Composition based on V. Kataev's story "The Son of the Regiment"
The Most Attentive Reader
I love reading books about war. I like the brave, brave heroes in them. They are real soldiers, defenders of the Motherland, they are not afraid of enemies, they go to meet any dangers and overcome them.
But from now on, the topic of war has become much broader for me. Now I perceive it differently. And these changes were not accidental. It was today from our class that I was a participant-expert of the conference on the book by Valentin Kataev "Son of the Regiment".
All the parallel of the fourth grades gathered in the assembly hall. And I, along with other players, took my place on the stage. I was not particularly worried, because I read the book carefully, knew the content well, all the characters, got acquainted with the author's biography, in general, I was ready for the conference.
But from the very beginning, when the song "Cranes" sounded, and frames of the war years flashed on the screen, I became alarmed. After all, war is immeasurable human grief, suffering and pain of the entire people. I was very impressed by the figures of military statistics that the Great Patriotic War lasted four years, which is one thousand four hundred and eighteen days or thirty-four thousand hours. A whole eternity, in which twenty-seven million of our dead soldiers and civilians remained forever. But thirteen million of these dead are children. They also, like us, went to school, loved to play football, ride bicycles.
But at the terrible hour, children ceased to be children. Their childhood was cut short by the war. On their fragile shoulders, boys and girls of the terrible forties took the brunt of the trials and grief of the war years. This is probably why many feats of war have children's faces. And if a minute of silence is declared over all children who died in the war, the country will remain silent for more than 20 years.
There was silence in the hall from this information, even the most noisy and spoiled boys were silent. This beginning set me up for serious work. And I really wanted to do it as best I could.
The first task of the readers' conference for the participants was a blitz-survey, in which each received two questions and without preparation and thought had to immediately answer them. Everything happened very quickly, our answers were checked against the contents of the book, read by the presenter from the screen. I talked about why the hero of the story, Vanya Solntsev, was left alone, as he ended up next to the front. When I spoke, a lump came up to my throat. How much this boy had to go through! The death of his father at the front, the murder of his mother by the Germans, the death of his younger sister from hunger and complete loneliness. Fascist gendarmes took part in his fate - they sent him to some kind of isolation ward, where he fell ill with scabies, scab, and typhus. Only escape could save him from certain death. But there was nowhere to run: the Germans burned the village.Therefore, for more than two years, Vanya Solntsev wandered along the roads of war, hid in the forests and dreamed of getting to his soldiers.
The blitz poll allowed all those present at the conference to recall the content of the story once again. To see and feel the death of Captain Yenakiev's family from the bombing of German attack aircraft, Vanya's escape from Corporal Bidenko, his resentment against the scouts because they "did not like" them. He felt it especially keenly after meeting with the son of the regiment, corporal Voznesensky.
I listened carefully to my opponents and tried to complement their answers, for which I received the maximum five points from the jury. When he spoke about the love of the scouts and Captain Yenakiev for Vanya, the audience applauded. I think this is because I managed to accurately convey the attitude of the fighters towards him as a younger brother, who by his appearance distracted them from the hard days of war. And in the captain, Vanya evoked deeper feelings, perhaps love. After all, Yenakiev's son died, and Vanya reminded him of him.
An unforgettable episode of the conference was the acquaintance with the history of the creation of the film "Son of the Regiment", filmed in one thousand nine hundred and forty-six, and viewing individual excerpts. We commented on each passage, named the heroes, told what would happen next. Without tears, it was impossible to look at how courageously Vanya behaved during interrogation, endured beatings, but did not say anything to the Germans. They knew for sure that the boy was associated with scouts, because his tongue was blue from a pencil, and a plan of the area, landmarks and goals was drawn in the primer. He wanted to help the scouts, not just complete the mission by scanning the area, but to get more information. And that was very dangerous. And if our soldiers had not arrived in time, the Germans would have killed Vanya.
I was sad and hurt for him. After all, neither I nor other guys, we could help him. And the teacher, feeling our experiences, with the next assignment wanted to distract us from sad thoughts. It was called "Catch the mistake!" and was aimed at confusing all the guys in the audience. In the texts, the names of the heroes were deliberately mixed up, the sequence was broken, new facts were added. Players consulted their classes before providing an answer. Together we managed to catch the mistake and correct it: Vanya Solntsev is the son of the regiment, thanks to Captain Yenakiev, he became not a radio operator, but a brave scout. And that was the correct answer!
Then there were two crosswords about the characters of the story. No tips were accepted! The response time is ten seconds. I answered second. And, according to the first words, the description of the character realized that "a little slender soldier with a neck, tender, like a girl's, already rubbed with a rough collar of an overcoat" - this is in the past a bare-haired shepherd boy Vanya Solntsev. He changed a lot when he became the son of the regiment. And these changes are good, necessary for a young fighter.
Working with the text of the story helped me better understand the role of children in war. It is quite obvious to me that war and children are incompatible concepts! After all, children are born in order to live, not die. And the war takes this life away. It should not be! But alas ...
The conference was coming to an end, everyone was looking forward to the results. And I kept thinking about Vanya Solntsev, the son of the regiment, whose fate was happy and prosperous. I am sure that he graduated with honors from the Suvorov military school and became a remarkable military man, devoted his whole life to serving the Motherland.
And how many sons of the regiment did not live to see victory ... Despite their young age, boys and girls went to the front, in partisan detachments and fought the Nazis on a par with adults. The homeland highly appreciated their exploits, assigning the title of "pioneer heroes" to the most courageous.
But my thoughts were interrupted by a song. It sounded loud and proud, forcing one more time to feel the theme of the conference:
There was such a rank
In the army of our Red, It was
worn by Solntsev Vanya.
Hello, Vanyusha, hello ...
Both I and all the guys were very happy to meet the son of the regiment, with a book about him and the cruel wartime.
When the song ended, the jury announced the winner of the conference. It turned out to be me! And to the friendly applause of the audience I was awarded the diploma "The most attentive reader". I am proud of this title and value it very much!
