Where was A. Twardowski from? Creative and life path of Tvardovsky Alexander Trifonovich

(1910-1971) Russian poet

Tvardovsky Alexander Trifonovich never complained about fate and even wrote in one of his poems:

No, life has not cheated me,

Didn't go around well.

Everything was more than given to me

On the road - light and heat.

But just like many of his contemporaries, he lived a very difficult life, which fell on the most difficult years for Russia.

Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky was born in the Smolensk region. His father was a blacksmith in the past, perhaps from this came that combination of peculiar solidity and unshakable adherence to principles, which has always been characteristic of Tvardovsky's character. Trifon Gordeevich, the poet's father, was an outstanding man. Through hard work, he managed to save up a small amount of money, which was barely enough to make a down payment to the bank and buy in installments. swampy area earth. The desire to escape from poverty, literacy and even a certain erudition distinguished him from among the peasants, who either jokingly or ironically called Trifon Gordeevich "pan".

The poet's childhood fell on the first post-revolutionary years, and in his youth he happened to be on his own fate learn how collectivization was carried out. In the thirties, his father was "dispossessed" and expelled from his native village. The poet's brother Ivan Trifonovich vividly spoke about these difficult years in his memoirs. The new masters of life did not even take into account the fact that Trifon Gordeevich, together with his family, cultivated the land himself and did not live in poverty only thanks to his diligence.

The future poet became an active rural Komsomol member, and from 1924 he began to send notes to the editorial offices of Smolensk newspapers. He wrote in them about Komsomol affairs, about various abuses that the local authorities allowed, which created for him an aura of a defender in the eyes of the villagers. And in 1925, the first poem by Alexander Tvardovsky, “The New Hut,” appeared in the Smolenskaya Village newspaper. However, he began to write poetry even earlier and once showed them to his teacher, who thus became the first critic of the future poet. As Tvardovsky himself later recalled, the teacher spoke very disapprovingly of his poetic experiments for the reason that the verses are very understandable, while modern literary requirements dictate that "it was impossible to understand from any end what and what is written in the verses." The boy really wanted to conform to the literary fashion, and he stubbornly tried to write in such a way that it was not clear what was written about. Fortunately, he did not succeed in achieving this, and in the end he decided to write the way he could. The first published poem by Alexander Tvardovsky, of course, was far from perfect, but it already showed those features that are characteristic of all his poetry. He wrote simply and clearly about what was close to him. In the twenties, he was influenced by the poetry of N. Nekrasov, which, as it were, predetermined the civic pathos of his first poems.

Inspired by success, Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky collected all his, as it seemed to him, “suitable” poems and went to Smolensk, to the poet Mikhail Isakovsky, who at that time worked in the editorial office of the Rabochy Put newspaper. Their first meeting was the beginning of a great creative and human friendship, which lasted until the end of the life of both poets. Then a whole group of young poets gathered in Smolensk, who came to the regional newspapers from different villages. Mikhail Isakovsky was older than all of them, besides, he was already a recognized poet in the region and did his best to help his young colleagues in their work.

Subsequently, Alexander Tvardovsky noted that he wrote very poorly then, his poems were helpless and imitative. But the most destructive thing for him and for other poets of his age was the lack of a common culture and education. When Tvardovsky arrived in Smolensk, he was already eighteen years old, and his education was only an incomplete rural school. It was with this baggage that he entered into poetry.

After several of his poems appeared in the October magazine and some of the critics noted them in their review. Tvardovsky arrived in Moscow, but the reality was not as brilliant as it seemed from afar. In Moscow, as in Smolensk, it was difficult to get a job, and rare publications did not save the situation. Then Alexander Tvardovsky returned to Smolensk and decided to take his education seriously. He was admitted to the Pedagogical Institute without entrance exams, but with the obligation to study and pass all the subjects for high school in a year. He not only fulfilled his obligation, but in the first year he caught up with his classmates.

In the Smolensk period, Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky very vividly delved into all the processes that were taking place at that time in the village. Collectivization was already underway, his family had suffered, but, sympathizing with his parents, he did not doubt the need for change.

Alexander Tvardovsky often traveled to collective farms as a correspondent for newspapers, collected material, wrote articles and stories. Then he decided to write a great work, and soon his poem “The Path to Socialism” appeared, titled after the name of the collective farm in question. Despite the fact that, on the recommendation of Eduard Bagritsky, the poem was published in the Young Guard and received positive reviews from critics, it was frankly unsuccessful. As Tvardovsky himself admitted, these poems were like "riding with the reins lowered, the loss of the rhythmic discipline of the verse, in other words, not poetry." This and his second poem "Introduction", which was published in Smolensk in 1932, he subsequently considered as the inevitable mistakes of youth. The first big and really good job becomes his lyrical cycle "Rural Chronicle", which Tvardovsky declared himself in literature as a talented promising poet.

However, fame came to him only after the publication in 1936 of the poem "Country Ant". The plot of the poem is reminiscent of the story of Don Quixote, only Alexander Tvardovsky, instead of a knight-errant, goes on a journey a man who does not want to join the collective farm. He rides around the country on his horse in the hope of finding a place where there are no collective farms. Of course, he does not find such a place, and, having looked at happy life collective farmers, returns home convinced that there is not and cannot be a good life outside the collective farms. It is difficult to say whether Twardowski was slying when he created this myth about the new village and the increased well-being of the peasants - after all, he could not help but see the negative that accompanied collectivization. However, in the poem, everything looks decent and safe. Even nature itself rejoices in his poems and brings its generous gift to the collective work:

Breathe with sweaty chest

Yellow-maned oats.

Behind the open window.

In the expanse of the meadow

The horse is full at night

She shook herself off deafly.

Now Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky comes to Moscow already as a recognized poet. By this time, he managed to finish two courses at the Pedagogical Institute in Smolensk and entered the third year of the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature (MIFLI). His poems and poems are readily published by magazines, they are approved by critics, and the poet is quite satisfied with his life. To Tvardovsky's credit, it should be noted that he never breaks ties with his family, and often visits his home, although he risks being labeled "the son of an enemy of the people." However, this fate somehow escaped him.

In 1939, the poet graduated from MIFLI, and he was drafted into the army. At that time, he did not yet know that he would take off his overcoat only after the Victory. During the six years of his army life, Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky went through several wars. He took part in the campaign of the Red Army in Western Belarus, after that - in the Finnish war and, finally, in the Great Patriotic War. From 1940 until the very Victory, the poet did not interrupt his literary studies and worked on the Front Chronicle. Her hero is not yet a soldier, but the same peasant who, by the will of fate, got into the war. The poem "Vasily Terkin" grew out of this cycle. Her idea arose from Alexander Tvardovsky during Finnish war, when he, together with a group of other writers who worked in the newspaper "On Guard of the Motherland", decided to start a "corner of humor" in the newspaper and came up with a feuilleton character - Vasya Terkin, who was a huge success with the fighters. But only the difficult military roads he passed turned Terkin into a real folk hero. It is interesting to note that Tvardovsky's new poem deserved a commendable review even from such a demanding critic as Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, who, moreover, was categorically opposed to the Soviet regime.

Military impressions formed the basis of the next poem by Alexander Tvardovsky - "The House by the Road", which was published in 1946. In contrast to "Terkin", it sounds the motive of inescapable sadness and grief for the losses. In the same year, 1946, the poet creates a kind of requiem for the dead - the poem "I was killed near Rzhev."

In the post-war period, Alexander Tvardovsky continued to work on major works and created his main poem in this period - “Beyond the distance - distance”. In it, the poet strives for an honest conversation with the reader, but he already understands perfectly well that this is impossible. Since 1954, he began to work on his next poem - "Terkin in the Other World", a parody continuation of "Vasily Terkin", which he completed in 1963. It was published and received the first reviews, but then it was silenced as if it did not exist. A similar fate befell another poem by Tvardovsky - "By the Right of Memory", which was completed in 1969, but published in the USSR only in 1987. Realizing that he would not be allowed to tell the truth about the past, Tvardovsky stopped work on this poem. He devoted the last years of his life to lyric poetry. However, it is also felt in it that he deliberately moves away from the social topic he once loved and does not write about what worries him, only because his thoughts still will not reach the reader. The poet feels that he is not able to change anything in this world, and feels his uselessness.

The war and post-war years largely changed the worldview of Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky, and his civic position became different. He saw what the future was, which in the twenties and thirties seemed to him bright and fair. And the poet did his best to defend his ideals and his position.

In 1950, Alexander Tvardovsky was appointed editor-in-chief of the magazine " New world”, but after four years it was removed, and after another four, in 1958, it was returned back. It was at this time that the "New World" became the center around which writers grouped, striving for an honest depiction of reality. At the same time, Tvardovsky managed to print the famous story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and sought the publication of his novel "Cancer Ward". Despite the fact that Alexander Tvardovsky himself had considerable power and influence (he was both a member of the board of the Union of Writers of the USSR and a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU), he constantly had to experience the ever-increasing pressure of conservative forces. In 1970, he was once again removed from the post of editor-in-chief, and the editorial office itself was subjected to an actual defeat. Just a year and a half later, the poet died. As one of the historians later wrote, "Tvardovsky's death was a turning point in a whole period of the country's cultural life."

1910 - 1971 Russian poet, Chief Editor magazine "New World" (1950 - 54, 1958 - 70). The poem "Vasily Terkin" (1941 - 45) is a vivid embodiment of the Russian character and popular feelings of the era of the Great Patriotic War. In the poem "For the distance - the distance" (1953 - 60, Lenin Prize, 1961) and lyrics (book "From the lyrics of these years. 1959 - 67)", 1967) - reflections on the movement of time, the duty of the artist, about life and death . In the poem "Terkin in the Other World" (1963) - a satirical image of the bureaucratic deadening of life. In the final poem-confession "By the Right of Memory" (published in 1987) - the pathos of the uncompromising truth about the time of Stalinism, about the tragic inconsistency of the spiritual world of a person of this time. The poems "Country Ant" (1936), "House by the road" (1946); prose, critical articles. Tvardovsky's lyrical epic enriched and actualized the traditions of Russian classical poetry. State Prizes of the USSR (1941, 1946, 1947, 1971).

Biography

Born on June 8 (21 n.s.) in the village of Zagorye, Smolensk province, in the family of a blacksmith, a literate and even well-read man, in whose house a book was not uncommon. The first acquaintance with Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Nekrasov took place at home, when these books were read aloud on winter evenings. Poems began to write very early. He studied at a rural school. At the age of fourteen, the future poet began to send small notes to the Smolensk newspapers, some of them were printed. Then he ventured to send poetry as well. Isakovsky, who worked in the editorial office of the Rabochy Put newspaper, received the young poet, helped him not only to be published, but also to form as a poet, and influenced him with his poetry.

After graduating from a rural school, the young poet came to Smolensk, but could not get a job, not only to study, but also to work, because he had no specialty. I had to exist "on a penny literary earnings and beat the thresholds of editorial offices." When Svetlov published Tvardovsky's poems in the Moscow magazine Oktyabr, he came to Moscow, but "it turned out to be about the same as with Smolensk."

In the winter of 1930, he again returned to Smolensk, where he spent six years. "It is to these years that I owe my poetic birth," Tvardovsky later said. At this time, he entered the Pedagogical Institute, but left the third year and completed his studies at the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature (MIFLI), where he entered in the fall of 1936.

Tvardovsky's works were published in 1931 - 1933, but he himself believed that only with the poem about collectivization "Country Ant" (1936) did he begin as a writer. The poem was a success with readers and critics. The release of this book changed the life of the poet: he moved to Moscow, graduated from MIFLI in 1939, and published a book of poems, Rural Chronicle.

In 1939 the poet was drafted into the Red Army and participated in the liberation of Western Belarus. With the beginning of the war with Finland, already in the rank of officer, he was in the position of a special correspondent for a military newspaper.

During the Great Patriotic War, the poem "Vasily Terkin" (1941-45) was written - a vivid embodiment of the Russian character and the nationwide patriotic feeling. According to Tvardovsky, "Terkin was ... my lyrics, my journalism, a song and a lesson, an anecdote and a saying, a heart-to-heart talk and a remark to the occasion."

Almost simultaneously with "Terkin" and the poems of the "Frontline Chronicle", the poet began the poem "House by the Road" (1946), completed after the war.

In 1950-60, the poem "Beyond the Distance - the Distance" was written, and in 1967 - 1969 - the poem "By the Right of Memory", which tells the truth about the fate of the poet's father, who became a victim of collectivization, forbidden by censorship, published only in 1987.

Along with poetry, Tvardovsky always wrote prose. In 1947 a book about the past war was published under the general title Motherland and Abroad.

He also showed himself as a deep, insightful critic: the books "Articles and Notes on Literature" (1961), "The Poetry of Mikhail Isakovsky" (1969), articles on the work of S. Marshak, I. Bunin (1965).

For many years, Tvardovsky was the editor-in-chief of the Novy Mir magazine, courageously defending the right to publish every talented work that came to the editorial office. His help and support affected the creative biographies of such writers as Abramov, Bykov, Aitmatov, Zalygin, Troepolsktsy, Molsaev, Solzhenitsyn and others.

The first poems of Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky were published in the Smolensk newspapers in 1925-1926, but fame came to him later, in the mid-30s, when “Country Ant” (1934-1936) was written and published - a poem about the fate of a peasant- individual farmer, about his difficult and difficult path to the collective farm. It clearly manifested the original talent of the poet.

In his works of the 30-60s. he embodied the complex, critical events of the time, the shifts and changes in the life of the country and the people, the depth of the nationwide historical disaster and feat in one of the most cruel wars that mankind has experienced, rightfully occupying one of the leading places in the literature of the 20th century.

Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky was born on June 21, 1910, on the “farm of the wasteland of Stolpovo”, belonging to the village of Zagorye, Smolensk province, in a large family of a peasant blacksmith with many children. Note that later, in the 30s, the Tvardovsky family suffered tragic fate: during collectivization they were dispossessed and exiled to the North.

From the early age the future poet absorbed love and respect for the land, for hard work on it and for blacksmithing, the master of which was his father Trifon Gordeevich - a man of a very peculiar, tough and tough character, and at the same time literate, well-read, who knew many poems by heart. The mother of the poet Maria Mitrofanovna possessed a sensitive, impressionable soul.

As the poet later recalled in his Autobiography, long winter evenings were often devoted in their family to reading aloud the books of Pushkin and Gogol, Lermontov and Nekrasov, A.K. Tolstoy and Nikitin ... It was then that a latent, irresistible craving for poetry arose in the boy's soul, which was based on village life itself close to nature, as well as traits inherited from parents.

In 1928, after a conflict and then a break with his father, Tvardovsky broke up with Zagorye and moved to Smolensk, where he could not get a job for a long time and survived on a penny literary income. Later, in 1932, he entered the Smolensk Pedagogical Institute and, simultaneously with his studies, traveled as a correspondent to collective farms, wrote articles and notes about changes in rural life in local newspapers. At this time, in addition to the prose story “The Diary of a Collective Farm Chairman”, he wrote the poems “The Road to Socialism” (1931) and “Introduction” (1933), in which a colloquial, prosaic verse prevails, later called by the poet himself “riding with the reins down”. They did not become a poetic success, but played a role in the formation and rapid self-determination of his talent.

In 1936, Tvardovsky came to Moscow, entered the philological faculty of the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy, Literature (MIFLI) and in 1939 graduated with honors. In the same year he was drafted into the army and in the winter of 1939/40, as a correspondent for a military newspaper, he participated in the war with Finland.

From the first to last days During the Great Patriotic War, Tvardovsky was an active participant in it - a special correspondent for the front-line press. Together with the active army, having started the war on the Southwestern Front, he marched along its roads from Moscow to Koenigsberg.

After the war, in addition to his main literary work, actually poetic creativity, for a number of years he was the editor-in-chief of the Novy Mir magazine, consistently defending the principles of truly artistic realistic art in this post. As head of this journal, he contributed to the entry into literature of a number of talented writers - prose writers and poets: F. Abramov and G. Baklanov, A. Solzhenitsyn and Yu. Trifonov, A. Zhigulin and A. Prasolov and others.

The formation and formation of Tvardovsky the poet dates back to the mid-20s. While working as a rural correspondent for the Smolensk newspapers, where his notes on village life were published already from 1924, he also published his youthful, unpretentious and still imperfect poems there. In the “Autobiography” of the poet we read: “In the newspaper “Smolensk Village” in the summer of 1925 my first printed poem “New Hut” appeared. It started like this:

Smells like fresh pine resin
The yellowish walls are shining.
We will live well with spring
Here in a new, Soviet way ... "

With the advent of "Country of Ant" (1934-1936), which testified to the entry of its author into the time of poetic maturity, the name of Tvardovsky becomes widely known, and the poet himself asserts himself more and more confidently. At the same time, he wrote cycles of poems “Rural Chronicle” and “About Grandfather Danila”, poems “Mothers”, “Ivushka”, and a number of other notable works. It is around the "Country of the Ant" that Tvardovsky's emerging controversial artistic world has been grouped since the late 1920s. and before the start of the war.

Today we perceive the work of the poet of that time differently. It should be recognized as fair the remark of one of the researchers about the works of the poet in the early 30s. (with certain reservations, it could be extended to this entire decade): “The sharp contradictions of the period of collectivization in the poems, in fact, are not touched upon, the problems of the village of those years are only named, and they are solved superficially optimistically.” However, it seems that this can hardly be unconditionally attributed to the "Country of the Ant" with its peculiar conventional design and construction, folklore color, as well as to the best poems of the pre-war decade.

During the war years, Tvardovsky did everything that was required for the front, often appeared in the army and front-line press: “he wrote essays, poems, feuilletons, slogans, leaflets, songs, articles, notes ...”, but his main work during the war years was the creation lyric-epic poem "Vasily Terkin" (1941-1945).

This, as the poet himself called it, “The book about a fighter” recreates a reliable picture of front-line reality, reveals the thoughts, feelings, experiences of a person in a war. At the same time, Tvardovsky writes a cycle of poems “The Front Chronicle” (1941-1945), and is working on a book of essays “Motherland and Abroad” (1942-1946).

At the same time, he wrote such masterpieces of lyrics as “Two lines” (1943), “War - there is no more cruel word ...” (1944), “In a field dug by streams ...” (1945), which were first published already after the war, in the January issue of the Znamya magazine for 1946.

Even in the first year of the war, the lyrical poem “House by the Road” (1942-1946) was begun and soon after it was completed. “Its theme,” as the poet noted, “is war, but from a different side than in Terkin, from the side of the home, family, wife and children of a soldier who survived the war. The epigraph of this book could be the lines taken from it:

Come on people never
Let's not forget this."

In the 50s. Tvardovsky created the poem "Beyond the Distance - Distance" (1950-1960) - a kind of lyrical epic about modernity and history, about a turning point in the lives of millions of people. This is a detailed lyrical monologue of a contemporary, a poetic narrative about the difficult fate of the motherland and people, about their complex historical path, about internal processes and changes in the spiritual world of man in the 20th century.

In parallel with “Beyond the Distance, the Distance”, the poet is working on the satirical fairy-tale poem “Terkin in the Other World” (1954-1963), depicting the “inertness, bureaucracy, formalism” of our life. According to the author, “the poem “Terkin in the next world” is not a continuation of “Vasily Terkin”, but only refers to the image of the hero of the “Book about a fighter” to solve special problems of the satirical and journalistic genre.”

AT last years life Tvardovsky writes a lyrical poem-cycle "By the Right of Memory" (1966-1969) - a work of tragic sound. This is a social and lyrical-philosophical reflection on the painful paths of history, on the fate of an individual, on the dramatic fate of his family, father, mother, brothers. Being deeply personal, confessional, "By the Right of Memory" at the same time expresses the people's point of view on the tragic phenomena of the past.

Along with major lyrical-epic works in the 40s and 60s. Tvardovsky writes poems in which the “cruel memory” of the war piercingly echoed (“I was killed near Rzhev”, “On the day the war ended”, “To the son of a dead warrior”, etc.), as well as a number of lyrical poems that made up the book “ From the lyrics of these years” (1967). These are concentrated, sincere and original thoughts about nature, man, homeland, history, time, life and death, the poetic word.

Written in the late 50s. and in his own programmatic poem “The whole essence is in a single testament ...” (1958), the poet reflects on the main thing for himself in his work on the word. It is about a purely personal beginning in creativity and about complete dedication in search of a uniquely individual artistic embodiment of the truth of life:

The whole point is in one single covenant:
What I will say is melting until the time
I know this better than anyone in the world -
The living and the dead, only I know.

Say that word to no one else
I never could ever
Reassign. Even Leo Tolstoy
It is forbidden. He will say - let him be a god.

And I'm just a mortal. For your own in the answer,
I'm worried about one thing in life:
About what I know best in the world,
I want to say. And the way I want.

In the later poems of Tvardovsky, in his penetrating personal, in-depth psychological experiences of the 60s. first of all, the complex, dramatic paths of folk history are revealed, the harsh memory of the Great Patriotic War sounds, the difficult fate of the pre-war and post-war villages responds with pain, causes a hearty echo of the event folk life, find a woeful, wise and enlightened solution to the "eternal themes" of the lyrics.

Native nature never leaves the poet indifferent: he vigilantly notices, “as after the March snowstorms, / Fresh, transparent and light, / In April, they suddenly turned pink / Verb-like birch forests”, he hears “an indistinct conversation or hubbub / In the tops of centuries-old pines “(“ That sleepy noise was sweet to me ...”, 1964), the lark, heralding spring, reminds him of a distant childhood.

Often the poet builds his philosophical thoughts about the life of people and the change of generations, about their connection and blood relationship in such a way that they grow as a natural consequence of the image natural phenomena(“Trees planted by grandfather ...”, 1965; “Lawn in the morning from under the typewriter ...”, 1966; “Birch”, 1966). In these verses, the fate and soul of a person are directly connected with the historical life of the motherland and nature, the memory of the fatherland: they reflect and refract the problems and conflicts of the era in their own way.

A special place in the poet's work is occupied by the theme and image of the mother. Yes, in the late 1930s. in the poem “Mothers” (1937, first published in 1958), in the form of blank verse, which is not quite usual for Tvardovsky, not only the memory of childhood and a deep filial feeling, but also a heightened poetic ear and vigilance, and most importantly, an ever more revealing and the growing lyrical talent of the poet. These poems are distinctly psychological, as if reflected in them - in the pictures of nature, in the signs of rural life and life inseparable from it - a maternal image so close to the heart of the poet arises:

And the first noise of the foliage is still incomplete,
And the trail is green on the granular dew,
And the lonely sound of a roll on the river,
And the sad smell of young hay,
And the echo of a late woman's song,
And just the sky, blue sky -
I am reminded of you every time.

And the feeling of filial grief sounds completely different, deeply tragic in the cycle “In Memory of a Mother” (1965), colored not only by the most acute experience of irretrievable personal loss, but also by the pain of nationwide suffering during the years of repression.

In the land where they were taken in a herd,
Wherever a village is near, not like a city,
In the north, locked in the taiga,
All there was - cold and hunger.

Ho certainly remembered the mother,
A little speech will come about everything about what has passed,
How she did not want to die there, -
The cemetery was very ugly.

Tvardovsky, as always in his lyrics, is extremely specific and precise, right down to the details. But here, moreover, the image itself is deeply psychologized, and literally everything is given in sensations and memories, one might say, through the eyes of a mother:

So-and-so, dug earth not in a row
Between centuries-old stumps and snags,
And at least somewhere far away from housing,
And then - the graves right behind the barracks.

And she used to see in a dream
He is not so much a house and a yard with all the right,
And that hillock in the native side
With crosses under curly birches.

Such beauty and grace
In the distance there is a highway, road pollen smokes.
“Wake up, wake up,” my mother said, “
And behind the wall - a taiga cemetery ...

In the last of the poems of this cycle: “- Where did you save this song from, / Mother, for old age? ..” - there is a motif and image of the “crossing” so characteristic of the poet’s work, which in the “Land of the Ant” appeared as a movement to the shore “ new life”, in “Vasily Terkin” - as a tragic reality of bloody battles with the enemy; in the verses of "In Memory of a Mother" he absorbs pain and sorrow about the fate of his mother, bitter resignation to the inevitable finiteness of human life:

Outlived - experienced
And from whom what is the demand?
Yes already nearby
And the last transfer.

water carrier,
gray old man,
Take me to the other side
Side - home ...

In the late lyrics of the poet, with a new, hard-won strength and depth, the theme of the continuity of generations, memory and duty to those who died in the fight against fascism sounds, which enters with a piercing note in the poems “At night, all wounds hurt more painfully ...” (1965), “I know no fault of mine...” (1966), “They lie, deaf and dumb...” (1966).

I know it's not my fault
The fact that others did not come from the war,
The fact that they - who is older, who is younger -
Stayed there, and it's not about the same thing,
That I could, but could not save, -
It's not about that, but still, still, still...

With their tragic understatement, these verses convey the stronger and deeper the feeling of involuntary personal guilt and responsibility for human lives interrupted by the war. And this unrelenting pain of “cruel memory” and guilt, as one could see, applies by the poet not only to military casualties and losses. At the same time, thoughts about man and time, permeated with faith in the omnipotence of human memory, turn into an affirmation of the life that a person carries and keeps in himself until the last moment.

In the lyrics of Tvardovsky of the 60s. the essential qualities of his realistic style were revealed with special fullness and force: democracy, the inner capacity of the poetic word and image, rhythm and intonation, all poetic means, with external simplicity and uncomplicatedness. The poet himself saw the important advantages of this style, first of all, in the fact that it gives “reliable pictures of living life in all imperious impressiveness.” At the same time, his later poems are characterized by psychological depth and philosophical richness.

Tvardovsky owns a number of solid articles and speeches about poets and poetry containing mature and independent judgments about literature (“The Word about Pushkin”, “About Bunin”, “The Poetry of Mikhail Isakovsky”, “On the Poetry of Marshak”), reviews and reviews about A. Blok, A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva, O. Mandelstam and others, included in the book “Articles and Notes on Literature”, which went through several editions.

Continuing the traditions of Russian classics - Pushkin and Nekrasov, Tyutchev and Bunin, various traditions of folk poetry, not bypassing the experience of prominent poets of the 20th century, Tvardovsky demonstrated the possibilities of realism in the poetry of our time. His influence on contemporary and subsequent poetic development is undoubtedly and fruitful.

In 1910, the Russian writer and poet Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky was born into a peasant family. His father was a blacksmith. Mother was born in the family of a landowner who lived on the outskirts of the country and guarded its borders. Brother Ivan later became a writer. The parents were literate people. There were many books in their house, so Alexander Trifonovich's love for literature woke up in early childhood. He studied at a regular village school. He wrote his first poems, which he sent to local print media, as a teenager.

Thanks to the efforts of the editor-in-chief M. Isakovsky, they were printed in the Rabochy Put newspaper. Utopian ideas about collectivization and dispossession were expressed by Tvardovsky in the works "Country of the Ant", "The Path to Socialism". In 1939, Tvardovsky was drafted into the Red Army. During the war with Finland, he worked as a war correspondent. Then he continues to work in the Voronezh front-line newspaper "Red Army". At this time, the poem "Vasily Terkin", "Front Chronicle" was written.

For the story "Vasily Terkin" he was awarded the Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees. Further, the works “House by the Road”, “Homeland and Foreign Land”, “Beyond the Distance” were written. The book "By the Right of Memory" was autobiographical, but was banned. After it was nevertheless published in 1987, Alexander Trifonovich's relations with the leadership of the state became more complicated. Until 1970, he was the editor-in-chief of the magazine " New life". Thanks to him, such authors as Solzhenitsyn, Akhmatova, Troepolsky, Bunin and others were published. After the resignation of Nikita Khrushchev, Alexander Trifonovich had to part with the magazine. Tvardovsky died on December 18, 1971. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

5th, 7th, 8th, 9th grade

Biography of Tvardovsky interesting facts

In the summer of 1910, on a small farm near Smolensk, a boy was born in the family of Trifon Gordeevich and Maria Mitrofanovna Tvardovsky, who was named Alexander. In total, the parents had several children: the eldest, Konstantin, was born in 1908, and the youngest, Vasily, in 1922. As in any other large peasant family of that time, all the children helped their parents with hard work around the house, and all together were taught to read. The father of the family was an educated person; almost every evening, residents of nearby villages and villages gathered in the Tvardovsky house. The works of Russian writers such as Tolstoy, Turgenev, Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov were read here ... Perhaps that is why the future writer began to compose poetry before he learned to write.

The beginning of the creative work of Alexander Tvardovsky is considered to be 1925, when his first poetic work entitled “The New Hut” appeared in one of the local newspapers, although from the age of 14 he began to send articles and notes about rural life to newspapers. Soon after, the young writer met Mikhail Isakovsky, who became his friend and mentor for many years.

In 1928, the 17-year-old selkor Alexander Tvardovsky, leaving his family, moved to Smolensk, which saved him from deportation along with his whole family beyond the Urals after dispossession. In Smolensk, for some time he worked as a freelance correspondent for one of the local newspapers, called "Working Way". At the same time, he meets his future wife, Maria, with whom he will live together for more than 40 years. In 1936, without graduating from the Smolensk Pedagogical Institute, he was transferred to the 3rd year of MIFLI. Before moving to the capital, about 130 works by Tvardovsky were published in various Smolensk newspapers. Among them was his first major work, The Path to Socialism. However, the first serious literary success of the writer was the poem "Country of the Ant" written in 1936 - a work glorifying collectivization and collective farms.

After graduating from the institute, Tvardovsky was drafted into the army. Since 1939, he has served as a special correspondent for the newspaper On Guard of the Motherland in the Leningrad Military District, and with the outbreak of World War II, the young correspondent was sent to the Southwestern Front to the newspaper Red Army, where twice he barely manages to avoid encirclement and captivity . In the summer of 1942, the writer was transferred to the Western Front to work in the editorial office of Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda. It was during this period that the first chapters of Vasily Terkin appeared. The author began to work on this poem during the Soviet-Finnish war. During the same period of time, work began on another large work - "House by the Road".

After the end of the war, Tvardovsky worked, with a break of several years, as the editor-in-chief of Novy Mir, a magazine where many writers of the thaw period were published. His new poems are published: “By the right of memory”, “Beyond the distance - distance”, poems: “To the Cosmonaut”, “That blood that was shed for good reason”, a cycle of poems “In Memory of the Mother”. Alexander Trifonovich is also known as a prose writer and critic, it is worth mentioning his book about the war "Motherland and Foreign Land", as well as works and articles devoted to the work of Isakovsky, Bunin and Marshak ...

As the editor-in-chief of one of the central Soviet literary publications, Alexander Trifonovich for many years led a sharp debate with the editor of the Oktyabr magazine, Vsevolod Kochetov, who had connections in the country's top leadership. In 1970, under pressure from Glavlit, Tvardovsky was forced to leave the post of editor-in-chief and leave Novy Mir. This seriously affected the health of the writer, he suffers a stroke, in addition, doctors discover he has severe lung cancer. In the early winter of 1971, the writer dies.

5th, 7th, 8th, 9th grade by dates

Tvardovsky short biography and his life

Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky is a famous writer, an outstanding person of the Soviet era, the owner of many prizes and awards.

Childhood

Born June 8, 1910 in a simple peasant family. The father was a famous blacksmith. The future writer studied at an ordinary rural school, and little Alexander was instilled with a love of literature by his father, who was seriously fond of literature and read aloud many famous authors. In addition to Alexander, another son, Ivan, was brought up in the family, who later also connected his life with literature and became a writer.

creative way

The first poems were written by a young talent at the age of fourteen. The first voluminous poem, which received wide recognition from readers, was published in 1936.

Tvardovsky's education covered the subjects of the humanities cycle, so he studied at the Pedagogical Institute, and then at the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History.

Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" about a Russian warrior-hero, a soldier of the Great Patriotic War, brought great success and fame. hallmark the poem is accuracy, simplicity and at the same time expressiveness and rapid change of events. This work is rightfully considered the main work of the writer.

In the work of Tvardovsky, post-war poems, poems and short stories also occupy a large place. Separate place in the biography of Tvardovsky, he takes the role of editor-in-chief of the Novy Mir magazine. He took this matter with all his heart.

Family

Little is known about Tvardovsky's family - his wife - Maria Gorelova, two daughters - Olga and Valentina.

Memory

The life of the writer ended in December 1970. Streets in many cities of Russia are named after Tvardovsky. A museum-estate was opened, a monument was erected. An artistic envelope was published in honor of the writer.

5, 11 grade

Interesting Facts and dates from life

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Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky(June 8 (21), 1910 - December 18, 1971) - Russian Soviet writer, poet, journalist. Editor-in-chief of the Novy Mir magazine (1950-1954; 1958-1970).

By order of the Armed Forces of the 3rd Belorussian Front No: 480 dated: 04/30/1945, the special correspondent of the newspaper of the 3rd BF "Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda", Lieutenant Colonel Tvardovsky A.T. awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree for improving the content of the newspaper (writing essays on the battles in East Prussia) and increasing its educational role.

Post-war poems

"New world"

During the second period of Tvardovsky's editorship in Novy Mir, especially after the XXII Congress of the CPSU, the magazine became a refuge for anti-Stalinist forces in literature, a symbol of the "sixties", an organ of legal opposition to Soviet power.

In the 1960s, Tvardovsky, in the poems By Right of Memory (published in 1987) and Terkin in the Other World, revised his attitude towards Stalin and Stalinism. At the same time (early 1960s), Tvardovsky received Khrushchev's permission to publish the story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Solzhenitsyn.

The new direction of the magazine (liberalism in art, ideology and economics, hiding behind the words about socialism “with a human face”) displeased not so much the Khrushchev-Brezhnev party elite and officials of the ideological departments as the so-called “neo-Stalinist-statesmen” in Soviet literature. For several years, there was a sharp literary (and in fact ideological) controversy of the journals Novy Mir and Oktyabr (editor-in-chief V. A. Kochetov, author of the novel What do you want?, directed, among other things, against Tvardovsky). The staunch ideological rejection of the journal was also expressed by the “patriotic sovereigns”.

After Khrushchev was removed from top positions in the press (Ogonyok magazine, Socialist Industry newspaper), a campaign was launched against the Novy Mir magazine. A fierce struggle with the magazine was waged by Glavlit, who systematically did not allow the most important materials. Since the leadership of the Union of Writers did not dare to formally dismiss Tvardovsky, the last measure of pressure on the journal was the removal of Tvardovsky's deputies and the appointment of people hostile to him to these positions. In February 1970, Tvardovsky was forced to resign his editorial powers, part of the magazine's staff followed his example. The editorial board was essentially destroyed. The KGB note “Materials about the moods of the poet A. Tvardovsky” on behalf of Yu. V. Andropov was sent on September 7, 1970 to the Central Committee of the CPSU.

In the "New World" ideological liberalism was combined with aesthetic traditionalism. Tvardovsky had a cold attitude towards modernist prose and poetry, favoring literature developing in the classical forms of realism. Many of the major writers of the 1960s published in the magazine, and the magazine opened many to the reader. For example, in 1964, a large selection of poems by the Voronezh poet Alexei Prasolov was published in the August issue.

Shortly after the defeat of Novy Mir, Tvardovsky was diagnosed with lung cancer. The writer died on December 18, 1971 in the dacha village of Krasnaya Pakhra, Moscow Region. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot No. 7).

Family

perpetuation of memory

Other information

In collaboration with M. Isakovsky, A. Surkov and N. Gribachev, he wrote the poem “The Word of Soviet Writers to Comrade Stalin”, read at a solemn meeting on the occasion of the seventieth birthday of I. V. Stalin at the Bolshoi Theater on December 21, 1949.

Awards and prizes

Stalin Prize of the second degree () - for the poem "Country Ant" (1936)
Stalin Prize of the first degree () - for the poem "Vasily Terkin" (1941-1945)
Stalin Prize of the second degree () - for the poem "House by the Road" (1946)
Lenin Prize () - for the poem "For the distance - distance" (1953-1960)
USSR State Prize () - for the collection “From the lyrics of these years. 1959-1967" (1967)
three orders of Lenin (1939, 1960, 1967)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (30.4.1945)
Order of the Patriotic War II degree (31.7.1944)
Order of the Red Star (1940) - for participation in Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940)

Editions

Tvardovsky, A. T. Vasily Terkin. A book about a fighter - M .: Military Publishing House, 1949 / Fig. O. Vereisky | edition not specified.
Tvardovsky, A. T. House by the road - M.: GIDL (Detgiz), 1959 / Fig. O. Vereisky | circulation=75 000 | dust jacket.
Tvardovsky, A. T. Beyond the distance - M.: Soviet writer, 1961 / Fig. O. Vereisky | circulation=150,000 | dust jacket.
Tvardovsky, A. T. Turkin in the other world. - M.: Soviet writer, 1963 / Fig. O. Vereisky | circulation=150,000 | cover, dust jacket.
Tvardovsky, A. T. Vasily Terkin. A book about a fighter / Ed. preparation A. L. Grishunin. - M.: Nauka, 1976. - 527 p. - (Lit. monuments)
Tvardovsky, A. T. Vasily Terkin. A book about a fighter - S.-Pb. - M.: Speech, 2015 / Fig. Vladimir Galdyaev | circulation=5,000.
Tvardovsky, A. T. Poems and poems / Comp. M. I. Tvardovskaya; preparation text and notes. L. G. Chashchina and E. M. Shneiderman. - L.: Owls. writer, 1986. - 896 p. - (Library of the poet. Large series. Second ed.)
Tvardovsky, A. T. Novomir diary: in 2 volumes / Prepared. text, comments, instructions. named after V. A. and O. A. Tvardovskikh. - M .: PROZAiK, 2009. - 656 + 640 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-91631-014-6.

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Notes

Literature

Lyubareva E. P. Alexander Tvardovsky: Critical and biographical essay. - M.: Sov. writer, 1957 - 186 p.
Vykhodtsev P. S. Alexander Tvardovsky. - M.: Sov. writer, 1958. - 411 p.
Roshchin P.F. Alexander Tvardovsky. - M.: Enlightenment, 1966. - 176 p.
Turkov A. M. Alexander Tvardovsky. - Ed. 2nd, rev. and additional - M.: Hood. lit., 1970. - 173, p.
Dementiev V.V.. Alexander Tvardovsky. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1976. - 172, p.
Akatkin V. M. Alexander Tvardovsky. Verse and prose / Nauch. ed. A. M. Abramov. - Voronezh: Voronezh Publishing House. un-ta, 1977. - 214 p.
Kondratovich A. I. Alexander Tvardovsky. Poetry and personality. - 2nd ed., corrected. and additional - M.: Hood. lit., 1985. - 347, p.
Akatkin V. M. Early Tvardovsky. Problems of formation. - Voronezh: Voronezh Publishing House. un-ta, 1986. - 209, p.
Kulinich A. V. Alexander Tvardovsky: Essay on life and work. - Kyiv: High school., Publishing house at Kyiv. state un-te, 1988. - 174, p.
Lakshin V. Ya. Tvardovsky in the "New World". - M.: Pravda, 1989. - 45, p.
Trifonov Yu.V. Notes of a neighbor // Friendship of peoples: a magazine. - 1989. - No. 10.
A. T. Tvardovsky and Russian literature: [Sat. scientific works dedicated to 90th anniversary of the birth. A. T. Tvardovsky] / Voronezh. state un-t, philol. factor; scientific ed. V. M. Akatkin. - Voronezh: Polygraph, 2000. - 246 p.
Ilyin V. V. Without hiding your eyes: Alexander Tvardovsky. Lit. environment. Creation. connections. - Smolensk: Smyadyn, 2000. - 388, p.
Ilyin V. V. Glossary for the encyclopedia "Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky": Working materials. - Smolensk: SGPU, 2000. - 91 p.
Lazorkina N. F. Dictionary of rhymes of the poem by A. T. Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin". - Smolensk: Universum, 2001 - 43 p.
Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky. Encyclopedia: Working materials / Resin. state ped. un-t, department lit., theories and methods of teaching lit.; ed. advice: Merkin G.S. (editor-in-chief) and others - Smolensk, 2004. - 456 p.
Akatkin V. M. Alexander Tvardovsky and time. Service and opposition: articles / Entry. Art. O. Aleinikova. - Voronezh, 1996. - 258 p.
Akatkin V. M. A. T. Tvardovsky. Creativity pages. Works of different years: articles. - Voronezh: Voronezh. state un-t, 2008. - 342 p.
A. T. Tvardovsky and the Russian poem of the XX century: materials of the international scientific conference / Voronezh. state un-t. - Voronezh: VGU, 2008. - 341 p.
Tvardovskaya V. A. A. Tvardovsky in life and literature (letters 1950-1959). - Smolensk: Magenta, 2013. - 480 p. - ISBN 978-5-98156-508-3.

Links

in the library of Maxim Moshkov
(MP3)
on the Chronos website
on the site "Anthology of samizdat"
Lavrov V.
Varlam Shalamov.
Esipov V.// Research within the grant of the Russian Humanitarian Foundation, project No. 08-03-12112v

Artworks Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky

At the beginning of 1806, Nikolai Rostov returned on vacation. Denisov was also going home to Voronezh, and Rostov persuaded him to go with him to Moscow and stay at their house. At the penultimate station, having met a comrade, Denisov drank three bottles of wine with him and, approaching Moscow, despite the bumps in the road, did not wake up, lying at the bottom of the sledge, near Rostov, which, as it approached Moscow, came more and more into impatience.
“Soon? Is it soon? Oh, these unbearable streets, shops, rolls, lanterns, cabbies! thought Rostov, when they had already written down their holidays at the outpost and drove into Moscow.
- Denisov, come! Asleep! he said, leaning forward with his whole body, as if by this position he hoped to speed up the movement of the sleigh. Denisov did not respond.
- Here is the corner of the crossroads where Zakhar the cab driver is standing; here he is and Zakhar, and still the same horse. Here is the shop where the gingerbread was bought. Is it soon? Well!
- Which house is that? asked the coachman.
- Yes, at the end, to the big one, how can you not see! This is our house, - said Rostov, - after all, this is our house! Denisov! Denisov! We'll come now.
Denisov raised his head, cleared his throat, and said nothing.
“Dmitry,” Rostov turned to the lackey in the box. “Is this our fire?”
- So exactly with and with daddy in the office glows.
- Haven't gone to bed yet? BUT? how do you think? Look, don’t forget, get me a new Hungarian at once, ”added Rostov, feeling his new mustache. “Come on, let’s go,” he shouted to the driver. “Wake up, Vasya,” he turned to Denisov, who lowered his head again. - Come on, let's go, three rubles for vodka, let's go! Rostov shouted when the sleigh was already three houses from the entrance. It seemed to him that the horses were not moving. Finally the sleigh was taken to the right to the entrance; above his head, Rostov saw a familiar cornice with broken plaster, a porch, a sidewalk pillar. He jumped out of the sleigh on the move and ran into the passage. The house also stood motionless, unfriendly, as if it didn't care who came to it. There was no one in the vestibule. "My God! is everything all right?" thought Rostov, stopping for a minute with a sinking heart, and at once starting to run further along the passage and the familiar, crooked steps. The same doorknob of the castle, for the uncleanliness of which the countess was angry, also weakly opened. A single tallow candle burned in the hallway.
Old man Mikhail was sleeping on the chest. Prokofy, the visiting lackey, the one who was so strong that he lifted the carriage by the back, sat and knitted bast shoes from the hems. He glanced at the open door, and his indifferent, sleepy expression suddenly changed into ecstatic fright.
- Fathers, lights! Count young! he exclaimed, recognizing the young master. – What is it? My dove! - And Prokofy, shaking with excitement, rushed to the door to the living room, probably in order to announce, but apparently changed his mind again, returned back and leaned on the shoulder of the young master.
– Healthy? Rostov asked, pulling his hand away from him.
- Thank God! All thanks to God! just ate now! Let me see you, Your Excellency!
- Is everything all right?
- Thank God, thank God!
Rostov, completely forgetting about Denisov, not wanting to let anyone warn him, threw off his fur coat and ran on tiptoe into a dark, large hall. Everything is the same, the same card tables, the same chandelier in a case; but someone had already seen the young gentleman, and before he had time to run to the living room, something swiftly, like a storm, flew out of the side door and hugged and began to kiss him. Another, third, similar creature jumped out of another, third door; More hugs, more kisses, more cries, more tears of joy. He could not make out where and who is dad, who is Natasha, who is Petya. Everyone was screaming and talking and kissing him at the same time. Only his mother was not among them - he remembered that.
- But I didn’t know ... Nikolushka ... my friend!
- Here he is ... ours ... My friend, Kolya ... He has changed! No candles! Tea!
- Kiss me then!
- Darling ... but me.
Sonya, Natasha, Petya, Anna Mikhailovna, Vera, the old count, embraced him; and people and maids, having filled the rooms, sentenced and gasped.
Petya hung on his feet. - And then me! he shouted. Natasha, after she, having bent him to her, kissed his whole face, jumped away from him and holding on to the floor of his Hungarian, jumped like a goat all in one place and squealed piercingly.
From all sides there were tears of joy shining with tears, loving eyes, from all sides there were lips looking for a kiss.
Sonya, red as red, also held on to his hand and beamed all over in a blissful look fixed on his eyes, which she was waiting for. Sonya was already 16 years old, and she was very beautiful, especially at this moment of happy, enthusiastic animation. She looked at him, not taking her eyes off, smiling and holding her breath. He looked at her gratefully; but still waiting and looking for someone. The old countess hasn't come out yet. And then there were footsteps at the door. The steps are so fast that they couldn't have been his mother's.
But it was she in a new dress, unfamiliar to him, sewn without him. Everyone left him and he ran to her. When they came together, she fell on his chest sobbing. She could not raise her face and only pressed him against the cold laces of his Hungarian coat. Denisov, not noticed by anyone, entered the room, stood right there and, looking at them, rubbed his eyes.
“Vasily Denisov, your son’s friend,” he said, introducing himself to the count, who looked at him inquiringly.
- Welcome. I know, I know,” said the count, kissing and hugging Denisov. - Nikolushka wrote ... Natasha, Vera, here he is Denisov.
The same happy, enthusiastic faces turned to the shaggy figure of Denisov and surrounded him.
- My dear, Denisov! - Natasha squealed, beside herself with delight, jumped up to him, hugged and kissed him. Everyone was embarrassed by Natasha's act. Denisov also blushed, but smiled and took Natasha's hand and kissed it.
Denisov was taken to the room prepared for him, and the Rostovs all gathered in the sofa near Nikolushka.
The old countess, without letting go of his hand, which she kissed every minute, sat next to him; the rest, crowding around them, caught his every movement, word, glance, and did not take their eyes off him with enthusiastic love. The brother and sisters argued and intercepted places from each other closer to him, and fought over who would bring him tea, a handkerchief, a pipe.
Rostov was very happy with the love he was shown; but the first minute of his meeting was so blissful that it seemed to him that his present happiness was not enough, and he kept waiting for something more, and more, and more.
The next morning the visitors slept off the road until 10 o'clock.
In the previous room, sabers, bags, carts, open suitcases, dirty boots were lying around. The cleaned two pairs with spurs had just been placed against the wall. Servants brought washstands hot water shaving and brushed dresses. It smelled of tobacco and men.
- Hey, G "bitch, t" ubku! shouted the hoarse voice of Vaska Denisov. - Rostov, get up!
Rostov, rubbing his eyes that were stuck together, lifted his tangled head from the hot pillow.
- What's late? “Late, 10 o’clock,” answered Natasha’s voice, and in next room there was a rustle of starched dresses, a whisper and laughter of girlish voices, and something blue, ribbons, black hair and cheerful faces flickered through the slightly open door. It was Natasha with Sonya and Petya, who came to see if he got up.
- Nicholas, get up! Natasha's voice was heard again at the door.
- Now!
At this time, Petya, in the first room, seeing and grabbing sabers, and experiencing the delight that boys experience at the sight of a warlike older brother, and forgetting that it is indecent for sisters to see undressed men, opened the door.
- Is that your sword? he shouted. The girls jumped back. Denisov, with frightened eyes, hid his shaggy legs in a blanket, looking around for help at his comrade. The door let Petya through and closed again. There was laughter outside the door.
- Nikolenka, come out in a dressing gown, - Natasha's voice said.
- Is that your sword? Petya asked, “or is it yours?” - with obsequious respect he turned to the mustachioed, black Denisov.
Rostov hurriedly put on his shoes, put on a dressing gown and went out. Natasha put on one boot with a spur and climbed into the other. Sonya was spinning and just wanted to inflate her dress and sit down when he came out. Both were in the same, brand new, blue dresses - fresh, ruddy, cheerful. Sonya ran away, and Natasha, taking her brother by the arm, led him into the sofa room, and they started talking. They did not have time to ask each other and answer questions about thousands of little things that could interest only them alone. Natasha laughed at every word that he said and that she said, not because what they said was funny, but because she had fun and was unable to restrain her joy, expressed in laughter.
- Oh, how good, excellent! she said to everything. Rostov felt how, under the influence of the hot rays of love, for the first time in a year and a half, that childish smile blossomed in his soul and face, which he had never smiled since he left home.
“No, listen,” she said, “are you quite a man now? I'm awfully glad you're my brother. She touched his mustache. - I want to know what kind of men you are? Are they like us? Not?
Why did Sonya run away? Rostov asked.
- Yes. That's another whole story! How will you talk to Sonya? You or you?
“How will it happen,” said Rostov.
Tell her, please, I'll tell you later.
- Yes, what?
- Well, I'll tell you now. You know that Sonya is my friend, such a friend that I would burn my hand for her. Here look. - She rolled up her muslin sleeve and showed on her long, thin and delicate handle under her shoulder, much higher than the elbow (in the place that is sometimes covered by ball gowns) a red mark.
“I burned this to prove my love to her. I just kindled the ruler on fire, and pressed it.
Sitting in his former classroom, on the sofa with pillows on the handles, and looking into those desperately animated eyes of Natasha, Rostov again entered that family, children's world, which had no meaning for anyone except for him, but which gave him one of the best pleasures in life; and burning his hand with a ruler, to show love, seemed to him not useless: he understood and was not surprised at this.
– So what? only? - he asked.
- Well, so friendly, so friendly! Is this nonsense - a ruler; but we are forever friends. She will love someone, so forever; but I don't understand it, I'll forget it now.
- Well, so what?
Yes, she loves me and you so much. - Natasha suddenly blushed, - well, you remember, before leaving ... So she says that you forget it all ... She said: I will always love him, but let him be free. After all, the truth is that this is excellent, noble! - Yes Yes? very noble? Yes? Natasha asked so seriously and excitedly that it was clear that what she was saying now, she had previously said with tears.
Rostov thought.
“I don’t take back my word in anything,” he said. - And besides, Sonya is so charming that what kind of fool would refuse his happiness?
“No, no,” Natasha screamed. We already talked about it with her. We knew you would say that. But this is impossible, because, you understand, if you say so - you consider yourself bound by a word, then it turns out that she seemed to have said it on purpose. It turns out that you still forcibly marry her, and it turns out not at all.
Rostov saw that all this was well thought out by them. Sonya struck him yesterday with her beauty. To-day, seeing her for a glimpse, she seemed even better to him. She was a lovely 16-year-old girl, obviously passionately loving him (he did not doubt this for a minute). Why should he not love her now, and not even marry her, thought Rostov, but now there are so many other joys and occupations! "Yes, they thought it up perfectly," he thought, "one must remain free."
“Very well,” he said, “we’ll talk later.” Oh, how glad I am for you! he added.
- Well, why didn’t you cheat on Boris? the brother asked.
- That's nonsense! Natasha screamed laughing. “I don’t think about him or anyone, and I don’t want to know.
– That's how! So what are you?
- I? Natasha asked, and a happy smile lit up her face. - Have you seen Duport "a?
- Not.
- Did you see the famous Duport, the dancer? Well, you won't understand. I'm what it is. - Natasha, rounding her arms, took her skirt, as if dancing, ran a few steps, turned over, made an antrash, beat her leg against her leg and, standing on the very tips of her socks, walked a few steps.
- Am I standing? behold, she said; but she couldn't stand on tiptoe. "So that's what I am!" I will never marry anyone, but I will become a dancer. But do not tell anyone.
Rostov laughed so loudly and merrily that Denisov felt envious from his room, and Natasha could not help laughing with him. - No, it's good, isn't it? she kept saying.
- Well, do you want to marry Boris anymore?
Natasha flushed. - I don't want to marry anyone. I'll tell him the same when I see him.
– That's how! Rostov said.
“Well, yes, it’s all nonsense,” Natasha continued to chat. - And why is Denisov good? she asked.
- Good.
- Well, goodbye, get dressed. Is he scary, Denisov?
- Why is it scary? Nicholas asked. - Not. Vaska is nice.
- You call him Vaska - strange. And that he is very good?
- Very good.
“Well, come and drink some tea.” Together.
And Natasha stood up on tiptoe and walked out of the room the way dancers do, but smiling the way happy 15-year-old girls smile. Having met Sonya in the living room, Rostov blushed. He didn't know how to deal with her. Yesterday they kissed in the first moment of the joy of meeting, but today they felt that it was impossible to do this; he felt that everyone, both mother and sisters, looked at him inquiringly and expected from him how he would behave with her. He kissed her hand and called her you - Sonya. But their eyes, having met, said “you” to each other and kissed tenderly. With her eyes, she asked him for forgiveness for the fact that at Natasha's embassy she dared to remind him of his promise and thanked him for his love. He thanked her with his eyes for the offer of freedom and said that one way or another, he would never stop loving her, because it was impossible not to love her.
“How strange, however,” said Vera, choosing a general moment of silence, “that Sonya and Nikolenka now met like strangers. - Vera's remark was just, like all her remarks; but, like most of her remarks, everyone became embarrassed, and not only Sonya, Nikolai and Natasha, but also the old countess, who was afraid of her son’s love for Sonya, which could deprive him of a brilliant party, also blushed like a girl. Denisov, to Rostov's surprise, in a new uniform, pomaded and perfumed, appeared in the living room as dandy as he was in battles, and so amiable with ladies and gentlemen, which Rostov did not expect to see him.

Returning to Moscow from the army, Nikolai Rostov was adopted by his family as the best son, hero and beloved Nikolushka; relatives - as a sweet, pleasant and respectful young man; acquaintances - as a handsome hussar lieutenant, a clever dancer and one of the best grooms in Moscow.
The Rostovs knew all of Moscow; the old count had enough money this year, because all the estates were mortgaged, and therefore Nikolushka, having got his own trotter and the most fashionable trousers, special ones that no one else in Moscow had, and boots, the most fashionable, with the most pointed socks and little silver spurs, had a lot of fun. Rostov, returning home, experienced a pleasant feeling after a certain period of time trying on himself for the old conditions of life. It seemed to him that he had matured and grown very much. Despair for an examination that was not consistent with the law of God, borrowing money from Gavrila for a cab, secret kisses with Sonya, he recalled all this as about childishness, from which he was immeasurably far away now. Now he is a hussar lieutenant in a silver cape, with a soldier's Georgy, preparing his trotter for a run, along with well-known hunters, elderly, respectable. He has a familiar lady on the boulevard, to whom he goes in the evening. He conducted a mazurka at a ball at the Arkharovs, talked about the war with Field Marshal Kamensky, visited an English club, and was on you with one forty-year-old colonel, whom Denisov introduced him to.