The author was strongly impressed by the terrible destruction and the many victims, so he quickly organized his experiences and observations into a journalistic essayUkraine on Fire and the stories On Barbed Wire (1942), Victory (1942), and Unforgettable (1942).
[1] In August 1943, in the village of Mali Prokhody [uk ], Kharkiv Oblast, Nikita Khrushchev gathered a group of intellectuals to speak to the soldiers.
At the time, everyone was looking forward to listening to a true story about the war written by Oleksandr Dovzhenko.
As it became known later, the film story ended up on the desk of Lavrentiy Beria, who passed the text on to Stalin for consideration.
On November 26, 1943, Oleksandr Dovzhenko wrote in his diary: "...Stalin did not like my story “Ukraine on Fire”, and he banned it from publication and from staging."
On the night of January 30–31, 1944, a special meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU was convened with the participation of Molotov, Beria, Mikoyan, Khrushchev, and others, where the “Kremlin crucifixion”[2] of Oleksandr Dovzhenko took place.
There I was chopped to pieces and the bloody parts of my soul were scattered for shame and disgrace at all gatherings… I held on for a year and fell.
I was killed by the hatred of the great at the moment of their smallnessThe publication was personally prohibited by Stalin,[4] as he angrily criticizes the writer and his work.
He calls Ukraine on Fire "an attempt to revise Leninism," "a speech against the party, against the Soviet government, against the kolkhoz villagers"[5].
The first edition of the film story Ukraine on Fire appeared in 1966 with significant changes, and the full publication of the work was published in 1983.
[7] Lavrin Zaporozhets was the father of five sons; at the request of the Nazis, he was elected village elder; he killed Zabroda and Ludwig von Kraus; he was accused of betraying the Soviet government.
Theis kids: Grandfather Demyd was a beekeeper who was hanged because his bees had stung German soldiers.
Khrystia Khutirna was Olesia's friend; she is the most tragic female character in the novel; she marries Antonio Palmo to survive.
In the morning, Olesia again sent off her entire family to warOleksandr Dovzhenko pointed out that in his work there are "traces of the battle between the screenwriter and the writer".
For this reason, the work contains insert stories, episodes, memories, analytical reflections, and lyrical digressions.
The battles that took place on its fields were the most terrible and largest, causing the entire country to suffer and burn in fire.
The sons of Kupriyan Khutornyi, one of the protagonists of the film, became deserters, returned home, and justified themselves to their father: Dad, we lost a general.
We can't swim.The writer is looking for the reasons for the treason and speaks about them in direct authorial addresses to the reader.
German officer Ernst von Kraus tells his son: These people are completely devoid of the ability to forgive each other for their disagreements, even in the name of common, high interests.
For twenty-five years they have been living with negative slogans of rejecting God, property, family, and friendship!
And as the front approached, the gap between those who were going to the rear and those who were leaving or staying deepened: Trucks of various munitions, military trades, departments, and supplies flew by.
Underdevelopment of ordinary human relations, boring formalism, departmental indifference, or simply lack of human imagination and stupid selfishness drove them on state rubber wheels past the wounded.The worst thing was that "middle-ranking statesmen" were fleeing themselves and accusing others of panic and hiding the truth.
For the Germans will come, mutilate you, infect you with diseases, and drive you into captivity, and this incombustible closet," — Vasyl pointed to his head, which is going to run away, will return later and judge you for debauchery.This is exactly what happened to the heroine of the work, Khrystia, and hundreds of other girls.
They had to go through all the circles of Nazi hell and then stand trial before cold and soulless 'fireproof cabinets' that decided that they were the leaders of state policy, the party line.
The author shows the depth of the people's grief during the occupation: they had to plow instead of horses and oxen, and send the nation's best men and women to Germany for hard labor, suffer humiliation, die in fires, at the point of German guns, and on gallows.
The mined, unmown fields were full of ominous secrets.Immeasurable was the tragedy of ordinary soldiers who bore the brunt of the battle for their homeland.
Only human being could stand the battle…Dovzhenko's description of the fighting takes several pages, it is the pain of a wounded heart, a cry of the soul: People, come to your senses!Everything he sees, feels, and experiences he passes through the prism of artistic perception and presents to his readers with great talent: Air waves and violent whirlwinds from flying large shells and mine explosions pulled people off the ground, twisted them up like an autumn leaf, and threw them to the ground.
We did not squeeze much use out of our small talents, …we did not like to show off either in their whole form or in their wounded state or in any kind of valor…The author mentions the names of the heroes who defended the land against the Nazi horde.
The writer admires the courage of his heroes, glorifies their feat for centuries, although his heart was bleeding for the lost strength and lives.
It was as if centuries of indomitable stubbornness and fighting generosity suddenly unleashed in the Vernyhoras, Trukhanovs, Vovkas, and Yakimaks.