A. T. Tvardovsky, R. Farkhadi, Mark Twain

Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky (1910–1971) was born in 1910 near Smolensk in the family of a well-read blacksmith. On winter evenings at home the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov and Nekrasov were read aloud. He studied in a village school and began writing poems very early: at fourteen he sent small notes and poems to Smolensk newspapers. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature. In the Second World War he was a special correspondent of a military newspaper. «Рассказ танкиста» describes a fierce battle: tankers fight for a street, trying to break through to the square, while the enemy gun fires from an unknown place. Suddenly a boy runs up, says he knows where the gun is and asks to ride the tank and show it. The commander takes him aboard and the tank crushes the enemy gun from behind. The commander thanks the boy and shakes his hand; he only regrets forgetting to ask the boy’s name.