Audio story by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov “The Fate of a Man.” The story of Andrei Sokolov's family before the war, the beginning of the story.
The author’s meeting in the first post-war spring on the Upper Don, at the crossing of the Elanka River on the way to the village of Bukanovskaya, opposite the Mokhovsky farm, with the main character of the story “The Fate of a Man.” Andrei Sokolov was a tall, stooped man, his eyes “as if sprinkled with ashes” and filled with “an inescapable mortal melancholy.” Andrei Sokolov was walking with a boy about 5-6 years old, whom he called son. We had to wait two hours for the boat. So Andrei Sokolov told the story of his life, a painful one. He himself is a native of the Voronezh province, born in 1900. IN civil war was in the Red Army, in the Kikvidze division. In the famine of 1922, he lost all his relatives. He started life again in Voronezh, in a carpentry artel, then went to a factory and learned to be a mechanic. Got married. His wife, Irinka, was an orphan from orphanage. Good. Quiet, cheerful, obsequious and smart. They had three children. The eldest son Anatoly, then the same age daughters Nastenka and Olyushka. The children studied excellently. Anatoly was gifted in mathematics, they even wrote about him in central newspaper. For ten years they saved up for a new house. Irina bought two goats. Everything was fine. Then the war began. Irina said goodbye to her husband very bitterly, saying goodbye that they would not see each other in this world.
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✪ I don’t have a snack after the first glass.
✪ “The Fate of Man” Andrey Sokolov and Vanyusha
✪ “The Fate of Man” by M. Sholokhov. Analysis of the 1st part of the story.
Subtitles
Biography
Born in the Voronezh province in 1900. During the Civil War he served in the army, in the Kikvidze division. In 1922, he went to Kuban “to fight against the kulaks, which is why he remained alive.” Andrei's father, mother and sister died of hunger. In 1923, he sold the house and left for Voronezh. He worked as a carpenter, then got a job as a mechanic at a factory. He met Irina, who was brought up in an orphanage, and married her. Until the end of his life he loved his wife very much. Soon the Sokolovs had a son, Anatoly, and a year later, two daughters: Anastasia and Olga. Sokolov stopped drinking. In 1929, Sokolov became interested in cars. He studied driving, got a job as a truck driver, and decided not to return to the factory. It worked like this until 1939. All the children studied excellently. On June 23, 1941, Sokolov was called up to the front. Already on June 24 he was taken to the train.
Sokolov was formed under the White Church, he received a ZIS-5. Was wounded twice. He was captured near Lozovenki in May 1942 while trying to smuggle shells for an artillery unit. His car was blown up. He lost consciousness and ended up in the rear of the German army, where he was captured. In the face of death, he did not lose heart and did not show fear to the enemy. Soon Andrei was brought to Poznan and settled in a camp. There, while digging graves for his dead compatriots, Andrei tried to escape. The escape was unsuccessful: detective dogs found Sokolov in the field. He was very badly beaten and bitten. For escaping, Andrei ended up in a camp punishment cell for a month.
Sokolov was transferred around Germany for a long time. He worked in Saxony in a silicate plant, in the Ruhr region in a coal mine, in Bavaria in earthworks, in Thuringia and in many other places. All prisoners of war were constantly and mercilessly beaten with anything. The food was very bad. Sokolov, from 84 kg, had already lost weight to less than 50 kg by the autumn of 1942.
In September, Andrei, among 142 Soviet prisoners of war, was transferred from the camp near Küstrin to the B-14 camp near Dresden. In total there were about 2,000 Soviet prisoners there. In two months, out of 142 people in Andreev’s echelon, 57 remained. One evening in his barracks, cold and wet, Andrei said: “They need four cubic meters of production, but for the grave of each of us, one cubic meter through the eyes is enough.”.
A traitor was found who reported this statement to management. Andrei was summoned to the camp commandant Müller. He promised to shoot Sokolov personally for these bitter words. Sokolov was pardoned for his courage. 300 of the strongest prisoners were sent to drain the swamps, then to the Ruhr region to work in the mines.
Then Andrei was appointed driver of a German major. Soon he fled by car and took the major with him.
I wrote a letter to Irina immediately after the meeting with the command. He described everything, even boasted that the colonel had promised to put him up for a reward. But in response, a letter came from a neighbor, Ivan Timofeevich.
Having received a month's leave, Andrei immediately headed to Voronezh. I saw a crater overgrown with weeds at the site of my house. He immediately returned to the front. But soon he received a letter from his son, which restored his stamina and desire to live.
But on the last day of the war, Anatoly Sokolov was shot by a German sniper.
Heartbroken, Andrei returned to Russia, but went not to Voronezh, but to Uryupinsk to visit a demobilized friend. Started working as a driver. He met the homeless orphan Vanya, whose mother was killed by a bomb and whose father died at the front, and adopted him, telling the boy that he was his father.
Shortly after this I had an accident. He himself was not injured, but was deprived of his driver's license. On the advice of a friend, he decided to move to another area, where they promised to restore his rights. While walking, the author meets him, to whom Sokolov tells the story of his life (in the spring of 1946).
The story “The Fate of Man” has no continuation, so further fate hero is unknown.
Analysis
Naum Leiderman believes that the main features of Andrei Sokolov are his fatherhood and soldiering. Andrei Sokolov is a tragic character who managed to maintain his fortitude despite being seriously wounded, captivity, escape, the death of his family, and, finally, the death of his son on May 9, 1945. A. B. Galkin compares his fate with the story of the book of Job. Sholokhov scholar Viktor Vasilyevich Petelin in the book “Mikhail Sholokhov: Pages of Life and Creativity”, M., 1986, P.13) wrote: “In tragic image Andrei Sokolov, Sholokhov saw a man-fighter with titanic spiritual powers, who had experienced and experienced a lot, broken by painful suffering that left an indelible mark on his soul.”
Sokolov's fate is tragic. He went through the entire civil war, fought on the side of the Red Army. Having learned about the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, on the third day the hero goes to the front, says goodbye to his family and his beloved wife. How could he have known that he would never see them again? For the rest of his life, Sokolov reproached himself for pushing his wife away and being rude to her. This was the last thing he managed to do - soon Irina died...
The hero recalls that at first it was very difficult at the front: ours were retreating, the Germans were gaining the upper hand. Through Sokolov’s words, the author emphasizes that they fought in the Soviet ranks completely different people, and not just heroes. There were also those who were afraid, “whined and smeared their snot,” as the protagonist put it. The military spirit of the Soviet army was falling, and only strong people “kept themselves in control.” But there was one more argument, the strongest for Sokolov: “... these unfortunate women and children had no worse time in the rear than ours. The whole state relied on them!” Of course, Andrei Sokolov is not an impeccable hero; he was also scared and “sick.” But he, as a man, as a stronger one, took this burden upon himself, trying to make life at least a little easier for women and children in the rear. And I’m sure there were plenty of such people in those years.
During the first year of the war, Sokolov was wounded twice. About this time he says that he was “lucky.” Because the German captivity, which the hero endured later, can only be compared to hell, and everything else in the war could be called luck. Sokolov, who was delivering ammunition to soldiers under enemy fire, was hit by a shell. When he woke up, the hero realized that he was in German captivity: “Oh, brother, it’s not an easy thing to understand that you are not in captivity of your own free will. Anyone who hasn’t experienced this on their own skin will not immediately get into their soul so that they can understand in a human way what this thing means.”
During two years of captivity, Sokolov suffered inhumane abuse and torture: “They beat you because you were Russian, because you white light You still look at me because you work for them, bastards.” But, despite this, the Germans failed to break the character of the hero, which is probably why he remained alive.
The culmination of the hero’s stay in captivity and one of the climaxes of the story was the episode of Sokolov’s conversation with Lagerführer Müller. Going to a meeting with Muller, Andrei realizes that he is going to his death. He gathers his courage to look at the enemy and bravely into the barrel of a gun, as befits a Russian soldier. And in the face of the Lagerführer, Sokolov behaves with great dignity. He, on the verge of starvation, did not drink to the victory of the fascist troops: “... I have my own, Russian dignity and pride and... they did not turn me into a beast, no matter how hard they tried.”
After this, even the Nazis bowed to the strong Russian character, full of dignity, freedom and love for the Motherland. Muller says that he respects worthy opponents, and as a sign of his recognition he even gives the hero a piece of lard and bread. The fascist treat was divided equally among all the inhabitants of the barracks. A Russian soldier remains a Russian soldier under any conditions! This is confirmed by how Sokolov escaped from captivity. He fled and brought with him a German general who was “more valuable than twenty languages” to the Soviet troops.
But the hero’s misfortunes did not end there. He soon learned that his wife and daughters had died, and on May 9, the day of victory, his only son had died. The light faded in front of Andrei. The meaning of life has disappeared, there is no reason to live. But even then the Russian soldier survived. And a little later, fate gave him another chance - Sokolov met a little tramp Vanyusha, whose parents died at the front. And the light began to dawn on Sokolov again...
The hero's fate is typical in many ways: a brutal war, physical and mental suffering and trials, the loss of all loved ones. But Sokolov always managed to remain a man, a Russian man and a Russian soldier, before whom even animals in human form - the fascists - bowed their heads.
Andrey Sokolov – main character M. A. Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” is the embodiment of many real destinies real people who survived the Great Patriotic War and all the hardships of the first half of the twentieth century.
A tall, strong man, over forty years old, with strong, calloused, worn-out hands, but at the same time constantly hunched over, as if under the weight of his own troubles, and with an unusually sad look.
“Have you ever seen eyes as if sprinkled with ashes, filled with such an inescapable mortal melancholy that it is difficult to look into them? These were the eyes of my random interlocutor...”
This is how the main character appears before the narrator.
Little by little he begins to share with an unfamiliar listener, as if wanting to ease his soul. From his story it becomes clear how unmerciful life was to him, what a difficult path he went through.
“...Sometimes you don’t sleep at night, you look into the darkness with empty eyes and think: “Why have you, life, maimed me so much? Why did you distort it like that?” I don’t have an answer, either in the dark or in the clear sun... There isn’t and I can’t wait!..”
From his youth he suffered a lot of grief. During the Civil War he fought in the Red Army. In 1922, he went to work in Kuban in order to somehow survive the famine. His entire family then died of starvation in his native Voronezh.
A year later, he finally returned back to Voronezh, although no one was waiting there. Met good girl and got married. Andrey remembers those times with special warmth. The wife was very good, kind - she herself saw little good in life, she was an orphan. So they found solace in each other and lived happily together. They started a small farm, they had three children - two girls and a boy. But the war came and mercilessly took away this quiet, short-lived happiness from them.
Andrei was taken to the front as a driver, where he was wounded twice and captured. Having endured all the horrors of captivity and German camps, he still does not break.
“...When you remember the inhuman torment that you had to endure there in Germany...”
Neither hard work, nor hunger, nor bullying breaks him. He does not become a traitor to save his own skin, he does not curry favor with the Germans for a piece of bread.
Despite everything, he manages to maintain his dignity. After one unsuccessful escape attempt, he manages to escape. But the ordeal does not end there - after the hospital he learns that his house in Voronezh was hit by an air bomb, his wife and daughters are dead. But three months later, son Anatoly is there. After artillery school, he went to the front and went to Germany. But they were not destined to meet. On the last day of the war, he was shot by a German sniper.
This is how Andrei’s last hope died. He was left alone, restless and useless to anyone. But sometimes human destinies intertwined in the most in a strange way. So, the homeless child Vanya, a little orphan, quite by chance became his son and new hope.
Andrei Sokolov, the main character of M. Sholokhov's story "The Fate of Man."
The hero had a difficult fate, but being a Man with a capital M, he steadfastly endured all the trials, going through the paths of war.
Before the war, Andrei worked as a driver, becoming interested in this craft for ten years. He got married, lived with his wife in perfect harmony, a modest girl at first glance, who became a faithful and understanding friend in life. Andrei’s children, who grew up with a hardworking father and affectionate mother, studied “excellently” and delighted their parents.
The parting in July 1941 was all the more bitter. With blood, the hero tore his wife from his heart, she said goodbye to him forever.
IN military biography Andrei Sokolov has a place for both heroism and captivity. In 1942, while delivering shells to a battery repelling the enemy, he was shell-shocked. With the remnants of the division, barely dragging his feet, but full of the desire to live, the hero entered new period of your life - captivity. Having shown courage and perseverance, loyalty to ideals, the hero, who strangled the traitor with his own hands on the first day of captivity, endured the hardships of wandering around the camps. The thought of home and loved ones warmed him. Surviving and returning became his goal. Hunger, hard work in the mines of Germany, and bullying from the “owners” could not break the man. Even his overseers recognized his soldierly character when, exhausted by hunger, he refused to drink or eat “for the victory of Germany.”
At the end of the war, when the fascist forces, thinned by battles, did not disdain the labor of prisoners, Andrei was lucky to work as a driver for a German, an engineer of defensive structures. Having fed himself a little, the hero planned to run to his own. Taking advantage of the German’s craving for alcohol and stocking up on the uniform of the enemy army, Sokolov took the fascist behind the front line and, under artillery fire, delivered him to the Russians. Andrei was waiting for a reward for heroism and difficult news.
Back in 1942, the house in which his family lived was destroyed during an air raid. His wife and daughters died. The hero's heart was ready to petrify from grief, only the news of his son saved him. Arriving from Soviet army Before Berlin, Sokolov was preparing for the long-awaited meeting, but on May 9, Victory Day, the German sniper cut off this last connection. Andrei said goodbye to his former life at his son’s coffin.
Having drawn the line, with a heart petrified from grief and experience, the hero did not return to the crater on the site of his home. He could not stay in his native Voronezh; he found shelter with a fellow soldier in Uryupinsk.
He returned to work by car, transporting collective farm grain to the elevator. But alone little man- a five-year-old boy, a street child near the tea shop, awakened Andrei’s heart to a new life. Like a sprout, the boy broke through the stone of his heart and returned love and fatherly care to the hero’s life.
Sholokhov ends the work with stingy male tears. These are the tears of a strong man who went through the hell of war and lost loved ones, but returned to a new life.
