Today, not everyone can remember who Vanda Vasilevskaya is, although she was once a living classic of Soviet literature. But after the death of its main reader, Joseph Stalin, the glory of Vasilevskaya quickly faded.
The childhood of Wanda Vasilevskaya
Wanda Lvovna Vasilevskaya was born in January 1905 in the family of the famous Polish ethnographer and nationalist Leon Vasilevsky.
Being also the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland under the Pilsudski government, her father was famous for his socialist views. It was he who influenced the formation of the character of his purposeful daughter.
Life in Poland before the outbreak of World War II
The future writer had an excellent education. In 1927 she received a diploma from the Faculty of Philology of the Jagiellonian University. After studying, Vasilevskaya lived in Krakow and taught in one of the secondary schools. This woman could easily have a career, but instead she joins the revolutionary left-wing movement in Poland.
In 1938, the writer organized a large-scale strike of teachers, for which she was fired from the service. In the same year she made an ethnographic expedition to Volyn. Based on the collected materials, Wanda Vasilevskaya later wrote the book “Flames in the Swamps”.
After the expedition, Vasilevskaya moved to live in Warsaw, where she got a job in the editorial office of children's magazines. In her free time, she continued to carry on her revolutionary activities, which caused outrage from the Polish authorities, and they were going to put her in jail.
Emigration to the USSR and the Great Patriotic War
When fascist Germany attacked Poland, Wanda Vasilevskaya wanted to leave the country, but the authorities refused to issue her a visa, since two lawsuits were being conducted against her. Then the writer walked a few hundred kilometers on foot and reached Lviv, which had already become a Soviet city.
Here, Wanda Lvovna immediately accepted the citizenship of the USSR. It is surprising to many how Vasilevskaya was able to bypass all instances and delays associated with moving from the occupied territories, and not only instantly received citizenship, but also became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. It was rumored that Joseph Stalin himself helped in this.
Living in Lviv, Wanda Vasilevskaya wrote a denunciation of the future major Whirlwind - Eugene Bereznyak. In it, Vasilevskaya condemned him for the Ukrainianization of Lviv schools, believing that this was contrary to party policy. It is for this act that many Ukrainians do not like the writer today.
In Lviv, Vasilevskaya Wanda continued her literary work. Books of the writer from her famous trilogy “Song over the waters” began to be created in this city.
With the advent of war on the territory of the USSR, the writer received the military rank of colonel and began to go to the front as part of an agitation brigade. Contemporaries noted that the rude, ugly Wanda Vasilevskaya, who smoked like a steam locomotive and always walked in men's breeches, was an amazingly wonderful speaker.
In parallel with the campaign work, Vasilevskaya worked as an editor in various periodicals.
In 1942, Stalin instructed Vanda Lvovna to write an agitation story for the front. The writer had only a month of time. However, she managed - so the story "Rainbow" by Vanda Vasilevskaya appeared. The following year, this work was filmed, and the writer was awarded for him with her first Stalin Prize. The woman donated the money she received for the construction of the Warsaw military aircraft.
From 1943 until the end of the war Vasilevskaya held the post of chief editor of the newspaper Sovetskaya Poland.
After the war, the writer moved to live in Kiev, where she received a separate apartment with all amenities.
The last years of the writer
After the war, Vasilevskaya was twice awarded the Stalin Prize. Her Rainbow and other works were included in the compulsory school curriculum. As a proven ideological communist, Vanda Vasilevskaya was often sent on foreign business trips. After them, the woman published essays that colorfully described how poorly capitalist Europe is and how happy Soviet citizens are. Thus appeared “In Paris and Outside Paris” and “Letters from Rome”. In fairness, it is worth noting that if you discard all the sugary propaganda, the writer quite accurately noticed many of the problems of post-war Europe, in particular France.
The well-fed happy life of Vasilevskaya ended with the death of Stalin. Without his strong support, the fame of the writer faded. She died in 1964, was buried in Kiev.
Personal life of Wanda Vasilevskaya
The writer was married twice. Her first husband was the Krakow revolutionary Marian Bogatko.
In this marriage, the only daughter of the writer Eva was born, who after the death of her father (1940) was taken by Wanda to the USSR. Eve became a translator, as well as a children's writer.
The second husband of Vasilevskaya was the Ukrainian Soviet writer Alexander Korneichuk. It was rumored that this marriage was purely political in nature and there was no special love between the spouses.
Wanda Vasilevskaya, "Rainbow": summary
It has been a month since the Ukrainian village for three hundred families was in the hands of the Nazis. During this time, the villagers had to endure a lot. The best houses were taken from the owners, who were thrown out into the street, and in other good houses, German soldiers were billeted. Cows, sheep, chickens and other domestic animals have long been taken away, as German units were ordered to obtain food in the occupied settlements. The first worker and beauty of the village, Malasha Vyshneva, was raped by three soldiers and was expecting a child from one of them.
All power in the village is now in the hands of German captain Kurt Werner. He lodges with the local widow of Fedosia Kravchuk together with his mistress Pusey (he brought him from a neighboring city, promising to marry, although he himself has a wife, Louise and a child in Germany).
The elder is the citizen Gaplik freed by the Germans from prison. His task is to force the villagers to give out to the invaders the caches where the wheat is hidden. It is he who learns about the return to the village of the forty-year-old widow of Olena Kostyuk.
As it was known, her husband left his pregnant wife and went to the front, and Elena with the arrival of the Germans went to the partisan detachment, consisting of sixteen young guys, and took care of them until it was time to give birth. Then the woman returned to her hut, hoping that the Germans did not know about her, but was mistaken.
Kurt persuaded her to surrender the partisans, but the woman did not agree. Then, at night, soldiers drove her naked in the snow and beat her, but she did not betray her. A hungry, frozen wounded woman was locked in a cold barn.
A neighbor boy named Bear made his way to this barn and wanted to give the woman bread, but he was noticed by the sentry and shot him. The boy’s mother, Galina Malyuchikha, secretly stole the body of her son and buried in the hallway.
The next morning, a meeting was scheduled in which the headman took six peasants hostage, promising to execute them in three days, if the peasants did not give the wheat and tell whose son he was trying to bring bread to the captured partisan. However, none of the villagers complied with the requirements of the occupiers.
Meanwhile, a captive Olena had a son. Despite the wounds, cold, hunger and terrible conditions, the baby was born healthy. After giving birth, the woman was returned clothes and allowed to sleep. And then Kurt summoned her for questioning and, threatening to kill the child, demanded that the partisans be extradited. The woman did not agree, and the captain shot her newborn baby, and then ordered his mother to be executed.
Meanwhile, Fedosia Kravchuk finds out that the Red Army plans to free their village soon, and tells the soldiers what and where the occupants are. That same night, some of the locals capture the headman and, "having executed" him, they throw the body into a dry well. In the morning the Germans decide that the headman has escaped.
The next day, a column of captured soldiers is led through the village, this sight horrifies the inhabitants. However, at night the Red Army frees the village. In the struggle for freedom, Malasha dies, who killed Kurt with her own hands. And peasants bury both soldiers and their fellow villagers in a mass grave. And a rare winter rainbow appears above the village.
Advantages and disadvantages of the Rainbow
Immediately after publication, this book became popular. Moreover, American newspapers spoke positively of her. And the film of the same name, shot based on the story, was even nominated for an Oscar.
"Rainbow" was written in accordance with all the rules of a campaign work: vivid descriptions of all kinds of atrocities of the Nazis, diehard heroic people and valiant liberating soldiers. Despite its simple language, the work is full of literary stamps. Most heroes are of the same type and predictable. The Germans are as one cruel, lying bastards, the elder is a cowardly villain, the German mistress is stupid and lazy. A dishonored girl dies heroically, washing away her shame with blood. Women are uncompromising and sacrifice children for the common good and give birth to them with the same ease, and an hour after giving birth they already drink diluted alcohol. Death in battle is extolled as the highest good against the background of the shameful capture of the enemy.
There are also many inconsistencies in the story. For example, the Germans have been in the village for a month, but they could not count all the inhabitants. In the village, next to which partisans are operating, whom the Germans are afraid of fire, the captain is guarded by one negligent sentry, and even that an elderly widow easily walks around her finger. The dishonored Malasha, from no where on the tenth day, completely knows that she is pregnant. And with the gestation period of Olena, too, not everything is going smoothly. The author describes the plight of peasant families who are on the verge of starvation, but at the same time they constantly have bread to give it to the military.
However, despite many shortcomings, it is worth remembering that for the story written in just a month, Rainbow is very good. Moreover, it was written as a propaganda work to maintain the spirit in wartime and fulfilled its role perfectly, becoming for many people a ray of light and hope.
Wanda Vasilevskaya, “Just Love”
In 1944, Vasilevskaya wrote another of her famous short story entitled “Just Love”. In it, she tried to uncover the emotional experiences of wives awaiting their spouses from the war. Compared to Rainbow, this work reveals much deeper the psychology of women in war.
In the center of the plot is a young and well-educated woman, Maria, who works as a nurse. She, like thousands of her compatriots, is waiting for her husband Gregory from the front. Suddenly, news of his death comes. Maria is very worried about this, but eventually comes to terms. Soon the news of Grisha’s death turns out to be erroneous, and he returns home. However, her beloved husband is so disfigured outside that Mary begins to seem that she has stopped loving him. But a few months later, at her workplace, a woman encounters a widow whose husband recently passed away in a hospital. Someone else's grief affects Mary so much that she realizes how much she really loves her Grisha.
Today many of the works written by Wanda Vasilevskaya look outdated. The biography of this woman knew both the ups and downs, but today, both the era and the realities that she described in her works have long gone. But do not forget that at one time the tales of Wanda Vasilevskaya played an important role in the victory over fascism.