Soldiers

The "Soldats" of Ivan Shmelov is an unfinished, but incredibly large and deep novel, planned by the author as an epopey and spiritual prehistory of events that destroyed the former order of Russia. This is a prolonging work about the duty, honor, officer service and spiritual nobleness of the simple people. The novel's action develops on the edge of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the center of the story is a young officer and artist Fedor Burmin, through whose fate the author explores the army world and the different layers of the Russian society of that time. Schmelev refuses to the literature-aboutly critical view of the army of that time and shows it as a special spiritual body, where nobleness and simple people are united. Through the relationships of soldiers, sub-officers and the command composition, deep themes of loyalty to the oath, mutual respect, military fraternity and moral responsibility to the homeland are revealed. Written in the emigration, the novel is filled with a bright nostalgia, a philigrate reconstruction of the army life and a rich, picturesque language characteristic of Shmelov. "Soldats" is a wise work about the people for whom the concepts of honor, service and human dignity were the main meaning of life. About what the book in three words: Honor, Service, Army. Who to read: to the appreciators of the Russian classical and military prose, to the fans of the creativity of Ivan Shmelov, as well as to all who are interested in the topic of officer honour, the history of the Russian army and the life of society on the breakthrough of epochs.