Victor Petrovich Astafiev "Tsar-fish"
Viktor Petrovich Astafiev was born in 1924 in the village of Ovsyanka, Krasnoyarsk Territory, into a peasant family. He grew up surrounded by the majestic beauty of nature, and therefore ecological problems were close to him.
"Tsar-fish" (1976, the magazine "Our Contemporary") is a narrative in stories. The work is dedicated to the interaction of Man with Nature. The chapter “King-fish”, which gave the title to the work, sounds symbolic. The single combat of a man with a king-fish has a sad outcome.
Narrative Idea Astafiev is that a person must live in peace with nature, not destroy the harmony of nature, not rob it. The narrative is united by the image of the author. The author's sympathies are given to many characters: Akim, Nikolai Petrovich, Kiryaga-derevyaga, Paramon Paramonych, Semyon and Cheremisin, fishermen's artels and others. Akim accomplishes a feat by saving a woman in the taiga. The fish inspector Semyon and his son Cheremisin endanger their lives every day: “I never suffered so much at the front as I did with you!” Nikolai Petrovich, the writer's brother, became the breadwinner big family from an early age. He is an excellent fisherman, hunter, hospitable, strives to help everyone. Paramon Paramonovich has a kind soul. He took a fatherly part in the fate of Akim.
Environmental and moral issues
The last quarter of the 20th century confronted mankind global problem- the problem of ecology, the preservation of natural balance. The relationship between nature and man has become so aggravated that it became clear: either man will learn to live as part of nature, according to its laws, or he will destroy the planet and die himself. The theme of the relationship between nature and man was new in Russian literature, and Viktor Astafiev was one of the first to address it.
A native of the Russian North, Astafiev loves and feels nature. The man, according to Astafiev, ceased to behave like a wise and benevolent host, turned into a guest on own land or in an indifferent and aggressive invader, who is indifferent to the future, who, for the benefit of today, is not able to see the problems that await him in the future.
The name in the story "Tsar-fish" has symbolic meaning. Sturgeon is called king fish, but it is also a symbol of unconquered nature. The struggle between a man and a king-fish ends tragically: the fish does not give up, but, mortally wounded, it leaves to die. The conquest and conquest of nature leads to its death, because nature must be known, felt, its laws must be used wisely, but not fought against. Astafiev sums up the long-term attitude to nature as a "workshop", "pantry", debunks the thesis that man is the king of nature. The truth is forgotten that in nature everything is connected with everything, that if you disturb the balance of a part, you destroy the whole.
Man destroys nature, but he himself perishes. For Viktor Astafiev, the laws of nature and the laws of morality are closely and inextricably linked. A stranger and a dashing conqueror, Goga Gertsev came to the forest and died, and nearly ruined another life. But worst of all, they gradually succumb to the corrupting influence of the philosophy of consumerism, they begin to barbarously exploit nature, not realizing that they are destroying the house in which they live.
Just a decade after the Tsar Fish was written, the Chernobyl disaster happened. And time was divided into what was before and after Chernobyl. Human impact on wildlife destructive force equaled the planetary natural disasters. Local catastrophes are no longer local. Thousands and thousands of kilometers from Chernobyl, radioactive strontium is found in the bones of animals, birds and fish. Contaminated waters have long flowed into the oceans. In Antarctica, penguins are dying, eating infected fish. What Astafiev wrote about became terrible reality: the planet is small, it is too fragile for brave experiments. You can't go back to the past, but you can try to save what's left.
The end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century gave another concept - human ecology. Humanity, spiritually crippled, with no purpose other than the pursuit of material wealth at any cost, cripples nature. Astafiev did not use the term "human ecology", but his books are about this, about the need to preserve moral values.
1 Essay
Viktor Petrovich Astafiev in the article "Live Forever, Vivi River" he wrote: "There is only Siberia left. And if we finish it, the country will not rise. After all, we are no longer robbing ourselves, but our grandchildren and great-grandchildren." "Man and Nature" - this is the main theme that pervades Astafiev's book "Tsar-Fish". The author himself called it narration in stories (1972-1975). It consists of twelve beautifully written short stories held together by a single narrator.
Astafiev prefaced the book with two epigraphs: one is from the poems of the Russian poet Nikolai Rubtsov, the other is taken from the statements of the American scientist Haldor Shapley, which emphasizes the importance of the problem of protection natural resources for the entire planet, since nature is a single world organism and its destruction in any part can cause a general catastrophe. “If we behave properly,” writes Haldor Shapley, “we, plants and animals, will exist for billions of years, because the sun has large reserves of fuel and its consumption is perfectly regulated.” The stories in the collection, as it were, continue and complement each other, offering the reader different types characters. The book opens with a story about true friend man - to a dog ("Boie"), shot dead by a guard when devoted to man the dog threw himself on the chest of the owner (prisoner), who was sailing to the place of the forthcoming exile.
The following story, "The Drop", devoid of dramatic conflict, is philosophical reflections the author about the meaning human life after finished fishing: "The taiga on earth and the star in the sky were thousands of years before us. The stars went out or broke into fragments, instead of them others blossomed in the sky. The taiga is still majestic, solemn, imperturbable. We inspire ourselves that we control nature and whatever we want, then But this deception succeeds until you stay with the taiga eye to eye, until you stay in it and heal, only then will you understand its power, feel its cosmic spaciousness and greatness. A person endowed with reason should, according to Astafiev, be responsible for the continuation of life on earth. But this responsibility is forgotten by poachers, the heroes of the subsequent stories "The Lady", "At the Golden Hag", "The Fisherman Rumbled".
Before the reader passes a whole string of types of poachers, talented predators of the Siberian rivers and taiga - Goga, Commander, Damki, Zinovy, Grokhotalo ("Fisherman Grohotalo", "Ukha from Boganida", "Dream of the White Mountains"). The writer does not exaggerate when describing these images. These are not finished hero-villains painted from start to finish in black paint. They are not devoid of master's ingenuity and even honor and conscience in some cases. Immoderate greed here only betrays them with a head. Zinoviy Ignatievich Utrobin ("Tsar-fish") is indicative in this respect.
Let's recall the central episode of the story: catching the king of fish - a huge sturgeon. Two brothers, two poachers, Zinoviy and Commander, have not gotten along with each other for a long time and go "hunting" one by one. On one of his campaigns, Zinovy met with the "king" of fish (every avid fisherman dreamed of such a meeting) - he fell for self-made samolov. Seeing "a black, lacquered coat of arms with broken branches at random," Zinovy, dumbfounded by the vision, was even frightened. The fisherman tried to throw him over the side into the boat, but it didn’t work, he didn’t have enough strength. Let the catch go back to the depths of the Angara waters, in good health, and there would be no trouble, all the more he remembered his grandfather's order: “It’s better to let her go, cursed so imperceptibly, as if inadvertently let go, cross herself and live on, think about her again, look for her". Good, wise instruction was left from the ancestors, but only Utrobin did not heed the voice of reason, he was greedy. With redoubled excitement, he again set about the sturgeon, but, accidentally slipping in the boat, knocked down by a fish, found himself in cold water and caught on the hook of the trap.
Night, darkness. The poacher experiences a strong moral shock and feels, clinging to the side of the boat, how his strength is leaving. Between floundering in the cold water, during the rest, remembering his life, he decided that this punishment fell to him for Glasha Kuklina, whom he had once abused. After some time, he asked her forgiveness, but Glafira did not forgive him. And now you have to pay for past sins. "Gla-a-sha-a, forgive-i-i," he pleads from last strength. Mental repentance before Glafira and repentance for what he had done with the "king-fish" had an effect, and in the end was taken into account by nature. Having gained strength, the fish fell off the hooks, and the unlucky fisherman is unexpectedly saved by his brother, the Commander.
However, the ordeal of Ignatich does not end there. Cold water made itself felt - his leg was amputated. Utrobin sells his house in the village and leaves his familiar places for good, having visited Glafira Kuklina before leaving. So the poacher fisherman was taught a lesson for his sins before a woman and nature.
Astafiev's wise author's word is addressed not only to the fisherman Zinovy Utrobin, but to all people: "Nature, she, brother, too female! So, to each his own, but to God - God's! Free a woman from yourself and from eternal guilt, before that, accept all the torment in full, for yourself and for those who are currently under this sky, on this earth, torturing a woman, doing dirty tricks on her.
Composition 2. On the river of life.
In "Tsar-fish" there is a single and integral art space- the action of each of the stories takes place on one of the many tributaries of the Yenisei. And the Yenisei is the “river of life”, as it is said in the book. The “river of life” is a capacious image rooted in mythological consciousness: for some ancient people, the image of the “river of life”, like the “tree of life”, was a visually visible embodiment of the entire structure of life, all beginnings and ends, everything earthly, heavenly and underground, that is, the whole "cosmography".
Astafiev builds a whole chain of stories about poachers, and poachers of a different order: in the foreground here are poachers from the village of Chush, “Chushans”, who literally rob their native river, ruthlessly poison it; but there is also Goga Gertsev, a poacher who tramples down the souls of lonely women he meets on the way; Finally, the author also considers poachers those state officials who designed and built a dam on the Yenisei in such a way that they rotted the great Siberian river.
Every story about man's trampling of nature ends moral punishment poacher. The cruel, vicious Commander suffers a tragic blow of fate: his beloved daughter Taika was crushed by a driver - "a land poacher", "having drunk on mumbling" ("At the Golden Hag"). And Grokhotalo, a “chaff belly” and an uncontrollable grabber, is punished in a purely grotesque, buffoonish form: blinded by luck, he boasts of the sturgeon he has caught in front of a man who turns out to be ... an inspector of fisheries supervision (“The Fisherman Grohotalo”). Punishment inevitably overtakes a person even for long-standing atrocities - this is the meaning climactic story from the first part of the cycle that gave the title to the entire book. The plot of how the most prudent and seemingly most decent of the poachers, Ignatich, was pulled into the water by a giant fish, acquires a certain mystical and symbolic meaning: being in the abyss, turning into a prisoner of his own prey, almost saying goodbye to life, Ignatich recalls his long-standing crime - how, as a beardless guy, a "milk-sucker", he took dirty revenge on his "traitor", Glashka Kuklina, and devastated her soul forever. And what happened to him now, Ignatich himself perceives as God's punishment: "The hour of the cross has struck, the time has come to account for sins ...".
Nature does not forgive insults, and the Commander, and the Lady, and Rumbled, and other poachers will have to pay in full for the evil done to her. Because, the writer confidently and openly declares, “no villainy passes without a trace.” Physical, and especially moral suffering, is the just retribution for daring attempts to conquer, subjugate or even destroy at least a particle of nature.
The author's didactics (teaching) is also expressed in the arrangement of the stories included in the cycle. It is no coincidence that, in contrast to the first part, which was completely occupied by poachers from the village of Chush, atrocious on their native river, in the second part of the book, Akimka, who is spiritually fused with mother nature, took center stage. Its image is given in parallel with the "red-lipped northern flower".
"King-fish" is written in an open, free, uninhibited manner. Direct, honest, fearless conversation about topical and significant problems: about the approval and improvement of reasonable ties modern man and nature, about the measure and goals of our activity in the "conquest" of nature. This problem is not only ecological, but also moral. The writer claims: who is ruthless, cruel to nature, he is ruthless, cruel to man. The awareness of the seriousness of this problem is necessary for everyone in order not to trample and damage nature and oneself with the fire of soullessness and deafness. The attitude to nature acts as a test of the spiritual viability of the individual.
Composition 3. Novella (story) "Tsar-fish". The tragedy of man and nature.
In the first half of the seventies of the 20th century, environmental problems were sharply raised in our country for the first time. In the same years, Viktor Astafiev wrote the narration in the stories "Tsar-Fish". The work is dedicated to the interaction of man with nature. The story also talks about the tragedy of a person who is connected with nature by the closest connection, but forgot about it and destroys himself and her.
The chapter “King-fish”, which gave the title to the work, sounds symbolic. The king fish is a huge sturgeon. A man fights with the king-fish: it is a symbol of the development and taming of nature. The fight ends in a dramatic way. The seriously wounded tsar fish does not surrender to a man, it leaves him, carrying away the hooks in his body. The finale of the fight looks very dramatic - the fish leaves the person to die: "Furious, seriously wounded, but not tamed, she crashed somewhere in invisibility, splashed in the cold wrap, a riot seized the freed, magical king-fish". The single combat of a man with a king-fish has a sad outcome.
Zinovy Utrobin, Ignatich, is the protagonist of the novel. This man is respected by fellow villagers for the fact that he is always happy to help with advice and deed, for his skill in catching fish, for his intelligence and sharpness. This is the most prosperous person in the village, he does everything “okay” and reasonably. Often he helps people, but there is no sincerity in his actions. Do not stack with the hero of the novel good relations and with his brother. In the village Ignatich is known as the most successful and skilled fisherman. It is felt that he has an abundance of fishing flair, the experience of his ancestors and his own, acquired over long years. Ignatich often uses his skills to the detriment of nature and people, as he is engaged in poaching. Exterminating fish without counting, causing irreparable damage to the natural resources of the river, the protagonist of the novel is aware of the illegality and unseemliness of his actions, he is afraid of the “shame” that can befall him if the poacher is caught in the dark by a fish supervision boat. Forcing Ignatich to fish more than he needed, greed, greed at any cost. This played a fatal role for him when he met the king-fish. Astafiev describes it very vividly: the fish looked like " prehistoric lizard", "eyes without eyelids, without eyelashes, naked, looking with snake coldness, concealed something in themselves."
Ignatich is struck by the size of the sturgeon, which grew up on the same "goats" and "twits", he is surprised to call it "the mystery of nature." From the very beginning, from the moment Ignatich saw the king-fish, something "sinister" seemed to him in it, and later the hero of the short story realized that "one cannot cope with such a monster." The desire to call for help from a brother with a mechanic was replaced by an all-consuming greed: “To share the sturgeon? .. There are two buckets of caviar in the sturgeon, if not more. Caviar for three too?!” Ignatich at that moment was even ashamed of his own feelings. But after a while, “greed he considered passion”, and the desire to catch the sturgeon turned out to be stronger than the voice of reason. In addition to the thirst for profit, there was another reason that forced Ignatich to measure his strength with a mysterious creature. This is a fishing prowess. “Ah, there was not! thought the protagonist of the novel. - Tsar-fish comes across once in a lifetime, and even then not “every Yakov”.
Having cast aside doubts, “successfully, with all the fluff, Ignatich slammed the king-fish in the forehead with the butt of an ax ...”. The image of the ax in this episode is associated with Raskolnikov. But the hero of Dostoevsky raised it to a man, and Ignatich swung at mother nature herself. The hero of the novel thinks that everything is permitted to him. And punished by nature for it.
Ignatich finds himself in the water one on one with the "fish". Wounded, the king of nature and the queen of rivers meet in an equal battle with the elements. Now the king of nature no longer controls the situation, nature conquers him, and gradually he humbles himself. Together with the fish, clinging to each other and calming down from this touch, they are waiting for their death. And Ignatich asks: “Lord, let this fish go!” He himself can no longer do this. Their fate is now in the hands of nature. So, it means that man is not the king of nature, but nature rules over man. But nature is not so merciless, it gives a person a chance to improve, she is waiting for repentance. Ignatich understands his guilt and sincerely repents of his deed, but not only in this: he recalls all his past actions, analyzes his life, he also remembered his grandfather, who taught the young: “If there is a serious sin behind the soul, do not mess with the king-fish.” And now Ignatich is accountable to his conscience for sins, especially for the one that he considers the most difficult. His mood changes: from the joy of owning a fish to hatred and disgust for it, then to a desire to get rid of it. In the face of death, he reconsiders his life, confesses to himself and repents, which removes grave sin from his soul. active work souls, a complete moral rebirth save Ignatich from death.
The story of V.P. Astafiev is an appeal to a person, a desperate call addressed to everyone - to think again, to realize their responsibility for everything that happens in the world. The earth must be saved: the threat of nuclear or ecological disaster puts humanity today at that fatal line, beyond which there is no life. “Will we be saved? Will life last in our descendants? What is the way of salvation? - these are the questions that sound in the works contemporary writers. Answer V.P. Astafiev gives with his work: the way to save the world and human values- through conscience, repentance, sacrifice, the courage of everyone to be a warrior in the field.
The story "Boye »
A short story about a devoted and intelligent dog that faithfully served its owner, a worthless man, and in the finale was killed by a guard accompanying her arrested owner. One can feel the rigidity and uncompromising nature of Astafiev's position: his intransigence towards "blathers" and grabbers, as well as towards human greed, self-interest and malice.
Boye from Evenki - "friend". That was the name of the dog Kolka, one of the heroes of the work, the brother of the narrator. Boye saved Kolka's life more than once: as a child in the taiga, and ten years later, on Dudypt.
Boye from the breed of northern huskies, but the author talks about the dog as a person: "... Boye was a hard worker, and a disinterested worker", "... Boye could not live without work", "... Boye knew how to do everything and even more than a dog should be able to", beauty and intelligence were in the eyes, wisely calm, about which - then constantly questioning.
Boye is an indispensable assistant to people. He feeds his family, loves his unlucky master, trusts all people without exception. Even when they tried to steal it, he felt guilty about what happened.
He saved Kolka from a bear, and brought people to him when Kolka got lost in the taiga and almost froze in the snow. Dog Boye owes life to Kolka and on Dudypt, when maddened by long stay at the winter hut, Kolka, having taken off his skis, chased after a shaman who came to him in dreams and almost died. " The snow kept rolling, rolling from above, frozen, loose. …. A man floundered, thrashed about, having lost the desire to think and fight, when he finally saw above him, on the edge of Dudypta, a dog, all the same, white, with gray spots on its paws and head, a dear, faithful dog. Kolya crawled to Boya, the dog “whining and ruddering with her tail, she crawled to meet him, and with her crawled, the snow moved, from which she suddenly swept out and poked her point in the face of the skier”. Unable to even take off his gun, Kolka still fired. And winterers came to his aid. And in delirium and in a dream, Kolka will pronounce the name of his most faithful friend Boye for a long time to come.
The escort killed Boye only because the dog recognized among the prisoners his master, Kolka's father. Dog “I didn’t understand what was happening and why the owner was being taken away, he howled at the whole pier and how it would rush! Dropped Kolka, does not let the owner on the barge, impedes progress. The young black-haired escort stopped, threw the dog aside with a kick and, without removing the machine gun from his neck, in passing, point-blank, flashed it with a short burst.
In the story, Astafiev cites a belief about the origin of the dog: “I will only repeat the northern belief: a dog, before becoming a dog, was a man, of course, a good one.” Link to this folk wisdom before the story of a true friend, an unpretentious and irreplaceable assistant to the heroes, the dog Boye, allows the narrator to more convincingly declare the unity of all life on earth and the inadmissibility abuse with our smaller brothers. " Born for joint work and life with a man, without understanding why he was killed, the dog whined hoarsely and, sighing mournfully like a human, died, as if pitying or condemning whom.
This story is not only about the dog. This work is also about people, among whom, according to the author's correct remark, there are "parasites, biting villains, empty talk, grabbers."
The story "Dream of the White Mountains". Affirmation of universal moral values
The action in the story takes place in the taiga, the secrets and mysteries of which many people are trying to unravel. That's just the interest in the taiga riches is different. In the story we meet two characters who are sharply opposed in their attitude to the world and people. This is the taiga man Akim and the selfish geologist Goga Gertsev, who imagines himself the master of nature.
Akim is not very educated, he knows little about civilization, city life, but he perfectly knows his native Siberian taiga, lives in close unity and harmony with nature. In the deaf taiga wilds, he feels at home. Akim, according to the writer, is the bearer of genuine moral values, and in this capacity he opposes many urban characters who consider nature only as a means of satisfying momentary material needs and do not disdain any means to achieve their goals. The antipode of Akim in the chapter "Sleep in the White Mountains" is Goga Gertsev. He did not harm the taiga, respected the laws, but neglected what is called the soul. Goga is an educated person, he knows how to do a lot, but he ruined his good inclinations. He is an individualist, he wants to take a lot from life, but he does not want to give anything away. He is internally empty, cynical. The author's irony and sarcasm accompany Gertsev everywhere - and in a clash with Akim because of the Kiryaga-wood medal riveted by Gertsev on a lure, and in scenes with the librarian Lyudochka, whose soul he trampled out of boredom, and in the story with Elya, and even there, where it is told how Gertsev died and what he became after death. Astafiev shows the pattern of such a terrible end to Goga, denounces individualism, soullessness.
Goga dragged the girl Elya, who was in love with him, into the taiga along with him. As the author emphasizes, Goga is an experienced and skillful taiga dweller who is in no way inferior to Akim. Nevertheless, he frivolously took with him on a dangerous journey along the taiga river a girl who was absolutely not adapted to life in the harsh conditions of the taiga. The result is a tragic situation. Seriously ill, Elya remains in a hunting hut, Goga, who went in search of food, dies as a result of an accident. Akim, who found her, saves the girl from certain death. He takes care of the patient like a small child. In the chapter "Sleep in the White Mountains" the image of Goga Gertsev, the antipode of Akim, is remarkable. Gertsev did not harm the taiga, respected the laws, but neglected what is called the soul. Goga is an educated person, he knows how to do a lot, but he ruined his good inclinations. He is an individualist, he wants to take a lot from life, but he does not want to give anything away. He is internally empty, cynical. The author's irony and sarcasm accompany Gertsev everywhere - and in a clash with Akim because of the Kiryaga-wood medal riveted by Gertsev on a lure, and in scenes with the librarian Lyudochka, whose soul he trampled out of boredom, and in the story with Elya, and even there, where it is told how Gertsev died and what he became after death. Astafiev shows the pattern of such a terrible end to Goga, denounces egocentrism, individualism, and soullessness.
Gertsev's death is deeply symbolic. Goga dreamed of catching the legendary Tsar Fish, and for the baubles he used the medal of the invalid of the war, the drunkard Kiryagin, and boasted: "Better than the factory one!" After that, Akim said to Gertsev in his hearts: “Well, you’re a carrion! .. The old woman’s Kirka is called a God’s man. Yes, he is God's! .. God will punish you ... "
In response, Gertsev utters a phrase that strikes with its egoism and blasphemy: “I don’t care about the old women, the cripple of this dirty one! I am my own god! And I will punish you for insulting you.”
But Gertsev is going to punish Akim in the taiga, and not now, he is not used to an honest and open duel. Akim is able to hit a person only in an honest, open fight. He is organically incapable of offending another person, Main character"King-Fish" follows a kind of moral law of the taiga, where a person who is open with others, honest and not trying to subjugate nature can survive. Goga - “God to himself”, in fact turns out to be the devil, Kashchei (it is no coincidence that the writer emphasizes that Gertsev, like a fairy-tale villain, “rattled his bones on the floor”). He spits on other people and is proud of it, he is ready to destroy anyone who gets in his way, to destroy not even figuratively, but in the literal sense. After all, in fact, Goga is plotting the murder of Akim, offering a duel on conditions that are obviously unfavorable for him and favorable for himself. And his death looks natural, although it happened as a result of an absurd accident. This is, as it were, God's punishment for presumptuous equating oneself with God.
When Akim finds the corpse of his enemy, he does not feel joy. He pities Gertsev, who, in his haste to get fish for his sick companion, made a fatal mistake and drowned in ice water, and buries Goga in a Christian way.
The moral dispute between Goga Gertsev and Akim is not just a dispute between two too different people, it reflects the clash of a soulless-consumer and humane, merciful attitude to nature, to everything living on earth. Sensitivity and kindness make a person weak, says Goga Gertsev. It distorts the spiritual and social connections people, destroys his soul. The author's sympathies are undoubtedly on the side of such people as Akim. It is Akim who has the victory in the dispute with Gertsev, it is he, and not Goge, who manages to get the Tsar-fish. Good luck becomes a reward for the fact that he remains faithful to universal, Christian moral values, is ready, without hesitation, to help his neighbor and pity even the enemy.
Viktor Petrovich Astafiev- an outstanding Russian prose writer, one of the few writers who, during his lifetime, was called a classic.
Astafyev was born on May 1, 1924 in the village of Ovsyanka, on the banks of the Yenisei, not far from Krasnoyarsk, in the family of Pyotr Pavlovich and Lidia Ilyinichna Astafyev. At the age of seven, the boy lost his mother - she drowned in the river, catching her scythe on the base of the boom. VP Astafiev will never get used to this loss. He still “can’t believe that there is no mother and never will be.” The boy's grandmother, Ekaterina Petrovna, becomes the intercessor and breadwinner of the boy.
With his father and stepmother, Victor moves to Igarka - the dispossessed grandfather Pavel was sent here with his family. There were no “wild earnings”, which the father counted on, relations with the stepmother did not work out, she pushes the burden in the face of the child from her shoulders. The boy is deprived of shelter and livelihood, wanders, then ends up in an orphanage. " independent life I started right away, without any preparation, ”V.P. Astafiev will write later.
The teacher of the boarding school, the Siberian poet Ignaty Dmitrievich Rozhdestvensky notices in Viktor a penchant for literature and develops it. The essay entitled “Alive!”, Printed in the school magazine, will later unfold into the story “Vasyutkino Lake”.
After graduating from a boarding school, a teenager earns his bread in the machine Kureika. “My childhood was left in the far Arctic,” V.P. Astafiev wrote years later. - The child, in the words of grandfather Pavel, “was not born, not asked, abandoned by dad and mom,” also disappeared somewhere, or rather, rolled away from me. A stranger to himself and to everyone, a teenager or young man entered the adult working life of a wartime.
Gathering money for a ticket. Victor leaves for Krasnoyarsk, enters the FZO. “I didn’t choose the group and profession in the FZO - they chose me themselves,” the writer later tells. After graduating, he works as a train compiler at the Bazaikha station near Krasnoyarsk.
In the fall of 1942, Viktor Astafyev volunteered for the army, and in the spring of 1943 he went to the front. Fighting in Bryansk. Voronezh and Steppe fronts, which then merged into the First Ukrainian. The front-line biography of the soldier Astafyev was awarded the Order of the Red Star, medals "For Courage", "For the Victory over Germany" and "For the Liberation of Poland". Several times he was seriously wounded.
In the autumn of 1945, V.P. Astafiev is demobilized from the army and, together with his wife, Private Maria Semyonovna Koryakina, arrives at her homeland, the city of Chusovoi in the western Urals. For health reasons, Viktor can no longer return to his profession and, in order to feed his family, works as a locksmith, laborer, loader, carpenter, on duty at the Chusovaya station station, a meat carcass washer, and a meat-packing plant watchman.
In March 1947, a daughter was born in a young family. In early September, the girl died of severe dyspepsia - the time was hungry, her mother did not have enough milk, and there was nowhere to get ration cards. In May 1948, the Astafievs had a daughter, Irina, and in March 1950, a son, Andrei.
In 1951, having somehow got to the lesson of a literary circle at the newspaper Chusovskoy Rabochiy, Viktor Petrovich wrote the story “Civilian Man” in one night; later he will rework it into the story "Siberian". In the same year, Astafiev moved to the position of a literary worker for the newspaper. For four years of work in the newspaper "Chusovskoy Rabochiy" he wrote more than a hundred correspondence, articles, essays, more than two dozen stories. In 1953, his first book of short stories, “Until Next Spring,” was published in Perm, and in 1955, the second, “Lights.” These are stories for children. In 1955-1957 he published two more books for children, published essays and stories in almanacs and periodicals.
Since April 1957, Astafiev has been a special correspondent for the Perm Regional Radio.
In 1958, his novel The Snows Are Melting was published. V. P. Astafiev is accepted into the Union of Writers of the RSFSR. In 1959 he was sent to the Higher literary courses at Literary Institute named after M. Gorky. He has been studying in Moscow for two years.
The end of the 50s was marked by the flourishing of the lyrical prose of V.P. Astafiev. The stories "Pass" and "Starodub", the story "Starfall", written in one breath in just a few days, bring him wide fame.
In 1962 the family moved to Perm, and in 1969 to Vologda.
The 60s were extremely fruitful for the writer: the story "Theft" was written, short stories, which later made up the story in the stories " Last bow". In 1968, the story "The Last Bow" was published in Perm as a separate book.
Back in 1954, Astafiev conceived the story “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess. Modern pastoral "-" his favorite brainchild. And he realized his plan almost 15 years later - in three days, "absolutely stunned and happy", writing "a draft of one hundred and twenty pages" and then polishing the text. Written in 1967, the story was difficult to get through in print and was first published in the journal Our Contemporary in 1971. The writer returned to the text of the story in 1971 and 1989, restoring what was filmed for reasons of censorship.
In 1975, for the stories "The Pass", "The Last Bow", "Theft", "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess" V.P. Astafiev was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR named after M. Gorky.
By 1965, a cycle of ideas began to take shape - lyrical miniatures, reflections on life, notes for oneself. They are published in central and peripheral journals. In 1972, "Zatesi" was published as a separate book by the publishing house " Soviet writer". The writer constantly refers to the genre of zasey in his work.
Astafiev's work equally embodied two major themes Soviet literature 1960-1970s - military and rural. In his work, including works written long before Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost, the Patriotic War appears as a great tragedy.
The village theme was most fully and vividly embodied in the story "Tsar-fish", the genre of which Astafiev designated as "narration in stories". The documentary and biographical basis is organically combined with lyrical and journalistic deviations from the smooth development of the plot. At the same time, Astafiev manages to create the impression of complete authenticity, even in those chapters of the story where fiction is obvious. The prose writer bitterly writes about the destruction of nature and names the main reason for this phenomenon: the spiritual impoverishment of man.
The publication of the chapters of "King-Fish" in periodicals went on with such losses in the text that the author went to the hospital from grief and since then has never returned to the story, has not restored or made new editions. Only many years later, having discovered in his archive the pages of the chapter “Noriltsy” that had turned yellow from time to time, he published it in 1990 under the title “There is not enough heart”. Fully "Tsar-fish" was published only in 1993.
In 1978, V.P. Astafiev was awarded the State Prize of the USSR for his narration in the stories “Tsar-Fish”.
In the 70s, the writer again turns to the theme of his childhood - new chapters are born for The Last Bow. The story of childhood - already in two books - was published in 1978 by the Sovremennik publishing house.
From 1978 to 1982, V.P. Astafiev worked on the story "The Sighted Staff", published only in 1988. In 1991, the writer was awarded the State Prize of the USSR for this story.
In 1980, Astafiev moved to live in his homeland - in Krasnoyarsk. A new, extremely fruitful period of his work began. In Krasnoyarsk and in Ovsyanka - the village of his childhood - he wrote the novel "The Sad Detective" and many stories. The protagonist of the novel, policeman Soshnin, tries to fight criminals, realizing the futility of his efforts. The hero - and with him the author - is horrified by the massive decline in morality, leading people to a series of cruel and unmotivated crimes.
In 1989 for outstanding writing activity V.P. Astafiev was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
On August 17, 1987, the daughter of the Astafievs, Irina, suddenly dies. She is brought from Vologda and buried at the cemetery in Ovsyanka. Viktor Petrovich and Maria Semyonovna take their little grandchildren Vitya and Polya to their place.
Life at home stirred up memories and gave readers new stories about childhood - new chapters of The Last Bow were born, and in 1989 it was published by the Young Guard publishing house already in three books. In 1992, two more chapters appeared - "Damn Head" and "Evening Thoughts". "The Life-Giving Light of Childhood" required more than thirty years of creative work from the writer.
At home, V.P. Astafiev created his main book about the war - the novel "Cursed and Killed": part one "Devil's Pit" (1990-1992) and part two "Bridgehead" (1992-1994), which took the writer a lot of strength and health and caused a stormy reader controversy. In this novel, the writer rewrote and rethought many pages of his inner biography, for the first time in post-Soviet literature created the image of the desacralized people's war of 1941-1945. The third part of the novel was supposed to appear, but in 2000 the author announced the termination of work on the book.
In 1994 "for outstanding contributions to domestic literature"The writer was awarded the Russian independent award "Triumph". In 1995, V.P. Astafiev was awarded the State Prize of Russia for the novel “Cursed and Killed”.
From September 1994 to January 1995, the master of the word is working on new story about the war "So I want to live", and in 1995-1996 he writes - also "military" - the story "Oberton", in 1997 he completes the story "Merry Soldier", begun in 1987 - the war does not leave the writer, disturbs the memory . The cheerful soldier is he, the wounded young soldier Astafiev, returning from the front and trying on a peaceful civilian life.
In 1997, the writer was awarded the International Pushkin Prize, and in 1998 he was awarded the Prize "For the Honor and Dignity of Talent" by the International Literary Fund. At the end of 1998, V.P. Astafiev was awarded the Apollon Grigoriev Prize of the Academy of Russian Modern Literature.
Astafiev published three lifetime collected works in three, six and fifteen volumes. Last, with detailed comments author for each volume, published in 1997-1998 in Krasnoyarsk.
Astafiev's books have been translated into many languages. On November 29, 2002, a memorial house-museum of Astafyev was opened in the village of Ovsyanka and a monument to the great writer was erected. In 2006, another monument to Viktor Petrovich was erected in Krasnoyarsk. In 2004, on the Krasnoyarsk-Abakan highway, not far from the village of Sliznevo, a brilliant forged "Tsar-fish" was installed, a monument to the story of the same name by Viktor Astafyev. Today it is the only monument in Russia literary work with an element of fiction.
Directly related to science fiction in Astafiev's work are only individual chapters of "Tsar-fish", the parable "Yelchik-squirrel" and the stories "Obsession", "First Commissar", "Doomsday" and "Cosmonaut's Night".
Victor Astafiev
TSAR-FISH
He was silent, thinking, and I,
Contemplating with a familiar eye
The sinister holiday of being,
Confused view of the native land.
Nikolai Rubtsov
If we behave properly, then we, plants and animals, will exist for billions of years, because the sun has large reserves of fuel and its consumption is perfectly regulated.
Haldor Shelley
PART ONE
Of my own free will and desire, I rarely have to travel to my homeland. More and more often people are called there for funerals and commemorations - many relatives, many friends and acquaintances - this is good: you will receive and give a lot of love in your life, but it’s good, until the time comes for people close to you to fall, as overgrown pines fall in an old forest, with heavy crunchy and long exhale...
However, I happened to be on the Yenisei even without the call of brief mournful telegrams, to listen to more than one lamentation. Happened happy hours and nights by the fire on the bank of the river, quivering with the lights of buoys, pierced to the bottom with golden drops of stars; listen not only to the lapping of waves, the sound of the wind, the rumble of the taiga, but also the unhurried stories of people around the fire in nature, in a special open way, stories, revelations, memories until dark, and even until morning, engaged in calm light beyond distant passes, while from nothing will arise, sticky mists will not creep in, and the words will become viscous, heavy, the language will be clumsy, and the flame will die out, and everything in nature will find that long-awaited peace, when only her infantile-pure soul is heard. At such moments, you remain, as it were, one on one with nature and with a slightly fearful secret joy you feel: you can and should, finally, trust everything that is around, and imperceptibly you will soften, like a leaf or a blade of grass under dew, you will fall asleep easily, soundly and, falling asleep before the first beam, before the trial bird's enumeration at summer water, from the evening keeping steamy warmth, you smile at a long-forgotten feeling - so you were free when you hadn’t loaded your memory with any memories yet, and you hardly remembered yourself, you just felt the world around with your skin, got used to it with your eyes, attached to the tree of life a short rod of that same leaf, which I felt myself now, in a rare moment of peace of mind ...
But this is how a person works: while he is alive, his heart and head work anxiously, which has absorbed not only the load of his own memories, but also the memory of those who met in the growth of life and forever sunk into the seething human whirlpool or stuck to the soul so that it is impossible to tear off, to separate neither his pain, nor joy from his pain, from his joy.
... Then order tickets were still valid, and, having received award money accumulated for the war, I went to Igarka to take my grandmother from Sisim out of the Arctic.
My uncles Vanya and Vasya died in the war, Kostka served in the Navy in the North, my grandmother from Sisim lived as a housekeeper for the head of the port shop, a kind but prolific woman, she was deadly tired of children, so she asked me by letter to rescue her from the North, from strangers , even good people.
I expected a lot from that trip, but the most significant thing about it turned out to be that I disembarked from the ship at the moment when something was burning in Igarka again, and it seemed to me: I didn’t leave anywhere, many years didn’t flash by, everything was as it was , and stands still, even such a familiar fire blazes without causing discord in the life of the city, does not disrupt the rhythm of work. Only closer to the fire, some people crowded and ran, red cars honked, pumping water from fish and lakes located between houses and streets, according to the custom here, loudly crackled, swirled with black smoke, a building that, to my complete surprise, turned out to be next to that house , where a grandmother from Sisima lived as a housekeeper.
The owners were not at home. The grandmother from Sisim was in tears and in a panic: the neighbors began to take property out of the apartments, just in case, but she did not dare - not her own good, what if she gets lost? ..
We didn’t have time to stump, kiss, or cry, following the custom. I immediately began to link someone else's property. But soon the door swung open, a fat woman collapsed through the threshold, crawled on all fours to the locker, took a sip of valerian straight from the vial, caught her breath a little and with a weak wave of her hand indicated to stop preparing for the evacuation: on the street they rang reassuringly in the fire bell - what needed to be burned, it burned down, the fire, thank God, did not spread to the neighboring premises, the cars drove away, leaving one on duty, from which smoky firebrands were slowly poured. Around the conflagration stood silent, accustomed to everything, the townspeople, and only a flat-backed old woman covered with soot, holding a rescued cross-cut saw by the handle, was wailing for someone or something.
The owner came home from work, a Belarusian, a healthy guy, with a puffy mug and character unexpected for his height and nationality. We drank heavily with him and with the hostess. I plunged into memories of the war, the owner, looking at my medal and order, said with anguish, but without any, however, anger, that he also had both awards and ranks, but they floated away.
Tomorrow was a day off. The owner and I sawed firewood in the Bear Log. Grandmother from Sisim was going on the road, grumbling under her breath: “My name is not enough, and the fire will pay!” But I was sawing firewood for hunting, we were joking with the owner, we were going to go to dinner, when a grandmother from Sisim appeared above the ravine, searched the lowland with not quite weepy eyes and, finding us, dragged herself down, clutching at the branches. Behind her trudged along a thin, anxiously familiar boy in an eight-piece cap, with frilled trousers hanging on him. He smiled at me shyly and kindly. The grandmother of Sisim said biblically:
This is your brother.
Yes, it was the same fellow who, before he had learned to walk, already knew how to swear, and with whom we once almost burned down in the ruins of the old Igarsk drama theater.
My relationship after returning from the orphanage to the bosom native family again did not work out. God knows, I tried to put them together, for some time I was humble, helpful, worked, fed myself, often my stepmother and children - dad, as before, drank the weight down to a penny and, following the free laws of vagrants, played tricks around the world, not taking care of the children and the home.
In addition to Kolka, Tolka was already in the family, and the third, as is clear from the popular modern song, whether he wants it or not, “he must leave,” although at any age, especially at the age of seventeen, it’s scary to go to all four sides - the boy has not yet overcome himself, the guy has not taken power over him - the age is perverse, unstable. During these years, guys, and girls too, do the most insolence, stupidity and desperate deeds.
Viktor Astafiev (1924-2001) - famous Soviet and Russian writer, front-line soldier, master of rural and military-patriotic prose, twice winner of the USSR State Prize. The harsh years of childhood and participation in the war left a great impression in the soul of the writer. In his work, he will return to these themes more than once. The works of Viktor Petrovich have always been distinguished by the realism and bitingness of the story about the fate of ordinary front-line soldiers and workers, which he described in a living literary language.
Childhood and youth
Viktor Astafiev is a native Siberian. He was born on May 1, 1924 in the small village of Ovsyanka, Krasnoyarsk Territory. When Vitya was still very young, a wave of repression began, under which his father fell. His mother died during one of the trips to him, and the seven-year-old boy was taken up by his grandparents. Despite the tragic course of events, this period of life left bright memories in the soul of the future writer, which were set forth in the first part of his autobiography.
After returning from prison, Pyotr Afanasiev creates a new family, decides to go to work in northern Igarka. By that time, Vitya already had step-brother Nikolay.
Soon an unpleasant episode occurred that made the future writer grow up quickly. Coming back after another Putin, the father was in the hospital, and the boy was left in the care of his stepmother. But she did not want to take care of him, so Victor will spend several months in an abandoned hairdresser. Such a life also affected the behavior at school, and Astafyev was sent to a boarding school. Recalling this time, he writes: “I started my independent life right away, without any preparation”.
One of his teachers at the boarding school turned out to be the local poet I. Rozhdestvensky, who saw in Viktor the ability to literary creativity and tried to develop them. As a result, one of the school essays will later turn into the story "Vasyutkino Lake".
War and workdays
After graduating from the boarding school, Astafyev moved to Krasnoyarsk, where he entered the FZO. After graduation, he works at the station as a train compiler. After the start of the war, Viktor Petrovich volunteered for the front and took part in military operations on Kursk Bulge, in the battle for the Dnieper, in the liberation of Poland. Having passed the entire combat path in the rank of private, he was wounded several times and was awarded medals "For the victory over Germany", "For courage", "For the liberation of Poland".
First steps
In 1945 future writer married Maria Koryakina. Having already been demobilized married man, Viktor Petrovich moves to his wife's small homeland in the small Ural town of Chusovoy. Here he is trained at a school for working youth and works in production as a laborer, locksmith, carpenter, loader and even a meat carcass washer. In 1951, he got a job in a local newspaper, where his debut story "Civil Man" was published. For 4 years, Victor has been working as a literary employee in this publication, while writing at the same time.
In 1953, a collection of short stories by Viktor Petrovich "Until next spring" was published in Perm, and two years later a children's book "Lights" was published. Children's theme will be continued in the following works- "Vasyutkino Lake" and "Uncle Kuzya, chickens, a fox and a cat." In 1957, the writer enters special correspondent to the staff of the regional radio, and the following year his novel Snow Melt, dedicated to the collective farm theme, was published. These works found their readers and were duly noted by critics, which made it possible to rightfully enter the Union of Writers of the RSFSR.
creative flourishing
In the late 50s, Viktor Petrovich created a series of lyrical stories that made him a real name - "Pass", "Starodub", "Starodub". At this time, he was sent to study in the capital at the Higher Literary Courses, upon returning from which the Astafyev family moved to Perm. The Permian period turned out to be fruitful in the writer's activity. Here the lyrical story "The Last Bow" was created, imbued with the ideas of the struggle between love and war, the military collection "The Shepherd and the Shepherd" and the story "Theft" as a memory of his boarding school childhood. Astafiev devoted a separate collection of works “The Last Bow” to the fate of people who met on his life path in hard years adolescence and youth.
In 1969, the Astafyevs left for Vologda. Here Viktor Petrovich writes the plays "Forgive me" and "Bird cherry". In the 70s, one of the most famous works writer - a collection of stories "King Fish", which became the fruit of the author's deep reflection on the responsibility of man for the world and his constant striving to be in harmony with himself. Despite criticism and censorship restrictions, it was this work that brought Astafiev the USSR State Prize in 1978.
Siberian period
In 1980, Viktor Astafiev returned to his small homeland, where he would live until his last days. Inspired by his native Siberia, the writer wrote many stories - "The Blind Fisherman", "Born of Me", "Bear's Blood" and many others. In 1985, the novel The Sad Detective was published. After the untimely death of his daughter, Viktor Petrovich returns to the stories about his childhood, published in the collection "The Last Bow".
Here on small homeland was written, perhaps, the main book dedicated to the war - "Cursed and killed", which took a lot of strength and health. In it, the author once again experiences the nightmare of war, infecting the reader with the incredible energy of the struggle against the "crime against reason". In addition to this novel, marked State Prize In Russia, in the 90s, the novels “So I want to live” and “Overtone” were created, the writing of the work “Merry Soldier” was completed.
Singer of the Russian village
All the works of the great writer are imbued with rural and military-patriotic themes. His hero is a simple soldier (as he was), on whom the army rests, but who is scolded for all the sins. His style is distinguished by a truthful, somewhat harsh, on the verge of a foul description of life. The topics chosen by Astafiev are always sharply social, he did not like compromises and always tried to speak frankly with his reader. The writer was one of the first to raise the topics of juvenile delinquency, the existence of marginal strata in Soviet society, and incredibly accurately outlined the problem of cruelty and violence.
Viktor Petrovich was a master of the living literary language, so his works were liked to be published abroad. Over a hundred books of the famous master of the word were translated into 22 languages and found their readers in 28 countries of the world. In 1998, a 15-volume complete collection of works was published in Krasnoyarsk, which made it possible to comprehend the whole huge creative way writer.
Personal life
Viktor Petrovich met his wife Maria Koryakina at the end of the war. With a difference of two years, the couple have children - first a daughter, Lydia, who died in infancy, then another daughter, Irina, and, finally, the youngest son Andrei. After the sudden death of their middle daughter, the couple took two grandchildren to raise them.
Over time, Maria Semyonovna became interested in literature and began to write stories. The husband treated this with a certain irony: “There is time, so let him write his books”. Nevertheless, her novels and stories, which consisted of personal memories, began to be actively published and enjoyed a certain popularity. In 1978, the writer was admitted to the Writers' Union. By writing to total 16 books, she's all the years life together will continue to be her husband's secretary and nanny.
In 2001, the writer suffered two severe strokes. He needed medical assistance abroad, and family friends turned to the Krasnoyarsk parliamentarians for assistance. They did not allocate funds, motivating the refusal by some kind of chauvinism of the author. As a result, Astafyev was sent home from the hospital, where he died on November 29, 2001. great writer buried in a cemetery near his native village.
Composition
Viktor Petrovich Astafiev was born in 1924 in the village of Ovsyanka, Krasnoyarsk Territory, into a peasant family. He grew up surrounded by the majestic beauty of nature, and therefore environmental problems were initially close to him.
"Tsar-fish" (1976, the magazine "Our Contemporary") is a narrative in stories. The work is dedicated to the interaction of Man with Nature. Chapter " king fish”, which gave the name to the work, sounds symbolic. The single combat of a man with a king-fish has a sad outcome.
The idea of Astafiev's story is that a person should live in peace with nature, not destroy the harmony of nature, not plunder it. The narrative is united by the image of the author.
The author's sympathies are given to many characters: Akim, Nikolai Petrovich, Kiryaga-derevyaga, Paramon Paramonych, Semyon and Cheremisin, fishermen's artels and others. Akim accomplishes a feat by saving a woman in the taiga. Fish inspector Semyon and his son Cheremisin endanger their lives every day: “I never suffered at the front like I did with you!” Nikolai Petrovich, the writer's brother, became the breadwinner of a large family from an early age. He is an excellent fisherman, hunter, hospitable, strives to help everyone. Paramon Paramonovich has a kind soul. He took a fatherly part in the fate of Akim.
The author condemns poaching in the broad sense of the word - poaching in life. In the image of the author, we see a sincere person. His attitude to life was influenced by the experience of the Great Patriotic War. He condemns huckster-hunters on the river Sim. The lyrical hero of the novel is the author himself. bright colors reproduces landscapes. "It's good that I was not killed in the war and I survived until this morning..."
In the chapter "The Turukhanskaya Lily" we meet with the Yenisei buoy keeper Pavel Yegorovich. He refers to those people who "they give everything of their own, right down to the soul, they always hear even a silent request for help." The hydroelectric power plant is ruining the river. “There is no and never will be peace for the river! Myself
restless, a man with rabid persistence strives to subdue, lasso nature...” The episode with the peasant crucified on a rock and the resettlement to Turukhansk is impressive. The reader agrees with the author in condemning the three "normal workers" engaged in robbery in the taiga.
In the chapter "Ear on Boganid" we get acquainted with the artel of fishermen. The author draws attention to the fact that the artel saved many children from starvation, fed them with brigade fish soup. “Many children survived and grew up on that ear, turned into peasants, dispersed around the world, but they will never forget the artel table.” In the image of Gertsev, the author denounces egocentrism and individualism.
The poachers came out mainly from the ancient fishing village of Chush. The author describes in detail the appearance of the village, the customs of its inhabitants. We see drinking men, a student with a badge on her chest, a captain exchanging a bottle for a fish. Unsightly poachers Damka, Commander, Rumble-Bandera are shown. The text sounds the idea that "no villainy passes without a trace." Poachers punished: Damka fined, Grokhotalo was taken away big fish, the Commander's daughter died, Ignatich fell for his own hooks. Strong impression produces a description of Fish - a huge sturgeon.
Astafiev's work has a powerful and beneficial effect on the reader, both emotional and cognitive.
