Yuri Levin, one of the oldest Ural writers and journalists, celebrated his eightieth birthday last year. He is the author of more than two dozen books, the screenwriter of the documentary film "How Many Miles to the Reichstag," and has won several prestigious literary awards.

Yuri Abramovich Levin met with our correspondent and answered his questions.

- Yuri Abramovich, your career as a writer and journalist is truly enviable. You've witnessed two wars and had numerous fascinating encounters throughout your life. Why is the Great Patriotic War still the central theme of your work?

- The echoes of the 1940s never cease for me, resonating in my heart on a daily basis. I still hear the roar of bombers over Rzhev, the thunder of cannons in Stalingrad, the gunfire on the streets of Riga, and the flames of Warsaw, as well as the fall of Berlin. My fellow soldiers come to me in my memory as young men, and I tell the story of their unforgotten bravery and determination. I've been searching for those whose traces were lost in the war for all the post-war years. I want future generations to hear the echoes of the 1940s. Let people remember those who defended our homeland from the most dangerous enemy of humanity - fascism.

- Our magazine's readers will be interested to learn more about your biography...

- I was born in September 1917 in a peasant family in the Belarusian village of Porechye, which stands on the river with the poetic name Ptitch. After finishing ten years of study, he worked as a literary employee of the regional newspaper "Banner of Collectivization". Since 1938 in the Red Army. Cadet of a tank school. Tank commander. Participated in the liberation of Bessarabia. He was a litsotrudnik of the brigade newspaper "Krasnarmeets". In 1941, he graduated from the Higher Newspaper Courses in Moscow. From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was in the active army, at the front, as a correspondent for an army newspaper, and then for a front-line newspaper. He ended the war in Berlin as the executive secretary of the newspaper of the renowned 3rd Shock Army. After the war, he served in the German Army Group of Forces in the Urals. He retired as a lieutenant colonel, serving as the executive secretary of the newspaper of the Red Banner Ural Military District, Krasny Boets. After being discharged from the army, he worked as a correspondent for Literaturnaya Gazeta in the Urals for several years...

- Your front-line fate brought you together with many remarkable people: Sergei Ostrov, Vasily Grossman, the famous military commanders Zhukov and Rodimtsev, and the nationally known heroes - the sniper Zaitsev, the scouts Egorov and Kantaria...

- My life was full of unique encounters. In this regard, my work at the editorial office of the 31st Army newspaper was very helpful. I still remember the day I first arrived there, as the editorial office was located in Rzhev. In a small room, I saw what I thought were elderly people... They began to introduce themselves: Bella Ilesh, a well-known novelist, Yefim Zozulya, the editor of the Ogonyok magazine, and Sergey Ostrovoy, the author of the popular song "On a Long Journey"...

I'm shivering with fear - it's the entire Literary Newspaper! I became very close friends with Sergei Ostrov. We were surrounded together. After Ostrov was wounded, I had to carry him for a while...

There were many memorable meetings in Stalingrad as well.

- Let's focus on this period of your military career.

- Stalingrad, you can say, is a special milestone, incomparable to anything else. The leading edge is long. The city stretches along the Volga River. The German held us close to the shore. There were still some 50-100 meters to reach the water barrier. On the Volga bank, by order of the commander of the 13th Division, General Rodimtsev, our correspondent dugout was dug on the same level with his command post. And right above us, over the hill - the Germans. I remember that after the war, I came to Volgograd and asked the secretary of the regional committee, who was meeting with the front-line soldiers, "Why don't you restore our bunker? It's a historical site: Vasily Grossman spent the night there, Konstantin Simonov visited it, and Nikolai Verta, a popular writer at the time, also stayed there." The secretary wrote something in his notebook, and by the 45th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, our bunker was restored.

In those days, I spent 180 days and nights there with Yuliy Chepurin, a front-line journalist and now a well-known playwright. Together, we wrote articles about the 62nd Army of Stalingrad for the front-line newspaper.

- Yuri Abramovich, please tell us more about this stage of your work.

- We, the journalists, had to cover the daily life of the nine divisions that were defending this narrow bank of the Volga. How could we do it all? Without much thought, Chepurin and I laid out a map of Stalingrad on a table made of wooden planks and used a ruler to divide the city in half. To the left of the bunker was Chepurin's "domain," and to the right was mine. So, every day, or rather, every night, I had to crawl, run, or whatever else it took to visit these regiments and divisions, learn everything that had happened there during the day, and by dawn, I had to write an article for the front-line newspaper, whose editorial office was located across the Volga, in the village of Srednyaya Akhtuba. These nighttime journeys were undoubtedly very dangerous. However, the most challenging part was getting the article to the editorial office. The Volga was in full flames. It's not for nothing that they said in Stalingrad, "It's better to go on the attack against the Germans five times than to cross the Volga once." I've experienced this firsthand. Crossing the river is a living hell. You're sitting on a boat or a dinghy like a target on a shooting range, and they're shooting at you, but you're just sitting there, watching the bullets fly over or under you. You need nerves of steel and the ability to stay calm. There's no other way to transport your supplies. And that's where General Rodimtsev came in again. He gave us, the correspondents, a private boat and a boatman. "In gratitude," he said, "for writing so much about my guards! I will never forget our boatman, a Red Army soldier with a Chapayev mustache named Ivan Deryabin, whom we simply called Stepanych. At the risk of his life, he faithfully carried out his mission and provided us with immense assistance.

- Today, the press is called the "fourth power," and they often give it unflattering names... But how did people treat journalists on the front lines?

- From the example I gave about General Rodimtsev, you can see how the command staff treated correspondents. And what about the troops? Newspaper reporters were highly respected, and the press was eagerly awaited. When I visited the Red Army soldiers in their trenches, the first question I was asked was, "Comrade correspondent, do you have a fresh newspaper?" Nowadays, writers who have never been to war often claim that soldiers only see the world through the scope of their rifles. However, this is not true. Ordinary fighters were keenly interested in what was being done in the world, in the country... And, of course, if in any article it was written about the native company, battalion, regiment - for the military it was a real holiday. Messengers came running and begged: "Give me another copy." These newspapers were read literally to holes!

- Have there been any cases where, as they say now, the media has told or shown lies?

"I wrote down this story in the Berlin Notebook. On May 3, the 45th, I approach the Reichstag and do not believe my eyes: attacking chains of our fighters are running with a red banner along the Royal Square. "What is it?" I ask the first officer I meet. "The Reichstag is being stormed!" he replies. "Why? It's ours, isn't it?"You can't see it, it's a movie," the officer said, waving his hand. So that's it, I realized, some filmmaker overslept the real assault on the Reichstag, and now they're trying to resurrect the "truth" or, more accurately, their own glory... Is this nonsense going to be shown on the screen? And you know what, it did... Years later, I saw this "chronicle" in a movie theater, which was essentially a lie...

-- You always try to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Maybe that's why most of your books are based on factual information?

- I believe that the main thing for any writer, whether an ordinary one or a great one, is the real human fate. This is the foundation of their work. Even the great classics, such as the unattainable Leo Tolstoy, used real human lives as the basis for their works.

- Please tell us about your first book.

- I co-authored it with the late Nikolai Mylnikov. It's called "The Golden Cross" and is also a documentary. The main character is Alexander, a military pilot from Sverdlovsk.

Kuznetsov. He was captured at the front, escaped, and became the leader of a Polish partisan unit. For his heroic deeds, he was awarded the Polish Golden Cross. By the way, the book he published helped him find his fellow soldier Arkady Vorozhtsov after the war, who lived in Izhevsk, where our book was republished.

- Your energy and work capacity are admirable. What are you working on now?

"I've just finished writing a book of memoirs called The Generaliad. Why this name? I tell you about my meetings with famous military leaders: Zhukov, Batov, Rodimtsev, Apanasenko, Lelyushenko, Chuikov and others. This is not a traditional story about front-line meetings, but rather, showing those about whom I write, in a non-trivial situation, in everyday life, in extraordinary situations. I have now started working on a literary memoir. I consider it my duty to tell you about the great writers I knew, saw, and interacted with.

- I can't help but ask you about your feelings today, as you look at what is happening to our homeland, which you defended.

- Of course, when we were fighting on the front lines, we didn't think that such a time of lies would come to our country. A country with traditions and a history of defeating fascism cannot and should not live like this!

A front-line soldier with the Order of the Patriotic War on his jacket lapel is standing with his hand out in front of a store... Is this a symbol of the times?

To avoid ending the conversation on a gloomy note, I would like to say that the older generation is confident that all the scum will be washed away over the years. We have already overcome such challenges as war and destruction. I am certain that the people and the country will regain their footing. All I wish is for it to happen sooner rather than later.

- Thank you, Yuri Abramovich, for an interesting conversation, and I wish you new books and prosperity.

Permanent link to this publication: