In December 1956 and January 1957, the newspaper Pravda published the work of the Soviet writer Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov, “The Fate of Man,” about the great trials and great inflexibility of Soviet people during the difficult years of the war.
Background
The basis of the story is the fate of the country, the fate of man, the theme of the Great Patriotic War and the character of a simple Russian soldier.
Immediately after the publication, letters from Soviet readers were sent to Sholokhov in an endless stream. From those who survived the fascist captivity, from the relatives of the dead soldiers. They wrote everything: workers, collective farmers, doctors, teachers, scientists. Not only ordinary people wrote, but also eminent writers, both domestic and foreign, among whom were Boris Polevoy, Nikolai Zadornov, Hemingway, Remarque and others.
Screen adaptation of the book
The story gained worldwide fame, and in 1959 was filmed by director Sergei Bondarchuk. He also played a major role in the movie.
Bondarchuk believed that everything should be shown on the screen as simply and severely as life itself, through the understanding of the hero, because the most important thing in this story is the character of a Russian man, his big heart, not hardened after the tests that fell on him.
The book "The fate of man" was reprinted many times. Both in our country and abroad. This dramatic story found a warm response in all human hearts. “The fate of man,” according to foreign readers, is a magnificent, tragic, sad story. Very kind and bright, heartbreaking, causing tears and giving joy that two orphaned people found happiness, found each other.
The Italian director Rossellini gave the following comment about the film: "" The fate of man "is the strongest, greatest that was filmed about the war."
How it all started
The plot was based on real events.
Once, in the spring of 1946, two people met on the road at the crossing. And as happens when they meet strangers, they started talking.
A casual listener, Sholokhov, listened to the passerby’s bitter confession. The fate of a man who survived the terrible blows of the war, but not hardened, very touched the writer. He was astounded.
For a long time this story carried within himself Sholokhov. The fate of a man who had lost everything during the war and regained little happiness did not go out of his head.
10 years have passed since the meeting. In just seven days, Sholokhov composed the story “The Fate of a Man,” whose heroes are a simple Soviet soldier and an orphan boy, Vanya.
A passerby who told the writer his story became the prototype of the main character of the story - Andrei Sokolov. In it, Mikhail Sholokhov deduced the main properties of a true Russian character: perseverance, patience, modesty, a sense of human dignity, love of the motherland.
The author shows the character of a person in all manifestations of life - as a family man, as a worker, as a warrior and a winner.
Summary
The difficult history of the country found its review in the life of the protagonist. The fate of a man, Andrei Sokolov, a simple worker, repeats the main milestones of the events of those years - the civil war, the hungry twenties, the work of the farm laborer in the Kuban. So he returned to his native Voronezh, received the profession of a locksmith and went to the factory. Married a wonderful girl, children were born. He has a simple life and simple happiness: home, family, work.
But the Great Patriotic War broke out, and Andrei Sokolov went to the front, fighting for his homeland, like many millions of Soviet men. In the very first months of the war he was captured by the Nazis. In captivity, his courage struck the German officer, the commandant of the camp, and Andrei avoided being shot. And soon makes an escape.
Returning to his own, he goes to the front again.
But his heroism is manifested not only in a clash with the enemy. For Andrei, the loss of loved ones and homeless shelter, his loneliness, becomes no less serious test.
On a short frontal vacation in his hometown, he learns that his beloved family: his wife Irina and both daughters - died during the bombing.
A funnel from a German aerial bomb gapes on the spot with the love of the built house. Shocked, devastated, Andrei returns to the front. Only joy remained - the son Anatoly, a young officer, he is alive and fighting against the Nazis. But the joyous Victory Day over fascist Germany is overshadowed by the news of the death of his son.
After the demobilization, Andrei Sokolov could not return to his city, where everything reminded him of the deceased family. He worked as a driver and once in Uryupinsk, near a teahouse, he met a homeless child - a little orphaned boy, Vanya. Mama Vani died, father went missing.
One destiny - many destinies
A fierce war could not deprive the hero of the story of his main qualities - kindness, trustfulness to people, caring, responsiveness, justice.
The griminess of the grimy boy found a piercing response in the heart of Andrei Sokolov. The fate of a man, the fate of a child who lost his childhood, made him decide to cheat and tell the boy that he was his father. Vanya’s desperate joy that his “dear folder” had finally found him, gave Sokolov a new meaning in life, joy and love.
Living without caring about anyone was senseless for Andrey, and his whole life now focused on the child. No more troubles could overshadow his soul, because he had someone to live for.
Typical traits of the hero
Despite the fact that the life of Andrei Sokolov is full of terrible upheavals, he says that she was ordinary and he got no more than others.
In the story of Sholokhov, the life of Andrei Sokolov is a typical fate of a person in those years for the country. The war heroes returned home from the front and found terrible devastation in their beloved, native places. But it was necessary to continue to live, to build, to strengthen the victory won with such difficulty.
Andrei Sokolov’s strong character is precisely reflected in his discourse about himself: “For this you and the man, for that you and the soldier, in order to endure everything, to demolish everything, if the need called for it.” His heroism is natural, and modesty, courage and selflessness did not disappear after suffering, but only strengthened in character.
The idea of that unusually enormous price that the Victory got, incredible sacrifices and personal losses, tragic upheavals and deprivations runs through the thread of the work.
A small but amazingly capacious work concentrated in itself the tragedy of the entire Soviet people, who drank military sorrows to the edge, but retained their highest spiritual qualities and defended the freedom of their homeland in an unbearable fight with the enemy.
Each review of "The Fate of Man" suggests that Sholokhov is a great creator. A book cannot be read without tears. This is a work of life that has deep meaning, readers say.