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Alexander Evdokimovich Korneichuk (May 12 (25), 1905, Khristinovka station, Kyiv province, now in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine - May 14, 1972, Kyiv) - Ukrainian Soviet writer and politician. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1943). Hero of Socialist Labor (1967), Laureate of five Stalin Prizes (1941, 1942, 1943, 1949, 1951) and the International Lenin Prize "For strengthening peace among peoples" (1960).
In addition to the dramaturgy of A.E. Korneichuk was also involved in political and social activities. Korneichuk was in 1944-1945 Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR. He also served as chairman of the Committee for the Arts of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1944, when the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine was first created, Korneichuk was appointed Acting People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. His activities in this post came into conflict with the plans of I.V. Stalin. A.E. Korneichuk took seriously the entry of Ukraine into the UN and began to develop plans for Ukraine to independently sign peace treaties after the end of the war. Soon I.V. Stalin dismissed the dreamer-minister.
In 1949-1972 A.E. Korneichuk a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR, in 1952-1972 a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR 1-8 convocations (1937-1972). In 1953-1954, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1947-1953 and 1959-1972 he was the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. Member of the World Congress of Peace Defenders. In 1959-1972 he was a member of the Presidium of the World Council of Defenders of Peace.
Korneichuk wrote his first play in 1929, but fame came to the playwright in 1933 after he published the drama The Death of a Squadron. - a revolutionary romantic myth about the Black Sea Bolsheviks who sink their ships so that the Germans do not get them. The play made a great impression on the Ukrainian leadership, especially P.P. Postyshev, who began to promote the "Ukrainian nugget". With each new play, Korneichuk's fame increased. Thanks to his sharp humor and topical themes, his subsequent dramas and comedies were a great success with the audience. It should be noted that in Korneichuk's plays, the description of many events and some statements of the characters seemed very bold to the audience. But since Korneichuk was always close to the highest leading circles of the country, he always knew that it was already possible and even time to criticize and ridicule. N.S. Khrushchev and L.M. Kaganovich recommended a young writer to I.V. Stalin, and in 1938 a personal meeting took place in the Kremlin. I.V. Stalin wrote to A.E. Korneichuk: “Comrade Korneichuk! I read your play In the Steppes of Ukraine. Laughed heartily. I. Stalin. Stalin liked the writer, and a "green street" was opened for his works - they were translated into all the languages ​​\u200b\u200bof the peoples of the USSR, primarily into Russian, and were staged in all Soviet theaters.
During the war of 1941-1945. Korneichuk was in the active army as a political worker and correspondent for national newspapers. His play The Front (1942) was widely known. I still remember the content of this play, although my mother took me to see this play at the Russian Drama Theater in Kiev when I was twelve years old. The play "Front" was written on the personal instructions of Stalin and even with his editing. In this play, the old generals - the heroes of the Civil War, who did not know how to fight in the new conditions, were criticized. The names of the main characters of the play, Gorlov and Ognev, became household names. Gorlov is a symbol of militant ignorance and careerism, Ognev is a symbol of intelligence and courage. Between them throughout the drama there is an acute conflict, during which the fate of the tactics of modern war is decided. Korneichuk showed that Gorlov's military methods inevitably lead to defeat, due to their backwardness and mediocrity.
Stalin immediately appreciated the merits of the play and recommended it for publication in the Pravda newspaper. The play was published in four issues of the newspaper for August 24-27, 1942.
It caused various responses, including sharply negative ones. In the archives of I.V. Stalin, correspondence about this play has been preserved. On August 28, 1942, the commander of the North-Western Front, Marshal S.K. Timoshenko, sent a telegram to I.V. Stalin, in which he noted: “The play of Comrade Korneichuk published in the press deserves special attention. This play has been harming us for centuries, it must be withdrawn. The author should be held accountable, the perpetrators in this regard should be sorted out.
On the same day, I.V. Stalin replied to S.K. Timoshenko with a telegram:
NORTH-WESTERN FRONT TO MARSHAL TYMOSHENKO
Your telegram about Korneichuk's play "Front" received. You are wrong about the play. The play will be of great educational value for the Red Army and its commanders. The play correctly points out the shortcomings of the Red Army, and it would be wrong to turn a blind eye to these shortcomings. You need to have the courage to admit shortcomings and take steps to eliminate them. This is the only way to improve and perfect the Red Army.
I. STALIN.
On September 1, 1942, J.V. Stalin, on a copy of the telegram received from S.K. Timoshenko, wrote: "To T-shu Korneichuk. I am sending you a telegram from Comrade Timoshenko and my answer for your information. The style of Comrade Tymoshenko's telegram has been completely preserved, hello ! I. Stalin".
On September 3, 1942, A.E. Korneichuk, in a response letter, heartily thanked I.V. Stalin for his attention and support.
In response to the indignation of other generals, Stalin said: "Fight better, then there will be no such plays." Stalin ordered to issue tickets for the play "Front" to generals and officers who worked in Moscow or arrived in Moscow on a temporary business trip, and to check whether they watched this play.

The writer donated the Stalin Prize he received for the play to the Defense Fund. However, this was a common wartime practice. My classmate, whose grandfather also became a laureate during the war, told me that his grandfather Grigory Svetlitsky (People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR) learned on the radio that he had been awarded the Stalin Prize, and that he had already transferred the money due to him to the Defense Fund.
***
Korneichuk's play "Front", remade into a mocking pamphlet on the Red Army, was staged by director V.A. Vsevolod Blumenthal-Tamarin himself played the main role in this play - General Gorlov, renamed Gorlopanov.
***
It is possible that generals Vasily Nikolaevich Gordov and Grigory Ivanovich Kulik were the prototypes of General Gorlov in A, Korneichuk's play "The Front". They fought throughout the Patriotic War, sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully, for mistakes they were removed from their posts. After the war, they were accused of intending to betray the Motherland, to commit terrorist attacks, and in group anti-Soviet activities. At the trial, they retracted their testimonies during the investigation. They were sentenced to death and the next day, August 24, 1950, they were shot. After the XX Congress of the CPSU, they were posthumously rehabilitated.
***
There is an opinion that the prototype of General Ognev, the main positive character of the play "Front", was the real Ossetian military figure Pliev. It is possible that Korneichuk thus beaten two variants of the command adopted in the army to open fire: the order "Fire!" and the order "Cry!"
Issa Aleksandrovich Pliev (1903 - 1979) - Ossetian, Soviet military leader, army general since 1962. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic. In 1936 - 1938. - Advisor in the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army. In 1939, commanding a cavalry regiment of the 6th Cavalry Division, he took part in a campaign in Western Belarus.
During the Great Patriotic War he fought on the Western, Southern, South-Western, Steppe, 3rd Ukrainian, 1st Belorussian, 2nd Ukrainian fronts. Since July 1941, he commanded the 50th Cavalry Division (since November 1941 - the 3rd Guards Cavalry Division), in August - December 1941, raiding the rear of Army Group Center in the Smolensk region and in the Moscow region. From December 1941 - commanded the 2nd Guards, from April 1942 - the 5th, from July - the 3rd Guards, from November 1943 - the 4th Guards Corps. From November 1944, Pliev headed the First Cavalry Mechanized Group. He commanded troops in the Moscow and Stalingrad battles, in the Melitopol, Bereznegovato-Snigirevskaya, Odessa, Belorussian, Budapest and Prague operations. For the skillful command and control of troops during the crossing of the Southern Bug River, in the battles for Odessa, and for the courage and heroism shown, Pliev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet-Japanese War, he commanded a cavalry-mechanized group in the Khingan-Mukden operation of 1945. For success in defeating the Japanese Kwantung Army, he was awarded the second Gold Star medal. During the years of the Great Patriotic War, I. A. Pliev was mentioned 16 times in the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the USSR.
From July 1946 he commanded the 9th Mechanized Army of the Southern Group of Forces, from February 1947 - the 13th Army of the Carpathian Military District, from April 1949 - the 4th Army of the Transcarpathian Military District. In 1949 he graduated from the Higher Academic Courses at the Academy of the General Staff. In 1955-1958. - First Deputy Commander, and from April 1958 to 1968 - Commander of the North Caucasian Military District.
On June 2, 1962, the troops of the North Caucasian Military District headed by Pliev took part in suppressing the uprisings of the Novocherkassk workers. According to the memoirs of M.K. Shaposhnikov, it was I.A. Pliev who gave the order to open fire on the demonstrators.
During the Caribbean crisis from July 1962 to May 1963 he commanded the Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba. He had the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of a US invasion of Cuba. After returning from Cuba, he again took up the duties of commander of the North Caucasian Military District.
Pliev died on February 6, 1979 in Moscow, and was buried in Vladikavkaz, on the Walk of Fame.

In the prewar years, almost all key positions in the Red Army were given to active participants in the Civil War, especially people from the First Cavalry Army, the so-called forge of the leading military personnel of the Land of Soviets. Often, people without proper education, with outdated views on the conduct of hostilities, who misunderstood the role of tanks and aircraft in modern warfare, but who had great merits, got to the forefront. Mistakenly, they continued to rely on the cavalry to solve the strategic tasks of a future war ...

In the midst of the retreat of Soviet troops in the summer of 1942, when the Germans rushed to Stalingrad and the Caucasus, mortal danger hung over the country again, as in 1941. And then Stalin took a very original move.

From August 24 to August 27, the main newspaper of the country, Pravda, published the play Front by the famous Soviet playwright Alexander Korneichuk - the future Hero of Socialist Labor, academician, four times Stalin Prize winner and Lenin Prize winner. At the same time, Colonel Korneichuk was an employee of the political department of the Southwestern Front.

In the encyclopedia "The Great Patriotic War. 1941 - 1945" says: the play "was printed during the most difficult days of the summer campaign of 1942; it criticized the outdated methods of warfare (the image of General Gorlov), affirmed the spirit of creative quest, courage, innovation (the image of General Ognev). It should be noted that a month earlier, Stalin signed the famous Order No. 227, which was called “Not a step back!” in the troops. And the appearance of the play "Front" became to some extent a logical continuation of this order and had a significant impact on the fate of the army and the Motherland.

Further, very interesting, even, one might say, dramatic events began to occur. The first to attack the work of Korneichuk, already on August 28, 1942, was the former people's commissar of defense. In his rather chaotic telegram it says: “Comrade. Stalin. The play "Front" published in the press deserves special attention. This play has been harming us for centuries. It must be removed, the author held accountable. The perpetrators in this regard should be sorted out. Timoshenko.

Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko graduated from a machine-gun school during the First World War, and twice studied in the Red Army at the Higher Military Academic Courses (in 1922 and 1927). That's all the educational baggage of the Marshal of the Soviet Union. Timoshenko hardly guessed that the “co-author” of this play was actually Stalin himself. Whether or not he recognized himself in the image of General Gorlov is not known for sure, but the very fact of addressing the leader speaks volumes. A flurry of critical remarks by Soviet generals and marshals literally overwhelmed the editorial office of the newspaper and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. They demanded that the publication of the play be stopped and that the author be severely punished. Meanwhile, on Stalin's desk lay a typewritten copy of the published play with his resolution: “My corrections are in the text. St.".

What angered Marshal Timoshenko?

The negative character of the work is General Gorlov, commander of the front (that is, apparently, a throat-hook), for example, he said: “... I have book strategists, everyone is talking about military culture. They have to get their brains right."

His brother Miron answers him: “And you are doing very badly. We still have many uncultured commanders who do not understand modern warfare, and this is our misfortune. War cannot be won by courage alone. To win a war, in addition to courage, you also need the ability to fight in a modern way, you need to teach how to fight in a modern way. The experience of the Civil War is not enough for this.”

Another positive character in the play, Gaidar, a member of the Military Council of the Front, says the following words: “Stalin says that young, talented commanders should be more boldly promoted to leadership positions along with old commanders, and those who are capable of waging war in a modern way, and not according to the old fashioned way, able to learn from the experience of modern warfare, able to grow and move forward. We must beat them, these narcissistic ignoramuses, beat them into blood, to smithereens and quickly replace them with other, new, young, talented people, otherwise our great cause can be ruined. The underlined words are inscribed in the text by Iosif Vissarionovich himself. In principle, this is the main leitmotif of the work.

Despite the enormous employment of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the Marshal on the same day received a rather harsh and unambiguous answer:

"Owls. Secret

Northwestern Front, to Marshal Timoshenko

I received your telegram about Korneichuk's play The Front.

You are wrong about the play. The play will be of great educational value for the Red Army and its commanders. The play correctly points out the shortcomings of the Red Army, and it would be wrong to turn a blind eye to these shortcomings. You need to have the courage to admit shortcomings and take steps to eliminate them. This is the only way to improve and perfect the Red Army.

I. STALIN,

28.VIII.1942.

Moreover, on September 1, Stalin sent copies of Timoshenko's telegram and his answer to the author of the play for review:

"T-shchu Korneichuk

For your information, I am sending you a telegram from Comrade Timoshenko and my reply. The style of Comrade Timoshenko's telegram has been fully preserved.

Hello. I. Stalin.

Stalin's last phrase drew the writer's attention to the marshal's poor knowledge of the Russian language. The playwright's response is less official and is written in a form free from officialdom:

“Dear Joseph Vissarionovich!

Thank you very much for your attention. I read the telegram and your answer. As far as I understand, comrade. Tymoshenko demands that I be judged for the play. This is not so scary yet, since unknown “grateful” readers give me an oath by phone that they will definitely break my bones. I live in the hope that they will not attack me all together, but one by one. With God's help, I will survive. The spirit of Zaporozhye has not yet died out.

With deep respect,

Alexander Korneychuk

The emotions of the author can be imagined, but it is not clear here whether he understood the importance of his work for the fate of many Soviet marshals and generals? Soon some of them, and not a small one, will leave their posts. The playwright had to hear a lot of unflattering words addressed to him and even threats from the military. But having such a “co-author” behind him, one could not especially worry. Moreover, for his work he received the most prestigious award of the time.

On August 27, 1942, Pravda completed the publication of the sensational play. And literally the next day, a message appeared in the newspapers about the appointment of the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Army General, Hero of the Soviet Union G. Zhukov, and the removal of Marshal S. Budyonny from his first post. The second position was introduced for the first time, and the Commander-in-Chief had the only deputy throughout the war, Georgy Konstantinovich remained all the time. According to the play, it turned out that one of the “Gorlovs” was removed, and one of the “Fire” was appointed to his position.

On September 11, 1942, the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army reported to the Commander-in-Chief: “To Comrade STALIN I.V.

At the same time, I am enclosing a draft review of A. Korneichuk's play The Front. I ask permission to print the review without a signature in the newspapers Pravda, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Krasnaya Zvezda and in front-line newspapers.

A. Shcherbakov.

After Stalin's personal editing, a laudatory review of the play appeared in print on September 29. I quote a separate fragment: “Korneichuk boldly and decisively points out the shadow sides of the Red Army, which prevent our heroes from defeating the Germans. He does not stop at exposing the ignorance of the front commander and showing that under the importance and feigned grandeur of a major general hides narrowness and ignorance, stagnation, conservatism, unwillingness to keep pace with the development of advanced military science. The review again hit "not in the eyebrow, but in the eye" on the poorly educated marshals and generals, many of whom did not correspond to their high positions, although they had personal courage and heroism.

Korneichuk's play was staged in dozens of metropolitan and provincial theaters. Soon the feature film "Front" was released, which was also shown in the army. Its directors were Sergei Dmitrievich Vasilyev and Georgy Nikolaevich Vasilyev, who shot the cult film Chapaev in 1934.

Stalin instructed the leadership of the Glavpur of the Red Army to find out the opinion of the highest command staff about the play. Colonel-General I. Konev, in the course of a conversation with the leader, frankly gave her a negative assessment. The opponent sharply objected to him: “You don’t understand anything. This is a political issue, a political necessity. In this play there is a struggle with the obsolete, obsolete. You are presumptuous, you are arrogant. You, the military, understand everything, know everything, but we, the civilians, do not understand. We understand better than you what is needed and what is not needed.

Zhukov, in the course of a conversation with Stalin, deftly evaded a direct answer, declaring that he had not yet read the play and that he did not have any opinion about it.

The commander of the artillery of the Western Front, Lieutenant General I. Camera, in an interview with Lieutenant General N. Bulganin, said: “I would not know what I did with this writer. This is an ugly play, I would have finished with him. This became known to the leader, and the military general barely managed to remain in his post.

The publication of the play "Front" in the Soviet media debunked the myth of the indisputable authority of the nominees of the First Cavalry Army, who for almost a quarter of a century completely occupied the entire Soviet military Olympus. Stalin began to nominate a new generation of generals to key positions in the Red Army, capable not in words but in deed of smashing the German troops. This primarily applies to Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Rokossovsky, Konev, Vatutin, Chernyakhovsky, Meretskov and many other generals. It was they who conquered Berlin and forced the Nazi high command to capitulate. And marshals Voroshilov, Timoshenko, Budyonny and Kulik remained on the sidelines, but after the death of Stalin, the first three managed to get along well.

Today, the play "Front" is rarely mentioned by Russian historians. Little was written about her in Soviet times. The significance of Korneichuk's work for achieving a great victory over the aggressors is practically not studied, and in fact, in modern terms, it was Stalin's successful PR action.

Before the war, Marshal of the Soviet Union K. Voroshilov served as deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, chairman of the Military Council of the USSR, and before that for a long time - from 1925 to 1940 he headed the People's Commissariat of Defense. As a result of the Soviet-Finnish war in May 1940, he was removed from the post of people's commissar. On April 1, 1942, by decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, he was transferred to rear military work for serious shortcomings in combat activities.

Marshal and Hero of the Soviet Union S. Timoshenko since May 1940 was the people's commissar of defense. The legendary hero of the Civil War, cavalryman No. 1 of the Land of Soviets, Marshal S. Budyonny was the first deputy people's commissar of defense, Marshal and Hero of the Soviet Union G. Kulik - deputy people's commissar of defense. By the summer of 1942, they all showed their failure in the conduct of modern warfare and lost their posts. Moreover, Grigory Kulik was convicted in February 1942 and stripped of the titles of Marshal and Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1946, the deputy commander of the Volga Military District, Kulik, with the rank of major general, was dismissed, the next year he was arrested and, after a long investigation, in 1950, he was convicted and shot.

At the beginning of the war, Marshals Timoshenko, Voroshilov and Budyonny became part of the country's highest military body - the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. However, in February 1945 they were replaced by others - more modern and talented military leaders. During the life of Stalin, they did not receive the highest award of the Motherland - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but after the death of the leader, Budyonny became a Hero three times, Voroshilov - a Hero of the Soviet Union and a Hero of Socialist Labor, Timoshenko - twice a Hero of the Soviet Union.

FRONT OF KORNEYCHUK
To the 100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding playwright

An astrologer would probably say that they were born under the same star. Don Cossack Mikhail Sholokhov and his Ukrainian friend Alexander Korneichuk, whose centennial anniversaries we are celebrating these May days, are the same age. The author of The Quiet Flows the Don is only one day older than the famous Soviet playwright. Evidence of their special closeness is a touching telegram received by Alexander Evdokimovich from the village of Veshenskaya on the eve of his 65th birthday: “Dear Sasha spt I congratulate you on a sad date spt I hug you tightly period From the fair we start off together period Please do not rush and put the whip under the seat period Your Mikhail Sholokhov.
Much related these talented peers. Here it is appropriate to recall the Ukrainian roots of the Sholokhov genealogy, and the fact that both writers are from the outback (Korneichuk’s native Khristinovka, in the Cherkassy region, is also a Cossack land, and the Don and Cherkassy Cossacks have been friends since ancient times) ... At one time, the stanitsa and the son of a railway locksmith came to great literature and quickly took a leading position in it, combining writing with multifaceted social activities. Both were baptized with the fire of the Great Patriotic War and, equating the pen to the bayonet, brought the Victory closer. Sholokhov's story "The Fate of a Man" and Korneichuk's play "The Front", created by him in the formidable 1942 next to the front line, are recorded on its tablets ... The work of each was generously awarded with the highest government awards and international prizes. Nobel laureate Sholokhov spoke on an equal footing with Stalin and other world leaders. Korneichuk, a member of the Presidium of the World Peace Council, could debate for hours with the "brilliant hunchback", the leader of existentialism, Sartre... Taking the opportunity, the famous philosopher presented all his claims and accounts to the communist ideology, demanded an answer. And, as eyewitnesses recall, he received such an authoritative answer - in front of him sat a no less brilliant orator and a convinced communist.
Of course, the very nature of creativity, the civic and artistic temperament of the great prose writer and leading playwright of the country of the Soviets, are different. If the indomitable genius of Sholokhov, responding to the challenges of the era, managed to rise above all conjuncture and subordination and often boldly entered into polemics with those in power, then the accommodating Korneichuk, in the opinion of even benevolent interpreters of his work, stood in the position of subordinating literature to political slogans, and belonging to "higher echelons" of power (the writer alternately held the posts of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Chairman of the Committee on Arts, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR ...) seemed to increase the "engagement" of the playwright, forced, as he himself stated, "to be in his work not only a professional writer, but also a public, political figure. Hence the superficial assertions of other modern interpreters about the artistic inferiority of his plays, allegedly inherent in them for illustrativeness and non-conflict, frank "varnishing" of reality. And this is even said about such things as “Death of the Squadron”, “Platon Krechet”, “Front”, which were included in the golden fund of Soviet dramaturgy, as well as the plays of recent years “Diary Page”, “Memory of the Heart”, in which the writer made interesting attempts to socially -psychological analysis of the spiritual world of the people of the post-war era ... It seems that the laurels of the frantic "proletcultists" who, in the post-revolutionary frenzy, tried to throw the classics of their native literature off the ship of modernity, do not give rest to the current overthrowers of the luminaries, this time already - Soviet literature. And in these attacks, Korneichuk got, perhaps, no less from the broad fellow countrymen than his Russian counterpart from the bark beetles Yerofeevs.
Here, for example, are passages from the History of Ukrainian Literature of the 20th Century. Textbook for students of humanitarian specialties of universities”, published in Kyiv in 1998: “Hatred of life, “death love” of fighters with their people - these are the fundamental psychological “settings” of the collective subconscious, to which the “optimistic tragedy” of A. Korneichuk appealed” ( We are talking about the "Death of the squadron"). It should be noted that in this first significant work of his, which brought all-Union recognition to the twenty-eight-year-old playwright, the author reflected the tragic episode of the Civil War. 1918 Ukraine - under the heel of the German invaders, the invaders broke into the Crimea. There was a real threat that they would capture the Black Sea squadron stationed in Sevastopol. To prevent this from happening, V.I. Lenin orders the commander of the Black Sea Fleet to sink the ships. In this situation, a tragic conflict arises: with your own hands to destroy the squadron, so necessary for the revolution. The sharpness of the moment reveals the characters' characters to the limit, creates extremely intense political and psychological collisions, clashes in the drama ... “I met an old boatswain who has been sailing for 20 years on the Black Sea,” the playwright recalled about the preparatory work on the play. - And he said to me: “You may not be interested, but when the last ship was sunk, we cleaned it, washed it, even painted individual parts so that the ship would be given to the clean sea, this was the last rush to the ship dying for the revolution ... Is it not in this sacrifice of the Russian and Ukrainian sailors of the Black Sea squadron (let us recall at the same time the heroes of the legendary Varyag) that the authors of the mentioned textbook “psychoanalytically” saw “hatred of being” and “love of death”?
It is clear that such pseudo-scientific comments are intended only to turn the student away from reading the play itself, especially since its text has not been republished for a long time. But turning to it, the modern reader will find quite relevant associations and parallels there ... "The Death of the Squadron" ... is a play of such high political tension and pathos that we decided to put it on the October holidays this year and have already started it ”, - said in 1933 about, alas, the unfulfilled plans of the famous Ukrainian theater “Berezil”, its leader, the outstanding director Les Kurbas, who was soon repressed. And this truly authoritative recognition of a stone upon a stone does not leave the current detractors of Korneichuk from the literary Olympus from far-fetched accusations.
They also made many attempts to falsify the content of the play "Front", which, without exaggeration, became a milestone not only for Ukrainian, but for the entire multinational Soviet dramaturgy. According to M. Pogodin, she "determined the main direction of the theater repertoire, set the tone, ... had a huge impact on the best plays of the war years." “I think with respect of this work by Alexander Korneichuk, born in the cold rooms of an empty Voronezh house,” wrote Mykola Bazhan, emphasizing how boldly, decisively and frankly it says about the shortcomings and mistakes of our military command, and even said in such terrible times . Sharply and truthfully exposing the reasons for the failures of the Red Army, uncompromisingly condemning the commander of the front, Gorlov and the "Gorlovshchina", the author not only carried out some kind of party directive, but, on the contrary, he himself suggested that the leadership reconsider the style and methods of warfare. New approaches embody the image of Commander Ognev, who comes into conflict with Gorlov. Acting contrary to his instructions, according to his own bold creative plans, supported by the General Staff, Ognev organizes the withdrawal of troops from the encirclement, and strikes at the enemy himself. “This is a brave and wise play, it taught to fight and win. This play should be analyzed in military academies on a par with major operations in military theaters,” Konstantin Simonov spoke about the “Front”.
The playwright himself considered The Front to be the best and most expensive work in his creative baggage. The play did a good job of winning. It is printed in a million copies in the Pravda newspaper and is literally mobilized to the front: the play, circulated in two hundred thousand pamphlets, was sent by the political departments of the fronts to the fighting armies, divisions, regiments, reached the middle and junior officers, finding a lively response in the souls of the soldiers.
According to the authors of the mentioned textbook, A. Korneichuk expressed in the “Front” only “the thoughts and mindsets of the party hierarchy”, and the people, they say, appear in this performance “as an extra, a participant in mass scenes, “human material ...”
Strange, reeking of sadomasochism, self-abasement of one's own national culture! Although it is immediately (you can’t hide an awl in a bag!) It is reported that the play was not only “admiredly received by the Stalinist party leadership”, but also “highly appreciated by the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, calling it a model of military self-criticism, it was also staged abroad.” A historian of literature should be proud of such a work that does honor to any national literature! Objectively analyze and recall its contribution to the common Victory over fascism. But no, there is a desire to quickly (as in those times!) Stick a label of ideological reassessment on the play and - at it from school programs, from anthologies, from publishing plans, and even more so from the theater stages! Korneichuk, they say, is not only aesthetically depreciated, hopelessly outdated, but also politically dangerous ...
Such a tongue-tied tirade-charade from the thrice-mentioned textbook sounds like a categorical verdict: “Platon Krechet saves patients from physical death with a surgeon’s scalpel, but such intellectuals, professing communist morality, albeit involuntarily, took part in the spiritual, historical murder of a people who gave them life ... "I just want to say to the custom-made critic-killer, shooting at the dead, and therefore unable to answer, the classics:" Pip on your tongue, evil and unreasonable zoil! Do you know that thousands of Soviet boys and girls, seeing in the play "Platon Krechet" a romantic dreamer, a humanist doctor, fell in love with this image, took an example from him, chose for themselves the noblest profession of a doctor, devoting their lives to healing the suffering? I myself know such wonderful doctors ... And how many have touched the soul, opened their eyes to everyday, moral, social problems, performances and films based on the dramas and comedies of A. Korneichuk, remembered by more than one generation: “Pravda”, “In the Steppes of Ukraine”, “Kalinovy ​​Gay ”, “Wings”, “Makar Dubrava”, “Diary Page”, “Memory of the Heart” and others.
Yes, times have changed. And, of course, many things in those plays are now perceived differently. But where, in what theaters to see their performances? What new editions to read? Let's ask theater producers and publishers about this and get a standard answer: "Korneichuk is not in demand today..."
Is that so? I think that if you put on the tragedy “Death of the Squadron” today, the theater will not burn out. At least in Kyiv, at least in Moscow, at least in Sevastopol ... And Bogdan Khmelnitsky, probably, as in the past years staged by the Moscow Art Theater, would not have done without a full house: the audience was sorely bored by the image of the glorious hetman. And Chasnyk and Galushka from the comedy "In the Steppes of Ukraine" and the movie of the war period, having returned to the audience, might have pressed the monopoly of the Little Russian "emancipe" Verka Serdyuchka, who stubbornly forms a shameful "Ukrainian image" on the Moscow stage, would have made each other smile kindly friend of both Ukrainian and Russian...
It so happened that it was Korneichuk who for the first time brought the Ukrainian play so visibly to the Moscow and the broadest international stage. And by this he attracted to his republic, its history, culture, the sympathy of millions of audience hearts from all over the Soviet Union and foreign countries, where performances based on his plays were staged for decades.
With these viewers, who forever remembered the images created by the playwright, Korneichuk is still modern today. Whatever the zealous exterminators of the memory of the tragic, but also beautiful Soviet era say, it comes to life in his best plays, as well as in the works of Mikhail Sholokhov, other masters of Soviet literature.
In the middle of the war, on the playwright's birthday on May 25, 1943, Maxim Rylsky presented A. Korneichuk with friendly poems:

In the days of the Zustrichi, and in the days of separation,
We uphill pidiymaєm kelikh,
In which Champagne sparkles,
Like a young sun of days of fun.

Hai do not shake your hand,
Hai do not torkaє heart tight, -
Also p`ёmo for Korniychuk
Yak for comrade i friend!

The day will come, mine viyna,
Rozkvitne new spring of love, -
Mi friendly kelihi wine
Prostyagnemo - Korniychukovi.

And let Sholokhov, Korneichuk, and Rylsky have long left the colorful life fair, let us extend to them "friendly bowls" filled with our grateful memory.

Characters

Gorlov- commander of the front.

Gaidar- Member of the Military Council.

Blagonravov- chief of staff of the front.

fire- commander of the army.

Ear- commander of the cavalry group.

Orlik- head of the political department of the army.

Amazing- head of the intelligence department of the front headquarters.

Gorlov Miron- director of the aircraft factory.

Gorlov Sergey- Guard Lieutenant.

Candle- Colonel of the Guard.

screamer- special correspondent.

Quiet- editor of the front newspaper.

Ostapenko- Guard Sgt.

Gomelauri- Guards junior sergeant.

Bashlykov- Guard Sgt.

Shayametov- Guards junior sergeant.

Marusya- nurse.

wheezing- chief of communications front.

Local- Chairman of the city executive committee.

Liver- fighter.

Sad- artist.

Commanders, adjutants, staff members, fighters, guests.

Act one

Picture one

Front Commander's Office. There is a map on the wall. Near her is the commander of the front, Gorlov. The adjutant enters.

Adjutant. Comrade commander, editor of the front-line newspaper, senior battalion commissar Tikhy, and special war correspondent, battalion commissar Comrade Krikun, ask you to give them five minutes.

Gorlov. Let them come in. (He pulled the cord, the card closed. He sat down at the table. He writes.)

Correspondent Krikun and editor Quiet enter. Crier has a large Mauser on his belt, a "watering can" hangs on his chest.

Sit down, I am now. (I have finished writing.) Well, clickers, what do you say? (Laughs.)

Quiet and Screamer stood up.

screamer. The editors of the capital's newspaper, which I have the honor to represent, have instructed me to convey to you, comrade commander of the front, to you, the fearless commander, warm congratulations! Today I was informed by telephone that the decree on awarding you with the order is placed in our newspaper on the first page. I was ordered an article about you, and with inexpressible joy I wrote an article in three hundred lines. In order not to be mistaken, let me know in what year did you receive your first order?

Gorlov. In one thousand nine hundred and twenty.

screamer (writes down). Yes, sir. Second?

Gorlov. The second - in one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one.

screamer. Wonderful! The third?

Gorlov. On the day of the twentieth anniversary of the Red Army.

screamer. Wonderful! (Writes.) Fourth?

Gorlov. And the fourth one is coming out today.

screamer. Oh yes, yes. I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Allow me to capture you for the metropolitan press.

Gorlov (smiled). Maybe not?

screamer. No way! The country should know its outstanding commanders. One minute. (He sent a watering can.) Yes, calmly. There is. One more minute. In profile. So. There is. Thanks to. Excuse me, comrade commander, the communication center refuses to transmit my material today. I have only two articles: one about the hero-fighters, the other about you. I beg you to help me.

Gorlov. And who offends you?

screamer. Commissioner. Speaks - long, it is necessary to reduce. But is it possible to reduce such material?

Gorlov. About me, perhaps, it should be cut, but about the fighters - it should not be.

screamer. I can't shorten it. The whole composition will crumble. Here the question is in architectonics, the style plan of the article is as follows ...

Gorlov. Well, well, well. And you people, clickers, spin the masters: composition, style and more ... how are you, these ... genres? Dark business. We soldiers are simple people. You just need to talk to us: so, they say, and so. Help, Comrade Commander, and we, if we can, will help. (Pressed the button.)

The adjutant entered.

To Khripun's wire.

Adjutant. Major General Khripun is here. Just got in.

Gorlov. Come on it.

Adjutant. There is. (Released.)

Gorlov. I love your brother, I respect him, but you write little and process little. You should go to the front line more. There is material...

screamer. I would love to live on the front line. But I am a special correspondent for the front and, unfortunately, I have to be at headquarters to cover everything. But don't worry, I'm getting stuff here and processing it. One hundred and five of my articles about heroes have already been published. The main thing for me is a fact, and I create everything else.

Gorlov. This is good. Need more.

The head of communications, Major General Khripun, enters.

wheezing. Allow me, comrade commander.

Gorlov. Sit down. Why do you offend the correspondent?

wheezing. The comrade correspondent did not contact me.

screamer. I contacted Comrade Commissar.

Gorlov. Give him a brain so that the newspapermen don't offend me. This is the right thing to do. The people must know how we fight. How many heroes do we have? And for history. But how? Someday, in fifty years, they will open the newspaper, and there, as in a mirror, you can see how we fought. This is a big deal.

wheezing. Yes, Comrade Commander. (Screamer.) Look at me in an hour.

screamer. Thank you.

Gorlov. But if they open our front-line newspaper, they will see so little there. Bad, bad work, comrade editor.

Quiet. I'm sorry, Comrade Commander. Let me know your comments. Let's take into account. Let's try. Let's fix it.

wheezing. Yes, today we almost rolled up a page of chatter.

Quiet. Is it about connection?

wheezing. What is the connection! You signed your stupidity. I reported to the commander, and he agrees with me.

Quiet. Comrade Commander, this is a conversation between our correspondent and Army Commander Ognev.

Gorlov (laughs). Do you think an army commander can't have nonsense in his head? How much do they have to brainwash. And Ognev especially. This one likes to soar in the clouds, and we live on earth. Stretch your legs over the clothes.

Quiet. Sorry, but in this case I think...

Gorlov. What do you think? You don't know twice two in military affairs. And already - "I think" ... What kind of chatter is this? (Picks up newspaper, looks.)

wheezing. Here (shows) at least this place...

Gorlov (is reading). “Those who should know that today it is impossible to command without real radio communications do not want to understand. This is not a civil war." Chatterbox! What does he know about the civil war? I walked under the table when we beat fourteen powers. And we will beat any enemy, and not with radio communications, but with heroism, valor! And he burst into tears: you can’t command. Well, let's learn.

screamer. Oh no no no!..

wheezing. But just think. (Is reading.)“Only our backwardness, the stupidity of individual commanders and chiefs, prevents us from putting radio communications on the proper level. There are all conditions for this.”

screamer. Ai-yay-yay! .. This is a criticism of the command.

wheezing. That would be nothing, but... (Is reading.)"Radio communications, like communications in general, are good among the Germans, and we need to learn from the enemy and overtake him." Do you understand what this means? Any fighter, commander, will read it. What will he say about his connection? Will it boost his morale? Why do we need to promote the fascist connection, who needs it?

Gorlov. Well, bribes are smooth from the editor. For him, this is dark matter, and Ognev will be here today. We will ask him. (Quiet.) But I warn you: if you poke your nose into other people's business, instead of properly showing our heroes-fighters, our heroes, day after day, then it will be bad.