Starting with the decree of Catherine II of 1775, the division of society into ESTATES was quite clearly established in Russia. They were divided into TABLE - those who were obliged to pay taxes to the state, that is, taxes, and EXCLUDED - exempted from this duty.
The exempt, that is, the privileged estates, included the nobility and the clergy, the taxable - the peasantry, the bourgeoisie, the merchants. In addition to paying taxes, representatives of the taxable estates were subject to recruitment duties and were limited in their freedom of movement.
Neither the merchants, nor the townspeople, nor the clergy of the serfs had the right to keep - it was, with a few exceptions, the privilege of the nobility alone.
What is BELIEFING? IN last century this concept has taken on a negative meaning. A tradesman began to be called, regardless of social affiliation, a person with narrow, privately owned interests, with a limited spiritual outlook. In this sense, the word was widely used in his journalism by Maxim Gorky (“Notes on Philistinism” and other articles).
However, in its original meaning, the word "philistinism" did not contain anything reprehensible. Literally, "philistine" meant a city dweller - from the old word "place", that is, a city. Until now, we use the word "suburb" - a settlement outside the city limits. A tradesman was a person assigned to the petty-bourgeois class, usually a craftsman, small trader or householder. Most often it was yesterday's peasant - a freedman or redeemed from serfdom, who had served the term of service of a soldier, but never a nobleman, even very impoverished. Townspeople who had a capital of less than 500 rubles were recorded as petty bourgeois. The title was hereditary.
The father of Lopukhov, one of the characters in Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done?, was a Ryazan philistine, lived, according to a philistine title, enough, that is, his family had cabbage soup with meat on more than one Sunday and even drank tea every day. He somehow could support his son in the gymnasium».
A wife, no matter what class she was, upon marriage passed into the class of her husband. IN " Poshekhonskaya antiquity» Saltykov-Shchedrin « the wife of a serf icon painter, who came from the middle class, decided to become serf by marrying him».
Another such case is described in one of Leskov’s stories: a French woman fell in love with a Russian serf, and “ she was not versed in the laws of the Russian Empire and did not comprehend that through such a marriage with a Russian man of an involuntary position, she herself lost her freedom and her children became serfs».
An attractive image of the tradesman-artisan Kuligin brought Ostrovsky in the drama "Thunderstorm". " In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and bare poverty. And we, sir, will never get out of this hole! Because honest labor will never earn us more daily bread”, - he says to Boris Grigoryevich, who arrived in the city. A talented self-taught mechanic dreams of serving people, but for this he has neither the rights nor the opportunity: “ Work must be given to the bourgeoisie. And then there are hands, but there is nothing to work».
« My brothers in the middle class unsubscribed and in the city they are engaged in craftsmanship, and I am a peasant", - says the old man Kholodov in Chekhov's story "The Steppe". To the position of the philistines, one should add the fact that until 1863 they could be subjected to corporal punishment.
In "Oblomov" Goncharov " the mayor beats the townspeople in the teeth».
The word "PEASANTS" is usually associated with the inhabitants countryside, we talked about peasant farmers in the chapter "Nobles and Peasants". But the concept of the peasantry as an estate was broader. In the old days, the city constantly lived a large number of peasants who, due to lack of capital or for some other reason, could not be registered as a petty bourgeois - even after the abolition of serfdom. In The Brothers Karamazov, the elder Zosima asks the pilgrims who came to him from the city: By petty bourgeoisie, do you have to be?"They answer him:" We are urban, father, urban, according to the peasantry, we are urban, we live in the city". These people, it turns out, are engaged in transportation, keep " and horses and carriages". In the same novel, we learn that the cattle-prigonyevsk philistines are almost the same peasants, they even plow».
A special place in society was occupied by MERCHANTS - the commercial and industrial class. Citizens who had a capital of more than 500 rubles were recorded in the merchant class. Since 1775, merchants began to be divided into categories - GUILDS. Merchants of the third, that is, the lowest, guild had to have a capital of 500 to 1000 rubles, the second - from 1000 to 10,000, the first - from 10,000 or more. The merchants of the first two guilds were exempted from recruitment and corporal punishment. In 1863, the third guild was abolished, leaving only the first and second.
In Gogol's comedy "Marriage" the bride, Agafya Tikhonovna, " not a staff officer, but a third-guild merchant's daughter”, that is, the daughter of a poor merchant, although the deceitful matchmaker in every possible way paints the state of her father. Here the collision is as follows: Podkolesin wants to marry a girl with a rich dowry, while a girl of “merchant rank” is flattered to marry a noble official with a rank as high as possible; this is where the matchmaker plays. A similar situation is shown in famous painting P. A. Fedotov "Major's Matchmaking".
Among the jurors at the trial in L. Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection" - in the case of the murder of the second guild of the merchant Smelkov - the same guild merchant Baklashov. The images of both - both the murdered and the judging murderers - are given by Tolstoy in an extremely plastic and psychologically convincing way.
In Chekhov's short story "In the Ravine" a carpenter talks about his dispute with a merchant: "You, I say, are a merchant of the first guild, and I am a carpenter, that's right. And Saint Joseph, I say, was a carpenter.” And continues: And then this, after the conversation, I think: who is older? First guild merchant or carpenter? So, a carpenter, children!»
We see representatives of capital in Gogol's The Government Inspector in the form of merchants who come to the mayor with requests, and in response hear insults and curses. In Ostrovsky's comedy "Hot Heart", the merchant-tyrant Khlynov is brought out - already the real owner of the county town, before whom the mayor Gradoboev fawns over. And finally, the "fathers of the city" - wealthy merchants in Gorky's novels "Foma Gordeev" and "The Artamonov Case" are full of confidence and dignity. Russian classic literature shows the rapid evolution of the merchant class, its rights and significance in society.
However, from the “boys” in the shops and small peddlers to the all-powerful millionaires and the “polished” merchant Lopakhin, who buys a noble estate (“ The Cherry Orchard"), lay very hard way. Ways of enrichment are well shown in Ostrovsky's plays.
Whatever nicknames the people did not reward their newly-minted exploiters: “cloth snout”, “savras”, “bloodsucker”, “world-eater”, “arshinnik” and many others.
Quick careers were sometimes made by OFFICERS - assistants to merchants, SIDELS, who traded by proxy given by the owner of the shop, they were replaced by "BOYS", who were engaged in the blackest, thankless work in the shops.
Enormous capitals were made by merchants-buyers - PRASOLs, GURTONS, LIGHTHOUSES, etc., who bought meat, fish and livestock for next to nothing and sold the goods at a great profit for themselves.
« Prasol - a peasant who sells everything, defining the type of trade for himself", - noted in his notebook Gogol.
About prasol, Nekrasov says this:
Eremin, merchant brother,
Buying from peasants
Whatever, bast shoes,
Is it a calf, is it a lingonberry,
And most importantly - a master
watch out for the odds,
When taxes were collected
And the property of the Vakhlats
Launched with a hammer.
The people had a special dislike for the taxpayers, who acquired from the government the right to levy taxes, to use natural resources and trade in consumer goods. The wine OTCUP has taken on an unusual scale. Ordinary merchants, and sometimes nobles, paying a small percentage to the state, pocketed the rest of the income and became millionaires in a few years. Nekrasov writes about the marshal of the nobility, who took up wine farming:
Over time, he became an ace of ransom -
The exploiter of the people's drunkenness.
In Krylov's fable "The Farmer and the Shoemaker" it says:
The rich Farmer in the mansions of magnificent veins.
Ate sweetly, drank deliciously;
Every day he gave feasts, banquets,
He has no treasures.
The rich lady Polozova in " spring waters» Turgeneva, boasting of her « low birth", - daughter simple peasant who became a farmer.
Visiting influencers provincial city, prudent Chichikov considers it necessary to pay a visit to the local farmer.
In the second, unfinished, volume " dead souls» Gogol brought out an idealized figure of the virtuous farmer Murazov; what kind of ransom Murazov kept is not said, however, Chichikov reasonably doubts that his million-dollar wealth " acquired by the most irreproachable way and by the most just means". This life inconsistency led to the fact that the image of Murazov turned out to be false, artificial.
In 1863, the farms were abolished and replaced by EXCISE - a kind of indirect tax on consumer goods, included in the retail price and going to the benefit of the treasury. But for a hundred (since 1763) years of the tax farming system, tax-farmers managed to amass crazy sums.
The capitalist class, the majority of which was the merchant class, did not have the right to a number of noble titles and privileges, but received compensation in the form of some honorary titles: MANUFACTORY-ADVISERS (given to large entrepreneurs), COMMERCIAL ADVISORS (given to merchants and granted the rights of an official of the VIII class, then there is a collegiate assessor), finally, PERSONAL and HEREDITARY HONORARY CITIZENS, introduced in 1832. The last two titles were awarded not only to merchants, but also to other non-nobles, such as scientists, doctors, for special personal merits. Honorary citizens acquired a number of benefits and privileges similar to those of the nobility.
In the rank of a hereditary honorary citizen in Chekhov's story "The Mask" a notorious boor and tyrant, the manufacturer Pyatigorov, is brought out. In Gorky's novel The Life of Klim Samgin, Dunyasha tells of his conversation with Stratonov: My parent, he says, is the son of a peasant, a lapot worker, and he died as an adviser to commerce, he, he says, beat the workers with his hand, and they respected him».
Not only the nobles, but also the merchants treated the poor philistines with contempt. In Ostrovsky's comedy "Our people - let's settle!" Lipochka, who robbed her father along with the clerk-husband, justifies herself in this way: “ ... we can’t stay with anything, because we are not some kind of philistines».
The impoverished and ruined merchants were forced to move into the philistine class. In Ostrovsky's drama "Abysses" there is a document " About the insolvency of the former merchant, and now the tradesman Puda Kuzmin son of Borovtsov».
« Grandpa's sister, - we read in the "Poshekhonskaya antiquity" by Saltykov-Shchedrin, - was married to a merchant, who later fell into decline and rewritten in the middle class».
so that those passing by and everyone noble people no harassment ... Khlestakov (at first he stutters a little, but towards the end of the speech he speaks loudly). But what can I do?.. It's not my fault... I really will cry... They will send me from the village. Bobchinsky looks out of the door. He is more to blame: he gives me beef as hard as a log; and the soup - he the devil knows what he splashed there, I had to throw it out the window. He starved me for whole days... The tea is so strange: it stinks of fish, not tea. Why am I... Here's the news! Mayor (timid). Sorry, it's not my fault. I always have good beef in the market. Kholmogory merchants bring them, sober people and good behavior. I don't know where he gets this from. And if something is wrong, then ... Let me suggest that you move with me to another apartment. Khlestakov. No I do not want to! I know what it means to - another apartment: that is - to prison. What right do you have? How dare you?.. Yes, here I am... I serve in St. Petersburg. (Invigorates.) I, I, I ... Mayor (aside). Oh my God, you're so angry! I learned everything, the damned merchants told me everything! Khlestakov (bravely). Yes, here you are even here with your whole team - I won’t go! I'm going straight to the minister! (Bangs his fist on the table.) What are you? What do you? Mayor (stretching out and trembling all over). Have mercy, do not lose! Wife, little children... don't make a man unhappy. Khlestakov. No I do not want! Here's another! what do I care? Because you have a wife and children, I have to go to prison, that's fine! Bobchinsky looks out the door and hides in fright. No, thank you very much, I don't want to. Mayor (trembling). Inexperience, by golly, inexperience. Insufficiency of the state ... If you please, judge for yourself: the state salary is not enough even for tea and sugar. If there were any bribes, then just a little: something on the table and for a couple of dresses. As for the non-commissioned officer's widow, engaged in the merchant class, whom I allegedly flogged, this is slander, by God, slander. My villains invented this: they are such a people that they are ready to encroach on my life. Khlestakov. What? I don't care about them. (Thinking.) I don’t know, however, why you are talking about villains and some non-commissioned officer’s widow ... A non-commissioned officer’s wife is completely different, but you don’t dare to flog me, you are far from that ... Here's another! Look what you are!.. I will pay, I will pay money, but now I don't have any. I'm sitting here because I don't have a penny. Mayor (aside). Oh, subtle thing! Ek where tossed! what a fog! Find out who wants! You don't know which side to take. Well, give it a try. (Aloud.) If you definitely need money or something else, then you are ready to serve this minute. My duty is to help passers-by. Khlestakov. Give, lend me! I'll pay off the innkeeper right now. I would only like two hundred rubles, or at least even less. Mayor (bringing papers). Exactly two hundred rubles, though don't bother counting. N.V. Gogol "Inspector"
Answers (2)
The image of the world of the Moscow merchants in the comedy Our people - let's settle!
The plays of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky are often called the “window” into the merchant world of creations, there were merchants of all guilds, shopkeepers, clerks, petty officials ... Ostrovsky was even called the “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye”, because he, like Columbus, opened to the Russian reader the whole world- the world of Moscow Zamoskvorechie, the "country" of Moscow merchants.
The playwright did not invent many plots for his comedies, but took them directly from life. The experience of serving in Moscow courts was useful to him, where property disputes, cases of false bankruptcies, conflicts over inheritance were considered. Ostrovsky, it seems, simply transferred all this to the pages of his plays. One of these comedies, taken from the very thick of merchant life, was the comedy "Bankrupt", which the playwright wrote at the very end of the 40s of the 19th century. It was published in the magazine "Moskvityanin" in 1850 with the title "Our people - let's settle!" and brought the young author well-deserved fame.
The plot of the comedy is based on a very common in the last century in merchant environment case of fraud: a wealthy merchant, Samson Silych Bolshov, borrowed quite a lot from other merchants a large sum money, not wanting to return it, declared bankruptcy. And he transferred all his property to the name " faithful man"- the clerk Lazar Podkhalyuzin, for whom, for greater confidence and peace of mind, he marries his daughter Lipochka, Olimpiada Samsonovna. The insolvent debtor Bolshov is imprisoned (debt "pit"), but Samson Silych is sure that his daughter and son-in-law will pay a small amount of money for him from the property received and he will be released. However, events do not develop at all as Bolshov would like: Lipochka and Podkhalyuzin did not pay a penny, and poor Bolshov is forced to go to prison.
It would seem that there is nothing interesting and entertaining in this story: one swindler deceived another swindler. But comedy is interesting complex plot, but the truth of life, which, it seems to me, is the basis of all Ostrovsky's works. With what accuracy and realism all the characters of the comedy are drawn! Take, for example, Bolshov. This is a rude, ignorant person, a real tyrant. He was used to commanding and managing everything. Samson Silych orders his daughter to marry Podkhalyuzin, completely disregarding her desires: “It's an important matter! Do not dance to me on her pipe in my old age. For whom I command, for that I will go. My brainchild: I want to eat with porridge, I want to butter butter ... ”Bolshov himself started from the bottom,“ he traded with bare heads ”; in his childhood he was generously rewarded with “pokes” and “slaps”, but now he has saved up money, became a merchant and is already scolding and urging everyone. Of course, the harsh "school of life" brought him up in his own way: he became rude, resourceful, even became a swindler. At the end of the play, he also evokes some sympathy, because he was cruelly betrayed by his own daughter and deceived by "his" man - Podkhalyuzin, whom he trusted so much!
Podkhalyuzin is an even bigger swindler than Bolshov. He managed not only to deceive the owner, but also to win the favor of Lipochka, who at first did not want to marry him. This is like a “new” Bolshov, even more cynical and arrogant, more in line with the mores of the new time - the time of gain. But there is another character in the play who is inextricably linked with the previous ones. This is the boy Tishka. For the time being, he still serves "on errands", but little by little, by a pretty penny, he begins to collect his capital, and over time, obviously, he will become the "new" Podkhalyuzin.
Particularly interesting in comedy, it seems to me, is the image of Lipochka. She dreams of a groom "from the noble" and does not want to marry some "merchant"; give her a groom “not snub-nosed, without fail, so that he would be a brunette; well, of course, so that he was dressed in a magazine way ... ”She does not look like merchants of the past; she wants to add the nobility to her father's money. How reminiscent of Molière's comedy The Tradesman in the Nobility! however, the cunning Podkhalyuzin easily convinced her that with her father's money and with his resourcefulness they could live even better than the "noble". Lipochka, like Podkhalyuzin, does not arouse the slightest sympathy in us.
All characters of the play, both main and secondary (matchmaker Ustinya Naumovna, housekeeper Fominichna and others) are depicted satirically. Ostrovsky at the beginning of his work immediately declared himself as a satirist, a successor to the tradition of D. I. Fonvizin, A. S. Griboyedov, N. V. Gogol. And the subsequent creations of the playwright only strengthened and expanded his fame.
