Lev Kassil, "The Street of the Younger Son": a summary, main characters and the main theme of the story

"Street of the youngest son" - a beautiful and kind book, which contains elements of history. The book is intended for middle-aged children. The story itself was written already in 1949, when the peaceful post-war time came, but no one has forgotten all those sacrifices brought for the sake of calmness.

Briefly about the book

The authors of the book "Street of the younger son" - Lev Kassil and Max Polyanovsky, who managed to recreate the entire military atmosphere. This anger that seethed in the veins of every soldier. This fear that has seized many. And this bitterness, which permeated people who lost all their loved ones. The story "Street of the youngest son" was written by Lev Kassil together with Max Polyanovsky. The story, consisting of two parts, is really capable of conveying all those moods that reigned among the ordinary people. The events of "The Street of the Younger Son" were successfully described by Polyanovsky and Kassil. All events of the story are authentic and supported by historical facts.

In 1951 the novel was awarded the Stalin Prize. This is precisely what shows how important the works of Kassil and Polyanovskii turned out to be. The summary of the "Street of the younger son", which you can find in this article, will not be able to convey all the emotions that arise when reading the full work.

Something about the author: Kassil

Lev Kassil was born on June 27, 1905. The birthplace of the writer is the Saratov region, the city of Engels.

The writer dedicated many of his works to the Second World War. Along with the story, one of the authors of which is Lev Kassil ("The Street of the Younger Son"), the author wrote such novels as "Your Defenders", "Dear My Boys", "Ordinary Guys" and others. All of Kassil's works, describing specific periods of history, are reliable and have a solid foundation. But it should be noted that Lev Abramovich described the events from a very interesting point of view: if the textbooks on the history of his native country are not able to really interest schoolchildren, then the books immerse every young reader in those war years, make the hero suffer all those terrible days and weeks , Helps to understand the significance of all those terrible events that the Russian people went through. Many of Kassil's works describe the children's attitude toward war. The way in which very young children were drawn into military troubles, forcing them to participate in battles. The extent to which a sense of patriotism was developed in the youth. In his works, the writer was able to show how much the war affects the character of the younger generation, how it can change life values, breaking or hardening its members.

A little about the author: Polyanovsky

The writer was born on June 10, 1901 in Odessa.

In the process of working together, both writers for a long time were looking for information about the boy-hero in all sorts of archives, where they were given access. After full recognition by the readers of the story "The Street of the Younger Son," Polyanovsky, along with Kassil, wrote several other stories about the war times. Such works were "Friends-pioneers", "It was so" and "Honest pioneer!".

Together, the authors managed to convey the atmosphere that prevailed during the war years. It was thanks to Kassil and Polyanovsky people that the more terrible side of the war was opened.

I want to note that both authors participated in the hostilities, so they knew what they were writing about. All that they put on paper is not just words, it's a story, which every person who honors his homeland is obliged to know.

Summary of "The Street of the Younger Son"

In the center of the plot of the book is a boy who happened to be with her family in the midst of war. The Dubinin family lived in the Ukrainian city of Kerch. Volodya Dubinin, a boy whose father - Vladimir Nikiforovich Dubinin - served as captain in the navy, experiencing terrible military events. Having lost his father, who taught the boy everything that a man needs to know, Volodya joined the ranks of partisans. Having become a small but brisk scout in the detachment, Volodya gets the opportunity to collect much more information than any other partisan - due to the fact that he is small, it's harder to notice. Thus, making his invaluable contribution to the victory over the German troops, Volodya helps his colleagues draw up various plans for the attack. Anger and bitterness do not give the boy peace - having lost all his relatives in this war, he is obliged to take revenge on the Germans, who took his family from him. Volodya recalled the lessons of Vladimir Nikiforovich Dubinin, who taught his son not to give himself offense, but to restrain his ardor. Remembering the death of his father, Volodya makes a very important decision: he will avenge all those who had so much to lose in this war. Soon in the detachment there are other boys - pioneers who, along with the older partisans, fight for tranquility in their homeland. It is Volodya Dubinin who learns the very first thing about the fact that the enemy troops retreated.

Heroes of the story "The Street of the Younger Son"

The main characters of "The Street of the Younger Son" were brave and brave people who actually lived during the Second World War.

1. Volodya Dubinin is the main character of the story. The boy, whose history people will never forget, became the personification of not just courage and courage, but absolute self-sacrifice and heroism. His image opened for people something new, something even more terrible than a huge number of deaths in wartime. His image is the image of a child of war, devoid of childhood and forced to grow up too soon.
2. Yevdokia Timofeevna is the mother of the hero pioneer, suffering for her son, like no other.
3. Valya, the sister of the protagonist, who missed her brother, looked for any connection with her brother to find out how he was doing, whether he was injured or whether his brother was alive under such circumstances.
4. Vanya Gritsenko is Volodya's best friend, who understood him as best as possible, and supported him in difficult moments.
5. Adult partisans are comrades and older "brothers" Volodya Dubinina. It was they who took the boy into their ranks and relied on his boldness and cunning. They also taught everything they knew, the young partisan. But apart from the common cause, they were connected by something more: passing such a difficult path hand in hand, they really fell in love with the boy and treated him like a younger brother, worrying for him as if he were all their relatives.
6. Vladimir Nikiforovich Dubinin - Volodya's father, who became an example for the boy, laying the foundation of patriotism and honor in the character of his son.

Volodya's image: the hero's significance for the story

In the book "Street of the younger son" Volodya Dubinin became not just the main character. Already in the short content of "The Street of the Younger Son" it is clear that in this character the authors embodied all the pains and pains that not only the adult soldiers had to endure, but all the children who were also inevitably dragged into the war. The boy, whose courage was able to inspire the whole detachment, a boy whose bravery did not harden the partisan detachments, but, on the contrary, forced him to look at the war with other eyes ... It was the image of Volodya Dubinin that showed how terrible war could be, how deeply it could affect even the most innocent Soul, who still had so much to happen in life. The lyrical image of this hero indicates how far earlier not only the moral qualities of the whole society were developed, but also the patriotism of every man, albeit small, individually.

The Further Life of the Tale

The tale of Leo Kassil did not stay aside, forgotten on the bookshelf. In 1962, according to the book, the film of the same name was shot.

Reliability of the facts of the work

Some chapters specify the specific places in which guerrilla movements really functioned. For example, the authors write about the military operations that took place in the children's camps "Artek". That's exactly the way it was. However, three such camps were mentioned in the book. In fact, in those years, which are described in the story, there were only two camps out of three. The third one was opened only in 1944.

Also, the authors write about the fact that the director of the Artek camp was a certain Boris Yakovlevich. However, during the war years Ovchukov-Suvorov, Boris was repressed, and then fought. It became possible to become the director of the camp "Artek" Ovchukov only in the postwar years.

Despite the fact that some of the information contained in the book is not entirely believable, perhaps slightly embellished for creating the most striking plot, in general it can be said that the book tells of real events that actually took place in the war years. The authenticity of the facts transmitted even in the brief content of "The Streets of the Younger Son" can be verified by studying the course of events in the history of the Soviet Union.