One night (Bykau)

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Wassil Bykau in 1944

One night ( Belarusian Адна ноч, Russian Одна ночь Odna notsch also Russian Проклятье Prokljatje , The Curse ) is a novella by the Belarusian writer Wassil Bykau from 1963. Mikhail Wassiljewitsch Gorbachev translated the text into Russian in the same year.

German-Soviet War : The shooter Iwan Waloka is torn back and forth in a duel against the German enemy.

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Flying Stukas surprise Ivan in the embattled city; drop bombs. In the midst of the detonations, Ivan orientates himself on a sergeant from his platoon ; follows him bent over. Suddenly there are two German opponents in front of Ivan. He shoots one of them with the MPi . The second has disappeared. A building collapses. Ivan escapes into a doorway and falls down a cellar stairs. Below he is fighting a German. During the struggle for life and death, both are buried after a violent detonation. Ivan gets himself up from the rubble and, instead of a fascist monster, finds an aged opponent who has been battered by the war. This one - Fritz Hagemann from Dresden , married father of three children - heard a few words of Belarusian during the war. One communicates. Both soldiers are carpenters ; smoke together machorka . When Ivan thinks of his captain Woranau, he has only one option. He has to take Fritz prisoner and hand him over to his regiment. With the Dresdner's lighter, the two victims look for a crack in the masonry that promises success when digging out together. During the hard work, a chunk falls on Ivan. When he comes to, he can no longer leave the cellar on his own through the air hole. Submachine guns are being fired nearby. Fritz climbs up first and, when he reaches the top, wants to help Ivan up. When Fritz first asked for Ivan's MPi and promptly received it, Ivan, who was still dazed by the collapse, immediately remembered his fatal mistake. It's over now. But Fritz doesn't shoot, he pulls Ivan with both hands through the cleared hole. Fritz Hagemann is called by his comrades and hurries over to them. Ivan cannot leave Fritz to the enemy and shoots the new friend. Fritz answers, furious and in mortal fear, with a hand grenade . Ivan shoots a second time. Fritz falls. Ivan, with splinters in his shoulder, staggered and registers powerless injustice.

filming

  • 1989, Soviet Union : One night , 45 min film by Vladimir Fatyanov

German-language editions

  • One night. Translated from the Russian by Dieter Pommerenke . Pp. 153–190 in Wassil Bykau: Novellas. Volume 1. Verlag Volk und Welt. Berlin 1976 (1st edition, edition used)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Translations of M. Gorbachev into Russian (Russian)
  2. ↑ One night on YouTube