Bykov, "Sign of trouble": a summary, an analysis of the work

Vasil Bykov is a Soviet writer who devoted many of his works to the tragic history of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. In his novel The Sign of Trouble, a brief summary of which you can now read, it also tells about the fate of people who had to endure the horrors of those years. The writer told about the heroism of the Soviet people, about the strong character of a simple Belarusian woman in his famous work.

Stepanida and Yanka

Vasil Bykov in 1982 wrote the book "Badge of Trouble". The brief content of the work will acquaint the reader with the main characters, the plot, help to analyze the story, draw conclusions.

In the first chapter of the book we get acquainted with Stepanida, who grazes her cow named Bobovka. Going back, she saw Yanka. It's a country boy, an orphan. He is deaf and dumb, about his tragedy the writer tells a little later.

The young man herded a herd of cows. Seeing that he was too lightly dressed and could freeze, the compassionate woman explained to him with signs that he went home for warm clothes.

After a while, Yanka ran back, in his expression, a woman realized that something had happened. But no matter how much the guy tried to explain to her, he could not do it. Then Stepanida left her animal under the care of Yanka and went to the side where he showed.

The Germans came

Stepanida herself and her husband Petrok Bogatka lived in a farm that was called Jahimovshchina. At that time the Great Patriotic War was already going on. But while the inhabitants behaved, as in peacetime. They removed grain from collective farm fields, dug potatoes, made provisions for the winter, and cared for livestock.

There were no Germans in the village, so life was fairly measured, without special incidents. But that day everything changed. We learn about this from the story "Badge of Trouble". The brief content of the book tells about the next moment.

When the woman reached the bridge, she saw people crouching about him. They were Germans who were rebuilding a river crossing destroyed by the partisans.

Arriving home, she told her husband that the Germans were in the village. They began to think together, how to be now. The first thing the husband and his wife hid the pig, because the enemy soldiers would not have stood on ceremony with him, but they hacked and eaten. Then they thought where to hide the cow, but they could not find any way out.

Stepanida wanted to take away the things of her daughter Fenya, who studied in Minsk before the war, and found among them a letter that she was given to a woman on a collective farm for a clean-up of flax. Petroc said that she burned this award, on which there was a seal, but the brave woman refused.

The brief content of the book "Badge of Trouble" conveys further events, namely the arrival of policemen and Germans in the house.

Uninvited guests

Soon the house was granted to policemen - Kolondenok and Guzh. They reported that an important German chief would soon be arriving and, along with the guards, would settle in the house of Bogatka. This concludes the third chapter.

Passing the "Sign of trouble" in the abbreviation, the summary can not but include descriptions of peasant life, everyday affairs of ordinary people. Stepanida was always busy doing something: grazing, milking a cow, feeding chickens, a pig. Bykov describes how a woman chopped grass in a trough with a brush - preparing a mash-pan for chickens.

These moments indicate that she was a good hostess. Behind this occupation Stepanida reflected that her husband could not rebuff the policemen, since he does not have a man's firmness and independence.

The woman was not afraid of the policemen, because she despised them. She was not afraid of the fascists, who chose their house for habitation. When they ordered Stepanida to milk them for them, she brought it, but very little, saying that it was no more. Then the Germans themselves went to milk the cow and discovered the deception of the woman. But she was not scared. Stepanida at first did not even understand that for this the German wanted to kill her, but could not unfasten the holster. Then the fascist began to whip the disobedient woman with a chain from the holster, but she persistently survived it.

That's about such a simple, but courageous and inflexible woman, Vasil Bykov told in his novel The Sign of Trouble. The summary goes to the eighth chapter.

The fascists are outraged

From this chapter we learn about the experiences of Petruk. He and his wife were driven out of the house by their enemies and settled there themselves with complete comfort. The couple was forced to live in a barn. One day Petroc, standing up from a hard couch, went out into the garden and saw soldiers unceremoniously shaking his apple tree. One even climbed on it. At first the man wanted to complain to the sergeant-major, but then he realized that this would lead to nothing.

Uninvited guests shook the second apple tree, began to scurry about the garden, mercilessly trampling the vegetables, which the owners had not yet managed to remove. After that, the barbarians wanted milk. The owner went to look for Bobovka, who went to graze his wife.

Hearing from her husband that the Nazis want milk, the woman began milking the cow right on the street. She decided that let the milk go to the ground better than the invaders would get. They killed a cow when they could not get what they wanted from her. Here is such a sad moment described in the book "Badge of Trouble." The summary of the work goes to the next, ninth chapter.

Chapter 9-11

The cow could not be saved, then Stepanida wanted to save at least a pig. Together with Yank they hid the animal in a badger hole. From the same chapter, we learn that a brave woman sneaked into the night, where the rifle of a German cook hung and drowned it in the well.

After this, the invaders began to fester even more. They forced Petroc to dig a pit for them under the toilet, but the policemen arrived and told the elderly man that he and his wife should go digging potatoes. Petroc disobeyed the order, and the officer hit him hard.

But when a man built a toilet, he was praised. On joy, he decided to ask the soldiers to give his violin, which they took. At first they ordered him to play for them for a long time, then gave up the instrument.

At the end of chapter 11 Stepanida learns that they killed Yanka ...

Chapters 12-13

In the twelfth chapter, the heroine of the story recalls the pre-war period. When Soviet power was established, it was decided to accelerate the pace of collectivization. At one of the meetings of the Commander (Committee of the Poor) , it was decided to dispossess Ivan Guzhov, whose son later became a policeman from the Germans. Stepanida hesitated, but voted against it. However, by a majority of votes a decision was made to dispossess Guzhov.

But this did not stop there. At one of the following meetings it was decided to dekulak even those who once used hired force. The policeman Vasily Goncharik was ordered to dekulakize the family of his bride Anna. After that, he shot himself. The policeman was Yanka's older brother, who became deaf and dumb at the age of three.

At that time, many families suffered innocently. They were taken almost everything and sent along with their young children to Siberia or other remote regions of the country. Survived after this not all. About this inglorious part of the history of the country knew and told Bykov VV

"Sign of trouble", a summary of the chapters - the second half of the story

In Chapter 14 we learn how Stepanida and Petroc married. They worked in the farm of Adolf Jahimovsky. The woman was waiting for the child, soon gave birth to the boy Fedya.

After the revolution, the rich began to take away the land and give it to the poor. Thus the young couple got a farm.

Stepanida at first was glad that now they will have their own land, farming, but she was ashamed that they get it through someone else's trouble. Although Adolf Jahimovsky continued to live in his house, and Stepanida tried to help and take care of him, but the old man did not survive the dekulakization and hanged himself.

Before that, the Bogartians found a frozen lark and thought that this, as Bykov said, was a "sign of trouble." The summary of the book will soon end, but it remains to tell about the most important and sad moment.

In the following chapters, the author continues to talk about the pre-war memories of Stepanida, about the ongoing dekulakization.

The feat of a woman

A lot of grief was experienced by the Goddesses during the war. An elderly man was forced to go to build a bridge. With these works he came home hardly alive. Then the visiting policemen beat the elderly couple, as they tried to find moonshine in their house and thought that they did not give it away.

Petroc had a bottle hidden in the forest. He secretly took her to rinse his wife's wounds, but Guzh seized moonshine. Then Petroc could no longer be silent. Hearing curses in their address, the Germans beat him and take him away.

After the woman regained consciousness, she decided to take revenge on the fascists. The peasant woman heard that someone from the small towns had an unexploded bomb. She exchanges it for a pig and bury it. Policemen learned about this and tried to enter the closed house to Stepanida. She, seeing that there is no salvation, set fire to the source, in which she was, and perishes. This concludes the book and a brief summary.

"Badge of Trouble", Bykov V. V: analysis of the work

Stepanida did not die, she died, but to break her spirit, to humiliate, to defeat the enemies failed. The burying bomb will cause them fear, since it can explode at any time.

The author shows that even the weak-willed and submissive Petroc in the end, too, does not stand up to bullying and begins to rebel.

Bykov spoke about the plight of an elderly couple. Readers are very sorry for them. But they could live with dignity. The miracle of courage was shown by a simple Belarusian woman. It embodies the image of heroine peasant women, who made a great contribution to the victory over the invaders! Everlasting memory.