Alexander Tvardovsky, "Vasily Turkin": a genre, a concise

One of the most famous works of not only domestic, but also world literature is the work of Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin". The genre of this work is a poem. It was very popular among readers and is now considered an excellent example of military lyrics.

On the creativity of the writer

Alexander Tvardovsky (1910-1971) came from a simple village peasant family. Already at the age of fifteen, he began to write small poems in a local newspaper. The famous poet M. Isakovsky approved his works and became the tutor of the future famous author. In the 1930s, Tvardovsky wrote several poems and published a collection of poems. Indicative is the fact that, despite the fact that his family and relatives suffered during the collectivization, Alexander Tvardovsky in several of his works depicted the party politics in the village in a very positive light. Before the war began, he worked in a Leningrad newspaper, where he first published his first short poems about the subsequently famous Vasily Terkin. When the hostilities began, the poet went to the front and for all the war years gradually created his most famous work, which brought him the all-Union glory.

Creature

One of the most famous works of military subjects is "Vasily Terkin." The genre of this work corresponded to the idea of the author: to create a genuinely popular hero, which would be understandable and accessible to everyone. Therefore, he wrote his work as a poem about a fighter, a simple soldier who went through the whole war. Despite the fact that there are no specifics in it, nevertheless some battles are guessed in the text: the retreat of Soviet troops at the beginning of the war, the battle on the Volga, the Dnieper. The first chapters were published in the newspaper of the Western Front and enjoyed immense popularity among readers.

Features

The work of Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin", whose genre was, in principle, traditional for the poet, despite criticism of party censorship, gained such fame due to the fact that the author chose not his representatives of command or party leadership as his main hero, but the most ordinary person in the image Which every fighter of the Soviet army, probably, could recognize himself. Terkin is a collective image of soldiers, and for good reason the author always emphasizes the typical character of this hero, his recognizability.

The composition "Vasily Terkin", whose genre allowed the poet to easily and easily express his thoughts on paper, is written in an accessible language. Tvardovsky was not without reason writing his work as a poem. The fact is that this genre assumes the presence of lyric-epic motives and a serious narrative in verse form. And the work in question is really epic in its spirit, as it conveys the spirit and spirit of not only the soldiers of the Soviet army, but the whole people during the war.

Folk motives

The genre chosen by the author is not accidental. Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" is close in its language, sound and spirit of folklore, and, as is known, this poetic form originated exactly as a folk epic song, as a kind of legend, a legend about some heroic event. And the author fully follows this principle: he, as it were, deliberately refuses from literary and linguistic tricks and expresses his thought in an extremely simple way, in a language similar to the one in which ancient song poems were written at the time. This form allowed him to borrow a lot from folk speech. Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" follows traditional folklore motives. There are a lot of ditties, sayings, proverbs in it, and some statements and whole expressions from this work, in turn, became phraseologicalisms, which indicates the highest degree of popularity of the hero.

Composition

The poem "Vasily Terkin", whose content essentially represents the reproduction of military life, became so dear to the reader precisely because she paints very warmly and touchingly the usual pictures of difficult wartime. The work consists of thirty chapters, the author's prologue and the epilogue; However, the poet immediately at the very beginning stipulates that his book has neither a beginning nor an end. Such an idea continues the theme he had previously set out about the infinity of time, about the long road, about life and death. This gives a special philosophical meaning to the work, forcing the reader to think about fate, about common misfortune, about the hardships of war. The chapter "Crossing" is fairly recognized by most critics as the main and central part of the whole work.

Content

Each passage is dedicated to an episode from the life of a beloved hero. And the author does not focus on depicting heroic exploits of his character, on the contrary, he often shows it in a simple atmosphere, during periods of calm, during transitions, in parking lots and so on. The theme of the poem "Vasily Terkin" is a depiction of the life of a simple soldier, who, despite the horrors of the war, did not lose optimism and believes in victory. Even in the most difficult circumstances, he never faints, and so fell in love with the reader.

The most significant parts of the work are the following: the description of the heroic deed of Terkin during the crossing, his battle with Death, the character's image on the pass, the episode with the downed plane, the hero's dinner with the old soldier. In these scenes the author seeks to show his character from different sides: in each of these chapters he appears before the readers in recognizable situations, such as through which thousands of Soviet soldiers passed.

Plot

Here, Terkin swam across the icy river in order to convey an important message about the location of the enemy and the actions of the Soviet troops. However, the author does not emphasize the heroism of this act, on the contrary, he describes this scene in such a way that the reader understands that any other soldier would have acted in the same place as Terkin. In this description, as, indeed, in the entire poem, the author's voice is distinctly heard, which seems to be invisibly present in the scene described, gives its judgments, comments to what is happening, and this gives the narrative authenticity and truthfulness.

In general, the figure of Tvardovsky himself is guessed in the narrator: he periodically enters into a dialogue with his character, addresses him with various questions, expresses his sympathy or admires him. In the chapter "At a halt," one feels a particularly warm attitude of the poet to his hero. The author depicts Terkin in the most usual and recognizable situation, on a soldier's holiday, with an accordion in his hands. Perhaps, this image of the character was especially liked by the readers, as it goes back to the traditional ideas about the ordinary peasant-worker, who at the moment of rest sings and plays the accordion. It is not without reason that Vasily is depicted as a harmonizer on one of the monuments.

Form

In the chapter devoted to the conversation of Terkin with the old soldier, Tvardovsky again shows his hero in a simple environment, among the peasants, which once again brings him closer to the common people. Both soldiers are talking about the war and this conversation immediately find a common language. This is the distinguishing feature of the character of the hero: wherever he hits, he immediately finds a common language with those around him. Of course, the poet could not ignore the military achievements of his hero: in addition to the episode with the ferry, he also, for example, shoots down an enemy aircraft. It is noteworthy how the author described the last episode: the reader was informed that the plane had been shot down by Terkin, only at the end, when the command began to search for the hero. Thus, the image of the national hero Vasily Terkin created by Tvardovsky actually embodies the whole people in his person.

Evaluation

The popular epic justifiably received universal recognition. It was highly appreciated by such eminent writers as Pasternak, Fadeyev, Bunin. The readers in their letters to the author asked for continuation. And only the censorship committee was dissatisfied with the fact that Tvardovsky did not show in his work the role of the Communist Party. However, the author himself admitted that such derogations would violate the whole intent of the work, and therefore continued to write at his own risk and risk in the direction he considered necessary. According to a recent poll, the poem entered the top of the most read works on military topics. The work is included in the school curriculum and deservedly popular in our days.