Alexei Alekseevich Ivanov, the captain of the guard, was leaving the army after demobilization. In the unit where he served the whole war, Ivanov was carried out, as it should be, with regret, with love, respect, with music and wine. Close friends and comrades went with Ivanov to the railway station and, having finally said goodbye there, left Ivanov alone. The train, however, was late for long hours, and then, when those hours expired, it was even late. It was already a cold autumn night; the station was destroyed during the war, there was nowhere to spend the night, and Ivanov returned in a passing car back to the unit. The next day Ivanov's colleagues saw him off again; they sang songs again and hugged the waning one as a sign of eternal friendship with him, but they spent their feelings more abbreviatedly, and it happened in a narrow circle of friends.
Then Ivanov left for the station for the second time; at the station he learned that yesterday's train had still not arrived, and therefore Ivanov could, in essence, return to the unit again for the night. But it was inconvenient for the third time to go through the farewell, to disturb the comrades, and Ivanov was left bored on the deserted asphalt of the platform.
Near the exit switch of the station stood the surviving switch post booth. On a bench by that booth was a woman in a quilted jacket and a warm scarf; she sat there yesterday with her things, and now sits, waiting for the train. Leaving yesterday to spend the night at the unit, Ivanov thought: shouldn't he invite this lonely woman too, let her also spend the night with the nurses in a warm hut, why should she be cold all night, it is not known whether she can warm herself up in the switchman's booth. But while he was thinking, the passing car started, and Ivanov forgot about this woman.
Now that woman was still motionless in yesterday's place. This constancy and patience meant the fidelity and immutability of a woman's heart - at least with regard to things and her home, where this woman probably returned. Ivanov went up to her: maybe she, too, will not be so bored with him as alone.
The woman turned her face to Ivanov, and he recognized her. It was a girl, her name was "Masha - the daughter of a spaceman," because that is how she once called herself, being really the daughter of an employee in a bathhouse, a spaceman. Ivanov occasionally met her during the war, visiting one BAO, where this Masha, the daughter of a space worker, served in the dining room as a free-hired cook's assistant.
In the autumn nature surrounding them, it was sad and sad at this hour. The train, which was to take Masha and Ivanov home from here, was somewhere in the gray space. The only thing that could comfort and amuse a person's heart was the heart of another person.
Ivanov got into a conversation with Masha, and he felt good. Masha was pretty, simple in soul and kind with her big working hands and healthy, young body. She, too, was returning home and wondered how she would now live a new civilian life; she got used to her military friends, got used to pilots who loved her like an older sister, gave her chocolate and called her "spacious Masha" for her great height and heart, which, like a true sister, accommodates all brothers in one love and no one in separately. And now Masha felt unusual, strange and even afraid to go home to her relatives, from whom she had already lost the habit.
Ivanov and Masha felt themselves now orphaned without an army; however, Ivanov could not remain for a long time in a sad and sad state; it seemed to him that at such moments someone from afar was laughing at him and being happy instead of him, and he remained only a frowning simpleton. Therefore, Ivanov quickly turned to the cause of life, that is, he found himself some kind of occupation or consolation, or, as he himself expressed it, a simple joy at hand, and thus came out of his despondency.
He moved closer to Masha and asked her to allow him to kiss her cheek in a comradely manner.
“I’m a little bit,” said Ivanov, “otherwise the train is late, it’s boring to wait for it.”
- Is it just because the train is late? - Masha asked and looked closely into Ivanov's face.
The former captain looked thirty-five years old; the skin on his face, blown by the winds and sunburned, was brown; Ivanov's gray eyes looked at Masha modestly, even shyly, and he spoke, although direct, but delicately and amiably. Masha liked his deaf, hoarse old man's voice, his dark, rough face and the expression of strength and defenselessness on him. Ivanov put out the fire in the tube with his thumb, insensitive to the smoldering heat, and sighed in anticipation of permission. Masha moved away from Ivanov. He smelled strongly of tobacco, dry toasted bread, a little wine - those pure substances that originated from fire or can themselves give birth to fire. It seemed that Ivanov only ate tobacco, bread crumbs, beer and wine.
Ivanov repeated his request.
- I am careful, I am superficial, Masha ... Imagine that I am your uncle.
- I imagined already ... I imagined that you are my dad, not my uncle.
- Look how ... So you allow ...
“Fathers don't ask their daughters,” Masha laughed.
Later Ivanov admitted to himself that Masha's hair smells like autumn fallen leaves in the forest, and he could never forget them ... Having moved away from the railway track, Ivanov lit a small fire to cook eggs for dinner for Masha and for himself.
At night, a train came and took Ivanov and Masha in their direction, home. For two days they drove together, and on the third day Masha reached the city where she was born twenty years ago. Masha packed her things in the carriage and asked Ivanov to put the sack on her back more comfortably, but Ivanov took her sack on his shoulders and followed Masha out of the car, although he still had more than a day to go to the place.
Masha was surprised and moved by Ivanov's attention. She was afraid to immediately be left alone in the city where she was born and lived, but which has now become almost a foreign land for her. Masha's mother and father were driven away from here by the Germans and died in obscurity, and now only a cousin and two aunts remained in Masha's homeland, and Masha did not feel affection from her heart.
Ivanov arranged a stop in the city at the railway commandant and stayed with Masha. In fact, he should have gone home as soon as possible, where his wife and two children, whom he had not seen for four years, were waiting for him. However, Ivanov postponed the joyful and anxious hour of the family visit. He himself did not know why he did this, perhaps because he wanted to walk a little more outside.
Masha did not know Ivanov's marital status and, due to her girlish shyness, did not ask him about him. She trusted Ivanov out of the kindness of her heart, not thinking about anything else.
Two days later, Ivanov left further, to his native place. Masha saw him off at the station. Ivanov habitually kissed her and kindly promised to forever remember her image.
Masha smiled back and said:
- Why remember me forever? This is not necessary, and you will forget anyway ... I am not asking anything from you, forget me.
- My dear Masha! Where have you been before, why haven't I met you for a long time?
- I was in the ten years before the war, and for a long, long time I was not at all ...
The train came and they said goodbye. Ivanov left and did not see how Masha, left alone, began to cry, because she could not forget anyone, neither a friend, nor a comrade, with whom fate brought her at least once.
Ivanov looked through the carriage window at the passing houses of the town, which he will hardly ever see in his life, and thought that in the same similar house, but in another city, his wife Lyuba lived with children Petka and Nastya, and they were expecting him; he also sent a telegram to his wife from the unit that he would go home without delay and would like to kiss her and the children as soon as possible.
Lyubov Vasilievna, Ivanov's wife, went out to all trains that arrived from the west for three days in a row. She asked for time off from work, did not fulfill the norms and did not sleep at night with joy, listening to the pendulum of the wall clock moving slowly and indifferently. On the fourth day, Lyubov Vasilievna sent the children, Peter and Nastya, to the station, so that they would meet their father if he arrived during the day, and she again went out for the night train herself.
Ivanov arrived on the sixth day. His son Peter met him; now Petrushka was already twelve years old, and the father did not immediately recognize his child in a serious teenager who seemed older than his age. Father saw that Peter was a small and thin little boy, but big-headed, forehead, and his face was calm, as if already accustomed to everyday worries, and his small brown eyes looked at the white light gloomily and displeased, as if they saw everywhere one mess. Petrushka was neatly dressed and shod: his shoes were worn, but still fit, his pants and jacket were old, altered from his father's civilian clothes, but without holes - where needed, it was darned where needed, a patch was put there, and all of Parsley was like a small, poor, but serviceable peasant. The father was surprised and sighed.
- Are you a father, eh? - Asked Petrushka, when Ivanov hugged him and kissed him, lifting him to him. - Know, father!
- Father ... Hello, Pyotr Alekseevich!
- Hello ... Why did it take a long time? We waited, waited.
- This train, Petya, was walking quietly ... Like mother and Nastya: are they safe and sound?
- Fine, - said Peter. - How many orders do you have?
- Two, Petya, and three medals.
- And my mother and I thought - you have no clean place on your chest. The mother also has two medals, she was given what she deserved ... Why don't you have enough things - one bag?
- I don't need any more.
- And who has a chest, is it hard to fight? the son asked.
“It's hard for him,” his father agreed. - It's easier with one bag. Nobody has chests there.
- I thought it happens. I would keep my goods in the chest - it will break and wrinkle in the bag.
He took his father's duffel bag and carried it home, and his father followed him.
Mother met them on the porch of the house; she again asked for time off from work, as if her heart felt that her husband would come today. From the factory, she first went home, then to go to the station. She was afraid that Semyon Yevseevich had come home: he likes to come in sometimes during the day; he has such a habit - to appear in the middle of the day and sit with five-year-old Nastya and Petrushka. True, Semyon Evseevich never comes empty, he always brings something for the children - sweets, or sugar, or a white roll, or a warrant for manufactured goods. Lyubov Vasilievna herself did not see anything bad from Semyon Evseevich; for all these two years that they knew each other, Semyon Evseevich was kind to her, and he treated children like his own father, and even more attentive than another father. But today Lyubov Vasilievna did not want her husband to see Semyon Yevseevich; she cleaned the kitchen and the room, the house should be clean and nothing extraneous. And later, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, she herself will tell her husband the whole truth, how she was. Fortunately, Semyon Evseevich did not show up today.
Ivanov approached his wife, embraced her, and so stood with her without parting, feeling the forgotten and familiar warmth of a loved one.
Little Nastya left the house and, looking at her father, whom she did not remember, began to push him away from her mother, resting her hands on his leg, and then began to cry. Petrushka stood silently beside his father and mother, with his father's sack over his shoulders; after waiting a little, he said:
- Enough for you, otherwise Nastka is crying, she does not understand.
The father walked away from the mother and took Nastya in his arms, crying with fear.
- Nastka! - Petrushka called her. - Come to your senses - to whom am I talking! This is our father, he is our kin! ..
In the house, my father washed and sat down at the table. He stretched out his legs, closed his eyes and felt a quiet joy in his heart and a calm contentment. The war is over. Thousands of miles had traveled his legs over the years, wrinkles of fatigue lay on his face, and his eyes were cut with pain under closed eyelids - they now wanted to rest in the gloom or in the darkness.
While he was sitting, his whole family was busy in the upper room and in the kitchen, preparing a holiday treat. Ivanov examined all the objects of the house in order - a wall clock, a cupboard, a thermometer on the wall, chairs, flowers on the windowsills, a Russian kitchen stove ... For a long time they lived here without him and missed him. Now he returned and looked at them, again getting to know each one as with a relative who lived without him in anguish and poverty. He breathed the well-established, native smell of the house - the decaying wood, the warmth from the body of his children, burning on the stove. This smell was the same before, four years ago, and it did not dissipate or change without it. Nowhere else did Ivanov feel this smell, although he had been in hundreds of dwellings in different countries during the war; it smelled of a different spirit, which, however, did not have the quality of a home. Ivanov also remembered Masha's smell, how her hair smelled; but they smelled of forest foliage, an unfamiliar overgrown road, not a house, but anxious life again. What is she doing now and how has she settled down to live like a civilian, Masha is the daughter of a space-worker? God be with her ...
Ivanov saw that Petrushka was the most active in the house. Not only did he work himself, he gave instructions to mother and Nastya what to do and what not, and how to do it right. Nastya obediently obeyed Petrushka and was no longer afraid of her father as a stranger; she had a lively, concentrated face of a child who does everything in life in truth and in earnest, and a kind heart, because she did not take offense at Petrushka.
- Nastka, empty the potato skin from the mug, I need the dishes ...
Nastya obediently freed the mug and washed it. Mother, meanwhile, hastily prepared a quick-thinking pie, mixed without yeast, to put it in the oven, in which Petrushka had already kindled a fire.
- Turn, mother, turn quicker! - commanded Petrushka. - You see, I have the oven ready. Got used to digging, stakhanovka!
“Now, Petrusha, I’m now,” the mother said obediently. “I’ll put in the raisins, and that’s it, my father has probably not eaten raisins for a long time. I have long been a raisin on the shore.
“He ate it,” said Petrushka. - Our army is also given raisins. Our fighters, look how big-faced they walk, they eat grubs ... Nastka, why are you sitting down - to visit, or have you come? Clean the potatoes, we will fry them in a pan for dinner ... You can't feed a family with just a pie!
While his mother was preparing the pie, Petrushka put cast iron with cabbage soup in the oven with a large stag so that the fire would not burn in vain, and immediately made an instruction to the fire itself in the oven:
- Why are you burning in a shaggy way - look, fidgeting in all directions! Burn exactly. Gray under the very meal, for nothing, that eh, trees grew for firewood in the forest ... And you, Nastka, why did you put wood chips into the stove, you had to lay it down, as I taught you. And again you peel the potatoes thickly, but you have to peel them thinly - why do you scrape the meat off the potatoes? This is how our food disappears ... I've told you so many times, now I'm telling you for the last time, and then you'll get it on the back of your head!
- What are you, Petrusha, Nastya is fiddling with everything, - the mother said meekly. - What is she to you? Does she know how to peel so many potatoes and so that you feel as thin as a hairdresser's, you can't touch meat anywhere ... Father came to us, and you're still angry!
- I'm not angry, I'm on business ... Father needs to be fed, he came from the war, and you spoil the good ... How much food has disappeared in our potato peel in a whole year? .. If we had a sow, we could use her in a year to fatten one peel and send to the exhibition, and at the exhibition they would give us a medal ... We saw what would have happened, but you don’t understand!
Ivanov did not know that he had such a son, and now he sat and wondered at his reason. But he liked little meek Nastya better, who was also busy with her hands around the house, and her hands were already familiar and skillful. This means that they have long been accustomed to doing housework.
- Lyuba, - Ivanov asked his wife, - why don't you tell me anything - how did you live without me this time, how is your health and what are you doing at work? ..
Lyubov Vasilievna was now ashamed of her husband, like a bride: she had lost the habit of him. She even blushed when her husband turned to her, and her face, as in her youth, assumed the shy, frightened expression that Ivanov liked so much.
- Nothing, Alyosha ... We lived nothing. The children were sick a little, I raised them ... It's bad that I am at home with them only at night. I work at a brick factory, for the press, it's a long way to go there ...
- Where do you work? - Ivanov did not understand.
- At a brick factory, to the press. After all, I did not have any qualifications, at first I was a handyman in the yard, and then I was trained and put on the press. It’s good to work, only the children are alone and alone ... You see - what they have grown. They themselves know how to do, as adults have become, - Lyubov Vasilievna said quietly. - Is it good, Alyosha, I don't know myself ...
- It will be seen there, Lyuba ... Now we will all live together, then we will figure out what is good, what is bad ...
- Everything will be better with you, otherwise I alone do not know what is right and what is wrong, and I was afraid. You yourself now think how to raise children ...
Ivanov got up and walked around the room.
- So, in general, nothing, you say, did you have the mood here?
- Nothing, Alyosha, everything has already passed, we have endured. Only we missed you greatly, and it was scary that you would never come to us, that you would die there, like the others ...
She cried over the cake, already placed in an iron mold, and her tears dripped into the dough. She had just smeared the surface of the cake with a runny egg and was still running the palm of her hand over the dough, now continuing to smear the birthday cake with her tears.
Nastya put her arms around her mother's leg, pressed her face against her skirt and looked sternly at her father from under her brows.
The father bowed to her.
- What are you doing? .. Nastenka, what are you doing? You're mad at me?
He lifted her into his arms and stroked her head.
- What are you, daughter? You completely forgot me, you were little when I went to war ...
Nastya laid her head on her father's shoulder and also began to cry.
- What are you, my Nastenka?
- And my mother is crying, and I will.
Parsley, who stood in bewilderment near the stove cap, was unhappy.
- What are you all? .. The mood is ill, and the heat burns out in the stove. Once again, we’ll drown, and who will give us a new order for firewood! In the old way, they got everything and burned it, a little bit of it was left in the shed - ten logs, and then one aspen ... Come on, mother, dough, until the hot spirit has cooled down.
Parsley took out a large cast iron with cabbage soup from the oven and shook off the heat on the hearth, and Lyubov Vasilyevna hastily, as if trying to please Petrushka as soon as possible, put two tins of pies in the oven, forgetting to grease the second pie with a liquid egg.
His home was strange and still not entirely clear to Ivanov. The wife was the same - with a sweet, shy, although already very tired face, and the children were the same ones who were born of him, only grown during the war, as it should be. But something prevented Ivanov from feeling the joy of his return with all his heart - he was probably too weaned from home life and could not immediately understand even the closest, dear people. He looked at Petrushka, at his grown-up first-born son, listened to how he gave commands and instructions to his mother and little sister, watched his serious, anxious face and admitted to himself with shame that his fatherly feeling for this little boy, his attraction to him as to not enough for the son. Ivanov was even more ashamed of his indifference to Petrushka from the knowledge that Petrushka needed love and care more than others, because it was a pity to look at him now. Ivanov did not know exactly the life that his family lived without him, and he could not yet clearly understand why Petrushka had such a character.
At the table, sitting with his family, Ivanov understood his duty. He needs to get down to business as soon as possible, that is, go to work in order to earn money, and help his wife raise children correctly - then gradually everything will go for the better, and Petrushka will run with the guys, sit with a book, and not command with a stag by the stove.
Parsley ate the least at the table, but he picked up all the crumbs behind him and poured them into his mouth.
- Well, Peter, - his father turned to him, - eat crumbs, but you haven't finished your piece of pie ... Eat! Mother will cut you off later.
“You can eat anything,” said Petrushka, frowning, “but that's enough for me.
“He’s afraid that if he starts to eat a lot, then Nastya, too, looking at him, will eat a lot,” Lyubov Vasilievna said simply-heartedly, “but he is sorry.
“You don’t feel sorry for anything,” said Petrushka indifferently. - And I want you to get more.
Father and mother looked at each other and shuddered at the words of their son.
- What are you eating badly? - asked the father of little Nastya. - Are you looking at Peter? .. Eat properly, otherwise you will remain small ...
- I grew up big, - said Nastya.
She ate a small piece of the pie, and the other, which was larger, pushed away from her and covered it with a napkin.
- Why are you doing this? her mother asked. - Do you want me to butter your pie with butter?
- I don’t want to, I have become full ...
- Well, eat like that ... Why did you move the cake away?
- And Uncle Semyon will come. I left this to him. The pie is not yours, I didn’t eat it myself. I'll put it under my pillow, otherwise it will cool ...
Nastya got off the chair and carried a piece of cake wrapped in a napkin to the bed and put it under the pillow there.
Mother remembered that she, too, covered the ready-made cake with pillows when she baked it on May Day, so that the cake would not cool down before Semyon Yevseyevich arrived.
- And who is this Uncle Semyon? - Ivanov asked his wife.
Lyubov Vasilievna did not know what to say, and said:
“I don’t know who he is… He walks to the children alone, the Germans killed his wife and his children, he is used to our children and goes to play with them.
- How to play? - Ivanov was surprised. - What are they playing here with you? How old is he?
Petrushka glanced quickly at his mother and father; the mother didn’t say anything to her father, she just looked at Nastya with sad eyes, and the father smiled unkindly, got up from his chair and lit a cigarette.
- Where are the toys that this uncle Semyon plays with you? the father then asked Petrushka.
Nastya got off the chair, climbed into another chair by the chest of drawers, took books from the chest of drawers and brought them to her father.
“They are toy books,” Nastya said to her father, “Uncle Semyon reads them aloud to me: what a funny Bear, he is a toy, he is a book ...
Ivanov picked up the toy books that his daughter gave him: about the bear Mishka, about the toy gun, about the house where grandmother Domna lives and weaves flax with her granddaughter ...
Petrushka remembered that it was time to close the view in the chimney, otherwise the heat would come out of the house.
Closing the view, he said to his father:
- He is older than you - Semyon Evseich! .. He brings us benefits, let him live ...
Looking out the window, just in case, Petrushka noticed that there weren't the clouds floating in the sky that should have been floating in September.
- Some clouds, - said Petrushka, - leaden ones are floating - it must snow from them! Or will winter be early in the morning? After all, what then should we do something: all the potatoes are in the field, there is no harvesting on the farm ... Look what the situation is! ..
Ivanov looked at his son, listened to his words and felt his shyness in front of him. He wanted to ask his wife more precisely who this Semyon Yevseevich is, that he has been going to his family for two years, and who he has been going to - to Nastya or to his pretty wife - but Petrushka distracted Lyubov Vasilyevna with household chores:
- Give me, mother, bread cards for tomorrow and coupons for attachment. And give coupons for kerosene - tomorrow is the last day, and you have to take the charcoal, but you lost the bag, and then they let it go to our container, now look for a bag where you want, or a new neck made of rags, we cannot live without a bag. And let Nastka tomorrow not let anyone into our yard to fetch water, otherwise they draw a lot of water from the well: the winter will come, then the water will drop lower, and we will not have enough rope to lower the bucket, and you will not chew the snow, but melt it - firewood is also needed.
Saying his words, Petrushka was simultaneously sweeping near the stove and putting in order the kitchen utensils. Then he took out the cast iron with cabbage soup from the oven.
- We ate a little pie, now we will eat meat cabbage soup with bread, - Petrushka pointed out to everyone. - And you, father, tomorrow morning you ought to go to the district council and the military registration and enlistment office, you will be registered right away - as soon as possible we will receive cards for you.
“I'll go,” my father agreed meekly.
- Go, do not forget, otherwise in the morning you will oversleep and forget.
“No, I won’t forget,” my father promised.
The family ate their first communal dinner after the war, cabbage soup and meat in silence, even Petrushka sat quietly, as if father and mother and children were afraid to break the quiet happiness of a family sitting together with an unexpected word.
Then Ivanov asked his wife:
- How are you, Lyuba, with your clothes - probably they got around?
- We went in the old, and now we will celebrate new things, - smiled Lyubov Vasilievna. - I repaired on the children what was on them, and your suit, two of your pants and all your underwear I changed for them. You know, we didn't have extra money, but we had to dress the children ...
- Did the right thing, - said Ivanov, - do not regret anything for the children.
- I did not regret it, and I sold the coat that you bought me, now I wear a quilted jacket.
- Her quilted jacket is short, she walks - she might catch a cold, - said Petrushka. “I’ll go to the bathhouse as a fireman, get a paycheck and dress her coat. At the bazaar they sell on hands, I went and asked the price, there is a suitable one ...
“We can do without you, without your pay,” said my father.
After dinner, Nastya put on her big glasses and sat down by the window to mend her mother's mittens, which her mother was now putting on under her mittens at work - it was already cold, autumn was in the yard.
Petrushka glanced at his sister and was angry with her:
- Why are you indulging, why did you wear Uncle Semyon's glasses? ..
- And I look through glasses, I am not in them.
- What more! I see! You spoil your eyes and go blind, and then you will be dependent all your life and retire. Throw off your glasses now - I'm telling you! And stop mending the mittens, Mother will mend it herself, or I'll take it myself when I'm done. Take a notebook and write sticks - I forgot when I was studying!
- Is Nastya studying? - asked the father.
The mother replied that she was not yet, she is small, but Petrushka tells Nastya to study every day, he bought her a notebook, and she writes sticks. Petrushka also teaches her sister how to count, adding and subtracting pumpkin seeds in front of her, and Lyubov Vasilyevna herself teaches the letters to Nastya.
Nastya put down her mitten and took out a notebook and an insert with a feather from the chest of drawers, and Petrushka, satisfied that everything was being done in order, put on her mother's quilted jacket and went into the yard to chop wood for tomorrow; the chopped wood Petrushka usually brought home for the night and put them behind the stove so that they would dry up there and then burn more hot and economically.
In the evening, Lyubov Vasilievna gathered early for supper. She wanted the children to fall asleep early and so that she could sit alone with her husband and talk to him. But the children did not fall asleep for a long time after supper; Nastya, who was lying on a wooden sofa, looked for a long time from under the blanket at her father, and Petrushka, who lay on the Russian stove, where he always slept, and in winter and summer, tossed and turned there, groaned, whispered something, and did not calm down soon. But it was late at night, and Nastya closed her eyes tired of looking, and Petrushka began to snore on the stove.
Petrushka slept lightly and alertly: he was always afraid that something might happen at night and he would not hear - a fire, robber thieves would climb in, or his mother would forget to close the door on the hook, and the door would move away at night, and all the heat would go out. Today Petrushka was awakened by the anxious voices of his parents speaking in the room next to the kitchen. How long it was - midnight or already towards morning - he did not know, and father and mother did not sleep.
“Alyosha, don't make a noise, the children will wake up,” the mother said quietly. - Don't scold him, he is a kind person, he loved your children ...
“We don’t need his love,” said the father. - I myself love my children ... Look, he fell in love with other people's children! I sent you a certificate, and you yourself worked - why did you need it, this Semyon Yevseich? Your blood is still burning ... Oh, you, Lyuba, Lyuba! And there I was thinking differently about you. So you left me a fool ...
Father fell silent, and then struck a match to light his pipe.
- What are you, Alyosha, what are you talking about! my mother exclaimed loudly. - After all, I went out with children, they almost did not hurt me and they were full on my body ...
- So what! .. - said the father. - Others had four children left, but they lived well, and the guys grew up no worse than ours. And what kind of person you have grown up, Petrushka, thinks like a grandfather, but I suppose he forgot to read.
Parsley sighed on the stove and snored for the sake of appearances to listen further. “Okay,” he thought, “even if I'm a grandfather, it was good for you on the ready-made grubs!”
- But he learned all the most difficult and important things in life! - said the mother. - And he will not lag behind either.
- Who is he, this Semyon of yours? Enough for your teeth to speak to me, - the father was angry.
- He is a kind person.
- Do you love him, eh?
- Alyosha, I am the mother of your children ...
- Well, further! Answer directly!
- I love you, Alyosha. I am a mother, and I have been a woman for a long time, with you only, I have already forgotten when.
The father was silent and smoked his pipe in the dark.
- I missed you, Alyosha ... True, I had children, but they are no substitute for you, and I have been waiting for you, for many terrible years, I did not want to wake up in the morning.
- And who is he by position, where does he work?
- He serves to supply material in our factory.
- Clear. Rogue.
- He's not a crook. I don’t know ... And his whole family died in Mogilev, there were three children, his daughter was already a bride.
- It doesn't matter, he got another ready family in return - and the woman is not old yet, pretty in appearance, so he lives warmly again.
The mother said nothing. There was silence, but soon Petrushka heard that his mother was crying.
“He told the children about you, Alyosha,” her mother spoke up, and Petrushka heard that there were big stopped tears in her eyes. - He told the children how you fight there for us and suffer ... They asked him: why? And he answered them: because you are kind ...
My father laughed and knocked the heat out of the pipe.
- This is what you have - this Semyon-Yevsey! And he never saw me, but approves. Here's a personality!
- He didn't see you. He made it up on purpose so that the children would not lose the habit of you and love their father.
- But why, why should he? To get you as soon as possible? Tell me what he wanted?
- Maybe he has a good heart, Alyosha - that's why he is. Why is that?
- You stupid, Lyuba. Forgive me, please. Nothing happens without calculation.
- And Semyon Yevseich often brought something to the children, each time he brought it, then sweets, then white flour, then sugar, and recently brought Nastya boots, but they were not suitable - the size was small. And he himself does not need anything from us. We didn't need it either, we, Alyosha, would have done without his gifts, we are used to it, but he says that his soul is better when he takes care of others, then he doesn't yearn so much for his dead family. You will see him - this is not what you think ...
- All this is nonsense! - said the father. - Don't fool me ... I'm bored, Lyuba, with you, but I still want to live.
- Live with us, Alyosha ...
- I'm with you, and you will be with Senka-Evseika?
- I won't, Alyosha. He will never come to us again, I will tell him not to come again.
- So, then, it was, since you will no longer be? .. Eh, what are you, Lyuba, all of you women are like that.
- And what are you? the mother asked resentfully. - What do you mean - we are all like that? I'm not like that ... I worked day and night, we made refractories for masonry in locomotive furnaces. I became thin on my face, terrible, a stranger to everyone, a beggar would not beg for alms from me. It was also difficult for me, and the children are alone at home. I would come, it used to be, the house was not heated, nothing was boiled, it was dark, the children yearned, they did not immediately learn to manage themselves, as now, Petrushka was also a boy ... And then Semyon Yevseevich began to visit us. He will come and sit with the children. He lives all alone. “Can you,” he asks me, “I’ll visit you, will I warm up?” I tell him that it is cold here too, and our firewood is damp, and he answers me: “Nothing, my whole soul chilled, I’ll even sit next to your children, but I don’t need to heat the stove”. I said - okay, go for now: the children with you will not be so afraid. Then I got used to him too, and we all felt better when he came. I looked at him and remembered you that we have you ... Without you it was so sad and bad; let at least someone come, then it is not so boring and time passes faster. Why do we need time when you are not here!
- Well, next, then what? - hastened the father.
- Nothing further. Now you have arrived, Alyosha.
“Well, well, if so,” said the father. - Time to sleep.
But the mother asked the father:
- Wait still to sleep. Let's talk, I'm so glad to be with you.
“They won't calm down,” thought Petrushka on the stove, “they’ve made up, and all right; Mother has to get up early for work, but she keeps walking - she was delighted at the wrong time, she stopped crying. "
- Did this Semyon love you? - asked the father.
- Wait, I'll go and cover Nastya, she opens up in a dream and chills.
Mother covered Nastya with a blanket, went into the kitchen and paused near the stove to listen - is Petrushka sleeping? Petrushka understood his mother and began to snore. Then the mother went back, and he heard her voice:
- Probably loved. He looked at me affectionately, I saw, and what I am - am I good now? It was not sweet for him, Alyosha, and he had to love someone.
“You should have kissed him, since your task is so successful,” my father said kindly.
- Well, here's another! He kissed me twice himself, even though I didn't want to.
- Why did he do that, if you didn't want to?
- I do not know. He said that he had forgotten and remembered his wife, and I looked a little like his wife.
- Does he look like me too?
- No, it doesn't. Nobody looks like you, you are the only one, Alyosha.
- I'm alone, you say? The count begins with one: one, then two.
- So he only kissed me on the cheek, and not on the lips.
- It's all the same - where.
- No, it doesn't matter, Alyosha ... What do you understand in our life?
- Like what? I fought the whole war, I saw death closer than you ...
- You fought, and I was dying for you here, my hands were shaking with grief, but I had to work with vigor to feed the children and benefit the state against the fascist enemies.
The mother spoke calmly, only her heart was tormented, and Petrushka felt sorry for her mother: he knew that she had learned to repair shoes for herself and for him and Nastya, so as not to pay dearly to the shoemaker, and fixed the electric stoves for the neighbors for potatoes.
- And I could not stand life and longing for you, - said the mother. - And if I had endured, I would have died, I know that I would have died then, and I have children ... I needed to feel something else, Alyosha, some kind of joy so that I could rest. One person said that he loved me, and he treated me as tenderly as you once did ...
- Who is this, this Semyon-Yevsey again? - asked the father.
- No, another person. He serves as an instructor of the district committee of our trade union, he is evacuated ...
- Well, to hell with him, who is he! So what happened, he consoled you?
Petrushka did not know anything about this instructor and wondered why he did not know him. "Look you, and our mother is also poor," he whispered to himself.
The mother answered the father:
- I learned nothing from him, no joy, and then I felt even worse. My soul reached out to him, because she was dying, and when he became close to me, very close, I was indifferent, at that moment I thought about my household chores and regretted that I had allowed him to be close. I realized that only with you I can be calm, happy and with you I will rest when you are close. I have nowhere to go without you, I cannot save myself for the children ... Live with us, Alyosha, we will be fine!
Petrushka heard his father silently get out of bed, lit his pipe and sit on a stool.
- How many times have you met him when you were very close? - asked the father.
“Only once,” said the mother. - It never happened again. How much do you need?
- As much as you want, it's your business, - said the father. - Why did you say that you are the mother of our children, and that you were only a woman with me, and that for a long time ...
- It's true, Alyosha ...
- Well, how is it, what is the truth? After all, with him you were also a woman?
- No, I was not a woman with him, I wanted to be and could not ... I felt that I was lost without you, I needed - let someone be with me, I was all exhausted, and my heart became dark, I am my children I could no longer love, but for them, you know, I will endure everything, for them I will not regret my bones! ..
- Wait! - said the father. - You say - you made a mistake in this new Senka-Yevseyka, as if you did not receive any joy from him, but still you did not disappear and did not perish, remained whole.
“I’m not lost,” her mother whispered, “I live.
- So, here you are lying to me! Where is your truth?
“I don’t know,” her mother whispered. - I don't know much.
- Okay. But I know a lot, I have experienced more than you, - said the father. - You bitch, and nothing else.
The mother was silent. Father, it was heard, was breathing hard and often.
“Well, here I am at home,” he said. - There is no war, and you wounded me in my heart ... Well, now live with Senka and Yevseyka! You made me laugh, you made a laughing stock of me, and I, too, am a man, not a toy ...
Father began to dress and put on shoes in the dark. Then he lit a kerosene lamp, sat down at the table and wound the watch on his wrist.
“Four hours,” he said to himself. - It's still dark. They tell the truth, there are many women, but no wife.
It became quiet in the house. Nastya breathed evenly in her sleep on the wooden sofa. Parsley clung to the pillow on the warm stove and forgot that he needed to snore.
- Alyosha! - said the mother in a kind voice. - Alyosha, forgive me!
Petrushka heard his father groan and then the glass crackled; Through the cracks in the curtains, Petrushka saw that the room where the father and mother were had become darker, but the fire was still burning. "He crushed the glass near the lamp," guessed Petrushka, "but there is no glass anywhere."
“You cut your hand,” said the mother. - You're bleeding, take a towel in the dresser.
- Shut up! - shouted the father at the mother. - I can't hear your voice ... Wake up the children, wake up now! .. Wake up, they tell you! I'll tell them what their mother is! Let them know!
Nastya screamed in fright and woke up.
- Mama! she called. - May I come to you?
Nastya loved to come to her mother's bed at night and bask under her blanket.
Parsley sat down on the stove, put his feet down and said to everyone:
- Time to sleep! Why did you wake me up? It's not yet day, it's dark in the yard! Why are you making noise and lighting the light?
- Sleep, Nastya, sleep, it's still early, I'll come to you myself, - answered the mother. - And you, Petrushka, don't get up, don't talk anymore.
- What are you talking about? What does a father want? - Petrushka spoke up.
- And what do you care - what do I want? - answered the father. - What do you mean, sergeant?
- Why are you crushing the glass near the lamp? Why are you scaring your mother? She is already thin, eats potatoes without oil, and gives oil to Nastka.
- Do you know what your mother did here, what she did? - a plaintive voice, like a little one, cried the father.
- Alyosha! - Lyubov Vasilievna meekly turned to her husband.
- I know, I know everything! - said Petrushka. - Mother cried for you, she was waiting for you, and you came, she also cries. You do not know!
“You don’t understand anything yet! - the father was angry. - Here we have a shoot.
- I understand everything perfectly, - answered Petrushka from the stove. “You don’t understand yourself. We have business, we have to live, and you swear, how stupid you are ...
Parsley fell silent; he lay down on his pillow and inadvertently, inaudibly, wept.
“You took a lot of will at home,” said my father. - Yes, now it's all the same, live here for the owner ...
Wiping away his tears, Petrushka answered his father:
- Eh you, what a father, what do you say, but he was old and was in the war ... Go tomorrow to the disabled cooperative, there Uncle Khariton serves at the counter, and he cuts bread, does not weigh anyone. He, too, was in the war and returned home. Go ask him, he talks to everyone and laughs, I heard it myself. He has a wife, Anyuta, she has learned to ride a chauffeur, she delivers bread now, but she herself is kind, she does not steal bread. She was also friends and went to visit, she was treated there. This acquaintance of her with the order was, he is without an arm and is the main one in the store, where manufactured goods are thrown out by pieces ...
“Why are you talking there, better sleep, it’s soon dawn,” said the mother.
“And you didn’t let me sleep either… It’s not going to dawn soon. This one without a hand made friends with Anyuta, they began to live well. And Khariton lived in the war. Then Khariton came and began to argue with Anyuta. She swears all day, and at night she drinks wine and eats a snack, and Anyuta cries, doesn't eat anything. He swore and swore, then he got worn out, did not torment Anyuta and told her: why did you have one armless woman, you are a fool woman, so I had Glashka without you, and Aproska was, and Maruska was, and your namesake Nyushka was, and Magdalinka was still on additions. And he laughs. And Aunt Anyuta laughs, then she herself boasted - her Khariton is good, there is nowhere better, he killed fascists and there is no end to various women. Uncle Khariton tells us everything in the shop when he takes bread by the piece. And now they live peacefully, in an amicable way. And Uncle Khariton laughs again, he says: “I deceived my Anyuta, I had no one - there was neither Glashka, nor Nyushka, nor Aproska, and there was no Magdalinka to supplement, the soldier is the son of the fatherland, he has no time to live foolish, his heart lies against the enemy. It was I deliberately scared Anyuta ... "Go to bed, father, put out the light, why the fire smokes without glass ...
Ivanov listened with surprise to the story that Petrushka was telling him. “What a son of a bitch! - the father thought about his son. "I thought he would say about my Masha now ..."
Parsley overcame and snored; he fell asleep now in truth.
He woke up when the day became very bright, and was afraid that he had slept for a long time, had not done anything around the house in the morning.
Nastya was alone at home. She was sitting on the floor leafing through a picture book that her mother had bought her long ago. She looked at it every day, because she did not have another book, and ran her finger over the letters, as if reading.
- Why are you messing with the book in the morning? Put it back! - said Petrushka to his sister. - Where did your mother go to work?
- To work, - Nastya answered quietly and closed the book.
- And where did the father go? - Petrushka looked around the house, in the kitchen and in the room. - Did he take his bag?
- He took his bag, - said Nastya.
- What did he tell you?
- He did not speak, he kissed me in the mouth and in the eyes.
- Well, well, - said Petrushka and thought. - Get up off the floor, - he told his sister, - let me wash you clean and dress you, we'll go out into the street ...
Their father was sitting at that hour at the station. He had already drunk two hundred grams of vodka and had lunch in the morning on a ticket for travel allowances. At night, he finally decided to leave for the city where he left Masha in order to meet her there again and, perhaps, never part with her again. It is bad that he is much older than this daughter of the spacer, whose hair smelled of nature. However, there it will be seen how it will turn out, you cannot guess ahead. Still, Ivanov hoped that Masha would be at least a little happy when she saw him again, and that would be enough for him; This means that he also has a new close person, and, moreover, a wonderful person, cheerful and kind-hearted. And there it will be seen!
Soon a train arrived, heading in the direction from which Ivanov had just arrived yesterday. He took his duffel bag and went to board. “Here Masha is not expecting me,” thought Ivanov. “She told me that I would forget her anyway and we would never see her, and I was going to her now forever.”
He entered the vestibule of the carriage and remained in it, so that when the train started, he would have a last look at the small town where he lived before the war, where his children were born ... He once again wanted to look at the abandoned house; he can be seen from the carriage, because the street on which the house where he lived is located goes to a railway crossing and a train will go through that crossing.
The train started and drove quietly through the station switches into empty autumn fields. Ivanov grabbed the rail of the carriage and looked from the vestibule at the houses, buildings, sheds, at the fire tower of the city that was his family. He recognized two tall chimneys in the distance: one in a soap factory and the other in a brick factory; Lyuba was working there now at a brick press; let her now live in her own way, and he will live in his own way. Maybe he could have forgiven her, but what does that mean? All the same, his heart hardened against her, and there is no forgiveness in him for a person who kissed and lived with another, so that the time of war and separation from her husband would not pass so boringly, not alone. And the fact that Lyuba became close to her Semyon or Yevsey because it was difficult for her to live, that need and longing tormented her, this is not an excuse, this is a confirmation of her feelings. All love comes from want and longing; if a person did not need or yearn for anything, he would never love another person.
Ivanov was about to leave the vestibule and into the carriage to go to bed, not wanting to look for the last time at the house where he lived and where his children remained; do not torture yourself in vain. He looked ahead to see if it was far from the crossing, and immediately saw him. The railroad track here was crossed by a rural dirt road leading to the city; on this earthen road lay bundles of straw and hay that had fallen from carts, willow twigs and horse dung. Usually this road was deserted, except for two market days a week; seldom would a peasant drive into town with a full truckload of hay or return back to the village. So it was now; the country road lay empty; only from the city, from the street into which the road entered, did some two children run in the distance; one was larger, and the other was smaller, and the larger, taking the smaller by the hand, quickly dragged him along, and the smaller, no matter how in a hurry, no matter how diligently fiddled with his legs, but did not keep up with the big one. Then the one that was larger dragged him behind him. They stopped at the last house in the city and looked in the direction of the station, deciding whether to go there or not. Then they looked at the passenger train passing through the level crossing and ran down the road straight to the train, as if they suddenly wanted to catch up with it.
The car in which Ivanov stood passed the crossing. Ivanov lifted the bag from the floor in order to get into the carriage and go to sleep on the upper bunk, where other passengers would not interfere. But did those two children manage to run even to the last car of the train? Ivanov leaned out of the vestibule and looked back.
The two children, holding hands, were still running along the road to the crossing. They both fell at once, got up and ran forward again. The largest of them raised one free hand and, turning his face in the direction of the train towards Ivanov, waved his hand towards himself, as if calling on someone to return to him. And then they fell to the ground again. Ivanov saw that the larger one was shod with a felt boot, and the other with a galosh - that was why he fell so often.
Ivanov closed his eyes, not wanting to see and feel the pain of the fallen exhausted children, and he himself felt how hot his chest felt, as if the heart, enclosed and languishing in him, had been beating for a long time and in vain all his life, and only now it had made its way to freedom, filling his whole being with warmth and shudder. He suddenly learned everything that he knew before, much more accurately and truly. Before he felt a different life through the barrier of pride and self-interest, but now he suddenly touched it with his naked heart.
He glanced once more from the steps of the carriage at the tail of the train at the distant children. He already knew now that these were his children, Petrushka and Nastya. They must have seen him when the car was passing along the crossing, and Petrushka called him home to his mother, but he looked at them inattentively, thought about something else and did not recognize his children.
Now Petrushka and Nastya were running far behind the train along a sandy track near the rails; Petrushka still held little Nastya by the hand and dragged her behind him when she could not keep up with her feet.
Ivanov threw the duffel bag from the car to the ground, and then went down to the lower step of the car and got off the train onto the sandy path along which his children were running after him.

The military theme is one of the most popular in literature. Many works tell about the course of the war, about soldiers and heroism, and some describe the post-war period. The last type can be attributed to the work of Andrei Platonov "Return". The author reveals a special side of military operations and shows how a person changed. The plot is based on the return home of Captain Alexei Ivanov. But more precisely, you can say that the return is not so much going home as "into yourself", to what you were before.

Platonov did not describe military actions, but showed the course of the war through other factors, such as descriptions of nature. What was the inner state around, how the world is full of sadness and sorrow. The more you delve into the essence of the story, the more you understand the character of the main character, I can say that he was especially unpleasant. After all, Ivanov, even after the war, behaved as he did at the front. He warns his family about his return with the help of a telegram, and he himself, following home, begins to follow Masha. Masha was free and lonely, she was not bound by any duties. Therefore, Ivanov felt free with her.

After this meeting with Masha, the reader is given the opportunity to get to know the captain's family better. His wife, Lyubov Vasilievna, does not sleep, everything is waiting for him, follows all the trains, for her this meeting is alarming, but for him, on the contrary, as if it were entertainment. Four years of separation affected the children, Petrushka, who is only 11 years old, already has the character of an adult, Ivanov understands that the boy lacked care, affection and attention.

The protagonist cannot in any way measure himself with the changes that have occurred in his house, cannot understand his son, who is in charge of household chores, and also that this boy all the time helped his mother and sister to survive. We can say that the author shows how alien Ivanov has become for his family, he cannot be emotionally penetrated. In his understanding, only he is a hero, since he fought and saw a lot of things, but the fact that this whole time the family was holding on as best he could, he does not care.

In the end, the father, out of his pride, decides to leave his family, all this is perfectly described by the author. Once on the train, Ivanov did not think about what it would be like for his wife and children. And so, as soon as the train started, the children ran after him, and then some paternal feelings in the soul of the protagonist took over and he stayed.

Analysis of Platonov's story Return

Platonov's books are not like other literary works. His stories may seem strange and unusual, but they are rich, as if the words come from the depths of his heart. He does not single out any of his heroes. Platonov understands, sympathizes and pity each of his heroes, forgiving his actions.

One of the most famous works of Andrey Platonov is the story "The Return". From the very beginning, this story was called "The Ivanov Family". Already after publication in 1946 in the magazine "New World", the author decided to change the name and slightly change the course of events in the work. The story was published under its final title in 1962.

The captain, Alexei Alekseevich Ivanov, is coming back from the war. The plot, it would seem, is quite simple, but why is it so difficult and long for the hero to go home. Twice they see him off, twice he waits for the train. While waiting for the next train, the hero meets Masha, in whom he feels a kindred spirit. The author does not explain why Masha and Ivan understood each other; on the contrary, he gives the reader the opportunity to reflect and give any arguments. Ivanov returns to his native land only on the sixth day. The hero's son (Petrusha) meets the hero, he looks like a peasant, he does not see his father in Alexei, he sees only a military man in front of him. Life has taught Petrusha to think sensibly, he does not rush to embrace a loved one. Seeing his wife, he went up to her, hugged her and stood there, not believing his happiness. Since time, the hero understands that it is hard for him without a war, and he cannot live a peaceful and calm life. In the evening he is going to leave, leaving Ivanov, notices the children running after the train. Looking at the children, he suddenly felt pity in his heart. It was at this moment that he realized that this was his children running. He descends a step, then onto the path along which his children are running. It was at this moment that he returned and finally realized what family meant to him.

Literary direction: realism.

Theme: the story tells about the post-war time, namely about the meeting of the family after a long separation, where each member of the family tries to return to a quiet life.

Main thought: The writer shows that war can kill not only physically, it is also capable of destroying families, making relatives strangers to each other.

Problems of the story: in his story, Platonov raises some of the most significant problems of the time. The author reveals the problem of love; the problem of the impact of war on the fate of people; separation of families; the problem of loyalty and betrayal. He also touches on the problem of changing the character of a front-line soldier who has returned home, who needs to get used to a peaceful life again.

Composition 3

The works of Andrey Platonov are a small life. Each story separately tells about someone's fate. Platonov is a post-war writer.

The story "Return" tells how an ordinary Russian soldier goes home after the war. Initially, the work was called "The Ivanov Family", but later Platonov renamed it. He did this due to the fact that the story is not only about the life and fate of the Ivanov family, there is a slightly different subtext. The theme of the work is the return home of the guard of Captain Alexei Ivanov. The title of the story has a double meaning. This return of a person to his home is not only physical, but also spiritual: to the past, already forgotten by the front-line everyday life. The main idea and idea of \u200b\u200bthe story is to show the reader how war distorts and breaks not only fates, but also the souls of people.

The plot of the work is quite simple. At the station, the main character of the story, Alexei Ivanov, meets Masha. The girl also returns home. She, like Alexei, is in no hurry to go home. Both understand that during this long time of absence they have become strangers in their home, therefore they are afraid to return. Alexey goes out with Masha in her hometown, despite the fact that his family is waiting for him at home. Ivanov spends two days with his new friend, after which he returns home.

The family members are waiting for Alexey and go out to meet the train every day. When Ivanov finally returns home, he realizes that the family is used to living without him. Everything here is kind of distant to him and as if not native. The son, who is only just twelve years old, has become an adult little peasant. My five-year-old daughter is doing hard housework. The wife blushes in front of him, as at the first meeting. Subsequently, it turns out that their house is visited by Semyon Evseevich, whose entire family died. His wife Lyuba also cheated on Alexei with the instructor of the regional committee of the trade union. And only the son Petya, who overheard the night conversation between father and mother, understands the woman's act. Despite the persuasions of his wife and son, Ivanov decides to leave the family. He condemns his wife, but does not talk about his betrayal himself.

The image of the protagonist is ordinary and uncommon, like most, especially in the post-war period. Platonov condemns Alexei in that he thinks only of himself. Ivanov accuses everyone of the quarrel, but by no means himself. He explains his betrayal by the fact that he was bored. Alexey does not think about his wife, or about Masha, or even about his own children. Petya turns out to be more reasonable than his parents. He wants to reconcile them. The boy already understands everything in an adult way.

The language of the story is simple and at the same time special, like all of Platonov's work. Through the dialectisms that Petya and Nastya use in their speech, we hear and see that small children have become too old due to adversity.

The detail also plays a large role in the work. Valenki, Petit's galoshes, glass of a kerosene lamp - everything speaks of the emotional experience of the heroes.

Only the smell of his home and pies makes Alexei remember about the former peaceful and cozy family happiness Masha's hair smells differently, something alien. That is, smells are also important in the development of the plot.

At the end of the story, the children return their father home. They help him to see clearly mentally, to understand what is really valuable.

Family is the most important and precious thing in life. Platonov, as a person who understands the true values \u200b\u200bof life, through children, allows his hero to rethink everything and take the right path.

Option 4

The work reveals such a topic as the life of ordinary people in the difficult post-war period. Although people expected that after this terrible time everything would be left behind and the country would prosper, the consequences of the war affected almost every person and every area of \u200b\u200bhis life. And it was believed that people who have gone through the battles will live a calm and measured life, because all their troubles will remain in the past, and you no longer have to worry about the fact that a person can get hit by bullets. However, this is completely wrong, because these people cannot find their application in another reality, which is very different from the military situation.

It also happens with the main character, who loses himself in everyday space, because he does not see his bright future, and hopes that soon he will come up with something. And, completely confused, the main character decides to go with Masha to a place where all his troubles and hardships will remain in the past, and he wants to choose an unusual and unknown place to live, so that nothing reminds him of his past life. However, nothing came of this attempt, because Masha did not consider that such a life would suit her. Despite the fact that she had strong feelings for Alexei, it cannot be said that she was madly in love with him. It was necessary and important for her to maintain relationships with her other acquaintances and close people, as she is a multifaceted and versatile person, with a lot of interests and hobbies. She lets Alexei go into a free life, thereby noting that she can no longer be with him.

And then Alexey makes an attempt to start all over again with his previous wife, from whom he has two wonderful children. When he comes to their house, he realizes that this is exactly the place where he was expected and where he is welcome. He sees his son, who had to become an adult incredibly early, thinking very deeply, and doing the actions of a real man. Then, Alexey begins to show all the affection and care for loved ones, making it clear that they are incredibly dear and valuable to him. Then, his wife decides that they need to be together again, as she always waited and loved him. Thanks to the fact that both adults were wise at the right moment in time, this family survived, and understanding and care for each other reigned in it. The work is very interesting, lively and realistic, it examines the basic family values \u200b\u200bthat the author exalts.

With the advent of the world, people begin to absorb knowledge of a different nature. They are individual for everyone. For some, they are simple and easy to remember, but for other people

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Analysis of the story Elka Zoshchenko

Mikhail Zoshchenko's story "Yolka" is included in the cycle of stories about Lyolya and Minka. These are the author's memories of his childhood - funny and sad, edifying and funny, but always bright and instructive

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Andrey Platonovich Klimentov, whom the reader knows under the name Platonov, was born on August 28 (16), 1899. However, traditionally, it is customary to celebrate his birthday on September 1. He changed his surname in the 1920s, forming it on behalf of his father, Platon Firsovich Klimentov, a locksmith in railway workshops in the Yamskaya settlement in the city of Voronezh. A. Platonov's mother, Maria Vasilievna, the daughter of a watchmaker, was a housewife. Despite her chronic need, she had a gentle, meek character and brought kindness and warmth to family relationships.

Andrei studied first at a parish school, then at a city school, and began to work at the age of thirteen. "We had a family... 10 people, and I am the eldest son - one worker, except for my father. Father... Could not feed such a horde," he later wrote in his memoirs. In his early childhood, he experienced the burden of a beggarly bag, and the bitterness of irrevocable losses (younger brothers and sisters died of starvation), participated in the civil war and the construction of a new village. All these "universities" formed the soul and mind of Platonov with his morbid indifference to want and human suffering. “I lived and languished,” wrote A. Platonov in 1922 to his wife and friend M. A. Platonova, “because life immediately turned me from a child into an adult, depriving me of my youth. "

In 1918 he went to study at the Voronezh Polytechnic. He worked as an engineer, meliorator, journalist. But his studies were interrupted by the Civil War, to which he left in 1919. Then Platonov began to write. His first book - a collection of essays "Electrification", which affirmed the idea that "electrification is the same revolution in technology, with the same meaning as October 1917."

In 1922 his second book, a collection of poems "Blue Depth", was published. In 1926 Platonov moved to Moscow. In 1927, the book "Epiphanes Locks" made the writer famous. In 1928, the following collections were published: Meadow Masters and The Secret Man.

Since the summer of 1942, Platonov was a front-line correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. Andrei Platonov spent a long time at the front line, settling in dugouts with company or battalion commanders. He studied front-line life, the soldier's language, trench songs, ditties, jokes. Here is what a colleague wrote about him: “In the appearance of Platonov there was something of a craftsman, a working man who, by necessity, became a soldier in order to protect his homeland. He was gentle and easy to handle, knew how to find a word for everyone - be it a general, a soldier, an old peasant woman or a child. He spoke in a deaf, low voice, calmly and evenly.

But sometimes he was harsh, prickly, always absolutely intolerant of falsehood and boasting. Especially sincerely Platonov was able to talk with soldiers - workers of the war ... When it happened to stay overnight in a peasant hut, Platonov was imbued with the concerns of the owners: he would easily chop a firewood, pick up an abandoned shovel in the yard, get water from the well ... "

The story "Ivanov's Family" ("The Return") is one of the masterpieces of small Russian prose. Written at the end of the summer of 1945, published in 1946 in the journal Novy Mir. V. Puzyrkov. "World Ahead"

“The Return” What impression did the story make on you? What episodes do you remember? Who are the heroes of the story?

Andrei Platonovich Platonov (1899–1951) The story was originally called "The Ivanov Family". After the publication in the magazine "New World", the author not only changed its name, but also changed the course of events.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe story Under any conditions, under any circumstances, a person must remain a person and not allow his soul to harden, to petrify his heart. You need to be above destructive passions: jealousy, selfishness, cruelty, revenge, etc. Adults need to find moral strength in themselves and preserve the family, endure for the sake of children.

Children are also responsible for the fate of adults. According to Platonov, it was they, who suddenly grew old, innocent of anything, carried the truth of life, only they knew the value of the family and saw the world in an undistorted light. "The genius of childhood, combined with the experience of maturity, ensures the success and safety of human life." (A. Platonov)

Composition of the story Exposition. Demobilization of Captain Ivanov from the army. Meeting with Masha. The plot of the action. Return of Alexey Ivanov home.

Development of action. Ivanov's meeting with his wife and children. Decision to get down to business sooner. Lunch with the family. Straight talk with my wife Any. The decision to leave the family and return to Masha. Recognition of their children in the children who ran after the train.

The climax. Ivanov's moral insight (catharsis). "Bare Heart". The denouement of the action. Ivanov's final return.

n n n What do Ivanov and Masha have in common? How did they break up? How did Ivanov and his wife, Lyubov Vasilievna, meet?

The author does not explain to the reader why Masha and Ivanov understood their friend, but gives the opportunity to reflect, guess. Andrey Platonovich Platonov (1899-1951)

The author gives the reader an opportunity to think: what did the boy have to go through in his incomplete twelve years, why he talks so dryly with his father. Andrey Platonovich Platonov (1899–1951)

Ivanov, seeing his wife, just walked up, hugged and stood there, not believing in the happiness of his return.

Little Nastya pushes her father away from her mother, she does not remember him. He is a stranger to her.

Petrusha shouts at Nastya: - Nastka !. ... ... Come to your senses, to whom I speak! This is our father, he is our kin!

The father, watching his family, is surprised. This home was strange and incomprehensible to him: there is joy in the heart, but the realization of this joy does not come.

Ivanov cannot believe that a stranger comes to his house, to his children, reads books to Nastya. And it doesn't just come - it warms up next to the children.

Petrusha heard his father's conversation with his mother at night, because he was used to sleeping lightly. He is very sorry for his mother.

The hero is hurt and difficult to understand this life without war. He had not yet realized that it was the war that changed his family. The weight of grief fell on the shoulders of Lyuba, Petrushka, Nastya.

Mother was crying for you, she was waiting for you, and you came, she is crying too. You do not know!

Lyubov Vasilievna loves her husband, so she talks to him frankly, hoping for understanding. He also loves his wife, but without war he is wounded in the heart.

The motive of Platonov's road is the path of finding the meaning of life, the path of finding a point at which one can

The main character does not understand his relatives, does not want to accept their truth.

Here you will find the most pressing problems related to the growing up process from the texts for preparing for the exam in the Russian language. For each of them, literary arguments from a variety of books are selected. You can download a table with all of them at the end of the article.

1. I. S. Turgenev in the novel "Fathers and Sons" touched upon the problem of the relationship between the old and new generations. The protagonist, a young nihilist Yevgeny Bazarov, confronts the nobleman Pavel Kirsanov and his own parents. Pavel Petrovich actively defends the old foundations, while Evgeny tries to destroy them in order to build new ones on this place. Representatives of different generations argue about literally everything. Eugene's parents are worried that they cannot find a common language with their son. When he died, they come to his grave and greatly regret the misfortune that happened, because whatever the relationship, parents almost always love their children more than anything else.
2. The conflict of generations can be found in the drama of A. N. Ostrovsky "The Thunderstorm"... The old ones include Kabanikha and Dikoy. To the new - Katerina, Varvara, Boris and Tikhon. Due to moral oppression from her mother-in-law, the main character Katerina feels unhappy, lonely, tortured, and this depressed state pushes her to treason. Her husband is weak, he has no willpower, so he leaves his wife alone with problems, and he goes to the tavern. This only makes the young woman's situation worse. Boris also turns out to be weak-willed, so he cannot take responsibility for love. Dikoy holds him tightly in a vice, not wanting to violate the old order, namely, to keep the youths in strictness. The heroine, left alone, cannot bear such a life, so she throws herself off the cliff. Tikhon only after the death of Katerina finds the strength to blame his mother for what happened. This example shows that both sides of the conflict are wrong, and it is very important to learn to recognize that you are wrong in time and find a compromise.

Growing up process

1. The growing up process is well described in the story of Alexander Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter"... The main character, Pyotr Grinev, was an inexperienced boy at the beginning of the story. He began to play cards, greatly offended Savelich's mentor, who treated him like his own. However, later Peter grew up and turned into a noble and strong man. Most of all, this was facilitated by feelings for Marya Mironova and the peasant war, in which it was necessary to make adult and responsible decisions. He was forced to grow up from a lad who only drove pigeons around the yard, because right in front of him the fate of Russia was being decided, and his beloved woman also needed help. Under the influence of these circumstances, the hero recalls his father's behest: "Take care of honor from a young age." Guided by them, he valiantly serves the empress and saves his love.
2. The growing up process is described in a series of epic fantasy novels by George Martin "A Song of Ice and Fire"... One of the heroines, Sansa Stark, was naive and frivolous as a child. She dreamed of leaving her native northern Winterfell to the south, marrying a noble lord, prince or king. However, later the girl was surrounded by enemies and realized that the most important thing is the family. Therefore, they, the northerners, need to stick together. After being married twice against her will, Sansa became strong and courageous. She even was able to take revenge on her husband, who mocked her and killed her brother. This means that adversity makes people grow up.

Early adolescence

1. Early growing up problem raised in the work of A.P. Platonov "Return"... Alexey Ivanov returns home after the war and sees that his eleven-year-old son Peter has taken the place of the head of the family. The author notes that the boy seemed older than his age. He looked like a small, poor, but serviceable peasant. Life without a father taught him to be a support for his mother and sister himself. From this example, it follows that early adulthood is influenced by living conditions and upbringing. If the hero had not initially laid the moral foundations in the family, then his son, under the pressure of circumstances, would not have stood the test.
2. The problem of early adulthood is described by J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The main character, a boy of eleven years old, grew up without parents in the house of his aunt, uncle and cousin. They treated him like a servant and did not consider it necessary to please with gifts. Once Harry was given a toothpick for his birthday, and they did not even remember about his eleventh birthday. From an early age, the boy understood that he could only rely on himself. Thus, he grew up early due to the fact that he was left without his own family, surrounded by people indifferent to him. However, it must be borne in mind that Harry was initially raised correctly, so such circumstances did not break him, but tempered his spirit.

Consequences of poor parenting

1. Revealed the problem of bad parenting D. I. Fonvizin in the work "Minor"... The serf-landowner Prostakova is not at all concerned with raising her son. Teachers are hired only for prestige. The mother does not put her subordinates in anything and treats them rudely, trying to marry her son profitably. Bottom line: Mitrofanushka, at the age of 15, can neither read, nor write, nor count, nor speak politely. He is stupid, like Prostakova. The boy is poorly educated, even defiant of his mother. Hence the famous phrase: "Here is evil worthy fruits." The heroine herself behaved disgustingly and ignorantly, so her son absorbed only the vices inherent in her, and he had nowhere to take virtues.
2. I raised the problem of poor parenting Oscar Wilde in The Portrait of Dorian Gray... Dorian met Henry Wotton, who gradually began to corrupt the youthful mind. An unexpectedly fulfilled desire also helped the young man to get on the crooked path - that the portrait would grow old over the years instead of him. Dorian succumbed to temptation, did terrible things, and paid for it. And it's all the fault of Henry Wotton's rash advice. From this we can conclude that education plays an important role in a person's life.

Children's desire to get older

1. In the children's work “Cats-Warriors. The Sign of Three "Erin Hunter writes about a kitten Lion, who dreamed of growing up and becoming a squire. Later this happened, and he was given a new name - Lionpaw. He trained hard to be the best at everything. He ran, jumped, fought, practiced fighting techniques, tried to distinguish himself in front of his elders, tried to make his parents proud of him. Young children also dream of growing up and getting a prestigious profession. This is a normal desire that should not be criticized or suppressed. The main thing is that the child does not act recklessly, imitating the wrong example.

"Return" was published in the magazine Novy Mir "in No. 10-11 for 1946 under the title" The Ivanov Family ". The story was criticized for slander, which the writer allegedly raised against the Soviet people, against soldiers returning from the war, against a Soviet family. After Platonov's death, the charges were dropped. The story, substantially altered by Platonov himself, was published in a collection of stories for 1962 after the author's death.

Literary direction and genre

The story "The Return" refers to the literary direction of realism. The victorious warrior, unaccustomed to his family, returns home and finds out that his wife also had a hard life, so she did not even wait for him correctly, as it is sung in the song of K. Simonov. The critics turned against Platonov because the behavior of his characters did not fit into the framework of "socialist realism."

A psychological story about one family, about the ties between father and mother on the side, about their weaning from each other, father from children. The plot takes only a few days, but the dialogues reveal the events that took place during the war.

Topic, main idea, problematics

A story about a post-war meeting of a family, each member of which is trying to enter the mainstream of a peaceful life. The main idea is that war not only kills physically, it destroys families, making relatives strangers and distorting each life individually. To return to the roots, to family love, sacrifice is needed.

The problem of the story is traditional for Platonov. The problem of the influence of war on the fate and personalities of people is raised, the transformation of men into frivolous adolescents, and children into little old people; the problem of the separation of relatives by time and distance; the problem of loyalty and betrayal, responsibility and forgiveness; the problem of love, which the characters see as a response to grief and loneliness.

Plot and composition

The demobilized Alexei Ivanov returns home by train and is in no hurry, because he has lost the habit of his family, just like his occasional companion Masha, the daughter of a space worker. Alexey spent two days with her, leaving the station in her hometown and not saying that his family was waiting for him at home.

His wife and children were waiting for Ivanov, going out to the trains every day. On the sixth day, Alexei was met by his 11-year-old son Peter, and both were dissatisfied with each other: Petya was upset by the impracticality of his father, and Alexei - by the pragmatism of his son. Ivanov's home is strange and incomprehensible: his wife is ashamed of him, like a bride, the 5-year-old youngest daughter Nastya, who does not remember her father, is accustomed to hard housework, Petrushka fulfills the duties of a grumpy owner, and does not study and play as children should.

Nastya accidentally reveals to her father that Semyon Yevseich is visiting them and sitting with the children, because his entire family was killed and he is lonely. In a night conversation with his wife, Lyuba Aleksey finds out that she cheated on him with the instructor of the regional committee of the trade union, who was affectionate with her.

The next morning, Alexey decided to go to Masha, leaving his family, but the children ran out to the move to return their father. Ivanov, who at that moment experienced forgiveness and love for his family, got off the train onto the track along which his children were running.

The story contains a tiny inserted short story - Petrushka's story about Uncle Khariton, who. returning from the war and learning that his wife Anyuta cheated on him with a handicapped invalid, he first quarreled with her, and then told her that he had also cheated with many women. And they began to live, satisfied with each other. Yes, only Khariton came up with treason, forgiving his wife. Alexey is not capable of such an act and does not tell his wife about his betrayal (perhaps not the only one).

Heroes

Alexey Ivanov is almost the most common combination of name and patronymic. For Platonov, the hero is just a man, of which there are many, a man of ordinary fate. He considers himself right in the conflict, and others guilty, and lives only for himself, without looking back at his loved ones. His fleeting relationship with Masha is justified by boredom, cold, the desire to "entertain your heart." He doesn't think about Masha being left alone, he doesn't think about her heart at all.

According to Alexei's wife Lyuba, she was looking for consolation in the only connection with a man in the entire war, her soul was drawn to him, because she was dying. Alexey is wounded: "I am also a man, not a toy." Resentment obscures his mind. He believes that he experienced much more in the war than his wife: "I fought the whole war, I saw death closer than you." He acts like a little boy, about to complain to his teenage son about his wife's betrayal.

Peter is more mature than both his father and his mother, he pacifies his parents: “We have something to do, we have to live, and you swear like you are stupid.” Alexey calls him a serviceable peasant, grandfather. Petya is really very petty. He is preoccupied with the only problem - to survive. Because of this, Nastya scolds, who peels a thick peel from potatoes, his father, in excitement, crushed the glass of a kerosene lamp. Petya takes care not only of a warm coat for his mother and is going to go to work as a fireman in a bathhouse to buy it, but also teaches Nastya about homework and reading. Even about Semyon Yevseich, he remarks to his father in everyday life that Yevseich is older (that is, he is not a rival to his father) and brings benefits.

Little Petya does not have a single childish desire. The stress of the father's departure revives the child in him, needing and calling for a father. The boy's inner confusion is conveyed by a bright detail: in a hurry, he puts on a felt boot on one leg, and a galosh on the other. Here, from Peter, he turns into Petrushka, whose image makes his father get off the train.

At the same time, the protagonist is reborn: he felt hot in his chest, "as if his heart ... had broken free." Now the main character touched life with a naked heart, in which the barrier of "pride and self-interest" had collapsed.

The images of the other men set off the character of the protagonist, their features contrast with his personality. Semyon Evseich, unlike Alexei, experienced real grief, having lost his wife and children killed in Mogilev. His attachment to other people's children and wife is also an attempt to survive. This is both the desire to benefit others (after all, the children sat alone all day in the dark), and the need to apply their tormented soul to something. Before his rebirth, Alexei cannot understand and feel sorry for his imaginary rival. But he sees even greater evil in the nameless evacuee, with whom his wife only once wanted to feel like a woman, but could not, loving Alexei.

The female narrative images are poignant. In wartime, in the patriarchal order of families, everything changes places. A boy turns into an old peasant, a warrior man turns into a capricious child who, according to Petit, lives on ready-made grubs, and a woman turns into the head of the family, a man. Lyuba learned how to do men's work at a factory, fix electric ovens for neighbors for potatoes and mend shoes for herself and children. She was unable to do one thing - to accept responsibility: "I don't know anything."
It would seem that the position of Masha, the daughter of a spaceman, is more advantageous. It is open to the whole world, free from obligations, not promised to anyone. But her spacious heart does not know how to forget people who accidentally became close to her. At the beginning of the story, Ivanov does not realize that his wife, like Masha, can love and pity many. At the end of the story, Ivanov realizes that even a physical connection may not be betrayal, that it's all about the soul.

Stylistic features

Platonov's work has no analogues in literature. His language is strange and unusual, but piercing, as if the words come from the very heart. The writer understands and takes pity on each of his heroes, justifying his actions.

Of particular importance are the details that usually speak of the inner state of the heroes, like the already mentioned felt boots and galoshes on Petrushka's feet, or Lyuba's tears mixed with the dough of her pie, or Semyon Yevseich's glasses, which Nastya wears to mend her mother's mittens, or crushed glass kerosene lamp.
Smells are of great importance to Platonov. Alexey recognizes the house as his own at the moment when he feels that its smell has not changed in four years. Masha's hair smells like fallen leaves (a common motif in Platonov's work). This smell is opposed to the smell of the house, symbolizing "again anxious life."

The speech of the heroes is full of everyday imagery, especially Petin. He persuades the fire in the oven not to burn in a shaggy way, but evenly, Nastya does not order to plan meat from potatoes so that "the food does not disappear." Interspersions in children's speech of bureaucrats show the tragedy of a country where children become old people.

Another characteristic feature of Andrei Platonov's stylistics is the description not so much of the thoughts of the heroes, who are wise in everyday life, like the reasoning about Alexei's love, but rather the feelings, movements of the "naked heart".