A selection of arguments on the topic "War" for the Unified State Examination essay in the Russian language. Questions and problems of fearlessness, courage, sympathy, cowardice, mutual support, helping one's own, mercy, making the right choice when participating in military operations. The impact of war on later life, character traits and a warrior’s perception of the world. Children's feasible contribution to victory in battle. How people are true to their words and do the right thing.
How did soldiers demonstrate courage in military operations?
In the story by M.A. Sholokhov’s “The Fate of Man” demonstrates true courage and perseverance during military operations. The main character of the story, Andrei Sokolov, joins the army, temporarily leaving his household. In the name of peace around his family, he was subjected to a number of tests from life: he went hungry, defended his homeland, and was captured. He managed to escape from his place of captivity. The threat of death did not shake his resolve. Even in danger, he did not lose his positive traits. During the war, his entire family dies, but this did not stop Andrei. He showed what he was capable of after the war. The young orphan, who also lost all his family and friends, became Andrei's adopted son. Sokolov is the image of not only an exemplary warrior, but also a real man who will not abandon his comrades in misfortune in trouble.
War as a phenomenon: what is the exact characteristic of its fact?
The highlight of the novel “The Book Thief” by writer Markus Zusak is Liesel, a teenage girl named Liesel, who lost the care of her family just before the war. Her dad worked side by side with the communists. Her mother, fearing that the Nazis will capture the child, takes her daughter to another place for further education, away from the fighting that has begun. The girl plunges headlong into her new life: she makes new friends, learns to read and write, and experiences her first clash with her peers. But the war still reaches her: blood, dirt, murder, explosions, pain, disappointment and horror. Liesel's stepfather tries to instill in the girl the desire to do good and not be indifferent to those who suffer, but this comes at the cost of additional difficulties. Her foster parents help her hide a Jew she is looking after in the basement. Trying to help the prisoners, she places pieces of bread on the road in front of them, walking in formation. One thing becomes clear to her: the war spares no one. Stacks of books are burning everywhere, people are dying from shells and bullets, opponents of the current regime are going to jail. Liesel cannot come to terms with one thing: where has the joy of life gone? Death itself, as it were, tells what is happening, which accompanies any battle and ends every day hundreds, thousands of other people’s lives in each battle.
WITHCan a person come to terms with the sudden outbreak of hostilities?
Once in the “cauldron” of hostilities, a person wonders why people are killing each other en masse. Pierre Bezukhov from Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” does not take part in battles, but in every possible way, within the limits of his strength, solves the problems of his compatriots. The reality associated with military operations does not reach him until he sees the Battle of Borodino. He is struck by uncompromisingness and cruelty, and even after being imprisoned during the battle, Bezukhov is not imbued with the spirit of battle. Almost going crazy from what he saw, Bezukhov meets Platon Karataev, and he conveys one simple truth to him: the main thing is not the outcome of the battle, but the ordinary pleasant moments of human life. After all, even the ancient philosophers believed that happiness lies in each of us, in the lifetime search for true answers to pressing questions, in life in society. Wars will bring more bad than good.
The key person in G. Baklanov’s story “Forever Nineteen,” Alexey Tretyakov, persistently seeks an answer to the question of why wars exist as a phenomenon, and what they will give to the warring parties. He believes that war is an empty waste, because in battle the individual life of any warrior is not worth a penny, and millions die - in the name of the interests of those in power, interested in the redistribution of the world and the resources of the planet.
HowDid the war affect children in general?How did they help defeat the enemy?
When a just cause comes to the fore - the defense of the Fatherland, age is not a hindrance. As soon as the child realizes that the only right decision is to stand in the way of the invaders, many conventions are discarded. Lev Kassil and Max Polyanovsky tell the story in “Street of the Youngest Son” about a mysterious boy named Volodya Dubinin, born in Kerch. In the local history museum they find out who this Volodya was. Having met his mother and school friends, they learn that Volodya was not much different from his peers until the war began. His dad served as the captain of a warship and instilled in his son that the city takes courage and perseverance. Volodya joined the partisans, was the first to find out about the retreat of the Nazis, but was blown up by a mine while clearing the approaches to the stone crusher. People have not forgotten Dubinin, who laid down his bones in the name of liberating the Fatherland from the Nazis, who fought behind enemy lines along with his adult comrades.
Adults' reaction to children's contribution to victory over the enemy
Children are unlikely to be useful in war - this is a place of fights between adults. In battles, people lose family and friends; war makes them forget everything they were taught in peaceful life, except survival skills. No matter what efforts adults make to send children away from battlefields, this good impulse does not always work. The main character of Kataev’s story “Son of the Regiment,” Ivan Solntsev, loses all members of his family in the war, wanders through the forests, trying to get to his own. He meets scouts who will take him to the commander. Vanya was fed and sent to bed, and Captain Enakiev decided to take him to an orphanage, but Vanya escaped from there and returned back. The captain decides to leave the child in the battery - he seeks to prove that children are also good for something, despite their small age. Having gone on reconnaissance, Vanya draws a map of the surrounding area, ends up with the Germans, but in an unexpected commotion, he takes advantage of the fact that the Nazis left him alone and escapes. Captain Enakiev sends Vanya away from the battlefield on an important mission. The first artillery brigade was killed, and in the last letter from the battlefield, the commander parted with everyone and asked to take Vanya under his wing.
Pardoning enemy prisoners of war, showing compassion after battles
Mercy towards the enemy after his capture is demonstrated only by the strong in spirit, for whom shooting a person is a piece of cake. Tolstoy in his “War and Peace” clearly shows the behavior of Russian soldiers towards French ones. One night a company of Russian soldiers was warming up by the fire. Suddenly they heard a rustling sound and two French soldiers approached them. One of them turned out to be an officer, his name was Rambal. Both were frozen, and the officer could not move freely and fell. The Russians fed them, and then the officer was carried to the house where the colonel was quartered. The officer was accompanied by his subordinate Morel. Rambal treated the Russian soldiers as comrades, and the soldier sang a French tune while among the Russian soldiers.
Even in war, human qualities manifest themselves; it is better not to destroy a weakened opponent, but to give him the opportunity to surrender on his own.
Caring for others during war
Elena Vereiskaya’s work “Three Girls” tells about carefree girlfriends plunged into war. Natasha, Katya and Lyusya live in a Leningrad communal apartment, study and have fun together. In difficult times of war, they become even closer to each other. Their school, where they studied, was destroyed, instead of studying, their goal is now to survive. Growing up beyond her years makes itself felt: the previously cheerful and frivolous Lyusya acquires a sense of responsibility, Natasha looks more closely at little things and is inclined to analyze, and Katya is confident in the decisions made. And although life became much more difficult with the advent of the war, it forced them to care not only about each other, but also about their neighbors. During the war they became more united, each of them thought and cared not so much about herself as about others. According to the scenario, one local doctor shared food with a young boy, giving him most of it. In times of hunger and war, people share with each other everything that they managed to acquire before the start of the war, even when the threat of starvation hangs over many, but such actions give hope for victory over the enemy. Support from neighbors is a relationship as a result of which the Soviet people defeated the fascists.
How do people unite in the face of war?
A significant part of Russian novels and stories touches on the issue of the unity of people of different estates and classes during military operations. So, in the same novel by Tolstoy “War and Peace” human qualities come to the fore, and not class-capitalist criteria; after all, there is no such thing as someone else’s misfortune, and sometimes the misfortune is of a universal nature. People who are completely different in their worldview and beliefs, but nevertheless live together, get involved in a common cause. The Rostovs abandon everything they have acquired in Moscow, and address the carts to their compatriots wounded in battle. The entrepreneur Feropontov is ready to distribute all his goods to the Russian soldiers, so that the French, if they win and settle here for a long time, will not get even a small fraction. Bezukhov dresses up in a different uniform and is ready to meet Napoleon himself in Moscow in order to take his life. Tushin and Captain Timokhin carry out a combat mission, despite the lack of reinforcements. Nikolai Rostov goes into battle, not afraid of anyone or anything. According to Tolstoy, the Russian soldier will stop at nothing, he is ready to risk anything, including his life, just to defeat the enemy, even if he is destined to die the death of the brave. That is why that war was called the Patriotic War - millions of people, united, erasing all boundaries and conventions in front of each other, except for duty to the Motherland, stood firm and swept away the enemy.
Why is the memory of the war needed?
No matter how overwhelmingly difficult the war may seem, it cannot be forgotten. The memory of the war is not only a matter of the generations who witnessed it, of people who lost their loved ones, but also a universal phenomenon. The great wars in which all peoples within one state rose up in order to defeat others who came to their territory with fire and weapons in order to capture and enslave, are remembered even after thousands of years. The war is reflected in thousands of works: novels and stories, poems and poems, songs and music, films - it is this work that tells subsequent generations about that war. Thus, “Poems about myself” by Olga Berggolts, who lost her husband in Leningrad, urges people not to forget about the hardships of war, about ancestors who put their own lives on the line in the war so that their descendants could live happily. Front-line battles, the life of citizens during the siege of Leningrad, clashes with the enemy and artillery shelling - these poems, diaries and stories will not let people forget “how a Leningrader fell on the yellow snow of deserted squares.” This cannot be erased from history - no matter how hard they try to rewrite it, thereby spitting on the memory of 27 million people who gave their lives for the peace and well-being of Russia.
What is the key to victory in war?
They say that one in the field is not a warrior. War is the lot of not one, but many people. Only equality and unity in the face of universal danger will help the people survive. In the same Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” the unity of people shines through from everywhere. Fighting for a free and peaceful life, people forgot about internal differences. The courage and spirit of both the army as a whole and the individual soldier helped drive out enemies from Russian soil. The purpose and historical significance of the battles at Shengraben, Austerlitz and Borodino demonstrate the unity of the people, the cohesion of the Russians. Victory in any battle comes at the cost of the lives of soldiers, volunteers, peasants, partisans working and fighting for the good of the Fatherland - and not through the actions of military officials seeking to receive stars for shoulder straps and more bonuses. The unit commander, Captain Tushin, Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev, the entrepreneur Ferapontov, the very young Petya Rostov and many others - fought the enemy not by order from above, but for their families, homes, the well-being of the country as a whole, for the future peace around them.
What good - and why - can be learned for the future from any outcome of the battle?
In Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace,” Andrei Bolkonsky went to war in order to make a name for himself and take a worthy position in society and among the military. Having abandoned everything he had, leaving behind his family and friends, he pursued fame and recognition, but his ardor was short-lived - finding himself in the cruel reality of military operations, he realized that the challenge thrown to himself was too much for him. Bolkonsky became hungry. He wanted everyone to worship him - the reality of the devastating battles soon demonstrated and proved the opposite to him. It dawned on him that any war, apart from pain, losses and deaths, would yield nothing, there was little good in it. But his personal miscalculation showed that the love and value of family and friends is infinitely more valuable than loud odes to his name and a pedestal of fame. Whether you win or lose the battle, the main thing is to defeat yourself and not chase laurels.
TOWhat feelings will the loser’s endurance evoke in the winner?
V. Kondratyev’s story “Sashka” demonstrates an example of the enemy’s resilience. The Russian soldier will captivate the German. The company commander was unable to extract any information from the German about the enemy’s actions, and Alexander brings the “Fritz” to the division headquarters. Along the way, the soldier, with the help of a leaflet, brought to the attention of the German that he would remain alive and return home, as well as others who had surrendered. But the company commander, whose relative died in this war, gives the order to take the prisoner’s life. Sasha cannot take and shoot a soldier just like him, puts himself in his place and assures that in similar conditions he would behave no better than a prisoner whose weapons were taken away. The German soldier never said anything about his own people, but, maintaining his human dignity, did not even ask to be spared. Sashka, exposing himself to the danger of a military court, does not follow the order of the battalion commander, and he, seeing how Alexander is faithful to his rightness, does not insist on the order to shoot the prisoner.
How does combat change one's outlook and character?
G. Baklanov and his story “Forever Nineteen Years” tells about the responsibility and memory of people that unites them. “Through a great catastrophe there is a great liberation of the spirit,” said Atrakovsky. – Never before has so much depended on each of us. That's why we will win. And it won't be forgotten. The star goes out, but the field of attraction remains. That’s how people are.” Fighting is not only a disaster. Breaking and often depriving people of their lives, wars spur spiritual self-education, reformat the consciousness of the people, and every survivor of battle acquires true life values. People are tempering themselves, re-evaluating their values - what yesterday caused them to doom themselves to suffering is of little significance today, and what they passed by and didn’t notice is striking today.
War is an outrage against humanity
I. Shmelev in his “Sun of the Dead” does not hide why war is terrible. “The smell of decay,” the “cackling, stomping and roaring” of human beings, herds of “fresh human flesh, young meat!” and “one hundred and twenty thousand heads!” Human!” In war, sometimes people lose the most precious thing they have - life. In war, the bestial spirit shines through in a person, and these negative qualities force everyone there to commit actions that he would never agree to in peacetime. Material damage, regardless of its magnitude and systematics, is not the main thing. No matter what happens - hunger, bad weather, crop failure due to drought, it is not these phenomena that are evil. Evil arises and multiplies through the fault of a person who did not resist it, such a person lives one day and does not think about tomorrow, here “everything is nothing!” “and there is no one, and no one.” Any positive moral qualities, spirituality and soul in a person will forever be at the forefront, and no war should awaken a beast in a person, trampling all that is good and good and taking up his own dirty deeds.
How does war change people's attitudes?
K. Vorobyov in his story “Killed near Moscow” reports: the battles are a colossus, “made up of thousands and thousands of efforts of different people, it moved, it moves not by someone’s will, but itself, having received its own move, and therefore unstoppable.” The elderly owner of the house, where soldiers retreat and abandon the wounded, believes that the war will write off everything, since it is “the main one” here. People's lives revolve around war, which has disrupted both the peaceful life and fate of every resident, as well as his awareness of himself in this world. In war, the strongest win. “In war, whoever breaks down first.” Soviet soldiers do not forget about death, which is the result of hostilities for many who went to fight: “In the first months at the front, he was ashamed of himself, he thought he was the only one. Everything is so in these moments, everyone overcomes them alone with themselves: there will be no other life.” A fighter who is ready to give his all for the Fatherland, to carry out any initially unrealistic and impossible combat mission and to be a standard of courage and heroism for those who take his place - then, having been captured and, again, not forgetting about death that might knock on his door his life at any moment, he slides down to the level of an animal. He doesn’t care, all conventions are sent away, he wants to live. War mutilates people not only physically, but also changes them morally beyond recognition: thus, having been injured, a soldier does not imagine how he will live when the war is over, whether he will be given a worthy place at home, in his environment, he often thinks that it is better if the war never ended.
How will a person respond for wartime misdeeds, will they become a spiritual stigma for the rest of his life?
V. Grossman and his story “Abel (Sixth of August)” are thoughts and conclusions about the futility of wars. The Japanese city of Hiroshima, swept away almost to the ground by a nuclear bomb, was an indicator of the damage to the global environment and an example of the misfortune of Japanese citizens, as well as the internal tragedy of the protagonist. What motivated Connor to press the nuclear button on August 6, 1945? Of course, he answered in full for such a crime. For this scorer, this act became an internal duel: here everyone in his place is a trembling creature with his own shortcomings, thinking only about how to survive himself. But you don’t always stay alive to preserve your humanity. Human qualities will not manifest themselves without connection with what happened, without an answer for their actions and what was their result. When the same personality is divided in two between the preservation of peace and the soldier's training aimed at fulfilling the entrusted task, the young consciousness undergoes the same split. The crew of a bomber is a group of participants, not all of whom are fully responsible for what they have done; many of them talk about lofty goals. The bombing of Hiroshima is a response “fascism to fascism.” Joe Connor is trying to escape from himself, his obsessive-compulsive hand washing is an attempt to brush off the blood of those people he killed with a nuclear bomb. In the end, he becomes crazy, realizing that the crime he has committed is beyond his control, and that he will not be able to live normally with it.
Essay in Unified State Exam format
11th grade students
School No. 28 Stasenko Sofia
The problem of preserving humanity in war
The main thing in war is to always remain human. Despite the wounds it inflicts, mercy must never be forgotten. V. Astafiev reflects on the problem of preserving humanity in wartime. Why is it so important to remember the value of every life?
The author reveals this problem by describing a case when fighters from warring sides ended up in the same hospital. First, he shows a soldier, broken by the war and grief from the loss of loved ones, who longed to drown out his pain by killing captured Germans. When he opened fire on them from a machine gun, Boris, who was watching them, tried to knock the weapon out of his hands, to stop him from senseless bloodshed, but he “rushed towards him and did not have time.” An attempt to avenge the death of his family on people who had nothing to do with it did not bring relief to the soldier; he continued to suffer, as those he shot at were now suffering. At the same time, the writer transfers the action to the neighboring hut, where “the wounded lay side by side: both ours and others.” The doctor, treating the wounds of both Russians and prisoners, treated all patients equally, and “the wounded, whether ours or strangers, understood him, obeyed, froze, endured the pain,” and meanwhile, in a trough full of darkened bandages, “mixed and the blood of different people has thickened.”
Mercy and humanity are never a mistake. Thus, the heroine of Vitaly Zakrutkin’s story “Mother of Man,” Maria, despite all the evil that the Nazis inflicted on her and her family, tries to help a young German dying from his wounds. He calls her “mom”, and at this moment all hatred leaves Mary’s soul, only compassion for the boy, not for the enemy, and the awareness of how fragile human life remains.
Among the works that truthfully tell about the terrible everyday life of the Great Patriotic War is the story “Sashka” by front-line writer V. Kondratyev.
The scene where Sashka takes the tongue “with his bare hands”, since he was unarmed, is one of the key ones in the work. Having been in the most dangerous and hopeless attacks, Sashka saw in the guise of a prisoner not an enemy, but a person deceived by someone. He promised him life, since on a leaflet picked up on the way to headquarters, it was written that Russian soldiers did not abuse prisoners. On the way, Sashka constantly felt a sense of shame both for the fact that their defense was worthless and for the fact that their dead comrades lay unburied. But most of all, he felt awkward because he suddenly felt limitless power over this man. This is him, Sashka Kondratieva. An analysis of his state of mind shows why he was never able to shoot the prisoner and, as a result, violated the battalion commander’s order.
War brings pain, and it does not choose victims for itself: everyone is drawn into a terrible whirlpool, which is why there are no winners in it, there are only losers, for whom in the end there is nothing left but the dead. But at the same time, there will always be those who, like Mary from the story “Mother of Man” and the hero of the story “Sashka,” will remember goodness and mercy and remain human.
(1) Boris had one desire: to quickly get away from this broken farm and take the remnants of the platoon with him.
(2) But he hasn’t seen everything today.
(3) A soldier in a camouflage suit smeared with clay emerged from the ravine. (4) His face looked like it was cast from cast iron: black, bony, with bloodshot eyes. (5) He walked quickly down the street, without changing his pace, turned into the garden, where German prisoners were sitting around a set fire to a barn, chewing something and warming themselves.
- (6) Keep warm, flayers! - the soldier said dully and began to rip the machine belt over his head. (7) He knocked his hat onto the snow, the machine gun got tangled in the hood of his camouflage coat, he tore it away, scratching his ear with the buckle.
- (8) I'll warm you up! (9) Now, now... - (10) The soldier raised the bolt of his machine gun with frantic fingers.
(11) Boris rushed to him and didn’t have time. (12) Bullets splashed across the snow, one shot-through German huddled around the fire, and the other collapsed into the fire. (13) The prisoners began to gag like frightened crows, rushing in all directions. (14) The soldier in the camouflage jumping up and down as if he was thrown by the earth itself, baring his teeth, yelling something wildly and blindly frying him anywhere in bursts.
- (15) Get down! - (16) Boris fell on one of the prisoners and pressed him into the snow. (17) The cartridges in the disk have run out. (18) The soldier kept pressing and pressing on the trigger, never ceasing to scream and jump. (19) The prisoners fled from the house, climbed into the barn, fell, falling through the snow. (20) Boris snatched the machine gun from the soldier’s hands, grappled with him, and both fell. (21) The soldier rummaged around his belt, looked for a grenade - he couldn’t find it, he tore his camouflage coat on his chest.
- (22) They burned Marisha! (23) All the villagers... (24) Everyone was driven into the church. (25) They burned everyone! (26) Mom! (27) Godmother! (28) Everyone!.. (29) The whole village... (30) I have a thousand of them... (31) I’ll finish a thousand! (32) I will cut and gnaw!..
- (33) Quiet, friend, quiet! - (34) The soldier stopped beating, sat down in the snow, looking around, his eyes sparkling, still intense. (35) He unclenched his fists, clenched so tightly that his nails left red indentations on his palms, licked his bitten lips, grabbed his head, buried his face in the snow and began to cry silently.
(36) And in the nearby dilapidated hut, a military doctor with the sleeves of his brown robe rolled up was bandaging the wounded, without asking or looking whether they were his own or someone else’s.
(37) And the wounded lay side by side: both ours and strangers, moaning, screaming, others smoking, waiting to be sent. (38) The senior sergeant with a diagonally bandaged face and bruises growing under his eyes slobbered on a cigarette, burned it and put it in the mouth of an elderly German who was motionlessly looking at the broken ceiling.
- (39) How are you going to work now, head? - the senior sergeant mumbled indistinctly, nodding at the German’s hands, wrapped in bandages and footcloths. - (40) All frozen! (41) Who will feed your family? (42) Fuhrer? (43) Fuhrers, they will feed you!..
(44) And the soldier in the camouflage suit was taken away. (45) He wandered, stumbling, with his head down, and still cried protractedly, silently.
(46) The orderly who was helping the doctor did not have time to undress the wounded, put on their clothes, or give them bandages and tools. (47) A slightly wounded German, probably one of the military doctors, helpfully and dexterously began to care for the wounded.
(48) The doctor silently extended his hand for the instrument, impatiently clenched and unclenched his fingers if he did not have time to give him what he needed, and equally gloomily said to the wounded man: “(49) Don’t yell! (50) Don't twitch! (51) Sit still! (52) Whom I told, okay!”
3) And the wounded, whether ours or strangers, understood him, obeyed, froze, endured the pain, biting their lips.
(54) From time to time the doctor stopped work, wiped his hands on a calico footcloth hanging near the stove, and made a goat’s leg from light tobacco. (55) He smoked it over a wooden washing trough full of darkened bandages, scraps of clothing, shrapnel and bullets. (56) The blood of different people mixed and thickened in the trough.
Is there a place for mercy in war? And is it possible to show mercy to the enemy in war? The text by V. N. Lyalin makes us think about these questions. Here the author raises the problem of showing mercy to the enemy.
In the text, the author talks about Mikhail Ivanovich Bogdanov, who in 1943 was sent to war to serve as a nurse. During one of the fiercest battles, Mikhail Ivanovich managed to protect the wounded from SS machine gunners. For the courage shown during the counterattack with the SS division, he was nominated for the Order of Glory by the battalion commissar. On to the next
the day after the battle, noticing the corpse of a German soldier lying in a ditch, Mikhail Ivanovich showed mercy, deciding to bury the German. The author shows us that despite the war, Mikhail Ivanovich was able to retain his humanity, not remaining indifferent to the enemy. Having learned about this case, the battalion commissar decided to cancel the orderly's nomination for the Order of Glory. However, for Mikhail Ivanovich it was important to act according to his conscience, and not to receive a reward.
I agree with
the author’s position and is convinced that mercy has a place in war. After all, it doesn’t matter whether the enemy is dead or unarmed, he no longer poses any danger. I believe that Mikhail Ivanovich Bogdanov committed a worthy act by burying the body of a German soldier killed in a shootout. In conditions of a brutal war, it is very important to be able to preserve your humanity and not let your heart grow cold.
The problem of showing mercy to the enemy is raised in the works of V. L. Kondratiev, Sashka,. The main character Sashka captured a German during a German attack. At first, the German seemed like an enemy to him, but, looking closer, Sashka saw in him an ordinary person, just like himself. He no longer saw him as an enemy. Sashka promised the German his life, he said that Russians are not animals, they will not kill an unarmed person. He showed the German a leaflet that said that prisoners were guaranteed life and return to their homeland. However, when Sashka brought the German to the battalion commander, the German did not tell him anything, and therefore the battalion commander gave Sashka the order to shoot the German. Sashka’s hand did not rise to the unarmed soldier, so similar to himself. Despite everything, Sashka retained his humanity. He did not become bitter and this allowed him to remain human. As a result, the battalion commander, after analyzing Sashka’s words, decided to cancel his order.
The problem of showing mercy to the enemy is touched upon in L. N. Tolstoy’s work, War and Peace. One of the heroes of the novel, the Russian commander Kutuzov, shows mercy to the French fleeing from Russia. He feels sorry for them, because he understands that they acted on Napoleon’s orders and in no case dared to disobey him. Speaking to the soldiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Kutuzov says: We see that all soldiers are united not only by a feeling of hatred, but also by pity for the defeated enemy.
Thus, we can conclude that in war it is necessary to show mercy even to the enemy, no matter whether he is defeated or killed. A soldier is, first of all, a human being and must retain such qualities as mercy and humanity. They are the ones who allow him to remain human.
(1) The meeting happened unexpectedly. (2) Two Germans, talking peacefully, came out to Pluzhnikov from behind the surviving wall. (3) The carbines hung over their shoulders, but even if they were holding them in their hands, Pluzhnikov would have managed to shoot first.
Composition
In the most desperate and difficult times, each person reveals himself to the fullest extent. War is an event that affects the character and worldview of each participant. In the text given to us, B.L. discusses the problem of showing humanity and mercy in war. Vasiliev.
Describing one of the wartime periods, the author of the text introduces us to a situation in which one of the heroes had to make a serious moral choice. The meeting between the Pluzhnikov and the German “happened unexpectedly,” and just as unexpectedly came to a logical conclusion: one of them had to die, and now the German was on his knees and shouting something pitiful, “choking and swallowing words.” In this cry there was something about family, children and mercy, the writer emphasizes that the German “didn’t want to fight, of course, he didn’t wander into these terrible ruins of his own accord,” and the Soviet soldier understood this. He had to commit murder, and there could be no talk of pity for the Germans at that time - however, B.L. Vasiliev brings us to the idea that there are exceptions to everything, especially in the case when a soldier strives to maintain the purity of his conscience no matter what.
The writer’s thought is clear to me: he believes that even in the most terrible times of war, someone who has a clear conscience and who understands the value of human life is able to spare a captured enemy and show him compassion and mercy.
It's hard to disagree with B.L. Vasiliev, because he knows firsthand how important it was to remain human during the Great Patriotic War. I also believe that for a soldier, for his moral and mental health, it is very important, despite physical exhaustion and anger, to be able to maintain humanity and mercy, because not every German could deserve the most brutal retribution.
In the story by V.A. Zakrutkin’s “Mother of Man”, the main character carries her humanity and mercy through all trials. She, feeling a burning hatred for the Nazis who killed her family, having met a German boy on her way, denies herself revenge. Hearing the boy's cry, Maria was filled with pity for the child, and, thanks to her humanism and kindness, she left him alive.
The hero of the story M.A. Sholokhov’s “The Fate of Man” lost all his relatives in the war. He was forced to go through many trials, but even being tired and embittered, Andrei Sokolov found a place in his heart for love and mercy. Having met a little boy, left alone on the street by the will of fate, our soldier takes control of him, thereby giving the boy a chance for a happy life.
More than a dozen books have been written about how difficult it is to remain human during war. Each of those soldiers who fought for our future experienced an amount of shock that modern man cannot even fully comprehend. However, most of all has been written about those who, even in that inhumanity and filth, managed to preserve themselves, their pure thoughts and kind hearts.
The problem of showing humanity in war. According to B. L. Vasiliev
Boris Lvovich Vasiliev is a Russian Soviet writer, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, who poses important moral and philosophical problems in his works. The text proposed for analysis is an excerpt from the story “Not on the Lists” about the defender of the Brest Fortress Nikolai Pluzhnikov, who fought with his enemies to the last.
In the proposed passage, the author is trying to understand how to behave in war towards a captured enemy. Revealing the problem of showing humanity in war, showing compassion and mercy towards a captured enemy, the writer introduces us to one military episode. The main character, Lieutenant Pluzhnikov, unexpectedly came across two Germans. The reaction worked instantly: he shot and killed one German. But then there was a misfire, the cartridge jammed. What struck Nikolai most of all was the fact that the German did not shoot, but dutifully waited for the Russian to pull out the stuck cartridge. Nikolai took the German prisoner and brought him to the dungeon. There was a girl, Mirra, who was very afraid that her loved one would shoot a captured German. The girl knew German and understood from the German’s explanations that he was a worker, he had children, and he did not go to fight of his own free will. The lieutenant later admitted that he was unable to shoot the prisoner. Mirra supported him in this action. He refused to shoot the prisoner not only because of his beloved girl Mirra, but he also did it for himself, “for his conscience, which wanted to remain pure.”
The writer is trying to convince his readers that in war there is no need to lose one’s humanity, one must spare the captured enemy and show mercy.
In Russian literature there are many examples of manifestations of humanity towards captured enemies. For example, in A. S. Pushkin’s poem “Poltava,” Peter the Great, after a significant victory over the Swedes, invited the defeated enemy to a feast, where he proclaimed a toast “to his teachers,” that is, the Swedes, who taught the Russians to win.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that mercy towards a captured and defeated enemy is a national trait of the Russian character.
Text by B.L. Vasilyeva
(1) The meeting happened unexpectedly. (2) Two Germans, talking peacefully, came out to Pluzhnikov from behind the surviving wall. (3) The carbines hung over their shoulders, but even if they were holding them in their hands, Pluzhnikov would have managed to shoot first. (4) He had already developed a lightning-fast reaction, and only it had saved him until now.(5) And the second German was saved by an accident, which could have cost Pluzhnikov his life. (6) His machine gun fired a short burst, the first German collapsed on the bricks, and the cartridge was distorted when fed. (7) While Pluzhnikov was frantically pulling the bolt, the second German could have finished him off long ago or run away, but instead he fell to his knees. (8) And he obediently waited for Pluzhnikov to knock out the stuck cartridge.
“(9)Comm,” said Pluzhnikov, pointing with his machine gun where he should go.
(10) They ran across the courtyard, made their way into the dungeons, and the German was the first to climb into the dimly lit casemate. (11) And here he suddenly stopped, seeing a girl at a long plank table.
“(14) I don’t understand anything,” Pluzhnikov said confusedly. - (15) Rumbles.
- (16) He’s a worker, - Mirra realized, - see, he’s showing his hands?
“(17) Things to do,” Pluzhnikov drawled, puzzled. - (18) Maybe he’s protecting our prisoners?
(19) Mirra translated the question. (20) The German listened, nodding often, and burst into a long tirade as soon as she fell silent.
“(21) The prisoners are guarded by others,” the girl translated not very confidently. - (22) They were ordered to guard the entrances and exits from the fortress. (23) They are the guard team. (24) He is a real German, and the fortress was stormed by Austrians from the forty-fifth division, fellow countrymen of the Fuhrer himself. (25) And he is a worker, mobilized in April...
(26) The German started babbling something again and waved his hands. (27) Then he suddenly solemnly shook his finger at Mirra and slowly, importantly, took out of his pocket a black bag glued together from automobile rubber. (28) He took four photographs out of the bag and put them on the table.
“(29) Children,” Mirra sighed. - (30) Shows his children.
(31) Pluzhnikov stood up and took the machine gun:
(32) The German, staggering, stood at the table and slowly walked towards the hole.
(33) They both knew what was coming to them. (34) The German walked, dragging his feet heavily, with shaking hands, picking everything off and stripping the flaps of his crumpled uniform. (35) His back suddenly began to sweat, and a dark spot crawled across his uniform.
(36) And Pluzhnikov had to kill him. (37) Take him upstairs and shoot point-blank with a machine gun at this suddenly sweaty, stooped back. (38) A back that covered three children. (39) Of course, this German did not want to fight, of course, he did not wander into these terrible ruins, smelling of smoke, soot and human rot, of his own accord. (40) Of course not. (41) Pluzhnikov understood all this and, understanding, mercilessly drove forward.
- (42) Schnell! (43) Schnell!
(44) The German took a step, his legs gave way, and he fell to his knees. (45) Pluzhnikov poked him with the muzzle of his machine gun, the German softly rolled over on his side and, crouching, froze...
(46) Mirra stood in the dungeon, looked at the hole, already invisible in the darkness, and waited in horror for the shot. (47) But there were still no shots...
(48) There was a rustling sound in the hole, and Pluzhnikov jumped down from above and immediately felt that she was standing nearby.
- (49) You know, it turns out I can’t shoot at a person.
(50) Cool hands groped his head and pulled him towards them. (51) He felt her cheek with his cheek: it was wet with tears.
- (52) I was afraid. (53) I was afraid that you would shoot this old man. - (54) She suddenly hugged him tightly and hastily kissed him several times. - (55) Thank you, thank you, thank you. (56) You did this for me, right?
(57) He wanted to say that he really did it for her, but did not say, because he did not shoot this German for himself. (58) For my conscience, which wanted to remain pure. (59) Despite everything.
(According to B.L. Vasiliev)
