And the dawns here are quiet, the contents of the chapters. Boris Vasiliev - And the dawns here are quiet... The main characters of the story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet”

Boris Vasiliev's story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” was published in 1969. According to the author himself, the plot was based on real events. Vasiliev was inspired by the story of how seven soldiers stopped a German sabotage group, preventing it from blowing up a strategically important section of the Kirov railway. Only the sergeant was destined to survive. After writing a few pages of his new work, Vasiliev realized that the plot was not new. The story will simply not be noticed or appreciated. Then the author decided that the main characters should be young girls. It was not customary to write about women in the war in those years. Vasiliev's innovation allowed him to create a work that stood out sharply among his peers.

Boris Vasiliev's story has been filmed several times. One of the most original film adaptations was the Russian-Chinese project of 2005. In 2009, the film “Valor” was released in India based on the plot of the work of the Soviet writer.

The story takes place in May 1942. Main character Fedot Evgrafych Vaskov is serving at the 171st crossing somewhere in the Karelian outback. Vaskov is not satisfied with the behavior of his subordinates. Forced to remain idle, soldiers start drunken brawls out of boredom and enter into illicit relationships with local women. Fedot Evgrafych repeatedly appealed to his superiors with a request to send him non-drinking anti-aircraft gunners. In the end, a department of girls comes into Vaskov's hands.

It takes a long time for a trusting relationship to be established between the patrol commandant and the new anti-aircraft gunners. “Mossy Stump” is not capable of causing anything but irony in girls. Vaskov, not knowing how to behave with subordinates of the opposite sex, prefers rude and indifferent communication.

Soon after the squad of anti-aircraft gunners arrives, one of the girls notices two fascist saboteurs in the forest. Vaskov goes on a combat mission, taking with him a small group of fighters, which included Sonya Gurvich, Rita Osyanina, Galya Chetvertak, Lisa Brichkina and Zhenya Komelkova.

Fedot Evgrafych managed to stop the saboteurs. He returned alive from a combat mission alone.

Characteristics

Fedot Vaskov

Sergeant Major Vaskov is 32 years old. Several years ago his wife left him. The son whom Fedot Evgrafych was going to raise on his own died. The life of the main character gradually lost its meaning. He feels lonely and useless.

Vaskov's illiteracy prevents him from expressing his emotions correctly and beautifully. But even the foreman’s awkward and comical speech cannot hide his high spiritual qualities. He becomes truly attached to each of the girls in his squad, treating them like a caring, loving father. In front of the survivors Rita and Zhenya, Vaskov no longer hides his feelings.

Sonya Gurvich

The large and friendly Jewish family of Gurvich lived in Minsk. Sonya's father was a local doctor. Having entered Moscow University, Sonya met her love. However, the young people were never able to get higher education and start a family. Sonya's lover went to the front as a volunteer. The girl also followed his example.

Gurvich is distinguished by brilliant erudition. Sonya has always been an excellent student and is fluent in German language. The latter circumstance was the main reason why Vaskov took Sonya on the mission. He needed a translator to communicate with captured saboteurs. But Sonya did not fulfill the mission determined by the foreman: she was killed by the Germans.

Rita Osyanina

Rita became a widow early, having lost her husband on the second day of the war. Leaving her son Albert with her parents, Rita sets out to avenge her husband. Osyanina, who has become the head of the anti-aircraft gunners’ department, asks her superiors to transfer her to the 171st crossing, which is located near the small town where her relatives live. Now Rita has the opportunity to often be at home and bring groceries to her son.

Having been seriously wounded in her last battle, the young widow thinks only of the son her mother will have to raise. Osyanina makes Fedot Evgrafych promise to take care of Albert. Fearing being captured alive, Rita decides to shoot herself.

Galya Chetvertak

Chetvertak grew up in an orphanage, after which she entered a library technical school. Galya always seemed to float with the flow, not knowing exactly where and why she was going. The girl does not experience the hatred for the enemy that overcomes Rita Osyanina. She is not able to hate even her immediate offenders, preferring children's tears to adult aggression.

Galya constantly feels awkward, out of place. She has difficulty adapting to her environment. Friends in arms accuse Galya of cowardice. But the girl is not just afraid. She has a strong aversion to destruction and death. Galya unknowingly pushes herself to death in order to get rid of the horrors of war once and for all.

Lisa Brichkina

The forester's daughter Liza Brichkina became the only anti-aircraft gunner who fell in love with Sergeant Major Vaskov at first sight. A simple girl, who was unable to graduate from school due to her mother’s serious illness, noticed a kindred spirit in Fedot Evgrafych. The author speaks of his heroine as a person who spent most of her life waiting for happiness. However, the expectations were not met.

Liza Brichkina drowned while crossing the swamp, having gone on the orders of Sergeant Major Vaskov for reinforcements.

Zhenya Komelkova

The Komelkov family was shot by the Germans right in front of Zhenya a year before the events described. Despite the bereavement, the girl did not lose her liveliness of character. The thirst for life and love pushes Zhenya into the arms of the married Colonel Luzhin. Komelkova does not want to destroy the family. She is only afraid of not having time to receive its sweetest fruits from life.

Zhenya was never afraid of anything and was confident in herself. Even in the last battle, she does not believe that the next moment could be her last. It is simply impossible to die at 19 years old, being young and healthy.

The main idea of ​​the story

Extraordinary circumstances do not change people. They only help reveal existing character qualities. Each of the girls in Vaskov’s small squad continues to be themselves, adhere to their ideals and outlook on life.

Analysis of the work

Summary “And the dawns here are quiet...” (Vasiliev) can only reveal the essence of this work, profound in its tragedy. The author strives to show not just the death of several girls. In each of them the whole world perishes. Sergeant Major Vaskov observes not only the fading of young lives, he sees in these deaths the death of the future. None of the anti-aircraft gunners will be able to become either a wife or a mother. Their children were not yet born, which means they will not give birth to future generations.

The popularity of Vasiliev's story is due to the contrast used in it. Young anti-aircraft gunners would hardly attract the attention of readers. The appearance of girls gives rise to hope for an interesting plot in which love will certainly be present. Remembering the well-known aphorism that war has no woman's face, the author contrasts the tenderness, playfulness and softness of young female anti-aircraft gunners with the cruelty, hatred and inhumanity of the environment in which they find themselves.

“And the dawns here are quiet” - a work by Boris Vasiliev, dedicated to the Great Patriotic War and the role of women in it. Even summary“And the dawns here are quiet” allows us to convey all the tragedy of the situation described in full version works. The action takes place in May 1942 at one of the railway sidings. Thirty-two-year-old Fedot Evgrafych Vaskov commands the anti-aircraft gunners here.

In general, there is a calm atmosphere at the crossing, which is sometimes disturbed by airplanes. All soldiers arriving at such an important post are first looked around, and then begin to lead a riotous lifestyle. Vaskov wrote reports on careless soldiers quite often, and the command decided to assign him a platoon of female anti-aircraft gunners. At first, Fedot and the anti-aircraft gunners find themselves in awkward situations; this is shown in more detail in the full version of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet”; the summary of the story does not provide such detailed details.

One of the platoon commanders is Margarita Osyanina, who became a widow on the second day of the war. She is driven by an uncontrollable thirst for revenge and hatred of all Germans, which is why she behaves quite strictly towards girls. After one of the fascist raids, the carrier dies, and Zhenya Komelkova arrives in her place, having her own motives for revenge: the fascists shot her entire family before her eyes.

As soon as Zhenya was at the front, she was caught having an affair with the married Colonel Luzhin, which is how she ended up on the 171st patrol. The wife manages to get along with the cold Rita, and she begins to soften. Komelkova also managed to transform Galya Chetvertak, who was an ordinary gray mouse in the company, and she decided to stick with her. The summary of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” unfortunately, does not make it possible to colorfully describe the details of the transformation of Chetvertak.

Not far from the junction there is a town where Rita’s son and her mother live. At night, Osyanina delivered food to them, and one day, while moving through the forest, she noticed the Germans. Soon the command demanded that Vaskov and his platoon catch the Nazis. Fedot believes that the enemies are moving towards the railway to disable it. To intercept a couple of Germans, Vaskov takes with him Osyanina, Komelkova, Chetvertak, as well as Elizaveta Brichkina, the daughter of a forester, and Sofya Gurvich, a girl from an intelligent family.

No one from the detachment even imagined that there would be not two Germans, but sixteen. Fedot sends Lisa for help, but she stumbles on a swamp path and dies. At the same time, the remaining members of the detachment are trying to deceive the invaders by posing as lumberjacks, and this maneuver is partly successful. The summary of “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” unfortunately, is not able to demonstrate the complex path shown in the book and its film adaptation.

Vaskov leaves his pouch at the old location, and Gurvich decides to return it. Indiscretion costs her life - she is killed by two Germans. Zhenya and Fedot take revenge for Sonya, after which they bury her. Seeing the Germans, the survivors open fire on them, and they hide, trying to figure out who attacked them.

Fedot ambushes the Germans, but all plans are foiled by Galya, whose nerves could not stand it. She ran out of cover right under the Nazis' bullets. The girl dies, and Fedot takes the Nazis as far as possible from Rita and Zhenya; during the maneuver, he finds Brichkina’s skirt and realizes that there will be no help. The tragedy of this situation cannot be felt using only a summary of “The Dawns Here Are Quiet.”

Fedot, Rita and Zhenya take the last stand. Rita receives a mortal wound in the stomach, and while Fedot drags her to cover, Zhenya, distracting the Germans, dies. Osyanina asks Vaskov to take care of her son and kills herself with a shot to the temple. Fedot buries both.

Vaskov finds the Germans’ hiding place, breaks into their house and captures them, after which he leads them to the platoon’s location. The book ends with the fact that every year Fedot Vaskov and Captain Albert Fedotich, the son of Margarita Osyanina, arrive at the place of death of the girls. The story created by Boris Vasiliev, “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” is part of a series of works dedicated to the fate of women during the Great Patriotic War.

At the 171st siding, twelve courtyards, a fire shed and a squat long warehouse, built at the beginning of the century from fitted boulders, survived. During the last bombing, the water tower collapsed, and trains stopped stopping here. The Germans stopped raids, but circled over the siding every day, and the command kept two anti-aircraft quads there just in case.

It was May 1942. In the west (on damp nights the heavy roar of artillery could be heard from there), both sides, having dug two meters into the ground, were finally stuck in trench warfare; in the east the Germans bombed the canal and the Murmansk road day and night; in the north there was a fierce struggle for sea routes; continued in the south stubborn struggle Blocked Leningrad.

And here was a resort. The silence and idleness made the soldiers thrilled, as if in a steam room, and in twelve courtyards there were still enough young women and widows who knew how to extract moonshine almost from the squeak of a mosquito. For three days the soldiers slept and looked closely; on the fourth, someone’s name day began, and the sticky smell of local pervach no longer evaporated over the crossing.

The commandant of the patrol, the gloomy foreman Vaskov, wrote reports on command. When their number reached a dozen, the authorities gave Vaskov another reprimand and replaced the half-platoon, swollen with joy. For a week after this, the commandant somehow managed on his own, and then everything was repeated at first so accurately that the foreman eventually got around to rewriting the previous reports, changing only the numbers and surnames in them.

You're doing nonsense! - thundered the major who arrived according to the latest reports. - The writings have been swindled! Not a commandant, but some kind of writer!..

“Send in the non-drinkers,” Vaskov stubbornly insisted: he was afraid of any loud-mouthed boss, but he talked his way through like a sexton. - Non-drinkers and this... So, that means about the female gender.

Eunuchs, or what?

“You know better,” the foreman said cautiously.

Okay, Vaskov!... - the major said, inflamed by his own severity. - There will be non-drinkers for you. And as for women, they will also do the same. But look, sergeant major, if you can’t cope with them either...

“That’s right,” the commandant agreed woodenly.

The major took away the anti-aircraft gunners who could not stand the test, and in parting he once again promised Vaskov that he would send those who would turn up their noses at skirts and moonshine more vividly than the foreman himself. However, it was not easy to fulfill this promise, since not a single person arrived in three days.

The question is complex,” the apartment foreman explained to his landlady, Maria Nikiforovna. - Two departments are almost twenty people who don’t drink. Shake up the front, and I doubt it...

His fears, however, turned out to be unfounded, since already in the morning the owner reported that the anti-aircraft gunners had arrived. There was something harmful in her tone, but the sergeant-major couldn’t figure it out from his sleep, but asked about what was troubling him:

Have you arrived with the commander?

It doesn’t seem like it, Fedot Evgrafych.

God bless! - The foreman was jealous of his commandant position. - Power to share is worse than nothing.

“Wait to rejoice,” the hostess smiled mysteriously.

We will be happy after the war,” Fedot Evgrafych said reasonably, put on his cap and went out.

And he was taken aback: in front of the house there were two lines of sleepy girls. The sergeant major decided that he was imagining sleep and blinked, but the soldiers’ tunics were still sticking out smartly in places not provided for by the soldier’s regulations, and curls of all colors and styles impudently climbed out from under their caps.

Comrade sergeant major, the first and second squads of the third platoon of the fifth company of a separate anti-aircraft machine gun battalion have arrived at your disposal to guard the facility,” the eldest reported in a dull voice. - Sergeant Kiryanova reports to the platoon commander.

So-so,” the commandant said, not at all according to the regulations. - So we found non-drinkers...

He spent the whole day hammering with an ax: building bunks in the fire shed, since the anti-aircraft gunners did not agree to stay with their mistresses. The girls carried the boards, held them where they ordered, and chattered like magpies. The foreman gloomily remained silent: he was afraid for his authority.

From the location without my word, not a foot,” he announced when everything was ready.

Even for berries? - the redhead asked smartly. Vaskov had noticed her a long time ago.

There are no berries yet,” he said.

Can sorrel be collected? - asked Kiryanova. “It’s difficult for us without welding, Comrade Sergeant Major, we’re getting thin.”

Fedot Evgrafych looked doubtfully at the tightly stretched tunics, but allowed:

There was a moment of grace at the crossing, but this did not make it any easier for the commandant. The anti-aircraft gunners turned out to be noisy and cocky girls, and the foreman felt every second that he was visiting his own home: he was afraid to blurt out the wrong thing, to do the wrong thing, and there was now no question of entering somewhere without knocking, and, if When he forgot about it, the signal screech immediately threw him back to his previous position. Most of all, Fedot Evgrafych was afraid of hints and jokes about possible courtship, and therefore he always walked around staring at the ground, as if he had lost his salary for the last month.

“Don’t worry, Fedot Evgrafych,” said the hostess, having observed his communication with his subordinates. - They call you an old man among themselves, so look at them accordingly.

Fedot Evgrafych turned thirty-two this spring, and he did not agree to consider himself an old man. On reflection, he came to the conclusion that all these were measures taken by the hostess to strengthen her own positions: she had melted the ice of the commandant’s heart one spring night and now, naturally, sought to strengthen herself on the conquered lines.

At night, the anti-aircraft gunners excitedly fired from all eight barrels at passing German planes, and during the day they did endless laundry: some of their rags were always drying around the fire shed. The sergeant-major considered such decorations inappropriate and briefly informed Sergeant Kiryanov about this:

Unmasks.

“And there is an order,” she said without hesitation.

What order?

Corresponding. It states that female military personnel are allowed to dry clothes on all fronts.

The commandant said nothing: screw them, these girls! Just get in touch: they’ll be giggling until the fall...

The days were warm and windless, and there were so many mosquitoes that you couldn’t even take a step without a twig. But a twig is nothing, it’s still quite acceptable for a military man, but the fact that soon the commandant began wheezing and coughing at every corner, as if he really was an old man - that was completely out of place.

And it all started when, on a hot May day, he turned behind the warehouse and froze: a body so fiercely white, so tight, and even multiplied eightfold, splashed into his eyes that Vaskov was already in a fever: the entire first squad, led by the commander, junior sergeant Osyanina, was sunbathing on a government tarpaulin in what the mother gave birth in. And at least they would have screamed, perhaps, for the sake of decency, but no: they buried their noses in the tarpaulin, hid, and Fedot Evgrafych had to back away, like a boy from someone else’s garden. From that day on, he began coughing at every corner, like whooping cough.

And he singled out this Osyanina even earlier: strict. He never laughs, he just moves his lips a little, but his eyes remain serious. Osyanina was strange, and therefore Fedot Evgrafych carefully made inquiries through his mistress, although he understood that this assignment was not at all for her joy.

“She’s a widow,” Maria Nikiforovna reported, pursing her lips a day later. - So it’s completely in the female rank: you can play games.

The foreman remained silent: you still can’t prove it to the woman. He took an ax and went into the yard: there is no better time for thoughts than to chop wood. But a lot of thoughts had accumulated, and they had to be brought into line.

The first publication of the story took place in the August issue of the magazine “Youth” for the year.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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  According to the author, the story is based on an actual episode of the war, when seven soldiers, who after being wounded served at one of the junction stations of the Kirov Railway, prevented a German sabotage group from blowing up the railway in this area. Only the sergeant, the commander of a group of Soviet soldiers, survived, and after the war he was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.” “And I thought: this is it! A situation when a person himself, without any order, decides: I won’t let you in! They have nothing to do here! I started working on this plot and have already written about seven pages. And suddenly I realized that nothing would work. This will simply be a special case in war. There was nothing fundamentally new in this plot. Work stopped. And then I suddenly came up with the idea - let my hero’s subordinates be not men, but young girls. And that’s it - the story immediately lined up. Women have the hardest time in war. There were 300 thousand of them at the front! And then no one wrote about them."

  Plot

  Fedot Vaskov is the commandant of the 171st patrol in the Karelian wilderness. The crews of the anti-aircraft installations on the patrol, finding themselves in a quiet situation, begin to suffer from idleness and get drunk. In response to Vaskov’s requests to “send non-drinkers,” the command sends two squads of female anti-aircraft gunners there. One of them notices two German saboteurs in the forest. Vaskov understands that they are planning to infiltrate strategic targets through the forests and decides to intercept them. He assembles a group of five anti-aircraft gunners and, in order to get ahead of the saboteurs, leads a detachment along a road known to him alone through the swamps to the rocks of the Sinyukhin ridge. However, it turns out that the enemy squad consists of 16 people. Vaskov understands that this force cannot be stopped head-on, and, having sent one of the girls for help - Liza Brichkina, who is secretly in love with him, who dies by drowning in a swamp, decides to pursue the enemy. Using various tricks, he enters into a series of unequal clashes, in which the four girls who remained with him die - the perky beauty Zhenya Komelkova, the intelligent Sonya Gurvich, the orphanage Galya Chetvertak and the serious Rita Osyanina. He still manages to capture the surviving saboteurs, he leads them to Soviet positions and meets his own on the way.

  Characters

  Vaskov

  Fedot Evgrafovich Vaskov is the commandant of a small military unit - patrol station No. 171. Vaskov is 32 years old. Vaskov's rank is foreman. He is a brave, responsible and reliable fighter. Vaskov is a kind and simple person. At the same time, he is a demanding and strict boss. Vaskov tries to ensure that everything is according to the regulations.

  Margarita Osyanina

  Margarita Osyanina - junior sergeant, squad commander. She has several female anti-aircraft gunners under her command. Margarita is 20 years old. She is a serious, calm and reasonable girl. Margarita is a young widow. Margarita's husband died in the war. She has a small son and a sick mother. When Margarita dies, Vaskov takes Rita’s son to him and raises him.

  Evgenia Komelkova

  Evgenia Komelkova is an ordinary soldier. Evgeniya is 19 years old. She is the daughter of an officer. Evgenia’s entire family dies in the war, but Evgenia herself is saved. Evgeniya is a beautiful, tall red-haired girl; brave, mischievous and cheerful. At the same time, Evgenia is a reliable and brave fighter. Evgenia heroically dies during a shootout with the Germans.

  Elizaveta Brichkina

  Elizaveta Brichkina is an ordinary soldier, a girl from a simple family. Her father is a forester. Since the age of 14, Elizaveta has been caring for her sick mother, who dies 5 years later. Elizabeth runs the household herself and helps her father. Elizabeth is going to study at a technical school, but the war begins. Instead of technical school, Elizabeth is forced to dig trenches. Elizaveta is a hardworking, patient girl. Elizabeth drowns in a swamp while performing a combat mission.

  Sofia Gurvich

  Sofya Gurvich is an ordinary soldier. Sofia is a student at Moscow University, studying with excellent marks. She reads a lot and loves poetry and theater. Sophia is Jewish by nationality. Her father serves as a local doctor in Minsk. Sophia has a large and friendly family. Sophia is a quiet and inconspicuous, but efficient girl. At the front, Sophia serves as a translator, and then as an anti-aircraft gunner. Dies from the knife of a reconnaissance group of German saboteurs

  Galina Chetvertak

  Galina Chetvertak is the youngest of the five main characters. Galina is an orphan, a “foundling”. She grew up in an orphanage. Before the war, she studied at a library technical school. Galina goes to war for the sake of romance, but the war turns out to be an overwhelming test for her. Galya lies and makes up tall tales all the time. She likes to live in an imaginary world. Galya is short in stature. She was shot in action while panicking and trying to escape from the Germans. .

  Film adaptations

  Theater productions

  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the Moscow Taganka Theater, directed by Yuri Lyubimov (USSR, 1971).
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - opera by Kirill Molchanov (USSR, 1973).
  • Orenburg Drama Theatre. M. Gorky, production by Rifkat Israfilov (Russia, 2006).
  • “And the dawns here are quiet” - a performance by the Volzhsky Drama Theater, directed by Alexander Grishin (Russia, 2007).
  • “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” - a performance by the St. Petersburg Theater “Workshop” under the direction of Grigory Kozlov, director - Polina Nevedomskaya, artist Anna Marcus (Russia, 2011).
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance at the Borisoglebsky Drama Theatre. N. G. Chernyshevsky (Russia, 2012).
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the St. Petersburg school-studio “People's Artists”, directors - Vasily Reutov and Svetlana Vaganova. Cast: Vitaly Gody, Elena Ashcherkina, Yulianna Turchina, Olga Tolkunova, Yulia Yagodkina, Maria Pedko, Alexandra Lamert, Anna Yashina, Ekaterina Yablokova, Yulia Kuznetsova, Nikolay Nekipelov, Lidiya Spizharskaya, Maria Slobozhanina (Russia, 2012).
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the theater studio “Wonderland”.
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - musical drama, Seversky Musical Theatre, composer - A. Krotov (Novosibirsk), libretto - N. Krotova (Novosibirsk), director - K. Torskaya (Irkutsk), choreographer - D. Ustyuzhanin (St. St. Petersburg), artist - D. Tarasova (St. Petersburg) (Russia, 2015).
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - performance by the Azart Theater (Zarinsk).
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - opera Chinese, composer Tang Jianping, premiered at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on November 5, 2015.
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - composition by the Alapaevsk Exemplary Children's Musical Theater "BARABASHKA", director - K. I. Misharina.
  • “And the dawns here are quiet...” - play by the Moscow Theater “Theater Mansion”, directed by Alexey Vasyukov (Russia, 2016).

  AND THE DAWNINGS HERE ARE QUIET...

  At the 171st siding, twelve courtyards, a fire shed and a squat long warehouse, built at the beginning of the century from fitted boulders, survived. During the last bombing, the water tower collapsed and trains stopped stopping here. The Germans stopped the raids, but circled over the junction every day, and the command kept two anti-aircraft quadruples there, just in case.

  It was May 1942. In the west (on damp nights the heavy roar of artillery could be heard from there), both sides, having dug two meters into the ground, were finally stuck in trench warfare; in the east the Germans bombed the canal and the Murmansk road day and night; in the north there was a fierce struggle for sea routes; in the south, besieged Leningrad continued its stubborn struggle.

  And here was a resort. The silence and idleness made the soldiers thrilled, as if in a steam room, and in twelve courtyards there were still enough young women and widows who knew how to extract moonshine almost from the squeak of a mosquito. For three days the soldiers slept and looked closely; on the fourth, someone’s name day began, and the sticky smell of local pervach no longer evaporated over the crossing.

  The commandant of the patrol, the gloomy foreman Vaskov, wrote reports on command. When their number reached a dozen, the authorities gave Vaskov another reprimand and replaced the half-platoon, swollen with joy. For a week after this, the commandant somehow managed on his own, and then everything was repeated at first so accurately that the foreman eventually got around to rewriting the previous reports, changing only the numbers and surnames in them.

  - You're doing nonsense! - thundered the major who arrived according to the latest reports. - The writings have been misled! Not a commandant, but some kind of writer!..

  “Send in the non-drinkers,” Vaskov stubbornly insisted: he was afraid of any loud-mouthed boss, but he talked his way through like a sexton. “The non-drinkers, too... So, that means, about the female sex.”

  - Eunuchs, or what?

  “You know better,” the foreman said cautiously.

  - Okay, Vaskov!.. - the major said, inflamed by his own severity. - There will be people who don’t drink. And as for women, they will also do the same. But look, sergeant major, if you can’t cope with them either...

  “That’s right,” the commandant agreed woodenly.

  The major took away the anti-aircraft gunners who could not stand the test, and in parting he once again promised Vaskov that he would send those who would turn up their noses at skirts and moonshine more vividly than the foreman himself. However, it was not easy to fulfill this promise, since not a single person arrived in three days.

  “It’s a complicated question,” the apartment foreman explained to his landlady, Maria Nikiforovna. “Two departments are almost twenty people who don’t drink.” Shake up the front, and I doubt it...

  His fears, however, turned out to be unfounded, since already in the morning the owner reported that the anti-aircraft gunners had arrived. There was something harmful in her tone, but the sergeant-major couldn’t figure it out from his sleep, but asked about what was troubling him:

  — Have you arrived with the commander?

  - It doesn’t seem like it, Fedot Evgrafych.

  - God bless! - The foreman was jealous of his commandant position. - Power to share is worse than that.

  “Wait to rejoice,” the hostess smiled mysteriously.

  “We’ll be happy after the war,” Fedot Evgrafych said reasonably, put on his cap and went out.

  And he was taken aback: in front of the house there were two lines of sleepy girls. The sergeant major decided that he was imagining sleep and blinked, but the soldiers’ tunics were still sticking out smartly in places not provided for by the soldier’s regulations, and curls of all colors and styles impudently climbed out from under their caps.

  “Comrade sergeant major, the first and second squads of the third platoon of the fifth company of a separate anti-aircraft machine gun battalion have arrived at your disposal to guard the facility,” the eldest reported in a dull voice.