Many talented writers the theme of the Great Patriotic War worried for more than a dozen years after the end of the horror that they had to endure. One of the most moving books about the war is Boris Vasiliev’s story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” on which the film of the same name was based. It tells the story of an unfulfilled, irreplaceable and lost generation, carried away by the war. The picture shakes even the most persistent viewer to the core.
The film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” was filmed in 1972 by director Stanislav Rostotsky. It returns the viewer to the harsh and tragic times of the war. The film genre is called lyrical tragedy. And this is very accurate. A woman in war is a soldier, but she is also a mother, a wife, and a beloved.
The film starred: Andrei Martynov, Irina Dolganova, Elena Drapeko, Ekaterina Markova, Olga Ostroumova, Irina Shevchuk, Lyudmila Zaitseva, Alla Meshcheryakova, Nina Emelyanova, Alexey Chernov
Director: Stanislav Rostotsky
Writers: Stanislav Rostotsky, Boris Vasiliev
Operator: Vyacheslav Shumsky
Composer: Kirill Molchanov
Artist: Sergey Serebrenikov
The film premiered: November 4, 1972
Rostotsky himself was born in 1922 and knows firsthand about the sorrows of war. Participation in the Great Patriotic War left an imprint on his soul forever, which he reflected in his painting. He has a lot of legendary films to his credit, such as “White Bim Black Ear”, “We’ll Live Till Monday”, “It Was About Penkov”, etc. He himself went through the war, and a woman, a nurse, saved his life by pulling him, wounded, from the battlefield. She carried the wounded soldier several kilometers in her arms. Paying tribute to his savior, Rostotsky made a film about women in war. In 2001, the director passed away. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, just a year short of the thirtieth anniversary of his film.
The theme of the film: “Oh, women, women, you unfortunate people! For men, this war is like a hare’s smoke, but for you, it’s like that...” The idea of the film: “But I thought to myself: this is not the main thing. And the main thing is that Sonya could have given birth to children, and they would have given birth to grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but now this thread will not exist. A small thread in the endless yarn of humanity, cut by a knife.”
Rostotsky was for actresses as Sergeant Major Vaskov was for the heroines of the film. The filming took place in difficult climatic conditions and they went through all the hardships together. So, in the scene of walking through the swamp with the girls every morning into the slush with the saying “the woman sowed peas - wow!” the director walked, slightly creaking with the prosthesis he had left after being wounded.
The director managed to create a well-coordinated acting ensemble, consisting mainly of debutants, and reveal the characters of the main characters in some detail. Particularly vivid and dramatic was the scene of the death of the heroine Olga Ostroumova, who in the last minutes of her life sang the verses of an old romance... Andrei Martynov was also memorable in the role of the “girl commander” Sergeant Major Vaskov.
On the right there is a lake, on the left there is a lake, on the isthmus there is a dense forest, in the forest there are sixteen Nazi saboteurs, and Sergeant Major Vaskov must detain them with the forces of five female anti-aircraft gunners armed with three-line guns.
Vaskov sets the task: “Comrade fighters! The enemy, armed to the teeth, is moving in our direction. We have no neighbors either to the right or to the left, and we have nowhere to wait for help, so I order: to all fighters and to myself personally: keep the front! Hold! Even when you don’t have the strength, you still hold on. There is no land for the Germans on this side! Because we have Russia behind us... Motherland, to put it simply.”
There were many front-line soldiers in the film group, so before the actresses were approved for the role, a casting was held with a vote for each girl.
The five anti-aircraft gunner girls who followed Vaskov into the forest are five accurate portraits of the era.
Iron Rita Osyanina (I. Shevchuk), the widow of a young commander. After the release of the film, the actors traveled with him all over the world. The abundance of foreign voyages aroused increased interest in state security officials in actresses.
“There was a moment immediately after the film’s release when I, 20 years old, was recruited by the KGB,” says Irina Shevchuk. - They promised me mountains of gold, they hinted that I needed to somehow get an apartment, etc. I answered honestly: I don’t think that my homeland is in danger of trouble. And if something happens, I’ll somehow decide who to find and who to say what.
The daring beauty Zhenya Komelkova (O. Ostroumova) is from a “komsostavskaya” family. Before Olga Ostroumova, many actresses auditioned for the role of Zhenya Kamelkova. But Rostotsky chose her. It is noteworthy that Ostroumova was the only one for whom “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” was not a debut. Before this, she had already starred in the film “We’ll Live Until Monday” with the same director.
Actress Olga Ostroumova, who played Zhenya Kamelkova, was almost removed from the role - problems arose with the makeup.
They painted me red and gave me chemicals,” says Olga Ostroumova. “Everything was curled up like a little demon, which doesn’t suit me.” The first shots turned out ridiculous. The bosses began to put pressure on director Rostotsky and demanded that I be removed from the role. To which Stanislav Iosifovich replied: “Stop making her up and leave her alone.” And they left me alone for a week - I got a tan, the chemo started to wear off, and somehow everything corrected itself.
Despite the tight shooting schedule and the director’s exactingness, youth took its toll, and the young actresses and crew members organized cheerful gatherings and dances that sometimes lasted until 3 o’clock in the morning.
There were two hours left for sleep, and then again for filming,” says film designer Evgeniy Shtapenko. - We saw the sunrise; the places there were amazingly beautiful.
The silent forester's daughter Liza Brichkina (E. Drapeko); And Elena Drapeko was removed from the role of Lisa Brichkina. For a while.
In the script, Liza Brichkina is a rosy-cheeked, lively girl. “Blood with milk, tits in wheels,” Elena Drapeko laughs. - And I was then a second-year student, a little reed, a little out of this world. I studied ballet, played the piano and violin. What peasant acumen do I have? When they watched the first filming material, I was removed from the role.
But then Rostotsky’s wife Nina Menshikova, having seen the footage at Gorky’s studio, called Rostotsky in Petrozavodsk and said that he was wrong. Rostotsky looked at the material again, assembled a film crew, and they decided to keep me in the role. They etched my eyebrows and drew about 200 red freckles. And they asked to change their dialect.
Quiet Sonya Gurvich (I. Dolganova), an excellent student at the university with a volume of Blok in a soldier’s bag;
The harsh filming regime and extremely realistic makeup in the death scenes caused people to faint during filming. The first difficult moment was the scene of the death of Sonya Gurvich (played by actress Irina Dolganova).
Rostotsky made us believe in the reality of death,” says Ekaterina Markova (Galya Chetvertak). - When they started putting makeup on Ira Dolganova, they took us away so that we wouldn’t see this process. Then we went to the filming location - the crevice where Sonya Gurvich was supposed to lie. And they saw something that made them faint: a completely lifeless face, white with yellowish tint, and terrible circles under the eyes. And there is already a camera there, filming our first reaction. And the scene when we find Sonya turned out to be very realistic in the film, just one on one.
When they smeared bull’s blood on my chest in the scene of Sonya’s death and flies began to flock to me, Olga Ostroumova and Ekaterina Markova became ill with their hearts, says Irina Dolganova. “We had to call an ambulance to the set.”
Orphanage Galya Chetvertak (E. Markova). “I was almost really sent to the next world in this film,” recalls Ekaterina Markova, who plays the role of Galka Chetvertak. – Remember the scene when I, frightened, ran out of the bushes shouting “Mom!” and getting shot in the back? Rostotsky decided to shoot a close-up of the back so that the bullet holes and blood were visible. To do this, they made a thin board, drilled it, “mounted” vials of artificial blood and secured it to my back. At the moment of the shot, the electrical circuit should have been closed, the tunic should have burst from the inside and “blood” should have flowed out. But the pyrotechnicians miscalculated. The “shot” turned out to be much more powerful than planned. My tunic was torn to shreds! Only the board saved me from injury.
The task will be completed at a high cost. Only Sergeant Major Vaskov will survive. “This is happening in 1942,” said writer Boris Vasiliev, “and I know the Germans of 1942 well, my main clashes with them took place. Now special forces can be like that. At least eighty meters, well armed, knowing all the techniques of close combat. You can't dodge them. And when I confronted them with the girls, I thought sadly that the girls were doomed. Because if I write that at least one of them survived, it would be a terrible lie.
Only Vaskov can survive there. Who is fighting in his native places. He can smell it, he grew up here. They can’t win against this country when we’re protected by the landscape, the swamps, the boulders.”
Filming on location began in May 1971 in Karelia. The film crew lived in the Severnaya Hotel in Petrozavodsk. Only there were no interruptions in hot water.
Rostotsky meticulously selected actresses for the roles of female anti-aircraft gunners. During the three months of the preparatory period, several hundred yesterday's graduates and current students of creative universities passed before the director.
Ekaterina Markova fell in love with the audience as Gali Chetvertak. Few people know that this actress is currently successfully working on creating detective novels.
Sonya Gurvich was superbly played by Irina Dolganova, to whom the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, admiring her work, presented the Volga.
Elena Drapeko was approved for the role of Lisa Brichkina.
Elena Drapeko was studying at the Leningrad Theater Institute when Rostotsky’s assistants noticed her. Elena was cast in the role of Lisa Brichkina, the one who dies first, dies a terrible, desperate death - drowns in a swamp, going with a report to the unit. Filming in the swamp was difficult from a technical point of view. Movie cameras were installed on rafts and filmed from them.
“I actually played myself,” says Drapeko. - Although, of course, I had to work, because I didn’t live in any village, but was a girl from a quite intelligent family, I played the violin. But my “roots” coincided with Liza Brichkina: on my father’s side, my ancestors were crests, they were from peasants, so this is apparently present in the genes.” At some point, she had troubles with Rostotsky, and he even wanted to fire her from the painting. In the end, the conflict was resolved. IN real life Drapeko was, according to Fedot (Andrei Martynov), who was in love with her, a dazzling “plum apple”, a beauty, the daughter of an officer, and she got to play the red-haired village Lisa.
During each shooting, makeup was applied to the actress’s face, which “highlighted” her cheekbones and “revealed” her freckles. And although the actress herself believed that she had a fairly heroic character, she had to be very romantic on camera. But today the fighter Brichkin-Drapeko sits in the State Duma
When Lisa drowned in the swamp, the audience cried. How was this tragic scene filmed?
I played the episode of death in the swamp without an understudy. At first, Rostotsky tried to film something from a distance, not with me. The result is what we call “linden”. The viewer simply wouldn't believe us. We decided to film it “live”, in a real swamp, to make it scary. They laid dynamite, exploded, and created a crater. Liquid mud flowed into this funnel, which in the North is called drygva. It was into this funnel that I jumped. The director and I had an agreement that when I go under the water shouting “Ah-ah!..”, I sit there until there is enough air in my lungs. Then I had to show my hands out of the water, and they pulled me out.
Second take. I hid under the jerky. The volume of my lungs turned out to be quite large. Moreover, I understood that the swamp should close over me, settle down, calm down... With every movement, I deepened and deepened the bottom with my boots. And when I raised my hands up, they were not seen from the platform. I was completely, as they say, completely hidden by the swamp. People on the set began to worry. One of the camera assistants, who was counting the spent meters of film and time, noticed that I should somehow prove myself, but for some reason I haven’t shown up for a long time.
He shouted: “It looks like we really drowned her!..” They threw wooden shields over the swamp, and on these shields the guys crawled to the crater, found me and pulled me out like a turnip from a garden bed. There is permafrost in Karelia. A swamp is a swamp, but the water only warmed up twenty centimeters, and then the ice began to crumble. The feeling, let me tell you, is not a pleasant one. Every time, after the next take, I was washed and dried. From the cold to hot water. A little rest, and - a new take. Now, as far as I know, tourists are taken by excursion bus from Petrozavodsk to the swamp where Liza Brichkina drowned. True, for some reason there are already several such swamps...
Actress Irina Shevchuk recalled: “And I had a very difficult scene where I die. Before filming, I heard a lot from doctors about how people behave when they are wounded in the stomach. And she got into the role so much that after the first take she lost consciousness!” The actress felt the heroine’s death throes so realistically that after filming she had to be “revived.” This is how Irina Shevchuk became famous thanks to the role of Rita Osyanina. Today Shevchuk is the director of the Open Film Festival of the CIS and Baltic countries “Kinoshok”
On October 5, the group returned to Moscow. However, filming in the pavilion began only a week and a half later: Martynov, Ostroumova and Markova with the Youth Theater went on tour to Bulgaria.
When all the anti-aircraft gunners were assembled, we began filming the episode in the bathhouse. For five hours Rostotsky tried to persuade the girls to appear naked, but they refused, as they were brought up in strictness.
We really doubted this scene and tried our best to refuse: take stunt doubles, film them in a steam bath, and we won’t act naked! - says Olga Ostroumova. Rostotsky convinced that this was very necessary for the film: “You are always in boots, in gymnasts, with guns at the ready, and the audience will forget that you are women, beautiful, gentle, expectant mothers... I need to show that they don’t just kill people, and women, beautiful and young, who must give birth, continue the race.” ...There were no more disputes. We went for the idea.
At the film studio, they were selecting a female camera crew, looking for female illuminators, and there was one condition: on the set, only men were director Rostotsky and cameraman Shumsky - and then behind the film enclosing the bathhouse. But, as everyone remembers, there was no sex in the Soviet Union, therefore, local projectionists often cut out these famous shots.
Elena Drapeko recalls:
The meeting about this scene lasted four hours. We were persuaded. A pavilion called “Bathhouse” was built, and a special filming regime was introduced, since we set a condition: not a single man should be in the studio during this scene. It is impossible to imagine a more chaste procedure. An exception was made only for director Rostotsky and cameraman Shumsky. Both were fifty - ancient old men to us. In addition, they were covered with a film in which two holes were cut out: for one of the director’s eyes and for the camera lens. We rehearsed in swimsuits.
The girls all rehearsed in swimsuits, and only took off their clothes for filming. All these washcloths, gangs, steam... Then they took off their swimsuits. Motor. Camera. Let's start. And behind the pavilion there was a special installation that was supposed to give us steam so that everything would really look like a real bathhouse. And near this installation there was a certain Uncle Vasya, “not discussed”, who was supposed to monitor its work. He stood behind a plywood partition, and therefore we did not see him at the rehearsal. But when they launched the camera, steam began to flow, and suddenly there was a wild howl, like from a high-explosive bomb: “Oooh!..” Roar! Roar! And this Uncle Vasya flies into the pavilion in a padded jacket and boots, and we are naked on the shelves, soaped... And this happened because Uncle Vasya “looked into the frame”... He had never seen so many naked women.
The scene was filmed after all. She performed as a soloist on screen - for sixteen seconds! - Olga Ostroumova.
There were a lot of problems with the bath episode later. After the first viewing of the film, the authorities demanded that the explicit scene be cut out. But Rostotsky somehow miraculously managed to defend it.
In “Dawns...” there was another scene where girl anti-aircraft gunners sunbathe naked on a tarpaulin. The director had to remove it.
The director wanted to invite a famous performer to play the role of Sergeant Major Vaskov. The candidacy of Georgy Yumatov was considered. Then a young artist from the capital’s Theater for Young Spectators appeared, Andrei Martynov. He was approved for the role.
At first, the director doubted the choice of actor, but Martynov was approved by secret vote by the entire film crew, including lighting and stage workers. Martynov even grew a mustache for filming. They agreed with the director that Vaskov would have a peculiar dialect in the film - a local dialect, and since Andrei comes from Ivanovo, it was enough for him to simply speak the local language. The role of Sergeant Major Vaskov in the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” became a stellar debut for him - the 26-year-old actor played the middle-aged Sergeant Major surprisingly naturally.
Andrei Martynov discovered remarkable human depth in his foreman Vaskov. “But if you saw how work on “Dawns” began with him,” said Rostotsky. - Martynov couldn’t do anything. With such a “masculine” appearance, he is extremely feminine. He could neither run, nor shoot, nor chop wood, nor row, nothing.
That is, he could not perform the physical actions required in the film. Because of this, he could not play anything. But I worked and learned something. And at some point I felt that things were going well.”
When the foreman screams with a heart-rending cry: “Kick!!!” disarmed the Germans, applause broke out more than once in domestic cinemas...
Writer Boris Vasiliev came to filming only once. And he was very dissatisfied. He said that he was a fan of Lyubimov’s play, but did not agree with the concept of the film.
The scene of the death of Rita Osyanina caused a heated argument between Rostotsky and Vasiliev. In the book, Vaskov says: “What will I tell your children when they ask why you killed our mothers?” And Rita answered: “We did not fight for the White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Comrade Stalin, but we fought for the Motherland.” So, Rostotsky flatly refused to insert this phrase into the film, because this is a view from today: “How brave you are, Borya, my fathers, you suddenly said about this. But Rita Osyanina, volunteer, Komsomol member '42. It couldn’t even occur to her.” Boris Vasiliev objected. And with that we parted ways...
Rostotsky was very offended by the words of the writer Astafiev, who said that in cinema there is no truth about the war, the heroines, when they are killed with bullets in the stomach, sing the romance “He told me: be you mine.” This, of course, is about Zhenya Komelkova. “But this is distorted,” the director was indignant. - No one kills her at this moment with bullets in the stomach, she is wounded in the leg and she, overcoming the pain, does not sing at all, but shouts out the words of the romance, which then, after “Dowry” was on everyone’s lips, and drags her into the forest Germans. This is quite in character with the reckless, heroic Zhenya. It’s very disappointing to read this.”
Rostotsky himself is a front-line soldier; he lost his leg at the front. When he mounted the picture, he cried because he felt sorry for the girls.
Chairman of Goskino Alexei Vladimirovich Romanov told Rostotsky: “Do you really think that we will ever release this film to the screen?” The director was confused, did not know what he was accused of. For three months the painting lay motionless. Then it turned out that amendments needed to be made. And suddenly, one fine day, something changed, and it turned out that “The Dawns...” were quite worthy of the wide screen.
Moreover, the film was sent to the Venice Film Festival. The actresses remembered this film festival for the rest of their lives.
At the preview for journalists, Rostotsky experienced terrible moments. Before this, a two-part Turkish film was shown, the audience was already going crazy, and here they were also shown some kind of two-part film about girls in gymnasts. They laughed all the time. Twenty minutes later, according to Rostotsky, he wanted to take a Kalashnikov assault rifle and shoot everyone. The upset director was led out of the hall arm in arm.
The next day there was a viewing at 11 pm. “Dawns...” lasts 3 hours 12 minutes. “I understood perfectly well that the film would fail: two and a half thousand people, a tuxedo festival, the film is in Russian with Italian subtitles, there is no translation,” Stanislav Rostotsky shared his impressions. “I was walking in my tuxedo, which I had put on for the second time in my life, and they were holding me by the arms because I was just falling. I decided that I would count how many people would leave the picture. But somehow they didn’t leave. And then suddenly there was applause in one place. The most dear to me. Because it was not an applause for me, not for the actors, not for the screenwriting... This hostile audience in Italy suddenly began to sympathize with the girl Zhenya Komelkova and her action. That was the most important thing for me."
In 1974, the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” was nominated for an Oscar, but lost the main prize to Buñuel’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.” Nevertheless, “The Dawns...” was purchased all over the world. Actors, when traveling somewhere abroad, sometimes saw themselves speaking a foreign language.
“I was completely dumbfounded when I heard myself speak Chinese,” laughs Andrei Martynov. - I was told that more than a billion people watched the film in China. Deng Xiaoping himself called “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” a truly Chinese painting.”
The first screening of the film abroad in Venice and Sorrento created a real sensation. There was a line at the Rossiya cinema for a month. The film became a laureate of several international film festivals, and was recognized by the American Academy of Film Arts as one of the five best world films of the year. The film received a prize at the Venice Film Festival, and a year after its release it was nominated for an Oscar.
After watching “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...” it would seem that a quite clear idea of the war is created, but we cannot understand all the torments of fascist hell, all the drama of the war, its cruelty, senseless deaths, the pain of separated mothers from their children, brothers and sisters, wives with husbands.
This film became the film debut for all the leading actors, with the exception of Olga Ostroumova. He enjoyed great success at the box office, in 1973 it became the leader of the Soviet box office, attracting 66 million viewers.
The film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” was highly praised by critics and government officials. He was awarded the USSR State Prize (1975, screenwriter B. Vasiliev, director S. Rostotsky, cameraman V. Shumsky, actor A. Martynov), the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1974, director S. Rostotsky, cameraman V. Shumsky, actor A. Martynov ), first prize at the 1973 All-Union Film Festival in Alma-Ata, a memorable prize at the 1972 Venice Film Festival, was nominated for an Oscar in the category “best foreign language film” (1972), and was recognized as the best film of 1972 in a poll by the magazine “Soviet Screen” "
It tells the story of the fates of five female anti-aircraft gunners and their commander during the Second World War.
History of creation
According to the author, the story is based on a real episode during the war, when seven soldiers, after being wounded, serving at one of the junction stations of the Petrozavodsk-Murmansk railway, did not allow a German sabotage group to blow up the railway in this section. After the battle, only the sergeant, the commander of a group of Soviet soldiers, survived, and after the war he was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.” “And I thought: this is it! A situation when a person himself, without any order, decides: I won’t let you in! They have nothing to do here! I started working on this plot and have already written about seven pages. And suddenly I realized that nothing would work. It'll just be special case at war. There was nothing fundamentally new in this plot. Work stopped. And then I suddenly came up with the idea - let my hero’s subordinates be not men, but young girls. And that’s it - the story immediately lined up. Women have the hardest time in war. There were 300 thousand of them at the front! And then no one wrote about them.”
Plot
Basic storyline The story is a reconnaissance campaign of the heroes of the work. It is during the campaign that the characters’ characters get to know each other, heroism and love feelings appear.
Characters
Fedot Vaskov
Fedot Vaskov was already in the Finnish War, and now he is protecting the rear of the Soviet troops. He is the commandant of the patrol, to whom, after lengthy requests to send soldiers who don’t drink and don’t party, they sent very young girls who had barely crossed the school threshold.
Vaskov is the only survivor of his entire squad, but he lost his arm due to an infection in the wound he received.
There is no direct indication in the book that Vaskov serves in air defense. Anti-aircraft gunners were sent to the site to protect against air raids. During the Winter War, Vaskov was a scout.
Zhenya Komelkova
A very beautiful red-haired girl, the other heroines were amazed at her beauty. Tall, slender, with fair skin. When the Germans captured Zhenya’s village, an Estonian woman managed to hide Zhenya herself. In front of the girl's eyes, the Nazis shot her mother, sister and brother.
In Vaskov's platoon, Zhenya showed artistry; but there was also enough room for heroism - it was she who, calling fire on herself, led the Germans away from Rita and Vaskov. She saves Vaskov when he fights the second German who killed Sonya Gurvich. The Germans first wounded and then shot her at point-blank range.
In the film, the role of Komelkova was played by actress Olga Ostroumova.
Rita Osyanina
Rita Mushtakova was the first in her class to marry Lieutenant Osyanin, with whom she gave birth to a son, Igor. Rita's husband died during a counterattack on June 23, 1941.
In Vaskov's platoon, Rita became friends with Zhenya Komelkova and Galya Chetvertak. She died last, putting a bullet in her temple and thereby saving Fedot Vaskov. Before her death, she asked him to take care of her son.
Lisa Brichkina
Liza Brichkina is a simple village girl who is under pressure from her father. At the same time, a hunter-traveler comes to their house, with whom Lisa falls in love. But not having mutual feelings for Lisa, and seeing at the same time the conditions in which the girl is growing up, he invites her to come to the capital and enroll in a technical school. But Lisa never managed to become a student - the war began.
Lisa drowned in a swamp while carrying out an assignment for Sergeant Major Vaskov, for whom she had loving feelings.
Galya Chetvertak
Galya grew up in an orphanage. It was there that she received her nickname for her short stature.
During the battle with the Germans, Vaskov took Galya with him, but she, unable to withstand the nervous tension of waiting for the Germans, ran out of cover and was shot by the Nazis. Despite such a “ridiculous” death, the foreman told the girls that she died “in a shootout.”
Sonya Gurvich
Sonya Gurvich is a girl who grew up in a large Jewish family. She knew German and could have been a good translator, but there were many translators, so she was assigned to an anti-aircraft gunner (of which, in turn, there were few).
Sonya is the second victim of the Germans in Vaskov's platoon. She runs away from the others to find and return Vaskov’s pouch, and stumbles upon patrol saboteurs who killed Sonya with two stabs in the chest.
Film adaptations
The story was filmed in 1972, 2005 and 2008:
- "" - film directed by Stanislav Rostotsky (USSR, 1972).
- "" - film directed by Mao Weining (China, Russia, 2005).
- “And the dawns here are quiet” - television series (Russia, 2008).
Theater productions
In addition, the story was staged in the theater:
- “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” - performance at the Moscow Taganka Theater, directed by Yuri Lyubimov (USSR, 1971);
- “And the dawns here are quiet” - opera by Kirill Molchanov (USSR, 1973).
- “And the dawns here are quiet” - performance by the Volzhsky Drama Theater, director Alexander Grishin (Russia, 2007).
- “And the dawns here are quiet” - a performance by the Borisoglebsk Drama Theater. N. G. Chernyshevsky (Russia, 2012).
Editions
- Boris Vasiliev, Karelia, 1975
- Boris Vasiliev, DOSAAF, Moscow, 1977
- Boris Vasiliev, Pravda, 1979
- Boris Vasiliev, Soviet writer. Moscow, 1977
- Boris Vasiliev, Daguchpedgiz, 1985
- Georgy Berezko, Boris Vasiliev, Truth , 1991
- Boris Vasiliev, 2010
- Boris Vasiliev, Eksmo, 2011
- Boris Vasiliev, Astrel, 2011
- Boris Vasiliev, AST, 2011
Dust jacket of B. L. Vasiliev’s author’s collection about the Great Patriotic War. M.: " Fiction", 1978
“And the dawns here are quiet...”- a work written by Boris Vasiliev, telling about the fate of five selfless female anti-aircraft gunners and their commander during the Great Patriotic War. The first publication of the story took place in the August issue of the magazine “Youth” for the year.
History of creation
According to the author, the story is based on an actual episode of the war, when seven soldiers, who after being wounded served at one of the junction stations of the Kirov Railway, did not allow a German sabotage group to blow up the railway in this area. Only the sergeant, the commander of a group of Soviet soldiers, survived, and after the war he was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.” “And I thought: this is it! A situation when a person himself, without any order, decides: I won’t let you in! They have nothing to do here! I started working on this plot and have already written about seven pages. And suddenly I realized that nothing would work. This will simply be a special case in war. There was nothing fundamentally new in this plot. Work stopped. And then I suddenly came up with the idea - let my hero’s subordinates be not men, but young girls. And that’s it - the story immediately lined up. Women have the hardest time in war. There were 300 thousand of them at the front! And then no one wrote about them."
Plot description
Fedot Vaskov is the commandant of the 171st patrol in the Karelian wilderness. The crews of the anti-aircraft installations of the patrol, finding themselves in a quiet situation, begin to suffer from idleness and get drunk. In response to Vaskov’s requests to “send non-drinkers,” the command sends two squads of female anti-aircraft gunners there. One of them notices two German saboteurs in the forest. Vaskov understands that they are planning to infiltrate strategic targets through the forests and decides to intercept them. He assembles a group of five anti-aircraft gunners and, in order to get ahead of the saboteurs, leads a detachment along a road known to him alone through the swamps to the rocks of the Sinyukhin ridge. However, it turns out that the enemy squad consists of 16 people. Vaskov understands that this force cannot be stopped head-on, and, having sent one of the girls for help - Liza Brichkina, who is secretly in love with him (who does not make it to the patrol, having drowned in a swamp), decides to pursue the enemy. Using various tricks, he enters into a series of unequal clashes in which the four girls who remained with him die - the perky beauty Zhenya Komelkova, the intelligent Sonya Gurvich, the orphanage girl Galya Chetvertak and the serious Rita Osyanina. He still manages to capture the surviving saboteurs and leads them to Soviet positions and meets his own on the way.
Characters
Vaskov
Fedot Evgrafovich Vaskov is the commandant of a small military unit - patrol station No. 171. Age - 32 years. Rank - sergeant major. He is a brave, responsible and reliable fighter. Vaskov is a kind and simple person, but at the same time he is a demanding and strict boss. He respects the charter and tries to act according to it.
Margarita Osyanina
Margarita Osyanina - junior sergeant, squad commander. She has several female anti-aircraft gunners under her command. Age - 20 years. A serious, calm and reasonable girl. Young widow; her husband died on the second day of the war. She has a small son and a sick mother. After the death of Margarita, Vaskov takes her son to his upbringing.
Evgenia Komelkova
Evgenia Komelkova is an ordinary soldier. Age - 19 years. She is the daughter of an officer. Evgenia’s entire family dies when the command staff is shot after the start of the war, but she herself manages to escape. Evgeniya is a beautiful, tall red-haired girl; brave, mischievous and cheerful, at the same time a reliable and brave fighter. He dies heroically in a shootout with the Germans.
Elizaveta Brichkina
Elizaveta Brichkina is an ordinary soldier, a girl from a simple family. Her father is a forester. From the age of 14 she took care of her sick mother, runs the household herself and helps her father. She was going to study at a technical school, but the war begins, and instead of a technical school, Elizabeth is forced to dig trenches. Hardworking, patient girl. Drowns in a swamp while performing a combat mission.
Sofia Gurvich
Sofya Gurvich is an ordinary soldier. A student at Moscow University, an excellent student. She reads a lot and loves poetry and theater. By nationality - Jewish. Her father serves as a local doctor in Minsk. Sophia has a large and friendly family. Quiet and inconspicuous, but efficient girl. At the front she serves as a translator, and then as an anti-aircraft gunner. Killed by a German saboteur.
Galina Chetvertak
Galina Chetvertak is the youngest of the five main characters. Galina is an orphan, a “foundling”. She grew up in an orphanage. Before the war, she studied at a library technical school. She goes to war for the sake of romance, but the war turns out to be an overwhelming test for her. Galya lies and makes up tall tales all the time. She likes to live in an imaginary world. Differs in small stature. She was shot in battle when she panicked and tried to escape from the Germans .
Film adaptations
Theater productions
- "" - a performance by the Moscow Taganka Theater, directed by Yuri Lyubimov (USSR, 1971).
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - opera by Kirill Molchanov (USSR, 1973).
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - play by the Russian Academic Youth Theater (RAMT), directed by Alexander Ustyugov (Russia, 2005). [ ]
- Orenburg Drama Theater named after. M. Gorky, production by Rifkat Israfilov (Russia, 2006).
- “And the dawns here are quiet” - a performance by the Volzhsky Drama Theater, directed by Alexander Grishin (Russia, 2007).
- “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” - a performance by the St. Petersburg Theater “Workshop” under the direction of Grigory Kozlov, director - Polina Nevedomskaya, artist Anna Marcus (Russia, 2011).
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the Borisoglebsk Drama Theater named after. N. G. Chernyshevsky (Russia, 2012).
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the Perm Independent Theater, director - Anna Krasheninnikova (Russia, 2012)
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the St. Petersburg school-studio “People's Artists”, directors - Vasily Reutov and Svetlana Vaganova. Cast: Vitaly Gody, Elena Ashcherkina, Yulianna Turchina, Olga Tolkunova, Yulia Yagodkina, Maria Pedko, Alexandra Lamert, Anna Yashina, Ekaterina Yablokova, Yulia Kuznetsova, Nikolay Nekipelov, Lidiya Spizharskaya, Maria Slobozhanina (Russia, 2012).
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the theater studio “Wonderland”.
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - musical drama, Seversky Musical Theatre, composer - A. Krotov (Novosibirsk), libretto - N. Krotova (Novosibirsk), director - K. Torskaya (Irkutsk), choreographer - D. Ustyuzhanin (St. St. Petersburg), artist - D. Tarasova (St. Petersburg) (Russia, 2015).
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the Arkhangelsk Drama Theater named after M.V. Lomonosov, director - Renata Sotiriadi. Premiere: May 9, 2015.
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the Azart Theater (Zarinsk).
- “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...” - an opera in Chinese, composer Tang Jianping, premiered at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on November 5, 2015.
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - composition by the Alapaevsk Exemplary Children's Musical Theater "BARABASHKA", director - K. I. Misharina.
- “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the Moscow Theater “Theater Mansion”, directed by Alexey Vasyukov (Russia, 2016).
Editions
Boris Vasiliev. And the dawns here are quiet... Stories. Moscow. 1971. Soviet writer. Circulation 30,000.
Boris Vasiliev's story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” was published in 1969. According to the author himself, the plot was based on real events. Vasiliev was inspired by the story of how seven soldiers stopped a German sabotage group, preventing it from blowing up a strategically important section of the Kirov railway. Only the sergeant was destined to survive. After writing a few pages of his new work, Vasiliev realized that the plot was not new. The story will simply not be noticed or appreciated. Then the author decided that the main characters should be young girls. It was not customary to write about women in the war in those years. Vasiliev's innovation allowed him to create a work that stood out sharply among his peers.
Boris Vasiliev's story has been filmed several times. One of the most original film adaptations was the Russian-Chinese project of 2005. In 2009, the film “Valor” was released in India based on the work of the Soviet writer.
The story takes place in May 1942. Main character Fedot Evgrafych Vaskov is serving at the 171st crossing somewhere in the Karelian outback. Vaskov is not satisfied with the behavior of his subordinates. Forced to remain idle, soldiers start drunken brawls out of boredom and enter into illicit relationships with local women. Fedot Evgrafych repeatedly appealed to his superiors with a request to send him non-drinking anti-aircraft gunners. In the end, a department of girls comes into Vaskov's hands.
It takes a long time for a trusting relationship to be established between the patrol commandant and the new anti-aircraft gunners. “Mossy Stump” is not capable of causing anything but irony in girls. Vaskov, not knowing how to behave with subordinates of the opposite sex, prefers rude and indifferent communication.
Soon after the squad of anti-aircraft gunners arrives, one of the girls notices two fascist saboteurs in the forest. Vaskov goes on a combat mission, taking with him a small group of fighters, which included Sonya Gurvich, Rita Osyanina, Galya Chetvertak, Lisa Brichkina and Zhenya Komelkova.
Fedot Evgrafych managed to stop the saboteurs. He returned alive from a combat mission alone.
Characteristics
Fedot Vaskov
Sergeant Major Vaskov is 32 years old. Several years ago his wife left him. The son whom Fedot Evgrafych was going to raise on his own died. The life of the main character gradually lost its meaning. He feels alone and doesn't belong to anyone the right person.
Vaskov's illiteracy prevents him from expressing his emotions correctly and beautifully. But even the foreman’s awkward and comical speech cannot hide his high spiritual qualities. He becomes truly attached to each of the girls in his squad, treating them like a caring, loving father. In front of the survivors Rita and Zhenya, Vaskov no longer hides his feelings.
Sonya Gurvich
The large and friendly Jewish family of Gurvich lived in Minsk. Sonya's father was a local doctor. Having entered Moscow University, Sonya met her love. However, young people were never able to obtain higher education and start a family. Sonya's lover went to the front as a volunteer. The girl also followed his example.
Gurvich is distinguished by brilliant erudition. Sonya has always been an excellent student and is fluent in German language. The last circumstance became main reason, according to which Vaskov took Sonya on a mission. He needed a translator to communicate with captured saboteurs. But Sonya did not fulfill the mission determined by the foreman: she was killed by the Germans.
Rita Osyanina
Rita became a widow early, having lost her husband on the second day of the war. Leaving her son Albert with her parents, Rita sets out to avenge her husband. Osyanina, who has become the head of the anti-aircraft gunners’ department, asks her superiors to transfer her to the 171st crossing, which is located near the small town where her relatives live. Now Rita has the opportunity to often be at home and bring groceries to her son.
Having been seriously wounded in her last battle, the young widow thinks only of the son her mother will have to raise. Osyanina makes Fedot Evgrafych promise to take care of Albert. Fearing being captured alive, Rita decides to shoot herself.
Galya Chetvertak
Chetvertak grew up in an orphanage, after which she entered a library technical school. Galya always seemed to float with the flow, not knowing exactly where and why she was going. The girl does not experience the hatred for the enemy that overcomes Rita Osyanina. She is not able to hate even her immediate offenders, preferring children's tears to adult aggression.
Galya constantly feels awkward, out of place. She has difficulty adapting to her environment. Friends in arms accuse Galya of cowardice. But the girl is not just afraid. She has a strong aversion to destruction and death. Galya unknowingly pushes herself to death in order to get rid of the horrors of war once and for all.
Lisa Brichkina
The forester's daughter Liza Brichkina became the only anti-aircraft gunner who fell in love with Sergeant Major Vaskov at first sight. A simple girl, who was unable to graduate from school due to her mother’s serious illness, noticed a kindred spirit in Fedot Evgrafych. The author speaks of his heroine as a person who spent most of her life waiting for happiness. However, the expectations were not met.
Liza Brichkina drowned while crossing the swamp, having gone on the orders of Sergeant Major Vaskov for reinforcements.
Zhenya Komelkova
The Komelkov family was shot by the Germans right in front of Zhenya a year before the events described. Despite the bereavement, the girl did not lose her liveliness of character. The thirst for life and love pushes Zhenya into the arms of the married Colonel Luzhin. Komelkova does not want to destroy the family. She is only afraid of not having time to receive its sweetest fruits from life.
Zhenya was never afraid of anything and was confident in herself. Even in the last battle, she does not believe that the next moment could be her last. It is simply impossible to die at 19 years old, being young and healthy.
The main idea of the story
Extraordinary circumstances do not change people. They only help reveal existing character qualities. Each of the girls in Vaskov’s small squad continues to be themselves, adhere to their ideals and outlook on life.
Analysis of the work
Summary “And the dawns here are quiet...” (Vasiliev) can only reveal the essence of this work, profound in its tragedy. The author strives to show not just the death of several girls. In each of them the whole world perishes. Sergeant Major Vaskov not only observes the fading of young lives, he sees in these deaths the death of the future. None of the anti-aircraft gunners will be able to become either a wife or a mother. Their children were not yet born, which means they will not give birth to future generations.
The popularity of Vasiliev's story is due to the contrast used in it. Young anti-aircraft gunners would hardly attract the attention of readers. The appearance of girls gives rise to hope for an interesting plot in which love will certainly be present. Recalling the well-known aphorism that war does not have a feminine face, the author contrasts the tenderness, playfulness and softness of young female anti-aircraft gunners with the cruelty, hatred and inhumanity of the situation in which they found themselves.
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 who served railway, did not allow the German sabotage group to blow 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”, we will describe summary 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 they died good friends, 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.
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