During the years of the Great Patriotic War the writer as an artilleryman went a long way from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. Among Yuri Bondarev's books about the war, "Hot Snow" occupies a special place, opening up new approaches to solving the moral and psychological problems posed in his first stories - "Battalions ask for fire" and "Last volleys". These three books about the war are a holistic and developing world that has reached its greatest completeness and figurative power in Hot Snow. The events of the novel "Hot Snow" unfold near Stalingrad, south of the blockaded Soviet troops 6th Army of General Paulus, in the cold December 1942, when one of our armies held back in the Volga steppe the attack of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein, who sought to break through the corridor to the army of Paulus and withdraw it from the encirclement. The outcome of the battle on the Volga and, perhaps, even the timing of the end of the war itself largely depended on the success or failure of this operation. The duration of the novel is limited to just a few days, during which the heroes of Yuri Bondarev selflessly defend a tiny patch of land from German tanks. In "Hot Snow" time is compressed even more densely than in the story "Battalions ask for fire." “Hot Snow” is a short march of the army of General Bessonov unloaded from the echelons and a battle that decided so much in the fate of the country; these are cold frosty dawns, two days and two endless December nights. Without lyrical digressions, as if the author's breath was caught from constant tension, the novel "Hot Snow" is distinguished by its directness, direct connection of the plot with the true events of the Great Patriotic War, with one of its decisive moments. The life and death of the heroes of the novel, their very destinies are illuminated by an alarming light. true history, as a result of which everything acquires a special weight, significance. In the novel, Drozdovsky's battery absorbs almost all of the reader's attention, the action is concentrated mainly around a small number of characters. Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and their comrades - a particle great army They are the people, the people, to the extent that the typified personality of the hero expresses the spiritual, moral features of the people. In “Hot Snow”, the image of the people who went to war appears before us in a fullness of expression, unprecedented before in Yuri Bondarev, in the richness and diversity of characters, and at the same time in integrity. This image is not exhausted either by the figures of young lieutenants - commanders of artillery platoons, or by the colorful figures of those who are traditionally considered to be people from the people - like the slightly cowardly Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, or the straightforward and rude, driving Rubin; nor by senior officers, such as the division commander, Colonel Deev, or the army commander, General Bessonov. Only all together, with all the difference in ranks and ranks, they make up the image of a fighting people. The strength and novelty of the novel lies in the fact that this unity is achieved as if by itself, imprinted without any special efforts of the author - a living, moving life. The death of heroes on the eve of victory, the criminal inevitability of death, contains a high tragedy and causes a protest against the cruelty of the war and the forces that unleashed it. The heroes of "Hot Snow" are dying - the battery medical officer Zoya Elagina, the shy rider Sergunenkov, a member of the Military Council Vesnin, Kasymov and many others are dying ... And the war is to blame for all these deaths. Let Lieutenant Drozdovsky's heartlessness be blamed for the death of Sergunenkov, even if the blame for Zoya's death falls partly on him, but no matter how great Drozdovsky's fault, they are, first of all, victims of the war. The novel expresses the understanding of death as a violation of higher justice and harmony. Recall how Kuznetsov looks at the murdered Kasymov: “Now there was a shell box under Kasymov’s head, and his youthful, beardless face, recently alive, swarthy, turned deathly white, thinned by the terrible beauty of death, looked in surprise with moist cherry half-open eyes at his chest , on a torn to shreds, excised quilted jacket, he didn’t even understand after death how it killed him and why he couldn’t get up to the sight. Kuznetsov feels even more acutely the irreversibility of the loss of Sergunenkov. After all, the mechanism of his death is revealed here. Kuznetsov turned out to be a powerless witness to how Drozdovsky sent Sergunenkov to certain death, and he, Kuznetsov, already knows that he will curse himself forever for what he saw, was present, but failed to change anything. In "Hot Snow", for all the tension of events, everything human in people, their characters do not live separately from the war, but are interconnected with it, constantly under its fire, when, it seems, one cannot even raise one's head. Usually the chronicle of battles can be retold separately from the individuality of its participants - the battle in "Hot Snow" cannot be retold except through the fate and characters of people. The past of the characters in the novel is essential and weighty. For some it is almost cloudless, for others it is so complex and dramatic that the former drama is not left behind, pushed aside by the war, but accompanies a person in the battle southwest of Stalingrad. The events of the past determined Ukhanov's military fate: a gifted, full of energy officer who would have commanded a battery, but he is only a sergeant. The cool, rebellious character of Ukhanov also determines his movement within the novel. Chibisov's past troubles, which almost broke him (he spent several months in German captivity ), responded in someone with fear and determine a lot in his behavior. One way or another, the past of Zoya Elagina, and Kasymov, and Sergunenkov and the unsociable Rubin slips in the novel, whose courage and loyalty to soldier's duty we will be able to appreciate only by the end of the novel. The past of General Bessonov is especially important in the novel. The thought of a son who was taken prisoner by the Germans makes it difficult for him to stand both at headquarters and at the front. And when a fascist leaflet announcing that Bessonov's son was taken prisoner falls into the counterintelligence of the front in the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Osin, it seems that there is a threat to Bessonov's service. Probably the most mysterious of the world of human relations in the novel is the love that arises between Kuznetsov and Zoya. The war, its cruelty and blood, its terms, overturning the usual ideas about time - it was she who contributed to such a rapid development of this love. After all, this feeling developed in those short hours of the march and battle, when there is no time for reflection and analysis of one's feelings. And it all starts with a quiet, incomprehensible jealousy of Kuznetsov for the relationship between Zoya and Drozdovsky. And soon - so little time passes - Kuznetsov is already bitterly mourning the deceased Zoya, and it is from these lines that the title of the novel is taken, when Kuznetsov wiped his face wet from tears, "the snow on the sleeve of the quilted jacket was hot from his tears." Having been deceived at first in Lieutenant Drozdovsky, then the best cadet, Zoya throughout the novel opens up to us as a moral person, whole, ready for self-sacrifice, capable of embracing the pain and suffering of many with her heart. She seems to go through many trials, from intrusive interest to rude rejection. But her kindness, her patience and sympathy reach everyone, she is truly a sister to the soldiers. The image of Zoya somehow imperceptibly filled the atmosphere of the book, its main events, its harsh, cruel reality with a feminine principle, affection and tenderness. One of the most important conflicts in the novel is the conflict between Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky. A lot of space has been given to this conflict, it is exposed very sharply and is easily traced from beginning to end. At first, there is a tension that goes back to the prehistory of the novel; the inconsistency of characters, manners, temperaments, even the style of speech: it seems difficult for the soft, thoughtful Kuznetsov to endure the jerky, commanding, indisputable speech of Drozdovsky. The long hours of battle, the senseless death of Sergunenkov, the mortal wound of Zoya, in which Drozdovsky is partly to blame - all this forms an abyss between the two young officers, the moral incompatibility of their existences. In the finale, this abyss is indicated even more sharply: the four surviving gunners consecrate the newly received orders in a soldier's bowler hat, and the sip that each of them takes is, first of all, a funeral sip - it contains bitterness and grief of loss. Drozdovsky also received the order, because for Bessonov, who awarded him, he is the surviving, wounded commander of a standing battery, the general does not know about Drozdovsky's grave guilt and most likely will never know. This is also the reality of war. But it is not for nothing that the writer leaves Drozdovsky aside from those gathered at the soldier's bowler hat. highest height the ethical, philosophical thought of the novel, as well as its emotional intensity, reaches its finale, when Bessonov and Kuznetsov suddenly come closer. This is a rapprochement without close proximity: Bessonov rewarded his officer on an equal footing with others and moved on. For him, Kuznetsov is just one of those who stood to death at the turn of the Myshkov River. Their closeness turns out to be more sublime: it is the closeness of thought, spirit, outlook on life. For example, shocked by the death of Vesnin, Bessonov blames himself for the fact that, because of his lack of sociability and suspicion, he prevented friendly relations between them (“the way Vesnin wanted, and the way they should be”). Or Kuznetsov, who could do nothing to help Chubarikov’s calculation, which was dying before his eyes, tormented by the piercing thought that all this “seemed to happen because he did not have time to get close to them, to understand everyone, to love ...”. Divided by disproportionate duties, Lieutenant Kuznetsov and the army commander, General Bessonov, are moving towards the same goal - not only military, but also spiritual. Suspecting nothing of each other's thoughts, they think about the same thing and seek the truth in the same direction. Both of them demandingly ask themselves about the purpose of life and about the correspondence of their actions and aspirations to it. They are separated by age and are related, like father and son, and even like brother and brother, by love for the Motherland and belonging to the people and to humanity in the highest sense of these words.

Y. Bondarev - novel "Hot Snow". In 1942-1943, a battle unfolded in Russia, which made a huge contribution to achieving a radical change in the Great Patriotic War. Thousands of ordinary soldiers, dear to someone, loving and beloved by someone, did not spare themselves, defended the city on the Volga, our future Victory, with their blood. The battles for Stalingrad lasted 200 days and nights. But today we will remember only about one day, about one battle, in which all life was focused. Bondarev's novel "Hot Snow" tells us about this.

The novel "Hot Snow" was written in 1969. It is dedicated to the events near Stalingrad in the winter of 1942. Y. Bondarev says that the soldier’s memory inspired him to create the work: “I remembered a lot that over the years I began to forget: the winter of 1942, the cold, the steppe, ice trenches, tank attacks, bombing, the smell of burning and burnt armor ... Of course, if I had not taken part in the battle that the 2nd Guards Army fought in the Volga steppes in the fierce December of the 42nd with Manstein's tank divisions, then perhaps the romance would have been somewhat different. Personal experience and the time that lay between the battle and the work on the novel allowed me to write in this way and not otherwise.

This work is not a documentary, it is a military-historical novel. "Hot Snow" - a story about the "trench truth". Y. Bondarev wrote: “A lot is included in trench life - from small details - for two days the kitchen was not brought to the front line - to the main human problems: life and death, lies and truth, honor and cowardice. In the trenches, a microcosm of a soldier and an officer emerges on an unusual scale - joy and suffering, patriotism and expectation. It is this microcosm that is presented in Bondarev's novel "Hot Snow". The events of the work unfold near Stalingrad, south of the 6th Army of General Paulus, blocked by Soviet troops. The army of General Bessonov repels the attack of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein, who seeks to break through the corridor to the army of Paulus and withdraw it from the encirclement. The outcome of the battle on the Volga largely depends on the success or failure of this operation. The duration of the novel is limited to only a few days - these are two days and two frosty December nights.

The volume and depth of the image is created in the novel due to the intersection of two views on events: from the army headquarters - General Bessonov and from the trenches - Lieutenant Drozdovsky. The soldiers “did not and could not know where the battle would begin, they did not know that many of them were making the last march of their lives before the battles. Bessonov, on the other hand, clearly and soberly determined the measure of the approaching danger. He knew that the front was barely holding on in the Kotelnikovsky direction, that German tanks had advanced forty kilometers in the direction of Stalingrad in three days.

In this novel, the writer shows the skill of both a battle-player and a psychologist. Bondarev's characters are revealed widely and voluminously - in human relationships, in likes and dislikes. In the novel, the past of the characters is significant. So, past events, actually curious, determined the fate of Ukhanov: a talented, energetic officer could have commanded a battery, but he was made a sergeant. Chibisov's past (German captivity) gave rise to endless fear in his soul and thus determined his entire behavior. The past of Lieutenant Drozdovsky, the death of his parents - all this largely determined the uneven, sharp, merciless character of the hero. In separate details in the novel, the past of the medical instructor Zoya, and the riders - the shy Sergunenkov and the rude, unsociable Rubin, are brought before the reader.

The past of General Bessonov is also very important for us. Often he thinks about his son, an 18-year-old boy who disappeared in the war. He could have saved him by keeping him at his headquarters, but he did not. A vague feeling of guilt lives in the general's soul. In the course of events, rumors appear (German leaflets, counterintelligence reports) that Viktor, the son of Bessonov, was captured. And the reader understands that a person's entire career is at stake. In the course of managing the operation, Bessonov appears before us as a talented military leader, an intelligent, but tough person, sometimes merciless to himself and those around him. After the battle, we see him completely different: on his face are “tears of delight, sorrow and gratitude”, he distributes awards to the surviving soldiers and officers.

The figure of Lieutenant Kuznetsov is no less large written out in the novel. He is the antipode of Lieutenant Drozdovsky. In addition, a love triangle is outlined here with a dotted line: Drozdovsky - Kuznetsov - Zoya. Kuznetsov is a brave, good warrior and gentle, a kind person, suffering from everything that happens and tormented by the consciousness of his own impotence. The writer reveals to us all mental life this hero. So, before the decisive battle, Lieutenant Kuznetsov experiences a feeling of universal united - these are "tens, hundreds, thousands of people in anticipation of an unexplored imminent battle", while in battle he feels self-forgetfulness, hatred for his possible death, complete fusion with the gun. It was Kuznetsov and Ukhanov who saved their wounded scout, who was lying right next to the Germans, after the battle. An acute sense of guilt torments Lieutenant Kuznetsov when the rider Sergunenkov is killed. The hero becomes a powerless witness to how Lieutenant Drozdovsky sends Sergunenkov to certain death, and he, Kuznetsov, cannot do anything in this situation. The image of this hero is revealed even more fully in his attitude towards Zoya, in the nascent love, in the grief that the lieutenant experiences after her death.

The lyrical line of the novel is connected with the image of Zoya Elagina. This girl embodies tenderness, femininity, love, patience, self-sacrifice. The attitude of the fighters towards her is touching, and the author also sympathizes with her.

The author's position in the novel is unequivocal: Russian soldiers do the impossible, something that exceeds real human strength. War brings people death and grief, which is a violation of world harmony, the highest law. This is how one of the killed soldiers appears before Kuznetsov: “... now a shell box lay under Kasymov’s head, and his youthful, beardless face, recently alive, swarthy, which had become deathly white, thinned by the terrible beauty of death, looked in surprise with moist cherry half-open eyes at his chest, on a torn to shreds, excised quilted jacket, he didn’t even understand after death how it killed him and why he couldn’t get up to the sight.

The title of the novel, which is an oxymoron - "hot snow" has a special meaning. At the same time, this title carries a metaphorical meaning. The hot snow of Bondarev is not only a hot, hard, bloody fight; but it is also a milestone in the life of each of the characters. At the same time, the oxymoron "hot snow" echoes the ideological meaning of the work. The soldiers at Bondarev are doing the impossible. This image is also associated in the novel with specific artistic details and story situations. So, during the battle, the snow in the novel becomes hot from gunpowder and red-hot metal, a captured German says that snow is burning in Russia. Finally, the snow gets hot for Lieutenant Kuznetsov as he loses Zoya.

Thus, Y. Bondarev's novel is multifaceted: it is full of both heroic pathos and philosophical problems.

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During the Great Patriotic War, the writer as an artilleryman went a long way from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. Among Yuri Bondarev's books about the war, "Hot Snow" occupies a special place, opening up new approaches to solving the moral and psychological problems posed in his first stories - "Battalions ask for fire" and "Last volleys". These three books about the war are a holistic and developing world that has reached its greatest completeness and figurative power in Hot Snow.
The events of the novel "Hot Snow" unfold near Stalingrad, south of the 6th Army of General Paulus, blockaded by Soviet troops, in the cold December 1942, when one of our armies held back in the Volga steppe the attack of the tank divisions of Field Marshal Manstein, who sought to break through the corridor to the army of Paulus and get her out of the way. The outcome of the battle on the Volga and, perhaps, even the timing of the end of the war itself largely depended on the success or failure of this operation. The duration of the novel is limited to just a few days, during which the heroes of Yuri Bondarev selflessly defend a tiny patch of land from German tanks.
In "Hot Snow" time is compressed even more densely than in the story "Battalions ask for fire." “Hot Snow” is a short march of the army of General Bessonov unloaded from the echelons and a battle that decided so much in the fate of the country; these are cold frosty dawns, two days and two endless December nights. Without lyrical digressions, as if the author's breath was caught from constant tension, the novel "Hot Snow" is distinguished by its directness, direct connection of the plot with the true events of the Great Patriotic War, with one of its decisive moments. The life and death of the heroes of the novel, their very destinies are illuminated by the disturbing light of true history, as a result of which everything acquires special weight and significance.
In the novel, Drozdovsky's battery absorbs almost all of the reader's attention, the action is concentrated mainly around a small number of characters. Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and their comrades are a part of the great army, they are a people, a people, to the extent that the typified personality of the hero expresses the spiritual, moral traits of the people.
In “Hot Snow”, the image of the people who went to war appears before us in a fullness of expression, unprecedented before in Yuri Bondarev, in the richness and diversity of characters, and at the same time in integrity. This image is not exhausted either by the figures of young lieutenants - commanders of artillery platoons, or by the colorful figures of those who are traditionally considered to be people from the people - like the slightly cowardly Chibisov, the calm and experienced gunner Evstigneev, or the straightforward and rude, driving Rubin; nor by senior officers, such as the division commander, Colonel Deev, or the army commander, General Bessonov. Only all together, with all the difference in ranks and ranks, they make up the image of a fighting people. The strength and novelty of the novel lies in the fact that this unity is achieved as if by itself, imprinted without any special efforts of the author - a living, moving life. The death of heroes on the eve of victory, the criminal inevitability of death, contains a high tragedy and causes a protest against the cruelty of the war and the forces that unleashed it. The heroes of "Hot Snow" are dying - the battery medical officer Zoya Elagina, the shy rider Sergunenkov, a member of the Military Council Vesnin, Kasymov and many others are dying ... And the war is to blame for all these deaths. Let Lieutenant Drozdovsky's heartlessness be blamed for the death of Sergunenkov, even if the blame for Zoya's death falls partly on him, but no matter how great Drozdovsky's fault, they are, first of all, victims of the war. The novel expresses the understanding of death as a violation of higher justice and harmony. Recall how Kuznetsov looks at the murdered Kasymov: “Now there was a shell box under Kasymov’s head, and his youthful, beardless face, recently alive, swarthy, turned deathly white, thinned by the terrible beauty of death, looked in surprise with moist cherry half-open eyes at his chest , on a torn to shreds, excised quilted jacket, he didn’t even understand after death how it killed him and why he couldn’t get up to the sight. Kuznetsov feels even more acutely the irreversibility of the loss of Sergunenkov. After all, the mechanism of his death is revealed here. Kuznetsov turned out to be a powerless witness to how Drozdovsky sent Sergunenkov to certain death, and he, Kuznetsov, already knows that he will curse himself forever for what he saw, was present, but failed to change anything. In "Hot Snow", for all the tension of events, everything human in people, their characters do not live separately from the war, but are interconnected with it, constantly under its fire, when, it seems, one cannot even raise one's head. Usually the chronicle of battles can be retold separately from the individuality of its participants - the battle in "Hot Snow" cannot be retold except through the fate and characters of people. The past of the characters in the novel is essential and weighty. For some it is almost cloudless, for others it is so complex and dramatic that the former drama is not left behind, pushed aside by the war, but accompanies a person in the battle southwest of Stalingrad. The events of the past determined Ukhanov's military fate: a gifted, full of energy officer who would have commanded a battery, but he is only a sergeant. The cool, rebellious character of Ukhanov also determines his movement within the novel. Chibisov's past misfortunes, which almost broke him (he spent several months in German captivity), echoed fear in someone and determined a lot in his behavior. One way or another, the past of Zoya Elagina, and Kasymov, and Sergunenkov and the unsociable Rubin slips in the novel, whose courage and loyalty to soldier's duty we will be able to appreciate only by the end of the novel. The past of General Bessonov is especially important in the novel. The thought of a son who was taken prisoner by the Germans makes it difficult for him to stand both at headquarters and at the front. And when a fascist leaflet announcing that Bessonov's son was taken prisoner falls into the counterintelligence of the front in the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Osin, it seems that there is a threat to Bessonov's service. Probably the most mysterious of the world of human relations in the novel is the love that arises between Kuznetsov and Zoya. The war, its cruelty and blood, its terms, overturning the usual ideas about time - it was she who contributed to such a rapid development of this love. After all, this feeling developed in those short hours of the march and battle, when there is no time for reflection and analysis of one's feelings. And it all starts with a quiet, incomprehensible jealousy of Kuznetsov for the relationship between Zoya and Drozdovsky. And soon - so little time passes - Kuznetsov is already bitterly mourning the deceased Zoya, and it is from these lines that the title of the novel is taken, when Kuznetsov wiped his face wet from tears, "the snow on the sleeve of the quilted jacket was hot from his tears." Having been deceived at first in Lieutenant Drozdovsky, then the best cadet, Zoya throughout the novel opens up to us as a moral person, whole, ready for self-sacrifice, capable of embracing the pain and suffering of many with her heart. She seems to go through many trials, from intrusive interest to rude rejection. But her kindness, her patience and sympathy reach everyone, she is truly a sister to the soldiers. The image of Zoya somehow imperceptibly filled the atmosphere of the book, its main events, its harsh, cruel reality with a feminine principle, affection and tenderness. One of the most important conflicts in the novel is the conflict between Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky. A lot of space has been given to this conflict, it is exposed very sharply and is easily traced from beginning to end. At first, there is a tension that goes back to the prehistory of the novel; the inconsistency of characters, manners, temperaments, even the style of speech: it seems difficult for the soft, thoughtful Kuznetsov to endure the jerky, commanding, indisputable speech of Drozdovsky. The long hours of battle, the senseless death of Sergunenkov, the mortal wound of Zoya, in which Drozdovsky is partly to blame - all this forms an abyss between the two young officers, the moral incompatibility of their existences. In the finale, this abyss is indicated even more sharply: the four surviving gunners consecrate the newly received orders in a soldier's bowler hat, and the sip that each of them takes is, first of all, a funeral sip - it contains bitterness and grief of loss. Drozdovsky also received the order, because for Bessonov, who awarded him, he is the surviving, wounded commander of a standing battery, the general does not know about Drozdovsky's grave guilt and most likely will never know. This is also the reality of war. But it is not for nothing that the writer leaves Drozdovsky aside from those gathered at the soldier's bowler hat. The ethical, philosophical thought of the novel, as well as its emotional intensity, reaches its highest height in the finale, when Bessonov and Kuznetsov suddenly approach each other. This is a rapprochement without close proximity: Bessonov rewarded his officer on an equal footing with others and moved on. For him, Kuznetsov is just one of those who stood to death at the turn of the Myshkov River. Their closeness turns out to be more sublime: it is the closeness of thought, spirit, outlook on life. For example, shocked by the death of Vesnin, Bessonov blames himself for the fact that, because of his lack of sociability and suspicion, he prevented friendly relations between them (“the way Vesnin wanted, and the way they should be”). Or Kuznetsov, who could do nothing to help Chubarikov’s calculation, which was dying before his eyes, tormented by the piercing thought that all this “seemed to happen because he did not have time to get close to them, to understand everyone, to love ...”. Divided by disproportionate duties, Lieutenant Kuznetsov and the army commander, General Bessonov, are moving towards the same goal - not only military, but also spiritual. Suspecting nothing of each other's thoughts, they think about the same thing and seek the truth in the same direction. Both of them demandingly ask themselves about the purpose of life and about the correspondence of their actions and aspirations to it. They are separated by age and are related, like father and son, and even like brother and brother, by love for the Motherland and belonging to the people and to humanity in the highest sense of these words.

Yuri Vasilievich Bondarev

"Hot Snow"

The division of Colonel Deev, which included an artillery battery under the command of Lieutenant Drozdovsky, among many others, was transferred to Stalingrad, where the main forces accumulated Soviet army. The battery included a platoon commanded by Lieutenant Kuznetsov. Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov graduated from the same school in Aktobe. At the school, Drozdovsky "stands out for his underlined, as if innate bearing, the imperious expression of a thin, pale face - the best cadet in the division, a favorite of combatant commanders." And now, after graduating from college, Drozdovsky became Kuznetsov's closest commander.

Kuznetsov's platoon consisted of 12 people, among whom were Chibisov, the gunner of the first gun Nechaev and senior sergeant Ukhanov. Chibisov managed to visit German captivity. They looked askance at people like him, so Chibisov tried his best to oblige. Kuznetsov believed that Chibisov should have committed suicide instead of surrendering, but Chibisov was over forty and at that moment he only thought about his children.

Nechaev, a former sailor from Vladivostok, was an incorrigible womanizer and, on occasion, liked to court Zoya Elagina, the battery medical instructor.

Before the war, Sergeant Ukhanov served in the criminal investigation department, then he graduated from Aktobe military school together with Kuznetsov and Drozdovsky. Once Ukhanov was returning from AWOL through the toilet window, stumbled upon the division commander, who was sitting on the push and could not help laughing. A scandal broke out, because of which Ukhanov was not given an officer's rank. For this reason, Drozdovsky treated Ukhanov with disdain. Kuznetsov accepted the sergeant as an equal.

Medical instructor Zoya at every stop resorted to the cars that housed Drozdovsky's battery. Kuznetsov guessed that Zoya came only to see the battery commander.

At the last stop, Deev, the commander of the division, which included Drozdovsky's battery, arrived at the echelon. Next to Deev, “leaning on a stick, walked a lean, slightly uneven in gait unfamiliar general.<…>It was the commander of the army, Lieutenant General Bessonov. The general's eighteen-year-old son went missing on the Volkhov front, and now every time the general's eyes fell on some young lieutenant, he remembered his son.

At this stop, Deev's division unloaded from the echelon and moved on horse-drawn. In Kuznetsov's platoon, the horses were driven by Rubin and Sergunenkov. At sunset we made a short halt. Kuznetsov guessed that Stalingrad was somewhere behind him, but did not know that their division was moving “towards the German tank divisions that had launched an offensive in order to release the thousands of Paulus army surrounded in the Stalingrad area.”

The kitchens fell behind and got lost somewhere in the rear. People were hungry and instead of water they collected trampled, dirty snow from the roadsides. Kuznetsov spoke about this with Drozdovsky, but he sharply reined in him, saying that they were on an equal footing at the school, and now he is the commander. "Every word of Drozdovsky<…>raised in Kuznetsov such an irresistible, deaf resistance, as if what Drozdovsky did, said, ordered him was a stubborn and calculated attempt to remind him of his power, to humiliate him. The army moved on, in every way cursing the elders who had disappeared somewhere.

While tank divisions Manstein began a breakthrough to the grouping of Colonel General Paulus surrounded by our troops, the newly formed army, which included Deev's division, was thrown south by Stalin's order, towards the German shock group Goth. This new army was commanded by General Pyotr Aleksandrovich Bessonov, a middle-aged, reserved man. “He did not want to please everyone, did not want to seem like a pleasant conversationalist for everyone. Such a petty game in order to win sympathy always disgusted him.

AT recent times it seemed to the general that "the whole life of his son passed monstrously imperceptibly, slipped past him." All his life, moving from one military unit to another, Bessonov thought that he would still have time to rewrite his life cleanly, but in a hospital near Moscow, he “for the first time got the idea that his life, the life of a military man, probably could only be in a single version, which he chose once and for all." It was there that it happened last meeting with his son Viktor, a freshly minted junior lieutenant of the infantry. Bessonov's wife, Olga, asked him to take his son to him, but Victor refused, and Bessonov did not insist. Now he was tormented by the realization that he could have saved his only son, but did not. "He felt more and more acutely that the fate of his son was becoming his father's cross."

Even during a reception at Stalin's, where Bessonov was invited before a new appointment, the question arose about his son. Stalin was well aware that Viktor was part of the army of General Vlasov, and Bessonov himself was familiar with him. Nevertheless, Stalin approved the appointment of Bessonov as a general of the new army.

From November 24 to November 29, the troops of the Don and Stalingrad fronts fought against the encircled German group. Hitler ordered Paulus to fight to the last soldier, then the order was received for Operation Winter Storm - a breakthrough of the encirclement by the German Don army under the command of Field Marshal Manstein. On December 12, Colonel-General Goth struck at the junction of the two armies of the Stalingrad Front. By December 15, the Germans had advanced forty-five kilometers towards Stalingrad. The introduced reserves could not change the situation - German troops stubbornly made their way to the encircled grouping of Paulus. The main task of Bessonov's army, reinforced by a tank corps, was to detain the Germans and then force them to retreat. The last frontier was the Myshkova River, after which flat steppe stretched all the way to Stalingrad.

At the army command post, located in a dilapidated village, an unpleasant conversation took place between General Bessonov and a member of the military council, divisional commissar Vitaly Isaevich Vesnin. Bessonov did not trust the commissioner, believed that he was sent to look after him because of a fleeting acquaintance with the traitor, General Vlasov.

Late at night, the division of Colonel Deev began to dig in on the banks of the Myshkova River. The battery of Lieutenant Kuznetsov dug guns into the frozen ground on the very bank of the river, scolding the foreman, who was a day behind the battery along with the kitchen. Sitting down to rest a bit, Lieutenant Kuznetsov remembered his native Zamoskvorechie. The lieutenant's father, an engineer, caught a cold at a construction site in Magnitogorsk and died. Mother and sister stayed at home.

Having dug in, Kuznetsov, together with Zoya, went to the command post to Drozdovsky. Kuznetsov looked at Zoya, and it seemed to him that he “saw her, Zoya,<…>in a house comfortably heated for the night, at a table covered with a clean white tablecloth for the holiday, ”in his apartment on Pyatnitskaya.

The battery commander explained the military situation and stated that he was dissatisfied with the friendship that arose between Kuznetsov and Ukhanov. Kuznetsov countered that Ukhanov could have been a good platoon leader if he had been promoted.

When Kuznetsov left, Zoya stayed with Drozdovsky. He spoke to her in the "jealous and at the same time demanding tone of a man who had the right to ask her like that." Drozdovsky was unhappy that Zoya visited Kuznetsov's platoon too often. He wanted to hide his relationship with her from everyone - he was afraid of gossip that would begin to walk around the battery and seep into the headquarters of the regiment or division. Zoya was bitter to think that Drozdovsky loved her so little.

Drozdovsky was from a family of hereditary military men. His father died in Spain, his mother died the same year. After the death of his parents, Drozdovsky did not go to an orphanage, but lived with distant relatives in Tashkent. He believed that his parents had betrayed him and was afraid that Zoya would betray him too. He demanded from Zoya proof of her love for him, but she could not step over last line, and this angered Drozdovsky.

General Bessonov arrived at the Drozdovsky battery, who was waiting for the return of the scouts who had set off for the “language”. The general understood that the turning point of the war had come. The testimony of the "language" was supposed to provide the missing information about the reserves of the German army. The outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad depended on this.

The battle began with a Junkers raid, after which German tanks went on the attack. During the bombing, Kuznetsov remembered the gun sights - if they were broken, the battery would not be able to fire. The lieutenant wanted to send Ukhanov, but realized that he had no right and would never forgive himself if something happened to Ukhanov. Risking his life, Kuznetsov went to the guns along with Ukhanov and found there the riders Rubin and Sergunenkov, with whom the seriously wounded scout was lying.

Having sent a scout to the OP, Kuznetsov continued the fight. Soon he no longer saw anything around him, he commanded the gun "in an evil ecstasy, in a reckless and frantic unity with the calculation." The lieutenant felt "this hatred of possible death, this fusion with the gun, this fever of delusional rabies and only the edge of consciousness understanding what he was doing."

In the meantime, a German self-propelled gun hid behind two knocked out Kuznetsov tanks and began firing point-blank at a neighboring gun. Assessing the situation, Drozdovsky handed two anti-tank grenades to Sergunenkov and ordered him to crawl up to the self-propelled gun and destroy it. Young and frightened, Sergunenkov died without fulfilling the order. “He sent Sergunenkov, having the right to order. And I was a witness - and for the rest of my life I curse myself for this, ”thought Kuznetsov.

By the end of the day, it became clear that the Russian troops could not withstand the onslaught of the German army. German tanks have already broken through to the northern bank of the Myshkova River. General Bessonov did not want to send fresh troops into battle, fearing that the army would not have enough strength for a decisive blow. He ordered to fight to the last shell. Now Vesnin understood why there were rumors about Bessonov's cruelty.

Having moved to K.P. Deev, Bessonov realized that it was here that the Germans had directed the main blow. The scout found by Kuznetsov reported that two more people, along with the captured "tongue", were stuck somewhere in the German rear. Soon Bessonov was informed that the Germans had begun to surround the division.

The head of counterintelligence of the army arrived from the headquarters. He showed Vesnin a German leaflet, which contained a photograph of Bessonov's son, and told how well the son of a famous Russian military leader was being looked after in a German hospital. At the headquarters they wanted Bessnonov to stay in the army command post, under supervision. Vesnin did not believe in the betrayal of Bessonov Jr., and decided not to show this leaflet to the general for the time being.

Bessonov brought tank and mechanized corps into battle and asked Vesnin to go towards them and hurry them up. Fulfilling the request of the general, Vesnin died. General Bessonov never found out that his son was alive.

Ukhanov's only surviving gun fell silent late in the evening, when the shells obtained from other guns ran out. At this time, the tanks of Colonel-General Goth crossed the Myshkov River. With the onset of darkness, the battle began to subside behind.

Now for Kuznetsov, everything was “measured by other categories than a day ago.” Ukhanov, Nechaev and Chibisov were barely alive from fatigue. "This is the only surviving weapon<…>and there are four of them<…>were rewarded with a smiling fate, an accidental happiness to survive the day and evening of an endless battle, to live longer than others. But there was no joy in life.” They ended up behind German lines.

Suddenly, the Germans began to attack again. By the light of the rockets, they saw a human body a stone's throw from their firing platform. Chibisov shot him, mistaking him for a German. It turned out to be one of those Russian intelligence officers that General Bessonov was waiting for. Two more scouts, together with the "tongue", hid in a funnel near two wrecked armored personnel carriers.

At this time, Drozdovsky appeared at the calculation, along with Rubin and Zoya. Without looking at Drozdovsky, Kuznetsov took Ukhanov, Rubin and Chibisov and went to help the scout. Following Kuznetsov's group, Drozdovsky also got in touch with two signalmen and Zoya.

A captured German and one of the scouts were found at the bottom of a large funnel. Drozdovsky ordered a search for a second scout, despite the fact that, making his way to the funnel, he attracted the attention of the Germans, and now the entire area was under machine-gun fire. Drozdovsky himself crawled back, taking with him the "language" and the surviving scout. On the way, his group came under fire, during which Zoya was seriously wounded in the stomach, and Drozdovsky was shell-shocked.

When Zoya was brought to the calculation in her unfolded overcoat, she was already dead. Kuznetsov was like in a dream, "everything that kept him in unnatural tension these days<…>suddenly relaxed in him. Kuznetsov almost hated Drozdovsky for not saving Zoya. “He cried so alone and desperately for the first time in his life. And when he wiped his face, the snow on the sleeve of the quilted jacket was hot from his tears.

Already late in the evening, Bessonov realized that the Germans could not be pushed off the northern bank of the Myshkova River. By midnight, the fighting stopped, and Bessonov wondered if this was due to the fact that the Germans used all the reserves. Finally, a "language" was delivered to the command post, which said that the Germans had indeed committed reserves to the battle. After interrogation, Bessonov was informed that Vesnin had died. Now Bessonov regretted that their relationship "through his fault, Bessonov,<…>did not look like Vesnin wanted and what they should have been.

The front commander contacted Bessonov and said that four tank divisions were successfully reaching the rear of the Don army. The general ordered the attack. Meanwhile, Bessonov's adjutant found a German leaflet among Vesnin's belongings, but did not dare to tell the general about it.

About forty minutes after the start of the attack, the battle reached a turning point. Following the battle, Bessonov could not believe his eyes when he saw that several guns had survived on the right bank. The corps brought into battle pushed the Germans to the right bank, captured the crossings and began to surround the German troops.

After the battle, Bessonov decided to drive along the right bank, taking with him all the available awards. He rewarded everyone who survived this terrible battle and the German encirclement. Bessonov "did not know how to cry, and the wind helped him, gave vent to tears of delight, sorrow and gratitude." The Order of the Red Banner was awarded to the entire crew of Lieutenant Kuznetsov. Ukhanov was hurt that Drozdovsky also got the order.

Kuznetsov, Ukhanov, Rubin and Nechaev sat and drank vodka with orders lowered into it, and the battle continued ahead. retold Yulia Peskovaya

Kuznets and his classmates are supposedly going to the Western Front, but after stopping in Saratov it turned out that the entire division was being transferred to Stalingrad. Shortly before unloading at the front line, the locomotive makes a stop. The soldiers, waiting for breakfast, went out to stretch.

Medical instructor Zoya, in love with Drozdovsky, the battery commander and classmate of Kuznetsov, constantly came to their cars. At this parking lot, Deev, the division commander, and Lieutenant General Bessonov, the army commander, joined the squad. Bessonov was approved in person by Stalin himself, presumably because of his reputation for being brutal and willing to do anything to win. Soon the entire division was unloaded from the composition and sent towards the army of Paulus.

The division went far ahead, and the kitchens were left behind. The soldiers were hungry, eating dirty snow, when the order came to join the army of General Bessonov and go out to meet the fascist strike group of Colonel-General Goth. Before the army of Bessonov, which included the division of Deev, the supreme leadership of the country was tasked with any sacrifice to keep the army of Goth and not let them go to the Paulus group. Deev's division dug in at the line on the banks of the Myshkova River. Fulfilling the order, Kuznetsov's battery dug in guns near the river bank. After Kuznetsov takes Zoya with him and goes to Drozdovsky. Drozdovsky is unhappy that Kuznetsov makes friends with another of their classmates, Ukhanov (Ukhanov could not get a decent title, like his classmates, only because, returning from unauthorized absence through the window of the men's toilet, he found the general sitting on the toilet, and laughed for a long time). But Kuznetsov does not support Drozdovsky's snobbery and communicates with Ukhanov as an equal. Bessonov comes to Drozdovsky and waits for the scouts who left for the "language". The outcome of the battle for Stalingrad depends on the denunciation of the "language". Suddenly, a fight begins. Junkers flew in, followed by tanks. Kuznetsov and Ukhanov make their way to their guns and find a wounded scout in them. He reports that the “tongue” with two scouts is now in the fascist rear. Meanwhile, the Nazi army encircles Deev's division.

In the evening, all the shells at the last surviving dug-in gun, behind which Ukhanov stood, ended. The Germans continued to attack and advance. Kuznetsov, Drozdovsky with Zoya, Ukhanov and several other people from the division find themselves behind German lines. They went to look for scouts with a "language". They are found at the explosion crater and they try to rescue them from there. Under fire, he concusses Drozdovsky and wounds Zoya in the stomach. Zoya dies and Kuznetsov blames Drozdovsky for this. He hates him and sobs, wiping his face with hot snow from tears. The "language" delivered to Bessonov confirms that the Germans have brought in reserves.

The turning point that influenced the outcome of the battle was the guns dug in near the shore and, by a lucky chance, survived. It was these guns, dug in by the Kuznetsov battery, that pushed the Nazis back to the right bank, held the crossings and allowed the German troops to be surrounded. After the end of this bloody battle, Bessonov collected all the awards that he had available and, driving along the banks of the Myshkova River, rewarded everyone who survived in the German encirclement. Kuznetsov, Ukhanov and several other people from the platoon sat and drank.

A division of Colonel Deev was sent to Stalingrad. In its brave composition was an artillery battery, which was led by Lieutenant Drozdovsky. One of the platoons was commanded by Kuznetsov, Drozdovsky's classmate at the school.

There were twelve fighters in the Kuznetsov platoon, among whom were Ukhanov, Nechaev and Chibisov. The latter was in Nazi captivity, so he was not particularly trusted.

Nechaev used to work as a sailor and was very fond of girls. Often the guy looked after Zoya Elagina, who was a battery orderly.

Sergeant Ukhanov worked in the criminal investigation department in peacetime, and then finished the same educational institution, as Drozdovsky and Kuznetsov. Due to one unpleasant incident, Ukhanov did not receive the rank of officer, so Drozdovsky treated the guy with disdain. Kuznetsov was friends with him.

Zoya often resorted to the trailers where the Drozdov battery was located. Kuznetsov suspected that the medical instructor had appeared in the hope of meeting with the commander.

Soon Deev arrived along with an unknown general. As it turned out, it was Lieutenant General Bessonov. He lost his son at the front and remembered him looking at the young lieutenants.

The field kitchens lagged behind, the soldiers were hungry and ate snow instead of water. Kuznetsov tried to talk about this with Drozdovsky, but he abruptly interrupted the conversation. The army began to move on, cursing the foremen who disappeared somewhere.

Stalin sent the Deevsky division to the south to detain the Nazi shock group Goth. This formed army was supposed to be led by Petr Alexandrovich Bessonov, a reserved and elderly soldier.

Bessonov was very worried about the loss of his son. The wife asked to take Victor into her army, but the young man did not want to. Pyotr Alexandrovich did not force him, and after a while he very much regretted that he had not saved his only child.

At the end of autumn, Bessonov's main goal was to detain the Nazis, who stubbornly made their way to Stalingrad. It was necessary to make the Germans retreat. A powerful tank corps was added to Bessonov's army.

At night, Deev's division began to prepare trenches on the banks of the Myshkova River. The fighters dug the frozen ground and scolded the chiefs, who fell behind the regiment along with the army kitchen. Kuznetsov recalled his native places, his sister and mother were waiting for him at home. Soon he and Zoya went to Drozdovsky. The guy liked the girl and he imagined her in his cozy house.

The medical instructor stayed face-to-face with Drozdovsky. The commander stubbornly hid their relationship from everyone - he did not want gossip and gossip. Drozdovsky believed that his dead parents had betrayed him and did not want Zoya to do the same with him. The fighter wanted the girl to prove her love, but Zoya could not afford to take some steps ...

During the first battle, "Junkers" flew in, then they began to attack fascist tanks. While the active bombardment was going on, Kuznetsov decided to use the gun sights and, together with Ukhanov, headed towards them. There, friends found riders and a dying scout.

The scout was promptly taken to the OP. Kuznetsov selflessly continued to fight. Drozdovsky gave the order to Sergunenkov to knock out a self-propelled gun and gave a couple of anti-tank grenades. The young boy failed to carry out the order and was killed along the way.

At the end of this tiring day, it became obvious that our army would not be able to hold back the onslaught of the enemy division. Nazi tanks broke through to the north of the river. General Bessonov ordered the rest to fight to the end, he did not attract new troops, leaving them for the final powerful blow. Vesnin only now realized why everyone considered the general cruel ..

The wounded scout reported that several people with "language" were in the rear of the Nazis. A little later, the general was informed that the Nazis began to surround the army.

The counterintelligence commander arrived from the main headquarters. He handed Vesnin a German paper with a photo of Bessonov's son and a text describing how wonderfully he was looked after in a German military hospital. Vesnin did not believe in Victor's betrayal and did not give the leaflet to the general until he began.

Vesnin died while fulfilling Bessonov's request. The general was never able to find out that his child was alive.

The German surprise attack began again. In the rear, Chibisov shot at a man, because he mistook him for an enemy. But later it became known that it was our intelligence officer, whom Bessonov never waited for. The rest of the scouts, along with the German prisoner, hid not far from the damaged armored personnel carriers.

Soon Drozdovsky arrived with a medical instructor and Rubin. Chibisov, Kuznetsov, Ukhanov and Rubin went to help the scout. They were followed by a couple of signalers, Zoya and the commander himself.

"Language" and one scout were quickly found. Drozdovsky took them with him and gave the order to look for the second one. The Germans noticed Drozdovsky's group and fired - the girl was wounded in the abdomen, and the commander himself was shell-shocked.

Zoya was hurriedly carried to the crew, but could not be saved. Kuznetsov cried for the first time, the guy blamed Drozdovsky for what had happened.

By evening, General Bessonov realized that it was not possible to detain the Germans. But they brought a German prisoner, who said that they had to use all the reserves. When the interrogation ended, the general learned of Vesnin's death.

The front commander contacted the general, saying that the tank divisions were safely moving to the rear of the Don army. Bessonov gave the order to attack the hated enemy. But then one of the soldiers found among the belongings of the deceased Vesnin a paper with a photograph of Bessonov Jr., but he was afraid to give it to the general.

The turning point has begun. Reinforcements pushed the fascist divisions to the other side and began to surround them. After the battle, the general took various awards and went to the right bank. All those who heroically survived the battle received awards. The Order of the Red Banner went to all the soldiers of Kuznetsov. Drozdovsky was also awarded, which displeased Ukhanov.

The battle continued. Nechaev, Rubin, Ukhanov and Kuznetsov drank alcohol, dropping orders into glasses ...