The poem Retribution / Адплата
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In April, 1943, Yakub Kolas started a big poem Retribution (Адплата) (PDF). The poet had written it long being engaged in public affairs. Only in November, 1944 the work was complete. The poem Retribution is a true epopee of the partisan struggle of Belarusian people against fascist aggressors. With its comprehension of reality, a truthful presentation of life, ideological saturation, the poet’s insight of the essence, the contents of events and situations and the completeness of images this poem ranks as one of the most significant poetical works created by Belarusian authors during the wartime. It became an artistic generalization of Belarusian people’s struggle against the enemy and its worldwide-historical importance. The poet could depict various forms of partisan struggle, draw unique pictures of partisans’ life. One of characteristic features of the poem is a truthful image of partisan movement. In many works devoted to partisan war it is displayed as a spontaneous phenomenon. However, Yakub Kolas presents the partisan movement has as an organized national revenge. Depicting the heroic struggle of Belarusian people, its difficulties and successes, Yakub Kolas could not ignore partisans’ everyday life, that specific way of life which had developed when “the awful grief has united our people with one feeling”. Some episodes in the poem are devoted to partisans’ daily life. Yakub Kolas describes in detail the way they live, the appearance of a camp where all “was made tastefully to gladden warriors”. As a detail of partisans’ life, the poet emphasizes that even women “all lived in chime, without quarrel, having dropped their old habit”. A realistic demonstration of partisan movement, the sources of power and victory determined a truthful image of partisans, both private soldiers and commanders. In Yakub Kolas’ description ordinary partisans are not only simple executors of the commander’s will, but also serious, thoughtful and judicious fighters. Each of them, “inflamed by a burning revenge”, considers how to “outwit the German”. They are incorporated by one idea, one feeling, one service, but each character is individual. The artist-realist managed to see in each person their original features and found corresponding facts, emotions and intonations to show this character. All the images in the poem are both realistic and generalized. The protagonist of the poem is Kondrat Belous, the commander of a partisan troop. This is the most interesting character in the poem. His first and main feature is his sanguine temperament, vitality, truthfulness. The reader can see not a plain scheme, not a mouthpiece or a reasoner, but an artistically complete and living image of a partisan leader. Through this image the poet masterfully generalizes and shows the best features of the people: an utter devotion to the native land, adherence to principles and endurance heroism and fearlessness, a boundless love of a person and the hatred against the enemy. This is not an external characteristic of a character, theses features are not only shown through the author’s notes and descriptions but also manifest in dynamics changes, behavior, ideas and feelings of the hero. In the poem men and women of different age, old men and children are shown. Nikita, Kuprijan and Syomka represent the senior generation. Each feature of this or that character embodies a concrete typical national feature. Uncle Nikita is an inventor, a person of a great initiative and diligence. He never gets lost in the most difficult circumstances and ordeals, hotly loves life and at any opportunity aspires to decorate it. For example, he builds a dugout, warms it with moss, fixes props, makes air-holes and a furnace, works a hand-made lamp of splinter and a metal plate and suspends it on the ceiling. The image of grandfather Syomka is more detailed: a "wise man of natural gifts" and bearer of characteristic national features – observation, ingenuity judiciousness. He devotes all his energy and wisdom to the struggle against the enemy. The grandfather is opposed to another character, von Krupp. In the collision between a simple peasant and a “thoroughbred Aryan” the poet emphatically manifests the moral and physical superiority of a simple Belarusian over Germans. Grandfather Syomka contrasts not only with von Krupp but also with traitor Timokha. He has both sarcastic and biting temper and subtle and quick wit. Here grandfather Syomka conducts to a partisan camp Zhigun the Stray. He does not know yet whom exactly he conducts, but his feeling, a healthy instinct are correct, and he guesses that it is the enemy. The poet emphasizes this particular vigilance as an internal quality of grandfather Syomka which manifests in his appearance as well. His temper is not less boldly shown in a scene of interrogation of Zhigun the Stray. Grandfather Syomka notices all minute details, takes into consideration each of them, weighs it and connects with other phenomena. When Zhigun damns Germans in grandiloquent words grandfather Syomka stupefies him with a skeptical remark: “However, here іs some riddle”. Grandfather Syomka belongs to that kind of people who cannot calm down until they find the “roots of things” and puzzle out a tangle of doubts. He is always in motion, in action. A significant place in the poem Retribution is given to young generation. In severe ordeals of the Great Patriotic War youth proves to be worthy of their fathers, justifies the hopes of Belarusian people. The poet creates these images with fatherly warmth and love. When commander of the partisan troop Kondrat Belous asks: “Well, shall we fight, Pyatrok?” the young man answers with confidence: “Why not? If only you command” and “his eyes have shined like two flowers in grass”. It is possible to tell the same about Maxim Potorok, a wood nightingale who is a “great lover of songs”. Partisans Kostik and Klim are also this kind of characters. The young avengers are “inflamed with a burning revenge”. Once the guys receive the combat mission: to destroy a railway bridge. The operation is complex; they even think that they return to the partisan camp without fulfilling the task. But they in fact must execute the commander’s order otherwise “it would be better to die at all”. By common efforts the young partisans find the way to the bridge and blow it. Yakub Kolas describes in the difficult military mission, the courage of young avengers, their high comprehension of the responsibility before people. Yakub Kolas masterfully depicts the traitors: faint-hearted and flabby Timokh and Nazi fawner who serve Hitlerite murderers. But everything ends. The traitors betray themselves. Timokh exposes Zhigun to the partisan troop and then confess to his crimes before partisans. They forgive the “venal one” but his own conscience doesn’t: he goes mad and also perishes. Yakub Kolas’ poem Retribution is a highly artistic work of Belarusian poetry, a work of powerful force and influence spiritualized by lofty ideals. During the war it inspired Belarusian people, multiplied his forces in the sacred struggle against the enemy, glorified the noble feelings of patriotism and heroism. The poem played a mobilizing role in post-war reconstruction as well. The mankind is moving further and further from the awful war, but the poem still has a mighty effect on the reader. Sources:
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