V. Tendryakov’s novella “A Night After Graduation” caused a lot of controversy. It is about the upbringing of teenagers’ feelings and the role that school plays in this complicated process. Tendryakov likes to put his heroes through tests of human authenticity. The path to truth and goodness for him always runs dramatically—through a moral crisis that a person must overcome on their own.
In the novella “A Night After Graduation,” such a moral test takes place for six young men and women who have just finished school. After graduation, on the night by the river bluff, six graduates gather and for the first time speak openly about what they think of one another—while in the teachers’ common room, a discussion is taking place.