And the dawns here are quiet...
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 from her squad.
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, “took the colonel into their employ,” 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 Sinyukhin ridge, stretching between two lakes, along which is the only way to get to 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 in " educational purposes"But Vaskov does not suspect what kind of mark Sonin's death left on Gali's soul. She is terrified and at the most crucial moment she 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.
Boris Lvovich Vasiliev
“And the dawns here are quiet...”
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 only took advantage of her defenselessness, but stuck her to himself by Colonel Luzhin.” 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 Sinyukhin 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.
In May 1942, the 171st railway siding was commanded by foreman Fedot Evgrafych Vaskov. He had a wife and son, but the wife preferred the regimental veterinarian, and the son died. The travel was quiet, so all the sent fighters, after a while, began to drink tirelessly. Vaskov wrote an incredible number of reports when they finally sent him girls from the anti-aircraft regiment. He found it difficult to control them. The platoon commander was Rita Osyanina. On the second day she lost her husband and decided to go to anti-aircraft school. Son Albert went to be raised by Rita's parents. She turned out to be a very stern commander. After the death of the carrier, a new girl joined the platoon.
Zhenya Komelkova was a beauty with red curls. The whole family died before her eyes. Because of her relationship with the married Colonel Luzhin, the command sent Zhenya to Rita in order to isolate them from each other. Having met, the girls became friends. Having learned about the transfer to the patrol, Rita was delighted. It was close to the city where her relatives lived. Every night, secretly, she ran to her son and mother, bringing them food. But, returning one morning, she noticed two Germans and told Vaskov about it. The military command orders to catch them. Vaskov decides to shorten the path by passing through the swamps to the Sinyukhin ridge. They will walk along the ridge, between two lakes and will wait for the enemy, who will most likely come around. Zhenya, Rita, Lisa Brichkina, Sonya Gurvich and Galya Chetvertak went on the journey with him. Lisa was the daughter of a forester, she was forced to leave school because of her sick mother, whom she looked after for five years. She fell in love with a guest who happened to drop by, and he promised to help her get into college. The plans were disrupted by the war. Belarusian girl Sonya Gurvich was born into a large friendly family of a local doctor. Galya Chetvertak grew up in an orphanage, where she found her first love.
The girls and the commander walked along a path, surrounded on both sides by a quagmire. Having reached the lake, they became silent, waiting for the enemy. Instead of two, sixteen people showed up the next morning. Vaskov sends Lisa with a report to the command. But Lisa, walking along the path, stumbled and drowned. Vaskov does not know about this and is waiting for help to come. Posing as lumberjacks, the girls forced the enemy to retreat, thinking that they were cutting down a forest. Vaskov sent Sonya to get his pouch, which he had forgotten in the old place. Sonya gives herself away and is killed. Sonya's death greatly hurt Galya, and at a crucial moment, she gave herself away, for which she paid with her life. Fedot takes on the Germans to save Zhenya and Rita. He is wounded, but reaches the swamp and notices Lisa's skirt.
He understands that they cannot expect help. Arriving at the place where the Germans were standing, he kills one and goes in search of the girls. In another unequal battle, Zhenya is killed. Rita asked Fedot to take care of her son and shot herself. Having buried the girls, he goes to the hut where the Germans are holy. One was killed, four were captured by Vaskov. Seeing that the Russians were coming, he lost consciousness. Many years later, captain missile forces Albert Fedotich and the armless old man will erect a marble monument on Rita’s grave.
The story “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” written by Boris Lvovich Vasiliev (life: 1924-2013), first appeared in 1969. The work, according to the author himself, is based on a real military episode when, after being wounded, seven soldiers serving on the railway prevented a German sabotage group from blowing it up. After the battle, only one sergeant, the commander of the Soviet fighters, managed to survive. In this article we will analyze “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” and describe the brief content of this story.
War is tears and grief, destruction and horror, madness and the extermination of all living things. She brought misfortune to everyone, knocking on every house: wives lost their husbands, mothers lost their sons, children were forced to be left without fathers. Many people went through it, experienced all these horrors, but they managed to survive and win the hardest war ever endured by humanity. Let's start the analysis of "And the Dawns Here Are Quiet" with brief description events, commenting on them along the way.
Boris Vasiliev served as a young lieutenant at the beginning of the war. In 1941, he went to the front while still a schoolboy, and two years later was forced to leave the army due to severe shell shock. Thus, this writer knew the war firsthand. Therefore, his best works are precisely about it, about the fact that a person manages to remain human only by fulfilling his duty to the end.
In the work “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” the content of which is war, it is felt especially acutely, since it is turned on an unusual side for us. We are all used to associating men with her, but here the main characters are girls and women. They stood up against the enemy alone in the middle of Russian land: lakes, swamps. The enemy is hardy, strong, merciless, well armed, and many times outnumbers them.
The events take place in May 1942. A railway siding and its commander are depicted - Fyodor Evgrafych Vaskov, a 32-year-old man. The soldiers arrive here, but then start partying and drinking. Therefore, Vaskov writes reports, and in the end they send him anti-aircraft gunner girls under the command of Rita Osyanina, a widow (her husband died at the front). Then Zhenya Komelkova arrives, replacing the carrier killed by the Germans. All five girls had their own character.
Five different characters: analysis
“And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” is a work that describes interesting female images. Sonya, Galya, Lisa, Zhenya, Rita - five different, but in some ways very similar girls. Rita Osyanina is gentle and strong-willed, distinguished by spiritual beauty. She is the most fearless, courageous, she is a mother. Zhenya Komelkova is white-skinned, red-haired, tall, with childish eyes, always laughing, cheerful, mischievous to the point of adventurism, tired of pain, war and painful and long love for a married and distant man. Sonya Gurvich is an excellent student, a refined poetic nature, as if she came out of a book of poems by Alexander Blok. She always knew how to wait, she knew that she was destined for life, and it was impossible to avoid it. The latter, Galya, always lived more actively in the imaginary world than in the real one, so she was very afraid of this merciless terrible phenomenon that is war. “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” portrays this heroine as a funny, never-grown-up, clumsy orphanage girl. Escape from an orphanage, notes and dreams... about long dresses, solo parts and universal worship. She wanted to become the new Lyubov Orlova.
The analysis of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” allows us to say that none of the girls were able to fulfill their desires, because they did not have time to live their lives.
Further developments
The heroes of “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” fought for their homeland like no one had ever fought before. They hated the enemy with all their souls. The girls always followed orders precisely, as young soldiers should. They experienced everything: losses, worries, tears. Right before the eyes of these fighters, their good friends died, but the girls held on. They fought to the death until the very end, did not let anyone through, and there were hundreds and thousands of such patriots. Thanks to them, it was possible to defend the freedom of the Motherland.
Death of Heroines
These girls had different deaths, just as the life paths followed by the heroes of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” were different. Rita was wounded by a grenade. She understood that she could not survive, that the wound was fatal, and she would have to die painfully and for a long time. Therefore, gathering the rest of her strength, she shot herself in the temple. Galya's death was as reckless and painful as she herself - the girl could have hidden and saved her life, but she did not. One can only guess what motivated her then. Perhaps just momentary confusion, perhaps cowardice. Sonya's death was cruel. She did not even manage to understand how the blade of the dagger pierced her cheerful young heart. Zhenya’s is a little reckless and desperate. She believed in herself until the very end, even when she was leading the Germans away from Osyanina, and did not doubt for a moment that everything would end well. Therefore, even after the first bullet hit her in the side, she was only surprised. After all, it was so implausible, absurd and stupid to die when you were only nineteen years old. Lisa's death happened unexpectedly. It was a very stupid surprise - the girl was pulled into the swamp. The author writes that until the last moment the heroine believed that “there will be tomorrow for her too.”
Sergeant Major Vaskov
Sergeant Major Vaskov, whom we have already mentioned in the summary of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” is ultimately left alone in the midst of torment, misfortune, alone with death and three prisoners. But now he has five times more strength. What was human in this fighter, the best, but hidden deep in the soul, was suddenly revealed. He felt and worried both for himself and for his girls “sisters”. The foreman laments, he does not understand why this happened, because they need to give birth to children, not die.
So, according to the plot, all the girls died. What guided them when they went into battle, not sparing their own lives, defending their land? Perhaps just a duty to the Fatherland, to one’s people, perhaps patriotism? Everything was mixed up at that moment.
Sergeant Major Vaskov ultimately blames himself for everything, and not the fascists he hates. His words that he “put all five down” are perceived as a tragic requiem.
Conclusion
Reading the work “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” you involuntarily become an observer of the everyday life of anti-aircraft gunners at a bombed crossing in Karelia. This story is based on an episode that is insignificant in the enormous scale of the Great Patriotic War, but it is told in such a way that all its horrors appear before the eyes in all their ugly, terrible inconsistency with the essence of man. It is emphasized both by the fact that the work is titled “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” and by the fact that its heroes are girls forced to participate in the war.
“And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” is a short story that, with piercing sincerity, tells about the fate of five young girls who died in the swampy Karelian forests. This book, written by Boris Vasiliev in 1969, tells so truthfully and touchingly about the military events of 1942 that in a relatively short period it twice managed to attract the attention of filmmakers. We will try to present a brief summary of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” so that this work does not seem to the reader a dry statement of facts, but forces him to familiarize himself with the original.
Chapter first
There is a war going on. The action takes place in May 1942. Thirty-two-year-old Fedot Evgrafych Vaskov, with the rank of foreman, commands the 171st railway siding. Shortly before the Finnish War, he got married, but when he returned, he discovered that his wife had gone south with the regimental veterinarian. Vaskov divorced her, and returned their common son, Igor, through the court and gave it to his mother to raise. A year later the boy was gone.
Everything is calm in his part. The servicemen, having looked around, begin to drink. Vaskov writes reports to his superiors. They send him a platoon of girls who make fun of his timidity.
This is the main essence of the first chapter, its summary. “And the dawns here are quiet” Vasiliev dedicated to those girls who served and accomplished their feat for the good of the Motherland.
Chapter two
The commander of the first squad of the platoon was a strict girl, Rita Osyanina. Her beloved husband died at the very beginning of the war. Son Albert is now being raised by her parents. Having lost her husband, Rita fiercely hated the Germans and treated the girls of her squad harshly.
However, her stern character softened after the cheerful beauty Zhenya Komelkova entered her department. Even a brief summary of “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” cannot ignore her tragic fate. In front of this girl’s eyes, her mother, brother, and sister were shot. Zhenya went to the front after their death, where she met Colonel Luzhin, who protected her. He is a family man, and the military authorities, having learned about their affair, sent Zhenya to the girls' group.
The three of them were friends: Rita, Zhenya and Galya Chetvertak - an unprepossessing plain girl whom Zhenya helped to “bloom” by fitting her tunic and styling her hair.
Rita visits her mother and son at night, who live nearby in the city. Of course, no one knows about this.
Chapter Three
Returning to the unit from mother and son, Osyanina notices Germans in the forest. There were two of them. She informs Vaskov about this.
This episode key determines the further summary of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet.” Vasiliev arranges events in such a way that the fatal accident influences the subsequent narrative: if Rita had not run to the city to see her mother and son, the entire subsequent story would not have happened.
She reports what she saw to Vaskov. Fedot Efgrafych calculates the route of the Nazis - the Kirov Railway. The foreman decides to go there a short way - through the swamps to the Sinyukhin ridge and there to wait for the Germans, who, as he hoped, would go along the ring road. Five girls go with him: Rita, Zhenya, Galya, Lisa Brichkina and Sonya Gurvich.
Fedot tells his charges: “In the evening the air here is damp and dense, and the dawns here are quiet...”. Summary can hardly convey the tragedy of this small work.
Chapters four, five
The girls, led by Vaskov, cross the swamp.
Sonya Gurvich is from Minsk. She comes from a large family, her dad is a local doctor. She doesn’t know what’s happening to her family now. The girl graduated from her first year at Moscow University and speaks German well. Her first love, a young man with whom she attended lectures, went to the front.
Galya Chetvertak is an orphan. After the orphanage, she entered the library technical school. When she was in her third year, the war began. While crossing the swamp, Galya loses her boot.
Chapter Six
All six safely crossed the swamp and, having reached the lake, wait for the Germans, who appear only in the morning. It turns out there are sixteen Germans, not two, as they expected.
Vaskov sends Lisa Brichkina on a mission to report on the situation.
While waiting for help, Vaskov and four girls pretend to be lumberjacks in order to mislead the Germans. Gradually they move to a new place.
Chapter Seven
Lisa Brichkina's father is a forester. The girl was unable to finish school because she had been caring for her sick mother for five years. Her first love is a hunter who stopped overnight at their house. She likes Vaskov.
Returning to the siding, while crossing the swamp, Lisa drowns.
Chapters eight, nine, ten, eleven
Vaskov discovers that he forgot the pouch, Sonya Gurvich volunteers to bring it, but she is killed by two Germans. The girl is buried.
Soon Vaskov and the girls see the rest of the Germans approaching them. Hiding, they decide to shoot first, hoping that the Nazis will be afraid of the invisible enemy. The calculation turns out to be correct: the Germans are retreating.
There is a disagreement between the girls: Rita and Zhenya blame Galya for being a coward. Vaskov stands up for Galya, and they go on reconnaissance together. Sonya, screaming, gives herself away, the Germans kill her.
Fedot Evgrafych leads the enemies away from Zhenya and Rita. He understands that Lisa did not make it and there will be no help.
We have almost outlined the summary of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet.” An analysis of this work, of course, cannot be carried out without knowing how it ended.
Chapters twelve, thirteen, fourteen
Vaskov returns to the girls, they prepare for the last battle, in which they manage to kill several Germans. Rita is mortally wounded. Vaskov is looking for a safe place for her. Zhenya is killed by the Germans. Rita turns to Vaskov with a request to take care of her son and shoots herself in the temple. Vaskov buries Rita and Zhenya and heads to the enemy’s location. Having killed one, he orders the remaining four to tie themselves up and takes them prisoner. Seeing his own people, Vaskov loses consciousness.
Fedot Evgrafych keeps his promise to Rita and raises her son.
This is the summary of “The Dawns Here Are Quiet.” Boris Vasiliev spoke chapter by chapter about the fates of many girls of that time. They dreamed of great love, tenderness, family warmth, but they faced a cruel war... A war that did not spare a single family. The pain inflicted on people then lives in our hearts to this day.
The story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” by Boris Vasiliev is one of the most heartfelt and tragic works about the Great Patriotic War. First published in 1969.
The story of five female anti-aircraft gunners and a sergeant major who entered into battle with sixteen German saboteurs. The heroes speak to us from the pages of the story about the unnaturalness of war, about personality in war, about the strength of the human spirit.
IN main topic The story - a woman in war - reflects all the “ruthlessness of war”, but the topic itself had not been raised in literature about the war before the appearance of Vasiliev’s story. To understand the events of the story, you can read the summary of “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” chapter by chapter on our website.
Main characters
Vaskov Fedot Evgrafych– 32 years old, sergeant major, commandant of the patrol where the female anti-aircraft gunners are assigned to serve.
Brichkina Elizaveta-19 years old, the daughter of a forester, who lived before the war on one of the cordons in the forests of the Bryansk region in “premonition of dazzling happiness.”
Gurvich Sonya- a girl from an intelligent “very large and very friendly family” of a Minsk doctor. After studying for a year at Moscow University, she went to the front. Loves theater and poetry.
Komelkova Evgenia- 19 years. Zhenya has her own score to settle with the Germans: her family was shot. Despite the grief, “her character was cheerful and smiling.”
Osyanina Margarita- the first of the class to get married, a year later she gave birth to a son. The husband, a border guard, died on the second day of the war. Leaving the child with her mother, Rita went to the front.
Chetvertak Galina- an orphanage student, a dreamer. She lived in a world of her own fantasies, and went to the front with the conviction that war is romance.
Other characters
Kiryanova- Sergeant, deputy platoon commander of female anti-aircraft gunners.
Summary
Chapter 1
In May 1942, at 171 railway sidings, which found themselves in the midst of military operations going on around them, several yards survived. The Germans stopped bombing. In case of a raid, the command left two anti-aircraft installations.
Life on the patrol was quiet and calm, the anti-aircraft gunners could not stand the temptation of female attention and moonshine, and according to the report of the commandant of the patrol, Sergeant Major Vaskov, one half-platoon, “swollen with fun” and drunkenness, was replaced by the next... Vaskov asked to send non-drinkers.
The “teetotal” anti-aircraft gunners arrived. The fighters turned out to be very young, and they were... girls.
It became calm at the crossing. The girls made fun of the foreman, Vaskov felt awkward in the presence of “learned” soldiers: he only had a 4th grade education. The main concern was the internal “disorder” of the heroines - they did everything not “according to the rules.”
Chapter 2
Having lost her husband, Rita Osyanina, the commander of a squad of anti-aircraft gunners, became stern and withdrawn. Once they killed a serving girl, and instead of her they sent the beautiful Zhenya Komelkova, in front of whose eyes the Germans shot her loved ones. Despite the tragedy experienced. Zhenya is open and mischievous. Rita and Zhenya became friends, and Rita “thawed out.”
Their friend becomes the “runaway” Galya Chetvertak.
Hearing about the possibility of transferring from the front line to a patrol, Rita perks up - it turns out that she has a son next to the patrol in the city. At night, Rita runs to visit her son.
Chapter 3
Returning from an unauthorized absence through the forest, Osyanina discovers two strangers in camouflage robes, with weapons and packages in their hands. She hurries to tell the patrol commandant about this. After listening carefully to Rita, the sergeant major understands that she has encountered German saboteurs moving towards the railway, and decides to go to intercept the enemy. 5 female anti-aircraft gunners have been allocated to Vaskov. Worried about them, the foreman tries to prepare his “guard” for the meeting with the Germans and cheer them up, jokes, “so that they laugh, so that cheerfulness appears.”
Rita Osyanina, Zhenya Komelkova, Lisa Brichkina, Galya Chetvertak and Sonya Gurvich with the senior group Vaskov take a short route to Vop-lake, where they expect to meet and detain the saboteurs.
Chapter 4
Fedot Evgrafych safely leads his soldiers through the swamps, bypassing the swamps (only Galya Chetvertak loses her boot in the swamp), to the lake. It’s quiet here, “like in a dream.” “Before the war, these regions were not very populated, but now they have become completely wild, as if lumberjacks, hunters, and fishermen had gone to the front.”
Chapter 5
Expecting to quickly deal with the two saboteurs, Vaskov still chose the path of retreat “to be on the safe side.” While waiting for the Germans, the girls had lunch, the foreman gave a combat order to detain the Germans when they appeared, and everyone took up positions.
Galya Chetvertak, wet in the swamp, fell ill.
The Germans appeared only the next morning: “gray-green figures with machine guns at the ready kept coming out of the depths,” and it turned out there were not two of them, but sixteen.
Chapter 6
Realizing that “five funny girls and five clips for a rifle” cannot cope with the Nazis, Vaskov sends “forest” resident Lisa Brichkina to the patrol to report that reinforcements are needed.
Trying to scare off the Germans and force them to go around, Vaskov and the girls pretend that lumberjacks are working in the forest. They call to each other loudly, fires are lit, the foreman is cutting down trees, and the desperate Zhenya even bathes in the river in full view of the saboteurs.
The Germans left, and everyone laughed “to the point of tears, to the point of exhaustion,” thinking that the worst was over...
Chapter 7
Lisa “flew through the forest as if on wings,” thinking about Vaskov, and missed a noticeable pine tree, near which she needed to turn. Moving with difficulty in the swamp slurry, I stumbled and lost the path. Feeling the quagmire swallow her up, she saw sunlight for the last time.
Chapter 8
Vaskov, realizing that the enemy, although he has disappeared, can attack the detachment at any moment, goes with Rita on reconnaissance. Having found out that the Germans had settled at a halt, the foreman decides to change the location of the group and sends Osyanina to fetch the girls. Vaskov is upset when he discovers that he forgot his pouch. Seeing this, Sonya Gurvich runs to pick up the pouch.
Vaskov does not have time to stop the girl. After some time, he hears “a distant, weak voice, like a sigh, an almost silent cry.” Guessing what this sound could mean, Fedot Evgrafych calls Zhenya Komelkova with him and goes to his previous position. Together they find Sonya, killed by her enemies.
Chapter 9
Vaskov furiously pursued the saboteurs to avenge Sonya's death. Having quietly approached the “Krauts” walking without fear, the foreman kills the first, but does not have enough strength for the second. Zhenya saves Vaskov from death by killing the German with a rifle butt. Fedot Evgrafych “was full of sadness, full to the very throat” because of the death of Sonya. But, understanding the state of Zhenya, who is painfully enduring the murder she committed, she explains that the enemies themselves violated human laws and therefore she needs to understand: “these are not people, not people, not even animals - fascists.”
Chapter 10
The detachment buried Sonya and moved on. Looking out from behind another boulder, Vaskov saw the Germans - they were walking straight at them. Having started a counter battle, the girls and the commander forced the saboteurs to retreat, only Galya Chetvertak threw her rifle away out of fear and fell to the ground.
After the battle, the foreman canceled the meeting where the girls wanted to judge Galya for cowardice; he explained her behavior as inexperience and confusion.
Vaskov goes on reconnaissance and takes Galya with him for educational purposes.
Chapter 11
Galya Chetvertak followed Vaskov. She, who always lived in her own fantasy world, was broken by the horror of a real war at the sight of the murdered Sonya.
The scouts saw the corpses: the wounded were finished off by their own people. There were 12 saboteurs left.
Hiding in ambush with Galya, Vaskov is ready to shoot the Germans who appear. Suddenly, the clueless Galya Chetvertak rushed across the enemies and was hit by a machine gun fire.
The foreman decided to take the saboteurs as far as possible from Rita and Zhenya. Until nightfall, he rushed between the trees, made noise, briefly shot at the flickering figures of the enemy, shouted, dragging the Germans with him closer and closer to the swamps. Wounded in the arm, he hid in the swamp.
At dawn, having climbed out of the swamp onto the ground, the sergeant-major saw Brichkina’s army skirt, blackened on the surface of the swamp, tied to a pole, and realized that Liza had died in the quagmire.
There was no hope of help now...
Chapter 12
With heavy thoughts that “he lost his entire war yesterday,” but with the hope that Rita and Zhenya are alive, Vaskov sets off in search of saboteurs. He comes across an abandoned hut, which turns out to be a German shelter. He watches them hide explosives and go on reconnaissance. Vaskov kills one of the enemies remaining in the monastery and takes the weapon.
On the bank of the river, where yesterday “they staged a show for the Fritz,” the foreman and the girls meet - with joy, like sisters and brother. The foreman says that Galya and Lisa died the death of the brave, and that all of them will have to take on their last, apparently, battle.
Chapter 13
The Germans came ashore and the battle began. “Vaskov knew one thing in this battle: not to retreat. Don’t give the Germans a single piece of land on this shore. No matter how hard it is, no matter how hopeless it is, to hold on.” It seemed to Fedot Vaskov that he was the last son of his Motherland and its last defender. The detachment did not allow the Germans to cross to the other side.
Rita was seriously wounded in the stomach by a grenade fragment.
Firing back, Komelkova tried to lead the Germans behind her. Cheerful, smiling and cheerful Zhenya did not even immediately realize that she had been wounded - after all, it was stupid and impossible to die at nineteen years old! She shot while she had ammo and strength. “The Germans finished her off point-blank, and then looked at her proud and beautiful face for a long time...”
Chapter 14
Realizing that she is dying, Rita tells Vaskov about her son Albert and asks him to take care of him. The foreman shares with Osyanina his first doubt: was it worth protecting the canal and the road at the cost of the death of the girls, who had their whole lives ahead of them? But Rita believes that “The Motherland does not begin with canals. Not from there at all. And we protected her. First her, and only then the channel.”
Vaskov headed towards the enemies. Hearing the faint sound of a shot, he returned. Rita shot herself, not wanting to suffer and be a burden.
Having buried Zhenya and Rita, almost exhausted, Vaskov wandered forward to the abandoned monastery. Having broken into the saboteurs, he killed one of them and captured four. In delirium, the wounded Vaskov leads the saboteurs to his own, and only realizing that he has arrived, he loses consciousness.
Epilogue
From a letter from a tourist (written many years after the end of the war), vacationing on quiet lakes, where there is “complete carlessness and desolation,” we learn that a gray-haired old man without an arm and rocket captain Albert Fedotich who arrived there brought a marble slab. Together with the visitors, the tourist is looking for the grave of the anti-aircraft gunners who once died here. He notices what kind of quiet dawns…
Conclusion
Many years tragic fate The heroines do not leave readers of any age indifferent, making them realize the value of a peaceful life, the greatness and beauty of true patriotism.
The retelling of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” gives an idea of the storyline of the work and introduces its characters. It will be possible to penetrate into the essence, to feel the charm of the lyrical narrative and the psychological subtlety of the author's story by reading the full text of the story.