"War spares no one." This is true. Whether it is a defender or an aggressor, a soldier or a civilian - no one, looking into the face of death, will remain the same. Nobody is ready for the horrors of war. Perhaps this is what Erich Remarque, the author of the work All Quiet on the Western Front, wanted to say.

History of the novel

There has been a lot of controversy around this work. Therefore, it would be correct to start with the story of the birth of the novel, before setting out summary. “All Quiet on the Western Front” Erich Maria Remarque wrote, being a participant in those terrible events.

He went to the front in the early summer of 1917. Remarque spent several weeks at the forefront, was wounded in August and stayed in the hospital until the end of the war. But all the time he corresponded with his friend Georg Middendorf, who remained in position.

Remarque asked to report as much as possible about life at the front and did not hide that he wanted to write a book about the war. With these events begins and a summary ("All Quiet on the Western Front"). Fragments of the novel contain a cruel but real picture terrible trials fallen to the lot of soldiers.

The war ended, but none of their lives returned to their former course.

Rota is resting

In the first chapter, the author shows real life soldier - unheroic, terrifying. He emphasizes the extent to which the cruelty of war changes people - moral principles are lost, values ​​\u200b\u200bare lost. This is the generation that was destroyed by the war, even those who escaped the shells. With these words, the novel All Quiet on the Western Front begins.

Rested soldiers go to breakfast. The cook prepared food for the whole company - for 150 people. They want to take additional portions of their fallen comrades. The main concern of the cook is not to give out anything in excess of the norm. And only after a heated argument and the intervention of the company commander, the cook distributes all the food.

Kemmerich, one of Paul's classmates, ended up in the hospital with a thigh wound. Friends go to the infirmary, where they are informed that the guy's leg was amputated. Muller, seeing his strong English boots, argues that a one-legged one does not need them. The wounded man is writhing in unbearable pain, and, in exchange for cigarettes, friends persuade one of the orderlies to give their friend an injection of morphine. They left with a heavy heart.

Kantorek, their teacher, who had persuaded them to join the army, sent them a pompous letter. He calls them "iron youth". But the guys are no longer touched by the words about patriotism. They unanimously blame the class teacher for exposing them to the horrors of war. Thus ends the first chapter. Its summary. “All Quiet on the Western Front” reveals the characters, feelings, aspirations, dreams of these young guys, who found themselves face to face with the war, chapter by chapter.

Death of a friend

Paul reminisces about his life before the war. As a student, he wrote poetry. Now he feels empty and cynical. All this seems so far away to him. Pre-war life is a vague, unrealistic dream that has nothing to do with the world created by the war. Paul feels completely cut off from humanity.

They were taught in school that patriotism requires the suppression of individuality and personality. Paul's platoon was trained by Himmelstoss. The former postman was a small, stocky man who relentlessly humiliated his recruits. Paul and his friends hated Himmelstoss. But now Paul knows that those humiliations and discipline toughened them up and probably helped them survive.

Kemmerich is close to death. He is saddened by the fact that he will never become the head forest ranger he dreamed of. Paul sits next to his friend, consoles and assures him that he will get better and return home. Kemmerich says he is giving his boots to Müller. He becomes ill, and Paul goes to look for a doctor. When he returns, his friend is already dead. The body is immediately removed from the bed to make room.

It would seem with what cynical words the summary of the second chapter ended. "All Quiet on the Western Front", from chapter 4 of the novel, will reveal the true essence of the war. Having come into contact with it once, a person will not remain the same. War hardens, makes one be indifferent - to orders, to blood, to death. She will never leave a person, but will always be with him - in memory, in body, in soul.

Young replenishment

A group of recruits arrives in the company. They are a year younger than Paul and his friends, which makes them feel like grizzled veterans. There is not enough food and blankets. Paul and his friends remember the barracks where they were recruits with longing. Himmelstos's humiliations seem idyllic compared to actual war. The guys remember the drill in the barracks, discussing the war.

Tjaden arrives and announces excitedly that Himmelstoss has arrived at the front. They remember his bullying and decide to take revenge on him. One night, as he was returning from a pub, they threw bedding over his head, took off his pants, and beat him with a whip, drowning out his screams with a pillow. They retreated so quickly that Himmelstoss never found out who his offenders were.

night shelling

The company is sent at night to the front line for sapper work. Paul reflects that for a soldier, the land takes on a new meaning at the front: it saves him. Here, ancient animal instincts are awakened, which save many people if you obey them without hesitation. At the front, the instinct of the beast wakes up in men, Paul argues. He understands how much a person degrades, surviving in inhuman conditions. What is clearly seen from the summary of "All Quiet on the Western Front."

Chapter 4 will shed light on what it was like for young, unshot boys to be at the front. During the shelling, a recruit lies next to Paul, clinging to him, as if looking for protection. When the shots died down a little, he admitted with horror that he had defecated in his pants. Paul explains to the boy that many soldiers have this problem. The painful neighing of wounded horses is heard, thrashing in agony. The soldiers finish them off, relieving them of their torment.

The firing starts from new force. Paul crawled out of his hiding place and sees that the same boy who pressed against him in fear is seriously injured.

terrifying reality

The fifth chapter begins with a description of the unsanitary conditions of life at the front. The soldiers are sitting, stripped to the waist, crushing lice and discussing what they will do after the war. They calculated that out of twenty people from their class, only twelve remained. Seven are dead, four are injured, and one has gone mad. They mockingly repeat the questions Kantorek asked them at school. Paul has no idea what he will do after the war. Kropp concludes that the war has destroyed everything. They can't believe in anything but war.

The fighting continues

The company is sent to the front line. Their path lies through the school, along the facade of which there are brand new coffins. Hundreds of coffins. Soldiers joke about it. But on the front line, it turns out that the enemy has received reinforcements. Everyone is in a depressed mood. Night and day pass in tense expectation. They sit in the trenches, through which disgusting fat rats scurry.

The soldier has no choice but to wait. Days pass before the earth begins to shake from the explosions. There was almost nothing left of their trench. Trial by fire is too much of a shock for new recruits. One of them got angry and tried to run. Obviously he's gone crazy. Soldiers tie him up, but another recruit manages to escape.

Another night has passed. Suddenly, the nearby gaps are silent. The enemy is on the offensive. German soldiers repel the attack and reach enemy positions. Around the scream and groans of the wounded, mutilated corpses. Paul and his comrades must return. But before doing so, they greedily grab cans of stew and note that the enemy has much better conditions than theirs.

Paul reminisces about the past. These memories hurt. Suddenly, the fire with new force hit their positions. The lives of many are claimed by a chemical attack. They die painfully slow death from suffocation. Everyone is running out of their hiding places. But Himmelstoss hides in a trench and pretends to be wounded. Paul tries to kick him out with blows and threats.

There are explosions all around, and it seems that the whole earth is bleeding. New soldiers are being brought in to replace them. The commander calls their company to the cars. The roll call begins. Of the 150 people, thirty-two remained.

After reading the summary of “All Quiet on the Western Front”, we see that the company suffers huge losses twice. The heroes of the novel return to duty. But the worst of all is another war. War against degradation, against stupidity. War with yourself. And here the victory is not always on your side.

Paul goes home

The company is sent to the rear, where there will be a reorganization. Having experienced the horror of the battles, Himmelstoss is trying to "rehabilitate himself" - he gets good food for the soldiers and easy work. Away from the trenches they try to joke. But the humor becomes too bitter and dark.

Paul gets seventeen days off. In six weeks he should appear in the training unit, and then to the front. He wonders how many of his friends will be left alive during this time. Paul comes to hometown and sees that the civilian population is starving. He learns from his sister that his mother has cancer. Relatives ask Paul how things are at the front. But he does not have enough words to describe all this horror.

Paul sits in his bedroom with his books and paintings, trying to bring back childhood feelings and desires, but the memories are only shadows. His identity as a soldier is the only thing left now. The end of the holiday draws near and Paul visits the mother of Kemmerich's deceased friend. She wants to know how he died. Paul lies to her that her son died without suffering or pain.

Mother sits with Paul in the bedroom all last night. He pretends to be asleep, but notices that his mother is in severe pain. He makes her go to bed. Paul returns to his room, and from surging feelings, from hopelessness, he squeezes the iron bars of the bed and thinks that it would be better if he did not come. It only got worse. Sheer pain - from pity for her mother, for herself, from the realization that this horror has no end.

POW camp

Paul arrives at the training section. Next to their barracks is a prisoner of war camp. Russian prisoners sneak around their barracks and rummage through the garbage cans. Paul cannot understand what they find there. They are starving, but Paul notes that the prisoners treat each other like brothers. They are in such a pitiful position that Paul has no reason to hate them.

Prisoners die every day. Russians bury several people. Paul sees the terrible conditions they are in, but drives away thoughts of pity so as not to lose his composure. He shares cigarettes with the prisoners. One of them found out that Paul played the piano and started playing the violin. It sounds thin and lonely, and it makes me sad even more.

Return to duty

Paul arrives at the location and finds his friends alive and unharmed. He shares with them the products he brought. In anticipation of the arrival of the Kaiser, the soldiers are tortured with drills and work. They were given new clothes, which was immediately taken away after his departure.

Paul volunteers to gather information about enemy forces. The area is being shelled with machine guns. A flare flashes above Paul, and he realizes that he must lie still. Footsteps sounded, and a heavy body fell on him. Paul reacts with lightning speed - strikes with a dagger.

Paul cannot watch an enemy he wounded die. He crawls up to him, bandaging his wounds and giving water to their flasks. A few hours later he dies. Paul finds letters in his wallet, a photo of a woman and a little girl. According to the documents, he guessed that it was a French soldier.

Paul talks to the dead soldier and explains that he didn't mean to kill him. Every word he read plunges Paul into guilt and pain. He rewrites the address and decides to send money to his family. Paul promises that if he remains alive, he will do everything so that this never happens again.

Three weeks feast

Paul and his friends guard a food warehouse in an abandoned village. They decided to use this time with pleasure. They covered the floor in the dugout with mattresses from abandoned houses. We got eggs and fresh butter. Caught two, miraculously survived, piglets. Potatoes, carrots, young peas were found in the fields. And they made themselves a feast.

A well-fed life lasted three weeks. Then they were evacuated to a neighboring village. The enemy began shelling, Kropp and Paul were wounded. They are picked up by an ambulance wagon full of wounded. In the infirmary, they are operated on and sent by train to the hospital.

One of the sisters of mercy with difficulty persuaded Paul to lie down on snow-white sheets. He is not yet ready to return to the bosom of civilization. Dirty clothes and lice make him uncomfortable here. Classmates are sent to a Catholic hospital.

Every day soldiers die in the hospital. Kropp's entire leg is amputated. He says he will shoot himself. Paul thinks the hospital - the best place to know what war is. He wonders what awaits his generation after the war.

Paul receives leave to recover at home. Going to the front and parting with your mother is even more difficult than the first time. She is even weaker than before. This is the tenth chapter summary. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is a story that covers not only military operations, the behavior of heroes on the battlefield.

The novel reveals how, faced with death and harshness every day, Paul begins to feel uncomfortable in a peaceful life. He rushes about, trying at home, next to his family to find peace of mind. But nothing comes out. In the depths of his soul, he understands that he will never find him again.

Terrible losses

The war is raging, but the German army is noticeably weakening. Paul stopped counting the days and weeks that are like in battles. The pre-war years are "no longer valid" because they have ceased to mean anything. The life of a soldier is a constant avoidance of death. They reduce you to the level of mindless animals, because instinct is the best weapon against implacable mortal danger. This helps them survive.

Spring. They feed badly. The soldiers were emaciated and hungry. Detering brought a cherry blossom branch and remembered the house. Soon he deserts. He was missed on verification, caught. Nobody heard anything more about him.

Mueller is killed. Leer was wounded in the thigh, he is bleeding. Berting was wounded in the chest, Kat in the shin. Paul is dragging the wounded Kat on him, they are talking. Exhausted, Paul stops. The orderlies come up and say that Kat is dead. Paul did not notice that his comrade was wounded in the head. Paul doesn't remember anything else.

Defeat is inevitable

Autumn. 1918 Paul is the only one of his classmates who survived. The bloody battles continue. The United States joins the enemy. Everyone understands that the defeat of Germany is inevitable.

After being gassed, Paul rests for two weeks. He sits under a tree and imagines how he will return home. He becomes scared. He thinks that they will all return as living corpses. Shells of people, empty inside, tired, lost hope. It's hard for Paul to bear this thought. He feels that he own life was irretrievably destroyed.

Paul was killed in October. On an unusually quiet peaceful day. When he was turned over, his face was calm, as if to say that he was glad that everything had ended this way. At this time, a report was transmitted from the front line: "All Quiet on the Western Front."

Meaning of the novel

World War I made adjustments to world politics, became a catalyst for revolution and the collapse of empires. These changes affected everyone's life. About war, suffering, friendship - this is what the author wanted to say. This is clearly shown in the summary.

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” Remarque wrote in 1929. Following the First World War were more bloody and cruel. Therefore, the theme raised by Remarque in the novel was continued in his subsequent books, and in the works of other writers.

Undoubtedly, this novel is a grandiose event in the arena of world literature of the 20th century. This work gave rise to disputes not only about literary merits, but also caused a huge political outcry.

The novel is one of the 100 must-read books. The work requires not only an emotional attitude, but also a philosophical one. This is evidenced by the style and manner of narration, the author's style and summary. All Quiet on the Western Front, according to some sources, is second only to the Bible in terms of circulation and readability.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a book about all the horrors and hardships of the First World War. About how the Germans fought. About all the senselessness and ruthlessness of war.

Remarque, as always, beautifully and masterfully describes everything. It even makes me feel a bit sad. Moreover, the unexpected ending of the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” is not at all encouraging.

The book is written in simple, clear language and is very easy to read. Like “Front” I read in two evenings. But this time, evenings on the train 🙂 All Quiet on the Western Front will not be difficult for you to download. I also read the e-book.

The history of the creation of Remarque's book "All Quiet on the Western Front"

The writer offered his manuscript "All Quiet on the Western Front" to the most authoritative and well-known in Weimar Republic publisher Samuel Fisher. Fischer acknowledged the high literary quality of the text, but withdrew from publication on the grounds that in 1928 no one would want to read a book about the First World War. Fischer later admitted that this was one of the biggest mistakes of his career.
Following the advice of his friend, Remarque brought the text of the novel to the Haus Ullstein publishing house, where it was accepted for publication by order of the company's management. On August 29, 1928, a contract was signed. But the publisher was also not entirely sure that such a specific novel about the First World War would be a success. The contract contained a clause according to which, in the event of the failure of the novel, the author must work off the costs of publication as a journalist. For reinsurance, the publisher provided advance copies of the novel to various categories of readers, including veterans of the First World War. As a result of criticism from readers and literary scholars, Remarque is urged to revise the text, especially some particularly critical statements about the war. About the serious adjustments to the novel made by the author, says a copy of the manuscript, which was in the New Yorker. For example, the latest edition is missing the following text:

We killed people and waged war; we should not forget about it, because we are at an age when thoughts and actions had the strongest connection with each other. We are not hypocrites, we are not timid, we are not burghers, we look both ways and do not close our eyes. We do not justify anything by necessity, by the idea, by the Motherland - we fought with people and killed them, people whom we did not know and who did nothing to us; what will happen when we return to the old relationship and confront the people who hinder us, hinder us?<…>What should we do with the goals that are offered to us? Only memories and my vacation days convinced me that the dual, artificial, invented order called "society" cannot calm us and will not give us anything. We will stay isolated and grow, we will try; someone will be quiet, and someone will not want to part with their weapons.

Original text (German)

Wir haben Menschen getötet und Krieg geführt; das ist für uns nicht zu vergessen, denn wir sind in dem Alter, wo Gedanke und Tat wohl die stärkste Beziehung zueinander haben. Wir sind nicht verlogen, nicht ängstlich, nicht bürgerglich, wir sehen mit beiden Augen und schließen sie nicht. Wir entschuldigen nichts mit Notwendigkeit, mit Ideen, mit Staatsgründen, wir haben Menschen bekämpft und getötet, die wir nicht kannten, die uns nichts taten; was wird geschehen, wenn wir zurückkommen in frühere Verhältnisse und Menschen gegenüberstehen, die uns hemmen, hinder und stützen wollen?<…>Was wollen wir mit diesen Zielen anfangen, die man uns bietet? Nur die Erinnerung und meine Urlaubstage haben mich schon überzeugt, daß die halbe, geflickte, künstliche Ordnung, die man Gesellschaft nennt, uns nicht beschwichtigen und umgreifen kann. Wir werden isoliert bleiben und aufwachsen, wir werden uns Mühe geben, manche werden still werden und manche die Waffen nicht weglegen wollen.

Translation by Mikhail Matveev

Finally, in the fall of 1928, the final version of the manuscript appears. On November 8, 1928, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the armistice, the Berlin newspaper Vossische Zeitung, part of the Haus Ullstein concern, publishes the "preliminary text" of the novel. The author of "All Quiet on the Western Front" appears to the reader as an ordinary soldier, without any literary experience who describes his experiences of the war with the aim of "speaking out", freeing himself from mental trauma. The introductory remarks for the publication were as follows:

The Vossische Zeitung feels "obliged" to open this "authentic", free and thus "authentic" documentary account of the war.

Original text (German)

Die Vossische Zeitung fühle sich „verpflichtet“, diesen „authentischen“, tendenzlosen und damit „wahren“ dokumentarischen über den Krieg zu veröffentlichen.

Translation by Mikhail Matveev
So there was a legend about the origin of the text of the novel and its author. On November 10, 1928, excerpts from the novel began to appear in the newspaper. The success exceeded the boldest expectations of the Haus Ullstein concern - the circulation of the newspaper increased several times, the editorial office received a huge number of letters from readers admiring such a "bare image of the war."
At the time of the book's release on January 29, 1929, there were approximately 30,000 pre-orders, which forced the concern to print the novel in several printing houses at once. All Quiet on the Western Front became Germany's best-selling book of all time. On May 7, 1929, 500 thousand copies of the book were published. In the book version, the novel was published in 1929, after which it was translated into 26 languages ​​the same year, including Russian. The most famous translation into Russian is by Yuri Afonkin.

A few quotes from Erich Maria Remarque's book "All Quiet on the Western Front"

About the Lost Generation:

We are no longer youth. We are no longer going to take life with a fight. We are runaways. We are running from ourselves. From your life. We were eighteen years old and just beginning to love the world and life; we had to shoot at them. The first shell that exploded hit our heart. We are cut off from rational activity, from human aspirations, from progress. We no longer believe in them. We believe in war.

At the front, chance or luck plays a decisive role:

The front is a cage, and the one who got into it has to strain his nerves to wait for what will happen to him next. We are sitting behind bars, the bars of which are the trajectories of shells; we live in tense expectation of the unknown. We are given over to chance. When a projectile flies at me, I can duck, and that's all; I can't know where it will hit, and I can't influence it in any way.
It is this dependence on chance that makes us so indifferent. A few months ago I was sitting in the dugout and playing skat; after a while I got up and went to visit my friends in another dugout. When I returned, there was almost nothing left of the first dugout: a heavy shell smashed it soft-boiled. I again went to the second and arrived just in time to help dig it out - during this time it managed to fall asleep.
They can kill me - this is a matter of chance. But the fact that I stay alive is again a matter of chance. I can die in a well-fortified dugout, crushed by its walls, and I can remain unharmed after lying ten hours in an open field under heavy fire. Every soldier stays alive only thanks to a thousand different cases. And every soldier believes in chance and relies on it.

What is actually the war seen in the infirmary:

It seems incomprehensible that human faces, still living in ordinary, are attached to these tattered bodies. everyday life. But this is only one infirmary, only one of its branches! There are hundreds of thousands of them in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. How senseless everything that is written, done and rethought by people, if such things are possible in the world! To what extent our thousand-year-old civilization is false and worthless, if it could not even prevent these flows of blood, if it allowed hundreds of thousands of such dungeons to exist in the world. Only in the infirmary you see with your own eyes what war is.

Reviews of the book "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Remarque

This is a painful story about a lost generation of young teenagers in their early twenties who fell into the terrible circumstances of the world war and were forced to become adults.
These are terrible images of consequences. A man who runs without his feet because they have been torn off. Or youngsters killed by a gas attack, who died only because they did not have time to put on protective masks, or who wore poor-quality ones. A man holding his own innards and limping to the infirmary.
The image of a mother who lost her nineteen-year-old son. Families living in poverty. Images of captured Russians and much more.

Even if everything goes well, and someone survives, will these guys be able to lead a normal life, learn a profession, start a family?
Who needs this war and why?

The narration is conducted in a very easy and accessible language, in the first person, from the person young hero who gets to the front, we see the war through his eyes.

The book is read “in one breath”.
This is not the strongest work of Remarque, in my opinion, but I think it is worth reading.

Thank you for your attention!

Review: The book “All Quiet on the Western Front” - Erich Maria Remarque - What is war from the point of view of a soldier?

Advantages:
Style and language; sincerity; depth; psychologism

Flaws:
The book is not easy to read; there are awkward moments

All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque is one of those that are very important, but very difficult to discuss. The fact is that this book is about war, and it is always hard. It is hard to talk about the war for those who fought. And for those who did not fight, it seems to me that it is generally difficult to fully understand this period, perhaps even impossible. The novel itself is not very long, it describes the view of a soldier on battles and a relatively peaceful existence during this period. The story is told from the perspective of a young man of 19-20 years old, Paul. I understand that the novel is at least partly autobiographical, because the real name of Erich Maria Remarque is Erich Paul Remarque. In addition, the author himself fought, starting at the age of 19, and Paul in the novel, like the author, is passionate about reading and tries to write something himself. And, of course, most likely most of the emotions and thoughts in this book were felt and thought over by Remarque during his stay at the front, it cannot be otherwise.

I have already read some of Remarque's other works, and I really like this author's storytelling style. He manages to show the depth of the emotions of the characters quite clearly and plain language, and it is quite easy for me to empathize with them and delve into their actions. I feel like I'm reading about real people with real life stories. Heroes of Remarque, like real people, are imperfect, but they have a certain logic in their actions, with the help of which it is easy to explain and understand what they feel and do. Main character in the book All Quiet on the Western Front, as in other Remarque novels, causes deep sympathy. And, in fact, I understand that it is Remarque who causes sympathy, because it is very likely that there is a lot of himself in the main characters.

And here begins the most difficult part of my review, because I have to write about what I learned from the novel, what it is about from my point of view, and in this case it is very, very difficult. The novel tells about a few facts, but includes a fairly large range of thoughts and emotions.

The book, first of all, describes the life of German soldiers during the First World War, about their simple way of life, about how they adapted to harsh conditions, while maintaining human qualities. The book also contains descriptions of rather cruel and ugly moments, well, war is war, and you also need to know about this. From Paul's story, you can learn about life in the rear, and in the trenches, about layoffs, injuries, infirmaries, friendship and small joys that were also there. But in general, the life of a soldier at the front is quite simple outwardly - the main thing is to survive, find food and sleep. But if you dig deeper, then, of course, it's all very difficult. There is a rather complicated idea in the novel, for which I personally find it rather difficult to find words. For the main character at the front, it is emotionally easier than at home, because in war life comes down to simple things, and at home it is a storm of emotions and it is not clear how and what to communicate with people in the rear, who are simply unable to realize that actually going on at the front.

If we talk about the emotional side and ideas that the novel carries, then, of course, the book, first of all, is about clearly negative influence wars on the individual and on the nation as a whole. This is shown through the thoughts of ordinary soldiers, what they are experiencing, through their reasoning about what is happening. You can talk for as long as you like about the needs of the state, about protecting the honor of the country and the people, and some material benefits for the population, but is it all important when you yourself are sitting in a trench, malnourished, sleep deprived, killing and seeing the death of friends? Is there really anything to justify such things?

The book is also about the fact that war cripples everyone, but especially young people. The older generation has some kind of pre-war life to which you can return, the young people have virtually nothing but the war. Even if he survived the war, he will no longer be able to live like others. He experienced too much, life in the war was too divorced from the usual, there were too many horrors that are difficult for the human psyche to accept, with which one must come to terms and come to terms.

The novel is also about the fact that, in reality, those who are actually at war with each other, the soldiers, are not enemies. Paul, looking at the Russian prisoners, thinks that they are the same people, government officials call them enemies, but, in fact, what should a Russian peasant and a young German who has just got up from school have to share? Why should they want to kill each other? This is madness! There is an idea in the novel that if two heads of state declared war on each other, then they just have to fight each other in the ring. But, of course, this is hardly possible. It also follows from this that all this rhetoric that the inhabitants of some country or some nation is enemy does not make sense at all. Enemies are those who send people to their deaths, but for most people in any country, war is a tragedy in equal measure.

In general, it seems to me that the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” should be read by everyone, this is an occasion to think about the period of the First World War, and indeed about the war, about all its victims, about how people of that time realize themselves and everything happening around. I think that it is necessary to reflect on such things from time to time in order to understand for oneself what is the meaning of this, and whether there is any at all.

All Quiet on the Western Front should be read by anyone who does not know what “war” is, but wants to know in their bright colors, with all the horrors, blood and death, practically in the first person. Thanks to Remarque for such works.

This book is neither an accusation nor a confession. This is just an attempt to tell about the generation that was destroyed by the war, about those who became its victims, even if they escaped the shells.

Erich Maria Remarque IM WESTEN NICHTS NEUES

Translation from German Yu.N. Afonkina

Serial design by A.A. Kudryavtseva

Computer design A.V. Vinogradova

Reprinted with permission from The Estate of the Late Paulette Remarque and Mohrbooks AG Literary Agency and Synopsis.

Exclusive rights to publish the book in Russian belong to AST Publishers. Any use of the material in this book, in whole or in part, without the permission of the copyright holder is prohibited.

© The Estate of the Late Paulette Remarque, 1929

© Translation. Yu.N. Afonkin, heirs, 2014

© Russian edition AST Publishers, 2014

We are standing nine kilometers from the front line. Yesterday we were replaced; now our stomachs are full of beans and meat, and we all go around full and satisfied. Even for supper each got a full bowler hat; in addition, we get a double portion of bread and sausages - in a word, we live well. This has not happened to us for a long time: our kitchen god with his purple, like a tomato, bald head himself offers us to eat more; he waves the scoop, calling the passers-by, and gives them hefty portions. He still won't empty his squeaker, and this drives him to despair. Tjaden and Müller got hold of several cans from somewhere and filled them to the brim - in reserve. Tjaden did it out of gluttony, Muller out of caution. Where everything Tjaden eats goes is a mystery to all of us. He still remains as skinny as a herring.

But most importantly, the smoke was also given out in double portions. For each, ten cigars, twenty cigarettes, and two sticks of chewing tobacco. In general, pretty decent. I traded Katchinsky's cigarettes for my tobacco, in total I now have forty pieces. One day can be extended.

But, in fact, we are not supposed to do all this at all. The authorities are not capable of such generosity. We're just lucky.

Two weeks ago we were sent to the front line to replace another unit. It was quite calm on our site, so by the day of our return, the captain received allowances according to the usual layout and ordered to cook for a company of one hundred and fifty people. But just on the last day, the British suddenly threw in their heavy "meat grinders", unpleasant contraption, and for so long they hit our trenches with them that we suffered heavy losses, and only eighty people returned from the front line.

We arrived at the rear at night and immediately stretched ourselves out on the bunk beds in order to get a good night's sleep first; Katchinsky is right: it would not be so bad in the war if only you could get more sleep. You never really get enough sleep on the front line, and two weeks drag on for a long time.

By the time the first of us began to crawl out of the barracks, it was already noon. Half an hour later, we grabbed our bowlers and gathered at the "squeaker" dear to our hearts, which smelled of something rich and tasty. Of course, the first in line were those who always have the biggest appetite: shorty Albert Kropp, the brightest head in our company and, probably, for this reason only recently promoted to corporal; Muller the Fifth, who still carries textbooks with him and dreams of passing preferential exams: under hurricane fire he crammed the laws of physics; Leer, who wears a bushy beard and has a weakness for girls from brothels for officers: he swears that there is an order in the army obliging these girls to wear silk underwear, and before receiving visitors with the rank of captain and above - to take a bath; the fourth is me, Paul Bäumer. All four were nineteen years old, all four went to the front from the same class.

Immediately behind us are our friends: Tjaden, a locksmith, a frail young man of the same age as us, the most voracious soldier in the company - he sits down thin and slender for food, and after eating, gets up pot-bellied, like a sucked bug; Haye Westhus, also our age, a peat worker, who can freely take a loaf of bread in his hand and ask: “Well, guess what is in my fist?”; Detering, a peasant who thinks only of his household and his wife; and, finally, Stanislav Katchinsky, the soul of our squad, a man of character, clever and cunning - he is forty years old, he has a sallow face, blue eyes, sloping shoulders and an unusual scent about when the shelling will start, where you can get hold of food and how It's best to hide from the authorities.

Our squad led the queue that formed at the kitchen. We got impatient as the unsuspecting cook was still waiting for something.

Finally Katchinsky called out to him:

- Well, open your glutton, Heinrich! And you can see that the beans are cooked!

The cook shook his head sleepily.

"Let's get everyone together first."

Tjaden smirked.

– And we are all here!

The chef still didn't notice.

- Hold your pocket wider! Where are the rest?

“They are not at your mercy today!” Who is in the infirmary, and who is in the ground!

Upon learning of what had happened, the kitchen god was smitten. He was even shaken:

- And I cooked for a hundred and fifty people!

Kropp poked him in the side with his fist.

“So we’ll eat our fill for once.” Come on, let's start sharing!

At that moment, Tjaden had a sudden thought. His face, sharp as a mouse's muzzle, lit up, his eyes squinted slyly, his cheekbones began to play, and he came closer:

“Heinrich, my friend, so you got bread for a hundred and fifty people?”

The bewildered cook nodded absently.

Tjaden grabbed his chest.

And sausage too?

The cook again nodded his purple head like a tomato. Tjaden's jaw dropped.

And tobacco?

- Well, yes, everything.

Tjaden turned to us, his face beaming.

"Damn it, that's lucky!" After all, now we will get everything! It will be - wait! - so it is, exactly two servings per nose!

But then the Pomodoro came to life again and said:

- It won't work that way.

Now we, too, shook off the dream and squeezed closer.

- Hey you, carrot, why won't it come out? asked Katchinsky.

- Yes, because eighty is not one hundred and fifty!

“We’ll show you how to do it,” Muller grumbled.

“You will get the soup, so be it, but I will give out bread and sausage only for eighty,” Tomato continued to persist.

Katchinsky lost his temper:

- Send you to the front line once! You received food not for eighty people, but for the second company, that's it. And you will release them! The second company is us.

We took the Tomato into circulation. Everyone disliked him: more than once, through his fault, dinner or supper got to us in the trenches cooled down, with a great delay, because at the most trifling fire he did not dare to drive closer with his cauldron and our food carriers had to crawl much further than their brothers. from other companies. Here is Bulke from the first company, he was much better. Although he was fat as a hamster, if necessary, he dragged his kitchen almost to the very front.

We were in a very belligerent mood, and, probably, things would have come to a fight if the company commander had not appeared at the scene. When he found out what we were arguing about, he only said:

- Yes, yesterday we had big losses ...

Then he looked into the cauldron:

And the beans look good.

Tomato nodded.

- With lard and beef.

The lieutenant looked at us. He understood what we were thinking. In general, he understood a lot - after all, he himself came out of our environment: he came to the company as a non-commissioned officer. He lifted the lid of the cauldron again and sniffed. As he left, he said:

- Bring me a plate. Distribute portions to everyone. Why good should disappear.

Erich Maria Remarque is not just a name, it is a whole generation of writers of the 20th century. Recorded in the rows of "", the writer, probably like no one else in the world, drew a line of unprecedented width between peaceful life and war. The sadness and hopelessness caused by the war, like a red thread, run through all the works of Remarque, and each of his A new book is like a continuation of the previous one, thereby blurring the line between them, but there is one work on which I would like to place special emphasis. This great romance All Quiet on the Western Front.

The monstrous and shocking events that took place in the first half of the 20th century became a tangible impetus for the appearance of a number of works devoted to anti-war movements and calls to lay down arms. Along with such high-profile novels as "" by Ernest Hemingway, "Death of a Hero" by Richard Aldington and many others, we have no right to bypass "All Quiet on the Western Front."

The history of the creation of the novel is very interesting. Being one of the first works of Remarque "All Quiet on the Western Front" largely predetermined the future, including the creative, fate of the writer. The fact is that Remarque published his anti-war novel in 1929 in Germany - in a country that was in a certain transitional stage between the two world wars. On the one hand, the country that lost the First world war, was defeated, was in a severe crisis, but on the other hand, revanchist ideas were glimmering in the minds of the population, and therefore pro-war sentiments were reborn with renewed vigor. Before the Nazis came to power, Remarque's novel won universal recognition for its author, which, to a certain extent, became a real revelation. After the establishment of the Nazi regime, the writer's work was banned, his book was publicly burned, and the writer himself was forced to leave the aisles of his beloved and once native land. The departure of the writer allowed him some free-thinking, which cannot be said about his sister, who remained in Germany. In 1943, she was sentenced to death for "anti-patriotic remarks".

Remarque said about his novel that this is not an attempt to justify himself to the public, that his book does not act as a confession to the millions of victims who died during the conflict. Thus, he is only trying to show the situation from the inside, as an eyewitness and a direct participant in the hostilities. Everyone knows that the writer participated in the hostilities, so he was familiar with all the horrors firsthand. Perhaps that is why his book is filled with such realistic and sad events. Remarque's hero does not look like a typical American savior, worn to holes in the image of Superman. His hero does not kill enemies in droves, he is not the first to get into battle with a naked saber, on the contrary, he is a completely down-to-earth person with an instinct for self-preservation, who is essentially no different from hundreds and thousands of other similar soldiers. Realism also lies in the fact that we do not see pictures that are pleasant to the eye with a happy ending or a miraculous salvation of acting characters. This is the usual story of ordinary soldiers who got into the meat grinder of war; there is no need to think of anything in it, it is enough just to tell without embellishment how everything really happened. And in this regard, for a reader who historically adheres to political views that are different from the Germans, it will be doubly interesting to observe what the soldiers felt and how they lived on the other side of the barricades.

All Quiet on the Western Front is largely an autobiographical novel. The main character, on behalf of whom the narration is being conducted, is called Paul. It is noteworthy that the name of the writer at birth was Erich Paul Remarque, later he took the pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque. It is safe to say that Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front is Remarque himself, with the only difference being that the writer managed to return from the front alive. While still a schoolboy, Paul, along with his classmates, was overtaken by wartime, and as mentioned above, pro-war moods reigned in the country and it was not appropriate for a young man to sit at home in the prime of his life, so everyone was supposed to go to the front along with other volunteers , otherwise constant sidelong glances from the side would have been provided. Paul, side by side with his schoolmates, volunteers to join the army and sees with his own eyes all the fear and horror that is happening. Arriving at the front as a yellow-mouthed chick after a short time, the surviving comrades meet new arrivals already in the rank of experienced fighters who have seen the death of brothers and the deprivation of war. One by one, the war, like a sickle cuts off young ears, mowed former comrades. A real feast during the plague looks like a dinner scene in a village burning from shelling, and the top of all the recklessness and senselessness of the war was the episode in which Paul takes his wounded comrade out of the shelling, but when he reaches a protected place, he turns out to be dead. Fate did not spare Paul himself!

We can debate for a very long time about who is right and who is wrong in that war; and whether we could have avoided it altogether. But it is worthwhile to understand that each of the parties fought for their own beliefs, even though it will be difficult for us to understand, and most importantly, to accept the ideals of the other side. But in that war, the same ordinary soldiers fought, driven forward by obese generals. One of the characters in All Quiet on the Western Front, Kropp, said: "Let the generals fight themselves, and the victor will declare his country the winner." And it's true, it would be fun if kings, kings or generals fought on their own, risking life and health. Such wars would hardly have lasted long, if they had lasted even one day at all!

The height of the First World War. Germany is already at war against France, Russia, England and America, Paul Bäumer, on behalf of whom the story is being told, introduces his brother-soldiers. Schoolchildren, peasants, fishermen, artisans of different ages gathered here.

The company has lost almost half of its composition and is resting nine kilometers from the front line after meeting with English guns - "meat grinders".

Due to losses during the shelling, they get double portions of food and smoke. The soldiers sleep off, eat their fill, smoke and play cards. Müller, Kropp and Paul go to their wounded classmate. The four of them ended up in one company, persuaded by the "heartfelt voice" of the class teacher Kantorek. Josef Bem did not want to go to war, but, fearing "to cut off all paths for himself", he also signed up as a volunteer.

He was one of the first to be killed. From the wounds he received in the eyes, he could not find shelter, lost his bearings and was shot. And in a letter to Kropp, their former mentor Kantorek conveys his regards, calling them "iron guys". This is how thousands of Kantoreks fool the youth.

Another classmate, Kimmerich, is found in a field hospital with an amputated leg. Franz Kimmerich's mother asked Paul to look after him, "because he is just a child." But how to do it on the front line? One look at Franz is enough to understand that he is hopeless. While Franz was unconscious, his watch was stolen, his favorite watch he had received as a gift. True, there were excellent English boots made of leather to the knees, which he no longer needed. He dies in front of his comrades. Depressed, they return to the barracks with Franz's boots. On the way, Kropp has a tantrum.

In the barracks replenishment of recruits. The dead are replaced by the living. One of the recruits says that they were fed one swede. The getter Katchinsky (aka Kat) feeds the boy with beans and meat. Kropp offers his own version of the war: let the generals fight themselves, and the victor will declare his country the winner. And so others are fighting for them, who did not start the war and who do not need it at all.

A company with replenishment is sent to sapper work on the front line. An experienced Kat teaches recruits how to recognize shots and explosions and bury them. Listening to the "vague rumble of the front", he assumes that at night "they will be given a light."

Paul reflects on the behavior of the soldiers on the front line, how they are all instinctively connected to the ground, which you want to press down when the shells whistle. She appears to the soldier as “a silent, reliable intercessor, with a groan and a cry, he confides his fear and his pain to her, and she accepts them ... in those moments when he clings to her, squeezing her long and tightly in his arms, when under fire the fear of death makes him bury himself deeply in her face and with his whole body, she is his only Friend, brother, his mother.

As Kath foresaw, the shelling highest density. Claps of chemical shells. Gongs and metal rattles proclaim: "Gas, Gas!" All hope for the tightness of the mask. "Soft jellyfish" fills all the funnels. We have to get up, but there is shelling.