“And the Dawns Here Are Quiet” - a work by Boris Vasiliev, dedicated to the Great Patriotic War and the role of women in it. Even a brief summary of “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” allows us to convey the whole tragedy of the situation described in the full version of the work. The action takes place in May 1942 at one of the railway tracks. Here, thirty-two-year-old Fedot Evgrafich Vaskov commands anti-aircraft gunners.
In general, the atmosphere is calm, which is sometimes violated by airplanes. All soldiers arriving at such an important post, first looked around, and then begin to lead a loose lifestyle. Vaskov quite often wrote reports on negligent soldiers, and the command decided to give him a platoon of girls anti-aircraft gunners. At first, Fedot and anti-aircraft gunners find themselves in embarrassing situations, this is shown in more detail in the full version “Dawns Are Quiet Here,” the summary of the story does not provide such detailed details.
One of the platoon commanders is Margarita Osyanina, who became a widow on the second day of the war. She is driven by an uncontrollable thirst for revenge and hatred of all Germans, which is why she behaves quite strictly towards girls. After one of the fascist raids, the tray carrier dies, and Zhenya Komelkova arrives in her place, having her own motives for revenge: the Nazis shot her entire family in front of her.
As soon as Zhenya was at the front, she was convicted in connection with the married Colonel Luzhin, that is how she ended up at 171 rounds. Wife manages to get along with cold Rita, and she begins to soften. Also, Komelkova managed to transform Galya Chetvertak, who was an ordinary gray mouse in the company, and she decided to stay with her. Summary "And the dawns here are quiet", unfortunately, does not provide an opportunity to colorfully paint the details of the transformation of Chetvertak.
Not far from the junction is the city where Rita’s son and her mother live. At night, Osyanina brought them food, and once, moving through the forest, she noticed the Germans. Soon, the command demanded that Vaskov and his platoon catch the Nazis. Fedot believes that the enemies are moving towards the railway in order to disable it. To intercept a couple of Germans, Vaskov takes Osyanina, Komelkova, Chetvertak, as well as Elizaveta Brichkina, daughter of a forester, and Sofya Gurvich, a girl from an intelligent family.
None of the detachment even suggested that the Germans would be not two, but sixteen. Fedot sends Lisa for help, but she stumbles on a swamp path and dies. In parallel with this, the remaining members of the detachment are trying to deceive the invaders by portraying lumberjacks, and partly this maneuver is possible. Summary “And the dawns here are quiet,” unfortunately, it is not able to demonstrate the difficult path of Lisa Brichkina, shown in the book and its adaptation.
Vaskov leaves the pouch in the old place of deployment, and Gurvich decides to return it. Indiscretion costs her life - two Germans kill her. Eugene and Fedot take revenge on Sonya, after which they bury her. Seeing the Germans, the survivors open fire on them, and they hide, trying to understand who attacked them.
Fedot ambushes the Germans, but all plans are frustrated by Galya, whose nerves could not stand it. She ran out of cover right under the bullets of the Nazis. The girl dies, and Fedot leads the Nazis as far away from Rita and Zhenya, during the maneuver, he finds Brichkina’s skirt and realizes that there will be no help. The tragedy of this situation cannot be felt, using only a brief summary of "And the dawns here are quiet."
Fedot, Rita and Zhenya accept the last battle. Rita is fatally wounded in the stomach, and while Fedot drags her away for cover, Zhenya, distracting the Germans, dies. Osyanina asks Vaskov to take care of her son and kills herself with a shot at the temple. Fedot buries both.
Vaskov finds the place of shelter of the Germans, breaks into their house and captures him, after which he leads to the place of deployment of the platoon. The book ends with the fact that every year Fedot Vaskov and captain Albert Fedotych, the son of Margarita Osyanina, arrive at the site of the death of the girls. The story created by Boris Vasiliev - “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” is part of a series of works devoted to women's fate during the Great Patriotic War.