My lieutenant

I did not want to write about the war, I had other topics, but my war remained untouched, it was the only war in the history of the Second World War, which took place two and a half years in the trenches - all 900 blockade days. We lived and fought in the trenches, we buried our victims in cemeteries, survived the hardest trench life.

- D.A. Granin

Daniil Granin wrote the book on behalf of a young lieutenant , a captain who went through the war and an old man who looks back on his life, evaluating the past. In a conversation with readers, the writer admitted that it was difficult for him to understand his young hero - his daydreaming, his faith: “In each of you sitting here, there is a young man forgotten by you. There is that person who was somewhat right, somewhat prettier, better, kinder and happier, and it’s a sin to refuse him, to consider him naive and stupid. ”

Who is preparing to see another glossy picture of the war - with victorious marches, patriotic moods and high-profile feats - can immediately postpone this book. The new novel by Daniil Granin is a look at the Great Patriotic War from the inside out, not from the point of view of generals and marshals who calmly sent whole armies to the hell and grinder, but from the inside, from trenches and trenches. Against the background of the hardships, horrors and ugliness of the war, the author provides an opportunity to speak out to a simple lieutenant, one of those to whom we owe our victory. Those who are unlikely to choose such a fate, be it their own free will. This novel is by no means autobiographical, although it is not difficult to understand who the author of the book and Lieutenant D. actually belong to each other. Nevertheless, on the pages of the novel, two different people live their own lives: one is young, impulsive, impudent, romantic, and the second is wise, who knows the value of life and has learned to withstand circumstances. And each of them has its own truth.

The first prize is the Big Book (2012).

In the novel “My Lieutenant”, which takes place in July 1941, the writer repeatedly mentions the order “ Not a step back! ", Which appeared in reality in July 1942 (which is not surprising, since the book was written as if from two persons: the young and the wise).

• Galina Artemenko. Daniil Granin: “My lieutenant” (neopr.) . Chronicles of the Third World (2012). Date of treatment November 29, 2012. Archived January 24, 2013.