Smoke in the Forest

"Smoke in the Forest" is a short story by the Soviet children's writer Arkady Gaidar, first published in No.2, February 1939, issue of Pioneer magazine. Later that year it was published by Detizdat Publishers as a separate book with illustrations by P.Yermolayev. In 1940 Gaidar included it into his compilation Rasskazy. In 1955, Yevgeny Karelov shot a film Smoke in the Forest, based upon Gaidar's story.

Plot summary

Saboteurs set fire to the forest with the purpose of destroying the factory nearby. Pilot Fedoseyev, sent over with the reconnaissance mission fails to return in time. Volodya with Fenya and her mother, travel in a lorry to the aerodrome.
While playing with Brutik, the boy gets lost. Rushing through the forest, he suddenly runs into injured pilot Fedoseyev whose plane, as it happens, has been shot down by the enemy. Sent back to the aerodrome, the boy gets lost again, then sets out to swim across the river and all but drowns, being in the end saved miraculously by a sheep-dog Lutta and the Red Army men following her. Brutik, though, while crossing the river, dies.