The book by Valentin Petrovich Kataev "The Son of the Regiment" was written in 1944. This was the first experience of Soviet literature, which reflected the heroic deed of our soldiers during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) through the prism of children's perception. It was the character of the twelve-year-old boy Vanya Solntsev who became a role model for all domestic teenagers who dreamed of contributing to the victory of our people over the Nazi invaders.
The main protagonists of Kataev's story are the following characters.
Vanya Solntsev is a twelve-year-old teenager, an orphan, who came across a detachment of Soviet intelligence officers. He became the "son of the regiment", which the soldiers gave the nickname "shepherd boy". After the war, he was enrolled in the Suvorov military school.
Captain Yenakiev is a thirty-two year old battery commander. He decided to adopt Vanya, but died during one of the battles.
Corporal Bidenko is a scout who worked as a miner in Donbass before the war. He was called the "bony giant". It was he, together with Gorbunov and Egorov, who picked up Vanya in the forest.
Sergeant Yegorov is a twenty-two year old scout.
Corporal Gorbunov is a scout and friend of Bidenko. Before the war he worked as a lumberjack in Transbaikalia. The soldiers called him "Siberian" and "hero".
Chapters 1-7
Autumn, damp and cold forest at night. Three scouts are returning from a mission. Suddenly, they find in an abandoned and dilapidated trench a boy raving in a dream. When he woke up, the teenager jumped up and pulled out a "big sharpened nail" to defend himself from the enemy's attack. Sergeant Yegorov reassured him, saying that they were "ours."
There is an acquaintance with the commander of the artillery battery, Captain Yenakiev, who was respected by all the soldiers. He was a brave soldier, but at the same time he was distinguished by special restraint, cold and calculating reason.
Found twelve-year-old teenager Vanya Solntsev turned out to be an orphan. All his relatives died in the war (his father, fighting at the front, his mother was killed by the Nazis in the occupied territory, and his sister and grandmother died of starvation). When the boy was "gathering the pieces" he was seized by the gendarmes and put in a children's isolation ward, where he managed to get sick with typhus and scabies before escaping from the Nazis, almost dying. In his travel bag, with which he tried to cross the front line, they found a battered primer and a sharpened nail, which served as a cold weapon for his defense. Vanya reminded Yenakiyeva of his mother, wife and seven-year-old son who had died back in 1941.
The fighters fed the starving teenager to their fill with "an unusually tasty little baby." "For the first time in these three years, Vanya was among the people who did not need to be feared." They promised to teach him military affairs and put him on "all kinds of allowances." However, Yenakiev gives the order to send the boy to the orphanage, which is located in the rear. Vanya is very upset and gives his word that he will run away there as soon as possible.
The next day, late in the evening, Corporal Bidenko returns to his military unit. He is silent and gloomy. At this time, the front line advanced very strongly to the west. After questioning his fellow soldiers, he nevertheless admits that while escorting Vanya to the rear, he twice ran away from him. The first time Bidenko found him after a teenager at the turn managed to jump straight out of the truck and hide in the forest, falling asleep on the top of a tree. Only the primer that fell out of the bag on the corporal's head revealed his location.
And the second escape was already "successful." Moreover, the boy ran away in the morning, having tied a rope from his hand to the boot of a woman doctor who was riding with them. The sergeant periodically pulled in a dream a rope wound with the other end on his fist, to confirm that the "escort" was present in his place. However, the teenager was quick-witted and easily realized his plan.
Chapters 8-14
Solntsev wandered along different roads for a long time until he found the headquarters of some military unit. During this trip, he met a "gorgeous boy" who was dressed in a guards uniform and served as a liaison with a certain Major Voznesensky. This meeting turned out to be fateful, because from that moment Vanya began to rave about the idea of returning to the scouts, about which he decided to ask the "chief commander" after he found him.
Since Vanya did not see Yenakiev in person, he, mistaking him for an "important boss", began to complain about the strict captain, who did not want to make him the "son of the regiment". Yenakiev decides to take the boy to the scouts, who were very happy about his return. "So Vanya's fate turned magically three times in such a short time."
The scouts Gorbunov and Bidenko take Solntsev with them on a mission without informing the battery commander. The boy knew the area perfectly and could serve as an excellent guide for them. Moreover, he was not yet equipped with uniforms and in his shabby clothes he looked very much like a "real village shepherd".
During the assignment, Vanya went ahead to find out the way. However, during his sketches in the margins of the ABC book of the terrain plan, he was captured by the Germans, who arrested him and placed him in a dark dugout. After a few hours later, only one horse returned to the meeting place, Bidenko went to the unit to report the incident.
Vanya's interrogation was carried out by a German woman who had obvious evidence in the form of a compass and drawings in an ABC book. However, the boy showed firmness and resilience, without informing the enemy.
Chapters 15-21
The little hero hears the deafening sound of the artillery attack of our troops in the dugout. Suddenly the dungeon doors are blown to smithereens by a direct hit from a shell. The Germans retreat, and Soviet fighters soon appear.
After Vanya again returned to the scouts, they took him to the bathhouse, cut his hair and provided him with full uniforms, putting him on full allowance.
Captain Yenakiev, having learned about the dangerous mission in which the "son of the regiment" participated, arranged a harassment for his soldiers, who, in his opinion, loved the young hero "too merrily." After that, he summoned Vanya and officially appointed him as his liaison.
After the appointment, Solntsev began to live with the captain in his dugout. Yenakiev decided to personally take care of the upbringing of the boy and "assigned him to the first gun of the first platoon as a spare number." At first, the "son of the regiment" began to miss his intelligence friends, but soon he got used to the new conditions and realized that this "family" was no worse than the old one.
It so happened that, talking with the gunner of the gun Kovalev, the captain shared with him his plans to adopt Vanya after the war. Suddenly, German troops began to attack, which surrounded the Soviet infantry units.
Chapters 23-27
“Captain Yenakiev ordered by telephone the first platoon of his battery to immediately withdraw from the position and, without wasting a second, move forward. And he ordered the second platoon to shoot all the time, covering the open flanks of the shock company of Captain Akhunbaev."
Since Vanya was ranked among the first platoon, he was in the thick of things and actively helped his comrades in arms. During the battle, the captain, noticing Vanya, orders him to return to the battery. The boy refuses. Then Yenakiev orders him to urgently deliver a service package to the headquarters commander.
After returning to the position of his platoon, Vanya learns that the battle is over with heavy losses on his side. The soldiers, having shot all the cartridges, entered into hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, during which the captain was also killed. The boy found his corpse on the gun carriage. Bidenko approached the "son of the regiment", whom he hugged and wept.
After inspecting the personal belongings of the deceased captain Yenakiev, a note was found in which he said goodbye to the battery and expressed a wish to be buried in his "native land." In addition, the battery commander asked to take care of the fate of Vanya Solntsev. And after a while, by order of the regiment commander, Bidenko took the boy to the Suvorov school. Together with soap and food, the soldiers handed him Captain Yenakiev's shoulder straps, which they carefully wrapped in a newspaper sheet of "Suvorov Onslaught".
The first night at the Suvorov School was accompanied by a dream in Vanya's about how he runs up the marble staircase, "surrounded by cannons, drums and pipes." A gray-haired old man helped him upstairs, on whose chest a diamond star was attached. He told him: “Go, shepherd boy…. Go boldly!"
Conclusion
In his famous book "The Son of the Regiment" V. P. Kataev tells a true and interesting story of a peasant boy Vanya Solntsev, who became a national hero who became famous all over the world. The war took his family and home from him. However, the teenager did not lose heart. And the ordeals that befell him only tempered his spirit. Among the soldier's environment, the "son of the regiment" found a second family, with which he was able to show his character, endurance and courage. This work was filmed twice, and also staged on the theater stage of the Youth Theater in Leningrad. The story was written in the literary genre of socialist realism and was awarded the Stalin Prize of the II degree. She is still included in the school curriculum of the 4th grade in literature.
