The work “By Right of Memory” truthfully tells about a difficult time. Echoes of the past are clearly heard in it, the terrible fate that the “father of nations” prepared for his children. Tvardovsky’s poem was born as an act of protest and even with its title exploded the terrible silence that covered the crimes of the Stalinist regime.
History of creation
From the time the work was written, we will begin a holistic analysis of “By Right of Memory.” It was written in 1966-1969. The author is trying to publish his creation on the pages of the New World. But the censorship persistently does not allow the poem to be published. Criticism of Stalin in these years gave way to complete oblivion and silence. Tvardovsky never saw the poem in print. The new work was conceived as an addition to the work “Beyond the Distance - the Distance.” Later it became independent. As a detailed chapter-by-chapter analysis will show, Tvardovsky’s “By Right of Memory” is a work that reflected the author’s reaction to the political situation of the 60s.
The publications of the New World acquired a clear oppositional character. In 1968 soviet tanks appeared on the streets of Prague, and a note appeared in Tvardovsky’s notebook: “How Prague greeted us in ’45, and how it greets us in ’68.” The writer condemned this action and did not sign the letter to the Czechoslovak writers. This is an act with capital letters- civil, human. But this irritated the officials, and they literally took up arms against the magazine and the editor-in-chief. A detailed analysis will show why it was unthinkable to publish this poem in those years. “By Right of Memory” is a work that was published in the magazine “Znamya” only in 1987.
Genre and compositional features
The work has three parts, preceded by a short introduction. Many literary scholars call Tvardovsky’s work a triptych. The author himself called him the same thing during his work. The magazine "Znamya", which first published this poem, defined its genre as a lyric poem. In the final version, the "triptych" designation was dropped and titles were given to parts of the poem. This emphasizes the plot and psychological component of Tvardovsky’s work “By the Right of Memory.” The chapter-by-chapter analysis we are now looking at will show that the emotional subtext of the poem is very deep. This is confession-repentance, conversion, accusation. The integrity of the poem is given by the author himself and the monologue form of the narrative. The work opens with an introduction that expresses the writer’s life credo.
First part
Let’s continue the analysis of “By Right of Memory” by Tvardovsky and look at the first chapter of the work. While working on the poem, the author decided to include here an episode of leaving his home, a fragment that appeared under the title “In the Hayloft” even before the publication of the work. This poem made up the first part of “Before Departure.”
It was written as an appeal to a friend of his youth and created an atmosphere of trust when conversations were held about the most secret things. The author accurately conveys the feelings of youth - the hopes and aspirations of young heroes. Two village youths are full of hope and are getting ready to hit the road, “abandoning our outback.” They are driven by lofty thoughts - “we lived by a cherished plan”, youthful maximalism - “a spirit unknown to doubt” and a romantic dream - “we ourselves only expected happiness.”
Second part
We will continue our chapter-by-chapter analysis of the poem “By Right of Memory” with the words that Stalin “dropped in the Kremlin hall,” and they were perceived by many people as getting rid of the “indelible mark” - “a son is not responsible for his father.” The second part of the work is called the same. The words of the “father of nations” turned out to be a deception, and Tvardovsky reflects how immoral and inhuman these words “for the guilty without guilt” are.
By repeating themselves, they acquire a completely new emotional and semantic meaning in the work “By the Right of Memory.” The analysis shows that in exactly five words the author writes down the fates of peasants crippled by the “great turning point,” entire nations thrown into exile, the fates of people who had to pay doubly for the miscalculations of the “great commander.”
Third part
We continue the analysis of “By Right of Memory” by Tvardovsky. The last chapter of the poem “On Memory” conveys the author’s thoughts and the motives stated in its title: “they are silently ordered to forget.” It is written in a free manner. In it, the author raises many questions: echoes of the debates that took place in the editorial office of Novy Mir, when they defended the right of literature to tell the truth. “They tell me to forget and ask me to forget - a memory under seal.” All lines of the text create a holistic view and are built on the worldview of the author, who clearly expresses his position. “Everybody knows everything; trouble with the people! Tvardovsky measures everything by the highest criteria for him - “real truth”, “truthful memory” and conscience. The key words of the third part are: reality, truth, memory, pain.
As the analysis “By the Right of Memory” showed, Tvardovsky’s words tell everyone that only we are responsible for our time, and each of us is indebted to the past. No matter how bitter the truth is, and no matter how much they want to “drown it into oblivion,” everyone should know the truth in order to protect themselves from repeating terrible and criminal mistakes. Therefore, the poet measures everything by “true memory,” since without it there is no participation in life. Behind the hero of the work is a poet-citizen who teaches us high morality, mercy and citizenship. To be those people who “keep their eyes open.”
The poem “By Right of Memory” was written in the mid-70s of the 20th century. The author wrote: “It seems that for the first time in a long time I felt the approach of a poetic theme, something that has not been said and that I, and therefore not only me, must definitely express.”
In this poem, Tvardovsky raises a very relevant, but too bold topic regarding the Stalin era. The work consists of three parts, which are united by one common problem. In addition, the poem is preceded by a kind of introduction, in which the author speaks about the truth that cannot be hidden:
In the face of dead pasts
You have no right to bend your heart, -
After all, these were paid
We pay the biggest price.
The first part is called “Before Departure”, and this title has a symbolic meaning, because we are talking about youthful dreams lyrical hero. It is important to note that Tvardovsky builds the chapter in the form of a memory and an appeal to an invisible comrade who was an integral part youth:
We repeated that misfortune
We don't care
But they themselves were only waiting for happiness, -
That was the age taught.
But the inspiration of youth was not eternal, a new time had come, the time of adulthood, completely different from what they had imagined before. The years of childhood for the lyrical hero are something beautiful, pure and divorced from real reality.
The second chapter is the main and most extensive. It's called "The son is not responsible for his father." It is important to note that this phrase was said by Stalin, and now Tvardovsky gives his assessment of these words. Now the author is no longer addressing a friend, but the younger generation, which knows very little about the Stalin era:
You will not be confused in any questionnaire
The once ominous graph:
Who was there in the world before you?
Your father, dead or alive.
This was one of the the most difficult moments in the life of the country, because the concept of “enemy of the people” appeared, which becomes a kind of stigma for life. These words made people feel ashamed of their loved ones, hide their past and live in constant fear. With such a biography it was impossible to dream of a bright and stable future:
If only you had such leaven
I dreamed of stepping into the forbidden circle...
And suddenly:
- The son is not responsible for his father.
Stalin's words became the most important in the fate of those who were the sons of the “enemy of the people.” The curse is lifted, now you are the same as the others. Tvardovsky remembers those years with melancholy and bitterness, because he is faced with such a situation at almost every step. The mental pain of the lyrical hero is connected, first of all, with the fact that Stalin’s decree to some extent severed the moral and spiritual connection between children and their parents. There is a kind of renunciation, abandonment of loved ones and loving people:
Thank you father of fathers,
That he forgave your father
Native - with unexpected ease.
Next, Tvardovsky nevertheless decides to talk about those who are supposedly the enemy. Most often they turn out to be ordinary people- hard workers. But the worst thing is that there were more and more “enemies of the people.”
The third part, “On Memory,” in my opinion, is addressed to the reader. Here the author sums up all of the above. Tvardovsky tells that it is impossible to erase the past from memory, because it is part of the life of every person and the whole country. He is sure that one cannot look into the future, forgetting the past:
No, all the old omissions
Now it’s my duty to finish speaking.
Returning to Stalin's reality, Tvardovsky often recalls the words of the secretary of the Smolensk regional committee: “There are times when you have to choose between mom and dad and the revolution.” It was on this principle, in my opinion, that the relationships of people were built, who strived for incomprehensible and alien ideals, neglecting those closest to them. It is very difficult for Tvardovsky to remember the years of his youth, but still he hopes for the best:
But we will continue to be as we were, -
What a sudden thunderstorm -
by people
Of those people
What do people
Without hiding my eyes,
They look into your eyes.
II. The poem “By right of memory”: reading, analysis, discussion.
What are the main themes of the work?
the theme of repentance and personal guilt of a person;
theme of memory and oblivion;
the theme of historical retribution;
the theme of “filial responsibility.”
What is the composition of the poem?
The poem “By Right of Memory” is a three-part composition. (It is fundamentally important to make the structure of her analysis akin to the author’s artistic thinking).
The first chapter “Before Departure” in its content is adjacent to the chapter “Childhood Friend” from the poem “Beyond the Distance - Distance”, as if preceding it. This chapter was written as an appeal to a friend of my youth. The poems convey an atmosphere of trust in which one can conduct a conversation about the secret.
The circumstances themselves prompted this: friends left their father’s house. “Before departure” - this situation itself is romantic:
We were going on a long journey
From my first youth.
The height of their thoughts, youthful maximalism, and romantic dreams reveal their appearance. Two friends - “a thinker and a poet” - are beautiful:
We lived by our cherished plan
Suddenly seize
Before all sciences
With all their countless reserves -
And don’t let it go out of your hands.
We were ready to go
What could be simpler?
Don't lie
Don't be a coward
Be faithful to the people
Love your native mother land,
So that for her through fire and water
And if so, then give your life.
The lyrical ending of the chapter “Before Departure” is full of deep meaning: life passes, but loyalty to youthful ideals has been preserved. Based on them, the poet checks his destiny.
The first and second chapters are contrasting in their intonation. “The son is not responsible for his father” - these words are included in the title of the second part of the poem, with which it begins. By repeating, these words receive more and more new semantic and emotional content. It is repetition that allows us to follow the development of the “five words” theme.
The second chapter occupies a special place in the poem “By Right of Memory.” Being the key, it “holds” the entire poem. Tvardovsky knew that it could not be published. “Then what will the cycle be based on? It turns out a bit runny.” In the theme of Stalin, the author isolated an aspect that no one had touched before - the theme of “five words”: “The son is not responsible for his father.” She turned out to be unusually capacious. Recovering the once-hushed pages of Soviet history, the author outlined both the scale of the national tragedy and the depth of the personal tragedy. “So it was” - these words can also be attributed to the poem “By Right of Memory.” The image of Stalin, the picture of the order he imposed, are presented in the work in large, uncompromising terms.
The son is not responsible for his father -
Five words in a row, exactly five.
But what do they contain?
You young people don’t suddenly need a hug.
He dropped them in the Kremlin hall
The one who was one for all of us
Arbiter of earthly destinies,
Whom the peoples called
At the celebrations, the father's family.
In the poem “By Right of Memory,” Tvardovsky is not a dispassionate chronicler, but a witness for the prosecution. He is concerned about the fate of specific people whom he knew well: his childhood friend, Aunt Daria - in the poem “Beyond the Distance - Distance”, his father - in the last poem.
“On Memory” is a special chapter. It synthesizes the thoughts and motives stated in its title. The chapter is polemical. Tvardovsky argues with those whom he calls “silent people.” It is they who want to “put an end to sleepless memory.” “Not remembering is a memory for printing” - this is their position:
To forget, to forget silently commanded,
They want to drown you in oblivion
Living reality. And so that the waves
They closed over her. True story - forget?
Tvardovsky’s thoughts on oblivion and memory end with a firmly stated conviction:
One lie is to our loss,
And only the truth comes to court!
No, all the old omissions
Now it’s my duty to finish speaking,
Tvardovsky does not limit his conversation with his contemporaries to journalistic conclusions. He speaks deeply philosophically.
And who said that adults
Can't you read other pages?
Or our valor will decrease
And will honor fade from the world?
What is considered big today, what is small -
Who knows, but people are not grass:
Don't turn them all in bulk
In some who do not remember kinship.
III. Conversation on issues
Tell us about the tragedy of the Russian peasantry and the people as a whole in 1930-1940, using lines from the poem.
Is it possible to define the genre of the poem as “family tragedy”?
Tell us, using quotes, about the image of the father in the poem. Why are the words “A son is not responsible for his father” repeated many times?
How is “the people's father” Stalin shown in the poem?
(It is necessary to use the student’s individual message “Comparison of the image of Stalin in A. Tvardovsky’s poems “The Country of Ant” and “By Right of Memory.”)
Do you, people “from another generation” (A. Tvardovsky), understand the author’s thoughts? Or are these already “pages of the distant past” for you?
Lesson 34 (95). The folk character of the poem “Vasily Terkin”
Objective of the lesson: show the role of the poem during the Great Patriotic War, its place in Russian literature, the nationality and innovation of the poem.
Lesson equipment: illustrations for the poem “Vasily Terkin”.
Methodical techniques: lecture with elements of conversation, asking questions and discussing what was read, analyzing episodes.
Lesson progress
I. Teacher's word
The poem “Vasily Terkin” is perhaps Tvardovsky’s most famous, popular work, which was highly appreciated by people of various political and aesthetic views. Even I. A. Bunin, who had a sharply negative attitude towards everything Soviet, spoke enthusiastically about the poem: “This is truly a rare book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess, what accuracy, accuracy in everything and what an extraordinary folk, soldier’s language - not a hitch.” , not a single false, ready-made, that is, literary-vulgar, word. It is possible that he will remain the author of only one such book, will begin to repeat himself, write worse, but even this can be forgiven (he for “Terkin” (I. Bunin. Letter to N.D. Teleshov dated September 10, 1947 / / Bunin I. Book 1. Lit. inheritance T. 84. Book 1. M., 1973)
Tvardovsky himself talks about creative history of his poem: “Vasily Terkin... has been known to the reader, primarily the army, since 1942. But “Vasya Terkin” has been known since 1939-1940 - from the period of the Finnish campaign.
Once, discussing with the editorial staff the tasks and nature of our work in a military newspaper, we decided that we needed to start something like a “humor corner” or a weekly collective feuilleton, where there would be poems and pictures... And here we are, The writers who worked in the editorial office of “On Guard of the Motherland” decided to choose a character who would appear in a series of amusing pictures, equipped with poetic captions. This was supposed to be some kind of cheerful, successful fighter, a conventional figure, a popular popular figure... Someone suggested calling our hero Vasya Terkin, namely Vasya, and not Vasily. There were proposals to name Vanya, Fedya, or something else, but they settled on Vasya. This is how this name was born...
Before the spring of 1942, I arrived in Moscow and, looking at my notebooks, suddenly decided to revive Vasily Terkin. An introduction was immediately written about water, food, jokes and truth. The chapters “At a halt”, “Crossing”, “Terkin is wounded”, “About the reward”, which were in rough drafts, were quickly completed. The movement of the hero from the situation of the Finnish campaign to the situation of the front of the Great Patriotic War gave him a completely different meaning than in the original plan.”
Not only the hero of the poem has changed - its character, its content, philosophy, form: composition, genre, plot have become different. The main theme was the homeland and the people, the people at war. “A book about a fighter” - this is the subtitle the author gave to his poem.
II. Conversation based on the text of the poem
What is he like, Vasily Terkin, what do we know about his appearance, his biography, his fate?
Terkin - who is he?
Let's be honest:
Just a guy himself
He's ordinary.)
The image of Terkin is extremely generalized. Terkin is “a great hunter of living until he is ninety years old,” a civilian, peaceful man, “a private from the reserve,” a soldier out of necessity. His ordinary life on the collective farm was interrupted by the war, and the war for him is “work,” a continuation of ordinary life. And the entire poem about the war is permeated with the dream of a peaceful life.
Terkin is a national type, similar to the type of Russian epic heroes, at the same time a joker and a merry fellow, associated with the image of a resourceful soldier from an old fairy tale, a daring craftsman, a jack of all trades.
Terkin is an infantryman. “It contains the pathos of the infantry, the army closest to the earth, to the cold, to fire and death,” wrote Tvardovsky. This is a generalized image Russian soldier who bore the brunt of the war. Already at the beginning of the story, in the chapter “At a Rest,” the fighters define Terkin as follows: “One of their own.” In the chapter “From the author”:
In a word, Terkin, the one who
A dashing soldier at war,
At a party, a guest is not superfluous,
At work - anywhere...
What qualities made Terkin the readers’ favorite hero?
Terkin is a bright personality, cheerful, good-natured Russian nature, “generous heart”, “lover of help”, a person with an open soul, combining sincerity and nobility, wit and gaiety, simplicity, sharpness and wisdom with endurance and patience, common sense , resilience, courage, with a sense of military duty, responsibility, modesty. The basis of all these qualities is sincere patriotism.
Student assignment
Select episodes that reveal these qualities of the hero.
What does the hero's surname mean?
(“Terkin” means seasoned by life, experienced. There is a saying “grated kalach.” “This seasoned man,” the author defines it. At the same time, the surname sounds common, short, bright.
In the chapter “Terkin - Terkin” the hero meets his namesake, Ivan Terkin. Both are heroes, both harmonica players, merry fellows. And the foreman concludes: “According to the regulations, each company / Will be given its own Terkin.”)
How does Terkin's character develop?
(On the one hand, Terkin is an almost epic, fairy-tale character, and therefore does not develop. He does not lose his presence of mind, does not lose heart under any circumstances. In the first chapters, Terkin the joker, looking at him, makes everyone feel better: “Okay, how there is such a guy on a hike.” However, this image goes beyond folklore. Terkin’s gaiety is not just feigned; rather, he masks his experiences - this is easier for him and this is how he supports others. He, like a political instructor, raises the spirit of the soldiers in the days. retreats: “The fighters followed us, / While giving the captured land, / I repeated one political conversation: / - Don’t be discouraged!” hide behind a joke, can sometimes openly cry (chapter “On the Dnieper”) The image also develops outside the poem, in the work written by Tvardovsky after the war - “Terkin in the Other World.”)
(The image of the Author is in lyrical digressions, in special chapters “From the Author”. In them, the Author introduces Terkin as his friend, comrade: “Not jokingly, Vasily Terkin, / You and I became friends.” It is no coincidence that many thought that Terkin was a real person . Common between the author and his hero " small homeland“- Tvardovsky made Terkin his fellow countryman, a native of the Smolensk region. For the hero and the Author, the war becomes a battle for their home. The idea of a large, common Motherland is inseparable from the memory of specific native places.
Tvardovsky writes about his hero with extraordinary warmth and lyricism:
From Moscow to Stalingrad
You are always with me -
My pain, my joy,
My rest and my feat!
The entire poem is permeated with the author's lyricism. The author conducts a free conversation with the reader, addressing him respectfully: “friend-reader.” The author's confidential conversation brings the reader closer to the events depicted, to the heroes of the poem. The author acts as an intermediary between the hero and the reader.)
III. Final words from the teacher
“Vasily Terkin” was, according to the poet himself, his lyrics and journalism, a song and a lesson, an anecdote and a saying, a heart-to-heart conversation and a remark to the occasion.
We can say that the Author and his hero walked the roads of war side by side. The publication of the first chapters began in 1942 after the difficult summer retreat of our troops to the Volga and the North Caucasus. The poem was operational, reacting to military events. It was published in chapters, which are relatively independent, and at the same time the poem is an integral work. The three parts of the poem correspond to three stages of the situation on the fronts: the initial retreat, the turning point after the victory at Stalingrad, the victorious offensive of 1944-1945 and the complete defeat of the enemy on its territory: one of last chapters It's called "On the Road to Berlin". Tvardovsky finished the poem synchronously with the end of the war.
The conflict in the poem is, as N.L. Leiderman writes, “transpersonal” in nature - it is raised to the heights of the Great Patriotic War, when all the people of one country unite into a people united in their desire to save their Motherland, and therefore their family, their home from enslavement and humiliation.
Homework
1. Get acquainted with the lyrics of A. T. Tvardovsky, answer the question: what traditions of Russian lyrics are reflected in the poet’s work?
2. Prepare for test work based on the poem "Vasily Terkin"
Epigraphs:
I lived, I was - for everything in the world
I answer with my head
A. Tvardovsky
Memory is active. She leaves
An indifferent, inactive person.
She controls the mind and heart of a person.
Memory resists the destructive force
time. This is the greatest significance
memory.
D.S. Likhachev
Lesson objectives:
- Disclosure of the creative history of the poem, its fate, determination of the genre features and ideological content of the poem “By the Right of Memory”, drawing students’ attention to the life realities of the 30-40s of the 2nd century and their understanding by Tvardovsky.
- Revealing the image of Stalin, debunking his cult in the poem, defining the theme of the “five words”, its movement, development; identification of confessional and biographical motives in the poem, Tvardovsky’s life and poetic credo.
- Expressive Reading individual fragments, semantic and stylistic commentary on the text, work on the key words of the poem, identifying aphorisms and phraseological units.
PROGRESS OF THE LESSON
1. Teacher's introduction
2. Understanding the epigraphs for the lesson
Let's turn to the epigraphs of the lesson. One of them is the words of Academician D.S. Likhachev. How do you understand his words that “memory is active”? Do you share this statement? Does Tvardovsky’s poem convince us of the validity of D.S. Likhachev’s thoughts?
Why do you think the words of Tvardovsky “I lived...” were taken as the epigraph to our lesson? What can we infer about the poet's position from this poetic statement?
3. Conversation on issues
Teacher: Pay attention to the time of creation and the time the poem appeared in print. What does this mean? Why was the poem not published during Tvardovsky’s lifetime?
Student: The poem “By Right of Memory” dates from 1966-1969. A. Tvardovsky is making persistent attempts to publish it on the pages of the magazine “New World”, which he directs. But the censorship department - Glavlit - persistently delays the publication of the work.
Widespread criticism of Stalin’s cult of personality in 1956-1964, when not only “mistakes”, but also “atrocities” and “criminal actions” of the “leader of the peoples” were exposed, gave way in the second half of the 60s to silence, oblivion, and an unspoken ban on the democratization process . That is why Tvardovsky did not see his poem in print. The poem appeared before readers only after the death of the author, in 1987.
Teacher: In those circumstances, a decisive appeal to the topic of the crimes of the Stalinist regime had a clear political meaning - it was a word of open and sharp protest.
Teacher: Let's remember the history of the creation of the poem? How was the new work planned? And how did it turn out?
Student: The new work was conceived as an “Additional Chapter” to the poem “Beyond the Distance, the Distance.” The work on the new chapter was dictated by a feeling of some understatement about “time and about myself.”
Later, “Additional Chapter” resulted in a completely new work. It reflected the author’s acute reaction to the changing social situation in the second half of the 60s.
Teacher: Tell us more about the environment in which Tvardovsky had to work.
Student: It became more and more noticeable that the direction of the magazine “ New world“objectively acquired an oppositional character. And this was avenged on the editor-in-chief of Novy Mir on August 10, 1968. A. Tvardovsky wrote to Kondratovich: “The situation with the magazine is extremely difficult. Never before have the so-called events of international life affected the magazine and my own so directly.” Tvardovsky had in mind the Czechoslovak events. In August 1968 Soviet troops entered Czechoslovakia, Soviet tanks appeared on the streets of Prague. IN workbook The poet's entry was as follows (dated August 29, 1968):
What should I do with you, my oath,
Where can I get the words to talk about
How Prague greeted us in 1945,
And how he meets in sixty-eight.
Condemning this action, Tvardovsky refused to sign the open letter to the writers of Czechoslovakia.
Teacher: This is an act, human, civil. In Tvardovsky’s words there is the power of moral and spiritual resistance. And this irritated the literary officials, the poet’s enemies. The enemies of the magazine - the secretaries of the Central Committee, the editors of Glavlit, censors, instructors, consultants - the whole Shchedrin world - took up arms against Novy Mir and its editor-in-chief. All attempts to publish the poem were in vain. “I felt,” said Tvardovsky, “that I was running into a rubber wall.”
That is why the poem was published only in 1987 in the magazine “Znamya”.
4. The poem “By right of memory”: reading, discussion, analysis
Teacher: Now let's turn directly to the poem. What main themes did you identify in this work?
Answers:
– the theme of repentance and personal guilt of a person;
– theme of memory and oblivion;
– the theme of historical retribution;
– the theme of “filial responsibility.”
Teacher: What is the composition of the poem?
Student: Many literary scholars call A. Tvardovsky’s poem “By Right of Memory” a triptych. It has three parts - “Before departure”, “The son is not responsible for his father”, “About memory”, which are preceded by a short lyrical preface.
Student: The poem “By Right of Memory” is a three-part composition. In the process of work, the author called it either a triptych or (most often) a poetic cycle. The magazine “Znamya”, which was given the right to first publish, considered it possible to define its genre this way: “it is quite obvious that this is a lyrical poem.” And the author himself, apparently, was inclined towards this definition. In the final version, prepared by him for publication, the designation “triptych” was removed and the headings of the parts were given. This emphasizes the integrity and unified plot and psychological line of the work.
Teacher: So, before us is a lyrical poem, which is a three-part composition. Its emotional and psychological implications are deep. This is confession - conversion, confession - repentance, confession - accusation. Disregarding the ban, Tvardovsky talks about what “burns the soul.” The poems either have a lyrical intonation, or they become journalism, or the realities of life are woven into reflections of a moral nature. The integrity of the poem is given by the personality of the author himself, the monologue form of the narrative.
This work opens with a poetic declaration, which expresses Tvardovsky’s life credo. Read these lines. ... For Tvardovsky, memory and truth are synonymous concepts. The thought that the poet was in control of was heard more than once in his poems.
Part 1 “Before departure”
Teacher: What mood is imbued with the first chapter of the poem?
Student: While working on the poem, Tvardovsky had the idea to include in it the motif of flying away from his native nest, that is, that already published fragment that appeared before the publication of the poem, as an independent work under the title “In the Hayloft.” The poem “In the Hayloft” left the first part of the poem – “Before Departure”. This chapter was written as an appeal to a friend of my youth. The poems convey an atmosphere of trust in which one can have a conversation about the most intimate things.
Teacher: How are the feelings of youth conveyed? How accurate is the poet in conveying the hopes and aspirations of his young heroes?
Student: Two friends, village youths, are getting ready to set off, they are full of hopes and dreams. Their spiritual appearance is revealed by the height of their thoughts, youthful maximalism, and romantic dreams. Supports with quotes.
Teacher: Why does the expectation of trouble suddenly arise when reading this bright chapter? How does the poet infect us with his anxiety?
Student: There are lines that set the reader in an alarming mood. Read out.
Part 2 “The son is not responsible for his father”
Teacher: These words are included in the title of the second part of the poem, and it begins with them. And these words are repeated several times in this part of the poem. Why?
Student: The second part is entitled those Stalinist words that in the 30s were perceived both by the poet himself and by many people of the same fate as unexpected happiness, deliverance from the “indelible mark.” But this, firstly, turned out to be a hoax. And, secondly, the poet shows how inhuman and immoral these words were. By repeating themselves, these words receive more and more new semantic and emotional content. It is repetition that allows us to follow the development of the “five words” theme.
Teacher: What motives does Tvardovsky include in the theme of “five words”?
Student: Tvardovsky inscribes various tragic motives into the theme of “five words”:
– the fate of the peasantry, broken by the “great turning point”;
– the fate of entire peoples thrown into exile;
– the fate of those who had to pay double for the mistakes of the Commander-in-Chief.
Quotes confirm what has been said.
Teacher: This appeal to the motherland sounds like woeful amazement at the scale of the disaster that has befallen the people and the country. But Tvardovsky knew firsthand about the tragedy of the people.
Student's story: The “great turning point” scattered the Tvardovsky family across the world. A father, mother, and four younger children found themselves in the taiga of the Northern Urals. The fate of Konstantin's older brother was unknown. In the poem “Brothers,” the poet asked: “Where are you, brother? // On which White Sea Canal?”
The fate of our prisoners of war was shared by the poet’s younger brother Ivan, who ended up in a camp in Chukotka after the war. And the words can be attributed to it: “From captivity to captivity - under the thunder of victory / Follow with a double brand.”
F. Abramov, in his memoirs about Tvardovsky, writes about the origins of his personal tragedy: “He carried all the storms of the century within himself... I’m not talking about the fact that the family was dispossessed, but he alone is free. A famous poet, but his brother in the camps? Until the age of 53. The father of the great poet lived for four years under an assumed name.”
This entry by F. Abramov echoes the confession of the poet himself, who carried guilt before his father and especially before his beloved mother: “It’s like I have two biographies: the reputation of a people’s poet and the hereditary stigma of a class enemy.” “Son of a fist” - this mark appeared on the questionnaires that Tvardovsky filled out. He wore it for over twenty years.
Teacher: Find lines in the text of the poem that confirm Tvardovsky’s experiences.
The lines are read out.
Teacher: How is the “father of nations” depicted in the second part of the poem?
Student: The image of Stalin, the picture of the order he imposed, is presented in the poem in large, uncompromising terms. Excerpts are read.
Teacher: In the drafts of the poem, Tvardovsky displayed the portrait features of “the destinies of the arbiter of the earthly”:
...his hands
The claws are twisted like a crustacean's
Solid calluses like the heels (of a shepherd)
Were covered and not tall enough
Large, burned with scale.
Think about why the poet did not include the lines containing a description of the “leader’s” appearance in the main text of the poem?
Teacher: How does Tvardovsky depict the fate of his father, the fate of the Russian peasantry? What detail is included in the father's portrait?
Teacher: What thoughts do the final lines of the chapter give rise to?
Part 3 “About memory”
Teacher:“On Memory” is a special chapter. It synthesizes the author's thoughts and motives stated in its title. The chapter is polemical. Tvardovsky argues with those whom he calls “silent people.” Find these lines.
Teacher: Tvardovsky's reflection on oblivion and memory is capped by a firmly expressed conviction. Which one? Read.
In what manner is the last chapter written?
Student: The chapter “On Memory” is written in a free, “conversational” manner. Lots of rhetorical questions. These are echoes of the debates that the editor of Novy Mir waged, defending the right and duty of literature to tell the truth. The entire structure of the poetic text creates a holistic idea of the poet’s worldview. He expresses his position clearly and uncompromisingly.
Teacher: As we see, the author strives to measure everything by the highest criterion for him - conscience, truth, memory. Pay attention to the capacious, apt definitions for the keywords MEMORY, TRUTH, FALSE, PAIN. Read them. What poetic expressions, from your point of view, are aphorisms?
– What phraseological units does the author use in the chapter “On Memory”?
– What does the author’s widespread use of aphorisms and phraseological units indicate?
5. Closing remarks from the teacher
After reading A. Tvardovsky’s poem, we were convinced: we are all indebted to the past and the future, each of us is responsible for our own time. But there is no responsibility without a sense of memory and participation in life. We must know the truth, no matter how bitter it may be. Memory, the poet convinces us, should protect us from repeating terrible mistakes.
Behind the lyrical hero of the poem stands the image of a poet-citizen. He teaches us mercy, high morality, citizenship, teaches us to be “the kind of people who look people in the eyes without hiding their eyes.”
One of the most famous Russian writers, Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky, is rightfully considered a talented poet and journalist. He is one of the few gifted people who managed to publish in Soviet years. However, not all of Tvardovsky’s works were approved by critics and accepted for publication. Among the prohibited texts was the poem “By Right of Memory.” A brief summary of it will be discussed in this article.
History of creation
Poem "By Right of Memory" summary which will be discussed below, was written in the 60s. But due to the ban, it was published only in 1987. The work was originally conceived as part of the poem “Beyond the Distance, the Distance,” since Tvardovsky considered it unfinished, there was some understatement in it: “Unsaid. Can I leave..."
However, later the additional chapter was formed into an independent poem. And this work reflected the writer’s dissatisfaction with the political and social changes of the 60s: attempts to exalt Stalin again, hiding the decisions of the party congress from the people, growing totalitarianism, strict censorship, ordered denunciations, fake letters on behalf of the “workers”. All these changes affected the fate of the entire people and Tvardovsky himself. All this sincerely worries the writer; he cannot stand aside and acts in the poem as an accuser of the authorities and an exposer of its cruel, inhumane actions.
Genre originality
From the point of view of the genre, the poem can be called a lyrical and philosophical reflection. Although the poet himself calls it a “travel diary.” Main characters works: the Soviet country, the people inhabiting it, as well as their deeds and accomplishments.
Interesting genre originality works “By right of memory”, summary which indicates the presence of a fairy-tale plot, as well as magical heroes:
- the main character returning home;
- hero-helper - tractor driver;
- antihero - thief;
- savior - Stalin.
Also, the abundance of sayings, sayings, and proverbs in the folklore style speaks about the predominance of the fairy tale principle. Thus, Tvardovsky depicts reality in a mythologized form, so many episodes have a deep symbolic meaning.
Subject
The main theme of the poem “By Right of Memory” (the summary confirms this idea) is the theme of memory. But this problem transforms into another, more dangerous one - responsibility to descendants for the reluctance to deal with what happened in the past: “Whoever hides the past... is unlikely to be in harmony with the future.” Tvardovsky believed that no one has the right to forget the past, since it concerns everyone and affects the future of the country, its development and the well-being of the people.
The poem is structured as an expressive monologue of the lyrical hero, concerned about the loss of continuity and the destruction of connections between generations.
Poem “By Right of Memory”: summary
The work consists of three parts. The first part is dedicated to the writer’s youthful memories; it sounds warm, ironic, filled with plans and dreams: “And where, which of us will have to... hear our youth.”
The young poet's dreams are high and pure, his main desire is to work for the benefit of his native country. And if necessary, he is ready to give for his homeland and life. The writer with longing and sadness recalls his youthful naivety and ignorance of all the hardships that fate had in store: “To love one’s native mother land, / So that for her it will go through fire and water.”
The second chapter of the work “By Right of Memory,” the content of which we are considering, is called “The son is not responsible for his father.” This is the most tragic part not only in the poem, but also in Tvardovsky’s life. The fact is that the writer’s family was dispossessed and exiled to Siberia; Alexander Trifonovich himself remained to live in Smolensk only because in those years he separated from his relatives. The poet could not help his loved ones, and this tormented him all his life. In addition, the stigma of “son of a kulak” was attached to him, which did not make life in the Soviet Union any easier. It was these experiences that were reflected in the poem: “Thank the father of the people for forgiving your father.”
The third part of the poem sounds like an affirmative monologue, where the writer defends the right to memory. Only as long as descendants remember the deeds of their ancestors are they alive. Memory is a great gift of man, and he should not give it up.
Analysis
The poem “By Right of Memory” was called Tvardovsky’s repentance by many critics. In it, the poet tries to atone for the mistakes of his youth, his grief and regret result in the beautiful lines of a brilliant work.
In the first chapter, along with youthful memories, one can also notice a premonition of historical changes that will turn into tragedy and conflict for the hero not only with the surrounding reality, but also with himself. Exactly internal conflict will become the main one in the second chapter of the work. The poet looks at Stalin’s phrase “The son is not responsible for his father” from different angles. These words meant something to those who did not want to share the fate of their parents. However, the poet’s lyrical self rejects this help; he does not want to betray his father. Moreover, he comes to the defense of the expelled parent. Tvardovsky is ready to answer for him, to defend the right to humane treatment of the enemy of the people, thereby trying to atone for the youthful betrayal of his family.
But gradually the idea of responsibility for the affairs of parents develops into responsibility for the achievements of the entire country. All those who silently watched the repressions are guilty of what happened during Stalin’s time.
Conclusion
Tvardovsky’s poem “By Right of Memory” reflected all the trials that the poet faced during This and the Great Patriotic War, and the difficult post-war period, and the thaw. His forbidden work became a confession, a cry from the soul, which was no longer able to remain silent about what it had experienced.
