not about himself, but about others. For his dedication and courage, for his kindness - after all, Morozka did not take revenge on Mechik for his lost wife - the author loves his hero and conveys this love to the reader.

Like Morozka, Fadeev shows detachment commander Levinson as a living person with his inherent hesitations and feelings. The author does not idealize this hero. Outwardly, he is inconspicuous, looks like a gnome with his small stature and red beard. He was always on guard: he was afraid that his squad would be taken by surprise, and began to prepare for resistance, but without anyone knowing about it. He is alert and insightful. All the partisans considered him “correct.”

But Levinson himself saw his own weaknesses, as well as the weaknesses of other people. When the squad finds itself in a difficult situation, Levinson tries to be an example for the rest. When this does not work, he begins to use the power of power and coercion (remember how he drives a fighter into the river at gunpoint). Sometimes he is forced to be cruel by a sense of duty, which for Levinson is above all. He gathers all his strength, and the detachment under his leadership breaks forward... But after the breakthrough, Levinson no longer has any strength. When physical fatigue almost overcomes him, Baklanov comes to his aid. This young, naive “boy” was able to lead the squad forward. Levinson is weak, but this suggests that it is not the commander, but the person who comes to the fore in his behavior. Fadeev sees the shortcomings of his hero and believes that he lacks vitality, courage, and will. What attracts us to Levinson is that all his thoughts and actions express the interests of the detachment, the people. His personal experiences fade into the background.

The images of Morozka, Metelitsa and other members of the detachment are contrasted with the image of Mechik. This is a young man of nineteen years old who voluntarily came to the detachment to amuse his pride and vanity. Therefore, he rushes to the hottest place in order to prove himself as quickly as possible. This person fails to get close to the rest of the squad because he loves himself most of all. He always thought only about himself, so he was an outsider in the squad. Mechik begins to think about desertion, although he himself came to the detachment. This is precisely what speaks of Mechik’s true intentions. He did not serve the cause, but simply wanted to show off his valor.

Therefore, we can say that the detachment is a single whole, and Mechik stands separately from the rest. And when he finally deserts, the reader is not surprised. What does Mechik think about when he deserts? “...How could I do this, I, who am so good and honest and who did not wish harm to anyone...” And it is Mechik who is the cause of Morozka’s death. It seems to me that this hero of the work is best characterized by the words of Levinson, who called Mechik a “worthless empty flower,” weak, lazy and weak-willed. And although the collective hero of A. Fadeev’s novel “Destruction” is a military detachment operating in the Far East, he does not appear before us as something unified. Too different people enter it. Each person is an individual with his own social roots, dreams and moods. This is confirmed by the very different images of Morozka, Levinson and Mechik.

Fadeev's novel still causes heated controversy. His heroes are real, living, but many see in them government order and Soviet revolutionary propaganda. And although history has now turned against the “reds,” there are still millions of people in the country who are close to the position of Morozka and Levinson, but there are also those who sympathize with Mechik, they are against goodness and freedom mixed with blood.

The author wrote the novel at the age of 25, but despite this, the work was quite mature. Critics immediately noted the writer’s talent. The work brought him success and recognition, because the ideological basis of the book was very suitable for the political course of the new state. The action in "Destruction" takes place during the Civil War in the Ussuri region. Alexander Alexandrovich himself fought in the 1920s in the Far East against the army of Kolchak and Semenov and personally experienced the hardships of battle. Therefore, the descriptions of combat attacks and front-line life look so convincing and vivid, as if the reader himself witnessed these events and is now listening to the nostalgic story of a comrade of those years.

Main idea

Fadeev spoke about the main idea of ​​the work like this:

The first and main idea: in a civil war, a selection of human material occurs, everything hostile is swept away by the revolution, everything incapable of a real revolutionary struggle, accidentally falling into the camp of the revolution, is eliminated, and everything that has risen from the true roots of the revolution, from the millions of masses of the people, is tempered, grows, develops in this fight. A huge transformation of people is taking place. This transformation is taking place successfully because the revolution is led by advanced representatives of the working class - communists who clearly see the goal of the movement and who lead the more backward ones and help them re-educate.”

And, indeed, throughout the narrative, which centers on three heroes, we see how they change. The author describes in detail their experiences, dreams, desires, sufferings, thoughts. Many critics even accused Fadeev of excessive internal probing of the characters, of unnecessary “Tolstoyism”. But without this it would simply be impossible to reveal the images of Morozka, Mechik and Levinson. The writer managed to overcome the superficiality of socialist realism and preserve in literature the psychologism typical of classical Russian prose.

Morozka's image

The heroes are representatives of different walks of life, with different fates, but they were united by the revolution. They found themselves in the same squad, fighting the enemy side by side, experiencing similar feelings every day. The author describes in detail the development of each of them.

Morozka is a miner’s guy who has lived a physically difficult but carefree life since childhood. At the age of 12, he already started working in a mine, learned to swear and drink vodka. Fadeev writes that Morozka most likely got into the detachment thoughtlessly, it was simply impossible to do otherwise then. It turns out that he and his wife Varka appeared among the partisans by accident, unconsciously, fate itself led him there. But in the first chapter we see that Morozka values ​​​​his place in the squad and will never leave it, this has become the meaning of his worthless, aimless life. He initially has the ability to implement real honest deeds, but he can also easily commit a low act that disgraces him. Morozka does not betray his comrades, saves Mechik’s life, but then steals melons from Ryabets, with whom he slept under the same blanket and lived with him. Later Morozka changes. The author describes his development as follows: “He also thought that life was becoming more cunning, the old Suchan paths were becoming overgrown, and he had to choose the Road himself.” This suggests that the hero is already quite consciously choosing his path. Then Morozka makes his own decisions. At the trial, he promises that he will never again dare to disgrace their squad, saying that he is ready to shed blood for each of them. The soldier has long become an integral part of the detachment; these are his closest people, for whom he gives his life without hesitation at the end of the novel. The revolution needs such people. There is no egoism in them, and they love their comrades more than themselves.

Levinson's image

Levinson is completely different. He is a detachment commander and is a role model for most partisans. Everyone considers him the strongest, bravest, smart person who always knows what to do right. In fact, Levinson grew up in an ordinary Jewish family, helped his father sell used furniture, was afraid of mice and was in many ways similar to his partisans. But he knew that he could lead people only by deeply hiding all his fears and anxieties; he must be an example for them to follow. Levinson, just like Morozka, loves his comrades more than himself and his suffering. He knows for sure that there is an important cause for which he lives and is ready to do anything.

Mechik's image

Mechik is the direct opposite of Morozka. A guy from an intelligent family, he graduated from high school and joined the detachment of his own free will, only he had completely different ideas about revolution and struggle, they were too bookish and romantic. In life everything turned out differently, but Mechik did not immediately understand that this was not his environment. The author shows his long path to betrayal.

Fadeev immediately imagines him through the eyes of Morozka, who does not like such too clean people; his experience says that these are unreliable comrades who cannot be trusted. But first Mechik wanted to fight and move; young, hot blood was seething in him. He was not immediately accepted by the partisans, since he was very different from them in appearance. Seeing real, living people - rude, dirty, uncouth - he was disappointed. The character of Mechik is written in the most detail, since it is important to know how seemingly good guys become traitors. Fadeev describes this process in detail. The author writes about him without contempt; he seems to justify his fall from grace. After all, it was the partisans themselves who did not accept him, and main reason it was that he belonged to a different class. He was constantly offended, mocked and made fun of. He was always, essentially, alone, and loneliness pushes people to desperate actions. Mechik, unfortunately, did not find himself in his environment, but it was no longer possible to leave on good terms. Fadeev leaves him alive, he will have to live with his betrayal. The hero will be able to justify himself, since more than anything in the world he loves only himself, just as he is. People like him have no place in the revolutionary ranks. He's too weak to fight.

Main problems

When it comes to a big and responsible matter, it is important to understand all its aspects and, if you take on it, to stand until the end. If you rush around, nothing good will come of it. In this sense, the problem of betrayal is central to the novel. It is to her that the author devotes a lot of time and effort. His position is not one-sided: he does not judge, but tries to understand. So he wants to prove to people that they shouldn’t shoot from the shoulder if there is a traitor in front of them. It is necessary to take into account the reasons that prompted a person to become one. In this case, one cannot blame everything on the class failure of the intelligentsia, as Soviet literary scholars hastened to do on orders “from above.” The roots of moral crime are much deeper, because before us is an almost biblical story: the renunciation of the Apostle Peter from his teacher. This is exactly what Mechik did, and his betrayal was also predicted. So the problem is moral choice stood before humanity from the very first day and still stands unchanged. Someone initially does not have the fortitude to defend their beliefs, so at a crossroads they choose a crooked path to save their life.

The author also found the courage to look at the revolution from different points of view. Some imagine it as a romantic aspiration, while others see it as a real struggle with blood, sweat and death at every turn. However, a realist risks becoming a cynic and a meat grinder, going towards the goal no matter what. And a romantic can break down and go astray at the cost of considerable sacrifices. It is important to maintain a balance and perceive the revolution soberly, but at the same time obey the highest moral laws and follow the ideal without agreeing to compromises.