And the dawns here are quiet discussions. "And the dawns here are quiet"

How does one prove a person’s love for the Motherland in our time? We are proud that when purchasing various kinds of goods in stores, we prefer domestic manufacturers to imported ones, and for this we call ourselves patriots. We can “cheer” for our country at the World Cup, subsequently bursting with pride in ourselves and our ability to show love for Mother Russia. It is within our power to verbally prove that our country is better than other countries and more economically developed. But if we go back in time and remember the years of the Great Patriotic War, it will become clear: what we are doing now for our country is the least we can.

Soviet heroes fought desperately for their country. Going through many, many trials, through fear, pain, death, tears, unbearable torment from the loss of family and friends, our soldiers did everything so that we now live safely and peacefully on the territory of Russian lands. Home front workers supported the front-line soldiers with all their might, overcoming terribly painful obstacles, risking their lives to support and save Russian soldiers. Manufacturers of shells and weapons in factories worked for days, without stopping from production, practically without seeing their children. That's who really rooted for their country, that's who experienced true pain.

The war left an indelible mark on the fate of every family. From generation to generation, from mouth to mouth, stories about the events of that time are passed on from parents to children, from grandfathers to grandchildren, so that living Russians never forget the feat of their ancestors and always remember to whom they owe their prosperous existence.

But often people, due to their frivolity, or callousness, forget about what happened. Or do they just not want to remember? But we are the last generation of people to find war veterans alive. Often, when meeting them face to face, people cannot show even a drop of respect - give up their seat in transport, offer their help, or simply say a basic thank you for victory, even on the day of the great holiday of May 9. It’s easy for young people to forget, not to pay attention, to neglect... because their hearts are not torn from pain, from memories of the war, like the hearts of veterans. Their children are alive and well, have a roof over their heads, food and many toys, unlike the always hungry and suffering children of war. Their relatives and friends do not die at the hands of the Nazis and bombs flying from enemy planes. Old veterans keep pain about each of their losses in the war. So why is it so difficult to simply pay tribute and memory to the heroes of the Patriotic War?

Many talented authors of military prose have given us the opportunity to understand what war is, to literally feel everything that happened then, for ourselves here and now, by writing works that are often based on real events. One of these wonderful writers is Boris Lvovich Vasiliev, who himself had the opportunity to fight at the front. Boris Lvovich was born in 1925 in Smolensk, went to the front as a volunteer after graduating from the 9th grade in 1943, and after a shell shock he was sent to the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces. After graduating in 1948, he worked in the Urals.

I had the opportunity to become acquainted with one of his most famous and poignant military works - the story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...”. I am glad that I came across this book, because when reading it, you immediately understand how difficult it was not only for men, but also for women to fight. Each of the five heroines of this work felt the horror of war. Rita Osyanina’s husband died on the second day of the war, and she sent her son to his parents. Zhenya Komelkova saw her relatives being shot. Lisa Brichkina lived in Siberia since childhood, she cared for her sick mother. Sonya Gurvich is an excellent student, studied at Moscow University, knew German perfectly, fell in love with her desk neighbor, but they were together for only one day, he volunteered for the front. Galya Chetvertak grew up in an orphanage, after which she went to a library technical school. All of them lost someone: their relatives, loved ones, but they defended their Motherland to the end. Lisa, who wanted to call for help, drowned in the swamp. Sonya died from inattention at the hands of a German who plunged a knife into her chest. Galya ran out of the shelter because she was scared, which shows us how a person loses his head because of fear. Zhenya, in order to divert attention from Fedot and the wounded Rita, ran into the forest, when she ran out of ammunition, she boldly looked her enemies in the face. After Rita is hit by a shell, she asks Fedot to take care of her son, after which she shoots herself in the temple.

Reading this work, we all think about how scary it was then, how much blood there was, and we must not allow this to happen again. We must be proud of our history and never forget those who gave their lives for the sake of peace above us. It is important to always remember not only the very fact of the victory of Russian soldiers over the German fascists, but also the cost at which we got this victory. How many victims the country has suffered, how much blood has been shed, how many cities have been destroyed by bombings and fires, how many people have been killed and how many of them have sunk into oblivion without a trace, remaining in our memory as nameless heroes. It is not at all difficult for our generation to remember and respect heroes; it is difficult and bitter for the generation of veterans to die, knowing that their painful sacrifices and military exploits are forgotten and die with them. Vasiliev's war, quiet dawns

Having met the book, I did not understand how a woman could fight, because everyone considers them gentle and defenseless, however, in order to help their people and their Motherland, they go to the front to fight enemies face to face. After reading this work, it is impossible to remain indifferent to the veterans who survived all the horrors of war. I believe that for me the encounter with this book was unforgettable and instructive. I would like every teenager to read “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...” in order to think and draw some conclusions for themselves.

7 decades have passed since the Great Patriotic War ended. But these tragic, bloody events are still fresh in our memory. Based on them, many brilliant films were created, many poems and other literary works were written.

The story of B.L. Vasiliev “And the dawns here are quiet” is one of the most striking examples showing the severity of those events. The main characters here are girl soldiers with different backgrounds, with different characters, from different families. At first glance, it seems as if they are so different that nothing can bring them together. However, the war puts everything in its place. She united the reserved Rita Osyanina and the cheerful, desperate Zhenya.

Overnight, their destinies intertwined, uniting them with one goal - to stand up for the defense of the Fatherland, their native places. This good goal unites them in the fight against an uninvited enemy. To achieve this goal, they risk their lives, rush into battle, knowing that the forces are unequal. Girls consider this a sacred duty.

It is thanks to such heroic, selfless, brave girls that we owe victory in the war. They set an example of heroism. Their death was almost inevitable, because they were always in the center of battles. There were many such girls during the war. We will never even recognize many of their names, and their relatives will never be able to honor them at their graves, because their exact place of death is still unknown.

About the cruelty and inhumanity of war, the amazing story by B.L. Vasilyev “And the dawns here are quiet...” about girls - anti-aircraft gunners and their commander Vaskov. Five girls, together with their commander, go to meet the fascists - saboteurs, whom Rita Osyanina noticed in the forest in the morning. Only there were 19 fascists, and all of them were well armed and prepared for action behind enemy lines. And so, in order to prevent the impending sabotage, Vaskov goes on a mission with the girls.
Sonya Gurvich, Galka Chetvertachok, Lisa Brichkini, Zhenya Komelkova, Rita Ovsyanina - these are the fighters of the small detachment.
Each of the girls carries some kind of life principle, and all of them together personify the feminine principle of life, and their presence in the war is as disharmonious as the sounds of shooting on the shore of Lake Ferapontov.
It is impossible to read the story without tears. How scary it is when girls, whom nature itself intended for life, are forced to defend their Fatherland with arms in their hands. This is precisely the fundamental idea of ​​Boris Vasiliev’s story. It tells about the feat, about the feat of girls who defend their love and youth, their family, their homeland and who did not spare their lives for this. Each of the girls could live, raise children, bring joy to people... But there was a war. None of them had time to fulfill their dreams, they did not have time to live their own lives.
Woman and war are incompatible concepts, if only because a woman gives life, while any war is, first of all, murder. It was difficult for any person to take the life of someone like him, but what was it like for a woman in whom, as B. Vasiliev believes, hatred of murder is inherent in her very nature? In his story, the writer showed very well what it was like for a girl to kill for the first time, even an enemy. Rita Osyanina hated the Nazis quietly and mercilessly. But it’s one thing to wish someone dead, and quite another to kill someone yourself. When I killed the first one, I almost died, by God. I dreamed about a reptile for a month...” In order to kill calmly, one had to get used to it, to harden one’s soul... This is also a feat and at the same time a huge sacrifice of our women, who, for the sake of life on earth, had to step over themselves, go against their nature.
B. Vasiliev shows that the source of the feat was love for the Motherland, which needed protection. It seems to Sergeant Major Vaskov that the position he and the girls occupy is the most important. And he had such a feeling, as if all of Russia had come together behind his back, as if he was her last son and protector. And there was no one else in the whole world: only he, the enemy, and Russia.
The story of Staninstructor Tamara speaks best about the mercy of our women. Stalingrad. The most, the most battles. Tamara was dragging two wounded (in turn), and suddenly, when the smoke cleared a little, she, to her horror, discovered that she was dragging one of our tankers and one German. The station instructor knew very well that if she left the German, he would literally die from blood loss in just a few hours. And she continued to drag them both... Now, when Tamara Stepanovna remembers this incident, she never ceases to amaze herself.

remembers this incident and never ceases to amaze himself. “I am a doctor, I am a woman... And I saved a life” - this is how she simply and uncomplicatedly explains her, one might say, heroic act. And we can only admire these girls who went through all the hell of war and did not “harden in soul”, they remained so humane. This, in my opinion, is also a feat. Moral victory is our greatest victory in this terrible war.
All five girls die, but complete the task: the Germans did not get through. And although their battle with the Nazis was only of “local significance,” it was thanks to such people that the Great Victory took shape. Hatred for enemies helped Vaskov and the heroines of the story accomplish their feat. In this struggle they were driven by a sense of humanity, which forces them to fight evil.

The sergeant major is having a hard time with the girls' deaths. His entire human soul cannot come to terms with this. He thinks about what they, the soldiers, will definitely be asked to do after the war: “Why couldn’t you, men, protect our mothers from bullets? Did they get married when they died? And he doesn’t find an answer. Vaskov’s heart hurts because he killed all five girls. And in the sorrow of this uneducated soldier is the highest human feat. And the reader feels the writer’s hatred of the war and pain for something else that few people wrote about - for the broken threads of humankind.
In my opinion, every moment of war is already a feat. And Boris Vasiliev only confirmed this with his story.

"Not all soldiers will meet the victorious day,
Not everyone can come to the holiday parade.
Soldiers are mortal. Feats are immortal.
The courage of soldiers never dies."

The image of Nikolai Pluzhnikov embodied the character traits of all the soldiers who staunchly defended every inch of the earth, but whose names remained unknown. Their names may be unknown to us, but their feat lives in our hearts. Nikolai Pluzhnikov arrived at the fortress on the night that separated the world from the war. At dawn the battle began, which lasted nine months. Nicholas had the opportunity to leave the fortress with his beloved girl. And no one would consider him a deserter, since his name was not on any list, he was a free man. But it was precisely this freedom, the consciousness of his duty, that forced him to accept an unequal battle with the fascists. He defended the Brest Fortress for nine months. He went upstairs because he ran out of cartridges, because he learned: “Moscow is ours, and the Germans have been defeated near Moscow. Now I can go out. Now I have to go out and look them in the eyes for the last time.” It is impossible to read the words of Nikolai Pluzhnikov without tears: “The fortress did not fall: it simply bled to death. I am her last straw.”

With his courage and perseverance, Nikolai made even his enemies admire him. For me, Pluzhnikov became a symbol of all those unknown soldiers who fought to the end and died, not counting on glory. Nikolai Pluzhnikov, Andrei Sokolov, Nikolai Kuznetsov, millions of other soldiers. Where did they get the mental strength to withstand inhuman suffering, what gave them the strength to fight? Here’s how P. Bogdanov wrote about it: “We were not taught how to throw ourselves under a tank, And how to close an enemy’s embrasure with our breasts, And how to rush at the enemy like a living ram... But we were taught to love our Motherland!” Yes, love for the Motherland, for their native land, for home gave them the strength to win. And the Motherland remembers its sons and daughters who gave their lives for its freedom and independence. There is no city or village where there is not a monument to those killed in the Great Patriotic War. There are always fresh flowers at the foot of monuments and obelisks.

People like Nikolai Pluzhnikov, Andrei Sokolov and many others brought Victory closer with every hour of their lives. They will always live in the hearts of our people. The years of war are moving further and further away from us. There are fewer and fewer people left who have seen her. And we need to meet with veterans more often to understand what war is, in order to prevent its repetition. The Great Patriotic War ended long ago, but there were still soldiers whose names are unknown. And our duty is to do everything to let people know about them. By conducting search work, we ourselves become morally richer and learn to empathize with the participants in events. What happens to veterans is very interesting for us. Often we go to their home, help them, and then listen to their stories. At our school we keep a chronicle of the Great Patriotic War. War veterans often come to visit us. These people are an example for us. We remember that they fought so that we could live under a peaceful sky, so that our generation could be happy.

“And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” is a dramatic work that takes the reader back to the times of the Great Patriotic War. It introduces the courage and strength of ordinary Russian soldiers, among whom fate is entrusted to be not only men, but also very young girls. The dedication and fortitude of five young people, led by a young commander, awakens in the reader admiration and pride, mixed with deep sorrow and sadness. This is a novel in which not all heroes are destined to survive the war, protecting their mothers, children and homeland. “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” by Boris Vasiliev can be downloaded for free in fb2 format or read online.

History of the creation of the work

The book “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” which can be downloaded from our website, was first published in 1969 in the Soviet magazine “Youth.” The story aroused great reader interest and was on the bestseller list for 10 years. It was repeatedly used in performances at Taganka and made into feature films, receiving heartfelt reviews of the works from touched viewers. The events of the Great Patriotic War stirred hearts, and the still very warm memory of past troubles made Boris Vasiliev’s story especially dramatic.

According to the author, the book is based on the heroic story of seven Soviet soldiers who served at one of the key stations of the Kirov Railway and were able to neutralize saboteurs of the German army who wanted to undermine an important section of the tracks. Only the sergeant who commanded the group survived, who later received a military award. The writer immediately begins working on the plot, but after writing seven pages he realizes that there are no fundamentally new plot lines in the story, and decides to make changes.

He remembers the women who happened to fight and admits that few people write about their exploits, unfairly forgetting the strength and courage they showed in the war. The author decides to make fragile young girls subordinate to the hero and easily builds an action-packed narrative line, closely intertwining the fates of completely different people. “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” is a genre of military drama, its text was written with piercing pain and a feeling of boundless love for the Motherland, helping soldiers not to give up and go into battle again.

The tragic plot of the work leaves a deep imprint on the soul of the reader, who, together with the heroes, is plunged into the hardships of war, finds himself face to face with death, when he has to find the strength to move on. Almost every review of a book is a reader’s confession of empathy and tears. A review written by one reader will certainly be repeated in another review text, since emotions about the book are unanimous.

“And the dawns here are quiet”: plot description

The main characters are 6 extraordinary, brave individuals with different life histories and social status, who were destined to meet and, despite the circumstances, move forward together to win. Among them:

1. Fedot Vaskov is the foreman of a group of female anti-aircraft gunners.
2. Lisa Brichkina is a young 19-year-old daughter of a forester, who before the height of the war lived in one of the military cordons in the middle of the Bryansk forests.
3. Sonya Gurvich is a young, intelligent girl from a family of doctors who, after two semesters of university, went to the front.
4. Zhenya Komelkova is a 19-year-old girl whose family was shot by German soldiers before her eyes.
5. Rita Osyanina - a girl married early, her border guard husband dies at the very beginning of the war, leaving an heir. Rita hands the child over to her mother and goes to the front.
6. Galya Chetvertak is a dreamy girl from an orphanage who went to war deeply convinced of the romance of her act.

The story opens in 1942, where the reader is shown the life of the 171st railway siding, located at the epicenter of hostilities, with a couple of barely surviving yards. The relatively calm, quiet rhythm of life in this area allowed soldiers to abuse alcohol, as well as be tempted by the attention of women. The commandant of the patrol, Vaskov, regularly wrote reports with a request to send soldiers who did not drink to the unit, but with enviable consistency the story repeated itself again until the male anti-aircraft gunners were replaced by women.

With the arrival of the girls, life on the road became very calm and fun at the same time, despite the hardships of the time. Young ladies often made fun of Vaskov, who felt awkward in the company of new anti-aircraft gunners and was a little embarrassed by his lack of education, since he had only completed the 4th grade of school. Sometimes the foreman was indignant at the behavior of the girls, who, in his perception, were working “not according to the regulations.”

Rita is appointed commander of the anti-aircraft gunners. After the loss of her husband, her temper became harsh and her nature became withdrawn. She treated her associates quite strictly, but Zhenya Komelkova managed to soften her character, who experienced the loss of all her loved ones, but managed to remain an open and cheerful person. Secretly from everyone, Rita goes out at night to visit her mother and child, who live not far from the crossing.

A friendship develops between Rita and Zhenya, which is joined by Galya, who is reputed to be ugly. Komelkova finds her a tunic, fixes her hair, and the unprepossessing girl noticeably transforms.

One day Rita went into the forest without permission. Upon her return, she notices two people in camouflage gear, armed and carrying some kind of packages. Osyanina quickly reports what she saw to Vaskov. The commander concludes that she met with saboteurs of the German army who were moving towards the railway junction, and decides to intercept the enemy.

Vaskov receives command of 5 anti-aircraft gunners and they are sent to carry out the interception plan. Along the way, Vaskov tries to be optimistic, often jokes, wanting to cheer up his female fighters. The characters decide to take German soldiers from Vop Lake, to which they take the shortest route through forests and swamps. Walking through the swamp, Galya Chetvertak stumbles, ending up up to her neck in water.

The company successfully reaches its destination. The commander, knowing about the numerical superiority of his group, expects quick reprisals against the enemies, but decides to play it safe and chooses a path for a possible retreat. While waiting for the Germans to appear, the girls manage to have lunch, after which Vaskov gives a combat order to detain the saboteurs and the heroes take up combat positions.

Galya catches a cold after falling into a swamp and is overcome by chills. The team spends the whole night waiting for saboteurs. Towards morning the Germans appear, but contrary to expectations, instead of two people they number sixteen. Vaskov decides to send Lisa on a patrol to tell about what happened and bring help. Brichkina loses his bearings and loses a noticeable pine tree, which marks the right turn to pass through the swamp. Moving through the swamp, she stumbles and, getting stuck in a quagmire, dies.

Meanwhile, the commander and anti-aircraft gunners, wanting to scare off the German soldiers and force them to take a roundabout route, act out a scene. Vaskov and the girls create the impression that lumberjacks are working in the forest. They begin a loud roll call and light fires. Fedot cuts down trees, and resourceful Zhenya goes for a swim, pretending not to notice the presence of enemies. The unsuspecting Germans leave.

The commander understands that the hidden enemy may be cunning and does not exclude the threat of an attack on his squad. Together with Osyanina, he goes on reconnaissance. Having found out that the saboteurs have settled down for a rest stop, Vaskov decides to change the location of the team and sends Rita to get the girls. Fedot remembers that he forgot his pouch and gets upset. Noticing his mood, Sonya decides to return for the loss.

The commander did not have time to stop Gurevich, who ran for the pouch. Shots are heard. Sonya dies from the bullets of two German soldiers. The upset group buries the girl. Vaskov takes off her boots and gives them to Gala, who lost hers in the swamp, noting that he must take care of the living.

Having said goodbye to Sonya, the commander and anti-aircraft gunners begin a fierce pursuit of the Germans, wanting to avenge the death of their comrade. They overtake the enemy and, sneaking up unnoticed, Vaskov kills one of them, but he does not have the strength to fight the second. At this moment, Zhenya appears nearby and, having killed the saboteur with a rifle butt, saves the commander’s life. The Germans are retreating. Having realized the committed act, Komelkova is tormented by depressing thoughts for what she has done. The foreman tries to justify her decisive step, talking about the inhumanity and ruthlessness of the enemy.

Shocked by Sonya's death, the dreamy Galya throws her rifle aside during the oncoming battle and falls to the ground. The girls begin to accuse her of cowardice, but Vaskov justifies Chetvertak with inexperience and confusion. For educational purposes, the foreman takes Galya with him on reconnaissance.

While examining the surroundings of the forest, the scouts notice the corpses of Germans. It was estimated that there were still 12 German soldiers left. The foreman and Galya are hiding in ambush, ready to shoot at the approaching saboteurs. Suddenly, Chetvertak leaves the shelter and, mad with horror, gives himself away, receiving machine-gun fire from the Germans.

Vaskov decides to lead the enemy in a different direction from the place where Zhenya and Rita remained. Until nightfall, he tried to create noise in the forest, shot at enemy figures flashing between the trees, shouted and tried to lure the saboteurs closer to the swampy place. Having been wounded in the arm, he takes refuge in the swamp until the morning.

At dawn, the wounded commander gets out onto land and notices on the water the black skirt that Liza Brichkina was wearing. Vaskov realizes that the girl has died, and the last hopes for help turn to dust. Depressed by heavy thoughts about losing “his war,” Vaskov goes in search of German soldiers.

In the forest, he encounters an abandoned hut, which turns out to be a shelter for saboteurs. Hiding, the sergeant-major watched the Germans, who were hiding explosives. Next, the whole group leaves for reconnaissance, leaving one soldier to guard the hut. Fedot kills the enemy, takes the weapon and goes to the bank of the river where they once acted out a scene in front of the saboteurs. There he tells the remaining anti-aircraft gunners about the death of Gali and Lisa, saying that soon they will have to take their last, probably, battle.

Saboteurs appear on the shore, and a terrible battle ensues. Vaskov fought relentlessly, defending his homeland and not allowing the enemy detachment to cross the river. Rita receives a severe shrapnel wound in the stomach. The wounded Zhenya continues to fire, leading the Germans with her and not noticing her wounds. The girl shot to the last bullet, sparing no effort and striking the enemy with her courage. The Germans shoot the unarmed Komelkova at point-blank range.

The dying Osyanina tells the foreman about her son Albert and asks him to take care of the baby. Vaskov, tormented by thoughts of the loss of the entire team, shares with Rita his feelings about what happened and asks the question: was the death of the young girls worth giving her away for trying to block the road to the Germans? Rita replies that they defended their Motherland and did everything right. Could they have acted differently and allowed the enemy to undermine the road? No.

Vaskov gets up and goes after the Germans again. He hears a shot and returns to Rita, who shot herself, not wanting to torment either herself or the foreman. Having buried both girls, with the last of his strength Fedot moved forward, where the Germans’ hut was located. He breaks inside, where he kills one of the saboteurs and takes four more prisoner. In a semi-delirious state, wounded and exhausted, he leads the Germans to the dispersal line. Realizing that he has reached the place, the foreman loses consciousness.

In the epilogue of the book, the author talks about a letter from a tourist, written many years after the war events. It tells about a gray-haired old man who came to the lake, who was missing an arm, and a rocket captain named Albert Fedotich. They installed a marble slab on the shore. The tourist says that together with those who arrived, he goes in search of the graves of anti-aircraft gunners who once died here. And he notes how “quiet the dawns are here.”

Description of the book “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...”

“And the dawns here are quiet...” Many of them just finished school yesterday. They loved poetry and dreamed of love... But the war came, and fragile girls took up arms. May 1942. In the Karelian forests, five anti-aircraft gunners under the command of Sergeant Major Vaskov are forced to confront a detachment of German saboteurs. Sixteen well-trained professionals - against five girls... And they won't pass. “Not on the lists” On June 21, 1941, Lieutenant Pluzhnikov arrived at his duty station. And at dawn, the Brest Fortress was the first to take the blow of the fascist invaders... They fought to the end. And Pluzhnikov, the only surviving fighter, spent nine months alone in the underground struggle against the Nazis. The last defender of the unconquered fortress... He can be killed. But you can't win. “Counter battle” After a victory, dying is especially offensive. It’s scary to see the death of comrades when the whole world is already rejoicing... On this day the war ended. And the tank corps received its...

“And the dawns here are quiet...” - plot

May 1942 Countryside in Russia. There is a war with Nazi Germany. The 171st railway siding is commanded by foreman Fedot Evgrafych Vaskov. He is thirty-two years old. He has only four years of education. Vaskov was married, but his wife ran away with the regimental veterinarian, and his son soon died.

It's calm at the crossing. The soldiers arrive here, look around, and then start “drinking and partying.” Vaskov persistently writes reports, and, in the end, they send him a platoon of “teetotal” fighters - girl anti-aircraft gunners. At first, the girls laugh at Vaskov, but he doesn’t know how to deal with them. The commander of the first section of the platoon is Rita Osyanina. Rita's husband died on the second day of the war. She sent her son Albert to his parents. Soon Rita ended up in the regimental anti-aircraft school. With the death of her husband, she learned to hate the Germans “quietly and mercilessly” and was harsh with the girls in her unit.

The Germans kill the carrier and instead send Zhenya Komelkova, a slender red-haired beauty. A year ago, before Zhenya’s eyes, the Germans shot her loved ones. After their death, Zhenya crossed the front. He picked her up, protected her, “and not just took advantage of her defenselessness - Colonel Luzhin stuck her to himself.” He was a family man, and the military authorities, having found out about this, “recruited” the colonel, and sent Zhenya “to a good team.” Despite everything, Zhenya is “outgoing and mischievous.” Her fate immediately “crosses out Rita’s exclusivity.” Zhenya and Rita get together, and the latter “thaws out”.

When it comes to transferring from the front line to the patrol, Rita is inspired and asks to send her squad. The crossing is located not far from the city where her mother and son live. At night, Rita secretly runs into the city, carrying groceries for her family. One day, returning at dawn, Rita sees two Germans in the forest. She wakes up Vaskov. He receives orders from his superiors to “catch” the Germans. Vaskov calculates that the Germans’ route lies on the Kirov Railway. The foreman decides to take a shortcut through the swamps to the Sinyukhina ridge, stretching between two lakes, along which is the only way to get to the railway, and wait for the Germans there - they will probably take a roundabout route. Vaskov takes Rita, Zhenya, Lisa Brichkina, Sonya Gurvich and Galya Chetvertak with him.

Lisa is from the Bryansk region, she is the daughter of a forester. For five years I cared for my terminally ill mother, but because of this I was unable to finish school. A visiting hunter, who awakened Lisa’s first love, promised to help her enter a technical school. But the war began, Lisa ended up in an anti-aircraft unit. Lisa likes Sergeant Major Vaskov.

Sonya Gurvich from Minsk. Her father was a local doctor, they had a large and friendly family. She herself studied for a year at Moscow University and knows German. A neighbor at lectures, Sonya’s first love, with whom they spent only one unforgettable evening in a cultural park, volunteered for the front.

Galya Chetvertak grew up in an orphanage. There she was “overtaken” by her first love. After the orphanage, Galya ended up in a library technical school. The war found her in her third year.

The path to Lake Vop lies through the swamps. Vaskov leads the girls along a path well known to him, on both sides of which there is a quagmire. The soldiers safely reach the lake and, hiding on the Sinyukhina Ridge, wait for the Germans. They appear on the lake shore only the next morning. It turns out there are not two of them, but sixteen. While the Germans have about three hours left to reach Vaskov and the girls, the foreman sends Lisa Brichkina back to the patrol to report on the change in the situation. But Lisa, crossing the swamp, stumbles and drowns. Nobody knows about this, and everyone is waiting for help. Until then, the girls decide to mislead the Germans. They pretend to be lumberjacks, shout loudly, Vaskov cuts down trees.

The Germans retreat to Lake Legontov, not daring to walk along the Sinyukhin ridge, on which, as they think, someone is cutting down the forest. Vaskov and the girls are moving to a new place. He left his pouch in the same place, and Sonya Gurvich volunteers to bring it. While in a hurry, she stumbles upon two Germans who kill her. Vaskov and Zhenya kill these Germans. Sonya is buried.

Soon the soldiers see the rest of the Germans approaching them. Hiding behind bushes and boulders, they shoot first; the Germans retreat, fearing an invisible enemy. Zhenya and Rita accuse Galya of cowardice, but Vaskov defends her and takes her with him on reconnaissance missions for “educational purposes.” But Vaskov does not suspect what mark Sonin’s death left on Gali’s soul. She is terrified and at the most crucial moment gives herself away, and the Germans kill her.

Fedot Evgrafych takes on the Germans to lead them away from Zhenya and Rita. He is wounded in the arm. But he manages to escape and reach an island in the swamp. In the water, he notices Lisa's skirt and realizes that help will not come. Vaskov finds the place where the Germans stopped to rest, kills one of them and goes to look for the girls. They are preparing to make their final battle. The Germans appear. In an unequal battle, Vaskov and the girls kill several Germans. Rita is mortally wounded, and while Vaskov drags her to a safe place, the Germans kill Zhenya. Rita asks Vaskov to take care of her son and shoots herself in the temple. Vaskov buries Zhenya and Rita. After this, he goes to the forest hut, where the five surviving Germans are sleeping. Vaskov kills one of them on the spot, and takes four prisoner. They themselves tie each other with belts, because they do not believe that Vaskov is “alone for many miles.” He loses consciousness from pain only when his own Russians are already coming towards him.

Many years later, a gray-haired, stocky old man without an arm and a rocket captain, whose name is Albert Fedotich, will bring a marble slab to Rita’s grave.

Story

According to the author, the story is based on a real episode of the war, when seven soldiers, who after being wounded served at one of the junction stations of the Kirov Railway, did not allow a German sabotage group to blow up the railway in this area. After the battle, only the sergeant, the commander of a group of Soviet soldiers, survived, and after the war he was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.” “And I thought: this is it! A situation when a person himself, without any order, decides: I won’t let you in! They have nothing to do here! I started working on this plot and have already written about seven pages. And suddenly I realized that nothing would work. This will simply be a special case in war. There was nothing fundamentally new in this plot. Work stopped. And then I suddenly came up with the idea - let my hero’s subordinates be not men, but young girls. And that’s it - the story immediately lined up. Women have the hardest time in war. There were 300 thousand of them at the front! And then no one wrote about them"