"The Captain's Daughter" is a historical novel over which A.S. Pushkin worked for three years (1833-1836). The writing of the work was preceded by a long and painstaking textual and historical work.
Initially, Pushkin, who was interested in the history of the Pugachev uprising, intended to create a documentary work. The poet received permission from Nicholas I to access unpublished materials and documents about the uprising, as well as family archives. In 1833, Pushkin went to the Urals and the Volga region, where the main actions of the uprising took place. There he questioned Pugachev's contemporaries, participants and witnesses of the uprising. It was these unique materials that formed the basis of Pushkin's historical work "The History of the Pugachev Rebellion".
However, this did not complete the work on materials about the uprising: at the same time, the idea of a work of art about the Pugachev rebellion was born. The bright and certainly noteworthy figure of Pugachev interested Pushkin not only as a historian, but also as a poet. In addition, the acute political and social conflict of the uprising prompted the idea of creating a novel. However, it was precisely this that could cause difficulties for publication due to censorship, which became tougher under Nicholas I. Because of this, Pushkin rewrote many times - drafts with several plans for the work have been preserved. The first version was written as early as 1833, but the revision of the novel lasted until October 1836. The editions that have come down to us prove the complexity of working on a work.
To create the main character, Pushkin studied historical data about Emelyan Pugachev's accomplices. Two people are considered prototypes: Lieutenant Shvanvich, who went over to the side during the uprising, and Basharin, a prisoner of Pugachev, who managed to escape and join the army that was trying to suppress the uprising. The surname Grinev (in the first editions - Bulanina) was also not chosen by chance. Someone Grinev was on the list of people who were suspected of involvement in organizing a riot, but were later acquitted as innocent. The originally planned controversial figure of the protagonist-nobleman in the latest editions was replaced by two completely different characters: in the novel we see the noble, honest Grinev and the immoral traitor Shvabrin. This technique of opposing the antagonist to the protagonist eliminated the difficulties in passing the censorship.
It is known that the impetus for the creation of Pushkin's historical novel was the novel that appeared in the 1930s. 19th century translations of novels by Walter Scott in Russia. Having correctly captured the genre essence of a work of art based on real historical data, Pushkin plausibly recreated the era in his novel and revealed the personality of an important historical figure with the help of the unique style and skill of the artist.
A long, long time ago (this is how my grandmother began her story), at a time when I was still no more than sixteen years old, we lived - me and my late father - in the Nizhne-Ozernaya fortress, on the Orenburg line. I must tell you that this fortress did not at all resemble either the local city of Simbirsk, or that county town to which you, my child, went last year: it was so small that even a five-year-old child would not get tired running around it; the houses in it were all small, low, for the most part woven from twigs, smeared with clay, covered with straw and fenced with wattle. But Nizhne-ozernaya it also did not resemble the village of your father, because this fortress had, in addition to huts on chicken legs, an old wooden church, a rather large and equally old house of the serf chief, a guardhouse and long log bread shops. In addition, our fortress was surrounded on three sides by a log fence, with two gates and pointed turrets at the corners, and the fourth side was tightly adjacent to the Ural coast, as steep as a wall and as high as the local cathedral. Not only was Nizhneozernaya so well fenced off: there were two or three old cast-iron cannons in it, but about fifty of the same old and smoky soldiers, who, although they were a little decrepit, nevertheless kept on their feet, had long guns and cleavers, and after every evening dawn they cheerfully shouted: with god the night begins. Although our invalids seldom succeeded in showing their courage, nevertheless it was impossible to do without them; because the local side was very restless in the old days: the Bashkirs rebelled in it, then the Kirghiz robbed - all unfaithful Busurmans, fierce as wolves and terrible as unclean spirits. They not only captured Christian people in their filthy captivity and drove away Christian herds; but sometimes they even approached the very tyne of our fortress, threatening to chop and burn us all. In such cases, our soldiers had enough work: for whole days they shot back from adversaries from small turrets and through the cracks of the old tyna. My late father (who received the captain's rank in the blessed memory of Empress Elisaveta Petrovna) commanded both these honored old men and other residents of Nizhneozernaya - retired soldiers, Cossacks and raznochintsy; in short, he was in the present commandant, but in the old commander fortresses. My father (God remember his soul in the kingdom of heaven) was a man of the old age: fair, cheerful, talkative, he called the service his mother, and the sword his sister - and in every business he liked to insist on his own. I no longer had a mother. God took her to himself before I could pronounce her name. So, in the big commander's house, which I told you about, only the father lived, and I, and a few old orderlies and maids. You might think that we were very bored in such a remote place. Nothing happened! Time rolled on just as quickly for us as it did for all Orthodox Christians. Habit, my child, adorns every share, unless the constant thought gets into the head that it's good where we're not as the proverb says. Besides, boredom attaches itself mostly to idle people; but my father and I rarely sat with our hands folded. He or learned his kind soldiers (it is clear that soldier science needs to be studied for a whole century!), Or read sacred books, although, to tell the truth, this happened quite rarely, because the deceased-light (God grant him the kingdom of heaven) was taught in old, and he himself used to say jokingly that the diploma was not given to him, like the infantry service to the Turk. On the other hand, he was a great master - and he looked after the work in the field with his own eyes, so that in the summer he used to spend whole God's days in the meadows and arable land. I must tell you, my child, that both we and the other inhabitants of the fortress sowed bread and mowed hay - a little, not like the peasants of your father, but as much as we needed for household use. You can judge the danger in which we then lived by the fact that our farmers worked in the fields only under the cover of a significant convoy, which was supposed to protect them from the attacks of the Kirghiz, who constantly prowl about the line, like hungry wolves. That is why the presence of my father during the field work was necessary not only for their success, but also for the safety of the workers. You see, my child, that my father had enough to do. As for me, I did not kill time in vain. Without boasting, I will say that, despite my youth, I was a real mistress in the house, I was in charge both in the kitchen and in the cellar, and sometimes, in the absence of the priest, in the yard itself. The dress for myself (we have never heard of fashion stores) was sewn by me; and besides that, she found time to mend her father’s caftans, because the company tailor Trofimov began to see badly from old age, so that once (it was funny, it was true) he put a patch, past the hole, on the whole place. Being able to manage my household chores in this way, I never missed an opportunity to visit God's temple, unless our father Vlasy (God forgive him) was not too lazy to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. However, my child, you are mistaken if you think that the father and I lived alone within four walls, not knowing anyone and not accepting good people. True, we rarely managed to visit; but the priest was a great hospitality, but does a hospitality ever have no guests? Almost every evening they gathered in our reception room: the old lieutenant, the Cossack foreman, Father Vlasy and some other inhabitants of the fortress - I don’t remember everyone. They all liked to sip cherries and homemade beer, they liked to talk and argue. Their conversations, of course, were arranged not according to bookish writings, but so at random: it happened that whoever came up with something would grind, because the people were all so simple ... But only good things must be said about the dead, and our old interlocutors have long, long ago been buried in the cemetery.
Writer Alexei Varlamov about the story of A.S. Pushkin's "The Captain's Daughter": 175 years ago, Pushkin's story "The Captain's Daughter" was first published in the Sovremennik magazine. A story that we all went through in school and which few re-read later. A story that is much more complex and deeper than is commonly believed. What is there in The Captain's Daughter that remains outside the school curriculum?
Writer Alexei Varlamov about the story of A.S. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter"
175 years ago, Pushkin's story was first published in the Sovremennik magazine. A story that we all went through in school and which few re-read later. A story that is much more complex and deeper than is commonly believed. What is there in The Captain's Daughter that remains outside the school curriculum? Why is it relevant to this day? Why is it called "the most Christian work of Russian literature"? Writer and literary critic Alexei Varlamov reflects on this.
According to fairy tales
At the very beginning of the 20th century, an ambitious writer who came to St. Petersburg from the provinces and dreamed of getting into the St. Petersburg religious and philosophical society brought his works to the court of Zinaida Gippius. The decadent witch did not speak highly of his opuses. “Read The Captain's Daughter,” was her instruction. Mikhail Prishvin - and he was a young writer - brushed aside this parting word, because he considered it offensive to himself, but a quarter of a century later, having experienced a lot, he wrote in his diary: “My homeland is not Yelets, where I was born, not Petersburg, where I settled down to live, both for me are now archeology ... my homeland, unsurpassed in simple beauty, combined with kindness and wisdom - my homeland is Pushkin's story "The Captain's Daughter".
And indeed - this is an amazing work that everyone recognized and never tried to throw off the ship of modernity. Neither in the metropolis, nor in exile, under any political regimes and power moods. In the Soviet school, this story was passed in the seventh grade. As now I remember the essay on the topic "Comparative characteristics of Shvabrin and Grinev." Shvabrin - the embodiment of individualism, slander, meanness, evil, Grinev - nobility, kindness, honor. Good and evil clash and in the end, good wins. It would seem that everything is very simple in this conflict, linearly - but no. "The Captain's Daughter" is a very difficult work.
Firstly, this story was preceded, as you know, by the "History of the Pugachev Rebellion", in relation to which "The Captain's Daughter" is formally a kind of artistic application, but in essence, a refraction, transformation of the author's historical views, including Pugachev's personality, what Tsvetaeva very accurately noticed in the essay “My Pushkin”. And in general, it is no coincidence that Pushkin published the story in Sovremennik not under his own name, but in the genre of family notes, allegedly inherited by the publisher from one of Grinev's descendants, and from himself gave only the title and epigraphs to the chapters. And secondly, The Captain's Daughter has another predecessor and companion - the unfinished novel Dubrovsky, and these two works have a very whimsical relationship. Who is Vladimir Dubrovsky closer to - Grinev or Shvabrin? Morally - of course to the first. And historically? Dubrovsky and Shvabrin are both traitors to the nobility, albeit for different reasons, and both end badly. Perhaps it is precisely in this paradoxical similarity that one can find an explanation for why Pushkin refused to continue working on Dubrovsky and from the not fully outlined, somewhat vague, sad image of the protagonist, a pair of Grinev and Shvabrin arose, where each external corresponds to the internal and both receive according to their deeds, as in a moralizing tale.
"The Captain's Daughter", in fact, was written according to fairy laws. The hero behaves generously and nobly in relation to random and seemingly optional people - an officer who, taking advantage of his inexperience, beats him in billiards, pays a hundred rubles of loss, a random passerby who brought him onto the road, treats him with vodka and gives him hare sheepskin coat, and for this later they repay him with great kindness. So Ivan Tsarevich unselfishly saves a pike or turtledove, and for this they help him defeat Kashchei. Uncle Grinev Savelyich (in a fairy tale it would be a “gray wolf” or “a humpbacked horse”), with the undoubted warmth and charm of this image, the plot looks like an obstacle to Grinev’s fairy-tale correctness: he is against the “child” paying a gambling debt and rewarding Pugachev , because of him Grinev is wounded in a duel, because of him he is captured by the soldiers of the impostor when he goes to rescue Masha Mironova. But at the same time, Savelich stands up for the master before Pugachev and gives him a register of looted things, thanks to which Grinev receives a horse as compensation, on which he makes trips from the besieged Orenburg.
Under supervision from above
There is no pretentiousness here. In Pushkin's prose, there is an invisible chain of circumstances, but it is not artificial, but natural and hierarchical. Pushkin's fabulousness turns into the highest realism, that is, the real and effective presence of God in the world of people. Providence (but not the author, as, for example, Tolstoy in War and Peace, who removes Helen Kuragina from the stage when he needs to make Pierre free) leads Pushkin's heroes. This does not in the least cancel the well-known formula “what a thing Tatyana got away with me, she got married” - just Tatyana’s fate is a manifestation of a higher will that she is given to recognize. And the dowry Masha Mironova has the same gift of obedience, who wisely does not rush to marry Petrusha Grinev (the option of attempting marriage without parental blessing is half-seriously-half-parody presented in The Snowstorm, and it is known what it leads to), but relies on Providence, better knowing what is needed for her happiness and when his time comes.
In Pushkin's world, everything is under supervision from above, but still both Masha Mironova and Lisa Muromskaya from The Young Lady-Peasant Woman were happier than Tatyana Larina. Why - God knows. This tormented Rozanov, for whom Tatyana's tired look, turned to her husband, crosses out her whole life, but the only thing she could console herself with was that it was she who became the female symbol of fidelity, a trait that Pushkin revered in both men and women, although gave them different meanings.
One of the most stable motifs in The Captain's Daughter is the motif of girlish innocence, girlish honor, so the epigraph to the story "Take care of honor from a young age" can be attributed not only to Grinev, but also to Masha Mironova, and her story of preserving honor is no less dramatic. than him. The threat of being abused is the most terrible and real thing that can happen to the captain's daughter throughout almost the entire story. She is threatened by Shvabrin, potentially threatened by Pugachev and his people (it is no coincidence that Shvabrin frightens Masha with the fate of Lizaveta Kharlova, the wife of the commandant of the Nizhneozersky fortress, who, after her husband was killed, became Pugachev's concubine), finally, she is also threatened by Zurin. Recall that when Zurin's soldiers detain Grinev as "the sovereign's godfather", the officer's order follows: "take me to prison, and bring the hostess to you." And then, when everything is explained, Zurin apologizes to the lady for his hussars.
And in the chapter that Pushkin excluded from the final version, the dialogue between Marya Ivanovna and Grinev is significant, when both are captured by Shvabrin:
“Come on, Pyotr Andreevich! Do not ruin yourself and your parents for me. Release me. Shvabrin will listen to me!
"No way," I cried heartily. - Do you know what awaits you?
“I will not survive dishonor,” she answered calmly.
And when an attempt to free himself ends in failure, the wounded traitor Shvabrin issues exactly the same order as Zurin, who is faithful to the oath (who bears the surname Grinev in this chapter):
"- Hang him ... and everyone ... except her ..."
Pushkin's woman is the main war booty and the most defenseless creature in the war.
How to preserve the honor of a man is more or less obvious. But a girl?
This question, probably, tormented the author, it is no coincidence that he so insistently returns to the fate of Captain Mironov's wife Vasilisa Yegorovna, who, after taking the fortress, the Pugachev robbers "disheveled and stripped naked" are taken to the porch, and then her, again naked, body is lying on everyone's under the porch, and only the next day Grinev looks for it with his eyes and notices that it has been moved a little to the side and covered with matting. In essence, Vasilisa Yegorovna takes upon herself what was intended for her daughter, and removes dishonor from her.
A kind of comic antithesis to the narrator's ideas about the preciousness of a girl's honor are the words of Grinev's commander, General Andrei Karlovich R., who, fearing the same thing that became moral torture for Grinev ("You can't rely on the discipline of robbers. What will happen to the poor girl?"), completely in German, worldly practical and in the spirit of Belkin's "The Undertaker" argues:
“(...) it’s better for her to be Shvabrin’s wife for the time being: now he can provide protection to her; and when we shoot him, then, God willing, she will also find suitors. Nice little widows do not sit in girls; that is, I wanted to say that a widow would sooner find a husband for herself than a maiden.”
And Grinev's hot response is characteristic:
“I would rather agree to die,” I said furiously, “rather than give her to Shvabrin!”
Dialogue with Gogol
The Captain's Daughter was written almost simultaneously with Gogol's Taras Bulba, and between these works there is also a very tense, dramatic dialogue, hardly conscious, but all the more significant.
In both stories, the plot of the action is connected with the manifestation of the father's will, which contradicts mother's love and overcomes it.
In Pushkin: “The thought of an imminent separation from me struck my mother so much that she dropped the spoon into the saucepan, and tears flowed down her face.”
Gogol: “The poor old woman (...) did not dare to say anything; but, having heard of such a terrible decision for her, she could not refrain from tears; she looked at her children, from whom such an imminent separation threatened her, - and no one could describe all the silent sorrow that seemed to tremble in her eyes and in her convulsively compressed lips.
Fathers are decisive in both cases.
“Batiushka did not like to change his intentions or to postpone their execution,” Grinev writes in his notes.
Gogol's wife Taras hopes that "maybe either Bulba, waking up, will postpone the departure for two days", but "he (Bulba. - A.V.) remembered very well everything that he ordered yesterday."
Both Pushkin and Gogol's fathers do not look for an easy life for their children, they send them to places where it is either dangerous, or at least there will be no secular entertainment and extravagance, and they give them instructions.
“Now bless, mother, your children! Bulba said. “Pray to God that they fought bravely, that they would always defend the honor of knights, that they would always stand for the faith of Christ, otherwise, it would be better if they perished, so that their spirit would not be in the world!”
“The father said to me: “Farewell, Peter. Serve faithfully to whom you swear; obey the bosses; do not chase after their affection; do not ask for service; do not excuse yourself from the service; and remember the proverb: take care of the dress again, and honor from youth.
It is around these moral precepts that the conflict between the two works is built.
Ostap and Andriy, Grinev and Shvabrin - loyalty and betrayal, honor and betrayal - that's what makes up the leitmotifs of the two stories.
Shvabrin is written in such a way that nothing excuses or justifies him. He is the embodiment of meanness and insignificance, and for him the usually restrained Pushkin does not spare black colors. This is no longer a complicated Byronic type, like Onegin, and no longer a cute parody of a disappointed romantic hero, like Alexei Berestov from The Young Lady-Peasant Woman, who wore a black ring with the image of a death's head. A person who is able to slander the girl who refused him (“If you want Masha Mironova to come to you at dusk, then instead of gentle rhymes give her a pair of earrings,” he says to Grinev) and thereby violate noble honor, will easily change the oath. Pushkin deliberately goes to simplify and reduce the image of a romantic hero and duelist, and the last stigma on him is the words of the martyr Vasilisa Yegorovna: “He was discharged from the guards for murder, he does not believe in the Lord God either.”
That's right - he does not believe in the Lord, this is the most terrible baseness of human fall, and this assessment is worth a lot in the mouth of someone who once himself took "lessons of pure atheism", but by the end of his life artistically merged with Christianity.
Gogol's betrayal is another matter. It is, so to speak, more romantic, more seductive. Andria was ruined by love, sincere, deep, selfless. About the last minute of his life, the author writes with bitterness: “Andriy was pale as a sheet; one could see how quietly his lips moved and how he pronounced someone's name; but it was not the name of the fatherland, or mother, or brothers - it was the name of a beautiful Polish woman.
Actually, Andriy dies at Gogol much earlier than Taras says the famous "I gave birth to you, I will kill you." He dies (“And the Cossack died! He disappeared for the entire Cossack chivalry”) at the moment when he kisses the “fragrant lips” of a beautiful Polish woman and feels “that once in a lifetime a person is given to feel.”
But in Pushkin, the scene of Grinev's farewell to Masha Mironova on the eve of Pugachev's attack was written as if in defiance of Gogol:
“Farewell, my angel,” I said, “farewell, my dear, my desired! Whatever happens to me, believe that the last (my italics. - A.V.) my thought will be about you.
And further: "I kissed her passionately and hurried out of the room."
Pushkin's love for a woman is not a hindrance to noble fidelity and honor, but its guarantee and the sphere where this honor manifests itself to the greatest extent. In the Zaporozhian Sich, in this revelry and "continuous feast", which had something bewitching in itself, there is everything except one. "Women adorers alone couldn't find anything here." Pushkin has a beautiful woman everywhere, even in the backwaters of the garrison. And everywhere there is love.
Yes, and the Cossacks themselves, with their spirit of male camaraderie, are romanticized and glorified by Gogol and depicted in Pushkin in a completely different vein. First, the Cossacks treacherously go over to the side of Pugachev, then they hand over their leader to the tsar. And the fact that they are wrong, both sides know in advance.
“- Take proper measures! - said the commandant, taking off his glasses and folding the paper. - Listen, it's easy to say. The villain, apparently, is strong; and we have only one hundred and thirty people, not counting the Cossacks, for whom there is little hope, do not reproach you, Maksimych. (The constable chuckled.)”.
The impostor thought for a while and said in an undertone:
- God knows. My street is cramped; I have little will. My guys are smart. They are thieves. I must keep my ears open; at the first failure, they will redeem their neck with my head.
And here in Gogol: “No matter how much I live for a century, I have not heard, gentlemen, brothers, that a Cossack left somewhere or somehow sold his comrade.”
But the very word "comrades", to the glory of which Bulba makes a famous speech, is found in "The Captain's Daughter" in the scene when Pugachev and his associates sing the song "Do not make noise, mother, green oak tree" about the Cossack's comrades - a dark night, a damask knife , a good horse and a tight bow.
And Grinev, who has just witnessed the terrible atrocities perpetrated by the Cossacks in the Belogorsk fortress, this singing is amazing.
“It is impossible to tell what effect this folksy song about the gallows, sung by people doomed to the gallows, had on me. Their formidable faces, slender voices, the dull expression that they gave to words that were already expressive - everything shook me with some kind of piitic horror.
History movement
Gogol writes about the cruelty of the Cossacks - “beaten babies, circumcised breasts in women, skins flayed from the legs to the knees of those released to freedom (...) the Cossacks did not respect black-browed ladies, white-breasted, fair-faced girls; they could not be saved at the very altars,” and he does not condemn this cruelty, considering it an inevitable feature of that heroic time that gave birth to people like Taras or Ostap.
The only time he steps on the throat of this song is in the scene of torture and execution of Ostap.
“Let's not embarrass readers with a picture of hellish torments, from which their hair would rise on end. They were the offspring of the then rude, ferocious age, when a person still led a bloody life of some military exploits and tempered his soul in it, not smelling humanity.
Pushkin’s description of an old Bashkir man mutilated by torture, a participant in the unrest of 1741, who cannot say anything to his torturers, because a short stump instead of a tongue moves in his mouth, is accompanied by Grinev’s seemingly similar maxim: “When I remember that this happened on my age and that I have now lived up to the meek reign of Emperor Alexander, I cannot but marvel at the rapid success of enlightenment and the spread of the rules of philanthropy.
But in general, Pushkin's attitude to history is different than that of Gogol - he saw the meaning in its movement, saw the goal in it and knew that there is God's Providence in history. Hence his famous letter to Chaadaev, hence the movement of the people's voice in "Boris Godunov" from the thoughtless and frivolous recognition of Boris as king at the beginning of the drama to the remark "the people are silent" at its end.
Gogol's "Taras Bulba" as a story about the past is opposed to "Dead Souls" of the present, and the vulgarity of the new time is more terrible for him than the cruelty of antiquity.
It is noteworthy that in both stories there is a scene of the execution of heroes with a large gathering of people, and in both cases the condemned man finds a familiar face or voice in a strange crowd.
“But when they brought him to the last mortal torment, it seemed as if his strength began to flow. And he moved his eyes around him: God, God, all the unknown, all the faces of strangers! If only one of his relatives was present at his death! He would not like to hear the weeping and lamentations of a weak mother, or the insane cries of a wife tearing out her hair and beating her white breasts; he would now like to see a firm husband who would refresh and console with a reasonable word at his death. And he fell with strength and exclaimed in spiritual weakness:
- Father! Where are you? Do you hear?
- I hear! - resounded amidst the general silence, and the whole million people shuddered at the same time.
Pushkin is stingier here too.
“He was present at the execution of Pugachev, who recognized him in the crowd and nodded his head to him, which a minute later, dead and bloodied, was shown to the people.”
But both there and there - one motive.
Gogol's own father escorts his son and quietly whispers: "Good, son, good." Pushkin's Pugachev is Grinev's imprisoned father. Thus he appeared to him in a prophetic dream; as a father he took care of his future; and at the last minute of his life, in a huge crowd of people, there was no one closer than the undergrowth of nobles who preserved his honor, the robber and impostor Emelya was not found.
Taras and Ostap. Pugachev and Grinev. Fathers and children of the past.
In 1836, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin wrote the story "The Captain's Daughter", which was a historical description of the Pugachev uprising. In his work, Pushkin was based on real events of 1773-1775, when, under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev (Liar Tsar Pyotr Fedorovich), the Yaik Cossacks, who took fugitive convicts, thieves and villains as servants, began a peasant war. Pyotr Grinev and Maria Mironova are fictitious characters, but their fates very truthfully reflect the sad time of the brutal civil war.
Pushkin designed his story in a realistic form in the form of notes from the diary of the protagonist Pyotr Grinev, made years after the uprising. The lyrics of the work are interesting in their presentation - Grinev writes his diary in adulthood, rethinking everything he experienced. At the time of the rebellion, he was a young noble loyal to his Empress. He looked at the rebels as if they were savages who fought with particular cruelty against the Russian people. In the course of the story, it is clear how the heartless ataman Pugachev, executing dozens of honest officers, over time, by the will of fate, wins favor in the heart of Grinev and acquires sparks of nobility in his eyes.
Chapter 1. Sergeant of the Guard
At the beginning of the story, the main character Peter Grinev tells the reader about his young life. He is the only survivor of 9 children of a retired major and a poor noblewoman, he lived in a middle-class noble family. The upbringing of the young master was actually engaged in the old servant. Peter's education was low, since his father, a retired major, hired the French hairdresser Beaupré as a tutor, leading an immoral lifestyle. For drunkenness and depraved actions, he was expelled from the estate. And 17-year-old Petrusha, his father decided, through old connections, to send him to serve in Orenburg (instead of St. Petersburg, where he was supposed to go to serve in the guards) and attached an old servant Savelich to him for supervision. Petrusha was upset, because instead of parties in the capital, a dull existence in the wilderness awaited him. During a stopover on the way, the young gentleman made an acquaintance with the rake-captain Zurin, because of whom, under the pretext of training, he got involved in playing billiards. Then Zurin offered to play for money and as a result, Petrusha lost as much as 100 rubles - a lot of money at that time. Savelich, being the keeper of the master's "treasury", is against Peter paying the debt, but the master insists. The servant is indignant, but gives the money back.
Chapter 2
In the end, Piotr is ashamed of his loss and promises Savelich not to gamble again. There is a long road ahead of them, and the servant forgives the master. But because of the indiscretion of Petrusha, they again get into trouble - the impending snowstorm did not embarrass the young man and he ordered the driver not to return. As a result, they lost their way and almost froze. For luck, they met a stranger who helped the lost travelers to go to the inn.
Grinev recalls how then, tired from the road, he had a dream in a wagon, which he called prophetic: he sees his house and his mother, who says that his father is dying. Then he sees an unfamiliar man with a beard in his father's bed, and his mother says that he is her named husband. The stranger wants to give a "father's" blessing, but Peter refuses, and then the man takes up the ax, and corpses appear around. He does not touch Peter.
They drive up to the inn, reminiscent of a thieves' haven. A stranger, frozen in a cold in one Armenian coat, asks Petrusha for wine, and he treats him. A strange conversation took place between the peasant and the owner of the house in the language of thieves. Peter does not understand the meaning, but everything he hears seems very strange to him. Leaving the rooming house, Peter, to Savelich's next displeasure, thanked the escort by granting him a hare sheepskin coat. To which the stranger bowed, saying that the age would not forget such mercy.
When Peter finally gets to Orenburg, his father's colleague, having read the cover letter with the order to keep the young man "in tight rein", sends him to serve in the Belgorod fortress - even more wilderness. This could not but upset Peter, who had long dreamed of a guards uniform.
Chapter 3
The owner of the Belgorod garrison was Ivan Kuzmich Mironov, but his wife, Vasilisa Yegorovna, actually ran everything. Simple and sincere people immediately liked Grinev. The elderly Mironov couple had a daughter, Masha, but so far their acquaintance has not taken place. In the fortress (which turned out to be a simple village), Peter meets a young lieutenant Alexei Ivanovich Shvabrin, who was exiled here from the guards for a duel that ended in the death of the enemy. Shvabrin, having a habit of speaking unflatteringly about those around him, often spoke caustically about Masha, the captain's daughter, exposing her as a complete fool. Then Grinev himself gets acquainted with the daughter of the commander and questions the statements of the lieutenant.
Chapter 4
By nature, the kind and benevolent Grinev began to become friends with the commandant and his family more and more, and moved away from Shvabrin. The captain's daughter Masha did not have a dowry, but turned out to be a charming girl. Shvabrin's caustic remarks did not please Peter. Inspired by thoughts of a young girl in quiet evenings, he began to write poems for her, the content of which he shared with a friend. But he ridiculed him, and even more began to humiliate Masha's dignity, assuring that she would come at night to the one who would give her a pair of earrings.
As a result, the friends quarreled, and it came to a duel. Vasilisa Yegorovna, the wife of the commandant, found out about the duel, but the duelists pretended to have reconciled, deciding to postpone the meeting the next day. But in the morning, as soon as they had time to draw their swords, Ivan Ignatich and 5 invalids were led out under escort to Vasilisa Yegorovna. Having reprimanded, as it should, she let them go. In the evening, Masha, disturbed by the news of the duel, told Peter about Shvabrin's unsuccessful matchmaking for her. Now Grinev understood his motives for his behavior. The duel did take place. The confident swordsman Peter, taught at least something worthwhile by the tutor Beaupre, turned out to be a strong opponent for Shvabrin. But Savelich appeared at the duel, Peter hesitated for a second and was eventually wounded.
Chapter 5
The wounded Peter was nursed by his servant and Masha. As a result, the duel brought the young people closer, and they were inflamed with mutual love for each other. Wanting to marry Masha, Grinev sends a letter to his parents.
Grinev reconciled with Shvabrin. Peter's father, having learned about the duel and not wanting to hear about the marriage, became furious and sent an angry letter to his son, where he threatened to be transferred from the fortress. At a loss as to how his father could find out about the duel, Peter attacked Savelich with accusations, but he himself received a letter with the owner's displeasure. Grinev finds only one answer - Shvabrin reported the duel. Father's refusal to bless does not change Peter's intentions, but Masha does not agree to secretly marry. For a while they move away from each other, and Grinev understands that unhappy love can deprive him of his mind and lead to debauchery.
Chapter 6
Unrest begins in the Belgorod fortress. Captain Mironov receives an order from the general to prepare the fortress for an attack by rebels and robbers. Emelyan Pugachev, who called himself Peter III, escaped from custody and terrified the neighborhood. According to rumors, he had already captured several fortresses and was approaching Belgorod. It was not necessary to count on victory with 4 officers and army "disabled". Alarmed by rumors about the capture of a nearby fortress and the execution of officers, Captain Mironov decided to send Masha and Vasilisa Yegorovna to Orenburg, where the fortress is stronger. The captain's wife speaks out against the departure, and decides not to leave her husband in difficult times. Masha says goodbye to Peter, but she fails to leave the fortress.
Chapter 7
Ataman Pugachev appears at the walls of the fortress and offers to surrender without a fight. Commandant Mironov, having learned about the betrayal of the constable and several Cossacks who joined the rebel clan, does not agree to the proposal. He orders his wife to dress Masha as a commoner and take the priest to the hut, and he himself opens fire on the rebels. The battle ends with the capture of the fortress, which, together with the city, passes into the hands of Pugachev.
Right at the commandant's house, Pugachev perpetrates reprisals against those who refused to take the oath to him. He orders the execution of Captain Mironov and Lieutenant Ivan Ignatich. Grinev decides that he will not swear allegiance to the robber and will accept an honorable death. However, here Shvabrin comes up to Pugachev and whispers something in his ear. The chieftain decides not to ask for the oath, ordering all three to be hanged. But the old faithful servant Savelyich rushes at the feet of the ataman and he agrees to pardon Grinev. Ordinary soldiers and residents of the city take the oath of allegiance to Pugachev. As soon as the oath ended, Pugachev decided to dine, but the Cossacks dragged Vasilisa Yegorovna naked from the commandant's house, where they robbed property, by the hair, who was crying for her husband and cursing the convict. Ataman ordered to kill her.
Chapter 8
Grinev's heart is out of place. He understands that if the soldiers find out that Masha is here and alive, she cannot escape reprisals, especially since Shvabrin took the side of the rebels. He knows that his beloved is hiding in the priest's house. In the evening the Cossacks came, sent to take him to Pugachev. Although Peter did not accept the False Tsar's offer of all honors for the oath, the conversation between the rebel and the officer was friendly. Pugachev remembered the good and now gave Peter freedom in return.
Chapter 9
The next morning, Pugachev, in front of the people, called Peter to him and told him to go to Orenburg and report on his offensive in a week. Savelich began to fuss about the plundered property, but the villain said that he would let him go on sheepskin coats for such impudence. Grinev and his servant leave Belogorsk. Pugachev appoints Shvabrin as a commandant, and he himself goes on another feat.
Pyotr and Savelich are on foot, but one of Pugachev's gang caught up with them and said that His Majesty would grant them a horse and a sheepskin coat, and fifty, but he supposedly lost it.
Masha fell ill and lay delirious.
Chapter 10
Arriving in Orenburg, Grinev immediately reported on the deeds of Pugachev in the Belgorod fortress. A council met, at which everyone except Peter voted for defense, not attack.
A long siege begins - hunger and want. Peter, on another sortie into the camp of the enemy, receives a letter from Masha, in which she prays to save her. Shvabrin wants to marry her and keeps her in captivity. Grinev goes to the general with a request to give half a company of soldiers to save the girl, which is refused. Then Peter decides to help out his beloved alone.
Chapter 11
On the way to the fortress, Pyotr falls into Pugachev's guard and is taken for interrogation. Grinev honestly tells everything about his plans to the troublemaker and says that he is free to do whatever he wants with him. Pugachev's thug-advisers offer to execute the officer, but he says, "pardon, so pardon."
Together with the robber ataman, Peter goes to the Belgorod fortress, on the way they are talking. The rebel says that he wants to go to Moscow. Peter in his heart pities him, begging him to surrender to the mercy of the empress. But Pugachev knows that it is already too late, and says, come what may.
Chapter 12
Shvabrin keeps the girl on water and bread. Pugachev pardons the arbiter, but learns from Shvabrin that Masha is the daughter of an unsworn commandant. At first he is furious, but Peter, with his sincerity, this time also achieves favor.
Chapter 13
Pugachev gives Peter a pass to all outposts. Happy lovers go to their parents' house. They confused the army convoy with the Pugachev traitors and were arrested. In the head of the outpost, Grinev recognized Zurin. He said he was going home to get married. He dissuades him, assuring him to remain in the service. Peter himself understands that duty calls him. He sends Masha and Savelich to their parents.
The fighting of the detachments that arrived in time to rescue broke the robber plans. But Pugachev could not be caught. Then there were rumors that he was rampant in Siberia. Zurin's detachment is sent to suppress another outbreak. Grinev recalls the unfortunate villages plundered by savages. The troops had to take away what people could save. The news came that Pugachev had been caught.
Chapter 14
Grinev, on Shvabrin's denunciation, was arrested as a traitor. He could not justify himself with love, fearing that Masha would also be interrogated. The Empress, taking into account the merits of her father, pardoned him, but sentenced him to life exile. The father was in shock. Masha decided to go to Petersburg and ask the Empress for her beloved.
By the will of fate, Maria meets the Empress in the early autumn morning and tells her everything, not knowing who she is talking to. On the same morning, a cab was sent for her to the house of a secular lady, where Masha got a job for a while, with an order to deliver Mironov's daughter to the palace.
There Masha saw Catherine II and recognized her as her interlocutor.
Grinev was released from hard labor. Pugachev was executed. Standing on the chopping block in the crowd, he saw Grinev and nodded.
The reunited loving hearts continued the Grinev family, and in their Simbirsk province, under glass, was kept a letter from Catherine II pardoning Peter and praising Mary for her intelligence and kind heart.
"The Captain's Daughter" is a historical novel (in some sources - a story) written by A.S. Pushkin. The author tells us about the origin and development of a great and strong feeling between a young noble officer and the daughter of the commandant of the fortress. All this happens against the backdrop of the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev and creates additional obstacles and difficulties in life for the lovers.
The novel is written in the form of a memoir. Such an interweaving of historical and family chronicles gives it additional charm and charm, and also makes you believe in the reality of everything that happens.
History of creation
In the mid-1830s, translated novels were gaining popularity in Russia. Society ladies were read by Walter Scott. Domestic writers, and among them Alexander Sergeevich, could not stand aside and responded with their own works, among which were The Captain's Daughter.
Researchers of Pushkin's work claim that at first he worked on a historical chronicle, wanting to tell readers about the course of the Pugachev rebellion. Approaching the matter responsibly and wanting to be truthful, the author met with the direct participants in those events, having specially left for the South Urals.
Pushkin doubted for a long time who to make the main character of his work. First, he settled on Mikhail Shvanvich, an officer who, during the uprising, went over to the side of Pugachev. What made Alexander Sergeevich abandon such a plan is unknown, but as a result he turned to the format of memoirs, and put an officer-nobleman at the center of the novel. At the same time, the main character had every chance to go over to the side of Pugachev, but the duty to the Fatherland turned out to be higher. Shvanvich turned from a positive character into a negative Shvabrin.
For the first time, the novel appeared before the audience in the Sovremennik magazine in the last issue of 1836, and Pushkin's authorship was not mentioned there. It was said that these notes were written by the late Pyotr Grinev. However, in this novel, for reasons of censorship, an article about the peasants' revolt on the estate of Grinev himself was not published. The lack of authorship led to the absence of any printed reviews, however, many noted the "overall effect" that The Captain's Daughter had on those who read the novel. A month after publication, the real author of the novel died in a duel.
Analysis
Description of the artwork
The work is written in the form of memoirs - the landowner Pyotr Grinev talks about the times of his youth, when his father ordered him to be sent to serve in the army (albeit under the supervision of Uncle Savelich). On the road, one meeting happens to them, which radically influenced their future fate and the fate of Russia - Pyotr Grinev meets Emelyan Pugachev.
Having reached his destination (and it turned out to be the Belogorsk fortress), Grinev immediately falls in love with the commandant's daughter. However, he has a rival - officer Shvabrin. A duel takes place between young people, as a result of which Grinev is wounded. His father, having learned about this, does not give his consent to marry the girl.
All this is happening against the background of the developing Pugachev rebellion. When it comes to the fortress, Pugachev's accomplices first take the life of Masha's parents, after which they offer Shvabrin and Grinev to swear allegiance to Emelyan. Shvabrin agrees, but Grinev, for reasons of honor, does not. His life is saved by Savelich, who reminds Pugachev of their chance meeting.
Grinev fights against Pugachev, but this does not prevent him from calling the latter as an ally to save Masha, who turned out to be Shvabrin's hostage. On the denunciation of a rival, Grinev ends up in prison, and now Masha is doing everything to save him. A chance meeting with the Empress helps the girl achieve the release of her lover. To the delight of all the ladies, the case ends with the wedding of the young in Grinev's parental home.
As already mentioned, the background for the love story was a great historical event - the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev.
main characters
There are several main characters in the novel. Among them:
Peter Grinev, who at the time of the story was only 17 years old. According to the literary critic Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky, this character was needed for an impartial assessment of the behavior of another character - Emelyan Pugachev.
Aleksey Shvabrin is a young officer serving in the fortress. A freethinker, smart and educated (it is mentioned in the story that he knows French and understands literature). Literary critic Dmitry Mirsky called Shvabrin a "purely romantic scoundrel" because of his betrayal of the oath and defection to the rebels. However, since the image is written in a shallow way, it is difficult to say about the reasons that prompted him to such an act. Obviously, Pushkin's sympathies were not on Shvabrin's side.
At the time of the story, Mary was only 18 years old. A real Russian beauty, at the same time simple and sweet. Capable of an act - in order to save her beloved, she goes to the capital to meet with the Empress. According to Vyazemsky, she decorates the novel in the same way that Tatyana Larina decorated Eugene Onegin. But Tchaikovsky, who at one time wanted to stage an opera based on this work, complained that it did not have enough character, but only kindness and honesty. Marina Tsvetaeva was of the same opinion.
From the age of five he was assigned to Grinev as an uncle, the Russian analogue of a tutor. The only one who communicates with a 17-year-old officer like a small child. Pushkin calls him a "faithful serf", but Savelich allows himself to express uncomfortable thoughts to both the master and his ward.
Emelyan Pugachev
Pugachev - according to many critics, the brightest main figure in the work due to his coloring. Marina Tsvetaeva once claimed that Pugachev obscures the colorless and faded Grinev. In Pushkin, Pugachev looks like a sort of charming villain.
Quotes
“I lived underage, chasing pigeons and playing leapfrog with the yard boys. Meanwhile, I was sixteen years old. Here my fate changed.Grinev.
“How strange men are! For one word, which they would surely forget about in a week, they are ready to cut themselves and sacrifice not only their lives, but also their conscience.Masha Mironova.
“Are you afraid, admit it, when my fellows threw a rope around your neck? I have tea, the sky seemed like a sheepskin ... " Pugachev.
"God forbid to see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless." Grinev.
Analysis of the work
Colleagues of Alexander Sergeevich, to whom he personally read the novel, made small remarks about non-observance of historical facts, while generally speaking positively about the novel. Prince VF Odoevsky, for example, noted that the images of Savelich and Pugachev were written out carefully and thought out to the smallest detail, but the image of Shvabrin was not finalized, and therefore it would be difficult for readers to understand the motives for his transition.
Literary critic Nikolai Strakhov noted that such a combination of family (partly love) and historical chronicles is typical for the works of Walter Scott, the answer to the popularity of which among the Russian nobility, in fact, was Pushkin's work.
Another Russian literary critic Dmitry Mirsky highly appreciated The Captain's Daughter, emphasizing the manner of narration - concise, accurate, economical, at the same time spacious and unhurried. His opinion was that this work played one of the main roles in the development of the genre of realism in Russian literature.
A few years after the publication of the work, the Russian writer and publisher Nikolai Grech admired how the author managed to express the character and tone of the time he tells about. The story turned out to be so realistic that one could really think that the author was an eyewitness of these events. Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nikolai Gogol also periodically left rave reviews about this work.
Conclusion
According to Dmitry Mirsky, The Captain's Daughter can be considered the only full-fledged novel written by Alexander Sergeevich and published during his lifetime. Let us agree with the critic - everything is present in the novel in order to be successful: a romantic line that ended in marriage is a delight for beautiful ladies; a historical line that tells about such a complex and controversial historical event as the Pugachev uprising will be more interesting to men; clearly written main characters and set guidelines regarding the place of honor and dignity in the life of an officer. All this explains the popularity of the novel in the past and compels our contemporaries to read it today.
