“In the trenches of Stalingrad” by Nekrasov in a brief summary. “In the trenches of Stalingrad” by Nekrasov in a brief summary A brief retelling of Nekrasov in the trenches of Stalingrad

With him, and the Germans are only ten kilometers away. They walk for another day until they settle down in dilapidated barns. There the Germans find them. The battalion takes up defensive positions. Lots of losses. Shiryaev leaves with fourteen fighters, and Kerzhentsev with orderly Valega, Igor, Sedykh and headquarters liaison Lazarenko remain to cover them. Lazarenko is killed, and the rest safely leave the barn and catch up with their own. This is not difficult, since along the road there are units retreating in disorder. They are trying to look for their own: a regiment, a division, an army, but this is impossible. Retreat. Crossing the Don. So they reach Stalingrad.

In Stalingrad they stop with Marya

Kuzminichny, sisters of the former company commander Igor in the reserve regiment, are living a long-forgotten peaceful life. Conversations with the hostess and her husband Nikolai Nikolaevich, tea with jam, walks with the neighbor’s girl Lyusya, who reminds Yuri Kerzhentsev of his beloved, also Lyusya, swimming in the Volga, the library - all this is a real peaceful life. Igor pretends to be a sapper and, together with Kerzhentsev, ends up in the reserve, in a special-purpose group. Their job is to prepare the city’s industrial facilities for explosion. But peaceful life is suddenly interrupted by an air raid and a two-hour bombing - the Germans launched an attack on Stalingrad.

Sappers are sent to a tractor factory near Stalingrad. There is a long, painstaking preparation of the plant for the explosion. Several times a day we have to repair a chain that was broken during the next shelling. In between shifts, Igor argues with Georgy Akimovich, an electrical engineer at the thermal power plant. Georgy Akimovich is outraged by the Russians’ inability to fight: “The Germans drove from Berlin to Stalingrad in cars, but here we are in jackets and overalls in the trenches with a three-line rifle from the ninety-first year.” Georgy Akimovich believes that only a miracle can save the Russians. Kerzhentsev recalls a recent conversation between soldiers about their land, “fat like butter, about the bread that covers you completely.” He doesn't know what to call it. Tolstoy called this “the hidden warmth of patriotism.” “Perhaps this is the miracle that Georgy Akimovich is waiting for, a miracle stronger than German organization and tanks with black crosses.”

The city has been bombed for ten days, probably nothing remains of it, and still there is no order for an explosion. Without waiting for the order to explode, the reserve sappers are sent to a new assignment - to the front headquarters, to the engineering department, on the other side of the Volga. They receive appointments at headquarters, and Kerzhentsev has to part with Igor. He is sent to the 184th division. He meets his first battalion and crosses with it to the other side. The entire coast is engulfed in flames.

The battalion immediately gets involved in battle. The battalion commander dies, and Kerzhentsev takes command of the battalion. At his disposal are the fourth and fifth companies and a platoon of foot scouts under the command of Sergeant Major Chumak. Its position is the Metiz plant. Here they stay for a long time. The day begins with the morning cannonade. Then “sabantuy” or attack. September passes, October begins.

The battalion is transferred to positions with more fire between Metiz and the end of the ravine on Mamaev. The regiment commander, Major Borodin, recruits Kerzhentsev for sapper work and the construction of a dugout to help his sapper Lieutenant Lisagor. The battalion has only thirty-six people instead of the required four hundred, and the area, small for a normal battalion, poses a serious problem. The soldiers begin to dig trenches, sappers lay mines. But it immediately turns out that positions need to be changed: a colonel, a division commander, comes to the command post and orders us to occupy the hill where the enemy machine guns are located. They will provide scouts to help, and Chuikov promised “corn farmers.” The time before the attack passes slowly. Kerzhentsev sends out the political department officers who came to check from the command post and, unexpectedly for himself, goes on the attack.

They took the hill, and it turned out to be not very difficult: twelve of the fourteen fighters remained alive. They sit in a German dugout with company commander Karnaukhov and reconnaissance commander Chumak, Kerzhentsev’s recent opponent, and discuss the battle. But then it turns out that they are cut off from the battalion. They take up a perimeter defense. Suddenly, Kerzhentsev’s orderly Valega, who remained at the command post, appears in the dugout, since three days before the attack he twisted his leg. He brings stew and a note from senior adjutant Kharlamov: the attack should be at 4.00.

The attack fails. More and more people are dying - from wounds and direct hits. There is no hope of survival, but their own people still break through to them. Kerzhentsev is attacked by Shiryaev, who was appointed battalion commander instead of Kerzhentsev. Kerzhentsev surrenders the battalion and moves to Lisagor. At first they idle, go to visit Chumak, Shiryaev, Karnaukhov. For the first time in a month and a half of dating, Kerzhentsev is talking about life with the company commander of his former battalion, Farber. This is the type of intellectual in war, an intellectual who does not know how to command the company entrusted to him very well, but feels responsible for everything that he did not learn to do in time.

On the nineteenth of November is Kerzhentsev’s name day. A holiday is planned, but is disrupted due to a general offensive along the entire front. Having prepared a command post for Major Borodin, Kerzhentsev releases the sappers with Lisagor ashore, and, on the orders of the major, he goes to his former battalion. Shiryaev figured out how to take the communication passages, and the major agrees with the military trick that will save people. But the chief of staff, Captain Abrosimov, insists on a “head-on” attack. He appears at the Shiryaev command post following Kerzhentsev and sends the battalion to attack without listening to arguments.

Kerzhentsev goes on the attack with the soldiers. They immediately fall under bullets and lie down in craters. After nine hours spent in the crater, Kerzhentsev manages to reach his people. The battalion lost twenty-six people, almost half. Karnaukhov died. Shiryaev, wounded, ends up in the medical battalion. Farber takes command of the battalion. He was the only commander who did not take part in the attack. Abrosimov kept it with him.

The next day, Abrosimov's trial took place. Major Borodin says in court that he trusted his chief of staff, but he deceived the regiment commander, “he exceeded his authority, and people died.” Then a few more people speak. Abrosimov believes that he was right, only a massive attack could take the tanks. “Battalion commanders take care of people, so they don’t like attacks. The tanks could only be taken by attack. And it’s not his fault that people treated this in bad faith and became cowardly.” And then Farber rises. He cannot speak, but he knows that those who died in this attack did not chicken out. “Courage does not lie in going bare-chested to a machine gun”... The order was “not to attack, but to take possession.” The technique invented by Shiryaev would have saved people, but now they are gone...

Abrosimov was demoted to a penal battalion, and he leaves without saying goodbye to anyone. And Kerzhentsev is now calm about Farber. At night the long-awaited tanks arrive. Kerzhentsev is trying to make up for lost name days, but there is an offensive again. Shiryaev, now the chief of staff, who escaped from the medical battalion, comes running, and the battle begins. In this battle, Kerzhentsev is wounded, and he ends up in the medical battalion. From the medical battalion he returns to Stalingrad, “home”, meets Sedykh, finds out that Igor is alive, gets ready to visit him in the evening and again does not make it in time: they are transferred to fight with the Northern group. The offensive is underway.

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“In the trenches of Stalingrad” by Nekrasov in brief

The work describes the very height of World War II. It is the summer of 1942 and the enemy army has already managed to reach Voronezh, leaving only death and destruction in its path. War changes destinies and sometimes forces platoon commanders to make difficult decisions. The main character of the entire book is a young lieutenant Yura named Kerzhentsev.

The story begins with the retreat of the Soviet army, the enemy got too close and the soldiers were forced to approach the outskirts of Stalingrad. After a series of enemy attacks, many of Kerzhentsev’s battalion

They die, he manages to escape in the company of Igor Svidersky, orderly Valega and Sedy. They all safely reach a peaceful city, where everyone has the opportunity to relax and gain strength.

The young guys are hospitably received by Igor’s relatives, giving them the opportunity to enjoy a quiet life. Daily walks in the park, swimming in the river and sweet jam with tea ends with the onset of an air raid raid. The Germans, having gathered all the might of their army, began an attack on the majestic Stalingrad.

Yura and Igor enlist in the special assignments group. Their

The first task is to mine a large tractor plant, which should be blown up if the nearby territory is captured by the enemy.

Engineer Georgy Akimov is sent to help them, who likes to conduct philosophical conversations on the topic of poor training of the Russian military, compared to the Germans. But few people pay attention to his words; the work is complex and painstaking, and their group contains only patriots who are ready to stand for their homeland to the end.

For the tenth day now, the city has been living under bullets. Special forces soldiers are sent on a new combat mission after canceling the order to blow up a tractor factory. Yuri says goodbye to his comrades and goes to a new service in his old detachment of the 184th division. The other bank of the wide-water Volga awaits him, from where military explosions can be heard and flames can be seen.

Without wasting a minute of precious time upon arrival at the place, all the soldiers rush into battle with a battle cry. At one point, the battalion commander dies and, since Yuri Kerzhentsev is senior in rank, two companies of reconnaissance officers are immediately at his disposal. The battles are long and fierce; opponents on both sides do not allow each other to relax, having taken positions on the territory of the Metiz plant for battalions under the command of the protagonist, the first months of autumn pass here.

Attacking the enemy over and over again, Russian soldiers are forced to work for three, since there is a catastrophic shortage of fighters. Moving from one position to another, setting up mini-trenches and digging trenches, Yuri Kerzhentsev’s team miraculously manages to work in full combat strength.

Everyone manages to rest a little only after capturing the enemy hill where the machine guns are installed. Everyone goes on the attack indiscriminately, and after a couple of very simple hours, the guys are sitting in the Nazi dugout eating stewed meat and cheerfully telling jokes. At this moment, the boundaries between commanders and subordinates are erased, grievances are forgotten and rivals become allies. But these are just moments of silence; a new attack will occur a couple of hours before dawn.

The Russian soldiers fail in their next military offensive; many are wounded and killed. The leadership decides that Kerzhenets is to blame for everything and orders him to transfer his command to Shiryaev. The company commander Chumakov takes Yuri to him, taking advantage of the temporary lull at the front, they have emotional conversations about life without war. The main character understands how much the company commander worries about the life of each of his soldiers; it is difficult for him, clearly an intelligent person, to bear such a burden of responsibility.

November is coming and on Yuri Kerzhentsev’s birthday on the 19th, a major attack on important positions of the German invaders is planned. This attack became the main dispute between the battalion commanders and the headquarters, wanting to save as many people as possible, Abrosimov goes against the orders of the leadership and loses many people in the battle.

Yuri also takes part in the battle and miraculously escapes after spending several days in a ravine under bullets. He meets with the surviving comrades of his battalion already at the medical headquarters. A couple of days later, Abrosimov is tried for disobeying orders, many come to his defense, but nothing can be done and the former commander is demoted to a penal battalion.

But the war continues until the long-awaited victory for many more difficult years and difficult decisions. The new battle begins with the good news that tanks arrived in support of them, covered by reliable all participants in past events, rushed to the attack. This time Yuri Kerzhentsev is wounded and is taken to the hospital on a stretcher.

After recovering and resting for a couple of days, the tired soldier is sent home to Stalingrad. Here he will not stay long, having learned that his comrades Igor and Sedoy are alive, Yuri sets off on a new offensive as part of the northern group.

Full version 7 hours (≈140 A4 pages), summary 5 minutes.

Main characters

Nekrasov narrates this story in the first person. The main character of the work - Lieutenant Kerzhentsev - is the author himself, who was the defender of Stalingrad. This story is the author's front-line diary.

Minor characters

Igor Svidersky (friend of Kerzhentsev)

Marya Kuzminichna (sister of the former company commander Igor)

Nikolai Nikolaevich (husband of Marya Kuzminichnaya)

Lyusya (the girl who lived next door to Marya Kuzminichnaya)

Georgy Akimovich (electrical engineer at thermal power plant)

Major Borodin, Captain Maksimov, battalion commander Shiryaev, Marine reconnaissance commander Sergeant Major Chumak, infantryman Volegov (“Valega”), intellectual, mathematician Farber, miner from Suchan Karnaukhov, staff officer Abrosimov, opportunist Kaluzhny, deserters, soldiers Sidorenko and Kvast

Part 1

July 1942. After the retreat of Soviet troops near Oskol, the Germans approached Voronezh. Lieutenant Kerzhentsev’s regiment departs from the newly constructed defense fortifications without firing a single shot. The first battalion under the command of battalion commander Shiryaev must cover the retreat. Kerzhentsev also remains, helping to mine the area. The lieutenant recalls pre-war life in Kyiv and his friends, many of whom are no longer alive.

Two days later, the first battalion also leaves its position. On the way, Shiryaev and Kerzhentsev meet the liaison officer of the headquarters, Igor Svidersky. He reports that the regiment was almost completely destroyed by the Germans. The route needs to be changed urgently. You should take the direction of connecting with the remnants of the regiment.

The Germans are somewhere nearby. Having covered about thirty kilometers in a day, the retreating settle down in dilapidated barns. Here they are caught by the Germans and forced into battle. The barns are gradually being surrounded. Shiryaev leaves with fourteen fighters, leaving Kerzhentsev with his orderly Volegov (Valega), Svidersky, Lazarenko and Sedykh for cover. They shoot all the cartridges at the Germans and also leave the barn. During the retreat, Lazarenko is mortally wounded by a mine explosion. They hastily bury him by hand in some hole.

Kerzhentsev and his comrades safely leave the battlefield and are drawn into the units retreating in disarray. They try unsuccessfully to find someone from their regiment. Moving from one settlement to another, the soldiers gradually reach Stalingrad.

In Stalingrad, Svidersky is looking for Marya Kuzminichna, the sister of his former company commander in the reserve regiment. In her house, the main characters briefly return to their already forgotten peaceful life. They leisurely talk with the hostess and her husband, drink tea with jam, and take a break from the war. Kerzhentsev is walking with his neighbor Lyusya, who reminds him of the girl left behind in Kyiv.

Svidersky and Kerzhentsev introduce themselves as sappers and end up in a special reserve group. Their task is to prepare for the bombing of industrial urban facilities in the event of the capture of Stalingrad. Peaceful life in the city is suddenly interrupted by an air raid raid. The bomber raid lasts about two hours. This means that the Germans are starting an attack on Stalingrad.

Sappers are sent to a tractor factory on the outskirts of the city. There they carry out lengthy, labor-intensive preparations for the explosion. Several times a day we have to restore a chain that breaks due to shelling.

Between shifts, Svidersky often argues with Georgiy Akimovich, an electrical engineer at a thermal power plant that will need to be blown up. The latter is indignant that the Russians do not know how to fight. Georgy Akimovich believes that only a miracle can save the Soviet people. Kerzhentsev, listening to those arguing, recalls the conversation of ordinary soldiers about their native land. It hides true patriotism, which will allow you to defeat the enemy.

Stalingrad has been continuously bombed for ten days. This means that the army is still holding the enemy on the approaches to the city. There are no orders to blow up the objects. Reserve sappers are sent to front headquarters, where they receive new assignments. Kerzhentsev and Volegov are forced to say goodbye to Svidersky and Sedykh.

Kerzhentsev is sent to the one hundred and eighty-fourth division as deputy regiment commander for engineering. He meets the first battalion and crosses with it to the other side of the Volga. The fighters immediately enter into battle. Kerzhentsev takes command and successfully repels several German attacks. By the end of the day it becomes known that battalion commander Klishentsov was killed. Kerzhentsev is temporarily appointed battalion commander.

Part 2

The fourth and fifth companies, as well as a platoon of reconnaissance officers led by Sergeant Major Chumak, come under the command of Kerzhentsev. Their task is to defend the Metiz plant. Every day begins with a cannonade, after which German bombers and attack aircraft fly in. In between bombings, Kerzhenets' positions are subject to infantry attacks. The whole of September passes in continuous battles. The battalion is running out of ammunition, and the number of wounded and killed is growing.

The battalion is transferred to a new position: between the plant and the end of the ravine on Mamayev Kurgan. By this time, out of six hundred people, Kerzhentsev had only 36 fighters left. With great difficulty, he manages to distribute soldiers throughout the defensive area and begin mining the area. Kerzhentsev must assist Lieutenant Lisagor in sapper work.

Suddenly at night, Kerzhentsev receives an order from the division commander: stop mining and prepare to attack a fortified height where enemy machine guns are located. Before the operation, Chumak’s scouts “probe” the German positions. Kerzhentsev rashly kicks out the “political department officers” who appeared there to check from the checkpoint and goes on the attack himself.

The hill can be easily captured. Kerzhentsev and Chumak begin to hastily prepare for defense, but suddenly learn that the height has been taken into a “ring” by the Germans. A handful of people find themselves cut off from the main forces. Orderly Valega, who remained at the command post because three days before the battle injured his leg, comes to the hill alone. He brings stew and a note from Kharlamov, in which he promises to help soon.

People at altitude suffer from lack of ammunition, food and water. Only eleven people remain in the ranks. The first attempt to break through ends in failure. There is no hope left to stay alive. Kerzhentsev and Chumak decide to defend to the last.

When Kerzhenetsev no longer has the strength to shoot back, an old friend, Shiryaev, suddenly appears in front of him. He was appointed battalion commander instead and was able to break through to the hill. Shiryaev tells how he came to Stalingrad. Friends remember their fallen comrades. Kerzhentsev surrenders command and moves back to Lisagor. At first they do nothing. The main character is resting after the heroic defense of the hill. On the third day, sapper work begins. For the first time since they met, Kerzhentsev talks about life with the company commander of his former battalion, Farber.

In the second half of November, Kerzhentsev plans to celebrate his birthday. The holiday is disrupted due to an offensive along the entire front. According to the order, Kerzhentsev is sent to his former battalion. Battalion commander Shiryaev plans to capture the communication passages between the Soviet and German trenches. This will save many human lives. However, Chief of Staff Ambrosimov insists on a frontal attack. By threatening Shiryaev with a pistol, he actually sends people to certain death.

Kerzhentsev goes on the attack with the soldiers. Most die immediately under German machine gun fire. The main character manages to lie down in a funnel in which he spends nine hours. Towards evening, Kerzhentsev somehow miraculously reaches his trenches in two jerks. About half of the entire battalion died in this senseless attack. Shiryaev was seriously wounded. Farber, who did not even participate in the offensive, is appointed as a new battalion commander.

At the trial, Abrosimov is sentenced to be sent to a penal battalion. He leaves without saying goodbye to anyone. At night, several Soviet tanks arrive to help the battalion. Kerzhentsev tries to once again celebrate the past name day, but they again announce preparations for the offensive. Shiryaev was appointed as the new chief of staff. During the attack, Kerzhentsev is wounded and sent to the rear medical battalion.

After recovery, the main character returns to Stalingrad. He can't believe his eyes. The initiative is entirely in the hands of the Soviet troops. The surrounded group of Germans is doomed. Kerzhentsev meets Sedykh and learns from him that Svidersky is fighting here. He is going to visit a friend in the evening.

Kerzhentsev, Lisagor, Chumak and Valega celebrate their meeting in a destroyed house. Friends feel proud of their Motherland. They no longer doubt the defeat of Hitler. In the midst of the fun, a messenger from headquarters comes running and reports that a general gathering has been scheduled for the evening. In the morning it is planned to launch an offensive and finish off the remnants of the encircled German army.

In Russian literature about the war, the so-called “lieutenant’s prose” is distinguished. She is distinguished by truthfulness and impartiality when depicting military operations. The founder of this trend is often considered to be V. Nekrasov, who published the story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” in 1946. A brief summary of each chapter helps to understand how terrible this time was in the history of the country.

Beginning of the retreat

The main character of the story is a military engineer, Lieutenant Yuri Kerzhentsev. Through his eyes the reader sees a picture of the retreat from Oskol to Stalingrad itself and a description of the fierce battles on the Volga.

In July 1942, the chief of staff unexpectedly assembled battalion commanders and officers. His news is disappointing: at night the regiment begins a retreat, which Shiryaev’s battalion is entrusted with covering (the main character is part of it). This is how Nekrasov begins his work “In the Trenches of Stalingrad.” The summary of the first three chapters is as follows. The regiment has only been fighting for a month and a half, but during this time there are almost no guns or people left. At first, the soldiers, who had not yet been fired upon and were not accustomed to bomb explosions, were thrown into the defense near Kharkov. Then there were many other movements. And as soon as they dug in near Oskol, they received the order to retreat. The fighters were afraid of one thing: had the German really gotten that far?

The regiment leaves at the appointed time. The remaining soldiers with five machine guns create the appearance that everything is as before. On the night of the second day, sappers mine the shore, and the battalion also retreats back. Now their main task is to catch up with their own.

From Oskol to Stalingrad

They pass through villages. Residents silently watch the soldiers, someone gives food. Their silent questions make the fighters feel awkward. Shiryaev and Kerzhentsev, having heard that troops had recently passed through here, decide: it was their regiment. However, the hero’s meeting with his acquaintance Igor, the headquarters’ liaison officer, shows that things are very bad. The story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” continues with a summary of his story. By the time the messenger left, there were about a hundred people left in the regiment. The enemy with tanks, motorized infantry and machine gunners attacked unexpectedly. The major and the commissar are killed. There are no guns either. Maksimov, as having taken over leadership, ordered the search for Shiryaev and his fighters. But Igor didn’t know where to go and where the front was now, he only said that the Germans were ten kilometers from here.

The story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad,” a summary of which you are reading, continues with a description of the battle that unfolded near the barns where the battalion stopped to rest. Only fifteen fighters, led by Shiryaev, come out of it alive. Five more, Kerzhentsev and his orderly Valega, Igor, Sedykh and Lazarenko (he will die from a mine explosion) remain at the barns to cover the retreat of their comrades. Having emerged from cover, they join the flow of retreating troops by nightfall. It soon becomes clear: finding your regiment, or rather, what is left of it, is not so easy. One major reports that there are battles going on somewhere and advises getting to Stalingrad. A new army is being formed there. Local residents ask why our troops are retreating, which makes Kerzhentsev feel a strong sense of shame. All that remains is the hope that they will retreat for a short time - after all, there was Moscow, from which the enemy was thrown back.

In Stalingrad

Finally they get to Here peace and tranquility still reign. Igor leads his comrades to his commander’s sister. The soldiers seem to be returning to their former - pre-war - life, which is not at all similar to what will soon happen in the trenches of Stalingrad. The summary of chapters 10-13 should be supplemented by the fact that Kerzhentsev and his comrades get a job: to prepare important objects of the city for destruction. This is how August goes by.

Although the air raid warning is constantly announced on the radio, peaceful life has suddenly collapsed. On Sunday evening, German planes appeared over the city for the first time. They bombed continuously for about two hours, after which Stalingrad was engulfed in flames.

At the tractor factory

In the morning, Kerzhentsev and his comrades are sent out of town. There we urgently need to mine the tractor. The work is complicated by constant shelling that violates the integrity of the wires. In addition, we do not have all the necessary equipment. People work without rest, but twelve days pass, and the plant still stands still. The city is bombed almost continuously and is almost destroyed. The fighting is taking place on the side of the river where the Stalingrad trenches are located. Nekrasov - a summary of the conversation is given below - shows how in these difficult months and years for the country, true patriotism of people is formed. Thus, Georgy Akimovich, an electrical engineer at a thermal power plant, in a dispute with Kerzhentsev, proves that Russian troops do not know how to fight, and only a miracle can influence the outcome of the war. At this moment, Yuri remembers the words of one of the soldiers who met on the way to Stalingrad. He spoke about the rich soil that gives life to seeds, and about the impossibility of giving it to the enemy. The hero also remembered the most terrible death: the man who had spoken a minute ago was lying in front of him with his arms outstretched, and a cigarette butt was burning out on his lip. From such details, according to the author, that high feeling is formed, to which L. Tolstoy gave the name “hidden warmth of patriotism.”

To the front

Kerzhentsev, Igor and Sedykh receive orders to be transported to the engineering department on the other side of the Volga, to Mamayev Kurgan, where the front line has developed. There they are distributed into different divisions. The 184th, where the main character ends up, immediately finds himself in the defense of the Metiz plant. Kerzhentsev is appointed commander of the 4th and 5th companies, which are constantly attacked by the enemy. The place for battle is inconvenient: it is impossible to dig in and hide. The Germans first launch attacks, but soon tanks and planes appear. The shelling does not stop almost all day, but the soldiers manage to hold the line. Many were wounded and killed. At night it becomes known that the battalion commander was killed in the battle. The chief of staff of the regiment transfers leadership of the battalion to Kerzhentsev.

“In the trenches of Stalingrad”: a summary of the chapters of the second part

For more than a week, the Nazis continuously attacked the troops defending Metiz. Then they spread to Red October, giving a little respite.

October has arrived. The Germans entered Stalingrad. There weren’t very many of our troops around the city, and the fighting was fierce. Kerzhentsev’s battalion is transferred to the most difficult, almost flat area between “Metiz” and the ravine near Mamaev. The main task is to hold the defense for several months. Thirty-six fighters will be redeployed to an area of six hundred meters at night. The place is really inconvenient: here the troops are in full view of the Germans, and defensive fortifications cannot be built during the day. The next night we manage to bring min. The soldiers begin to dig trenches, and the sappers begin to install explosive devices. Unexpectedly, Kerzhentsev is summoned to the Colonel and sets a new task for the battalion commander: to take a hill fortified by the Germans. Help is only a few scouts and a corn farmer. This is how the action develops in the story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad.” The summary (the author's essay truthfully describes the most terrible moments of the battle for the city) of the 2nd part shows the fortitude and courage of the fighters, who never forgot about their responsibility for what was happening.

Fights for the hill

We managed to gain the height relatively easily. At the appointed time, four scouts determined the enemy's positions, and the "corn grower" distracted the enemy. Fourteen soldiers, led by a battalion commander, drove the Nazis out of the hill in pitch darkness and began to fortify themselves. Kerzhentsev understood that the Germans would try to regain the heights. The shelling really does not stop, and by the end of the second day the battalion was left with eleven men and four machine guns. The water is running out. The night artillery attack was unsuccessful. And in the morning there was again debilitating fire from the Germans. The fighters were exhausted, but continued to fire. Kerzhentsev felt very weak and tired: a slight wound to the head was taking its toll. At some point, it seemed to him that he was seeing a dream: Shiryaev was standing in front. Having come to his senses, the hero realized that he had managed to connect with the detachment on the hill. Kerzhentsev surrenders the battalion to Shiryaev and goes to dig dugouts.

Before the attack

Three days later, mines arrive, and Yuri works on a scheme to strengthen the front line. This is how the description of the next episode in the life of the protagonist of the story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” begins. The summary and its analysis show how often the lives of soldiers depended on inept leadership and abuse of authority.

November has begun. It was still necessary to mine and build fortifications at night, but it became noticeable that the situation at Stalingrad was changing. Eighty-two bombed continuously, and suddenly there was a lull.

On the nineteenth, on his birthday, Kerzhentsev received an order from a major to clear mines from the enemy’s and his own fields. There is ten hours for everything, after which the offensive will begin. The division must capture Bak. The sappers complete the task, after which Kerzhentsev is sent to Shiryaev. Everything in the battalion is ready to carry out the order, but the chief of staff Abrosimov intervenes in the matter. He insists on an immediate attack on Bakov at any cost. The result is that almost half of the battalion was killed, Shiryaev himself was seriously wounded.

After the battle, Abrosimov was put on trial, who insisted that his decision was correct, and that someone was simply a coward and did not want to fight. The major came to the defense of the battalion, noting that Shiryaev would have coped with the task perfectly. As a result, people died in vain. The chief of staff was demoted and sent to the penalty area, notes the author of the story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad.”

The next morning the tanks arrive. Shiryaev, who escaped from the hospital, is appointed as the new division chief. A new attack is being prepared, in which Kerzhentsev was wounded. After the hospital he goes to his battalion. Along the way he meets Sedykh, then gets to his own people. He finds out that Igor is nearby. But I can’t visit my friend. Inspired by victories, the warriors are again going to attack...

V. P. Nekrasov
In the trenches of Stalingrad

The action begins in July 1942 with the retreat near Oskol. The Germans approached Voronezh, and the regiment retreated from the newly dug defensive fortifications without firing a single shot, and the first battalion, led by battalion commander Shiryaev, remained for cover. The main character of the story, Lieutenant Kerzhentsev, also remains to help the battalion commander. After resting for the prescribed two days, the first battalion was withdrawn. On the way, they unexpectedly meet the liaison staff and friend of Kerzhentsev, chemist Igor Svidersky, with the news that the regiment is defeated, they need to change the route and go to join with it, and the Germans are only ten kilometers away. They walk for another day until they settle down in dilapidated barns. There the Germans find them. The battalion takes up defensive positions. Lots of losses. Shiryaev leaves with fourteen fighters, and Kerzhentsev with orderly Valega, Igor, Sedykh and headquarters liaison Lazarenko remain to cover them. Lazarenko is killed, and the rest safely leave the barn and catch up with their own. This is not difficult, since along the road there are units retreating in disorder. They are trying to look for their own: a regiment, a division, an army, but this is impossible. Retreat. Crossing the Don. So they reach Stalingrad.

In Stalingrad, they stay with Marya Kuzminichna, the sister of Igor’s former company commander in the reserve regiment, and live a long-forgotten peaceful life. Conversations with the hostess and her husband Nikolai Nikolaevich, tea with jam, walks with the neighbor's girl Lyusya, who reminds Yuri Kerzhentsev of his beloved, also Lyusya, swimming in the Volga, the library - all this is a real peaceful life. Igor pretends to be a sapper and, together with Kerzhentsev, ends up in the reserve, in a special-purpose group. Their job is to prepare the city's industrial facilities for explosion. But peaceful life is unexpectedly interrupted by an air raid and a two-hour bombing - the Germans launched an attack on Stalingrad.

The next day, Abrosimov's trial took place. Major Borodin says in court that he trusted his chief of staff, but he deceived the regiment commander, “he exceeded his power, and people died.” Then a few more people speak. Abrosimov believes that he was right, only a massive attack could take the tanks. “Battalion commanders take care of people, so they don’t like attacks. The tanks could only be taken by attack. And it’s not his fault that people treated this in bad faith and became cowardly.” And then Farber rises. He cannot speak, but he knows that those who died in this attack did not chicken out. “Courage does not lie in going bare-chested to a machine gun”... The order was “not to attack, but to take possession.” The technique invented by Shiryaev would have saved people, but now they are gone...