Dovzhenko himself told me this story.

And during these months, when the Soviet Army liberated vast areas of our country one by one, Dovzhenko believed (and repeatedly said this) that special careful attention was needed, with which one should approach each such difficult fate of an individual. Dovzhenko's thoughts about this found a place in his script.

But now I can't help but think of a little novel, a front-line incident that Dovzhenko told me long before our troops entered the land of Ukraine. I will try to retell this "novel" almost verbatim, as Dovzhenko himself told me, laughing a little.

«...I once received an assignment from the editor of our divisional newspaper to write an essay about a sniper whose name was reverberating all over the front. I went to the regiment where this sniper served. They delivered him to me at the battalion headquarters in the evening, and we began to talk with him.

The guy is big, red-haired, I would even say, whitish. He stares at me with steely, devoted eyes and "reports", rattling off the usual newspaper phrases one after another — apparently, he has already been repeatedly in the clutches of our brother, the correspondent! I realized that things weren't going to work out that way, and I turned the conversation to anything else, civilian. I'm chatting about this and that, and I've told you a little bit about myself. It turned out that he saw Shchors, and that's exactly what "melted" him.

When he found out that I had shot this picture, he became visibly agitated.

"Alexander Petrovich," he said, forgetting all subordination, and addressing me by my middle name, "your painting Shchors has something to do with me, too!"

"How's that?"

— And that's it! I personally hate these Germans! That's probably why I hit them without a miss, because I have a personal hatred for them... That's when they showed up in Ukraine for the first time in the eighteenth year, as shown in your picture, they then raped my mats, the bastards... That's what I came from!

He blurted it out to me—"That's what I came from!"—angrily, in one breath, almost shouted, all bloodshot, and, I confess, threw me into considerable amazement at the unexpected and complex turns that life sometimes gives!"

"Ukraine on fire" was a truly suffering artist's high truth about the war, his truth! He didn't hide anything and didn't give up on anything in this scenario.

...And yet this truth of his did not find its way to the screen at that time. Dovzhenko's script "Ukraine on Fire" was rejected, and the film based on this script was not directed by him.

What was the reason for that? Was it the frankness with which Dovzhenko talked about the difficult days of the retreat of our army, or the fact that the general heroic sound of the script was accompanied by another sound, the tragic sound of unprecedented national suffering? Was this considered inappropriate in the days when the most brutal of wars was still going on? Obviously, this is so, since Dovzhenko was accused of excessive pessimism. But it would seem that in those days, when the people of the Soviet country performed an unheard-of military and civil feat in the name of saving all human beings on our planet, it was the right time to tell the people of the whole Earth about what this feat was worth and is worth to our people!

A son of the Ukrainian people, connected by all the roots of his poetic work with the poetry born of this people, he, a pupil of the greatest of the revolutions, always remained an ardent internationalist and in each of his works, literally in each, set tasks on a global scale, striving above all to express the spirit and power of the entire Soviet people. So it was with "Ukraine on Fire," and so it was with Dovzhenko's other military scenario, "The Tale of the Fiery Years," which also failed to find a screen version during his lifetime. We owe it to Solntseva's courage and perseverance, her deep insight into Dovzhenko's plans, that after his death this second scenario about the war nevertheless became a film! A film that provoked a warm response from the audience not only in our country, but also in many other countries. Overall, the Indian welcome package is designed to give new players confidence and extended control over their first betting steps. The inclusion of the 1xbet promo code today in the registration process transforms a standard sign-up into a premium entry experience. With bonuses reaching ₹66,000, access to sports and casino content, and continuous promotional support, new users in India receive a balanced and competitive introduction to the 1xBet environment.