Camp Fuhrer in the story of the fate of man. Composition: Andrei Sokolov's dialogue with Muller as one of the climactic episodes of M's story

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The sad story of Mikhail Sholokhov "The Fate of a Man" takes to the quick. Written by the author in 1956, it reveals the naked truth about the atrocities of the Great Patriotic War and what Andrei Sokolov, a Soviet soldier, had to endure in German captivity. But first things first.

The main characters of the story:

Andrei Sokolov is a Soviet soldier who had to experience a lot of grief during the Great Patriotic War. But, despite the hardships, even captivity, where the hero suffered brutal abuse from the Nazis, he survived. A ray of light in the darkness of hopelessness, when the hero of the story lost his whole family in the war, the smile of an adopted orphan boy shone.

We suggest reading the story of Mikhail Sholokhov “They fought for the Motherland”, which speaks of the stamina and courage of Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War

Andrey's wife Irina: a meek, calm woman, a real wife, loving her husband, who knew how to console and support in difficult times. When Andrei left for the front, she was in great despair. Died along with two children when a shell hit the house.

Meeting at the crossing

Mikhail Sholokhov conducts his work in the first person. It was the first post-war spring, and the narrator had to get to the Bukanovskaya station at all costs, which was sixty kilometers away. Having crossed with the driver of the car to the other side of the river called Epanka, he began to wait for the driver who had been away for two hours.

Suddenly attention was attracted by a man with a small boy moving towards the crossing. They stopped, said hello, and a casual conversation ensued, in which Andrei Sokolov - that was the name of a new acquaintance - told about his bitter life during the war years.

Andrey's difficult fate

What kind of torment a person endures in the terrible years of confrontation between peoples.

The Great Patriotic War crippled, wounded human bodies and souls, especially those who had to be in German captivity and drink the bitter cup of inhuman suffering. Andrey Sokolov was one of them.

The life of Andrei Sokolov before the Great Patriotic War

Fierce misfortunes befell the guy from his youth: parents and sister who died of starvation, loneliness, the war in the Red Army. But at that difficult time, a clever wife, meek, quiet and affectionate, became a joy for Andrei.

Yes, and life seemed to be getting better: work as a driver, good earnings, three smart children with excellent students (the eldest, Anatolia, was even written in the newspaper). And finally, a cozy two-room house, which they put up with the accumulated money just before the war ... It suddenly collapsed on Soviet soil and turned out to be much worse than the previous, civilian one. And the happiness of Andrei Sokolov, achieved with such difficulty, was shattered into small pieces.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the biography of Mikhail Sholokhov, whose works are a reflection of the historical upheavals that the whole country was then experiencing.

Farewell to family

Andrei went to the front. His wife Irina and three children saw him off in tears. The wife was especially hurt: "My dear ... Andryusha ... we will not see each other ... we are with you ... more ... in this ... world."
“Until my death,” Andrei recalls, “I won’t forgive myself for pushing her away then.” He remembers everything, although he wants to forget: and the white lips of the desperate Irina, who whispered something when they got on the train; and the kids, who, no matter how hard they tried, could not smile through their tears ... And the train carried Andrei farther and farther, towards military everyday life and bad weather.

First years at the front

At the front, Andrei worked as a driver. Two light wounds could not be compared with what he had to endure later, when, seriously wounded, he was captured by the Nazis.

In captivity

What kind of bullying did not happen to endure from the Germans on the way: they beat them on the head with a rifle butt, and in front of Andrey they shot the wounded, and then they drove everyone to the church to spend the night. The protagonist would have suffered even more if a military doctor had not been among the prisoners, who offered his help and put his dislocated arm in place. There was immediate relief.

Betrayal Prevention

Among the prisoners was a man who conceived the next morning, when the question is raised whether there are commissars, Jews and communists among the prisoners, to hand over his platoon leader to the Germans. He was deeply afraid for his life. Andrei, having heard a conversation about this, was not at a loss and strangled the traitor. And later he did not regret it a bit.

The escape

Since the time of captivity, Andrey was more and more visited by the thought of escaping. And now a real opportunity presented itself to accomplish what was planned. The prisoners were digging graves for their own dead and, seeing that the guards were distracted, Andrei quietly fled. Unfortunately, the attempt turned out to be unsuccessful: after four days of searching, they returned him, let the dogs out, mocked him for a long time, put him in a punishment cell for a month, and finally sent him to Germany.

in a foreign land

To say that life in Germany was terrible is an understatement. Andrei, who was listed as a prisoner under number 331, was constantly beaten, fed very poorly, and forced to work hard at the Stone Quarry. And once, for reckless words about the Germans, uttered inadvertently in the barracks, they called to the Herr Lagerführer. However, Andrei was not afraid: he confirmed what was said earlier: “four cubic meters of production is a lot ...” They wanted to shoot him first, and they would have carried out the sentence, but, seeing the courage of a Russian soldier who was not afraid of death, the commandant respected him, changed his mind and let him go to a hut, even while supplying food.

Release from captivity

Working as a chauffeur for the Nazis (he drove a German major), Andrei Sokolov began to think about a second escape, which could be more successful than the previous one. And so it happened.
On the way in the direction of Trosnitsa, having changed into a German uniform, Andrei stopped the car with the major sleeping in the back seat and stunned the German. And then he turned to where the Russians are fighting.

Among their

Finally, being on the territory among the Soviet soldiers, Andrei was able to breathe calmly. He missed his native land so much that he clung to it and kissed it. At first, they did not recognize him, but then they realized that it was not the Fritz who got lost at all, but his own, dear, Voronezh resident escaped from captivity, and he also brought important documents with him. They fed him, bathed him in the bathhouse, gave him uniforms, but the colonel refused his request to take him to the rifle unit: it was necessary to receive medical treatment.

Terrible news

So Andrew ended up in the hospital. He was well fed, provided with care, and after the German captivity, life could have seemed almost good, if not for one "but". The soul of the soldier yearned for his wife and children, wrote a letter home, waited for news from them, but still no answer. And suddenly - terrible news from a neighbor, a carpenter, Ivan Timofeevich. He writes that neither Irina nor her younger daughter and son are alive. A heavy shell hit their hut ... And the elder Anatoly after that volunteered for the front. The heart sank from the burning pain. After being discharged from the hospital, Andrei decided to go himself to the place where his home once stood. The spectacle turned out to be so depressing - a deep funnel and waist-deep weeds - that the ex-husband and father of the family could not stay there for a minute. Asked to return to the division.

First joy, then sorrow

Amid the impenetrable darkness of despair, a ray of hope flashed - the eldest son of Andrei Sokolov - Anatoly - sent a letter from the front. It turns out that he graduated from the artillery school - and has already received the rank of captain, "commands the battery" forty-five, has six orders and medals ... "
How delighted the father was by this unexpected news! How many dreams awakened in him: his son would return from the front, he would marry and his grandfather would nurse the long-awaited grandchildren. Alas, this short-term happiness was shattered: on May 9, just on Victory Day, Anatoly was killed by a German sniper. And it was terrible, unbearably painful for my father to see him dead, in a coffin!

Sokolov's new son is a boy named Vanya

As if something broke inside Andrew. And he would not have lived at all, but simply existed, if he had not then adopted a little six-year-old boy, whose mother and father died in the war.
In Uryupinsk (because of the misfortunes that befell him, the protagonist of the story did not want to return to Voronezh), a childless couple took in Andrey. He worked as a driver on a truck, sometimes he carried bread. Several times, stopping by the teahouse for a bite, Sokolov saw a hungry orphan boy - and his heart became attached to the child. Decided to take it for myself. "Hey, Vanyushka! Get in the car, I'll drive it to the elevator, and from there we'll come back here and have lunch, ”Andrey called the baby.
- Do you know who I am? - he asked, having learned from the boy that he was an orphan.
- Who? Vanya asked.
- I am your father!
At that moment, such joy seized both the newly found son and Sokolov himself, such bright feelings that the former soldier understood: he did the right thing. And he can no longer live without Vanya. Since then, they have not parted - neither day nor night. Andrey's petrified heart became softer with the arrival of this mischievous kid in his life.
Only here in Uryupinsk did not have to stay long - another friend invited the hero to the Kashirsky district. So now they are walking with their son on Russian soil, because Andrei is not used to sitting in one place.

During the Great Patriotic War, Sholokhov, in military correspondence, essays, and the story “The Science of Hatred”, exposed the anti-human nature of the war unleashed by the Nazis, showing the heroism of the Soviet people, love for the Motherland. And in the novel "They Fought for the Motherland" the Russian national character was deeply revealed, which clearly manifested itself in the days of severe trials. Remembering how during the war the Nazis mockingly called the Soviet soldier “Russian Ivan”, Sholokhov wrote in one of his articles: “The symbolic Russian Ivan is this: a man dressed in a gray overcoat who, without hesitation, gave the last piece of bread and thirty grams of front-line sugar to a child orphaned in the terrible days of the war, a man who selflessly covered his comrade with his body, saving him from inevitable death, a man who, gritting his teeth, endured and will endure all the hardships and hardships, going on a feat in the name of the Motherland.

Andrey Sokolov appears before us as such a modest, ordinary warrior in the story “The Fate of a Man”. Sokolov speaks about his courageous deeds as about the most ordinary matter. He bravely fulfilled his military duty at the front. Near Lozovenki, he was instructed to bring shells to the battery. “We had to rush a lot, because the battle was approaching us ... - says Sokolov. - The commander of our unit asks: “Will you get through, Sokolov?” And there was nothing to ask. There, my comrades, maybe they are dying, but I'll sniff around here? What a conversation! - I answer him. - I have to slip through, and that's it! In this episode, Sholokhov noticed the main feature of the hero - a sense of camaraderie, the ability to think about others more than about himself. But, stunned by a shell explosion, he woke up already in captivity of the Germans. With pain, he watches as the advancing German troops go east. Having learned what enemy captivity is, Andrey says with a bitter sigh, turning to his interlocutor: “Oh, brother, it’s not easy to understand that you are not in captivity of your own free will. Whoever has not experienced this in their own skin, you will not immediately enter into the soul, so that it comes to him as a human being what this thing means. His bitter memories speak of what he had to endure in captivity: “It’s hard for me, brother, to remember, and it’s even harder to talk about what happened in captivity. When you remember the inhuman torments that you had to endure there in Germany, when you remember all the friends and comrades who died, were tortured there in the camps, the heart is no longer in the chest, but in the throat beats, and it becomes difficult to breathe ... "

Being in captivity, Andrei Sokolov made every effort to preserve the person in himself, not to exchange for any relief of the fate of "Russian dignity and pride." One of the most striking scenes in the story is the scene of the interrogation of the captured Soviet soldier Andrei Sokolov by the professional killer and sadist Muller. When Muller was informed that Andrei had allowed his dissatisfaction with hard labor to show, he summoned him to the commandant's office for interrogation. Andrei knew that he was going to his death, but decided to "gather up his courage to look into the hole of the pistol fearlessly, as befits a soldier, so that the enemies would not see at the last minute that it was difficult for him to part with his life ..." The interrogation scene turns into spiritual duel of a captive soldier with the commandant of the camp, Müller. It would seem that the forces of superiority should be on the side of the well-fed, endowed with power and the ability to humiliate and trample on the man of Muller. Playing with a pistol, he asks Sokolov whether four cubic meters of production is really a lot, but is one enough for a grave? When Sokolov confirms his earlier words, Muller offers to drink a glass of schnapps before the execution: “Before you die, drink, Russ Ivan, for the victory of German weapons.” Sokolov initially refused to drink "for the victory of German weapons", and then agreed "for his death." After drinking the first glass, Sokolov refused to eat. Then he was given a second one. Only after the third did he bite off a small piece of bread and put the rest on the table. Talking about this, Sokolov says: “I wanted to show them, damned, that although I’m dying of hunger, I’m not going to choke on their sop, that I have my own, Russian dignity and pride, and that they didn’t turn me into cattle, no matter how hard you try."

The courage and endurance of Sokolov struck the German commandant. He not only let him go, but finally gave him a small loaf of bread and a piece of lard: “Here you are, Sokolov, you are a real Russian soldier. You are a brave soldier. I am also a soldier and respect worthy opponents. I won't shoot you. In addition, today our valiant troops reached the Volga and completely captured Stalingrad. This is a great joy for us, and therefore I generously give you life. Go to your block..."

Considering the scene of the interrogation of Andrei Sokolov, one can say; that it is one of the compositional peaks of the story. It has its own theme - the spiritual wealth and moral nobility of the Soviet man; his own idea: there is no force in the world capable of spiritually breaking a true patriot, forcing him to humiliate himself before the enemy.

Andrey Sokolov overcame a lot on his way. The national pride and dignity of the Russian Soviet man, endurance, spiritual humanity, insubordination and indestructible faith in life, in his homeland, in his people - this is what Sholokhov typified in the truly Russian character of Andrei Sokolov. The author showed the unbending will, courage, heroism" of a simple Russian man who, in the time of the most difficult trials that befell his homeland, and irreparable personal losses, was able to rise above his personal fate filled with the deepest drama, managed to overcome death with life and for the sake of life. In this pathos of the story, its main idea.

During the Great Patriotic War, Sholokhov, in military correspondence, essays, and the story “The Science of Hatred”, exposed the anti-human nature of the war unleashed by the Nazis, revealed the heroism of the Soviet people, love for the Motherland. And in the novel "They Fought for the Motherland" the Russian national character was deeply revealed, which clearly manifested itself in the days of severe trials. Recalling how during the war years the Nazis mockingly called the Soviet soldier “Russian Ivan”, Sholokhov wrote in one of his articles: “The symbolic Russian Ivan is this: a man dressed in a gray overcoat, who without hesitation gave the last piece of bread and grams of sugar to a child orphaned in the terrible days of the war, a man who selflessly covered his comrade with his body, saving him from inevitable death, a man who, gritting his teeth, endured and will endure all the hardships and hardships, going on a feat in the name of the Motherland.

“Oh, brother, it’s not easy to understand that you are in captivity not of your own free will. Whoever has not experienced this in their own skin, you will not immediately enter into the soul, so that it comes to him as a human being what this thing means. His bitter memories speak of what he had to endure in captivity: “It’s hard for me, brother, to remember, and it’s even harder to talk about what happened in captivity. When you remember the inhuman torments that you had to endure there in Germany, when you remember all the friends and comrades who died, were tortured there in the camps, the heart is no longer in the chest, but in the throat beats, and it becomes difficult to breathe ... "

The interrogation scene turns into a spiritual duel between the Captured Soldier and the camp commandant Muller. It would seem that the forces of superiority should be on the side of the well-fed, endowed with power and the ability to humiliate and trample on the man of Muller. Playing with a pistol, he asks Sokolov whether four cubic meters of production is really a lot, but is one enough for a grave? When Sokolov confirms his earlier words, Muller offers to drink a glass of schnapps before the execution: “Before you die, drink, Russ Ivan, for the victory of German weapons.” Sokolov initially refused to drink "for the victory of German weapons", and then agreed "for his death." After drinking the first glass, Sokolov refused to eat. Then he was given a second one. Only after the third did he bite off a small piece of bread and put the rest on the table. Talking about this, Sokolov says: “I wanted to show them, damned, that although I’m dying of hunger, I’m not going to choke on their sop, that I have my own, Russian dignity and pride, and that they didn’t turn me into cattle, no matter how hard you try."

Considering the scene of the interrogation of Andrei Sokolov, we can say that it is one of the compositional peaks of the story. It has its own theme - the spiritual wealth and moral nobility of the Soviet man, its own idea: there is no force in the world capable of spiritually breaking a true patriot, forcing him to humiliate himself before the enemy.

Andrey Sokolov overcame a lot on his way. The national pride and dignity of the Russian Soviet man, endurance, spiritual humanity, insubordination and indestructible faith in life, in his homeland, in his people - this is what Sholokhov typified in the truly Russian character of Andrei Sokolov. The author showed the indomitable will, courage, heroism of a simple Russian man who, in the time of the most difficult trials that befell his Motherland and irreparable personal losses, was able to rise above his personal fate filled with the deepest drama, managed to overcome death with life and for the sake of life. This is the pathos of the story, its main idea.

The work "The Fate of a Man" by Sholokhov was first published ten years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, in 1956-1957. The theme of the story is atypical for the literature of that time dedicated to the war. The author first spoke about the soldiers who were captured by the Nazis.

Then we learn the fate of this character already from his lips. Andrei is extremely frank with a random interlocutor - he does not hide personal details.

We can safely say that the life of this hero was happy. After all, he had a loving wife, children, he was doing his favorite thing. At the same time, Andrei's life is typical for that time. Sokolov is a simple Russian man, of whom there were millions in our country at that time.

Andrey's feat ("The Fate of a Man", Sholokhov)

The composition "War in the life of the protagonist" can be built on the contrast of Andrei's attitude towards it and other people who meet on his life path. In comparison with them, it seems to us even more majestic and terrible a feat, which, in fact, is his whole life.

The hero, unlike others, shows patriotism, courage. This is confirmed by the analysis of the work "The Fate of a Man" by Sholokhov. So, during the battle, he plans to accomplish the almost impossible - to deliver shells to the Russian troops, breaking through the enemy's barrier. At this moment he does not think about the impending danger, about his own life. But the plan could not be implemented - Andrei is captured by the Nazis. But even here he does not lose heart, retains his own dignity, calmness. So, when a German soldier ordered him to take off his boots, which he liked, Sokolov, as if mocking him, also takes off his footcloths.

The work reveals various problems of Sholokhov. The fate of a person, anyone, not only Andrei, was tragic at that time. However, in front of her face, different people behave differently. Sholokhov shows the horrors that take place in the captivity of the Germans. Many people lost their face in inhuman conditions: for the sake of saving their lives or a piece of bread, they were ready to go to any betrayal, humiliation, even murder. The stronger, cleaner, higher is the personality of Sokolov, his actions and thoughts. Problems of character, courage, perseverance, honor - that's what interests the writer.

Interview with Muller

And in the face of the mortal danger that threatens Andrei (a conversation with Muller), he behaves very worthily, which even commands respect from the enemy. In the end, the Germans recognize the unbending character of this warrior.

Interestingly, the "confrontation" between Muller and Sokolov took place just at the moment when the fighting was going on near Stalingrad. The moral victory of Andrei in this context becomes, as it were, a symbol of the victory of the Russian troops.

Sholokhov (The Fate of Man) also raises other problems. One of them is the problem of the meaning of life. The hero experienced the full echoes of the war: he learned that he had lost his entire family. Hopes for a happy life are gone. He remains completely alone, having lost the meaning of existence, devastated. The meeting with Vanyusha did not allow the hero to die, to go down. In this boy, the hero found a son, a new incentive to live.

Mikhail Alexandrovich believes that steadfastness, humanism, self-esteem are traits typical of the Russian character. Therefore, our people managed to win this great and terrible war, as Sholokhov ("The Fate of Man") believes. The theme of a person is revealed by the writer in some detail, it is reflected even in the title of the story. Let's turn to him.

The meaning of the title of the story

The story "The Fate of a Man" is not named so by chance. This name, on the one hand, convinces us that the character of Andrei Sokolov is typical, and on the other hand, it also emphasizes his greatness, since Sokolov has every right to be called a Man. This work gave impetus to the revival of the classical tradition in Soviet literature. It is characterized by attention to the fate of a simple, "little man" worthy of full respect.

With the help of various techniques - a story-confession, a portrait, a speech characteristic - the author reveals the character of the hero as fully as possible. This is a simple person, majestic and beautiful, possessing a sense of dignity, strong. His fate can be called tragic, since Andrei Sokolov faced serious trials, but we still involuntarily admire him. Neither the death of loved ones, nor the war could break him. "The Fate of a Man" (Sholokhov M.A.) is a very humanistic work. The main character finds the meaning of life in helping others. This, above all, was required by the harsh post-war period.

During the Great Patriotic War, Sholokhov, in military correspondence, essays, and the story “The Science of Hatred”, exposed the anti-human nature of the war unleashed by the Nazis, revealed the heroism of the Soviet people, love for the Motherland. And in the novel "They Fought for the Motherland" the Russian national character was deeply revealed, which clearly manifested itself in the days of severe trials. Recalling how during the war the Nazis mockingly called the Soviet soldier “Russian Ivan”, Sholokhov wrote in one of his articles: “The symbolic Russian Ivan is this: a man dressed in a gray overcoat who, without hesitation, gave the last piece of bread and thirty grams of front-line sugar to a child orphaned in the terrible days of the war, a man who selflessly covered his comrade with his body, saving him from inevitable death, a man who, gritting his teeth, endured and will endure all the hardships and hardships, going on a feat in the name of the Motherland.

Andrey Sokolov appears before us as such a modest, ordinary warrior in the story “The Fate of a Man”. As about the most common business, Sokolov speaks of his courageous deeds. He bravely fulfilled his military duty at the front. Near Lozovenki, he was instructed to bring shells to the battery. “We had to hurry a lot, because the battle was approaching us…,” says Sokolov. - The commander of our unit asks: "Will you get through, Sokolov?" And there was nothing to ask. There, my comrades, maybe they are dying, but I'll sniff around here? What a conversation! I answer him. - I have to slip through, and that's it! In this episode, Sholokhov noticed the main feature of the hero - a sense of camaraderie, the ability to think about others more than about himself. But, stunned by a shell explosion, he woke up already in captivity of the Germans. With pain, he watches as the advancing German troops go east. Having learned what enemy captivity is, Andrei says with a bitter sigh, turning to his interlocutor: “Oh, brother, it’s not easy to understand that you are not in captivity by your own water. Whoever has not experienced this in their own skin, you will not immediately enter into the soul, so that it comes to him as a human being what this thing means. His bitter memories speak of what he had to endure in captivity: “It’s hard for me, brother, to remember, and even harder to talk about what happened in captivity. When you remember the inhuman torments that you had to endure there in Germany, when you remember all the friends and comrades who died, were tortured there in the camps, the heart is no longer in the chest, but in the throat beats, and it becomes difficult to breathe ... "

The interrogation scene turns into a spiritual duel between the captive soldier and the commandant of the camp, Müller. It would seem that the forces of superiority should be on the side of the well-fed, endowed with power and the ability to humiliate and trample on the man of Muller. Playing with a pistol, he asks Sokolov whether four cubic meters of production is really a lot, but is one enough for a grave? When Sokolov confirms his earlier words, Muller offers to drink a glass of schnapps before the execution: “Before you die, drink, Russ Ivan, for the victory of German weapons.” Sokolov initially refused to drink "for the victory of German weapons", and then agreed "for his death." After drinking the first glass, Sokolov refused to eat. Then he was given a second one. Only after the third did he bite off a small piece of bread and put the rest on the table. Talking about this, Sokolov says: “I wanted to show them, damned, that although I’m dying of hunger, I’m not going to choke on their sop, that I have my own, Russian dignity and pride, and that they didn’t turn me into cattle, no matter how hard you try."

The courage and endurance of Sokolov struck the German commandant. He not only let him go, but finally gave him a small loaf of bread and a piece of lard: “Here's the thing, Sokolov, you are a real Russian soldier. You are a brave soldier. I am also a soldier and respect worthy opponents. I won't shoot you. In addition, today our valiant troops reached the Volga and completely captured Stalingrad. This is a great joy for us, and therefore I generously give you life. Go to your block…”

Andrey Sokolov overcame a lot on his way. The national pride and dignity of the Russian Soviet man, endurance, spiritual humanity, insubordination and indestructible faith in life, in his homeland, in his people - this is what Sholokhov typified in the truly Russian character of Andrei Sokolov. The author showed the indomitable will, courage, heroism of a simple Russian man who, in the time of the most difficult trials that befell his Motherland and irreparable personal losses, was able to rise above his personal fate filled with the deepest drama, managed to overcome death with life and for the sake of life. This is the pathos of the story, its main idea.