Historical figures in works of literature and. Historical theme in Russian literature

Ivan Lukyanovich Solonevich "People's Monarchy".

Mikhail Weller. "Perpendicular"

Russian classics as apocrypha

Lecture given at the University of Turin, Italy, 1990. So, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, when he was still very young, wrote a beautiful romantic poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, and the reading public admired. And the critics said that he was truly an unusually talented young man, wonderful poems, no worse than Zhukovsky’s, but he was still just a boy - what will he develop into next?

Pushkin had such a great start!. The critics explained that, it seems, they did not overpraise the young talent, because they were expecting after “Ruslan and Lyudmila”..., but here are some very primitive verses in which there is nothing, no art, no beauty!

But Pushkin has prose that, apparently, is truly brilliant, like “Belkin’s Tales”. Wonderful, tight, short, story-driven prose. Plot, social, psychological and philosophical at the same time. And some who in France put forward inflated demands on the genius of Russian literature say that: you see, “Eugene Onegin”, you know, we don’t know... but “The Station Agent” - yes. "The Station Agent" is a masterpiece. (When you look at everything with honest eyes and say: “You know, in my opinion this is bullshit,” then you still feel freer, you regard a masterpiece as a masterpiece.)

Because "The Station Agent" is the parable of the Prodigal Son reversed. Which is hinted at head on, because there are pictures hanging on the wall depicting scenes from the parable of the prodigal son. And what the good father of the triumphant prodigal son does not accept, but on the contrary: the prodigal daughter lives happily in the capital, and the righteous father dies in fever and poverty! And then the prodigal daughter, abandoned by no one, richly dressed, with beautiful, well-groomed children, arrives in a luxurious carriage and cries at the grave of her honest father... Well, to this, too, as to so many things, you can put an epigraph: “Oh times! Oh morals "... A work of genius, and no one had written anything like this in Russian literature before Pushkin.

Here creation of idols in literature- This one of the moments such socialization everyone points of view that they have human group that transforms itself into a society . Since we are people, we must form a society out of ourselves, and one of the aspects of the fact that we form a society out of ourselves is that we agree on who our idol is, and we all squeal and jump up and down. And then, instead of some kind of amorphous anthill, we are all a more or less organized number of people. This is why idols are formed.

Or. Everyone who is interested in Pushkin knows very well (they should teach it at school) that there once were several bad people who poisoned Pushkin and did not like him. They were stupid; they were generally bad in everything. One of them was Bulgarin.

Here Griboyedov Alexander Sergeevich, Pushkin’s full namesake, was a man of a caustic, sharp, brilliant mind. The author of perhaps the best, brilliant Russian play of the entire 19th century - "Woe from Wit", standing at some unsurpassed height in the citation ranking, parsed into sayings like: "Who are the judges?" etc. "Next, choose a corner..."

And this Griboedov, greatly despising the talkative and empty St. Petersburg society, was friends exclusively with Bulgarin. Bulgarin had a serious story - he was a soldier, fighter, rebel, businessman, agent, special forces officer; he was a serious, reasonable, thorough, strong man. And besides, he, of course, is very characterized by his friendship with Griboedov, because Griboyedov was very picky, was at the very top of secular society and bestowed his attention on very, very few people. But since we have Pushkin more important than Griboyedov, then it turns out that Bulgarin is still bad. If anyone becomes interested in Bulgarin and wants to study something there, keep in mind that, you know, Griboyedov would always give him the most best recommendation for study by Russian philologists.

And I began to study for myself the language of Dostoevsky and the stylistics of Dostoevsky. I discovered that this was written in a monstrously perfect manner. Monstrous!.. In that same vernacular language, broken, anti-melodic, somehow tasteless, with very poor vocabulary, with awkward repetitions that just make you feel physically ill. In short, this is according to Hemingway: “I could not understand how a person could write so badly, so hopelessly, so monstrously badly, and at the same time make such a strong impression.”

This same Leo Tolstoy in his youth, in his youth, was such a wonderful person that it was probably pleasant to be friends with such a person. Firstly, Levushka hated studying. He was such a slacker. He was physically strong, from an early age he had his eye on girls, he could punch him in the face, and in general he was attracted by the real, masculine, noble, dashing life. And he entered the university in due time, and at this university he made little progress in his studies, but he succeeded in those same heroic amusements. That is, he drank, he played, he went to see cheerful girls, and in the end they began to kick him out right after his first year.. He said that he would leave on his own, especially since he lost at the races, he was an avid horseman. And he became a cadet.

And here it was not for nothing that Tolstoy loved Nekrasov. Here Tolstoy and Nekrasov have something in common. You see, at one time all Soviet, that is, Russian, Russian schoolchildren could not stand Nekrasov. This singer of folk suffering. Listen, children don't want to read about suffering! Children want to read about adventures, about exploits, about friendship, love and courage! And they somehow don’t care about people’s suffering. And so the children perceive their way of life as completely natural: “Go out to the Volga - whose groan is heard”? They don’t want to hear these groans, you know. Children are designed in such a way that they want to be happy, by nature, and they don’t want anyone’s moans.

Therefore, Nekrasov causes natural rejection among schoolchildren. Children are forced to suffer that is foreign to them. And this suffering is for people who have been gone for a long time. And so, it means that children must share this sympathy for these peasants, which they absolutely do not want. They want to be happy themselves.

Further. The genius Chekhov, well, Chekhov is also in the first row, which means he is also a genius... The genius Chekhov has two works of genius that are more authentic than others. One of them is called "Steppe", and the other is called "Hunting Drama".

...You know, I can consider myself a professional reader. For many years, since childhood, I have been reading, quite a lot, every day; And not only am I reading, but I’ve been watching for a long time at the same time, how it works, what the author had in mind, how it was done, etc. I’ve never been able to finish reading “The Steppe” to the end! Chekhov wrote wonderful short stories. Chekhov wrote wonderful mini-novels that were folded into short stories - such as, say, "Ionych". "Ionych" is a novel! which is simply laid out in some ten pages, you understand. But when he wants to write long works, he immediately ceases to understand how to do it.

Well, not him.. What I mean is that, as Griboedov said, “in such years one should dare to have one’s own judgment.” Have your own judgement. Do not be afraid. You have the right! You may look like a fool. You may look ignorant. But you are honest with yourself! And this is a big deal, you know..

Because when a person lies to himself, then, of course, he cannot explore and understand anything good

Deheroization in literature and the crisis of civilization.

Speech at the Chinese Writers' Union, Beijing, 2006. Whether we take fairy tales, or whether we take legends, or whether we take myths, or whether we take tales that exist among almost all nations, this is literature about heroes: be they gods, or be they fighters, or be they hunters.

But there was another one, which we still have. And this was especially clear in the recently ended Soviet literature. The function of strengthening power and the state. The state, in the person of its leaders, leaders, if you like - official heroes - fed its writers so that these writers would help strengthen the state and strengthen the position of people in power in this state. This is why, excuse me, it was created at one time by Comrade Stalin - a man who understood power politics very well - and the Writers' Union was created, and the entire structure of this union. And with the help of Gorky’s comrade Alexei Maksimovich, the method of socialist realism was founded, which is believed to have begun with Gorky’s novel “Mother”, where there were already heroes. The main thing these heroes had was the right ones Political Views- and fought not just for the happiness of humanity, but for happiness through the introduction of world socialism and communism.

For centuries and millennia, literature has usually been inseparable from history. There was no such division into, say, fiction and historical literature. No .. It was all very fused together. And historical literature, again, was interested in historical figures. And historical figures are great personalities. Or these are leaders of states, or these are great commanders - which may be one person, or maybe different ones - or these are the leaders of great revolts; or are they great travelers. These are people who did something noticeable and, in general, often heroic: in whose actions and exploits the history of this period seems to be personified

Here we also have the glorification of figures, the glorification of history that has flourished for millennia, and heroic literature.. And then comes the era of Christianity. And this era seems to be not at all heroic, but this is only at first glance, this is for those who have very little idea of ​​what Christianity is and what its history is Because Christianity, outwardly soft, kind, full of pacifism and non-resistance to evil through violence, was internally an absolutely tough, intolerant and unbending teaching.

Christianity gave such a kind of heroes as martyrs. And a new romanticism is already appearing, relatively speaking, neo-romanticism. This is primarily Alexandre Dumas and Arthur Conan Doyle, because both d'Artagnan and Sherlock Holmes are, of course, romantic heroes..

They are on their own. They enter into relations with the state insofar as they do so, or they do not enter into relations at all, like Sherlock Holmes. They lead an independent life, they have their own goals, but at the same time they are interesting, they are extraordinary, they are energetic, they attract people to themselves and, of course, they are heroes - both men and women like them And the peak reaches the image of the hero and glorification in the literature of probably the greatest of all empires that have ever existed - in the British Empire late XIX. century.

That is, the end of Victorian rule, the flourishing of everything that would later be called damned imperialism. This is Rudyard Kipling, and very close to him in time, in general they are contemporaries, in culture, in language, the American Jack London. They were interested in heroes. Chekhov's dramaturgy is fundamentally anti-heroic. Although in general Chekhov's short stories are also In Chekhov's dramaturgy Nothing happens. . Nobody wants anything. Nobody does anything. There is no major character None, strictly speaking, positive outlook.

to the world. None of the heroes have any positive picture of the world in their brains, but there is only melancholy, a groan: “To Moscow! To Moscow!” Moan: “Will the coming generation appreciate our suffering?” Moan: “If only I knew why we live at all?..” And besides these groans and tea parties, during which, according to Chekhov’s expression, happiness is formed and destinies are broken, except for these conversations, tea parties, doing nothing, there is nothing there. ...This is our literature, which reflects our current state And the insignificance of the current characters of the so-called current serious, or current elitist, or advanced literature - the insignificance of these characters reflects ideological insignificance of our current civilization.

. The insignificance of the views of current politicians. The insignificance of the prospects proclaimed by current Western civilization

Vladimir Medinsky.

"About Russian drunkenness, laziness and cruelty"

Excerpts from Chapter 7 "Literary Myths".

And for whom is Oblomov “typical”? Who, besides rich landowners, could live the fate of Oblomov? Nobody. And there were 10 thousand rich landowners throughout the Russian Empire in 1850. And this is for 90-100 million people.

Manilov? Nozdryov?

Landowners too. Prince Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov? Not just the nobility, not just landowners. This is the very top of the aristocracy, people with princely titles

, fantastic riches. Pierre Bezukhov has an annual income of 500,000 rubles. By today's standards, he is in the TOP-100 richest people in the Russian version of Forbes magazine.

Bazarov? Even less “typical”, because there are only a few hundreds of them in the entire vast empire.

Raskolnikov? There were others like him. But did all the Narodnaya Volya circles, all the crazy testers of Bonapartist ideas, amount to at least a thousand for the entire vast empire?

Chekhov's heroes? And how many of them are sadly reflective, boring and chattering intellectuals? At the beginning of the 20th century, were there at least ten thousand of them in all of Russia?

The most typical and characteristic heroes of Russian classics were introduced by A.S. Pushkin - Petya Grinev and Masha Mironova. They precisely belong to the “broad layers of the working nobility.”

Leo Tolstoy’s favorite heroes are just as cute and inconspicuous, dim - low-ranking officers like Captain Tushin. But they flash in secondary roles: this is not what the book is about.

The heroes of Gogol's "The Nose" and "The Overcoat" are small officials, and in this sense they are very "democratic". But Akakiy Akakievich also “deviates” from the typical, only not towards gigantism of spirit and moral strength, but towards squalor and weakness. Arises the most natural question

: How did it happen that Russian classics practically did not reflect the typical Russian philistines and nobles of their time? Have you created so few positive heroes? Those about whom Pushkin began to write, who made his “Belkin’s Tales” famous?

Stubbornly avoiding the good AND second question

: Why didn’t classical literature in Russia tell stories about people who really did something good and important? “Borodino” by M.Yu. was written about the heroes of 1812. Lermontov, L.N. wrote a lot about them.

But the trouble is that, realizing themselves as “more than poets,” these authors completely involuntarily, even, say, accidentally (oh? E.A.), created an amazingly complex, constantly reflective, tossing and rather unattractive image of a Russian literary hero , which undoubtedly made a significant contribution to the fact that the country continued to “convince itself” in the darkest, negative ideas about itself.

Sometimes it seems that in all Russian literature of that time there is only one positive hero, whom young people could look up to without looking back, is the same Andrei Bolkonsky. And he dies early.

Russia waged wars with Turkey, colonial wars in the Caucasus and Central Asia. How did it happen that these wars are not reflected in literature and their heroes are not glorified? In Britain, thousands of books of varying degrees of talent and success have been written on the “Indian theme.” And where are the novels in Russia, in the features of whose heroes the reader would guess the features of the stern Ermolov, the malicious “Mushroom Eater”, the brilliant conqueror of Samarkand and Kokand, General Skobelev?

Where is the literature about the difficulties of long journeys, about exploits, achievements, losses and learning the truths of a huge and important path?

“Turkestan Generals” is the title of one poem by N.N. Gumilyov. One poem. Not a single novel has been written in which the hero would be, if not a historical figure, but an officer who took part in the Central Asian campaigns.

In the 20th century, the cunning fiction writer Boris Akunin had a positive hero - Erast Fandorin.

The most cunning, the smartest, the most insightful. Moreover, he is handsome and a favorite of women.

B. Chkhartishvili (Akunin) once noted in his interview that the success of E. Fandorin is due precisely the complete absence of a positive male character in Russian literature before and after the Soviet period.

We don’t even notice our discoveries. During the circumnavigation of Russian explorers F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev on the sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" in 1819-1824, the Russians made grandiose discoveries.

James Cook wrote that he penetrated “as far south as humanly possible.”

Since then, on the map of Antarctica there is Novosiltsov Bay and capes Demidov, Kupriyanov and Paradina, the islands of Annensky, Leskov, Vysoky and Zavadovsky, and the Bellingshausen Sea.

Where are the plays and novels about captains Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky in Russia? Where is the play “Among the Ice and Winds” or “How the Russians Discover the Great Southern Continent”? Where are the stories about Count Rezanov’s voyage to Russian America and how the Russians explored Alaska and California?

No stories were written about these exploits either in the 19th century or at the beginning of the 20th (before 1917) century. At least in the classics of that time, contemporary with the great Russians geographical discoveries there is not even a hint of it. WHY?

Alas, there can be only one answer, and a very sad one: because this again revealed duality of consciousness of the Russian educated stratum.

The native through the eyes of the natives

It’s the same with books written by people from the nobility, landowners or priests. All the novels of Pisarev, Boborykin, Chernyshevsky are not only, in my opinion, unbearably boring, they explore some vanishing, insignificant stratum of people. Entirely Narodnaya Volya, “fighters against the autocracy,” such “advanced people” as Chernyshevsky’s Rakhmetov and Pisarev’s Exaltation of the Cross, whose images are modern reader They only cause yawning.

Ostrovsky doesn’t have such heroes either. Not a single hero of his plays made his capital by honest labor. His hero is either a cunning intriguer, or a swindler, or cunning, seeking to marry a rich bride. Ostrovsky's heroes often go bankrupt. The playwright never shows a person who earns capital through labor and smart deeds. If there are rich brides, then there are always tyrants nearby, squandering capital in brothels and taverns. However, we must keep in mind that first this capital had to be acquired! Ostrovsky says nothing about this. And he does not have a single educated merchant, philanthropist or connoisseur of science. A complete "dark kingdom".

The native through the eyes of Europeans

The characters in "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" are funny at best.

If Bazarov is a “representative of the people,” then God forbid us from such representatives.

Leo Tolstoy's merchants are very unsympathetic people, just like Chekhov's. And Platon Karataev is not only strange... - he is absolutely unreal. Non-resistance to evil by violence is in itself a dubious idea. It was not through non-resistance to evil and not through angelic meekness that the Russians penetrated the Caucasus and walked all of Siberia to Kamchatka and Chukotka. And a soldier professing non-resistance to evil through violence during a huge and terrible war is simply unrealistic.

Turning literary myths into political ones

It is very easy to turn a literary myth into a political one. To do this, it is enough to identify literature with real life.

Images of Oblomov, Akaki Akakievich, Raskolnikov could have isolated analogues in the real life of Russia, but the people and the country have nothing to do with these images.

But if these images are promoted as typical and characteristic, then a certain image of the people appears: restless intellectuals, repentant religious psychopaths, tearing the shirts on the chests of the Raskolnikovs and Oblomovs dying of boredom. The people of the Manilovs and Fathers Sergius can arouse interest and genuine friendly feelings. But it’s hard to take him seriously. There may even be a temptation to save such a people... to save them from themselves.

Alexander Obraztsov. "From the History of Hate"

Where are the roots of our despair, when we want to go out into a white field, into a snowstorm, into a blizzard, and howl from loneliness, from mutual intolerance? Is it really in the character, in the soil, in the climate, is it really so woven into the very concept " Russian"mutual hatred, that you can no longer take out its individual threads from there? That you can’t even trace its origins..?

Some kind of tone in I. Annensky, Nabokov - rattling, mosquito-like; some kind of acid-eating word; as if you take it trustingly in your hands, and it burns them, and even your legs in holes. A kind of envious, angry, quiet thoroughness;

neatness to the point of absolute poverty; premonition of departure. They themselves They left and left us in the lurch. I even suspect that they knew that they would tear it apart exactly us

, and with a deeply hidden, secret gloating - they left. As if they threw it over their shoulder: well, now – without culture! And we'll watch you go underwater, one by one..! When did Hatred settle in this country? Tolstoy and Dostoevsky already fed on it with might and main. Lermontov was a victim: he inserted a syringe - he woke up, was horrified, but it was too late. Hatred was always at hand and so

artistically

Napoleon and France loomed over nineteenth-century Russia. The winners of genius did not receive even a shadow of his glory. That's how it started. Decembrism decided to go further, to become radical democracy. But a standard was needed for the campaign against Europe, against the world. It could have been some young poet. At least this one different . Pushkin. Let be. Bye. Then they will come figures . For now, let it be.

Nikolai didn't give become famous , locked everyone in the house! He didn’t let me prance!

Gogol wandered around Europe in confusion, also expecting fame. What started out tenderly, melodiously, with an enormous embrace of life, received a social order - to hate! They started asking: who do you hate? Who (it doesn’t matter who you love; however, it’s clear who – the people)? But do you hate inert, dark? Arbitrariness do you hate?

"Overcoat" and "Nevsky Prospekt" appeared.

"Portrait" was an unsuccessful, tasteless connection between the past and this hatred that was expected of him. Belinsky, Pushkin, Slavophiles, Westerners - everyone demanded hatred.

He wrote "The Inspector General" (after the magical "Marriage"). They didn't lag behind. He tore out "Dead Souls" along with its guts.

Dostoevsky already began with hatred. He has already gotten into politics and injured himself. And all my life I studied mutilation on myself. I could no longer live without recharge. In Bunin, hatred reached piercing sophistication, sharpness and naturalness of gesture. He hit like a viper. But where there was a thin, narrow stream of hatred, a dark, swooning sea of ​​lust was sure to flow nearby.

Lust gave birth to even greater thirst, and this could drive you crazy. Nabokov portrayed in "Lolita"

consequence

this. On the other hand, in the USSR, proletarian hatred flourished. Here they hated businesslike - spies, emigrants, imperialists, God, Nikolaev the First and Second, etc. and so on. Someone even wrote "The Science of Hate." Let us remember, by the way, how Fet spat out the carriage window at the university. Or is it “He who does not know how to hate will not learn to love”?

In the quiet, serpentine seventies, the hatred of dissidents for immorality surpassed the hatred of the authorities, and finally a certain satiety set in. Feeling of infertility. Or rather, satiety with infertility. , without being embarrassed by the names of Radishchev, Novikov, Pushkin and others, turn your eyes, ears, and hearts to the pure, nourishing, satiating field of affection, kindness, and gullibility.

Mercy.

Otherwise we will all die. Ivan Solonevich

"World Revolution or New Expulsion from Paradise" From the utopian dreams of philosophers, from Plato to Bellamy and Marx, "scientific socialism" arose - the science of what does not exist in nature

. Or at least it didn't exist until 1917.

The Romanovs and others, sitting on their thrones, did not promise, in fact, absolutely nothing and did not design any paradise anywhere. They had police, prisons, and armies. They fought wars. They were engaged in "imperialism" and "nationalism". Not a single genius has sat on any European throne. No one starved in Europe. No one was shot without trial. We can say that under the Romanovs and others things were still bad in Europe. But it is never possible to deny that under the “proletarians of all countries” in Europe itself things have become immeasurably worse.

I just can’t imagine that Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin believed even a single word with which they addressed the “masses”...

The totalitarian regime in Germany arose 16 years later; Russian experience was already evident. Both Lenin and Hitler did not liquidate the “old reactionary regimes” - they both broke the skulls of newborn democracies - Russian and German. So, in defense of Russian democracy, the most brutal civil war in the history of the country was waged for many years in a row. Not a single bayonet was raised in defense of German democracy. I claim that socialism was born out of hatred

. I think this is very difficult to prove. But perhaps it is somewhat easier to prove, so to speak, the purely technical side of this issue. Indeed. Authors of the social revolution in France of 1789 called the "mass" to hate

aristocrats, tyrants, kings, lords, Cobleny, Pitt, England, Russia, Girodists, Herbertists, Dantonists, Vendeans, Lyons, Toulons - in short, everyone except themselves. Authors of the social revolution in Russia called the masses to hate

exploiters, plutocrats, monarchs, priests, White Guards, Churchill, England, Germany, the USA, Kerensky, Trotsky, Bukharin - that is, everyone except themselves. Authors of the social revolution in Russia Authors of the social revolution in Germany

The genealogy of today's communist Russian bureaucrat will automatically be the genealogy book of the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia. All books written by the Russian intelligentsia about the Russian revolution are, in essence, only autobiographies. Maybe that's why in none of these books you will not find a statement of the rather obvious fact that the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia was at the same time the Russian noble bureaucracy . She, this intelligentsia, did not even have two faces, like the Roman god Janus: both revolutionism and bureaucracy lived in the same physiognomies. This sad fact is, in essence, completely obvious. The fact that the Russian intelligentsia was revolutionary, that is, entirely socialist, is recognized, it seems, by the entire world literature devoted to the history of Russian social thought. All world literature , dedicated to the history of Russian social thought, studiously ignores the fact , What,.

Apart from the bureaucracy, there was almost no other educated layer in Russia At least nine-tenths of all people who received in Tsarist Russia higher education , went into public service. Before the liberation of the peasants, the nobility entered public service according to tradition, after the liberation - out of material need. The commoner walked because he had no other ways. The commercial and industrial life of the country was served by Ostrovsky's heroes, the press was extremely weak quantitatively, there were no scientific research laboratories yet - in a word, at least ninety percent of the Russian intelligentsia were civil servants, or, in other words, officials

, or, otherwise, bureaucrats, they, to one degree or another, could not help but be socialists. Old Regime Official He started his working day at 10 am and finished at 3 pm. During these five hours he had the opportunity to go into a restaurant, drink a glass of vodka, play a game of billiards - and generally was not burdened with work at all . And I didn’t try to burden myself. He was not an intrusive person and, being more or less revolutionary-minded, did not take any government measures particularly seriously. He, moreover,.

Civil service everywhere is paid relatively low. This is probably explained very simply, by the law of supply and demand. A small provincial official received a salary sufficient for a family of five to be well fed, have a three-room apartment and at least one servant. But the material requirements of this official were determined not by his “social existence”, but by the remnants of the noble tradition. The noble tradition in Russia, as in other European countries, demanded “representation.” Physical labor was humiliating. The three-room apartment was indecent. Having only one servant was inconvenient. Because of this, the official considered himself a beggar. He also considered himself an educated man. Next to him there lived a man , whom no one in Russia considered educated: a merchant. Our largest playwright Ostrovsky populated the Russian stage with a number of brilliant caricatures of the " Dark Kingdom ", which almost single-handedly somehow built the Russian economic life . Our greatest satirist Saltykov populated the Russian reading consciousness with images of the Kolupaevs and Razuvaevs - bloody predators drinking the people's blood. Our.

greatest writer Leo Tolstoy writes about the Russian business man with undisguised hatred At the heights of Russian intellectual thought there were revolutionary writers, but there were also counter-revolutionary writers. Now, assessing the past, we can say with an absolute degree of certainty: the counter-revolutionaries were smarter. It was their predictions, prophecies and warnings that came true. But only revolutionary ones had sales. Or, what also happened (to ensure sales), even counter-revolutionary writers somehow imitated revolutionary ideology. Leo Tolstoy expressed his counter-revolutionary thoughts only in his works, which were NOT intended for publication. Even Dostoevsky could not write freely, and when he tried, no one listened to him. Even Herzen protested against the revolutionary censorship that existed in tsarist Russia. The law of supply and demand applied here. Demand was determined Russian intelligent bureaucracy, or, what is the same, Russian bureaucratic intelligentsia, and to her, the professional bureaucracy,

So, there once lived a bureaucrat who considered himself cultured and progressive-minded. Who took modest bribes and, over a glass of vodka, ranted about the welfare of the people. Who put forward a demand for revolutionary socialist literature and in every possible way despised any “anarchy of production and distribution.”

He was poor, this bureaucrat. And his rights were greatly curtailed. Let me remind you that even the grandfather of our pre-war bureaucrat, Gogol’s mayor, Comrade Skvoznik-Dmukhonovsky from The Inspector General, was afraid like fire of “paper scribbles and click-picking”, which could in any newspaper - even in a newspaper of the thirties of the last century - discredit his good name. The bureaucrat of tsarist times was only a serving element of the country.

Why shouldn't he want to become dominant? From this patriarchal, idyllic, one might say, home-grown bureaucrat, the current Soviet bureaucrat grew. Moreover, he grew up not only philosophically and genetically, but in the most banal way, by birth from his father and mother:. the fathers only designed the socialist revolution, the children implemented it. The Russian revolution was not made by the proletariat It was made by college registrars

and those sons of collegiate registrars who later received a new rank: people's commissars. The entire amount of commissars, from people's commissars to house-commissars, was not provided for by anyone in any way. Although purely logically it would not be difficult to foresee it. The bureaucratization of all national life is only a consequence" socialist revolution

http://www.maly.ru/.

Ivan Solonevich "People's Monarchy" The psychology of a people cannot be understood from its literature. Literature reflects only isolated shreds of national life - and, moreover, shreds sharply colored in the color of the observer's lorgnette. Thus, Leo Tolstoy, a disappointed serf owner, on the one hand, painted the life of the Russian nobility, painted in the colors of a rosy idealization of this life, and, on the other hand, reflected the feeling layer native to the writer. F. Dostoevsky - the life of a declassed and embittered commoner, painted in the tones of a writer's epilepsy. A. Chekhov - the life of the petty intelligentsia of tuberculosis origin. M. Gorky is a Social Democratic tramp. L. Andreev - just his alcoholic nightmares. No one takes Edgar Poe's alcoholic nightmares as an expression of the North American spirit, just as no one takes Byron's pessimism as an expression of the British idea. Bezukhovs and Bolkonskys could be. The Karatayevs and Svidrigailovs will be couldn't. There could have been Plyushkins, just as there could have been Oblomovs, but no one

of these heroes does not in any way characterize the national psychology of the Russian people. Russian psychology is characterized not fiction

writers, but real facts of historical life. Russian literary production was artistic, but almost completely lies

. There can be no doubt about it now

The Onegins, Manilovs, Oblomovs, Bezukhovs and other chicks of other noble nests, - speaking purely sociologically - were slackers and nothing else. Tolstoy himself admitted that only the world of the Russian aristocracy was dear and understandable to him. But he didn’t finish: everything that came out of the boundaries of this world was either uninteresting or disgusting to him. Disgust for today - in the days of impoverishment, the death of this aristocracy - more than anything else - pushed Tolstoy into his meager philosophy of renunciation. But Tolstoy was not the only one who experienced the tragedy of the breakdown - everyone experienced it differently. Russian literature.

. And all of it taken together gave the world an exquisitely crooked mirror of the Russian soul Literature available Always distorted mirror of life. But in the Russian example, this curvature goes into some kind of fourth dimension. From Russian

reality our literature reflected almost nothing. Did it reflect the ideals of the Russian people? Or was it the result of the confusion of our national consciousness? Or, on top of all this, Tolstoy expressed his longing for the dying noble nests, Dostoevsky - his epilepsy, Chekhov - his consumption and Gorky - his evil and boundless thirst for money, which he was able to somehow satisfy only at the very end of his life, and then at the expense of Sovznak? I do not undertake to answer this question. But in any case - Russian literature reflected many of Russia's weaknesses and did not reflect any of its strengths military and revolutionary trials washed away the scum of literary verbiage from the surface of people's life, then from under the artistic props of the Manilovs and Lomovs, the Karataevs and Bezukhovs, the Hamlets of the Shchigrovsky district and Muscovites in Harold's cloak, superfluous people and tramps - from somewhere people completely not envisaged by literature arose iron will. Where did they come from? Did they really not exist before? Is it really superhuman tenacity? both our camps civil war, both white and red, was born only on October 25, 1917? And the most thorough literary analysis could not have discovered any iron in the Russian folk character earlier?

Russian literature has completely passed by real Russian life. Neither our state building, nor our military power, neither our organizational talents, nor our will, perseverance and perseverance, unparalleled in the history of mankind - our literature did not notice any of this at all. All over the world - and in our own consciousness - a kind of ugly caricature also began to circulate, reflecting either the impending homelessness of the nobility, or the consumption or epilepsy of the writer, or some kind of heavenly plans that had nothing in common with Russian life. And this caricature, having passed through all foreign markets, created an ugly image of Russia, psychologically decided the beginning of the Second World War, and perhaps the First.

My generation was brought up on that classical Russian literature that I have already spoken about: great and Very harmful literature. Under its influence, we entered life with completely distorted ideas about reality.

Serfdom crippled Russia. The flourishing of Russian literature coincides with the apogee of serfdom: Pushkin and Gogol belong entirely to serfdom. Turgenev, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy began to write at the time of this apogee. Chekhov and Bunin - both testified in different ways to the death of social life, built on the backs of serfs. Chekhov wept consumptively over the felling of the Cherry Orchard, and Bunin was thoroughly imbued with hatred for the peasant who was buying up noble property. cherry orchards and ruined noble nests.

Russian literature was a magnificent reflection of the great lordly idleness

Only in literature, only on paper, can Tolstoy’s alternative be posed: “All or nothing.”

Socialism can only be built on paper - in practice it turns out to be hard labor. It is clear to any reasonable person: neither Karataev’s non-resistance to evil, nor Chekhov’s lack of will, nor Dostoev’s love of suffering are in any way compatible with this entire epic. At the beginning of World War II, the Germans wrote about the energy of such dynamic races as the Germans and Japanese, and about the state and other passivity of the Russian people. And I asked the question: " If this is so, then how can you explain to me and to yourself the fact that passive Russian people - through the taiga - walked ten thousand miles from Moscow to Kamchatka and Sakhalin, and the dynamic Japanese race didn’t manage to cross the 50 versts of the Strait of La Perouse? Or - like the most passive people in Europe - the Russians, they were able to acquire 21 million square meters. km, and the dynamic Germans remained at their 450,000?" So: or didn’t manage to cross the 50 versts of the Strait of La Perouse? Or - like the most passive people in Europe - the Russians, they were able to acquire 21 million square meters. km, and the dynamic Germans remained at their 450,000?" So: non-resistance to evil by violence, twenty one million sq. km. Or the love of suffering, or the people's war against Hitler, Napoleon, Poles, Swedes and others. Or “anarchism of the Russian soul” - or an empire on one-sixth of the earth’s land. Russian literary psychology is absolutely incompatible with the basic facts of Russian history

. And the “history of Russian social thought” is just as incompatible. Someone is lying: either a story or a thought. Russian intelligentsia, sick with literary hypertrophy , and still celebrates Pushkin’s birthday as the birthday of Russian culture, because Pushkin was literary phenomenon. But it does not celebrate the birthday of Lomonosov, who was the real founder of modern Russian culture, but who was not a literary phenomenon, even though it was he who wrote the first Russian grammar, from which both the Pushkins and Tolstoys subsequently studied. But Lomonosov is forgotten, because he quote it is forbidden. Suvorov is forgotten, because he did not leave a single one printed

labor. The Guchkovs are forgotten because they were generally illiterate. But they built the country, not the Pushkins and not the Tolstoys, just as America was built by the Edisons and Fords, and not by the Poes and Whitmans. How England was built by adventurers and inventors, merchants and industrialists, and not by Shakespeare and Byron. ALEXANDER NEVSKY THE PRESENTATION WAS PREPARED BY THE TEACHER OF MBOU CHILDREN'S SCHOOL NO. 1, BALAKOVO SHALNOVA OLGA VYACHESLAVOVNA. THE TEACHER OF MBOU CHILDREN'S SCHOOL No. 1, BALAKOVO NEMOVA IRINA VADIMOVNA N.M. KARAMZIN PARTICIPATED IN THE PREPARATION. Meaning and the role of personality in the history of Russia have always aroused the interest of researchers of different generations. “In the history of the Russian state there were such tense moments when every step of a major leader (prince, commander, tsar, emperor) could most directly affect the fate of his fellow citizens, and other peoples too. It was during such periods that Rus', Russia gave birth to the greatest figures in state, spiritual and social life, in military affairs. Very often they had to solve “multiple problems” that time set before them.” (2) P.D. KORIN. MIDDLE PART OF THE TRIPTYCH “ALEXANDER NEVSKY”. May 30 (Old Style) in the distant year 1220. “Truly the city of God”(4) Pereslavl-Zalessky became the birthplace of ALEXANDER NEVSKY - “the holy noble prince, the holy knight of the Russian land”(4). Almost eight centuries separate us from this great event in the life of every Orthodox Christian. Of the 90 princes and princesses of the descendants of the great Rurik, canonized, ALEXANDER is “the most illustrious, revered and beloved prince not only in Russia, but also in other countries” (4), “from the Khonuzh Sea and to the Ararat mountains, and across that side of the Varangian Sea and to the great Rome” (1). An ancient source of the literary image of Alexander Nevsky is “The Tale of the Life and Courage of the Blessed and Grand Duke Alexander” from the Litsevoy Chronicle of the 16th century. Miniature of the Front Chronicle. XVI century. Life of Alexander Nevsky. Battle of the Neva. “Isaiah the prophet said about such people: “A good prince in countries is quiet, friendly, meek, humble - and thus he is like God.” Without being seduced by wealth, without forgetting the blood of the righteous, he judges orphans and widows with justice, is merciful, kind to his household and hospitable to those who come from foreign countries. God helps such people, for God does not love angels, but people, in his generosity he generously bestows and shows his mercy in the world” (1). Miniature of the Front Chronicle. XVI century. Alexander Nevsky ransoms prisoners. Miniature of the Front Chronicle. “God is not in power, but in righteousness.” And King Batu saw him and was amazed, and said to his nobles: “They told me the truth, that there is no prince like him” (1). THE RIGHT PRINCE ALEXANDER NEVSKY BEGS BATY KHAN TO SPARE THE RUSSIAN LAND. CHROMOLITHOGRAPH. XIX CENTURY. One day, ambassadors from the Pope from great Rome came to Alexander with the following words: “Our Pope says this: “We heard that you are a worthy and glorious prince and that your land is great. That’s why we sent to you the two smartest of the twelve cardinals - Agaldad and Remont, so that you may listen to their speech about the law of God" (1). HENRY SEMIRADSKY. “ALEXANDER NEVSKY RECEIVES THE POPAL LEGATES.” In honor of the holy noble prince ALEXANDER NEVSKY, many temples, cathedrals, churches were built throughout the earth. RUSSIA. NOVOSIBIRSK CITY. ALEXANDER NEVSKY CATHEDRAL. RUSSIA. NIZHNY NOVGOROD. ALEXANDER NEVSKY CATHEDRAL. RUSSIA. PETROZAVODSK. ALEXANDRO-NEVSKY CATHEDRAL. RUSSIA. G. KURGAN. TEMPLE OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY. ALEXANDRO-NEVSKY CATHEDRAL IN SOFIA. BULGARIA. TEMPLE OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY IN ROTTERDAM. NETHERLANDS. CHURCH OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY IN TASHKENT. UZBEKISTAN. ALEXANDER NEVSKY CATHEDRAL IN TALLINN. ESTONIA. TEMPLE OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY. BICERT. TUNISIA. CHURCH IN HONOR OF ST.KN. ALEXANDER NEVSKY IN COPENHAGEN. DENMARK. Writers and poets of different eras addressed the personality of ALEXANDER NEVSKY in their works. “...His hair fell to his slender shoulders, like a golden strand, his lips breathed love and his speech sounded with wisdom. Decorated with high valor And with the heart of a true hero He was menacingly terrible to enemies in the midst of battles, Outside of battles the saint was a joy. Always in the consciousness of strict duty, He honored the truth with all his soul And divided the feelings of his heart Between the Fatherland and God. mountains. ... And only after waiting for the Livonians, having mixed ranks, to be drawn into battle, He, blazing his sword in the sun, led the squad behind him. Raising swords made of Russian steel, bending the spear shafts, the Novgorod regiments flew out of the forest screaming. They flew across the ice with a clang and thunder, bending towards their shaggy manes; And the prince, on a huge horse, was the first to cut into the German formation...” K.S. SIMONOV. POEM “BATTLE ON THE ICE” “...And there was a slash of evil, and a crack from the breaking of spears, and a sound from the cutting of swords, as if a frozen lake was moving. And there was no ice visible, for it was covered in blood.”(1) V. NAZARUK. "BATTLE ON THE ICE". “...He was young and handsome, He loved his Rus' with all his heart, The rumor was: “Born of God,” He was a great, wise prince!... Having defeated the formidable Swedes in Izhora, In his incomplete twenty years, Where he won victory with courage, How again Rus' is shaking from troubles! Even though his experience is still “not much”, Only twenty-two have passed, He became a skilled commander, He understood military affairs. With his father more than once in harsh battles, he tempered the will of steel, it was given to him to be born, to decorate the military pedestal...” LYUDMILA LEADER. POEM "NEVSKY - MATRIX OF VALUES". G.I.UGRUMOV. “THE SOLEMN ENTRY OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY INTO THE CITY OF PSKOV AFTER HIS VICTORY OVER THE GERMANS.” “...The lamp quietly burns before the image of the Savior... The prince lies motionless... As if a light shone above his head - A wonderful face lit up with beauty, Quietly the abbot approached him and with a trembling hand, felt his heart and forehead And, sobbing, exclaimed: “Our sun it's gone! "..." N.M.YAZYKOV. "IN THE TOWN IN 1263." G.I.SEMIRADSKY. "THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY". G.I.SEMIRADSKY. "BURIAL OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY". The image of Prince Alexander Nevsky is presented in different ways on the canvases of great masters of fine art. G.I. Semiradsky portrays him as a young, energetic, strong-willed warrior and statesman, in whose appearance holiness can only be guessed. G.I.SEMIRADSKY. "ALEXANDER NEVSKY IN THE HORDE". G.I.SEMIRADSKY. “ALEXANDER NEVSKY RECEIVES THE POPAL LEGATES.” M.V. Nesterov filled the image of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky with prayerful concentration. M.V. NESTEROV. "DORMATION OF SAINT ALEXANDER NEVSKY". M.V. NESTEROV. "PRINCE ALEXANDER NEVSKY". V.M. Vasnetsov introduced features of epic fairy-tale poetics and folklore into the image of A. Nevsky. In the appearance of the Holy Prince, he emphasized his Slavicness. V.M.VASNETSOV. "SAINT ALEXANDER NEVSKY". V.M.VASNETSOV. "ALEXANDER NEVSKIY". ICON. PSKOV. Everyone stopped behind Prince Alexander... Everyone froze from grief and sorrow... N.K. Roerich emphasizes what has always been and will be strong in the soul of the Russian people, the Russian people - compassion, compassion. N.K.ROERICH. "ALEXANDER NEVSKIY". 1942. N. Roerich specially made the canvas intended for mosaics in the character of ancient Russian book miniatures. It seems that he is looking at “what is happening” through the eyes of an artist - an eyewitness. N.K.ROERICH. “ALEXANDER NEVSKY’S BATTLE WITH YARL BIRGER.” 1904 The first iconographic images of Alexander Nevsky appeared only in the middle of the 16th century. ALEXANDER NEVSKIY. XVI CENTURY. KOSTROMA. IPATEVSKY MONASTERY. SAINT ALEXANDER NEVSKY. FRESCO. XVII CENTURY. MOSCOW. KREMLIN. CATHEDRAL OF THE ARCHANGEL. A huge number of icons are dedicated to the HOLY PRINCE ALEXANDER NEVSKY. The technique of their execution is varied. ALEXANDER NEVSKIY. ICON. XVII CENTURY-XVIII CENTURY TREE. TEMPERA. SAINT ALEXANDER NEVSKY IN THE SCHEME OF ALEXIY. ICON. ICONS WITH SCENES OF “THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY”. XIX CENTURY. ICON "ALEXANDER NEVSKY". BEADWORK. ICON "SAINT ALEXANDER NEVSKY". SETTING: SILVER, CLOISONINE AND FILIGINE ENAMEL, ENGRAVING, SHUTTERING. ZHANNA VETROVA. ICON "THE HOLY Blessed GREAT PRINCE ALEXANDER NEVSKY". MATERIAL: BEADS, BULLEDS, SEW-ON SWAROVSKI RHINESTERES, ANTI-GLARE GLASS, ITALIAN BAGUETTE. “A true Christian, the holy noble prince ALEXANDER NEVSKY was a brave warrior, a talented commander, defender of Rus', guardian human existence and a prayer book for the Russian people... In the east, Saint ALEXANDER defended his faith and Rus' with humility and humiliation, in the west he was a formidable opponent for those who tried to encroach on the ancestral Russian lands..." (4) "...Prince ALEXANDER YAROSLAVICH NEVSKY, according to estimates the outstanding military historian A.N. Kirpichnikov, conducted no less than 12 battles and military operations with the Swedes, Germans, Lithuania and achieved success in all of them...” (5) Stills from the feature film “Alexander. Battle of the Neva." Director: Igor Kolenov. 2008 The classic historical film of the 30s "Alexander Nevsky" is one of best works directed by Sergei Eisenstein. The music for the film was written by the famous composer Sergei Prokofiev. The texts of the vocal and choral fragments were written by the author of music and poet Vladimir Lugovsky. The film premiered in 1938 and was re-filmed in 1942, the year of the Great Patriotic War , in the year of the seven hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Ice, were a huge success. SERGEY PROKOFIEV SERGEY EISENSTEIN VLADIMIR LUGOVSKOY STILL FROM SERGEY EISENSTEIN’S MOVIE “ALEXANDER NEVSKY”. “Live without transgressing other people’s borders...” “..If anyone comes to us with a sword, he will die by the sword. On this the Russian land stands and will stand!..” “...God is not in power, but in truth...” “Rise, Russian people, for a glorious battle, for a mortal battle!..” Work on the music for the film by S. Eisenstein “ Alexander Nevsky" happened in the following way: either the director showed the composer a finished piece of film, leaving him to decide what the music for it should be, or Prokofiev wrote this or that musical episode in advance, and Eisenstein lined up the film frames for the music. As a result of this trust of artists in each other, Prokofiev considered Eisenstein “a very subtle musician,” and the director was amazed at the composer’s ability to convey in music the essence of the visual images of film. COOPERATION OF S. EISENSTEIN AND S. ROKOFIEV. The cantata “Alexander Nevsky” from the music for the film of the same name in seven parts is heard in concert halls as an independent work. Y. PANTYUKHIN. "ALEXANDER NEVSKIY". V.LUGOVSKOY. S. PROKOFIEV. “... IN Rus', NATIVE, IN Rus' THERE WILL BE NO GREAT ENEMY. RISE, STAND UP, MOTHER Rus'!..” MEDAL “BATTLE ON THE ICE”. GALVANIC. "MONUMENT TO ALEXANDER NEVSKY". SCULPTORS: V. KOZENYUK, A. TALMIN, A. CHARTIN. "MONUMENT TO ALEXANDER NEVSKY AND HIS SERVINE." SCULPTOR - I.I. KOZLOV AND ARCHITECT P.S. BUTENKO. 2012 IS THE YEAR OF RUSSIAN HISTORY, THE YEAR 770 - ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORY OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY AND HIS STREAMS IN THE BATTLE OF THE ICE. THE OPINION OF HISTORIAN RESEARCHERS TO THIS AND OTHER EVENTS OF THE 13TH CENTURY IS AMBIGUOUS. BUT THE ANOTHER VICTORY OF THE HOLY BLESSED PRINCE IN THE TELEVISION PROJECT “THE NAME OF RUSSIA” IS UNDISPUTED. THE AWARDS NAMED AFTER ALEXANDER NEVSKY ARE GREAT. IT IS GREATLY SIGNIFICANT THAT THE YOUNG GENERATION OF THE XXI CENTURY IS INTERESTED IN THE HISTORY, CULTURE OF RUSSIA AND EXPRESSES THEIR ATTITUDE IN THE DRAWINGS OF THE SCHOOL EXHIBITION - COMPETITION “DEFENDERS OF THE MOTHERLAND THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN.” ALEXANDER NEVSKIY." MIKHAILOVA DARIA. 11 YEARS OLD. "RIDER". ARKHIPOVA ANASTASIA. 11 YEARS. "GOD IS WITH US". NESTEROVA VALERIYA. 11 YEARS. "FOR THE RUSSIAN LAND." AKIMOVA EKATERINA. 12 YEARS OLD. "PRINCE'S SQUAD." KORMSHCHIKOVA ANNA. 11 YEARS. "BEFORE THE SECTION." MOROZOVA ANNA.11 YEARS OLD. "PENDING". PYPKINA POLINA. 14 YEARS OLD. "BATTLE". GENERALOVA KSENIA. "DUELS WITH THE TEUTONIC KNIGHT". MATERIALS USED: 1.L.A.DMITRIEVA, D.S.LIKHACHEV. MONUMENTS OF LITERATURE OF ANCIENT RUSSIA.MOSCOW. "FICTION". 1981. 2.A.P. TOROPTSEV.RURIKOVICHES.FORMATION OF A DYNASTY.MOSCOW.OLMA MEDIA GROUP.2006. 3.A.V.FOMENKO.For LIFE ON EARTH.MOSCOW. "ENLIGHTENMENT". 1990. 4. A. SOKOLOV. HOLY VITIAZ OF THE RUSSIAN LAND. NIZHNY NOVGOROD. 2008. 5. N. BODRIKHIN. 400 BATTLES OF RUSSIA. MOSCOW. "EXMO.YAUZA." 2009. 6. INTERNET RESOURCES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.

I continue the series “Literary Heroes” that I once started...

Heroes of Russian literature

Almost every literary character has its own prototype - a real person. Sometimes it is the author himself (Ostrovsky and Pavka Korchagin, Bulgakov and the Master), sometimes it is a historical figure, sometimes it is an acquaintance or relative of the author.
This story is about the prototypes of Chatsky and Taras Bulba, Ostap Bender, Timur and other heroes of the books...

1.Chatsky "Woe from Wit"

The main character of Griboyedov's comedy - Chatsky- most often associated with a name Chaadaeva(in the first version of the comedy, Griboedov wrote “Chadsky”), although the image of Chatsky is in many ways a social type of the era, a “hero of the time.”
Petr Yakovlevich Chaadaev(1796-1856) - participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, was on a campaign abroad. In 1814 he joined the Masonic lodge, and in 1821 he agreed to join a secret society.

From 1823 to 1826, Chaadaev traveled around Europe, comprehending the latest philosophical teachings. After returning to Russia in 1828-1830, he wrote and published a historical and philosophical treatise: “Philosophical Letters.” The views, ideas, judgments of the thirty-six-year-old philosopher turned out to be so unacceptable for Nicholas Russia that the author " Philosophical letters" suffered an unprecedented punishment: by the highest decree he was declared crazy. It so happened that the literary character did not repeat the fate of his prototype, but predicted it...

2.Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is written so organically and vividly that the reader cannot leave the feeling of his reality.
But there was a man whose fate was similar to the fate of Gogol’s hero. And this man also had the surname Gogol!
Ostap Gogol born at the beginning of the 17th century. On the eve of 1648, he was the captain of the “panzer” Cossacks in the Polish army stationed in Uman under the command of S. Kalinovsky. With the outbreak of the uprising, Gogol, along with his heavy cavalry, went over to the side of the Cossacks.

In October 1657, Hetman Vygovsky with the general foreman, of which Ostap Gogol was a member, concluded the Korsun Treaty of Ukraine with Sweden.

In the summer of 1660, Ostap's regiment took part in the Chudnivsky campaign, after which the Slobodishchensky Treaty was signed. Gogol took the side of autonomy within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he was made a gentry.
In 1664, an uprising broke out against the Poles and the hetman in Right Bank Ukraine Teteri. Gogol initially supported the rebels. However, he again went over to the enemy's side. The reason for this was his sons, whom Hetman Potocki held hostage in Lvov. When Doroshenko became hetman, Gogol came under his mace and helped him a lot. When he fought with the Turks near Ochakov, Doroshenko proposed at the Rada to recognize the supremacy of the Turkish Sultan, and it was accepted.
.
At the end of 1671, Crown Hetman Sobieski took Mogilev, Gogol's residence. One of Ostap’s sons died during the defense of the fortress. The colonel himself fled to Moldova and from there sent Sobieski a letter of his desire to submit.
As a reward for this, Ostap received the village of Vilkhovets. The certificate of the estate's salary served the grandfather of the writer Nikolai Gogol as evidence of his nobility.
Colonel Gogol became Hetman of Right Bank Ukraine on behalf of King John III Sobieski. He died in 1679 at his residence in Dymer and was buried in the Kiev-Mezhigorsky Monastery near Kyiv.
Analogy with the story is obvious: both heroes are Zaporozhye colonels, both had sons, one of whom died at the hands of the Poles, the other went over to the side of the enemy. Thus, a distant ancestor of the writer and was the prototype of Taras Bulba.

3.Plyushkin
Oryol landowner Spiridon Matsnev he was extremely stingy, walked around in a greasy robe and dirty clothes, so that few could recognize him as a rich gentleman.
The landowner had 8,000 peasant souls, but he starved not only them, but also himself.

N.V. Gogol brought out this stingy landowner in “Dead Souls” in the image of Plyushkin. “If Chichikov had met him, so dressed up, somewhere at the church door, he would probably have given him a copper penny”...
“This landowner had more than a thousand souls, and anyone else would try to find so much bread in grain, flour and simply in storerooms, whose storerooms, barns and drying rooms were cluttered with so many linens, cloth, dressed and rawhide sheepskins...” .
The image of Plyushkin became a household name.

4. Silvio
“Shot” A.S. Pushkin

Silvio's prototype is Ivan Petrovich Liprandi.
Pushkin's friend, the prototype of Silvio in "The Shot".
Author of the best memories of Pushkin's southern exile.
The son of a Russified Spanish grandee. Participant in the Napoleonic wars since 1807 (from the age of 17). Colleague and friend of the Decembrist Raevsky, member of the Union of Welfare. Arrested in the Decembrist case in January 1826, he was in a cell with Griboedov.

“...His personality was of undoubted interest due to his talents, fate and original way of life. He was gloomy and gloomy, but he loved to gather officers at his place and entertain them widely. The sources of his income were shrouded in mystery to everyone. A book reader and book lover, he was famous for his brawling, and a rare duel took place without his participation."
Pushkin "Shot"

At the same time, Liprandi turned out to be an employee of military intelligence and the secret police.
Since 1813, the head of the secret political police under Vorontsov’s army in France. He communicated closely with the famous Vidocq. Together with the French gendarmerie, he participated in the disclosure of the anti-government “Pin Society”. Since 1820, the chief military intelligence officer at the headquarters of Russian troops in Bessarabia. At the same time, he became the main theorist and practitioner of military and political espionage.
Since 1828 - head of the Higher Secret Foreign Police. Since 1820 - directly subordinate to Benckendorf. Organizer of provocation in the Butashevich-Petrashevsky circle. Organizer of Ogarev's arrest in 1850. Author of a project to establish a spy school at universities...

5.Andrey Bolkonsky

Prototypes Andrey Bolkonsky there were several. His tragic death was “copied” by Leo Tolstoy from the biography of a real prince Dmitry Golitsyn.
Prince Dmitry Golitsyn was enlisted in the Moscow archives of the Ministry of Justice. Soon Emperor Alexander I granted him the rank of chamberlain cadet, and then actual chamberlain, which was equivalent to the rank of general.

In 1805, Prince Golitsyn entered military service and, together with the army, fought the campaigns of 1805-1807.
In 1812, he submitted a report with a request to enlist in the army, became an Akhtyrsky hussar; Denis Davydov also served in the same regiment. Golitsin took part in border battles as part of the 2nd Russian army of General Bagration, fought at the Shevardinsky redoubt, and then found himself on the left flank of the Russian formations on the Borodino field.
In one of the skirmishes, Major Golitsyn was seriously wounded by a grenade fragment., he was carried from the battlefield. After the operation in the field hospital, it was decided to take the wounded man further east.
"Bolkonsky House" in Vladimir.


They made a stop in Vladimir, Major Golitsyn was placed in one of the merchant houses on a steep hill on Klyazma. But, almost a month after the Battle of Borodino, Dmitry Golitsyn died in Vladimir...
.....................

Soviet literature

6. Assol
The gentle dreamer Assol had more than one prototype.
First prototype - Maria Sergeevna Alonkina, secretary of the House of Arts, almost everyone living and visiting this House was in love with her.
One day, while climbing the stairs to his office, Green saw a short, dark-skinned girl talking with Korney Chukovsky.
There was something unearthly in her appearance: flying gait, radiant look, ringing happy laugh. It seemed to him that she looked like Assol from the story “ Scarlet Sails", which he was working on at the time.
The image of 17-year-old Masha Alonkina occupied Green's imagination and was reflected in the extravaganza story.


"I don't know how much years will pass, only in Kaperna will one fairy tale blossom, memorable for a long time. You will be big, Assol. One morning, in the sea distance, a scarlet sail will sparkle under the sun. The shining bulk of the scarlet sails of the white ship will move, cutting through the waves, straight towards you..."

And in 1921 Green met with Nina Nikolaevna Mironova, who worked for the Petrograd Echo newspaper. He, gloomy and lonely, was at ease with her, he was amused by her coquetry, he admired her love of life. Soon they got married.

The door is closed, the lamp is lit.
She will come to me in the evening
There are no more aimless, dull days -
I sit and think about her...

On this day she will give me her hand,
I trust quietly and completely.
A terrible world is raging around,
Come, beautiful, dear friend.

Come, I've been waiting for you for a long time.
It was so sad and dark
But the winter spring has come,
Light knock...my wife came.

Green dedicated the extravaganza “Scarlet Sails” and the novel “The Shining World” to her, his “winter spring.”
..................

7. Ostap Bender and the Children of Lieutenant Schmidt

The person who became the prototype of Ostap Bender is known.
This - Osip (Ostap) Veniaminovich Shor(1899 -1979). Shor was born in Odessa, was an employee of the UGRO, a football player, a traveler…. Was a friend E. Bagritsky, Y. Olesha, Ilf and Petrov. His brother was the futurist poet Nathan Fioletov.

The appearance, character and speech of Ostap Bender are taken from Osip Shor.
Almost all the famous “Bendery” phrases - “The ice has broken, gentlemen of the jury!”, “I will command the parade!”, “My dad was a Turkish subject...” and many others - were gleaned by the authors from Shor’s vocabulary.
In 1917, Shor entered the first year of the Petrograd Technological Institute, and in 1919 he left for his homeland. He got home almost two years, with many adventures, which I talked about the authors of "The Twelve Chairs".
The stories they told about how he, unable to draw, got a job as an artist on a propaganda ship, or about how he gave a simultaneous game in some remote town, introducing himself as an international grandmaster, were reflected in “12 Chairs” practically unchanged.
By the way, the famous leader of the Odessa bandits, Bear-Japanese, which UGRO employee Shor fought, became the prototype Benny Krika, from " Odessa stories" by I. Babel.

And here is the episode that gave rise to the creation of the image "children of Lieutenant Schmidt."
In August 1925, a man with an oriental appearance, decently dressed, wearing American glasses, appeared at the Gomel Provincial Executive Committee and introduced himself Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Uzbek SSR Fayzula Khojaev. He told the chairman of the provincial executive committee, Egorov, that he was traveling from Crimea to Moscow, but his money and documents were stolen on the train. Instead of a passport, he presented a certificate that he was really Khodzhaev, signed by the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Crimean Republic, Ibragimov.
He was received warmly, given money, and began to be taken to theaters and banquets. But one of the police chiefs decided to compare the Uzbek’s personality with the portraits of the chairmen of the Central Election Commission, which he found in an old magazine. This is how the false Khojaev was exposed, who turned out to be a native of Kokand, traveling from Tbilisi, where he was serving his sentence...
In the same way, posing as a high-ranking official, the former prisoner had fun in Yalta, Simferopol, Novorossiysk, Kharkov, Poltava, Minsk...
It was a fun time - the time of the NEP and such desperate people, adventurers as Shor and the false Khojaev.
Later I will write separately about Bender...
………

8.Timur
TIMUR is the hero of the film script and A. Gaidar’s story “Timur and His Team.” One of the most famous and popular heroes of Soviet children's literature of the 30s - 40s.
Under the influence of the story by A.P. Gaidar “Timur and his team” in the USSR arose among pioneers and schoolchildren in the early years. 1940s "Timurov movement". Timurovites provided assistance to military families, the elderly...
It is believed that the “prototype” of Timurov’s team for A. Gaidar was a group of scouts that operated back in the 10s in the dacha suburb of St. Petersburg.“Timurovites” and “scouts” really have a lot in common (especially in the ideology and practice of children’s “knightly” care for the people around them, the idea of ​​doing good deeds “in secret”).
The story Gaidar told turned out to be surprisingly consonant with the mood of a whole generation of guys: the fight for justice, an underground headquarters, a specific alarm system, the ability to quickly gather “in a chain,” etc.

It is interesting that in the early edition the story was called "Duncan and his team" or “Duncan to the rescue” - the hero of the story was - Vovka Duncan. The influence of the work is obvious Jules Verne: yacht "Duncan""At the first alarm signal I went to the aid of Captain Grant.

In the spring of 1940, while working on a film based on an unfinished story, the name "Duncan" was rejected. The Cinematography Committee expressed bewilderment: “A good Soviet boy. A pioneer. He came up with such a useful game and suddenly - “Duncan”. We consulted with our comrades here - you need to change your name.”
And then Gaidar gave the hero the name of his own son, whom he called “little commander” in life. According to another version - Timur- the name of the neighbor boy. Here's a girl Zhenya received the name from Gaidar’s adopted daughter from his second marriage.
The image of Timur embodies ideal type a teenage leader with his desire for noble deeds, secrets, and pure ideals.
Concept "Timurovets" firmly entered into everyday life. Until the end of the 80s, Timurites were children who provided selfless help to those in need.
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9. Captain Vrungel
From the story Andrey Nekrasov "The Adventures of Captain Vrungel"".
A book about the incredible sea adventures of the resourceful and resilient captain Vrungel, his senior mate Lom and sailor Fuchs.

Christopher Bonifatievich Vrungel- main character and the narrator on whose behalf the story is told. An experienced old sailor, with a solid and prudent character, not lacking in ingenuity.
The first part of the surname uses the word "liar". Vrungel, whose name has become a household name, is a naval analogue Baron Munchausen, telling tall tales about his sailing adventures.
According to Nekrasov himself, the prototype of Vrungel was his acquaintance with the surname Vronsky, lover of telling maritime fables with his own participation. His last name was so suitable for the main character that the book was originally supposed to be called " The Adventures of Captain Vronsky", however, for fear of offending a friend, the author chose a different surname for the main character.
................

Epics about Ilya Muromets

HeroIlya Muromets, son of Ivan Timofeevich and Efrosinya Yakovlevna, peasants of the village of Karacharova near Murom. The most popular character in epics, the second most powerful (after Svyatogor) Russian hero and the first Russian superman.

Sometimes a real person, the Venerable Ilya of Pechersk, nicknamed Chobotok, buried in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and canonized in 1643, is identified with the epic Ilya of Muromets.

Years of creation. XII–XVI centuries

What's the point? Until the age of 33, Ilya lay, paralyzed, on a stove in parental home, until he was miraculously healed by wanderers (“walking kaliki”). Having gained strength, he equipped his father’s farm and went to Kyiv, along the way capturing the Nightingale the Robber, who was terrorizing the surrounding area. In Kyiv, Ilya Muromets joined the squad of Prince Vladimir and found the hero Svyatogor, who gave him a treasure sword and mystical “real power”. In this episode he demonstrated not only physical strength, but also high moral qualities, without reacting to the advances of Svyatogor’s wife. Later, Ilya Muromets defeated the “great force” near Chernigov, paved the direct road from Chernigov to Kyiv, inspected the roads from the Alatyr-stone, tested the young hero Dobrynya Nikitich, saved the hero Mikhail Potyk from captivity in the Saracen kingdom, defeated Idolishche, and walked with his squad to Constantinople, one defeated the army of Tsar Kalin.

Ilya Muromets was not alien to simple human joys: in one of the epic episodes, he walks around Kyiv with “tavern heads,” and his son Sokolnik was born out of wedlock, which later leads to a fight between father and son.

What it looks like. Superman. Epic stories describe Ilya Muromets as a “remote, portly, kind fellow,” he fights with a “ninety pounds” (1,440 kilograms) club!

What is he fighting for? Ilya Muromets and his squad very clearly formulate the purpose of their service:

“...to stand alone for the faith for the fatherland,

...to stand alone for Kyiv-grad,

...to stand alone for the churches for the cathedrals,

...he will take care of Prince and Vladimir.”

But Ilya Muromets is not only a statesman - he is at the same time one of the most democratic fighters against evil, as he is always ready to fight “for widows, for orphans, for poor people.”

Way of fighting. A duel with an enemy or a battle with superior enemy forces.

With what result? Despite the difficulties caused by the numerical superiority of the enemy or the disdainful attitude of Prince Vladimir and the boyars, he invariably wins.

What is it fighting against? Against internal and external enemies of Rus' and their allies, violators of law and order, illegal migrants, invaders and aggressors.

2. Archpriest Avvakum

"The Life of Archpriest Avvakum"

Hero. Archpriest Avvakum worked his way up from a village priest to the leader of the resistance to the church reform of Patriarch Nikon and became one of the leaders of the Old Believers, or schismatics. Habakkuk is the first religious figure of such magnitude, not only suffered for his beliefs, but also described it himself.

Years of creation. Approximately 1672–1675.

What's the point? A native of a Volga village, Avvakum from his youth was distinguished by both piety and violent disposition. Having moved to Moscow, he took an active part in church educational activities, was close to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, but sharply opposed the church reforms carried out by Patriarch Nikon. With his characteristic temperament, Avvakum led a fierce struggle against Nikon, advocating for the old order of church rites. Avvakum, not at all shy in his expressions, conducted public and journalistic activities, for which he was repeatedly imprisoned, cursed and defrocked, and exiled to Tobolsk, Transbaikalia, Mezen and Pustozersk. From the place of his last exile, he continued to write appeals, for which he was imprisoned in an “earth pit.” He had many followers. Church hierarchs tried to persuade Habakkuk to renounce his “delusions,” but he remained adamant and was eventually burned.

What it looks like. One can only guess: Avvakum did not describe himself. Maybe the way the priest looks in Surikov’s painting “Boyarina Morozova” - Feodosia Prokopyevna Morozova was a faithful follower of Avvakum.

What is he fighting for? For the purity of the Orthodox faith, for the preservation of tradition.

Way of fighting. Word and deed. Avvakum wrote accusatory pamphlets, but he could personally beat the buffoons who entered the village and break them musical instruments. He considered self-immolation a form of possible resistance.

With what result? Habakkuk's passionate sermon against church reform made resistance to it widespread, but he himself, along with three of his comrades-in-arms, was executed in 1682 in Pustozersk.

What is it fighting against? Against the desecration of Orthodoxy by “heretical novelties”, against everything foreign, “external wisdom”, that is scientific knowledge, against entertainment. Suspects the imminent coming of the Antichrist and the reign of the devil.

3. Taras Bulba

"Taras Bulba"

Hero.“Taras was one of the indigenous, old colonels: he was all about scolding anxiety and was distinguished by the brutal directness of his character. Then the influence of Poland was already beginning to exert itself on the Russian nobility. Many had already adopted Polish customs, had luxury, magnificent servants, falcons, hunters, dinners, courtyards. Taras did not like this. He loved simple life Cossacks and quarreled with those of his comrades who were inclined to the Warsaw side, calling them slaves of the Polish lords. Always restless, he considered himself the legitimate defender of Orthodoxy. He arbitrarily entered villages where they only complained about the harassment of tenants and the increase in new duties on smoke. He himself carried out reprisals against them with his Cossacks and made it a rule that in three cases one should always take up the saber, namely: when the commissars did not respect the elders in any way and stood before them in their caps, when they mocked Orthodoxy and did not respect the ancestral law and, finally, when the enemies were the Busurmans and the Turks, against whom he considered in any case permissible to raise arms for the glory of Christianity.”

Year of creation. The story was first published in 1835 in the collection “Mirgorod”. The 1842 edition, in which, in fact, we all read Taras Bulba, differs significantly from the original version.

What's the point? All his life, the dashing Cossack Taras Bulba has been fighting for the liberation of Ukraine from its oppressors. He, the glorious chieftain, cannot bear the thought that his own children, flesh of his flesh, may not follow his example. Therefore, Taras kills Andria’s son, who betrayed the sacred cause, without hesitation. When another son, Ostap, is captured, our hero deliberately penetrates into the heart of the enemy camp - but not in order to try to save his son. His only goal is to make sure that Ostap, under torture, does not show cowardice and does not renounce high ideals. Taras himself dies like Joan of Arc, having previously given Russian culture the immortal phrase: “There is no bond holier than comradeship!”

What it looks like. He is extremely heavy and fat (20 pounds, equivalent to 320 kg), gloomy eyes, very white eyebrows, mustache and forelock.

What is he fighting for? For the liberation of the Zaporozhye Sich, for independence.

Way of fighting. Hostilities.

With what result? With deplorable. Everyone died.

What is it fighting against? Against the oppressor Poles, the foreign yoke, police despotism, old-world landowners and court satraps.

4. Stepan Paramonovich Kalashnikov

“Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov”

Hero. Stepan Paramonovich Kalashnikov, merchant class. Trades silks - with varying success. Moskvich. Orthodox. Has two younger brothers. He is married to the beautiful Alena Dmitrievna, because of whom the whole story came out.

Year of creation. 1838

What's the point? Lermontov was not keen on the theme of Russian heroism. He wrote romantic poems about nobles, officers, Chechens and Jews. But he was one of the first to find out that the 19th century was rich only in the heroes of its time, but heroes for all times should be sought in the deep past. There, in Moscow, Ivan the Terrible was found (or rather, invented) a hero with the now common name Kalashnikov. The young guardsman Kiribeevich falls in love with his wife and attacks her at night, persuading her to surrender. The next day, the offended husband challenges the guardsman to a fist fight and kills him with one blow. For the murder of his beloved guardsman and for the fact that Kalashnikov refuses to name the reason for his action, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich orders the execution of the young merchant, but does not leave his widow and children with mercy and care. Such is royal justice.

What it looks like.

“His falcon eyes are burning,

He looks intently at the guardsman.

He becomes opposite to him,

He pulls on his combat gloves,

He straightens his mighty shoulders.”

What is he fighting for? For the honor of his woman and family. Neighbors saw Kiribeevich's attack on Alena Dmitrievna, and now she cannot appear in front of honest people. Although, going into battle with the oprichnik, Kalashnikov solemnly declares that he is fighting “for the holy mother truth.” But the heroes sometimes distort.

Way of fighting. Fatal fistfight. Essentially a murder in broad daylight in front of thousands of witnesses.

With what result?

“And they executed Stepan Kalashnikov

A cruel, shameful death;

And the little head is mediocre

She rolled onto the chopping block covered in blood.”

But they buried Kiribeevich too.

What is it fighting against? Evil in the poem is personified by the guardsman with the foreign patronymic Kiribeevich, and also a relative of Malyuta Skuratov, that is, the enemy squared. Kalashnikov calls him “son of Basurman,” hinting at his enemy’s lack of Moscow registration. And this person of Eastern nationality delivers the first (aka last) blow not to the merchant’s face, but to Orthodox cross with relics from Kyiv that hangs on the brave chest. He says to Alena Dmitrievna: “I am not some kind of thief, a forest murderer, / I am a servant of the Tsar, the terrible Tsar...” - that is, he hides behind the highest mercy. So heroic deed Kalashnikov is nothing more than a deliberate murder motivated by national hatred. Lermontov, who himself participated in the Caucasian campaigns and wrote a lot about the wars with the Chechens, was close to the theme of “Moscow for Muscovites” in its anti-Basurman context.

5. Danko “Old Woman Izergil”

Hero Danko. Biography unknown.

“In the old days, there lived only people in the world; impenetrable forests surrounded the camps of these people on three sides, and on the fourth there was the steppe. These were cheerful, strong and brave people... Danko is one of those people..."

Year of creation. The short story “Old Woman Izergil” was first published in Samara Gazeta in 1895.

What's the point? Danko is the fruit of the uncontrollable imagination of the same old woman Izergil, after whom Gorky’s short story is named. A sultry Bessarabian old woman with a rich past tells a beautiful legend: during Ona’s time there was a redistribution of property - there was a showdown between two tribes. Not wanting to stay in the occupied territory, one of the tribes went into the forest, but there the people experienced mass depression, because “nothing - neither work nor women, exhausts the bodies and souls of people as much as sad thoughts exhaust.” At a critical moment, Danko did not allow his people to bow to the conquerors, but instead offered to follow him - in an unknown direction.

What it looks like.“Danko... a handsome young man. Beautiful people are always brave.”

What is he fighting for? Go figure. In order to get out of the forest and thereby ensure freedom for his people. It is unclear where the guarantee is that freedom is exactly where the forest ends.

Way of fighting. An unpleasant physiological operation, indicating a masochistic personality. Self-dismemberment.

With what result? With duality. He got out of the forest, but died immediately. Sophisticated abuse of one’s own body is not in vain. The hero did not receive gratitude for his feat: his heart, torn out of his chest with his own hands, was trampled under someone’s heartless heel.

What is it fighting against? Against collaboration, conciliation and sycophancy before conquerors.

6. Colonel Isaev (Stirlitz)

A body of texts, from “Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat” to “Bombs for the Chairman,” the most important of the novels is “Seventeen Moments of Spring”

Hero. Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov, aka Maxim Maksimovich Isaev, aka Max Otto von Stirlitz, aka Estilitz, Bolzen, Brunn. An employee of the press service of the Kolchak government, an underground security officer, an intelligence officer, a history professor, exposing a conspiracy of Nazi followers.

Years of creation. Novels about Colonel Isaev were created over 24 years - from 1965 to 1989.

What's the point? In 1921, the security officer Vladimirov liberated the Far East from the remnants of the White Army. In 1927, they decided to send him to Europe - it was then that the legend of the German aristocrat Max Otto von Stirlitz was born. In 1944, he saves Krakow from destruction by helping the group of Major Whirlwind. At the very end of the war, he was entrusted with the most important mission - to disrupt separate negotiations between Germany and the West. In Berlin, the hero carries out his difficult task, simultaneously saving the radio operator Kat, the end of the war is already close, and the Third Reich is collapsing to the song “Seventeen Moments of April” by Marika Rekk. In 1945, Stirlitz was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

What it looks like. From the party description of von Stirlitz, a member of the NSDAP since 1933, SS Standartenführer (VI Department of the RSHA): “A true Aryan. Character - Nordic, seasoned. Supports workmates a good relationship. Fulfills his official duty impeccably. Merciless towards the enemies of the Reich. An excellent athlete: Berlin tennis champion. Single; he was not noticed in any connections that discredited him. Recognized with awards from the Fuhrer and commendations from the Reichsfuhrer SS..."

What is he fighting for? For the victory of communism. It’s unpleasant to admit this to yourself, but in some situations - for the homeland, for Stalin.

Way of fighting. Intelligence and espionage, sometimes the deductive method, ingenuity, dexterity and camouflage.

With what result? On the one hand, he saves everyone who needs it and successfully carries out subversive activities; reveals secret intelligence networks and defeats the main enemy - Gestapo chief Müller. However Soviet country, for whose honor and victory he is fighting, thanks his hero in his own way: in 1947, he, who had just arrived in the Union on a Soviet ship, was arrested, and by order of Stalin, his wife and son were shot. Stirlitz leaves prison only after Beria's death.

What is it fighting against? Against whites, Spanish fascists, German Nazis and all enemies of the USSR.

7. Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov “Look into the eyes of monsters”

Hero Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev, symbolist poet, superman, conquistador, member of the Order of the Fifth Rome, maker of Soviet history and fearless dragon slayer.

Year of creation. 1997

What's the point? Nikolai Gumilyov was not shot in 1921 in the dungeons of the Cheka. He was saved from execution by Yakov Wilhelmovich (or James William Bruce), a representative of the secret order of the Fifth Rome, created in the 13th century. Having acquired the gift of immortality and power, Gumilyov strides through the history of the 20th century, generously leaving his traces in it. Puts Marilyn Monroe to bed, simultaneously building chickens for Agatha Christie, gives valuable advice Ian Fleming, due to his absurd character, starts a duel with Mayakovsky and, abandoning his cold corpse in Lubyansky Proezd, runs away, leaving the police and literary scholars to compose a version of suicide. He takes part in a writers' convention and becomes addicted to xerion, a magical drug based on dragon blood that gives immortality to members of the order. Everything would be fine - the problems begin later, when evil dragon forces begin to threaten not only the world in general, but the Gumilyov family: his wife Annushka and son Styopa.

What is he fighting for? First for goodness and beauty, then he no longer has time for lofty ideas - he simply saves his wife and son.

Way of fighting. Gumilyov participates in an unimaginable number of battles and engagements, masters hand-to-hand combat techniques and all types of firearms. True, to achieve special sleight of hand, fearlessness, omnipotence, invulnerability and even immortality, he has to throw himself in xerion.

With what result? Nobody knows this. The novel “Look into the Eyes of Monsters” ends without giving an answer to this burning question. All the continuations of the novel (both “The Hyperborean Plague” and “The March of the Ecclesiastes”), firstly, are much less recognized by fans of Lazarchuk-Uspensky, and secondly, and this is the most important thing, they also do not offer the reader a solution.

What is it fighting against? Having learned about real reasons disasters that befell the world in the 20th century, he fights primarily against these misfortunes. In other words, with a civilization of evil lizards.

8. Vasily Terkin

"Vasily Terkin"

Hero. Vasily Terkin, reserve private, infantryman. Originally from near Smolensk. Single, no children. He has an award for the totality of his feats.

Years of creation. 1941–1945

What's the point? Contrary to popular belief, the need for such a hero appeared even before the Great Patriotic War. Tvardovsky came up with Terkin during the Finnish campaign, where he, together with the Pulkins, Mushkins, Protirkins and other characters in newspaper feuilletons, fought with the White Finns for the Motherland. So Terkin entered 1941 as an experienced fighter. By 1943, Tvardovsky was tired of his unsinkable hero and wanted to send him into retirement due to injury, but letters from readers returned Terkin to the front, where he spent another two years, was shell-shocked and was surrounded three times, conquered high and low heights, led battles in the swamps, liberated villages, took Berlin and even spoke with Death. His rustic but sparkling wit invariably saved him from enemies and censors, but it definitely did not attract girls. Tvardovsky even appealed to his readers to love his hero - just like that, from the heart. Still don't have Soviet heroes the dexterity of James Bond.

What it looks like. Endowed with beauty He was not excellent, Not tall, not that small, But a hero - a hero.

What is he fighting for? For the cause of peace for the sake of life on earth, that is, his task, like that of any liberator soldier, is global. Terkin himself is sure that he is fighting “for Russia, for the people / And for everything in the world,” but sometimes, just in case, he mentions the Soviet government - no matter what happens.

Way of fighting. In war, as you know, any means are good, so everything is used: a tank, a machine gun, a knife, a wooden spoon, fists, teeth, vodka, the power of persuasion, a joke, a song, an accordion...

With what result?. He came close to death several times. He was supposed to receive a medal, but due to a typo in the list, the hero never received the award.

But imitators found it: by the end of the war, almost every company already had its own Terkin, and some had two.

What is it fighting against? First against the Finns, then against the Nazis, and sometimes also against Death. In fact, Terkin was called upon to fight depressive moods at the front, which he did with success.

9. Anastasia Kamenskaya

A series of detective stories about Anastasia Kamenskaya

Heroine. Nastya Kamenskaya, Major of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, Petrovka’s best analyst, a brilliant operative, investigating serious crimes in the manner of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.

Years of creation. 1992–2006

What's the point? The work of an operative involves difficult everyday life (the first evidence of this is the television series “Streets of Broken Lights”). But Nastya Kamenskaya finds it difficult to rush around the city and catch bandits in dark alleys: she is lazy, in poor health and loves peace more than anything else. Because of this, she periodically has difficulties in relations with management. Only her first boss and teacher, nicknamed Kolobok, believed in her analytic skills limitless; to others, she has to prove that she best investigates bloody crimes by sitting in her office, drinking coffee and analyzing, analyzing.

What it looks like. Tall, thin blonde, expressionless facial features. He never wears cosmetics and prefers discreet, comfortable clothes.

What is he fighting for? Definitely not for a modest police salary: knowing five foreign languages and having some connections, Nastya could leave Petrovka at any moment, but she does not. It turns out that he is fighting for the triumph of law and order.

Way of fighting. First of all, analytics. But sometimes Nastya has to change her habits and go out on the warpath on her own. In this case, acting skills, the art of transformation and feminine charm are used.

With what result? Most often - with brilliant results: criminals are exposed, caught, punished. But in rare cases, some of them manage to escape, and then Nastya does not sleep at night, smokes one cigarette after another, goes crazy and tries to come to terms with the injustice of life. However, there are clearly more successful endings so far.

What is it fighting against? Against crime.

10. Erast Fandorin

A series of novels about Erast Fandorin

Hero. Erast Petrovich Fandorin, a nobleman, the son of a small landowner who lost his family fortune at cards. He began his career in the detective police with the rank of collegiate registrar, managed to attend Russian-Turkish War 1877–1878, serve in the diplomatic corps in Japan and displease Nicholas II. He rose to the rank of state councilor and resigned. Private detective and consultant to various influential people since 1892. Phenomenally lucky in everything, especially in gambling. Single. Has a number of children and other descendants.

Years of creation. 1998–2006

What's the point? The turn of the 20th–21st centuries once again turned out to be an era that is looking for heroes in the past. Akunin found his defender of the weak and oppressed in the gallant 19th century, but in that professional sphere that is becoming especially popular right now - in the special services. Of all Akunin's stylizing endeavors, Fandorin is the most charming and therefore enduring. His biography begins in 1856, the action of the last novel dates back to 1905, and the end of the story has not yet been written, so you can always expect new achievements from Erast Petrovich. Although Akunin, like Tvardovsky before, since 2000 everyone has been trying to do away with his hero and write about him last novel. "Coronation" is subtitled "The Last of the Romances"; “Death's Lover” and “Death's Mistress,” written after it, were published as a bonus, but then it became clear that Fandorin’s readers would not let go so easily. The people need, they need, an elegant detective who knows languages ​​and is wildly successful with women. Not all “Cops”, indeed!

What it looks like.“He was a very handsome young man, with black hair (of which he was secretly proud) and blue (alas, it would have been better if he had also been black) eyes, quite tall, with white skin and a damned, ineradicable blush on his cheeks.” After the misfortune he experienced, his appearance acquired an intriguing detail for ladies - gray temples.

What is he fighting for? For an enlightened monarchy, order and legality. Fandorin dreams of new Russia- ennobled in the Japanese style, with firmly and reasonably established laws and their scrupulous implementation. About Russia, which did not go through the Russo-Japanese and the First World War, revolution and civil war. That is, about Russia, which could be if we had enough luck and common sense build it.

Way of fighting. A combination of the deductive method, meditation techniques and Japanese martial arts with almost mystical luck. By the way, there is also female love, which Fandorin uses in every sense.

With what result? As we know, the Russia that Fandorin dreams of did not happen. So globally he suffers a crushing defeat. And in small things too: those whom he tries to save most often die, and the criminals never end up behind bars (they die, or pay off the trial, or simply disappear). However, Fandorin himself invariably remains alive, as does the hope for the final triumph of justice.

What is it fighting against? Against the unenlightened monarchy, bombing revolutionaries, nihilists and socio-political chaos, which can occur in Russia at any moment. Along the way, he has to fight bureaucracy, corruption in the highest echelons of power, fools, roads and ordinary criminals.

Illustrations: Maria Sosnina

Careful study of the past of one's people is very characteristic property every Russian person. At all times, thinking people tried to find answers to emerging questions that the present posed to them, deep in the past. The theme of history found its place in ancient Russian literature.

Interest in history in Russian literature

A striking example is “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, “The Tale of Bygone Years”, “The Message of Vladimir Monomakh” - works in which the authors depicted events taking place in the recent past. It is noteworthy that until the beginning of the 18th century, fictional heroes were not introduced into literary works; the characters were historical, real-life personalities. In the process of the formation of Russian fiction, historical themes have not exhausted themselves.

The Golden Age of Russian literature is of particular interest: the authors of that time not only turned to historical events of the past, but also performed the function of chroniclers of the present. In the historical theme of Pushkin’s work, a logical relationship was revealed human life and historical events. Through the psychological description of the main characters, we see their attitude to the historical process taking place in their lives. Vivid examples are the works “Boris Godunov” and “The Captain's Daughter”.

The trend of the historical motif from Pushkin was adopted by the most talented prose writer - L. N. Tolstoy. His monumental historical novel War and Peace, during the writer’s lifetime, became a kind of chronicle of the historical events of 1812. Moreover, due to his unsurpassed writing skills, Tolstoy managed to depict the attitude of the main characters to military operations, their psychological basis.

History as a subject of image

The first half of the 20th century was marked by historical events that became a real shock for all of humanity and determined its future path of development. Russia was engulfed in the abyss of revolution, the First and Second World Wars, the most brutal Stalin's repressions with its millions of victims. The writers of this period, in their works, tried not only to describe historical facts, but also to leave for posterity an idea of ​​how an ordinary, ordinary person lived and felt in such horrific conditions.

Heroes appear on the pages of literary works - loners, whose lives were broken by war and a totalitarian regime. Poetry and prose of the first half of the 20th century is a real cry that burst from the chests of writers and poets for their people and their historical past, so inhumanely crossed out by the new government.

However, some literary figures, in particular V. Mayakovsky, M. Gorky, M. Sholokhov, revealed another side of the historical past. Their works were filled with the belief that the Russian people, despite all the obstacles and difficulties, would nevertheless reach a new level of their development and achieve prosperity and happiness.

Unfortunately, these writers were used as a tool of ideological propaganda Soviet authorities. Writers who depicted historical reality “without cuts” - A. Akhmatova, N. Gumilyov, A. Solzhenitsyn, were subject to severe persecution.