Gardenins, their mongrels, followers and enemies. Novel (1889)

Tatyana Ivanovna Gardenina, the widow of a real state councilor, usually spent the winter in St. Petersburg with her three children. Due to signs of anemia in her daughter Elise, an impressionable girl of about seventeen, the family lived abroad for some time in the summer, which upset her sons - both the youngest, fifteen-year-old Raf, who was still under the supervision of tutors, and the eldest, Yuri, who had already entered the school.

In the winter of 1871, the family doctor, noticing an improvement in Elise’s health, allowed the family to go to a village near Voronezh for the summer. Tatyana Ivanovna writes to the housekeeper Felitsata Nikanorovna to prepare the estate for the arrival of the owners. In the response letter, in addition to complaints about the new “free” times that have spoiled the former serfs, who “don’t need freedom”, the housekeeper informs the lady that the son of the lord’s equerry, Efrem Kapitonov, is studying medicine at St. Petersburg University. The housekeeper asks the lady to take Ephraim into her home and settle him in her house. Tatyana Ivanovna sends a butler to the student, who finds Ephraim surrounded by the same students, vigorously discussing revolutionary ideas. Ephraim rudely rejects Gardenina's invitation. Elise reads a lot and often in her dreams imagines herself in the place of the heroines of Dostoevsky’s novels. During one walk, she picks up a woman beaten in a drunken fight and brings her to her house. When they try to calm Elise down and convince her not to do this, she has a seizure. The servants, discussing what was happening - have you seen them drag all sorts of rubbish into the house from the street and call the doctors! - they whisper in fear: “Well, the time has come!”

The "new time" is also hard to live in the patrimony - the provincial village of Gardenin. The manager, Martin Lukyanich Rakhmanny, only by virtue of his natural ingenuity and knowledge of the peasant "from the inside" keeps the peasants and those living around the same palace in strictness and order. He tied workers with debt obligations no worse than serfdom; The economy is well-managed and prudent. The main pride of the estate is the stud farm, famous throughout the province for its trotters. The stableman Kapiton Averyanych is preparing the trotter Rabbit for the next race, hoping to take the main prize and curry favor with the mistress for the ingratitude of his son-student, about which he was informed by the old housekeeper.

The manager teaches his only son Nikolai, a young man of nineteen, to run the household. Nikolai had never been anywhere further than the provincial town, had not studied anywhere, but even the rudiments of home education that he received, combined with his natural intelligence, reveal remarkable abilities in him. Nikolai’s desire for self-development is manifested in conversations with the old carpenter Ivan Fedotich, the clerk Agey Danilych, the watchman of the distant farm Agathokles Ernik, and the merchant Rukodeev. Each of these people is original in their own way; the stories of their lives provide Nikolai with enormous material for his own reflections on human destiny. The young man is especially struck by Ivan Fedotich’s confession. In his youth, he fell in love with the maid Lyudmila. His best friend Emelyan also fell in love with her. Lyudmila preferred Ivan. The friendship, “which the world had never seen before,” ended with a terrible event: Emelyan falsely testified to the master that he saw that Ivan stole a hundred-ruble note from his office. Ivan almost became a soldier, but they relented and only punished him in the stables. Ivan, after much thought, called Emelyan to him and forgave him in a Christian manner. Returning from work in a distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later, their girl, Tatyana, was born. But God did not give Emelyan happiness: he began to drown the consciousness of his own sin in wine and finally drank himself to death after the death of his wife. Tatyana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and “made the servants laugh” - they got married. Before his death, Emelyan asked Ivan: “Are we even?” - cried and died, holding the hands of his daughter and old friend...

The merchant Rukodeev gives Nikolai books from his library, evaluates the young man's first poetic experience. Nikolai reads avidly and a lot, writes his notes about peasant life to the newspaper. These notes are printed in abbreviated form. Martin Lukyanich is proud of his "writer" son. He no longer prevents Nikolai from spending evenings reading books.

Post-reform life brings new events to Gardenino. Quarrels in peasant families are becoming more frequent, sons are separated from their parents, peasants without exception shirk from work, drunkenness flourishes. Martin Lukyanich hardly keeps the peasants from imminent riots, the danger of which increases before the impending cholera epidemic. The thoroughbred trotter Rabbit on the run comes first, but the next night he is poisoned by competitors from another plant. And everyone connects this hitherto incredible event with new times. "Unbelted people!" the manager sighs.

A noble family arrives in Gardenino. At this time, the student Ephraim also arrives. He makes a good impression on the lady with his education, good manners. The mistress asks him to work with Elise. The girl also likes communication with a young man who boldly and directly expresses his views. Their relationship develops into a feeling, which is mainly based on a passion for revolutionary ideas. The old housekeeper spies on Ephraim and Elise, and when she hears their declarations of love, she rushes at Ephraim in a rage. Elise collapses in a fit. The housekeeper gets frightened, not understanding what is happening, and asks the lady to go to the monastery. Upon learning of the relationship between Elise and the student, Gardenina fires his stable father. Kapiton Averyanych, understanding the reason for his dismissal, drives his son out of the house. The stableman's wife, a downtrodden woman who lives only by love for her son, cannot bear such a blow and dies. The stableman hangs himself. Ephraim and Elise run away from home and secretly get married in St. Petersburg. Life in Gardenin is completely out of its relatively calm current. The lady leaves, sends a new manager. The whole economy is being reorganized, hitherto unseen machines appear, creating the impression of progress, for which the new manager advocates.

But there are people who, in this chaos of the emerging new life, destroying the old foundations, sow the seeds of goodness and humanity. The brightest of them is Nikolai Rakhmanny. During this time, he went through a difficult and difficult path of learning about life. Even at the time when he went to Ivan Fedotovich and his young wife, he unexpectedly fell in love with Tatyana, and one evening, when the old man was not at home, the young people become secret lovers. Tatyana confesses her infidelity to her husband, and Ivan Fedotovich takes his wife to a distant village. Nikolai is experiencing his act, repents, he is especially tormented when he finds out that Tatyana is having a child - his son.

Nikolai meets Vera Turchaninova, the daughter of the bailiff, they jointly open a school for peasant children in an abandoned farm, where Vera teaches. When Vera arrives in the county town, intending to talk to Nikolai temporarily working there and agree to marry him, he, in confusion, announces to her that he will marry another - the daughter of the owner of the house in which he lives. Prior to this, the owner's daughter arranged a meeting with Nikolai, which her father witnessed - and Nikolai, in dismay, agreed to become the husband of this cunning girl. Faith leaves in despair. But Nikolai meets with understanding from his future father-in-law, who, having clarified all the circumstances of his daughter's upcoming marriage, advises Nikolai to quickly escape from his child.

Fate brings Nikolai to the house of Tatyana and Ivan Fedotovich, he sees his little son there. Ivan Fedotovich, noticing that Nikolai and Tatyana truly love each other, with Christian senile humility, blesses them and leaves to wander.

Ten years later, Tatyana manages her own shop, waiting for her husband, who has left for the city to sit in the zemstvo assembly. Her twelve-year-old son helps her, and a well-groomed and handsome old man, Martin Lukyanych, sits here. He proudly tells visitors about his son, Nikolai Rakhmann, who is now "the chief zemstvo specialist in the county."

Returning from the Zemstvo, Nikolai meets Rafail Konstantinovich Gardenin in the town, who speaks with admiration of the recent report on schools made by Nikolai in the Zemstvo. Young people talk about the affairs and concerns of the zemstvo, about the needs of the school, and recall their past lives. Gardenin invites Nikolai to visit him at the estate. Nikolai sees a renovated village, altered outbuildings, but he also meets ragged, drunken men. He thinks that it is hard to give birth to a new life, that the only way to it is hard everyday work, the "voluntary yoke" of which he will never want to take off himself. At the estate, Nikolai listens to the manager's story about the new arrangement of the economy, meets with his wife. This is Vera Turchaninova, who has long forgotten the aspirations of her youth, is used to traveling to expensive resorts and leads an idle life.

Nikolai leaves Gardenin with relief, thinking about the upcoming meeting with his wife and son, and the feeling of sorrow of his past life gradually leaves him. He thinks not about his life, but about life in general, and the exciting call of the future lights up in his heart.

Author of the retelling: V. M. Sotnikov

<< Back: Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin 1855-1888 (Artists. Story (1879). Red Flower. Story (1883). Signal. Story (1887))

>> Forward: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 1860-1904 (Steppe. The story of one trip. Tale (1888). Ivanov. Drama (1887-1889). A boring story. From the notes of an old man. Tale (1889). Duel. Tale (1891). Jumper. Tale (1891, published 1892) . Ward No. 6. Tale (1892). Black monk. Short story (1893, published 1894). Literature teacher. Short story (1889-1894). Seagull. Comedy (1895-1896). House with a mezzanine. Artist's story (1896) . My life. A provincial's story (1896). Uncle Vanya. Scenes from village life. Play (1897). Ionych. A story (1898). A man in a case. A story (1898). Gooseberry. A story (1898). About love. A story (1898). Darling. A story (1899). A lady with a dog. A story (1899). In a ravine. A story (1899, published 1900). Three sisters. A drama (1901). A bishop. A story (1902). The Cherry Orchard. Comedy (1904))

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