"The Alpine Ballad" by Vasil Bykov

Vasil Bykov is a famous Belarusian and Soviet writer. Being a direct participant of the Great Patriotic War, he described in his works very clearly the hardships of that time.

Among his many stories about the war can be identified a few really fascinating. One of them is the Alpine Ballad.

Prehistory

The story was published in 1964. According to Bykov's memoirs, during the war years, or more precisely in 1945, when their regiment was occupied by some provincial town in the Alps, in the deep rear of the German army, a skinny girl walked through the convoy. Stopping at each car, she asked if there was no Ivan here. Since Ivanov was quite a lot, but all of them did not evoke her positive response, Vasil decided to ask what kind of person she was looking for.

The girl turned out to be an Italian named Julia, a year ago she escaped from the German camp and got lost in the mountains. Fate to her fellow travelers threw a Russian soldier named Ivan, with whom they tried to get out to the Allied forces. He also fled from one of the nearby German camps. Despite the famine and the lack of warm clothes, they moved across the mountain range, but one day on a foggy morning they ran into a German raid and were again thrown into the camp, and nothing has been known about his fate since then ...

At that time, this alpine ballad still, of course, did not form into something literary, but after 18 years Vasil remembered an amazing story and decided to write an incredibly piercing, beautiful and tragic love story, which he called: "The Alpine Ballad."

Plot

The story heard Bykov, led to the creation of a very touching story, the plot of which almost completely coincides with the narrated by Julia. The element of fiction, for lack of actual factual material, was only the tragic end of the work. Which, obviously, was an extremely winning technique, given the context of what was happening. Almost any episode of the war one way or another can be called a tragedy.

So, the "Alpine ballad" of Bykov begins with the main character's thoughts about the impossibility of continuing life because of captivity, because if a Soviet man was taken prisoner, it is equivalent to treason to the Motherland. Then there is an explosion in the camp. The same incident catches the girl, the Italian, who takes advantage of the moment, runs from the camp to the mountains.

Fate connects them in the mountains. The protagonist of this course of events is extremely unpleasant, this reduces his chances of survival and already in difficult circumstances. However, it is this turn that allows the author to introduce into the plot a love line that looks so beautiful against the backdrop of the tragedy that develops throughout the narrative. The appearance of a high and pure feeling in such inhuman, animal conditions is an incredibly spectacular moment, giving the product a tremendous impact on the reader.

Finale of the story "The Alpine Ballad" is beautiful and battles on the spot. First, the main character sacrifices himself in the name of love and the salvation of an expensive person, and then the reader is covered with a heart-rending epilogue with a letter from the heroine to the native village of the protagonist.

The meaning of the name

A ballad is a lyrical work, usually in a poetic form, dedicated to some historical or legendary theme. It is characterized by tragedy, dramatic dialogue, mystery. Why did Vasil Bykov describe his story? The "Alpine Ballad" is a vivid example of a historical narrative. Here you can find both tragedy and dramatic moments. So the legitimacy of the name is quite obvious.

On the other hand, the ballad is a romantic genre, apparently, therefore, on the pages of the work we see such feelings that Shakespeare himself could envy the completeness of their description. For this love conquers everything: cold, hunger, suffering, war, and even death.

Production

According to the book was made a wonderful film. The "Alpine ballad" Bykova found a lively response from the director Boris Stepanov, who very accurately managed to convey the atmosphere created by the writer. The screenplay followed almost immediately after the publication of the story. And the Italians tried to buy the right to stage it, but the Soviet cinematographic leadership resolutely refused. As a result, we have a very beautiful tape, shot on "Belarusfilm".

Conclusion

The "Alpine ballad", the brief content of which we have considered, is an incredibly heartfelt piece about human feelings, which are not afraid of either the war or the beastly behavior of people who have gone mad about it.

This is a pure narrative about an ordinary Soviet boy from the remote area, who was an ordinary citizen all his life, but in difficult conditions, having recast, becoming stronger, he shows how a Man should come from a capital letter.