КРЕСТЬЯНИН НА ВОЙНЕ И В СОВЕТСКОМ КОНЦЛАГЕРЕ (В РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЯХ В. БЫКОВА, А. СОЛЖЕНИЦЫНА, В. ШАЛАМОВА)

Abstract

Peasants, like people from other social strata, in the war or in a soviet concentration camp for at least some time live with their past experiences, memories, habits and stereotyped behaviors. It also turns out that the past can be important aid in developing a heroic system of relations with the enemy or in the necessary patience for survival. Vasil Bykov writes about this in the story «The sign of trouble», and Andrey Platonov, for example, in the story «The officer and the peasant». But the past can and does determine the behavior of the peasant even when he cannot free himself from the painful and destructive things that his former life has left in him. And in this case, he betrays himself, his family and friends, including his own future, in the face of the enemy, turns out to be an enemy of his people and eventually dies a shameful death. Vasil Bykov wrote about it in his stories «Sotnikov» and «Crane cry». According to Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novel «One day of Ivan Denisovich», the life of a peasant in a camp is simpler than that of people who are not adapted to hard work. Sometimes this life is even characterized by a kind of enthusiasm. But this kind of statement is not confirmed by Varlam Shalamov, who observes the rapid leveling of a person from any social group into a semi-human, a typical worn out prisoner. Who is right – Solzhenitsyn or Shalamov? Probably everyone has their own truth. But they agree with one thing – the rejection and curse of soviet totalitarianism.