What is the feat of a woman in the war? What role did women play during the Great Patriotic War? It is these questions that the writer S.A. Aleksievich tries to answer in her text.
Revealing the problem of the feat of a woman in the war, the author relies on his own reasoning, life facts. On the one hand, a woman is first and foremost a mother, she gives life. But during the Great Patriotic War, she had to become a soldier. She killed the enemy, protecting her home and children. We are still comprehending the immortality of the feat of the Russian Soviet woman. Explaining the heroic deeds of women, Aleksievich uses a quote from Leo Tolstoy, who wrote about the "hidden warmth of patriotism."
The writer is amazed by the fact that yesterday's schoolgirls, students voluntarily went to the front, making a choice between life and death, and this choice turned out to be as simple as breathing for them. With the help of rhetorical questions, the author emphasizes that the people, whose woman, in a difficult hour, dragged her wounded and someone else's wounded soldier from the battlefield, cannot be defeated. S. Aleksievich urges us to revere women sacredly, to bow low to the ground to them.
The author's position is expressed directly: the feat of women in the war lies in the fact that she passionately wanted to give all her strength to save the Motherland. She fought on a par with men: she saved the wounded, taking them out of the battlefield, undermined bridges, went on reconnaissance, and killed a cruel enemy.
Let's turn to literary examples. B.L. Vasiliev's story "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" tells about the feat of five girls - anti-aircraft gunners. Each of them had their own account with the Nazis. The husband of Rita Osyanina, a border guard, died on the very first day of the war. Leaving her little son in the care of her mother, the young woman went to the front to defend her homeland. Relatives of Zhenya Komelkova, as a family of command personnel, were shot, and the girl saw the execution from the basement, where an Estonian woman hid her. Orphanage Jackdaw Chetvertak attributed a year to herself by forging a document in order to go to war. Sonya Gurvich, who went to the front from her student days, and Liza Brichkina, who dreamed of happiness in a remote forest region, became anti-aircraft gunners. Girls die in an unequal duel with sixteen German saboteurs. Each of them could become a mother, but the thread that could connect them with the future was interrupted, this is the unnaturalness and tragedy of war.
Let's take another example. In V. Bykov’s story “His Battalion”, medical instructor Vera Veretennikova is discharged from the army as unfit for military service, as she is expecting a child from her civil husband, company commander Lieutenant Samokhin, but she refuses to obey the military order, she wants to be close to her beloved. Voloshin's battalion must take a height well fortified by the Germans. Recruits are afraid to go on the attack. Faith drives them out of the swamp and makes them go forward. She had to endure the death of the father of her unborn child, but she herself dies, never becoming a mother.
We came to the conclusion that the feat of women during the war years is immortal. They were ready to give their lives to save the Motherland, participated in battles, saved the wounded.
Updated: 2017-09-24
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Composition
Fifty-seven years ago, our country was lit up by the light of victory, victory in the Great Patriotic War. She came at a heavy price. For many years the Soviet people walked the paths of war, walked to save their homeland and all of humanity from fascist oppression.
This victory is dear to every Russian person, and, probably, that is why the theme of the Great Patriotic War not only does not lose its relevance, but every year it finds more and more incarnations in Russian literature. In their books, front-line writers trust us with everything they personally experienced on firing lines, in front-line trenches, in partisan detachments, in fascist dungeons - all this is reflected in their stories and novels. "Cursed and Killed", "Obertone" by V. Astafiev, "Sign of Trouble" by V. Bykov, "Blockade" by M. Kuraev and many others - a return to the "crushed" war, to the nightmarish and inhuman pages of our history.
But there is another topic that deserves special attention - the theme of the difficult lot of women in the war. This topic is devoted to such stories as "The Dawns Here Are Quiet ..." by B. Vasilyeva, "Love Me, Soldier" by V. Bykov. But a special and indelible impression is made by the novel of the Belarusian writer-publicist S. Aleksievich “War has not a woman's face”.
Unlike other writers, S. Aleksievich made the heroes of her book not fictional characters, but real women. The comprehensibility, accessibility of the novel and its extraordinary external clarity, the apparent unpretentiousness of its form are among the merits of this remarkable book. Her novel is devoid of plot, it is built in the form of a conversation, in the form of memories. For four long years, the writer walked "burned kilometers of someone else's pain and memory", wrote down hundreds of stories of nurses, pilots, partisans, paratroopers, who recalled the terrible years with tears in their eyes.
One of the chapters of the novel called “I don’t want to remember...” tells about the feelings that live in the hearts of these women to this day, which I would like to forget, but there is no way. Fear, along with a true sense of patriotism, lived in the hearts of girls. This is how one of the women describes her first shot: “We lay down, and I watch. And now I see: one German got up. I clicked and he fell. And now, you know, I was shaking all over, I was pounding all over. I cried. When I shot at targets - nothing, but here: how did I kill a man?
The women's memories of the famine, when they were forced to kill their horses in order not to die, are also shocking. In the chapter “It Was Not Me,” one of the heroines, a nurse, recalls her first meeting with the Nazis: “I bandaged the wounded, a fascist was lying next to me, I thought he was dead ... but he was wounded, he wanted to kill me. I felt like someone pushed me, and I turned to him. Managed to knock out a machine gun. I didn’t kill him, but I didn’t bandage him either, I left. He had a wound in the stomach."
War is, first of all, death. Reading the memoirs of women about the death of our fighters, someone's husbands, sons, fathers or brothers, one becomes terrified: “You cannot get used to death. To death ... For three days we were with the wounded. They are healthy, strong men. They didn't want to die. They kept asking for water, but they weren't allowed to drink, they were wounded in the stomach. They were dying before our eyes, one after another, and we could do nothing to help them.”
Everything that we know about a woman fits into the concept of "mercy". There are other words: "sister", "wife", "girlfriend" and the highest - "mother". But mercy is present in their content as an essence, as a purpose, as an ultimate meaning. A woman gives life, a woman protects life, the concepts of "woman" and "life" are synonymous. Roman S. Aleksievich is another page of history presented to readers after for long years forced silence. This is another terrible truth about the war. In conclusion, I would like to quote the phrase of another heroine of the book “War does not have a woman’s face”: “A woman in war ... This is something that there are no human words about yet.”
War has no woman's face
The planet burns and spins
Smoke over our Motherland,
And that means we need one victory
One for all, we will not stand up for the price.
B. Okudzhava.
Yes! The planet was burning and spinning. We lost millions of lives in this war, which we remember and pray for. Everyone was here: children, women, old people and men capable of holding weapons, ready to do anything to protect their land, their loved ones. War. Only five letters: v-o-d-n-a, but how much they say. Fire, grief, torment, death. That's what war is.
The main adult population of the great country was put under arms. These are grain growers and builders, scientists and cultural figures. Those who could do a lot for the prosperity of the country, but duty called. And he stood up to defend the Fatherland, both old and small.
Shoulder to shoulder on the battlefields stood men and women whose duty it was to keep the hearth, give birth and raise children. But they were forced to kill. And be killed. How excruciatingly painful! Woman and war is unnatural, but it was so. They killed to save children, mothers, the lives of their loved ones.
Much has been written about the war. I want to talk about a book that shocked me. This is Boris Vasiliev's story "The Dawns Here Are Quiet...". A peaceful name, but what a terrible tragedy is revealed to us. There is a story about girls who still knew little about life, but courageous and persistent. They are anti-aircraft gunners in the rear of our front. Everything is quiet, peaceful. But suddenly a meeting with the Germans changes everything, and they go to hunt down the enemy and engage in a fight with saboteurs, not for life, but for death. The girls had to kill the enemy, strong, dangerous, experienced, merciless.
There are only five of them. They are led by foreman Fedot Evgrafovich Vaskov, who, at his request, was sent non-drinkers. He asked for men, but they sent girls. And here he is in command. He is 32 years old, but for his subordinates he is a “mossy stump”. He is laconic, knows and can do a lot.
And the girls? What are they? What are they? What do they know about life? All girls are different, with their own difficult fate.
Rita Osyanina is a young mother who married a lieutenant early, gave birth to a son and became a widow in the first days of the war. Silent. Strictly. Never smiles. Her task is to avenge her husband. Having sent his son to a sick mother who lived nearby, he goes to the front. Her soul is torn between duty and love for her little son, to whom she secretly runs at night. It was she, returning from AWOL, who almost ran into the Germans.
Her complete opposite is Evgenia Komelkova, although no one calls her that. For everyone, she is Zhenya, Zhenya, a beauty. “Redhead, tall, white. And the eyes are green, round, like saucers. Her entire family was shot by the Germans. She managed to hide. Very artistic, always in the lens of male attention. Her friends love her for her courage, gaiety, recklessness. She remains mischievous, hiding her unbearable pain deep in her heart. She also has a goal - to avenge the death of mom, dad, grandmother and little brother.
And Galya Chetvertak lived in orphanage, everything was given to her there: both the name and the surname. And the girl dreamed of a wonderful life, of parents. Fantasized. She lived in her unreal, imaginary world. No, she did not lie, she believed in what she dreamed of. And suddenly the war, which reveals its "unfeminine face" to her. The world is crumbling. She was frightened. And who wouldn't be scared? Who can blame this fragile little girl for fear? Me not. And Galya broke, but did not break. Everyone should justify this fear of hers. She's a girl. And in front of her are the enemies who killed her friend Sonya.
Sonechka Gurvich. Lover of Alexander Blok's poetry. The same dreamer. And at the front he does not part with a volume of poetry. She is very worried about the life of her parents who remained in the occupation. They are Jews. And Sonya did not know that they were no longer alive. Worried about her friend, a fellow dreamer who fought on a different front. Dreamed of happiness, thought about life after the war. And she met with a ruthless killer who plunged a knife into a girl's heart to the very handle. The fascist came to a foreign land to kill. He doesn't feel sorry for anyone.
Meanwhile, Lisa Brichkina is drowning in a swamp. She was in a hurry, she wanted to bring help, but she stumbled. What did she see in her short life besides labor, forest, sick mother? Nothing. I really wanted to study, go to the city, learn new life. But her dreams were shattered by the war. I liked Lisa for her thriftiness, homeliness, high sense of duty and responsibility. What if it wasn't for the war? What would become? How many children would you give birth to? But didn't have time. And I want to say about it with the words of Strelkov's song:
I became willow, I became grass,
Cranberries in other people's boxes...
And how I wanted to become a crane,
With cute fly in the sky.
To be himself beloved woman,
To give birth to golden children ...
Only the war has related with the Karelian region -
I am no longer alive.
It's a pity! Eternal memory to her!
How many girls - so many destinies. All different. But they are united by one thing: the girl's life was disfigured, broken by the war. The anti-aircraft gunners, having received an order not to let the enemy pass to the railway, at the cost of their own lives fulfilled it. All died. They died heroically. And they went on reconnaissance, not knowing the size of the enemy, almost unarmed. The task was completed. The enemy was stopped. At what cost! How they wanted to live! How differently they died. I want to write songs about everyone.
Zhenya! What an incendiary fire! Here she is drawn in front of the enemy, depicting a logging team. And she trembles all from the inside, but she keeps the brand. Here he takes the Germans away from the wounded Rita Osyanina. Shouts, swears, laughs, sings and shoots at the enemy. She knows that she will die, but she saves her friend. This is heroism, courage, nobility. Is death in vain? Of course not. But very, very sorry for Zhenya.
And Rita? Lies wounded, realizing that she will not survive. Shoots himself in the temple. Is it a weakness? No! A thousand times no! What was she thinking before she raised the gun to her temple? Of course, about her son, whose fate was handed over to Fedot Evgrafovich Vaskov.
They didn’t say anything about the foreman, but he’s a hero. As best he could, he protected the girls. Taught to escape from German bullets. But war is war. The enemy had an advantage in numbers and skills. And yet Fedot managed to defeat the monsters alone. Here he is a modest Russian man, a warrior, a defender. He avenged his girls. How he shouted to the Germans at the time of their capture! And wept with grief. The foreman brought the prisoners to his own. And only then did he allow himself to lose consciousness. Debt fulfilled. And he also kept his word given to Rita. He raised her son, taught him and brought his mother and girls to the grave. He erected a monument. And now everyone knows that in this quiet place there was also a war and people were dying.
Reading the story, the younger generation will learn about the terrible war, which they did not know. They will appreciate the world that their great-grandfathers and grandfathers gave them more.
S. Aleksievich - a feature-documentary cycle "The war has no female face ...".
“When did women first appear in the military in history?
As early as the 4th century BC, women fought in the Greek armies in Athens and Sparta. Later they participated in the campaigns of Alexander the Great. The Russian historian Nikolai Karamzin wrote about our ancestors: “Slav women sometimes went to war with their fathers and spouses without fear of death: for example, during the siege of Constantinople in 626, the Greeks found many female corpses among the killed Slavs. Mother, raising children, prepared them to be warriors.
And in modern times?
For the first time - in England in 1560-1650 he began to form hospitals in which female soldiers served.
What happened in the 20th century?
Beginning of the century… First world war in England, women were already taken to the Royal Air Force, the Royal Auxiliary Corps and the Women's Legion of Motor Transport were formed - in the amount of 100 thousand people.
In Russia, Germany, France, many women also began to serve in military hospitals and hospital trains.
And during World War II, the world witnessed a female phenomenon. Women served in all branches of the military already in many countries of the world: in the British army - 225 thousand, in the American - 450-500 thousand, in the German - 500 thousand ...
About a million women fought in the Soviet army. They mastered all military specialties, including the most "male" ones. Even a language problem arose: the words “tanker”, “infantryman”, “submachine gunner” did not have a feminine gender until that time, because this work had never been done by a woman. Women's words were born there, in the war ...
From a conversation with a historian.
“Everything we know about a woman fits best in the word “mercy”. There are other words - sister, wife, friend and the highest - mother. But isn't mercy also present in their content as an essence, as a purpose, as an ultimate meaning? A woman gives life, a woman protects life, a woman and life are synonyms.
In the most terrible war of the 20th century, a woman had to become a soldier. She not only saved and bandaged the wounded, but also fired from a "sniper", bombed, undermined bridges, went on reconnaissance, took language. The woman killed. She killed the enemy, who fell with unprecedented cruelty on her land, on her house, on her children. “It’s not a woman’s lot to kill,” one of the heroines of this book will say, accommodating here all the horror and all the cruel necessity of what happened.
Another will sign on the walls of the defeated Reichstag: "I, Sofya Kuntsevich, came to Berlin to kill the war." That was the greatest sacrifice they made on the altar of Victory. And the immortal feat, the whole depth of which we over the years peaceful life we comprehend,” this is how S. Aleksievich’s book begins.
In it, she talks about women who went through the Great Patriotic War, who served as radio operators, snipers, cooks, medical instructors, nurses, and doctors. All of them had different tempers, fate, own life story. Perhaps one thing united everyone: a common impulse to save the Motherland, the desire to honestly fulfill one's duty. Ordinary girls, sometimes very young, went to the front without hesitation. This is how the war began for nurse Lilia Mikhailovna Budko: “The first day of the war ... We are dancing in the evening. We are sixteen years old. We went as a group, seeing one person together, then another... And now, two days later, these guys, cadets of the tank school, who saw us off from the dances, were brought in crippled, in bandages. It was terrible ... And I told my mother that I would go to the front.
After completing six-month, and sometimes three-month courses, they, yesterday's schoolgirls, became nurses, radio operators, sappers, snipers. However, they still did not know how to fight. And they often had their own, bookish, romantic ideas about the war. Therefore, it was difficult for them at the front, especially in the first days and months. “I still remember my first wounded. I remember his face… He had an open fracture of the middle third of the thigh. Imagine, a bone sticks out, a shrapnel wound, everything is turned inside out. I knew theoretically what to do, but when I ... saw it, I felt bad, ”recalls Sofya Konstantinovna Dubnyakova, medical instructor, senior sergeant.
It was very difficult for them to get used to death, to having to kill. Here is an excerpt from the story of Klavdia Grigorievna Krokhina, senior sergeant, sniper. “We're down and I'm watching. And now I see: one German got up. I clicked and he fell. And now, you know, I was shaking all over, I was pounding all over.
And here is the story of the machine-gunner girl. “I was a machine gunner. I killed so much... After the war, I was afraid to give birth for a long time. She gave birth when she calmed down. Seven years later…”
Olga Yakovlevna Omelchenko was a medical officer in a rifle company. At first, she worked in a hospital, began to regularly donate her blood for the wounded. Then she met a young officer there, who also received a transfusion of her blood. But, unfortunately, he died soon after. Then she went to the front, participated in hand-to-hand combat, saw the wounded with their eyes gouged out, their stomachs torn open. Olga Yakovlevna still cannot forget these terrible pictures.
The war demanded from the girls not only courage, skill, dexterity - it required sacrifice, readiness for a feat. So, Fyokla Fedorovna Strui was in the partisans during the war years. In one of the battles, she frostbitten both legs - they had to be amputated, she underwent several operations. Then she returned to her homeland, learned to walk on prostheses. In order to carry bandages and medicines into the forest, to the wounded, underground worker Maria Savitskaya had to go through police posts. Then she rubbed her three-month-old baby with salt - the child cried convulsively, she explained this with typhus, and they let her through. Monstrous in its hopeless cruelty is the picture of a mother killing her infant. The mother radio operator had to drown her crying child, because because of him the whole squad was in mortal danger.
What happened to them after the war? How did the country and surrounding people react to their heroines, yesterday's front-line soldiers? Often people around met them with gossip, unfair reproaches. “I reached Berlin with the army. She returned to her village with two Orders of Glory and medals.
I lived for three days, and on the fourth my mother lifts me out of bed and says: “Daughter, I have collected a bundle for you. Go away... Go away... You have two more younger sisters growing up. Who will marry them? Everyone knows that you were at the front for four years, with men ... ”, - says one of the heroines Aleksievich.
The post-war years became difficult: the Soviet system did not change its attitude towards the victorious people. “Many of us believed… We thought that everything would change after the war… Stalin would believe his people. But the war has not yet ended, and the echelons have already gone to Magadan. The echelons with the winners... They arrested those who were in captivity, survived in the German camps, who were taken away by the Germans to work - everyone who saw Europe. I could tell you how people live there. No communists. What kind of houses are there and what kind of roads. About the fact that there are no collective farms anywhere ... After the Victory, everyone fell silent. They were silent and afraid, as before the war ... "
Thus, in the most terrible war, a woman had to become a soldier. And sacrifice your youth and beauty, family, loved ones. It was the greatest sacrifice and the greatest feat. A feat in the name of victory, in the name of love, in the name of the Motherland.
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Average rating: 4.4
I left my childhood in a dirty car.
In the infantry echelon, in the sanitary platoon ...
I came from school to the dugouts damp,
From the Beautiful Lady to "mother" and "rewind".
Because the name is closer than Russia,
Couldn't find...
Y. Drunina
The theme of the Great Patriotic War gave rise to many outstanding works that describe the life and struggle of the Soviet people against the fascist invaders. Our traditional ideas about war are connected, first of all, with the image of a male soldier, because it was mostly the representatives of the stronger sex who fought. But the scale of that war put women in line as well. They not only rescued and bandaged the wounded, but also fired from a "sniper", undermined bridges, went on reconnaissance missions, and flew airplanes. That's about them, female soldiers, and in question in the story of the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich "War has no woman's face".
In her book, the writer collected the memories of women front-line soldiers who tell about how their life turned out during the war years, and about everything that they saw there, at the front. But this work is not about famous snipers, pilots, tankers, but about “ordinary military girls,” as they call themselves. Taken together, these women's stories paint an image of a war that is not at all feminine. There are other words - sister, wife, friend and the highest - mother ... A woman gives life, a woman protects life. Woman and life are synonyms” - this is how S. Aleksievich's book begins. Yes, in our view, a woman is a tender, fragile, harmless creature that itself needs protection. But in those terrible war years, a woman had to become a soldier, go to defend her homeland in order to save the lives of future generations.
After reading the book, I was surprised that such a huge number of women fought during the Great Patriotic War. Although there is probably nothing unusual here. Whenever a threat loomed over the Motherland, a woman stood up for her defense. If we recall the history of Rus' and Russia, we can find many examples confirming this. At all times, a Russian woman not only accompanied her husband, son, brother to battle, grieved, waited for them, but in difficult times she herself stood next to them. Even Yaroslavna climbed the fortress wall and poured molten resin on the heads of enemies, helping the men defend the city. And during the Great Patriotic War, a woman shot, killing the enemy, who attacked her house, her children, relatives and friends with unprecedented cruelty. Here is an excerpt from the story of Klavdia Grigorievna Krokhina, senior sergeant, sniper: “We lay down, and I am watching. And now I see: one German got up. I clicked and he fell. And now, you know, I was shaking all over, I was pounding all over. And she wasn't the only one.
It's not a woman's job to kill. All of them could not understand: how is it possible to kill a person? This is a man, although he is an enemy, but a man. But this question gradually disappeared from their consciousness, and it was replaced by hatred of the Nazis for what they did to the people. After all, they mercilessly killed both children and adults, burned people alive, poisoned them with gas. The atrocities of the Nazis, probably, could not give rise to feelings other than fear and hatred. Here is just a single example, although there are hundreds of them in this work. “The gas chambers drove up. All the sick were driven there and taken. Weakened patients who could not move were taken down and laid in the bathhouse. They closed the doors, stuck a pipe from the car through the window, and poisoned them all. Then, just like firewood, these corpses were thrown into the car.”
And how could anyone at that time think about himself, about his life, when the enemy walked along native land and so brutally exterminated people. These "ordinary girls" did not think about it, although many of them were sixteen or seventeen years old, like my peers today. They were simple schoolgirls and students who, of course, dreamed of the future. But one day the world for them was divided into the past - what was yesterday: the last school bell, graduation party, first love; and a war that shattered all their dreams. This is how the war began for nurse Lilia Mikhailovna Budko: “The first day of the war ... We are dancing in the evening. We are sixteen years old. We went with a group, we see one person together, then another ... And now, two days later, these guys, cadets of the tank school, who saw us off from the dances, were brought in crippled, in bandages. It was terrible... And I told my mother that I would go to the front.”
And Vera Danilovtseva dreamed of becoming an actress, she was preparing for Theatre Institute, but the war began, and she went to the front, where she became a sniper, holder of two Orders of Glory. And there are many such stories of crippled lives. Each of these women had her own way to the front, but they were united by one thing - the desire to save the Motherland, protect it from the German invaders and avenge the death of loved ones. “We all had one desire: only to join the draft board and only ask to go to the front,” recalls Tatiana Efimovna Semyonova, a Minsker.
Of course, war is not a woman's business, but these "ordinary girls" were needed at the front. They were ready for a feat, but the girls did not know what an army is and what a war is. After completing six-month, and sometimes even three-month courses, they already had certificates of nurses, were enlisted as sappers, pilots. They already had military cards, but they were not yet soldiers. And about the war, and about the front, they had only bookish, often completely romantic ideas. Therefore, it was difficult for them at the front, especially in the first days, weeks, months. It was hard to get used to constant bombardments, shots, dead and wounded. “I still remember my first wounded. I remember his face... He had an open fracture of the middle third of the thigh. Imagine, a bone sticks out, a shrapnel wound, everything is turned inside out. I knew theoretically what to do, but when I ... saw it, I felt bad, ”recalls Sofya Konstantinovna Dubnyakova, medical instructor, senior sergeant. It was not someone who had to endure at the front, but a girl whom her mother still spoiled and protected before the war, considering her a child. Svetlana Katykhina told how, just before the war, her mother would not let her go to her grandmother without an escort, they say, she was still small, and two months later this “little one” went to the front, became a medical instructor.
Yes, soldier science was not given to them immediately and not easily. It was necessary to put on kirzachi shoes, put on overcoats, get used to the uniform, learn to crawl like a plastuna, dig trenches. But they coped with everything, the girls became excellent soldiers. They showed themselves in this war as brave and hardy warriors. And I think that only thanks to their support, their courage and courage, we were able to win this war. The girls went through all the difficulties and trials in order to save their homeland and protect the life of the future generation.
We wake up under the rays of the sun with the confidence that it will shine on us tomorrow, and in a month, and in a year. And it was precisely in order for us to live carefree and happy, for this “tomorrow” to come, those girls fifty years ago went into battle.
See also: TV version of the play “War has no female face” based on the book by Svetlana Aleksievich (1988, Omsk Drama Theater, directed by G. Trostyanetsky, O. Sokovykh)
