It was widely covered in the literature, especially during the Soviet era, since many authors shared their personal experiences and themselves experienced all the described horrors together with ordinary soldiers. Therefore, it is not surprising that at first the war, and then the post-war years were marked by the writing of a whole series of works dedicated to the feat of the Soviet people in the fierce struggle against Nazi Germany. It is impossible to pass by such books and forget about them, because they make us think about life and death, war and peace, past and present. We bring to your attention a list best booksdedicated to the Great Patriotic War, which are worth reading and rereading.

Vasil Bykov

Vasil Bykov (books are presented below) - an outstanding Soviet writer, public figure and participant of the Second World War. Probably one of the most famous authors of war novels. Bykov wrote mainly about a person during the most severe trials that befell him, and about the heroism of ordinary soldiers. Vasil Vladimirovich sang in his works the feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Below we will consider the most famous novels by this author: "Sotnikov", "Obelisk" and "Until Dawn".

"Sotnikov"

The story was written in 1968. This is another example of how described in fiction... Initially, the arbitrariness was called "Liquidation", and the plot was based on the author's meeting with a former fellow soldier, whom he considered dead. In 1976, the film "Ascent" was made on the basis of this book.

The story tells about a partisan detachment, which badly needs food and medicine. Rybak and the intellectual Sotnikov are sent for supplies, who is ill, but volunteers to go, since there were no more volunteers. Long wanderings and searches lead the partisans to the village of Lyasin, here they rest a little and get a sheep carcass. Now you can go back. But on the way back, they run into a detachment of policemen. Sotnikov is seriously wounded. Now the Fisherman must save the life of his comrade and bring the promised provisions to the camp. However, he fails, and together they fall into the hands of the Germans.

"Obelisk"

Vasil Bykov wrote a lot. The writer's books were often filmed. One of these books was the story "Obelisk". The work is built according to the type of "story within a story" and has a pronounced heroic character.

The hero of the story, whose name remains unknown, comes to the funeral of Pavel Miklashevich, a village teacher. At the commemoration, everyone remembers the deceased with a kind word, but then they talk about Frost, and everyone is silent. On the way home, the hero asks his fellow traveler what relationship some Moroz has to Miklashevich. Then he is told that Moroz was the teacher of the deceased. He treated the children like relatives, took care of them, and Miklashevich, who was oppressed by his father, took to live with him. When the war began, Moroz helped the partisans. The village was occupied by the police. Once his students, including Miklashevich, sawed down the supports of the bridge, and the police chief, along with his assistants, was in the water. The boys were caught. Frost, who had fled to the partisans by that time, surrendered to free the students. But the Nazis decided to hang both the children and their teachers. Before the execution, Moroz helped Miklashevich escape. The rest were hanged.

"Until Dawn"

Tale of 1972. As you can see, the Great Patriotic War in literature continues to be relevant even after decades. This is also confirmed by the fact that for this story Bykov was awarded the USSR State Prize. The work tells about everyday life military scouts and saboteurs. Initially, the story was written in Belarusian, and only then translated into Russian.

November 1941, the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Lieutenant of the Soviet Army Igor Ivanovsky, the protagonist of the story, commands a sabotage group. He will have to lead his comrades behind the front line - to the lands of Belarus, occupied by the German invaders. Their task is to blow up a German ammunition depot. Bykov talks about the feat of ordinary soldiers. It was they, not the staff officers, who became the force that helped win the war.

In 1975, the book was filmed. The script for the film was written by Bykov himself.

"And the dawns here are quiet ..."

The work of the Soviet and Russian writer Boris Lvovich Vasiliev. One of the most famous front-line stories largely thanks to the 1972 film adaptation of the same name. "And the dawns here are quiet ..." Boris Vasiliev wrote in 1969. The work is based on real events: during the war, soldiers serving on the Kirov railway prevented German saboteurs from blowing up the railway. Only the commander of the Soviet group survived after the fierce battle, who was awarded the medal "For Military Merit".

"And the dawns here are quiet ..." (Boris Vasiliev) - a book describing the 171st patrol in the Karelian wilderness. Here is the calculation of anti-aircraft installations. The soldiers, not knowing what to do, start drinking and messing around. Then Fyodor Vaskov, the commandant of the patrol, asks to "send non-drinkers." The command sends two squads of female anti-aircraft gunners to him. And somehow one of the newcomers notices German saboteurs in the forest.

Vaskov realizes that the Germans want to get to strategic targets and understands that they need to be intercepted here. To do this, he gathers a detachment of 5 anti-aircraft gunners and leads them to the Sinyukhina ridge through the swamps by the path he alone leads. During the campaign, it turns out that the Germans are 16 people, so he sends one of the girls for reinforcements, and he himself pursues the enemy. However, the girl does not reach her own people and dies in the swamps. Vaskov has to enter into an unequal battle with the Germans, and as a result, the four girls who remained with him perish. But nevertheless, the commandant manages to capture the enemies, and he takes them to the location of the Soviet troops.

The story describes the feat of a man who himself decides to confront the enemy and not allow him to walk with impunity on his native land. Without an order from his superiors, the protagonist himself goes into battle and takes 5 volunteers with him - the girls volunteered themselves.

"There was a war tomorrow"

The book is a kind of biography of the author of this work, Boris Lvovich Vasiliev. The story begins with the writer telling about his childhood, that he was born in Smolensk, his father was the commander of the Red Army. And before becoming at least someone in this life, choosing his profession and deciding on a place in society, Vasiliev became a soldier, like many of his peers.

"Tomorrow Was the War" - a work about the pre-war period. Its main characters are still very young students of the 9th grade, the book tells about their growing up, love and friendship, idealistic youth, which turned out to be too short due to the outbreak of the war. The work tells about the first serious confrontation and choice, about the collapse of hopes, about the inevitable growing up. And all this against the backdrop of an impending painful threat that cannot be stopped or avoided. And in a year, these boys and girls will find themselves in the heat of a fierce battle, in which many of them are destined to burn. However, in their short life, they will learn what honor, duty, friendship and truth are.

"Hot Snow"

A novel by the front-line writer Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev. The Great Patriotic War in the literature of this writer is presented especially widely and became the main motive of all his work. But the most famous work Bondareva is precisely the novel "Hot Snow", written in 1970. The story is set in December 1942 near Stalingrad. The novel is based on real events - the attempt of the German army to unblock the sixth army of Paulus, surrounded at Stalingrad. This battle was decisive in the battle for Stalingrad. The book was filmed by G. Egiazarov.

The novel begins with the fact that two artillery platoons under the command of Davlatyan and Kuznetsov will have to gain a foothold on the Myshkov River, and then hold back the advance of German tanks rushing to the rescue of Paulus's army.

After the first wave of the offensive, Lieutenant Kuznetsov's platoon is left with one gun and three fighters. Nevertheless, the soldiers continue to repel the onslaught of enemies during the day.

"The fate of man"

"The fate of man" - school work, which is studied within the framework of the theme "The Great Patriotic War in Literature". The story was written by the famous Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov in 1957.

The work describes the life of a simple chauffeur Andrei Sokolov, who had to leave his family and home with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. However, the hero did not have time to get to the front, as he immediately gets wounded and finds himself in Nazi captivity, and then in a concentration camp. Thanks to his courage, Sokolov manages to survive the captivity, and at the end of the war he manages to escape. Having got to his own people, he gets a vacation and goes to his small homeland, where he learns that his family died, only his son survived, who went to war. Andrei returns to the front and learns that his son was shot by a sniper on the last day of the war. However, this is not the end of the hero's story, Sholokhov shows that even having lost everything, one can find new hope and gain strength in order to live on.

"Brest Fortress"

The book of the famous and journalist was written in 1954. For this work, the author was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1964. And this is not surprising, because the book is the result of Smirnov's ten-year work on the history of the defense of the Brest Fortress.

The work "Brest Fortress" (Sergei Smirnov) is a part of history itself. To write literally bit by bit, he collected information about the defenders, wishing that their good names and honor were not forgotten. Many of the heroes were taken prisoner, for which after the end of the war they were convicted. And Smirnov wanted to protect them. The book contains many memories and testimonies of the participants in the battles, which fills the book with true tragedy, full of courageous and decisive actions.

"The Living and the Dead"

The Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century describes the life of ordinary people who, by the will of fate, turned out to be heroes and traitors. This cruel time grinded many, and only a few managed to slip between the millstones of history.

"The Living and the Dead" is the first book of the famous trilogy of the same name by Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov. The second two parts of the epic are called "Soldiers are not born" and "The last summer". The first part of the trilogy was published in 1959.

Many critics consider the work one of the brightest and most talented examples of the description of the Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century. At the same time, the epic novel is not a historiographic work or a chronicle of the war. The characters in the book are fictional people, although they have certain prototypes.

"War has not a woman's face"

The literature on the Great Patriotic War usually describes the exploits of men, sometimes forgetting that women also contributed to the common victory. But the book of the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich, one might say, restores historical justice. The writer has collected in her work the stories of those women who took part in the Great Patriotic War. The title of the book became the first lines of the novel "War under the Roofs" by A. Adamovich.

"Not on the lists"

Another story, the theme of which was the Great Patriotic War. In Soviet literature, Boris Vasiliev, whom we have already mentioned above, was quite famous. But he gained this fame precisely thanks to his military work, one of which is the story "Does not appear on the lists."

The book was written in 1974. Its action takes place in the very Brest fortress, besieged by the fascist invaders. Lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov, the protagonist of the work, ends up in this fortress before the start of the war - he arrived on the night of June 21-22. And at dawn the battle already begins. Nikolai has the opportunity to leave here, since his name is not in any military list, but he decides to stay and defend his homeland to the end.

"Babi Yar"

Anatoly Kuznetsov published the documentary "Babi Yar" in 1965. The work is based on the childhood memories of the author, who during the war ended up in the territory occupied by the Germans.

The novel begins with a small author's introduction, a short introductory chapter and several chapters, which are combined into three parts. The first part tells about the withdrawal of the retreating Soviet troops from Kiev, the collapse of the South-Western Front and the beginning of the occupation. Also included were scenes of the execution of Jews, the explosions of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and Khreshchatyk.

The second part is completely devoted to the occupation life of 1941-1943, the hijacking of Russians and Ukrainians as workers to Germany, about hunger, about clandestine production, about Ukrainian nationalists. The final part of the novel tells the story of the liberation of the Ukrainian land from the German invaders, the flight of the police, the battle for the city, and the uprising in the Babyn Yar concentration camp.

"The Story of a Real Man"

The literature about the Great Patriotic War also includes the work of another Russian writer who went through the war as a war journalist, Boris Polevoy. The story was written in 1946, that is, almost immediately after the end of hostilities.

The plot is based on an event in the life of a Soviet military pilot Alexei Meresiev. Its prototype was real character, hero Soviet Union Alexey Maresyev, who, like his hero, was a pilot. The story tells of how he was shot down in a battle with the Germans and seriously wounded. As a result of the accident, he lost both legs. However, his willpower was so great that he managed to return to the ranks of Soviet pilots.

The work was awarded the Stalin Prize. The story is imbued with humanistic and patriotic ideas.

"Madonna of the rationed bread"

Maria Glushko is a Crimean Soviet writer who went to the front at the beginning of the Second World War. Her book "Madonna of the Rice Bread" is about the feat of all mothers who had to survive the Great Patriotic War. The heroine of the work is a very young girl Nina, whose husband goes to war, and at the insistence of her father she goes to evacuation to Tashkent, where her stepmother and brother are waiting for her. The heroine is in the last stages of pregnancy, but this will not protect her from the flow of human troubles. And in a short time, Nina will have to learn what was previously hidden from her behind the well-being and tranquility of pre-war existence: people live so differently in the country, what life principles, values, attitudes they have, how they differ from her, who grew up in ignorance and wealth. But the main thing that the heroine has to do is to give birth to a child and save him from all the misfortunes of the war.

"Vasily Terkin"

Such characters as the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, literature painted the reader in different ways, but the most memorable, cheerful and charismatic, undoubtedly, was Vasily Terkin.

This poem by Alexander Tvardovsky, which began to be published in 1942, immediately received popular love and recognition. The work was written and published throughout the Second World War, the last part was published in 1945. The main task of the poem was to maintain the fighting spirit of the soldiers, and Tvardovsky successfully completed this task, largely thanks to the image of the protagonist. The brave and cheerful Terkin, who is always ready for battle, won the hearts of many ordinary soldiers. He is the soul of the unit, a merry fellow and a joker, and in battle - an example to follow, resourceful and always achieving his goal warrior. Even being on the verge of death, he continues to fight and already enters into a fight with Death itself.

The work includes a prologue, 30 chapters of the main content, divided into three parts, and an epilogue. Each chapter is a short front-line story from the life of the protagonist.

Thus, we see that the literature of the Soviet period widely covered the exploits of the Great Patriotic War. We can say that this is one of the main themes of the mid and second half of the 20th century for Russian and Soviet writers. This is due to the fact that the whole country was involved in a battle with the German invaders. Even those who were not at the front worked tirelessly in the rear, providing soldiers with ammunition and provisions.

- In the book - not a poster-glossy picture of the war. The front-line soldier Astafyev shows the whole horror of the war, all that our soldiers had to go through, endure both from the Germans and from their own leadership, which often did not value human life. The piercingly tragic, terrible work does not belittle, as some believe, but on the contrary, even more elevates the feat of our soldiers, who won in such inhuman conditions.

At one time, the work caused mixed responses. This novel is an attempt to tell the whole truth about the war, to say that the war was so inhuman, tough (and on both sides) that it is impossible to write a novel about it. One can only create powerful fragments that approach the very essence of war.

Astafyev, in a sense, answered a question that is often heard both in criticism and in readers' reflections: Why do we not have "War and Peace" about the Great Patriotic War? It was impossible to write about that war of such a novel: this truth is too heavy. The war cannot be varnished, covered with gloss, it is impossible to distract from its bloody essence. Astafiev, a man who went through the war, was against the approach in which it becomes the subject of an ideological struggle.

Pasternak has a definition that a book is a piece of a steaming conscience, and nothing else. Astafiev's novel deserves this definition.

The novel caused and is causing controversy. This suggests that in the literature on war, the point can never be put, and the controversy will continue.

"The squad has left." The story of Leonid Borodin

Borodin was a staunch opponent of the Soviet regime. But at the same time - a patriot, a nationalist in good sense this word. He is interested in the position of those people who did not accept either Hitler or Stalin, or Soviet power, or fascist power. Hence the agonizing question: how can these people find the truth during the war? It seems to me that he very accurately described in his story the Soviet people - charming, incredibly attractive to the reader - they are communists, they believe in Stalin, but they have so much sincerity and honesty; and those who do not accept Stalin.

The action takes place in the occupied territory, the partisan detachment must break out of the encirclement, and only a person who began to work as a German headman and who used to be the owner of the estate where the action takes place can help them. And in the end he helps the Soviet soldiers, but for him this is not an easy choice ...

These three works - Astafiev, Vladimov and Borodin are remarkable in that they show a very complex picture of the war that cannot be reduced to a single plane. And in all three, the main thing is love and the knowledge that our cause was right, but not at the level of primitive slogans, this rightness is hard-won.

"Life and Fate" by Vasily Grossman.

- This novel gives a completely realistic description of the war and at the same time, not just "everyday sketches." This is a cast from society and the era.

Stories by Vasil Bykov

- Front-line soldier Bykov talks about the war without unnecessary emotions. Another writer was one of the first to show the invaders, the Germans, not as abstract monsters, but as - ordinary people, in peacetime possessing the same professions as the Soviet soldiers, and this makes the situation even more tragic.

Works by Bulat Okudzhava

- The book of the front-line soldier Okudzhava "Be healthy, schoolboy!" attracts with an unusual, intelligent look at the horrors of war.

— The touching story of Bulat Okudzhava "Be healthy, schoolboy!" It was written by a genuine patriot who forged his passport: he increased his age to go to the front, where he became a sapper, was wounded ... In Soviet times, the story stood out for its sincerity, frankness and poetry against the background of many ideological cliches. This is one of the best fiction about the war. And if he has already started talking about Okudzhava, then what are his soulful and heartbreaking songs about the war. What is "Oh, war, what have you done, vile ..."!

Military prose and poetry by Bulat Okudzhava is associated with screenplays. Theme: small man and war. A man walking forward, not sparing “neither bullets nor grenades” and ready “not to stand up for the price” - to give his life for victory, although he really wants to return ...

Tale: "Be healthy, schoolboy!" "Music lessons". And, of course, poems that everyone knows. I will give only four, maybe not the most frequently performed ones.

Jazz players

S. Rassadin

Jazz players went to the militia
civilian without throwing off his vestments.
Trombones and tap dance kings
untrained soldiers went.

Clarinets princes, like princes of blood
the saxophone masters walked,
and, besides, there were sorcerers of drumsticks
creaking scaffolds of war.

To replace all the worries left behind
the only one ripe ahead,
and the violinists lay down to the machine guns,
and machine guns fought on the chest.

But what to do, what to do if
attacks were in vogue, not songs?
Who could then take their courage into account,
when did they have the honor to die?

The first battles have hardly died down,
they lay side by side. No movement.
In pre-war sewing costumes,
as if pretending and joking.

Their ranks were thinning and decreasing.
They were killed, they were forgotten.
And yet, to the music of the Earth
they brought them into a bright remembrance,

when on a patch of the globe
under the May march, so solemn,
beat off heels while dancing, couple
rest their souls. For the rest.

Don't believe the war, boy
do not believe: she is sad.
She is sad, boy
like boots, cramped.

Your dashing horses
can't do anything:
you are all in full view,
all the bullets in one.
* * *

A rider rode on a horse.

Artillery screamed.
The tank was shooting. The soul was burning.
The gallows in the threshing floor ...
Illustration for the war.

I certainly won't die:
you will bandage my wounds
you will say an affectionate word.
Everything will be delayed by morning ...
Illustration for good.

The world is mixed with blood.
This is our last shore.
Maybe someone won't believe -
don't break the thread ...
Illustration for love.

Oh, I somehow can't believe that I, brother, fought.
Or maybe it was a schoolboy who drew me:
i swing my arms, I bitch my legs,
i hope to survive, and I want to win.

Ah, I somehow can't believe that I, brother, killed.
Or maybe I just went to the cinema in the evening?
And I did not have enough weapons, destroying someone else's life,
and my hands are clean, and my soul is righteous.

Ah, I somehow can't believe that I didn't fall in battle.
Or maybe, shot, I've been living in paradise for a long time,
and bushes there, and groves there, and curls on the shoulders ...
And this beautiful life only dreams at night.

By the way, Bulat Shalvovich's birthday is May 9. His legacy is a peaceful spring sky: war must never repeat itself:

"Again spring in this world -

Take your overcoat, let's go home! "

P.S. Miraculously Bulat Shalvovich was baptized just before the end of his earthly life. In baptism he is John. Kingdom of heaven!

Slaughterhouse Five, or Children's Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut

- If we talk about the Great Patriotic War as part of the Second World War. The autobiographical novel of the American writer is about the meaninglessness and soullessness of war.

“I fought in a fighter plane. Those who took the first blow. 1941-1942 "and" I fought with the aces of the Luftwaffe. To replace the fallen. 1943-1945 "Artem Drabkin

Many decades have alienated us from the terrible events of 1941-45, but the topic of human suffering during the Great Patriotic War will never lose its relevance. This must always be remembered so that such a tragedy will never happen again.

A special role in preservation belongs to writers, who, together with the people, experienced all the horror of wartime and were able to truthfully reflect it in their works. The masters of the word completely crossed out the famous words: "When the guns speak, the muses are silent."

Works of literature about the war: main periods, genres, heroes

The terrible news of June 22, 1941 echoed painfully in the hearts of all Soviet people, and writers and poets were the first to respond to it. For more than two decades, the topic of war became one of the main topics in Soviet literature.

The first works on the theme of war were imbued with pain for the fate of the country and were filled with determination to defend freedom. Many writers immediately went to the front as correspondents and from there chronicled the events, in hot pursuit created their works. At first, these were operational, short genres: poems, short stories, journalistic essays and articles. They were eagerly awaited and re-read both in the rear and at the front.

Over time, works about the war became more voluminous, these were already stories, plays, novels, the heroes of which were strong-minded people: ordinary soldiers and officers, workers of fields and factories. After the Victory, a rethinking of the past begins: the authors of chronicle works tried to convey the scale of the historical tragedy.

In the late 50s - early 60s, works on the theme of war were written by "junior" front-line writers who had been on the front line and passed all the hardships of soldier's life. At this time, the so-called "lieutenant's prose" appears about the fate of yesterday's boys who suddenly found themselves in the face of death.

"Get up, the country is huge ..."

Perhaps, in Russia you will not find a person who would not recognize the words of appeal and the melody of the "Holy War". This song was the first response to the terrible news and became the anthem of the warring people for all four years. On the third day of the war, poems were heard on the radio. A week later, they were already performed to the music of A. Alexandrov. To the sounds of this song, filled with extraordinary patriotism and as if escaping from the soul of the Russian people, the first echelons went to the front. One of them had another famous poet - A. Surkov. It is he who owns the no less famous "Song of the Brave" and "In the Dugout".

The poets K. Simonov ("Do you remember, Alyosha, the roads of the Smolensk region ...", "Wait for me"), Yu. Drunin ("Zinka", "And where suddenly the forces come from ..."), A. Tvardovsky ("I was killed under Rzhev ") and many others. Their works about the war are imbued with the pain of the people, anxiety for the fate of the country and an unshakable faith in victory. And also warm memories of the home and loved ones who stayed there, faith in happiness and in the power of love that can create a miracle. The soldiers knew their poems by heart and recited (or sang) in short minutes between battles. This instilled hope and helped to survive in inhuman conditions.

"The Book of the Fighter"

A special place among the works created during the war is occupied by A. Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin".

She is a direct testimony to everything that an ordinary Russian soldier had to endure.

Main character - this is a collective image in which all the best qualities of the Soviet soldier are embodied: courage and courage, readiness to stand to the end, fearlessness, humanity and at the same time an extraordinary cheerfulness that persists even in the face of death. The author himself went through the entire war as a correspondent, so he knew well what a person saw and felt in the war. Tvardovsky's works define the "measure of personality", as the poet himself said, her spiritual world, which cannot be broken in the most difficult situations.

"This is us, Lord!" - confession of a former prisoner of war

He fought at the front and was in captivity. Experienced in the camps and became the basis of the story, begun in 1943. The main character, Sergei Kostrov, talks about the real torments of hell, through which he and his comrades had to go through, who were captured by the Nazis (it is no coincidence that one of the camps was called "Death Valley"). People who are exhausted physically and spiritually, but who have not lost faith and humanity even in the most terrible moments of life, appear on the pages of the work.

Much has been written about the war, but few writers under the totalitarian regime talked about the fate of the prisoners of war. K. Vorobyov managed to get out of the tests prepared for him with a clear conscience, faith in justice and immense love for the Motherland. His heroes are endowed with the same qualities. And although the story was not completed, V. Astafyev rightly noted that in this form it should be "on the same shelf with the classics."

"In war you really recognize people ..."

The story "In the trenches of Stalingrad" by the front-line writer V. Nekrasov also became a real sensation. Printed in 1946, it impressed many with its extraordinary realism in its depiction of war. For former soldiers, it became a memory of the terrible, unveiled events that they had to endure. Those who had not been to the front re-read the story and were amazed at the frankness with which they told about the terrible battles for Stalingrad in 1942. The main thing that the author of the work about the war of 1941-1945 noted was that she revealed the true feelings of people and showed their real value.

The strength of the Russian character is a step towards victory

12 years after the great victory, M. Sholokhov's story came out. Its name - "The Fate of a Man" - is symbolic: the life of an ordinary chauffeur full of trials and inhuman suffering is going on before us. From the very first days of the war A. Sokolov finds himself in the war. For 4 years he went through the agony of captivity, more than once walked on the verge of death. All his actions are evidence of unshakable love for the Motherland, endurance. Returning home, he saw only ashes - this is all that remains of his house and family. But here, too, the hero was able to resist the blow: little Vanyusha, whom he took in, breathed life into him and gave him hope. So caring for the orphan boy dulled the pain of his own grief.

The story "The Fate of Man", like other works about the war, showed the true strength and beauty of the Russian man, the ability to resist any obstacles.

Is it easy to remain human

V. Kondratyev is a front-line writer. His story "Sashka", published in 1979, is from the so-called lieutenant prose. It shows the life of a simple soldier in hot battles near Rzhev without embellishment. Despite the fact that he is still quite a youth - only two months at the front, he was able to remain a man and not lose his dignity. Overcoming the fear of impending death, dreaming of getting out of the hell in which he found himself, he does not think about himself for a minute when it comes to the lives of other people. His humanism is manifested even in his attitude towards an unarmed German prisoner, at whom his conscience does not allow him to shoot. Works of art about the war, like "Sashka", tells about simple and courageous guys who did hard things in the trenches and in difficult relationships with others and thus decided the fate of their own and the entire people in this bloody war.

Remember to live ...

Many poets and writers have not returned from the battlefields. Others went through the entire war side by side with soldiers. They witnessed how people behave in a critical situation. Some humble themselves or use any means to survive. Others are willing to die but not lose their self-esteem.

The works about the war of 1941-1945 are a comprehension of everything seen, an attempt to show the courage and heroism of the people who stood up to defend their Fatherland, a reminder to all living beings of the suffering and destruction that the struggle for power and world domination brings.

These books are about the exploits of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, about death, love and hope, about sorrow and joy, about the desire to live and self-sacrifice for the sake of others - in a word, about what this war was like and what we had to pay for it.

Valentin Rasputin. "Live and Remember"

The story takes place in 1945, in the last months of the war, when Andrei Guskov returns to his native village after being wounded and hospitalized - but it just so happens that he returns as a deserter. Andrei just really did not want to die, he fought a lot and saw many deaths. Only his wife Nastena knows about his act, she is now forced to hide her fugitive husband even from her relatives. She visits him from time to time at his hideout, and it is soon revealed that she is pregnant. Now she is doomed to shame and torment - in the eyes of the whole village, she will become a walking, unfaithful wife. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading that Guskov has not died or gone missing, but is hiding, and they are beginning to look for him. Rasputin's story about serious spiritual metamorphoses, about the moral and philosophical problems faced by the heroes, was first published in 1974.

Boris Vasiliev. "Not on the lists"

The time of action is the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the place is the Brest Fortress besieged by the German invaders. Along with other Soviet soldiers there is also Nikolai Pluzhnikov, a 19-year-old new lieutenant, a graduate of a military school, who was assigned to command a platoon. He arrived in the evening of June 21, and in the morning the war begins. Nikolai, who was not included in the military lists, has every right to leave the fortress and take his fiancée away from trouble, but he remains to fulfill his civic duty. The fortress, bleeding, losing lives, heroically held out until the spring of 1942, and Pluzhnikov became its last warrior-defender, whose heroism amazed his enemies. The story is dedicated to the memory of all unknown and nameless soldiers.

Vasily Grossman. "Life and Fate"

The manuscript of the epic was completed by Grossman in 1959, was immediately declared anti-Soviet because of the harsh criticism of Stalinism and totalitarianism, and was confiscated in 1961 by the KGB. In our homeland, the book was published only in 1988, and then with abbreviations. In the center of the novel is the Battle of Stalingrad and the Shaposhnikov family, as well as the fate of their relatives and friends. There are many heroes in the novel, whose lives are somehow connected with each other. These are fighters who are directly involved in the battle, and ordinary people who are not at all ready for the troubles of war. All of them manifest themselves in different ways in war conditions. The novel turned a lot in the mass perceptions of the war and the sacrifices that the people had to make in an effort to win. This is a revelation, if you will. It is large-scale in terms of coverage of events, large-scale in freedom and courage of thought, in true patriotism.

Konstantin Simonov. "The Living and the Dead"

The trilogy ("The Living and the Dead", "Soldiers are Not Born", "The Last Summer") chronologically covers the period from the beginning of the war to July 44, and in general - the people's path to the Great Victory. In his epic, Simonov describes the events of the war as if he sees them through the eyes of his main characters Serpilin and Sintsov. The first part of the novel almost completely corresponds to Simonov's personal diary (he served as a war correspondent throughout the war), published under the title "100 days of war." The second part of the trilogy describes the preparation period and the Battle of Stalingrad itself - a turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The third part is devoted to our offensive on the Belorussian front. The war tests the heroes of the novel for humanity, honesty and courage. Several generations of readers, including the most biased of them - those who themselves went through the war, recognize this work as a great, truly unique, comparable to the lofty examples of Russian classical literature.

Mikhail Sholokhov. "They fought for the Motherland"

The writer worked on the novel from 1942 to 69. The first chapters were written in Kazakhstan, where Sholokhov came from the front to visit an evacuated family. The theme of the novel is incredibly tragic in itself - the retreat of Soviet troops on the Don in the summer of 1942. Responsibility to the party and the people, as it was then understood, could induce smoothing out of sharp corners, but Mikhail Sholokhov, as a great writer, openly wrote about unsolvable problems, destructive mistakes, chaos in the frontline deployment, about the absence of a "strong hand" capable of to clean up. The retreating military units, passing through the Cossack villages, felt, of course, not welcome. It was not understanding and mercy that fell to their lot on the part of the inhabitants, but indignation, contempt and anger. And Sholokhov, having dragged an ordinary person through the hell of war, showed how his character crystallizes in the process of testing. Shortly before his death, Sholokhov burned the manuscript of the novel, and only individual pieces were published. Is there a connection between this fact and the strange version that Andrei Platonov helped Sholokhov write this work at the very beginning, is not even important. The important thing is that there is another great book in Russian literature.

Victor Astafiev. "Cursed and Killed"

Astafiev worked on this novel in two books ("Devil's Pit" and "Bridgehead") from 1990 to 1995, but never finished it. The title of the work, covering two episodes from the Great Patriotic War: the training of recruits near Berdsk and the crossing of the Dnieper and the battle to hold the bridgehead, was given by a line of one of the Old Believers' texts - “it was written that everyone who sows confusion on earth, wars and fratricide, they will be cursed and killed by God. " Viktor Petrovich Astafyev, a man by no means a court nature, in 1942 volunteered for the front. What he saw and experienced melted into deep reflections on the war as a “crime against reason.” The novel begins in the quarantine camp of the reserve regiment near the Berdsk station. There are recruits Leshka Shestakov, Kolya Ryndin, Ashot Vaskonyan, Petka Musikov and Leha Buldakov ... they face hunger and love and reprisals and ... most importantly, they face a war.

Vladimir Bogomolov. "In August 44th"

Published in 1974, the novel is based on real-life documented events. Even if you have not read this book in any of the fifty languages \u200b\u200binto which it has been translated, then everyone probably watched the film with the actors Mironov, Baluev and Galkin. But the cinema, believe me, will not replace this polyphonic book, which gives a sharp drive, a sense of danger, a full platoon and at the same time a sea of \u200b\u200binformation about the "Soviet state and military machine" and about the everyday life of secret services.

So, the summer of 1944. Belarus has already been liberated, but somewhere on its territory a group of spies is broadcasting, transmitting strategic information to the enemies about Soviet troops preparing a grandiose offensive. A detachment of scouts led by an officer from SMERSH was sent to search for spies and radio direction finding.

Bogomolov is a front-line soldier himself, so he was terribly meticulous in describing the details, and in particular, the work of counterintelligence (the Soviet reader learned a lot from him for the first time). Vladimir Osipovich simply wiped out several directors trying to film this exciting novel, he “nailed” the then editor-in-chief of “Komsomolskaya Pravda” for inaccuracy in the article, proving that it was he who first told about the Macedonian shooting technique. He is a delightful writer, and his book, without the slightest prejudice to its historicity and ideology, has become a real blockbuster in the best sense.

Anatoly Kuznetsov. "Babi Yar"

A documentary novel written from childhood memories. Kuznetsov was born in 1929 in Kiev and with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, his family did not manage to evacuate. And for two years, 1941 - 1943, he saw how the Soviet troops retreated destructively, then, already being in the occupation, he saw atrocities, nightmares (for example, sausage was made from human flesh) and mass executions in the Nazi concentration camp in Babi Yar. It is terrible to realize, but this "former in the occupation" stigma laid down for his whole life. He brought the manuscript of his truthful, inconvenient, scary and poignant novel to the magazine Yunost during the thaw, in 65th. But there the frankness seemed excessive, and the book was redrawn, throwing out some parts, so to speak, "anti-Soviet", and inserting ideologically verified ones. The very name of the novel Kuznetsov managed to defend by a miracle. Things got to the point that the writer began to fear arrest for anti-Soviet propaganda. Kuznetsov then simply shoved the sheets into glass jars and buried them in the forest near Tula

In all the stories of the Belarusian writer (and he mostly wrote stories), the action takes place during a war, in which he himself was, and the focus of the meaning is the moral choice of a person in a tragic situation. Fear, love, betrayal, sacrifice, nobility and baseness - all this is mixed in different characters by Bykov. The story "Sotnikov" tells about two partisans who were captured by the police, and how, in the end, one of them hangs the other in complete spiritual baseness. Larisa Shepitko made the film "Ascent" based on this story. In the poveta "The Dead Doesn't Hurt" the wounded lieutenant is sent to the rear, ordered to escort three German prisoners. Then they stumble upon a German tank unit, and in a shootout the lieutenant loses both prisoners and his companion, and he himself is wounded again in the leg. Nobody wants to believe his message about the Germans in the rear. In "Alpine Ballad" the Russian prisoner of war Ivan and the Italian Julia escaped from the Nazi concentration camp. Pursued by the Germans, tormented by cold and hunger, Ivan and Julia draw closer. After the war, the Italian señora will write a letter to Ivan's fellow villagers, in which she will tell about the feat of their countryman and about the three days of their love.

The famous book, written by Granin in collaboration with Adamovich, is called the book of truth. The first time it was published in a magazine in Moscow, the book was published in Lenizdat only in 1984, although it was written back in the 77th. It was forbidden to publish the "Blockade Book" in Leningrad as long as the city was headed by the first secretary of the regional committee, Romanov. Daniil Granin called the 900 days of the blockade "an epic of human suffering." The pages of this stunning book seem to revive the memories and torments of emaciated people in a besieged city. It is based on the diaries of hundreds of blockade soldiers, including the records of the deceased boy Yura Ryabinkin, the scientist-historian Knyazev and other people. The book contains blockade photographs and documents from the archives of the city and the Granin fund.

The theme of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) became one of the main topics in Soviet literature. Many Soviet writers were directly involved in hostilities on the front lines, someone served as a war correspondent, someone fought in a partisan detachment ... Such iconic authors of the 20th century as Sholokhov, Simonov, Grossman, Ehrenburg, Astafiev and many others left us amazing evidence. Each of them had their own war and their own vision of what happened. Someone wrote about pilots, someone about partisans, someone about hero children, someone documentaries, and someone art books... They left terrible memories of those fatal events for the country.

This testimony is especially important for today's teenagers and children, who should definitely read these books. Memory cannot be bought, it can either not be lost, or lost, or restored. And it's better not to lose. Never! And don't forget about the victory.

We decided to make a list of the TOP-25 of the most remarkable novels and stories by Soviet writers.

• Ales Adamovich: "The Punishers"
• Victor Astafiev: "Cursed and Killed"
• Boris Vasiliev: ""
• Boris Vasiliev: "I was not on the list"
• Vladimir Bogomolov: "The Moment of Truth (In August forty-fourth)"
• Yuri Bondarev: "Hot Snow"
• Yuri Bondarev: "The battalions are asking for fire"
• Konstantin Vorobyov: "Killed near Moscow"
• Vasil Bykov: "Sotnikov"
• Vasil Bykov: "Until Dawn"
• Oles Gonchar: "Standard Bearers"
• Daniil Granin: "My Lieutenant"
• Vasily Grossman: "For a just cause"
• Vasily Grossman: "Life and Fate"
• Emmanuil Kazakevich: "Star"
• Emmanuil Kazakevich: "Spring on the Oder"
• Valentin Kataev: "Son of the Regiment"
• Viktor Nekrasov: "In the trenches of Stalingrad"
• Vera Panova: "Satellites"
• Fyodor Panferov: "In the land of the defeated"
• Valentin Pikul: "Requiem for the PQ-17 caravan"
• Anatoly Rybakov: "Children of the Arbat"
• Konstantin Simonov: "The Living and the Dead"
• Mikhail Sholokhov: "They fought for the Motherland"
• Ilya Ehrenburg: "The Tempest"

More about the Great Patriotic War The Great Patriotic War was the bloodiest event in world history, which claimed the lives of millions of people. Almost every Russian family has veterans, front-line soldiers, blockade soldiers, people who survived the occupation or evacuation to the rear, this leaves an indelible mark on the entire nation.

The Second World War was the final part of World War II, which rolled like a heavy roller throughout the European part of the Soviet Union. June 22, 1941 became its starting point - on this day, German and allied troops began bombing our territories, launching the implementation of the "Barbarossa Plan". Until November 18, 1942, the entire Baltic region, Ukraine and Belarus were occupied, Leningrad was blockaded for 872 days, and the troops continued to rush into the interior of the country to capture its capital. Soviet commanders and military were able to stop the offensive at the cost of heavy casualties both in the army and among the local population. From the occupied territories, the Germans drove the population into slavery en masse, distributed Jews to concentration camps, where, in addition to unbearable living and working conditions, various kinds of research on people were practiced, resulting in many deaths.

In 1942-1943, Soviet factories evacuated deep into the rear were able to increase production, which allowed the army to launch a counteroffensive and push the front line to the western border of the country. The key event during this period was the Battle of Stalingrad, in which the victory of the Soviet Union was a turning point that changed the existing balance of military forces.

In 1943-1945, the Soviet army launched an offensive, recapturing the occupied territories of the right-bank Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. In the same period, a partisan movement flared up in the not yet liberated territories, in which many local residents took part, including women and children. The ultimate goal of the offensive was Berlin and the final defeat of the enemy armies, this happened late in the evening on May 8, 1945, when the act of surrender was signed.

Among the front-line soldiers and defenders of the Motherland were many key Soviet writers - Sholokhov, Grossman, Ehrenburg, Simonov and others. Later they will write books and novels, leaving to their descendants their vision of that war in the images of heroes - children and adults, soldiers and partisans. All this today allows our contemporaries to remember the terrible price of a peaceful sky over their heads, which was paid by our people.