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

It was May 1942. In the west (on wet nights the heavy rumble of artillery came from there), both sides, having dug into the ground two meters, finally got stuck in a positional war; 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 was just coming to its senses.

And here was the resort. From silence and idleness, the soldiers were thrilled, as in a steam room, and in twelve yards there were still quite a few young people and widows who knew how to get moonshine almost from a mosquito squeak. For three days the soldiers slept and watched; on the fourth, someone's name day began, and the sticky smell of the local pervach no longer vanished over the junction.

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

- You are doing nonsense! thundered the major, who had arrived according to the latest reports. - The scripture was littered! Not a commandant, but some kind of writer! ..

“Send the non-drinkers,” Vaskov stubbornly repeated: he was afraid of any loud-mouthed boss, but he babbled his own like a sexton. “Non-drinkers, and that's… What, then, about the female sex.

- Eunuchs, or what?

“You know better,” the foreman said cautiously.

- All right, Vaskov! .. - inflamed by his own severity, the major said. - There will be non-drinkers for you. And about women, too, will be, as expected. But look, sergeant major, if you can't even deal with them...

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

The major took away the anti-aircraft gunners who could not stand the temptation, promising Vaskov once again in parting that he would send those who would turn their noses up from skirts and moonshine more lively than the foreman himself. However, fulfilling this promise was not easy, since not a single person arrived for three days.

“It’s a complicated question,” the sergeant-major explained to his landlady, Maria Nikiforovna. - Two squads - that's almost twenty people who do not drink. Shake the front - and then I doubt ...

His fears, however, turned out to be unfounded, since already in the morning the hostess announced that the anti-aircraft gunners had arrived. Something harmful sounded in her tone, but the foreman did not understand from sleep, but asked about what was disturbing:

- Have you arrived with the commander?

“It doesn’t look like it, Fedot Evgrafych.

- Thank God! - The foreman was jealous of his commandant position. “The power to share is worse than nothing.

“Wait a minute to rejoice,” the hostess smiled enigmatically.

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

And he was dumbfounded: two lines of sleepy girls stood in front of the house. The sergeant-major thought that he was half asleep, blinked, but the tunics on the soldiers still briskly stuck out in places not provided for by the soldier's charter, and curls of all colors and styles impudently climbed out from under the caps.

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

“So-so,” the commandant said, not at all in a statutory way. - Found, then, non-drinkers ...

All day long he pounded with an ax: he built bunks in the fire shed, since the anti-aircraft gunners did not agree to stay with the hostesses. The girls dragged boards, held them where they ordered, and crackled like magpies. The foreman gloomily remained silent: he was afraid for his authority.

“Not a foot from the location without my word,” he announced when everything was ready.

“Even for berries?” the redhead asked briskly: Vaskov had already noticed her for a long time.

“There are no berries yet,” he said.

- Can sorrel be collected? Kiryanova asked. “It’s hard for us without welding, comrade foreman. We emaciate.

Fedot Evgrafych looked doubtfully at the tightly pulled tunics, but permitted:

Quiet and grace fell at the junction, but the commandant did not feel any better. The anti-aircraft gunners turned out to be noisy and cocky girls, and the foreman felt every second that he was a guest in his own house: he was afraid to blurt out the wrong thing, do it wrong, let alone enter where without knocking, there could now be no question, and if he when he forgot about it, the signal screech immediately threw him back to his previous positions. Most of all, Fedot Evgrafych was afraid of hints and jokes about possible courtship, and therefore he always walked about, staring at the ground, as if he had lost his allowance for the last month.

“Don’t be afraid, Fedot Evgrafych,” said the hostess, observing his communication with his subordinates. “They call you an old man among themselves, so look 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 this was just measures taken by the hostess to strengthen her own positions; she still melted the ice of the commandant's heart and now, naturally, she sought to strengthen herself on the conquered frontiers.

At night, anti-aircraft gunners recklessly thrashed German planes from all eight barrels, and during the day they planted endless laundry: some of their rags were always drying around the fire shed. The foreman considered such decorations inappropriate and briefly informed Sergeant Kiryanova about this:

- unmasks.

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

- What order?

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

The commandant said nothing: well, these girls, to hell with them! Just get in touch - they will giggle until autumn ...

The days were warm and windless, and there were so many mosquitoes that you couldn't take a step without a twig. But a twig is still nothing, it is still quite acceptable for a military man, but the fact that soon the commandant began to wheeze and cackle in every meadow, as if he really was an old man, was completely useless.

And it all started with the fact that on a hot May day he turned behind a warehouse and froze: his eyes splashed with such a violently white, so juicy, so tight and even eight times multiplied body that Vaskov was already thrown into a fever: the entire first squad, led by the junior commander sergeant Osyanina was sunbathing on a government tarpaulin in what her mother gave birth. And even if they squealed, or something, for decency, but no: they buried their noses in the tarpaulin, hid, and Fedot Evgrafych had to sneak in reverse, like a boy from someone else's garden. From that day on, he began to cough at every corner, like whooping cough.

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

“She is a widow,” Maria Nikiforovna reported, pursing her lips a day later. - So it is completely in the female rank.

The foreman said nothing: you still can’t prove it to a woman. He took an ax, went into the yard: there is no better time for thoughts, how to chop wood. A lot of thoughts have accumulated, and it was necessary to bring them into line.

Well, first of all, of course, - discipline. Okay, the fighters don’t drink, they don’t be nice to the residents, that’s all right. And inside - a mess: “Lyuba, Vera, Katenka, on guard! Katya is a breeder.

Is this a team? Divorce of guards is supposed to be done to the fullest extent, according to the charter. And this is a complete mockery, it must be destroyed, but how? He tried to talk about this with the eldest, with Kiryanova, but she had one answer:

- And we have permission, comrade foreman. From the commander. Personally.

Laughing, damn...

- Are you trying, Fedot Evgrafych?

He turned around: a neighbor looked into the yard, Polinka Yegorova. The most dissolute of the entire population: she celebrated her name day four times last month.

“Don’t bother too much, Fedot Evgrafych. You are now the only one left with us, sort of like a tribe.

Laughs. And the gate is not closed.

- Now you will walk around the yards like a shepherd. A week in one yard, a week in another. This is what we, the women, have an agreement about you.

- You, Polina Egorova, have a conscience. Are you a soldier or a lady? Here you go accordingly.

“The war, Yevgrafych, will write everything off. And from the soldiers, and from the soldiers.

What a loop! Should be evicted, but how? Where are they, civil authorities? And she is not subordinate to him: he ventilated this issue with the screaming major.

Yes, there were two cubic meters of thoughts, no less. And with each thought it is necessary to deal with it in a special way. Absolutely special.

Still, a big hindrance is that he is a person with almost no education. Well, he can read and write and knows how to count within four grades, because exactly at the end of this fourth grade, his father's bear broke him. The girls would laugh at this if they knew about the bear! Well, this is necessary - not from gases to the world, not from a blade to Civil, not from a kulak sawn-off shotgun, not even by his own death - the bear broke it! They, go, only saw this bear in the menageries ...

From a dense corner you, Fedot Vaskov, crawled out into the commandants. And they - don't look like privates - science: lead, quadrant, drift angle. There are seven classes, or even all nine: you can see from the conversation. Subtract four from nine - five remains. And it turns out that he lagged behind them more than he himself has ...

Thoughts were gloomy, and from this Vaskov chopped firewood with special fury. And who is to blame? Unless that impolite bear ...

Strange thing: before that, he considered his life lucky. Well, not that it was really twenty-one, but there was no point in complaining. Still, with his incomplete four classes, he graduated from the regimental school and rose to the rank of foreman ten years later. There was no damage along this line, but on other sides, it happened that fate laid flags around and twice hit point-blank from all trunks, but Fedot Evgrafych still resisted. Resist…

Shortly before the Finnish, he married a nurse from the garrison hospital. A living woman got caught: she would have to sing, dance, and drink wine. However, she gave birth to a baby. Igorkom was named: Igor Fedotovich Vaskov. Then the Finnish war began, Vaskov left for the front, and as he returned back with two medals, he was stunned for the first time: while he was bent there in the snow, his wife completely spun and left for the southern regions with the regimental veterinarian. Fedot Evgrafych divorced her immediately, demanded the boy through the court and sent him to his mother in the village. A year later, his boy died, and since then Vaskov smiled only three times: to the general that he was awarded the order, to the surgeon who pulled a fragment from his shoulder, and to his mistress Maria Nikiforovna for her ingenuity.

It was for that fragment that he received his current post. There was some property left in the warehouse, sentries were not posted, but, having established a commandant's position, they instructed him to watch that warehouse. Three times a day, the foreman walked around the object, tried the locks and in the book, which he himself started, made the same entry: “The object was inspected. There are no violations." And inspection time, of course. Quietly served foreman Vaskov. Quiet to this very day. And now…

The foreman sighed.

The writing

The best and worst traits, properties of the character of a person and the people as a whole are revealed in extreme situations. This is a well known truth. First of all, wars belong to such situations.

The Great Patriotic War became a terrible test for our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. But she helped to understand, once again realize how strong the Russian people are, rich not only materially, physically, but also spiritually. Rich and beautiful with the strength of the spirit and soul of its people.

The literature devoted to the Great Patriotic War is a confirmation of this. So, the story of B. Vasiliev "The Dawns Here Are Quiet ..." tells about the events of 1942. German saboteurs are thrown into the location of the anti-aircraft machine-gun battery, commanded by foreman Vaskov, and the commander has only six young fragile girls under his command. The author tells us about their fates.

Rita Osyanina immediately after graduation married a lieutenant-border guard. A year later they had a son, and a year later the war began. Already on the second day of the war, Rita became a widow. The Great Patriotic War turned a weak housewife into a fearless soldier.

Quiet, afraid of everything, Galya Chetvertak, whose childhood was spent in an orphanage, is used to living dreams mixed with what she saw in the movies. Lisa Brichkina lived in the forest before the war and also did not know life at all. The girl dreamed of love, city life. The life of a student girl Sonya Gurvich was calm and purposeful. Ordinary student life: a session, a library, a familiar student boy caring for her ... The war made its terrible amendments to all these destinies, making soldiers out of women. But they fulfilled this role with honor, did everything they could to protect their homeland, their children, their people.

Sergeant Major Vaskov decides to destroy the German invaders. Bykov shows how the characters of all the characters are revealed in a dangerous situation. So, at first, the girls had a very low opinion of their commander: “A mossy stump, there are twenty words in reserve, and even those from the Charter.” But the danger brought all six together, changing the opinion of the foreman.

Vaskov took in best qualities a warrior ready to expose himself to bullets, but to save the girls and fulfill his duty: “Vaskov knew one thing in this battle: do not retreat. Do not give the Germans a single piece on this coast ... And there was no one else in the whole world: only he, the enemy, and Russia. Only the girls still listened with some third ear: whether they were still hitting rifles or not. Beat means alive. It means that they keep their front, their Russia. Hold!”

And they held on to their last breath. Their deaths were different: Lisa Brichkina drowned in a swamp when she was in a hurry to bring help. Galya Chetvertak was mowed down by machine gun fire. Sonya Gurvich was killed by a paratrooper with one blow of a knife when she ran after the foreman's pouch. Zhenya Komelkova died trying to lead the Germans away from the mortally wounded Rita Osyanina.

The story of V. Bykov "Sotnikov" also reveals truly Russian courage, a real Russian character. He (the image of Sotnikov) is especially bright in comparison with another hero of the story - Rybak. These heroes under normal conditions, perhaps, would not have shown their true nature. But during the war, Sotnikov goes through difficult trials with honor and accepts death without renouncing his beliefs, and Rybak, in the face of death, changes his beliefs, betrays his homeland, saving his life. On the example of these people, we are once again convinced that in the face of death a person remains as he really is. And it is here that the depth of his convictions, his civic fortitude, are tested.

Going to complete the task, the characters react differently to the impending danger. It seems that the strong and quick-witted Rybak is more prepared for a feat than the frail, sick Sotnikov. But if Rybak, who “managed to find some way out” all his life, is internally ready to commit betrayal, then Sotnikov remains true to the duty of a person and citizen to the last breath: “Well, it was necessary to gather the last strength in oneself in order to to face death with dignity... Otherwise, why then life? It is too difficult for a person to be carefree about its end.

In Bykov's story, everyone took his place among the victims. Everyone, except Rybak, went through his deadly path to the end. During the torture, Sotnikov lost consciousness several times, but did not say anything. This hero has come to terms with death. He would like to die in battle, but it became impossible for him. The only thing left for him was to decide on the attitude towards the people who happened to be nearby.

Before the execution, Sotnikov demanded an investigator and said: "I am a partisan, the rest have nothing to do with it." The investigator ordered Rybak to be brought in, and he agreed to join the police. The fisherman tried to convince himself that he was not a traitor, that he would run away.

AT last minutes life, Sotnikov suddenly lost his confidence in the right to demand from others the same as from himself. He did not seek sympathy in the crowd surrounding the place of execution, did not want to be talked badly about him, and got angry only at Rybak, who was performing the duties of the executioner. The fisherman apologizes: "I'm sorry, brother." - "Go to hell!" - follows the answer.

What happened to Rybak? He did not overcome the fate of a man entangled in the war. He sincerely wanted to hang himself. But circumstances interfered, and there was a chance to survive. It is unlikely that the chief of police saw what was going on in the soul of this man. The writer left him the possibility of a different path: the continuation of the fight against the enemy, the atonement of guilt before the people. But Rybak chose the path of betrayal.

“Courage is a great property of the soul; the people marked by him should be proud of themselves, ”said one of the greats. Works dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, fully confirm that the Russian people have true courage. It was it that helped to survive in this war, win and preserve itself as a nation.

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Beloved Komelkova

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Galya Chetvertak - an orphan, pupil orphanage. In the orphanage she got her nickname for her short stature. Dreamer. She lived in the world of her own fantasies, and went to the front with the conviction that war is romance. After the orphanage, Galya got into the library technical school. The war caught her in her third year. On the first day of the war, their entire group was sent to the military commissar. Everyone was assigned, but Galya did not fit anywhere either in age or height. During the battle with the Germans, Vaskov took Galya with him, but she, unable to withstand the nervous tension of waiting for the Germans, ran out of hiding and was shot dead by the Nazis. Despite such a "ridiculous" death, the foreman told the girls that she died "in a shootout."

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One of the main characters in Boris Lvovich Vasiliev's story "The Dawns Here Are Quiet...".

Zhenya is a very beautiful red-haired girl, the rest of the heroines were amazed at her beauty. Tall, slender, with fair skin. Zhenya is 19 years old. Zhenya has her own account with the Germans: when the Germans captured the village of Zhenya, an Estonian managed to hide Zhenya herself. In front of the girl's eyes, the Nazis shot her mother, sister and brother. She goes to war to avenge the deaths of her loved ones. Despite the grief, "her character was cheerful and smiling." In Vaskov's platoon, Zhenya showed artistry, but there was also enough room for heroism - it was she who, causing fire on herself, leads the Germans away from Rita and Vaskov. She saves Vaskov when he fights with the second German who killed Sonya Gurvich. The Germans first wounded Zhenya, and then shot her point-blank.

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Senior sergeant, platoon commander of female anti-aircraft gunners.

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One of the main characters in Boris Lvovich Vasiliev's story "The Dawns Here Are Quiet...".

Lisa Brichkina is a simple village girl, originally from the Bryansk region. Daughter of a forester. One day, their father brought a guest to their house. Lisa liked him very much. Seeing the conditions under which the girl grows up, the guest invites Lisa to come to the capital and enter a technical school with a hostel, but Lisa did not have a chance to become a student - the war began. Lisa always believed that tomorrow would come and be better than today. Lisa died first. She drowned in a swamp during the execution of the task of foreman Vaskov.

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Postman

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The landlady of foreman Vaskov

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One of the main characters in Boris Lvovich Vasiliev's story "The Dawns Here Are Quiet...".

Rita is strict, she never laughs, she just moves her lips a little, but her eyes remain serious. "Rita was not one of the smart ones ...". Rita Mushtakova was the first of the class, out of great love, to marry senior lieutenant Osyanin, from whom she gave birth to a son, Albert. And there was no happier girl in the world. At the outpost, she was immediately elected to the women's council and enrolled in all circles. Rita learned to bandage the wounded and shoot, ride a horse, throw grenades and defend against gases, and then ... war. On the very first day of the war, she was one of the few who did not lose her head, did not panic. She was generally calm and thoughtful. Rita's husband died on the second day of the war during a counterattack on June 23, 1941. Upon learning that her husband is dead, she goes to war instead of her husband to protect little son left with mom. They wanted to send Rita to the rear, and she asked to fight. She was persecuted, stuffed by force into the wagons, but the stubborn wife of the deceased deputy chief of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Osyanin, reappeared at the headquarters of the fortified area a day later. In the end, they took me as a nurse, and six months later they sent me to the regimental anti-aircraft school. The authorities appreciated the unsmiling widow of the hero-border guard: they noted in the orders, set as an example and therefore respected the personal request - to send after graduation to the area where the outpost stood, where her husband died in a fierce bayonet battle. Now Rita could consider herself satisfied: she had achieved what she wanted. Even the death of her husband went somewhere in the farthest corner of her memory: Rita had a job, and she learned to hate quietly and mercilessly ... In Vaskov's platoon, Rita became friends with Zhenya Komelkova and Galya Chetvertak. She died last, putting a bullet in her temple and thereby saving Fedot Vaskov. Before she died, she asked him to take care of her son. The death of Rita Osyanina is psychologically the most difficult moment in the story. Boris Vasiliev very accurately conveys the state

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One of the main characters in Boris Lvovich Vasiliev's story "The Dawns Here Are Quiet...".

Sonya Gurvich is a girl who grew up in a large friendly Jewish family. Sonya is from Minsk. Her father was a local doctor. She herself studied for a year at Moscow University, knew well German. A neighbor from lectures, Sonya's first love, with whom they spent only one unforgettable evening in the park of culture, volunteered for the front. Knowing German, she could have been a good translator, but there were many translators, so she was sent to the anti-aircraft gunners (who, in turn, were few). Sonya is the second German victim in Vaskov's platoon. She runs away from the others to find and return Vaskov's pouch, and stumbles upon patrol saboteurs who killed Sonya with two stab wounds in the chest.

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Major, Commander Vaskov

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The protagonist of Boris Lvovich Vasiliev's story "The Dawns Here Are Quiet...".

Sergeant Major Fedot Vaskov is the commandant of the 171st patrol in the Karelian wilderness. The crews of the anti-aircraft installations of the siding, getting into a quiet environment, begin to toil from idleness and get drunk. In response to Vaskov's requests to "send non-drinkers", the command sends two squads of anti-aircraft gunners there ... Fedot graduated from four classes of the regimental school, and in ten years he rose to the rank of foreman. Vaskov experienced a personal drama: after the Finnish war, his wife left him. Vaskov demanded his son through the court and sent him to his mother in the village, but the Germans killed him there. The foreman always feels older than his years. The peasant's mind, the peasant's leaven is emphasized by the author in the "gloomy foreman" Fedot Vaskov. “Strong reticence”, “peasant slowness”, special “male solidity” since “the only peasant in the family remained - and the breadwinner, and the drinker, and the breadwinner”. “Old man” and “mossy stump, who has twenty words in reserve, and even those from the charter” behind his back call the thirty-two-year-old Vaskov his subordinate anti-aircraft gunners. “All his life Fedot Evgrafovich carried out orders. He did it literally, quickly and with pleasure. He was the gear of a huge, carefully tuned mechanism. Having come across with their “search group” of five “girls with three-rulers in an embrace” sixteen armed fascist thugs rushing through the Sinyukhin ridge to the Kirov railway, to the “canal named after. comrade Stalin”, Vaskov “hid his confusion. He thought and thought, tossed and turned with his heavy brains, sucked all the possibilities of the upcoming deadly meeting. From his military experience, he knew that “playing hovanki with a German is almost like playing with death”, that the enemy “must be beaten. Beat until he crawls into the lair, ”without pity, without mercy. Understanding how difficult it is for a woman, who always gives birth to life, to kill, taught, explained: “These are not people. Not people, not people, not even animals - fascists. Look at it accordingly."

May 1942 Countryside in Russia. There is a war with Nazi Germany. The 171st railway siding is commanded by foreman Fedot Evgrafych Vaskov. He is thirty two years old. He has only four grades. Vaskov was married, but his wife ran away with the regimental veterinarian, and his son soon died.

It's quiet on the road. Soldiers arrive here, look around, and then begin to "drink and walk." Vaskov stubbornly writes reports, and, in the end, he is sent a platoon of “non-drinking” fighters - anti-aircraft gunners. At first, the girls laugh at Vaskov, but he does not know how to deal with them. Rita Osyanina is in command of the first squad of the platoon. Rita's husband died on the second day of the war. She sent her son Albert to her parents. Soon Rita got into the regimental anti-aircraft school. With her husband's death, she learned to hate the Germans "quietly and mercilessly" and was harsh with the girls in her squad.

The Germans kill the carrier, instead they send Zhenya Komelkova, a slender red-haired beauty. In front of Zhenya a year ago, the Germans shot her loved ones. After their death, Zhenya crossed the front. She was picked up, protected "and not that he took advantage of defenselessness - Colonel Luzhin stuck to himself." He was a family man, and the military authorities, having found out about this, the colonel "took into circulation", and sent Zhenya "to a good team." Despite everything, Zhenya is "sociable and mischievous." Her fate immediately "crosses out Rita's exclusivity." Zhenya and Rita converge, and the latter "thaws".

When it comes to transferring from the front line to the patrol, Rita is inspired and asks to send her squad. The junction is located near the city where her mother and son live. At night, Rita secretly runs into the city, carries her products. One day, returning at dawn, Rita sees two Germans in the forest. She wakes up Vaskov. He receives an order from the authorities to "catch" the Germans. Vaskov calculates that the route of the Germans lies on the Kirov railway. The foreman decides to go a short way through the swamps to the Sinyukhina ridge, stretching between two lakes, along which you can only get to railway, and wait for the Germans there - they will certainly go around. Vaskov takes Rita, Zhenya, Lisa Brichkina, Sonya Gurvich and Galya Chetvertak with him.

Lisa is from Bryansk, she is the daughter of a forester. For five years she took care of her terminally ill mother, because of this she could not finish school. The visiting hunter, who awakened her first love in Lisa, promised to help her enter a technical school. But the war began, Liza got into the anti-aircraft unit. Liza likes Sergeant Major Vaskov.

Sonya Gurvich from Minsk. Her father was a local doctor, they had a large and Friendly family. She herself studied for a year at Moscow University, knows German. A neighbor from lectures, Sonya's first love, with whom they spent only one unforgettable evening in the park of culture, volunteered for the front.

Galya Chetvertak grew up in orphanage. It was there that she met her first love. After the orphanage, Galya got into the library technical school. The war caught her in her third year.

The path to Lake Vop lies through the swamps. Vaskov leads the girls along a path well known to him, on both sides of which there is a quagmire. The fighters safely reach the lake and, hiding on the Sinyukhina ridge, are waiting for the Germans. Those appear on the shore of the lake only the next morning. There are not two of them, but sixteen. While the Germans are about three hours walking to Vaskov and the girls, the foreman sends Liza Brichkin back to the siding - to report on a change in the situation. But Lisa, crossing the swamp, stumbles and drowns. No one knows about this, and everyone is waiting for help. Until then, the girls decide to mislead the Germans. They portray lumberjacks, shouting loudly, Vaskov felling trees.

The Germans retreat to Lake Legontov, not daring to go along the Sinyukhin ridge, on which, as they think, someone is cutting down the forest. Vaskov with the girls moves to a new place. He left his pouch in the same place, and Sonya Gurvich volunteers to bring it. Hurrying, she stumbles upon two Germans who kill her. Vaskov and Zhenya are killing these Germans. Sonya is buried.

Soon the fighters see the rest of the Germans approaching them. Hiding behind bushes and boulders, they shoot first, the Germans retreat, fearing an invisible enemy. Zhenya and Rita accuse Galya of cowardice, but Vaskov defends her and takes her on reconnaissance for "educational purposes". But Vaskov does not suspect what mark Sonya's death left in Gali's soul. She is terrified and gives herself away at the most crucial moment, and the Germans kill her.

Fedot Evgrafych takes the Germans on himself to lead them away from Zhenya and Rita. He is wounded in the arm. But he manages to get away and get to the island in the swamp. In the water, he notices Lisa's skirt and realizes that help will not come. Vaskov finds the place where the Germans stopped to rest, kills one of them and goes to look for the girls. They are preparing to take the final stand. The Germans appear. In an unequal battle, Vaskov and the girls kill several Germans. Rita is mortally wounded, and while Vaskov is dragging her to safety, the Germans kill Zhenya. Rita asks Vaskov to take care of her son and shoots herself in the temple. Vaskov buries Zhenya and Rita. After that, he goes to the forest hut, where the five remaining Germans sleep. Vaskov kills one of them on the spot, and takes four prisoners. They themselves tie each other with belts, because they do not believe that Vaskov is "all alone for many miles." He loses consciousness from pain only when his own, Russians, are already coming towards him.

Many years later, a gray-haired, stocky old man without an arm and a rocket captain, whose name is Albert Fedotovich, will bring a marble slab to Rita's grave.

retold