Pictures of the hard times of the war and difficult post-war years in poems and stories by Russian writers Completed by: student of class 6 “B” of the Municipal Educational Institution “Gymnasium No. 53” in Magnitogorsk Gavrilov Kirill
The Great Patriotic War is reflected in Russian literature deeply and comprehensively, in all its manifestations: the army and home front, the partisan movement, the tragic beginning of the war, individual battles, heroism and betrayal, the greatness and drama of the Victory.
Authors of military prose, as a rule, are front-line soldiers; their works are based on real events, on their own front-line experience. In the books about the war by front-line writers, the main line is soldier's friendship, front-line camaraderie, the hardship of life on the field, desertion and heroism. In war, dramatic human destinies unfold; sometimes his life or death, and sometimes the life or death of the entire detachment, depends on a person’s actions.
One of the first books about the war was the story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” by Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov. In this story, the author describes from beginning to end the difficult battles and difficulties that soldiers faced during the war. Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov Lieutenant Kerzhentsev, one of the main characters of the story, is the author himself, who nobly defended Stalingrad. The soldiers who heroically defended Stalingrad are not fictional people, but front-line comrades of the author himself. Therefore, the entire work is permeated with love for them.
By creating the image of Kerzhentsev and other heroes, the author is trying to tell us how the war changed the destinies and characters of people; that they will no longer be what people were before, before the war. Viktor Nekrasov sought to convey to readers that only thanks to the patriotism of the Russian people this war was won!
Poetic journalism is the most developed, most widespread type of literary work during the Great Patriotic War. Many poets devoted their talent entirely to her. Simonov Konstantin Mikhailovich Attack When you, at the whistle, at the sign, Standing up on the trampled snow, Getting ready to rush into the attack, Threw up your rifle as you ran, How cozy the cold earth seemed to you, How everything on it was remembered: The frozen stem of the feather grass, Barely noticeable hillocks, Smoky explosions traces, a pinch of scattered shag and a piece of ice of spilled water.
Tvardovsky Alexander Trifonovich Why talk about that... Why tell about that to a Soldier in the war, What was the garden like, what was the house like in the native land? For what? Others say that now, because of the war, He has long forgotten, soldier, Family and home; He has long been accustomed to everything, he has been taught by war, and he does not even believe that he is alive. He, another fighter, does not know, Second and third years: Whether he is married or a widower, And he does not wait for letters in vain...
Of course, in addition to wartime, poetry also describes the post-war years. Akhmatova Anna Andreevna Five years have passed... Five years have passed - and the wounds inflicted by the cruel war have healed, My country, and the Russian glades are again full of icy silence. And the lighthouses burn through the darkness of the seaside night, showing the sailor the way. Sailors look at their fire, as if into friendly eyes, far from the sea. Where the tank thundered - there is now a peaceful tractor. Where the fire howled - the garden smells fragrant, And along the once dug-out road Cars fly lightly.
Reshetov Alexey Leonidovich Courtyard after the war Peaceful courtyard. Bitter smell of wood chips. The pigeons coo endlessly. Wearing a necklace of gray clothespins, a woman comes down from the porch. A spindle flew by on its wings - That is, a restless dragonfly. A golden sleepy cat rubs its greenish eyes. At the gate, viburnum is all in bloom, And under it - neither young nor old - With a boot that has walked all the way to Berlin, The guy inflates the samovar.
Project “Compilation of an electronic illustrated album “Pictures of the hard times of war in the verses of Russian poets” The work was completed by: Tarasenko Svetlana Student 6 “B” class MO “Gymnasium No. 53” Magnitogorsk
Parting. 1975 Andrey Mylnikov SLAVA In five minutes, the overcoat was all covered with melted snow. He lies on the ground, raising his hand with a tired movement. He's dead. Nobody knows him. But we are still halfway there, And the glory of the dead inspires Those who decided to go forward. We have a harsh freedom: Dooming a mother to tears, Buying the immortality of her people with her death. 1942
The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. 1942 OATH And the one who says goodbye to her beloved today, Let her melt her pain into strength. We swear to the children, we swear to the graves, That no one will force us to submit! July 1941
LAMENTATION I will not wash away the Leningrad misfortune with my hands, I will not wash it away with tears, I will not bury it in the ground. I am not a word, I am not a reproach, I am not a glance, I am not a hint, I am not a hired song, I am not an immodest boast........................... .... In a green field I will remember... 1944 B. Tarelkin. Comrades. 1983
TO THE WINNERS Behind were the Narva gates, Ahead there was only death... So the Soviet infantry marched straight into the yellow vents of "Bert". So they will write books about you: “Your life for your friends,” Simple boys - Vanka, Vaska, Alyoshka, Grishka, Grandsons, brothers, sons! February 29, 1944 A. Kozlov. Competition at a military factory. 1942
I know it’s not my fault that others didn’t come back from the war, that they - some older, some younger - stayed there, and it’s not about the same thing, that I could, but failed to save them, - the speech not about that, but still, still, still... K. Antonov. Winners.
Uncompressed rye swings. The soldiers are walking along it. We too, girls, walk, looking like boys. No, it’s not the huts that are burning - It’s my youth on fire... Girls are walking through the war, They look like boys. A. Shirokov. For the Motherland
I've seen hand-to-hand combat so many times, once in reality. And a thousand - in a dream. Whoever says that war is not scary knows nothing about war. 1943 V. Mochalsky. Victory. Berlin 1945. 1947
Somewhere near Brest, suddenly a sad song from Wartime came into our carriage. She walked down the aisle, quiet and sad. How many people there were - She confused everyone. She lifted women from the shelves, disturbed dreams, Remembering all those who did not come Since that last war. M. Samsonov. Soldiers of Stalingrad. 1983
Kissed. They cried and sang. They fought with hostility. And right as she ran, a girl in a mended overcoat scattered her hands in the snow. Mother! Mother! I reached my goal... But in the steppe, on the Volga bank, a girl in a mended overcoat scattered her hands in the snow. A. Lopukhov. Victory.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, artists took an active part in the fight against the enemy. Some of them went to fight at the front, others joined partisan detachments and the people's militia. Between battles they managed to publish newspapers, posters, and cartoons. In the rear, artists were propagandists, they organized exhibitions, they turned art into a weapon against the enemy - no less dangerous than the real thing.
During the war, many exhibitions were organized, including two all-Union ones (“The Great Patriotic War” and “Heroic Front and Rear”) and 12 republican ones. In Leningrad, surrounded by the siege, artists published a magazine of lithographic prints, “Combat Pencil,” and, together with all Leningraders, showed the whole world unparalleled courage and fortitude.
As during the years of the revolution, the first place in the schedule of the war years was occupied by the poster. Two stages in its development can be traced. In the first two years of the war, the poster had a dramatic, even tragic sound. Already on June 22, the Kukryniksy poster “We will ruthlessly defeat and destroy the enemy!” appeared. He brought down popular hatred on the invading enemy, demanded retribution, and called for the defense of the Motherland. The main idea was to repel the enemy, and it was expressed in harsh, laconic visual language, regardless of creative individuals.
Domestic traditions were widely used. So, “The Motherland is calling!” I. Toidze (1941) with an allegorical female figure against a background of bayonets, holding in her hands the text of the military oath.
The poster became like an oath of every fighter. Artists often resorted to images of our heroic ancestors.
At the second stage, after a turning point in the course of the war, both the image of the poster and the mood change to optimistic and even humorous. B.C. Ivanov depicts a soldier against the background of the crossing of the Dnieper, drinking water from a helmet: “We are drinking the water of our native Dnieper. We will drink from the Prut, Neman and Bug!” (1943).
During the war years, significant works of easel graphics appeared. These are quick, documentary-accurate front-line sketches, different in technique, style and artistic level. These are portrait drawings of fighters, partisans, sailors, nurses, commanders - a rich chronicle of the war, later partially translated into engravings. These include war landscapes, among which images of besieged Leningrad occupy a special place. This is how the graphic series by D. Shmarinov “We will not forget, we will not forgive!” (charcoal, black watercolor, 1942), which arose from sketches that he made in newly liberated cities and villages, but was finally completed after the war: fires, ashes, crying over the bodies of murdered mothers and widows - everything fused into a tragic artistic image.
The historical theme occupies a special place in military graphics. It reveals our past, the life of our ancestors (engravings by V. Favorsky, A. Goncharov, I. Bilibin). Architectural landscapes of the past are also presented.
Painting during the war years also had its stages. At the beginning of the war, it was mainly a recording of what was seen, not intended to be generalized, almost a hasty “picturesque sketch”. Artists wrote based on living impressions, and there was no shortage of them. It was not always possible to achieve what was planned; the paintings lacked depth in revealing the theme and the power of generalization. But there was always great sincerity, passion, admiration for people who steadfastly withstand inhuman tests, directness and honesty of artistic vision, a desire to be extremely conscientious and accurate.
During the Great Patriotic War, many young artists came forward; they themselves took part in the battles near Moscow, the great battle for Stalingrad, they crossed the Vistula and Elbe and took Berlin by storm.
Of course, the portrait develops first, because the artists were shocked by the courage, moral height and nobility of the spirit of our people. At first these were extremely modest portraits, only capturing the features of a man during the war - the Belarusian partisans F. Modorov and the Red Army soldiers V. Yakovlev, portraits of those who fought for victory over fascism in the rear, a whole series of self-portraits. Artists sought to capture ordinary people forced to take up arms, who showed the best human qualities in this struggle. Later, ceremonial, solemn, and sometimes even pathetic images appeared, such as the portrait of Marshal G. K. Zhukov by P. Korin (1945).
In 1941-1945. Both domestic and landscape genres are developing, but they are always somehow connected with the war. An outstanding place in the formation of both during the war years belongs to A. Plastov. Both genres seem to be combined in his film “The Fascist Flew Over” (1942).
During the war years, both the oldest masters (V. Baksheev, V. Byalynitsky-Birulya, N. Krymov, A. Kuprin, I. Grabar, P. Petrovichev, etc.) and younger ones, like G. Nissky, worked in the landscape genre during the war years. who created several expressive, very expressive paintings.
Exhibitions of landscape painters during the war speak of their understanding of the landscape in a new image, belonging to the harsh wartime. Thus, these years also preserved almost documentary landscapes, which over time became a historical genre, like “Parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941” by K.F. Yuon (1942), which captured that memorable day for all Soviet people, when fighters went straight into battle from a snow-covered square - and almost all died.
The painting by A.A. is not without a certain poster-like quality, so alien to the art of painting. Deineka’s “Defense of Sevastopol” (1942), created in the days when “the battle was going on... holy and right, a mortal battle not for the sake of glory, for the sake of life on earth.” The theme itself is the reason for the enormous emotional impact of the painting.
It is significant that the spirit of war, permeated with one thought - about war - is sometimes conveyed by artists in the character of a simple genre painting. Thus, B. Nemensky depicted a woman sitting over sleeping soldiers, and called his work “Mother” (1945): she may be a mother guarding the sleep of her own sons-soldiers, but this is also a generalized image of all the mothers of those warriors who fight with the enemy.
Through the ordinary, and not the exceptional, he depicts the everyday feat of the people in this most bloody of all wars that have happened on earth.
In the last years of the war, the Kukryniksy created one of their best paintings, turning to the image of antiquity - Sophia of Novgorod as a symbol of the invincibility of the Russian land (“Flight of the Nazis from Novgorod”, 1944-1946). The artistic shortcomings of this picture are made up for by its sincerity and genuine drama.
Towards the end of the war, changes are outlined, the paintings become more complex, gravitating toward multi-figures, so to speak, “developed dramaturgy.”
In 1941-1945, during the years of the great battle against fascism, artists created many works in which they expressed the whole tragedy of the war and glorified the feat of the victorious people.
The war made us feel in a new, deeper and more serious way the value of everything that the enemy encroached on, that he wanted to take away and destroy.
In order to reflect the selfless and heroic struggle of the people, art needed a special depth and power to reveal feelings, increased emotionality, penetration into the inner life of a person, into the meaning of phenomena. It was necessary not just to illustrate individual facts and events, but to create images that carried great feelings and experiences that corresponded to the high patriotic upsurge of the Soviet people.
During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet artists, like the entire people, showed particular strength in their patriotic feeling and interest in the national past of our Motherland, in its best centuries-old traditions.
The famous battle painter M. I. Avilov dedicated his painting “The Duel of Peresvet with Chelubey” (1943) to the historical victory of the Russian people in the Battle of Kulikovo.
A number of paintings on historical themes were painted during the war years by the artist P. P. Sokolov-Skalya. The most significant of them is “Ivan IV in Livonia. Capture of the Koken Hausen fortress" (1940-1942) - dedicated to the victory of the Russian people over the Livonian dogs knights.
The oldest Soviet artist N.P. Ulyanov created the image of the great Russian commander M.I. Kutuzov in the painting “Loriston at Kutuzov’s Headquarters” (1945).
People's Artist of the RSFSR E. E. Lansere painted a series of small gouache paintings, united under the general title “Trophies of Russian Weapons.” The author intended to show the great victories of Russian weapons in various historical eras: “After the Battle of the Ice,” “On the Kulikovo Field,” “Poltava Victory,” “1812,” etc. Death prevented the artist from completing this interesting work.
Many masters of art have set themselves the noble task of embodying in art the images of our great ancestors, whose historical exploits inspired the Soviet people to fight the enemy.
“I wrote it,” says the artist, “during the harsh years of the war, I painted the rebellious, proud spirit of our people, which “at the judgment hour of its existence” stood up to its full gigantic height.”
Themes of the historical past were closely intertwined with the themes of the heroic present. The artists witnessed and directly participated in rapid attacks and military assaults, difficult military campaigns and bloody battles. There was no time to wait. It was necessary to write from living impressions. The artists worked with all their might. The paintings were not always successful; some of them lacked the depth of the theme, the power of generalization. But the main thing could not be taken away from any of them - sincerity and passion, the consciousness of high patriotic duty.
The picture of the victorious offensive of the Soviet troops was captured in one of the first battle paintings of the war years by artist V. N. Yakovlev (“Battle near the Streletskaya Settlement”, 1942).
The artist A. A. Deineka in the film “Defense of Sevastopol” (1943) showed the unprecedented courage and fortitude of the sailors - the defenders of the hero city.
He also painted the paintings “The Downed Fascist Ace”, “Aviation Landing on the Dnieper” and others.
During the difficult days of the blockade, Leningrad artists did not stop working for a single day. They spoke in their canvases about the courage, extraordinary willpower, exceptional perseverance and patience of Leningraders who heroically endured the exorbitant hardships of life in a besieged city.
The triumph of the great victory of the Soviet Army over the enemy is imbued with the large battle painting “Breaking the Siege of January 18, 1943,” painted by a team of Leningrad artists consisting of A. A. Kazantsev, I. A. Serebryany, V. A. Serov.
The painting depicts a joyful moment of uniting troops of two fronts. It was created by artists shortly after the blockade was broken, when recent experiences and sorrows were still fresh in people’s memories, when the earth itself still retained traces of fierce battles.
During the Patriotic War, many young artists emerged, for whom work on battle themes was a large and fruitful school of ideological and creative growth.
Among them, the students of the studio of military artists named after Grekov showed themselves most clearly. Founded in 1934 as a training center, during the war it turned into a military team of professional military artists. Their work took place on the front lines. The students were direct participants in the battles near Moscow, the great battle on the Volga, the crossing of the Dnieper and the storming of Berlin.
Among these talented youth, the battle painter P. A. Krivonogov especially stood out. In 1945, he created the painting “Korsun-Shevchenkovsky”, in which he depicted one of the major battles in the region of Right Bank Ukraine, during which 11 German divisions were surrounded and destroyed. The artist witnessed this operation, which determined the life-like authenticity and documentary accuracy of the picture.
Along with historical, battle and everyday genres, a prominent place in Soviet painting of the war years belonged to portraits and landscapes.
The art of the artist A. M. Gerasimov reached its peak. In 1944, he painted one of his best works - a group portrait of the oldest Russian artists V. N. Meshkov, I. N. Pavlov, V. K. Byalynitsky-Birul and V. N. Baksheev.
The artist F. A. Modorov left us a whole gallery of portraits of Belarusian partisans. Here are people of various ages and ranks, famous famous commanders and ordinary participants in partisan raids. The artist focused on revealing the inner world of everyone, lovingly painted their courageous, simple faces.
Landscape painting also showed new features. The artists put the excited feelings of Soviet patriots into the war landscape. They showed peaceful villages and towns burned by the enemy, cultural monuments barbarously destroyed. The menacing breath of war filled these landscapes with a heroic sound.
Not only painters, but also sculpture masters took part in the nationwide struggle against the enemy.
The Patriotic War presented them with an extremely difficult and noble task - to perpetuate for posterity the images of defenders, the Soviet country, heroes of the front and rear, and brave partisans. Therefore, one of the leading genres of sculpture was the portrait, which revealed the best qualities of Soviet people, their spiritual nobility and courage.
The images of war heroes were most vividly embodied in the works of V. I. Mukhina. Despite the outward modesty and restraint of her compositional decisions, Mukhina always managed to reveal the richness of the inner life of the person being portrayed and create a real heroic portrait. These are the portraits of colonels B. A. Yusupov (1942), I. L. Khizhnyak (1942), a portrait of a partisan.
In the early morning of June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. Hitler's army, armed to the teeth, despite the courageous resistance of the Soviet troops, moved forward. Mortal danger looms over our Motherland. From every Soviet citizen, no matter what position he was in: in a trench on the front line or at a blast furnace, at the controls of a combat aircraft or behind the wheel of a tractor, boundless dedication and honest service to the Motherland were required.
“Everything for the front, everything for victory!” These words became the motto of the life and work of Soviet people.
At the call of the party, the entire people rose up to fight the enemy. Soviet artists also felt mobilized and called upon to serve the people with their art, to help them in mortal combat with the enemy.
The first to respond to military events were poster artists. On the second day of the war, the Kukryniksy poster “We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!” had already appeared.
In the very first days of the Patriotic War, TASS Windows was created. Poets D. Bedny, Marshak, Lebedev-Kumach, Kirsanov, artists Efimov, Kukryniksy, Goryaev, Cheremnykh collaborated in them. The whole country knew the TASS Windows posters; Crowds of Muscovites gathered at the windows, waiting for the new release.Reproduced in a smaller format, they were delivered to the front; airplanes in the form of leaflets scattered them over the occupied cities and villages, instilling in people faith in our victory. Among the first posters of the Patriotic War, the poster by artist I. Toidze “The Motherland is Calling” should be noted.
An elderly woman with a stern face holds the text of the military oath in her outstretched right hand, her left hand is raised upward invitingly. Her face is unforgettable with tightly compressed lips, with burning eyes point-blank turned towards the viewer. Slightly scattered gray hair, frowning eyebrows shifted to the bridge of the nose, a scarf fluttering in the wind create a mood of anxiety and very clearly define the main idea of the poster - the Motherland calls her sons to fulfill their duty - to protect the Fatherland.
The first months of the war were difficult. The enemy pressed our army, captured Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states, surrounded Leningrad with a blockade ring, and was approaching the outskirts of Moscow. In the occupied territory, the Nazis exterminated Soviet people, burned villages, and forcibly took young people to German penal servitude.
From the poster of the artist D. Shmarinov “Take Revenge” a woman looks at the viewer. Against the backdrop of a smoky fire, she stands, motionless and terrible in her grief. On her lowered arms is the body of a brutally murdered girl. In the wide-open, tear-filled eyes of the mother there is not only suffering, but also a demand - revenge!
During the war, the poster by the artist V. Koretsky “Warrior of the Red Army, save!” became unusually widespread during the war.
Repeated many times on plywood boards along front-line roads, on the walls of houses, on postcards, this poster became a symbol and an oath, awakening in the hearts of the soldiers an ardent desire to defeat the enemy, to save their wives and children from torment and suffering.
A woman holds a boy clinging to her in her arms. Hair has come out from under the white scarf, eyebrows are drawn together with hatred and pain, and the corners of the lips are drawn down in pain. The child clung tightly to his mother in fear. From the left, diagonally toward the center, the bayonet of a Nazi soldier is pointed straight at the mother’s heart. Not a single unnecessary detail. Even the child’s fist is hidden under a scarf. The figures of the mother and son are shown in a chest-to-chest image, as if floating out of the darkness in the uncertain, wavering light of the conflagration.
The merciless fascist bayonet stained with blood and the young mother, ready to cover her son with her body, made an indelible impression. It is no coincidence that the artist Koretsky received hundreds of excited letters from front-line soldiers unfamiliar to him, in which the soldiers vowed to expel the enemy from Soviet soil and free their people from fascist captivity.
In this work, Koretsky masterfully used the capabilities of photography in order to give the image the character of true authenticity. He managed to avoid naturalism and excessive detail typical of many photomontages.
Laconism, rigor in the selection of expressive means, a stern black and red color scheme, and the enormous power of emotional impact made this poster a significant work of Soviet fine art, unparalleled among wartime posters.
After the failures and defeats of the first year of the war, our country also learned the joy of victory.
The theme of the Soviet military poster has changed. There were more bright and joyful moods in him, caused by a premonition of an imminent victory, and more and more often there was a call not only to liberate Soviet land from the enemy, but also to bring freedom to the peoples of Europe. Participants in the war remember well the poster by artist V. Ivanov “Drinking the water of our native Dnieper.”
The Dnieper flows widely and freely through its native land. The predawn sky is flaming in the glow of smoky fires, reflected in the dark and calm surface of the water. In the distance you can see the crossing that the sappers have just established. Tanks and cars move along it in an endless stream to the right bank. In the foreground is a large figure of a Soviet soldier. He scooped up cool Dnieper water, smelling of willow and river freshness, with his helmet, carefully brought it to his mouth and slowly drank it, enjoying every sip.
The sincere emotion and lyricism, filial love for the motherland, sounding in this poster, made it a favorite work of the people.
The last posters of the Patriotic War are dedicated to the victorious final battles. They glorify the heroic feat of the Soviet people, who saved humanity from fascist slavery at the cost of great sacrifices.
Soviet poster artists fulfilled their patriotic duty during the war years, creating a chronicle of struggle and victories remarkable in its artistic and ideological merits, which will never be forgotten by our people.
The artists of our country fought the enemy not only with ideological weapons. Many of them became soldiers of the Soviet Army. They participated in the fight against the Nazis as part of combat units of the active army, partisan detachments, and people's militia. But even at the front they did not cease to be artists. In their free time from combat operations, they did not part with field albums, making quick sketches, sketches, and compositions for future paintings.
Portraits of heroic warriors, satirical drawings, and front-line sketches, appearing in newspapers and combat leaflets, helped strengthen the morale of Soviet soldiers.
During the war years, many new talented artists emerged and became actively involved in creative work.
In the harshest days of 1942, when the enemy was approaching the capital, art exhibitions were opened in Moscow and Leningrad. The ideas of patriotism determined the content of the art of this period. The pathos of heroism and glorification of the Soviet victorious man sounded in the paintings of artists of the war years.
The artist S. V. Gerasimov spoke about the tenacity and courage of the Soviet people, the heroism and fearlessness of the Soviet woman-mother in the film “Mother of the Partisan” (1943).
The immortal feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya inspired the artists Kukryniksy to create the painting “Tanya”.
The artists A. A. Plastov spoke about the atrocities of the fascists, their outrage against the Soviet people in the film “The Fascist Flew” (1942),
G. G. Ryazhsky “Into Slavery” (1942),T. G. Gaponenko “After the expulsion of the Germans” (1943-1946).
The young artist B. M. Nemensky spoke about ordinary Soviet people, modest workers who honestly and devotedly fulfill their duty, in the film “Mother” (1945). He created the image of a mother for whom every soldier of the Soviet Army is his own son.
The image of a woman-mother rises to the symbolic sound of the Motherland in the painting by F. S. Bogorodsky “Glory to the Fallen Heroes.”
The war made us feel in a new, deeper and more serious way the value of everything that the enemy encroached on, that he wanted to take away and destroy.
In order to reflect the selfless and heroic struggle of the people, art needed a special depth and power to reveal feelings, increased emotionality, penetration into the inner life of a person, into the meaning of phenomena. It was necessary not just to illustrate individual facts and events, but to create images that carried great feelings and experiences that corresponded to the high patriotic upsurge of the Soviet people.
During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet artists, like the entire people, showed particular strength in their patriotic feeling and interest in the national past of our Motherland, in its best centuries-old traditions.
The famous battle painter M. I. Avilov dedicated his painting “The Duel of Peresvet with Chelubey” (1943) to the historical victory of the Russian people in the Battle of Kulikovo.
A number of paintings on historical themes were painted during the war years by the artist P. P. Sokolov-Skalya. The most significant of them is “Ivan IV in Livonia. Capture of the Koken Hausen fortress" (1940-1942) - dedicated to the victory of the Russian people over the Livonian dog knights.
The oldest Soviet artist N.P. Ulyanov created the image of the great Russian commander M.I. Kutuzov in the painting “Loriston at Kutuzov’s Headquarters” (1945).
People's Artist of the RSFSR E. E. Lansere painted a series of small gouache paintings, united under the general title “Trophies of Russian Weapons.” The author intended to show the great victories of Russian weapons in various historical eras: “After the Battle of the Ice,” “On the Kulikovo Field,” “Poltava Victory,” “1812,” etc. Death prevented the artist from completing this interesting work.
Many masters of art have set themselves the noble task of embodying in art the images of our great ancestors, whose historical exploits inspired the Soviet people to fight the enemy.
The image of Alexander Nevsky, a man of powerful will, deeply devoted to the Motherland, was created by the artist P. D. Korin (1942).
“I wrote it,” says the artist, “during the harsh years of the war, I painted the rebellious, proud spirit of our people, which “at the judgment hour of its existence” stood up to its full gigantic height.”
Themes of the historical past were closely intertwined with the themes of the heroic present. The artists witnessed and directly participated in rapid attacks and military assaults, difficult military campaigns and bloody battles. There was no time to wait. It was necessary to write from living impressions. The artists worked with all their might. The paintings were not always successful; some of them lacked the depth of the theme, the power of generalization. But the main thing could not be taken away from any of them - sincerity and passion, the consciousness of high patriotic duty.
The picture of the victorious offensive of the Soviet troops was captured in one of the first battle paintings of the war years by artist V. N. Yakovlev (“Battle near the Streletskaya Settlement”, 1942).
The artist A. A. Deineka in the film “Defense of Sevastopol” (1943) showed the unprecedented courage and fortitude of the sailors - the defenders of the hero city.
He also painted the paintings “The Downed Fascist Ace”, “Aviation Landing on the Dnieper” and others.
During the difficult days of the blockade, Leningrad artists did not stop working for a single day. They spoke in their canvases about the courage, extraordinary willpower, exceptional perseverance and patience of Leningraders who heroically endured the exorbitant hardships of life in a besieged city.
The triumph of the great victory of the Soviet Army over the enemy is imbued with the large battle painting “Breaking the Siege of January 18, 1943,” painted by a team of Leningrad artists consisting of A. A. Kazantsev, I. A. Serebryany, V. A. Serov.
The painting depicts a joyful moment of uniting troops of two fronts. It was created by artists shortly after the blockade was broken, when recent experiences and sorrows were still fresh in people’s memories, when the earth itself still retained traces of fierce battles.
During the Patriotic War, many young artists emerged, for whom work on battle themes was a large and fruitful school of ideological and creative growth.
Among them, the students of the studio of military artists named after Grekov showed themselves most clearly. Founded in 1934 as a training center, during the war it turned into a military team of professional military artists. Their work took place on the front lines. The students were direct participants in the battles near Moscow, the great battle on the Volga, the crossing of the Dnieper and the storming of Berlin.
Among these talented youth, the battle painter P. A. Krivonogov especially stood out. In 1945, he created the painting “Korsun-Shevchenkovsky”, in which he depicted one of the major battles in the region of Right Bank Ukraine, during which 11 German divisions were surrounded and destroyed. The artist witnessed this operation, which determined the life-like authenticity and documentary accuracy of the picture.
Along with historical, battle and everyday genres, a prominent place in Soviet painting of the war years belonged to portraits and landscapes.
The art of the artist A. M. Gerasimov reached its peak. In 1944, he painted one of his best works - a group portrait of the oldest Russian artists V. N. Meshkov, I. N. Pavlov, V. K. Byalynitsky-Birul and V. N. Baksheev.
The artist F. A. Modorov left us a whole gallery of portraits of Belarusian partisans. Here are people of various ages and ranks, famous famous commanders and ordinary participants in partisan raids. The artist focused on revealing the inner world of everyone, lovingly painted their courageous, simple faces.
Landscape painting also showed new features. The artists put the excited feelings of Soviet patriots into the war landscape. They showed peaceful villages and towns burned by the enemy, cultural monuments barbarously destroyed. The menacing breath of war filled these landscapes with a heroic sound.
Not only painters, but also sculpture masters took part in the nationwide struggle against the enemy.
The Patriotic War presented them with an extremely difficult and noble task - to perpetuate for posterity the images of defenders, the Soviet country, heroes of the front and rear, and brave partisans. Therefore, one of the leading genres of sculpture was the portrait, which revealed the best qualities of Soviet people, their spiritual nobility and courage.
The images of war heroes were most vividly embodied in the works of V. I. Mukhina. Despite the outward modesty and restraint of her compositional decisions, Mukhina always managed to reveal the richness of the inner life of the person being portrayed and create a real heroic portrait. These are the portraits of colonels B. A. Yusupov (1942), I. L. Khizhnyak (1942), a portrait of a partisan.
During the war years, a new form of monumental heroic portrait-bust, intended to be installed in the hero’s homeland, also developed.
Sculptor E. V. Vuchetich created a whole series of busts of major commanders. While maintaining portrait resemblance, the artist achieves an expressive rendering of the most striking traits of a person’s character. The compositions of his busts are always dynamic, the faces of the people depicted are full of energy and courage.
One of Vuchetich’s most successful works is a bronze bust of Army General I. D. Chernyakhovsky (1945). An energetic turn of the head, fluttering strands of hair, large folds of the cloak on the shoulders - everything is imbued with a stormy impulse, full of movement. The artist managed to convey the passion of character, courage and courage of the famous commander.
The years of the Great Patriotic War were one of the significant stages in the history of Soviet art.
During this period, the socio-political power of our art, its communist ideology and nationality strengthened. Soviet artists made a worthy contribution to the common cause of defeating the enemy with their martial art.
V. I. Gapeeva, E. V. Kuznetsova. "Conversations about Soviet artists"
Publishing house "Enlightenment", M.-L., 1964
