Read the summary of Plato's return. "Return
Great Patriotic War left a mark on the soul of every Russian person. Much has been written about her in different ways, but in the first post-war years everything basically came down to exalting the image of a heroic soldier returning to his family after a long separation. In principle, no one argued with this, but there was another side to this joyful event. A. Platonov dedicated his story to this. “The Return,” a brief summary of which is given here, became a work that forced us to take a fresh look at how difficult it was for yesterday’s warriors to get used to peaceful life.
Scandalous publication
Authorities have long been wary of creativity. The situation worsened after the magazine " New world” published his new work “The Ivanov Family” (later the name changed and became more capacious). “The most disgusting slander against the Soviet people,” was the description of the story “Return” a few months later in an article by V. Ermilov. Platonov (a brief summary of the text will show this) portrayed Alexei, who returned from the front, not at all in a heroic aura. Moreover, some of his actions cause condemnation from the reader, which is contrary to the established tradition. Let's see what is unusual about the story.
The long-awaited mobilization
It was September 1945. The captain of the guard with the common surname Ivanov (this fact is not accidental) was given the opportunity to go home. For four years he did not see his little daughter. I sent a telegram in advance and began to prepare for a meeting with my family. This is how Platonov’s story “The Return” begins.
The unexpected meeting of the hero with Masha - important point. Alexey’s train was delayed for the second day when he saw an acquaintance at the station. The girl served in the dining room, and now she was also heading home. They quickly got along, as both were afraid of meeting with past life, from which we lost the habit during the war years.
On the way home: summary
Platonov’s “Return” continues with a story about a short relationship that arose between Alexei and his friend. When the train entered the city where Masha lived, Ivanov suddenly got off with her. The twenty-year-old girl was very grateful to her companion, as she was afraid of the future. Her parents were kidnapped by the Germans, and she felt lonely. Alexey also experienced incomprehensible confusion. He should have gone home, but he kept putting off meeting his family.
Meeting with family
They had been waiting for Alexey Alekseevich at home for the sixth day. The wife asked for leave from the brick factory and went to the train three times. On the day of arrival, twelve-year-old Petrusha (or Peter, as an adult called him in the story “The Return” by Platonov) was waiting for his father at the station. The summary of the dialogue that arose and the description of their meeting is as follows. The father saw in his son a little man who was accustomed to everyday problems. And he behaved like an adult. He sensibly asked why he had been traveling for so long and how many orders he had received, then he took his duffel bag and headed towards the house.
Lyubov Vasilievna was waiting on the porch. She had already cleaned the house, and only one thought bothered her - Semyon Evseevich, who had lost his family and was now attached to her children.
Alexey hugged his wife and felt a “familiar warmth.” Little Nastya, who did not remember her father at all, grabbed his leg and tried to pull him away from her mother.
We entered the house. While his wife and children were busy preparing dinner, Ivanov looked around the room and seemed to be getting to know it all over again. The smell of his home and the observation of the bustle that was taking place evoked pleasant and at the same time disturbing thoughts in him - the author conveys their brief content.
Platonov’s “return” is more a description of Alexey’s “getting used to” his new life. He seemed to see his family in front of him, but for some reason he did not feel joy from the meeting. Lyubov Vasilievna, who had become unaccustomed to him, was shy and behaved as in her youth. My daughter performed simple work around the house. Petrushka gave commands in a familiar tone and somewhat resembled a grumbling old man.
Alexey looked at them and tried to understand how they lived without him. And he felt shame because he did not have a strong fatherly feeling for his son.
First family dinner
Finally everyone gathered at the table. Parsley ate a piece of the pie and collected all the crumbs. When asked to take more, he seriously replied that he was full. His words: “I want you to get more” made the parents shudder. Nastya also moved her piece away. She said that this was for Semyon Evseevich. Alexey tensed - this moment became the beginning of a difficult conversation between the spouses. Lyubov Vasilyevna tried to avoid the topic, briefly answering that the man had lost his family and was now coming to them to tinker with the children. This makes her feel calmer: she works late, and the guys are under supervision. However, Ivanov did not like the answer.
Petrushka, sensing something was wrong, turned the conversation to the weather, then gave orders for tomorrow. They also concerned my father, who urgently needed to register and receive cards. Alexei suddenly felt timid in front of his son, who had matured early.
They ate cabbage soup in silence, as if trying to enjoy the quiet family happiness- this is how A. Platonov ends the story about dinner.
“Return”: the content of the night conversation
Lyubov Vasilievna was waiting for the evening to be alone with her husband. But the conversation did not work out. Parsley woke up and heard the loud voices of his parents. Alexey accused his wife of having an affair with Semyon Evseevich, and she tried to explain that there was nothing between them. Lyubov Vasilievna talked about the difficult life with two small children - Petrushka did not immediately become a housewife. About the fact that I always thought only about my husband. And only once did she succumb to feelings, when it was already unbearable to endure both the hardships of life and endless loneliness. But she immediately noticed that the meeting with the district committee instructor made her understand how much she lived in hope of his return. Platonov (a summary of the conversation cannot convey all the feelings of the heroine) draws attention to a woman who did not feel guilty, but was also unable to convince her husband of this. The sound of the glass cracking on the lamp - it was crushed by Alexey - forced his son to intervene in the conversation. He stood up for his mother and told a story about a local man, Khariton. While he was fighting, his wife lived with others. When he returned, he was angry at first, and then he came up with a story that he also had women. Now they live on good terms. Ivanov was embarrassed: “I thought he would say about my Masha too...”
Unexpected insight
What happened this morning can be called a “real comeback.” Platonov - summary and full text The ending of the story proves this - by this word I meant not just the hero’s arrival home.
Waking up, Petrushka saw Nastya. She said the father took the bag and left. The boy understood everything, grabbed his sister’s hand and ran to the station.
At that time, Alexey entered the vestibule of the moving train: he was thinking about Masha. Suddenly Ivanov saw children running after the train. They fell, but got up and moved forward again, this time towards the crossing. Suddenly Alexey realized that it was Petrushka and Nastya. His chest became hot, and his whole being was filled with “warmth and shuddering.” An unusual feeling gripped the hero. “Before he felt another life through the barrier of pride and self-interest, but now he suddenly touched it with his naked heart.”
He threw the bag onto the ground and got off the train...
An analysis of Platonov’s “Return” allows us to understand how difficult the process of getting used to the peaceful life of yesterday’s soldier was, for a long time who saw only death and destruction.
Having served throughout the war, Guard Captain Alexey Alekseevich Ivanov is leaving the army due to demobilization. At the station, while waiting for a long time for the train, he meets a girl named Masha, the daughter of a space manager, who served in the canteen of their unit. They travel together for two days, and for another two days Ivanov stays in the city where Masha was born twenty years ago. Ivanov kisses Masha goodbye, remembering forever that her hair smells “like autumn fallen leaves in the forest.”
A day later, Ivanov’s son Petrushka meets him at the station of his hometown. He is already twelve years old, and the father does not immediately recognize his child in the serious teenager. His wife Lyubov Vasilyevna is waiting for them on the porch of the house. Ivanov hugs his wife, feeling the forgotten and familiar warmth of his beloved person. The daughter, little Nastya, does not remember her father and is crying. Parsley pulls her back: “This is our father, he is our relatives!” The family begins to prepare a festive treat. Petrushka commands everyone - Ivanov is surprised at how mature and wise his son is like an old man. But he likes little meek Nastya better. Ivanov asks his wife how they lived here without him. Lyubov Vasilyevna is ashamed of her husband, like a bride: she has lost the habit of him. Ivanov feels with shame that something is preventing him from rejoicing with all his heart in returning, - after many years he cannot immediately understand even the closest people of separation.
The family is sitting at the table. The father sees that the children eat little. When the son indifferently explains: “And I want you to get more,” the parents, shuddering, look at each other. Nastya hides a piece of pie - “for Uncle Semyon.” Ivanov asks his wife who this Uncle Semyon is. Lyubov Vasilyevna explains that the Germans killed Semyon Evseevich’s wife and children, and he asked them to go play with the children, and they didn’t see anything bad from him, but only good... Listening her, Ivanov smiles unkindly and lights a cigarette. Petrushka manages the housework, instructs his father to make allowances tomorrow - and Ivanov feels his shyness in front of his son.
In the evening after dinner, when the children go to bed, Ivanov asks his wife for details of the life she spent without him. Parsley overhears, he feels sorry for his mother. This conversation is painful for both - Ivanov is afraid of confirmation of his suspicions of his wife’s infidelity, but she openly admits that she had nothing with Semyon Yevseevich. She was waiting for her husband and loved only him. Only once, “when her soul was completely dying,” did one person become close to her, an instructor at the district committee, but she regretted that she had allowed him to be close. She realized that only with her husband could she be calm and happy. “Without you, I have nowhere to go, I can’t save myself for the children... Live with us, Alyosha, it will be good for us!” - says Lyubov Vasilyevna. Parsley hears her father groaning and crushing the glass of the lamp with a crunch. “You wounded me in my heart, and I am also a person, not a toy...” In the morning, Ivanov gets ready. Parsley tells him everything about their hard life without him, how his mother was waiting for him, but he arrived, and his mother was crying. His father gets angry with him: “You still don’t understand anything!” - “You yourself don’t understand. We have something to do, we need to live, and you are swearing like stupid..." And Petrushka tells the story about Uncle Khariton, whose wife cheated on him, and they also curse They talked, and then Khariton said that he, too, had a lot of people at the front, and he and his wife laughed and made peace, although Khariton made up everything about his infidelities... Ivanov was surprised listens to this story.
He goes to the station in the morning, drinks vodka and takes the train to go to Masha, whose hair smells like nature. At home, Petrushka, waking up, sees only Nastya - her mother has left for work. After asking Nastya how her father left, he thinks for a minute, dresses his sister and leads her along.
Ivanov is standing in the vestibule of a train that passes not far from his house. At the crossing he sees figures of children - the bigger one quickly drags the smaller one behind him, who doesn’t have time to kick his legs. Ivanov already knows that these are his children. They are far behind, and Petrushka is still dragging the slow-moving Nastya behind him. Ivanov throws his duffel bag on the ground, goes down to the bottom step of the car and gets off the train “on that sandy path along which his children ran after him.”
Alexey Alekseevich Ivanov, a guard captain, was leaving the army due to demobilization. In the unit where he served throughout the war, Ivanov was seen off, as it should be, with regret, with love, respect, with music and wine. Close friends and comrades went with Ivanov to the railway station and, having said their final goodbyes there, left Ivanov alone. The train, however, was many hours late, and then, when those hours were up, even more late. The cold autumn night was already approaching; The station was destroyed during the war, there was nowhere to spend the night, and Ivanov took a passing car back to his unit. The next day, Ivanov’s colleagues saw him off again; they again sang songs and hugged the departing one as a sign of eternal friendship with him, but they spent their feelings in a more abbreviated manner, and it happened in a narrow circle of friends. Then Ivanov left for the station for the second time; at the station he learned that yesterday's train had still not arrived, and therefore Ivanov could, in essence, return to the unit again for the night. But it was inconvenient to go through the farewell for the third time, to disturb his comrades, and Ivanov was left bored on the deserted asphalt of the platform. Near the exit switch of the station there was a surviving switch post booth. On the bench next to that booth sat a woman in a padded jacket and a warm scarf; She was sitting there yesterday with her things, and now she’s sitting there, waiting for the train. Leaving yesterday to spend the night at the unit, Ivanov thought: shouldn’t we invite this lonely woman too, let her also spend the night with the nurses in a warm hut, why should she freeze all night, it is unknown whether she will be able to warm up in the switchman’s hut. But while he was thinking, the passing car started moving, and Ivanov forgot about this woman. Now that woman was still motionless in yesterday’s place. This constancy and patience meant the fidelity and immutability of a woman’s heart - at least in relation to things and her home, where this woman probably returned. Ivanov approached her: maybe she, too, would not be as bored with him as she would be alone. The woman turned to face Ivanov, and he recognized her. It was a girl, her name was “Masha - the daughter of a spaceman,” because that’s what she once called herself, being really the daughter of an employee in a bathhouse, a spaceman. Ivanov occasionally met her during the war, visiting one BAO, where this Masha, the daughter of a space manager, served in the canteen as a freelance cook's assistant. The autumn nature around them was dull and sad at that hour. The train that was supposed to take both Masha and Ivanov home from here was located somewhere in the gray space. The only thing that could comfort and entertain a man's heart was the heart of another man. Ivanov got into a conversation with Masha, and he felt good. Masha was pretty, simple in soul and kind with her big working hands and healthy, young body. She, too, was returning home and thinking about how she would now live her new civilian life; she got used to her military friends, got used to the pilots who loved her like an older sister, gave her chocolate and called her “spacious Masha” for her large stature and heart, which, like a true sister, accommodates all brothers in one love and no one in separately. And now Masha felt unusual, strange and even afraid to go home to her relatives, from whom she had already lost the habit. Ivanov and Masha now felt orphaned without an army; however, Ivanov could not remain in a sad state for long; It seemed to him that at such moments someone was laughing at him from afar and was happy instead of him, and he remained only a frowning simpleton. Therefore, Ivanov quickly turned to the work of life, that is, he found himself some kind of occupation or consolation, or, as he himself put it, a simple joy at hand, and thus came out of his despondency. He moved closer to Masha and asked her, in a comradely way, to allow him to kiss her on the cheek. “I’m just a little bit,” said Ivanov, “otherwise the train is late, it’s boring to wait for it.” - Just because the train is late? - Masha asked and looked carefully into Ivanov’s face. The former captain looked about thirty-five years old; the skin on his face, blown by the winds and tanned by the sun, had brown; Ivanov’s gray eyes looked at Masha modestly, even shyly, and although he spoke directly, he spoke delicately and kindly. Masha liked his dull, hoarse voice of an elderly man, his dark, rough face and the expression of strength and defenselessness on him. Ivanov extinguished the fire in the pipe with his thumb, insensitive to the smoldering heat, and sighed, waiting for permission. Masha moved away from Ivanov. He smelled strongly of tobacco, dry toasted bread, a little wine - those pure substances that came from fire or could themselves give birth to fire. It seemed that Ivanov lived only on tobacco, crackers, beer and wine. Ivanov repeated his request. - I’m careful, I’m superficial, Masha... Imagine that I’m your uncle. “I already imagined... I imagined that you were my dad, not my uncle.” - Look... So will you allow... “Fathers don’t ask their daughters,” Masha laughed. Later, Ivanov admitted to himself that Masha’s hair smelled like autumn fallen leaves in the forest, and he could never forget them... Moving away from the railway track, Ivanov lit a small fire to cook scrambled eggs for dinner for Masha and for himself. At night a train came and took Ivanov and Masha in their direction, to their homeland. They rode together for two days, and on the third day Masha reached the city where she was born twenty years ago. Masha collected her things in the carriage and asked Ivanov to comfortably tuck the bag onto her back, but Ivanov took her bag onto his shoulders and followed Masha out of the carriage, although he still had more than a day to go to the place. Masha was surprised and touched by Ivanov’s attention. She was afraid to immediately be left alone in the city where she was born and lived, but which had now become almost a foreign land to her. Masha’s mother and father were kidnapped from here by the Germans and died in obscurity, and now only Masha has left in her homeland cousin and two aunts, and Masha did not feel any heartfelt affection for them. Ivanov arranged a stop in the city with the railway commandant and stayed with Masha. In fact, he would need to quickly go home, where his wife and two children, whom he had not seen for four years, were waiting for him. However, Ivanov postponed the joyful and anxious hour of meeting with his family. He himself did not know why he did this - perhaps because he wanted to walk a little longer in freedom. Masha did not know Ivanov’s marital status and, out of girlish shyness, did not ask him about him. She trusted Ivanov out of the kindness of her heart, without thinking about anything else. Two days later, Ivanov left further, to his native place. Masha saw him off at the station. Ivanov kissed her habitually and kindly promised to remember her image forever. Masha smiled back and said: - Why remember me forever? This is not necessary, and you will forget anyway... I don’t ask anything from you, forget me. - My dear Masha! Where were you before, why haven’t I met you for a long time? “Before the war, I was a ten-year-old, but a long, long time ago I wasn’t there at all... The train arrived and they said goodbye. Ivanov left and did not see how Masha, left alone, began to cry, because she could not forget anyone, not a friend, not a comrade, with whom fate had brought her together at least once. Ivanov looked through the window of the carriage at the passing houses of the town, which he would hardly ever see in his life, and thought that in the same similar house, but in another city, his wife Lyuba lived with their children Petka and Nastya, and they were waiting for him; He also sent a telegram from the unit to his wife that he was leaving home without delay and wanted to kiss her and the children as soon as possible. Lyubov Vasilievna, Ivanov’s wife, went out to all the trains that arrived from the west for three days in a row. She asked for time off from work, did not fulfill the quotas, and did not sleep at night with joy, listening to the pendulum of the wall clock moving slowly and indifferently. On the fourth day, Lyubov Vasilievna sent her children, Peter and Nastya, to the station so that they would meet their father if he arrived during the day, and she again went out to the night train herself. Ivanov arrived on the sixth day. He was met by his son Peter; Now Petrushka was already twelve years old, and the father did not immediately recognize his child in a serious teenager who seemed older than his age. The father saw that Peter was a short and thin boy, but he had a big head and a big forehead, and his face was calm, as if already accustomed to everyday worries, and his small brown eyes looked at white light gloomy and dissatisfied, as if they saw disorder everywhere. Petrushka was neatly dressed and shod: his shoes were worn, but still serviceable, his trousers and jacket were old, converted from his father’s civilian clothes, but without tears - where necessary, they were mended, where necessary, there was a patch, and the whole Petrushka looked like a small, poor, but serviceable peasant. The father was surprised and sighed. -Are you a father, or what? - Petrushka asked when Ivanov hugged and kissed him, lifting him towards him. - Know, father! - Father... Hello, Pyotr Alekseevich! — Hello... Why did you take so long? We waited and waited. - This is a train, Petya, it was moving quietly... How are mother and Nastya: alive and well? “Okay,” said Peter. — How many orders do you have? - Two, Petya, and three medals. “And my mother and I thought: there’s no clean place on your chest.” My mother also has two medals, they gave her what she deserved... Why don’t you have enough things - just one bag? - I don't need it anymore. — And whoever has a chest finds it difficult to fight? - asked the son. “It’s hard for that,” the father agreed. — It’s easier with one bag. No one has chests there. - And I thought it happens. I would take care of my belongings in a chest - in a bag it will break and become wrinkled. He took his father's duffel bag and carried it home, and his father followed him. Their mother met them on the porch of the house; She again asked to leave work, as if her heart felt that her husband would come today. She first went home from the factory and then went to the station. She was afraid that Semyon Evseevich had come home: he likes to come in sometimes during the day; he has this habit of appearing in the middle of the day and sitting with five-year-old Nastya and Petrushka. True, Semyon Evseevich never comes empty, he always brings something for the children - sweets, or sugar, or a white roll, or an order for manufactured goods. Lyubov Vasilievna herself did not see anything bad from Semyon Evseevich; For all these two years that they knew each other, Semyon Evseevich was kind to her, and he treated the children like a father, and even more attentive than another father. But today Lyubov Vasilievna did not want her husband to see Semyon Evseevich; she cleaned the kitchen and room, the house should be clean and nothing foreign. And later, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, she herself will tell her husband the whole truth, as it was. Fortunately, Semyon Evseevich did not show up today. Ivanov approached his wife, hugged her and stood with her without being separated, feeling the forgotten and familiar warmth of a loved one. Little Nastya left the house and, looking at her father, whom she did not remember, began to push him away from her mother, placing her hands on his leg, and then began to cry. Petrushka stood silently next to his father and mother, with his father’s bag over his shoulders; After waiting a little, he said: - Enough for you, otherwise Nastya is crying, she doesn’t understand. The father left the mother and took Nastya, who was crying with fear, into his arms. - Nastya! - Petrushka called out to her. - Come to your senses - who am I telling! This is our father, he is our relatives!.. In the house, the father washed himself and sat down at the table. He stretched out his legs, closed his eyes and felt quiet joy in his heart and calm contentment. The war is over. His feet had walked thousands of miles over the years, wrinkles of fatigue lay on his face, and pain stung his eyes under his closed eyelids - they now wanted to rest in the twilight or darkness. While he was sitting, his whole family was busy in the upper room and in the kitchen, preparing a festive treat. Ivanov looked at all the objects in the house in order - the wall clock, the cupboard, the thermometer on the wall, the chairs, the flowers on the windowsills, the Russian kitchen stove... They lived here for a long time without him and missed him. Now he returned and looked at them, again becoming acquainted with each one as with a relative who lived without him in melancholy and poverty. He breathed the familiar smell of the house—smoldering wood, the warmth from his children’s bodies, the burning of the stove. This smell was the same before, four years ago, and it did not dissipate or change without him. Nowhere else did Ivanov smell this smell, although he visited different countries in hundreds of homes; there was a different smell there, which, however, did not have the quality of home. Ivanov also remembered the smell of Masha, the way her hair smelled; but they smelled of forest leaves, of an unfamiliar overgrown road, not of home, but again of troubled life. What is she doing now and how did she settle down to live a civilian life? Masha is the daughter of a spatial engineer? God be with her... Ivanov saw that Petrushka was the most active in the house. Not only did he work himself, he also gave instructions to his mother and Nastya on what to do and what not to do, and how to do it correctly. Nastya obediently obeyed Petrushka and was no longer afraid of her father as a stranger; she had the lively, concentrated face of a child who does everything in life truthfully and seriously, and a kind heart, because she was not offended by Petrushka. - Nastya, empty the mug of potato skins, I need dishes... Nastya obediently emptied the mug and washed it. Meanwhile, the mother hastily prepared a quick cake, mixed without yeast, to put it in the stove, in which Parsley had already lit a fire. - Turn around, mother, turn around quickly! - Petrushka commanded. - You see, I have the oven ready. I'm used to digging, Stakhanovka! “Now, Petrusha, I’ll come now,” the mother said obediently. “I’ll add some raisins and that’s it, my father probably hasn’t eaten raisins for a long time.” I've been saving raisins for a long time. “He ate it,” said Parsley. “They also give our troops raisins.” Our fighters, look how big-faced they are walking around, they eat grub... Nastya, why did you sit down - come for a visit or something? Peel the potatoes and fry them in a frying pan for lunch... You can’t feed a family with just one pie! While his mother was preparing the pie, Petrushka put the cast iron with cabbage soup into the oven with a large stag so that the fire would not burn in vain, and immediately gave instructions to the fire itself in the oven: - Why are you burning like a shaggy man - look, you are fidgeting in all directions! Burn evenly. Gray right in front of the food, for nothing, or something, trees grew for firewood in the forest... And you, Nastya, why did you haphazardly shove wood chips into the oven, you should have laid it, as I taught you. And again you peel the potatoes thickly, but you need to peel them thinly - why are you peeling the meat from the potatoes: this wastes our nutrition... I’ve told you about this so many times, now I’m telling you the last time, and then you’ll get hit in the back of the head! “Why are you bothering Nastya, Petrusha,” the mother said meekly. - What do you want her for? Does she really know how to peel so many potatoes and so that you are fine, like a hairdresser, without touching the meat anywhere... Father came to us, and you are still angry! - I’m not angry, I’m on business... I need to feed my father, he came back from the war, and you’re spoiling good things... How much food has been lost in our potato peels for a whole year?.. If only we had a sow , we could fatten her up with one peel in a year and send her to an exhibition, and at the exhibition they would give us a medal... You saw what would happen, but you don’t understand! Ivanov did not know that such a son had grown up with him, and now he sat and was amazed at his intelligence. But he liked little meek Nastya more, who was also busy with her hands around the house, and her hands were already familiar and skillful. This means that they have long been accustomed to working around the house. “Luba,” Ivanov asked his wife, “why don’t you tell me anything - how have you lived without me this time, how is your health and what are you doing at work?.. Lyubov Vasilyevna was now embarrassed by her husband, like a bride: she had lost the habit of him. She even blushed when her husband addressed her, and her face, as in her youth, took on a shy, frightened expression, which Ivanov liked so much. - Nothing, Alyosha... We lived for nothing. The children were rarely sick, I raised them... It’s bad that I’m only at home with them at night. I work at a brick factory, for the press, it’s a long walk there... - Where do you work? - Ivanov did not understand. — At the brick factory, to the press. After all, I didn’t have any qualifications, at first I was a general worker in the yard, and then they trained me and put me on the press. It’s good to work, only the children are alone and alone... You see how they have grown. They know how to do everything themselves, just like adults have become,” Lyubov Vasilievna said quietly. - Whether this is a good thing, Alyosha, I don’t know myself... - We’ll see, Lyuba... Now we’ll all live together, then we’ll figure out what’s good and what’s bad... “Everything will be better with you, otherwise I’m the only one who doesn’t know what’s right and what’s wrong, and I was afraid.” Now you have to think about how we should raise our children... Ivanov stood up and walked around the room. - So, then, in general, nothing, you say, were you in the mood here? “It’s okay, Alyosha, everything has already passed, we endured it.” Only we really missed you, and it was scary that you would never come to us, that you would die there, like others... She cried over the cake, already placed in an iron mold, and her tears dripped into the dough. She had just brushed the surface of the pie with liquid egg and was still moving the palm of her hand over the dough, now continuing to grease the birthday pie with her tears. Nastya grabbed her mother’s leg with her hands, pressed her face to her skirt and looked sternly at her father from under her brows. Her father leaned towards her. - What are you doing?.. Nastenka, what are you doing? Are you offended by me? He lifted her into his arms and stroked her head. -What are you doing, daughter? You have completely forgotten me, you were little when I went to war... Nastya laid her head on her father’s shoulder and also began to cry. - What are you doing, my Nastenka? - And mom is crying, and I will be. Parsley, standing in bewilderment near the stove burner, was dissatisfied. - Why are you all?.. I’m in a bad mood, and the heat is burning out in the stove. We’ll start heating again, and who will give us a new order for firewood? In the old way, they received everything and burned it, there was a little left in the barn - ten logs, and then only aspen... Come on, mother, the dough, before the hot spirit cools down. Petrushka took out a large cast iron with cabbage soup from the oven and cleared up the heat on the floor, and Lyubov Vasilievna hastily, as if trying to please Petrushka as quickly as possible, put two forms of pies into the oven, forgetting to grease the second pie with liquid egg. Ivanov’s home was strange and not yet entirely clear to him. The wife was the same - with a sweet, shy, although already very tired face, and the children were the same ones that were born from him, only grown during the war, as it should be. But something prevented Ivanov from feeling the joy of his return with all his heart - he was probably too unaccustomed to home life and could not immediately understand even his closest and dearest people. He looked at Petrushka, at his grown-up first-born son, listened to how he gave commands and instructions to his mother and little sister, observed his serious, concerned face and admitted with shame to himself that his paternal feeling for this boy, attraction to him as a not enough for my son. Ivanov was even more ashamed of his indifference to Petrushka from the knowledge that Petrushka needed love and care more than others, because it was a pity to look at him now. Ivanov did not know exactly the life that his family lived without him, and he could not yet clearly understand why Petrushka developed such a character. At the table, sitting with his family, Ivanov realized his duty. He needs to get down to business as soon as possible, that is, go to work to earn money, and help his wife raise their children properly - then gradually everything will go for the better, and Petrushka will run around with the guys, sit with a book, and not boss around with the stag at the stove. Parsley ate the least of everyone at the table, but he picked up all the crumbs behind him and poured them into his mouth. “Well, Peter,” the father turned to him, “you’re eating crumbs, but you haven’t finished your piece of the pie... Eat!” Your mother will cut you off later. “You can eat everything,” said Parsley, frowning, “but that’s enough for me.” “He’s afraid that if he starts eating a lot, then Nastya, looking at him, will also eat a lot,” Lyubov Vasilievna said simply-heartedly, “but he feels sorry.” “You don’t feel sorry for anything,” said Petrushka indifferently. - And I want you to get more. Father and mother looked at each other and shuddered at the words of their son. - Why don’t you eat well? - the father asked little Nastya. - Are you looking at Peter?.. Eat properly, otherwise you will remain small... “I’ve grown up big,” said Nastya. She ate a small piece of the pie, and moved the other larger piece away from her and covered it with a napkin. - Why are you doing this? - asked her mother. - Do you want me to butter your pie? - I don’t want to, I’m full... - Well, eat it like this... Why did you push the pie away? - And Uncle Semyon will come. I left this for him. The pie is not yours, I didn’t eat it myself. I'll put it under my pillow, otherwise it'll get cold... Nastya got off the chair and took the piece of pie, wrapped in a napkin, to the bed and put it there under the pillow. Mother remembered that she also covered the finished pie with pillows when she baked it on the First of May, so that the pie would not cool down when Semyon Evseevich arrived. - Who is this Uncle Semyon? - Ivanov asked his wife. Lyubov Vasilievna did not know what to say, and said: - I don’t know who he is... He goes to the children alone, the Germans killed his wife and his children, he’s used to our children and goes to play with them. - How to play? - Ivanov was surprised. - What are they playing here with you? How old is he? Petrushka quickly looked at his mother and father; Mother didn’t say anything in response to Father, she just looked at Nastya with sad eyes, and Father smiled unkindly, got up from his chair and lit a cigarette. - Where are the toys that Uncle Semyon plays with you? - Father then asked Petrushka. Nastya got off the chair, climbed onto another chair by the chest of drawers, took books from the chest of drawers and brought them to her father. “They are toy books,” Nastya said to her father, “Uncle Semyon reads them out loud to me: that’s how funny Mishka is, he’s a toy, he’s also a book...” Ivanov picked up the toy books that his daughter handed him: about the bear Mishka, about the toy cannon, about the house where grandmother Domna lives and spins flax with her granddaughter... Parsley remembered that it was time to close the view in the chimney, otherwise the heat would leave the house. Closing the view, he said to his father: - He is older than you - Semyon Evseich!.. He brings us benefit, let him live... Looking out the window just in case, Petrushka noticed that the clouds floating there in the sky were not the ones that should be floating in September. “Some clouds,” said Parsley, “lead clouds are floating - snow must come from them!” Or will it be winter early in the morning? After all, what should we do then: the potatoes are all in the field, there are no preparations on the farm... Look, what a situation!.. Ivanov looked at his son, listened to his words and felt his shyness in front of him. He wanted to ask his wife more precisely who this Semyon Evseevich is, who has been visiting his family for two years now, and who he goes to - Nastya or his pretty wife - but Petrushka distracted Lyubov Vasilyevna with household affairs: - Give me, mother, bread cards for tomorrow and coupons for placement. And give us coupons for kerosene - tomorrow is the last day, and you have to take charcoal, but you lost the bag, and then they release it into our container, now look for the bag wherever you want, or make a new neck out of rags, we can’t live without a bag. And let Nastya not let anyone into our yard to get water tomorrow, otherwise they’ll be drawing a lot of water from the well: winter will come, then the water will drop lower, and we won’t have enough rope to lower the bucket, and you won’t be able to chew the snow and melt it. firewood is also needed. As he spoke his words, Petrushka simultaneously swept near the stove and put it in order. kitchen utensils. Then he took the cast iron with cabbage soup out of the oven. “We ate a little pie, now we’ll eat meat soup with bread,” Petrushka pointed out to everyone. - And you, father, tomorrow morning you should go to the district council and the military registration and enlistment office, if you register right away, we’ll get cards for you as soon as possible. “I’ll go,” the father agreed obediently. - Go, don’t forget, otherwise you’ll oversleep in the morning and forget. “No, I won’t forget,” the father promised. The family ate their first communal dinner after the war, cabbage soup and meat, in silence, even Petrushka sat calmly, as if father and mother and the children were afraid to disturb the quiet happiness of the family sitting together with an unexpected word. Then Ivanov asked his wife: — How are you, Lyuba, with your clothes? Perhaps they’ve gotten worse? “We wore the old ones, but now we’ll get new things,” Lyubov Vasilievna smiled. “I repaired what the children wore, and your suit, two of your trousers and all your underwear were altered for them.” You know, we didn’t have any extra money, but we had to clothe the children... “You did the right thing,” said Ivanov, “don’t feel sorry for the children.” “I didn’t regret it, and I sold the coat that you bought me, now I wear a quilted jacket.” “Her quilted jacket is short, she walks - she might catch a cold,” said Petrushka. “I’ll go to the bathhouse as a fireman, I’ll get paid and I’ll send her a coat.” At the bazaar they sell on hand, I went and asked the price, there was something suitable... “We’ll manage without you, without your pay,” said the father. After dinner, Nastya put large glasses on her nose and sat down by the window to darn her mother’s mittens, which her mother now wore under her mittens at work - it was already cold, autumn was in the yard. Petrushka looked at his sister and became angry with her: - Are you playing around, why are you wearing Uncle Semyon’s glasses?.. - And I look through my glasses, I’m not wearing them. - What else! I see! You will ruin your eyes and go blind, and then you will live as a dependent for the rest of your life and retire. Take off your glasses now - I'm telling you! And stop darning the mittens, mother will mend them herself, or I’ll do it myself when I’m done. Take a notebook and write with sticks - I forgot when I studied! - Is Nastya studying? - asked the father. The mother replied that not yet, she is small, but Petrushka tells Nastya to study every day, he bought her a notebook, and she writes with sticks. Parsley also teaches her sister how to count, adding and subtracting pumpkin seeds in front of her, and Lyubov Vasilievna herself teaches Nastya letters. Nastya put down her mitten and took out a notebook and an insert with a pen from the chest of drawers, and Petrushka, satisfied that everything was being done in order, put on her mother’s quilted jacket and went into the yard to chop wood for the next day; Parsley usually brought chopped firewood home at night and put it behind the stove so that it would dry there and then burn more hotly and economically. In the evening, Lyubov Vasilievna got ready for dinner early. She wanted the children to fall asleep early and to be able to sit alone with her husband and talk to him. But the children did not fall asleep for a long time after dinner; Nastya, lying on a wooden sofa, looked for a long time from under the blanket at her father, and Petrushka, who lay down on the Russian stove, where he always slept, both in winter and in summer, tossed and turned there, groaned, whispered something and did not soon calm down. But it came late time night, and Nastya closed her tired eyes, and Petrushka began to snore on the stove. Petrushka slept lightly and warily: he was always afraid that something might happen at night and he would not hear - a fire, thieves and robbers would break in, or his mother would forget to close the door with a hook, and the door would open at night and all the warmth would come out. Today Parsley woke up from the alarming voices of his parents speaking in the room next to the kitchen. He didn’t know what time it was—midnight or early morning—and his father and mother were awake. “Alyosha, don’t make any noise, the children will wake up,” the mother said quietly. - There is no need to scold him, he is a kind man, he loved your children... “We don’t need his love,” said the father. - I myself love my children... Look, he fell in love with other people's children! I sent you a certificate, and you worked yourself, why did you need it, this Semyon Yevseich? Is your blood still burning... Oh, Lyuba, Lyuba! But I thought differently about you there. So you left me a fool... The father fell silent, and then lit a match to light his pipe. - What are you saying, Alyosha? - the mother exclaimed loudly. - After all, I took care of my children, they hardly hurt me and they were plump in body... “Well, so what!..” said the father. “Others had four children left, but they lived well, and the children grew up no worse than ours. And what kind of person Petrushka has grown up with you - he talks like a grandfather, but probably forgot to read. Parsley sighed on the stove and began to snore for the sake of appearance so that he could listen further. “Okay,” he thought, “even if I’m a grandfather, you had a good time on ready-made grub!” “But he learned all the most difficult and important things in life!” - said the mother. - And he won’t lag behind in reading and writing either. -Who is he, this Semyon of yours? “Stop talking to me,” my father said angrily. - He is a kind person. - Do you love him, or what? - Alyosha, I am the mother of your children... - Well, further! Answer directly! - I love you, Alyosha. I’m a mother, but I was a woman a long time ago, only with you, I’ve already forgotten when. The father was silent and smoked his pipe in the dark. - I missed you, Alyosha... True, the children were with me, but they are not a replacement for you, and I kept waiting for you, for many terrible years, I didn’t want to wake up in the morning. — What is his position, where does he work? — He serves in supplying equipment at our plant. - It's clear. Rogue. - He's not a crook. I don’t know... But his entire family died in Mogilev, there were three children, his daughter was already a bride. “It doesn’t matter, in return he received another ready-made family - and a woman who is not old yet, pretty, so he lives warmly again.” The mother did not answer. There was silence, but soon Petrushka heard that his mother was crying. “He told the children about you, Alyosha,” the mother spoke, and Petrushka heard that there were large, stopped tears in her eyes. “He told the children how you fight there for us and suffer... They asked him: why?” And he answered them: because you are kind... The father laughed and knocked the heat out of the pipe. - This is what you have - this Semyon-Evsey! And he has never seen me, but he approves. What a personality! - He didn't see you. He made this up on purpose so that the children would not lose the habit of you and would love their father. - But why, why does he need this? To reach you quickly? Tell me, what did he need? “Maybe he has a good heart, Alyosha, that’s why he’s like this.” Why? - You are stupid, Lyuba. Forgive me, please. Nothing happens without calculation. “And Semyon Yevseich often brought something for the children, every time he brought it, sometimes sweets, sometimes white flour, sometimes sugar, and recently he brought felt boots to Nastya, but they weren’t suitable - the size was too small.” And he himself doesn’t need anything from us. We didn’t need it either, we, Alyosha, would have done without his gifts, we’re used to it, but he says that his soul feels better when he takes care of others, then he doesn’t miss his dead family so much. You will see him - it is not what you think... - All this is some kind of nonsense! - said the father. - Don’t fool me... I’m bored, Lyuba, with you, but I still want to live. - Live with us, Alyosha... - I’m with you, and you will be with Senka-Evseyka? - I won’t, Alyosha. He will never come to us again, I will tell him not to come again. - So, that means it was, since you won’t do it again?.. Oh, what are you like, Lyuba, all of you women are like that. - What are you like? - the mother asked with offense. - What do you mean we are all like this? I’m not like that... I worked day and night, we made refractories for masonry in locomotive fireboxes. I looked thin, scary, a stranger to everyone, and no beggar would ask me for alms. It was difficult for me too, and the children were alone at home. I’ll come, it happened, the house wasn’t heated, nothing was cooked, it was dark, the children were sad, they didn’t immediately learn how to manage things themselves, like now, Petrushka was also a boy... And then Semyon Evseevich began to come to us. He comes and sits with the children. He lives all alone. “Is it possible,” he asks me, “if I come to visit you, I’ll warm up with you?” I tell him that it’s cold here too and our firewood is damp, and he answers me: “Nothing, my whole soul is chilled, I’ll at least sit next to your children, but I don’t need to light the stove.” I said, okay, go for now: the children won’t be so afraid with you. Then I also got used to him, and we all felt better when he came. I looked at him and remembered you, that we have you... It was so sad and bad without you; let at least someone come, then it won’t be so boring and time will pass faster. Why do we need time when you are not here! - Well then, what next? - the father hurried. - Nothing further. Now you have arrived, Alyosha. “Well, well, if so,” said the father. - It's time to sleep. But the mother asked the father: - Wait a little longer to sleep. Let's talk, I'm so glad to be with you. “They won’t calm down,” thought Parsley on the stove, “they’ve made peace, and that’s okay; Mother has to get up early for work, but she still walks - she was happy at the wrong time, she stopped crying.” - Did this Semyon love you? - asked the father. - Wait, I’ll go and cover Nastya, she opens up in her sleep and gets cold. Mother covered Nastya with a blanket, went into the kitchen and paused near the stove to listen - was Parsley sleeping? Parsley understood his mother and began to snore. Then the mother went back, and he heard her voice: - He probably did. He looked at me touchingly, I saw, and what am I - am I good now? It was hard for him, Alyosha, and he needed to love someone. “You should at least kiss him, since this is your task,” the father said kindly. - Well, here we go again! He kissed me himself twice, even though I didn’t want to. - Why did he do that if you didn’t want to? - Don't know. He said that he had forgotten himself and remembered his wife, but I looked a little like his wife. - Does he look like me too? - No, it doesn’t look like it. No one is like you, you are alone, Alyosha. - I'm alone, you say? The counting begins with one: one, then two. “So he only kissed me on the cheek, not on the lips.” - It doesn’t matter where. - No, it’s not all the same, Alyosha... What do you understand in our life? - Like what? I fought the whole war, I saw death closer than you... “You fought, and I was dying here for you, my hands were shaking with grief, but I had to work with vigor in order to feed the children and benefit the state against the fascist enemies.” The mother spoke calmly, only her heart was tormented, and Petrushka felt sorry for her mother: he knew that she had learned to repair her own shoes and for him and Nastya, so as not to pay dearly to the shoemaker, and she fixed the electric stoves of her neighbors in exchange for potatoes. “And I couldn’t stand life and longing for you,” said the mother. “And if I had endured it, I would have died, I know that I would have died then, and I have children... I needed to feel something else, Alyosha, some kind of joy, so that I could rest.” One man said that he loved me, and he treated me as tenderly as you once upon a time... - Who is this, Semyon-Evsei again? - asked the father. - No, another person. He serves as an instructor for the district committee of our trade union, he is an evacuee... - Well, to hell with him, who is he! So what happened, did he console you? Petrushka knew nothing about this instructor and was surprised why he didn’t know him. “Look, our mother is also poor,” he whispered to himself. The mother said to the father in response: “I learned nothing from him, no joy, and then I felt even worse.” My soul reached out to him because she was dying, and when he became close to me, very close, I was indifferent, at that moment I thought about my household chores and regretted that I allowed him to be close. I realized that only with you I can be calm, happy, and I can rest with you when you are close. Without you, I have nowhere to go, I can’t save myself for the children... Live with us, Alyosha, it will be good for us! Petrushka heard his father silently get out of bed, light a pipe and sit on a stool. - How many times have you met him when you were very close? - asked the father. “Just once,” said the mother. - Never happened again. How much is needed? “As much as you want, it’s your business,” said the father. - Why did you say that you are the mother of our children, but you were only a woman with me, and that was for a long time... - It's true, Alyosha... - Well, how so, what is the truth here? After all, you were also a woman with him? - No, I was not a woman with him, I wanted to be and could not... I felt that I was lost without you, I needed - let someone be with me, I was completely exhausted, and my heart became dark, I I could no longer love my children, but for them, you know, I will endure everything, for them I will not spare my bones!.. - Wait! - said the father. “You say that you were mistaken in this new Senka-Evseyka of yours, it’s as if you didn’t get any joy from him, but still you didn’t disappear and didn’t die, you remained intact.” “I’m not lost,” the mother whispered, “I’m alive.” - So, here you are lying to me too! Where is your truth? “I don’t know,” the mother whispered. - I don’t know much. - OK. But I know a lot, I’ve experienced more than you,” said the father. “You’re a bitch, and nothing more.” The mother was silent. The father, it was heard, was breathing quickly and difficultly. “Well, here I am at home,” he said. - There is no war, but you wounded me in my heart... Well, now live with Senka and Evseyka! You made a joke out of me, but I am also a human being, not a toy... The father began to dress and put on his shoes in the dark. Then he lit kerosene lamp, sat down at the table and wound up the watch on his hand. “Four hours,” he said to himself. - It's still dark. It’s true what they say, there are many women, but not one wife. The house became quiet. Nastya was breathing evenly in her sleep on the wooden sofa. Parsley clung to the pillow on warm oven and forgot that he needed to snore. - Alyosha! - the mother said in a kind voice. - Alyosha, forgive me! Petrushka heard his father groan and then the glass crunch; Through the cracks in the curtain, Petrushka saw that it had become darker in the room where father and mother were, but the fire was still burning. “He crushed the glass of the lamp,” Parsley guessed, “but there is no glass anywhere.” “You cut your hand,” said the mother. “You’re bleeding, take a towel from the chest of drawers.” - Shut up! - the father shouted at the mother. - I can’t hear your voice... Wake up the children, wake up now!.. Wake up, they tell you! I'll tell them what kind of mother they have! Let them know! Nastya screamed in fright and woke up. - Mother! - she called. - Can I come to you? Nastya loved to come to her mother’s bed at night and warm herself under her blanket. Parsley sat down on the stove, put his feet down and said to everyone: - It's time to sleep! Why did you wake me up? It's not day yet, it's dark in the yard! Why are you making noise and turning on the lights? “Sleep, Nastya, sleep, it’s still early, I’ll come to you now,” the mother answered. “And you, Petrushka, don’t get up, don’t talk anymore.” -What are you saying? What does father want? - Petrushka spoke. - What do you care what I want? - the father responded. - What kind of sergeant are you? - Why are you crushing the glass of the lamp? Why are you scaring your mother? She is already thin, she eats potatoes without butter, and gives the butter to Nastya. “Do you know what your mother was doing here, what she was doing?” - the father cried in a pitiful voice, like a little one. - Alyosha! — Lyubov Vasilievna meekly addressed her husband. - I know, I know everything! - said Petrushka. “Your mother cried for you, she was waiting for you, and you came, she’s crying too.” You don't know! - Yes, you still don’t understand anything! - the father got angry. - Here we have a shoot that has grown. “I understand everything completely,” answered Parsley from the stove. - You yourself don’t understand. We have a job to do, we need to live, and you are swearing like stupid... Parsley fell silent; he lay down on his pillow and accidentally, silently began to cry. “You took great liberty at home,” said the father. - Yes, now it doesn’t matter, live here for the owner... Having wiped away his tears, Petrushka answered his father: - Eh, what a father, what are you saying, but he’s old and was in the war... Go tomorrow to the disabled cooperative, there Uncle Khariton works behind the counter, and he cuts bread and doesn’t weigh anyone. He, too, was in the war and returned home. Go ask him, he tells everyone and laughs, I heard it myself. His wife is Anyuta, she learned to drive, she now delivers bread, but she is kind and doesn’t steal bread. She was also friends and went to visit, she was treated there. This acquaintance of hers was with the order, he has no arm and serves in charge of a store where manufactured goods are thrown away one by one... “Why are you making a fuss there, sleep better, it will soon begin to get light,” said the mother. - And you didn’t let me sleep either... It won’t be dawn soon. This one without a hand became friends with Anyuta, and they began to live well. But Khariton lived during the war. Then Khariton arrived and started arguing with Anyuta. He swears all day, and at night he drinks wine and eats snacks, but Anyuta cries and doesn’t eat anything. He swore and swore, then he got tired, didn’t bother torturing Anyuta and told her: why did you have only one armless, you stupid woman, so without you I had Glashka, and there was Aproska, and there was Maruska, and your namesake Nyushka was, and Magdalinka was also on top. And he laughs. And Aunt Anyuta laughs, then she herself boasted - Khariton is good, there is no better one anywhere, he killed fascists and from different women there is no end to him. Uncle Khariton tells us everything in the shop when he accepts the bread individually. And now they live peacefully, in an amicable way. And Uncle Khariton laughs again, he says: “I deceived my Anyuta, I had no one - there was no Glashka, there was no Nyushka, there was no Aproska, and there was no Magdalinka to spare, the soldier is the son of the fatherland, he has no time to live in peace.” foolishly, his heart lies against the enemy. I purposely scared Anyuta...” Go to bed, father, turn off the light, why does fire smoke without glass... Ivanov listened in surprise to the story that Petrushka was telling him. “What a son of a bitch! - the father thought about his son. “I thought he would tell me about my Masha now...” Petrushka frowned and began snoring; he fell asleep now in truth. He woke up when the day became completely bright, and was afraid that he had slept for a long time and had not done anything around the house in the morning. Nastya was alone at home. She sat on the floor and leafed through a picture book that her mother had bought her a long time ago. She looked at it every day, because she had no other book, and ran her finger over the letters as if she were reading. - Why are you dirtying a book in the morning? Put it back! - Petrushka said to his sister. - Where is your mother, has she gone to work? “To work,” Nastya answered quietly and closed the book. - Where did father go? - Petrushka looked around the house, in the kitchen and in the room. — Did he take his bag? “He took his bag,” said Nastya. - What did he tell you? “He didn’t speak, he kissed me on the mouth and in the eyes.” “Well, well,” said Parsley and began to think. “Get up from the floor,” he ordered his sister, “let me wash you clean and dress you, we’ll go outside... Their father was sitting at the station at that hour. He had already drunk two hundred grams of vodka and had lunch in the morning using his travel allowance coupon. Even at night, he finally decided to leave for the city where he left Masha, in order to meet her there again and, perhaps, never be separated from her. It’s bad that he’s much older than this spaceman’s daughter, whose hair smelled like nature. However, we will see how it turns out; you can’t guess ahead. Still, Ivanov hoped that Masha would be at least a little happy when she saw him again, and that would be enough for him; that means he has a new one too close person, and, moreover, handsome, cheerful and kind-hearted. And it will be seen there! Soon a train arrived, heading in the direction from which Ivanov had arrived just yesterday. He took his duffel bag and went to board. “Masha isn’t expecting me,” thought Ivanov. “She told me that I would forget her anyway and we would never see each other, but I’m going to her now forever.” He entered the vestibule of the carriage and stayed in it, so that when the train left, he could look for the last time at the small town where he lived before the war, where his children were born... He once again wanted to look at the abandoned house; you can see him from the carriage, because the street on which the house where he lived is located faces a railway crossing and a train will go through that crossing. The train started and quietly drove through the station switches into the empty autumn fields. Ivanov took hold of the railings of the carriage and looked from the vestibule at the houses, buildings, sheds, and at the fire tower of the city that was his home. He learned two tall pipes in the distance: one was at a soap factory, and the other at a brick factory; Lyuba was working there now at the brick press; let her now live in her own way, and he will live in his own way. Maybe he could forgive her, but what does that mean? All the same, his heart hardened against her, and there is no forgiveness in him for the man who kissed and lived with another, so that the time of war and separation from her husband would not be so boring, not alone. And the fact that Lyuba became close to her Semyon or Yevsey because it was difficult for her to live, that need and melancholy tormented her, is not an excuse, it is a confirmation of her feelings. All love comes from need and longing; If a person did not need or yearn for anything, he would never love another person. Ivanov was about to leave the vestibule and go to the carriage to go to bed, not wanting to look for the last time at the house where he lived and where his children remained; There is no need to torture yourself in vain. He looked ahead to see how far it was until the crossing, and then he saw it. The railroad track was crossed here by a rural dirt road leading into town; on this earthen road lay bundles of straw and hay that had fallen from the carts, willow twigs And horse manure. This road was usually deserted except on two market days a week; Rarely did a peasant go to the city with a full load of hay or return back to the village. It was so now; the village road lay empty; only from the city, from the street into which the road entered, some two guys were running in the distance; one was larger, and the other was smaller, and the larger one, taking the smaller one by the hand, quickly drew him along, and the smaller one, no matter how much he hurried, no matter how hard he fussed with his legs, could not keep up with the larger one. Then the larger one dragged him behind him. At the last house in the city they stopped and looked towards the station, probably deciding whether they should go there or not. Then they looked at a passenger train passing through the crossing and ran along the road straight towards the train, as if suddenly wanting to catch up with it. The carriage in which Ivanov was standing passed the crossing. Ivanov picked up the bag from the floor to go into the carriage and lie down to sleep on the top bunk, where other passengers would not disturb him. But did those two children even manage to reach the last car of the train? Ivanov leaned out of the vestibule and looked back. The two children, holding hands, were still running along the road to the crossing. They both immediately fell, got up and ran forward again. The largest of them raised one free hand and, turning his face along the train towards Ivanov, he waved his hand towards himself, as if calling for someone to return to him. And then they fell to the ground again. Ivanov saw that the older one had one foot in a felt boot and the other in a galosh—that’s why he fell so often. Ivanov closed his eyes, not wanting to see or feel the pain of the fallen, exhausted children, and he himself felt how hot it became in his chest, as if the heart, imprisoned and languishing in him, had been beating for a long time and in vain all his life and only now was it breaking through to freedom, filling his entire being with warmth and shudder. He suddenly learned everything he knew before, much more accurately and effectively. Previously, he felt another life through the barrier of pride and self-interest, but now he suddenly touched it with his naked heart. He looked again from the steps of the carriage to the rear of the train at the distant children. He already knew now that these were his children, Petrushka and Nastya. They must have seen him when the carriage passed over the crossing, and Petrushka called him home to his mother, but he looked at them inattentively, thought about something else and did not recognize his children. Now Petrushka and Nastya were running far behind the train along a sandy path near the rails; Petrushka still held little Nastya’s hand and dragged her behind him when she couldn’t keep up with her legs. Ivanov threw the duffel bag from the carriage onto the ground, and then went down to the bottom step of the carriage and stepped off the train onto the sandy path along which his children were running after him.The story “Return” begins with how Guard Captain Alexey Alekseevich Ivanov returns to his home after demobilization from the army. Arriving at the station and waiting for the train, the captain meets a beautiful girl Masha. She was only twenty years old. She was the daughter of a space manager and worked in the cafeteria. Ivanov liked Mashenka very much. After spending two days together on the train, the former serviceman wanted to stay a couple more days in Masha’s hometown. When Ivanov said goodbye to the girl, he kissed her and remembered how her hair smelled of fallen autumn leaves.
A day later, the captain arrives in his hometown, where his son Petrushka meets him at the station. The boy was already twelve years old, and at first the father did not recognize his child in the serious young man. His wife Lyubov Vasilievna was waiting for Ivanov on the porch of the house. The captain hugged her tightly, and at the same time felt the familiar warmth and smell of a loved one. At that moment, Ivanov’s daughter Nastya began to cry, not recognizing her father, and Petrushka began to calm her down. Then the family begins to prepare dinner, in which the most important thing was the twelve-year-old boy. Ivanov was surprised at him, but he liked Nastenka more. The captain of the guard began to ask his wife about their life without him, but she, having become unaccustomed to her husband, began to feel shy. Alexey understands that something is stopping him from enjoying his return home and that after many years, he cannot understand his family. Already sitting at the table, the father sees that his children are not eating enough, to which Petrushka replied: “I want you to get more.” Then the parents shuddered and began to look at each other. At this time, Nastenka hid a piece of pie for Uncle Semyon. Ivanov began to ask his wife who he was, and she told him that this man had lost all his relatives. Semyon also asked Lyubov Vasilievna to play with her children. Listening to his wife, the captain began to smile wickedly. At this time, Petrushka indicates to his father that he should be on allowance, and the captain of the guard felt timid in front of his son.
After dinner, the children went to bed, and Alexey asked his wife how she lived without him all this time. He was afraid that his suspicions about his wife's betrayal would be justified. Lyubov Alekseevna said that they had nothing with Semyon, but one time she succumbed to temptation with the district committee instructor. But she regrets it. Meanwhile, Petrushka was eavesdropping on everything. And when the father is about to leave, he tells him everything about how difficult it was for them without him and that other people also quarrel, but make up, because they have no one left except themselves. The captain listened to his son with surprise, but still decides to leave.
The next morning, Alexey goes to the station, drinks vodka and gets into the carriage to go to Masha. At that time, Petrushka saw that his father was gone. He wakes Nastya up, dresses her and goes to the station. The story ends with Ivanov standing in a vestibule that passes not far from his house. There in the distance, he sees the silhouettes of his children who are trying to catch up with the train. Then Alexey Ivanov throws his duffel bag on the ground, and he gets off the train and goes to meet his children.
Having served throughout the war, Guard Captain Alexey Alekseevich Ivanov left the army for demobilization. At the station, while waiting for a long time for the train, he meets a girl named Masha, the daughter of a space operator, who served in the canteen of their unit. They travel together for two days, and for another two days Ivanov stays in the city where Masha was born twenty years ago. Ivanov kisses Masha goodbye, remembering forever that her hair smells “like autumn fallen leaves in the forest.”
A day later, Ivanov’s son Petrushka meets him at the station in his hometown. He is already twelve years old, and the father does not immediately recognize his child in the serious teenager. His wife Lyubov Vasilievna is waiting for them on the porch of the house. Ivanov hugs his wife, feeling the forgotten and familiar warmth of a loved one. The daughter, little Nastya, does not remember her father and is crying. Parsley pulls her back: “This is our father, he is our relatives!” The family begins to prepare a holiday meal. Petrushka commands everyone - Ivanov is surprised at how mature and old-man-wise his son is. But he likes little meek Nastya better. Ivanov asks his wife how they lived here without him. Lyubov Vasilyevna is ashamed of her husband, like a bride: she has lost the habit of him. Ivanov feels with shame that something is preventing him from wholeheartedly rejoicing at his return - after many years of separation, he cannot immediately understand even the closest people.
The family is sitting at the table. The father sees that the children eat little. When the son indifferently explains: “And I want you to get more,” the parents, shuddering, look at each other. Nastya hides a piece of pie - “for Uncle Semyon.” Ivanov asks his wife who this Uncle Semyon is. Lyubov Vasilyevna explains that the Germans killed Semyon Evseevich’s wife and children, and he asked them to go play with the children, and they saw nothing bad from him, but only good... Listening to her, Ivanov smiles unkindly and lights a cigarette. Petrushka manages the household chores, instructs his father to start receiving allowances tomorrow, and Ivanov feels his shyness in front of his son.
In the evening after dinner, when the children go to bed, Ivanov asks his wife for details of the life she spent without him. Petrushka overhears, he feels sorry for his mother. This conversation is painful for both - Ivanov is afraid of confirmation of his suspicions of his wife’s infidelity, but she openly admits that she had nothing with Semyon Evseevich. She was waiting for her husband and loved only him. Only once, “when her soul was completely dying,” did one person become close to her, an instructor at the district committee, but she regretted that she had allowed him to be close. She realized that only with her husband could she be calm and happy. “Without you, I have nowhere to go, I can’t save myself for the children... Live with us, Alyosha, it will be good for us!” - says Lyubov Vasilievna. Parsley hears her father groaning and crushing the glass of the lamp with a crunch. “You wounded me in my heart, and I am also a person, not a toy...” In the morning, Ivanov gets ready. Parsley tells him everything about their hard life without him, how his mother was waiting for him, but he arrived, and his mother cries. His father gets angry with him: “You still don’t understand anything!” - “You yourself don’t understand. We have a job to do, we have to live, and you swear like stupid people...” And Petrushka tells the story about Uncle Khariton, whose wife cheated on him, and they also quarreled, and then Khariton said that he also had a lot of things at the front, and he and his wife laughed and made peace, although Khariton made up everything about his infidelities... Ivanov listens to this story with surprise.
He goes to the station in the morning, drinks vodka and takes the train to go to Masha, whose hair smells like nature. At home, Petrushka wakes up and sees only Nastya - her mother has left for work. After asking Nastya how her father left, he thinks for a minute, dresses his sister and leads her along.
Ivanov is standing in the vestibule of a train that passes near his house. At the crossing, he sees figures of children - the bigger one quickly drags behind him the smaller one, who does not have time to move his legs. Ivanov already knows that these are his children. They are far behind, and Petrushka is still dragging behind her the slow-moving Nastya. Ivanov throws his duffel bag on the ground, goes down to the bottom step of the carriage and gets off the train “on that sandy path along which his children ran after him.”