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Lecture notes, cheat sheets
Russian literature of the XNUMXth century in brief. Cheat sheet: briefly, the most important
Directory / Lecture notes, cheat sheets Table of contents
Vasily Trofimovich Narezhny (1780-1825) Russian Zhilblaz, or the Adventures of Prince Gavrila Simonovich Chistyakov Novel (1812, publ. ch. 1-3 - 1814; ch. 4-6 - 1938) In a small village at the turn of the Oryol and Kursk provinces, the estate of Ivan Efremovich Prostakov, who lives with his wife and daughters, Katerina and Elizaveta, is located. This is where the author introduces us to the main character. Prince Gavrilo Simonovich Chistyakov is in the most miserable state and was accepted into the house only out of mercy. But soon he wins the love of the whole family and for entertainment, as well as for edification, tells the instructive story of his life. After the death of his father, having only a field and a kitchen garden, he, through his negligence, allowed the first to overgrow and trampled down the second. He married Princess Feklusha, and now the three of them (with their newborn son Nikandr) did not have a piece of bread, and none of the princes of their native Falaleevka wanted to help them. An unexpected benefactor was the innkeeper Yanka, who at first fed the family. But soon a visiting merchant stopped in their hut, "tempted" by the son of the prince and bought several old books at a fabulously high price, which ensured the continued existence of the family. Over time, the economy improved, the field again gave a harvest, nothing disturbed the peaceful happiness of the prince. Everything changed in an instant with the escape of Princess Feklusha, who went "to see <...> the big light." The prince found solace only in little Nikander and decided to live for his son, but a new misfortune lay in wait for him: one day, returning home, he discovered that his son had been kidnapped. After spending the rest of the day searching and despairing of finding his son, he left the village. While Gavrilo Simonovich was telling this sad story, the solitude of the Prostakovs was violated by two more strangers. One of them, Prince ("still a prince!") Svetlozarov, appeared no less unexpectedly than before Chistyakov, and soon won the favor of the whole family, and especially Katerina. Prince Gavrilo Simonovich, at the mere name of the new prince, was embarrassed and wished not to reveal his own, but to be represented by a distant relative, Krakalov. The close friendship between Prince Svetlozarov and Katerina alarms him, and he shares his doubts with his kind friend Prostakov. Upon Svetlozarov's departure for Christmas, Katerina is found to have a letter in which, however, the prince promises to ask for her hand and nothing more. Meanwhile, the second stranger is treated kindly no less. This is a young painter named Nikandr, brought by Prostakov from the city to paint portraits of family members and give lessons to his daughters. Everyone was glad to discover his talent, and Elizabeth recognized in him the object of her love, who had been expelled from the boarding school for three years for an innocent kiss imprinted on her. For a while, nothing interferes with the happiness of young people, but ... in the absence of her husband, Mrs. Prostakova finds out about everything. Nikandr was awarded two slaps in the face and expelled in disgrace, escorted and admonished only by Prince Gavrila Simonovich. Prostakov, who returned from the city, orders to secretly find Nikandr and, having provided him with a sufficient amount of money and a letter to the Oryol merchant Prichudin, escort him to Orel. The cares of the young man are entrusted with a good deal of friendship to Prince Chistyakov. The prince asks Nikander to tell the story of his life. The young man did not know his full name and origin. He was the same age as the missing son of the prince, and for a moment Gavrila Simonovich has hope. But the widow who raised Nikander in the early years considered him the illegitimate son of some noble gentleman. Then there was the boarding school of Madame Delaveny, about the expulsion from which the prince already knew. So Nicander was on the street for the first time. His aptitude for painting secured him a place as an apprentice to an artist. But soon his benefactor died, and, becoming the subject of contention between his wife and daughter, he was forced to flee in the middle of the night. By chance, he witnessed the robbery kidnapping of the merchant's daughter Natalia. As a noble and brave man, he could not help but intervene and saved the girl. Grateful parents brought him into the house and were ready to give their daughter for him, but since his heart was not free and the image of Elizabeth accompanied him everywhere, he had to leave this house too and went to secretary to the learned husband Tris-megalos. Excessive enthusiasm for the Slavic language and metaphysics made him the subject of ridicule of others. Even more dramatic was his affection for Anisya, the niece of his neighbor Gorlany. Upon learning of the infidelity of his subject, he was shocked and wished to part with his life, calling for help his last love - punch. But one day the clerk came to the house with a crowd of relatives, and Tris-megalos was put in a lunatic asylum, and poor Nikandr was again left without a livelihood and, in this disastrous state, ended up with the Prostakovs. The prince knew what happened next. Shortly after his arrival in Orel, Nikander is assigned to the service. After some time, a letter arrives from Prostakov, announcing that Prince Svetlozarov has made an offer to Katerina. In the meantime, one of the neighbors, an elderly but well-to-do person, is wooing Elizabeth, and she doesn't even want to hear about it. In conclusion, Prostakov asks the prince for advice. In a response letter, Prince Chistyakov advises not to rush into both weddings, saying that Prince Svetlozarov is not who he claims to be, that is, not a prince and not Svetlozarov, and promises to explain everything in the future. Following the letter, the prince himself arrives. In his presence, a conversation begins, which Prostakov himself did not dare to start. At the name of Prince Chistyakov, Svetlozarov becomes deathly pale. "I hid in the house of robbers, vagabonds and impostors!" - with these words, Prince Svetlozarov leaves the Prostakov family, leaving them in disarray. Prince Chistyakov continues his story. He went to Moscow and walked for some time, stopping in different villages. But one of these nights was strangely interrupted. New guests came - Prince Svetlozarov and his wife. In Princess Svetlozarova, the amazed prince recognized Princess Fekla Sidorovna, but was immediately taken out of the gate. He found a fellow traveler, the son of a Fatezh priest, who had fled from his cruel, stingy father with his money. Soon they were overtaken by a cart, in which Sylvester saw his Fatezh pursuers and disappeared, and the less prudent prince was escorted to Fatezh instead, where he experienced the power of justice: the mistake was recognized, but he was deprived of all his property. The fascinating story of Gavrila Simonovich is interrupted: one fine evening the prince goes for a walk in the field and does not return by nightfall. The next day, a police officer with a team comes to the house and reports that the prince is a terrible robber. Meanwhile, in Orel, in the house of the merchant Prichudin, a calm, measured life flows. Nicander is moving up in the service, and the merchant's business is not so bad. Unexpectedly, Mr. Krakalov, that is, Chistyakov (for here he was known precisely under this name), appears in a condition no better than when he first appeared at the Prostakovs. According to him, he was kidnapped by a gang of Svetlozarov. Having rested, he is going to go to the Prostakovs in order to protect them from the new tricks of the villain. But on the very day of departure, Nikandr receives a letter from Prostakov outlining everything that happened and asking, if the prince is found, to inform the police about it. Nicander, in dismay, hands the letter to the prince. Poor Gavrilo Simonovich is shocked by the incredulity and frivolity of his friend. He decides to reveal the story and his own, albeit slandered, name to Pritchudin, which leads to unexpected consequences. It turns out that it was Prichudin who once kidnapped the son of the prince, Nikandr. The ancestors of Prichudin belonged to the same family of Chistyakovs. Being rich and having no male heirs, he decided to make a poor relative "participate in his wealth" and kidnapped him. Tears of joy are mixed with the old man's repentant tears when it turns out that it is their Nikandr who is still the son of Prince Chistyakov. When the excitement had subsided, Prichudin already asked the prince to tell him about his adventures, and Gavrilo Simonovich reached the place where we stopped a few evenings later. After a series of incidents, the prince finally reached Moscow. For some time he worked as a clerk in a wine cellar, but then he became an apprentice to the metaphysician Bibarius, where, at the end of a three-year course, he received a certificate of success in the sciences. With the assistance of a scientist, he received a secretary position with a noble nobleman, but he did not succeed in this field because of excessive zeal: wanting to serve the master, he convicted his wife of infidelity and was expelled. A happy accident led him to the widow of General Byvalova, where he was waiting for the post of secretary, a good salary and ... the love of a stranger who hid her face. Prompted, "like Apuleian Psyche", by curiosity, the prince decided to open the face of his beloved and - discovered his general. He was forced to leave the house, rented an apartment and became addicted to the theater. This predilection became the reason for his further adventures, for once in the actress Fiona, who arrived from St. Petersburg, he recognized his wife, Fyokla Sidorovna. The thirst for revenge took possession of him. In a tavern he made friends with two young men. One of them turned out to be Sylvester, the son of the priest Auxentius. The other is none other than the seducer of Feklusha, Prince Svetlozarov (his real name, however, was Cutthroats, which he admits, not knowing who is in front of him). Seeing Feklusha "on Theatre", he again persuaded her to run away and invited Chistyakov to be his assistant. Here it is, the long-awaited revenge. Having learned all the details, the prince went to Prince Latron and revealed the plot to him. The criminals were seized and subjected to execution, but the prince was also rewarded with imprisonment. Having fled, he again found himself in a deplorable state when he was picked up by Mr. Dobroslavov. His new position was to sort out complaints and make inquiries, for Dobroslavov was not only a lover of charity, but sought to exercise it reasonably in order to support virtue, but not encourage vice. After serving for a year, Chistyakov was honored to be accepted into the "society of benefactors of light", but simply a Masonic lodge. The goal was the same service to good. The prince was supposed to secretly manage the rich but stingy brothers, directing, even without their knowledge, their expenses in the righteous direction of charity. At secret meetings among the charming nymphs who delighted the brothers, he again saw Princess Feklusha. This time their meeting was more friendly, and Feklusha even helped the prince in his love for the beautiful Licorice. The story is interrupted by the departure of Prichudin, and then by Nikandr, who, on behalf of the governor, finally exposes Prince Svetlozarov, having managed to do this just on the day of his wedding with Katerina. The family is in mourning, which is soon aggravated by the death of Ivan Efremovich. Katerina gets married, and the Prostakovs move to the city, which Prince Gavrilo and Nikandr learn about with regret. Upon the return of Prichudin, the prince continues the story. Ruined, not without the help of the prince, the farmer Kuroumov led the police to the meeting. Justice did not favor benefactors, but the prince managed to escape with his beautiful Lycorice. Some time later he received a letter from Feklusha. She was less fortunate, and she ended up in the hands of justice. But in the supreme judge she recognized Prince Latron, who had forgiven her, and at the same time her brother, whom she called the prince. His mercy extended even further. He invites the prince to follow him to Poland. On the way, the prince had many adventures, but at last he reached Poland. Prince Latron gave him a place as a gatekeeper, but over time, using all his cunning, cruelty and resourcefulness, he became a secretary and achieved wealth. Many people were killed by his efforts. Licorice is dead. Feklusha, confessing to the prince in a newly flared passion and being refused, retired to the monastery. And the power and excesses of the prince all multiplied. But they also came to an end. After the death of Prince Latron, Gavrilo Simonovich ends up in prison, and then again finds himself on the road. This time, fate brought him to a man whom everyone simply calls Ivan. His righteous life won him universal respect. With such a companion, Prince Gavrilo advanced towards his native lands. In the monastery, on the way, he met a penitent wife. A few months later I received the news of her death. In Falaleevka, he was expected to meet with Yanka, who had been brought by the Falaleev princes and "merciful justice" to a miserable state. The prince managed to cure his old friend and postpone his death for a while. But then they set fire to the hut in which Gavrilo Simonovich and Yanka lived. Yanka, considering himself guilty, died of grief, and the prince again left his native village. Meanwhile, Nikandr becomes a participant in almost romantic events. Once he happens to help a poor woman who did not want to name the people whom she, in turn, helped. Intrigued, he, along with his father, watches her, and her voice reminds the prince of the voice of his last wife, whom he married under unusual circumstances: after leaving Falaleevka, the prince was put into a carriage by an unknown lackey in a rich livery and taken to the estate, where the owner, A young lady asked him to marry her. But immediately after the ceremony, he was again dressed in his old clothes and thrown into the forest. From the conversations of the servants, he realized that his new wife was the mistress of Prince Svetlozarov The prince tells this story to Nikandr and Prichudin, completing his biography. At the same time, it turns out that his wife is Nadezhda, the runaway daughter of Prichudin. Nicander is looking for a stranger and, having got to the cemetery where they first met, again shows himself a knight. He again manages to prevent the abduction of the girl, who turns out to be Katerina, his sister Elizabeth. The next day, he accidentally meets Katerina's husband, Firsov, in the forest and saves him from committing suicide. He learns about the constrained circumstances of the family. Nicander again sees his adored Elizabeth, and now circumstances allow him to think about her. But Kharitina, the wife of Prince Gavrila, has disappeared for a week now. E. S. Ostrovskaya Two Ivans, or passion for litigation Roman (1825) Summer afternoon. Two young philosophers Nikanor Zubar and Koronat Khmara, having studied for ten years at the Poltava Seminary and "having exhausted all the storehouse of wisdom in that temple," make their way home through the dense forest. The storm forces them to seek shelter, and they go out to the wagon, the owners of which turn out to be their fathers. The noble gentry Ivan Zubar and Ivan Khmara have been inseparable friends since their teenage years, and therefore those around them call them Ivan the Elder and Ivan the Younger. The path of the two Ivans lies in Mirgorod, but the meeting with their sons changes their plans, and they all return together to their native Slabs. On the way home, Ivan the Younger tells Nikanor and Koronat about the motive for their today's trip to Mirgorod - this is a lawsuit so stubborn and uncompromising that no one in this region remembers. It all started with a pair of rabbits, which about ten years ago was presented to Nikanor's younger brother. The rabbits quickly bred and began to visit the garden of Khariton Zanoza, located next door. One fine day, when both Ivans and their families were resting under flowering trees, rifle shots rang out. After that, Pan Zanoza appeared with half a dozen dead rabbits, threatening the court and the extermination of all the remaining damned animals. He not only spoke boldly, but also dared not to take off his cap, which finally angered Ivan the Elder, a military man. The latter tried to remove the cap from Khariton with the help of a stake pulled out of the fence, but he did it so awkwardly that he hit his neighbor in the ear, which caused him to fly onto the grass. From this incident, a ten-year lawsuit began, during which a lot of things were destroyed and burned on both sides. The next day, both friendly families go to the fair, where they come face to face with Pan Khariton, with all his household and many guests, among whom the scribe of Anuria is distinguished by the centenary office. After exchanging insults, the enemies move on to more weighty arguments: after the spitting of Ivan the Elder, who slapped Khariton on the forehead, Zanoza's stick followed, "like a lightning bolt" falling on the enemy's head. The massacre was stopped by the scribe of Anuria, who urged Khariton not to shed human blood, but to "be called" (here - to sue, start a lawsuit), in which he offered his services as a drafter of a petition to the hundredth office. The young philosophers were not captivated by their fathers' passion for endless invocations; their hearts were captivated by the lovely daughters of Khariton Zanoza. Yes, and Lydia and Raisa do not remain indifferent to the courteous manners and good looks of the Poltava dandies. And while the two Ivans and Khariton are once again called to Mirgorod, their children begin to secretly meet and soon realize that they cannot live without each other. In daily meetings on the tower, ten days flew by unnoticed. From Mirgorod, with the decision of the hundredth office, fathers come, and the meetings of young lovers are temporarily stopped. The case, based on mutual complaints of the two Ivanovs and Khariton, was decided in favor of the latter. And although he, like the Ivans, spent a lot of money on this trip, the thought that Zanoza won, irritates the hearts of his opponents. “Wait, Khariton!” Ivan senior exclaims with fervor. “You will repent of your victory and will repent soon!” The young gentry, realizing that the presence of Khariton Zanoza in Gorbyly makes meetings with their kind people impossible, decide to contribute to his next trip to the city. Driving past Khariton's dovecote, Nikanor inspires his father to shoot pigeons in revenge for the dirty tricks that Khariton caused. The execution of the poor creatures ends with the fire of the dovecote. But the Ivans do not rejoice for long - in retaliation for his dovecote, Khariton burned the apiary of Ivan the Elder. And again the enemies rush to Mirgorod with mutual complaints. While the parents are called in the hundredth office, their children, secretly married, spend a whole month in the raptures and raptures of love. But they cannot hide their love indefinitely, and Nikanor vows to reconcile his parents at all costs. Friends begin to act. They send a letter to Pan Zanoza on behalf of his wife Anfiza, in which it is reported that his house in Gorbyly burned down, and his relatives, burned during the fire, are forced to move to the farm. Having received the letter, Khariton hurries to the farm and, not finding anyone there, goes to Gorbyli. At home, having caused a terrible commotion and frightened his relatives to death, Pan Zanoza finds out that the letter he received is forged. Well, of course, this is a new invention of the insidious lords Ivanov, who wanted to remove him from the city, so that in his absence it would be more convenient to act in their favor! The next day Pan Anurii comes to Khariton's house with a letter from the Hundred Office regarding the last call. The decision of the Hundred Office in favor of Ivan the Elder, according to which Zanoza must pay his offender a ruble, leads Khariton into an indescribable rage. Having beaten Pan Anuriy, Khariton announces his decision - he goes to Poltava to the regimental office to be called with a fool centurion and his loafers! But the regimental office decides not in favor of Khariton, moreover, it awards the Zanoza farm to be given to the beaten scribe for eternal and hereditary use. Now the path of Splinter lies in Baturin, in the military office, to be called with new enemies. Khariton's litigation with the regimental and hundred offices ends with the fact that Anfiza and her children are expelled from the Gorbylev house, which is handed over to the centurion and members of the hundred office, and Khariton himself is sent to Baturin prison for six weeks for his "violent temper". Help for the unfortunate family of Pan Zanoza comes from an unexpected direction: Ivan's uncle Artamon Zubar, a rich and respectable old man, offers Anfiza and the children to live "until the time" in his house. He himself condemns the pernicious passion of his nephews for "disastrous litigation" (Ivan Jr. has his wife as an aunt). One hope for the beloved grandchildren, Nicanor and Koronat, who must reconcile the warring. Meanwhile, Ivans and all their household members unexpectedly arrive at Artamon's house. According to the decision of the military office for "violence, fury, incendiary" their movable and immovable property is attributed to the hundredth estate. Only now did both Ivans realize the full justice of Artamon's judgments about the cursed call. They ask their "generous uncle" for help and protection. Artamon is ready to help his nephews, but sets two indispensable conditions for them: the first is to never call anyone else; the second is to consider the daughters of the Kharitonovs, who became the wives of their eldest sons, along with their daughters, and honor their mother as a kind and worthy mother of the family, and also, if Khariton expresses a desire to reconcile with them, take him into his arms as a brother. Both Ivans with "indescribable pleasure" agree to the conditions of their good-natured uncle. But who will tame the indomitable temper of Ivanov's matchmaker, Pan Khariton? What is happening to him now? And pan Khariton is sitting in the Baturin dungeon. And chew stale bread for him, drinking water, if not for his two neighbors - the young Cossacks Dubonos and Nechos, who fraternally share their breakfasts, lunches and dinners with him. Khariton becomes attached to the generous young men with paternal love, and when they offer him to go together to the Zaporizhzhya Sich at the end of the punishment, he happily agrees - after all, only shame awaits him at home. Beneficial changes take place in Khariton's character under the influence of young people. Remembering his past life, he feels deep remorse. Pan Zanoza is worried about the fate of his family, but he does not dare to come to them. "What will I offer them when I myself exist from the gifts of friendship and generosity." Seeing Khariton's torment, Dubonos and Nechos make him an unexpected offer: they ask Zanoza to introduce them to their daughters. Maybe they will like each other, and then, having made up one family, Khariton will regain his lost calmness. So, it was decided: the Cossacks with Khariton go to the Sich through Gorbyli in order to get full information about the whereabouts of the Zanoza family there. In Slabs, it turns out that Artamon bought the estates of Zanoza, Zubar and Khmara and became their sole owner. Artamon meets with Khariton and offers, while they are looking for his family, to live on a farm, which until recently belonged to him, Khariton. A few days later, Artamon brings Anfiza with the children to the farm, and the shocked Khariton learns that his wife and children, from the day they were expelled from the village house, have been visiting Artamon's farm, with the uncle of his sworn enemies. Artamon takes a promise from Khariton to sincerely reconcile with his neighbors Ivan, and then leaves to see his nephews. From the penetrating eyes of Pan Khariton, it was not hidden that Raisa and Lidia captivated the hearts of the Cossacks at first sight, and therefore, when the young men ask him to keep his promise, he gladly blesses the young couples. Two days fly by like one happy minute. On the third day, both Ivans come to Khariton on the farm and, completing the final reconciliation, offer Pan Zanoza to marry the children. The splinter is touched, but his daughters already have suitors. Parting, Pans Ivana promises that they will participate in the wedding celebration. Finally, the long-awaited day arrives. Many guests come to Khariton's farm, among them Artamon and his two nephews with their families. Everyone is waiting for the brides to come out. And now Khariton's daughters appear, holding a lovely baby in their arms. The good Artamon reveals the truth to the shocked Khariton: his daughters have been married for a long time, and their husbands are the sons of the pans Ivanov, Nikanor and Koronat, they are also the Cossacks beloved by him. Happy Khariton blesses the children and hugs his grandchildren to his chest. For several days in a row, festivities continue on the estates of lords Khariton, Ivan the Elder and Ivan the Younger. And from now on, only peace, friendship and love reign in their homes. M. H. Serbul Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1783-1852) Twelve sleeping maidens An old story in 6 two ballads (part 1 - 1810; part 2 - 1814-1817) The mysterious narration is preceded by an appeal to Mechta, the "airy friend of youthful days," whose presence promises a sweet remembrance. Ballad one. GROMOBOYIn ancient times, over the foamy Dnieper, Gromoboy sat, spinning. He curses his sad lot, a poor and homeless life, with which he is already ready to settle accounts. But in the form of a stern old man, Asmodeus appears to him, promising wealth, fun, the friendship of princes and the affection of virgins. In return, it requires a soul. He convinces Thunderbolt that hell is not terrible at all ("Our hell is not worse than paradise"), and he is waiting for Thunderbolt in any case - sooner or later. On reflection, he signs the contract, receives a purse with non-transferable gold in it and ten years of carefree life. "And Gromoboy went out into the people": wealth, prosperity, luck - everything is with him. He kidnaps twelve virgins, not embarrassed by their prayers, and they bear him twelve daughters. But Gromoboy is unfamiliar with paternal feelings, and the daughters grow up within the walls of the monastery, left by the cares of their father. Together with their tender mothers, they pray for the salvation of their souls and for the forgiveness of Thunderbolt. But the years pass quickly, and the last day of the comfortable life granted to Gromoboy comes. Overwhelmed by longing, he seeks salvation from the Icon of the Savior, but there is no faith in his soul, and, having called his daughters, he wants to buy his forgiveness with their innocent prayer. And the daughters meekly pray for him, but with the onset of night they fall asleep. At the dead of midnight, when all nature seemed to threaten Thunderbolt, a demon appears and, no matter how the unfortunate man begs for a reprieve, he intends, having extorted his soul, to cast it into hell. the horrors of which now there is no need to hide. But the sight of sleeping babies ignites the demon with a new idea, and he offers Thunderbolt to buy ten more years of life with daughter souls. Frightened by the abysses that opened to him, Thunderbolt wakes up children, writes them with his hands - and gets a reprieve. But, having killed his daughters, life is disgusting to him, there is neither joy nor consolation in it, only one dull expectation of the end. And the sight of blooming children settles terrible torments in his soul. Thunderbolt, whose whole hope is now in repentance, opens the doors of the house to the poor, orphans and widows, builds a temple, calls on the master to paint icons, and on one of them the saint looks with love at the praying Thunderbolt and his daughters. Before that icon, Gromoboy, weighed down with chains, prays. But time is running out, and a terrible time is approaching. Broken by illness, Thunderbolt is no longer able to visit the temple and only raises his eyes to heaven, full of meekness and prayer. And now the terrible day has come, and the suffering sinner meets him "with a groan and tears", surrounded by praying daughters who do not know their lot. With the onset of night, the "frightened" nature calms down. And suddenly a quiet breeze blows, God's temple opens, and, surrounded by radiance, the wondrous old man approaches Gromoboy and the virgins. He touches them with the skirt of their clothes, and the virgins fall into a dream. Terrified, Thunderbolt meets his gaze full of reproach, asks who he is and what to expect, and the elder replies that they honored his face in the temple, and Thunderbolt should be hoped and feared. Along with the thunderstorm comes midnight, and in flames and cod the demon appears. However, the sight of an old man confuses him, he demands his prey, but an avenging angel appears on high and announces the will of the creator: until the one who is pure in soul is inflamed with love for one of the virgins, without seeing her, and does not come to remove her sisters from her. a spell, they will sleep soundly, and the soul of their father is condemned to languish in a rejected grave, waiting for the redemption and awakening of their children. With the onset of morning, sleeping maidens and the deceased Thunderbolt are found. And when, after the burial, the mourners go to the "house of sorrow", granite walls suddenly rise before them, covered with forest, the shutters on the gates fall with a creak, and, frightened, they run. Soon the surrounding places come to desolation, both people and animals leave them. And every midnight, a shadow comes out of a lonely grave and stretches out its hands in supplication to the impregnable walls, and one of the sleeping ones gets up and walks around the high wall, looking into the distance, full of longing and expectation (“No savior, no savior!”). And with the new moon the maiden is replaced. And so the centuries pass, and the term of redemption is unknown. Ballad two. VADIMThe beautiful young man Vadim, captivating Novgorod with his beauty and courage, spends his time hunting, not frightened by either a wild beast or bad weather. One day he sees a dream, the meaning of which is unclear to him: a wonderful husband, dressed in light robes, with a cross shining on his chest, walks without touching the ground, holding a silver bell in his hand. He portends Vadim "desired away" and is called his guide. At the same moment, Vadim sees a maiden, whose features are hidden by a veil, and on her forehead lies a fragrant wreath. She beckons him to her. And the awakened Vadim still hears the ringing of the bell. There is a familiar picture around: the Volkhov rolling water, a wide meadow, hills, - and in the heights something rings - and falls silent. Three times in a row he sees the same dream and, unable to resist the desire, says goodbye to his parents and sits on a horse. At the crossroads, he gives free rein to the horse, and he gallops straight south, not sorting out the path. Days run after days, Vadim is welcomed everywhere; when he has to spend the night in a field or in a forest, neither a wild beast nor a snake disturbs him. Vadim reaches the wide Dnieper and, with flashes of a beginning thunderstorm, enters a dense forest. He has to punch his way with the sword, he moves further and further into the bowl. Suddenly he hears screams - plaintive, pleading and ferocious, wild. He rushes ahead and, reaching the clearing, sees a mighty giant with a beauty in his arms. Swinging his sword, he cuts off the hand with a terrible club raised against him. The defeated enemy dies, and Vadim hurries to the captive. She turns out to be the daughter of a Kyiv prince, for whom the Lithuanian prince ("Enemy of the Orthodox Church") was inflamed with passion and sent a messenger to kidnap her. He hid in the wilds for a long time, waiting, and today, when the princess and her friends were picking flowers, he grabbed her and dragged her into the forest. Vadim, putting the girl behind him on a horse, drives from the clearing into the jungle, and then an unprecedented thunderstorm breaks out, trees collapse, the wind howls, and the confused Vadim sees no shelter anywhere. But here, by the light of a spruce ignited by lightning, he notices a mossy cave and heads towards it. There, having kindled the fire, folding the chain mail, he squeezes moisture out of the princess's golden curls and warms her quivering hair with his breath. The beautiful princess kindles feelings in Vadim, and he is already imprinting her hot kiss on his lips, when he suddenly hears a familiar ringing in the distance. And he imagines someone's invisible flight, someone's sad sigh. The princess falls asleep in his arms and wakes up in the morning, and they head to Kyiv. There, on the porch, stands the prince, crushed by sadness, who equipped a squad in pursuit of the adversary and promised his throne and daughter's hand to the deliverer. But now Vadim appears with the princess, and the jubilant prince rewards him. When in the evening everyone is having fun at the prince's feast, Vadim, worried by the unceasing ringing, goes to the Dnieper, sees a boat with a sail, with a rowing oar, but empty ("Vadim to him <...> He is to Vadim ..."). The boat carries it faster and faster, there is silence all around, rocks are approaching, the black forest is reflected in the waves, the moon is fading, and the boat sticks to the shore. Vadim comes out and, drawn by an obscure force, climbs the steep rocks. In front of him is a decayed forest overgrown with moss ("And, it seems, there has been no life in that country / From time immemorial"); when the moon comes out, he sees an ancient temple on a hill, collapsed fences, fallen pillars, gaping vaults and - a gravestone with a lopsided cross. An awakened raven flies from it, and a ghost rises from the grave, goes to the temple, knocks. But the door doesn't open. And the ghost goes between the rubble further. Vadim follows him, filled with fear, and sees a silent castle behind the battlements. Some kind of vague expectation fills the knight. Mist flies from the moon, the forest is silvering, a breeze blows from the east, and suddenly a familiar ringing is heard from behind the wall. Vadim sees how a maiden is walking along the wall, hidden by a foggy cover, another is coming towards them, they approach each other, give each other a hand, and one goes down to the castle, and the other continues on her way, staring into the distance, a look full of expectation. And suddenly, in the light of the rising sun, she sees a knight - and the veil flies from her brow, and the gate dissolves. They yearn for each other. "Agreed ... about the weighty, true dream!" Awakened virgins come from the tower. The blessing is heard, the temple is open, prayer is heard there. Vadim and the maiden at the royal gates, suddenly a wedding hymn sounds, and candles are in their hands, their heads are under the crowns. A quiet voice calls them gently, and here they are in front of the grave, it is bright, c. flowers, and her cross is entwined with a lily. And after centuries, when both the castle and the monastery - everything was hidden, in that place a lush forest is green and the whisper of the wind is sweet. Where the ashes of the nuns are hidden, who waited for death at the tomb of their father, in the morning light hour "There are secrets of miracles": a choir of hermits is heard, a cross shines and, crowned with stars, praying virgins appear. E. V. Kharitonova Mikhail Nikolaevich Zagoskin (1789-1852) Yuri Miloslavsky, or Russians in 1612 Roman (1829) Never before has Russia been in such a distressed situation as at the beginning of the XNUMXth century: external enemies, civil strife, unrest of the boyars threatened the destruction of the Russian land. Moscow is in the power of the Polish king Sigismund, whose troops oppress and rob the unfortunate inhabitants. The self-will and cruelty of the Poles are not inferior to the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, devastating Russian cities. Near Moscow are the troops of the impostor, the Tushino thief, the Swedes are in charge in Novgorod and Pskov. Early April 1612 Two horsemen - a young boyar Yuri Miloslavsky with his servant Alexei - slowly make their way along the banks of the Volga. For the seventh day now, Yuri, with a letter from Pan Gonsevsky, head of the Polish garrison in Moscow, is on his way to the homeland of Kruchina-Shalonsky. A snowstorm led them astray, and while trying to find their way, they stumbled upon a half-frozen man. The rescued man turned out to be a Zaporozhian Cossack Kirsha. He tried to get to Nizhny Novgorod in order to try his luck and join the army, according to rumors, soldiers are being recruited there to march on the Poles. Unnoticed by the conversation, the travelers went to the village. At the inn, where they hastened to take shelter from the weather, several passers-by had already gathered. The appearance of the young boyar aroused their interest. Yuri is traveling from Moscow, and therefore the first question is: "Is it really true that there they kissed the cross of Prince Vladislav?" - "True," Yuri answers. Vladislav promised to be baptized into the Orthodox faith and, having ascended the Moscow throne, "to preserve the Russian land in its former glory and power." “And if he keeps his promise,” the young man continues, “then I am the first ready to lay my head for him.” The next morning, a fat Pole appears at the inn, accompanied by two Cossacks. Depicting an arrogant nobleman, the Pole in a menacing voice began to drive the "Muscovites" out of the hut. Kirsha recognizes in him Pan Kopychinsky, who he knows from his service in the army of Hetman Sapieha and is known for his cowardice. Rummaging in the oven, Kopychinsky discovers a roast goose there and, despite the hostess's warning that this goose is a stranger (Alexey put it in the oven for his master), he starts eating it. Yuri decides to teach the impudent Pole a lesson and, pointing a gun at him, makes him eat the goose completely. Having taught Kopychinsky a lesson, Yuri and his servant leave the inn. Soon Kirsha catches up with them and informs them that they are being chased - two cavalry companies of Poles approached the village, and Pan Kopychinsky assured them that Yuri was carrying the treasury to Nizhny Novgorod. Under Yuri, a horse is killed, and Kirsha, having given his stallion to the boyar, carries away the pursuit. Fleeing from the Poles, the Cossack hides in a hut, which he stumbles upon in the thicket of the forest. This is the hut of the famous sorcerer Kudimych. And now the old woman Grigorievna from the village came to him with gifts from the nanny of the young hawthorn. Buried in a closet, Kirsha overhears a conversation between an old woman and a sorcerer and learns that the boyar's daughter, as she visited Moscow, where she was married to a Polish pan, began to wither away. It was the blond fellow, whom the servant called Yuri Dmitrievich, who jinxed her. This fellow did not take his eyes off her every day, as she listened to mass at the Savior on Bor. And the old woman asks the sorcerer to teach her his "leisureness". Kudimych teaches Grigorievna how to tell fortunes on the boyar canvases that disappeared on the third day, and persuades the old woman to publicly point to Fedka Khomyak, in whose barn Kudimych hid them. After the hut was empty, Kirsha went out and along the path went to the Shalonsky fatherland, where, according to Alexei, he hoped to see Yuri. Outside the village, having heard a noise, he hides in a barn pit, in which he discovers canvases. Remembering the overheard conversation, he decides to teach the "fake" sorcerer a lesson and hides the canvases at the chapel. Coming out to the wide street of the village, Kirsha gets into the wedding train. Ahead of all is Kudimych surrounded by honor. In the hut, where the guests entered, an ugly old woman sits, muttering "barbaric words." It is Grigorievna who wants to compete in divination with Kudimych. They both tell fortunes in turn and "see" the canvases in the barn at Fedka Khomyak's. But Kirsha is a stronger sorcerer - he claims that the canvases are buried in the snow behind the chapel, where they are discovered by the astonished peasants. Meanwhile, Yuri and his servant had already reached the home of Shalonsky. Entering the chambers of the boyar, Yuri saw in front of him a man of about fifty with a pale face, "bearing the imprint of strong, unbridled passions." Shalonsky was amazed when he met the boyar Dimitry Miloslavsky, the son of the "inveterate hater of the Poles", as a messenger from Pan Gonsevsky. From Gonsevsky's letter, Shalonsky learns that the Nizhny Novgorod people are recruiting an army, intending to oppose the Poles, and that he, Kruchin, must send Yuri to Nizhny in order to "induce the main instigators to obedience, promising them royal mercy." The example of the son of the former Nizhny Novgorod governor, who kissed the cross to Vladislav, should enlighten them. Yuri is happy to fulfill Gonsevsky's order, for he is sure that "the election of Vladislav will save our fatherland from final destruction." But, according to Shalonsky, rebels should not be pacified with an affectionate word, but with fire and a sword. Yuri's bold speeches infuriate him, and he decides to put a secret spy on him - his stirrup Omlyash. Shalonsky is worried about his daughter's health - after all, she is the future wife of Pan Gonsevsky, the favorite of the Polish king. Hearing about the sorcerer who plugged Kudimych himself into the belt, he demands him to the boyar court to treat Anastasia. Kirsha, knowing from Alexei about Yuri's heartbreak, reveals to Anastasia the name of the fair-haired young man, whose blue eyes jinxed her - this is Yuri Miloslavsky, and only he should be betrothed to a young haw. The miraculous recovery of his daughter delighted and surprised Shalonsky. The sorcerer is suspicious to him, and therefore, just in case, he assigns guards to him. Having honorably maintained the glory of a skilled sorcerer, Kirsha decides to find Yuri, but finds that he is guarded. And then there's the conversation he overheard at night between Omlyash and his friend: by order of the boyar, on the way to Nizhny Novgorod, an ambush awaits Yuri at the forest ravine. Kirsha decides to run away: under the pretext of examining the argamak, which the boyar gave him for curing his daughter, he mounts a horse - and he was like that. In the forest, the Cossack catches up with Yuri and Alexei. He tells Yuri Miloslavsky how he treated Anastasia, the daughter of Shalonsky, the same black-eyed hawthorn that crushed Yuri's heart, and reports that she also loves him. The story of the Cossack leads the young man to despair: after all, Anastasia is the daughter of a man who is deeply despised by him, a traitor to the fatherland. Meanwhile, Kirsha, driven by the desire to unite the lovers at all costs, did not even hint to Yuri about a conspiracy against him. Soon a hefty fellow was imposed on them as a companion, in which the Cossack recognized Omlyash by voice. Shortly before the expected ambush, Kirsha stuns Omlyash and points him out as a robber. Waking up, Omlyash admits that there is an ambush of six people ahead of Yuri. Having tied the robber to a tree, the travelers moved on and soon drove to the walls of Nizhny Novgorod, In Nizhny, Yuri and his servant stop at the boyar Istoma-Turenin, a friend of Shalonsky. Turenin, like Shalonsky, fiercely hates the "seditious town" and dreams of hanging all the instigators of Nizhny Novgorod, but, unlike his friend, he knows how to hide his feelings and is reputed to be a respected person in Novgorod. He must bring Yuri with the local honorary citizens so that he persuades them to be submissive to the "Russian Tsar" Vladislav. But in the soul of Yuri vaguely. No matter how hard he tries to convince himself that his mission is to save the fatherland from the "disasters of the interregnum", he feels that he would give half his life just to appear before the Novgorodians as a simple warrior, ready to die in their ranks for the freedom and independence of Russia. His mental anguish is aggravated when he witnesses the greatest patriotic upsurge of the Novgorodians, who, at the call of the "immortal" Kozma Minin, give up their property "for the maintenance of military people", ready to come to the aid of "orphaned Moscow". On the square where this significant event takes place, Dimitry Pozharsky was popularly elected head of the Zemstvo militia, and Minin was elected the keeper of the Nizhny Novgorod treasury. Having fulfilled his duty as an envoy of Gonsevsky at the boyar council, Yuri can no longer restrain his feelings: if he were a citizen of Novgorod, and did not kiss the cross of Vladislav, he says to the boyars, he would consider it a happiness to put his head for holy Rus'. Four months have passed. Near the ancestral home of Shalonsky, from which only ashes remain, Aleksey and Kirsha, who leads a detachment of Cossacks, meet by chance. Aleksey, thin and pale, tells the Cossack how robbers attacked his master when they returned from the boyar council. He, Alexei, was stabbed - four weeks was between life and death, and Yuri's body was never found. But Kirsha does not believe in Miloslavsky's death. Recalling the conversation overheard at Kruchina, he is sure that Yuri is a prisoner of Shalonsky. Kirsha and Alexei decide to find him. Kirsha finds out from Kudimych that Shalonsky and Turenin are hiding in the Murom forest on the Teply Stan farm, but immediately falls into the hands of Omlyash and his associates. And again, ingenuity comes to his aid: using his fame as a sorcerer, he looks for a treasure buried in the forest for robbers until his Cossacks come to his aid. Now Kirsha and Alexei have a guide to Tyoply Stan in their hands. They arrive at the farm on time - the next day Tu-renin and Shalonsky were going to leave the farm, and Yuri, who was kept in chains in the dungeon, was expected to die imminently. Barely alive, exhausted by hunger, Yuri is released. He intends to go to the Sergius Lavra: bound by an oath that he cannot break, Yuri is going to be tonsured a monk. In the Lavra, having met with Father Cellar Avraamy Palitsyn, Yuri relieves his soul in confession and vows to devote his life to "repentance, fasting and prayer." Now he, a novice of the elder Avraamy, fulfilling the will of his shepherd, must go to the camp of Pozharsky and take up arms "with earthly weapons against the common enemy" of the Russian land. On the way to Pozharsky's camp, Yuri and Aleksey end up with robbers. Their leader, Father Yeremey, who knew and loved Dimitry Miloslavsky well, is going to release his son with honor, but one of the Cossacks comes with the news that the daughter of the traitor Shalonsky, she is the bride of Pan Gonsevsky, has been captured. The robbers are eager for immediate reprisal against the "heretic's" bride. Yuri is desperate. And then Father Yeremey comes to his aid: supposedly he takes the young people to church for confession and crowns them there. Now Anastasia is the legal wife of Yuri Miloslavsky, and no one dares to raise a hand against her. Yuri took Anastasia to the Khotkovsky monastery. Their parting is full of grief and tears - Yuri told Anastasia about his vow to take monastic dignity, which means that he cannot be her husband. The only thing left for Yuri is to drown his painful longing in the blood of his enemies or in his own. He takes part in the decisive battle with Hetman Khotchevich on August 22, 1612, helping the Novgorodians, together with his squad, to turn the tide of the battle in favor of the Russians. Together with him, Alexey and Kirsha fight side by side Yuri is injured. His recovery coincides with the end of the siege of the Kremlin, where the Polish garrison sat out for two months. Like all Russians, he hurries to the Kremlin. With sadness and longing, Yuri crosses the threshold of the Church of the Savior on Bor - sorrowful memories torment him. But Avraamiy Palitsyn, with whom the young man meets in the temple, frees him from his monastic vow - the act of Yuri, who married Anastasia, is not perjury, but the salvation of his neighbor from death. Thirty years have passed. At the walls of the Trinity Monastery, the Cossack foreman Kirsha and Alexei met - he is now the servant of the young boyar Vladimir Miloslavsky, the son of Yuri and Anastasia. And Yuri and Anastasia are buried here, within the walls of the monastery, they died in 1622 on the same day. M. N. Serbul Roslavlev, or Russians in 1812 Roman (1831) At the end of May 1812 in St. Petersburg, on Nevsky Boulevard, two friends met - Vladimir Roslavlev and Alexander Zaretsky. Roslavlev is moping, and the cheerful Zaretsky is worried about the condition of his friend. Roslavlev is in love with Polina Lidina. But love is not the cause of melancholy: at the request of his future wife, he retired, but meanwhile, according to him, "a storm <...> is gathering over our fatherland", the war with Napoleon is inevitable, and, as a Russian patriot, Roslavlev is extremely worries. He is outraged by the slavish admiration of Russian society for everything French and, as a result, neglect of Russian customs, language, and history. The only thought that warms his soul and makes him happy is a quick date with the bride. Roslavlev goes to the village of Uteshino near Moscow to see the Lidins. He is full of impatience - after all, the wedding day has already been appointed. But the expectation of "heavenly bliss" does not make him deaf to other people's suffering. So, at one of the post stations, he takes the Moscow merchant Ivan Arkhipovich Sezyomov as a fellow traveler, who hurries home to his dying wife. Approaching the village, Roslavlev meets hunters, among them Polina's uncle Nikolai Stepanovich Izhorsky. He reports that the Lidins went to the city on a visit and should return in an hour and a half. The return of the Lidins is overshadowed by an episode that almost ended tragically: when their crew was crossing the river along a narrow bridge, the doors of the landau flew open, and Olenka, Polina's younger sister, fell into the water. If it weren’t for Roslavlev, who rushed right on his horse into the water after the drowning woman, then Olenka would certainly have died. An accident with her sister and her subsequent illness gave Polina a reason to ask Roslavlev to postpone the wedding. Vladimir is in despair, but he idolizes his bride and therefore cannot but give in to her request. Olenka does not recognize her sister, who "for some time has become so strange, so bizarre", and then there is her decision to postpone the wedding. Polina is no longer able to hide her secret. “Trembling like a criminal,” she confesses to Olenka that she loves another, and if he, like an inexorable fate, comes between her and her husband, then she will only have to die. Revival reigns in Izhorsky's house. Numerous guests came to dinner. Among the guests Lidina with her daughters and Roslavlev. The main topic of conversation is the imminent war with Napoleon. Roslavlev is sure that if Napoleon decides to go to Russia, the war will inevitably become popular, and then "every Russian will be obliged to defend his fatherland." But the war, it turns out, is already on. Roslavlev learns about this from a letter from Zaretsky, handed over to him by a police officer who came to Izhora: on June 12, French troops crossed the Neman, and the hussar captain Zaretsky, whose regiment was stationed not far from Bialystok, had already participated in the battle with the French. In this battle, Alexander further informs his friend, he managed to capture the French colonel Count Senicourt, or rather, save him from death, because, seriously wounded, Senicourt did not give up, but "fought like a desperate one." Everything has been decided for Roslavlev - one of these days he is going to the army. Two months have passed. After the next battle, the Russian rear guard was located two versts from Drogobuzh. Among the resting warriors Roslavlev and Zaretsky. Recalling the heavy impression Zaretsky's letter made on Polina, Vladimir says that on the way to the active army he met French prisoners, among whom was Adolf Senicourt, who was wounded in the head. The grave condition of the French colonel allowed Roslavlev to persuade the escort officer to send Senicour to the village for treatment to the Lidins, as it turned out, he was well acquainted with the wounded officer, two years ago he met Lidina in Paris and often went to visit her. Two days later, in another battle with the French, Roslavlev was wounded in the arm. Having received leave for treatment, he leaves for Uteshino to visit Polina. The wound delays Roslavlev on the way, and only two weeks later he was able to leave Serpukhov. The road to Uteshino was washed out by rain. I had to take a detour through the cemetery. A thunderstorm starts. Roslavlev's carriage finally gets stuck in the mud. Singing is heard from the cemetery church, and intrigued Vladimir goes there, counting on someone's help. Looking out the window, he sees the wedding ceremony and, to his horror, recognizes Senicour and Polina in the bride and groom. From the greatest shock, Roslavlev's wound opens, and he, covered with blood, loses consciousness right on the threshold of the church. Roslavlev woke up the next morning in Izhorsky's house. His only desire is to get away from these places, where he can "drown in the blood of French villains." Having learned that the French are not far from Moscow, Vladimir decides to go to Moscow, because "there, on its ruins, the fate of Russia will be decided." A servant brings Roslavlev to Moscow, unconscious, in a fever. The merchant Sezyomov hides him at his home, passing him off as his son - from day to day the French will enter Moscow, and then the Russian officer will not be well. In early September, together with the retreating troops, Zaretsky arrived in Moscow. He decides to first visit his friend in the village, and then catch up with his regiment. But on the way to Uteshino, among the militia, Alexander meets Izhorsky, from whom he learns about the tragic story of Polina's marriage. And then the servant of Izhorsky reports that he met the servant of Roslavlev in Moscow - Vladimir Sergeevich is in a fever and is in the house of the merchant Sezyomov. Zaretsky and Izhorsky are shocked - the news has just come, Moscow, set on fire by the inhabitants, has been surrendered without a fight, the French are in the Kremlin. "Unhappy Moscow!", "Poor Roslavlev!" they exclaim almost simultaneously. In search of his regiment, Zaretsky finds himself in a partisan detachment commanded by an artillery officer he knows. Until the end of September, he roams with a flying detachment of partisans, participating in raids on French carts. Moscow is surrounded, there is no food left in the city, and, despite all the military precautions of the French, entire parties of foragers go missing. The war with Napoleon takes on a nationwide character. Zaretsky is worried about the fate of his friend. Having changed into the uniform of a murdered French officer, he goes to Moscow in search of Roslavlev. A chance meeting with the captain of the gendarmes Renault threatens him with exposure: the Frenchman identified Zaretsky's horse and saber, which belonged to Renault's sister's fiancé. Colonel Senikur saves Zaretsky from imminent arrest - returning a debt of honor, he confirms that he is indeed the French captain Danville. Left alone with the colonel, Alexander reveals to him the reason for his "masquerade": he came for his friend, who, being wounded, could not leave Moscow when French troops entered it. Upon learning that this wounded officer is Roslavlev, Senicourt considers it his duty to help Zaretsky. Remembering the "terrible night" of the wedding, he feels guilty before Roslavlev. "I took more than his life from him," exclaims Senicourt. "Go to him; I am ready to do everything for him <...> - continues the Frenchman, - <...> maybe he is not able to walk <...> At the very outpost, my man with a horse will be waiting for you, tell him that you Captain Danville: He'll give it to you..." Zaretsky manages to take Roslavlev out of Moscow. Their path lies in their native regiment, and, despite all sorts of road adventures - first a meeting with the peasants who mistook them for the French, and then a military skirmish with the French foragers, in which Roslavlev took command of the peasant detachment - the friends eventually go out to the bivouacs of his regiment. On October 10, the French left Moscow, "having stayed there for a month and eight days." Having made several unsuccessful attempts to break into the richest provinces of Russia, Napoleon was forced to retreat along the same road he had taken to Moscow, leaving behind thousands of soldiers dying of cold and hunger. At the crossing over the Berezina, Ney's corps, the last hope of the French army, was defeated, and after the battle near Borisov, the French retreat turned into a real flight. Friends say goodbye at the border: the general, under whom Roslavlev was an adjutant, joined with his division the troops besieging Danzig, and Zaretsky's regiment still remained at the forefront of the army. The siege of Danzig, where the French garrison is located under the command of General Rapp, dragged on. Already in November 1813, there was famine in the besieged city. Russian outposts are constantly disturbed by partisan attacks by the French garrison. Among them, the "hellish company" of the hussar officer Shambyur, which, every night, raids for provisions in the villages where Russian posts are located, is especially notable. In one of these sorties, Shambyur captured Roslavlev. So he ends up in Danzig. Two weeks pass. Under the pretext of suppressing "unfavorable rumors" about the French army, which the captured officer allegedly spreads around the city, Roslavlev is imprisoned. In fact, this is a trick invented by the chief of staff, General Derik-r. A certain Florentine merchant is in prison, he is suspected of being a Russian spy. Roslavlev is put together with the merchant in order to eavesdrop on their conversations, because it will be so natural for them to want to speak their native language. The merchant really turns out to be a Russian officer. Moreover, they are familiar: shortly before the war, Roslavlev became an unwitting witness to a duel between this officer and a Frenchman who allowed himself extremely insulting remarks about Russia and the Russian people. Suspecting that they are being overheard, the “merchant” warns Roslavlev about this with a note and in it asks Vladimir, as soon as he is released from prison, to find a woman living on Theater Square on the fifth floor of the red house in the sixth room. She is desperately ill, and if Roslavlev finds her alive, she must be told to burn the papers that the merchant Dolcini gave her to keep. Roslavlev is really soon released (Shambyur vouched for him), and the next day he goes to Theater Square. The fifth floor of the red house turned out to be a miserable attic, the room is striking in its poverty. In the dying woman, Roslavlev is horrified to recognize Polina. He had already forgiven her. Moreover, having learned that she, having sacrificed everything, went after her husband to share all his hardships and sufferings, he began to have the greatest respect for her. The dying Polina tells Vladimir the tragic story of her wanderings. The convoy, in which Polina left Moscow with the retreating French, was attacked by the Cossacks. She was saved by a friend of Adolf, who took on further care of her. After this skirmish, she no longer saw her husband Polina, and only much later did she find out that Adolf was no longer alive. Then she gave birth to a son. Her only patron, who cared for her and her child, could not bear the hardships of the retreat, fell ill with a fever and died. While there was money, Polina lived in solitude, did not communicate with anyone. Then the Russians laid siege to Danzig, the money ran out, and she turned to the French general for help. And then Polina made a terrible discovery for herself: she left her family, her fatherland, sacrificed everything to become Senicour's wife, and everyone around her considers him his mistress. Then, in order to feed her son, she begged for alms, but her child died of starvation. She herself was saved from starvation by Dolcini, who, having learned that she was Russian, took part in her fate. Polina begins to delirium. Vladimir leaves her to visit again in a few hours. At this time, Russian troops begin shelling the city. Roslavlev is wounded in the head. For more than two weeks the Russian officer has been on the edge of the grave. Waking up, he finds Shambura at his bedside. The hussar hurries to tell his prisoner friend the latest news: the first - Rapp is going to sign a surrender, the second - Dolcini turned out to be not a merchant, but a Russian partisan. He soon managed to get out of prison, after which Dolcini got along so well with General Dericourt that he instructed the "merchant" to deliver important dispatches to Napoleon. When the "merchant" was taken out of the French outposts, he introduced himself in front of the Cossacks with his real name and politely said goodbye to the gendarmerie officer. Shambyur, it turns out, knew Dolcini well, and therefore it was through him that the "merchant" passed the letter to Roslavlev. It was a letter from the dying Polina. In it, saying goodbye, she expressed her last wish: she asks Roslavlev to marry Olenka, who always loved him passionately. Several years have passed. Roslavlev retired a long time ago and lives with his wife Olenka and two children in Uteshino, where Zaretsky arrives after a six-year separation. They have something to talk about. Recalling the events of the wartime, Zaretsky asked about the fate of Polina: "What happened to this unfortunate woman? <...> Where is she now?" In response to the question, Roslavlev sadly looked at the white marble monument under the bird cherry: under it was buried Polina's curl, which she handed to Roslavlev in a farewell letter ... M. N. Serbul Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov (1791-1859) Family chronicle Autobiographical Tale (1856) In the 60s. XNUMXth century Stepan Mikhailovich Bagrov, the narrator's grandfather (it's easy to guess that Aksakov is talking about his own grandfather), "became crowded" in the Simbirsk "fatherland" of different localities. Stepan Mikhailovich did not receive an education, but "his natural mind was healthy and bright," he is certainly fair and an excellent master: the peasants loved him. In the Ufa vicegerency (later - the Orenburg province), many received the richest lands for nothing, for treating the Bashkir elders; Bagrov did not want to take advantage of the simplicity of the Bashkirs and honestly bought five thousand acres of land on Buguruslan. Aksakov describes the Orenburg province of that time, "unrumpled" by people, enthusiastically and in detail; already in the middle of the XNUMXth century. she wasn't the one. It is difficult for the peasants of Bagrov to move from their father's graves to the Busurman side; but the unheard-of harvest gathered in the new place soon consoled them. They immediately set up a mill: the whole village had not slept the night before, "there was something <...> solemn on all faces", dozens of people together, with "continuous screams" occupied the hut ... Both the landowner and the peasants fell in love with New Bagrovo. Old Troitskoye was waterless: people had already managed to destroy the forest lakes and the Maina River. With the light hand of Bagrov, the resettlement increased, neighbors appeared, for whom Bagrov became a "true benefactor", helping with bread in famine years, resolving quarrels. And this kind man sometimes became a "wild beast" during outbursts of anger, caused, however, by serious reasons, for example, deceit: he, almost insane, could not be recognized when he severely beat his wife Arina Vasilievna, courtyards and even daughters. A whole chapter is devoted to the life of the Bagrovs’ house on one of Stepan Mikhailovich’s bright days: Aksakov admires the smallest details, describes his grandfather’s room and the arrangement of an old frame, the squeak of mosquitoes, which the author even loves, because they remind him of his childhood ... His wife and daughters are glad that the owner woke up cheerful: their love for Bagrov is mixed with fear, they servility to him and immediately deceive him, not like relatives, but almost like servants. The owner spends the day in the field, at the mill, and is satisfied; in the evening, on the porch, he looks at the dawn that does not fade for a long time and is baptized before going to bed at the starry sky. The second excerpt from the "Family Chronicle" - "Mikhail Maksimovich Kurolesov" - is dedicated to the dramatic story of Praskovya Ivanovna Bagrova, Stepan Mikhailovich's cousin. The wealthy fourteen-year-old orphan was courted by Major Kurolesov, "a hoofed goose, a striped beast," as his subordinates called him. Kurolesov is handsome, intelligent, amiable, and charmed both the girl and her relatives; Stepan Mikhailovich, Parasha's guardian, with whom she lived, is alarmed by rumors about the major's debauchery: "although he himself was hot to the point of rage, he could not stand unkind, evil and cruel people without anger." In the absence of Stepan Mikhailovich, Parasha is given out as Kurolesov, helped by Bagrov's wife and daughters; the anger of the returned Bagrov is such that "the older daughters were ill for a long time, and my grandmother lost her braid and for a whole year she walked with a band-aid on her head." In marriage, Praskovya Ivanovna is obviously happy, she suddenly matured and, among other things, unexpectedly fell in love with her cousin; Kurolesov became an exemplary landowner, one could only hear that he was "strict". When Kurolesov finally arranged his household and he had free time, his bad inclinations wake up in him: leaving his wife for the Ufa villages, he drinks and debauches; worst of all, it becomes his need to torment people; many died from his torture. With his wife, Kurolesov is quiet and amiable; she suspects nothing. Finally, one relative tells her the truth about her husband and about the serfs tortured by him, who, according to the law, belonged to Praskovya Ivanovna. A brave woman, taking with her only a maid, goes to her husband, sees everything and demands that he return her power of attorney to the estate and henceforth would not look into any of her villages. A recent affectionate husband beats her and throws her into the basement, wanting to force her to sign a deed of sale for the estate. Faithful courtyards with difficulty get to Bagrov; having armed the peasants and yard servants, Stepan Mikhailovich frees his sister; Kurolesov does not even try to keep the prey. He dies a few days later, poisoned by the servants. To everyone's surprise, Praskovya Ivanovna is very sad about him; forever remaining a widow, she led a "original" and independent life; he promises to leave his estate to his brother's children The third excerpt from the "Family Chronicle" is "The Marriage of Young Bagrov". The narrator's mother, Sofya Nikolaevna Zubina, was an extraordinary woman: she lost her mother in adolescence; the stepmother hated her stepdaughter, clever and beautiful, and "swore that the impudent thirteen-year-old girl, the idol of her father and the whole city, would live in a girl's room, walk in a embroidered dress and endure uncleanness from under her children; a kind, but weak father obeyed his wife; a girl was close to suicide. The stepmother died young, and the seventeen-year-old Sofya Nikolaevna became the mistress of the house; in her arms were five brothers and sisters and a father stricken with paralysis; Nikolai Fedorovich did not leave the service - he was a comrade of the governor - and the daughter, in essence, Sofya Nikolaevna, having found teachers for her brothers, studied very diligently herself; Novikov himself sent her "all the wonderful works in Russian literature"; lively, charming and domineering, she was the soul of Ufa society. The narrator's father, Alexei, the son of Stepan Mikhailovich, entered the 1780s. to serve in the Ufa Upper Zemsky Court, was the exact opposite of Sofya Nikolaevna - shy, weak-willed and "complete ignoramus", although kind, honest and intelligent, passionately fell in love with Sofya Nikolaevna at first sight and finally decided to ask for her hand and went to Bagrovo to obtain the consent of his parents ; meanwhile, Alexei's sisters, who heard about Alexei's love and did not want to see a new mistress in the house, managed to turn Stepan Mikhailovich against a possible marriage of Alexei with a city fashionista, proud, poor and humble. Stepan Mikhailovich demanded that Alexei forget about Zubina; the meek son, having submitted to the will of the priest, fell ill with a nervous fever and almost died; returning to Ufa, he sent a letter to his parents threatening suicide (as his son assumed, the letter was both quite sincere and taken from some novel); the frightened old man gave up. The city did not believe that the brilliant Sofya Nikolaevna could become Bagrov's wife. She was not in love with Alexei Stepanovich, but appreciated his kindness and love for her; anticipating the imminent death of her father, she thought about the future with fear and needed support. All this she frankly expressed to the young man before giving her consent. The moral inequality between the groom and the bride was revealed many times even before the wedding, and Sofya Nikolaevna bitterly realized that she would not be able to respect her husband; she was supported only by the ordinary female hope of re-educating him to her liking. A week after the wedding, the young went to her husband's parents. In the "too simple house of rural landowners" the guests were waited with anxiety, fearing that the city's daughter-in-law would "condemn, ridicule." The father-in-law and daughter-in-law immediately liked each other: the old man loved smart and cheerful people, and Sofya Nikolaevna of all Stepan Mikhailovich’s relatives was the only one capable of fully appreciating him: the daughter of a weak father, she had not met before a man who not only always acted directly, but always spoke the truth ; she fell in love with her husband even more, seeing in him the son of Stepan Mikhailovich. Meanwhile, the difference in the natures of Alexei Stepanovich and Sofya Nikolaevna was revealed: for example, a husband's love for nature, a passion for hunting and fishing irritates his wife; passionate and lively, Sofya Nikolaevna often falls upon her husband with unfair reproaches and just as passionately then repents and caresses her husband; and the husband soon begins to frighten both outbursts of anger and tears of repentance of his wife; finally, jealousy, "still without a name, without an object," begins to torment Sofya Nikolaevna. Stepan Mikhailovich notices this and tries to help both of them with advice. Returning to Ufa, Sofia Nikolaevna realizes that she has become pregnant; this brings great joy to Stepan Mikhailovich, who dreams of continuing the ancient family of the Bagrovs. Sofya Nikolaevna endures pregnancy painfully. At the same time, the footman Kalmyk, who went after her paralyzed father, decides to get the mistress out of the house in order to freely rob the sick old man; Kalmyk insults her in cold blood, Sofya Nikolaevna demands from her father: "Choose who to expel: me or him"; and the father asks to buy another house. The shocked woman loses consciousness. Here for the first time it turns out that the weak and simple Aleksei Stepanovich, who in ordinary times is not able to "satisfy the subtleties of the demands" of his wife, can be a support in difficult times. A daughter is born. Sofya Nikolaevna in love for her comes to insanity; in the fourth month the child dies from a relative, from grief the mother herself is dying: in the summer in the Tatar village she is cured with koumiss. A year later, a woman who has recovered is easily born a long-awaited son - Sergei, the narrator of the "Family Chronicle" (Aksakov himself). Even the servants of the Bagrovs "became drunk with joy, and then with wine"; the German doctor says of him: "What a happy boy! how happy everyone is for him!" The grandfather counts the days and hours until the birth of his grandson, the messenger jumps to him on variables. Having learned the news, the grandfather solemnly enters the name of Sergei in the Bagrov family tree. The Chronicle ends with an explanation of the author's creative principles; he addresses his characters: "You are not great heroes <...> but you were people <...> You were the same characters in the great world spectacle <...>, like all people, and just as worth remembering." G. V. Zykova Childhood years Bagrov-grandson Autobiographical Tale (1858) The book, essentially a memoir, describes the first ten years of a child's life (1790s) spent in Ufa and the villages of the Orenburg province. The author reproduces children's perception, for which everything is new and everything is equally important, events are not divided into major and minor: therefore, in "Children's Years" the plot is practically absent. It all starts with incoherent but vivid memories of infancy and early childhood - a person remembers how he was taken away from his nurse, remembers a long illness from which he almost died - one sunny morning when he felt better, a strangely shaped bottle of rhein wine, pendants pine resin in a new wooden house, etc. The most common image is the road: travel was considered a medicine. (A detailed description of moving hundreds of miles - to visit relatives, to visit, etc. - occupies most of the "Children's years".) Seryozha recovers after he becomes especially ill on a long journey and his parents, forced to stop in the forest, spread he had a bed in the tall grass, where he lay for twelve hours, unable to move, and "suddenly woke up." After an illness, the child experiences "a feeling of pity for everything that suffers." With every memory of Seryozha, "the constant presence of the mother merges", who went out and loved him, perhaps for this reason, more than her other children. Sequential memories begin at the age of four. Serezha lives in Ufa with his parents and younger sister. The disease "brought to extreme susceptibility" the boy's nerves. According to the nanny's stories, he is afraid of the dead, the dark, and so on. (various fears will continue to torment him). He was taught to read so early that he does not even remember it; he had only one book, he knew it by heart and read it aloud to his sister every day; so that when neighbor S. I. Anichkov presented him with Novikov's "Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind", the boy, carried away by books, was "just like a madman." He was especially impressed by the articles explaining thunder, snow, insect metamorphoses, etc. Mother, exhausted by Seryozha's illness, was afraid that she herself fell ill with consumption, her parents gathered in Orenburg to see a good doctor; the children were taken to Bagrovo, to their father's parents. The road amazed the child: crossing the Belaya, collected pebbles and fossils - “ores”, large trees, spending the night in the field and especially fishing on the Dema, which immediately drove the boy crazy no less than reading, the fire obtained by flint, and the fire of the torch, springs, etc. Everything is curious, even "how the earth stuck to the wheels and then fell off them in thick layers." The father rejoices in all this together with Seryozha, and his beloved mother, on the contrary, is indifferent and even squeamish. The people met on the way are not only new, but also incomprehensible: the joy of the family Bagrov peasants who met their family in the village of Parashino is incomprehensible, the relations of the peasants with the "terrible" headman are incomprehensible, etc.; the child sees, among other things, the harvest in the heat, and this causes "an inexpressible feeling of compassion." The boy does not like the patriarchal Bagrovo: the house is small and sad, the grandmother and aunt are dressed no better than the servants in Ufa, the grandfather is stern and scary (Seryozha witnessed one of his insane fits of anger; later, when the grandfather saw that the "sissy" loves not only mother, but also father, their relationship with their grandson suddenly and dramatically changed). Children of a proud daughter-in-law, who "disdained" Bagrov, are not loved. In Bagrovo, so inhospitable that they even fed the children badly, the brother and sister lived for more than a month. Seryozha amuses herself by frightening her sister with stories about unprecedented adventures and reading aloud to her and her beloved "uncle" Yevseich. Auntie gave the boy "Dream Interpretation" and some vaudeville, which strongly influenced his imagination. After Bagrov, returning home had such an effect on the boy that he, again surrounded by common love, suddenly matured. Young brothers of the mother, military men, who graduated from the Moscow University noble boarding school, are visiting the house: from them Seryozha learns what poetry is, one of the uncles draws and teaches this to Seryozha, which makes the boy seem to be a "higher being". S. I. Anichkov donates new books: "Anabasis" by Xenophon and "Children's Library" by Shishkov (which the author praises very much). Uncles and their friend adjutant Volkov, playing, tease the boy, among other things, because he cannot write; Seryozha is seriously offended and one day he rushes to fight; he is punished and demanded that he ask for forgiveness, but the boy considers himself right; alone in a room, placed in a corner, he dreams and, finally, falls ill from excitement and fatigue. Adults are ashamed, and the matter ends with a general reconciliation. At the request of Serezha, they begin to teach him to write, inviting a teacher from a public school. One day, apparently on someone's advice, Seryozha is sent there for a lesson: the rudeness of both the students and the teacher (who was so affectionate with him at home), the spanking of the guilty scares the child very much. Serezha's father buys seven thousand acres of land with lakes and forests and calls it "Sergeevskaya wasteland", which the boy is very proud of. Parents are going to Sergeevka to treat their mother with Bashkir koumiss in the spring, when Belaya opens up. Seryozha can't think of anything else and watches with tension the ice drift and the flood of the river. In Sergeevka, the house for gentlemen has not been completed, but even this amuses: "There are no windows and doors, but the fishing rods are ready." Until the end of July, Seryozha, father and uncle Evseich are fishing on Lake Kiishki, which the boy considers his own; Serezha sees gun hunting for the first time and feels "some kind of greed, some unknown joy." Summer is spoiled only by guests, though infrequent: outsiders, even peers, burden Seryozha. After Sergeevka, Ufa "got sick of it." Seryozha is entertained only by the neighbor's new gift: Sumarokov's collected works and Kheraskov's poem "Rossiada", which he recites and tells his relatives various details invented by him about his favorite characters. The mother laughs, and the father worries: "Where does all this come from? You don't become a liar." News comes about the death of Catherine II, the people swear allegiance to Pavel Petrovich; the child listens attentively to the conversations of worried adults, which are not always clear to him. The news comes that the grandfather is dying, and the family immediately gathers in Bagrovo. Seryozha is afraid to see his grandfather dying, he is afraid that his mother will fall ill from all this, that in winter they will freeze on the way. On the road, the boy is tormented by sad forebodings, and the belief in forebodings takes root in him from now on for life. Grandfather dies a day after the arrival of relatives, the children have time to say goodbye to him; "all feelings" of Seryozha are "suppressed by fear"; He is especially struck by the explanations of the nanny Parasha, why the grandfather does not cry and does not scream: he is paralyzed, "looks in all eyes and only moves his lips." "I felt the whole infinity of torment, which cannot be said to others." The behavior of the Bagrovskaya relatives unpleasantly surprises the boy: four aunts howl, falling at the feet of their brother - "the real master in the house", the grandmother expressly yields to the power of the mother, and this is disgusting to the mother. Everyone at the table, except Mother, weeps and eats with great appetite. And then, after dinner, in the corner room, looking at the non-freezing Buguruslan, the boy for the first time understands the beauty of winter nature. Returning to Ufa, the boy again experiences a shock: while giving birth to another son, his mother almost dies. Becoming the owner of Bagrov after the death of his grandfather, Serezha's father retires, and the family moves to Bagrovo for permanent residence. Rural work (threshing, mowing, etc.) is very busy with Seryozha; he does not understand why his mother and little sister are indifferent to this. The kind boy tries to feel sorry for and comfort his grandmother, who quickly became decrepit after the death of her husband, whom he had not known before, in fact; but her habit of beating the servants, very common in landlord life, quickly turns her grandson away from her. Seryozha's parents are invited to visit by Praskovya Kurolesov; Seryozha's father is considered her heir and therefore does not contradict this smart and kind, but domineering and rude woman in anything. The rich, albeit somewhat clumsy house of the widow Kurolesova at first seems to the child a palace from the fairy tales of Scheherazade. Having made friends with Serezha's mother, the widow for a long time does not agree to let her family go back to Bagrovo; meanwhile, the bustling life in a strange house, always filled with guests, tires Seryozha, and he impatiently thinks of Bagrov, who is already dear to him. Returning to Bagrovo, Seryozha truly sees spring for the first time in his life in the village: “I <…> followed every step of spring. In every room, almost in every window, I noticed special objects or places by which I made his observations ... "The boy begins to get sleepless from excitement; so that he falls asleep better, the housekeeper Pelageya tells him fairy tales, and among other things - "The Scarlet Flower" (this fairy tale is placed in the appendix to "Children's years ..."). In autumn, at the request of Kurolesova, the Bagrovs visit Churasovo. Serezha's father promised his grandmother to return to Pokrov; Kurolesova does not let the guests go; On the night of the Intercession, the father has a terrible dream and in the morning receives news of his grandmother's illness. The autumn road back is hard; crossing the Volga near Simbirsk, the family almost drowned. Grandmother died on the very Pokrov; this terribly strikes both Serezha's father and the capricious Kurolesova. The following winter, the Bagrovs are going to Kazan, to pray to the miracle workers there: not only Seryozha, but also his mother has never been there. In Kazan, they plan to spend no more than two weeks, but everything turns out differently: Seryozha is waiting for the “beginning of the most important event” in his life (Aksakov will be sent to the gymnasium). Here the childhood of Bagrov-grandson ends and adolescence begins. G. V. Zykova Ivan Ivanovich Lazhechnikov (1792-1869) ice house Roman (1835) Petersburg in the winter of 1739/40: snow mounds, desertion. Empress Anna Ioannovna, although she goes out and does business, noticeably goes out day by day. Biron, Duke of Courland, clears his place as ruler. The Cabinet Minister and Chief Jägermeister Artemy Petrovich Volynsky, the Governor Perokin, the Privy Councilor Shchurkhov and Count Sumin-Kupshin are waiting for an opportunity to overthrow the temporary worker. On Thursday of Holy Week, in the house of the Cabinet Minister Volynsky, preparations are underway for the Maslenitsa games, which he was instructed to arrange by the Empress. Strings of pairs of representatives of the peoples living in Russia pass in front of the owner of the house and his secretary Zuda, among whom there is not enough of a Little Russian. A woman from a couple of gypsies amazes the owner with a resemblance to the empress's beloved gof-maiden - the Moldavian princess Marioritsa Lelemiko. The gypsy's name is Mariula, she is the mother of Marioritsa, who is unaware of her origin. Left alone with Volynsky, the gypsy denies kinship with the princess, but agrees to assist the owner in rapprochement with Marioritsa, waiting for the empress to change to Biron. His secretary Zuda warns the owner to enter into a fight with the duke, while he himself and his servant steal Gordenka's corpse. An anonymous assistant conveys the authentic denunciation of the Little Russian, although before that, for the luck of finding this paper, Lipman's nephew Eichler was granted by Biron to the secretary's office. Another passion of the married Volynsky is the eighteen-year-old Princess Marioritsa Lelemiko. The daughter of a Moldavian prince, having lost her father and mother from an early age, she fell into the inheritance of the Pasha of Khotyn, but after the capture of Khotyn by the Russians, Marioritsa was entrusted to the mercy of the empress. The fatalism with which the princess was imbued from childhood suggests that at birth she was destined to love Volynsky. The Cabinet Minister in every possible way - through a gypsy who demands a promise from an imaginary widower to marry an orphan, through the conceited teacher Marioritsa Trediakovsky - writes to Princess Lelemiko, hiding from her that he is married. The duke, spreading rumors about the death of Volynsky's wife and detaining her for a while in Moscow, fuels a love affair with the Moldavian princess. Biron found the weak heel of this "Achilles", because the Empress would not breathe on the girl. Therefore, the duke allows the fortune-teller the entrance to the palace to the princess, and the lovers - correspondence. Foreigners at court begin to fear the Russian party, on the side of which the Empress increasingly takes her side. Volynsky's latest dispute with Biron raises a storm in the presence of Count Munnich, who favors the Cabinet Minister, and Vice-Chancellor Osterman, who plays an ambiguous role in the struggle of rivals. The main differences arise from Poland's claims for rewards for the passage of Russian troops through its possessions: Biron considers them fair, and Volynsky boldly believes that only a vassal of Poland can have such an opinion. "I or he must die!" - repeats the raging Biron after the departure of the enemy. But then he learns that Gordenka's body has been stolen. Volynsky, after a quarrel, rushes to the palace in the hope of seeing his beloved, where he finds her playing billiards with Anna Ioannovna. They are besieged by a string of jesters, among whom there is a party of foreigners and Russians. The empress is angry with Biron today. Biron, who arrived, discusses jesters: he proposes Kulkovskiy Podachkin as a bride (Zuda suspects her), - Volynskaya is surprised by the fame of his lordly mistress. Then the duke hints to her majesty about persons who are married and hide it. The jester-Italian Pedrillo comes to the aid of Biron: it was he who seduced the girl from the palace. Anna Ioannovna is beside herself with anger He completes repentance: she is his wife, the daughter of a court goat, gave birth yesterday and everyone is invited to their homeland. The empress laughs from the bottom of her heart. Meanwhile, next to the Admiralty and the Winter Palace stood a marvelous ice palace. At night, when illuminated, the empress, and with her all of Petersburg, go to inspect the miracle. She is very pleased with Volynsky, Biron falls out of favor. The Russian party is triumphant. When, having examined the whole house, the empress leaves, a thick fog falls on the ground. Frightened, she turns back, looking for Volynsky, but he is nowhere to be found. Biron manages to take advantage of this opportunity and again rises from the crafty slave as a daring master. Artemy Petrovich was at that moment near Marioritsa. That same night, the triumphant duke does everything so that the palace witnesses find the cabinet minister in the room of Marioritsa. Mariula's services are no longer required by the duke, and the gypsy is not allowed into the palace. Podachkina informs the unfortunate mother that Volynsky is married. Mariula rushes to the Cabinet Minister and sobs, begs, accuses him. Shamed by her, Volynsky writes a letter to the princess in which he reveals the truth about himself. Mad with grief, Mariula, trying to protect her daughter, is also forced to reveal her secret to Mariori-tse. Volynsky's allies Shchurkhov, Perokin and Sumin-Kupshin come to the buffoon's homeland of the goat in order to tell the empress the truth about the burden placed on Russia by her Courland favorite. The attempt failed - they are taken under arrest in the fortress. Zuda is sure: out of the love of Marioritsa, you can build a staircase even to heaven. To save the head of her lover, he takes as an accomplice Princess Lelemiko, whom Anna Ioannovna cherishes beyond measure. She hands over to the Empress, secretly from Biron, Gordenka's papers, thereby restoring the autocratic trust to Volynsky's friends. The time comes for the jester's scheduled wedding in the ice house. On this day, the Empress is very cheerful, as if consoling herself with the victory over her favorite. The hour has come: Volynsky's secret ally reveals himself - Lipman's nephew Eichler informs the Empress herself about Biron's insidious plans, and she, convinced by the eloquence of his heart, orders to resolve with the Poles in the opinion of the Cabinet Minister. By evening, the whole city will know about Biron's disgrace. Volynsky's wife returns from Moscow with joy - she carries her future son under her heart. But the empress wants, having upset this marriage, to give Marioritsa for Artemy Petrovich. Incurring disgrace, the Cabinet Minister refuses. Marioritsa decides to sacrifice herself for the good of Volynsky: she writes a letter to the empress, in which she reveals her gypsy origin - Volynsky cannot marry her; further she slanders Biron and herself. After that, the princess impatiently waits for dear Artemy for the last meeting, in excitement asks for a drink. The maid brings her a poisoned drink. From excitement, Marioritsa does not notice anything. Here is her Artemy, here is the threshold of the ice house, her hour is coming, for the sake of which she came into the world: she belongs to him. Returning from a date, the princess dies. Marioritsa's letter to the empress was not found. Volynsky was taken into custody. The affairs of state have risen. Osterman and others explain to Anna Ioannovna that only the Duke of Courland can save the state. At the end of the trial of Volynsky, Biron brings the empress a choice of two death sentences: Volynsky's party and himself. The half-dying Empress signs her Cabinet Minister's death warrant. At the place of execution, awaiting execution, are all the associates of Artemy Petrovich, including Eichler - almost everything that was noblest in St. Petersburg. All of them accept death with firmness. The ice house collapsed, and the inhabitants carried the surviving ice floes to the cellars. M. G. Obizhaeva Basurman Roman (1838) The events of the novel begin with the farewell to Muscovy of Anton Erenstein, a baron by birth, invited as a doctor to the Grand Duke John III. But how did the son of a nobleman happen to become a doctor in the XNUMXth century, when "the Inquisition roasted these world pariahs by the thousands"? Long before that day, in Rome, during the laying ceremony of St. Peter's Cathedral, the German baron undeservedly humiliated the doctor Antonio Fioaventi. Three years later, fate brought a talented doctor to the house of his offender at an hour when the main person of the story, the son of a baron, could not manage, although the time had already come, to be born. Obsessed with revenge, the Italian demanded from Baron Erenstein an oath to link the fate of the first-born with the doctor's craft, which humiliated the nobleman. The medical genius of Fioaventi was the last hope of the unfortunate husband, and the fear of losing his beautiful wife forced the baron to take an oath. A few minutes later, Mrs. Ehrenstein had a son, and she, suspecting nothing, in gratitude to the doctor gave him the name Anton. A year later, the parents with tears gave their child to Fioaventi. The arrogant baron out of ambition completely abandoned his son - the boy was informed of the death of his father. Mother, on the contrary, devoted her whole life to the dear exile: after all, he expressed in all his actions the loftiness of feelings and some kind of chivalrous courage. So, once in Prague, schoolchildren hunted a Jew with dogs. Seeing this, Anton rushed at the huge dogs, knocked them dead with a dagger, and beat the schoolchildren. In the twenty-fifth year, young Ehrenstein completed his medical course at the University of Padua, and Fioaventi's vengeance was satisfied. Anton traveled around Italy, took anatomy lessons from Leonardo da Vinci. The portrait of our hero remained in the images of heavenly messengers on the canvases of the artist, who was shocked by the combination on the face of a young man of spiritual beauty with outward beauty. But in enlightened Italy, Anton saw "bonfires, daggers and poison at every step, everywhere indignation, abuse of humanity, the triumph of stupid mob and depraved power." On the contrary, in the letters of Aristotle Fioaventi, the brother of his tutor, the famous architect, who was at the court of the Moscow prince, Russia was described, a wild country, but reviving. Perhaps Sophia Palaiologos indicated to her royal husband the means to realize the ideas of the outward grandeur of the city, while plans for the unification of the Russian lands were floating in the head and heart of John III, and European masters went in a crowd to the call of Moscow. And the young Erenstein, having learned about the request of the architect to find a doctor for the prince, a hunter in a little-known country, decided with ardor to go to Muscovy. At the entrance, the capital of the Grand Duchy presents the doctor with an ugly pile of houses in the bristles of the forest and greets the foreigner with the burning of the agreed Lithuanians timed to coincide with his arrival. The inhabitants are shy of the sorcerer, and at first Anton, who came to put a few mites in the treasury of sciences, has to remove the pip from the prince's parrot and make a clownish review of the courtier's languages. Moreover, the insidious boyars Rusalka and Mamon advised the sovereign to settle the Latin man in the house of the voivode Simsky, nicknamed Sample. He hates the filthy Germans with all the strength of his harsh soul, cannot forgive them for the death that overtook his beloved son in front of his father's eyes in a battle against the Livonians. The governor also has another son, Ivan Khabar-Simskoy, who spends remarkable courage and a wild life, and a marvelous beauty daughter Anastasia, whom the old man protects from the evil eye in the tower. The sample welcomes Aristotle Fio-raventi and his son Andryusha, baptized according to the Orthodox rite, the wanderer Athanasius Nikitin, and is fenced off from the infidel guest by a blank wall. But his daughter, once glancing from the window at the terrible infidel, felt some kind of pleasure of deceived fear, never experienced before. Aristotle lovingly accepts his brother's named son. The dreamer himself, who decided on the edge of Europe to erect a temple of gigantic size to the Mother of God, he pours cannons and bells for the prince of Moscow, and burns bricks until the time. The architect helps Anton not to lose heart among the baby people. Anton the doctor every day more and more enters into the grace of the Grand Duke. On the Annunciation, in the window in front of Erenstein, a wonderful outline of Anastasia's face and a fiery look flashed. Since that time, with her name, he glorifies nature, humanity, God. John III concentrates the forces of Russia. Tver separates it from the northern regions. By political cunning and military force, John is preparing to destroy this barrier. He proposes to entrust the army to the conqueror of Novgorod, Prince Kholmsky. But at night, Anton's friend Obraztsya escapes from prison, namely Prince Kholmsky, who refused to go against his homeland. This incident violates the border in the house, which separated the Orthodox half from the infidels. Khabar soon asks Anton to help his beloved, who was tried to poison by a rival. The beautiful Gaida - the concubine of the weak and boastful Andrei Palaiologos - was saved by the power of medical potions. For that, the brother of the Grand Duchess presents the doctor with a golden chain. Remembering his poor mother, Anton accepts the gift. But at the feast that followed, the intoxicated Paleolog defames the Russian land. Swag slaps him; Anton throws the gift back at the feet of the last Byzantine. Having learned about the incident, Ivan Vasilyevich orders the boyar Mamon to give Khabar a hundred rubles and bow three times at his feet. Mamon hates the Sample and his household for a long-standing refusal to marry Anastasia to his son. Having come to Khabar, the boyar, terrible in his revenge, gives the prince's money and insults the enemy. Swag causes Mamon to fight to the death. John ordered the "field" to be not before the regiments return from Tver. Let's anticipate events: the battle, like God's judgment, will take place, Mamon will be defeated, but Khabar will not take the enemy's life. Anastasia no longer defends herself against what she previously considered charm. With Andryusha, she gives the sorcerer the most precious thing she has - a pectoral cross: if she puts it on, she will be saved in the next world from burning tar. The precious gift is joyful to Anton, but, fearing to destroy the soul of his beloved with notoriety, he tenderly returns the vest. On the eve of the campaign, the ambassador of Frederick III, Nikolai Poppel, the adopted son of Baron Erenstein, arrives in Moscow. He brought a proposal from his master to invite Ivan III to the kings. But an equal does not favor an equal. The knight Poppel has an assignment from his father: to assure the sovereign that Anton the doctor appropriated for himself the autocratic title of nobility, so famous in Germany. The day came for the army to march on Tver. Voivode Khabar leads a detachment of scouts. Aristotle rules firearms. The storyteller Afanasy Nikitin is led in chains - he, a native of Tver, knows every bush there. And the court physician was ordered to mount a horse and accompany the conqueror. In that campaign, he, along with Khabar, will be able to distinguish himself in the capture of the Tver prince. Their sortie will save the city from ruin - the brother-in-law of Ivan Vasilyevich, the prince of Tver, will open the city gates in peace. The German will return from the campaign in Russian dress - he wants to earn the trust of the Russians. The army returns to Moscow with victory. Anton ascends to his half, hears a rustle outside the door. Anastasia! .. She herself came to him to beg to release her from the spell and be baptized. He swears that he is a Christian, that he considers magic a sin. After her departure, Anton repeats a vow in his soul: not out of self-interest, but out of love, he should accept the Russian confession, and not renounce Christ, and then ask for the hand of the boyar daughter. But people's rumor makes him hurry. Anton goes on foot to the village to Athos Nikitin. The elder listens to the petition of the guest, expresses his readiness to be a sad man and a matchmaker, and adequately fulfills his mission: the father gives Anastasia to the German. An hour later, Anton the doctor sets off on his return journey. In a swampy copse, he is saved from robbers by the Jew Zakhary, whom he once helped to avoid death in Prague. The next morning, heretics are punished. One incident overshadows this spectacle for the people: unexpectedly, the horse of Prince Karakacha throws off the rider, the only son of Prince Danyar. The Grand Duke orders his doctor to cure the son of his Tatar friend. Anton vouches that if he begins to treat and they do not interfere with him, the prince will be healthy. In response to Danyar's prejudices, the sovereign demands the doctor's head as a pledge. The goal of wresting Russia from the hands of ignorance takes over, and the honest doctor takes an oath, but on the condition that all his requirements will be observed exactly, and one of John's trusted boyars will observe this in the absence of a doctor, Karakacha is recovering quickly. The capricious Tatar is already making demands on Anastasia to his doctor - she was the first to be promised to him. After a dispute, Anton sends a new medicine to the prince. At night, the boyar Rusalka, who watched the execution of the doctor's orders, replaces the bottle. The next morning, the old prince himself gives his son a drink, and a quarter of an hour later Karakacha dies. Anton is thrown into a prison hut. The Grand Duke of Moscow kept his word to Danyar: despite the pleas of Anton's friends, he gives the doctor to be torn to pieces by the Tatars. For the bliss of the bridegroom, the innocent pays with a painful death. Anastasia, left without her betrothed, cannot stand it and lays hands on herself. M. G. Obizhaeva Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov (1790 or 1795-1829) Above the mind Comedy in verse (1822-1825, publ. 1833) Early in the morning the servant Liza knocks on the young lady's bedroom. Sophia does not immediately respond: she talked all night with her lover, her father's secretary, Molchalin, who lives in the same house. Sophia's father, Pavel Afanasevich Famusov, who quietly appeared, flirts with Liza, who barely manages to fight off the master. Frightened that they might hear him, Famusov disappears. Leaving Sophia, Molchalin runs into Famusov at the door, who is interested in what the secretary is doing here at such an early hour? Famusov, who cites his own "monastic behavior" as an example, is somehow reassured. Left alone with Lisa, Sofya dreamily recalls the night that passed so quickly, when she and Molchalin "were forgotten by the music, and time went by so smoothly," and the maid could barely contain her laughter. Lisa reminds her mistress of her former inclination of the heart, Alexander Andreevich Chatsky, who has been wandering in foreign lands for three years now. Sophia says that her relationship with Chatsky did not go beyond childhood friendship. She compares Chatsky with Molchalin and finds in the latter virtues (sensitivity, timidity, altruism) that Chatsky does not have. Suddenly, Chatsky himself appears. He bombards Sophia with questions: what's new in Moscow? how are their mutual acquaintances, who seem funny and ridiculous to Chatsky? Without any ulterior motive, he speaks unflatteringly about Molchalin, who probably made a career ("because now they love the dumb"). Sophia is hurt so much that she whispers to herself: "Not a man, a snake!" Famusov enters, also not too happy about Chatsky's visit, and asks where Chatsky disappeared and what he was doing. Chatsky promises to tell you about everything in the evening, since he still did not have time to call home. In the afternoon, Chatsky reappears at Famusov's house and asks Pavel Afanasyevich about his daughter. Famusov is worried, is Chatsky aiming for suitors? And how would Famusov react to this? - in turn inquires the young man. Famusov evades a direct answer, advising the guest to first put things in order and achieve success in the service. “I would be glad to serve, it’s sickening to serve,” says Chatsky. Famusov reproaches him with excessive "pride" and cites his late uncle as an example, who achieved rank and wealth by servilely serving the empress. Chatsky is not satisfied with this sample. He finds that the "age of humility and fear" is a thing of the past, and Famusov is outraged by these "free-thinking speeches", and he does not want to listen to such attacks on the "golden age". The servant reports on the arrival of a new guest, Colonel Skalozub, whom Famusov is courting in every possible way, considering him a profitable groom. Skalozub innocently brags about his service successes, which were by no means achieved by military exploits. Famusov pronounces a lengthy panegyric to the Moscow nobility with its hospitality, conservative old nobles, power-hungry matrons and girls who know how to present themselves. He recommends Chatsky Skalozub, and Famusov's praise for Chatsky sounds almost like an insult. Unable to stand it, Chatsky breaks out into a monologue in which he falls upon those flatterers and serf-owners who delight the owner of the house, denouncing their "weakness, poverty of reason." Skalozub, who understood little of Chatsky's speeches, agrees with him in assessing the pompous guardsmen. The army, according to the brave campaigner, is no worse than the "guards". Sofya runs in and rushes to the window with a cry: "Oh, my God, he fell, he killed himself!" It turns out that it was Molchalin who "cracked" from the horse (Skalozub's expression). Chatsky wonders: why is Sophia so frightened? Soon Molchalin comes and reassures those present - nothing terrible has happened. Sophia tries to justify her incautious impulse, but only strengthens the suspicions that have arisen in Chatsky. Left alone with Molchalin, Sophia worries about his health, and he is concerned about her intemperance ("Evil tongues are worse than a gun"). After a conversation with Sophia, Chatsky comes to the conclusion that she cannot love such an insignificant person, but nevertheless she struggles with the riddle: who is her lover? Chatsky starts a conversation with Molchalin and becomes even more strengthened in his opinion: it is impossible to love someone whose virtues boil down to "moderation and accuracy", someone who does not dare to have his own opinion and bows before nobility and power. Guests continue to come to Famusov for the evening. The first to arrive are the Gorichevs, old acquaintances of Chatsky, with whom he talks in a friendly way, warmly recalling the past. Other persons also appear (the princess with six daughters, Prince Tugoukhovsky, etc.) and carry on the most empty conversations. The Countess-granddaughter tries to prick Chatsky, but he easily and witty parries her attack. Gorich introduces Zagoretsky to Chatsky, characterizing the latter as a "swindler" and "rogue", straight in the face, but he pretends not to be hurt at all. Khlestova arrives, an imperious old woman who does not tolerate any objections. Chatsky, Skalozub and Molchalin pass in front of her. Khlestov expresses favor only to Famusov's secretary, as he praises her dog. Turning to Sophia, Chatsky is ironic about this. Chatsky's sarcastic speech infuriates Sophia, and she decides to avenge Silent. Passing from one group of guests to another, she gradually hints that Chatsky seems to be out of his mind. This rumor immediately spreads throughout the living room, and Zagoretsky adds new details: "They grabbed him, into the yellow house, and put him on a chain." The final verdict is passed by the countess-grandmother, deaf and almost out of her mind: Chatsky is an infidel and a Voltairian. In the general choir of indignant voices, all other freethinkers - professors, chemists, fabulists ... Chatsky, wandering lost in a crowd of people who are alien to him in spirit, runs into Sophia and indignantly falls upon the Moscow nobility, who bows to insignificance only because they had the good fortune to be born in France. Chatsky himself is convinced that the "intelligent" and "vigorous" Russian people and their customs are in many ways higher and better than foreign ones, but no one wants to listen to him. Everyone waltzes with the greatest zeal. The guests are already beginning to disperse when another old acquaintance of Chatsky, Repetilov, rushes in. He rushes to Chatsky with open arms, right off the bat begins to repent of various sins and invites Chatsky to visit the "secret union" consisting of "decisive people" who fearlessly talk about "important mothers." However, Chatsky, who knows the value of Repetilov, briefly characterizes the activities of Repetilov and his friends: "You only make noise!" Repetilov switches to Skalozub, telling him the sad story of his marriage, but even here he does not find mutual understanding. With only one Zagoretsky, Repetilov manages to enter into a conversation, and even then Chatsky's madness becomes the subject of their discussion. Repetilov does not believe the rumor at first, but the others persistently convince him that Chatsky is a real madman. Chatsky, who lingered in the porter's room, hears all this and is indignant at the slanderers. Only one thing worries him - does Sophia know about his "madness"? It never crossed his mind that she was the one who started the rumor. Lisa appears in the lobby, followed by a sleepy Molchalin. The maid reminds Molchalin that the young lady is waiting for him. Molchalin admits to her that he is courting Sophia in order not to lose her affection and thereby strengthen his position, but he really likes only Liza. This is heard by Sophia, who has quietly approached, and Chatsky, who is hiding behind a column. Angry Sophia steps forward: "A terrible person! I am ashamed of myself, I am ashamed of the walls." Molchalin tries to deny what was said, but Sofya is deaf to his words and demands that he leave the house of his benefactor today. Chatsky also gives vent to feelings and denounces Sophia's deceit. A crowd of servants, led by Famusov, runs to the noise. He threatens to send his daughter to her aunt, in the Saratov wilderness, and to assign Lisa to the poultry house. Chatsky laughs bitterly at his own blindness, and at Sophia, and at all of Famusov's like-minded people, in whose society it is really difficult to maintain one's mind. Exclaiming: "I'll go looking around the world, / Where there is a corner for the offended feeling!" - he forever leaves the house that was once so dear to him. Famusov himself is most concerned with "what will / Princess Marya Aleksevna say!" V. P. Meshcheryakov Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (Marlinsky) (1793-1837) Roman and Olga Old Tale (1823) (The course of the story is between 1396 and 1398. All historical events and persons mentioned in it are presented with relentless accuracy. Readers can take the 2nd chapter of the 5th volume of Karamzin's "History of the Russian State" for verification. - From the author's notes. ) "This will not happen!" - said Simeon Voeslav, the eminent guest of Novgorod, to his brother, the centurion of Novgorod, Yuri Gostiny. Do not shine two suns in the sky! It does not happen that I threw my best pearl into the muddy Volkhov, so that I would give Olga, my daughter, to someone who is not like her. Without a golden comb, one cannot comb her girlish braids, a poor man cannot be my son-in-law! "Brother! Olga loves Roman. And his heart is worth your bags of gold. In his veins is the noble blood of boyar children. He faithfully serves Novogorod." But it is too late for the older brother to live with the mind of the younger one. And Roman Yasensky had to listen to his sentence. Tears spilled from the young man's eyes into two springs, and he, sobbing, fell on the chest of his generous intercessor Yuri. In those days, good people were not yet ashamed of their tears, they did not hide their hearts under a friendly smile, they were clearly friends and enemies. Olga has long loved Roman, admires his ability to sing, playing the sonorous harp, but more than that, his stories about campaigns, battles, about Tamerlane being captured by his wild warriors, about miraculous salvation. Therefore, Olga, despite her virtue and respect for her parents, after considerable hesitation, decides to run away with Roman in order to find her happiness far from her native city. But on the appointed night, her ardent lover did not come, and no one in the city saw him anymore. Here's what happened the day before. There was a holiday. Novogorodtsy watched the duel of German knights from Revel and Riga, the art of Lithuanian riders and indulged in their favorite pastime - fistfight: the side of the Trade against the side of Sofia! The strikes of the bell suddenly call the New Town residents to the veche. Two ambassadors turn to them: the first - the Moscow prince Vasily Dimitrievich, the son of the glorious Demetrius of the Don, the second - the Lithuanian prince Vitovt, the son of Kestutis. Two mighty rulers demand to break peace with the German Order of the Sword, to break agreements with Hanseatic merchants. Novogorodtsy, on the other hand, want only peace with everyone, the preservation of their freedoms and the benefits of trade. That's what they say at the meeting. And those who are peace-loving and sedate offer to submit in order to avoid the scourge of war. But the valiant Roman Yasensky is outraged by these speeches. His words excite the common people, and eminent citizens, and the posadnik Timothy himself. And after a noisy evening, on a dark night, Roman is already leaving the city wall on his beloved horse. A long road awaits him. Roman falls into the hands of ferocious robbers in the night forest. They get a lot of booty - gold and silver, which he carried with him. The ataman of the robbers Berkut, a former noble citizen of Novgorod, expelled after one of the strife, dreams of serving his native city again. Having learned from the letter-mandate that Roman is carrying jewelry to bribe the boyars of Moscow in favor of Novogorod, he honorably releases the envoy. And so Roman enters capital Moscow. With precision he strives to fulfill the order of the veche. In duty, but against the heart, he seems cheerful and affable, finds friends among the dignitaries of the court, recognizes the thoughts of the Grand Duke. And these thoughts are hostile to Novogorod. Roman notifies his countrymen about this. Warned Novogorodsk merchants leave Moscow. But one ill-fated day, the guard grabs Roman and throws him into a cramped, damp dungeon. He is awaiting execution. Only once a ray of hope flashed - the old acquaintance of the boyar Evstafiy Syta is free to pardon the criminal, but in return he demands to renounce Novogorod and stay in Moscow forever. But the mercy of death prefers Roman to such princely mercy. While Roman is awaiting execution, the Moscow squads invade the land of Novogorodskaya. The unfaithful Dvinians surrender several fortresses to them. Weeping, Olga escorts her father on a campaign. Simeon Voeslav, setting off with the Novogorod militia, promises his daughter, after defeating the vile Muscovites, to find her the best suitor among the Novgorodians. By this, he plunges her into even greater despair, for Olga remembers only Roman and only wants to see him as her husband. Who penetrated into a deaf dungeon? Who with a dexterous hand inaudibly sawed through the iron bars? With whom is Roman Yasensky racing now on a fast horse in a free field? These two silent and gloomy riders are the messengers of Ataman Berkut. And here the ataman himself meets his countryman. Where will we go - to our hometown? to dear heart Olga? or to the place of battle, to the place where the Novogorodtsy besiege the Orlets fortress occupied by the sworn enemy? "Where there are swords and enemies!" exclaims the ardent young man. Soon they reach a clearing, where several drunken Muscovites are guarding the Novogorod captive. Friends rush to the rescue, enemies flee cowardly, and Roman recognizes in the rescued father Olga, Simeon Voeslav, who was so strict towards him. Now friends and associates in the Novgorod army, Simeon and Yuri Orlets are besieging. Ataman Berkut is the first to climb the tower, but falls, pierced by an arrow. The novel follows him, with a triumphant sword he cuts down the staff of the banner of Moscow, but after that, the stronghold shrouded in flames collapses in an instant, hiding the brave knight in smoke and debris. Is he alive? The victorious army returns to Novogorod. Simeon Voes-lav enters his house. His daughter Olga throws herself on his neck. "I fulfilled my promise - there is a groom for you, the best among the Novogorodtsy!" Olga covers her face with her hands, but as soon as she dares to look through the small gap between her fingers, she sees her beloved Roman. The young lived happily. And Simeon Voeslav, happy with their happiness, losing horses and bishops in chess to his younger brother Yuri, shed a tear of emotion, saying: "So! You are right, but I was to blame!" L. B. Shamshin Test Tale (1830) "Listen, Valerian," Hussar Lieutenant Colonel Gremin said to his friend Major Strelinsky, "do you still remember that black-eyed lady who drove all the youth crazy at the ball of the French envoy three years ago?" This conversation took place in 182 ... on the day of winter Nikola, not far from Kyiv, where the officers of the ** hussar regiment celebrated the name day of their beloved squadron commander, hot-tempered and stubborn, but kind and generous Nikolai Petrovich Gremin. Of course, Strelinsky remembers the unknown beauty, he even dreamed of her for two whole nights, but his passion, as befits a noble hussar, passed in a week; But Gremin seems to be in love? Yes, three years ago Alina captured his heart. She reciprocated, but the lovers had to eat only "sparks of glances and the smoke of hope", because, unfortunately, due to the prudence of her relatives, Alina was the wife of the seventy-year-old Count Zvezdych. Doctors advised the old man to go abroad, to the waters, his wife should have accompanied him. Having exchanged rings and vows of unchanging fidelity, the young people parted. From the first station she sent a letter to Gremin, then another one - since then there has been no news from her or about her. And only yesterday, with the St. Petersburg mail, the lieutenant colonel learned that Countess Zvezdich had returned to the capital, that she had become even more beautiful and sweet, that the big world spoke only about her. The passion that had cooled down from time to time flared up again in her heart, and next to it, jealousy and distrust: did she remain true to her former love? Gremin asks his friend to test Alina's feelings: "Inexperienced love is sweet, but experienced love is priceless!" If Alina falls in love with Strelinsky, well, such is fate! It is not easy for Strelinsky to agree to test not only love, but also friendship, and only Gremin's assurances that nothing threatens their friendship force him to say yes. But the changeability of human nature is such that the ringing of the bell for the departed Strelinsky had not yet had time to stop, when doubt and jealousy penetrated Gremin's soul. And already in the morning he sends an orderly to the brigade commander with a request to be dismissed on vacation, intending to overtake Strelinsky and see the beautiful Alina before him. On Christmas Eve, when bustle and cheerful pre-holiday hustle and bustle reign in the streets of St. Petersburg, when Sennaya Square is crowded with all kinds of food, and Nevsky Prospekt seems to be on fire from carriages and sleighs in which guards officers gallop to buy new-fangled aiguillettes, epaulettes, hats and uniforms, and ladies apply hasty visits to fashion shops, to seamstresses and gold seamstresses - on the eve of the holiday, a troika entered Petersburg through the Moscow outpost, in which one of our hussars was sitting. Who is it - Gremin or Strelinsky? The brilliant masquerade ball given by Prince O*** three days after Christmas was in full swing when a mask in a magnificent Spanish costume approached Countess Zvezdych and invited her to dance. In the sounds of voice and brilliance of wit of Don Alonzo e Fuentes e Colibrados, as the stranger introduced himself, the countess felt something familiar. And when he took off the glove from his left hand, an involuntary "ah!" escaped from her - the sparkling ring was the same one that she gave Gremin three years ago! Promising to come to her to explain the riddle the next day, the stranger disappeared like a dream. In a strange excitement, the countess is waiting for a visit - almost forgotten love seems to have returned to her heart again. Here they are reporting the arrival of a guards officer! Now she will see him again! Alina goes into the living room ... but in front of her is not Prince Gremin at all, but an unfamiliar blond hussar! The riddle of the ring was revealed simply: two years ago, having seen a ring he liked from a friend, Strelinsky ordered a similar one. But how to explain another secret: from the first minutes of the meeting, Strelinsky and Alina were frank and trusting, like old friends, and maybe more than friends. And from that day on, in the theater, at balls, at musical evenings and dinner parties, at skating and dance breakfasts - everywhere Alina, as if by chance, meets Valerian. Alina is in love, no doubt! And our hero? Is he just following Gremin's request? By no means! And evidence of this is the changes that have taken place with him. He, according to his friends, is an anemone, now he is seriously thinking about the future, about marriage, and the family happiness of love with a sweet girlfriend is combined in his thoughts with the duty of a citizen: he will resign, leave for the village and in worries about the welfare of the peasants and the improvement the household will usefully and happily spend his life. But will Alina agree to this? Leaving for the countryside is a sacrifice for a young, beautiful and rich woman! In three days she will give the final answer. And while the sad and worried Valerian is waiting for the decision of his fate, Nikolai Gremin returns to St. Petersburg. The deeds of the service that kept him in the regiment made him forget about his former plans and hopes, and, ardent only for a day, he did not recall the test entrusted to a friend, and perhaps he would not have come to Petersburg at all if his grandfather’s death had not called him to receive an inheritance. But the news of the close marriage of Strelinsky and Countess Zvezdich, like a waterfall, surging over him, awakened jealousy that had fallen asleep in his soul, and, seething with vengeance, he rushes to the house of his former friend to pour out all the rage of his indignation. How could Strelinsky meet the unfair reproaches of a friend? He tries to remind that he urged Gremin to abandon the insane plan, that he predicted everything that could happen - in vain! Resentment does not tolerate reasoning. A shot is the only possible response to an insult, a bullet is the best reward for deceit! Valerian's sister Olga Strelinskaya, a young girl recently released after studying at the Smolny Monastery, tormented by premonitions about the fate of her brother, decides to eavesdrop on the conversation of men taking place in their house. The seconds discuss the quality of the "most fine-grained" gunpowder, the design of pistols, the problem of inviting a doctor. Valerian's old servant helps cast the bullets. You can be sure that nothing will be missed. Olga is desperate. How to save a brother? Precious minutes are running on the clock! She likes Gremin so much, and now he will become the killer of Valerian! Olga turns to God, and this helps her decide ... An ordinary tavern on the second verst on the road to Pargolovo, a place where duel participants constantly gather in winter. Suddenly, Gremin is informed that a lady under a veil wants to see him. "Olga! Are you here?!" "Prince, know that you will not be able to reach my brother, except by piercing my heart!" Gremin, who has long regretted his futile vehemence, is now ready for a thousand apologies. His passionate and impressionable heart is already completely occupied by another: "Olga! Be my wife!" Reconciliation took place. Immediately Strelinsky receives a letter from Alina. How foolish were the doubts! Alina selflessly belongs to him. His gloomy mood dissipated. He blesses Olga and Gremin: "I give you, Nikolai, the best pearl of my life!" The gentlemen of the seconds are invited to wash down past follies and in the future change their failed roles into the roles of best man at two weddings. "Even the stupidity of a person is sometimes extraordinarily successful!" - the skeptical doctor present at the same time reasoned. T. I. Voznesenskaya Latnik A Partisan Officer's Tale (1832) "We were chasing Napoleon in hot pursuit. On November 22, Seslavin sent me to clear the left side of the Vilna road, with a hundred Sumy hussars, a platoon of dragoons of the Tver regiment and a dozen Donets." So the dragoon captain begins his story. The detachment moves along the road, along the sides of which horse and human corpses are located as a terrible decoration. Cossack scouts soon notice the enemy. The French soldiers are grotesquely dressed, some even wearing sheepskins over their clothes, when for true warmth they should be worn under their uniforms. Russian partisans, however, are dressed a little better and are wrapped up from the cold in all sorts of things. Having beaten off the first attacks, the French retreat to a small village. The Russians immediately pursue them. Surrounded in the master's "castle", the French defend themselves desperately, and the Polish gentry militia fight even more desperately - local gentlemen, who see Russians as sworn enemies of their liberty. It is possible to break the resistance only when an unknown cuirassier major in black armor suddenly appears among the besiegers. Not caring that the bullets are raining down, the armored man in a helmet with bloody feathers knocked to one side and in a black cloak, having torn off the door from its hinges, like a formidable demon, bursts into the house. Dragoons and hussars rush after them, and soon hand-to-hand combat ends in victory. The groans of the dying cease, and the dilapidated house, riddled with Russian bullets, full of chopped up, blood-drenched bodies, becomes a place for a short rest for the partisans. The mysterious major at arms, to whom the captain wishes to express his admiration, has disappeared. Meanwhile, the soldiers bring in the butler, who was hiding in the attic. The butler willingly tells the story that recently happened in the mayonte, in Russian to say, on the estate. Its owner, Prince Glinsky, had a beautiful daughter, Felicia. The passionate love that arose between her and the Russian officer of the artillery battalion stationed nearby, in Oshmyany, touched the heart of the old man. A wedding was scheduled. But a sudden urgent need, which was the mother's illness, forced the Russian to leave. Letters from him came rarely, and then completely stopped. A relative of the prince, Count Ostrolensky, at that time sought the hand of his daughter with all possible dexterity. The dejected Felicia resigned herself. The count, however, was not interested in his young wife, but only in a solid dowry, and after the death of the prince, he completely went on a rampage. The Countess faded away. Once a servant noticed her in the garden, talking with a strange, large man in a black cloak who had come from nowhere. The Countess wept and wrung her hands. This man then disappeared, as if he had never been, and the countess from that time fell ill and died less than a month later. Count Ostrolensky soon found himself on trial for non-payment of taxes and cruel treatment of serfs and fled abroad. He returned with the French and led the gentry militia in the district. This story plunged Lieutenant Zarnitsky into deep thought, and he decides to tell a tragic story already known to him. His maternal grandfather, Prince Kh…iy, was a true despot, and when he decided to marry his daughter Lisa to the fiancé he had chosen, he was deeply struck by her refusal to obey his will. Liza, on the other hand, fell in love with her teacher, recently graduated from the university, adjunct Bayanov. The prince imprisoned his daughter in his house. Once, when the prince was on a hunt, Bayanov kidnapped his beloved and immediately went with her to church. When the young people were already standing in front of the altar, a chase broke into the church. No one ever heard of Bayanov again, and now he kept his daughter Kh ... y behind an iron door. She was declared insane, and she did not live long. As time passed, great oddities began to be noticed in the prince - fear came over him. And one day, suddenly, he ordered everyone to leave the house, board up the doors and never return to it. Having settled in another estate, the prince never came to his senses and soon died. Zarnitsky heard this story from an early age and, visiting his native places, having already been promoted to officer, he decided to inspect that accursed house, which in childhood so excited his imagination. Easily penetrating through the dilapidated locks, he, wandering around the house, stumbled upon a room, the iron doors of which told him that a poor prisoner was languishing here. Opening them, he opened his eyes to a spectacle that "instantly turned his body into a piece of ice": the beauty, whose face he had seen many times in the portrait, is the same ... Zarnitsky's story is interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps. This is a black armor. His appearance is sickly and strange. As if delirious, he wanders around the dilapidated house. Suddenly he stops, amazed, at the image of a beautiful woman, hung among the portraits of her ancestors, which, according to the custom in Poland, always adorn the lord's house. "You promised to appear to me before death! Thank you, you fulfilled your promise!" he exclaims. And then he stumbles over one of the corpses. "Here is my enemy! And after death he blocks my way!" Pulling out a heavy broadsword, the cuirassier inflicts terrible blows on the dead body. The captain and lieutenant Zarnitsky hardly calm him down. The next morning, the cuirassier major, having received relief from sleep, tells the officers his story. Of course, it was he who was the same artilleryman who fell in love with the beautiful Felicia Glinskaya and was loved by her. Arriving at his sick mother, he only had time to see her to the grave, and then he himself collapsed in a severe fever. Being ill for eight months and receiving no letters from Felicia, who vowed to write every day, he could not imagine otherwise than the death of his beloved. When he found out about her marriage, an uncontrollable thirst for revenge arose in his soul. Having entered the cuirassier regiment, which was stationed in Oshmyany, he soon appeared to the countess and found her in the saddest position. Both of them realized that they were victims of the count's deceit, intercepting and destroying their letters. Undermined by illness, the life of the countess soon faded away. All the hatred that had accumulated under the major's black cuirass now turned on Count Ostrolensky. And just recently, revenge took place. The last mystical meeting of the lovers - the dying promise of the countess to appear to him before his death - was indicated by the scene at the portrait of Felicia, and now his life is over. Having completed his story and without saying another word, the man at arms jumps on his horse and is carried away. And the captain longs to hear the end of Zarnitsky's story, interrupted in the most extraordinary and mysterious place. Zarnitsky again plunges into exciting memories. In the room where the last days of his unfortunate relative had passed, he saw a girl whose beauty completely reproduced the features of the deceased. He fell in love without memory. In whom? It was the legitimate daughter of Lisa H. oy, also named Lisa in her honor. Born in secret imprisonment, she was brought up by kind people and now has come here in order to see the place associated with her mother's dear memory. Zarnitsky made every effort to ensure that Elizaveta Bayanova was restored in her rights and received a legitimate share of the inheritance. This succeeded, but in vain he cherished the hope of a happy ending to his feelings, Lisa already had a loving and successful groom. Now she is happily married. And Zarnitsky ... alas! he can only be sad, dream and forget himself in battles, where his courage far exceeds the rewards that have fallen to him. A day later, after the battle for Oshmyany, Russian partisans leave the town, making their way among the many corpses. Suddenly Zarnitsky jumps off his horse: - Look, Georges, this is our armored man! On the face of the dead man there was not a trace of the passions that so recently overwhelmed his life. - Wonderful person! Zarnitsky says. - Was Felicia really the herald of his death, or was it the circumstances? Here's a riddle! “A French bullet will probably solve this riddle for one of us in an hour,” the captain answers. The sound of the trumpet calls them out of oblivion. Jumping on their horses, they silently gallop forward. L. B. Shamshin Ammalat-bek Caucasian story. Tale (1831) Near the road from Derbent to Tarki, to the left of which the peaks of the Caucasus, feathered with forest, rise, and to the right the shore of the Caspian Sea, eternally grumbling, like humanity itself, descends, lies a Dagestan village. There was a holiday there in May 1819. Caucasian nature is charming in spring, and all the inhabitants, taking advantage of the peace of this peaceful land, settled down in the valley and along the slopes to admire the dashing games of mountain youth. The horseman, distinguished from all by the beauty of his face, slender figure, thoroughbred horse, wealth of clothes and weapons, was the nephew of the Tarkovsky ruler (shamkhal) Ammalat-bek. His art in dzhigitovka, in possession of a saber and shooting had no equal. Whoever once saw how he shot the horseshoe of his horse from a pistol at a gallop will never forget it. On the same day in the evening, the young bek receives an honorable, but also dangerous guest. A mountaineer of a proud and formidable appearance, Sultan-Ahmet Khan of Avar was once a general of the Russian service, but the arrogant disposition and unfaithful nature of the Asian forced him to commit treason, and now, for more than one massacre, the Russians were looking for him to settle scores with him . To the reproaches of the khan that it was not worthwhile for such a daring man to play toys when his native mountains were covered to the very tops with the deluge of a holy war with the infidels, Ammalat answered with due prudence, but when a Russian officer appeared to capture the rebellious khan, the duty of hospitality forced him to prevent this. Sultan-Ahmet stabbed the Russian with a dagger - now Ammalat is guilty before the authorities and must flee in order to participate in raids on the peaceful side together with the khan. Soon, however, their enterprise, made in alliance with the formidable Chechens, ended in failure, and now the wounded Ammalat was in the house of the Avar Khan. His wounds are heavy, and upon his first return from oblivion, it seems to him that he is no longer on earth, torn apart by hostility and bloodshed, but in a paradise appointed for the faithful, for who else is the young houri correcting his veil? Meanwhile, this is Seltanet, the Khan's daughter, who fell in love with a wounded youth. Ammalat responds to her with deep and passionate love, which often powerfully embraces the virgin heart of an Asian. But where love wins, parting is coming - soon the khan sends the recovered young man on a new raid ... For a long time now, Russian Cossacks from the fortified Caucasian line, not only in their clothes and appearance, but also in their military skills, have become like mountaineers and now give them a glorious rebuff, despite the dexterity and desperation of the attackers. Abreks-dzhigits, robbing robbers without restraint, this time managed to recapture both the captives and a large herd of horses, but at the crossing over the Terek they were overtaken by the Cossacks, to help whom the Russian cannon hit with grapeshot from the hill. Here the abreks enter the last battle, singing the "mortal song" (translated from Tatar): "Cry beauties in the mountain village. / Correct the wake for us. / Together with the last bullet mark / We leave the Caucasus." A blow with a rifle butt to the head knocked the young brave man Ammalat to the ground. Colonel Evstafiy Verkhovsky, who served at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in the Caucasus, wrote to his bride in Smolensk: “... The youth and excellent inclinations of the captured Dagestani bek brought to us made such a strong effect on me that I decided to ask Alexei Petrovich to save him from the inevitable gallows. General Yermolov (whoever did not see him in life will not be able to imagine the power of his charm from portraits alone) not only canceled the execution, but also, in accordance with his nature (to execute like this, to have mercy, to have mercy) gave him complete freedom, leaving with me "Our friendship with Ammalat is touching, his successes in the Russian language and education are amazing. At the same time, he remains a true Asian in his feelings and the same daring that he showed himself as a robber. He found his deep affection for me to be expressed on the hunt in the most heroic way saving my life from the fangs of a ferocious boar. Indeed, he is dear to me no less than my younger brother - good is so grateful to us if we have the opportunity to do it in this barbaric and cruel war. I am flattered to think that I turned out to be capable of it, inspired by love and a dream of you ... " Ammalat eagerly learned to think, and it captured him. But he could never forget his Seltanet, and longing for her merged with longing for that freedom, which, against the former, he was still deprived of, if only because of affection for the noble Verkhovsky. Having received sudden news of his beloved's illness, he rushed to her, despite the fact that her father was now hostile to him. The arrival of Ammalat had a beneficial effect, but Sultan-Ahmet was adamant: leave the giaurs, our eternal enemies, to serve - only this will earn you the right to be my son-in-law, and let the head of the colonel be a wedding gift. "What colonel?" - "Verkhovsky, and only him!" - "How can I raise my hand against my benefactor?" - "He is deceitful, like all Russians. Honey is on his lips, poison is in his soul. He will take you to Russia, and you will perish there." And the insidious khan did not confine himself to words full of threat. On his orders, Ammalata's old nurse told the young man that she had heard Verkhovsky's words that he was going to take Ammalat to Russia and put him on trial there. In the heart of Ammalat, a struggle of feelings is played out no less cruel than the Caucasian war itself. Hatred for the alleged hypocrisy of Verkhovsky, attraction to Seltanet and hope for future happiness entered into a mortal battle with a feeling of brotherly love and reverence for the intelligence and kindness of the Russian officer. Overwhelmed by passion and aroused by deceit, he made up his mind. They rode together far ahead of the detachment. Suddenly Ammalat galloped forward, then turned back and raised his well-aimed gun. "What is your goal, Ammalat?" asked the Colonel, ingenuously enjoying the games of his young friend. "Chest of the enemy!" - was the answer. A shot rang out. Ammalat hides from the chase. Wandering in the mountains. He only did part of the job. But he doesn't have a colonel's head. At night, he commits the atrocious act of grave-digging. With the head of his benefactor in a sack, he now rushes to the Avar Khan, tormented by his conscience, but hoping to master his Seltaneta. Not at a good hour, he ended up in the Khan's house. Sultan-Ahmet Khan of Avar was at his last breath from a quick illness. But nothing can stop Ammalat now. He threw his bloody gift on the bed of the dying. But this only hastened the death of the Khan, who, in the face of the uncertainty of death, longed for peace, and not for bloody scenes. The imperious khansha unleashed her anger on the unfortunate Ammalat. "Never, you, a criminal as vile as a parricide, will you be my son-in-law! Forget the way to my house, otherwise my sons will make you remember the way to hell!" "Seltanet, my love!" - he whispered, but she said only: "Goodbye forever!" Years have passed. Since then, Ammalat has wandered around the Caucasus, been in Turkey, looking for death and oblivion in endless battles. A damaged conscience and notoriety accompanied him everywhere. In 1828, during the siege of Anapa, a Russian artillery officer deftly aimed his cannon to shoot down a handsome horseman on a white horse, who defiantly despised fire from our positions. The shot was successful. The artilleryman then approached and stood over the seriously wounded man. Irresistible horror was reflected in the eyes of the mountain warrior. "Verkhovsky!" - he whispered barely audibly, and this name was his last terrible greeting to this world. A dagger with a gold notch was removed from the dead. "Slow to insult - quick to revenge," read the translator. "My brother Evstafiy became a victim of those who carried out this robbery rule," said the artillery captain Verkhovsky with tears in his voice. "There is also his name," the interpreter pointed out. "Ammalat-bek." From the author's notes. The incident is real. Constantly staying in the Caucasus, I had to hear him from many people who knew both Verkhovsky and Ammalat well. The story does not deviate in any significant way from their true words. L. B. Shamshin Frigate "Hope" Tale (1832) Captain-Lieutenant Ilya Petrovich Pravin was in love for the first time and with all possible passion. In vain are the worries and warnings of friends, and most of all of a comrade in the naval corps, and now the first lieutenant of his frigate, Nil Pavlovich Kakorin. The intricate medical advice of the ship's doctor is in vain. Every day the captain is at a ball or a reception, every day he is looking to see Princess Vera**. A careless remark by a stranger in her presence - and now a duel in which Pravin is a hundred times superior to his opponent with nobility and courage. Suspicion that her attention belongs to another - and hellish torments shake his heart like the furious winds of the Atlantic. Confident that he was preferred to a young diplomat, Pravin heads to the Hermitage to lose himself among the soul-elevating masterpieces of true art. Here, at the sculpture of Psyche - a wonderful creation of Canova, he meets Vera. A desperate confession follows, and in response ... a confession that is just as sincere, involuntary and unstoppable. Happiness covers the captain like a bright fire. He is loved! But the virtue of Vera... To shake her, remarkable efforts are needed. And one day he comes to her dacha in full uniform. "What does that mean, captain?" Pravin, meanwhile, composed a whole story about how, out of two assignments - a short courier visit to the shores of Greece and a four-year round-the-world trip to the American Fort Ross and back (reality offered only the first) - he chose the second, because the hopelessness of his situation leaves him no other option. . "No, cher ami! I have now decided. Only agree to a cruise in the warm Mediterranean Sea. I will do everything!" Pravin wept with shame and confessed everything. But Vera herself was already happy with this resolution of tension. Meanwhile, fate tightened their relationship with a sea knot. Ten days later, a ship is anchored in Kronstadt, at the stern of which a group of three persons can be seen: a slender naval staff officer, a squat man with general's epaulettes, and a lovely lady. A woman in love overcomes the boundaries of the possible. Everything is arranged in the best possible way, to improve his health, Prince Peter *** and his wife go abroad, and he is allowed to sail to England on board the frigate Nadezhda. Prince Peter was greatly interested in the excellent ship's cuisine. Pravin caught the darkness of the night in the black eyes of Princess Vera, she was drowning in his blue ones. They were blessed. We passed through Revel and Finland, swept through Sweden, Denmark, Norway, flashed straits, islands, wonderful lighthouses of the British genius in their practicality. The prince got off at Portsmouth, the princess was taken to one of the villages in the south of the island, where she was supposed to wait for her husband's return from London. The lovers said goodbye. The frigate was at anchor in sight of the shore. The weather turned bad. Pravin could not find a place for himself. Suddenly he decided to go ashore - to see her just one more time! Lieutenant Kakorin objects in a friendly but decisive way: the captain has obviously been neglecting his duties lately, a storm is approaching, now you should not leave the ship. There is a quarrel. The captain removes Kakorin, his first mate, from command and tells his friend to go under arrest. Then he fulfills his intention: date or death! The lovers go through a stormy night. Tornadoes walk along the sea, huge shafts raise the surface of the waters. The captain understands that he must be on the ship, it is clear to him that he is committing a betrayal, postponing the return until morning. But he can't leave. In the morning, Prince Peter unexpectedly appears before the lovers. Explanations are inappropriate - the prince rejects his wife and returns to London. Now they are free, happiness opens before them. But past the windows of the hotel in the stormy sea, like a ghost, a ship battered by a storm moves. This is Hope. Now Vera can't keep the captain. A ten-oared boat rushes into the heart of the storm. The boat hit the side of the ship with terrible force. Six rowers were killed. Due to the inexperience of the second lieutenant on the ship, five more people died under the wreckage of the mast. Captain Pravin is badly wounded and has lost a lot of blood. A copper nail from the ship's hull on impact entered him between the ribs. Depressed by his guilt, he suffered extraordinarily. The entire crew, including the ship's doctor, prayed to God for his salvation. The princess spent day and night at the hotel window with a spotting scope, not letting go of the frigate with her eyes. All her hope was there. Prolonged observation through a telescope produces an extraordinary effect, turning us into an excitement similar to the influence of a play in an unknown language. The princess saw everything, but could not fully understand anything. Everything was moving, the frigate was retracting, returning to its former slender appearance. Suddenly, the cannon burst into flames. Something red flashed and disappeared overboard. The flag sank to the very bottom, then flew up again to the mast. Will he come again today? But footsteps were heard in the dusk. A man in a Scottish cloak entered. With a jubilant heart, Vera rushed to him. But a man's hand pulled her away. “Princess, you are mistaken. I am not Pravin,” said a strange voice. Lieutenant Kakorin stood in front of her. “The captain died, he lost too much blood.” "His blood is still here," he added bitterly... The performance did not start, they were waiting for the sovereign. The young Guards officer pointed his fashionable quadrangular lorgnette at one of the boxes, then leaned over to his neighbor: "Who is this beautiful lady next to the fat general?" - "This is the wife of Prince Peter ***" - "How? Is this the same Vera ***, about whose tragic love for Captain Pravin so much was said in the world?" - "Alas, this is his second wife. Princess Vera died in England after the death of the captain." Isn't death terrible? Isn't love beautiful? And are there things in the world where good and evil do not mix? L. B. Shamshin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837) Ruslan and Ludmila Poem (1817-1820) Prince Vladimir the sun is feasting in the grid with his sons and a crowd of friends, celebrating the wedding of his youngest daughter Lyudmila with Prince Ruslan. In honor of the newlyweds, the harpist Bayan sings. Only three guests are not happy with the happiness of Ruslan and Lyudmila, three knights do not listen to the prophetic singer. These are Ruslan's three rivals: the knight Rogdai, the braggart Farlaf and the Khazar Khan Ratmir. The feast is over, and everyone disperses. The prince blesses the young, they are taken to the bedchamber, and the happy bridegroom is already looking forward to love delights. Suddenly there was a thunder, a flash of light, everything grew dark, and in the ensuing silence a strange voice was heard and someone soared and disappeared into the darkness. Ruslan, who has woken up, is looking for Lyudmila, but she is not there, she is "kidnapped by an unknown force." Struck by the terrible news of the disappearance of his daughter, enraged at Ruslan, the Grand Duke appeals to the young knights with an appeal to go in search of Lyudmila and promises whoever finds and returns his daughter to give her as a wife in reproach to Ruslan, and in addition - half the kingdom. Rogdai, Ratmir, Farlaf and Ruslan himself instantly volunteer to go looking for Lyudmila and saddle their horses, promising the prince not to prolong the separation. They leave the palace and gallop along the banks of the Dnieper, and the old prince looks after them for a long time and his thought flies after them. Knights ride together. Ruslan languishes with longing, Farlaf boasts of his future exploits in the name of Lyudmila, Ratmir dreams of her hugs, Rogdai is gloomy and silent. The day is drawing to a close, the horsemen drive up to the crossroads and decide to leave, each trusting his fate. Ruslan, devoted to gloomy thoughts, rides at a pace and suddenly sees a cave in front of him, in which a fire glows. The knight enters the cave and sees in it an old man with a gray beard and clear eyes, reading an ancient book in front of a lamp. The elder addresses Ruslan with a greeting and says that he has been waiting for him for a long time. He calms the young man, informing him that he will be able to regain Lyudmila, who was kidnapped by the terrible wizard Chernomor, a longtime beauty thief living in the northern mountains, where no one has yet been able to penetrate. But Ruslan is destined to find the home of Chernomor and defeat him in battle. The elder says that the future of Ruslan is in his own will. Delighted, Ruslan falls at the old man’s feet and kisses his hand, but suddenly a torment appears again on his face. The wise old man understands the cause of the young man’s sadness and reassures him, saying that Chernomor is a powerful magician, able to bring the stars from the sky, but powerless in the fight against inexorable time, and therefore his senile love is not terrible for Lyudmila. The elder persuades Ruslan to go to bed, but Ruslan languishes in anguish and is unable to fall asleep. He asks the elder to tell him who he is and how he got to this land. And the old man with a sad smile tells his wondrous story. Born in the Finnish valleys, he was a peaceful and carefree shepherd in his homeland, but to his misfortune he fell in love with the beautiful, but hard-hearted and obstinate Naina. For six months he languished in love and finally opened up to Naina. But the proud beauty replied indifferently that she did not love the shepherd. Feeling disgusted with his usual life and occupations, the young man decided to leave his native fields and set off with a faithful squad on a brave voyage in search of battles in order to earn the love of proud Naina with swearing fame. He spent ten years in battles, but his heart, full of love for Naina, longed for a return. And so he returned to throw rich trophies at the feet of the arrogant beauty in the hope of her love, but again the indifferent maiden refused the hero. But this test did not stop the lover. He decided to try his luck with the help of magical powers, having learned powerful wisdom from the sorcerers living in his area, whose will everything is subject to. Having decided to attract Naina's love with the help of witchcraft, he spent imperceptible years studying with sorcerers and finally comprehended the terrible secret of nature, learned the secret of spells. But evil fate pursued him. Called by his sorcery, Naina appeared before him as a decrepit old woman, hunchbacked, gray-haired, with a shaking head. The horrified sorcerer learns from her that forty years have passed and today she turned seventy. To his horror, the sorcerer was convinced that his spells had worked and Naina loved him. With trepidation, he listened to the love confessions of a gray-haired, ugly old woman, and to top it off, he learned that she had become a sorceress. The shocked Finn ran away, and after him the curses of the old witch were heard, reproaching him for being unfaithful to his feelings. Having fled from Naina, the Finn settled in this cave and lives in it in complete solitude. Finn predicts that Naina will also hate Ruslan, but he will be able to overcome this obstacle. All night Ruslan listened to the stories of the elder, and in the morning, with a soul full of hope, gratefully hugging him goodbye and parting with the blessing of the wizard, he sets off in search of Lyudmila. Meanwhile, Rogdai travels "between the forest deserts." He cherishes a terrible thought - to kill Ruslan and thereby free his way to Lyudmila's heart. He decisively turns his horse and gallops back. Farlaf, having slept all morning, dined in the silence of the forest by the stream. Suddenly he noticed that a rider was rushing straight at him at full speed. Throwing away lunch, weapons, chain mail, the cowardly Farlaf jumps on his horse and flees without looking back. The rider rushes after him and urges him to stop, threatening to "rip off" his head. Farlaf's horse jumps over the moat, and Farlaf himself falls into the mud. Rogdai, who has flown up, is already ready to defeat the opponent, but he sees that this is not Ruslan, and in annoyance and anger he rides away. Under the mountain, he meets a barely alive old woman, who points to the north with her stick and says that she will find the knight of her enemy there. Rogdai leaves, and the old woman approaches Farlaf, who is lying in the mud and shaking with fear, and advises him to return home, not to endanger himself anymore, because Lyudmila will be his anyway. Having said this, the old woman disappeared, and Farlaf follows her advice. Meanwhile, Ruslan seeks his beloved, wondering about her fate. One evening, sometimes, he rode over the river and heard the buzz of an arrow, the ringing of chain mail and the neighing of a horse. Someone shouted at him to stop. Looking back, Ruslan saw a rider rushing towards him with a raised spear. Ruslan recognized him and shuddered with anger... At the same time, Lyudmila, carried away from her wedding bed by the gloomy Chernomor, woke up in the morning, seized with vague horror. She lay in a luxurious bed under a canopy, everything was like in the fairy tales of Shehe-rezada. Beautiful maidens in light clothes approached her and bowed. One skillfully braided her braid and adorned her with a pearl crown, the other put on her an azure sundress and shod her, the third gave her a pearl belt. The invisible singer sang cheerful songs all this time. But all this did not amuse Lyudmila's soul. Left alone, Lyudmila goes to the window and sees only snowy plains and the tops of gloomy mountains, everything is empty and dead all around, only a whirlwind rushes with a dull whistle, shaking the forest visible on the horizon. In desperation, Lyudmila runs to the door, which automatically opens in front of her, and Lyudmila goes out into an amazing garden in which palm trees, laurel, cedars, oranges grow, reflected in the mirror of the lakes. Spring fragrance is all around and the voice of the Chinese nightingale is heard. Fountains beat in the garden and there are beautiful statues that seem to be alive. But Lyudmila is sad, and nothing amuses her. She sits down on the grass, and suddenly a tent unfolds over her, and before her is a sumptuous dinner. Beautiful music delights her ears. Intending to reject the treat, Lyudmila began to eat. As soon as she got up, the tent disappeared by itself, and Lyudmila again found herself alone and wandered in the garden until evening. Lyudmila feels that she is falling asleep, and suddenly an unknown force lifts her up and gently carries her through the air on her bed. The three maidens appeared again and, having put Lyudmila to bed, disappeared. In fear, Lyudmila lies in bed and waits for something terrible. Suddenly there was a noise, the hall was lit up, and Lyudmila sees how a long line of araps bears a gray beard on pillows in pairs, behind which a humpbacked dwarf with a shaved head, covered with a high cap, stalks importantly. Lyudmila jumps up, grabs him by the cap, the dwarf gets frightened, falls, gets tangled in his beard, and to the squeal of Lyudmila the Arabs carry him away, leaving his hat behind. Meanwhile, Ruslan, overtaken by the knight, fights with him in a fierce battle. He tears the enemy from the saddle, lifts him up and throws him from the shore into the waves. This hero was none other than Rogdai, who found his death in the waters of the Dnieper. A cold morning shines on the tops of the northern mountains. Chernomor lies in bed, and the slaves comb his beard and oil his mustache. Suddenly, a winged serpent flies through the window and turns into Naina. She welcomes Chernomor and informs him of the impending danger. Chernomor replies to Naina that he is not afraid of the knight as long as his beard is intact. Naina, turning into a snake, flies away again, and Chernomor again goes to Lyudmila's chambers, but cannot find her either in the palace or in the garden. Lyudmila is gone. Chernomor in anger sends slaves in search of the disappeared princess, threatening them with terrible punishments. Lyudmila did not run away anywhere, she just accidentally discovered the secret of the Black Sea invisibility cap and took advantage of its magical properties. But what about Ruslan? Having defeated Rogdai, he went further and ended up on the battlefield with armor and weapons scattered around, and the bones of warriors turning yellow. Sadly, Ruslan looks around the battlefield and finds among the abandoned weapons for himself armor, a steel spear, but cannot find a sword. Ruslan is driving through the night steppe and notices a huge hill in the distance. Riding closer, by the light of the moon, he sees that this is not a hill, but a living head in a heroic helmet with feathers that shudder from her snoring. Ruslan tickled the nostrils of his head with a spear, she sneezed and woke up. The angry head threatens Ruslan, but, seeing that the knight is not frightened, he becomes angry and begins to blow on him with all his might. Unable to resist this whirlwind, Ruslan's horse flies far into the field, and his head laughs over the knight. Enraged by her ridicule, Ruslan throws a spear and pierces his head with a tongue. Taking advantage of the confusion of his head, Ruslan rushes to her and beats her on the cheek with a heavy mitten. The head shook, turned over and rolled. In the place where she stood, Ruslan sees a sword that fits him. He intends to cut off the head's nose and ears with this sword, but he hears her groan and spares. The prostrate head tells Ruslan his story. Once she was a brave giant knight, but to her misfortune she had a younger dwarf brother, the evil Chernomor, who envied her older brother. One day, Chernomor revealed the secret he found in the black books, that behind the eastern mountains in the basement there is a sword that is dangerous for both brothers. Chernomor persuaded his brother to go in search of this sword and, when he was found, he fraudulently took possession of it and cut off his brother's head, transferred it to this desert region and doomed it to guard the sword forever. The head offers Ruslan to take the sword and take revenge on the insidious Chernomor. Khan Ratmir went south in search of Lyudmila and on the way he sees a castle on a rock, along the wall of which a singing maiden walks in the moonlight. With her song, she beckons the knight, he drives up, under the wall he is met by a crowd of red maidens who give the knight a luxurious reception. And Ruslan spends this night near his head, and in the morning he goes on further searches. Autumn passes, and winter comes, but Ruslan stubbornly moves north, overcoming all obstacles. Lyudmila, hidden from the eyes of the sorcerer with a magic hat, walks alone through the beautiful gardens and teases the servants of Chernomor. But the insidious Chernomor, having taken the form of a wounded Ruslan, lures Lyudmila into the net. He is ready to pick the fruit of love, but the sound of a horn is heard, and someone is calling him. Having put on an invisibility cap on Lyudmila, Chernomor flies towards the call. Ruslan called the sorcerer to fight, he is waiting for him. But the insidious wizard, having become invisible, beats the knight on the helmet. Having contrived, Ruslan grabs Chernomor by the beard, and the wizard takes off with him under the clouds. For two days he carried the knight through the air and finally asked for mercy and carried Ruslan to Lyudmila. On the ground, Ruslan cuts off his beard with a sword and ties it to his helmet. But, having entered the possession of Chernomor, he does not see Lyudmila anywhere and, in anger, begins to destroy everything around with his sword. With an accidental blow, he knocks off the invisibility cap from Lyudmila's head and finds a bride. But Lyudmila sleeps soundly. At this moment, Ruslan hears the voice of the Finn, who advises him to go to Kyiv, where Lyudmila will wake up. Arriving on the way back to the head, Ruslan pleases her with a message about the victory over Chernomor. On the bank of the river, Ruslan sees a poor fisherman and his beautiful young wife. He is surprised to recognize Ratmir in the fisherman. Ratmir says that he found his happiness and left the vain world. He says goodbye to Ruslan and wishes him happiness and love. Meanwhile, Naina appears to Farlaf, who is waiting in the wings, and teaches how to destroy Ruslan. Creeping up to the sleeping Ruslan, Farlaf plunges his sword into his chest three times and hides with Lyudmila. The murdered Ruslan lies in the field, and Farlaf with the sleeping Lyudmila strives for Kyiv. He enters the tower with Lyudmila in his arms, but Lyudmila does not wake up, and all attempts to wake her up are fruitless. And here a new misfortune falls on Kyiv: it is surrounded by the rebellious Pechenegs. While Farlaf is going to Kyiv, the Finn comes to Ruslan with living and dead water. Having resurrected the knight, he tells him what happened and gives him a magic ring that will remove the spell from Lyudmila. Encouraged Ruslan rushes to Kyiv. Meanwhile, the Pechenegs besiege the city, and at dawn a battle begins, which does not bring victory to anyone. And the next morning, among the hordes of Pechenegs, a rider in shining armor suddenly appears. He strikes right and left and puts the Pechenegs to flight. It was Ruslan. Having entered Kyiv, he goes to the tower, where Vladimir and Farlaf were near Lyudmila. seeing Ruslan, Farlaf falls to his knees, and Ruslan strives for Lyudmila and, touching her face with a ring, awakens her. Happy Vladimir, Lyudmila and Ruslan forgive Farlaf, who confessed everything, and Chernomor, deprived of magical powers, is accepted into the palace. E. L. Beznosov Prisoner of the Caucasus Poem (1821-1822) In the village, where in the evening Circassians sit on the thresholds and talk about their battles, a rider appears, dragging a Russian captive on a lasso, who seems to have died from wounds. But at noon, the prisoner comes to his senses, remembers that with him, where he is, and discovers the shackles on his legs. He is a slave! With a dream he flies to Russia, where he spent his youth and which he left for the sake of freedom. He dreamed of finding her in the Caucasus, but he found slavery. Now he wants only death. At night, when the aul has calmed down, a young Circassian woman comes to the prisoner and brings him cool koumiss to quench his thirst. The maiden sits with the prisoner for a long time, crying and not being able to tell about her feelings. For many days in a row the chained captive grazes the herd in the mountains, and every night a Circassian woman comes to him, brings koumiss, wine, honey and millet, shares a meal with him and sings songs of the mountains, teaches the prisoner his native language. She fell in love with the prisoner with her first love, but he is unable to reciprocate her, fearing to disturb the dream of forgotten love. Gradually the prisoner got used to a dull life, melting longing in his soul. His eyes were entertained by the majestic mountains of the Caucasus and Elbrus in an icy crown. Often he found special joy in the storms that raged on the mountain slopes, not reaching the heights where he was. His attention is drawn to the customs and customs of the highlanders, he likes the simplicity of their life, hospitality, militancy. He could spend hours admiring how the Circassians jigit, accustoming themselves to war; he liked their outfit, and the weapons that adorn the Circassian, and the horses, which are the main wealth of the Circassian warriors. He admires the military prowess of the Circassians and their formidable raids on the Cossack villages. In their homes, at the hearths, the Circassians are hospitable and welcome tired travelers caught in the mountains at night or by bad weather. The prisoner also watches the warlike games of Chechen youths, admires their prowess and strength, he is not even embarrassed by their bloody amusements, when they cut off the heads of slaves in the heat of the game. Having experienced military pleasures himself, looking into the eyes of death, he hides the movements of his heart from the Circassians and strikes them with careless courage and equanimity. The Circassians are even proud of him as their prey. The Circassian woman in love, having recognized the delights of the heart, persuades the captive to forget his homeland and freedom. She is ready to despise the will of her father and brother, who want to sell her unloved to another village, persuade them or commit suicide. She loves only the prisoner. But her words and caresses do not awaken the souls of the captive. He indulges in memories and one day, crying, opens his soul to her, he begs the Circassian woman to forget him, who became a victim of passions that deprived him of raptures and desires. He laments that he recognized her so late, when there is no longer hope and dreams and he is not able to answer her for her love, his soul is cold and insensitive, and another image lives in it, eternally sweet, but unattainable. In response to the confessions of the captive, the Circassian woman reproaches him and says that he could, at least out of pity, deceive her inexperience. She asks him to be indulgent to her mental anguish. The prisoner answers her that their fates are similar, that he also did not know reciprocity in love and suffered alone. At dawn, sad and silent, they part, and from then on the captive spends time alone in dreams of freedom. One day he hears a noise and sees that the Circassians are going on a raid. Only women, children and elders remain in the village. The captive dreams of escape, but the heavy chain and the deep river are insurmountable obstacles. And when it got dark, she came to the prisoner, holding a saw and a dagger in her hands. She cuts the chain herself. The excited young man invites her to run away with him, but the Circassian woman refuses, knowing that he loves another. She says goodbye to him, and the prisoner throws himself into the river and swims to the opposite bank. Suddenly he hears the sound of waves behind him and a distant groan. Having got out on the shore, he turns around and does not find the Circassian girl on the abandoned shore. The prisoner understands what this splash and groan meant. He looks with a farewell glance at the abandoned aul, at the field where he pastured the herd, and goes to where the Russian bayonets flash and the advanced Cossacks call out. E. L. Beznosov Bakhchisarai fountain Poem (1821-1823) The formidable Khan Giray sits in his palace, angry and sad. Why is Giray saddened, what is he thinking about? He does not think about the war with Russia, he is not afraid of the machinations of enemies, and his wives are faithful to him, they are guarded by a devoted and evil eunuch. The sad Giray goes to the abode of his wives, where the slaves sing a song in praise of the beautiful Zarema, the beauty of the harem. But Zarema herself, pale and sad, does not listen to praise and is sad because Girey has stopped loving her; he fell in love with young Maria, a recent inhabitant of the harem, who came here from her native Poland, where she was an adornment of her parents' house and an enviable bride for many rich nobles who were looking for her hand. The Tatar hordes that rushed to Poland ravaged the house of Mary's father, and she herself became Giray's slave. In captivity, Mary withers and finds comfort only in prayer in front of the icon of the Blessed Virgin, in which an unquenchable lamp is burning. And even Giray himself spares her peace and does not disturb her loneliness. The sweet Crimean night comes, the palace calms down, the harem sleeps, but only one of Girey's wives does not sleep. She gets up and sneaks past the sleeping eunuch. So she opens the door and finds herself in a room where a lamp is burning before the face of the Most Pure Virgin and unbroken silence reigns. Something long forgotten stirred in Zarema's chest. She sees the sleeping princess and kneels before her in supplication. Awakened Maria asks Zarema why she was here as a late guest. Zarema tells her his sad story. She does not remember how she ended up in Giray's palace, but she enjoyed his love undividedly until Maria appeared in the harem. Zarema begs Maria to return Giray's heart to her, his betrayal will kill her. She threatens Maria... Having poured out her confessions, Zarema disappears, leaving Maria in confusion and in dreams of death, which is dearer to her than the fate of Giray's concubine. Maria's wishes came true, and she died, but Giray did not return to Zarema. He left the palace and again indulged in the pleasures of war, but Giray cannot forget the beautiful Maria in battles. The harem is abandoned and forgotten by Girey, and Zarema is thrown into the abyss of water by the guards of the harem on the same night that Maria died. Returning to Bakhchisaray after a disastrous raid on the villages of Russia, Giray erected a fountain in memory of Mary, which the young maidens of Taurida, having learned this sad legend, called the fountain of tears. E. L. Beznosov Gypsies Poem (1824, publ. 1827) The gypsy camp roams the steppes of Bessarabia. A gypsy family is preparing dinner by the fire, horses are grazing nearby, and a tame bear is lying behind the tent. Gradually everything falls silent and falls into a dream. Only in one tent does the old man not sleep, waiting for his daughter Zemfira, who has gone for a walk in the field. And then Zemfira appears along with a young man unfamiliar to the old man. Zemfira explains that she met him behind the barrow and invited him to the camp, that he is pursued by the law and wants to be a gypsy. His name is Aleko. The old man cordially invites the young man to stay as long as he wants, and says that he is ready to share bread and shelter with him. In the morning, the old man wakes up Zemfira and Aleko, the camp wakes up and sets off on a journey with a picturesque crowd. The young man's heart shrinks from anguish at the sight of the deserted plain. But what does he yearn for? Zemfira wants to know this. A conversation ensues between them. Zemfira fears that he regrets the life he left, but Aleko reassures her and says that he left "the captivity of stuffy cities" without regret. In the life that he abandoned, there is no love, which means there is no fun, and now his desire is to always be with Zemfira. The old man, hearing their conversation, tells them an old legend about a poet who was once exiled by the king to these parts and languished in his soul for his homeland, despite the love and care of the locals. Aleko recognizes Ovid in the hero of this legend and is amazed at the vicissitudes of fate and the ephemeral nature of glory. For two years Aleko has been wandering along with the camp, free, like the gypsies themselves, without regretting the abandonment. He leads the bear to the villages and thus earns his bread. Nothing bothers the peace of his soul, but one day he hears Zemfira singing a song that confuses him. In this song, Zemfira admits that she fell out of love with him. Aleko asks her to stop singing, but Zemfira continues, and then Aleko realizes that Zemfira is unfaithful to him. Zemfira confirms Aleko's worst assumptions. At night, Zemfira wakes up her father and says that Aleko is crying and groaning in his sleep, calling her, but his love has become hateful to Zemfira, her heart asks for will. Aleko wakes up, and Zemfira goes to him. Aleko wants to know where Zemfira was. She replies that she was sitting with her father, because she could not bear the sight of Aleko's mental anguish that he experienced in his sleep. Aleko admits that he saw Zemfira's betrayal in a dream, but Zemfira persuades him not to believe crafty dreams. The old gypsy asks Aleko not to be sad and assures him that longing will destroy him. Aleko admits that the reason for his sadness is Zemfira's indifference to him. The old man consoles Aleko, says that Zemfira is a child, that a woman's heart is loved jokingly, that no one is free to order a woman's heart to love one, how to order the moon to freeze in place. But Aleko, remembering the hours of love spent with Zemfira, is inconsolable. He laments that "Zemfira has cooled off," that "Zemfira is unfaithful." For edification, the old man tells Aleko about himself, about how young he was, how he loved the beautiful Mariula, and how he finally achieved reciprocity. But youth quickly passed, even faster - Mariula's love. Once she left with another camp, leaving her little daughter, this same Zemfira. And since then, "all the virgins of the world" have been disgusted with the old man. Aleko asks how the old man could not take revenge on the offenders, how could he not plunge a dagger into the heart of the kidnapper and unfaithful wife. The old man replies that nothing can hold love, nothing can be returned, "what was, will not be again." Aleko assures the old man that he himself is not like that, that he cannot give up his rights or even enjoy revenge. Meanwhile, Zemfira is on a date with a young gypsy. They agree on a new date this night after the moon has set. Aleko sleeps anxiously and, waking up, does not find Zemfira nearby. He gets up, leaves the tent, he is seized by suspicion and fear, he wanders around the tent and sees a trail, barely visible in the starlight, leading beyond the mounds, and Aleko sets off on this trail. Suddenly he sees two shadows and hears the voices of two lovers who cannot part from each other. He recognizes Zemfira, who asks her lover to run away, but Aleko stabs him with a knife... Terrified, Zemfira says that she despises Aleko's threats and curses him. Aleko kills her too. Dawn found Aleko sitting behind a hill with a bloody knife in his hand. There are two corpses in front of him. The tribesmen say goodbye to the dead and dig graves for them. An old gypsy sits in thought. After the bodies of the lovers were interred, he approaches Aleko and says: "Leave us, proud man!" He says that the gypsies do not want to live next to a murderer, with a man who "only for himself" wants freedom. The old man said this, and the camp soon moved off and disappeared into the distance of the steppe. Only one cart remained in the fatal field. Night fell, but no one built a fire in front of her and no one spent the night under her roof. E. L. Beznosov Poltava Poem (1828) "Kochubey is rich and glorious, / Its meadows are boundless", he owns many treasures, but the main wealth of Kochubey is his daughter Maria, who has no equal in all of Poltava. Mary is not only famous for her beauty, but her meek disposition is known to everyone. Many suitors woo her, but Mary's heart is impregnable. And now Hetman Mazepa himself sends matchmakers for her. The hetman is already old, but feelings are seething in him, not the changeable feelings of youth, but an even heat that does not cool down until death. Maria's parents are indignant, they are outraged by the behavior of the elder, because Maria is the hetman's goddaughter. Mary's mother says that Mazepa is a wicked man, that marriage is out of the question. Hearing all this, Maria falls unconscious. For two days Maria cannot come to her senses, and on the third day she disappears. No one noticed how she disappeared, only one fisherman heard horses clatter at night, and in the morning "the track of eight horseshoes / Was visible on the dew of the meadows." Soon the terrible news reached Kochubei that his daughter had fled to Mazepa. Only now did the old people understand the reason for their daughter's mental confusion. And Kochubey conceived a plan of revenge on the hetman. "There was that vague time, / When Russia is young, / Straining her strength in struggles, / She grew up with the genius of Peter." In the struggle with the Swedish king Charles XII, Russia grew stronger. Ukraine was worried, there were many supporters of ancient liberty, who demanded from the hetman that he break the treaty with Russia and become an ally of Charles, but Mazepa "seemed not to listen to the rumor" and "remained / Obedient subjects of Peter." The youth grumbled against the hetman, dreaming, having united with Karl, "to break out <...> with war / Against hated Moscow!". But no one knew the secret plans of the insidious and vengeful Mazepa. For a long time he has been hatching a plan of betrayal, without revealing it to anyone, but the offended Kochubey comprehended his secret thoughts and decided to avenge the insult to the house by revealing to Peter the traitor's plans. Once Kochubey and Mazepa were friends and confided their feelings to each other, then Mazepa revealed his plans, but now there is an insult between them that Kochubey cannot forgive. The spirit of revenge is supported in him by his wife. Now only a reliable person is needed, ready, without being shy, to put Kochubey's denunciation of the hetman at Peter's feet. Such a person was found among the Poltava Cossacks, once rejected by Mary, but still loving her even in her shame and hating her seducer. He sets off on a journey with Kochubey's denunciation of the traitor hetman sewn into his hat. Mazepa, unaware of the terrible danger, weaves a political intrigue, negotiating with the envoy of the Jesuits, revolting the Cossacks on the Don, raising Crimea, Poland and Turkey against Moscow. And in the midst of these insidious cares, Russian nobles sent him a denunciation against him, written in Poltava and left without attention by Peter. Justifying himself to Peter and convincing him of his loyalty, Mazepa demands the execution of informers, the execution of the father of his beloved, "... but the love of the head of the father will not redeem the daughter." Maria selflessly loves Mazepa and despises rumors. Only sometimes sadness overwhelms her at the thought of her parents. But she still does not know what the whole of Ukraine already knows, a terrible secret is hidden from her. Mazepa is gloomy, and "his mind / Confused by cruel dreams." Even the caresses of Mary are not able to dispel his terrible thoughts, he remains cold towards them. The offended Mary reproaches him, saying that for his sake she ruined her own happiness, dishonored herself. Mazepa tries to calm Maria with words of love, but she accuses him of cunning and pretense. She is even jealous of a certain Dulskaya. Maria wants to know the reason for Mazepa's coldness. And Mazepa reveals to her his plans for the uprising of Ukraine against the rule of Moscow. Mary is delighted and longs to see her lover with a royal crown on his head. She will remain faithful to him even in misfortune, and even go to the scaffold with him. And Mazepa subjects Maria to a terrible test: he asks who is dearer to her - her father or her husband? He tries to force her to a definite answer, confronting her with a terrible choice: whose death she would prefer if she was destined to choose whom to send to execution. And the desired response was received. "Quiet Ukrainian night". In the old castle in Belaya Tserkov, the chained Kochubey sits in a tower and awaits execution, which he is not afraid of - he is oppressed by shame, loss of honor. He was given by the king to be desecrated by the enemy, not being able to bequeath his revenge to the offender to anyone. The door of his dungeon opens, and the bloodthirsty Orlik enters. Mazepa knows that Kochubey hid the treasures, and Orlik came to find out where they were hidden. Kochubey replies that his honor, the honor of his daughter, were his treasures, but these treasures were taken away by torture and Mazepa, and the third treasure - holy revenge - he is preparing to take down to God, Orlik inquires where the money is hidden, but to no avail, and Kochubey is given into the hands of the executioner. Maria, caressed by Mazepa, does not yet know about the terrible fate of her father, and Mazepa shudders at the thought of what will happen to her when everything is revealed. He repents that he deceived her, that he tried to harness "a horse and a quivering doe" into one cart. Leaving Mary sitting in ignorance, tormented by doubts, Mazepa leaves the palace. At dawn, her mother crept into the chamber where Mary was sleeping and revealed the terrible news to her daughter. The mother cannot believe that her daughter does not know anything, she asks Mary to fall at the feet of Mazepa and beg him to spare her father. Unable to endure mental anguish, Maria loses her senses. A huge crowd gathered at the execution site. The convicts Kochubey and Iskra were brought on a cart. The martyrs ascend the chopping block, the executioner cuts off their heads and, holding them by the forelocks, shows them to the crowd. When the place of execution is already empty, two women come running, but, alas, they are too late. Returning home after a terrible execution, Mazepa finds Mary's room empty. He sends the Cossacks in search, but all in vain: no one has seen Maria anywhere. Mental sadness does not prevent the hetman from carrying out his political plans. Continuing relations with the Swedish king, Mazepa pretends to be mortally ill, but quickly gets up from his deathbed when Karl transfers military operations to Ukraine. Now Mazepa is leading regiments against Peter. Peter himself leads the squads to Poltava, and now the two armies stand against each other, ready for the morning battle. On the night before the battle, Mazepa talks with Orlik and talks about his disappointment in Karl, who does not seem to him a statesman who can compete with the autocratic giant. Orlik replies that it is not too late to go over to the side of Peter, but Mazepa rejects this proposal and reveals the reason for his hatred of the Russian Tsar. Once at a feast, in response to a boldly spoken word, Peter grabbed Mazepa by the mustache. For this insult, Mazepa swore revenge on Peter. In the morning, the Battle of Poltava begins, in which military happiness serves the Russian troops. Encouraged by the appearance of Peter, the Russian regiments are pushing the Swedes. Mazepa silently watches the battle, and suddenly a shot is heard behind him. It was Voinarovsky who struck down a young Cossack who was rushing with a saber at Mazepa, who, dying, whispered the name of Mary. The battle is over, Peter is feasting in his tent "and for his teachers / He raises a congratulatory cup", but Karl and Mazepa are not among the feasters. They ride on horseback to escape persecution. Suddenly, the farm, past which the fugitives are rushing, frightens Mazepa: he recognizes the place where he once feasted and from where he brought Maria out into the steppe on a dark night. The fugitives spend the night in the steppe on the banks of the Dnieper, when suddenly someone calls out to Mazepa in the silence of the night. He opens his eyes and sees Mary. She is in sackcloth, with flowing hair, sparkling sunken eyes. Mary has lost her mind. She does not recognize Mazepa, says that it is someone else, and hides in the darkness of the night. In the morning, Karl and Mazepa gallop on. A hundred years have passed, and only Peter remained in history, but there was not even a memory of Mazepa and Mary. E. A. Beznosov Bronze Horseman Petersburg story. Poem (1833) "On the bank of the desert waves" of the Neva, Peter is standing and thinking about the city that will be built here and which will become Russia's window to Europe. A hundred years have passed, and the city "from the darkness of the forests, from the swamp of blat / Ascended magnificently, proudly." Peter's creation is beautiful, it is a triumph of harmony and light that has replaced chaos and darkness. November in St. Petersburg breathed cold, Neva was splashing and rustling. In the late evening, a minor official named Yevgeny returns home to his closet in a poor district of St. Petersburg, called Kolomna. Once his family was notable, but now even the memory of this has been erased, while Yevgeny himself is shy of noble people. He lies down, but cannot fall asleep, entertained by thoughts of his situation, that bridges were removed from the arriving river and that he would be separated from his lover, Paracha, who lives on the other bank, for two or three days. The idea of Parasha gives rise to dreams of marriage and of a future happy and modest life with family, together with a loving and beloved wife and children. Finally, lulled by sweet thoughts, Eugene falls asleep. "The mist of a rainy night is thinning / And the pale day is already coming ..." The coming day brings terrible misfortune. The Neva, unable to overcome the force of the wind that blocked its path to the bay, rushed over the city and flooded it. The weather became more and more fierce, and soon all of Petersburg was under water. The raging waves behave like soldiers of an enemy army that has taken the city by storm. The people see God's wrath in this and await execution. The tsar, who ruled Russia that year, goes out onto the balcony of the palace and says that "the elements of God / Tsars cannot be co-ruled." At this time, on Petrovskaya Square, astride a marble statue of a lion at the porch of a new luxurious house, the motionless Yevgeny sits, not feeling how the wind tore off his hat, how the rising water wets his soles, how the rain whips into his face. He looks at the opposite bank of the Neva, where his beloved and her mother live in their poor house very close to the water. As if bewitched by gloomy thoughts, Eugene cannot budge, and with his back to him, towering over the elements, "the idol on a bronze horse stands with outstretched hand." But finally the Neva entered the banks, the water slept, and Eugene, sinking in soul, hurries to the river, finds a boatman and crosses to the other side. He runs down the street and cannot recognize familiar places. Everything is destroyed by the flood, everything around looks like a battlefield, bodies are lying around. Eugene hurries to the place where the familiar house stood, but does not find it. He sees the willow growing at the gate, but the gate itself is not. Unable to endure the shock, Eugene burst out laughing, losing his mind. A new day, rising over St. Petersburg, no longer finds traces of the previous destruction, everything is put in order, the city began to live its usual life. Only Eugene could not resist the shocks. He wanders about the city, full of gloomy thoughts, and the sound of a storm is constantly heard in his ears. So he spends a week, a month in wanderings, wandering, eating alms, sleeping on the pier. Angry children throw stones after him, and the coachmen are whipped, but he does not seem to notice any of this. He is still deafened by inner anxiety. One day closer to autumn, in inclement weather, Eugene wakes up and vividly recalls last year's horror. He gets up, hurriedly wanders around and suddenly sees a house, in front of the porch of which there are marble statues of lions with raised paws, and “above the fenced rock” on a bronze horse sits a rider with an outstretched hand. Eugene's thoughts suddenly clear up, he recognizes this place and the one "by whose fateful will / Under the sea the city was founded ...". Eugene walks around the foot of the monument, looking wildly at the statue, he feels extraordinary excitement and anger and threatens the monument in anger, but suddenly it seemed to him that the face of the formidable king was turning to him, and anger sparkled in his eyes, and Eugene rushed away, hearing a heavy clatter of copper hooves. And all night the unfortunate man rushes about the city and it seems to him that the horseman with a heavy stomp is galloping after him everywhere. And from that time on, if he happened to pass through the square on which the statue stands, he embarrassedly took off his cap in front of him and pressed his hand to his heart, as if asking for forgiveness from the formidable idol. A small deserted island is visible on the seashore, where fishermen sometimes moor. The flood brought here an empty dilapidated house, at the threshold of which they found the corpse of poor Eugene and immediately "buried for God's sake." E. L. Beznosov Eugene Onegin A novel in verse (1823-1831) The young nobleman Eugene Onegin travels from St. Petersburg to the village to his dying rich uncle, annoyed at the impending boredom. Twenty-four-year-old Eugene was educated at home as a child, he was brought up by French tutors. He spoke French fluently, danced easily, knew a little Latin, in conversation he knew how to keep silent in time or flash an epigram - this was enough for the world to react favorably to him. Onegin leads a life full of secular amusements and love affairs. Every day he receives several invitations to the evening, goes for a walk on the boulevard, then dine with a restaurateur, and from there goes to the theater. At home, Eugene spends a lot of time in front of the mirror behind the toilet. In his office there are all fashionable decorations and devices: perfumes, combs, nail files, scissors, brushes. "You can be a smart person / And think about the beauty of nails." Onegin is in a hurry again - now to the ball. The holiday is in full swing, music is playing, “the legs of lovely ladies are flying” ... Returning from the ball, Eugene goes to bed early in the morning, when Petersburg is already waking up. "Tomorrow is the same as yesterday." But is Eugene happy? No, everything bored him: friends, beauties, light, spectacles. Like Byron's Childe Harold, he is gloomy and disappointed, Onegin, having locked himself at home, tries to read a lot, tries to write himself - but all to no avail. The blues takes over again. After the death of his father, who lived in debt and eventually broke down, Onegin, not wanting to deal with litigation, gives family status to the creditors. He hopes to inherit his uncle's property. Indeed, when he came to a relative, Evgeni learns that he died, leaving his nephew with an estate, factories, forests and lands. Eugene settles in the village - life has somehow changed. At first, the new position amuses him, but he soon becomes convinced that it is just as boring here as in St. Petersburg. Easing the fate of the peasants, Eugene replaced the corvée with dues. Because of such innovations, as well as insufficient courtesy, Onegin was known among the neighbors as "the most dangerous eccentric." At the same time, seventeen-year-old Vladimir Lensky, "an admirer of Kant and a poet," returns from Germany to a neighboring estate. His soul is not yet corrupted by the light, he believes in love, glory, the highest and mysterious goal of life. With sweet innocence, he sings of "something, and a foggy distance" in sublime verses. A handsome, profitable groom, Lensky does not want to embarrass himself either by marriage, or even by participating in everyday conversations of neighbors. Completely different people, Lensky and Onegin nevertheless converge and often spend time together. Eugene listens with a smile to Lensky's "young nonsense". Believing that over the years the delusions themselves will disappear, Onegin is in no hurry to disappoint the poet, the ardor of Lensky's feelings nevertheless arouses respect in him. Lensky tells a friend about his extraordinary love for Olga, whom he has known since childhood and whom he has long been predicted to be a bride. Her older sister, Tatyana, is not at all like the ruddy, blond, always cheerful Olga. Thoughtful and sad, she prefers loneliness and reading foreign novels to noisy games. The mother of Tatyana and Olga was once married against her will. In the village where she was taken away, at first she cried, but then she got used to it, got used to it, began to "autocratically" manage the household and her husband. Dmitry Larin sincerely loved his wife, trusting her in everything. The family revered the old customs and ceremonies: fasting was fasting, pancakes were baked on Shrove Tuesday. Their life went on so calmly until the "simple and kind gentleman" died. Lensky visits Larin's grave. Life goes on, one generation is replaced by another. The time will come, "... our grandchildren in a good hour / They will also force us out of the world!". One evening, Lensky is going to visit Larin. This pastime seems boring for Onegin, but then he decides to join his friend to look at the object of his love. On the way back, Eugene frankly shares his impressions: Olga, in his opinion, is mediocre, on the site of a young poet he would rather choose an older sister. Meanwhile, the unexpected visit of friends gave rise to gossip about the future wedding of Eugene and Tatyana. Tatyana herself secretly thinks about Onegin: "The time has come, she fell in love." Immersed in reading novels, Tatyana imagines herself to be their heroine, and Onegin as a hero. At night, she cannot sleep and starts a conversation about love with the nanny. She tells how she was married at the age of thirteen, and cannot understand the young lady. Suddenly Tatyana asks for a pen and paper and starts writing a letter to Onegin. In him, trusting, obedient to the attraction of feelings, Tatyana is frank. She, in her sweet simplicity, does not know about the danger, does not observe the caution inherent in the "inaccessible" cold St. Petersburg beauties and cunning coquettes, luring fans into their networks. The letter was written in French, since the ladies at that time were much more accustomed to expressing themselves in this language. Tatyana believes that Yevgeny was "sent by God" to her, that she cannot entrust her fate to anyone else. She is waiting for Onegin's decision and answer. In the morning, Tatyana, in agitation, asks Nanny Filipyevna to send a letter to a neighbor. An agonizing wait sets in. Lensky arrives, finally, for him - Onegin. Tatyana quickly runs into the garden, where the servant girls sing while picking berries. Tatyana cannot calm down, and suddenly - Evgeny appears in front of her ... The sincerity and simplicity of Tatyana's letter touched Onegin. Not wanting to deceive the gullible Tanya, Eugene turns to her with a "confession": if he were looking for a quiet family life, he would choose Tatyana as his girlfriend, but he is not created for bliss. Gradually, "confession" becomes a "sermon": Onegin advises Tatyana to restrain her feelings, otherwise inexperience will bring her to trouble. The girl listens to him in tears. We have to admit that Onegin treated Tanya quite nobly, no matter how honored his enemies and friends. In our life we cannot rely on friends, relatives, or loved ones. What remains? "Love yourself..." After an explanation with Onegin, Tatyana "fades, turns pale, goes out and is silent." Lensky and Olga, on the contrary, are cheerful. They are together all the time. Lensky decorates Holguin's album with drawings and elegies. Meanwhile, Onegin indulges in a quiet village life: "walking, reading, deep sleep." The northern summer passes quickly, the boring autumn time comes, and after it - and frosts. On winter days, Onegin sits at home, Lensky comes to visit him. Friends drink wine, talk by the fireplace, and remember their neighbors. Lensky gives Yevgeny an invitation to Tatiana's name day, talking enthusiastically about Olga. The wedding is already scheduled, Lensky has no doubt that he is loved, so he is happy. His faith is naive, but is it better for someone in whom "experience has cooled the heart"? Tatyana loves the Russian winter: sleigh rides, sunny frosty days and dark evenings. The holidays are coming. Fortune-telling, ancient legends, dreams and signs - Tatyana believes in all this. At night, she is going to tell fortunes, but she becomes scared. Tatyana goes to bed, taking off her silk belt. She has a strange dream. She walks alone in the snow, a stream rustles ahead, above it is a thin footbridge. Suddenly, a huge bear appears, which helps Tatyana to cross to the other side, and then pursues her. Tatyana tries to run, but collapses in exhaustion. The bear brings her to some kind of hut and disappears. Coming to her senses, Tatyana hears screams and noise, and through the silk in the door she sees incredible monsters, among them as the owner - Onegin! Suddenly, from a breath of wind, the door opens, and the whole gang of infernal ghosts, laughing wildly, approaches it. Hearing Onegin's formidable word, everyone disappears. Eugene attracts Tatiana to him, but then Olga and Lensky appear. An argument erupts. Onegin, dissatisfied with the uninvited guests, grabs a knife and kills Lensky. Darkness, a scream... Tatyana wakes up and immediately tries to unravel the dream, flipping through Martyn Zadeka's dream book. The name day is coming. Guests are coming: Pustyakov, Skotinins, Buyanov, Monsieur Triquet and other funny figures. The arrival of Onegin makes Tanya excited, and this annoys Eugene. He is indignant at Lensky, who called him here. After dinner, the ball begins. Onegin finds an excuse to take revenge on Lensky: he is kind to Olga, constantly dancing with her. Lensky is amazed. He wants to invite Olga to the next dance, but his fiancee has already given the floor to Onegin. Insulted, Lensky retires: only a duel can now decide his fate. The next morning, Onegin receives a note from Lensky challenging him to a duel. The letter is brought by the second Zaretsky, a cynical but not stupid person, in the past a brawler, a card thief, an avid duelist who knew how to quarrel and reconcile friends. Now he is a peaceful landowner. Onegin accepts the challenge calmly, but in his heart he remains dissatisfied with himself: there was no need to joke so evilly about the love of a friend. Lensky is looking forward to an answer, he is glad that Onegin did not avoid the duel. After some hesitation, Vladimir nevertheless goes to the Larins. Olga greets him cheerfully as if nothing had happened. Embarrassed, touched, happy Lensky is no longer jealous, but he is still obliged to save his beloved from the "corruptor". If Tatyana knew about everything, she might have prevented the upcoming duel. But both Onegin and Lensky remain silent. In the evening, the young poet, in a lyrical fever, composes farewell verses. Lensky, who is a little dozing, is awakened by a neighbor. Eugene, having overslept, is late for the meeting. They have been waiting for him at the mill for a long time. Onegin introduces his servant Guillot as a second, which causes Zaretsky's displeasure. As if in a nightmare, "enemies" cold-bloodedly prepare each other's death. They could reconcile, but they have to pay tribute to secular customs: a sincere impulse would be mistaken for cowardice. Finished preparations. Opponents on the team converge, aim - Eugene manages to shoot first. Lensky is killed. Onegin runs up, calls him - all in vain. Perhaps eternal glory awaited the young poet, or perhaps an ordinary boring life. But be that as it may, the young dreamer is dead. Zaretsky takes the frozen corpse home. Spring came. By the stream, in the shade of two pines, there is a simple monument: the poet Vladimir Lensky rests here. Once Larina's sisters often came here to mourn, now this place is forgotten by people. After the death of Lensky, Olga did not cry for long - having fallen in love with the lancer, she got married, and soon left with him. Tatyana was left alone. She still thinks of Onegin, although she should have hated him for killing Lensky. Walking one evening, Tatyana comes to the deserted estate of Onegin. The housekeeper leads her into the house. Tatyana looks at the "fashionable cell" with emotion. Since then, she often comes here to read books from Evgeny's library. Tatyana carefully examines the marks in the margins, with their help she begins to understand more clearly the one whom she adored so much. Who is he: an angel or a demon, "isn't he a parody"? Tatyana's mother is worried: her daughter refuses all suitors. Following the advice of her neighbors, she decides to go to Moscow, "to the fair of brides." Tatyana says goodbye to her beloved forests, meadows, to freedom, which she will have to exchange for the vanity of the world. In winter, the Larins finally finish their noisy gathering, say goodbye to the servants, get into the cart and set off on a long journey. In Moscow, they stay with an aged cousin, Alina. All days are busy with visits to numerous relatives. The girls surround Tanya, confide their heart secrets to her, but she does not tell them anything about her love. Vulgar nonsense, indifferent speeches, Tatyana hears gossip in secular living rooms. In the meeting, among the noise, the roar of music, Tatyana is carried away by a dream to her village, to flowers and alleys, to memories of him. She does not see anyone around, but some important general does not take her eyes off her ... After more than two years in St. Petersburg, the lonely and silent Onegin appears at a social event. Again, he remains a stranger to society. People are ready to condemn everything strange and unusual, only mediocrity is up to them. And the one who, getting rid of unnecessary dreams, achieves fame, money and ranks in time, everyone recognizes as a "beautiful person." But it is sad to look at life as a ritual and obediently follow everyone. Onegin, having lived "without service, without a wife, without work" to the age of twenty-six, does not know what to do. He left the village, but he was tired of traveling. And now, having returned, he gets "from the ship to the ball." Everyone's attention is attracted by the lady who appeared, accompanied by an important general. Although she can not be called beautiful, everything about her is sweet and simple, without the slightest bit of vulgarity. Evgeny's vague guesses are confirmed: this is the same Tatiana, now a princess. The prince introduces his friend Onegin to his wife. Eugene is embarrassed, Tatyana is completely calm. The next day, having received an invitation from the prince, Onegin is looking forward to the evening in order to see Tatyana as soon as possible. But alone with her, he again feels awkward. Guests arrive. Onegin is occupied only by Tatyana. All people are like that: they are attracted only by the forbidden fruit. Not appreciating at the time the charm of the "gentle girl", Eugene falls in love with the impregnable and majestic "legislator" of high society. He relentlessly follows the princess, but cannot get attention from her. In desperation, he writes a passionate message to Tatyana, where he justifies himself for his former coldness and begs for reciprocity. But Onegin does not receive an answer either to this or to other letters. When they meet, Tatyana is cold and does not notice him. Onegin locks himself in his office and begins to read, but his thoughts constantly take him to the past. One spring morning, Onegin leaves his confinement and goes to Tatiana. The princess is alone reading a letter and quietly crying. Now you can recognize the former poor Tanya in her. Onegin falls at her feet. Tatyana, after a long silence, turns to Yevgeny: it is his turn to listen. Once he rejected the love of a humble girl. Why pursue her now? Is it because she is rich and noble that her disgrace would bring Onegin "seductive honor"? Tatyana is alien to the splendor, brilliance of secular life. She would be glad to give all this for a poor dwelling, for a garden where she first met Onegin. But her fate is sealed. She had to yield to her mother's entreaties to get married. Tatyana confesses that she loves Onegin. And yet he must leave her. "But I am given to another; I will be faithful to him for a century" - with these words she leaves. Eugene is amazed. Suddenly, Tatiana's husband appears ... E. V. Novikova Boris Godunov Tragedy (1824-1825, publ. 1831) February 20, 1598 It's been a month since Boris Godunov shut himself up with his sister in a monastery, leaving "everything worldly" and refusing to accept the throne of Moscow. The people explain Godunov's refusal to be married to the kingdom in the spirit necessary for Boris: "He is afraid of the radiance of the throne." Godunov’s game is perfectly understood by the “crafty courtier” boyar Shuisky, presciently guessing the further development of events: “The people will still howl and cry, / Boris will still wince a little, <…> the blood of a baby prince, "of whose death Shuisky directly blames Boris. Events are developing as Shuisky predicted. The people, "like waves, next to a row," fall to their knees and with "howl" and "cry" beg Boris to become king. Boris hesitates, then, interrupting his monastic seclusion, accepts "Great power (as he says in his throne speech) with fear and humility." Four years have passed. Night. In the cell of the Chudov Monastery, Father Pimen is preparing to complete the chronicle with the "last story". The young monk Gregory wakes up, sleeping right there, in Pimen's cell. He complains about the monastic life that he has to lead from adolescence, and envies the cheerful "youth" of Pimen: "You reflected the army of Lithuania under Shuisky, / You saw the court and the luxury of John! Happy!" Admonishing the young monk ("I lived a long time and enjoyed much; / But since then I only know bliss / How the Lord brought me to the monastery"), Pimen cites the example of kings John and Theodore, who sought peace "in the likeness of monastic labors." Gregory asks Pimen about the death of Tsarevich Demetrius, the same age as the young monk - at that time Pimen was on obedience in Uglich, where God led him to see the "evil deed", "bloody sin". The election of the regicide to the throne is perceived by the old man as "terrible, unprecedented grief". "With this sad story," he is going to complete his chronicle and transfer its further conduct to Gregory. Gregory flees from the monastery, announcing that he will be "tsar in Moscow." The abbot of the Chudov Monastery reports this to the patriarch. The Patriarch gives the order to catch the fugitive and exile him to the Solovetsky Monastery for an eternal settlement. Royal chambers. The king enters after his "favorite conversation" with the sorcerer. He is sullen. For the sixth year he reigns "calmly", but the possession of the Moscow throne did not make him happy. But Godunov’s thoughts and deeds were lofty: “I thought my people were content, calm in glory <…>, I opened granaries for them, I scattered gold / Scattered them <…> I built new dwellings for them…”. The stronger the disappointment that befell him: "Neither power nor life amuses me <...>, I have no happiness." And yet, the source of the tsar's severe spiritual crisis lies not only in his awareness of the futility of all his labors, but also in the torment of an unclean conscience ("Yes, pitiful is the one in whom the conscience is unclean"). Tavern on the Lithuanian border. Grigory Otrepiev, dressed in a worldly dress, sits at a table with the black tramps Misail and Varlam. He finds out from the hostess the way to Lithuania. The bailiffs enter. They are looking for Otrepiev, in their hands they have a royal decree with his signs. Gregory volunteers to read the decree and, reading it, replaces his signs with those of Misail. When the deception is revealed, he deftly slips out of the hands of the bewildered guards. House of Vasily Shuisky. Among the guests of Shuisky is Afanasy Pushkin. He has news from Krakow from his nephew Gavrila Pushkin, which he shares with the host after the departure of the guests: Demetrius appeared at the court of the Polish king, "a sovereign youth, Killed by the mania of Boris ...". Demetrius is "smart, friendly, dexterous, to the liking of everyone", the king brought him closer to him and, "they say, he promised to help." For Shuisky, this news is "important news! And if it reaches the people, then there will be a great thunderstorm." Royal chambers. Boris learns from Shuisky about the impostor who appeared in Krakow, and "that the king and the pans are for him." Hearing that the impostor pretends to be Tsarevich Dimitri, Godunov begins to question Shuisky, who investigated this case in Uglich thirteen years ago. Calming Boris, Shuisky confirms that he saw the murdered prince, but among other things he mentions the incorruptibility of his body - for three days the corpse of Dimitri Shuisky "visited the cathedral <...>, But the childish face of the prince was clear, / Both fresh and quiet, as if put to sleep." Krakow. In the house of Vishnevetsky, Grigory (now he is the Pretender) seduces his future supporters, promising each of them what he expects from the Pretender: he promises the Jesuit Chernikovsky to subjugate Rus' to the Vatican, promises freedom to the fugitive Cossacks, retribution to the disgraced servants of Boris. In the castle of the voivode Mniszka in Sambir, where the Pretender stays for three days, he gets "trapped" by his lovely daughter Marina. Having fallen in love, he admits to her imposture, since he does not want to "share his mistress with the dead man." But Marina does not need the love of a runaway monk, all her thoughts are directed to the Moscow throne. Appreciating the "impudent deceit" of the Pretender, she insults him until his self-esteem awakens in him and he gives her a proud rebuff, calling himself Demetrius. October 16, 1604 An impostor with regiments approaches the Lithuanian border. He is tormented by the thought that he "called the enemies to Rus'", but then he finds an excuse for himself: "But let my sin fall not on me - But on you, Boris the regicide!" At a meeting of the tsarist duma, it is said that the Pretender has already laid siege to Chernigov. The tsar gives Shchelkalov the order to send "decrees to the governors to all ends" so that "people <...> are sent to serve." But the most dangerous thing is that the rumor about the Pretender caused "anxiety and doubt," "a rebellious whisper roams the squares." Shuisky volunteered to personally calm the people, revealing the "evil deceit of the tramp." On December 21, 1604, the army of the Pretender defeats the Russian army near Novgorod-Seversky. Square in front of the cathedral in Moscow. Mass has just ended in the cathedral, where the anathema to Gregory was proclaimed, and now they are singing "eternal memory" to Tsarevich Dimitri. The square is crowded with people, the holy fool Nikolka is sitting at the cathedral. The boys tease him and take a penny. The king comes out of the cathedral. Nikolka turns to him with the words: “Little children offend Nikolka <…> Order them to be slaughtered, as you slaughtered the little prince.” And then, in response to the request of the king to pray for him, she throws after him: "No, no! You can’t pray for King Herod - the Mother of God does not order." At Sevsk, the army of False Dmitry was “cleanly” defeated, but the catastrophic defeat does not at all plunge the Pretender into despair. "Providence keeps him, of course," concludes Gavrila Pushkin, an associate of the Pretender. But this victory of the Russian troops is "futile". "He again gathered the scattered army," says Boris Basmanov, "and threatens us from the walls of Putivl." Dissatisfied with the boyars, Boris wants to appoint the unborn, but smart and talented Basmanov as governor. But a few minutes after talking with Basmanov, the tsar "fell ill", "He was sitting on the throne and suddenly fell - / Blood gushed from his mouth and from his ears." Dying Boris asks him to be left alone with the prince. Warmly loving his son and blessing him to reign, Boris strives to take full responsibility for what he has done: "Now you will rightfully reign. I, I alone will answer God for everything ..." After the parting words of the king to his son, the patriarch, the boyars, the queen with the princess enter. Godunov takes an oath of the cross from Basmanov and the boyars to serve the feodor "with diligence and truth", after which the rite of tonsure is performed over the dying. Bid. Basmanov, highly exalted by Theodore (he is "in command of the army"), talks with Gavrila Pushkin. He offers Basmanov, on behalf of Demetrius, "friendship" and "the first rank of him in the Muscovite kingdom," if the voivode gives "a prudent example to proclaim Demetrius the king." The thought of a possible betrayal terrifies Basmanov, and yet he begins to hesitate after Pushkin's words: "But do you know what we are strong in, Basmanov? Not with the army, no, not with the Polish help, But with the opinion; yes! with the opinion of the people." Moscow. Pushkin at Execution Ground addresses "Moscow citizens" from Tsarevich Dimitry, to whom "Russia has submitted", and "Basmanov himself, with zealous repentance, swore his regiments to him." He calls on the people to kiss the cross of the "lawful ruler", to beat "the forehead of the father and the sovereign." After him, a man rises to the pulpit, throwing a cry into the crowd: "People, people! To the Kremlin! To the royal chambers! / Go! Knit Borisov's puppy!" The people, supporting the cry, "rush in a crowd" with the words: "Knit! Drown! Long live Dimitri! / May the family of Boris Godunov perish!" Kremlin. Boris' house is taken into custody. At the window, Boris's children - Fedor and Ksenia. Remarks are heard from the crowd, in which pity for the children of the king is evident: "poor children are like birds in a cage," "the father was a villain, and the children are innocent." All the stronger is the moral shock of people when, after a noise, a fight, a female screech in the house, the boyar Mosalsky appears on the porch with the message: “People! Maria Godunova and her son Theodore poisoned themselves with poison. We saw their dead corpses. (The people are silent in horror.) Why are you silent? Shout: Long live Tsar Dimitri Ivanovich! The people are silent." M. N. Serbul Miserly knight (Scenes from Chenstone's tragicomedy: Thecovetousknight) Tragedy (1830) The young knight Albert is about to appear at the tournament and asks his servant Ivan to show him the helmet. The helmet was pierced through in the last duel with the knight Delorge. It's impossible to put it on. The servant comforts Albert with the fact that he repaid Delorge in full, knocking him out of the saddle with a powerful blow, from which Albert's offender lay dead for a day and has hardly recovered so far. Albert says that the reason for his courage and strength was fury over the damaged helmet. The guilt of heroism is stinginess. Albert complains about poverty, embarrassment, which prevented him from taking off his helmet from a defeated enemy, says that he needs a new dress, that he alone is forced to sit at the ducal table in armor, while other knights flaunt in satin and velvet. But there is no money for clothes and weapons, and Albert's father - the old baron - is a miser. There is no money to buy a new horse, and Alber's permanent creditor, the Jew Solomon, according to Ivan, refuses to continue to believe in a debt without a mortgage. But the knight has nothing to pawn. The usurer does not succumb to any persuasion, and even the argument that Albert's father is old, will die soon and leave his son all his vast fortune, does not convince the lender. At this time, Solomon himself appears. Albert tries to borrow money from him, but Solomon, although gently, nevertheless resolutely refuses to give money even on an honest knightly word. Albert, upset, does not believe that his father can survive him, Solomon says that everything happens in life, that "our days are not numbered by us," and the baron is strong and can live another thirty years. In desperation, Albert says that in thirty years he will be already fifty, and then he will hardly need money. Solomon objects that money is needed at any age, only "the young man looks for nimble servants in them", "the old man sees reliable friends in them." Albert claims that his father himself serves the money, like an Algerian slave, "like a chained dog." He denies himself everything and lives worse than a beggar, and "the gold lies quietly in the chests." Albert still hopes that someday it will serve him, Albert. Seeing Albert's despair and his willingness to do anything, Solomon gives him hints that the death of his father can be brought closer with the help of poison. At first, Albert does not understand these hints. But, having clarified the matter, he wants to immediately hang Solomon on the gates of the castle. Solomon, realizing that the knight is not joking, wants to pay off, but Albert drives him out. When he comes to his senses, he intends to send a servant for the moneylender to accept the offered money, but changes his mind, because it seems to him that they will smell of poison. He demands wine, but it turns out that there is not a drop of wine in the house. Cursing such a life, Albert decides to seek justice for his father from the duke, who must force the old man to support his son, as befits a knight. The baron goes down to his cellar, where he keeps chests of gold, in order to pour a handful of coins into the sixth chest, which is not yet full. Looking at his treasures, he recalls the legend of the king who ordered his soldiers to put down handfuls of earth, and as a result, a giant hill grew from which the king could look out over vast expanses. The baron likens his treasures, collected bit by bit, to this hill, which makes him the master of the whole world. He recalls the history of each coin, behind which there are tears and grief of people, poverty and death. It seems to him that if all the tears, blood and sweat shed for this money came out of the bowels of the earth now, then a flood would occur. He pours a handful of money into the chest, and then unlocks all the chests, puts lighted candles in front of them and admires the glitter of gold, feeling like the lord of a mighty power. But the idea that after his death an heir will come here and squander his wealth, infuriates the baron and indignantly. He believes that he has no right to this, that if he himself had amassed these treasures bit by bit with the hardest work, then, surely, he would not have thrown gold left and right. In the palace, Albert complains to the duke about his father, and the duke promises to help the knight, to persuade the baron to support his son, as it should be. He hopes to awaken paternal feelings in the baron, because the baron was a friend of his grandfather and played with the duke when he was still a child. The baron approaches the palace, and the duke asks Albert to bury himself in the next room while he talks with his father. The baron appears, the duke greets him and tries to evoke in him the memories of his youth. He wants the baron to appear at court, but the baron excuses himself with old age and infirmity, but promises that in case of war he will have the strength to draw his sword for his duke. The duke asks why he does not see the baron's son at court, to which the baron replies that the gloomy disposition of his son is an obstacle. The duke asks the baron to send his son to the palace and promises to accustom him to fun. He demands that the baron assign to his son an allowance befitting a knight. Gloomy, the baron says that his son is unworthy of the duke's care and attention, that "he is vicious", and refuses to comply with the duke's request. He says that he is angry with his son for plotting parricide. The duke threatens to put Albert on trial for this. The Baron reports that his son intends to rob him. Hearing these slanders, Albert bursts into the room and accuses his father of lying. The enraged Baron throws down the glove to his son. With the words "Thank you. Here is the first gift of his father" Albert accepts the baron's challenge. This incident plunges the duke into amazement and anger, he takes away the baron's glove from Albert and drives his father and son away from him. At this moment, with the words about the keys on his lips, the baron dies, and the duke complains about "a terrible age, terrible hearts." E. L. Beznosov Mozart and Salieri Tragedy (1830) The composer Salieri is sitting in his room. He complains about the injustice of fate. Recalling his childhood years, he says that he was born with a love for high art, that, as a child, he cried involuntary and sweet tears at the sounds of a church organ. Early rejecting children's games and fun, he selflessly indulged in the study of music. Despising everything that was alien to her, he overcame the difficulties of the first steps and early hardships. He mastered to perfection the craft of a musician, "to the fingers / Betrayed obedient, dry fluency / And fidelity to the ear." Having deadened the sounds, he disintegrated the music, "believed harmony by algebra". Only then did he decide to create, to indulge in a creative dream, not thinking about fame. Often he destroyed the fruits of many days of work, born in tears of inspiration, finding them imperfect. But even having comprehended music, he left all his knowledge when the great Gluck discovered new secrets of art. And finally, when he reached a high degree in limitless art, glory smiled at him, he found in the hearts of people a response to his consonances. And Salieri peacefully enjoyed his fame, not envying anyone and not knowing this feeling at all. On the contrary, he enjoyed "the labors and successes of his friends." Salieri believes that no one had the right to call him "contemptible envious." Now the soul of Salieri is oppressed by the consciousness that he envies, painfully, deeply, Mozart. But worse than envy is resentment at the injustice of fate, which gives a sacred gift not to an ascetic as a reward for long and painstaking work, but to an "idle reveler", it is harder than envy to realize that this gift is not given as a reward for selfless love for art, but "illumines the head of a madman" . This Salieri is unable to understand. In desperation, he pronounces the name of Mozart, and at that moment Mozart himself appears, to whom it seems that Salieri said his name because he noticed his approach, and he wanted to appear suddenly, so that Salieri "treat him with an unexpected joke." Going to Salieri, Mozart heard the sounds of a violin in the tavern and saw a blind violinist playing a well-known melody, this seemed amusing to Mozart. He brought this violinist with him and asks him to play something from Mozart. Mercilessly out of tune, the violinist plays an aria from Don Juan. Mozart laughs merrily, but Salieri is serious and even reproaches Mozart. It is incomprehensible to him how Mozart can laugh at what seems to him a desecration of high art. Salieri drives the old man away, and Mozart gives him money and asks him to drink for his health, Mozart. It seems to Mozart that Salieri is not in a good mood now, and is going to come to him another time, but Salieri asks Mozart what he brought him. Mozart excuses himself, considering his new composition a trifle. He sketched it at night during insomnia, and it is not worth it to bother Salieri with it when he is in a bad mood. But Salieri asks Mozart to play this piece. Mozart tries to retell what he experienced when he composed and plays. Salieri is perplexed, how could Mozart, going to him with this, stop at a tavern and listen to a street musician. He says that Mozart is unworthy of himself, that his composition is unusual in depth, courage and harmony. He calls Mozart a god unaware of his divinity. Embarrassed, Mozart jokes that his deity is hungry. Salieri invites Mozart to dine together at the Golden Lion tavern. Mozart happily agrees, but wants to go home and warn his wife not to expect him for dinner. Left alone, Salieri says that he is no longer able to resist the fate that has chosen him as its tool. He believes that he is called upon to stop Mozart, who by his behavior does not raise art, that it will fall again as soon as he disappears. Salieri believes that the living Mozart is a threat to art. Mozart in the eyes of Salieri is like a heavenly cherub that has flown into the world below to arouse wingless desire in people, the children of dust, and therefore it would be wiser if Mozart flies away again, and the sooner the better. Salieri takes out the poison bequeathed to him by his lover, Isora, the poison that he kept for eighteen years and never resorted to his help, although more than once life seemed unbearable to him. Never once did he use it to deal with the enemy, always prevailing over temptation. Now, Salieri believes, it's time to use the poison, and the gift of love should go into the cup of friendship. In a separate room of the tavern, where there is a pianoforte, Salieri and Mozart are sitting. It seems to Salieri that Mozart is overcast, that he is upset about something. Mozart admits that he is worried about the Requiem, which he has been composing for three weeks now by order of some mysterious stranger. Mozart is haunted by the thought of this man who was in black, it seems to him that he follows him everywhere and even now sits in this room. Salieri tries to calm Mozart, saying that all this is childish fears. He recalls his friend Beaumarchais, who advised him to get rid of black thoughts with a bottle of champagne or reading The Marriage of Figaro. Mozart, knowing that Beaumarchais was a friend of Salieri, asks if it is true that he poisoned someone. Salieri replies that Beaumarchais was too ridiculous "for such a craft", and Mozart, objecting to him, says that Beaumarchais was a genius, like he and Salieri, "and genius and villainy are two things incompatible." Mozart is convinced that Salieri shares his thoughts. And at that moment Salieri throws poison into Mozart's glass. Mozart raises a toast to the sons of harmony and to the union that binds them. Salieri makes an attempt to stop Mozart, but it's too late, he has already drunk the wine. Now Mozart intends to play his Requiem for Salieri. Listening to music, Salieri cries, but these are not tears of remorse, these are tears from the consciousness of a fulfilled duty. Mozart feels unwell and leaves the tavern. Salieri, left alone, reflects on Mozart's words about the incompatibility of genius and villainy; as an argument in his favor, he recalls the legend that Bonarotti sacrificed a person's life to art. But suddenly he is pierced by the thought that this is just an invention of the "stupid, senseless crowd." E. L. Beznosov stone guest Tragedy (1830) Don Juan and his servant Leporello are sitting at the gates of Madrit. They are going to wait here for the night, so that under its cover they can enter the city. The nonchalant Don Juan thinks he won't be recognized in town, but the sober Leporello is sarcastic about it. However, no danger can stop Don Juan. He is sure that the king, having learned about his unauthorized return from exile, will not execute him, that the king sent him into exile in order to save the family of the nobleman he killed from revenge. But he cannot stay in exile for a long time, and most of all he is dissatisfied with the women there, who seem to him like wax dolls. Looking around, Don Juan recognizes the area. This is the Antoniev Monastery, where he met with his beloved Ineza, who turned out to have a jealous husband. Poetically inspired Don Juan describes her features and sad look. Leporello reassures him that Don Juan had and will still have lovers. He is interested in who this time his master will be looking for in Madrit. Don Juan intends to look for Laura. While Don Juan is dreaming, a monk appears who, seeing the visitors, wonders if they are the people of Dona Anna, who is about to come here to the grave of her husband, Commodore de Solva, who was killed in a duel by "the shameless, godless Don Juan" , as the monk calls him, unaware that he is talking to Don Juan himself. He says that the widow erected a monument to her husband and every day she comes to pray for the repose of his soul. Don Juan thinks this behavior of the widow is strange, and he wonders if she is good. He asks permission to talk to her, but the monk replies that Dona Anna does not talk to men. And at this time, Dona Anna appears, the Monk unlocks the grate, and she passes, so that Don Juan does not have time to examine her, but his imagination, which, according to Leporello, is "quicker than a painter," is able to paint her portrait. Don Juan decides to get acquainted with Dona Anna, Leporello shames him for blasphemy. As the conversation grows dark, the master and his servant enter Madrit. Guests dine in Laura's room and admire her talent and inspired acting. They ask Laura to sing. Even the gloomy Carlos seems to be touched by her singing, but upon learning that the words of this song were written by Don Juan, who was Laura's lover, Don Carlos calls him an atheist and a scoundrel. Enraged, Laura screams that she is now ordering her servants to kill Carlos, even that Spanish grandee. The fearless Don Carlos is ready, but the guests calm them down. Laura believes that the reason for Carlos's rude antics is that Don Juan killed Don Carlos' brother in a fair duel. Don Carlos admits he was wrong and they reconcile. Having sung one more song at the general request, Laura says goodbye to the guests, but asks Don Carlos to stay. She says that with his temperament he reminded her of Don Juan. Laura and Don Carlos are talking, and at this time there is a knock and someone calls Laura. Laura unlocks and Don Juan enters. Carlos, hearing this name, calls himself and demands an immediate duel. Despite Laura's protests, the grandees fight and Don Juan kills Don Carlos. Laura is confused, but, having learned that Don Juan had just secretly returned to Madrit and immediately rushed to her, she softens. After killing Don Carlos, Don Juan, in monastic guise, hides in the Antoniev Monastery and, standing at the monument to the commander, thanks fate that she thus gave him the opportunity to see the lovely Don Anna every day. He intends to speak to her today and hopes that he will be able to attract her attention. Looking at the statue of the commander, Don Juan is ironic that here the victim is represented by a giant, although he was frail in life. Dona Anna enters and spots the monk. She asks for forgiveness that she prevented him from praying, to which the monk replies that it is he who is to blame before her, for he prevents her sadness from "flowing freely"; he admires her beauty and angelic meekness. Such speeches surprise and embarrass Dona Anna, and the monk unexpectedly admits that under this dress the nobleman Diego de Calvada, the victim of an unfortunate passion for her, is hiding. With ardent speeches, Don Juan persuades Don Anna not to persecute him, and the embarrassed Don Anna invites him to come to her house the next day, on condition that he be modest. Dona Anna leaves, and Don Juan demands that Leporello invite the statue of the Commander to tomorrow's date. It seems to the timid Leporello that the statue nods in response to this blasphemous proposal. Don Juan himself repeats his invitation, and the statue nods again. Startled, Don Juan and Leporello leave. Dona Anna is talking to Don Diego in her house. She admits that Don Alvar was not her chosen one, that her mother forced her into this marriage. Don Diego is jealous of the commander, who, in exchange for empty riches, got true bliss. Such speeches confuse Don Anna. She is reproached by the thought of a dead husband who would never have received a lady in love if he had been a widower. Don Diego asks her not to torment his heart with eternal reminders of her husband, although he deserves to be executed. Dona Anna is interested in what exactly Don Diego has done wrong to her, and in response to her persistent requests, Don Juan reveals to her his true name, the name of her husband's killer. Dona Anna is amazed and, under the influence of what happened, loses her senses. Recovering herself, she chases Don Juan. Don Juan agrees that the rumor does not in vain paint him as a villain, but he assures that he was reborn, having experienced love for her. As a pledge of farewell before parting, he asks to give him a cold peaceful kiss. Dona Anna kisses him, and Don Juan leaves, but immediately runs back in. Behind him enters the statue of the commander, who came to the call. The commander accuses Don Juan of cowardice, but he boldly holds out his hand to shake hands with a stone statue, from which he dies with the name of Dona Anna on his lips. E. A. Beznosov Feast in Time of Plague (From Wilson's Tragedy: Thecityoftheplague) Tragedy (1830) There is a set table outside, at which several young men and women are feasting. One of the feasters, a young man, turning to the chairman of the feast, recalls their mutual friend, the cheerful Jackson, whose jokes and witticisms amused everyone, enlivened the feast and dispersed the darkness that a ferocious plague now sends to the city. Jackson is dead, his chair at the table is empty, and the young man offers a drink in his memory. The Chairman agrees, but believes that drinking should be done in silence, and everyone drinks silently in memory of Jackson. The chairman of the feast turns to a young woman named Mary and asks her to sing a dull and drawn-out song of her native Scotland, so that later she can turn to fun again. Mary sings about her native side, which flourished in contentment, until misfortune fell upon her and the side of fun and work turned into a land of death and sadness. The heroine of the song asks her darling not to touch her Jenny and leave her native village until the infection is gone, and vows not to leave her beloved Edmond even in heaven. The chairman thanks Mary for the mournful song and suggests that once her region was visited by the same plague as the one that now mows down all living things here. Mary recalls how she sang in her parents' hut, how they loved to listen to their daughter ... But suddenly the caustic and impudent Louise bursts into the conversation with the words that such songs are not in fashion now, although there are still simple souls ready to melt from women's tears and blindly believe them. Louise screams that she hates the yellowness of that Scottish hair. The chairman intervenes in the dispute, he calls on the feasters to listen to the sound of the wheels. A cart loaded with corpses approaches. The negro rules the cart. At the sight of this sight, Louise becomes ill, and the chairman asks Mary to splash water in her face to bring her to her senses. With her swoon, the chairman assures, Louise proved that "the gentle is weaker than the cruel." Mary calms Louise, and Louise, gradually coming to her senses, says that she dreamed of a black and white-eyed demon who called her to him, in his terrible cart, where the dead lay and babbled their "terrible, unknown speech." Louise doesn't know if it was in a dream or in reality. The young man explains to Louise that the black cart has the right to travel everywhere, and asks Walsingham to sing a song, but not a sad Scottish one, "but a violent, Bacchic song", instead of a Bacchic song, to stop disputes and "consequences of women's fainting", and the chairman instead of a Bacchic song sings a gloomy inspirational hymn in honor of the plague. In this hymn, praise is given to the plague, which can bestow an unknown ecstasy that a strong-willed person is able to feel in the face of threatening death, and this pleasure in battle is "immortality, perhaps, a guarantee!" Happy is he, sings the chairman, to whom it is given to feel this pleasure. While Walsingam is singing, an old priest enters. He reproaches the feasters for their blasphemous feast, calling them atheists, the priest believes that with their feast they desecrate the "horror of sacred funerals", and with their delights "confuse the silence of the tombs." The feasters laugh at the gloomy words of the priest, and he conjures them with the Blood of the Savior to stop the monstrous feast if they wish to meet the souls of their departed loved ones in heaven and go home. The chairman objects to the priest that their homes are sad, and youth loves joy. The priest reproaches Walsingam and reminds him how only three weeks ago he hugged his mother's corpse on his knees "and wailed over her grave." He assures that now the poor woman is crying in heaven, looking at her feasting son. He orders Valsingam to follow him, but Valsingam refuses to do so, because he is kept here by despair and a terrible memory, as well as by the consciousness of his own lawlessness, he is kept here by the horror of the dead emptiness of his home, even the shadow of his mother is unable to take him away from here, and he asks the priest to leave. Many admire Walsingham's bold rebuke to the priest, who conjures the wicked with the pure spirit of Matilda. This name brings the chairman into mental confusion, he says that he sees her where his fallen spirit will no longer reach. A woman notices that Walsingam has gone mad and "raves about his buried wife." The priest persuades Walsingam to leave, but Walsingam, in the name of God, begs the priest to leave him and go away. Having invoked the Holy Name, the priest leaves, the feast continues, but Walsingam "remains in deep thought." E. A. Beznosov Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin (1830) SHOTThe army regiment is stationed in the town ***. Life passes according to the routine of the army, and only the acquaintance of the officers with a certain man named Silvio, who lives in this place, dispels the boredom of the garrison. He is older than most of the officers of the regiment, sullen, has a tough temper and an evil tongue. There is some secret in his life that Silvio does not reveal to anyone. It is known that Silvio once served in a hussar regiment, but no one knows the reason for his resignation, as well as the reason for living in this outback. Neither his income nor his fortune is known, but he keeps an open table for the officers of the regiment, and at dinner champagne flows like water. For this, everyone is ready to forgive him. The mystery of Silvio's figure sets off his almost supernatural skill in pistol shooting. He does not take part in the conversations of officers about duels, and when asked if he had ever fought, he answers dryly that he did. Between themselves, the officers believe that some unfortunate victim of his inhuman art lies on the conscience of Silvio. One day, as usual, several officers gathered at Silvio's. Having drunk a lot, they started a card game and asked Silvio to sweep the bank. In the game, he was silent as usual and without a word corrected the mistakes of the punters in the records. One young officer, who had recently joined the regiment and did not know the habits of Silvio, it seemed that he was mistaken. Enraged by Silvio's silent obstinacy, the officer threw a shandal at his head. Silvio, pale with anger, asked the officer to leave. Everyone considered the duel inevitable and did not doubt its outcome, but Silvio did not call the officer, and this circumstance ruined his reputation in the eyes of the officers, but gradually everything went back to normal and the incident was forgotten. Only one officer, to whom Silvio sympathized more than others, could not come to terms with the idea that Silvio did not wash off the insult. Once in the regimental office, where the mail came, Silvio received a package, the contents of which greatly excited him. He announced his unexpected departure to the assembled officers and invited everyone to a farewell dinner. Late in the evening, when everyone was leaving Silvio's house, the owner asked the most sympathetic officer to linger and revealed his secret to him. A few years ago, Silvio received a slap in the face, and his offender is still alive. This happened during the years of his service, when Silvio had a violent temper. He excelled in the regiment and enjoyed this position until "a young man of a rich and noble family" was determined in the regiment. He was the most brilliant lucky man, who was always fabulously lucky in everything. At first, he tried to win the friendship and favor of Silvio, but, not having succeeded in this, moved away from him without regret. The primacy of Silvio was shaken, and he began to hate this favorite of fortune. Once, at a ball with a Polish landowner, they quarreled, and Silvio received a slap in the face from his enemy. At dawn there was a duel, to which the offender Silvio appeared with a cap full of ripe cherries. By lot, he got the first shot, firing it and shooting through Silvio's cap, he calmly stood at the muzzle of his pistol and enjoyed eating cherries with pleasure, spitting out the bones, which sometimes reached his opponent. His indifference and equanimity infuriated Silvio, and he refused to shoot. His opponent said indifferently that Silvio would have the right to use his shot whenever he pleased. Soon Silvio retired and retired to this place, but not a day passed that he did not dream of revenge. And finally, his time has come. He is informed that "a famous person will soon enter into a legal marriage with a young and beautiful girl." And Silvio decided to see if he would accept death with such indifference before his wedding, as he once waited for her behind the cherries! Friends said goodbye, and Silvio left. A few years later, circumstances forced the officer to retire and settle in his poor village, where he was dying of boredom, until Count B *** came to the neighboring estate with his young wife. The narrator goes to visit them. The count and countess enchanted him with their secular appeal. On the wall of the living room, the narrator's attention is drawn to a picture shot through by "two bullets stuck one into the other." He praised the successful shot and said that he knew in his life a man whose skill in shooting was truly amazing. When asked by the count what the name of this shooter was, the narrator named Silvio. At this name, the count and countess were embarrassed. The count asks if Silvio told his friend about a strange story, and the narrator guesses that the count is the very old offender of his friend. It turns out that this story had a continuation, and the shot through picture is a kind of monument to their last meeting. It happened five years ago in this very house where the count and countess spent their honeymoon. One day, the count was informed that a certain person was waiting for him, who did not want to give his name. Entering the living room, the count found Silvio there, whom he did not immediately recognize and who reminded him of the shot left behind him and said that he had come to unload his pistol. The Countess could come in any minute. The count was nervous and in a hurry, Silvio hesitated, and finally forced the count to draw lots again. And again the count got the first shot. Against all rules, he shot and shot through the picture hanging on the wall. At that moment, the frightened countess ran in. Her husband began to assure her that they were just joking with an old friend. But what happened was not too much of a joke. The countess was on the verge of fainting, and the enraged count shouted to Silvio to shoot, but Silvio replied that he would not do this, that he saw the main thing - the fear and confusion of the count, and that was enough for him. The rest is a matter of conscience of the count himself. He turned and walked towards the exit, but he stopped at the very door and, almost without aiming, fired and hit exactly in the place shot by the count in the picture. The narrator did not meet Silvio again, but heard that he died participating in the uprising of the Greeks led by Alexander Ypsilanti. METHELIn 1811, Gavrila Gavrilovich R. lived on his estate with his wife and daughter Masha. He was hospitable, and many enjoyed his hospitality, and some came for Marya Gavrilovna. But Marya Gavrilovna was in love with a poor army warrant officer named Vladimir, who was on vacation in his village next door. Young lovers, believing that the will of their parents hinders their happiness, decided to do without a blessing, that is, to get married in secret, and then throw themselves at the feet of their parents, who, of course, will be touched by the constancy of their children, forgive and bless them. This plan belonged to Vladimir, but Marya Gavrilovna finally succumbed to his persuasion to flee. A sleigh was supposed to come for her to take her to the neighboring village of Zhadrino, in which it was decided to get married and where Vladimir should already have been waiting for her. On the evening appointed for the escape, Marya Gavrilovna was in great agitation, refused supper, citing a headache, and went to her room early. At the appointed time, she went out into the garden. On the road, Vladimir's coachman was waiting for her with a sleigh. A blizzard was raging outside. Vladimir himself spent the whole day in trouble: he needed to persuade the priest, as well as find witnesses. Having settled these matters, he, driving himself in a small one-horse sleigh, went to Zhadrino, but as soon as he left the outskirts, a snowstorm arose, due to which Vladimir lost his way and wandered all night in search of a road. At dawn he had just reached Zhadrin and found the church locked. And Marya Gavrilovna in the morning, as if nothing had happened, left her room and calmly answered her parents' questions about her well-being, but in the evening she became very feverish. In delirium she repeated the name of Vladimir, spoke about her secret, but her words were so incoherent that the mother did not understand anything, except that the daughter was in love with the neighboring landowner and that love must have been the cause of the illness. And the parents decided to give Masha for Vladimir. Vladimir answered the invitation with a chaotic and unintelligible letter, in which he wrote that his feet would not be in their house, and asked them to forget about him. A few days later he left for the army. This happened in 1812, and after a while his name was published among those who distinguished themselves and were wounded near Borodino. Ethanovity saddened Masha, and soon Gavrila Gavrilovich died, leaving her as his heiress. Suitors circled around her, but she seemed to be faithful to Vladimir, who died in Moscow from wounds. "Meanwhile, the war with glory was over." The regiments were returning from abroad. In the estate of Marya Gavrilovna, a wounded hussar colonel Burmin appeared, who came on vacation to his estate, which was nearby. Marya Gavrilovna and Burmin felt that they liked each other, but something kept each from taking a decisive step. One day Burmin came for a visit and found Marya Gavrilovna in the garden. He announced to Marya Gavrilovna that he loved her, but could not become her husband, since he was already married, but did not know who his wife was, where she was and whether she was alive. And he told her an amazing story, how at the beginning of 1812 he was going from vacation to the regiment and during a heavy snowstorm he lost his way. Seeing a light in the distance, he went towards it and ran into an open church, near which a sleigh was standing and people were walking impatiently. They acted as if they were waiting for him. A young lady was sitting in the church, with whom Burmin was placed in front of the lectern. They were driven by unforgivable frivolity. When the wedding ceremony was over, the young people were offered to kiss, and the girl, looking at Burmin, with a cry of "not him, not him" fell unconscious. Burmin freely left the church and left. And now he does not know what happened to his wife, what her name is, and does not even know where the wedding took place. The servant who was with him at that time has died, so there is no way to find this woman. “My God, my God!” said Marya Gavrilovna, seizing his hand, “so it was you! And you don’t recognize me? Burmin turned pale... and threw himself at her feet..." UNDERTAKERUndertaker Adrian Prokhorov moves from Basmannaya Street to Nikitskaya Street to a house he has chosen for a long time, but he does not feel joy, as the novelty frightens him a little. But soon order is established in the new dwelling, a sign is attached above the gate, Adrian sits down at the window and orders the samovar to be served. While drinking tea, he plunged into a sad thought, as he was naturally of a gloomy disposition. The worries of life confused him. The main concern was that the heirs of the rich merchant Tryukhina, who was dying on Razgulay, would remember him at the last minute, and not agree with the nearest contractor. While Adrian was indulging in these reflections, a neighbor, a German craftsman, paid a visit to him. He called himself the shoemaker Gottlieb Schulz, announced that he lived across the street, and invited Adrian to his place the next day on the occasion of his silver wedding. Accepting the invitation, Adrian offered Schultz tea. The neighbors chatted and quickly became friends. At noon the next day, Adrian and his two daughters went to visit the shoemaker. Friends of Gottlieb Schulz, German craftsmen with their wives, gathered in the house. The feast began, the host proclaimed the health of his wife Louise, and then the health of his guests. Everyone drank a lot, the fun became noisier, when suddenly one of the guests, a fat baker, offered to drink to the health of those for whom they work. And all the guests began to bow to each other, for all were each other's clients: the tailor, the shoemaker, the baker... The baker Yurko offered Adrian to drink to the health of his dead. There was general laughter, which offended the undertaker. We parted late. Adrian returned home drunk and angry. It seemed to him that the incident was a deliberate mockery of the Germans over his craft, which he considered no worse than others, because the undertaker is not the brother of the executioner. Adrian even decided that he would invite not his new acquaintances to the housewarming party, but those for whom he works. In response to this, his worker suggested that he cross himself. But Adrian liked the idea. They woke Adriyan still dark, as the clerk of the merchant, Tryukhina, jumped up with the message that she had died that night. Adrian went to Razgulay, troubles and negotiations began with the relatives of the deceased. Having finished his business, he went home on foot in the evening. Approaching the house, he noticed that someone opened his gate and entered it. While Adrian was wondering who it could be, another person approached. His face seemed to Adrian. acquaintances. Entering the house, the undertaker saw that the room was full of the dead, illuminated by the moon shining through the window. With horror, the undertaker recognized them as his former clients. They greeted him, and one of them even tried to hug Adrian, but Prokhorov pushed him away, he fell and crumbled. The rest of the guests surrounded him with threats, and Adrian fell and fainted. Opening his eyes in the morning, Adrian remembered yesterday's events. The worker said that the neighbors had come in to inquire about his health, but she did not wake him up. Adrian asked if they had come from the deceased Tryukhina, but the worker was surprised at the words about the death of the merchant's wife and said that the undertaker, as he returned from the shoemaker drunk and fell asleep, and slept until that very minute. It was only then that the undertaker realized that all the terrible events that had frightened him so much had happened in a dream, and he ordered the samovar to be set up and the daughters to be called. STATION OFFICERThere are no people more unfortunate than stationmasters, for travelers certainly blame the stationmasters for all their troubles and seek to take out their anger on them about bad roads, unbearable weather, bad horses, and the like. And meanwhile, the caretakers are for the most part meek and unrequited people, "real martyrs of the fourteenth grade, protected by their rank only from beatings, and even then not always." The caretaker's life is full of worries and troubles, he does not see gratitude from anyone, on the contrary, he hears threats and screams and feels the pushes of angry guests. Meanwhile, "one can learn a lot of interesting and instructive things from their conversations." In 1816, the narrator happened to pass through the *** province, and on the way he was caught in the rain. At the station he hurried to change his clothes and pour himself some tea. The samovar was put on and the table was set by the caretaker's daughter, a girl of fourteen years old named Dunya, who struck the narrator with her beauty. While Dunya was busy, the traveler examined the decoration of the hut. On the wall he noticed pictures depicting the story of the prodigal son, geraniums on the windows, in the room there was a bed behind a colorful curtain. The traveler invited Samson Vyrin - that was the name of the caretaker - and his daughters to share a meal with him, and a relaxed atmosphere arose, conducive to sympathy. The horses had already been brought in, but the traveler still did not want to part with his new acquaintances. Several years passed, and again he had a chance to go along this road. He looked forward to meeting old friends. "Entering the room", he recognized the former situation, but "everything around showed dilapidation and neglect." Dunya was not in the house either. The aged caretaker was gloomy and taciturn, only a glass of punch stirred him, and the traveler heard the sad story of Dunya's disappearance. It happened three years ago. A young officer arrived at the station, who was in a hurry and was angry that the horses were not being served for a long time, but when he saw Dunya, he softened and even stayed for supper. When the horses arrived, the officer suddenly felt very unwell. The doctor who arrived found that he had a fever and prescribed complete rest. On the third day, the officer was already healthy and was about to leave. The day was Sunday, and he offered Dunya to take her to the church. The father allowed his daughter to go, not assuming anything bad, but nevertheless he was seized with anxiety, and he ran to the church. Mass was already over, the prayers dispersed, and from the words of the deacon, the caretaker learned that Dunya was not in the church. The coachman who returned in the evening, carrying the officer, said that Dunya had gone with him to the next station. The caretaker realized that the officer's illness was feigned, and he himself fell ill with a high fever. Having recovered, Samson begged for leave and went on foot to Petersburg, where, as he knew from the road, Captain Minsky was going. In St. Petersburg, he found Minsky and appeared to him. Minsky did not immediately recognize him, but upon learning, he began to assure Samson that he loved Dunya, would never leave her and would make her happy. He gave the caretaker money and escorted him out into the street. Samson really wanted to see his daughter again. The case helped him. At Liteinaya he noticed Minsky in a smart droshky, which had stopped at the entrance of a three-story building. Minsky entered the house, and the caretaker learned from a conversation with the coachman that Dunya lives here, and entered the entrance. Once in the apartment, through the open door of the room he saw Minsky and his Dunya, beautifully dressed and vaguely looking at Minsky. Noticing her father, Dunya screamed and fell unconscious on the carpet. Enraged, Minsky pushed the old man onto the stairs, and he went home. And now for the third year he knows nothing about Dunya and is afraid that her fate is the same as the fate of many young fools. After some time, the narrator again happened to pass through these places. The station no longer existed, and Samson "died a year ago." The boy, the son of a brewer who settled in Samson's hut, accompanied the narrator to Samson's grave and said that in the summer a beautiful lady with three barchats came and lay for a long time on the caretaker's grave, and the good lady gave him a nickel in silver. YOUNG PEASANT WOMANIn one of the remote provinces, on his Tugilov estate, lives a retired guardsman Ivan Petrovich Berestov, who has long been a widow and never travels anywhere. He takes care of the household and considers himself "the smartest man in the whole neighborhood," although he does not read anything except the Senate Gazette. Neighbors love him, although they consider him proud. Only his closest neighbor, Grigory Ivanovich Muromsky, does not get along with him. Muromsky started a house and household in the English manner on his estate Priluchino, while the conservative Berestov does not like innovations and criticizes his neighbor's Anglomania. Berestov's son, Alexei, having finished his course at the university, comes to the village to his father. The county ladies are interested in him, and most of all - the daughter of Murom Liza, but Alexei remained cold to signs of attention, and everyone explained this by his secret love. Liza's confidante, the serf girl Nastya, goes to Tugilovo to visit her acquaintances, the yards of the Berestovs, and Liza asks her to take a good look at the young Berestov. Returning home, Nastya tells the young lady how the young Berestov played with the yard girls in the burners and how he kissed each time he was caught, how good he is, stately and blush. Lisa is seized by the desire to see Alexei Berestov, but it is simply impossible to do this, and Lisa comes up with the idea to dress up as a peasant woman. The very next day, she proceeds to implement the plan, orders to sew a peasant dress for herself and, having tried on the outfit, finds that it suits her very much. At dawn the next day, Liza, dressed in peasant attire, leaves the house and heads towards Tugilov. In the grove, a setter dog rushes at her barking, a young hunter came to the rescue and recalls the dog and calms the girl. Liza plays her role perfectly, the young man volunteers to see her off and calls himself the young Berestov's valet, but Liza recognizes Alexei himself in him and convicts him. She pretends to be Akulina, the daughter of the blacksmith of Priluchinsky. Alexei Berestov really likes the sharp-witted peasant woman, he wants to see her again and is going to visit her blacksmith father. The prospect of being caught frightens Lisa, and she invites the young man to meet the next day at the same place. Returning home, Lisa almost repents that she made a rash promise to Berestov, but the fear that a determined young man will come to the blacksmith and find his daughter Akulina, a fat and pockmarked girl, is even more frightening. Inspired by a new acquaintance and Alex. Before the appointed time, he arrives at the meeting place and looks forward to Akulina, who appears in a depressed state and tries to convince Alexei that the acquaintance should be stopped. But Alexei, fascinated by the peasant woman, does not want this. Lisa takes his word that he will not look for her in the village and seek other meetings with her, except for those that she herself appoints. Their meetings continue for two months, until one circumstance almost destroyed this idyll. Having gone out for a ride, Muromsky meets old Berestov, hunting in these places. Thrown off by a runaway horse, Muromsky finds himself in Berestov's house. The fathers of the young people parted in mutual sympathy and with Berestov's promise to visit the Muromskys with Alexei. Upon learning of this, Lisa is dismayed, but together with Nastya, she develops a plan that, in her opinion, should save her from exposure. Having taken a promise from her father not to be surprised at anything, Liza goes out to the guests heavily bleached and frown, ridiculously combed and extravagantly dressed. Alexei does not recognize the simple and natural Akulina in this cutesy young lady. The next day, Lisa rushes to the rendezvous point. She can’t wait to find out what impression the Priluchinsky young lady made on Alexei. But Aleksey says that the young lady, compared to her, is a freak of a freak. Meanwhile, the acquaintance of the old men Berestov and Muromsky develops into friendship, and they decide to marry the children. Alexey meets his father's message about this with a heartbeat. A romantic dream arises in his soul about marrying a simple peasant woman. He goes to the Muromskys to decisively explain himself to them. Entering the house, he meets Lizaveta Grigorievna and believes that this is his Akulina. The misunderstanding is resolved to everyone's satisfaction. E. A. Beznosov Dubrovsky Roman (1832, publ. 1841) The rich and noble master Kiri-la Petrovich Troekurov lives in his estate Pokrovskoye. Knowing his tough temper, all the neighbors are afraid of him, except for the poor landowner Andrei Gavrilovich Dubrovsky, a retired lieutenant of the guard and former colleague of Troekurov. Both are widows. Dubrovsky has a son, Vladimir, who works in St. Petersburg, and Troekurov has a daughter, Masha, who lives with her father, and Troekurov often talks about his desire to marry his children. An unexpected quarrel quarrels friends, and Dubrovsky's proud and independent behavior alienates them even more from each other. The autocratic and omnipotent Troekurov, in order to vent his irritation, decides to deprive the Dubrovsky estate and orders the assessor Shabashkin to find a "legal" way to this lawlessness. The judge's chimps fulfill Troekurov's wish, and Dubrovsky is summoned to the Zemstvo judge to decide the case. In the judicial session, in the presence of litigants, a decision is read, executed by legal incidents, according to which the estate of Dubrovsky Kistenevka becomes the property of Troekurov, and a fit of insanity happens with Dubrovsky. Dubrovsky's health is deteriorating, and the serf old woman Yegorovna, who followed him, writes a letter to Vladimir Dubrovsky in St. Petersburg with a notification of what had happened. Having received the letter, Vladimir Dubrovsky takes a vacation and goes home. The dear coachman tells him about the circumstances of the case. At home, he finds a sick and decrepit father. Andrei Gavrilovich Dubrovsky is slowly dying. Troekurov, tormented by conscience, goes to make peace with Dubrovsky, who, at the sight of the enemy, is paralyzed. Vladimir orders to tell Troekurov to get out, and at that moment old Dubrovsky dies. After Dubrovsky’s funeral, judicial officials and a police officer come to Kistenevka to bring Troekurov into ownership. Peasants refuse to obey and want to crack down on officials. Dubrovsky stops them. At night, in the house, Dubrovsky finds the blacksmith Arkhip, who decided to kill the clerks, and dissuades him from this intention. He decides to leave the estate and orders all people to be taken out to set fire to the house. He sends Arkhip to unlock the doors so that the officials can leave the house, but Arkhip violates the master's order and locks the door. Dubrovsky sets fire to the house and quickly leaves the yard, and in the fire that has begun, the clerks die. Dubrovsky is suspected of arson and murder of officials. Troekurov sends a report to the governor, and a new case is started. But here another event diverts the attention of everyone from Dubrovsky: robbers appeared in the province, who robbed all the landowners of the province, but did not touch only the possessions of Troekurov. Everyone is sure that the leader of the robbers is Dubrovsky. For his illegitimate son Sasha, Troekurov writes a French teacher from Moscow, Monsieur Deforge, who is greatly impressed by the beauty of the seventeen-year-old Marya Kirilovna Troekurova, but she does not pay any attention to the hired teacher. Deforge is put to the test by being pushed into a room with a hungry bear (a common joke with guests at Troyekurov's house). The unabashed teacher kills the beast. His determination and courage make a great impression on Masha. Between them there is a friendly rapprochement, which becomes a source of love. On the day of the temple feast, guests come to Troekurov's house. At dinner, they talk about Dubrovsky. One of the guests, a landowner named Anton Pafnutich Spitsyn, confesses that he once gave false evidence in court against Dubrovsky in favor of Kirila Petrovich. One lady reports that Dubrovsky dined with her a week ago, and tells the story that her the clerk, sent to the post office with a letter and 2000 rubles for her son, a guards officer, returned and said that he had been robbed by Dubrovsky, but was convicted of lying by a man who came to visit her and identified himself as a former colleague of her late husband. The summoned clerk says that Dubrovsky really stopped him on the way to the post office, but, having read the mother's letter to his son, he did not rob. The money was found in the chest of the clerk. The lady believes that the person who pretended to be a friend of her husband was Dubrovsky himself. But according to her descriptions, she had a man about 35 years old, and Troekurov knows for sure that Dubrovsky is 23 years old. This fact is also confirmed by the new police officer who is dining at Troekurov's. The holiday in Troekurov's house ends with a ball, where the teacher also dances. After dinner, Anton Pafnutich, who has a large amount of money with him, expresses a desire to spend the night in the same room with Deforge, since he already knows about the courage of the Frenchman and hopes for his protection in the event of an attack by robbers. The teacher agrees to the request of Anton Pafnutich. At night, the landowner feels that someone is trying to take money from him, hidden in a bag on his chest. Opening his eyes, he sees that Deforge is standing over him with a pistol. The teacher informs Anton Pafnutich that he is Dubrovsky. How did Dubrovsky get into Troekurov's house under the guise of a teacher? At the post station, he met a Frenchman on his way to Troekurov, gave him 10 rubles, and in return received the teacher's papers. With these documents, he came to Troekurov and settled in a house where everyone fell in love with him and did not suspect who he really was. Finding himself in the same room with a man whom, not without reason, he could consider his enemy, Dubrovsky could not resist the temptation to take revenge. In the morning, Spitsyn leaves Troekurov's house without saying a word about the night's incident. Soon the rest of the guests left. Life in Pokrovsky flows as usual. Marya Kirilovna feels love for Deforge and is annoyed with herself. Desforges treats her respectfully, and this assuages her pride. But one day, Deforge furtively hands her a note in which he asks for a date. At the appointed time, Masha arrives at the appointed place, and Deforge informs her that he is forced to leave soon, but before that he must tell her something important. Suddenly, he reveals to Masha who he really is. Calming the frightened Masha, he says that he has forgiven her father. That it was she who saved Kirila Petrovich, that the house in which Marya Kirilovna lives is sacred to him. During Dubrovsky's confessions, a low whistle is heard. Dubrovsky asks Masha to give him a promise that in case of misfortune she will resort to his help, and disappears. Returning to the house, Masha finds an alarm there, and her father informs her that Deforge, according to the police officer who arrived, is none other than Dubrovsky. The disappearance of the teacher confirms the truth of these words. The following summer, Prince Vereisky returns from foreign lands to his estate Arbatov, located 30 versts from Pokrovsky. He pays a visit to Troekurov, and Masha amazes him with her beauty. Troekurov and his daughter pay a return visit. Vereisky gives them a wonderful reception. Masha sits in her room and embroiders. A hand reaches out through the open window and puts a letter on her hoop, but at this time Masha is called to her father. She hides the letter and goes. She finds Vereisky with her father, and Kirila Petrovich informs her that the prince is wooing her. Masha freezes in surprise and turns pale, but her father does not pay attention to her tears. In her room, Masha thinks with horror about marriage with Vereisky and believes that it is better to marry Dubrovsky. She suddenly remembers the letter and finds only one phrase in it: "In the evening at 10 o'clock in the same place." During a night meeting, Dubrovsky persuades Masha to resort to his patronage. Masha hopes to touch her father's heart with prayers and requests. But if he turns out to be inexorable and forces her to marry, she invites Dubrovsky to come for her and promises to become his wife. In parting, Dubrovsky gives Masha a ring and says that if trouble happens, it will be enough for her to lower the ring into the hollow of the specified tree, then he will know what to do. A wedding is being prepared, and Masha decides to act. She writes a letter to Vereisky, begging him to give up her hand. But it backfires. Upon learning of Masha's letter, Kirila Petrovich, furious, schedules the wedding for the next day. Masha with tears asks him not to pass her off as Vereisky, but Kirila Petrovich is implacable, and then Masha declares that she will resort to Dubrovsky's protection. Having locked Masha, Kirila Petrovich leaves, ordering her not to let her out of the room. Sasha comes to the aid of Marya Kirilovna. Masha instructs him to take the ring to the hollow. Sasha fulfills her order, but some ragged boy who sees this tries to take possession of the ring. A fight breaks out between the boys, a gardener comes to Sasha's aid, and the boy is taken to the manor's yard. Suddenly they meet Kirila Petrovich, and Sasha, under threat, tells him about the assignment that his sister gave him. Kirila Petrovich guesses about Masha's relations with Dubrovsky. He orders the captured boy to be locked up and sends for the police officer. The police officer and Troekurov agree on something and let the boy go. He runs to Kistenevka, and from there secretly sneaks into the Kistenevskaya grove. Preparations for the wedding are underway in Troyekurov's house. Masha is taken to the church, where her fiancé is waiting for her. The wedding begins. Masha's hopes for the appearance of Dubrovsky evaporate. The young people are driving to Arbatovo, when suddenly, on a country road, the carriage is surrounded by armed men, and a man in a half-mask opens the doors. He tells Masha that she is free. Hearing that it was Dubrovsky, the prince shoots and wounds him. They seize the prince and intend to kill him, but Dubrovsky does not order him to be touched. Dubrovsky again tells Masha that she is free, but Masha replies that it is too late. Due to pain and excitement, Dubrovsky loses consciousness, and accomplices take him away. In the forest, a military fortification of a band of robbers, behind a small rampart - several huts. An old woman comes out of one hut and asks the guard, who is singing a robber song, to shut up, because the master is resting. Dubrovsky lies in the hut. All of a sudden, the camp is in turmoil. The robbers under the command of Dubrovsky occupy certain places for each. The guards who came running report that there are soldiers in the forest. A battle ensues, in which the victory is on the side of the robbers. A few days later, Dubrovsky gathers his associates and announces his intention to leave them. Dubrovsky disappears. Rumor has it that he fled abroad. E. L. Beznosov The Queen of Spades Tale (1833) "Once we were playing cards with Narumov, a horse guard." After the game, Tomsky told the amazing story of his grandmother, who knows the secret of three cards, allegedly revealed to her by the famous Saint Germain, which will certainly win if you bet on them in a row. After discussing this story, the players went home. This story seemed implausible to everyone, including Hermann, a young officer who never played, but, without looking up, followed the game until the morning. Tomsky's grandmother, the old countess, is sitting in her dressing room, surrounded by maids. Here, behind the hoop, is her pupil. Tomsky enters, he starts small talk with the countess, but quickly leaves. Lizaveta Ivanovna, the pupil of the countess, left alone, looks out the window and sees a young officer, whose appearance makes her blush. She is distracted from this occupation by the countess, who gives the most contradictory orders and at the same time demands their immediate execution. Lizanka's life in the house of a wayward and selfish old woman is unbearable. She is to blame for literally everything that annoys the Countess. Endless nit-picking and whims irritated the proud girl, who was looking forward to her deliverer. That is why the appearance of a young officer, whom she had seen for several days standing in the street and looking at her window, made her blush. This young man was none other than Hermann. He was a man of strong passions and a fiery imagination, whom only firmness of character saved from the delusions of youth. Tomsky's anecdote inflamed his imagination, and he wanted to know the secret of the three cards. This desire became an obsession, which involuntarily led him to the house of the old countess, in one of the windows of which he noticed Lizavega Ivanovna. This moment became fatal. Hermann begins to show signs of attention to Lisa in order to penetrate the countess's house. He secretly gives her a letter with a declaration of love. Lisa answers. Hermann in a new letter demands a meeting. He writes to Lizaveta Ivanovna every day and finally gets his way: Liza makes an appointment with him at the house at the time when her hostess is at the ball, and explains how to get into the house unnoticed. Barely waiting for the appointed time, Hermann enters the house and sneaks into the countess's office. After waiting for the countess to return, Hermann goes to her bedroom. He begins to beg the countess to reveal the secret of the three cards to him; seeing the resistance of the old woman, he begins to demand, turns to threats, and finally takes out a pistol. Seeing the gun, the old woman falls in fear from her chair and dies. Returning with the countess from the ball, Lizaveta Ivanovna is afraid to meet Hermann in her room and even feels some relief when no one is in it. She indulges in reflections, when Hermann suddenly enters and announces the death of the old woman. Lisa learns that it is not her love that is Hermann's goal and that she has become the unwitting culprit in the death of the countess. Remorse torments her. At dawn, Hermann leaves the Countess's house. Three days later, Hermann is present at the funeral of the Countess. At parting with the deceased, it seemed to him that the old woman looked at him mockingly. He spends the day in frustrated feelings, drinking a lot of wine and falling asleep soundly at home. Waking up late at night, he hears someone enter his room and recognizes the old countess. She reveals to him the secret of three cards, three, seven and ace, and demands that he marry Lizaveta Ivanovna, after which she disappears. The three, seven and ace haunted Hermann's imagination. Unable to resist the temptation, he goes to the company of the famous player Chekalinsky and bets a huge amount on the top three. His card wins. The next day, he bet on the seven, and won again. The next evening, Hermann is again at the table. He bet a card, but instead of the expected ace in his hand was the queen of spades. It seems to him that the lady narrowed her eyes and grinned ... The image on the map strikes him with its resemblance to the old countess. Hermann has gone mad. Lizaveta Ivanovna got married. E. A. Beznosov Captain's daughter Roman (1836) The novel is based on the memoirs of the fifty-year-old nobleman Pyotr Andreevich Grinev, written by him during the reign of Emperor Alexander and dedicated to the "Pugachevshchina", in which the seventeen-year-old officer Pyotr Grinev, due to a "strange chain of circumstances," took an involuntary part. Pyotr Andreevich recalls with slight irony his childhood, the childhood of a noble undergrowth. His father Andrey Petrovich Grinev in his youth "served under Count Minich and retired as prime minister in 17 .... Since then he lived in his Simbirsk village, where he married the girl Avdotya Vasilievna Yu., the daughter of a poor local nobleman." There were nine children in the Grinev family, but all Petrusha's brothers and sisters "died in infancy." “Mother was still me, a belly,” Grinev recalls, “as I was already enrolled in the Semenovsky regiment as a sergeant.” From the age of five, Petrusha has been looked after by the stirrup Savelyich, "for his sober behavior" granted him uncles. "Under his supervision, in the twelfth year, I learned Russian literacy and could very sensibly judge the properties of a greyhound male." Then a teacher appeared - the Frenchman Beaupre, who did not understand the "meaning of this word", since in his own country he was a hairdresser, and in Prussia - a soldier. Young Grinev and the Frenchman Beaupré quickly got along, and although Beaupré was contractually obliged to teach Petrusha "in French, German and all sciences," he preferred to soon learn from his student "to speak Russian." Grinev's upbringing ends with the expulsion of Beaupre, convicted of debauchery, drunkenness and neglect of the duties of a teacher. Until the age of sixteen, Grinev lives "undersized, chasing pigeons and playing leapfrog with yard boys." In the seventeenth year, the father decides to send his son to the service, but not to St. Petersburg, but to the army "to smell gunpowder" and "pull the strap." He sends him to Orenburg, instructing him to serve faithfully "to whom you swear", and to remember the proverb: "take care of the dress again, and honor from youth." All the "brilliant hopes" of young Grinev for a cheerful life in St. Petersburg collapsed, ahead of him was "boredom in the deaf and distant side." Approaching Orenburg, Grinev and Savelich fell into a snowstorm. A random person who met on the road leads a wagon lost in a snowstorm to the litter. While the wagon was “quietly moving” towards the dwelling, Pyotr Andreevich had a terrible dream in which the fifty-year-old Grinev sees something prophetic, connecting it with the “strange circumstances” of his later life. A man with a black beard lies in the bed of Grinev's father, and mother, calling him Andrei Petrovich and "a planted father," wants Petrusha to "kiss his hand" and ask for blessings. A man swings an ax, the room is filled with dead bodies; Grinev stumbles over them, slips in bloody puddles, but his "terrible man" "calls affectionately", saying: "Do not be afraid, come under my blessing." In gratitude for the rescue, Grinev gives the “counselor”, dressed too lightly, his hare coat and brings a glass of wine, for which he thanks him with a low bow: “Thank you, your honor! God reward you for your virtue.” The appearance of the “counselor” seemed “wonderful” to Grinev: “He was about forty years old, of average height, thin and broad-shouldered. Gray hair showed in his black beard; lively big eyes ran around. His face had a rather pleasant expression, but picaresque.” The Belogorsk fortress, where Grinev was sent to serve from Orenburg, meets the young man not with formidable bastions, towers and ramparts, but turns out to be a village surrounded by a wooden fence. Instead of a brave garrison - disabled people who do not know where the left and where the right side is, instead of deadly artillery - an old cannon clogged with garbage. The commandant of the fortress, Ivan Kuzmich Mironov, is an officer "of soldiers' children", an uneducated man, but an honest and kind one. His wife, Vasilisa Egorovna, manages him completely and looks at the affairs of the service as if they were her own business. Soon Grinev becomes "native" to the Mironovs, and he himself "invisibly <...> became attached to a good family." In the daughter of the Mironovs, Masha, Grinev "found a prudent and sensitive girl." The service does not burden Grinev, he became interested in reading books, practicing translations and writing poetry. At first, he becomes close to Lieutenant Shvabrin, the only person in the fortress who is close to Grinev in terms of education, age and occupation. But soon they quarrel - Shvabrin mockingly criticized the love "song" written by Grinev, and also allowed himself dirty hints about the "custom and custom" of Masha Mironova, to whom this song was dedicated. Later, in a conversation with Masha, Grinev will find out the reasons for the stubborn slander with which Shvabrin pursued her: the lieutenant wooed her, but was refused. "I do not like Alexei Ivanovich. He is very disgusting to me," Masha admits to Grinev. The quarrel is resolved by a duel and wounding Grinev. Masha takes care of the wounded Grinev. Young people confess to each other "in a heartfelt inclination," and Grinev writes a letter to the priest, "begging for a parental blessing." But Masha is a dowry. The Mironovs "only have one girl Palashka," while the Grinevs have three hundred souls of peasants. The father forbids Grinev to marry and promises to transfer him from the Belogorsk fortress "somewhere far away" so that the "nonsense" will pass. After this letter, life became unbearable for Grinev, he falls into gloomy thought, seeks solitude. "I was afraid either to go crazy, or to fall into debauchery." And only "unexpected incidents," writes Grinev, "which had an important influence on my whole life, suddenly gave my soul a strong and good shock." At the beginning of October 1773, the commandant of the fortress received a secret message about the Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev, who, posing as "the late Emperor Peter III", "gathered a villainous gang, caused an uproar in the villages of Yaitsk, and already took and ruined several fortresses." The commandant was asked to "take appropriate measures to repulse the aforementioned villain and impostor." Soon everyone was talking about Pugachev. A Bashkirian with "outrageous sheets" was captured in the fortress. But it was not possible to interrogate him - the Bashkir's tongue was torn out. From day to day, the inhabitants of the Belogorsk fortress expect an attack by Pugachev, The rebels appear unexpectedly - the Mironovs did not even have time to send Masha to Orenburg. At the first attack, the fortress was taken. Residents greet the Pugachevites with bread and salt. The prisoners, among whom was Grinev, are taken to the square to swear allegiance to Pugachev. The first to die on the gallows is the commandant, who refused to swear allegiance to the "thief and impostor." Vasilisa Yegorovna falls dead under the blow of a saber. Death on the gallows awaits Grinev, but Pugachev pardons him. A little later, Grinev learns from Savelich "the reason for mercy" - the ataman of the robbers turned out to be the tramp who received from him, Grinev, a hare sheepskin coat. In the evening, Grinev was invited to the "great sovereign". “I pardoned you for your virtue,” Pugachev says to Grinev, “<…> Do you promise to serve me with diligence?” But Grinev is a "natural nobleman" and "swears allegiance to the empress". He cannot even promise Pugachev not to serve against him. "My head is in your power," he says to Pugachev, "let me go - thank you, execute me - God will judge you." Grinev's sincerity amazes Pugachev, and he releases the officer "on all four sides." Grinev decides to go to Orenburg for help - after all, Masha remained in the fortress in a strong fever, whom the priest passed off as her niece. He is especially worried that Shvabrin, who swore allegiance to Pugachev, was appointed commandant of the fortress. But in Orenburg, Grinev was denied help, and a few days later the rebel troops surrounded the city. Long days of siege dragged on. Soon, by chance, a letter from Masha falls into Grinev's hands, from which he learns that Shvabrin is forcing her to marry him, threatening otherwise to extradite her to the Pugachevites. Again, Grinev turns to the military commandant for help, and is again refused. Grinev and Savelich leave for the Belogorsk fortress, but they are captured by the rebels near Berdskaya Sloboda. And again, providence brings Grinev and Pugachev together, giving the officer a chance to fulfill his intention: having learned from Grinev the essence of the matter on which he is going to the Belogorsk fortress, Pugachev himself decides to free the orphan and punish the offender. On the way to the fortress, a confidential conversation takes place between Pugachev and Grinev. Pugachev is clearly aware of his doom, expecting betrayal, first of all, on the part of his comrades, he knows that he will not expect "the grace of the empress" either. For Pugachev, as for an eagle from a Kalmyk fairy tale, which he tells Grinev with "wild inspiration", "rather than eating carrion for three hundred years, it is better to drink living blood once; and then what God will give!" Grinev draws a different moral conclusion from the tale, which surprises Pugacheva: "To live by murder and robbery means for me to peck at carrion." In the Belogorsk fortress, Grinev, with the help of Pugachev, frees Masha. And although the enraged Shvabrin reveals the deception to Pugachev, he is full of generosity: "Execute, execute like this, favor, favor like that: such is my custom." Grinev and Pugachev part "friendly". Grinev sends Masha as a bride to his parents, while he remains in the army out of "duty of honor". War "with robbers and savages" is "boring and petty." Grinev's observations are filled with bitterness: "God forbid to see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless." The end of the military campaign coincides with the arrest of Grinev. Appearing before the court, he is calm in his confidence that he can be justified, but Shvabrin slanders him, exposing Grinev as a spy sent from Pugachev to Orenburg. Grinev is convicted, shame awaits him, exile to Siberia for an eternal settlement. Grinev is saved from shame and exile by Masha, who goes to the queen to "beg for mercy." Walking through the garden of Tsarskoye Selo, Masha met a middle-aged lady. In this lady, everything "involuntarily attracted the heart and inspired confidence." Having learned who Masha was, she offered her help, and Masha sincerely told the lady the whole story. The lady turned out to be the empress, who pardoned Grinev in the same way that Pugachev had pardoned both Masha and Grinev in his time. M. N. Serbul Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky (1800-1844) eda Poem (1824, publ. 1826) The action of the poem takes place in Finland around 1807-1808. In the spring, at sunset, two people are talking in front of the hut: a young Finn, "kind Eda" with "golden hair" and "pale blue eyes" and a Russian, "young hussar", a guest in her house. They are surrounded by majestic pictures: mountains, waterfalls, a pine forest: "Is not the world of old lying / <…> the ruins are gloomy?" The hussar assures the girl that she looks like his beloved sister, left at home, and asks Eda for sisterly love. Eda listens to him trustingly; when the hussar presses her hand to his heart, she tries to get angry, but cannot: "A clear gaiety shone / In her infantile eyes." Eda answers the hussar that she sees his love and for a long time answers him with love: "Isn't it always / Am I in a hurry to please you?" - reminds that she gave him a ring, that every morning she brings flowers, that she shares his joy and sadness. Ede was told that men are treacherous: "You, perhaps, will destroy me." Here the hussar, reassuring Eda, kisses her for the first time with a studied art: "How he controlled himself!" This kiss deprives Eda of his usual nonchalance. Addressing his heroine, the poet says: "On your pink stones / Spring playfully lightened up, / And the moss is bright green on them <…> With its softness it is terrible / You are a magical spring ..." The former simple and friendly relations with the hussar, when she played with him and rejoiced at cheap gifts, are no longer possible: the girl almost never talks to him in public, but she does not take her eyes off him, and in private "is full of disastrous passion, / Her very mouth / Turns to his kisses, "and then suffers from repentance and cries. Eda's stern father, fearing that the hussar will seduce and abandon her, warns: "The slut is not my daughter." The next evening, Eda reads the Bible in her little room, remembering with "habitual melancholy" the lost "pureness of heart." A hussar-"cunning" with a gloomy face appears, sits down, crossing his arms over his chest, and says that he is ready to part with Eda, in obedience to duty and not wanting to bring father's wrath on his daughter. The separation would surely kill him. Finally, the hussar asks for one night meeting in her room. Eda vaguely feels the insincerity of the seducer and, clutching the Bible to her chest, exclaims at first: "Leave me, evil spirit!" - but soon yields: "Do I own myself! / And what do I know!" In the evening, the girl hesitates and still locks the door. Having curled her hair and undressed, she thinks about falling asleep, but she cannot, reproaches herself for her "willfulness" and finally unlocks the door; the hussars are already waiting outside the door. "Alas! This night he got / He desired victory..." In the morning, the heroine, amazed by what happened, cries and does not listen to the oaths of the hussar. Soon, however, she forgives the seducer and no longer parted with him: "she follows him, like a doe tame, / Walks everywhere." During peaceful dates, the heroine is haunted by premonitions: she understands that the hussar will soon leave her. Eda tries not to annoy the hussar with her longing, but her "dreary love" and tenderness are already weighing him down. To the delight of the hussar, the Russian-Swedish war begins, and the regiment sets out on a campaign. Parting with Eda, the hussar is ashamed to look at her; she is silent, does not cry, "dead in face, dead in soul." It's winter in Finland. Withered from grief, Eda awaits death: "When, when will you sweep away, blizzard, / From the face of the earth is my light trace?" The poem ends with a description of Eda's abandoned grave. G. V. Zykova Ball Poem (1828) The poem begins with a description of a Moscow ball. The guests have gathered, elderly ladies in magnificent dresses sit near the walls and look at the crowd with "dumb attention". Grandees in ribbons and stars sit at the cards and sometimes come to look at the dancers. Young beauties whirl, "The hussar twists his mustache, / The writer primly sharpens." Suddenly everyone was confused; questions rained down. Princess Nina suddenly left the ball. "Twisting merrily in a quadrille, / Suddenly dead! - What is the reason? / Oh, my God! Tell me, prince, / Tell me, what about Princess Nina, / Your wife?" - "God knows," the prince, busy with his Boston, answers with marital indifference. The poet answers instead of the prince. The answer is the poem. The black-eyed beauty Princess Nina is much slandered, and not without reason: until recently her house was filled with red tape and pretty young men, seductive relationships followed one another; Nina seems to be incapable of true love: "She has the heat of a drunken Bacchante, / The heat of fever is not the heat of love." In her lovers she sees not themselves, but the "wayward face" created in her dreams; the charm wears off and she leaves them cold and without regret. But recently, Nina's life has changed: "the messenger of fate appeared to her." Arseniy has recently returned from foreign lands. It does not have the pampered beauty of ordinary visitors to Nina's house; there are traces of hard experience on his face, "gloomy carelessness" in his eyes, not a smile, but a grin on his lips. In conversations, Arseny reveals the knowledge of people, his jokes are sly and sharp, he clearly judges art; he is restrained and outwardly cold, but it is clear that he is capable of experiencing strong feelings. Sufficiently experienced, Arseny does not immediately succumb to the charm of Nina, although she uses all the means known to her to attract him; finally, the "almighty moment" brings them closer. Nina is "full of the bliss of a new life"; but Arseny, two or three days later, is again the same as before: stern, dull and absent-minded. All Nina's attempts to entertain him are useless. Finally, she demands an explanation: "Tell me, what is your contempt for?" Nina is afraid that Arseny is repelled by the thought of her turbulent past; The memories are heavy for her too. She asks Arseny to run away with her - at least to Italy, which he loves so much - and there, in obscurity and tranquility, spend the rest of his life. Arseny is silent, and Nina cannot but notice the "stubborn coldness" of his soul; desperate Nina cries and calls her unhappy love a punishment from above for sins. Here, with assurances of love, Arseny calms Nina for a while. The next evening, the lovers sit peacefully at Nina's house; Nina is dozing, Arseniy, thoughtfully, casually draws something on a business card and suddenly exclaims: "How similar!" Nina is sure that Arseniy painted her portrait; looks - and sees a woman who does not look like her at all: "a cutesy girl / With sweet stupidity in her eyes, / In shaggy curls, like a lapdog, / With a sleepy smile on her lips!" At first, Nina proudly declares that she does not believe that such a person could be a rival for her; but jealousy torments her: her face is deathly pale and covered with a cold sweat, she hardly breathes, her lips turn blue, and for a "long moment" she almost loses the power of speech. Finally, Nina begs Arseny to tell her everything, admits that jealousy is killing her, and says, among other things, that she has a poison ring - a talisman of the East. Arseny takes Nina by the hand and tells that he had a bride, Olga, blue-eyed and curly; he grew up with her. After the engagement, Arseny brought his friend into Olga's house and soon became jealous of him; Olga replies to Arseniy's reproaches with "children's laughter"; enraged Arseny leaves her, starts a quarrel with an opponent, they shoot, Arseny is seriously wounded. Having recovered, Arseniy goes abroad. For the first time, he was able to console himself, according to him, only with Nina. Nina does not answer anything to Arseny's confession; You can only see that she is exhausted. A few more weeks passed in spats and "unfortunate" reconciliations. One day - Arseny had not been with Nina for several days - Nina was brought a letter, in which Arseny said goodbye to her: he met Olga and realized that his jealousy was "wrong and ridiculous." Nina does not leave and does not receive anyone, refuses food and is "immovable, dumb, / Sits and from one place / Does not take her eyes off." Suddenly her husband comes to her: embarrassed by Nina's strange behavior, he reproaches her for her "quirks" and invites her to a ball, where, by the way, there should be young people - Arseny and Olga. “Strangely coming to life,” Nina agrees, takes up long-forgotten outfits and, seeing how she has grown ugly, decides to blush for the first time in order to prevent her young rival from triumphing over her. However, she did not have the strength to endure the ball: she became ill, and she leaves for home. Deep night. In Nina's bedroom, a lamp is faintly burning in front of the icon. "All around is a deep, dead dream!" The princess sits "immovable", in a ball gown. Nina's old nanny appears, adjusts the lamp, "and the light is unexpected and alive / Suddenly illuminates the whole peace." Having prayed, the nanny is about to leave, suddenly notices Nina and begins to pity and reproach her: "And what's wrong with your fate? <...> You forgot God ..." Kissing Nina's hand in parting, the nanny feels that she is "ice-cold", glancing in the face, he sees: “There is a hasty death move on her: / Her eyes are standing, and her mouth is foaming ...” Nina fulfilled her promise to Arseny and poisoned herself. The poem ends with a satirical description of a magnificent funeral: one carriage after another arrives at the prince's house; the important silence of the crowd is replaced by a noisy conversation, and the widower himself is soon engaged in a "hot theological debate" with some hypocrite. Nina is buried peacefully, as a Christian: the world did not know about her suicide. The poet, who dined with her on Thursdays, deprived of dinners, honored her memory with poems; they were printed in the Ladies' Magazine. G. V. Zykova Gypsy Poem (1831, revised 1842) The action of the "story" (as the author calls "Gypsy") takes place in Moscow. Drunken guests disperse early on a summer morning. The owner, Yeletskoy, with a "obese eye" looks over the traces of "violent revelry" in his once magnificent, but neglected manor house. Opening the window, Yeletskoy "with spiritual enmity" looks at the "magnificent capital" rising from sleep; everything in his life is connected with Moscow, but he is more alien to it than anyone else. Yeletskoy was orphaned in his youth. Social life soon seemed to him boring and stupid, and he "healed in the open" "between the brawlers and rake." In Yeletsky's revelry there was more "violence of thought" than cordial depravity; the sooner he restored general opinion against him. Having squandered abroad, Yeletsky settled in Moscow and took a gypsy woman into his house; this finally destroyed his connection with the light. One day during the holy week, during the festivities near Novinsky (a detailed description of the fair follows), Yeletskoy meets a beautiful and chaste girl, and she reminded him of the "vision" of "his picky spring." Yeletsky learns that she is a girl from a society prejudiced against him. Without introducing herself to Vera, Yeletskaya, "loving her suffering," constantly tries to see her - on walks and in the theater. On Tverskoy Boulevard, he picks up the glove she has dropped, alarming the girl's imagination. But the "doubtful happiness / of these instant, poor meetings" was interrupted by autumn bad weather and winter. Vera must be in one famous masquerade, where Eletskaya goes with hope. The guests are "tormented by the demon of hoaxes", but no one, except Yeletsky, lacks the imagination for hoaxes: Yeletsky intrigues Vera, having managed to find out about her those little things "in which fatal secrets / Young girls see." In a conversation with Vera, Eletskaya calls himself a "spirit" that always accompanies Vera, and recalls that summer evening on Tverskoy, when dusk allowed him to assume the form of a mortal. Already leaving the hall, Yeletskaya, obeying Vera's insistent request, removes the mask. At this moment, a "different face" is shown at the ball, eyes flashing angrily and threatening Vera. The next morning, Yeletsky is unusually restless and joyful. Suddenly, he notices the anguish and anger of his girlfriend, the gypsy Sarah, and asks about the reason. Sarah declares that she knows about Yeletsky's love for the "noble young lady", reproaches Yeletsky. Yeletskoy reminds her that when they got together, they promised not to hamper each other's freedom, Sarah complains about the fate of the gypsies: "We were born for insults! / To amuse other people's whims / To live on, we must." Eletskoy tries to console her: he, rejected by the world, in this he himself looks like a gypsy, and the stronger his connection with Sarah. Meanwhile, relations with Sarah have long ceased to satisfy Yeletsky: she is bored in conversations with him, yawns, interrupts Yeletsky with a "side joke", etc. True, not understanding Yeletsky's "unintelligible speeches", the language of "educated feeling", the gypsy still understands their "voice" "vaguely touches" them and becomes attached to Yeletsky more and more - while he grows colder towards her. Eletskoy often meets with Vera at balls and soon, encouraged by her attention, he openly tells her about his love. Vera, who has seen Sarah at the masquerade, asks Yeletsky about her. Yeletskoy explains to Vera his rapprochement with the gypsy as a mistake: "I was not friendly with her! / I'm not needed for her soul - / I need another for mine." Vera does not answer Yeletsky, but his words are very important to her. Capable of strong passions and falling in love for the first time, she is happy with Yeletsky's love, "well-off in soul" and does not suspect about the approaching "deadly thunderstorm". Lent is approaching, when Yeletskaya will no longer be able to see Vera in theaters and at balls; the thought of the impending separation is hard for both, although Vera tries, but unsuccessfully, to hide her feelings. Yeletskaya decides to immediately marry Vera. To explain, Eletskaya chooses the time when Vera is left alone at home. The unexpected arrival of the hero frightens the girl; she drives him away; he accuses her of coquetry. This reproach disarms Vera; she advises Yeletsky to ask her uncle, who replaced her father, for her hand in marriage. Yeletskoy assures her that the strict old man will not agree to marry her off to a person with such a bad reputation; the only way out is to run away and get married without the consent of relatives. Faith cannot decide on this at once; Eletskoy assures that separation will kill him, threatens that he will interrupt his acquaintance with Vera; finally she agrees. Yeletsky returns home cheerful, but at the threshold his mood changes: he remembered Sarah. He thought everything over in advance: in order not to offend Vera by a new meeting with Sarah, he would leave Moscow that very night and get married in a distant village. Sarah and her love - "prudent", corrupt - Eletsky is not sorry. And suddenly "a reproach arose in his soul" ... One evening, Sarah is particularly ill. An old gypsy brought her a love potion. Yeletsky comes and tells her that he is getting married, that they must part today and that he will ensure her future. Sarah answers him with apparent calmness, refuses "hateful favors" and asks for the last time to drink to her health. Sarah's calmness pleasantly surprises Yeletsky, he is again amiable and cheerful and drinks to the bottom. Sarah becomes more frank: she doubts Yeletsky's happy family life - "You will throw up a decent life" - and finally admits that she hopes to regain his love. Yeletskoy is surprised; the gypsy woman asks why the bride is better than her, complains that Yeletsky tortured her: “Is this what you got me? / Eyes went out from tears; / Face withered, chest withered; / I just didn’t die!” Here Yeletsky says that he is ill - Sarah decides that this is a love potion, triumphs and curses Vera, hugs Yeletsky - and finally notices that he is dead. Vera waited in vain for Yeletsky on the street at night. After that, she left Moscow and returned only two years later, cold to everything; it is either faithful to the memory of the past, indifferent to the present, or repents of its frivolity. Sarah has gone mad and lives in a camp; consciousness seems to return to her only when she sings with a gypsy choir. G. V. Zykova Alexander Fomich Veltman (1800-1870) Wanderer Roman travel (1831-1832) A literary journey is two-dimensional in nature: it is both a real journey and a journey of the imagination (memories, reasoning, etc.). On the one hand, the material of the novel is the actual journey of officer A. Veltman through Bessarabia, Moldavia, Valechia, Dobruja during the years of almost ten years of service, and the Russian-Turkish campaign of 1828. But, on the other hand, the hero’s journey is an imaginary journey on the map : "take Europe by the ends and lay it on the table"; the author wanders, "not leaving his late sofa." The reader is not allowed to establish himself on any one point of view: he is told about the map and the divan, but the descriptions of the locality, customs, etc. so detailed that they are in no way consistent with an imaginary journey - for example, descriptions of the Gorodishte monastery, carved into the rock above the Dniester, Moldavian dances, birds on a rotten lake near Chisinau, festivities in Iasi (fashionable ladies' dresses, like feasts, are a favorite topic for free and emphatically incoherent romantic "chatter"). The author avoids talking about famous sights - he is afraid to be banal. According to the general principle of the stylistic "variegation" of the "Wanderer", the descriptions in it can also be poetic (especially often the emphatically "low" life is described in this way - for example, nags dragging a Viennese carriage (ch. 47), a conversation (in different languages!) in Bucharest hotel with servants and merchants (ch. 157), similar to an excerpt from a comedy, or emphatically dry, as a reference: “By the way, about the Prut River. Its waves are born in the Carpathian mountains, die in the Danube. In general, the width of the river is from 5 to 10 sazhen. The water is muddy from speed, but it is healthy and has the property of mineral fixing waters. The author is tormented by the consciousness that "everything has already been invented, everything has been said, everything has been written (ch. 171), therefore it is only possible to shuffle in one's own way - as in a kaleidoscope - invented by others before you." The "Wanderer" is divided into 3 parts, 45 "days", 325 chapters (samples of the shortest chapters: "CXLI: She is not there"; expressed in silence "(ch. 304); such "fractionality" allows you to suddenly move from one topic and intonation to another. In general, Veltman strongly emphasizes the impulsiveness, arbitrariness and even "accident" of his work, the fundamental incompleteness of the novel ("the title is torn off, there is no beginning" ); the difference between the draft and the draft is erased ("further erased"; "the example was here; but I erased half of the example and scraped the other. I didn’t like it in its usual way ..."). In novels, the narrative is often interrupted by insert novels; in The Wanderer, the main text, almost thoroughly ironic, is interrupted by dramatic poems written in very pathetic rhythmic prose - a poem about Ovid and the Emperor Augustus (ch. 290) and "Eskander"; Eskander is a freedom-loving hero: "I feel stuffy under the sky! <...> and the sky restricts my breathing; I would throw it off myself to breathe freely in the boundless space! .."; Eskander is blown by Jupiter himself ("Jupiter! <...> and you know envy <...> for the lucky one! .."); it is the love of the demonic maiden that destroys the hero. In addition, the game journey is interrupted by lyrical love poems; behind the defiantly incoherent chatter of the "Wanderer" hides the second plan of the novel: a dramatic story of the author's love for a married woman; this story must be restored by the reader bit by bit. In the third part of the lyrics in verse and prose, quite serious reasoning of the author about the meaning of life, happiness, and so on. they already noticeably push back the playful beginning, "The Wanderer" almost turns into a lyrical diary - and suddenly ends abruptly for the reader, at the whim of the author, interrupted almost in mid-sentence. G. V. Zykova Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky (1803-1869) Princess Mimi Tale (1834) All mysterious stories sometimes begin with a casual conversation, an accidentally thrown word, a fleeting meeting. Where could such a meeting be, if not at a ball? Princess Mimi had long disliked Baroness Dauertal. The princess was already thirty. She still could not get married, but continued to attend balls. She perfectly learned to slander, to inspire suspicion, to intrigue and, remaining invisible, to acquire some kind of power over others. Baroness Dauertal, on the contrary, was married for the second time. Her first husband died, and the second, a hoarse old baron, aroused pity in everyone and suspicions that his wife was only hiding behind him. However, the baron himself certainly believed his wife and did not doubt her affection. And no matter how the ladies in the world slandered about Eliza Dauertal, they still could not find out with whom she was having an affair. And the light left her alone... But not the princess. Mimi thought that the first husband of the baroness until his marriage was a fan of her, the princess. But then the lovebird Eliza appeared and bewitched him. It was impossible to forgive... So, one day, during a ball, after one of the dances, the princess asked the baroness briefly with whom exactly she was dancing. The baroness replied that her partner had once served with her brother. The question of the princess put her in a difficult position. Granitsky, the young man with whom she danced, was indeed a friend of her brother, or rather, her husband's brother. And her brother now lived in her house. And Granitsky - with her brother. He did not know anyone in the city, he constantly traveled with the baroness. Looking at this stately young man with thick black sideburns, who so often accompanied the baroness, it was easy to think that some kind of feeling connected them. In fact, Granitsky was long and hopelessly in love with Countess Lydia of Ripheus. He knew and fell in love with her as a girl, she reciprocated. But, as always happens, family calculations, material considerations intervened. Mother took Lydia to France and married her to the Count of Riphea. Having met again in St. Petersburg, the lovers remembered the past and decided to deceive the world. Now, during the ball, Lydia managed to warn Granitsky not to invite her to the dance more than once. That is why, when the baroness sought him out to introduce him to the dancer, Granitsky readily agreed. The baroness wanted to introduce him to Princess Mimi in order to relieve herself of her suspicion and earn gratitude. The calculation was not justified: the princess said she was unwell and rejected Granitsky's proposal. The embarrassed baroness had to leave. The princess really wanted to show that she did not want to dance only with Granitsky. Unfortunately, no one else invited her the whole evening. She returned home with plans for cruel revenge. Do not hasten to condemn the princess for them: it is better to condemn the depraved mores of society! The society that inspires the girl that her only goal is to get married, and if she cannot do it, despises her and mocks her. The next morning the princess woke up in a bad mood. At breakfast, she heard a lot of taunts from her mother, the old princess, who complained about the same thing, that her daughter did not get married, but continued to go to balls and that she, her mother, no longer had the strength to support Princess Mimi. And even before that, she almost quarreled with her younger sister Maria, who defended the Baroness. The quarrel promised to flare up in earnest, but guests and acquaintances began to arrive at the house. Little by little the conversation turned to the baroness and Granitsky. The guests agreed that the baron and the baroness looked strange together, and Eliza was behaving obscenely, dragging Granitsky around with her. Secular rumor has already tied together the names of Eliza and Granitsky, considering them lovers. Any action, any word only confirmed suspicions. Once the princess and the baroness met at the house of their mutual friends. There was also Granitsky, who spent the whole day unsuccessfully searching for the Countess of Ripheus. Soon Granitsky said that he had to go to the opera, and disappeared. The princess immediately decided that it was she who upset the next meeting of the baroness with her lover. But then a servant appeared and reported that the baroness's carriage had been served. Princess Mimi suspected something, but even she herself did not know what it was. She decided that she must certainly go with the baroness, and asked for it to get into the carriage with her under the pretext of a migraine. And now Mimi is walking around the yard, in a cloak, blown from all sides by the wind, which blinds and blows out the lanterns. She is supported by two footmen, helping her up the steps of the carriage. At this time, a man's hand sticks out of the carriage to help her sit down. Mimi rushed back and screamed - almost from joy! She finally found a clue! She told her sister Maria in a loud whisper that Granitsky was waiting for the baroness in the carriage. The baroness, who appeared after the princess, could not understand what had happened. At that moment the door opened and the baron entered. Yes, it was he who was waiting for his wife in the carriage. The cry of Princess Mimi, whom he thought was Eliza, made him get out of the carriage. If you think that everything was cleared up and Eliza was justified in the eyes of society, then you do not know him. For society, there is nothing more pleasant to accuse some woman of treason, believe in yourself and persecute her. Princess Mimi possessed some kind of magnetism - therefore those present could not believe their eyes. It was easier for them to think that this was a mirage, a devilish obsession, than that the princess was deceived, mistaking the old baron for Granitsky. Then a vague, essentially absurd idea was born that the baron played the role of godfather here. Gradually, everyone became convinced of the truth of this assumption. So much so that the young baron, Eliza's brother-in-law and the brother of the old baron, a friend of Granitsky, should have already listened to instructions from the Marquise de Créquy, his aunt. She found this acquaintance strange, reprehensible, and Granitsky himself, who did not serve anywhere, suspicious. She resolutely took the word from her nephew that for the sake of his brother he would put Granitsky out of the house. She told him about the cunning intrigue started by Granitsky with the baroness. At the same time that the Marquise was chastising her nephew, Gabriel Granitsky met Lydia in a small room behind a gleaming shop. Lydia came here for the last time to break the news: her husband had a second stroke, and the doctors declared him hopeless. Before the lovers opened the dawn of freedom, over them, it seemed, hovered the ghost of happiness. But the countess was tormented that for the sake of this happiness she had to step over the death of her friend. And she swore every minute care for her husband, the fulfillment of her marital duty to atone for her deceit and future happiness ... Returning home, the young Baron Dauertal waited impatiently for Granitsky. He was like in a dream and felt that he had to do something. He worried about his brother, whom he loved and respected, felt his resentment as his own. This was mixed with a desire to show off in front of his comrades, to show that he was no longer a child. He was accustomed to the fact that murder makes amends for all insults and all crimes. He did not guess to ask the court of a higher, true, independent of people's opinions. Yes, and how could he ask if his upbringing forgot to tell him about this trial, and life did not teach him to ask at all. Even the very language of the court was incomprehensible to the baron... Is it any wonder that the appearance of Granitsky led to an immediate quarrel, a quarrel - to an insult... And now recent friends are shooting... Granitsky is still trying to find out the reason for his comrade's unexpected anger. The error turned out to be completely ... But not one of them had the strength to refuse the duel. Opponents do not want each other to die, but are forced to pretend that they are fighting seriously ... "Let's try to scratch each other," the duelists decided and dispersed. And indeed: Granitsky's bullet scratched the baron's hand, but Granitsky fell down dead. Having learned about the duel, highly moral ladies immediately understood everything. All doubts were rejected, the guilty were found. False accusations put the baroness to bed - she never got up again. The young baron and two of his seconds were exiled for a duel. The Countess of Ripheus was left a widow. So tell me after that, what vices persecute society, if both the guilty and the innocent perish from this. Why are there people whose whole calling, all their pleasure is to sow disaster, to arouse in high souls an aversion to humanity. The society learned about the death of Baroness Dauertal from a young man who, despite the presence of Princess Mimi, accused society ladies of this crime. Princess Mimi objected to the impudent one: "It is not people who kill, but lawless passions." V. N. Grekov Sylph (From the Notes of a Prudent Man) Tale (1836) My friend Platon Mikhailovich decided to move to the village. He settled in the house of his late uncle and at first he was completely blissful. The mere sight of his uncle's huge rustic armchairs, in which it is quite possible to drown, his spleen almost passed. Frankly, I marveled reading these confessions. To imagine Platon Mikhailovich in a village attire, traveling around with visits to neighboring landowners - it was beyond my strength. Together with new friends, Platon Mikhailovich acquired a new philosophy. The neighbors liked him because he showed himself to be a kind fellow who thinks that it is better to know nothing than as much as our scientists, and that the most important thing is good digestion. Excessive thinking, as you know, harms this process. Two months later, Platon Mikhailovich became sad again. He inadvertently became convinced that ignorance is no salvation. Among the so-called simple, natural people, passions are also raging. It was sickening for him to watch how the whole mind of these practical people was spent on winning a wrong cause, getting a bribe, taking revenge on their enemy. Their most innocent occupations are card game, drunkenness, debauchery ... Bored with neighbors, Platon Mikhailovich locked himself in the house and did not order anyone to receive. His gaze turned to the old sealed cabinets left by his uncle. The steward said that uncle's books were there. After the death of my uncle, my aunt ordered that these cupboards be sealed and not touched again. With great difficulty, Platon Mikhailovich begged the old servant to open them. He refused, sighed and said that there would be a sin. However, he had to fulfill the master's order. Climbing up to the mezzanine, he drew back the wax seals, opened the doors, and Platon Mikhailovich discovered that he did not know his uncle at all. The cupboards were filled with the writings of Paracelsus, Arnold Villanova and other mystics, alchemists, and Kabbalists. Judging by the selection of books, the uncle's passion was alchemy and Kabbalah. I'm afraid Platon Mikhailovich also fell ill with this. He diligently began to read books about the first matter, about the soul of the sun, about stellar spirits. And not only read, but also told me in detail about it. Among other books, he came across one curious manuscript. What do you think it had in it? Neither more nor less - recipes for evocation of spirits. Another, perhaps, would have laughed at this, but Platon Mikhailovich was already captured by his thought. He placed a glass vessel with water and began to collect the sun's rays into it, as shown in the manuscript. He drank this water every day. He believed that in this way he enters into a relationship with the spirit of the sun, which opens his eyes to the world of the invisible and unknown. Further more. My friend decided to get engaged to the Sylph - and for this purpose he threw his turquoise ring into the water. After a long time, he noticed some movement in the ring. Plato saw how the ring crumbled and turned into small sparks ... Thin blue and gold threads filled the entire surface of the vase, gradually turning pale, disappearing and coloring the water in gold with blue tints. It was worth putting the vase back in place - as the ring again appeared at the bottom. My friend was convinced that what was hidden from the rest of the world was revealed to him, that he had witnessed the great mystery of nature and simply had to figure it out and announce it to people. During the experiments, Platon Mikhailovich completely forgot about his work. This matter was, although somewhat unexpected for Platon Mikhailovich, but quite understandable in his position and, I would even say, beneficial for his state of mind. At one of the neighbors, he met, among other things, his daughter Katya. For a long time, Platon Mikhailovich tried to get the girl to talk and overcome her natural shyness, which made her blush at every word addressed to her. Getting to know her better, he found out that Katenka (as he already called her in letters) not only has a natural mind and heart, but is also in love with him ... Her father hinted to Platon Mikhailovich that he was not averse to seeing him as his son-in-law and was ready in this case put an end to the thirty-year litigation for several thousand acres of forest, which constituted the main income of the peasants of Platon Mikhailovich. So he thought: should he marry this Katenka. He liked Katya, he found her an obedient and taciturn girl. In a word, he now asked my blessing rather than my advice. Of course, I resolutely wrote to Plato that I fully approve of his marriage, I rejoice for him and for Katya. I must say that sometimes attacks of activity are found on my friend. So it was at that time. He immediately galloped to the Rezhenskys, made a formal proposal and set the wedding day - immediately after the post. He was glad that he would do a good deed for the peasants, he was proud that he understood his bride better than her own father. Platon Mikhailovich, with his characteristic enthusiasm, already found in every word of Katenka a whole world of thoughts. I don't know if he was right, but I didn't dissuade him. His decision seemed final. And yet, I confess, I was somehow uneasy. Painfully strange letters I began to receive. I have already told how Platon Mikhailovich was convinced that his ring in a vase crumbles into separate sparks. Then he dreamed that the ring turned into a rose. Finally, he saw between the petals of the rose, among the stamens, a miniature creature - a woman who was barely noticeable to the eye. My friend was fascinated by her blond curls, her perfect forms and natural charms. All he did was watch her wonderful dream. That would be half the trouble. In the last letter, he announced that he was ceasing relations with the world and devoting himself entirely to the study of the wonderful world of the Sylph. In a short time I nevertheless received a letter, only not from Platon Mikhailovich, but from Gavrila Sofronovich Rezhensky, Katenka's father. The old man was terribly offended that Platon Mikhailovich suddenly stopped visiting him, it seemed that he had completely forgotten about the wedding. Finally, he learned that my friend had locked himself up, did not let anyone in, and all the food was served to him through the window of the door. Here Gavrila Sofronovitch became seriously worried. He remembered that uncle Platon Mikhailovich, when he lived in the house, was called a warlock. Although Gavrila Sofronovitch himself did not believe in the Black Book, when he heard that Platon Mikhailovich was examining a carafe of water all day long, he decided that my friend was ill. With this letter and with letters from Platon Mikhailovich himself, I went for advice to a doctor I knew. After listening to everything, the doctor positively assured me that Platon Mikhailovich had simply gone mad, and for a long time he explained to me how it had happened. I made up my mind and invited him to my friend. We found my friend in bed. He did not eat anything for several days, did not recognize us, did not answer our questions. There was a fire in his eyes. Next to him were sheets of paper. It was a record of his imaginary conversations with Sylphide. She called him with her, to her sunny, blooming, fragrant world. The deadly cold earthly world weighed on her, it caused her indescribable suffering. By joint efforts, we brought Platon Mikhailovich out of his stupor. First a bath, then a spoonful of potion, then a spoonful of broth, and all over again. Gradually, the patient developed an appetite, he began to recover. I tried to talk with Platon Mikhailovich about practical, positive things: about the state of the estate, about how to transfer peasants from quitrent to corvée. My friend listened to everything very attentively. He did not contradict, he ate and drank, but he did not take any part in anything. More successful were my conversations about our wild youth, several bottles of lafitte, which I took with me, and a bloody roast beef. Platon Mikhailovich became so strong that I even reminded him of the bride. He agreed with me. I galloped to my future father-in-law, settled the disputed matter, and dressed Plato himself in a uniform and finally waited for the wedding. A few months later I visited the young. Platon Mikhailovich was sitting in a dressing gown, with a pipe in his teeth. Katenka was pouring tea, the sun was shining, a pear, juicy and ripe, was looking in the window. Platon Mikhailovich seemed even delighted, but was generally silent. Seizing the moment when my wife left the room, I asked him: "Well, brother, are you unhappy?" I didn't expect a lengthy response or thanks. Yes, and what can I say? Yes, my friend just talked. But how strange was his tirade! He explained that I should be satisfied with the praise of uncles, aunts and other prudent people. “Katya loves me, the estate is arranged, incomes are collected regularly. Everyone will say that you gave me happiness - and that’s for sure. But not my happiness: you have the wrong number. Who knows, maybe I am an artist of such art, which does not exist yet. This is not poetry, not painting, not music <...>. I had to discover this art, but now I can’t anymore - and everything will freeze for a thousand years <...>. After all, you need to explain everything, put everything in parts ... ", - Platon Mikhailovich said. However, this was the last attack of his illness. Over time everything went back to normal. My friend took up the household and left the old nonsense. True, they say, he now drinks heavily - not only with neighbors, but also alone, and does not allow a single maid to pass. But it is, little things. But he is now a man, like everyone else. V. N. Grekov Princess Zizi Tale (1836, published 1839) Princess Zizi is treated with prejudice in society. Her name was often repeated in my guardian's living room. The aunt's companion, a poor widow Maria Ivanovna, told her story. Princess Zizi lived with her mother and older sister Lydia. The old princess was ill all the time, And the princess in her letters to Masha constantly complained of boredom. In the summer they still went to the Simonov Monastery, and in the winter - at least cry. The princess had one consolation - to read books. She read all of Karamzin, read "Clarissa", which her mother locked tightly in a closet, the entire "Bulletin of Europe" ... Most of all, she liked the wonderful poems of Zhukovsky and Pushkin. Meanwhile, the old princess accidentally met a young man, very pleasant and courteous. Vladimir Lukyanovich Gorodkov began to visit the house, even amused the princess, and she went with her daughters to Gostiny Dvor. But then the princess again had to suffer. Matushka constantly sent her away from the drawing-room under various pretexts, as soon as Gorodkov appeared. How bitter it was for the princess to sit upstairs on her mother's orders, while Gorodkov, merry and merry, occupied mother and Lydia. Finally, Zizi understood that her mother wanted Lidia, as the eldest, to marry earlier. And one more thing: that she herself had long and passionately fallen in love with Vladimir Lukyanovich. On the day of the engagement, the princess became ill, and even had to call Dr. A. Shortly after the wedding, her mother died, having taken a word from Zizi to take care of Lydia and her children. And so it happened. Zizi was in charge of all household chores. She took care of all the little things in life, of home comfort, of Gorodkov's conveniences. She managed the household and servants almost autocratically - her sister did not delve into this. But the house was in order, and Gorodkov was pleased with everything. In the evenings, he even gave an account to Zinaida in managing the estate. Day by day Zizi's attachment to Gorodkov increased. With a beating heart and with cold determination, Zizi went after the evening conversations to her room and threw herself on her bed. When Lydia's daughter was born, Zizi devoted herself to serving her niece. But somehow an old friend of Zizi, Maria Ivanovna, sent a letter to her from Kazan with her acquaintance Radetsky, who was going to Moscow. He was a decent young man, not bad-looking, not without a fortune, he wrote poetry and had a romantic character. Radetsky fell head over heels in love with Zinaida. He began to visit the house almost every day, talking with the princess for a long time and about everything. But somehow by chance Radetsky quarreled with Gorodkov, and he was refused a house. Whenever he arrived, there were no owners. Chance helped him: the princess went to church, and the servants, coaxed by fifty dollars, told him where to look for her. Radetzky did indeed find Zizi in a dimly lit church behind a pillar. She knelt down and prayed fervently. There were tears on her face. And it was hard to believe that this was only from piety alone. No, secret grief was expressed in it undoubtedly. The young man in love stopped the princess after the service, spoke to her and confessed his feelings. It seemed that the evening itself, quiet, serene, the last rays of the sun, illuminating the face of the princess, disposed to frankness. The princess thought about the young man's words, about his confession. Probably, deep down, she herself felt unhappy. The princess did not give a decisive answer, but promised to send a note to his house in a few hours. In less than half an hour, he received a letter with consent and a wish to marry as soon as possible. Radetzky already wanted to make arrangements for a wedding a little before the light, so that tomorrow he could marry. But suddenly a new letter arrives from the princess with apologies that she does not love him and cannot become his wife. Radetzky immediately left. But he suspected that the decision of the princess was not made without the participation of Gorodkov, whom she idolized, and he considered the evil genius of his beloved. It was like this. When the princess, pale and trembling, decided to announce to Lydia and her husband that she was getting married, her sister burst out laughing, and Gorodkov turned pale. After that, he came to Zinaida, as if to take care of her estate, her dowry. The princess began to refuse everything with fervor ... Gorodkov said with an effort that it would be indecent, that the princess herself would regret it ... and then a new affection would supplant the old ones ... This was a hint at the warm relations between Gorodkov and the princess that had been established recently. Gorodkov called her his only friend, Pashenka's real mother. To remember all this at the moment when she decided to get married, to leave this house, this man - the only one she loved - and had no right to love ... All this was beyond her strength. The next day in the morning she refused Radetzky. But here a new incident demanded all the strength and all the courage of the princess. Lydia was pregnant again. But she continued, despite the advice of doctors, to go to balls and dance. Finally she got sick. Doctors convened a council. Lydia threw it away, and her condition became very dangerous. She felt that she did not have long to live. Sometimes she asked Zinaida to become Gorodkov's wife after her death. Sometimes jealousy came over her, and she accused her husband and Zinaida of just waiting for her death. Meanwhile, in Kazan, Maria Ivanovna learned something about Gorodkov's secret intentions and about the current state of the estate of Zizi and Lydia. She sent to her friend the original letter from Gorodkov, from which it followed that he was selling the estate in parts, cheaply, just to get money in cash. He wants to get his own, separate - and at the same time use the second half of the estate belonging to Zizi ... In a word, he thinks about himself, and not about Lydia and not about his daughter ... Having learned about everything, the princess goes directly with a letter to the marshal of the nobility. Then, when Gorodkov was not at home, together with the leader and two witnesses, she appeared in the room of the dying Lydia. Lydia signed a will in which the leader was appointed executor and guardian to help Vladimir Lukyanovich, and the children, moreover, were handed over to Zinaida under her special care. The inevitable happened - Lydia died. Gorodkov forced Zinaida to move out of the house, then denigrated in the eyes of others. When the will was read, he stated that his wife owed him more than the estate was worth. He even produced loan letters, explaining that he was doing this only in order to save the estate for children from someone else's control ... And again everyone wept and sighed only about the treachery of the intriguer Zinaida. The guardian reproached the princess for making a fool of him. But Zinaida knew for sure that her sister could not take money from her husband: Vladimir Lukyanovich had nothing to give her. But she had no proof. She even gave the letter that opened her eyes to Gorodkov. The leader refused to do business. But Zinaida herself sued about the lack of money for Lydia's loan letters. She saw that Gorodkov got into a relationship with one immoral woman who pulled money out of him and forced him to get married. This process needed money, so she had to submit a second request for a division of the estate. And finally, the third - about the ruin made by Gorodkov on the estate. All means were exhausted, the princess had to publicly swear in the church the truth of her testimony ... But here Providence intervened again. Gorodkov was smashed by horses. After his death, the girl regained her rights over the estate and over the upbringing of her niece. V. N. Grekov Russian nights Novel (1844; 2nd ed. - 1862, publ. 1913) Night one. Night twoIt was already four o'clock in the morning when a crowd of young friends burst into Faust's room - either philosophers or playboys. It seemed to them that Faust knew everything. No wonder he surprised everyone with his manners and neglected secular decency and prejudice. Faust met his friends, as usual, unshaven, in an armchair, with a black cat in his hands. However, he refused to talk about the meaning of life and the purpose of a person at such a time. I had to continue the conversation the next midnight. Faust remembered the parable of the blind, deaf and dumb beggar who lost his gold. Searching in vain for it, the beggar returned home and lay down on his stone bed. And then the coin suddenly slipped out of his bosom and rolled down behind the stones. So we sometimes, Faust continued, are like this blind man, for not only do we not understand the world, but even each other, we do not distinguish truth from lies, the genius of an artist from a madman. Night threeThe world is full of eccentrics, each of which is able to tell an amazing story. On a hot day in Naples, a young man in an antique dealer's shop met a stranger in a powdered wig, in an old caftan, looking at architectural engravings. To get to know him, he advised him to look at the projects of the architect Piranesi: Cyclopean palaces, caves turned into castles, endless vaults, dungeons ... Seeing the book, the old man jumped back in horror: "Close, close this damned book!" This was the architect Piranesi. He created grandiose projects, but could not realize them and published only his drawings. But each volume, each drawing tormented and demanded to be embodied in buildings, not allowing the artist's soul to find peace. Piranesi asks the young man for ten million chervonets in order to connect Etna with Vesuvius with an arch. Pitying the madman, he gave him a gold piece. Piranesi sighed and decided to add it to the amount collected for the purchase of Mont Blanc ... night fourOne day the ghost of an acquaintance appeared to me - a respectable official who did neither good nor evil. But he rose to the rank of state adviser. When he died, they buried him coldly, buried him coldly and dispersed. But I continued to think about the deceased, and his ghost appeared before me, reproaching with tears of indifference and contempt. Like Chinese shadows on the wall, different episodes of his life appeared before me. Here he is a boy, in his father's house. But it is not his father who brings him up, but the servants, she teaches ignorance, debauchery, cruelty. Here the boy is pulled into a uniform, and now the light kills and corrupts his soul. A good companion should drink and play cards. A good husband should make a career. The greater the rank, the stronger the boredom and resentment - for oneself, for people, for life. Boredom and resentment brought the disease, the disease pulled death with it ... And now this terrible person is here. She closes my eyes, but opens my spiritual eyes so that the dying man may see the nakedness of his life... A ball is being held in the city. All the action is directed by the Kapellmeister. He seems to have collected everything that is strange in the works of glorious musicians. The grave voice of the French horns sounds, the laughter of the timpani laughing at your hopes. Here is Don Juan mocking Donna Anna. Here deceived Othello takes on the role of judge and executioner. All the tortures and torments merged into one scale, a dark cloud hanging over the orchestra… Bloody drops and tears dripped from it onto the parquet. The satin slippers of the beauties glided lightly across the floor, and some kind of madness subdued the dancers. Candles burn unevenly, shadows sway in a suffocating fog ... It seems that not people are dancing, but skeletons. In the morning, having heard the gospel, I went to the temple. The priest spoke of love, prayed for the fraternal unity of mankind... I rushed to awaken the hearts of the merry madmen, but the carriages had already passed the church. The crowded city was gradually emptying, the autumn storm drove everyone under the roofs. The city is a living, breathing heavily and even harder thinking monster. One sky was clear, menacing, motionless, but no one's gaze rose to it. Here, a carriage rolled down from the bridge, in which a young woman was sitting with her companion. She stopped in front of a brightly lit building. A long chant echoed through the street. Several torchbearers accompanied the coffin as it was slowly carried across the street. Strange meeting! Beauty looked out the window. At that moment, the wind bent and lifted the edge of the cover. The dead man chuckled wickedly. The beauty gasped - once this young man loved her and she answered him with spiritual awe and understood every movement of his soul ... But the general opinion put an insurmountable barrier between them, and the girl obeyed the light. Barely alive, she climbs the marble stairs through her strength, dances. But this senseless false music of the ball hurts her, resonates in her heart with the entreaty of a lost youth, a plea which she coldly rejected. But here is the noise, shouts at the entrance: "Water, water!" The water has already undermined the walls, smashed through the windows and poured into the hall... Something huge, black appeared in the gap... This is a black coffin, a symbol of inevitability... The open coffin rushes through the water, the waves drag the beauty behind it... The dead man raises his head, she touches the beauty's head and laughs without opening his mouth: "Hello, Liza! Prudent Liza!" Forcibly, Lisa woke up from a faint. The husband is angry that she ruined the ball and frightened everyone. He could not forgive in any way that, due to female coquetry, he had lost a big win. And now the times have come. The inhabitants of the cities fled to the fields to feed themselves. Fields became villages, villages became cities. Crafts, arts and religion disappeared. People felt like enemies. Suicides were classified as heroes. The laws forbade marriage. People killed each other, and no one defended those who were being killed. Everywhere the prophets of despair appeared, instilling hatred in rejected love, the numbness of death. Behind them came the Messiah of despair. His gaze was cold, his voice was loud, calling on people to experience the ecstasy of death together ... And when a young couple suddenly appeared from the ruins, asking to postpone the death of mankind, laughter answered her. It was a conventional sign - the Earth exploded. For the first time everlasting life repented... night fiveSeveral minds have tried to build a new society. The followers of Bentham found a deserted island and created there first a city, then a whole country - Bentamia, in order to realize the principle of public benefit. They believed that utility and morality were one and the same. Everyone worked. The boy at the age of twelve was already saving money, collecting capital. The girl was reading a treatise on the spinning mill. And everyone was happy until the population increased. Then there was no more land. At this time, settlements also arose on neighboring islands. The Benthams ruined their neighbors and seized their lands. But a dispute arose between the border cities and the inner cities: the first wanted to trade, the second to fight. No one knew how to reconcile his own advantage with the advantage of a neighbor. Disputes turned into rebellion, rebellion into rebellion. Then the prophet called out to the hardened people, asking them to look towards the altars of selfless love. No one heard him - and he cursed the city. A few days later, a volcanic eruption, a storm, an earthquake destroyed the city, leaving one lifeless stone. night sixA strange man visited a small house on the outskirts of Vienna in the spring of 1827. He was dressed in a black frock coat, his hair was disheveled, his eyes were burning, his tie was missing. He wanted to rent an apartment. It can be seen that he once studied music, because he drew attention to amateur musicians who gathered here to play Beethoven's last quartet. The stranger, however, did not hear the music, he only tilted his head in different directions, and tears flowed down his face. Only when the violinist struck a random note did the old man raise his head: he heard. The sounds that pierced the ears of those present gave him pleasure. Forcibly, the young girl who came with him managed to take him away. Beethoven left, unrecognised. He is very animated, says that he has just composed the best symphony - and wants to celebrate it. But Louise, who supports him, has nothing to give him - there is only enough money for bread, not even wine. Beethoven drinks water, mistaking it for wine. He promises to find new laws of harmony, to combine in one consonance all the tones of the chromatic scale. “For me, harmony sounds when the whole world turns into consonance,” Beethoven says to Louise. “Here it is! Here comes the Egmont symphony! I hear it. stronger, more harmonious! One of the courtiers regretted the death of Beethoven. But his voice was lost: the crowd listened to the conversation of two diplomats ... night sevenThe guests submitted to the art of the improviser Cipriano. He clothed the subject in a poetic form, developed a given theme. He simultaneously wrote a poem, dictated another, improvised a third. He recently acquired the ability to improvise. He was gifted by Dr. Segeliel. After all, Cipriano grew up in poverty and was very worried about what the world feels, but cannot express it. He wrote poems to order - but unsuccessfully. Cipriano thought illness was to blame for his failure. Segeliel treated everyone who turned to him, even if the disease was fatal. He did not take money for treatment, but set strange conditions: throw a large amount of money into the sea, break his house, leave his homeland. Those who refused to comply with these conditions soon died. Detractors accused him of numerous murders, but the court acquitted him. Segeliel agreed to help Cipriano and set the condition: "You will know everything every moment, see everything, understand everything." Cipriano agreed. Segeliel put his hand on the young man's heart and cast a spell. At that moment, Cipriano already felt, heard and understood all nature - as a dissector sees and feels the body of a young woman, touching it with a knife ... He wanted to drink a glass of water - and saw in it a myriad of ciliates. He lays down on the green grass and hears thousands of hammers... Cypriano and people, Cypriano and nature were divided by the abyss... Cypriano went mad. He fled from the fatherland, wandered. Finally, he entered as a jester to a certain steppe landowner. He walks in a frieze overcoat, belted with a red scarf, composes poetry in some language made up of all the languages of the world ... night eightSebastian Bach was brought up in the house of his older brother, the organist of Christopher's Ordruf church. He was a respected but somewhat stiff musician who lived the old way and raised his brother in the same way. Only at the confirmation in Eisenach did Sebastian hear the real organ for the first time. The music took over! He did not understand where he was, why, he did not hear the questions of the pastor, he answered inappropriately, listening to the unearthly melody. Christopher did not understand him and was very upset by his brother's frivolity. On the same day, Sebastian secretly entered the church in order to understand the structure of the organ. And then a vision visited him. He saw the pipes of the organ rising up, joining the gothic columns. It seemed as if light angels were floating in the clouds. Every sound was heard, and, however, only the whole became clear - a cherished melody in which religion and art merged ... Christopher did not believe his brother. Disappointed by his behavior, he fell ill and died. Sebastian became a student of the organ master Bandeler, a friend and relative of Christopher. Sebastian turned the keys, measured the pipes, bent the wire and constantly thought about his vision. And soon he became an assistant to another master - Albrecht from Lüneburg. Albrecht surprised everyone with his inventions. And now he came to Bandeler to report that he had invented a new organ, and the emperor had already ordered this instrument for him. Noticing the young man's abilities, Albrecht sent him to study with his daughter Magdalene. Finally, the teacher secured for him a place as a court violinist in Weimar. Before leaving, he married Magdalene. Sebastian knew only his art. In the morning he wrote, studied with his students, explaining harmony. He played with Venuses and sang along with Magdalene on the clavichord. Nothing could disturb his peace. Once, during the service, another voice joined the choir, resembling either a cry of suffering, or an exclamation of a merry crowd. Sebastian laughed at the singing of the Venetian Francesca, but Magdalena was carried away - both by singing and by the singer. She recognized the songs of her homeland. When Francesco left, Magdalena changed: she became withdrawn, stopped working and only asked her husband to compose a canzonetta. Unhappy love and worries about her husband brought her to the grave. The children comforted their father in grief. But he realized that half of his soul had died prematurely. In vain he tried to remember how Magdalene sang - he heard only the impure and seductive tune of the Italian. Night nineWhen the path of each of the described heroes was accomplished, they all appeared before the Judgment Seat. Everyone was condemned either for what they did to themselves or for what they did not do. Only Segeliel did not recognize the supreme authority over himself. The court demanded that the defendant appear before him, but only a distant voice from the abyss answered him: "There is no complete expression for me!" V. N. Grekov Alexander Ivanovich Polezhaev (1804 or 1805-1832) Sasha Poem (1825, publ. 1861) The poem is written in the first person. A student of Moscow University Sashka Polezhaev, a friend, is going to St. Petersburg to visit his uncle. Do you remember how Pushkin's hero also goes to his uncle at the beginning of the novel "Eugene Onegin"? It looks like it. He was born in a small village near Saransk. His first home teacher was a footman from his father's household. The child early learned to swear in Russian and French, to play the balalaika. When he was ten years old, his father sent him to study in Moscow. First boarding school, then university. Oh the university! We have lagged behind Europe: worthy people receive education there, while we have a lot of fools and cattle. Silly, wild motherland, when will you wake up and overthrow your executioners? But where is the hero now? Here he is, in a tavern having fun with beauties. Noise, singing, screams, decanters and glasses rattle, vodka, wine and beer flow like water. This is how Moscow students spend their time. So, that's all they can do? No, Sasha can speak French and German, and even composes poems in Russian. He is not inclined to mathematics, but he is ready to fight with swords with a dashing hussar. A desperate atheist, he cannot stand priests and does not believe in Jesus Christ. Rampant drunkard and tireless womanizer. We used to go with our whole company to the girls in one cheerful house in Maryina Grove, bully passers-by, pester pretty girls, everyone shied away from us ... No, let's go to Sretenka! Hey cabbie! And here is a familiar hangout. We broke the lock at the gate, we go, cursing. "I'm Tanya, and you're Anyuta!" Sasha says. We dance, we jump like a goat with the girls. And then we get lost. I remember there was a fight in such a brothel. The police intervened, there were more of them than us. Before that, Sashka had not shared one girl with someone, he was jealous of her, beat her hard, and now they grabbed him, his hands were tied. He calls for help, panting: "Here! I won't kill everyone here!" One of ours, the healthiest, came to the rescue: he scattered all the policemen. Let's celebrate our victory - get drunk and sing a dashing song. Fly, sadness and sorrow ... there and there! Dance, girls, and praise Sasha! And I, finishing the first chapter, I will say about him: well done! After all, Sasha had to go to St. Petersburg to his rich uncle: he was completely without money, he needed support. He drank his last glass of vodka at the outpost, entering the northern capital. Night, Neva. Monument to Peter I. Sad without Moscow friends and girls! Don't be sad, Sasha, it's a shame to lose heart like that, everything will work out. The uncle was angry at first, shouted at his nephew, but then softened, kindly, gave money: he was deeply touched by Sashka's "sincere" remorse. And he is glad: he began to revel again. He drinks vodka and goes to the girls. But not only that: the theater visits! And there he does not look like a dirty reveler-student, as in Moscow, but a capital dandy, bored and disappointed like the aforementioned Eugene Onegin. He has an excellent relationship with his uncle: Sasha managed to pretend to be a well-behaved and religious person who is interested in all sorts of high matters, art and so on. He used to have fun at his pleasure with beauties, and when he came home, he would tell his uncle that he had been to the Hermitage. Here is the scammer! Hey Sasha! I suppose you forgot your old friends? He became such an aristocrat ... Are you going back to Moscow? Come back, you're not going anywhere... And what? Somehow I was walking along the Kremlin garden, looking around, looking at the crowd, especially the ladies, and - oh, who do I see! Yes, it's Sasha! Are you, dear friend? We embraced, wept with great joy and, of course, went to the tavern. And there are all of ours! Sasha with money, treats. He said that his uncle sent him to the university for another year. Great, life back. It's funny to remember how one of ours got drunk, threw up himself and climbed to cuddle with Sasha - soiled his fashionable Petersburg suit; something made my friend happy! And he himself got drunk that day. And here is a familiar girl, tenderness begins ... I remember that we celebrated our happy meeting in the tavern until late at night, and the Kremlin garden was lit up with colorful lights. Friends, here I told you something about my Sasha. Maybe he will be showered with vicious curses, and along with me, who sang of his ugliness. But I despise ill-wishers, and if I find out anything about Sasha, I will certainly tell you. A. A. Ilyushin Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka Stories published by the beekeeper Rudy Pank (1831-1832) "Evenings ...", consisting of 8 stories, are divided into exactly 2 parts, and each is preceded by a preface by an imaginary publisher. In the first, describing his farm, he gives characteristics to some, especially colorful inhabitants of Dikanka, who go into the "beekeeper's shack" in the evenings and tell those outlandish stories, the diligent collector of which is Ruda Panko. Part oneSOROCHI FAIR This story begins with a description of the delightful luxuries of a summer day in Little Russia. Among the beauties of the August afternoon, carts filled with goods are moving, and pedestrians are moving to the fair in the town of Sorochinets. Behind one of the wagons, loaded not only with hemp and sacks of wheat (because on top of that, a black-browed maiden and her evil stepmother are sitting here), the owner, Solopy Cherevik, exhausted by the heat, wanders. As soon as he entered the bridge thrown over Psel, he attracted the attention of local lads, and one of them, "dressed more ostentatiously than the others", admiring the handsome Paraska, starts a squabble with an evil-speaking stepmother. However, having arrived at the godfather, the Cossack Tsybula, the travelers forget this adventure for a while, and Cherevik and his daughter soon set off for the fair. Here, pushing between the wagons, he learns that the fair has been assigned a "cursed place", they are afraid of the appearance of a red scroll, and there were sure signs of this. But no matter how concerned Cherevik is about the fate of his wheat, the sight of Paraska embracing the old lad returns him to "the former carelessness." However, the resourceful lad, calling himself Golopupenko's son and using his old friendship, leads Cherevik to the tent, and after several mugs the wedding is already agreed. However, when Cherevik returns home, his formidable wife does not approve of this turn of events, and Cherevik backs down. A certain gypsy, trading with the saddened Gritsko oxen, not quite disinterestedly undertakes to help him. Soon "a strange incident happened at the fair": a red scroll appeared, and many saw it. That is why Cherevik with his godfather and daughter, who were going to spend the night under the wagons, hurriedly return home in the company of frightened guests, and Khavronya Nikiforovna, his formidable concubine, who hitherto delighted the hospitality of her priest Afanasy Ivanovich, is forced to hide him on boards under the very ceiling among all household utensils. and sit at the common table like on pins and needles. At the request of Cherevik, the godfather tells the story of the red scroll - how the devil was expelled from hell for some fault, how he drank from grief, nesting in a barn under the mountain, drank everything he had in a tavern, and pawned his red scroll, threatening to come for her in a year. The greedy shopkeeper forgot about the deadline and sold a prominent scroll to some passing pan, and when the devil appeared, he pretended that he had never seen him before. The devil was gone, but the evening prayer of the tavern keeper was interrupted by pig snouts suddenly appearing in all the windows. Terrible pigs, "on legs as long as stilts," treated him with whips until he confessed to deception. However, the scrolls could not be returned: the gypsies robbed the pan on the way, sold the scroll to a repurchase, and she again brought it to the Sorochinsky Fair, but the trade did not work for her. Realizing that the matter was in the scroll, she threw it into the fire, but the scroll did not burn, and the repurchase slipped the "damn gift" into someone else's cart. The new owner got rid of the scroll only when, having crossed himself, chopped it into pieces, scattered it around and left. But since then, every year during the fair, the devil "with a pig's face" is looking for pieces of his scroll, and now only the left sleeve is missing from him. At this point in the story, which was repeatedly interrupted by strange sounds, a window was broken, "and a terrible pig's mug was exposed." Everything was mixed up in the hut: the priest "with thunder and crash" fell, the godfather crawled under the hem of his wife, and Cherevik, grabbing a pot instead of a hat, rushed out and soon fell exhausted in the middle of the road. In the morning, the fair, although it is full of terrible rumors about the red scroll, is still noisy, and Cherevik, who already in the morning came across the red cuff of the scroll, grumbling, leads the mare for sale. But, noticing that a piece of a red sleeve was tied to the bridle and rushing to run in horror, Cherevik, suddenly seized by the lads, is accused of stealing his own mare and, along with the godfather who turned up, who fled from the devilry he had imagined, was tied up and thrown on the straw into the barn. Here both godfathers, mourning their fate, are found by Golopupenkov's son. Having reprimanded Paraska to himself, he frees the slaves and sends Solopiy home, where not only the miraculously found mare, but also the buyers of her and wheat are waiting for him. And although the frantic stepmother tries to interfere with the merry wedding, soon everyone is dancing, and even the dilapidated old women, who, however, are not carried away by general joy, but only by hops. THE EVENING ON THE EVE OF IVAN KUPAL The true story told by the deacon of the *** church. Deacon Foma Grigoryevich had once told this story, and a certain "panich in a pea caftan" had already published it in a little book, but this retelling did not satisfy the author so much that he undertook to tell this story again, as he should, and a conscientious beekeeper - to accurately convey it words. The story heard by the deacon from his own grandfather (glorious in that he never lied in his life) and many of the details of which belonged to his grandfather's aunt, who at that time kept a tavern, happened about a hundred years before, in the place of Dikanka, which was then "the most poor farm." All sorts of people wandered around, many idle, and among them Basavriuk, "the devil in human form." He did not go to church on Bright Sunday either, but he gave gifts to the red girls that crushed them, biting them and evoking all sorts of horrors at night. Meanwhile, the Cossack Korzh lived in the village with a beautiful daughter, and he had a worker Petrus, nicknamed Bezrodny. Noticing once that young people love each other, old Korzh almost beat Petrus, and only the tears of the six-year-old Pidorka's brother Ivas saved the poor lad: Petrus was expelled. And soon some kind of Pole, “sheathed in gold,” got into the habit of Korzh, and now everything is going to the wedding. Pidorka sends Ivas to tell Peter that he would rather die than marry a Pole, and when the shocked Petrus fills his grief in a tavern, Basavriuk comes up to him and offers him untold riches for a trifle, for a fern flower. They agree to meet in the Bear's ravine, for only this one night, on the eve of Ivan Kupala, the fern blooms. At midnight they make their way through a marshy swamp, and Basavriuk points out to Petrus three hillocks, where there will be many different flowers, and only a fern should be plucked and held without looking back. Petro does everything as usual, although he is afraid that hundreds of hairy hands are reaching for the flower, and something is constantly moving behind him. But the flower is torn off, and on the stump appears motionless and blue, like a dead man, Basavriuk, coming to life only from a terrible whistle. He tells Petrus to obey the one who will stand before them in everything. Suddenly a hut on chicken legs appears, and a dog jumping out of it turns into a cat, and then into an ugly witch. She whispers something over the flower and tells Peter to drop it - the flower floats like a fireball in the darkness and falls to the ground in the distance. Here, at the request of the old woman, Petrus begins to dig and finds a chest, but laughter is heard behind him, and the chest goes into the ground, deeper and deeper. Having said that it is necessary to get human blood, the witch brings a child of six years old under a white sheet and demands to cut off his head. Petrus rips off the sheet from the child and, seeing little Ivas, rushes at the old woman and raises her hand. But Basavryuk mentioned Pidorka, and the witch stamped her foot, and everything that was in the ground under the place where they stood became visible. And the mind of Petrus was confused, "and innocent blood splashed into his eyes." Then a real Sabbath began, Petrus runs, everything around him seems to him as if in a red light, in his house he falls and sleeps for two days and two nights without waking up. Waking up, Petrus does not remember anything, even finding two bags of gold at his feet. He carries bags to Korzh, and he throws such a wedding that even the old people will not remember such a thing. One Ivas is not at that wedding, he was stolen by gypsies passing by. It's wonderful to Pidorka that he doesn't remember Petrus. the face of her little brother. But Petrus cannot remember something else important, and day after day he sits, remembering. no matter what healers Pidorka turned to - all to no avail. And the summer has passed, and autumn, and winter, - Petrus is terrible, and wild, and angry, and everything is tormented by his vain recollection. And the unfortunate Pidorka decides on the last resort - to bring a sorceress from the Bear's ravine, who knows how to cure all diseases - and brings her in the evening on the eve of Kupala. And looking closely, Petrus remembered everything, laughed and threw an ax at the old woman. And instead of the old woman, a child appeared, covered with a sheet. Pidorka recognizes Ivas, but, covered with blood, he lights up the hut, and Pidorka runs away in fear. When the people who came running down the door, there was no one in the hut, only a handful of ashes instead of Petrus, and broken shards in the bags. Pidorka goes on a pilgrimage to Kyiv, to the Lavra. Basavriuk soon appeared, but everyone shunned him (because they understood that he took on a human form in order to tear off treasures, and lured good fellows, since treasures are not given to unclean hands), and the deacon’s grandfather’s aunt, so on, leaves her former tavern on the Oposhnyanskaya road to get over to the village. That is why Basavryuk took out his anger on her and other good people for many years, so that even the deacons' father remembered his tricks. MAY NIGHT, OR DROWNED On a quiet and clear evening, when girls and lads gather in a circle and sing songs, the young Cossack Levko, the son of a village head, going up to one of the huts, calls the clear-eyed Hanna with a song. But the timid Hanna does not immediately come out, she is afraid of the envy of girls, and the audacity of lads, and maternal severity, and something else unclear. There was nothing for Levka to console the beauty: his father again pretended to be deaf when he talked about marriage. Sitting on the threshold of the hut, he asks Gunn about the house with the shuttered shutters, which is reflected in the dark water of the pond. Levko tells how the centurion who lived there with his daughter, "a clear lady", got married, but the stepmother did not like the lady, harassed her, tormented her and forced the centurion to drive her daughter out of the house. The lady rushed from the high bank into the water, became the head of the drowned women, and once dragged her stepmother-witch into the water, but she herself turned into a drowned woman and thus escaped punishment. And on the site of that house they are going to build Vinnitsa, for which the distiller has come today. Here Levko said goodbye to Ganna, hearing the returning lads. After the well-known description of the Ukrainian night, Kalenik, who has been pretty sloppy, bursts into the narrative and, cutting on what the light is worth a village head, with "indirect steps", not without the help of crafty maidens, is looking for his hut. Levko, having said goodbye to his comrades, returns and sees Hanna, talking about him, Levka, with someone indistinguishable in the darkness. The stranger scolds Levko, offering Hanna his more serious love. The unexpected appearance of mischievous lads and a clear moon reveals to the angry Levka that this stranger is his father. Frightening his head, he persuades the lads to teach him a lesson. The head himself (about whom it is known that he once accompanied Queen Catherine to the Crimea, which he likes to mention on occasion, is now crooked, stern, important and widowed, lives somewhat under the heel of his sister-in-law) is already talking in the hut with the distiller, when Kalenik stumbled , constantly scolding his head, falls asleep on the bench. Feeding the ever-increasing anger of the owner, a stone flies into the hut, breaking the glass, and the distiller, with an appropriate story about his mother-in-law, stops the curses boiling on the lips of the head. But the insulting words of the song outside the window force the head into action. The instigator in a black turned-out sheepskin coat is caught and thrown into a dark room, and the head with the distiller and the tenant are sent to the clerk, so that, having caught the brawlers, this very hour "make a resolution to them all." However, the clerk himself had already caught the same tomboy and put him in a barn. Disputing with each other the honor of this capture, the clerk and the head, first in the closet, and then in the barn, find a sister-in-law, whom they already want to burn, considering it a devil. When the new prisoner in the turned-out sheepskin coat turns out to be Kalenik, the head falls into a rage, equips the timid tenths without fail to catch the instigator, promising merciless reprisals for negligence. About this time Levko, in his black sheepskin coat and with his face smeared with soot, went up to the old house by the pond, struggling with the drowsiness that was taking over him. Looking at the reflection of the master's house, he notices that the window has opened in it, and there are no gloomy shutters at all. He sang a song, and the window that had been closed was opened again, and a clear lady appeared in it. Crying, she complains about her stepmother who has taken refuge and promises Levko a reward if he finds a witch among the drowned women. Levko looks at the girls leading round dances, they are all pale and transparent, but they start a game of crow, and the one who volunteered to be a crow seems to him not as bright as the others. And when she grabs the victim and anger flashes in her eyes, "Witch!" - says Levko, and the lady, laughing, gives him a note for his head. Here Levka, who has woken up, who still holds a piece of paper in his hand and curses his illiteracy, is grabbed by tenths with his head. Levko submits a note that turns out to be written by "commissar, retired lieutenant Kozma Dergach-Drishpanovsky" and contains, among the rebuke to the head, an order to marry Levko Makogonenok to Ganna Petrychenkova, "as well as to repair bridges along the high road" and other important assignments. To the questions of the stupefied head, Levko comes up with a story of a meeting with the commissar, who allegedly promised to come to the head for lunch. Encouraged by such an honor, the head promises Levka, in addition to the whip, a wedding tomorrow, starts his eternal stories about Tsarina Catherine, and Levko runs away to the famous hut and, having crossed the sleeping Hanna in the window, returns home, unlike the drunken Kalenik, who is still looking and cannot find your home. MISSING LETTER The true story told by the deacon of the *** church This story begins with Foma Grigorievich's complaints about those listeners who extort from him "something like a fearful little cossack", and then shiver under the covers all night. Then, however, he proceeds to the story of what happened to his grandfather, whom the noble hetman sent with some letter to the queen. Grandfather, having said goodbye to his wife and small children, was in Konotop the next morning, where a fair had taken place at that time. Grandfather, with a letter sewn into his hat, went to look for flint and tobacco, and got acquainted with a reveler-Cossack, and such a "booze started up" between them that grandfather soon forgot about his business. Having soon become bored with the fair, they set off further along with another reveler who had joined them. The Zaporozhian, regaling his friends with outlandish stories all evening, calmed down by night, became timid, and finally revealed that he had sold his soul to the unclean and that night was the time for reckoning. Grandfather promised not to sleep at night in order to help the Cossack. Everything was shrouded in darkness, and the travelers were forced to stop in the nearest tavern, where everything was already asleep. Both grandfather's fellow travelers soon fell asleep, so he had to carry the guard alone. Grandfather struggled with sleep as best he could: he looked at all the carts, and checked on the horses, and lit a cradle - but nothing, and even the horns that seemed to him under a neighboring cart, could not cheer him up. He woke up late in the morning and did not find the Cossack, the horses were gone, but, worst of all, his grandfather's hat with the letter and money was gone, which yesterday the grandfather exchanged with the Cossack for a while. And the grandfather scolded the devil, and asked for advice from the Chumaks who were in the tavern - all to no avail. Thanks to the tavern maker, for five zlotys he showed my grandfather where to find the devil in order to get the letter back from him. In the dead of night, grandfather stepped into the forest and walked along a barely noticeable path indicated by the tavern. As he had warned, everything in the forest was rattling, for the gypsies, coming out of their holes, were forging iron. Having passed all the indicated signs, the grandfather went out to the fire, around which terrible faces were sitting. Sat and grandfather. They were silent for a long time, until the grandfather began to randomly tell his story. "Mugs and ears instructed, and stretched out their paws." Grandfather threw all his money, the earth shook, and he found himself almost in the middle of hell. Witches, weirdo, devils - everything around was dancing "some kind of damn trepak." Suddenly he found himself at a table bursting with food, but all the pieces that he took fell into other people's mouths. Annoyed grandfather, forgetting fear, began to scold. Everyone laughed, and one of the witches suggested that he play the fool three times: win - his hat, lose - and he will not see the light of God. Both times the grandfather remained a fool, although in the second he dealt the cards himself and at first they were not bad at all. He guessed for the third time to slowly cross the cards under the table - and won. Having received a hat, the grandfather took courage and demanded his horse, threatening to cross the entire demonic assembly with a holy cross. Only horse bones thundered before him. The grandfather began to cry, but the devils gave him another horse that carried him through the dips and swamps, over the abysses and the terrible steepness. The grandfather could not resist and broke loose, but woke up on the roof of his own hut, covered in blood, but whole. In the house, frightened children rushed to him, pointing to their mother, who was sleeping, jumping up and down, sitting on a bench. The grandfather woke up his wife, who dreamed of sheer devilry, and, deciding to soon consecrate the hut, he immediately went to the queen. There, having seen wonders, he forgot for a while about the devils. Yes, apparently, in retaliation that he prevented the hut from being consecrated, long after, "exactly every year, and precisely at that very time," his wife began to dance against her will. Part twoIn the preface, anticipating further stories, the beekeeper tells about a quarrel with a "pea panich" from Poltava, who was mentioned before. The guests who had come to the beekeeper began to discuss the rules for pickling apples, but the presumptuous panich declared that first of all it was necessary to sprinkle the apples with canuper, and with this obscene remark caused everyone's bewilderment, so that the beekeeper was forced to take him quietly aside and explain the absurdity of such a judgment. But the panich was offended and left. Since then, he has not come, which, however, did not harm the book published by the beekeeper Rudy Pank. CHRISTMAS EVE The last day before Christmas is replaced by a clear frosty night. The maidens and lads had not yet gone out to carol, and no one saw how smoke came out of the chimney of one hut and a witch rose on a broomstick. She flashes like a black speck in the sky, picking up stars in her sleeve, and the devil flies towards her, to whom "the last night was left to stagger around the white world." Having stolen the month, the devil hides it in his pocket, assuming that the darkness that has come will keep at home the rich goat Chub, invited to the clerk at kutya, and the hated devil blacksmith Vakula (who painted a picture of the Last Judgment and the shamed devil on the church wall) will not dare to come to Chubova daughter Oksana. While the devil is building chickens for the witch, Chub and his godfather, who left the hut, do not dare to go to the sexton, where a pleasant society will gather for varenukha, or, in view of such darkness, return home, - and they leave, leaving the beautiful Oksana in the house, dressing up in front of a mirror, for which and finds her Vakula. The severe beauty taunts him, untouched by his gentle speeches. The frustrated blacksmith goes to unlock the door, on which Chub, who has gone astray and lost his godfather, knocks, deciding to return home on the occasion of the blizzard raised by the devil. However, the blacksmith's voice makes him think that he did not end up in his own hut (but in a similar, lame Levchenko, to whose young wife the blacksmith probably came), Chub changes his voice, and an angry Vakula, poking, kicks him out. The beaten Chub, considering that the blacksmith, therefore, left his own house, goes to his mother, Solokha. Solokha, who was a witch, returned from her journey, and the devil flew in with her, dropping a month in the chimney. It became light, the blizzard subsided, and crowds of carolers poured into the streets. The girls run to Oksana, and, noticing on one of them new laces embroidered with gold, Oksana declares that she will marry Vakula if he brings her the laces "which the queen wears." In the meantime, the devil, who has become mellow at Solokha's, is frightened away by the head, who has not gone to the clerk at the kutya. The devil quickly climbs into one of the bags left in the middle of the hut by the blacksmith, but soon the head has to climb into the other, as the clerk knocks on Solokha. Praising the virtues of the incomparable Solokha, the clerk is forced to climb into the third bag, since Chub appears. However, Chub also climbs there, avoiding a meeting with the returned Vakula. While Solokha is explaining herself in the garden with the Cossack Sverbyguz, who has come after her, Vakula carries away the sacks thrown in the middle of the hut, and, saddened by the quarrel with Oksana, does not notice their weight. On the street he is surrounded by a crowd of carolers, and here Oksana repeats her mocking condition. Leaving all but the smallest bags in the middle of the road, Vakula runs, and rumors are already crawling behind him that he either lost his mind or hanged himself. Vakula comes to the Cossack Pot-bellied Patsyuk, who, as they say, is "a little like the devil." Having caught the owner eating dumplings, and then dumplings, which themselves climbed into Patsyuk's mouth, Vakula timidly asks for directions to hell, relying on his help in his misfortune. Having received a vague answer that the devil is behind him, Vakula runs away from the quick dumpling that climbs into his mouth. Anticipating easy prey, the devil jumps out of the bag and, sitting on the blacksmith's neck, promises him Oksana that very night. The cunning blacksmith, grabbing the devil by the tail and crossing him, becomes the master of the situation and orders the devil to take himself "to Petemburg, straight to the queen." Having found Kuznetsov's bags about that time, the girls want to take them to Oksana to see what Vakula caroled. They go after the sled, and Chubov's godfather, having called for help from the weaver, drags one of the sacks into his hut. There, for the obscure, but seductive contents of the bag, there is a fight with the godfather's wife. Chub and the clerk are in the bag. When Chub, returning home, finds a head in the second bag, his disposition towards Solokha is greatly reduced. The blacksmith, having galloped to St. Petersburg, comes to the Cossacks, who are passing through Dikanka in the autumn, and, pressing the devil in his pocket, seeks to be taken to the tsarina's reception. Marveling at the luxury of the palace and the wonderful paintings on the walls, the blacksmith finds himself in front of the queen, and when she asks the Cossacks who came to ask for their Sich, “what do you want?”, the blacksmith asks her for her royal shoes. Touched by such innocence, Catherine draws attention to this passage of Fonvizin standing at a distance, and Vakula gives shoes, having received which he considers it good to go home. In the village at this time, the Dikan women in the middle of the street are arguing about exactly how Vakula laid hands on himself, and the rumors that have come about embarrass Oksana, she does not sleep well at night, and not having found a devout blacksmith in the church in the morning, she is ready to cry. The blacksmith, on the other hand, simply overslept Matins and Mass, and waking up, takes out a new hat and belt from the chest and goes to Chub to woo. Chub, wounded by Solokha's treachery, but seduced by gifts, agrees. He is echoed by Oksana, who has entered, ready to marry the blacksmith "and without the slippers." Having started a family, Vakula painted his hut with paints, and in the church he painted a devil, but "so nasty that everyone spat when they passed by." Dreadful place Yesaul Gorobets once celebrated the wedding of his son in Kyiv, which was attended by many people, and among others, the named brother of the Yesaul Danilo Burulbash with his young wife, the beautiful Katerina, and a one-year-old son. Only old Katherine's father, who had recently returned after a twenty-year absence, did not come with them. everything was dancing when the captain brought out two wonderful icons to bless the young. Then a sorcerer opened up in the crowd and disappeared, frightened by the images. Danilo returns at night along the Dnieper with his family to the farm. Katerina is frightened, but her husband is not afraid of the sorcerer, but the Poles, who are going to cut off the path to the Cossacks, he thinks about this, sailing past the old sorcerer's castle and the cemetery with the bones of his grandfathers. However, crosses stagger in the cemetery and, one more terrible than the other, the dead appear, pulling their bones to the very month. Consoling his awakened son, Pan Danilo gets to the hut. His hut is small, not roomy for his family and for ten selected fellows. The next morning a quarrel broke out between Danilo and his gloomy, absurd father-in-law. It came to sabers, and then to muskets. Danilo was wounded, but if not for the pleas and reproaches of Katerina, who by the way remembered her little son, he would have fought further. The Cossacks reconciled. Katerina soon tells her husband her vague dream, as if her father is a terrible sorcerer, and Danilo scolds the Busurman habits of his father-in-law, suspecting a non-Christ in him, but he is more worried about the Poles, about which Gorobets again warned him. After dinner, during which the father-in-law disdains dumplings, and pork, and a burner, in the evening Danilo leaves to scout around the old sorcerer's castle. Climbing up an oak tree to look out the window, he sees a witch's room, lit by God knows what, with wonderful weapons on the walls and flickering bats. The father-in-law who enters begins to tell fortunes, and his whole appearance changes: he is already a sorcerer in filthy Turkish attire. He summons Katerina's soul, threatens her and demands that Katerina love him. The soul does not yield, and, shocked by what has opened up, Danilo returns home, wakes up Katerina and tells her everything. Katerina renounces her apostate father. In Danila's basement, a sorcerer sits in iron chains, his demonic castle is on fire; not for witchcraft, but for collusion with the Poles, his execution awaits the next day. But, promising to start a righteous life, to retire to the caves, to propitiate God with fasting and prayer, the sorcerer Katerina asks to let him go and thereby save his soul. Fearing her act, Katerina releases it, but hides the truth from her husband. Feeling his death, the saddened Danilo asks his wife to take care of her son. As expected, Poles run in innumerable clouds, set fire to huts and steal cattle. Pan Danilo fights bravely, but the bullet of the sorcerer who appears on the mountain overtakes him. And although Gorobets jumps to the rescue, Katerina is inconsolable. The Poles are defeated, the wonderful Dnieper is raging, and, fearlessly ruling the canoe, the sorcerer sails to his ruins. In the dugout, he casts spells, but not Katerina's soul appears to him, but someone uninvited; although he is not terrible, but terrifying. Katerina, living with Gorobets, sees her former dreams and trembles for her son. Waking up in a hut surrounded by vigilant guards, she finds him dead and goes crazy. Meanwhile, from the West, a gigantic rider with a baby, on a black horse, is galloping. His eyes are closed. He entered the Carpathians and stopped here. Mad Katerina is looking everywhere for her father in order to kill him. A certain guest arrives, asking Danila, mourns him, wants to see Katerina, talks to her for a long time about her husband and, it seems, introduces her to her mind. But when he talks about the fact that Danilo, in case of death, asked him to take Katerina for himself, she recognizes her father and rushes to him with a knife. The sorcerer himself kills his daughter. Behind Kiev, "an unheard-of miracle appeared": "suddenly it became visible far to all corners of the world" - and the Crimea, and the swampy Sivash, and the land of Galich, and the Carpathian Mountains with a gigantic horseman on their peaks. The sorcerer, who was among the people, flees in fear, for he recognized in the rider an uninvited face that appeared to him during divination. Night terrors pursue the sorcerer, and he turns to Kyiv, to the holy places. There he kills the holy schemer, who did not undertake to pray for such an unheard-of sinner. Now, wherever he rules the horse, he moves to the Carpathian mountains. Here the motionless rider opened his eyes and laughed. And the sorcerer died, and, dead, he saw the dead rising from Kyiv, from the Carpathians, from the land of Galich, and the rider was thrown into the abyss, and the dead plunged their teeth into him. Another one, taller and more terrible than all, wanted to rise from the earth and shook it mercilessly, but could not get up. This story ends with an old and wonderful song of an old bandura player in the city of Glukhov. It sings about the war between King Stepan and Turchin and his brothers, the Cossacks Ivan and Peter. Ivan caught the Turkish pasha and shared the royal reward with his brother. But the envious Peter pushed Ivan with his baby son into the abyss and took all the good for himself. After the death of Peter, God allowed Ivan to choose the execution for his brother. And he cursed all his offspring and predicted that the last of his kind would be an unprecedented villain, and when his end comes, Ivan will appear from the failure on a horse and overthrow him into the abyss, and all his grandfathers will be drawn from different parts of the earth to gnaw him, and Petro will not be able to get up and will gnaw at himself, wanting revenge and not knowing how to take revenge. God marveled at the cruelty of the execution, but decided what to do according to that. IVAN FEDOROVICH SHPONKA AND HIS AUNT “There was a story with this story”: told by Stepan Ivanovich Kurochka from Gadyach, it was copied into a notebook, the notebook was placed on a small table and from there it was partly dragged by the beekeeper’s zhinka into pies. So the end is missing. If you wish, however, you can always ask Stepan Ivanovich himself, and for convenience a detailed description of him is attached. Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka, who now lives on his farmstead Vytrebenki, was distinguished by diligence at school and did not bully his comrades. By his virtue, he attracted the attention of even a terrible teacher of the Latin language and was promoted by him to auditors, which, however, did not avoid an unpleasant incident, as a result of which he was beaten on the hands by the same teacher and retained timidity in his soul so much that he never had the desire to go to the civil service. Therefore, two years after the news of the death of the father, he joined the P *** infantry regiment, which, although stationed in the villages, was not inferior to other cavalry ones; for example, several people in it danced a mazurka, and two of the officers played bank. Ivan Fyodorovich, however, kept to himself, preferring to clean buttons, read a fortune-telling book and put mousetraps in the corners. For serviceability, eleven years after receiving the ensign, he was promoted to second lieutenant. His mother died, his aunt took over the estate, and Ivan Fedorovich continued to serve. Finally, he received a letter from his aunt, in which, lamenting her old age and weakness, she asked him to take over the household. Ivan Fedorovich received his resignation with the rank of lieutenant and hired a wagon from Mogilev to Gadyach, On the road, which took more than two weeks, "nothing too remarkable happened," and only in a tavern near Gadyach did Grigory Grigorievich Storchenko make acquaintance with him, who said he was a neighbor from the village of Hortyshe and would certainly invite him to visit. Shortly after this incident, Ivan Fyodorovich was already at home, in the arms of Aunt Vasilisa Kashporovna, whose corpulence and gigantic stature do not quite correspond to her complaints in a letter. The aunt regularly manages the household, and the nephew is constantly in the field with reapers and mowers, and so, it used to be captivated by the beauties of nature, that he forgets to taste his favorite dumplings. In passing, the aunt notices that all the land behind their farm, and the village of Hortyshe itself, is recorded by the former owner Stepan Kuzmich on Ivan Fedorovich (the reason that he visited Ivan Fedorovich's mother long before his birth), there is somewhere a donation, - it is for her that Ivan Fyodorovich goes to Khortysh and meets there his acquaintance Storchenko, The hospitable host locks the gates, unharnesses Ivan Fedorovich's horses, but at the words of a deed of gift suddenly deafens and remembers the cockroach that once sat in his ear. He assures that there is no deed of gift and there never was, and, introducing him to his mother and sisters, he draws Ivan Fedorovich to the table, where he gets acquainted with Ivan Ivanovich, whose head sits in a high collar, "as if in a britzka." During dinner, the guest is treated to a turkey with such zeal that the waiter is forced to kneel, begging him to "take the button." After dinner, the formidable host goes to sleep, and a lively conversation about making marshmallows, drying pears, about cucumbers and sowing potatoes occupies the whole society, and even two young ladies, Storchenko's sisters, take part in it. Returning, Ivan Fedorovich retells his adventure to his aunt, and, extremely annoyed by her neighbor's evasiveness, at the mention of young ladies (and especially the blond one), she is animated by a new plan. Thinking of her nephew "she is still young," she mentally nurses her grandchildren and falls into perfect absent-minded daydreaming. Finally, they are going to a neighbor together. Starting a conversation about buckwheat and taking the old woman away, she leaves Ivan Fedorovich alone with the young lady. Having exchanged, after a long silence, considerations regarding the number of flies in the summer, both fall silent hopelessly, and the speech about the need for marriage, brought up by the aunt on the way back, unusually embarrasses Ivan Fyodorovich. He has wonderful dreams: a goose-faced wife, and not one, but several, a wife in a hat, a wife in her pocket, a wife in her ear, a wife raising him to the bell tower, because he is a bell, a wife that is not a person at all, but fashionable matter ("take a wife <...> everyone now sews coats out of her"). The fortune-telling book cannot help the timid Ivan Fedorovich in any way, and the aunt has already "ripened a completely new idea", which we are not destined to recognize, since the manuscript breaks off here. ENCHANTED PLACE The true story told by the deacon of the *** church This story refers to the time when the narrator was still a child. A father with one of his sons went to the Crimea to sell tobacco, leaving his wife, three more sons and a grandfather to guard the chestnut tree at home - a profitable business, there are many travelers, and best of all - chumaks that told outlandish stories. Somehow, in the evening, several wagons with chumaks arrive, and all of them are old grandfather acquaintances. They kissed each other, lit a cigarette, a conversation began, and then a treat. The grandfather demanded that the grandchildren dance, that the guests be entertained, but he did not endure it for long, he went himself. Grandfather danced gloriously, made such pretzels, which was a miracle, until he reached one place near the garden with cucumbers. Here his feet became. Tried again - same thing. already scolded, and started again - to no avail. Behind someone laughed. The grandfather looked around, but he did not recognize the place: both the chestnut tree and the chumaks - everything was gone, all around was one smooth field. All the same, he understood where he was, behind the priest's garden, behind the threshing floor of the volost clerk. "That's where the evil spirit dragged!" I began to get out, there is no month, I found a path in the dark. A light flared up on a grave nearby, and another a little further away. "Treasure!" - the grandfather decided and heaped a hefty branch for signs, since he did not have a spade with him. Late he returned to the tower, there were no chumaks, the children were sleeping. The next evening, seizing a spade and a shovel, he went to the priest's garden. According to all signs, he went out into the field to his old place: and the dovecote sticks out, but the threshing floor is not visible. I went closer to the threshing floor - the dovecote was gone. And then it began to rain, and the grandfather, having not found a place, ran back with abuse. The next evening he went with a spade to dig a new bed, and, bypassing the accursed place where he did not dance, struck with a spade in his hearts - and ended up in that very field. He recognized everything: the threshing floor, and the dovecote, and the grave with a heaped branch. There was a stone on the grave. Having dug, the grandfather rolled him off and was about to sniff the tobacco, when someone sneezed over his head. I looked around - there is no one. Grandfather began to dig and found a boiler. "Ah, my dear, that's where you are!" - exclaimed the grandfather. The same was said by the nose of a bird, and the head of a ram from the top of the tree, and the bear. “Yes, it’s scary to say a word here,” grandfather muttered, followed by a bird’s nose, and a ram’s head, and a bear. Grandfather wants to run - steeping without a bottom under his feet, a mountain hangs over his head. Grandfather threw the boiler, and everything was the same. Deciding that the evil spirit only frightens, he grabbed the cauldron and rushed to run. About this time on the chestnut tree, both the children and the mother who came were perplexed where the grandfather had gone. After supper, the mother went to pour out the hot slop, and a barrel crawled towards her: it was clear that one of the children, shawty, was pushing her from behind. Mother splashed slop at her. It turned out that it was my grandfather. They opened grandfather's cauldron, and in it was rubbish, squabbles and "I'm ashamed to say what it is." From that time on, my grandfather swore to believe the devil, he blocked the accursed place with a wattle fence, and when the neighboring Cossacks hired a field for a tower, something “the devil knows what it is” always rose in the enchanted place. E. V. Kharitonova Diary of a Madman Tale (1833) Titular adviser Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishin, forty-two years old, has been keeping his diary entries for more than four months. On a rainy day on Tuesday, October 1933, XNUMX, Poprishin, in his old-fashioned greatcoat, goes late to an unloved service in one of the departments of the St. Petersburg department, hoping only to receive some money from the salary in advance from the treasurer. On the way, he notices a carriage approaching the store, from which the lovely daughter of the director of the department where he serves jumps out. The hero inadvertently overhears a conversation between his daughter's dog Medzhi and the dog Fidelka, which belongs to two ladies passing by. Surprised by this fact, instead of serving, Poprishchin goes for the ladies and finds out that they live on the fifth floor of Zverkov's house, near Kokushkin Bridge. The next day, while sharpening feathers in the director's office, Poprishchin accidentally meets his daughter, whom he becomes more and more fascinated with. He even gives her a handkerchief that has fallen on the floor. Within a month, his indiscreet behavior and dreams about this young lady become noticeable to others. The head of the department even reprimands him. Nevertheless, Poprishchin secretly enters his Excellency's house and, wanting to find out something about the young lady, enters into a conversation with the little dog Medzhi. The latter avoids the conversation. Then Poprishchin goes to Zverkov's house, goes up to the sixth floor (Gogol's mistake!), where the dog Fidelka lives with his mistresses, and steals a pile of small pieces of paper from her corner. This turns out, as Poprishchin had supposed, to be a correspondence between two dog girlfriends, from which he learns a lot of important things for himself: about awarding the director of the department with another order, about courting his daughter, who, it turns out, is called Sophie, a certain chamber junker Teplov, and even about herself, the perfect turtle-in-a-bag freak that Sophie can't help but laugh at. These notes of little dogs, like all of Gogol's prose, are full of references to many random characters, such as a certain Bobov, who looks like a stork in his frill, or Lidina, who is sure that she has blue eyes, while she has green ones, or Trezor's dog from a neighboring yard, Madji, who is kind to the heart of writing these letters. Finally, Poprishchin learns from them that Sophie's affair with the chamber junker Teplov is clearly heading towards the wedding. Unhappy love, coupled with disturbing newspaper reports, finally damage Poprishchin's mind. He is worried about the attempt to abolish the Spanish throne in connection with the death of the king. But how is he, Poprishchin, the secret heir, that is, a noble person, one of those that others love and revere? Mavra's chick, who serves Poprishchin, will be the first to know this amazing news. After more than three weeks of absenteeism, the "Spanish king" Poprishchin comes to his office, does not get up in front of the director, signs "Ferdinand VIII" on paper, after which he sneaks into the director's apartment, tries to explain himself to Sophie, while making the discovery that women fall in love with the same thing. The suspense of the Spanish deputies, for some reason, is finally resolved by their arrival. But "Spain", to which he is taken, is a very strange land. There are many giants with shaved heads, they are beaten with sticks, cold water is dripped on the top of their heads. Obviously, the great inquisition rules here, which prevents Poprishchin from making great discoveries worthy of his post. He writes a tearful letter to his mother with a plea for help, but the bump under the very nose of the Algerian Bey again diverts his poor attention. I. L. Shevelev Nevsky Prospect Tale (1834) Two young men - lieutenant Pirogov and artist Piskarev - are chasing lonely ladies walking along Nevsky Prospekt in the evening. The artist follows the brunette, cherishing the most romantic love at her expense. They reach Foundry and, going up to the top floor of a brightly lit four-story building, find themselves in a room where there are three more women, by the sight of which Piskarev realizes with horror that he has ended up in a brothel. The heavenly appearance of his chosen one does not correspond in any way in his mind either with this place or with her stupid and vulgar conversation. Piskarev runs out into the street in despair. Arriving home, he could not calm down for a long time, but only dozed off, as a footman in a rich livery knocks on the door and says that the lady with whom he had just been sent a carriage for him and asks to be at her house immediately. The amazed Piskarev is brought to the ball, where among the dancing ladies, his chosen one is the most beautiful. They talk, but they drag her somewhere, Piskarev searches in vain for her from room to room and ... wakes up at home. It was a dream! From now on, he loses peace, wanting to see her at least in a dream. Opium allows him to find the beloved in his dreams. One day his workshop appears to him, he is with a palette in his hands and she, his wife, is nearby. Why not? he thinks, waking up. He will find her and marry her! Piskarev hardly finds the right house, and - lo and behold! - it is she who opens the door for him and kindly informs that, despite two in the afternoon, she just woke up, because she was brought here completely drunk only at seven in the morning. Piskarev tells the seventeen-year-old beauty about the abyss of debauchery in which she is immersed, paints pictures of a happy working family life with him, but she refuses with contempt, she laughs at him! Piskarev rushes out, wanders somewhere, and returning home, locks himself in a room. A week later, breaking down the door, they find him with his throat cut with a razor. The poor man is buried at the Okhtinsky cemetery, and even his friend Pirogov is not at the funeral, since the lieutenant himself, in turn, fell into history. Small not a mistake, he, chasing his blonde, gets into the apartment of a certain tinsmith Schiller, who at that moment, being very drunk, asks the drunk shoemaker Hoffmann to cut off his nose with a shoe knife. Lieutenant Pirogov, who prevented them from doing this, stumbles upon rudeness and retreats. But only in order to return in the morning to continue his love affair with the blonde, who turned out to be Schiller's wife. He orders the tinsmith to make himself spurs and, taking the opportunity, continues the siege, arousing, however, jealousy in her husband. On Sunday, when Schiller is not at home, Pirogov comes to his wife, dances with her, kisses her, and just at that moment Schiller appears with his friend Hoffmann and the carpenter Kunz, also, by the way, a German. Drunken angry artisans grab Lieutenant Pirogov by the arms and legs and do something so rude and impolite to him that the author cannot find words to describe this action. Only Gogol's draft manuscript, which was not passed by the censors at this point, allows us to interrupt our guesses and find out that Pirogov was flogged! In a rage, the lieutenant flies out of the house, promising the tinsmith a whip and Siberia, at least. However, on the way, having gone to a pastry shop, having eaten a couple of pies and reading a newspaper, Pirogov cooled off, and having distinguished himself in the mazurka with friends in the evening, he completely calmed down. This is such a strange, incomprehensible incident. However, on Nevsky Prospekt, under the deceitful, false light of lanterns, the author assures us, everything is just like that ... I. L. Shevelev Nose Tale (1835) The incident described, according to the narrator, happened in St. Petersburg on March 25th. The barber Ivan Yakovlevich, eating fresh bread baked by his wife Praskovya Osipovna in the morning, finds his nose in it. Puzzled by this unrealistic incident, having recognized the nose of collegiate assessor Kovalev, he is looking in vain for a way to get rid of his find. Finally, he throws him off the Isakievsky Bridge and, against all expectations, is detained by a district warden with large sideburns. The collegiate assessor Kovalev (who was more fond of being called a major), waking up that very morning with the intention of examining a pimple that had just jumped up on his nose, did not even find the nose itself. Major Kovalev, who needs a decent appearance, because the purpose of his arrival in the capital is to find a place in some prominent department and, possibly, to marry (on the occasion of which he is familiar with ladies in many houses: Chekhtyreva, state councilor, Pelageya Grigorievna Podtochina, headquarters officer), - goes to the chief police chief, but on the way he meets his own nose (dressed, however, in a uniform embroidered with gold and a hat with a plume, denouncing him as a state adviser). Nose gets into the carriage and goes to the Kazan Cathedral, where he prays with an air of the greatest piety. Major Kovalev, at first timid, and then directly calling his nose by his proper name, does not succeed in his intentions and, distracted by a lady in a hat light as a cake, loses his uncompromising interlocutor. Not finding the chief police chief at home, Kovalev goes on a newspaper expedition, wanting to advertise the loss, but the gray-haired official refuses him (“The newspaper may lose its reputation”) and, full of compassion, offers to sniff tobacco, which completely upsets Major Kovalev. He goes to a private bailiff, but finds him in a position to sleep after dinner and listens to irritated remarks about "all sorts of majors" who are dragged around the devil knows where, and that a decent person's nose will not be torn off. Arriving home, the saddened Kovalev ponders the reasons for the strange loss and decides that the staff officer Podtochina is to blame for everything, whose daughter he was in no hurry to marry, and she, right out of revenge, hired some money-boxes. The sudden appearance of a police official, who brought a nose wrapped in a piece of paper and announced that he was intercepted on the way to Riga with a fake passport, plunges Kovalev into joyful unconsciousness. However, his joy is premature: the nose does not stick to its former place. The called doctor does not undertake to put his nose on, assuring that it will be even worse, and encourages Kovalev to put his nose in a jar of alcohol and sell it for decent money. The unfortunate Kovalev writes to the staff officer Podtochina, reproaching, threatening and demanding to immediately return the nose to its place. The response of the staff officer reveals her complete innocence, for it shows such a degree of misunderstanding that cannot be imagined on purpose. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading around the capital and acquiring many details: they say that exactly at three o'clock collegiate assessor Kovalev is walking along Nevsky, then - that he is in the Juncker's store, then - in the Tauride Garden; to all these places many people flock, and enterprising speculators build benches for the convenience of observation. One way or another, but on April 7, the nose was again in its place. To the happy Kovalev, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich appears and shaves him with the greatest care and embarrassment. One day, Major Kovalev manages to go everywhere: to the confectionery, and to the department where he was looking for a place, and to his friend, also a collegiate assessor or major, he meets on the way the staff officer Podtochina with her daughter, in a conversation with whom he thoroughly sniffs tobacco. The description of his happy mood is interrupted by the writer's sudden admission that there are many implausible things in this story and that it is especially surprising that there are authors who take such plots. After some reflection, the writer nevertheless declares that such incidents are rare, but they do happen. E. V. Kharitonova Old-World Landlords Tale (1835) The old men Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub and his wife Pulcheria Ivanovna live in seclusion in one of the remote villages, called old-world villages in Little Russia. Their life is so quiet that to a guest who accidentally drove into a low manor house, surrounded by the greenery of a garden, the passions and disturbing unrest of the outside world seem to not exist at all. The small rooms of the house are crammed with all sorts of gizmos, the doors sing in different ways, the pantries are filled with supplies, the preparation of which is constantly busy with the courtyards under the direction of Pulcheria Ivanovna. Despite the fact that the economy is robbed by the clerk and lackeys, the blessed land produces everything in such quantity that Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna do not notice the theft at all. The old people never had children, and all their affection was concentrated on themselves. It is impossible to look without participation at their mutual love, when with extraordinary concern in their voices they turn to each other on "you", warning every desire and even an affectionate word that has not yet been said. They love to treat - and if it were not for the special properties of the Little Russian air that helps digestion, then the guest, no doubt, after dinner would have been lying on the table instead of a bed. The old people also love to eat themselves - and from the very early morning until late in the evening you can hear Pulcheria Ivanovna guessing the desires of her husband, offering one or the other food in an affectionate voice. Sometimes Afanasy Ivanovich likes to play a joke on Pulcheria Ivanovna and will suddenly start talking about a fire or a war, forcing his wife to be frightened in earnest and to be baptized so that her husband's speech could never come true. But after a minute, unpleasant thoughts are forgotten, the old people decide that it is time to have a bite, and suddenly a tablecloth and those dishes that Afanasy Ivanovich chooses at the prompt of his wife appear on the table. And quietly, calmly, in the extraordinary harmony of two loving hearts, days go by. A sad event changes the life of this peaceful corner forever. Pulcheria Ivanovna's favorite cat, usually lying at her feet, disappears in a large forest behind the garden, where wild cats lure her. Three days later, having knocked down in search of a cat, Pulcheria Ivanovna meets her pet in the garden, who came out with a miserable meow from the weeds Pulcheria Ivanovna feeds a runaway and thin fugitive, wants to stroke her, but the ungrateful creature rushes out the window and disappears forever. From that day on, the old woman becomes thoughtful, bored, and suddenly announces to Afanasy Ivanovich that it was death that came for her and that they were soon destined to meet in the next world. The only thing the old woman regrets is that there will be no one to look after her husband. She asks the housekeeper Yavdokha to take care of Afanasy Ivanovich, threatening her entire family with God's punishment if she does not fulfill the order of the mistress. Pulcheria Ivanovna dies. At the funeral, Afanasy Ivanovich looks strange, as if he does not understand all the savagery of what happened. When he returns to his house and sees how empty his room has become, he sobs loudly and inconsolably, and tears, like a river, flow from his dull eyes. Five years have passed since then. The house is deteriorating without its mistress, Afanasy Ivanovich is weakening and doubled against the former. But his longing does not weaken with time. In all the objects surrounding him, he sees the dead woman, tries to pronounce her name, but in the middle of the word, convulsions distort his face, and the cry of a child breaks out of an already cooling heart. It is strange, but the circumstances of the death of Afanasy Ivanovich bear a resemblance to death. his beloved wife. As he slowly walks along the garden path, he suddenly hears someone behind him say in a clear voice: "Afanasy Ivanovich!" For a moment his face brightens up, and he says: "It's Pulcheria Ivanovna calling me!" He submits to this conviction with the will of an obedient child. "Lay me near Pulcheria Ivanovna" - that's all he says before his death. His wish was fulfilled. The manor's house was empty, the goods were torn apart by the peasants and finally let go to the wind by a distant relative-heir who arrived. V. M. Sotnikov Taras Bulba Tale (1835 - revised 1842) After graduating from the Kyiv Academy, two of his sons, Ostap and Andriy, come to the old Cossack colonel Taras Bulba. Two burly fellows, whose healthy and strong faces have not yet been touched by a razor, are embarrassed by the meeting with their father, who makes fun of their clothes of recent seminarians. The eldest, Ostap, cannot stand the ridicule of his father: "Even though you are my father, but if you laugh, then, by God, I will beat you!" And father and son, instead of greeting after a long absence, quite seriously hit each other with cuffs. A pale, thin and kind mother tries to reason with her violent husband, who is already stopping himself, pleased that he has tested his son. Bulba wants to "greet" the younger one in the same way, but he is already hugging him, protecting his mother from his father. On the occasion of the arrival of his sons, Taras Bulba convenes all the centurions and the entire regimental rank and announces his decision to send Ostap and Andriy to the Sich, because there is no better science for a young Cossack than the Zaporozhian Sich. At the sight of the young strength of his sons, the military spirit of Taras himself flares up, and he decides to go with them to introduce them to all his old comrades. The poor mother sits all night over the sleeping children, not closing her eyes, wishing that the night would last as long as possible. Her dear sons are taken from her; they take it so that she will never see them! In the morning, after the blessing, the mother, despairing of grief, is barely torn off from the children and taken to the hut. The three riders ride in silence. Old Taras recalls his wild life, a tear freezes in his eyes, his graying head droops. Ostap, who has a stern and firm character, although hardened during the years of training in the bursa, retained his natural kindness and was touched by the tears of his poor mother. This alone confuses him and makes him lower his head thoughtfully. Andriy is also having a hard time saying goodbye to his mother and home, but his thoughts are occupied with memories of a beautiful Polish girl whom he met just before leaving Kiev. Then Andriy managed to get into the beauty's bedroom through the fireplace chimney, a knock on the door forced the Polish woman to hide the young Cossack under the bed. As soon as the worry had passed, the Tatar woman, the lady's maid, took Andrii out into the garden, where he barely escaped from the woke servants. He once again saw the beautiful Polish woman in the church, soon she left - and now, lowering his eyes into the mane of his horse, Andriy thinks about her. After a long journey, the Sich meets Taras with his sons with his wild life - a sign of the Zaporizhian will. Cossacks do not like to waste time on military exercises, collecting abusive experience only in the heat of battle. Ostap and Andriy rush with all the ardor of youths into this rampant sea. But old Taras does not like an idle life - he does not want to prepare his sons for such an activity. Having met with all his companions, he thinks out how to raise the Cossacks on a campaign, so as not to waste the Cossack prowess on an uninterrupted feast and drunken fun. He persuades the Kozakovs to re-elect the koschevoi, who keeps peace with the enemies of the Cossacks. The new koschevoi, under pressure from the most militant Cossacks, and above all Taras, decides to go to Poland in order to mark all the evil and shame of faith and Cossack glory. And soon the entire Polish south-west becomes the prey of fear, the rumor running ahead: "Cossacks! The Cossacks appeared!" In one month, young Cossacks matured in battles, and old Taras is pleased to see that both of his sons are among the first. The Cossack army is trying to take the city of Dubnr, where there is a lot of treasury and rich inhabitants, but they meet desperate resistance from the garrison and residents. The Cossacks besiege the city and wait for the famine to begin in it. Having nothing to do, the Cossacks devastate the surroundings, burn out defenseless villages and unharvested grain. The young, especially the sons of Taras, do not like this kind of life. Old Bulba reassures them, promising hot fights soon. On one of the dark nights, Andria is awakened from sleep by a strange creature that looks like a ghost. This is a Tatar, a servant of the very Polish woman with whom Andriy is in love. The Tatar woman tells in a whisper that the lady is in the city, she saw Andriy from the city rampart and asks him to come to her or at least give a piece of bread for her dying mother. Andriy loads sacks of bread as much as he can carry, and a Tatar woman leads him through an underground passage to the city. Having met his beloved, he renounces his father and brother, comrades and homeland: "The homeland is what our soul is looking for, which is sweeter for her than anything. My homeland is you." Andriy stays with the lady to protect her to the last breath from her former comrades. Polish troops, sent to reinforce the besieged, pass into the city past the drunken Cossacks, killing many while sleeping, and capturing many. This event hardens the Kozaks, who decide to continue the siege to the end. Taras, looking for his missing son, receives a terrible confirmation of Andriy's betrayal. The Poles arrange sorties, but the Cossacks are still successfully fighting them off. News comes from the Sich that, in the absence of the main force, the Tatars attacked the remaining Kozaks and captured them, seizing the treasury. The Cossack army near Dubna is divided in two - half goes to the rescue of the treasury and comrades, the other half remains to continue the siege. Taras, leading the siege army, delivers an impassioned speech to the glory of camaraderie. The Poles learn about the weakening of the enemy and come out of the city for a decisive battle. Among them is Andriy. Taras Bulba orders the Cossacks to lure him to the forest and there, meeting with Andriy face to face, he kills his son, who even before his death utters one word - the name of the beautiful lady. Reinforcements arrive at the Poles, and they defeat the Cossacks. Ostap is captured, the wounded Taras, being saved from the chase, is brought to the Sich. Having recovered from his wounds, Taras forces the Jew Yankel to secretly smuggle him to Warsaw with big money and threats to try to ransom Ostap there. Taras is present at the terrible execution of his son in the town square. Not a single groan escapes under torture from Ostap's chest, only before his death he cries out: "Father! where are you! Do you hear all this?" - "I hear!" - Taras answers over the crowd. They rush to catch him, but Taras is already gone. One hundred and twenty thousand Cossacks, among whom is the regiment of Taras Bulba, go on a campaign against the Poles. Even the Cossacks themselves notice the excessive ferocity and cruelty of Taras towards the enemy. This is how he avenges the death of his son. The defeated Polish hetman Nikolai Pototsky swears an oath not to inflict any further offense on the Cossack army. Only Colonel Bulba does not agree to such a peace, assuring his comrades that the requested Poles will not keep their word. And he leads his regiment. His prediction comes true - having gathered their strength, the Poles treacherously attack the Kozaks and defeat them. And Taras walks all over Poland with his regiment, continuing to avenge the death of Ostap and his comrades, ruthlessly destroying all life. Five regiments under the leadership of the same Pototsky finally overtake the regiment of Taras, who has come to rest in an old ruined fortress on the banks of the Dniester. The battle lasts for four days. The surviving Cossacks make their way, but the old ataman stops to look for his cradle in the grass, and the haiduks overtake him. Taras is tied to an oak tree with iron chains, his hands are nailed, and a fire is laid out under him. Before his death, Taras manages to shout to his comrades to go down to the canoes, which he sees from above, and leave the chase along the river. And at the last terrible moment, the old chieftain thinks about his comrades, about their future victories, when old Taras will no longer be with them. The Cossacks leave the chase, row together with oars and talk about their chieftain. V. M. Sotnikov Wii Tale (1835, revised 1842) The most long-awaited event for the seminary is vacancies, when the bursaks (state-run seminarians) go home. In groups they are sent from Kyiv along the high road, earning their livelihood with spiritual chants in wealthy farms. Three bursaks: the theologian Khalyava, the philosopher Khoma Brut and the rhetorician Tiberius Gorobets, having lost their way in the night, go out to the farm. The old hostess lets the Bursaks spend the night on the condition that they put everyone in different places. Khoma Brutus is about to fall asleep like a dead man in an empty sheepshed, when suddenly an old woman enters. With sparkling eyes, she catches Homa and jumps onto his shoulders. “Hey, yes, this is a witch,” the student guesses, but he is already rushing above the ground, sweat is rolling off him in a hail. He begins to remember all the prayers and feels that the witch is weakening at the same time. With the speed of lightning, Khoma manages to jump out from under the old woman, jumps on her back, picks up the log and begins to walk around the witch. Wild cries are heard, the old woman falls to the ground in exhaustion - and now a young beauty lies with her last moans in front of Khoma. In fear, the student starts running at full speed and returns to Kyiv. Khoma is summoned by the rector and ordered to go to a distant farm to the richest centurion - to read the prayers for his daughter, who returned from a beaten walk. Panna's dying wish: the seminarian Khoma Brut should read the last three nights on her. So that he would not run away along the road, a wagon and six healthy Kozaks were sent. When the bursak is brought in, the centurion asks him where he met his daughter. But Khoma himself does not know this. When they bring him to the coffin, he recognizes the same witch in the pannochka. At dinner, the student listens to the stories of the Kozakovs about the tricks of the lady-witch. By nightfall, he is locked up in the church where the coffin stands. Khoma goes to the kliros and begins to read prayers. The witch gets up from the coffin, but stumbles upon the circle outlined by Homa around herself. She returns to the coffin, flies around the church in it, but loud prayers and a circle protect Khoma. The coffin falls, a green corpse rises from it, but a distant cock crow is heard. The witch falls into the coffin and the lid slams shut. During the day, the bursak sleeps, drinks vodka, wanders around the village, and in the evening he becomes more and more thoughtful. They take him back to church. He draws a lifeline, reads aloud and raises his head. The corpse is already standing nearby, staring at him with dead, green eyes. The wind carries the terrible words of witch spells through the church, countless evil spirits are breaking in the doors. The crowing of a rooster again stops the demonic action. Homa, who has become gray-haired, is found barely alive in the morning. He asks the centurion to let him go, but he threatens with a terrible punishment for disobedience. Homa tries to run, but he is caught. The silence of the third hellish night inside the church explodes with the crack of the iron lid of the coffin. The witch's teeth chatter, spells screech, doors are ripped off their hinges, and a myriad of monsters fill the room with the sound of wings and the scratching of claws. Khoma is already singing prayers with the last of his strength. "Bring Viy!" the witch screams. A squat clubfoot monster with an iron face, the leader of evil spirits, enters the church with heavy steps. He orders to raise his eyelids. "Don't look!" - hears Khoma's inner voice, but does not hold back and looks. "Here he is!" Viy points at him with an iron finger. The impure force rushes at the philosopher, and the spirit flies out of him. For the second time the rooster crows, the first one was listened to by the spirits. They run away, but they don't make it. And so the church remains forever standing with monsters stuck in the doors and windows, overgrown with weeds, and no one will find a way to it now. Having learned about the fate of Khoma, Tiberius Gorobets and Freebie commemorate his soul in Kyiv, concluding after the third round: the philosopher disappeared because he was afraid. V. M. Sotnikov The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich Tale (1835) Wonderful man Ivan Ivanovich! What a glorious bekesha he has! When it gets hot, Ivan Ivanovich throws off his bekesha, rests in one shirt and looks at what is happening in the yard and on the street. Melons are his favorite food. Ivan Ivanovich eats a melon, and collects the seeds in a special piece of paper and writes on it: "This melon was eaten on such and such a date." And what a house Ivan Ivanovich has! With outbuildings and awnings, so that the roofs of the entire building look like sponges growing on a tree. And the garden! What is not there! There are all sorts of trees and every vegetable garden in this garden! More than ten years have passed since Ivan Ivanovich became a widower. He didn't have children. The girl Gapka has children, they run around the yard and often ask Ivan Ivanovich: "Tya, give me a gingerbread!" - and get either a bagel, or a piece of melon, or a pear. And what a pious man Ivan Ivanovich is! Every Sunday he goes to church and, after the service, goes around asking all the beggars, and when he asks the crippled woman if she wants meat or bread, the old woman reaches out her hand to him. "Well, go with God, - says Ivan Ivanovich, - why are you standing there? After all, I don't beat you!" He likes to go in for a glass of vodka to his neighbor Ivan Nikiforovich, or to the judge, or to the mayor, and he really likes it if someone gives him a present or a present. Ivan Nikiforovich is also a very good person. His yard is near the yard of Ivan Ivanovich. And they are such pals as the world has never made. Ivan Nikiforovich never married and had no intention of getting married. He has a habit of lying all day on the porch, and if he passes through the yard to inspect the household, he will soon return to rest again. In the heat, Ivan Nikiforovich loves to swim, sits up to his neck in water, orders a table and a samovar to be put in the water, and drinks tea in such a coolness. Despite their great affection, Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are not entirely similar to each other. Ivan Ivanovich is thin and tall, Ivan Nikiforovich is shorter, but spreads in width. Ivan Ivanovich has the gift of speaking extremely pleasantly, Ivan Nikiforovich, on the contrary, is more silent, but if he puts in a word, then just hold on. Ivan Ivanovich's head looks like a radish with its tail down, Ivan Nikiforovich's head looks like a radish with its tail up. Ivan Ivanovich likes to go somewhere, Ivan Nikiforovich does not want to go anywhere. Ivan Ivanovich is extremely inquisitive and, if he is dissatisfied with anything, he immediately lets it be noticed. By the look of Ivan Nikiforovich, it is always difficult to know whether he is angry or happy about something. Friends equally dislike fleas and will never let a trader with goods pass so as not to buy from him an elixir against these insects, scolding him well in advance for professing the Jewish faith. However, despite some differences, both Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are wonderful people. One morning, lying under a shed, Ivan Ivanovich looks around his household for a long time and thinks: "My God, what a master I am! What else do I not have?" Having asked himself such a thoughtful question, Ivan Ivanovich begins to look into the courtyard of Ivan Nikiforovich. There, a skinny woman takes out and hangs out stale things for weathering, among the infinite number of which Ivan Ivanovich's attention is attracted by an old gun. He examines the gun, gets dressed and goes to Ivan Nikiforovich to beg for the thing he likes or exchange it for something. Ivan Nikiforovich is resting on a carpet spread on the floor without any clothes. Friends help themselves to vodka and pies with sour cream, Ivan Ivanovich praises the weather, Ivan Nikiforovich sends the heat to hell. Ivan Ivanovich is offended by the ungodly words, but nevertheless gets down to business and asks to give him a gun or exchange it for a brown pig with two sacks of oats in addition. Ivan Nikiforovich does not agree, reasoning about the need for a gun in the household only provokes a neighbor. Ivan Ivanovich says with annoyance: "You, Ivan Nikiforovich, carried about with your gun like a fool with a written sack." To this, the neighbor, who knows how to shave better than any razor, replies: "And you, Ivan Ivanovich, are a real goose." This word offends Ivan Ivanovich so much that he cannot control himself. Friends not only quarrel - Ivan Nikiforovich calls "even a woman and a lad to take and put a neighbor out the door. In addition, Ivan Nikiforovich promises to beat Ivan Ivanovich in the face, he in response, running away, shows a fiddle. So, two respectable men, the honor and adornment of Mirgorod, quarreled among themselves! And for what? For nonsense, for the fact that one called the other a gander. At first, the former friends are still drawn to reconcile, but Agafia Fedoseevna comes to Ivan Nikiforovich, who was neither his sister-in-law nor godfather, but still often went to him - she whispers to Ivan Nikiforovich that he never put up and could not forgive your neighbour. To top it off, as if with a special intention to offend a recent friend, Ivan Nikiforovich builds a goose barn right on the spot where he climbed over the wattle fence. At night, Ivan Ivanovich sneaks around with a saw in his hand and cuts down the pillars of the barn, and he falls with a terrible crash. All the next day, Ivan Ivanovich imagines that the hated neighbor will take revenge on him and, at least, set fire to his house. In order to get ahead of Ivan Nikiforovich, he hurries to the Mirgorod district court to file a complaint against his neighbor. After him, with the same purpose, Ivan Nikiforovich appears in court. The judge takes turns persuading the neighbors to reconcile, but they are adamant. The general confusion in the court ends with an emergency: Ivan Ivanovich's brown pig runs into the room, grabs Ivan Nikiforovich's petition and runs away with paper. The mayor goes to Ivan Ivanovich, accusing the owner of the act of his pig and at the same time trying to persuade him to reconcile with his neighbor. The mayor's visit does not bring success. Ivan Nikiforovich writes a new complaint, the paper is put in a closet, and it lies there for a year, two, three. Ivan Nikiforovich builds a new goose barn, the enmity of the neighbors grows stronger. The whole city lives with one desire - to reconcile the enemies, but this turns out to be impossible. Where Ivan Ivanovich appears, there cannot be Ivan Nikiforovich, and vice versa. At the assembly given by the mayor, a decent society deceives nose to nose of warring neighbors. Everyone persuades them to stretch out their hands to each other as a sign of reconciliation. Remembering the cause of the quarrel, Ivan Nikiforovich says: "Let me tell you in a friendly way, Ivan Ivanovich! You were offended for the devil knows what it is: because I called you a goose ..." The insulting word was uttered again, Ivan Ivanovich was furious, reconciliation, already almost accomplished, flies to dust! Twelve years later, on a holiday in the church among the people, at a distance from each other, there are two old men - Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich. How they have changed and aged! But all their thoughts are occupied with the lawsuit, which is already underway in Poltava, and even in bad weather Ivan Nikiforovich goes there in the hope of solving the case in his favor. Waiting for favorable news and Ivan Ivanovich ... In Mirgorod it is autumn with its melancholy weather: mud and fog, monotonous rain, tearful sky without a light. Boring in this world, gentlemen! V. M. Sotnikov Auditor Comedy (1836) In a county town, from which "you ride for three years, you won't get to any state," the mayor, Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, gathers officials in order to report unpleasant news: he was notified by a letter from an acquaintance that "an auditor from St. Petersburg" is coming to their city , incognito. And with a secret prescription." The mayor - two rats of unnatural size dreamed all night - had a premonition of something bad. The reasons for the visit of the auditor are being sought, and the judge, Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin (who has read "five or six books, and therefore is somewhat free-thinking"), suggests a war being started by Russia. The mayor, meanwhile, advises Artemy Filippovich Strawberry, the trustee of charitable institutions, to put clean caps on the sick, to dispose of the strength of the tobacco they smoke, and in general, if possible, to reduce their number - and meets the full sympathy of Strawberry, who reveres that "a simple man: if he dies , then he will die; if he recovers, then he will recover.” To the judge, the mayor points out "domestic geese with small goslings" that snoop underfoot in the front for petitioners; to the assessor, from whom from childhood "he gives away a little vodka"; on a hunting rapnik that hangs over the very closet with papers. With a discussion about bribes (and in particular, greyhound puppies), the mayor turns to Luka Lukich Khlopov, the superintendent of schools, and laments the strange habits "inseparable from an academic title": one teacher constantly makes faces, another explains with such fervor that he does not remember himself ("Of course, it is Alexander the Macedonian hero, but why break the chairs? This is a loss to the treasury"). The postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin appears, "a simple-minded man to the point of naivety." The mayor, fearing a denunciation, asks him to look through the letters, but the postmaster, who has long been reading them out of pure curiosity ("you will read another letter with pleasure"), has not yet come across anything about the St. Petersburg official. Out of breath, the landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky enter and, interrupting each other every minute, tell about a visit to a hotel tavern and a young man, observant (“and looked into our plates”), with such an expression on his face - in a word, precisely the auditor: "and he doesn’t pay money, and he doesn’t go, who would be if not him? The officials anxiously disperse, the mayor decides to "go on parade to the hotel" and gives hasty instructions to the quarterly regarding the street leading to the tavern and the construction of a church at a charitable institution (do not forget that it began to "be built, but burned down", otherwise someone will blurt out what and was not built at all). The mayor with Dobchinsky leaves in great excitement, Bobchinsky runs after the droshky like a cockerel. Anna Andreevna, the mayor's wife, and Marya Antonovna, his daughter, appear. The first scolds her daughter for her sluggishness and asks the departing husband through the window if the newcomer has a mustache and what kind of mustache. Annoyed by the failure, she sends Avdotya for the droshky. In a small hotel room, the servant Osip lies on a master's bed. He is hungry, complains about the owner who lost money, about his thoughtless extravagance and recalls the joys of life in St. Petersburg. Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov appears, a young stupid man. After a squabble, with increasing timidity, he sends Osip for dinner - if they don't give it, then for the owner. Explanations with the tavern servant are followed by a crappy dinner. Having emptied the plates, Khlestakov scolds, about this time the mayor inquires about him. In a dark room under the stairs, where Khlestakov lodges, they meet. Sincere words about the purpose of the trip, about the formidable father who called Ivan Alexandrovich from St. Petersburg, are mistaken for a skillful invention incognito, and the mayor understands his cries about his unwillingness to go to prison in the sense that the visitor will not cover up his misdeeds. The mayor, lost in fear, offers the visitor money and asks to move into his house, as well as to inspect - for the sake of curiosity - some institutions in the city, "somehow charitable and others." The visitor unexpectedly agrees, and, having written two notes on the tavern account, to Strawberry and his wife, the mayor sends Dobchinsky with them (Bobchinsky, who was diligently eavesdropping at the door, falls to the floor with her), and he goes with Khlestakov. Anna Andreevna, waiting impatiently and anxiously for news, is still annoyed with her daughter. Dobchinsky comes running with a note and a story about the official that "he is not a general, but will not yield to the general", about his menacingness at the beginning and softening afterwards. Anna Andreevna reads a note where the enumeration of pickles and caviar is interspersed with a request to prepare a room for the guest and take wine from the merchant Abdu-lin. Both ladies, quarreling, decide which dress to wear to whom. The mayor and Khlestakov return, accompanied by Strawberry (whose labardan had just been eaten in the hospital), Khlopov and the indispensable Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky. The conversation concerns the successes of Artemy Filippovich: from the time he took office, all the sick "recover like flies." The mayor makes a speech about his disinterested zeal. The exasperated Khlestakov is interested in whether it is possible to play cards somewhere in the city, and the mayor, understanding the trick in the question, strongly speaks out against the cards (not embarrassed in the least by his recent victory over Khlopov). Completely unleashed by the appearance of the ladies, Khlestakov tells how in St. Petersburg they took him for the commander-in-chief, that he and Pushkin were on friendly terms, how he once managed the department, which was preceded by persuasion and sending thirty-five thousand one couriers to him; he paints his unparalleled severity, predicts his imminent work as a field marshal, which inspires panic fear in the mayor and his entourage, in which fear everyone disperses when Khlestakov retires to sleep. Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna, arguing over who the newcomer looked at more, together with the mayor, vying with each other, ask Osip about the owner. He answers so ambiguously and evasively that, assuming an important person in Khlestakov, they only affirm themselves in that. The mayor orders police officers to stand on the porch in order to keep out merchants, petitioners and anyone who could complain. Officials in the mayor's house confer on what to do, decide to give the visitor a bribe and persuade Lyapkin-Tyapkin, famous for his eloquence ("whatever the word, Cicero flew off the tongue"), to be the first. Khlestakov wakes up and scares them off. The utterly cowardly Lyapkin-Tyapkin, having entered with the intention of giving money, cannot even answer coherently whether he has been serving for a long time and what he has served; he drops the money and considers himself almost arrested already. Khlestakov, who raised the money, asks for a loan, for "he spent on the road." Talking with the postmaster about the pleasures of life in a county town, offering the superintendent of schools a cigar and the question of who, to his taste, is preferable - brunettes or blondes, embarrassing Strawberry with the remark that yesterday he was shorter, he takes from everyone in turn " loan" under the same pretext. Strawberries diversify the situation by denouncing everyone and offering to state their thoughts in writing. From Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, Khlestakov immediately asks for a thousand rubles, or at least a hundred (however, he is content with sixty-five). Dobchinsky is busy about his first child, born before marriage, wanting to make him a legitimate son - and he is hopeful. Bobchinsky asks, on occasion, to tell all the nobles in St. Petersburg: senators, admirals (“yes, if the sovereign has to, tell the sovereign too”) that “Peter Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives in such and such a city.” Having sent the landowners away, Khlestakov sat down to write a letter to his friend Tryapichkin in St. Petersburg in order to describe a funny incident, how they took him for a "statesman." While the owner is writing, Osip persuades him to leave as soon as possible and succeeds in his arguments. Having sent Osip away with a letter and for horses, Khlestakov receives the merchants, who are loudly prevented by the quarterly Derzhimorda. They complain about the "insults" of the mayor, lend the requested five hundred rubles (Osip takes a sugar loaf, and much more: "a rope will come in handy on the road"). The hopeful merchants are replaced by a locksmith and a non-commissioned officer's wife with complaints about the same mayor. Osip sticks out the rest of the petitioners. The meeting with Marya Antonovna, who, really, did not go anywhere, but only thought if her mother was here, ends with a declaration of love, a kiss from the lying Khlestakov and his repentance on his knees. Anna Andreevna, who suddenly appeared in anger, exposes her daughter, and Khlestakov, finding her still very "appetizing", falls on his knees and asks for her hand. He is not embarrassed by Anna Andreevna's bewildered confession that she is "married in some way", he suggests "retiring under the canopy of the jets", for "for love there is no difference." Suddenly running in, Marya Antonovna receives a scolding from her mother and a marriage proposal from Khlestakov, who is still on his knees. The mayor enters, frightened by the complaints of the merchants who broke through to Khlestakov, and begs not to believe the scammers. He does not understand his wife's words about matchmaking until Khlestakov threatens to shoot himself. Not really understanding what is happening, the mayor blesses the young. Osip reports that the horses are ready, and Khlestakov announces to the completely lost family of the mayor that he is going to his rich uncle for only one day, borrows money again, sits in a carriage, accompanied by the mayor and his household. Osip carefully takes the Persian carpet on the mat. After seeing off Khlestakov, Anna Andreevna and the mayor indulge in dreams of Petersburg life. The called merchants appear, and the triumphant mayor, having overtaken them with great fear, joyfully releases everyone with God. One after another, "retired officials, honorable persons in the city" come, surrounded by their families, in order to congratulate the family of the mayor. In the midst of congratulations, when the mayor with Anna Andreevna, among the guests languishing with envy, consider themselves a general's couple, the postmaster runs in with the message that "the official whom we took for the auditor was not the auditor." Khlestakov's printed letter to Tryapichkin is read aloud and in turn, since every new reader, having reached the characteristics of his own person, goes blind, slips and moves away. The crushed mayor delivers a diatribe not so much to the heliporter Khlestakov, as to the "clicker, paper marak", which he will certainly insert into a comedy. General anger is directed at Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, who started a false rumor when the sudden appearance of a gendarme announcing that "an official who arrived by personal order from St. Petersburg requires you to come to him at once" plunges everyone into a kind of tetanus. The silent scene lasts more than a minute, during which time no one changes his position. "The curtain falls." E. V. Kharitonova Overcoat Tale (1842) The story that happened to Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin begins with a story about his birth and his bizarre name and proceeds to a story about his service as a titular adviser. Many young officials, chuckling, fix him dokuki, shower him with papers, push him under the arm - and only when he is completely unbearable, he says: "Leave me, why are you offending me?" - in a voice bowing to pity. Akaky Akakiyevich, whose job it is to copy papers, does it with love and, even coming out of his presence and having hastily sipped his own, takes out a jar of ink and copies the papers brought home, and if there are none, he purposely makes a copy for himself from some document with an intricate address. Entertainment, the pleasures of friendship do not exist for him, "having written to his heart's content, he went to bed," with a smile anticipating tomorrow's rewriting. However, this regularity of life is violated by an unforeseen incident. One morning, after repeated suggestions made by the Petersburg frost, Akaky Akakievich, having studied his greatcoat (so lost in appearance that the department had long called it a bonnet), notices that it is completely transparent on the shoulders and back. He decides to carry her to the tailor Petrovich, whose habits and biography are briefly, but not without detail, outlined. Petrovich examines the hood and declares that nothing can be fixed, but a new overcoat will have to be made. Shocked by the price Petrovich had named, Akaky Akakievich decides that he has chosen a bad time, and comes when, according to calculations, Petrovich is hungover, and therefore more accommodating. But Petrovich stands his ground. Seeing that one cannot do without a new overcoat, Akaky Akakievich is looking for how to get those eighty rubles, for which, in his opinion, Petrovich will get down to business. He decides to reduce the "ordinary costs": not to drink tea in the evenings, not to light candles, to walk on tiptoe so as not to wear out the soles prematurely, to give the laundress less often, and in order not to wear out, stay at home in one dressing gown. His life changes completely: the dream of an overcoat accompanies him, like a pleasant friend of life. Every month he visits Petrovich to talk about the overcoat. The expected reward for the holiday, against expectations, turns out to be twenty rubles more, and one day Akaky Akakievich and Petrovich go to the shops. And the cloth, and the calico on the lining, and the cat on the collar, and the work of Petrovich - everything turns out to be beyond praise, and, in view of the onset of frost, Akaki Akakievich one day goes to the department in a new overcoat. This event does not go unnoticed, everyone praises the overcoat and demands that Akaky Akakievich set the evening on such an occasion, and only the intervention of a certain official (as if on purpose a birthday man), who called everyone for tea, saves the embarrassed Akaki Akakievich. After a day that was like a great solemn holiday for him, Akaky Akakiyevich returns home, has a merry dinner and, after having a sybaritic idleness, goes to the official in a distant part of the city. Again everyone praises his overcoat, but soon they turn to whist, dinner, champagne. Forced to do the same, Akaky Akakievich feels unusual joy, but, mindful of the late hour, slowly goes home. Excited at first, he even rushes after some lady (“whose every part of her body was full of unusual movement”), but the deserted streets that soon stretch out inspire him with involuntary fear. In the middle of a huge deserted square, some people with mustaches stop him and take off his overcoat. The misadventures of Akaky Akakievich begin. He does not find help from a private bailiff. In the presence, where he comes a day later in his old hood, they pity him and even think of making a clubbing, but, having collected a mere trifle, they give advice to go to a significant person, which can contribute to a more successful search for an overcoat. The following describes the methods and customs of a significant person who has become significant only recently, and therefore preoccupied with how to give himself greater significance: "Strictness, severity and - severity," he usually used to say. "Wishing to impress his friend, whom he had not seen for many years ", he cruelly scolds Akaky Akakievich, who, in his opinion, turned to him out of shape. Without feeling his legs, he gets home and falls down with a strong fever. A few days of unconsciousness and delirium - and Akaki Akakievich dies, about which only on the fourth after the funeral, the department recognizes him during the day. Soon it becomes known that at night, near the Kalinkin bridge, a dead man appears, stripping off everyone’s overcoats without understanding the rank and rank. Someone recognizes Akaky Akakievich in him. The efforts made by the police to catch the dead man are in vain. At that time, one significant person, who is not alien to compassion, having learned that Bashmachkin died suddenly, remains terribly shocked by this and, in order to have some fun, goes to a friendly party, from where he goes not home, but to the familiar lady Karolina Ivanovna, and, in the midst of terrible weather, he suddenly feels that someone has grabbed him by the collar. In horror, he recognizes Akaky Akakievich, who triumphantly pulls off his overcoat. Pale and frightened, a significant person returns home and no longer scolds his subordinates with severity. The appearance of the dead official has since completely ceased, and the ghost that met a little later the Kolomna guard was already much taller and wore an enormous mustache. E. V. Kharitonova Marriage An absolutely incredible event in two acts. Comedy (1842) The court adviser Podkolesin, lying on the sofa with a pipe and thinking that it would not hurt to get married, calls on the servant Stepan, whom he asks both about whether the matchmaker has come in, and about his visit to the tailor, about the quality of the cloth put on the tailcoat and not did the tailor ask why the master's tailcoat was of such fine cloth and whether, they say, the master wanted to marry. Turning then to waxing and discussing it in the same detail, Podkolesin laments that marriage is such a troublesome thing. The matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna appears and talks about the bride Agafya Tikhonovna, a merchant's daughter, her appearance (“like refined sugar!”), Her unwillingness to marry a merchant, but only a nobleman (“such a great man”). Satisfied Podkolesin tells the matchmaker to come the day after tomorrow (“I’ll lie down, and you will tell”), she reproaches him for laziness and says that he will soon be unfit for marriage. His friend Kochkarev runs in, scolds Thekla for marrying him, but, realizing that Podkolesin is thinking of marrying, he takes the most active part in this. Having asked the matchmaker where the bride lives, he sees Thekla off, intending to marry Podkolesin himself. He paints the charms of family life to an insecure friend and was already convincing him, but Podkolesin again thinks about the strangeness of the fact that "everyone was unmarried, and now suddenly married." Kochkarev explains that now Podkolesin is just a log and does not matter, otherwise there will be "such little canals" around him, and everyone looks like him. already quite ready to go, Podkolesin says that tomorrow is better. With abuse, Kochkarev takes him away. Agafya Tikhonovna with her aunt, Arina Panteleymonovna, fortune-telling on the cards, she commemorates the late father Agafya, his greatness and solidity, and thereby tries to attract the attention of her niece to the merchant "on the cloth line" Alexei Dmitrievich Starikov. But Agafya is stubborn: he is a merchant, and his beard is growing, and a nobleman is always better. Thekla comes, complains about the troublesomeness of her work: she went all the way home, went through the offices, but six people found suitors. She describes the suitors, but the disgruntled aunt quarrels with Thekla about who is better - a merchant or a nobleman. The doorbell is ringing. In terrible confusion, everyone scatters, Dunyasha runs to open it. Entered Ivan Pavlovich Yaichnitsa, an executor, rereads the painting of the dowry and compares it with what is available. Nikanor Ivanovich Anuchkin appears, slender and "great", looking for knowledge of the French language in the bride. Mutually concealing the true reason for their appearance, both suitors wait further. Baltazar Baltazarovich Zhevakin, a retired lieutenant of the naval service, comes, from the threshold he commemorates Sicily, which forms a general conversation. Anuchkin is interested in the education of Sicilian women and is shocked by Zhevakin's statement that everyone, including the peasants, speaks French. Fried eggs are curious about the physique of the local men and their habits. Discussions about the strangeness of some surnames are interrupted by the appearance of Kochkarev and Podkolesin. A roaring tussock, wanting to immediately evaluate the bride, falls to the keyhole, causing Thekla's horror. The bride, accompanied by her aunt, comes out, the suitors introduce themselves, Kochkarev is recommended by a relative of a somewhat vague nature, and Podkolyosin is put forward almost as the head of the department. Starikov also appears. The general conversation about the weather, interrupted by a direct question from Yaichnitsa about what service Agafya Tikhonovna would like to see her husband in, is interrupted by the embarrassed flight of the bride. The grooms, believing to come in the evening "for a cup of tea" and discussing whether the bride's nose is not big, disperse. Podkolesin, having already decided that her nose is too big, and she hardly knows French, tells her friend that he does not like the bride. Kochkarev easily convinces him of the incomparable virtues of the bride and, having taken the word that Podkolesin will not back down, he undertakes to send the rest of the suitors away. Agafya Tikhonovna cannot decide which of the suitors she will choose (“If Nikanor Ivanovich’s lips were put to Ivan Kuzmich’s nose ...”), she wants to cast lots. Kochkarev appears, urging him to take Podkolesin, and decisively only him, because he is a miracle man, and the rest are all rubbish. After explaining how to refuse suitors (saying that she is not yet married, or simply: get out, fools), Kochkarev runs away after Podkolesin. Fried Eggs arrives, demanding a direct yes or no answer. Zhevakin and Anuchkin are next. Confused, Agafya Tikhonovna blurts out "let's get out" and, frightened by the sight of Fried Eggs ("Wow, they'll kill you! .."), runs away. Kochkarev enters, leaving Podkolesin in the hallway to fix his stirrup, and explains to the taken aback suitors that the bride is a fool, she has almost no dowry, and in French she is not a belmes. The suitors scold Thekla and leave, leaving Zhevakin, who did not hesitate to marry. Kochkarev also sends him away, promising his participation and undoubted success in the matchmaking. To the embarrassed bride, Kochkarev certifies Zhevakin as a fool and a drunkard. Zhevakin eavesdropped and was amazed at the strange behavior of his intercessor. Agafya Tikhonovna does not want to talk to him, multiplying his bewilderment: the seventeenth bride refuses, but why? Kochkarev brings Podkolesin and forces him, left alone with the bride, to open his heart to her. The conversation about the pleasures of riding in a boat, the desirability of a good summer and the proximity of the Ekateriningof festivities ends in nothing: Podkolesin takes his leave. However, he was returned by Kochkarev, who had already ordered dinner, agreed to go to church in an hour and begged his friend to marry without delay. But Podkolesin leaves. Having rewarded his friend with many unflattering nicknames, Kochkarev hurries to return him. Agafya Tikhonovna, thinking that she has not spent twenty-seven years in girls, is waiting for the groom. Kicked into the room, Podkolyosin is unable to get down to business, and finally Kochkarev himself asks for Agafya Tikhonovna's hand in his place. Everything is arranged, and the bride hurries to get dressed. Podkolesin, already satisfied and grateful, is left alone, since Kochkarev leaves to see if the table is ready (Podkolesin’s hat, however, he prudently cleans up), and reflects that he has been up to now and whether he understood the meaning of life. He is surprised that many people live in such blindness, and if he happened to be a sovereign, he would order everyone to marry. The thought of the irreparability of what will happen now is somewhat embarrassing, and then it frightens him in earnest. He decides to run away, even if through the window, if it is impossible to enter the door, even without a hat, since it is not there, he jumps out the window and leaves in a cab. Agafya Tikhonovna, Fyokla, Arina Panteleymonovna and Kochkarev, appearing one after another, in bewilderment, which is resolved by the summoned Dunyashka, who has seen the entire passage. Arina Panteleimonovna showers abuse on Kochkarev (“Yes, after that you are a scoundrel, if you are an honest person!”), He runs away after the groom, but Fyokla considers the matter lost: “if the groom darted out the window, then, just my respect!” E. V. Kharitonova Players Comedy (1842) Ikharev, who appeared in the city tavern, meticulously asks the tavern servant Alexei about the guests: who are they, do they play, only among themselves and where do they take cards; generously rewards his understanding and goes to the common room to make acquaintance. Krugel and Shvokhnev appear and ask Gavryushka, the visitor's servant, where the master is from, whether he is playing and whether he is winning now. Having learned that Ikharev recently won eighty thousand, they suspect him of a cheater and are interested in what the master is doing, remaining alone. "He's already a gentleman, he behaves so well: he does nothing," follows the answer. Gavryushka was also rewarded. Ikharev gives Alexei a dozen decks of cards to put them in during the game. Shvokhnev, Krugel and Consolation arrive, paying tribute to the "friendly caresses of the owner." The argument about whether a person belongs entirely to society inspires the Uteshitelny, bringing him, perhaps, not to tears, which Ikharev, however, does not trust too much. After treating themselves to an appetizer and discussing the amazing properties of cheese, they sit down at the card table, and the guests are convinced that Ikharev is a cheat of the first degree. Consoling, having persuaded the others, admires the art of the owner and, having repented of his previous intention to beat Ikharev, offers to conclude a friendly alliance. The approaching society exchanges amazing stories (about an eleven-year-old boy who twitches with inimitable art, about a certain respectable person who studies the key to drawing any map and for that receives five thousand a year). Consolation reveals the most ingenious possibilities to flip marked cards without arousing the slightest suspicion. Ikharev, trusting his friends, talks about his "Adelaida Ivanovna", a consolidated deck, each card of which can be unmistakably guessed by him, and demonstrates his art to the admiring society. Looking for a subject for hostilities, new acquaintances tell Ikharev about the visiting landowner Mikhail Alexandrovich Glov, who laid an estate in the city for the wedding of his seventeen-year-old daughter and is now waiting for money. The trouble is, he doesn't play at all. Uteishitelny goes for Glov and soon brings him. The acquaintance is followed by Glov's complaints about the impossibility of staying in the city, as well as a discussion about the dangers of the card game, caused by the sight of Krugel and Shvokhnev playing in the corner. Aleksey, who entered, reports that Glov's horses have already been served. Taking his leave, the old man asks the Comforter to look after his son, whom he leaves to finish business in the city, for his son, twenty-two-year-old Sasha, is almost a child and still dreams of hussars. After seeing off Glov, Consolation goes for his son, believing to play on his hussar predilections and lure out money, two hundred thousand, for the mortgaged estate. The newly-minted hussar is given champagne to drink, they offer to take his sister away and sit down for cards. Enticing the "hussar" and seeing something "Barclay-de-Tolyevsky" in his courage, Consolation forces him to spend all the money. The game stops, Sasha signs the bill. However, he is not allowed to recoup. He runs to shoot, they return him, they convince him to go straight to the regiment, and, having given two hundred rubles, they escort him to the "black-haired". The official Zamukhryshkin from the order comes and announces that Glov's money will not be available earlier than two weeks. Consolation breaks it up to four days. The haste that amazed Ikharev is explained: correct information was received from Nizhny Novgorod that the merchants had sent the goods, the final deal was already on the nose, and instead of the merchants, the sons arrived. Assuming that he will certainly beat them, the Comforter gives Ikharev Glov's bill, begging him not to hesitate and immediately after receiving two hundred thousand to go to Nizhny, takes eighty thousand from him and leaves, following Krugel, hastily to pack up. Shvokhnev leaves, remembering something important. The blissful loneliness of Ikharev, thinking that since morning he had eighty thousand, and now two hundred, is interrupted by the appearance of young Glov. Having learned from Alexei that the gentlemen have already left, he announces to Ikharev that he has been carried out, "like a vulgar stump." The old father is not a father, an official from the order is also from their company, and he is not Glov, but "was a noble man, involuntarily became a rogue", undertook to participate in deception and lead Ikharev, and for that they promised him, previously beaten to the nines, three thousand , but they didn’t give it, and so they left. Ikharev wants to drag him to court, but, apparently, he cannot even complain: after all, the cards were his, and he participated in an illegal case. His despair is so great that he cannot be comforted even by Adelaide Ivanovna, whom he throws at the door and laments that a rogue will always be found at his side, "who will fool you." E. V. Kharitonova Dead Souls Poem VOLUME ONE (1835-1842)The proposed history, as will become clear from what follows, took place somewhat shortly after the "glorious expulsion of the French." A collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov arrives in the provincial town of NN (he is not old and not too young, not fat and not thin, rather pleasant and somewhat rounded in appearance) and settles in a hotel. He makes a lot of questions to the tavern servant - both regarding the owner and the income of the tavern, and revealing its solidity: about city officials, the most significant landowners, asks about the state of the region and whether there were "what diseases in their province, epidemic fevers" and other similar adversity. Having gone on visits, the visitor discovers extraordinary activity (visiting everyone, from the governor to the inspector of the medical board) and courtesy, for he knows how to say something pleasant to everyone. About himself, he speaks somehow vaguely (that he "experienced a lot in his lifetime, endured in the service for the truth, had many enemies who even attempted on his life," and now he is looking for a place to live). At the governor's house party, he manages to gain general favor and, among other things, make acquaintance with the landowners Manilov and Sobakevich. In the following days, he dined with the chief of police (where he met the landowner Nozdryov), visited the chairman of the chamber and the vice-governor, the farmer and the prosecutor, and went to the Manilov estate (which, however, was preceded by a fair author's digression, where, justified by love for detail, the author certifies in detail Petrushka, the visitor's servant: his passion for "the process of reading itself" and the ability to carry with him a special smell, "responding somewhat to residential peace"). Having traveled, against the promise, not fifteen, but all thirty miles, Chichikov finds himself in Manilovka, in the arms of an affectionate master. Manilov's house, standing on a jig, surrounded by several English-style flower beds and a gazebo with the inscription "Temple of Solitary Reflection", could characterize the owner, who was "neither this nor that", not weighed down by any passions, only unnecessarily cloying. After Manilov's confessions that Chichikov's visit was a "May day, a name day of the heart", and a dinner in the company of the hostess and two sons, Themistoclus and Alkid, Chichikov discovers the reason for his arrival: he would like to acquire peasants who have died, but have not yet been declared as such in the revision help, having issued everything legally, as if on the living (“the law - I am dumb before the law”). The first fright and bewilderment are replaced by the perfect disposition of the kind host, and, having made a deal, Chichikov departs for Sobakevich, and Manilov indulges in dreams of Chichikov's life in the neighborhood across the river, of the construction of a bridge, of a house with such a belvedere that Moscow is visible from there, and of their friendship, having learned about which the sovereign would grant them generals. Chichikov's coachman Selifan, much favored by Manilov's yard people, in conversations with his horses misses the right turn and, at the sound of a downpour, knocks the master over into the mud. In the dark, they find lodging for the night at Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka, a somewhat timid landowner, with whom Chichikov also begins to trade dead souls in the morning. Explaining that he himself would now pay taxes for them, cursing the old woman’s stupidity, promising to buy both hemp and lard, but another time, Chichikov buys souls from her for fifteen rubles, receives a detailed list of them (in which Pyotr Savelyev is especially struck by Disrespect -Trough) and, having eaten an unleavened egg pie, pancakes, pies and other things, departs, leaving the hostess in great concern as to whether she had sold too cheap. Having driven out onto the main road to the tavern, Chichikov stops for a bite to eat, which the author provides with a lengthy discourse on the properties of the appetite of middle-class gentlemen. Here Nozdryov meets him, returning from the fair in the britzka of his son-in-law Mizhuev, for he lost everything with his horses and even the watch chain. Describing the charms of the fair, the drinking qualities of dragoon officers, a certain Kuvshinnikov, a great lover of "to use about strawberries" and, finally, presenting a puppy, "a real face", Nozdryov takes Chichikov (thinking to get hold of here too) to his place, taking away his reluctant son-in-law. Having described Nozdryov, "in some respects a historical person" (for wherever he was, there was history), his possessions, the unpretentiousness of dinner with an abundance, however, drinks of dubious quality, the author sends his son-in-law to his wife (Nozdryov admonishes him with abuse and a word "fetyuk"), and Chichikova is forced to turn to her subject; but he fails to beg or buy souls: Nozdryov offers to exchange them, take them in addition to the stallion or make a bet in a card game, finally scolds, quarrels, and they part for the night. Persuasion resumes in the morning, and, having agreed to play checkers, Chichikov notices that Nozdryov is shamelessly cheating. Chichikov, whom the owner and the servants are already trying to beat, manages to escape in view of the appearance of the police captain, who announces that Nozdryov is on trial. On the road, Chichikov's carriage collides with a certain carriage, and, while the onlookers who come running are breeding tangled horses, Chichikov admires the sixteen-year-old young lady, indulges in reasoning about her and dreams of family life. A visit to Sobakevich in his strong, like himself, estate is accompanied by a thorough dinner, a discussion of city officials, who, according to the owner, are all swindlers (one prosecutor is a decent person, "and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig"), and is crowned with an interesting guest deal. Not at all frightened by the strangeness of the object, Sobakevich bargains, characterizes the favorable qualities of each serf, provides Chichikov with a detailed list and forces him to give a deposit. Chichikov's path to the neighboring landowner Plyushkin, mentioned by Sobakevich, is interrupted by a conversation with a peasant who gave Plyushkin an apt, but not too printed nickname, and by the author's lyrical reflection on his former love for unfamiliar places and the indifference that has now appeared. Plyushkin, this "hole in humanity", Chichikov at first takes for a housekeeper or a beggar, whose place is on the porch. His most important feature is his amazing stinginess, and he even carries the old sole of his boot into a heap heaped in the master's chambers. Having shown the profitability of his proposal (namely, that he would take over the taxes for the dead and runaway peasants), Chichikov fully succeeds in his enterprise and, refusing tea with cracker, provided with a letter to the chairman of the chamber, departs in the most cheerful mood. While Chichikov is sleeping in the hotel, the author reflects with sadness on the meanness of the objects he paints. Meanwhile, pleased Chichikov, waking up, composes merchant's fortresses, studies the lists of acquired peasants, reflects on their alleged fate, and finally goes to the civil chamber in order to conclude the case as soon as possible. Manilov, met at the gates of the hotel, accompanies him. Then follows a description of the public office, Chichikov's first ordeals and a bribe to a certain jug snout, until he enters the chairman's apartment, where, by the way, he also finds Sobakevich. The chairman agrees to be Plyushkin's attorney, and at the same time speeds up other transactions. The acquisition of Chichikov is discussed, with land or for withdrawal he bought peasants and in what places. Having found out that they were sent to the Kherson province, having discussed the properties of the sold peasants (here the chairman remembered that the coachman Mikheev seemed to have died, but Sobakevich assured that he was alive and “became healthier than before”), they finish with champagne, go to the chief of police, “father and benefactor in the city" (whose habits are immediately outlined), where they drink to the health of the new Kherson landowner, become completely excited, force Chichikov to stay and attempt to marry him. Chichikov's purchases make a splash in the city, a rumor is circulating that he is a millionaire. Ladies are crazy about him. Several times trying to describe the ladies, the author becomes shy and retreats. On the eve of the governor's ball, Chichikov even receives a love letter, though unsigned. Having used, as usual, a lot of time on the toilet and being pleased with the result, Chichikov goes to the ball, where he passes from one embrace to another. The ladies, among whom he is trying to find the sender of the letter, even quarrel, challenging his attention. But when the governor's wife approaches him, he forgets everything, for she is accompanied by her daughter ("Institute, just graduated"), a sixteen-year-old blonde, whose carriage he encountered on the road. He loses the favor of the ladies, because he starts a conversation with a fascinating blonde, scandalously neglecting the rest. To complete the trouble, Nozdryov appears and loudly asks if Chichikov has bought a lot of the dead. And although Nozdryov is obviously drunk and the embarrassed society is gradually distracted, Chichikov is not given a whist or the subsequent dinner, and he leaves upset. At this time, a chariot with the landowner Korobochka enters the city, whose growing anxiety forced her to come in order to find out, nevertheless, at what price dead souls. The next morning, this news becomes the property of a certain pleasant lady, and she hurries to tell it to another, pleasant in all respects, the story is overgrown with amazing details (Chichikov, armed to the teeth, bursts into Korobochka in the dead of midnight, demands souls that have died, inspires terrible fear - " the whole village has come running, the children are crying, everyone is screaming. Her friend concludes from the fact that the dead souls are only a cover, and Chichikov wants to take away the governor's daughter. After discussing the details of this enterprise, Nozdryov's undoubted participation in it and the qualities of the governor's daughter, both ladies dedicate the prosecutor to everything and set off to rebel the city. In a short time, the city seethes, to which is added the news about the appointment of a new governor-general, as well as information about the papers received: about the fake banknote maker who showed up in the province, and about the robber who fled from legal persecution. Trying to understand who Chichikov is, they recall that he was certified very vaguely and even spoke about those who attempted on his life. The postmaster's statement that Chichikov, in his opinion, is Captain Kopeikin, who took up arms against the injustice of the world and became a robber, is rejected, since it follows from the entertaining postmaster's story that the captain is missing an arm and leg, and Chichikov is whole. An assumption arises whether Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise, and many begin to find a certain similarity, especially in profile. Inquiries from Korobochka, Manilov and Sobakevich do not yield results, and Nozdryov only multiplies the confusion, declaring that Chichikov is definitely a spy, a fake banknote maker and had an undoubted intention to take away the governor's daughter, in which Nozdryov undertook to help him (each of the versions was accompanied by detailed details up to the name priest who took up the wedding). All these rumors have a tremendous effect on the prosecutor, he has a stroke, and he dies. Chichikov himself, sitting in the hotel with a slight cold, is surprised that none of the officials visits him. Finally, having gone on visits, he discovers that they do not receive him at the governor's, and in other places they fearfully shun him. Nozdryov, visiting him at the hotel, among the general noise he made, partly clarifies the situation by announcing that he agrees to hasten the kidnapping of the governor's daughter. The next day, Chichikov hurriedly leaves, but is stopped by a funeral procession and forced to contemplate the whole world of bureaucracy flowing behind the coffin of the prosecutor Brichka leaves the city, and the open spaces on both sides of it evoke sad and encouraging thoughts about Russia, the road, and then only sad about their chosen hero. Concluding that it is time for the virtuous hero to give rest, but, on the contrary, to hide the scoundrel, the author sets out the life story of Pavel Ivanovich, his childhood, training in classes where he already showed a practical mind, his relationship with his comrades and teacher, his service later in the state chamber, some commission for the construction of a government building, where for the first time he gave vent to some of his weaknesses, his subsequent departure to other, not so profitable places, transfer to the customs service, where, showing honesty and incorruptibility almost unnatural, he made a lot of money in collusion with smugglers, went bankrupt, but dodged the criminal court, although he was forced to resign. He became a confidant, and during the fuss about the pledge of the peasants, he put together a plan in his head, began to go around the expanses of Russia, in order to buy dead souls and put them in the treasury as living, get money, buy, perhaps, a village and provide future offspring. Having again complained about the properties of his hero's nature and partly justified him, having found him the name of "owner, acquirer", the author is distracted by the urged running of horses, the similarity of the flying troika with rushing Russia and the ringing of a bell completes the first volume. VOLUME TWO(1842-1852, published posthumously) It opens with a description of the nature that makes up the estate of Andrei Ivanovich Tentetnikov, whom the author calls "the smoker of the sky." The story of the stupidity of his pastime is followed by the story of a life inspired by hopes at the very beginning, overshadowed by the pettiness of service and troubles afterwards; he retires, intending to improve the estate, reads books, takes care of the peasant, but without experience, sometimes just human, this does not give the expected results, the peasant is idle, Tentetnikov gives up. He breaks off acquaintances with his neighbors, offended by the treatment of General Betrishchev, stops visiting him, although he cannot forget his daughter Ulinka. In a word, not having someone who would tell him an invigorating "forward!", He completely turns sour. Chichikov comes to him, apologizing for a breakdown in the carriage, curiosity and a desire to pay respect. Having won the favor of the owner with his amazing ability to adapt to anyone, Chichikov, having lived with him for a while, goes to the general, to whom he spins a story about a absurd uncle and, as usual, begs for the dead. On the laughing general, the poem fails, and we find Chichikov heading towards Colonel Koshkarev. Against expectation, he gets to Pyotr Petrovich Petukh, whom at first he finds completely naked, carried away by the hunt for sturgeon. At the Rooster, having nothing to get hold of, for the estate is mortgaged, he only overeats terribly, gets acquainted with the bored landowner Platonov and, having incited him to travel together in Russia, goes to Konstantin Fedorovich Kotanzhoglo, married to Platonov's sister. He talks about the ways of managing, by which he increased the income from the estate dozens of times, and Chichikov is terribly inspired. Very promptly, he visits Colonel Koshkarev, who has divided his village into committees, expeditions and departments and has arranged a perfect paper production in the mortgaged estate, as it turns out. Returning, he listens to the curses of the bilious Costanjoglo to the factories and manufactories that corrupt the peasant, to the peasant's absurd desire to enlighten, and to his neighbor Khlobuev, who has run a hefty estate and is now lowering it for nothing. Having experienced tenderness and even a craving for honest work, after listening to the story of the farmer Murazov, who made forty millions in an impeccable way, Chichikov the next day, accompanied by Kostanzhoglo and Platonov, goes to Khlobuev, observes the unrest and debauchery of his household in the neighborhood of a governess for children, the fashion of a dressed wife and other traces of ridiculous luxury. Having borrowed money from Kostanzhoglo and Platonov, he gives a deposit for the estate, intending to buy it, and goes to the Platonov estate, where he meets his brother Vasily, who effectively manages the economy. Then he suddenly appears at their neighbor Lenitsyn, clearly a rogue, wins his sympathy with his skillfully tickling a child and receives dead souls. After many seizures in the manuscript, Chichikov is found already in the city at a fair, where he buys fabric of a lingonberry color so dear to him with a spark. He runs into Khlobuev, whom, apparently, he cheated, either depriving him, or almost depriving him of his inheritance by some kind of forgery. Khlobuev, who missed him, is taken away by Murazov, who convinces Khlobuev of the need to work and determines for him to raise funds for the church. Meanwhile, denunciations against Chichikov are being discovered both about forgery and about dead souls. The tailor brings a new coat. Suddenly, a gendarme appears, dragging smart Chichikov to the governor-general, "angry as anger itself." Here all his atrocities become apparent, and he, kissing the general's boot, plunges into the prison. In a dark closet, tearing his hair and coat tails, mourning the loss of a box of papers, Murazov finds Chichikov, awakens in him with simple virtuous words the desire to live honestly and goes to soften the governor-general. At that time, officials who want to harm their wise superiors and receive a bribe from Chichikov deliver a box to him, kidnap an important witness and write many denunciations in order to completely confuse the matter. Unrest breaks out in the province itself, greatly worrying the governor-general. However, Murazov knows how to feel the sensitive strings of his soul and give him sound advice, which the Governor-General, having released Chichikov, is going to take advantage of, as "the manuscript breaks off." E. V. Kharitonova Portrait Tale (1st edition - 1835, 2nd edition - 1842) The tragic story of the artist Chartkov began in front of a shop in Shchukinsky yard, where among the many paintings depicting peasants or landscapes, he saw one and, having paid the last two kopecks for it, brought it home. This is a portrait of an old man in Asiatic clothes, seemingly unfinished, but captured by such a strong brush that the eyes in the portrait looked as if they were alive. At home, Chartkov learns that the owner came with a quarterly, demanding payment for the apartment. The annoyance of Chartkov, who has already regretted the two kopecks and is sitting in poverty, without a candle, is multiplied. He reflects, not without acrimony, on the fate of a young talented artist, forced to a modest apprenticeship, while visiting painters "by their habitual manner alone" make a fuss and collect a fair amount of capital. At this time, his gaze falls on the portrait, already forgotten by him - and completely alive, even destroying the harmony of the portrait itself, the eyes frighten him, giving him some kind of unpleasant feeling. Having gone to sleep behind the screen, he sees through the cracks a portrait illuminated by the moon, also staring at him. In fear, Chartkov curtains it with a sheet, but either he sees eyes shining through the canvas, or it seems that the sheet has been torn off, and finally he sees that the sheet is really gone, and the old man stirred and crawled out of the frames. The old man comes to him behind the screen, sits down at his feet and begins to count the money that he takes out of the bag he brought with him. One bundle with the inscription "1000 chervonets" is rolled aside, and Chartkov grabs it imperceptibly. Desperately clutching the money, he wakes up; the hand feels the heaviness that has just been in it. After a succession of recurring nightmares, he wakes up late and heavy. The quarterly who came with the owner, having learned that there is no money, offers to pay with work. The portrait of the old man attracts his attention, and, looking at the canvas, he inadvertently squeezes the frames - a bundle known to Chartkov with the inscription "1000 chervonets" falls on the floor. On the same day, Chartkov pays off with the owner and, consoled by stories about treasures, drowning out the first movement to buy paints and lock himself up in the studio for three years, rents a luxurious apartment on Nevsky, dresses dandy, advertises in a walking newspaper, and already the next day he receives a customer. An important lady, having described the desired details of the future portrait of her daughter, takes her away when Chartkov seemed to have just signed and was ready to grab something important in her face. The next time, she remains dissatisfied with the resemblance that has appeared, the yellowness of the face and the shadows under the eyes, and, finally, she takes Chartkov's old work, Psyche, slightly updated by the annoyed artist, for a portrait. In a short time, Chartkov comes into fashion; grasping one general expression, he paints many portraits, satisfying a variety of claims. He is rich, accepted in aristocratic houses, speaks sharply and arrogantly about artists. Many who knew Chartkov before are amazed at how the talent, so noticeable at the beginning, could disappear in him. He is important, he reproaches youth for immorality, becomes a miser, and one day, at the invitation of the Academy of Arts, having come to look at a painting sent from Italy by one of his former comrades, he sees perfection and understands the whole abyss of his fall. He locks himself in the workshop and plunges into work, but is forced to stop every minute because of ignorance of the elementary truths, the study of which he neglected at the beginning of his career. Soon a terrible envy seizes him, he begins to buy up the best works of art, and only after his quick death from a fever combined with consumption, it becomes clear that the masterpieces, for the acquisition of which he used all his vast fortune, were cruelly destroyed by him. His death is terrible: the terrible eyes of the old man seemed to him everywhere. History Chartkova had some explanation after a short time at one of the auctions in St. Petersburg. Among Chinese vases, furniture and paintings, the attention of many is attracted by an amazing portrait of a certain Asian, whose eyes are written out with such skill that they seem alive. The price increases fourfold, and here the artist B. appears, declaring his special rights to this canvas. In support of these words, he tells a story that happened to his father. Having outlined to begin with a part of the city called Kolomna, he describes a usurer who once lived there, a giant of Asian appearance, capable of lending any amount to anyone who wishes, from the niche of an old woman to wasteful nobles. His interest seemed small and the terms of payment very favorable, but by strange arithmetic calculations, the amount to be returned increased enormously. The worst of all was the fate of those who received money from the hands of the sinister Asian. The story of a young brilliant nobleman, whose disastrous change in character brought the wrath of the empress upon him, ended with his madness and death. The life of a wonderful beauty, for the sake of her marriage with whom her chosen one made a loan from a usurer (for the bride's parents saw an obstacle to marriage in the frustrated state of affairs of the groom), a life poisoned in one year by the poison of jealousy, intolerance and whims that suddenly appeared in the previously noble character of her husband. Having encroached even on the life of his wife, the unfortunate man committed suicide. Many less prominent stories, since they happened in the lower classes, were also associated with the name of the pawnbroker. The father of the narrator, a self-taught artist, when he was about to portray the spirit of darkness, often thought about his terrible neighbor, and one day he comes to him and demands to draw a portrait of himself in order to remain in the picture "quite like alive." The father gladly sets to work, but the better he manages to capture the appearance of the old man, the more vividly the eyes come out on the canvas, the more painful feeling takes possession of him. No longer able to endure the growing disgust for work, he refuses to continue, and the old man's pleas, explaining that after death his life will be preserved in the portrait by supernatural power, frighten him completely. He runs away, the unfinished portrait is brought to him by the old man's maid, and the usurer himself dies the next day. Over time, the artist notices changes in himself: feeling jealous of his student, he harms him, his paintings show the eyes of a usurer. When he is about to burn a terrible portrait, a friend begs him. But even he is forced to soon sell it to his nephew; got rid of him and nephew. The artist understands that a part of the moneylender's soul has moved into a terrible portrait, and the death of his wife, daughter and young son finally assure him of this. He places the elder in the Academy of Arts and goes to the monastery, where he leads a strict life, seeking all possible degrees of selflessness. Finally, he takes up a brush and paints the Nativity of Jesus for a whole year. His work is a miracle filled with holiness. To his son, who came to say goodbye before traveling to Italy, he tells a lot of his thoughts about art and among some instructions, telling the story of the usurer, he conjures to find a portrait going from hand to hand and destroy it. And now, after fifteen years of vain searching, the narrator has finally found this portrait, and when he, and with him the crowd of listeners, turns to the wall, the portrait is no longer on it. Someone says "Stolen". Maybe you are right. E. V. Kharitonova Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (1812-1870) Who is to blame? Roman (1841-1846) The action begins in the Russian province, on the estate of the wealthy landowner Alexei Abramovich Negrov. The family gets acquainted with the teacher of the son of Negrov - Misha, Dmitry Yakovlevich Krucifersky, who graduated from Moscow University as a candidate. The Negro is tactless, the teacher is shy. The Negro was promoted to colonel already middle-aged, after the campaign of 1812, he soon retired with the rank of major general; in retirement, he was bored, he was stupidly bossy, he took the young daughter of his peasant as his mistress, from whom his daughter Lyubonka was born, and finally in Moscow he married an exalted young lady. The three-year-old daughter of Negrov, together with her mother, was exiled to the human; but Negrova, shortly after the wedding, declares to her husband that she wants to raise Lyubonka as her own daughter. Krucifersky is the son of honest parents: a district doctor and a German woman who loved her husband all her life as much as in her youth. The opportunity to get an education was given to him by a dignitary who visited the gymnasium of the county town and noticed the boy. Not being very capable, Krucifersky, however, loved science and earned a degree with diligence. At the end of the course, he received a letter from his father: his wife's illness and poverty forced the old man to ask for help. Krucifersky has no money; the extreme compels him to gratefully accept the offer of Dr. Krupov, inspector of the medical board of the city of NN, to become a teacher in the Negro's house. The vulgar and rough life of the Negro weighs on Krucifersky, but not only him alone: the ambiguous, difficult position of the daughter of the Negro contributed to the early development of a richly gifted girl. The manners of the house of the Negro are equally alien to both young people, they involuntarily reach out to each other and soon fall in love with each other, and Krucifersky reveals his feelings by reading aloud to Lyubonka Zhukovsky's ballad "Alina and Alsim". Meanwhile, the bored Glafira Lvovna Negrova also begins to be attracted to the young man; the old French tutor tries to bring the mistress and Krucifersky together, and a funny confusion happens: Krucifersky, out of excitement, not seeing who is in front of him, declares his love to Negro and even kisses her; Glafira Lvovna receives an enthusiastic love letter from Krucifersky Lyubonka. Realizing his mistake, Krucifersky flees in horror; offended Negrova informs her husband about her daughter's allegedly depraved behavior; The Negro, taking advantage of the opportunity, wants to force Krucifersky to take Lyubonka without a dowry, and is very surprised when he resignedly agrees. To support his family, Krucifersky takes the place of a gymnasium teacher. Upon learning of the engagement, the misanthrope Dr. Krupov warns Krucifersky: "Your bride is not a match for you ... she is a tiger cub who does not yet know her strength." However, this story does not end with a happy wedding. Four years later, a new person arrives at NN - the owner of the White Field estate, Vladimir Beltov. There follows a description of the city, sustained in the spirit of Gogol. Beltov is young and rich, although he is not a bureaucrat; for the inhabitants of NN he is a mystery; they said that after graduating from the university, he fell in favor of the minister, then quarreled with him and resigned in spite of his patron, then went abroad, entered the Masonic lodge, etc. Beltov's appearance itself makes a complex and contradictory impression: "in the face his good-natured look was somehow strangely combined with mocking lips, the expression of a decent person with the expression of a minion, traces of long and mournful thoughts with traces of passions ... " Beltov's eccentricities are blamed on his upbringing. His father died early, and his mother, an extraordinary woman, was born a serf, by chance she received an education and experienced much suffering and humiliation in her youth; the terrible experience she endured before her marriage was reflected in painful nervousness and convulsive love for her son. As a teacher to her son, she took a Genevan, a "cold dreamer" and an admirer of Rousseau; Unwillingly themselves, the teacher and mother did everything so that Beltov "did not understand reality." After graduating from Moscow University in the ethical and political part, Beltov, with dreams of civic activity, left for St. Petersburg; by acquaintance he was given a good place; but clerical work bored him very soon, and he retired only with the rank of provincial secretary. Ten years have passed since then; Beltov unsuccessfully tried to study both medicine and painting, went on a rampage, wandered around Europe, got bored, and finally, having met his old teacher in Switzerland and touched by his reproaches, he decided to return home to take an elective position in the province and serve Russia. The city made a heavy impression on Beltov: "everything was so greasy <...> not from poverty, but from uncleanliness, and all this went with such pretension, so uneasy..."; the society of the city presented itself to him as "the fantastic face of some colossal official," and he was frightened when he saw that "he could not cope with this Goliath." Here the author tries to explain the reasons for Beltov's constant failures and justifies him: "there is guilt for people better than any rightness." Society also took a dislike to a strange and incomprehensible person. Meanwhile, the Krucifersky family lives very peacefully, they have a son. True, sometimes Krucifersky is seized by unreasonable anxiety: "I become afraid of my happiness; I, as the owner of enormous wealth, begin to tremble before the future." A friend of the house, the sober materialist Dr. Krupov, makes fun of Krucifersky both for these fears and, in general, for his penchant for "fantasies" and "mysticism." Once Krupov introduces the Krucifersky Beltov into the house. At this time, the wife of the county leader, Marya Stepanovna, a stupid and rude woman, makes an unsuccessful attempt to get Beltov as a suitor for her daughter - a developed and charming girl, completely unlike her parents. Called to the house, Beltov neglects the invitation, which infuriates the owners; here the city gossip tells the leader about Beltov's too close and dubious friendship. from Kruciferskaya. Pleased with the opportunity to take revenge, Marya Stepanovna spreads gossip. Beltov actually fell in love with Kruciferskaya: until now he had not had to meet such a strong nature. Kruciferskaya, on the other hand, sees in Beltov a great man. The enthusiastic love of her husband, a naive romantic, could not satisfy her. Finally, Beltov confesses to Kruciferskaya in love, says that he knows about her love for him; Kruciferskaya replies that she belongs to her husband and loves her husband. Beltov is distrustful and mocking; Kruciferskaya suffers: "What did this proud man want from her? He wanted a triumph ..." Unable to stand it, Kruciferskaya throws herself into his arms; the meeting is interrupted by the appearance of Krupov. The shocked Kruciferskaya falls ill; the husband himself is almost ill from fear for her. This is followed by the diary of Kruciferskaya, which describes the events of the next month - the serious illness of her little son, the suffering of both Kruciferskaya and her husband. Resolution of the question: who is to blame? - the author provides the reader. Love for his wife has always been for Krucifersky the only content of his life; at first he tries to hide his grief from his wife by sacrificing himself for her peace of mind; but such "anti-natural virtue is not at all in the nature of man." One day at a party, he learns from drunk co-workers that his family drama has become urban gossip; Krucifersky gets drunk for the first time in his life and, having come home, almost rages. The next day, he explains to his wife, and "she rose again so high in his eyes, so unattainably high", he believes that she still loves him, but Krucifersky does not become happier from this, sure that he is preventing her beloved woman from living. The enraged Krupov accuses Beltov of destroying the family and demands to leave the city; Beltov declares that he "does not recognize judgment over himself", except for the judgment of his own conscience, that what happened was inevitable and that he himself is going to leave immediately. On the same day, Beltov beat an official with a cane in the street, who rudely hinted to him about his relationship with Kruciferskaya. Having visited his mother in her estate, Beltov leaves in two weeks, where - it is not said. Kruciferskaya lies in consumption; her husband drinks. Beltov's mother moves to the city to look after the sick woman who loved her son and talk to her about him. G. V. Zykova magpie thief Tale (1846) Three people are talking about the theatre: a "Slav", with a circle cut, a "European", "not at all cut", and a young man standing outside the parties, cut with a comb (like Herzen), who proposes a topic for discussion: why there are no good people in Russia. actresses. Everyone agrees that there are no good actresses, but everyone explains this according to their own doctrine: a Slav speaks of the patriarchal modesty of a Russian woman, a European speaks of the emotional underdevelopment of Russians, and for a comb-haired man, the reasons are unclear. After everyone has had time to speak out, a new character appears - a man of art and refutes the theoretical calculations with an example: he saw a great Russian actress, and, which surprises everyone, not in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but in a small provincial town. The story of the artist follows (his prototype is M.S. Shchepkin, to whom the story is dedicated). Sometime in his youth (at the beginning of the XNUMXth century) he came to the city of N, hoping to enter the theater of the rich Prince Skalinsky. Talking about the first performance he saw at the Skalinsky Theater, the artist almost echoes the "European", although he shifts the emphasis in a significant way: "There was something strained, unnatural in the way the courtyard people <...> represented the lords and princesses." The heroine appears on stage in the second performance - in the French melodrama "The Thieving Magpie" she plays the maid Aneta, unjustly accused of stealing, and here in the game of the serf actress the narrator sees "that incomprehensible pride that develops on the verge of humiliation." The depraved judge offers her "a loss of honor to buy freedom." The execution, the "deep irony of the face" of the heroine, especially strikes the observer; he also notices the prince's unusual excitement. The play has a happy ending - it is revealed that the girl is innocent, and the thief is a magpie, but the actress in the finale plays a creature mortally tormented. The audience does not call the actress and anger the shocked and almost in love narrator with vulgar remarks. Behind the scenes, where he rushed to tell her about his admiration, they explain to him that she can only be seen with the permission of the prince. The next morning, the narrator goes for permission and in the prince's office meets, by the way, the artist, who played the lord on the third day, almost in a straitjacket. The prince is kind to the narrator, because he wants to get him into his troupe, and explains the severity of the order in the theater by the excessive arrogance of the artists who are accustomed to the role of nobles on stage. "Aneta" meets a fellow artist as a native person and confesses to him. To the narrator, she seems to be "a statue of graceful suffering", he almost admires how she "delicately perishes". The landowner, to whom she belonged from birth, seeing in her abilities, provided every opportunity to develop them and treated them as if they were free; he died suddenly, and did not take care to write out vacation pay for his artists in advance; they were sold at a public auction to the prince. The prince began to harass the heroine, she evaded; Finally, an explanation took place (the heroine had previously read Schiller's Intrigue and Love aloud), and the offended prince said: "You are my serf, not an actress." These words had such an effect on her that soon she was already in consumption. The prince, without resorting to brute violence, petty annoyed the heroine: he took away the best roles, etc. Two months before meeting with the narrator, she was not allowed to go into the shops from the yard and insulted, suggesting that she was in a hurry to her lovers. The insult was deliberate: her behavior was impeccable. “So it’s to save our honor that you lock us up? Well, prince, here’s my hand, my word of honor, that closer to the year I will prove to you that the measures you have chosen are insufficient!” In this novel of the heroine, in all probability, the first and last, there was no love, but only despair; she said almost nothing about him. She became pregnant, most of all she was tormented by the fact that the child would be born a serf; she hopes only for a speedy death of her and her child, by the grace of God. The narrator leaves in tears, and, having found the prince's proposal at home to join his troupe on favorable terms, he leaves the city, leaving the invitation unanswered. After he learns that "Aneta" died two months after giving birth. The excited listeners are silent; the author compares them with a "beautiful tomb group" to the heroine. “That’s all right,” the Slav said, getting up, “but why didn’t she get married in secret? ..” G. V. Zykova Past and thoughts Autobiographical book (1852-1868) Herzen's book begins with the stories of his nanny about the ordeals of the Herzen family in Moscow in 1812, occupied by the French (AI himself was then a small child); ends with European impressions 1865-1868. Actually, "Past and Thoughts" cannot be called memories in the exact sense of the word: we seem to find a consistent narrative only in the first five parts of eight (before moving to London in 1852); further - a series of essays, journalistic articles, arranged, however, in chronological order. Some chapters of "Past and Thoughts" were originally published as independent things ("Western Arabesques", "Robert Owen"). Herzen himself compared "The Past and Thoughts" with a house that is constantly being completed: with "a set of outbuildings, superstructures, outbuildings." Part one - "Nursery and University (1812-1834)" - describes mainly life in the house of his father - a smart hypochondriac, who seems to his son (like his uncle, like his father's friends of his youth - for example, O. A. Zherebtsova) a typical product of the XNUMXth century . The events of December 14, 1825 had an extraordinary impact on the boy's imagination. In 1827, Herzen met his distant relative N. Ogarev, a future poet, very beloved by Russian readers in the 1840s and 1860s; together with him, Herzen would then run the Russian printing house in London. Both boys are very fond of Schiller; among other things, they are quickly brought together by this; the boys look at their friendship as an alliance of political conspirators, and one evening on Sparrow Hills, "embracing, they swore, in view of all of Moscow, to sacrifice <...> their lives for the chosen <...> struggle." Herzen continues to preach his radical political views and, having matured, he is a student of the Physics and Mathematics Department of Moscow University. Part two - "Prison and Exile" (1834-1838)": on a fabricated case of insulting His Majesty, Herzen, Ogarev and others from their university circle were arrested and exiled; Herzen in Vyatka serves in the office of the provincial government, in charge of the statistical department; in the relevant chapters "Past and thoughts" collected a whole collection of sad and anecdotal cases from the history of the government of the province. Here, A. L. Vitberg, whom Herzen met in exile, and his talented and fantastic project of a church in memory of 1812 on Sparrow Hills are very expressively described. In 1838 Herzen was transferred to Vladimir. Part Three - "Vladimir-on-Klyazma" (1838-1839) "- a romantic love story of Herzen and Natalya Alexandrovna Zakharyina, the illegitimate daughter of Uncle Herzen, who was brought up by a half-mad and vicious aunt. Relatives do not give consent to their marriage; in 1838 Herzen arrives to Moscow, where he is forbidden to enter, takes away the bride and gets married secretly. In part four - "Moscow, Petersburg and Novgorod" (1840-1847) "describes the Moscow intellectual atmosphere of the era. Returning from exile, Herzen and Ogarev became close to the young Hegelians - Stankevich's circle (primarily with Belinsky and Bakunin). In the chapter "Not Ours" ( about Khomyakov, Kireevsky, K. Aksakov, Chaadaev) Herzen speaks first of all about what brought Westerners and Slavophiles closer in the 40s (further explanations follow why Slavophilism cannot be confused with official nationalism, and arguments about the Russian community and socialism) . In 1846, for ideological reasons, Ogarev and Herzen moved away from many, primarily from Granovsky (a personal quarrel between Granovsky and Herzen due to the fact that one believed and the other did not believe in the immortality of the soul is a very characteristic feature of the era) ; after that, Herzen decides to leave Russia. Part Five ("Paris - Italy - Paris (1847-1852): Before and after the revolution") tells about the first years spent by Herzen in Europe: about the first day of the Russian, who finally found himself in Paris, the city where much of what he at home he read with such greed: "So, I really am in Paris, not in a dream, but in reality: after all, this is the Vendome column and rue de la Paix"; about the national liberation movement in Rome, about "Young Italy", about the February Revolution of 1848 in France (all this is described quite briefly: Herzen refers the reader to his "Letters from France and Italy"), about emigration in Paris - mainly Polish , with its mystical messianic, Catholic pathos (among other things, about Mickiewicz), about the June days, about her flight to Switzerland, and so on. Already in fifth the consistent presentation of events is interrupted by independent essays and articles. In the interlude "Western Arabesques" Herzen - obviously under the influence of the regime of Napoleon III - speaks with despair about the death of Western civilization, so dear to every Russian socialist or liberal. Europe is being destroyed by the philistinism that has taken over everything with its cult of material well-being: the soul is decreasing. (This theme becomes the leitmotif of "Past and Thoughts": see, for example, the chapter "John-Stuart Mill and his book "On Liberty" in the sixth part.) Herzen sees the only way out in the idea of a welfare state. In the chapters on Proudhon, Herzen writes both about the impressions of acquaintance (the unexpected softness of Proudhon in personal communication) and about his book On Justice in the Church and in the Revolution. Herzen does not agree with Proudhon, who sacrifices the human person to the "inhuman god" of a just state; with such models of the welfare state - among the ideologists of the revolution of 1891 like Ba-beuf or among the Russian sixties - Herzen constantly argues, bringing such revolutionaries closer to Arakcheev (see, for example, ch. "Robert Owen" in part six). Especially unacceptable for Herzen is the attitude of Proudhon towards a woman - the possessive attitude of the French peasant; about such complex and painful things as betrayal and jealousy, Proudhon judges too primitively. It is clear from Herzen's tone that this topic is close and painful for him. The fifth part is completed by the dramatic history of the Herzen family in the last years of Natalya Alexandrovna's life: this part of "The Past and Thoughts" was published many years after the death of the persons described in it. The June events of 1848 in Paris (the bloody defeat of the uprising and the accession of Napoleon III), and then the serious illness of her little daughter, had a fatal effect on the impressionable Natalya Alexandrovna, who was generally prone to bouts of depression. Her nerves are tense, and, as can be understood from Herzen's restrained story, she enters into too close relations with Herweg (the famous German poet and socialist, then Herzen's closest friend), touched by complaints about the loneliness of his misunderstood soul. Natalya Alexandrovna continues to love her husband, the current state of affairs torments her, and she, having finally understood the need for a choice, explains herself to her husband; Herzen expresses her readiness to divorce if it is her will; but Natalya Alexandrovna remains with her husband and breaks with Herweg. (Here Herzen in satirical colors draws Herweg's family life, his wife Emma - the daughter of a banker, who was married because of her money, an enthusiastic German woman obsessively guarding her husband, who, in her opinion, is a genius. Emma allegedly demanded that Herzen sacrifice his family happiness for Herweg's peace of mind.) After the reconciliation, the Herzens spend several happy months in Italy. In 1851, Herzen's mother and little son Kolya died in a shipwreck. Meanwhile, Herweg, not wanting to come to terms with his defeat, pursues the Herzens with complaints, threatens to kill them or commit suicide, and, finally, informs mutual acquaintances about what has happened. Friends intercede for Herzen; unpleasant scenes follow with the recollection of old monetary debts, with assault, publications in periodicals, and so on. Natalya Alexandrovna cannot endure all this and dies in 1852 after another birth (probably from consumption). Part five ends section "Russian shadows" - essays on Russian emigrants, with whom Herzen then talked a lot. N. I. Sazonov, Herzen’s comrade at the university, who wandered a lot and somewhat stupidly around Europe, was fond of political projects to the point that he didn’t put Belinsky’s too “literary” activity in a penny, for example, for Herzen this Sazonov is a type of Russian person of that time, in vain who ruined the "abyss of forces" not claimed by Russia. And here, recalling his peers, Herzen, in the face of an arrogant new generation - the "sixties" - "demands recognition and justice" for these people who "sacrifice everything <...> that traditional life offered them, <...> because of their beliefs <...> Such people cannot simply be archived ... ". A.V. Engelson for Herzen is a man of the generation of Petrashevists with his characteristic "painful fracture", "immeasurable self-love", developed under the influence of "cheesy and petty" people who then constituted the majority, with "passion for self-observation, self-examination, self-accusation" - and moreover, with deplorable sterility and inability to work hard, irritability and even cruelty. After the death of his wife, Herzen moved to England: after Herweg made Herzen's family drama public, Herzen needed the arbitration court of European democracy to sort out his relationship with Herzen and recognize Herzen's rightness. But Herzen found solace not in such a "court" (it did not exist), but in his work: he "set to <...> the Past and Thoughts and the organization of a Russian printing house." The author writes about the beneficial loneliness in his then London life (“Wandering alone around London, along its stone clearings, <…> sometimes not seeing a single step forward from a solid opal fog and pushing with some kind of running shadows, I lived a lot” ); it was loneliness among the crowd: England, proud of its "right of asylum", was then filled with emigrants; the sixth part ("England (1852-1864)") mainly tells about them. From the leaders of the European socialist and national liberation movement, with whom Herzen was familiar, with some - close (ch. "Mountain peaks" - about Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, Kossuth, etc.; ch. "Camicia rossa" < "Red shirt "> about how England hosted Garibaldi - about the popular enthusiasm and intrigues of the government, which did not want to quarrel with France), - to spies, criminals, begging for benefits under the brand name of political exiles (chap. "London freemen of the fifties"). Convinced of the existence of a national character, Herzen devotes separate essays to the emigration of different nationalities ("Polish immigrants", "Germans in emigration" (here, see, in particular, the characterization of Marx and the "Marxides" - the "sulfur gang"; Herzen considered them to be very dishonorable people able to do anything to destroy a political rival; Marx paid Herzen the same.) Herzen was especially curious to see how national characters manifest themselves in a clash with each other (see the humorous description of how the case of the French duellists was considered in an English court - ch. " two processes). Part Seven dedicated to the Russian emigration itself (see, for example, separate essays on M. Bakunin and V. Pecherin), the history of the free Russian printing house and the Bells (1858-1862). The author begins by describing an unexpected visit to him by some colonel, a man, apparently, ignorant and completely illiberal, but who considers it his duty to appear to Herzen as to his superiors: "I immediately felt like a general." First Ch. - "Apogee and Perigee": the enormous popularity and influence of "Kolokol" in Russia is fading after the well-known Moscow fires, and especially after Herzen dared to support the Poles in print during their uprising of 1862. Part Eight (1865-1868) does not have a title and a common theme (it is not for nothing that its first chapter is "Without communication"); it describes the impressions that made on the author in the late 60s. different countries of Europe, and Europe is still seen by Herzen as the kingdom of the dead (see the chapter on Venice and the "prophets" - "Daniels", denouncing imperial France, among other things, about P. Leroux); No wonder a whole chapter - "From the Other World" - is dedicated to old people, once successful and famous people. Switzerland seems to Herzen to be the only place in Europe where one can still live. "The Past and Thoughts" are completed by "Old Letters" (texts of letters to Herzen from N. Polevoy, Belinsky, Granovsky, Chaadaev, Proudhon, Carlyle). In the preface to them, Herzen contrasts letters with “books”: in letters, the past “does not press with all its force, as it presses in a book. The random content of letters, their easy ease, their everyday worries bring us closer to the writer.” The letters understood in this way are similar to the whole book of Herzen's memoirs, where, along with judgments about European civilization, he tried to preserve the very "random" and "everyday" things. As stated in Chapter XXIV. the fifth part, "what, in general, are letters, if not notes about a short time?". G. V. Zykova Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812-1891) ordinary story Roman (1847) This summer morning in the village of Grachi began unusually: at dawn, all the inhabitants of the house of the poor landowner Anna Pavlovna Adueva were already on their feet. Only the culprit of this fuss, the son of Adueva, Alexander, slept, "as a twenty-year-old youth should sleep, with a heroic sleep." The turmoil reigned in Grachi because Alexander was going to St. Petersburg to serve: the knowledge he received at the university, according to the young man, must be applied in practice serving the Fatherland. The grief of Anna Pavlovna, parting with her only son, is akin to the sadness of the "first minister in the economy" of the landowner Agra-fena - together with Alexander, his valet Yevsey, Agrafena's cordial friend, is sent to Petersburg - how many pleasant evenings this tender couple spent playing cards!. Alexander's beloved Sonechka also suffers - the first impulses of his exalted soul were dedicated to her. Aduev’s best friend, Pospelov, breaks into Grachi at the last minute to finally hug the one with whom they spent the best hours of university life in conversations about honor and dignity, about serving the Fatherland and the delights of love ... Yes, and Alexander himself is sorry to part with his usual way of life. If lofty goals and a sense of his destination had not pushed him on a long journey, he would, of course, have remained in Grachi, with his mother and sister, who loved him infinitely, the old maid Maria Gorbatova, among hospitable and hospitable neighbors, next to his first love. But ambitious dreams drive the young man to the capital, closer to glory. In St. Petersburg, Alexander immediately goes to his relative, Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev, who at one time, like Alexander, "was sent to St. Petersburg at the age of twenty by his elder brother, Alexander's father, and lived there without a break for seventeen years." Not maintaining contact with his widow and son, who remained after the death of his brother in Grachi, Pyotr Ivanovich was greatly surprised and annoyed by the appearance of an enthusiastic young man who expects care, attention and, most importantly, the separation of his increased sensitivity from his uncle. From the very first minutes of their acquaintance, Pyotr Ivanovich has to almost forcefully restrain Alexander from outpourings of feelings with an attempt to embrace a relative. Together with Alexander, a letter arrives from Anna Pavlovna, from which Pyotr Ivanovich learns that great hopes are placed on him: not only by an almost forgotten daughter-in-law, who hopes that Pyotr Ivanovich will sleep with Alexander in the same room and cover the young man's mouth from flies. The letter contains many requests from neighbors, which Pyotr Ivanovich has forgotten to think about for almost two decades now. One of these letters was written by Marya Gorbatova, Anna Pavlovna's sister, who remembered for the rest of her life the day when the young Pyotr Ivanovich, walking with her around the countryside, climbed knee-deep into the lake and plucked a yellow flower for her memory ... From the very first meeting, Pyotr Ivanovich, a rather dry and businesslike man, begins to educate his enthusiastic nephew: he rents Alexander an apartment in the same house where he lives, advises where and how to eat, with whom to communicate. Later, he finds a very specific case for him: service and - for the soul! - translations of articles devoted to the problems of agriculture. Ridiculing, sometimes quite cruelly, Alexander's addiction to everything "unearthly", sublime, Pyotr Ivanovich is gradually trying to destroy the fictional world in which his romantic nephew lives. So two years pass. After this time, we meet Alexander already partly accustomed to the complexities of St. Petersburg life. And - without memory in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya. During this time, Alexander managed to advance in the service, and achieved some success in translations. Now he has become quite an important person in the journal: "he was engaged in the selection, and translation, and correction of other people's articles, he himself wrote various theoretical views on agriculture." He continued to write both poetry and prose. But falling in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya seems to close the whole world in front of Alexander Aduev - now he lives from meeting to meeting, drugged by that "sweet bliss at which Peter Ivanovich was angry." She is in love with Alexander and Nadenka, but, perhaps, only with that “little love in anticipation of a big one,” which Alexander himself experienced for Sophia, who is now forgotten by him. Alexander's happiness is fragile - Count Novinsky, the neighbor of the Lyubetskys in the country, gets on the way to eternal bliss. Pyotr Ivanovich is unable to heal Alexander from raging passions: Aduev Jr. is ready to challenge the count to a duel, to take revenge on an ungrateful girl who is not able to appreciate his high feelings, he sobs and burns with anger ... The wife of Pyotr Ivanovich, Lizaveta Alexandrovna, comes to the aid of the distraught young man ; she comes to Alexander when Pyotr Ivanovich turns out to be powerless, and we don’t know exactly what, with what words, with what participation, the young woman succeeds in what her smart, reasonable husband did not succeed. "An hour later he (Alexander) came out pensive, but with a smile, and fell asleep for the first time calmly after many sleepless nights." Another year has passed since that memorable night. From the gloomy despair that Lizaveta Alexandrovna managed to melt, Aduev Jr. moved on to despondency and indifference. "He somehow liked to play the role of a sufferer. He was quiet, important, foggy, like a man who, in his words, withstood the blow of fate ..." And the blow was not slow to repeat: an unexpected meeting with an old friend Pospelov on Nevsky Prospekt, a meeting, more accidental, that Alexander did not even know about the move of his soulmate to the capital, brings confusion into the already disturbed heart of Aduev Jr. The friend turns out to be completely different from what he remembers from the years spent at the university: he is strikingly similar to Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev - he does not appreciate the wounds of the heart experienced by Alexander, he talks about a career, about money, he welcomes an old friend in his house, but special signs of attention does not show to him. It turns out to be almost impossible to heal the sensitive Alexander from this blow - and who knows what our hero would have come to this time if uncle had not applied the “extreme measure” to him! .. Arguing with Alexander about the bonds of love and friendship, Pyotr Ivanovich cruelly reproaches Alexander in the fact that he closed himself only in his own feelings, not knowing how to appreciate the one who is faithful to him. He does not consider his uncle and aunt his friends, he has not written to his mother for a long time, living only thoughts about her only son. This "medicine" turns out to be effective - Alexander again turns to literary creativity. This time he writes a story and reads it to Pyotr Ivanovich and Lizaveta Alexandrovna. Aduev Sr. invites Alexander to send the story to the magazine in order to find out the true value of his nephew's work. Pyotr Ivanovich does this under his own name, believing that this will be a fairer trial and better for the fate of the work. The answer was not slow to come - he puts the last point in the hopes of the ambitious Aduev Jr. ... And just at that time, Pyotr Ivanovich needed the service of a nephew: his factory companion Surkov suddenly falls in love with the young widow of a former friend of Pyotr Ivanovich, Yulia Pavlovna Tafaeva, and completely abandons things. Above all else, appreciating the cause, Pyotr Ivanovich asks Alexander to "fall in love" with Tafaeva, ousting Surkov from her home and heart. As a reward, Peter Ivanovich offers Alexander two vases that Aduev Jr. liked so much. The case, however, takes an unexpected turn: Alexander falls in love with a young widow and evokes a reciprocal feeling in her. Moreover, the feeling is so strong, so romantic and sublime that the "culprit" himself is not able to withstand the impulses of passion and jealousy that Tafaeva brings down on him. Brought up on love stories, married too early to a rich and unloved man, Yulia Pavlovna, having met Alexander, seems to be throwing herself into a whirlpool: everything that was read and dreamed about is now falling on her chosen one. And Alexander does not stand the test ... After Pyotr Ivanovich succeeded in bringing Tafaev to his senses through arguments unknown to us, another three months passed in which Alexander's life after the shock he experienced is unknown to us. We meet him again when he, disappointed in everything that he lived before, "plays checkers with some eccentrics or fishes." His apathy is deep and inescapable, nothing seems to be able to bring Aduev Jr. out of dull indifference. Alexander no longer believes in love or friendship. He begins to go to Kostikov, about whom his neighbor in Grachi Za-ezzhalov once wrote in a letter to Pyotr Ivanovich, wanting to introduce Aduev Sr. to his old friend. This man turned out to be most welcome for Alexander: he "could not arouse spiritual unrest" in a young man. And one day on the shore, where they were fishing, unexpected spectators appeared - an old man and a pretty young girl. They appeared more and more often. Lisa (that was the name of the girl) began to try to captivate the yearning Alexander with various female tricks. In part, the girl succeeds, but the offended father comes to the meeting in the gazebo instead of her. After explaining with him, Alexander has no choice but to change the place of fishing. However, he does not remember Lisa for long ... Still wanting to awaken Alexander from the sleep of the soul, the aunt asks him one day to accompany her to a concert: "some artist, a European celebrity, has arrived." The shock experienced by Alexander from meeting with beautiful music strengthens the decision that had matured even earlier to give up everything and return to his mother, in Grachi. Alexander Fedorovich Aduev leaves the capital along the same road that he entered St. Petersburg several years ago, intending to conquer it with his talents and high appointment ... And in the village, life seemed to have stopped its run: the same hospitable neighbors, only older, the same infinitely loving mother, Anna Pavlovna; she just got married without waiting for her Sashenka, Sofya, but her aunt, Marya Gorbatova, still remembers the yellow flower. Shocked by the changes that have taken place with her son, Anna Pavlovna asks Yevsey for a long time how Alexander lived in St. Petersburg, and comes to the conclusion that life itself in the capital is so unhealthy that it aged her son and dulled his feelings. Days pass after days, Anna Pavlovna still hopes that Alexander's hair will grow again and his eyes will shine, and he thinks about how to return to St. Petersburg, where so much has been experienced and irretrievably lost. The death of his mother relieves Alexander of the torment of conscience, which does not allow Anna Pavlovna to admit that he again planned to escape from the village, and, having written to Pyotr Ivanovich, Alexander Aduev again goes to Petersburg ... Four years pass after Alexander's re-arrival in the capital. Many changes have taken place with the main characters of the novel. Lizaveta Alexandrovna was tired of fighting her husband's coldness and turned into a calm, reasonable woman, devoid of any aspirations and desires. Pyotr Ivanovich, upset by the change in his wife's character and suspecting her of a dangerous illness, is ready to give up his career as a court adviser and resign in order to take Lizaveta Alexandrovna away from St. Petersburg at least for a while. adviser, good state maintenance, extraneous labor "earns a lot of money and is also preparing to marry, taking three hundred thousand and five hundred souls for the bride ... On this we part with the heroes of the novel. What an ordinary story indeed! N. D. Staroselskaya Oblomov Novel (1849-1857, publ. 1859) In St. Petersburg, on Gorokhovaya Street, on the same morning as always, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov lies in bed - a young man of about thirty-two - thirty-three, who does not burden himself with special studies. His lying down is a certain way of life, a kind of protest against established conventions, which is why Ilya Ilyich so ardently, philosophically meaningfully objects to all attempts to lift him off the couch. His servant, Zakhar, is the same, showing neither surprise nor displeasure - he is used to living the same way as his master: how he lives ... This morning, visitors come to Oblomov one after another: on the first of May, all the St. Petersburg world gathers in Ekateringof, so friends are trying to push Ilya Ilyich aside, to stir him up, forcing him to take part in secular festive festivities. But neither Volkov, nor Sudbinsky, nor Penkin succeed in this. With each of them, Oblomov tries to discuss his worries - a letter from the headman from Oblomovka and a threatening move to another apartment; but no one cares about Ilya Ilyich's anxieties. But he is ready to deal with the problems of the lazy master Mikhey Andreevich Tarantiev, Oblomov's fellow countryman, "a man of smart and cunning mind." Knowing that after the death of his parents, Oblomov remained the only heir to three hundred and fifty souls, Tarantiev is not at all opposed to joining a very tasty morsel, especially since he quite rightly suspects that Oblomov's headman steals and lies much more than is required within reasonable limits. And Oblomov is waiting for his childhood friend, Andrei Stolz, who, in his opinion, is the only one who can help him sort out economic difficulties. At first, having arrived in St. Petersburg, Oblomov somehow tried to integrate into the life of the capital, but gradually realized the futility of his efforts: neither he needed anyone, nor was anyone close to him. And so Ilya Ilyich lay down on his sofa ... And so the unusually devoted servant Zakhar, who did not lag behind his master in anything, lay down on his couch. He intuitively feels who can really help his master, and who, like Mikhei Andreevich, only pretends to be a friend to Oblomov. But only a dream can save from a detailed showdown with mutual grievances, in which the master plunges, while Zakhar goes to gossip and take his soul away from the neighboring servants. Oblomov sees in a sweet dream his past, long gone life in his native Oblomovka, where there is nothing wild, grandiose, where everything breathes calm and serene sleep. Here they only eat, sleep, discuss news that come to this region with a great delay; life flows smoothly, flowing from autumn to winter, from spring to summer, to complete its eternal circles again. Here, fairy tales are almost indistinguishable from real life, and dreams are a continuation of reality. Everything is peaceful, quiet, calm in this blessed land - no passions, no worries disturb the inhabitants of sleepy Oblomovka, among whom Ilya Ilyich spent his childhood. This dream could last, it seems, for an eternity, had it not been interrupted by the appearance of Oblomov's long-awaited friend, Andrei Ivanovich Stolz, whose arrival Zakhar happily announces to his master ... Andrei Stoltz grew up in the village of Verkhlev, which was once part of Oblomovka; here now his father serves as a steward. Stolz developed into a personality, in many ways unusual, thanks to a double upbringing received from a strong-willed, strong, cold-blooded German father and a Russian mother, a sensitive woman who forgot herself from life's storms at the piano. The same age as Oblomov, he is the complete opposite of his friend: "he is constantly on the move: if society needs to send an agent to Belgium or England - they send him; you need to write some project or adapt a new idea to the case - they choose him. Meanwhile, he travels to light, and reads; when he has time - God knows. The first thing Stolz starts with is pulling Oblomov out of bed and taking him to visit different houses. This is how the new life of Ilya Ilyich begins Stolz seems to pour some of his seething energy into Oblomov, now Oblomov gets up in the morning and begins to write, read, take an interest in what is happening around him, and his acquaintances cannot be surprised: "Imagine Oblomov has moved!" But Oblomov did not just move - his whole soul was shaken to the ground: Ilya Ilyich fell in love. Stolz brought him into the house of the Ilyinskys, and in Oblomov a man wakes up, endowed by nature with unusually strong feelings - listening to Olga sing, Ilya Ilyich is truly shocked, he finally woke up completely. But for Olga and Stolz, who planned a kind of experiment on the eternally dormant Ilya Ilyich, this is not enough - it is necessary to awaken him to rational activity. In the meantime, Zakhar also found his happiness - having married Anisya, a simple and kind woman, he suddenly realized that he should fight with dust, dirt, and cockroaches, and not put up with it. In a short time, Anisya puts Ilya Ilyich's house in order, extending her power not only to the kitchen, as was supposed at first, but throughout the house. But this general awakening did not last long: the very first obstacle, moving from the dacha to the city, gradually turned into that swamp that slowly but steadily sucks in Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, who is not adapted to decision-making, to initiative. A long life in a dream cannot end immediately ... Olga, feeling her power over Oblomov, cannot understand too much in him. Yielding to the intrigues of Tarantiev at the moment when Stolz again left St. Petersburg, Oblomov moved to the apartment rented to him by Mikhei Andreevich, on the Vyborg side. Unable to deal with life, unable to deal with debts, unable to manage the estate and expose the crooks surrounding him, Oblomov ends up in the house of Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna, whose brother, Ivan Matveevich Mukhoyarov, is friends with Mikhei Andreevich, not inferior to him, but rather surpassing the latter by cunning and cunning. In the house of Agafya Matveevna in front of Oblomov, imperceptibly at first, and then more and more clearly, the atmosphere of his native Oblomovka unfolds, something that Ilya Ilyich cherishes most of all in his soul. Gradually, the entire economy of Oblomov passes into the hands of Pshenitsyna. A simple, unsophisticated woman, she begins to manage Oblomov's house, preparing delicious meals for him, establishing a life, and again the soul of Ilya Ilyich plunges into a sweet dream. Although occasionally the peace and serenity of this dream is exploded by meetings with Olga Ilyinskaya, who is gradually disappointed in her chosen one. Rumors about the wedding of Oblomov and Olga Ilyinskaya are already scurrying between the servants of two houses - having learned about this, Ilya Ilyich is horrified: nothing, in his opinion, has been decided yet, and people are already transferring from house to house talking about what, most likely , it won't happen. "That's all Andrei: he instilled love, like smallpox, in both of us. And what kind of life is this, all the worries and anxieties! When will there be peaceful happiness, peace?" - Oblomov thinks, realizing that everything that happens to him is nothing more than the last convulsions of a living soul, ready for the final, already uninterrupted sleep. Days flow after days, and now Olga, unable to stand it, herself comes to Ilya Ilyich on the Vyborg side. He comes to make sure: nothing will awaken Oblomov from a slow immersion in the final sleep. Meanwhile, Ivan Matveyevich Mukhoyarov takes over the affairs of Oblomov on the estate, so thoroughly and deeply entangling Ilya Ilyich in his clever machinations that the owner of the blessed Oblomovka is unlikely to be able to get out of them. And at that moment, Agafya Matveevna was also repairing Oblomov's dressing gown, which, it seemed, was beyond anyone's strength to repair. This becomes the last straw in the throes of Ilya Ilyich's resistance - he falls ill with a fever. A year after Oblomov's illness, life flowed along its measured course: the seasons changed, Agafya Matveevna prepared delicious dishes for the holidays, baked pies for Oblomov, brewed coffee for him with her own hands, celebrated Ilyin's day with enthusiasm ... And suddenly Agafya Matveevna realized that she fell in love with the master. She became so devoted to him that at the moment when Andrey Stoltz, who came to St. Petersburg on the Vyborg side, exposes the dark deeds of Mukhoyarov, Pshenitsyna renounces her brother, whom she so revered and even feared until recently. Having experienced disappointment in her first love, Olga Ilyinskaya gradually gets used to Stolz, realizing that her attitude towards him is much more than just friendship. And Olga agrees to Stolz's proposal ... A few years later, Stolz reappears on the Vyborg side. He finds Ilya Ilyich, who has become "a complete and natural reflection and expression <...> of peace, contentment and serene silence. Looking, pondering his life and more and more settling in it, he finally decided that he had nowhere else to go, nothing to look for…" Oblomov found his quiet happiness with Agafya Matveevna, who gave birth to his son Andryusha. The arrival of Stolz does not disturb Oblomov: he only asks his old friend not to leave Andryusha ... And five years later, when Oblomov was no more, the house of Agafya Matveevna fell into disrepair and the wife of the ruined Mukhoyarov, Irina Panteleevna, began to play the first role in it. Andryusha was begged for upbringing by Stoltsy. Living in the memory of the late Oblomov, Agafya Matveevna focused all her feelings on her son: "she realized that she had lost and shone her life, that God put her soul into her life and took it out again; that the sun shone in her and faded forever ..." And a high memory linked her forever with Andrey and Olga Stoltsy - "the memory of the soul of the deceased, pure as crystal." And the faithful Zakhar in the same place, on the Vyborg side, where he lived with his master, now asks for alms ... N. D. Staroselskaya Breakage Roman (1849-1869) The Petersburg day is drawing to a close, and everyone who usually gathers at the card table, by this hour, begins to bring themselves into the appropriate form. Two friends are also going - Boris Pavlovich Raysky and Ivan Ivanovich Ayanov - to spend this evening again in the Pakhotins' house, where the owner himself, Nikolai Vasilyevich, his two sisters, old maids Anna Vasilyevna and Nadezhda Vasilyevna, as well as a young widow, Pakhotin's daughter, a beauty, live. Sofia Belovodova, who is the main interest in this house for Boris Pavlovich. Ivan Ivanovich is a simple man, without fuss, he goes to the Pakhotins only in order to play cards with avid players, old maids. Another thing - Paradise; he needs to stir up Sophia, his distant relative, turning her from a cold marble statue into a living woman full of passions. Boris Pavlovich Raisky is obsessed with passions: he draws a little, writes a little, plays music, putting the strength and passion of his soul into all his activities. But this is not enough - Raisky needs to awaken passions around him in order to constantly feel himself in the boiling of life, at that point of contact of everything with everything, which he calls Ayanov: "Life is a novel, and a novel is life." We get to know him at a time when "Raisky is thirty years old, and he has not yet sown anything, has not reaped anything, and has not walked along a single track, along which those who come from within Russia walk." Having once arrived in St. Petersburg from a family estate, Raisky, having learned a little of everything, did not find his vocation in anything. He understood only one thing: the main thing for him is art; something that particularly touches the soul, causing it to burn with passionate fire. In this mood, Boris Pavlovich goes on vacation to the estate, which, after the death of his parents, is managed by great-aunt Tatyana Markovna Berezhkova, an old maid, whose parents in time immemorial did not allow her to marry her chosen one, Tit Nikonovich Vatutin. He remained a bachelor, and he travels all his life to Tatyana Markovna, never forgetting gifts for her and the two relative girls whom she is raising, the orphans Verochka and Marfenka. Malinovka, Raisky's estate, a blessed corner in which there is a place for everything that pleases the eye. Only now the terrible cliff that ends the garden frightens the inhabitants of the house: according to legend, at the bottom of it in ancient times "he killed his wife and rival for infidelity, and then he himself stabbed himself, one jealous husband, a tailor from the city. The suicide was buried here, on crime scene." Tatyana Markovna joyfully greeted her grandson, who had arrived for the holidays - she tried to bring him up to date, show him the economy, get him addicted, but Boris Pavlovich remained indifferent both to the economy and to the necessary visits. Only poetic impressions could touch his soul, and they had nothing to do with the thunderstorm of the city, Nil Andreevich, to whom his grandmother certainly wanted to introduce him, nor with the provincial coquette Polina Karpovna Kritskaya, nor with the lubok family of the old Molochkovs, like Philemon and Baucis who lived your age is inseparable ... The holidays flew by, and Raisky returned to St. Petersburg. Here, at the university, he became close to Leonty Kozlov, the son of a deacon, "downtrodden by poverty and timidity." It is not clear what could bring such different young people together: a young man who dreams of becoming a teacher somewhere in a remote Russian corner, and a restless poet, artist, obsessed with the passions of a romantic young man. However, they became really close to each other. But university life ended, Leonty left for the provinces, and Raisky still cannot find a real job in life, continuing to be an amateur. And his white marble cousin Sofya still seems to Boris Pavlovich the most important goal in life: to awaken a fire in her, to make her experience what the “thunderstorm of life” is, to write a novel about her, to paint her portrait ... He spends all the evenings with the Pakhotins, preaching to Sofya the truth of life. On one of these evenings, Sophia's father, Nikolai Vasilievich, brings Count Milari, "an excellent musician and a most amiable young man," to the house. Returning home on that memorable evening, Boris Pavlovich cannot find a place for himself: he either peers at the portrait of Sophia he started, then re-reads the essay he once started about a young woman in whom he managed to arouse passion and even lead her to a "fall" - alas , Natasha is no longer alive, and the pages he wrote did not imprint a genuine feeling. "The episode, which turned into a memory, seemed to him a strange event." Meanwhile, summer came, Raysky received a letter from Tatyana Markovna, in which she called her grandson to the blessed Malinovka, a letter also came from Leonty Kozlov, who lived near the family estate of Raysky. "It is fate that sends me ..." - decided Boris Pavlovich, who was already bored with awakening passions in Sofya Belovodova. In addition, there was a slight embarrassment - Raisky decided to show the portrait of Sofya Ayanov, which he painted, and he, looking at the work of Boris Pavlovich, passed his sentence: "She seems to be drunk here." The artist Semyon Semyonovich Kirilov did not appreciate the portrait, but Sophia herself found that Raisky flattered her - she is not like that ... The very first person that Raisky meets in the estate is a charming young girl who does not notice him, busy feeding poultry. Her whole appearance breathes such freshness, purity, grace that Raisky understands that here, in Malinovka, he is destined to find the beauty, in search of which he languished in cold Petersburg. Raisky is joyfully greeted by Tatyana Markovna, Marfenka (she turned out to be the same girl), and servants. Only cousin Vera is visiting her friend, the priest, across the Volga. And again, the grandmother tries to captivate Raysky with household chores, which still do not interest Boris Pavlovich at all - he is ready to donate the estate to Vera and Marfenka, which angers Tatyana Markovna ... In Malinovka, despite the joyful chores associated with the arrival of Raisky, everyday life goes on: the servant Savely is called upon to give an account of everything to the arrived landowner, Leonty Kozlov teaches children. But here's a surprise: Kozlov was married, but to whom! On Ulenka, the coquettish daughter of "the housekeeper of some government institution in Moscow", where they kept a table for incoming students. All of them were then gradually in love with Ulenka, only Kozlov did not notice her cameo profile, but it was him that she finally married and left for a far corner of Russia, the Volga. Various rumors circulate about her around the city, Ulenka warns Raisky that he might hear, and asks in advance not to believe anything - obviously in the hope that he, Boris Pavlovich, will not remain indifferent to her charms ... Returning home, Raisky finds a full estate of guests - Tit Nikonovich, Polina Karpovna, everyone gathered to look at the mature owner of the estate, grandmother's pride. And many sent congratulations on their arrival. And the usual village life with all its delights and joys rolled along the well-worn rut. Raisky gets acquainted with the surroundings, delves into the lives of people close to him. The courtyards sort out their relationship, and Raisky becomes a witness of Savely's wild jealousy for his unfaithful wife Marina, Vera's trusted servant. This is where true passions boil! .. And Polina Karpovna Kritskaya? Who would willingly succumb to Raisky's sermons, if it occurred to him to captivate this aging coquette! She literally climbs out of her skin to attract his attention, and then carry the news throughout the town that Boris Pavlovich could not resist her. But Raisky shied away in horror from the lady who was obsessed with love. Quietly, calmly, the days in Malinovka drag on. Only now Vera does not return from the priest; Boris Pavlovich, on the other hand, does not waste time - he tries to "educate" Marfenka, slowly finding out her tastes and predilections in literature, painting, in order to begin to awaken real life in her. Sometimes he comes into Kozlov's house. And one day he meets Mark Volokhov there: "fifteenth grade, an official under the supervision of the police, an involuntary citizen of the local city," as recommended by himself. Mark seems to Raisky a funny person - he has already heard a lot of horrors about him from his grandmother, but now, having met, he invites him to dinner. Their impromptu dinner with the indispensable burning woman in the room of Boris Pavlovich wakes up Tatyana Markovna, who is afraid of fires, and she is horrified by the presence of this man in the house, who has fallen asleep like a dog, without a pillow, curled up. Mark Volokhov also considers it his duty to awaken people - only, unlike Raisky, not a specific woman from the sleep of the soul to the storm of life, but abstract people - to anxieties, dangers, reading forbidden books. He does not think to hide his simple and cynical philosophy, which is almost all reduced to his personal benefit, and even charming in his own way in such childish openness. And Raisky is carried away by Mark - his nebula, his mystery, but it is at this moment that the long-awaited Vera returns from behind the Volga. She turns out to be completely different from what Boris Pavlovich expected to see her - closed, not going to frank confessions and conversations, with her own small and big secrets, riddles. Raisky understands how necessary it is for him to unravel his cousin, to know her hidden life, the existence of which he does not doubt for a moment ... And gradually the wild Saveliy awakens in refined Paradise: just as this courtyard is watching his wife Marina, so Paradise “knew at any moment where she was, what she was doing. In general, his abilities, directed at one subject occupying him, were refined to incredible subtlety, and now, in this silent observation of the Faith, they have attained a degree of clairvoyance." In the meantime, grandmother Tatyana Markovna dreams of marrying Boris Pavlovich to the daughter of a farmer, so that he will forever settle in his native land. Raisky refuses such an honor - there are so many mysterious things around that need to be unraveled, and he will suddenly hit his grandmother's will into such prose! .. Moreover, there are really a lot of events around Boris Pavlovich. The young man Vikentiev appears, and Raisky instantly sees the beginning of his affair with Marfenka, their mutual attraction. Vera still kills Raisky with her indifference, Mark Volokhov has disappeared somewhere, and Boris Pavlovich sets off to look for him. However, this time Mark is not able to entertain Boris Pavlovich - he alludes to the fact that he knows well about Raisky's attitude towards Vera, about her indifference and the fruitless attempts of the capital's cousin to awaken a living soul in the provincial. Finally, Vera herself cannot stand it: she resolutely asks Raisky not to spy on her everywhere, to leave her alone. The conversation ends as if with reconciliation: now Raisky and Vera can talk calmly and seriously about books, about people, about understanding life by each of them. But this is not enough for Raisky ... Tatyana Markovna Berezhkova nevertheless insisted on something, and one day the whole city society was called to Malinovka for a gala dinner in honor of Boris Pavlovich. But a decent acquaintance never succeeds - a scandal breaks out in the house, Boris Pavlovich openly tells the venerable Nil Andreevich Tychkov everything that he thinks about him, and Tatyana Markovna herself, unexpectedly for herself, takes the side of her grandson: "Swollen with pride, and pride is a drunken vice Sober up, get up and bow: before you stands Tatyana Markovna Berezhkova! Tychkov was expelled from Malinovka in disgrace, and Vera, conquered by the honesty of Paradise, kisses him for the first time. But this kiss, alas, does not mean anything, and Raisky is going to return to St. Petersburg, to his usual life, his usual environment. True, neither Vera nor Mark Volokhov believe in his imminent departure, and Raisky himself cannot leave, feeling around him the movement of a life inaccessible to him. Moreover, Vera is again leaving for the Volga to her friend. In her absence, Raisky tries to find out from Tatyana Markovna: what kind of person is Vera, what exactly are the hidden features of her character. And he learns that the grandmother considers herself unusually close to Vera, loves her with a deep, respectful, compassionate love, seeing in her, in a sense, her own repetition. From her, Raisky also learns about a man who does not know "how to proceed, how to woo" Vera. This is the forester Ivan Ivanovich Tushin. Not knowing how to get rid of thoughts about Vera, Boris Pavlovich allows Kritskaya to take him to her house, from there he goes to Kozlov, where Ulenka meets him with open arms. And Raisky could not resist her charms ... On a stormy night, Tushin brings Vera on his horses - finally, Raisky has the opportunity to see the person Tatyana Markovna told him about. And again he is obsessed with jealousy and is going to Petersburg. And again he remains, unable to leave without unraveling the secret of Vera. Raisky even manages to alarm Tatyana Markovna with constant thoughts and arguments that Vera is in love, and the grandmother plans an experiment: a family reading of an instructive book about Kunigunde, who fell in love against the will of her parents and ended her days in a monastery. The effect is completely unexpected: Vera remains indifferent and almost falls asleep over the book, and Marfenka and Vikentiev, thanks to the edifying novel, declare their love to the nightingale's singing. The next day, Vikentiev's mother, Marya Yegorovna, arrives in Malinovka - an official matchmaking and conspiracy takes place. Marfenka becomes a bride. And Vera? .. Her chosen one is Mark Volokhov. It is to him that she goes on dates to the precipice, where the jealous suicide is buried, it is he who she dreams of calling her husband, first remaking him in her own image and likeness. Vera and Mark share too much: all the concepts of morality, goodness, decency, but Vera hopes to persuade her chosen one to what is right in the "old truth". Love and honor for her are not empty words. Their love is more like a duel between two beliefs, two truths, but in this duel, the characters of Mark and Vera are more and more clearly manifested. Raisky still does not know who is chosen as his cousin. He is still immersed in the mystery, still looking gloomily at his surroundings. Meanwhile, the calm of the town is shaken by the flight of Ulenka from Kozlov with the teacher Monsieur Charles. Leonty's despair is boundless, Raisky, together with Mark, are trying to bring Kozlov to his senses. Yes, passions really boil around Boris Pavlovich! A letter has already been received from St. Petersburg from Ayanov, in which an old friend talks about Sophia’s romance with Count Milari - in a strict sense, what happened between them is not a romance at all, but the world regarded a certain “false step” by Belovodova as compromising her, and thus the relationship between the Pakhotin family and the count ended. The letter, which could have offended Raisky quite recently, does not make a particularly strong impression on him: all thoughts, all feelings of Boris Pavlovich are completely occupied by Vera. The evening on the eve of Marfenysia's engagement comes unnoticed. Vera again goes to the precipice, and Raisky is waiting for her at the very edge, understanding why, where and to whom his unfortunate, love-obsessed cousin went. An orange bouquet, ordered for Marfenka for her celebration, which coincided with her birthday, Raisky cruelly throws through the window to Vera, who falls unconscious at the sight of this gift ... The next day, Vera falls ill - her horror lies in the fact that it is necessary to tell her grandmother about her fall, but she is unable to do this, especially since the house is full of guests, and Marfenka is escorted to the Vikentievs. Having revealed everything to Raysky, and then to Tushin, Vera calms down for a while - Boris Pavlovich tells Tatyana Markovna about what happened at the request of Vera. Day and night, Tatyana Markovna takes care of her misfortune - she walks non-stop through the house, through the garden, through the fields around Malinovka, and no one is able to stop her: “God has visited, I don’t walk myself. pick me up…" Tatyana Markovna says to her grandson. After many hours of vigil, Tatyana Markovna comes to Vera, who is lying in a fever. When Vera leaves, Tatyana Markovna realizes how necessary it is for both of them to ease their souls: and then Vera hears her grandmother's terrible confession about her long-standing sin. Once in her youth, an unloved man who wooed her found Tatyana Markovna in a greenhouse with Tit Nikonovich and took an oath from her never to marry ... N. D. Staroselskaya Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sollogub (1813-1882) tarantas Travel impressions. Tale (1845) The meeting of the Kazan landowner Vasily Ivanovich, portly, solid and middle-aged, with Ivan Vasilyevich, thin, dapper, barely arrived from abroad - this meeting, which happened on Tverskoy Boulevard, turned out to be very fruitful. Vasily Ivanovich, going back to his Kazan estate, offers Ivan Vasilyevich to take him to his father's village, which for Ivan Vasilyevich, who has spent a lot of money abroad, turns out to be most welcome. They set off in a tarantass, a quaint, clumsy, but rather comfortable structure, and Ivan Vasilyevich, assuming the study of Russia as the goal, takes with him a solid notebook, which he is going to fill with travel impressions. Vasily Ivanovich, convinced that they are not traveling, but simply traveling from Moscow to Mordasy via Kazan, is somewhat puzzled by the enthusiastic intentions of his young fellow traveler, who, on the way to the first station, outlines his tasks, briefly touching on the past, future and present of Russia, condemns bureaucracy, yard serfs and the Russian aristocracy. However, the station replaces the station, without endowing Ivan Vasilyevich with fresh impressions. There are no horses on each, everywhere Vasily Ivanovich revels in tea, everywhere you have to wait for hours. On the way, a couple of suitcases and several boxes with gifts for the wife of Vasily Ivanovich are cut off from dormant travelers. Saddened, tired of the shaking, they hope to rest in a decent Vladimir hotel (Ivan Vasilyevich suggests that Vladimir open his travel notes), but in Vladimir they will have a bad dinner, a room without beds, so that Vasily Ivanovich sleeps on his featherbed, and Ivan Vasilyevich on brought hay, from which an indignant cat jumps out. Suffering from fleas, Ivan Vasilyevich expounds to his comrade in misfortune his views on the organization of hotels in general and their public benefit, and also tells what kind of hotel in the Russian spirit he would dream of building, but Vasily Ivanovich does not heed, because he is sleeping. Early in the morning, leaving the sleeping Vasily Ivanovich in the hotel, Ivan Vasilyevich goes out into the city. The asked bookseller is ready to give him "Views of the provincial city", and almost for nothing, but not Vladimir, but Tsargrad. Ivan Vasilyevich's independent acquaintance with the sights tells him little, and an unexpected meeting with an old boarding friend Fedya distracts him from thinking about true antiquity. Fedya tells the "simple and stupid story" of his life: how he went to serve in Petersburg, how, not having the habit of zeal, he could not advance in the service, and therefore soon got bored with it, how, forced to lead a life characteristic of his circle, he went bankrupt, how he yearned, got married, found that his wife's condition was even more upset, and could not leave Petersburg, because his wife was used to walking along the Nevsky, as former acquaintances began to neglect him, having sniffed out about his difficulties. He left for Moscow and from a society of vanity fell into a society of idleness, played, lost, was a witness, and then a victim of intrigues, stood up for his wife, wanted to shoot himself, and now he was expelled to Vladimir. The wife returned to her father in Petersburg. Saddened by the story, Ivan Vasilievich hurries to the hotel, where Vasily Ivanovich is already impatiently waiting for him. At one of the stations, in his usual expectation, he ponders where to look for Russia, if there are no antiquities, there are no provincial societies, and capital life is borrowed. The owner of the inn reports that there are gypsies outside the city, and both travelers, inspired, go to the camp. The gypsies are dressed in European dirty dresses and instead of their nomadic songs they sing vaudeville Russian romances - the book of travel impressions falls out of Ivan Vasilyevich's hands. Returning, the owner of the inn, who accompanied them, tells why he once had to sit in jail - the story of his love for the wife of a private bailiff is set forth right there. Continuing their movement, the travelers get bored, yawn and talk about literature, whose current situation does not suit Ivan Vasilyevich, and he denounces her venality, her imitation, her forgetfulness of her folk roots, and when inspired by Ivan Vasilyevich gives literature several practical and simple recipes for recovery , he finds his listener asleep. Soon, in the middle of the road, they meet a carriage with a broken spring, and in Mr. Ivan Vasilyevich, scolding with bad words, he recognizes with amazement his Parisian acquaintance, a certain prince. He, as long as Vasily Ivanovich's people are involved in the repair of his crew, announces that he is going to the village for arrears, scolds Russia, reports the latest gossip from Parisian, Roman and other lives, and promptly departs. Our travelers, thinking about the oddities of the Russian nobility, come to the conclusion that the past is wonderful abroad, and the future is in Russia - meanwhile, the tarantass is approaching Nizhny Novgorod. Since Vasily Ivanovich, hurrying to Mordasy, will not stop here, the author takes upon himself the description of the Lower, and especially its Pechora Monastery. Vasily Ivanovich, in response to his companion’s questions about the hardships of landlord life, describes it in detail, sets out his views on peasant farming and landowner management, and at the same time shows such intelligence, diligence and truly paternal participation that Ivan Vasilyevich is filled with reverent respect for him. Arriving in the evening of the next day in a certain provincial town, the travelers are amazed to discover a breakdown in the tarantass and, leaving it in the care of the blacksmith, go to the tavern, where, after ordering tea, they listen to the conversation of three merchants, gray-haired, black and red. A fourth appears and hands more than five thousand to a gray-haired man with a request to transfer the money to someone in Rybna, where he is going. Ivan Vasilyevich, entering into inquiries, learns with amazement that the guarantor is not a relative of the gray-haired man, he doesn’t even really know him, but meanwhile he didn’t take receipts. It turns out that, in accomplishing million-dollar deeds, merchants carry out their calculations on shreds, on the road they carry all the money with them, in their pockets. Ivan Vasilyevich, having his own idea of trade, speaks of the need for science and system in this important matter, the merits of education, the importance of combining mutual efforts for the good of the fatherland. The merchants, however, do not quite comprehend the meaning of his eloquent tirade. After parting with the merchants, the author hurries to finally acquaint the reader with Vasily Ivanovich closer and tells the story of his life: childhood spent on the dovecote, drunken father Ivan Fedorovich, who surrounded himself with fools and jesters, mother Arina Anikimovna, serious and stingy, learning from a deacon, then from home teacher, service in Kazan, acquaintance at the ball with Avdotya Petrovna, refusal of stern parents to bless this marriage, patient waiting for three years, another year of mourning for the deceased father and finally the long-awaited marriage, moving to the village, setting up a household, giving birth to children. Vasily Ivanovich eats a lot and willingly and is completely satisfied with everything: both his wife and life. Leaving Vasily Ivanovich, the author proceeds to Ivan Vasilyevich, tells about his mother, a Moscow princess, a frantic French lover who replaced Moscow with Kazan during the coming of the French. Over time, she married some dumb landowner who looked like a groundhog, and Ivan Vasilyevich was born from this marriage, who grew up under the tutelage of a completely ignorant French tutor. Remaining in complete ignorance of what is happening around him, but firmly knowing that the first poet Racine, Ivan Vasilyevich, after the death of his mother, was sent to a private St. Petersburg boarding school, where he became a rake, lost all knowledge and failed in the final exam. Ivan Vasilyevich rushed to serve, imitating his more zealous comrades, but the work begun with fervor soon bored him. He fell in love, and his chosen one, even reciprocated, suddenly married a rich freak. Ivan Vasilyevich plunged into secular life, but he got bored with it, he sought solace in the world of poetry, science seemed tempting to him, but ignorance and restlessness always turned out to be an obstacle. He went abroad, wishing to be dispersed and enlightened at the same time, and there, noticing that many were paying attention to him only because he was Russian, and that all eyes were involuntarily turned to Russia, he suddenly thought about Russia himself and hurried into it with already intention known to the reader. Thinking about the need to find the nationality, Ivan Vasilyevich enters the village. Chrome festival in the village. He observes various pictures of drunkenness, from young women he receives the insulting nickname "licked German", having discovered a schismatic, he tries to find out what the attitude of the villagers to heresies is, and meets with complete misunderstanding. The next day, in the stationmaster's hut, Ivan Vasilyevich with disgust discovers an official who is acting as a police officer and is now waiting for the governor, who is touring the province. Vasily Ivanovich, loving new acquaintances, sits down with him for seagulls. A conversation follows, during which Ivan Vasilievich tries to convict the official of extortions and bribes, but it turns out that the time is now not that the position of the official is the most disastrous, he is old, weak. To complete the sad picture, Ivan Vasilievich discovers a paralyzed caretaker behind a curtain, surrounded by three children, the eldest performs his father's duties, and the caretaker dictates to him what to write to the traveler. Approaching Kazan, Ivan Vasilyevich perks up a little, for he decides to write a short but expressive chronicle of Eastern Russia; his ardor, however, soon, as expected, subsides: the search for sources frightens him. He considers whether to write a statistical article or an article about the local university (and about all universities in general), or about the manuscripts in the local library, or to study the influence of the East on Russia, moral, commercial and political. At this time, the hotel room, in which Ivan Vasilyevich indulges in dreams, is filled with Tatars offering a khan's robe, turquoise, Chinese pearls and Chinese ink. Vasily Ivanovich, who soon woke up, inspects the purchases, announces the real price of each thing bought at exorbitant prices, and, to the horror of Ivan Vasilyevich, orders the tarantass to be laid. In the midst of the thickening night, moving along the bare steppe in an unchanged tarantass, Ivan Vasilyevich sees a dream. He dreams of the amazing transformation of the tarantass into a bird and the flight through some stuffy and gloomy cave filled with terrible shadows of the dead; terrible hellish visions are replaced by one another, threatening the frightened Ivan Vasilyevich. Finally, the tarantass flies out into the fresh air, and pictures of a wonderful future life open up: both transformed cities and strange flying carriages. The tarantass descends to the ground, losing its bird essence, and rushes through marvelous villages to a renewed and unrecognizable Moscow. Here Ivan Vasilievich sees the prince, recently met on the road, - he is in a Russian suit, reflects on the independent path of Russia, her choice of God and her civic duty. Then Ivan Vasilyevich meets Fedya, his recent interlocutor in Vladimir, and leads him to his modest dwelling. There Ivan Vasilyevich sees his beautiful serene wife with two charming babies, and, touched by the soul, suddenly finds himself, and together with Vasily Ivanovich, in the mud, under an overturned tarantass. E. V. Kharitonova Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov (1814-1841) A song about Tsar Ivan Vasilievich, a young guardsman and a daring merchant Kalashnikov Poem (1838) Moscow. Kremlin. Already white. Royal refectory. At a meal, Ivan IV the Terrible. Behind, behind the king, the stewards. Opposite - princes and boyars. On the sides - protection, guardsmen. Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich is in the most excellent mood. Well, why not turn an everyday meal into a small, for your own, holiday? Opening the feast "for his own pleasure and joy," the Terrible orders the stolniks to draw overseas, sweet, wine from the tsar's stocks for the oprichnina. He himself vigilantly watches how his faithful servants drink, because drinking wine is also a test of loyalty. However, the daring fighters are not born with a bastard: they drink as expected, they drink - they praise the king, sweet wine flows on their lips. Ivan is pleased, but suddenly notices that one of them, from the guardsmen, does not touch the golden ladle with golden wine. Recognizing his favorite Kiribeevich in the violator of palace etiquette, he scolds him menacingly: “It’s indecent for you, Kiribeevich, / to abhor the royal joy; / And you are from the Skuratov family, / And you were raised by Malyutina’s family! ..” Kiribeevich, crafty and dexterous, like a demon, plays before the tsar, for him personally, a sentimental scene. Because, they say, I don’t drink - I don’t wet my mustache in a gilded ladle - because I fell in love with a beauty to the point of passion, and she turns away from me, unworthy, as from a non-Christ, and closes herself with a striped veil. Learning that the sweetheart of his nominee is just a merchant's daughter, Ivan Vasilyevich laughs: they say, take my yakhont ring, buy a pearl necklace and send precious gifts to your Alena Dmitrievna. You manage things - call for a wedding, well, but before that, bow to the matchmaker ... Malyutin outsmarted Ivan the Fourth himself! And he didn’t seem to lie to him, he told him everything, as it is, in spirit, only he kept the last truth to himself: he didn’t tell that the beauty was “remarried in the Church of God, / Remarried with a young merchant / According to our Christian law.” Bow to the matchmaker? We'll get by without a hitch! The main thing is that the king is on his side. Yes, and it’s not for nothing that he himself is in the oprichnina, there is nothing for the lawyers to do here! Gostiny yard. Silk shop of the merchant Kalashnikov. Behind the counter is the owner. Counts the money, smooths out the goods. Stepan Paramonovich's business is going well. And the fact that today the rich in the bar do not look into his institution, they do not ask the price of delicate goods, because it doesn’t happen day after day. But now the evening, winter, is getting dark early, the guest yard has long been empty, it's time for him to go home, to his young wife, to his dear children. The Kalashnikovs have a good house - high, well-built, to match the owner. Yes, if you are not lucky in the morning, then it is necessary until the night. I thought: the children are resting, and they are crying crying! He thought: his beloved wife would meet him with dinner on a white tablecloth, but she wasn’t even at home! Stepan Paramonovich is very worried, he is a calm man, seasoned, but he is worried: snow, snowstorm, frost, darkness - has something happened to Alena Dmitrievna? Oh, it happened, it happened, and terrible! Kiribeevich disgraced her! And not somewhere, in the middle of the street, like a thief, like a beast, pounced, kissed, pardoned, persuaded! He robbed in front of the neighbors. They laughed and pointed with a finger: they say, what is going on, well, shameless! Believing, although not immediately, that his wife is telling him the truth, Stepan Paramonovich decides not to shelve the case, since the circumstances are going well. Tomorrow there will be fisticuffs on the Moscow River, and on the occasion of the holiday, in the presence of the tsar himself. And where the king is, there is the oprichnina kennel. So he will then go out to the guardsman. Will fight to the death - to the last strength. He won’t master it, so maybe, brothers, maybe God will have mercy on the youngest ones, he will help to overcome the damned one. And they, the youngest, do not let their "second father" down. At first, slightly, in a worldly way, not too pleased with the fact that Stepan pulled them out of their dead beds, after learning what happened to their dear daughter-in-law, they give an honest merchant's word: "We will not betray you, dear." Bank of the Moscow River. Early morning. The spectators are still pulling up, but the tsar with his retinue (boyars, retinue, oprichnina) is already here. The first to enter the ring, as Kalashnikov had foreseen, was Kiribeyevich. Excited by yesterday's "victory", he is so aggressive and so self-confident that none of his usual opponents budge. It was then, parting the crowd, and Stepan Paramonovich appears. Kiribeevich, slightly surprised (he immediately realized that it was a newcomer in front of him), invites the simpleton to introduce himself in order to know, de facto, for whom the memorial service is to be served. Of course, this is a joke: he is clearly not going to fight to the death. Not that case. Yes, and the tsar-sovereign does not approve of deaths on the fist grounds. And only realizing that the enemy is Alena Dmitrievna's legal husband, he loses his temper. From the recent courage and traces are not left. And yet - he, the first fist of the tsarist oprichnina team, who almost killed Stepan Paramonovich, strikes between the ribs, puffing, treacherously vile, it is he who inflicts. Rising with difficulty, but immediately gathering himself (a minute ago - a respectable merchant, and at the moment of impact a daring fighter), Kalashnikov dumps his enemy dead. Grozny, as an experienced fan, sees that both combatants do not work according to the rules of a good game: according to the rules, it is not supposed to aim (specially) at the temple, and as a judge, he asks the killer: reluctantly or voluntarily, he killed his faithful servant, and if by will, then for what and about what. Stepan Paramonovich Kalashnikov, of course, cannot answer the second question, but he immediately answers the first: "I killed him with my free will." Struck by his sincerity (he could refer to inexperience, everyone can see that he is a beginner), Ivan Vasilyevich, playing the best of his roles - Tsar the Terrible, but the Just, although he sends Kalashnikov to the chopping block, promises to fulfill his dying request: not to leave the orphaned by the royal mercy family. And surprisingly, it delivers on its promise! Alena Dmitrievna and the orphans - state content, and the Kalashnikov brothers - an unprecedented right: "to trade without a loan, duty-free" "throughout the wide Russian kingdom." A. M. Marchenko Tambov Treasurer Poem (1838) It was under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich that vagabonds and counterfeiters were exiled to these steppes, and when Gavrila Derzhavin ruled the disgraced Tambov region, at that time semi-disgraced, Tambov became dignified, marked on many maps of the imperial circle and acquired pavements. Half a century has passed, and the three main streets, straightened by the singer Felitsa, have not crooked, and the guards, as in his time, stick out in the booths, and the taverns, with numbers, prosper: one "Moscow", and the other - "Berlin". One trouble - boredom: brides in abundance, in grooms - shortage. And if someone is asked to be married, like the beautiful Avdotya Nikolaevna - for Mr. Bobkovsky, the treasurer - is it really luck? The faithful bald, old and gloomy, and he is still a devil: a gambler - and lucky. He plays - and in a big way - in his own house, the decks, according to rumors, are marked, ponters flock to the Bobkovskys from all counties, others look at the hostess: "a delicious piece"! The treasurer does not interfere with flirting "at a glance", he keeps an eye on his wife, being jealous, and he himself teaches her "how to take a sigh or a languid look"; the stronger, they say, the "amorous ponter" will fall in love, the sooner he will lose. In the meantime, stinginess is unbearable! From a young age, he has been at the treasury, and keeps his wife “quite simply”: no caps from Moscow, no hats from St. Petersburg. But the treasurer, darling, is a miracle in the Tambov self-line, and does not seem to grumble at fate: she steps smoothly, holds herself proudly and looks calmly. Even the news of the emergency, which alarmed the entire "circle of the nobility" - "the regiment, de Lancers, will spend the winter in Tambov" - does not violate the peace of mind of the "beauty at eighteen years old". Even the entry into the glorious town of the long-awaited lancers will not lift the sloth from the hot featherbeds. Throughout Tambov, regimental music thunders, black horses neigh, provincial maidens stick to dusty windows, and Avdotya Nikolaeva has "the best hour of morning sleep." The cousin of Madame Bobkovskaya, also, we note, married, - from a foreign passion for a handsome lancer, she burns and burns; As soon as it was light, she flew in, the magpie crackles: and his horse is like a picture! .. It’s a pity that it’s just a cornet ... The treasurer quietly sympathizes with the sister’s secret, without raising her forget-me-not eyes from the eternal canvas ... However, Dunechka, not Diana, was holding on, holding on, couldn't resist. The husband, as they had tea, - in the presence, and the wife with needlework - to the window, but just in time for the very one that goes to the Moskovsky tavern. Looks - and - oh, Lord! - "window to window" with her bedchamber - a lancer, a man and without ... No, no, a lancer, that is, headquarters captain Garin, fully dressed. And even dressed up: Persian archaluk, yarmulke the color of ripe cherries "with a border and a golden tassel", and a special chibouk - patterned, beaded. At least pose for a painter. But - alas! Tambov women, and even more so pretty ones, have their own, Tambov, ideas about decency. A man in the rooms - and without a uniform?! What a shame and shame! Window - knock! - slams shut, the curtain falls. However, the lancer is satisfied: there is a beginning! He is a single man, free, who has seen the world, not red tape, but not a blunder, in women's souls no worse than in horses, he understands. And it turns out that he was right: two days later, the white-pink treasurer again appears in the window, this time "in a caring outfit." Garin, in order to teach the provincial girl a lesson, gets up - and goes from the yard, and does not return until morning. And so - three days in a row. And imagine - the filly did not buck, albeit with a temper, - on the contrary, she calmed down, but soon became bolder. Our heroes are twisting the novel at a glance and across the street, while Tambov is resting, and the treasurer in the treasury lives with the state sum as with his own treasury! Meanwhile, time is flowing, flowing away, Dunya seems to have enough amorous gatherings at the window, but Garin is very impatient - he is not a fabulous character to sigh silently - "it's time for the denouement." Finally happy. At the birthday celebrations of the provincial leader of the lancer and the treasurer, the unsuspecting owners are seated side by side at the dinner table. And this is where the headquarters captain is not lost, since the regimental trumpeters are playing with might and main on the balcony, and the neighbors on the table are desperately rattling knives, forks, plates. Dunya is in mute delight, but nevertheless, in exchange for a passionate confession, he promises only tender friendship (such is the custom of the village). Our lancers are fed up with gentle friendship, and what real man pays attention to female babble? Especially if he sees that the beauty’s heart is pounding and trembling, captivated by both his mighty gaze, and his mature ardor, thirty years old, and soft curls. Somehow passing the night, in the morning, barely waiting for the old jealous husband to leave for the presence, the headquarters captain declares to the Bobkovskys. The servants are asleep. Avdotya Nikolaevna is still in her bedroom. What does a wife do when her husband is not at home? Without getting dressed or combing her hair, in a "dress", restless sleep (lancers ... sabers ... spurs) wrinkled, darling takes up needlework and indulges in dreams. This pleasant occupation is interrupted by Garin, throws open the door and from the spot in the quarry - in Uhlan - explains the situation: either Dunya is given to him here and now, or he - and also here and now - "will die from a pistol", that is, he will shoot himself in front of cruel. Confused at first (Garin almost believed: "in a minute love will triumph for him"), Avdotya Nikolaevna suddenly flares up with shame and pushes away the impatient: go, they say, get out, otherwise I will call the servants! Realizing that this is not pretense, but perseverance, and you cannot take the Tambov stronghold with a swoop-attack, uhlan - oh, the height of all humiliations! - kneels down and no longer demands, does not threaten - "prays plaintively." And who knows, maybe Dunya would have taken pity on the poor fellow, but the door is thrown wide open again: the treasurer! Gloomy looking into each other's eyes, the rivals disperse without uttering a word. Returning to his room, the staff captain urgently equips bullets and a pistol. No matter how! Instead of a decent challenge to a duel, the treasurer sends the offender an indecent invitation "to whistle". Garin is in thought: is there any catch here? But evening comes, and, looking out the window, he sees that the neighbor really has guests: "the house is full, what kind of lighting!" The hostess herself meets the lancer - coldly, like a stranger, not a word about the morning scene. Discouraged, Garin goes further into the office, where another surprise awaits him: the treasurer - courtesy itself, regales the offender with jam, brings champagne with his own hands. Meanwhile, the game is gaining momentum, from a prudent one it becomes a gambling one. The losers are pale, they tear their cards, they scream, the lucky ones clink their glasses loudly, and the treasurer-banker is gloomier than a cloud: for the first time in his life, luck slips out of his hands, and, enraged, he lowers everything, clean: his own house and "everything that is in it or at German" (furniture, carriage, horses, collars and even Dunechkin's earrings). The time, however, is late, the candles are burning out, soon it will begin to get light, the ponters are exhausted - why not go home? - Yes, and the lost banker in a trance. It's time, it's time to turn around! And suddenly the treasurer, as if waking up, asks the players not to disperse and allow him one more, last "talya" in order to win back the estate - "or lose the wife too." Punters are horrified - what villainy! - only Garin accepts the villainous condition. Avdotya Nikolaevna, huddled in an armchair, is neither alive nor dead, but those gathered are not up to the experiences of the unfortunate beauty, because a serious battle is going on. Ulan plays desperately, and fate, having laughed for the last time, finally turns away from the old man Bobkovsky - "the lot has fallen <...> the hour has come." In silence, without uttering a single word, "slowly and smoothly" the lost treasurer approaches the gambling table - no tears, no hysteria, no reproaches! Silently looks at her husband and silently throws her wedding ring in his face. And faint. Ulan, don’t be a fool, without delay, grabs the winnings in an armful and goes home, it’s good to carry not far, and the burden doesn’t pull, if it’s your own. And then what, you ask? But nothing. They quarreled for a week, the provincial lancers condemned the maidens, the treasurer tried to find defenders and, it seems, found several, but neither a duel nor a good quarrel followed. Tambov, dear sirs, this is Tambov. Everything is calm in Tambov. A. M. Marchenko Demon. Eastern story Poem (1829-1839, published 1860) From a cosmic height, the "sad Demon" surveys the wild and wonderful world of the Central Caucasus: like the edge of a diamond, Kazbek sparkles, the Terek jumps like a lioness, the gorge of Darial winds like a snake - and feels nothing but contempt. Evil even then bored the spirit of evil Everything is a burden: and perpetual loneliness, and immortality, and unlimited power over an insignificant earth. Meanwhile, the landscape is changing. Under the wing of the flying Demon is no longer a cluster of rocks and abysses, but the lush valleys of happy Georgia: the brilliance and breath of a thousand plants, the voluptuous midday heat and the dewy aromas of bright nights. alas, these magnificent pictures do not cause new thoughts in the inhabitant of the superstellar regions. Only for a moment the distracted attention of the Demon is delayed by the festive revival in the usually silent possessions of the Georgian feudal lord: the owner of the estate, Prince Gudal, betrothed the only heiress, in his high house they are preparing for the wedding celebration. Relatives have gathered ahead of time, the wine is already pouring, by sunset the bridegroom of Princess Tamara, the illustrious ruler of Sinodal, will arrive, and while the servants are rolling out ancient carpets: according to custom, on the roof covered with carpets, the bride, even before the appearance of the groom, must perform a traditional dance with a tambourine. Princess Tamara is dancing! Oh, how she dances! Now it rushes like a bird, circling a small tambourine above its head, then it freezes like a frightened doe, and a light cloud of sadness runs over the lovely bright-eyed face. After all, this is the last day of the princess in her father's house! How will someone else's family meet her? No, no, Tamara is not given in marriage against her will. The groom chosen by her father is to her heart: in love, young, good-looking - what more! But here no one hampered her freedom, but there... Having driven away the "secret doubt", Tamara smiles again. Smiling and dancing. The gray-haired Gudal is proud of her daughter, the guests admire, raise their horns, utter magnificent toasts: "I swear, such a beauty / Never bloomed under the sun of the south!" The demon and he admired someone else's bride. Circling and circling over the wide courtyard of the Georgian castle, as if chained to a dancing girl's figure with an invisible chain. In the desert of his soul there is an inexplicable excitement. Has a miracle happened? It truly happened: "A feeling suddenly spoke in him / Once in his native language!" Well, and what will the free son of ether, enchanted by a powerful passion for an earthly woman, do? alas, the immortal spirit acts in the same way as a cruel and powerful tyrant would have done in his situation: he kills an opponent. At the instigation of the Demon, Tamara's fiancé is attacked by robbers. Having plundered the wedding gifts, interrupted the guards and dispersed the timid camel drivers, the abreks disappear. The faithful horse (priceless suit, golden) takes out the wounded prince from the battle, but he, already in the darkness, is overtaken by an evil stray bullet on the tip of an evil spirit. With a dead master in a saddle embroidered with colored silks, the horse continues galloping at full speed: the horseman, who has dipped his golden mane in the last frenzied shake, must keep the prince’s word: ride alive or dead to the wedding feast, and only having reached the gate, falls dead. There is groaning and crying in the bride's family. Blacker than the clouds, Gudal, he sees God's punishment in what happened. Falling on the bed, as she was - in pearls and brocade, Tamara sobs. And suddenly: a voice. Unfamiliar. Magic. He comforts, calms, heals, tells fairy tales and promises to fly to her every evening - the night flowers barely bloom - so that "silk eyelashes / Golden dreams evoke ...". Tamara looks around: no one!!! Did it feel like it? But then where is the confusion? Which has no name! In the morning, the princess still falls asleep and sees a strange one - isn't it the first of the promised gold ones? - dream. Shining with unearthly beauty, a certain "alien" is leaning towards its headboard. This is not a guardian angel, there is no luminous halo around his curls, however, he doesn’t seem to look like a fiend either: it’s too sad, he looks with love! And so every night: as soon as the night flowers wake up, it appears. Guessing that it is not someone else that confuses her with an irresistible dream, but the "evil spirit" himself, Tamara asks her father to let her go to the monastery. Gudal gets angry - suitors, one more enviable than the other, besiege their house, and Tamara refuses everyone. Having lost his patience, he threatens a reckless curse. This threat does not stop Tamara either; finally Gudal relents. And here she is in a secluded monastery, but even here, in a sacred monastery, during the hours of solemn prayers, through church singing she hears the same magical voice, in a fog of incense rising to the vaults of a gloomy temple, Tamara sees the same image and the same eyes - irresistible as a dagger. Falling on her knees in front of the divine icon, the poor virgin wants to pray to the saints, and her disobedient heart “prays to Him.” The beautiful sinner is no longer deceived about herself: she is not just embarrassed by a vague dream of love, she is in love: passionately, sinfully, as if the night guest who captivated her with unearthly beauty was not an alien from the invisible, immaterial world, but an earthly youth. The demon, of course, understands everything, but, unlike the unfortunate princess, she knows something that she does not know: an earthly beauty will pay for a moment of physical closeness with him, an unearthly creature, with death. That's why he hesitates; he is even ready to abandon his criminal plan. At least he thinks so. One night, having already approached the cherished cell, he tries to leave, and in fear he feels that he cannot flap his wing: the wing does not move! Then he sheds a single tear - an inhuman tear burns through the stone. Realizing that even he, seemingly omnipotent, cannot change anything, the Demon appears to Tamara no longer in the form of an obscure nebula, but incarnated, that is, in the form of a winged, but beautiful and courageous person. However, the way to the sleeping Tamara's bed is blocked by her guardian angel and demands that the vicious spirit does not touch his, angelic, shrine. The Demon, smiling slyly, explains to the messenger of paradise that he appeared too late and that in his, the Demon, possessions - where he owns and loves - the cherubs have nothing to do. Tamara, waking up, does not recognize the young man of her dreams in a random guest. She does not like his speeches either - lovely in a dream, in reality they seem dangerous to her. But the Demon opens his soul to her - Tamara is touched by the immensity of the sorrows of the mysterious stranger, now he seems to her a sufferer. And yet, something worries her both in the guise of an alien and in reasoning too complicated for her weakening mind. And she, oh holy naivete, asks him to swear that he is not disingenuous, does not deceive her gullibility. And the Demon swears. Whatever he does not swear - and by heaven, which he hates, and by hell, which he despises, and even by the shrine, which he does not have. The Demon Oath is a brilliant example of male love eloquence - which a man will not promise a woman when the fire of desire burns in his blood! In "impatience of passion" he does not even notice that he contradicts himself: either he promises to take Tamara to the over-stellar lands and make her the queen of the world, or he assures that it is here, on an insignificant earth, that he will build for her magnificent - from turquoise and amber - palaces. And yet, the outcome of a fatal date is not decided by words, but by the first touch - hot male lips - to trembling female lips. The night watchman of the monastery, making a routine round, slows down his steps: in the cell of the new nun there are unusual sounds, something like "two mouths kissing in agreement." Embarrassed, he stops and hears: first a groan, and then a terrible, albeit weak, like a death cry. Informed of the death of the heiress, Gudal takes the body of the deceased from the monastery. He firmly decided to bury his daughter in a high-mountain family cemetery, where one of his ancestors, in atonement for many sins, erected a small temple. In addition, he does not want to see his Tamara, even in a coffin, in a coarse hair shirt. By his order, the women of his hearth dress up the princess in the way that they did not dress up on the days of fun. For three days and three nights, higher and higher, a mournful train moves, ahead of Gudal on a snow-white horse. He is silent, and the rest are silent. So many days have passed since the death of the princess, but corruption does not touch her - the color of the brow, as in life, is whiter and cleaner than the bedspread? And this smile, as if frozen on the lips?! Mysterious as her death itself!!! Having given up its peri to the gloomy land, the funeral caravan sets off on its way back... The wise Gudal did everything right! The river of time washed away from the face of the earth both his high house, where his wife bore him a beautiful daughter, and the wide yard where Tamara played a child. And the temple and the cemetery are intact with him, they can still be seen - there, high, at the turn of the jagged rocks, because nature, with its highest power, made the grave of the beloved Demon inaccessible to humans. A. M. Marchenko Mtsyri Poem (1840) Mtskheta is the ancient capital of Georgia, founded there, "where, they merge, they make noise, / Embracing, like two sisters, / The jets of Aragva and Kura." Right there, in Mtskheta, is the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral with the tombs of the last kings of independent Georgia, who "handed over" "their people" to Russia of the same faith. Since then (the end of the XNUMXth century) the grace of God overshadows the long-suffering country - it blooms and prospers, "was not afraid of enemies, / Beyond friendly bayonets." "Once a Russian general / From the mountains to Tiflis was driving; He was carrying a prisoner child. / He fell ill ..." Realizing that in such a state he would not take the child to Tiflis alive, the general leaves the captive in Mtskheta, in the local monastery. Mtskheta monks, righteous men, ascetics, educators, having cured and baptized the foundling, bring him up in a truly Christian spirit. And it seems that hard and disinterested work achieves the goal. Forgetting his native language and getting used to captivity, Mtsyri speaks fluent Georgian. Yesterday's savage is "ready in the prime of life to utter a monastic vow." And suddenly, on the eve of the solemn event, the foster child disappears, slipping unnoticed out of the monastery fortress at that terrible hour, when the holy fathers, frightened by a thunderstorm, crowded around the altar like lambs. The fugitive, of course, is searched for by the entire monastery army and, as expected, for three whole days. To no avail. However, after some time, Mtsyri is still found quite by accident by some strangers - and not in the depths of the Caucasus Mountains, but in the immediate vicinity of Mtskheta. Recognizing the youth as a monastic servant lying unconscious on the bare, scorched earth, they bring him to the monastery. When Mtsyri comes to his senses, the monks interrogate him. He is silent. They try to force-feed him, because the fugitive is exhausted, as if he had suffered a long illness or exhausting labor. Mtsyri refuses to write. Guessing that the stubborn man is deliberately hastening his "end", they send to Mtsyri the very black man who once went out and christened him. The good old man is sincerely attached to the ward and really wants his pupil, since it is destined for him to die so young, to fulfill his Christian duty, humble himself, repent and receive forgiveness of sins before his death. But Mtsyri does not at all repent of his daring act. Vice versa! He is proud of him as a feat! Because in the wild he lived and lived the way all his ancestors lived - in alliance with wild nature - sharp-sighted like eagles, wise like snakes, strong like mountain leopards. Unarmed, Mtsyri enters into single combat with this royal beast, the owner of the local dense forests. And, having honestly defeated him, he proves (to himself!) that he could "be in the land of his fathers / Not one of the last daredevils." The feeling of will returns to the young man even that which, it would seem, was forever taken away by bondage: the memory of childhood. He recalls his native speech, and his native village, and the faces of his relatives - his father, sisters, brothers. Moreover, even if for a brief moment, life in union with wild nature makes him a great poet. Telling the black man about what he saw, what he experienced while wandering in the mountains, Mtsyri selects words that are strikingly similar to the primordial nature of the mighty nature of his native land. And only one sin burdens his soul. This sin is perjury. After all, once, long ago, as a youth, the fugitive swore to himself a terrible oath that he would run away from the monastery and find a path to his native lands. And now he seems to be following the right direction: he walks, runs, rushes, crawls, climbs - to the east, to the east, to the east. All the time, both day and night, according to the sun, according to the stars - to the east of Mtskheta! And suddenly he discovers that, having made a circle, he returned to the very place from where his escape began, the feat of Escape, In the immediate vicinity of Mtskheta; from here it is within easy reach of the monastery cloister that sheltered him! And this, in the understanding of Mtsyri, is not a simple unfortunate oversight. Years spent in "prison", in dungeons, and this is exactly how the adopted monastery perceives, not only physically weakened his body. Life in captivity extinguished in his soul the "beam-guide", that is, that unmistakably true, almost bestial sense of his path, which every highlander possesses from birth and without which neither man nor beast can survive in the wild abysses of the Central Caucasus. Yes, Mtsyri escaped from the monastery fortress, but he can no longer destroy that inner prison, that constraint that the civisers have built in his soul! It is this terrible tragic discovery, and not the torn wounds inflicted by the leopard, that kills the life instinct in Mtsyri, that thirst for life with which true, and not adopted, children of nature come into the world. A born freedom lover, he, in order not to live as a slave, dies like a slave: humbly, without cursing anyone. The only thing he asks his jailers is to be buried in that corner of the monastery garden, from where "the Caucasus is also visible." His only hope is in the mercy of a cool breeze blowing from the mountains, and suddenly he will convey to the orphan's grave a faint sound of his native speech or a fragment of a mountain song ... A. M. Marchenko Masquerade Drama in verse (1835-1836, publ. 1842) Evgeny Alexandrovich Arbenin, a man of not the first youth, a player by nature and by profession, having become rich on cards, decides to change his fate: to conclude an "alliance with virtue", marry and live as a gentleman. Conceived - done. Life, however, makes a significant correction to this most beautiful plan. Having engaged, not so much by direct calculation, but rather "by mature reflection", Eugene, unexpectedly for himself, falls in love, and in earnest, with his young wife. And this, with his gloom and with his temperament - like lava, "ebullient" - does not promise spiritual comfort. It seems to be "calmed down", moored to the family pier, but feels like a "broken shuttle", thrown again into the open, stormy sea. His wife, no doubt, is an angel, but she is a child, and with her soul, and for years, and like a child, she loves everything that glitters, and most of all "and the brilliance, and the noise, and the sound of the balls." So today: holidays, St. Petersburg is having fun, dancing, having fun somewhere and Nastasya Pavlovna Arbenina (at home - Nina). I promised to be there before midnight, now it's already one o'clock... Finally is. Creeps up on tiptoe and kisses, like a good uncle, on the forehead. Arbenin makes a scene for her, but the dear ones scold - they only amuse themselves! In addition, Evgeny Alexandrovich himself is now not without sin: he violated the vow - "no longer sit down at cards." Sat! And he won big. True, and a plausible pretext: you must help out of trouble the lost prince Zvezdich! With Zvezdich, from the gambling house, he goes to the masquerade house - to Engelhardt. To dissipate. It is impossible to disperse: in an idle crowd, Arbenin is a stranger to everyone, but Zvezdich, a young and very handsome guardsman, is in his element and, of course, dreams of an amorous adventure. The dream comes true. The mysterious lady in the mask, intriguing, confesses to him in involuntary passion. The prince asks for some symbolic "object" in memory of the masquerade meeting. The mask, not risking giving up his ring, gives the handsome man a bracelet lost by someone: gold, with enamel, pretty (look, they say, for the wind in the field!). The prince shows the masquerade "trophy" to Arbenin. He saw something similar somewhere, but he doesn't remember where. Yes, and he’s not up to Zvezdich, someone Unknown, having spoken impudently, just predicted misfortune to Yevgeny, and not in general, but precisely on this festive winter night! .. You must admit that after such a stormy day, Mr. Arbenin has reason to be nervous, expecting a late wife ! But then the storm, without turning into a storm, rushed off. Well, what if Nina loves differently than he does - unconsciously, playing with feelings, because she loves it! Touched, in a fit of tenderness, Eugene kisses his wife's fingers and involuntarily draws attention to her bracelet: a few hours ago, Zvezdich boasted exactly the same, gold and enamel! And here you go! There is no bracelet on her right wrist, but they are paired, and Nina, following the fashion, wears them on both hands! No, it can't be! "Where, Nina, is your second bracelet?" - "Lost." Lost? By order of Arbenin, they are looking for the whole house, of course, they don’t find it, but in the process of searching it turns out: Nina stayed until two in the morning not at a home ball in a respectable family, but at a public masquerade at Engelhardt, where a decent woman, alone, without companions , driving is shameful. Struck by a strange, inexplicable (is it really just a childish curiosity?) Act of his wife, Arbenin begins to suspect that Nina is having an affair with the prince. Suspicion, however, is not yet certainty. The angel-Nina cannot prefer him, a mature husband, an empty handsome boy! Much more (so far) Arbenin is outraged by the prince - would this “Cupid” be up to amorous pranks if he, Arbenin, had not generously won back his card loss! Tired half to death from a showdown, the Arbenin spouses, in the worst mood, disperse to their rooms. The next day, Nina goes to a jewelry store; she naively hopes that her husband will change his anger to mercy if he manages to pick up exactly the same trinket to replace the lost trinket. Having bought nothing (bracelets - piece work), Madame Arbenina stops by a secular friend of the young widow Baroness Shtral and, having met Zvezdich in the living room, ingenuously tells him about her trouble. Deciding that the mysterious masked lady and Nina Arbenina are one and the same person, and the "fairy tale" about the allegedly lost bracelet is with a hint, Zvezdych instantly transforms from a bored bon vivant into a fiery lover. Having cooled his ardor with the "Epiphany cold", Nina hurriedly leaves, and the annoyed prince lays out the "whole story" to the baroness. The widow is horrified, because it was she who, not recognized under the masquerade mask, found and gave Nina's bracelet! Saving her reputation, she leaves Zvezdich in error, and he, hoping to confuse Nina and thereby achieve his goal, sends her a daring letter to her home address: they say, I’d rather die than give you up, having previously notified half of the secular about its content. Petersburg. As a result of a multi-stage intrigue, the scandalous message falls into the hands of Arbenin. Now Eugene is not only convinced that he has been cruelly deceived. Now he sees in what happened also a certain prophetic sign: they say, not for someone who has experienced "all the sweetness of vice and villainy" - to dream of peace and carelessness! Well, which one, the player, is the husband? And even more so the virtuous father of the family! However, Arbenin cannot take revenge on the insidious "seducer" in the way that a "genius of villainy" and vice would do, that is, strangle Zvezdich like a kitten - sleeping, Arbenin cannot: "alliance with virtue", albeit a short one, apparently, still something changed in his very being. Meanwhile, Baroness Shtral, frightened for the life of the prince, whom, in spite of everything, she loves, for what - not knowing, "maybe so, from boredom, from vexation, from jealousy," she decides to reveal the truth to Arbenin and thereby prevent the inevitable , in her opinion, drl. Arbenin, scrolling through the options for revenge in his head, does not listen to her, or rather, listening, does not hear. Mrs. Shtral is in despair, although she worries in vain: the duel is not included in Eugene's plans; he wants to take away from the lucky one and the minion of fate not life - why does he need the life of "red tape", but something more: the honor and respect of society. The ingenious enterprise succeeds quite well. Having dragged the spineless prince into a card battle, he finds fault with trifles, publicly accuses him of fraud: "You are a cheater and a scoundrel," he slaps him. So, Zvezdich is punished. Next up for Nina. But Nina is not an immoral and godless princeling; Nina is Nina, and Arbenin, superstitious, like all players, hesitates, waiting for what he will say, what fate will tell him, her old and faithful slave. Fate, on the other hand, "behaves" extremely insidiously: unraveling the intrigue, it immediately confuses it! Mrs. Shtral, after an unsuccessful attempt to explain herself frankly with her friend's husband and realizing that at any turn of events her secular career is hopelessly ruined, decides to retire to her village estate, and before leaving she explains to Zvezdich "the clue to this charade". The prince, who has already been transferred, at his own request, to the Caucasus, is delayed in St. Petersburg in order to return the ill-fated trinket to its real owner, and most importantly, to warn Nina, who is attractive to him: beware, they say, your husband is a villain! Without thinking of another way to talk to Mrs. Arbenina in private, he very carelessly approaches her at the next high-society ball. The prince does not dare to call things by their proper names, and Nina resolutely does not understand his hints. Her Eugene is a villain? Is her husband going to take revenge on her? What nonsense? She does not even guess what decision Arbenin, observing this scene from afar, comes to ("I will find the execution for her ... She will die, I cannot live with her share"). Excited by the dances, having long forgotten about the funny officer, Nina asks her husband to bring her ice cream. Yevgeny obediently trudges into the pantry and, before serving a saucer of ice cream to his wife, pours poison into it. Poison - fast-acting, true, on the same night, in terrible agony, Nina dies. Friends and acquaintances come to say goodbye to the body of the deceased. Having left the visitors of grief to the servants, Arbenin wanders in gloomy loneliness around the empty house. In one of the far rooms, Zvezdich and the same unknown gentleman who a few days ago, at a masquerade at Engelhardt's, predicted "misfortune" to Arbenin, find him. This is his old acquaintance, whom Evgeny Aleksandrovich once beat and let, as they say, around the world. Having known from his bitter experience what this man is capable of, Unknown, confident that Madame Arbenina did not die a natural death, declares openly, in front of Zvezdich: "You killed your wife." Arbenin is horrified, for a while the shock takes away his power of speech. Taking advantage of the pause that has arisen, Zvezdich, in detail, sets out the true history of the fatal bracelet and, as evidence, passes to Yevgeny the written testimony of the baroness. Arbenin is going crazy. But before forever plunging into the saving darkness of madness, this "proud" mind has time to throw an accusation to God himself: "I told You that you are cruel!" The stranger triumphs: he has been completely avenged. But Zvezdich is inconsolable: a duel in the current state of Arbenin is impossible, and, therefore, he, a young, handsome man full of strength and hope, is forever deprived of both peace and honor. A. M. Marchenko Hero of Our Time Roman (1839-1840) 30s of the last century. The conquest of the Caucasus, which knew much more "stormy days" under Alexei Petrovich Yermolov, is nearing completion. "Foreign forces", of course, burden "the edge of the liberty of the saint", and he, of course, is indignant, but not so much as to block the Georgian Military Highway. On it, the author, an officer of the Russian colonial troops, meets with a veteran of the Caucasian War, Staff Captain Maxim Maksimych. It is not so far to Vladikavkaz, where our army men are on their way, but ice and a sudden snowstorm force them to stop twice for the night. Under seagulls from a cast-iron teapot, Maxim Maksimych tells an inquisitive, like all people who write and write down, a fellow traveler, a real incident from his life. It is now the fifty-year-old staff captain who is listed as something like a quartermaster, and five years ago he was still a combat officer - the commandant of a watch fortress and stood with his company in the newly pacified Chechnya. Of course, anything happens - "every day there is danger" ("the people are all around wild") - but in general, the peacemakers live like neighbors with the reconciled "savages", until Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin, a brilliant guardsman, translated into the army and half-exiled to the Caucasus for some scandalous secular offense. Having served under Maxim Maksimych for about a year, the twenty-five-year-old ensign, who looks so thin and white, manages to: lay eyes on the pretty daughter of the local "peaceful" prince, with the help of Bela's younger brother - Azamat - kidnap her from her father's house, tame her, fall in love with himself to passion, and in four months to realize: the love of a savage is no better than the love of a noble lady. what Maxim Maksimych is simple for, but he understands: the romantic enterprise started by Pechorin (out of boredom!) Will not end well. It ends really badly: redistribution of stolen goods. The fact is that Pechorin pays Azamat not with his gold, but with someone else's - priceless - horse, the only asset of the daring Kazbich. Kazbich, in retaliation, kidnaps Bela and, realizing that there is no escape from the chase, stabs her to death. The “history” told by the staff captain would have remained a travel episode in “Notes on Georgia”, on which the author is working, if not for a road surprise: having lingered in Vladikavkaz, he becomes an eyewitness to an accidental meeting between Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin, who has retired and is heading to Persia. After observing the former subordinate of the staff captain, the author, a wonderful physiognomist, convinced that one can judge the character of a person by facial features, comes to the conclusion: Pechorin is a typical face, perhaps even a portrait of the hero of the time, composed by life itself of the vices of a barren generation. In short: it draws on an ultra-modern, psychological novel, no less curious than "the history of a whole people." In addition, he receives a unique document at his full disposal. Angry at Grigory Alexandrovich, Maxim Maksimych rashly hands over to his fellow traveler "Pechorin's papers" - a diary he forgot in the fortress during his hasty departure for the ridge - to Georgia. Extracts from these papers are the central part of the "Hero of Our Time" ("Pechorin's Journal"). The first chapter of this novel in the novel - the adventurous short story "Taman" confirms: the staff captain, with all his innocence, correctly felt the character of the destroyer of Bela: Pechorin is an adventure hunter, one of those senselessly effective natures that are ready to sacrifice their lives a hundred times, only to get the key to the riddle that intrigued their restless mind. Judge for yourself: three days on the road, arrives in Taman late at night, finds a place to stay with difficulty - the batman snores, and the master is not up to sleep. The hunting instinct and diabolical intuition whisper: the blind boy who let him "on the veil" is not as blind as they say, and the veil - for nothing that a lopsided mud hut - does not look like a family hut. The blind man indeed behaves strangely for a blind man: he descends to the sea along a steep slope with a "true step", and even drags some kind of bundle. Pechorin sneaks after him and, hiding behind a coastal cliff, continues to watch. In the fog, a female figure is indicated. Listening, he guesses: two on the shore are waiting for a certain Yanko, whose boat should sneak past the guard ships unnoticed. The girl in white is worried - there is a strong storm at sea - but the brave rower safely lands. Having put the brought bales on their shoulders, the trinity is removed. The riddle, which seemed intricate to Pechorin, is resolved easily: Yanko brings contraband goods (ribbons, beads and brocade) from overseas, and the girl and the blind man help to hide and sell it. Out of annoyance, Pechorin takes a rash step: at point-blank range, in front of the old mistress, he asks the boy where he goes at night. Frightened that the guest would "denounce" the military commandant, Yanko's girlfriend (Pechorin calls her an undine - a water maiden, a mermaid) decides to get rid of an excessively curious witness. Noticing that she liked the passing gentleman, the little mermaid offers him a night, tete-a-tete, boat trip on the turbulent sea. Pechorin, who cannot swim, hesitates, but retreating in the face of danger is not in his rules. As soon as the boat sails a sufficient distance, the girl, having lulled the gentleman's vigilance with a fiery embrace, deftly throws his pistol overboard. A fight ensues. The ship is about to capsize. Pechorin is stronger, but the maiden of the sea is flexible, like a wild cat; one more cat throw and our superman will follow his gun into the oncoming wave. But still, an undine turns out to be overboard. Pechorin somehow rows to the shore and sees that the little mermaid is already there. Yanko appears, dressed as a traveler, and then blind. The smugglers, confident that now, after an unsuccessful assassination attempt, the officer will surely inform the authorities, inform the boy that they are leaving Taman for good. He tearfully asks to take him too, but Yanko rudely refuses: "What do I need you for!" Pechorin becomes sad, he still feels sorry for the "poor wretch." alas, not for long. Finding that the poor blind man robbed him, unmistakably choosing the most valuable things (a box of money, a unique dagger, etc.), he calls the thief "damned blind." We learn about what happened to Pechorin after leaving Taman from the story "Princess Mary" (the second fragment of "Pechorin's Journal"). On a punitive expedition against the Black Sea highlanders, he makes the acquaintance of Junker Grushnitsky, a provincial youth who entered the military service out of romantic motives: he spends the winter in S. (Stavropol), where he briefly meets Dr. Werner, a wise guy and a skeptic. And in May, Pechorin, and Werner, and Grushnitsky, wounded in the leg and awarded - for bravery - the St. George Cross, were already in Pyatigorsk. Pyatigorsk, like neighboring Kislovodsk, is famous for its healing waters, May is the beginning of the season, and the entire "water community" is assembled. Society is mostly male, officers - after all, and around the war, ladies (and even more so not old and pretty) - without exception. The most interesting of the "resorts", according to the general verdict, is Princess Mary, the only daughter of a wealthy Moscow lady. Princess Ligovskaya is an English speaker, so her Mary knows English and reads Byron in the original. Despite her scholarship, Mary is direct and democratic in a Moscow way. Immediately noticing that the wound prevents Grushnitsky from bending over, she picks up the glass of sour - healing - water dropped by the cadet. Pechorin catches himself thinking that he is jealous of Grushnitsky. And not because he liked the Moscow young lady so much - although, as a connoisseur, he fully appreciated both her unbanal appearance and her stylish manner of dressing. But because he believes: all the best in this world should belong to him. In short, having nothing to do, he starts a campaign, the purpose of which is to win the heart of Mary and thereby hurt the pride of the arrogant and out of order narcissistic Knight of St. George Both are quite successful. The scene at the "sour" spring is dated May 11, and eleven days later, in the Kislovodsk "restaurant" at a public ball, he is already dancing with the youngest Lithuanian waltz. Taking advantage of the freedom of resort customs, the dragoon captain, tipsy and vulgar, tries to invite the princess to a mazurka. Mary is shocked, Pechorin deftly sends off the dork and receives from a grateful mother - still! Saved my daughter from fainting at the ball! - an invitation to visit her house easily. Meanwhile, the circumstances are getting more complicated. A distant relative of the princess comes to the waters, in whom Pechorin recognizes "his Faith", the woman whom he once truly loved. Vera still loves her unfaithful lover, but she is married, and her husband, a rich old man, is relentless like a shadow: the princess's living room is the only place where they can see each other without arousing suspicion. In the absence of friends, Mary shares with her cousin (who prudently rented a neighboring house with a common dense garden) heart secrets; Vera gives them to Pechorin - "she is in love with you, poor thing," - he pretends that this does not interest him at all. But female experience tells Vera: a dear friend is not completely indifferent to the charm of a charming Muscovite. Jealous, she takes the word from Grigory Alexandrovich that he will not marry Mary. And as a reward for the sacrifice, he promises a faithful (night, alone, in his boudoir) date. Impatient lovers are lucky: a famous magician and magician arrives in Kislovodsk, where the "water society" has moved for another portion of medical procedures. The whole city, with the exception of Mary and Vera, of course, is there. Even the princess, despite her daughter's illness, takes a ticket. Pechorin rides along with everyone, but, without waiting for the end, disappears "in English." Grushnitsky and his dragoon friend pursue him and, noticing that Pechorin is hiding in the Ligovsky garden, set up an ambush (knowing nothing about Vera, they imagine that the villain is secretly dating the princess). True, it is not possible to catch a womanizer red-handed, but they raise a fair amount of noise - keep, they say, a thief! In search of robbers, that is, Circassians, a Cossack detachment is urgently called to Kislovodsk. But this version is for the common people. The male part of the "water society" relishes with pleasure the insidious slander against the princess, which Grushnitsky and his partner spread. Pechorin, who has fallen into a false position, has no choice but to challenge the slanderer to a duel. Grushnitsky, on the advice of his second (still the same drunken dragoon), offers to shoot "at six paces." And in order to protect himself (it is almost impossible to miss at six steps, especially for a professional military man), he allows the dragoon to leave the enemy’s pistol unloaded. Werner, who by pure chance found out about the dishonest conspiracy, is horrified. However, Pechorin coolly - and strictly according to the rules of the dueling code - upsets the fraudulent plan. First, by lot, Grushnitsky shoots, but he is so excited that the "true" bullet only slightly touches his lucky opponent. Before making a return - fatal - shot, Pechorin offers his former friend a world peace. He, in a state of almost insane, refuses flatly: "Shoot! I despise myself, but I hate you! If you don't kill me, I'll stab you from around the corner!" The death of the unlucky admirer of the princess does not relieve the tension inside the love quadrangle. Vera, having heard about the duel at six steps, ceases to control herself, her husband guesses the true state of things and orders to urgently lay the stroller. After reading her farewell note, Pechorin jumps on his Circassian. The thought of parting forever horrifies him: only now does he realize that Vera is dearer to him than anything in the world. But the horse does not withstand a mad race - a senseless race for lost, ruined happiness. Pechorin returns on foot to Kislovodsk, where unpleasant news awaits him: the authorities do not believe that the death of Grushnitsky is the tricks of the Circassians, and, just in case, decides to send the surviving "combatant" to hell. Before leaving, Pechorin goes to the Ligovskys to say goodbye. The princess, forgetting about decency, offers him the hand of her daughter. He asks permission to talk to Mary alone and, remembering the oath given to Vera - "You will not marry Mary ?!" - He announces to the poor girl that he dragged after her out of boredom to laugh. Of course, this vulgar formula, suitable only for petty-bourgeois stories, does not fit the formula of dislike for his feelings for Mary. But he is a player, and the most important thing for a player is to keep a good face on a bad game. And with this - alas! - it's nothing you can do! Style is a person, and our hero's lifestyle is such that he, apparently not wanting it, destroys all living things, wherever this living thing is found - in a mountain sakla, in a wretched hut or in a rich noble nest. Pechorin involuntarily appears as an executioner in the action-packed short story "The Fatalist" (the final chapter of the novel). In the officer's card company, gathered at the apartment of the head of the front-line garrison, a philosophical dispute is tied up. Some consider the Muslim belief - "as if the fate of a person is written in heaven" - is sheer nonsense, others, on the contrary, are convinced that a fateful minute is assigned to everyone from above. Lieutenant Vulich, originally a Serb, and by the disposition of his mind a fatalist, invites the debaters to take part in a mystical experiment. Say, if the hour of his death has not yet struck, then providence will not allow the pistol, which he, Vulich, publicly puts the muzzle to his forehead, to fire. Who, gentlemen, wants to pay for the rare spectacle N-th amount of gold coins? Nobody wants it, of course. Except Pechorin. This one not only turns out all the contents of his wallet on the playing table, but also says to Vulich - aloud, looking into his eyes: "You will die today!" The Serb wins the first "round" of the dangerous bet: the pistol does misfire, although it is in perfect working order, with the next shot the lieutenant pierces through the owner's cap hanging on the wall. But Pechorin, watching how the fatalist shifts his gold coins into his pocket, insists: Vulich's face is a sign of imminent death. Vulich, at first embarrassed, and then flaming up, leaves. One. Without waiting for the lingering comrades. And he dies before reaching the house: he is cut with a saber - from shoulder to waist - by a drunken Cossack. Now even those who did not believe in predestination believed. It never occurs to anyone to imagine how the fate of the unfortunate lieutenant would have unfolded if blind chance and a desire to change places had not brought Grigory Pechorin from a boring fortress, from under the supervision of Maxim Maksimych, to the front-line Cossack village. Well, gentlemen officers would have made some noise, the gloomy Serb would have frightened them, and they would have returned to the cards thrown under the table, to shtoss and whist, and would have sat up until dawn - and there, you see, the stanitsa, violent in hops, would have sobered up. Even Maxim Maksimych, after listening to Pechorin's story about the terrible death of poor Vulich, although he tried to do without metaphysics (they say, these Asian triggers often fail), he ended up agreeing with the general opinion: "It seems that it was written in his family." With his own special opinion, only Pechorin remains, although he does not express it aloud: and which of you, gentlemen, knows for sure whether he is convinced of what or not? Come on, think about it - how often does each of you take a delusion of feelings or a mistake of reason for conviction? And really - who? After all, Grigory Alexandrovich was convinced that his people were destined for death from an evil wife. And he died - on the road, returning from Persia, under circumstances that remained unexplained (at the request of the author). A. M. Marchenko Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov (1815-1869) The Little Humpbacked Horse Russian fairy tale in three parts. (1834) A peasant lives in a village. He has three sons: the eldest - Danilo - smart, the middle one - Gavrilo - "this way and that", the youngest - Ivan - a fool. The brothers make a living by growing wheat, transporting it to the capital and selling it there. Suddenly, trouble happens: someone starts trampling the crops at night. The brothers decide to take turns on duty in the field in order to find out who it is. The older and middle brothers, frightened by the cold and bad weather, leave their duty without finding out anything. When the turn of the younger brother comes, he goes into the field and sees how at midnight a white mare with a long golden mane appears. Ivan manages to jump on the mare's back, and she starts galloping. Finally, tired, the mare asks Ivan to let her go, promising to give birth to him three horses: two - handsome, which Ivan, if he wants, can sell, and the third - a horse "only three inches tall, on his back with two humps and with arshin ears" - Ivan should not be given to anyone for any treasures, because he will be Ivan's best friend, helper and protector. Ivan agrees and takes the mare to the shepherd's booth, where three days later the mare gives birth to the three promised horses. After some time, Danilo, accidentally entering the booth, sees two beautiful golden-maned horses there. Together with Gavrila, they decide to secretly take them to the capital from Ivan and sell them there. In the evening of the same day, Ivan, having come, as usual, to the booth, discovers the loss. The Little Humpbacked Horse explains to Ivan what happened and offers to catch up with the brothers. Ivan mounts the Humpbacked Horse, and they instantly overtake them. The brothers, justifying themselves, explain their deed by poverty; Ivan agrees to sell the horses, and together they go to the capital. Having stopped in a field for the night, the brothers suddenly notice a light in the distance. Danilo sends Ivan to bring a spark, "to spread the smoke." Ivan sits on the Little Humpbacked Horse, drives up to the fire and sees something strange: "a wonderful light streams around, but does not warm, does not smoke." The Little Humpbacked Horse explains to him that this is the feather of the Firebird, and does not advise Ivan to pick it up, as it will bring him a lot of trouble. Ivan does not listen to advice, picks up a pen, puts it in his hat and, returning to his brothers, is silent about the change. Arriving in the capital in the morning, the brothers put the horses up for sale in the horse row. The mayor sees the horses and immediately goes with a report to the king. The mayor praises the wonderful horses so much that the king immediately goes to the market and buys them from his brothers. The royal grooms lead the horses away, but the expensive horses knock them down and return to Ivan. Seeing this, the tsar offers Ivan a service in the palace - he appoints him head of the royal stables; Ivan agrees and goes to the palace. The brothers, having received the money and divided it equally, go home, both get married and live in peace, remembering Ivan. And Ivan serves in the royal stable. However, after some time, the royal sleeping bag - the boyar, who was the head of the stables before Ivan and now decided to drive him out of the palace at all costs - notices that Ivan does not clean and groom the horses, but nevertheless they are always fed, watered and cleaned up. Deciding to find out what's the matter, the sleeping bag sneaks into the stable at night and hides in the stall. At midnight, Ivan enters the stable, takes out of his hat a feather of the Firebird wrapped in a rag, and by its light begins to clean and wash the horses. Having finished work, having fed them and watered them, Ivan is right there in the stable and falls asleep. The sleeping bag goes to the tsar and reports to him that Ivan not only hides the precious feather of the Firebird from him, but also allegedly boasts that he can get the Firebird itself. The tsar immediately sends for Ivan and demands that he get him the Firebird. Ivan claims that he did not say anything of the kind, however, seeing the anger of the king, he goes to the Little Humpbacked Horse and tells him about his grief. Konyok volunteers to help Ivan. The next day, on the advice of the humpbacked man, having received from the tsar "two troughs of Beloyar's millet and overseas wine," Ivan sits on a horseback and sets off for the Firebird. They drive for a whole week and finally arrive in a dense forest. In the middle of the forest is a clearing, and in the clearing is a mountain of pure silver. The horse explains to Ivan that the Firebirds fly here at night to the stream, and tells him to pour millet into one trough and pour wine over it, and to climb under another trough himself, and when the birds arrive and begin to peck at the grain with wine, grab one of them . Ivan obediently does everything, and he manages to catch the Firebird. He brings it to the tsar, who, in joy, rewards him with a new position: now Ivan is the royal stirrup. However, the sleeping bag does not leave the thought of Ivan's lime. After a while, one of the servants tells the others a tale about the beautiful Tsar Maiden, who lives on the ocean, rides in a golden boat, sings songs and plays the harp, and besides, she is the daughter of the Moon and the sister of the Sun. The sleeping bag immediately goes to the tsar and reports to him that he allegedly heard Ivan boasting that he could get the Tsar Maiden. The Tsar sends Ivan to bring him the Tsar Maiden. Ivan goes to the skate, and he again volunteers to help him. To do this, you need to ask the king for two towels, a tent embroidered with gold, a dining set and various sweets. The next morning, having received everything necessary, Ivan sits on the Little Humpbacked Horse and sets off for the Tsar Maiden. They travel for a whole week and finally come to the ocean. The horse tells Ivan to spread the tent, place the dining set on a towel, lay out sweets, and hide behind the tent himself and, waiting for the princess to enter the tent, eat, drink and start playing the harp, run into the tent and grab her. Ivan successfully fulfills everything that the horse told him. When they all return to the capital, the king, seeing the Tsar Maiden, invites her to get married tomorrow. However, the princess demands that her ring be taken from the bottom of the ocean. The Tsar immediately sends for Ivan and sends him to the ocean for a ring, and the Tsar Maiden asks him to stop by to bow to her mother, the Moon, and her brother, the Sun, on the way. And the next day, Ivan with the Little Humpbacked Horse set off again. Approaching the ocean, they see that a huge whale lies across it, in which "a village stands on its back, fuss rustles on its tail." Having learned that the travelers are heading towards the Sun in the palace, the whale asks them to find out for what sins he suffers so much. Ivan promises him this, and the travelers go on. Soon they drive up to the tower of the Tsar Maiden, in which the Sun sleeps at night, and during the day the Moon rests. Ivan enters the palace and conveys greetings to the Moon from the Tsar Maiden. The month is very happy to receive news of the missing daughter, but when he learns that the tsar is going to marry her, he gets angry and asks Ivan to convey his words to her: not an old man, but a handsome young man will become her husband. To Ivan's question about the fate of the whale, Month replies that ten years ago this whale swallowed three dozen ships, and if he releases them, he will be forgiven and released into the sea. Ivan and the Hunchback ride back, drive up to the whale and give him the words of the Month. Residents hurriedly leave the village, and the whale releases the ships. Here he is finally free and asks Ivan how he can serve him. Ivan asks him to get the Tsar Maiden's ring from the bottom of the ocean. Kit sends sturgeons to search all the seas and find the ring. Finally, after a long search, the chest with the ring is found, and Ivan delivers it to the capital. The Tsar brings the Tsar Maiden a ring, but she again refuses to marry him, saying that he is too old for her, and offers him a means by which he will be able to rejuvenate: you need to put three large boilers: one with cold water, the other - with hot, and the third - with boiling milk - and take a dip in turn in all three boilers. The tsar again calls Ivan and demands that he be the first to do all this. The Humpbacked Horse even here promises Ivan his help: he will wag his tail, dip his muzzle into the cauldrons, he will jump twice at Ivan, whistle loudly - and after that Ivan can even jump into boiling water. Ivan does just that - and becomes a written handsome man. Seeing this, the king also jumps into boiling milk, but with a different result: "thump into the cauldron - and boiled there." The people immediately recognize the Tsar Maiden as their queen, and she takes the transformed Ivan by the hand and leads him down the aisle. The people greet the king and queen, and a wedding feast thunders in the palace. N V. Soboleva Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) Prince Silver The Tale of the Times of Ivan the Terrible (late 1840s - 1861) Beginning the narrative, the author declares that his main goal is to show the general character of the era, its customs, concepts, beliefs, and therefore he allowed deviations from history in detail - and concludes that his most important feeling was indignation: not so much with John as on a society that is not indignant at him. In the summer of 1565, the young boyar Prince Nikita Romanovich Serebryany, returning from Lithuania, where he had spent five years in painstakingly signing a peace for many years and not succeeding in doing so because of the evasiveness of Lithuanian diplomats and his own straightforwardness, drove up to the village of Medvedevka and found festive fun there . Suddenly guardsmen come running, chopping down the peasants, catching the girls and burning the village. The prince takes them for robbers, ties them up and whips them, despite the threats of their chief, Matvey Khomyak. Ordering his soldiers to take the robbers to the labial headman, he goes further with the stirrup Mikheich, two captives recaptured by him from the guardsmen are taken to accompany him. In the forest, turning out to be robbers, they protect the prince and Mikheich from their own comrades, bring them to the miller for the night, and, saying one Vanyukha Ring, the other Korshun, they leave. Prince Athanasius Vyazemsky arrives at the mill and, considering Melnikov’s guests sleeping, curses his unrequited love, demands love herbs, threatening the miller, forcing him to find out if he has a happy rival, and, having received a too definite answer, leaves in despair. His sweetheart Elena Dmitrievna, the daughter of the okolnichik Pleshcheev-Ochin, orphaned in order to avoid Vyazemsky's harassment, found salvation in marriage to the old boyar Druzhina Adreevich Morozov, although she had no disposition for him, loving Serebryany and even giving him a word - but Serebryany was in Lithuania. John, patronizing Vyazemsky, being angry with Morozov, dishonors him, offering to sit below Godunov at the feast, and, having received a refusal, declares him disgraced. Meanwhile, in Moscow, the returned Serebryany sees many guardsmen, impudent, drunken and robbers, stubbornly calling themselves "tsar's servants." The blessed Vasya, whom he met, calls him a brother, also a holy fool, and predicts evil from the boyar Morozov. The prince goes to him, his old and parental friend. He sees Elena in the garden in a married kokoshnik. Morozov talks about the oprichnina, denunciations, executions, and the tsar’s move to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, where, according to Morozov, Serebryany is going to certain death. But, not wanting to hide from his king, the prince leaves, having explained himself to Elena in the garden and suffering mentally. Observing pictures of terrible changes along the way, the prince arrives at Sloboda, where he sees chopping blocks and gallows among luxurious chambers and churches. While Serebryany is waiting in the yard for permission to enter, young Fyodor Basmanov poisons him, for fun, with a bear. The unarmed prince is saved by Maxim Skuratov, the son of Malyuta. During the feast, the invited prince wonders if the tsar knows about Medvedevka, how he will show his anger, and marvels at the terrible environment of John. The king favors one of the prince's neighbors with a cup of wine, and he dies, poisoned. The prince is also favored, and he fearlessly drinks good, fortunately, wine. In the middle of a luxurious feast, the tsar tells Vyazemsky a fairy tale, in the allegories of which he sees his love story and guesses the tsar's permission to take Elena away. The rumpled Khomyak appears, tells the incident in Medvedevka and points to Serebryany, who is being dragged to be executed, but Maxim Skuratov stands up for him, and the returned prince, having told about the atrocities of the Khomyak in the village, is forgiven - until the next, however, guilt and swears not to hide from the king in case of his anger, but meekly await punishment. At night, Maxim Skuratov, talking to his father and not finding understanding, secretly flees, and the king, frightened by the stories of his mother Onufrevna about the hellish hell and the thunderstorm that began, is visited by the images of those killed by him. Raising the guardsmen with the gospel, dressed in a monastic cassock, he serves matins. Tsarevich John, who took his worst features from his father, constantly ridicules Malyuta causes his revenge: Malyuta introduces him to the king as a conspirator, and he orders, having kidnapped the prince on a hunt, to kill and throw him to avert his eyes in the forest near Poganaya Puddle. A gang of robbers gathering there at that time, among which Ring and Korshun, accepts replenishment: a guy from near Moscow and the second, Mitka, a clumsy fool with truly heroic strength, from near Kolomna. The ring tells about his acquaintance, the Volga robber Ermak Timofeevich. The sentinels report the approach of guardsmen. Prince Serebryany in Sloboda talks with Godunov, not being able to understand the subtleties of his behavior: how, seeing the mistakes of the king, should he not tell him about it? Mikheich comes running, having seen the prince captured by Malyuta and Khomyak, and Serebryany gives chase. Further, an old song is woven into the narrative, interpreting the same event. Having overtaken Malyuta, Serebryany gives him a slap in the face and enters into battle with the guardsmen, and the robbers come to the rescue. The guardsmen were beaten, the prince was safe, but Malyuta and Khomyak fled. Soon, Vyazemsky comes to Morozov with guardsmen, allegedly to announce that he has been removed from disgrace, but in fact to take Elena away. Silver, invited for the sake of such joy, also comes. Morozov, who heard his wife's love speeches in the garden, but did not see the interlocutor, believes that this is Vyazemsky or Silver, and starts a "kissing ceremony", believing that Elena's embarrassment will betray her. Silver penetrates his plan, but is not free to avoid the rite. Kissing Silver, Elena loses her senses. By evening, in Elena's bedchamber, Morozov reproaches her with treason, but Vyazemsky bursts in with his henchmen and takes her away, badly wounded by Serebryany, however. In the forest, weakened by his wounds, Vyazemsky loses consciousness, and the distraught horse brings Elena to the miller, and he, having guessed who she is, hides her, guided not so much by his heart as by calculation. Soon the guardsmen bring the bloodied Vyazemsky, the miller speaks blood to him, but, having frightened the guardsmen with all kinds of devilry, he turns them away from the night. The next day, Mikheich arrives, looking for a ring from Vanyukha sewn up for the prince, thrown into prison by guardsmen. The miller shows the way to the Ring, promising Mikheich upon his return some kind of firebird. After listening to Mikheich, Ring with Uncle Korshun and Mitka set off for Sloboda. In prison, Malyuta and Godunov come to Serebryany to conduct an interrogation. Malyuta, insinuating and affectionate, having reveled in the disgust of the prince, wants to return the slap to him, but Godunov holds him back. The king, trying to distract himself from thoughts of Silver, goes hunting. There he is gyrfalcon Adragan, who distinguished himself at first, falls into a rage, crushes the falcons themselves and flies away; Trishka is equipped for the search with threats befitting the occasion. On the road, the king meets blind songwriters and, anticipating fun and bored with the old storytellers, orders them to come to their chambers. This is a Kite Ring. On the way to Sloboda, Korshun tells the story of his villainy, which has been depriving him of sleep for twenty years, and portends his imminent death. In the evening, Onufrevna warns the tsar that the new storytellers are suspicious, and, having posted guards at the door, he calls them. The ring, often interrupted by John, starts new songs and tales, and, having begun the story of the Pigeon Book, notices that the king has fallen asleep. At the head are the prison keys. However, the supposedly sleeping king calls for guards, who, having grabbed the Kite, misses the Ring. He, running away, stumbles upon Mitka, who opened the prison without any keys. The prince, whose execution is scheduled for the morning, refuses to run, remembering his oath to the king. He is forcibly taken away. Around this time, Maxim Skuratov, wandering, comes to the monastery, asks to confess, is guilty of dislike for the sovereign, disrespect for his father and receives forgiveness. Soon he leaves, intending to repel the raids of the Tatars, and meets Tryphon with the captured Adragan. He asks him to bow to his mother and not to tell anyone about their meeting. Robbers capture Maxim in the forest. A good half of them rebel, dissatisfied with the loss of Korshun and the acquisition of Silver, and demand a trip to Sloboda for robbery - the prince is incited to that. The prince frees Maxim, takes charge of the villagers and convinces them to go not to Sloboda, but to the Tatars. The captive Tatar leads them to the camp. With a cunning invention of the Ring, they manage to crush the enemy at first, but the forces are too unequal, and only the appearance of Fyodor Basmanov with a motley army saves Silver's life. Maxim, with whom they fraternized, dies. At a feast in Basmanov's tent, Serebryany reveals all the duplicity of Fyodor, a brave warrior, a crafty slanderer, an arrogant and base tsar's henchman. After the defeat of the Tatars, the band of robbers is divided in two: part goes into the forests, part, together with Serebryany, goes to Sloboda for royal forgiveness, and the Ring with Mitka, through the same Sloboda, to the Volga, to Yermak. In Sloboda, the jealous Basmanov slanders Vyazemsky and accuses him of witchcraft. Morozov appears, complaining about Vyazemsky. At a confrontation, he declares that Morozov himself attacked him, and Elena left of her own free will. The tsar, wishing Morozov's death, assigns them the "judgment of God": to fight in Sloboda with the condition that the defeated will be executed. Vyazemsky, fearing that God would give victory to old Morozov, goes to the miller to speak a saber and finds, remaining unnoticed, there Basmanov, who has come for grass with a tirlich to enter the royal mercy. Having spoken the saber, the miller tells fortunes in order to find out, at the request of Vyazemsky, his fate, and sees pictures of terrible executions and his impending death. The day of the fight comes. Among the crowd are a ring with Mitka. Having ridden against Morozov, Vyazemsky falls from his horse, his former wounds open, and he tears off Melnikov's amulet, which should ensure victory over Morozov. He exposes instead of himself Matvey Khomyak. Morozov refuses to fight the hireling and looks for a replacement. Mitka is summoned, having recognized the kidnapper of the bride in Khomyak. He refuses the saber and kills Hamster with the shaft given to him for laughing. Calling on Vyazemsky, the tsar shows him the amulet and accuses him of witchcraft against himself. In prison, Vyazemsky says that he saw her at the sorcerer Basmanov, who was plotting the death of John. Not waiting for the bad Basmanov, opening his amulet on his chest, the tsar plunges him into prison. To Morozov, invited to the royal table, John offers again a place after Godunov, and after listening to his rebuke, he favors Morozov with a clownish caftan. The caftan is put on by force, and the boyar, as a jester, tells the tsar everything that he thinks about him, and warns what damage to the state, in his opinion, John's reign will turn out to be. The day of execution comes, terrible weapons grow on Red Square and people gather. Morozov, Vyazemsky, Basmanov, the father, whom he pointed out in torture, the miller, Korshun and many others were executed. The holy fool Vasya, who appeared among the crowd, reads to execute him too and incurs the royal wrath. The people do not allow the blessed to be killed. After the executions, Prince Serebryany arrives in Sloboda with a detachment of villagers and at first comes to Godunov. He, partly shy of his relations with the royal opal, but noting that after the execution the king softened, announces the voluntary return of the prince and brings him. The prince says that he was taken out of prison against his will, talks about the battle with the Tatars and asks for mercy for the villagers, pronouncing them the right to serve where they indicate, but not in the oprichnina, among the "kromeshniks". He himself also refuses to fit into the oprichnina, the tsar appoints him governor at the guard regiment, in which he appoints his own robbers, and loses interest in him. The prince sends Mikheich to the monastery where Elena has retired to keep her from being tonsured, informing her of his imminent arrival. While the prince and the villagers swear allegiance to the tsar, Mikheich gallops to the monastery, where he delivered Elena from the miller. Thinking about the coming happiness, Serebryany goes after him, but Mikheich at the meeting reports that Elena has cut her hair. The prince goes to the monastery to say goodbye, and Elena, who has become sister Evdokia, declares that Morozov's blood is between them and they could not be happy. Having said goodbye, Serebryany with his detachment sets out to carry out patrols, and only the consciousness of the duty being performed and an unclouded conscience retains for him some kind of light in life. Years pass, and many of Morozov's prophecies come true, John suffers defeats on his borders, and only in the east his possessions expand through the efforts of the squad of Yermak and Ivan Kolts. Having received gifts and a letter from the Stroganov merchants, they reach the Ob. An embassy arrives for John Ermakov. Ivan Koltso, who brought him, turns out to be a Ring, and by his companion Mitka, the tsar recognizes him and grants him forgiveness. As if wanting to appease the Ring, the king calls on his former comrade, Silver. But the governors answer that he died seventeen years ago. At the feast of Godunov, who has entered into great power, the Ring tells many wonderful things about the conquered Siberia, returning with a saddened heart to the deceased prince, drinking in his memory. Concluding the story, the author calls for forgiveness for Tsar John of his atrocities, for he is not alone responsible for them, and notices that people like Morozov and Serebryany also often appeared and were able to stand in goodness among the evil that surrounded them and go the straight path. E. V. Kharitonova Death of Ivan the Terrible Tragedy (1862-1864) The action takes place in Moscow in 1584 and begins with a quarrel in the Boyar Duma: Mikhail Nagoi, brother of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, argues for a place with Saltykov and draws the rest of the boyars into the quarrel. Zakharyin-Yuriev, the brother of the first tsar's wife, interrupts the disputes by talking about the importance of the case that collected them: John, tormented by remorse after the murder of his son, decided to take monastic dignity and instructed the Duma to choose a successor for himself. Meanwhile, "enemies from all sides are fighting Rus'," in it is pestilence and famine. Prince Mstislavsky speaks of the inflexibility of the tsar in his decision. Nagoi offers the young Demetrius the Tsarevich with the queen and, if necessary, the "ruler", whom he himself is ready to be; Sitsky - Zakharyin, who has not stained himself with anything. Zakharyin speaks for Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, who is now sitting in besieged Pskov. However, the king is needed immediately. Zakharyin asks for advice from Godunov, who does not care about places and modestly sits down below everyone. He, having described in detail the unenviable position of the state, speaks of the impossibility of changing the king at such a time and calls the boyars to ask John to remain on the throne. Sitsky, remembering the tsar's atrocities, tries in vain to stop the boyars. They go to the king, deciding along the way who will speak, and shy of the sovereign's anger. Godunov takes the risk. John, already dressed in a black cassock, having taken off his Monomakh's hat, waits in the bedchamber for the decision of the boyars and laments the memory of the last villainy. A messenger arrives from Pskov, whom the tsar at first refers to the "new lord", but then, having heard that the news is joyful, he listens to the story of the repulse of the assaults and the retreat of Batur from Pskov. He is served a letter from Kurbsky, in which he reproaches the tsar with an awkward style, threatens to take Pskov soon, calls many of John's evil deeds the cause of his current defeats and caustically commemorates his removal from business. John falls into a rage, for, having killed all Kurbsky's relatives, he is powerless to take out his annoyance on anyone. The boyars arrive, whom the tsar meets in great irritation. After listening to Godunov's short speech, he puts on Monomakh's cap, reproaching the boyars who forced him to do so, and kisses Godunov, who made bold and daring speeches "for the good of the state." The absence of Sitsky does not go unnoticed, and the tsar, not wanting to listen to intercessors, orders the execution. In the royal chambers, Godunov and Zakharyin are waiting for John, and Godunov says that the tsar, wanting to divorce the tsarina, is wooing the niece of the English queen. Outraged, Zakharyin asks how Godunov tried to dissuade John, and receives an answer that it is possible to influence John only in a roundabout way. John enters and reports on a riot in the Polish troops near Pskov and on the expectation of an ambassador from Warsaw, sent, in his opinion, to ask for peace. He orders Zakharyin to tell this message to the people. Godunov, he orders to discuss with the British ambassador the terms of the upcoming marriage. He tries to intercede for the queen and receives an angry rebuke full of threats. Left alone, Godunov reproaches himself for his apparent kindness and vows to prefer conscience to the good of the cause. In the house of Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, the boyars Mstislavsky, Belsky and the Nagy brothers conspire to destroy Godunov. They decide, taking advantage of the irritation of the people, to blame all the troubles on Godunov, and Shuisky offers Mikhail Bityagovsky to fulfill the plan. He undertakes to rebel the people and incite them to murder. Belsky proposes to send Prokofy Kikin for the same. Godunov arrives. The guests quickly disperse. Godunov complains to Shuisky that he is not loved in the Duma, Shuisky assures him of his disposition and support and leaves, suddenly called by the tsar. Godunov, left alone with Bityagovsky, reveals his perfect acquaintance with his intentions and, threatening him with unprecedented executions, sends him to the same squares to incite the people against Shuisky and Belsky, who want "the king to be poisoned with lime." Meanwhile, the tsarina does not order the tsarevich's mother to let anyone near him, and especially Godunov, she trusts only Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin. Zakharyin arrives. The queen tells him about the rumors in the palace and asks if her suspicion that the king wants to leave her with Demetrius is not true. Zakharyin asks her to be ready for anything, not to argue with the tsar and trust Godunov. John arrives with Godunov and, in anticipation of the queen who has come out to dress up, listens to the conditions of the English ambassador and asks about the Polish ambassador who arrived after Garaburd, wondering what lands Poland promises for peace, and not wanting to listen to fears about the purpose of this embassy. tonsured, he promises Demetrius the fate of the Uglichs and, having listened to the intercession of Zakharyin, threatens him with execution. In the throne room, John receives the Polish ambassador Garaburda. Batur's demands are so humiliating (to withdraw Smolensk, Polotsk, Novgorod and Pskov from the land of the Livonian regiment and give Poland to Poland) that, with a general murmur, the tsar falls into a rage and, having listened to the invitation of the Polish king to single combat, is going to bait his ambassador with dogs and throws at him axe. Garaburda notices that John does not know the news about the crushing of the Russian regiments on the border, about the capture of Narova by the Swedes and about their joint campaign against Novgorod with Batur, and, having promised John a meeting with the king in Moscow, leaves. Godunov, who ran in, confirms all the reports of Garaburda, but the tsar orders the false messengers to be hanged and victorious prayers to be served in all churches. On the square in Zamoskvorechye, the crowd is excited in front of the storehouse, indignant at the price of bread, bailiffs taking bribes, and the fact that the tsar does not execute offenders. Kikin appears, dressed as a wanderer, blames Godunov and refers to God's sign, "a bloody, tailed star." He says that he saw a miracle in Kyiv: the St. Sophia Cross on fire and a voice calling for an uprising against Godunov. Voices are heard in defense of Godunov, voices calling to beat the defenders, and, finally, the voice of Bityagovsky, who appears in a caftan unbuttoned with a daring song on his lips. He says that Shuisky and Belsky were going to poison the tsar, but Godunov threw the poisoned pie to the dog. When Bityagovsky, in bewilderment, is pointed out to a wanderer who saw a miracle, he calls him by name and says that he was sent on purpose. Grigory Godunov appears, announcing that Boris Godunov is buying up all the reserves from his own treasury and will distribute them free of charge tomorrow. The people rush to Kikin. In the royal chambers, the queen, Godunov's sister Irina and his wife Maria look at the comet. The king looks at her from the porch. Magi and soothsayers were brought to unravel why the comet appeared. John appears and declares that he understood the sign: the comet heralds his death. He asks for forgiveness from the queen and, wanting to know exactly the time of death, so as not to die without repentance, calls the Magi. They call Kirillin day. At the request of the tsar, Godunov reads the Synod, which lists his victims, John completes the list. A butler from Sloboda arrives with a message that on a winter day the palace burned down from a lightning strike. Shocked, John asks everyone for forgiveness, prays frantically and asks Fedor how he is going to rule, but Fedor asks to put someone else on the throne. They bring two letters: about the approach of the Khan to Moscow and the uprising around Kazan. They bring in a hermit who has been living in seclusion for thirty years. John, left alone with him, speaks of the disasters that have befallen Russia and asks for advice. The schemnik names many people who are able to resist the enemy - they are all killed by the king. He speaks of the prince, but the prince is also dead. After seeing off the schemnik, John forces the boyars Mstislavsky, Belsky, Zakharyin and Godunov to kiss the cross that they will serve Fedor, and appoints Ivan Petrovich Shuisky the fifth, if he survives near Pskov. He sends ambassadors to Lithuania to conclude peace with Batur on the most humiliating terms, believing that after his death Batur will demand even more, and wishing to atone for sins with his unheard-of humiliation. On Kirillin's day, the king is better. Godunov secretly calls the fortune tellers, and they say that the day is not over yet. Godunov, on the other hand, is predicted the royal throne, three stars separating him from greatness and his main mysterious opponent are commemorated ("weak, but powerful - innocent, but guilty - himself and not himself", "killed, but alive"). Doctor Jacobi arrives, answering Godunov that the tsar must be protected from irritation, and for this Belsky called buffoons. Godunov receives Bityagovsky and learns that the people are embittered against Shuisky and Belsky. Meanwhile, John examines the treasures, looking for gifts for the English queen and bride, a jester is spinning near the king, buffoons are waiting for a sign in the neighboring chambers. The tsar appoints the execution of the Magi the next day and sends Boris to announce it to them. He is triumphant, but suspicious and prone to irritation; sitting down to play chess with Belsky, he drops the king. Godunov returns and, driving the tsar into a frenzy with a meaningful silence, announces the answer of the Magi that their science is reliable and that Kirillin's day has not yet passed. In anger, John calls Godunov a traitor, accuses him of an attempt on his life, calls the executioners and falls. General confusion. The tsar calls for a confessor, the boyars call for doctors, buffoons run in by mistake. John is dying. The people in the square are shouting that the tsar was poisoned by Shuisky and Belsky, and the bewildered Fyodor entrusts the explanation to Godunov. Godunov sends the boyars into exile, Mstislavsky, whom Bityagovsky accuses of turmoil along with Nagimi, to a monastery, Nagikh - to uglich along with the tsarina and Dimitri. Fyodor, sobbing, embraces Godunov. The people in the square praise both. E. V. Kharitonova Tsar Fedor Ioannovich Tragedy (1864-1868) In the house of Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, in the presence of many clergy and some boyars, they decide to divorce Fyodor Ioannovich from the tsarina, Godunov's sister, thanks to whom, according to the general opinion, Boris is holding on. They make up a paper, where, remembering the infertility of the queen and the infancy of Demetrius, they ask the king to enter into a new marriage. Golovin hints to Shuisky about the possibility of putting Dimitry in place of Fedor, but receives a harsh rebuff. Princess Mstislavskaya carries the guests around, they drink Fyodor's health. Shakhovsky, Mstislavskaya's fiancé, Volokhov's matchmaker names the place of the secret meeting. Ivan Petrovich sends a petition to the metropolitan, lamenting the need to destroy the queen. Fedyuk Starkov, his butler, reports what he has seen to Godunov. He, having received information from Uglich about Golovin's relationship with Nagimi and seeing a threat to his power, announces to his supporters, Lup-Kleshnin and Prince Turenin, about the decision to reconcile with Shuisky. Fyodor comes, complaining about the bucking horse. Empress Irina appears, to whom Fyodor slyly informs about the beautiful Mstislavskaya, whom he saw in the church, and immediately assures the queen that she is the most beautiful for him. Godunov speaks of his desire to reconcile with Shuisky, and the tsar happily undertakes to arrange the matter. Fyodor announces his intention to reconcile Godunov with Shuisky and asks for help from Metropolitan Dionysius and other clerics. Dionysius reproaches Godunov for persecuting the church, indulging in heretics and resuming the collection of taxes from which the church was freed. Godunov presents him with protective letters and reports on the persecution of heresy undertaken. The king asks for support from Irina and the boyars. Accompanied by popular enthusiasm, Ivan Petrovich Shuisky arrives. Fyodor reproaches him by not attending the Duma, Shuisky excuses himself by the impossibility of assenting to Godunov. Fyodor, remembering Scripture and calling clerics to witness, speaks of the good of reconciliation, and Godunov, obedient to him, offers Shuisky consent. Shuisky reproaches him for his unwillingness to share the administration of the state, which John bequeathed to five boyars: Zakharyin (deceased), Mstislavsky (forcibly tonsured), Belsky (exiled), Godunov and Shuisky. Godunov, justifying himself, speaks of Shuisky's arrogance, that he used the sole power for the benefit of Russia, which is also evidenced; he adds that only the Shuiskys disliked the difficult task of putting a disordered state in order. And when Ivan Petrovich calls the metropolitan his supporter, he reports on Godunov's actions in favor of the church and persuades Shuisky to peace. Irina, showing the cover she embroidered for the Pskov shrine, admits that this is her prayer vow for the salvation of Shuisky, who was once besieged by the Lithuanians in Pskov. Excited, Shuisky is ready to forget the past enmity, but he demands from Godunov guarantees of safety for his associates. Godunov swears and kisses the cross. They invite elected representatives from the crowd brought by Shuisky. Fyodor speaks to the old man and does not know how to stop him, recognizes in his nephew the merchant Krasilnikov, who recently entertained him with a bear fight, recalls his brother Golub, who defeated Shakhovsky in a fistfight - not immediately Godunov and Shuisky manage to return the tsar to what the elected officials were called for . Shuisky announces reconciliation with Godunov, the merchants are worried ("You put up with our heads"), Shuisky is annoyed by distrust of the man who just swore on the cross. The merchants ask for protection from Tsar Godunov, but he sends them to Boris. Boris quietly orders to write down the names of the merchants. At night, in Shuisky's garden, Princess Mstislavskaya and Vasilisa Volokhova are waiting for Shakhovsky. He comes, talks about love, about the impatience with which he waits for the wedding, makes her laugh and jokes with her. Krasilnikov comes running, letting him in, Shakhovskoy hides, calls Ivan Petrovich and reports that everyone who was with the tsar was captured on the orders of Godunov. The shocked Shuisky orders to raise Moscow against Godunov. He abruptly cuts off Dimitri Golovin, who has hinted at it, and, declaring that Boris has ruined himself by deceit, goes to the tsar. The remaining boyars, meanwhile, are discussing the petition, looking for a new queen. Vasily Shuisky calls Princess Mstislavskaya. Her brother does not decide right away, wanting to find at least a reason for a quarrel with Shakhovsky. While he hesitates, Golovin enters the name of the princess in the petition. Shakhovskoy appears, declaring that he will not give up his bride. The princess is also found with Volokhova. With a general cry, mutual threats and reproaches, Shakhovskaya grabs a letter and runs away. Godunov presents state papers to the tsar, the contents of which he does not go into, but agrees with Boris's decisions. Tsarina Irina speaks of a letter from Uglich from the dowager tsaritsa with a request to return with Demetrius to Moscow. Fyodor was entrusting the matter to Boris, but Irina demands the decision of the "family matter" from him; Fedor argues with Boris and is annoyed by his stubbornness. Shuisky comes and complains about Godunov. He does not deny, explaining that the merchants are taken not for the past, but for an attempt to upset the peace between him and Shuisky. The tsar is ready to forgive Godunov, believing that they simply did not understand each other, but the adamant demand that the tsarevich be left in Uglich finally angers the tsar. Godunov says that he is giving way to Shuisky, Fyodor begs him to stay, Shuisky, stung by the behavior of the tsar, leaves. Kleshnin brings Golovin's letter forwarded from Uglich Nagim, Godunov shows it to the tsar, demanding that Shuisky be taken into custody and, perhaps, executed. If he refuses, he threatens to leave. Shocked, Fedor, after long hesitation, refuses the services of Godunov. Ivan Petrovich Shuisky consoles Princess Mstislavskaya: he will not allow her marriage to the tsar and hopes that Shakhovskoy will not denounce them. Having sent the princess away, he receives the boyars and the fled Krasilnikov and Golub and, assuming the removal of the dull-witted Fyodor and the enthronement of Dimitri, determines the tasks for each. The estranged Godunov, sitting at home, asks Kleshnin about Volokhova and repeats many times, "so that she blew the tsarevich." Kleshnin sends Volokhova to Uglich as a new mother, orders him to take care of him and hints that if the prince suffering from epilepsy destroys himself, they will not ask her. Meanwhile, Fedor cannot understand the papers presented to him. Kleshnin arrives and reports that Boris has fallen ill from disorder, and Shuisky must immediately be imprisoned for his intention to enthrone Dimitri. Fedor does not believe. Shuisky enters, to whom Fyodor tells about the denunciation and asks him to justify himself. The prince refuses, the tsar insists, Kleshnin teases. Shuisky confesses to rebellion. Fyodor, afraid that Godunov will punish Shuisky for treason, declares that he himself ordered the prince to be placed on the throne, and forces the shocked Shuisky out of the room. Shakhovskoy bursts into the royal chambers and asks to return his bride to him. Fyodor, seeing the signature of Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, cries and does not listen to Irina's arguments about the absurdity of the paper. Protecting Irina from insults, he signs Borisov's order, terrifying both her and Shakhovsky. On the bridge across the river, the old man rebels for Shuisky, the gusler sings about his valor. A messenger is passing by with the news of the advance of the Tatars. Prince Turenin with archers leads Shuisky to prison. The people, incited by the old man, want to free Shuisky, but he speaks of his guilt before the "holy" tsar and that he deserves the punishment. Kleshnin reports to Godunov that the Shuiskys and their supporters have been imprisoned, and introduces Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky. He turns things around as if he started a petition for the benefit of Godunov. Realizing that Shuisky is in his hands, Godunov lets him go. Tsarina Irina comes to intercede for Ivan Petrovich. Godunov, realizing that Shuisky will not stop arguing with him, is adamant. On the square in front of the cathedral, the beggars talk about the change of the metropolitan, objectionable to Godunov, about the execution of the merchants who stood for Shuisky. Queen Irina brings Mstislavskaya to ask for Shuisky. Fyodor comes out of the cathedral, having served a memorial service for Tsar Ivan. The princess throws herself at his feet. Fyodor sends Prince Turenin for Shuisky. But Turenin reports that Shuisky strangled himself at night, he is guilty of overlooking it (because he fought off the crowd brought to the prison by Shakhovsky, and repelled it, only by shooting Shakhovsky). Fyodor rushes to Turenin, accusing him of killing Shuisky, and threatens him with execution. The messenger brings a letter from Uglich about the death of the prince. The shocked king wants to find out the truth himself. A message arrives about the approach of the Khan and the imminent siege of Moscow. Godunov offers to send Kleshnin and Vasily Shuisky, and Fyodor is convinced of Godunov's innocence. Princess Mstislavskaya speaks of her intention to get a haircut. Fyodor, on the advice of his wife, is going to transfer the entire burden of government to Boris and, remembering his intention to "agree everyone, smooth everything over", mourns his fate and his royal duty. E. V. Kharitonova Tsar Boris Tragedy (1868-1869) On the day of Boris's wedding to the throne, the boyars count the fruits of his reign: the pestilence, and completed wars, and harvests. They wonder how long it took to persuade Godunov to accept power, and only the threat of excommunication from the church forced him to do so. Boris returns from the cathedral, preparing to receive ambassadors. Voeikov announces the victory over the Siberian Khan. The English ambassador offers a bride to Tsarevich Fedor; papal nuncio - agreement on the union of churches; Austrian, Lithuanian, Swedish, Florentine ambassadors respectfully ask some for help with money or troops, some for the recognition of their possessions. The Persian and Turkish ambassadors accuse each other of encroaching on Iveria, the ambassador of the Iberian king asks for protection. The tsar gives a proper answer to everyone, full of dignity and strength, and orders everyone to be admitted into the tsar's chambers ("There is no barrier between the Russian people and the tsar!"). Left alone, Boris triumphs and, remembering the death of the prince, decides: this is the inevitable price for the greatness of the state. Soon after, waiting in the monastery cell for Irina, who had taken the tonsure, Boris listened to Semyon Godunov's reports on the Romanovs, who were dissatisfied with the cancellation of St. George's Day; on Vasily Shuisky, a crafty and unreliable servant, but, confident in his strength, he does not want to punish anyone. Irina appears, and Boris, reminding her of his hesitations on the way to power, asks her to justify him and admit that the prosperity of Russia is worth the untruth through which he became king. Irina, approving his kingdom, demands that he not forget about his guilt and not forgive himself. Left to their own, they part. In the palace, Boris's children, Fedor and Xenia, listen to the stories of Christian, the Duke of Denmark, Xenia's fiancé, about a harsh childhood, about returning to court, about battles in Flanders with the Spanish troops, but when Fedor complains about his idleness, Christian notices that his position, which allows him to study government under a wise sovereign, is much more worthy. Christian tells how he fell in love with Xenia according to the stories of ambassadors, merchants and captives, who, along with the greatness of Russia, glorified the beauty, intelligence and meekness of the princess. They talk about Boris, and everyone agrees in love for the tsar, who forgets himself for the sake of the glory and well-being of the state. All three vow to help each other. Christian asks Boris, who has entered, in case of war, to allow the Russian troops to lead, but the tsar dissuades him by the peace that has come for many years. The children leave, and Semyon Godunov, who has come, announces a rumor about the miraculously saved Tsarevich Dimitri. In her chambers, Tsaritsa Maria Grigorievna asks the deacon Vlasyev about Christian and, no matter how rude Vlasyev, she finds out that there were rumors that his father was not the king, and the older brother, who is now reigning, does not like him. Having failed to get a promise from the clerk to testify to Boris, she calls Dementievna and learns with increasing irritation that Xenia was sitting with her brother and fiancé, and the tsar welcomes the new customs. When Volokhova came, the tsarina complained that Boris had betrothed Xenia to a German without asking her, and the Germans, apparently, had beguiled the princess. Volokhova undertakes to tell fortunes, what is the strength of Christian, and crush her ("There is such a root"). In the forest, in the robber camp, ataman Khlopko receives new replenishment of the peasants, cursing Boris and the abolition of St. George's Day. The townsman appears, who, without any fear, demands the release of his companions, who were captured on the Moscow road by robber sentinels, and reports the correct news about the appearance of Tsarevich Dimitri. Posadsky incites Khlopok to go to Bryansk and there, having attached himself to the prince's troops, to receive forgiveness and fight Godunov. Mitka appears, dragging two fugitive monks, Mikhail Povadin and Grishka Otrepiev, who ask to join the Khlopkov army. When the townsman, having amused the robbers by fighting Mitka and ordering barrels of wine to be rolled out, suddenly disappears, it turns out that the monks who were walking with him do not know who he is. Boris is forced to admit that the appearance of a new enemy pushed him onto a bloody path. Semyon Godunov, who was ordered to find out who is hiding behind the name of Dimitri, says that even at the cost of torture he did not find out anything. They are looking for the name of Grishka Otrepiev, the runaway monk of the miracles, in order to somehow rename the enemy. Boris orders to multiply spies and find evidence on the Romanovs and, in addition, due to the ongoing famine, distribute the treasury to the people, ordering them not to listen to fables about the prince. Tsarevich Fedor asks to be sent to the troops, Princess Xenia laments the change in Boris and his cruelty; Christian asks if Boris is sure of the death of the prince, and retells the rumors. The children leave, the queen appears, full of causticity and irritation with Christian, who is talking with the children about the "king". The king remains deaf to her demand to send Christian away. Semyon Godunov reports on the rapid advance of the traitors, on the transfer of troops to them, and on Basmanov's stubborn resistance. Vasily Shuisky suggests that Boris go to the troops himself or send for the widowed queen to testify to the death of her son. Having ordered Shuisky to tear the tongues of those who spread rumors, Boris sends for Dimitri's mother. In the house of Fyodor Nikitich Romanov, the boyars Romanovs, Sitsky, Repnin and Cherkassky drink to the prince. Shuisky comes, informs about Boris's order, he is questioned about the search he carried out in Uglich, he answers vaguely. Semyon Godunov with archers, accusing those gathered of wanting to poison the sovereign with lime, takes everyone into custody, dressing up Vasily Shuisky to conduct an interrogation. Boris, alone meditating on the accomplished prediction (“Killed, but alive”), orders Shuisky to announce from the Execution Ground that he himself saw the corpse of the prince in Uglich. In the meantime, advisers are pressing on Christian, interpreting that he must refuse marriage to Xenia, that Boris betrayed himself with fear, that Xenia is the daughter of a villain and a servant. Christian, feeling faintness approaching, believing in the guilt of Boris, does not know what to decide on. Xenia arrives, and he, confused in words and thoughts, speaks of the inevitable separation, and then calls her to run away with him from his murderous father. Fyodor, who has quietly entered, stands up for his father, they are going to fight, Ksenia, crying, recalls the oath given to each other. Christian is delirious, and, considering him ill, Ksenia and Fedor take him away. On Red Square, detectives listen to the conversations of the people walking from the memorial service for Tsarevich Dimitri (anathema to Grishka was proclaimed there). Provoking, interpreting speeches in a way suitable for them, the detectives grab almost everyone in a row. Vasily Shuisky from Execution Ground makes an ambiguous speech about the advancing enemy and talks about the search in Uglich in such a way that it remains unclear who the murdered baby was. About this time, the mother of the prince, brought from the monastery, now nun Martha, waiting for Boris and wanting to take revenge on him, decides to recognize the impostor as her son; she says that she did not see her dead son, having lost her senses, and at the memorial service, tears covered her eyes. Now, having heard about the signs of the prince who appeared, he admits that he miraculously escaped and is alive. Tsarina Maria Grigorievna, wishing to expose the deceit, introduces Volokhov. The grief that gripped Martha at the sight of her son's killer betrays her, but she refuses to recognize Demetrius' death publicly. Soon the doctor informs Boris about the deterioration of Christian's health and about his impotence. Semyon Godunov brings a letter from "Dimitri Ioannovich", in which Boris is most oppressed by the promised mercy in the event of a voluntary renunciation of the throne, and therefore, the confidence of the "thief" in universal support. Boris demands to bring the tonsured Kleshnin in order to assure himself of the death of the prince. He is called to Christian, and soon he informs Xenia and Fedor about his death. Two sentries, carrying the night guard in the throne room, hide in fear when the sleepless Boris appears. Tom imagines someone's image on the throne, and, finding sentries, he sends them to check who is sitting there. Semyon Godunov brings Kleshnin, who confirms the death of Demetrius, recalls that the term of Borisov's reign, predicted by the Magi, is coming to an end, calls him to repent and retire to the monastery. In the morning, having received from the arrived Basmanov information about a partial victory over the "thief", Boris tells Fedor about the need to be crowned on the throne and about the oath to which the boyars will be brought. Fedor renounces the throne, for he is not sure that the "thief" is not Demetrius. Boris pointedly offers to show Fyodor indisputable evidence of the death of the prince, and he, having comprehended his father's crime, in horror refuses the evidence and declares that he will accept the crown. In the dining room, waiting for Basmanov and the tsar, the boyars curse both and exchange news about the "tsarevich". Basmanov enters, complaining about his inappropriate excommunication from the troops. Boris appears with the children. Boris rewards Basmanov. The boyars, noting the sadness of Xenia, pity her and ponder what to do with her, "when he grants the kingdom." Boris demands an oath of allegiance to Fyodor and the approval of this oath in the cathedral, loses strength and falls. With general confusion, he declares that the cause of his death is not poison, but sorrow, bequeaths the boyars to observe the oath, recalls that "only evil is born from evil," and, declaring Fedor king, departs. E. V. Kharitonova Alexander Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin (1817-1903) Pictures of the past Dramatic trilogy (1852-1869, publ. 1869) WEDDING KRECHINSKYComedy in three acts (1852-1854, publ. 1856) For several months now, the landowner Pyotr Konstantinovich Muromsky, having entrusted the village economy to the manager, lives with his daughter Lidochka and her elderly aunt Anna Antonovna Atueva in Moscow. He has vast lands in the Yaroslavl province and as many as one and a half thousand serf souls - a serious condition. Of course, the twenty-year-old girl Lidochka is a "tidbit" for Moscow dandies-grooms. But her aunt does not understand this. She believes that Lida should be shown to the world, inviting guests to the house: "you can't marry a girl without expenses." But suddenly it turns out that no expenses are needed anymore. Lidochka secretly confesses to her aunt that she already has a fiancé! Yesterday at the ball she danced a mazurka with Mikhail Vasilyevich Krechinsky. And he - oh, my God is right! - proposed to her. But what's annoying - there is no time to think! The answer must be given immediately. "Michel" leaves Moscow not today tomorrow and wants to know before his departure - "yes" or "no". How to be? After all, daddy will not give a blessing in haste. He must know the future son-in-law well. And what is this Krechinsky - a highly mysterious figure. He has been going to Muromsky's house for the whole winter, but little is known about him, although enough for his aunt and niece to be crazy about him. He is under forty. Staten, handsome. Fluffy sideburns. Dancing smartly. He speaks excellent French. He has the most extensive circle of acquaintances in high society! It seems that there is an estate somewhere in the Simbirsk province ... And what aristocratic manners he has! What charming gallantry! What an exquisite taste in everything - after all, that's how charmingly he "wrought" Lidochkin's solitaire (large diamond), that is, he set it at the jeweler's in a pin made according to his own model ... But Muromsky cannot be caught by such talk. What is the state of Krechinsky? How much land he has, how many souls - no one knows. But they say that he wanders around the clubs, plays cards and has "debts". And here is another young man, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nelysin, an old "friend of the house", all in full view. Modest, even shy. Doesn't take cards. True, she dances poorly and does not shine with manners. But on the other hand, he is a neighbor - his estate is side by side, "furrow to furrow." And he is also here, in Moscow, and also visits Muromsky's house: he is silently in love with Lidochka. Muromsky reads him as a husband to his "kralechka" and "spoiler". However, through the efforts of the aunt and Krechinsky himself, the matter is settled in such a way that Muromsky on the same day blesses his daughter for marriage with a "wonderful man" to whom "princes and counts are friends." Ne-lkin is in despair. No, he will not allow this wedding to take place! He knows something about the "sins" of Krechinsky. But now he "knows all the ins and outs" and even then he will present this "wit" and "reckless driver" to the old man in the true light. And there is a "underground" thing. And what a! Krechinsky does not just play cards - he is a "terrible player". He raves about the game. And Lidochka with her dowry is only a jackpot for him, with which he can enter into a big game. “I have fifteen hundred souls in my hands,” he reflects, “and this is one and a half million, and two hundred thousand of the purest capital. After all, for this amount you can win two million! And I will win, I will win for sure.” Yes, but this jackpot still needs to be obtained. The blessing of a parent is only a shaky luck wrested from fate thanks to an inspired bluff. The bluff must be sustained to the end! But how, how?! Krechinsky's position is catastrophic. He got involved with the "rogue", petty card cheat Ivan Antonovich Rasplyuev, whose impure and insignificant winnings barely support his existence. The apartment where he lives with this miserable rogue is constantly besieged by creditors. There is no money even for a cab! And then that vile merchant Shchebnev appears, demands to issue a card debt this very minute, threatens to write down his name in the club in a shameful debt "book", that is, to denounce him to the whole city as bankrupt! And this is at the very moment when Krechinsky "gets a million in his hand" ... Yes, on the one hand, a million, and on the other - some two or three thousand are needed to distribute debts, pay bills and hastily - in three days - arrange a wedding. Without these small bets, the whole game will collapse! What is there! - it is already collapsing: Shchebnev agrees to wait only until the evening, creditors outside the door are menacingly raging. However, there is still hope. Krechinsky sends Rasplyuev to moneylenders, ordering him to borrow money from them at any interest. They will give it, they will certainly give it, because they know Krechinsky: they will return it in full. But Rasplyuev comes with bad news. The usurers can no longer trust Krechinsky: "It must be smelled!.." They demand a reliable pledge. And what is left of the poor player! Nothing but a gold watch worth seventy-five rubles. Its end! The game is lost! And it is here, in a moment of complete hopelessness, that a brilliant idea dawns on Krechinsky. However, neither Rasplyuev nor the servant Fyodor can yet appreciate her brilliance. They even believe that Krechinsky has lost his mind. And indeed, he seems to be out of his mind. He takes out a penny pin from the bureau, the same one that he used as a model, "working" Lidochkin's tapeworm, looks at it with enthusiastic amazement and exclaims: "Bravo!. Hurrah! Found ..." What did he find? Some kind of "trinket". The stone in the pin is strass, made of lead glass! Without explaining anything, Krechinsky tells Rasplyuev to pawn a gold watch and use the proceeds to buy a sumptuous bouquet of flowers, "so that they are all made of white camellias." Meanwhile, he himself sits down to compose a letter to Lidochka. He fills him with tenderness, passion, dreams of family happiness - "the devil knows what nonsense." And, as if by the way, he asks her to send him a tapeworm with a messenger - he made a bet on its size with a certain Prince Belsky. As soon as Rasplyuev appears, Krechinsky sends him with flowers and a note to Lidochka, explaining to him that he must get a tapeworm from her and bring the thing "in the most accurate way." Rasplyuev understood everything - Krechinsky intends to steal the diamond and run away with it from the city. But no! Krechinsky is not a thief, he still values his honor and is not going to run anywhere. Against. While Rasplyuev is fulfilling his instructions, he orders Fyodor to prepare an apartment for a magnificent reception of the Muromsky family. The "decisive moment" is coming - will Rasplyuev bring a tapeworm or not? Brought! "Victoria! The Rubicon has been crossed!" Krechinsky takes both pins - fake and genuine - and rushes with them to the shop of the usurer Nikanor Savich Bek. Asking for money on bail, he presents the usurer with a genuine pin - "the one just stirred, and his mouth gaped." The thing is the most valuable, worth ten thousand! Beck is ready to give four. Krechinsky is bargaining - asking for seven. Beck doesn't give up. And then Krechinsky takes the pin: he will go to another usurer ... No, no, why - to another ... Beck gives six! Krechinsky agrees. However, he requires that the pin be placed in a separate box and sealed. At that moment, when Beck leaves for the box, Krechinsky replaces the genuine pin with a fake one. Beck calmly puts it in the box - after all, the diamond has already been checked both under a magnifying glass and on the scales. It is done! Game won! Krechinsky returns home with money and a tapeworm. Debts were paid, bills paid, expensive clothes bought, servants in black coats and white waistcoats hired, a proper dinner ordered. There is a reception of the bride and her family. Dust thrown into the eyes, gold dust, diamond! Everything is great! But suddenly Nelkin appears at Krechinsky's apartment. Here it is, revelation! Nelkin has already found out everything: oh, God! with whom did the most venerable Peter Konstantinovich contact! Yes, these are crooks, gamblers, thieves !! After all, they stole a tapeworm from Lida... What's the bet?! what Prince Belsky?! Krechinsky does not have a tapeworm - he pawned it to the usurer Beck! .. Everyone is embarrassed, everyone is horrified. Everyone except Krechinsky, because at that moment he is at the height of his inspiration - his bluff takes on special impressiveness. Magnificently depicting the noblest man, whose honor is offended by an insidious slander, he takes from Muromsky a promise to "drive out" the offender by the neck if the tapeworm is immediately presented for public viewing. The old man is forced to make such a promise. Krechinsky, with solemn indignation, presents the diamond! Nelkin is disgraced. His bit card Muromsky himself points him to the door. But this is not enough for Krechinsky. Success must be secured. Now the skillful player is feigning a different feeling: he is shocked that the family would so easily believe the vile gossip about their future son-in-law, husband!! Oh no! now he cannot be Lidochka's husband. He returns her heart to her, and Muromsky his blessing. The whole family begs for his forgiveness. Well, he's ready to forgive. But on one condition: the wedding must be played tomorrow, in order to put an end to all gossip and rumors! Everyone happily agrees. Now the game is truly won! It remains only to gain time, that is, to send dear guests out as soon as possible. Nelkin will not calm down. He could be here any minute with Beck, a fake pin, and allegations of fraud. We need to be in time ... The guests have already risen, moved to the exit. But no! The doorbell is ringing ... knocking, breaking. Nelkin did it! He showed up with Beck, and with a pin, and with the police! Only for a moment Krechinsky loses his temper; ordering not to unlock the door, he grabs the handle of the chair and threatens to "blow his head" to anyone who moves! But this is no longer a game - this is robbery! But Krechinsky is still a player, "not devoid of genuine nobility." In the next moment, Krechinsky "throws the arm of the chair into the corner" and already, as a true player, admits his defeat with an exclamation characteristic of a card player: "Failed!!!" Now "Vladimir road" and "ace of diamonds on his back" shine for him. But what is it?! Lidochka saves "Michel" from the sad road to Siberia and the prison clothes. "Here's a pin... which should be pledged," she says to the pawnbroker, "take it... it was a mistake!" For this, the whole family, "running away from shame", leaves the player's apartment. A BUSINESSDrama in five acts (1856-1861, first published 1861 in Leipzig, published in Russia - 1869) Six years have passed since the upset wedding of Krechinsky. It would seem that the landowner Muromsky, his sister Atueva and daughter Lidochka should live peacefully in the village, forgetting about the "libelous" story with a fake diamond. But why are they again in the capital, this time in St. Petersburg? Why is the last money living here, selling and mortgaging estates? Why is Lidochka sobbing and drying up?.. Disaster struck. And the name of this disaster is Deed. It has been under investigation for five years. It has already bypassed all judicial and appellate instances - from the Civil and Criminal Chambers to the Governing Senate. And there are so many papers in this case that they are "carried from presence to presence on a dray"! But what's the deal? Has Krechinsky really fallen for the referee's hook? Oh no! The case - oddly enough - is called the Muromsky case. The investigation is underway against Lidochka. She is suspect! And in what? In the first place, that she knew about Krechinsky's intention to rob Muromsky. Secondly, she helped him in this. And thirdly, she provided this criminal assistance to him because she was in an illegal love affair with him. But this is nonsense!.. Can't the Russian officials - "Heads", "Forces" and "Subordinations", as the author of the play classified them in the section "Characters" - do not see how far these suspicions are from the essence of the matter? Or are they complete idiots?! but no - bright heads! And this is better than others understood by the seasoned, but in his own way noble player Krechinsky. "They want to take a bribe from you - give it; the consequences of your refusal can be cruel," he warns Muromsky in a letter sent at the beginning of the investigation. The ability to snatch a large bribe - that's the whole point of the matter for judicial chicane. It is for this purpose that they turn the investigation against Muromsky's daughter. There is nothing to take from Krechinsky. However, they tried to "take" from him: he was "made an offer to make some testimony regarding the honor" of Lidochka. But Krechinsky did not agree. However, this did not save Lida. The "necessary" testimony was given by Rasplyuev and the cook of the Muromskys. And now those "cruel consequences" that Krechinsky warned about are coming. Lidochka has already been dragged into the case with her head - she already "they want to give face-to-face confrontations." And with whom! With the cook Petrushka, with the swindler Rasplyuev, and even on the subject of her adulterous connection with Krechinsky! From all sides, Muromsky is being persuaded to bow to the "Baal idol" - the Official - to bring him a sacrifice, to give a bribe! Ivan Sidorov Razuvaev, the manager of the estates of Murom, especially insists on this, a man who is sincerely devoted to the family. From his own experience, he knows that otherwise there is no way to escape from the clawed clutches of the devilish bureaucratic tribe. You can hint about a bribe through a trusted person. And there is such a person. This is a collegiate adviser (from the category of "Sil") Kandid Kastorovich Tarelkin. He seems to be trying to help the Muromskys, visiting their apartment, giving advice. And most importantly, he serves under the real state councilor Maxim Kuzmich Varravin, in whose hands the case is. Reluctantly, Muromsky agrees to act through Tarelkin. Razuvaev, with peasant dexterity, makes it clear to Tarelkin that his master wants to meet Varravin. And with the same dexterity he gives Tarelkin a bribe - "lubricates the wheels." Tarelkin promises to give Muromsky a reception at Varravin's. Now this is where things get settled. Moreover, Tarelkin, as Razuvaev assures Muromsky, did not accidentally make acquaintance with the family: "this is a scam," the savvy man claims. And he's right. Tarelkin is not just a subordinate - he is "an approximate person to Varravin." He immediately reports to the boss about the success of the enterprise, and at the same time about the material circumstances of the family - which estates have been sold, which ones have been mortgaged, that is, how much money can now be plundered from the petitioner. "A special mass is impossible!" - warns Tarelkin, although he himself is vitally interested in the "special mass": firstly, he half arranged the matter, and, therefore, the boss must share with him, and secondly, Tarelkin's position is disastrous - there is a decent position and rank, and not a penny for the soul When "Strength and Chance" presents itself, Tarelkin himself will rip off anyone "to exhaustion, naked!" But now the case is not the same. The circumstances of the Muromskys are difficult. Varravin, on the other hand, is eager to grab a fortune - as much as 30 thousand! Well, no - "enough". The petitioner will barely scrape 25. Well, so much will do! No, the petitioner still needs to pay off the debts ... With great difficulty, Tarelkin manages to moderate the ardor of the boss to 20 thousand. And now Muromsky is already in Varravin's office. There is a trade. Muromsky, with his characteristic innocence, assures that the goods with which the goddess of justice Themis in the person of Varravin trades on her scales are, in essence, simple. The case is only "from the legal proceedings received such confusion." But Varravin shows Muromsky how thin and cunning, which means how expensive the goods are. After all, the matter is "swinging and double-edged" - it is such that "if you lead it there, then it will all go there<...> and if it leads here, then everything<...> will go here." Like this? And like this: two witnesses - Rasplyuev and police officer Lapa - testified during interrogation that Lidochka, giving the real diamond to the moneylender, exclaimed: "It was my mistake!", Other witnesses - Muromsky himself and Atueva - claim that she simply said: "it was a mistake." That's where the trick is! If - just a "mistake", then Lidochka is not guilty of anything, and if she "used the pronoun" my ", then this means that Lidochka is a direct participant in the crime, Krechinsky's mistress, and so on. This is what keeps the whole huge deal, while maintaining "swinging and double-edgedness" - the most important properties that make it possible to take boldly and a lot "under the shade and shade of the dense forest of laws", without fear of higher authorities. "? Doesn't it smell like a bribe here? No, the law allows Varravin to rely on the testimony of any of a pair of witnesses. So in his hands is not only the scales of Themis, but also her punishing sword. And where this sword will hit - depends, of course, on the amount bribes. But with the amount, Varravin just "enough" - he did not listen to Tarelkin! Inspired by the perplexity of the petitioner, he demands not 20, but 24 thousand, and moreover, in silver! And this is 84 thousand on banknotes - the cost of the Muromsky family estate! Well, sell it and go around the world?! So no!! He will not give Streshnevo to the official - "ashes of the fathers" and "grandfathers' property"! He will now go not to the "Powers", but to the "Administrations" - to the Important Person, the "Privy Councilor for the Service" and the "Prince by birth", in whose control the entire department is located. he will help his noble brother, and he does not need money - he is rich! These thoughts of Muromsky, expressed in private, are overheard by Tarelkin. He immediately reports to Varravin about the petitioner's intention to seek the truth above. the catch is slipping away! After all, such nonsense can really hit the prince's head - condescend to the grief of the landowner: he is a man of moods. The last circumstance is precisely what Varravin takes into account, and therefore he is calm. He orders Tarelkin to arrange so that Muromsky gets an appointment with his Excellency "in the very soda," that is, in the morning, when the Prince, suffering from a stomach, takes soda water and is in the worst mood. And Tarelkin arranges it. Receptionist. And everything is going great. While the unfortunate Muromsky confusedly and confusedly explains that the matter "was made up of nothing, wrapped itself around itself," the Prince, tormented by stomach cramps, puffs and rubs his stomach - of course, he does not care about anything! Varravin, present right there, is already celebrating victory in his soul. But what is it?! Where is the conversation going? To hell! Enraged by the insulting indifference of the illustrious official to the cause and to him, a nobleman and an old officer who fought with Bonaparte for the Tsar and the Fatherland, Muromsky is insolent to the Prince! Breaks the laws!!! Courts!!! Scandal! Riot! Drag him to the police!.. Or to the yellow house! - after all, he was wounded in the head near Mozhaisk ... Muromsky is put out. And now the Prince already cares about the Muromsky case. He orders Varravin to select from the investigative documents those "essential facts" that lead to suspicion of the criminal connection of the "girl" with the "well done" Krechinsky, and "turn the whole matter to the investigation and to the strictest ... the strictest" - against the Muromskys. Varravin is in despair. The prince "spoiled" everything. The case loses its "mutual edge". The bribe is broken! After all, Muromsky is "dangerous. If you take it and do nothing for him, he will probably make a scandal." And it is no longer possible to turn the case "this way and that" - it has already been turned by the "Administrations". What to do?! Tarelkin tells him - we must take it! After all, the prince was convinced that the petitioner was out of his mind - "he has no faith", let him make a scandal ... Great idea! Varravin pretends to accept her completely. Yes, he will take. But Tarelkin does not even suspect that the boss has a different idea, much more subtle, full of sophisticated bureaucratic cunning! The family, finally killed by the fact that Lidochka is threatened with complete dishonor - a medical examination for her virginity (this turn has now taken place at the behest of the "Administrations" and the zeal of the "Forces"), is ready to give any bribe. Varravin is now asking for 30. Well! Money is pooled together - even Razuvaev contributes his share, family diamonds are sold. The amount is drawn up and placed in the package. Varravin is waiting for Muromsky with this package in his office. Getting ready to take. However, strange gives orders. For some reason, he orders Tarelkin to call the executor Ivan Andreevich Zhivets and put him in the waiting room. What follows is even more amazing. Is the petitioner. Varravin closes with him in the office. Muromsky comes out of the office, elated with hope: he handed the package with money to Varravin, and he, thank God, promised to settle the matter! Muromsky leaves. Varravin immediately appears at the door of the office. In his hands is a package of money - the same one that he received from Muromsky. He orders the executor to stay where he is. Calls the courier and demands that he immediately catch up and return the petitioner. Muromsky is brought in. Varravin throws him a bag of money with a pictorial gesture: Varravin does not take bribes! you can't buy it!! Let Muromsky take the money and get out with his libelous deed! Otherwise, Varravin will "represent" him "to the fullest extent of the laws" for bribing a government official - the executor is a witness ... Complete nonsense! Varravin did not take! Is he an idiot? No, bright head! The money in the package is far from 30 thousand. There are only 1350 rubles! Varvin took. But he took it so that the Important Person and the Very Important Person - the fathers-chiefs who came to the noise, as well as other persons, became witnesses of his incorruptibility. Varravin beat everyone, including Tarelkin, who did not get anything, although he figured out the boss's plan belatedly. As for old Muromsky, he had a stroke in the department. He was taken home. There he gave his soul to God. Now he will not say anything at the investigation. However, before his death, at the moment when Muromsky was still in the department, in one of the highest government places of power among the bar-rabins, live bait and tarelkins, he had already said everything that he was able to say: “here ... they are robbing! .. I say out loud - rob!!!" THE DEATH OF TARELYKINComedy joke in three acts (1857-1869, publ. 1869) Tarelkin did not receive a penny from his boss Varravin - not only for the Muromsky case, but also for many subsequent cases. However, he continued to live in a big way. And now his situation is no longer disastrous, but catastrophic. Countless creditors take by the throat. He can not escape the dismissal from the service and the debtor's prison. And this is at a time when he can break a huge jackpot from Varravin! He has in his hands "all Varravin's most intimate correspondence", that is, papers exposing Varravin in bribery and other malfeasance - Tarelkin stole them from the boss. But after all, Varravin, to whom Tarelkin had already hinted about the papers, would grind him to powder. In any case, it will help creditors immediately put him in Siberia. How to be? Here's how to simulate your own death! You can't take money from a dead person. But with Varravin, Tarelkin "money is delightful, ruble for ruble, jackpot for jackpot," he will wait a year or two, and then, "having settled in a safe place," he will begin to blackmail His Excellency with evil and boldness! In addition, the case for "death" is the most suitable. Tarelkin has just come from the cemetery. "I buried the bones" of my roommate, court adviser of the Force Silych Kopylov. And he, darling, as it is written in his form (passport), "is single. No relatives, no children; has no family." Therefore, no one will worry about him, even creditors - there are no debts either! And his form - here it is! at Tarelkin! Other documents and little things of the late Force Silych are here, in the apartment. Great! Tarelkin will now be "deceased", and Kopylov will be "alive"! Tarelkin puts on makeup to look like Kopylov, a sixty-year-old man. Dressed in his clothes. Parts with his wig, which he wore constantly, hiding his baldness. He takes out false teeth, hunches over. Glues the sideburns ... Give it a try - Kopylov! Yes, but now it is necessary to bury Tarelkin - "arrange an official certain death." For this, the police have already been notified of his death. Colleagues are invited to the apartment of the deceased. There is also a deceased. In a coffin in the middle of a mournfully darkened room lies a cotton doll in Tarelkin's uniform. So that they don’t come close to her and don’t really look at her, Tarelkin orders the maid Mavrusha to buy rotten fish and put it in the coffin, and when colleagues come to wail and lament: because, they say, Tarelkin stinks so much that he has been lying for a long time, there is no money to bury. Let them scoundrels bury their comrade at their own expense! In the apartment, filled with an intolerable stench, officials led by Varravin appear. Mavrusha plays the performance excellently. The stench also plays its role, prompting colleagues to quickly give Mavrusha money for the funeral and get out of the stinking apartment. Everyone leaves with relief. Only Varravin is terribly worried: Mavrusha (at the instigation of Tarelkin) let him know that the deceased was hiding some secret papers, but where? God knows, the police will come to describe the property - they will find it. For Varravin, this is death! He must find these papers before they fall into the hands of the authorities. And so he again returns to Tarelkin's apartment. Varravin sternly orders Mavrusha to show these papers of the deceased. But, of course, he cannot find his letters among them. They are in the bosom of Tarelkin, who, chuckling, hides here, in the apartment, on the Kopylovsky half, separated by a screen. Finally, the police also appear - the quarter warder Rasplyuev. Yes, yes, the same Rasplyuev, a swindler and a cheat! Now he is in office. Varravin immediately notices all the properties of the quarter warden - and stupid helpfulness, and stupidity, and aggressiveness. They are in his hands. He orders Rasplyuev to "interrogate" Mavrusha for some missing papers of the deceased. Rasplyuev "interrogates" the maid, poking her in the nose with his fist. But there is no result. Varravin is in despair. For Tarelkin, on the contrary, everything is going great. He is already openly walking around the apartment under the guise of Kopylov. The coffin with his "body" is already being taken out. And Tarelkin even delivers a memorial speech for the "deceased" in the presence of Varravin and other officials. The dark-comic extravaganza is in full swing! Tarelkin is packing his bags - he will go from St. Petersburg to Moscow and there he will wait in the wings. Rasplyuev, who returned to the apartment from the funeral, finds him behind the fees. Creditors are crowded here, eager to take the debtor into circulation. Tarelkin sends them out with pleasure - the debtor has died, and the property has been described! But here is another creditor - some captain of the Polutatarins ... Strange! - Tarelkin did not have such a creditor ... And what is he, a scoundrel, weaving ?! He allegedly lent the deceased a gold watch. And now he needs to look for them - everywhere! even in the papers... Tarelkin still has no idea that the creditor is his cunning boss, dressed in a worn military overcoat, glued on a thick mustache, put on a wig and green glasses. However, Varravin does not recognize Tarelkin either. Chatting his teeth to Rasplyuev and assuring the imaginary Kopylov that the deceased was a notorious scoundrel and a swindler, he rummages through the cabinets and chests of drawers - looking for his letters. Tarelkin, forgetting from resentment and anger, defends the "deceased" with excessive fervour. Word for word - the conversation turns into a scandal. The captain of the Polutatarins, aka Varravin, suddenly notices that Kopylov looks very much like Tarelkin - only hair and teeth are missing. And then Tarelkin's wig and teeth are found in the chest of drawers!! With the help of Rasplyuev, who tied the “dead man” with a towel, the “Polu-Tatarins” forcefully puts a wig on the head of “Kopylov”, inserts his teeth ... Yes, this is Tarelkin! Undoubtedly! "Polutatarinov" knew him well! Rasplyuev believes that there is an accidental similarity here - after all, he personally buried Tarelkin. However, Varravin, remaining for Rasplyuev as Captain Polutarinov (Tarelkin already recognized his boss), advises the quarter warden "not to let this subject out and subject him to arrest." Rasplyuev studies Kopylov's passport - he seems to be in order. At that moment, Rasplyuev's subordinate musketeer Kachala appears from the police unit with papers, from which it is clear that the court adviser Sila Silych Kopylov has died. Ba! Splyuev is now completely at a loss, no - in horror! Kopylov is dead... Tarelkin is dead... And then who is this fantastic gentleman who, according to his passport, is Kopylov, but looks like Tarelkin?! And here Varravin, who continues to play the role of a well-meaning captain, takes the situation into his own hands. He inspires Rasplyuev that in front of him is a ghoul, a werewolf! He must be twisted with ropes, dragged to the police station and put in a "secret", that is, in a punishment cell. Now everything is going like clockwork for Varravin. Bound Tarelkin sits in the "secret". Rasplyuev enthusiastically reports to the private bailiff Okh that "at the apartment of the deceased Tarelkin and the deceased Kopylov" he took a werewolf. It's a serious matter. The bailiff tries to report him to his superiors. Suddenly Varravin appears - already in his own form. Having "understood" the case, he announces that it is extremely serious - "supernatural". Ranks and orders will certainly be given for his investigation! And if you report to the authorities, they will let down their investigator - all honors will go to a stranger. It's better to run the business yourself. The werewolf, for the speedy promotion of the case, should be tortured with thirst, absolutely not give him water: werewolves do not die from this, but only come into "strong languor". Through the efforts of Varravin, Rasplyuev is appointed chief investigator in the werewolf case. Helps him Oh, Musketeers Kachala and Shatala. And things are going full steam ahead! Arrested, beaten, interrogated, imprisoned in "secret" or taxed anyone who comes to hand - from the janitor and laundress to the merchant and landowner, In fear of the investigators, witnesses give any required testimony. Yes, and how not to give! Deal something after all already not simply "supernatural." It's a matter of national importance! The chief werewolf, tormented by thirst, candidly reveals that the werewolves are "a whole lot". His accomplices are "all Petersburg and all Moscow". What is there! Spitting out "such an opinion" that "our whole fatherland" is subject to werewolf. And therefore "it should be decided by the rule: everyone should be arrested," everyone should be "suspected" and "grabbed"!! “All of ours!” Rasplyuev and Okh screamed, laughing. “We will demand all of Russia.” But, in essence, only Tarelkin is required. When the "werewolf" from torture by thirst reaches the deathbed "languor", Varravin appears. He is now interrogating. He orders Kachala to bring a glass of running water into the "secret" room and, holding it before the eyes of the person under investigation, praises the contents with relish - oh, how good the water is! Tarelkin can drink it right now! But only if he returns Varravin his secret papers. Tarelkin gives them back. It is done. The official beat everyone again. Tarelkin can only beg Varravin to give him at least Kopylov's passport - it's impossible to live without a passport! Having received the form and Kopylov's certificates, Tarelkin thanks the boss - "his own father" - for his mercy and gets out. V. O. Otroshenko Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) Diary of a superfluous person Tale (1848-1850) The idea to start a diary came to Chelkaturin on March 20. The doctor finally admitted that his patient would live for two weeks. The rivers will open soon. Together with the last snow they will carry away his life. To whom to tell your sad thoughts at the last hour? Near only the old and narrow-minded Terentyevna. It is necessary to tell at least to yourself your own life, to try to understand why thirty years have been lived. Chelkaturin's parents were rather wealthy landowners. But the father, a passionate gambler, quickly lost everything, and they were left with only the village of Sheep Waters, where their son was now dying of consumption in a miserable house. Mother was a lady of character and overwhelming proud virtue. She endured the family misfortune stoically, but in her humility there was some kind of deliberateness and reproach to those around her. The boy shunned her, passionately loved his father, grew up "badly and sadly." Childhood years left almost no bright memories. Moscow, where they moved after the death of their father, did not add any impressions. Parental home, university, life of a petty official, few acquaintances, "pure poverty, humble studies, moderate desires." Is it worth telling such a life? The life of a completely superfluous person in the world. Chelkaturin himself likes this word. No other conveys so fully the essence of it. Best of all, the accuracy of the chosen definition of his own personality and fate could be confirmed by one episode of his life. Somehow he had to spend six months in the county town of O., where he met with one of the chief officials of the county, Kirill Matveyevich Ozhogin, who had four hundred showers and hosted the best society in the city. He was married, and had a daughter, Elizaveta Kirillovna, who was very good-looking, lively and meek in disposition. A young man fell in love with her, generally very awkward with women, but somehow found here and "blossomed in soul." For three weeks he was happy with his love, the opportunity to be in a house where he felt the warmth of normal family relationships. Lisa was not in love with her admirer, but accepted his company. One day, Liza's mother, a petty official Bezmenkov, Liza herself and Chelkaturin went to a grove outside the city. Young people enjoyed the quiet evening, the distances opening from the cliff and the crimson sunset. The closeness of a man in love with her, the beauty of the environment, the feeling of the fullness of being awakened in a seventeen-year-old girl "a quiet ferment that precedes the transformation of a child into a woman." And Chelkaturin witnessed this change. Standing over the cliff, amazed and deeply touched by the beauty revealed to her, she suddenly began to cry, then for a long time she was embarrassed and mostly silent. A fracture took place in her, "she also began to wait for something." The young man in love attributed this change to his own account: "The misfortune of lonely and timid people - from timid pride - lies precisely in the fact that they, having eyes ... do not see anything ..." Meanwhile, in the city, and then at the Ozhogins, a slender, tall military man appeared - Prince N. He came from St. Petersburg to receive recruits. Chelkaturin felt the hostile feeling of a timid dark Muscovite for a brilliant capital officer, good-looking, dexterous and self-confident. Unaccountable hostility grew into anxiety, and then into despair, when, left alone in the hall of the Ozhogin house, the young man began to look at his indefinite nose in the mirror and suddenly saw in the glass how Liza quietly entered, but, seeing her admirer, carefully slipped out away. She clearly didn't want to meet him. Chelkaturin returned the next day to the Ozhogins, the same suspicious, tense person that he had been since childhood and from whom he began to get rid of under the influence of feelings. The family gathered in the living room was in the best of spirits. Prince N. stayed with them the whole evening yesterday. Hearing this, our hero pouted and took on an offended look in order to punish Lisa with his disfavor. But then the prince appeared again, and by the blush, by the way Lisa's eyes shone, it became clear that she had passionately fallen in love with him. Until now, the girl had never even dreamed of anything resembling a brilliant, intelligent, cheerful aristocrat. And he fell in love with her - partly from nothing to do, partly from the habit of turning women's heads. By constantly tense smile, haughty silence, behind which one could see jealousy, envy, a sense of his own insignificance, impotent anger, the prince realized that he was dealing with an eliminated rival. Therefore, he was polite and gentle with him. The meaning of what was happening was also clear to those around him, and Chelkaturin was spared like a patient. His behavior became more and more unnatural and tense. The prince charmed everyone with his ability not to ignore anyone, and the art of secular conversation, and playing the piano, and the talent of a draftsman. Meanwhile, on one of the summer days, the district marshal gave a ball. "The whole county" gathered. And everything, alas, revolved around its sun - the prince. Liza felt like the queen of the ball and loved. No one paid attention to the rejected Chelkaturin, who was not noticed even by forty-eight-year-old girls with red pimples on his forehead. And he followed the happy couple, died of jealousy, loneliness, humiliation and exploded, calling the prince an empty Petersburg upstart. The duel took place in that very grove, almost at that very cliff. Chelkaturin easily wounded the prince. He fired into the air, finally trampling his opponent into the ground. The Ozhogins' house was closed to him. They began to look at the prince as a groom. But he soon left without making an offer. Lisa took the blow stoically. Chelkaturin was convinced of this by accidentally overhearing her conversation with Bezmenkov. Yes, she knows that everyone is throwing stones at her now, but she will not exchange her misfortune for their happiness. The prince did not love her for long, but he loved her! And now she has memories, and her life is rich in them, she is happy that she was loved and loves. Chelkaturin is disgusting to her. Two weeks later, Lizaveta Kirillovna married Bezmenkov. "Well, tell me now, am I not an extra person?" - asks the author of the diary. He is bitter that he is dying deafly, stupidly. Farewell to everything and forever, farewell, Lisa! G. G. Zhivotovsky Month in the village Comedy (1850, publ. 1855) The appearance of a new face in a village is always an event. When in the summer of 184 ... a new home teacher appeared on the rich estate of the Islaevs, the already established balance turned out to be somehow disturbed or, in any case, shaken. From the very first day, his student, ten-year-old Kolya Islaev, fell in love with Alexei Nikolaevich. The teacher made a bow for him, gets on with a kite, promises to teach him how to swim. And how cleverly he climbs trees! It. you don't want boring old Schaaff teaching him German. It was easy and fun with the new teacher and seventeen-year-old pupil of the Islayevs, Vera: they went to see the dam, caught a squirrel, walked for a long time, fooled around a lot. The twenty-year-old maid Katya also noticed the young man and somehow changed to Matvey, who was courting her. But the most subtle processes took place in the soul of the hostess - Natalya Petrovna Islayeva. Her Arkady Sergeevich is constantly busy, always building something, improving it, putting it in order. Natalya Petrovna, on the other hand, is alien and bored with her husband's household chores. The conversations of Rakitin’s friend at home are also boring. And in general, he is always at hand, you don’t need to conquer him, he is completely tame, harmless: “Our relations are so pure, so sincere <…> You and I have the right not only to Arcadia, but to everyone directly look into the eyes ... "And yet such a relationship is not entirely natural. His feeling is so peaceful, she doesn't care about it.... Rakitin is worried that lately Natalya Petrovna has been constantly out of sorts, some kind of change is taking place in her. Isn't it towards him? At the appearance of Alexei Nikolaevich, she obviously perks up. This was also noticed by Shpigelsky, the county doctor, who came to help Bolshintsov marry Vera. The applicant is forty-eight years old, clumsy, unintelligent, uneducated. Natalya Petrovna is surprised by the proposal: Vera is still so young ... However, when she sees Vera whispering something to Belyaev and both laughing, she nevertheless returns to the conversation about matchmaking. Rakitin is getting more and more worried: is he starting to annoy her? Nothing is more tiring than a gloomy mind. He had no illusions, but he hoped that her calm feeling over time… Yes, his situation is rather ridiculous now. Here Natalya Petrovna spoke with Belyaev, and immediately in the face of liveliness and gaiety, which never happened after a conversation with him. She even confesses in a friendly way: this Belyaev made a rather strong impression on her. But do not exaggerate. This man infected her with his youth - and nothing more. Alone with herself, she seems to remember: it's time to stop all this. Verina's tears in response to Bolshintsov's proposal seemed to have restored her ability to see herself in the true light. Don't let the girl cry. Bolshintsov is out of the question. But jealousy flares up again when Vera admits that she likes Belyaev. It is now clear to Natalya Petrovna who the rival is. "But wait, it's not over yet." And then she is horrified: what is she doing? He wants to marry the poor girl to an old man. Is she jealous of Vera? What is she, in love, or what? Well, yes, in love! First. But it's time to wake up. Michel (Rakitin) must help her. Rakitin believes that the teacher should be recommended to leave. And yes, he will leave. Suddenly Islaev appears. Why is this wife, leaning on Rakitin's shoulder, pressing a handkerchief to her eyes? Mikhail Alexandrovich is ready to explain himself, but a little later. Natalya Petrovna herself is going to announce to Belyaev about the need to leave. At the same time, he finds out (impossible to resist) whether he really likes this girl? But from a conversation with the teacher, it turns out that he does not love Vera at all and is ready to tell her about it himself, only it is unlikely that after that it will be convenient for him to stay in the house. Meanwhile, Anna Semyonovna, Islayev's mother, was also a witness to the scene that aroused her son's jealousy, Lizaveta Bogdanovna tells this news to Shpigelsky, but he reassures: Mikhailo Alexandrovich was never a dangerous person, these wise men all come out with a tongue, chatter. He himself is not like that. His proposal to Lizaveta Bogdanovna looks like a business proposal, and it was listened to quite favorably. Belyaev quickly presented himself with an opportunity to explain himself to Vera. It is clear to Vera that he does not love her and that Natalya Petrovna betrayed her secret. The reason is clear: Natalya Petrovna herself is in love with the teacher. Hence the attempts to pass her off as Bolshintsov. In addition, Belyaev remains in the house. It can be seen that Natalya Petrovna herself still hopes for something, because Vera is not dangerous to her. Yes, and Alexei Nikolaevich, maybe he loves her. The teacher blushes, and it is clear to Vera that she was not mistaken. The girl presents this discovery to Natalya Petrovna. She is no longer a meek young pupil, but a woman insulted in her feelings. The opponent is again ashamed of her actions. It's time to stop cheating. Decided: they see Belyaev for the last time. She informs him about this, but at the same time she admits that she loves him, that she was jealous of Vera, mentally passed her off as Bolshintsov, and by cunning found out her secret. Belyaev is amazed at the confession of a woman whom he revered as a higher being, so that now he cannot force himself to leave. No, Natalya Petrovna is adamant: they part forever. Belyaev obeys: yes, he must leave, and tomorrow. He says goodbye and wants to leave, but hearing a quiet “stay”, he stretches out his arms to her, but then Rakitin appears: what did Natalya Petrovna decide about Belyaev? Nothing. Their conversation should be forgotten, it's over, it's over. Gone? Rakitin saw how Belyaev got confused, ran away ... The appearance of Islaev makes the situation even more piquant: "What is this? A continuation of today's explanation?" He does not hide discontent and anxiety. Let Michelle tell about their conversation with Natasha. Rakitin's confusion leads him to ask directly if he loves his wife? Loves? So what to do? Michel is going to leave... Well, it's a good idea. But he will leave for a short time, because there is no one here to replace him. At this moment, Belyaev appears, and Mikhail Alexandrovich informs him that he is leaving: for the peace of his friends, a decent person must sacrifice something. And Alexei Nikolaevich would have done the same, wouldn't he? Meanwhile, Natalya Petrovna begs Vera to forgive her, kneels before her. But it is difficult for her to overcome dislike for a rival who is kind and gentle only because she feels loved. And Vera should stay in her house! No way, She can't bear her smile, she can't see how Natalya Petrovna basks in her happiness. The girl turns to Shpigelsky: is Bolshintsov really a good and kind person? The doctor vouches that he is the most excellent, honest and kind. (His eloquence is understandable. For Verino's consent, he was promised three horses.) Well, then Vera asks me to convey that he accepts the offer. When Belyaev comes to say goodbye, Vera, in response to his explanation of why he should not stay in the house, says that she herself will not stay here for long and will not interfere with anyone. A minute after Belyaev’s departure, she becomes a witness to the despair and anger of her rival: he didn’t even want to say goodbye ... Who allowed him to interrupt so stupidly ... This contempt, finally ... Why does he know that she would never have dared ... Now they are both equal with Vera ... There is hatred in Natalya Petrovna's voice and look, and Vera tries to calm her down, saying that she will not bother the benefactor with her presence for long. They cannot live together. Natalya Petrovna, however, has come to her senses again. Does Verochka really want to leave her? But they are both saved now ... Everything is in order again. Islaev, finding his wife upset, reproaches Rakitin for not preparing Natasha. I shouldn't have announced my departure so suddenly. Does Natasha understand that Mikhail Alexandrovich is one of the best people? Yes, she knows that he is a wonderful person and they are all wonderful people ... And meanwhile ... Without finishing, Natalya Petrovna runs out, covering her face with her hands. Rakitin is especially bitter about such a farewell, but rightly so for the talker, and everything is for the best - it was time to stop these painful, these consumptive relations. However, it's time to go. Islaev has tears in his eyes: "But still ... thank you! You are a friend, for sure!" But there seems to be no end to the surprises. Alexey Nikolaevich disappeared somewhere. Rakitin explains the reason: Verochka fell in love with a teacher, and he, like an honest person ... Islaev, of course, is dizzy. Everyone flees, and all because honest people. Anna Semyonovna is even more perplexed. Belyaev left, Rakitin left, even the doctor, even Shpigelsky, hurried to the sick. Again, only Shaaf and Lizaveta Bogdanovna will remain nearby. What does she think of this whole story, by the way? The companion sighs, lowers her eyes: "... Maybe I won't have to stay here for long... And I'm leaving." G. G. Zhivotovsky Rudin Roman (1855) In the village house of Darya Mikhailovna Lasunskaya, a noble and wealthy landowner, a former beauty and a metropolitan lioness, who still organizes a salon far from civilization, they are waiting for a certain baron, erudite and connoisseur of philosophy, who promised to acquaint him with his scientific research. Lasunskaya engages the audience in conversation. This is Pigasov, a poor man and cynically inclined (his strong point is attacks on women), the secretary of the hostess Pandalevsky, the home teacher of the younger children of Lasunskaya Bassists, who has just graduated from the university, the retired staff captain Volintsev with his sister, provided for by the young widow Lipina, and the daughter of Lasunskaya - still very young Natalya. Instead of the expected celebrity, Dmitry Nikolaevich Rudin arrives, who was instructed by the baron to deliver his article. Rudin is thirty-five years old, he is dressed quite ordinary; he has an irregular, but expressive and intelligent face. At first, everyone feels somewhat constrained, the general conversation is not getting better. Pigasov revives the conversation, as usual attacking "high matters", abstract truths that are based on beliefs, and the latter, Pigasov believes, do not exist at all. Rudin asks Pigasov if he is convinced that beliefs do not exist? Pigasov stands his ground. Then the new guest asks: "How do you say that they don't exist? Here's one for you for the first time." Rudin captivates everyone with his erudition, originality and logical thinking. Bassists and Natalia listen to Rudin with bated breath. Darya Mikhailovna begins to think about how she will bring her new "acquisition" into the light. Only Pigasov is dissatisfied and sulks. Rudin is asked to talk about his student years in Heidelberg. There is a lack of color in his narrative, and Rudin, apparently aware of this, soon moves on to general differences - and here he again conquers the audience, because "he mastered almost the highest music of eloquence." Darya Mikhailovna persuades Rudin to stay overnight. The rest live nearby and go home, discussing the outstanding talents of a new acquaintance, and Basistov and Natalya, under the impression of his speeches, cannot fall asleep until morning. In the morning, Lasunskaya begins to take care of Rudin in every possible way, whom she firmly decided to make the decoration of her salon, discusses with him the advantages and disadvantages of her rural environment, while it turns out that Mikhailo Mikhailych Lezhnev, Lasunskaya's neighbor, has long been well known also to Rudin. And at this moment the servant reports the arrival of Lezhnev, who visited Lasunskaya on an insignificant economic occasion. The meeting of old friends proceeds rather coldly. After Lezhnev takes his leave, Rudin tells Lasunskaya that her neighbor only wears a mask of originality to hide his lack of talent and will. Going down into the garden, Rudin meets Natalya and starts a conversation with her; he speaks passionately, convincingly, speaks of the shame of cowardice and laziness, of the need for everyone to do business. Rudin's animation affects the girl, but Volintsev, who is not indifferent to Natalya, does not like it. Lezhnev, in the company of Volintsev and his sister, recalls his student years when he was close to Rudin. The selection of facts from Rudin's biographies is not to Lipina's liking, and Lezhnev does not finish the story, promising to tell more about Rudin another time. In the two months that Rudin spends with Lasunskaya, he becomes simply necessary for her. Accustomed to revolving in a circle of witty and refined people, Darya Mikhailovna finds that Rudin can outshine any metropolitan orgy. She admires his speeches, but in practical matters she is still guided by the advice of her manager. Everyone in the house tries to fulfill the slightest whim of Rudin; Basistov is especially in awe of him, while the common favorite almost does not notice the young man. Twice Rudin expresses his intention to leave the hospitable house of Lasunskaya, referring to the fact that he had all the money left, but ... he borrowed from the hostess and Volyntsev - and stayed. Most often, Rudin talks with Natalya, who eagerly listens to his monologues. Under the influence of Rudin's ideas, she herself has new bright thoughts, a "holy spark of delight" flares up in her. Touches on Rudin and the theme of love. According to him, at present there are no people who dare to love strongly and passionately. Rudin, in his own words, penetrates into the very soul of the girl, and she ponders for a long time on what she heard, and then suddenly bursts into bitter tears. Lipina again asks Lezhnev what Rudin is: Without much desire, he characterizes his former friend, and this characterization is far from flattering. Rudin, says Lezhnev, is not very knowledgeable, loves to play the role of an oracle and live at someone else's expense, but his main trouble is that, inflaming others, he himself remains cold as ice, not thinking in the least that his words "may confuse, destroy a young heart. Indeed, Rudin continues to grow the flowers of his eloquence in front of Natalia. Not without coquetry, he speaks of himself as a person for whom love no longer exists, indicates to the girl that she should opt for Volyntsev. As a sin, it is Volyntsev who becomes an unintentional witness to their lively conversation - and this is extremely difficult and unpleasant for him. Meanwhile, Rudin, like an inexperienced young man, seeks to force things. He confesses his love to Natalya and seeks the same recognition from her. After the explanation, Rudin begins to inspire himself that now he is finally happy. Not knowing what to do, Volintsev, in the most gloomy frame of mind, retires to his own place. Quite unexpectedly, Rudin appears before him and announces that he loves Natalya and is loved by her. Irritated and perplexed, Volyntsev asks the guest: why is he telling all this? Here Rudin indulges in long and flowery explanations of the motives for his visit. He wanted to achieve mutual understanding, he wanted to be frank... Volintsev, who is losing control over himself, sharply replies that he did not ask for trust at all and that Rudin's excessive frankness bothers him. The initiator of this scene is also upset and blames himself for recklessness, which brought nothing but insolence on the part of Volintsev. Natalya appoints Rudin a date in a secluded place where no one could see them. The girl says that she confessed everything to her mother, and she condescendingly explained to her daughter that her marriage to Rudin was completely impossible. What does her chosen one intend to do now? Confused Rudin, in turn, inquires: what does Natalya herself think about all this and how does she intend to act? And almost immediately he comes to the conclusion: it is necessary to submit to fate. Even if he is rich, Rudin argues, will Natalya be able to endure the "forced termination" of her family, arrange her life against the will of her mother? Such cowardice strikes the girl in the heart. She was going to make any sacrifice in the name of her love, and her beloved chickened out at the first obstacle! Rudin is trying to somehow soften the blow with the help of new exhortations, but Natalya no longer hears him and leaves. And then Rudin shouts after her: "You are a coward, not me!" Left alone, Rudin stands still for a long time and goes over his feelings, admitting to himself that in this scene he was insignificant. Insulted by Rudin's revelations, Volintsev decides that under such circumstances he is simply obliged to challenge Rudin to a duel, but his intention is not given to come true, as a letter from Rudin arrives. Rudin verbosely says that he does not intend to make excuses (the content of the letter just convinces of the opposite), and announces his departure "forever". When leaving, Rudin feels bad: it turns out that he is being kicked out, although all decorum is observed. To Basistov, who was seeing him off, Rudin, out of habit, begins to express his thoughts about freedom and dignity, and speaks so figuratively that tears appear in the young man's eyes. Rudin himself is also crying, but these are "selfish tears". Two years pass. Lezhnev and Lipina became a happy married couple, they got a red-cheeked baby. They host Pigasov and Basistov. Basistoy announces good news: Natalya agreed to marry Volintsev. The conversation then switches to Rudin. Little is known about him. Rudin has recently lived in Simbirsk, but has already moved from there to another place. And on the same day in May, Rudin is dragging along a country road in a poor wagon. At the post station, they announce to him that there are no horses in the direction Rudin needs and it is not known when they will be, however, you can go in the other direction. After some thought, Rudin sadly agrees: "I don't care: I'll go to Tambov." A few years later, an unexpected meeting between Rudin and Lezhnev takes place in the provincial hotel. Rudin talks about himself. He changed many places and occupations. He was something like a house secretary to a wealthy landowner, was engaged in land reclamation, taught Russian literature in a gymnasium ... And everywhere he failed, he even began to be afraid of his unfortunate fate. Reflecting on the life of Rudin, Lezhnev does not console him. He speaks of his respect for the old comrade, who, with his passionate speeches, love for the truth, may be fulfilling a "higher assignment." On July 26, 1848, in Paris, when the uprising of the "national workshops" had already been suppressed, a figure of a tall gray-haired man with a saber and a red banner in his hands appeared on the barricade. A bullet interrupts his call. "The Pole was killed!" - such is the epitaph uttered on the run by one of the last defenders of the barricade. "Damn it!" - answers him another. This "Pole" was Dmitry Rudin. V. P. Meshcheryakov Asya Tale (1858) N.N., a middle-aged secular man, recalls a story that happened when he was twenty-five years old. N. N. then traveled without a goal and without a plan, and on his way he stopped in a quiet German town , which Gagin called Asya. N. N. avoided Russians abroad, but he liked his new acquaintance right away. Gagin invited N.N. to his house, to the apartment in which he and his sister were staying. N. N. was fascinated by his new friends. At first, Asya was shy at N.N., but soon she herself was talking to him. Evening came, it was time to go home. Leaving the Gagins, N.N. felt happy. Many days have passed. Asya's pranks were varied, every day she seemed to be a new, different - either a well-bred young lady, or a playful child, or a simple girl. N. N. regularly visited the Gagins. Some time later, Asya stopped being naughty, looked upset, avoided N. N. Gagin treated her kindly and condescendingly, and in N. N. the suspicion grew stronger that Gagin was not Asya's brother. A strange incident confirmed his suspicions. One day, N.N. accidentally overheard the conversation of the Gagins, in which Asya told Gagin that she loved him and did not want to love anyone else. N. N. was very bitter. NN spent the next few days in nature, avoiding the Gagins. But a few days later he found a note at home from Gagin, who asked him to come. Gagin met N.N. in a friendly way, but Asya, seeing the guest, burst out laughing and ran away. Then Gagin told a friend the story of his sister. Gagin's parents lived in their village. After the death of Gagin's mother, his father raised his son himself. But one day Uncle Gagina arrived, who decided that the boy should study in St. Petersburg. His father resisted, but gave in, and Gagin went to school, and then to the guards regiment. Gagin often came and once, already at the age of twenty, he saw a little girl Asya in his house, but did not pay any attention to her, having heard from her father that she was an orphan and taken by him "to feed". Gagin was not with his father for a long time and only received letters from him, when suddenly one day the news came of his fatal illness. Gagin arrived and found his father dying. He ordered his son to take care of his daughter, Gagin's sister, Asya. Soon the father died, and the servant told Gagin that Asya was the daughter of Gagin's father and Tatyana's maid. Gagin's father became very attached to Tatyana and even wanted to marry her, but Tatyana did not consider herself a lady and lived with her sister with Asya. When Asya was nine years old, she lost her mother. Her father took her into the house and raised her himself. She was ashamed of her origin and at first she was afraid of Gagin, but then she fell in love with him. He also became attached to her, brought her to St. Petersburg and, bitter as it was for him to do this, gave her to a boarding school. She had no friends there, the young ladies did not like her, but now she is seventeen, she has finished her studies, and together they went abroad. And now ... she is naughty and fooling around as before ... After Gagin's story, NN became easy. Asya, who met them in the room, suddenly asked Gagin to play a waltz for them, and N.N. and Asya danced for a long time. Asya waltzed beautifully, and NN recalled this dance for a long time. The next day Gagin, N.N. and Asya were together and had fun like children, but the next day Asya was pale, she said that she was thinking about her death. Everyone except Gagin was sad. Once N.N. brought a note from Asya, in which she asked him to come. Soon Gagin came to N. N. and said that Asya was in love with N. N. Yesterday, she had a fever all evening, she didn’t eat anything, she cried and confessed that she loved N. N. She wanted to leave ... NN told a friend about the note that Asya had sent him. Gagin understood that his friend would not marry Asya, so they agreed that NN would honestly explain to her, and Gagin would sit at home and not pretend that he knew about the note. Gagin left, and N. N.'s head was spinning. Another note informed N.N. of the change in the place of their meeting with Asya. Arriving at the appointed place, he saw the hostess, Frau Louise, who led him to the room where Asya was waiting. Asya was trembling. N.N. hugged her, but immediately remembered Gagina and began to accuse Asya of telling her brother everything. Asya listened to his speeches and suddenly burst into tears. N. N. was at a loss, and she rushed to the door and disappeared. N. N. rushed around the city in search of Asya. He was vexed with himself. Thinking, he went to the Gagins' house. Gagin came out to meet him, worried that Asya was still missing. N.N. looked for Asya all over the city, he repeated a hundred times that he loved her, but he could not find her anywhere. However, having approached the Gagins' house, he saw a light in Asya's room and calmed down. He made a firm decision - to go tomorrow and ask for Ashina's hand. N. N. was happy again. The next day, N.N. saw a maid at the house, who said that the owners had left, and handed him a note from Gagin, where he wrote that he was convinced of the need for separation. When N. N. walked past Frau Louise's house, she handed him a note from Asya, where she wrote that if N. N. had said one word, she would have stayed. But apparently it's better... N. N. looked everywhere for the Gagins, but did not find them. He knew many women, but the feeling awakened in him by Asya never happened again. N. N. longing for her remained with N. N. for life. M. L. Soboleva Noble Nest Roman (1858) As usual, the news of Lavretsky's return was first brought to the Kalitins' house by Gedeonovsky. Maria Dmitrievna, the widow of the former provincial prosecutor, who at her fifty years of age retained a certain pleasantness in her features, favors him, and her house is one of the most pleasant in the city of O ... But Marfa Timofeevna Pestova, the seventy-year-old sister of Maria Dmitrievna's father, does not favor Gedeonovsky for his tendency to add and talkativeness. But what to take - a priest, although a state adviser. However, Marfa Timofeevna is generally tricky to please. After all, she does not favor Panshin either - everyone's favorite, an enviable groom, the first gentleman. Vladimir Nikolayevich plays the piano, composes romances in his own words, draws well, recites. He is quite a man of the world, educated and dexterous. In general, he is a Petersburg official for special assignments, a chamber junker who arrived in O ... with some kind of assignment. He visits the Kalitins for the sake of Lisa, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Maria Dmitrievna. And it looks like his intentions are serious. But Marfa Timofeevna is sure: her favorite is not such a husband. The music teacher Khristofor Fedorovich Lemm, a middle-aged, unattractive and not very successful German, who is secretly in love with his student, puts Panshin and Lizin low. The arrival of Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky from abroad is a notable event for the city. Its history passes from mouth to mouth. In Paris, he accidentally convicted his wife of treason. Moreover, after the breakup, the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna received scandalous European fame. The inhabitants of the Kalitinsky house, however, did not think that he looked like a victim. It still exudes steppe health, long-lasting strength. Only in the eyes is visible fatigue. In fact, Fedor Ivanovich is a strong breed. His great-grandfather was a tough, daring, smart and crafty man. The great-grandmother, a quick-tempered, vindictive gypsy, was in no way inferior to her husband. Grandfather Peter, however, was already a simple steppe gentleman. His son Ivan (father of Fyodor Ivanovich) was brought up, however, by a Frenchman, an admirer of Jean Jacques Rousseau: this was the order of the aunt with whom he lived. (His sister Glafira grew up with her parents.) Wisdom of the XNUMXth century. the teacher poured into his head entirely, where she stayed, without mixing with blood, without penetrating into the soul. Upon returning to his parents, Ivan felt dirty and wild in his own home. This did not prevent him from turning his attention to Matushka Malanya's maid, a very pretty, intelligent and meek girl. A scandal erupted: Ivan's father disinherited Ivan, and ordered the girl to be sent to a distant village. Ivan Petrovich recaptured Malanya along the way and married her. Having attached a young wife to the relatives of the Pestovs, Dmitry Timofeevich and Marfa Timofeevna, he himself went to St. Petersburg, and then abroad. In the village of Pestovykh, Fedor was born on August 20, 1807. Almost a year passed before Malanya Sergeevna was able to appear with her son at the Lavretskys. And even then only because Ivan's mother, before her death, asked for the stern Peter Andreevich for her son and daughter-in-law. The happy father of the baby finally returned to Russia only after twelve years. Malanya Sergeevna had died by this time, and the boy was brought up by his aunt Glafira Andreevna, ugly, envious, unkind and domineering. Fedya was taken away from his mother and given to Glafira during her lifetime. He did not see his mother every day and loved her passionately, but vaguely felt that between him and her there was an indestructible barrier. Aunt Fedya was afraid, he did not dare to utter a word in front of her. Returning, Ivan Petrovich himself took up the upbringing of his son. I dressed him in Scottish fashion and hired him a porter. Gymnastics, natural sciences, international law, mathematics, carpentry and heraldry formed the core of the educational system. They woke up the boy at four in the morning; doused with cold water, forced to run around the pole on a rope; fed once a day; taught to ride and shoot with a crossbow. When Fedya was sixteen years old, his father began to instill in him contempt for women. A few years later, having buried his father, Lavretsky went to Moscow and entered the university at the age of twenty-three. A strange upbringing has paid off. He did not know how to get along with people, he did not dare to look a single woman in the eye. He got along only with Mikhalevich, an enthusiast and a poet. It was this Mikhalevich who introduced his friend to the family of the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna Korobyina. A twenty-six-year-old child only now understood what it was worth living for. Varenka was charming, intelligent and well educated, she could talk about the theater and played the piano. Six months later, the young arrived in Lavriki. The university was abandoned (not to marry a student), and a happy life began. Glafira was removed, and General Korobin, Varvara Pavlovna's father, arrived in the place of the steward; and the couple drove off to Petersburg, where they had a son, who soon died. On the advice of doctors, they went abroad and settled in Paris. Varvara Pavlovna instantly settled down here and began to shine in society. Soon, however, a love note fell into Lavretsky's hands, addressed to his wife, whom he so blindly trusted. At first he was seized with rage, a desire to kill both ("my great-grandfather hung men by the ribs"), but then, having disposed of a letter about the annual allowance to his wife and about the departure of General Korobin from the estate, he went to Italy. Newspapers circulated bad rumors about his wife. From them he learned that he had a daughter. There was indifference to everything. And yet, after four years, he wanted to return home, to the city of O ..., but he did not want to settle in Lavriky, where he and Varya spent their first happy days. Lisa from the first meeting attracted his attention. He also noticed Panshin near her. Maria Dmitrievna did not hide the fact that the chamber junker was crazy about her daughter. Marfa Timofeevna, however, still believed that Lisa would not be with Panshin. In Vasilyevsky Lavretsky examined the house, the garden with the pond: the estate had managed to run wild. The silence of a leisurely solitary life surrounded him. And what strength, what health was in this inactive silence. The days passed monotonously, but he did not get bored: he did housework, rode horseback, read. Three weeks later I went to O ... to the Kalitins. Lemma found them. In the evening, going to see him off, I stayed with him. The old man was touched and admitted that he writes music, played and sang something. In Vasilievsky, the conversation about poetry and music imperceptibly turned into a conversation about Liza and Panshin. Lemm was categorical: she does not love him, she simply obeys her mother. Lisa can only love something beautiful, but he is not beautiful, that is, his soul is not beautiful Lisa and Lavretsky trusted each other more and more. Not without embarrassment, she once asked about the reasons for his break with his wife: how can one tear apart what God has united? You must forgive. She is sure that it is necessary to forgive and submit. This was taught to her in childhood by her nanny Agafya, who told the life of the most pure virgin, the lives of saints and hermits, who took her to church. Her own example brought up humility, meekness and a sense of duty. Suddenly, Mikhalevich appeared in Vasilyevsky. He grew old, it was clear that he was not succeeding, but he spoke as passionately as in his youth, read his own poems: "... And I burned everything that I worshiped, / I bowed to everything that I burned." Then the friends argued long and loudly, disturbing Lemm, who continued to visit. You can't just want happiness in life. It means to build on sand. Faith is needed, and without it Lavretsky is a miserable Voltairian. No faith - no revelation, no understanding of what to do. It needs a pure, unearthly being who will pull him out of his apathy. After Mikhalevich, the Kalitins arrived in Vasilyevskoye. The days passed happily and carefree. “I speak to her as if I were not an obsolete person,” thought Lavretsky about Lisa. Seeing off on horseback their carriage, he asked: "After all, we are friends now? .." She nodded in response. The next evening, looking through French magazines and newspapers, Fyodor Ivanovich came across a message about the sudden death of the queen of fashionable Parisian salons, Madame Lavretskaya. The next morning he was at the Kalitins'. "What's wrong with you?" Lisa asked. He gave her the text of the message. Now he is free. “You don’t need to think about that now, but about forgiveness ...” she objected, and at the end of the conversation she repaid the same trust: Panshin asks for her hand. She is not at all in love with him, but is ready to obey her mother. Lavretsky begged Lisa to think about not marrying without love, out of a sense of duty. That same evening, Lisa asked Panshin not to rush her with an answer and informed Lavretsky about this. All the following days a secret anxiety was felt in her, as if she even avoided Lavretsky. And he was also alarmed by the lack of confirmation of the death of his wife. Yes, and Lisa, when asked if she decided to give an answer to Panshin, said that she knew nothing. Doesn't know herself. One summer evening in the living room, Panshin began to reproach the newest generation, saying that Russia had lagged behind Europe (we didn’t even invent mousetraps). He spoke beautifully, but with secret bitterness. Lavretsky unexpectedly began to object and defeated the enemy, proving the impossibility of leaps and arrogant alterations, demanded recognition of the people's truth and humility before it. The irritated Panshin exclaimed; what does he intend to do? Plow the land and try to plow it as best as possible. Liza was on Lavretsky's side throughout the argument. The secular official's contempt for Russia offended her. Both of them realized that they loved and did not love the same thing, but differed only in one, but Lisa secretly hoped to lead him to God. The embarrassment of the last days is gone. Everyone dispersed little by little, and Lavretsky quietly went out into the night garden and sat down on a bench. There was light in the lower windows. It was Lisa walking with a candle in her hand. He quietly called her and, seating her under the lindens, said: "... It brought me here ... I love you." Returning through the sleeping streets, full of joyful feeling, he heard the wondrous sounds of music. He turned to where they came from and called: Lemme! The old man appeared at the window and, recognizing him, threw down the key. Lavretsky had not heard anything like this for a long time. He came up and hugged the old man. He paused, then smiled and cried: "I did this, for I am a great musician." The next day Lavretsky went to Vasilyevskoye and returned to the city in the evening. In the hallway he was greeted by the smell of strong perfumes, trunks stood right there. Crossing the threshold of the living room, he saw his wife. Inconsistently and verbosely, she began to beg to forgive her, if only for the sake of her daughter, who was not guilty of anything before him: Ada, ask your father with me. He invited her to settle in Lavriky, but never count on a resumption of relations. Varvara Pavlovna was humility itself, but on the same day she visited the Kalitins. Lisa and Panshin's final explanation had already taken place there. Maria Dmitrievna was in despair. Varvara Pavlovna managed to occupy, and then to win her over in her favor, hinted that Fyodor Ivanovich had not definitively deprived her of "his presence." Lisa received a note from Lavretsky, and the meeting with his wife was not a surprise to her ("It Serves Me Right"). She was stoic in the presence of a woman whom "he" had once loved. Panshin appeared. Varvara Pavlovna immediately found a tone with him. She sang a romance, talked about literature, about Paris, engaged in semi-social, semi-artistic chatter. Parting, Maria Dmitrievna expressed her readiness to try to reconcile her with her husband. Lavretsky reappeared at the Kalitinsky house when he received a note from Liza with an invitation to visit them. He immediately went up to Marfa Timofeevna. She found an excuse to leave them alone with Lisa. The girl came to say that they had to do their duty. Fyodor Ivanovich must make peace with his wife. Doesn't he see for himself now: happiness does not depend on people, but on God. When Lavretsky went downstairs, the footman invited him to Marya Dmitrievna. She spoke of the repentance of his wife, asked him to forgive her, and then, offering to take her from hand to hand, led Varvara Pavlovna out from behind the screen. Requests and already familiar scenes were repeated. Lavretsky finally promised that he would live with her under the same roof, but would consider the contract violated if she allowed herself to leave Lavrikov. The next morning he took his wife and daughter to Lavriki and left for Moscow a week later. A day later, Panshin visited Varvara Pavlovna and stayed for three days. A year later, news reached Lavretsky that Lisa had taken her hair in a monastery in one of the remote regions of Russia. After some time he visited this monastery. Liza walked close to him - and did not look, only her eyelashes trembled a little and the fingers holding the rosary tightened even more tightly. And Varvara Pavlovna very soon moved to St. Petersburg, then to Paris. A new suitor appeared beside her, a guardsman of extraordinary strength. She never invites him to her fashionable evenings, but otherwise he enjoys her favor completely. Eight years have passed. Lavretsky again visited O... The elder inhabitants of the Kalitinsky house had already died, and the youth reigned here: Lisa's younger sister, Lenochka, and her fiancé. It was fun and noisy. Fyodor Ivanovich walked through all the rooms. The same piano stood in the living room, the same hoop stood by the window as then. Only the wallpaper was different. In the garden he saw the same bench and walked along the same alley. His sadness was agonizing, although he was already making that turning point, without which it is impossible to remain a decent person: he stopped thinking about his own happiness. G. G. Zhivotovsky On the eve Roman (1859) On one of the hottest days of 1853, two young people were lying on the banks of the Moskva River in the shade of a flowering linden tree. Twenty-three-year-old Andrey Petrovich Bersenev had just emerged as the third candidate of Moscow University, and an academic career lay ahead of him. Pavel Yakovlevich Shubin was a promising sculptor. The dispute, quite peaceful, concerned nature and our place in it. Bersenev is struck by the fullness and self-sufficiency of nature, against which our incompleteness is seen more clearly, which gives rise to anxiety, even sadness. Shubin, on the other hand, proposes not to reflect, but to live. Stock up on a friend of the heart, and longing will pass. We are driven by a thirst for love, happiness - and nothing else. "Yes, as if there is nothing higher than happiness?" - Bersenev objects. Isn't this a selfish, separating word. Art, motherland, science, freedom can unite. And love, of course, but not love-pleasure, but love-sacrifice. However, Shubin does not agree to be number two. He wants to love for himself. No, his friend insists, putting yourself in number two is the whole purpose of our lives. The young people at this stopped the feast of the mind and, after a pause, continued talking about the ordinary. Bersenev saw Insarov recently. We must introduce him to Shubin and the Stakhov family. Insarov? Is this the Serb or Bulgarian that Andrey Petrovich has already talked about? Patriot? did he not inspire him with the thoughts he had just expressed? However, it is time to return to the country: you should not be late for dinner. Anna Vasilievna Stakhova, Shubin's second cousin, will be dissatisfied, and yet Pavel Vasilyevich owes her the very opportunity to sculpt. She even gave money for a trip to Italy, and Pavel (Paul, as she called him) spent it on Little Russia. Generally, the family is amazing. And how could such an extraordinary daughter like Elena have appeared in such parents? Try to solve this riddle of nature. The head of the family, Nikolai Artemyevich Stakhov, the son of a retired captain, from his youth dreamed of a profitable marriage. At twenty-five, he fulfilled his dream - he married Anna Vasilievna Shubina, but soon got bored, got along with the widow Augustina Khristianovna and was already bored in her company. "They stare at each other, so stupidly ..." - says Shubin. However, sometimes Nikolai Artemyevich starts arguing with her: is it possible for a person to travel around the entire globe, or to know what is happening at the bottom of the sea, or to foresee the weather? And I always concluded that it was impossible. Anna Vasilyevna tolerates her husband's infidelity, and yet it hurts her that he deceived the German woman into giving a pair of gray horses from her, Anna Vasilyevna, factory. Shubin has been living in this family for five years now, since the death of his mother, an intelligent, kind Frenchwoman (her father died a few years earlier). He devoted himself entirely to his vocation, but he works hard, but in fits and starts, he does not want to hear about the academy and professors. In Moscow, he is known as a promising man, but at twenty-six he remains in the same capacity. He really likes the daughter of the Stakhovs, Elena Nikolaevna, but he does not miss the opportunity to flirt with the plump seventeen-year-old Zoya, taken into the house as a companion for Elena, who has nothing to talk about with her. Pavel calls her a sweet little German. alas, Elena does not understand "all the naturalness of such contradictions" of the artist. The lack of character in a person always revolted her, stupidity angered her, she did not forgive lies. As soon as someone lost her respect, and he ceased to exist for her. Elena Nikolaevna is an outstanding person. She has just turned twenty years old, she is attractive: tall, with large gray eyes and a dark blond braid. In her whole appearance, however, there is something impetuous, nervous, which not everyone likes. Nothing could ever satisfy her: she yearned for active goodness. From childhood, beggars, hungry, sick people and animals disturbed and occupied her. When she was about ten years old, the poor girl Katya became the subject of her worries and even worship. Her parents did not approve of this hobby. True, the girl soon died. However, the trace of this meeting in the soul of Elena remained forever. From the age of sixteen she had already lived her own life, but a lonely life. Nobody constrained her, but she was torn and languished: "How to live without love, but there is no one to love!" Shubin was quickly dismissed due to his artistic fickleness. Bersenev, on the other hand, occupies her as an intelligent, educated person, in his own way real, deep. But why is he so persistent with his stories about Insarov? These stories aroused Elena's keenest interest in the personality of the Bulgarian, obsessed with the idea of liberating his homeland. Any mention of this seems to kindle a deaf, unquenchable fire in him. One feels the concentrated deliberation of a single and long-standing passion. And this is his story. He was still a child when his mother was kidnapped and killed by a Turkish aga. The father tried to take revenge, but was shot. Eight years old, left an orphan, Dmitry arrived in Russia, to his aunt, and after twelve he returned to Bulgaria and in two years went far and wide. He was persecuted, he was in danger. Bersenev himself saw a scar - a trace of a wound. No, Insarov did not avenge himself. Its purpose is broader. He is poor as a student, but proud, scrupulous and undemanding, amazingly hardworking. On the very first day after moving to Bersenev's dacha, he got up at four in the morning, ran around the neighborhood of Kuntsevo, took a swim, and, after drinking a glass of cold milk, set to work. He studies Russian history, law, political economy, translates Bulgarian songs and chronicles, composes Russian grammar for Bulgarians and Bulgarian for Russians: Russians are ashamed not to know the Slavic languages. On his first visit, Dmitry Nikanorovich made a lesser impression on Elena than she expected after Bersenev's stories. But the case confirmed the correctness of Bersenev's assessments. Anna Vasilievna decided to somehow show her daughter and Zoya the beauty of Tsaritsyn. We went there with a big group. The ponds and ruins of the palace, the park - everything made a wonderful impression. Zoya sang pretty well as they sailed on a boat among the lush greenery of the picturesque shores. The company of the Germans who took a spree shouted even an encore! They did not pay attention to them, but already on the shore, after a picnic, they met with them again. A man, of enormous height, with a bull's neck, separated from the company, and began to demand satisfaction in the form of a kiss for the fact that Zoya did not respond to their beading and applause. Shubin floridly and with a pretense of irony began to exhort the drunken impudent fellow, which only angered him. Here Insarov stepped forward and simply demanded that he go away. The bull-like carcass leaned menacingly forward, but at the same moment it swayed, tore off the ground, lifted into the air by Insarov, and, flopping into the pond, disappeared under the water. "He'll drown!" cried Anna Vasilievna. "It will come up," Insarov casually threw. Something unkind, dangerous appeared on his face. An entry appeared in Elena’s diary: “... Yes, you can’t joke with him, and he knows how to intercede. But why this anger? .. Or <...> you can’t be a man, a fighter, and remain meek and gentle? Life is a rough thing, he said recently". Immediately she admitted to herself that she loved him. The news is all the more shocking for Elena: Insarov is moving out of the dacha. So far, only Bersenev understands what the matter is. A friend once admitted that if he had fallen in love, he would certainly have left: for a personal feeling, he would not betray his duty ("... I don't need Russian love ..."). Hearing all this, Elena herself goes to Insarov. He confirmed: yes, he must leave. Then Elena would have to be braver than him. He apparently wants to make her the first to confess his love. Well, that's what she said. Insarov embraced her: "So will you follow me everywhere?" Yes, she will go, and neither the anger of her parents, nor the need to leave her homeland, nor danger will stop her. Then they are husband and wife, concludes the Bulgarian. Meanwhile, a certain Kurnatovsky, chief secretary in the Senate, began to appear at the Stakhovs'. His Stakhov is read as Elena's husband. And this is not the only danger for lovers. The letters from Bulgaria are getting more and more alarming. We must go while it is still possible, and Dmitry begins to prepare for departure. Once, after working all day, he got caught in a downpour, soaked to the bone. The next morning, despite the headache, continued the chores. But by dinnertime he developed a strong fever, and by evening he was completely ill. Eight days Insarov is between life and death. Bersenev has been caring for the patient all this time and informs Elena about his condition. Finally the crisis is over. However, a real recovery is far away, and Dmitry does not leave his home for a long time. Elena is impatient to see him, she asks Bersenev one day not to come to a friend and comes to Insarov in a light silk dress, fresh, young and happy. They talk long and passionately about their problems, about the golden heart of Elena Bersenev, who loves Elena, about the need to rush to leave. On the same day, they no longer verbally become husband and wife. Their date does not remain a secret for parents. Nikolai Artemyevich demands his daughter to account. Yes, she admits, Insarov is her husband, and next week they are leaving for Bulgaria. "To the Turks!" - Anna Vasilievna loses her senses. Nikolai Artemyevich grabs his daughter by the hand, but at this time Shubin shouts: "Nikolai Artemyevich! Avgustina Khristianovna has arrived and is calling you!" A minute later he is already talking with Uvar Ivanovich, a retired sixty-year-old cornet who lives with the Stakhovs, does nothing, eats often and a lot, is always unperturbed and expresses himself something like this: “I should ... somehow, that ...” At the same time, he desperately helps himself gestures. Shubin calls him a representative of the choral principle and black earth power. Pavel Yakovlevich expresses his admiration for Elena to him. She is not afraid of anything or anyone. He understands her. Who is she leaving here? Kurnatovsky, yes Bersenev, but such as he himself. And it's even better. We don't have people yet. All are either small fry, Hamletics, or darkness and wilderness, or pourers from empty to empty. If there were good people among us, this sensitive soul would not leave us. "When will people be born among us, Ivan Ivanovich?" “Give me time, they will,” he replies. And here are the young in Venice. Behind a difficult move and two months of illness in Vienna. From Venice the way to Serbia and then to Bulgaria. It remains to wait for the old sea dog Rendich, who will ferry across the sea. Venice was the best way to help forget the hardships of travel and the excitement of politics for a while. Everything that this unique city could give, the lovers took in full. Only in the theatre, listening to "La Traviata", they are embarrassed by the farewell scene of Violetta and Alfredo dying of consumption, her plea: "Let me live ... die so young!" A feeling of happiness leaves Elena: "Is it really impossible to beg, turn away, save <...> I was happy ... And with what right? .. And if this is not given for nothing?" The next day, Insarov becomes worse. The fever rose, he fell into oblivion. Exhausted, Elena falls asleep and has a dream: a boat on the Tsaritsyno pond, then found herself in a restless sea, but a snow whirlwind comes up, and she is no longer in a boat, but in a wagon. Next to Katya. Suddenly the wagon flies into a snowy abyss, Katya laughs and calls her from the abyss: "Elena!" She raises her head and sees a pale Insarov: "Elena, I'm dying!" Rendich no longer finds him alive. Elena begged the stern sailor to take the coffin with the body of her husband and herself to his homeland. Three weeks later Anna Vasilievna received a letter from Venice. My daughter is going to Bulgaria. There is no other home for her now. "I was looking for happiness - and I will find, perhaps, death. It can be seen ... there was guilt." Reliably, the further fate of Elena remained unclear. Some said that they later saw her in Herzegovina as a sister of mercy with the army in an unchanged black outfit. Then the trace of her was lost. Shubin, occasionally corresponding with Uvar Ivanovich, reminded him of the old question: "So, will we have people?" Uvar Ivanovich played with his fingers and fixed his enigmatic gaze into the distance. G. G. Zhivotovsky First Love Tale (1860) The action of the story takes place in 1833 in Moscow, the main character - Volodya - is sixteen years old, he lives with his parents in the country and is preparing to enter the university. Soon, the family of Princess Zasekina moves into the poor outbuilding next door. Volodya accidentally sees the princess and really wants to get to know her. The next day, his mother receives an illiterate letter from Princess Zasekina asking him to protect her. Mother sends a verbal invitation to Princess Volodya to come to her house. There Volodya meets the princess - Zinaida Alexandrovna, who is five years older than him. The princess immediately calls him to her room to unravel the wool, flirts with him, but quickly loses interest in him. On the same day, Princess Zasekina pays a visit to his mother and makes an extremely unfavorable impression on her. However, despite this, the mother invites her and her daughter to dinner. During dinner, the princess noisily sniffs tobacco, fidgets in her chair, fidgets, complains about poverty and talks about her endless bills, and the princess, on the contrary, is majestic - she talks with Volodya's father in French all dinner, but looks at him with hostility. She does not pay attention to Volodya, however, as she leaves, she whispers to him to come to them in the evening. Appearing to the Zasekins, Volodya meets the princess's admirers: Dr. Lushin, the poet Maidanov, Count Malevsky, the retired captain Nirmatsky and the hussar Belovzorov. The evening is stormy and cheerful. Volodya feels happy: he has the lot to kiss Zinaida's hand, the whole evening Zinaida does not let him go and gives him preference over others. The next day, his father asks him about the Zasekins, then he himself goes to them. After dinner, Volodya goes to visit Zinaida, but she does not come out to him. From this day Volodya's torment begins. In the absence of Zinaida, he languishes, but even in her presence he does not feel better, he is jealous, offended, but cannot live without her. Zinaida easily guesses that he is in love with her. Zinaida rarely goes to the house of Volodya's parents: her mother does not like her, her father speaks little to her, but somehow especially cleverly and significantly. Zinaida suddenly changes a lot. She goes for a walk alone and walks for a long time, sometimes she doesn’t show herself to guests at all: she sits in her room for hours. Volodya guesses that she is in love, but does not understand with whom. Once Volodya is sitting on the wall of a dilapidated greenhouse. Zinaida appears on the road below. Seeing him, she orders him to jump onto the road if he really loves her. Volodya immediately jumps and faints for a moment. An alarmed Zinaida fusses around him and suddenly begins to kiss him, however, guessing that he has come to his senses, gets up and, forbidding him to follow him, leaves. Volodya is happy, but the next day, when he meets with Zinaida, she keeps herself very simple, as if nothing had happened. One day they meet in the garden: Volodya wants to pass by, but Zinaida herself stops him. She is sweet, quiet and kind to him, invites him to be her friend and bestows the title of her page. A conversation takes place between Volodya and Count Malevsky, in which Malevsky says that the pages should know everything about their queens and follow them relentlessly day and night. It is not known whether Malevsky attached particular importance to what he said, but Volodya decides to go to the garden at night to guard, taking an English knife with him. He sees his father in the garden, gets very frightened, loses his knife and immediately returns home. The next day, Volodya tries to talk about everything with Zinaida, but her twelve-year-old cadet brother comes to her, and Zinaida instructs Volodya to entertain him. On the evening of the same day, Zinaida, finding Volodya in the garden, inadvertently asks him why he is so sad. Volodya cries and reproaches her for playing with them. Zinaida asks for forgiveness, consoles him, and a quarter of an hour later he is already running around with Zinaida and the cadet and laughing. For a week, Volodya continues to communicate with Zinaida, driving away all thoughts and memories from himself. Finally, returning one day for dinner, he learns that a scene had taken place between his father and mother, that his mother reproached his father in connection with Zinaida, and that she learned about it from an anonymous letter. The next day, mother announces that she is moving to the city. Before leaving, Volodya decides to say goodbye to Zinaida and tells her that he will love and adore her until the end of her days. Volodya once again accidentally sees Zinaida. They are riding with their father for a ride, and suddenly the father, dismounting and giving him the reins of his horse, disappears into the alley. Some time later, Volodya follows him and sees that he is talking through the window with Zinaida. The father insists on something, Zinaida does not agree, finally she holds out her hand to him, and then the father raises the whip and sharply beats her bare arm. Zinaida shudders and, silently raising her hand to her lips, kisses the scar. Volodya runs away. Some time later, Volodya and his parents moved to St. Petersburg, entered the university, and six months later his father dies of a stroke, a few days before his death he received a letter from Moscow, which greatly excited him. After his death, his wife sent a fairly significant amount of money to Moscow. Four years later, Volodya meets Maidanov at the theater, who tells him that Zinaida is now in St. Petersburg, she is happily married and is going abroad. Although, Maidanov adds, after that story it was not easy for her to form a party for herself; there were consequences... but with her mind anything is possible. Maidanov gives Volodya Zinaida's address, but he goes to see her only a few weeks later and finds out that she died suddenly from childbirth four days ago. N. N. Soboleva Fathers and Sons Roman (1862) On May 20, 1859, Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov, a forty-three-year-old, but no longer young-looking landowner, was anxiously waiting at the inn for his son Arkady, who had just graduated from the university. Nikolai Petrovich was the son of a general, but the military career intended for him did not take place (he broke his leg in his youth and remained “lame” for the rest of his life). Nikolai Petrovich early married the daughter of an obscure official and was happily married. To his deep grief, his wife died in 1847. He devoted all his strength and time to raising his son, even in St. Petersburg he lived with him and tried to get close to his son's comrades, students. Recently, he has been intensively engaged in the transformation of his estate. There comes a happy moment of meeting. However, Arkady does not appear alone: with him is a tall, ugly and self-confident young man, an aspiring doctor who agreed to stay with the Kirsanovs. His name is, as he certifies himself, Evgeny Vasilyevich Bazarov. The conversation between father and son at first does not stick. Nikolai Petrovich is embarrassed by Fenechka, a girl whom he keeps with him and from whom he already has a child. Arkady in a condescending tone (this slightly jars his father) tries to smooth out the awkwardness that has arisen. Pavel Petrovich, father's elder brother, is waiting for them at home. Pavel Petrovich and Bazarov immediately begin to feel mutual antipathy. But the yard boys and servants willingly obey the guest, although he does not even think about seeking their favor. The very next day, a verbal skirmish occurs between Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich, and Kirsanov Sr. is its initiator. Bazarov does not want to argue, but nevertheless speaks out on the main points of his convictions. People, according to his ideas, strive for a particular goal, because they experience various "sensations" and want to achieve "benefit". Bazarov is sure that chemistry is more important than art, and in science the practical result is more important. He is even proud of his lack of "artistic sense" and believes that there is no need to study the psychology of an individual individual: "One human specimen is enough to judge all others." For Bazarov, there is not a single "decree in our modern life ... which would not cause a complete and merciless denial." He has a high opinion of his own abilities, but he assigns a non-creative role to his generation - "first you need to clear the place." To Pavel Petrovich, the "nihilism" professed by Bazarov and Arkady, who imitates him, seems to be a daring and unfounded doctrine that exists "in the void." Arkady tries to somehow smooth out the tension that has arisen and tells his friend the story of the life of Pavel Petrovich. He was a brilliant and promising officer, a favorite of women, until he met the socialite Princess R*. This passion completely changed the existence of Pavel Petrovich, and when their romance ended, he was completely devastated. From the past, he retains only the sophistication of costume and manners and a preference for all things English. The views and behavior of Bazarov irritate Pavel Petrovich so much that he again attacks the guest, but he quite easily and even condescendingly breaks all the "syllogisms" of the enemy aimed at protecting traditions. Nikolai Petrovich seeks to soften the dispute, but he cannot agree with Bazarov's radical statements in everything, although he convinces himself that he and his brother are already behind the times. Young people go to the provincial town, where they meet with Bazarov's "disciple", the offspring of the farmer, Sitnikov. Sitnikov takes them to visit the "emancipated" lady, Kukshina. Sitnikov and Kukshina belong to the category of "progressives" who reject any authority, chasing the fashion for "free thinking". They do not really know anything and do not know how, however, in their "nihilism" they leave both Arkady and Bazarov far behind. The latter frankly despises Sitnikova, while at Kukshina's he "makes more champagne." Arkady introduces a friend to Odintsova, a young, beautiful and rich widow, whom Bazarov is immediately interested in. This interest is by no means platonic. Bazarov cynically says to Arkady: "There is a life ..." It seems to Arkady that he is in love with Odintsova, but this feeling is feigned, while mutual attraction arises between Bazarov and Odintsova, and she invites young people to stay with her. In the house of Anna Sergeevna, the guests get acquainted with her younger sister Katya, who is constrained. And Bazarov does not feel at ease, he began to get irritated in a new place and "looked angrily." Arkady is also uncomfortable, and he seeks solace in Katya's company. The feeling inspired in Bazarov by Anna Sergeevna is new to him; he, who so despised all manifestations of "romanticism", suddenly discovers "romanticism in himself." Bazarov explains with Odintsova, and although she did not immediately free herself from his embrace, however, after thinking, she comes to the conclusion that "calm <...> is the best thing in the world." Not wanting to become a slave to his passion, Bazarov leaves for his father, a district doctor who lives nearby, and Odintsova does not hold back the guest. On the way, Bazarov sums up what happened and says: "... It is better to beat stones on the pavement than to let a woman take possession of at least the tip of her finger. This is all <...> nonsense." Bazarov's father and mother cannot breathe in their beloved "Enyusha", and he is bored in their company. After a couple of days, he leaves his parental home, returning to the Kirsanovs' estate. From the heat and boredom, Bazarov draws attention to Fenechka and, finding her alone, kisses the young woman tightly. An accidental witness to the kiss is Pavel Petrovich, who is outraged to the depths of his soul by the act of "this hairy one." He is especially indignant also because it seems to him that Fenechka has something in common with Princess R*. According to his moral convictions, Pavel Petrovich challenges Bazarov to a duel. Feeling embarrassed and realizing that he is sacrificing his principles, Bazarov agrees to shoot with Kirsanov Sr. ("From a theoretical point of view, a duel is absurd; well, from a practical point of view, this is a different matter"). Bazarov slightly wounds the enemy and gives him first aid himself. Pavel Petrovich behaves well, even makes fun of himself, but at the same time both he and Bazarov are embarrassed. Nikolai Petrovich, from whom the true reason for the duel was hidden, also behaves in the most noble manner, finding an excuse for the actions of both opponents. The consequence of the duel is that Pavel Petrovich, who had previously strongly objected to his brother's marriage to Fenechka, now himself persuades Nikolai Petrovich to take this step. And Arkady and Katya establish a harmonious understanding. The girl shrewdly remarks that Bazarov is a stranger to them, because "he is predatory, and we are tame." Having completely lost hope for reciprocity, Odintsova Bazarov breaks himself and breaks up with her and Arkady. In parting, he says to his former comrade: “You are a nice fellow, but you are still a soft, liberal gentleman ...” Arkady is upset, but pretty soon he is comforted by Katya’s company, declares his love to her and is sure that he is also loved. Bazarov, on the other hand, returns to his parental penates and tries to forget himself in work, but after a few days "the fever of work jumped off him and was replaced by dreary boredom and deaf anxiety." He tries to talk to the peasants, but finds nothing but stupidity in their heads. True, even the peasants see in Bazarov something "like a pea jester." Practicing on the corpse of a typhoid patient, Bazarov injures his finger and gets blood poisoning. A few days later, he notifies his father that, by all indications, his days are numbered. Before his death, Bazarov asks Odintsova to come and say goodbye to him. He reminds her of his love and admits that all his proud thoughts, like love, have gone to dust. "And now the whole task of the giant is how to die decently, although no one cares about this ... It's all the same: I won't wag my tail." He says bitterly that Russia does not need it. "Yes, and who is needed? A shoemaker is needed, a tailor is needed, a butcher ..." When Bazarov, at the insistence of his parents, is given communion, "something resembling a shudder of horror was instantly reflected on the dead face." Six months pass. Two couples are getting married in a small village church: Arkady with Katya and Nikolai Petrovich with Fenechka. Everyone was happy, but something in this contentment was also felt artificial, "as if everyone had agreed to play some kind of ingenuous comedy." Over time, Arkady becomes a father and a zealous owner, and as a result of his efforts, the estate begins to generate significant income. Nikolai Petrovich takes on the duties of a conciliator and works hard in the public arena. Pavel Petrovich lives in Dresden and, although he still looks like a gentleman, "it's hard for him to live." Kukshina lives in Heidelberg and hangs out with students, studying architecture, in which, according to her, she discovered new laws. Sitnikov married a princess who bossed him around, and, as he assures, he continues Bazarov's "case", working as a publicist in some dark magazine. Decrepit old men often come to Bazarov’s grave and weep bitterly and pray for the repose of the soul of their untimely deceased son. The flowers on the grave mound remind us of more than just the tranquility of "indifferent" nature; they also speak of eternal reconciliation and endless life... V. P. Meshcheryakov Smoke Roman (1867) Life in Baden-Baden, a fashionable German resort, on August 10, 1862 was not much different from life on other days of the season. The audience was cheerful and colorful. However, it was not difficult to single out our compatriots in it, especially near the "Russian tree". It was here, at Weber's coffee house, that Litvinov was discovered by his Moscow acquaintance Bambaev, who loudly called him "you". Voroshilov was with him, a young man with a serious face. Bambaev immediately offered to dine if Grigory Mikhailovich had the money to pay for it. After dinner, he dragged Litvinov to Gubarev's hotel ("it's him, the same one"). A tall, slender lady in a hat with a dark veil, coming down the hotel stairs, turned to look at Litvinov, flushed, followed her eyes, then turned pale. In addition to Gubarev, Sukhanchikova and a stout, middle-aged man who had been silent in the corner all evening were in the room. Conversations were interspersed with gossip, discussion and condemnation of acquaintances and comrades. Voroshilov, as during dinner, poured thick scientific information. Tit Bindasov came with a comrade, a terrorist by appearance, a quarterly by vocation, and the uproar with stupidity increased so that Litvinov had a headache by ten and he returned to Weber. After a while, the silent man who was sitting in the corner at Gubarev's turned out to be nearby. Introduced himself: Potugin Sozont Ivanovich, court adviser. And he asked how he liked the Babylonian pandemonium. Ten Russians will converge - the question of the meaning, of the future of Russia will instantly pop up, but everything is in the most general terms, without proof. The rotten West also gets it. He only beats us on all counts, albeit rotten. And note: we scold and despise, but only his opinion and value. The secret of Gubarev's undoubted influence is will, and we give in to it. We need a barin everywhere. People see: a person has a great opinion of himself, orders. Therefore, he is right and must be obeyed. Everyone is discouraged, they walk around hanging their noses, and at the same time they live in hope. Everything, they say, will certainly be. It will be, but there is nothing in cash. In ten centuries, nothing has been worked out, but ... it will be. Be patient. And everything will come from the man. So they stand in front of each other: the educated man bows to the peasant (heal the soul), and he bows to the educated man (teach: I’m disappearing from the darkness). And both of them from their places, And it's time to adopt a long time ago, what others have come up with better than us. Litvinov objected to this that one should not adopt without conforming to national characteristics. But Sozont Ivanovich is not easy to bring down: you only offer good food, and the people's stomach will digest it in its own way. Peter I flooded our speech with other people's words. At first it turned out monstrously, and then the concepts took root and assimilated, alien forms evaporated. The same will happen in other areas. Only weak nations can fear for their independence. Yes, Potugin is a Westerner and devoted to civilization. This word is both pure and understandable and holy, but nationality, glory - they smell of blood! He loves his homeland and ... hates it. However, she will soon go home: garden soil is good, but cloudberries do not grow on it. Parting, Litvinov asked Potugin for his address. It turned out that it was impossible to visit him: he was not alone. No, not with my wife. (Litvinov lowered his eyes in understanding.) No, that's not it: she's only six years old, she's an orphan, the daughter of a certain lady. In the hotel, Litvinov discovered a large bouquet of heliotropes. The servant said that a tall and beautifully dressed lady had brought them. "Is she?" This exclamation did not at all refer to his fiancee Tatyana, whom Litvinov was waiting for in Baden with her aunt. He realized that this was Irina, the eldest daughter of the impoverished princes Osinins. At the time of their acquaintance, she was a seventeen-year-old beauty with exquisitely regular features, marvelous eyes and thick blond hair. Litvinov fell in love with her, but for a long time could not overcome her hostility. Then one day everything changed, and they were already making plans for the future: to work, to read, but most importantly, to travel. alas, nothing was destined to come true. That winter the court visited Moscow. There was a ball in the Nobility Assembly. Osinin considered it necessary to take Irina out. She, however, objected. Litvinov spoke out in favor of his intention. She agreed, but forbade him to be at the ball and added: "I will go, but remember, you yourself wanted it." Arriving with a bouquet of heliotropes before her departure for the ball, he was struck by her beauty and majestic posture ("what does breed mean!"). Irina's triumph at the ball was complete and stunning. An important person drew attention to her. A relative of the Osinins, Count Reisenbach, an important dignitary and courtier, immediately decided to take advantage of this. He took her to Petersburg, settling her in his house, made her an heiress. Litvinov left the university, went to his father in the village, became addicted to farming and went abroad to study agronomy. Four years later we found him in Baden on his way to Russia. The next morning Litvinov came upon a picnic for the young generals. "Grigory Mikhailovich, don't you recognize me?" - came from a group of people having fun. He recognized Irina. Now she was a fully bloomed woman, reminiscent of Roman goddesses. But the eyes remained the same. She introduced him to her husband, General Valerian Vladimirovich Ratmirov. The interrupted conversation resumed: we, the big landowners, are ruined, humiliated, we must turn back; Do you think this will is sweet to the people? "And you try to take away this will from him..." - Litvinov could not stand it. However, the speaker continued: and self-government, who asks for it? it's better the old way. Entrust yourself to the aristocracy, do not let the mob be clever ... Litvinov's speeches seemed more and more wild, more and more strange people, And Irina fell into this world! In the evening he received a letter from the bride. Tatyana and her aunt are late and will arrive in six days. The next morning Potugin knocked on the door: he is from Irina Pavlovna, she would like to renew their acquaintance. Ms. Ratmirova greeted them with obvious pleasure. When Potugin left them, without preamble she offered to forget the harm done and become friends. There were tears in her eyes. He assured that he rejoices at her happiness. Thanks, she wanted to hear how he lived these years. Litvinov fulfilled her wish. The visit had already lasted more than two hours, when suddenly Valerian Vladimirovich returned. He showed no displeasure, but he failed to hide some concern. Saying goodbye, Irina reproached: and most importantly, you hid - they say you are getting married. Litvinov was dissatisfied with himself: he was waiting for a bride, and he should not have run at the first call of a woman whom he cannot but despise. She will no longer have his legs. Therefore, when he met her, he pretended not to notice her. However, two hours later, on the alley leading to the hotel, I saw Irina again. "Why are you avoiding me?" There was something mournful in her voice. Litvinov frankly said that their paths had diverged so far that it was impossible for them to understand each other. Her enviable position in the world ... No, Grigory Mikhailovich is mistaken. A few days ago, he himself saw examples of these dead dolls that make up her current society. She is to blame before him, but even more so before herself, she asks for alms ... Let's be friends, or at least good acquaintances. And she held out her hand: promise. Litvinov promised. On the way to the hotel he met Potugin, but to his questions about Madame Ratmirova he only answered that she was proud as a demon and spoiled to the marrow of her bones, but not without good qualities. When Litvinov returned to his room, the waiter brought a note. Irina said that she would have guests, and invited her to take a closer look at those among whom she now lives. The comical, vulgar, stupid and pompous Litvinov found at a party even more than the previous time. Only now, almost like at Gubarev's, an absurd uproar arose, was there perhaps beer and tobacco smoke. And… conspicuous ignorance. After the guests left, Ratmirov allowed himself to talk about Irinin's new acquaintance: his reticence, obvious republican predilections, etc., and about the fact that he, apparently, was very interested in her. The splendid contempt of the intelligent woman and the withering laughter were the answer. Resentment ingrained in the general's heart, his eyes wandered stupidly and brutally. This expression was similar to when, at the beginning of his career, he spotted rebellious Belarusian peasants (his rise began from this). In his room, Litvinov took out a portrait of Tatyana, looked for a long time at the face, which expressed kindness, meekness and intelligence, and finally whispered: "It's all over." Only now did he realize that he never stopped loving Irina. But, having suffered without sleep all night, he decided to say goodbye to her and leave to meet Tatyana: he must fulfill his duty, and then at least die. In a morning blouse with wide open sleeves, Irina was charming. Instead of saying goodbye, Litvinov spoke of his love and his decision to leave. She considered this reasonable, but she made him promise not to leave without saying goodbye to her. A few hours later he returned to fulfill his promise and found her in the same position and in the same place. When is he going? At seven today. She approves of his desire to end soon, because you can not hesitate. She loves him. With these words, she retired to her office. Litvinov was about to follow her, but then Ratmirov's voice was heard... In his room, he was left alone with unhappy thoughts. Suddenly, at a quarter past seven, the door opened. It was Irina. The evening train left without Litvinov, and in the morning he received a note: "... I do not want to hamper your freedom, but <...> if necessary, I will drop everything and follow you..." From that moment calmness and self-respect disappeared, and with the arrival of the bride and her aunt Kapitolina Markovna, the horror and ugliness of his position became even more unbearable for him. Meetings with Irina continued, and sensitive Tatyana could not help but notice the change in her fiancé. She took it upon herself to explain herself to him. She carried herself with dignity and true stoicism. A frank conversation also took place with Potugin, who tried to warn him. Sozont Ivanovich himself has long been destroyed, destroyed by love for Irina Pavlovna (this is also waiting for Litvinov). He almost did not know Belskaya, and the child was not his, he simply took everything upon himself, because Irina needed it. Scary, dark story. And one more thing: Tatyana Petrovna is a heart of gold, an angelic soul, and the fate of the one who will become her husband is enviable. With Irina, too, everything was not easy. She is not able to leave her circle, but she cannot live in it either and asks not to leave her. Well, love in three is unacceptable for Grigory Mikhailovich: all or nothing. And now he is already at the car, a minute - and everything will be left behind. "Gregory!" Irina's voice was heard behind her. Litvinov almost rushed to her. Already from the window of the car he pointed to a place next to him. As she hesitated, the whistle blew and the train started moving. Litvinov went to Russia. White puffs of steam and dark smoke rushed past the windows. He watched them, and everything seemed to him like smoke: both his own life and the life of Russia. Wherever the wind blows, there it will carry it. At home, he took up the household, managed to do something here, and paid off his father's debts. One day his uncle stopped by and told him about Tatyana. Litvinov wrote to her and received in response a friendly letter ending with an invitation. Two weeks later he was on his way. Seeing him, Tatyana gave him her hand, but he did not take it, but fell on his knees in front of her. She tried to pick him up. "Don't bother him, Tanya," said Kapitolina Markovna, who was standing right there, "brought the guilty head." G. G. Zhivotovsky Nov Roman (1876) Nejdanov gets a job as a home teacher with the Sipyagins at a time when he is in dire need of money, even more in a change of scenery. Now he can rest and gather strength, but the main thing is that he "fell out from under the tutelage of St. Petersburg friends." In Petersburg he lived in a dark little room with an iron bed, a bookcase full of books, and two unwashed windows. One day, a respectable, overly self-confident gentleman, Boris Andreevich Sipyagin, well-known to the bureaucratic Petersburg, appeared in this room. For the summer, he needed a teacher for his son, and the adjutant wing, Prince G. ("it seems that your relative") recommended Alexei Dmitrievich. At the word "relative" Nejdanov instantly blushes. Prince G. is one of his brothers, who do not recognize him as illegitimate, but pay him an annual "pension" at the behest of his late father. Aleksey suffers all his life from the ambiguity of his position. For this reason, he is so painfully proud, so nervous and internally contradictory. Isn't that the reason why you're so alone? Nezhdanov has plenty of reasons to be embarrassed. In the smoky closet of the "princely relative" Sipyagin found his "Petersburg friends": Ostrodumov, Mashurina and Paklin. Sloppy figures, overweight and clumsy; careless and old clothes; coarse features, Ostrodumov's face still pitted with smallpox; loud voices and large red hands. In their appearance, however, "there was something honest, and steadfast, and industrious," but this could no longer correct the impression. Paklin was an extremely small, unprepossessing man, who suffered greatly from this because of his passionate love for women. With a meager growth, he was still Strength (!) Sam-sonych (!!). However, the students liked him with his cheerful bile and cynical glibness (the Russian Mephistopheles, as Nezhdanov called him in response to the name Russian Hamlet Nezhdanov). Paklin was also offended by the undisguised distrust of the revolutionaries towards him. Now Nejdanov was resting from all this. He was not alien to the aesthetic, wrote poetry and carefully concealed it in order to "be like everyone else." The Sipiagins have a large stone house, with columns and a Greek pediment. Behind the house is a beautiful, well-kept old garden. The interior bears the imprint of the latest, delicate taste: Valentina Mikhailovna fully shares not only the convictions, but also the passions of her husband, a liberal figure and a humane landowner. She herself is tall and slender, her face is reminiscent of the Sistine Madonna. She was used to embarrassing peace of mind, and not at all in order to establish a special relationship with the object of her encouraging attention. Nejdanov did not escape him, but he quickly realized the absence, so to speak, of content in her subtle appeal and demonstration of the alleged lack of distance between them. The tendency to subjugate and rule her is especially evident in relations with Marianne, her husband's niece. Her father, a general, was convicted of embezzlement and sent to Siberia, then forgiven, returned, but died in extreme poverty. Soon her mother also died, and Marianna was taken in by her uncle Boris Andreevich. The girl lives in the position of a poor relative, gives French lessons to the Sipyagins' son and is very burdened by her dependence on the imperious "aunt". She also suffers from the consciousness that others know about the dishonor of her family. "Auntie" knows how to casually mention this in front of friends. In general, she considers her a nihilist and an atheist. Marianne is not a beauty, but she is attractive, and with her beautiful build she resembles an XNUMXth-century Florentine figurine. In addition, "something strong and bold, impetuous and passionate" blew from her whole being. Is it any wonder that Nejdanov sees in her a kindred spirit and turns his attention to her, which did not go unanswered. But Valentina Mikhailovna's brother Sergei Mikhailovich Markelov, an ugly, gloomy and bilious man, is passionately and hopelessly in love with Marianne. As a relative, he visits a house where the main principles are freedom of opinion and tolerance, and at the table converge, say, Nezhdanov and the extreme conservative Kallomiytsev, who does not hide his dislike for nihilists and reforms. Unexpectedly, it turns out that Markelov came to meet with Nezhdanov, to whom he brought a letter from "himself" Vasily Nikolaevich, recommending that both of them cooperate "in spreading known rules." But it's better to talk in the Markelov estate, otherwise the sisters and the walls have ears in the house. Sergei Mikhailovich Nezhdanov is in for a surprise. In the living room, by the light of a kerosene lamp, Ostrodumov and Mashurina are drinking beer and smoking. Until four in the morning there is talk about who could be relied on. Markelov believes that it is necessary to involve the "mechanic-manager" of the local paper-spinning factory, Solomin, and the schismatic merchant Golushkin. In his room, Nejdanov again feels a terrible spiritual fatigue. Again, much has been said that it is necessary to act, that it is time to start, but no one knows what. His "Petersburg friends" are limited, though honest and strong. However, in the morning he noticed on Markelov's face traces of the same spiritual fatigue of an unfortunate, unfortunate person. Meanwhile, after the refusal of Markelov, Marianna and Nezhdanov feel more and more mutual sympathy. Alexei Dmitrievich finds it even possible to tell the girl about Vasily Nikolaevich's letter. Valentina Mikhailovna understands that the young man has completely turned away from her and that Marianne is to blame: "We must take action." And young people are already switching to "you", an explanation soon follows. This did not remain a secret for Ms. Sipyagina. She overheard it at the door. Solomin, to whom Nejdanov and Markelov are sent, once worked for two years in England and knows modern production very well. The revolution in Russia is skeptical (the people are not ready). He started a school and a hospital at the factory. These are his specific cases. In general, there are two ways to wait: to wait and do nothing, and to wait and move things forward. He chose the second. On the way to Golushkin, they come across Paklin and invites them to the "oasis", to the old men - the spouses Fimushka and Fomushka, who continue to live, as if in the courtyard of the XNUMXth century. In what life they were born, grew up and married, they remained in that. "Stagnation water, but not rotten," he says. There is also a servant here, there is an old servant Kalliopych, who is sure that it is the Turks who have the will. There is also a dwarf Pufka, for fun. Lunch Galushkin asked "with force." In drunken courage, the merchant donates large sums to the cause: "Remember Kapiton!" On the way back, Markelov reproaches Nezhdanov for not believing in the cause and cooling off towards him. This is not without reason, but the subtext is different and dictated by jealousy. He knows everything: and with whom the handsome Nejdanov talked, and with whom, after ten in the evening, he was in the room. (Markelov received a note from his sister and really knew everything.) Only here there is no merit, but the well-known happiness of all illegitimate children, all of you ... kov! Nejdanov promises to send seconds upon his return. But Markelov has already come to his senses and begs for forgiveness: he is unhappy, even in his youth "one deceived". Here is a portrait of Marianne, once he painted himself, now he gives it to the winner. Nejdanov suddenly feels that he has no right to take him. Everything said and done felt like a lie. However, as soon as he sees the roof of the Sipyagin house, he tells himself that he loves Marianne. The meeting took place on the same day. Marianne is interested in everything: and when it will finally begin; and what kind of Solomin is he; and what is Vasily Nikolaevich. Nejdanov notes to himself that his answers are not quite what he really thinks. However, when Marianne says: you need to run, he exclaims that he will go with her to the ends of the world. The Sipyagins, meanwhile, are making an attempt to lure Solomin to their side. He accepted the invitation to visit them and inspect the factory, but refused to go. Factory business will never work for a nobleman, these are strangers. And there is no future for landlord landownership itself. The merchant will take over the land. Marianna, listening to the words of Solomin, is increasingly imbued with confidence in the solidity of a person who cannot lie or brag, who will not betray, but will understand and support. She catches herself comparing him with Nezhdanov, and not in favor of the latter. So the idea of leaving both of them from the Sipyagins Solomin immediately made a reality by offering asylum at his factory. And now the first step towards the people has been taken. They are at the factory in an inconspicuous outbuilding. Pavel, devoted to Solomin, and his wife Tatyana, who is perplexed, are sent to help: do young people live in different rooms, do they love each other? Gather together to talk, read. Including the poems of Alexei, which Marianna assesses quite severely. Nejdanov is offended: "You buried them - and by the way, me too!" The day has come to go to the people. Nezhdanov, in a caftan, boots, a cap with a broken visor. His trial exit does not last long: the men are deafly hostile or do not understand what it is about, although they are dissatisfied with life. In a letter to his friend Silin, Alexey says that the time to act is unlikely to come. He also doubts his right to finally attach Marianne's life to his own, to a half-dead creature. And how he "goes to the people" - it is impossible to imagine anything more stupid. Or take up an axe. Only a soldier instantly thumps you with a gun. it's better to kill yourself. The people are sleeping, and it is not at all what we think that will wake them up. Soon a message arrives: restless in the neighboring county - must be the work of Markelov. I need to go find out and help. Nejdanov departs, in his common attire. In his absence, Mashurina appears: is everything ready? Yes, she has another letter for Nezhdanov. But where is it? She turned away and slipped the paper into her mouth. No, she probably dropped it. Tell him to be careful. Finally, Pavel returns with Nezhdanov, from whom he reeks of fumes and who can barely stand on his feet. Once in a crowd of peasants, he started to orate with fervor, but some guy dragged him into a tavern: a dry spoon tears his mouth. Pavel barely rescued him and brought home already drunk. Unexpectedly, Paklin appeared with the news: Peasants seized Markelov, and Golushkin's clerk betrayed the owner, and he gives frank testimony. The police are about to raid the factory. He will go to Sipyagin - to ask for Markelov. (There is also a secret calculation that the dignitary will appreciate his service.) The next morning, the final explanation takes place. Nezhdanov is clear: Marianna needs another person, not like him, but like Solomin ... or Solomin himself. There are two people in him - and one does not allow the other to live. perishing better stop to live both. The last attempt at propaganda proved to Nezhdanov his failure. He no longer believes in the cause that connects him to Marianne. She believes and will devote her whole life to the cause. Politics had united them, but now the very foundation of their union collapsed. "But there is no love between them." Solomin, meanwhile, is in a hurry to leave: the police will soon appear. And everything is ready for the wedding, as agreed. When Marianna goes to pack things, Nejdanov, left alone, puts two sealed pieces of paper on the table, enters Marianna's room and, kissing her bed at the feet, goes to the factory yard. At an old apple tree, he stops and, looking around, shoots himself in the heart. While still alive, he is transferred to a room where, before his death, he tries to join the hands of Marianna and Solomin. One letter is addressed to Solomin and Marianna, where he entrusts the bride to Solomin, as if "connecting them with an afterlife hand", and sends greetings to Mashurina. The police who raided the factory found only the corpse of Nezhdanov. Solomin and Marianna left ahead of time and two days later they fulfilled the will of Nezhdanov - they got married. Markelov was tried, Ostrodumov was killed by a tradesman, whom he incited to an uprising. Mashurina disappeared. Golushkin was lightly punished for "sincere repentance". Solomin, for lack of evidence, was left alone. There was no talk of Marianne: Sipyagin did talk with the governor. Paklin, as having rendered a service to the investigation (completely involuntary: relying on Sipyagin's honor, he named where Nezhdanov and Marianna were hiding), they released him. In the winter of 1870, in St. Petersburg, he met Mashurina. In response to the appeal, she replied in Italian with a remarkably clear Russian accent that she was the Countess di Santo Fiume. Then, nevertheless, she went to Paklin, drank some tea with him and told how some one in uniform showed interest in her at the border, and she said in Russian: "Untie me." He lagged behind. "Russian Mephistopheles" tells the "contesse" about Solomin, who is the real future of Russia: "a man with an ideal - and without a phrase, educated - and from the people" ... Having gathered to leave, Mashurina asks for something in memory of Nezhdanov and, having received a photograph , leaves without answering the question of Sila Samsonovich, who is now in charge of it: is it all Vasily Nikolaevich, or Sidor Sidorych, or what nameless one? Already from behind the threshold she said: "Maybe the nameless one!" "Nameless Russia!" repeated Paklin, standing in front of the closed door. G. G. Zhivotovsky Clara Milic (after death) Tale (1883) Yakov Aratov lived on Shabolovka in a small wooden house with his aunt Platonida Ivanovna, Platosha, as his father called her. He was 25 years old, but he lived in seclusion, was engaged in photography, was friends only with Kupfer, a Russified German who was sincerely attached to Aratov. For this, Platosha forgave him some arrogance and noisy cheerfulness. Disposition Yakov went to his father. He also lived in solitude, studied chemistry, mineralogy, entomology, botany and medicine, was known as a warlock, considering himself the great-grandson of Bruce, after whom he named his son, and was prone to everything mysterious and mystical. Jacob inherited this trait of his, he believed in secrets that can sometimes be seen, but it is impossible to comprehend. At the same time, he believed in science. Even during the life of his father, he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, but dropped out. Nevertheless, Kupfer once dragged Aratov to a concert at the house of a familiar Georgian princess. But he did not stay long at that evening. Despite this, Kupfer next time lured him to the princess, praising the first-class talent of a certain Clara Milic, about whom they have not yet decided: she is Viardot or Rachel. "Does she have black eyes?" asked Aratov. "Yes, like coal!" It turned out that he had already seen this girl with the princess. She was about nineteen years old, she was tall, beautifully built, with a beautiful swarthy face, thoughtful and almost stern. They received her very well, clapping loudly and for a long time. During the singing, it seemed to Aratov that her black eyes were all the time turned on him. This continued later, when she read from Eugene Onegin. Her reading, at first a little hurried, with the words "My whole life has been a guarantee of a faithful meeting with you," became expressive and filled with feeling. Her eyes looked boldly and directly at Aratov. Shortly after the concert, the messenger brought Aratov a note with an invitation to come to Tverskoy Boulevard at about five. It is very important. At first he was determined not to go, but at half-past four he went to the boulevard. After sitting for some time on a bench with thoughts about a mysterious stranger, he suddenly felt someone come up and stand behind him. Clara Milic was embarrassed, apologizing for her boldness, but she had so much to say to him. Aratov suddenly felt annoyed: with himself, with her, with the absurd meeting, and with this explanation among the public. Irritation dictated a dry and strained rebuke: "gracious madam", "it even surprises me", "I can be useful", "ready to listen to you." Clara was frightened, embarrassed and saddened: "I was deceived in you ..." Her suddenly flushed face took on an angry and impudent expression: "How stupid our meeting is! How stupid I am! .. Yes, and you ..." She laughed and quickly disappeared. Two or three months have passed. And then one day he read in the "Moskovskie Vedomosti" a message about the suicide in Kazan of a gifted artist and favorite of the public, Clara Milic. The reason, according to rumors, was an unhappy love. Kupfer confirmed that this was true. But the newspaper is lying, there are no cupids: she was proud and impregnable Hard as a stone. I just couldn't bear the insult. He traveled to Kazan, met the family. Her real name is Katerina Milovidova, the daughter of an art teacher, a drunkard and a domestic tyrant. That same night, Aratov dreamed that he was walking across the bare steppe. Suddenly, a thin cloud appeared in front of him, which became a woman in white robes. Her eyes were closed, her face was white, and her hands hung motionless. Without bending at the back, she lay down on a stone like a grave, and Aratov, folding his arms over his chest, lay down next to her. But she got up and went, and he could not even move. She turned around, her eyes were alive, and her face also came to life. She beckoned him. It was Clara: "If you want to know who I am, go there!" In the morning he announced to Platosha that he was going to Kazan. There, from conversations with the widow Milovidova and Clara's sister Anna Aratov, he learned that Katya had been obstinate, self-willed and proud since childhood. She despised her father for drunkenness and mediocrity. She was all fire, passion and contradiction. She said: “I won’t meet the one I want ... but I don’t need others!” - "Well, if you meet?" - "I'll meet ... I'll take it." - "And if it doesn't work?" - "Well, then ... I'll kill myself. So I'm not good enough." Anna resolutely rejected even the thought of unhappy love as the cause of her sister's death. Here is her diary, is there a hint of unhappy love there? Alas, Aratov stumbled upon such a hint immediately. He begged Anna for a diary and a photograph, promising to return it, and went to Moscow. At home, in his office, he felt that he was now at the mercy of Clara. He took her photograph, enlarged it, attached it to the stereoscope: the figure received some semblance of physicality, but did not completely come to life, the eyes all looked to the side. She didn't seem to give in to him. He remembered what Anna had said about her: untouched. That's what gave her power over him, also intact. The thought of the immortality of the soul again visited him. "Death, where is your sting?" - said in the Bible. In the evening darkness, it now seemed to him that he heard Clara's voice, felt her presence. Once, from a stream of sounds, he managed to isolate the word "roses", another time - the word "I"; it seemed as if a soft whirlwind swept through the room, through him, through him. The stain of the door, whitening in the darkness, moved, and a white female figure appeared - Clara! She has a wreath of red roses on her head… He sat up. In front of him was his aunt in a cap and a white jacket. She became worried when she heard his screams in her sleep. Immediately after breakfast, Aratov went to Kupfer, who told him that Clara had drunk poison already in the theater, before the first act, and she played like never before. And as soon as the curtain fell, she immediately fell on the stage ... On the night after the visit to a friend, Aratov dreamed that he was the owner of a rich estate. He is accompanied by the manager, a small fidgety little man. Here they come to the lake. There is a golden boat near the shore: if you don’t want to ride, it will float itself. He steps into it and sees an ape-like creature there, holding a vial of dark liquid in its paw. "It's nothing!" the manager shouts from the shore. "It's death! Have a good trip!" Suddenly a black whirlwind interferes with everything, and Aratov sees how Klara, in a theatrical costume, raises a bottle to her lips to the cries of "bravo", and someone's rough voice says: "Ah! You thought this would all end in a comedy? No, this is a tragedy !" Aratov woke up. The night light is on. Clara's presence is felt in the room. He is back in her power. "Clara, are you there? - Yes! - is distributed in response. - If you are definitely here, if you understand how bitterly I regret that I did not understand, pushed you away, - appear! If you are now sure that I, who until now have not loved or known a single woman, fell in love with you after your death, then appear! Someone quickly approached him from behind and put a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw a woman dressed in black in his chair, with her head turned to the side, as if in a stereoscope. - ... Turn around to me, look at me, Clara! - The head quietly turned to him, the eyelids opened, the stern expression was replaced by a smile. - I'm forgiven! - with these words, Aratov kissed her on the lips. "Platosha, who ran to the cry, found him in a swoon. He was looking forward to the next night. She and Clara love each other. That kiss was still running cold through her body. Another time, he will possess her ... But they cannot live together. Well, you have to die to be with her. In the evening he developed a fever, and Platonida Ivanovna remained dozing in an armchair. In the middle of the night, a piercing scream woke her up. Yasha was lying on the floor again. He was lifted up and laid down. In his right hand was a strand of black female hair. He was delirious, talking about the perfect marriage he had concluded, that he now knows what pleasure is. Recovering for a second, he said: "Don't cry, aunt. Don't you know that love is stronger than death?" And a blissful smile shone on his face. G. G. Zhivotovsky Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov (Andrey Pechersky) (1818-1883) In forests Roman (1871-1875) Mid XNUMXth century. Free, rich in forests and artisans, the region is the Upper Trans-Volga region. They live here in labor and prosperity, professing the old faith. There are many peasants here who have become merchants, who are called thousanders. One of these wealthy thousand-strong Patap Maksimych Chapurin lives beyond the Volga in the village of Osipovka. Chapurin conducts his affairs according to his conscience, and for that he is honored and respected by all. The Chapurin family is small. Wife Aksinya Zakharovna and two daughters: the eldest, eighteen-year-old Nastya, her father's favorite, and Praskovya, a year younger. The daughters had just returned to their parental home from the Komarovo monastery, where the abbess was the mother of Manef, the sister of Patap Maksimych, Chapurin has another God-given daughter, the orphan Grunya he raised, but she is already married to a rich merchant and lives in another village. In the wintertime, sometimes Chapurin returns from a successful business trip, rejoices at meeting his family, endows them with gifts. Left alone with his wife after dinner, Patap Maksimych announces to her that dear guests will arrive the other day - the rich merchant Snezhkov with his son, for whom Chapurin reads to marry Nastya. For him, this marriage is honorable and profitable. Tryphon Shaggy has three sons and two girls. The most successful of the children is the eldest, handsome man and the first expert in turning, Alexei. Trifon kept the turnery, and everything would be fine, but misfortunes fell on the peasant - first a fire, and then unknown villains robbed him clean. Shaggy had to give two sons to people for work. Alexey got to Chapurin. Chapurin fell in love with the new worker for modesty, diligence and skill. He is going to make him a clerk, who will dispose of all the rest, but has not yet announced his intentions. On Aksinya Zakharovna's birthday, Mother Manef arrives, accompanied by two young novices. One of them, the lively Flenushka, tries out the secret of her girlfriend - Nastya confesses her love for Alexei. Discussing with the family how best to arrange everything for receiving guests, Patap Maksimych asks Nastya what she thinks about marriage, he already has a groom for her. Nastya at first tearfully asks her father not to pass her off as unloved, and when she is refused, she firmly declares that in this case she will accept monasticism. Lively and agile Flenushka brings Nastya with Alexei. At the very first meeting, Nastya "passionately looked into the eyes of her dear and threw herself on his chest ...". Agrafena Petrovna (Grunya) also comes to visit the named parents and congratulate Aksinya Zakharovna on the day of the angel. More and more new guests arrive, among them Yakim Prokhorych Stukolov, an old acquaintance of Chapurin; he traveled around the world for more than a quarter of a century. Together with Stukolov, a merchant from the city of Dyukov is also holding out. Stukolov tells the audience about his wanderings, hints that he is the messenger of the Belokrinitsky Old Believer bishop, but here he is busy with non-church affairs. He has information about deposits in the Volga forests of "ground oil" (gold) and is looking for partners to extract it. Alexey hears this conversation, and his eyes light up at the thought of a possible soon enrichment. The ensuing conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the father and son of the Snezhkovs. The elder Snezhkov behaves confidently - he is the richest and most noble of all here - he boasts of the free morals of the Moscow merchants. This story plunges Chapurin and his guests into confusion. Nastya immediately guesses about her father's intentions and whispers to Flenushka: "There will be no matchmaking." Almost until midnight, the guests feasted, finally dispersed to their rooms, but not everyone fell asleep. Manef's mother is also awake, shocked by the meeting with a man whom she had long considered dead. She had a sin in her youth, she gave birth to a daughter from Stukolov. Skitnitsy hid the child, and in return they took from the sinner a promise "to accept the angelic image of monasticism." And although her father eventually agreed to her marriage with Stukolov, the girl did not dare to break the oath given to the Lord. Over the years, she became famous for her piety and ability to manage all church affairs. The girl, who was brought up in the village, mother Manef took as her novices, and no one knew that Flenushka was her own daughter. Having refused Snezhkov, who was not a little offended by such an unexpected turn of affairs, Patap Maksimych returns to the conversation with Stukolov about gold. The Stranger explains: although the local Vetluzh mines are even richer than the Siberian ones, it will take at least fifty thousand to extract gold. But then they will turn into five, if not ten million. Chapurin is cautious, he is not satisfied that half of the profits will be given to Bishop Sofroniy, who owns a map of placers. In the end, they still agree, deciding to keep the whole enterprise a secret. Chapurin decides to go to Vetluga himself, to figure out what's what on the spot. And proud dreams of future wealth take possession of Patap Maksimych, he also thinks about his daughter, wonders who could become her worthy husband. “And Alexey came to his mind. If Nastya knew and knew what flashed through her parent’s head, she wouldn’t cry at night ...” Chapurin left on two sledges together with Stukolov and Dyukov. On the eve of the lion's day, February 18, they went astray. Then they were lucky - they came across an artel of lumberjacks who led them to the right direction. While we were driving, Chapurin asked the guides about these places, whether gold was found somewhere. The forester replied that he had heard of gold on the Vetluga, but he did not know where exactly it lay. Pretending to be asleep, Stukolov listens to the conversation, this rumor plays into his hands. Chapurin decides to make inquiries with his good friend, the mining official Kolyshkin. Stukolov, on the other hand, proposes first to visit Father Mikhail, hegumen of the Krasnoyarsk skete, who is also involved in the search for gold, while he himself secretly notifies the hegumen of his arrival. They were greeted in the skete with such honor and cordiality that Patap Maksimych was immediately imbued with affection for the hefty, as if hewn from a seasoned oak, father Mikhail. Cautious Chapurin, for fidelity, is still going to visit Kolyshkin. Stukolov and Dyukov are forced to replace the fake golden sand given to him with the real one, so that the specialist does not convict them of a scam. The wanderer also inquires about the sale of the production of counterfeit banknotes established in the skete, and Father Mikhail complains that the business is dangerous and not so profitable. A retired mining official, Sergei Andreevich Kolyshkin, immediately explains to Chapurin that the venerable merchant is being drawn into a scam. He also reports on their mutual friend, who, seduced by a fabulous profit, got in touch with the sale of fakes and is now in prison, and the money is rumored to have come from the Krasnoyarsk Skete. Meeting again with Stukolov and Dyukov, Chapurin does not pretend that he saw through their plan, and gives them three thousand in order to later catch the swindlers red-handed. In the Komarovo monastery, mother Manef delves into all household details, is interested in every inhabitant of the skete. She pays special attention to Marya Gavrilovna Maslynikova, a rich and still young widow who lives here of her own free will. She endured a lot of grief in the presence of her old husband, and now she has found in Komarov a quiet haven of heart. During her stay in the skete, Marya Gavrilovna became very attached to Nastya, she favored her daughter and father. Patap Maksimych once borrowed twenty thousand from Marya Gavrilovna, but failed to return it on time, so she agreed to wait as long as he needed. A few days later, a trusted person of Chapurin arrives at the skete and contritely shares his guesses with the nuns: Stukolov and Dyukov, he believes, are inciting Chapurin to make counterfeit money. Hearing this, Manefa faints. For a long time, until Easter, she lay in bed. Flenushka persuades Marya Gavrilovna to ask Chapurin to let his daughters stay at the skete. Marya Gavrilovna, who herself missed Nastya, willingly writes a letter to Patap Maksimych. And in the Chapurins' house, it's sad. The hostess can't. Her unlucky brother took to drink again in the absence of the owner. Out of boredom, Parasha sleeps in deep sleep. Nastya yearns for Alexei. Alexei has his own thoughts. And he wants to marry Nastya, and he is afraid of Chapurin, and gold clouds his head. And already a black shadow ran between him and Nastya, she sensed something and threatens her lover: “If you start another one, you won’t live for a lover ... Yes, and you won’t be selfish ...” Finally, on the sixth week of Great Lent, Chapurin returned home. Upon learning of Manefa's illness, he gives permission for his daughters to visit the abbess. Patap Maksimych sends Alexei to the Krasnoyarsk Skete to warn Father Mikhail about Stukol's dark plans. At the same time, Chapurin hints to Alexei that he has high hopes for him. Before leaving for Komarov, Nastya, unable to endure mental anguish, confesses to her mother: “I lost myself! .. There is no honor for a girl! And Vasily Borisych, a Moscow clerk, arrives in Komarov, an unctuous walker in the women's section. From him, Manefa accidentally learns that the righteous Stukolov, in addition to everything, is very mercenary. Arriving at Manefa with a letter from his brother, Alexei sees Marya Gavrilovna, and mutual attraction flares up between them. For the young widow, it was as if her first love had been resurrected, and with Alexei, self-interest was also mixed in with love novelty - Marya Gavrilovna had no money. Flenushka notices that something is wrong with the guy, but thinks that Nastya's pride saddens him. Yes, and not up to others now Flenushka. Manefa invites her to think seriously about the future. When Manefa is gone, the nuns will eat her favorite. Wouldn't it be better to accept monasticism now? Then Manefa would have made Flenushka her successor. While the flenushka flatly refuses. Nastya, who has been lying unconscious since the day she confessed to her mother, finally comes to her senses and asks for forgiveness from her parents. The girl knows that she does not have long to live, and asks her father to forgive her "destroyer". Touched to the depths of his soul, Patap Maksimych promises not to harm Alexei. Thus, having repented, the servant of God Anastasia reposed. Alexey returned from the trip at the very moment when the funeral procession with the coffin of Nastya left the outskirts of the village. Patap Maksimych takes a vow of silence from Alexei. Alexei reports that on the road he ran into Stukolov, Dyukov and Father Mikhail - they were driven into prison in shackles. Marya Gavrilovna, as if blossoming after meeting with Alexei, announces to Manefe that she decided to leave the monastery for the city. In the spring, parties begin for young people in the Trans-Volga region. In sketes there is no place for festivities. Here, at this time, prayers and services are performed even more diligently. And a new misfortune falls on Manefa, worse than the previous ones. From St. Petersburg, in a secret letter, they report that a persecution of the sketes is coming: the icons are sealed and taken away, and the monastics are sent to their place of birth. The abbess decides to keep this information secret for the time being in order to buy cheaper houses for the wanderers in the city, informing only the narrowest circle of trusted mothers about upcoming events. Flenushka undertakes to organize the congress in Komarov. Before parting with Alexei, Chapurin informed him that Marya Gavrilovna was looking for a clerk, and he, Chapurin, recommended Alexei to her. Alexei is heading to the provincial town and toiling there from idleness and the uncertainty of his position, but there is still no news from Marya Gavrilovna. On the fortieth day of Nastya's death, many guests come to Patap Maksimych for a wake. Among them is the ubiquitous Vasily Borisych, who manages to sing stichera and see the blooming splendor of Parasha Chapurina. Chapurin confuses the Moscow clerk with his frivolous speeches about skete customs. Vasily Borisych impressed those present, and Chapurin especially, with his outlook and fresh outlook on things. In the Trans-Volga region, he says, various crafts should be started, and whoever is the first here will receive innumerable profits. And Chapurin begins to lure the smart man into his trading activities, offering to help at first with both advice and money. No matter how Vasily Borisych refuses, Chapurin stands his ground. Finally, the stubborn merchant almost gets his way. Vasily Borisych promises him, having fulfilled all the instructions given to him in Moscow in six weeks, to go to Chapurin as clerk. "And he's on his mind:" If only I could get out in a good way. Marya Gavrilovna has become gloomy and silent, she sleeps badly, the candle melts evenly in the fire. And then there is another concern: she received a letter from her brother - he bought a steamer on her behalf and asks who to give it to. And from Alexei not a word or a spirit ... Finally showed up. Without words they understood each other and parted only at dawn. Marya Gavrilovna leaves the skete without the slightest regret. And Alexey skillfully plays on the feelings of Marya Gavrilovna. She has already registered the ship in his name, although they are not yet married. Marya Gavrilovna herself decides only one thing: they will get married in the same faith church (it is a sin, but everything is stronger than the Old Believer). Alexei doesn't care. The main thing for him is to show off in public. He has now dressed himself as a dandy, picked up all sorts of "tricky words", and his arrogance is increasing every day. The entertainer Flenushka, who is bored with the unctuousness of Vasily Borisych, brings him together with Parasha Chapurina. The new love seems sweet to the reader, but he is afraid of Chapurin’s wrath, and Parasha herself won’t say a word (and hugging and kissing a lot) ... He is glad that he went with the skete nuns on a pilgrimage to the wonderful city of Kitezh. In a motley crowd of pilgrims, Vasily Borisych encounters the venerable merchant Mark Danilych Smolokurov and his beautiful daughter Dunya. The nuns invite Smolokurov, who is generous with donations, to stay with Dunya in Komarov. Vasily Borisych joins them, already envious of Dunin's beauty. And one more guest appears in Komarov - a young merchant Peter Stepanovich Samokvasov. He seems to have come on business, but most of all he can't wait to see Flenushka, who has been leading him on a rope for three years now. And she sets a condition for Pyotr Stepanych: before getting married, let him first help Vasily Borisych and Parasha to wrap. Samokvasov agrees to anything, just to flatter his beloved. The time has come for the congress of mothers from all the sketes. The whole day there were disputes and debates at this council. "It ended in nothing, nothing was decided on a single article." The hopes that were pinned on the Moscow vitija Vasily Borisych went to dust. Not ecclesiastical, but worldly, his thoughts are occupied. Just at the height of the cathedral, a messenger galloped up with the news that in the coming days the ruin of the sketes would begin. Mothers began to disperse to their sketes in order to hide icons, books and what is more valuable from the skete property from "servants of Satan". Vasily Borisych accepts the proposal of Chapurin, who, more than ever, wants to involve him in his affairs. The women and girls who have been staying in Komarov gather in their company and jokingly begin to interrogate the unmarried how they are going to live with their husband. Flenushka, having dispersed, says that she would definitely become her husband, but this is unrealizable, she will not upset her mother, she will not leave the skete. One Dunya Smolokurova declared that she would marry only for love and would share both joy and sorrow with her husband to the very end, and the rest of the Lord would teach her ... Dunya's speeches are heard by Pyotr Stepanych Samokvasov, who is under the window of the room. Flenushka, fulfilling the promise she made to Manefa, breaks with Samokvasov, but still demands that he fulfill the promise - he helped Vasily Borisych and Parasha "wrap around with his departure". The young merchant was not used to going back on his word. He negotiates with the priest and the coachmen - everything is ready for the wedding. Chapurin, who came to the provincial town on business and visited Kolyshkin, was surprised to learn that his former clerk had married Marya Gavrilovna, became the owner of the house and the steamboat, and enrolled in the first guild. He does not like all this, but there is nothing to do, he must go to Marya Gavrilovna, ask for a respite from the debt. Marya Gavrilovna greeted the guest courteously and affably, but said that now her husband was in charge of all her affairs, and Alexei, who appeared soon, flatly refused to postpone the debt. Chapurin is rescued by the same Kolyshkin, who somewhere obtained the necessary twenty thousand. Having received the money, Alexey examines every piece of paper and declares that he will not collect interest on the bill for good measure. Barely restrained Chapurin. Pyotr Stepanych fulfilled his promise: Vasily Borisych and Parasha were spun around like; can't be better. Patap Maksimych forgave the young people and ordered the wedding tables to be prepared. "The old thousandaire roamed in full breadth and sinned in his old age - he went to dance for joy." V. P. Meshcheryakov On the mountains Roman (1875-1881) From the mouth of the Oka to Saratov and further down, the right side of the Volga is called "Mountains". Here they are engaged in arable farming and seasonal work. Marko Danilych Smolokurov in his youth was going to get married on the same day with his older brother, but before that Mokey went to Astrakhan on urgent business. It was in the spring, and he was carried away with other fishermen (they beat the seal) on an ice floe into the open sea. Since then, there has been no word of him. After waiting for the due date, Marko Danilych celebrated a panikhida for his brother and married Olena Petrovna, and her friend, Darya Sergeevna, the bride of the deceased, without seeing the marriage crown, became a widow. For only four years, Smolokurov lived with his beloved wife, they had a daughter, Dunyushka, and during the second birth, both Olena Petrovna and the child died. Before her death, she asked Darya Sergeevna to become Mark Danilych's wife, and Duna's mother. That girl agreed to raise, but refused to marry. Deprived of family happiness, Marko Danilych completely devoted himself to trading affairs and achieved great success: ten years later he already had more than a million. However, he changed a lot at the same time - he became domineering, stingy, inaccessible to all subordinates. The only one who was not afraid of him and loved him was the growing beauty Dunya. Smolokurov didn’t refuse her anything, and the girl, out of the kindness of her soul, brought good to people. And Darya Sergeevna replaced Duna's own mother and never used anything for herself, although gossip was woven about her with evil tongues. The time has come to give Dunya to "real learning." They decided to send her, as is usual in good houses, to the skete, to the Manefina monastery, and Darya Sergeevna volunteered to live with her, so that in time, when the girl learns, she can accept monasticism. After seven years, Dunya returns to his parental home. Dunya did not have company, and she became addicted to reading "divine" books. The father begins to think about suitors for his beloved daughter, but in his city he does not see a match for Dunya and decides to go with her to Makarya to the fair. There, the young merchant Pyotr Stepanych Samokvasov met them, and from the very first words, mutual sympathy was established between him and Dunya. Samokvasov proposes to arrange, together with a common acquaintance Doronin, who came to the fair with his wife and two daughters, a pleasure ride along the Volga. Doronin casually inquires from Smolokurov what are the current prices for seal fat (he himself does not trade in this product, but asks for an acquaintance, a young Saratov merchant Nikita Fedorovich Merkulov, who has not yet arrived at the fair). Marko Danilych complains that today you can’t get a profit for a seal. Doronin sincerely laments this. In the tavern, where all small and large deals are processed, Smolokurov meets with Oroshin, the first fisherman in the fish department, and other prominent fishermen. Marko Danilych complains here too that he doesn't know what to do with seal fat, it's a waste of money. Oroshin offers to buy everything from him and gradually increases the price. Smolokurov does not understand the meaning of his proposal, but then the young merchant Mitenka Vedeneev intervenes in the conversation, having just received news from St. Petersburg that a large cargo of American cotton is waiting there, therefore, seal oil, used in dyeing fabrics, will be in demand. Enraged that his cunning came out, Oroshin, slamming the door, leaves the honest company. Now Smolokurov goes to Doronin early in the morning and gradually begins to ask: is he going to sell the seal, having a power of attorney for sale from Merkulov? Although Smolokurov guesses that his old friend reads to marry Merkulov's daughter, this does not stop him. “I’ll work it cleaner than Oroshin wanted me <...> Friends, we are friends with Zinovy Alekseich, so what’s the point? .. Matchmaker, brother brother, and money is not relatives ... " And early guests come to Smolokurov himself - Vedeneev and Samokvasov. Over tea, Samokvasov recalls the grief that befell his mother Manefa, from whose monastery Parasha Chapurina was married to Vasily Borisych, and even in the Great Russian Church, he also recalls the planned walk along the Volga and undertakes to prepare everything "in due order". In the afternoon, Smolokurov with Dunya, the Doronin family and Samokvasov with Vedeneev got out on free water in a richly decorated boat. Samokvasov, who has assumed the role of "captain", treats all the participants of the picnic with "Volga kvass", a drink of frozen champagne with the juice of peaches, apricots and pineapples. Dunya, accepting a glass from Pyotr Stepanych, lit up with fire from excitement. And Samokvasov himself feels that his heart is trembling, but nevertheless he notices that sympathy also arises between Vedeneev and Doronin's daughter Natasha. Smolokurov again starts talking about the sale of the seal, but Doronin agrees to finalize the deal only after receiving consent from Merkulov, and this will take two weeks. Smolokurov sees that his enterprise, perhaps, can fail, but it is beyond his power to change anything. Some time later, mother Taif from the Komarovskaya monastery comes to Smolokurov with news of the impending ruin of the sketes. At the same time, she also tells about the “shame” that Parasha’s marriage to Vasily Borisych brought to the monastery. Samokvasov, who looked at Smolokurov at that hour, at the sight of the nuns, is worried: did they find out in Komarov about his participation in this wedding? But the mothers of Komarovo, thank God, have no idea. And on the female part of the Smolokurovs, their guests - Agrafena Petrovna with the children came to see Dunya. The girl with tears confesses to her older friend that love has awakened in her heart, Pyotr Stepanych is dear to her. And Mark Danilych has one concern, how to circle Doronin around his finger. Merkulov, not suspecting anything, is sailing on a steamer to Makaryu, can’t wait to meet his bride and watches the passengers from nothing to do. A middle-aged woman, dressed in a neat black dress, draws his attention, according to all signs, "not an ordinary one." He found out that this was the landowner Marya Ivanovna Alymova. They say about her that she is from the "farmazons". "And what their faith is, no one knows for sure, because they have everything in secrecy ..." In the city Merkulova meets Vedeneev, finally pleasing the owner of the seal with a good price. He also talks about the failed Smolokurov trick, and both young entrepreneurs decide never to do business like that themselves. At the same time, Vedeneev asks Merkulov to help him woo Natasha. Samokvasov arrives in Komarov and asks the wanderers he knows about Flenushka, who at the same time is having a difficult conversation with Manefa. Manefa admits that Flenushka is her daughter. Abbess Flenushka responds to frankness in the same way, speaks of her love for Samokvasov and, confident that she has parted with him forever, makes the final decision to become a nun. The last meeting of Flenushka with Pyotr Stepanych is not joyful, she rejects his love, although she is executed silently, advises to marry Dunya Smolokurova and ... right there, in the forest, she gives herself to her lover. They part, according to Flenushka, for three days - for this period she appoints their wedding departure. When Pyotr Stepanych, exhausted from waiting, appears in the cell at the appointed hour, he is met by the majestic, strict mother Filagria (this name was taken by Flenushka during tonsure) in a black crown and in a mantle. Out of desperation, Pyotr Stepanych sets off into revelry, as if he is rushing into a pool. The news of Samokvasov's connection with Flenushka also reached Dunya. She no longer had any interest in dating or entertainment; Dunya answered all her father's questions with quiet tears. The case brings the Smolokurov family together with the same Marya Ivanovna, who met Merkulov on the steamer. Mark Danilych is flattered by the attention of a noble person, and Dunya also liked her. Gradually, Marya Ivanovna begins to open the veil to the girl over the mystical secrets of the "true" faith. From the words of his new mentor, Dunya one day comes into a frenzy of delight and almost loses consciousness. Marya Ivanovna is only pleased. In the village of Fatyanka, owned by Alymova, there are some strange gatherings. Men and women in long white shirts jump and whirl, they sing songs like worldly ones. Marya Ivanovna has a special house here. It's like a fortress, not everyone can get into it. Having lived in Fatyanka for a short time, Marya Ivanovna sets off for Ryazan, to visit her relatives, the cousins of the Lupovitskys, and on the way she drops in on the Smolokurovs. Dunya is overjoyed at her visit. She asks Marya Ivanovna to explain incomprehensible places in mystical old books that her father happened to bargain with adherents of the Khlysts, Alymova says about those books: "God Himself sent them to you ... I see the finger of God ..." At this very time, Marco Danilych receives a letter from his trusted clerk, from which it is clear that Merkulov and Vedeneev, as soon as they became related to Doronin, united all three capitals and organized a partnership on shares. Soon they will be able to get their hands on all the fishing business on the Volga, and they have already driven Oroshin into a corner, he is tearing and thrashing, but he is not able to crush them. Is it just for good? Merkulov and Vedeneev organize everything in a new way, it will be more difficult to deal with them than with Oroshin. As soon as Smolokurov had finished reading the letter, the clerk himself complained and demanded a conversation alone with the owner. Another man arrived with the clerk and said that his brother, Mokey Danilych, who had long been remembered for the dead, had turned up. The old fisherman was delighted, and then a gloomy thought came: "Half of the wealth will have to be given away! .. Dunyushka will be destitute! .." It turned out that Mokey did not die on the ice floe, but escaped and, after many adventures, ended up in full custody of the Khiva Khan. The khan is now tight with money, so for a thousand rubles a prisoner can be redeemed. Marko Danilych decided not to tell anyone about anything for the time being. Darya Sergeevna is also worried - not about herself, about Dunya. She has changed, Darya Sergeyevna reports to her father; But Marko Danilych waved his hand at the warnings and even let Dunya go with Marya Ivanovna, who was going to visit her relatives near Ryazan. In the wilderness of the steppe, on the upper reaches of the quiet Don, the Lupovitsky estate is located. The inhabitants of the estate profess the Khlyst faith and have drawn their household into it. Otherwise, secrecy cannot be kept, and secrecy is necessary: this ungodly faith is being persecuted by the government. The Lupovitskys took care of Dunya. Marya Ivanovna's poor niece Varenka, a smart and quick-witted girl, was especially friendly to her. Varenka gradually "enlightens" Dunya, informs her that Marya Ivanovna is "enlightened", the Spirit of God lives in her and it is given to her to broadcast "verbs of the stomach". Dunya is looking forward to the hour when she herself will join the mysteries of the "God's people". Varenka also reveals to Dunya that the "feeder" of the Lupovitsky ship is Marya Ivanovna's cousin Nikolai Alexandrovich, who has long been guided in everything not by his own, but by the holy will of the Spirit. Dunya gradually enters into all the subtleties of the Khlyst rites, and they imperceptibly lure her fragile mind and heart. On the night from Saturday to Sunday, a "ship" (Khlist meeting) is appointed. The frantic zeal of the "God's people" makes a strong impression on Dunya, she herself falls into ecstasy. But when the girl comes to her senses and begins to think about what she has seen, her soul is confused. However, a week later Dunya decides to accept initiation into the "God's people". Again doubts began to take hold of her. However, the ceremony of "baptism with the Holy Spirit" went well, Dunya even danced in the women's circle. The next day, Dunya receives a letter from his father. Marko Danilych informed him that on business he would not be able to return home earlier than a month. Among the news, the letter mentioned Parasha Chapurina, who was expecting a child, and her faithful, on whom the father-in-law placed so many hopes and turned out to be unsuitable for anything. And his father mentioned Samokvasov, whose affairs are not going well so far. The Lupovitskys also received a letter with the same mail - from Yegor Sergeevich Denisov. He notified that he intended to visit the Lupovitskys in the near future, who were his distant relatives. Denisov enjoyed the greatest honor among the whips, despite his youth. Not by zeal, not by prophecies, he achieved glory and power, but by the ability to convince and by his knowledge. This time the Lupovitskys are looking forward to Denisov's arrival with particular impatience, since he promised to explain to everyone a new secret, unknown even to the most enlightened members of the "ship" - the secret of "spiritual matrimony". All the fishermen are amazed and annoyed at the new order in trade that Merkulov and Vedeneev have brought. Their prices are the cheapest, but only a third of what is bought is released on credit, the rest must be immediately laid out in cash. And then Smolokurov decides to personally purchase everything from Vedeneev and Merkulov. Yes, that's the trouble, there is not enough money. He borrowed from almost every fishmonger, but all twenty thousand are missing. Somehow he scraped together this sum from the usurers. Marko Danilych achieved his goal, and most of all he was pleased that Oroshin was again bypassed. Smolokurov also agreed with Bai Subkhankulov to ransom his brother. In a word, he did everything well. But at home, alarming news awaits him: Dunya has not yet returned. Marco Danilia agrees with Darya Sergeevna that she will immediately go with people to Fatyanka. On the way, Darya Sergeevna learns that Fatyanka is a deaf, vague place, farmazons live in it, and it is best not to have anything to do with them. In Fatyanka itself, Darya Sergeevna did not find anyone and returned empty-handed. These news gave Marko Danilych a stroke. And immediately, without the master's eye in a well-established economy, everything went at random. On the same day that trouble happened to Smolokurov, Chapurin was feasted on the occasion of the birth of his first grandson. Now Patap Maksimych pins all his hopes on him, he finally lost faith in his son-in-law. Kolyshkin told about Alyoshka Shaggy. This bastard now has five steamships and a lard factory, he trades in the first guild. And Marya Gavrilovna turned out to be completely dependent on her husband; moreover, she ended up as a maid to her husband's mistress, who herself had previously been her maid. Then a messenger from Darya Sergeevna appeared with a letter. She asks Agrafena Petrovna to go for Dunya to Lupovitsy and help put things in order in the house, since the owner was paralyzed. Chapurin decides that he needs to help his oldest friend "in a human way" and orders Agrafena Petrovna to get ready for the road. Marko Danilych was touched by Chapurin's arrival, although he could not utter a word. He points with his eyes at the chest in which he has money and securities hidden, but Chapurin refuses to open it until Dunya arrives, so that no one could have any doubts. Patap Maksimych quickly puts things in order both in the house and in the fields, he counts on all the workers in good conscience. Agrafena Petrovna arrives in Lupovitsy and learns from Father Prokhor that Dunya is not in the village, she ... has disappeared without a trace. And that's what happened to Dunya Smolokurova. Having seen enough of the frantic zeal, she began to think more than ever, to realize that this faith was wrong. Lupovitsky, on the other hand, does not want to let go of Dunya, and not so much of herself, but of the capital, which sooner or later will pass to her. Marya Ivanovna somehow manages to persuade the girl to wait for the arrival of Yegor Denisov, who will be able to eliminate all Dunya's doubts. Curiosity overcame Dunya, and she decided to visit the "ship" for the last time, but on the condition that she would not participate in the festivities. On the Dormition near the Lupovitskys, "dozhinki" were celebrated for the peasants. Father Prokhor was also invited to the feast, with whom the gentlemen, so that the suspicion of heresy would not fall on them, outwardly maintained good relations. The priest seized a moment and warned Dunya about being carried away by mysticism, adding that most of all here a young inexperienced girl should be afraid of Denisov, who had ruined more than one girl's soul. Dunya believed the "Nikonian" priest and agreed with him that in case of danger she would turn to him for help. Finally, the long-awaited Denisov appears. Everyone vied with each other to look after him, catch his every word. Only Dunya meets with him reluctantly, does not bow, like others, to the "great teacher." Denisov seeks to slowly tame Dunya, pursuing a selfish goal ("It's a joke to say - a million! We mustn't miss it, it must be left with us willy-nilly or not"). On the next "ship" Denisov promises to reveal to Dunya the innermost secret of "spiritual matrimony". It all turned out that Denisov was trying to rape Dunya, but she managed to break free and run away, hiding with her father Prokhor. The priest understands that they will be looking for the girl, instructs reliable people to deliver Dunya to her parental shelter and returns home just in time for the arrival of Agrafena Petrovna. Having made sure that she is a close person for Dunya, the priest explains to Agrafena Petrovna that her pupil is in the provincial town with his friends. Duni's meeting with his father was difficult. Patap Maksimych does not conceal from her that Smolokurov's days are running out, and announces the urgent need to dispose of all the articles of the large Smolokurovsky economy to the heiress herself. Dunya relies on Chapurin for everything. Agrafena Petrovna, in her own way, in a feminine way, undertakes to alleviate Dunin's fate. She reminds the girl of Samokvasov, says that he curses his behavior and cries, remembering Dunya. And Dunya remembers him with tenderness. The next day Marko Danilych passed away. Chapurin finds an honest clerk for the heiress and, in front of witnesses, opens the chest with the papers of the deceased. There, in addition to cash, bills and various bonds, there is also a receipt issued by Subkhankulov stating that he undertakes to return Mokei Danilych from the Khiva full. Darya Sergeevna, seeing this document, fainted. Agrafena Petrovna arranges for Dunya a meeting with Samokvasov, and soon the young people get engaged, and then get married in a church way and joyfully enter a new phase of life. She is not overshadowed by a letter from Father Prokhor, who reported that the Lupovitskys were almost all arrested, and Marya Ivanovna was imprisoned in some distant monastery. At Patap Maksimych, the circumstances at home are not so favorable. Praskovya Patapovna, having caught a cold after the bath, took to her bed and did not get up. The widowed Vasily Borisych Chapurin lets go, making sure that he only grinds with his tongue, but he has no diligence for any business. Chapurin is left alone in his old age. And his sister, mother Manetha, became very decrepit and put mother Philagria in her place as abbess. It was impossible to recognize the former prankster Flenushka in the imperturbable majestic nun. Soon Mokey Danilych also returned from the Asian regions, and Dunya, without a dispute, allocated his capital to him. Darya Sergeevna was glad to see her former dear friend, but she refused to marry him, declaring that she intended to pass her life in some distant skete. One day, chance brings Chapurin on the ship with his former clerk Alexei Shaggy, and he hears Alexei telling fellow travelers about Nastya, boasting of his victory. After waiting for Shaggy to be left alone, Chapurin appears before him and asks menacingly: "And who promised not to mention this matter to anyone?" Alexei backs away from him in fear, and both fall into the water. Patap Maksimych was dragged out, and Aleksey, whose last thought was "your death from this man," went to the bottom. And the sketes that stood in the Kerzhensky forests for about two hundred years were soon finally closed. Kerzhenets and Chernora-Menier were deserted... The cell attendants secretly continued their activities in the city. V. P. Meshcheryakov Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Poor people Roman (1845) Makar Alekseevich Devushkin is a titular adviser for forty-seven years old, copying papers for a small salary in one of the St. Petersburg departments. He had just moved to a new apartment in a "capital" building near the Fontanka. Along the long corridor are the doors of the rooms for the tenants; the hero himself huddles behind a partition in the common kitchen. His former housing was "unlikely better." However, now for Devushkin the main thing is cheapness, because in the same courtyard he rents a more comfortable and expensive apartment for his distant relative Varvara Alekseevna Dobroselova. The poor official takes under his protection a seventeen-year-old orphan, for whom, apart from him, there is no one to intercede. Living nearby, they rarely see each other, as Makar Alekseevich is afraid of gossip. However, both need warmth and sympathy, which they draw from almost daily correspondence with each other. The history of the relationship between Makar and Varenka is revealed in thirty-one - his and twenty-four - her letters, written from April 8 to September 30, 184 ... Makar's first letter is permeated with the happiness of finding heartfelt affection: "... spring, and all thoughts are so pleasant, sharp, intricate, and tender dreams come..." Denying himself food and clothes, he gains on flowers and sweets for his "angel". Varenka is angry with the patron for excessive expenses, cools his ardor with irony: "... only verses are missing ..." “Paternal affection animated me, the only pure fatherly affection…” Makar is embarrassed. Varya persuades her friend to visit her more often: "What other business!" She takes home work - sewing. In subsequent letters, Devushkin describes in detail his dwelling - "Noah's Ark" according to the abundance of a motley audience - with a "rotten, sharply sweetened smell", in which "siskins die like that." He draws portraits of his neighbors: the midshipman card player, the petty writer Ratazyaev, the impoverished official without a place, Gorshkov and his family. The hostess is a real witch. He is ashamed that he is bad, stupidly writes - "no syllable": after all, he studied "not even with copper money." Varenka shares her anxiety: Anna Fedorovna, a distant relative, "finds out" about it. Previously, Varya and her mother lived in her house, and then, allegedly to cover their expenses, the "benefactor" offered the orphaned girl by that time to the wealthy landowner Bykov, who dishonored her. Only Makar's help saves the defenseless from the final "death". If only the bawd and Bykov did not find out her address! The poor thing falls ill from fear, lies unconscious for almost a month. Makar has been around all this time. To put his "yasochka" on his feet, he sells a new uniform. By June, Varenka recovers and sends notes to his caring friend with the story of his life. Her happy childhood was spent in her native family in the bosom of rural nature. When the father lost his position as manager of the estate of Prince II, they came to St. Petersburg - "rotten", "angry", "dreary". Constant failures brought the father to the grave. The house was sold for debt. Fourteen-year-old Varya and her mother were left homeless and without funds. It was then that they were sheltered by Anna Fedorovna, who soon began to reproach the widow. She worked beyond her strength, destroying poor health for the sake of a piece of bread. For a whole year, Varya studied with a former student, Pyotr Pokrovsky, who lived in the same house. She was surprised in "the kindest, most worthy man, the best of all," a strange disrespect for the old father, who often visited his adored son. It was a bitter drunkard, once a petty official. Peter's mother, a young beauty, was married to him with a rich dowry by the landowner Bykov. She died soon after. The widower remarried. Peter, on the other hand, grew up separately, under the patronage of Bykov, who placed the young man, who left the university for health reasons, "on bread" with his "short acquaintance" Anna Fedorovna. Joint vigils at the bedside of Varya's sick mother brought the young people closer. An educated friend taught the girl to read, developed her taste. However, Pokrovsky soon fell ill and died of consumption. The hostess, on account of the funeral, took away all the belongings of the deceased. The old father took as many books as he could from her and stuffed them into her pockets, hat, etc. It began to rain. The old man ran, weeping, behind the cart with the coffin, and books fell from his pockets into the mud. He picked them up and again ran in pursuit ... Varya returned home in anguish, to her mother, who was also soon killed by death ... Devushkin replies with a story about his own life. He has been serving for thirty years. “Humble”, “quiet” and “kind”, he became the subject of constant ridicule: “Makar Alekseevich was introduced into the proverb in our entire department”, “... they got to the boots, to the uniform, to the hair, to my figure they got: everyone is not for them Everything needs to be redone!" The hero is indignant: “Well, what is there <...> such that I am rewriting! What, is it a sin to rewrite, or what?” The only joy is Varenka: "As if the Lord had blessed me with the house committee and family!" On June 10, Devushkin takes his ward for a walk to the islands. She is happy. The naive Makar is delighted with the works of Ratazyaev. Varenka, on the other hand, notes the bad taste and loftiness of "Italian Passions", "Ermak and Zyuleyka", etc. Understanding all the unbearable for Devushkin material worries about himself (he dressed up so much that he causes contempt even among the servants and watchmen), the sick Varenka wants to get a job as a governess. Makar is against: its "usefulness" is in its "beneficial" influence on his life. He stands up for Ratazyaev, but after reading Pushkin's "Station Master" sent by Varya, he is shocked: "I feel the same thing, that's exactly the way it is in the book." Vyrina tries on the fate of herself and asks her "native" not to leave, not to "destroy" him. July 6 Varenka sends Gogol's "Overcoat" to Makar; that evening they visit the theatre. If Pushkin's story exalted Devushkin in their own eyes, then Gogol's - offends. Identifying himself with Bashmachkin, he believes that the author spied on all the little things, his life and unceremoniously made public. The dignity of the hero is hurt: "after this, one must complain ..." By the beginning of July, Makar had spent everything. More terrible than lack of money is only the ridicule of the tenants over him and Varenka. But the worst thing is that a "searcher" - an officer, from former neighbors, comes to her with an "unworthy offer". In desperation, the poor man took to drink, disappeared for four days, missing the service. He went to shame the offender, but was thrown down the stairs. Varya consoles her defender, asks, despite gossip, to come to her for dinner. Since the beginning of August, Devushkin has been trying in vain to borrow money at interest, which is especially necessary in view of a new misfortune: the other day, another "seeker" came to Varenka, sent by Anna Fedorovna, who herself would soon visit the girl. We need to move urgently. Makar from impotence again drinks. “For my sake, my dear, do not ruin yourself and do not ruin me,” the unfortunate woman begs him, sending the last “thirty kopecks in silver.” The encouraged poor man explains his “fall”: “how he lost respect for himself, how he indulged in the denial of his good qualities and his dignity, so here everything is lost! began to abhor himself… and <…> you <…> illuminated the dark my whole life, <…> and I <…> found out that <…> is no worse than others; that only <…> I don’t shine with anything, there is no gloss, there is no tone but still I am a man, that in heart and thoughts I am a man. Varenka's health is deteriorating, she is no longer able to sew. In alarm, Makar goes out on a September evening to the Fontanka embankment. Dirt, mess, drunks - "boring"! And on the neighboring Gorokhovaya - rich shops, luxurious carriages, smart ladies. The walker falls into "free-thinking": if labor is the basis of human dignity, then why are so many idlers fed? Happiness is not given according to merit - therefore the rich should not be deaf to the complaints of the poor. Makar is a little proud of his reasoning and notices that his "syllable has been forming recently." On September 9, Devushkin was lucky: summoned for a mistake in a paper to "reproach" the general, the humble and pathetic official received the sympathy of "His Excellency" and personally received one hundred rubles from him. This is a real salvation: paid for an apartment, a table, clothes. Devushkin is overwhelmed by his superior's generosity and reproaches himself for his recent "liberal" thoughts. Reads "Northern Bee". Full of hope for the future. Meanwhile, Bykov finds out about Varenka and on September 20 comes to woo her. His goal is to have legitimate children in order to disinherit "a worthless nephew". If Varya is against it, he will marry a Moscow merchant's wife. Despite the arrogance and rudeness of the proposal, the girl agrees: "If anyone can <…> return my honest name to me, avert poverty from me <…> it is only him." Makar dissuades: "your heart will be cold!" Having become ill from grief, he still shares her troubles with packing for the journey until the last day. September 30 - wedding. On the same day, on the eve of leaving for the Bykov estate, Varenka writes a farewell letter to an old friend: "Who will you stay here for, kind, priceless, the only one! .." The answer is full of despair: "I worked, and wrote papers, and walked, and walked, <...> all because you <...> here, on the contrary, lived nearby." Who now needs his formed "syllable", his letters, himself? "By what right" destroy "human life"? O. A. Bogdanova White Nights Sentimental Romance (From the Memoirs of a Dreamer) (1848) A young man of twenty-six years old is a petty official who has been living for eight years in St. Petersburg in the 1840s, in one of the tenement houses along the Catherine Canal, in a room with cobwebs and smoky walls. After the service, his favorite pastime is walking around the city. He notices passers-by and at home, some of them become his "friends". However, among the people he has almost no acquaintances. He is poor and lonely. With sadness, he watches how the inhabitants of St. Petersburg are going to the dacha. He has nowhere to go. Leaving the city, he enjoys the northern spring nature, which looks like a "stunted and sick" girl, for a moment becoming "wonderfully beautiful." Returning home at ten o'clock in the evening, the hero sees a female figure by the grate of the canal and hears sobbing. Sympathy prompts him to get acquainted, but the girl timidly runs away. A drunk tries to stick to her, and only the "knot stick", which ended up in the hero's hand, saves the pretty stranger. They talk to each other. The young man admits that before he knew only "hostesses", he never spoke with "women" and therefore he is very timid. This calms the companion. She listens to the story about the "romances" that the guide created in dreams, about falling in love with ideal fictional images, about the hope of someday meeting in reality with a girl worthy of love. But here she is almost at home and wants to say goodbye. The dreamer begs for a new meeting. The girl "needs to be here for herself", and she does not mind the presence of a new acquaintance tomorrow at the same hour in the same place. Her condition is "friendship", "but you can't fall in love." Like the Dreamer, she needs someone to confide in, someone to ask for advice. In the second meeting, they decide to listen to each other's "stories". The hero starts. It turns out that he is a “type”: in “strange corners of St. prosaic and ordinary. They are afraid of the company of living people, as they spend long hours among "magic ghosts", in "enthusiastic dreams", in imaginary "adventures". “You speak as if you are reading a book,” Nastenka guesses the source of the interlocutor's plots and images: the works of Hoffmann, Merimee, V. Scott, Pushkin. After intoxicating, "voluptuous" dreams, it is painful to wake up in "loneliness", in your "stale, unnecessary life." The girl pities her friend, and he himself understands that "such a life is a crime and a sin." After "fantastic nights" he already "finds moments of sobering up, which are terrible." "Dreams survive", the soul wants a "real life". Nastenka promises the Dreamer that now they will be together. And here is her confession. She is an orphan. Lives with an old blind grandmother in a small house of her own. Until the age of fifteen, she studied with a teacher, and for the last two years she has been sitting, “pinned” to her grandmother’s dress with a pin, who otherwise cannot keep track of her. A year ago they had a tenant, a young man of "pleasant appearance." He gave his young mistress books by V. Scott, Pushkin and other authors. I invited them to the theater with my grandmother. I especially remember the opera "The Barber of Seville". When he announced that he was leaving, the poor recluse decided on a desperate act: she packed her things into a bundle, came to the tenant's room, sat down and "cried in three streams." Fortunately, he understood everything, and most importantly, he managed to fall in love with Nastenka before that. But he was poor and without a "decent place", and therefore could not immediately marry. They agreed that exactly one year later, returning from Moscow, where he hoped to "arrange his affairs", the young man would be waiting for his bride on a bench near the canal at ten o'clock in the evening. A year has passed. He has been in Petersburg for three days already. He is not in the agreed place ... Now the hero understands the reason for the girl's tears on the evening of acquaintance. Trying to help, he volunteers to deliver her letter to the groom, which he does the next day. Because of the rain, the third meeting of the heroes takes place only through the night. Nastenka is afraid that the groom will not come again, and cannot hide her excitement from her friend. She feverishly dreams of the future. The hero is sad, because he himself loves the girl. And yet, the Dreamer lacks selflessness to console and reassure Nastenka, who has fallen in spirit. Touched, the girl compares the groom with a new friend: "Why is he - not you? .. He is worse than you, even though I love him more than you." And he continues to dream: "Why are we all not like brothers and brothers? Why is the best person always as if hiding something from the other and is silent from him? <...> everyone looks like he is more severe than he is in fact ... "Gratefully accepting the Dreamer's sacrifice, Nastenka also takes care of him:" you are recovering "," you <...> love ... "" God bless you with her!" In addition, now with the hero forever and her friendship. And finally the fourth night. The girl finally felt abandoned "inhumanly" and "cruelly". The dreamer again offers help: go to the offender and make him "respect" Nastenka's feelings. However, pride awakens in her: she no longer loves the deceiver and will try to forget him. The "barbaric" act of the tenant sets off the moral beauty of the friend sitting next to him: "wouldn't you do that? wouldn't you throw the one that would come to you <...> in the eyes of a shameless mockery of her weak, stupid heart?" The dreamer no longer has the right to hide the truth that the girl has already guessed: "I love you, Nastenka!" He does not want to "torment" her with his "selfishness" in a bitter moment, but what if his love turns out to be necessary? And indeed, in response, one hears: “I don’t love him, because I can only love what is generous, what understands me, what is noble ...” If the Dreamer waits until the former feelings completely subside, then the gratitude and love of the girl will go to him alone . Young people joyfully dream of a joint future. At the moment of their parting, the groom suddenly appears. With a cry, trembling, Nastenka breaks free from the hero's hands and rushes towards him. Already, it would seem, the coming true hope for happiness, for real life leaves the Dreamer. He silently looks after the lovers. The next morning, the hero receives a letter from the happy girl asking for forgiveness for the involuntary deceit and with gratitude for his love, which "cured" her "broken heart". One of these days she is getting married. But her feelings are contradictory: "Oh God! if only I could love you both at the same time!" And yet the Dreamer must remain "forever a friend, a brother ...". Again he is alone in the suddenly "older" room. But even fifteen years later, he fondly recalls his short-lived love: “may you be blessed for a minute of bliss and happiness that you gave to another, lonely, grateful heart! <…> A whole minute of bliss! human life?" O. A. Bogdanova Netochka Nezvanova Tale (1848-1849) Eight-year-old Netochka lives in a closet in the attic of a large St. Petersburg house. Her mother sews and cooks to earn a living for the whole family. Stepfather, Yegor Efimov, a strange man. He is a talented violinist, but abandoned music because his "villainous" wife allegedly ruined his talent. Only her death will "untie" him. Rude and unceremonious, he shamelessly lives at the expense of the woman he has defamed, who, in spite of everything, continues to love him. She has long been dangerously ill. In his youth, Efimov was a free clarinetist for a wealthy and kind landowner, from whose orchestra he left after the sudden death of his friend, an Italian violinist. He was a "bad man", but with the features of the supernatural. “The devil imposed himself on me,” Efimov later recalled about him. The Italian bequeathed his violin to him and taught him how to play it. Since then, Efimov has been possessed by a proud consciousness of his genius, exclusivity, permissiveness. Not feeling any gratitude to the people who helped him (the landowner and the count), he drank away the money given to him for a trip to St. Petersburg, where he could develop his talent. Only after seven years of random wanderings through the provinces did he finally find himself in the capital. Here, the 30-year-old violinist made friends with a young colleague, a Russian German B., with whom he shared shelter and food. In a friend who had lost his technical skills, B. was struck by the "deep, <...> instinctive understanding of art," but the self-confidence and "continuous dream of his own genius" were depressing. B. worked hard and, despite the relatively modest talent, eventually achieved success and became a famous musician. The talented Efimov, having "neither patience nor courage," gradually became drunkard and behaved more and more dishonorably. Friends parted, but B. forever retained sympathy and compassion for the comrade of youth. Soon, Efimov married the then two-year-old mother of Netochka, a dreamer who believed in his talent and was ready to sacrifice everything for her husband. Once B. helped an old friend get into a theater orchestra. He did not give a penny of salary to his wife and "daughter", drinking himself and drinking friends. Soon he was fired due to a bad, arrogant character. Not understanding the true relationship between mother and stepfather, Netochka becomes passionately attached to her "father". He is just as "driven" by a strict mother, as she herself is. The girl is inspired by dreams inspired by Efimov's speeches: after the death of her mother, they, together with their "father", will leave the miserable attic and go to a new, happy life - to the "house with red curtains", a rich mansion visible from their window. When the famous violinist S-ts arrives on tour in St. Petersburg, it becomes a matter of life for Efimov to get to his concert. He must prove to himself that S-ts is nothing before him, not recognized because of "evil" people, but a great genius. Where can I get money for a ticket? Taking advantage of Netochka's blind love for himself, her stepfather forces her to deceive her sick mother, who sent her daughter to go shopping with her last rubles. Having given the money to the "father", the girl must say that she lost it. Having figured out her husband's plan, the mother falls into despair. Suddenly B. brings a ticket to S-tsa's concert. Yefimov leaves. The shocked woman dies that same evening. At night, the beggar musician returns, killed by the consciousness of his insignificance before the art of S-ts, Netochka in excitement rushes to the distraught "father" and drags him away from the house, towards her childhood dream, although her heart aches for the abandoned dead mother. On the street, Efimov runs away from his "daughter", who, screaming, tries to catch up with the madman, but falls unconscious. He himself soon ends up in the hospital, where he dies. Now Netochka lives in the same "house with red curtains" that belongs to Prince X, a clever, kind and compassionate "eccentric". She was sick for a long time after the experience, but then a new feeling took possession of her heart. This is love for the lovely and proud coeval Katya, the daughter of the prince. Frisky Katya at first disliked the sad and sickly "orphan", jealous of her father for her. However, she inspired respect for herself, with dignity reflecting the princess's mockery of her parents. Netochka's ability to learn also stung the conceited minx, whose coldness deeply hurts the girl. One day, Katya decides to play a trick on the prince's wicked and absurd aunt: she lets the bulldog Falstaff into her rooms, who inspires horror in the old princess. Netochka takes the blame on Katya and serves her sentence, locked in a dark room until four in the morning because she has been forgotten. Agitated by the injustice, Katya raises a fuss, and the girl is released. Now there is an open mutual love between them: they cry and laugh, kiss each other, keep secret until the morning. It turns out that Katya also loves her friend for a long time, but she wanted to "torment" her by waiting. Noticing the unnatural excitement of the princess, the adults separate the girls. Soon Katya and her parents leave for Moscow for a long time. Netochka moves into the house of 22-year-old Alexandra Mikhailovna, Katya's married sister. The "quiet, gentle, loving" woman is glad to replace the "orphan" mother and devotes a lot of energy to her upbringing. The happiness of the girl is overshadowed only by an unaccountable antipathy for Pyotr Alexandrovich, the husband of Alexandra Mikhailovna. She feels some kind of mystery in their unnatural relationship: the husband is always gloomy and "ambiguously compassionate", and the wife is timid, passionately impressionable and as if to blame for something. She is thin and pale, her health gradually deteriorating due to constant mental pain. Netochka is already thirteen. She is able to guess a lot, but the awakened passion for reading distracts her from reality. By chance, the girl finds access to the home library, where novels forbidden to her are kept. Now she lives in "fantasies", "magical pictures" that take her far away from the "dreary monotony" of life. For three years, she hides even from her older friend. There has been no trust between them for a long time, although mutual love is just as strong. When Netochka turns sixteen, Alexandra Mikhailovna notices her "wonderful voice": since then, the girl has been studying singing at the conservatory. Once in the library, Netochka finds an old letter forgotten in a book. A certain S. O. writes to Alexandra Mikhailovna. The girl learns a secret that has tormented her for eight years: already married, Alexandra Mikhailovna fell in love with an "unequal", a petty official. After a short and completely "sinless" happiness, "gossip", "malice and laughter" began - society turned away from the "criminal". Her husband, however, protected her, but ordered S.O. to leave immediately. The faint-hearted lover forever said goodbye to the "forgotten" "sad beauty". The shocked Netochka reveals the meaning of Alexandra Mikhailovna's "long, hopeless suffering", her "sacrifice, offered humbly, resignedly and in vain." After all, Pyotr Alexandrovich "despises her and laughs at her": before entering his wife's office, he usually "remakes" his face in front of a mirror. From a humming and laughing person, he turns into a dejected, hunched, heartbroken person. Seeing this, Netochka laughs caustically in the face of "the criminal who forgives the sins of the righteous." Soon Pyotr Alexandrovich, whom his wife suspects of love for Netochka hidden behind unreasonable captiousness, tracks down the girl in the library and sees the cherished letter. Wanting to justify himself, he accuses Netochka of immoral correspondence with his lovers. During a stormy scene in Alexandra Mikhailovna's office, her husband threatens to kick her pupil out of the house. Netochka does not refute slander, to be afraid to "kill" her friend with the truth. She protects the girl. The pretender in anger reminds his wife of the past "sin", which brings her to fainting. Netochka denounces his moral tyranny over his wife in order to "prove" that he is "more sinless than her"! Before leaving their house forever, she must still talk with Pyotr Alexandrovich's assistant Ovrov, who unexpectedly stops her. O. A. Bogdanova Uncle's dream. From the Mordas chronicles Tale (1856-1859) Marya Aleksandrovna Moskaleva, thanks to her unsurpassed ability to splurge, to “kill” her opponent with a well-aimed word and clever gossip, was recognized as the “first lady” of the provincial city of Mordasov. While hating and fearing, all, however, recognize its influence. Her husband Afanasy Matveyevich, simple-minded and extremely intimidated by his wife, once lost his place "due to incapacity and dementia" and lives alone in a "suburban village", steaming in a bathhouse and drinking tea. The Moskalevs have only one hundred and twenty souls of the estate; Marya Alexandrovna, on the other hand, dreams of a brilliant life in "high society", the only way to which is the profitable marriage of her twenty-three-year-old beautiful daughter Zina. Therefore, two years ago, she sharply opposed the girl's love for the modest teacher of her soon-dead little brother. A handsome and educated young man was just the son of a deacon, he received a penny salary at the county school, but considered himself a great poet with a great future. Zina, despite her mother's refusal to marry, continued to see and correspond with Vasya. After some quarrel, the proud young man, in a fit of revenge, handed over one of her love letters to the city gossips, which threatened with scandal. Saving her daughter's reputation, Marya Alexandrovna paid two hundred rubles to her hanger-on Nastasya Petrovna for stealing a letter from ill-wishers. Zina's "honor" was saved. The repentant Vasya in despair drank a mixture of tobacco and wine, which caused consumption in himself. Now he is dying. The offended Zina all this time, however, is "tormented" and helps the patient's mother with money. Not seeing a better match, the elder Moskaleva is not averse to marrying her "overripe" daughter to twenty-five-year-old Pavel Aleksandrovich Mozglyakov. He has only one hundred and fifty souls and "a bit empty in his head", but "not bad manners", excellent costumes and "great hopes" for a place in St. Petersburg. Mozgliakov is "madly in love" and has already made an offer. Zina, indifferent to him, does not answer with a final refusal, but asks for two weeks to think. The impatient young man, however, takes the opportunity to appear at the Moskalevs earlier. Hoping to please Marya Alexandrovna, who is claiming a role in the world, he brings to her house the rich and noble Prince K., whom he had just "rescued" from a snowdrift during a road accident. Seven years ago, K. spent half a year in Mordasov's "society", subduing the ladies with high-society courtesy and letting down the rest of his fortune. Already without a penny, the prince suddenly received news of a new rich inheritance - the Dukhanovo estate near Mordasov with four thousand souls - and left for St. Petersburg to formalize it. Upon his soon return, without stopping by the city, he settled without a break in Dukhanovo under the supervision of a certain Stepanida Matveevna, who manages the estate and does not allow relatives to the old man, including Mozglyakov, who is very distantly related to the prince, but calls him uncle. They say that other heirs wanted to take the feeble-minded prince under guardianship and even put him in a lunatic asylum. And now, thanks to a "happy" chance, six years later he was again with his "friends" in Mordasovo. This “God knows what kind of old man” is so “worn out” that “it’s all made up of <…> pieces”: with a glass eye, false teeth, false hair, in a corset, with a prosthesis instead of one leg, with springs to straighten wrinkles and etc. Most of the day he sits at his toilet, dressed like a fashionable young man and reduces all conversations to love affairs. Already powerless, he retains voluptuous habits, making compliments, admiring "forms", "eagerly lorning" "tempting" females. Always narrow-minded, in recent years he has completely lost his mind: he confuses people and circumstances, does not recognize acquaintances, and talks nonsense. And yet, Marya Alexandrovna is proud of his "aristocratic" society, elevating her above other contenders for the championship in the city. She flatters and pretends to sympathize with the ingenuous and gentle old man. Jokingly, Mozglyakov invites Nastasya Petrovna to marry a "half-dead man" in order to soon become a rich widow. But don't go away. However, the "idea" "fired up ... in the head" and the hostess herself. When Mozglyakov takes away "uncle" on visits, with an indispensable promise to return for dinner, Marya Alexandrovna starts a conversation with her daughter. Zina, a girl of "stubborn romanticism" and "severe nobility", at first flatly refuses "meanness": "marry <...> a cripple in order to get his money out of him and then <...> wish him dead every hour ..!" But the mother uses all her "brilliant" eloquence, the extraordinary art of seduction, either by painting poetic pictures of a journey through Spain, or by feats of Christian mercy in relation to a helpless old man, or by the opportunity to cure her beloved Vasya with the prince's money and, having become a widow, marry him. . Zina, though with contempt, agrees. But the "dirt" and "stench" the mother must take upon herself. Now the main thing is a secret so that the intrigues of jealous ladies do not destroy the plan. Meanwhile, Nastasya Petrovna, who was eavesdropping on them, offended by unflattering comments about herself, decides to take revenge. Soon Moskaleva learns about the "interception" of the prince by her rivals, who almost guessed her intentions. She rushes to the carriage and almost by force brings the old man back to her. After dinner, Mozglyakov very opportunely goes to tea with his godfather. But Nastasya Petrovna secretly keeps him on the threshold and leads him to eavesdrop on the "comedy" of seduction. There are three people in the "salon": the old man, Zina and mother. She makes her daughter sing a romance twice, which awakens passionate memories in the prince. Skillfully guided by the hostess, tipsy and emotional bon vivant proposes to Zina. Satisfied Marya Alexandrovna takes the "limp" guest upstairs to "lie down". Shocked by the "treachery" of the Moskalev Mozgliakov, he runs in to Zina and makes a scene for her. The girl arrogantly upsets the ex-fiance. He is ready to take revenge, but Marya Alexandrovna, who arrives in time, "pacifies" him by means of the most sophisticated demagogy. Mozgliakov leaves, confident in Zina's love and future brilliant life with her after the death of the prince. Moskaleva decides to immediately take the old man to the village, where she will marry Zina. She flies for her husband, who is now needed for "representation" before the prince. Afanasy Matveyevich receives strict instructions to remain silent and smile "sarcastically" in response to any questions. Upon returning to the city, Marya Alexandrovna finds uninvited guests in her "salon" - about a dozen ladies exuding envy, anger and ridicule under feigned courtesy. Their goal is to thwart the plans of the hostess. Meanwhile, Mozglyakov, having understood Marya Alexandrovna's "Jesuitism" on reflection, returns to the Moskalevs, quietly rises to the "uncle" who has just woken up and convinces the madman that Zina's proposal is just his "charming" dream. In the "salon" Marya Alexandrovna decides to disarm the "enemies" with a bold "trick": she publicly announces the proposal of Prince Zina. However, supported by the "nephew", the old man stubbornly denies that it was "in reality", and not in a dream. The disgraced hostess, forgetting about decency, rudely scolds Mozglyakov, who "shat" him. Everyone laughs wickedly. Zina, for her part, pours contempt on the guests and, frankly talking about the intrigue, asks for forgiveness from the prince. Enchanted by her again, Mozglyakov repents of his "uncle's" deceit. Meanwhile, an ugly squabble between the ladies flares up, in which the prince also gets hard. Terrified, he leaves for a hotel, where he dies on the third day. Zina, summoned by Vasya's mother, spends these days with the dying teacher. Her reputation has been completely ruined. However, Mozgliakov "renews" his proposal. Having received a refusal, he leaves for St. Petersburg. Having sold their property, they leave Mordasov and Moskalev. A year later, Zina marries an elderly general, the governor of a "remote region", where she becomes the first lady. Marya Alexandrovna, together with her daughter, shines in "high society". Both of them barely recognize Mozglyakov, who accidentally drove into their places. O. A. Bogdanova The village of Stepanchikovo and its inhabitants From the notes of an unknown person. Tale (1857-1859) A former hussar, a forty-year-old retired colonel, Yegor Ilyich Rostanev, is the owner of the rich and well-organized Stepanchikov estate, where he lives with his mother, the widow of General Krakhotkin, an unmarried sister, daughter Sashenka, fifteen years old, and son Ilyusha, eight years old. Rostanev's wife died several years ago. The house is filled with hangers-on, among whom stands out Foma Fomich Opiskin, who was previously a jester "because of a piece <...> of bread" at Krakhotkin, but who managed to completely subjugate the general's wife and her retinue of "overripe" girls thanks to his reading "soul-saving books", interpretation of "Christian virtues", dreams, "masterful" condemnation of neighbors, as well as unbridled self-praise. "The personification of the pride of the most boundless", "festering" due to previous humiliations and "squeezing envy and poison out of itself at every meeting, with every other person's luck", the insignificance of Opiskin finds in Rostanev's house ideal conditions for the manifestation of his nature. The kindest, conscientious, compliant, prone to self-accusation, the owner of Stepanchikov, by his nature, is not able to assert his own dignity, independence and interests. His main aspiration is peace and "universal happiness" in the house; the contentment of others is a deep spiritual need, for which he is ready to sacrifice almost everything. Convinced of the kindness and nobility of human nature, he endlessly justifies even the most evil, selfish acts of people, does not want to believe in evil plans and motives. As a result, the colonel finds himself a victim of the moral tyranny of his accustomer and self-indulgent mother, who treats him like a delinquent child. "The low soul, having come out from under oppression, oppresses itself." Rostanev, on the other hand, reveres both insolent people as people of "higher qualities" and lofty nobility. Now Foma and the general's wife want to force the colonel into marriage with a middle-aged but very rich girl Tatyana Ivanovna, invited for this purpose to stay in Stepanchikovo. This kind, ingenuous creature is just a toy in the hands of intriguers. Unexpectedly lifted up by a rich inheritance from a humiliating life, she was "moved" by her mind. "Mania for amorous affairs" makes her behavior funny and strange; any rogue with the help of cheap "romantic" effects can lure, rob and abandon her. Pitying Tatyana Ivanovna, Rostanev, however, opposes the plans to enrich his family, as he is in love with the young governess of his children, Nastasya Evgrafovna Ezhevikina. A girl from a poor family, she was brought up and educated at the expense of the colonel, who had previously loved her like a daughter. Nastya herself is cordially attached to the father of Sashenka and Ilyusha. But both do not admit to themselves and each other in their love: Rostanev - because of the difference in age, Nastya - because of the difference in social status. Nevertheless, for half a year now, their mutual sympathy has not been a secret for spies who sensed a threat to their dominance. In fact, Nastya, unlike her older friend, openly resents Opiskin's tyranny and antics and clearly will not tolerate this, becoming Stepanchikov's mistress. The impudent ones demand the shameful expulsion of the girl from the house, hiding behind shameless demagogy about the "phenomenal voluptuousness" of the actually delicate and chaste Rostanev and concern for the morality of Nastya, who allegedly has a bad influence on children. Ready for endless concessions, the colonel shows some firmness in this matter: he decides to marry Nastenka to his twenty-two-year-old nephew Sergei Alexandrovich, who recently graduated from the university, and summons him with a letter from St. Petersburg. The young man also studied at the expense of a loving uncle, who now dreams of a happy life together in village with both of his pupils. A Petersburger who arrived in Stepanchikovo in the early July morning finds a real "madhouse" here. The rich man's owner trembles before the poor hanger-on, fearing to "offend" him with his superiority. He secretly meets with his own serfs, who heard about the intention to "give" them to the despot Opiskin. In desperation, they beg the master not to let them "offend". He agrees, wondering why Thomas, forcing the peasants to learn French and astronomy, is "not so nice" to them. Sergei Alexandrovich, like his uncle, at first suspects in Opiskin "an extraordinary nature", but "embittered" by circumstances, and dreams of "reconciling him with a man" with respect and kindness. After changing his clothes, he goes to the tea room, where the whole society has gathered: the general's wife with her daughter and hangers-on, the poor young man Obnoskin with his mother, the poor relative Mizinchikov, Tatyana Ivanovna, Nastya and children. There is no Thomas, because; he is "angry" at Rostanev for his intransigence on the issue of marriage. "Angry" and other households, accusing the colonel aloud of "gloomy selfishness", "murder of mother" and other nonsense. The good-natured man is seriously worried and awkwardly justifies himself. Sasha alone speaks the truth about Opiskin: "he is stupid, capricious, dirty, ungrateful, hard-hearted, tyrant, gossip, liar", "will eat us all." Claiming for an extraordinary mind, talent and knowledge, Opiskin is also jealous of the "learned" nephew of Rostanev, as a result of which the poor visitor is subjected to an extremely ungracious reception from the general's wife. Finally, Foma enters: this is a "shabby little man" "about fifty years old", with sanctimonious manners and "impudent self-confidence" on his face. Everyone fawns over him. He also begins to mock the yard boy Falaley, who fell out of favor with him because of his beauty and the disposition of the general's wife. Desperate to learn Falaley in French, Thomas decides to "ennoble" his dreams. Falaley, who does not know how to lie, constantly has a "rude, peasant" dream "about a white bull", in which Foma sees the "corrupting" influence of Rostanev. The day before, Opiskin managed to catch his victim in another "crime" - the performance of an "indecent" dance about a Komarin peasant. The torturer tramples on the "live beefsteak" with pleasure on the grounds that he knows "Rus" and "Rus" "knows" him. The colonel, who is trying to intervene in the "learned" conversation, is rudely interrupted and publicly scolds: "Do housework, drink tea, but <...> leave literature alone." Foma himself fancies himself a writer on the eve of all-Russian "glory". Further, he swaggers over the valet Gavrila, forcing him to answer in French in front of everyone. This is ridiculous, and the poor "crow" cannot stand it: "I have never seen such shame as now, when I was born over myself!" Outraged by the "rebellion" Foma, yelping, runs away. Everyone goes to comfort him. In the garden, Sergei Alexandrovich meets with his intended bride, receives a refusal and learns of her intention to leave Stepanchikovo on the same day. Sounds of scandal are heard from the windows. The colonel does not want to give in to Nastya and decides to part with Opiskin "in a noble way, without any humiliation" for the latter. During a private conversation in a tearoom, he generously offers Foma fifteen thousand and promises to buy him a house in the city. Opiskin, on the other hand, scatters money, pretending to be incorruptible virtue. The colonel, it turns out, reproaches him with a piece of bread and conceits his wealth. Poor Rostanev repents, begs for forgiveness. It is possible only on condition that he humbles his "pride" and calls the accustomer "your excellency", that is, recognizes him worthy of the "general rank". The unfortunate good man goes to this humiliation. The briefly pacified Foma "forgives" him and Gavrila. Late in the evening, Mizinchikov comes to Sergei Alexandrovich's wing in the vain hope of finding a paid assistant in the young man. His "idea" is to take Tatyana Ivanovna away, marry her and take over her money. By the way, this will save Rostanev from an unwanted marriage. Mizinchikov promises to treat the sick woman humanely, giving her a decent life and peace of mind. True, he is afraid that Obnoskin, to whom he inadvertently revealed himself, will get ahead of him. After the departure of Mizinchikov, an uncle appears with a footman Vidoplyasov. This is Opiskin's "secretary", a fool confused by him, who understands the "nobility of the soul" as pretentiousness and contempt for everything popular, natural. Enduring ridicule from the servants for his arrogance, he begs to change his "dissonant" surname to Oleandrov, Ulanov, Essbuketov, etc. He calls his poems "Vidoplyasov's cries." Rostanev informs his nephew that he "settled" everything: Nastya remains, since Sergei Alexandrovich is declared her fiancé, and the uncle himself proposes to Tatyana Ivanovna the next day. Upon learning of Nastenka's impending departure, the colonel rushes to stop her. The nephew follows him through the night garden and sees Tatyana Ivanovna in the arbor with Obnoskin, who has clearly stolen Mizinchikov's "idea". Soon he also meets an alarmed uncle: Foma had just caught him in the moment of a kiss with Nastenka, who confessed her love to him. Intending to propose to his girlfriend tomorrow, the colonel is nevertheless afraid of Opiskin's condemnation and the "ringing" that he can raise. At night, he writes to "brother and friend", begging not to disclose about the meeting in the garden and to facilitate the general's consent to his marriage with Nastya. At dawn, Tatyana Ivanovna's escape with Obnoskin is discovered. Rostanev gives chase and snatches the insane woman from the hands of the swindler. She is back in Stepanchikovo. In the afternoon, a general meeting takes place in the rooms of Foma Fomich on the occasion of Ilyusha's name day. In the midst of the holiday, Opiskin, confident that he will not be released anywhere, plays the comedy of "expulsion" from the estate in a "simple, peasant cart", with a "bundle". "Finally" he tears Yegor Ilyich's letter and notifies those present that he saw him at night with Nastya "in the garden, under the bushes." The enraged colonel throws out the boor, who clearly did not expect such an outcome. Gavrila takes him away in a cart. Rostanev asks his mother for blessings for marriage, but she does not listen to her son and only begs to return Foma Fomich. The colonel agrees on the condition that he publicly apologizes to Nastya. Meanwhile, the cowardly and subdued Opiskin returns himself - Rostanev finds him "already in the village." The cunning man performs a new "trick": it turns out that he is Nastya's well-wisher, the defender of her "innocence", which was threatened by the "unbridled passions" of the colonel. The simple-hearted Rostanev feels guilty, and Foma, unexpectedly for everyone, joins the hands of the lovers. The Generalsha blesses them. Those present in delight thank Opiskin for arranging "universal happiness." Former "rebels" ask him for forgiveness. After the wedding, Foma reigned even more firmly in the house: "sour, sulk, break down, get angry, scold, but the reverence for him" made happy "did not <...> decrease." The general's wife died three years later, Opiskin seven years later. The works found after his death turned out to be "extraordinary rubbish". Rostanev and Nastya had no children. O. A. Bogdanova Humiliated and insulted Roman (1861) Ivan Petrovich, a twenty-four-year-old aspiring writer, in search of a new apartment, meets a strange old man with a dog on a St. Petersburg street. Impossibly thin, in rags, he has a habit of sitting for hours in Miller's confectionery near Voznesensky Prospekt, warming himself by the stove and staring with a deathly unseeing gaze at one of the visitors. On this March evening, one of them is indignant at the "impoliteness" of the poor man. He leaves in fear and dies nearby on the sidewalk. Having come home to a stranger, Ivan Petrovich learns his name - Smith - and decides to settle in his deserted dwelling under the very roof of an apartment building, An orphan since childhood, Ivan Petrovich grew up in the family of Nikolai Sergeevich Ikhmenev, a small estate nobleman of an old family, managing the rich estate of Prince Peter Alexandrovich Valkovsky. Friendship and love connected him with the daughter of the Ikhmenevs, Natasha, who was three years younger than him. As a young man, the hero went to St. Petersburg, to the university, and saw "his" only five years later, when they moved to the capital because of a quarrel with Valkovsky. The latter showed friendship and trust to his manager for many years, even to the extent that he sent him his then nineteen-year-old son Alyosha to "educate". Believing the rumors about the desire of the Ikhmenevs to marry the young prince to his daughter, Valkovsky in retaliation accused the kind, honest and naive old man of theft and started a lawsuit. Ivan Petrovich is almost a daily guest at the Ikhmenevs, where he is again accepted as a native. It is here that he reads his first novel, just published and extremely successful. The love between him and Natasha grows stronger, we are already talking about the wedding, with which, however, they decide to wait one year until the literary position of the groom is strengthened. A "wonderful" time passes when Alyosha begins to visit the Ikhmenevs. Valkovsky, who has his own plans for the future of his son, repeats the accusation of pandering and forbids the latter to see Natasha. The offended Ikhmenev, however, does not suspect the love of his daughter and the young prince until she leaves her parental home for her lover. The lovers rent an apartment and want to get married soon. Their relationship is complicated by the unusual nature of Alyosha. This handsome, graceful secular youth is a real child in terms of naivety, disinterestedness, innocence, sincerity, but also selfishness, frivolity, irresponsibility, spinelessness. Loving Natasha immensely, he does not try to provide for her financially, often leaves her alone, delays the painful state of her mistress. Carried away, weak-willed Alyosha succumbs to the influence of his father, who wants to marry him to a rich woman. To do this, it is necessary to separate the son from Natasha, and the prince refuses the young man financial support. This is a serious test for the young couple. But Natasha is ready to live modestly and work. In addition, the bride found by the prince for Alyosha - Katya - is a beautiful girl, pure and naive, like her alleged fiance. It is impossible not to be carried away by it, and a new love, according to the calculation of a smart and insightful prince, will soon force out the old one from the unstable heart of his son. And Katya herself already loves Alyosha, not knowing that he is not free. From the very beginning, her lover is clear to Natasha: "if I am not with him always, constantly, every moment, he will stop loving me, forget and leave me." She loves "like crazy", "not good", she "even torments from him - happiness." A stronger nature, she strives to dominate and "torment to the point of pain" - "and that's why <...> hastened to give herself <...> to be the first to be sacrificed." Natasha continues to love Ivan Petrovich as a sincere and reliable friend, a support, a "heart of gold", selflessly endowing her with care and warmth. "We will live together." Smith's former apartment is visited by his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Nellie. Struck by her isolation, savagery and beggarly appearance, Ivan Petrovich finds out the conditions of her life: Nelly's mother recently died of consumption, and the girl fell into the hands of a cruel bawd. Thinking about ways to save Nelly, the hero runs into an old school friend Masloboev, a private detective, on the street, with the help of which he pulls the girl out of a depraved brothel and settles her in his apartment. Nelly is seriously ill, and most importantly, misfortunes and human malice have made her distrustful and painfully proud. She takes care of herself suspiciously, slowly thaws, but finally becomes passionately attached to her savior. He is even jealous of Natasha, whose fate is so busy with her older friend. It's been six months since the last one left her inconsolable parents. The father suffers silently and proudly, at night shedding tears over the portrait of his daughter, and during the day condemning and almost cursing her. Mother relieves her soul in conversations about her with Ivan Petrovich, who reports all the news. They are disappointing. Alyosha is getting closer and closer to Katya, not showing up to Natasha for several days. She thinks about the break: "He cannot marry me; he is not able to go against his father." It's hard, "when he himself, the first one, forgets" her near the other - so Natasha wants to get ahead of the "traitor". However, Alyosha announces to Katya that their marriage is impossible because of his love for Natasha and obligations to her. The generosity of the "bride", who approved of his "nobility" and showed concern for the position of a "happy" rival, delights Alyosha. Prince Valkovsky, concerned about the "firmness" of his son, takes a new "move". Having come to Natasha and Alyosha, he gives feigned consent to their marriage, hoping that the young man's calm conscience will no longer be an obstacle to his growing love for Katya. Alyosha is "delighted" by his father's act; Ivan Petrovich, on the basis of a number of signs, notices that the prince is indifferent to the happiness of his son. Natasha is also quick to figure out Valkovsky's "game", whose plan, however, succeeds quite well. During a stormy conversation, she exposes him in front of Alyosha. The pretender decides to act differently: he asks himself to be friends with Ivan Petrovich. The latter is surprised to learn that the prince uses the services of Masloboev in a certain case related to Nelly and her dead mother. With bluff and hints, a classmate dedicates the hero to his essence: many years ago, Valkovsky "climbed" into an enterprise with an English breeder Smith. Wishing to take possession of his money "for free", he seduced and took abroad an idealist passionately in love with him, Smith's daughter, who gave it to him. The bankrupt old man cursed his daughter. Soon the swindler left the girl, with whom, apparently, he was nevertheless forced to marry, with little Nellie in her arms, without a livelihood. After long wanderings, the terminally ill mother returned with Nelly to Petersburg in the hope that the girl's father would take part in her fate. In desperation, she more than once tried to write to her scoundrel husband, overcoming pride and contempt. Valkovsky himself, cherishing plans for a new profitable marriage, was afraid of documents on legal marriage, possibly kept by Nelly's mother. To search for them, Masloboev was hired. Valkovsky is taking the hero to Katya's for the evening, where Alyosha is also present. Natasha's friend can be convinced of the futility of her hopes for Alyosha's love: Natasha's "groom" cannot tear himself away from Katya's society. Then Ivan Petrovich and the prince go to dinner at a restaurant. During the conversation, Valkovsky drops his mask: he arrogantly treats Ikhmenev's gullibility and nobility, cynically talks about Natasha's feminine virtues, reveals his mercenary plans for Alyosha and Katya, laughs at Ivan Petrovich's feelings for Natasha and offers him money for marrying her. This is a strong, but absolutely immoral person, whose credo is "love yourself" and use others to your advantage. The prince is especially amused by playing on the lofty feelings of his victims. He himself values only money and gross pleasures. He wants the hero to prepare Natasha for a close separation from Alyosha (he must leave for the village with Katya) without "scenes, pastorals and Schillerism." His goal is to remain in the eyes of his son a loving and noble father "for the most convenient mastery of Katya's money later." Far from his father's plans, Alyosha is torn between two girls, no longer knowing which one he loves more. However, Katya, by his nature, is more "pair" to him. Before leaving, the rivals meet and decide the fate of Alyosha in addition to his participation: Natasha painfully yields to Katya her lover, "without character" and childishly "close-minded" in mind. In a strange way, “this is what” she “loved in him most of all,” and now Katya loves the same thing. Valkovsky offers abandoned Natasha money for a relationship with a depraved old man, the count. Ivan Petrovich arrived in time and beats and rudely kicks out the offender. Natasha must return to her parents' house. But how to convince old Ikhmenev to forgive, although dearly beloved, but disgraced his daughter? In addition to other grievances, the prince has just won a lawsuit and is taking away all his small fortune from the unfortunate father. For a long time, the Ikhmenevs decided to take an orphan girl to their place. The choice fell on Nelly. But she refused to live with "cruel" people like her grandfather Smith, who never forgave her mother during her lifetime. begging Nellie to tell Ikhmenev the story of her mother, Ivan Petrovich hopes to soften the old man's heart. His plan succeeds: the family is reunited, and Nelly soon becomes the "idol of the whole house" and responds to "universal love" for herself. On warm June evenings, Ivan Petrovich, Masloboev and the doctor often gather in the hospitable house of the Ikhmenevs on Vasilyevsky Island. Soon parting: the old man got a place in Perm. Natasha is sad because of the experience. Marital happiness is overshadowed by Nellie's serious heart disease, from which the poor thing soon dies. Before her death, the legitimate daughter of Prince Valkovsky does not forgive, contrary to the gospel commandment, her traitor father, but, on the contrary, curses him. Natasha, dejected by the future parting with Ivan Petrovich, regrets that she ruined their possible joint happiness. These notes were compiled by the hero a year after the events described. Now he is alone, in the hospital, and it seems that he will die soon. O. A. Bogdanova Notes from the Underground Tale (1864) The hero of the "underground", the author of the notes, is a collegiate assessor who recently retired after receiving a small inheritance. Now he is forty. He lives "in the corner" - a "cheesy, nasty" room on the edge of St. Petersburg. In the "underground" he is also psychologically: almost always alone, indulges in unrestrained "dreaming", the motives and images of which are taken from "books". In addition, the nameless hero, showing an extraordinary mind and courage, explores his own consciousness, his own soul. The purpose of his confession is "to test: is it possible even with oneself to be completely frank and not be afraid of the whole truth?" He believes that a smart man of the 60s. XNUMXth century doomed to be "characterless". Activity is the lot of stupid, limited people. But the latter is the "norm", and heightened consciousness is "a real, complete disease." the mind makes one rebel against the laws of nature discovered by modern science, the "stone wall" of which is "certainty" only for a "stupid" direct person. The hero of the "underground" does not agree to reconcile himself with the obvious and experiences a "sense of guilt" for the imperfect world order that causes him suffering. Science "lies" that a person can be reduced to reason, an insignificant fraction of the "ability to live", and "calculated" according to the "tablet". "Wanting" is the "manifestation of all life." Contrary to the "scientific" conclusions of socialism about human nature and human welfare, he defends his right to "mix positive prudence <...> vulgar stupidity <...> solely in order to confirm to himself <...> that people are still people, and not piano keys on which <...> the very laws of nature play with their own hands ... ". "In our negative age" the "hero" yearns for an ideal capable of satisfying his inner "broadness". This is not pleasure, not a career, and not even the "crystal palace" of the socialists, which deprives a person of the most important of the "benefits" - his own "want". The hero protests against the identification of good and knowledge, against unconditional faith in the progress of science and civilization. The latter “does not soften anything in us”, but only develops a “versatility of sensations”, so that pleasure is found both in humiliation, and in the “poison of unsatisfied desire”, and in someone else's blood ... After all, in human nature, not only the need for order, prosperity, happiness but also - chaos, destruction, suffering. The "Crystal Palace", in which there is no place for the latter, is untenable as an ideal, because it deprives a person of the freedom of choice. And therefore it is better - a modern "chicken coop", "conscious inertia", "underground". But longing for "reality" used to drive me out of the "corner". One of these attempts is described in detail by the author of the notes. At twenty-four, he still served in the office and, being "terribly proud, suspicious and touchy", hated and despised, "and at the same time <...> was afraid" of "normal" colleagues. He considered himself a "coward and a slave", like any "developed and decent person." Communication with people was replaced by increased reading, at night he "debauched" in "dark places". Once in a tavern, watching a game of billiards, he accidentally blocked the path of one officer. Tall and strong, he silently moved the "short and emaciated" hero to another place. "Underground" wanted to start a "correct", "literary" quarrel, but "preferred <...> embitteredly hushed up" for fear that he would not be taken seriously. For several years he dreamed of revenge, many times he tried not to turn first when they met on Nevsky. When, finally, they "bumped closely shoulder to shoulder", the officer did not pay attention to this, and the hero "was delighted": he "maintained dignity, did not yield a single step and publicly placed himself with him on an equal social footing ". The need of a man of the "underground" from time to time "to rush into society" was satisfied by a few acquaintances: the head clerk Setochkin and a former school friend Simonov. During a visit to the latter, the hero finds out about a dinner being prepared in honor of one of his fellow practitioners and "parts in" with the others. Fear of possible insults and humiliation haunts the "underground" long before dinner: after all, "reality" does not obey the laws of literature, and real people are unlikely to fulfill the roles assigned to them in the dreamer's imagination, for example, "fall in love" with him for mental superiority. At dinner, he tries to hurt and insult his comrades. Those in response stop noticing him. "Underground" falls into the other extreme - public self-abasement. The companions leave for the brothel without inviting him with them. Now, for the sake of "literaryness", he is obliged to avenge the disgrace suffered. To this end, he goes after everyone, but they have already gone to the rooms of prostitutes. Lisa is offered to him. After the "rude and shameless" "debauchery" the hero starts a conversation with the girl. She is 20 years old, she is a bourgeois from Riga and recently in St. Petersburg. Guessing sensitivity in her, he decides to recoup for what he suffered from his comrades: he draws picturesque pictures in front of Liza, either of the terrible future of a prostitute, or of family happiness inaccessible to her, entering "pathos to the point that <...> the throat spasm was being prepared." And he achieves the "effect": disgust for his base life brings the girl to sobs and convulsions. leaving, the "savior" leaves the "lost" his address. However, genuine pity for Liza and shame for his "roguery" make their way through the "literaryness" in him. She arrives three days later. The "disgustingly embarrassed" hero cynically reveals to the girl the motives of his behavior, but unexpectedly meets love and sympathy from her side. He is also touched: "They won't let me… I can't be… kind!" But soon, ashamed of "weakness", he vindictively takes possession of Liza, and for a complete "triumph" - puts five rubles into her hand, like a prostitute. leaving, she discreetly leaves money. "Underground" admits that he wrote his memoirs with shame, And yet he "only brought in <...> life to the extreme" that others "did not dare to bring to half". He was able to abandon the vulgar goals of the surrounding society, but also the "underground" - "moral corruption." Deep relationships with people, "living life", inspire fear in him. O. A. Bogdanova Player From the notes of a young man Roman (1866) Aleksey Ivanovich, a 25-year-old home teacher, lives with the family of the elderly General Zagoryansky - his stepdaughter Polina and two young children - in a luxury hotel in the German resort of Rouletenburg. While still in Russia, the general pledged his estate to a certain Marquis de Grieux, and for half a year he has been impatiently waiting from Moscow for news of the death of his sick aunt, Antonida Vasilievna Tarasevicheva. Then Des Grieux will take possession of the property of the general, and the latter will receive a large inheritance and marry a young beautiful Frenchwoman, Mademoiselle Blanche, with whom she is in love with no memory. The French, in anticipation of big money, are constantly near the general, a narrow-minded and simple-minded person, moreover, subject to strong passions. They all treat Aleksey Ivanovich with condescension, almost like a servant, which greatly offends his vanity. The Russian teacher is friends only with the Englishman Astley, an aristocrat and a rich man, an extremely honest, noble and chaste person. Both of them are in love with Polina. About two months ago, this beautiful and proud girl wished to make Alexei Ivanovich her friend. A peculiar relationship of "slave" and "tormentor" was established between them. An educated nobleman, but without funds, Alexei Ivanovich is wounded by his dependent position - therefore, love for the arrogant and unceremonious Polina with him is often mixed with hatred. The young teacher is convinced that only money can cause him the respect of others, including his girlfriend: "Money is everything!" The only way to get them is to win at roulette. Polina also needs money, but for purposes that are still incomprehensible to Alexei Ivanovich. She does not believe in the seriousness of the hero's love, perhaps because pride is too developed in him, sometimes reaching the desire to kill a cruel mocker. Nevertheless, at the whim of his mistress, the teacher commits an absurd trick: during a walk he insults the Prussian baronial couple of the Wurmergelms. In the evening, a scandal breaks out. The baron demanded from the general to deprive the impudent "servant" of his place. He rudely scolds Alexei Ivanovich. For his part, the latter is outraged that the general undertook to answer for his act: he himself is "a person who is legally competent." Fighting for his human dignity, even in the "humiliated position" of a teacher, he behaves defiantly, and the matter really ends with his dismissal. However, for some reason the general is frightened by the intention of the former teacher to explain himself to the baron. He sends to Alexei Ivanovich Des Grie now with a request to leave his idea. Seeing Alexei’s stubbornness, the Frenchman turns to threats, and then sends a note from Polina: “<…> stop and calm down <…> I need you <…>” “Slave” obeys, but is puzzled by the influence of De Grie on Polina. Astley, who met on the "promenade", to whom the hero tells about what happened, explains the matter. It turns out that two years ago Mademoiselle Blanche already spent a season in Rouletenburg. Abandoned by her lovers, without money, she unsuccessfully tried her luck at roulette. Then she decided to charm the baron, for which, according to the complaint of the baroness to the police, she was expelled from the city. Now, aspiring to become a general, Blanche must avoid the attention of the Wurmerhelms. The continuation of the scandal is undesirable. Returning to the hotel, Alexei Ivanovich is amazed to see on the porch a "grandmother" who has just arrived from Russia, whose death the general and the French are waiting in vain. This is a 75-year-old "formidable and rich <...> landowner and Moscow lady", in an armchair, with paralyzed legs, with an imperiously rude manner. Her arrival is "a disaster for everyone": direct and sincere, the old woman immediately refuses the general money for his attitude towards herself. She judges the "history" of Alexei Ivanovich with the Prussian baron from the standpoint of Russian national dignity: "you do not know how to support your fatherland." She is concerned about the unenviable fate of Polina and the general's children; a servant for a patriarchal lady is also a "living person". Disliking the French, she highly appreciated Astley. Wanting to see the local sights, the grandmother tells Alexei Ivanovich to take himself to the roulette table, where he begins to bet "in a frenzy" and wins a significant amount. The general and the French are afraid that the grandmother will lose their future inheritance: they beg Alexei Ivanovich to distract the old woman from the game. However, on the same evening she was again in the "voxal". This time, the eccentric Muscovite "professionalized" all the cash and part of the securities. Repenting of frivolity, she intends to build a church in the "Moscow region" and orders to immediately gather in Russia. But twenty minutes before the departure of the train, he changes his plans: "I don't want to be alive, I'll win back!" Alexei Ivanovich refuses to accompany her to the roulette table. During the evening and the next day, the grandmother loses almost all of her fortune. Des Grieux leaves town; Blanche "throws" the general away from her, ceasing even to recognize him at a meeting. From desperation, he almost loses his mind. Finally, the old woman leaves for Russia with the money borrowed from Astley. She still has real estate, and she calls Polina with her children to Moscow. Convinced of the power of passions, he speaks softer about the general: "Yes, even that unfortunate <...> it is a sin for me now to blame." In the evening, in the dark, Alexei Ivanovich finds Polina in his room. She shows him Des Grieux's farewell letter. There was a connection between her and the Frenchman, but without her grandmother's inheritance, the prudent "marquis" refused to marry. However, he returned to the general mortgages for fifty thousand francs - Pauline's "own" money. Proud to the point of passion, she dreams of throwing these fifty thousand into the "mean face" of Des Grieux. Aleksey Ivanovich should get them. The hero rushes to the gambling hall. Happiness smiles at him, and he soon brings a huge sum of money to the hotel - two hundred thousand francs. Even in the "voxal" the former teacher felt the "terrible pleasure of luck, victory, power." The game from a means of self-affirmation and "service" to his beloved turns into an independent, all-consuming passion for him. Even in the presence of Polina, the player cannot take his eyes off the "heap of tickets and bundles of gold" he has brought. The girl is hurt by the fact that for Alexei Ivanovich, as well as for De Grieux, other interests are more important than love for her. The proud woman refuses to accept "free" fifty thousand and spends the night with the hero. In the morning, with hatred, he throws banknotes in the face of his lover and runs away. The disinterested friend Astley, having sheltered the sick Polina, blames Alexei Ivanovich for not understanding her inner drama and inability for true love. “I swear, I felt sorry for Polina,” the hero echoes him, “but <…> from <…> the minute I touched the gambling table yesterday and began to rake in wads of money, my love receded, as it were, into the background.” On the same day, Blanche easily seduces the wealthy Russian and takes him to Paris with him. Having taken possession of his money, she, in order to acquire a name and title, is married to a general who came here. He is completely "lost" and agrees to the most miserable role with a prudent and dissolute Frenchwoman. Three weeks later, Alexey Ivanovich, without regret about the money spent, leaves his mistress and goes to roulette in Hamburg. For more than a year and a half, he wanders around the "gambling" cities of Germany, sometimes descending to serve as a footman and imprisonment for an unpaid debt. It's all "hardened". And now - an unexpected meeting in Hamburg with Astley, who tracked down Alexei Ivanovich on behalf of Polina, who lives in Switzerland with relatives of an Englishman. The hero learns about the death of his grandmother in Moscow and the general in Paris, and most importantly, about Polina's unquenched love for herself. It turns out that he was mistaken in thinking that she loved Des Grieux. Astley considers his friend a "dead man" who, due to his Russian character, is incapable of resisting destructive passions. "It's not the first time that you don't understand what labor is (I'm not talking about your people). Roulette is a predominantly Russian game." "No, he's wrong!., he's harsh and quick about the Russians," thinks Alexei Ivanovich, hoping to "resurrect" in love with Polina. You just need to "endure the character" in relation to the game. Will it come out? O. A. Bogdanova Crime and Punishment Roman (1866) Poor district of St. Petersburg in the 60s. XIX century, adjacent to Sennaya Square and the Catherine Canal. Summer evening. Former student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leaves his closet in the attic and pledges the last valuable thing to the old pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna, whom he is preparing to kill. On the way back, he goes into one of the cheap taverns, where he accidentally meets the drunken official Marmeladov who has lost his job. He tells how consumption, poverty and drunkenness of her husband pushed his wife Katerina Ivanovna to a cruel act - to send his daughter from his first marriage Sonya to earn money on the panel. The next morning, Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother from the provinces describing the troubles suffered by his younger sister Dunya in the house of the depraved landowner Svidrigailov. He learns about the imminent arrival of his mother and sister in St. Petersburg in connection with the upcoming marriage of Dunya. The groom is a prudent businessman Luzhin, who wants to build a marriage not on love, but on poverty and the dependence of the bride. The mother hopes that Luzhin will financially help her son finish his course at the university. Reflecting on the sacrifices that Sonya and Dunya make for the sake of their loved ones, Raskolnikov strengthens his intention to kill the pawnbroker - a useless evil "louse". Indeed, thanks to her money, "hundreds, thousands" of girls and boys will be spared from undeserved suffering. However, disgust for the bloody violence rises again in the hero's soul after he saw a dream-memories of childhood: the boy's heart is torn from pity for the nag being beaten to death. And yet, Raskolnikov kills with an ax not only the "ugly old woman", but also her kind, meek sister Lizavega, who unexpectedly returned to the apartment. Having miraculously left unnoticed, he hides the stolen goods in a random place, without even estimating its value. Soon Raskolnikov is horrified to discover alienation between himself and other people. Sick from the experience, he, however, is not able to reject the burdensome worries of his comrade at the university, Razumikhin. From the conversation of the latter with the doctor, Raskolnikov learns that the painter Mikolka, a simple village boy, was arrested on suspicion of the murder of an old woman. Painfully reacting to talk about a crime, he himself also arouses suspicion among others. Luzhin, who came on a visit, is shocked by the squalor of the hero's closet; their conversation turns into a quarrel and ends in a breakup. Raskolnikov is especially offended by the closeness of practical conclusions from Luzhin's "reasonable egoism" (which seems vulgar to him) and his own "theory": "people can be cut ..." Wandering around St. Petersburg, the sick young man suffers from his alienation from the world and is already ready to confess his crime to the authorities, as he sees a man crushed by a carriage. This is Marmeladov. Out of compassion, Raskolnikov spends the last money on the dying man: he is transferred to the house, the doctor is called. Rodion meets Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya, who is saying goodbye to her father in an inappropriately bright prostitute outfit. Thanks to a good deed, the hero briefly felt community with people. However, having met his mother and sister who arrived at his apartment, he suddenly realizes that he is "dead" for their love and rudely drives them away. He is alone again, but he has a hope of getting closer to Sonya, who, like him, "stepped over", the absolute commandment. Raskolnikov's relatives are taken care of by Razumikhin, who almost at first sight fell in love with the beautiful Dunya. Meanwhile, the offended Luzhin puts the bride before a choice: either he or his brother. In order to find out about the fate of the things pledged by the murdered woman, and in fact, to dispel the suspicions of some acquaintances, Rodion himself asks for a meeting with Porfiry Petrovich, the investigator in the case of the murder of the old pawnbroker. The latter recalls Raskolnikov's recently published article "On Crime", inviting the author to explain his "theory" about "two categories of people." It turns out that the "ordinary" ("lower") majority is just material for the reproduction of their own kind, it is they who need a strict moral law and must be obedient. These are "creatures trembling". "In fact, people" ("higher") have a different nature, possessing the gift of a "new word", they destroy the present in the name of the better, even if it is necessary to "step over" the moral norms previously established for the "lower" majority, for example, shed someone else's blood. These "criminals" then become the "new legislators". Thus, not recognizing the biblical commandments ("thou shalt not kill", "thou shalt not steal", etc.), Raskolnikov "permits" those who have the right - "blood according to conscience." the clever and insightful Porfiry unravels in the hero an ideological killer who claims to be the new Napoleon. However, the investigator has no evidence against Rodion - and he releases the young man in the hope that a good nature will defeat the delusions of the mind in him and will herself lead him to a confession of what he has done. Indeed, the hero is becoming more and more convinced that he made a mistake in himself: “the real ruler <…> smashes Toulon, massacres in Paris, forgets the army in Egypt, spends half a million people on the Moscow campaign”, and he, Raskolnikov, suffers because of “vulgarity and the "meanness" of a single murder. Clearly, he is a "trembling creature": even having killed, he "did not cross" the moral law. The very motives of the crime are twofold in the mind of the hero: this is both a test of oneself for the “highest category”, and an act of “justice”, according to revolutionary socialist teachings, transferring the property of the “predators” to their victims. Svidrigailov, who arrived after Dunya in St. Petersburg, apparently guilty of the recent death of his wife, meets Raskolnikov and notices that they are "of the same field", although the latter did not completely defeat Schiller in himself. With all the disgust towards the offender, Rodion's sister is attracted by his seeming ability to enjoy life, despite the crimes committed. During dinner in cheap rooms, where Luzhin settled Dunya and his mother out of economy, a decisive explanation takes place. Luzhin is convicted of slandering Raskolnikov and Sonya, to whom he allegedly gave money for base services selflessly collected by a poor mother for his studies. Relatives are convinced of the purity and nobility of the young man and sympathize with Sonya's fate. Exiled in disgrace, Luzhin is looking for a way to discredit Raskolnikov in the eyes of his sister and mother. The latter, meanwhile, again feeling the painful alienation from loved ones, comes to Sonya. She, who "crossed" the commandment "do not commit adultery," he seeks salvation from unbearable loneliness. But Sonya is not alone. She sacrificed herself for the sake of others (hungry brothers and sisters), and not others for herself, as her interlocutor. Love and compassion for loved ones, faith in the mercy of God never left her. She reads to Rodion the gospel lines about the resurrection of Lazarus by Christ, hoping for a miracle in her life. The hero fails to captivate the girl with the "Napoleonic" plan of power over "the whole anthill." Tortured at the same time by fear and a desire to be exposed, Raskolnikov again comes to Porfiry, as if worrying about his pledge. A seemingly abstract conversation about the psychology of criminals eventually brings the young man to a nervous breakdown, and he almost betrays himself to the investigator. He is saved by an unexpected confession to everyone in the murder of the pawnbroker painter Mikolka. In the passage room of the Marmeladovs, a wake was arranged for her husband and father, during which Katerina Ivanovna, in a fit of morbid pride, insults the landlady of the apartment. She tells her and her children to leave immediately. Suddenly, Luzhin, who lives in the same house, enters and accuses Sonya of stealing a hundred-ruble banknote. The girl's "guilt" has been proven: the money is found in her apron pocket. Now, in the eyes of those around her, she is also a thief. But unexpectedly there is a witness that Luzhin himself imperceptibly slipped Sonya a piece of paper. The slanderer is put to shame, and Raskolnikov explains to those present the reasons for his act: having humiliated his brother and Sonya in the eyes of Dunya, he hoped to return the favor of the bride. Rodion and Sonya go to her apartment, where the hero confesses to the girl in the murder of the old woman and Lizaveta. She pities him for the moral torments to which he condemned himself, and offers to atone for his guilt by voluntary confession and hard labor. Raskolnikov laments only that he turned out to be a "trembling creature", with a conscience and a need for human love. "I'll still fight," he disagrees with Sonya. Meanwhile, Katerina Ivanovna with the children finds herself on the street. She begins to bleed from the throat and dies after refusing the services of a priest. Svidrigailov, who is present here, undertakes to pay for the funeral and provide for the children and Sonya. At home, Raskolnikov finds Porfiry, who convinces the young man to turn himself in: the "theory", which denies the absoluteness of the moral law, rejects from the only source of life - God, the creator of mankind, one in nature - and thereby dooms his captive to death. "Now you <…> need air, air, air!" Porfiry does not believe in the guilt of Mikolka, who "accepted suffering" for the primordial needs of the people: to atone for the sin of inconsistency with the ideal - Christ. But Raskolnikov still hopes to "transcend" morality as well. Before him is the example of Svidrigailov. Their meeting in a tavern reveals to the hero a sad truth: the life of this "insignificant villain" is empty and painful for him. The reciprocity of Dunya is the only hope for Svidrigailov to return to the source of being. Convinced of her irrevocable dislike of himself during a heated conversation in his apartment, he shoots himself a few hours later. Meanwhile, Raskolnikov, driven by the lack of "air", says goodbye to his family and Sonya before confessing. He is still convinced of the correctness of the "theory" and full of contempt for himself. However, at the insistence of Sonya, before the eyes of the people, he repentantly kisses the ground, before which he "sinned." In the police office, he learns about Svidrigailov's suicide and makes an official confession. Raskolnikov ends up in Siberia, in a prison camp. Mother died of grief, Dunya married Razumikhin. Sonya settled near Raskolnikov and visits the hero, patiently enduring his gloom and indifference. The nightmare of alienation continues here too: the convicts from the common people hate him as a "godless man". On the contrary, Sonya is treated with tenderness and love. Once in the prison hospital, Rodion sees a dream reminiscent of pictures from the Apocalypse: the mysterious "trichines", instilling in people, give rise in everyone to a fanatical conviction that they are right and intolerant of the "truths" of others. "People killed each other in <...> senseless malice" until the entire human race was exterminated, except for a few "pure and chosen ones." Finally, it is revealed to him that pride of mind leads to discord and destruction, while humility of the heart leads to unity in love and to the fullness of life. It awakens "endless love" for Sonya. On the threshold of "resurrection into a new life," Raskolnikov takes the Gospel in his hands. O. A. Bogdanova Idiot Roman (1868) The action of the novel takes place in St. Petersburg and Pavlovsk in late 1867 - early 1868. Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin arrives in St. Petersburg from Switzerland. He is twenty-six years old, he is the last of a noble noble family, orphaned early, fell ill with a severe nervous illness in childhood and was placed by his guardian and benefactor Pavlishchev in a Swiss sanatorium. He lived there for four years and is now returning to Russia with vague but big plans to serve her. On the train, the prince meets Parfyon Rogozhin, the son of a wealthy merchant, who inherited a huge fortune after his death. From him, the prince for the first time hears the name of Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova, the mistress of a certain wealthy aristocrat Totsky, whom Rogozhin is passionately infatuated with. Upon arrival, the prince with his modest bundle goes to the house of General Yepanchin, whose wife, Elizabeth Prokofievna, is a distant relative. There are three daughters in the Yepanchin family - the eldest Alexandra, the middle Adelaide and the youngest, the common favorite and beautiful Aglaya. The prince amazes everyone with his spontaneity, gullibility, frankness and naivete, so extraordinary that at first he is received very wary, but with increasing curiosity and sympathy. It turns out that the prince, who seemed to be a simpleton, and to some a cunning one, is very intelligent, and in some things he is really deep, for example, when he talks about the death penalty he saw abroad. Here the prince also meets the extremely proud secretary of the general Ganya Ivolgin, in whom he sees a portrait of Nastasya Filippovna. Her face of dazzling beauty, proud, full of contempt and hidden suffering, strikes him to the core. The prince also learns some details: the seducer of Nastasya Filippovna Totsky, trying to get rid of her and hatching plans to marry one of the daughters of the Epanchins, woo her to Ganya Ivolgin, giving seventy-five thousand as a dowry. Ganya is beckoned by money. With their help, he dreams of breaking out into the people and in the future significantly increasing his capital, but at the same time he is haunted by the humiliation of the situation. He would prefer marriage to Aglaya Yepanchina, with whom, perhaps, he is even a little in love (although here, too, the possibility of enrichment awaits him). He expects a decisive word from her, making his further actions dependent on this. The prince becomes an involuntary mediator between Aglaya, who unexpectedly makes him her confidant, and Ganya, causing irritation and anger in him. Meanwhile, the prince is offered to settle not just anywhere, but precisely in the apartment of the Volgins. The prince does not have time to take the room provided to him and get acquainted with all the inhabitants of the apartment, starting with Ganya’s relatives and ending with his sister’s fiancé, the young usurer Ptitsyn and Ferdyshchenko, the master of incomprehensible occupations, as two unexpected events occur. None other than Nastasya Filippovna suddenly appears in the house, who has come to invite Ganya and his relatives to her for the evening. She amuses herself by listening to the fantasies of General Ivolgin, which only inflame the atmosphere. Soon a noisy company appears with Rogozhin at the head, who lays out eighteen thousand in front of Nastasya Filippovna. Something like bargaining takes place, as if with her mockingly contemptuous participation: is it her, Nastasya Filippovna, for eighteen thousand? Rogozhin is not going to retreat: no, not eighteen - forty. No, not forty - a hundred thousand! .. For Ganya's sister and mother, what is happening is unbearably insulting: Nastasya Filippovna is a corrupt woman who should not be allowed into a decent house. For Ghani, she is the hope for enrichment. A scandal breaks out: Ganya's indignant sister Varvara Ardalionovna spits in his face, he is about to hit her, but the prince unexpectedly stands up for her and receives a slap from the enraged Ganya, "Oh, how you will be ashamed of your act!" - in this phrase, the whole of Prince Myshkin, all his incomparable meekness. Even at this moment he sympathizes with another, even the offender. His next word, addressed to Nastasya Filippovna: "Are you the way you now seemed to be," will become the key to the soul of a proud woman, deeply suffering from her shame and falling in love with the prince for recognizing her purity. Conquered by the beauty of Nastasya Filippovna, the prince comes to her in the evening. A motley society gathered here, starting with General Yepanchin, who was also carried away by the heroine, to the jester Ferdyshenko. To the sudden question of Nastasya Filippovna, whether she should marry Ganya, he answers in the negative and thereby destroys the plans of Tony, who is present here. At half past eleven the bell rings and the old company appears, headed by Rogozhin, who lays out a hundred thousand wrapped in newspaper in front of his chosen one. And again, the prince is in the center, who is painfully hurt by what is happening, he confesses his love for Nastasya Filippovna and expresses his readiness to take her, "honest", and not "Rogozhin's", as his wife. Immediately, it suddenly turns out that the prince received a rather solid inheritance from the deceased aunt. However, the decision was made - Nastasya Filippovna rides with Rogozhin, and throws the fatal bundle with a hundred thousand into a burning fireplace and invites Ghana to get them out of there. Ganya is holding back with all his strength so as not to rush after the flashed money, he wants to leave, but falls unconscious. Nastasya Filippovna herself snatches out a packet with fireplace tongs and leaves the money to Ghana as a reward for his torment (later they will be proudly returned to them). Six months pass. The prince, having traveled around Russia, in particular on inheritance matters, and simply out of interest in the country, comes from Moscow to St. Petersburg. During this time, according to rumors, Nastasya Filippovna fled several times, almost from the crown, from Rogozhin to the prince, stayed with him for some time, but then ran away from the prince. At the station, the prince feels someone's fiery gaze on him, which torments him with a vague foreboding. The prince pays a visit to Rogozhin in his dirty green, gloomy, like a prison, house on Gorokhovaya Street, during their conversation, the prince is haunted by a garden knife lying on the table, he now and then takes it in his hands, until Rogozhin finally, in irritation, takes it away he has it (later Nastasya Filippovna will be killed with this knife). In the house of Rogozhin, the prince sees on the wall a copy of the painting by Hans Holbein, which depicts the Savior, just taken down from the cross. Rogozhin says that he loves to look at her, the prince exclaims in amazement that "... from this picture, another may still lose faith," and Rogozhin unexpectedly confirms this. They exchange crosses, Parfyon leads the prince to his mother for a blessing, since they are now like brothers. Returning to his hotel, the prince suddenly notices a familiar figure at the gate and rushes after her to the dark narrow stairs. Here he sees the same as at the station, the sparkling eyes of Rogozhin, the knife raised. At the same moment, an epileptic seizure occurs with the prince. Rogozhin runs away. Three days after the seizure, the prince moves to Lebedev's dacha in Pavlovsk, where the Yepanchin family and, according to rumors, Nastasya Filippovna are also located. On the same evening, a large company of acquaintances gathers with him, including the Yepanchins, who decided to visit the sick prince. Kolya Ivolgin, Ganya's brother, teases Aglaya as a "poor knight", clearly alluding to her sympathy for the prince and arousing the painful interest of Aglaya's mother Elizaveta Prokofievna, so that her daughter is forced to explain that the poems depict a person who is capable of having an ideal and, having believed in him, to give his life for this ideal, and then with inspiration he reads Pushkin's poem itself. A little later, a company of young people appears, led by a certain young man Burdovsky, allegedly "the son of Pavlishchev." They seem to be nihilists, but only, in the words of Lebedev, "they went further, sir, because first of all they are businesslike." A libel is read from a newspaper about the prince, and then they demand from him that he, as a noble and honest man, reward the son of his benefactor. However, Ganya Ivolgin, who was instructed by the prince to deal with this matter, proves that Burdovsky is not Pavlishchev's son at all. The company retreats in embarrassment, only one of them remains in the center of attention - the consumptive Ippolit Terentyev, who, asserting himself, begins to "orate". He wants to be pitied and praised, but he is ashamed of his openness, his inspiration is replaced by rage, especially against the prince. Myshkin, on the other hand, listens attentively to everyone, pities everyone, and feels guilty before everyone. A few days later, the prince visits the Yepanchins, then the whole Yepanchin family, together with Prince Yevgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, who is caring for Aglaya, and Prince Sh., Adelaide's fiancé, go for a walk. Another company appears at the station not far from them, among which is Nastasya Filippovna. She familiarly addresses Radomsky, informing him of the suicide of his uncle, who has squandered a large state sum. Everyone is outraged by the provocation. The officer, a friend of Radomsky, indignantly remarks that "you just need a whip here, otherwise you won’t take anything with this creature!" The officer is about to hit Nastasya Filippovna, but Prince Myshkin holds him back. At the celebration of Prince's birthday, Ippolit Terentyev reads "My Necessary Explanation" written by him - a confession, amazing in depth, of a young man who almost did not live, but changed his mind a lot, doomed by illness to an untimely death. After reading, he attempts suicide, but the primer is missing from the gun. The prince defends Ippolit, who is painfully afraid of seeming ridiculous, from attacks and ridicule. In the morning, on a date in the park, Aglaya invites the prince to become her friend. The prince feels that he truly loves her. A little later, in the same park, the prince meets Nastasya Filippovna, who kneels before him and asks him if he is happy with Aglaya, and then disappears with Rogozhin. It is known that she writes letters to Aglaya, where she persuades her to marry the prince. A week later, the prince was formally declared Aglaya's fiancé. High-ranking guests were invited to the Yepanchins for a kind of "bride" of the prince. Although Aglaya believes that the prince is incomparably higher than all of them, the hero, precisely because of her partiality and intolerance, is afraid to make a wrong gesture, is silent, but then painfully inspired, talks a lot about Catholicism as anti-Christianity, declares his love to everyone, breaks a precious Chinese vase and falls in another fit, making a painful and awkward impression on those present. Aglaya makes an appointment with Nastasya Filippovna in Pavlovsk, to which she comes with the prince. Apart from them, only Rogozhin is present. The "proud young lady" asks sternly and hostilely what right Nastasya Filippovna has to write letters to her and generally interfere in her and the prince's private life. Offended by the tone and attitude of her rival, Nastasya Filippovna, in a fit of revenge, calls on the prince to stay with her and drives Rogozhin away. The prince is torn between two women. He loves Aglaya, but he also loves Nastasya Filippovna - with love and pity. He calls her crazy, but is unable to leave her. The prince's condition is getting worse, he is more and more immersed in mental confusion. The wedding of the prince and Nastasya Filippovna is planned. This event is overgrown with all sorts of rumors, but Nastasya Filippovna seems to be joyfully preparing for it, writing out outfits and being either in inspiration or in unreasonable sadness. On the wedding day, on the way to the church, she suddenly rushes to Rogozhin, who is standing in the crowd, who picks her up in his arms, gets into the carriage and takes her away. The next morning after her escape, the prince arrives in Petersburg and immediately goes to Rogozhin. Togo is not at home, but it seems to the prince that Rogozhin seems to be looking at him from behind the curtains. The prince walks around Nastasya Filippovna's acquaintances, trying to find out something about her, returns several times to Rogozhin's house, but to no avail: that is not there, no one knows anything. All day the prince wanders around the sultry city, believing that Parfyon will certainly appear. And so it happens: Rogozhin meets him on the street and asks him in a whisper to follow him. In the house, he leads the prince to a room where, in an alcove on a bed under a white sheet, furnished with bottles of Zhdanov's liquid so that the smell of decay is not felt, lies the dead Nastasya Filippovna. The prince and Rogozhin spend a sleepless night together over the corpse, and when the door is opened the next day in the presence of the police, they find Rogozhin rushing about in delirium and the prince calming him, who no longer understands anything and does not recognize anyone. Events completely destroy Myshkin's psyche and finally turn him into an idiot. E. A. Shklovsky The demons Roman (1871-1872) The action of the novel takes place in a provincial town in early autumn. The events are narrated by the chronicler G-v, who is also a participant in the events described. His story begins with the story of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky, an idealist of the forties, and a description of his complex platonic relationship with Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina, a noble provincial lady, whose patronage he enjoys. Around Verkhovensky, who fell in love with the "civil role" and lives "embodied reproach" to the homeland, local liberal-minded youth are grouped. There is a lot of "phrase" and posture in it, but there is also enough intelligence and insight. He was the tutor of many of the characters in the novel. Formerly handsome, now he has drooped a little, is flabby, plays cards and does not deny himself champagne. The arrival of Nikolai Stavrogin, an extremely "mysterious and romantic" personality, about whom there are many rumors, is expected. He served in an elite guards regiment, fought duels, was demoted, and curried. Then it is known that he swaggered, embarked on the wildest unbridledness. Having been in his native city four years ago, he did a lot of tricks, causing general indignation: he dragged the respectable man Gaganov by the nose, painfully bit the then governor on the ear, publicly kissed someone else's wife ... In the end, everything seemed to be explained by delirium tremens. Having recovered, Stavrogin went abroad. His mother Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina, a resolute and imperious woman, worried about her son's attention to her pupil Daria Shatova and interested in his marriage to the daughter of a friend Liza Tushina, decides to marry her ward Stepan Trofimovich to Daria. He, in some horror, although not without enthusiasm, is preparing to propose. In the cathedral, at mass, Marya Timofeevna Lebyadkina, aka Khromonozhka, unexpectedly approaches Varvara Petrovna and kisses her hand. An intrigued lady, who recently received an anonymous letter informing her that a lame woman would play a serious role in her fate, invites her to her place, and Liza Tushina is also traveling with them. An excited Stepan Trofimovich is already waiting there, since it is on this day that his matchmaking with Daria is scheduled. Soon, Captain Lebyadkin, who arrived for his sister, also appears here, in whose vague speeches, interspersed with verses of his own composition, some terrible secret is mentioned and some special rights are hinted at. Suddenly they announce the arrival of Nikolai Stavrogin, who was expected only a month later. First, the fussy Pyotr Verkhovensky appears, followed by the pale and romantic handsome Stavrogin himself. Varvara Petrovna immediately asks her son whether Marya Timofeevna is his legal wife. Stavrogin silently kisses his mother's hand, then nobly grabs Lebyadkin's arm and leads her out. In his absence, Verkhovensky tells a beautiful story about how Stavrogin inspired a beautiful dream in a downtrodden holy fool, so that she even imagined him as her fiancé. Immediately he sternly asks Lebyadkin if this is true, and the captain, trembling with fear, confirms everything. Varvara Petrovna is delighted and, when her son appears again, she asks his forgiveness. However, the unexpected happens: Shatov suddenly comes up to Stavrogin and gives him a slap in the face. The fearless Stavrogin grabs him in anger, but then suddenly removes his hands behind his back. As it turns out later, this is another testament to his great strength, another test. Shatov comes out unhindered. Liza Tushina, obviously not indifferent to "Prince Harry", as Stavrogin is called, faints. Eight days pass. Stavrogin does not accept anyone, and when his seclusion ends, Pyotr Verkhovensky immediately slips in to him. He expresses readiness for everything for Stavrogin and informs about a secret society, at whose meeting they should appear together. Shortly after his visit, Stavrogin goes to the engineer Kirillov. The engineer, for whom Stavrogin means a lot, reports that he still professes his idea. Its essence is the need to get rid of God, who is nothing but; "pain of the fear of death", and declare self-will, killing himself and thus becoming a man-god. Then Stavrogin goes up to Shatov, who lives in the same house, to whom he informs that he really officially married Lebyadkina some time ago in St. Petersburg, and also about his intention to publicly announce this in the near future. He generously warns Shatov that they are going to kill him. Shatov, on whom Stavrogin had previously had a huge influence, reveals to him his new idea of a God-bearing people, which the Russian people consider, advises him to give up wealth and achieve God with peasant labor. True, to a counter question, does he himself believe in God, Shatov somewhat uncertainly answers that he believes in Orthodoxy, in Russia, that he ... will believe in God. That same night, Stavrogin goes to Lebyadkin and on the way he meets the fugitive Fedka convict, sent to him by Peter Verkhovensky. He expresses his readiness to fulfill any will of the master for a fee, but Stavrogin drives him away. He informs Lebyadkin that he is going to announce his marriage to Marya Timofeevna, whom he married "... after a drunken dinner, because of a bet on wine ...". Marya Timofeevna greets Stavrogin with a story about an ominous dream. He asks her if she is ready to go with him to Switzerland and live the rest of her life in seclusion there. The indignant Khromonozhka shouts that Stavrogin is not a prince, that her prince, the bright falcon, has been replaced, and he is an impostor, he has a knife in his pocket. Accompanied by her squeals and laughter, the enraged Stavrogin retreats. On the way back, he throws money to Fedka Convict. The next day there is a duel between Stavrogin and the local nobleman Artemy Gaganov, who summoned him for insulting his father. Seething with anger, Gaganov shoots three times and misses. Stavrogin, on the other hand, announces that he does not want to kill anyone else, and defiantly shoots into the air three times. This story greatly raises Stavrogin in the eyes of society. Meanwhile, frivolous moods and a tendency to all sorts of blasphemous pastimes have emerged in the city: mockery of newlyweds, desecration of icons, etc. The province is restless, fires are raging, giving rise to rumors of arson, proclamations calling for rebellion are found in different places, cholera is raging somewhere , the workers of the Shpigulins’ closed factory are showing dissatisfaction, a certain second lieutenant, unable to bear the reprimand of the commander, rushes at him and bites him on the shoulder, and before that he chopped up two images and lit church candles in front of the writings of Focht, Moleschott and Buchner ... In this atmosphere, a holiday is being prepared for subscription in favor of governesses, started by the wife of the governor, Yulia Mikhailovna. Varvara Petrovna, offended by Stepan Trofimovich's too obvious desire to marry and his too frank letters to his son Peter complaining that they want to marry him "on other people's sins", appoints him a pension, but at the same time announces a break. The younger Verkhovensky at this time develops vigorous activity. He is admitted to the house of the governor and enjoys the patronage of his wife Yulia Mikhailovna. She believes that he is connected with the revolutionary movement, and dreams of uncovering a state conspiracy with his help. On a meeting with Governor von Lembke, who is extremely concerned about what is happening, Verkhovensky skillfully gives him several names, in particular Shatov and Kirillov, but at the same time asks him for six days to reveal the entire organization. Then he runs to Kirillov and Shatov, notifying them of the meeting of "ours" and asking them to be there, after which he calls in for Stavrogin, who has just been visited by Mavriky Nikolaevich, the fiancé of Lisa Tushina, with a proposal that Nikolai Vsevolodovich marry her, since she is at least and hates him, but at the same time loves him. Stavrogin confesses to him that he cannot do this in any way, since he is already married. Together with Verkhovensky they go to a secret meeting. The gloomy Shigalev speaks at the meeting with his program of the "final resolution of the issue." Its essence lies in the division of humanity into two unequal parts, of which one tenth receives freedom and unlimited rights over the remaining nine tenths, turned into a herd. Then Verkhovensky proposes a provocative question, whether the participants in the meeting would have reported if they had known about the impending political assassination. Shatov suddenly rises and, calling Verkhovensky a scoundrel and a spy, leaves the meeting. This is exactly what Pyotr Stepanovich needs, who has already outlined Shatov as a sacrifice, in order to cement the formed revolutionary group, the "five", with blood. Verkhovensky ties in with Stavrogin, who has gone out with Kirillov, and in a fever, initiates them into his insane plans. His goal is to cause great confusion. "The buildup will go on like the world has never seen... Rus' will become cloudy, the earth will weep for the old gods..." Then he will be needed, Stavrogin. Handsome and aristocratic. Ivan Tsarevich. (Stavrogin visits Bishop Tikhon in the monastery and confesses to the saint that he is subject to hallucinations in which "some evil creature" appears to him, and that he believes in demons, believes canonically. He reads to him his terrible confession about the seduction of the girl Matryosha, who shortly after this committed suicide, and declares that he is going to spread his confession and thereby repent publicly.Tikhon offers him another way - the humility of his own pride, because his confession, although it testifies to the need for repentance and a thirst for martyrdom, is at the same time Tikhon also predicts: before making his confession public and in order to avoid it, Stavrogin will throw himself "into a new crime, as if into an outcome").(1) Events are growing like a snowball. Stepan Trofimovich is "described" - officials come and take away papers. Workers from the Shpigulin factory send petitioners to the governor, which causes von Lembke to have a fit of rage and almost pass for a riot. Falls under the hot hand of the mayor and Stepan Trofimovich. Immediately after this, in the governor's house, there is also Stavrogin's confusing announcement that Lebyadkina is his wife. The long-awaited day of the holiday is coming. The highlight of the first part is the reading by the famous writer Karmazinov of his farewell essay "Merci", and then Stepan Trofimovich's accusatory speech. He passionately defends Raphael and Shakespeare against the nihilists. He is booed, and cursing everyone, he proudly leaves the stage. It becomes known that Lisa Tushina in broad daylight suddenly moved from her carriage, leaving Mavriky Nikolaevich there, to Stavrogin's carriage and drove off to his Skvoreshniki estate. The highlight of the second part of the holiday is the "quadrille of literature", an ugly caricature allegorical act. The governor and his wife are beside themselves with indignation. It was then that they reported that the District was on fire, allegedly set on fire by the Shpigulins, and a little later it became known about the murder of Captain Lebyadkin, his sister and maid. The Governor is driving to a fire where a log falls on him. In Skvoreshniki, meanwhile, Stavrogin and Liza Tushina greet the morning together. Lisa intends to leave and does her best to hurt Stavrogin, who, on the contrary, is in an uncharacteristically sentimental mood for him. He asks why Lisa came to him and why there was "so much happiness." He invites her to leave together, which she takes with mockery, although at some point her eyes suddenly light up. Indirectly, in their conversation, the topic of murder also comes up - so far only a hint. At this moment, the ubiquitous Peter Verkhovensky appears. He tells Stavrogin the details of the murder and the fire in the District. Lisa Stavrogin says that he did not kill and was against it, but he knew about the impending murder and did not stop it. In hysterics, she leaves Stavrogin's house, not far from her, the devoted Mavriky Nikolaevich, who has sat all night in the rain, is waiting for her. They head to the scene of the murder and meet Stepan Trofimovich on the way, running, in his words, "out of delirium, a feverish dream, <...> to look for Russia <...>". In the crowd near the conflagration, Lisa is recognized as "Stavrogin's", since a rumor has already spread that the case was started by Stavrogin in order to get rid of his wife and take another. Someone from the crowd hits her, she falls. Lag behind Mavriky Nikolaevich manages too late. Lisa is carried away still alive, but unconscious. And Peter Verkhovensky continues to bother. He collects the top five and announces that a denunciation is being prepared. The scammer is Shatov, he must be removed by all means. After some doubts, they agree that the common cause is the most important thing. Verkhovensky, accompanied by Liputin, goes to Kirillov to remind him of the agreement according to which he must, before committing suicide in accordance with his idea, take on someone else's blood. Fedka Katorzhny is sitting in the kitchen of Kirillov drinking and eating. In anger, Verkhovensky snatches out a revolver: how could he disobey and appear here? Fedka unexpectedly beats Verkhovensky, he falls unconscious, Fedka runs away. To the witness of this scene, Liputin, Verkhovensky declares that Fedka drank vodka for the last time. In the morning, it really becomes known that Fedka was found with a broken head seven miles from the city. Liputin, who was about to run away, now has no doubts about the secret power of Peter Verkhovensky and remains. Shatov's wife Marya comes to Shatov the same evening, having left him after two weeks of marriage. She is pregnant and asks for temporary shelter. A little later, a young officer Erkel from "ours" comes to him and informs him about tomorrow's meeting. At night, Shatov's wife goes into labor. He runs after the midwife Virginskaya and then helps her. He is happy and looks forward to a new working life with his wife and child. Exhausted, Shatov falls asleep in the morning and wakes up already dark. Erkel comes in behind him, together they head to the Stavrogin park. Verkhovensky, Virginsky, Liputin, Lyamshin, Tolkachenko and Shigalev are already waiting there, who suddenly categorically refuses to take part in the murder, because it contradicts his program. Shatov is attacked. Verkhovensky shot him point blank with a revolver. Two large stones are tied to the body and thrown into the pond. Verkhovensky hurries to Kirillov. Although he is indignant, he fulfills his promise - he writes a note under dictation and takes the blame for the murder of Shatov, and then shoots himself. Verkhovensky collects his things and leaves for St. Petersburg, from there abroad. Having set off on his last wandering, Stepan Trofimovich dies in a peasant hut in the arms of Varvara Petrovna, who rushed after him. Before his death, a random fellow traveler, to whom he tells his whole life, reads the Gospel to him, and he compares the possessed, from whom Christ cast out the demons that entered the pigs, with Russia. This passage from the Gospel is taken by the chronicler as one of the epigraphs to the novel. All participants in the crime, except for Verkhovensky, were soon arrested, extradited by Lyamshin. Daria Shatova receives a letter of confession from Stavrogin, who admits that "<...> one denial poured out of it, without any generosity and without any strength." He calls Daria with him to Switzerland, where he bought a small house in the canton of Uri to live there forever. Daria gives the letter to Varvara Petrovna to read, but then both learn that Stavrogin has unexpectedly appeared in Skvoreshniki. They rush there and find a "citizen of the canton of Uri" hanged on the mezzanine. E. A. Shklovsky Подросток Roman (1875) Arkady Makarovich Dolgoruky, who is also a Teenager, tells in his notes about himself and recent events in which he was one of the main participants. He is twenty years old, he had just graduated from a gymnasium in Moscow, but he decided to postpone entering the university so as not to be distracted from the implementation of the cherished idea, which he had hatched almost from the sixth grade. His idea is to become a Rothschild, that is, to accumulate a lot of money, and along with the money to gain power and solitude. According to him, it is difficult for Arkady with people, he is lost, it seems to him that they are laughing at him, he begins to assert himself and becomes too expansive. The idea did not accidentally crept into his soul. Arkady is the illegitimate son of the well-born nobleman Andrei Petrovich Versilov and his yard, which gives rise to an inferiority complex in him, a proud and proud teenager. He has a different surname - his formal father, also a yard Versilov, Makar Ivanovich Dolgoruky, but this is just another reason for humiliation - when meeting him, he is often asked again: Prince Dolgoruky? Before the gymnasium, he was brought up in the boarding school of the Frenchman Touchard, where he suffered many humiliations because of his illegitimacy. All this made him especially impressionable and vulnerable. Once, having come to his half-brother, the legitimate son of Versilov, to receive money sent by his father, he was not received, although his brother was at home, the money was transferred through a footman, which caused a storm of indignation in Arcadia. His self-esteem is constantly on the alert and easily wounded, but, kind and enthusiastic by nature, with a friendly and benevolent attitude towards him, he quickly passes from resentment and hostility to love and adoration. He comes to St. Petersburg at the invitation of his father to enter the service. In addition, his mother, meek and pious Sofya Andreevna, and sister Liza live there, and most importantly, his father, Andrey Petrovich Versilov, who belongs to the highest Russian cultural type of "worldwide support for everyone." Versilov professes the idea of spiritual nobility, the highest aristocracy of the spirit, considers the highest Russian cultural thought to be "the reconciliation of ideas" and "world citizenship". In the heart of a teenager, he holds a huge place. Brought up by strangers, Arkady only once saw his father, and he made an indelible impression on him. “Each dream of mine, from childhood, resonated with him: it hovered around him, reduced to him in the final result. I don’t know whether I hated or loved him, but he filled with himself my whole future, all my calculations for life.” He thinks a lot about him, trying to understand what kind of person he is, he collects rumors and opinions about him from different people. Versilov is an ideal for him: beauty, intelligence, depth, aristocracy... And especially nobility, which, nevertheless, is constantly questioned by Arkady. Arkady arrives in St. Petersburg wary and aggressive towards Versilov. He wants to crush the slander against him, crush his enemies, but at the same time he suspects him of base and dishonorable deeds. He wants to know the whole truth about him. He heard a lot about his piety and passion for Catholicism, something is known about his proposal to Lidia Akhmakova, as well as about the slap in the face of Prince Sergei Sokolsky, to which Versilov did not respond. After some scandalous act, Versilov is expelled from high society, but everything is shrouded in fog and mystery. Arkady is appointed secretary to Versilov's former friend, the old prince Nikolai Ivanovich Sokolsky, who becomes attached to an intelligent and impulsive young man. However, he soon resigns from his position out of pride, especially since the prince's daughter, the beautiful Katerina Nikolaevna Akhmakova, who has long been hostile to Versilov, accuses Arkady of espionage. By chance, two important letters turn out to be in the hands of Arkady: from one it follows that the process won by Versilov about the inheritance with the princes Sokolsky can be revised not in his favor. The second, written by Katerina Nikolaevna, speaks of the dementia of her father, the old prince Sokolsky, and the need to take him into custody. The letter is capable of arousing the wrath of the old prince with dire consequences for the daughter, namely deprivation of inheritance. This "document", around which the main intrigue revolves, is sewn up in the lining of Arkady's coat, although he tells everyone, including Katerina Nikolaevna, that the letter was burned by his acquaintance Kraft (he gave it to Arkady), who soon shot himself. The first explanation with Versilov leads to a temporary reconciliation, although Arkady's attitude towards his father remains wary. He acts as a demon-tempter, giving Versilov a letter of inheritance, believing that he will hide it, and justifying him in advance. In addition, in order to protect the honor of his father, he decides to challenge the same Prince Sergei Sokolsky, who once slapped Versilov, to a duel. Arkady goes to his friend Vasin to ask him to be a second, and there he meets his stepfather, the swindler Stebelkov, from whom he learns about Versilov's infant from Lydia Akhmakova. Immediately in the next room, a scandal is played out, also in some mysterious way connected with Versilov. Soon, Arkady will find the continuation of this scandal at his mother's apartment, where he accidentally arrives at the same time as a young girl Olya, who angrily accuses Versilov of meanness and throws the money given to him, and a little later commits suicide. Trouble in the mind of a teenager. Versilov appears as a secret corrupter. After all, Arkady himself is the fruit of Versilov's sinful passion for someone else's wife, whom he takes away from her lawful husband. Where is the honor? Where is the debt? Where is the nobility? Arkady finally expresses to his father everything that has accumulated in his soul over the years of humiliation, suffering and reflection, and announces his break with Versilov, so that he can then proudly retire to his corner and hide there. He does not leave the thought of a duel with Prince Sergei Sokolsky and challenges him, but he expresses his deep repentance and no less deep respect for Versilov himself. They part as great friends. Immediately it becomes known that Versilov renounced the inheritance in favor of the princes. It turns out that it was not his fault in Olya's suicide: they gave her money completely disinterestedly, as help, but she, who had already become the object of heinous attacks several times, misunderstood his act. Two months pass, Arkady dressed up as a dandy and leads the most secular way of life, taking money from Prince Sergei Sokolsky on account of those that, as it were, rely on Versilov. His main hobby is playing roulette. He plays often, but that doesn't stop him. Versilov visits Arkady from time to time for a chat. The closest and most trusting relationship is established between father and son. Friendly relations are established with Arkady and with Katerina Nikolaevna Akhmakova. Meanwhile, it becomes known that the legitimate daughter of Versilov, the half-sister of Arkady Anna Andreevna, intends to marry the old prince Sokolsky and is extremely preoccupied with the question of the inheritance. For her, the document discrediting the daughter of Prince Akhmakova is important, and she is extremely interested in it. One day, Katerina Nikolaevna appoints Arkady a meeting with his aunt Tatyana Pavlovna Prutkova. He flies winged and, finding her alone, is even more inspired, dreaming that he has an appointment for a love date. Yes, he suspected her of deceit, of wanting to know about the document, but now, fascinated by her innocence and cordiality, he admiringly composes a hymn to her beauty and chastity. She slightly pushes the young man who has become too excited, although she does not at all seek to extinguish the fire that has flared up in him. In a semi-feverish state, Arkady plays roulette and wins a lot of money. During a hysterical explanation with Prince Serezha, who offended Arkady by turning away from him in the gambling hall, he learns that his sister Lisa is pregnant from the prince. Dumbfounded, Arkady gives him everything he has won. Arkady tells Versilov in every detail about his meeting with Akhmakova, and he sends her an angry, insulting letter. Arkady, having learned about the letter, in anguish seeks to explain himself to Katerina Nikolaevna, but she avoids him. Arkady plays roulette again and wins again, but he is unfairly accused of stealing other people's money and pushed out of the gambling hall. Impressed by the humiliation he experienced, he falls asleep in the cold, he dreams of a boarding house, where he was offended by both Touchard and his friend Lambert, he wakes up from someone's blows and sees ... Lambert. An old friend brings him to him, gives him wine to drink, and Arkady, in a fit of frankness, tells him about the fatal document. From that moment on, the villain Lambert begins to weave his vile intrigues, trying to use Arcadia as well. In turn, Prince Sergei Sokolsky, a kindly but weak-willed person, turns out to be somehow involved in the forgery of shares, which is carried out by the swindler Stebelkov, who also weaves his nets around the hero. Not devoid of conscience and honor, the prince goes to the police and confesses everything. Arrested, however, he commits another meanness - out of jealousy, he informs on Vasin, who owns a certain seditious manuscript, given by him to Liza and from her already got to Sokolsky. As a result, Vasin was also arrested. On the same days, the seriously ill Arkady meets his legitimate father Makar Ivanovich Dolgoruky, a handsome and pious old man who collected money for the construction of the temple on his travels, and now, due to illness, he has stopped at Arkady's mother. During their conversations, the wise old man sheds light on his soul. The arrival of the old prince Sokolsky with Anna Andreevna is expected, and they intend to place the prince in the same apartment where Arkady lives, in the hope that he will not stand it when he sees the prince in a state of fear and depression, and will show him Akhmakova’s letter. Meanwhile, Makar Ivanovich dies, as a result of which Versilov gets the opportunity to legally marry Arkady's mother. But a frenzied passion for Akhmakova flares up in him again, driving him to insanity. In front of the eyes of the whole family, he splits the icon especially dear to Sofya Andreevna, bequeathed to him by Makar Ivanovich, and leaves. Arkady looks for him and overhears Versilov's explanation with Akhmakova. He is shocked by his father's passion, in which love and hate fight. Akhmakova admits that she once loved him, but now she definitely doesn’t love him, and she marries Baron Bjoring because she will be calm for him. Sympathizing with his father and wanting to save him, hating and at the same time jealous of Akhmakova, confused in his own feelings, Arkady runs to Lambert and discusses with him actions against Akhmakova in order to disgrace her. Lambert gets the Teenager soldered and at night, with the help of his mistress Alfonsinka, steals the document, sewing up an empty piece of paper instead. The next day, the old prince Sokolsky arrives. Anna Andreevna is trying in every possible way to influence her brother, but Arkady, having repented after desperate frankness with Lambert, categorically refuses to act against Akhmakova. Meanwhile, Bjoring breaks into the apartment and takes the prince away by force. Now defending the honor of Anna Andreevna, Arkady tries to fight, but to no avail. They take him to the station. Soon he is released, and he learns that Lambert and Versilov lured Katerina Nikolaevna to Arkady's aunt Tatyana Pavlovna. He hurries there and is in time at the most critical moments: Lambert, threatening with a document, and then with a revolver, extorts money from Akhmakova. At this moment, Versilov, who was hiding, runs out, takes away the revolver and stuns Lambert with it. Katerina Nikolaevna faints in horror. Versilov picks her up in his arms and senselessly carries her in his arms, and then lays his victim on the bed and, suddenly remembering the revolver, wants to shoot first at her, and then at himself. During the struggle with Arkady and Trishatov, who came to his aid, he tries to commit suicide, but he hits not in the heart, but in the shoulder. After the crisis, Versilov remains with Sofya Andreevna, Akhmakov breaks up with Bjoring, and the Teenager, who has not renounced his idea, now, however, "already in a completely different form," is persuaded to enter the university. These notes, according to the hero, served his re-education - "precisely the process of remembering and writing down." E. A. Shklovsky The Brothers Karamazov Roman (1879-1880) The action takes place in the provincial town of Skotoprigonyevsk in the 1870s. In the monastery, in the skete of the famous elder Zosima, a famous ascetic and healer, the Karamazovs, father Fyodor Pavlovich and sons, the elder Dmitry and the middle Ivan, gather to clarify their family property affairs. At the same meeting, the younger brother Alyosha, a novice with Zosima, as well as a number of other persons are present - a relative of the Karamazovs, a wealthy landowner and liberal Miusov, seminarian Rakitin and several clergymen. The reason is Dmitry's dispute with his father about hereditary relations. Dmitry believes that his father owes him a large amount, although he has no obvious legal rights. Fedor Pavlovich, a nobleman, a small landowner, a former hooker, angry and touchy, is not going to give his son money at all, but agrees to a meeting with Zosima more out of curiosity. Dmitry's relationship with his father, who never showed much concern for his son, is tense not only because of money, but also because of the woman - Grushenka, with whom both are passionately in love. Dmitry knows that the lustful old man has money prepared for her, that he is even ready to marry if she agrees. The meeting at the skete introduces almost all the main characters at once. Passionate impetuous Dmitry is capable of rash acts, in which he later deeply repents. smart, mysterious Ivan is tormented by the question of the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, as well as the key question for the novel - is everything allowed or not everything? If there is immortality, then not all, and if not, then an intelligent person can arrange himself in this world as he pleases - such is the alternative. Fyodor Pavlovich is a cynic, a voluptuary, a brawler, a comedian, a money-grubber, with all his appearance and actions, he causes disgust and protest in those around him, including his own sons. Alyosha is a young righteous man, a pure soul, he is rooting for everyone, especially for his brothers. Nothing from this meeting, except for the scandal, which will be followed by many more, does not occur. However, the wise and insightful elder Zosima, who keenly feels the pain of others, finds a word and a gesture for each of the participants in the meeting. Before Dmitry, he kneels and bows to the ground, as if anticipating his future suffering, Ivan answers that the issue has not yet been resolved in his heart, but if it is not resolved in the positive direction, then it will not be resolved in the negative direction, and blesses him. He remarks to Fyodor Pavlovich that all his buffoonery comes from the fact that he is ashamed of himself. From the weary old man, most of the meeting participants, at the invitation of the hegumen, go to the refectory, but Fyodor Pavlovich suddenly appears there with speeches denouncing the monks. After another scandal, everyone scatters. After the departure of the guests, the elder blesses Alyosha Karamazov for great obedience in the world, punishing him to be near his brothers. Following the instructions of the elder, Alyosha goes to his father and meets brother Dmitry hiding in the garden next to his father's estate, who guards his beloved Grushenka here, if she, tempted by money, still decides to come to Fyodor Pavlovich. Here, in an old gazebo, Dmitry enthusiastically confesses to Alyosha. He, Dmitry, happened to plunge into the deepest shame of depravity, but in this shame he begins to feel a connection with God, to feel the great joy of life. He, Dmitri, is a voluptuous insect, like all Karamazovs, and voluptuousness is a storm, big storms. The ideal of the Madonna lives in him, as well as the ideal of Sodom. Beauty is a terrible thing, Dmitry says, here the devil fights with God, and the battlefield is people's hearts. Dmitry also tells Alyosha about his relationship with Katerina Ivanovna, a noble maiden, whose father he once saved from disgrace, lending him the money missing for the report in the state sum. He suggested that the proud girl herself come to him for money, she came, humiliated, ready for anything, but Dmitry behaved like a noble person, gave her this money, without demanding anything in return. Now they are considered a bride and groom, but Dmitry is carried away by Grushenka and even squandered with her at an inn in the village of Mokroe three thousand, given to him by Katerina Ivanovna to be sent to his sister in Moscow. He considers this his main shame and, as an honest person, he must return the entire amount without fail. If Grushenka comes to the old man, then Dmitry, according to him, will break in and interfere, and if ... then he will kill the old man, whom he hates fiercely. Dmitry asks his brother to go to Katerina Ivanovna and tell her that he bows, but will not come again. In his father's house, Alyosha finds Fyodor Pavlovich and brother Ivan over cognac, amused by the arguments of the footman Smerdyakov, the son of the tramp Lizaveta and, according to some assumptions, Fyodor Pavlovich. And soon Dmitry suddenly bursts in, who thought that Grushenka had come. In a rage, he beats his father, but after making sure that he made a mistake, he runs away. Alyosha goes at his request to Katerina Ivanovna, where she unexpectedly finds Grushenka. Katerina Ivanovna affectionately courts her, showing that she was mistaken, considering her corrupt, and she answers her meticulously. Ultimately, everything again ends in a scandal: Grushenka, about to kiss Katerina Ivanovna's hand, suddenly defiantly refuses to do so, insulting her rival and provoking her fury. The next day, Alyosha, after spending the night in the monastery, again goes on worldly business - first to his father, where he listens to another confession, now Fyodor Pavlovich, who complains to him about his sons, and says about the money that he himself needs them, because he still after all, the man wants to be on this line for another twenty years, that he wants to live in his filth to the end and will not yield to Grushenka Dmitry. He gossips to Alyosha and about Ivan, that he beats off Dmitry's bride, because he himself is in love with Katerina Ivanovna. On the way, Alyosha sees schoolchildren throwing stones at a small lonely boy. When Alyosha comes up to him, he first throws a stone at him, and then bites his finger painfully. This boy is the son of Staff Captain Snegirev, who was recently humiliatingly dragged out of the tavern by the beard and beaten by Dmitri Karamazov for having some kind of promissory note dealings with Fyodor Pavlovich and Grushenka. In Khokhlakov's house, Alyosha finds Ivan and Katerina Ivanovna and becomes a witness to another strain: Katerina Ivanovna explains that she will be faithful to Dmitry, will be "a means for his happiness", and asks Alyosha's opinion, who ingenuously declares that she does not love Dmitry at all, but I just convinced myself. Ivan says that he is leaving for a long time, because he does not want to sit "next to the anguish", and adds that she needs Dmitry to contemplate continuously her feat of fidelity and reproach him for infidelity. With two hundred rubles given to him by Katerina Ivanovna for the staff captain Snegirev, who suffered at the hands of Dmitry, Alyosha goes to him. At first, the captain, the father of a large family living in extreme poverty and illness, plays the fool, and then, having become emotional, confesses to Alyosha. He accepts money from him and with inspiration imagines what he can now accomplish. Then Alyosha again visits Mrs. Khokhlakov and has a sincere conversation with her daughter Liza, a sickly and expansive girl who recently wrote to him about her love and decided that Alyosha must definitely marry her. After a short time, she confesses to Alyosha that she would like to be tormented - for example, to be married and then abandoned. She describes to him a terrible scene of torturing a crucified child, imagining that she herself did it, and then sat down opposite and began to eat pineapple compote, "The Devil" - Ivan Karamazov will call her. Alyosha goes to a tavern, where, as he learned, brother Ivan is. One of the key scenes of the novel takes place in the tavern - a date between two "Russian boys", who, if they get together, then immediately start talking about eternal world issues. God and immortality is one of them. Ivan reveals his secret, answering an unasked, but extremely interesting question to Alyosha, "what do you believe?". In him, Ivan, there is a Karamazovian thirst for life, he loves life contrary to logic, sticky spring leaves are dear to him. And he does not accept God, but the world of God, full of immeasurable suffering. He refuses to agree with the harmony based on the teardrop of a child. He lays out "facts" to Alyosha, testifying to blatant human cruelty and childish suffering. Ivan retells Alyosha his poem "The Grand Inquisitor", which takes place in the sixteenth century in the Spanish city of Seville. The ninety-year-old cardinal imprisons Christ, who has descended to earth for the second time, and during a nightly meeting sets out to Him his view of humanity. He is convinced that Christ idealized it and that it is unworthy of freedom. The choice between good and evil is torment for a person. The Grand Inquisitor and his comrades-in-arms decide to correct the cause of Christ - to overcome freedom and arrange human happiness themselves, turning humanity into an obedient herd. They take upon themselves the right to dispose of human life. The inquisitor is waiting for an answer from Christ, but he only silently kisses him. After parting with Alyosha, Ivan meets Smerdyakov on the way home, and a decisive conversation takes place between them. Smerdyakov advises Ivan to go to the village of Chermashnya, where the old man is selling a grove, he hints that in his absence anything can happen to Fyodor Pavlovich. Ivan is angry with Smerdyakov's impudence, but at the same time he is intrigued. He guesses that much now depends on his decision. He decides to go, although on the way he changes the route and goes not to Chermashnya, but to Moscow. Meanwhile, the elder Zosima dies. Everyone is waiting for a miracle after the death of a righteous man, but instead, the smell of decay very soon appears, which causes confusion in the souls. Alyosha is also embarrassed. In this mood, he leaves the monastery, accompanied by the atheist seminarian Rakitin, an intriguer and envious person, who leads him to Grushenka's house. They find the mistress in anxious expectation of some kind of news. Delighted by the arrival of Alyosha, she at first behaves like a cocotte, sits on his knees, but, having learned about the death of Zosima, she changes dramatically. In response to Alyosha's kind words and the fact that he calls her a sinful sister, Grushenka thaws in her heart and devotes him to her torment. She is waiting for news from her "ex", who once seduced her and left her. For many years she cherished the thought of revenge, and now she is ready to crawl like a little dog. And indeed, immediately after receiving the news, she rushes to the call of the "former" in Wet, where he stopped. Alyosha, pacified, returns to the monastery, prays near the tomb of Zosima, listens to Father Paisius reading the Gospel about marriage in Cana of Galilee, and he, dozing, seems to be an old man who praises him for Grushenka. Alyosha's heart is more and more filled with delight. Waking up, he comes out of the cell, sees the stars, the golden domes of the cathedral, and plunges in a joyful frenzy to the ground, hugs and kisses her, touching other worlds with his soul. He wants to forgive everyone and ask everyone for forgiveness. Something solid and unshakable enters his heart, transforming him. At this time, Dmitry Karamazov, tormented by jealousy for his father because of Grushenka, rushes about in search of money. He wants to take her away and start a virtuous life somewhere with her. He also needs money in order to repay the debt to Katerina Ivanovna. He goes to the patron of Grushenka, the rich merchant Kuzma Samsonov, offering his dubious rights to Chermashnya for three thousand, and he, in mockery, sends him to the merchant Gorstkin (aka Lyagavy), who sells a grove with Fyodor Pavlovich. Dmitri rushes to Gorstkin, finds him sleeping, takes care of him all night, almost pissed off, and in the morning, waking up after a short slumber, he finds the peasant hopelessly drunk. In desperation, Dmitry goes to Khokhlakova to borrow money, the same tries to inspire him with the idea of gold mines. Having lost time, Dmitry realizes that he may have missed Grushenka, and, not finding her at home, sneaks to his father's house. He sees his father alone, waiting, but doubt does not leave him, so he makes a secret conventional knock, which Smerdyakov taught him, and, making sure that Grushenka is not there, runs away. At this moment, Fyodor Pavlovich's valet Grigory, who came out onto the porch of his house, notices him. He rushes after him and catches up when he climbs over the fence. Dmitri beats him with a pestle he had captured in Grushenka's house. Grigory falls, Dmitry jumps down to see if he is alive, and wipes his bloodied head with a handkerchief. Then he again runs to Grushenka and already there he is trying to get the truth from the maid. Dmitry, with a pack of one hundred-ruble credits suddenly in his hands, goes to the official Perkhotin, to whom he recently pawned pistols for ten rubles in order to buy them back. Here he puts himself in order a little, although his whole appearance, blood on his hands and clothes, as well as mysterious words, arouse Perkhotin's suspicions. In a nearby shop, Dmitry orders champagne and other dishes, ordering them to be delivered to Wet. And he, without waiting, jumps there on a troika. At the inn, he finds Grushenka, two Poles, a handsome young man Kalganov and the landowner Maksimov, entertaining everyone with his buffoonery. Grushenka greets Dmitri with fear, but then rejoices at his arrival. He is shy and fawns before her and before all those present. The conversation does not stick, then a game of cards is started. Dmitry begins to lose, and then, seeing the fire in the eyes of the gentlemen who have entered into excitement, he offers the "former" money to back down from Grushenka. Suddenly it turns out that the Poles have changed the deck and are cheating during the game. They are taken out and locked in a room, the festivities begin - a feast, songs, dances ... Grushenka, drunk, suddenly realizes that she loves only Dmitry and is now connected with him forever. Soon a police officer, an investigator and a prosecutor appear in Wet. Dmitry is accused of parricide. He is amazed - after all, only the blood of the servant Gregory is on his conscience, and when he is informed that the servant is alive, he is greatly inspired and readily answers questions. It turns out that not all of Katerina Ivanovna's money was spent by him, but only a part, the rest was sewn into a bag that Dmitry wore on his chest. This was his "great secret". That was a shame for him, romance in his soul, who showed some prudence and even prudence. It is this recognition that is given to him with the greatest difficulty. The investigator, however, cannot understand this at all, and other facts testify against Dmitry. In a dream, Mitya sees a child crying in the fog in the arms of an emaciated woman, he keeps trying to find out why it is crying, why they don’t feed it, why the bare steppe and why they don’t sing joyful songs. A great, never-before-seen tenderness rises in him, and he wants to do something, he wants to live and live, and go on his way "towards a new calling light." Soon it turns out that Fyodor Pavlovich was killed by the footman Smerdyakov, who pretended to be a broken epileptic. Just at the moment when old Grigory was lying unconscious, he came out and, beckoning Fyodor Pavlovich Grushenka, forced him to unlock the door, hit his paperweight several times on the head, and took the fateful three thousand from a place known only to him. Now the really sick Smerdyakov himself tells about everything to Ivan Karamazov who visited him, the mastermind of the crime. After all, it was his idea of permissiveness that made an indelible impression on Smerdyakov. Ivan does not want to admit that the crime was committed with his secret consent and with his connivance, but the pangs of conscience are so strong that he goes crazy. He imagines the devil, a kind of Russian gentleman in plaid trousers and with a lorgnette, who mockingly expresses his own thoughts, and Ivan tortures him whether there is a God or not. During the last meeting with Smerdyakov, Ivan says that he will confess everything at the upcoming trial, and he, confused, at the sight of the infirmity of Ivan, who meant so much to him, gives him the money, and then hangs himself. Katerina Ivanovna, together with Ivan Fedorovich, make plans for Dmitry's escape to America. However, the rivalry between her and Grushenka continues, Katerina Ivanovna is not yet sure how she will act in court - the rescuer or the destroyer of her former fiancé. Dmitry, during a meeting with Alyosha, expresses a desire and readiness to suffer and be cleansed by suffering. The trial begins with the questioning of witnesses. The evidence for and against at first does not add up to a clear picture, but rather, all the same, in favor of Dmitry. Everyone is amazed by the performance of Ivan Fedorovich, who, after painful hesitation, informs the court that he killed Smerdyakov, who hanged himself, and in confirmation lays out a bundle of money received from him. Smerdyakov killed, he says, and I taught. He is delirious in a fever, blaming everyone, he is taken away by force, but immediately after this, Katerina Ivanovna's hysteria begins. She presents to the court a document of "mathematical" importance - a letter received by Dmitry on the eve of the crime, where he threatens to kill his father and take the money. This indication is decisive. Katerina Ivanovna destroys Dmitry in order to save Ivan. Further, the local prosecutor and the well-known capital lawyer Fetyukovich spoke brightly, eloquently and in detail. Both cleverly and subtly reason, paint a picture of Russian Karamazovism, astutely analyze the social and psychological causes of the crime, convincing that the circumstances, the atmosphere, the environment and the low father, who is worse than someone else's offender, could not but push him to it. Both conclude that Dimitri is the killer, albeit an unwitting one. The jury finds Dmitry guilty. Dmitry is condemned. After the trial, Dmitry falls ill with nervous fever. Katerina Ivanovna comes to him and admits that Dmitry will forever remain an ulcer in her heart. And that even though she loves another, and he loves another, she will still love him, Dmitry, forever. And he is punished to love himself all his life. With Grushenka, they remain implacable enemies, even though Katerina Ivanovna reluctantly asks her forgiveness. The novel ends with the funeral of Ilyushenka Snegirev, the son of Captain Snegirev. Alyosha Karamazov calls on the boys gathered at the grave, with whom he became friends when visiting Ilyusha during his illness, to be kind, honest, never forget about each other and not be afraid of life, because life is beautiful when good and truthful things are done. E. A. Shklovsky Alexey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky (1821-1881) A thousand souls Roman (1853-1858) The action takes place in the mid-40s. XNUMXth century in the county town of Zn-sk. The superintendent of the school, Pyotr Mikhailovich Godnev, retired with a pension, and a certain Kalinovich, a young man who graduated from the law faculty 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 strikes him greatly: “It was one of those life clicks that take away faith in oneself and make a person a rag, rubbish, who sees ahead only the need to live, but why and for what, he doesn’t know that” . On this day, Kalinovich tells the Godnevs' story of his life, "constant moral humiliation": orphaned early, he grew up on bread from a man who once ruined his father, and was a tutor and a toy for his stupid children; after the death of the "benefactor", 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 "should wallow and suffocate." The last blow - 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 revenge on vicious people for what I myself carry without guilt." Then there is a private conversation between Kalinovich and Nastenka: Nastenka reproaches Kalinovich for calling himself unhappy, although she knows that she loves him; Kalinovich admits that "love alone cannot fill a man's heart, and even more so my heart, because I <...> am terribly ambitious." A few days later Kalinovich reads his story at 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 man of fifty, a swindler and, as you might guess, Polina's lover. Polina is exhausted by her mother's stinginess and the ambiguity of her situation; Prince Ivan advises her to marry; Kalinovich seems to him a suitable groom, the only decent person in the city (the prince heard about his literary pursuits from Godnev). Nastenka, having learned that Kalinovich was invited to visit the Shevalovs, the very house where she was once humiliated, asks Kalinovich to refuse the invitation, speaks of bad forebodings; Kalinovich accuses her of selfishness. In the Shevalovs, Kalinovich was most of all struck by comfort: "for the children of this century, glory ... love ... world ideas ... immortality is nothing before comfort." Soon Kalinovich reads his story at the Shevalovs' evening; they also called Nastenka, curious to see Kalinovich's mistress; Nastenka's presence is unexpected for Kalinovich, he is even ashamed of her non-secular appearance and "indecent" love. At the evening, Kalinovich saw the daughter of Prince Ivan, a brilliant beauty, and, not falling out of love with Nastenka, fell in love with the princess: “two loves lived in the soul of the hero, which, as you know, is by no means allowed in novels, but in life <...> every step." The prince invites Kalinovich to live a little in his estate in the summer; The Shevalovs are his neighbors. One day, the prince frankly invites Kalinovich to marry a rich bride, Polina, and convinces him that an early marriage to a poor one will ruin his career. The cynicism of the prince strikes the hero, he refuses Polina. The conversation, however, had its effect: Kalinovich decides to leave Nastenka and leaves for Petersburg; in order to avoid difficult scenes, he, deceiving the Godnevs, announces his engagement to Nastenka. The decision made torments Kalinovich to such an extent that he wants to die. On the road, looking at a merchant fellow traveler, the hero thinks indignantly: "For ten rubles, he is probably ready to leave ten mistresses, and of course, it can be explained to an aspen rather 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 < ...> are not able to change the woman we love so much as in 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 the new generation, which has finally 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, it seemed, there were no strong passions and sufferings, while Kalinovich, "with all the practical aspirations characteristic of him, we have been in a truly romantic position for about three years <...> 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 a while, the couple lives quietly and happily; they are hung by Bela-vin, 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 is taking him to dine at Dussault's and to Polina's luxurious dacha. Polina's mother died, and Polina is now very rich, Kalinovich decides: he asks the prince if he can still woo Polina; the prince undertakes to secure the consent of the girl for him and demands fifty thousand for mediation. The author defends the hero from the reader: "if you blame someone, it's better than a century ..." 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 a meeting: “ten years later <…> this woman responded again, who had some kind of dog affection for him.” Kalinovich joyfully thanks God: "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 strong 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 meets Kalinovich simply, friendly and with the same love; tells how she lived without him, how she fell in love with Belavin: "We all do not have the ability to love exactly one creature, but are simply able to love or not." Belavin was frightened 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 in your life, you suffer, you finally feel either sympathy or sympathy for people and their well-known beliefs. disgust, and now you will 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". G. V. Zykova bitter fate Drama (1859) In anticipation of the return of the quitrent peasant Anania Yakovleva from St. Petersburg, "a man from the heart of a proud, original", hardworking and economic, in a festively cleaned hut, looking anxiously at the swept road, two old women are talking - Spiridonievna and Matrena, 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 from 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 at first explains her dishonor by fear, threats, coercion and the desire to save her husband from recruitment. The anger and torment of Ananias is all the stronger because he himself did not live a day or a night without the thought of a house, putting family and Christian duty above all else. In the end, having mastered himself, he decides, in order to avoid shame, to forgive Lizaveta, and to adopt the little boy of a month and a half, on the condition of a complete cessation of love relations with the master ... Meanwhile, in the landowner's house, in the office, Cheglov-Sokovin, drooping, thin and exhausted, sits with his head bowed, and his sister's husband, the flourishing dandy Zolotilov, is lounging in an armchair. He instructs Cheglov on the true path with examples from the life of the county environment and his own experience of a successful connection 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 suggested, in order to save her from shame, to throw the baby to the steward. She refused: "I am a sinner to them and I must suffer for that." The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the steward Kalistrat Grigoriev with a report on the arrival of Ananias, his "ugliness", "tyranny" and Lizaveta, who "rushed" to the master. Through sobs, she admits that Ananias now has one intention - to excommunicate and take her with her son to St. Petersburg, and for her it is “worse than death”, because before, forcibly, she looked at the young master when he came to the village, and now and not a husband's wife at all. Cheglov, succumbing to the persuasion of the steward and Lizaveta, agrees to speak frankly on an equal footing with Anania, explaining that it is a matter of love, and offers him either a monetary ransom or a duel. The conversation between the three in front of witnesses offends Ananias even more. He recalls the steward, how he deceived the master with a drunken land surveyor and sold bread stealthily. A skirmish ensues, during which the details of Ananias' family life, transmitted by Lizaveta, are clarified. Ananias, in a rage, threatens her with reprisals. The frightened Cheglov orders the steward to make sure that "a hair does not fall from her head." The Burmister, having harbored a grudge against Ananias for a long time, 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, a lawyer and a police officer were stationed; they were gathering the peasants and preparing for interrogation. The steward, ordering and justifying himself, “why they didn’t stop and arrest”, denigrates the missing Ananias and secretly conspires with the executors of the county authorities to quickly hush up the case with a bribe of one hundred and fifty rubles. Sotsky brings Matryona. “Shaking all over,” she repeats the words of the steward: “I wasn’t ... I don’t know.” An official for special assignments appears, a young man with a protruding jaw, in a dapper uniform, with long beautiful nails, ambitious, but not smart, looks through the papers, drives everyone away, pushes Matryona, the steward, and orders to torture the murderer's wife. Lizaveta does not stay on her feet, falls and only sobs: "... I am a sinner, a sinner" - "I have moved in my mind." At the request of an official, Nikon is let out of the passage and his drunken, incoherent testimony is recorded, which Zolotilov opposes, constantly interfering in the proceedings with a demand to reckon with his "separate opinion" regarding the nobility. At this time, the peasant Davyd Ivanov announces the capture of Ananias, whom he met near the forest on his strip when he was harrowing. He voluntarily surrendered to the authorities. Ananias is shackled. His expression is exhausted and completely suffering. To the question - "why did I give up? I would live there in the desert ...", to bureaucratic persuasion to prove that the wife had an illegitimate child, and thereby mitigate the punishment for himself, - Ananiy replies: "I didn’t go looking for life ... I looked forward to death ... you can run away and hide from the court of man, but there is nowhere from God!”, “It’s not for me to be their judge and dokaschik: my sin is greater than all theirs ...” The official accuses the peasants, primarily the steward, of conspiracy, of strike. He goes to the governor to bring the case to light, with him Zolotilov - to defend the honor of a nobleman. The steward is released. Ananias is collected in prison. He says goodbye to everyone. Burmistra kisses the first, bows. Suitable for mother and wife. She rushes into his arms first. He kisses her on the head. She falls and hugs his legs. Matryona baptizes him. Ananias bows. Everyone follows him. The women begin to howl. G. V. Zykova Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov (1821-1877/78) Sasha Poem (1856) In a family of steppe landowners, daughter Sasha grows like a wild flower. Her parents are glorious old men, honest in their cordiality, "flattery is disgusting to them, but arrogance is unknown." Parents tried in childhood to give their daughter everything that their small means allowed; however, science and books seemed superfluous to them. In the wilderness of the steppe, Sasha retains the freshness of a swarthy blush, the gleam of black laughing eyes and "the original clarity of the soul." Until the age of sixteen, Sasha knows neither passions nor worries, she breathes freely in the expanse of fields, among the steppe freedom and freedom. Anxiety and doubt are also unfamiliar to Sasha: the exultation of life, poured into nature itself, is for her a guarantee of God's mercy. The only slave she has to see is the river, seething at the mill with no hope of breaking out into the open. And, watching the fruitless anger of the river, Sasha thinks that murmuring against fate is insane ... The girl admires the friendly work of the villagers, in whom she sees the guardians of a simple life. She likes to run among the fields, pick flowers and sing simple songs. Admiring how the daughter's head flickers in the ripe rye, the parents look forward to a good groom for her. In winter, Sasha listens to his nanny's fairy tales or, full of happiness, flies down the mountain on a sled. It happens that she also knows sadness: "Sasha cried, as the forest was cut down." She cannot remember without tears how the dead bodies of trees lay motionless, how the yellow mouths of the jackdaws that had fallen out of the nest were gaping. But in the upper branches of the pines left after cutting down, Sasha imagines the nests of firebirds, in which new chicks are about to hatch. Sasha's morning dream is quiet and strong. And although the "first dawns of the passions of the young" are already blushing her cheeks, there is still no torment in her vague heartfelt anxieties. Soon, the owner, Lev Alekseevich Agarin, arrives at the neighboring large estate, which has been empty for forty years already. He is thin and pale, looks into his lorgnette, talks kindly to the servants, and calls himself a migratory bird. Agarin traveled all over the world, and upon returning home, as he says, an eagle circled over him, as if prophesying a great fate. Agarin visits his neighbors more and more often, makes fun of the steppe nature and talks a lot with Sasha: he reads books to her, teaches her French, talks about distant countries and talks about why a person is poor, unhappy and angry. Over a glass of home-made rowanberry, he announces to Sasha and her ingenuous old parents that the sun of truth is about to rise over them. At the beginning of winter, Agarin says goodbye to his neighbors and, asking him to bless him for his work, leaves. With the departure of a neighbor, Sasha becomes bored with his former activities - songs, fairy tales, fortune telling. Now the girl reads books, feeds and treats the poor. But at the same time, she furtively cries and thinks some incomprehensible thought, which plunges her parents into despondency. However, they rejoice at the unexpectedly developed mind of their daughter and her unchanging kindness. As soon as Sasha turns nineteen, Agarin returns to his estate. He, who has become paler and balder than before, is shocked by Sasha's beauty. They are still talking, but now Agarin, as if in spite, contradicts the girl. He no longer talks about the coming sun of truth - on the contrary, he assures that the human race is base and evil. Agarin considers Sasha's classes with the poor to be an empty toy. On the seventeenth day after the neighbor's arrival, Sasha looks like a shadow. She rejects the books sent by Agarin, does not want to see him. Soon he sends Sasha a letter with a marriage proposal. Sasha refuses Agarin, explaining this either by the fact that she is unworthy of him, or by the fact that he is unworthy of her, because he became angry and lost heart. The ingenuous parents cannot understand what kind of person they met on the way of their daughter, and they suspect him of a warlock-destroyer. They do not know that Agarin belongs to a strange, intricate tribe of people who have been created by the new time. The modern hero reads books and roams the world in search of a gigantic business - "the blessing of the heritage of rich fathers / Freed from small labors, / It's good to follow the beaten path / Laziness prevented and the mind developed." He wants to make the world happy, and at the same time, in passing and without intention, he destroys what lies under his hands. Love excites him not the heart and blood, but only the head. The hero of time does not have his own faith, but because "whatever the last book says to him, / That will fall on his soul from above." If such a person gets down to business, then at any moment he is ready to declare the futility of efforts, and the whole world is to blame for his failures. The blessing of Sasha is that she guessed in time that she should not give herself to Agarin; "and time will do the rest." Moreover, his conversations nevertheless awakened in her untouched forces, which will only get stronger under a thunderstorm and a storm; grain that falls on good soil will bear fruit. T. A. Sotnikova Jack Frost Poem (1863-1864) There is a terrible grief in the peasant's hut: the owner and breadwinner Prokl Sevastyanych has died. The mother brings a coffin for her son, the father goes to the cemetery to gouge a grave in the frozen ground. The peasant's widow, Daria, sews a shroud for her dead husband. Fate has three heavy shares: to marry a slave, to be the mother of a slave's son, and to submit to a slave to the grave; they all fell on the shoulders of a Russian peasant woman. But despite the suffering, "there are women in Russian villages" to whom the dirt of a miserable situation does not seem to stick. These beauties bloom marvelously to the world, patiently and evenly enduring both hunger and cold, remaining beautiful in all clothes and dexterous for any work. They do not like idleness on weekdays, but on holidays, when a smile of fun drives away the print of labor from their faces, money cannot buy such a hearty laugh as theirs. A Russian woman "stops a galloping horse, enters a burning hut!" It feels both inner strength and strict efficiency. She is sure that all salvation lies in work, and therefore she does not feel sorry for the miserable beggar walking without work. She is rewarded in full for her work: her family knows no need, the children are healthy and well fed, there is an extra piece for the holiday, the hut is always warm. Daria, the widow of Proclus, was such a woman. But now grief has withered her, and no matter how hard she tries to hold back the tears, they involuntarily fall on her quick hands sewing the shroud. Having brought the chilled grandchildren, Masha and Grisha, to the neighbors, mother and father dress up the deceased son. In this sad deed, no superfluous words are said, no tears come out - as if the severe beauty of the deceased, lying with a burning candle in his head, does not allow crying. And only then, when the last rite is completed, the time comes for lamentations. On a harsh winter morning, the savraska takes the owner on his last journey. The horse served the owner a lot: both during peasant work and in winter, going with Proclus to the cart. Being engaged in carting, in a hurry to deliver the goods on time, Proclus caught a cold. No matter how the family treated the breadwinner: they doused it with water from nine spindles, took it to the bathhouse, threaded it three times through a sweaty collar, lowered it into the hole, laid it under the chicken perch, prayed for it to the miraculous icon - Proclus no longer got up. Neighbors, as usual, cry during the funeral, pity the family, generously praise the deceased, and then go home with God. Returning from the funeral, Daria wants to take pity on and caress the orphaned children, but she has no time for caresses. She sees that not a log of firewood is left at home, and, again taking the children to a neighbor, she goes to the forest all on the same savraska. On the way through the plain shining with snow, tears appear in Darya's eyes - probably from the sun ... And only when she enters the grave peace of the forest, a "deaf, crushing howl" breaks out of her chest. The forest indifferently listens to the widow's moans, forever hiding them in its unsociable wilderness. Without wiping her tears, Daria begins to chop wood "and, full of thoughts about her husband, calls him, talks to him ...". She recalls her dream before Stasov's Day. In a dream, her innumerable army surrounded her, which suddenly turned into ears of rye; Daria appealed to her husband for help, but he did not come out, left her alone to reap overripe rye. Daria understands that her dream was prophetic, and asks her husband for help in the backbreaking work that now awaits her. She represents winter nights without cute, endless canvases that she will weave for her son's marriage. With thoughts of his son comes the fear that Grisha will be illegally recruited, because there will be no one to intercede for him. Having stacked firewood on firewood, Daria is going home. But then, mechanically taking an ax and quietly, intermittently howling, he approaches a pine tree and freezes under it "without thought, without groaning, without tears." And then Frost the governor approaches her, bypassing his possessions. He waves an ice mace over Daria, beckons her into his kingdom, promises to take a nap and warm her ... Daria is covered with sparkling hoarfrost, and she dreams of the recent hot summer. She sees herself digging potatoes in the strips by the river. She has children with her, beloved mrk, a child is beating under her heart, which should be born by spring. Having shielded herself from the sun, Daria watches how the cart, in which Prokl, Masha, Grisha are sitting, goes further and further ... In her sleep, she hears the sounds of a wonderful song, and the last traces of anguish leave her face. The song satisfies her heart, "there is a limit to the happiness of the valley." Oblivion in deep and sweet peace comes to the widow with death, her soul dies for sorrow and passion. The squirrel drops a snowball on her, and Daria freezes "in her enchanted dream ...". T. A. Sotnikova Russian women Poem (1871-1872) PRINCESS TRUBETSKAYAPoem in two parts (1826) On a winter night in 1826, Princess Ekaterina Trubetskaya leaves for Siberia with her Decembrist husband. The old count, the father of Ekaterina Ivanovna, with tears spreads the bear's cavity into the wagon, which is to take his daughter away from home forever. The princess mentally says goodbye not only to her family, but also to her native Petersburg, which she loved more than all the cities she had seen, in which her youth happily passed. After the arrest of her husband, Petersburg became a fateful city for her. Despite the fact that at each station the princess generously rewards the Yamsk inhabitants, the journey to Tyumen takes twenty days. On the way, she recalls her childhood, careless youth, balls in her father’s house, to which all the fashionable lights would come. These memories are replaced by pictures of honeymoon in Italy, walks and conversations with her beloved husband. Travel impressions are a heavy contrast with her happy memories: in reality, the princess sees the kingdom of beggars and slaves. In Siberia, for three hundred miles one comes across one miserable town, the inhabitants of which are sitting at home because of the terrible frost. "Why, damned country, Yermak found you ..?" Trubetskaya thinks in despair. She understands that she is doomed to end her days in Siberia, and recalls the events that preceded her journey: the Decembrist uprising, a meeting with her arrested husband. Horror chills her heart when she hears the piercing moan of a hungry wolf, the roar of the wind along the banks of the Yenisei, the hysterical song of a foreigner, and realizes that she may not reach the goal. However, after two months of travel, having parted with her ill companion, Trubetskaya nevertheless arrives in Irkutsk. The governor of Irkutsk, from whom she asks for horses to Nerchinsk, hypocritically assures her of her perfect devotion, recalls the father of the princess, under whom he served for seven years. He persuades the princess to return, appealing to her childish feelings - she refuses, recalling the sanctity of marital duty. The governor frightens Trubetskaya with the horrors of Siberia, where "people are rare without a stigma, and they are callous in soul." He explains that she will not have to live with her husband, but in a common barracks, among convicts, but the princess repeats that she wants to share all the horrors of her husband's life and die next to him. The governor demands that the princess sign a renunciation of all her rights - she agrees without hesitation to be in the position of a poor commoner. After keeping Trubetskaya in Nerchinsk for a week, the governor declares that he cannot give her horses: she must continue on foot, with an escort, along with convicts. But, having heard her answer: "I'm going! I don't care! .." - the old general with tears refuses to tyrannize the princess any more. He assures that he did this on the personal order of the king, and orders the horses to be harnessed. PRINCESS M. N. VOLKONSKAYAGrandmother's Notes (1826-1827) Wanting to leave memories of her life to her grandchildren, the old princess Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya writes the story of her life. She was born near Kiev, in the quiet estate of her father, the hero of the war with Napoleon, General Raevsky. Masha was the favorite of the family, she studied everything that a young noblewoman needed, and after the lessons she sang carelessly in the garden. Old General Raevsky wrote memoirs, read magazines and asked balls, which were attended by his former comrades-in-arms. The queen of the ball has always been Masha - a blue-eyed, black-haired beauty with a thick blush and a proud step. The girl easily captivated the hearts of the hussars and lancers who stood with regiments near the Raevsky estate, but none of them touched her heart. As soon as Masha was eighteen years old, her father found her a groom - the hero of the war of 1812, wounded near Leipzig, beloved by the sovereign, General Sergei Volkonsky. The girl was embarrassed by the fact that the groom was much older than her and she did not know him at all. But the father strictly said: "You will be happy with him!" And she didn't dare to protest. The wedding took place two weeks later. Masha rarely saw her husband after the wedding: he was constantly on business trips, and even from Odessa, where he finally went to rest with his pregnant wife, Prince Volkonsky was suddenly forced to take Masha to his father. The departure was alarming: the Volkonskys left at night, burning some papers before that. Volkonsky had a chance to see his wife and first-born son no longer under his native roof ... The birth was difficult, for two months Masha could not recover. Soon after her recovery, she realized that her family was hiding her husband's fate from her. The fact that Prince Volkonsky was a conspirator and was preparing the overthrow of the authorities, Masha learned only from the verdict - and immediately decided that she would follow her husband to Siberia. Her decision was only strengthened after a meeting with her husband in the gloomy hall of the Peter and Paul Fortress, when she saw a quiet sadness in the eyes of her Sergei and felt how much she loved him. All efforts to mitigate the fate of Volkonsky were in vain; he was sent to Siberia. But in order to follow him, Masha had to endure the resistance of her entire family. Her father begged her to have pity on the unfortunate child, her parents, to calmly think about her own future. After spending the night in prayer, without sleep, Masha realized that until now she had never had to think: her father made all the decisions for her, and, going down the aisle at eighteen, she "didn't think much either." Now, however, the image of her husband, tormented by prison, stood invariably before her, awakening in her soul previously unknown passions. She experienced a cruel sense of her own impotence, the torment of separation - and her heart prompted her the only solution. Leaving the child with no hope of ever seeing him, Maria Volkonskaya understood: it is better to lie alive in the grave than to deprive her husband of consolation, and then incur the contempt of her son for this. She believes that the old general Raevsky, who during the war led his sons under bullets, will understand her decision. Soon Maria Nikolaevna received a letter from the tsar, in which he politely admired her determination, gave permission to leave for her husband and hinted that the return was hopeless. At three days, going on the road, Volkonskaya spent the last night at the cradle of her son. Saying goodbye, her father threatened with a curse told her to return in a year. Staying in Moscow for three days with her sister Zinaida, Princess Volkonskaya became the "heroine of the day", she was admired by poets, artists, and all the nobility of Moscow. At the farewell party, she met Pushkin, whom she had known since childhood. In those early years, they met in Gurzuf, and Pushkin even seemed to be in love with Masha Raevskaya - although who was he not in love with then! After that, he dedicated wonderful lines to her in Onegin. Now, at the meeting on the eve of Maria Nikolaevna's departure to Siberia, Pushkin was sad and depressed, but admired Volkonskaya's feat and blessed. On the way, the princess met wagon trains, crowds of praying women, state-owned wagons, recruit soldiers; watched the usual scenes of station fights. Having left Kazan after the first halt, she fell into a snowstorm, spent the night in the foresters' lodge, the door of which was pressed down with stones - from bears. In Nerchinsk, Volkonskaya, to her joy, caught up with Princess Trubetskoy and learned from her that their husbands were being held in Blagodatsk. On the way there, the coachman told the women that he took the prisoners to work, that they joked, made each other laugh - apparently, they felt at ease. While waiting for permission to visit her husband, Maria Nikolaevna found out where the prisoners were taken to work, and went to the mine. The sentry yielded to the woman's sobs and let her into the mine. Fate took care of her: past the pits and failures, she ran to the mine, where, among other convicts, the Decembrists worked. Trubetskoy was the first to see her, then Artamon Muravyov, the Borisovs, Prince Obolensky ran up; tears streamed down their faces. Finally, the princess saw her husband - and at the sound of a sweet voice, at the sight of the shackles on his hands, she realized how much he suffered. Kneeling down, she put shackles to her lips - and the whole mine froze, in holy silence sharing with Volkonsky the grief and happiness of the meeting. The officer who was waiting for Volkonskaya scolded her in Russian, and her husband said after her in French: "See you, Masha, in prison! .." T. A. Sotnikova Contemporaries Satirical poem (1875-1876) Part 1. ANNIVERSARY AND TRIUMPHANTS"There were worse times, / But there were no meaner ones," the author reads about the 70s. 1th century In order to be convinced of this, it is enough for him to look into one of the expensive restaurants. Dignitaries gathered in hall No. XNUMX: the anniversary of the administrator is being celebrated. Among the main advantages of the hero of the day is the fact that he did not bring the population of the region entrusted to him to ruin. The "ascetic" did not steal state goods, and for this those present express their deep gratitude to him. In hall number 2, the figure of education is honored. He is brought a portrait of Magnitsky, the famous trustee of the Kazan educational district, who became famous as a "quencher of sciences", who proposed to close the Kazan University. In Hall No. 3, Prince Ivan is honored. The grandfather of the hero of the day was the jester of Queen Elizabeth, "he himself is absolutely nothing." Prince Ivan is passionate about vaudeville and operetta, his only joy is to call in Buff. In hall number 4, they say something about the Senate, but the main place here belongs to the sturgeon. In hall No. 5, the "agronomic lunch" is combined with the meeting. The hero of the day devoted his leisure time to cattle breeding, thinking to be useful to the peasantry. But as a result of his many years of activity, he decided that the Russian people should be left "to their fate and God." For the anniversary, the cattle breeder Kolenov was awarded the medal "For Jealousy and Effort", the presentation of which is now celebrated in the restaurant. Hall No. 6 honors the inventor of armadillos and grenades. The audience is well aware that the deadly weapon turned out to be useless, and they even talk about it right in their congratulatory speeches. But what do they need in this? They are celebrating the anniversary of the inventor... Bibliophiles gathered in hall No. 7, and from there it immediately "carried away like a dead thing." Mr. Old Testament reads out an excerpt from the recently found travel notes of the young man Tyapushkin, who, "arriving in Irbit, was beaten by his uncle." The audience admire the masterpiece, look at the manuscript through a magnifying glass and reflect on the fact that the colon over i should be restored in Russia. Zosimus the Old Testament admits that dead writers are much dearer to him than living ones. The festivity in this hall is reminiscent of the "feast of coffin-openers". Kissing and exclamations of "Hurrah!" are heard from Hall No. 8. In hall number 9, students are admonished to lead an independent life, admonishing them not to indulge in anarchist dreams, In hall number 10, the ubiquitous Prince Ivan raises a toast to "the king of the universe - a jackpot." In Hall No. 11, those gathered are touched by the activities of Marya Lvovna, a philanthropist, whose vocation is "to serve the people." But the most fascinating conversation takes place in Hall No. 12: a society of gourmets has gathered here, here "a pig gets points when talking about wine", here one can safely submit an opinion on a salad. Part 2. HEROES OF TIMETragicomedy In all halls, endless celebration and honoring continues, acquiring an increasingly phantasmagoric character. Savva Antikhristov delivers a speech in honor of Fyodor Shkurin, the foreman of the joint-stock company. In his youth, the “nugget-hare” pulled the bristles of pigs, subsequently bought the land from the landowner “to the last bream” and, working hard, became a railway magnate. To honor Shkurin came "persons of honor" in ranks and with orders, having shares in commercial firms; "plebeians" who have risen from the bottom and reached money and crosses; debt-ridden nobles ready to put their name on any paper; money changers, "aces-foreigners" and "pillars-cogwheels" nicknamed Zatsep and Savva. The new speaker - the money changer - expresses the idea of the need to establish a Central House of Tolerance and hopes to give this idea a grandiose development. The hook-pillar agrees with the speaker's thought: "What is considered shameful today / Will be awarded a crown tomorrow ..." Soon the speeches become less coherent, and the celebration turns into an ordinary booze. Prince Ivan follows one of the "modern Mitrofans" with his eyes, in which the spirit of the times is visible: "He is a miser out of cowardice, / Out of ignorance - shameless, / And out of stupidity - a scoundrel!" The audience condemns the press, lawyers, Austrians, the judicial investigation ... The fussy businessman ardently convinces the Jewish interest-bearer that with the pamphlet "On Interest" he declared his connection with literature and now must direct his talent to the service of capital. The pawnbroker doubts his talent, he does not want to be branded as "dummy in literature." But the businessman is sure that "nowadays - the realm of figureheads" and "the press is ruled by capital." Prince Ivan ridicules Berka, a Jew who got rich on a profitable contract. He is convinced that the "Jew" is indifferent to Christian souls when he seeks a generalship. Among the "plutocrats" renegade professors are especially noticeable. Their history is simple: up to the age of thirty they were honest workers of science, smashed the plutocracy, and it seemed that they could not be led astray by any money. Suddenly they embarked on stock market speculation, using their oratorical skills for this - "machine eloquence". Former scientists became talking machines, "preferring seductive metal to scientific glory"; they can speak without being embarrassed by contradictions in their own phrases. These people have brought the power of their knowledge to the aid of swindlers, they are ready to approve "any plan, shaky at its core", and humane ideas have not bothered them for a long time. Eduard Ivanych Grosh is also noticeable among those gathered, who can generally be found in any meeting, with whom neither a telegraph nor newspaper news is needed. This person can squeeze a bribe anywhere and get everything: a mortgage, a pug, a husband, a summer house, a house, capital, even a Portuguese order. In the midst of a merry feast, the drunk Pillar Hook suddenly begins to sob, calling himself a thief. But among the audience, his revelations evoke the same feeling as the cry of a hetaera, who, on the slope of prodigal days, suffers from the loss of virtue. Prince Ivan is sure that "now only those who have not stolen a million are yearning." He recalls the university teacher Schwabs, who inspired students with contempt for interest and capital, and then became the director of the loan office. He also recalls Count Tverdyshov, who always suffered about hungry peasants, and ended up laying an unnecessary road through wastelands, burdening the peasants with new taxes. The Jews also reassure Zatsepa, convincing him that if there is money, there can be no trouble and danger. They are interrupted by a philosopher-orator, who raises a toast to "Russian unshakable honor", which, in his opinion, is to "cut the whole world close at once." Having sobbed and philosophized to their heart's content, the heroes of time sit down at the card table. T. A. Sotnikova Who lives well in Russia Poem (1863-1877, unfinished) One day, seven peasants converge on the high road - recent serfs, and now temporarily liable "from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavin, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Ne-crop, too." Instead of going their own way, the peasants start a dispute about who lives happily and freely in Rus'. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky man in Rus': a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of sovereigns or a tsar. During the argument, they do not notice that they gave a detour of thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue the argument over vodka - which, of course, little by little turns into a fight. But even a fight does not help to resolve the issue that worries the men. The solution is found unexpectedly: one of the peasants, Pahom, catches a warbler chick, and in order to free the chick, the warbler tells the peasants where they can find a self-assembled tablecloth. Now the peasants are provided with bread, vodka, cucumbers, kvass, tea - in a word, everything they need for a long journey. And besides, the self-assembled tablecloth will repair and wash their clothes! Having received all these benefits, the peasants give a vow to find out "who lives happily, freely in Rus'." The first possible "lucky man" they met along the way is a priest. (It was not for the oncoming soldiers and beggars to ask about happiness!) But the priest's answer to the question of whether his life is sweet disappoints the peasants. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the pop does not possess any of these benefits. In haymaking, in stubble, in a dead autumn night, in severe frost, he must go where there are sick, dying and being born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of grave sobs and orphan sorrow - so that his hand does not rise to take copper nickels - a miserable reward for the demand. The landlords, who formerly lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only in Rus', but also in distant foreign land; there is no hope for their reward. Well, about what honor the priest is, the peasants themselves know: it becomes embarrassing for them when the priest blames obscene songs and insults against priests. Realizing that the Russian pop is not among the lucky ones, the peasants go to the festive fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask the people there about happiness. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded-up house with the inscription "school", a paramedic's hut, and a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village of drinking establishments, in each of which they barely manage to cope with the thirsty. Old man Vavila cannot buy his granddaughter goat's shoes, because he drank himself to a penny. It's good that Pavlusha Veretennikov, a lover of Russian songs, whom everyone calls "master" for some reason, buys a treasured gift for him. Wandering peasants watch the farcical Petrushka, watch how the officers are picking up book goods - but by no means Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of fat generals unknown to anyone and works about "my lord stupid." They also see how a busy trading day ends: rampant drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the peasants are indignant at Pavlusha Veretennikov's attempt to measure the peasant by the master's measure. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Rus': he will not endure either overwork or peasant misfortune; without drinking, bloody rain would have poured out of the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo - one of those who "work to death, drink half to death." Yakim believes that only pigs walk the earth and do not see the sky for a century. During a fire, he himself did not save money accumulated over a lifetime, but useless and beloved pictures that hung in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Rus'. Wandering peasants do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Russia. But even for the promise to give water to the lucky ones for free, they fail to find those. For the sake of gratuitous booze, both an overworked worker, and a paralyzed former courtyard, who for forty years licked the master's plates with the best French truffle, and even ragged beggars are ready to declare themselves lucky. Finally, someone tells them the story of Ermil Girin, a steward in the estate of Prince Yurlov, who has earned universal respect for his justice and honesty. When Girin needed money to buy the mill, the peasants lent it to him without even asking for a receipt. But Yermil is now unhappy: after the peasant revolt, he is in jail. About the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform, the ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the peasant wanderers. He recalls how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, fields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who belonged undividedly to him. Obolt-Obolduev tells with emotion how on the twelfth holidays he invited his serfs to pray in the manor's house - despite the fact that after that they had to drive women from all over the estate to wash the floors. And although the peasants themselves know that life in serf times was far from the idyll drawn by Obolduev, they nevertheless understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, hit both the master, who at once lost his usual way of life, and the peasant. Desperate to find a happy man among the men, the wanderers decide to ask the women. The surrounding peasants recall that Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina lives in the village of Klin, whom everyone considers lucky. But Matrona herself thinks differently. In confirmation, she tells the wanderers the story of her life. Before her marriage, Matryona lived in a non-drinking and prosperous peasant family. She married Philip Korchagin, a stove-maker from a foreign village. But the only happy night for her was that night when the groom persuaded Matryona to marry him; then the usual hopeless life of a village woman began. True, her husband loved her and beat her only once, but soon he went to work in St. Petersburg, and Matryona was forced to endure insults in her father-in-law's family. The only one who felt sorry for Matryona was grandfather Saveliy, who lived out his life in the family after hard labor, where he ended up for the murder of the hated German manager. Savely told Matryona what Russian heroism is: a peasant cannot be defeated, because he "bends, but does not break." The birth of the first-born Demushka brightened up the life of Matryona. But soon her mother-in-law forbade her to take the child into the field, and old grandfather Savely did not follow the baby and fed him to the pigs. In front of Matryona, the judges who came from the city performed an autopsy of her child. Matryona could not forget her first child, although after she had five sons. One of them, the shepherd Fedot, once allowed a she-wolf to carry away a sheep. Matrena took upon herself the punishment assigned to her son. Then, being pregnant with her son Liodor, she was forced to go to the city to seek justice: her husband, bypassing the laws, was taken to the soldiers. Matryona was then helped by the governor Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying. By all peasant standards, the life of Matryona Korchagina can be considered happy. But it is impossible to tell about the invisible spiritual storm that passed through this woman - just like about unrequited mortal insults, and about the blood of the firstborn. Matryona Timofeevna is convinced that a Russian peasant woman cannot be happy at all, because the keys to her happiness and free will are lost from God himself. In the midst of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. A noble family swims up to the shore in three boats. The mowers, who have just sat down to rest, immediately jump up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help the heirs to hide the abolition of serfdom from the landowner Utyatin, who has lost his mind. For this, the relatives of the Last Duck-Duck promise the peasants floodplain meadows. But after the long-awaited death of the Afterlife, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain. Here, near the village of Vahlachin, wanderers listen to peasant songs - corvée, hungry, soldier's, salty - and stories about serf times. One of these stories is about the serf of the exemplary Jacob the faithful. Yakov's only joy was to please his master, the petty landowner Polivanov. Samodur Polivanov, in gratitude, beat Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even greater love in the lackey's soul. By old age, Polivanov lost his legs, and Yakov began to follow him like a child. But when Yakov's nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the serf beauty Arisha, out of jealousy, Polivanov sent the guy to the recruits. Yakov began to drink, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way available to him, in a lackey way. Having brought the master into the forest, Yakov hanged himself right above him on a pine tree. Polivanov spent the night under the corpse of his faithful serf, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror. Another story - about two great sinners - is told to the peasants by God's wanderer Iona Lyapushkin. The Lord awakened the conscience of the ataman of the robbers Kudeyar. The robber prayed for sins for a long time, but all of them were released to him only after he killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky in a surge of anger. The wandering men also listen to the story of another sinner - Gleb the headman, who hid the last will of the late widower admiral for money, who decided to free his peasants. But not only wandering peasants think about the happiness of the people. The son of a sacristan, seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, lives in Vakhlachin. In his heart, love for the deceased mother merged with love for the whole of Vahlachina. For fifteen years, Grisha knew for sure whom he was ready to give his life, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all mysterious Russia as a miserable, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible strength that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in her. Such strong souls, like those of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the angel of mercy himself calls for an honest path. Fate prepares Grisha "a glorious path, a loud name of the people's intercessor, consumption and Siberia." If the wandering men knew what was happening in the soul of Grisha Dobrosklonov, they would surely understand that they could already return to their native roof, because the goal of their journey had been achieved. T. A. Sotnikova Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich (1822-1899/1900) Anton Goremyka Tale (1847) Anton, a fifty-year-old serf peasant, lean and hunched, looking at the world of God with dull eyes, is busy preparing fuel for the winter. Returning to his hut, Anton finds a guest there, a beggar old woman Arkharovna, who is not so much begging as looking out for good from the inhabitants of the village. Anton has to have dinner with one kvass and bread, but he does not grumble and still manages to give half of his share to the children. Rastabarivaya with his grandmother, Anton remembers his brother and son Arkharovna, who were taken to the soldiers - for a long time there is no news from them. The speeches of the peasant are addressed not so much to the guest, but to himself: how many times has he pondered his bitter life ... The villain-manager seizes his life, the time has come to pay the poll, but not a penny; Nikita Fedorych threatens to hand over Anton as a soldier, and then who will feed his wife and youngsters? Before Anton had time to leave the table, he was called to the manager. Nikita Fedorych, a stout and squat man, resembling a bulldog, menacingly meets the debtor and, not listening to his plaintive excuses, demands to sell the last horse in order to pay off the master. No matter how she cries, no matter how her wife is killed, Anton has to go to the fair in the city and sell the nurse. To top it off, Anton meets a miller on the road, whom he has been avoiding for a long time (and he owes the miller for grinding). The miller, of course, also demands his own. At the fair, the already timid and intimidated peasant was completely at a loss. And then there are the gypsy horsemen and the swindlers who hunt near the horses (they pretend that they want to help Anton) completely confused the peasant's head. The day is wasted - Anton still does not dare to sell the peg, being afraid to sell too cheap. Anton's new "friends" take him to spend the night at an inn, where they solder a peasant who has become exhausted from fatigue and hunger ... In the morning, the poor fellow discovers the loss of the horse. The owner of the inn, who was in collusion with the robbers, demands that Anton pay for dinner and vodka. We have to give him the last sheepskin coat. "Knowing people" advise Anton to go in search of a horse in one of the nearby villages, although they realize that without a ransom he will only knock down his legs in vain. The advisers, comfortably seated on the bench, are still discussing the misfortune that happened to Anton for a long time. They are listened to by newly arrived guests, one of whom is familiar with the unfortunate. He explains the main reason for Anton's disasters. He was disliked by the manager, who was sure that the complaint to the master about the willfulness of Nikita Fyodorych came from Anton. While Anton is wandering through the impenetrable mud, Nikita Fedorych indulges himself with tea, feeds his already fat clumsy son and quarrels with his wife. The miller complains about the same Anton - he does not want to pay for the grinding. Nikita Fedorych got along with the miller and was about to resume tea drinking, but then his wife attacked him with renewed vigor, suspecting, not without reason, that her missus was hiding the money received from the miller. Anton wanders for three days in search of a stolen nag along dank autumn country roads. In grief, he does not notice either the freezing rain, or fatigue, or hunger or cold. The search, as one would expect, is in vain. Almost unconscious, Anton returns early in the morning to his village and first of all goes to Nikita Fedorych. The guards won't let him in - the manager is still resting. Like a madman, the unfortunate peasant runs home and runs into Arkharovna. He remembers the rumors that swept through the village about her hidden wealth, and Anton decides that she can help him out. "Help, if you want to save a Christian soul from sin - give me money!" he screams in utter despair. The frightened old woman leads him into a ravine, in which, according to her, a small fraction of ruble coins is hidden in her egg-box. However, in the ravine, Anton is grabbed by two hefty fellows. In one of them he recognizes his brother Yermolai. The other turns out to be the son of an old woman - and both of them are runaway soldiers, now earning their living by theft and robbery. Yermolai tells how they robbed the merchant yesterday and promises to help his brother. You just need to go to the tavern first to meet. A new misfortune awaits Anton in the tavern, worse than the previous ones. In the tavern, Yermolai and his partner are identified and detained, and together with them Anton is knitted as an accomplice. A week after these events, almost the entire village people are crowding in the street. Everyone wants to see how the robbers are taken to prison. Onlookers are especially interested in heavy birch blocks that will stuff criminals on their feet. The crowd discusses the fate of Anton and blames him for all the thefts that happened in the district. "We know, apart from your own there is no one to visit, who has what ..." Finally, a procession appears consisting of Nikita Fedorych, escort soldiers and prisoners. Anton, who goes last, is followed by his wife and children, roaring at the top of their voices. When the turn came to fill Anton's stocks, the poor fellow, "who had been sitting up to this time with an air of complete numbness, slowly raised his head, and tears dripped down from him in a hail." Yermolai and Arkharovna's son swagger and joke in public, but in the end, Antonov's brother shouts to his fellow villagers without jokes: "Do not remember dashingly! Farewell, brothers, farewell, do not forget us!" Carts with prisoners are approaching the outskirts, and, as if hiding them from human eyes, fluffy flakes of snow begin to cover the frozen ground, and the cold wind begins to blow even stronger. And as soon as Nikita Fedorych escorts the departing with his eyes, pleased that he has finally finished with the "robbers". V. P. Meshcheryakov Gutta-percha boy Tale (1883) Behind the scenes of the circus, artists are crowding, the people are cheerful and careless. Among them stands out a not too young bald man, whose face is heavily painted in white and red. This is Edwards the clown, entering a "period of boredom" followed by a period of heavy drinking. Edwards is the main decoration of the circus, his bait, but the behavior of the clown is unreliable, on any day he can break loose and drink. The director asks Edwards to hold out for at least two more days, until the end of Shrove Tuesday, and then the circus will be closed for Lent. The clown gets off with meaningless words and looks into the dressing room of the acrobat Becker, a rough muscular giant. Edwards is not interested in Becker, but in his pet, a "gutta-percha boy", an assistant to an acrobat. The clown asks for permission to take a walk with him, proving to Becker that after rest and entertainment, the little artist will work better. Becker is always irritated by something and does not want to hear about it. And without that, a quiet and mute boy, he threatens with a whip. The story of the "gutta-percha boy" was simple and sad. He lost his mother, an eccentric and overly loving cook, in the fifth year of his life. And with his mother, sometimes he had to starve and freeze, but he still did not feel lonely. After the death of her mother, her compatriot, the washerwoman Varvara, arranged the fate of the orphan, having identified him as an apprentice to Becker. At the first meeting with Petya, Karl Bogdanovich roughly and painfully felt the boy stripped naked, frozen in pain and horror. No matter how much he cried, no matter how he clung to the hem of the laundress, Varvara gave him full possession of the acrobat. Petya's first impressions of the circus, with its diversity and noise, were so strong that he cried out all night and woke up several times. The teaching of acrobatic tricks was not easy for the frail boy. He fell, hurt himself, and not once did the stern giant cheer up Petya, caress him, and after all, the child was only eight years old. Only Edwards showed him how to perform this or that exercise, and Petya was drawn to him with all his heart. Once a clown gave Petya a puppy, but the boy's happiness was short-lived. Becker grabbed the dog against the wall, and she immediately expired. At the same time, Petya also earned a slap in the face. In a word, Petya was "not so much a gutta-percha as an unhappy boy." And in the children's rooms of Count Listomirov, a completely different atmosphere reigns. Everything here is adapted for the convenience and fun of children, whose health and mood are carefully monitored by a governess. On one of the last days of Shrovetide, the count's children were especially lively. Still would! Aunt Sonya, their mother's sister, promised to take them to the circus on Friday. Eight-year-old Verochka, six-year-old Zina, and a five-year-old chubby butuz nicknamed Paf are doing their best to earn the promised entertainment by exemplary behavior, but they cannot think of anything other than the circus. Gramoteika Verochka reads a circus poster to her sister and brother, in which they are especially intrigued by the gutta-percha boy. Time goes by very slowly for children. Finally, the long-awaited Friday arrives. And now all the worries and fears are behind us. Children take their seats long before the show starts. They are all interested. With genuine delight, children look at the rider, the juggler and the clowns, looking forward to meeting the gutta-percha boy. The second part of the program begins with the release of Becker and Petit. The acrobat attaches to his belt a heavy gilded pole with a small crossbar at the top. The end of the pole rushes towards the very dome. The pole hesitates, the audience sees the difficulty with which the giant Becker holds him. Petya climbs up the pole, now he is almost invisible. The audience applauds and starts shouting that the dangerous act should be stopped. But the boy must still catch his feet on the crossbar and hang upside down. He also performs this part of the trick, when suddenly "something flashed and whirled <...> at the same second there was a dull sound of something falling into the arena." Ministers and artists pick up a small body and quickly carry it away. The orchestra plays a cheerful motive, clowns run out, somersaulting ... The frustrated audience begins to crowd to the exits. Vera hysterically screams and sobs: "Ay, boy! boy!" At home, children can hardly be calmed and put to bed. At night, Aunt Sonya looks in on Verochka and sees that her sleep is restless, and a tear has dried on her cheek. And in a dark deserted circus on a mattress lies a child tied with rags with broken ribs and a broken chest. From time to time, Edward appears from the darkness and bends over the little acrobat. It is felt that the clown has already entered the binge period, it is not for nothing that an almost emptied decanter can be seen on the table. Everything around is plunged into darkness and silence. The next morning, the number of the "gutta-percha boy" was not indicated on the poster - he was no longer in the world. V. P. Meshcheryakov Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (1823-1886) Our people - let's count Comedy (1850) The merchant's daughter of marriageable age, Olimpiada Samsonovna (Lipochka) Bolshova, sits alone at the window with a book and, arguing, "what a pleasant occupation these dances are," begins to waltz: she has not danced for a year and a half and is afraid, if anything, "to be embarrassed." Dancing badly. The mother, Agrafena Kondratyevna, enters: “Not light or dawn, do not eat God’s bread, and for dancing right away! <...> Hear, find me a groom, find me without fail! <...> I'm already coughing like a fly! (Crying.)" Matchmaker Ustinya Naumovna arrives. Lipochka wants a fiancé "of the nobility", her father - a rich man, her mother - a merchant, "so that he baptizes his forehead in the old way", Sysoy Psoyich Rispolozhensky arrives, a lawyer, expelled from court for drunkenness. They tease him. But the new owner, Bolshov, needs a lawyer seriously: he is thinking about declaring himself an insolvent debtor (the first name of the comedy was "Bankrupt"). The women leave, and the owner and the lawyer delve into this topic. The lawyer advises to transfer all property to the clerk Lazar Elizarych Podkhalyuzin. He also enters, telling how he teaches the salesmen in the shop to cheat the buyers "naturally." Bolshov is reading a newspaper. In Moscow - a chain of bankruptcies, mostly, apparently - "malicious", intentional; and each, each refusal to pay debts naturally entails the following. “Why, they agreed, or something! .. You can’t count them here ...” And the merchant decides. The main question: is it possible to trust the one to whom you rewrite your property in order to hide from the inventory for debts? Podkhalyuzin sends the boy Tishka to fetch a rowanberry for Rispolo-female, with whom he has business, and indulges in thoughts aloud. “I am a poor man! If I use something superfluous in this matter, there is no sin, because he himself <…> goes against the law!” Lazar is in love with Lipochka and is already making new plans, including marrying her: "Yes, you can jump off Ivan the Great from such pleasure." And, treating the lawyer, he asks how much he promised big for "all these mechanics", and he himself promises not a thousand, but two. The matchmaker comes, he promises her the same amount and a sable fur coat in addition - "we will sew from the living" - if she repels the already planned "noble" groom: let him tell him that Bolshov is ruined. Bolshov himself comes home, there is a panic in the house by mistake: it seemed that he was "drunk". Lazar starts a conversation with him about marriage - he doesn’t start it directly, but when he hears for the third time that Lipochka is “a young lady like no other in the world,” Bolshov takes the bull by the horns. Lazar is modest: "Where am I with a cloth snout, sir? - Nothing cloth. A snout is like a snout." Of course, to transfer more good not to the clerk, but to the future son-in-law - in the interests of Bolshov. The house is preparing for the wedding. Samson Silych is also solemn in his own way, but Ustinya Naumovna appears with bad news: supposedly the groom is being capricious. "Ah, peck his frog, why can't we find another one? - Well, don't look for another, otherwise it will be the same again. I'll find another for you myself," says Bolshov himself and knows what he says . The housekeeper Fominishna, Rispolozhensky, Lazar join the company, and the Bolshov solemnly announces Lazar as a groom. Trouble. Lipochka just makes a fuss. "I command you to marry the janitor!" - clicks on his daughter big. “Mama, sir! You have a son-in-law who would respect you and, therefore, put your old age to rest - you won’t find besides me, sir. <…> You, mama, remember this word that I just said,” Lazar says after the hostess and, remaining face to face with the enraged Lipochka, informs her that the house and shops are now his, and "your aunt is yours: bankrupt, sir! <...> What is this they are doing to me? and went bankrupt!" And Lipochka, after a pause, agrees, on the condition: "We will live on our own, and they on their own. We will start everything according to fashion, and they will do as they want." Immediately they call "them" and the family celebration begins. And Bolshov announces: “To you, Lazar, a house and shops will go instead of a dowry, but we’ll count it out of cash. <…> Only feed us and the old woman, and pay ten kopecks to creditors. - Is it worth talking about this, dear,? <…> Our people - let's count!" The celebration is in full swing. The matchmaker pours wine down the collar of the lawyer. The opening remarks of the last act: "The Podkhalyuzins' house has a richly furnished living room. Olimpiada Samsonovna is sitting by the window in a luxurious position, she is wearing a silk blouse, a cap of the latest style. Podkhalyuzin in a fashionable frock coat is standing in front of a mirror." The couple enjoy happiness. Lipa asks to buy the thousandth stroller. Lazar is ready. Lipa says a French compliment. Lazarus is delighted. Ustinya Naumovna comes for the promised. "You never know what I promised!" Podkhalyuzin says bluntly to the matchmaker, and she leaves with a hundred-dollar bill instead of the promised thousands and an unimportant dress from Lipochka instead of a sable coat. "They didn't let the little darling out of the pit," Lipochka saw through the window. “Well, no, sir, they won’t let the little one out of the pit soon; but, presumably, <…> so he asked to go home” - and Lazar calls his mother-in-law. Bolshov had complained about his health before; "like a native of the other world," the wife wails. He wants to pay his creditors twenty-five kopecks per ruble of debt, just as he himself intended at the beginning. They agree (in the debtor's prison, "the pit", the imprisoned debtors were kept at the expense of creditors). But Bolshov should sit, and Pod-khalyuzin should decide: now the money is his. And he refuses with Lipochkin's full support. "-I, darling, I can’t, sir! God knows, I can’t! <...> - Help me out, kids, help me out! <...> I lived with you, aunty, until I was twenty years old - I didn’t see the world. Well, Will you order me to give you the money and to walk around in cotton dresses again? - What are you, what are you! Come to your senses! After all, I’m not asking you for alms, but my own good! - We, dear, told you that we can’t give more than ten kopecks “Therefore, there is nothing to talk about.” Such is Lipochka's last word. "After all, I am malicious - deliberate ... they will send me to Siberia. Lord! If you don’t give money like that, give it for Christ's sake!" - already crying big. Agrafena Kondratievna curses both her son-in-law and her daughter out loud. The whole result: "I, so be it, I'll add another five kopecks" - Lazar sighs. The desperate Bolshov gets up and leaves with Agrafena Kondratievna. "It's embarrassing, sir! <…> Tishka! Give me an old frock coat, which is not worse." Podkhalyuzin decides to go himself to bargain with creditors. Rispolozhensky appears, like the matchmaker, for the promised money, and they treat him the same way as a matchmaker, and even worse: “They must! They must! You won’t get rid of me with this! - What are you going to do with me? - My tongue is not bought. - Well, do you want to lick me, or something? - No, not to lick, but <...> - I ... Here's what I'll do: most honorable audience! - What are you, what are you, wake up! - Look at you, where you climb from drunken eyes! Rispolozhensky climbs right into the auditorium, shouting: "He robbed my father-in-law! And he robs me ... Wife, four children, thin boots!" But the last word here, too, belongs to Podkhalyuzin: “You don’t believe him, it’s him, what he said, sir, it’s all lies. Nothing of this happened. He must have had a dream about it. But we are opening a shop: you are welcome! If you send a small roben, we won’t cheat in an onion. A. I. Zhuravleva Plum Comedy (1857) The action of the comedy takes place in Moscow, in the early years of the reign of Alexander II. The old important official Aristarkh Vladimirovich Vyshnevsky, who goes out into the large "richly furnished hall" together with his young wife Anna Pavlovna (both in morning negligee) from her rooms, reproaches her for being cold, complains that he cannot overcome her indifference. Vyshnevsky leaves for the office, and the boy brings Vyshnevsky a letter, which turns out to be a love letter from an elderly man who has a beautiful wife. The indignant Vyshnevskaya gathers together with her acquaintances to laugh at the unpleasant admirer and leaves. An old experienced official Yusov, who came to Vyshnevsky with business in his department, appears and goes into the office. Enter Belogubov, Yusov's young subordinate. Visibly pompous, Yusov comes out from the chief and orders Belogubov to rewrite the paper cleaner, saying that Vyshnevsky himself, pleased with his handwriting, chose him as a copyist. This arouses Belogubov's delight. He only complains that he is not strong in literacy, and for this Zhadov, Vyshnevsky's nephew, who lives in his house with everything ready and also serves under the command of Yusov, laughs at him. Belogubov asks for the post of head clerk, which will be for him "for the rest of his life," and explains the request with a desire to marry. Yusov graciously promises and also reports that Vyshnevsky, dissatisfied with his nephew, intends to invite him to leave the house and try to live on his own on a ten-ruble salary. Zhadov appears to talk to his uncle, but he has to wait in the company of Belogubov and Yusov, who grumbles at him and reproaches him for excessive ambitions and unwillingness to do menial clerical work. Zhadov tells his aunt, with whom he is friendly, that he has decided to marry a poor girl and live with her by his own labor. Auntie expresses doubts that the young wife will want to live in poverty, but Zhadov thinks to raise her in his own way, assures that, no matter how hard it is for him, he will not give in even "a millionth share of those convictions that <...> owe to upbringing ". However, he says that he wants to ask his uncle for an increase in salary. Vyshnevsky and Yusov, who appeared, begin to scold Zhadov for his inaccurate going to office, for the "stupid speeches" that he makes in front of his colleagues, who laugh at him behind his back. Vyshnevsky sharply condemns the intention of his penniless nephew to marry a dowry, they quarrel, and Vyshnevsky, declaring that he is ending his relationship with Zhadov, leaves. Vyshnevsky asks Yusov who his nephew is going to marry, learns that one of the daughters of the poor widow of the official Kukushkina. Vyshnevsky and instructs to warn the widow so that she does not ruin her daughter, does not give up "for this fool." Left alone, Yusov scolds the new times, when "the boys began to talk," and admires Vyshnevsky's "genius" and scope. However, he expresses concern because he "is not entirely firm in the law, from another department." The second act takes place in a poor living room in the house of the widow Kukushkina. Sisters Yulenka and Polina are talking about their suitors. It turns out that Yulenka does not like Belogubov ("terrible rubbish"), but she is glad, gladly, at least to marry him, in order to get rid of her mother's grumbles and reproaches. Polina says that she is in love with Zhadov. The emerging Kukushkina begins to nag Yulia for the fact that Belogubov has not made an offer for a long time. It turns out that Belogubov intends to marry as soon as he gets the place of head clerk. Kukushkina is satisfied, but at the end of the conversation she says to her daughters: "Here's my advice to you: don't give indulgences to your husbands, so sharpen them every minute so that they get money." Belogubov and Yusov arrive. Kukushkina, left alone with Yusov, asks for a place for Belogubov, he promises. Yusov warns Kukushkina about the "unreliability" and "freethinking" of Polina Zhadov's fiancé. But Kukushkina is sure that all the "vices" of Zhadov "from a single life", marries - will change. Zhadov appears, the elders leave the young people alone with the girls. Belogubov talks with Yulenka and promises that the wedding is not far off. From Polina's conversation with Zhadov, it is clear that, unlike her sister, she sincerely loves Zhadov, honestly talks about her poverty, that at home they have "everything is a lie." However, he asks Zhadov if he knows any merchants who, according to Belogubov, will give them gifts. Zhadov explains that this will not happen and that he will reveal to her "high bliss to live by one's own labor." Zhadov declares his love and asks Kukushkina for Polina's hand. The third act takes place in a tavern, about a year later. Enter Zhadov and his university friend Mykin, drink tea and ask each other about life. Mykin teaches, lives "in accordance with the means", this is enough for a bachelor. "Our brother is not going to get married," he instructs Zhadov. Zhadov justifies himself by saying that he fell in love with Polina very much and "married for love. He took an undeveloped girl, brought up in social prejudices," and his wife suffers from poverty, "pouts a little, and sometimes she cries." Yusov, Belogubov, and two young officials appear, who have come to party on the occasion of a successful business that brought "jackpot" to Belogubov, who treats the company. He good-naturedly tries to invite "brother" Zhadov (now they are relatives by wife), but he rather sharply refuses. Yusov formulates a kind of ethics of a bribe taker: "Live according to the law, live in such a way that both the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe." Satisfied with his youth, Yusov starts dancing and delivers a speech about his virtues: the father of the family, the mentor of youth, the philanthropist, who does not forget the poor. Before leaving, Belogubov offers money to Zhadov, but Zhadov indignantly refuses. The officials leave. Solicitor Dosuzhev sits down next to Zhadov and ironically comments on the scene he has seen. They are drinking. Left alone, drunken Zhadov sings "Luchinushka", the sex officer sees him off with the words: "Please, sir! Not good, sir! Ugly, sir!" The fourth act takes place in Zhadov's "very poor room", where Polina sits alone at the window, complains of boredom and sings. A sister comes, tells how successfully her husband is doing, how Belogubov indulges her, Yulia pities Polina, scolds Zhadov, indignant that he "does not know the current tone. He must know that a person is created for society." Yulia gives her sister a hat and tells Zhadov to explain that his wife "will not love for nothing." Left alone, Polina admires her sister's mind, rejoices at the hat. Here comes Kukushkina. She scolds Polina for not demanding money from Zhadov, considers her daughter "shameless" because she has "all the tenderness on her mind", praises Yulia, and talks about the dangers of wise men who believe that taking bribes is dishonorable. "What kind of word is a bribe? They themselves invented it to offend good people. Not bribes, but gratitude!" Zhadov appears, Kukushkina begins to scold him, and Polina agrees with her. There is a quarrel, Zhadov asks his mother-in-law to leave. He sits down to work, but Polina, remembering the lessons of her relatives, begins to nag him for the lack of money for pleasures and outfits, repeating the words of Yulia. They quarrel and Polina leaves. Zhadov feels that he is unable to part with his wife, and sends servants to catch up with Polina. The returned Polina demands that he go to his uncle to ask for a profitable place. Zhadov surrenders, sobbing, he sings the song of bribe-takers from Kapnist's comedy "Snake". The frightened Polina is ready to retreat, but Zhadov calls her to go together to Vyshnevsky. The last action brings us back to Vyshnevsky's house. Vyshnevskaya alone reads a letter from her ridiculed admirer, who informs her that in retaliation for her act with him, he will forward to her husband Vyshnevskaya's letters to the young official Lyubimov, which he accidentally got to him. She is not even scared, she is going to reproach her husband for buying her from her relatives and ruining her life. At this time, Yusov appears, muttering vague phrases about the vicissitudes of fate and the destructiveness of pride. Finally, it turns out that Vyshnevsky is being prosecuted "for omissions" and "revealed shortcomings in the amounts", and the cautious Yusov says that he himself "is not subject to great responsibility", although with the current strictness he will probably be dismissed. Vyshnevsky appears. Angrily pushing away his compassionate wife, he turns to Yusov: "Yusov! Why did I die?" "The vicissitudes ... fate, sir," he replies. "Nonsense! What fate? Strong enemies - that's the reason!" - objected Vyshnevsky. Then he gives Vyshnevskaya the letters sent to him to Lyubimov and calls her "a depraved woman." In an extensive monologue, Vyshnevskaya denies the accusations. Here the Zhadovs appear. Reluctantly, Zhadov humbly asks for a profitable place for his wife. Struck Vyshnevsky shows malevolent delight at this turn of events. He and Yusov mock Zhadov and see the essence of the new generation in his fall. Zhadov came to his senses, speaks of his personal weakness and that there are honest people in any generation, promises that he will never go astray again, and, turning to his wife, he lets her go free if it is difficult for her to live in poverty, but Polina assures that she was not going to leave him, but only followed the advice of her relatives. The Zhadovs kiss and leave, Vyshnevskaya admonishes them with a wish of happiness. Yusov runs in with a message that Vyshnevsky has a stroke. A. I. Zhuravleva Storm Drama (1859) The events take place in the first half of the XNUMXth century, in the fictional town of Kalinovo on the Volga. The first act is in a public garden on the high bank of the Volga. The local self-taught mechanic Kuligin talks with young people - Kudryash, the clerk of the rich merchant Diky, and the tradesman Shapkin - about the rude antics and tyranny of Diky. Then Boris, Diky's nephew, appears, who, in response to Kuligin's questions, says that his parents lived in Moscow, gave him an education at the Commercial Academy, and both died during the epidemic. He came to Dikoy, leaving his sister with his mother's relatives, in order to receive part of the grandmother's inheritance, which Dikoy must give him according to the will, if Boris is respectful to him. Everyone assures him: under such conditions, Dikoy will never give him money. Boris complains to Kuligin that he can't get used to life in Dikoy's house, Kuligin talks about Kalinov and ends his speech with the words: "Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!" Kalinovtsy disperse. Together with another woman, the wanderer Feklusha appears, praising the city for "blah-a-lepie", and the Kabanovs' house for their special generosity to wanderers. "Boars?" - Boris asks again: "The hypocrite, sir, clothes the poor, but completely seized the household," explains Kuligin. Kabanova comes out, accompanied by her daughter Varvara and son Tikhon with his wife Katerina. She grumbles at them, but finally leaves, allowing the children to walk along the boulevard. Varvara releases Tikhon secretly from his mother to drink at a party and, left alone with Katerina, talks with her about domestic relations, about Tikhon. Katerina talks about a happy childhood in her parents' house, about her fervent prayers, about what she experiences in the temple, imagining angels in a sunbeam falling from the dome, dreams of spreading her arms and flying, and finally admits that "something is wrong" with her something". Varvara guesses that Katerina has fallen in love with someone, and promises to arrange a meeting upon Tikhon's departure. This proposal horrifies Katerina. A crazy lady appears, threatening that "beauty leads to the very whirlpool", and prophesies hellish torments. Katerina is terribly frightened, and then the “thunderstorm comes in,” she hurries Varvara home to the icons to pray. The second act, which takes place in the Kabanovs' house, begins with Feklusha's conversation with the maid Glasha. The wanderer asks about the household affairs of the Kabanovs and conveys fabulous stories about distant countries, where people with dog heads "for infidelity", etc. Katerina and Varvara, who have appeared, gathering Tikhon on the road, continue the conversation about Katerina's hobby, Varvara calls the name of Boris, reports a bow from him and persuades Katerina to sleep with her in the gazebo in the garden after Tikhon's departure. Kabanikha and Tikhon come out, the mother tells her son to strictly punish his wife, how to live without him, Katerina is humiliated by these formal orders. But, left alone with her husband, she begs him to take her on a trip, after his refusal she tries to give him terrible oaths of fidelity, but Tikhon does not want to listen to them either: “You never know what comes to mind ...” legs. Tikhon leaves. Varvara, leaving for a walk, informs Katerina that they will spend the night in the garden, and gives her the key to the gate. Katerina does not want to take it, then, after hesitating, she hides it in her pocket. The next action takes place on a bench at the gate of the boar's house. Feklusha and Kabanikha are talking about "the last times", Feklusha says that "for our sins" "time has begun to belittle", talks about the railway ("they began to harness the fiery serpent"), about the bustle of Moscow life as a devilish obsession. Both are waiting for even worse times. Dikoy appears with complaints about his family, Kabanikha reproaches him for his erratic behavior, he tries to be rude to her, but she quickly stops this and takes him to the house to drink and eat. While Dikoy is eating, Boris, sent by Dikoy's family, comes to find out where the head of the family is. Having completed the assignment, he exclaims with longing about Katerina: "If only with one eye to look at her!" The returned Varvara tells him to come at night to the gate in the ravine behind the boar garden. The second scene represents the nightly festivities of young people, Varvara comes out on a date with Kudryash and tells Boris to wait - "wait for something." There is a date between Katerina and Boris. After hesitation, thoughts about sin, Katerina is unable to resist the awakened love. "What pity me - no one is to blame - she went for it herself. Don't be sorry, ruin me! Let everyone know, let everyone see what I'm doing (hugs Boris). If I'm not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human court ?" The entire fourth act, which takes place on the streets of Kalinov - on the gallery of a dilapidated building with the remains of a fresco representing fiery Gehenna, and on the boulevard - takes place against the backdrop of a gathering and finally bursting thunderstorm. It starts to rain, and Dikoy and Kuligin enter the gallery, who begins to persuade Dikoy to give money to install a sundial on the boulevard. In response, Dikoy scolds him in every possible way and even threatens to declare him a robber. Having endured the scolding, Kuligin begins to ask for money for a lightning rod. At this point, Dikoy confidently declares that it is a sin to defend against a thunderstorm sent as a punishment "with some kind of poles and horns, God forgive me." The stage is empty, then Varvara and Boris meet in the gallery. She reports the return of Tikhon, Katerina's tears, Kabanikh's suspicions, and expresses fear that Katerina will confess to the mrzhu in treason. Boris begs to dissuade Katerina from confessing and disappears. The rest of the Kabanovs enter. Katerina waits with horror that she, who has not repented of her sin, will be killed by lightning, a crazy lady appears, threatening hellish flames, Katerina can no longer strengthen herself and publicly admits to her husband and mother-in-law that she "walked" with Boris. The boar gloatingly declares: "What, son! Where will the will lead; <...> So I waited!" The last action is again on the high bank of the Volga. Tikhon complains to Kuligin about his family grief, about what his mother says about Katerina: "She must be buried alive in the ground so that she will be executed!" "But I love her, I'm sorry to touch her with my finger." Kuligin advises to forgive Katerina, but Tikhon explains that this is impossible under Kabanikh. He speaks not without pity about Boris, whom his uncle sends to Kyakhta. The maid Glasha enters and reports that Katerina has disappeared from the house. Tikhon is afraid that "she would kill herself out of boredom!", and together with Glasha and Kuligin leaves to look for his wife. Katerina appears, she complains about her desperate situation in the house, and most importantly, about her terrible longing for Boris. Her monologue ends with a passionate incantation: "My joy! My life, my soul, I love you! Respond!" Boris enters. She asks him to take her to Siberia with him, but understands that Boris's refusal is due to the really complete impossibility to leave with her. She blesses him on his way, complains about the oppressive life in the house, about disgust for her husband. Having said goodbye to Boris forever, Katerina begins to dream alone of death, of a grave with flowers and birds that "fly up a tree, will sing, have children." "To live again?" she exclaims in horror. Approaching the cliff, she says goodbye to the departed Boris: "My friend! My joy! Farewell!" and leaves. The scene is filled with alarmed people, in the crowd and Tikhon with his mother. A cry is heard behind the scenes: "The woman threw herself into the water!" Tikhon tries to run to her, but his mother does not let him in with the words: "I'll curse you if you go!" Tikhon falls to his knees. After some time, Kuligin brings in Katerina's body. "Here is your Katerina. Do with her what you will! Her body is here, take it; and the soul is now not yours; it is now before a judge who is more merciful than you!" Rushing to Katerina, Tikhon accuses his mother: "Mommy, you ruined her!" and, ignoring the menacing cries of the Kabanikh, falls on the corpse of his wife. "It's good for you, Katya! But why did I stay in the world and suffer!" - with these words of Tikhon the play ends. A. I. Zhuravleva For every sage, quite simplicity Comedy (1868) The action takes place in Moscow, in the first decade of the reforms of Alexander II. The first act of the play takes place in the apartment where a young man, Egor Dmitrievich Glumov, lives with his widowed mother. In it, according to the author's remark, a clean, well-furnished room. Glumov and his mother enter the room, continuing their conversation. Glumov tells her: "I'm all about you - smart, angry and envious" and declares that from now on he will make a career through acquaintances in the world: "Epigrams aside! This kind of poetry, except for harm, brings nothing to the author. Let's get down to panegyrics! " Now Glumov will keep a diary for himself and write frankly in it what he thinks about the people whose favor he seeks. The hussar Kurchaev, an acquaintance of Glumov, arrives, with him Golutvin, a man who has no occupation. They are going to publish a journal and ask Glumov for his epigrams or diary, about which they have already heard something. Glumov refuses. Kurchaev, a distant relative of Glumov through the dignitary Nil Fedoseevich Mamaev, tells Glumov about Mamaev's habit of looking at empty apartments for rent and at the same time instructing everyone and everyone, and during the conversation he draws a caricature of Mamaev, attributing "the latest self-instruction manual". Golutvin wants to take her. Kurchaev does not give: "After all, uncle." She remains Glumov. Kurchaev informs Glumov that Mamaev's wife is "in love like a cat" with Glumov. Kurchaev and Golutvin leave. In the subsequent conversation between Glumov and his mother, it turns out that Glumov had already bribed Mamaev's servant, and Mamaev would now arrive to look at the Glumovs' supposedly rented apartment. A servant appears, followed by Mamaev himself. Mamaev blames the servant: why did he bring him to a residential apartment. Glumov explains that, in need of money, he wants to move from this apartment to a large one, and to puzzled questions, Mamaeva declares: "I'm stupid." He is dumbfounded at first, but quickly begins to believe that he is in front of a young man, thirsty for advice, teachings and instructions. Glumova shows Mamaev a caricature of Kurchaev. Mamaev leaves. Manefa arrives, "a woman who divinates and divinates." Glumov receives her with feigned respect, gives her fifteen rubles, sends her away to be treated to tea and coffee, writes down the expenses in her diary: for Manefa and three rubles for Mamaev's servant. Suddenly, Kurchaev returns, whom Mamaev, who met along the way, ordered not to show himself. Kurchaev suspects Glumov of intrigue and tells him about it. They are arguing. Kurchaev leaves. "Uncle drove him away. The first step has been taken." With these words of Glumov, the first act of the comedy ends. In Mamaev's house, the owner and Krutitsky, "an old man, a very important gentleman," complain about the perniciousness of reforms and changes and their inability to wield a pen and "modern style." Krutitsky has a work ready, written in a style "close to the style of the great Lomonosov," and Mamaev proposes to give it to Glumov for processing. Both leave. Mamaeva and Glumova appear. Glumova complains about the lack of funds. Mamaeva encourages her, promising Glumov her patronage. To Mamaev, who entered, Glumova describes her son's admiration for his mind. Mamaev, leaving, promises Glumova to give "not money, but better money: advice on how to manage the budget." Mamaeva, Glumov begins to talk about how Glumov is in love with her. Glumova leaves. Mamaeva is flirting with Glumov, who has entered. Gorodulin arrives, "a young important gentleman." Mamaeva asks for a place for Glumov, "of course, a good one", calls Glumov and leaves him with Gorodulin. Glumov declares himself a liberal and demonstrates a eloquence that delights Gorodulin, who immediately asks to help him prepare a speech. Glumov is ready to write. Gorodulina is replaced by Mamaev, who begins to teach Glumov how to take care of his wife. Glumov stays with Mamaeva, declares his love to her and leaves. At the dacha of Turusina, "a rich widow, a merchant's lady", surrounded by hangers-on, fortune-tellers, wanderers, Turusina, who had just left for the city, but ordered the carriage to be turned around because of a bad omen, reprimands her companion, niece Masha, for "free-thinking" and sympathy for Kurchaev. In addition, she received two anonymous letters warning against meeting Kurchaev. Mashenka replies that she is a "Moscow young lady" and will not argue, but then let her aunt find her a groom herself. Mashenka leaves. Krutitsky, who lives next door, comes to visit. Turusina shares worries with Krutitsky: how to find a good groom for Mashenka. Krutitsky recommends Glumov and leaves. Gorodulin arrives. Like Krutitsky, he ridicules Turusina's addiction to wanderers and hangers-on and reports: one of such acquaintances of Turusina was convicted of fraud and poisoning a wealthy merchant. The same conversation is repeated with Gorodulin with the same result. Gorodulin strongly recommends Turusina Glumov. And finally, instead of Gorodulin, Manefa appears. She is a welcome guest here. She is received with honor and her speeches are heeded with trepidation. She broadcasts, accusers agree. All in unison foretell Glumov as something almost supernatural. With the appearance of Glumov with Mamaev and Turusina's promise to love him like her own son, the action ends. Glumov brings Krutitsky a "Treatise on the dangers of reforms in general" - an adaptation of Krutitsky's thoughts. Krutitsky is pleased. "Treatise" is a sharp parody of retrograde. Glumov asks Krutitsky to be planted by his father at the wedding and goes over a little in servility, which Krutitsky notes upon his departure. Cleopatra Lvovna Mamaeva comes to put in an additional word for Glumov. Cheered up after the departure of Glumov, the old man brings down on her archaic quotes from tragedies beloved from her youth, seeing in the aging Mamaeva almost the same age. But much more unpleasant for her is the news dropped by Krutitsky about Glumov's matchmaking with Mashenka for love. "What stung her. Go with the women. Worse than commanding a division," Krutitsky wonders, looking after her. At home, Glumov writes down expenses and impressions in his diary and teaches his mother, who is leaving for Turusina, how to appease and reward her friends. Suddenly Mamaeva appears. This is unusual, and Glumov is on his guard. The subsequent conversation with her either confirms or reassures Glumov's fears. He begins to explain his feelings to Mamaeva, somewhat abusing eloquence, but she interrupts him with a question: "Are you getting married?" Glumov loses his head, launches into explanations, and, as it seems to him, more or less reassures Mamaeva. Call at the door. Glumov leaves. Golutvin has arrived. Glumov, having hidden Mamaeva in the next room, receives him. It turns out that, in modern terms, he collected material on Glumov and is blackmailing him: if Glumov does not pay, Golutvin will publish a libel. Refusing Golutvin in a resolute tone, Glumov actually hesitates, not wanting trouble in view of his advantageous marriage to Mashenka. Golutvin climbs into the next room, trying to find out who is there. Glumov barely sees him off, but then decides to catch up and still pay. Mamaeva enters the room, notices the diary, reads something about herself that infuriates her, and takes her away. At first, it seems to Glumov that he "settled everything." But after making sure that the diary was taken, he falls into despair, scolds himself: "I amused stupid anger. So he presented to the public" Notes of a scoundrel "written by him." At the dacha, where the whole society has gathered, Kurchaev, talking with Mashenka about Glumov's unprecedented virtues and successes, says: "I would argue with someone else, but I never did this before a virtuous person." Between virtuous conversations with his future wife and mother-in-law, Glumov agrees with Gorodulin to "finish well" the treatise of Krutitsky (that is, Glumov) under the signature of Gorodulin and convinces Mamaeva that he will marry by calculation. The servant brings a package handed over by someone. It contains a printed article "How people get out" with a portrait of Glumov and the missing diary. Mamaev reads the notes aloud, certificates of expenses for accomodations “for seeing me in a dream”, sharp characteristics of Krutitsky, Manefa, Turusina (Turusina immediately says “I’ll drive everyone away” and gives Mashenka complete freedom of choice; apparently, her choice is Kurchaev). Glumov appears. He is given the diary and offered to "retreat unnoticed." But Glumov has nothing to lose. “Why is it imperceptible,” he answers, and begins to denounce those present orally. The essence of the denunciations: in the printed article there is nothing new for them. In fact, Krutitsky and Mamaev are not so stupid as to really not feel falseness in Glumov's servility: it's just convenient and pleasant for them. The same with Mamaeva and Gorodulin. But both of them suddenly stop Glumov's eloquence, beginning to immediately agree with him. Glumov leaves. After a pause, everyone agrees that, after a while, it is necessary to "caress" him again. "And I take it upon myself" - Mamaeva's final remark. A. I. Zhuravleva Forest Comedy (1871) In the estate of Raisa Pavlovna Gurmyzhskaya, "a very rich landowner", Bulanov, "a young man who did not finish his studies at the gymnasium," sticks to Aksyusha's pupil. Aksyusha leaves, and the lackey Karp hints to Bulanov: should he pay attention to the lady herself. At this time, Gurmyzhskaya herself appears, and with her "rich landowner neighbors": the retired cavalryman Bodaev and Milonov. The hostess says that she wants to do "three good deeds at once" - to marry Aksyusha to Bulanov and take care of her late husband's nephew; she has not seen him for fifteen years, and he is her only relative and legal heir. He sends her small gifts from all over Russia, but where he is, what happened to him is unknown. The merchant Vosmibratov came to buy a forest and woo his son Peter to Aksyusha. However, he "did not capture" the money for the timber he had already bought. Gurmyzhskaya refuses: "There is already a fiancé, he lives in the house. Maybe some nonsense is being said in the city, so you know: this is the groom." "You only make a fool of your father. Wait a minute!" - the merchant threatens his son. But the forest was bought at a profit. This time, as if by chance, the merchant does not leave a receipt. Father and son leave. Karp brings Aksyusha and Julitta. Trying to humiliate Aksyusha, Raisa Pavlovna tells her to play the role of Bulanov's bride: "I need it so much." But the contempt shown by Aksyusha Bulanova infuriates her. She asks Julitta about them, she pleases her: "She is very affectionate towards him, but he seems to be so ... .. I don’t want to." Peter and Aksyusha meet in the forest. They love each other, but Peter's father does not even want to hear about a daughter-in-law without a dowry. They are going away. Appear from different sides of the Lucky and Unlucky, two familiar actors: a comedian and a tragedian. They meet by chance on the way one from Vologda to Kerch, the other from Kerch to Vologda. And now they tell each other that there is no troupe in either Kerch or Vologda, there is nowhere to play. Both go on foot, without money. Gennady Demyanovich Neschastlivtsev's knapsack contains "a pair of good dresses", a "folding hat", something else and a broken pistol. Arkady Schastlivtsev has all his possessions - a bundle on a stick and the "lightest" coat, and in the bundle "library", "thirty plays", and fake orders. "And you got it all?" (meaning pulled off, pulled off). “And I don’t consider it a sin: they delay salaries.” They dream of their own troupe: “Now, if we could find a dramatic, young, good actress <…> A woman will throw herself into the pool with her head out of love - that’s an actress. Yes, I should see it myself, otherwise I won’t believe it. I’ll pull it out of the pool, then I’ll believe it. Well, you see, let's go." "Where?" - asks Arkady. And he reads the inscription: "To the estate "Penki" of Mrs. Gurmyzhskaya." They are slowly leaving. In the morning in the garden of the Gurmyzhskaya estate, flirting with Bulanov, she tells him a dream that her nephew "came and killed you with a pistol in front of my eyes." She is preoccupied: "... And suddenly he will appear! <...> It will be necessary to give him some part too! And I will have to take it away from the one I love." They decide better and not talk about the nephew. Karp enters and reports: the samovar is ready, and at night "the master has arrived." And with the words "So don't believe in dreams," Gurmyzhskaya and Bulanov go to drink tea. Actors enter. Neschastvitsev, "dressed very decently," decides Arkady, who is in his "former costume," to declare here his lackey, and himself a retired officer. Vosmibratov and Peter arrive. Karp does not want to report them to the mistress: "... Busy with the colonel. Their nephew has arrived." "Colonel?" "Of course, Colonel." The merchants leave. Bulanov is frank with Neschastvittsev: "Mother says that my mind is not like that, not for learning, sir." "Which one?" "Practical-s". "Well, thank the creator that at least" some "is. And it often happens that there is none." "Yes, and that's nothing, sir. There would only be more land, but understand your interest, landowner; otherwise you can live without a mind, sir!" "Yes, you, brother, well done at all!" The actor exclaims when Bulanov asks to teach him card "volts" in order to cheat. The guests were seated in the gazebo. And when Neschastlivtsev goes there with Bulanov, Vosmibratov immediately comes to Gurmyzhskaya and deceives her in the simplest way, taking the receipt, missing a thousand rubles and hinting at an unsuccessful matchmaking. "Daytime robbery," says Raisa Pavlovna and shares her trouble with Bulanov who has entered. Neschastlivtsev is with him. He, in response to Gurmyzhskaya’s words: “There’s nothing to do now,” according to the remark “with fervor”, exclaims: “How is there nothing? Bring him back! (Raising his eyes to the sky.) What will I do with him! God, what will I do with him! Arkashka, give me my orders!" Vosmibratov and his son are brought in, and the tragedian uses the loudest words to portray the formidable gentleman. The hostess is frightened, merchants - not very much. But in the end, the actor manages to offend the "honor" of the merchant, and he gives the money back. "Here is your money, get it," says Neschastlivtsev Gurmyzhskaya. ("Goes to the side and stands, folds his arms and later his head.") Gurmyzhskaya thanks and says that she owes him "exactly this amount" (which was discussed even before he arrived at the estate). The actor replies: “I don’t believe it,” he says flowery phrases about the delicacy, nobility of Gurmyzhskaya, and with tears and the words: “Enough favors! Enough caresses! I will become an idolater, I will pray for you!”, - covers his face with his hands and leaves. Outraged, Arkady hides in the bushes and watches as Gurmyzhskaya, laughing at Neschastlivtsev, gives the money to Bulanov. And at night, in another part of the garden, he boasts to Neschastlivtsev: "An intelligent person will not disappear anywhere." "Smart? Who are you talking about?" "About myself, sir." "Well, who told you that you are smart? Don't believe me, brother, you were deceived." But Arkady is quite pleased with himself: he dined from the master's table, "said that he was so accustomed to you", "got along with the housekeeper and on this occasion<...> borrowed money from her, and I also have a bottle of liquor in the corner near the bed, like wax ". And he blames his comrade: "Here you say that you are smart, but the schoolboy is obviously smarter: he plays a better role here than you." "What role, brother? Well, what is he? Boy, nothing else." "What role? First lover, sir." "Lover? Whose?" "Your aunts! <…> He is playing a lover, and you are ... a simpleton!" Arkady says the last words "from behind the bush", fleeing from the already seriously enraged tragedian. Arkady runs away, but the job is done. "He lied, shamelessly lied," the tragedian begins the monologue. And he continues: "But if my pious aunt ...", ending like this: "Laugh at the feeling, at the warm tears of the artist! No, Neschastlivtsev does not forgive such an insult!" Karp, Ulita, then Arkady appear. Karp teases a snail, who apparently came on a date; gossiping about the ruinous novels of the lady: he himself carried money to the post office to a French doctor, a topographer, some Italian. Julitta gasps, and left with Arkady, begins to pour out her soul to him, complaining about her dependent position. Arkady is afraid of Neschastlivtsev, who wanders around the garden, and blurts out to Julitta with annoyance that he is not an officer, he himself is not his servant, both are actors "and both are drunkards." Pyotr and Aksinya come to the garden. Vosmibratov the father again scolded his son for an hour, but now he agrees to take a dowry of two thousand - but no less. The couple comes to the idea of asking for money "from their brother, from Gennady Demyanovich" - there is no one else. Aksinya, meanwhile, begins to despair: "Everything pulls into the water, <...> I keep looking at the lake." Pyotr is frightened, she calms him down, he leaves, and Aksinya suddenly meets with Neschastlivtsev. He is in some ecstasy and acts in front of himself and Aksinya: “A woman, a beautiful woman ... Are you a woman or a shadow? .. Ah! I see that you are a woman. they took a lot of suffering with them to the grave. My soul is gloomy, I don’t need the living ... Away! "Brother, I have suffered and am suffering a lot." Aksyusha's lively, completely open speech suddenly falls into the tone of Neschastvittsev's affectation - he apparently inspires complete trust in Aksyusha - and most importantly, both of them have their own misfortunes. They are immediately clarified: to a desperate request for two thousand, the actor can only answer: “Forgive me, forgive me! window and ask for a hangover. I'm a piglet, a piglet! That's who I am. Here the pathos of the tragedy fully corresponds to reality: Aksinya runs to the lake. Behind her, Neschastlivtsev shouted: "No, no, sister! It's too early for you to die!" With the words: "Well, he ran away somewhere. Isn't it possible to drown himself? That would be good. That's where he is dear ..." - Arkady goes into the arbor. As he prepares to leave, he runs into a friend and the girl he saved. The tragedian is at the peak of his spiritual uplift: everything seems to follow his tone, words, recitations: a woman from love threw herself into the water before his eyes. And he convinces Aksyusha to go to the actress: literally, right now, to his troupe. Desperate, half spellbound, Aksyusha seems to agree: "It won't get worse. <...> As you wish. I'm ready for anything." "I have several roles, I will read to you. <...> This night I initiate you into an actress. <...> Stop, fugitive! I am generous, I forgive you. Triumph, Arkashka! We have an actress; we will go round with you all theaters and surprise all of Russia. The three of them go into the arbor, they are replaced by Raisa Pavlovna with a snail, she conveys the news to the mistress; The turn of events suits her. Julitta invites Bulanov and disappears. Raisa Pavlovna recklessly flirts with Bulanov, demanding that he guess what she loves. And when, having heard: "You, fool! You!", he, muttering: "Yes, sir <...> You should have long ago ... That's better, Raisynka! You should be kissing, pushes him away: "What are you, crazy? Go away! You, ignoramus, scoundrel, boy!" and leaves. Bulanov is horrified. "What have I done foolishly! Tomorrow I will ... From here <...> In three necks! Guilty, sir! <...> Disappeared, disappeared, disappeared!" But Bulanov did not disappear. The next morning, in the hall, he swaggers over Karp: “I won’t tolerate riots in the house! I’m not Raisa Pavlovna for you ...” Karp leaves with maliciously emphasized humility. "Hello, mister Neschastlivtsev!" - welcomes the actor Bulanov. "Do you know that I'm Neschastlivtsev?" "I know". "I am very glad, brother. So you know who you are dealing with, and you will behave carefully and respectfully." Bulanov is clearly afraid of the actor, who aptly mocks him; but all the same, now he has to leave, since such is the will of the hostess. as he leaves, he notices a money box accidentally left on the table. Gurmyzhskaya enters. Bulanov is with her on you, he is making plans. It is a pity for money for Aksyusha's dowry. Raisa Pavlovna and Bulanov are in difficulty, and then Aksyusha herself enters. Bulanov is sent away, and Gurmyzhskaya starts talking about him with Aksyusha. They only lead to an exchange of barbs not in favor of the hostess, and in the end she admits that Bulanov is jealous of Aksyusha. When Aksyusha says that she herself decided to leave Penki, Raisa Pavlovna is almost touched. Aksyusha replaces Neschastlivtsev, and very decisively. "They don't listen to any reason," says Karp. The actor sends him: "Do not let anyone in." He is in his traveling suit. He takes the bell away from the lady and puts the pistol near the box. "Do not be afraid, we will talk very peacefully, even kindly. You know what? Give me a souvenir (box)." "Oh, you can't, my friend, there are important papers, documents on the estate." "You're wrong, it's money." So, scaring, the actor manages to persuade Raisa Pavlovna to give him money from the box. As a result, Gurmyzhskaya gives back a thousand, which she owes (which she admits), and says that she "does not get angry" - otherwise the tragedian threatens to shoot herself right there. The actor orders a triple, looks forward to lucrative contracts, benefits. Arkady is delighted. Guests are gathering at the house. Aksyusha is looking for Peter: to say goodbye. It turns out that the last condition of the father: "If only a thousand would be given for you, the fool." Aksyusha rushes to the tragedian: "Ask your aunt, <...> now you only need a thousand rubles, only a thousand." "But what about actresses, my child? With your feeling..." "Brother... feeling... I need it at home." And the actor with the words "Let me inspire myself well ..." goes to the dining room. Enter Milonov, Bodaev, the hostess with Bulanov, and the reason for the celebration is revealed: Gurmyzhskaya is marrying Bulanov. Neschastlivtsev appears. At the door are the Vosmibratovs, Aksyusha, Arkady. "Auntie, are you happy?" - Neschastlivtsev asks and convinces her to do a good deed - to arrange the happiness of her niece with a small amount for herself: Gurmyzhskaya refuses. Bulanov agrees with her. And the actor, to Arkady's horror, gives the money to Aksyusha. Vosmibratov takes them and counts them. Aksyusha warmly thanks Neschastlivtsev. Milonov wants to "publish the act in the newspapers", and Bodaev invites him to come in, but they refuse to drink with the actor. "You seem to be going to go" - reminds Bulanov. “Indeed, brother Arkady, <…> how did we get into this cheese-dense forest? Everything is in order here, as it should be in the forest. Old women marry high school students, young girls drown from the bitter life of their relatives: brother," says the tragedy. "Comedians," Raisa Pavlovna shrugs her shoulders. "Comedians? No, we are artists, and comedians are you. <…> What did you do? Whom did you feed? Whom did you comfort? <…> The girl runs to drown herself, who pushes her into the water? People! The offspring of crocodiles!" And the actor reads Karl Moor's monologue from "Robbers", ending with the words: "Oh, if I could freak out against this hellish generation of all the bloodthirsty inhabitants of the forests!" "But excuse me, for these words you can be held accountable!" "Yes, just to the camp. We are all witnesses!" Milonov and Bulanov respond. "Me? You're wrong. Censored. Look: "approved for the performance." Oh, you malignant man! Where are you talking to me! <...> Listen, Karp! If a troika arrives, you turn it, brother, into the city, and say that the gentlemen have gone on foot. Hand, comrade!" (Gives her hand to Schastlivtsev and slowly walks away.)" A. I. Zhuravleva Snow-maiden Spring Tale in four acts with a prologue Fairy Tale Play (1873) The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin hides in a hollow. Spring arrives on Krasnaya Gorka near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and birds return with it: cranes, swans - the retinue of Spring. The country of the Berendeys meets Spring with cold, and all because of Spring's flirtations with Frost, the old grandfather, Spring herself admits. They had a daughter - the Snow Maiden. Spring is afraid to quarrel with Frost for the sake of her daughter and is forced to endure everything. The "jealous" Sun itself is also angry. Therefore, Spring calls all the birds to warm themselves with a dance, as people themselves do in the cold. But the fun is just beginning - the choirs of birds and their dances - as a blizzard rises. Spring hides the birds in the bushes until the new morning and promises to warm them. Meanwhile, Frost comes out of the forest and reminds Spring that they have a common child. Each of the parents takes care of the Snow Maiden in their own way. Frost wants to hide her in the forest so that she lives among obedient animals in a forest tower. Spring wants a different future for her daughter: for her to live among people, among cheerful friends and children who play and dance until midnight. The peace meeting turns into a spor. Frost knows that the sun god of the Berendeys, hot Yarilo, vowed to destroy the Snow Maiden. As soon as the fire of love is kindled in her heart, he will melt her. Spring does not believe. After a quarrel, Frost offers to give their daughter to be raised by a childless Bobyl in the suburb, where the guys are unlikely to pay attention to their Snow Maiden. Spring agrees. Frost calls the Snow Maiden out of the forest and asks if she wants to live with people. The Snow Maiden admits that she has long yearned for girlish songs and round dances, that she likes the songs of the young shepherd Lel. This especially frightens the father, and he punishes the Snow Maiden more than anything in the world to beware of Lel, in whom the "scorching rays" of the Sun live. Parting with his daughter, Frost entrusts the care of her to his "leshutki" forest. And, finally, gives way to Spring. Folk festivities begin - seeing off Maslenitsa. The Berendeys greet the arrival of Spring with songs. Bobyl went to the forest for firewood and sees the Snow Maiden dressed like a hawthorn. She wanted to stay with Bobyl with Bobyl's adopted daughter. It is not easy for the Snow Maiden to live with Bobyl and Bobylikha: the named parents are angry that she, with her excessive shyness and modesty, has discouraged all the suitors and they cannot get rich with the help of a profitable marriage of their adopted daughter. Lel comes to the Bobyls to wait, because they alone, for the money collected by other families, are ready to let him into the house. The rest are afraid that their wives and daughters will not resist Lel's charm. The Snow Maiden does not understand Lel's requests for a kiss for a song, for a flower gift. She picks off the flower with surprise and gives it to Lelya, but he, having sung a song and seeing other girls calling him, throws the already wilted flower of the Snow Maiden and runs away to new amusements. Many girls quarrel with guys who are inattentive to them because of their passion for the beauty of the Snow Maiden. Only Kupava, the daughter of the wealthy Slobozhan Murash, is affectionate towards the Snow Maiden. She informs her of her happiness: a wealthy merchant guest from the royal settlement Mizgir has engaged to her. Then Mizgir himself appears with two bags of gifts - a bride price for girls and guys. Kupava, together with Mizgir, approaches the Snow Maiden, who is spinning in front of the house, and calls her for the last time to lead the girl's round dances. But when he saw the Snow Maiden, Mizgir fell passionately in love with her and rejected Kupava. He orders to carry his treasury to Bobyl's house. The Snow Maiden resists these changes, not wishing harm to Kupava, but the bribed Bobyl and Bobylikha force the Snow Maiden to even drive Lel away, which is demanded by Mizgir. The shocked Kupava asks Mizgir about the reasons for his betrayal and hears in response that the Snow Maiden won his heart with her modesty and bashfulness, and Kupava's courage now seems to him a harbinger of future betrayal. The offended Kupava asks for protection from the Berendeys and sends curses to Mizgir. She wants to drown herself, but Lel stops her, and she falls unconscious into his arms. In the chambers of Tsar Berendey, a conversation takes place between him and his close associate Bermyata about the troubles in the kingdom: for fifteen years, Yarilo has been unkind to Berendey, winters are getting colder, springs are getting colder, and in some places there is snow in summer. Berendey is sure that Yarilo is angry with the Berendeys for cooling their hearts, for the "cold of feelings." To quench the wrath of the Sun, Berendey decides to propitiate him with a sacrifice: on Yarilin's day, the next day, to tie as many grooms and brides as possible by marriage. However, Bermyata reports that because of some Snow Maiden who showed up in the settlement, all the girls quarreled with the guys and it is impossible to find brides and grooms for marriage. Then Kupava, abandoned by Mizgir, runs in and cries out all her grief to the king. The king orders to find Mizgir and convene the Berendeys for trial. Mizgir is brought in, and Berendey asks Bermyata how to punish him for cheating on his bride. Bermyata proposes to force Mizgir to marry Kupava. But Mizgir boldly objects that his bride is the Snow Maiden. Kupava also does not want to marry a traitor. The Berendeys do not have the death penalty, and Mizgir is sentenced to exile. Mizgir only asks the king to look at the Snow Maiden himself. Seeing the Snow Maiden who came with Bobyl and Bobylikha, the tsar is struck by her beauty and tenderness, wants to find a worthy husband for her: such a "sacrifice" will surely appease Yarila. The Snow Maiden admits that her heart does not know love. The king turns to his wife for advice. Elena the Beautiful says that the only one who can melt the heart of the Snow Maiden is Lel. Lel calls the Snow Maiden to twist wreaths until the morning sun and promises that by morning love will wake up in her heart. But Mizgir does not want to give in to the Snow Maiden and asks for permission to join the fight for the heart of the Snow Maiden. Berendey allows and is sure that at dawn the Berendey will gladly meet the Sun, which will accept their expiatory "sacrifice". The people glorify the wisdom of their king Berendey. At the evening dawn, the girls and boys begin to dance, in the center - the Snow Maiden with Lel, Mizgir either appears or disappears in the forest. Delighted by Lel's singing, the tsar invites him to choose a girl who will reward him with a kiss. The Snow Maiden wants Lel to choose her, but Lel chooses Kupava. Other girls put up with their sweethearts, forgiving them past betrayals. Lel is looking for Kupava, who has gone home with her father, and meets the weeping Snow Maiden, but he does not feel sorry for her for these "jealous tears" caused not by love, but by envy for Kupava. He tells her about secret lovemaking, which is more valuable than a public kiss, and only for true love is he ready to take her to meet the Sun in the morning. Lel recalls how he cried when the Snow Maiden had not previously answered his love, and goes to the guys, leaving the Snow Maiden to wait. And yet, in the heart of the Snow Maiden, it is not love that still lives, but only pride that Lel will lead her to meet Yarila. But then Mizgir finds the Snow Maiden, he pours out his soul to her, full of burning, real male passion. He, who never prayed for love from girls, falls on his knees before her. But the Snow Maiden is afraid of his passion, and the threats to avenge the humiliation are also terrible. She also rejects the priceless pearl with which Mizgir tries to buy her love, and says that she will exchange her love for Lel's love. Then Mizgir wants to get the Snow Maiden by force. She calls Lelya, but "leshutki" come to her aid, whom Father Frost instructed to take care of her daughter. They take Mizgir into the forest, beckoning him with the ghost of the Snow Maiden, and he wanders all night in the forest, hoping to overtake the Snow Maiden-ghost. Meanwhile, even the heart of the tsar's wife was melted by Lel's songs. But the shepherd deftly dodges both from Elena the Beautiful, leaving her in the care of Bermyata, and from the Snow Maiden, from whom he runs away when he sees Kupava. It was this kind of reckless and ardent love that his heart was waiting for, and he advises the Snow Maiden to "eavesdrop" on Kupavina's hot speeches in order to learn to love. The Snow Maiden, in her last hope, runs to Mother Spring and asks her to teach her real feelings. On the last day, when Spring can fulfill her daughter's request, since the next day Yarilo and Summer come into their own, Spring, rising from the water of the lake, reminds the Snow Maiden of her father's warning. But the Snow Maiden is ready to give her life for a moment of true love. Her mother puts on her a magic wreath of flowers and herbs and promises that she will love the first young man she meets. The Snow Maiden meets Mizgir and responds to his passion. The immensely happy Mizgir does not believe in danger and considers the desire of the Snow Maiden to hide from Yarila's rays as an empty fear. He solemnly leads the bride to Yarilina Gora, where all the Berendeys have gathered. At the first rays of the sun, the Snow Maiden melts, blessing the love that brings death to her. It seems to Mizgir that the Snow Maiden deceived him, that the gods mocked him, and in despair he rushes from Yarilina Mountain into the lake. “The Snow Maiden’s sad death and the terrible death of Mizgir cannot disturb us,” the tsar says, and all the Berendeys hope that Yarila’s anger will now go out, that he will give the Berendeys strength, harvest, life. E. P. Sudareva Wolves and sheep Comedy (1875) In the morning, craftsmen gathered at the house of Meropia Davydovna Murzavetskaya, “a girl of about sixty, <…> having great power in the province,” she owed them. Chugunov, a former member of the county court, approaches. Murzavets hypocrite and slanderer, Chugunov manages her affairs and manages the estate of the rich widow Kupavina, shamelessly profiting. The hostess arrives and goes to the house with the hangers-on and the poor relative Glafira. The butler Pavlin tells Chugunov that Murzavetskaya’s nephew Apollo, whom she wants to marry Kupavina, is a drunkard, “they are ashamed in the city, they will take a gun, as if for hunting, and they are laid on Razzorikha in a tavern. <...> on the sign "Here he is!" it says ". From there, Murzavetsky is brought in: "from hand to hand." He is trying to court Glafira, begging for a drink from Pavlin, and after drinking, he is immediately rude. He does not listen to his aunt's suggestions, he is completely occupied with the dog Tamerlane, who is called "wolf cutlet" - "for stupidity." Murzavetskaya sends Apollo to bed: "we'll go to the bride in the evening" and sends for Chugunov. She spreads rumors around the province that the late husband of Kupa-vina owed something to the late father of Murzavetsky: just in case, so that Kupavina was more accommodating. Chugunov is ready to forge a promissory note. She allegedly cannot find Kupavin's letter, where he promises her a thousand "for the poor." Chugunov heard this, the "letter" is already ready; work, as he boasts, of his nephew, Goretsky. Lynyaev arrives, "a rich, obese gentleman in his fifties, an honorary justice of the peace," with Anfusa Tikhonovna, Kupavina's aunt. He says that “some kind of quarreling started <…>, slander, and the most malicious, and forgeries began to affect.” "God forbid our calves and the wolf to be caught," Meropiya Davydovna taunts. Kupavina brings the very thousand that her husband supposedly promised to Murzavetskaya. With a part of this money, Meropia Davydovna pays off her creditors. And he "gives obedience" to Glafira: to go visit Kupavina and prevent her from getting closer to Lynyaev. In Kupavina's house, the hostess signs Chugunov's blank bill of exchange with such confidence and ignorance that he sheds a tear. He is replaced by Lynyaev. He brought a letter from an old acquaintance of Berkutov, who is about to arrive. Learning about the thousand and the "debts", Lynyaev is indignant: Kupavin "could not stand Murzavetskaya and called her a hypocrite." Kupavina shows the letter. Lynyaev: "Do whatever you want with me, but this is a forgery. Who works for her these things?" He tries to explain to Kupavina what it means to sign a bill of exchange. Murzavetskaya arrives. Lynyaev goes into the garden. Murzavetskaya brings her nephew and Glafira. She tries to intimidate Kupavina: Apollo is here "for his blood business," "this business cries out to God," but does not explain what it is. Kupavina enters, and Murzavetskaya leaves her with Apollo. The widow is extremely compliant and wants to listen to all the claims against herself, but all the claims of the drunkard Apollo are fully satisfied by five rubles from Kupavina, who, having got rid of him, hurries "to the ladies." The Murzavetskys are leaving. Kupavina stays with Glafira, who has serious views on the rich Lynyaev, and as soon as she finds out that Kupavina is not interested in him, she instantly transforms before her eyes from a girl for "obedience" into a spectacular person, ready, apparently, for anything. At the fence of Kupavina's garden, Goretsky, extorting money from Chugunov, says: "If they give you more, I'll sell you, you know that." They are going away. Kupavina, Glafira, Anfusa, Lynyaev go for a walk. Lynyaev is too lazy to go far, he stays. Glafira is with him: "My head is spinning from the noise." And immediately begins to court Lynyaev, allegedly frankly: "there is no way to get carried away with you." Lynyaev, who kept saying: "I'm afraid they'll get married," but he was hurt; Glafira also reports that she is going to the monastery and wants to "leave a good memory." Lynyaev asks for a "little favor" - to find a "good scribe". Glafira immediately understood: it was about Goretsky. Turns out he writes love letters to her. And she will immediately bring him to Lynyaeva, and let him pretend to be in love with her for the evening. "It's hard, but there's nothing to do," says Lynyaev. From the festivities, fleeing the harassment of the drunken Murzavetsky, they rush to the house of Anfus and Kupavin. Lynyaev drives him away. He leaves, threatening to "rob": "But it's a pity for Madame Kupavina, she will cry. Aurevvoir." Glafira and Goretsky are walking, and Lynyaev "outbids" Goretsky, who confesses that he wrote a forged letter. Glafira reminds Lynyaev of his promise. And she tells how she could force him to marry her, or rather, she plays out her story with him; Lynyaev is clearly taken aback. The next morning, Kupavina and Glafira are waiting for the arrival of Lynyaev and Berkutov. Glafira is preoccupied - Lynyaev is in no hurry to explain, and Murzavetskaya is about to send for her. A footman enters: a letter and a tarantass from her. Kupavina reads the letter and is lost: “Yesterday you didn’t want to receive my nephew. <…> Collecting a very large amount from you, which is not worth all your estate, I will do it with all severity and feel sorry for you <…> I won’t. Lynyaev and Berkutov arrive. And while the ladies are dressing up, they are having a serious conversation. Berkutov asks Lynyaev not to interfere in Kupavina's affairs and informs him that he has come to marry her. Kupavina and Berkutov greet. Murzavetskaya sent for Glafira; Lynyaev finds out about this with feigned indifference and goes for a walk in the garden, otherwise he tends to "sleep." Berkutov announces to Kupavina that he has come on business; and after listening to Kupavina's story, he assesses her position as "unenviable". Goretsky asks Berkutov. He has already returned Lynyaev his fifteen rubles, tomorrow he will receive fifty from Berkutov and will go to Vologda to survey his estate. Berkutov ends his conversation with Kupavina with the advice to marry Murzavetsky. Lynyaev enters: "He walked and walked around the garden, even worse - he tends to sleep." They leave him on the sofa and leave to write a letter to Murzavetskaya. Glafira, coming out from behind the curtain, rushes to him, hugs him and plays out a scene of passionate love as loudly as possible. Lynyaev is simply helpless. In the end, Kupavina, Berkutov and a footman appear: "Glafira Alekseevna, the horses are ready." But it's too late. Murzavetskaya's horses are no longer scary. "Ah, and people are here! What have you done to me? What is Meropia Davydovna now?" Glafira speaks after Lynyaev said: "Well, I'm getting married." In the house of Murzavetskaya, Chugunov instigates the already utterly angry hostess in every possible way to revenge. Chugunov's goal is to incite Meropa Davydovna to give way to his fakes. Another one - allegedly a letter from Kupavin to Apollo with the recognition of "debt" - in an annex to the "bill". Chugunov also shows the technique of the case - an old book, in which the document immediately fades. The whole question - "to scare" or to give a move on the whole form? Berkutov comes, says courtesy: he brought books of "spiritual content" to Meropia Davydovna, he wants to run and counts on support and advice. He bows and catches himself: there is also a "small request", "an order from my neighbor, Yevlampia Nikolaevna." The conversation quickly changes character. "What scoundrels they are, what are they doing to you!" - "Who is it, who?" - "Your nephew, Apollo, and company." - "Yes, you do not forget, gracious sovereign!" - "What are they? They have nothing to lose. And to see such a respectable lady in the dock! <...> It will reach the prosecutor, an investigation will begin. The main culprit, Goretsky, does not hide anything. <...> Forged bills were written <...> I suspect your nephew , not to suspect you, in fact! - "No, no, not me, not me!" And, having asked to call Chugunov, Berkutov gets down to business like this: "They talk about the Siberian railway <...>, and if there are no physical obstacles, mountains, for example ..." - "There are no obstacles and mountains, sir, flat province. But what are we we will deliver to Siberia, what products?" - "There are products, Vukol Naumych!" "Products" for Siberia - and there is Vukol Naumych and company. Chugunov thanks for the warning and goes to destroy the evidence. But Berkutov stops him: he should also get some for his work, and Kupavina - a small lesson. And Chugunov leaves, all around is obliged. Then the wooing of Kupavina is played out without a hitch, and then the triumph of Glafira, who came on a visit to show that "Michelle" is completely under her heel. The comedy of the scene does not lend itself to an abbreviated retelling. “Yes, there are wolves and sheep in the world,” says Lynyaev. The future Berkutovs go to St. Petersburg for the winter, the Lynyaevs go to Paris. After they left, Chugunov said to Meropia Davydovna: “Why did Lynyaev call us wolves? <…> We are chickens, pigeons. <…> Here they are, wolves! These ones swallow a lot at once.” Murzavetsky's cries are heard: "The wolves have eaten Tamerlane!" “That Tamerlane,” Chugunov consoles him, “here, just now, the wolves ate“ your bride with a dowry ”and Lynyaev. Yes, and your aunt and I remained a little alive. This will be more outlandish.” A. I. Zhuravleva Nedopredannitsa Drama (1879) The action takes place in a large fictional city on the Volga - Bryakhimov. An open area near a coffee shop on Privolzhsky Boulevard. Knurov ("one of the big businessmen of recent times, an elderly man with a huge fortune", as it is said about him in the remark) and Vozhevatov ("a very young man, one of the representatives of a wealthy trading company, a European in costume), having ordered champagne in a tea set, they begin discuss the news: a well-known beauty without a dowry Larisa Ogudalova marries a poor official Karandyshev. Vozhevatov explains the modest marriage with the desire of Larisa, who experienced a strong passion for the "brilliant master" Paratov, who turned her head, beat off all the suitors and suddenly left. After the scandal, when the next the groom for embezzlement was arrested right in the Ogudalovs' house, Larisa announced that she would marry the first who would marry, and Karandyshev, an old and unsuccessful admirer, "and right there. "Vozhevatov reports that he is waiting for Paratov, who sold him his steamer "Swallow", which causes joyful animation of the owner of the coffee house.The best quadruple in the city with the owner on the goats and gypsies in full dress galloped to the pier. The Ogudalovs appear with the Karandyshevs. Ogudalova is treated to tea, Karandyshev puts on airs and, as an equal, turns to Knurov with an invitation to dinner. Ogudalova explains that the dinner is in honor of Larisa, and she joins the invitation. Karandyshev reprimands Larisa for being familiar with Vozhevatov, several times condemningly mentions the Ogudalovs' house, which offends Larisa. The conversation turns to Paratov, to whom Karandyshev treats with envious hostility, and Larisa - with delight. She is outraged by the groom's attempts to compare herself with Paratov, she declares: "Sergei Sergeyich is the ideal of a man." During the conversation, cannon shots are heard, Larisa gets scared, but Karandyshev explains: "Some tyrant merchant gets off his barge," meanwhile, from the conversation between Vozhevatov and Knurov, it is known that the firing was in honor of Paratov's arrival. Larisa and her fiancé leave. Paratov appears, accompanied by the provincial actor Arkady Schastlivtsev, whom Paratov calls Robinson, because he took him from a desert island, where Robinson was dropped off for debauchery. To Knurov’s question, is it a pity for him to sell the “Swallow”, Paratov replies: “What is “sorry”, I don’t know this. on a bride with gold mines, came to say goodbye to a bachelor's will. Paratov invites him to a men's picnic across the Volga, makes a rich order for the restaurateur, and invites him to dine at his place for now. Knurov and Vozhevatov regretfully refuse, saying that they are dining with Larisa's fiancé. The second act takes place in the Ogudalovs' house, the main feature of the living room is a piano with a guitar on it. Knurov arrives and reproaches Ogudalova that she gives Larisa for a poor man, predicts that Larisa will not be able to endure a miserable semi-petty-bourgeois life and will probably return to her mother. Then they will need a solid and rich "friend" and offer themselves to such "friends". After that, he asks Ogudalova, without stint, to order a dowry and a wedding toilet for Larisa, and send the bills to him. And leaves. Larisa appears, tells her mother that she wants to leave for the village as soon as possible. Ogudalova paints village life in gloomy colors. Larisa plays the guitar and sings the romance "Do not tempt me unnecessarily", but the guitar is out of tune. Seeing the owner of the gypsy choir Ilya through the window, she calls him to fix the guitar. Ilya says that the gentleman is coming, which "we have been waiting for all year", and runs away at the call of other gypsies who announced the arrival of a long-awaited client. Ogudalova worries: did they hurry up with the wedding and did they miss a more profitable game? Karandyshev appears, whom Larisa asks to leave for the village as soon as possible. But he does not want to rush to "magnify" (the expression of Ogudalova) Larisa, to satisfy his vanity, which has suffered for so long from neglect of him, Karandyshev. Larisa reproaches him for this, not at all hiding the fact that she does not love him, but only hopes to love him. Karandyshev scolds the city for its attention to the depraved, squandered reveler, whose arrival has driven everyone crazy: restaurateurs and sex workers, cabbies, gypsies and townspeople in general, and when asked who it is, he angrily throws: "Your Sergey Sergeyevich Paratov" and, looking into window, says that he came to the Ogudalovs. Frightened, Larisa leaves with her fiancé to other chambers. Ogudalova affectionately and familiarly receives Paratov, asks why he suddenly disappeared from the city, finds out that he went to save the remnants of the estate, and now he is forced to marry a bride with half a million dowry. Ogudalova calls Larisa, between her and Paratov there is an explanation in private. Paratov reproaches Larisa that she soon forgot him, Larisa admits that she continues to love him and is getting married in order to get rid of the humiliation in front of "impossible suitors". Paratov's pride is satisfied. Ogudalova introduces him to Karandyshev, a quarrel occurs between them, as Paratov seeks to offend and humiliate Larisa's fiancé. Ogudalova settles the scandal and forces Karandyshev to invite Paratov to dinner as well. Vozhevatov appears, accompanied by Robinson, posing as an Englishman, and introduces him to those present, including Paratov, who himself recently gave Robinson to him. Vozhevatov and Paratov conspire to have fun at Karandyshev's dinner. The third act is in Karandyshev's office, poorly and tastelessly decorated, but with great pretensions. Aunt Karandysheva is on the stage, ridiculously complaining about the losses from dinner. Larisa appears with her mother. They discuss the terrible dinner, the humiliating misunderstanding of Karandyshev's position. Ogudalova says that the guests deliberately solder Karandyshev and laugh at him. After the women leave, Knurov, Paratov and Vozhevatov appear, complaining about a crappy dinner and terrible wine and rejoicing that Robinson, who can drink anything, helped get Karandyshev drunk. Karandyshev appears, who puts on airs and boasts, not noticing that they are laughing at him. He is sent for cognac. At this time, the gypsy Ilya reports that everything is ready for a trip across the Volga. The men say to each other that it would be nice to take Larisa, Paratov undertakes to persuade her. Larisa, who has appeared, is asked to sing, but Karandyshev tries to forbid her, then Larisa sings "Do not tempt". The guests are delighted, Karandyshev, about to say a long-prepared toast, leaves for champagne, the rest leave Paratov alone with Larisa. He spins her head, telling her that a few more moments like this and he will give up everything to become her slave. Larisa agrees to go on a picnic in the hope of getting Paratov back. Karandyshev, who appeared, makes a toast to Larisa, in which the most precious thing to him is that she "knows how to disassemble people" and therefore chose him. Karandyshev is also sent for wine. When he returns, he learns about Larisa's departure for a picnic, he finally understands that he was laughed at, and threatens to take revenge. Grabbing a gun, he runs away. The fourth act is again in the coffee shop. Robinson, not taken to the picnic, learns from a conversation with a servant that they saw Karandyshev with a pistol. He appears and asks Robinson where his comrades are. Robinson gets rid of him, explaining that they were casual acquaintances. Karandyshev leaves. Knurov and Vozhevatov, who have returned from a picnic, appear, believing that "the drama is beginning." Both understand that Paratov made serious promises to Larisa, which he does not intend to fulfill, and therefore she is compromised and her position is hopeless. Now their dream can come true to go with Larisa to Paris for an exhibition. In order not to interfere with each other, they decide to toss a coin. The lot falls to Knurov, and Vozhevatov gives his word to retire. Larisa appears with Paratov. Paratov thanks Larisa for the pleasure, but she wants to hear that she has now become his wife. Paratov replies that he cannot break up with a rich bride because of Larisa's passion, and instructs Robinson to take her home. Larisa refuses. Vozhevatov and Knurov appear, Larisa rushes to Vozhevatov asking for sympathy and advice, but he resolutely evades, leaving her with Knurov, who offers Larisa a joint trip to Paris and maintenance for life. Larisa is silent, and Knurov leaves, asking her to think. In desperation, Larisa approaches the cliff, dreaming of dying, but does not dare to commit suicide and exclaims: “How would someone kill me now ...” Karandyshev appears, Larisa tries to drive him away, speaks of her contempt. He reproaches her, says that Knurov and Vozhevatov played her in a toss, like a thing. Larisa is shocked and, picking up his words, says: "If you are a thing, it's so expensive, very expensive." She asks to send Knurov to her. Karandyshev tries to stop her, shouting that he forgives her and takes her away from the city, but Larisa rejects this offer and wants to leave. She does not believe his words of love for her. Enraged and humiliated, Karandyshev shoots her. The dying Larisa gratefully accepts this shot, puts the revolver near her and tells those who have run to the shot that no one is to blame: "It's me." Gypsy singing can be heard offstage. Paratov shouts: "Tell me to shut up!", but Larisa does not want this and dies to the loud gypsy choir with the words: "... you are all good people ... I love you all ... I love you all." A. I. Zhuravleva No guilty guilty Comedy (1884) The action takes place in the second half of the XNUMXth century, in a provincial town, in a poor apartment on the outskirts. Lyubov Ivanovna Otradina, a "maiden of noble birth", who lives by her work, sews and talks with the maid. From the conversation it turns out that the beloved of the heroine, the father of her child, Murov, will not set the wedding day in any way. The women are discussing the return to the city of Otradina's friend, She-avalanche, who received a huge inheritance from a rich old man in a dubious way and is preparing for the wedding. Murov comes, says that he does not dare to tell his mother, on whom he is completely dependent, about his intention to marry a dowry, reports the need to leave on maternal affairs, shows indifference to his son, who is already three years old and lives with the bourgeois Galchikha, who takes children to raise . During the conversation, Shelavina arrives. Murov, to Otradina's surprise, hides from her in the bedroom. Shelavina chats about the wedding, about the dress and shows her friend a photo of the groom. Otradina recognizes Murov. After her friend leaves, she angrily kicks him out. At this time, Galchikha runs in with the news that her son Grisha is dying. "Well, now you are completely free," Otradina says to Murov and runs away. "I'm coming for you," Murov replies. The second action takes place in a hotel, seventeen years later. The rich gentleman Dudukin, the patron of actors, is waiting for the return of the famous actress Elena Ivanovna Kruchinina, who is touring in the city. The premiere of the local theater Korinkin appears. She reports a scandal arranged by the young actor Neznamov to the local rich man Mukhoboev. According to the actress, Neznamov "has a sharp and evil tongue and the most bad character." Korinkina leaves, Kruchinina returns, tells Dudukin that she asked the governor to forgive Neznamov and not expel him from the city. To her questions about the young man, Dudukin replies that Grigory Neznamov is illegitimate, was brought up and taken to Siberia, received some education, but after the death of his adoptive father and the remarriage of his widows, he began to be offended and persecuted in the house. He ran away, was returned to the stage, with difficulty straightened out some kind of residence permit, stuck with the troupe and now is constantly afraid that he would not be sent back along the stage. Kruchinina tells her story, says that when she saw her dying child, she lost consciousness, fell ill with diphtheria herself, and when she recovered, she was told that her son had died. Sick, she was taken in by a wealthy distant relative, with whom she lived until her death as a companion, traveled with her, and then inherited some fortune and decided to become an actress. Because she did not see her son in the coffin, she always thinks that he is alive, she thinks about him, dreams of meeting him. Dudukin persuades her to take care of herself, give up fantasies and leaves. Suddenly, Neznamov and Shmaga appear in the room, waiting for Kruchinina in the buffet. On behalf of Neznamov, Shmaga reproaches Kruchinina for her intercession, which she was not asked for. Kruchinina apologizes. Neznamov talks about his grievances, about the reproaches with which his comrades in the troupe will pester him. From his reasoning one can see anger, disbelief in any good motives of people, since he "went through the stage without any fault" as a child, only because of the lack of papers. The frustrated Kruchinina ardently says that he has not seen much in life yet, according to her, there are a lot of good people in the world, especially women. She will not stop helping people, although this does not always end well. Neznamov is amazed and moved, and Shmaga demands that Kruchinina pay their bill at the buffet and give them a "loan". Embarrassed, Neznamov kicks him out and apologizes to Kruchinina, who gives him money to buy a coat for Shmaga. Saying goodbye, he kisses her hand, and she kisses him on the head. A "crazy beggar" appears, in which Kruchinina recognizes Galchikha. She asks her to show her son’s grave, but the old woman says that the boy recovered, getting better, kept calling “mother, mother”, and then she gave him to a childless couple for money, Murov approved this and added more money to her from himself. Galchikha can't remember anything else. Kruchinina, sobbing, exclaims: "What villainy!" The third act takes place in Korinkina's theatrical dressing room. She complains to her first lover, Milovzorov, that Kruchinina's performance captured not only the audience, but also the troupe, and you "have your own actress, you must support her." She conveys Dudukin's story about the life of Kruchinina, cynically interpreting her fate as the story of a free-spirited woman. She offers Milovzorov to set Neznamov on Kruchinina, getting him drunk and "debunking" Kruchinina in his eyes. He agrees. She advises Dudukin, who visited her, to arrange an evening in honor of Kruchinina today. Shmaga appears, assuring that Neznamov "lost the thread in life", refuses tavern pleasures and admires Kruchinina. After the departure of Dudukin and Shmagi, Neznamov appears. Korinkina begins to flirt with him and persuades him to go with her to Dudukin's in the evening. Neznamov and Milovzorov are left alone and talk about Kruchinina, Milovzorov agrees to recognize her acting gift, but gradually retells the version of her life composed by Korinka. Neznamov despairs, but still has some doubts whether this is true, decides to check everything in the evening and leaves. Korinkina leaves Kruchinina, who has arrived, in her dressing room, the best in the theater, and leaves. Murov appears, expresses his admiration for Kruchinina's performance and asks if she is Otradina. Confirming his guess, she refuses to talk about herself and demands to know where her son is. Murov, who hoped that she did not know about his recovery, is forced to report that he was adopted by a wealthy merchant. In his story, he mentions that he put on the baby a gold medallion, once presented to him by Otradina. After that, he says that his family life was unhappy, but, having become a widow, he inherited his wife's huge fortune, and when he saw Kruchinina, he realized what a treasure he had lost, and now asks her to become Mrs. Murova. To all this, Kruchinina replies: "Where is my son? Until I see him, there will be no other conversation between us." Neznamov and Shmaga appear again, talking about the gossip told by Milovzorov, which Neznamov either believes or doubts. He suspects an intrigue here, but Shmaga gradually strengthens him in distrust of Kruchinina. An extremely excited Neznamov leaves with Shmaga to the "Meeting of Merry Friends" tavern. The last action takes place in the garden of the Dudukin estate. Korinkina calls the actors for a snack and quietly instructs Milovzorov to "warm up" Neznamov properly. Kruchinina tells Dudukin about Galchikha's confession and complains that she cannot find any trace of her son. Dudukin tries to calm her down and considers the search hopeless. Murov appears, Dudukin leaves to seat the guests at the cards, and Murov reports that he made inquiries and found out that their son and his adoptive father fell ill and died (while he constantly confuses the name of the adoptive parent). Kruchinina does not believe. Then Murov demands that she leave and, with her searches, not cast a shadow on his reputation in the city, where he has everything to do and therefore he cannot leave it himself. Otherwise, he threatens her with trouble. Kruchinina replies that she is not afraid of him and will continue to search. Dudukin invites everyone to dinner. Kruchinina wants to return to the hotel, then she is asked to at least drink champagne on the road. Korinkina tells Neznamov and Shmage not to talk about children at the table with Kruchinina. Neznamov sees this as a confirmation of the stories about Kruchinina and promises to make a toast "about adults." After a solemn speech in honor of Kruchinina and her response speech, in which she shares success with the entire troupe, Neznamov suddenly makes a toast "to mothers who abandon their children," and in a pathetic monologue describes the misfortune of children who are in need, and most importantly, ridicule. At the same time, he mentions that some do even worse, giving an abandoned child some kind of golden trinket, which constantly reminds him of his mother who abandoned him. The amazed Kruchinina rushes to him and pulls out her medallion from his chest, shouting "he, he!" she loses consciousness. The shocked Neznamov promises not to take revenge on anyone for the evil intrigue, because he is now a "child" and asks Kruchinina, who has come to her senses, where his father is. Looking at the frightened Murov, Kruchinina says to her son: "Your father is not worth looking for him," he promises that Neznamov will study and, having a clear talent, will become a good actor, and his mother's surname is no worse than any other. A. I. Zhuravleva Alexander Vasilyevich Druzhinin (1824-1864) Polinka Sachs Tale (1847) When Konstantin Alexandrovich Saks announced to his wife that he had to go to the provinces for three weeks, Polinka burst into tears and began to ask her husband to cancel the trip. She is sad, she is tormented by bad forebodings. But Sachs is not just an official on special assignments, but a man of duty and honor. He must bring the case of the embezzler Pisarenko to the end. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of public money. The treasury is replenished from the peasant's pocket. And he, a thirty-two-year-old man, does not believe in the forebodings of his nineteen-year-old wife, a recent boarder. Childishness and naivety, of course, are the charm of dearly beloved Polinka, but he still wants her to become more mature in her actions and thoughts. While this conversation is going on, the servant reports that Prince Galitsky asks permission to see them both: he has letters for Konstantin Alexandrovich and Polina Alexandrovna. This visit is very unpleasant for Sax, but his wife has already ordered to ask the prince to the living room. But Galitsky, about two years ago, wooed Polinka, but out of frivolity and arrogance he went abroad, to the waters, without talking either with the girl's parents or with herself. There the news of the marriage of the object of his passionate love reached him. His feeling is strong, but selfish. Early success with women gave rise to apathy, which can only be overcome by an unusual, bizarre passion. He fell in love not with a woman, but with a child. Like Sachs, he is fascinated by the childishness, naivety and spontaneity of the graceful and petite Polina. That's just his appearance in their house is not an accident. The letters are just a pretext invented by his sister Annette Krasinskaya, Polina's friend from boarding school. She also suggested that a neighbor on the Zaleshina estate write to Saks and, taking advantage of the opportunity, send it with her brother, who would still carry her letter to Polinka. She tells her friend about her brother's despair, even about his illness after she married Sachs. This old, unsightly official is not worth Polinka. He is a terrible person. After all, he ended up in the Caucasus after a duel that ended in the death of the enemy. Zaleshin is an old friend of Sachs, from the time of the Caucasian service. And in his letter he warns that Prince Galitsky is dangerous for his family happiness. The success of the prince with women is well known, he is young, rich, successful and handsome, he knows how to win over anyone. Meanwhile, the danger is much more serious than Zaleshin writes. The prince managed to conspire with Pisarenko to detain Saks during the investigation until the moment when he writes and sends him a note with only the word "enough." It takes time to win Polinka. The prince well understands that her ability to love has not yet fully developed in her, is not realized by her, and his goal is to focus this need for love on himself. He chose the tactics of frank confessions, violent outbursts of passion or despair. alas, after a while this brought him success and suffering for Polinka, who was tormented by the consciousness of her sinfulness and criminality. Upon learning of this, Sachs wanted to take revenge on both, but how to take revenge on a child who himself does not understand what he has concocted! Yes, it seems that young people fell in love with each other, and the matter is serious there. No, Sachs will not add a new one to the humiliation that has already taken place. He will act differently than everyone else. For a month he hides his wife in a secluded dacha (Galitsky has completely lost his mind and sticks out under the windows of their St. must go abroad. However, he, having lost both his wife and daughter in Polinka at once, will closely monitor so that his child does not become unhappy. At her first tear, he (the prince) is a dead man. Young people are defeated by the greatness of the act of this extraordinary man and go to Italy. However, even there, Polinka often recalls the strange words of her first husband at the moment of parting, and they constantly crush her heart with some kind of heaviness. In the meantime, the shocks experienced have laid the foundation for consumption. With illness, with the threat of death, comes the awareness of one's own soul. It becomes clear that Polinka loves and has always loved Konstantin Sax, but she did not understand him, herself, or life. And now she just felt sorry for her husband. Polinka finally understands all this when Saks, in the absence of the prince, appears in their house and asks her why she is all ill, is there any grief in her? "Forgive me..." the poor woman whispers back. Sachs kisses her hand and leaves. From that moment on, Polinka can no longer love the prince: he is not a man, he is a child, she is old for his love. This Saks is a man, a man: his soul is great and calm. She loves him. She wrote him a letter, which, after her death, the maid should send in his name. It will reveal to him that she appreciates him and his greatest sacrifice and repays him with infinite love. Sachs, who had been following the prince and his wife for a whole year, after a visit to Polinka leaves for Russia and settles in the Zaleshina estate, where on one of the quiet summer evenings he is handed a letter from Italy from Princess P. A. Galitskaya. G. G. Zhivotovsky Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889) History of one city According to original documents, published by M. E. Saltykov (Shchedrin) Tale (1869-1870) This story is a "genuine" chronicle of the city of Glupov, "Glupovsky Chronicler", embracing the period from 1731 to 1825, which was "successively composed" by four of Stupov's archivists. In the chapter "From the Publisher" the author especially insists on the authenticity of the "Chronicler" and invites the reader to "catch the physiognomy of the city and follow how its history reflected the various changes that simultaneously took place in the higher spheres." "Chronicler" opens with "Appeal to the reader from the last archivist-chronicler". The archivist sees the task of the chronicler in "being a depiction" of "touching correspondence" - the authorities, "daring in measure", and the people, "thankfully giving thanks". History, therefore, is the history of the reign of various city governors. First, a prehistoric chapter "On the origin of the Foolovites" is given, which tells how the ancient people of the bunglers defeated the neighboring tribes of walrus-eaters, onion-eaters, kosobryukhy, etc. But, not knowing what to do so that there was order, the bunglers went to look for a prince . They turned to more than one prince, but even the most stupid princes did not want to "rule the stupid" and, having taught them with a rod, let them go with honor. Then the bunglers called in a thief-innovator who helped them find the prince. The prince agreed to “volunteer” them, but did not go to live with them, sending a thief-innovator instead. The prince himself called the bunglers "stupid", hence the name of the city. The Foolovites were a submissive people, but the Novotor needed riots to pacify them. But soon he was stealing so much that the prince "sent a noose to the unfaithful slave." But the newcomer "and then dodged: <...> without waiting for the loop, he stabbed himself with a cucumber." The prince and other rulers sent him - Odoev, Orlov, Kalyazin - but they all turned out to be sheer thieves. Then the prince "arrived in his own person to Foolov and cried out:" I'll screw it up. "With these words, historical times began." This is followed by "Inventory of the mayors at different times in the city of Foolov from the higher authorities appointed", after which the biographies of "the most remarkable mayors" are given in detail. In 1762, Dementy Varlamovich Brodasty arrived in Foolov. He immediately struck the Foolovites with his sullenness and reticence. His only words were "I won't stand it!" and "I'll break it!". The city was lost in conjecture, until one day the clerk, entering with a report, saw a strange sight: the body of the mayor, as usual, was sitting at the table, while his head was completely empty on the table. Foolov was shocked. But then they remembered about the watch and organ affairs of master Baibakov, who secretly visited the mayor, and, having called him, they found out everything. In the head of the mayor, in one corner, there was an organ that could play two pieces of music: "I will ruin!" and "I will not stand it!". But on the way, the head got damp and needed to be repaired. Baibakov himself could not cope and turned to St. Petersburg for help, from where they promised to send a new head, but for some reason the head was delayed. Anarchy ensued, ending with the appearance of two identical mayors at once. "The impostors met and measured each other with their eyes. The crowd slowly and in silence dispersed." A messenger immediately arrived from the province and took away both impostors. And the Foolovites, left without a mayor, immediately fell into anarchy. The anarchy continued throughout the next week, during which six mayors changed in the city. The townsfolk rushed from Iraida Lukinichna Paleologova to Clementine de Bourbon, and from her to Amalia Karlovna Stockfish. The claims of the first were based on the short-term activities of her husband, the second - of her father, and the third - she herself was a mayor's pompadour. The claims of Nelka Lyadokhovskaya, and then Dunka the fat-footed and Matryonka the nostrils, were even less substantiated. In between hostilities, the Foolovites threw some citizens from the bell tower and drowned others. But they are also tired of anarchy. Finally, a new mayor arrived in the city - Semyon Konstantinovich Dvoekurov. His activity in Foolovo was beneficial. "He introduced mead and brewing and made the use of mustard and bay leaves obligatory," and also wanted to establish an academy in Foolov. Under the next ruler, Peter Petrovich Ferdyshchenko, the city flourished for six years. But in the seventh year, "Ferdyshchenko was embarrassed by the demon." The mayor was inflamed with love for the coachman's wife Alenka. But Alenka refused him. Then, with the help of a series of successive measures, Alenka's husband, Mitka, was branded and sent to Siberia, and Alenka came to her senses. A drought fell upon the Foolovs through the sins of the mayor, and famine followed it. People started dying. Then came the end of Foolov's patience. First they sent a walker to Ferdyshchenko, but the walker did not return. Then they sent a petition, but this did not help either. Then they finally got to Alenka, and they threw her off the bell tower. But Ferdyshchenko did not doze off either, but wrote reports to his superiors. No bread was sent to him, but a team of soldiers arrived. Through the next hobby of Ferdyshchenko, archer Domashka, fires came to the city. Pushkarskaya Sloboda was on fire, followed by Bolotnaya Sloboda and Scoundrel Sloboda. Ferdyshchenko again shied away, returned Domashka to the “optism” and called the team. The reign of Ferdyshchenko ended with a journey. The mayor went to the city pasture. In different places, the townspeople greeted him and dinner was waiting for him. On the third day of the journey, Ferdyshchenko died of overeating. Ferdyshchenko's successor, Vasilisk Semyonovich Borodavkin, took up his post resolutely. Having studied the history of Glupov, he found only one role model - Dvoekurov. But his achievements were already forgotten, and the Foolovites even stopped sowing mustard. Wartkin ordered that this mistake be corrected, and added Provence oil as punishment. But the fools did not give in. Then Borodavkin went on a military campaign against Streletskaya Sloboda. Not everything in the nine-day campaign was successful. In the dark, they fought with their own. Many real soldiers were fired and replaced with tin soldiers. But Wartkin survived. Having reached the settlement and not finding anyone, he began to pull the houses into logs. And then the settlement, and behind it the whole city, surrendered. Subsequently, there were several more wars for enlightenment. In general, the reign led to the impoverishment of the city, which finally ended under the next ruler, Negodyaev. In this state, Foolov found the Circassian Mikeladze. No events were held during this period. Mikeladze stepped aside from administrative measures and dealt only with the female sex, to which he was a great hunter. The city was resting. "The visible facts were few, but the consequences are innumerable." The Circassian was replaced by Feofilakt Irinarkhovich Benevolensky, a friend and comrade of Speransky in the seminary. He had a passion for law. But since the mayor did not have the right to issue his own laws, Benevolensky issued laws secretly, in the house of the merchant Raspopova, and scattered them around the city at night. However, he was soon dismissed for relations with Napoleon. The next was Lieutenant Colonel Pryshch. He did not deal with business at all, but the city flourished. The harvests were huge. The fools were worried. And the secret of Pimple was revealed by the leader of the nobility. A great lover of minced meat, the leader sensed that the head of the mayor smelled of truffles and, unable to stand it, attacked and ate the stuffed head. After that, state councilor Ivanov arrived in the city, but "turned out to be so short that he could not contain anything spacious," and died. His successor, the immigrant Vicomte de Chario, constantly had fun and was sent abroad by order of his superiors. Upon examination, it turned out to be a girl. Finally, State Councilor Erast Andreevich Sadtilov appeared in Foolov. By this time the Foolovites had forgotten the true God and clung to idols. Under him, the city was completely mired in debauchery and laziness. Hoping for their happiness, they stopped sowing, and famine came to the city. Sadtilov was busy with daily balls. But everything suddenly changed when she appeared to him. The wife of the pharmacist Pfeifer showed Sadtilov the path of goodness. The holy fools and the wretched, who experienced hard days during the worship of idols, became the main people in the city. The Foolovites repented, but the fields remained empty. The Glupovsky beau monde gathered at night to read Mr. Strakhov and "admiration", which the authorities soon learned about, and Sadtilov was removed. The last Foolovsky mayor - Ugryum-Burcheev - was an idiot. He set a goal - to turn the Foolovs into "the city of Nepreklonsk, eternally worthy of the memory of Grand Duke Svyatoslav Igorevich" with straight, identical streets, "companies", identical houses for identical families, etc. Ugryum-Burcheev thought out the plan in detail and proceeded to execution. The city was destroyed to the ground, and it was possible to start building, but the river interfered. She did not fit into the plans of Ugryum-Burcheev. The indefatigable mayor led an offensive against her. All the garbage, all that was left of the city, was put into action, but the river washed away all the dams. And then Moody-Grumbling turned around and walked away from the river, leading the Foolovites with him. A completely flat lowland was chosen for the city, and construction began. But something has changed. However, the notebooks with the details of this story have been lost, and the publisher gives only the denouement: "... the earth shook, the sun faded <...> It has come." Without explaining what exactly, the author only reports that "the scoundrel instantly disappeared, as if dissolved in the air. History stopped its course." The story is closed by "acquittal documents", that is, the writings of various city governors, such as: Borodavkin, Mikeladze and Benevolensky, written as a warning to other city governors. E. S. Ostrovskaya Gentlemen of Tashkent. Pictures of manners Essays (1869-1872) The whole book is built on the border of an analytical, grotesque essay and a satirical narrative. So what kind of creature is this - a Tashkent citizen - and what does she yearn for? And she craves only one thing - "Eat!". Whatever it is, at the cost of whatever it is. And Tashkent is turning into a country inhabited by Tashkent residents who left Russia, as unnecessary. Tashkent is located where they beat in the teeth and where the legend of Makar, who does not drive calves, has the right to citizenship, that is, everywhere. Tashkent exists both at home and abroad, and true Tashkent is in the morals and heart of a person. And although, on the one hand, wherever you spit, we have Tashkenters everywhere, on the other hand, it is not so easy to become a Tashkenter. In most cases, a Tashkent citizen is a noble son, his education is classical, and it evaporates immediately after leaving the school bench, which does not at all prevent a Tashkent citizen from being an architect and daring, because it was not the gods who burned the pots. Here the narrator moves on to his personal experience, recalls his upbringing in one of the military schools. The basics of education boil down to the following: the country does not have its own fruits of civilization; we should only transmit them, without looking at what we transmit. To fulfill this noble deed, the hero goes, of course, to St. Petersburg, where he gets an appointment with Pierre Nakatnikov, his former classmate, a lazy and booby, who has reached certain degrees. Here the basic principles of civilizing activity are clarified: the Russian camp and the Russian cart; and most importantly, a Tashkent citizen receives money from the treasury for state educational needs; gets on a train and ... comes to his senses either in the Tula, or in the Ryazan province - without money, without things; remembers nothing, except for one: "I drank ...". Well, now at least they would civilize their own, Russian provinces, if it is not possible to do this with foreign ones. To this end, the cry of the general: "Guys! God is with us!" - in summer St. Petersburg, tormented by floods (the Peter and Paul Fortress, the last stronghold, broke away and was already sailing away), miners from Tashkent gathered. The selection of those who were fit was based on national and religious grounds: four hundred Russians, two hundred Germans with Russian souls, thirty-three foreigners without a soul, and thirty-three Catholics, who justified themselves by saying that they did not go to any church. The sewage work begins: they frighten the short-haired girls on Nevsky Prospekt; at night they break into the apartments of the unintentional, who have books, paper and pens, and they all live in a civil marriage. The fun is unexpectedly interrupted when a Tashkent citizen mistakenly flogs state councilor Peremolov. The author characterizes the following instances of Tashkenters as belonging to the preparatory category. So, Olga Sergeevna Persianova, an interesting widow who has flown away to Paris, has a son, Nicolas, a pure "doll", who is brought up by his aunt and uncle in order to make him a noble person. As the mother is convinced, having returned home and found her "doll" at a more or less mature age, the goal was successfully achieved. But the young offspring's credo unfolds to the fullest extent on the Percali estate, where he comes for summer holidays and where he meets with a neighbor, a little older than him, Pavel Denisych Mangushev. A young Tashkent citizen and his mother are already unfolding their slogans and banners: I don’t make revolutions, I don’t plot, I don’t join secret societies, at least leave women to my lot! .. Nihilists are the most empty people and even scoundrels ... you live like in Russia, just to do nothing, and no one will touch you ... In the company of a mothering Tashkent citizen who preaches that they, landlords, should remain at their posts, hone themselves, at dinner and libations, inspecting the stables, and others formulations: our Russians feel more inclined to work in the field, they are dirty, but behind the plow - this is a charm ... But the holidays are ending, somehow the hated study ends, mama buys a carriage, furniture, arranges an apartment - "a real nest", from where it is heard Tashkent grai, addressed to an unknown enemy: "Now let's fight! .." And a new type of Tashkent citizen with the label "executioner" flies onto the stage. This person is one of the pupils of a closed educational institution for children from poor noble families, and the action takes place in the late 30s. Khlynov was nicknamed "the executioner" because, having learned that the authorities were going to expel him for unprecedented laziness, he filed a petition to appoint him to the executioner anywhere at the discretion of the provincial government. Indeed, the measure of cruelty and strength in this unfortunate stupid man is unprecedented. His fellow students tremble and are forced to share provisions with him, while the teachers, taking advantage of the fact that Khlynov himself is in awe of any superiors, bully him mercilessly. Khlynov's only friend is Golopyatov, nicknamed "Agashka". Together they stoically endure the weekly floggings, spend recreation together, sometimes mercilessly torturing each other, sometimes sharing their experience, which of the uncles is fighting; now falling into a dull stupor, now drinking vodka somewhere in a dark corner. Relatives remember Khlynov only before the start of the summer holidays, and then they take him to the estate, standing in the middle of the village of Vavilov. In addition to the father and mother of "The Executioner", Pyotr Matveich and Arina Timofeevna, two more of their teenage sons live there, old grandfather Matvei Nikanorych and brother Sofron Matveich. The family suspects that the grandfather is hiding his money somewhere, watching him, but nothing can be tracked down. Pyotr Matveich has the reputation of a dashing police officer, but he does not know how to drag anything from his raids into the house. "Rip!" - Khlynov the old man instructs Khlynov the father. "... I know my duties very well!" - Pyotr Matveich answers this. The "executioner" gladly left home for an educational institution: it's better to let strangers tyrannize than one's own. But now he cherishes one hope - to end his hated studies and get a job in the military. For such free-thinking and disobedience, papa beats him up like a Sidorov's goat. Execution strikes all households. The "executioner" pretends that he, too, is dejected; in fact, it's like water off a duck's back. Returning to the educational institution, the "Executioner" learns that the guardian gives "Agashka" to the regiment. For the sake of friendship "Agashka" decides to help a friend. Together they get rowdy so that after a few weeks they are expelled. Joyful and excited, they encourage each other: "We will not be lost!" The Tashkent man from the following essay, apparently, is the opposite of "Executioner" and "Agashka" in everything. Misha Nagornov, the late son of State Councilor Semyon Prokofievich and his wife Anna Mikhailovna, from early childhood until his entry into an independent life, always, in everything and everywhere, pleased and consoled his parents, mentors, teachers, comrades. The more Misha grew up, the more well-behaved and understanding he became. In early childhood, he was devout, always the first student at school - and not for some reason, but simply for him it was joyful and natural. Judicial reform coincided in time with the last years of study of Mikhail Nagornov. Young people entertain themselves by presenting a court session with a jury, a prosecutor, a lawyer, and judges. Nagorny is tempted to follow the path of a lawyer, money, brilliant, artistic, although he understands that a prosecutor's career is more solid, and more reliable, from the state point of view. In addition, the father categorically demands that his son become a public prosecutor. The ease and accessibility of a career, a plentiful and satisfying jackpot - all this befuddles the heads of those who have not yet completed their studies in Tashkent. The ruble, peeping out of the pocket of a naive simpleton, prevents them from sleeping. Finally passed the last exam; future lawyers and prosecutors, who have learned the lessons of demagogy and unscrupulousness (just to snatch their fat piece), are scattered over the haystacks of St. Petersburg. The hero of the last biography, Porfisha Velentiev, is a Tashkent citizen of the purest water, the whole logic of his upbringing and education leads him to the perfect ability to mint a coin out of thin air - he is the author of a project entitled: Vasily Vonifatiev Porotoukhov to duty-free twenty-year exploitation of all forests belonging to the treasury for their indispensable, within twenty years, extermination. Porfiry's father, Menander, received an excellent spiritual education, but did not go to the priesthood, but as an educator in the family of Prince Oboldui-Shchetina-Ferlakur. Thanks to the princess, he got roughed up, and later received a very advantageous position as an official who taxes distilleries. He married the second cousin of a princess from the seedy Georgian-Ossetian family of the princes Krikulidzev. Both before and after her marriage, Nina Iraklievna was engaged in speculation in the sale and purchase of peasants, giving them to soldiers, selling recruiting receipts, and buying for the collection of souls. But the main teachers of Porfisha Velentiev in acquiring acquisitive skills were the imaginary mother's relatives, Azamat and Azamat Tamerlantsev. They are so screwed into the everyday life of the house, the family, that it is impossible to sweep them away with a broom. Servants regard them as their own, they show Porfisha tricks with the appearance and disappearance of coins, a childish faint echo of their gamble cheating earnings. Another shock to the young Velentiev is the political economy lessons he receives at his educational institution. All this makes him look with contempt and condescension on the naive, in modern times, efforts of his parents. And already Menander Semyonovich Velentiev senses in his son, with his most naive ways of accumulating wealth, a reformer who will destroy the old temple, will not build a new one and will disappear. I. A. Pisarev Diary of a provincial in St. Petersburg Cycle of stories (1872) A diary? Well no! Rather, notes, notes, memoirs - or rather, physiology (a forgotten genre in which fiction is combined with journalism, sociology, psychology in order to more fully and more easily describe a certain social section). And now the hero is already on the train, rushing him from the Russian province to the Russian capital, the car is full of provincials like him, and the provincial complains that there is nowhere to hide from the province (even when the province settles in the same hotel ), ponders what the hell pulled him to migrate to St. Petersburg, because he has no concessions for the construction of railways, or other urgent matters. However, the environment, as you know, sucks: everyone runs around the ministries and departments, and the hero begins to run, if not there, then at least to the oyster room to Eliseev, to this peculiar exchange, where Adam's apples, napes, caps with red bands and cockades flicker, some olive personalities - either Greeks, or Jews, or Armenians - anempodists timofeichi, arbitrating and debating for cognac, salmon, vodka. The cycle of bustling business idleness sucks: everyone wants to go to the theater to stare at the visiting actress Schneider - and ours go there too ... They chew, idle talk, and everything is oppressed by the thought that there is something else that needs to be obtained, but what this something consists of - that's it - it is precisely the hero who cannot formulate. Involuntarily, he recalls his grandfather Matvey Ivanych, who lived life - he utterly smashed the police, pounded dishes in taverns - and did not run into misanthropy. True, the grandson thinks that he is yearning, because there is no one and nothing to rule over, although he regrets not serfdom, but the fact that, despite its abolition, it still lives in our hearts. Prokop, a friend of the provincial, does not let him relax: he drags the poor fellow through all the circles and societies where projects are being written (nowadays these projects are in vogue, everyone writes them - one about reduction, another about expansion, another about shooting, another one about wasting, after all, everyone want a pie). "A people without religion is like a body without a soul <…> Agriculture is destroyed, industry is barely breathing, trade is stagnant <…> And why stand on ceremony with this foul literature? <…> Tell me, where are we going?" - Democratic circles are extremely concerned about the fate of the motherland. As for the shooting, it is not useless to subject the following persons to it: all those who think differently; all in whose behavior a lack of sincerity is noticed; all the hearts of well-meaning townsfolk upsetting with a gloomy face; scoffers and newspapermen - and nothing more. From reception to reception, from one society of liberally frightened people to another, until the provincial and Prokop get drunk to hell and spend the night, for mercy's sake, in the apartment of the assistant district warden. No, apparently, without grandfather's morality there is nowhere to go: only one way to protect your life from unpleasant elements is to cast aside doubts and start hitting in the teeth again. And in a daze, the hero thinks: is it possible that even in the most recent progressive times, the destructively conservative party will be replaced from the darkness by a party that will already have to be called the most destructively conservative? So, having read the projects, mainly the works of Prokop (on the need for decentralization, on the need to stun in the sense of temporarily lulling the senses, on the reformation of the academy's de siance), the provincial falls into a state of some especially disturbing and visionary dreams. He dreams that he is dying alone in furnished rooms, having made a million rubles on farming. And here the author describes how the soul of the deceased watches the plunder of the acquired. Everything he could - from securities to cambric scarves - was stolen by bosom friend Prokop. And in the ancestral estate near the village of the Spatted Sisters Mashenka and Dashenka, nieces Fofochka and Lyolechka, remembering the dead man with unctuous voices, they think how to win over pieces of inheritance from each other. Years have passed - and now the aged Prokop lives under the yoke of the blackmailer Gavryushka, the former number one, who saw how the master put his hand into someone else's good. A lawyer arrives, a case is started, the guardian of the law tries to snatch his legal ones from Prokop, and only because of the intractability of both everything comes to court. Prokop wins his case, because the reason for the Russian assessors is to lose theirs! so you will soon go around the world! After such a dream, the hero wants only one thing - to run! Yes, where? I have already fled from the provinces to the capital, there is no way to return back ... The provincial rushes to his old friend Menander Perelestnov, who, while still at university, wrote the essay "Homer, a Man and a Citizen", translated a page from some textbook and, after impoverishment, became a liberal and a publicist with the daily literary, scientific and journalistic publication "The Oldest All-Russian Foam skimmer." In fact, our hero cannot be called alien to literary work: a copy of the youthful story "Malanya", from peasant life, perfectly rewritten and superbly bound, is still kept by the provincial. Friends agreed that now it is easy to breathe, to live lightly, and most importantly - Perelestnov promises to introduce a comrade into an almost secret "Union of Foam Skimmers". The hero gets acquainted with the Charter of the Union, established in the absence of a real cause and in the form of a harmless pastime, and soon with its members themselves, mainly journalists, employees of various publications, such as "True Russian Foam Remover", "Mirror of Foam Remover", "All-Russian Foam Remover Shame" ", where, it seems, under different pseudonyms, the same person argues with himself. And so ... which of these skimmers is engaged in the pedigree of Churilka; who proves that the plot of "Chizhik-Pyzhik" is borrowed; who actively works to maintain "abolition". In a word, the incompetence of skimmers in matters of life is beyond doubt; only in literature, which is in a state of mortification, can they pass off their childish babble as answers to the questions of life and even impress someone. At the same time, literature dejectedly wanders along a stalled rut and mutters incoherently about what first comes to hand. The writer does not want to write, the reader hates to read. And glad to run, but nowhere ... However, the most important event for the provincial, after immersing himself in the world of skimmers, was the hoax of the VIII International Statistical Congress, to which transatlantic friends, exaggerated foreigners flock; gullible Russian delegates, including Kirsanov, Bersenev, Rudin, Lavretsky, Volokhov, they are fed and watered, arrange excursions, are going to show Moscow and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In the meantime, at the working sessions it becomes clear on which articles and headings it is generally possible to carry out statistical research in Russia. Finally, the love of Russians to be frank with foreigners, to be liberal in front of Europeans, leads to a seemingly inevitable conclusion: the entire congress turned out to be a trap to find out the political views and degree of loyalty of the gentlemen of the Russian delegates. They are rewritten and obliged to appear for interrogation in some secret place. Now the daredevils and frondeurs are ready to lay each other down, and each of them exposes himself, if only to show his trustworthiness and to excuse himself from complicity, God knows what. Everything ends with the usual disgusting: they extort at least some money from the defendants, promising to immediately stop the case. A sigh of relief from everyone… However, from the numerous blunders and reservations, it would be high time to guess that this is a stupidly rude hoax with the aim of profiting. The timid provincial sits at home and, with great anguish, begins to scribble articles; so the free press is enriched with incorruptibles on the following topics: smallpox vaccination; who was Tibullova Delia? hemorrhoids - is it a Russian disease? the manners and customs of bats; the burial ceremonial of Grand Duke Truvor - and a long line of others with subtle allusions to current modernity. And again, like an obsession, a sleepy dream of a million, of his own death, of the trial of the stealing Prokop, whose case, according to the cassation ruling, is decided to be tried in turn in all cities of the Russian Empire, is approaching the provincial. And again, the restless soul flies over the damned earth, over all the cities, in alphabetical order, observing everywhere the triumph of post-reform justice and the imposing resourcefulness of Prokop, rejoicing at the incessant ringing of bells, under which projects are easily written, and reformist ideas are happily combined with the smell of fusel oil and a favorable attitude to cheating. The young lawyer Alexander Khlestakov, the son of that same Ivan Alexandrovich, hangs the sisters in Spat on. He buys the entire inheritance for five thousand in cash. The soul of a provincial is transferred to St. Petersburg. Alexander Ivanovich is considering where to find completely reliable false witnesses in order to fill up Prokop? False witnesses are found, but only those whom Prokop himself planted in order to deceive the new relatives of the provincial. His soul is again transferred to the very end of the 70th century. Prokop is still suing, having triumphantly won in one hundred and twenty-five cities, having given away almost all of the stolen million. Meanwhile, the progressive changes in the kingdom-state are extraordinary: instead of passports, small cards have been introduced; there is no division into military and civilian; curses, which were the beauty of the polemics of the XNUMXs, have been abolished, although literature is completely free ... The hero awakens in ... a hospital for the insane. How he got there, he does not remember and does not know. One consolation - both lawyers Prokop and Menander are sitting there. Thus ends the year spent by the provincial in St. Petersburg. In the yellow house, at leisure, the hero sums up everything he saw and heard, and mainly, he analyzes who these "new people" whom he met in the capital are. Then it dawns on him that the "new people" belong to the kind of mammals in which, according to the state, no virtues are supposed. People who imagine themselves to be leaders are in no way able to influence the general direction of life due to the mere fact that, being in the camp of spiritual poverty, they are vicious. There is nothing to expect from the average person either, for he is a representative of the masses, insensitive to the public interests, who are ready to give away their birthrights for free, but will never give up a single spoonful of their lentil stew. And the provincial blames himself as a newly-minted liberal, because he kept shouting at the new forms of the old outrages: faster! play it up! So, one of the results of the diary of a provincial is the realization of life's emptiness and the impossibility of stumbling somewhere, somewhere to play an active role. And in vain the provincial intelligentsia is pouring into St. Petersburg with the thought: won't it be easier? will it not be possible to cling to the edge of some concession, then sell their founding right, and then go abroad, to mineral waters ... I. A. Pisarev Pompadours and pompadours Essays (1863-1874) In a brief preface, the author says that this book was written with the aim of shedding light on a very peculiar sphere of life activity, in which everything is so dark and indefinite that every beginning pompadour needs explications and interpretations. Well, for example, a boss arriving at a new place should know how his and other people's meetings and seeing off are organized, how they treat subordinates, the law, the choice of a pompadour, etc. The author of the book, instead of instructions to readers, chooses the form of lengthy stories. It is they who most likely will highlight the entire spectrum of pompadour activities. Leaders change quite often. It was before that they stayed in one place, because nothing was required of the boss, except to be called an administrator. Now it is required that he still "understand some essence, so that he is reliable and well-behaved from nature itself." An official, by definition, is a devoted person, he looks at all the bosses the same way, because they are all bosses. So, it is necessary to meet the chiefs with maximum cordiality, but to see them off is another matter that requires a more subtle policy. The celebration of farewell must be of exceptional devotion. “We understood,” says the person responsible for the toasts and speeches, “that the true art of governing lies not in severity, but in that complacency, which, combined with straightforwardness, draws a tribute of gratitude from the blackest and adamant hearts.” While the new boss is becoming liberal, creating a new era and all the subordinate people are in tune with him, the old administrator listens to reports from the former headphones about the new deeds of the "replacing the irreplaceable" and sits down to memoirs, on the first pages of which it is already noted that "the first word , which an experienced administrator has to turn to a crowd of dissatisfied with something, is a swear word. Task number two: to achieve administrative unanimity as a counter to the same diversity of opinion. The inhabitant should always be kept in strictness, by all means influencing his vicious will. "Young! If you think that this science is easy, - disbelieve it..." Together with the pompadour, the pompadours also disappear from the horizon, although their destinies sometimes turn out to be quite comforting. Nadezhda Petrovna Blamanzhe managed to subjugate the new pompadour, and the period of her new reign was marked by useless cruelties: she expelled from the city, removed from office, and separated loved ones. Of course, Pompadour biographies develop in different ways. There are some that are quite unexpected. No one ever thought that Dmitry Pavlovich Kozelkov, whom his peers called some Mitenka, some Kozlik, some Kozlenok, would one day begin to manage the province. His appearance immediately changes, a kind of "glossy obstruction" appears in his face. Trying to charm provincial officials, he says a lot of nonsense, but over time, his initially well-received chatter bothers everyone, and seeds of doubt fall into his already pompadour soul. He becomes a "thoughtful administrator", which means nothing more than a "confusion of thoughts". Thoughts roam in his head, "like flies on the table in the summer. They roam, roam and fly away." From doubt, he turns to determination, a passionate desire to do something, preferably based on the law, for example, to give a flogging to a little official from the mash because he always walks around drunk ... He is interested to know what ordinary people think about his rule, and he, disguised in a simple dress, goes to the town square. Passers-by and ordinary people answer him that there is no law for ordinary people, only "planid". "The law is for those at the top." First performers and breakers of the law are just pompadours, which are easy to change if they no longer fit a certain state of affairs. And if someone takes it into his head to be indignant or, even worse, to start fighting against the law, then "from all the cracks scammers and scammers will crawl out, watching the mirror surface of the administrative sea." In this case, pompadours die by the dozens. The good old pompadour, suddenly ending his administrative run, causes bewilderment. "How can you-sir?" After all, there is no example of a pompadour, once withered, suddenly blooming again. Therefore, as soon as the winds of change blow, the pompadour thinks that everything he drinks and eats happens to him "for the last time." For the last time, honors are given to him, services are rendered, music rings. And when a company of ex-pompadours speaks on this essential topic, one recalls the former free life, sturgeon ear, prices for hazel grouses and turkeys, curious Senate decrees. None of the pompadours suggests that retribution awaits them in the future. In vain do they think that it is always possible to be impudent in the interests of the state, the fashion for certain jokes is ending, and only pompadours with an absolute political ear take off the foam. Power is a harsh thing, when the wind changes to a "different operational basis of thoughts," no merits made in the form of reports, instructions, resolutions and decrees will save. Other people will come for whom the new way of thinking will become something like an idea learned with mother's milk. They will become the new pompadours. Social development is happening rapidly: from a penny bribe, the townsfolk quickly move on to a thousandth or ten thousandth. A bribe is sometimes cast into a shape that you don’t even guess about, it has such an ennobled appearance. "Today, what matters in a person is not heroism and the ability to endure hardships, but complaisance, accommodatingness and readiness." And here for the pompadour, the penny count begins again. "For the sake of being able to capitalize on an extra coin, he is ready to get along with any internal politics, to believe in any god." However, at the same time, manage to express the absence of any fears, manage, if a new boss arrives, every moment and rigorously tremble. Then only you will go to the ladies. Well, what about an educated society at this moment? Apathy overcomes him: “There is nowhere to go, nothing to read, nothing to write about. The whole body is stricken with fatigue and dull indifference to everything that happens. It would be good to sleep, but I don’t even want to sleep.” Literature and journalism will vent the absence of their own political and public interests on Louis Philippe, Guizot and the French bourgeoisie. But here, too, shapeless general phrases sound: “A boring time, boring literature, a boring life. Before, at least “slave speeches” were heard, passionate “slave speeches”, allegorical, but understandable, now one cannot hear “slave speeches”. so that there is no movement, there is movement, but the movement is tiresome, reminiscent of jerking from side to side. However, even against the backdrop of general stagnation and dullness, worthy persons sometimes appear, such as, for example, the leader of progress, Count Sergei Vasilyevich Bystritsyn, who established an economy in Chukhloma, and then tried to do it on a Russian scale. Surveying the "bird's eye view" of the country, he sees in it "hundreds of thousands, millions, a whole sea of martyrs" and understands that it is a sin to harass them, inventing a cruel and inert domestic policy. "It is also clear to him that the Russian" hostel without vodka is unthinkable " : "In our harsh climate, it is just as difficult to do without vodka as, for example, a resident of fiery Italy does without pasta and without the life-giving rays of the sun, and an inhabitant of a more moderate zone, a German, without a mug of beer and sausage. " Bystritsyn starts a war with family In the circle of friends, Bystritsyn goes even further, he dreams of a universal revival, of chicken in Henry IV's soup, and can even whisper in his ear: "It would be nice if life were so organized that everyone gets it according to their needs." However, people like Bystritsyn work among many others who hinder any undertakings, since the business of state officials is not to philosophize craftily, not to confuse minds, not to create, but to monitor the integrity of what has been created, to protect what has already been done, for example, public courts and zemstvos. There is no arena for administrative creativity now, but what should pompadours do, possessing living energy, it must be placed somewhere! In the plug-in utopian short story "The Only One" the author introduces yet another "pretty" pompadour, "the most ingenuous in the world." As an administration philosopher, he is convinced that the best administration is no administration. Officials scribble papers, but he does not want to sign them: "Why, sir?" There should be only holidays in the city, then there can be no executions, revolutions, riots: the chiefs are inactive. The biggest difficulty for this pompadour is the choice of a pompadour, because there are no charters or regulations on this matter. Behind the scenes, it seems that a woman is required to be a high-ranking lady, but the boss has a taste for bourgeois. After a short search, he finds a white-bodied widow at the door of a tavern. For a long time he then had to explain to the quarters that it was impossible to lie in wait for the pompadour at night. In the city during the ten years of rule, there was not a single uprising, not a single theft. The townsfolk ate their fill, the quarters too, the leader was simply choking on fat, the pompadour became wider across herself. Pompadour triumphed, the authorities did not remember him. And in his hometown, everyone had only one thing on their minds: "put a monument to him alive." At the end of the book, the author gives the opinions of noble foreigners about pompadours. The prevailing judgment is that there is a special estate in Russia - pompadours, "violating public silence and sowing discord" (Austrian Serb Glupchich-Yadrilich). And “Yamutsky prince, whose words were recorded by his tutor Khabibula, objects to him: “Ah-ah, it’s good here in Russia: there are no people, the pompadour is pure! Ayda home reform do! I went home, the reform began. The people drove, the pompadour planted; reform finished. With this phrase, the notes on pompadours end. O. V. Timasheva well-intentioned speeches Essays (1872-1876) In the preface chapter "To the Reader" the author is presented as a front man shaking hands with representatives of all parties and camps. He has a lot of people he knows, but he does not look for anything from them, except for "good intentions", it would be good to understand them. Let them hate each other, but they often talk the same thing. Everyone is concerned about ways to "bridle". The outlook of the vast majority of people rests solely on this idea, although it has not been sufficiently studied and even slandered by fanatics and hypocrites. And therefore, the urgent need of modern society is liberation from liars, because the true heroes of "curbing" are not theorists at all, but simpletons. Like lunatics, these latter decide to overcome any obstacles and sometimes even perform feats without intending to perform them. "Why is the story written?" - asks the author in the first chapter, which is a travel sketches. "Ah, if only then, gracious sovereigns, in order to ascertain what well-intentioned speeches are." The Russian people have become weak at all levels of modern society. The peasant is weak, but the enlightened master is no better, the German overcomes him everywhere. Painfully we are simple! "But, as often happens, Russians are swindled when buying, not because they are stupid, but because it does not occur to them that in a country where there are police everywhere, fraud is possible. "Don't be a fool!" This is foul and arrogant the word "fool" directly and indirectly haunts the author, as a panegyric to the fraud that appropriates the name of the mind. A good administrative official, on whom big bosses rely, is distinguished by innate conservative convictions and combat readiness to go where they are sent at the first sound of the trumpet. The bureaucrat of the newest temper is Derzhimorda, "brushed, smoothed, straightened joker, ready to eat his own father with porridge." It is impossible to imagine a single Russian boss Who would treat himself with irony, with reservations, this is a pompadour who is always serious or recklessly amok. Russia needs spies to administer well. But for some reason the Russian spy is dead, it is said about him: "He dries onuchi in water." He never knows what he needs, and therefore eavesdrops in vain. And once overheard, everything falls into one heap. He is ignorant, amazed at trifles and frightened by ordinary things, passing them through the crucible of his unbridled imagination. The candid confessions of Nikolai Batishchev in letters to his mother allow you to learn that in the public service you need to be zealous, but know when to stop. Wishing to become a prosecutor, at the mere name of which criminals will tremble, Batishev, as an assistant, sincerely cooks up cases against the innocent and categorically supports all strict indictments. When he is asked to deal with the "Society for the Anticipation of the Harmony of the Future", on the lists of which there are fifteen people calling for patiently enduring the disasters of the present, Batishev attracts up to a hundred people in this case. His zeal confuses even a sophisticated general. Realizing his unfitness for the prosecutor's case, the young man, cursing fate and his "honesty", resigns. In the postscript of letters addressed to his mother, Batishchev, in parallel with the history of his administrative failure, talks about the successes of a friend who became a lawyer, a certain Erofeev, who learned how to make good money and put it into circulation. Who are the pillars of modern society? Where are their roots, what is their origin, how is the money that they own accumulated? Here is an example, Osip Ivanovich Derunov, who kept an inn through which hundreds of people passed and passed. Derunov accumulated a considerable fortune on a hryvnia, on a five-kaltyn, which allowed him to open his own large farm, to acquire a factory. At the last meeting with him in St. Petersburg, the narrator hardly recognizes him in a fur coat trimmed with light sable fur. Assuming a proud pose of an aristocrat, he holds out two fingers in a slurred motion as a sign of greeting. Having invited a writer, who, unfortunately, is not Turgenev, he wants to please his languid, white-bodied wife, who is reclining in the living room in an expensive negligee of four "Kalegvards". Assessing the society in which he found himself, the writer imagined "an incident in the Abuzza mountains", a story quite worthy of a Russian novelist who charms a lady with his adventures. Despite the luxury and richness of the new environment, the narrator recalls with regret that Derunov, who did not take off the old-fashioned blue frock coat, which helped him convince the German merchant of his thoroughness. True, with the disappearance of the former situation that surrounded Derunov, the mystery of squeezing a penny out of a guest, partner and interlocutor also disappears. Now he brazenly lusts for robbery, and this cannot be hidden in any way. The author, nicknamed Gambetta, that is, "an inveterate man who does not recognize anything sacred," has to talk on the women's issue with a responsible official from former schoolmates Tebenkov, who calls himself a Westerner and a liberal. However, he is not even a liberal, but a conservative. Most dear to him in a woman is her ignorance, he sees good intentions in it. Can a woman derive any real benefit from all kinds of permissions, permissions, knowledge? He is convinced that a woman cannot do a better job than a man. Well, if women get into the reforms and the revolution, then it’s all gone. All their "dignities", shown at the family level, will come out. We will have to change all ideas about virtue, about the magnificent victories of women over adultery, about maintaining family ties, about raising children. "And what will become of us, who cannot exist without pampering a woman?" The pillar of Russian liberalism, Tebenkov, is ready to accept not just any, but an arbitration decision on their matter. "My system is very simple: never directly allow anything and never directly prohibit anything," he says. From his point of view, a woman, especially a pretty one, has the privilege of being capricious, desiring diamond jewelry and furs, but should not talk about amniotic fluid and Sechenov's theories, otherwise she will appear "ill-intentioned." Maria Petrovna Volovitinova has three sons: Senichka, Mitenka and Fedenka. Senichka is a general, Mitenka is a diplomat, and Fedenka does not serve, he is just "an empty little and positive erga". And only the last child-loving mother wants to leave a large inheritance, so she is annoyed by other children and relatives. She really likes the "robber" beginning in her last son, and she forgives him everything and is ready to give, to the fear and horror of the eldest son, the general, who unsuccessfully dreams of receiving at least something from her as a gift during her lifetime. Sergei Prokaznin's correspondence with his mother Natalie de Prokaznik testifies to how perceptive women can be, how to correctly instruct their sons and positively be intelligent. Sergey Prokaznin, wandering with his regiment, in his free time from exercises, has the pleasure of falling in love, and dragging himself, and even having a third older lady, a widow, showing remarkable interest in him. A subtle observer and psychologist, the mother, not without knowledge of female nature, instructs her son in his heart politics, telling something about her French lovers. She doesn't particularly like her son's intention to "do Trrah!" and end it once and for all without much talk. The salon of a true secular woman is not an arena and not a refuge for miserable pleasures. The son’s correspondence with his mother could have continued for a very long time if it had not been stopped by a short letter from Semyon Prokaznin, in which he reports that he had read all the letters of his son, from which he learned that the son was “inclined to commit adultery”, like his mother , who fled with the Frenchman to Paris, and therefore if he wants to somehow save the location of his father, then let him return to his parental estate and begin to herd pigs. The story of Maria Petrovna Promptova, Masha's cousin, allows us to draw a sad conclusion that the marriages of young girls with elderly slow-witted husbands do not benefit them. From smart and pretty, benevolent and interested, they turn into prudent and sleepy-patriarchal, closed to kind speeches. The stubborn observance of all the Old Testament prescriptions of the spouse, the assimilation of the passion for hoarding makes the once cheerful cousin Masha a monster, crippling the fate of his own son. The air creature has turned into a hypocrite, a hypocrite, a miser. In search of an ideal and an opportunity to lay the foundations for a new "not careless Russian life," it would be good for fellow citizens to have a clear idea about the state, about why it is needed at all. "To the question: what is the state? Some confuse it with the fatherland, others with the law, others with the treasury, fourth, the vast majority - with the authorities." Public feelings are often absent, everyone is busy observing their own interest, their own benefit, so other suppliers can dress the Russian army in boots with cardboard soles, keep them starving and send them with an incompetent boss to where there will be no return. There is a lot of noise in conversations about serving the fatherland, but in reality patriotism turns into a gross betrayal, and those responsible for it are transferred to another job. The people are a child, kind, intelligent, but it costs nothing to deceive them, to fool them. Russia is overflowing with "well-intentioned" officials who undermine its forces and resources. O. V. Timosheva Golovlevs Roman (1875-1880) Russia, mid-XNUMXth century Serfdom is already on the wane. However, the Golovlev family of landowners is still quite prosperous and is increasingly expanding the boundaries of their already vast estates. The credit for this belongs entirely to the hostess - Arina Petrovna Golovleva. She is an adamant, obstinate, independent woman, accustomed to the complete absence of any opposition. Arina Petrovna's husband, Vladimir Mikhailovich Golovlev, remained careless and idle as he was young. He spends his life writing rhymes in the spirit of Barkov, imitating the singing of birds, secret drunkenness and stalking yard girls. That is why Arina Petrovna directed her attention exclusively to economic affairs. Children, for the sake of whom all the enterprises seemed to be created, were, in fact, a burden to her. There were four children: three sons and a daughter. The eldest son Stepan Vladimirovich was known in the family under the names of Styopka the Stooge and Styopka the mischievous. From his father he adopted inexhaustible mischief, from his mother - the ability to quickly guess the weaknesses of people; he used these talents for mimicry and other buffoonery, for which he was mercilessly beaten by his mother. Having entered the university, he did not feel the slightest urge to work, but instead became a jester with wealthy students, thanks to which, however, he did not starve with the meager allowance. Having received a diploma, Stepan wandered around the departments until he completely lost faith in his bureaucratic talents. The mother "threw out a piece" to her son, which consisted of a house in Moscow, but, alas, even with this stock, Styopka the dunce went bankrupt, partly eating the "piece", partly losing. Having sold the house, he tried to beg now for tobacco, now for money from the wealthy peasants of his mother, who lived in Moscow, but he was forced to admit that he was no longer able to wander and there was only one way left for him - back to Golovlevo for free allowance. And Stepan Vladimirovich goes home - to the family court. The daughter, Anna Vladimirovna, also did not live up to her mother's expectations: Arina Petrovna sent her to the institute in the hope of making her a free house secretary and accountant, and Annushka ran away one night with a cornet and got married. Her mother "threw out a piece" to her in the form of a stunted village and a capitalist, but two years later the young capital lived and the cornet ran away, leaving his wife with her twin daughters, Anninka and Lyubinka. Then Anna Vladimirovna died, and therefore Arina Petrovna was forced to shelter orphans. However, these unfortunate events indirectly contributed to the rounding of the Golovlev estate, reducing the number of shareholders. The middle son, Porfiry Vladimirovich, received the nicknames of Judas and Blood-drinking from Styopka the Stupid as a child. From infancy he was extraordinarily affectionate, and also liked to tinker a little. Arina Petrovna was wary of his ingratiations, remembering how, before the birth of Porfisha, the old seer muttered: "The rooster cries, threatens the mother hen; the mother hen - cackle-tah-tah, but it will be too late!" - but she always gave the best piece to her affectionate son because of his devotion. The younger brother, Pavel Vladimirovich, was the complete personification of a man devoid of any deeds. Maybe he was kind, but did not do good; maybe he wasn't stupid, but he didn't do anything smart. From childhood, he remained outwardly gloomy and apathetic, in his thoughts experiencing fantastic events, unknown to anyone around him. Palenysa refused to take part in the family trial of Stepan Vladimirovich, predicting to his son only that the witch would “eat” him! the younger brother Pavel declared that his opinions would not be listened to anyway, and it is already known in advance that the guilty Styopka "to be torn to pieces ...". With such a lack of resistance, Porfiry Vladimirovich convinced his mother to leave Styopka the Stooge under supervision in Golovlev, having previously demanded from him a paper with a waiver of hereditary claims. So the dunce remained in his parents' house, in a dirty dark room, on scant (just not to die) feed, coughing over a pipe of cheap tobacco and sipping from a damask. He tried to ask that they send him boots and a short fur coat, but in vain. The outside world ceased to exist for him; no conversations, deeds, impressions, desires, except how to get drunk and forget ... Longing, disgust, hatred consumed him until they turned into a deep mist of despair, as if the lid of the coffin had slammed shut. On a gray December morning, Stepan Vladimirovich was found dead in bed. Ten years have passed. The abolition of serfdom, coupled with the preparations that preceded it, dealt a terrible blow to Arina Petrovna's authority. Rumors exhausted the imagination and inspired horror: what is the name of Agashka Agafya Fedorovna? How to feed a horde of former serfs - or let them out on all four sides? And how to let go if education does not allow you to give, accept, or cook for yourself? In the midst of the fuss, Vladimir Mikhailovich Golovlev died quietly and humbly, thanking God that he did not allow himself to appear before his face along with the serfs. Despondency and confusion seized Arina Petrovna, which Porfiry took advantage of with crafty, truly Judas dexterity. Arina Petrovna divided the estate, leaving only the capital for herself, with the best part allocated to Porfiry, and worse to Pavel. Arina Petrovna continued, as usual, to round up the estate (now her son), until she completely belittled her own capital and moved, offended by the ungrateful Porfish, to her youngest son, Pavel. Pavel Vladimirovich undertook to water and feed his mother and nieces, but forbade anyone to interfere with his orders and visit him. The estate was being plundered before our eyes, and Pavel drank alone, finding solace in the fumes of drunken fantasies that provided a victorious outlet for his heavy hatred for his blood-drinking brother. This is how his mortal illness found him, without giving him time and considerations to make a will in favor of the orphans or his mother. Therefore, Pavel's estate went to the hated Porfish-Judas, and mother and nieces left for the village, once "abandoned" by Arina Petrovna's daughter; Judas escorted them affectionately, inviting them to visit in a kindred way! However, Lyubinka and Anninka quickly grew homesick in the hopeless silence of the impoverished estate. After a few lines to please the grandmother, the young ladies left. Unable to endure the emptiness of helpless loneliness and despondent idleness, Arina Petrovna nevertheless returned to Golovlevo. Now the family results are as follows: only the widowed owner Porfiry Vladimirovich, mother and deacon's daughter Evprakseyushka (the unlawful consolation of a widower) inhabit the once flourishing estate. The son of Yudushka Vladimir committed suicide, having despaired of getting help from his father to feed his family; another son, Peter, serves as an officer. Judas does not even remember them, neither the living nor the deceased, his life is filled with an endless mass of empty deeds and words. He experiences some anxiety, anticipating the requests of his nieces or son, but besides, he is sure that no one and nothing will lead him out of a senseless and useless pastime. And so it happened: neither the appearance of the completely desperate Peter, who lost state money and prayed to his father for salvation from dishonor and death, nor the formidable maternal “I curse!”, nor even the imminent death of his mother - nothing changed the existence of Judas. While he was busy and counting his mother's inheritance, the twilight enveloped his consciousness more and more densely. It was a little light in the soul with the arrival of Anninka's niece, a living feeling seemed to peep through his usual empty talk - but Anninka left, fearing life with her uncle more than the fate of a provincial actress, and Judas was left with only unlawful family joys with Evprakseyushka. However, Evprakseyushka is no longer as unresponsive as she used to be. Previously, she needed a little for peace and joy: kvass, pickled apples, and in the evening to turn into a fool. Pregnancy lit up Evpraksa-yushka with a premonition of an attack, at the sight of Judas she was overtaken by unaccountable fear - and the resolution of expectation by the birth of her son fully proved the correctness of instinctive horror; Judas sent the newborn to an orphanage, forever separating him from his mother. The evil and invincible disgust that seized Evprakseyushka soon degenerated into hatred for the escheat master. A war of petty cavils, wounds, deliberate nastiness began - and only such a war could be crowned with victory over Judas. It was impossible for Porfiry Vladimirovich to think that he himself would have to languish in labor instead of the usual idle talk. He faded completely and became completely wild, while Yevprakseyushka darted into a child of carnal lust, choosing between a coachman and a clerk. But in the office, he dreamed of tormenting, ruining, depriving, sucking blood, mentally taking revenge on the living and the dead. The whole world, accessible to his meager contemplation, was at his feet ... The final settlement for Yudushka came with the return of Anninka’s niece to Golovlevo: she didn’t come to live, but to die, coughing muffledly and pouring vodka into the terrible memory of past humiliations, of drunken stupor with merchants and officers, of lost youth, beauty, purity, the beginnings of talent, about the suicide of Sister Lyubinka, who soberly judged that there was no point in living even if there was only shame, poverty and the street ahead. On dreary evenings, my uncle and niece drank and reminisced about Golovlev's deaths and mutilations, for which Anninka furiously blamed Judas. Each word of Anninka breathed such cynical hatred that suddenly a previously unknown conscience began to wake up in Judas. Yes, and the house, filled with intoxicated, prodigal, tormented ghosts, contributed to endless and fruitless mental torment. The terrible truth lit up before Judas: he has already grown old, and all around he sees only indifference and hatred; why did he lie, talk idle, oppress, hoard? The only bright point in the darkness of the future was the thought of self-destruction - but death seduced and teased, but did not go ... Towards the end of Holy Week, in a wet March blizzard, at night Porfiry Vladimirovich decided to suddenly go to say goodbye to his mother’s grave, but not in the way they usually say goodbye, but to ask for forgiveness, fall to the ground and freeze in cries of death agony. He slipped out of the house and wandered along the road, feeling neither snow nor wind. Only the next day did the news come that the stiffened corpse of the last Golovlev gentleman had been found, Anninka was lying in a fever and had not regained consciousness, therefore the horseman carried the news to his second cousin, who had been vigilantly following everything that was happening in Golovlev since last autumn. R. A Kharlamova Poshekhonskaya antiquity. Life of Nikanor Shabby, Poshekhon nobleman Roman (1887-1889) Anticipating the story of his past, Nikanor Shabby, the heir to an old Poshekhon noble family, notifies that in this work the reader will not find a continuous presentation of all the events of his life, but only a series of episodes that have a connection with each other, but at the same time represent a separate whole. . In the wilderness of Poshekhonye, Nikanor spent his childhood and young years, who witnessed the very heyday of serfdom, which determined the life and way of life of a noble family. The land of this region, covered with forests and swamps, is considered provincial, so the peasants' backs are richly rewarded for their absence. valuable land. The shabby little land estate, but the dues from the peasants in the Malinovets estate are obtained regularly. The family is steadily getting richer, new lands and estates are being acquired, property is growing. Nikanor's mother, a hereditary merchant's wife, is much younger than her enlightened noble father, which at first incurs the displeasure of her relatives. However, the prudence and economic intelligence inherent in her lead the family to prosperity and allow other winters to be spent in Moscow or St. Petersburg. After twelve years of marriage, she has eight children who are in the care of governesses before entering the institutes and military service. The younger Nicanor, who turned out to be extraordinarily gifted, is not very lucky with teachers. Bogomaz teaches him the alphabet, and he will learn to write himself. Nikanor reads the first books on his own, almost uncontrollably, and a little later, according to the instructions for teachers, he will master the program of the junior classes of the gymnasium. It is both a chance and a miracle that he will be able to pave the way for a real education himself. According to the author of the notes, children are very easy prey for damage and distortion by any system of education and upbringing or its absence. "The wax heart of a child will accept any pedagogical undertaking without opposition." But epochs are perceived with great pain when human thought is condemned to inaction, and human knowledge is replaced by a mass of uselessness and slovenliness. In the portrait gallery of persons encountered in the house of the Shabby, a prominent place is occupied by aunts-sisters, represented first by elderly, then by very old women. At first, the aunts are received quite cordially in the house, they prepare rooms for them, meet and treat them, but then the vindictive mother of Nikanor shows complete callousness and stinginess towards them. Old, useless women are expelled first to the mezzanine, and then they are completely removed from the yard. They once took their brother's new marriage very badly, and they have no money at all, and their estates are worthless, they are fed only out of mercy. And at the right moment, they are completely expelled from the yard to a distant wing, where they, half-starved, die one after another in a cold room. The story of the third sister of his father, Anfisa, is connected with Nicanor's most terrible memories of his childhood. No matter how strict his own mother was towards the peasants, who did not spare the girls who “conceived at the wrong time” (marrying them to a teenager or an overage), Anfisa Porfirievna is even more fierce and ugly, to the point of tyranny. On his first visit to his aunt, it is in her yard that he sees his peer, tied with her elbows to a post, barefoot in corrosive slurry, unable to defend herself from wasps and horseflies. Two old men sitting at a distance will not allow the young man to release this girl. Everyone will only get worse. The husband and son of Anfisa Porfiryevna openly mock the peasants and beat many women and children to death. It is no coincidence that Aunt Anfisa will be strangled by her own housekeeper and hay girls who have come to the rescue. Nikanor has another aunt, Raisa Porfirievna, nicknamed sweetheart for her indifference to a tidbit. All the rooms of her house have an "appetizing character and inspire appetizing thoughts." All her family members eat and drink from morning to evening, and at the same time they become kinder. This is one of those rare houses where everyone lives freely, both masters and servants. Everyone here loves and cherishes each other, welcomes guests and serves them many well-thought-out dishes. They put to sleep in clean, comfortable and fresh rooms "on a bed that does not inspire the slightest fear in the sense of insects." For Nikanor, this is important, because in his home the children are driven into cramped kennels, where they are rarely cleaned, and dirt and insects are besieged not only by people, where both the healthy and the sick sleep side by side on old felts. Discontent, constant punishment to peasants and peasant women are born by themselves. Mutilation, degeneration, fear and senselessness are planted by all means known to despots. The non-serving local Russian nobility, among whom are the Shabby, gravitates towards Moscow, which for them is the center of everything. Players find clubs in it, revelers - taverns, devout people rejoice at the abundance of churches, noble daughters look for suitors. In order to marry Nikanor's sister, the Shabby leave for the winter in the capital, where for this purpose a furnished apartment is rented in one of the Arbat alleys. Griboedov's Moscow, known to all, in which, however, the highest Moscow circle prevails, differs little in the moral and mental sense from the Moscow represented by Nikanor. Of course, it is easier and more pleasant to go to balls and give visits to the Shabby than to host them at home, but it is necessary to arrange a bride-to-be. The bad-looking sister Nikanora has already sat up in the girls, so, like it or not, clean the furniture, wipe the dust, create comfort, as if it’s always like that in the house. Nadine puts on fashionable dresses, she even deserves a brooch with diamonds. A grand piano is opened in the hall, notes are placed on the music stand and candles are lit, as if they had just played music. The table is set with all possible taste, laying out the dowry: teaspoons and other silver items. However, suitors are often only lovers of food and drink for free. First of all, they are in a hurry to release the decanter, it does not come to serious proposals. Sister and fall in love with something especially no one. When this happens, it immediately turns out that the chosen one of her heart is a rogue and a gambler, and even a naked falcon. In the end, the mother takes her daughter's diamonds and pearls and takes her back to the village. Poor Nadine finds her destiny only in the provinces, having married an armless mayor. However, he rakes in as much money with one hand as the other cannot rake in with two, and for this his sister regularly gives birth to his children and is known as the first lady in the province. All these bridesmaids, balls, dinners, matchmaking are so colorful that they sink deep into Nikanor's memory. However, as follows from his notes, serfs will also leave memories of themselves, who live much worse than just serfs. The economy is run, as a rule, by managers, people who are depraved to the marrow of their bones, who curry favor with the help of various shameful merits. By a whim alone, they can bring a prosperous peasant to begging, by a flash of lust, take away a husband's wife, or dishonor a peasant girl. They are incredibly cruel, but since they observe the lordly interest, complaints against them are not accepted. The peasants hate them and are looking for all possible ways to exterminate them. When confronted with such vengeance, the landowning milieu usually quiets down, only to return to the old system later. Of the courtyard women, Nikanor remembers Annushka and Mavrusha Novotorka. The first knows the gospel and the lives of the saints and preaches complete submission to the masters in this life. The second, being a free tradeswoman who joined her fate with a serf icon painter, rebels against the hard work imposed on her. Her sincere love for her husband turns into hatred, and she commits suicide. Of the yard peasants, Nikanor is sympathized with the humorous Vanka-Cain, a barber by profession, and then a housekeeper. He endlessly litters with buffoonish words, but everyone loves him for his jokes, although the hostess often grumbles. "Oh, you boorish brat," she says. To which he, like an echo, replies: "Merci, bonjour. What a slap in the face, if you didn't get your ear. I'm very grateful for your kindness." Ivan is given to recruits, he does not return from the army. Among the landowners, Nikanor Zatrapezny notes two: the leader Strunnikov and the exemplary peasant Valentin Burmakin. The leader of the Stringers is brought up in one of the higher educational institutions, but he is distinguished by such stupidity and laziness that later he will not only be able to organize life in the district, but also squanders all his wealth.тgie to balls and orchestras. Years later, Nicanor meets him in Geneva, where he serves as a sexual officer in a hotel restaurant. "There was a Russian gentleman and all of them came out." Valentin Burmakin is the only representative of university education in the county. An immaculate, highly moral person, a student of Granovsky, an admirer of Belinsky, he is a member of a circle of young people who want to sow goodness, love, and humanity around them. In the foreground he has music, literature, theater. He is worried about disputes about Mochalov, Karatygin, Shchepkin, each gesture of which gives rise to a lot of passionate comments in him. Even in ballet, he sees truth and beauty, so the names of Sankovskaya and Guerino usually sound in his friendly conversations. For him, they are not just a dancer and a dancer, "but plastic explainers of the" new word ", forcing you to rejoice and grieve at will. However, isolation from the real soil, complete misunderstanding of it, eventually leads Burmakin to an unsuccessful marriage to the rustic Milochka, who soon begins to deceive Moscow friends help him find a teacher in one of the most remote provincial gymnasiums. The mass of images and facts that arose in the memory of Nikanor the Shabby had such an overwhelming effect on him that, having described the visions of his childhood, he doubts whether he will be able to continue his notes in the future. O. V. Timasheva Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (1828-1889) What to do? Roman (1862-1863) On July 11, 1856, a note left by a strange guest is found in the room of one of the large St. Petersburg hotels. The note says that its author will soon be heard on the Liteiny Bridge and that no one should be suspected. The circumstances are clarified very soon: at night, a man is shooting at Liteiny Bridge. His shot cap is fished out of the water. That same morning, in a dacha on Kamenny Island, a young lady sits and sews, singing a lively and bold French song about working people who will be set free by knowledge. Her name is Vera Pavlovna. The maid brings her a letter, after reading which Vera Pavlovna sobs, covering her face with her hands. The young man who entered tries to calm her down, but Vera Pavlovna is inconsolable. She pushes the young man away with the words: "You're covered in blood! His blood is on you! You're not to blame - I'm alone..." "... The tragic denouement is preceded by the life story of Vera Pavlovna. She spent her childhood in St. Petersburg, in a multi-storey building on Gorokhovaya, between Sadovaya and Semenovsky bridges. Her father, Pavel Konstantinovich Rozalsky, is the manager of the house, her mother gives money on bail. The only concern of the mother, Marya Alekseevna, in relation to Verochka: to marry her as soon as possible to a rich man. The narrow-minded and evil woman does everything possible for this: she invites a music teacher to her daughter, dresses her up and even takes her to the theater. Soon the beautiful swarthy girl is noticed by the master's son, officer Storeshnikov, and immediately decides to seduce her. Hoping to force Storeshnikov to marry, Marya Alekseevna demands that her daughter be favorable to him, while Verochka refuses this in every possible way, understanding the true intentions of the womanizer. She somehow manages to deceive her mother, pretending that she is luring her boyfriend, but this cannot last long. Vera's position in the house becomes completely unbearable. It is resolved in an unexpected way. A teacher, a graduate medical student, Dmitry Sergeevich Lopukhov, was invited to Verochka's brother Fedya. At first, young people are wary of each other, but then they begin to talk about books, about music, about a fair way of thinking, and soon they feel affection for each other. Having learned about the plight of the girl, Lopukhov tries to help her. He is looking for a governess position for her, which would give Verochka the opportunity to live separately from her parents. But the search turns out to be unsuccessful: no one wants to take responsibility for the fate of the girl if she runs away from home. Then the student in love finds another way out: shortly before the end of the course, in order to have enough money, he leaves his studies and, taking up private lessons and translating a geography textbook, makes an offer to Verochka. At this time, Verochka has her first dream: she sees herself released from a damp and dark basement and talking with an amazing beauty who calls herself love for people. Verochka promises the beauty that she will always let other girls out of the cellars, locked up just like she was locked up. Young people rent an apartment, and their life is going well. True, their relationship seems strange to the landlady: "cute" and "cute" sleep in different rooms, enter each other only after knocking, do not show each other undressed, etc. Verochka hardly manages to explain to the hostess that they should be a relationship between spouses if they do not want to annoy each other. Vera Pavlovna reads books, gives private lessons, runs the household. Soon she starts her own enterprise - a sewing workshop. The girls work in the workshop self-employed, but are its co-owners and receive their share of the income, like Vera Pavlovna. They not only work together, but spend their free time together: go on picnics, talk. In her second dream, Vera Pavlovna sees a field on which ears of corn grow. She also sees dirt on this field - or rather, two dirt: fantastic and real. The real dirt is taking care of the most necessary things (the kind with which Vera Pavlovna's mother was always burdened), and ears of corn can grow out of it. Fantastic dirt - caring for the superfluous and unnecessary; nothing worthwhile grows out of it. The Lopukhov spouses often have Dmitry Sergeevich's best friend, his former classmate and spiritually close person to him - Alexander Matveevich Kirsanov. Both of them "chest, without connections, without acquaintances, made their way." Kirsanov is a strong-willed, courageous person, capable of both a decisive act and a subtle feeling. He brightens up the loneliness of Vera Pavlovna with conversations, when Lopukhov is busy, he takes her to the Opera, which they both love. However, soon, without explaining the reasons, Kirsanov ceases to visit his friend, which greatly offends both him and Vera Pavlovna. They do not know the true reason for his "cooling": Kirsanov is in love with his friend's wife. He reappears in the house only when Lopukhov falls ill: Kirsanov is a doctor, he treats Lopukhov and helps Vera Pavlovna take care of him. Vera Pavlovna is in complete turmoil: she feels that she is in love with her husband's friend. She has a third dream. In this dream, Vera Pavlovna, with the help of some unknown woman, reads the pages of her own diary, which says that she feels gratitude for her husband, and not that quiet, tender feeling, the need for which is so great in her. The situation in which three smart and decent "new people" have fallen into seems insoluble. Finally, Lopukhov finds a way out - a shot on the Liteiny Bridge. On the day when this news was received, an old acquaintance of Kirsanov and Lopukhov, Rakhmetov, "a special person" comes to Vera Pavlovna. "Higher nature" was awakened in him at one time by Kirsanov, who introduced the student Rakhmetov to books "that need to be read." Coming from a wealthy family, Rakhmetov sold his estate, distributed the money to his scholarship holders, and now leads a harsh lifestyle: partly because he considers it impossible for himself to have what a simple person does not have, partly out of a desire to cultivate his character. So, one day he decides to sleep on nails to test his physical abilities. He doesn't drink wine, he doesn't touch women. Rakhmetov is often called Nikitushka Lomov - for the fact that he walked along the Volga with barge haulers in order to get closer to the people and gain the love and respect of ordinary people. Rakhmetov's life is shrouded in a veil of mystery of a clearly revolutionary persuasion. He has a lot to do, but none of it is his personal business. He travels around Europe, intending to return to Russia in three years, when he "needs" to be there. This "specimen of a very rare breed" differs from just "honest and kind people" in that it is "the engine of engines, the salt of the salt of the earth." Rakhmetov brings Vera Pavlovna a note from Lopukhov, after reading which she becomes calm and even cheerful. In addition, Rakhmetov explains to Vera Pavlovna that the dissimilarity between her character and Lopukhov's character was too great, which is why she reached out to Kirsanov. having calmed down after a conversation with Rakhmetov, Vera Pavlovna leaves for Novgorod, where she marries Kirsanov a few weeks later. The dissimilarity between the characters of Lopukhov and Vera Pavlovna is also mentioned in a letter that she soon receives from Berlin. he had a penchant for solitude, which was in no way possible during his life with the sociable Vera Pavlovna. Thus, love affairs are arranged to the general pleasure. The Kirsanov family has approximately the same lifestyle as the Lopukhov family before. Alexander Matveyevich works hard, Vera Pavlovna eats cream, takes baths and is engaged in sewing workshops: she now has two of them. Similarly, there are neutral and non-neutral rooms in the house, and spouses can enter non-neutral rooms only after knocking. But Vera Pavlovna notices that Kirsanov not only allows her to lead the lifestyle that she likes, and is not only ready to lend a shoulder to her in difficult times, but is also keenly interested in her life. He understands her desire to engage in some business, "which cannot be postponed." With the help of Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna begins to study medicine. Soon she has a fourth dream. Nature in this dream "pours aroma and song, love and bliss into the chest." The poet, whose forehead and thought are illuminated by inspiration, sings a song about the meaning of history. Before Vera Pavlovna are pictures of the life of women in different millennia. First, the slave woman obeys her master among the tents of the nomads, then the Athenians worship the woman, still not recognizing her as their equal. Then the image of a beautiful lady arises, for the sake of which a knight fights in a tournament. But he loves her only until she becomes his wife, that is, a slave. Then Vera Pavlovna sees her own face instead of the face of the goddess. Its features are far from perfect, but it is illuminated by the radiance of love. The great woman, familiar to her from her first dream, explains to Vera Pavlovna what is the meaning of women's equality and freedom. This woman also shows Vera Pavlovna pictures of the future: the citizens of New Russia live in a beautiful house made of cast iron, crystal and aluminum. In the morning they work, in the evening they have fun, and "who has not worked enough, he has not prepared the nerve to feel the fullness of fun." The guide-maker explains to Vera Pavlovna that this future should be loved, for it should be worked and transferred from it to the present everything that can be transferred. The Kirsanovs have many young people, like-minded people: "Recently, this type has appeared and is quickly spreading." All these people are decent, hardworking, having unshakable life principles and possessing "cold-blooded practicality." The Beaumont family soon appears among them. Ekaterina Vasilievna Beaumont, nee Polozova, was one of the richest brides in St. Petersburg. Kirsanov once helped her with smart advice: with his help, Polozova figured out that the person she was in love with was not worthy of her. Then Ekaterina Vasilievna marries a man who calls himself an agent of an English firm, Charles Beaumont. He speaks excellent Russian - because he allegedly lived in Russia until the age of twenty. His romance with Polozova develops calmly: both of them are people who "do not get mad for no reason." When Beaumont meets Kirsanov, it becomes clear that this person is Lopukhov. The Kirsanov and Beaumont families feel such a spiritual closeness that they soon settle in the same house, receive guests together. Ekaterina Vasilievna also arranges a sewing workshop, and the circle of "new people" is thus becoming wider. T. A. Sotnikova Prologue A novel from the early sixties (1867-1870, unfinished) In the early spring of 1857, the Volgins were walking along the Vladimir Square in St. Petersburg. Twenty-nine-year-old journalist Alexei Ivanovich Volgin is ugly, awkward and seems phlegmatic. His wife, twenty-three-year-old Lidia Vasilievna Volgina, on the other hand, is attractive, curious and used to producing an effect. During the walk, Volgina is not so much interested in talking with her husband, but in helping a young lady named Antonina Dmitrievna Savelova get rid of the persecution of her jealous husband. Savelov tries to watch over his wife during her secret meeting with her lover, Pavel Mikhailovich Nivelzin. Nivelzin is an aristocrat, a rather wealthy landowner, and besides, a mathematician and astronomer, whose works are published in the Bulletins of the Academy of Sciences. Leaving his wife to engage in an exciting business - someone else's love affair, Volgin talks with a student at the Pedagogical Institute Vladimir Alekseevich Levitsky: he promises a well-known journalist to bring some article for review. In addition, not knowing that the swarthy young lady is Volgin's wife, Levitsky questions him about her with obvious interest. During the conversation, Levitsky is surprised at the strange laughter of a liberal celebrity: "The squeal and roar are so deafening when he bursts out laughing." Soon Savelova comes to the Volgins in order to explain her current situation. She does not love her husband, and he does not have any feelings for her either: he, a major government official, needs a wife only to establish himself in an aristocratic society. Volgina persuades Savelova to leave her husband and run abroad with Nivelzin. Having fallen into exaltation, she agrees, and Volgina, with her usual passion, takes up the arrangement of the case. But at the last minute, when foreign passports are already ready, Savelova refuses to leave her husband, which greatly disappoints Volgina. Volgina and her little son Volodya live in a dacha near the Petrovsky Palace. Her husband is busy with business in St. Petersburg and only comes to visit his family. Volgina meets the chamberlain's daughter, Nadezhda Viktorovna Ilatontseva, who has recently returned from abroad. Levitsky at this time serves in the Ilatontsev family as the tutor of Yurinka, the little brother of Nadezhda Viktorovna. However, Volgin tries not to let his wife find out about this: noticing her obvious interest in Levitsky, Volgin does not want her to communicate with him. By the way, he tells his wife that he is worried about his future: "the affairs of the Russian people are bad," so an influential journalist can have all sorts of troubles. Sobbing about the fate of her husband, Volgina imbues him with even greater disposition. She dreams of her husband "someday being said that he, before anyone else, understood what was needed for the good of the people, and did not spare for the good of the people - not only "himself" - it is great importance for him not to feel sorry for himself! - Do not pity me too! - And they will say this, I know! - And let Volodya and I be orphans, if necessary! Volgina expresses these considerations to Nivelzin, who, having lost Savelova's favor, begins courting her. Volgin himself has other topics for conversation with Nivelzin: they talk about the cause of the liberation of the peasants, which Volgin considers premature. And Volgin has no doubts that he understands things more correctly than others. One day, during an ordinary walk along the Nevsky, Volgina and Nivelzin meet Mr. Sokolovsky. A thirty-year-old dragoon officer, a Pole, wants to use all his strength to improve the lot of the Russian soldier. Sokolovsky also gets acquainted with Volgin, but he does not seek to converge with him because of a difference of views: Volgin believes that reforms should not be carried out at all, rather than carried out in an unsatisfactory manner. While her husband sorts things out among the liberals, Volgina finds them out with Savelova: after refusing to run away with Nivelzin, she again tries to get closer to Boltina. Savelova invites Volgina to her husband's name day, and she reluctantly agrees. At the Savelovs' dinner, Volgin sees Count Chaplin - a disgusting creature "with drooping frills to the shoulders, with a half-open, drooling mouth, alternately narrowing and expanding with each burst of sniffing and snoring, with pewter, tiny eyes swollen with fat." Savelova admits to Volgina that her husband requires her to flirt with the disgusting count on whom his career depends. Indignantly, Volgina again takes up the arrangement of the affairs of a strange family: she makes an suggestion to Savelov, accusing him of trading in his wife. The next day, after dinner at the Savelovs', the St. Petersburg liberals gather at their leader, the university professor Ryazantsev. Volgin is not among those gathered. They discuss the betrayal of liberal principles by Count Chaplin and his transition to the camp of conservatives. Chaplin accused the liberals of wanting to make the emancipation of the peasants a means to overthrow the entire existing order, that is, to make a revolution. However, soon Count Chaplin goes on vacation abroad, and the liberals celebrate their victory. Now they are preparing a program for the emancipation of the peasants, which will have to be signed by influential landowners in all provinces. Meanwhile, Volgin begins to look for Levitsky, who has been living in the village with the Ilatontsevs all this time, but suddenly disappeared. It turns out that Levitsky is ill and is in St. Petersburg. The Volgins visit him and wonder why he left the village so hastily. The reasons for this act become clear from Levitsky's diary for 1857, which is the second part of the novel. The student Levitsky was the center of a circle of liberal student youth. By the end of the course, he was sure that the institute was killing the mental life of students, hunger and despotism forever taking away the health of "all those who could not reconcile themselves to the principles of servility and obscurantism." Levitsky felt a living love for people, but he believed that they were too frivolous to fight. Levitsky is feminine. Many pages of his diary are dedicated to his mistress Anyuta. Once Levitsky protected Anyuta from her despot-husband, and then fussed about her divorce. Anyuta's story is simple, like this woman herself. She came from the middle class, was brought up even in a boarding school, but after the death of her father she was forced to go to the maids. Jealous of Anyuta for the master, the hostess accused her of stealing the brooch. Anyuta was forced to become the mistress of a police officer in order to avoid unfair punishment. Soon her patron decided to marry and at the same time married Anyuta. Anyuta was Levitsky's good mistress, but soon she went to live with a rich merchant. Separation from her made Levitsky think: "Is it possible to love a woman who passively allows her lover to be caressed, while she herself thinks at this time what kind of dress to sew for herself: a dress or a barege one?" In the village, on the estate of the Ilatontsevs, Levitsky met the beautiful Mary, the maid of the young lady Nadezhda Viktorovna. Mary's parents were servants of the Ilatontsevs. Mary lived with the gentlemen abroad, in Provence, then went to Paris, where she received a good salary and could live independently. But soon the girl returned to her former owners. Levitsky could not understand why the energetic and intelligent Mary had exchanged an independent life in Paris for the unenviable position of a maid in the Ilatontsev family. Being a sensual and romantic person, he fell in love with Mary. This did not prevent him, however, from having fun with the charming and easily accessible Nastya, the serf mistress of a neighbor, the landowner Dedyukhin, and even almost taking her to his support. Mary told Levitsky that she became a maid in order to be closer to Nadezhda Viktorovna, whom she had loved since childhood. But soon, seeing that Levitsky had a sincere feeling for her, Mary confessed: she had long become the mistress of Viktor Lvovich Ilatontsev. Bored with the life to which she was doomed by her birth, Mary found the only way to get rid of her wretched fate and seduced her master. He sincerely fell in love with her, left his former mistress. Soon, Mary began to become attached to him. But she feared that the true state of things would not be revealed to Nadezhda Viktorovna. She believed that Ilatontsev was a bad father, for whom his mistress was more precious than his daughter: after all, the current marital status could prevent Nadezhda Viktorovna from finding a good husband. Levitsky advised Mary to move to St. Petersburg and live separately from the Ilatontsevs until the marriage of Nadezhda Viktorovna. In preparation for this act, the girl's further life went on. T. A. Sotnikova Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) Detstvo Tale (1852) On August 12, 18, ten-year-old Nikolenka Irteniev wakes up on the third day after his birthday at seven o'clock in the morning. After the morning toilet, the teacher Karl Ivanovich takes Nikolenka and his brother Volodya to greet their mother, who is pouring tea in the living room, and with their father, who is giving housekeeping instructions to the clerk in his office. Nikolenka feels in himself a pure and clear love for his parents, he admires them, making accurate observations for himself: "... in one smile lies what is called the beauty of the face: if a smile adds charm to a face, then it is beautiful; if it does not change it, that face is ordinary; if it spoils it, then it is bad. For Nikolenka, mother's face is beautiful, angelic. The father, due to his seriousness and severity, seems to the child a mysterious, but undeniably beautiful person who "likes everyone without exception." The father announces to the boys about his decision - tomorrow he takes them with him to Moscow. All day: studying in classes under the supervision of Karl Ivanovich, upset by the news received, and hunting, which the father takes the children, and meeting with the holy fool, and the last games, during which Nikolenka feels something like first love for Katenka - everything this is accompanied by a woeful and sad feeling of the impending farewell to his native home. Nikolenysa recalls the happy time spent in the village, the courtyard people who are selflessly devoted to their family, and the details of the life lived here appear vividly before him, in all the contradictions that his childish consciousness is trying to reconcile. The next day at twelve o'clock the carriage and the britzka stood at the entrance. Everyone is busy with preparations for the road, and Nikolenysa is especially keenly aware of the discrepancy between the importance of the last minutes before parting and the general fuss that reigns in the house. The whole family gathers in the living room around a round table. Nikolenysa hugs her mother, cries and thinks of nothing but her grief. Having left for the main road, Nikolenysa waves her handkerchief to her mother, continues to cry and notices how tears give him "pleasure and joy." He thinks about his mother, and all the memories of Nikolaisya are filled with love for her. For a month now, the father and children have been living in Moscow, in the grandmother's house. Although Karl Ivanovich was also taken to Moscow, new teachers teach the children. On the birthday of his grandmother Nikolenysa, he writes his first poems, which are read in public, and Nikolenysa is especially worried about this moment. He meets new people: Princess Kornakova, Prince Ivan Ivanovich, relatives Ivins - three boys, almost the same age as Nikolenka. When communicating with these people, Nikolenysi develops his main qualities: natural subtle observation, inconsistency in his own feelings. Nicholas often looks at himself in the mirror and cannot imagine that someone can love him. Before going to bed, Nikolenysa shares his experiences with his brother Volodya, admits that he loves Sonechka Valakhina, and all the childish genuine passion of his nature is manifested in his words. He admits: "... when I lie and think about her, God knows why I feel sad and I want to cry terribly." Six months later, my father receives a letter from my mother from the village that she caught a severe cold during a walk, fell ill, and her strength is dwindling every day. She asks to come and bring Volodya and Nikolenis. Without delay, the father and sons leave Moscow. The most terrible forebodings are confirmed - for the last six days, mother has not gotten up. She can't even say goodbye to her children - her open eyes don't see anything anymore... Mommy dies on the same day in terrible suffering, having only had time to ask for blessings for the children: "Mother of God, don't leave them!" The next day, Nikolenka sees a mother in a coffin and cannot reconcile with the thought that this yellow and wax face belongs to the one he loved most in life. A peasant girl, who is brought to the deceased, screams terribly in horror, screams and rushes out of the room Nikolenka, struck by bitter truth and despair before the incomprehensibility of death. Three days after the funeral, the whole house moves to Moscow, and with the death of her mother, Nikolenka ends a happy childhood time. Arriving later in the village, he always comes to the grave of mother, not far from whom Natalya Savishnu, faithful until the last days, was buried. V. M. Sotnikov Adolescence Tale (1854) Immediately after arriving in Moscow, Nikolenka feels the changes that have taken place with him. In his soul there is a place not only for his own feelings and experiences, but also for compassion for the grief of others, the ability to understand the actions of other people. He is aware of all the inconsolability of his grandmother's grief after the death of his beloved daughter, rejoices to tears that he finds the strength to forgive his older brother after a stupid quarrel. Another striking change for Nikolenka is that he bashfully notices the excitement that the twenty-five-year-old maid Masha arouses in him. Nikolenka is convinced of his ugliness, envies Volodya's beauty, and tries with all his might, although unsuccessfully, to convince himself that a pleasant appearance cannot make up all the happiness of life. And Nikolenka tries to find salvation in thoughts of proud loneliness, to which, as it seems to him, he is doomed. Grandmother is informed that the boys are playing with gunpowder, and although this is just harmless lead shot, the grandmother blames Karl Ivanovich for the lack of supervision of the children and insists that he be replaced by a decent tutor. Nikolenka is having a hard time parting with Karl Ivanovich. Nikolenka does not get along with the new French tutor, he himself sometimes does not understand his impudence towards the teacher. It seems to him that the circumstances of life are directed against him. The incident with the key, which by negligence he breaks, it is not clear why he is trying to open his father's briefcase, finally brings Nikolenka out of balance. Deciding that everyone has deliberately turned against him, Nikolenka behaves unpredictably - she hits the tutor, in response to her brother's sympathetic question: "What is happening to you?" - shouts, as all are disgusting to him and disgusting. They lock him in a closet and threaten to punish him with rods. After a long confinement, during which Nikolenka is tormented by a desperate feeling of humiliation, he asks his father for forgiveness, and convulsions are made with him. Everyone fears for his health, but after a twelve-hour sleep, Nikolenka feels good and at ease and is even glad that his family is experiencing his incomprehensible illness. After this incident, Nikolenka feels more and more lonely, and his main pleasure is solitary reflections and observations. He observes the strange relationship between the maid Masha and the tailor Vasily. Nikolenka does not understand how such a rough relationship can be called love. Nikolenka's circle of thoughts is wide, and he often gets confused in his discoveries: "I think that I think, what I think about, and so on. The mind went beyond the mind ..." Nikolenka rejoices at Volodya's admission to the university and is envious of his maturity. He notices the changes that happen to his brother and sisters, watches how an aging father develops special tenderness for children, experiences the death of his grandmother - and he is offended by talk about who will get her inheritance ... Before entering the university, Nikolenka is a few months away. He is preparing for the Faculty of Mathematics and studies well. Trying to get rid of many of the shortcomings of adolescence, Nikolenka considers the main one to be a tendency to inactive reasoning and thinks that this tendency will bring him much harm in life. Thus, it manifests attempts at self-education. Friends often come to Volodya - adjutant Dubkov and student Prince Nekhlyudov. Nikolenka talks more and more often with Dmitry Nekhlyudov, they become friends. The mood of their souls seems to Niklenka the same. Constantly improving himself and thus correcting all of humanity - Nikolenka comes to such an idea under the influence of his friend, and he considers this important discovery the beginning of his youth. V. M. Sotnikov Youth Tale (1857) The sixteenth spring of Nikolai Irtenyev is coming. He is preparing for university exams, full of dreams and thoughts about his future destiny. In order to more clearly define the purpose of life, Nikolai starts a separate notebook where he writes down the duties and rules necessary for moral perfection. On a passionate Wednesday, a gray-haired monk, confessor, comes to the house. After confession, Nikolai feels like a pure and new person. But at night, he suddenly remembers one of his shameful sins, which he hid in confession. He hardly sleeps until morning and at six o'clock he hurries in a cab to the monastery to confess again. Joyful, Nikolenka comes back, it seems to him that there is no person in the world better and cleaner than him. He is not restrained and tells the driver about his confession. And he replies: "Well, sir, your master's business." The joyful feeling disappears, and Nikolai even experiences some distrust of his excellent inclinations and qualities. Nikolai successfully passes the exams and is enrolled in the university. The family congratulate him. By order of his father, the coachman Kuzma, the cabman and the bay Handsome are at the complete disposal of Nikolai. Deciding that he is already quite an adult, Nikolai buys many different knick-knacks, a pipe and tobacco on the Kuznetsk bridge. At home, he tries to smoke, but feels nauseous and weak. Dmitri Nekhlyudov, who has come to fetch him, reproaches Nikolai, explaining all the stupidity of smoking. Friends, together with Volodya and Dubkov, go to a restaurant to celebrate the younger Irtenyev's admission to the university. Observing the behavior of young people, Nikolai notices that Nekhlyudov differs from Volodya and Dubkov in a better, correct way: he does not smoke, does not play cards, does not talk about love affairs. But Nikolai, because of his boyish enthusiasm for adulthood, wants to imitate Volodya and Dubkov. He drinks champagne, lights a cigarette in a restaurant from a burning candle, which is on the table in front of strangers. As a result, a quarrel with a certain Kolpikov arises. Nikolai feels insulted, but takes all his offense on Dubkov, unfairly yelling at him. Understanding all the childishness of his friend's behavior, Nekhlyudov calms and comforts him. The next day, on the orders of his father, Nikolenka goes, as a fully grown man, to make visits. He visits the Valakhins, Kornakovs, Ivins, Prince Ivan Ivanovich, with difficulty enduring long hours of forced conversations. Nikolai feels free and easy only in the company of Dmitry Nekhlyudov, who invites him to visit his mother in Kuntsevo. On the way, friends talk on various topics, Nikolai admits that he has recently become completely confused in the variety of new impressions. He likes Dmitri's calm prudence without a hint of edification, the free and noble mind, he likes that Nekhlyudov forgave the shameful story in the restaurant, as if not attaching special significance to it. Thanks to conversations with Dmitry, Nikolai begins to understand that growing up is not a simple change in time, but a slow formation of the soul. He admires his friend more and more and, falling asleep after a conversation in the Nekhlyudovs' house, thinks about how good it would be if Dmitry married his sister or, on the contrary, he married Dmitry's sister. The next day, Nikolai leaves for the village by mail, where memories of childhood, of his mother, come to life in him with renewed vigor. He thinks a lot, reflects on his future place in the world, on the concept of good breeding, which requires a huge inner work on himself. Enjoying the village life, Nikolai is happy to realize in himself the ability to see and feel the most subtle shades of the beauty of nature. Father at forty-eight marries a second time. The children do not like their stepmother; after a few months, the father and his new wife develop a relationship of “quiet hatred”. With the beginning of his studies at the university, it seems to Nikolai that he dissolves in a mass of the same students and is largely disappointed with his new life. He rushes about from talking with Nekhlyudov to participating in student revels, which are condemned by his friend. Irtenev is annoyed by the conventions of secular society, which seem for the most part to be a pretense of insignificant people. Among the students, Nikolai makes new acquaintances, and he notices that the main concern of these people is to get pleasure from life, first of all. Under the influence of new acquaintances, he unconsciously follows the same principle. Negligence in studies bears fruit: Nikolai fails at the first exam. For three days he does not leave the room, he feels truly unhappy and has lost all the former joy of life. Dmitri visits him, but because of the cooling that comes in their friendship, Nekhlyudov's sympathy seems condescending to Nikolai and therefore insulting. Late one evening, Nikolai takes out a notebook on which is written: "Rules of life." From the surging feelings associated with youthful dreams, he cries, but not with tears of despair, but of remorse and moral impulse. He decides to re-write the rules of life and never change them again. The first half of youth ends in anticipation of the next, happier one. V. M. Sotnikov Two hussars Tale (1856) "Times of the Miloradoviches, Davydovs, Pushkins" ... In the provincial town of K., a congress of landowners and noble elections are being held. A young hussar officer, Count Turbin, arrives at the best hotel in the city. There are no available rooms; "retired cavalryman" Zavalshevsky invites the count to stay in his room, lends money to Turbine. Actually, Zavalshevsky never served in the cavalry, but there was a time when he wanted to go there. And now he himself sincerely believed in his cavalry past. Zavalshevsky is glad of the opportunity to communicate with Turbin, who is known everywhere as a "true hussar". Cornet Ilyin, a "young, cheerful boy," is going from Moscow to his regiment. He is forced to stop in the city of K. Without any malicious intent, Zavalshevsky introduces him to the player Lukhnov. By the time Turbin arrived, Ilyin had been playing for four nights on end and was losing part of the government money he had with him. Cornet wakes up at six o'clock in the evening. Lukhnov, other players, as well as Zavalshevsky and Turbin come to his room. The Count watches the game without participating in it. He warns Ilyin that Lukhnov is a cheater. But the cornet does not heed his warnings. Turbin and Zavalshevsky are leaving for the marshal's ball. At the ball, Zavalshevsky introduces Turbin to his sister, Anna Fedorovna Zaitsova, a young widow. Turbin takes care of her. The widow is fascinated by the count, and her former admirer is so annoyed that he even makes a pathetic attempt to quarrel with Turbin. The count, having slipped into Anna Feodorovna's carriage, is waiting for her there. A young woman gets into a carriage; seeing Turbine, she is not frightened and does not get angry ... After the ball, many go to hang out with the gypsies. The spree is already coming to an end, when Count Turbin suddenly arrives. The fun rekindles. The count dances, drinks a lot, mocks the innkeeper, who asks everyone to disperse in the morning. At dawn, Turbin returns to the hotel. He must leave the city today. Cornet Ilyin, meanwhile, lost all the government money. The count, seeing the desperation of the cornet, promises to rescue him. Turbin takes money from cheater Lukhnov by force and returns Ilyina. The whole company that had been partying that night was going to see off Turbin to the outpost: in troikas, with gypsies, with songs. At the outpost, everyone says goodbye. Having already left the city, Turbin remembers Anna Fedorovna and tells the driver to turn back. He finds the widow still sleeping. After kissing her, Count Turbin leaves the city of K forever. Twenty years pass. 1848 Count Fyodor Turbin was killed in a duel a long time ago. His son is twenty three years old. The young count resembles his father only in appearance. "Love for decency and the comforts of life", "practical view of things" are his main qualities. The hussar squadron, commanded by the young Turbin, spends the night in Morozovka, the village of Anna Feodorovna Zaitsova. Anna Fedorovna is very old. Together with her live her brother - "cavalryman" and daughter Lisa, a simple-hearted, cheerful and sincere girl. Lisa is twenty-two years old. Officers - Count Turbin and cornet Polozov - stop in a village hut. Anna Fedorovna sends to ask if they need anything. The count asks for a "cleaner room"; then from Anna Fedorovna follows an invitation to spend the night in her house. The count willingly agrees, but the cornet is embarrassed: he is ashamed to disturb the owners. Polozov is a timid, shy young man. He is heavily influenced by Turbine. Anna Fedorovna is excited by the meeting with the son of Count Fyodor Turbin. She invites guests to spend the evening with the hosts. Everyone sits down to play preference, and the count beats the poor old woman by a sum that seems to her quite significant. Anna Feodorovna is annoyed, but the count is not in the least embarrassed. The cornet is amazed by the beauty of Lisa, but can not strike up a conversation with her. Turbines do it easily. The girl ingenuously tells in which room she sleeps. Count Turbin understands these words as an invitation to a date. Night. Lisa falls asleep, sitting at the open window Turbin from the garden watches her and, after much hesitation, decides to approach. His touch wakes the girl. She runs away in horror. The count returns to his room and tells the cornet Polozov about this adventure, adding that the young lady herself made an appointment with him. To Cornet, Lisa appears to be "a pure, beautiful creature." Outraged, Polozov calls Turbine a scoundrel. The next morning, the officers leave without saying goodbye to the hosts and without talking to each other. The duel never came to fruition. O. V. Butkova Cossacks. Caucasian story of 1852 (1853-1862, unfinished, published 1863) On an early winter morning from the porch of the Chevalier Hotel in Moscow, after saying goodbye to his friends after a long dinner, Dmitry Andreevich Olenin drives off in a Yamskaya troika to the Caucasian infantry regiment, where he is enlisted as a cadet. Left without parents from a young age, Olenin squandered half of his fortune by the age of twenty-four, did not finish the course anywhere and did not serve anywhere. He constantly succumbs to the passions of young life, but just enough so as not to be bound; instinctively runs away from any feelings and deeds that require serious effort. Not knowing with certainty what to direct the strength of youth, which he clearly feels in himself, Olenin hopes to change his life with his departure to the Caucasus so that there will be no more mistakes and remorse in it. For a long time on the road, Olenin either indulges in memories of Moscow life, or draws in his imagination alluring pictures of the future. The mountains that open before him at the end of the path surprise and delight Olenin with the infinity of majestic beauty. All Moscow memories disappear, and some solemn voice seems to say to him: "Now it has begun." The village of Novomlinskaya stands three versts from the Terek, which separates the Cossacks and the highlanders. The Cossacks serve on campaigns and on cordons, "sit" in patrols on the banks of the Terek, hunt and fish. The women run the household. This established life is disturbed by the arrival of two companies of the Caucasian infantry regiment, in which Olenin has been serving for three months. He was assigned an apartment in the house of a cornet and a school teacher who comes home on holidays. The household is run by his wife - grandmother Ulita and daughter Maryanka, who is going to be married off to Lukashka, the most daring of the young Cossacks. Just before the arrival of Russian soldiers in the village in the night patrol on the banks of the Terek, Lukashka is different - he kills a Chechen swimming to the Russian coast from a gun. When the Cossacks look at the murdered abrek, an invisible quiet angel flies over them and leaves this place, and the old man Eroshka says, as if with regret: "He killed the Dzhigit." Olenin was coldly received by the hosts, as is customary among the Cossacks to accept army. But gradually the owners become more tolerant of Olenin. This is facilitated by his openness, generosity, immediately established friendship with the old Cossack Eroshka, whom everyone in the village respects. Olenin observes the life of the Cossacks, she admires his natural simplicity and fusion with nature. In a fit of good feelings, he gives Lukashka one of his horses, and he accepts the gift, unable to understand such disinterestedness, although Olenin is sincere in his act. He always treats Uncle Eroshka with wine, immediately agrees with the demand of the cornet to raise the rent, although a lower one was agreed, gives Lukashka a horse - all these external manifestations of Olenin's sincere feelings are called by the Cossacks simplicity. Eroshka tells a lot about Cossack life, and the simple philosophy contained in these stories delights Olenin. They hunt together, Olenin admires the wild nature, listens to Eroshka's instructions and thoughts and feels that he gradually wants to merge more and more with the surrounding life. All day he walks through the forest, returns hungry and tired, has dinner, drinks with Eroshka, sees mountains at sunset from the porch, listens to stories about hunting, about abreks, about a carefree, daring life. Olenin is overwhelmed with a feeling of causeless love and finally finds a feeling of happiness. "God did everything for the joy of man. There is no sin in anything," says Uncle Eroshka. And as if Olenin answers him in his thoughts: "Everyone needs to live, they need to be happy ... The need for happiness is embedded in a person." Once, while hunting, Olenin imagines that he is "the same mosquito, or the same pheasant or deer, as those that now live around him." But no matter how subtly Olenin felt. nature, no matter how he understands the surrounding life, it does not accept him, and he is bitterly aware of this. Olenin participates in one expedition and is promoted to officer. He eschews the well-worn rut of army life, which consists for the most part of card games and revelry in fortresses, and in the villages - in courting Cossack women. Every morning, having admired the mountains, Maryanka, Olenin goes hunting. In the evening he comes back tired, hungry, but completely happy. Eroshka certainly comes to him, they talk for a long time and go to bed. Olenin sees Maryanka every day and admires her in the same way as the beauty of the mountains, the sky, without even thinking about other relationships. But the more he observes her, the more, imperceptibly for himself, he falls in love. Olenin is forced on his friendship by Prince Beletsiy, who is familiar from the Moscow world. Unlike Olenin, Beletsky leads the ordinary life of a wealthy Caucasian officer in the village. He persuades Olenin to come to the party, where Maryanka should be. Obeying the peculiar playful rules of such parties, Olenin and Maryanka are left alone, and he kisses her. After that, "the wall that separated them before was destroyed." Olenin spends more and more time in the hosts' room, looking for any excuse to see Maryanka. Thinking more and more about his life and succumbing to the feeling that has come over him, Olenin is ready to marry Maryanka. At the same time, preparations for the wedding of Lukashka and Maryanka continue. In such a strange state, when outwardly everything goes to this wedding, and Olenin's feeling grows stronger and determination becomes clearer, he proposes to the girl. Maryanka agrees, subject to the consent of the parents. In the morning, Olenin is going to go to the owners to ask for the hand of their daughter. He sees Cossacks on the street, among them Lukashka, who are going to catch abreks who have moved to this side of the Terek. In obedience to duty, Olenin goes with them. Surrounded by Cossacks, the Chechens know they can't escape and are preparing for the final battle. During the fight, the brother of the Chechen that Lukashka killed earlier shoots Lukashka in the stomach with a pistol. Lukashka is brought to the village, Olenin learns that he is dying. When Olenin tries to speak to Maryanka, she rejects him with contempt and malice, and he suddenly clearly understands that he can never be loved by her. Olenin decides to go to the fortress, to the regiment. Unlike those thoughts that he had in Moscow, now he no longer repents and does not promise himself better changes. Before leaving Novomlinsky, he is silent, and in this silence one feels a hidden, previously unknown understanding of the abyss between him and the surrounding life. Eroshka, who sees him off, intuitively feels the inner essence of Olenin. "After all, I love you, I feel sorry for you! You are so bitter, all alone, all alone. You are somehow unloved!" he says goodbye. Having driven off, Olenin looks back and sees how the old man and Maryana are talking about their affairs and no longer look at him. V. M. Sotnikov War and Peace Roman (1863-1869, 1st ed. ed. 1867-1869) The action of the book begins in the summer of 1805 in St. Petersburg. At the evening at the maid of honor Scherer, among other guests, are Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a wealthy nobleman, and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. The conversation turns to Napoleon, and both friends try to defend the great man from the condemnations of the hostess of the evening and her guests. Prince Andrei is going to war because he dreams of glory equal to that of Napoleon, and Pierre does not know what to do, participates in the revelry of St. Petersburg youth (here Fedor Dolokhov, a poor, but extremely strong-willed and determined officer, occupies a special place); for another mischief, Pierre was expelled from the capital, and Dolokhov was demoted to the soldiers. Further, the author takes us to Moscow, to the house of Count Rostov, a kind, hospitable landowner, who arranges a dinner in honor of the name day of his wife and youngest daughter. A special family structure unites the Rostovs' parents and children - Nikolai (he is going to war with Napoleon), Natasha, Petya and Sonya (a poor relative of the Rostovs); only the eldest daughter, Vera, seems to be a stranger. At the Rostovs, the holiday continues, everyone is having fun, dancing, and at this time in another Moscow house - at the old Count Bezukhov - the owner is dying. An intrigue begins around the count's will: Prince Vasily Kuragin (a Petersburg courtier) and three princesses - all of them are distant relatives of the count and his heirs - are trying to steal a portfolio with Bezukhov's new will, according to which Pierre becomes his main heir; Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, a poor lady from an aristocratic old family, selflessly devoted to her son Boris and seeking patronage for him everywhere, interferes with stealing the portfolio, and Pierre, now Count Bezukhov, gets a huge fortune. Pierre becomes his own person in Petersburg society; Prince Kuragin tries to marry him to his daughter - the beautiful Helen - and succeeds in this. In Lysy Gory, the estate of Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, Prince Andrei's father, life goes on as usual; the old prince is constantly busy - either writing notes, or giving lessons to his daughter Marya, or working in the garden. Prince Andrei arrives with his pregnant wife Liza; he leaves his wife in his father's house, and he himself goes to war. Autumn 1805; the Russian army in Austria takes part in the campaign of the allied states (Austria and Prussia) against Napoleon. Commander-in-Chief Kutuzov does everything to avoid Russian participation in the battle - at the review of the infantry regiment, he draws the attention of the Austrian general to the poor uniforms (especially shoes) of Russian soldiers; right up to the battle of Austerlitz, the Russian army retreats in order to join the allies and not accept battles with the French. In order for the main Russian forces to be able to retreat, Kutuzov sends a detachment of four thousand under the command of Bagration to detain the French; Kutuzov manages to conclude a truce with Murat (a French marshal), which allows him to buy time. Junker Nikolai Rostov serves in the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment; he lives in an apartment in the German village where the regiment is stationed, together with his squadron commander, captain Vasily Denisov. One morning, Denisov lost his wallet with money - Rostov found out that Lieutenant Telyanin had taken the wallet. But this offense of Telyanin casts a shadow on the entire regiment - and the regiment commander demands that Rostov admit his mistake and apologize. The officers support the commander - and Rostov concedes; he does not apologize, but retracts his accusations, and Telyanin is expelled from the regiment due to illness. Meanwhile, the regiment goes on a campaign, and the junker's baptism of fire takes place during the crossing of the Enns River; the hussars must be the last to cross and set fire to the bridge. During the battle of Shengraben (between the detachment of Bagration and the vanguard of the French army), Rostov is wounded (a horse was killed under him, he concussed his hand when he fell); he sees the approaching French and "with the feeling of a hare running away from dogs", throws a pistol at the Frenchman and runs. For participation in the battle, Rostov was promoted to cornet and awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross. He comes from Olmutz, where the Russian army is encamped in preparation for the review, to the Izmailovsky regiment, where Boris Drubetskoy is stationed, to see his childhood friend and collect letters and money sent to him from Moscow. He tells Boris and Berg, who is lodging with Drubetsky, the story of his injury - but not in the way it really happened, but in the way they usually tell about cavalry attacks ("how he chopped right and left," etc.) . During the review, Rostov experiences a feeling of love and adoration for Emperor Alexander; this feeling only intensifies during the battle of Austerlitz, when Nicholas sees the king - pale, crying from defeat, alone in the middle of an empty field. Prince Andrei, right up to the battle of Austerlitz, lives in anticipation of the great feat that he is destined to accomplish. He is annoyed by everything that is discordant with this feeling of his - both the trick of the mocking officer Zherkov, who congratulated the Austrian general on the next defeat of the Austrians, and the episode on the road when the doctor's wife asks to intercede for her and Prince Andrey is confronted by a convoy officer. During the Shengraben battle, Bolkonsky notices Captain Tushin, a "small round-shouldered officer" with an unheroic appearance, commanding a battery. The successful actions of Tushin's battery ensured the success of the battle, but when the captain reported to Bagration about the actions of his gunners, he became more shy than during the battle. Prince Andrei is disappointed - his idea of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbthe heroic does not fit either with the behavior of Tushin, or with the behavior of Bagration himself, who essentially did not order anything, but only agreed with what the adjutants and superiors who approached him offered him. On the eve of the battle of Austerlitz there was a military council at which the Austrian General Weyrother read the disposition of the upcoming battle. During the council, Kutuzov openly slept, not seeing any use in any disposition and foreseeing that tomorrow's battle would be lost. Prince Andrei wanted to express his thoughts and his plan, but Kutuzov interrupted the council and suggested that everyone disperse. At night, Bolkonsky thinks about tomorrow's battle and about his decisive participation in it. He wants fame and is ready to give everything for it: "Death, wounds, loss of a family, nothing scares me." The next morning, as soon as the sun came out of the fog, Napoleon signaled to start the battle - it was the day of the anniversary of his coronation, and he was happy and confident. Kutuzov, on the other hand, looked gloomy - he immediately noticed that confusion was beginning in the allied troops. Before the battle, the emperor asks Kutuzov why the battle does not begin, and hears from the old commander-in-chief: “That’s why I don’t start, sir, because we are not at the parade and not on Tsaritsyn Meadow.” Very soon, the Russian troops, finding the enemy much closer than expected, break up the ranks and flee. Kutuzov demands to stop them, and Prince Andrei, with a banner in his hands, rushes forward, dragging the battalion with him. Almost immediately he is wounded, he falls and sees a high sky above him with clouds quietly crawling over it. All his former dreams of glory seem to him insignificant; insignificant and petty seems to him and his idol, Napoleon, circling the battlefield after the French utterly defeated the allies. "Here is a beautiful death," says Napoleon, looking at Bolkonsky. Convinced that Bolkonsky is still alive, Napoleon orders him to be taken to the dressing station. Among the hopelessly wounded, Prince Andrei was left in the care of the inhabitants. Nikolai Rostov comes home on vacation; Denisov goes with him. Rostov is everywhere - both at home and by acquaintances, that is, by all of Moscow - is accepted as a hero; he becomes close to Dolokhov (and becomes one of his seconds in a duel with Bezukhov). Dolokhov proposes to Sonya, but she, in love with Nikolai, refuses; at a farewell feast hosted by Dolokhov for his friends before leaving for the army, he beats Rostov (apparently not quite honestly) for a large sum, as if taking revenge on him for Sonin's refusal. An atmosphere of love and fun reigns in the Rostovs' house, created primarily by Natasha. She sings beautifully, dances (at the ball at Yogel, the dance teacher, Natasha dances a mazurka with Denisov, which causes general admiration). When Rostov returns home in a depressed state after a loss, he hears Natasha's singing and forgets about everything - about the loss, about Dolokhov: "all this is nonsense <...> but here it is real." Nikolai admits to his father that he lost; when he manages to collect the required amount, he leaves for the army. Denisov, admired by Natasha, asks for her hand in marriage, is refused and leaves. In December 1805, Prince Vasily visited the Bald Mountains with his youngest son, Anatole; Kuragin's goal was to marry his dissolute son to a wealthy heiress, Princess Marya. The princess was extraordinarily excited by the arrival of Anatole; the old prince did not want this marriage - he did not love the Kuragins and did not want to part with his daughter. By chance, Princess Mary notices Anatole, embracing her French companion, m-lle Bourrienne; to her father's delight, she refuses Anatole. After the Battle of Austerlitz, the old prince receives a letter from Kutuzov, which says that Prince Andrei "fell a hero worthy of his father and his fatherland." It also says that Bolkonsky was not found among the dead; this allows us to hope that Prince Andrei is alive. Meanwhile, Princess Lisa, Andrey's wife, is about to give birth, and on the very night of the birth, Andrey returns. Princess Lisa dies; on her dead face Bolkonsky reads the question: "What have you done to me?" - the feeling of guilt before the deceased wife no longer leaves him. Pierre Bezukhov is tormented by the question of his wife's connection with Dolokhov: hints from acquaintances and an anonymous letter constantly raise this question. At a dinner in the Moscow English Club, arranged in honor of Bagration, a quarrel breaks out between Bezukhov and Dolokhov; Pierre challenges Dolokhov to a duel, in which he (who does not know how to shoot and has never held a pistol in his hands before) wounds his opponent. After a difficult explanation with Helen, Pierre leaves Moscow for St. Petersburg, leaving her a power of attorney to manage his Great Russian estates (which makes up most of his fortune). On the way to St. Petersburg, Bezukhov stops at the post station in Torzhok, where he meets the famous Freemason Osip Alekseevich Bazdeev, who instructs him - disappointed, confused, not knowing how and why to live on - and gives him a letter of recommendation to one of the St. Petersburg Masons. Upon arrival, Pierre joins the Masonic lodge: he is delighted with the truth that has been revealed to him, although the ritual of initiation into Masons confuses him somewhat. Filled with a desire to do good to his neighbors, in particular to his peasants, Pierre goes to his estates in the Kyiv province. There he very zealously embarks on reforms, but, having no "practical tenacity", turns out to be completely deceived by his manager. Returning from a southern trip, Pierre visits his friend Bolkonsky at his estate, Bogucharovo. After Austerlitz, Prince Andrei firmly decided not to serve anywhere (in order to get rid of active service, he accepted the position of collecting the militia under the command of his father). All his worries are focused on his son. Pierre notices the "faded, dead look" of his friend, his detachment. Pierre's enthusiasm, his new views contrast sharply with Bolkonsky's skeptical mood; Prince Andrei believes that neither schools nor hospitals are needed for the peasants, and serfdom should be abolished not for the peasants - they are used to it - but for the landlords, who are corrupted by unlimited power over other people. When friends go to the Bald Mountains, to the father and sister of Prince Andrei, a conversation takes place between them (on the ferry during the crossing): Pierre sets out to Prince Andrei his new views (“we do not live now only on this piece of land, but have lived and will live forever there, in everything"), and Bolkonsky for the first time after Austerlitz sees the "high, eternal sky"; "something better that was in him suddenly woke up joyfully in his soul." While Pierre was in the Bald Mountains, he enjoyed close, friendly relations not only with Prince Andrei, but also with all his relatives and household; for Bolkonsky, a new life (internally) began from a meeting with Pierre. Returning from vacation to the regiment, Nikolai Rostov felt at home. Everything was clear, known in advance; True, it was necessary to think about how to feed people and horses - the regiment lost almost half of the people from hunger and disease. Denisov decides to recapture the food transport assigned to the infantry regiment; summoned to the headquarters, he meets Telyanin there (in the position of chief provisions officer), beats him and for this he must stand trial. Taking advantage of the fact that he was slightly wounded, Denisov goes to the hospital. Rostov visits Denisov in the hospital - he is struck by the sight of sick soldiers lying on straw and overcoats on the floor, the smell of a rotting body; in the officers' chambers, he meets Tushin, who has lost his arm, and Denisov, who, after some persuasion, agrees to submit a request for pardon to the sovereign. With this letter, Rostov goes to Tilsit, where the meeting of two emperors, Alexander and Napoleon, takes place. At the apartment of Boris Drubetskoy, enlisted in the retinue of the Russian emperor, Nikolai sees yesterday's enemies - French officers, with whom Drubetskoy willingly communicates. All this - both the unexpected friendship of the adored tsar with yesterday's usurper Bonaparte, and the free friendly communication of the retinue officers with the French - all irritates Rostov. He cannot understand why battles were needed, arms and legs torn off, if the emperors are so kind to each other and reward each other and the soldiers of the enemy armies with the highest orders of their countries. By chance, he manages to pass a letter with Denisov's request to a familiar general, who gives it to the tsar, but Alexander refuses: "the law is stronger than me." Terrible doubts in Rostov's soul end with the fact that he convinces familiar officers, like him, who are dissatisfied with the peace with Napoleon, and most importantly, himself that the sovereign knows better what needs to be done. And "our job is to cut and not think," he says, drowning out his doubts with wine. Those enterprises that Pierre started at home and could not bring to any result were executed by Prince Andrei. He transferred three hundred souls to free cultivators (that is, freed them from serfdom); replaced corvée with dues on other estates; peasant children began to be taught to read and write, etc. In the spring of 1809, Bolkonsky went on business to the Ryazan estates. On the way, he notices how green and sunny everything is; only the huge old oak "did not want to submit to the charm of spring" - it seems to Prince Andrei in harmony with the sight of this gnarled oak that his life is over. On guardianship matters, Bolkonsky needs to see Ilya Rostov, the district marshal of the nobility, and Prince Andrei goes to Otradnoye, the Rostov estate. At night, Prince Andrei hears the conversation between Natasha and Sonya: Natasha is full of delight from the charms of the night, and in the soul of Prince Andrei "an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes arose." When - already in July - he passed the very grove where he saw the old gnarled oak, he was transformed: "through the hundred-year-old hard bark, juicy young leaves made their way without knots." “No, life is not over at thirty-one,” Prince Andrei decides; he goes to St. Petersburg to "take an active part in life." In St. Petersburg, Bolkonsky becomes close to Speransky, the state secretary, an energetic reformer close to the emperor. For Speransky, Prince Andrei feels a feeling of admiration, "similar to the one he once felt for Bonaparte." The prince becomes a member of the commission for drafting the military regulations. At this time, Pierre Bezukhov also lives in St. Petersburg - he became disillusioned with Freemasonry, reconciled (outwardly) with his wife Helen; in the eyes of the world, he is an eccentric and kind fellow, but in his soul "the hard work of inner development" continues. The Rostovs also end up in St. Petersburg, because the old count, wanting to improve his money matters, comes to the capital to look for places of service. Berg proposes to Vera and marries her. Boris Drubetskoy, already a close friend in the salon of Countess Helen Bezukhova, begins to go to the Rostovs, unable to resist Natasha's charm; in a conversation with her mother, Natasha admits that she is not in love with Boris and is not going to marry him, but she likes that he travels. The countess spoke with Drubetskoy, and he stopped visiting the Rostovs. On New Year's Eve there should be a ball at the Catherine's grandee. The Rostovs are carefully preparing for the ball; at the ball itself, Natasha experiences fear and timidity, delight and excitement. Prince Andrei invites her to dance, and "the wine of her charms hit him in the head": after the ball, his work in the commission, the speech of the sovereign in the Council, and the activities of Speransky seem insignificant to him. He proposes to Natasha, and the Rostovs accept him, but according to the condition set by the old prince Bolkonsky, the wedding can take place only after a year. This year Bolkonsky is going abroad. Nikolai Rostov comes on vacation to Otradnoye. He is trying to put the household affairs in order, trying to check the accounts of Mitenka's clerk, but nothing comes of it. In mid-September, Nikolai, the old count, Natasha and Petya, with a pack of dogs and a retinue of hunters, go out on a big hunt. Soon they are joined by their distant relative and neighbor ("uncle"). The old count with his servants let the wolf through, for which the hunter Danilo scolded him, as if forgetting that the count was his master. At this time, another wolf came out to Nikolai, and the dogs of Rostov took him. Later, the hunters met the hunt of a neighbor - Ilagin; the dogs of Ilagin, Rostov and the uncle chased the hare, but his uncle's dog Rugay took it, which delighted the uncle. Then Rostov with Natasha and Petya go to their uncle. After dinner, uncle began to play the guitar, and Natasha went to dance. When they returned to Otradnoye, Natasha admitted that she would never be as happy and calm as now. Christmas time has come; Natasha languishes from longing for Prince Andrei - for a short time she, like everyone else, is entertained by a trip dressed up to her neighbors, but the thought that "her best time is wasted" torments her. During Christmas time, Nikolai especially acutely felt love for Sonya and announced her to his mother and father, but this conversation upset them very much: the Rostovs hoped that Nikolai's marriage to a rich bride would improve their property circumstances. Nikolai returns to the regiment, and the old count with Sonya and Natasha leaves for Moscow. Old Bolkonsky also lives in Moscow; he has visibly aged, become more irritable, relations with his daughter have deteriorated, which torments the old man himself, and especially Princess Marya. When Count Rostov and Natasha come to the Bolkonskys, they receive the Rostovs unkindly: the prince - with the calculation, and Princess Mary - herself suffering from awkwardness. Natasha is hurt by this; to console her, Marya Dmitrievna, in whose house the Rostovs were staying, took her a ticket to the opera. In the theater, the Rostovs meet Boris Drubetskoy, now fiancé Julie Karagina, Dolokhov, Helen Bezukhova and her brother Anatole Kuragin. Natasha meets Anatole. Helen invites the Rostovs to her place, where Anatole pursues Natasha, tells her about his love for her. He secretly sends her letters and is going to kidnap her in order to secretly marry (Anatole was already married, but almost no one knew this). The kidnapping fails - Sonya accidentally finds out about him and confesses to Marya Dmitrievna; Pierre tells Natasha that Anatole is married. Prince Andrei, who has arrived, learns about Natasha's refusal (she sent a letter to Princess Marya) and about her affair with Anatole; he returns Natasha her letters through Pierre. When Pierre comes to Natasha and sees her tear-stained face, he feels sorry for her and at the same time he unexpectedly tells her that if he were "the best person in the world", then "on his knees he would ask for her hand and love" her. In tears of "tenderness and happiness" he leaves. In June 1812, the war begins, Napoleon becomes the head of the army. Emperor Alexander, having learned that the enemy had crossed the border, sent Adjutant General Balashev to Napoleon. Balashev spends four days with the French, who do not recognize the importance he had at the Russian court, and finally Napoleon receives him in the very palace from which the Russian emperor sent him. Napoleon listens only to himself, not noticing that he often falls into contradictions. Prince Andrei wants to find Anatole Kuragin and challenge him to a duel; for this he goes to St. Petersburg, and then to the Turkish army, where he serves at the headquarters of Kutuzov. When Bolkonsky learns about the beginning of the war with Napoleon, he asks for a transfer to the Western Army; Kutuzov gives him an assignment to Barclay de Tolly and lets him go. On the way, Prince Andrei calls in Bald Mountains, where outwardly everything is the same, but the old prince is very annoyed with Princess Marya and noticeably brings m-lle Bourienne closer to him. A difficult conversation takes place between the old prince and Andrey, Prince Andrey leaves. In the Drissa camp, where the headquarters of the Russian army was located, Bolkonsky finds many opposing parties; at the military council, he finally understands that there is no military science, and everything is decided "in the ranks." He asks the sovereign for permission to serve in the army, and not at court. The Pavlograd regiment, in which Nikolai Rostov still serves, already a captain, retreats from Poland to the Russian borders; none of the hussars think about where and why they are going. On July 12, one of the officers tells in the presence of Rostov about the feat of Raevsky, who brought two sons to the Saltanovskaya dam and went on the attack next to them; This story raises doubts in Rostov: he does not believe the story and does not see the point in such an act, if it really happened. The next day, at the town of Ostrovne, the Rostov squadron hit the French dragoons, who were pushing the Russian lancers. Nikolai captured a French officer "with a room face" - for this he received the St. George Cross, but he himself could not understand what confuses him in this so-called feat. The Rostovs live in Moscow, Natasha is very ill, doctors visit her; at the end of Peter's Lent, Natasha decides to go to fast. On Sunday, July 12, the Rostovs went to mass at the Razumovskys' home church. Natasha is very strongly impressed by the prayer (“Let us pray to the Lord in peace”). She gradually returns to life and even begins to sing again, which she has not done for a long time. Pierre brings the sovereign's appeal to the Muscovites to the Rostovs, everyone is touched, and Petya asks to be allowed to go to war. Not having received permission, Petya decides the next day to go to meet the sovereign, who is coming to Moscow, in order to express to him his desire to serve the fatherland. In the crowd of Muscovites meeting the tsar, Petya was nearly crushed. Together with others, he stood in front of the Kremlin Palace, when the sovereign went out onto the balcony and began to throw biscuits to the people - Petya got one biscuit. Returning home, Petya resolutely announced that he would certainly go to war, and the next day the old count went to find out how to place Petya somewhere more unsafe. On the third day of his stay in Moscow, the tsar met with the nobility and merchants. Everyone was in awe. The nobility donated the militia, and the merchants donated money. The old Prince Bolkonsky is weakening; despite the fact that Prince Andrei informed his father in a letter that the French were already at Vitebsk and that his family's stay in the Bald Mountains was unsafe, the old prince laid a new garden and a new building on his estate. Prince Nikolai Andreevich sends the manager Alpatych to Smolensk with instructions, he, having arrived in the city, stops at the inn, at the familiar owner - Ferapontov. Alpatych gives the governor a letter from the prince and hears advice to go to Moscow. The bombardment begins, and then the fire of Smolensk. Ferapontov, who previously did not want to even hear about the departure, suddenly begins to distribute bags of food to the soldiers: "Bring everything, guys! <...> I decided! Raceya!" Alpatych meets Prince Andrei, and he writes a note to his sister, offering to urgently leave for Moscow. For Prince Andrei, the fire of Smolensk "was an epoch" - a feeling of anger against the enemy made him forget his grief. He was called "our prince" in the regiment, they loved him and were proud of him, and he was kind and meek "with his regimental officers." His father, having sent his family to Moscow, decided to stay in the Bald Mountains and defend them "to the last extremity"; Princess Mary does not agree to leave with her nephews and stays with her father. After the departure of Nikolushka, the old prince has a stroke, and he is transported to Bogucharovo. For three weeks, the paralyzed prince lies in Bogucharovo, and finally he dies, asking for forgiveness from his daughter before his death. Princess Mary, after her father's funeral, is going to leave Bogucharovo for Moscow, but the Bogucharovo peasants do not want to let the princess go. By chance, Rostov turns up in Bogucharovo, easily pacified the peasants, and the princess can leave. Both she and Nikolai think about the will of providence that arranged their meeting. When Kutuzov is appointed commander-in-chief, he calls on Prince Andrei to himself; he arrives in Tsarevo-Zaimishche, at the main apartment. Kutuzov listens with sympathy to the news of the death of the old prince and invites Prince Andrei to serve at the headquarters, but Bolkonsky asks for permission to remain in the regiment. Denisov, who also arrived at the main apartment, hurries to present Kutuzov with a plan for a guerrilla war, but Kutuzov listens to Denisov (as well as the report of the general on duty) obviously inattentively, as if "by his life experience" despising everything that was said to him. And Prince Andrei leaves Kutuzov completely reassured. “He understands,” Bolkonsky thinks about Kutuzov, “that there is something stronger and more significant than his will, this is the inevitable course of events, and he knows how to see them, knows how to understand their meaning <...> And the main thing is that he is Russian ". This is what he says before the battle of Borodino to Pierre, who came to see the battle. “While Russia was healthy, a stranger could serve it and there was a wonderful minister, but as soon as it is in danger, you need your own, dear person,” Bolkonsky explains the appointment of Kutuzov as commander-in-chief instead of Barclay. During the battle, Prince Andrei was mortally wounded; they bring him to the tent to the dressing station, where he sees Anatol Kuragin on the next table - his leg is being amputated. Bolkonsky is seized with a new feeling - a feeling of compassion and love for everyone, including his enemies. The appearance of Pierre on the Borodino field is preceded by a description of the Moscow society, where they refused to speak French (and even take a fine for a French word or phrase), where Rostopchinsky posters are distributed, with their pseudo-folk rude tone. Pierre feels a special joyful "sacrificial" feeling: "everything is nonsense in comparison with something," which Pierre could not understand to himself. On the way to Borodino, he meets militiamen and wounded soldiers, one of whom says: "They want to attack with all the people." On the field of Borodin, Bezukhov sees a prayer service before the miraculous icon of Smolensk, meets some of his acquaintances, including Dolokhov, who asks for forgiveness from Pierre. During the battle, Bezukhov ended up on Raevsky's battery. The soldiers soon get used to him, call him "our master"; when the charges run out, Pierre volunteers to bring new ones, but before he could reach the charging boxes, there was a deafening explosion. Pierre runs to the battery, where the French are already in charge; the French officer and Pierre simultaneously grab each other, but the flying cannonball makes them unclench their hands, and the Russian soldiers who run up drive the French away. Pierre is horrified by the sight of the dead and wounded; he leaves the battlefield and walks along the Mozhaisk road for three versts. He sits on the side of the road; after a while, three soldiers make a fire nearby and invite Pierre to supper. After dinner, they go together to Mozhaisk, on the way they meet the bereator Pierre, who takes Bezukhov to the inn. At night, Pierre has a dream in which a benefactor (as he calls Bazdeev) speaks to him; the voice says that one must be able to unite in one's soul "the meaning of everything." "No," Pierre hears in a dream, "it is not necessary to connect, but it is necessary to conjugate." Pierre returns to Moscow. Two more characters are given in close-up during the Battle of Borodino: Napoleon and Kutuzov. On the eve of the battle, Napoleon receives a gift from the Empress from Paris - a portrait of his son; he orders the portrait to be taken out to show it to the old guard. Tolstoy claims that Napoleon's orders before the battle of Borodino were no worse than all his other orders, but nothing depended on the will of the French emperor. Near Borodino, the French army suffered a moral defeat - this, according to Tolstoy, is the most important result of the battle. Kutuzov did not make any orders during the battle: he knew that "an elusive force called the spirit of the army" decides the outcome of the battle, and he led this force "as far as it was in his power." When the adjutant Wolzogen arrives at the commander-in-chief with news from Barclay that the left flank is upset and the troops are fleeing, Kutuzov violently attacks him, claiming that the enemy has been beaten off everywhere and that tomorrow there will be an offensive. And this mood of Kutuzov is transmitted to the soldiers. After the battle of Borodino, Russian troops retreat to Fili; the main issue that the military leaders are discussing is the question of protecting Moscow. Kutuzov, realizing that there is no way to defend Moscow, gives the order to retreat. At the same time, Rostopchin, not understanding the meaning of what is happening, ascribes to himself the leading role in the abandonment and fire of Moscow - that is, in an event that could not have happened by the will of one person and could not have happened in the circumstances of that time. He advises Pierre to leave Moscow, reminding him of his connection with the Masons, gives the crowd to be torn apart by the merchant's son Vereshchagin and leaves Moscow. The French enter Moscow. Napoleon is standing on Poklonnaya Hill, waiting for the deputation of the boyars and playing generous scenes in his imagination; he is told that Moscow is empty. On the eve of leaving Moscow, the Rostovs were getting ready to leave. When the carts were already laid, one of the wounded officers (the day before several wounded were taken into the house by the Rostovs) asked permission to go further with the Rostovs in their cart. The countess at first objected - after all, the last fortune was lost - but Natasha convinced her parents to give all the carts to the wounded, and leave most of the things. Among the wounded officers who traveled with the Rostovs from Moscow was Andrei Bolkonsky. In Mytishchi, during another stop, Natasha entered the room where Prince Andrei was lying. Since then, she has looked after him on all holidays and overnight stays. Pierre did not leave Moscow, but left his home and began to live in the house of Bazdeev's widow. Even before the trip to Borodino, he learned from one of the Masonic brothers that the Apocalypse predicted the invasion of Napoleon; he began to calculate the meaning of the name of Napoleon ("the beast" from the Apocalypse), and this number was equal to 666; the same amount was obtained from the numerical value of his name. So Pierre discovered his destiny - to kill Napoleon. He remains in Moscow and prepares for a great feat. When the French enter Moscow, officer Rambal comes to Bazdeev's house with his batman. The insane brother of Bazdeev, who lived in the same house, shoots at Rambal, but Pierre snatches the pistol from him. During dinner, Rambal frankly tells Pierre about himself, about his love affairs; Pierre tells the Frenchman the story of his love for Natasha. The next morning he goes to the city, no longer believing his intention to kill Napoleon, saves the girl, stands up for the Armenian family, which is robbed by the French; he is arrested by a detachment of French lancers. Petersburg life, "preoccupied only with ghosts, reflections of life," went on in the old way. Anna Pavlovna Scherer had an evening at which Metropolitan Platon's letter to the sovereign was read and Helen Bezukhova's illness was discussed. The next day, news was received about the abandonment of Moscow; after some time, Colonel Michaud arrived from Kutuzov with the news of the abandonment and fire of Moscow; during a conversation with Michaud, Alexander said that he himself would stand at the head of his army, but would not sign peace. Meanwhile, Napoleon sends Loriston to Kutuzov with an offer of peace, but Kutuzov refuses "any kind of deal." The tsar demanded offensive actions, and, despite Kutuzov's reluctance, the Tarutino battle was given. One autumn night, Kutuzov receives news that the French have left Moscow. Until the very expulsion of the enemy from the borders of Russia, all the activities of Kutuzov are aimed only at keeping the troops from useless offensives and clashes with the dying enemy. The French army melts in retreat; Kutuzov, on the way from Krasnoye to the main apartment, addresses the soldiers and officers: "While they were strong, we did not feel sorry for ourselves, but now you can feel sorry for them. They are also people." Intrigues do not stop against the commander-in-chief, and in Vilna the sovereign reprimands Kutuzov for his slowness and mistakes. Nevertheless, Kutuzov was awarded George I degree. But in the upcoming campaign - already outside of Russia - Kutuzov is not needed. "There was nothing left for the representative of the people's war but death. And he died." Nikolai Rostov goes for repairs (to buy horses for the division) to Voronezh, where he meets Princess Marya; he again has thoughts of marrying her, but he is bound by the promise he made to Sonya. Unexpectedly, he receives a letter from Sonya, in which she returns his word to him (the letter was written at the insistence of the Countess). Princess Mary, having learned that her brother is in Yaroslavl, at the Rostovs, goes to him. She sees Natasha, her grief and feels closeness between herself and Natasha. She finds her brother in a state where he already knows that he will die. Natasha understood the meaning of the turning point that occurred in Prince Andrei shortly before her sister's arrival: she tells Princess Marya that Prince Andrei "is too good, he cannot live." When Prince Andrei died, Natasha and Princess Marya experienced "reverent tenderness" before the sacrament of death. The arrested Pierre is brought to the guardhouse, where he is kept along with other detainees; he is interrogated by French officers, then he gets interrogated by Marshal Davout. Davout was known for his cruelty, but when Pierre and the French marshal exchanged glances, they both vaguely felt that they were brothers. This look saved Pierre. He, along with others, was taken to the place of execution, where the French shot five, and Pierre and the rest of the prisoners were taken to the barracks. The spectacle of the execution had a terrible effect on Bezukhov, in his soul "everything fell into a heap of senseless rubbish." A neighbor in the barracks (his name was Platon Karataev) fed Pierre and reassured him with his affectionate speech. Pierre forever remembered Karataev as the personification of everything "Russian good and round." Plato sews shirts for the French and several times notices that there are different people among the French. A party of prisoners is taken out of Moscow, and together with the retreating army they go along the Smolensk road. During one of the crossings, Karataev falls ill and is killed by the French. After that, Bezukhov has a dream at a halt in which he sees a ball, the surface of which consists of drops. Drops move, move; “Here he is, Karataev, spilled over and disappeared,” Pierre dreams. The next morning, a detachment of prisoners was repulsed by Russian partisans. Denisov, the commander of the partisan detachment, is about to join forces with a small detachment of Dolokhov to attack a large French transport with Russian prisoners. From the German general, the head of a large detachment, a messenger arrives with a proposal to join in joint action against the French. This messenger was Petya Rostov, who remained for a day in Denisov's detachment. Petya sees Tikhon Shcherbaty returning to the detachment, a peasant who went to "take his tongue" and escaped the chase. Dolokhov arrives and, together with Petya Rostov, goes on reconnaissance to the French. When Petya returns to the detachment, he asks the Cossack to sharpen his saber; he almost falls asleep, and he dreams of the music. The next morning, the detachment attacks the French transport, and Petya dies during the skirmish. Among the captured prisoners was Pierre. After his release, Pierre is in Orel - he is ill, the physical hardships he has experienced are affecting, but mentally he feels freedom he has never experienced before. He learns about the death of his wife, that Prince Andrei was still alive for a month after being wounded. Arriving in Moscow, Pierre goes to Princess Mary, where he meets Natasha. After the death of Prince Andrei, Natasha closed herself in her grief; She is brought out of this state by the news of Petya's death. She does not leave her mother for three weeks, and only she can ease the grief of the countess. When Princess Marya leaves for Moscow, Natasha, at the insistence of her father, goes with her. Pierre discusses with Princess Mary the possibility of happiness with Natasha; Natasha also awakens love for Pierre. Seven years have passed. Natasha marries Pierre in 1813. The old Count Rostov is dying. Nikolai retires, accepts an inheritance - the debts turn out to be twice as much as the estates. He, along with his mother and Sonya, settled in Moscow, in a modest apartment. Having met Princess Marya, he tries to be restrained and dry with her (the thought of marrying a rich bride is unpleasant to him), but an explanation takes place between them, and in the fall of 1814 Rostov marries Princess Bolkonskaya. They move to the Bald Mountains; Nikolai skillfully manages the household and soon pays off his debts. Sonya lives in his house; "She, like a cat, took root not with people, but with the house." In December 1820, Natasha and her children stayed with her brother. They are waiting for Pierre's arrival from Petersburg. Pierre arrives, brings gifts to everyone. In the office between Pierre, Denisov (he is also visiting the Rostovs) and Nikolai, a conversation takes place, Pierre is a member of a secret society; he talks about bad government and the need for change. Nikolai disagrees with Pierre and says that he cannot accept the secret society. During the conversation, Nikolenka Bolkonsky, the son of Prince Andrei, is present. At night, he dreams that he, along with Uncle Pierre, in helmets, as in the book of Plutarch, are walking ahead of a huge army. Nikolenka wakes up with thoughts of her father and the future glory. L. I. Sobolev Anna Karenina Roman (1873-1877) In the Moscow house of the Oblonskys, where "everything was mixed up" at the end of the winter of 1873, they were waiting for the owner's sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina. The reason for the family discord was that Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky was caught by his wife in treason with a governess. Thirty-four-year-old Stiva Oblonsky sincerely regrets his wife Dolly, but, being a truthful person, does not assure himself that he repents of his deed. Cheerful, kind and carefree Stiva has long been no longer in love with his wife, the mother of five living and two dead children, and has long been unfaithful to her. Stiva is completely indifferent to the work he does while serving as a boss in one of the Moscow presences, and this allows him to never get carried away, not make mistakes and perfectly fulfill his duties. Friendly, condescending to human shortcomings, charming Stiva enjoys the location of the people of his circle, subordinates, bosses and, in general, everyone with whom his life brings. Debts and family troubles upset him, but they cannot spoil his mood enough to make him refuse to dine in a good restaurant. He is having lunch with Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin, who has arrived from the village, his peer and a friend of his youth. Levin came to propose to the eighteen-year-old Princess Kitty Shcherbatskaya, Oblonsky's sister-in-law, with whom he had long been in love. Levin is sure that such a girl, who is above all earthly things, like Kitty, cannot love him, an ordinary landowner, without special, as he believes, talents. In addition, Oblonsky informs him that, apparently, he has a rival - a brilliant representative of the St. Petersburg "golden youth", Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky. Kitty knows about Levin's love and feels at ease and free with him; with Vronsky, however, she experiences an incomprehensible awkwardness. But it is difficult for her to understand her own feelings, she does not know who to give preference to. Kitty does not suspect that Vronsky does not at all intend to marry her, and her dreams of a happy future with him make her refuse Levin. Meeting his mother, who has arrived from St. Petersburg, Vronsky sees Anna Arkadyevna Karenina at the station. He immediately notices the special expressiveness of Anna's whole appearance: "It was as if an excess of something so overwhelmed her being that, against her will, it was expressed either in a gleam of a look, or in a smile." The meeting is overshadowed by a sad circumstance: the death of a station watchman under the wheels of a train, which Anna considers a bad omen. Anna manages to persuade Dolly to forgive her husband; a fragile peace is established in the Oblonskys' house, and Anna goes to the ball together with the Oblonskys and the Shcherbatskys. At the ball, Kitty admires Anna's naturalness and grace, admires that special, poetic inner world that appears in her every movement. Kitty expects a lot from this ball: she is sure that during the mazurka Vronsky will explain himself to her. Unexpectedly, she notices how Vronsky is talking with Anna: in each of their glances, an irresistible attraction to each other is felt, each word decides their fate. Kitty leaves in despair. Anna Karenina returns home to Petersburg; Vronsky follows her. Blaming himself alone for the failure of the matchmaking, Levin returns to the village. Before leaving, he meets with his older brother Nikolai, who lives in cheap rooms with a woman he took from a brothel. Levin loves his brother, despite his irrepressible nature, which brings a lot of trouble to himself and those around him. Seriously ill, lonely, drinking, Nikolai Levin is fascinated by the communist idea and the organization of some kind of locksmith artel; this saves him from self-contempt. A meeting with his brother exacerbates the shame and dissatisfaction with himself, which Konstantin Dmitrievich experiences after the matchmaking. He calms down only in his family estate Pokrovsky, deciding to work even harder and not allow himself luxury - which, however, had not been in his life before. The usual Petersburg life, to which Anna returns, causes her disappointment. She had never been in love with her husband, who was much older than her, and had only respect for him. Now his company becomes painful for her, she notices the slightest of his shortcomings: too big ears, the habit of cracking his fingers. Nor does her love for her eight-year-old son Seryozha save her. Anna tries to regain her peace of mind, but she fails - mainly because Alexei Vronsky seeks her favor in every possible way. Vronsky is in love with Anna, and his love is intensified because an affair with a lady of high society makes his position even more brilliant. Despite the fact that his whole inner life is filled with passion for Anna, outwardly Vronsky leads the usual, cheerful and pleasant life of a guards officer: with the Opera, the French theater, balls, horse races and other pleasures. But their relationship with Anna is too different in the eyes of others from easy secular flirting; strong passion causes general condemnation. Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin notices the attitude of the world to his wife's affair with Count Vronsky and expresses his displeasure to Anna. Being a high-ranking official, "Alexey Alexandrovich lived and worked all his life in the spheres of service, dealing with reflections of life. And every time he encountered life itself, he moved away from it." Now he feels himself in the position of a man standing above the abyss. Karenin's attempts to stop his wife's irresistible desire for Vronsky, Anna's attempts to restrain herself, are unsuccessful. A year after the first meeting, she becomes Vronsky's mistress - realizing that now they are connected forever, like criminals. Vronsky is burdened by the uncertainty of relations, persuades Anna to leave her husband and join her life with him. But Anna cannot decide on a break with Karenin, and even the fact that she is expecting a child from Vronsky does not give her determination. During the races, which are attended by all the high society, Vronsky falls from his horse Frou-Frou. Not knowing how serious the fall is, Anna expresses her despair so openly that Karenin is forced to take her away immediately. She announces to her husband about her infidelity, about disgust for him. This news produces on Alexei Alexandrovich the impression of a diseased tooth pulled out: he finally gets rid of the suffering of jealousy and leaves for Petersburg, leaving his wife at the dacha awaiting his decision. But, having gone through all the possible options for the future - a duel with Vronsky, a divorce - Karenin decides to leave everything unchanged, punishing and humiliating Anna with the requirement to observe the false appearance of family life under the threat of separation from her son. Having made this decision, Alexey Alexandrovich finds enough calmness to give himself over to reflections on the affairs of the service with his characteristic stubborn ambition. The decision of her husband causes Anna to burst into hatred for him. She considers him a soulless machine, not thinking that she has a soul and the need for love. Anna realizes that she is driven into a corner, because she is unable to exchange her current position for the position of a mistress who left her husband and son and deserves universal contempt. The remaining uncertainty of relations is also painful for Vronsky, who in the depths of his soul loves order and has an unshakable set of rules of conduct. For the first time in his life, he does not know how to behave further, how to bring his love for Anna into line with the rules of life. In the event of a connection with her, he will be forced to retire, and this is also not easy for him: Vronsky loves regimental life, enjoys the respect of his comrades; besides, he is ambitious. The life of three people is entangled in a web of lies. Anna's pity for her husband alternates with disgust; she cannot but meet with Vronsky, as Alexey Alexandrovitch demands. Finally, childbirth occurs, during which Anna almost dies. Lying in childbed fever, she asks for forgiveness from Alexei Alexandrovich, and at her bedside he feels pity for his wife, tender compassion and spiritual joy. Vronsky, whom Anna unconsciously rejects, experiences burning shame and humiliation. He tries to shoot himself, but is rescued. Anna does not die, and when the softening of her soul caused by the proximity of death passes, she again begins to be burdened by her husband. Neither his decency and generosity, nor touching concern for a newborn girl does not save her from irritation; she hates Karenin even for his virtues. A month after her recovery, Anna goes abroad with retired Vronsky and her daughter. Living in the countryside, Levin takes care of the estate, reads, writes a book on agriculture and undertakes various economic reorganizations that do not find approval among the peasants. The village for Levin is "a place of life, that is, joys, suffering, work." The peasants respect him, for forty miles they go to him for advice - and they strive to deceive him for their own benefit. There is no deliberateness in Levin's attitude towards the people: he considers himself a part of the people, all his interests are connected with the peasants. He admires the strength, meekness, justice of the peasants and is irritated by their carelessness, slovenliness, drunkenness, and lies. In disputes with his half-brother Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev, who came to visit, Levin proves that zemstvo activities do not benefit the peasants, because they are not based either on knowledge of their true needs, or on the personal interest of the landowners. Levin feels his merging with nature; he even hears the growth of spring grass. In the summer, he mows with the peasants, feeling the joy of simple labor. Despite all this, he considers his life idle and dreams of changing it to a working, clean and common life. Subtle changes are constantly taking place in his soul, and Levin listens to them. At one time it seems to him that he has found peace and forgotten his dreams of family happiness. But this illusion crumbles to dust when he learns about Kitty's serious illness, and then sees her herself, going to her sister in the village. The feeling that seemed dead again takes possession of his heart, and only in love does he see the opportunity to unravel the great mystery of life. In Moscow, at a dinner at the Oblonskys, Levin meets Kitty and realizes that she loves him. In a state of high spirits, he proposes to Kitty and receives consent. Immediately after the wedding, the young people leave for the village. Vronsky and Anna are traveling through Italy. At first, Anna feels happy and full of the joy of life. Even the consciousness that she is separated from her son, that she has lost her honorable name and that she has become the cause of her husband's misfortune, does not overshadow her happiness. Vronsky is lovingly respectful towards her, he does everything to ensure that she is not burdened by her position. But he himself, despite his love for Anna, feels longing and grabs at everything that can give his life significance. He begins painting, but having enough taste, he knows his mediocrity and soon becomes disillusioned with this occupation. Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Anna clearly feels her rejection: they do not want to accept her, acquaintances avoid meeting her. Insults from the world poison Vronsky's life, but, busy with her experiences, Anna does not want to notice this. On Seryozha's birthday, she secretly goes to him and, finally seeing her son, feeling his love for herself, she realizes that she cannot be happy apart from him. In despair, in irritation, she reproaches Vronsky for falling out of love with her; it costs him great efforts to calm her down, after which they leave for the village. The first time of married life turns out to be difficult for Kitty and Levin: they hardly get used to each other, charms are replaced by disappointments, quarrels - reconciliations. Family life seems to Levin like a boat: it is pleasant to look at sliding on water, but it is very difficult to rule. Unexpectedly, Levin receives news that brother Nikolai is dying in the provincial town. He immediately goes to him; despite his protests, Kitty decides to go with him. Seeing his brother, experiencing tormenting pity for him, Levin still cannot rid himself of the fear and disgust that the nearness of death arouses in him. He is shocked that Kitty is not at all afraid of the dying man and knows how to behave with him. Levin feels that only the love of his wife saves him in these days from horror and himself. During Kitty's pregnancy, about which Levin learns on the day of his brother's death, the family continues to live in Pokrovsky, where relatives and friends come for the summer. Levin cherishes the spiritual closeness that he has established with his wife, and is tormented by jealousy, fearing to lose this closeness. Dolly Oblonskaya, visiting her sister, decides to visit Anna Karenina, who lives with Vronsky on his estate, not far from Pokrovsky. Dolly is struck by the changes that have taken place in Karenina, she feels the falsity of her current way of life, especially noticeable in comparison with her former liveliness and naturalness. Anna entertains guests, tries to take care of her daughter, reading, setting up a village hospital. But her main concern is to replace Vronsky with herself for everything that he left for her sake. Their relationship is becoming more and more tense, Anna is jealous of everything that he is fond of, even of the Zemstvo activities, which Vronsky is engaged in mainly in order not to lose his independence. In the fall, they move to Moscow, waiting for Karenin's decision on a divorce. But, offended in his best feelings, rejected by his wife, finding himself alone, Alexei Alexandrovich falls under the influence of the well-known spiritualist, Princess Myagkaya, who persuades him, for religious reasons, not to give a criminal wife a divorce. In the relationship between Vronsky and Anna there is neither complete discord nor agreement. Anna accuses Vronsky of all the hardships of her position; attacks of desperate jealousy are instantly replaced by tenderness; quarrels break out every now and then. In Anna's dreams, the same nightmare is repeated: some peasant leans over her, mutters meaningless French words and does something terrible to her. After a particularly difficult quarrel, Vronsky, against Anna's wishes, goes to visit his mother. In complete dismay, Anna sees her relationship with him as if by a bright light. She understands that her love is becoming more and more passionate and selfish, and Vronsky, without losing his love for her, is still weary of her and tries not to be dishonorable towards her. Trying to achieve his repentance, she follows him to the station, where she suddenly remembers the man crushed by the train on the day of their first meeting - and immediately understands what she needs to do. Anna throws herself under the train; her last vision is of a mumbling peasant. After that, "the candle, under which she read a book full of anxieties, deceptions, grief and evil, flared up with a brighter light than ever, illuminated for her everything that had previously been in darkness, crackled, began to fade and went out forever." Life becomes hateful for Vronsky; he is tormented by an unnecessary, but indelible remorse. He leaves as a volunteer for the war with the Turks in Serbia; Karenin takes his daughter to her. After Kitty's birth, which became a deep spiritual shock for Levin, the family returns to the village. Levin is in painful disagreement with himself - because after the death of his brother and the birth of his son he cannot resolve for himself the most important questions: the meaning of life, the meaning of death. He feels that he is close to suicide, and is afraid to walk around with a gun so as not to shoot himself. But at the same time, Levin notices: when he does not ask himself why he lives, he feels in his soul the presence of an infallible judge, and his life becomes firm and definite. Finally, he understands that the knowledge of the laws of good, given personally to him, Levin, in the Gospel Revelation, cannot be grasped by reason and expressed in words. Now he feels himself able to put an undeniable sense of goodness into every minute of his life. T. A. Satnikova Strider. horse history Story (1863-1885) At dawn, horses are driven from the manor's horse yard to the meadow. Of the whole herd, the old piebald gelding stands out with a serious, thoughtful look. He does not show impatience, like all other horses, he meekly waits for the old man Nester to saddle him, and sadly watches what is happening, knowing in advance every minute. Having driven the herd to the river, Nester unsaddles the gelding and scratches it under the neck, believing that the horse is pleased. The gelding does not like this scratching, but out of delicacy pretends to be grateful to the person, closes her eyes and shakes her head. And suddenly, for no reason, Nester painfully beats the gelding with a bridle buckle on a dry leg. This incomprehensible evil act upsets the gelding, but he does not show it. Unlike a man, the behavior of the old horse is full of dignity and calm wisdom. When young horses tease and make trouble for him - a brown filly stirs up water in front of his nose, others push and do not allow passage - he forgives his offenders with unfailing dignity and silent pride. Despite the repulsive signs of decrepitude, the figure of the piebald gelding retains the calmness of its former beauty and strength. His old age is majestic and ugly at the same time. And this causes resentment and contempt among horses. "Horses pity only themselves and occasionally only those in whose shoes they can easily imagine themselves." And all night in the horse yard, obeying the herd instinct, the whole herd drives the old gelding, hooves are heard on thin sides and heavy grunting. And the gelding cannot stand it, stops in impotent despair and begins a story about his life. The story lasts for five nights, and during the breaks, during the day, the horses are already respectfully treating the gelding. He is born from the Dear First and Baba. According to the pedigree, his name is Muzhik the first, and in the street - Kholstomer. So people call it for a long and sweeping move. From the first days of his life, he feels the love of his mother and the surprise that causes others. He is piebald, unusual, not like everyone else. The first grief in life is the loss of the love of a mother who already carries a little brother in herself. The first love for the beautiful filly Vyazopurikha ends, ending with the most important change in Kholstomer's life - he is emasculated so as not to continue in the piebald family. His difference from all gives rise to a tendency to seriousness and thoughtfulness. The young gelding notices that people are guided in life not by deeds, but by words. And the main thing among the words is "mine". This word changes the behavior of people, makes them often lie, pretend and not be what they really are. This word was the reason why the gelding is passed from hand to hand. Although he bypasses the famous trotter Swan, Kholstomer is still sold to a horse-dealer: because he is piebald and does not belong to the count, but to the stableman. He is bought by a hussar officer, with whom the gelding spends the best time of his life. The owner is handsome, rich, cold and cruel - and dependence on such a person makes Strider's love for him especially strong. The owner needs just a horse of no size to stand out even more in the world, to go to his mistress, to rush along Kuznetsky so that everyone avoids and looks around. And Kholstomer serves wholeheartedly, thinking: "Kill me, drive me, <...> I will be happier that way." He admires the owner and himself next to him. But one rainy day, the mistress leaves the officer, leaves with another. The hussar, in pursuit of her, drives Strider. He trembles all night and cannot eat. In the morning they give him water, and he forever ceases to be the horse he was. Striders are sold to a horse-dealer, then to an old woman, a clerk, a peasant, a gypsy, and, finally, to the local clerk. When the herd returns from the meadow the next evening, the owner shows the best, most expensive horses to the visiting guest. The guest reluctantly praises. Passing Kholstomer, he pats him on the rump and says that he once had the same "painted" gelding. Strider recognizes in the flabby old man his former beloved master, the hussar. In a manor house, in a luxurious living room, the owner, hostess and guest are sitting at tea. Former hussar Nikita Serpukhovsky is now over forty. Once very beautiful, now he has fallen "physically, and morally, and financially." He squandered a fortune of two million and still owes a hundred and twenty thousand. And so the sight of the happiness of the young master humiliates Serpukhovsky. He tries to talk about his past, when he was handsome, rich, happy. The owner interrupts him and talks about his current life, boasting about what he has. This boring conversation for both, in which they do not hear each other, continues until the morning, until Serpukhovskaya gets drunk and, staggering, goes to bed. He does not even have the strength to undress completely - in one unremoved boot, he falls on the bed and snores, filling the room with the smell of tobacco, wine and dirty old age. At night, the herdsman Vaska rides Kholstomer to the tavern and keeps him tied until morning next to the peasant's horse, from which the scab passes to the gelding. Five days later, Kholstomer is not driven into the field, but is led behind the barn. When his throat is cut, it seems to him that, together with a large stream of blood, the whole burden of life comes out of him. He is skinned. Dogs, crows and kites take away the horse meat, at night the she-wolf also comes; a week later, only bones are lying around the barn. But then the peasant takes away these bones and puts them into action. "The dead body of Serpukhovsky, who walked around the world, ate and drank, was removed to the ground much later." And to hide there a rotting, worm-infested body in a new uniform and polished boots was an unnecessary, unnecessary embarrassment for people. V. M. Sotnikov Death of Ivan Ilyich Tale (1884-1886) During a break in the session, the members of the Judicial Chamber learn from the newspaper about the death of Ivan Ilyich Golovin, which followed on February 4, 1882, after several weeks of an incurable illness. The comrades of the deceased, who loved him, involuntarily calculate the possible promotions now, and everyone thinks: "What it is, he died; but I don't." At the memorial service, everyone experiences an awkward feeling caused by the realization of the general pretense of grief. The only calm, and therefore significant, face of Ivan Ilyich, on which was "an expression that what needed to be done was done, and done correctly. In addition, in this expression there was also a reproach or a reminder to the living." The widow Praskovya Fyodorovna is trying to find out from Pyotr Ivanovich, whom she calls "a true friend of Ivan Ilyich", whether it is possible to get more money from the treasury on the occasion of death. Pyotr Ivanovich cannot advise anything and says goodbye. It is pleasant for him to inhale the clean air in the street after the smell of incense and a corpse, and he hurries to his friend Fyodor Vasilyevich so as not to be too late for the card game. "The past history of Ivan Ilyich's life was the simplest, and the most ordinary, and the most terrible." His father, a Privy Councilor, had three sons. The eldest, cold and tidy, made the same career as his father. The younger one was a loser, his relatives did not like to meet him and did not remember him unless it was absolutely necessary. Ivan Ilyich was average between the brothers not only in age, but also in everything that makes up and directs human life. In his youth, his qualities were already determined, which later did not change - Ivan Ilyich was an intelligent, capable, lively and sociable person, strictly fulfilling the rules of life adopted by people standing above him. If he ever deviated from these rules, he justified himself by the fact that such actions were committed by high-ranking people and were not considered bad, and calmed down. Having finished the course of jurisprudence well, Ivan Ilyich, with the help of his father, receives the position of an official for special assignments in the province. He serves honestly, is proud of his honesty, at the same time he has pleasant and decent fun - within the limits of the norms of decency accepted in society, he makes a good career. He becomes a judicial investigator - a new appointment requires a move to another province. Ivan Ilyich leaves his old connections and makes new ones so that his life becomes even more pleasant. He meets his future wife, and, although he could count on a more brilliant party, he decides to marry, since the bride is pleasant to him and, moreover, Ivan Ilyich's choice looks right in the eyes of people who are higher than him in the world. The first time after the wedding, Ivan Ilyich's life does not change and even becomes more pleasant and approved by society. But gradually, especially with the birth of the first child, married life becomes more complicated, and Ivan Ilyich develops a certain attitude towards her. He demands from marriage only those conveniences that he finds, replenishing the feeling of his own independence in the affairs of the service. This attitude is bearing fruit - in public opinion, Ivan Ilyich is accepted both as a good family man and as a good campaigner. Three years later he was made a fellow prosecutor and after seven years of service in one city he was transferred to the position of prosecutor in another province. Seventeen years have passed since the marriage. During this time, five children were born, three of them died, the eldest daughter is already sixteen years old, she studies at home, Praskovya Fedorovna sends the boy to the gymnasium in spite of her husband, who wanted to see his son in law. Praskovya Fedorovna blames her husband for all the strife and hardships of the family, but he avoids quarrels. The whole interest of Ivan Ilyich's life is absorbed by the service. There is not enough money to live on, and in 1880 Ivan Ilyich, the most difficult in his life, decides to go to St. Petersburg to ask for a place of five thousand salaries. This trip ends with an amazing, unexpected success. Life, which was halted, again acquires the character of pleasantness and decency. Looking around the new apartment, Ivan Ilyich falls down the stairs and hits his side against the handle of the window frame. The bruise hurts, but soon passes. Despite some disagreements, family life proceeds safely and is filled with the worries of the new device. Ivan Ilyich's service goes on easily and pleasantly, he even feels the virtuosity with which he conducts his business. He is healthy - the strange taste in the mouth and the awkwardness in the left side of the abdomen cannot be called unhealthy. But over time, this awkwardness turns into heaviness, then into pain, which is accompanied by a bad mood. He becomes more and more irritated, especially after his wife insists on going to the doctors. Ivan Ilyich submits to her and is subjected to humiliating, from his point of view, medical examinations. Doctors dodge direct answers to questions about the danger of the disease, and this irritates Ivan Ilyich even more. He fulfills all the doctors' prescriptions, finding consolation in this, but the pain intensifies. The wife constantly makes comments, finding that Ivan Ilyich does not strictly follow the prescribed treatment. In the service, he begins to notice that they are looking at him as a person who can make room. The disease is progressing. And no longer with irritation, but with horror and physical torment, he does not sleep at night, suffers without a single person nearby who could understand and regret. The pains intensify, and in the intervals of relief, Ivan Ilyich understands that it is not a matter of a kidney, not of an illness, but "in life and <...> death. Yes, life was and now it is leaving, leaving, and I cannot keep it. Then I I was here, and now I'm going there! Where? <…> Is it really death? No, I don't want to." He always waits with annoyance for the wife who comes to help him to leave, and he thinks about pain, about death, calling her for himself with the short word "she". He knows that he is dying, but he cannot understand it. And the syllogism that came to mind: "Kai is a man, people are mortal, therefore Kai is mortal," he cannot apply to himself. In the terrible situation of Ivan Ilyich, consolation appears to him. This is a clean, fresh peasant Gerasim, a servant assigned to care for the dying. The simplicity and ease with which Gerasim performs his duties touches Ivan Ilyich. He feels Gerasim's inability to lie and pretend in the face of death, and this, in a strange way, calms Ivan Ilyich. He asks Gerasim to keep his legs on his shoulders for a long time, in this position the pain goes away, and Ivan Ilyich likes to talk with Gerasim at the same time. Gerasim pities Ivan Ilyich simply and truly. The last days are coming, filled with physical and moral torments. Meetings with family members, with doctors, make Ivan Ilyich suffer, and when these people leave, he feels that the lie is leaving with them, but the pain remains. And he sends for Gerasim. When Ivan Ilyich becomes very ill, he takes communion. When asked by his wife if he is better, he replies: "Yes." And along with this word, he sees all the deceit that hides life and death. Since that moment, for three days he has been screaming, without ceasing, one sound "Oooh!", Remaining from the cry "I don't want to!". An hour before his death, his son, a gymnasium student, makes his way to him, and Ivan Ilyich's hand falls on his head. The son grabs his hand, presses it to his lips and cries. Ivan Ilyich sees his son and feels sorry for him. The son is taken away. Ivan Ilyich listens to pain, looks for the habitual fear of death and does not find it. Instead of death, there is light. "Death is over, it is no more," he says to himself, stops at half a breath, stretches and dies. V. M. Sotnikov The power of darkness, or the Claw is bogged down, the whole bird is abyss Drama (1886) Autumn. In the spacious hut of a prosperous, sickly peasant, Peter - Anisya's wife, Akulina, his daughter from his first marriage, sing songs. The owner himself once again calls and scolds, threatening to count Nikita, a dapper guy of about twenty-five, a lazy and walking worker. Anisya stands up for him with fury, and Anyutka, their ten-year-old daughter, runs into the room with a story about the arrival of Matryona and Akim, Nikita's parents. Hearing about Nikita's forthcoming marriage, Anisya "fell pissed off <...> exactly like a circular sheep" and attacked Peter even more viciously, thinking of upsetting the wedding by any means. Akulina knows her stepmother's secret intentions. Nikita reveals to Anisya his father's desire to forcibly marry him to the orphan girl Marinka. Anisya warns: if anything ... "I will decide on my life! I have sinned, I have broken the law, let alone become toss and turn." When Peter dies, he promises to take Nikita into the house as the owner and cover all sins at once. Matryona finds them embracing, sympathizes with Anisya's life with the old man, promises to interfere with Akim, and finally, having secretly agreed, leaves her sleeping powders, a drug to drink her husband - "there is no spirit, but great strength ...". Having argued with Akim in the presence of Peter, Matryona denigrates the girl Marina, an artel cook, whom Nikita deceived, having previously lived on a cast-iron stove. Nikita lazily opens his mouth in public, although he is "afraid to swear in untruth". To the delight of Matryona, their son is left as a worker for another year. From Anyuta, Nikita learns about the arrival of Marina, about her suspicions and jealousy. Akulina hears from the closet how Nikita drove Marina away: "You offended her <...> so you will offend me <...> you dog." Six months pass. Dying Peter calls Anisya, orders to send Akulina for her sister. Anisya hesitates, looks for money and cannot find it. As if by chance, Matryona comes to visit her son with the news of Marinka's wedding to the widower Semyon Matveyevich. Matryona and Anisya are talking face to face about the action of the powders, but Matryona warns to keep everything a secret from Nikita - "it's a pity." Anisya is cowardly. At this moment, holding on to the wall, Peter crawls out onto the porch and asks once again to send Anyutka for Sister Marfa. Matryona sends Anisya to immediately search all the places in order to find money, while she herself sits down on the porch with Peter. Nikita drives up to the gate. The owner asks him about plowing, says goodbye, and Matrena takes him to the hut. Anisya rushes about, praying for help to Nikita. Money is found right on Petra - Matryona groped, hurries Anisya to put the samovar on before her sister arrives, and she herself instructs Nikita, first of all, "not to miss the money," and only then "the woman will be in her hands." "If <...> she starts snoring <...> she can be shortened." And then Anisya runs out of the hut, pale, beside herself, carrying money under her apron: "He died in no way. I was filming, he did not smell it." Matryona, taking advantage of her confusion, immediately transfers the money to Nikita, ahead of the arrival of Martha and Akulina. They begin to wash the dead. Another nine months pass. Winter. Undressed Anisya sits at the camp, weaves, waits for Nikita and Akulina from the city and, together with the worker Mitrich, Anyuta and the godfather, who has looked into the light, discuss Akulina’s outfits, shamelessness (“a disheveled girl, not free, and now she has dressed up, swelled like a bubble on water, I, she says, is the mistress"), an evil temper, unsuccessful attempts to marry her off and fuse her quickly, Nikita's debauchery and drunkenness. “They braided me, shod me so deftly <...> I foolishly didn’t notice anything <...> and they agreed,” Anisya groans. The door opens. Akim enters to ask Nikita for money for a new horse. At dinner, Anisya complains about Nikita's "pampering" and ugliness, and asks for conscience. To which Akim replies one thing: "... God was forgotten" and talks about the good life of Marinka. Nikita, drunk, with a bag, a bundle and with purchases in paper, stops on the threshold and begins to swagger, not noticing his father. Next comes the discharged Akulina. At the request of Akim, Nikita takes out the money and calls everyone to tea, ordering Anisya to put on the samovar. Anisya returns from the closet with a chimney and a countertop and brushes off the half-hut bought by Akulina. A quarrel breaks out. Nikita pushes Anisya out, saying to Akulina: "I am the owner <...> I fell out of love with her, fell in love with you. My power. And she will be arrested." Having fun, he returns Anisya, takes out a liqueur, a treat. Everyone gathers at the table, only Akim, seeing the troubled life, refuses money, food and lodging for the night, and, leaving, prophesies: "to perdition, then, my son, to perdition ..." On an autumn evening in the hut one can hear talk and drunken cries. Akulinin's matchmakers are leaving. Neighbors gossip about the dowry. The bride herself lies in the shed, sick to her stomach. "From the eye," Matrena persuades the matchmakers, "and so," the girl is like a cast one - you can't pinch it. After seeing off the guests, Anyutka runs into the yard to Anisya: Akulina has gone to the barn, "I, she says, will not get married, I, she says, will die." The squeak of a newborn is heard. Matryona and Anisya are in a hurry to hide, pushing Nikita into the cellar to dig a hole - "Mother Earth will not tell anyone how a cow licks her tongue." Nikita snarls at Anisya: "... she got sick of me <...> And then these powders <...> Yes, if I knew, I would have killed her, the bitch, then!" Hesitating, persevering?: "After all, what's the deal! A living soul too..." - and yet gives up, takes the baby wrapped in rags, suffers. Anisya snatches the child out of his hands, throws it into the cellar and pushes Nikita down: "Suffocate quickly, she won't be alive!" Soon Nikita crawls out of the cellar, shaking all over, throws himself at his mother and Anisya with a scraper, then stops, runs back, listens, starts rushing about: “What have they done to me? everything, right, is alive <...> I decided my life ... " The guests are walking at Akulina's wedding. Songs and bells are heard in the yard. Along the path past the barn, where the drunken Mitrich fell asleep in the straw with a rope in his hands, two girls are walking: "Akulina <...> and howling did not howl ..." Marina catches up with the girls and, waiting for her husband Semyon, sees Nikita, who left the wedding: "... And Most of all, it makes me sick, Marinushka, that I am alone and have no one to open my grief with ... "The conversation is interrupted by Semyon and takes his wife to the guests. Nikita, left alone, takes off his boots and picks up a rope, makes a loop out of it, puts it around his neck, but notices Matryona, and behind her is smart, beautiful, tipsy Anisya. In the end, as if agreeing to the persuasion, he gets up, strips the straw off himself, sending them forward. Having escorted his mother and wife out, he sits down again, takes off his shoes. And suddenly Mitrich's drunken mumbling: "I'm not afraid of anyone <...> I'm not afraid of people ..." as if giving strength and determination to Nikita. In a hut full of people, Akulina and her fiancé are waiting for the blessing of their "father". Among the guests are Marina, her husband and a constable. When Ani-628 sya carries the wine, the songs fall silent. Nikita enters, barefoot, leading Akim with him, and instead of taking the icon, falls on his knees and repents, to Akim's delight, - "God's work is going on ..." - in all sins - in guilt before Marina, in the violent death of Peter, seducing Akulina and killing her baby: "I poisoned my father, I killed the dog, and my daughter <...> I did it, I'm the only one!" He bows to his father: "... you told me:" The claw is stuck, and the whole bird is lost. Akim hugs him. The wedding was upset. The officer calls witnesses to interrogate everyone and knit Nikita. E. N. Penskaya The Fruits of Enlightenment Comedy (1889) In St. Petersburg, in the rich house of the Zvezdintsevs, the handsome and depraved lackey Grigory admires himself for a long time in front of a mirror, lazily responding to the repeated calls of Vasily Leonidich, the master's son, flirting with Tanya, a cheerful and energetic maid. In the usual morning turmoil, servants scurry about, visitors are constantly ringing at the door: Bourdieu’s artel with a dress and a note for the lady, Sakhatov Sergey Ivanovich, a former comrade of the minister, an elegant gentleman, free and interested in everything in the world, a doctor who regularly observes the lady, Yakov the bartender , always guilty, awkward and shy. A conversation about spiritualism begins and ends between the doctor and Sakhatov. The valet Fyodor Ivanovich, a "lover" of education and politics, a smart and kind person, manages all the running around. New doorbell. The porter reports the arrival of peasants from the Kursk village, fussing about buying land. Among them is Mitriy Chilikin, the father of the barman Semyon, Tanya's fiancé. While Fyodor Ivanovich is with the master, the peasants with the gifts are waiting under the stairs. In the growing fuss - between the "eternal" conversation with Sakhatov about spiritualism, the questions of the artel, the explanations of Fyodor Ivanovich, the new guest of his son, - Leonid Fyodorovich Zvezdintsev, a retired lieutenant of the horse guard, the owner of twenty-four thousand acres, a gentle, pleasant gentleman - after a long explanation the peasants finally understands their request: to accept the amount raised by the whole world, four thousand silver rubles at once, and the rest of the money in installments - as agreed last year. “That was last year; then I agreed, but now I can’t,” Leonid Fedorovich refuses. The peasants ask, insist: "I gave you hope, we straightened out the paper too..." Leonid Fedorovich promises to think it over and takes the paper to his office, leaving the peasants discouraged. At this time, Vasily Leonidovich, who, as always, desperately needs money for another venture, having learned the reason for the arrival of the peasants, unsuccessfully tries to beg his father and in the end receives the required amount from his mother. The men, watching the young master, are perplexed talking among themselves. "To feed, say, parents left ..."; "This one will feed, to be sure." Meanwhile, Betsy, the youngest daughter of the Zvezdintsevs, flirting with Petrishchev, a friend of her brother, chatting with Marya Konstantinovna, a music teacher, finally releases the artel from Bourdieu, who is still waiting in the hall: her mother refused to pay for the dress - Betsy's fancy dress - indecent, too open. Betsy pouts: Vovo's brother has just received three hundred rubles to buy dogs. Young people gather at Vasily Leonidich's to sing to the guitar. The men, waiting for a decision, marvel at what is happening. Semyon returns, having completed the usual orders of the lady. Tanya watches with concern the meeting between father and son, as they must agree on a wedding. The men are looking forward to Fedor Ivanovich, from whom they learn that Leonid Fedorovich is "in session". Soon, Leonid Fedorovich himself announced the decision: the spirits ordered to refuse and not to sign the paper. Confused peasants are suddenly noticed by a lady who is obsessed with cleanliness and fear of being infected with germs. A cry rises, the lady demands a complete disinfection, returns the doctor, who has just been released before the start of the evening seance. The doctor advises to do "cheap and cheerful": a tablespoon of salicylic acid for a bottle of water, wash everything, and "these fellows, of course, get out." The lady, on the go, coming up with instructions for the servants - the main thing is not to catch a cold for her beloved dog Fifka - she leaves. Petrishchev and Vasily Leonidich, satisfied, recount the money received from maman. In the absence of the gentlemen, Tanya again slowly returns the peasants. They beg Fyodor Ivanovich to intercede again for them. After a new failure, Tanya suddenly realizes that if the paper "only needs to be signed", she could help: she takes the "document", sends the peasants out into the street, and herself, through Fyodor Ivanovich, calls the master "to say a word" in secret, face to face , and it is revealed to him that Semyon wants to marry her, but "spiritualism" is found behind him - he will sit down at the table, and the spoon itself will jump into his hands ... Isn't it dangerous? Leonid Fedorovich reassures Tanya and, to her joy, gives orders to Fyodor Ivanovich exactly according to her plan, while he himself is considering how to plant Seeds at the next session as a new medium. Finally, Tanya asks Fyodor Ivanovich "instead of his own father" to be her matchmaker, to talk with Semyon's father. At the beginning of the second act, the peasants and Fyodor Ivanovich discuss business in the people's kitchen: matchmaking, the sale of land, urban and rural life, Tanino's promise to help. Their conversation is interrupted by the troubles of the cook, the coachman's complaints - they brought three males from Vasily Leonidich - "either the dogs in the coachman's room, or the coachmen live." After the departure of Fyodor Ivanovich, the cook explains to the peasants the delights of the lordly life and the dangers of the "sweet life": always white rolls for tea, sugar, different foods, from classes - cards and piano in the morning, balls and masquerades. Easy work and free food "spoil" the common man. There are many such weakened, dead creatures - the old drunken cook on the stove, the girl Natalya, who died in the hospital. In the kitchen - a lively place - every now and then a crush, people change. Semyon, before sitting down with the gentlemen, looks in for a moment to exchange a few words with his father - "if, God willing, we will be happy about the earth, because I will take you home, Semka." Tanya runs in, hurries the servants, regales the peasants, telling them stories from the master's life as she goes. “That’s it, it seems that life is good, but other times it’s disgusting to clean up all these nasty things after them,” and finally shows paper from behind an apron: “I try, I try ... If only one thing was successful ... " Vasily Leonidovich and Sakhatov appear in the kitchen. The same conversation with the peasants about the sale of land is repeated. Sakhatov hides the spoon in the bag of one of them, they leave. The rest go to bed at night, turn off the light. Silence, breath. Then the clatter of footsteps, the noise of voices are heard, the doors open wide and rapidly tumble in: Grosman, blindfolded, holding Sakhatov by the hand, professor and doctor, fat lady and Leonid Fedorovich, Betsy and Petrishchev, Vasily Leonidich and Marya Konstantinovna, mistress and baroness, Fedor Ivanych and Tanya. The men jump up. They go looking. Grossman stumbles over a bench. The lady notices the peasants and again raises a tantrum: there is a "diphtheria infection" all around. They do not pay attention to it, so everyone is busy searching for the subject. Grossman, after circling around the kitchen, bends over to the third man's purse and takes out a spoon. General delight. The same, without Betsy, Marya Konstantinovna, Petrishchev and Vasily Leonidich, under the supervision of a doctor, check the temperature, Grosman's pulse, interrupting each other, talk about the nature of hypnosis. The lady nevertheless makes a scandal to Leonid Fedorovich: "You only know your stupidities, and the house is on me. You will infect everyone." He drives the men and leaves in tears. Tanya escorts the peasants to the janitor's room with a sigh. In the evening of the same day, in the living room of Leonid Fedorovich, the former guests gathered to conduct "experiments". Looking forward to Semyon, the new medium. Tanya is hiding in the room. Betsy notices her and Tanya reveals her plan to her. After Betsy left, she, together with Fyodor Ivanovich, cleans the room: the table in the middle, chairs, guitar, harmony. Worry about Semyon - whether he is clean. Semyon appears in his undercoat, washed. He is instructed: "Do not think, but surrender to your mood: if you want to sleep - sleep, if you want to walk - go <...> You can rise into the air ..." When Semyon is left alone, Tanya is inaudibly next to him. Semyon repeats her lessons: “…wet the matches. so you immediately <…> grab it with your hands. And when you grab it, press it <…> as if in a dream <…> And when I play the guitar, it’s like you wake up… "Everything happens according to Tanya's scenario. The paper is signed. The guests disperse, animatedly sharing their impressions. Tanya is alone, crawls out from under the sofa and laughs. Gregory notices her and threatens to tell about her trickery and tomfoolery. The theater presents the scenery of the first act. Two "foreign" traveling lackeys. From above descend the princess with the princess. Betsy accompanies them. The princess looks in a little book, reads the schedule of her visits, Grigory puts on her shoes, then puts shoes on the young princess. At parting, they recall the last session. Grigory argues with the lackeys about the difference between their "low" position and the master's: "There is no difference. Today I am a lackey, but tomorrow, maybe I will live no worse than they do." goes to smoke. Following him: "Oh, they don't like such spinners." Petrishchev runs down from above, towards him Coco Klingen. They are throwing charades, punning, preparing for a rehearsal of a home performance, for a masquerade. Betsy joins them, laughingly talking about yesterday's spiritualistic "performance" at her father's. Their chirping is interspersed with the conversations of the footmen's servants, the sluggish Yakov. Tanya joins them: she has already given the paper to the peasants. It remains only to beg the owners to give the calculation - "you can not stay here." She and Yakov again ask for the intercession of Fyodor Ivanych, each about his own. During the seeing off of the old countess with false hair and teeth, in front of Fyodor Ivanych, the mistress, footmen, a fight between Grigory and Semyon suddenly breaks out. In response to the lady's wrath, Fyodor Ivanych's attempts to justify Semyon, Grigory reveals their conspiracy with Tanya and "roguery" in the session. "If not for her, the paper would not be signed and the land would not be sold to the peasants." Scandal. And then the men are rushing through the door, past the doorman to give money. The lady upsets the case, shames Leonid Fedorovich in front of everyone, interrogates Tanya, threatens to sue the justice of the peace because of the loss she caused by several thousand. But thanks to the intervention of Betsy, the confession of complicity, the professor's reports about the thirteenth congress of spiritualists in Chicago, the lady's new fit of rage against Jacob ("Get out, now!") and fear of "sick" ("rash on the nose", "reservoir of infection" ) - in the confusion, they finally accept money from the men and Tanya is allowed to go home to prepare for the wedding. Fedor Ivanych said goodbye to her: "... when you live a house committee, I will come to visit you ..." E. N. Penskaya Kreutzer Sonata Tale (1887-1889, published 1890) Early spring. End of the century. There is a train in Russia. There is a lively conversation going on in the carriage; a merchant, a clerk, a lawyer, a smoking lady and other passengers are arguing about the women's question, about marriage and free love. Only love illuminates a marriage, says the smoking lady. Here, in the middle of her speech, a strange sound is heard, as it were, of interrupted laughter or sobbing, and a certain not yet old, gray-haired gentleman with impetuous movements intervenes in the general conversation. Until now, he had responded sharply and briefly to the neighbors' conversations, avoiding communication and acquaintance, but he smoked more and more, looked out the window or drank tea, and at the same time was clearly burdened by his loneliness. So what kind of love, sir asks, what do you mean by true love? Preferring one person over another? But for how long? For a year, for a month, for an hour? After all, this only happens in novels, never in real life. Spiritual affinity? Unity of ideals? But in this case, there is no need to sleep together. Oh, you know me, right? How not? Yes, I am the same Pozdnyshev who killed his wife. Everyone is silent, the conversation is spoiled. Here is the true story of Pozdnyshev, told by himself that same night to one of his fellow travelers, the story of how he was led by this very love to what happened to him. Pozdnyshev, a landowner and candidate of the university (he was even a leader), lived before his marriage, like everyone else in his circle. He lived (in his current opinion) depraved, but, living depraved, he believed that he lived as he should, even morally. He was not a seducer, he did not have "unnatural tastes", he did not make the goals of his life out of depravity, but gave himself to him sedately, decently, rather for health, avoiding women who could tie him up. Meanwhile, he could no longer have a pure relationship with a woman; he was, as they say, a "fornicator", similar to a morphine addict, a drunkard, a smoker. Then, as Pozdnyshev put it, without going into details, all sorts of deviations followed. So he lived until the age of thirty, not leaving, however, the desire to arrange for himself the most sublime, "pure" family life, looking closely at the girls for this purpose, and finally found one of the two daughters of a ruined Penza landowner, whom he considered worthy of himself. One evening they rode in a boat and at night, in the moonlight, they returned home. Pozdnyshev admired her slender figure, covered in jersey (he remembered this well), and suddenly decided that it was her. It seemed to him that at that moment she understood everything that he felt, and he, as it seemed to him then, thought the most sublime things, and in fact the jersey suited her especially, and after the day spent with her, he returned home delighted , confident that she is "the pinnacle of moral perfection", and already the next day made an offer. Since he did not marry money or connections (she was poor), and besides, he had the intention to keep "monogamy" after marriage, his pride knew no bounds. (I was a terrible pig, but I imagined that I was an angel, Pozdnyshev admitted to his fellow traveler.) However, everything immediately went awry, the honeymoon did not work out. It was disgusting, embarrassing and boring all the time. On the third or fourth day, Pozdnyshev found his wife bored, began to ask, hugged, she cried, unable to explain. And she was sad and hard, and her face expressed unexpected coldness and hostility. How? What? Love is the union of souls, but instead, this is what! Pozdnyshev shuddered. Is it possible that falling in love was exhausted by the satisfaction of sensuality and they remained completely alien to each other? Pozdnyshev did not yet understand that this hostility was a normal and not a temporary condition. But then there was another quarrel, then another, and Pozdnyshev felt that he was "caught", that marriage was not something pleasant, but, on the contrary, very difficult, but he did not want to admit it to himself or to others. (This bitterness, he reasoned later, was nothing more than a protest of human nature against the "animal" that suppressed it, but then he thought that Zhenya's bad character was to blame.) At the age of eight, they had five children, but life with children was not joy, but torment. The wife was child-loving and gullible, and family life turned into a constant escape from imaginary or real dangers. The presence of children gave new reasons for contention, relations became more and more hostile. By the fourth year, they were already talking simply: "What time is it? It's time for bed. What is lunch today? Where to go? What is written in the newspaper? Send for the doctor. Masha's throat hurts." He watched her pour the tea, bring the spoon to her mouth, squish as she sucked in the liquid, and he hated her for that. "It's good for you to grimace," he thought, "you tortured me with scenes all night, and I have a meeting." "You feel good," she thought, "but I didn't sleep with the baby all night." And they not only thought so, but also spoke, and so they would have lived, as if in a fog, not understanding themselves, if what had happened had not happened. His wife seemed to have woken up since she stopped giving birth (the doctors suggested remedies), and the constant anxiety about the children began to subside, she seemed to wake up and see the whole world with its joys, which she forgot about. Ah, don't miss it! Time will pass, don't turn back! She was taught from her youth that there is only one thing in the world worthy of attention - love; when she married, she received some of this love, but not all that was expected. Love with her husband was no longer the same, some other, new, clean love began to appear to her, and she began to look around, expecting something, again took up the piano she had abandoned before ... And then this man appeared. He was a musician, a violinist, the son of a ruined landowner, who graduated from the conservatory in Paris and returned to Russia. His name was Trukhachevsky. (Pozdnyshev even now could not speak of him without hatred: moist eyes, red smiling lips, fixed mustache, his face vulgarly pretty, and in his manners feigned gaiety, he spoke more and more in hints, fragments.) Trukhachevsky, having arrived in Moscow, stopped by to Pozdnyshev, he introduced him to his wife, immediately the conversation turned to music, he invited her to play with her, she was delighted, and Pozdnyshev pretended to be delighted so that they would not think that he was jealous. Then Trukhachevsky arrived with a violin, they played, his wife seemed interested in one music, but Pozdnyshev suddenly saw (or it seemed to him that he saw) how the beast sitting in both of them asked: "May I?" - and answered: "You can." Trukhachevsky had no doubts that this Moscow lady agreed. Pozdnyshev gave him expensive wine at dinner, admired his game, called him to dinner again next Sunday and could hardly restrain himself so as not to kill him immediately. Soon there was a dinner party, boring, feigned. Pretty soon the music began, they played Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, his wife on the piano, Trukhachevsky on the violin. This sonata is a terrible thing, music is a terrible thing, thought Pozdnyshev. And this is a terrible tool in the hands of anyone. Is it possible to play the Kreutzer Sonata in the living room? Play, clap, eat ice cream? To hear it and live as before, without doing those important things that the music set me up for? It's scary, destructive. But for the first time Pozdnyshev shook Trukhachevsky's hand with sincere feeling and thanked him for the pleasure. The evening ended happily, everyone left. And two days later, Pozdnyshev left for the county in the best of moods, there was an abyss of business. But one night, in bed, Pozdnyshev woke up with a "dirty" thought about her and Trukhachevsky. Horror and anger gripped his heart. How can it be? And how can this not be, if he himself married her for this, and now another person wants the same from her. That person is healthy, unmarried, "between them is the connection of music - the most refined lust of feelings." What can keep them? Nothing. He did not sleep all night, got up at five o'clock, woke the watchman, sent for the horses, got into the chariot at eight and rode off. It was necessary to go thirty-five miles on horseback and eight hours by train, the wait was terrible. What did he want? He wanted his wife not to want what she wanted and even should have wanted. As in delirium, he drove up to his porch, it was the first hour of the night, the light was still on in the windows. He asked the footman who was in the house. Hearing that Trukhachevsky, Pozdnyshev almost burst into tears, but the devil immediately told him: don’t be sentimental, they will disperse, there will be no evidence ... It was quiet, the children were sleeping, the lackey Pozdnyshev sent to the station for things and locked the door behind him. He took off his boots and, remaining in stockings, took from the wall a crooked Damascus dagger, never used and terribly sharp. Softly stepping, he went there, sharply opened the door. He forever remembered the expression on their faces, it was an expression of horror. Pozdnyshev rushed at Trukhachevsky, but a sudden heaviness hung on his arm - his wife, Pozdnyshev thought it would be ridiculous to catch up with his wife's lover in stockings alone, he did not want to be ridiculous and hit his wife with a dagger in left side, and immediately pulled it out, wanting to correct and stop what had been done. "Nanny, he killed me!" - blood gushed from under the corset. "He achieved his goal..." - and through physical suffering and the proximity of death, her familiar animal hatred was expressed (she did not consider it necessary to talk about the same thing that was the main thing for him, about treason). Only later, when he saw her in the coffin, did he begin to understand what he had done, that he had killed her, that she was alive, warm, but became motionless, waxy, cold, and that this could never, nowhere, be corrected by anything. He spent eleven months in prison awaiting trial and was acquitted. The children were taken by his sister-in-law. A. V. Vasilevsky Resurrection Roman (1889-1899) No matter how hard people, having gathered in one small place several hundred thousand, disfigure the land on which they huddle, no matter how they stone the earth so that nothing grows on it, no matter how they clean off any breaking grass, no matter how they smoke with coal and oil - spring remains spring even in the city. The sun warms, the grass, reviving, grows and turns green wherever it is scraped off; jackdaws, sparrows and pigeons joyfully prepare their nests in the spring, and flies buzz along the walls warmed by the sun. Cheerful and plants, and birds, and insects, and children. But people - big, adult people - do not stop deceiving and torturing themselves and each other. On such a joyful spring day (namely April 28) in one of the nineties of the last century in one of the Moscow prisons, the warden, rattling iron, unlocks the lock in one of the cells and shouts: "Maslova, to court!" The story of this prisoner Maslova is the most ordinary. She was the daughter of a passing gypsy, an unmarried yard woman in the village with two sisters, young ladies of the landowners. Katyusha was three years old when her mother fell ill and died. The old ladies took Katyusha to their place, and she became a half-pupil, half-maid. When she was sixteen years old, their nephew-student, a rich prince, still an innocent youth, came to her young ladies, and Katyusha, not daring to admit it to him or even to herself, fell in love with him. A few years later, this same nephew, who had just been promoted to an officer and already corrupted by military service, stopped by his aunts on his way to the war, stayed with them for four days, and on the eve of his departure seduced Katyusha and, having slipped her a hundred-ruble note on the last day, left. Five months after his departure, she probably found out that she was pregnant. She uttered rudeness to the young ladies, which she herself later repented of, and asked for a calculation, and the young ladies, dissatisfied with her, let her go. She settled with a village widow-midwife who sold wine. The birth was easy. But the midwife, who took delivery of a sick woman in the village, infected Katyusha with puerperal fever, and the child, a boy, was sent to an orphanage, where he died immediately upon arrival. After some time, Maslova, who had already replaced several patrons, was found by a detective who supplied girls for a brothel, and with Katyushin's consent, she took her to Kitaeva's famous house. In the seventh year of her stay in the brothel, she was put in prison and is now being brought to trial along with murderers and thieves. At this very time, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, the same nephew of those same landowning aunts, lying in bed in the morning, recalls yesterday evening at the rich and famous Korchagins, whose daughter, as everyone expected, he should marry. And a little later, having drunk coffee, he famously rolls up to the entrance of the court, and already as a juror, wearing pince-nez, he examines the defendants accused of poisoning the merchant in order to steal the money that was with him. "It can't be," Nekhlyudov says to himself. Those two black female eyes looking at him remind him of something black and terrible. Yes, this is Katyusha, whom he first saw when, in his third year at the university, while preparing his essay on landed property, he spent the summer with his aunts. Without any doubt, this is the same girl, the pupil-maid, with whom he was in love, and then, in some crazy child, he seduced and abandoned her, and whom he then never remembered, because the memory too exposed him, so proud of his decency. But he still does not submit to the feeling of remorse, which is already beginning to speak in him. What is happening seems to him only an unpleasant accident, which will pass and not disturb his current pleasant life, but the trial continues, and finally the jury must make a decision. Maslova, obviously innocent of what she was accused of, was found guilty, like her associates, however, with some reservations. But even the chairman of the court is surprised that the jurors, having stipulated the first condition "without intent to rob", forget to stipulate the necessary second "without intent to take life", and it turns out, by the decision of the jury, that Maslova did not rob or steal, but at the same time she poisoned merchant for no apparent purpose. So, as a result of a judicial error, Katyusha is sentenced to hard labor. It is shameful and disgusting for Nekhlyudov when he returns home after a visit to his rich bride Missy Korchagina (Missy really wants to get married, and Nekhlyudov is a good match), and in his imagination a prisoner with black squinting eyes appears with unusual vivacity. How she wept at the last word of the defendants! Marriage to Missy, which had recently seemed so close and inevitable, now seems to him completely impossible. He prays, asks God to help, and the God who lived in him wakes up in his mind. All the best that a person is capable of doing, he feels himself able to do, and the thought, in order to sacrifice everything for the sake of moral satisfaction and even marry Maslova, especially touches him. Nekhlyudov seeks a meeting with Katyusha. "I came here to ask your forgiveness," he blurts out without intonation, like a learned lesson. "At least now I want to atone for my sin." “There is nothing to redeem; what was, is gone,” Katyusha is surprised. Nekhlyudov expects that, seeing him, recognizing his intention to serve her and his repentance, Katyusha will be delighted and moved, but, to his horror, he sees that Katyusha is not there, but there is only one prostitute Maslova. He is surprised and horrified that Maslova is not only not ashamed of her position as a prostitute (the position of a prisoner just seems shameful to her), but is also proud of it as an important and useful activity, since so many men need her services. On another occasion, having come to her prison and finding her drunk, Nekhlyudov announces to her that, despite everything, he feels obliged to God to marry her in order to atone for his guilt not only in words, but in deed. “If only you would remember God then,” shouts Katyusha. “I am a convict, and you are a gentleman, a prince, and you have nothing to mess with me. That you want to marry - it will never happen. I will hang myself sooner. you want to be saved in the next world too! You disgust me, and your glasses, and your fat, filthy whole mug." However, Nekhlyudov, determined to serve her, embarks on the path of trouble for her pardon and correction of a judicial error made with his connivance as a juror, and even refuses to be a juror, now considering any trial a useless and immoral matter. Every time he passes through the wide corridors of the prison, Nekhlyudov experiences strange feelings - both compassion for those people who were imprisoned, and horror and bewilderment before those who imprisoned and keep them here, and for some reason ashamed of himself, for the fact that he calmly considers it. The former feeling of solemnity and joy of moral renewal disappears; he decides that he will not leave Maslova, will not change his noble decision to marry her, if only she wants it, but this is hard and painful for him. Nekhlyudov intends to go to St. Petersburg, where Maslova's case will be heard in the Senate, and in case of failure in the Senate, submit a petition to the highest name, as advised by the lawyer. In the event that the complaint is left without consequences, it will be necessary to prepare for the trip for Maslova to Siberia, so Nekhlyudov goes to his villages in order to regulate his relations with the peasants. These relations were not living slavery, abolished in 1861, not the slavery of certain persons to the master, but the general slavery of all landless or landless peasants to large landowners, and not only does Nekhlyudov know this, he also knows that this is unjust and cruel, and, while still a student, he gives his father's land to the peasants, considering the ownership of land to be the same sin as the possession of serfs was earlier. But the death of his mother, the inheritance and the need to dispose of his property, that is, land, again raise for him the question of his attitude to landed property. He decides that, although he will have a trip to Siberia and a difficult relationship with the world of prisons, for which money is needed, he still cannot leave things in the same position, but must, to his own detriment, change it. To do this, he decides not to cultivate the land himself, but by renting it out to peasants at an inexpensive price, to give them the opportunity to be independent of landowners in general. Everything is arranged the way Nekhlyudov wants and expects it: the peasants receive land thirty percent cheaper than the land in the district was given away; his income from the land is almost halved, but more than sufficient for Nekhlyudov, especially with the addition of the amount received for the timber sold. Everything seems fine, but Nekhlyudov is always ashamed of something. He sees that the peasants, despite the fact that some of them say thanks to him, are dissatisfied and expect something more. It turns out that he deprived himself of a lot, and the peasants did not do what they expected. Nekhlyudov is dissatisfied with himself. What he is dissatisfied with, he does not know, but he is always sad and ashamed of something. After a trip to the village, Nekhlyudov feels with all his being disgusted with his environment in which he has lived up to now, for that environment where the sufferings carried by millions of people were so carefully hidden in order to ensure the comforts and pleasures of a small number of people. In St. Petersburg, Nekhlyudov has several cases at once, for which he takes on, having become better acquainted with the world of prisoners. In addition to Maslova's cassation petition, there are still troubles in the Senate for some political ones, as well as the case of sectarians who refer to the Caucasus for not properly reading and interpreting the Gospel. After many visits to necessary and unnecessary people, Nekhlyudov wakes up one morning in St. Petersburg with the feeling that he is doing some kind of disgusting thing. He is constantly haunted by bad thoughts that all his current intentions - marrying Katyusha, giving away land to the peasants - that all these are unrealizable dreams, that he will not be able to stand all this, that all this is artificial, unnatural, but one must live as he always lived. But no matter how new and difficult what he intends to do, he knows that this is now the only possible life for him, and the return to the former is death. Returning to Moscow, he informs Maslova that the Senate approved the decision of the court that it is necessary to prepare for being sent to Siberia, and he himself goes after her. The party with which Maslova is marching has already traveled about five thousand versts. As far as Perm, Maslova goes with the criminals, but Nekhlyudov manages to get her transferred to the political ones, who go with the same party. Not to mention the fact that the politicals get mad better, eat better, are subjected to less rudeness, Katyusha's transfer to the political improves her position by stopping the harassment of men and you can live without being reminded every minute of her past, which she now wants to forget. Two politicians are walking with her: a good woman, Marya Shchetinina, and a certain Vladimir Simonson, who was exiled to the Yakutsk region. After the depraved, luxurious and pampered life of the last years in the city and the last months in the prison, the current life with political ones, despite all the severity of the conditions, seems to Katyusha good. Walking from twenty to thirty miles on foot with good food, a day's rest after two days of walking strengthens her physically, and communication with new comrades opens up to her such interests in life that she had no idea about. She not only did not know such wonderful people, but could not even imagine. “I was crying that I was sentenced,” she says. “Yes, I should be grateful for a century. Vladimir Simonson loves Katyusha, who very soon guesses this with a feminine instinct, and the consciousness that she can arouse love in such an extraordinary person raises her in her own opinion, and this makes her try to be as good as she can be. Nekhlyudov offers her a marriage out of generosity, but Simonson loves her as she is now, and loves simply because he loves, and when Nekhlyudov brings her the long-awaited news of a pardon obtained, she says that she will be where Vladimir Ivanovich Simonson is. Feeling the need to remain alone in order to think over everything that had happened, Nekhlyudov arrives at a local hotel and, without going to bed, walks up and down the room for a long time. His business with Katyusha is over, she does not need him, and this is shameful and sad, but this is not what torments him. All the social evil that he has seen and learned lately, and especially in prison, torments him and requires some kind of activity, but he does not see any possibility, not only to defeat evil, but even to understand how to defeat it. Tired of walking and thinking, he sits down on the sofa and mechanically opens the Gospel given to him as a keepsake by an Englishman passing by. “They say that there is a solution to everything,” he thinks and begins to read where he opened, and opened the eighteenth chapter from Matthew. From that night, a completely new life begins for Nekhlyudov. How this new period of life will end for him, we will never know, because Leo Tolstoy did not tell about it. A. V. Vasilevsky Living corpse Drama (1900, unfinished, published 1911) Elizaveta Andreevna Protasova decides to part with her husband, Fedor Vasilyevich, whose lifestyle becomes unbearable for her: Fedya Protasov drinks, squanders his and his wife's fortune. Lisa's mother approves of her decision, sister Sasha is categorically against parting with such an amazing, albeit with weaknesses, person like Fedya. The mother believes that, having received a divorce, Lisa will join her fate with a childhood friend, Viktor Mikhailovich Karenin. Lisa makes a last attempt to return her husband and for this sends Karenin to him. He finds Protasov with gypsies, in the company of several officers. Listening to his favorite songs "Kanavela", "Fateful Hour", "Not Evening", Fedya remarks: "And why can a person reach this delight, but cannot continue it?" He rejects his wife's request to return to the family. Everything speaks for the fact that Liza Protasova should join her fate with Viktor Karenin: he loves her since childhood, she reciprocates deep down; Victor also loves her little son Mishechka. Victor's mother, Anna Dmitrievna, would also be glad to see Lisa as the wife of her son, if it were not for the difficult circumstances connected with this. Gypsy Masha falls in love with Fedya, whose singing he loves so much. This causes indignation of her parents, who believe that the master killed their daughter. Masha is also trying to convince Fedya to take pity on his wife and return home. He also rejects this request - confident that he now lives in harmony with his conscience. Leaving the family, alone, Protasov begins to write. He reads to Masha the beginning of his prose: “In late autumn, my friend and I agreed to come together at the Muryga site. This site was a strong island with strong broods. It was a dark, warm, quiet day. Fog ... " Viktor Karenin, through Prince Abrezkov, is trying to find out about Protasov's further intentions. He confirms that he is ready for a divorce, but is not capable of the lies associated with this. Fedya is trying to explain to Abrezkov why he cannot lead a respectable life: “Whatever I do, I always feel that it’s not what I need, and I’m ashamed. Only when you drink will you stop being ashamed." He promises in two weeks to remove the obstacles to the marriage of Lisa and Karenin, whom he considers a decent and boring person. To free his wife, Fedya tries to shoot himself, even writes a farewell letter, but does not find the strength in himself for this act. Gypsy Masha invites him to fake suicide, leaving clothes and a letter on the river bank. Fedya agrees. Lisa and Karenin are waiting for news from Protasov: he must sign a petition for divorce. Lisa tells Victor about her love without remorse and without return, that everything has disappeared from her heart except love for him. Instead of a signed petition, Karenin's secretary, Voznesensky, brings a letter from Protasov. He writes that he feels like an outsider, interfering with the happiness of Lisa and Victor, but he cannot lie, give bribes in the consistory to get a divorce, and therefore wants to be physically destroyed, thus freeing everyone. In the last lines of his farewell letter, he asks for help to some weak but good watchmaker Evgeniev. Shocked by this letter, Liza repeats in despair that she loves only Fedya. A year later, Fedya Protasov, slumped and ragged, sits in the dirty room of the tavern and talks with the artist Petushkov. Fedya explains to Petushkov that he could not choose for himself any of the fates that are possible for a person of his circle: he was disgusted with serving, making money and thus "increasing the dirty trick in which you live," but he was not a hero, capable of destroying this evil. Therefore, he could only forget - to drink, walk, sing; which he did. In his wife, the ideal woman, he did not find that which is called zest; in their life there was no game, without which it is impossible to forget. Fedya remembers the gypsy Masha, whom he loved - most of all because he left her, and thus did her good, not evil. "But you know," says Fedya, "we love people for the good we have done them, and we don't love them for the evil we have done to them." Protasov tells Petushkov the story of his transformation into a "living corpse", after which his wife was able to marry a respectable man who loves her. This story is overheard by Artemiev, who happened to be nearby. He begins to blackmail Fedya, suggesting that he demand money from his wife in exchange for silence. Protasov refuses; Artemiev hands him over to the policeman. In the village, on an ivy-covered terrace, a pregnant Liza awaits the arrival of her husband, Viktor Karenin. He brings letters from the city, among which is a paper from the forensic investigator with the message that Protasov is alive. Everyone is in despair. The forensic investigator takes testimony from Lisa and Karenin. They are accused of bigamy and that they knew about Protasov's staging of suicide. The matter is complicated by the fact that before Lisa had identified the dead body found in the water as the corpse of her husband, and in addition, Karenin regularly sent money to Saratov, and now refuses to explain to whom they were intended. Although the money was sent to a figurehead, it was in Saratov that Protasov lived all this time. Protasov, brought in for a confrontation, apologizes to Lisa and Viktor and assures the investigator that they did not know that he was alive. He sees that the interrogator is torturing them all just to show his power over them, not understanding the spiritual struggle going on in them. During the trial, Fedya is in some kind of special excitement. During the break, his former friend Ivan Petrovich Alexandrov hands him a pistol. Upon learning that his wife's second marriage will be annulled, and he and Lisa are threatened with exile to Siberia, Protasov shoots himself in the heart. Lisa, Masha, Karenin, the judges and the defendants run out at the sound of the shot. Fedya apologizes to Liza for not being able to "unravel" her otherwise. "How good... How good..." - he repeats before his death. T. A. Sotnikova Hadji Murad Tale (1896-1904, published 1912) On a cold November evening in 1851, Hadji Murad, the famous Naib of Imam Shamil, enters the non-peaceful Chechen village of Makhket. Chechen Sado receives a guest in his sakla, despite Shamil's recent order to detain or kill the rebellious naib. On the same night, from the Russian fortress of Vozdvizhenskaya, fifteen miles from the village of Makhket, three soldiers with non-commissioned officer Panov go out to the forward guard. One of them, the merry fellow Avdeev, recalls how, out of homesickness, he once drank his company money, and once again tells that he joined the soldiers at the request of his mother, instead of his family brother. Envoys of Hadji Murad come out to this guard. Escorting the Chechens to the fortress, to Prince Vorontsov, the merry Avdeev asks about their wives and children and concludes: "And what are these, my brother, good bare-faced guys." The regimental commander of the Kurinsky regiment, the son of the commander-in-chief, the adjutant wing, Prince Vorontsov, lives in one of the best houses in the fortress with his wife Marya Vasilievna, the famous beauty of St. Petersburg, and her little son from his first marriage. Despite the fact that the life of the prince amazes the inhabitants of the small Caucasian fortress with its luxury, it seems to the Vorontsov spouses that they are suffering great hardships here. The news of Hadji Murad's departure finds them playing cards with the regimental officers. That same night, the inhabitants of the village of Makhket, in order to cleanse themselves in front of Shamil, are trying to detain Hadji Murad. Shooting back, he breaks through with his murid Eldar into the forest, where the rest of the murids are waiting for him - the Avar Khanefi and the Chechen Gamzalo. Here Hadji Murad is waiting for Prince Vorontsov to respond to his proposal to go out to the Russians and start a fight against Shamil on their side. He, as always, believes in his happiness and that this time everything works out for him, as it always happened before. The returned envoy of Khan-Magom reports that the prince promised to receive Hadji Murad as an honored guest. Early in the morning, two companies of the Kurinsky regiment went out to cut wood. Company officers over drinks discuss the recent death in battle of General Sleptsov. During this conversation, none of them sees the most important thing - the end of human life and its return to the source from which it came out - but they see only the military dashing of the young general. During the exit of Hadji Murad, the Chechens pursuing him casually mortally wound the cheerful soldier Avdeev; he dies in the hospital, not having time to receive a letter from his mother that his wife left home. All Russians who see the "terrible mountaineer" for the first time are struck by his kind, almost childish smile, self-esteem and the attention, insight and calmness with which he looks at those around him. The reception of Prince Vorontsov at the Vozdvizhenskaya fortress turns out to be better than Hadji Murad expected; but the less he trusts the prince. He demands that he be sent to the commander-in-chief himself, the old prince Vorontsov, in Tiflis. During a meeting in Tiflis, Vorontsov the father understands perfectly well that he should not believe a single word of Hadji Murad, because he will always remain an enemy to everything Russian, and now he is only submitting to circumstances. Hadji Murad, in turn, understands that the cunning prince sees right through him. At the same time, both say to each other completely opposite to their understanding - what is necessary for the success of negotiations. Hadji Murad assures that he will faithfully serve the Russian tsar in order to take revenge on Shamil, and vouches that he will be able to raise all of Dagestan against the imam. But for this it is necessary that the Russians redeem the family of Hadji Murad from captivity, the Commander-in-Chief promises to think about this. Hadji Murad lives in Tiflis, attends the theater and balls, increasingly rejecting in his soul the way of life of the Russians. He tells the adjutant Vorontsov assigned to him, Loris-Melikov, the story of his life and enmity with Shamil. Before the listener passes a series of brutal murders committed by the law of blood feud and by the right of the strong. Loris-Melikov is also watching the murids of Hadji Murad. One of them, Gamzalo, continues to consider Shamil a saint and hates all Russians. Another, Khan-Magoma, went out to the Russians only because he easily plays with his own and other people's lives; just as easily he can return to Shamil at any moment. Eldar and Hanefi obey Hadji Murad without question. While Hadji Murad was in Tiflis, by order of Emperor Nicholas I in January 1852, a raid was made into Chechnya. The young officer Butler, who recently transferred from the guard, also takes part in it. He left the Guards because of a card loss and is now enjoying a good, valiant life in the Caucasus, trying to maintain his poetic idea of the war. During the raid, the village of Makhket was devastated, a teenager was killed with a bayonet in the back, a mosque and a fountain were senselessly polluted. Seeing all this, the Chechens do not even feel hatred for the Russians, but only disgust, bewilderment and a desire to exterminate them like rats or poisonous spiders. The inhabitants of the village ask Shamil for help, Hadji Murad moves to the Groznaya fortress. Here he is allowed to have relations with the highlanders through scouts, but he cannot leave the fortress except with an escort of Cossacks. His family is currently being held in custody in the village of Vedeno, awaiting Shamil's decision on their fate. Shamil demands that Hadji Murad come back to him before the Bayram holiday, otherwise he threatens to send his mother, the old woman Patimat, to the auls and blind his beloved son Yusuf. For a week Hadji Murad lives in the fortress, in Major Petrov's house. The major's cohabitant, Marya Dmitrievna, is imbued with respect for Hadji Murad, whose manner differs markedly from the rudeness and drunkenness accepted among regimental officers. A friendship develops between Officer Butler and Hadji Murad. Butler is embraced by the "poetry of a special, energetic mountain life", tangible in the mountain songs that Khanefi sings. The Russian officer is especially struck by Hadji Murad's favorite song - about the inevitability of blood feud. Butler soon becomes a witness of how calmly Hadji Murad perceives an attempt of blood revenge on himself by the Kumyk prince Arslan Khan, Negotiations on the ransom of the family, which Hadji Murad is conducting in Chechnya, are not successful. He returns to Tiflis, then moves to the small town of Nukha, hoping to snatch the family away from Shamil by cunning or force. He is in the service of the Russian Tsar and receives five gold pieces a day. But now, when he sees that the Russians are in no hurry to release his family, Hadji Murad perceives his exit as a terrible turn in his life. He increasingly recalls his childhood, mother, grandfather and his son. Finally, he decides to flee to the mountains, break into Vedeno with his faithful people in order to die or free his family. While on horseback, Hadji Murad, together with his murids, mercilessly kills the Cossack escorts. He expects to cross the Alazan River and thus get away from the chase, but he fails to cross the rice field flooded with spring water on horseback. The pursuit overtakes him, in an unequal battle Hadji Murad is mortally wounded. The last memories of the family run through his imagination, no longer evoking any feeling; but he fights to the last breath. Cut off from the mutilated body, the head of Hadji Murad is carried around the fortresses. In Groznaya, they show her to Butler and Marya Dmitrievna, and they see that the blue lips of a dead head retain a childish kind expression. Marya Dmitrievna is especially shocked by the cruelty of the "liver cutters" who killed her recent lodger and did not bury his body in the ground. The history of Hadji Murad, his inherent strength of life and inflexibility are recalled when looking at a burdock flower crushed in full bloom by people in the middle of a plowed field. T. A. Sotnikova Nikolai Semenovich Leskov (1831-1895) nowhere Roman (1864) Two young girls, "poplar and birch", Lizaveta Grigorievna Bakhareva and Evgenia Petrovna Glovatskaya are returning from Moscow after graduation. On the way, they visit the monastery of Aunt Bakhareva, Abbess Agnia, where Lisa demonstrates new views on the role of a woman in the family and life. In the same place, the girls meet the simple-minded young nun Feoktista, who lost her husband and child and fled to the monastery from her harsh mother-in-law. In the village of Merevo, the girls are met by the leader Yegor Nikolaevich Bakharev with "childishly simple-minded blue eyes", the restrained Pyotr Lukich Glovatsky, Lisa's mother Olga Sergeevna and her sisters: Zinaida, who married the landowner Shatokhin, but periodically runs away from her husband to her parents, and Sonya, " young lady, there are many. Here is Yustin Pomada, candidate of legal sciences, "very pretty, but not very presentable," who is very fond of the county doctor Dmitry Petrovich Rozanov, unhappy in marriage with a "nonsensical" wife. Soon Glovatsky and his daughter leave for the county town, where the father again performs the duties of the superintendent of the school, and Jenny eagerly takes on simple household chores. Frequent guests of their house are two "most decent young men" Nikolai Stepanovich Vyazmitinov and Alexei Pavlovich Zarnitsyn, Dr. Rozanov and several other people who make up "a circle of very short and very undemanding people to each other - a completely new phenomenon in county life." Zarnitsyn calls Glovatskaya to the high calling of a citizen, Vyazmitinov is mostly silent, and the doctor becomes an ardent admirer of "Jenny's modest virtues." Glovatskaya never gets bored and is not burdened by the quiet monotony of her life. Lisa stays in Mereve, but one day she comes to Glovatskaya and asks to be taken away from her family, where everything is "fussy and dead", otherwise she will turn into a "demon" and a "monster". Jenny refuses to take Lisa to her, Vyazmitinov supplies her with books, and Jenny sees her off and convinces herself that her friend is right. After a conversation with his sister, who threatens to take Liza away to her if she is not allowed to live “according to her nature,” Bakharev sends his eldest daughter to her husband by force, and gives Liza the best room. At a farewell party before leaving for the winter in the provincial town, Jenny and Liza pay attention to the young foreigner Rainer. On Epiphany evening, after an unpleasant episode at the ball, when Liza stood up for Jenny's honor, she, almost freezing on the way, returns to Merevo, where she decides to live alone. Old man Bakharev sees that his daughter is wrong, but pities her and believes Agnia's words about Bakharev's temper, ideas about anxiety that must pass. Lisa comes to Glovatskaya extremely rarely, only for Vyazmitinov's books. She reads randomly, and all close people seem to her to be "monuments of past attachments" that live not in the world, but in the "world". At one of the evenings, a remarkable dispute takes place at the Glovatskys, in which Rozanov, in contrast to Zarnitsyn, asserts that "each people has its own dramatic struggle", which does not differ in class. Jenny's brother, Hippolyte, is imprisoned for a student case, his fate is decided by the intercession and connections of Abbess Agnia. Zarnitsyn is secretive and, posing as a politician, puts proclamations in the pocket of the auditor of the school, the Greek Safya-nos. Vyazmitinov is more serious and has things in common with Reiner. Soon Vyazmitinov confesses his love to Jenny. And during Passion Week, Lisa, who clearly sympathizes with Rozanov, urges him to leave the life that the doctor leads and leave. The doctor makes a promise and soon leaves for Moscow. The Bakharev family also goes there. In Moscow, Rozanov settles with his university comrade bailiff Evgraf Fedorovich Nechay and his wife Dasha, gets acquainted with the regular visitors of their apartment - the owner of the house, staff captain Davydovskaya and proofreader Ardalion Arapov, who introduces Rozanov to the Moscow circle of "his" people and to Casimir's house Raciborsky, who later turned out to be a Polish conspirator who decided to use the "new people" for his own purposes. Arapov introduces a "foreign" person to the doctor - the Frenchman Rainer, already familiar to Rozanov, as well as Beloyartsev, Zavulonov and other "socialists". The evening ends with drunkenness and bawdy songs, equally unpleasant for both Rozanov and Reiner. Both enter the house of the Marquise de Baral and her neighbors - "carbon dioxide fairies of clean ponds" - the Yaroslavtsev sisters. The imaginary Ratsiborsky arranges for Rozanov to go to the hospital, where he meets with the hard-working intern Lobachevsky, who is sure that "all suffering is from idleness," and begins to write a dissertation. Arapov introduces Rozanov to the Berdi Jew Naftula Soloveichik, who pretends to be an embittered representative of the nation. The Bakharevs in Moscow live in the family of Olga Sergeevna's brother, whose son Sergei is "liberal", and so that the "gatherings" do not end with the police, his mother deliberately plays the arrest of her son, but in reality sends him to the estate. The Marquise's circle believes in the arrest, panics and accuses the "new people" - Rozanov and Reiner - of espionage and betrayal. Meanwhile, Soloveitchik writes up a denunciation of all "liberals", but on the occasion he kills two beggars, steals their money and runs away. Rozanov is invited by General Strepetov, speaks to him as a "revolutionary", urges him to understand that everything they do is madness, and indirectly warns of the possible interest of the police. Rozanov comes to Arapov and, while everyone is sleeping, burns the printed leaflets, takes away the lithograph stone and thus dooms himself to contempt. But the police who really came show that Rozanov, on the contrary, saved everyone, and everyone's opinion about him changes, except for Lisa, who considers him an annoying "mediocrity". The Marquise de Baral is interested in Lisa as a "material" and introduces her to the circle, which soon falls apart. Liza alone "does not weaken" for a minute, although she has "nowhere" to go and does not know what to do. Lobachevsky is denied a school for women, and he leaves for St. Petersburg. Rozanov once again dreams of establishing a family life, but the returned Olga Alexandrovna immediately undermines his reputation in the circle of "carbon dioxide fairies" and moves to live with the Marquise. Lisa goes blind, can no longer read a lot and gets acquainted with the "shorn girl" Bertholdi, "working on Proudhon" "materialist". Rozanov, who is "empty" and unbearably bored, comes to Liza, gets acquainted with the "ill-fated Bertholdinka", who lives at Bakharev's expense, and Lizina's college friend Polinka Kalistratova, whose husband squandered all his fortune and ended up in prison. While Bertholdi considers her a person to be developed, for Kalistratova Bertholdi is only "ridiculous", the Company leaves for Sokolniki, where Beloyartsev, who has ended the "Moscow revolutionary period", will soon visit, and with him all those who survived from the crumbling "caudle". Their company tires Rozanov, who develops the most tender feelings for Polinka. Lipstick brings gifts from Jenny, Liza sincerely rejoices at the meeting, and he remains in full subservience to her. The socialist Krasin, who arrived from St. Petersburg, proves the priority of physiology over moral obligations and preaches the criterion of "reasonableness." Rozanov stands for "irresolvable" marriage and receives from Bertholdi the title of "gradualist" and "idealist". Lisa accuses the doctor of selfishness and indifference to human grief, Rozanov points out her inhuman attitude towards the accustomed and ruined Lipstick and calls, with the immense breadth of aspirations and love for humanity, to pity the people who surround her. In his opinion, all Liza's acquaintances - with the exception of Reiner, "windbags" - arrange it so that a decent person is ashamed of the name of a Russian liberal. After the break with Lisa, Rozanov communicates only with Polinka Kalistratova, but "martial law" is again established in his life: Olga Alexandrovna insists on a divorce. Rozanov begins to drink, but Polinka takes care of him, and they leave for St. Petersburg. After Olga Sergeevna threatens Lisa with a "straight house", she finally disagrees with her family, and, cursed by Bakharev, leaves with Bertholdi for St. Petersburg, where, while reading Moleschott's Teaching on Food, she cries about her father. The old man, from whom his daughter "left", has a stroke, and soon both he and Olga Sergeevna die. Married to Vyazmitinov, Jenny moves to St. Petersburg. Rozanov continues to live with his little daughter, serves as a police doctor and does not part with Polinka, who has become a midwife. Having met the nanny Abramovna, he learns about the whereabouts of Liza and finds her aged and grown ugly. Lisa lives in a civil family with Bertholdi, Beloyartsev and other "people of action", full of contempt for ordinary work, indifferent to careers and family beginnings and talking about the unnatural distribution of labor and capital, but still not knowing what to do. Rainer often visits here, who has his own commune, living at his expense. Beloyartsev creates a more influential "role" for himself, lives in the house as a "general" and, according to Lisa, violates "social equality". Liza and Rozanov with Polinka come to the Vyazmitinovs, but when Rainer appears, who, according to Liza, is "better than everyone" whom she knew, Vyazmitinov is very dissatisfied: according to his unchanged wife, he is hindered by people whom he previously loved and praised . Six months later, Vyazmitinov receives an order and completely renounces his former friends and ideals, entering the circle of bureaucratic aristocracy with a liberal-conservative direction. Kalistratova and Rozanov have a daughter. Liza leaves the House of Concord, where Beloyartsev establishes dictatorial orders. Rainer leaves for Poland to fight for the freedom of serfs. The lipstick is gone. Lisa visits Jenny more and more often, where they do not pay attention to the "beech" of Nikolai Stepanovich. Rainer confesses to Lisa that he dreams of destroying the "profanity of the teachings" and closing the House of Concord. Lisa accuses him of cowardice. Meanwhile, Reiner is being followed, and Jenny gives him her husband's travel pass. Rainer calls Liza, but, without waiting and hiding from Vyazmitinov, he runs away. Lisa suffers that she "dispersed everyone" and "lost", and the tenants of the house destroy all incriminating papers, but only a shopkeeper comes to them demanding money. At this time, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, a detachment of rebels, led by Pan Kulya (Reiner), comes across a house where two seriously wounded people are dying. One of them turns out to be Lipstick, who is "tired of living" and whose mother was Polish. But then the detachment is attacked, and Reiner, with a dying Lipstick in his arms, is taken prisoner. When Lisa learns of Rainer's possible arrest, she asks Rozanov to borrow money for her from Sophia's husband, Baron Alterzon. But he refuses to give money "for debauchery" and announces that, according to the will of her mother, Lisa is disinherited. Rozanov recognizes him as Naftula Soloveichik. After another unsuccessful attempt to get a job, Lisa receives news of the imminent execution of Reiner and disappears. Bertholdi drags Olga Alexandrovna Rozanova into the house of Concord. Nine days later, Lisa returns in a violent fever and confesses that she went to the execution. Following the pleas of Zhenya and Abramovna, the patient agrees to confess and take communion and asks Lobachevsky to give her poison as a last resort. Lisa dies with the words: "I have in common with them even hatred and inability to put up with society, but nothing with you." On the name day of Vyazmitinov, a feast is going on, where Zarnitsyn stands up with a cross for the introduction of a world position on peasants, brother Jenny Ippolit, who serves as an official under the governor, talks about old acquaintances, careers and women's rights. Jenny states that, unlike those who "fooled around" in her youth, she had "no place to roam". Olga Alexandrovna escapes from the house of Consent and settles in Rozanov's apartment, which he has divided into two separate halves. A month later, the merchant's son Luka Nikolaevich Maslyannikov returns home. He is told that Olga Alexandrovna went to the monastery "Belitsa". And he promises to arrange schools and hospitals, but claims that you "can't knock him down" with new compositions. And he speaks angrily about people who have only nothing on their minds. They "muddle" the people, but they themselves do not know the way and will not find it without "our brother". Yu. S. Chuprinina Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Tale (1865) Katerina Lvovna, “a very pleasant woman in appearance,” lives in the wealthy house of the merchant Izmailov with her widowed father-in-law Boris Timofeevich and her elderly husband Zinovy Borisovich. Katerina Lvovna has no children, and "with all her contentment" her life "with an unkind husband" is the most boring. In the sixth year of his marriage, Zinovy Borisovich leaves for the mill dam, leaving Katerina Lvovna "all alone." In the courtyard of her house, she measures her strength with the impudent worker Sergei, and from the cook Aksinya she learns that this fellow has been serving with the Izmailovs for a month, and was expelled from the former house for "love" with the mistress. In the evening, Sergei comes to Katerina Lvovna, complains of boredom, says that he loves, and stays until morning. But one night, Boris Timofeevich notices how Sergei's red shirt descends from his daughter-in-law's window. The father-in-law threatens that he will tell Katerina Lvovna's husband everything, and send Sergei to jail. That same night, Katerina Lvovna poisons her father-in-law with a white powder reserved for rats, and continues her "aligoria" with Sergei. Meanwhile, Sergei becomes dry with Katerina Lvovna, is jealous of her husband and talks about his insignificant state, confessing that he would like to be her husband “before the holy pre-eternal temple”. In response, Katerina Lvovna promises to make him a merchant. Zinovy Borisovich returns home and accuses Katerina Lvovna of "cupids". Katerina Lvovna takes Sergei out and boldly kisses him in front of her husband. Lovers kill Zinovy Borisovich, and the corpse is buried in the cellar. Zinovy Borisovich is searched uselessly, and Katerina Lvovna "does well with Sergei, as a widow at liberty." Soon Zinovy Borisovich's young nephew Fyodor Lyapin comes to live with Izmailova, whose money the late merchant had in circulation. Urged on by Sergei, Katerina Lvovna plans to kill the God-fearing boy On the night of Vespers on the feast of the Entry, the boy remains in the house alone with his lovers and reads the Life of St. Theodore Stratilates. Sergei grabs Fedya, and Katerina Lvovna smothers him with a feather pillow. But as soon as the boy dies, the house begins to shake from the blows, Sergei panics, sees the deceased Zinovy Borisovich, and only Katerina Lvovna understands that it is the people who see through the crack that is being done in the “sinful house”. Sergei is taken to the unit, and at the first words of the priest about the Last Judgment, he confesses to the murder of Zinovy Borisovich and calls Katerina Lvovna an accomplice. Katerina Lvovna denies everything, but at the confrontation she admits that she killed "for Sergei." Murderers are punished with whips and sentenced to hard labor. Sergei arouses sympathy, but Katerina Lvovna behaves steadfastly and refuses to even look at her newborn child. He, the only heir of the merchant, is given up for education. Katerina Lvovna thinks only of how to get to the stage as soon as possible and see Sergei. But at the stage, Sergei is unkind and secret dates do not please him. At Nizhny Novgorod, the Moscow party joins the prisoners, with which go the soldier Fiona of a free temper and the seventeen-year-old Sonetka, about whom they say: "it curls around the hands, but does not give into the hands." Katerina Lvovna arranges another date with her lover, but finds the trouble-free Fiona in his arms and quarrels with Sergei. Having never reconciled with Katerina Lvovna, Sergey begins to "chew" and flirt with Sonetka, who seems to be "handling". Katerina Lvovna decides to leave her pride and put up with Sergei, and during the meeting, Sergei complains of pain in his legs, and Katerina Lvovna gives him thick woolen stockings. The next day, she notices these stockings on Sonetka and spits in Sergei's eyes. At night, Sergei, together with a friend, beats Katerina Lvovna to the giggle of Sonetka. Katerina Lvovna cries out grief on Fiona's chest, the whole party, led by Sergei, mocks her, but Katerina Lvovna behaves with "wooden calmness". And when the party is transported by ferry to the other side of the river, Katerina Lvovna grabs Sonetka by the legs, throws herself overboard with her, and both drown. Yu. S. Chuprinina Warrior Tale (1866) The lace-maker Domna Platonovna, known to the narrator, "has the most immense and diverse acquaintance" and is sure that she owes this to her simplicity and "kindness". People, according to Domna Platonovna, are vile and generally "bastard", and no one can be trusted, which is confirmed by frequent cases when Domna Platonovna is deceived. The lacemaker is "wider across herself" and constantly complains about her health and powerful sleep, from which she suffers a lot of grief and misfortune. Domna Platonovna’s temperament is inoffensive, she is indifferent to earning money and, being carried away, like an “artist”, with her works, she has many private affairs, for which lace plays only the role of a “pass type”: she woo, find money on mortgages and carry notes everywhere. At the same time, he retains a subtle appeal and says about a pregnant woman: "she is in her marital interest." Having met the narrator, who lives in the apartment of the Polish colonel, whom Domna Platonovna is looking for a groom, she notices that a Russian woman in love is stupid and pathetic. And he tells the story of Colonel Domutkovskaya, or Leonidka. Leonidka had a "bang" with her husband, and she got a tenant, a "friend" who didn't pay the rent. Domna Platonovna promises to find someone for Leonidka who will "both love and help," but Leonidka refuses. The lodger whips Leonidka with a whip, and after a while they have such a "carom" that the "barbarian" disappears altogether. Leonidka is left without furniture, moves to live with the "first swindler" Dislensha and, despite the advice of Domna Platonovna, is going to obey her husband. Having received no answer to her letter of repentance, she decides to go to her husband and asks Domna Platonovna for money for the journey. The lace maker does not give money, confident that a woman cannot get out of trouble except through her own fall. At this time, a familiar colonel asks Domna Platonovna to introduce him to some "educated" young lady and transfers money for her. The "scoundrel" colonel begins to cry, does not take the money and runs away. Two days later he returns and offers his sewing services. Domna Platonovna urges her not to "warp", but Leonidka does not want to go to her husband for "nasty money" and goes to rich people to ask for help, but in the end she "decides" and promises "not to be capricious". Domna Platonovna gives her a closet in her apartment, buys clothes and makes arrangements with a familiar general. But when he comes, the colonel does not unlock the door. Domna Platonovna calls her a "freeloader" and a "noble galtepa" and beats her so much that she feels sorry for herself. Leonidka looks crazy, cries, calls God and mother. Domna Platonovna sees Leonida Petrovna in a dream with a small dog and wants to pick up a stick from the ground to drive the dog away, but a dead hand appears from under the ground and grabs the lace maker. The next day, Leonidka meets with the general, after which he completely changes: he refuses to talk with Domna Platonovna, returns her money for the apartment, categorically refusing to pay "for the trouble." The colonel is no longer going to go to her husband, because "such scoundrels" do not return to their husbands. She rents an apartment and, leaving the lace-maker, adds that she is not angry with Domna Platonovna, because she is "completely stupid." A year later, Domna Platonovna learns that Leonidka "spends romances" not only with the general, but also with his son, and decides to renew their acquaintance. She comes to the colonel, when the general's daughter-in-law is sitting with her, Leonidka offers her "coffee" and sends her to the kitchen, thanking the lace maker for making her "rubbish". Domna Platonovna is offended, scolds and talks about "pur miur love" to the general's daughter-in-law. A scandal flares up, after which the general leaves the colonel, and she begins to live in such a way that "now there is one prince, and tomorrow another count." Domna Platonovna informs the narrator that in her youth she was a simple woman, but she was so "trained" that now she cannot trust anyone. Returning home from an acquaintance of the merchant's wife, who treats her with liquor, Domna Platonovna spares money for a cab, goes on foot, and some gentleman snatches the bag from her hands. The narrator suggests that it would be better if she had not been stingy and paid money to the cab driver, but the lace maker is sure that they all have “one strike”, and tells how once she was driven “out of the blue” because of little money. Once on the ground, she meets an officer who scolds the cab driver and defends the lace maker. But when she returned home, Domna Platonovna discovers that instead of lace in the bundle, there are only “thrown trousers”: as the police explain, this officer came from the bathhouse and simply robbed the lace maker. On another occasion, Domna Platonovna buys a shirt on the street that has turned into an old washcloth at home. And when Domna Platonovna decides to woo the surveyor, his friend says that he is already married. The lace maker asks for a friend, but the land surveyor, a man who "would confuse and emasculate the entire state," slanders the groom with a "navel" and upsets the wedding. One day, Domna Platonovna even gives herself up to be scolded by demons: returning from the fair, she finds herself in a field at night, "dark" faces are spinning around and a little man the size of a rooster invites her to make love, dances waltzes on the lacemaker's stomach, and disappears in the morning. Domna Platonovna coped with the demon, but failed with the man: she buys furniture for one merchant's wife, sits on top of it on a cart, but falls through and "shines naked" throughout the city until the policeman stops the cart. Domna Platonovna cannot understand in any way whether the sin lies on her for the fact that she exchanged husbands with her godfather in a dream. After that, and after the story with the captive Turk Ispulatka, Domna Platonovna is "sewn up" at night. A few years later, the narrator takes a poor man to a typhoid hospital and recognizes Domna Platonovna, who has changed a lot, in the "older" hospital. Some time later, the narrator is summoned to Domna Platonovna, and she asks him to take care of the piano student Valerochka, who robbed his master. It is not possible to save the thief, Domna Platonovna fades away and prays, and the narrator admits that she loves Valerochka and asks for pity, while everyone laughs at her. A month later, Domna Platonovna dies from rapid exhaustion, and gives the chest and her "simple belongings" to the narrator so that he gives everything to Valerka. Yu. S. Chuprinina On knives Roman (1870-1871) Iosaf Platonovich Vislenev returns to the county town, convicted in the past on a political case. He is met by his sister Larisa, the former bride Alexandra Ivanovna, who later unexpectedly married General Sintyanin, about whom there is "terrible glory". Major Forov is also among the greeters, announcing that he would never marry anyone but his "smart fool" Katerina Astafyevna. Shortly before his brother's arrival, Larisa is proposed to by a "Spanish nobleman" landowner Podozerov. Vislenev arrives with Pavel Gordanov. At the evening at the Bakharevs', Gordanov declares himself an opponent of praising the female mind and emancipation, and then meets with his former mistress Glafira Akatova, who married the rich man Bodrostin in order to help the "common cause" with money, but outwitted Glafira demands that Gordanov's "convict conscience" kill her "healed" husband. At night, Vislenev opens a briefcase with money, which Gordanov gives him for safekeeping, but sees a female figure in a green dress in the garden. The next morning, Vislenev tries to find out who owns the green dress that he has dreamed of, and, not finding the mistress, leaves for the Forovs. Forova meets the general's wife and her stepdaughter Vera, who are leaving for the farm, and learns that at night Vera shouting "Blood!" pointed to the Vislenevsky wing. Vislenev meets the priest Evangel Minervin, who wrote articles in the past, and goes fishing with him and Forov. They talk about the essence of Christianity, but Vislenev has not read Baron von Feuerbach, Renan, or Chrysostom, and declares the superiority of utility over knowledge. He admits that he does not like Russia, where "neither nature nor people." After a thunderstorm breaks out, the travelers meet the old man Bodrostin, who takes Vislenev away to visit, leaving Forov to consider Iosaph a "mezheumik". Glafira Vasilievna receives a letter from Podozerov, after reading which she concludes that he is "running her." Genrikh Ropshin, a "bad and not attractive" young man, brings her another letter, Glafira reads it and, declaring herself a beggar, faints. The narrator "migrates" to St. Petersburg, where in the vinegar of the "forty robbers" new "mezheyumki" emerge into the world. Gordanov - the son of a Moscow gypsy and older brother Mikhail Bodrostin - quickly realizes that a lot of good can be learned from the "nonsense" of young people. He proclaims among his comrades "Jesutism," which has been replaced by "nihilism." The "Old Believers" led by Anna Skokova, nicknamed Vanskok, rebel against the latter, and Gordanov explains the new teaching with "Darwinism": "swallow others so that you are not swallowed." Vanscock, who, according to Forow, is not corrupted by her beliefs, experiments, but she does not even manage to strangle the cat. Like Akatova, many girls from the "new" ones, like the Polish Kazimira or Tsypri-Kipri, marry rich people, rob them and arrange their personal fate. Returning to St. Petersburg after a three-year absence, Gordanov learns from Vanskok that the small newspaperman Tikhon Kishensky has become very rich, having received money stolen from his father by his mistress Alina Figurina. Vanskok prompts Gordanov's theory of "fresh wounds" that must not be touched. Vislenev is engaged in "prolonged antics", that is, he writes articles based on lies and overexposure, but Vanskok brings him "Polish correspondence" handed over by Gordanov for a possible article. The "dense seminarian" neighbor Meridianov comes to him and offers to marry the prince's favorite for a certain bribe, but the offended Vislenev refuses him. Gordanov, meanwhile, goes to Kishinsky and offers him to "buy" a husband for Alina and a father for their children. After bargaining, they come to an agreement and only then do they find out that Vislenev was sold. Gordanov asks Kishensky, who works in the police, to briefly arrest Gordanov and gives him a copy of Wislenevsky's "Polish" work. Vanskok, Vislenev and Gordanov are being searched, and Gordanov tells Vislenev that he has handed over his work to Kishensky for safekeeping. Vislenev is imprisoned, and Alina, under pain of issuing an article, forces him to marry. The wedding is reminiscent of the painting "Unequal Marriage", only in reverse. Vislenev ends up "on corvee": he writes down all the children in his name, and at the end of the year he is presented with a bill for several thousand. This figure should increase every year, and Gordanov, who does not want to increase his debt, is trying to rebel, complaining about his fate. Gordanov tries to negotiate with Kishinsky, while he himself dreams of a mysterious and grandiose plan. But Kishensky and Alina make a "thing" and burn down the apartment where the documents of Gordanov, who is engaged in usury with Alina, are kept. Left without money, he receives a call from Bodrostina and leaves with Vislenev. In a letter to an old friend, Glafira's brother Gregoire, Podozerov describes Gordanov and Vislenev, because of whom he is declared an unreliable and "dangerous" person. Vislenev takes away from his sister half of the estate given to her earlier, Gordanov deceives his men and accuses Forov and Father Evangel of instigation. Glafira sees the ghost of Bodrostin in a cut cuirassier uniform. Kishensky writes articles incriminating Podozerov, and Vanskok writes a note about the theft of Gordan's money by Podozerov. At this time, in the province, Larisa moves to live with Bodrostina, who considers her a "dummy", but encourages courtship of the girl by Gordanov, who is seriously interested in her, Forova is angry with Larisa, and the general persuades Podozerov to fight for her love and seek Larisa's feelings. Faith joyfully baptizes them and brings them together. Bodrostin ceases to trust his wife, and she tames Iosaf, and Gordanov is accepted by everyone in the city. With the help of Ropshin, Bodrostina replaces the will that her husband is taking to St. Petersburg. The landowner Vodopyanov or the "crazy Bedouin" comes to Glafira, who tells a mysterious story about the student Spiridonov, reminiscent of some information from the life of Podozerov's mother. Podozerov gives Glafira a letter, from which she learns that Bodrostin was lured into his networks by Kishensky and the company and is trying to ruin him. Podozerov finds Gordanov trying to kiss Larisa and challenges him to a duel. But Larisa announces that the past is "buried", although he remains her friend. Before the duel, Podozerov receives a blessing from Alexandra Ivanovna, and Gordanov comes to Larisa at night, and Forova notices their embrace. Alexandra Ivanovna writes a confession telling that she got married in order to save innocent people, whom Vislenev, a "natural" person, brought with him after his arrest. In the same place, she mentions the case when the general wanted to shoot her, but Vera did not allow this to happen. Sintyanina admits that she loves Podozerov, and Vislenev, who exchanged her for "freedom", only regrets. Xingtianin's late wife Flora, Vera's mother, leaves the portrait and gives the general's wife a ring. The next morning, Forova says that Podozerov was seriously wounded, and the general, who received the news of his resignation because of Gordanov's denunciation of Forov and Evangel's father, suffered a blow. According to the arrested person, the duel turned out to be a "murder": Gordanov fired earlier than expected, and when he was running away from the crime scene, Forov shot him in the heel. Bodrostina sends Gordanov, still confident in permissiveness, to Petersburg, punishing him to finally lure her husband into a network of scammers. Sintyanina, Forova and Liza do not leave Podozerov, but when a fire threatens his house, Larisa takes the patient to her, does not allow the general's wife to see him, asks for protection and persuades him to marry. Vislenev escapes from the city in an unknown direction, Gordanov, having hushed up the scandal, leaves for St. Petersburg. Along the way, he meets Glafira in Moscow, demonstrating her "primacy and dominance." She tells him to look at the image, but Gordanov sees a green dress. Glafira declares this dress, which Flora is wearing in the portrait, a "conscience", and she has a nervous attack. Having received instructions from Bodrostina to bring Mikhail Andreevich together with the Polish Kazimira and introduce him as the father of her child, Gordanov leaves for St. Petersburg. Glafira meets with Vislenev and goes to Paris, where she attends seances and passes off Iosaf Platonovich as a medium. Larisa proves that there is jealousy without love, and ceases to communicate with Sintyanina, who continues to defend her, Forova, who married the major only after seven years of their life together, uses all her strength to bring her husband who has been released from prison to God. Sintyanin, offended by the denunciation, suspects that they want to kill old man Bodrostin. Glafira follows everything that is happening in St. Petersburg from Paris. Vislenev is already getting used to the role of a lackey, Bodrostina beckons him with her love, wants to "test" and leads to the thought of the possible death of her husband, after which she will be able to remarry. Glafira has been passionately in love with Podozerov for two years now and dreams of forgetting all past sins. On the way to St. Petersburg, Vislenev, who is afraid of being arrested for debts, changes his appearance, and when he arrives in the city, he locks himself in the bathroom and causes a flood. He is declared insane, and Alina and Kishensky are set free. Under the patronage of Gregoire, Glafira meets with an important person, tells him about her "misfortunes" with her husband and Casimira, but does not find support: Sintyanin has already warned this general about possible villainy. The general orders his subordinate Perushkin to "catch" Glafira. Meanwhile, Glafira "liberates" her husband from Kazimira, who demands money for the child Kazimira has been sent to an orphanage, and in gratitude he writes a new will, according to which his wife inherits everything. The Podozerovs live unhappily, and after the return of Glafira, Larisa moves in with the Bodrostins, Vislenev swindles money from Gordanov on her behalf and finally sells his sister. Podozerov tries to reason with his wife and point out her true friends, but she replies that she "hates everything" that he loves, and runs away with Gordanov. Forova is looking for them in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where she meets Podozerov, but to no avail. Gordanov and married Lara get married and live in Moldova, where Larisa remains even when Gordanov leaves for Russia. Unexpectedly, Larisa returns and soon, to everyone's surprise, settles in Gordanov's apartment. The general's wife receives a note from her and, upon arriving, finds the patient sick. Larisa says that they are going to kill someone in the house soon, and asks Sintyanina not to take her eyes off Iosaph. She shows the general's wife the pipe of the stove vent, through which everything is heard about what is said in the house. Tragically, Vodopyanov, who fell from the bridge, dies, whose horses, as it turns out later, were frightened by Vislenev, who decided to kill, confusing them with Bodrostinsky. Perushkin comes to the Sintyanins under the guise of a surveyor. The guests gathered at Bodrostin's name day, including Gordanov, Vislenev and Sintyanin, go to look at the fiery peasant rite, which is performed not far from the estate, in order, according to popular belief, to "burn the death of a cow." Shortly before this, Bodrostina accidentally pours blood-like wine on her husband's shirt. Liza confesses to the remaining Sintyanina in bigamy, but at that time Vislenev appears, in a frenzy announcing the murder of old man Bodrostin and demanding an immediate wedding with Glafira. Vislenev is taken to the police station, but the murder is attributed to a peasant rebellion. Ropshin tells Glafira that a trace of her Spanish stiletto was found on the body of the old man, and blackmails her with marriage, promising to hide the first, fake testament of Bodrostin. Iosaf confesses that he did not actually kill the old man, but only burned him with a cigarette, and blames Bodrostin and Gordanov for instigating the crime. Lara disappears, but Forov and Father Evangel find her, stabbed to death. They are taken to the police station and accused of inciting a popular uprising. Gordanov notices that Ropshin is starting to take charge of the house, and they are starting to follow him, having injured his hand during the murder. At the funeral, the dead man's hands are untied and spread out, and this frightens Glafira so much that she betrays Gordanov. Vera throws at his feet a stiletto he has found in the forest and, according to Bodrostina, has long been his. Gordanov is arrested and his arm suffering from "Anton fire" is amputated. Ropshin promises money, and he defends Glafira, and after that he is poisoned. Bodrostina marries Ropshin, who turned out to be cruel and stingy, and lives on the money of the kind Forov. Found guilty, Vislenev lives in a lunatic asylum and is quite happy with his position. Vera and Katerina Afanasievna, who, according to the general's wife, "has done everything" earthly ", die. Before his death, Sintyanin bequeaths his wife Podozerova. At their wedding, Forov is present, unsuccessfully trying to marry the "most excellent person" Vanskok. A year later, Father Evangel visits the Podozerovs with the announcement of Forov's death, he is sure that everything that is happening "on knives" is the prologue of something bigger that must irresistibly come. Yu. S. Chuprinina Cathedral Romance Chronicle (1872) The subject of the story is the "life" of representatives of the Stargorod "cathedral priesthood": Archpriest Savely Tuberozov, priest Zakhary Benefaktov and deacon Achilles Desnitsyn. Childless Tuberozov retains all the ardor of his heart and all the energy of youth. Benefaktov's personality is the embodiment of meekness and humility. Deacon Achilles is a hero and sings beautifully, but because of his enthusiasm he receives the nickname "wounded". The marshal of the nobility brings three canes from St. Petersburg: two with identical gold knobs and one with silver for Achilles, which casts "doubt" on the head. Tuberozov takes both canes to the city and on his own engraves "Aaron's Rod blossomed", and on Zechariah's cane - "Dada in his hand his staff." He hides the cane of Achilles under lock and key, because it does not rely on his rank. The "frivolous" reaction of Achilles leads to the fact that Father Savely does not talk to him. From the time of his ordination, Tuberozov has been keeping a “demicotonic” book, where he records how “beautiful” his wife Natalya Nikolaevna is, how he meets the lady Plodomasova and her dwarf servant Nikolai Afanasyevich, how the poor Pizonsky warms the orphan boy. The last story serves as the basis for a sermon, for which, as well as for an inappropriate attitude towards schismatics, denunciations are written against the archpriest. Achilles is "wounded" by the teacher Barnabas of Pre-Potensky, who experiments on a drowned man. On the day of Methodius Pesnoshsky, when "the landscape represents the simplicity of life, as an overture represents the music of an opera," the inhabitants of Stargorod go for a swim. Riding on a red horse from the Achilles River, he says that he took away the bones of the deceased from the teacher Varnavka, but they were stolen again. The doctor frightens the deacon with unfamiliar words, he promises to "smother the free-thinking bone" from the city and asks to call himself "Achilla the Warrior". Valerian Nikolaevich Daryanov comes to Prepotenskaya's mallow, where he finds her son Barnabas. He reports that he mathematically proved to Tuberozov "the inaccuracy of the calculation of holidays" and believes that people like the archpriest slow down the "revolution" and generally serve in the secret police. When his mother gives Achilles the bones, Prepotensky goes to the excissress Darya Nikolaevna Bizyukina, and she gives him a handkerchief around his neck so that when Achilles beat him, it would be "soft and not painful." Barnabas returns the bones, their mother buries them, but the pig digs them up, Prepotensky fights with Achilles. Barnabas' conversation is heard by Tuberozov's student Serbolova, who urges Prepotensky not to upset his mother. Mallow admits that her son is kind, but spoiled, and, while he feeds her horse ham, gives him slanderous water to drink. When Tuberozov comes to the mallow, Prepotensky takes out the bones, puts them on his head and shows his tongue to the archpriest. But a formidable deacon appears before Barnabas, and the teacher gives the bones to the excise woman Bizyukina, saying that spies and clergy are chasing him. Bizyukina's husband snaps at the deacon with the jaws of a skeleton, and Tuberozov's protection saves him from Achilles' stone. The archpriest is afraid that "bad people" will be able to take advantage of this story. Achilles leads to the archpriest Danilko, who claims that the long-awaited rain passed only thanks to nature. The archpriest expels the heretical Danilka and urges Achilles not to rage. But the deacon is "impossible to endure", and in his "zeal" he relies only on strength, explaining to Danilka that he punished him out of a "Christian duty." The townspeople believe that Danilka only repeats the words of Barnabas, who really deserved the punishment. On the name day of the police chief, the Plodomasovsky dwarf arrives with his sister. Nikolai Afanasyevich tells how the late "comforter" mistress Marfa Andreevna sets free all his relatives and thereby "hardens" him, how he wants to marry Nikolai Afanasyevich to a dwarf and bargains with her mistress, how "Karl Nikolaura" meets and talks with the sovereign himself. The archpriest's father admits to the leader Tuganov that life without ideals, faith and reverence for the ancestors will destroy Russia, and the time has come to "fulfill your duty." He calls him "maniac". "Unpleasant faces" come to the city - the auditor Prince Bornovolokov, Bizyukin's university comrade, and Izmail Termosesov, blackmailing the prince with his "revolutionary" past. Preparing to welcome guests, Bizyukin's wife, having heard about the tastes of "new" people, throws out all the "excessive" decoration from the house, removes the image from the wall, plays a lesson with yard children, and even stains her hands on purpose. But Termosesov surprises the hostess with words about the need for service and the dangers of a creative letter in times of destruction. He forces her to change clothes and wash her hands, in response Bizyukina falls in love with the guest. Termosesov vows to take revenge on her worst enemies, the deacon and archpriest. He proposes to Bornovolokov a tactic that will prove the admissibility of religion only as one of the forms of administration and the harmfulness of independent people in the clergy. The auditor authorizes him to act. Termosesov meets Varnavka and forces the "citizen" Danilka to sign a complaint against Achilles to the auditor. Using the services of the postmaster, Termosesov orders Bornovolokov to mention him in a letter as a "dangerous person", as he dreams of getting a "good job", forces him to sign a denunciation of Tuganov and Savely and demands compensation money. Prepotensky recalls Turgenev's "Smoke" and stands up for natural rights. Father Savely decides to "conceived", quits smoking, refuses to testify about the "seductive" actions of Achilles and leaves for the deanery. On the way back, he almost dies in a thunderstorm and, feeling that from now on he is living not his own, but a second life, he demands that all city officials come to the liturgy. Teaching in the city is perceived as a revolution. Termosesov and Bornovolokov are leaving. The archpriest is taken to the provincial town, and not life begins for him, but "life". Achilles and Nikolai Afanasevich are trying to intercede for him, but Savely does not want to blame, and he is appointed clerk. At the postmaster's name day, in the heat of an argument about courage, Prepotensky tries to pull the major's mustache, but makes a scandal, gets scared and runs away from the city. Natalya Nikolaevna, who came to her husband, works without sparing herself, falls ill, asks for forgiveness from Savely, and before her death sees Achilles in a dream, who urges her to pray for her husband: "Lord, save them in ways." After the funeral, the dwarf gives the archpriest a worldly request for his pardon, but the archpriest refuses to obey, because "the law does not allow it." But he agrees to obey if he is ordered. The zealous Nikolai Afanasyevich obtains an order, but Savely acts in his own way here, and although they release him, they impose a "ban". On the way home, the dwarf makes Saveliy laugh with stories about Achilles' new dog Kakvask. Achilles stays with Savely, who practically never goes out, but the bishop takes the deacon to the synod. In the letters to the archpriest, Achilles mentions Barnabas, who married and is often beaten, and Termosesov, who served in the "secret" service, but was caught on counterfeit money. Upon returning, Achilles uses the "empty" words "wu fart", "hvakt" and "nonsense", and claims that there is no god, and man works for food. After the words of Savely, the deacon repents: "his soul had to be sick and die in order to be resurrected." On the night of Tuberozov's death, the dwarf brings permission from the "prohibition" and the archpriest appears in the coffin in full dress. Achilles plunges into herself, calls the deceased a "martyr", because she understands what the deceased cared for, and utters only one phrase at a crowded funeral: "But they will look at his own probodosha." Achilles is extremely hurt by the death of Savely, does not leave the house and even accuses the new archpriest Iordion of Kratsiansky of "importance". The deacon sells all his property and, having decided to build his own monument to Savely, leaves for Tuganov for advice. But there he discovers that he ate the money along with the cakes. Tuganov gives him money, and Achilles sets up a pyramid with cherubs in the cemetery, confirming the deacon's "exalted sensitivity" with all its appearance. Nikolai Afanasyevich dies, and Achilles is rightly sure that "she" will soon come for him and Zakhary. In the spring, a terrible "devil" appears in the city, which, among other atrocities, steals crosses from the cemetery and spoils the monument to the archpriest. Achilles vows to take revenge, watches over the "devil" in the cemetery, catches and does not let her out of the ditch all night, having become very cold. "Devil" turns out to be Danilka in disguise, and in order to calm the crowd, Achilles shows him to the townspeople. He tries to protect him from punishment, but "falls sick" and soon, having repented to the archpriest, he dies. Quiet Zacharias briefly survives Savely and Achilles, and during the Bright Resurrection, the "Stargorod popovka" needs a complete renovation. Yu. S. Chuprinina Sealed angel Tale (1873) In the inn, several travelers take refuge from the weather. One of them claims that "every saved person ... an angel guides," and he himself was led by an angel. He pronounces the following story on his knees, because everything that happened is "a very sacred and terrible matter." Markusha, "an insignificant person", born in the "old Russian faith", serves as a bricklayer in Luka Kirillov's artel, in which the image of an angel is considered the most wonderful icon. On the Dnieper, the artel is building a stone bridge together with the British and for three years has lived in a "peaceful" spirit and feels the "excellence of God-created nature". But after the ignorant and "camel-like" Maroy invents a special way to break the strongest bolts, the Old Believers become famous. Pimen Ivanov, who, unlike the "real sedate Old Believers", does not shy away from communicating with officials, meets with the wife of a "important person", who asks the Old Believers to beg her daughter. Pimen does not tell the Old Believers anything about this or about subsequent orders, but they are all fulfilled. Having paid Pimen money "for candles and oil", the lady expresses her desire to look at the guardian angel, and Pimen has to tell the Old Believers about everything. The next morning after the mistress's arrival, Luka Kirillov's wife, Aunt Mikhaylitsa, says that at night the angel descended from the icon. At this time, the lady's husband, for whom Pimen "prays", receives a bribe from the "Kids", but they deceive him and demand even more back. The lady demands this money from the Old Believers. The Old Believers do not have such money, and gendarmes attack their homes, "seal" icons, including the face of an angel, with sealing wax, take them away and dump them in the basement. The icon with an angel looks at the bishop, and it is placed in the altar. The Old Believers decide to replace the keeper - "steal and print", and "to fulfill this determination" they choose the narrator of this story and the well-behaved youth Levontius. In the meantime, Pimen was suddenly “worn out”, and the Old Believers were attacked by “pure melancholy”, and with it an eye disease, which only the guardian icon could cure. Such piety touches Yakov Yakovlevich, the eldest among the English, to whom Markusha explains that an artist from the city will not be able to make an exact copy, to present "the type of a person of heaven." And the icon is a Stroganov drawing, and it is very different from other writings. And today, "the type of high inspiration has been lost" and "in the new schools of art, the widespread corruption of feelings is developed and the mind obeys the vanity." "Scripture is not given to everyone to comprehend, and the depicted heavenly glory greatly helps to think about money and all the glory of the earth as nothing more than an abomination before the Lord." The Old Believers themselves pray for a "Christian demise of the stomach and a good answer at a terrible judgment seat." The Englishman and his wife are so touched by such speeches that they give Markusha money, and he and the "silver-bridled" Levonty set off in search of an isographer. They reach Moscow, "the ancient Russian society of the glorious queen," but they do not console themselves with it, believing that the old days in Moscow are not based on "philokalia and piety, but on a single stubbornness." And the masters in art are sloppy, they all magnify themselves in front of each other or, "gathering together in gangs", they drink wine in taverns and praise their art "with arrogant arrogance." Boredom attacks Markusha, and Levonty is afraid that "the temptation can obstruct" him, and expresses a desire to see the implacable old man Pamva and understand what the "grace" of the dominant church is. To all Markushi's protests that churchmen drink "coffee" and eat hares, Levonty responds with his education. From Moscow, travelers go to Suzdal to look for the isographer Sevastyan, and along the road chosen by Markush, they get lost. Levonti looks ill and refuses to go. But a small old man who appeared from the forest calls him to get up and leads the travelers to his dwelling. Markusha understands that this is Pamva the Angry. Pamva releases the soul from Levontius, "like a dove from a cage," and the lad dies. Markusha cannot be blamed on the elder: “this man with such humility is invincible,” but he decides that “if there are only two such people in the church, then we are lost, for this one is all animated with love.” When Markusha walks through the forest, Pamva appears to him again and says: "The angel lives in the soul, but is imprinted, and love will set him free." Markusha runs away from the old man and meets the painter Sevastyan, with whom he returns to the artel. To test the skill of the isographer, Yakov Yakovlevich asks him to paint an icon for his wife, Sevastyan learns that an Englishwoman is praying for children, and paints an icon with such subtlety of "small-mouthed" writing that the British have never heard of. But he refuses to copy the portrait of an Englishwoman into a ring, so as not to "humiliate" his art. Yakov Yakovlevich asks Vladyka to return the angel to the artel for a while in order to gild the robe on the imprinted angel and decorate the crown. But the bishop gives only the robe. Sebastian explains to the Englishman that a genuine icon is needed. At first, he kicks out the iconographer, but then he himself volunteers to commit theft and arranges that, while the vigil is going on at the bishop, they write a copy, remove the old icon from the old board, insert fakes, and Yakov Yakovlevich could put it on the window again, as if nothing had happened . The Englishman takes with him the strong-willed kovach Maroy, so that he takes all the blame and "suffers death" if the Old Believers are deceived. The treaty is based on "mutual trust". The "action" is successful, but Sevastyan refuses to stamp the copy, and the Englishwoman has to do it. At this time, the ice breaks, and in order to cross to the other side in time, Luka, to the singing of the Old Believers, crosses the river along the bridge chain. Maroy sees a glow above him and guarded by angels. The sealing wax disappears on the copy of the icon, and Luka rushes to confess to the bishop, who replies that the Old Believers "broke the seal from their angel, and the other removed it from himself and brought you here." The Old Believers requested by the bishop "commune the body and blood of the Savior at mass." And along with them, Markush, who, after meeting with the elder Pamva, "has an inclination to become animated with all Russia." To the surprise of travelers about the disappeared seal, Markush says that the seal of the Englishwoman was paper and fell out. Against the fact that everything happened in the usual manner, the Old Believers do not argue: "it does not matter in what ways the Lord will exact a person, if only he will exact it." Markusha congratulates everyone on the New Year and asks for the forgiveness of Christ for his own sake, ignoramus. Yu. S. Chuprinina The Enchanted Wanderer Tale (1873) On the way to Valaam on Lake Ladoga, several travelers meet. One of them, dressed in a novice cassock and looking like a "typical hero," says that, having "God's gift" to tame horses, he, according to a parental promise, died all his life and could not die in any way. At the request of the travelers, the former koneser ("I am a koneser, sir, <...> I am an expert in horses and was with the repairmen to guide them," the hero himself says about himself) Ivan Severyanych, Mr. Flyagin, tells his life. Coming from the yard people of Count K. from the Oryol province, Ivan Severyanych has been addicted to horses since childhood and once “for fun” beats a monk to death on a wagon. The monk appears to him at night and reproaches him for taking his life without repentance. He also tells Ivan Severyanych that he is the “promised” son of God, and gives a “sign” that he will die many times and will never die before the real “death” comes and Ivan Severyanych goes to Chernetsy. Soon, Ivan Severyanych, nicknamed Golovan, saves his masters from inevitable death in a terrible abyss and falls into mercy. But he cuts off the tail of the owner's cat, which drags pigeons from him, and as punishment he is severely flogged, and then sent to "an English garden for a path to beat stones with a hammer." The last punishment of Ivan Severyanych "tormented", and he decides to commit suicide. The rope prepared for death is cut off by the gypsies, with whom Ivan Severyanych leaves the count, taking horses with him. Ivan Severyanych parted ways with the gypsy, and, having sold a silver cross to an official, he received a leave of absence and was hired as a "nanny" to the little daughter of a gentleman. For this work, Ivan Severyanych is very bored, leads the girl and the goat to the river bank and sleeps over the estuary. Here he meets the lady, the mother of the girl, who begs Ivan Severyanych to give her the child, but he is relentless and even fights with the current husband of the lady, an officer-lancer. But when he sees the angry approaching owner, he gives the child to his mother and runs with them. The officer sends the passportless Ivan Severyanych away, and he goes to the steppe, where the Tatars drive horse shoals. Khan Dzhankar sells his horses, and the Tatars set prices and fight for horses: they sit opposite each other and beat each other with whips. When a new handsome horse is put up for sale, Ivan Severyanych does not hold back and, speaking for one of the repairmen, traps the Tatar to death. According to "Christian custom", he is taken to the police for murder, but he runs away from the gendarmes to the very "Ryn-sands". The Tatars "bristle" Ivan Severyanych's legs so that he does not run away. Ivan Severyanych moves only by crawling, serves as a doctor among the Tatars, yearns and dreams of returning to his homeland. He has several wives "Natasha" and children "Kolek", whom he regrets, but he admits to the listeners that he could not love them, because they are "unbaptized". Ivan Severyanych completely despairs of getting home, but Russian missionaries come to the steppe "to establish their faith." They preach, but refuse to pay a ransom for Ivan Severyanych, arguing that before God "everyone is equal and it's all the same." Some time later, one of them is killed, Ivan Severyanych buries him according to Orthodox custom. He explains to the listeners that "an Asian must be brought to faith with fear," because they "will never respect a humble god without a threat." The Tatars bring two people from Khiva who come to buy horses in order to "make war". Hoping to intimidate the Tatars, they demonstrate the power of their fiery god Talafy, but Ivan Severyanych discovers a box with fireworks, introduces himself as Talafy, converts the Tatars to Christianity and, having found "caustic earth" in the boxes, heals his legs. In the steppe, Ivan Severyanych meets a Chuvash, but refuses to go with him, because he simultaneously reveres both the Mordovian Keremeti and the Russian Nicholas the Wonderworker. Russians come across on the way, they cross themselves and drink vodka, but drive away the "passportless" Ivan Severyanych. In Astrakhan, the wanderer ends up in prison, from where he is taken to his hometown. Father Ilya excommunicates him for three years from communion, but the count, who has become devout, releases him "for quitrent", and Ivan Severyanych gets a job in the horse department. After he helps the peasants to choose a good horse, he is famous as a magician, and everyone demands to tell the "secret". Including one prince, who took Ivan Severyanych to his post as a koneser. Ivan Severyanych buys horses for the prince, but from time to time he has drunken "outputs", before which he gives the prince all the money for the purchases to be safe. When the prince sells a beautiful horse to Dido, Ivan Severyanych is very sad, "makes a way out", but this time he keeps the money to himself. He prays in church and goes to a tavern, where he meets an “over-empty-empty” person who claims that he drinks because he “voluntarily took weakness upon himself” so that it would be easier for others, and Christian feelings do not allow him to stop drinking. A new acquaintance imposes magnetism on Ivan Severyanych to free him from "zealous drunkenness", and at the same time gives him extra water. At night, Ivan Severyanych finds himself in another tavern, where he spends all the money on the beautiful songstress gypsy Grushenka. Having obeyed the prince, he learns that the owner himself gave fifty thousand for Grushenka, bought her out of the camp and settled in his house. But the prince is a fickle person, he gets tired of the "love word", he gets sleepy from "yakhont emeralds", besides, all the money ends. Having gone to the city, Ivan Severyanych overhears the prince's conversation with his former mistress Yevgenia Semyonovna and learns that his master is going to marry, and wants to marry the unfortunate and sincerely loved Grushenka to Ivan Severyanych. Returning home, he does not find the gypsy, whom the prince secretly takes to the forest to the bee. But Grusha escapes from her guards and, threatening that she will become a "shameful woman", asks Ivan Severyanych to drown her. Ivan Severyanych fulfills the request, and in search of an imminent death, he pretends to be a peasant son and, having given all the money to the monastery as a "contribution for Grushin's soul", goes to war. He dreams of dying, but "neither earth nor water wants to accept", and having distinguished himself in business, he tells the colonel about the murder of a gypsy. But these words are not confirmed by the sent request, he is promoted to an officer and dismissed with the Order of St. George. Taking advantage of the colonel's letter of recommendation, Ivan Severyanych gets a job as a "reference officer" at the address desk, but falls on the insignificant letter "fit", the service does not go well, and he goes to the artists. But rehearsals take place during Holy Week, Ivan Severyanych gets to portray the "difficult role" of the demon, and besides, intercede for the poor "gentlewoman", he "pulls the whirlwinds" of one of the artists and leaves the theater for the monastery. According to Ivan Severyanych, monastic life does not bother him, he stays there with horses, but he does not consider it worthy to take senior tonsure and lives in obedience. To the question of one of the travelers, he says that at first a demon appeared to him in a "seductive female form", but after fervent prayers only small demons, "children", remained. Once Ivan Severyanych kills a demon with an ax, but he turns out to be a cow. And for another deliverance from demons, he is put in an empty cellar for a whole summer, where Ivan Severyanych discovers the gift of prophecy in himself. Ivan Severyanych ends up on the ship because the monks let him go to pray in Solovki to Zosima and Savvaty. The Stranger admits that he expects an imminent death, because the spirit inspires him to take up arms and go to war, and he "wants to die for the people." Having finished the story, Ivan Severyanych falls into quiet concentration, once again feeling the influx of a mysterious broadcasting spirit, which is revealed only to babies. Yu. S. Chuprinina The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea Shop legend. Story (1881) After the end of the Vienna Council, Emperor Alexander Pavlovich decides "to travel around Europe and see miracles in different states." The Don Cossack Platov, who is with him, is not surprised by the "curiosities", because he knows that in Russia "his own is no worse." In the very last cabinet of curiosities, among the "nymphosoria" collected from all over the world, the sovereign buys a flea, which, although small, can dance "dance". Soon, Alexander "becomes melancholy from military affairs," and he returns to his homeland, where he dies. Nikolai Pavlovich, who ascended the throne, appreciates the flea, but, since he does not like to yield to foreigners, he sends Platov along with the flea to the Tula masters. Platov "and with him all of Russia" are called to support three Tula. They go to bow to the icon of St. Nicholas, and then lock themselves in the house at the oblique Lefty, but, even after finishing the work, they refuse to give Platov the "secret", and he has to take Lefty to Petersburg. Nikolai Pavlovich and his daughter Alexandra Timofeevna discover that the "abdominal machine" in the flea does not work. The enraged Platov executes and beats Lefty, but he does not admit to damage and advises to look at the flea through the most powerful "melkoscope". But the attempt turns out to be unsuccessful, and Lefty orders "to bring just one leg into the details under the microscope." Having done this, the sovereign sees that the flea is "shod on horseshoes." And Lefty adds that with a better "fine scope" one could see that on every horseshoe the "craftsman's name" is displayed. And he himself forged carnations, which could not be seen in any way. Platov asks Levsha for a petition. The left-hander is washed in the "Tulyanov Baths", cut off and "formed" as if he has some kind of "commissioned rank", and sent to take a flea as a gift to the British. On the way, Lefty does not eat anything, "supporting" himself with wine alone, and sings Russian songs throughout Europe. When questioned by the British, he admits: "We have not gone into the sciences, and therefore the flea no longer dances, only faithfully devoted to their fatherland." Lefty refuses to stay in England, referring to his parents and the Russian faith, which is "the most correct." The English cannot seduce him with anything, further with an offer to marry, which Lefty rejects and disapproves of the clothes and thinness of the English women. At the English factories, Lefty notices that the workers are well fed, but what interests him most is the state of the old guns. Soon, Lefty begins to yearn and, despite the approaching storm, boards the ship and does not stop looking towards Russia. The ship enters the "Solid Sea", and Lefty makes a bet with the skipper who will outdrink whom. They drink until the "Riga Dinaminde", and when the captain locks the debaters, they already see devils in the sea. In St. Petersburg, the Englishman is sent to the embassy house, and Lefty is sent to the quarter, where they demand a document from him, take away his gifts, and then take him in an open sleigh to the hospital, where "everyone of an unknown class is accepted to die." The next day, the "Aglitsky" half-skipper swallows the "kutta-percha" pill and, after a short search, finds his Russian "comrade". Lefty wants to say a few words to the sovereign, and the Englishman goes to "Count Kleinmichel," but the half-spike doesn't like his words about Lefty: "Though a sheep's coat, so is the soul of a man." The Englishman is sent to the Cossack Platov, who "has simple feelings." But Platov finished his service, received a "full puple" and refers him to "commandant Skobelev." He sends a doctor from the spiritual rank of Martyn-Solsky to Leftsha, but Leftsha is already "ended", asks to tell the sovereign that the British do not clean their guns with bricks, otherwise they are not suitable for shooting, and "with this fidelity" he crosses himself and dies. The doctor reports the last words of Lefty to Count Chernyshev, but he does not listen to Martyn-Solsky, because "in Russia there are generals for this," and the guns continue to be cleaned with bricks. And if the emperor had heard the words of Lefty, then the Crimean War would have ended otherwise Now these are already "deeds of bygone days", but the tradition must not be forgotten, despite the "epic character" of the hero and the "fabulous warehouse" of the legend. The name of Lefty, like many other geniuses, has been lost, but the folk myth about him accurately conveyed the spirit of the era. And although the machines do not condone "aristocratic prowess", the workers themselves remember the old days and their epic with a "human soul", with pride and love. Yu. S. Chuprinina Toupey artist Tale at the Grave (1883) This author hears the story from the nanny of his younger brother, Lyubov Onisimovna, in the past, the beautiful actress of the Oryol theater, Count Kamensky. On Trinity, she takes the author to the cemetery, where, at a simple grave, she tells the story of the "stupid artist" Arkady. Arkady - a hairdresser and make-up artist - combs all the count's serf artists. He himself is a "man with ideas", in other words, an artist, a handsome man, and even the count loves him, but he keeps him in the greatest severity and no one except him is allowed to use the services of Arkady. The count is very bad "through his usual anger" and immediately resembles all animals. Lyubov Onisimovna in the same theater sings in choirs, dances and knows all the roles in tragic plays. Arkady and Lyubov Onisimovna love each other, but dating is completely impossible: the covenant of chastity, inviolable for actresses, can only be violated by the count himself. At this time, the count arranges a performance in honor of the sovereign passing through Orel. The actress, who is supposed to play the "Duchess de Bourblanc", hurts her leg, and Lyubov Onisimovna gets her role. And in addition, kamarin earrings from the count - a gift "flattering and nasty" - the first sign of a special honor to be elevated to "odalisques" and delivered to the count's half. Meanwhile, the "fatal and tempting business" creeps up on Arkady too. A brother comes to the count from the village, even more terrible and overgrown. He summons all the barbers and orders them to cut themselves like a brother, threatening to kill anyone who cuts him. But the barbers answer that only Arkady can bring him into a handsome appearance. To get around the rule of Count Kamensky, his brother calls Arkashka to him, allegedly in order to cut his poodle's hair. Arkady, despite the threat of pistols and being in the most gloomy mood because of what was prepared for Lyubov Onisimovna, cuts the hair of the count's brother. And Lyubov Onisimovna promises to take her away. During the performance, Kamensky behaves kindly, which portends a thunderstorm, and after the performance, when Arkady comes to comb Lyubov Onisimovna’s head “in an innocent style, as indicated in the paintings by St. Cecilia,” six people are waiting for him at the door to take him to “torment” in secret cellars that are summed up under the whole house. But Arkady grabs Lyubov Onisimovna, breaks the window, and they run. But they are chased after them, and the lovers agree that they agree to die if they fail to get away from the chase. And they themselves go to the priest, who crowns "desperate weddings". But even the priest is afraid of the count's ferocity and betrays them. The fugitives are taken back, and "the people where they meet, all part, - they think, maybe a wedding." Upon arrival, they ask Lyubov Onisimovna how long they were alone. Arkady is being tormented just under Lyubov Onisimovna's "departure", who cannot stand this and falls unconscious. And she comes to her senses in the calf yard, where she was sent on suspicion of insanity under the supervision of the old woman Droshida. Drosida is often applied to the "terrible plakon", in which "poison for oblivion", but Lyubov Onisimovna does not give it. She also reports that the count gives Arkady to the soldiers, but because he was not afraid of the count's brother's pistols, she provides him with a letter so that he serves in the regimental sergeants and that he is immediately sent to war. Lyubov Onisimovna believes the story and for three years every night in her dream she sees how Arkady Ilyich fights. Because of the illness of her legs, she is no longer returned to the theater, and she becomes the same "snooty" as Drosis. One day, a stone wrapped in a piece of paper from Arkady falls into her window. He writes that he has returned, received an officer's rank, and will take all the money he has to the count with a request for the ransom of Lyubov Onisimovna and in the hope of marrying her. Love prays to God all night, because it is afraid that, although Arkady is now an officer, the count will beat him again. And the next morning he learns that the innkeeper robbed and stabbed an officer at night. As soon as Lyubov Onisimovna hears this, then immediately "off with your feet." The governor himself comes to the funeral and calls Arkady a "bolyarin". And Lyubov Onisimovna becomes addicted to the “little litter” for a long time, and already in the memory of the author, she is applied to it at night. The author admits that he has never seen a more terrible and soul-rending commemoration in his entire life. Yu. S. Chuprinina Nikolai Gerasimovich Pomyalovsky (1835-1863) Molotov Tale (1861) The family of the official Ignat Vasilyich Dorogov lives in one of the St. Petersburg tenement houses on the Ekaterininsky Canal. He has six children, the eldest of them is Nadia, she is twenty years old. The mother of the family, Anna Andreevna, is an exemplary hostess. Comfort and tranquility reign in the house. Grandfather and grandmother of Anna Andreevna were poor petty bourgeois. Their daughter, Mavra Matveevna, who was smart, pretty and hardworking, was married to a petty official Chizhikov. The thriftiness and energy of Mavra Matveevna led to the fact that prosperity appeared in the family. Anna Andreevna was her youngest daughter. She has been accustomed to order and a secure existence since childhood. When Anna Andreevna married Ignat Vasilyich, their relationship was not easy. The young husband led a very dissolute life, and this caused his wife a lot of suffering, until she finally managed to take him into her arms, accustom him to the house. Ignat Vasilyich became a housewife, but strictness and gloominess appeared in his character, which are especially noticeable in his relations with children. When guests arrive, the house becomes more cheerful. The Dorokhovs often have officials Yegor Ivanovich Molotov, Makar Makarych Kasimov, Semyon Vasilyich Rogozhnikov, Dr. Fyodor Ilyich Benediktov. On one of these evenings, Rogozhnikov tells the story of his director, who did not allow the petty official Menshov to marry a poor girl. Menshov was offered a promotion with the condition of refusing the bride, but he refused. Then the director slandered his subordinate in front of the bride. The wedding was upset, and Menchov received a promotion. Nadya Dorogova was brought up in a closed institute, but memories of institute life were never pleasant to her. And no wonder: there were ugly orders. Cool ladies did not hesitate to take bribes from pupils, delinquent girls were kept in the infirmary, wearing straitjackets on them. There was a lot of artificial, false in upbringing. After leaving the institute, Nadia spends a lot of time reading. Dreams about her husband and her household are interspersed with dreams of love. Nadia has suitors, but she refuses them. The girl often talks with Molotov, a regular guest in their house. She turns to him with a variety of questions. It seems to Nadia that Molotov is somewhat different from other acquaintances. Molotov comes to the artist Mikhail Mikhailovich Cherevanin, a relative of Dorogov. Mikhail Mikhailovich is a talented and original person, but fickle. He was unlucky in love and became a cynic. Once he loved the comfort of home, and now he settled in an untidy workshop in Peski. Molotov finds a company of carousing youth at Cherevanin, among whom he is surprised to notice the sons of familiar officials. Tipsy young men rant about topical issues. Molotov and Cherevanin, leaving the merry guests, go to Nevsky. Molotov reproaches the artist for his disorderly life. He describes his state of mind: everything is indifferent, everything seems insignificant. Cherevanin calls his way of thinking "cemetery". As a child, he lived near a cemetery and has since learned to see the dark side of everything. However, the artist promises to start a new life, to work hard. Evening at the Dorohovs. Here are Molotov, and Cherevanin, and young Kasimov, who only yesterday wanted to become an artist, and now he is glad that he got a job as an official. Molotov talks about the beginning of his career. He became an official not by vocation, but at the invitation of a friend who got him a job ... Yegor Ivanovich does not want to continue the story. Ignat Vasilyich retires to the office with the secretary of the state general Podtyazhin. Cherevanin tells Molotov about his not entirely successful attempts to start a new life. Nadya, alone with Cherevanin, asks him about Molotov. The artist recalls how Molotov was appointed to the investigation into the case of a woman who killed her husband. Yegor Ivanovich took pity on the criminal, and since then he believes that it is not the people who are to blame for the atrocities, but the environment. He became condescending to everyone, but not to himself. The father announces to Nadia that General Podtyazhin is wooing her. The girl is horrified: the general is unpleasant to her. But parents do not want to hear about the refusal. Nadia decides to consult with Molotov. The conversation ends with Nadia and Yegor Ivanovich declaring their love for each other. Molotov asks for the hand of Nadezhda Ignatovna. But Ignat Vasilyich is furious - he is especially outraged that his daughter kissed Molotov. Egor Ivanych is denied the house, and the father orders his daughter to put Molotov out of his head. Cherevanov comforts Nadya, advises her not to be afraid of anything and to stand her ground. Three days pass. The Dorogovs are celebrating the name day of Nadezhda Ignatovna. Cherevanov, in a conversation with Nadya, caustically characterizes the guests. Ignat Vasilyich, in front of everyone, calls Nadya the bride of General Podtyazhin. However, Nadia announces that she will only marry Molotov. Numerous relatives are amazed by this scene. The next day, having met with Dorogov, they advise him to open Nadia's eyes to Molotov: he is both an atheist, they say, and a debauchee. There is some truth in these accusations: indeed, Molotov had a mistress. However, Nadia does not want to believe anything. Then the father announces to his daughter that she will remain an old maid. Nadia is afraid that her father will raise a hand against her. Seeing the horror on his daughter's face, Ignat Vasilyich begins to feel guilty before her, but he somehow lacks the determination to forgive Nadia. Molotov spends his time waiting. Finally, unable to bear the inaction, he goes to General Podtyazhin and explains that Nadya loves him, Molotov. The general, without hesitation, agrees to abandon such an eccentric girl and decides to marry Kasimov's daughter. Yegor Ivanovich and Podtyazhin are going together to the Dorogovs. The general explains himself to Ignat Vasilyich. He is somewhat discouraged, but there is nothing to do ... Nadia's parents agree to her marriage to Molotov. Molotov tells his bride about his past. After being disappointed in the official service, he tried to do free labor, tried various professions, worked at an inn, was a teacher, a writer, but realized that the department provides a person better. He wanted money, comfort, "philistine happiness" and had to become an official again. Not everyone is given to be heroes, and therefore it remains only to "honestly enjoy life." Nadia agrees with her fiancé in everything. O. V. Butkova Essays on bursa (1862-1863) Huge dirty school room. Classes are over, and the students are having fun with games. Quite recently, the "period of forced education" ended, when everyone, regardless of age, had to take a full course of science. Now the "law of great age" has begun to operate - upon reaching a certain age, a student is expelled from school, and he can become a clerk, sexton, or novice. Many cannot find a place for themselves. There are rumors that such people will be taken as soldiers. There are over a hundred people in the class. Among them are twelve-year-old children and adults. They play "pebbles", "shvychki", "lean", "fast". All games are necessarily associated with causing each other pain: pinching, clicking, hitting, and so on. Nobody wants to play with Semyonov, a sixteen-year-old boy, the son of a parish priest. Everyone knows that Semyonov is a fiscal. It gets dark in the classroom. Bursaks amuse themselves with singing, arrange noisy games in the "small pile", but suddenly everything subsides. In the darkness you can hear: someone is being whipped. It is the comrades who are punishing the fiscal Semyonov. An embittered Semyonov runs to complain. Classes begin. Someone is sleeping, someone is talking… The main method of student learning is meaningless "dumbing", cramming. so no one wants to study. An inspector and Semyonov appear in the classroom, complaining about their offenders. One of them, on the orders of the inspector, is flogged and they promise to flog every tenth student the next day. The Bursaks decide to take revenge on Semyonov. At night, they insert a “pfimfu”, that is, a cone with burning cotton, into his nose. Semyonov ends up in the hospital, and he himself does not know what happened to him. By order of the authorities, many are flogged, and many in vain. Early morning. Bursatskaya bedroom. Students are awakened and taken to the bath. They go through the city with noise, quarreling with all passers-by. After the bath, they scatter around the city in search of what is bad. Particularly distinguished are the Bursaks, nicknamed Aksyu-ta and Satan. Having eaten stolen food, the Bursaks are in a good mood and tell each other stories about the old times of the Bursa: about the tricks of the Bursaks, about how they used to flog ... Classes begin. Teacher Ivan Mikhailovich Lobov first flogs Aksyuta, who did not learn the lesson, then asks the others, distributing punishments. During class, he eats breakfast. Lobov never explains the lesson. The next lesson - Latin - is taught by the teacher Dolbezhin. He also flogs everyone in a row, but his students love: Dol-bezhin is honest, does not take bribes and does not favor fiscals. The third teacher, nicknamed Old Man, is especially ferocious when drunk: along with whipping, he also uses other, more sophisticated physical punishments. Aksyutka is hungry: Lobov ordered to leave him without lunch until he moves to Kamchatka. Aksyutka either studies well and sits at the first desk, or she doesn’t study at all. Lobov is tired of such changes: he prefers that Aksyutka never study. In the courtyard of the school, two women - an old woman and a thirty-year-old woman - are waiting for the director and throw themselves at his feet. It turns out that this is a "fixed bride" with her mother, who came "for the grooms." The fact is that after the death of a clergyman, his place is "assigned" to the family, that is, it passes to the one who agrees to marry his daughter. The clerk and her daughter have to go to the bursa to find a "breadwinner". A new type of teacher is emerging in the bursa. Among them, Petr Fedorovich Krasnov. He, in comparison with others, is a kind and delicate person, opposes too cruel punishments, however, he abuses moral punishments, mocking ignorant students in front of the whole class. Aksyutka, together with another student nicknamed Satan, manages to steal bread from the Bursat baker Tsepka. Aksyutka infuriates Tsepka, he chases after the impudent student, while Satan steals bread. The attendant calls the grooms - to look at the bride. The authorities recognize Vasenda, Azinus, Aksyutka as fit suitors. The first two are the inhabitants of "Kamchatka", who are engaged only in ecclesiastical sciences. Vasenda is a practical, solid person, Azinus is a stupid, careless person. Bursaks go to the bride. Vasenda does not like both the bride and the place, but Azinus decides to marry, although the bride is much older than him. Aksyutka simply called himself a groom to eat from the bride and steal something. And in the bursa they are starting a new game - a parody of a wedding ... Karas from early childhood dreamed of a bursa, for his older brothers were bursaks and were very proud of him. When a novice Karas is brought to the bursa, he rejoices. But ridicule, various bullying from his comrades immediately poured on him. On the first day he is whipped. Karas enters the seminary choir. Instead of singing, he only tries to open his mouth. Comrades "name" him Karas, the ceremony of "reproaching" is very insulting, Karas fights with the offenders, and Lobov, who caught the fight scene, orders Karas to be whipped. This cruel flogging produces a fracture in the soul of Karas - a terrible hatred for the bursa appears, dreams of revenge. A student nicknamed Silych, the first hero of the class, declares that he will patronize Karas so that no one dares to offend him. Under this protection Karashu becomes easier to live. He himself tries to protect the "oppressed", especially the bursat fools. Karas resolutely denies the Bursak science, does not want to study. Vsevolod Vasilyevich Razumnikov, a teacher of church singing, the law of God and sacred history, is a rather progressive teacher: he introduces a system of mutual teaching. But Karas cannot comprehend church singing, and Razumnikov punishes him: he does not let him go home on Sundays. The danger hangs over Karas that he will not be allowed to go home for Easter. Arithmetic teacher Pavel Alekseevich Livanov arrives. He is helpless when drunk, and the Bursaks mock him. On Saturday, Karas does all sorts of outrages out of annoyance that he is not allowed to go home. Sunday passes in the bursa, and Karas begins to think about escaping. He heard that some of the younger "runners" were caught, but forgiven, others were flogged, but still they did not notice that somewhere in the wood yard the fugitives were "rescued". But on the same day they bring the captured "runner" Menshinsky. He is whipped half to death, and then taken to the hospital on a matting. Crucian leaves thoughts of flight. He decides to "escape" from church singing in the hospital. He manages to get sick, the terrible lesson passes without him, and on Easter Karas is sent home ... A new caretaker appears in the bursa. The former, nicknamed the Astrologer, was a kind man and, unable to endure the horrors of the Bursa, preferred to retire to his apartment, which gave him great mystery in the eyes of the Bursaks. In general, by this time, a lot had changed in the bursa: the punishments were mitigated, there were fewer overgrown bursaks ... O. V. Butkova Petr Dmitrievich Boborykin (1836-1921) evening sacrifice A novel in four books (1867) On a rainy November evening in 186 * in St. Petersburg, Marya Mikhailovna, a twenty-three-year-old rich widow of a guards adjutant, begins to keep an intimate diary in order to understand the reasons for her constantly bad mood. It turns out that she never loved her husband, that with her son, the three-year-old "sour" Volodka, she is bored, and the metropolitan world does not provide any entertainment, except for trips to the Mikhailovsky Theater for performances with cancans. Neither the letter received by Marya Mikhailovna from Paris from her cousin Styopa Labazin, who became a "philosopher" and "physicus" during their separation, nor her visit to a married secular friend Sophie, dispels the spleen. Finding Sophie with her lover, the narrator gives her a severe reprimand, although she herself guesses that she is rather jealous of someone else's, albeit past, but still happiness. A certain novelty in the life of Marya Mikhailovna, however, is introduced by the acquaintance with the "clever" Plavikova, in whose salon on Thursdays various "writers" gather, including the forty-year-old (i.e., already very elderly) novelist Dombrovich. Yielding to idle curiosity, the narrator also begins to read European magazines, tries to keep up conversations about the philosophy of B. Spinoza and about the “smart” in general, but her burning interest is only in the way of life of French kept women, to whom, completely forgetting about secular ladies, they are so drawn to men. In order to get to know Clemence, the most brilliant of these courtesans, she travels to Christmas masquerades, meeting Dombrowicz everywhere. Even Clemence, when their acquaintance finally took place, speaks mainly of Dombrowic, emphasizing that he is much higher than all social dandies. Dombrovich, with whom the narrator sees more and more often, really does not deceive expectations: he is charming, tactful, witty, able to talk for hours in a fascinating way about writers, about people of the world, and about himself. “After talking with him, you somehow calm down and put up with life,” the narrator writes in her diary, noticing that she begins to judge many things in the same way as her new acquaintance. The diary is filled with thoughts about women - "blue stockings" and "nihilists", stories about seances, secular gossip, but with each new entry, Dombrowicz becomes more and more the central character. He recalls his meetings with Lermontov, sternly assesses Turgenev and other contemporary fiction writers, proves how harmful the bonds of marriage are to intelligent women, and gradually teaches Marya Mikhailovna the art of "plucking flowers of pleasure" so that "the sheep are safe and the wolves are fed." Two months after they met, the inevitable happens: when she first arrives at Dombrovich's apartment and allows herself champagne at breakfast, the narrator gives herself up to her teacher. At first, of course, she feels dishonored and almost raped: “And this is done in broad daylight ... A thin, civilized person treats you like a fallen woman,” but quickly calms down, because “nothing can be turned back,” and a few days later he writes in his diary: “What is there to play around with? Let’s say right away: I can’t live without him! It should have happened like that!” Without disclosing her secret, Marya Mikhailovna and Dombrovich see each other almost every evening in secular society, and, following the sensible advice of her mentor, our narrator now enjoys incomparably greater success with the "milk-suckers" and among dignitaries than before. Her life finally had meaning, and the week is now so full of things that time flies like an emergency train: worries about spectacular outfits, visits, chores of patronizing an orphanage, a theater. But the most important thing: twice a week meeting with her lover at home, on the rest of the days Marya Mikhailovna, telling the servant that she needs to Gostiny Dvor for shopping, stealthily hurries to Tolmazov Lane, where Dombrovich rents a room with furniture especially for intimate dates. Education "in terms of strawberries," as Dombrowic puts it, is in full swing: an experienced seducer first introduces his student to the novel "Dangerous Liaisons" by Ch. participation in secret parties where five dissolute aristocrats, reputed in the world to be simpering and the most impregnable women of the capital, meet with their lovers. Champagne, seductive toilets, cancan, composing acrostics for various indecent words, table stories about who, how and when lost their innocence - this is the world of sweet vice into which Marya Mikhailovna began to plunge. And, probably, she would have plunged headlong if on one of the evenings, when the dinner of the capital's satyrs and bacchantes turned into a real orgy, the virtuous Styopa Labazin did not suddenly appear among the feasting. It turns out that he had just returned from foreign travels and, having learned from the maid Arisha that Marya Mikhailovna found herself in an abyss of debauchery, he immediately rushed off to save her. There is no limit to the awakened modesty and repentance of our narrator. In the presence of Styopa, she once and for all breaks off her relationship with Dombrovich - a man, no doubt, bright, talented, but, like all people of the forties, liar, depraved and extremely selfish. Now Marya Mikhailovna, who spent several days in conversations with the reasoner Styopa, wants to gain a "whole worldview" and, forgetting that there are men in the world, embark on the path of asceticism and caring for others. On the advice of Styopa, she meets a certain Lizaveta Petrovna, who gave away all her fortune to the poor and devoted herself to the re-education of fallen girls. Together with the new mentor, the narrator visits hospitals, doss houses, soldiers' and, on the contrary, chic pleasure houses, scandal everywhere with the brothel-keepers and a word of love trying to revive the prostitutes to a new, honest life. The eyes of Marya Mikhailovna open up to unfortunate Russian girls, whom, it seems to her, only terrifying poverty pushed onto the path of vice, and a whole gallery of French, German, English women who came to St. Petersburg brothels specifically in order to earn a dowry or money for a secure old age. With a patriotic desire to save the lost Matryosh, Annushek, Broadsword, the narrator creates something like a correctional house, teaches the girls to read and write and the basics of virtue, but soon she becomes convinced that her wards either again strive to go on a spree, or by hook or by crook extort money from her . Disappointed in the prospects of asceticism and after a detailed conversation with the constant adviser Styopa, Marya Mikhailovna comes to the conclusion that many women work for themselves not at all because of poverty, but for the sake of pleasure, for the sake of a cheerful life, and that it is better for her to turn her love not to them, but to his own son. Plans to leave St. Petersburg abroad are hampered by the unexpected illness of the child. Marya Mikhailovna, who did not even expect from herself that she would fall in love with her "sour" Volodya so much, decides to spend the summer at a dacha near Oranienbaum, away from the capital's "vanity fair". Styopa settles with them under the same roof, continuing the work of educating her cousin in the spirit of the positivism of the sixties. Marya Mikhailovna, admitting that she was always indifferent to nature, to music and to poetry, under the influence of conversations with Styopa, develops both emotionally and intellectually. She no longer reads French novels, but "On the Eve" by I. Turgenev, "Fables" by La Fontaine, "Hamlet" by V. Shakespeare, and other smart books. But she still suffers a little from the fact that there is no one around who could appreciate her as a woman. A change in a respectable and insipid life is brought about by an acquaintance with Alexander Petrovich Krotkov. This twenty-six-year-old scientist, Styopa's acquaintance from abroad, also settled for the summer with his cousin near Oranienbaum. He despises women, which at first hurts, and then provokes our narrator. Her diary is filled with a retelling of Krotkov's thoughts about science, cosmopolitanism, women's emancipation and other important things. Marya Mikhailovna loses her balance, which she found with difficulty. She is in love again and rages at the mere thought: "This man now walks around St. Petersburg, smokes his cigars, reads books and thinks of me as much as of the Chinese emperor." However, Alexander Petrovich, it seems, is quite ready to join his fate with the fate of the narrator, but ... The result will be a marriage rather of convenience, at best, of a cordial inclination, and not of passion, and this emotional indulgence of the chosen one definitely does not suit Marya Mikhailovna. She either dreams of a union of equals, or goes crazy with passion, and the diary turns into a series of feverish confessions, accusations and self-accusations, thoughts that the whole life of the narrator is "one wandering, one helpless and hopeless weakness of the spirit", and in all her "deeds, thoughts, words, hobbies, only instincts." There is clearly no reason to live anymore. Therefore, having decided to commit suicide, Marya Mikhailovna makes farewell visits, says goodbye to the saint in her self-deception Lizaveta Petrovna, finally goes around all St. Krotkov’s declarations of love, refusing to listen to all of Styopa’s usual reasons, Marya Mikhailovna kisses her son sleeping in the crib and re-reads the testament written under her dictation by the faithful Styopa. The fate of Volodya is entrusted in this will to Alexander Petrovich Krotkov. The diary should be handed over to the son, "when he is able to understand it. In it he will find an explanation and, perhaps, a good life lesson." And the narrator herself takes the poison, leaving life with a smile on her lips and Shakespeare's couplet from Hamlet: "How can one not yearn for such a denouement? To die, to fall asleep." S. I. Chuprinin China town A novel in five books (1881) Trading and business life is in full swing in all the streets and lanes of Kitay-Gorod, when on a serene September morning, Andrei Dmitrievich Paltusov, a thirty-five-year-old nobleman of noticeable and peculiar appearance, who recently returned to Moscow, enters a bank on Ilyinka and meets there with the director - his old friend Evgraf Petrovich. After talking about how the Russian people are still lagging behind the Germans in financial matters, Andrei Dmitrievich transfers a hefty amount of money to his current account, and then goes to the tavern on Varvarka, where he has already scheduled breakfast with the construction contractor Sergei Stepanovich Kalakutsky. It turns out that Paltusov is eager to get rich, having set off to train with the Gostinodvor Tit Titych, and thus become one of the "pioneer" nobles in a business where foreigners and merchants still reign, but for success he needs an initiative. Having assumed the duties of "agent" Kalakutsky, he moves to Nikolskaya, to the restaurant "Slavyansky Bazaar", where he agrees to dine at the "Hermitage" with Ivan Alekseevich Pirozhkov, whom he remembers from his studies at the university. There is still time before lunch, and, fulfilling the instructions of Kalakutsky, Paltusov makes acquaintance with Osetrov, a "dealer from the university", who became rich in the river industry in the lower reaches of the Volga, and the action is transferred to the ranks of the old guest yard, where the barn owned by the company is located "Miron Stanitsyn's sons". Anna Serafimovna appears - the twenty-seven-year-old wife of the senior co-owner - and, presenting her husband with bills issued by him to one of his mistresses, demands that Viktor Mironovich, having received a compensation, completely retire from business. He is forced to agree, and Anna Serafimovna, after chatting for a few minutes with Paltusov, who has looked into the light and is sincerely sympathetic to her, goes on business visits - first to her faithful friend, the banker Bezrukavkin, then to Aunt Marfa Nikolaevna. Having become the full-fledged mistress of a huge, albeit upset, firm this morning, Stanitsyna needs support and receives it. She feels especially nice in the circle of "youth", gathering in her aunt's house, where the emancipated daughter of Marfa Nikolaevna Lyubasha and their distant relative Senya Rubtsov, who recently completed a course in factory business in England and America, stand out. A month later, on a rainy October morning, the reader finds himself in a luxurious mansion built by the most fashionable architect of commerce, adviser Evlampy Grigorievich Netov. This is a kind of museum of the Moscow-Byzantine Rococo, where everything breathes with wealth and, despite the merchant origin of the owners, with an elegant, aristocratic style. One misfortune: Yevlampy Grigorievich has long been living "at odds" with his wife Maria Orestovna and is terribly afraid of her. So today, in anticipation of another "extraordinary conversation" with a wayward life partner, Netov slips out of the house early in the morning and goes on visits. Having received useful instructions from his uncle, the "manufactory king" Alexei Timofeevich Vzlomtsev, he goes to his other relative, Kapiton Feofilaktovich Krasnopery, who is famous among entrepreneurs for his rude arrogance and demonstrative Slavophilism. It is extremely unpleasant for Netov to have any kind of business with the “lousy” Krasnoper, but there is no way out: it is necessary to coordinate the interests of all potential heirs of the dying patriarch of the Moscow merchant class, Konstantin Glebovich Leshchov. To Leshchov, therefore, the last visit of Evlampy Grigorievich this morning. But even here it’s bad luck: having learned that neither Vzlomtsev nor Netov, fearing scandalous consequences, do not want to become his executors, Leshchov kicks out Evlampy Grigorievich, scolds his wife, his lawyer, rewrites his will again and again, establishing a special school in one of the points which will bear his name. And the timid, many times humiliated in a few hours, Yevlampy Grigorievich hurries home, to meet his adored, but despising wife. And he learns that Maria Orestovna, it turns out, has already firmly decided to leave him for the winter, for a year, and maybe forever, having gone abroad alone. Moreover, she demands that her husband finally transfer part of his fortune to her name. Shaken to the depths of his soul by this news, Netov does not even dare to be jealous when he sees Paltusov on his way to visit Maria Orestovna. They have recently begun to see each other often, although the motives for their rapprochement are different: Netova is clearly driven by a heartfelt inclination, and Paltusov is just a hunting passion, since the feminine charms of Maria Orestovna do not bother him in the least and, as he himself admits, there is no respect in him either. to the "noble philistines", nor to any of the new Moscow bourgeoisie at all. Nevertheless, he readily assumes the duties of Maria Orestovna's chargé d'affaires. Netov, in turn, confidentially informs Paltusov that he intends to give his wife fifty thousand annual allowances and, obviously trying on imminent loneliness, starts talking about the fact that he, too, they say, is tired of walking "on the leash" all his life and it's time to take his fate into your own hands. The courage that has suddenly awakened prompts the usually embarrassed Yevlampy Grigorievich to perform very well at Leshchov's funeral. Maria Orestovna is told about this success by her brother Nikolai Orestovich Ledenshchikov, who works without much brilliance in the diplomatic field, and this slightly reconciles her with her husband. In addition, Madame Netova understands that, having parted with Yevlampy Grigorievich, she will immediately receive her "insignificant" brother as parasites. Her resolve is shaken, and besides, the doctor who came to the call unexpectedly hints to Maria Orestovna that she, perhaps, will soon become a mother. Netov, having learned about this, goes crazy with joy, and Maria Orestovna ... "It was not the desired birth of a healthy child that presented itself to her, but her own death ..." Two months later, during the Christmas week, the action is transferred to a one-story house on Spiridonovka, where, under the guidance of eighty-year-old Katerina Petrovna, the vast noble Dolgushin family lives almost in poverty. Katerina Petrovna's daughter lost her legs after her dissolute youth; the son-in-law, having retired as a general, squandered, indulging in more and more new scams, not only his own funds, but also mother-in-law; grandchildren Petya and Nika didn't work out... One hope is for the twenty-two-year-old granddaughter Tasya, who dreams of a theatrical stage, but, unfortunately, does not even have money for her studies. Having humiliatedly begged for a loan of seven hundred rubles from her brother Nika, who once again hit a good jackpot in cards, Tasya asks for advice and support, first from an old friend of the house, Ivan Alekseevich Pirozhkov, and then from her distant relative Andrei Dmitrievich Paltusov. They anxiously look at Tasia's theatrical future, but they understand that in another way the young dowry, perhaps, cannot escape from the family "dead". Therefore, Pirozhkov, in order for the girl to form an idea of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbthe acting life, takes her to a theater club, and Paltusov promises to introduce her to the actress Grusheva, from whom Tasya could take lessons in the future. Paltusov himself continues to travel around the "circles" of post-reform Moscow, with particular sadness visiting the "catacombs", as he calls the old noble Povarskaya, Prechistenka, Sivtsev Vrazhek, where the ruined and degenerated nobility lives out its days. Having met with the forty-year-old Princess Kuratova, he passionately proves to her that the nobility has already left the historical stage and the future belongs to businessmen, whose fathers crossed their foreheads with two fingers, but whose children, on the other hand, go out in Paris with the crown princes, start villas, museums, patronize people of art. Feeling like a "pioneer" in the world of capital, Paltusov readily meets with a variety of people - for example, with an elderly landowner and admirer of Schopenhauer Kulomzov, who, almost the only one in the nobility, retained his fortune, but even then thanks to usury. The "Epicurean" Pirozhkov is especially sweet and pleasant to Andrey Dmitrievich. On January 12, Tatyana's day, they go to the university together for a celebration, have lunch at the Hermitage, have dinner at Strelna, and end the evening at Grachevka, famous for its brothels. Having lost faith that Paltusov would ever fulfill his promise to bring her to the actress Grusheva, Tasya Dolgushina arrives at Madame Gougeot's furnished rooms, where Pirozhkov lives, and turns to him with the same request. Ivan Alekseevich would be glad to make friends, but he does not want, as he says, to take a sin on the soul, introducing a noble girl into an inappropriate society. The enraged Tasya independently finds out Grusheva's address and comes to her without any recommendations. Wanting to test the future student, Grusheva tells her to play a scene from A. N. Ostrovsky's "Jokers" in front of the artist Rogachev and playwright Smetankin. The spark of God seems to have been discovered in Tas, and the girl is left to listen to a new comedy composed by Smetankin. Tasha is happy. And Pirozhkov at this time is already trying to help Madame Gougeot - the landlord "from the merchants" Gordey Paramonovich decided to dismiss this venerable Frenchwoman from the position of manager of furnished rooms, and sell the house. Nothing good comes of Ivan Alekseevich’s troubles, then he turns to Paltusov for support, who has recently moved from furnished rooms to his own apartment near Chistye Prudy. Paltusov is glad to serve his friend. In addition, the case with Madame Gougeot once again confirms his theory that the "vahlak" merchant puts his paw on everything in Moscow, and, therefore, "our brother" - a nobleman and intellectual, must finally take up his mind so as not to be eaten . Having resorted to the mediation of Kalakutsky in negotiations with Gordey Paramonovich, Andrei Dmitrievich soon realizes that his "principal" has gone too far in financial speculation and that from now on it is more profitable for him not to serve as Kalakutsky's "agents", but to open his own business. Having made this decision, Paltusov goes to a benefit performance at the Maly Theater, where, having met with Anna Serafimovna Stanitsyna, he comes to the conclusion that she is much more decent, smarter and "more thoroughbred" than Maria Orestovna Netova, who finally left abroad and, as they say, fell ill. Having entered into a conversation with Anna Serafimovna during the intermission, Andrei Dmitrievich is convinced that she is not indifferent to him. Among other things, the conversation turns to the fate of the Dolgushin family. It turns out that Tasina's paralyzed mother has died, her father-general has become a guard at a tobacco factory, and Tasya herself, barely distracted from the actress Grusheva's society, which is dangerous for a decent girl, is in dire need of earnings. Touched by this news, Anna Serafimovna volunteers to take Tasya to her as a reader until the time comes for her to enter the conservatory. The next evening, Stanitsyna and Paltusov, as if by chance, meet again - already at a symphony concert in the hall of the Noble Assembly. Andrei Dmitrievich is not averse to getting even closer to the charming merchant's wife, but he is stopped by people's rumors. They will probably say that he nestled near the straw widow-"millionaire", while in fact he does not need "woman's money"; he, Paltusov, will make his own way. Heightened scrupulousness and delicacy prevent Anna Serafimovna and Andrei Dmitrievich from explaining themselves in mutual cordial friendliness. They part, agreeing, however, to see each other at a ball at the merchants Rogozhins. In the meantime, having learned that Kalakutsky has finally gone bankrupt, Paltusov goes to visit him. He is driven not only by a friendly feeling, but, to be honest, also by the hope of snatching the most profitable contracts from the former "principal". These plans are not destined to come true, because in Kalakutsky's house he finds a police officer: Sergey Stepanovich has just shot himself. Paltusov is both saddened and excited by the dream, secretly using the money entrusted to him by Maria Orestovna, to take possession of the highly profitable house of his late employer. This dream is so persistent that, having met Stanitsyna at the Rogozhin ball, Paltusov barely notices it. Now the beautiful Countess Dallaire is spinning his head, and even more so is the thought that he is about to, temporarily going to a dishonest act, become a full member of the "family" of the most moneyed people in Moscow. Anna Serafimovna, understandably, plucking up desperate courage, invites Andrei Dmitrievich to her carriage and ... throws herself with kisses on his neck, but soon, however, ashamed, she comes to her senses. The lovers part: she - with thoughts of her shame, he - with faith in a quick enrichment. The action of the fifth book of the novel begins with the emancipated daughter of the Stanitsyn aunt Lyubasha. Noticing that her "brother", and in fact a distant, betrayed relative, Senya Rubtsov, "breathes unevenly" in relation to Tasa, who plays the role of a reader under Anna Serafimovna, the young "Darwinist from the merchants" understands that she herself is in love. "Youth", flirting and diving, spends whole days in Stanitsyna's house. But Anna Serafimovna is not up to them. Having learned that the dismissed husband once again issued counterfeit bills, according to which, so that there would be no shame, she would have to pay, she decides to divorce Viktor Mironovich, freeing herself for a dreamed-up and, it seems, such a possible marriage with Paltusov. Yes, things need attention. Having hired the sensible Senya to be his director, Stanitsyna, together with him, with Lyubasha and Tasya, goes to his own factory, where, according to the German manager, a strike is supposedly brewing. The visitors examine the spinning shops, the "barracks" where the workers live, the factory school and make sure that there is "no smell" of a strike, since the situation in Anna Serafimovna's possessions is not bad at all. But things are very bad in the Netovs' house. Maria Orestovna returned from a foreign voyage dying, struck by anton fire, but Yevlampy Grigorievich no longer feels either her former love or former fear towards her. However, Netova does not see any changes in her husband, whose consciousness is clearly clouded, since, as they say in their environment, he has long been suffering from progressive paralysis. Disappointed that Paltusov never fell in love with her as she should, she dreams of impressing her chosen one with her own generosity, making him either her executor or, what the hell is not joking, her heir. Maria Orestovna sends for him, but they cannot find Andrei Dmitrievich, and, out of vexation, without leaving a will, Maria Orestovna dies. According to the law, the entire inheritance passes, therefore, to her husband and her "insignificant" brother Ledenshchikov. And then, finally, Paltusov appears. It turns out that he was ill, but Ledenshchikov, who entered into the inheritance, not wanting to enter into any circumstances, demands that Andrei Dmitrievich immediately return the five hundred thousand that the late Maria Orestovna entrusted to him to manage. Paltusov, who secretly disposed of a fair amount of this amount at his own discretion, was struck to the very heart: after all, "everything was so well calculated with him." He flies for a loan to Osetrov - and receives a decisive refusal from the person whom he considers his ideal; going to Stanitsina for help - and stops himself, because it is unbearable for him to be indebted to a woman; he fantasizes about how, for the sake of money, he will strangle the old money-lender and Schopenhauerite Kulomzov - and is immediately ashamed; he thinks about suicide - and does not find the strength to do so ... All this ends, as expected, first with a written undertaking not to leave, and then with the arrest of Paltusov, who has fallen into a trap. Having learned about this from Tasi, who was confused and did not know what to do, Anna Serafimovna immediately orders a carriage to be brought in and goes to the prison, where Andrei Dmitrievich has been held for the third day already. She is ready to pay the bail, to get all the required amount, but Paltusov nobly refuses, because he decided to "suffer". He, according to the lawyer Pakhomov, "looks at himself as a hero," all of whose actions in competition with the merchant's moshnoy are not only permissible, but also morally justified. Pirozhkov, visiting Andrei Dmitrievich in captivity, is not quite sure that he is right, but Paltusov is insistent: "... I am a child of my century" - and the century, they say, requires a fairly "broad view of conscience." The investigation into the case of embezzlement continues, and Stanitsyna and the "youth" celebrate Easter in the Kremlin. All of them are concerned: Anna Serafimovna - with the fate of Andrei Dmitrievich, Tasya - with her failed theatrical career, Lyubasha with the fact that "the noblewoman recaptured from her the one whom she expected to be her husband." Viktor Mironovich unexpectedly appears at Stanitsyna’s house at breaking the fast - he, having “jumped” abroad into some kind of touchy, he himself offers Anna Serafimovna a divorce, and she, at the mere recollection of Paltusov, who is languishing in prison, becomes “so much fun that she even took her breath away "Freedom! When was it more needed than now?" A happy ending awaits Tasya too: while visiting the Tretyakov Gallery, Senya Rubtsov offers her his hand and heart. Everything is slowly arranged to everyone's pleasure, and now Ivan Alekseevich Pirozhkov, already walking along Prechistensky Boulevard, sees a carriage in which Andrei Dmitrievich, released by her troubles, sits next to Anna Serafimovna. It's time to go to the "Moscow" tavern, where, as in countless other restaurants of the capital city, "hosts" from the leading merchants in the country gather for their feast of winners, and the musical machine crackles deafeningly the victorious choir: "Glory, glory, holy Rus'! " S. I. Chuprinin Vsevolod Vladimirovich Krestovsky (1840-1895) Petersburg slums Roman (1864-1867) On May 5, 1838, a young woman throws a newborn girl into the house of Prince Dmitry Shadursky. The thirty-eight-year-old prince was little surprised by the appearance of a foundling; knowing the way of life of the prince, he does not see anything strange in this and his wife Tatyana Lvovna. Shadursky decides to get rid of the girl and goes for advice to General von Shpilze, a famous St. Petersburg lady of dubious origin, who knows everyone and everything and knows how to arrange any business in a variety of ways. The mother of a newborn girl, twenty-five-year-old Princess Anna Chechevinskaya, is looking forward to the return of her maid Natasha in a secret shelter, whom she instructed to take his illegitimate child to the prince. Princess Anna was brought up in the countryside, with a drinking father. There she also met her neighbor, Prince Shadursky, who had come for three months and had seduced a beautiful girl out of nothing to do. Anna's father died unexpectedly, and, being pregnant, she was forced to move to St. Petersburg, to 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 with a message about 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 in order for him to place the child in good hands - and also forgets about the existence of her son. Anna Chechevinskaya, who came to her for her child, Shadurskaya arrogantly kicks out, 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 brought up from birth by Major Spitz, not knowing parental affection, although his father, who lived in the neighborhood, visited him. Mordenko got him into a theater school, from which Ivan was released as incapable of dumb roles. He also earned his bread by sculpting plaster figures for street vendors. Ivan lived separately from Mordenko, who did nothing to help his son. Since the time of expulsion from the house of Shadursky, Mordenko had a single secret passion: to take revenge on the prince for a slap in the face, and on the princess for contempt. In order to make capital, he began to lend money at interest; his 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 usurer. Ivan was arrested, fell into the society of murderers and bandits and survived in prison only thanks to the intercession of one of them, Ramzi. Released, Ivan had neither housing nor funds, which is why he was forced to spend the night in a barque. His paths with Masha Po-vetina 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. On the Fontanka embankment, the crowd mocks Chukha. To the general laughter, the completely drunk Chukha calls herself Princess Chechevinskaya. This is heard by Count Nikolai Kallash, passing by, and, amazed, takes her to his luxurious house. In a conversation with a sober Chukha, Kallash's real name is revealed: this is her own brother, Prince Nikolai Chechevinsky. In the heart of a swindler and gambler, pity and love for his sister awakens. He promises that she will be the wife of the prince who once dishonored her. Nikolai hires a doctor who slowly poisons Tatyana Lvovna Shadurskaya. With the help of a clever adventure carried out by Baroness von Dering, Nikolai forces the widowed Shadursky to marry his sister. Anna forces the prince to tell who he gave her daughter to. Nikolai Chechevinsky helps his sister get an answer from the general's wife von Shpilze, whom Shadursky points out. Anna is horrified to learn that the girl Masha, whom she saved from suicide, was her daughter. She rushes in search of her daughter, but finds her dying of consumption, to which Masha's terrible life in a brothel has brought her. Ivan Veresov is also present at Masha's funeral. Soon he bequeaths to Anna Chechevinskaya the money he has left and shoots himself. He is buried in a cemetery for suicides and animals, next to the grave of his mother's beloved dog, Princess Shadurskaya. 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. T. A. Sotnikova Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky (1843-1902) Morals of Rasteryaeva Street Essays (1886) In the city of T., on the wretched and dirty Rasteryaeva Street, many poor people live: petty officials, philistines, artisans. Among them - a young pistol master Prokhor Porfirych. He is "of the noble": the illegitimate son of a master, a police official. But the origin did not make Prokhor's life easier. Glafira, Prokhor's mother, was "relegated" by the gentleman to a cook, and the boy was sent to study with a drunken master, where he had to endure both hunger and beatings. Then Prokhor tried to do business with his friend, but after a drunken quarrel, he broke off relations with him and began to work alone. Prokhor Porfirych considers all other artisans no equal to himself, despising them for drunkenness and ignorance (and these shortcomings are really characteristic of them: the absence of any interests in life and hopeless poverty push a person into a tavern). Porfirych himself is restrained and prudent. He is in no hurry to carry the acquired money to the kisser. Prokhor Porfirych dreams of getting rich by using the universal "foolishness" and "perekabylstvo" (from the word "kaby") for his own purposes. The old gentleman, Prokhor's father, is dying. The son derives all possible benefits from his death: he attaches some of the things and inherits even more than he should. her. Prokhor Porfirych acquires a cook and a drunken apprentice named Krivonogov, who does most of the work for him. Porfirych profits from the people around him in various ways. He buys products for nothing from those craftsmen who urgently need money to get drunk. He robs the good-natured and stupid shopkeeper Lubkov (buys things from Lubkov cheaper, sells them at a higher price), does not shy away from Porfirych and pandering: he finds a "girl" for Kapiton Ivanych, the owner of a steel products shop, and for this he gets the opportunity to sell him his pistols at a good price. In his free time, Prokhor Porfirych visits his familiar officials, among whom are Yegor Matveich Bogobortsev and state general Kalachov. Bogobortsev is indifferent to everything except raising chickens. And everyone, including Porfirych, considers General Kalachov to be an unusually ferocious person, while this is simply a misunderstanding. The general is trying to bring at least some order and meaning to life, which causes horror and rejection in his family. He wants, for example, to cut down a willow, which destroys the surrounding garden trees, while the wife believes that her husband wants to spite her to cut down her beloved tree. Another "remarkable personality" of Rasteryaeva Street is the military clerk Khripushin, who is known in the city as a "medic". Actually, he pretends to be a "doctor" in order to visit many houses, have a drink everywhere and have conversations. Khripushin cannot sit at home: a pugnacious schismatic wife kicks him out. Often he comes to Tomilinsky Lane and visits the Preterpeev family. Spouses Artamon Ilyich and Avdotya Karpovna Preterpeev run the economy economically, save up dowries for their daughters. They lived in perfect harmony until the wife decided to send her eldest daughter Olimpiada to a boarding school. The "educated" girl began to strive for social life, three younger sisters imitate her in this. Parents indulged their daughters until their household fell into complete decline. However, they have to endure not only poverty: the young ladies Preterpeeva became the subject of slander and ridicule for everyone around. With grief, the father of the family begins to drink, falls ill and soon dies. The official Tolokonnikov, who lives on Rasteryaeva Street, pays attention to the Preterpeevs. He becomes their benefactor: he sends food supplies, gives gifts. The Preterpeevs think that he wants to marry one of the young ladies. But this is not so: Tolokonnikov simply wants to be revered, to be feared. It is not enough for him to have power over his cook - he wants to acquire the same power over the Preterpeevs. To do this, he even decides to rent a house from them. The Preterpeians please him in every possible way, and his treatment of them becomes more and more unceremonious and despotic. He constantly arranges scenes for the unfortunate family, so that her life flows in constant fear of Tolokonnikov. Finally, the Preterpeevs begin to rebel: they invite another friend to visit. Tolokonnikov drives away from them in a rage and takes all his gifts. The Preterpeev family is again in poverty, and Tolokonnikov marries an ugly girl, whose main advantage he sees in the fact that she is "intimidated", that is, frightened by life to the last degree. The inhabitants of Rasteryaeva Street are wary of books. They consider the fate of an orphan named Alifan to be instructive. He, having memorized the alphabet with great zeal, read the book "The Journey of Captain Cook." The book made a huge impression on him. Alifan peddles small things (and an absent-minded and dreamy guy does not know how to trade) and tells everyone about Captain Cook. These stories make him a laughingstock. He is considered crazy. But all the same, the Rasteryaevites do not despise all education. So, they have great respect for Pelageya Petrovna Balkanova, or Balkanikha, who is very knowledgeable in church matters. Balkanikha is a respectable and stern woman. Her husband was extremely afraid of her. There is a rumor in the city that he died of fear when his wife caught him secretly eating jam. The widowed Balkanika was wooed by the tradesman Drykin, who got rich in some dark business. Having discovered an extraordinary mind in Balkanikh, Drykin got scared and married the young Nenila. After the wedding, Drykin immediately "pacified" the obstinate wife. She became completely submissive, but quietly began to hate her husband. When Drykin went blind, Nenila felt free. She does not take care of the household, she spends money on outfits and beats her husband. Balkanikha visits the Drykin spouses and quarrels them even more. One of the residents of Balkanikha is the cabman Nikita. The hostess constantly instructs him on the true path. Each time, Nikita sincerely promises to improve and not to drink again, but nothing comes of these good intentions. Pelageya Petrovna has an adopted son, Kuzka. He is "fed and lulled", nothing interests his bored soul. At seventeen, Kuzka is as unreasonable as a child. One day Kuzka and Prokhor Porfirych went on a pilgrimage to the neighboring village of Three. There Kuzka drinks a quarter of beer on a bet and dies of unaccustomed to alcohol. And Prokhor Porfirych on a pilgrimage finds his bride - Raisa Karpovna. She is the kept woman of Captain Burtsev; the captain leaves and promises to give one and a half thousand (moreover, before the wedding) to the one who marries Raisa Karpovna. Upon learning of this, Prokhor Porfirych decides to marry. He is very pleased with the good deal. The bride is happy and grateful to her groom. O. V. Butkova Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky (1852-1906) Garin-Mikhailovsky's tetralogy is a single plot narrative unfolding in chronological sequence, the starting point of which is the 70s. XIX century. The place of action is the city of Odessa. Moreover, a direct indication in the text of the place of the events described is made by the author only in the fourth part of the tetralogy - in the story "Engineers". In the first two books, a certain seaside town appears, and in "Students" the hero's homeland is called the Novorossiysk Territory. The four-part narrative of Garin-Mikhailovsky is primarily a story about the seventeen years of the life of the central character (in the first part he is eight years old; in the fourth - twenty-five) Themes (Artemy Nikolaevich) Kartashev; about the process of gradual development and formation of a person with all the ups and downs, organically built into the general family history (the subtitle of the first three parts is "From the family chronicle"). Childhood Themes Tale (1892) The action takes place in the Kartashevs' house. The head of the family is retired General Nikolai Semenovich Kartashev. The stern character and bearing of the Nikolaev General Kartashev Sr. give a very definite direction to the upbringing of children, among whom Theme, the eldest in a family of boys, turns out to be the main "igniter of the usual excitement", which means that his pranks become the subject of the closest attention of his father, who resists "sentimental "raising a son who "produces" a "nasty slobber" out of him. However, Tema's mother, Aglaida Vasilievna, a smart and finely educated woman, holds a different view on the upbringing of her own son. In her opinion, any educational measures should not destroy the child's human dignity, turn him into a "fouled beast", intimidated by the threat of corporal punishment. Eight-year-old Theme, finding himself between the two poles of understanding parental duty and explaining his actions to himself and others, tries to predict the reaction of each of the parents. Such is the first meeting with the hero, when, having accidentally broken his father's favorite flower, he cannot honestly admit his deed: the fear of the father's cruelty exceeds the trust in maternal justice. This is the reason for all the subsequent "feats" of the hero: the unthinkable gallop on the stallion Gnedko, the torn skirt of the bonne, the broken sudok and, finally, the stolen sugar - the whole "tale of a sad day" - the first day of the story, ending for Theme with a severe father's punishment. The unkind memory of such executions will remain with Theme for many years to come. So, after almost twenty years, accidentally finding himself in his own home, he recalls the place where he was flogged, and his own feeling for his father, "hostile, never reconciled." In this early period, it is important for Tema’s mother that, “despite all the hustle and bustle of feelings” and the variety of childhood impressions that give rise not only to whims, but also to the most thoughtless actions, a warm heart sits in her son’s chest. The attentive but demanding love of Aglaida Vasilievna resonates in the soul of the boy, who readily tells her the story of his misfortunes. After a sincere confession and repentance, Theme experiences especially lofty feelings, but being in an emotionally excited state from the physical suffering he endured, the result of which is the subsequent illness, he shows thoughtless courage and commits a truly courageous act. The "bad-smoking minion" reminisces about his beloved little dog Zhuchka. Having learned from the nanny that "some Herod" threw her into an old well, Theme, first in a dream, and then in reality, saves her pet. Memories of a feeling of disgust from contact with the "stinking surface" and "mucous walls of a half-rotten log house" remained in the memory of Theme for a long time. This episode will turn out to be such a strong emotional impression that in the future, through the prism of what happened to him on that memorable summer night, the hero interprets all the most difficult circumstances of his own life (for example, in the third part of the tetralogy, the hero falls ill with syphilis - in a farewell note to his mother, he compares himself with the Beetle, thrown into a well). Then Temina's "exploits" end with an ice compress, feverish delirium and several weeks of serious illness. However, the healthy body of the child takes over - recovery follows, and the warm, reconciling autumn weather creates such a mood in the hero when "everything around is the same", "everything pleases with its monotony" and again there is an opportunity "to live one common life". The recovery of Thema coincides with another important event, apart from pre-gymnasium expectations and preparations. Theme is allowed to visit the "rented yard", a wasteland rented out by Kartashev's father, where he could "run around with the kids" all day long, "surrender to the sensations of the life of his new friends": their games of "jigu" (a type of spinning top), forays into the cemetery and walks to the sea. So another two years of free life passed, and "the gymnasium arrived in time." The topic survives the exam in the first grade - the first fears of the "fierce Latinist" and the adoration of the good-natured teacher of natural history begin, the sharpness of the first friendly experiences arises. But gradually the emotional upsurge is replaced by a more even, everyday mood, and the days drag on, "colorless in their monotony, but also strong and irrevocable in their results." Against the background of general cognitive impressions, of particular importance is the acquisition of a friend in the person of Ivanov's "kind and meek" classmate, who, in comparison with Tema, turns out to be a rather well-read boy. Thanks to him, in the second grade, Kartashev reads Mine Reed and Gogol. However, after an unpleasant story, Ivanov is expelled from the gymnasium, and the friendship between them ends: not only because of the lack of common interests, but also because Ivanov becomes a witness to the cowardly act of his friend. For Theme, this ordeal does not end with a break with Ivanov: in the class, he gets a reputation as a "betrayer", and he has to endure several days of "heavy loneliness". However, Tema will still meet Ivanov in his life, while studying in St. Petersburg, and meanwhile he makes new friends, with whom, full of adventurous and romantic dreams, he plans to escape to America so as not to go "the beaten path of a vulgar life." Buddies who are keen on building a boat for a sea voyage show significantly less zeal for learning. The result of this is negative grades in the gymnasium magazine. The theme hides its "successes" from the family, so subsequent events turn out to be a complete surprise for them. "America didn't burn out"; the company earned the nickname "Americans", and meanwhile the time of examinations approached, when general idleness was discovered. The fear of failing the exams gives rise to various fantasies in Kartashev, among which is the thought of "suicide" by "swallowing matches", which ended happily and without consequences. Theme passes exams and moves to the third grade. It was at this time that Theme came closer to his father, who became softer, more affectionate and more and more sought the company of the family. The previously laconic Kartashev Sr. tells his son about "campaigns, comrades, battles." But the strong body of Nikolai Semenovich begins to betray him, and soon the noisy and cheerful house of the Kartashevs is filled with "the sobs of an orphaned family." This sad event ends the first part of the tetralogy, and in the second book - "Gymnasium students" - the reader meets Tema Kartashev, a sixth grade student. Gymnasium students Tale (1893) It is in this part of the story that the main circle of friends of the protagonist develops (a company consisting of Kartashev, Kornev, Dolba, Berendi, Lario and Darcier) and common interests with them. The initial confrontation ("Kartashev's party" - "Kornev's party") of the two most authoritative and respected students in the class develops into a rapprochement between them, and then into true friendship, despite the ongoing disputes "decidedly about everything." At the same time, Kartashev has the most conflicting feelings. On the one hand, Kornev’s erudition, whose track record includes Pisarev, Bokl, Belinsky, and firmness in judgments and assessments, cannot but inspire respect in him, but, on the other hand, wanting to maintain his own point of view, Tema tries to limit Kornev’s influence on your mental life. Only after reading all the books necessary for a "progressive young man" did Kartashev and Kornev "creep into equality". Soon Kartashev will become a frequent guest in the Kornevs' house and even fall in love with his friend's younger sister. However, Pisarev's gymnasium hobbies, the religious doubts that Tema has as a result of communication with Kornev, come into conflict with the values of the Kartashev family. Aglaida Vasilievna tries to welcome her son's comrades, especially Kornev, in order to have a direct opportunity to know about the direction of their thoughts and interests. Her mind, attentive attitude to each of Kartashev's friends, as well as the cordiality with which guests are received, turn out to be attractive to the whole company, which is going to publish a gymnasium magazine by analogy with the periodicals that existed at that time. Moreover, each of the participants in the future journal set an individual creative task. For example, Berendya undertook "to prove historically that the Russian race follows the common human path in the cause of progress." Dolba decides to popularize the ideas of Focht, Moleschott and Büchner in Pisarev's transcription due to the lack of translations from the originals. The topic poses a more "utilitarian" task. He decides to write an article about the dangers of classical education. After the release of the magazine, they get to know him not only in the gymnasium - the pages, rewritten in an even, neat handwriting, were brought home by Kartashev. However, Tema's mother was delighted with the logically developing thought in Kornev's article, and her own son's opus only upset Aglaida Vasilievna, and in the gymnasium they spoke exclusively about the articles of Kornev, Dolba and Berendi - they were silent about Kartashev. Nevertheless, wounded pride does not prevent Theme from continuing to take part in general comradely disputes. Through Berendya, the company gets acquainted with drunken technician and teacher. The discussion about the fate of these people develops into a heated debate about earthly happiness, about the altruistic ideal of life, "which is inaccessible to either the dirty hands of a rogue or fatal accidents." But in the face of Aglaida Vasilievna, Theme does not find sympathy for the arguments about the "truth of the tavern." His mother tells him about the ability to distinguish "the delirium of a degraded drunkard from the truth", to fight not with people, but with their delusions, with the evil in them. Relationships in the Kornev family are built differently. Unlike Theme, parental influence on Kornev is limited to observance of external decency - regardless of the religious views of the son, the father requires a visit to church. In the Kartashev family, Kornev is treated somewhat wary, but with constant interest. Therefore, they readily confirm the invitation made by Tema to Kornev, after passing the exams, to spend a vacation in their village, where friends can enjoy life "in a pleasant idleness." However, Theme and Kornev not only rest, but also try to get acquainted with the life of the peasants. To do this, friends communicate a lot with the village priest and the seemingly prosperous landowner Neruchev, who later becomes the husband of Kartashev's elder sister Zina. Their family life will turn out unhappily, and then Zina, already the mother of three children, will leave them in the care of Aglaida Vasilievna, and she herself will be tonsured in Jerusalem as a nun. But then the time spent in the gymnasium turns out to be one of the brightest episodes in the life of each of the young people: the mother and sisters of the Kartashevs are fascinated by the mind and talents of Kornev (he sings well and has an undoubted artistic gift). The return to the city and the beginning of the new academic year was also the beginning of subsequent sad events in the fate of some of the heroes of the story. During the summer, Berendya, living as a hermit and meeting only with "drunkards", especially (before that, the whole company was not averse to drinking sometimes) became addicted to vodka. In addition, the following incident occurred in the gymnasium: after a literary evening, a Latinist denounced a history teacher, beloved by the students, who delivered a speech at that evening about the need for changes in the education system, was forced to resign. Berendya and Rylsky turned out to be the main instigators of the obstruction arranged by the gymnasium students for the scammer. Their expulsion from the gymnasium followed, which became fatal for Berendi. Finally entangled in money and love relationships, unfairly accused of murder, Berendya commits suicide. His death makes a "stunning impression" at the gymnasium. At the funeral, Dolba makes a speech that almost becomes the reason for his expulsion, and only the intercession of Kartashev, who was a relative of the new governor-general appointed to the city, saves him from the sad fate of Berendi and Rylsky. By the way, the latter, who was considered the most beautiful in the company and was the fiancé of Natasha Korneva, Vasya Kornev's sister (only Kartashev, who at that time was in love with Natasha, was privy to the secret of this "engagement"), goes abroad forever. The "drunkards", whose names, along with the name of Berendi, appeared in the case of a murder that took place in the city, were expelled from Odessa. In addition, the educational reform that began led to changes in the lives of each of the high school students. Classical education was no longer limited to seven years - an additional (eighth) year of study was introduced. But for those who passed the final exams, the gymnasium time ended this year. The whole company "with fear and trembling" was preparing for the exams, firmly deciding to finish the gymnasium at all costs. Exam tests are happily completed for both Theme and all his comrades. Students Tale (1895) Preparations for departure to the capital begins the third part of the trilogy. The main character - Theme Kartashev is full of dreams about how he "becomes serious, will study, be a scientist", and for his loved ones this is the time of regrets about the ideal Theme that they wanted to see and whom they loved. After a month's stay in the countryside, after careful monthly preparations, Kartashev, Kornev, Lario, Darcier and Shatsky, who joined the company during the final exams, leave for St. Petersburg to study. For Theme, leaving for St. Petersburg means "settling accounts with a past life", with everything that "has become vulgar <…>, made it everyday". Arriving in St. Petersburg, the company dispersed - everyone entered different educational institutions: Theme - at the Faculty of Law of the University, Kornev - at the Medical and Surgical Academy, Shatsky - at the Institute of Communications. Tema's first impression of St. Petersburg was strong and pleasant, but then it gave way to a feeling of loneliness, boredom and alienation. Waiting for the beginning of the academic year at the university becomes tedious for Kartashev, but even more painful is the impression of the "bottomless chaos of the first lecture." Kartashev, who read Boyle, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov and, according to his own ideas, reached incredible heights of learning, does not understand what is said in the lectures. Lacking regular and equal communication, Kartashev is in a depressed state due to new sensations and experiences that have flooded him. Unlike Kartashev, Kornev, despite even the first failure in the entrance exam, turns out to be more adapted to independent living. Entering the academy with great difficulty, he intelligently arranges his life, "subscribes to read books", makes a certain circle of acquaintances from among those students with whom he regularly meets in the kitchen where he dine. Later, Kornev would also introduce Kartashev to the members of this circle, among whom would be Kartashev's old school friend Ivanov. But during the first time in St. Petersburg, old friends communicate quite rarely. This is the reason for the rapprochement between the Theme and Shatsky. Kartashev's plans to catch up, to study hard - to read Hegel and others - remain unrealized, and all academic studies end with Shatsky reading Rocambol, the author of popular adventurous novels, and participating in various entertainments and hoaxes of Shatsky, who became famous for them back in the gymnasium. The adventures of Shatsky's Petersburg period, and with him his new friend Kartashev, turn out to be less harmless. The financial affairs of friends due to frequent visits to the operetta theater and other entertainment venues soon fall into a deplorable state. After the sale of all the more or less valuable things of both Shatsky and Kartashev, and the completely impoverished Lario, after repeated requests for help from relatives, Kartashev has a rather significant debt, which he is unable to pay off on his own. But gradually the theme gets bored with entertainment; Shatsky turns into "the former" idiot "for him (his gymnasium nickname), and after a major quarrel between friends, Kartashev moves to a new apartment, decides to radically change his lifestyle, communicates more with Kornev. Trips to the operetta are replaced by opera performances (opera is a long-standing Kornev's hobby), and a volume of Goethe appears on Kartashev's table instead of Rocambole. He works hard and, although we are tormented by doubts about his own talent and the value of his "writings", he decides to show what he has written to Kornev. A friend expresses a balanced and responsible judgment. He believes that Theme has already "understood the turmoil of life", but still does not have a "philosophical basis" for creativity, and calls him "a corn master". Embarrassed by his friend's grades, Tema nevertheless returns to writing experiments during the exams. He comes up with the idea of a story about a needy student who, unable to bear his plight, throws himself out of a window on Easter. Having finished the story, he takes it to the Delo magazine, and two weeks later he learns about the refusal of the editors to print it. In addition, Tema, without passing the first exam, submits a letter of resignation from the university. Again approaches Shatsky. Sharing his "theory of the practice of life", he submits documents to the institute where his friend studies, also deciding to become an engineer. Having bought gymnasium textbooks in mathematics, Kartashev took up what he "considered had already been handed over forever to the archive of life." Shatsky's hectic lifestyle leads to the fact that he becomes seriously ill. Only thanks to the efforts of Kartashev, Shatsky receives medical assistance, and Lario, with whom his friends are quite actively communicating at that time, is the place of a tutor, which, however, does not contribute to improving his financial situation. Shortly after being expelled from the Technological Institute, which occurred as a result of student unrest and cost Lario and other students imprisonment in a transit prison, he was expelled from St. Petersburg. And Kartashev and Shatsky take exams: Theme is an introductory one, and Shatsky is a second-year student. Kartashev goes for a few days to his relatives, where everyone is satisfied with his decisive act and in chorus they prophesy a brilliant future. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, the theme was expected by ordinary institute life: lectures, work in drawing rooms. Without unequivocally joining any of the institute circles, which were more inclined "in the direction of fermentation of the heart than of the mind," Kartashev gives preference to the so-called "hollowed out" - the foppish majority of the institute. Despite his still gymnasium reputation as "red," Theme goes over to the side of "well-bred boys," in Kornev's words, speaking out against provoking riots at an institute ball. However, soon all institutional affairs fade into the background. Kartashev learns that all his many love affairs were not in vain and he is ill with syphilis. He is in a state close to suicide, but saving help comes from home. The mother's brother arrives - "the kindest uncle Mitya", - who, having paid all the debts of his nephew, having fairly argued with him about God and the difference in the views of "fathers" and "children", takes him home for treatment. The "roaring companion" arrives at his home with the feeling of being arrested. The depressed state is aggravated by the fact that Kartashev, ready for any maternal reproaches, turns out to be absolutely confused in front of the feeling of physical disgust that he caused in Aglaida Vasilyevna. to your future destiny. It is in this state that the author leaves his hero at the end of the third part of the tetralogy. Engineers Tale (1907) The reader is presented with a twenty-five-year-old young man, a graduate of the Institute of Communications, for whom something has happened, "which for fourteen years he has been striving for with thousands of risks of breaking loose." After graduating from the institute, Kartashev wants to find a job "where they don't take bribes." Full of such noble and utopian dreams, accompanied by Shatsky, with whom they will no longer meet, he leaves Petersburg, six years of life in which "flashed like six pages of a read book." Returning home did not refresh Kartashev: in relations with his mother, tension is felt; too much had changed in the house during his absence. In a political case, Manya Kartasheva ended up in the dock, quarrels with her older sister Zina's husband constantly affect the life of the family, in which even the youngest - Anya and Seryozha - graduate from the gymnasium. Due to the difficult financial situation, the Kartashevs do not live in the former spacious house, but rent a small apartment in the same mansion with the family of the chairman of the military court, Istomin, who took part in the fate of Manya. The subject tries to enter into the well-established life of the family, without opposing himself to religious principles (at the insistence of Aglaida Vasilievna and the sisters, he attends church), participates in solving family problems, and again begins to write. At the same time, Kartashev met with a relative of the Istomins, Adelaide Borisovna Voronova, who would become his bride. Kartashev's stay with his family was not too long. At the urging of his uncle, he is preparing for a trip "to the theater of operations" as an authorized representative for the delivery of carts to the front. However, once in Bendery, Kartashev, under patronage, gets a job as an intern at the construction of a local railway. For the protagonist, the days of "continuous, hard work" are coming. At the same time, Kartashev shows such zeal that his colleagues have to "cool the ardor" of the newly minted road builder. Self-esteem, as well as the satisfied consciousness that he can work, triples the strength of the protagonist. During the construction of the road, he meets the family of his former classmate Sikorsky, also a railway engineer who was educated in Ghent and much more experienced than Kartashev. In the engineering environment, Theme is taken for his own - "red", although he "had nothing to do with revolutionary circles, and even more so does not have." Shuttle between Bendery and Odessa on official business, Kartashev decides to communicate more closely with Manya, studying the program of the party, with which she still cooperates. He learns that his sister is a member of "Earth and Freedom". But while Kartashev continues to work so hard that "there is not enough day." And mentally he is directed to wonderful memories of Adelaide Borisovna. Kartashev's official career is progressing especially successfully: his salary is increased, he finds a sand pit that is so necessary for the construction of the road. This find strengthens his reputation as a "efficient and intelligent worker." After the completion of the construction of a section of the road located in the Bendery region and completed in an incredibly short time - within forty-three days - Kartashev gets a prestigious business trip to Bucharest, which, however, did not justify the ambitious hopes of the hero. From Bucharest he follows to Reni, where he continues to participate in construction. At first, he has a difficult relationship with the head of construction. The flood of the Danube, the collapses of the railroad tracks that followed, and attempts to save the road from final destruction made up the following pages in Kartashev's professional biography. He sets to work with even greater energy: he develops a ballast quarry, supervises the renewal of sleepers that have rotted as a result of the flood, which deserves the final trust of the construction manager, who shares his vast experience with him. After long, painful reflections, under pressure from his mother and sisters, Kartashev makes a "written proposal" to Adelaide Borisovna, written in "florid expressions." Having received a response telegram "from Delhi", Kartashev goes to Odessa by an emergency train, "full of happiness and terrible fear", thinking about the one "which seemed to him inaccessible", and now descended to "carry forever into the bright, pure world of love, truth , of good". But while the heroes are waiting for a three-month separation: Delhi is leaving to rest, and Kartashev is "tinkering with contractors", driving along the line, busy with correspondence with his superiors and petty reporting, but above all this is his future life with Delhi and the need to go to St. Petersburg, where he hopes "penetrate into <…> the mysterious administrations of road buildings." At the insistence of her mother, Kartashev is accompanied by Manya, who has her own plans related to her political activities, on a trip to St. Petersburg to "protect from harmful influences". She is not going to return home and have any future contact with her family. After parting in Tula, ten days later they meet for the last time in St. Petersburg. Manya tells Kartashev about the formation of the Narodnaya Volya party, whose activities are aimed at "fighting the regime." His brother's interest in radical ideas, however, does not mean for him a choice in favor of violent methods of social and political reconstruction. Thus, the fate of the hero, who appeared at the end of the story, as it were, at a crossroads, most likely, in the spirit of the destructive ideas prevailing in the public consciousness, should develop in accordance with the predictions of Aglaida Vasilievna Kartasheva: "If lawyers played such a prominent role in the French Revolution (it is worth recalling that Tema first studies at the Faculty of Law), then in ours, I'm sure engineers will play." T. M. Margulis Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak (1852-1912) Privalov millions Novel (1872-1877, publ. 1883) An event has taken place in the district Ural town of Uzle: after a long absence, a young millionaire Sergey Alexandrovich Privalov returns. His arrival introduces a noticeable variety into the life of the local matchmaker - Khionia Alekseevna Zaplatina, "a lady of indeterminate years with a faded face." She sees a profitable fiancé in Privalov and at first woo Nadezhda for him, the eldest daughter of a major gold miner Vasily Nazarich Bakharev, in whose family Sergey was also brought up. The late father of Sergei Alexander Privalov once worked with Bakharev at the mines. He was a well-known factory owner, however, living on a grand scale, he squandered the wealth accumulated by his ancestors. He was saved by his marriage to the daughter of the famous gold miner Gulyaev Varvara - Sergey's future mother. Together with his own daughter, Gulyaev also raised orphans, among whom were his beloved "Vasya and Masha" - Vasily Nazarych Bakharev and Marya Stepanovna. When they grew up, Gulyaev blessed them for the wedding, and soon they were married according to the schismatic ceremony. Later, four children were born to the Bakharevs: Kostya, Nadezhda, Verochka and Viktor. Marya Stepanovna, even in the Bakharev house, continued to sacredly honor the rites of the schismatics, which she had learned from the Gulyaevs, and was an ardent opponent of any innovations and education, considering it "basurmanism" and raising the practical Verochka in her own way, however, as well as the weak-minded Victor - a typical "sissy" ". Vasily Nazaritch, on the contrary, defended the education of children and found a kindred spirit in his eldest daughter Nadezhda. The stubborn Konstantin also turned out to be close to his father, although, having quarreled with him, he left immediately after the university as a manager at the Shatrov factories belonging to Privalov ... In a word, over the years, the Bakharev house was already "dramatically divided into two halves." Sergey also grew up in this family: when his mother died, Privalov Sr. asked Bakharev to take care of his son. Life in the Privalovs' house was unbearable: endless orgies, gypsy festivities and her husband's drunkenness drove Sergei's unfortunate mother to madness, and then to the grave. The widower married a gypsy Stesha, from whom he had two sons - Ivan and Tit. But Stesha took a lover - Sasha Kholostov and, in collusion with him, killed Privalov, presenting it as an accident. Then she married a lover, who, however, squandered the last capital and, if Bakharev had not intervened, would have sold the factories. Sasha was put on trial, and Stesha took her sons to Moscow. Bakharev, on the other hand, took care of Seryozha and "joined" his guardians. When Sergei was fifteen, he and Kostya were sent to study in St. Petersburg. And now, fifteen years later, Sergei is back in his hometown. The Baharevs accept him as their own son, and even though he himself is staying at a hotel, he feels at ease and calm with them, as if he had returned home after a long journey. Bakharev hopes that Sergei Aleksandrovich will follow in his footsteps and become a gold miner, but this is not for Privalov: he prefers the mill business, and he is not fit to continue the tradition. Bakharev's daughter Nadezhda amazes Privalov at first sight - not so much with beauty, but with special spiritual strength. However, the girl herself remains indifferent to the groom: she is disgusted by the imposed role of the bride of a millionaire. Meanwhile, the matchmaker Khionia Alekseevna, building her own plans for Privalov, settles him in her house: she is not yet sure who she will marry for him, but the very neighborhood of the owner of millions leads Madame Zaplatin was delighted (even if only the Shatrovka factories remained of the millions). One thing surprises the highly experienced matchmaker: why Privalov often visited the Bakharevs and never once visited his other guardians, Polovodov and Lyakhovsky, especially since Lyakhovsky has a beautiful daughter. Privalov really does not immediately decide to go to the guardians, although he wants to be freed from guardianship; but each time, without noticing it himself, he ends up in the Bakharevs' house and talks in a friendly way with Nadezhda Vasilievna, hiding his feelings and not striving to marry. In the meantime, Polovodov’s guardian, together with his German uncle, are developing an insidious plan on how to finally take possession of Privalov’s wealth: the eldest son and heir Ivan Privalov, although weak-minded, “formally has not been declared crazy” and can “issue bills of exchange for a large amount, and then declare himself insolvent", after which - "the guardians are on the side, a competition is appointed, and the main trustee from the competition" will be Polovodov, and all other guardians and heirs "will become pawns". But for this it is necessary to somehow remove Sergei Alexandrovich from business, to keep him in the Node, having found his weak spot. The eternal weakness of the Privalovs is women. This trump card is played by Polovodov, using his own wife, Antonida Ivanovna, as a bait. The success of the enterprise is facilitated not only by Sergey's weak character, but also by the fact that Nadezhda Bakhareva, whom he loves, loves another person - Maxim Loskutov, a talented, slightly out of this world, philosopher and scientist who was in exile for freethinking, and now opened his own mine in the Urals. The first beauty of the city, the smart, but proud and eccentric daughter of the old man Lyakhovsky Zosya, is also in love with him. Loskutov chooses Nadezhda, which is why Zosya then falls ill for a long time and is very seriously ill. Privalov, having accidentally heard a love conversation between Nadezhda and Loskutov, falls into melancholy and, to general bewilderment, hides, "lying motionless on his couch for hours." The news of the ruin of the Bakharevs brings him out of prison. Vasily Nazaritch and Marya Stepanovna endure bankruptcy "with composure." They are angry with Privalov for a long absence, not understanding what the matter is. Sergei Alexandrovich gradually returns to life and begins, to the horror of the matchmaker Zaplatina, to build a mill in the village of Garchiki and make friends with ordinary peasants. Meanwhile, Polovodov's wife is "courting" Privalov with might and main, while Polovodov himself is seriously attracted to Zosya Lyakhovskaya. Finally, after the ball at the Lyakhovskys, Privalov begins a "romance" with Antonida Ivanovna - and when a childhood friend and "factory fanatic" Kostya Bakharev implores him urgently "to leave everything in the Knot and go to St. Petersburg" to decide "the fate of all factories" , then Sergei Alexandrovich, "lulled by the cat's caresses" Polovodova, "who knew how to completely master his soft, supple soul," sends his attorney to Petersburg on her advice. And there is another misfortune in the Bakharevs' house. Nadezhda tells her father that she is expecting a child from a man who "likes her and whom her parents hate" (we are talking about Loskutov, but his name is not called), that she does not repent of anything and wants to "live honestly" with her beloved without going out marry him. But the angry father curses Nadezhda and, despite her daughter's tears and desperate pleas, points her to the door. And the strict Marya Stepanovna "the flight of the eldest daughter from home only strengthened in the consciousness of the correctness of the old Testament Privalov and Gulyaev ideals, above which there was nothing for her." The name of Nadezhda Vasilievna is no longer pronounced in Bakharev's house, she is "forever excluded from the list of living people." Meanwhile, Khionia Alekseevna has a new "idee fixe": to pass off Zosya as Privalov, who is being treated just near the village of Garchiki. Becoming her best friend, Zaplatina sings praises to Privalov, and soon he becomes a hero in Zosia's eyes. Privalov is fascinated by the beauty, liveliness and wit of the girl, and he hopes that after the wedding her eccentric temper will soften. These hopes are shared by the doctor, a clever man, a long-time friend and teacher of Zosia and Nadezhda Vasilievna, deeply devoted to Zosia and taking care of her after her illness. She persuades Zosya to marry Privalov and Polevodov, telling her that this is the only way she can save the Lyakhovsky family from ruin (in fact, this is another clever move in the game: no matter how painful it is for Polovodov to see his beloved Zosya married, he realizes that in which case Privalov will not be able to sue his guardian Lyakhovsky if he is his father-in-law). But Marya Stepanovna, who until the last minute hoped for Privalov's marriage to her daughter, does not approve of his marriage to the "basurman" - the Polish Catholic Zose. And yet the marriage takes place, and both the "going with the flow" groom and the enthusiastic bride are sure that they love each other. However, almost immediately after the wedding, everything changes: Zosya arranges violent feasts with people like Polovodov, and Privalov perceives all objections as a manifestation of limitation. With grief, Privalov leaves for Garchiki and begins to drink. Fuel is added to the fire by Kostya Bakharev's message that Polovodov managed to seize the rights to the factories. Kostya reproaches Sergei for unforgivable frivolity: if he had gone to St. Petersburg in due time, everything would have been saved. True, the attorney (lawyer Verevkin, who later married Verochka Bakhareva) is convinced that it will be possible to catch Polovodov by the hand, convicting him of fraud and embezzlement. Time passes, new events take place... Old Bakharev's affairs "recovered with the speed that is possible only in the gold mining business." But Loskutov fell seriously ill, and he and Nadezhda Vasilyevna, returning from the mine, stopped at the doctor. Upon learning of this, Privalov often visited them: Nadezhda still has a huge influence on him, he pours out his soul to her, at her insistence he stops drinking. She is very sorry for this kind and intelligent, but weak-willed person who became "a victim of his own, Privalov's, millions", but she feels that Sergei Alexandrovich is not saying something ... He really continues to hide his love for her. The doctor prescribes rest, fresh air, moderate physical work for Loskutov, and all this can be found in Garchiki, where Privalov has a mill. And Sergei Alexandrovich gladly agrees to settle Loskutov with Nadezhda and their daughter there, since there is a suitable outbuilding. Nadezhda Vasilievna, although she is embarrassed by this proposal, seems to be afraid to get close to Privalov, she feels great in the village: she takes care of the sick, Loskutov, who is already starting to go crazy, and gradually helps women in childbirth, and teaches local children. Fortunately, the attorney manages to "squeeze" Polovodov, convicting him of embezzlement. Privalov "decided to go to St. Petersburg himself in order to transfer the case to the Senate." Immediately he receives news that his wife Zosya fled abroad with Polovodov. The doctor who loves Zosya is killed by this news, but Privalov understands that he never loved his wife ... And Loskutov is getting worse: he finally loses his mind and dies in two weeks. Nadezhda Vasilievna decides to stay forever in Garchiki, where she "buried her young happiness." At the time of Privalov's departure to Petersburg, she takes care of the mill. A year after this, Privalov, to the complete horror of old Bakharev, sells the Shatrov factories. And from Paris comes the news that Polovodov, under the threat of exposure, shot himself. Zosia files for divorce, and the doctor goes abroad to see her. Vasily Nazarich Bakharev does not lose hope of becoming related to the Privalov family, buying out factories and making both Sergei Alexandrovich, whom he loves like a son, and his eldest daughter happy. Bakharev comes to Nadezhda and sees how satisfied she is with her position, working, almost poor conditions, working life. He completely reconciles with his beloved daughter, watches his granddaughter with emotion, but Nadezhda has a vague feeling that her father has come not only for reconciliation. In fact, Vasily Nazaritch, almost with tears in his eyes, asks his daughter to marry Privalov, saying that he always loved her and, perhaps because of her, made all his mistakes. Hope is at a loss, she needs time to understand her feelings, to think everything over. “If earlier in Privalov Nadezhda Vasilievna saw a“ groom ”, whom she didn’t love for that very reason, now, on the contrary, she was especially interested in him, his inner life, even his mistakes, in which the original type was outlined” ... Three years pass, and on Nagornaya Street in the Knot you can meet the completely aged Vasily Nazarich Bakharev, walking not only with his granddaughter, but also with his legitimate grandson, Pavel Privalov. So "the main idea of the stubborn old man triumphed: if Privalov's millions flew up in smoke, then he did not let the strong Privalov family perish." A. D. Plisetskaya Gold Roman (1892) Rodion Potapych Zykov - "the oldest foreman" (mining foreman in charge of mine operations) "at all the Balchug gold mines" of the Urals. He directs the prospecting work at the Fotyanovsk placer, which gave the treasury "more than a hundred pounds of gold." This placer was discovered by Andron Kishkin, "an old office rat" with "small, curious, furtive" eyes. Zykov does not like Kishkin and therefore is not happy when one winter morning he comes to visit him with a "dealer". Kishkin reports that soon the state-owned Kedrovskaya dacha will be opened for general use, and invites Rodion Potapych to look for gold there. A stern old man of a conservative disposition, "a fanatic of state-owned mining", Zykov categorically refuses, and Kishkin leaves with nothing. A poor man, he envies both Zykov and all wealthy workers, considering himself undeservedly deprived and placing all his hopes on the Kedrovskaya dacha. Rodion Potapych has been a foreman for about forty years. Both he himself and his first wife, who died early, in whom he did not cherish the soul and from whom the eldest son, "dissolute Yasha", was born, were formerly convicts. He married a second time, already to the daughter of a convict who bore him four daughters, "but he did not return happiness, according to the proverb: the dead man does not stand at the gate, but he will take his own." After the death of his beloved wife, Rodion Potapych threw himself into work. Only once did he "pretend" - when he hid from the "state fiscal" the fact of the widespread theft of gold at the Balchug factory (however, they also stole at other state and private mines; there were also buyers of gold, on whom there was already a detective, and if not Zykov, the Balchugovsky plant would have suffered much more). By the way, then Kishkin, who was involved in this matter, miraculously escaped ... When penal servitude was abolished, Rodion Potapych, who did not understand freedom, was confused, but "with the establishment in <...> crafts of companionship <...> he calmed down." The field workers continued to remain in slavery: they had nowhere to go, and they had to work on the most unfavorable conditions: “you won’t eat your fill and you won’t die of hunger.” Therefore, the opening of the Kedrovskaya state-owned dacha for free labor will change "the whole structure of fishing life", and no one feels this like Rodion Potapych Zykov, "this tried-and-true fishing wolf." And in the family, Rodion Potapych rarely happens, disappearing at the recently opened Rublikha mine, in the profitability of which he devoutly believes. Yes, and in the family he is really attached only to his youngest daughter Fenya, but he is cool with the rest: he drove away all suitors from his daughter Marya, scored his son; the eldest, Tatyana, fled with the worker-planer Mylnikov, making "mesalliance, forever throwing the recalcitrant daughter out of her own family." Tatyana's husband often drinks, beats his wife and children, especially the restless and unresponsive Oksya, and they all live poorly (mother, Usinya Markovna, secretly helps Tatyana). But Zykov's favorite Fedosya, to the horror of the family, runs away from home in the absence of her father, like Tatyana, only, unlike her, does not get married, but goes to Taybola, to a schismatic family, which is considered the gravest sin. Until the formidable father of the family has returned from the mines, Fenya's only brother Yakov and his brother-in-law Mylnikov are trying to settle the matter amicably by returning Fenya home, but neither she nor her husband, Kozhin, "a solid and handsome fellow," do not even want to hear about it. Zykov is struck like thunder by the news of his daughter's escape, curses her in front of the icon and mourns the death of his first wife, in which, as he thinks, this could not have happened. Rodion Potapych is told by his son-in-law Mylnikov about another misfortune that is about to break out: in his opinion, Kishkin, out of envy of those who have grown rich in the mines, is preparing a denunciation of all the miners on the fact of stealing gold. Zykov listens to his unloved son-in-law with contempt and does not attach much importance to his words. Meanwhile, the chief manager of the Balchug mines, Karachunsky, whom Zykov greatly respects for his intelligence and knowledge of the matter, but condemns for his weakness for the female sex, manages to convince Fenya and Kozhin to ask for forgiveness from the priest. However, Rodion Potapych has already cursed his daughter and does not want to know her - and he decides to send her to be raised by "Baushka Lukerya", the sister of his late wife, a stern old woman of the old school, especially revered by Zykov and close to him in spirit. Fenya is deceived and taken away to the "grandmother". Listening to the arguments of the old woman, the girl returns to Orthodoxy, willingly does all the chores around the house, but does not forget her chosen one. It is bitter that he could have converted to Orthodoxy, if not for his mother, a schismatic schismatic Maremyan; Kozhin, himself not himself with longing, became addicted to drinking: how to forget Fedosya Rodionovna! Meanwhile, the shy beauty Fenya really liked the manager Karachunsky ... Gold mining is in full swing, and passions boil around gold. Kishkin, Mylnikov and Zykov's son Yakov work with passion at the Kedrovskaya dacha; Mylnikov's daughter Oksya is also involved in the prospecting work: according to a folk legend, an innocent girl will bring good luck to gold seekers. Everyone laughs at the hunted and unrequited Oksya, who, however, turns out to be an indispensable worker, and besides, she is in her own mind: she is in love with the worker Matyushka and, having really attacked a gold mine, secretly from everyone drags gold from there to her dowry and hides it in the office of the unsuspecting Rodion Potapych, who sincerely becomes attached to Oksa and is not even able to be harsh with his granddaughter, realizing that it is not easy for her with a father like Mylnikov. And Kishkin really gives a denunciation to the prosecutor's office, starting a protracted process that distracts Zykov from work: Zykov is the main witness, but he evades testimony, and the case drags on indefinitely, eventually getting bogged down in a bureaucratic routine. In general, Kishkin's revenge falls on the wrong people: most of all goes to the beloved manager Karachunsky. The buyer of gold, the swindler of the Hawks, grows rich at this time; he becomes a profitable guest, and therefore Grandmother Lukerya, in whom greed wakes up, lets him live with her. Baushka Lukerya is now unrecognizable: she also fell ill with a gold rush, "maddened by money", became greedy, began to build a second hut; her son, crooked in one eye, Pyotr Vasilyich, also teases her. This change in the old woman is noticed by Fenya and goes to Karachunsky, supposedly "to become a maid." Karachunsky truly loves Fenya and is jealous of Kozhin, but Fenya cannot fall in love a second time, although she does not want to return to Kozhin: "young happiness has broken", and in Karachunsky she guesses wonderful spiritual qualities and is looking for "that quiet pier, to which is torn by every woman who has not lost the best female instincts. And Kozhin's mother Maremyana marries a quiet girl, whom he beats and tortures to death. Having found out about this, Fenya asks Mylnikov to reason with Kozhin. The brother-in-law is ready to help if Fenya begs Karachunsky for him a good allotment for prospecting work, but it's too late: Kozhin's unfortunate wife is found almost dead, and Kozhin is put on trial. And the eldest daughter of Zykov, Marya, who has sat too long "in the girls" and therefore angry, decides to settle with grandmother Lukerya instead of Fenya and Oxy, who at one time mixed her up: she wants to be closer to the grandmother's money, and there, you see, to find a groom ... And in fact , the cunning girl manages to marry the machinist Semenych, a kind and hard-working peasant six years younger than her; she and her husband "go to Kishkin at Bogodanka" - a mine opened by an old man, and the daughter of Anna's married sister Natashka decides to live with grandmother Lukerya. Meanwhile, Bogodanka brings wealth to old Kishkin, although he complains that it is too late; he keeps money in a chest with seven seals - many would like to open it; Grandmother Lukerya makes friends with Kishkin and gives him money at interest; he "has laid eyes" on Natasha and even wants to woo her. Meanwhile, a series of terrible misfortunes sets in. Under the threat of exposure, saving his honor and the honor of the plant, Karachunsky shot himself (having provided Fenya in advance), and the workers disliked the “new broom”, the manager Onikov, and call him “clean-smelling”: he breaks everything “blank”, without hesitation, reduces the salaries of employees, introduces new rigor; the gold buyer Yastrebov was betrayed to the investigation by the son of grandmother Lukerya Pyotr Vasilyich, deceived by him, for which he was flogged by old people interested in Yastrebov; himself not himself from anger and humiliation, Pyotr Vasilyich set fire to his house, and Lukerya, mad with greed, climbed into the fire for money and died. Pyotr Vasilyich is outlawed. Marya, together with her husband, Natashka and her brother Petrunka, settled on Bogodanka near Kishkin. Natasha, who used to dislike the domineering aunt Marya (even at home "everyone danced to her tune", except her father), is now touched by her care, not even suspecting Marya of selfish intent: to set the girl on the voluptuous Kishkin in order to take possession of his wealth. And the worker Matyushka, who married Oksa, who is now expecting a child, begins to flirt with Marya and becomes her lover: he wants to get access to Kishkin's money through Marya; and with the help of Kishkin, Marya directs her husband, Semenych, to work on the night shift. She incites the naive Natasha to find and supposedly jokingly hide the key to the coveted Kishkin chest. Natasha likes the idea "to frighten the nasty old man, who again began to look at her with oily eyes." Tragedy strikes suddenly. One day, around midnight, Semenych was urgently called from work to Bogodanka. He finds Kishka-on, and Marya, and Natasha, and Petrunka killed, and the cash register is empty. At first they think that this is the work of Pyotr Vasilyich, who went "to desperation", but later his corpse is also found. The investigation is at a loss until Matyushka admits to Rodion Potapych that he himself "decided" everyone: Pyotr Vasilyich was an accomplice who interfered with him, who incited him to commit a crime and wanted to run away with money. Oksya died from childbirth and before her death she said that she knew everything and that she was dying for Ma-tyushka's guilt; exhausted by remorse and Oxy's reproach, he decided to give up. Rodion Potapych, already a little out of his mind from all the events, after Matyushka’s confession, is finally damaged in his mind and floods the Rublikha mine, where he has been working devoutly and desperately all the last time ... The ruble has been destroyed, the dam at Balchugovka has been washed away by spring water, "and this is in a place where, with proper management, a hundred thousand people and a dozen such companies could prosper." Zykov really goes crazy, "delusions about hard labor" and walks around the Balchug factory, surrounded by a crowd of children, together with the local executioner Nikitushka, "giving menacing orders." Fenya leaves for Siberia "for a party of prisoners, in which Kozhin was also sent: he was sentenced to hard labor. Yastrebov also left in the same party." Matyushka hanged himself in prison. A. D. Plisetskaya Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko (1853-1921) In bad society. From childhood memories of my friend Story (1885) The childhood of the hero took place in the small town of Knyazhye-Veno in the Southwestern Territory. Vasya - that was the name of the boy - was the son of a city judge. The child grew up "like a wild tree in the field": the mother died when the son was only six years old, and the father, absorbed in his grief, paid little attention to the boy. Vasya wandered around the city for days on end, and the pictures of city life left a deep imprint in his soul. The city was surrounded by ponds. In the middle of one of them on the island stood an ancient castle that once belonged to a count's family. There were legends that the island was filled with captured Turks, and the castle stands "on human bones." The owners left this gloomy dwelling a long time ago, and it gradually collapsed. Its inhabitants were urban beggars who had no other shelter. But there was a split among the poor. Old Janusz, one of the count's former servants, was given some sort of right to decide who could live in the castle and who could not. He left there only "aristocrats": Catholics and the former count's servants. The exiles found refuge in a dungeon under an old crypt near an abandoned Uniate chapel that stood on a mountain. However, no one knew their whereabouts. Old Janusz, meeting Vasya, invites him to enter the castle, because there is now a "decent society". But the boy prefers the "bad society" of exiles from the castle: Vasya pities them. Many members of the "bad society" are well known in the city. This is a semi-mad elderly "professor" who always mutters something quietly and sadly; the ferocious and pugnacious bayonet Junker Zausailov; drunken retired official Lavrovsky, who tells everyone incredible tragic stories about his life. And Turkevich, who calls himself General, is famous for the fact that he “denounces” respectable citizens (the police officer, the secretary of the county court and others) right under their windows. He does this in order to get vodka, and achieves his goal: the "convicted" are in a hurry to pay him off. The head of the entire community of "dark personalities" is Tyburtsy Drab. Its origin and past are unknown to anyone. Others suggest in him an aristocrat, but his appearance is of the common people. He is known for his extraordinary learning. At fairs, Tyburtius entertains the public with lengthy speeches from ancient authors. He is considered a sorcerer. One day, Vasya and three friends come to the old chapel: he wants to look in there. Friends help Vasya get inside through a high window. But when they see that there is still someone in the chapel, the friends run away in horror, leaving Vasya to the mercy of fate. It turns out that the children of Tyburtsy are there: nine-year-old Valek and four-year-old Marusya. Vasya often comes to the mountain to his new friends, bringing them apples from his garden. But he walks only when Tyburtius cannot catch him. Vasya does not tell anyone about this acquaintance. He tells his cowardly friends that he saw devils. Vasya has a sister, four-year-old Sonya. She, like her brother, is a cheerful and frisky child. Brother and sister love each other very much, but Sonya's nanny prevents their noisy games: she considers Vasya a bad, spoiled boy. The father is of the same opinion. He does not find in his soul a place for love for the boy. The father loves Sonya more because she looks like her late mother. Once in a conversation, Valek and Marusya tell Vasya that Tyburtsy loves them very much. Vasya speaks of his father with resentment. But suddenly he learns from Valek that the judge is a very fair and honest person. Valek is a very serious and intelligent boy. Marusya is not at all like the frisky Sonya, she is weak, thoughtful, "cheerless". Valek says that "the gray stone sucked the life out of her." Vasya learns that Valek is stealing food for his hungry sister. This discovery makes a heavy impression on Vasya, but still he does not condemn his friend. Valek shows Vasya the dungeon where all the members of the "bad society" live. In the absence of adults, Vasya comes there, plays with his friends. During the game of hide and seek, Tyburtsy unexpectedly appears. The children are frightened - after all, they are friends without the knowledge of the formidable head of the "bad society". But Tyburtsiy allows Vasya to come, taking from him a promise not to tell anyone where they all live. Tyburtsy brings food, prepares dinner - according to him, Vasya understands that the food is stolen. This, of course, confuses the boy, but he sees that Marusya is so happy with the food ... Now Vasya comes to the mountain without hindrance, and the adult members of the "bad society" also get used to the boy, love him. Autumn comes, and Marusya falls ill. In order to somehow entertain the sick girl, Vasya decides to ask Sonya for a while for a big beautiful doll, a gift from her late mother. Sonya agrees. Marusya is delighted with the doll, and she even gets better. Old Janusz comes to the judge several times with denunciations of members of the "bad society". He says that Vasya communicates with them. The nanny notices the absence of the doll. Vasya is not allowed out of the house, and a few days later he runs away secretly. Marcus is getting worse. The inhabitants of the dungeon decide that the doll needs to be returned, but the girl will not notice this. But seeing that they want to take the doll, Marusya cries bitterly ... Vasya leaves the doll to her. And again Vasya is not allowed out of the house. The father is trying to get his son to confess where he went and where the doll went. Vasya admits that he took the doll, but says nothing more. The father is angry ... And at the most critical moment, Tyburtsy appears. He is carrying a doll. Tyburtsy tells the judge about Vasya's friendship with his children. He is amazed. The father feels guilty before Vasya. It was as if a wall had collapsed that had separated father and son for a long time, and they felt like close people. Tyburtsy says that Marusya is dead. The father lets Vasya say goodbye to her, while he sends through Vasya money for Tyburtsy and a warning: it is better for the head of the "bad society" to hide from the city. Soon, almost all "dark personalities" disappear somewhere. Only the old "professor" and Turkevich remain, to whom the judge sometimes gives work. Marusya is buried in the old cemetery near the collapsed chapel. Vasya and his sister take care of her grave. Sometimes they come to the cemetery with their father. When the time comes for Vasya and Sonya to leave their native city, they pronounce their vows over this grave. O. V. Butkova Blind musician Tale (1886) In the south-west of Ukraine, in a family of wealthy village landowners Popelsky, a blind boy is born. At first, no one notices his blindness, only his mother guesses this from the strange expression on the face of little Petrus. Doctors confirm a terrible guess. Peter's father is a good-natured man, but rather indifferent to everything except the household. Uncle, Maxim Yatsenko, has a fighting character. In his youth, he was known everywhere as a "dangerous bully" and justified this characterization: he left for Italy, where he entered the Garibaldi detachment. In the battle with the Austrians, Maxim lost his leg, received many wounds and was forced to return home to live out his life in inactivity. The uncle decides to take up the upbringing of Petrus. He has to fight blind maternal love: he explains to his sister Anna Mikhailovna, Petrus' mother, that excessive care can harm the boy's development. Uncle Maxim hopes to raise a new "fighter for the cause of life." Spring is coming. The child is alarmed by the noise of the awakening nature. Mother and uncle are taking Petrus for a walk on the river bank. Adults do not notice the excitement of a boy who cannot cope with the abundance of impressions. Petrus loses consciousness. After this incident, mother and uncle Maxim try to help the boy comprehend sounds and sensations. Petrus loves to listen to the play of the groom Joachim on the pipe. The groom made his wonderful instrument himself; unhappy love disposes Joachim to sad melodies. He plays every evening, and on one of these evenings a blind panich comes to his stable. Petrus learns to play the pipe from Joachim. The mother, seized with jealousy, writes the piano out of the city. But when she starts playing, the boy almost loses his senses again: this complex music seems to him rough, noisy. Joachim is of the same opinion. Then Anna Mikhailovna understands that in a simple game the groom is much more than a living feeling. She secretly listens to Joachim's tune and learns from him. In the end, her art conquers both Petrus and the groom. Meanwhile, the boy begins to play the piano as well. And Uncle Maxim asks Joachim to sing folk songs to the blind panich. Petrus has no friends. The village boys shy away from him. And in the neighboring estate of the elderly Yaskulsky, the daughter of Evelina, the same age as Petrus, is growing up. This beautiful girl is calm and reasonable. Evelina accidentally meets Peter on a walk. At first she does not realize that the boy is blind. When Petrus tries to feel her face, Evelina gets scared, and when she learns about his blindness, she cries bitterly with pity. Peter and Evelina become friends. Together they take lessons from Uncle Maxim, Children grow up, and their friendship becomes stronger. Uncle Maxim invites his old friend Stavruchenko to visit with his sons, students, people-lovers and collectors of folklore. Their cadet friend comes with them. Young people bring revival to the quiet life of the estate. Uncle Maxim wants Peter and Evelina to feel that a bright and interesting life flows nearby. Evelina understands that this is a test for her feelings for Peter. She firmly decides to marry Peter and tells him about it. A blind young man plays the piano in front of the guests. Everyone is shocked and predicts his fame. For the first time, Peter realizes that he too is capable of doing something in life. The Popelskys pay a return visit to the Stavruchenkov estate. The hosts and guests are going to the N-sky monastery. On the way, they stop near the gravestone, under which the Cossack ataman Ignat Kary is buried, and next to him is the blind bandura player Yurko, who accompanied the ataman on campaigns. Everyone sighs for the glorious past. And Uncle Maxim says that the eternal struggle continues, although in other forms. In the monastery, everyone is escorted to the bell tower by the blind bell-ringer, the novice Egory. He is young and his face is very similar to Peter. Egory is embittered at the whole world. He rudely scolds the village children who are trying to get into the bell tower. After everyone goes downstairs, Peter remains to talk to the bell ringer. It turns out that Yegoriy is also born blind. There is another bell-ringer in the monastery, Roman, who has been blind since the age of seven. Egory is jealous of Roman, who has seen the world, seen his mother, remembers her... When Peter and Egory finish their conversation, Roman arrives. He is kind, gentle with a flock of children. This meeting makes Peter understand the depth of his misfortune. He seems to become different, as embittered as Egory. In his conviction that all those born blind are evil, Peter tortures those close to him. He asks for an explanation of the incomprehensible difference in colors for him. Peter reacts painfully to the touch of sunlight on his face. He even envies the poor blind, whose hardships make them forget their blindness for a while. Uncle Maxim and Peter go to the N-th miraculous icon. Blind people beg nearby. The uncle invites Peter to taste the share of the poor. Peter wants to leave as soon as possible so as not to hear the songs of the blind. But Uncle Maxim makes him give everyone a piece of soap. Peter is seriously ill. After recovery, he announces to his family that he will go with Uncle Maxim to Kyiv, where he will take lessons from a famous musician. Uncle Maxim really goes to Kyiv and from there writes soothing letters home. Meanwhile, Pyotr, secretly from his mother, along with poor blind men, among whom is an acquaintance of Maxim's uncle Fyodor Kandyba, goes to Pochaev. In this journey, Peter gets to know the world in its diversity and, empathizing with the grief of others, forgets about his sufferings. Peter returns to the estate a completely different person, his soul is healed. The mother is angry with him for deceit, but soon forgives. Peter tells a lot about his wanderings. Uncle Maxim also comes from Kyiv. The trip to Kyiv has been canceled for a year. In the same autumn, Peter marries Evelina. But in his happiness, he does not forget about his travel companions. Now, on the edge of the village, there is a new hut of Fyodor Kandyba, and Peter often comes to him. Peter has a son. The father is afraid that the boy will be blind. And when the doctor informs that the child is undoubtedly sighted, Peter is overwhelmed with such joy that for a few moments it seems to him that he himself sees everything: heaven, earth, his loved ones. Three years pass. Peter becomes known for his musical talent. In Kyiv, during the "Contracts" fair, a large audience gathers to listen to a blind musician, whose fate is already legendary. Among the public and uncle Maxim. He listens to the musician's improvisations, which are intertwined with the motives of folk songs. Suddenly, the song of the poor blind breaks into the lively melody. Maxim understands that Peter was able to feel life in its fullness, to remind people of other people's suffering. Realizing this and his merit, Maxim is convinced that he did not live his life in vain. O. V. Butkova No tongue Story (1895) In the Volyn province, not far from the city of Khlebno, over a winding river stands the village of Lozishchi. All its inhabitants bear the surname Lozinsky with the addition of various nicknames. There are legends that once the Lozinskys were Cossacks, they had some privileges, but now all this has been forgotten. Osip Lozinsky Oglobl, like the others, did not live well in Lozishchi. He was married, but he had no children yet, and Osip decided to look for his share in the wide world. A year or two later, his wife Katerina received a letter from America. Osip wrote that he worked on a farm, he was living well, called his wife to him and sent her a ticket for a steamer and a train. Two Losishans decide to go along with Katerina. This is her brother Matvey Dyshlo and his friend Ivan Dyma. Matvey is a very strong, rustic and thoughtful guy. Ivan is not so strong, but mobile and sharp-tongued. To make enough for the journey, they sell their houses and land. Having reached Hamburg, the residents of Lozishchi want to board the steamer together, but Matvey and Dyma have no tickets. Katerina leaves without them. Friends buy tickets for the next flight. On the way, they unsuccessfully try to find out what "American freedom" is, rumors about which have reached them back in their homeland. An elderly man, also a native of Ukraine, dies on the ship. His daughter Anna remains an orphan. Matvey considers it his duty to help the unfortunate girl. On the pier, the Lozishans notice a compatriot - Mr. Bork, a Jew from the city of Dubno. Mr. Bork is glad to meet his countrymen. He takes them to New York, where he has a kind of inn. Anna Bork arranges in the same room with her daughter Rosa. Anna learns that she and Rosa used to live in the same city, but Rosa's family suffered from pogroms, and Anna's brother - from the fact that he participated in the pogrom. The Lozishans find out that they have lost Osip Oglobli's address. They send letters at random. America disappoints friends, especially Matvey. He calls all her orders the offspring of the devil. Matvey sees that even the Jews in America do not adhere to their customs so strictly. Mr. Bork explains that America grinds every person, and his faith changes. This terrifies Matthew. And Dyma quickly gets used to the new situation and begins to seem like a complete stranger to a friend. Ivan changes his Little Russian suit for an American one, cuts his Cossack mustache, finds out that he can make money by selling his vote in the mayoral elections. He persuades Matvey to enter into single combat with the Irish boxer Paddy. With the help of a cunning trick, the Irishman defeats the strong man. Matvey is deeply offended by both his friend and America. Once an elderly Russian lady comes to Bork. She needs a maid. She wants to hire a girl from Russia, because she thinks that American women are too spoiled. Bork and his family do not advise Anna to take this job: the lady pays little and makes her work hard. But she adheres not to American, but to Russian orders, and therefore, according to Matvey, serving with this lady is the only salvation for Anna. Anna yields to Matthew's insistence. Mr Bork's son John leads them to the mistress. Her unceremonious words offend John, and he leaves without waiting for Matvey. He rushes after him, loses sight of John, does not remember the way back and wanders around the city until he loses all hope of finding a familiar place or face. He cannot ask for directions: he does not know a word of English. Matvey's exotic clothes attract the attention of a newspaper reporter who sketches the "savage". In the park, where Matvey settles for the night, a stranger approaches him. But, since Matvey is a man "without language", the conversation does not work. Morning finds Matvey sleeping on a bench, and his recent interlocutor hangs himself from one of the neighboring trees. A rally of the unemployed begins in the park. The crowd notices the poor man hanging himself, they are excited by this event. Speaker Charlie Gompers, the famous orator of the workers' union. Passions are heating up. Matvey, not understanding a word, feels a sense of joyful unity with the crowd. Pushing his way to the podium, he meets a policeman Hopkins, whom he had already seen the day before. Matvey wants to pay his respects to Hopkins by kissing his hand. The policeman thinks that the savage intends to bite him, and uses his club. An enraged Matvey throws him away, pushes the policemen aside, and other protesters rush after him. They break into the square, and for a moment the situation becomes uncontrollable. Order is soon restored. The next day all the newspapers are full of reports about "the savage who killed policeman Hopkins." Later, however, Hopkins is revealed to be alive. After the disappearance of Matvey, Dyma becomes discouraged, but he is found by Osip Ogloblya, who nevertheless got the letter. Osip takes Dyma to his place. And Matvey's comrades at the rally immediately after the incident decide that he needs to hide. He is dressed in an American dress and, since Matvey repeats the word "Minnesota" (Osip Ogloblya lives there), he is put on a train going to Minnesota. Judge Dableton Dickinson and a Russian emigrant Yevgeny Nilov, who works at his sawmill, are on the same train. Silent Matvey arouses Dickinson's suspicions. Matthew gets off the train at Dableton. Soon, having again discovered Matvey's criminal intention to "bite" the policeman's hand, the violator of the order is taken to the trial chamber. Of course, they cannot get a word from him until Nilov comes. With his appearance, everything is explained: the nationality, and the name of the stranger, and the fact that he does not bite. The inhabitants of Dabletown are happy that the riddle of the famous savage has been safely solved in their city. Nilov leads his fellow countryman to him. Enthusiastic Dabbletones escort them to the very door of the house. Matvey recognizes in Nilovo a young gentleman who lived not far from Lozishchi, who ceded the disputed lands to the Lozishchi and disappeared somewhere. Matthew starts working with him. Nilov is about to leave: here he yearns for his homeland, and in his homeland - for freedom. Matthew also wants to leave. Nilov asks what Matvey wanted to find in America. Receives the answer: wealth, family. Nilov advises Matvey not to rush to leave: all this can be acquired here as well. Yevgeny introduces Matvey to cars, gets him a job as an instructor in a Jewish colony, and leaves. Anna still works for the old lady in New York. Two years have passed since her arrival. Matthew arrives unexpectedly. He wants to take Anna to him and marry her. The girl agrees. She refuses to serve, and the mistress is again left without a servant. Before leaving New York, Matvey and Anna go to the pier. Now Matvey seems to have everything he dreamed of. The return already seems impossible to him, and yet his soul yearns for something. O. V. Butkova Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin (1855-1888) Artists Story (1879) The narration is conducted alternately on behalf of two artists - Dedov and Ryabinin, contrastingly opposed to each other. Dedov, a young engineer, having received a small inheritance, leaves the service in order to devote himself entirely to painting. He works hard, paints and paints landscapes and is perfectly happy if he manages to capture the spectacular play of light in the picture. Who and why will need a landscape painted by him - he does not ask himself such a question. Dedov's comrade at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Ryabinin, on the contrary, is constantly tormented by the question, does anyone need his painting, and in general - art? Dedov and Ryabinin often return together after classes at the academy. Their path lies past the pier, cluttered with parts of various metal structures and mechanisms, and Dedov often explains to his comrade their purpose. Somehow he draws Ryabinin's attention to a huge cauldron with a seam that has parted. There is a conversation about how to fix it. Dedov explains how rivets are made: a person sits in a cauldron and holds the rivet from the inside with tongs, pushing them with his chest, and outside, with all his might, the master beats the rivet with a hammer. "After all, it's like beating on the chest," Ryabinin worries. “It doesn’t matter,” Dedov agrees, explaining that these workers quickly become deaf (for which they are called wood grouse), do not live long and receive a penny, because for this work “neither skill nor art is required.” Ryabinin asks Dedov to show him such a capercaillie. Dedov agrees to take him to the factory, leads him to the boiler room, and Ryabinin himself climbs into a huge boiler to see how the capercaillie works. He comes out completely pale. A few days later, he decides to paint capercaillie. Grandfather does not approve of his friend's decision - why multiply the ugly? Meanwhile, Ryabinin is working frantically. The closer to the end the picture moves, the more terrible it seems to the artist that he has created. The emaciated man crouched in the corner of the cauldron has a painful effect on Ryabinin. Will it have the same effect on the public? "Kill their peace, as you killed mine," the artist conjures his creation. Finally, Ryabinin's painting was exhibited and bought. According to the tradition that lives among artists, Ryabinin should arrange a feast for his comrades. Everyone congratulates him on his success. It looks like he has a bright future ahead of him. Soon - the end of the academy, he is an indisputable candidate for a gold medal, giving the right to four years of perfection abroad. At night, after the feast, Ryabinin becomes ill. In delirium, it seems to him that he is again at the factory where he saw the capercaillie, that he himself is something like a capercaillie and all his acquaintances beat him with hammers, sticks, fists, so that he physically feels how a terrible blow falls on his skull . Ryabinin loses consciousness. Lying unconscious, he is discovered by the landlady. Dedov takes Ryabinin to the hospital and visits him. Ryabinin is gradually recovering. The medal was missed - Ryabinin did not have time to submit a competitive work. Dedov received his medal and sincerely sympathizes with Ryabinin - as a landscape painter, he did not compete with him. When asked by Dedov whether Ryabinin intends to participate in the competition next year, Ryabinin answers in the negative. Dedov goes abroad - to improve in painting. Ryabinin, on the other hand, gives up painting and enters a teacher's seminary. A. N. Latynina Red flower Story (1883) The most famous story of Garshin. Although not strictly autobiographical, it nevertheless absorbed the personal experience of a writer who suffered from a manic-depressive psychosis and suffered an acute form of the disease in 1880. A new patient is brought to the provincial psychiatric hospital. He is stubborn, and the doctor fails to relieve the severity of the attack. He walks continuously from corner to corner of the room, hardly sleeping, and despite the intense nutrition prescribed by the doctor, he is uncontrollably losing weight. He realizes that he is in a lunatic asylum. A man is educated, he largely retains his intellect and properties of his soul. He is worried about the abundance of evil in the world. And now, in the hospital, it seems to him that somehow he stands in the center of a gigantic enterprise aimed at eliminating evil on earth, and that other eminent people of all time gathered here are called upon to help him in this. Meanwhile, summer comes, the sick spend whole days in the garden, cultivating vegetable beds and caring for a flower garden. Not far from the porch, the patient discovers three poppy bushes of an unusually bright scarlet color. The hero suddenly imagines that all the world's evil is embodied in these flowers, that they are so red because they have absorbed the innocently spilled blood of humanity, and that its purpose on earth is to destroy the flower and with it all the evil of the world ... He plucks one flower, quickly hides on his chest, and the whole evening begs others not to approach him. The flower, it seems to him, is poisonous, and it would be better if this poison first passes into his chest than hit anyone else ... He himself is ready to die, "as an honest fighter and as the first fighter of mankind, because so far no one has dared fight all the evil in the world at once." In the morning, the paramedic finds him a little alive, so the hero was exhausted by the fight against the poisonous secretions of the red flower ... Three days later, he plucks the second flower, despite the protests of the watchman, and again hides it on his chest, while feeling how evil is wriggling from the flower in long, snake-like streams. This struggle further weakens the patient. The doctor, seeing the patient’s critical condition, the severity of which is aggravated by incessant walking, tells him to put a straitjacket on him and tie him to a bed. The patient resists - because he needs to pick the last flower and destroy evil. He is trying to explain to his watchmen what danger threatens them all if they do not let him go - after all, only he alone in the whole world can defeat the insidious flower - they themselves will die from one touch to him. The watchmen sympathize with him, but do not pay attention to the patient's warnings. Then he decides to deceive the vigilance of his watchmen. Pretending that he calmed down, he waits for the night and here he shows wonders of dexterity and ingenuity. He is freed from the straitjacket and put, with a desperate effort bends the iron bar of the window grille, clambers along the stone wall. With torn nails and bloody hands, he finally gets to the last flower. In the morning he is found dead. The face is calm, light and full of proud happiness. In the stiffened hand is a red flower, which the fighter against evil takes with him to the grave. A. N. Latynina Signal Story (1887) Semyon Ivanov serves as a watchman on the railroad. He is a man of experience, but not very lucky. Nine years ago, in 1878, he went to war, fought with the Turks. He was not wounded, but lost his health. He returned to his native village - the economy did not work out, his son died, and he and his wife went to search for new places of happiness. Not found. Met Semyon during the wanderings of a former officer of his regiment. He recognized Semyon, sympathized and found him a job at the railway station, over which he was in charge. Semyon got a new booth, as much firewood as you wanted, a garden, a salary - and he and his wife began to acquire a household. Semyon's work was not a burden, and he kept his entire section of the road in order. Semyon also got to know his neighbor Vasily, who was looking after the adjacent plot. When they met on rounds, they began to interpret. Semyon endures all his troubles and failures stoically: "God did not give happiness." Vasily, on the other hand, believes that his life is so poor, because others profit from his work - rich people and bosses, all of them are bloodsuckers and knackers, and he hates all of them fiercely. Meanwhile, an important audit arrives from St. Petersburg. Semyon put everything in order ahead of time, he was praised. But on Vasily's site, everything turned out differently. He had long been in a quarrel with the roadmaster. According to the rules, it was necessary to ask this master for permission to plant a garden, but Vasily neglected it, planted cabbage without permission - he ordered to dig it out. Vasily got angry and decided to complain about the master to the big boss. Yes, he not only did not accept the complaint, but he shouted at Vasily and hit him in the face. Vasily threw a booth on his wife - and went to Moscow to seek justice now for this boss. Yes, apparently, I did not find it. Four days passed, Semyon met Vasily's wife on the rounds, her face was swollen from tears, and she did not want to talk to Semyon. Just at that time, Semyon went into the forest to cut willows: he made pipes from it for sale. Returning, I heard strange sounds near the railway embankment - as if iron tinkled against iron. He crept closer and sees: Vasily tampered with the rail with a crowbar and turned the path. I saw Seeds - and run away. Semyon stands over the broken rail and does not know what to do. You can't put it in place with your bare hands. Vasily had the key and the crowbar - but no matter how much Semyon called him to return - he did not get through. The passenger train is due soon. “It’s on this rounding that he will go off the rail,” Semyon thinks, “and the embankment is tall, eleven fathoms, wagons will fall down, and there are small children ...” Semyon rushed to the booth for a tool, but realized that he would not have time. I ran back - there is already a distant whistle - a train is coming soon. It was then that a light illuminated his head. Semyon took off his hat, took out a handkerchief from it, crossed himself, stabbed himself in the right hand with a knife above the elbow, a stream of blood spattered. He soaked his handkerchief in it, put it on a stick (the willow that he brought from the forest came in handy) - and raised a red flag - a signal to the driver that the train should be stopped. But, apparently, Semyon hurt his hand too deeply - the blood gushing without stopping, it gets dark in his eyes and only one thought in his head: "Help, Lord, send a shift." Semyon could not stand it and lost consciousness, fell to the ground, but the flag did not fall - the other hand picked it up and lifted it high towards the train. The driver manages to slow down, people jump out onto the embankment and see a man covered in blood, lying unconscious, and next to another, with a bloody rag in his hand ... This is Vasily. He looks around the audience and says: "Knit me, I turned the rail off." A. N. Latynina Alexander Ivanovich Ertel (1855-1908) Gardenins, their servants, adherents and enemies Roman (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 leave for the summer in a village near Voronezh. Tatyana Ivanovna writes to the housekeeper Felicity Nikanorovna to prepare the estate for the arrival of the owners. In her response letter, in addition to complaints about the new "free" times that spoiled the former serfs, who "need nothing" the will, the housekeeper informs the mistress that the son of the master's equerry, Efrem Kapitonov, is studying medicine at St. Petersburg University. The housekeeper asks the mistress to take Ephraim to her and settle 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 imagines herself in the place of the heroines of Dostoevsky's novels in her dreams. During one walk, she picks up a woman beaten in a drunken fight and brings her to her house. When Elise is tried to be comforted and persuaded not to do so, she has a seizure. Servants, discussing what is happening - have you seen, to drag all kinds of rags into the house from the street and call for 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 steward teaches his only son Nikolai, a youth of nineteen, to run the household. Nikolai never went anywhere further than the county town, he did not study anywhere, but even those rudiments of a home education that he received, combined with a natural mind, reveal remarkable abilities in him. Nikolai's desire for self-development is manifested in conversations with the old carpenter Ivan Fedotych, the clerk Agey Danilych, the watchman of a distant farm Agafokl Yernik, and the merchant Rukodeev. Each of these people is original in its own way, the stories of their lives provide Nikolai with a huge material for his own reflections on human destiny. The young man is especially struck by the confession of Ivan Fedotovich. In his youth, he fell in love with the maid Lyudmila. Fell in love with her and his best friend Emelyan. Lyudmila preferred Ivan Friendship, "which the world had not seen before", was cut short by a terrible event: Emelyan falsely testified to the master that he saw that Ivan had stolen a hundred-ruble banknote from his office. Ivan was almost shaved into a soldier, but they had mercy and only punished him in the stable. Ivan, after much deliberation, called Emelyan to him and forgave him like a Christian. Returning from work in a distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later they had a girl, Tatyana. But God did not give Emelyan happiness: he began to drown the consciousness of his own sin in wine and finally drank himself after the death of his wife. Tatyana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and "made fun" of the gentry - they got married. Yemelyan asked Ivan before his death: "Are we Kvita with you?" - 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. V. M. Sotnikov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) Steppe. History of one trip Tale (1888) On a July morning, a shabby britzka leaves the county town of the N-th province, in which the merchant Ivan Ivanovich Kuzmichev, rector of the N-th church, Fr. Christopher of Syria ("a little long-haired old man") and Kuzmichev's nephew, a nine-year-old boy Yegorushka, sent by his mother, Olga Ivanovna, the widow of a collegiate secretary and Kuzmichev's sister, to enter a gymnasium in a big city. Kuzmichev and Fr. Christopher is going to sell wool, Yegorushka was captured along the way. He is sad to leave his native places and part with his mother. He is crying, but Christopher consoles him, saying the usual words that learning is light, and ignorance is darkness. Himself about. Christopher is educated: "I was not yet fifteen years old, and I already spoke and composed poems in Latin as well as in Russian." He could make a good church career, but his parents did not bless him for further studies. Kuzmichev, on the other hand, is against unnecessary education and considers sending Yegorushka to the city a whim of his sister. He could have attached Yegorushka to business even without teaching. Kuzmichev and Fr. Christopher is trying to catch up with the convoy and a certain Varlamov, a famous merchant in the district, who is richer than many landowners. They come to the inn, the owner of which, the Jew Moses Moiseich, fawns over the guests and even the boy (he gives him a gingerbread intended for the sick son Naum). He is a "little man", for whom Kuzmichev and the priest are real "gentlemen". In addition to his wife and children, his brother Solomon lives in his house, a proud and offended by the whole world man. He burned his inherited money, and now he is his brother's hanger-on, which causes him suffering and a semblance of masochistic pleasure. Moisei Moiseich scolds him, Fr. Christopher regrets, but Kuzmichev despises. While the guests are drinking tea and counting money, Countess Dranitskaya arrives at the inn, a very beautiful, noble, rich woman, who, as Kuzmichev says, is “robbed” by some Pole Kazimir Mikhailych: “... young and stupid. walks." We caught up with the convoy. Kuzmichev leaves the boy with the linemen and sets off from Fr. Christopher on business. Egorushka gradually gets to know people new to him: Pantelei, an Old Believer and a very sedate man who eats separately from everyone else with a cypress spoon with a cross on the handle and drinks water from an icon lamp; Yemelyan, an old and harmless man; Dymov, a young unmarried guy whom his father sends with a convoy so that he does not spoil himself at home; Vasya; a former chorister with a sore throat and suffering from the inability to sing anymore; Kiryuha, a particularly unremarkable peasant ... From their conversations at rest stops, the boy understands that they all used to live better and went to work in the convoy because of need. A large place in the story is occupied by the description of the steppe, which reaches its artistic apotheosis in the scene of a thunderstorm, and the conversations of the porters. Panteley at night by the fire tells terrible stories, allegedly from his life in the northern part of Russia, where he worked as a coachman for various merchants and always got into adventures with them in inns. Robbers certainly lived there and cut the merchants with long knives. Even the boy understands that all these stories are half-invented and, perhaps, not even by Pantelei himself, but for some reason he prefers to tell them, and not real events from his obviously difficult life. In general, as the convoy moves towards the city, the boy, as it were, re-acquaints himself with the Russian people, and a lot of things seem strange to him. For example, Vasya has such sharp eyesight that he can see animals and how they behave far from people; he eats a live "bobyrik" (a kind of small fish like minnow), while his face takes on an affectionate expression. It has something bestial and "out of this world" at the same time. Dymov suffers from an excess of physical strength. He is “bored”, and out of boredom he does a lot of evil: for some reason he kills the snake, although this, according to Panteley, is a big sin, for some reason he offends Emelyan, but then asks for forgiveness, etc. Yegorushka does not love him and is afraid how slightly afraid of all these strangers for him men, except for Pantelei. Approaching the city, they finally meet "that same" Varlamov, about whom so much has been mentioned before and who, by the end of the story, has acquired a certain mythological connotation. In fact, this is an elderly merchant, businesslike and imperious. He knows how to treat both peasants and landowners; very confident in himself and his money. Against his background, Uncle Ivan Ivanovich seems to Yegorushka the "little man" that Moses Moiseich seemed against the background of Kuzmichev himself. On the way, during a thunderstorm, Yegorushka caught a cold and fell ill. Father Christopher is treating him in the city, and his uncle is very dissatisfied that, in addition to all the troubles, care for the arrangement of his nephew is added. They are from Fr. Khristofor profitably sold the wool to the merchant Cherepakhin, and now Kuzmichev regrets that he sold part of the wool at home at a lower price. He thinks only about money and this is very different from Fr. Christopher, who knows how to combine the necessary practicality with thoughts about God and the soul, love for life, knowledge, almost paternal tenderness for the boy, and so on. Of all the characters in the story, he is the most harmonious. Egorushka is placed with an old friend of his mother, Nastasya Petrovna Toskunova, who signed a private house for her son-in-law and lives with her little granddaughter Katya in an apartment where "there are many images and flowers." Kuzmichev will pay her ten rubles a month for the maintenance of the boy. He has already applied to the gymnasium, soon there will be entrance exams. Having given Egorushka a dime each, Kuzmichev and Fr. Christopher leaves. For some reason, the boy feels that Fr. He will never see Christopher again. “Egorushka felt that with these people everything that had been experienced up to now disappeared for him forever, like smoke; he sank exhausted onto a bench and with bitter tears greeted the new, unknown life that was now beginning for him ... What something will this life be? P. V. Basinsky Ivanov Drama (1887-1889) The action takes place in one of the districts of central Russia. Nikolai Alekseevich Ivanov, a landowner, is sitting in his garden reading a book. Misha Borkin, his distant relative and manager of his estate, returns tipsy from hunting. Seeing Ivanov, he aims a gun at him, laughs at his joke, continues to pester him, demands to give money to pay the workers. Ivanov has no money, he asks to be left alone. His wife Anna Petrovna, who appeared in the window of the house, is playful: "Nikolai, let's tumble in the hay!" Ivanov angrily replies that it is harmful for her to stand in a draft, and advises her to close the window. Borkin recalls that Lebedev still has to pay interest on the debt. Ivanov is going to go to the Lebedevs to ask for a respite. Borkin recalls that today is the birthday of Lebedev's daughter Sasha. He gives Ivanov a lot of advice on how to get a lot of money - one more adventurous than the other. Uncle Ivanov, the old Count Shabelsky, and Lvov, a young doctor, appear. Shabelsky, as usual, grumbles. Lvov is serious: Anna Petrovna has consumption, she needs peace, and she is constantly worried about her husband's changed attitude towards her. Lvov reproaches Ivanov for the fact that his behavior kills the patient. Ivanov admits to the doctor that he himself is unable to understand himself, the change that has taken place with him. He married out of passionate love, and his future wife, a Jewess, nee Sarah Abramson, for his sake changed her faith, name, left her father and mother, left wealth. And now five years have passed, she still loves him, but he himself does not feel love, no pity for her, but some kind of emptiness, fatigue. And again he repeats that he does not understand what is happening with his soul. He is thirty-five years old and advises the young doctor not to. to choose extraordinary paths in life, but to build all life according to a template. To Lvov, Ivanov's confession seems hypocritical; left alone, he calls him Tartuffe, a swindler: oh, he knows why Ivanov goes to the Lebedevs every evening. Shabelsky and Anna Petrovna beg the departing Ivanov not to leave them, to take them with him. The irritated Ivanov agrees to take the Count. He confesses to his wife that at home it is excruciatingly difficult for him, longing - why, he himself does not know, and asks not to hold him back. In vain she tries to caress, reminds him how well they lived before. Ivanov and his uncle leave, the sad Anna Petrovna remains. But when the doctor tries to condemn her husband, she passionately stands up for him. After all, the doctor did not know the former Ivanov: he is a wonderful, strong man who could captivate and lead away. Unable to bear the loneliness, she is also going to go to where Ivanov is now. A hall in the Lebedevs' house, guests gathered for Sasha's name day. The mistress of the house, Zinaida Savvishna (Zyuzyushka), out of stinginess, offers only “lace jam” from treats, the old man Lebedev often calls the footman with a glass of vodka. They play cards, carry on empty talk, gossip about Ivanov: he supposedly married his Jewess out of self-interest, but did not receive a penny, which is why he is now unhappy and "became furious." Only Sasha ardently objects to slander: Ivanov's only fault, she says, is that he has a weak character and that he trusts people too much. Ivanov appears with Shabelsky, then noisy Borkin with fireworks and sparklers. When everyone leaves for the garden, Ivanov, continuing the conversation with Sasha, confesses to her: “My conscience hurts day and night, I feel deeply guilty, but I don’t understand what, in fact, my fault. And then there’s my wife’s illness, lack of money , eternal squabbling, gossip <...> I die of shame at the thought that I, a healthy, strong person, turned either into Hamlet, or into Manfred, or into superfluous people <...> This revolts my pride, shame oppresses me and I'm suffering..." Sasha is sure that she understands Ivanov. He is lonely, he needs a person whom he would love and who would understand him. Only love can renew it. Ivanov smiles sadly: all he needs is to start a new novel. "No, my good girl, it's not about the novel." They go into the garden, a little later Anna Petrovna and Lvov appear. The doctor talked all the way about his honesty. She is bored, she again opposes Ivanov to him - the way he was recently: cheerful, condescending to others. When Ivanov and Sasha return a little later, he is confused by her declaration of love for him: "My God, I don't understand anything ... Shurochka, don't!" But Sasha enthusiastically continues to talk about his love, and Ivanov rolls up with happy laughter: "Does this mean starting life anew? .. Back to work?" Their kiss is seen by Anna Petrovna, who has entered. Ivanov exclaims in horror: "Sarra!" In Ivanov's house, Lebedev, Lvov, Borkin - everyone needs to talk with him about his own, Ivanov wants to be left alone. Lebedev offers him money secretly from Zyuzyushka, but Ivanov is interested in something completely different: "What is the matter with me? .. I myself do not understand." And then, alone with himself, he recalls: “There is not another year, how I was healthy and strong, I was cheerful, tireless, hot ... And now ... I’m tired, I don’t believe ... I don’t expect anything, I don’t regret anything ... "He does not understand why and for which he fell out of love with Sarah, Sasha's love seems to him an abyss. And again: "I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't understand!" Lvov, calling Ivanov for an explanation, says that he understands his actions and is ready to call things by their real name: Ivanov needs the death of his wife in order to receive a dowry for Sasha Lebedeva. In vain Ivanov urges him not to be so self-confident: "No, doctor, there are too many wheels, cogs and valves in each of us so that we can judge each other by the first impression or by two or three external signs ..." Seeing Sasha entering, the doctor says to Ivanov: "Now, I hope, we understand each other perfectly!" Ivanov's arrival Sasha does not please, in their novel he sees "a common, hackneyed place: he lost heart and lost ground. She appeared, cheerful in spirit, strong, and gave him a helping hand ...". But Sasha really thinks to save Ivanov. “Men don’t understand a lot. Any girl would rather like a loser than a lucky man, because active love seduces everyone ...” Let Ivanov be with his sick wife for a year, ten - she, Sasha, will not get tired of waiting. After her departure, Anna Petrovna enters, offended, she demands an explanation from her husband. Ivanov is ready to admit that he is deeply guilty before her, but when he hears from his wife the same interpretation of his actions: “All this time you deceived me in the most insolent way <…> Dishonest, low man! You owe Lebedev, and now, in order to evade debt, you want to turn his daughter's head, deceive her just like me," - here he can not stand it. He suffocates, asks her to shut up, finally a terrible, insulting one escapes from him: "Shut up, Jew! <...> So know that you will die soon <...> The doctor told me that you will die soon ..." And seeing how she His words had an effect, sobbing, grabbing his head: "How guilty I am! God, how guilty I am!" It's been about a year. During this time, Sarah died, Borkin betrothed the old Shabelsky to a young rich widow. Preparations for the wedding of Ivanov and Sasha are in the Lebedev's house. Dr. Lvov walks around excited. He is strangled by hatred for Ivanov, he wants to tear off the mask from him and bring him to clean water. Lebedev and Sasha are not very cheerful: both father and daughter confess to each other that in the upcoming wedding "something is not right, not right!" But Sasha is ready to go to the end: "He is a good, unhappy, misunderstood person; I will love him, I will understand, I will put him on his feet. I will fulfill my task." Unexpectedly for everyone, Ivanov appears. "Before it's too late, we need to stop this senseless comedy ..." - he says to Sasha. It was on this morning that he realized that he had finally died, that his boredom, despondency, discontent were incompatible with living life, and his conscience did not allow him to ruin Sasha's youth. He asks her to help him and this very minute, immediately abandon him. But Sasha rejects his generosity, although he sees that instead of active love, martyr love is obtained. Good-natured Lebedev understands everything in his own way: he offers Ivanov and Sasha the treasured ten thousand. But the bride and groom are stubborn: each says that he will act according to the dictates of his own conscience. Ivanov explains nothing to Lebedev, who does not understand anything for the last time: “I was young, hot, sincere, not stupid; I loved, hated and believed differently than everyone else, worked and hoped for ten, fought with mills, beat my head against the walls ... And so life with which I struggled cruelly takes revenge on me! I've overworked myself! At the age of thirty I'm already hangover <...> tired, torn, broken, without faith, without love, without a goal, like a shadow, I wander among people and don't know: who I am, why do I live, what do I want?.. Oh, how my pride is indignant, what rage is choking me!” Doctor Lvov manages to shout out his insult: "I declare publicly that you are a scoundrel!" - but Ivanov listens to this coldly and calmly. He made his own judgment. "Youth woke up in me, the former Ivanov spoke!" Taking out a revolver, he runs aside and shoots himself. V. B. Kataev Boring story. From the notes of an old man Tale (1889) Professor of Medicine Nikolai Stepanovich is a scientist who has reached the heights of his science, enjoying universal honor and gratitude; his name is known to every literate person in Russia. The bearer of this name, that is, himself, is an old man, terminally ill; according to his own diagnosis, he has no more than six months left to live. In his notes, he tries to understand the situation in which he found himself: he, a famous person, was sentenced to death. He describes the usual course of his present life. Sleeplessness every night. Household - wife and daughter Lisa, whom he used to love, now only irritate him with their petty everyday worries. The closest collaborators: eccentric and devoted university porter Nikolai, prosector Pyotr Ignatievich, a draft horse and a learned dumbass. The work that used to give Nikolai Stepanovich pleasure, his university lectures, once equal to the works of the poet, now bring him nothing but torment. Nikolai Stepanovich is not a philosopher or a theologian, all his life the fate of the bone marrow interested him more than the ultimate goal of the universe, his soul does not want to know questions about the darkness beyond the grave. But what pleased his life - peace and happiness in the family, favorite work, self-confidence - gone forever. New thoughts, which he did not know before, poison his last days. It seems to him that life has deceived him, his glorious name, his brilliant past do not alleviate today's pain. Ordinary visitors of the old professor. A faculty colleague, a negligent student, a dissertation begging for a topic - everyone seems to Nikolai Stepanovich funny, narrow-minded, limited, everyone gives a reason for irritation or mockery. But here is another welcome visitor: familiar steps, the rustle of a dress, a sweet voice... Katya, the daughter of a late fellow ophthalmologist, grew up in the family of Nikolai Stepanovich. Even by the age of fifteen, she was seized by a passionate love for the theater. Dreaming of fame and service to art, trusting and addicted, she went into provincial actresses, but after two years she became disillusioned with the theater business, with stage mates, lost faith in her talent, experienced unhappy love, attempted suicide, buried her child. Nikolai Stepanovich, who loved Katya like a daughter, tried to help her with advice, wrote her long but useless letters. Now, after the crash, Katya lives on the remnants of her father's inheritance. She has lost interest in life, lies at home on the couch and reads books, but once a day she hangs Nikolai Stepanovich. She does not love his wife and Lisa, they reciprocate her. An ordinary family dinner also brings Nikolai Stepanovich nothing but irritation. Present are his wife, Lisa, two or three of her friends from the conservatory, and Alexander Adolfovich Gnekker, a person who inspires sharp antipathy to the professor. An admirer of Liza and a contender for her hand, he visits the house every day, but no one knows what his origin is and on what means he lives. He sells someone's grand pianos somewhere, is familiar with celebrities, judges music with great authority - he took root in art, Nikolai Stepanovich draws a conclusion for himself. He longingly recalls the former, simple and cheerful family dinners, sullenly thinks that for a long time the inner life of his wife and Lisa has eluded his observation. They are no longer the same as he knew and loved them before. Why there was a change - he does not know. After dinner, his wife, as usual, begs him to go to Kharkov, where Gnekker is from, to make inquiries there about his parents and condition. From a feeling of loneliness, from fear of insomnia, Nikolai Stepanovich leaves the house. Where to go? The answer has long been clear to him: to Katya. Only at Katya's he is warm and comfortable, only she can complain about his condition. Before, he tells her, he had the feeling of a king, he could be condescending, forgiving everyone right and left. But now evil thoughts roam in his head day and night, decent only for slaves. He became excessively strict, demanding, irritable. His whole past life seems to him a beautiful, talented composition, the only thing left is not to spoil the ending, to meet death cheerfully and with a calm soul. "But I ruin the ending..." Katya has another guest, philologist Mikhail Fedorovich. He is obviously in love with her and does not dare to admit it to her. He entertains with anecdotes from university life, and his slander also irritates Nikolai Stepanovich. He interrupts the talk about the reduction of the new generation, about the lack of ideals among young people with sharp objections. But inwardly he feels that evil, "Arakcheev" thoughts are taking over his being as well. And to the interlocutors, whom he compared with evil toads, he is drawn again every evening. Summer is coming, the professor and his family live in the country. At night still insomnia, but during the day instead of work - reading French books. Nikolai Stepanovich knows what creativity is and its main condition: a sense of personal freedom. His judgments about literature, theatre, science are precise and precise. But thoughts of imminent death, now in three or four months, do not leave him. The visitors are the same: doorman, dissector; dinners with the participation of the same Gnekker. Calls in to give the professor a ride in his chaise, Katya. She understands that her life does not add up, that time and money go aimlessly. "What should I do?" she asks. "What to answer her?" - thinks Nikolai Stepanovich. It's easy to say "work hard" or "give your property to the poor" or "know thyself", but these general and formulaic advice is unlikely to help in this particular case. In the evenings, the same Mikhail Fedorovich, in love and slandering, visits Katya's dacha. And Nikolai Stepanovich, who previously condemned attacks on the university, students, literature, and the theater, is now participating in slander himself. There are terrible nights with thunder, lightning, rain and wind, which are popularly called sparrow nights. Nikolai Stepanovich also experiences one such night. He wakes up from the fear of sudden death, unable to control his unaccountable horror. All of a sudden, you hear groans or laughter. His wife comes running, calling him to Lisa's room. She groans from some kind of torment, throws herself on her father’s neck: “My dad is good ... I don’t know what’s wrong with me ... It’s hard!” “Help her, help her!” the wife pleads. “Do something!” "What can I do? I can't do anything," the father reflects. “There is some kind of heaviness in the girl’s soul, but I don’t understand anything, I don’t know, and I can only mutter: “Nothing, nothing ... It will pass ... Sleep, sleep ... " A few hours later he is in his room, still awake, hears a knock on the window. This is Katya. And she has some heavy forebodings that night. She begs Nikolai Stepanovich to take her money from her and go somewhere for treatment. After his refusal, she dejectedly leaves. Nikolai Stepanovich in Kharkov, where his wife insistently sent. The state of anger and irritation was replaced by a new one: complete indifference. He learns here that nothing is known about Gnekker in the city, but when a telegram arrives from his wife with the message that Gnekker has secretly married Liza, he meets the news with indifference. This frightens him: after all, indifference is paralysis of the soul, premature death. Morning finds him sitting in bed in a hotel room, busy with the same haunting thoughts. It seems to him that he understood the cause of that weakness that led him on the eve of the end to evil, slavish thoughts, and then to indifference. The fact is that in his thoughts, feelings, judgments there is no general idea, or the god of a living person. "And if this is not there, then it means that there is nothing." If there is nothing in common that would bind everything into one whole, a serious illness, the fear of death, was enough for everything that saw the meaning and joy of life to be torn to pieces. Nikolai Stepanovich finally gives up and decides to sit and silently wait for what will happen. There is a knock on the door, Katya is standing in front of him. She arrived, she says, just like that, drops a letter from Mikhail Fedorovich. Then, turning pale and clasping his hands, he turns to Nikolai Stepanovich: “For the sake of the true God, tell me quickly, this minute: what should I do? ... After all, you are my father, my only friend! .. You were a teacher! Tell me, what should I do?” Nikolai Stepanovich can hardly stand on his feet, he is confused. “In all honesty, Katya, I don’t know ... Come on, Katya, have breakfast.” Having received no answer, she leaves - where, she does not know herself. And he sees her, probably for the last time. "Farewell, my treasure!" Duel Tale (1891) In a town on the Black Sea, two friends are talking while swimming. Ivan Andreyevich Laevsky, a young man of twenty-eight, shares the secrets of his personal life with military doctor Samoylenko. Two years ago, he met with a married woman, they fled from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus, telling themselves that they would start a new working life there. But the town turned out to be boring, people were uninteresting, Laevsky did not know how and did not want to work on the land in the sweat of his brow, and therefore from the first day he felt bankrupt. In his relationship with Nadezhda Fedorovna, he no longer sees anything but a lie, living with her is now beyond his strength. He dreams of running back to the north. But you can’t part with her either: she has no relatives, no money, she doesn’t know how to work. There is another difficulty: the news of the death of her husband came, which means for Laevsky and Nadezhda Fedorovna the opportunity to get married. Good Samoylenko advises his friend to do exactly this. Everything that Nadezhda Fyodorovna says and does seems to Laevsky to be a lie or similar to a lie. At breakfast, he barely restrains his ((alas, here the page in the book is torn off - therefore - it's hard to judge - what kind of text is there - yanko_slava.@yahoo.com)) irritation, even the way she swallows milk causes heavy hatred in him. The desire to sort things out as soon as possible and run away now does not let him go. Laevsky is used to finding explanations and justifications for his life in someone else's theories, in literary types, he compares himself with Onegin and Pechorin, with Anna Karenina, with Hamlet. He is ready either to blame himself for the lack of a guiding idea, to recognize himself as a loser and an extra person, or to justify himself to himself. But just as he used to believe in salvation from the emptiness of life in the Caucasus, so now he believes that as soon as he leaves Nadezhda Fyodorovna and leaves for St. Petersburg, he will begin a cultured, intelligent, vigorous life. Samoylenko keeps a kind of table d'hôte in his place, and the young zoologist von Koren and Pobedov, who has just graduated from the Seminary, are dining with him. At dinner the conversation turns to Laevsky. Von Koren mogu", "gives that Laevsky is just as dangerous for society as cholera but???. He corrupts the inhabitants of the town by openly living with ??? wife, drinks and makes others drunk, plays cards, multiplies debts, does nothing and, moreover, justifies himself with fashionable theories about ??? inheritance, degeneration, and so on. If people like him multiply, humanity, civilization is in serious danger. Therefore, for his own benefit, Laevsky should have been rendered harmless. "In the name of the salvation of mankind, we must ourselves take care of the destruction of the frail and worthless," the zoologist says coldly. The laughing deacon laughs, but the stunned Samoylenko can only say: "If people are drowned and hanged, then to hell with your civilization, to hell with humanity! To hell!" On Sunday morning Nadezhda Fyodorovna goes for a swim in the most festive mood. She likes herself, I'm sure that all the men they meet admire her. She feels guilty before Laevsky. During these two years she had run into debts in Achmianov's shop for three hundred rubles, and she was not going to say anything about it. In addition, she had twice hosted the police officer Kirilin. But Nadezhda Fyodorovna happily thinks that her soul did not participate in her betrayal, she continues to love Laevsky, and everything is already broken with Kirilin. In the bathhouse, she talks with an elderly lady, Marya Konstantinovna Bityugova, and learns that in the evening the local society is having a picnic on the banks of a mountain stream. On the way to the picnic, von Koren tells the deacon about his plans to go on an expedition along the coast of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans; Laevsky, riding in another carriage, scolds the Caucasian landscapes. He constantly feels von Koren's dislike for himself and regrets that he went to the picnic. At the mountain spirit of the Tartar Kerbalai, the company stops. Nadezhda Fyodorovna is in a playful mood, she wants to laugh, tease, flirt. But the persecution of Kirilin and the advice of the young Achmianov to beware of that darken her joy. Laevsky, tired of the picnic and von Koren's undisguised hatred, takes out his irritation on Nadezhda Fyodorovna and calls her a cocotte. On the way back, von Koren admits to Samoylenko that his hand would not tremble if the state or society had instructed him to destroy Laevsky. At home, after a picnic, Laevsky informs Nadezhda Fyodorovna about the death of her husband and, feeling at home as in a prison, goes to Samoylenko. He begs his friend to help, lend him three hundred rubles, promises to arrange everything with Nadezhda Fyodorovna, to make peace with his mother. Samoylenko offers to reconcile with von Koren, but Laevsky says that this is impossible. Maybe he would have extended his hand to him, but von Koren would have turned away with contempt. After all, this is a firm, despotic nature. And his ideals are despotic. People for him are puppies and nonentities, too small to be the goal of his life. He works, goes on an expedition, breaks his neck there not in the name of love for his neighbor, but in the name of such abstractions as humanity, future generations, an ideal breed of people ... He would order to shoot anyone who goes beyond the circle of our narrow conservative morality, and all this in the name of improving the human race... Despots have always been illusionists. With enthusiasm, Laevsky says that he clearly sees his shortcomings and is aware of them. This will help him to resurrect and become a different person, and he is passionately waiting for this rebirth and renewal. Three days after the picnic, an excited Marya Konstantinovna comes to Nadezhda Fedorovna and invites her to be her matchmaker. But a wedding with Laevsky, Nadezhda Fyodorovna feels, is now impossible. She cannot tell Marya Konstantinovna everything: how confused her relationship with Kirilin, with the young Achmianov. From all the experiences she starts a strong fever. Laevsky feels guilty before Nadezhda Fyodorovna. But the thought of leaving next Saturday so possessed him that he asked Samoylenko, who came to visit the patient, only if he could get money. But there is no money yet. Samoilenko decides to ask von Koren for a hundred rubles. He, after a dispute, agrees to give money for Laevsky, but only on the condition that he leaves not alone, but together with Nadezhda Fyodorovna. The next day, Thursday, while visiting Marya Konstantinovna, Samoylenko told Laevsky about the condition set by von Koren. The guests, including von Koren, play mail. Laevsky, automatically participating in the game, thinks about how much he has to and still has to lie, what a mountain of lies prevents him from starting a new life. In order to skip it at once, and not lie in parts, you need to decide on some kind of drastic measure, but he feels that this is impossible for him. A malicious note, apparently sent by von Koren, causes him a hysterical fit. Having come to his senses, in the evening, as usual, he leaves to play cards. On the way from the guests to the house, Nadezhda Fyodorovna is pursued by Kirilin. He threatens her with a scandal if she does not give him a date today. Nadezhda Fyodorovna is disgusted with him, she begs to let her go, but in the end she gives in. Behind them, unnoticed, young Achmianov is watching. The next day, Laevsky goes to Samoylenko to take money from him, since it is shameful and impossible to remain in the city after a tantrum. He finds only von Koren. A short conversation follows; Laevsky understands that he knows about his plans. He keenly feels that the zoologist hates him, despises and mocks him, and that he is his most bitter and implacable enemy. When Samoilenko arrives, Laevsky, in a nervous fit, accuses him of not being able to keep other people's secrets, and insults von Koren. Von Koren seemed to be waiting for this attack, he challenges Laevsky to a duel. Samoylenko unsuccessfully tries to reconcile them. On the evening before the duel, Laevsky is first possessed by hatred for von Koren, then, over wine and cards, he becomes careless, then anxiety seizes him. When young Achmianov takes him to some house and there he sees Kirilin, and next to him Nadezhda Fedorovna, all feelings seem to disappear from his soul. Von Koren that evening on the embankment talks with the deacon about the different understanding of the teachings of Christ. What is love for one's neighbor? In the elimination of everything that in one way or another harms people and threatens them with danger in the present or future, the zoologist believes. Humanity is in danger from the morally and physically abnormal, and they must be rendered harmless, that is, destroyed. But where are the criteria for distinguishing, because mistakes are possible? asks the deacon. There is nothing to be afraid of getting your feet wet when a flood threatens, the zoologist replies. On the night before the duel, Laevsky listens to the thunderstorm outside the window, goes over his past in his memory, sees only lies in it, feels guilty for the fall of Nadezhda Fyodorovna and is ready to beg her forgiveness. If it were possible to return the past, he would find God and justice, but this is just as impossible as returning a sunken star back to heaven. Before leaving for the duel, he goes to Nadezhda Fyodorovna's bedroom. She looks with horror at Laevsky, but he, having embraced her, understands that this unfortunate, vicious woman is for him the only close, dear and irreplaceable person. Sitting in a carriage, he wants to return home alive. The deacon, leaving early in the morning to see the duel, ponders why Laevsky and von Koren can hate each other and fight duels? Wouldn't it be better for them to go down and direct hatred and anger to where whole streets groan from gross ignorance, greed, reproaches, impurity ... Sitting in a strip of corn, he sees opponents and seconds arrive. Two green rays stretch out from behind the mountains, the sun rises. No one knows exactly the rules of a duel, they recall descriptions of fights by Lermontov, Turgenev ... Laevsky shoots first; fearing that the bullet would not hit von Koren, he makes a shot in the air. Von Koren aims the muzzle of the pistol straight at Laevsky's face. "He will kill him!" - the desperate cry of the deacon makes him miss. Three months pass. On the day of his departure for the expedition, von Koren, accompanied by Samoylenko and the deacon, goes to the pier. Passing by Laevsky's house, they talk about the change that has taken place with him. He married Nadezhda Fyodorovna, and works from morning to evening to pay off his debts... Deciding to enter the house, von Koren holds out his hand to Laevsky. He has not changed his beliefs, but admits that he was wrong about his former adversary. Nobody knows the real truth, he says. Yes, no one knows the truth, agrees Laevsky. He watches how the boat with von Koren overcomes the waves, and thinks: it is the same in life ... In search of the truth, people take two steps forward, one step back ... And who knows? Perhaps they will swim to the real truth ... V. B. Kataev Boots Story (1891, publ. 1892) Osip Ivanovich Dymov, a titular adviser and doctor for thirty-one years, serves in two hospitals at the same time: an intern and a dissector. From nine o'clock in the morning until noon he receives patients, then he goes to dissect corpses. But his income is barely enough to cover the expenses of his wife - Olga Ivanovna, twenty-two years old, obsessed with talents and celebrities in the artistic and artistic environment, whom she receives daily in the house. Passion for people of art is fueled by the fact that she herself sings a little, sculpts, draws and, according to her friends, has an underdeveloped talent in everything at once. Among the guests of the house, the landscape painter and animal painter Ryabovsky stands out - "a fair-haired young man, about twenty-five, who had success at exhibitions and sold his last painting for five hundred rubles" (which is equal to the annual income from Dymov's private practice). Dymov loves his wife. They met when he treated her father, on duty at night near him. She loves him too. There is "something" in Dymovo, she tells her friends: "How much self-sacrifice, sincere participation!" "... there is something strong, powerful, bearish in him," she tells the guests, as if explaining why she, an artistic nature, married such a "very ordinary and unremarkable person." Dymov (she does not call her husband except by his last name, often adding: "Let me shake your honest hand!" - which betrays an echo of Turgenev's "emancipe" in her) finds herself in the position of either a husband or a servant. That's what she calls him: "My dear maître d'!" Dymov prepares snacks, rushes to get clothes for his wife, who spends the summer at the dacha with friends. One scene is the height of Dymov's male humiliation: having arrived at his wife's dacha after a hard day and brought snacks with him, dreaming of having dinner and rest, he immediately sets off by train back at night, because Olga intends to take part in the telegrapher's wedding the next day and not can do without a decent hat, dress, flowers, gloves. Olga Ivanovna, together with the artists, spends the rest of the summer on the Volga. Dymov remains to work and send money to his wife. On the ship, Ryabovsky confesses his love to Olga, she becomes his mistress. He tries not to think about Dymov. "Indeed: what is Dymov? why Dymov? what does she care about Dymov?" But soon Olga bored Ryabovsky; he gladly sends her to her husband when she gets bored with life in the village - in a dirty hut on the banks of the Volga. Ryabovsky - Chekhov's type of "bored" artist. He is talented but lazy. Sometimes it seems to him that he has reached the limit of his creative possibilities, but sometimes he works without rest and then he creates something significant. He is able to live only by creativity, and women do not mean much to him. Dymov meets his wife with joy. She does not dare to confess in connection with Ryabovsky. But Ryabovsky arrives, and their romance continues languidly, causing boredom in him, boredom and jealousy in her. Dymov begins to guess about the betrayal, worries, but does not show it and works more than before. One day he says that he has defended his dissertation and he may be offered a privatdocentre in general pathology. It can be seen from his face that “if Olga Ivanovna had shared his joy and triumph with him, he would have forgiven her everything, <…> but she did not understand what privatdocentura and general pathology meant, and besides, she was afraid to be late for the theater and didn't say anything." Dymov's colleague Korostelev appears in the house, "a little shorn man with a rumpled face"; Dymov spends all his free time with him in scientific conversations incomprehensible to his wife. Relations with Ryabovsky come to a standstill. One day, in his workshop, Olga Ivanovna finds a woman, obviously his mistress, and decides to break up with him. At this time, the husband becomes infected with diphtheria, sucking out films from a sick boy, which he, as a doctor, is not obliged to do. Korostelev takes care of him. A local luminary, Dr. Shrek, is invited to the patient, but he cannot help: Dymov is hopeless. Olga Ivanovna finally understands the falsity and meanness of her relationship with her husband, curses the past, and prays to God for help. Korostelev tells her about Dymov's death, cries, accuses Olga Ivanovna of having killed her husband. A great scientist could grow up from him, but the lack of time and home peace did not allow him to become what he rightfully should be. Olga Ivanovna understands that she was the cause of her husband's death, forcing him to engage in private practice and provide her with an idle life. She understands that in the pursuit of celebrities "missed" a true talent. She runs to Dymov's body, cries, calls him, realizing that she was late. The story ends with Korostelev's simple words, emphasizing the senselessness of the situation: "But what is there to ask? You go to the church gatehouse and ask where the almshouses live. They will wash the body and clean it - they will do everything that is needed." P. V. Basinsky Ward №6 Tale (1892) Ward No. 6 for the mentally ill is located in a small hospital wing in a county town. There "it stinks of sour cabbage, wick, bugs and ammonia, and this stink at first gives you the impression that you are entering a menagerie." There are five people in the room. The first is "a thin tradesman with a shiny red mustache and tear-stained eyes." He, apparently, is ill with consumption and is sad and sighs all day long. The second is Moiseyka, a merry little fool who "got crazy about twenty years ago, when his hat workshop burned down." He alone is allowed to leave the ward and go to the city to beg, but everything that he brings is taken away by the watchman Nikita (he is one of those people who adore order in everything, and therefore beats the sick mercilessly). Moiseika loves to serve everyone. In this he imitates the third inhabitant, the only one "of the noble" - the former bailiff Ivan Dmitrievich Gromov. He is from the family of a wealthy official, who from a certain moment began to be haunted by misfortunes. First, the eldest son, Sergei, died. Then he himself was put on trial for forgery and embezzlement and soon died in the prison hospital. The youngest son Ivan was left with his mother without funds. He studied hard and got a job. But suddenly he turned out to be sick with persecution mania and ended up in ward No. 6. The fourth occupant is "a fat, almost round man with a dull, completely senseless face." He seems to have lost the ability to think and feel; he doesn't react even when Nikita beats him brutally. The fifth and final occupant is "a thin blond man with a kind but somewhat sly face". He has delusions of grandeur, but of a strange quality. From time to time he tells his neighbors that he has received a "Stanislav of the second degree with a star" or some very rare order like the Swedish "Polar Star", but he speaks about it modestly, as if surprised himself. After describing the patients, the author introduces us to Dr. Andrey Efimych Ragin. In his early youth, he dreamed of being a priest, but his father, a doctor of medicine and a surgeon, forced him to become a physician. His appearance is "heavy, rude, muzhik", but his manners are soft, insinuating, and his voice is thin. When he took office, the "charitable institution" was in a terrible state. Terrible poverty, unsanitary conditions. Ragin was indifferent to this. He is a smart and honest person, but he does not have the will and faith in his right to change life for the better. At first he worked very hard, but soon got bored and realized that in such conditions it was pointless to treat patients. "Besides, why prevent people from dying, if death is the normal and legal end of everyone?" From these arguments, Ragin abandoned his affairs and began to go to the hospital not every day. He developed his own way of life. After a little work, more for show, he goes home and reads. Every half an hour he drinks a glass of vodka and eats a pickled cucumber or a pickled apple. Then he has lunch and drinks beer. By evening, the postmaster Mikhail Averyanych, a former rich but ruined landowner, usually comes. He respects the doctor, and despises other townsfolk. The doctor and the postmaster have meaningless conversations and complain about their fate. When the guest leaves, Ragin continues to read. He reads everything, giving half of his salary for books, but loves philosophy and history most of all. Reading makes him happy. Once Ragin decided to visit Ward No. 6. There he met Gromov, talked with him and soon became involved in these conversations, often visited Gromov and found strange pleasure in talking with him. They are arguing. The doctor takes the position of the Greek Stoics and preaches contempt for life's suffering, while Gromov dreams of ending suffering, calls the doctor's philosophy laziness and "sleepy madness." Nevertheless, they are drawn to each other, and this does not go unnoticed by the rest. Soon the hospital begins to gossip about visits to the doctor. Then he is invited for an explanation to the city government. This also happens because he has a competitor, assistant Yevgeny Fedorych Khobotov, an envious person who dreams of taking Ragin's place. Formally, the conversation is about the improvement of the hospital, but in fact, officials are trying to find out if the doctor has gone crazy. Ragin understands this and gets angry. On the same day, the postmaster invites him to go together to unwind in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Warsaw, and Ragin understands that this is also connected with rumors about his mental illness. Finally, he is directly offered to "rest", that is, to resign. He accepts this indifferently and goes with Mikhail Averyanych to Moscow. On the way, the postmaster bores him with his talk, greed, gluttony; he loses Ragin's money at cards, and they return home before reaching Warsaw. At home, everyone again begins to bother Ragin with his imaginary madness. Finally, he could not stand it and drove Khobotov and the postmaster out of his apartment. He becomes ashamed and goes to apologize to the postmaster. He persuades the doctor to go to the hospital. In the end, he is placed there by cunning: Khobotov invites him to Ward No. 6, allegedly for a consultation, then allegedly leaves for a stethoscope and does not return. The doctor becomes "sick". At first, he tries to somehow get out of the ward, Nikita does not let him in, he and Gromov start a riot, and Nikita hits Ragin in the face. The doctor understands that he will never leave the room. This plunges him into a state of complete hopelessness, and soon he dies of apoplexy. Only Mikhail Averyanych and Daryushka, his former servant, were at the funeral. P. V. Basinsky black monk Story (1893, publ. 1894) Andrey Vasilyevich Kovrin, Master, falls ill with a nerve disorder. On the advice of a doctor friend, he decides to go to the countryside. This decision coincides with an invitation to visit from her childhood friend Tanya Pesotskaya, who lives with her father, Yegor Semenych, in the Borisovka estate. April. Description of the huge crumbling house of the Pesotskys with an old park in the English style. Yegor Semenych is a passionate gardener who devoted his life to his garden and does not know to whom before his death to transfer his farm. On the night when Kovrin arrives, Yegor Semenych and Tanya sleep alternately: they watch the workers who save the trees from frost. Kovrin and Tanya go to the garden and reminisce about their childhood. It is easy to guess from the conversation that Tanya is not indifferent to Kovrin and that she is bored with her father, who does not want to know anything but the garden, and turned her into a humble assistant. Kovrin also likes Tanya, he suggests that he can seriously get carried away, but this thought rather amuses than seriously occupies him. In the village he leads the same nervous life as in the city: he reads a lot, writes, sleeps little, smokes often and drinks wine. He is extremely impressionable. One day he tells Tanya a legend that he either heard, or read, or saw in a dream. A thousand years ago, a monk dressed in black was walking through the desert in Syria or Arabia. A few miles away, the fishermen saw another black monk, a mirage, moving across the surface of the lake. Then he was seen in Africa, in Spain, in India, even in the Far North ... Finally, he left the earth's atmosphere and now wanders in the Universe, he may be seen on Mars or on some star of the Southern Cross. The meaning of the legend is that a thousand years after the first appearance, the monk must again appear on earth, and now this time has come ... After a conversation with Tanya, Kovrin goes into the garden and suddenly sees a black monk emerging from a whirlwind from earth to heaven. He flies past Kovrin; it seems to him that the monk is smiling kindly and slyly at him. Without trying to explain the strange phenomenon, Kovrin returns to the house. He is overwhelmed with joy. He sings, dances, and everyone finds that he has a special, inspired face. In the evening of the same day Yegor Semenych comes to Kovrin's room. He starts a conversation, from which it is clear that he dreams of marrying Tanya to Kovrin ... in order to be sure of the future of his household. "If you and Tanya had a son, then I would have made a gardener out of him." Tanya and her father often quarrel. Consoling Tanya, Kovrin one day realizes that he has no closer people than she and Yegor Semenych in the whole world. Soon a black monk visits him again, and a conversation takes place between them, in which the monk admits that he exists only in Kovrin's imagination. "You are one of those few who are justly called the chosen ones of God. You serve the eternal truth." All this is very pleasant to listen to Kovrina, but he fears that he is mentally ill. To this, the monk retorts that all brilliant people are sick. "My friend, only ordinary, herd people are healthy and normal." Joyfully excited Kovrin meets Tanya and declares his love for her. Preparations are underway for the wedding. Kovrin works hard, not noticing the hustle and bustle. He is happy. Once or twice a week he meets with a black monk and has long conversations. He was convinced of his own genius. After the wedding, Tanya and Kovrin move to the city. One night, Kovrin is again visited by a black monk, they are talking. Tanya finds her husband talking to an invisible interlocutor. She is frightened, as is Yegor Semenovich, who is visiting their house. Tanya persuades Kovrin to be treated, he agrees in fear. He realizes that he has gone mad. Kovrin was treated and almost recovered. Together with Tanya, she spends the summer with her father-in-law in the village. Works little, does not drink wine and does not smoke. He's bored. He quarrels with Tanya and reproaches her for forcing him to be treated. "I went crazy, I had delusions of grandeur, but I was cheerful, cheerful and even happy, I was interesting and original ..." He receives an independent department. But on the day of the first lecture, he notifies by telegram that he will not read due to illness. He is bleeding from his throat. He no longer lives with Tanya, but with another woman, two years older than him - Varvara Nikolaevna, who takes care of him like a child. They go to the Crimea and stop in Sevastopol on the way. While still at home, an hour before departure, he received a letter from Tanya, but he reads it only in Sevastopol. Tanya announces the death of her father, accuses him of this death and curses him. He is seized by "anxiety, similar to fear." He clearly understands that he is mediocrity. He goes out to the balcony and sees a black monk. “Why didn’t you believe me?” he asked reproachfully, looking affectionately at Kovrin. “If you had believed me then that you were a genius, then you would have spent these two years not so sadly and meagerly.” Kovrin again believes that he is God's chosen one, a genius, not noticing that blood is coming from his throat. He calls Tanya, falls and dies: "a blissful smile froze on his face." P. V. Basinsky Teacher of literature Story (1889-1894) A teacher of Russian language and literature in a small provincial town, Sergei Vasilievich Nikitin, is in love with the daughter of a local landowner, Masha Shelestova, eighteen years old, who "the family has not yet lost the habit of considering small" and therefore they call her Manya and Manyusey, and when the circus visited the city, which she diligently attended, they began to call her Marie Godefroy. She is a passionate horsewoman, like her father; often with her sister and guests (mostly officers from the regiment located in the city), she goes out to ride, picking up a special horse for Nikitin, since he is an unimportant rider. Her sister Varya, twenty-three years old, is much more beautiful than Manyusya. She is smart, educated and, as it were, takes the place of her deceased mother in the house. She calls herself an old maid - which means, the author notes, "she was sure that she would marry." In the Shelestovs' house, they have views of one of the frequent guests, staff captain Polyansky, hoping that he will soon make an offer to Varya. Varya is an avid debater. Nikitin irritates her the most. She argues with him on every subject and to his objections she replies: "That's old!" or "It's flat!" This has something in common with her father, who, as usual, scolds everyone behind their backs and repeats at the same time: "This is rudeness!" Nikitin's main torment is his youthful appearance. Nobody believes that he is twenty-six years old; His students don't respect him, and he doesn't like them himself. School is boring. He shares an apartment with a teacher of geography and history, Ippolit Ippolitich Ryzhitsky, a most boring person, "with a rude and unintelligent face, like that of a craftsman, but good-natured." Ryzhitsky constantly says platitudes: “Now it’s May, soon it will be real summer. And summer is not like winter. In winter, you need to heat the stoves, and in the summer it’s warm even without stoves ...”, etc. In the course of the story, he suddenly dies before his death, delirious, repeats: "The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea ... Horses eat oats and hay ..." In love with Manya, Nikitin loves everything in the Shelestovs' house. He does not notice the vulgarity of their lives. “The only thing he didn’t like was the abundance of dogs and cats and the Egyptian pigeons, which moaned dejectedly in a large cage on the terrace,” however, here Nikitin assures himself that they moan “because they don’t know how to express their joy otherwise.” As they get to know the hero, the reader understands that Nikitin is already infected with provincial laziness. For example, one of the guests finds out that the language teacher did not read Lessing. He feels awkward and gives himself the floor to read, but forgets about it. All his thoughts are occupied by Manya. Finally, he declares his love and goes to ask for the hand of Mani from his father. The father does not mind, but "like a man" advises Nikitin to wait: "It's only the peasants who marry early, but there, you know, rudeness, and why are you? What a pleasure it is to put on shackles at such a young age?" The wedding took place. Her description is in Nikitin's diary, written in an enthusiastic tone. Everything is fine: a young wife, their inherited house, minor household chores, etc. It would seem that the hero is happy. Life with Manya reminds him of "shepherd's idylls." But somehow, during a great post, after returning home after playing cards, he speaks with his wife and learns that Polyansky has transferred to another city. Manya thinks that he acted "badly" by not making the expected proposal to Varya, and these words strike Nikitin unpleasantly. "So," he asked, restraining himself, "if I went to your house, I certainly had to marry you?" "Of course. You yourself understand this very well." Nikitin feels trapped. He sees that he did not decide his fate, but some stupid, extraneous force determined his life. The beginning of spring contrastly emphasizes the feeling of hopelessness that has seized Nikitin. Behind the wall, Varya and Shelestov, who came to visit, are having lunch. Varya complains of a headache, and the old man keeps talking about "how hopeless young people are today and how little gentlemanship they have." “This is rudeness!” he said. “So I will tell him directly: this is rudeness, gracious sovereign!” Nikitin dreams of fleeing to Moscow and writes in his diary: "Where am I, my God?! I am surrounded by vulgarity and vulgarity ... There is nothing more terrible, more insulting, more dreary than vulgarity. Run away from here, run away today, otherwise I will go crazy!" P. V. Basinsky Chaika Comedy (1895-1896) The action takes place in the estate of Peter Nikolaevich Sorin. His sister, Irina Nikolaevna Arkadina, an actress, is visiting his estate with her son, Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev, and with Boris Alekseevich Trigorin, a fairly famous novelist, although he is not yet forty. They speak of him as a smart, simple, somewhat melancholic and very decent person. As for his literary activity, then, according to Treplev, it is "cute, talented <...> but <...> after Tolstoy or Zola you don't want to read Trigorin." Konstantin Treplev himself is also trying to write. Considering modern theater a prejudice, he is looking for new forms of theatrical action. Those gathered in the estate are preparing to watch a play staged by the author among natural scenery. The only role to play in it should be Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya, a young girl, the daughter of wealthy landowners, with whom Konstantin is in love. Nina's parents are categorically against her passion for the theater, and therefore she must come to the estate secretly. Konstantin is sure that his mother is against staging the play and, having not yet seen it, passionately hates her, since the novelist, whom she loves, may like Nina Zarechnaya. It also seems to him that his mother does not love him, because his age - and he is twenty-five years old - reminds her of his own years. In addition, Konstantin is haunted by the fact that his mother is a famous actress. He thinks that since he, like his father, is now deceased, a Kiev bourgeois, he is tolerated in the company of famous artists and writers only because of his mother. He also suffers because his mother lives openly with Trigorin and her name constantly appears on the pages of newspapers, that she is stingy, superstitious and jealous of someone else's success. While waiting for Zarechnaya, he tells his uncle about all this. Sorin himself loves the theater and writers very much and admits to Treplev that he himself once wanted to become a writer, but it did not work out. Instead, he served twenty-eight years in the judiciary. Among those waiting for the performance are also Ilya Afanasyevich Shamraev, a retired lieutenant, Sorin's manager; his wife - Polina Andreevna and his daughter Masha; Evgeny Sergeevich Dorn, doctor; Semen Semenovich Medvedenko, teacher. Medvedenko is unrequitedly in love with Masha, but Masha does not reciprocate, not only because they are different people and do not understand each other. Masha loves Konstantin Treplev. Finally Zarechnaya arrives. She managed to escape from the house only for half an hour, and therefore everyone hastily begins to gather in the garden. There are no scenery on the stage: only the curtain, the first stage and the second stage. But there is a magnificent view of the lake. The full moon is above the horizon and is reflected in the water. Nina Zarechnaya, all in white, sitting on a large stone, reads a text in the spirit of decadent literature, which Arkadina immediately notes. Throughout the reading, the audience is constantly talking, despite Treplev's remarks. Soon he gets tired of it, and he, having lost his temper, stops the performance and leaves. Masha hurries after him to find him and calm him down. Meanwhile, Arkadina introduces Trigorin to Nina, and after a short conversation, Nina leaves for home. Nobody liked the play except Masha and Dorn. He wants to say more nice things to Treplev, which he does. Masha confesses to Dorn that she loves Treplev and asks for advice, but Dorn cannot advise her. Several days pass. The action shifts to the croquet court. The father and stepmother of Nina Zarechnaya left for Tver for three days, and this gave her the opportunity to come to the estate of Sorina, Arkadina and Polina Andreevna are going to the city, but Shamraev refuses to provide them with horses, citing the fact that all the horses in the field are harvesting rye. There is a small quarrel, Arkadina almost leaves for Moscow. On the way to the house, Polina Andreevna almost confesses her love to Dorn. Their meeting with Nina at the very house makes it clear to her that Dorn does not love her, but Zarechnaya. Nina walks around the garden and is surprised that the life of famous actors and writers is exactly the same as the life of ordinary people, with their everyday quarrels, skirmishes, tears and joys, with their troubles. Treplev brings her a dead seagull and compares this bird with himself. Nina tells him that she almost ceased to understand him, since he began to express his thoughts and feelings with symbols. Konstantin tries to explain himself, but, seeing Trigorin appearing, he quickly leaves. Nina and Trigorin remain alone. Trigorin is constantly writing down something in his notebook. Nina admires the world in which, according to her, Trigorin and Arkadina live, she admires enthusiastically and believes that their life is filled with happiness and miracles. Trigorin, on the contrary, paints his life as a painful existence. Seeing a seagull killed by Treplev, Trigorin writes a new story in a book for a short story about a young girl who looks like a seagull. "A man came by chance, saw her, and from nothing to do, destroyed her." A week passes. In the dining room of Sorin's house, Masha confesses to Trigorin that she loves Treplev and, in order to wrest this love from her heart, she marries Medvedenko, although she does not love him. Trigorin is going to leave for Moscow with Arkadina. Irina Nikolaevna leaves because of her son, who shot himself and is now going to challenge Trigorin to a duel. Nina Zarechnaya is also going to leave, as she dreams of becoming an actress. She comes to say goodbye (primarily to Trigorin). Nina gives him a medallion with lines from his book. Opening the book in the right place, he reads: "If you ever need my life, then come and take it." Trigorin wants to follow Nina, because it seems to him that this is the very feeling that he has been looking for all his life. Upon learning of this, Irina Arkadina begs on her knees not to leave her. However, agreeing verbally, Trigorin agrees with Nina on a secret meeting on the way to Moscow. Two years pass. Sorin is already sixty-two years old, he is very sick, but also full of a thirst for life. Medvedenko and Masha are married, they have a child, but there is no happiness in their marriage. Both her husband and child are disgusting to Masha, and Medvedenko himself suffers greatly from this. Treplev tells Dorn, who is interested in Nina Zarechnaya, her fate. She ran away from home and made friends with Trigorin. They had a child, but soon died. Trigorin had already fallen out of love with her and again returned to Arkadina. On stage, Nina seemed to be getting even worse. She played a lot, but very "rudely, tastelessly, with howls." She wrote letters to Treplev, but never complained. She signed the letters Chaika. Her parents do not want to know her and do not let her even close to the house. Now she is in the city. And she promised to come. Treplev is sure that he will not come. However, he is wrong. Nina appears quite unexpectedly. Konstantin once again confesses his love and fidelity to her. He is ready to forgive her everything and devote his whole life to her. Nina does not accept his sacrifices. She still loves Trigorin, which Treplev admits to. She leaves for the provinces to play in the theater and invites Treplev to look at her acting when she becomes a great actress. Treplev, after her departure, tears up all his manuscripts and throws them under the table, then goes into the next room. Arkadina, Trigorin, Dorn and others gather in the room he left. They are going to play and sing. A shot is fired. Dorn, saying that it was obviously his test tube that burst, leaves to the noise. Returning, he takes Trigorin aside and asks him to take Irina Nikolaevna somewhere, because her son, Konstantin Gavrilovich, shot himself. Yu. V. Polezhaeva House with mezzanine The Artist's Tale (1896) The narrator (the narration is in the first person) recalls how six or seven years ago he lived on the estate of Belokurov in one of the districts of the T-th province. The owner "was up very early, walked around in a coat, drank beer in the evenings and kept complaining to me that he did not find sympathy anywhere and in anyone." The narrator is an artist, but in the summer he became so lazy that he wrote almost nothing. "Sometimes I left the house and wandered somewhere until late in the evening." So he wandered into an unfamiliar estate. Near the gate stood two girls: one "older, thin, pale, very beautiful" and the second - "young - she was seventeen or eighteen years old, no more - also thin and pale, with a big mouth and big eyes." For some reason, both faces looked familiar. He came back feeling like he had a good dream. Soon a carriage appeared in Belokurov's estate, in which one of the girls, the eldest, was sitting. She came with a signature sheet to ask for money for the fire victims. Having signed in the list, the narrator was invited to visit, in the words of the girl, "how the admirers of his talent live." Belokurov said that her name is Lydia Volchaninova, she lives in the village of Shelkovka with her mother and sister. Her father once occupied a prominent position in Moscow and died in the rank of Privy Councilor. Despite good means, the Volchaninovs lived in the country without a break, Lida worked as a teacher, receiving twenty-five rubles a month. On one of the holidays they went to the Volchaninovs. Mother and daughters were at home. "Mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, once, apparently, beautiful, now damp beyond her years, sick with shortness of breath, sad, absent-minded, tried to keep me talking about painting." Lida told Belokurov that the chairman of the council, Balagan, "distributed all the posts in the county to his nephews and sons-in-law and does what he wants." "Young people should make a strong party out of themselves," she said, "but you see what kind of youth we have. Shame on you, Pyotr Petrovich!" The younger sister Zhenya (Miss, because in childhood she called that "Miss", her governess) seemed like a child. During dinner, Belokurov, gesticulating, knocked over a gravy boat with his sleeve, but no one except the narrator seemed to notice this. When they returned, Belokurov said: “A good upbringing is not that you don’t spill the sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won’t notice if someone else does it. <…> Yes, a wonderful, intelligent family…” The narrator began to visit the Volchaninovs. He liked Misya, she also sympathized with him. "We walked together, picked cherries for jam, rode in a boat <...> Or I wrote a sketch, and she stood nearby and looked with admiration." He was especially attracted by the fact that in the eyes of a young provincial woman he looked like a talented artist, a famous person. Linda disliked him. She despised idleness and considered herself a laboring person. She did not like his landscapes because they did not show the needs of the people. In turn, Lida did not like him. Once he started a dispute with her and said that her charitable work with the peasants was not only not beneficial, but also harmful. “You come to their aid with hospitals and schools, but by doing so you do not free them from their fetters, but, on the contrary, enslave them even more, because by introducing new prejudices into their lives, you increase the number of their needs, not to mention the fact that what kind of books they should pay the zemstvo and, therefore, bend their backs more strongly. Lidin's authority was indisputable. Mother and sister respected, but also feared her, who took over the "male" leadership of the family. Finally, the narrator confessed his love to Zhenya in the evening, when she accompanied him to the gates of the estate. She answered him in kind, but immediately ran to tell her mother and sister everything. “We have no secrets from each other…” When he came to the Volchaninovs the next day, Lida dryly announced that Ekaterina Pavlovna and Zhenya had gone to stay with her aunt in the Penza province, and then, probably, to go abroad. On the way back, a boy caught up with him with a note from Misyus: “I told my sister everything, and she demands that I part with you ... I was unable to upset her with my disobedience. God will give you happiness, forgive me. If you only knew how my mother and I weep bitterly!" He never saw the Volchaninovs again. Once, on the way to the Crimea, he met Belokurov in the carriage, and he said that Lida still lives in Shelkovka and teaches children. She managed to rally a "strong party" of young people around her, and at the last zemstvo elections they "rolled" Balagin. "About Zhenya, Belokurov only said that she did not live at home and was unknown where." Gradually, the narrator begins to forget about the "house with a mezzanine", about the Volchaninovs, and only in moments of loneliness does he remember them and: "... little by little, for some reason, it begins to seem to me that they also remember me, they are waiting for me and that we will meet ... Miss, where are you?" P. V. Basinsky My life. A hick's tale (1896) The story is told in the first person. The narrator named Misail Poloznev, along with his architect father and sister Cleopatra, lives in a provincial town. Their mother has died. The father raised the children in strictness and, when they became adults, continues to demand complete obedience. He succeeds with Cleopatra, but Misail is out of control. He changes one job after another, unable to get along with the bosses and not wanting to do boring clerical work. He cannot and does not want to dissolve in the boredom and vulgarity of provincial life. Dreaming about the real deal. It angers the father, scares the sister. Often the hero attends amateur performances in the rich landowner's house of the Azhogins. A local society gathers, two girls come: the daughter of an engineer, Masha Dolzhnikova, and Anyuta Blagovo, the daughter of a fellow chairman of the court. Anyuta is secretly in love with Misail. Through her father, she helps him get a job with the engineer Dolzhikov for the construction of the railway. Dolzhikov is an arrogant, stupid person and, moreover, a fair boor. While talking, he seems to constantly forget that the son of the city architect is in front of him, humiliates him like an ordinary unemployed man. Having assumed the position of a telegraph operator, Misail meets Ivan Cheprakov, the son of a general's wife, a childhood friend. He is a drunk man who does not understand the meaning of his work and does nothing for days on end. By the way, they remember that Misail was nicknamed in childhood - "Little Good". All together: Dolzhikov, Azhogins, Father Misail, Cheprakov - they represent a picture of the provincial intelligentsia, decomposed, stealing, having lost the beginnings of education. Misail sees all this and cannot come to terms with it. He is drawn to ordinary people, workers and peasants. He goes to work as a painter under the supervision of the contractor Andrey Ivanov (in the city he was called Radish and they said that this was his real name). This is a strange man, a bit of a philosopher. His favorite phrase: "Aphid eats grass, rust eats iron, and lies eat the soul." As soon as Misail became a worker, the "noble" part of the city turned away from him. Even Anyuta Blagovo told him not to greet her in front of everyone. Father curses his son Now Misail lives in the suburbs with his nanny Karpovna and her adopted son, the butcher Prokofy. The latter is, as it were, Misail on the contrary. He is from the peasants, but stretches into the "noble". He says this: “I, mother, can indulge you ... In this earthly life I will feed you in my old age in a vale, and when you die, I will bury you at my own expense.” Misail and Prokofy do not like each other, But the painters treat Misail with respect: they like that he does not drink or smoke and leads a sedate life. Misail is often visited by Anyuta's sister and brother Dr. Vladimir Blagovo. He is in love with Cleopatra and she loves him. But he is married, they meet secretly. Between the doctor and Misail there are conversations about the meaning of existence, about progress, etc. Misail thinks that every person is obliged to engage in physical labor, no one has the right to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor. Tolstoy's ideas slip through his words. The doctor is a fan of European progress and an opponent of personal self-improvement. At the same time, this is a man tired of life and lying, living a double life. Someone sometimes sends Misail tea, lemons, biscuits and fried grouse, probably to lighten the burden of his life. (Later it turns out that Anyuta Blagovo did it.) Finally, the "noble" come to terms with his act, even begin to openly respect him. Masha Dolzhikova comes to him and complains of boredom, calls him "the most interesting person in the city" and asks to visit their house. At a party, everyone is asked to talk about the painters; it is clear that the life of ordinary people seems to be something exotic, unknown. And again disputes about the meaning of life, about progress. Unlike "society," Misail's father cannot forgive him for leaving home. He appeals to the governor with a request to influence his son, who, in his opinion, discredits the honor of a nobleman. The governor can do nothing and only finds himself in an awkward position, calling Misail for a conversation. In the life of the hero again a serious change. Masha Dolzhikova and he are in love with each other and become husband and wife. They settle in the Dubechnya estate, which the engineer Dolzhikov bought from the general's wife Cheprakova, and enthusiastically begin to engage in agriculture. This work captivates Misail. At first, Masha also likes her. She subscribes to books on agriculture, builds a school in the village and tries to establish contact with the peasants. But she doesn't do it well. The men try to deceive them, drink, work reluctantly and do not hesitate to be rude to Masha: "I would go and drive!" They clearly take Misail and Masha for fools and fake owners. Masha very quickly became disillusioned with the peasants and village life. Misail looks deeper. He sees that with all the depravity in the peasants, spiritual purity has been preserved. They want justice and are angry that they have to work for idle people. The fact that they work every day and do not have time for boredom is their advantage over the "noble". But Masha does not want to understand this. It turns out that she did not love Misail so much as she wanted freedom and independence. She is a bird of a different flight. One day she leaves and never comes back. Misail receives a letter in which she writes that she is going to America with her father and asking for a divorce. Misail is having a hard time; with the loss of Masha, everything bright in his life seems to end and gray everyday life begins, just "life" begins without hopes and ideals. "Life" is complicated by the fact that sister Misail left her father and lives with her brother. She is pregnant by the doctor and is ill with consumption. Misail asks his father to take care of her, but he drives his son away and does not want to forgive his daughter. Prokofy, the nanny's son, also demands that Misail and his pregnant sister leave his house, for - "for such a vale, people will not praise us or you." And here is Radish - he pities Misail and his sister and condemns the doctor: "Your honor, there will be no kingdom of heaven for you!" The doctor jokingly retorts: "What to do, someone must be in hell." The last chapter of the story is a kind of epilogue. The narrator "aged, became silent, severe"; he works as a contractor instead of Radish. There is no father in the house. His wife lives abroad. The sister died leaving a daughter. Together with the little Misail, on holidays, he goes to his sister's grave and sometimes meets Anyuta Blagovo there. She apparently still loves Misail and still hides it. Caressing the little daughter of Cleopatra, Misail's niece, she gives vent to her feelings, but as soon as they enter the city, she becomes strict and cold, as if there was nothing between her and the girl. P. V. Basinsky Uncle Ivan Scenes from village life. Play (1897) Cloudy autumn day. In the garden, on an alley under an old poplar, a table is set for tea. At the samovar - the old nanny Marina. "Eat, father," she offers tea to Dr. Astrov. “I don’t want something,” he replies. Telegin appears, an impoverished landowner nicknamed Waffle, who lives on the estate in the position of taking root: "The weather is charming, the birds sing, we all live in peace and harmony - what else do we need?" But there is no agreement and peace in the estate. "It's not safe in this house," Elena Andreevna, the wife of Professor Serebryakov, who came to the estate, will say twice. These fragmentary replicas, outwardly not addressed to each other, enter, echoing each other, into a dialogic dispute and highlight the meaning of the tense drama experienced by the characters in the play. Earned for ten years lived in the county, Astrov. “I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything, I don’t love anyone,” he complains to the nanny. Voinitsky has changed, broken. Previously, he, managing the estate, did not know a free minute. And now? "I <…> became worse, because I got lazy, I do nothing and just grumble like an old horseradish ..." Voinitsky does not hide his envy of the retired professor, especially his success with women. Voinitsky's mother, Maria Vasilievna, simply adores her son-in-law, the husband of her late daughter. Voinitsky despises Serebryakov's scientific pursuits: "A person <...> reads and writes about art, understanding absolutely nothing about art." Finally, he hates Serebryakov, although his hatred may seem very biased: after all, he fell in love with his beautiful wife. And Elena Andreevna reasonably reprimands Voinitsky: "There is nothing to hate Alexander for, he is the same as everyone else." Then Voinitsky exposes deeper and, as it seems to him, irresistible reasons for his intolerant, implacable attitude towards the ex-professor - he considers himself cruelly deceived: "I adored this professor ... I worked for him like an ox ... I was proud of him and his science, I lived and breathed it! God, and now? ... it's nothing! A soap bubble!" Around Serebryakov, an atmosphere of intolerance, hatred, enmity is thickening. He irritates Astrov, and even his wife can hardly stand him. Everyone somehow listened to the stated diagnosis of the disease, which struck both the heroes of the play, and all their contemporaries: "... the world is dying not from robbers, not from fires, but from hatred, enmity, from all these petty squabbles." They, including Elena Andreevna herself, somehow forgot that Serebryakov is “just like everyone else” and, like everyone else, can count on indulgence, on a merciful attitude towards himself, especially since he suffers from gout, suffers from insomnia, is afraid of death. "Really," he asks his wife, "I don't have the right to a late old age, to people's attention to myself?" Yes, one must be merciful, says Sonya, Serebryakov's daughter from her first marriage. But only the old nanny will hear this call and show genuine, sincere concern for Serebryakov: “What, father? Does it hurt? .) Let's go, father, to bed ... Let's go, little light ... I'll give you linden tea, warm your legs ... I will pray to God for you ... " But one old nanny could not and could not, of course, defuse the oppressive atmosphere fraught with misfortune. The conflict knot is tied so tightly that there is a climactic explosion. Serebryakov gathers everyone in the living room to propose for discussion the "measure" invented by him: sell the low-income estate, turn the proceeds into interest-bearing papers, which would make it possible to purchase a dacha in Finland. Voinitsky is indignant: Serebryakov allows himself to dispose of the estate, which actually and legally belongs to Sonya; he did not think about the fate of Voinitsky, who managed the estate for twenty years, receiving beggarly money for it; I didn’t even think about the fate of Maria Vasilievna, who was so selflessly devoted to the professor! Outraged, enraged, Voinitsky shoots Serebryakov, shoots twice and misses both times. Frightened by the mortal danger that only accidentally passed him, Serebryakov decides to return to Kharkov. He leaves for his small estate, Astrov, in order, as before, to treat the peasants, to take care of the garden and the forest nursery. Love intrigues fade. Elena Andreevna lacks the courage to respond to Astrov's passion for her. When parting, she, however, admits that she was carried away by the doctor, but "a little". She hugs him "impulsively", but with an eye. And Sonya is finally convinced that Astrov will not be able to love her, so ugly. Life in the estate returns to normal. “We will live again, as it was, in the old way,” the nanny dreams. The conflict between Voinitsky and Serebryakov also remains without consequences. "You will carefully receive the same that you received," Professor Voinitsky reassures. "Everything will be the same as before." And before the Astrovs and the Serebryakovs had left, Sonya hurried Voinitsky: "Well, Uncle Vanya, let's do something." The lamp lights up, the inkwell fills up, Sonya leafs through the account book, Uncle Vanya writes one account, another: “On the second of February, twenty pounds of lean butter ...” The nanny sits in an armchair and knits, Maria Vasilievna plunges into reading another brochure ... It would seem that the expectations of the old nanny have come true: everything has become the old way. But the play is built in such a way that it constantly - both in big and small - deceives the expectations of both its heroes and readers. You are waiting, for example, for music from Elena Andreevna, a graduate of the conservatory (“I want to play ... I haven’t played for a long time. I will play and cry ...”), but Waffle plays the guitar ... The characters are arranged in such a way, the course of plot events takes such a direction, dialogues and remarks are soldered with such semantic, often subtextual calls that the traditional question "Who is to blame?" is pushed to the periphery from the forefront, giving way to the question "What is to blame?" It seems to Voynitsky that Serebryakov ruined his life. He hopes to start a "new life". But Astrov dispels this "elevating deceit": "Our position, yours and mine, is hopeless. <...> In the whole district there were only two decent, intelligent people: me and you. For some ten years, philistine life, despicable life dragged us ; she poisoned our blood with her rotten fumes, and we became the same vulgar as everyone else. In the finale of the play, however, Voinitsky and Sonya dream of the future, but Sonya’s final monologue exudes hopeless sadness and a sense of a life lived aimlessly: “We, Uncle Vanya, will live. <…> we will patiently endure the trials that fate will send us; < …> we will die humbly and there, behind the grave, we will say that we suffered, that we cried, that we were bitter, and God will take pity on us.<…> We will hear the angels, we will see the whole sky in diamonds… We will rest! (The watchman knocks. Telegin plays softly; Maria Vasilievna writes in the margins of a pamphlet; Marina knits a stocking.) We'll rest! (The curtain is slowly lowered.)" V. A. Bogdanov Ionitch Story (1898) Zemsky doctor Dmitry Ionovich Startsev comes to work in the provincial town of S., where he soon meets the Turkins. All members of this hospitable family are famous for their talents: the witty Ivan Petrovich Turkin puts on amateur performances, his wife Vera Iosifovna writes stories and novels, and her daughter Ekaterina Ivanovna plays the piano and is going to study at the conservatory. The family makes the most favorable impression on Startsev. Resuming his acquaintance a year later, he falls in love with Kotik, which is the name of Ekaterina Ivanovna at home. Having called the girl to the garden, Startsev tries to declare his love and unexpectedly receives a note from Kotik, where he is assigned a date at the cemetery. Startsev is almost sure that this is a joke, and yet he goes to the cemetery at night and waits for Ekaterina Ivanovna for several hours, in vain, indulging in romantic dreams. The next day, dressed in someone else's tailcoat, Startsev goes to propose to Ekaterina Ivanovna and is refused, because, as Kotik explains, "to become a wife - oh no, sorry! A person should strive for a higher, brilliant goal, and family life would bind me forever ". Startsev did not expect refusal, and now his pride is wounded. The doctor cannot believe that all his dreams, yearnings and hopes have led him to such a silly end. However, upon learning that Ekaterina Ivanovna left for Moscow to enter the conservatory, Startsev calms down, and his life returns to its usual track. Four more years pass. Startsev has a lot of practice and a lot of work. He has grown fat and is reluctant to walk, preferring to ride a troika with bells. During all this time, he visited the Turkins no more than twice, but he did not make new acquaintances either, since the townsfolk annoy him with their conversations, views on life, and even their appearance. Soon Startsev receives a letter from Vera Iosifovna and Kotik and, after some thought, goes to visit the Turkins. Obviously, their meeting made a much stronger impression on Ekaterina Ivanovna than on Startsev, who, remembering his former love, feels awkward. As on his first visit, Vera Iosifovna reads her novel aloud, and Ekaterina Ivanovna plays the piano noisily and for a long time, but Startsev feels only irritation. In the garden, where Kotik invites Startsev, the girl talks about how excitedly she expected this meeting, and Startsev becomes sad and sorry for the past. He talks about his gray monotonous life, a life without impressions, without thoughts. But Kotik objects that Startsev has a noble goal in life - his work as a zemstvo doctor. Speaking about herself, she admits that she lost faith in her talent as a pianist and that Startsev, serving the people, helping the sufferers, seems to her an ideal, exalted person. However, for Startsev, such an assessment of his merits does not cause any spiritual uplift. Leaving the Turkins' house, he feels relieved that he did not marry Ekaterina Ivanovna in his time, and thinks that if the most talented people in the whole city are so mediocre, then what should the city be like. He leaves the letter from Kotik unanswered and never visits the Turkins again. As time goes by, Startsev grows even fatter, becomes rude and irritable. He got rich, has a huge practice, but greed does not allow him to leave the Zemstvo place. In the city, his name is already simply Ionych. Startsev's life is boring, nothing interests him, he is lonely. And Kotik, whose love was Startsev's only joy, has grown old, often gets sick and plays the piano for four hours every day. O. A. Petrenko man in a case Story (1898) End of the XNUMXth century Countryside in Russia. The village of Mironositskoye. The veterinary doctor Ivan Ivanovich Chimsha-Gimalaysky and the teacher of the gymnasium Burkin, having hunted all day, settle down for the night in the headman's barn. Burkin tells Ivan Ivanych the story of the Greek teacher Belikov, with whom they taught at the same gymnasium. Belikov was known for the fact that "even in good weather he went out in galoshes and with an umbrella, and certainly in a warm coat with wadding." Watches, umbrella, Belikov's penknife were packed in cases. He wore dark glasses, and at home he locked himself with all the locks. Belikov sought to create a "case" for himself that would protect him from "external influences." Only circulars were clear to him, in which something was forbidden. Any deviation from the norm caused confusion in him. With his "case" considerations, he oppressed not only the gymnasium, but the whole city. But once a strange story happened to Belikov: he almost got married. It happened that a new teacher of history and geography was appointed to the gymnasium, Mikhail Savvich Kovalenko, a young, cheerful man, from crests. With him came his sister Varenka, about thirty years old. She was pretty, tall, ruddy, cheerful, and sang and danced endlessly. Varenka charmed everyone in the gymnasium, and even Belikov. It was then that the teachers came up with the idea of marrying Belikov and Varenka. Belikov began to be convinced of the need to marry. Varenka began to show him "obvious favor", and he went for a walk with her and kept repeating that "marriage is a serious thing." Belikov often visited Kovalenki and in the end would have made an offer to Varenka, if not for one case. Some mischievous person drew a caricature of Belikov, where he was depicted with an umbrella on his arm with Varenka. Copies of the picture were sent to all teachers. This made a very heavy impression on Belikov. Soon Belikov met Kovalenok riding bicycles on the street. He was extremely indignant at this sight, since, according to his concepts, it was not proper for a gymnasium teacher and a woman to ride a bicycle. The next day, Belikov went to Kovalenki "to relieve his soul." Varenka was not at home. Her brother, being a freedom-loving man, disliked Belikov from the first day. Unable to endure his teachings about cycling, Kovalenko simply lowered Belikov down the stairs. At that moment, Varenka was just entering the entrance with two acquaintances. Seeing Belikov rolling down the stairs, she laughed out loud. The thought that the whole city would know about what had happened made Belikov so horrified that he went home, went to bed, and died a month later. When he lay in the coffin, his expression was happy. It seemed that he had achieved his ideal, “they put him in a case from which he would never come out. Belikov was buried with a pleasant feeling of liberation. ". Burkin finishes the story. Thinking about what he heard, Ivan Ivanovich says: "But is it that we live in a city in close quarters, write unnecessary papers, play vint - isn't this a case?" E. A. Zhuravleva gooseberries Story (1898) Ivan Ivanovich and Burkin are walking across the field. You can see the village of Mironositskoye in the distance. It starts to rain, and they decide to visit their friend, the landowner Pavel Konstantinovich Alekhin, whose estate is located nearby in the village of Sofyino. Alekhine, "a man of about forty, tall, stout with long hair, looking more like a professor or an artist than a landowner," greets guests on the threshold of the barn, in which a winnowing machine makes noise. His clothes are dirty and his face is black with dust. He welcomes the guests and invites them to go to the bath. After washing and changing clothes, Ivan Ivanovich, Burkin and Alekhin go to the house, where, over a cup of tea with jam, Ivan Ivanovich tells the story of his brother Nikolai Ivanovich. The brothers spent their childhood in the wild, on the estate of their father, who himself was a cantonist, but served as an officer and left the children a hereditary nobility. After the death of their father, their estate was sued for debts. From the age of nineteen, Nikolai sat in the state chamber, but he yearned terribly there and kept dreaming of buying himself a small estate. Ivan Ivanovich himself never sympathized with his brother's desire "to lock himself up for life in his own estate." Nikolai, on the other hand, simply could not think of anything else. He kept imagining a future estate where gooseberries were bound to grow. Nikolai saved money, was malnourished, married without love to an ugly but rich widow. He kept his wife starving, and put her money in his name in the bank. His wife could not bear such a life and soon died, and Nikolai, without any remorse, bought himself an estate, ordered twenty gooseberry bushes, planted them and lived as a landowner. When Ivan Ivanovich came to visit his brother, he was unpleasantly struck by how he had sank, grown old and flabby. He became a real gentleman, ate a lot, sued neighboring factories and spoke in the tone of a minister phrases like: "Education is necessary, but for the people it is premature." Nikolay regaled his brother with gooseberries, and it was evident from him that he was pleased with his fate and himself. At the sight of this happy man, Ivan Ivanovich "was seized by a feeling close to despair." All the night he spent at the estate, he thought about how many people in the world suffer, go crazy, drink, how many children die of malnutrition. And how many other people live "happily", "eat during the day, sleep at night, talk their nonsense, get married, grow old, complacently drag their dead to the cemetery." He thought that “someone with a hammer” should stand behind the door of every happy person and remind him with a knock that there are unfortunate people, that sooner or later trouble will befall him, and “no one will see or hear him, as he is now not sees and does not hear others. Ivan Ivanovich, finishing his story, says that there is no happiness, and if there is a meaning in life, then it is not in happiness, but in "doing good." Neither Burkin nor Alekhin are satisfied with Ivan Ivanych's story. Alekhine does not delve into whether his words are true. It was not about cereals, not about hay, but about something that had no direct relation to his life. But he is happy and wants the guests to continue the conversation. However, the time is late, the owner and guests go to bed. E. A. Zhuravleva About Love Story (1898) Ivan Ivanovich and Burkin spend the night at Alekhine's estate. In the morning, at breakfast, Alekhine tells the guests the story of his love. He settled in Sofyin after graduating from the university. The estate had large debts, since Alekhine's father spent a lot of money to educate his son. Alekhin decided that he would not leave the estate and would work until he paid off the debt. Soon he was elected to the honorary justice of the peace. To participate in the sessions of the district court, he had to be in the city, which amused him a little. In court, Alekhin met Deputy Chairman Dmitry Luganovich, a man of about forty, kind, simple, and reasoning with "boring sanity." One spring, Luganovich invited Alekhine to dine with him. There Alekhin first saw Luganovich's wife Anna Alekseevna, who at that time was no more than twenty-two years old. She was a "beautiful, kind, intelligent" woman, and Alekhine immediately felt in her a "close being". Alekhine's next meeting with Anna Alekseevna took place in the autumn at the theater. Alekhin was again fascinated by her beauty and again felt the same closeness. The Luganoviches again invited him to their place, and he began to visit them every time he came to the city. They took a great part in Alekhine, worried that he, an educated person, instead of doing science or literature, lives in the village and works hard, gave him gifts. Alekhin was unhappy, he constantly thought about Anna Alekseevna and tried to understand why she married an uninteresting person, much older than her, agreed to have children from him, why he himself did not end up in Luganovich's place. Arriving in the city, Alekhin noticed in the eyes of Anna Alekseevna that she was waiting for him. However, they did not confess their love to each other. Alekhin thought that he could hardly give Anna Alekseevna much if she agreed to follow him. She, apparently, was thinking about her husband and children, and also did not know if she could bring happiness to Alekhine. They often went to the theater together, God knows what they said about them in the city, but all this was not true. In recent years, Anna Alekseevna had a feeling of dissatisfaction with life, sometimes she did not want to see either her husband or children. In the presence of strangers, she began to feel irritation against Alekhine. Anna Alekseevna began to be treated for a nerve disorder. Soon Luganovich was appointed chairman of one of the western provinces. There was a separation. It was decided that at the end of August Anna Alekseevna would go to the Crimea, as her doctors had ordered, and Luganovich would go with the children to her destination. When Anna Alekseevna was being seen off at the station, Alekhin ran into her compartment to give her one of the baskets she had left on the platform. Their eyes met, their spiritual strength left them, he hugged her, she clung to him and cried for a long time on his chest, and he kissed her face and hands. Alekhin confessed his love to her. He understood how petty was that which prevented them from loving, he realized that when you love, "then in your reasoning about this love you need to start from the highest, from more important than happiness or unhappiness, sin or virtue in their current sense, or no need to argue at all." Alekhin and Anna Alekseevna parted forever. E. A. Zhuravleva Dushechka Story (1899) Olga Semyonovna Plemyannikova, the daughter of a retired collegiate assessor, enjoys universal sympathy: those around her are attracted by the good nature and naivety radiated by the quiet, rosy-cheeked young lady. Many acquaintances call her nothing more than "darling". Olga Semyonovna has a constant need to love someone. Ivan Petrovich Kukin, an entrepreneur and owner of the Tivoli Pleasure Garden, becomes her next affection. Due to constant rains, the audience does not attend performances, and Kukin suffers continuous losses, which causes compassion in Olenka, and then love for Ivan Petrovich, despite the fact that he is small, thin and speaks in a liquid tenor. After the wedding, Olenka gets a job with her husband in the theater. She tells her acquaintances that this is the only place where one can become educated and humane, but an ignorant public needs a farce. In Lent, Kukin leaves for Moscow to recruit a troupe, and soon Olenka receives a telegram with the following content: "Ivan Petrovich died suddenly today, we are suddenly waiting for orders, funeral Tuesday." Olga Semyonovna is very much worried about his death and wears deep mourning. Three months later, having passionately fallen in love with Vasily Andreevich Pustovalov, Olenka marries again. Pustovalov manages the timber warehouse of the merchant Babakaev, and Olenka works in his office, writing out invoices and releasing goods. It seems to her that the forest is the most important and necessary thing in life, and that she has been selling timber for a long time. Olenka shares all the thoughts of her husband and sits at home with him on holidays. To the advice of acquaintances to go to the theater or to the circus, she sedately replies that working people are not up to trifles, and there is nothing good in theaters. Olga Semyonovna lives very well with her husband; whenever Pustovalov leaves for the Mogilev province for the forest, she misses and cries, finding solace in conversations with the veterinarian Smirnin, her lodger. Smirnin broke up with his wife, convicting her of treason, and every month he sends forty rubles to support his son. Olenka feels sorry for Smirnin, she advises the veterinarian to reconcile with his wife for the sake of the boy. After six years of a happy marriage, Pustovalov dies, and Olenka is left alone again. She only goes to church or to her husband's grave. Reclusion lasts six months, and then Olenka converges with a veterinarian. In the morning they drink tea together in the garden and Smirnin reads the newspaper aloud. And Olenka, having met a familiar lady at the post office, speaks about the lack of proper veterinary supervision in the city. Happiness does not last long: the regiment in which the veterinarian serves is transferred almost to Siberia, and Olenka is left completely alone. Years go by. Olenka is getting old; Friends lose interest in her. She does not think about anything and she no longer has any opinions. Among the thoughts and in the heart of Olenka is the same emptiness as in the yard. She dreams of love that would take over her whole being and give her thoughts. Unexpectedly, the veterinarian Smirnin returns to Olenka. He reconciled with his wife, retired and decided to stay in the city, especially since the time had come to send his son Sasha to the gymnasium. With the arrival of Smirnin's family, Olenka comes to life again. The veterinarian's wife soon leaves for her sister in Kharkov, Smirnin himself is constantly away, and Olenka takes Sasha to his wing. Maternal feelings awaken in her, and the boy becomes Olenka's new affection. She tells everyone she knows about the advantages of a classical education over a real one and about how difficult it has become to study at a gymnasium. Olenka blossomed again and rejuvenated; acquaintances, meeting her on the street, experience, as before, pleasure and call Olga Semyonovna darling. O. A. Petrenko Lady with a dog Story (1899) Dmitry Dmitrievich Gurov, under forty years old, a Muscovite, a philologist by education, but working in a bank, is resting in Yalta. An unloved wife remained in Moscow, whom he often cheats on, a twelve-year-old daughter, and two high school student sons. In his appearance and character there is "something attractive, elusive, which disposed women to him, attracted them ...". He himself despises women, considers them an "inferior race" and at the same time cannot do without them and is constantly looking for love adventures, having great experience in this. On the embankment he meets a young lady. This is "a short blonde, in a beret; a white Spitz was running behind her." Vacationers call her "the lady with the dog." Gurov decides that it would be a good idea to start an affair with her, and gets to know her during lunch in the city garden. Their conversation begins in the usual way: "Time goes by quickly, and meanwhile it's so boring here!" she said without looking at him. “It’s only customary to say that it’s boring here. The inhabitant lives somewhere in Belev or Zhizdra - and he’s not bored, but will come here:“ Oh, how boring! oh, dust!" You'd think he came from Grenada!" She laughed... Anna Sergeevna was born in St. Petersburg, but came from the city of S., where she has been living for two years already, being married to an official named von Diederitz (his grandfather was a German, and he himself is Orthodox). She is not interested in her husband's work, she cannot even remember the name of his place of service. Apparently, she does not love her husband and is unhappy in her life. "There is something pathetic about her after all," notes Gurov. Their romance begins a week after they met. She experiences her fall painfully, believing that Gurov will not be the first to respect her. He doesn't know what to say. She ardently swears that she always wanted a clean and honest life, that sin is disgusting to her. Gurov tries to calm her down, cheer her up, portrays a passion, which, most likely, he does not experience. Their romance flows smoothly and does not seem to threaten either of them. Waiting for the husband to come. But instead, he asks in a letter to return his wife. Gurov escorts her on horseback to the station; when they part, she does not cry, but looks sad and sick. He is also "touched, sad," experiencing "slight remorse." After Anna Sergeevna's departure, he decides to return home. Moscow life captures Gurov. He loves Moscow, its clubs, dinners in restaurants, where he alone "could eat a whole portion of a peasant woman in a frying pan." It would seem that he forgets about the Yalta romance, but suddenly, for some reason he does not understand, the image of Anna Sergeevna begins to excite him again: “He heard her breathing, the gentle rustle of her clothes. Love awakens in him, it is all the more difficult for him to endure it because there is no one to share his feelings with. Finally, Gurov decides to go to the city of S. He rents a hotel room, finds out from the doorman where von Diederitz live, but since he cannot pay them a direct visit, he lies in wait for Anna Sergeevna in the theater. There she sees her husband, in whom there is "something of a lackey-modest" and who fully corresponds to the provincial boredom and vulgarity of the city of S. Anna Sergeevna is frightened of the meeting, begs Gurov to leave and promises to come to him herself. She lies to her husband that she is going to consult about a woman's illness, and once every two or three months she meets with Gurov in Moscow at the Slavyansky Bazar Hotel. At the end, their meeting is described - not the first and, apparently, not the last. She is crying. He orders tea and thinks: "Well, let him cry..." Then he comes up to her and takes her by the shoulders. In the mirror he sees that his head is beginning to turn gray, that he has grown old and ugly in recent years. He understands that he and she made some kind of fatal mistake in life, he and she were not happy, and only now, when old age is close, did they truly know love. They are close to each other like husband and wife; their meeting is the most important thing in their life. "And it seemed that a little more - and the solution would be found, and then a new, wonderful life would begin; and it was clear to both that the end was still far, far away and that the most difficult and difficult was just beginning." P. V. Basinsky In the ravine Tale (1899, published 1900) The village of Ukleevo is known for the fact that “at the wake of the manufacturer Kostyukov, the old deacon saw grainy caviar among the snacks and began to eat it greedily; they pushed him, pulled his sleeve, but he seemed to be stiff with pleasure: he did not feel anything and only ate. and there were four pounds in the jar." Since then, they have said about the village: "This is the same place where the deacon ate everything at the funeral." There are four factories in the village - three cotton and one leather, which employ about four hundred workers. The tannery infected the river and the meadow, the peasant cattle suffered from diseases, and the factory was ordered to close, but it works in secret, and the bailiff and the county doctor receive bribes for this. There are two "decent houses" in the village; Grigory Petrovich Tsybukin, a tradesman, lives in one. For the sake of appearance, he keeps a grocery store, and earns on the sale of vodka, cattle, grain, stolen goods and "whatever he needs." He buys wood, gives money at interest, "in general, the old man ... resourceful." Two sons: the eldest Anisim serves in the city in the detective department; the younger Stepan helps his father, but there is little help from him - he is in poor health and deaf. Help comes from his wife Aksinya, a beautiful and slender woman who keeps pace everywhere and in everything: “old Tsybukin looked at her cheerfully, his eyes lit up, and at that time he regretted that it was not her eldest son who was married to her, but her younger, deaf who obviously knows little about female beauty." Tsybukin widows, "but a year after the wedding of his son, he could not stand it and got married himself." With a bride named Varvara Nikolaevna, he was lucky. She is a prominent, beautiful and very religious woman. Helps the poor, pilgrims. One day Stepan noticed that she took two octopuses of tea from the shop without asking, and reported to his father. The old man did not get angry and, in front of everyone, told Varvara that she could take whatever she wanted. In his eyes, his wife, as it were, atones for his sins, although Tsybukin himself is not religious, does not like beggars and angrily shouts at them: "God forbid!" Anisim is rarely at home, but often sends gifts and letters with such phrases, for example: "Dear father and mother, I am sending you a pound of flower tea to satisfy your physical need." His character combines ignorance, rudeness, cynicism and sentimentality, the desire to appear educated. Tsybukin adores the elder, is proud that he "went on the scientific side." Varvara does not like that Anisim is unmarried, although he is in his twenty-eighth year. She sees this as a disorder, a violation of the correct, as she understands it, course of things. Anisima decide to marry. He agrees calmly and without enthusiasm; however, he seems to be pleased that a beautiful bride has been found for him. He himself is unprepossessing, but he says: "Well, yes, I'm not crooked either. Our Tsybukin family, I must say, are all beautiful." The bride's name is Lipa. A very poor girl, for whom to enter the Tsybukins' house, from any point of view, is a gift of fate, for they take her without a dowry. She is terribly afraid and on the bride looks like "as if she wanted to say:" Do with me what you want: I believe you. "Her mother Praskovya becomes even more shy and answers everyone:" What are you, for mercy, sir ... You are very pleased - With". Anisim arrives three days before the wedding and brings everyone as a gift silver rubles and fifty dollars, the main charm of which is that all the coins are brand new. On the way he obviously drank and with an air of importance tells how at some commemoration he drank grape wine and ate sauce, and dinner cost two and a half a person. "Which men are our countrymen, and for them, too, two and a half. They didn't eat anything. Somehow the man understands the sauce!" Old Tsybukin does not believe that dinner can cost so much, and looks adoringly at his son. Detailed description of the wedding. They eat and drink a lot of bad wine and disgusting English bitters, made from “I don't know what”. Anisim quickly gets drunk and boasts of a city friend named Samorodov, calling him "a special person." He boasts that by appearance he can recognize any thief. A woman screams in the yard: "Our blood sucked, Herods, there is no death for you!" Noise, mess. Drunk Anisim is pushed into the room where Lipa is being undressed, and the door is locked. Five days later, Anisim leaves for the city. He speaks with Varvara, and she complains that they do not live like a god, that everything is built on deceit. Anisim replies: “Who is assigned to what, mother <…> After all, there is no God anyway, mother. He says that everyone steals and does not believe in God: the foreman, and the clerk, and the sexton. “And if they go to church and observe fasts, it’s so that people don’t speak badly about them, and in case that, perhaps, there really will be a Last Judgment.” Saying goodbye, Anisim says that Samorodov has implicated him in some dark business: "I will be rich or perish." At the station, Tsybukin asks his son to stay "at home, in business", but he refuses. It turns out that Anisim's coins are counterfeit. He did them with Samorodov and is now going on trial. This shocks the old man. He mixed the fake coins with the real ones, he can't tell them apart. And although he himself cheated all his life, making counterfeit money does not fit into his consciousness and gradually drives him crazy. The son is condemned to hard labor, despite the efforts of the old man. Aksinya begins to run everything in the house. She hates Lipa and the child she gave birth to, realizing that in the future the main inheritance will go to them. In front of Lipa, she scalds the baby with boiling water, and he, after a short torment, dies. Lipa runs away from home and meets strangers along the way; one of them says in consolation: "Life is long, there will be both good and bad, everything will be. Great Mother Russia!" When Lipa comes home, the old man says to her: “Oh, Lipa ... you didn’t save your granddaughter ...” She turns out to be guilty, not Aksinya, whom the old man is afraid of. Lipa goes to her mother. Aksinya finally becomes the head of the house, although formally the old man is considered the owner. She enters into a share with the Khrymin merchant brothers - together they open a tavern at the station, turn frauds, walk, have fun. Stepan is given a gold watch. Old Tsybukin sinks so much that he does not remember food, he does not eat anything for days when they forget to feed him. In the evenings, he stands on the street with the peasants, listens to their conversations - and one day, following them, he meets Lipa and Praskovya. They bow to him, but he is silent, tears trembling in his eyes. It looks like he hasn't eaten in a long time. Lipa gives him a porridge pie. "He took it and began to eat <...> Lipa and Praskovya went on and crossed themselves for a long time." P. V. Basinsky Three sisters Drama (1901) The action takes place in a provincial town, in the house of the Prozorovs. Irina, the youngest of the three Prozorov sisters, is twenty years old. "It's sunny and cheerful outside," and a table is laid in the hall, guests are waiting - officers of the artillery battery stationed in the city and its new commander, Lieutenant Colonel Vershinin. Everyone is full of joyful expectations and hopes. Irina: “I don’t know why my soul is so light! .. It’s like I’m on sails, there is a wide blue sky above me and big white birds are flying around.” The Prozorovs are scheduled to move to Moscow in the fall. The sisters have no doubt that their brother Andrei will go to university and eventually become a professor. Kulygin, the teacher of the gymnasium, the husband of one of the sisters, Masha, is benevolent. Chebutykin, a military doctor who once madly loved the late mother of the Prozorovs, lends himself to the general joyful mood. "My bird is white," he kisses Irina touched. Lieutenant Baron Tuzenbach enthusiastically speaks about the future: “The time has come <…> a healthy, strong storm is being prepared, which <…> will blow away laziness, indifference, prejudice to work, rotten boredom from our society.” Vershinin is just as optimistic. With his appearance, Masha's "merehlyundia" passes. The atmosphere of unconstrained cheerfulness is not disturbed by the appearance of Natasha, although she herself is terribly embarrassed by a large society. Andrei proposes to her: “Oh, youth, wonderful, beautiful youth! <…> I feel so good, my soul is full of love, delight… My dear, good, pure, be my wife!” But already in the second act, major notes are replaced by minor ones. Andrey does not find a place for himself out of boredom. He, who dreamed of a professorship in Moscow, is not at all attracted by the position of secretary of the zemstvo council, and in the city he feels "alien and lonely." Masha is finally disappointed in her husband, who once seemed to her "terribly learned, smart and important", and among his fellow teachers she simply suffers. Irina is dissatisfied with her work on the telegraph: “What I wanted so much, what I dreamed about, that’s what it doesn’t have. Work without poetry, without thoughts ...” Tired, with a headache, Olga returns from the gymnasium. Not in the spirit of Vershinin. He still continues to assure that "everything on earth must change little by little", but then he adds: "And how I would like to prove to you that there is no happiness, should not be and will not be for us ... We must only work and work ... "In Chebutykin's puns, with which he amuses those around him, a hidden pain breaks through:" No matter how you philosophize, loneliness is a terrible thing ... " Natasha, gradually taking over the whole house, escorts the guests who were waiting for the mummers. "Philistine!" - Masha says to Irina in her hearts. Three years have passed. If the first act was played out at noon, and it was “sunny, cheerful” outside, then the remarks for the third act “warn” about completely different - gloomy, sad - events: “Behind the scenes, the alarm is sounded on the occasion of a fire that started a long time ago. open door you can see the window, red from the glow. The Prozorovs' house is full of people fleeing the fire. Irina sobs: "Where? Where did everything go? <...> and life is leaving and will never return, we will never, never go to Moscow ... I am in despair, I am in despair!" Masha thinks in alarm: "Somehow we will live our lives, what will become of us?" Andrey cries: “When I got married, I thought that we would be happy ... everyone is happy ... But my God ...” Tuzenbakh, perhaps even more disappointed: life! Where is it?" In a drinking bout Chebutykin: “My head is empty, my soul is cold. Maybe I’m not a person, but I only pretend that I have arms and legs ... and a head; maybe I don’t exist at all, but it only seems to me that I walk, eat, sleep. (Crying.)". And the more stubbornly Kulagin repeats: "I am satisfied, I am satisfied, I am satisfied," the more obvious it becomes that everyone is broken, unhappy. And finally, the last action. Autumn is coming. Masha, walking along the alley, looks up: “And migratory birds are already flying ...” The artillery brigade leaves the city: it is being transferred to another place, either to Poland, or to Chita. The officers come to say goodbye to the Prozorovs. Fedotik, taking a photo as a keepsake, remarks: "... silence and calm will come in the city." Tuzenbach adds: "And terrible boredom." Andrey speaks out even more categorically: "The city will become empty. It is as if they will cover it with a cap." Masha breaks up with Vershinin, whom she fell in love with so passionately: “Unsuccessful life ... I don’t need anything now ...” Olga, having become the head of the gymnasium, understands: “It means not to be in Moscow.” Irina decided - "if I am not destined to be in Moscow, then so be it" - to accept the offer of Tuzenbach, who retired: "The baron and I are getting married tomorrow, tomorrow we are leaving for a brick one, and the day after tomorrow I am already at school, a new life.<...> And all of a sudden, it was as if wings grew in my soul, I became cheerful, it became much easier and again I wanted to work, work ... "Chebutykin in tenderness:" Fly, my dears, fly with God! He also blesses Andrey for the “flight” in his own way: “You know, put on a hat, pick up a stick and go away ... go away and go, go without looking back. And the farther you go, the better.” But even the most modest hopes of the heroes of the play are not destined to come true. Solyony, in love with Irina, provokes a quarrel with the baron and kills him in a duel. The broken Andrei does not have enough strength to follow Chebutykin's advice and pick up the "staff": "Why do we, having barely begun to live, become boring, gray, uninteresting, lazy, indifferent, useless, unhappy? .." The battery leaves the city. Sounds like a military march. Olga: “Music plays so cheerfully, cheerfully, and I want to live! <…> and, it seems, a little more, and we will find out why we live, why we suffer ... If only we knew! (Music plays quieter and quieter.) If only know if you knew!" (Curtain.) The heroes of the play are not free migratory birds, they are imprisoned in a strong social "cage", and the personal destinies of all those caught in it are subject to the laws by which the whole country lives, which is experiencing general trouble. Not "who", but "what?" dominates man. This main culprit of misfortunes and failures in the play has several names - "vulgarity", "baseness", "sinful life" ... The face of this "vulgarity" looks especially visible and unsightly in Andrey's thoughts: "Our city has existed for two hundred years, it has a hundred thousand inhabitants, and not a single one who would not be like the others ... <...> They only eat, drink, sleep, then die ... others will be born, and they also eat, drink, sleep and, in order not to become stupefied with boredom, diversify their lives with nasty gossip, vodka, cards, litigation ... " V. A. Bogdanov Bishop Story (1902) On Palm Sunday, at the beginning of April, Bishop Peter serves Vespers. The church is full of people, the monastic choir sings. The bishop has been unwell for three days, he feels heaviness and fatigue. As if in a dream or in delirium, it seems to him that his mother, whom he had not seen for nine years, approached him in the crowd. And for some reason, tears flowed down his face. Near him, someone else began to cry, then another and another, and little by little the church is filled with general quiet weeping. After the service, he returns home to the Pankratievsky Monastery. A quiet, pensive moon, a beautiful bell ringing, a breath of spring in the soft cold air. And I would like to think that this will always be the case. At home, he learns that his mother has indeed arrived, and laughs with joy. Prayers for the coming sleep interfere with his thoughts about his mother, memories of childhood, when he (then his name was Pavlusha), the son of a deacon in a poor village, went to the procession without a hat, barefoot, with naive faith, with a naive smile, infinitely happy . He has a fever. He talks to Father Sisoy, a hieromonk, who is always dissatisfied with something: "I don't like it!" - the usual words of Sisoya. The next day, after the services, he receives dear guests, his mother and niece Katya, a girl of eight years old. It is noticeable to the Reverend that his mother, despite her affectionateness, is embarrassed by him, speaks respectfully and timidly. In the evening he lies in bed, covered warmly. Now he remembers how he lived abroad for eight years, served in a church on the shores of the warm sea. A blind beggar at his window sang about love, and he yearned for his homeland. Bishop Peter receives petitioners. And now, when he is unwell, he is struck by the emptiness, the pettiness of everything that was asked for, he is angry with underdevelopment, timidity. Abroad, he must have lost the habit of Russian life, it is not easy for him. For all the time he has been here, not a single person has spoken to him sincerely, simply, like a human being, even the old mother, it seems, is no longer the same, not at all the same! In the evening the monks sang harmoniously, with inspiration. His Grace sat in the altar during the service, tears streaming down his face. He thought that he had achieved everything that was available to a person in his position, he believed, but still not everything was clear, something else was missing, he did not want to die; and it still seemed that he did not have something of the most important, which he had once vaguely dreamed of, and in the present he is worried about the same hope for the future that he had in childhood, and at the academy, and abroad. Thursday - mass in the cathedral, return home on a warm sunny day. Mother is still timid and respectful. Only by the unusually kind eyes, timid, preoccupied look could one guess that this was her mother. In the evening in the cathedral, the reading of the twelve gospels, and during the service, the bishop, as always, feels active, cheerful, happy, but by the end of the service his legs were completely numb and he began to worry about the fear that he was about to fall. At home, he quietly confesses to Sisoy: "What kind of bishop am I? .. All this crushes me ... crushes me." The next morning he began bleeding from the intestines: typhoid fever. The old mother no longer remembered that he was a bishop, and kissed him, haggard, thinner, like a child, and for the first time called Pavlusha, son. And he could no longer utter a word, and it seemed to him that he, already a simple, ordinary person, was walking across the field, now he was free, like a bird, he could go anywhere! The bishop died on Saturday morning, and the next day was Easter - with a joyful ringing, general joy - as it always was, as it will, in all likelihood, be in the future. A month later, a new bishop was appointed, no one remembered the former one, and then they completely forgot about it. And only the old woman, the mother of the deceased, when she went out to pasture in her remote town in the evening to meet a cow, told other women that she had a son, a bishop, and at the same time spoke timidly, fearing that they would not believe her ... And in fact, not everyone believed her. V. B. Kataev The Cherry Orchard Comedy (1904) The estate of the landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. Spring, cherry trees bloom. But the beautiful garden is soon to be sold for debts. For the past five years, Ranevskaya and her seventeen-year-old daughter Anya have lived abroad. Ranevskaya's brother Leonid Andreevich Gaev and her adopted daughter, twenty-four-year-old Varya, remained on the estate. Ranevskaya's affairs are bad, there are almost no funds left. Lyubov Andreevna always littered with money. Her husband died six years ago from alcoholism. Ranevskaya fell in love with another person, got along with him. But soon her little son Grisha died tragically by drowning in the river. Lyubov Andreevna, unable to bear her grief, fled abroad. The lover followed her. When he fell ill, Ranevskaya had to settle him in her dacha near Menton and take care of him for three years. And then, when he had to sell the dacha for debts and move to Paris, he robbed and abandoned Ranevskaya. Gaev and Varya meet Lyubov Andreevna and Anya at the station. At home, the maid Dunyasha and the familiar merchant Yermolai Alekseevich Lopakhin are waiting for them. Lopakhin's father was a serf of the Ranevskys, he himself became rich, but he says about himself that he remained "a peasant a peasant." The clerk Epikhodov arrives, a man with whom something constantly happens and who is called "thirty-three misfortunes." Finally, the carriages arrive. The house is filled with people, everyone is pleasantly excited. Everyone talks about their own. Lyubov Andreevna looks at the rooms and through tears of joy recalls the past. The maid Dunyasha is impatient to tell the young lady that Epikhodov proposed to her. Anya herself advises Varya to marry Lopakhin, and Varya dreams of marrying Anya off as a rich man. The governess Charlotte Ivanovna, a strange and eccentric person, boasts about her amazing dog, the neighbor landowner Simeonov-Pishik asks for a loan. He hears almost nothing and the old faithful servant Firs mutters all the time. Lopakhin reminds Ranevskaya that the estate should soon be sold at auction, the only way out is to break the land into plots and lease them to summer residents. Lopakhin's proposal surprises Ranevskaya: how can you cut down her favorite wonderful cherry orchard! Lopakhin wants to stay longer with Ranevskaya, whom he loves "more than his own", but it's time for him to leave. Gaev delivers a welcoming speech to the hundred-year-old "respected" cabinet, but then, embarrassed, again begins to senselessly utter his favorite billiard words. Ranevskaya did not immediately recognize Petya Trofimov: so he changed, became uglier, the “dear student” turned into an “eternal student”. Lyubov Andreevna cries, remembering her little drowned son Grisha, whose teacher was Trofimov. Gaev, left alone with Varya, tries to talk about business. There is a rich aunt in Yaroslavl, who, however, does not like them: after all, Lyubov Andreevna did not marry a nobleman, and she did not behave "very virtuously." Gaev loves his sister, but still calls her "vicious", which causes Ani's displeasure. Gaev continues to build projects: his sister will ask Lopakhin for money, Anya will go to Yaroslavl - in a word, they will not allow the estate to be sold, Gaev even swears about it. The grouchy Firs finally takes the master, like a child, to sleep. Anya is calm and happy: her uncle will arrange everything. Lopakhin does not cease to persuade Ranevskaya and Gaev to accept his plan. The three of them had lunch in the city and, returning, stopped in a field near the chapel. Just here, on the same bench, Epikhodov tried to explain himself to Dunyasha, but she had already preferred the young cynical footman Yasha to him. Ranevskaya and Gaev do not seem to hear Lopakhin and talk about completely different things. So without convincing "frivolous, unbusinesslike, strange" people of anything, Lopakhin wants to leave. Ranevskaya asks him to stay: "it's still more fun with him." Anya, Varya and Petya Trofimov arrive. Ranevskaya starts talking about a "proud man." According to Trofimov, there is no point in pride: a rude, unhappy person should not admire himself, but work. Petya condemns the intelligentsia, who are incapable of work, those people who philosophize importantly, and treat peasants like animals. Lopakhin enters the conversation: he just works "from morning to evening", dealing with big capital, but he is becoming more and more convinced that there are few decent people around. Lopakhin does not finish, Ranevskaya interrupts him. In general, everyone here does not want and does not know how to listen to each other. There is silence, in which the distant, sad sound of a broken string is heard. Soon everyone disperses. Left alone, Anya and Trofimov are happy to have the opportunity to talk together, without Varya. Trofimov convinces Anya that one must be "above love", that the main thing is freedom: "all Russia is our garden", but in order to live in the present, one must first redeem the past with suffering and labor. Happiness is near: if not they, then others will definitely see it. Comes the twenty-second of August, the day of trading. It is on this evening, quite inopportunely, that a ball is being held in the estate, a Jewish orchestra is invited. Once upon a time generals and barons danced here, and now, as Firs complains, both the postal clerk and the head of the station "are not willing to go." Charlotte Ivanovna entertains guests with her tricks. Ranevskaya anxiously awaits the return of her brother. The Yaroslavl aunt nevertheless sent fifteen thousand, but they are not enough to buy the estate. Petya Trofimov "reassures" Ranevskaya: it's not about the garden, it's been over for a long time, we need to face the truth. Lyubov Andreevna asks not to condemn her, to feel sorry for her: after all, without a cherry orchard, her life loses its meaning. Every day Ranevskaya receives telegrams from Paris. At first she tore them up right away, then - after reading them first, now she doesn't vomit anymore. "That wild man", whom she loves after all, begs her to come. Petya condemns Ranevskaya for her love for "a petty scoundrel, a nonentity." Angry Ranevskaya, unable to restrain herself, takes revenge on Trofimov, calling him "a funny eccentric", "a freak", "clean": "You must love yourself ... you must fall in love!" Petya tries to leave in horror, but then stays, dancing with Ranevskaya, who asked for his forgiveness. Finally, the embarrassed, joyful Lopakhin and the tired Gaev appear, who, without saying anything, immediately goes to his room. The Cherry Orchard was sold and Lopakhin bought it. The "new landowner" is happy: he managed to outbid the rich Deriganov at the auction, giving ninety thousand in excess of the debt. Lopakhin picks up the keys thrown on the floor by the proud Varya. Let the music play, let everyone see how Yermolai Lopakhin "suffices the cherry orchard with an ax"! Anya comforts her crying mother: the garden has been sold, but there is a whole life ahead. There will be a new garden, more luxurious than this, "quiet deep joy" awaits them ... The house is empty. Its inhabitants, having said goodbye to each other, disperse. Lopakhin is going to Kharkov for the winter, Trofimov returns to Moscow, to the university. Lopakhin and Petya exchange barbs. Although Trofimov calls Lopakhin a "predatory beast" necessary "in the sense of metabolism," he still loves in him "a tender, subtle soul." Lopakhin offers Trofimov money for the journey. He refuses: over the "free man", "in the forefront going" to "higher happiness", no one should have power. Ranevskaya and Gaev even cheered up after the sale of the cherry orchard. Previously, they were worried, suffering, but now they have calmed down. Ranevskaya is going to live in Paris for the time being on the money sent by her aunt. Anya is inspired: a new life begins - she will finish the gymnasium, she will work, read books, "a new wonderful world" will open before her. Simeonov-Pishchik suddenly appears out of breath and, instead of asking for money, on the contrary, distributes debts. It turned out that the British found white clay on his land. Everyone settled down differently. Gaev says that now he is a bank servant. Lopakhin promises to find a new place for Charlotte, Varya got a job as a housekeeper to the Ragulins, Epikhodov, hired by Lopakhin, remains on the estate, Firs must be sent to the hospital. But nevertheless, Gaev sadly says: "Everyone is leaving us ... we suddenly became unnecessary." Between Varya and Lopakhin, an explanation must finally occur. For a long time, Varya has been teased by "Madame Lopakhina." Varya likes Yermolai Alekseevich, but she herself cannot propose. Lopakhin, who also speaks well of Vara, agrees to "put an end immediately" to this matter. But when Ranevskaya arranges their meeting, Lopakhin, without deciding, leaves Varia, using the very first pretext. "It's time to go! On the road!" - with these words, they leave the house, locking all the doors. All that remains is old Firs, whom everyone seemed to take care of, but whom they forgot to send to the hospital. Firs, sighing that Leonid Andreevich went in a coat, and not in a fur coat, lies down to rest and lies motionless. The same sound of a broken string is heard. "There is silence, and only one can hear how far in the garden they knock on wood with an ax." E. V. Novikova Notes 1. This episode is bracketed because it is a presentation of the chapter "At Tikhon's" that was not included - against the wishes of Dostoevsky himself - in the final text of the novel. Editor: Novikov V.I.
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