A thousand souls. Roman (1853-1858)

The action takes place in the mid-40s. XIX century in the county town of En-ske. The caretaker of the school, Pyotr Mikhailovich Godnev, resigns with a pension, and a certain Kalinovich, a young man who graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University as a candidate, was appointed in his place.

Godnev is a kind, sociable old man, a widower, lives with the housekeeper Palageya Evgrafovna, whom he once picked up when she was sick and poor, and her daughter Nastenka, a pretty, intelligent and sensitive girl in her twenty years. After a single and unsuccessful attempt to enter the small county world (at the evening of General Shevalova, the richest landowner in the province), reading became her only entertainment: "she began to live in some special world filled with Homers, Horaces, Onegins, heroes of the French revolution." Every evening, the younger brother of Pyotr Mikhailovich, a retired captain, comes to the Godnevs with his dog.

Introducing the teachers to the new superintendent, Godnev is unpleasantly struck by his arrogance; by the way, Kalinovich pretends not to recognize his classmate, the history teacher.

Kalinovich decides to pay visits to the local nobility and high officials, but it turns out that there is no such habit in the provinces - he is not received at all or, as in Shevalova's house, they are received coldly; only Godnev saw a young man in Kalinovich, alone in a strange city, and invited him to dinner. Kalinovich stayed with the Godnevs until late, talked with Nastenka about literature and did not get bored. After his departure, Nastenka did not sleep for a long time and wrote a new poem, which began like this: "Whoever you are, oh proud man! .." Since then, Kalinovich has been going to the Godnevs every day.

At the school, the new superintendent is trying to put things in order; the victim of his severity becomes, among other things, a capable and honest, but drinking history teacher.

One day Kalinovich receives a letter that greatly amazes him: “It was one of those clicks in life that take away faith in oneself and make a person a rag, trash, who sees ahead only the need to live, but why and for what, he himself does not know.” . On this day, Kalinovich tells the Godnevys the story of his life, “constant moral humiliation”: orphaned early, he grew up on the bread of a man who had once ruined his father, and was a mentor and toy for his stupid children; after the death of his “benefactor”, as a student, he already lived in complete poverty and starved; After successfully completing the course, he was given this place in the province, where he “must get bogged down and suffocate.” The final blow was that Kalinovich’s story, his first literary experience, was not accepted in a thick magazine. The world seems unfair to the young man, and he defends his right to cruelty before the complacent Godnev, who reproaches him for excessive severity: “I want and will take out on vicious people what I myself bear innocently.” Then there is a conversation between Kalinovich and Nastenka in private: Nastenka reproaches Kalinovich for calling himself unhappy, although he knows that she loves him; Kalinovich admits that “love alone cannot fill a man’s heart, much less my heart, because I <...> are terribly ambitious.” A few days later, Kalinovich reads his story from the Godnevs; Pyotr Mikhailovich remembers his old acquaintance, an influential person, and sends him Kalinovich’s essay.

The captain (Nastenka's uncle), who loves her very much, guesses that the young people are in an impermissibly close relationship; One night, trying to watch for Kalinovich, he catches the official Mediocritsky at the gates of the Year, who tries to smear them with tar: Mediocritsky once unsuccessfully wooed Nastenka and was jealous of her for Kalinovich. At the insistence of Kalinovich, the act of Mediokritsky is brought to the attention of the authorities; he is expelled from the service, but since then gossip has spread about Nastenka in the city.

After some time, Kalinovich's story appears in the capital's magazine; The Godnevs are proud and happy almost more than the author himself. Nastenka's relatives are only worried that Kalinovich not only is not in a hurry to get married, but also declares out loud that "marrying a calculation is vile, and marrying a poor man to a poor girl is stupid."

New faces begin to take part in the action of the novel: General Shevalova, a widow, a sick and irritable old woman, her daughter Polina and Prince Ivan, a handsome fifty-year-old man, a swindler and, as one might guess, Polina’s lover. Polina is exhausted by her mother's stinginess and the ambiguity of her position; Prince Ivan advises her to get married; Kalinovich seems to him to be a suitable groom, the only decent person in the city (the prince heard about his literary activities from Godnev). Nastenka, having learned that Kalinovich is invited to visit the Shevalovs, the very house where she was once humiliated, asks Kalinovich to refuse the invitation, speaks of bad premonitions; Kalinovich accuses her of selfishness. In the Shevalovs, Kalinovich is most struck by comfort: “for the children of this century, fame... love... world ideas... immortality is nothing compared to comfort.” Soon Kalinovich reads his story at an evening at the Shevalovs; they also called Nastenka, curious to see Kalinovich’s mistress; Nastenka’s presence is unexpected for Kalinovich, he is even ashamed of her unsecular appearance and “indecent” love. At the evening, Kalinovich saw the daughter of Prince Ivan, a brilliant beauty, and, not having stopped loving Nastenka, he fell in love with the princess: “in the hero’s soul there lived two loves, which, as you know, is in no way allowed in novels, but in life <...> meets you at every step." The prince invites Kalinovich to live a little in the summer on his estate; The Shevalovs are his neighbors. One day, the prince openly invites Kalinovich to marry the rich bride Polina and convinces him that early marriage to a poor woman will ruin his career. The prince's cynicism amazes the hero, he refuses Polina. The conversation, however, had its effect: Kalinovich decides to leave Nastenka and leaves for St. Petersburg; to avoid difficult scenes, he, deceiving the Godnevys, announces his engagement to Nastenka.

The decision made torments Kalinovich to such an extent that he wants to die. On the road, looking at his fellow traveler-merchant, the hero thinks with indignation: “For ten rubles he is probably ready to leave ten mistresses, and of course it is more likely to be explained to an aspen than to him that in this case a person must suffer.” Despite the mental anguish, Kalinovich, however, already on the train going from Moscow to St. Petersburg, meets a pretty woman of free behavior, and the author writes: “Here again I have to explain the truth, which is completely not accepted in novels, the truth that we never < ...> we are not able to betray the woman we love as much as during the first time of separation from her, although we still love with the same passion.”

Petersburg - the "grave city" - further strengthens the hero's longing: in the editorial office of the magazine he is met more than indifferently, after a meeting with Amalchen he feels disgraced, the director of the department, to which Kalinovich has a letter of recommendation from Prince Ivan, does not give him a place; finally, an old friend of Kalinovich, a leading critic of the magazine where his story "Strange Relations" was published, Zykov (Belinsky), who is dying of consumption, does not recognize literary talent in the hero: Kalinovich is too reasonable.

Kalinovich met and then became friends with a certain Belavin, an intellectual and gentleman who “thought honestly and ate well all his life.” In disputes with Kalinovich, Belavin denounces a new generation that has completely lost “romanticism,” a generation that is powerless and does not know how to love; the author notes, however, that in the life of the romantic Belavin, there seemed to be no strong passions and suffering, while Kalinovich, “with all his practical aspirations, we have been finding for about three years in a truly romantic position <...> romance, like people <...> with a stricter ideal <...>, as if they live less and stumble less.”

The unfortunate, sick and penniless Kalinovich writes to Nastenka, revealing, among other things, his past intention to leave her. Soon she comes to him - forgiving everything, with money borrowed. Her father is paralyzed; Nastenka herself, after Kalinovich had not written to her for half a year, thought that he was dead, wanted to commit suicide, and only the Christian faith saved her. After Nastenka's story, Kalinovich thoughtfully and with tears in his eyes said: "No, it's impossible to love like that!"

For some time the couple lives quietly and happily; They are visited by Belavin, who has become friends with Nastenka. But soon Kalinovich begins to be tormented by ambition, a thirst for comfort and contempt for himself for his parasitism. One day Kalinovich meets Prince Ivan on the street; The prince again begins to seduce the hero: he takes him to dinner at Dusso’s and to Polina’s luxurious dacha. Polina's mother has died, and Polina is now very rich, Kalinovich makes up his mind: he asks the prince if he can still woo Polina; The prince undertakes to secure the girl’s consent for him and demands fifty thousand for mediation. The author defends the hero from the reader: “if you’re going to blame someone, it’s better than ever...”

Out of remorse, Kalinovich is especially rude to Nastenka before leaving her; at the same time, she receives the news that her father has passed away.

Middle-aged and ugly, Polina falls passionately in love with her fiancé, which causes him an irresistible disgust. Before the wedding, Kalinovich learns from the chef Shevalovs that both Polina and her mother were mistresses of the prince, and he pulled money from them.

Having acquired a fortune and connections by marriage, Kalinovich finally gets what he always aspired to: a good place, an opportunity to show his abilities. A brilliant investigator came out of him; a few years later he becomes vice-governor of the very province where he was once a school superintendent.

Kalinovich "always felt great sympathy for the implementation of the impassive idea of ​​the state, with the possible rebuff of all class and private harassment"; bureaucratic robbery and lawlessness reigned in the province, and the governor led everything. In a fierce struggle with the bureaucracy and the governor, Kalinovich wins a temporary victory. The last major crime discovered by Kalinovich is a forgery committed by Prince Ivan, whom Kalinovich mortally hates; the arrest of the prince restores all the local nobility against Kalinovich.

Kalinovich unexpectedly receives a letter from Nastenka: she has become an actress, the public appreciates her talent; their troupe will play in En-ske; she gives her address and waits for the meeting: “ten years later <...> this woman, who had some kind of dog-like affection for him, responded again.” Kalinovich thanks God in joy: “Now I am not alone: ​​she will save me from the enemies and villains around me!”

Meanwhile, Polina, who has long hated her husband, secretly visiting the arrested Prince Ivan, goes to Petersburg; she intends to use the same connections that once gave her husband a place in the service in order to now destroy her husband and save Prince Ivan.

Kalinovich sees Godneva in Kotzebue’s melodrama “Hatred of People and Repentance” in the role of Eilalia; under Kalinovich she plays especially strongly and shocks the audience. That evening they learn that the governor has been removed and Kalinovich has been appointed acting head of the province. At home, Godneva greets Kalinovich simply, friendlyly and with the same love; tells how she lived without him, how she fell in love with Belavin: “We all have not the ability to love exactly one creature, but simply the ability to love or not.” Belavin was afraid of a possible romance, not wanting to take responsibility for another person: “You are also an egoist, but you are a living person, you strive for something all your life, you suffer, finally, you feel either sympathy or disgust, and now you can express it in life; but Belavin never..."

In the epilogue, it is reported that Polina's intrigues were a success: Kalinovich was fired "for illegal actions"; the prince is justified. Soon the prince completely ruins Polina; unable to withstand this last blow, she died. Kalinovich retires, marries Nastenka and settles with her and her uncle, the captain, in Moscow, "joining the party of the discontented." The author refuses to consider the wedding of the main characters the happy ending of the novel: Kalinovich, “morally broken, physically ill, decided on a new marriage solely because he no longer hoped for anything and expected nothing more from life,” and Nastenka loved him already "more in memory".

Author of the retelling: G. V. Zykova

Bitter fate. Drama (1859)

While waiting for the quitrent peasant Anania Yakovlev, “a proud, original man from the soul,” hard-working and economical, to return from working in St. Petersburg, in a festively decorated hut, anxiously looking at the swept road, two old women are talking - Spiridonyevna and Matryona, the mother of Lizaveta, Anania’s wife, in the absence of her husband, she entered into a love affair with the young landowner Cheglov-Sokovin and had a child with him.

Through the window you can see how the cart drives up. Ananiy, still not knowing anything, affectionately leads Lizaveta, who met him, by the arm into the house and distributes gifts to everyone. At the table, Anania's "smart speeches" about the construction of a cast-iron and shipbuilding, about the superiority of a merchant over a workman, promises to take Lizaveta with him to St. Petersburg this year put the audience on their guard. Lizaveta flares up, and the tipsy Uncle Nikon, an empty, self-deprecating little man, who gave Anania a ride for a quarter, boasting of his former life in St. Petersburg, suddenly calls Anania his lord's brother-in-law. Hearing about the child, Ananiy, in dismay, rushes to his wife, to Matryona.

Lizaveta first explains her dishonor solely by fear, threats, coercion and the desire to save her husband from conscription. Ananias’s anger and torment are all the stronger because he himself did not live a day or a night without thinking about home, placing family and Christian duty above all else in the world. In the end, having mastered himself, he decides, in order to avoid shame, to forgive Lizaveta, and to adopt the one and a half month old boy, subject to the complete cessation of love relations with the master... Meanwhile, in the landowner's house, in the office on the sofa, Cheglov-Sokovin sits with his head down , sagging, thin and exhausted, and his sister’s husband, the blooming dandy Zolotilov, was lounging in an armchair. He guides Cheglov on the right path with examples from the life of the district environment and his own experience of a successful relationship with a person of the lower class. Cheglov weakly resists Zolotilov’s cynicism, trying to prove that his reasoning is in the tone of Taras Skotinin, and “peasant women know how to love.” When this woman was still pregnant, Cheglov proposed, in order to save her from shame, to throw the baby to the mayor. She refused: “I’m a sinner for them and I have to suffer for it.” The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the mayor Kalistrat Grigoriev with a report on the arrival of Ananias, his “disgraces,” “tyranny,” and Lizaveta, who “snatched” to the master. Through sobs, she admits that Anania now has one intention - to excommunicate and take her and her son to St. Petersburg, and for her this is “worse than death,” because before, having been extradited by force, she looked at the young master when he came to the village, and now and “not my husband’s wife” at all. Cheglov, succumbing to the persuasion of the mayor and Lizaveta, agrees to openly talk on equal terms with Anania, explaining that this is a matter of love, and offers him either a ransom or a duel. The conversation between the three of them in front of witnesses offends Ananias even more. He recalls to the mayor how he deceived the master with a drunken land surveyor and sold the bread to thieves. A skirmish ensues, during which the details of Ananias’ family life, conveyed by Lizaveta, are revealed. Ananias, in a rage, threatens her with violence. The frightened Cheglov orders the mayor to make sure that “a hair doesn’t fall off her head.” The mayor, having long harbored a grudge against Ananias, is plotting revenge.

As at the beginning, Matrena and Spiridonievna discuss what happened: Cheglov, after meeting with Ananias, came out like a dead man, the pelvis “had coughed up a lot of blood”, Lizaveta lies silently, locked up, hungry for a day, only the unsteadiness with the child was transferred to her from the burner. At the sight of Anania Spiridonievna, as if by chance, she runs away to the steward, who bursts in with the peasants "on the master's decree" "to guard his woman" just at the time of Anania's new explanation with Lizaveta, his persuasion to leave sin, to start living like a god in St. Petersburg and buy a shop with the accumulated money. Ananiy warns that if Lizaveta says even a word in front of the "robber", he will not part with her alive.

The steward, quarreling, pits the peasants against Ananias. In the midst of the quarrel, Lizaveta appears from behind the partition, disheveled, in a thin sundress, publicly declares herself "the master's mistress" and demands to be taken to the master - at least, without shoes and clothes, "the last cowshed, or a dog." The steward unsuccessfully tries to take away the sheepskin coat and boots from the young guy by force - Lizaveta can only run to the estate - and in the end he dumps his Siberian coat on her. Lizaveta hurriedly takes her behind the partition to wrap the child. Ananiy rushes in after him, takes the child away and, in response to Lizaveta's resistance and scolding, unconsciously kills the baby. There is a terrible scream. The men are confused. Ananias runs through the broken window.

In Cheglov's house, the solicitor and police officer are stationed, gathering the peasants and preparing for interrogation. The mayor, giving orders and justifying himself, “why they didn’t stop and arrest him,” denigrates the missing Ananias and, with a bribe of one hundred and fifty rubles, secretly conspires with the executors of the district authorities to quickly hush up the matter. Sotsky brings Matryona. “Trembling all over,” she repeats the words of the bailiff: “I wasn’t... I don’t know.” An official of special assignments appears, a young man with a protruding jaw, in a smart uniform, with long beautiful nails, ambitious, but not smart, looks through the papers, drives everyone out, pushes out Matryona, the bailiff and orders the murderer's wife to be tortured. Lizaveta can’t stand on her feet, falls and just sobs: “...I’m a sinner, a sinner” - “I’ve lost my mind.” At the request of the official, Nikon is allowed out of the vestibule and his drunken, incoherent testimony is recorded, which Zolotilov opposes, constantly interfering in the proceedings with the demand that his “separate opinion” regarding the nobility be taken into account. At this time, the man Davyd Ivanov announces the capture of Anania, whom he met near the forest on his strip when he was harrowing. He voluntarily surrendered to the authorities. Ananias is shackled. His facial expression is exhausted and completely pained. To the question - “Why did he give up? If he lived there in the desert...”, to the bureaucratic persuasion to prove that his wife had an illegitimate child, and thereby mitigate the punishment for himself, Ananiy replies: “I didn’t go looking for life... .. and he was looking forward to death... you can run and hide from human judgment, but there is nowhere to hide from God’s!”, “It’s not for me to be their judge and prover: my sin is greater than all theirs...” The official accuses the men, especially the mayor, of in a conspiracy, in a strike. He goes to the governor to bring the matter to light, and Zolotilov is with him to defend the honor of the nobleman. The mayor has been released. Ananias is gathered into prison. He says goodbye to everyone. The bailiff kisses the first and bows. Suitable for mother and wife. She first rushes into his arms. He kisses her on the head. She falls and hugs his legs. Matryona baptizes him. Ananias bows. Everyone sees him off. The women start howling.

Author of the retelling: G. V. Zykova

<< Back: Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky 1821-1881 (Poor people. Novel (1845). White nights. Sentimental novel (From the memoirs of a dreamer) (1848). Netochka Nezvanova. Tale (1848-1849). Uncle's dream. From the Mordasov chronicles. Tale (1856-1859). The village of Stepanchikovo and its inhabitants. From the notes of an unknown person. A Tale (1857-1859). The Humiliated and Insulted. A Novel (1861). Notes from the Underground. A Tale (1864). A Gambler. From the Notes of a Young Man. A Novel (1866). Crime and Punishment. A Novel ( 1866). The Idiot. Novel (1868). Demons. Novel (1871-1872). Teenager. Novel (1875). The Brothers Karamazov. Novel (1879-1880). The Brothers Karamazov. Novel (1879-1880))

>> Forward: Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov 1821-1877/78 (Sasha. Poem (1856). Frost, Red Nose. Poem (1863-1864). Russian women. Poem (1871-1872). Contemporaries. Satirical poem (1875-1876). Who lives well in Rus'. Poem (1863- 1877, unfinished))

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