"The old woman died at night." This final phrase from the story “The Deadline” makes the heart clench with pain, although old woman Anna has lived a long time in the world - almost 80 years! And how many things I redid! But there was no time to sigh and look around, “to hold the beauty of the earth and sky in my eyes.” And now - the last time allotted to her in life, the last meeting with her children who had scattered across the country. And the way Anna had to see her children became the most bitter test for her, confirming the onset of the “last deadline” - the severance of internal ties between generations. The last hours given to mothers become a burden to children. They have no time to wait...
Valentin Rasputin
Deadline
1
The old woman Anna lay on a narrow iron bed near the Russian stove and waited for death, for which the time seemed ripe: the old woman was nearly eighty. For a long time she overpowered herself and stayed on her feet, but three years ago, left completely without strength, she gave up and fell ill. In the summer she seemed to feel better, and she crawled out into the yard, basked in the sun, or even walked across the street to rest to old woman Mironikha, but by autumn, before the snow, the last of her strength left her, and in the morning she was not even able to bear the a pot that she inherited from her granddaughter Ninka. And after the old woman collapsed at the porch two or three times in a row, she was ordered not to get up at all, and her whole life remained in sitting down, sitting with her legs down on the floor, and then lying down again.
During her life, the old woman gave birth a lot and loved giving birth, but now she only has five left alive. It turned out this way because first death began to wander into their family, like a ferret into a chicken coop, and then the war began. But five survived: three daughters and two sons. One daughter lived in the region, another in the city, and the third was very far away - in Kyiv. The eldest son from the north, where he remained after the army, also moved to the city, and the youngest, Mikhail, who alone of all did not leave the village, had an old woman and lived out his life, trying not to annoy his family with his old age.
This time everything was going to the point that the old woman would not survive the winter. Already in the summer, as soon as it began to wane, the old woman began to die, and only the injections of the paramedic, whom Ninka was running after, brought her back from the other world. Coming to her senses, she moaned thinly, in a voice that was not her own, tears were squeezed out of her eyes, and she wailed:
“How many times have I told you: don’t touch me, let me go away on my own in peace.” I would be somewhere now if it weren’t for your paramedic. “And she taught Ninka: “Don’t run after her anymore, don’t run.” Your mother will tell you to run, and you hide in the bathhouse, wait, and then say: she’s not at home. I’ll give you some candy for this – such a sweet one.
At the beginning of September, another misfortune befell the old woman: sleep began to overcome her. She no longer drank, did not eat, but only slept. If she is touched, she will open her eyes, look dimly, seeing nothing in front of her, and fall asleep again. And they touched her often - to know whether she was alive or not. It dried up and towards the end it all turned yellow - dead is dead, the breath just couldn’t come out.
When it finally became clear that the old woman would not leave today or tomorrow, Mikhail went to the post office and sent telegrams to his brother and sisters asking them to come. Then he pushed the old woman aside and warned:
The first to arrive, the next morning, was the eldest old woman’s daughter, Varvara. It wasn’t far for her to get from the area, only fifty kilometers, and for this she only needed a passing car.
Varvara opened the gate, saw no one in the yard and immediately, as soon as she turned herself on, began to voice:
- You are my mother! Mikhail jumped out onto the porch:
- Wait! She's alive, she's sleeping. Don’t even shout in the street, otherwise you’ll gather the whole village.
Varvara, without looking at him, went into the hut, fell heavily on her knees by the old woman’s bed and, shaking her head, howled again:
- You are my mother!
The old woman did not awaken, not a single blood appeared on her face. Mikhail spanked the old woman’s sunken cheeks, and only then did her eyes move from the inside, move, trying to open, but could not.
“Mother,” Mikhail said, “Varvara has arrived, look.”
“Mother,” Varvara tried. - It's me, your eldest. I came to see you, but you don’t even look at me. Mother-ah!
The old woman's eyes swayed and swayed, like the cups of a scale, and then stopped and closed. Varvara got up and went to the table to cry, where it was more convenient. She sobbed for a long time, banging her head on the table, burst into tears and could not stop. Five-year-old Ninka walked near her, bending down to look at why Varvara’s tears weren’t running to the floor; They chased Ninka away, but she, cunningly, sneaked back and climbed towards the table.
In the evening, on the lucky “Rocket”, which runs only twice a week, the townspeople, Ilya and Lyusya, arrived. Mikhail met them at the pier and led them to the house where they were all born and raised. They walked in silence: Lyusya and Ilya along the narrow and shaky wooden sidewalk, Mikhail next to them, along the lumps of dried mud. The villagers greeted Lyusya and Ilya, but did not detain them with conversations, they passed by and looked around with interest. Old women and children stared from the windows at the arrivals, and the old women crossed themselves. Varvara could not resist seeing her brother and sister:
- Our mother... Mother-ah!
“Wait,” Mikhail stopped her again. - You'll have time.
Everyone gathered at the old woman’s bed – Nadya, Mikhailov’s wife, right there, and Ninka. The old woman lay motionless and cold - either at the very end of her life, or at the very beginning of death. Varvara gasped:
- Not alive.
No one tutted at her, everyone moved in fear. Lucy hastily raised her palm to the old woman’s open mouth and did not feel any breathing.
“Mirror,” she remembered. - Give me a mirror.
Nadya rushed to the table, wiping a fragment of the mirror on the hem as she went, and handed it to Lyusa; she hastily lowered the fragment to the old woman’s bloodless lips and held it for a minute. The mirror is a little foggy.
“Alive,” she breathed out with relief. – Our mother is alive.
Varvara started to cry again, as if she had heard everything wrong, Lucy also shed a tear and walked away. The mirror came to Ninka. She began to blow on him, looking to see what would happen to him after this, but she did not expect anything interesting for herself and, seizing the moment, put the mirror in the old woman’s mouth, as Lucy had just done. Mikhail saw, spanked Ninka in front of everyone and pushed her out of the room.
Varvara sighed:
- Oh, you are our mother, mother.
Nadya asked where to serve it - here, in the room, or in the kitchen. We decided that it was better to go to the kitchen so as not to disturb the mother. Mikhail brought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of port wine that he had bought the day before, poured vodka for himself and Ilya, and poured port wine for his sisters and wife.
“Our Tatyana won’t come today,” he said. - We won’t wait.
“There’s nothing more today, yeah,” Ilya agreed. – If you received a telegram yesterday, today there is a plane transfer in the city. Maybe now he’s sitting in the area, but the cars don’t go at night - yeah.
- Or in the city.
- Tomorrow there will be.
- Tomorrow for sure.
– If it’s tomorrow, he’ll make it in time.
Mikhail, as the owner, was the first to raise his glass:
- Let's. I need it for the meeting.
~– Is it possible to clink glasses? – Varvara was scared.
– It’s possible, it’s possible, we’re not at a wake.
- Don't say that.
- Oh, now talk, don’t talk...
“It’s been a long time since we all sat together like this,” Lucy suddenly said sadly. - Tatiana is just not there. Tatyana will arrive, and it will be as if no one had left. After all, we used to always gather at this table, setting the room only for guests. I'm even sitting in my place. But Varvara is not on her own. And you, Ilya, too.
- Where are they - they didn’t leave! – Mikhail began to get offended. - We left - and completely. Only Varvara will stop by when she needs some potatoes or something else. And it’s as if you don’t even exist in the world.
- Varvara is nearby.
“And you should go straight from Moscow,” Varvara counterfeited. - A day on the ship - and here. At least they shouldn’t say it, since you don’t recognize us as family. The city people began to want to get to know each other with the village people!
- Yeah, Varvara, of course, has no right to speak. Varvara is not a person. Why talk to her? Yes, empty space. Not a sister to her sisters, brothers. And if I ask you: how long have you been away from home before today? Varvara is not a person, but Varvara visited our mother, so many times a year, even though Varvara’s family is not yours, more. And now Varvara has become guilty.
“No one was going to sing the songs.” And you can have a drink. We ourselves know when it’s possible and when it’s not – we’re not little ones.
- Oh, just contact you.
The plot of V. Rasputin's story is built around the preparation for the death of the old woman Anna. Almost all her children gathered at her bedside. Only her beloved daughter Tatyana, whom her mother affectionately calls Tanchora, did not arrive.
Anna wants all her children to have time to say goodbye to her. Unexpectedly for those around her, the old woman feels better. She can now leave the house and eat. Anna's children, who expected the worst, feel bewildered. Sons Ilya and Mikhail decide to get drunk so that the vodka prepared for the funeral does not “stand idle.” Intoxicated, the brothers begin to talk about life. It turns out that she stopped bringing them joy. Work is no longer fun. Hopes for a bright future have long been abandoned; routine absorbs more and more every day. Mikhail and Ilya love and know how to work. But for some reason, right now, work does not bring the desired satisfaction. Their sister Lucy, taking advantage of the fact that her mother has temporarily stopped needing outside help, goes for a walk around the neighborhood. She remembers her childhood and her favorite horse. Having become an adult, the woman left her native place. It seems to Lucy that she left something very important in her native village, without which it is impossible to live.
Anna continues to wait for her beloved daughter Tanchora. She is saddened that Tanya did not come. Tanchora was sharply different from her sisters Vari and Lucy. My beloved daughter had a very kind and gentle character. Without waiting, the old woman decides to die. She doesn't want to linger in this world. Anna does not find a place for herself in her new life.
Old woman Anna
The elderly woman lived a long and difficult life. A mother of many children raised her children to be worthy people. She is confident that she has fully fulfilled her purpose.
Anna is the real master of her life. And not only life, but also death. The old woman herself made the decision about when to leave this world. She does not tremble before death, does not beg her to prolong her earthly existence. Anna awaits death as a guest, and does not feel any fear of it.
Old woman Anna considers children her main asset and pride. The woman does not notice that she has long become indifferent to them. Each of them has their own life, each is busy with themselves. What upsets the old woman most of all is the absence of her beloved daughter Tanchora. Neither the main character nor the reader knew the reason why she did not come. Despite everything, Tanya remains her mother’s beloved daughter. If she couldn't come, then there were good reasons for that.
Invisible girlfriend
Death is Anna's invisible and silent interlocutor. The reader feels her presence throughout the entire story. Anna does not see death as an enemy from which she needs to hide or defend. The old woman managed to make friends with her constant companion.
Death as a natural phenomenon
Death is presented without the slightest horror or tragedy. Its arrival is as natural as the arrival of winter after autumn. This inevitable phenomenon in the life of every person cannot be assessed positively or negatively. Death serves as a conductor between two worlds. Without it, it is impossible to move from one state to another.
The invisible friend shows mercy to the one who does not reject or curse her. She agrees to make concessions to each of her new friends. Wise Anna understands this. Friendship with the most terrible phenomenon for every person gives the old woman the right to choose. Anna chooses how to leave this world. Death willingly agrees to come to her in a dream and carefully replace the worldly dream with an eternal dream. The old woman asks for a delay so she can say goodbye to her beloved daughter. Death again yields to the old woman and gives the necessary amount of time.
Despite the fact that every reader understands how the story will end, the author leaves one of the main participants in his work behind the scenes, which further emphasizes the lack of tragedy of death.
Anna's children
Anna's sons and daughters have long lived their own lives. The approaching death of the old woman forces attention to the mother. However, none of the children were able to maintain this attention for too long. Noticing that Anna is feeling better, they strive to return to their thoughts and activities. The brothers immediately drink the vodka left for the wake and begin to complain to each other about life. The sisters, who shared the inheritance at the dying woman’s bedside, disperse in different directions to also plunge into their own worries.
Anna's children try to conscientiously fulfill their duties to their mother. Lucy sews a funeral dress for the old woman. Varvara mourns her mother, as Anna herself wanted. The sons are also ready to do everything necessary to see off the old woman on her final journey. In the depths of their souls, each of them is waiting for that moment when the most unpleasant things will remain in the past and they can return to their daily affairs and responsibilities. Ilya and Mikhail are not so much saddened by the upcoming death of their mother as they are concerned about their own. After their parents pass away, they will be the next generation to pass away. This thought horrifies the brothers so much that they empty one bottle of vodka after another.
main idea
There are no good or bad events in life. A person himself gives one or another assessment to each event. Despite her difficult existence, full of suffering and hardship, Anna does not seek to exaggerate. She intends to leave this world calm and peaceful.
The main theme of the story is the passing of an elderly person, summing up the results. However, there are other topics in the work that the author prefers to talk about less openly.
Valentin Rasputin wants to tell the reader not only about the personal feelings of the characters. “The Deadline,” a brief summary of which tells only how each character relates to death, is, first of all, a story about the change of historical eras. Anna and her children observe the destruction of the old order. Collective farms cease to exist. Young people are forced to leave the village due to lack of work and go in search of work in an unknown direction.
Valentin Rasputin’s story “Money for Maria” contains at the heart of the plot the idea of human relationships, mutual assistance and indifference, which are especially clearly manifested in the grief of others.
Another wonderful work by Valentin Rasputin, “French Lessons,” talks about human kindness, fortitude and patience.
Humane socialism will be replaced by ruthless capitalism. Previous values have been devalued. Anna's sons, accustomed to working for the common good, must now work for the survival of their families. Not accepting the new reality, Ilya and Mikhail try to drown out their pain with alcohol. Old woman Anna feels superior to her children. Her death has already come to her and is just waiting for an invitation to enter the house. Mikhail, Ilya, Lyusya, Varvara and Tatyana are young. They will have to live for a long time in a world unfamiliar to them, which is so different from the one in which they were once born. They will have to become different people, abandon their previous ideals, so as not to perish in the new reality. None of Anna's four children expresses a desire to change. Only Tanchora’s opinion remains unknown to the reader.
People's dissatisfaction with the new life is not able to change the course of events. The merciless hand of history will put everything in its place. The younger generation is obliged to adapt in order to raise their offspring differently than they themselves were raised. The old generation will not be able to accept the new rules of the game. He will have to leave this world.
5 (100%) 2 votes
The plot of the story “The Deadline” is simple: Mikhail, the son of the old woman Anna, who has not gotten up for a long time, has dried up, only reminding with her breath that she is still alive, calls his relatives by telegram. A large family gathers: sons, daughters, themselves no longer young, who have become parents. They are waiting for their delayed sister Tatyana and, afraid to admit it to themselves, are waiting for their mother to die. And this painful expectation reveals everyone. The children of the old woman Anna - Ilya, Lyusya, Varvara - who arrived some by hitchhiking from a neighboring village, and some by ship and plane hundreds of kilometers away, involuntarily want everything to happen as quickly as possible. They themselves, ashamed of themselves and their expectations, explain that they took time away from their affairs and work, because they came “to the outside world”) and fulfilled their duties. The death of the mother is perceived as a tragedy only by the author; the heroes are deprived of this. The eldest, Varvara, “opened the gate, saw no one in the yard, and immediately, as soon as she turned herself on, began to voice:
“You are my mother-a-a-!”
And then Rasputin will add: “Varvara got up and went to the table to cry - where it was more convenient.” No, she is not soulless, not callous, she “cryed for a long time, banging her head on the table, burst into tears and could not stop.” But the author, in parallel with this picture of crying (rather ritual, ceremonial), gives its perception through the eyes of a child. Five-year-old Ninka, Mikhail’s daughter, still does not understand what is happening, she “bent down to look why Varvara’s tears were not running to the floor.” The child in Russian literature is a special, iconic image. This is that pure, angelic soul that is given the ability to see or feel the truth or carry it to other heroes. There is a feeling that this five-year-old Ninka saw (and with her help we felt it) something not scary, unnatural in Varvara’s lamentations.
Anna herself is not afraid of death, she even gets angry when once again “the injections of the paramedic, whom Ninka was running after, brought her from the other world.” She wailed and begged her granddaughter:
- How many times have I told you: don’t touch me, let me go on my own in peace... Don’t run after her anymore, don’t run... hide behind the bathhouse, wait, then say: she’s not at home.
And the grandmother ingenuously finished her instructions to her granddaughter:
“I’ll give you some candy for this—a sweet one.”
Conveying Anna's unhurried, drawn-out thoughts and memories, Rasputin builds a simple story of her life. And she lived simply, like a river flows: she worked, raised children, the years flew by one after another... and it was the same with her mother, and with her mother’s mother... What is this, a plant life, not spiritualized by the mind, without a single thought, a life of habit ? Or that very natural, harmonious connection of life with the eternal movement of nature, merging with the world, when your place in this eternal cycle does not require awareness? Because it's yours?! Anna herself, reflecting, believes that she has lived a good life, and we understand where she gets this feeling from: she has somewhere to go and someone to leave. Her life is seen as a link in an endless chain of existence, and therefore, having fulfilled what was intended for her (she was a worker, wife and mother) by nature and the universe itself, she will merge with this eternal order and peace. Not scary!
But the children do not know what to do, and this confusion, the author claims, is not from the fear of losing their mother, but because they have been torn out of the eternal circle of habitual worries and troubles, and they do not know what to do in the face of such a phenomenon in the world. And if we feel that the author with undoubted respect depicts the last days of the old woman Anna and her thoughts, then the behavior of the children is perceived as false (the word “vain” is requested). Moreover, we feel more and more acutely that this vanity stands out in those heroes who broke with the village (and with their mother too). This is how the theme of mother and mother nature arises in the story, a break with which is tragic for a person. We see this most acutely in the image of Lucy (and I will remind you once again that for Russian literature it was female heroines who were the bearers of special, very important traits that conveyed the mental makeup, the highest values of the national character, and Rasputin picks up this tradition). The city left its mark on Lucy in every way: in her character, in her behavior, in her way of thinking, in her habits. Everything about her is unnatural, unnatural. So the mother asked for food, for the first time in several days she swallowed the thin porridge, and the daughter could not find any other words except the sadly formal ones:
“You can’t overload your stomach now.”
Let him digest this first...
And her letters from the city?! “Tell your mother that medicines help with any illness at any age... Make sure that your mother dresses better in winter...” It seems like care and attention, but what an air of officialdom emanates from these truisms! Who doesn’t know that medicines cure, but it’s cold in winter? And with her sister Lyusya speaks in the same formal manner: “It has become completely impossible to talk to you, Varvara. Don’t forget, please, we are also quite old and probably understand what we are doing.” Varvara is offended - the city sister has become proud, but Rasputin is convinced that the matter is completely different. Lucy is already different, a stranger to this world, where everything is simple and wise, and she now lives not with her soul, but with some other rules. Rasputin gives Lyusa a chance to return to the world of natural feelings and natural words when she remembers her childhood, berry places, Listvenichnik Island, mushrooms... “Do you remember how mother sent us all to pick wild onions across the Verkhnaya River? We'll all get wet and dirty until we pick. And they also competed to see who can pick the most. “Left in the forest, alone with herself, with her memory, Lucy will suddenly stop, as if trying to return something very important, it will seem that a little more, and she will open her soul to the natural that is about to embrace her, she will understand something... then in the surging feelings, she will sort out the memories... But Lucy’s life is meaningless.
The author is preparing an unexpected plot twist. Children expect grief, listen to their mother’s breathing, Varvara cries and cries, Lyusya holds a mirror to the dying woman’s lips - is there breathing... And the mother opens her eyes, asks for porridge, the one “that she cooked for little Ninka,” and then she gets up and leaves the hut, and Lucy is wearing a black dress, finishing her mourning dress at night, and the brothers have already bought a box of vodka for the funeral, and the writer shows how this vodka helps to find a way out of an awkward situation: they were preparing to drink to the death, now they decided to drink to their health! At first the men hid in the bathhouse, and then they came out into the yard, emboldened, because it was a joy! And these scenes, frankly comical, especially the genuine horror of Mikhail, who learned that his stupid daughter almost took bottles to the store in order to return them and buy candy with the proceeds, these funny events accumulate imperceptibly, as if something unpleasant was gathering, increasing, intensifying anxiety, shame, unworthy of a person - and so ordinary. This is vanity, that petty vanity of life, which clearly carries a hint of vulgarity, some kind of moral deafness. And it’s not even about the sons’ drinking, not about the scandal that will break out at the mother’s bedside, not about the senseless, empty bickering of brothers and sisters... The feignedly cheerful and such false words of children who need to leave, no matter how their mother begs, will sound. For some reason, the words that the children of their mother will say on the threshold of their home will seem scary:
- And don’t be offended by us. That's how it should be.
Yes, it is necessary, but not according to human rules, but according to the same law of vanity that he broke and rebuilt the souls of children for himself. Mother lives differently. To this day, she punishes herself for being guilty in front of her children. During the famine, when little Varvara was dying, her mother secretly milked Zorka, her former cow, but now the collective farm cow. It was with this milk that my daughter gave birth, but she still cannot forgive herself for this sin (she took someone else’s!), she even sincerely believes that Varvara’s failed life - there are problems with her husband, her unlucky daughter - are traces of that long-standing sin, and she is executing herself. Children are different: they know for sure that they live correctly. And only one person in the house, the youngest son Mikhail, a drinker and a good-for-nothing, suddenly feels something very important and says, left alone with his mother:
- Do not be angry at me. I'm a fool, of course... Don't be too angry with me. I was a fool.
And after the departure of the city guests, the granddaughter, five-year-old Ninka, will approach her grandmother, and, as if understanding something, feeling something, she will put her greatest value - candy - into her hand, and the old woman’s lips will move in a smile. The old, the young and the fool stayed together, but the smart, educated, cultured ones left without understanding anything. But we understand how important it is for Rasputin to show that everything that makes a person truly human is still alive, alive in the heart, but only in one that knows how to empathize, sympathize, and perceive someone else’s misfortune as keenly as its own. But this ability, according to Rasputin, is lost by those who break the spiritual connection with the earth, with nature, with natural life. This is how “The Deadline” ends: “The old woman listened without answering and no longer knew whether she could answer or not. She wanted to sleep. Her eyes closed. Until the evening, before darkness, she opened them several more times, but not for long, only to remember where she was.” No epithets, no dialectisms, colloquialisms reproducing Anna’s dialect, no complex syntax, no branched structures. Rasputin uses the simplest linguistic means to talk about the death of the old woman Anna, realizing that any complication of the phrase, embellishment in such a situation would be a deviation from artistic taste, from the truth, even some kind of blasphemy. The last sentence of the story will be extremely simple: “The old woman died at night.” Just as simply as she lived, in that great naturalness) which alone preserves man and which turned out to be inaccessible to her children, cut off from the earth, from the soil) on which all living things feed. They were torn away from the mother, but at the same time from mother earth, from maternal roots.
Deadline Analysis of Rasputin's work
5 (100%) 1 voteOld woman Anna lies motionless, without opening her eyes; it has almost frozen, but life still glimmers. The daughters understand this by raising a piece of a broken mirror to their lips. It fogs up, which means mom is still alive. However, Varvara, one of Anna’s daughters, believes it is possible to mourn, to “voice her back,” which she selflessly does first at the bedside, then at the table, “wherever it’s more convenient.” At this time, my daughter Lucy is sewing a funeral dress tailored in the city. The sewing machine chirps to the rhythm of Varvara’s sobs.
Anna is the mother of five children, two of her sons died, the first, born one for God, the other for the soar. Varvara came to say goodbye to her mother from the regional center, Lyusya and Ilya from nearby provincial towns.
Anna can't wait for Tanya from distant Kyiv. And next to her in the village was always her son Mikhail, along with his wife and daughter. Gathering around the old woman on the morning of the next day after her arrival, the children, seeing their mother revived, do not know how to react to her strange revival.
“Mikhail and Ilya, having brought vodka, now did not know what to do: everything else seemed trivial to them in comparison, they toiled, as if passing through every minute.” Huddled in the barn, they get drunk with almost no snacks, except for the food that Mikhail’s little daughter Ninka carries for them. This causes legitimate female anger, but the first glasses of vodka give men a feeling of genuine celebration. After all, the mother is alive. Ignoring the girl collecting empty and unfinished bottles, they no longer understand what thought they want to drown out this time, maybe it’s fear. “The fear from the knowledge that the mother is about to die is not like all the previous fears that befall them in life, because this fear is the most terrible, it comes from death... It seemed that death had already noticed them all in the face and would no longer will forget."
Having gotten thoroughly drunk and feeling the next day “as if they had been put through a meat grinder,” Mikhail and Ilya are thoroughly hungover the next day. “How can you not drink? - says Mikhail. - Day, two, even a week - it’s still possible. What if you don’t drink at all until your death? Just think, there is nothing ahead. It's all the same thing. There are so many ropes that hold us both at work and at home that we can’t groan, there’s so much you should have done and didn’t do, you should, should, should, should, and the further you go, the more you should - let it all go to waste. And he drank, as soon as he was released, he did everything that was necessary. And what he didn’t do, he shouldn’t have done, and he did the right thing in what he didn’t do.” This does not mean that Mikhail and Ilya do not know how to work and have never known any other joy than from drunkenness. In the village where they all once lived together, there was a common work - “friendly, inveterate, loud, with a discord of saws and axes, with the desperate hooting of fallen timber, echoing in the soul with enthusiastic anxiety with the obligatory banter with each other. Such work happens once during the firewood harvesting season - in the spring, so that the yellow pine logs with thin silky skin, pleasant to the eye, have time to dry over the summer, are placed in neat woodpiles.” These Sundays are organized for oneself, one family helps another, which is still possible. But the collective farm in the village is falling apart, people are leaving for the city, there is no one to feed and raise livestock.
Remembering her former life, the city dweller Lyusya with great warmth and joy imagines her beloved horse Igrenka, on which “slam a mosquito, he will fall down,” which in the end happened: the horse died. Igren carried a lot, but couldn’t handle it. Wandering around the village through the fields and arable land, Lucy realizes that she does not choose where to go, that she is being guided by some outsider who lives in these places and professes her power. ...It seemed that life had returned back, because she, Lucy, had forgotten something here, had lost something very valuable and necessary for her, without which she could not...
While the children drink and indulge in memories, the old woman Anna, having eaten the children's semolina porridge specially cooked for her, cheers up even more and goes out onto the porch. She is visited by her long-awaited friend Mironikha. “Ochi-mochi! Are you, old lady, alive? - says Mironikha. “Why doesn’t death take you?.. I’m going to her funeral, I think she was kind enough to console me, but she’s still a tut.”
Anna grieves that among the children gathered at her bedside there is no Tatyana, Tanchora, as she calls her. Tanchora was not like any of the sisters. She stood, as it were, between them with her special character, soft and joyful, human. Without waiting for her daughter, the old woman decides to die. “She had nothing more to do in this world and there was no point in postponing death. While the guys are here, let them bury them, carry them out as is customary among people, so that they don’t have to return to this concern another time. Then, you see, Tanchora will come too... The old woman thought about death many times and knew it as herself. In recent years they had become friends, the old woman often talked to her, and Death, sitting somewhere on the sidelines, listened to her reasonable whisper and sighed knowingly. They agreed that the old woman would go away at night, first fall asleep, like all people, so as not to frighten death with open eyes, then she would quietly snuggle, take her short worldly sleep away and give her eternal peace.” This is how it all turns out.
March 7, 2015Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin is one of the most talented and famous writers of modern Russian literature. Fundamental to many of his works is the theme of the perception of morality today.
The story "The Deadline", a brief summary of which we present to your attention, was called by the creator himself the main work in his work. He began working on it in 1969, and in 1970, the work “The Deadline” was published in the magazine “Our Contemporary”.
Old woman Anna lies without opening her eyes, motionless. Life still glimmers in her, but the woman herself is almost frozen. Her daughters understand this and bring a piece of the broken mirror to their lips. It fogs up, which means the mother is still alive. But Varvara, one of the daughters, believes that she can already mourn, “cast off her voice,” and does this selflessly, first at the bedside, and then at the table, since it is more convenient there. Lyusya, the other daughter, is at this time sewing a mourning dress, tailored in the city. The sewing machine chirps in time with Varvara’s sobs.
Children's arrival at the funeral
Anna had five children. Two of her sons died, the firstborn, who were born one for God, and the second for the king. Varvara came to say goodbye to her parent from the regional center, and Ilya and Lyusya came from provincial towns nearby.
We continue to describe the work “The Deadline”. The following further events are summarized. Anna is waiting for Tanya to arrive from distant Kyiv. In the village, next to her, her son Mikhail was always with his daughter and wife. The children, gathered around the old woman the day after their arrival, do not know how to react to their resurgent mother, to her strange rebirth. 
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Ilya and Mikhail get drunk
Ilya and Mikhail, having dragged the boat, cannot now decide what to do. Compared to the upcoming event, everything else seemed trivial, and they toiled, letting every minute pass through them. The sons get drunk with almost no snacks, huddled in the barn, snacking only on food that Ninka, Mikhail’s little daughter, carries for them. This circumstance provokes the legitimate anger of women, but shots of vodka give the two brothers a feeling of celebration. The mother is alive after all. They no longer understand, not paying attention to the girl collecting half-drunk and empty bottles, what thought they want to drown out this time. Perhaps fear from the knowledge that their parent will soon die. It is not like other fears; it is most terrible, since it comes from death itself, which, it seemed, had noticed them all in the face and would not forget them.
The work "The Deadline" continues. A summary of further events is as follows. Feeling bad the next day after drinking, the brothers get hungover again. Ilya and Mikhail do not know how to work. They never knew any other joy than from drinking. The common work happened in the village where everyone once lived together - inveterate, friendly, loud, with a discord of axes and saws. It was in the spring, during the firewood harvesting season. But now people are leaving for the city, the collective farm in the village is falling apart, and there is no one to raise and feed livestock.
Daughter Lucy remembers her former life
City dweller Lyusya, remembering her former life, with great joy and warmth remembers Igrenka, her beloved horse, who was very weak and eventually died. Igren carried a lot, but couldn’t handle it. Lyusya, wandering through the arable land and fields around the village, understands that she does not choose where to go, but is led by some force, an outsider, living in these places. Life seemed to come back, because Lucy had lost something valuable, necessary, forgot something that she couldn’t live without...
Anna is on the mend
We continue to describe the summary of the book "Deadline". While the children indulge in memories and drink, Anna, having eaten semolina porridge specially prepared for her, cheers up more and more and goes out onto the porch. Her friend Mironikha visits her. Anna grieves that Tatiana is not among the children gathered at the bedside, Tanchora, as the old woman calls her. She was very different in character from her sisters. Her disposition was somehow special, joyful and soft, human.
The old woman decides to die
Let us describe further events and their brief content. "Deadline" Rasputin Valentin continues as follows. Anna decides to die without waiting for Tatiana, since there is nothing more to do in this world and there is no point in postponing death. While the guys are gathered here, let them see him off and bury him, as is customary among people, so that later they won’t return to this concern. Then, maybe Tanchora will come too... Many times the old woman thought about death, she already knew it as herself. They had become friends in recent years, the old woman often talked to her, and Death listened to her whisper, sitting on the sidelines, and sighed knowingly. They agreed that Anna would go away at night, first, like all people, she would fall asleep, so as not to frighten death with her open eyes, and she would snuggle quietly, take the worldly short sleep from the woman and provide her with eternal peace. That's how it all happened.
Valentin Rasputin finishes his work “The Deadline”. A summary was presented in our article. It does not describe the details, does not give an idea of the characteristic features of the work. This story, meanwhile, is very interesting. Therefore, we recommend that you turn to the work itself and familiarize yourself with it in the original. We tried to convey only a brief summary. “The Last Term” (Rasputin Valentin Grigorievich) is a work, after reading which you will not remain indifferent.