The novel describes the tragedy of the burnt village of Dalva. The novel takes place in 1944.

Nastya walked along an old field driven by cattle and carts. On his back lay a heavy and slippery bag. She poured rye so much that it was possible to throw it on her back, poured it, afraid, and suddenly it wasn’t enough, because the German ordered three pounds to be brought from each yard. Rye was poured into an old chest, which was buried in an old potato pit. The Vlasovites did not let her through for a long time, everyone asked where they were hidden and what was hidden. Nasta poured rye into a bag with a long tin box from cartridges. The box was left in the hut by the Luninists: they came from under Logoisk and stood in their village for two weeks.

Nasta walked past her yard - and did not go home. No one was visible in the yard, and she thought that the children - Ira and Volodya - were in the hut. And in the morning, when the Germans drove them from Korchevatok to the village, the courtyard was quiet and empty. The children did not sleep in the forest all night, and Nasta immediately took them to a hut. The gates creaked, the door to the hut was opened wide by the Vlasovites: “Take nothing. To go out. " People crowded around the Miron hut. It became quiet, as if pestilence devastated the village, only it was heard how they shoot far behind the forest, somewhere on Dvinos, where the partisans retreated. When a German came out of the Makhorkina hut, it became even quieter. A Vlasovite translator immediately ran up to him and spoke, listening to the German and looking at people: “After a gang of partisans fired at us near your village, you are all to be shot, the village should be burned. The German authorities decided: all of you must collect and take three tons of bread to the commandant’s office in two hours. If tomorrow at twelve there will be no document from the commandant’s office, everything will go smoke. ” And now Nasta was dragging a heavy bag to Mironova’s hut.

Entering the courtyard, Nasta saw that there were full sacks of grain near the barn on the ground. She began to pour rye from her bag into a stranger. Nasta pulled the bag around the corners and felt that the rye did not want to get enough sleep, something was in the way. Looking at a foreign bag full, she saw: on top of the grain lies a white tin box of cartridges. Having poured grain, Nasta put it in a bag and forgot it. Immediately darkened in the eyes, and his legs buckled. Everyone was looking at Nasta, both Germans and Vlasovites. She turned and walked, every minute waiting for a shot in the back. In the middle of the street she thought she was still alive, and, stopping, looked around. There was no one behind.

Vlasovites were sitting in a hut at a table, eating something. Nasta sat down on the bed and suddenly remembered that she had a heap of felts under the bench, that the Luninists had put him there and forgotten. She was petrified with fear. Then she heard the door open. Another Vlasovite crossed the threshold. He waved his hand, and the Vlasovites jumped out of the hut. He put white woolen gloves on the corner of the table, pulled a small ball of thread from his pocket, the same white as the gloves, and ordered: "Close up, and quickly." Nasta saw that one of the gloves had a thumb loose, took out her knitting needles and sat down by the window. A white ball fell to the floor and rolled under the bench. Vlasovets bent over, shuffled his feet on the floor and hooked the crowd. The whole bunch crumbled. Vlasovets turned white as chalk, and grabbed his rifle. Nasta thought that now the Vlasovite would shoot her, and no one would see or hear. The bolt tinkled, and two more Vlasovites with Boganchik entered the hut. It was necessary to go to Krasnoye, to carry rye, because she had a horse. Throw children and ride. Everyone in the village who has horses will ride.

Nasta was the last to ride in the train. Gati got off the cart to make Bulanchik easier to carry. She walked and thought about the children: will it be possible to return to them. My legs hurt. They rode a row and climbed a mountain. From the mountain, Nasta clearly saw all the divers. Ivan Boganchik rode in front on a gray stallion, which he brought at night over the river. Boganchik's black beard was visible from afar. Behind him, urging the bay Siberian, rode Miron Makhorka-Koreshki in a black shirt; Volodya Panok was moving next - his gray head is shaking with shaking. Panka caught up with Tanya Polyanshchina on a pockmarked mare: behind Tanya, hanging his head in a big black cap, rode old Yanuk Tvoyumat; on the sixth wagon was lying on his stomach and Sergeykhin Alyosha was not looking at anyone. The child is still quite, his tenth year. Behind him was a coward Bulanchik.

There was nothing to breathe - dust stood over the expensive pillar. At the end of the village a machine gun rattled, bullets whistled to the side along the road, overhead. Nasta began to drive Bulanchik, but he did not run: the front cart interfered. “Alyosha was killed,” she thought suddenly. A village street appeared before my eyes, full of people and Sergeyikha with the twins - two Vlasovites were driving her to the Mironova hut. When Nasta went to the cart, she saw that Alyosha was lying face down on the bags. Near the cart stamped confusedly and mumbled something deaf Yanuk. Nasta started calling the other men, and when she looked back, Alyosha sat on the cart and rubbed his eyes with his fists. The boy slept like a murdered man. The convoy set off again, but after a while it became again - it injured Tanya.

Tanya’s mother was ill and didn’t want to go to Korchevatki with everyone; she drove Tanya alone. That morning, when the Germans began shelling the village, they began to gather too late, knit knots. When the time came to harness the mare, there was no one to help. So they would not have left if Yuzyuk, the eldest son of Sergeyiha, had not come to the rescue. He said that he had come for Tanya, persuaded her to leave her mother in Korchevatki and go with him for Dvinosa, but Tanya could not leave her sick mother, considered herself an adult - she was already fifteen.

Tanya saw that Alyosha and Nasta were far behind, and thought that Nasta let Alyosha go home. It became a shame: Alyosha was released, but she is not. Thoughts about the mother: how she was there alone. When Makhorka and the Vlasovites came to take the mare, her mother drove Tanya into the drivers, as if she was afraid of something. Suddenly Tanya felt that it was wet under her feet. My leg got sick in the knee - it burned like fire. From somewhere, white moths appeared and closed the light. Releasing the reins, Tanya fell onto the bags.

The leg was bandaged as best they could with a hem from Nastya’s shirt. The leg no longer hurts, only very heavy. Tanya saw Alyosha, he sat, with a crack of his tongue, on his cart. Adults began to curse: Nasta wants to return to the village, but Boganchik does not let him in, screaming that because of her, Dalva will be burned. Finally, we decided to go to Ludvinovo, and there we will see.

Ahead, where the road went uphill, a small cloud of white dust rose. At the very entrance, the cloud rose, obscuring everything around. Little black motorcycles, like big pot-bellied mice, started popping out from under the dust one after another. There were many motorcycles and the Germans were on them: in green, in helmets, two, three on each. The carts stopped. It smelled of fumes, and Tanya remembered how their village was on fire just before the war.

The motorcycle stopped near Boganchik, blocking his path. A German in a cap with cords on his visor got down from him. Another German with a machine gun on his chest remained sitting in a stroller. "What a stupid wagon train?" - asked the German in his cap in a raspy voice, poking a finger almost at Boganchik’s chest. Tanya saw the German wave his hand in a white glove and hit Boganchik in the jaw from below. The second German turned and aimed the machine gun at the men. “Who is literate? Let it come out, ”the German with gloves said. Tanya saw how Boganchik separated from everyone, sideways stepped towards the German and handed him the paper. He showed it back in the village when they were going on the road, and the Germans checked the carts. The German did not believe the paper, he decided that the rye was stolen. He stepped back to the motorcycle and pointed a gun at Boganchik’s head. "You cattle are responsible for the convoy!" - shouted the German. The white glove immediately put a pistol in its holster and again shot up. There was the sound of a blow. Boganchik, resting his back on Tanya’s cart, groaned, waved his hands in front of him - defended himself; then fell to his knees in the sand. “Drive along the highway, there may be bandits in the forest,” Tanya heard a creaky voice.

The convoy was already moving, when suddenly Yanuk drove up to the German in gloves and began to mumble, begging for a cigarette. The German hissed, craning his neck. His hand grabbed the gun from the holster and slowly rose. Tanya thought that the German would definitely kill Yanuk. Tanya does not remember how she found herself near Yanuk. She spread her arms, hiding him from the German, and screamed ... I felt the German hit her arm hard and stepped on her sore leg. Opening her eyes, Tanya saw that she was lying near the Yanukova cart, and Yanuk and Nasta bowed over her.

It was hot in the hollow. It suddenly seemed to the rich man that he was sitting in a bunker near Krasny, in a loophole near the machine gun. Red stood behind Dvinosa, two highways crossed in it: Kraisk - Borisov and Dokshitsy - Minsk. The pillboxes have grown into the ground on the banks of the river, like huge gray boulders. All the men from Dalva came to Krasnoye a week ago, on the agenda of the draft board. All of them were immediately sent from Krasny to Borisov, and Boganchik - he was a Finnish machine gunner - was sent back to Dokshitsy to the unit. Two days later, they occupied the bunkers near Krasny: Germans were already in Dokshitsy and Begoml. The earth and the walls of the bunker were trembling - a forty-foot beat. Then the Germans from behind the river began to hit the pillbox. Boganchik jumped out of the bunker and ran along the shore. “Wait! I’ll shoot! ” Shouted the captain, but it seemed to Boganchik that they were not shouting to him. He crossed the river and ran in the direction where the sun had set on Tartak, bypassing the highway. There was a house on that side.

Everyone got off the carts and walked in a heap. Boganchik knew that now Makhorka would laugh at him all the way, and when he returned to Dalva, he would begin to tell how Boganchik was on his knees before the German. Boganchik said, without looking at Makhorka, that he would not go further with him, that he would not carry his head under a bullet. The makhorka did not like Boganchik; he knew that he was a deserter. Boganchik grabbed the Makhorka by the breasts, Nasta rushed to separate them, the rest of the peasants attacked Boganchik with a curse, remembering his linden shell shock. Then the horses went from the mountain, and Boganchik did not hear what they were talking about.

We drove into the Ludwin forest. And suddenly, on the side where Ludvinovo was, someone screamed, and shots fired immediately. When Boganchik saw the flame, it seemed to him that he was burning somewhere very close. Flames soared at the end of Ludvinov where they wanted to go. A machine gun rattled behind the vine; cars roared on the road that turned off the highway to Ludvinovo. "Germans! Back across the river! ” Shouted Boganchik. People huddled together, and he stayed on the road, away from everyone. The field was obscured by smoke - all the way to the forest.

Alyosha dozed off again. He was rocked, as if at home on a swing. Father put a swing before going to the "Fight" to Sukhov. On that day, his father sent him for Nastya, then his mother shouted for a long time and loudly in the hut. Alyosha did not sleep all night, listened to a wobble creaking near his mother's bed, and his mother singing a lullaby to her newborn twins.

Alyosha opened his eyes. Nasta leaned over him - woke up. The sun has already set. Alyosha saw that all the truck drivers came together at Tanya’s cart and were looking where the village should be. Instead of Zavishin, only white stoves stuck in the gardens. There were no people anywhere.

The plungers began to cross the river. Across the river, dust suddenly rose, as white as ash, and hit the ground, as if a tree had collapsed. The second time exploded in the river itself, not far from them. Then they fired a machine gun for a long time - apparently the Germans noticed them from the highway.

Alyosha recalled how at the end of winter, when the Zheleznyak took the garrison in Dolginov, Yuzyuk brought Vandya to Dalva with his mother. Tanya then brought Vanya to them on a swing. Alyosha had never seen such a beautiful girl.

Alyosha leaned his elbows on the bags, looked around: it was already dark, they stood in the forest. Alyosha felt that he was hungry. The last time he ate, it seems, last night in Korchevatki. “If you go, it’s only through the forest, to Tartak,” said Makhorka. They decided on that. They drove out to the clearing and again stood: in front someone was moaning heavily in the dense thickets of pine. They thought it was a man, but it turned out to be a wounded moose, old, with huge horns. The elk died for a long time, digging the ground with hooves and horns. Then the convoy set off. Raising his head from time to time, Alyosha heard deafeningly knocking on the roots of the wheel.

Leaning on his elbow, Panok picked up his legs under him. It was cold, like in the morning in Korchevatki. Then there was a cold fog in the swamp, but they were afraid to light the fire. The children, all three, were sleeping, covered with one casing. The fourth, Vanya, was in Verka’s arms. Punk beat a cough, and he pinched his mouth with his hand so that it was not audible. Finally he made a bonfire in a rotten stump under the tree. Panok heard Verka blurting out a bucket - she went to milk the cow. Here, in the swamp, they only have a cow. They have a baby in their arms, and Verka lost milk, probably from fright. Suddenly he rushed after the alder, and the machine gun rattled in the forest. Panok saw Veerka with children and a knot on her shoulders hiding in a wicker, but he didn’t leave the cow, he dragged it behind him through the swamp. On the way, he fell into a quagmire, and the cow pulled him to a dry place. Panok saw people in the fir tree, in front of all was Verka with her son in her arms. Everyone froze in a heap. Suddenly, the cow, seeing Veerka, moaned and rushed to her. Then Panok pulled an ax from his belt and with all his might struck the cow with his butt between the horns. Then he started coughing; the ax fell out of his hands and knocked on hard ground - near an inanimate cow.

It became cold. Ahead, above Tartak, a pale greenish dawn lit up. Panok thought that now somewhere a hungry son was yelling at the whole house. It was not necessary to destroy the cow, all the same the Germans found everyone. When it rattled somewhere close again, Panok jumped from surprise to the cart. Ahead, over Red, the edge of a brown sky trembled; then it decreased, became thick and red. On the same side was Dalva. Nastya voiced over the children. They all went astray. No one wanted to believe that it burned Dalva. Makhorka offered to go to Punishche and burry there.

Yanuk was lying on the bags all the way, thinking that he was completely weak and would not leave the cart until the very Red. Having fallen asleep one spring in the rubble, while the snow still lay, Yanuk froze and was almost completely deaf. He then had a son, Pylyp, now has a grandson, Kolechka. Now Yanuk only remembers how the ax knocks and the latch rings, but he still hears when they shoot close. Yanuk recalls how his grandson Kolechka took the first steps, how he went about tearing a bast in the summer, and in winter weaving bast shoes for the whole family.

Makhorka again dreamed a fire: Dalva was burning. Then he carried water along with everyone, watered the roofs so that the fire would not spread to the other side of the village. That night, the hut of Sergeyikhi burned down.

When the Makhorka opened his eyes, it was already light. Panok leaned over him - woke him up. And then Makhorka distinctly heard how the buzzing behind the forest - quietly and thickly. Then it seemed that it was buzzing ahead on the road, just behind Tartak. Looking closer, Makhorka saw that Boganchik was chewing something. It turned out that he had pocketed grain and chewed it like a horse, it must have been all night. The makhorka was completely weak without food. He thought that it never occurred to him to untie the sack and put it in his rye pockets. Meanwhile, Boganchik again began to shake paper received from the Germans in front of Makhorkin’s nose and shout that he won’t go anywhere. In the end, Boganchik hit Makhorka in the jaw. When Makhorka grabbed Boganchik by the breasts, he felt that he was completely limp like a rag, and squinted - he was afraid. Makhorka did not respond to the blow, did not want to dirty his hands.

The wheels rustled on dry gravel, and Alyosha remembered how, together with his mother, he had buried a chest of grain in a stable before leaving for Korchevatki. When they came out of the barn, they saw that our troops were retreating through Dalva.

Alyosha woke up from the cold. The log ended. Ahead appeared forest. Across the river it suddenly boomed heavily. It seemed to Alyosha that he saw dust above the pines, white, rare, barely noticeable. Behind the pine trees cars buzzed, somewhere it rattled, as if with a latch in the entrance. “Men, Germans!” - Nasta suddenly cried out.Alyosha saw that all the men were ahead on the road, raising their hands up. On either side of them stood the Germans with machine guns in their hands - two on each side. Alyosha also drove to men. Then the Germans drove everyone ahead of them along the old path to Tartak. Alyosha felt that his mouth was suddenly filled with saliva, his head was spinning, and he began to fall somewhere, like in a hole. When Makhorka lifted Alyosha from the ground, he saw blood on his hands - she was walking from Alyosha's nose. Makhorka recalled how this winter, during the thaw, they sent partisans across the river, and Alyosha almost drowned. Then Makhorka saved him. The makhorka brought Alyosha to a cart in his arms. All were at their carts - so the Germans ordered. It can be seen that they will chase everyone ahead of themselves through Tartak. Here, on a forest road, the Germans are afraid of mines and ambushes, and here they are hiding behind other people's backs.

Beyond the bridge, the road led to an old clearing. Tartacus began. There was once a tartak - a sawmill. The Germans followed Nastya in a cart with a wide horseshoe. The carts were already in Tartak itself when the Makhorka heard a shot. He shook from below and was thrown from the cart. Shots burst on the road near the bridge. Nasta rushed to him. Punk's horse rushed off the road to the pine. Makhorka jumped to Tanya’s cart and, grabbing Tanya under his armpits, pulled him onto the sand, then rushed to Alyosha. Glancing at the road, Makhorka saw the Germans rushing into the hollow, as if someone had stirred up a mouse nest. Apparently, the Germans were ambushed. Makhorka saw how suddenly the horse got up on the hind legs of Alyoshin, then he collapsed heavily, his head buried in the sand. The makhorka sat up right at the cart itself and pulled Alyosha to the ground. Then he felt him hit with something heavy and hard in the back. Legs were taken away, shoulder became hot and wet. Hitting the ground, Makhorka felt himself suffocating, and could only raise his hand.

Panok recalled how they picked potatoes before the partisans came to Dalva when the horse carried it. He put his feet on the front, pulled on the reins, and he was suddenly thrown up. Then he flew into the pit, along with bags and a cart. Whistled overhead. Pank felt that he was pulled strongly by the hands. Dizzy, the earth swam up. He also felt that he was being pulled somewhere on the ground and thought that the horse was dragging him home to the village.

Yanuku, when he looked from the cart at the road where the Germans were walking, it was thought that he was at home in Dalva at the school to which they moved immediately after the fire. Yanuk then saw the Germans for the first time. One of the Germans tore off his new helmet from his head - Pilip brought it last year from the Finnish war, - put it on a pole by the gate, grabbed a white wide dagger and chopped it with a red star.

Yanuk saw that everyone was running somewhere, and realized that the shooting had begun. Looking around, he saw in the hollow, in the grass, Alyosha; I thought that his grandson, son and daughter-in-law left for Palik with the partisans - they would stay alive. Yanuk felt a blow to the head. It seemed that they slashed a dagger from above on the crown of the head, like a Red Army helmet. It got cold, it seemed that he was going home, to Dalva, behind the sleigh. Yanuk managed to feel himself falling from the cart: he banged his head on something solid.

Tanya began to shake again. Dead leg died, became heavy - you can’t move. I remembered Yuzyuk - he was already somewhere far away, beyond Dvinosa. Tanya felt herself lying on the ground. Nasta leaned over her and dragged her somewhere. It was cold again, my back was wet from below. Then Nastya screamed and released Tanya from her hands. Opening her eyes, Tanya saw on the side of the German. A machine gun shook in his hands. She did not have time to close her hands.

It seemed to Nastya that she hears the wind blowing into the double frames from the yard. An ungreased sewing machine knocks on the table - Nastya sews white camouflage robes for partisans from tablecloths. From long work eyelids stick together and hands hurt. In the hallway the heck rang - the partisans entered the hut, with them Sukhov. There was no more space, and the partisans were still walking, knocking their feet at the threshold.

When Nastya opened her eyes, the sun stood high. She wanted to rise, but she was led to the side, her back ached. She crawled with difficulty along the grass to Tanya, clinging her fingers to a dry heather. When Nasta crawled out onto the road, she saw that Yanuk was killed. Two were killed: Tanya and Yanuk. Neither Boganchik, nor Punk, nor Makhorka was visible. Then she saw Makhorka - he was lying face down near Alyoshin’s cart. Nasta fell to the ground and felt that someone was bending over it. She recognized Sukhov from The Struggle. Someone tall helped him, as if Tareev from The Avenger. "The partisans came running to save us," Nasta thought, feeling that she was going blind.

Boganchik fled down, constantly looking back. Where is his stallion with a cart, he did not remember. Damn them, he thought. It was impossible to stay here - the grave, we must run to the Red. The forest caught fire, and Boganchik ran, fleeing the fire. I ran out to the clearing and got straight to the bunkers. The felling began to shoot. It seemed to the rich man that the stallion had hit him in the stomach with his back hooves, then he pushed something hard and hot into the chest. Raising his head, he saw his guts - they lay beside him in the sand. Writhing in pain, he saw a white pillbox darken and crumble, like a pile of ashes.

Alyosha ran uphill - along the sand and along the rye. Running to the road, he saw two old pine trees that used to stand near the farm. Then he recognized the street - without houses. Alyosha's legs trembled. He realized that he was standing near the Boganchikov fence. Alyosha thought that Yuzyuk was somewhere in Palik. Yuzyuk stayed alive.

In the sky hung black as earth, with yellow edges, clouds; crawled across the river - beyond Dalva.