The Great Patriotic War was widely covered in literature, especially in Soviet times, as many authors shared their personal experiences and survived all the described horrors along with ordinary soldiers. Therefore, it is not surprising that at first the military, and then the post-war years were marked by the writing of a number of works on the feat of the Soviet people in a fierce struggle against Nazi Germany. One cannot ignore such books and forget about them, for they make us think about life and death, war and peace, past and present. We offer you a list of the best books on the Great Patriotic War, which are worth reading and re-reading.
Vasil Bykov
Vasil Bykov (books are presented below) - an outstanding Soviet writer, public figure and participant in the Second World War. Probably one of the most famous authors of military novels. Bykov wrote mainly about the moral choice of man during the most severe trials that fall to his lot, and about the heroism of ordinary soldiers. Vasil Vladimirovich praised in his works the feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Below we will consider the most famous novels of this author: "Sotnikov", "Obelisk" and "Survive until dawn."
"Sotnikov"
The story was written in 1968. This is another example of how the Great Patriotic War was described in fiction. Initially, the arbitrariness was called “Liquidation”, and the plot was based on the meeting of the author with a former fellow soldier, whom he considered dead. In 1976, based on this book, the film "Ascent" was shot.
The story tells of a partisan detachment, which is in great need of provisions and medicines. Rybak and the intellectual Sotnikov are sent for supplies, who are ill, but volunteered to go, as there were no more volunteers. Long wanderings and searches lead the partisans to the village of Lyasiny, here they rest a bit and get a carcass of a sheep. Now you can go back. But on the way back they come across a detachment of policemen. Sotnikov is seriously injured. Now the Fisherman must save the life of his comrade and bring the promised provisions to the camp. However, he does not succeed, and together they fall into the hands of the Germans.
"Obelisk"
Many works about the war were written by Vasil Bykov. The writer’s books were often filmed. One of these books was the story Obelisk. The work is built on the type of "story in a story" and has a pronounced heroic character.
The hero of the story, whose name remains unknown, arrives at the funeral of Pavel Miklashevich, a rural teacher. At the wake, everyone remembers the deceased with a kind word, but then it comes to Frost, and everyone stops talking. On the way home, the hero asks his fellow traveler what kind of frost Moroz has to Miklashevich. Then they tell him that Frost was the teacher of the deceased. He treated the children as relatives, took care of them, and Miklashevich, whom his father oppressed, took to live with him. When the war began, Frost helped the partisans. The village was occupied by the police. Once his students, including Miklashevich, sawed up the supports of the bridge, and the police chief, along with his assistants, was in the water. The boys were caught. Frost, who had fled to the partisans by that time, surrendered to free the students. But the Nazis decided to hang both children and their teachers. Before his execution, Frost helped Miklashevich escape. The rest were hanged.
"Live Until Dawn"
The story of 1972. As you can see, the Great Patriotic War in literature continues to be relevant even after decades. This is also confirmed by the fact that Bykov was awarded the USSR State Prize for this story. The work tells about the daily life of military intelligence and saboteurs. Initially, the story was written in Belarusian, and only then translated into Russian.
November 1941, the beginning of World War II. The lieutenant of the Soviet army Igor Ivanovsky, the protagonist of the story, commands a sabotage group. He will have to lead his comrades over the front line - to the lands of Belarus occupied by German invaders. Their task is to blow up the German ammunition depot. Bykov talks about the feat of ordinary soldiers. It was they, and not the staff officers, who became the force that helped win the war.
In 1975, the book was filmed. The script for the film was written by Bykov himself.
"And the dawns here are quiet ..."
The work of Soviet and Russian writer Boris Lvovich Vasiliev. One of the most famous front-line novels is largely due to the 1972 film adaptation of the same name. “And the dawns here are quiet ...” Boris Vasiliev wrote in 1969. The work is based on real events: during the war, soldiers serving on the Kirov Railway prevented German saboteurs from blowing up the railway track. After a fierce battle, only the commander of the Soviet group survived, who was awarded the medal "For Military Merit."
“And the dawns here are quiet ...” (Boris Vasiliev) - a book describing the 171st journey in the Karelian wilderness. Here is the calculation of anti-aircraft installations. The soldiers, not knowing what to do, begin to get drunk and mess around. Then Fedor Vaskov, the commandant of the detachment, asks "to send non-drinkers." The command sends two departments of anti-aircraft gunners to it. And somehow, one of the new arrivals notices German saboteurs in the forest.
Vaskov realizes that the Germans want to get to strategic objects and understands that they need to be intercepted here. To do this, he collects a detachment of 5 anti-aircraft gunners and leads them to the Sinyukhin ridge through the swamps to one guided path. During the campaign, it turns out that the Germans are 16 people, so he sends one of the girls for reinforcements, and he himself pursues the enemy. However, the girl does not reach her own and dies in the swamps. Vaskov has to enter into an unequal battle with the Germans, and as a result, the four girls left with him die. But still the commandant manages to capture the enemies, and he takes them to the location of the Soviet troops.
The story describes the feat of a man who decides to confront the enemy and not allow him to walk through his native land with impunity. Without an order from the authorities, the main character himself goes into battle and takes 5 volunteers with him - the girls volunteered themselves.
"There was a war tomorrow"
The book is a kind of biography of the author of this work, Boris Lvovich Vasiliev. The story begins with the writer telling about his childhood, about the fact that he was born in Smolensk, his father was the commander of the Red Army. And before becoming at least someone in this life, choosing his profession and deciding on a place in society, Vasiliev became a soldier, like many of his peers.
“Tomorrow was the war” is a work about pre-war time. Its main characters are very young students of the 9th grade, the book tells about their growing up, love and friendship, idealistic youth, which turned out to be too short due to the outbreak of war. The work tells about the first serious confrontation and choice, about the collapse of hopes, about the inevitable growing up. And all this against the backdrop of an impending painful threat that cannot be stopped or avoided. And after a year, these boys and girls will find themselves in the heat of a fierce battle, in which many of them are destined to burn. However, in their short lives, they will learn what honor, duty, friendship, and truth are.
"Hot Snow"
A novel by front-line writer Yuri Vasilievich Bondarev. The Great Patriotic War in the literature of this writer is especially widely represented and has become the main motive of all his work. But the most famous work of Bondarev is precisely the novel "Hot Snow", written in 1970. The action takes place in December 1942 near Stalingrad. The novel is based on real events - an attempt by the German army to unlock the sixth army of Paulus, surrounded near Stalingrad. This battle was decisive in the battle for Stalingrad. The book was filmed by G. Egiazarov.
The novel begins with the fact that two artillery platoons under the command of Davlatyan and Kuznetsov have to gain a foothold on the Myshkova River, and then restrain the advance of German tanks, hurrying to the rescue of the Paulus army.
After the first wave of advance from the platoon of Lieutenant Kuznetsov, one gun and three soldiers remain. Nevertheless, the soldiers continue to repel the onslaught of enemies for another day.
"The fate of man"
"The fate of man" is a school work that is studied under the theme "The Great Patriotic War in Literature." The story was written by the famous Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov in 1957.
The work describes the life of a simple driver Andrei Sokolov, who had to leave his family and home with the outbreak of World War II. However, before the hero had time to get to the front, he was immediately injured and ended up in Nazi captivity, and then to a concentration camp. Thanks to his courage, Sokolov manages to survive captivity, and at the end of the war he manages to escape. Having got to his own, he receives a vacation and goes to his small homeland, where he finds out that his family has died, only his son who has gone to war has survived. Andrei returns to the front and finds out that his son was shot dead by a sniper on the last day of the war. However, this is not the end of the hero’s story, Sholokhov shows that even having lost everything, you can find new hope and gain strength in order to live on.
"Brest Fortress"
The book of the famous Soviet writer and journalist Sergei Smirnov was written in 1954. For this work, the author was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1964. And this is not surprising, because the book is the result of a ten-year work of Smirnov on the history of the defense of the Brest Fortress.
The work “Brest Fortress” (Sergey Smirnov) is a part of history itself. To write literally bit by bit he collected information about the defenders, wishing that their good names and honor would not be forgotten. Many of the heroes were captured, for which, after the end of the war, they were convicted. And Smirnov wanted to protect them. The book has many memories and testimonies of the participants in the battles, which fills the book with true tragedy, full of courageous and decisive actions.
"The living and the dead"
The Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century describes the life of ordinary people who, by the will of fate, turned out to be heroes and traitors. This cruel time of many grind, and only a few managed to slip between the millstones of history.
“The Living and the Dead” is the first book of the famous trilogy of the same name by Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov. The second two parts of the epic are called "Soldiers are not born" and "Last Summer". The first part of the trilogy was published in 1959.
Many critics consider the work to be one of the brightest and most talented examples of the description of the Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century. Moreover, the epic novel is not a historiographical work or a chronicle of war. The characters in the book are fictional people, although they have certain prototypes.
“War has no female face”
Literature devoted to the Great Patriotic War usually describes the exploits of men, sometimes forgetting that women also contributed to the common victory. But the book of the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich, one can say, restores historical justice. The writer collected in her work the stories of those women who took part in the Great Patriotic War. The title of the book was the first lines of the novel "War under the Roofs" by A. Adamovich.
The book was first published in 1983, but at that time many chapters were crossed out by censorship. And only after two years, readers were able to familiarize themselves with the work in full.
“Not listed”
Another story, the theme of which was the Great Patriotic War. In Soviet literature, Boris Vasiliev, which we already mentioned above, was quite famous. But he gained this fame precisely thanks to his military work, one of which is the story “Does not appear on the lists”.
The book was written in 1974. Its action takes place at the very beginning of the Second World War in the Brest Fortress, besieged by fascist invaders. Lieutenant Nikolai Pluzhnikov, the protagonist of the work, falls into this fortress before the start of the war - he arrived on the night of June 21-22. And at dawn the battle is already beginning. Nikolai has the opportunity to leave here, since his name is not on any military list, but decides to stay and defend his homeland until the end.
Babi Yar
The documentary novel "Babi Yar" Anatoly Kuznetsov published in 1965. The work is based on childhood memories of the author, who during the war ended up in German-occupied territory.
The novel begins with a short author's introduction, a brief introductory chapter, and several chapters, which are combined in three parts. The first part tells about the withdrawal from Kiev of the retreating Soviet troops, the collapse of the South-Western Front and the beginning of the occupation. Also included here were scenes of the execution of Jews, the bombings of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and Khreshchatyk.
The second part is fully devoted to the occupation life of 1941-1943, the theft of Russians and Ukrainians as workers in Germany, about hunger, about underground production, about Ukrainian nationalists. The final part of the novel tells about the liberation of Ukrainian land from the German invaders, the flight of policemen, the battle for the city, about the uprising in the concentration camp of Babi Yar.
"The Tale of a Real Man"
Literature about the Great Patriotic War also includes the work of another Russian writer who went through the war as a military journalist, Boris Polevoy. The story was written in 1946, that is, almost immediately after the end of hostilities.
The plot is based on an event from the life of the USSR military pilot Alexei Meresyev. His prototype was a real character, the hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Maresyev, who, like his hero, was a pilot. The story tells how he was shot down in a battle with the Germans and seriously injured. As a result of the accident, he lost both legs. However, his willpower was so great that he managed to return to the ranks of Soviet pilots.
The work was awarded the Stalin Prize. The story is imbued with humanistic and patriotic ideas.
"Madonna with rye bread"
Maria Glushko is a Crimean Soviet writer who went to the front at the beginning of the Second World War. Her book “Madonna with rations of bread” is about the feat of all mothers, on whose share it fell to survive the Great Patriotic War. The heroine of the work is a very young girl Nina, whose husband goes to war, and at the insistence of her father she goes to evacuate to Tashkent, where her stepmother and brother are waiting for her. The heroine is in the last stages of pregnancy, but this will not protect her from the stream of human troubles. And in a short time, Nina will have to find out what was hidden from her before the well-being and tranquility of her pre-war existence: people live in the country so differently, what are their life principles, values, attitudes, how do they differ from her, who grew up in ignorance and affluence. But the main thing that the heroine has to do is give birth to a child and save him from all the misfortunes of the war.
"Vasily Terkin"
Such characters as the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, literature painted the reader in different ways, but the most memorable, cheerful and charismatic, of course, was Vasily Terkin.
This poem by Alexander Twardowski, which began to be published in 1942, immediately received popular love and recognition. The work was written and published throughout the Second World War, the last part was published in 1945. The main task of the poem was to maintain the fighting spirit of the soldiers, and Twardowski successfully completed this task, largely thanks to the image of the protagonist. The daring and cheerful Terkin, who is always ready for battle, won the hearts of many ordinary soldiers. He is the soul of a unit, a merry fellow and a joker, and in battle he is a role model, a resourceful and always achieving his goal warrior. Even being on the verge of death, he continues to fight and is already engaging in a fight with Death itself.
The work includes a prologue, 30 chapters of the main content, divided into three parts, and an epilogue. Each chapter is a small front story from the life of the protagonist.
Thus, we see that the exploits of the Great Patriotic War were widely covered by the literature of the Soviet period. We can say that this is one of the main topics of the middle and second half of the 20th century for Russian and Soviet writers. This is due to the fact that the whole country was involved in the battle with the German invaders. Even those who were not at the front worked tirelessly in the rear, providing soldiers with ammunition and provisions.