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Abstract:

The article attempts to examine the prose about the war in the context of the atmosphere that emerged in 1941, where religious inspiration played a significant role, although it was not always consciously recognized by the writers. The author does not contrast the prose of war correspondents with the lieutenant prose. Instead, he explores the works that offer more than just a reflection of the war events. From this point of view, the most significant works for the 1940s were the short stories of A.P. Platonov, and for the 1950s, it was Sholokhov’s “The Fate of a Man” with its exploration of the theme of orphanhood. In the 1960s, this place was taken over by the lieutenant prose, particularly the works of K.D. Vorobyov and V.A. Kurochkin. In the 1970s, a new perspective on the war was introduced by the generation of those who experienced the war as teenagers or young adults. Here the author highlighted the prose of V.N. Syomin and V.G. Rasputin. The 1980s coincided with the end of the prose about the war, which was created by its contemporaries. In the works of G.N. Vladimov, V.P. Astafyev, and V.N. Voinovich there is a noticeable desire to see the war from an angle that deprives it of the higher meaning that was noticeable in previous years. The documentary prose of the émigré writer G.I. Gazdanov, which was first published in Russian in the 1990s, was a response to these later works. Gazdanov noted that the history of Russia in the 20th century was defined by its desire to raise a generation that would be able to defend its homeland in the 1940s. This highlighted the importance of the spiritual and religious essence that defined the core of military prose.

Keywords: military prose, A.P. Platonov, M.A. Sholohov, K.D. Vorobyov, V.A. Kurochkin, V.N. Syomin, V.G. Rasputin, G.I. Gazdanov, Russian history.