Front line essay
Rear railway station on the way to the front. Water tower. Two straight old poplars. A low brick station surrounded by thick acacias.
The military train stops. Two village children run up to the carriage with wallets in their hands.
Lieutenant Martynov asks:
Why currant?
The elder replies:
We do not take money from you, comrade commander.
The boy conscientiously fills the glass astride, so that the currant falls on the hot dust between the sleepers. He knocks the glass into the bowler set up, cocks his head, and, listening to the distant rumble, announces:
- "Henkel" is buzzing ... Wow! Wow! Suffocated. Don't be afraid, comrade lieutenant, there they are our fighters. Here the Germans have no passage through the sky.
Axis! There it thumps...
Lieutenant Martynov is interested in this message. He sits down on the floor by the door and, dangling his legs out, eating currants, asks:
Hm! And what, lad, are people doing in that war?
They shoot, - the boy explains, - they take a gun or a cannon, point it ... and bam! And you're done.
What's ready?
That's what! - the boy exclaims with annoyance. - If they pull the trigger, pull it, then death will come.
To whom death - me? - And Martynov imperturbably pokes his finger in his chest.
No! - the boy screams distressedly, surprised by the dullness of the commander. - Some kind of evil spirit has come, throwing bombs at huts, at sheds. That's where the grandmother was killed, two cows were torn to pieces. About what, - he mockingly shamed the lieutenant, - he put on a revolver, but he doesn’t know how to fight.
Lieutenant Martynov is confused. The commanders around him laugh.
The locomotive gives a whistle.
The boy, the one who delivered the currants, takes his angry little brother by the hand and, striding towards the moving cars, slowly and condescendingly explains to him:
They know! They are joking! This is such a people going ... cheerful, desperate! One commander handed me a three-ruble note for a glass of currants on the go. Well, I'm behind the wagon, running, running. But he put the paper into the car anyway.
Here ... - the boy nods approvingly. - You what! And he is there in the war, let him buy kvass or sitra.
That's stupid! - accelerating his pace and keeping level with the car, the elder says condescendingly. - Do they drink it in the war? Don't lean on my side! Don't turn your head! This is our "I-16" - a fighter, and the German is buzzing heavily, with a break. The war is on its second month, and you don't know your planes.
Combatant zone. Passing herds of collective farm cattle, which go to calm pastures to the east, to the crossroads of the village, the car stops.
A boy of about fifteen jumps up on the step. He is asking for something. The cattle lows, a long whip clicks in clouds of dust.
The engine rumbles, the driver honks desperately, driving away the stupid beast that will not turn off until it hits its forehead on the radiator. What does the boy need? We don't understand. Of money? Of bread?
Then suddenly it turns out:
Uncle, give me two bullets.
What do you need ammo for?
And so ... for memory.
They don't give you ammo for memory.
I shoved him a lattice shell from a hand grenade and a spent shiny cartridge case.
The boy's lips twitch in disdain.
Here you go! What's the point of them?
Ah dear! So you need a memory that you can use? Maybe give you this green bottle or this black, egg-shaped grenade? Maybe you should unhook that small anti-tank gun from the tractor? Get in the car, don't lie and say everything straight.
And so the story begins, full of secret omissions, evasions, although in general everything has long been clear to us.
The dense forest closed sternly around, deep ravines lay across the road, swampy reed swamps spread along the banks of the river. Fathers, uncles and older brothers leave to join partisans. And he is still young, but dexterous, bold. He knows all the hollows, the last forty-kilometer paths in the area.
Fearing that they will not believe him, he pulls out a Komsomol ticket wrapped in oilcloth from his bosom. And not having the right to say anything more, licking his chapped, dusty lips, he waits greedily and impatiently.
I look into his eyes. I put a clip in his hot hand. This is a clip from my rifle. She is registered to me.
I take responsibility for the fact that every bullet fired from these five rounds will fly exactly in the right direction.
What is your name?
Listen, Yakov, why do you need cartridges if you don't have a rifle? What are you going to shoot from an empty jug?
The truck is moving. Yakov jumps off the footboard, he jumps up and cheerfully shouts something awkward, stupid. He laughs and mysteriously threatens me with his finger. Then, moving his fist in the muzzle of a cow spinning near, he disappears in clouds of dust.
Oh, No! This kid will not lay the clip in an empty pot.
Children! The war fell on tens of thousands of them in the same way as on adults, if only because the fascist bombs dropped over peaceful cities have the same effect on everyone.
Acutely, often more acutely than adults, teenagers are little boys, girls are experiencing the events of the Great Patriotic War.
They eagerly, to the last point, listen to the messages of the Information Bureau, remember all the details of heroic deeds, write out the names of the heroes, their ranks, their surnames.
With boundless respect they see off the echelons leaving for the front, with boundless love they greet the wounded arriving from the front.
I saw our children deep in the rear, in the troubled front line, and even on the front line itself. And everywhere I saw in them a great thirst for work, work, and even achievement.
Before the battle on the bank of a river, I recently met a boy.
Looking for the missing cow, in order to shorten the path, he swam across the river and suddenly found himself in the location of the Germans.
Hiding in the bushes, he sat three steps away from the fascist commanders, who were talking about something for a long time, holding a map in front of them.
He came back to us and told us what he saw.
I asked him:
Wait a minute! But you heard what their bosses said, it's very important for us.
The boy was surprised:
So they, Comrade Commander, spoke German!
I know it's not Turkish. How many classes did you complete? Nine? So you were supposed to at least understand something from their conversation?
He folded his hands sadly and sadly.
Oh, comrade commander! If I had known about this meeting before...
Years will pass. You will become adults. And then in good hour rest after a great and peaceful work, you will be happy to remember that once, in terrible days for the Motherland, you did not hang under your feet, did not sit idly by, but in what way you could help your country in its difficult and very important struggle against human-hated fascism.
active army
You will need
- Text by A.P. Gaidar "Front line. Passing herds of collective farm cattle, which go to calm pastures ... "
Instruction
First, the student reads the text and follows the events, while thinking about the actions of people and their characteristics. It is clear from the events of this text: children are actively trying to participate in the events that take place in their homeland.
The problem can be formulated like this:
“Russian writer of the first half of the twentieth century A.P. Gaidar considers the problem of adolescents' attitude to events taking place in their homeland.
In the commentary on the problem, it is necessary to briefly reflect specific events, reflecting the main idea of the author - how children act.
The comment might look like this:
“The author tells about a meeting with a teenager Yakov, who needed cartridges. The lad, without naming obvious reasons, really wanted to be believed, and took out a Komsomol ticket. He tried to convince the passerby that he needed a weapon. Yakov is glad that they believed him and did not refuse.
About the position of the author, you can write the following:
“Regarding the behavior of children during the war, the writer believes that they did not stay away from the trouble that overtook the country. Teenagers showed special care for the wounded, respected the military and were proud of their deeds. They themselves wanted to participate in the fight against fascism. A.P. Gaidar is confident that the children's memories of helping adults will make them happy."
The writer of the essay can express his position in this way:
“Just like the writer, I respect the children of wartime. To have the same responsibility as adults, to distinguish themselves by heroic deeds, to worry about what is happening in the Motherland - such behavior should be an invaluable moral heritage for future generations.
The reader's argument might be:
“As a reader's argument, one can cite the events that Lev Kassil talks about. The work is called "The Story of the Absent". This book is about how a military unit during the Great Patriotic War was surrounded and how a boy helped her. The man who received the award told about this boy. He believed that this unknown boy deserved the order to a greater extent, because he showed him the way through the ravine, and then diverted the attention of the Germans - he ran in the other direction, and the Germans shot him. And the scout did not even have time to ask his name. When he told this story, all the military in the hall stood up to honor the memory of the hero, whose name no one knew."
If the second argument is also a reader argument, instead of an argument based on life experience, the essay can be considered of better quality.
Here is an example of a reader's argument 2: “The story of Lev Kassil “Aleksey Andreevich” tells about how children independently served during the war years. The commander was a fourteen-year-old boy, Alexei Andreevich, as his subordinates called him. He was in charge of the raft, which they called "The coffin of the Nazis." A group of guys acted like a real group of scouts. They brought information about the Germans, showed the military unit the crossing of the river in the place where the river made a bend. The guys rescued the wounded soldiers and transported them to the unit. Then they handed over 80 German rifles to the military unit. When the commander of the unit compiled a list of fighters for the award, he first put the name and patronymic of this boy.
(1) Frontline. (2) Passing herds of collective farm cattle, which go to calm pastures to the east, the car stops at the crossroads of the village. (3) A fifteen-year-old boy jumps up on the step.
- (4) Uncle, give me two cartridges.
- (5) What do you need ammo for?
- (6) And so ... for memory.
- (7) They don’t give cartridges for memory.
(8) I thrust him a lattice shell from a hand grenade and a spent shiny cartridge case.
(9) The boy's lips curl contemptuously:
Here you go! (10) What's the use of them?
- (11) Oh, dear! (12) So you need such a memory with which you can make sense? (13) Maybe you want this green bottle or this black grenade? (14) Maybe you should unhook that small anti-tank gun from the tractor? (15) Get in the car, don't lie and speak straight.
(16) And now the story begins, full of secret omissions, evasions, although in general everything has long been clear to us.
(17) Fathers, uncles and older brothers are leaving for partisans. (18) And he is still young, but dexterous, bold. (19) He knows all the hollows, the last paths for forty kilometers in the area.
(20) Fearing that they will not believe him, he pulls out a Komsomol ticket wrapped in oilcloth from his bosom. (21) And not being entitled to tell anything more, licking his chapped, dusty lips, he waits eagerly and impatiently.
(22) I look into his eyes. (23) I put a clip in his hot hand. (24) This is a clip from my rifle. (25) It is written on me. (26) I take responsibility for the fact that each bullet fired from these five rounds will fly exactly in the right direction.
- (27) Listen, Yakov, why do you need cartridges if you don’t have a rifle? (28) What are you going to shoot from an empty jug?
(29) The truck moves off. (30) Jacob jumps off the footboard, he jumps up and cheerfully shouts something awkward, stupid. (31) He laughs and mysteriously threatens me with his finger. (32) Then, having moved a cow spinning around with his fist in the face, he disappears in clouds of dust.
(33) Children! (34) The war fell on tens of thousands of them in the same way as on adults, if only because the fascist bombs dropped over peaceful cities have the same force for everyone.
(35) Acutely, often more acutely than adults, adolescents - boys, girls - experience the events of the Great Patriotic War. (36) They eagerly, to the last point, listen to the messages of the Information Bureau, remember all the details of heroic deeds, write out the names of the heroes, their ranks, their surnames. (37) With boundless respect, they escort the echelons leaving for the front, with boundless love they meet the wounded arriving from the front.
(38) I saw our children in the deep rear, in the alarming front line, and even on the front line itself. (39) And everywhere I saw them have a great thirst for work, work, and even achievement.
(40) Years will pass. (41) You will become adults. (42) And then, at a good hour of rest after a great and peaceful work, you will happily remember that once, in terrible days for the Motherland, you did not get under your feet, did not sit idly by, but helped your country in its difficult and very important struggle against misanthropic fascism.
(According to A.P. Gaidar)
Show full text
In the text proposed for analysis, the Soviet writer Arkady Petrovich Gaidar poses the problem children's experiences of military events.
Revealing the problem, the author cites the example of the boy Yakov, who ended up on the front line. He asks the soldiers for two cartridges "for memory", but it turns out that they are needed for a completely different purpose. The hero puts a clip in his “hot hand” and takes the answer that “each bullet fired from these five rounds will fly exactly in the right direction.”
During the war years, children understood that they could not remain aloof from ongoing events, they made any concessions in order to help. This, in my opinion, is the position of A.P. Gaidar.
Criteria
- 1 of 1 K1 Statement of source text problems
- 3 of 3 K2
(1) Frontline. (2) Passing herds of collective farm cattle, which go to calm pastures to the east, the car stops at the crossroads of the village. (3) A boy of about fifteen jumps up on the step.
The writing
War is the event that left no one indifferent. Some fought the enemy on the battlefield, others supported life in the rear and inspired the soldiers with their faith. But how did the children experience the events of war? And what was their participation in the fight against the enemy? These are the questions that A.P. invites us to discuss in his text. Gaidar.
The hero of the text given to me is Yakov, a little boy who is trying to beg cartridges “for memory” from a front-line driver. The author focuses on the fact that the true need of the child is not at all what he wanted to show. The boy "greedily and impatiently", with his characteristic heroism, like his father and grandfather, is waiting for cartridges in order to use each of them for its intended purpose in the future. The writer draws the reader's attention to the fact that Jacob is not in suspension and all events - he is overwhelmed with a thirst for action.
A.P. Gaidar believes that during the war years, children felt their involvement in everything that was happening, felt a thirst for action, and, like Yakov, went to any tricks to help the country in the fight against the enemy.
I understand the author's point. Indeed, the children, whose personal formation fell on the period of the war, considered helping their Fatherland to be their main life goal. Their subjects for imitation were selfless soldiers and their wives, from which, of course, that enthusiasm and fire in the eyes followed, with which the children of that time relate to everything that happens.
Petya Rostov, the hero of the epic novel L.N., had the same view of the war. Tolstoy "War and Peace". The author in his work contrasted children and war, and built a plot on this contrast and revealed one of the main ideas of the epic novel. So, the death of Petya Rostov, a gifted, kind, not yet revealed boy, with his dreams and love for people, showed that there is nothing more merciless than war. And although the writer reveals the image of Petya Rostov as a young hero driven by a worthy goal to help his Fatherland, the main goal of the author is precisely to show everyone that children and war are an inappropriate combination, because, being quite young, they do not fully understand the essence of his heroism.
In V. Bykov's story "Obelisk" the theme of children and war is also clearly revealed. The author, like L.N. Tolstoy, shows the fire in the eyes of children, but at the same time reveals the incomprehension of children's heroism. The death of the guys in the story is as “heroic” as the death of Petya Rostov. Yes, the teacher Frost put a lot of effort into their patriotic education, but later he is torn by guilt because he failed to save these very young heroes. And even despite the fact that obelisks were later installed on the graves of these children, the reader for a long time has a clear aftertaste of vain victims and unfairly cut short destinies.
In conclusion, I would like to note once again that, of course, children in wartime have always been filled with heroism and a thirst to help their soldiers. Perhaps at that time it was impossible to exist otherwise, but it seems to me that even with the level of patriotism that had to be maintained, these children should also be told about how important and valuable the life of each of them is. Perhaps in this case there would be fewer such vain victims.
