Petersburg slums. Roman (1864 - 1867)

On May 5, 1838, a young woman drops a newborn girl into the house of Prince Dmitry Shadursky. The thirty-eight-year-old prince is little surprised by the appearance of the foundling; Knowing the prince’s lifestyle, his wife Tatyana Lvovna does not see anything strange in this. Shadursky decides to get rid of the girl and goes for advice to General von Spiltze - a famous St. Petersburg lady of dubious origin, who knows everyone and everything and knows how to arrange any affairs in a variety of ways.

The mother of a newborn girl, twenty-five-year-old Princess Anna Chechevinskaya, is impatiently waiting in a secret shelter for the return of her maid Natasha, who was tasked with taking his illegitimate child to the prince. Princess Anna was brought up in the village, with a drinking father. There she also met her neighbor, Prince Shadursky, who had come for three months and, out of nothing to do, seduced a beautiful girl. Anna's father died unexpectedly, and, being pregnant, she was forced to move to St. Petersburg, to live with her mother who did not love her. Fearing the wrath of the old princess, Anna went to a secret midwife, accompanied by a serf maid, leaving her mother a note informing her of the upcoming birth.

Outraged by her daughter's immorality, the old princess deprives her of her inheritance in favor of her beloved son Nikolai, a rake and a gambler. The disgrace of Princess Chechevinskaya is becoming the property of Petersburg society; the old princess falls ill from a nervous shock.

Meanwhile, Natasha hatches her own plans for what to do next. This eighteen-year-old serf girl grew up in the house of the brother of the old princess Chechevinsky, who spoiled the pretty girl and raised her like a young lady. After the unexpected death of the master, Natasha was inherited by his sister and instantly lost the benefits that had become familiar. She was separated from her mother and assigned as a maid to Princess Anna. Natasha, a cold-blooded, ruthless and consistent nature, harbored a desire to take revenge on the hated princess.

After a scandal in the Chechevinsky family, Natasha goes to Voznesensky Prospekt to her lover, the engraver Kazimir Bodlevsky, who, at the time of her arrival, is busy making counterfeit money. Natasha demands that he get a fake passport for her, and dictates a note to him, which should be written in the handwriting of Princess Anna Chechevinskaya. With the help of swindler Sergei Kovrov, Bodlevsky gets a passport in one of the St. Petersburg brothels called "Ruffs". Having drunk the sick Princess Chechevinsky with opium, Natasha steals most of the money from her casket, leaving instead a note supposedly from Princess Anna, which says that she is taking the money allotted to her. Unable to withstand this shock, the old princess dies, having managed, however, to destroy the note that compromised the Chechevinsky family. Nikolai Chechevinsky is extremely surprised to find, after the death of his mother, not such a large amount that he expected. Natasha and Bodlevsky flee to Finland with fake passports.

Prince Dmitry Platonovich Shadursky agrees with General von Shpilze on the arrangement of the child and immediately forgets about the existence of his illegitimate daughter - just as, however, he does not want to remember the fate of her mother. Shadursky is more interested in who his twenty-five-year-old wife is pregnant with, with whom, after the birth of his son Vladimir, he maintains only the appearance of family relations. Six years ago, Shadursky married Tatyana Lvovna in order to annoy a friend who was in love with her; his wife soon bored him. Offended by her husband's indifference and infidelity, the princess found solace in the company of a man of "low" origin. Not knowing this, the prince suspects that the father of Tatyana Lvovna's unborn child is a secular rake like him. Imagine his shock when he finds the princess in the arms of his manager Mordenko! The enraged prince gives him a slap in the face and drives him out of the house; in response to the reproaches of the princess, Shadursky slaps her too. At night, Tatyana Lvovna goes into premature labor, and the frightened Shadursky takes her to the same secret shelter where Anna Chechevinskaya, abandoned by everyone, is staying. While the princess is giving birth, Anna and Prince Shadursky are explaining; fearing to become the hero of a secular scandal, he refuses the princess. Anna unsuccessfully asks to return the child to her.

The newborn son of Princess Shadurskaya is left with the midwife. Soon the princess secretly sends money to Mordenko so that he will place the child in good hands - and also forgets about the existence of her son. Shadurskaya arrogantly kicks out Anna Chechevinskaya, who came to her for her child, accusing her of immorality. Without a child, without friends, without a livelihood, Anna disappears into the slums of St. Petersburg. The Shadurskys, together with their five-year-old son Vladimir, are leaving abroad.

The daughter of Shadursky and Chechevinskaya was named Masha and given to General von Shpilze to be raised by the kind and God-fearing old men Povetins, who live on the Petersburg side. The son of Mordenko and Shadurskaya was baptized by Ivan Veresov and placed in the family of a retired Major Spitsy, who earns his living by giving foster children to beggars for better almsgiving.

Twenty years later, the princes of Shadursky returned to St. Petersburg. Baroness von Dering and her brother, an Austrian citizen Jan Karozich, are traveling in the same car with them from the Russian border. Both Shadurskys, old and young, take care of the beautiful baroness on the road. Courtship continues in St. Petersburg, which irritates Princess Tatyana Lvovna, as she is counting on a profitable marriage of her son with the daughter of a wealthy gold miner Shinsheev.

Visiting the Shinsheevs, Vladimir Shadursky meets Yulia Nikolaevna Beroeva, the wife of a Shinsheevsky employee. The beauty of the young woman awakens in the selfish Shadursky the desire to achieve her favor. His vanity is also inflamed by the fact that, being a loving wife and mother of two children, Beroeva rejects all boyfriends, including Mr. Shinsheev himself. Not accustomed to denying himself anything, Vladimir makes a bet on Beroeva with his friends. At his request, taking advantage of the long absence of Beroeva's husband, the general's wife von Shpilze lures her to him, intoxicates her with a special drink, forcing Yulia to surrender to Vladimir Shadursky.

Under the names of Baroness von Dering and Jan Karozich, Natasha and Bodlevsky returned to St. Petersburg. During their twenty years abroad, they became clever international swindlers and were forced to flee from the French court. In St. Petersburg, they form an "association" of swindlers with an old acquaintance, Sergei Kovrov, and a new one, who calls himself the Hungarian Count Nikolai Kallash. With the help of clever adventures, they swindle money from a representative of the Jesuit order, from gullible secular persons. Karozich becomes the last lover of the aging Tatyana Lvovna Shadurskaya, who willingly supplies him with money.

Shortly after the incident at General von Shpilze's, Yulia Beroeva feels pregnant. In desperation, she thinks what a heavy blow her involuntary betrayal will be for her husband. Hiding her pregnancy, Julia gives birth to a secret midwife, intending to keep the baby with her. But she feels sorry for the newborn boy, and she decides to ask Prince Vladimir Shadursky to take care of him. Beroeva writes him a note, inviting him to a masquerade, and then, during lunch in a restaurant, asks him to take part in the fate of the child. The prince agrees to do this in exchange for intimacy with her. Fighting off Shadursky, Yulia plunges a silver fork into his throat. The prince is wounded, Beroeva is arrested, the baby is sold to beggars, who die in terrible agony.

Shortly before this incident, Vladimir Shadursky left his kept woman Masha Povetina. At the instigation of Princess Shadurskaya, who wanted to distract her son from Baroness von Dering, the girl was delivered to the young prince by the general's wife von Shpilze, taking her from her tutors. Unable to bear the separation from her beloved Masha, the old woman Povetina died, the old man lost his mind. Masha fell in love with the young prince, unaware of his true attitude towards her: the egoist Shadursky had long wanted to have a beautiful kept woman to show off to her friends. Even less could she imagine that she had become the mistress of her own half-brother. Realizing that the sincere, pure soul Masha is not suitable for the role of "camellia", Shadursky leaves her without a livelihood.

Masha gets a job as a servant in a pedantic German family, but she is expelled from there during her illness. Finding no other job, having no place to live, Masha spends the night in an abandoned river boat. Here she meets Ivan Veresov, to whom fate was also unfavorable.

Ivan Veresov was raised from birth by Major Spitsa, without knowing any parental affection, although his father who lived next door visited him. Mordenko got him into a theater school, from which Ivan was released as incapable of dumb roles. He also earned his living by sculpting plaster figurines for street vendors. Ivan lived separately from Mordenko, who did nothing to help his son. Since his expulsion from the Shadursky house, Mordenko has been possessed by a single secret passion: to take revenge on the prince for the slap in the face, and on the princess for the contempt. To amass capital, he began to lend money for growth; its first pawnbroker was Princess Anna Chechevinskaya, who took off her pectoral cross. Gradually, Mordenko began to buy up the overdue bills of the wasteful Shadurskys, waiting for the day when he could finally ruin his enemies. Absorbed by this idea, Mordenko became so suspicious that he accused his own son of aiding the robbers who had come to kill the moneylender. Ivan was arrested, fell into a society of murderers and bandits and survived in prison only thanks to the intercession of one of them, Ramsay. Released, Ivan had neither housing nor funds, which is why he was forced to spend the night in a barge. His paths with Masha Povetina soon diverged, but they were destined to meet again.

Realizing the hopelessness of her situation, Masha decides to drown herself in the hole. But at the last minute, an old beggar woman and prostitute Chuha saves her. Masha notices that Chukha, who has sunk to the bottom of life, must have once received a good upbringing. The women are imbued with trust in each other, and Chukha tells Masha the story of her life - the life of the former Princess Chechevinskaya - not suspecting that her lost daughter is in front of her. Chukha brings Masha to spend the night in a brothel, where she meets Ivan Veresov again and saves him from the bullying of bandits. But the young people part again. Having escaped from the brothel, after difficult life ups and downs, Masha finds herself in a brothel.

Mr. Beroev is trying to help out his arrested wife, but this is hindered by the Shadurskys, who are afraid of a fair punishment for their son. The people bribed by them plant a set of the banned Kolokol magazine on Beroev, thus dooming him to arrest. Unable to endure prison life, public disgrace, the arrest of her husband, Yulia Beroeva, from a strong nervous shock, falls into a lethargic sleep in prison, which others take for death. She is buried in the far corner of the Mitrofanevsky cemetery. Soon, the runaway criminal Grechka digs up the grave, hoping to remove from Beroeva an amulet with a "fidget ruble", which she kept as a memory of her children. To Grechka's horror, the dead one rises from the coffin. Beroeva is found and cared for by "associators" who have established counterfeit money production not far from the cemetery.

Mordenko finally manages to carry out his revenge plan: he presents bills for payment for a huge amount, which should ruin the Shadurskys. But Mordenko cannot stand the shock and falls seriously ill. Before his death, he finds his son, Ivan Veresov, and bequeaths his fortune to him, taking an oath from him that he will avenge Shadursky to the end. In order to get Ivan to break his oath, Princess Shadurskaya reveals to him the secret of his birth and plays the role of a loving mother who has finally found a son in front of the young man. Ivan tears the bill into pieces, after which the princess stops meeting with him. The last person who left a bright trace in Ivan's life is Masha Povetina; he tries to find her.

На набережной Фонтанки толпа издевается над Чухой. Под общий смех совершенно пьяная Чуха называет себя княжной Чечевинской. Это слышит проходящий мимо граф Николай Каллаш и, пораженный, увозит ее в свой роскошный дом. В разговоре с протрезвевшей Чухой открывается настоящее имя Каллаша: это ее родной брат, князь Николай Чечевинский. В сердце мошенника и картежника просыпается жалость и любовь к сестре. Он обещает, что она будет женой когда-то обесчестившего ее князя. Николай нанимает врача, который медленно отравляет Татьяну Львовну Шадурскую. С помощью ловкой авантюры, осуществленной баронессой фон Деринг, Николай вынуждает овдовевшего Шадурского жениться на сестре. Анна заставляет князя рассказать, кому он отдал ее дочь. Николай Чечевинский помогает сестре добиться ответа от генеральши фон Шпильце, на которую указывает Шадурский. Анна в ужасе узнает, что девушка Маша, которую она спасла от самоубийства, была ее дочерью. Она бросается на поиски дочери, но находит ее умирающей от чахотки, до которой довела Машу ужасная жизнь в публичном доме. На похоронах Маши присутствует и Иван Вересов. Вскоре он завещает Анне Чечевинской оставшиеся у него деньги и стреляется. Его хоронят на кладбище для самоубийц и животных, рядом с могилой любимой собачки его матери, княгини Шадурской.

Accidentally seeing a photograph of Nikolai's companion, Baroness von Dering, Anna recognizes her former maid Natasha in it. Nikolai blackmails the baroness in order to return his sister's money, but in response to the blackmail, the "associators" lure him to ride along the underground canals of St. Petersburg and kill him there. The baroness and Bodlewski leave for Warsaw to "fish in the troubled waters" of the Polish uprising.

Vladimir Shadursky marries the rich woman Shishneeva, in their family the same "decorum of secular decency" is observed, which was observed in the family of the elder Shadurskys. The prince has "six pairs of the most excellent horses and a pair of the same dancers" in his content. The venerable general von Shpilze closes her business of arranging various affairs and becomes a highly moral person.

After leaving prison, Beroeva's acquitted husband visits his wife's grave. But at the cemetery he meets a living Julia. Not wanting to stay in their homeland, where Yulia does not even have the right to live, the spouses take the children and leave for the United States.

Author of the retelling: T. A. Sotnikova

<< Back: Pyotr Dmitrievich Boborykin 1836-1921 (The Evening Sacrifice. A novel in four books (1867). Kitay-Gorod. A novel in five books (1881))

>> Forward: Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky 1843-1902 (Morals of Rasteryaeva Street. Essays (1886))

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