The farther from us the Great Patriotic War, the more gaming our memory, rather than memory itself. And now she is erased for many, the grandfather "never!" And reasoning about war appears, as a way to solve political or economic problems. We picked up 15 books that, according to good, should read each of us. At least in order to feel how it was all this.
"And tomorrow was war, Boris Vasilyev
War, it seems, nothing to do with it, it is only in the title: promise, and nothing more. Normal life, ordinary alarms, small and large, young men and girls of 1940. The stronger the horror of the hanging, inevitable misfortune, which will fall on the main characters, the Somny of their fate, crushes, will take all joys. Troubles, against the background of which all others, these are important now, will die.
"Life and Fate", Vasily Grossman
This is an epos. It must be read for a long time and slowly, digesting each line. The book of war in all her horror: death at the front and behind the front, inhuman humiliation and inhuman power of the Spirit. The fact that the meanness of his own and that the enemies do not cease to be enemies. Everything here is a witness's voice: Vasily Grosman was a military correspondent, and knew the war both from the front and from the rear, and his mother was in the Jewish ghetto and was shot. On the night before death, a woman managed to write a letter to his son and managed to convey it. This letter was the whole story of humiliation, the whole horror of people awaiting murder. Epos Grossman is written more than the blood of the people: the blood of the mother. Starther ink do not invent.
"The war is not a female face" Svetlana Aleksievich
Again the vote of witnesses, only speech is straight. Belorussian journalist Svetlana Aleksievich gently collected memories of fought women. And I collected the face of the war, which is almost not taken to remember - as if war is hurt only men. This book is also impossible to read if a live pain falls from her pages.
"Mother of Human", Vitaly Zavokin
The main heroine of the book did not go to the front, but still could not avoid war. Alas, when hostilities go, there are no civilians, at least just because there is no peace. The woman was in the face of trouble without weapons in his hands, and to fight for their lives and for the life of their children, she had to be exclusively her will and her hard work.
"General and his Army", George Vladimov
It describes the war from that an angle, in which they see her taking responsibility for thousands of other languages. When the scale becomes such that the soldiers seem to be soldiers, and cities and villages - points on the map, some take the temptation to start the game and pull the rest in it.
"Sotnikov" Vasil Bulls
The book about how the war manifests a person: the features that in peacetime are invisible, in an extreme situation, come out and determine the main motives and actions of heroes. One goes to the end, risking life, another panting and retreats. And also reading "Sotnikov", you can feel very well, as it is difficult to be such as the first, and how hard to condemn the second when death breathes in the face.
"Time to live and time to die" Erich Maria Remarque
In this novel, written from the face of the German soldier, it is described that in every war, at least two sides, and what to be a pitiful pawn from the coming. Even more: "Time to live and time to die" - the book that war is not good and in war is not good. If you still at least a little man, of course.
"I see the sun" Nodar Dumbadze
Very easy, warm and bright book. The main characters are teenagers from the Georgian village, the orphan boy, who raised aunt, and blind girl, dreaming to see the sun. Somewhere far goes. Here, in Georgia, they do not kill, do not drop bombs, do not shoot tens and hundreds. But even this paradise shifts the war, as far as far as the front passed. And stretch, stretch to the light, despite all the deprivation, future people of the world, those who once to treat wounds of their country and live for those who have not returned.
"The slaughterhouse number five or the crusade of children" Kurt Vonnegut
Halfantastic, or rather, a surrealistic book about the experienced by the author of the experience of war on the advanced, German captivity and the bombardment of Dresden - from the side of Dresden. A book about ordinary people, tired physically and morally, whose only dream is - just go home.
"Blood book" Ales Adamovich, Daniel Granin
Documentary and therefore a very hard book, after which somehow unbearable I want to live, breathe, enjoy air, rain, snow. Call friends, relatives to just hear them and know that they are with you. This book is not chanting the military fell of Leningraders, but the chronicle of suffering, for which a person cannot be intended. The authors recorded the stories of dozens of blockade witnesses. After each terrible memory, it seems that it can no longer be worse. But the following is worse.
"Blocade Ethics" Sergey Yarov
Another incredibly heavy book about the blockade. About how inhuman suffering in some shift the ideas about black and white, and in others - they make them clearer, sharper, contrast. Without a doubt, one of the most terrible works of war.
"Memories of War" Nikolay Nikulin
These are memories of the famous St. Petersburg art historian about their military years. The author wrote them in the middle of the seventies, as he put it in order to remove the incredible cargo with the soul, pulling all these years. Published a manuscript only in 2007, two years before the death of Nikulina. The book looks at the war in terms of ordinary. About how and what the soldiers live when each next minute bears someone's death.
"War is the greatest lead that ever invented the human genus, ... the war has always been meanness, and the army, the murder tool is an evil to the gun. No, and there was no wars fair, they all, no matter how they justified - anti-human "
"It's us, Lord!" Konstantin Vorobiev
Another face of war. Book on the back of the courage. About what is captured, especially Nazi. About torture, to humiliate the spirit through the humiliation of the body, about horror and suffering. And, of course, about death nearby. There is no war without this gloomy satellite.
"In the trenches of Stalingrad," Victor Nekrasov
The name of the book completely opens its plot. We are talking about one of the most cruel and important battles of the Great Patriotic. The author shows the war from the tag - from there, where the strength of the hands and confidence in combat comrades are more important than solutions made from above. When life and death go there, divided by centimeters and moments, people are revealed as they are. With fear, despair, love and hatred.
"Cursed and killed", Viktor Astafiev
Another book on behalf of a soldier who could teach to consider human lives. 20,000 when taking height at school - just voiced digit. And after this book, 20,000 turn back to people. Deadly painfully, ugly, left to lie on the ground, scratched from the blood. Because war is about people, not about numbers.
