#boris vasilyev

"[…] зори-то здесь тихие-тихие, только сегодня разглядел."

This is so beautiful, but also so painful. "The Dawns Here are Quiet" is a book about World War II. The main characters are five Soviet female soldiers and their sergeant major. They fought against 16 German soldiers and the sergeant major is the only one who survived...all five girls died.

Favourite Russian literary classics (10/?) - The Dawns Here are Quiet by Boris Vasilyev

[...] волосы расчесывает. Распустила — спины не видно. Стала гребенку вести — руки не хватает: перехватывать приходится. А волос густой, мягкий, медью отливает. И руки у нее плавно так ходят, неторопливо, покойно.

“Tomorrow Was the War”, by Boris Vasilyev

And the thing is.. I knew what the book is about. My mom told me about it, and I vaguely remember catching the tail end of the movie back in the fourth grade, the exact part of the epilogue describing the deaths of some of the main characters. I was prepared, I knew it wasn’t going to be a happy book, I knew not to expect anything positive from Vasilyev after how much I sobbed over The Dawns Here Are Quiet when I watched the film last June, but… fuck, fucking hell, I did not fucking expect to be reduced to near tears by it. And that’s coming from someone who generally doesn’t cry over books or movies!!!

Hats off, Boris Lyvovich. You’ve bested my non existent emotional control yet again

And this may be an obvious passage to point out since it’s rather well known and I’ve heard it referenced in passing so many times, but this being the last few lines before the epilogue really was like an extra punch to the gut after everything else:

Over tea, everyone was remembering Vika. Remembering when she was still alive, talking of memories from the first grade onward, interrupting each other, adding details. Lyuberetsky was quiet, but listened greedily, holding onto every word.

He sighed. “What a hard year!”

Everyone fell silent. Only Zinochka spoke up, as always out of place:

“You know why? Because it’s a leap year. The next year will be happy, you’ll see!”